Nicole and Nathans Wedding

When we first got married, I was YW President and Liam was YM's president. As they had one of each, we spent a lot of time with the Jacksons. We've kept in touch with them ever since and so both Liam and I were thrilled to go and see Nicole get married.

It was definitely a working wedding - Delores was helping with the food so we chipped in, but there were still plenty of photo opportunities! Nicole looked stunning!

Lakeside Old Ladies

There I am, minding my own business at Lakeside, when I found myself wading through crowds of old ladies. What could be going on?

Only a Cliff Richard book signing!
Who'd have thought I'd see so many celebrities when I moved to Essex!

Rachel Caron

A few days before I went to Ireland, I got the sad news that my friend Rachel had died of a deep vein thrombosis aged 32. Luckily for me, the funeral was a few days after we got back and so I was able to travel to Dudley to say goodbye.

Rachel's daughter was in nursery with Sam and we'd spent a lot of time together over the last few years. She made a big impact on me and it was so sad to see how disappointed every one was to lose her.

She loved Ireland and regularly went to Dingle Bay to visit Fungi the Dolphin. I felt very emotional while we were in Ireland watching the Irish dancing and music. I knew she would have loved it.

One of the biggest influences she had on me was by telling me one day at play group to stop ironing! She told me she didn't iron anything and just folded clothes straight from the tumble dryer! I tried it and it worked (to a degree!)! I was a changed woman! So, Liam, she's the reason you always have slightly creased t-shirts.

Even without that lifechanging revelation, I was lucky to have known her.

Back to School

Back from Ireland Tuesday, back to school Wednesday - no time for relaxing. Megan's in year 4, Sam's in year 2 and later in the year, Leah starts school.

I think this is gonna be a good year!

Bye Bye Ireland

On the way back from Tremor, there was just time to pop into Grennan to say bye. We arrived just as Randall was bringing in one of their HUGE horses. We certainly didn't want to get too close to this one - it looked so strong, like it could trample us all. Susan was nipping out with her slug pellets - every farmer must be on the look out!
It was nice to meet Wendy (Randall's wife) - they live in the country, in the middle of nowhere, but she still has all of Liz Earls beauty products care of QVC! And she was amazed that I didn't as I live in England and that's where Liz Earl is from! She's a proper QVC junkie!

We had a great time in Ireland. We really got a taste for it and are already planning our next trip. Bill was a great host, although he needs to work on his portapotty ettiquette!

Last day Beach

The last day of our holiday had to be spent at the beach and luckily we had the weather to go with it. Well, sort of. It was dry and sunny, but oh, was it windy!

Delores had recommended we got to Tremor on the South coast.

It was perfect and so quiet. The tide was right out when we arrived, and so we headed to our favourite part of the beach, the rock pools. When we got there, we realised how important tools were in such a prime position - Liam couldn't resist walking the 10 minutes back to the shops to buy a couple of fishing nets and a bucket. There were too many fabulous pools to just look in! They had to be fished!The rocks were great for climbing over and exploring - you could go right out into the sea and we loved exploring until Liam came back with our tools!

Fishing nets made all the difference though. I left them to harrass the rock pools and walked right out to the edge of the rocks, and when I came back, they'd caught a big bucket full of wildlife!

Lots of unidentified creatures were found. I really need to get a great seaside creature book - I love knowing what we've caught.

I've Googled (I know its time for me to get a job if I've got the energy to google small fish!), and I think this a prawn (note - not a shrimp 'cause it has a spike between it eyes)

A, errrrm, crab...

I think this is a wrasse...

I think these two are bullheads...

I think this is a blenny...

Can't find this crab - it was tiny, but distinctive!Great rock pooling!

We headed back as the tide came in, and they just couldn't resist it. The wind was blowing a gale and so even though it was sunny, Megan, Sam and Liam couldn't stop themselves from stripping off and diving in!

The waves were great! I was tempted myself, but someone had to stay behind to look after Leah!

All the Williams

We had a very important mission while in Ireland - to take a picture of the four Williams.

From left to right - William Hastings, known as Uncle George (I don't know why?! Maybe because his Dad was William too), William Hastings, known as Bill or Billy, William Hastings, known as, erm, William Hastings, and William Hastings, known as Liam.

And here's the two extras - would you believe Aubrey William Hastings and Samuel William Hastings!

Not a very imaginative family, namewise!



We took a LOT of pictures, between us.By the end of the photo session, I think Uncle George had had enough!Uncle George is Bills dad's brother, and I think they are really similar. I captured a moment between them......and another!Linda and William very kindly invited us all for tea - and we all loved spending the evening with them. They all made us feel very welcome.Rowena, Aubrey and Naomi took our kids off to play, even though the girls are much older than Megan.Leah, as usual, made herself at home, lounging on her newly met first cousin twice removed!Sam and Aubrey disappeared and had a lovely play until Sam...threw up everywhere! Yes, our first visit with William and Linda, and Sam threw up ALL the lovely dinner we'd eaten! And there was a whole lot of dinner to come up!

Bill was obviously on his best behaviour!

It was really kind of them to squeeze us in for a visit because the next morning, they were all heading to Dublin to take Rowena to start her teacher training. So it wasn't the ideal time for us to pop in. You wouldn't know 'cause they made us feel very welcome.After the third time Sam was sick, we decided we had spread enough germs around, and even though the rest of us would have loved to stay longer, we said our goodbyes. Hopefully we'll see them again soon, 'cause we really enjoyed their company.