My Uncle Keith passed away Christmas night, after struggling with his health this year, and spending months in hospital. This is Keith a few years ago, when he was still well (on the right):

Keith never had use of his legs but lived a full and largely unhindered life in his wheelchair or crutches; he was a huge part of our family life growing up, as my Mum had to work many jobs to make ends meet bringing up four children alone, and Keith was a regular babysitter for us.
Our summer holidays also were spent with my Mums family including Keith, and Keith and there are many memories from those days, including the famous “wheel fell off” incident during a south coast summer.

Keith also introduced me to electronics, encouraging me to learn more and being involved in the first microcomputer kit I ever built – so I think he had a great responsibility for the life I have today!

Thank you for everything, Keith …

Arriving back from vacation, to lots of boxes at work! Mostly “personal goodies” rather than work related, too

UPDATE: Now, at home, opened boxes delivers exciting British treats – Cadbury chocolate, Mr Kipling cakes, … Yum!

Mikel won’t be one year old for a couple weeks, but he got an early birthday today with presents – we took a colorful “balls and pins” game which he enjoyed chewing!

Hoping for better news soon …

UPDATE: We visited Pat today at Mass General Hospital in Boston; things seem OK and she hopes to be back home tomorrow – though with a loss of vision in one eye.

For background research, we recently purchased a “robot” with Mecanum wheels from AndyMark – these wheels work together to allow a vehicle to move forward, backward, left, right, or spin on it’s axis! Josh made a video:

Yesterday we joined Christian and Marie Catherine in Essex for the launch of the Ardelle from the Essex Shipbuilding Museum; sadly we got there too late, only just in time to see the boat land in the water, above the heads of hundreds of people!

Back from a MINI drive to a Butterfly farm – lots of pictures over on GBMINI.net; a few here in case you don’t see them over there …

Margaret and I are at MINIsOnTop for the weekend, as “King and Queen” (see GBMINI.net for more).
A special treat for MOT attendees was seeing a pre-production MINI Coupe, making a surprise and slightly disguised visit! Note how much lower it is, than a regular MINI:

Getting your BMW delivered at the performance center gives lots of extras at no cost – overnight hotel with meals, a factory tour, museum access, and time on the braking, skid pad and auto cross, as well as driving an X5 over a very rugged test course!
The museum is very small, but interesting; however the factory is spectacular – though sadly no photos. Auto cross was great fun, and the X5 turned out to be pretty impressive on their course (not surprising) … I took a few photos during the 7 hour day:

BMW performance center according to BMW navigation:

Test cars (a different Z4):

Out on track:

X5 drive:

BMW roadster history:

In addition, of course, is one-on-one instruction for Margaret on her new car – and then finally actual delivery where she gets to take the keys!

We are at the BMW Performance Center in South Carolina, for a day of driving fun – and for Margaret to take delivery of her brand new factory ordered Z4!