Boys will be boys

Look at these two crazy boys
They need haircuts!

A new campaign on a dark and rainy night

Rhiannon has signed up to go on a month long volunteer expedition to Ecuador in summer 2021.  A long way off, yes, but she needs to raise £4550 in order to go on it.
Although she and Sophie have been running the football cafe on a Saturday morning, it isn't enough to get that sort of capital so now she has produced a flyer which she started distributing today.

Rhodri had a client round the house in the afternoon (was supposed to be 2-5 pm) so it was convenient for us to be out of the house and this seemed like a good chance to go door-to-door.  I hid in the bushes with Winnie while Rhiannon went up and rang the doorbell to speak about her expedition and offer the flyer.

Here she is approaching the first house, preparing her spiel as she walks.

 It soon started raining and got quite dark, and by the time we got to the Coach & Horses pub at 5:30 pm, it was pitch black and heavily raining. Pretty much the worse-case scenario for going door-to-door distributing flyers! And then the pub wasn't even serving food until 6:30, so we just had snacks and a drink and talked to some neighbors we saw there.

Rhodri was supposed to come join us, but his client was still at our house so we gave up and walked home around 6:30. The client didn't actually leave until 9:30 pm!! Crazy. Rhi and I had a very nice snuggly time laying in my bed and watching Netflix together, popping downstairs to get snacks and squirrel them away back upstairs. It was a really great evening actually. And before the end of the night, she already had received a job from someone who saw the flyer - result!

Birthday excuse

This year I decided to invite some ladies from the village to join me at an evening exercise class called Swoove Ignite. This is basically a sing-a-long zumba class with easier dance moves, and every now and then you make big whoooooping sounds. Its so ridiculous and fun!

 There were 10 of us altogether, and we stopped at the Sloop pub on the way back home.

We all vowed to get together and do some swooving and slooping more often, especially in these dark and cold months when one needs a bit of a nudge to get out and do something fun.

Nethercott Manor

As part of my birthday present this year, we went as a family to the Escape Rooms at Tulley's Farm and attempted the Nethercott Manor room. None of us had ever done one of these before, but we had a really great time. We did not manage to escape, though!

Afterwards we went out for dinner at Tarana in Turners Hill, which I drive past nearly every day and have always wanted to stop at! It was great since it wasn't too crowded (being a Sunday night) and they had a buffet on which was very reasonably priced. Win win!  A great way to end the weekend / start my birthday week. 

Beautiful view

Some mornings are just so beautiful, especially when there is a cloud inversion across the valley.

Pune!

I left on Monday morning (Nov 4th) to go to Pune India for the week. It was a long way to go for just a few days, but I guess it was worthwhile.

 I was traveling with my colleagues Suha and Alex. This photo I took of them was more for the purpose of capturing the scene in the background, where two men were posing with a mural of a fairy and a butterfly. It was a bit strange.

At least I got to see my old friend Anand on my last day there before catching my flight home. In fact, we also took time to walk past and even visit the bookshop of the Osho Meditation Centre https://www.osho.com/. This would only really be interesting for any of you readers who has watched the documentary mini-series Wild Wild Country...

Anyway, I had a long but ok flight home.  When I arrived home this morning at 7:45, everyone was still asleep and I didn't have a key! I had to knock on the door until someone woke up to come let me in. But how nice to get straight into bed and snuggle on a Sunday morning!

The scene back home while we were away

Auntie Sions and Winnie had a great time with the troops while Rhods and I were away.

Salisbury

After our big night last night, we got up early this morning to have breakfast and then find a pub to watch the Rugby World Cup final match of England v South Africa. It was pouring rain as we set out, but we were able to find a nice pub and find a place to sit.

Of course nearly the whole pub was supporting England, except for a lone (and loud!) Scotsman and us. England didn't play very well at all and South Africa won in the end. It was a memorable way to start the day.

After the game the sun had come out and we walked over to Salisbury Cathedral.

We went on a tour which was outstanding, and then we had a bite to eat in the beautiful cafe.

We drove back on Sunday morning after going on a little walk around Old Sarum, the site of the first Salisbury Cathedral. These photos don't do it justice, but it was just stunning colors and light this morning.

An exciting send off event

Rhodri and I went to Salisbury today in our new car!

We were invited to attend Wendy Searle's send off event as she prepares to go for the world record of female unsupported solo crossing of Antarctica. Here is an article about the event...
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/18006232.wendy-searles-record-breaking-solo-race-across-antarctic/
and here is another one.. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/50262980

Wendy is leaving next week to start her adventure, which will be updated here: 
https://southpole2020.com/

I was so happy to see my long lost friend Polly at this event! We went to the pub nearby afterwards and even got to see ourselves on the 10:00 news on BBC as the BBC South edition covered the event as well.