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Sunday 7th September 2008
Arrival at Barmouth
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This is the second day of our week's holiday in Barmouth, Wales. We arrived yesterday not long after three o'clock. I'm not too sure what we did on Saturday . . . we probably just went shopping for food and then had to get back, the boys requiring dinner, baths and bed. Today, being Sunday, was a bit of lazy day. I think we would have wandered into Barmouth, checking out the beach and stuff.
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Monday 8th September 2008
Harlech Castle
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Today we did some stuff. We drove up the coast to Harlech Castle. The views from the top of here were amazing. Whilst M**** was feeding R******, A****** and I went to the top of the tallest tower to admire the views and take some pictures. |
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Tuesday 9th September 2008
A scarcity of straight roads
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Today the intention was to drive to Aberystwyth, do a bit of shopping, grab some lunch, whatever. However, about halfway into what was actually a very short drive, somebody in the back of the car started complaining, so we had to stop somewhere. We stopped at Machynlleth. There wasn't really much going in Machynlleth, save for a few vaguely interesting shops and this clock tower thingy. Erm . . . oh, is that the time? Yes, I think it is. In the evening, I needed to pop to the shops to get some, erm, shopping or something, and so ran up an interesting public path along the way. This public path involved many, many steps but had a decent enough view at the top. I went back up this way on the way back, shopping bags in hand, hoping for some better light. That last picture shows a few bottles (I think empty) of some Welsh unpronouncable, as I liked to call it. Unpronouncable comes in a number of flavours.
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Wednesday 10th September 2008
   
I think today was a bit of a lazy day. We had a late lunch at Davy Jones' Locker and then, fairly randomly, bumped into M****'s auntie Kath and her (M****'s) cousin, Grace. It's not entirely random as Grace has been known to stay at one of her friend's houses, which is in Barmouth, or near enough.
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Thursday 11th September 2008
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Today we did do a number of things. What, exactly . . . ?! Well, we visited a railway station at Abergynolwyn and then took a train to . . . erm, somewhere else . . . I think it was Dolgoch. So, anyway . . . we went for a walk around some gorgeous waterfalls and such-like and then had tea/cake/coffee at this café thing. The picture of the rainbow was taken at said café.
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Friday 12th September 2008
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Today was our last full day of holiday. In the evening, after fish and chips by the sea, we wandered across the beach again, enjoying what was probably the sunniest, warmest evening of the week. Typical. |
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Wednesday 17th September 2008
Lancashire Hotpot and Jehovah's Witnesses
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So yes . . . it was whilst we were getting ready for dinner tonight (Mark and Cathie were bringing round prepared food) that two Jehovah's Witnesses popped around. I was quite excited, as I hadn't had a visitation from these people for years and years. So one of them says something like, "We were just wondering if you had any thoughts about all these problems in the world [I think I started to turn off at this point] . . . blah, blah, blah and something to do with the will of God? I think that was a question. It was meant to be. Whaddaya think?" and I wasn't sure what to make of what I had just heard, so I goes, "Blimey. Questions, questions. So many questions. I don't know what all the answers are." Then they kind of cut to the chase, as did I, and the whole thing seemed to be coming to a close, but then they started enquiring about my faith, religion and such-like. At this point, I really wanted to say, "Look, I feel fortunate that I have reached a point fairly early on in my life when I've realised that whether or not there is a God actually makes no difference. Life is far too short to be worrying about such things. If we assume we live in a God-less and sometimes cruel and indifferent universe, then perhaps we can concentrate our efforts on making this world a better place for all of us. I mean, who cares how we got here and why we're here? The point is that we are here and that is that. The meaning of life is that there is no meaning of life, surely. When everyone enjoys a fantastic standard of living, when there is no disease, no poverty, no suffering, etc., then it might make sense to wonder about deities and such-like. One world at a time and all that." Instead, I just muttered something about, "Well, no, I'm okay, thanks. I don't currently have any spiritual questions that need answering," and they just nodded and smiled and moved on to the next household. During the rest of the evening, we enjoyed a fantastic Lancashire Hotpot that Mark and Cathie had prepared that day, washed down with lashings of red wine. Mmmmmmmmm.
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Friday 19th September 2008
Dead again . . .
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Well, that is, in my dreams. It was really disturbing. I was involved in a struggle with someone else over a syringe containing some kind of lethal poison. Unfortunately, this ended up in my arm with the contents successfully injected. So that was it - I was gonna die. At that point, I woke up (in the middle of the night) but the dream hadn't properly terminated (or else had carried through into the awake world). I stayed awake for ages with this stinging sensation in my arm, wondering how long it would take for the poison to take hold. After a while I figured it wasn't, so I fell back asleep, somehow not realising that the injection had taken place during a dream (it didn't seem like it, after all), but hey . . . hello?
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Saturday 20th September 2008
Off to see Auntie Lizzy
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So, we got to Dishforth . . . erm . . . I can't remember exactly when but it seemed around lunch time. After lunch, we wandered around the grounds of Newby Hall, us boys having a ride on the freaky, small gauge train (which had a minor derailment twice, only affecting the last carriage, which just happened to be the one we were sat on).
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Sunday 21st September 2008
Fountain's Abbey
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Various pictures from our day out at Fountain's Abbey. |
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Monday 22nd September 2008
Aysgarth
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I had Monday off work, so we took the long route back to Lancaster (through the Yorkshire Dales), stopping at Aysgarth for some vaguely interesting waterfalls. |
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Saturday 27th September 2008
SURPRISE!!!
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Above are pictures from a surprise get-together thrown for Simon on occasion of becoming a fully-qualified air traffic controller. The celebrations were held at the Mill Inn. Erm . . . the last picture of the jelly doesn't really have much to do with any of this. Earlier in the morning I had used some packing material for a hard-drive as a jelly mold but the trouble was that the jelly didn't come out of the mold quite right. Back to the drawing board and all that.
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