Welsh Greetings

Hi All,
Have had a lovely couple of weeks holiday whilst the Todd family were here in the UK.
We collected them from Swansea train station (Wed.) and they picked up a rental care - same as we did with Jack, Fran & boys. The following day was the compulsory trip to Gower and a walk out to Worms Head, picnic at the point, Joe's ice cream from the National Trust shop and a drink at the pub. Next day they left us and went to stay in the Beatles themed hotel in Liverpool for two nights.
On Sunday we joined them again in Bowness-on-Windemere in The Lakes district. Ruth had found had a cottage that was ideally located in the heart of town. We were 5min walk to the site where all the boats left and about 40sec walk to the closest pub! Lovely to stroll by the lake in the evening. Monday morning we were on the first boat to cross the lake and visit Beatrix Potter's house. Beautiful! Had a lovely walk back to the boat. Walked to Windermere town which wasn't really worth the effort but the stroll was enjoyable. That evening we had fish and chips by the lakeside. Glorious! Next day it was Ambleside. Another lakeside picnic and a long walk to the town. Beautiful! Dinner in a pub for our final night. Very enjoyable few days.
The next morning we said our farewells. The Todds headed north to Edinburgh and we headed south to Llangollen. I had booked us a night in a lovely hotel (Manorhaus - Google it!).
It was a lovely afternoon for strolling by the canal, before an hour in the rooftop hot tub with a glass of bubbles. Such decadence! Breakfast was delicious also.
The next day we finally made it to the aquaduct of the canal and walked across, under, over - basically saw it from all angles. Spectacular! Finished our walking just as the rain started.
The Todds returned to our home on Sunday evening. On Monday we went to Cardiff to visit The Doctor Who Experience, and what an experience. Fantastic! Only there for five years so hurry over if you want to experience it. It is well worth it for any Dr. Who fan. The Todds visited the castle while I had a stroll and enjoyed the sunshine. Tuesday was a bitsa day. Not very good weather. Todds sorted luggage, did washing and got organised before a trip to Swansea. On Wednesday we drove to Tenby for the trip to Caldey Island which was beautiful as always. Another meal at a pub for our last evening together.
Yesterday we took them all to Neath to catch the train to London where they will spend a few days before heading home via Dubai. I had an afternoon shift to get straight back into work. Too hard to go back if you leave it too long.
Looking forward to the last Lions test tomorrow. Go The Aus!
Can't finish without telling you that the summer seems to have arrived. Today looks like being glorious and it is set to continue for the weekend.
Hope you are all well and happy. Take care. xxxxxxxxxx

question from the south coast

Hi Claire,
What do I do to see the preview, I cant get it, Its driving me crazy. Can we put videos on??
Cheers Zak

greetings from the south coast

Hi everyone,
Great to see so much news on the blog. Wish that mountain mob would come to the party.
Yes I'm home from a weekend with Annie and Clare and mum. Those mates of Annie and Steves are complete superheros in my book. It was an amazing day which I loved being a part of. Those girls are surrounded by love, and the skip day is just more proof of this.However I would just like to add, that as well as a heap of amazing blokes, and I dont want to take anything away from them, the superheros, but the women also did a fine days work alongside them. (me included), so lets cheers it to the auntys as well.
 The best thing that came out of the shed was all these beautiful photos of the family, that had been buried under a huge pile of shit for years. Annie knew they had to be somewhere., and we had a great evening last night going through them all. Thanks Clare for posting some of my favourites, I hope you all loved them as much as I do.
And Ive been in the new car!!
Hope you all have a good week.
P.S. You young ones are all very clever, and dedicated. Cheers to you guys as well.
Love to you all
Zak

News from the capital

Hello all. Thought it was about time I got back on the blog. Kate and Mum are here this weekend. We had skip day today. Cleaned out the two back sheds. So much rubbish- how can one man accumulate so much crap in 22 years- just look at the photos. We ordered one skip which clearly was not enough then had to order another one. So many bottles of home brew stored in cupboards behind a wall of rubbish that we had to break through. But now we have two huge storage sheds, the one behind the carport is garden and tools. The one next to the back room has bags and other stuff. Thanks to all of our good friends who came and helped. Paddy fixed the back door lock, put a deadlock on the laundry door and put hooks up. His brother who is a glazier, fixed our bedroom window which had been broken for years as well as putting glass louvres back into the windows in the back room which some nephew probably broke my putting a ball through them years ago!  Plus the other big news of the week is I got my new car!! It is very nice. Lovely to drive after years of driving the old commodore which was 17 years old. Did have a tear when I left the old war horse at the dealers- it's fate is the wreckers. Have put photos of all the rubbish, plus my lovely new car so you can call admire it. Moo, I will ring you in the next few days to see if you want to see The Lion King with Clare and I in January. That is all from me. Great to have such good friends!

Just some photos

  These are some old photos that Zakky really loved and wanted to show everyone.

This is one of the sheds before we cleaned it out today:

 And this is it after six hours of work by about ten guys:

Welsh greetings

Hi All,
Fab looking boat Mart.
Congrats Tom on your graduation. Looking very smart in the cap and gown. (Fran, great coat!).
Clare, well done on your impressive results.
No news from Wales really. All good here though. Summer has arrived and we are greatly enjoying it.
The log store is finished! Now just have to cut the wood we have and put it in.
Ruth and Pete are currently in Italy and will be with us next Wednesday.
Thinking of you all. Take care and have fun. xxxxx

The New Boat

Claire and I took the new boat out today. It seemed rather odd as I have been fishing with Chappie in it for years but he wasn't there and I was driving. We caught a heap of bream but threw them all back as we already have fish in the freezer. It's a bit bigger than the other boat but a heap more comfortable.

Congratulations to both Clare and Tom on their great results. Claire is still chipping away at her masters.... only 18 months to go.

Only 2 weeks to go until the months break. First week I will be at school working with my year 12 students, 2nd week I will be working on the house (finishing the balcony) and Claire's mum will be here, 3rd week I am going bush and the last week I wil be just putting around here and getting back into school. I am really looking forward to a break.

Cheers

Marty and Claire