The 2002 Newsletter
Another year has gone by and it’s time yet again to catch up with friends and family around the world by way of this little newsletter. Well, 2002 has seen yet more big changes for Dave & Kerry including a new home, a new job and new church.
If you found a note inside our Christmas card this year, telling you to come to this web site for the newsletter, you will no doubt have noticed that the major portion of the insert was given over to the news that we have a new house! But before we tell you about that, it’s probably time to look back at the year as a whole.
January saw Kerry take up her first teaching job at a very good junior school in Tonbridge. Teaching a class of 31 darlings in Year 4, Kerry has had the usual ups and downs that go along with a NQT (newly qualified teacher) probationary year. All in all though, she has been able to look back on rave reviews from teachers and assessors as well as children who consider her one of the coolest teacher in the school. Dave reckons its all down to the Harry Potter calendar he bought for her class, but there may be slightly more to it than that.
She has just finished her NQT year yesterday (19 December) and so is now a fully fledged, battle weary schoolteacher. Dave doesn’t know if that means more money but he won’t hold his breath. 
The year started with us still living with Kerry’s parents, who were complete stars for the best part of two years (by the time we moved out) as they continued to offer us a roof over our heads while we continued to get out of debt and save our pennies. Dave was very excited in February when he finally paid off his bank loan after having it around his neck for four years or so. If you know Dave and how tight he is, you’ll understand his excitement at such a momentous achievement.
Dave is still working at Church House Publishing (don’t forget to visit the web site and buy all your Christmas books there… next day delivery, secure ordering…) and mostly enjoying it despite a fair amount of frustration at church politics and delays to his efforts to bring Visual Liturgy 4.0 to the masses. The release is now less than six months away and with every passing day, Dave is getting more worried about what remains to be done but no doubt it’ll be on time and (hopefully) greatly acclaimed.
Dave’s dad is still working with him and establishing himself as the Church House centre for gossip and information. We’ve also seen the arrival of a new Archbishop of Canterbury which has Dave tremendously agitated as he defends an incredibly godly man against an unprecendented level of unnecessary criticism. (Can you tell Dave wrote this bit?).
The summer brought the World Cup and, naturally, the hideously underperforming England side who managed to advance to the quarter finals without playing particularly well before raising Dave’s hopes by taking the lead against Brazil and then reverting to form by frittering it away. Seaman should have been dropped years ago as Kerry knows full well from having to watch England games with DG for a few years… oh and Ronaldinho did mean it. Check his body shape.
Meanwhile, Kerry discovered the mother of all motivational techniques for her class by having a class World Cup with goals for good behaviour. The boys suddenly discovered that school wasn’t so bad after all.
The summer brought two weeks at New Wine for Kerry while Dave was forced to slave over his hot computer. Kerry co-ordinated the special needs work for the Bolder Gang group, age 10-11 and had a great time with some of her friends from Tunbridge Wells who were running the work with that age group overall.
Dave continues to turn out for Brenchley FC on a Saturday afternoon. The reserve side is now dependent on his rock solid centre back displays (ahem) and he simply can’t understand why they keep losing 12-0 when he is so assured, skillful and downright talented. Old friend Mark Wells has finally ran out of excuses and is also playing with Brenchley and doing well. He even scored with his left foot a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, Dave captained the side in their last game of 2002 and they won 4-1 so hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.
From the summer, the house buying process gathered momentum very swiftly. Having found out that we qualify for a keyworker scheme because of Kerry being a teacher, we were able to arrange help from the scheme, a mortgage, find a property and move in within the space of about 12 weeks from start to finish… which is nice.
On the 28th of October, we moved into our new residence in Tunbridge Wells and are now very excited and happy to finally be in a place of our own. Living in Tunbridge Wells is taking some getting used to, particularly after Yalding and Maidstone. Some inverse snobbery is coming out of us both – Dave in particular who still won’t admit to living in “Royal Tunbridge Wells”. The house is very nice, it’s the one with the brown door in the picture f you hadn’t guessed – it needs some decorating – but we’re attacking it a bit at a time and trying to gradually put our print on the place.
If you need to write to us with Christmas cards etc, the new address is 81 Clifton Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 3AT.
So that is us in 2002. Moving on up career wise, resisting the urge to have kids, enjoying life and having fun. We hope you are too! Oh and if we don’t meet up soon, we may just forget what you look like so we had better get together before too long!