Dear I hope that this letter finds you safe and well and that 2008 has been a good year for you. My year started with spending New Year at Hardraw, near Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. The trip started off extremely wet with some roads closed by flooding! How-ever our neighbouring waterfall Hadraw Force, some 100 feet in height, was extremely impressive! In February I visited the Norfolk coast with my scouts. Being an area I had not really been to before it was nice to sample the stun-

ning scenery with a walk along part of the Norfolk coastal path. March had a surprisingly wintery feel to it as I headed off to Patterdale in the Lake District for the Easter weekend with the YHA group. Icy cold temperatures and snow drifts made it an unexpected and exciting walking trip, but nevertheless very lovely to see the snow flanked mountains. At the end of March I met Cynthia, who lives and works in London. We have done lots together during the year, and I have introduced her to the great outdoors and camping with the Scouts, her first experience of sleeping under canvas! In May I went with Cynthia to stay in Brockenhurst in the New Forest. Here we had a lovely long weekend exploring the area by foot and

bicycle. We also managed a trip down to Lymington and a boat ride across to the Isle of Wight. I spent a week away at the end of May with the YHA group in Cornwall. It was great to see such a lovely part of the county I had never visited before. We stayed for part of the week in Perranporth on the north coast before moving down to stay at Lizzard Point on the south-ern coastline. Much of the week was spent walking the beautiful coastline but we did manage to fit in a visit to the Eden Project on one rainy day! At the end of July I attended the Essex International Jamboree with my scouts. Held near Clacton-On-Sea in Essex, we were lucky to get probably the best week of weather all summer! The week included a fascinating visit to Duxford Imperial War Museum and a few hours swimming in the sea

and building sand castles with Cynthia! This year I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend three friends’ weddings. Two were for friends known from work and the other for friends from Bir-mingham University Scout and Guide Club. One of the weddings provided the opportunity to explore Halifax, a place I had not been even though it’s quite close to my home town of Leeds! In early October I went with my mum on holiday to China. Taking an organised tour, in just over 2 weeks we completed a whistle stop tour of some 4000 miles! As well as visiting the big cities of Beijing and Shanghai, some of the highlights of the trip included climbing ‘The Great Wall’, a visit to the Terracotta

Warriors in Xian, a visit to the panda base in Chengdu and sailing through the Three Gorges dam. As the year draws to a close, no day seem to go by without news of a failing business, a slowing economy and financial hardship. We can all get over stressed at Christmas; the build up can generate high expectations which may be impossible to fulfil and we all probably spend far too much money! So this Christmas maybe we should all try and just relax a bit more and spend a bit less! For eve-ryone though, it is a time to reflect on the past, and to look to the future with confidence. A time of celebration and of compas-sion too. I hope that the goodwill and respect that we all enjoy at Christmas will remain with you and your families throughout the coming year.

Jonathan Wentworth 113 Springfield Park Avenue. Chelmsford, CM2 6EW 01245 283243 0778 8781494 jonathan@wentworthfamily.me.uk

Wxv ECCK