Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…

Whoosh! The time has flown. We seem to have hit the tarmac running, and I am reminded of my hairdresser in Adelaide describing how he hyperventilates when he lands in Sydney as the pace of life just accelerates. (This is Steve who bought an ex racehorse to train and compete in dressage competitions in order to fill in his spare time! Hmmm.

Anyway on a more normal level we have been racing about the country, John to the south to visit kids and sisters, me to Wales to visit the bride-to-be and Leo.

I do like Penarth and the little house that Natasha and Leo bought in December. Of course now it is almost demolished on the inside, as rooms have been opened, walls have been broken down, bathroom has been relocated and French doors put in…all at the same time. I was quite horrified to see the old bath still in the middle of the kitchen and even more bemused when I found myself in it the following morning!

It’s amazing how quickly you get off the high horse and just go with the flow! The pair are full of plans and the plumbing for the new bathroom is to start soon and all the fitments bought so Natasha was just bending my ear about possible floor coverings…tile, wood, slate, lino etc etc. I can’t wait to see the completed house, and I think it will be finished before the stupid Edinburgh Tram Works which seem to be never-ending.

I had some art work to share my room with!

So wedding plans are in full swing, and I am delighted to announce that I shall be Granny Gael in the New Year! (maybe the above ‘art picture’ is a sign of what is to come!!!

We spent lovely sunny days wandering about Penarth and the surrounding area and wandered about the Llandaff cathedral where the bishop who gave his name to a particularly lovely dahlia presided.

We visited Barry Island, legendary home of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and lost a whole £3 on the gaming machines…on the 2p tables. Such fun! My most inexpensive day so far!

Before I left Doha Carol, Rose and I sewed up the bunting that John had carefully cut out, and we had about 150 m of the stuff…Tasha and friend tried it out in the church hall, and it is perfect. Phew!

John collected me and we drove over to the Mumbles in the Gower Peninsula, and walked down to the sea on one of the Three Cliff walks passing the Rest Home that once was the house of Dylon Thomas.

I knew that Joyce and Al from the US were visiting in the area, (friends from Sabah days around 1982) so I said to John as we drove through Bishopstone…’drive slowly, you never know’. Well! There they were, and we had lunch and it was wonderful. Their little grandson was intent in licking all the chips, but we shall gloss over that! ‘My name is Tor and I am free.’ Ok. We have all that ahead of us!

We stayed the night in a beautiful Georgian hotel in Ross-on-Wye….Oh my! What a pretty town, all medieval and quaint, and the sun shone and we drank a bottle of red wine overlooking the greenest of gardens and celebrated the last day of John’s old year before he woke up to his birthday.

Onwards to Evesham where we had lunch with his sister Di and husband Roy, who were also looking after a baby grandson. This pair needed L’s on their backs as they struggled with gadgets and prams, and John marched round and round pushing the reluctant sleeper to sleep. The wasps were plaguing me and the salad, so lunch outside under the trees had to be abandoned, unfortunately. Good to see them though.

The holiday seems to have been centred around houses somehow. We had idly thought of moving from the city, and so set up a couple of viewings of places that included gardens and garages etc, and went to the pretty village of Dunkeld, the gateway to the Highlands. But alas, the house was too dinky, and too remote. The cathedral on the banks of the River Tay was worth a look, and we duly quoted the poet, McGonagall’s verse about the silvery Tay that runs from Perth to Dundee a day!

Gerry and Cathal are house hunting like mad.

We went with Gerry on Sunday and looked at areas outside Edinburgh, where you should be able to find a house with a few bedrooms that would fall into their budget. But it is so depressing. The estates that have grown up are without local amenities, people commute to work so there is no evidence of a community. Some don’t even have a decent bus service. It felt like a wildernesses of loneliness. As Billy Connolly once said about some of the dreadful housing schemes in Glasgow, they are ‘deserts wi  windaes’. Anyway they are looking about and are off to see some more this weekend, I am sure the right place will turn up soon.

John is off back to Doha now, but we did have a good break, though a little frenzied. Ideally it would have been good to have had one more week together for just walking about and cycling and enjoying this pretty city. We did have a laugh walking back from town and seeing some lads shouting at one another….John commented that there were a lot of foreigners about.  I told him that they weren’t foreign, they were very very local and what they were actually saying was, ‘Shut yer mooth!’ in a variety of aggressive ways! Following that incident we then  had the pleasure of meeting a very ‘big mooth’ in the Botanics.

‘Whit dae you dae?’ he asked John then didn’t wait for an answer but proceeded to tell us the story of his life. He was personable and funny but what I loved was the language…he told us that he had been giving evidence in court, and he refused to listen to the prosecuting lawyer, instead he transferred his mind to his herbaceous border. He thought about his delphiniums and butterflies, and he just refused to let the man get him riled. When he was asked to give his opinion of the accused, he told the judge, ‘he was so crooked he couldn’t lie straight in his bed!’

He went on, ‘You can haud a thief’s hand, but you cannae haud a liar’s tongue!’

The judge was so impressed apparently she has been known to quote our friend on many an occasion!

Love it, love the people we meet, the stories we hear.

Some photos from here and there…