2nd May Bank Holiday

It has been a good weekend. We bought a scarifier at Uncle Harvey's suggestion, and what a great power tool that is! It made such a mess of the lawn, but in doing so it pulled up loads of dead grass and invasive moss. I look forward to the next time it gets used because it is so satisfying to dredge up all that old dead stuff.


We also met up with some new friends whose kids go to the primary school. They moved here from Guernsey - so exotic! They are really nice people and their kids are fun to be with, too. We all went for a walk in the forest and had snacks at the Llama Park near Wych Cross.

 In the late afternoon, there was a community BBQ at the Jubilee green. We all went to that as well, and it was exactly how a community BBQ should be: relaxed, easy, casual, social and fun. It didn't go on for too late and we just walked home when it was finished. All good!
Tomorrow is back to work for me, but the kids have half term now for a week so they get to lie in and watch telly, etc. Lucky!

Paris trip

While Tryfan was in Beer, I was in Paris for work. It was a full and hectic week, but on the last night the center manager organized for us to go on a dinner cruise on the Seine. Here I am with Frederic, Guy, Riadh and Kathleen. We had a fun evening and a nice meal.

I was really glad to travel home on Friday, though. In fact, I arrived just 5 minutes before we needed to go pick up Tryfan from school. A happy reunion at the start of a long weekend!

School trip to Beer

Tryfan's class went on a week long residential trip to Beer, in Devon. They left on Monday morning and came back Friday afternoon. Mrs GJ kept us all updated on the class blog with photos and descriptions throughout each day.

They had incredible weather all week and spent their time visiting museums, eating ice cream, playing in the water at the beach, rolling down grassy slopes, looking for fossils at the beach, tidepooling, eating more ice cream, and then at night playing cards, reading books, and generally being good kids out in the wide world with their teacher!

They are soooo lucky to have Mrs GJ who took the initiative to do something different this year, and did all the reconnaissance work over the past 6 months in order to make this a great week.

Frow Show

Last year i heard an acquaintance talking about the 'Frow Show', so when i saw a sign on the roadside this week for this year's edition, I made a move! I invited Cat who invited a few other girlfriends, and we all gathered at the Hop Yard for a warm up bev. Then we managed to secure some choice real estate near the front of the audience for the comedy show about Forest Row. It was pretty funny. I guess you had to be there, and be familiar with Forest Row as a town, but in terms of fodder for a comedy show, this place is a gold mine!

In fact, the advert for its appearance in the Brighton Fringe festival calls it a 'delightfully warped little Sussex village', and the show itself, "A good ol' fashioned sketch-comedy with clever observational humour, passing comment on what the term 'alternative lifestyle' really means in this ever-changing world." Needless to say, we had a good laugh. Perfect start to the weekend!

SATs week

This week was a big week for Tryfan and his class as they sat through the Year 6 exams known as SATs. Their teacher Mrs GJ really prepared them well and even fed them breakfast this week each morning.


After the last exam was over, they got to watch a film and eat loads of chocolate, cake, sweets and other treats. What a week!

Royal invitation

Rhodri was invited to be a VIP guest at Buckingham Palace today! Here is the story in his own words...

 I was fortunate enough to be invited to Buckingham Palace by the Duke Of Edinburgh Charity. I have been working with the charity for a few years, getting them out on the Arctic Expedition training course I help with. I worked with one of the main donors to the charity to set up the relationship, and get some of their young people out to Norway. Long story short, they invited the Guiding team to Buckingham, palace for the DofE awards days.

There were loads of celebs there (some of whom I knew, others I had no clue who they are???). We had tea in a VIP reception with said Celebs, then it was out on the to the lawn to have a chat with Prince Edward. Nice chap, and I spoke to him about the conditions we faced in Norway, and the difference between expedition skis and cross country skis. Could have kept him there for hours, but alas, he had loads of other to speak to. Then had a stroll around the Palace gardens before exiting through the main front gate, through the curious crowds.
All in all, a great an memorable experience.

Ladies Backpacking trip!

Just back from our inaugural Ladies Backpacking UK trip, and it was fantastic!

I grew up looking forward to the summer that I would be 12 years old so that I could finally join in on my family's Ladies Backpacking trip in the North Cascades. Alas, I still have never been on that annual trip. This has been a source of sadness for me, so this year I decided to start my own version here in the UK. We chose the Knoydart peninsula of Scotland as our destination and we had a blast planning it, looking forward to it, and finally doing it.


Day 1: Flew from Gatwick to Glasgow, arriving at 7 pm. We met Chris who flew from Munich and had been waiting for us several hours. We rented a car and drove 3+ hours to Fort William where we checked into a backpackers hostel.

Day 2: Drove to Morar, left the car in the cemetery (figured it was a safe place to leave it), and headed off along the shore of Loch Morar with the goal of reaching Tarbet by 3:00 so we could get on the 3:30 pm ferry to Inverie we had booked.

 It was a gorgeous day and we did make it to Tarbet in time to meet the ferry, though we had to take a little dingy to get out to the ferry which was hilarious in itself.

 We found our way to the campsite at Long Beach, and after setting up our tents on the lovely grassy site, we walked to the Old Forge pub (mainland Britain's remotest pub!) for dinner. We met the owner, Jean-Pierre, and had a nice meal there before going back to the campsite to have a cozy campfire and then sleeeeeep. It started raining around 10 pm and rained all night.

Day 3: We had breakfast under the overhang at the communal shelter at the campsite as it was raining, and then we headed out for our day's walk across the peninsula to camp near Doune. 

We walked along the coastline looking out at the Isle of Skye across the water and made our way down to Doune in the late afternoon.

 We found a place to camp in a grassy hummocky area on the little peninsula around the bay from the Doune restaurant, and then we walked over for dinner. Turns out that tonight was 'prawns' on the menu and the staff laid out a full spread in a beautiful artistic manner. They served delicious food and nice beverages at very reasonable prices, and we had a great evening!

Day 4: We were invited back to the restaurant for breakfast so we took that offer, then packed up camp and set off to walk back to Inverie via the wiggly coastline. We discovered as we were dismantling the tents that there were hundreds (or more!) of ticks on and around us. Eeek! During the course of the day, we took turns checking and removing ticks from each other before they got too stuck in.

 

 We saw stunning vistas and gorgeous little sandy bays along the way that beckoned us to skinny dip again (as we did the first day in Loch Morar), but in the end we needed to turn up the speed in order to meet the 3:00 ferry to Mallaig. I managed a cheeky dip by myself before we got to civilization, but it was a quick one.

 And although Inverie looked soooo far away, we did manage to get there with enough time to fit in half pints all around at the Old Forge one last time.

 Then we caught the ferry to Mallaig, phoned a taxi on the way, and got a lift from Mary the taxi driver back to our blue car at the Morar cemetary. 

We hopped in and drove 3 hours to get to the Glasgow area where we had booked into a spa hotel for our final night of adventure. We stopped in Glenfinnan on the way (where the Harry Potter bridge is located, as well as the famous landing /launching spot of Bonnie Prince Charlie).

 What a great trip!
Now to start planning next year...

Favorite time of year

This is my favorite week(ish) of the year, since the azaleas are out and they are so stunning.

The boys got back last night and we had a happy reunion exchanging stories of our respective weekends. Now I'm getting ready to go on this ladies backpacking trip in a couple of days! Should be great as well.

Boys weekend of rugby

While we girls were having fun with Flo, the rugby boys in Devon were playing really well. One of the other Dads took these really great photos of Tryfan.

 Their team was undefeated over the course of the whole weekend, which they were all really stoked about. They must have great coaches!

Girls weekend with Flo

Since Tryfan and Rhodri went away to Devon for the annual Rugby Tour, we invited dearest friend Flo to come visit us. Flo is Rhiannon's godmother and they haven't seen each other for a long time, so it seemed like a very good idea. And it was!
She arrived on Friday night and we collected her from Haywards Heath station, then came home to settle in.

Saturday was a bit busy, with Rhiannon and Sophie running their final Football Cafe of the season while Flo and I took Winnie on a walk up behind Tablehurst Farm, then we came back home for lunch before heading out to Brighton for the afternoon.

We did some clothes shopping for Rhiannon, treated ourselves to ice cream and a chocolate feast at ChoccyWoccyDooDah, then walked out on Brighton Pier. It was a beautiful day with dramatic skies. We did get caught by a sudden downpour and took the opportunity to invest in a new umbrella.

Us with a chocolate dog - literally made of chocolate!

Then on Saturday night we lounged on the blue couch and watched FLASHDANCE. Yes, we educated Rhiannon with this classic '80s movie and it was fabulous. So fun to sing along nice and loud during this girlfest night!

In the morning, we took Rhiannon to her horse riding lesson and walked around the forest with Winnie. Then we went for brunch at Trading Boundaries.

 

In the afternoon, we hung out at home relaxing, then cooked a nice meal for us 3 before taking Flo to catch her train at 5:11 pm. We are so happy that Flo was able to come stay with us and make this such a fun weekend.