Sanity break

We're off again, this time to Cornwall, to the little town that was always my family's home base, despite all of our travelling.

My Mum sold the house about eight years ago, and this will be our first trip since. I'm very much looking forward to going back there with my boys. C can't remember it, and J's never been. We've got a little two up two down cottage in the town centre. Plenty of walking, plenty of rock pooling, and plenty of crabbing.

The boys' school is closed on Friday due to a teacher training day, so we'll clear off early in the morning.

I'm glad to be buggering off again. Work is difficult. I'm involved in a legal dispute with a contractor over unpaid fees, a lot of unpaid fees, and I'm finding it hard to focus on anything else.

A bit of sea air will help clear the mind.

Profile changes

Necessary as I am no longer 41.

42 today.

Oh well, at least it's a beautiful day.

My Mum's coming up tonight for a few days, and we'll all have dinner together, which I shall be cooking. I trust an Italian fish stew to no-one but me.

It will be great to see Mum, although she doesn't live far away, a lot of her time recently has been taken up looking after my Grandfather, who is now very elderly, and has had a spell of bad health.
She's going to look after the hooligans tomorrow night, and we're going out to dinner with a few friends.

It's very quiet at Gumpher Towers as boy 1 is at an outward bound centre with school for a few days. As we were packing his stuff the other night, he told me not to worry about shampoo and shower gel, as he didn't bother showering when they went last year. Stinky little sod.

So the plan for the day is to fire through a bit of work and get home. It's too bloody nice to be stuck inside an office, birthday or not

Tagged

I have been tagged by http://www.blogger.com/profile/08481107164497582398 DJ Aspey to complete the following, and I think it is a tad tricky, to tell six truths and one lie about yourself.

I'll give it a whirl.

1. I have travelled to thirty one countries,and have lived on three different continents. Only eight of these countries are in Europe.

2. At the age of sixteen, I was the Welsh trampolining champion, and came third in the national championships.

3. I can kick a ball with both feet. When playing cricket, I bat right handed and bowl left handed. I can play racquet sports with both hands, but if you ask me to throw a ball right handed, I will throw like a girl. I write left handed, and cannot even grasp a pen in my right hand.

4. I have a 2:1 in Economics and Political Studies.

5. I learned to windsurf at an early age. It's like riding a bike. Whenever we go on holiday and I hire one, my boys are amazed that Dad can actually do that.

6. My second toe is longer than my big toe, on both feet. It looks very odd in flip flops.

7. My father died when I was fourteen months old.

Just for Nutters, the fan of the naughty spewy spaniel

Sodding dog

My wife is out with the boys as it's the last day of the school jollydays, so the mutt below is in the office with me.

I'm having a mellow day, struggling through the boredom of doing some accounting with a bit of Mozart on in the background ( I can be civilised, it's not all rugby and beer).

I popped out for a crafty fag, and came back to three piles of dog sick - on my light grey carpets.

One swift trip to Tesco for some cleaning products and ten minutes of halting the gag reflex and my work is done.

Fluffy shit for brains is curled up fast asleep on her bed, oblivious to my suffering.

Pembroke

Beer on the beach

Pembroke

Waiting for crabs

Pembroke

Braving the surf

Pembroke

Spaniel heaven

Easter hols

We've just had two cracking weekends in different parts of Wales.

The first was with friends who have a smallholding halfway up a mountain just outside of Builth. We had the full Easter experience complete with new bunnies and chicks (which they breed) and bottle feeding their two pet lambs which are going to be used as lawnmowers in their woodland.

It's always a real novelty going for a weekend, helping with all of the animals and the oddjobs which this time were reinforcing one of the road bridges over the stream, and lugging a hen house from the woods down to the yard. I can't imagine doing all of that every day, I'm sure the novelty would wear off.

The weekend just gone, I took Friday and yesterday off and we went to stay in the Pembrokeshire coastal national park with friends and their two boys who are the same age as our two hooligans. I love Pembroke, it's like Cornwall, but without the crowds of braying hoorays. We lucked in with the weather, and spent Saturday on Whitesands bay. The kids all togged up in their wetsuits, surfing and rock-pooling, it was a wonderful day. The naughty spaniel also experienced the delights of a big beach and the sea for the first time and had a rollicking doggy time.

On Sunday, we had a big hike around Dinas Head, and then headed off for lunch at a pub called The Sloop in a little cove at Porthgain. After meandering back, we went crabbing and had a barbie at the little beach at the foot of the valley where we were staying. A perfect day for A's 39th birthday.

Sometimes, the simple things in life are the best. Good company, plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and the boys charging about in the open air. Happy days.