Leavers Ceremony

Rhiannon's school had their Leaver's Ceremony today, which was all a bit weird because, a) most people had gone on holiday already, b) parents were not invited, and c) they were really strict about the timings of the arrival and departures of students to the event!  I'm guessing they must have had some problems in the past. Anyway, Rhiannon and Evie went together and had their school shirts signed along with everyone else.  Now it is time for them to get ready to go to Prom later tonight!

Meanwhile, back at home

Two massive things were happening: Rhiannon finished her GCSE exams on Thursday 23 June, and then Tryfan and Rhodri had the annual Football Awards ceremony to mark the end of the season. Since Rhodri is one of the coaches, he couldn't miss this but there was a lot of discussion to find some way that Rhiannon could go somewhere to celebrate the end of her exams. In the end, she took the train to London and then the National Express bus to Cardiff.  It was a bit stressful because that particular day was in between some train strikes and there was a lot of uncertainty around it, but she was able to get to Auntie Sions house in Cardiff safe and sound.  Sadly, I don't have any photos to share from this chapter of the Lewis family in action.

But I do have a photo of the Forest Row Football Team (under 14s).

Ladies Backpacking trip

We finally made it to Germany for our [should be] annual Ladies Backpacking tour. Anne Marie, Heather and I flew Gatwick to Munich and were promptly met by our 4th member Chris, and we headed off to start our adventure!!

We stayed in a little hotel in a suburb of Munich on Wed night and then left after breakfast to drive to Spitzingsee to start our hike.

Driving to the Alps in the south of Germany

Such a beautiful day!

We parked at the fancy spa hotel that we would be ending our circular hike at and set off from the top of the driveway!

Here we are with Spitzingsee Lake behind us.

We hiked only a couple of hours up to our mountain hut that we will stay tonight, and we left our bags there to hike up to the top of one of the surrounding peaks.  It was a gorgeous day, not too hot and not too cold, with fabulous visibility.

The next day we hiked up and around and down and up and down across beautiful Alpine terrain. 

We took a lunch stop at this mountain hut that was perched on a spectacular overlook.

Towards the end of the day some big massive clouds were coming through and we could hear thunder and see lightning off in the distance.  We thought for sure we would get nailed by the rain, but we didn't! We made it to our second hut where we stayed for the night and had a really good time laughing with Marcus.

The next day was sadly our final day of hiking, and we looped around and back to Spitzingsee where we went swimming in the lake, enjoyed the spa and sauna at the edge of the lake, and had a wonderful last meal to conclude our very civilized Ladies Backpacking Trip.

Really sad that it has all come to an end so quickly, but we had a brilliant time and are already planning next year's trip which will be to the same region but a different circular.

Fathers Day

We had a really fun and surprising Fathers Day today!  I kept it a surprise until we got there, but we had an afternoon of axe-throwing and outdoor laser tag.  The axe throwing was just us 4 with an Instructor, which was fun but probably wouldn't do it again. The outdoor laser tag, on the other hand, was super fun.  This place is a bit crazy - there were many groups here and some people were really into it. Can you spot the moving tree in the photo below?

Getting axe-throwing instruction

The laser tag was hilarious, because there was a group of 9 that were already signed up, but we didn't realise that it was an 8 year old birthday party! Rhodri was reallly winding them up beforehand because we thought we would be against them, but in reality everyone was randomly distributed.  As a surprise, Anne Marie and I coordinated and so the Denslow family was here too!

We had a brilliant time, and although it was only 2 games of 20 minutes each, we were all exhausted afterwards due to all the running in the woods!  We debriefed afterwards with some cocktails at the Hop Yard in Forest Row. A brilliant day!

Last shift at the Red Lion

 With all the upcoming events in the next few weeks, Rhiannon realised that tonight is really the last Friday that she will be available to work at the Red Lion.  We decided to call in and mark the occasion with her.

This job has been great for her, in that her confidence in speaking with people has gone right up. And she has had a great time!

Skiving

 Today Rhiannon and I snuck off down to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon. What a treat it was to be with her on our mini road trip down to Newhaven! I treasured this day.  We had to race back so she could go to work at the Red Lion.

Revising / Preparing

Our girl has been working so hard to revise / prepare for her 26 GCSE exams. They started on May 10th and finish June 23rd. She has been really organised and disciplined in her approach, and she has notes pasted all over the house! Here are some of her biology notes in the bathroom

Sunday in Sussex

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning out on the deck, and then peeled off in various directions.  Us girls took a trip down to Brighton to walk around and have lunch, etc. 

Meanwhile, Tryfan and Michel went climbing at a gym near us and Rhodri had the afternoon to himself

And then all too soon our friends had to leave and our grand weekend with these wonderful people came to an end!

Dinner party

Denise and Ava returned from their travels this afternoon and so we had a great dinner party with them and Michel. Everyone pitched in to contribute to the meal, and it was just a really great evening.

Michel the Man

When I flew back from Madrid to Gatwick, our friend Michel was there waiting for me in the airport!  This was all planned ahead of time, but it was nice that it actually worked out and even nicer to reunite with him. We collected the car and headed home for the weekend together.  We went to the Red Lion for a weekend kick off bev.

On Saturday morning, Michel joined me and my swimming homies for a lovely dip

And then later in the day he pitched in by very helpfully mowing the lawn! .

Michel is a man of many talents, and I haven't even started to mention his cooking skills!

Football tourny

 While Michel was out swimming with me, Tryfan and Rhodri had a football tournament in Worthing which lasted all day. But they came away with 2nd place trophy and were pretty happy about how they played.

Madrid adventure

Everything is an adventure these days! I've had a few kind of magic days here in Madrid attending the EAGE conference.  First, I met the musician who would be performing at the conference in line to get a taxi at the Madrid airport - that was funny!  Then I saw my old long lost friend Leendert at the Icebreaker event, and then during the course of the conference I saw several other old buddies plus made some new friends as well.  The highlight though was traveling with my new boss Ann - she is so fun and friendly to everyone she meets. She was chatting away in broken Spanish to random people on the sardine-like metro as we traveled from the hotel to the conference in the morning, and she befriended the security guard. I think I used to be more like this but over the years have kind of fallen out of the habit of being this amount of friendly. I hope this exposure rubs off on me because it is so fun and funny to have these little exchanges with people in the wide world.

Ann is also a legend and an inspiration in her professional life. She was on this panel alongside big names at BP, Total, and Repsol, and she said things out loud that made my eyes widen (like, did she really just say that?!). She is so passionate about geothermal energy, and renewable energy in general, and she is so knowledgeable about all aspects of the topic. I love how she can say brave things in a friendly way.  I feel so lucky to have her as my boss!

Another highlight was seeing my old colleague Jorge, who lives in Madrid and just showed up to see familiar faces. I got to ride on the back of his motorcycle from the conference to my hotel (rather than taking the sardine-squished metro!). 

Here is me and Anantza the security guard, who I got to become friends with too. She is hilarious. I've never met such a smiley, friendly security guard!

One night we had this big event at a large property with 3 bands, some flamenco dancers, and loads of food. 

And then when it finished on Thursday, I went up and spent the evening with dear Laura. Finally I got to meet her daughter and husband after all these years of hearing about them.

She kindly took me to the airport this morning and I flew back to Gatwick, where Michel was waiting for me to arrive so we could enjoy the weekend together!