Tom's post

'Literary' ? Well, literate, if nothing else, and it's all non-fiction... Unless a fading memory creates something fictional.

Using a literary device, let's flashback through the year to pick up some of the key events and themes.

To start with a hackneyed cliche, it was a year of changes for all four of us ; positive changes. Linda changed her job status to include more inspections. Tom went one further to change his job completely. Samuel changed country. Eleanor changed cities, as a result of changing from a secondary to a university student.

Throughout these changes, we were grateful for the love and support of family and friends; it's the script that keeps us on stage. (Sorry: just trying to keep the 'literary' thing rolling along.) Life is pure poetry when one has close relations just over an hour away, and others in a beautiful place called Plymouth, Massachusetts. Then there are friends scattered across the globe : all the world's a stage, and they are key actors in our play.

Sorry. I'm trying to keep this as a short story, and it's turning into 'War and Peace' (which Linda read this year; don't those who read the whole thing win some sort of literary award ? We're looking forward to the 'telly' adaptation. Move over, 'Downton Abbey'?)

I've got to stick to the script. As well as managing schools in Milton Keynes, Linda took on the further responsibility evaluating the quality of schools(further background research required for you Americans, I'm afraid...) Tom left the National Careers Service after five years, ending as a Team Leader, line managing 14 Careers Advisers. Samuel left the University of Birmingham campus to spend the current academic year in Israel studying politics. Eleanor left Hazeley Academy to start her first year of university at Nottingham Trent.

All of this was achieved without too much drama. Another highlight was our annual summer visit to America. Eleanor was first onstage, heading over in mid-July , followed by Linda and Samuel, who first stopped over in their beloved Iceland. Linda and Eleanor then took a brief road trip up into Maine to see friends and relations in the Portland area, and in Boothbay Harbor and in Orono, before returning to Plymouth. Tom was last onstage, appearing for the final act in August - although the quartet failed to make an ensemble, as Samuel had to return to the UK on the same day that Tom left it!

 Before the curtain fell on the year, Tom changed character to become a temporary Consultant, researching and editing careers resources for prisons. As that work ends and he bows out at the end of the month, he is look for a new role in the new year. Minor parts in memoir-writing roles are receiving rave reviews, and he is looking for more of these; please visit www.warrencove.com to see what all the fuss is about.

In the meantime, he will now relinquish script-writing duties to Linda, who will hopefully also provide some photographic evidence of what's on the page !