Mr and Mrs Rice at the Royal Wedding

2011 - A Year in Review

2011 Country of Living: England in LONDON!

A bit of a mixed year of fortunes. We were told we had to leave our flat at 22 Noko in July so we had to find a new place to live. Luckily we found a wonderful house with a front and back yard a few miles away from our old flat but the same distance from the city. The house is nice but transport is not as good as the old flat.

Mel had eye surgery on October 22nd so she no longer has to wear glasses. Something she always wanted to do…She looks very different now!

A new addition to the “family” is Casper - A 6 year old Persian cat that we picked up from a shelter on October 5th. He had some problems (he came to us shaved) but he is much better now. He does look a bit odd though…

Casper and Me

Ok, he looks a lot better now than this early picture shows him…

Travel

Not a lot of travelling…

  • April - Rome for Easter
  • August - Visit to Canada to see family

We also had some visitors…

  • January - Mel's friend Heather from her Chorus in Canada (North Metro Chorus and her husband met us for dinner (and some music) at Sarastro's
  • April - My friend Sian I knew from my volunteer work in The Gambia (now living in Malaysia) came to visit for a few days.
  • June - My aunt Elaine and my cousin Jenny, both of whom I have not seen in years, came to visit.
  • October/December - Mother visited on her way to volunteer again at the hospital in Zimbabwe and again on her return visit in December.

Events

Every week I try to attend a free recital held during lunch hour on Wednesdays just down the road from my office at The Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West. Earlier in the year I also attend free concerts at the City of London Festival as well (free concerts during lunch hours as well).

There were quite a number of interesting things we saw throughout the year such as:

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

  • 5th - London (Ravenscourt Park) - Bonfire Night

December

Reviews of the Year

Books

Films

Restaurants

Next Year

The Olympics finally arrive in London! In 2011 we learned that we received tickets for quite a number of events (after coordinating ticket purchases by both myself and Mel here in the UK and my mother in Canada). Mother and I are going skiing in March (Val d'Isere), which will be nice after a few years hiatus.

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Visit here for my review of 2010.