8 Glendarvel Place
Balfarg Glenrothes KY7 6GN
Balfarg Glenrothes KY7 6GN
December 2017
Dear All,
Another year has passed us by so it's time for the
perennial Christmas letter.
Kirsty has settled in to her role as an Active Sports Co-ordinator in the Highlands and is also covering two other jobs maternity cover which have brought her hours up to full-time.
The two extra roles are due to finish in March but there is a possibility for her to take on another role as a Development Manager for Disability Sports across the Highlands & Islands which would also be part-time and together both jobs would just be short of a full-time commitment.
In addition, she is still carrying out her
responsibilities on the Young Person's Sports Panel although this will end in
June, she still works on the five major Open Water Swimming Championships in
Scotland each year and is in charge of coordinating and organising the major
one which is the Scottish National Champs. She has also been appointed to a new
Women and Girls in Sport Advisory group feeding directly into the Health and
Sport Minister, Aileen Campbell, to advise the Scottish Government on how best
to get girls and women participating in sport and physical activity. In this
role she works with a wide range of athletes, Chief Executives of organisations
and other key figures in Scottish Sport.
In spite of all these roles and positions Kirsty being
Kirsty has also just been appointed as Head Coach at Inverness Swimming Club so
as you can see she is keeping herself busy. Despite all this she managed a
return trip to Malta in September, although it was not really a holiday as she
and her friend Becky accompanied a mother with her severely disabled daughter
on the trip. The two girls looked after her daughter to allow her some respite.
The trip was paid for by the mother and they did at least get a little time to
sunbathe and enjoy some of the trips and social life. She and Janet are still
enjoying Theatre trips and have seen a number of shows this year in Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Inverness, Dunfermline and Aberdeen so as well as enjoying the shows
are seeing a bit of the Country at the same time.
They had a Spa Break in Pitlochry in February for a
couple of days, had a week-long holiday in Croatia in June and are shortly off
to Budapest for a five day break the week before Christmas. Jan and Bob have
continued to take short breaks and holidays this year taking advantage of this
being retired lark - we would recommend it to you all. We started off in
February with a trip to Glasgow (which had been the plan last year before Bob's
hospital dramas). An excellent two days were spent visiting Bob's old haunts
when he was growing up there and a day on the Hop On/Hop off bus visiting the
normal tourist attractions.
In March we had a three-day trip down to the
Dumfries and Galloway area with a trip over the border to Carlisle as well
benefitting from a spell of good weather. In May we took a week's holiday in
Wales where we had an excellent time, staying on the coast at Fairbourne and
visiting Harlech, Porthmadog, Anglesey, Caernarfon and Aberystwyth and of
course Snowdonia.
The weather at the time was fantastic and we were
hoping that would lead to a hot and sunny summer but alas that was not the
case. In June we had a two-day trip up to Ballater in Aberdeenshire and again
enjoyed some decent weather although the trip back home was a bit miserable
with pouring rain all the way.
Finally, in September we took a week-long break in the
Orkney Isles which was both relaxing and much time spent exploring this gem of
historic sites.
A lot of time was also spent visiting graveyards as Bob was
seeking out his ancestral predecessors. Jan and Bob are still doing a lot of
walking with Izzy and Kirsty's dog Bailey who visits on a regular basis
sometimes for a number of weeks and both dogs get on well which makes life
easier. Both of us have Fitbits now and surprisingly use them properly and have
both managed to lose a bit of weight since starting to use them in July.
Jan has now fully retired but is still very active and
isn't really sure where she got the time to work all these years.
Bob is still walking every week from April to October
and he and his partner in crime, Crawfy, completed the Fife Coastal Path this
year which is 117 miles long but they did do it in 15 sections. To finish off
they also walked over the Tay Road Bridge and Forth Road Bridge and Jan joined
them for these.
Bob also had the all clear from the Consultant in
February following his problems last year and thankfully there have been no
major dramas for any of us this year, he is also still playing golf and
travelling to watch Dunfermline.
As usual Kirsty will be down for Christmas following
her and Jan's trip to Budapest.
That's about all our news and we hope you all have a
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we extend an invitation to you all to
come and visit us anytime.