The big news of the year for us was the birth of Katriana Sian Johnes. (Her name is pronounced Cat-tree-unuh, with the emphasis strongly on the 'tree' - but we call h er Katy.) Her big day was 4 September, and she weighed in at a whopping 9l b 2oz. She is utterly gorgeous, and has assured herself of a high ranking in her parents' popularity stakes by sleeping through the night ever since she was three weeks old (thereby equalling Becky's achievement and marginally beating Tom) . Jill was brilliant during the birth - we left for the hospital at 11am, and Katy was born less than 2 hours later with hardly a yelp from Mum!

Becky is now 3 years old and is a real young lady. She has a very active life - playgroup two mornings a week and pre-school one afternoon. Unbelievably she will be starting proper scho ol next September! She seems quite bright and is starting to read and write on her own. She is very keen on drawing, painting and colouring, and applies herself to these tasks with great patience. Tom, meanwhile, has just turned 2 years old and is a 'real boy' who hazards life and limb roughly with no thought of the potential consequences . He has stunned us by the way in which he has taken to Katy since she was born - he has been very loving and gentle with her from the first time he saw her. We wonder what she's got that the rest of the world hasn't!!! Tom 's vocabulary is growing fast, and he is just starting to write in felt-tip over words which we've written in pencil. Since Easter, Becky and Tom have been attending the university creche for one or one-and-a-half days a week.

Life at work has been busy for me. Early in the year I was asked by the British Council to spend a couple of (separate) weeks working in Bulgaria - advising their government on what funding mechanisms they should put in place for their education system. The research interest which I've established over recent years in the economics of education is paying dividends ! The project was interesting - not least for the opportunity it gave to visit a country (and get involved in policy issues) at this early stage of its transition. Most of the time I was based in Sofia - a n unassuming city of which I became very fond - but we also had a series of meetings in Schvishtov and Plovdiv (the latter being an especially attractive town). The hospitality of the Bulgarian people was fabulous, as was the food and wine. Since the Bulgarian project finished I've kept busy on other things - but those are probably less interesting so I won't bore you with them!

Our department has been very generous in dealing with Jill's career break, and has offered her three years unpaid leave while she looks after the children. This reflects in large measure the high regard in which she is held by the powers that be in the department. In my totally unbiased view their judgement is spot on.

We had a couple of holidays - the f irst was a week in Copenhagen at Easter. This was a combined holiday and work trip for me, as I had meetings to go to on a couple of days. We stayed in a hotel right in the centre of the town which was booked by one of my colleagues. The room we had was f antastic - more like a suite really. Especially memorable were trips to Roskilde (to see the museum of old Viking boats) and to Sweden (by boat). Within Copenhagen itself we particularly enjoyed visiting the little mermaid and the porcelain factory. The s econd holiday was a week at the Center Parcs resort in Elveden Forest (Norfolk) in July. By chance we chose the sunniest week of the year and had temperatures in the nineties! This was a wonderful holiday - an idea l place both for adults and children . We enjoyed swimming every day, and went on a lot of walks aroung the forest enjoying the wildlife. Becky made her first tentative efforts at riding a bike - by now she's become an expert - while Jill (over 7 months pregnant at this stage) struggled on a tricycle! We enjoyed ourselves so much that we've booked another Center Parcs holiday for the new year.

We kept swimming regularly until Katy was born, but the logistics attached to attempting such things with three young kids have prevented us from going since then. We still visit Leighton Moss to do go birdwatching quite often, and I continue to support Blackburn Rovers (who are, at the time of writing, top of the Premier league).

We hope you have a happy Christmas, and that 1995 will bring you a good year.




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