Merry Christmas from the Newnham's - 2008

2008 seems to have gone by in a flash so here is a quick account of the key events that might be of interest. Eleanor played the role of Grace in the musical Honk which is based on the ugly duckling fairy tale. She had to put on an English accent which is easy for her as she frequently mocks Mum and Dad with her witty repartee. Eleanor’s most memorable line was when reminiscing that her husband the mallard “alas, became crispy and aromatic before his time”.
Eleanor backstage in the musical Honk!


Our first regatta was in Jacksonville Florida where Tarrant skippered our dinghy Dare to one of her best ever finishes. Dale and Eleanor crewed and the breeze blew the cobwebs of winter well and truly away.
The Orange Peel Regatta in Jacksonville Florida


Dale and Elliot renovated our old wooden dinghy that was built in 1962, stripping off the old paint and varnishing the hull. They completed the work just in time to enter the Junior Dixie regatta where Elliot, Tarrant and Eleanor raced her to a second place finish.
Elliot preparing 1368's hull with loving care

Elliot with friends sailing in the Dixie Regatta Atlanta


Tarrant moved back home with his cat Leonard and is now commuting to university. He has a part time job at Trader Joes, his dad’s favorite store and has recently formed a band with some friends and is writing songs and planning gigs at local venues.

Naina, Anand and Tejal, our old neighbours and good friends, visited to attend a wedding and we had a great time catching up.

Elliot spent a week playing cello at orchestra camp which culminated in a concert where they played a beautiful rendition of the Harry Potter theme music. This is his last year in high school and he is working on college applications where he hopes to study engineering or computing.
Elliot playing Green Day


The summer really started with Eleanor and Elliot spending a week together with friends at sailing camp. They tested their skills by sailed a wide range of boats and finished the week with some exciting racing in good breeze.
Eleanor at Junior Week

Elliot laser sailing at Junior week

Elliot sailing to second place at Junior Week


Arlene flew to England to care for her Mum as she recovered from an operation. She was able to catch up with family and old friends and travel to Brighton to meet her God daughter Danni. They enjoyed a tour of the Brighton Pavilion, perhaps the most outrageously decorated building on the planet and also managed to squeeze in a trip to London.
Danni at the Brighton Pavilion

Arlene and Danni at the British Museum "Blue Steel" (http://www.wikihow.com/Do-the-%22Blue-Steel%22-Pose-from-Zoolander)


Eleanor crewed for a friend in the Y-Flyer Nationals and won the junior regatta by one point which made it a real nail-biter. Eleanor down-plays the whole thing but Dale likes to announce that his daughter is a national sailing champion and perhaps the first Newnham the rise to such lofty heights.
National Champions


The highlight of the summer was a week in Florida racing our wooden dinghy in the Thistle National Championship regatta. Elliot and Eleanor got third place in the junior event and Elliot skippered the boat in the main event with Dale and Eleanor as crew. There was a lot of wind and even some pop up storms which made the sailing a challenge but major disaster was avoided and the old boat held together well.
Our best start at Thistle Nationals (2177)

Sailing in after racing


Dale travelled to England and persuaded his friend Andrew to spend four days sailing on the Norfolk Broads. Andrew’s visions of a luxurious and leisurely cruise were shattered as the “yacht” was built in 1932 and lacked an engine, electricity and running water. Sleeping onboard was akin to being jammed inside a mahogany coffin and their 40 year friendship was tested as they navigated the treacherous waters under sail and human power alone.
Andrew showing complete mastery of the oil lamp

Hustler 2, moored at Thurn, Norfolk

Andrew manhandling Hustler 2 through the low bridge at Potter Heigham


Derek and Sheila, Dale’s mum and dad moved back to the Isle of Wight after 50 years on the mainland and they spent time together with Martin, Misha and Hari rediscovering family in their ancestral homeland. Dale also spent time with Donna and Henry who were visiting from Australia.
Misha, Dale and Hari at Sandown Isle of Wight

Aunty Joan's beach hut


Eleanor was persuaded by a friend to enter a local beauty pageant which is something that Mum and Dad were not overly keen on having recently seen the movie “Little Miss Sunshine”. Arlene rustled up a secondhand dress and acted as makeup artist preparing her for the big event. The tension mounted as the third and second place winners were announced and Arlene burst into laughter as Eleanor was anointed “Junior Miss North Georgia State Fair”!
Beauty Queen


Dale volunteered for the Obama campaign and spent election day getting out the vote. This was an unforgettable experience and hopefully the start of a new path for America and perhaps the world.
Dale with his "flat" mate Obama

Tarrant, Eleanor and Elliot


That’s the news for this year. Hope you all have a great holiday, with love and best wishes for 2009.
Dale, Arlene, Tarrant, Elliot and Eleanor

Merry Christmas from the Newnhams - 2007

Well, time seems to be flying by for the North American branch of the Newnham clan. The year started out with Elliot completing his custom computer and entering in a county technology fair. He enjoyed demonstrating the advanced features and fine woodworking to an admiring crowd of techno-geeks and judges and won first place in the hardware category. This qualified him for a State wide contest where he came in third place against some stiff competition. Elliot continues to tweak and tune his machine and has helped a number of friends to build their own “Ell” computers which are faster and cheaper than similar machines from that insignificant competitor that shall remain nameless.















In March, Elliot and Dale crewed for a good friend, Jim Roberts at the Thistle Mid Winters regatta in Florida. This was a solid week of sailing and coaching on Tampa bay mixing with some of the best dinghy sailors in the country. The last day included some pretty strong winds and big waves that were both exciting and a little frightening in a small sailboat, but they managed to hold it together for 3rd place in the B fleet and some nice awards. Arlene claims this was actually also 3rd from last, but this is not even close to the truth...honest!

Elliot, Dale and Eleanor sailing Dare at the Orange Peel Regatta, Jacksonville, Florida


The next big event was Eleanor singing in the chorus of her school’s musical, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. This was a big production for a middle school, with many months of rehearsals, but opening night and the cast party made it all worth it. Eleanor also enjoyed one of the most important events in modern literature, with the release of the last Harry Potter novel “Deathly Hallows”. Our local bookstore held a monster party with horse drawn carriage, sorting hat and a thousand Potter Pretenders. Arriving home in the early hours of the morning and attempting to read through the night was challenging. Eleanor is active in the school choir and recently sang at an Honour Chorus concert with over 100 others picked from district schools.

Thoroughly Modern Millie chorus line




Tarrant started his second year of college by moving into a small house in down-town Atlanta with 5 friends and his (our!) Jack Russell Neo. Tarrant’s friend Jessica found a young stray Pit-Bull/Boxer cross in a parking lot in a sorry state and nursed her back to health. Uma and Neo have become the best of friends, although it’s best to keep clear if they are play-fighting! Tarrant has decided to major in Business and IT, which is a change from his initial thoughts of a career in music or anthropology, but its early days and who knows what he will decide to do.



This was not staged, they actually do love each other!

The possum returned for revenge after last year’s humiliation and had obviously bulked up a lot and developed more advanced fighting skills. Neo was more cautious and seems to have lost a little of his youthful recklessness. He kept the formidable intruder at bay using more mature techniques that included a nasty bark and a particularly hard stare, avoiding direct dog/possum contact (for the most part).

In May, Dale and Arlene helped organize the “Disco Dixie” regatta. The theme brought back some great memories and some pretty dreadful clothes and music, but the party was epic and the sailboat racing was a lot of fun with the best turnout for many years. Elliot and Eleanor raced our boat “Dare” with friend Trey as crew in the Junior Regatta, sailing well to take first place! This was a great accomplishment that made Dale’s year as he proudly made the awards to his talented offspring! A picture of the winning team made the front page of the “Bagpipe”, a national sailing magazine for the Thistle class which nicely topped off a wonderful event.

Elliot starting a roll tack in the Dixie Junior Regatta


Eleanor and Elliot with friend Trey modeling on the front cover of the The "Vogue" of dinghy sailing, Dad got up a 7am to wax that hull!


Dale discovered a beautiful old wooden dinghy built in 1962, the year he was born and viewing this as divine providence could not resist adding this to the Newnham fleet. Elliot and Dale spent many hours lovingly upgrading the old girl and raced her with Eleanor and Tarrant in a number of autumn regattas, possibly the only team in the country to race with an original wooden rig. The person that owned the dinghy happened to also have an old rowing shell that he wanted to part with, so Dale is reliving his youth and has taking up rowing again in a futile attempt to stave off the onset of old age!

Eleanor, Tarrant and Dale at the Great Pumpkin Regatta in Alabama sailing the old wooden Thistle




Dale trying to remember how to row


Tarrant, Elliot and Eleanor spent a week together at a sailing camp which has become a real family tradition. Days were filled with good friends, games, sailing and a number of practical jokes at the expense of the adult “supervisors”. Arlene was Cabin Mum to the eldest boys which included Tarrant, much to his chagrin. Elliot and Eleanor sailed to victory in the end of camp regatta and were closely followed by Tarrant’s team who sailed Dare to a well earned 3rd place.







Tarrant's Thistle team


By that smile, Elliot, Eleanor and Trey just got another 1st place!


Tarrant working hard to catch Elliot (the silly hat is fast)


Elliot on the right, Tarrant 3rd from the left and ahead


Sailing camp attendees (they look harmless in this picture)


Elliot continues to play the cello and had a big trip to Europe, with stops in Prague, Berlin and Vienna. They played a number of concerts in some great locations and visited the birth place of some famous composers. Both Tarrant and Elliot really prefer live composers and they saw a number of excellent bands including The Decemberists, The Shins, Ted Leo, Death Cab for Cutie and Of Montreal.



Arlene started a part time job at a wedding gown boutique, as a receptionist where she enjoys getting dressed up and meeting the new brides-to-be. We hope to not take advantage of the staff discount at any point in the near future! Arlene has also had fun developing her flower arranging skills decorating at parties and a friend’s wedding. She was also lucky enough to see the Police reunion tour in Atlanta.

That’s our news for this year. Hoping you all have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

With love and best wishes,

Dale, Arlene, Tarrant, Elliot, Eleanor

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