REVIEW OF 2007
The year started at the Kylie Minogue concert in Wembley Stadium ( BBC news item), what a fantastic night we had down on the dance floor.
After watching Strictly Come Dancing (Strictly Come Dancing web site) we decided that we wanted to do some dancing ourselves and joined a Tango class at the Horniman Museum during January. Great fun but I'm not sure that we could compete just yet!
One of our New Year's resolutions was to holiday in more places than just Lanzarote.

The environment, the architecture and the weather was great but after the relaxed and non-pushy people in Lanzarote we were very taken aback by the constant aggressive pestering to buy something, or go somewhere.
Here are some more of our photos ( from my flickr site ) in a new window.

We had such a good time that that we are definitely going to return to Seville in the near future.
Here are my flickr photos from Seville.
At the end of April we had our Spring trip to Lanzarote and whilst we were there we arranged an extension to the balcony at our apartment. Here are the before and after pictures



The weather was fantastic and the Sticky Toffee Pudding was just right. What a good way to spend a birthday, we even got some exercise helping Jane and Nick move a tonne of slate chips into their back garden.
Our Summer break at the beginning of August was a week in Kent.

Yes, I know that we live in the South East but we decided to be tourists for a week.
The weather was really good (the only good week of the summer) and we managed to do all the tourist things; walk along the White Cliffs at Dover, walk part of the Saxon Way at Wye and end up in the Tickled Trout, visit Leeds castle and Chatham Dockyard, and have lunch at the Sportsman in Seasalter (where we used to camp when I was a child).

We decided to deal with Christmas this year by doing all the shopping early and going to Lanzarote for the week before Christmas. Good plan but the weather decided to give us the worst rain storm that anyone could remember (they always say that don't they!). Another weather memory from Lanzarote, we had Locusts in November 2004, a hurricane in 2005 and now a monsoon.

Christmas Day lunch was at a local hotel after visits to friends and family in the area.
On Boxing Day we got to see the departure of the local hunt from Abergavenny before going to a local pub to meet Nick's extended family (who all came to lunch at Nick and Jane's cottage)
Malcolm's Personal notes

It's still going strong and every Monday evening 10 or so people (half English-speaking and half Spanish-speaking) meet up and talk about the events of the week. I sit in the corner and say "no entiendo".
I finally started a formal Spanish course at the Instituto Cervantes in October and this will continue until I can actually have a proper conversation in Spanish.
I continue with my desire to become a good photographer, so in May I did an Open University course to try to improve my skills. The Skill is OK, it's the Art that's missing! The conclusion that I've reached is that I need to take a lot more photos. But I did go to Lanzarote on my own during May to take some photos (and to check the new terrace)
The running continues, just a gentle 20 minute jog two or three mornings a week and the occasional hour run with Lucy on a Sunday. She's entered me to do a 10km run with her in February 2008 so I need to get in more training (and some sponsorship from people who don't think I can do it)
Ami
The second year at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, one more year to go.

The dissertation has been a major source of heartache and things are getting tough but at least she has Dave to help keep her focused.
They won the Rag 'Jailbreak' sponsored charity event in the Spring when groups of people had to see how far they could get from Cambridge in 36 hours with no money. I sponsored her at 10p a mile. They traveled 707 miles and got to Poznan in Poland. (707 miles at 10p a mile. hmm! I wasn't expecting them to get that far!)
In October she moved into a new room over the porters lodge (that's her open window on the left) so now she is really close to Sainsbury's ('In Joke' everyone who knows Cambridge colleges remembers Sidney Sussex as being across the road from Sainsbury's)
During December she decided to try for a job at an advertising agency just for the hell of it. There were 500 applicants and after three interviews (during which she said that she knew nothing about 'advertising') she realised how tough it is to get into that industry. Then she got called back for a full day of presentation sessions.
To her surprise she has been offered a job with DDB London on their graduate programme after she graduates. So, no need to worry about what she is going to do after Uni. (as long as she gets a good degree)
Lucy
Whilst I've been enjoying personal development and not too much work, 2007 was a really tough year for Lucy. She has continued to expand her team at Grosvenor but too much time has been spent managing a new major contract with a supplier that was really badly specified.

When she joined Grosvenor in July 2003 she said that the team building job (from 4 staff to over 30 now) was a 5 year project. So, 2008 is the year.
According to her, the biggest event in 2007 was a change in hairstyle after 10 years! But appearing in a Santa suit in the annual review at the Christmas party, dancing to 'Last Christmas' (choreographed by our friend Darren) comes a close second.