Teacher presents

Finally the school year is coming to a close tomorrow.
This year we missed the strawberry picking window, so the kids wanted to make some special fudge to give as the end-of-year teacher presents. They actually did the whole thing themselves except for pour the really hot liquid candy into a bowl near the end of the process.

They did a great job but I think our thermometer needs some recalibrating because the fudge stayed a bit too soft. It was still delicious though!

Tour of Wales

Rhodri and his Welsh homies have been planning to ride their bicycles from north to south Wales, and finally the day has come and gone.

Rhodri, Bleddyn, Gareth and Huw

Here is the route that the boys took, with overnight stops in Barmouth, Aberaron and Bryn Amman

They had fabulous weather and nobody got hurt, and by the sounds of it they also had a good time!

Awesome storm (for England)

We've had some hot and sunny weather, and tonight we had a pretty good storm come through while we were all over at Cat and Bruno's house.

Here is a video that Rhiannon took: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgNEZxwfYrc

Beavers performance

Sam, Rory, Harry B, ??, ??, Tryfan, ?? and Ollie DF

Tonight was the final night (and performance for the parents) of Beavers, which is the scouts group that comes before Cubs in the UK. Tryfan joined Beavers a couple of months ago, but we still haven't gotten around to buying him a uniform or doing anything committed to this group. We were able to scrounge a jumper for him at least for the grand finale. Here he is with his Beaver homies singing some funny song about a squirrel.

Sk8ters

This morning we went to Argos and bought some inline skates for the troops, then spent the afternoon skating in front of Cat and Bruno's house. It was a gorgeous day with big dark clouds moving quickly across the sky.

View from the front patio to the end of the driveway where the kids were skating

Rio, Lil T and B

Littlestock 2014

Our friends Rob and Macha and their neighbors Mary and Julian put on their 2nd annual "Littlestock" festival on their property this weekend. Originally we were going to go and camp and do the whole festival thing, but Rhodri and I weren't really up for doing all of that so we just went along for the evening.

Although it rained a lot during the night last night and this day started out cloudy, it turned into a fine warm day and we were happy for the hosts to be able to enjoy this party that they had spent so much time planning. They had a sort of square dancing caller who called a few dances (which Rhiannon participated in, but none of the rest of us did), and there were loads of nekkid children running around. It was a nice atmosphere, but I myself didn't feel like chitchatting too much so was pretty glad when we left around 10 pm, just as it was starting to get turn to twilight.

Nearly lost both of them

The first one fell out, and now the 2nd one is really wobbly!

Kristiansund revisited

This week I went back to Kristiansund, Norway for the 2nd of my 2 visits. It coincided with the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and I couldn't resist staying up late with my colleagues to watch the games outside at a Brazilian restaurant.

 It happened to be stunning weather while I was there and while we had to be inside working for most of the day for Tues-Wed-Thurs that I was there, we did make a trip round the island in one of the boats just to get some fresh air.

Stanley let me drive this workboat and I was pretty nervous at first, but then I got the hang of it and found it really fun.

Me driving the boat with Paul and Rick behind

 I flew back early on Friday morning - flight left at 7am from Molde, which is a 1 hour drive from Kristiansund. It was a gorgeous morning with beautiful light and clouds over the mountains.

One great thing that happened on this trip is that I received a gift from the universe! I had finished the book I was reading on my flight to Norway and had forgotten that it is hard to find books in English over there, so I was resigned to reading magazines and doing work on my travel back to England. However, as I was waiting to get on the plane in Molde - and I was one of the last people to get on the plane - I was standing by a trash can and I saw that there was a book on top of it in English! Nobody else was around, so clearly someone had finished reading it but couldn't bear to put it in the trash, so left it for somebody to find... and that somebody was me! I was absolutely thrilled to dive into "The Circle" by Dave Eggers on my travel back today.

Skate park

The other day, we took the scooters over to the relatively new skate park in Forest Row and the kids scootered around. They also like playing on the exercise equipment that is set up there.

Eggs

I noticed the labeling on our eggs this week and thought it was funny to brag about the inquisitive nature of this particular breed of chickens:

A project begins...

This week we started making some changes to Chalfonts. It sure is a mess now!
We are starting by having the house rewired because the electrical system is dodgey and we've also been changing the lighting systems so that we have LED lights recessed in the ceiling rather than floor lamps. We are also replacing the boiler and all the radiators so that we'll have a more efficient heating system. All good changes, but these are just the start!

 The guys who have been doing all the work are Nathan the electrician and Barry the plumber.

Rhodri, Nathan and Barry taking a break on the back steps

They are awfully nice guys and have a soft spot for Bentley, who has been taking advantage of their good will and sandwich morsels!

A lovely end to the week

On Friday evenings, our kids go to cricket practice in Forest Row along with a bunch of other kids in the hood from 6-7:15 pm. Normally I come straight from work to meet everyone there, but sometimes Emma and I sneak off for our own little happy hour and then meet our respective families afterwards. Today was a particularly gorgeous evening and we met at the top of the Ashdown Forest to enjoy a little aperitif with an amazing view across the land.

Sports Day 2014

Today was Sports Day at the school. It was the long awaited running race that Tryfan has been talking about since last year at Sports Day when he came in 3rd place to Harrison's 1st. He has been desperate to beat Harrison since then.

The long awaited running race for the Year 1 class

He ended up coming in a close 2nd to Harrison this year and he was quite proud of that. He also tied for 1st place in the standing long jump competition.  Rhiannon did really well with the aiming and throwing competition and also the standing long jump.

The scene at the Recreation ground

It was a gorgeous day and Rhodri and I were both glad to be there supporting the kids.

Ashdown weekend

This weekend was the long-awaited "Ashdown Weekend", which is held every other year at the recreation ground in Danehill. It had the feeling of a wedding without any bride or groom. That is to say, everyone dressed up in their nicest clothes, most feeling a bit awkward about that, but making the most of the occasion anyway.

"The Gaters": Sarah, Phil, Liz, Marc, Lucy, Rhods, Mac, Anne-Marie, Sasha, Gordon, me, Naresh, Jules, Adrian, Charlotte, Catherine, Vicky, Ed, Sharon, Rachel and Johnny.

 It was a self-catering event, meaning that you bring your own food and drink and pay for the privilege of doing so. Ha. I was lukewarm about going to this in the first place, but we figured we'd go this one time since a lot of our Chelwood Gate ("Gater") friends were going and had already arranged a nice meal.

Uninspiring view of the inside of the marquee

It started at 7:30pm and finished at 2am. We walked the mile+ back to our house and were in bed around 3. Fortunately Cat had suggested that I bring some other shoes to walk home in and I was so glad that I did this!

Poor Rhodri had to get up early to go help take down the marquee, and then we had stupidly volunteered to help out at the school fete this afternoon. It was a very long day today.

Revisiting the ol' hood

This past week I was in Asker, Norway for work and I made the most of this time to see as many of my close friends as possible. I arrived on Monday night and stayed with Michel in Oslo, then Tuesday went into Asker to stay at the Scandic Hotel for a couple nights. I surprised Hanne by showing up at her belly dancing class at Elixia.

Hanne and her class of belly dancers

 Then after having dinner with my manager Lyndsey at the hotel, I reunited with Beate for a few hours in the evening to catch up on our lives. It was fun to see "little" Max who is all grown up now,

Beate and Max

By coincidence, my long lost friend Elin and her family was staying in the same hotel even though they live in Asker. It turns out that they have moved to Houston for a couple of years but were back in Asker visiting their friends. I didn't get to see Sophie who was Rhiannon's bestest friend, but I saw Johanne (Tryfan's friend) and their new little sister Eva. It was really great to reconnect with Elin.

Elin with Johanne and Eva

 On Thursday night I moved out of the hotel and stayed at Monica & Helge's house just across the street from the house we used to live in. Monica had kindly arranged to have Phil and Emily and their brood over for supper so that I could see them too! Phil ended up taking the kids home while Helge put Kristoffer and Joachim to bed so that us three ladies could have a girly night staying up late.

Phil, Monica, William, Emily and Olivia

Friday morning I flew back to Gatwick and did a few hours in the office before heading home. It was a really great week in Asker and I felt so grateful to have been able to be go there.

Big one gone

Tryfs lost his first top front tooth this week right before I left for Norway.
He looks so cute with that big hole in front!

Taming of the Shrew

This weekend we had tickets to go see the production of Taming of the Shrew which was being performed inside a barn on a working farm near us.

We went on the Family Day and had a picnic and tour round the farm in the back of a cattle truck before the performance at 4:30pm.

There was a lot of discussion beforehand about rodent shrews vs. bad-tempered women shrews, and Tryfan was especially interested to find out what/ who the shrew was. The lady who played Katharina had terrific facial expressions and she was really fun to watch.

Rhiannon with "Minka" in the cattle truck

We had good seats in the back row (only 4 rows) and although the play was a bit confusing and long-winded to start with, it soon became entertaining for all.

View from our seats inside the barn

Rainbow loom crazy

All the kids around here are totally obsessed with these rainbow rubber band projects. Rhiannon talked me into buying 1800 bands and 75 clasps for a mere £2.70 from Amazon, and both she and Tryfan were SO happy when they arrived a few days later!

They mostly make bracelets, but they are now venturing into bigger projects like the jump rope they made above.

Lovely neighbors and sunshiney days

We have had a super weekend of neighbor friends coming over to play and just hang out chatting, and then also being invited over to other neighbors houses to do the same.

Classic Chalfonts scene in the late Saturday sunshine: food, wine, laundry, kids playing

We had a good match of soccer in the back garden and played until late in the evening.

On Sunday, Rhodri and Gordon went to Essex (~1 hr drive) to spend the day doing a rugby-coaching class so that they can become youth coaches in coming seasons. I called Anne Marie (Gordon's wife) around mid morning to see what they were up to, and it turns out they were on their way to her parent's house to spend the day swimming. She invited us along and we were absolutely thrilled to be able to spend this gorgeous day playing in the pool and lounging in the shade.

Rhiannon, Joe, Tryfan and Sam

The men came back in the late afternoon and we all played in the pool for a bit before heading back home for dinner and bedtime. Great day all around, except that Rhiannon got a little bit sunburnt. Actually, the whole weekend was absolutely ideal. More of this, please!

This year's batch of Elderflower Champagne

It is elderflower season again, and so it's time to brew up some champagne using this trusty recipe that has worked well in past years! Rhiannon and I made a really good team mixing the ingredients together, sterilising the bottles, and then 24 hours later pouring the precious liquid into the clean bottles, ready to sit and ferment for a week.