We had a great time celebrating Christmas 2022 and the beginning of 2023 in Guyana with Joseph, Hana, Elizabeth and Paul in 30°C heat. Meanwhile, Scotland was having a deep freeze. We returned home in February to a water flooded bedroom, TV room, lobby and bathroom. Edward and a friend had cleaned up all the mess and we had high hopes that we could have the rooms refurbished before the arrival of the immigrating Andrews at the end of April. The various Insurance companies had a completely different timetable e.g we finally got a starting date of July 10, 2023. Fortunately, when the Andrews arrived at the end of April they were not bothered about their new living conditions as they considered having walls was a step up from their Guyana farm accommodation.
May and June were spent adjusting to the sudden lifestyle changes caused by a household of six, keeping two grandchildren entertained with educational and recreational activities, job seeking, house hunting (still hunting) and adjusting to the Scottish culture, weather and food. It was fun, interesting, and enjoyable but also exhausting. The main excitement for the grandparents was having 4 of our grandchildren nearby.
In June I decided to change the pathetic insurance saga to our advantage. I convinced my lead insurance company to cancel all their subcontracts and make a settlement with me which they did. I employed Paul to help me do all the refurbishment work. I have done all this work myself (more than once) and trained all my children in DIY. Paul agreed. He is a very quick learner and enjoyed mastering lots of new skills as well as having a full time job with no commuting costs. We ended up with an excellent result and finished on July 10. Paul is now doing an apprenticeship in garden ornament making with our neighbour.
By this time Elizabeth got a Civil Engineering job with a Glasgow firm, Joseph and Hana both got registered at Kilwinning schools and joined the Scouts and Cubs. Elizabeth became a Cub leader. Hana spent time at a local dance class and was featured in “Just Juliette”. Joseph and I attended a course on “the Universe” held at the local Windfarm Science centre. Joseph spends every Saturday at the library for chess and other activities. Other activities included: Joseph learning to ride a bike, Scout camps, Viking Festival, Circus skills, Photography, Science Museum, Kilwinning Gala Day, Museum of Rural life - you get the idea! Finally, both Joseph and Hana are doing extremely well at their schools and of course signing up for all the extra curricular opportunities. At the October break they all went to Blackpool. Keep up to date with the Andrews - Hana from Guyana on Youtube (Like and subscribe!)
It seems the Edinburgh Broussards deemed 2023 the year of family mini holidays: London, Fife, Venice, Turkey, Iceland, Greece, …. This year Finlay joined the Nursery at Rory’s school which means only one school run/walk/cycle - sometimes all 3 on the same day. They are both doing extremely well at school as well as several extra curricular activities.
Lorna’s award winning Rock and Roars business is thriving. Her handmade children’s unisex clothing is a big hit. Check it out on Facebook. Edward finished his time with Accenture this year, spent 2 months as a full time dad and the mini holidays but in November he launched his new AI business, Tomoro. Check it out: https://tomoro.ai or https:// www.insider.co.uk/news/scot-founded-ai-firm-launches-31511350
Aug 30 was our 50th wedding anniversary so we celebrated with a lovely week’s holiday in Nairn, a northern coastal town on the Moray Firth. Our B&B was excellent. The weather was sunny and there was an annual Culture and Music Festival. We attended several events at the Festival as well as a few bicycle trips along the coast. We pretended to be 24/25 again. It didn’t work but it was fun trying.
In October we travelled to Colorado - a well overdue visit . It was a fantastic holiday. 3 weeks of blue sky, warm sun and the Aspens changing colours. 4 days in Snowmass with Wilby, Nadine and James and the rest of our holiday with Bob and Sandy, Paul, Wendy, Kaylah in Colorado Springs. James, Nadine and Wilby joined us for a week in Colorado Springs. Wilby is great fun and it was a real treat getting lots of time to play and get to know her. James and Nadine are planning to move to Germany or Scotland soon but their love of Snowmass is making it difficult. We are looking forward to their arrival but we will need to get a bigger table.
