Auntie Knows Best

Today we went to Cheddar Gorge. Such a beautiful part of Somerset, a deep, lush, green gorge with amazing caves – such a shame it has shops selling tat. I think I visited Cheddar Gorge when I was a kid and I always thought the caves were much more impressive.

In the afternoon we met up with birdie and her highly entertaining children. Groover spent his time careering around the cathedral and the green on his scooter and Ginger was generally cute. I am not sure what it is about The Mister but he is truly a magnet for small children, and Ginger is no exception. She particularly likes him and makes a beeline for him.

This evening we went out for a nice quiet dinner, just the two of us… and ended up with my aunt and uncle and my cousins and their families. A nice quiet evening? Pah!! The Mister’s only comment was “well I had better get used to it if we are moving back to Guernsey!!!”

Today was… wet. It rained from first thing in the morning until almost when we came home. Of course now it is beautiful sunshine!

So, obviously our first thought when it was raining was to go to Glastonbury. We wandered around Glastonbury Abbey, dodging in and out of the buildings when the rain picked up a bit. They also had some re-enactors and craftsmen in the grounds. It was gorgeous, but when it was standing the building must have been absolutely ginormous!

After a spot of lunch The Mister dragged me up Glastonbury Tor in the rain. I am so unfit but the views were spectacular, even in the less than perfect visibility.

On the way home we had a little trip to an outlet village for a spot of retail therapy and now we are sitting in our lovely holiday cottage accommodation watching the French Open. A perfect day.

Our first ‘proper’ day in Wells was spent recovering from our long drive down. We had a lie in, had sausage sandwiches for breakfast and cereal for lunch and watched the Monaco Grand Prix. Finally dragging ourselves out of the house we went to visit the Bishop’s Palace. It is a beautiful place where the Bishop of Bath and Wells still resides and it has stunning gardens. It kind of backs onto Wells Cathedral and we could hear the choristers inside practicing. In the evening we met my aunt and uncle and my cousin and his girlfriend for dinner. We went to a really nice Bistro and I located a nice gay waiter who I proceeded to flirt with the whole time we were there and then he kissed me on the way out. Bless!!!

The Mister and I are on holiday in Wells. It is gorgeous and yummy but was a very long drive to get here.

My cousin is getting married a week today in Wells so it is the chance to spend a few days on our own in a really beautifully equipped cottage. My parents arrive to join us next Thursday and then my sister and her family arrive on Friday. Many of my large extended family are also staying in the area so I expect we will see them a bit too.

So, until the masses descend, we shall enjoy the peace and quiet, drink wine, read books, play Scrabble, visit places and just relax! Lovely!

Well, The Mister and I have made the massive decision to move back to Guernsey. Now our resignation letters have been given in at work and it is public knowledge we can get on with planning to biggest move either of us have made in ages.

This decision has taken many months to make and we are sure it is the right decision. For me Guernsey has always been home, no matter where I have lived it is always referred to as home and I guess it is the only place I could see myself living long-term. for The Mister I think the decision is more difficult, but it was he who suggested we made the move. I decided that I would never push for the decision as it is such a ginormous one!

So, why do we want to move? A better quality of life, a slower pace, less commuting, my family are all there and we get to live in an astonishingly beautiful part of the world. The downsides are mainly not having so much flexibility when it comes to travelling (without getting off the island first anyway!) and the cost of housing over there, but I guess that is the same for anyone. We don’t have jobs yet and we are going to have to move in with my parents for a while, but we will get what we want eventually, it just might take us a while!

Mind you, when I am uhming and ahhing all I have to do it look at this picture of our local beach. That makes me think we are making the right decision!

Had a brilliant weekend in Derby staying with a bunch of random internet strangers we know from the Ship of Fools. Of course the reality is that most of the aren’t actually strangers anymore as we have met several times before!

The excuse reason for a meet this time was to do art. Well, to be perfectly honest, there wasn’t masses and masses of art going on, but The Mister and Anne and a few other people went off and did some painting and bits and pieces and I did some cross-stitch. The kids had a brilliant time though making boats and things out of cardboard boxes and doing colouring and stuff.

It was lovely to chill out this weekend with people I like to be with, to relax, drink wine and talk nonsense. Perfect.

The only less that perfect thing is that I have a cold and feel rotten. Other than that, everything is perfect!

Just one pic… but click through to see the rest on Flickr!

We had a brilliant day yesterday. We went on Nene Valley Railway for our friend Ophelia’s 30th birthday party. The dress code was posh frocks and vintage hats so I made an effort and wore my Gran’s hat which I love (rather morbidly it is the last hat I remember her wearing before she died as she wore it to my sister’s wedding!)

It was fabulous to meet up with a bunch of random internet people from the Ship of Fools, although to be fair I have met them all quite a bit in real life, so I class them as ‘proper people’ these days!

It was just fun to be out and about and the people in the train were chatty and helpful and lovely and the food was pretty good too. After we had been on the train and had lunch there was a rather convenient vintage bus waiting outside the station and someone managed to persuade the druver to take us to the nearest pub, leave us there for an hour or so and then come and pick us up. A perfect finish to a perfect day!!

Here’s the pics…. (the final photo is so Mum can see the hat worn to perfection!!!)