Segaran family - a year in pictures 2019

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

2019 family highlights

Jane and Seggy spent 2 weeks in January helping Amma with her move to her new flat - the culmination of a 6 month project.

In March & April we spent 6 weeks in Sri Lanka promoting solar and haybox cooking followed by a holiday with Joseph and Richard.

Joseph and Richard are engaged and getting married in March 2020 in Amsterdam.

Emily graduated from York University as a teacher in July and is now working at York St John University.

Luke and Sarah are both busy in their respective fields of programming and staff welfare at an NHS trust. At Easter, they traveled to Las Vegas for Sarah's sisters wedding and managed to get to the Grand Canyon.

January

Last stage of our 6 month project in helping my mum move from a large 3-bedroom semi into a spanking new flat. Jane and my mum waiting for a taxi after all the furniture has gone.

My mum settled in her new flat

February

Fountains Abbey - a good spot for a walk on a winter's day

March

Off to Sri Lanka promoting Solar and Haybox Cooking. Click here for a video summary.

April

Joseph and Richard join us in Sri Lanka for a holiday.

May

A short break in the Lake District

Luke and Sarah on holiday

June

A walk in Levisham with Jill and Ian Souter

Northumberland in June

At Durham Miners Gala

July

Engineering projects with my apprentice!

Garden Party - with competitive games

Emily graduates as a French and Spanish teacher

August

We are at Green Gathering in Chepstow again - our 3rd year

September

Family get together to remember Jane's mum

We run workshops at the Festival of Thrift at Redcar

October

Visit to Beamish open air museum

Segaran Family 2018 - A year in pictures

We have been blessed this year - keeping busy with many projects but still having time to have a lot of small holidays. The Green Gathering in Chepstow was a high point. Luke left home and Emily returned from Canada and started training to be a secondary school language teacher. Sadly, Jane's mum passed away in October. 

Our love to you all, wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

January

We had an overnight stay at Ravenscar. Discovered Saltwick Bay - just south of Whitby. One of the photos show the wreck of the Admiral Von Trump from 1976.

March

Jane and I had a lovely break in Madiera. Walking the Levadas, riding the cable car to the Botanical Gardens and trying out the Madeira wine.

April

Joseph and Richard came for a weekend and managed to visit Gran Mary.

May

Luke moved with Sarah into their own house closer to the centre of York. 

Jane and I went to see Emily in Montreal.

June

Emily back from Montreal. Jane and I spend a few days in Snowdonia. 

Carecent, where Jane volunteers, gets new kitchen and face lift.

July

My nephew, Danesh, spent a few days with us getting some hands-on engineering experience. We had a small gathering at the end where we got to try out a pizza oven in the garden, making our own mini pizzas.

August

Weeks of experimenting with solar, haybox and hybrid cookers culminated at the Green Gathering in Chepstow. It was great to meet up with our Solar Cooking colleagues and make new friends.

Jane starts helping out at Luke's Larder - intercepting waste food from supermarkets and sharing it with the community.

September

Jane and Sggy have a break in Andalucia and Tangier.

October

Sadly, Jane's mum passed away at the end of October. Aged 94, she has been in York since 2000, the last 2 years in Ivy Lodge, an excellent family run residential home. Her funeral was attended by friends from Acomb and Great Ayton Quaker meetings.

Segaran Family 2017 - A year in pictures

January

Celebrated Seggy's mum's 80th Birthday - lunch with family and friends in North London.

Jane's  photo of Staithes won 1st prize in the 'Rural and Garden Landscapes' category at the Easton Walled Garden photography competition.

February

Joe and Richard came to visit us from Amsterdam. Wintry walk at Fountains Abbey followed by a family meal at home.

Gran Mary moves to Ivy Lodge.

March

Luke takes a month off work and travels to join friends in Australia and Bali.

April

We had a family gathering in Yorkshire for Raj's 60th birthday. Used the opportunity to show off the North Yorkshire moors to Pam and Kumar.

May

Emily is off travelling again, this time to Montreal in Canada. She is going to be away for a year on a work / travel visa.

Jane and I had a very relaxing week in North Cyprus (the Turkish part).

June

Solar cooking demo at St Nicks Environmental Centre summer fair. Managed to cook bread buns and chick peas.

July

Celebrated Thishani & Steven's wedding in London - another chance for a family get together.

Socialist revival at Durham Miner's Gala with a stirring speech from Jeremy Corbyn.

August

Low impact cooking at the Green Gathering Festival in Wales. My retirement gift from the family was a Slick Solar cooker.

September

Luke and Seggy trekking up the last of the Yorkshire 3 peaks.

October

Celebrating our joint 60th birthdays with family at Milton Keynes and friends in York

November

Following our joint retirement, we had a glorious 3 weeks in Sri Lanka. We traveled far and wide using train, car, taxi and tuk-tuk. This is us at the top of (little) Adam's Peak.

December

Seggy finished his 100 km swimming challenge and raised £1750 for the Manipay Hindu College sports fund.

Wishing you all a peaceful New Year.

Segaran Family News 2015

To family and friends all over - we hope you find this summary of events in our lives this year interesting.

Jane has been working very hard throughout the second half of 2014 on a project to acquire and run a holiday cottage in York. We were able to have Mayfield Cottage ready for launch by January 2015. This is Jane's main job now and certainly the popularity of the cottage has kept Jane busy. She has had guests from all over the world including Australia, Greece, France, USA and Germany. Here is a link to some photos.

Luke has been working for a software company in York as part of his Year in Industry. He has enjoyed this very much and home conforts was an added bonus. He is back at Sheffield for his final year. He had an interesting trip to Ukraine which included a tour of Chernobyl. We also had a short break with him in Krakow. Luke is still passionate about music and made it to Glastonbury this year.

Emily started her new job at the Youth Hostel Association this year where she is Activites Manager. She is having great fun and enjoys the interaction with school groups and outdoor activities. She is also very active with the Scouting organisation and frequently goes climbing - now as an instructor. Emily is still involved with fundraising for Oxfam and organised a fun Oxjam day this year.

Joseph continues to enjoy life in Amsterdam keeping busy between working at Watersones, doing art commissions and promoting his silk screen prints, postcards and greeting cards. Here is his website. I took Amma across to stay with him in April and we went on a tour of the bulbfields. He is a great cook and certainly impressed Amma with his efforts.

I continue to fill my time with electronics and books. On the electronics side the new products are aimed at home automation like monitoring freezer temperature and switching appliances on and off remotely. I helped two authors with publishing their books as 'print on demand' versions. One was "Evolution of an Ethnic Identity - The Tamils of Sri Lanka" and the other was "Endless Inequality - The Rights of Plantation Tamils in Sri Lanka". 

Jane and I felt able to visit Sri Lanka after the recent change in government. We were able to travel to all parts of the island freely and so we did by visiting Jaffna, Trincomallee, Battocaloa, Kathirgamam and Galle. While in Jaffna we visited Manipay Hindu College where my grandfather was once the Principal. It was good to see the money that the Navaratnam family fundraised for sports being put to good use. There seemed to be new optimism in all parts of the country.

Wishing everybody a peaceful 2016.

Segaran Family News 2014

Much has happened in 2014 - here is a snapshot of some of the more memorable events.

Jane and I have settled nicely into our new home - not so new as we have now been here more than 18 months. The log burning stove is in, woodpiles ready, the new patio done, two internal walls demolished and currently awaiting new kitchen in a few weeks. I am looking forward to sampling the end products of Jane testing out the new ovens. It's a nice area with lots of open spaces and we have some great neighbours.

Luke has finished 2 years of Uni and was fortunate enough to land an industrial experience position for his 3rd year at a software company in York. So he has been at home since June and cycles off every morning with his carefully made and generous 'pack-up'. We bought him a road bike when he turned 21 in July and he has been away on long bike rides after work with colleagues.

The tour-de-france came to Yorkshire this year and the county went crazy over it. Yellow bikes and bunting cropped up everywhere. Large crowds turned up to cheer the riders on - a never to be forgotten experience.

Since coming back from her South American tour Emily has thrown herself into life in York. She has her own place about a couple of miles from us and is stamping her own mark on it. She ran York Oxjam in 2014 (a music based fund-raising event for Oxfam) and raised much needed funds for them. 

Joseph turned 30 this year. He came to York and we had a joint celebration for him and Jane's mum who turned 90 around the same time. After a tea party for 'Gran Mary' we drove across the North Yorkshire Moors and spent a night at a delightful apartment in Whitby.

Jane gave up working for the council this year and we put in motion our plan for running a self-catering holiday home in York. The last three months have been very busy for both of us in decortaing and furnishing the cottage. Jane has done a fantastic job and Mayfield Cottage is now available for breaks in Yorkshire.

I have been making full use of my 'free days' and have launched into helping authors publish and market their books. Working with a family friend (Thiru Arumugam), we successfully re-published 'Hundred Hindu Temples of Sri Lanka' which was written by his father, Sanmugam Arumugam.

Every Christmas, Jane and I look forward to letters from family and friends and one in particular is always thought provoking and challenging - from a lady of some 94 years who still rides her bike around York. Her letter deals with the growing gap between rich and poor and finishes with: 

 'So this Christmas season let's take time to pause to reflect to discover how we can help in the progress we long to see towards understanding, honesty, fairness, peace and justice!'.

On that note wishing you all a peaceful 2015.

Jane and Seggy