Holiday Roundup

See the photos here

Our first full day away, saw beautiful weather and our friends came to see us too. We had a great walk down the Monsall Way, followed by a BBQ back at the caravan. Was really good to see them and their dog!

Had a little “A time” with the mac and investigated iMovieHD and started going through some of the footage from earlier in the year. Seems to be a lot easier to use than Premiere - I don’t need fancy really, cropping, the odd transition and titles is all I want. I try to do most of the editing in camera.

Tasha had some great news. The show that she produced last year - Godspell - won “Best Production” in the regional NODA awards on Sunday night.

Monday - Drove into Bakewell, forgetting that it was market day. Unless your there really early, the car parks get full and they close the roads off, so that was a non starter. We’d not got up and going very quickly as we’d had a restless night. Nate, who has been suffering with a cold the last few days, got into a coughing fit and was sick - not the best thing in a caravan! We came back and went for a great walk down to the Wildlife reserve near the site before lunch. After we’d eaten (like kings) we headed into Buxton, which wasn’t nearly as busy. We bought some great food and had a good afternoon. Got the BBQ out again today (as it was fantastic weather).

On Tuesday we went over to Chatsworth House - a beautiful stately home. Obviously with the kids in tow we only saw it as we passed on the way to the massive adventure playground and farm. We all had a great time, but it was bitterly cold. Stopped at the farm shop and were lucky to escape, without spending more!! Just listening to Florence read - she’s so good - I’m glad she likes books.

Thursday and with the excellent weather comes the inevitable onslaught of people at the site. We left the site early this morning, being the only two vans, to explore Lathkill Dale and returned (via Chatsworth) to reports of gridlocked traffic and a site 3/4 full!! Our explore was fantastic though, the sun in the valley really made the whole place look beautiful. Slightly worried that the site will be too busy, but we can also go home.

Friday started to another beautiful day on the now much fuller campsite. We had a good early start and went up to the climbers haunt of Froggatt Edge. We went via the farm shop at Chatsworth and bought loads of goodies for a picnic. Had a great walk along the top of the ridge, before returning to our feast!! After lunch we went to the outdoor shops down the road and then drove back to the site via the scenic route - where we saw tomorrows walk!! The site managed to accommodate a view more vans and a lot more tents while we were out. Cooked steak on the BBQ and an early night all round.

The rest of the bank holiday weekend was spent, trying to stay out the the way of tourists! We avoided Bakewell & Buxton and “headed for the hills”. We did some great walks and we were really impressed with the children and their stamina. I think the fresh air did us all the world of good and blew away many cobwebs.
Its been the best holiday we’ve been on for a long time, I felt really rested on our return and didn’t feel that it had been too short (not to say I would have stayed for another couple of weeks!)

Back from Holidays

Just returned from a great week away in North Wales. We stopped in a cottage from the Sykes catalogue and it was great. We had originally planned to go with some mates, but they pulled out at the last minute due to a death in the family, so we had a huge house to ourselves. Tasha's Mum & Dad came down for a few days which made the cottage seem a bit fuller.

There was a castle in the town where we stopped, Criccieth, but we never got to visit it as we were too busy out and about at other places. Despite having forecasts that said it would rain all week, we had some fantastic weather. We like a good explore on the beach, just finding stuff thats washed up and we had a couple of afternoons, walking miles and miles on the beaches local to the cottage.

Got back to the usualy pile of post to wade through, and I'd had the foresight to tape a few of my TV shows, so am beginning to catch up with those (or they'll never get watched).

Chester Return

Got back from a well deserved break to Chester. After a little annoyance of the roof (that we resently had repaired) leaking, we had a fantastic time. A quick repair was made using a tarpauline which seemed to do the trick for the rest of the week.

We went to the zoo - one of the best ones I've been to, the kids loved it. Loads of really good enclosures. We also did the blue planet aquarium which was the first time I've been to one of the walk-through tunnels. Cheshire Oaks (and the credit card) took a bit of a hammering, but we got some good buys - and managed to start the Christmas shopping. We also decided to take the short trip into North Wales and go to Llandudno (and we got our fix of fish & chips on the beach!)

Used the time to sort my GTD out a bit and caught up on some missed Podcasts - generally quite productive.