Liz and Adrian saw in the New Year with friends in the Lake District. New year’s day was spent walking alongside Lake Coniston with a leisurely pub lunch to follow. A really relaxing start to the year.

In January Liz received her 30 year long service award for Guiding. Still with 4th Frimley Guides the unit is again growing with over 30 guides on the roll by the end of 2017. Peter is still enjoying work for Kobalt Music in London as a software engineer.

February sees the first boat purchase of the year for Liz with a new racing C1. This is a early production model of a Paddlesport racers C1. A few trips to Milton Keynes to try it out and get adjustments made ready for training for the Devizes to Westminster in April.

March is Sarah’s 21st birthday, but she delays a family party as she completes her dissertation. Unfortunately, the rescheduled party is cancelled due to illness with Liz’s Dad being in Yeovil hospital.

The Devizes to Westminster race again dominates Easter, with Liz entered in the four-day C1 category this year. This was her 5th finish in the race and she becomes the first lady to complete the race in all four major categories – K1, K2, C1 and C2. This year she also raised over £900 for the Yeovil Hospital charity.

May is a busy exam time with Sarah doing her Finals and Matthew his GCSEs; Matthew leaving Collingwood College ends our 13 year association with the College since Peter started there in 2004. Sadly Liz’s father died in May following a long battle with prostrate cancer.

2017 is another ‘Scoutabout’ year (it happens every 3 years) and Liz led the Frimley District contingent to this Guide and Scout festival in early July. This time she is the only Murnaghan representative, as Peter, Sarah and Matthew have all attended previous events.

Adrian and Liz both joined Vicky and Tim Metcalfe to help with the British Canoeing Marathon Nationals in July. This involved guarding all the trophies throughout the weekend and help with the presentations to the winners!. Liz and Vicky also managed a race or two during the weekend with Liz 10th in the C1 class and with Vicky 6th in C2.

Also in July was Sarah’s graduation from Nottingham University. We attended the graduation ceremony and were joined by Liz’ Mum too. After a celebration meal and overnight in Nottingham we all visited Stowe on the way home the following day.

Sarah has spent the latter half of the year working at Legoland and Barracudas play scheme, whilst looking for a permanent job and preparing to undertake a charity expedition to Rwanda early in 2018.

In August Liz and Adrian went to ‘Bat out of Hell’ the musical to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was great music, good acting, but not much of a script but ‘two out of three ain’t bad!’ Liz also completed her term as District Commissioner for Frimley Guides with some relief. Liz and Adrian also attended the inaugural ‘Wydale Games’, a fun sports competition in memory of Liz’s father at Wydale Plastics – the family company.

Also during the summer holidays Adrian, Liz and Matthew joined Bridget and her boys on a camping short break to the Isle of Wight. We visited the Needles Old battery at Alum Bay, Shanklin Chine, the beach at Compton Bay and Robin Hill country park. the weather was a bit mixed but we still had a great time. We followed this with a trip to Legoland using Sarah’s Magic Pass (a perk of working at Legoland).

Early September and our first family holiday for a few years as Peter, Sarah and Matthew all join us for a trip to Iceland. Peter didn’t want to go anywhere too hot! Matthew loved the geysers and Sarah the thermal spa at Laugervatn.

Liz spent a week doing some paid canoe coaching at a local activity centre and then promptly spent her earnings on boat number two for the year – a sea kayak.

Matthew started at Farnborough Technical College where he is studying for a BTEC in ICT and creative media. He has an hour long bus ride to commute, but is generally enjoying the experience.

A few weeks ago Liz completed her term as Chairman of the Basingstoke Canal Canoe Club, but the break didn’t last long as the new committee co-opted her back onto the committee just 3 weeks later.

Just last week new boat number 3 arrived! An old C2 racing canoe which has been bought with a trip down the Dordogne next spring in mind. We are running out of boat storage space…

Take a look at more of our photos in our 2017 Photo Gallery

December 2017