Merry Christmas from the Newnhams - 2006

Here is the Newnham News for 2006, apologies in advance for boring you all to death! The year started with Tarrant’s 18th birthday. It seems like just yesterday that he was crawling, and now he is looking down on Mum and Dad and ridiculing our taste in music.


Eleanor sung and danced in a school production of Once on this Island, which she really enjoyed. This was a grand affair that played for 5 nights with over 70 actors. She is currently busy rehearsing for next year’s show.



Sailing was scattered pretty densely throughout the year with trips to regattas in Georgia, Florida and Alabama with one big National event on Lake Erie with 100 boats. Dale, Elliot and Eleanor lugged Dare, our 40 year old dinghy over 600 miles north and spent the week camping and learning from the sailing “rock-stars” about what it takes to make a little sailboat move fast. Although our results are slowly improving locally, Nationals was a very humbling experience where we worked hard to come in 98th place!



How not to sail on the St John's river in Florida

Eleanor and Elliot attended a week long sailing camp in cabins, where they honed their social and nautical skills. Activities included “Fear Factor”, where the kids ate live crickets, (although the Newnham offspring claim they did not partake). Elliot learnt team racing, a challenging and fun sailing game and Eleanor gained confidence steering her boat around the course.

Optimist dinghy

Elliot team racing a Laser dinghy


Sailing camp group

Tarrant graduated high school which made us all very proud. We attended a big ceremony and were moved to see over 700 mitre caps flung into the air! A couple of days later, Tarrant traveled to England to stay with his cousins and grandparents for the rest of the summer. He was exposed to young Brit culture at its finest, frequenting pubs and playing footy with the lads. Side trips were made to visit Martin, Anita, Misha and Hari in Bristol, and cousin Danni in London to see one of his favorite bands.

Ready for the prom

700 at the graduation ceremony


Graduation party at home

Tarrant returned just in time for a family “holiday” trip to Disney which Arlene had been plotting for some time. Dale’s courageous resistance to this scheme was of course futile so we spent three days mixing with large mutant rodents, evil witches and fairy princesses. The torment culminated with dinner in Cinderella’s castle and we lived happily ever after.

Cinderella gets to meet the Newnham's

Peter Pan ride

Cinderella's rat helper meets Eleanor

There was another big milestone for Tarrant, as he started at Georgia State University. He is not sure where he will focus his studies, but music is likely to be in the mix as this has been such a big part of his life in high school.

Elliot continues to enjoy the cello, playing at a number of concerts through the year. He is looking forward to an orchestra trip to Prague, Vienna and Berlin in the spring. Elliot’s real passion is building and playing with computers and his skills have advanced to the point where he provides frequent phone and internet support on various complex and mystifying technical problems such as overclocking processors, cooling graphics cards and optimizing your frontside bus (whatever that means). He is currently building a custom wooden computer case with a little help from Dad, which he hopes to enter in a local competition.

Neo, our entertaining and enthusiastic Jack Russell has mellowed a little (thank goodness), and has the household tending to his every whim. He sleeps on our bed, demands rice crispies with milk for breakfast and smothers anyone that visits with unconditional love, whether they like it or not! Neo seems to lack the killer instinct of a terrier and was very pleased when he caught a possum, roughly the size of him, in the back garden. He stood there gently holding the hideous creature by the scruff of the neck and wagging his tail while Arlene donned protective clothing and commenced “Operation Free Opossum”. This frantic and chaotic mission involved a large forked stick, loads of screaming, barking and hissing, and a possum actually playing possum, before making a final heroic crawl for freedom. Arlene still has flashbacks and the odd nightmare and does not like to talk about the incident very much, (although we have noticed her wardrobe has been expanded with a few camouflage garments).

Neo misses his possum friend


After overcoming a severe bout of PTSD Arlene spent a long “tennis” weekend with friends in Florida. Tennis was very much an adjunct activity and most time was spent drinking cocktails, sampling local culinary delicacies and chatting up the tennis coach. Arlene and Dale also enjoyed a number of concerts, taking Eleanor to see Jamie Cullum, seeing Keb Mo play the blues and watching the Beach Boys (who are way past their sell-by-date). After one concert, Arlene met Richard Rountree of “Shaft” fame and was beaming as she had her picture taken with this 70’s legend.

Arlene and Richard

We finished the year with a weekend in the Smoky Mountains in a log cabin where Arlene married Greg (luckily, this was our friend Arlene, not the Arlene you know and love!) This was a lot of fun with great scenery, food and company.

With love and best wishes,

Dale, Arlene, Tarrant, Elliot, Eleanor & Neo

Merry Christmas - 2005

Another year has sailed by, which has been filled mostly with learning to race our dinghy and traveling to local regattas. Other possibly noteworthy news follows.

We celebrated New Year with Arlene’s Mum, Philomena at home here in Atlanta. It’s always great to see the kids with their grandparents, which is something we have really missed, being so far away.

Eleanor performed in a variety show in her last year at elementary school. Arlene helped organize the production with support from Elliot and Tarrant who recorded the music, including splicing various sound effects together on the PC which turned out wonderfully. I built a pirate ship stage prop which was used to capture and hold the cast to ransom, but unfortunately I missed the production as I was in Florida sailing. This is something that Eleanor will never forgive me for, but it was a great experience racing for a full week and staying with good friends Skeet and Beth Spillane.



Arlene traveled to England in March for her sister Alison’s 40th birthday. This was a great event, catching up with old friends and family, and spending time with Henry, the new nephew and future Arsenal star.

Arlene and Eleanor organized a 1st birthday party for Neo, complete with doggy friends, cake and party bags. People thought we were a little odd but the birthday boy had an excellent time. Perhaps his regular bubble baths are a sign that he might be a little spoilt, but he has matured into a wonderful dog, who will jump through hoops for a snack…literally!

As summer arrived, we sailed our dinghy to Cumberland Island, a natural wilderness off the coast of Georgia. Eleanor and Elliot crewed as we cruised in company with friends in several other dinghies. We hiked across the island to a deserted beach, camped, encountered wild ponies and armadillos, managed to avoid the alligators, but were attacked by killer oysters…Eleanor has the scars to prove it! This was a real adventure with challenges and mishaps galore, that we had wanted to do for years.

As soon as we got back to Atlanta, Eleanor and Elliot joined Tarrant at a sailing camp, where they stayed in cabins for a week with about 40 other kids. This was a great experience with lots of training and racing. Tarrant came third in the final regatta, which was a real achievement as he was very new to racing. Elliot also did well and managed to capsize more than anyone else in the squall that blew through on the last day. Eleanor learned to sail by herself and had great fun meeting new friends, especially at Fear Factor night, where she allegedly ate a live worm!.

For part of the summer, our family grew by one as we were joined by Aymeric, a French student. He fitted in well and lapped up all things American, even though there was a heavy British slant. Ironically, Aymeric was probably trying to escape from his sailing fanatic father. Joining us on our trip to Amelia Island in Florida, he and Elliot were good company for each other, hanging out in town while Tarrant and I crewed in a local regatta. We tried hard to appreciate French rap music during the long drive there. Chris and Janet Taylor, old friends from England were vacationing in Orlando and we really appreciated them taking the time to spend a day with us.

Arlene and I attended a friend’s wedding renewal in Seaside Florida. A beautiful weekend was spent with friends from Atlanta and Naina and Anand joined us from DC to make it even more special.

Tarrant’s high school band career culminated with a great year. Having made section leader, he was kept very busy. The band came third in a major regional competition, the best ever placing in the school’s history. The season ended with a trip to Hawaii playing in the Thanksgiving Day parade and a very moving performance at the Pearl Harbour memorial. Tarrant is also playing the bass and writing songs for his soon-to-be-famous band.

Elliot has had a great start to high school and continues to astound us with his computing skills.
Eleanor is enjoying middle school and learning to play the cello. Elliot seems a little miffed having to share his instrument, but we think he is secretly pleased that his sister decided to follow in his footsteps.

That’s all our news, wishing you a safe and happy ’06,
With love and best wishes,
Dale, Arlene, Tarrant, Elliot, Eleanor & Neo

Merry Christmas - 2004

Arlene brought in the new year in the UK with her family, attending nephew Henry’s Christening, and niece Danielle’s west end show which was truly amazing (I am pitching to be her agent).

Eleanor, Tarrant, Danni and Elliot

During spring break we visited the barrier islands of North Carolina and saw wild horses and dolphins. The 12 hour drive back to Atlanta was so exciting we played Waffle House bingo and Arlene won, with a perfect estimate of 54, which she rubbed in for weeks.

Tarrant has been very busy with marching band, playing in competitions at the Georgia Dome and travelling to Florida. Elliot had an exciting soccer season, suffering through dad’s limited coaching ability and enjoys playing the cello in school orchestra. Eleanor sings in school choir and loves dance, recently performing in a tap and jazz recital. She seems to have suddenly grown up into a young lady and is as tall as Arlene.

We travelled together to Portland Oregon in July for Nishant and Alicia’s wedding and a wonderful week was spent catching up with proud parents Naina and Anand and other friends. After the celebrations, we travelled north to Vancouver Island and sailed in the Gulf Islands which were very beautiful but challenging to navigate. Tarrant took the helm and Elliot skillfully picked our way through the archipelago (I love that word), using a GPS. Eleanor became skilled at reading tide tables and we all had fun visiting the small villages that dotted the islands. Back on the mainland we visited the Olympic peninsula in Washington state and Port Townsend, a Mecca for wooden boats. The weather was a little damp and chilly at times but the scenery more than made up for that. The whales remained elusive but perhaps we will try another year for Arlene to fulfill that dream.

Tarrant and Elliot Sailing at Port Townsend, Washington State

Arlene barefoot on a remote Oregon beach

The route through the Gulf Islands in search of whales

No wind so had to motor....bummer...

Port Townsend, Washington State...a wooden boat lovers dream...

Returning with provisions for dinner on board...the apple pie brought the smile to Eleanor's face!

We enjoyed a visit from Andrew, Tanya, Tabitha and Ottilie Collingridge from Belgium who left just in time to miss the hurricanes that swept the South East USA. These unfortunately affected Martin, Anita, Misha and Hari, who were stranded in Florida so we missed meeting them.

Kevin Murphy and Danielle (from Australia and England respectively) happened to visit together and held a jam session in the front room with Tarrant joining with his bass guitar. Nanny Gallyot was also here to enjoy a fun couple of days and she is staying with us through Christmas. This is lovely, although I hate the way she thrashes us all at Scrabble, showing absolutely no mercy.

A big event this year was the arrival of Neo, our new baby (Jack Russell). He seems to have some form of canine multiple personality disorder, switching from a calm and loving puppy to a crazed Tasmania devil in a heartbeat. He is officially Tarrant’s dog, but the whole family shares in keeping him fed and in check, which is a big job for any household. Neo’s parents are from Birmingham and Wales in the UK which you can easily tell as his bark clearly hails from the Marches.

Another arrival this year was Dare, a 40 year old dinghy that we have started to race at the local sailing club. She belongs to the Thistle class which was designed by a Scottish American in 1945. Tarrant, Elliot and I sail together with Eleanor acting as standby crew. Racing is a big challenge and we are slowly learning the ropes (literally) together. We recently raced at a regatta in North Carolina where I fell out of the boat in a very inelegant fashion. The boys tried to sail off and disown me to avoid further embarrassment, but I held on tight to a rope making like a slow motion water skier! We are facing a learning curve that looks like the north face of Mount Everest but we are determined to scale at least to base camp, and perhaps a little higher.

Well that is the news from the American branch of the Newnham family for another year. With love and best wishes for 2005, Dale Arlene, Tarrant, Elliot, Eleanor & Neo

Merry Christmas - 2003

Well, another year has flown by so I’ll try to provide a quick account without sending you to sleep. We had a great New Year with Arlene’s sister Alison visiting from Australia (what about the Rugby!) We missed Tarrant who was with his school marching band in California, performing at the Rose Bowl Parade and Disneyland. He is enthusiastic about playing percussion but finds the American football a bit of a distraction. He is also perfecting his rock-star image, learning the bass guitar and growing his hair to unsightly lengths (you can tell I am jealous). Tarrant has formally declared he is both taller and faster than me. I of course dispute both these phony claims and have an open challenge on the table which he has yet to accept (he mentioned something about not wanting to show me up…cheek!)

Eleanor is still enjoying dance and performed at the school variety show and her dance school recital. She also joined girl guides this year and went camping several times showing excellent skills with the bow and arrow (watch out boys, don’t even come close)!

Elliot’s cello playing is coming along and he performed several concerts with the school orchestra during the year. He tends to spend a lot of time stuck behind a computer screen, building websites or playing games. Getting him and his friends to explore the real, rather than the virtual world is a real challenge!

Both Tarrant and Elliot continued with their soccer and had a lot of fun. I coached Elliot’s team this year (for some reason my accent seemed to sufficiently qualify me for this position). Little did they know that I played rugby not soccer as a boy and was clueless! My unorthodox coaching style expanded the vocabulary of the kids on the team, but luckily none of the parents understood these “colourful” English colloquialisms.

I spent a day sailing in San Diego, with good friends and happened to bump into HMS Surprise, the ship used in the film “Master and Commander”.



We had our first ever camping trip together. This was a logistical feat, with seven other families involved. Great fun was had by all (except Tarrant who used band as an excuse to avoid spending the weekend under canvas).

We continue to enjoy sailing Varuna, the little dinghy we built. She causes a stir where ever she is sighted in this land of plastic powerboats.



The big news this year was our trip to the British Virgin Islands, which truly was (at least for me) the most perfect place in the world. As we had no experience on the ocean, we convinced the charter firm to let us out on our own by randomly throwing nautical jargon into every sentence (e.g. “Ahoy there Eleanor, pass the ketchup, and look lively about it”). The map gives an idea of the adventure we had, with bouts of seasickness, squalls, major sandcastle construction and wonderful natural scenery (topless mermaids are rare but tend to appear after sampling the local rum based beverage). We quickly got the hang of it, learning that a 35 foot sailboat holds just enough water for a single teenager’s shower. By the end of the week, family ablutions consisted of chucking a bucket of seawater over three moaning kids, reserving the three mug fulls of hot fresh water for “luxurious” adult bathing.









Eleanor’s comment in front of a waiter: “Daddy, are we really spending my college fund on this holiday?” was actually close to the truth! We spent Arlene’s 40th birthday at a moonlit restaurant in paradise. The evening was complete when the dinghy outboard conked out and we drifted out to sea with Arlene screaming profanities across the idyllic cove. She put up with all of this as she was still buzzing from the wonderful surprise birthday party thrown by her friends the week before we left.

Arlene keeps busy at school and is active on the PTA, co-chairing the annual fundraiser and the variety show. She is looking forward to visiting the UK over the new year and seeing her new nephew, sister Donna’s baby Henry.

We are preparing for a big Christmas with our local friends, but will sadly miss the Rao’s who have moved to Washington D.C this year.

Well, that’s about it for this year. Happy Christmas and best wishes for the new year, with love to all, Arlene, Dale, Tarrant, Elliot and Eleanor.

Merry Christmas - 2002

Well, this year has flown by even faster than the last and the kids seem to have doubled in size. Tarrant is almost as tall as Dale, and actually managed to beat him running during football practice once or twice. This of course was due to Dale being
a little off colour and will never happen again. Elliot is entering a growth spurt and is eating like a horse (the nosebag actually helps improve his table manners). Eleanor’s feet drag on the floor when you pick her up and Dale has put in place a strict dress code to control the occasional attacks of Brittinyspearitus.

We have not strayed far from Atlanta this year with the economy in such a shambles. Arlene did spend a few days with her friends in New York, which she enjoyed a lot, visiting museums, seeing Broadway shows and sampling local (or international)
cuisine. She has been spending quite a bit of time volunteering at school, helping with educational programs and fund raising events.

Dale is now working for a new Atlanta based company that requires a lot less travel which is nice, although he does tend to get under Arlene’s feet at home from time to time.

The big family project this year was building a little wooden sailboat for Tarrant, which resulted in three tons of sawdust evenly distributed throughout the house. Tarrant and Dale spent a solid week getting it started, with Eleanor and Elliot pitching in on various tasks such as planking, gluing and mast making. Dale’s Mum and Dad (Derek and Sheila) visited from the UK, so with Grampy’s help, three generations of Newnhams were involved in the building process.
















The pictures were taken on St George Island, which we visited with Nan & Grampy. Nan painted seascapes while Grampy played with the kids on the beach and took multiple pictures of Tarrant sailing as near to the dolphins as he could get (without Dale losing even more hair!).

Tarrant is now in high school and has joined the school marching band, which is quite intense, with lots of training and competitions. The band is traveling to an event (The Rose Bowl) in California over the New Year, so Dale and Arlene will be losing their baby, which will be hard. Tarrant of course is looking forward to getting away and spending time with his friends and is planning to visit and play in the parade at Disneyland.

Elliot is in middle school, has started to play the Cello and just played at his first recital. He clapped himself after the performance which got more than a few laughs (something that he enjoys and is quite good at). Elliot also had a fun Football (Soccer) season where he plays sweeper while joking with the opposition.
Eleanor enjoys her ballet, tap and Jazz dancing and is quite focused at school. She is a bundle of fun and the center of attention at any event. She is enjoying playing with her cousin Misha who is visiting from England with Martin, Anita and her brother Hari.

Love and best wishes to all from the Newnham’s

Merry Christmas - 2001

It has been a busy, almost frantic year with a lot going on so this will be a good cure for insomnia!

Tarrant has gained almost a foot in both height and attitude. He still plays the oboe, although under duress, and we just attended a concert where he performed a solo piece. His efforts to get a punk tune into the band repertoire have failed to date but he is working hard to make it happen. Tarrant’s knees have prevented him from playing soccer so he has set up a home computer repair business with his friend that they use to extract cash from the unknowledgeable masses.

Elliot is doing very well at school in spite of his silly jokes and behavior and he
recently embarrassed his Uncle John, and his Dad on the soccer field. His computer gaming skills are far better than I want to admit and I have given up trying to come a close second. He is one of the more distant fans of a London football club that I can’t mention and his wardrobe contains one of their shirts for every day of the week. He also won a gold medal in a county science Olympiad competition, went to camp on the Georgia coast and came back smelling like a dead octopus.

Eleanor has just had her 8th birthday and she is turning into a real southern belle. She does a fake English accent to poke fun at Mum and Dad and tends to control most family activities. She started football this year under pressure from Dad and her play and fitness improved quite a bit through the season. Dale was roped into refereeing on the games and almost sent Eleanor off for hacking the legs of one of the opponents. We hope this holds off the cheerleading for a year or two, but I feel the pressure building….

Tarrant and Dale traveled to Romania in the summer to visit Andrew, Tanya, Tabitha and Ottilie. They traveled Transylvania and visited the birthplace of Count Dracula, under Andrew’s knowledgeable guidance. They also met Martin, Anita, Misha and Hari in Paris on the way back and went rowing on the pond at Versailles. Arlene enjoyed a trip to Hong Kong visiting Kathy, Steve, Laura, Jamie, Imogen and India, meeting up with her Mum and sister Alison from Australia. Dale also made a brief visit to the UK on the sad occasion of the passing of his Grandfather Colin, and visited the Isle of Wight with his Mum and Dad (a sailor’s Pilgrimage).











Dale has started rowing again, after a break of over 10 years and after being soundly thrashed in a race in Atlanta, is working hard to regain his long-lost youth (it will never happen!).

Arlene has taken to “extreme” flower arranging, with novel and creative displays that have even included live (at least initially) fish.

The biggest event we were able to see these skills was when she and sister Sharon did the floristry for Donna and John’s wedding in October. We were very honoured that they chose to have their wedding at our house and after all the hard work a fantastic day was had by all. John and Donna’s creativity made for a magical day, the weather perfect, and the children beautiful. Dale gave Donna away and we all missed Ivor terribly. The cousins were together again in fine form, Danni played her guitar and sung, Greg and Tarrant did more than a few punk karaoke tunes (to the family’s great distress), and Eleanor danced to the Spice Girls. Some of the evidence is to the left, (Tarrant has grown six inches since this was taken!). You can see one of Sharon’s beautiful bouquets but it’s hard to spot the small gerbil that Arlene added (one of her flower arrangement “signatures”).



This year more than ever, after the horrific events in New York, we wish everyone a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year. We are especially grateful as Dale’s office was in the first tower that collapsed, (he had decided to stay in Atlanta the week of Sept 11th).

Love and best wishes to all from the Newnham’s

The Newnham Christmas Letter - 2000

It’s been two years since our last Christmas letter as we were pre-occupied last year in the UK for Y2K festivities. It was great visiting family and friends and Ali G’s address to the Nation was not to be missed. We spent new years eve at Arlene’s mum’s which was fun, especially when Eleanor, Danielle and Donna dressed as fairies, wings, wands and all. The back garden firework display was impressive with John’s pyromaniac tendencies in full swing. We all spent a few days on the Isle of Wight, with my Dad and Arlene’s mum, reliving my childhood, playing on the beach and walking over Tenneson’s Down. December on the Island is pretty cold and wet and we literally were up to our knees in mud and cow by-product – an excellent way to toughen up those soft American kids of ours. Martin and Anita’s baby boy arrived in the nick of time, a few days before we had to return which was a wonderful present for us all (another soccer playing pigeon fancier in the making).




We spent time with Kath & Steve in Lake Tahoe in August, which was a little warmer. Tarrant got to sail a catamaran by himself which brought a big smile to his face (and mine!), and Eleanor and Elliot spent time catching Crawdads (tiny lobsters), on the shore of the lake. Another day was spent “white” water rafting and had the most fun soaking bicyclists and in-line skaters riding along the riverbank (serves them right for being so trendy). The kids got to see San Francisco for the first time and complained about walking up all the steep hills. Driving through the clouds on the Golden Gate and along the Pacific coast was magical, on our quest to find Drake’s landing place. Eleanor was caught tree-hugging a Redwood.

My fantasy was fulfilled visiting the Tallships at Charleston Harbour, especially the 18th century British Frigate HMS Rose. Tarrant was most attracted to the ships with the best cooks and galleys while Arlene seemed to enjoy the Argentine sailors in their cute white uniforms (her words, not mine!).

Arlene surprised Sharon for her 40th birthday, nearly sending her into shock. The highlight of the party was Danielle playing Sax and singing, while Gregory break-danced (once torn away from the girls). A wonderful time was had visiting old friends and new additions. I also got to surprise everyone when I spent a week working in the UK during the petrol crisis which forced me to brave British Rail more than I had planned.

I especially enjoyed the Olympics, where Britain excelled on the water, rowing and sailing. Live coverage of the games for us was calling Dad in the UK so he could stick the phone by the TV, nothing like heavily biased BBC commentary! This encouraged me to get back in a rowing boat for the first time in over 10 years, it seems more difficult than I remember….I wonder why?

The kids are growing fast, Tarrant is officially taller than Arlene, Eleanor’s debating skills exceed the entire family’s and Elliot finally learnt to ride a bike and swim a width in the pool. Tarrant has started to play the oboe and performed in several school concerts. Elliot and Tarrant’s football (soccer) skills are improving, culminating when they took me down during practice (a sign of thing to come I feel). Elliot’s prized possession is a football signed by the Arsenal team, a feat only achieved by a fanatical Godmother. Tarrant of course supports Man Utd but he stopped just short of letting the air out Elliot’s ball. Tarrant broke his hand while playing keeper, which would have been fine except that it was not his writing hand.

The entire neighborhood turned out for a Halloween party in our garage when we introduced the locals to a bizarre and ancient British game….Conkers, which Arlene nervously sneaked through customs on her return from England. Trick-or-treating is a little quicker these days with Eleanor leading the pack, on a sugar high screaming “give me candy”, at the top of her voice. My efforts to encourage please and thank you were fruitless so I levied heavy chocolate fines to bring home this important point.

As we look forward to another wonderful Christmas season we wish everyone a New Year filled with happiness. Visitors as always are very welcome, room rate is a box of PG Tips per week!

Love and best wishes,

Dale, Arlene, Tarrant, Elliot & Eleanor