Nethercott Manor

As part of my birthday present this year, we went as a family to the Escape Rooms at Tulley's Farm and attempted the Nethercott Manor room. None of us had ever done one of these before, but we had a really great time. We did not manage to escape, though!

Afterwards we went out for dinner at Tarana in Turners Hill, which I drive past nearly every day and have always wanted to stop at! It was great since it wasn't too crowded (being a Sunday night) and they had a buffet on which was very reasonably priced. Win win!  A great way to end the weekend / start my birthday week. 

Beautiful view

Some mornings are just so beautiful, especially when there is a cloud inversion across the valley.

Pune!

I left on Monday morning (Nov 4th) to go to Pune India for the week. It was a long way to go for just a few days, but I guess it was worthwhile.

 I was traveling with my colleagues Suha and Alex. This photo I took of them was more for the purpose of capturing the scene in the background, where two men were posing with a mural of a fairy and a butterfly. It was a bit strange.

At least I got to see my old friend Anand on my last day there before catching my flight home. In fact, we also took time to walk past and even visit the bookshop of the Osho Meditation Centre https://www.osho.com/. This would only really be interesting for any of you readers who has watched the documentary mini-series Wild Wild Country...

Anyway, I had a long but ok flight home.  When I arrived home this morning at 7:45, everyone was still asleep and I didn't have a key! I had to knock on the door until someone woke up to come let me in. But how nice to get straight into bed and snuggle on a Sunday morning!

The scene back home while we were away

Auntie Sions and Winnie had a great time with the troops while Rhods and I were away.

Salisbury

After our big night last night, we got up early this morning to have breakfast and then find a pub to watch the Rugby World Cup final match of England v South Africa. It was pouring rain as we set out, but we were able to find a nice pub and find a place to sit.

Of course nearly the whole pub was supporting England, except for a lone (and loud!) Scotsman and us. England didn't play very well at all and South Africa won in the end. It was a memorable way to start the day.

After the game the sun had come out and we walked over to Salisbury Cathedral.

We went on a tour which was outstanding, and then we had a bite to eat in the beautiful cafe.

We drove back on Sunday morning after going on a little walk around Old Sarum, the site of the first Salisbury Cathedral. These photos don't do it justice, but it was just stunning colors and light this morning.

An exciting send off event

Rhodri and I went to Salisbury today in our new car!

We were invited to attend Wendy Searle's send off event as she prepares to go for the world record of female unsupported solo crossing of Antarctica. Here is an article about the event...
https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/18006232.wendy-searles-record-breaking-solo-race-across-antarctic/
and here is another one.. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/50262980

Wendy is leaving next week to start her adventure, which will be updated here: 
https://southpole2020.com/

I was so happy to see my long lost friend Polly at this event! We went to the pub nearby afterwards and even got to see ourselves on the 10:00 news on BBC as the BBC South edition covered the event as well. 

Halloween 2019

Today was by far our most low-key Halloween ever.
In fact, it was so low-key that I didn't even take any photos!
By the time I got home from work, Tryfs and Oscar had set out on foot to go trick-or-treating round the hood, with the same exact costumes they have been wearing for the past 5 years in a row.
Rhiannon and I quickly carved some pumpkins in a fairly slap-dash sort of way, and then put them out on the driveway to entice kids. In the end, hardly anyone came to the door and it was all a sort of non-event. Oh well. 

A long lost friend reunited

Our old friend and colleague John was in town this week and we managed to reunite with him for dinner on this rainy Saturday night. We picked him up from the Haywards Heath train station and then went to the Witch Inn for dinner.

We had pretty good food and a very enjoyable evening all around!
Then we dropped John back at the train station and headed home.

Chessington - Take 2

We've been here once before, on Easter Sunday, in what was a very long, hot, mainly unpleasant day. That particular day Emma complained and managed to get us all free tickets to return before November, and this was the day we chose! As it happens, today was an inset day for school, so it was perfect for skiving off at Chessington.

Although it was more crowded than we expected, we still had a good time. This is what Tryfan wanted to do for his birthday rather than having a party, so I bought Fast Track tickets for all 6 of us as a birthday present.

 It was a pretty fun day, actually, although it was reaaallly nice to get back into the car to drive home. And now it is the start of half term and the weekend as well! Good times all around.

Tryfan turns 12

Our little Tryfs has turned another year older and is now 12 years old!

And then in contrast I found this photo from nearly 8 years ago

We watched rugby in the morning (two games, back to back) and then Tryfan set up his new Playstation 4 with Rhodri while Rhiannon and I went to look after Tee for a couple of hours.

We went out to Chiquito's for dinner, then home to watch a movie and have some cake.

And so, at 12 years old, our Tryfan is...

- Considerate

- Helpful

- Big into reading

- Good at sports

- Forgetful (always leaving his stuff behind... its not a good thing)

- Loves playing video games (although his time allowed to play is very limited and quite often he gets banned)

- A good kid all around

- Good company in general and we love him

A new lampshade

Meanwhile, I've been working on a new lampshade.
We had a disastrous first attempt at this but now this one does have a beautiful stained glass effect on the ceiling.  It is made with string and a balloon, and the little squares of Quality Street chocolate cellophane wrappers.

Stable boots

Here is Rhiannon showing off her new stable boots while she prepares to do some poo picking in the field with Tee. Lou and I went for a walk in the forest and called by to visit her.  It was a beautiful Sunday morning and such a pleasure to walk over the forest with my dear friend Lou.

Crawley Town FC

In a bit of a spontaneous arrangement, Tryfs and I joined Cat and Bruno to watch the Crawley Town Football Club play against Colchester. At halftime Crawley was down 0-1 and then they came back to win 2-1, scoring 2 beautiful goals that were just so exciting to watch. In this day and age of digitized media, instant replay, slow motion, etc, it is refreshing and so fun to be in the moment with none of that. If you are not watching the game, you've missed the beautiful play and its never coming back. This afternoon was rainy and windy with mild temps, although it does feel quite chilly after just sitting there.
What I especially love are the chants that each time has about specific players, like "We've got Morris in our goal" to the tune of "Whole world in His hands". It just makes me laugh, and its so funny to shout and chant along with my friend Cat and our boys.  We had to scoot home straight afterwards, though now I can't remember why...
In the meantime, Rhodri and Rhiannon had been shopping to buy some stable boots for her to use while she is looking after Tee.

Friday nights and beyond

Since the start of school in September, we have had a sort of 'normal' start to the weekend where Sophie and Oscar come over to have dinner and stay the night. Then in the morning, Sophie and Rhiannon cook bacon to then sell as 'bacon butties' at the Football Cafe in Forest Row.

They all look pretty cute lined up at the breakfast bar, eating pizza and being cheeky.

Mornings with my girl

During the week, Rhiannon and I are the first to wake up and start the day. 

I treasure these brief morning moments, even though we are often both a bit grouchy and ruffled. We shared a beautiful sunrise together today. 

A week in Paris

This past week I've been in Paris for work.
The week started on Sunday evening when I drove Michel to the airport. We had flights at the same time, so we got to hang out and reflect on the weekend before saying goodbye.






I had a late night arrival into Paris, then an hour drive to Melun. Monday through Wednesday were spent there in Melun, then on Thursday morning the group of 3 of us traveled into Paris city center to spent the remainder of the week.

It was a beautiful autumnal stretch of days.

One of the highlights was seeing Flo for dinner on Thursday night

Today (Friday) I left the office late afternoon but not before a team field trip up to the top floor of our office building where there is a nice terrace with a view of the Eiffel Tower. It was really nice to arrive home this evening. In fact, Rhodri ended up going into London tonight to meet some friends, so I got to just drive the car home myself from the train station. That was handy. And now its the weekend!

The Godfather

This weekend Tryfan's Godfather Michel came to stay. We have been waiting and looking forward to this weekend for a long time. This morning the 3 of them (Rhodri, Tryfan and Michel) went to Tryfan's football match in Crawley, then got dropped off at K2 climbing center for a few hours of climbing. 

In the afternoon, we rode bikes down to Latchett's Farm for ice cream

 And then in the evening we went for dinner at the Peacock, and all the while Rhiannon was having a good time sleeping over at Aggie's house.

First game of the season

I went to watch Tryfan's game today, and left Rhiannon doing homework. Here are the boys heading out the door.

 I followed and was able to watch nearly the whole game. It was pretty rough to watch! One little guy got a bloody nose, several others had to be taken off due to injuries. All of us parents on the sidelines were really grimacing. Our team (Haywards Heath) lost in the end, but it was a good game.

Afterwards, the entire club gathered to watch the England - Samoa game of the Rugby World Cup, and actually 2 of the players (1 from each side) were former players at Haywards Heath Rugby Club, so that was a little claim to fame.

Big T

In the late afternoon, Rhiannon took T out for a ride in the forest.
She looked regal riding him.

He doesn't like standing still to get his photo taken, though!

The gentleman's game

Now is a new era of rugby for Tryfan.
He got his club tie today in a ceremony at the Haywards Heath Rugby Club.

This is now the beginning of proper rugby culture, where all the players arrive to each match looking very smart by wearing their white shirts, black trousers and club ties. They all get changed into their team uniforms, play their match, and then shower and change afterwards back into their smart clothes to then have a sit-down meal with the other team. 

Rhodri is again one of the coaches, and we look forward to a great rugby season which will last from now until mid-May!