Right… I’m back… sorry for those of you who have been waiting for this update like Needstotalk… I’m trying to grab snippets of time in which to continue updating you and so far I haven’t been able to!

Anyway, Peter came and picked me up bright and early for the drive across the border and into South Wales. I have to say it was quite a hairy journey… not hairy in the sense that some freak accident had scattered a selection of afro wigs across the motorways, that would just be silly! But hairy in the sense that we left a bright sunny Coventry and found ourself driving through successive fog banks, then once in Wales we stopped off at a service station (I use the term loosely) which was like a hut from the outback and when we went to use the toilets we had to wade through an inch of water first (at least I hope it was water)… I had my new jeans on and believe me it is no mean feat to hold the bottoms of the jeans up whilst trying not to sit on the toilet seat to have a wee…. You should try it sometime. It was here that Peter accidentally struck a paving slab with the car, he ripped a big chunk of rubber out of the tyre, but luckily the tyre was still fine and we set off to visit some more fog banks…. Cardiff was farther than we thought!

We arrived early in the afternoon and were suitably impressed by the first building we saw. A huge imposing white building, the sun was blazing and it shone off the building which could rival many of the buildings London has to offer… we spent our first hour of the day perusing the collections in the museum and it was pretty impressive let me tell you… the children were equally impressed! Then we head off into the town where we were faced with a wonderful selection of shops, we walked along the high street watching the street performers, popping into shops every now and again… Sarah and I got some fab clothes from Zara so we were both happy, whilst John got a treat from Gap! We were nearing the castle and it was getting late in the afternoon… we had looked forward to going in the castle, so imagine our disappointment when we arrived to find that the last person had been admitted…. That’s definitely something for us to do when we go back! It really is a lovely city but I think next time we need more time there!

After 5 we head back to the car, we were mindful of the time it had taken us to get here and the fact that we had Prudence (the dog) to get home for. I was pretty exhausted by the time we were driving and as usual fell asleep in the car… I love sleeping in cars, I think that is some sort of hang over from my childhood. Anyway, we all arrived home safely, the fog banks had thankfully dispersed, and we were all tired, but contented. It was such a lovely day out.

As soon as I get time I’ll post some pictures of us in Cardiff…. But my next post will be about the Sunday of the same weekend… god I have so much to update you on, I have:

The trade show on the Sunday,
The snow
Saturday night at Kakooti
Sunday at the burlesque…

I must get it all done before I end up with another weekend to update you on… I’m seriously falling behind!

Well folks, I’ve had such a busy busy busy fun weekend that I don’t even know where to start… I am having such a busy week too that I don’t even know where I am finding the time to update you… but what with being in London tomorrow and Winchester on Thursday I better just get on with it otherwise you won’t know will you?

Friday night I was staying with mum. Initially we thought we were going to the pictures but nothing was on, so my last minute suggestion was to catch a show at the Warwick arts centre… all that was on was Copacobana… you guessed it, the Barry Manilow musical of maximum cheesiness… but we were desperate, so we booked tickets! So glad we did, it was amazing. It was staged by the university student theatre, they are a bunch of such talented people that despite being wonderfully intelligent and in the midst of degrees in English, Law, Music… whatever else, they have experience of playing at RADA, and RSC and the like… some have even lived in America writing songs! So it was wildly impressive… lots of music and dance and exquisite costumes. Mum and I were so enthralled by the wonderful performance I think we were disappointed it was over… but we will definitely go back and see a production there again I think… and at £8 a ticket what a bargain!

Saturday, Peter and the children came and picked me up bright and early for our journey into Wales! …. Which I’ll tell you about in another blog entry as soon as I have time……..

Happy new month! :o)

I had a lovely evening lastnight, mum and I went out for a meal to a local restaurant called Kakooti. Anyway, I have been before but it was a couple of years ago… mum hasn’t been there before. It’s a lovely quaint little medieval building which only seats about 25 diners, very intimate. There is one wonderful waiter who was most attentive… particularly considering it was fairly busy in there… and the food was just lush!

Mum had this tuna steak… it was done to absolute perfection with a tomato based sauce over it and potatoes and veg. I had Gnocchi ala pomodora… a lush Gnocchi with tomoto based sauce and mushrooms and olives… needless to say we both cleared the plates of this beautiful feast. Full and contented we decided to really push the boat out and have desert, mum had the most glorious Baileys cheesecake and I had chocaviar… it’s not caviar covered in chocolate, but it is nuggets of 90% dark chocolate presented in a caviar – esque jar… delish, but I couldn’t finish it and the remainder of the jar found itself in my handbag for later.

After coffee we really were full and delighted to find that the bill came out at a reasonable £40! Mum simply loved it there, Italian food is her favourite anyway so she was more than smitten! We did have a lovely time though… it’s been a long time since we did something like that, I mean I know we still going shopping and stuff but it was nice just to sit and talk and eat and really truly enjoy ourselves! Wonderful!

For Christmas (or it may have been his birthday) I bought SweetP a book called 101 things to do before you are old and boring… now I love such life lists, in fact I love any lists at all, but with a lot of experiences already under my belt (I’ve been to an all night dance festival, been to a movie premier, met famous people, passed a degree, raised money for charity etc etc) I thought it might be nice to do a list of my own (I love making lists)… and as 30 is sneaking up on me (ok so I have 5 years but time flies when you are having fun) I thought I would do a list of 30 things I want to do before I am 30… now some of these I might be cheating ever so slightly on because I might already have them planned and tickets booked… but I’ll let you know where that is the case! I see that blogstream has another website for doing these lifelists… but I’d rather do it here for my blogstream buddies: Here goes:

1. climb a mountain (2007)
2. Visit Australia (2007)
3. See the Northern lights in Reyjkavic
4. Walk the great wall of China
5. Visit London fashion weekend (2007)
6. Go to Cheltenham gold cup (2007)
7. Glastonbury festival
8. Appear on TV
9. Take tea at the Ritz
10. Buy an original piece of artwork
11. Visit Loch ness
12. Shop in New York
13. Learn to Ski
14. Learn to speak Russian
15. Row a boat along the river Avon on a hot summers day
16. See inside the houses of Parliament
17. Work in a city I don’t live in
18. Go to an exclusive fashion show
19. See the pyramids of Egypt
20. Learn how to play a musical instrument
21. ---
22. ---
23. ---
24. ---
25. ---
26. ---
27. ---
28. ---
29. ---
30. ---

I’ve run out of ideas now… any suggestions?

Peter and I had a bit of a discussion lastnight about things we want to do and have agreed that we would love to climb a mountain! So today I have filled in the registration forms for us to climb mount Snowdon (the tallest mountain in Wales) only 5 days after my birthday in October, to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care charity! What an achievement this will be, both of us are filled with anticipation… and that’s another thing we can cross off our life list! This year we will be doing soooooooo much.

1. Italy (both Peter and I but separately)
2. Cheltenham Gold cup
3. Camping in the Peak district
4. Justin Timberlake Concert (just me but with Peter’s daughter)
5. Australia
6. Climbing a mountain

Have I missed anything out? I don’t think that is a bad list for one year! :o)