Croft Chronicles 2004

Well, it's that time of year again, all another old... and wiser?  I'm not so sure!  We hope you've all had a good year.  Let's tell you about ours.

As a family we have enjoyed holidays together in France, The Lake District and North Wales. We have continued hosting family weeks for Christian Guild Holidays, something which we enjoy and find challenging too.  In October we were able to celebrate with Justin, as he was baptised at Newmount, our family church.  Throughout the year we have been actively involved in playing music in church for all-age services and monthly evening service.  Several of Simon’s school friends regularly join us for this and their combined musical talents are greatly appreciated.

Also, I am sad to report the loss of our pets this year, Ronaldo and Strupar, the goldfish, both departed to the fishbowl in the sky.  Dooey our rabbit also died a month ago. At the moment we don’t have any plans to replace them, as we have Justin, the pet student, to feed and clean out regularly!  We have known Justin for several years and we were delighted when in 2001 he decided to immigrate to the Midlands from Bournemouth accepting a place at De Montfort University in Leicester to study Multimedia Design.  He is very much a member of our family in many ways, not least as he appears to enjoy putting up with us on holiday and is not put off by the general chaos usually ensuing in our busy home.

I have managed to stay very busy all year juggling, home, work, playgroup, school, church and Guides. I was honoured in May to become a Church Steward; I’m trying not to get into too much trouble by asking awkward questions! Much of my time seems to be spent chauffeuring Simon and Matthew (and friends) to and from the many activities they are involved in. However, I know Simon is counting the days until he can get “behind the wheel” of my car in the Spring. My father is still in his own home, despite the relentless progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, I find it a struggle sometimes to deal with the memory loss and insecurity he feels, as being an only child he considers me his only support, but the help he receives from friends and the daily visit from Social Services is a relief to me.

I have had a busy year in sport and music. First, by representing the Derbyshire county rugby squad on my 14th birthday. Next, by representing the school on Rugby tour in Italy. Finally, I have continued to play in the school band and Rolls-Royce training band where I play principal cornet. Also I have passed my grade 5 on the cornet. As well as this I have been playing football week in, week out for Repton Casuals under 14’s and the school team when we have the occasional match. As I am in year 9 this academic year holds the joy of choosing options for GCSE and SAT’s tests.

In January I took up office in my first governors meeting at Chellaston School and was surprised with the new language I would need to learn. Apart from the obvious (?) INSET days I got to grips with NQT, SEF, DfES, and many other terms. It WAS really like being back at school. Health wise I had difficulty with a hernia, sustained from playing football, so in May I had the operation and had a week off work, plus a week working from home. This gave me a chance to try out all the ‘working at home’ technology we try and sell, very interesting. In September I started badminton again and I think I’m still up to my usual standard, but the boys might say differently. I have only had one trip from work this year, to Ottawa in Oct, which was very nice. However, we (Citel) are still bumping along the bottom of the Sales curve, so 2005 looks like it will be a challenging year. My hobby (BetterbyDesign) business has had a more promising year, so we used some of the proceeds to visit a long term customer in Norway for a few days at the end of August. Ruth and the boys enjoyed coming with me as well!

I started the year, with exams still seeming along way off, playing badminton, and captaining the school badminton team to the retention of the City Badminton Cup (though the official results didn’t come through until October!). At the start of March, I started to learn to play the trombone as well as continuing with the Euphonium. I also got round, eventually, to taking my Grade 5 Music Theory Exam, which I passed, now allowing me to do Grade 6 and above on any or all of my instruments. Finally in March (it was a pretty busy month!) I was one of 30 selected 15/16 year olds who were invited to a residential mathematics course, lasting 4 days at Oxford University. May saw the start of the dreaded GCSEs, and after cramming in as much last-minute revision as I could manage, I faced my first exam, French Oral! The GCSEs lasted through-out May and much of June, finally finishing at the end of the month with Statistics, leaving me free for the rest of the summer. Following the hard work of the GCSEs, 7 friends and I decided that we deserved a few days away, so we spent 5 days down in Salcombe, Devon away from siblings, parents and teachers! The summer holidays seemed to fly by, and GCSE results day was upon me sooner than I expected. I was really pleased with my results, getting 5 A*’s more than any other boy in my year. As if starting 6th Form wasn’t hard work enough, I decided to take up the offer of doing my Level 1 sailing course from September to October, which was great fun, if a little damp! Having not played for my school football team since I was at primary, at the age of 16 I thought my chance had gone, so I was shocked when offered a chance to play in the 6th Form football with only 3 other boys from my year in our National Cup game. We won the game on penalties (more than the 6th Form team have done for years apparently), and with me still a member of the first team, we have continued our progress and at the time of writing this we are through to the 5th Round and the last 64 teams in the country!  I’d like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year, and apologise for the length of my passage, whilst pointing out that there are still things which I have omitted from my busy year, and undoubtedly someone else will have gone through and edited yet, more, so again Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

(to prove Simon wrong we left his fully unedited version in !!!)
Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year to all,
Martin, Ruth, Simon, Matthew and of course Justin