Into 2010

Happy New Year to you all !We hope 2010 brings you prosperity and happiness.

From Tim & Jo
xxx

It looks nothing like me, but...

Best Christmas Card of the year!

Thanks to Lucy, Tim, Poppy and Peter for this brilliant Christmas card!

Left Holden the baby...

Monday night unexpectedly saw the maternity ward at West Middlesex Hospital, and our midwife Natalie, shoot to fame in the ITV show, "Out of my depth".

If you can stomach the scenes of childbirth and (worse still) Amanda Holden, then you can watch the show online this week by clicking on the ITV Player (or the picture above).

Unveiling the new car!

Our new car, yesterday.

We picked up the new Seat Altea on Saturday morning.

We enjoyed driving it home, Tim didn't enjoy the trip back to the garage an hour later.

Minor glitch. It should hopefully be in full working order within a matter of days...

Jo's birthday

At long last, we've uploaded all the photos from Jo's birthday, when Tim, Lucy, Poppy and Peter joined us at Verity and Mick's on one of the last sunny days of 2009. Click on the photo above to see the album.

Glaswegian advent calendar

Glaswegian Advent Calendar

Flat update...

We've accepted an offer on the flat!

Sausages and celebrities

You'd buy it, wouldn't you?

Having to leave the flat at 9am on Saturday (to make way for the estate agents) we had a great excuse to enjoy breakfast in St. Margarets. Eating alongside that bald bloke from The Gadget Show, Jo had a couple of pastries while Tim filled up for a day of Christmas shopping with scrambled eggs, bacon and chorizo. Yum!

The rain stayed away for most of the day, which slightly improved the shopping experience in Kingston, but that didn't stop some people from dragging muddy footprints round our lovely clean flat. Hope one of them makes an offer, to make up for it....

On Sunday, during a brief reprieve from house-cleaning, we visited the St Margarets Christmas Fair on Crown Road. Tim had his first mulled wine of the season, we both had warm mince pies and we braved the rain and snow-machine to sing (rocking) carols in the car park of The Tavern with Milton Jones providing comedy.

Breakfast with man in uber-trendy glasses, carols with man with odd hair...

After that, it was back home for Christmas card writing, and a double-bill of movies: Batman Begins on TV, and The Last King of Scotland on DVD (not the upbeat biopic of Willie Miller that Tim was expecting...). Now the estate agents have gone, Jo has been able to inflate the gym ball in an effort to find a comfortable sitting position for at least 5 minutes at a time.

Idi Amin - contributed nothing to Aberdeen's push for European football domination

Keeping our fingers crossed for some good news on Monday about the flat. Will keep you posted, as ever!

Poop poop!

Poop poop!

Just received a call to say that our new car is going to be ready for collection next week. Woohoo!

Jo can now do her driving practice with air-con and power steering, but it's curtains for the old Fiesta, thanks to the scrappage scheme. Most important of all, it has 5 doors and space for a little seat in the back!

Selling up

Our previous post was a celebration of having just completed our lease extension at 13 Godstone Road, so it is odd to find ourselve gearing up for an "Open Day" at the flat this Saturday.

Our enthusiastic agent from Chase Buchanan told us that the best way to sell in the current market is to get as many interested parties through the door on one day (with a bowl of choccies on the dining room table) and see what offers come in during the following few days. We have had a fair amount of interest since the property was listed on Wednesday evening, with 11 parties booked in. Please keep your fingers crossed for us this weekend!

Hats off to Jo for keeping the place in marketable condition over the last few weeks, and as we prepare for two viewings on Thursday afternoon and nine on Saturday.

Happy birthday, Barry. I hope you enjoyed Jo's carrot cake. Can you bring some back on Tuesday?!

Completion!

Scenes of celebration at Perry Hay & Co this afternoon

At long last, we're celebrating completion of our lease-extension at no.13.

We now have a substantially longer interest in the property and can now think about... selling it!

Off home now, to crack open a bottle of Appletize.

Eating with a lion

Tim is very excited!

He's going to have dinner on Wednesday night with Ian McGeechan!

For the benefit of all readers other than Tim's dad, Geech is a true legend of Scottish rugby and the British & Irish Lions. He was capped 32 times by Scotland and toured with the Lions as a player in 1974 and 1977. He was head coach for the Lions in 1989, 1993, the hugely successful 1997 tour to South Africa, and most recently the 2009 tour (again South Africa).

It's a charity dinner in aid of Wooden Spoon, and Toby's bank has taken two tables, with Tim firmly in the "potential client"/"hanger-on" category of guests. With any luck, as well as a free copy of Geech's new book "Pride Restored", Tim will be able to seek an audience with the big man and persuade him to join Quins as head coach before their season goes from bad to worse.

xxx

We celebrated our 1st anniversary on the 11th of October. So far so good!

We don't think we could have anticipated last year that by the time we returned to The Bingham a year (and a day) later, Jo would already be off the booze and goat's cheese. We had a lovely meal, taking advantage of a "two courses for £25" deal, which Tim ruined by ordering an expensive coffee and petit fours at the end of the meal. Yum. Great to see the place is as good as we remember from last year.

So, we made it to the Baby Show at Earl's Court, in spite of Jo having a horrid cold. Quite unexpectedly, we left with 20 nappies.

Maybe it was the great name, the idea of saving money or just how easy they looked (even to Tim), but we hope that we can stick with these and avoid disposable nappies as much as possible; although being around the messy bums of several nephews and nieces, we are under no illusions about how much hard work that involves! These things look pretty impressive, though: all-in-one and adjustable from birth to potty.

We really recommend going to see "Up", the latest Pixar Movie, which we saw last weekend. Visually stunning, colourful and great fun, and tinged with sadness too. The challenge is not to cry within the first 10 minutes - then you'll be alright!

We're planning a pub lunch in Richmond for a few friends on Sunday (few being the operative word, as so many now live outside London, have babies or are expecting babies in the next couple of weeks), and are keen to use up 8 more free guest passes for Kew Gardens before Tim's membership expires at the end of November.

Rachel and Toby's wedding

About time... here are the photos from Toby and Rachel's wedding.

As usual, click on the link at the bottom of this email to see the blog, and you can click on the photo to see the whole album (or the highlights, at least!)

J&Tx

Mini Reid (20 weeks)

Here's Jo's 20-week scan picture.

Mini Reid is a couple of weeks older now, and has taken to kicking Tim when he is trying to sleep at night. Didn't realise pregnancy was going to be uncomfortable for both of us (!).

xxx

Jodie and Sam's wedding

Hello!

Yes, we're catching up on the photo albums and blogging. As usual, click on the link at the bottom of the email to see this blog in context.

We've got loads of photos from Toby and Rachel's wedding in Cambridge, and more from last week's trip to Verity's house for Jo's birthday with Lucy, Tim, Poppy and Peter (thanks for the pears!).

In the meantime, casting our minds back to July, here are the photos from the wedding of Sam and Jodie - Jodie being Tim's old housemate from Durham. Lovely day in surprisingly good weather in Lancashire. Please click on the photo to see the whole album.

It's more DIY for us this weekend... The exterior this time. We're trying to get the windows up to scratch for estate agent photos and have just taken delivery of a new ladder. Jo might not be going up the ladder, though!

T&Jx

In other news...

The bathroom is almost finished, and the front door and porch have received a new lick of paint, thanks largely to Barry ("Dad"). The traditional Toblerone seemed scant reward for such hard work, but we think he enjoys it!!

Next up, a second coat of gloss here and there and then some work on our 1st floor windows and window sills. Then off to the estate agent for a HIP and putting the place on the market, with only a visit from mum and dad (Reid) and the Allebon/Secher wedding getting in the way.

Jo has refused to take it easy, which has admittedly help get all the work done. She's looking and feeling good and seems no more tired than Tim most of the time (but then, Tim is very tired all of the time...). It's a good excuse to go shopping for a new wardrobe, although Tim is a little confused at why this should mean two new pairs of shoes.... ;0)

Sport and things

Tim is competing in the London Duathlon in Richmond Park on Sunday 13th.

Please click on the photo above to visit his fundraising page.

After several requests, he has decided to accept sponsorship money from those who are determined to give it!

The Rosslyn Park XV season starts on Saturday 12th, but Tim is resting for the Duathlon. On 20 September, Lovells will be competing in the Law Society 7s in Richmond, but Tim and Jo will be in Cambridge, recovering from Toby and Rachel's wedding. The speech is in the pipeline...!

I want you to know that I have added my name to the NHS Organ Donor Register so that I can help someone else to live after my death.

Every year hundreds of people die while waiting for a transplant. I want to help.

I registered my wishes to be a life-saver on the NHS Blood and Transplant website. You can find out more about organ donation by visiting their site:

http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/

Tim x

We owe you some blogs...

It's been a while since our last update. We owe you some holiday photos as well as pictures from Jodie and Sam's wedding.

In the meantime, did you know that an anagram of Tim Reid is "I'm tired"?

How did I get through 32 years before finding that out?

Newsflash! Jo and Tim are going on holiday

Jo and Tim have decided to escape London for a week and will be taking up residence in a yurt in Devon from Friday. For details, click here. We'll be back next Friday (31st).

P.S. A very happy birthday to mum Reid! xx

Two weddings later...

This weekend, we were in Lancashire for Jodie and Sam's wedding. Once again, our friends somehow defied the weather forecast and had stunning sunshine for the whole day. Photos will follow shortly.

Taking the train was far more civilised than driving all the way up. We stayed in a nice hotel in Lancaster for 2 nights and the wedding reception was at Leighton Hall, Carnforth. Jodie, as always, looked radiant. Sam looked tall. Tim was amazed to find that Jodie's mum remembered him from the days when he shared a house with Jodie in Durham ('97-'98)! Toby, Rachel, Keith and Cath were also there: Cath sporting a 6-month bump.

Tim's only complaint about the weekend was the bride and groom's decision to leave a cask of local beer lying around for guests to help themselves throughout the evening. That idea presumes a certain amount of self-control on the part of the guests, and Tim (amongst others) woke on Sunday with a bit of a sore head and without the brand new £20 umbrella he'd bought barely 24 hours earlier. Thanks must go to Jo for ensuring Tim found his way safely into the taxi with all his other belongings...

Emily and Tim's wedding photos are now sorted and on kodak. Click on the photo for a link to the slideshow.

10 July

Hi everyone

We've had plenty to talk about over the last 2 weeks, but I've been resisting the urge to blog until the photos from Em & Tim's wedding and from our weekend in Chipping Campden were ready. That hasn't quite happened yet, so to tide you over you'll find (by clicking above) a few photos from mum and dad following mum's, er, "30th" birthday celebrations.

Emily and Tim's wedding was great. The sun came out throughout the day and we had a perfect summer's evening by the time we'd moved from the church to the reception. The speeches were brilliant: by the sounds of things Tim was lucky to survive a series of childhood accidents (all of which were entirely his own fault), let alone make it to his own wedding day. We've got some great photos, which will follow soon.

The DIY is painstakingly slow (Tim seems to be doing everything, for obvious reasons), but this Sunday may be the day that the bathroom finally gets a new coat of paint.

Chipping Campden was a great weekend. You were either there or will already have heard all about it afterwards. Poppy was on great form and Peter slept all the way through dinner in the posh restaurant (although that didn't stop a snooty couple muttering under their breath about taking small children to restaurants, miserable gits).

We hear Poppy's not been well this week and Tim and Lucy are trying to persuade her to take some tamiflu... Harking back to our conversation last weekend, I think crushing it up in a spoonful of jam is the traditional route? We're sending her all our love, though, for a quick recovery of her health and her appetite!

Bit of a crazy food week this week.

Having barely recovered from the indoor skydiving at Keith's stag weekend, Tim has been living on canapés all week, culminating in an afternoon at Taste! of London on Thursday with a few clients and VIP treatment (which amounts to one glass of champagne but lots of free cream scones). Tim saw Rachel there, working hard at her flagship event, and then caught up with Toby afterwards (predictably, in the pub with the Investec people). Highlight: the beer and cheese matching masterclass.

Jo is cracking on with the driving lessons. Work is, as ever, for both of us, work. Things are definitely a bit more manageable at GOSHH now, thankfully. Tim has only been out for 1 run this week ahead of the (relay) triathlon, but has improved his performance by giving blood this week: That's 400 calories burned while lying down, and a surplus of new red blood cells.

We're off to deepest Derbyshire tonight, ahead of Emily and Tim's wedding at Matlock. We've hired a cottage nearby and are squeezing 9 people and a baby (Isaac) in for the weekend. Weather permitting, we might go for a long walk on Sunday before heading home.

On the horizon: Tim's mum's birthday in the Cotswolds, Peter Pan in Hyde Park, Calvin Harris at Somerset House and - of course - 3 weekends of fantastic Lions rugby!

Putting the "ahh" into Spaaaah...

Had a lovely weekend at Henlow Grange, including a day off work on Monday.

Both feeling well fed, relaxed and tension-free!

Jo has been appointed permanent Financial Controller at GOSHCH after having to sit through a full interview on Friday - but we never doubted that the job was hers (no-one else could do it!)

Tim was out running on Tuesday afternoon when he and a few others took some clients out for a triathlon training day in Herne Hill, where they have a lido and velodrome as well as a nice little park for the 5k run. The weather has been pretty wet this week, but good running weather. The triathlon is a month away. Tim missed the first of his latest round of dance lessons last night, though.

It's Jo's turn to do the DIY this weekend (snagging work, mostly!), because Tim is off on Keith's long-awaited (and more than a year overdue) stag weekend in Bedford and Birmingham. Indoor freefall, clay-pigeon shooting and the like. Don't expect photos on this blog, except maybe for a photo of Keith in an undersized superman outfit in the indoor skydiving!

Weekend without work...

Lovely weekend at home.

We had lunch on Saturday with Seb and Rach at their place, and went for a walk round Tooting Common to try to get Jacob to sleep. No joy. Cute little wide-eyed fella, though.

Lunch not being enough, we then went almost directly to Toby and Rachel's to catch the tail-end of the Baa-Baas game, and have a barbeque. Home-made burgers and pork-loin, mmmmm. We really have to get our BBQ working this year.

On Sunday we sat in the Terrace Gardens on Richmond Hill and ate ice-cream. I can't believe I've never been through there before. I think mum and dad went there on the weekend of the wedding. The view was something like this.

Next weekend, Henlow Grange, to celebrate the end of Jo's audit, job interview and everything else from the last few months! Looking forward to wandering around in a fluffy dressing-gown all weekend.

Barry, Verity, Daniel and Matthew are all back home in the UK, with Mick. Tim's posted the Concannon family holiday snaps on facebook. Not sure if this will work, but try clicking here to see them. Dolphins, kids, emus and sunshine all round. Very nice.

If that works, try clicking on the photo of Lilia, below, to see more photos of the new addition to the Concannon family and - for good measure - here's a picture of Peter and Poppy too!

J&T x

All the photos - LBII

I've finally managed to collect all the Legally Ballroom II photos into one place...

If you click on the following two photos, they should take you to (1) my friends' photo collection and (2) the "professional"'s photo collection from the night.

If you can't click on the photos, click on the link below to go direct to the full blog (joandtimreid.blogspot.com) and click on the photos there...

T&J x

DIY Photos...

The finished bathroom tiles

The new border

Work in progress around the shower

A new surface around the sink

Messy tiling work

The new tiles going up

A work in progress... and still blue!

The lounge was like this for weeks!

Paint job finished around the windows

New black paint in the fireplace

Everything came off the walls

Jo grafting (notice good use of Paula's screwdriver set)

Night falls on another day's paint work

Soaking the brushes in the kitchen

Everyone painting

The state of the plasterwork behind the tiles

Barry kept digging holes in the walls...

Making a start...