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Saturday 2nd July 2011
A brief walk around Hest Bank
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Hmmmm, anyway. There was a couple out walking, although it could have been a man and his mum, for all I care/know. He looked quite young, a bit hippy-ish, with a beard and long hair. They had three dogs with them, maybe four, I'm not sure. Anyway, so these dogs are emptying their bowels all over the place and the man was actually bagging up the stuff very diligently. All well and good. But then he had a little chat with his female companion and she was like, "Oh, just put it one of those posts over there," and so he did! I witnessed this twice and so two plastic bags containing dog poo ended a-top two wooden posts on the side there. Realising how easily their voices were travelling, I did the cowardly thing and was like, "Great! I wonder who's going to take those bags of dog poo away?" But off they went on their walk. Of course, I'm sure they collected them on the way back and deposited in the bins provided. Mind you, we've been out walking in the woods before when we've seen similar bags hanging from the branches of trees! What on earth is that about?
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Sunday 3rd July 2011
A walk in Halton and party at Old Holly Farm
     
Today, for lunch, we went over to see Helen and Stu and thence to the Greyhound. Afterwards, a walk along the path alongside the Lune, dodging the many cyclists. A****** and R****** were running around like crazy things, burning off the energy that sometimes seems in infinite supply.
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. . . hence these two pictures. I kept running ahead of A****** and R******, trying to get a picture of them together, but they were always running, having witnessed daddy running ahead of them, and then you would always have one ahead of the another. Blah, blah, blah.
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So yeah . . . then around about dinner time A****** had his birthday party thing over at Old Holly Farm. Invited were various cousins and friends. I was amazed at how the children were playing in the play area - there was a lot of violence - kicking, punching, throwing, crying, etc. And yet . . . even those who suffered some kind of mishap were only out of action for a minute or two before diving straight back in. Entrance to the dreaded 'ball pit' was down an incline and so this area served as a kind of kettling area, were at several points almost all the children ended up, reluctantly or otherwise. Once in the kettling area, they would walk, jump, fall and otherwise pummel each other and the smaller ones seemed to disappear underneath a sea of plastic balls and other children. The simple solution was to shepherd A****** and R****** away to another play area, hoping others would follow. Fun, fun, fun.
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Blowing out the candles.
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Monday 4th July 2011
The riot van turns up
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I wouldn't normally go on about my dreams (would I?) but the memory of this one kept me up for ages, as I kind of pieced together the sequence of events and what it all meant, if anything. So, picture the scene . . . I'm the passenger in a transit van, and the driver's driving a bit erratically. I'm slightly worried, but not too much. We're coming up to a few of those chicane things that you get to reduce your speed and the driver just drives over them regardless; the suspension of the van doesn't seem bothered. I don't recognise where we all. We seem to approach Dalton Square (Lancaster) from an odd angle (kind of counter to the one-way system) and the driver's like, "Hey, this looks interesting," and seems to head the van towards a wall, but jumps out before the van comes to a complete halt. He jumps up on the wall, to get a better view of . . . something, and then disappears. So I'm like, "Erm, hello?" and run out of the transit van towards the Ashton Hall. Next thing I know, yeah, this police riot van pulls up beside me and this police officer, in full riot gear, knocks me to the floor. My face is pressed against the pavement and I try to explain that I'm unarmed but this is best achieved by slowly making my hands visible. The police officer seems satisfied by this but, nonetheless, stays besides me and explains that it's "for my protection." I'm told to stay down but manage to look up and check what on earth is going on. The people around me (civilians) are looking towards the sky and buildings with various firearms at the ready. People seem to be looking south, kind of expecting 'something', but I've no idea what. Time passes, but the riot van remains as does the police officer. I have to remain where I am. God knows how long this went on for, but I remember the police officer to my left took out a pack of cards and started playing solitaire. At around this point, I kind of woke up, but was really in some kind of half awake, half asleep limbo. Then I heard / sensed / felt this enormous explosion or crash from somewhere very distant. Then I was like, "What the hell?!" and it took me ages to get back to sleep, because I couldn't work out if that explosion-like sound was real or part of the dream. In reality, it was probably the neighbour's side-door slamming shut, Paul having returned from a late night pool session at The Stork.
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Tuesday 5th July 2011
Christ! They WERE the droids I was looking for!
So yeah, you can almost picture the scene. Anakin and Obi Wan have gone for a few days . . . when they come back, they're in this weird sh*t vessel, Anakin's hair is all over the place, and who the hell's that in the back of their ship? And who's that guy in blue facing the wrong direction? Obi Wan tries to explain, "Well, he's not even Lego; he's some kind of fake Lego, so we made him sit on that part of our ship that is also non-Lego, you see? To hold it all together, yeah?  The non-Lego guy holds together all the non-Lego pieces, yeah? You dig? Come on guys, it's me - Obi Wan, yeah? Let's us through. Let it is us through . . . us. Lets us through, it is. It lets us though it does let us through. It does. Let us through, it is. Please. It does. These aren't the, erm, droids you're looking for. Oh, we're not droids, although I'm not sure about zebra-hair man back there. But hey . . . it's us, guys. Come on." Meanwhile, the guards are like, "Erm . . . we got something weird happening here. General Kenobi and Skywalker have returned but they've got this weird octopus-head man and, erm . . . this guy with, like, zebra print hair . . . Are they armed? Yep. They've got four light sabres and they kind of look a bit crazy . . a bit, you know, distacted. What shall we do?" The reply comes back, "Arrange some kind of photo shoot or something. Just distract them for a bit. We're sending reinforcements."
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Saturday 9th July 2011
Day 1 - A brief stop at Bala, then on to Barmouth
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Sunday 10th July 2011
Day 2 - Fairbourne
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Monday 11th July 2011
Day 3
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Tuesday 12th July 2011
Day 4 - Looks like Harlech Castle and Coed-y-Brenin
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Wednesday 13th July 2011
Day 5
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Thursday 14th July 2011
Day 6
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Friday 15th July 2011
Day 7
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Don't seem to have any pictures for today. Ah well. Perhaps my camera was having a rest.
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Saturday 16th July 2011
Day 8
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Sunday 17th July 2011
Day 9 - A******'s Birthday!
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Monday 18th July 2011
Day 10 - camera battery disaster!
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Silly old me had left my camera battery charger in Wales. Upon realisation, I ordered a new one but it didn't turn up until the following day. Lord only knows what happened today.
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Tuesday 19th July 2011
Day 11
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Wednesday 20th July 2011
Day 12
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Thursday 21st July 2011
Day 13
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Friday 22nd July 2011
Day 14
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Saturday 23rd July 2011
Day 15
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Sunday 24th July 2011
Day 16
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Monday 25th July 2011
Day 17
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Tuesday 26th July 2011
Day 18
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Wednesday 27th July 2011
Day 19 - The Eden Project
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Thursday 28th July 2011
Day 20
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Friday 29th July 2011
Day 21
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Saturday 30th July 2011
Day 22
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Sunday 31st July 2011
Day 23
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