And so we start a new chapter

We entered new territory on 23rd November 2016, with the birth of our daughter, Olive. Welcome!!

Babymoon

With only a few weeks to go until our little bundle of joy arrives, we headed for a last minute holiday to Tenerife, our last holiday as a twosome! We stayed in the quieter North West corner, in a lovely hotel up in the hills:

We spent most of the time chilling, starting each day with a lazy brunch in the hotel restaurant, grazing on their selection of bakery and deli foods. Normally I find European breakfasts can be hit and miss, but not here!

We did have a few day trips as there was a good bus network. We went to the neighbouring town and took a dip in a natural swimming pool (no photos!). Another day we went up further into the mountains and enjoyed the spectacular views and rock formations:

We also spent time just relaxing in the local town, eating some tasty food and having afternoon cuppas in the local square.

All set now for holidays with three....

Outdoor jobs

We've been doing some outside jobs, first the front lawn:

Then Pete painted the stone circle:

Then we re-felted the summerhouse roof and painted it inside and out:

And repainted the fence:

Orange!

Ghana/LA

Selina used some of her extra leave to visit family friends in Ghana....

As soon as Selina booked flights to Ghana, my friend from Uni, Gav invited us to his wedding to Jen in LA. So after Selina had a couple of nights back home, we both headed to California for wedding celebrations. Many congrats Gave & Jen:

We enjoyed wandering around the different areas of LA, Venice Beach was lovely, we particularly liked the nearby canal:

My favourite day trip was Universal Studios. I've always wanted to go:

Looking round the different themed areas was fun (Simpsons, Shrek, Jurassic Park - although ride was shut! Boo! Transformers, Minions), but my favourite bit was the tour, going round film sets and then special effects bits (Psycho, Jaws, King Kong). The live action Waterworld was also good:

We were in town for the Oscars. We had a fun night in a bar a few doors down from the famous TCL Cinema where the event was actually happening. The streets were all locked down, so no celebs spotted!

Another real highlight was going to an LA Clippers basketball game. The bits in timeouts were mental, freebies being fired into the crowd and people trying to win jeeps! You can just about make out Beyoncé and J-Zee in the front row:

Gav also took us on a road trip to San Diego for a couple of days, going round some Microbreweries and getting up close and personal with some seals:

Thanks Gav and Jen for looking after us so nicely!

Eden Project, Dismaland & Glasto Retreat

We used our tesco clubcard points to visit the Eden Project in Cornwall. It was a lovely place, with some great indoor biospheres.

Camping nearby in a YHA was fun with great views out to sea, enjoyed with a bottle of Korev.

We also visited Banksy's Dismaland in Weston-Super-Mare, good fun!

We also went on a yoga/meditation retreat at the Glastonbury Ashram, still trying to be hippies! We did lots of yoga, a Kirten and ate lots of healthy veggie food. It was a lovely long weekend, definitely to be repeated.

Wooding of the Singhtury

Inspired by Nev's convertible, we bought a soft top beetle and drove to Sara's wedding in St. Andrews. We took a fortnight off work and made a summer holiday out of it.

We drove to Birmingham for our first night, then camped in the Lake District on our second, it was pretty, but really windy, our pitch was really exposed and our tent got wet! We went on a boat on Lake Windermere and had brunch in Ambleside. This was the view on the drive to Penrith.

Then we drove to St. Andrews and stayed with my family in a house opposite David Russell Apartments (where Sara used to live). We met uncle Paul, uncle mejar and Karum there. The next day we moved to a different house close to the chapel where Sara was getting married and we had fudge doughnuts and I had a massage. We had a BBQ that evening, an old wives tale said if you bury a raw sausage the weather will be good the next day! Pete had to rescue the raw sausage from an enormous seagull! But it worked, the weather was fantastic on the day. 

Sara and John got married on Friday 7th August. They looked amazing and it was a beautiful day. 

Dad wore a kilt and gave her away in the gorgeous St. Andrews chapel.

We had supper at the seafood restaurant on the beach. Mum did the flowers...

.....and Issy made the cake

We looked the part as well:

The next evening we had a ceilidh and hog roast in the rugby club

We had lovely fish and chips for Sunday lunch with John's family before they headed back to Dublin, and we had breakfast at the Old Vic on Monday with my family before they all headed home. Pete and I stayed in St. Andrews for a full week. Then we headed to Dunbar and stayed at Issy's and went to the Edinburgh fringe festival. We saw Tom Parry who was brilliant in his yellow t-shirt, James Veitch Genius Bar, Seymour Mace and Zoe Coombs Marr who was the most expensive ticket we bought and she was terrible!

We then drove across to the West coast of Scotland and stayed in a beautiful youth hostel at Rowardennan Lodge. 

It was right on Loch Lomund in the Trossachs national park. 

We drove as far north as Glencoe, it was very pretty, and remote and peaceful, but cold, so we didn't risk walking very far!

Then we drove to Oban, stayed in an awful b&b in the town centre run by two eccentric old men who made their own jam! 

We explored the small town, had delicious seafood in the recommended Oban Seafood Hut right on the sea and visited the Oban distillery. 

We then made our way back to Bristol, via OK Diner for curly fries and American peanut butter milkshake. We spent a night camping in the Yorkshire Dales. We visited York Minster and walked round the city walls with an obligatory ice-cream as it was sunny!

Summer festivals

'Summer saw us visit Glatonbury for a third time. We linked up with Hazel and Kieran. Lionel Ritchie was the highlight on the Sunday afternoon slot. We also saw the Dalai Lama, Motörhead, Mark Ronson, a bit of Kanye, The Libertines, The Who, Paul Weller, Hot Chip and The Chemical Brothers.

We also enjoyed Arcadia...

Plus there was a little mud, but not too bad on the main site. It was bad next to our tent where we had one happy night listening to folk falling into our tent all the way through!

We also went to Outcider festival ("No tribute bands. No X-Factor. No Carling lager. No hipsters. No tossers.") for the second year on the trot for lots of strong cider and barn dancing with Charl and Nev! We were so busy drinking cider, we managed not to take a single snap! ;-)