We are very happy to announce the engagement of our son Jonathan to Sofia Carlbert. Jonathan popped the question today, 20th September 2008, while out for a walk on Lion’s Head, Cape Town, South Africa.

Congratulations to you both from Dad, Mum and Zoe…

Bea and Millie were exhausted at the end of their first adventure…

Carla with Millie and Bea

Zoe has finally named her two Yorkie pups - Beatrix and Emilia. They will be known as Bea (or Baby Bea) and Millie. For those of you who’ve seen the film, Bea was named after Beatrix Potter and Millie after Beatrix Potter’s friend.

Hello dear friends,

Just had a call from Daniel, so heard his voice at long last. They are safe and well away from he earthquake area now. He has just been able to pick up his emails and this is what happened to them.

Daniel’s email of his earthquake experience…

“We had just seen the pandas in the panda breeding centre and had gone back to the room to watch a dvd, relaxing and taking it easy when the bed started shaking and Laura tells me to stop shaking the bed. I think that she’s winding me up and shaking it herself. Then the whole room starts shaking really badly, so badly that we’re being thrown around.

We happen to be on the 4th floor of the hotel and quite far from the stairwell, but we start running as fast as we can. The walls are cracking around us and there’s really loud rumbling. It was like we were running in slow motion as the tiles were flying off the walls and all the plaster was smashing on the floor everywhere. We make it outside to complete panda-monium. The electric cables are being stretched and huge blue sparks are shooting out, one women got run-over by a car. People are all crying and getting hysterical.

We made it out of a factor 8 earth quake completely fine, after waiting for an hour or so in the road, decided to go back inside to see the damage, the building was cracked from end to end and top to bottom with massive chunks of wall on the floor. And then another quake hit and we were back up on the 4th floor again. Feeling a tad stupid we ran again for our lives.

Everyone was shook up, loads of people had fled to the train station and airport but everything was cancelled. So the remaining brits all ended up getting drunk together and then went to bed hoping it was all over. We had moved down to the 1st floor which was lucky because at 4 in the morning another one hit, this time we had to run down the shaky old metal fire escape. This was even more scary than before, so decided to sleep in the garden.

Couldn’t get out of Chengdu for 5 day and no phone or internet possible, but we’re now on the other side of the country away from all the mayhem. Safe and sound. over 34000 died and 1/3 of all the buildings collapsed, so we were quite lucky.

PS. the pandas were really cute”

Thank you for praying for Daniel and Laura’s safety and for this phone call that I so desperately needed. Thank you also for the prayers that kept me going throughout this very worrying time. It was very much appreciated and I certainly felt the power of the prayers. Please thank all those from your churches, your friends, etc who also covered us all in prayer.

God bless you and thank you

Love Sue

So please pray for -

• strength for Sue,
• news that Daniel and Laura are safe,
• and for the many grieving survivors.

You can read it here.

This little chappie came to celebrate Carla’s birthday as we ate a picnic lunch on the Wirral Way at Thurstaston.

I took this with my camera phone of the futuristic looking viewing tower at Victoria Square, Belfast.