The past year has been a busy time for the Johnes gang. We started the year (as has become the norm) with a break at Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest. As usual we had a terrific time there, with Katy riding a bike for the first time (with stabilisers, of course), and Becky roller-skating. The Centre Parcs hype - that even cold and snowy weather can't spoil your holiday - really hits the nail on the head; it's pure relaxation.

That was the first of several trips. To celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary we took a weekend in York at the beginning of July. The children really enjoyed this, especially our visits to the Jorvik Viking Centre, the railway museum and the Yorkshire Museum (where there was a terrific exhibition of very lifelike dinosaurs). Later in the year we all enjoyed the fruits of Becky's labours - by winning first prize in a magazine competition, she enabled us all to go, free of charge, for a weekend in London, staying in the rather posh Russell Hotel with dinner, bed & breakfast! We made the most of our short stay there, visiting the Tower, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Planetarium, the Science Museum, and going on a bus trip around all the major sights.

Our main holiday, though, was spent in France, where we stayed a week in each of two gîtes - one in Normandy and the other in eastern Brittany. The first of the gîtes was located on a dairy farm and was very homely. The second was positively palatial. Both were very comfortable. It was wonderful to visit, amongst other places, Bayeux (for the tapestry), Mont St. Michel, Dinan, Cap Fréhel, St. Malo, Fougères, Honfleur, and Swiss Normandy. The children loved the idea of being in France, with Becky and Katy regularly going into the boulangeries by themselves to ask for 'un pain s'il vous plait'. Becky even ate (and enjoyed) snails on our last night there!

The children are all growing fast. Becky, who is now 6, is progressing well at school. She is a very keen reader, and we sometimes lose her for hours on end at the weekend, only to find that she has read through a whole 'Secret 7' book or similar! She started to play chess while we were in France on holiday, and enjoys this greatly. Earlier in the year she starred as the school's May Queen. Tom started school in September, and is also doing well. He throws himself into everything with great enthusiasm, and comes home exhausted. He hasn't played his first game of chess yet (as he is too scared of losing) but he confines himself to giving Becky some (usually rather good) advice! Tom celebrated his fifth birthday in November. He has learned to swim and ride his bike (without stabilisers) this year. He prided himself greatly on being the attendant to the village Gala Queen in the summer, and certainly dressed the part, complete with bow tie. Katy is now 3 years old and still full of mischief. She, too, has a busy week, spending 2 mornings in the village playgroup and 3 mornings at the university crèche. Late in the year, she joined Becky as a prizewinner, winning £10 in a draw organised by her bank. Jill, Tom and I are now waiting for our lucky breaks to come!

I have continued to work on the board of governors of Becky and Tom's school. This takes a lot of time, but is interesting, not least because we have recently gone through the process of appointing a new Deputy Head. The pre-school group which is attached to the school now has a management committee which is separate from the governing body, and I serve on that too. The work on that - coping with nursery vouchers and their successors, and preparing for our OFSTED inspection - has been equally interesting. Jill, meanwhile, is now on the committee of the school's Parent Teacher Association, and does most of the secretarial work associated with that body. The PTA is very active in fundraising for the school and runs a number of regular events including swimming classes for the children.

Jill is now back at work at the university on a more regular contract. This is a part-time, teaching only, arrangement which fits in well with the children's holidays, and involves her in working three mornings per week. She seems to have been burdened with an awful lot of teaching; I don't know how she manages to keep on top of all the things she has to do, but her talent for organisation seems undiminished.

I've kept busy at work, though probably devoting too much time recently to generating money for the department through various short term consultancy projects. The consolation is that these have allowed me to travel to Paris (twice) and Stockholm while working for the OECD, and to Sofia for the EU Phare programme.

I've kept up my interest in astronomy (wasn't Hale-Bopp wonderful? - and at the start of December I also saw the more underwhelming periodic Comet Hartley 2). I still go to watch Blackburn Rovers regularly. Sometimes Tom joins me at Ewood Park - he's football mad - and we're both delighted with the form of the team so far this season. We've all been birding quite a lot, variously adding Dartford warbler and long tailed skua to our lists; but most exciting of all have been visits to our garden by a merlin, a nuthatch and a great spotted woodpecker.

We hope you have a great Christmas and a terrific year in 1998.