Blog
November 2022. Two lovely weeks in Gran Canaria. 27 degrees every day!
October 2022. A few days in North Wales/Chester catching up with old friends Simon & Linda plus cousin Paul & Gillian.
September 2022. Ten days in Greece with Richard & Elaine and Neil & Kate. A fantastic, luxurious holiday with very good friends.
August 2022. The Commonweath Games in Birmingham. Stayed for the week and took Rebekah and Ben with us. We all really enjoyed the whole experience.
July 2022. Had a lovely week in Aberfeldy, Scotland. Saw Val and Alan, plus cousin Maggie on the way up and visited Alice and Andy plus Irene in Kirkcaldy while we were there.
late May 2022. Had a week in Tetbury. It was supposed to be for the Woolsack races but that didn't happen. Enjoyed the break, though.
early May 2022. A week in Pembrokeshire.
February 2022. Two weeks in Gran Canaria. The first time since the pandemic started and it was a bit scary. But it was lovely.
6th January 2022. We're spending some time in our flat in Sheffield while we aren't doing much at home. It's been great seeing Colin and Charlie and good to spend time with Martin and his kids. Bertie has made a very good start back at school and we're all very happy about that.
1st January 2022. Another year begins. Lets hope it's better than the last two. Happy New Year everyone.
25th December 2021. We had a proper Christmas this year. Martin, Eve, Bertie and Ted came down from Sheffield and stayed with Greta. Spence put on his famous Christmas Dinner, and with Rebekah and Ben we had a really good time (sadly we can only see the top of Spence's head, sorry Spence).
Christmas day. Greta's kids were wonderful with their cousins. Ben in particular was really good with Bertie.
14th December 2021. Where have the last two years gone? I haven't had the enthusiasm to put anything here for a very long time.
Sadly we lost my sister, Jackie, this year. She died on Easter Sunday but because of all the Covid restrictions we couldn't have a proper funeral. So, at the beginning of December we had a memorial service for her and that was lovely.
25th December 2020. Happy Christmas to all our friends and relatives. A very different Christmas this year and we are on our own for the first time in the whole of our married life - that's 50 years. But we haven't missed out on a fabulous Dinner, because Greta and Spence delivered "meals on wheels" in hot dishes ready for us to eat.
12th September 2020. We've had a break in the Scottish Highlands. We broke the journey in Penrith going up and back, and stayed in a self-catering apartment in Aviemore. We took all our food with us so didn't need to go in any shops. We managed to get up to the far north and visit John O'Groats, which has been on our bucket list for years. The weather was surprisingly good and we had a lovely time.
7th August 2020. We have had a few lovely days in London (thanks to the generosity of Richard Dawes). The hotel was simply amazing and we had some lovely walks. This is a picture of us in front of Buckinham Palace. We also visited the Sky Garden and many other attractions around the river.
1st August 2020. It's our 50th wedding anniversary and Jennie's birthday. How can we have been married for so long?
Sandra and John visited in the morning, see next section. In the evening we went out for a lovely meal at the Mill at Sonning with Greta, Spence, Rebakah and Ben. It was the first meal we hadn't cooked for ourselves for almost five months.
It was a very special day indeed.
Sandra and John visited us for our golden wedding and that was very special. They bought us a lovely sundial which now has pride of place in our garden.
Sandra also came for Jennie's birthday because they go back a very long way with each other. I think it's 69 years!
11th July 2020. We have escaped the lockdown and come to Sheffield. The journey was a bit scary but we are now happy in our flat. We've been to our favourite cafe and seen the family. We still have a few days to enjoy ourselves.
26th March 2020. We are now fully into the Coronavirus lockdown and we're not leaving the house. Last week we were in Cumbria. It had been booked for a while and we'd intended to see various friends and family but the social distancing put paid to that. So we had a quiet week on our own in the countryside and really enjoyed it. We briefly stopped in Sheffield on the way back, shut up the flat and said goodbye to the family for who knows how long. That was sad.
Now we are isolated with a potential lack of excercise. However our dance teacher has set up an online class which is working very well. Our gym has also put up videos so we are doing high-energy dances in our front room. Stay safe everyone!
9th February 2019. We have just returned from an absolutely lovely holiday in Gran Canaria. We were there for two weeks and we didn't see a cloud for all that time and temperatures were in the mid-upper twenties. Staying in our timeshare apartment as usual, everything was familiar and we had our usual walks and activities. We were both still suffering a bit from colds so the warm weather did us a lot of good.
29th October 2019. We have had the most amazing adventure in South America including the incredible Machu Picchu. It exceeded all of our expectaions and we simply can't believe where we've been or what we've seen. It will take a while to get our thoughts, and pictures, together, so watch this space.
28th July 2019. Jennie and I took Rebekah and Ben to France for a few days. Rebekah had missed out on her school trip to Bayeux and Ben was interested in the D-day stuff, so we took them to Normandy. We had an apartment in the centre of Bayeux so we could walk to see the Tapestry, the Cathedral and the War Graves. We visited the most famous Beaches and because the weather was so hot we swam in the sea at Arromanches. We had an adventure in the tunnels of a German Battery and relived the story of the gliders at Pegasus Bridge. The kids were so good and we had real fun together.
13th May 2019. We had a very good holiday in Greece. Starting in Athens where we visited the Acropolis (which we could see from the roof of our hotel) amongst other amazing ancient stuff. We were very surprised how lovely the city is.
Then we spent a week in Corfu, staying in an apartment on the east coast just north of Corfu Town. The first couple of days we used the bus to visit the Town and really enjoyed it. The weather wasn't particularly warm or sunny so we hired a car and spent the rest of the week travelling around the whole island. We tried to see the top ten recommended sights and enjoyed it very much indeed.
23rd March 2019. We are back home after what feels like a world tour. We've only been around the UK of course. We started in Sheffield to catch up with our new baby Ted and found the family in a really good place. Next we had a week in the Lake District where we visited old friends, places and relatives. The weather was interesting with snow and floods throughout the week. It was good to spend time with Paul and Kay and they took us on some challenging walks. The day we spent with our old neighbours, Val and Alan, was lovely - thanks to them for their hospitality. We caught up with my cousins Peter and Margaret, catching up with family gossip. Then to Appleby to have a good lunch with Helen and Carl. Heading back South we stopped in Sheffield to have another cuddle with Ted and Bertie. Finally down to Clacton to attend the funeral of our old friend Marjorie Legg. Phew!
9th February 2019. It was a shock getting back to the UK after a wonderful holiday in Punta Cana, a beach destination in the Dominican Republic. We spent two lovely weeks there in the all-inclusive, adults-only Secrets resort. The temperature was around 28 degrees every day with a beautiful blue sky. The beach was two miles of white sand and we swam in the warm sea almost every day. We had two trips out, one to see the countryside and local sights and one to the capital, Santa Domingo. We came back totally relaxed.
19th December 2018. On Sunday we saw Paul McCartney in the O2. It was the most incredible concert with Paul playing non-stop for three hours, performing 40 songs, including some from the Beatles, his early solo stuff, Wings and his more recent recordings. There were amazing video and lighting effects plus pyrotechnics to add to the show. Then towards the end Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood came on stage and they played Get Back together. We couldn't believe we were there!
27th November 2018. We had a very relaxing two weeks in Gran Canaria. The weather wasn't quite as hot as it can be but it suited us very well. We did plenty of walking, swimming, reading and not much else really! We know the place intimately, of course, since we've been going there for 20 years.
30th September 2018. We've had a really good week in Gloucestershire, staying in the amazing Stouts Hill in Uley. We visited all our old haunts, including Tetbury, Malmesbury, Westonbirt Arboretum, Abbey House Gardens, Slimbridge and the Sharpness/Gloucester canal. We met with our lovely friends including Sandra and John, Linda and Stuart, Jackie and John, and David. Good to see them all. We ate too much food but did a fair bit of walking, too. A very successful and enjoyable week.
12th August 2018. We had a simply wonderful holiday in Cornwall to celebrate Jennie's 70th birthday with the family. I think this picture says it all. The holiday house on the cliff top looking over Cadgwith, near the Lizard, was called Bodrigy and was fabulous. See here for more details.
24th June 2018. I had the most amazing day yesterday. Alan James took me flying! We flew in the Pietenpol he'd built himself and spent the day at Bicester Freewheel where there were old cars and planes on show plus an amazing air display. Flying back I was composed enough to take a few photographs. Thanks Alan!
23rd June 2018. We have had the most wonderful holiday walking the River Wye Valley from Chepstow to the mountains of mid Wales. We walked around 150 miles over 12 days staying in a variety of B&Bs. We were following a book of the walk which was generally straightforward. We got lost a couple of times but it wasn't a problem really.
6th May 2018. We've had a lovely week's holiday in Crete. We'd never been before and found it to be absolutely wonderful. We were lucky with the weather - much warmer than usual apparently. We had a self catering apartment in a very nice resort overlooking Hersonissos, about 25km east of the airport at Heraklion. During the week we visited the ancient sites of Knossos and Phiastos plus a good day out in Chania. But the highlight of the week was a walk through the Samaria Gorge. It took all day by the time we'd driven there and back but our fitness showed and we did the 16km with relative ease. We had good flights there and back thanks to easyJet and it's great that we brought the good weather back with us!
24th February 2018. We're safely back from a simply amazing holiday.
We started the adventure in Cambodia. In Phnom Penh we saw the Killing Fields and Siem Reap for Angkor Wat. Next to Vietnam where we went to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City where we experienced the war tunnels. After a day on the Mekong Delta we spent three days at a beach resort in Phan Thiet to recover before flying to Thailand. In Bangkok we spent quality time with Tony, Choloh and little Emily and explored the amazing city. We also had a trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai which was very special.
1st October 2017. We climbed Ben Nevis. It was hard but we did it. Three and a half hours up, two and a half down. This is us at the top with Andy our guide. The weather was dry and sunny all the way until the top, where there was just a bit of mist to spoil the view. It was chilly out of the sun but we managed to sit and have our lunch. We liked Fort William and would like to go back again one day. After the climb we drove across to Fife and spent time with Alice, Andy and Sandra plus Rab and Irene. We enjoyed seeing them all again.
14th September 2017. We have had a very good holiday in Sicily with friends Neil and Kate and Richard and Elaine. It was particularly interesting because Jennie, Neil and Richard started school together in Iver when they were five and they joined Kate in Langley Grammar Schhol at the age of eleven. We all got on surprisingly well and thoroughly enjoyed the Villa, the local people and the lovely country. We had some good meals together and drove about 1000km around the country. There were many highlights but for me Ragusa, Mount Etna and the Benanti winery were tops. Thanks to Richard for sharing their holiday with us.
21st June 2017. We've spent a lovely week on the north-east coast with our good friends, Paul and Kay. We stayed in Bamburgh and visied the various castles and interesting locations in the area. The best day was a trip to the Farne Islands where we saw seals and sea birds up close. The best were Puffins, of course. We also visited Sheffield on the way up and back, plus a stop in Penrith to visit cousins Maggie and Peter.
13th April 2017. We've had an incredible experience in America's Deep South. The trip was organised by Riviera Travel. Not knowing quite what to make of a package tour we were pleasantly surprised. We flew into Atlanta, Georgia, and learned about the fight for Civil and Human Rights. Then to Chattanooga, Tenessee, an old railway town. After a tour round the Jack Daniel distillery we continued to Nashville, the centre for country music, the famous RCA Studio B and had an evening's entertainment in the Grand Ole Opry In Memphis we toured Sun Studio and experienced the heart of Soul and Blues music. Had a fantastic visit to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, saw where Martin Luther King was shot then took an Amtrak train to New Orleans and the Mississippi river. We enjoyed the serious music scene in the French Quarter and had a great guided walk around the city. Heading west we visited a Cotton Plantation and had a river boat ride to see Alligators. Had a fantastic tour of the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, where we saw the iconic control room for the moon landings. On to San Antonio and The Alamo to learn about the many battles between the north and the south. Next to Fort Worth, the middle of cattle country, and on to Dallas, Texas, where we saw the place John F Kennedy was assassinated. Finally we flew back from Dallas to Atlanta then back home. All that, and more, in only two weeks. Phew!
Riviera Travel recorded their promotional video while we were there - see how many times you can spot us!
31st January 2017. We have had a simply amazing holiday in Costa Rica. Photos are here.
24th September 2016. Last weekend we sadly lost Colin's lovely dog, Riley. She had been a wonderful member of the family for 15 years and Josh had grown up with her. She had all the symptoms of old age but was loved right up to the end. She will be missed.
June 2016. Had a good couple of weeks in Switzerland.
February/March 2016. Spent 5 weeks in Australia.
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