Housey housey!

Kezza and I are bingoing, Come on lucky number seven.

Update: we won £20... result. That's a £7 profit, if you ignore the beer, and the petrol, and the car parking, and the sausage and chips!

DerryStag

Spent a very drunken weekend in Manchester with Paul Derry and his mates to "celebrate" his impending nuptials. Hicko and I drove over together late on Friday night (after attending a wedding party in Woodhall Spa) - we arrived at the hotel at 1:15am and sat in the bar waiting for the revellers to return. In they shambled in dribs and drabs but not ready for the night to end. Some were still in the bar when it closed at 5am!

Saturday morning, following a full EB at 'Spoons, we boarded the 'folk train' for Edale in the Peak District. I'd mapped out a route from there that took us (via several pubs) to Hope where we got the train back. Weather was a bit hit and miss but we avoided the worst of it and everyone made it in one piece. That night it was out in Manchester again where we saw a couple of Dorii from Hollyoaks before heading to an indie club until the early hours.

Sunday morning was another 'Spoons EB and hazy discussions of the night before. I got home at about 3pm and just sat quietly for a while. It seemed the best thing to do.
Well done Charmo for organising everything and well done Des for surviving.

Look out France, the Masons are coming

We had dinner at Tim & Dawn's last night. Great night, with a thai meal and lots of beer, wine and bon homie.

T & D can expect even more bon homie (and other bon mots) in the coming months as they are hoping to move to France. This is sad news as they won't be our near neighbours any more but terrific news as it means we can go visit.

C'est la vie.

Ashes 2009

It's the start of the 2009 Ashes series. I fear it's going to be more like 2007 than 2005 but who knows? Martin and Charlotte hosted an Ashes party on Saturday night. The idea was to watch the last session and then enjoy a bbq and a few brews.

Unfortunately, the weather in Cardiff meant there was no play to watch so we had to make do with a DVD of 2005... what a shame!

No amount of wet weather could stop the bbq and brews though and K & I were rather wobbly on our cycle ride home.

Ling Moor Summer Fair

It was Ling Moor School's summer fair this weekend. There were lots of stalls selling various different things, a model train giving rides to the children, welly wanging and penalty kicks, performances from the children, a fancy dress contest (judged by a pair of esteemed governors), the premiere of a video about the school made by Mr Summersall's class and, best of all, a stocks in which Mrs Hickerton was trapped. Mr Hickerton took advantage of this to fling a couple of wet sponges!

Ollie

Ollie was visiting nana and grandad this weekend; so we popped in for a visit. He can now lift himself up, crawling can't be far off. He's really filling out now too.







Also in this photo: Veronique le canard.

Dinner at the Darby's

K & I had dinner with Alan & Fran and Colin & Helen at the Darby's house in Welton. A & F shared the cooking and it was all top nosh. The best bit about it was that, it was all very low in fat... not! There was butter in virtually everything. Not that I'm complaining you understand. :-)
More Wii action as Alan introduced me to Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Uh oh, I feel another purchase coming on!

I've wiid in my living room

Oh dear, we've bought a Wii and Wii Fit. There goes the summer. Next post will be in 2014.

Wales... again!

On Friday, I headed to Swansea to have a new mohair hood fitted to my car. I wanted to be there for 8:30am so left at 4:00! Motorways are brilliant at that time of day. I cruised straight there 70-80mph all the way without one hold up. I was waiting outside the garage at 8:00. I chose Jack Smith Auto Trimmers in Swansea due to the raft of recommendations on the MX-5 owner's club forum. It was a tiny little place but they were really friendly, did a great job and charged me over £200 less than the next best quote.
After the work was complete I drove across to Cardiff station where I met K. She had been working in London that day and we had arranged to meet up with her friends Karen and Kev that night. We had dinner with them and stayed at their house and had a really nice evening. We hadn't seen them since their wedding (in fact that was the only time I had met them previously!) so there was lots to catch up on.
On Saturday morning we drove 10 minutes up the road to have breakfast with Ceri and Richard and their family. It was great to be able to catch up with friends that we don't see very often. It's a long old trek from Lincoln to Cardiff but hopefully we'll see them all more regularly in the future.

Snowdon-tastic

K and I had a week in Wales with the Blackburn-Houghtons. It may have been wet but we had a great time. We stayed in a beautiful converted chapel in the village of Dolwyddelan near Betws-y-coed. The scenery around Snowdon is just stunning and we had some great walks.

To break up the journey home, K and I had two nights in Colton on the edge of Cannock Chase.

Pictures above, top row first (L-R). Hardcore ramblers crossing Llynnau Mymbyr. Bodnant Gardens. Kite flying on Llandudno beach. Conwy harbour. Ffestiniog light railway. Portmeirion. Ivy enjoying her 'walk'. Kezza. Our converted chapel. Relaxing in the conservatory. Shugborough. On the roof of Lichfield Cathedral.