Your Super Soaraway

===  Watson-Laird Gazette ===

Christmas 2006 Edition

The Antidote to Christmas Newsletters

Price £1,000,000 where sold

Well this year we'd like to start by saying, oh hold on, where's that Czech phrasebook again? Dobry den!!  Yes we nearly missed the printing deadline yet again because of our Christmas expedition to Prague with our friends Frank and Lesley.  We just got back late on Tuesday night after six wonderful days in the crisp Central European air, walking the streets of what must be one up of Europe's most beautiful cities, from the labyrinthine streets on one side of the river to the beautiful cathedral and hilltop castle on the other.

Well! What a year it's been! For once Alice and I have started and finished the year each working for the same employers, Alice still at the Home Office in the office of the Chief Information Officer (is that government waste of the word 'office'?), and Martin still with South West Trains. It must be a few years since we were last able to say that!

“So, Alice, I think that we should look back at the highlights of the year and tell people about that. Alice! What do you think?”

“I think that's an excellent idea Martin!  Where shall we start?” 

“Well actually I thought I'd start by talking about our day-trip to the Young’s brewery! It was the day of England's opening World Cup game and...” 

“Martin! That's not big news people don't want to hear about your trip to that brewery! Haven't they closed it now anyway?”

“Alice quiet! Stop interrupting! Yes, so England were playing Ecuador in the World Cup while we were having a guided tour round one of England's most historic breweries, Young's, in the heart of Wandsworth.”

“Martin! Please stop now, I bet you even start going on about how you accidentally got locked in the brewery! That's not Christmas news!”

“But it's interesting Alice, it's got history, catering, architecture and lots of brewery animals. I could even explain about how the tour progressed without me, when I got locked in near the brewery ram and the geese!” (Alice has requested that we formally state that we were very upset at the closing of the Young’s Brewery, and Al actually said that she would have crawled through the streets of Wandsworth to save it, if it would have had any effect.)

“I suppose you'll be quite happy for me to mention that we joined the nature reserve near Kempton Park racecourse, and how we go there every few weeks so that you can sit and look at birds? I'd get into trouble for doing that! Well I've come this far so I'll mention it, formed from an old reservoir in south-west London, with all sorts of wild fowl, and on one occasion we saw a dozen heron all at once. I suppose I'd also better mention that we go to yet another nature reserve quite often as well, at Barnes Wetlands, near Hammersmith?  Can I mention the brewery now?”

We had a wonderful holiday at Easter, in Salisbury in Wiltshire, thoroughly exploring a wonderful historic city and enjoying many walks in the countryside. Our autumn holiday was in Dorset, such a coincidence that South West Trains have a direct service there as well. We stayed near Moreton, such a small village that even some of my colleagues didn't know where it was! (Oh look, now I've run out of exclamation marks, Alice can you go to the hardware shop and get a few more!?)  On one day that week we walked 18 miles, the second furthest we've ever walked in one go in all our time together. Happily we were both going in the same direction at the time!  That holiday also fulfilled one of Alice's long-standing desires, to visit Brownsea Island, a beautiful habitat for peacocks, red squirrels and other animals, in the middle Poole Harbour, the world's second largest after Sydney Harbour. 

Well it's been a great gazette so far and we haven't even come to the Christmas puzzle or an account of our summer holiday! I think we'll make them wait for those Alice!  Due to internal reorganisation I was transferred for three months to head office where I worked in the Safety Department, before returning to Richmond, in a new position, supporting the on-train security staff. While I had a seventh-floor view over central London that most tourists would have given their holiday photographs for, I was glad to return to a more local base. South West Trains also retained the franchise for providing a service in south-west England for the next 10 years.

Alice has been doing an art history evening class this year, learning about everything from Greek to Gothic, via Byzantine and Roman. The course includes various vases, historic heads, stylish sculpture, awesome architecture, mysterious monasteries, terrific temples, cryptic(!) catacombs, and naughty nuns.

Visitors to our website http://www.martinhwatson.co.uk/homepage.html will have noticed many changes this year. In the spring I decided to totally recreate the website, using new software, NetObjects Fusion, as well as using Flickr to host the photographs. This strategy allows me to maintain it and update it more easily. If you haven't looked at it lately put the turkey away and have a look now!  If you are reading this on paper, click here.

This year's international puzzle party was held in Boston, Massachusetts, a wonderful city which we visited extensively before the party three years ago. Wanting to see somewhere else this year, before the big event, we chose Philadelphia, possibly America's most historic city. We stayed in a tastefully restored town house, just a few blocks from where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Philadelphia is a very compact city, laid out on a very strict North-South and East-West grid, making it ideal for exploring on foot. We must have walked every street! Alice certainly made sure that we saw every museum and an historic house!  It was so good to meet up with old friends at the party, although none of my designs were presented this year. We spent one day visiting Salem, the place where the infamous witch trials took place.  Alice has been acting strangely ever since.

Unexpectedly, I spent my (49^th) birthday in prison!  Philadelphia is the place where the Eastern State Penitentiary was built, America’s first corrective penal establishment.  It was an awesome and intimidating place, and I promise to be very good from now on. Al Capone was a former inmate.

This year's Page Three Bird is Gertrude the Turkey. Gertrude and her attractive assets hail from Norfolk. Her interests are cutlery, festive catering, and working towards world peace.

Two recent events which we very much enjoyed were the Lord Mayor's Parade, which Martin had never visited, and Alice hadn’t been to for many years, and an evening visit to the theatre to see the show “Stomp”, a presentation which is purely the percussive effects created by the actors. Another autumn event which will last long in our memory was our exploration of one of London's most famous and most loved landmarks, Battersea Power Station. For one week in early November this semi-derelict shell hosted an exhibition of Chinese media arts, and we were able to extensively look around this once great building, which may soon be converted into a massive leisure complex.

To solve this year's puzzle you must work out how many times the word XMAS appears in this grid.  Starting from each letter X, trace the word, a one square at time in any direction, like a king in chess. Letters may be used more than once.

A A A A A M A M M S X A M M A M M A S A X A M M M M A A A X A S M A M S M A M A M M A X X S M M M M M A X A A M M M M X A X M A A M M X M M S S S S M X M M A S S S M A M X S S A S X M S M M M A S A M M A M A X X A S X M A S M A A S X M X A M A A A X A M X X M S A A M A X A A A S X X M A A M S A X A A S M M A M X X S X X A M M A A M A A S S S S A M S M A A S X S M M A A X A S M M S A A S A S S M M A A A A M A S X X M X X A M A A A A S A M A A M M

Finally we’d like to wish all of our friends and family a wonderful Christmas, a Happy New Year, and a great 2007.

Sadly, shortly before the publication of this Gazette, Gertrude the Turkey passed away following a bizarre basting accident. Our thoughts are with her brood.

Martin only had two haircuts in the entire year.

We bought a new battery for the doorbell.

No elves or reindeer were hurt in the production of this newsletter.

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