Belgian excursion - Bruges

Onward to Bruges, and we stayed in a really cute little place on the picturesque river that flows through.  The nice man at the reception let us check in really early, which was amazing. So then we could leave our bags and go explore the city straight away.  It was a beautiful day, cold and crisp with clouds moving really fast across the sky (my favorite kind of day).

 

So we stayed just the one night here and then took the train (1st class through Belgium, then Premium on Eurostar back to London) back home, arriving on Saturday afternoon.

Such a civilized trip, I'm so grateful we were able to make it happen.  Its also the first time we've left Tryfan on his own, so we were a bit worried about what the state of the house would be when we got home, but everything was intact, so PHEW!

Belgian excursion - Ghent

 Rhods and I slipped away for a few days in Belgium this week. It was a 'just because we can' type of trip, and because I needed to use up some vacation days from 2024 before the end of March.  We had a delightful trip starting out from our local bus stop, and then taking the train all the way to Ghent for our first night.  We stayed at "1898 The Post" hotel which was amazing.

We had such a brilliant time exploring Ghent, and we even made our way to a sort of weird jazz club in the evening which was very entertaining.  Obviously we had several different Belgian white ales that we sampled throughout the visit, which was a lovely component!

On Thursday we spent most of the day exploring Ghent although we got rained out of the bicycle tour we were going to do.. Still, Rhodri managed to find the one massive outdoor clothing shop in the city so we spent a couple of hours here so he could "do research". It was in a gorgeous art deco building though!

We stayed Thursday night also in Ghent, and left this (Friday) morning after breakfast to travel to Bruges.

Garage improvements

 We are getting a new roof on the garage and gym, and having a roof overhang put on as well so that we will have a bit more protection and light in times when we are trying to enter during a rainstorm or in the darkness. Should be great!  Jez and the gang started yesterday and they have already done loads of work.

Boys out in the world

This weekend Tryfan and Rhodri went to play rugby in Guernsey, so Annie Dog and I went down to St Leonards on Sea to hang out with Cat and Gary.  Everybody wins!

     

It was fun to do something  a little bit different this weekend, and it was also nice to come back together at the end of the weekend. to swap stories.

Mary Wallopers

 I met up with my old friend Dave for a concert in Brighton tonight.  Unusual for a Thursday night, but it was a long time coming. We met for dinner at a great place and then made our way to the concert.  The opening act was bizarre but pretty impressive.

The best part was spending time with Dave, of course.

Chilly beautiful

 Its been so sunny and cold right now, and it is such a treat.  I often start the day with a walk in the forest with Annie Dog, and today was particularly special with frost on the heather and sun beams through the pine trees. Chilly beautiful.

Glimpses of our girl

 Rhiannon seems to be doing really well in Santa Barbara.  We don't see too much, but occasionally she will share photos with us, like this one from when she stayed over at Mazzie's house.

Kicking off March

 Today was Saturday and it was great to start the new month with sunshine for a change!

We had our normal mermadam dip and then Cat, Anna and I went to The Range to buy some stuff, then home to work in the back garden. Great day!

Busy times in late Feb

This was a bit of a crazy final week of February, where I went up to Aberdeen to be part of a geothermal conference on Tuesday through Thursday, then went into London on Friday and met up with Evie.  Its so nice to see her, not just because she is a lovely person but also because she is a step closer to my girl Rhiannon. I miss her so much.

The start of something, maybe

 Today we hosted a workshop for the beginnings of a geothermal coalition for the UK. 

We will see what happens next!

Our Ice Swimming Champion

 Our friend and fellow mermadam Kim (who is a proper swimmer, having swum the English Channel and other amazing water based feats) has qualified for the Ice Swimming World Championships, which take place this year in Italy.  It looks like a normal pool but the temperature is 34 F / 1.2 C and every morning the organizers have to chip the layer of ice off the surface of the pool!  Anyway, it was very exciting to watch the live stream of her competing in the 200 m , 500 m and 1000 m.  

 

She is such an inspiration!  She came out as the fastest British swimmer and #4 in the world!  We are going to plan a welcome home celebration party for her in a couple of weeks.

Welcome visitors

Today Sions, JJ, Gwydion and Winnie Dog came to visit us.  The humans are going to head on holiday to a warm place and we will look after Winnie until they come back in a couple of weeks. 

We do love when people (and dogs) come to visit us.

Winter swimming

We had the rare attendance of a gentleman caller in our midst on Saturday and he took these photos of us

A great way to kick off the month!

Up to Leeds

I organized a field trip for some of my SLB colleagues to go up and visit the University of Leeds campus, and so I went up last night and stayed with Caro and Locko, and finally met their gorgeous daughter!  We had lovely crisp clear weather for the field tour, and it was a fun trip.

Special visit

 Since Joe and Judy didn't get to see Tryfan last night, they kindly came out our way to see him!  This was such a nice surprise.  They arrived in time for lunch, followed by a walk, followed by tea and cake and then it was time for their train back to London.

It was a bit rainy when we were our for our walk in the forest, but that was still nice.  We are so thankful that they came out to see us.

Joe, Judy and Hamilton!

Aunt Judy and Uncle Joe are in town for a couple of days this week, and had booked  several months ago to go see Hamilton today.  I invited Rhodri and Tryfs and myself along so bought tickets for the same performance and agreed to meet in London for dinner, then go see the show together.  It has been so wonderful to have this event to look forward to the past several weeks, as January is normally quite a low and difficult month.  Anyway, Rhodri and I did manage to go in and have dinner and see Hamilton with Joe and Judy, but unfortunately Tryfan couldn't make it. 

In fact, it was quite a scary episode with Tryfan because he had a head injury yesterday in the rugby match, and it was the sort of injury that wasn't immediately clear what had happened.  But what emerged later was that he got hit in the head and then didn't remember what had happened for about 30 minutes of the 2nd half of the game.  So when things became apparent that he wasn't quite right, he came off the field, but then it wasn't until a bit later that things were more serious.  After Rhodri and Tryfan came home from the game, Rhods checked his training material and determined that he needed to take Tryfs to A&E to get checked out.  So after he had a CAT scan, the medics determined that he needed to have 48 hours of bedrest, which meant that he was not allowed on any advice nor could he watch telly or do anything stimulating.  That meant that he wasn't able to go see Hamilton, so we arranged for some neighbors to come and sit with him while Rhods and I went into London to meet Joe and Judy for dinner and the show.  Too bad for Tryfan, and it did feel strange to arrange for babysitters to come for our 17 year old son, but it all went fine and apparently both Sara L and Emma M enjoyed their time just sitting and hanging out chatting with Tryfs. 

Ephemeral stream

My mermadam friend Jo introduced us to this ephemeral stream near her house in Lewes, so when the sea swimming forecast was a bit iffy today, we all went to her house and walked down to swim in the stream this morning.  It was cold and beautiful!  And since it flows only during the winter months and over a chalk unit, the water is clear and turquoise, quite remarkable!  

One friend couldn't make it

 We had a dinner party this evening and invited Jules & Naresh, Tim & Heather, and Corinne & Simon.  Very sadly, Corinne couldn't make it in the end although Simon came for a little bit.  Naresh, Heather and I took this photo of ourselves with disappointed mournful faces.  Poor Corinne, hope she is ok.

Folk night in Frow

Tonight was the monthly "folk night" at the Hopyard in Forest Row ("Frow").  I'd never been before, but Charly, Emma B and some other girlfriends joined me in spending the evening there after our "Full Circle" singing evening.  It was pretty amazing actually. I definitely want to come another time, and i think Rhodri and some of our other friends would like it too.

Roof problems

Ever since we put in the "pod", we've had trouble with the roof.  As in, water was getting inside the pod in places water wasn't supposed to be.  So the guys came back and did some more work on it today. Luckily it was a beautiful day!

Back to Sussex, here we go

We flew back on New Years Day and it was fairly uneventful.  So we got to Heathrow around 12 noon and then took the ol' National Express bus around to Gatwick Airport and then hopped in a taxi from there back home.  It was great to be home and have the weekend to settle in.  I joined my mermadam friends for a swim on Saturday and it was great to be back at our beach to dip together.

Afterwards, Cat and I went to The Range and I made some great home purchases including these three nesting tables for use in the living room.

The whole fandamily

 Here is a photo from our family photo session over the holidays:

Back row, l to r: Heidi, Will, Rhodri, John, Eric, Kristin, Lisl and Rebecca.

Front row, l to r: Ingrid, Billy, Tryfan, Phoebe, Jordan, Grandma Debi, Luke, Rhiannon and Evan.