The Easter rug reborn

After having our floors redone (since we had to empty the whole of the downstairs lounge to be able to redo the ceilings after the pipe burst..), Rhods and I thought that the Easter rug needed to be replaced so we moved it out and put a temporary one under the dining table.  But... that one was too small and also irritating, so it was looking like we were going to need to buy a new rug.  But then I had the brilliant idea to dye our Easter rug a different color.  I took to the carport with a spray bottle of dye...

I do have a nasty habit of starting a project and getting well underway before reading the instructions. Whoops. Anyway, in this case it turned out ok because the dye didn't really have instructions on how to use it to dye a rug so I was winging it anyway.  Turns out you need to wash off the dye after applying it so that the dye sets properly.  And the other annoying thing is that you have to let it dry in a spot that doesn't receive direct sunlight.  So I heaved the wet purple looking rug around to various places over a few days, and it wasn't drying at all. In fact, it was really wet weather during this time so keeping it outside draped over the ping pong table wasn't really working at all AND it started to stink like mildew.  That's when I started to think I had made a big mistake. But then I moved it into the pod for a couple of days with a dehumidifier, and that helped.  Finally I moved it to Rhiannon's (empty) bedroom and applied a coat of Scotchguard to help protect it with a sort of waterproofing.  I left it there for a week or so while we were up in Wales, and now finally today it is back into place!

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?!  I'm pretty chuffed with it actually. 

Love Llandudno

It is so nice to be here in Llandudno. I do love being here, getting to spend time with Beryl and Trefor, meeting up with Auntie Jane, and going for walks up the Vardre and down to Deganwy beach. We had a great stretch of days this week before leaving to drive home today.

It was fun to visit Beryl and Trefor working in the Lewis Bookshop as well!

 

On Wed night we went for a special dinner to Signatures in Conwy Marina. We thought we were charging the car during the meal, but when we got back into the car we discovered the charger had malfunctioned after 10 minutes! Anyway, we had a lovely meal the 5 of us.

On Thursday we spent basically the whole day driving around looking for places to charge the car ahead of our journey back home the next day.  We had an amazing meal at Siobad Cafe, which we were very sad to hear is closing! Hopefully there will be some intervention that will allow it to stay open. 

On one of the days that Rhods and Tryfan were in the mountains, Beryl and I went round some of the shops and then called in for some cake and tea at a place on the high street. Such luxury!

Annie loves Deganwy Beach

This long sandy beach is heaven for Annie when someone brings a ball and will throw it for her!

Boys in the mountains

Rhodri took Tryfan on a climbing course over two days up in Snowdonia, which involved a personal guide and learning various skills related to climbing mountains.  Rhods had initially invited me also, but I declined and after hearing all about the experience, I'm glad I didn't go.  Anyway, they had a fabulous time.

Roadtrip through Wales

We left Cardiff this morning after this family photo

... and we made our way up north along the Welsh-English border, stopping through Monmouth for some breakfast and walking around.  We found the Monmouth Castle, which was really cool.

It was a stunning day and Tryfan was a great DJ in the car, and we made it up to Llandudno in the afternoon. Super! 

Cardiff layover

We left Friday afternoon to drive to Cardiff in time to watch the rugby match which started at 8pm. Alas, we missed the entire game because we experienced ridiculously heavy traffic on our journey. What should have been just over 3 hours was instead 7 hours. Ouch!!  We got there eventually and had a bit of a decompression welcome hangout with Sions and JJ, then went to sleep and started fresh today.

Look at gorgeous little Gwydion! Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?!

 

We went for a morning walk to the park so that Winnie and Annie could chase balls and Gwyds could stretch his legs a bit too.

After our walk we had some birthday cake and tea, and learned that Gwydion is really curious about belly buttons. He and Tryfs had some quality cousin time hanging out together.

In the evening we had take out Vietnamese food and watched the Rugby World Cup Final game, where South Africa beat England in a miraculous/ disastrous very close game. It was really fun.

Now tomorrow we will head up to Deganwy for the week. 

Tryfan turns 16

Our little Tryfan is now a very sweet sixteen year old, and actually he isn't all that little anymore!

Today started as sort of a normal Thursday morning, getting up and ready for school and so forth. Tryfs got to open presents before school (as per tradition), and he was really excited to receive a PS5 at long last. But as normally we would go out for dinner somewhere and have a bit of a celebration in the eve, tonight was the memorial drinks for our friend Liz at the Dons' house.  Tryfs was a good sport about it, but it kinda sucked for him. Poor fellow.  We vowed to celebrate later next week when we are up in North Wales for half term.  

Anyway, at a very manly looking 16 years, our Tryfs is chatty, easy-going, interested in people and things going on in the world.  He is a curious fellow. He is a good friend to Annie Dog and always lets her jump up on the couch and snuggle with him first thing in the morning. He has been working hard on his classwork and 'revision' (meaning, studying for the big exams that are coming up in May).  He continues to love playing rugby and football/ soccer, and nowadays he is working out in the gym a few times a week. Given half a chance, Tryfs would be playing video games with his friends on the PS5, listening to music and singing along, exchanging banter and laughing. That is classic Tryfs. But he also can be quite good at pitching in on household chores, occasionally cleaning the kitchen or folding laundry.  He's a good kid, and we are glad that he is part of our family unit.

Barcelona escape parte dos

After our epic walking tour yesterday, we did a 'hop on / hop off' bus tour today. That was pretty fun too!  We started directly outside the hotel, which was awesome. And we got to go around the Sagrada Familia a couple of times actually so we saw it from all angles from our perch on the top deck of the bus. 

Then we did our first 'hop off' near Parc Guell with the plan of walking up to the nearby 'Bunkers de Carmel', which we had read about.  But when we got off the bus and walked up the steep hill to where we would either try to cut through the park (which you had to pay to go into) or go along the road up to this bunker place, the heavens opened!! It poured rain and we didn't have great waterproof jackets on, nor did we have umbrellas. Whoops!  There was very sparse shelter, so the 30 or so people who got caught out with us were hiding under palm trees (which do NOT provide great shelter).  Kristin managed to sort of nudge underneath the faux fur jacket of a tall Russian woman without the woman realizing! That was funny. 

Eventually we headed off up to the Bunkers spot and were rewarded with great views and dramatic skies.

We made our way back down to hop back onto a bus and continued the circuit of the whole city until we ended up back at our hotel!

In the evening we walked from the hotel and found a nice sidewalk restaurant where we enjoyed a light and lovely meal.

On Monday morning I headed off early and took the metro to the bus from the city center out to the airport.  It was pouring rain with loads of traffic and slowness, and then I nearly missed my flight because I misread the departure information sign. Whoops! But the main thing is that I didn't miss it, and I made it home eventually (a bit later than planned). What a great weekend though! Thanks K xx

Barcelona escape with Sista K

I have awesome sister-in-laws, aka 'Sistas'.  Rebecca and Kristin on the Gans side, Sioned, Nia and Llinos on the Lewis side.  I don't get to interact much with Llinos, but with all the others I do.  I'm so lucky!  Next week my Sista Kristin has a work-related meeting in Barcelona so she arrived a few days earlier to adjust to the time zone and I flew over to keep her company for the weekend!

I booked a flight that was due to arrive 5 minutes after hers on Friday night, but then my flight was delayed by an hour, but then so was hers! So we found each other in the airport and took a taxi to the Hoxton Hotel, then had a celebratory bev on the roof terrace.

Had a good sleep, a lovely breakfast, and then we started our day of walking exploration by seeing the rooftop terrace to get a lay of the land.

We walked through a park and heard some music so we followed the sound and found an exercise class next to a stagnant fountain. 

Then we continued on towards La Rambla but found this little square which was just so alluring to us, so we sat and had a coffee and people watched for a while. There were loads of people sitting around the plaza and doing paintings.

Then we walked around more and I found this bar with my Dad's birthday as the name, so I took this photo as a shout out to him.

We of course saw Sagrada Familia from all angles, but we did not pay to go in. It is a pretty crazy cathedral.

So yeah, we wandered here and there and various places, then made our way back towards the hotel. We found a crazy flea market place and spent some time exploring that. 

Then we got back to the hotel, regrouped, and found a place to go for a paella and sangria dinner. It was way too much food (as you can see!) but it was pretty tasty.

And that was the end of our walking exploration day! Fabulous! So fun to hang out with Kristin.