4th and 44th birthdays

We met Dom & Emma for lunch in the New Forest and cake on the common among the ponies!

Mt Martha Easter

Some Easter shenanigans and March birthdays

Happy Easter

Hi All

We’ve made more than fours hours from home for a holiday. Bloody miracle between Covid and car breakdowns. Happy Easter all hope you have a lovely weekend

lots of love

Matt Fiona and the travelling McInerneys

Forrest Ride and Birthdays

Bernie, Patrick, James, Eddie Mitchel and I spent the weekend down at Forrest for a Mountain Bike race. 30 km through the Otway countryside in all. Lot of fun in all. Got some snaps of Patrick’s Birthday and James is back home today for his birthday

Couple of birthday boys

Christmas, New Years and Bright holidays and 50

Hi

Thought I’d share some photos from the last few weeks having Christmas and Monica and Andrews house, New Years at Pip and Ed’s, camping at Bright then Fiona and the boys took me out for dinner at Movida for my 50th

School Captain

The one on the left..

Check the smile

Holidays in Pandemica

It too easy to post blogs and photos when your somewhere fabulous. Show us your mundane, your bored and your frustrated. Pandemica is a big 4 caravan park in your mind

A wonderful weekend!

The 50th wedding anniversary.

Well, that was a lovely time! It started with a nice lunch at a place called Johnny Ripe and a drive through the peninsula to Jackalopes where, true to form, dad found pole position again.

We had a lovely rest and a drink on the terrace - you will have take my word for the terrace photo - the selfie was terrible! It just showed tooo many wrinkles…

we had a most delicious meal- every course was yummy. I took some photos - I had eaten some of the courses before I remembered to take the photo!

We went back to the room and I knitted and watched a movie whilst Dad went to sleep!

the next morning I was not up early but went for a dip in the spa nevertheless. It was beautiful - the water was warm and the view magnificent.

then off to breakfast for Turkish eggs with pomegranates. Pomegranate has such a zing!

we had a last cup of tea on the terrace and the home!

Mum and Dad 50th wedding anniversary - part 1

Happy Anniversary

Hi All

Had a small celebration at Mum and Dads place to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Here’s to them both! they are a wonderful inspirational loving pair

note the original bow tie, hat and flowers in the photos

Summer fun

So we are still celebrating birthdays herr

Cake Day!!

Loads of cakes and candles here yesterday as we celebrated the birthday collective. So happy birthday to James, Patrick, Paul, Ella and Emma!!

Back to Ljubljana

What else did we do? Tony tried twice to go on the tour of the beer brewery but it had stopped conducting them for reasons unknown to anyone so while he was doing that I went walking around the city and into the inner suburbs. Oh yes, we did go on a train ride around the town and a boat trip down the river - the latter being a bit underwhelming!
I did have a lovely time walking around the town. There is an historical quarter with medieval and baroque buildings as well as a more modern area with Art Deco buildings. Many churches as Slovenia has always been catholic and many museums and galleries. I visited a few as we had a city pass and I like to make sure I get my money’s worth!

some photos of the Art deco buildings and other snaps of buildings etc

Last days in the UK.

The last couple of weeks were spent in Romsey with an overnight trip to Brighton. We had a relaxing time around Romsey. Saturday before Christmas we had lunch with some of Claire and Andy’s friends, afternoon tea at the White Horse hotel, bits of shopping for Christmas.

Music in the Town Square.

The Town Tree. This was at about 4.00pm in the afternoon.

Chef and Sous-chef!

On the Saturday after Christmas, we had a drive to Brighton and had lunch with Emma, her Dad and Sarah. Dad and I stayed the night at Dominic and Emma’s. Sunday morning, I went off to visit my favourite palace, Brighton Pavilion. It features in some the Georgette Heyer books. It is so beautiful.

On New Year’s Eve, we went to dinner at our friends, the Lillie’s, house. It was a lovely night - we stayed up till 11.30.

The next Sunday was lunch at a pub for Andy’s birthday - Dominic and Emma were there as well.

one day we had the little girls and had an outing to the beach. As you can guess, we didn’t go in the water!

Our last day was an outing to visit a house called Strawberry Hill. It was built In stages from 1749 onwards. It was certainly an interesting house inside. I didn’t take photos. I think I was a bit snapped out!

And that was our lovely holiday. And now we are home!

Canterbury Tales

We found our accommodation in Canterbury and waited for Dominic to arrive from work. The next morning Dominic and Dad went off to play golf. I stayed in town and had an explore. That night we went off to a place called Seasalter on the coast and tea at a Michelin starred hotel. It was delicious - we couldn’t fault the meal. The next day, Dominic went off to work and we had a drive round the area visiting a couple of villages then back to Canterbury to visit the Cathedral. A magnificent place where Thomas a’Beckett was murdered in 1170. He was buried there but Henry 8th ordered his tomb to be destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries.

Beautiful cathedral!

The spot where Thomas was murdered.

The ubiquitous Christmas tree! And the spot where Thomas’ was buried.

The Black Prince who wore black armour!

Some snaps from mum and dads trip 2019

Over to Canterbury

So it was back to Romsey to pack for 3 days in Canterbury. We left Tuesday and drove through Guildford where we stopped for a walk and lunch. Then it was on to a National Trust property called Ightham Mote, a 14th century moated Manor House owned by many people over the years. Very interesting history and more Christmas trees!

Romsey and London

Back in Romsey on December 10th, Dad and I went to dinner with the Lillie’s. We went separately as it was a ladies get together at a restaurant and the men to the pub. The next night was Abigail’s first Nativity concert and Abi was an angel. She did look the part too.

On Friday, Tony and I caught the train to London for the weekend. Claire, Andy and the children drove up in the evening. When we got to London we caught the tube to Notting Hill where we went for a walk using London City Secrets. It started with a walk through Kensal Green Cemetry which was the smartest and earliest of London’s public cemeteries and contains 250,000 bodies including Brunel - the man who built the ship we saw in Bristol- and Thackeray who wrote “Vanity Fair” We didn’t find the graves but it was an amazing place. Enormous tombs, so many in a state of dilapidation. Dad and I thought we might like something like these two.

After wandering around graves, we walked on down Portobello Road through the markets, grungy shops and on through the smarter parts of Notting Hill to our flat just 10 minute walk from Paddington Station. And then on into London Town to check out the lights and then a drink at the ROSL.

Below are some of the lights which in real life were pretty terrific. There are are also some photos of other things that took my fancy around town Check out the shoes.
Claire, Andy and the children arrived Friday night. Saturday, dad and I took the Solomon and the girls to a couple of museums where we had lunch and a look at Dinosaurs etc

Sunday, the others went off to the Aquarium whilst we went for a walk through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, stopped off at the ROSL for lunch and then wandered through the town before we caught the train back to Romsey. A lovely weekend!

I forgot to mention previously that Dad and I went to a Lunchtime concert in St James Church in Piccadilly and also we stayed up late and went to a show in the city called Come From Away. Fantastic show! It is/was on in Melbourne. I thought it was worth seeing.