Theo Todman's Family Page

(Text as at 14/07/2019 18:05:46)

This page has a tendency to get out of date, so any ages and information herein have to be co-ordinated with the latest-change date, which (whatever might be said above) is end-May 2019.

1. Human Family:
   • I've been happily married to Julie since October 1979. Julie retired at the end of 2017 from her role as an Occupational Therapist at Southend Hospital (Southend University Hospital) helping to rehabilitate amputees but remains a mainstay and Church Warden of St. John the Divine, Outwood Common, Billericay.
   • We have three children. They are all grown up now, and are no longer keen on me advertising their activities. However, they are:-
     1. Becky: has been married to Tim since July 2016. They live in Coggeshall, Essex (Coggeshall Parish Council), and their first child – Tommy – was born in early February 2018. Becky works full-time for Samaritan’s Purse in Buckhurst Hill₁, and Tim works for the Environment Agency.
     2. Naomi: is married to Leandro and lives in Clapham, London, and works for the Central YMCA.
     3. Nathaniel: Works as a software developer for a small private company based in Good Easter, near Chelmsford. He has achieved his dream of being allowed to work remotely. He works from the Far East – so far Thailand, but his next trip is planned to be Vietnam. He returns home every few months and works remotely from here!
   • This could go on and on, but …
     1. I have a slightly-younger brother – Julian – who lives in Gloucester, and a much younger sister – Victoria – who lives in Weston-Super-Mare.
     2. Julie has two older brothers: Chris, who lives in London, and Stephen in Ipswich.
     3. All our parents are now deceased, but I have an aunt₂ Pat in Worcestershire, and Julie has an uncle John in Ipswich.
        
   • Anyone wanting to know what (some of) these fine specimens of humanity look like (or looked like - the photos are at least 9 years old – I need to get this page sorted out) can follow the Photos³ Link, though you'll have to encounter a few old photos of me first.
2. Non-Human Family:
   • Some 10 years ago we acquired a cat from Becky. His name is Mouse and is aged 13, or thereabouts. Like the French cat Brexit, he doesn’t know whether he wants to be in or out.
   • We have more recently acquired a dog – a dogtime.com: Tibetan Terrier named Henry – from the same daughter. He’s 7 or so now. He doesn’t perform any tricks, but looks very wise, though Naomi thinks he’s only thinking about sausages.
   • We once had a small flock of flightless ducks on our pond, but sadly they are no more₄.
   • The old floating duck-house has only been occupied by moorhens – we’ve had up to 8 of them at any one time – but they are wild birds and they come and go. The chicks are very sweet, and there are usually two batches of half-a-dozen or so each year. Given that the world isn’t over-run by moorhens, necessarily few of the chicks survive. My suspicion is that the local corvids – crows and magpies – find them to be a tasty snack.
   • We’ve just taken delivery of a new and much larger floating duck-house which we hope the migrant mallards might take up home in from time to time.
   • We’ve had 9 chickens, at the last count, though all but two are no more, having fallen prey either to old age or the local fox. The current pair – Venus and Serena – are Bantams, so are small enough to be confined full-time to their Eglu Classic Chicken Coop.
   • I'm interested in our pets’ cognitive capacities, and enjoy taking Henry for walkies. They count as members of the family.
   • For photos of the pets, together with some of the house, follow this Link⁵.