Time Off

I've got some time off work, but I'm not going away,partly as I'm not organised enough, partly because I'm too tired and just want to unwind, and partly because I spent all my money on having work done to my house.

However,I do have various fun things lined up for my holiday, and I'm also aiming to get things done round the house - for instance, buying and putting up curtain rails (and curtains), and unpacking more of the books.

On Monday I got to spend the day with one of my oldest, closest friends. We agreed to meet up in Cardiff, which both of us could readily get to by train, and I was looking forward to a relaxing day pootling round the city centre, perhaps visiting the pier and looking at nice views of the sea.

It didn't work out quite that way.

To start with, it was a very, very, wet morning, and the traffic was absolutely horrendous, which meant that despite having left myself about twice a much extra time as I thought I would need to get to the station, I missed the train. (I worked out, during the unexpected spare time I had while waiting for the next train, that I had averaged 11 m.p.h on my drive in...)

Sadly there's only one train an hour, so I arrived an hour later than planned, and it turned out that it was wet and windy in Cardiff, too.

However, we walked from the station to the Wales Millennium Centre, which is an absolutely beautiful building, not just the stunning front, but the rest of the exterior, which features lots of (presumably Welsh!) slate

No sign of Captain Jack Harkness or Torchwood, sadly. Clearly that perception filter is still working! 

We had lunch at the Millennium centre, (very nice tapas for J and I, and wearable broccoli and yogurt for A (J's little boy, who is 6 months old. He is approaching solid food with enthusiasm. Fortunately J had brought him a change of clothes!)

We then went back into the city centre, where we found a rather nice clock, complete with 3 (presumably blind?) mice..

And we got rained on some more, and then had coffee and cakes, and there was a lot of chatting, and lot of baby-appreciation, and generally, despite the late start and the nasty weather, a good time was had.

Weekends

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, but with some nice things happening. Last weekend I was at my parents, and got to catch up and spend time not only with them, but also with my brother and his partner, and with extended family, including one of my cousins and her children, which was lovely.I don't see them often enough.

On the Saturday. We went down to the harbour to watch the annual raft race, which involves lots of rafts, of many different shapes, sizes and appearances and with a variety of approaches to the relative importance of seaworthiness and looking good. 

The Thunderbirds raft seemed to be most successful in combining the two, and was the ultimate winner.

The Hawaii raft was impressive, but lacked speed. (and was much lower in the water by the end of the race). And the lego men started to sink almost immediately (I don't have a good photo of them, but their costumes were excellent.) 

It wasn't only the rafters who got wet, as it started to rain early on and we all got rather damp, but nevertheless,  think everyone enjoyed themselves. 

The rest of the weekend was quieter, and apart from spending 45 minutes stationary on the motorway on my drive home, I had a very pleasant weekend. (the motorway jam was due to an accident which meant the road was completely closed for a time, which was frustrating, but of course I would far rather be delayed by an accident than *in* one, so I tried to be patient.  

This weekend has been quiet - Saturday morning mostly involved running errands, and a little light baking, and the afternoon was spent admiring a rather nice baby, belonging to an old friend of mine. She is just 5 weeks old, and is a very nice baby. Lots of hair, no teeth, tiny little fingers and toes..  I admit I felt a little broody.
( Although she was very good and hardly cried at all while I was there)

Sunday was quieter, and involved stuff like mowing the lawn, laundry, pruning the lime tree and vacuuming. And cooking.

In which There is Family

I spent the weekend down in Portsmouth, to visit my sister and her fiance. When we arranged it, the plan was that we would maybe do some sailing. However, when I got there, it became clear that that wasn't going to be practical. In the first place, the forecast was for heavy rain and very strong winds, (force 8 or so) and secondly, we were all pretty tired (C has just finished exams) and the tides meant we would have had to get up  rather early if we wanted to go sailing. So we didn't.

Instead, we sat up late over food and wine and conversation, then we got up late and had a gargantuan breakfast, and then, at the crack of 3p.m ventured out into the day. It was VERY windy, even ashore, although the rain didn't turn up til Sunday.

On Saturday we went to Gosport, where C took his dinghy out to the boat to check it out, while K and I went for a walk around the harbour front.

We looked at all the pretty little boats in the marina, and the big grey boats which belong to the Royal Navy, and the submarine in the submarine Museum, and HMS Warrior, which belonged to the Navy when it was built in 1860, (and for all I know, still does).

And we saw an egret,and looked at the Spinnaker Tower on the Portsmouth side of the river, then we met C, went home, and changed (and in C's case washed several lbs of fine river mud off) and dressed up and went to a rather splendid french restaurant in Portsmouth, where we had a delicious, leisurely meal.

On Sunday, the promised rain arrived, and it poured, solidly all day. However, this wasn't a problem - K&C had (sailing) friends ciming, so we made a sunday roast, and the friends brought cheese and fruit, and there was much conversation, then in the evening our cousin S, her husband T and 3 year-old son arrived - they have had a week's holiday in France and  were staying over night before driving home, so we had a socialable evening. I hvane't seen my little cousin for 18 months, which is forever when you're 3, so it was lovely to see him - he is a gorgeous, chatty, outgoing little boy, who was only shy for the first 5  minutes.

We alos got to hang out with his parents.

So, despite the lack of sailing, it was a highly enjoyable weekend, and I'm glad I went. I am very fortunate in my family, I think.

Oh, and K & I might have looked at lots of pictures of her wedding dress, and talked quite a lot about her plans for the wedding next August, becasue, after all, that's what sisters are for, isn't it?

In which I Fall in Love

Last weekend I got an invitation to go to Birmingham, to visit my cousin and her husband, and to meet thier beutiful son, who is now 3 1/2 months old. My sister also lives in Birmingham, and our other sister was visiting her, so the plan was for us all then to meet up together foor Sunday lunch.

It was a lovely, low-key weekend. I drove up on Friday night, met baby J (And fell in love with him) Then I cuddled him some more, and played with the cats.

On Saturday we mostly stayed home, with a brief foray out to give J some air & to do a little shopping, then on Sunday we drove over to my sister's house for lunch. We all took it in turns to cuddle J (who really is an exceptionally well-conducted baby, and cries only when any self-respecting baby would)

And then, after a delicious meal, and a lot of conversation, I camme back home. It was a horrible drive - loads of rain, and spray, and surface water, but I got home in one piece, and without too much delay, so it's all good.

Meeting J for the first time was undoubtably the best thing which has happened this year (so far).