Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas 2010

CHRISTMAS 2010

Dear friends

This is to wish you all a very happy Christmas and my best wishes for 2011. The picture is Matt and me in Seoul, South Korea about six weeks ago. Matt is teaching English in Daegu, where he has been since February. He works for the Korean government education department and is likely to remain in Korea for two years. Tami is here in Birmingham and working as a sales representative on door to door sales. I see her about once a week, usually to have a meal with her. It has been a very difficult year. Olwen and I have been separated since February. She is doing well and has found a new interest in painting, which she does very well at a local club, and she has sold some of her art work.

I am still in my job as Head of School at the University and will do this for at least another 18 months. During the past year I have been to the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Minnesota (Minneapolis), Connecticut (New Haven), France (Strasbourg), Hungary (a rural village for a wedding), Korea (Seoul and Daegu) and Switzerland (Bossey, near Geneva), mostly for conferences and lectures. I was able to visit Professor Walter and Erika Hollenweger at their home in the beautiful village of Krattigen earlier this month. Next year we launch the first of annual Walter J. Hollenweger Lectures at the University of Birmingham.

I am due to take some study leave in April and hope to finish a book by the end of the summer. We are currently experiencing the coldest December since we came to England in 1995. Snow has been on the ground for over three weeks now and we have only the second white Christmas in fifteen years. I love it!

With best wishes for the season
Allan