General
New Camcorder
When we last posted way back in June it was our intention to use Nick’s birthday money to buy a video camera ready for when the baby arrives. Well here it is! Thanks to everyone who contributed and look forward to some videos in the not too distant future.
First Barbeque of 2009
What a lovely weekend we’ve been having weather-wise! Glorious sunshine. So we’ve been making the most of it. Nick has been tackling the jungle that is our garden – it rained so much before we went on holiday that we weren’t able to cut it. In the meantime I have been mostly tidying the Conservatory and throwing away dead plants…
To finish our day we had a mini barbeque, with steak, sausages, corn on the cob, salad and new potatoes. We’ve also been clever and put some jacket potatoes on to slow cook, so we’ll be enjoying them over the next few days.
Lets hope that the nice weather continues, and that this is the first barbeque of many this summer!
Christmas 2008
Well this year we managed to get the Christmas tree up before Christmas Day! It’s only small but it does a job.
This year we are off to Tom and Charlotte’s with Clan Palmer for the day. We are looking forward to a Marks and Spencer Christmas lunch!
Happy Christmas to you all!
Finally In Print
At last – after over 2 years of struggling to find the time to do it, it was such a relief to be posting off my nicely bound dissertation project. Could be a few months before I know if I’ve passed or not, but at least I get to breathe easier in the meantime. I’m really looking forward to having my life back!
First crops of the 'summer'
The veg has been really slow coming this year. I think it’s down to the total lack of sunshine we’ve had since we planted them! We look forward to eating our potatoes and peas with some roast gammon later on this evening! Later on in the month it looks like we’ll be getting about 4kg of runner beans and about a million tomatoes!
Support Chicken Out
Jen and I both feel strongly about supporting this campaign after seeing the appauling conditions in which Chickens are farmed. Whilst we have no problem eating chickens or eggs we would at least like to see them enjoy the same life style as other farm animals and for them to be able to live as they are meant to as free roaming animals.
Please support the campaign at www.chickenout.tv
Exploring The Area
Part of the excitement of moving to a new area is getting to explore what’s about. We’re very happy that on our doorstep are lots of beaches, the countryside and places to visit. We’re not big ‘tourists’ but on this occasion it was nice to walk down and explore Ogmore and Merthyr Mawr. We got pretty muddy but it was a beautiful winters day.
Family Day 2
It’s unusual for us this summer to have seen more or less all of the immediate family. With the exception of those up in Scotland that is. This last weekend we saw my side of the family including my Grandparents which was really nice. I was glad they were able to visit us as they don’t get chance to come down very often. Hopefully we’ll get to visit everybody else soon as well as we don’t really meet up enough and I enjoy it a lot now I live away from them.
Any way, at the risk of making my Mother cry I’ll stop there…
We also were able to feed them from the garden which was cool. Most of my family aren’t really that bothered by it to be honest but Dad enjoyed it!
Summer 2007
Well it’s been over 2 months since we last posted on here which isn’t very clever. So sorry about that. (Not that any one is likely to have noticed!)
Our summer went something like this:
July 2007
Ian and Viv’s Wedding somewhere near Silverstone/Oxford in a little village I forget the name of! We had trouble with the hotel and ended up having to drive back after wedding and eventually got home at 1am. Still, nice day overall.
Then we went off to Camp and it rained a lot. I think you probably all remember the rain. Still on the plus side there were no arcade games this year which was a definite plus in my opinion and the week went very well overall.
August 2007
August saw another wedding but this time for Bethan and Chris. I have to say that of the 3 weddings I have been to this summer I enjoyed this one the most. No offense to the other parties concerned but I really enjoyed meeting up with my family who I don’t see as often as I would like to.
During August we escaped for a week to a small town in France to stay with Jen’s mum and dad. Like last year we had a very relaxing week and enjoyed being spoiled by Eira! There aren’t many photos to show you as I didn’t take any!
The last event of the summer was the wedding of Ellen and Tom. (Photo soon!) Once again we enjoyed ourselves and were very impressed with the venue and the food on offer! I think they win that prize this year!
My new job is going well and I have already been in post for 5 weeks. I have made the most of being able to walk and cycle to work and have only taken the car out of the garage a handful of times. Hopefully it will start to pay off soon both financially and physically.
Jen is well. Busy as usual. Perhaps I’ll let her add her own update…
Nick is nagging me…
…to write a blog, as he says I haven’t done one for ages. Best do what I’m told then, as an obedient wife!!
The new job is going really well. I’m really enjoying it, despite the fact that the hours are longer and it is an incredibly busy job. It is nice to have a bit of a challenge, and to feel as though I am developing more than I was towards the end of my last job.
We’re absolutely loving the new house, moving here has definitely been the right thing for us. It is beginning to feel like home now as we have been making an effort to do things like put pictures up and grow plants! We still need to do a bit more before we have our proper house warming party (such as putting carpet down on the stairs), but it shouldn’t be too long now.
Very excited to have received my new car today! Just been for a drive around, and it is pretty nippy! Looking forward to taking it for a real ride over the next few days.
Things have been a bit tough with trying to juggle the new job with a new house and with my dissertation, as there are so many things vying for my attention of equal priority at the moment. I’m hoping to get a short extension for my dissertation so that it gives me a bit of time to settle in to my new job, which should make life a bit easier for the time being. So many things going on at the same time – but at least it keeps me out of mischief, eh?!
It's finally here!
Our new Skoda Fabia vRS Limited Edition was delivered this morning by a very nice man called Jack. We think it is really nice! You can decide for yourselves!
It's been a while…
There has been a lot going on in the last 6 weeks or so since we last posted anything on here! We have been without broadband for a number of weeks so have been unable to add any thing new.
Any way, here is an update on what has happened since picking up the keys on March 23 2007.
One of the major jobs to get done the week running up to moving was having our Oak floor fitted throughout the whole house. We had to buy 30 ish boxes of Oak flooring, which altogether weighed in a about 450kg, which ended up coming from Warrington as Cardiff didn’t have enough stock! It wasn’t an easy job just purchasing the materials never mind fitting it! We also had 20 ish boxes of underlay and 100 metres of edging to acquire. At times it was touch and go as to whether the floor would be fitted in time as it proved to be a bigger job than first anticipated. However, a very nice man called Tony fitted it all for us in time for us to move in and we are very pleased with the results.
Come the 30th March 2007 we finally moved in, and while Jen worked her last day in her old job, my parents and brother helped me out tremendously as we cleaned up the flat and happily watched the removal men struggle with our very heavy sofas. They arrived about 0900 and come 1600 they had left having unloaded all 50 something boxes of our posessions in to our new home.
Since then we have settled in nicely and have more or less completed all the jobs we can afford to do at the moment! We have fitted the conservatory floor, put up some floor boards to make a loft in the garage, more or less finished unpacking, and set up a vegetable patch on our first step on the road to becoming self sufficient!
We have added a number of pictures the the New House Photo Gallery so feel free to have a look around.
There has been more going on in our lives than just moving house though. Jennie has started a new job which she is enjoying very much. She is working longer hours than she has been but enjoying the new challenges a more senior position offers. And, the long awaited ‘Furby’ will be arriving tomorrow!
As for me, same old same old really!
Why does a Skoda have a heated rear window?
To keep your hands warm while you push it!
That may have been the case of old but according to the JD Power Survey the little Skoda Fabia has been in the top 5 cars in it’s class for the last few years! So no sarcasm please!
It has been a hard decision to make but we have decided to sell Jen’s baby and have chosen a Skoda Fabia vRS. It’s a nice little ’supermini’ and will be joining our family around about the beginning of April.
UPDATE: We’ve had some difficulty getting hold of a vRS as Skoda are no longer producing this model. However, we have now ordered a Special Edition vRS and are awaiting delivery!
Hello World!
A New Year a New Blog!
We thought that we would build this web site to share with our Friends and Family news of what we are up to in sunny Barry.
We hope to use it to keep you informed about our bigger life events and to share photographs of what we have been up to.
You can read about our new house and also see our latest holiday photos from our Ski trip to France.