Not Stoked

 We made the annual batch of Elderflower Fizz today and the troops were Not Stoked to be helping with it. But they did anyway!  These are some good kids :-)

Brunch in Lewes

 Rhiannon and I met up with Aggie and Leigh for brunch at Bill's in Lewes. Such a treat!

We always have a good laugh when the four of us are together, and this time was no different. A nice way to close out the month of May!

Long lost friends in Bristol

The other day Rhods suggested that the two of us go over to Bristol for the weekend and visit Gaz and Huw. What a novelty to get out of the postcode and leave the kids to their own devices! To be fair, Tryfan was on a Youth Club camping weekend and Rhiannon needed to work at the pub both Friday and Saturday nights, plus she is still revising for the GCSE exams next week. 

So we left on Saturday morning and got to Gaz and Rachel's house around 1:45 pm.  We had a lovely lunch and beverages outside on their back patio, and then I went for a swim with Fran for a couple of hours at a gorgeous spot called the Henleaze Swimming Club, which is inside a former quarry. It was a gorgeous day and a lovely atmosphere.  Turns out that we have matching hats in different colors.

We met up with the boys and the little kids at a pub and had a lovely dinner with beverages. Super! 

The next day Huw, Gaz and Rhods went for a long bike ride while Fran, Rachel and the little boys and I went to Clevedon to swim in the seawater-filled pool at the beach. I've always wanted to go here, so it was cool to actually be here. The water was a bit nasty, but we swam in it anyway.

We drove back Sunday late afternoon and it was all good.  A new era of Rhods and I being able to do our own thing!

London with Dave

Today I worked in the London office (after being a bit freaked out at my discomfort with being around colleagues in person) and I met up with Dave for dinner afterwards.  It was so cool to see him.

Today was also my Mom's birthday, so it was special in that way too.

Eurovision 2022!

Tonight was a bit spontaneous and turned out really fun, as we busted out our dressing up box of surprises.  Orin happened to be over spending the night with Tryfs and so Rhiannon invited Evie round, I had my daffodil headpiece, and it was all really appropriate for watching the crazy Eurovision song contest!

Celsius Energy

I went on a little business trip this week to visit my company cousins over in France.  Now that I'm working in the geothermal sector, my parent company has actually two smaller companies inside of it - I'm on the deep geothermal side and then there is a new start up company in France called Celsius Energy which does shallow geothermal stuff.  I invited myself over there to find out more about what they do!

I took the Eurostar on Tuesday morning, then headed to the the HQ to meet some colleagues for a chat, then met up with a former colleague Fatma for an early dinner, and finally made it down to Clamart to my hotel for the night. It was a gorgeous spring day in Paris and I felt so lucky to be there.

Wednesday I met my new geothermal 'cousins' over at Celsius and then had dinner with my old friend Guy, who is one of my favorite people anywhere. It was so great to see him, and I felt really honored that he traveled from the south of France up to Paris just to meet me for dinner!

Thursday I continued my visit through the morning and then traveled back home in the afternoon. It was a good week, but I was struck by how uncomfortable I felt being out meeting colleagues in person.  It wasn't anything to do with Covid, it was more a feeling of insecurity, mainly because I'm new to the geothermal sector and I don't know much! In these moments, I cling to the adage from my Dad: I am who I am, I know what I know, and I'm happy to be here.  Anyway, I was really glad to get home tonight.

More Cardiff photos

It was fun staying with Nia and Cris and family, too. The cousins all got to hang out together, and it was great to hear them laughing out of control at their own inside jokes.

Meeting Gwydion Tendai

We set off Saturday morning to drive to Cardiff so we can finally meet our new cousin/ nephew named Gwydion Tendai!  He was born on April 25th to Sioned and JJ, and we've been really excited to meet him in person.

Although we stayed with Nia, Cris, Gabs and Val, we did get to meet up with Sions, JJ and baby Gwyds for lunch the next day before driving back home.

Seis de Mayo

 We have American neighbors here in our village, and they have been here longer than we have! Their son Kelton used to babysit for us but we've never really gotten to know them.  After going to their house for dinner a few months ago, we had them over to ours for a belated Cinco de Mayo themed dinner.

Sara and Duane are so much fun to be with! We did a lot of laughing and story telling, and it was just really easy and enjoyable to be in their company.

Extreme supplements

Poor Rhods has been going through a difficult time the past couple of years now with his belly. He all of a sudden stopped feeling hungry and has been struggling to get to the bottom of it for awhile.  Then back in Nov 2021 he started working with a Functional Medicine doctor who has put him on a course of supplements. Here he is about to stock his week of 3x / day medley of tablets.

Rugby Tour 2022

Finally the long awaited Rugby Tour weekend is here! Tryfs has his mullet and we've booked a caravan at the Haven Littlesea Holiday Park near Weymouth.  We called in with the McArraghers and then the Denslows came over to ours.

We drove to the Isle of Portland before the festival really kicked off, and we enjoyed the view from up high. The rest of the weekend will be taking place up in Dorchester on the sideline of the rugby pitch.

And so the games begin...

They actually did go on to win the entire festival for their age group. They had a few really tough games, and there was a lot of standing around between games. It rained quite a bit on the 2nd day of the tournament, but today was ok. It turned out just fine.

Here are Tryfan and Sam with the team trophy after it all finished and we were cleaning up the pitch.  

At night we went into the lounge restaurant and the boys were hilarious to watch. They travelled around in a pack and strutted through the crowds with their mullets on display!