Ten Years! A Lifetime ... to be continued ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIM!!

Today I have been a grandfather for ten years! I shall be delighted to celebrate that but unfortunately not with the young person whose arrival ten years ago started me on this grandad business. Kim is too far away in Abu Dhabi, but I will be talking to him on the phone later in the day, when he gets home from school. And in a couple of weeks time I will get to see him when Pensri and I stop off there for a couple of days on our way to UK. His three grandparents have got him an England rugby shirt. He has lots of rugby shirts but keeps growing out of them.

So not being with Kim on his birthday, I have been looking out some of the photos I have of him on my computer. Here is a selection. I hope Kim can remember some of the occasions when they were taken. And see how he has grown (as a grandfather I believe I am supposed to say something like that, it's the traditional way to be affectionately annoying).

Anyway, my blog today is dedicated to Kim: son, grandson, brother, cousin, sportsman, reader and writer, world traveller ... and  I must say, a good-looking young fella. Must be  something in the genes!

This is a very recent picture taken on his trip to Egypt. Kim looks great in his Aston Villa shirt, doesn't he? Ben looks good too, though I don't recognise his shirt other than its a Kukri.

And here is Kim, front right, in his school football team, Al Muna School, Abu Dhabi.

Here is Kim with his younger brother Ben and cousins (from left) Anna, Esme and Polly on the beach at Abu Dhabi in January this year.

 
Last July Kim and Ben flew unaccompanied from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow where his granny and I met them. How proud I was to see them both wearing their Aston Villa shirts:

 
And here he is last summer in Exeter and North Devon:

 

 

Last summer Kim wanted to visit the Roald Dahl museum at Great Missenden and he did!

 

In 2008 I went over to Hong Kong to watch Kim and Ben play in the HK 7s. They both got medals!

 
When they came over in July 2008, we stopped over at Stonehenge on the way from Heathrow to Exeter because Kim had a project to do for his school  in Hong Kong where he was living then.

 

I believe this one was taken on a trip to Cheddar Gorge:

 

Kim came to Phana in 2008, too, and was quite a hit with the local girls!

 
And back in 2007 Kim was visiting Norfolk with Ben and their mum:

 

He always had a bit of a mouth on him!

 

This was in Hong Kong the previous year. What was this all about, Kim?

 

And way back in 2003, Kim was in Phana. This was another of his early weird phases. Kind of cute, though.

 

And even earlier, Kim and Ben were in England, but not often as peaceful as this:

 

And finally, a rare family group, this one taken in Bangkok just before they left to live in Hong Kong, I think. Brother Ben, dad Dominic, Kim, and mum Jay. A nice one of them all.

Kim had a life before Ben was born, but I think it must also have been before I got into digital photography. Anyway, there are no earlier photos on my computer than these. Perhaps Kim will be grateful for that. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIM!!

 

 

 

  

 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence nice photographic memories I fancy. wish I got to see my grandchildren a bit more often. Hope the journey home goes OK. Enjoy the General Election!