Me on Monday - Still aching

It has been a plubers on Friday, Dragondaze on Saturday and ache all day Sunday kind of a weekend. There are tiles on that wall now but I forgot the camera and my legs wouldn't do the stairs twice in ten minutes. The rest of the walls will be painted a lovely duck-egg blue/green and it will look lovely when it's finished - honest. Getting there is just so awful.

We have plumbers putting in a shower instead of a bath
*sigh* so stressful

 Saturday was the annual Games, War Games, Role Playing and board games , and comic convention known as Dragondaze. The first one was held 32 years ago and I was involved in writing the competition and organising the event. It was held through the 1980s and into the 1990s and then real life interfered and people who were involved had kids, got jobs that required lots of time and it kind of hibernated until 2014 when a friend came to me and asked if he could use the name for a charity event he was planning. We talk and it was so exciting I got involved. Here we are three years later raising thousands for Barnardo's and a local children's charity and already talking about next year.

Dragondaze, the annual games and wargames and comics convention

 It was a long day and the Murder Mystery game I hoped to run didn't happen because not enough people signed up. Disappointing but not that upsetting as Mr M didn't feel too good and I felt so tired and stressed from plumbers.
Sunday we went out for breakfast and to do the shopping. We had breakfast in the HUngry Horse and then decided to go for a little ride. Mr M likes to drive. It is his hobby. Not driving fast, not driving big cars. Just driving and stopping at small cafes or garden centres for a cuppa and a Loo break.
We ended up at Clive's Fruit Farm. Not saying much because we are taking the Bluefunnels there soon -ish and I want them to be excited about it.

Clive's Fruit Farm where this hadnsome chap was putting
on the style

Came home about 5pm after stopping for dinner at Labels, Ross on Wye and I settled into my chair to crochet another flower - photograph when I get them right.

My thanks once again to Sian for inventing this meme and keeping me writing.

Me on Monday - The icing on the cake

You all know that I have been researching my ancestors for nearly thirty years, yes? You know I have "actors" in the line-up and that those actors had children, travelled all over the world and could tell lies to gold medal standard.

WELL............

On Saturday Mr M and I went to the home of a fellow researcher as she was going to help me look through the British Library Archives for any newspaper reviews of my actors when they were in South Africa. We found several good things and duly saved them to a memory stick for me to transcribe later. She also found information about a totally different branch of my tree and I saved that too.
Mr M was with her husband and deeply engrossed in model railway stuff when we finally peeled ourselves away from the computer. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and headed off for a quick lunch.
My friend didn't stop looking. She kept putting the names I told her into various search engines and sending me the results! Now I have images of the application of my great-aunt to follow her husband to the USA in 1918. It even has a picture of her with their first-born son. Apart from being able to see what she looked like when she was 22 it has also confirmed that this is a picture of her in later life. This really is the icing on my family cake.
Also this weekend I have had an article accepted for an online magazine (genealogy based of course) and a request for more. That made me feel good.
We have sold the tent, finally admitting openly that we will never be able to go camping anymore. Not with his knees and my back. We could easily get into/onto the airbed at night but would need a crane to get us off the floor in the morning.
The last thing we arranged this weekend was for the plumber to come this week to fix a few small things and to remove the bath and put in a new shower upstairs. Now that will be new!

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this here meme and keeping me writing

Memorandum Monday - Down Memory Lane

 It started with a phone call on Friday evening. "What are you doing tomorrow?" asked the Lord Admiral, "Not a lot" I replied. Lady B's voice came down the line "You are now, we'll pick you up at 8 o'clock."

And they did.

The sky was grey and threatening rain but that didn't matter.
"We are going to Swansea," said the Admiral as he put the postcode into the satnav. "We have never really done Swansea before, we keep saying we'll go and then putting it off so we thought if we asked you to come we would have to go."

The rain began as we passed Cardiff and by the time we had reached our first destination and driven around the block three times to find a parking space it was coming down in stair-rods! We got soaked crossing the road but the Uplands Diner was welcoming and their breakfast looked and tasted delicious. I pick up my camera and they all hide their faces - fed up with the fearless photographer snapping them.

We then moved on to the Cathedral of St Joseph which was really lovely. The Parish Priest, Father Dominic, greeted us together with two sisters from the same order as Mother Teresa. They were putting up pictures in the entrance to the cathedral and explained that on Sunday Mother Teresa would be made a saint and as St Joseph's Cathedral was the last place she visited when she came to the UK they would be celebrating a Mass for the event on Monday. Lady B and I agreed that we thought it was very quick for her to be made a saint and we wondered about what miracles had happened.

We then went to the indoor market, apparently the best and biggest indoor market in the country. Not sure if that country is the UK or just Wales and we feel that Newport Market is actually bigger, but whose counting eh?

Then we thought about lunch. We headed for The Mumbles but didn't stop. Admiral B remembered that the last time he had been to Port Eynon was when he went on holiday with his cousin when he was seven (this was me, and was the holiday when I was sick in his wellington boot, a whole other story) so we headed there, pausing at a rather posh restaurant in Langland Bay but as we hadn't made a reservation we couldn't stay. The view from their veranda was quite nice - if it hadn't been closed down by the mist.

We went to Port Eynon, it was shut. No really, the cafe and everything was shut tight and most of the car-park was closed off too so we carried on and headed for Rhossili. I had never been there before, always going to the other end of the bay but we found the Bay cafe and had a delicious Pannini lunch before the gentlemen went back to the car and Lady B and I fought against the wind and rain to get to the National Trust shop. It had to be done if only because they stamp NT passports there and I needed to get mine stamped. I took one quick picture of the beautiful beach before scurrying back to the car.

We were back home by 5pm and snuggled warmly into our chairs, drinking a warm and welcoming cuppa.

There are always moments in our days out when something happens that really makes us all laugh. Usually I forget to write them down but Lady B gave me a new notebook for scoring the legs game so I used it to write down the daft things.
Talking about the traffic and the tourists (remembering that Lord Admiral is a little hard of hearing)
"Too many grockles about these days" says Mr M
"Too many Brothels?" asks Lord Admiral, looking quickly around us
"Ha! that got your interest!" said her Ladyship and we all dissolved into laughter

Once again a day with lots of laughter, lots of conversation and quite a few memories of good times.

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing