Hello all, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holidays and so forth. May your holidays be long, warm and relaxed! As usual we got a little lazy in the Maufe household, and figured that if we did one of these large all-around newsletters’s we would have a better chance of getting more news to more people, and before the holidays actually started. We’ve all had a fantastic year, and as I sit hear in December looking back at January, it is amazing how many things have changed. Still, going back over 10 years and the assorted places we’ve lived and the assorted children that have appeared along the way, it seems change is here to stay!

Matthew is now 3, Billie and Heather 8, and the less said about Alice and myself the better. Lets just say we’re ageing ungracefully, turning into crusty middle age people with, well, middles. Okay, we both turned 35 this year, Alice just yesterday. In fact she is still in shock as she got what she asked for – a vacuum cleaner! Eee, love is timeless and boundless. Actually she really does like it, as the old one packed up over a month ago, and the house is getting, rather, well dusty. For those of you who know the house, you won’t recognise it anymore, hooray! It’s hurry because we were almost the last stucco brown house on the block. Early this year a 3-day weekend appeared with nothing to do, and so I said, "paint it!" And we did. Paid a bit extra for some one coat paint (no, really) and in the 3 days we did the entire front of the house. Alice then did the back of the house by herself a few weekends later, and the side (we’re in a semi-detached, so there is only one side) still needs doing. You can’t really see the side though, so I’m not too fussed about rushing into it. Hopefully we did a good job, because now we’ve painted it once, all future painting will first of all involve stripping, argh! We still live at 28 Westgate, Guiseley. We would quite like to move to a detached house (who wouldn’t!) mainly so we wouldn’t feel guilty about how much noise we make. Luckily the Taylor’s in the other side are really good, and few times I’ve felt the need to go around and apologise for a particularly noisy something, they’ve just said children will be children. Billie and Heather still share a bedroom with a bunk-bed, I thought this year they would be old enough to want to move into separate rooms and get away from each other, but I think they quite like being together at night and talking and throwing stuff back and forth. The place looks a like a tornado convention, or the inside of a tumble drier! There is stuff everywhere, every so often I’ll have a mega cleanup when I just throw it all into binliners and they can retrieve what they want to keep. McDonalds isn’t helping though, supplying an endless stream of must-have plastic gizmos that the girls insist on keeping for some reason. Matthew has also started colouring and painting, so there is an endless stream of artwork to be surreptitiously ditched at night. Luckily since the supply is by and large never-ending, he hasn’t clicked yet. There are a few prize ones that I think he would notice, so we leave those on the fridge.

Billie and Heather are doing well at Tranmere Park School. It had a Government inspection this year (OFSTED) and passed with flying colours. In national tests the school does very well, but considering most of the kids in the catchment area come from well to do families you would hope so really. The girls are learning about the Tudors right now, and this included a day trip to an old mansion house where they spent the day as Tudors, cooking and having a banquet! Luckily nobody was required to be Anne Boleyn. Heather has had her head buried in the Harry Potter books ever since they came out. She read the first one, then waited until her Aunty Carol send the rest from New York. Since they arrived a few weeks ago we’ve had not a word out of her. She has an odd habit of reading up to the last couple of chapters, and then pausing and going at a snails pace, as if she can’t bear the thought of finishing the story. Weird child. Billie and Heather have also devoured the Secret Seven and Famous Five books. Unfortunately we don’t live in the countryside, so it’s a little hard for them to recreate the adventures out in fields and so forth.

Matthew has come along in leaps and bounds, his third birthday was in May and he had a super party with his friends and relatives. They don’t seem to have "real" friends at 3, still play by themselves largely. Matthew has started school though; we enrolled him at a fee-paying school a few miles from the house called Woodhouse Grove. He’s in the nursery section, around 34 children with a teacher and 2 helpers. They are doing all kinds of pre-school things, like writing and counting and so forth. They also do a lot of play, Lego and robots and so forth. Also, when the weather is good, outside games. The school has a reputation for being academically OK, but being especially strong on the intangibles like sport and music and so forth. Matthew has 2 years before he has to join the state system, or stay at this school for 5 or so years. I’d like to send the twins too, but it gets expensive at that point and they seem well settled at Tranmere Park.

Right after Matthew started nursery, which can be from 8am until 6pm if we wanted Alice got a part time job, at Ilkley Grammar School. Ilkley is a town about 7 miles up the valley, and the school is a large one, some pupils aged 11 and up. Alice works 20 hours a week with as a classroom assistant with groups that require extra tuition, usually the slightly handicapped or "behaviourally challenged". The government has told schools they must not expel disruptive pupils, which is quite sensible really since it probably is better than having the kids on the street. Alice seems to quite enjoy it, relearning English, Maths, History and so forth. Hours are normally 8:30 in the morning until 2pm or 3pm, with Thursdays off. It was certainly good timing, with Matthew just starting Nursery full time. I normally take Matthew in around 8:30, and Alice will pick him up after she finished. Then she runs down for the girls at 3:30. It is probably the changes in this paragraph along with Simon changing his job that has had the most profound effect this year, much more added stress and rushing about. There is now hardly any time when we are sitting still at home, and I’m sure Alice won’t disagree when I say she quite misses her old life as a housewife. For a while she did do house parties selling educational books to young mothers, but with the job that has, this has had to go by the wayside and she is selling off stock. It never made that much money anyhow! Last item on Matthews nursery, he has is having the most terrible time separating from me in the morning when he gets there, telling me how he hates school and its no fun. The staff assure me that as soon as my back is turned then he is happy as a clam until Alice picks him up. If anybody has advice on separation anxiety, I’m all ears, send me your advice and tips. I think it will wear off as he gets used to place and develops some friendships. Abigail has adopted he a 4 year old who is his shadow and mentor. She won a special certificate from the school for her efforts!

Alice banged the rear bumper into something and left a dint, argh! We haven’t been able to sell our old car, the Rover 214 aka Rose. We wanted to change it for something a bit newer, but haven’t really found anything, and the trade-in value of Rose has plummeted as new car prices also drop, due to oversupply etc. Rose is worth so little now, that she is dead cheap motoring! So we’re probably stuck with her. She had a bit of a stroppy period in October, when a dodgy earth strap and a leaking radiator both led to several abrupt halts to journeys. Luckily this little patch seems behind us and she’s running reliably again.

Back to my new job, I’m at BT Cellnet, and drive there each day. It is about 45 minutes, which includes a 10-minute detour to Matthews’s school. Luckily I can by and large pick my own hours, so can time the trip to miss the worst of the traffic. I leave after 6pm to avoid the jams. There is plenty of work and some new technical challenges. I don’t get out of the office as much as at the Environment Agency which is a slight bummer, but am learning new things which is a definite plus. I have signed up for 6 months, which expires in March. Hopefully they will renew me, or I’ll find more work in Leeds, or go back to the Environment Agency! The worst scenario when you are a self-employed one-man operation is not finding work, and having to stay in another city for 4 nights a week. It’s not happened yet, and the Leeds economy is absolutely tanking along, so I don’t think I’ll be idle for long! Boo to the UK Government under Labour, which has brought in a nasty piece of tax legislation called IR35. This threatens to almost double my taxation bill, to some 45%. Luckily I believe the work I do now is exempt, but if that ever changes and they come after me then I’ll most likely look to the US for work! Silly UK Government trying to tax 1-man operations (the rules don’t apply to large companies). Needless to say I’ve giving money to a European Parliament court case that is seeking to overthrow the legislation. Labour and Tony Blair can also say goodbye to my support in the election next year. Grrrr. It was fun to watch the fuel crisis in October (for non-Ukers this was the truckers and the farmers blockading the fuel depots and stopping all fuel deliveries). It only took around 4 days, and the entire country ground to a halt. It was amazing to see the effect a few hundred people who felt ignored by the Government, could do to raise awareness of their issue, which was taxation on petrol and diesel. I’d love to do the same thing with IR35. One thing I do remember was walking through Guiseley to catch my train, and being amazed at the silence. Normally anywhere you go there is a constant background whooosh and rumble of traffic. However with all the cars and trucks off the road, there was near total silence as you walked around, it was fabulous! I actually think the Government should keep tax high on fuel (around $6/gallon for petrol. 85% of which is tax) to try and keep down car use. All the fumes and noisy are yucky, plus the danger to pedestrians and kids. Right, enough preaching.

We had an absolutely fabulous vacation in February, when we went to Israel for 2 weeks. We ran out of money at the Environment Agency, and the contractors were told to take 2 week holidays before financial year end in April. We looked around, and thought Israel would be near enough, hot enough and fun enough. And it was! We flew into Tel Aviv on El Al after going through the most rigorous security checks I’ve ever seen. We stopped in Rome to pick up more passengers, and as soon as the 737 was off the runway and on the taxiways, two cars positioned themselves under each wing and went with us to the terminal. There young security men jumped out with machine guns and walked around the entire time we were on the ground. And then escorted us to the runway again. Whoa! We travelled in our hire guy straight from Tel Aviv to Jersusalem, where we had about 3 nights in a hotel right in the center. It is a fabulous place, and the sheer quantity of people jammed into such a tiny space is amazing. We then went to the Old City, which is even more crowded, with all different religions, and priests/rabbis/holymen wondering everywhere in different garb. It was amazing to see all these different people living cheek to jowl in their own quarters. We visited the Western Wall, and went up the Temple on Mount, where an obliging worshipper took the twins in for a look around. The security here was amazing, squads of Israeli policemen lolling everywhere, ready for action at a sections notice. We passed metal detectors several times in the old city as went from place to place. One of the things that stayed with me was Billie wanted an apple, and since there was a huge and chaotic Palestinian street market next to us I sent Billie off with some money to buy one. She came with the apple, and the money! So I sent her back to pay, and she returned again with the money! I went over to pay the man, and he refused, saying a child can always have an apple! This touched me more than anything else really, although seeing entire Arab families living out of cut up 40ft steel shipping containers was pretty appalling. Especially when these containers dumped next to the roadside were only a few miles from the lush Israeli towns. Given the current conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis, I’m glad that I’ve seen both sides,. We also went to Nablus, and the poverty was breathtaking really, again especially when in such proximity to the contrast that were the Israeli towns. After Jerasulem we went down through a large desert landscape of nothing but sand, until we came to our next stop, the Ein Gedi kibbutz. This is a superb oasis of tranquality and peace, where the kibbutzen have worked hard to irrigate the land and create a most amazing oasis. Ein Gedi is bang next to the Dead Sea, and we went down for a swim and a good bit of mud slapping. Eeeew, the water is so salty, you really do float. And the mud was, well , good for the skin, but it felt wonderful to wash it off again. The Dead Sea is also the border with Jordan, and is only about 4 miles wide at the Ein Gedi bit. Every morning at 9am we were woken by a pair of Israeli F-15s that would rip down dead on the border. At noon a spy hercules would trundle down along the line, Along with the constant tank transporters that pulled tanks and vehicles along the road constantly, it was obviously that the country is on a constant state of alert. Since Israel is only as large as Wales and is surrounded by so many antagonistic, and large, neighbours, I can see where the vigilence comes from. We went to a mountaintop fort called Masada, where 900 Jews killed themselves rather than be enslaved by the circling Romans. The earthworks and sheer spectacular location are not to be missed. Later in the Negev desert we passed by the Dimona nuclear reactor. We saw tanks on exercises, perhaps about 8 formed in a crescent, pounding the heck of a hill a few miles on front of them. Needless to say the ever-present army jeeps with whip antennas were circling and we were discouraged from stopping or taking pictures. We drove on to the Ramon Crater which is in the heart of the Negev, and at night the stars were amaing. I took a midnight guided walk into the desert, and we followed huge chasms and gorges and dry river beds down to a BBQ at the bus at 2am. Fabulous! The silence again! Huge 200 foot drops in the moonlight if you didn’t follow the person in front. We then motored on down to Eilat, which is a large resort town plonked on the Red Sea, Fifity years ago it was a camel watering hole, now there are 40+ large hotels, This was the childrens part of the holiday, up until now we had been visiting lots of historical sites and rubbing shoulders with locals. Now it was veg time, and we spent about 4 days. We had a great time, did some snorkelling on the Red Sea reefs, and camel rides. We also went to see a genuine Bedouin in his genuine Bedouin tent, but did a rapid 180 when his genuine Nokia mobile rang from under his robes! So all in all, a great holiday in Israel, a totally different country with the divisions between Jews and Palestinians, with so much history and superb scenery all around you, and not forgetting the fabulous sunny weather which after an English February was a total tonic to the body!

Hey ho it’s the American side of the team here. All in all Simon hit the nail on the head with life so far. The days come and go so quickly now I find it hard to sit down at all. I’m really looking forward to that nine-hour plane ride where I won’t be able to do anything! We are all going to San Francisco/Los Angeles in a week(in fact these newsletters will probably follow us there) Simon has organised a great holiday for us as always. Travelling up and down California in a VW camper van. I’ll let Simon tell you more about that and I’ll tell you about the second house we bought. As an investment we have put money into a five bed-roomed end terrace property that once done up should see us with a nice return. The few people who have seen it have said we paid a great price. And with another 15-20 thousand in fix up (i.e. decoration, heating wiring) we’ll be able to rent it out for a while then sell it and make back an extra bit on top. We paid 45,000 pounds and the houses in the middle of Guiseley are going for twice that now. We just have to wait a few more days for the rest of the seller’s money to come through and it’s ours. Though there is no garden (no maintenance) the inside has two baths’ plus an extra toilet. Two attic bedrooms and three first floor bedrooms. All the rooms are of a good size and there is enough room to turn the whole thing into two or three flats if that is smart. I will be getting lots of real estate people and construction people through to give me their opinions, before deciding whether to break it into flats or keep it as a large residence.

Hello, took the kids swimming, went to a kid party, did a little thing at Alice’s temple, drinks thing at our house, and now 36 hours later back I am at the PC. Oh, also went out last night as a sixsome, and don’t think I said a word all night! I was so knackered from assorted things I just felt like vegging. Still, it was nice being out with adults and the kids being looked after by a babysitter. We try and go out every Thursday as a "date night" and it works very well. Alice has got us signed into a babysitting circle of 20 odd similar minded parents who want to escape their little darlings once a week! We all babysit for each other and keep "points" in a large book. I tried to sell them on a e-book web enabled multi-platform distributed solution, but they seem to like their school exercise book better! It’s very useful having a large circle of babysitters. With Alice’s job we’re almost at the threshold of an au-pair, if Alice ever went full time I think we would have to have one. The kids still have oodles of activities after school, Guides, gymnastics, swimming, acting/drama, French Club, music center, Temple Sunday school, and on and on. The twins try and have a friend around for tea once a week, and we’re just starting to do this with Matthew also. Simon has also joined a Gym, called Dragons, which has a pool, loads of weight and exercise equipment, steam room, spa and sauna. In fact after writing this I may well go down for an hour, for a bit of R&R. Since joining my aerobic capacity has gone from well below average to average, and my heart rate has slowed down some. I haven’t lost any weight (well, 1 Kg) but the nipper/caliber tests shows body fat has dropped a lot. Must be getting turned into muscle or something! I’m certainly finding I have more energy and feel better, and just love the sauna for relaxing.

We had our loft (attic) converted this year, ready for when the girls seize my office as their bedroom. Also Alice wanted some space to call her own, and where she could lay out her hobby stuff (jewellery making) without the kids getting into it. We got a fabulous strong floor put down, and large skylights that look out over the hills. To be utterly honest we haven’t used it as much as we thought, but it is useful having the space up there, and the girls like disappearing up to read books and hide out. We went to Pitlochry in Scotland in August, as Simons boss from Monsanto, Ted Steele and his wife Judy, were on a coach tour with a group of line dancers from the MidWest. It was a lovely weekend away, and the scenery in Scotland is just breathtaking. We’re still on track for Simon to retire in 5 years, to run a guesthouse/Bed&Breakfast place in similar stunning scenery, perhaps in the Yorkshire Dales or Lake District. This past week has been a blur of Christmas shows that have been put on by the schools and clubs the kids attend, we’ve been to nativity (Matthew), carol concert(twins), music concert (Billie on recorder, Alice in her orchestra playing the violin), Temple Family Day, whew. Then Monday is the Gymnastics show and then Tuesday is Drama Show both fir the girls…ARGH…

Can’t wait for Christmas to roll around, mainly because we’re off to California to try and catch some winter sun. We originally wanted to go to Florida, but air travel is really really busy this year and we couldn’t get any reasonably priced tickets. So we’re going to fly Heathrow to San Francisco nonstop December 25^th, then travel around Sonoma, Napa. Yosemite. Venice Beach, Anaheim (Disneyland) before Simon flies back to Heathrow from LAX on January 1^st. Alice and the kids aren’t driven by quite the same nasty work schedule, so stay by themselves until January 4^th when they fly home, taking in a 24 hour stop in New York on the way back. Carol Quartin the girls aunt will take the twins off for a girly 24 hours, and Alice and Matthew are off to stay with Alice’s good friend Evelyn in Queens for the night. I imagine some good old fashioned nattering will take place late into the night. Simon of course gets 4 days by himself in England – bliss!

Well, it’s time to wrap this up. After all the talk above about the Sauna and so forth, it closes in an hour (its 9pm now on Sunday December 17^th) and I’m feeling like a good swim and steam! Matthew and the girls are up, even though the girls have school tomorrow. They have two days until the end of term, and don’t actually seem to have done any work for the last couple of days now, what with term wrapping up and so on. We love you all, and would really really like you all to visit and come say hi, just perhaps not all the same time! Try and stagger it, OK guys?!?!/

Love and kisses and hugs and best wishes for the New Year and all that 2001 will bring to you,

Simon n Alice n Matthew n Heather and Billie and Harvey the cat.

from left to right, Matthew, Billie, Heather, Alice, Billie, Harvey and Matthew (again, a real camera hog!)