Rigoletto in Uckfield

This morning I went for a run to celebrate the start of the weekend and as I was trotting along I had a brilliant idea which ended up working really well.

Tryfan was due to spend the night at a friends house, so it was going to be just Rhiannon, Rhodri and me. I realised that by pure coincidence, the opera "Rigoletto" was being aired "Live from the Met" this evening at the Uckfield Picture House. So my great idea was to call Leigh and see if she and Agnes wanted to join, and they did! So it was a surprise where the 3 of us Lewises had an early dinner at the restaurant across the street, and then we all united to watch the 3+ hr opera. It was really fun.

Cold mornings

 Annie and I have been going for morning walks to kick off the day and its been really great. Nothing too crazy, but we have had some amazing sunrises together.

A nice breakfast

This morning the boys went off to rugby practice, as always, and with our special guests in the house Rhiannon made us all breakfast! We even had some "Zerosecco" sparkling refreshing beverages to go with it.

Vade performance in London!

This weekend Auntie Sions and JJ (and Winnie!) came to stay with us because JJ and his band are performing at the Kings Place in downtown London. We all have tickets to go see him, and we have been looking forward to this event for a really long time.

It was a really great night! JJ and his band are so talented and fabulous.

Girlies

 Sophie has been coming round after school a couple of days a week, and its been really nice to have her here. She fits right into the household :-)

They hadn't realized that they were wearing matching hoodies!

Skis and bindings galore

 Our downstairs entryway and hallway have been transformed into a ski binding workshop! Rhodri has been really busy the past several months. We have delivery people at the door about 10 times a day every day, and there are boxes stacked all over the place.

But its all in good fun, and nobody is complaining about the upturn in the business!

Morning bliss

 The morning today was stunning. I've been taking Annie on a morning walk this week, and it is crazy that I haven't really done this sort of thing on a regular basis until now.

Sions and Winnie love

 We went out for dinner tonight just because it seemed like a good idea! We had a lovely meal at The Hatch.

Meanwhile, the dogs have been ever so photogenic on these gorgeous crisp winter days.

We love having Sions and Winnie here with us.

A long-awaited day

Today is the day that I had LASIK eye surgery! It was scary and took a long time to come, but I've done it now. I have been pretty worried over the past couple of months, ever since I booked the appointment back in November. So today it all happened. Sioned, Rhods and I took the train to London Bridge and then the Tube to Bond Street, then walked around the nearly empty streets. We had snacks and coffee at John Lewis, then I walked to Harley Street to the clinic for my 12:00 appointment. Then there was a lot of sitting around waiting, and finally at 2:30 pm I laid down on the surgery table and it began. The three technicians and the surgeon were listening to pop music and talking about vacation destinations in Spain, so it was a casual relaxed atmosphere.

The whole thing took about 8 minutes and then I went straight into the post-op consultation room for a few minutes and was discharged out onto the street where I met Rhods and Sioned again. As soon as I was in their care, I put the sunglasses on and closed my eyes for the next 4 hours. We got into a black cab and got driven to London Bridge. Here we are in the cab. 

Then eventually we got home and Rhodri helped me get changed into my onesie, and I sat/ lounged in the corner of the sofa until it was time to put eye drops in at 6:30.

So that was it! My eyes didn't hurt, they just felt a bit weird but I could see fine. And in fact we all laid on the sofa and watched telly for a bit, then went to bed.

I have to wear some plasticky goggle things to protect my eyes as I sleep for the next week, but that is fine! I'm just super glad its over and it went well and I'll never wear contact lenses again!

New cousin on the way

 Auntie Sions is going to have a baby in April and he/she is moving around a whole lot these days.

Doggie cousins

 It has been so cute seeing Winnie and Annie together, although Annie is more excited than Winnie.

Happy New Years

We all had a bit of a lie in this morning after our fun night with the Denslows. 

I joined my swimming buddies at the beach, and it was pretty busy there actually! We had some biggish waves that were fun to bounce around in.