6 January 2010. Woke up today to our second session of heavy snow this winter. Jet's early walk was combined with Elaine's walk to work as there was no way her car was getting up the un-gritted road. And yes those ducks are STANDING on the lake.

Not particularly heavy for cold climates but it didn't start till last night and after all this is Berkshire! (What was that about global warming again ...). Still snowing now so there may be more pics to follow.

Another trip up North for the senior Gates family. This summer the Bradys' celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary

Summer is the only time we get to see Sean's parents in the UK because the senior Mrs Gates refuses to venture North at any other time of the year. This particular summer was when we got engaged.

Some recent and some not. Actually mostly not as getting the little monkey to stand still in front of a camera is very tricky these days...

In addition to our two cats and 100 or so fish we welcomed Jet into our family in July 2008. He was 9 weeks old at the time and seen in the pics in the garden below.
This has (hopefully temporarily) put an end to early nights, late mornings and a nice neat garden.

A very special holiday to both of us as it was our first together. And for good measure we saw in the New Year in Beijing.

After a stressful first quarter of 2004 it was time to organise the annual hols. Sean had survived the six month probationary period in his new job and Elaine was nearing the end of her notice period for her old one, with a two week break before the new one started. So it was go now or wait another four months.

It all started in Dec 2004 when we were looking for somewhere to go for a quick warm getaway over Christmas and New Year. Sean fancied Tobago. Accommodation was no problem at such short notice but all flights were fully booked. This started us thinking that this would be a great place for our honeymoon and bookings were made almost immediately while we settled for Brussels for the New Year.

It was a fantastic three weeks at the Coco Reef resort. Not quite what we had in mind for our quick getaway - but it was, after all, our honeymoon. Here are some of the pictorial highlights..

2006 started on what could have been a bad note when Sean was made redundant immediately after returning from holiday in SA. We decided to go ahead anyway as the holiday was already booked and paid for. It was a pretty relaxing break after a pretty relaxing 5 months for Sean. Little did he realise that he would be back at work within 2 weeks of our return.

This was a really great position and stayed there for over 3 years