Doug and Kerry Hudson's Recent News

Recent News

On this page we will tell you about our recent news. Here goes then:

July 2006: Holly is now all of eight weeks old, and she is growing up fast! She now weighs nearly twelve pounds, so as you can tell, she has been feeding very effectively. Her body is becoming quite long - we think she is going to tall like Daddy. At about five weeks she started to smile when she saw us, and to follow us around the room with her eyes. She also turns her head to the sound of our voices.

Holly's latest trick is to pretend to be coughing. Our natural reaction is to come rushing over to her to make sure she's alright. However, instead of finding her to be choking, she stops coughing and smiles up at us!!

You can see our latest photos of Holly here.

June 2006: At 18:28 on 28th May 2006, our little Holly Elizabeth Hudson arrived at last. She weighed in at a healthy 8lb 15 ounces. After 36 hours of labour, poor Kerry was exhausted, but naturally we were overjoyed to have our little daughter at last.

Our lives now revolve around Holly's digestive cycle: eat, sleep, change nappy, eat, and so on... The first couple of weeks have been exhausting as we have (so far unsuccessfully) struggled to adjust our sleep patterns to match Holly's. Thank goodness that Lou was staying with us to help out with the cooking and washing.

You can see our first photos of Holly here.

April 2004: As an early birthday treat for Doug, Kerry treated us both to a long weekend away in the Lake District. Although it was the Easter bank holiday, and crowded in the valleys and small towns, we found we could get away from all the crowds by applying a bit of leg work. Once high up on a hillside, it was almost as if we had the whole place to ourselves. You can see our favourite photos from the weekend here, including Doug's first experiments with black and white photography.

March 2004: It's been a while since we've had a chance to update you with our news. The thing is, we have been working so hard on our new house. Yep - we did it! The sale went through very smoothly and we received the keys on January 7th. Since then we have been painting, tiling, gardening and generally improving the shoddy décor that graced our walls. And floors. And ceilings *sigh*...

Earlier this month, we travelled out to South Africa for a holiday from all the DIY. Our excuse was that Chris and Olivia were getting married, and they wanted Doug to be their official photographer. So we had to be there, really! We do intend to publish the photos on this website, but due to time constraints we had to leave them with Chris and Olivia. They assure us that they came out lovely, but we are still dying to see them!

For the first time we flew out in daylight hours. It was very exciting to see the Sahara desert, although we didn't expect to see fractal patterns!

Despite the hectic preparations for the wedding, we still managed to get away and see more of this beautiful country. Our first trip was to Witsieshoek, in the north Drakensberg, just across the provincial border into the Free State. The trip was notable for the breakdown of our car, which we had borrowed from our friend Albert. The problem was that the central locking system had locked us out and would not respond to the remote. For an hour it was panic stations, as we were pretty much stranded in about as remote a place as you can get. And then the car miraculously started working again! We didn't let this spoil our trip, and we ended up with some very nice photographs of the spectacular scenery, which you can peruse here.

Doug persuaded Chris to come with him to Sani Pass. It was a welcome distraction, being the day before the wedding. Sani Pass is a dirt road leading up into the Drakensberg mountains, and at the top you pop out into Lesotho. It is only navigable by 4x4 vehicles, and the last portion has a gradient of 1:3! As you can imagine, the views from up there were breathtaking. Naturally, we also took the opportunity to have a pint at the highest pub in Africa. See all the photos here.

Before returning to the UK, Doug took more photos of Mishka in the hope of getting the definitive shot.

December 2003: still not wishing to jinx anything, our latest news on the house front is that we have exchanged contracts and expect to complete the transaction on the 6th January. Despite having received books on Do It Yourself and gardening for Christmas, we are still very daunted by the prospect of owning our first home. We already have a long list of maintenance tasks, and the house will need to be completely re-decorated, as the existing décor is somewhat dated to say the least.

Talking about Christmas, we spent a lovely few days staying on the north coast of Norfolk with Doug's parents and brother. We stayed in a converted maltings, a big barn where barley used to be malted. Although the weather was freezing, we had some lovely (bracing) walks along the coastal path to walk off the Christmas over-indulgence! You can see the photos here.

The weekend before Christmas, we spent the Saturday in London. We were primarily there to attend the carol service at St. Paul's Cathedral, but also took the opportunity to see the Christmas lights in Trafalgar Square and along Regent Street. You can see the photos here.

A week before Christmas, Doug's karate was graded again and he achieved his next belt: the yellow belt. We were all very nervous beforehand, but it all went very well in the end and everybody passed.

November 2003: we have just had an offer accepted on a two-bedroom house in Dorking! We don't want to jinx anything by saying too much right now, so we'll keep you posted on how we get on...

October 2003: upon returning to work back in England, Doug discovered that he had a karate grading in three days time. If you didn't know, he's been taking karate lessons since May with the Ni Kawa Kai club. You'll be glad to hear that he passed the grading with flying colours, if not flying kicks, and he is now the proud owner of a red belt.

We had enjoyed our bank holiday weekend in Wales, so much that Doug arranged a surprise weekend there to celebrate our third wedding anniversary.

September 2003: we returned to South Africa. Not for four months this time, but for a mere two week holiday. Nevertheless, Doug took the opportunity to take more photos of Mishka and Jamie, which you can see here.

Our return to South Africa intentionally coincided with Lou's 60th birthday, and Kerry had organised a birthday party for her. And so we returned to the Hilton Hotel for the first time since our wedding reception there, nearly three years earlier. Friends and relations of Lou came from as far away as Ladybrand and Pretoria for this auspicious occasion. The party went extremely well, and the hotel excelled themselves with a delicious lunch and excellent hospitality. You can see Doug's photos from the day here.

Doug wants to point out that he was not the only person to return for a third helping of trifle!!

Lorraine had made a beautiful birthday cake, especially decorated with sugar icing flowers and watering cans to reflect Lou's passion for gardening. It looked almost too good to eat.

We are very happy to report the exciting news that while we were there, Kerry's brother Chris and his girlfriend Olivia got engaged. They expect to get married in March 2004, and have already booked Doug to be their photographer...

Towards the end of our break we got away to the Drakensberg mountains. One of our favourite places in the world, we went there several times during our world trip. On the recommendation of good friends, we decided to visit the Kamberg valley this time. We were very glad we did too, because it turned out to be one of our favourite camps, if not the favourite. The San rock art was much more interesting than at Giant's Castle, the scenery was almost as spectacular as at Tendele Camp, and it also had the delicious tranquility of Lotheni. You can see our photos from our brief visit here.