Tarrant & Andrews Family Diary

Emma

We stopped off at Katharine and Simon’s on our way home from Holland to see Emma.

She was born on the 31 May 2006, so was 3 days old when we saw her. She’s lovely.

Katharine and Simon and Thomas looked well too. I hope they weren’t too overwhelmed by their visitors.

Half Term in Holland

Over half term we went to one of the Center Parcs in Holland. We drove via the Eurotunnel, then stopped at Antwerp on the way there and Bruges on the way back. All together I drove 1015 miles!! A bit too much really.

Once we were there though we had a great time. There was a big “tropical” swimming pool, with slides and waves and bubble pools and so on, where we spent most of our time. We also went climbing, played badminton and bowling and played a couple of board games. We had most of our meals out, and on one evening cooked a huge indoor barbeque.

We’d rented bikes – traditional Dutch one gear, back pedal brake, sit up and beg things they were. There were no cars allowed on the site except on leaving and arriving days, so we could all cycle round without worrying about bumping into anything.

It was great spending time with Will, Sarah, Jack and Grace, particularly as they are leaving for Australia in September.

The stop in Bruges on the way home was fantastic. Will had found an amazingly central hotel, we had a nice Italian meal and spent the lovely warm evening wandering around the beautiful city. There seemed to be loads to do there, lots of galleries and museums, and it would be a good place to go back to. You can get there easily via Eurostar, so maybe some weekend…

Sarah to Hospital

I went over to Will and Sarah’s today to take Sarah to hospital. She’s got a bad case of conjunctivitis which had been agravated by eye drops she had been given. Her sight wasn’t up to driving, and she wanted someone to look after Jack and Grace while she was seeing the doctor. She got another appointment for next week, but the doctor reckoned she should be ok.

Photos of Mandy’s Birthday

I’ve put up some photos from Mandy’s birthday weekend here in York. There are several of Cindy.

There are also more photos added to the Photos of Cindy gallery.

I’ve had a busy day doing forms for probate, inheritance tax and Cindy’s pension. I also had to go to the supermarket and I met John Rack for coffee this afternoon.

The children are tired, particularly Rose, after her weekend away.

I’m tired too.

Beach Again

Some people went off to Portmerion, but Mary and all 5 of us went off to Harlech Beach again. Not quite as sunny, but still lovely.

Katharine and Simon cooked a lovely barbeque this evening, then Will and I went off to explore climbing rocks for tomorrow’s planned morning climb.

Walks and Trains

Will, Toby, John, Rose and I set off on the Snowdon Horseshoe; Jane, Andy and Mary went on the PYG and Miners trail to Snowdon; the rest wanted to go on the train to the top. There were vague plans to try and meet at the top.

The train was booked up until 5pm, so they went on a different train around a lake. John’s sunburn was really bad, so he, Rose and I went down to a lake and waited till Will and Toby came down the hill. Toby walked Will into the ground apparently, limitless teenage energy! Mary, Jane and Andy did their walk as planned.

Pool in Stream

We walked down to the stream in the grounds and found a waterfall with a fantastic pool at the bottom of it. The pool is deeper than I am tall; big enough to jump and dive into, and have a swim of about 3 strokes across and 10 strokes round. Rose was first into the water, as she slipped, then John and I went in.

Water was freezing!

Sunday – Beach

Went to Harlech beach – about a 20 minute drive. It’s a lovely flat sandy beach, with views of Harlech Castle, the Llyn Peninsular and the Snowdonia hills behind it. The sea was nice and warm – much warmer than the North Sea.

John got quite badly sunburnt unfortunately, due to not having his sun cream renewed often enough.

Journey to Wales

Saturday – time to go to Wales.

Cindy woke up not feeling very well, but we loaded the car up and left anyway. The journey to Ffestiniog was about 5½ hours, with Cindy sitting throwing up fluid every half hour or so all the way. In spite of that it was a surprisingly good journey, with the children all being fantastic and Toby map reading very well.

When we arrived, we unpacked and Cindy went to bed. Jane and Andy had already arrived; Katharine, Simon and Thomas arrived at almost the same time as us; and Lance, Sarah, Will, Jack and Grace, who had all been camping, arrived soon afterwards.

The house is lovely – very large, spacious bedrooms (8 of them), big sitting room, well equipped, slightly run down kitchen and amazing garden and grounds. The children all ran around working off their pent up energy, while Andy and Jane cooked a lovely meal.

Maurice at Thruxton

Maurice used his birthday present today – a driving experience at Thruxton.

He went round first in a Mazda RX8, first a passenger, then as a driver. Then he went round in a single seater racing style car. He was really good and overtook a few other cars.

There were loads of amazing cars there that you could pay to have a drive in. I was amazed by how interesting I found it!

Jayne’s Birthday

We all (Jayne, Steve, Christopher, Pat, Maurice, Mandy, David, Amy, Tom, Cindy, Me, Toby, John and Rose – Matthew AWOL) went out for Jayne’s birthday last night to a very nice Italian restaraunt in Emsworth called Niccolino’s. David had said that the portions were big, but they were truly enormous. Really wide menu, very good pizza.

We all had a really good time, especially when the waiter came round to help Steve sing to Jayne in Italian!

All Family OK

Jane and Katharine and partners/child are all ok, following the bomb in London today. Been exchanging phone calls and texts with them and friends in London today – all well with people we know.

Frightening. We’re intending to go down to London next week, I’m sure all will be clear by then, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Jane and Andy’s Wedding

Jane and Andy got married in York Registry Office, followed by a party at Lance and Mary’s on April 23^rd.

Easter Sunday

We’ve had a lovely lunch today with Lance and Mary. Roast Lamb – we haven’t had anything roasted for a while (except for chicken on Friday, Cindy has just pointed out)!

Last night we had a fantastic meal with Lal and Pauline at Melton’s.

Kitchen paint colour is chosen and bought. All ready to go, just going to give the plaster another day to dry some more.

Maurice’s Surprise 70^th Birthday Party

Cindy’s dad, Maurice, was 70 on Friday and we all met up for a surprise meal. He knew he was going out with Mandy and David, but also there were Amy and Tom, Janyne, Steve, Christopher (who’s 20^th birthday it was), Matthew and Cindy and I. Maurice was very surpirsed and very pleased!

Jayne had organised a fantastic gift for him. It’s a voucher for him to be able to drive a F1 racing car. Maurice seemed pretty overwhelmed by this, and couldn’t wait to be able to do it. Photos to follow once he does it!

We had a nice meal in a pub near to where Pat and Maurice live – followed by coffee and more drinks back at their house. Didn’t get into bed intil almost 2! Then drove back home this morning.

Mandy and Tom Here

Mandy and Tom have come to visit for a few days. Tom’s half term has just started – unlike ours, which is just finishing. Toby and Tom have spent ages on various computers, and have been to the park to drive Toby’s car (but a wheel fell off – not even my fault! – it’s only a screw.) Mandy, John, Rose and I went to a Viking Craft Trading Fair (!) full of people in chain mail buying drinking horns and so on.

Cindy hasn’t been out today as she’s getting a bit of a cold. Her next chemo is on Tuesday. Mandy and Tom also go home on Tuesday, taking a huge list of kitchen jobs for David – he’s ripping our kitchen out at the end of the month. Exciting.

Mum and Dad for the weekend

Started our weekend over a cup of tea and cream doughnuts and danish pastries. Caught up on family news while cooking fish pie and peas, helping Toby to fill out his Youth club forms and aid in stapling Rose’s puppet theatre project. Enjoyed a lovely family meal and then sunk into the soft seats for the evening.

Mum came with me to Rose’s dance class and dad had a bit of quiet newspaper reading after we all enjoyed a variety of cooked breakfast goodies. Haven’t watched Rose for several weeks now and could really see that she had improved and they were all able to pick up a dance routine more quickly. Edward took John to his class and he returned home wanting some proper dance shoes.

After lunch Toby and Edward went off to the Knavesmire to drive Toby’s truck and the rest of us headed out for the Railway Museum. Mum and Dad have not been here for several years and Dad was especially interested to see the Japanese Bullet train. Certainly nice to sink into the Bullet’s comfy seats fort 5 minutes and catch our breath from train viewing.
Back home it was useful not having to cook as Mum had brought a beef stew and a couple of fruit pies.

Card playing after tea accompanied with a bottle of wine and chocs.

Edward and children off to Meeting for the Christmas social on Sunday while Mum, Dad and I went to the Castle Museum. Have not been here without children before and it was really nice to take time and be able to read the information. Did have to avoid a rather eccentric couple who were engaging evrybody in conversation as they moved around the museum. The woman even shared her bottom wiping experience with me as we looked at rolls of ancient loo paper……..is it somthing about my face?!!! Super cheese scones in the cafe and then a very quick whip round the second half as the parking time was running out and we could see a traffic warden in the car park from the cafe window.

Scrummy roast beef (Mum again) followed by meringues with raspberries from Jean’s allotment for supper. Mum and Dad then had to set off for the long five hour drive back. John is very pleased with his dance tape from Nanny and it is doubtful that the oversized fur coat will make it out of the house as John and Rose are having far too much fun with it. It seems to be doubling up as a bath robe at the moment.

Good Food

Cindy & I went out with Jane and Andy for a lovely meal on Saturday. We went to Meltons, the restaurant where I used to work as a waiter. We were upstairs, which was a slight problem to start with, as it took Cindy quite a while to get up the stairs. But once we were up it was better than being on the ground floor because the toilet is on the same level rather than down in the basement!

We all ate too much (I had a fantastic bouillabaisse and three of the four of us had blue cheese and walnut gnocchi for starters), pulled crackers and drank well. Meltons was very busy, as I expect it is all the time now until Christmas.

On Sunday we went to Lance and Mary’s for lunch. Jane and Andy were staying there, and Will and Sarah came over with Jack and Grace. It was fun having such a large family meal – especially as we’re not going to have a huge get-together at Christmas. Jack and Grace were really well behaved – they both sat at the table and Jack did his best to use the cutlery. He is so big for his age!

Late Night

After a busy day and evening yesterday, I managed to go to bed fairly early, but just as I was drifting off to sleep (11:15ish), my dad phoned.

He was in a lot of pain from an overfull bladder that he could not empty (ugh). I phoned the out of hours doctor service, spoke to a nurse and then a doctor and then a doctor came round. It ended up with me taking him to casualty, the doctor phoning the urology oncall person ahead and him having a catheter put in. Once that was done he felt hugely better and once they’d found him a bed on a ward he was able to get some sleep, and I was able to come home (2am).

We expected that he would have to stay in for a few days, but he was discharged this afternoon and is at ours at the moment where he is going to have tea. He still has the catheter in but he is able to go normally. He’s going to be put on a waiting list for some sort of prostate operation. He seems fine though.

I hate hospitals and I seem to be having to go to them far too often at the moment!

Oh well, tomorrow I’m going for the more alternative health care end of things. I’m going over to Leeds to go to Robert Maida, the reiki person that Cindy has been going to for a while. I know she has got a lot out of it, so I will withhold my total and utter scepticism and see what it’s like.

Mandy & David Visit

We’ve had Mandy, David, Amy and Tom to visit for the last few days. They came up on Thursday and are leaving on Sunday.

We’ve had a really good time, and have done a lot of things together. Toby, David, Tom and I visited Aerial Extreme to pretend to be monkeys. And then fish and chips on the way home. Cindy, Mandy, Amy, John and Rose went off to do some shopping.

On Saturday morning, all the adults went out for a meal at La Piazza and had a really lovely time – see photo.

40th Wedding Anniversary

Sunday 9th May and Lance and Mary’s 40th Wedding Anniversary. Sorted out several weeks ago what everybody would like to do. So, there was sarah on salads, Jane on champers, Katharine on puds and me on meat and fish and a celebration cake.
We have tried to buy a sundial, but measurements of the sun’s movement have held things up a little and so this will be arriving later.
Arrived at 118 The Mount to assist Katharine with her puddings. She was well in control and Simon was on baby sling duty so we were able to get on with the final preparations. A table for 17 plus Jack plus Grace plus Thomas. Goodness knows what we will do when they’re sitting at the table. L and M will have to move again and buy an even bigger table.
Jane arrived with Richard and Katherine from London. Anne came with Jan and Roland. L and M arrived home from church followed by Edwaqrd and the children from Meeting and finally Will and Sarah with the children.
Following on from drinks, to the table and crack open the champaign with a toast from Edward and then on with the meal. There was a side of salmon with hollindase sauce, salmon eye of beef, green and potato salads, mozerella cheese with tomato and basil and pork pies. Lemon and lime and deep chocolate tarts and fruit salad for pudding. A selection of lovely cheeses that Jan brought.
To walk this lot off Mary took everybody down scarcroft road to look at the progress in the allotment. John and Rose wanted to see if any frogs had arrived in the pond attracted by the addition of the tadpoles the other week, a present from Charles and Tanya’s pond on the Hull road.
On return the cake was cut and tea and coffee made. Jan and Rowland had to get away taking Anne with them and Richard and Katherine followed on with a 6 o clock train to catch. Simon and Katherine departed with a slightly grumpy Thomas and a had a good journey home. We cycled home soon after. A lovely celebration that I think all enjoyed.

Edward

Edward is deep in SAT’s land this week with light relief provided by a very nice art project creating a pattern using felt that will culminate in a banner.
he has about 4 applications in at the moment and is having a week of doubt that a job is ever going to happen. Something will come up soon I’m sure. We all had a busy weekend and Edward took John and Rose to a music event at the Early Music Centre on Saturday for a show of Indian dance, poetry and music. Greatly enjoyed by all. He then took them all off to Meeting on Sunday while I helped katherine put the finising touches to her puddings for the 40th Wedding Celebration of lance and Mary.

More Photos

To celebrate the birth of Thomas Austin Bowers on 10 April 2004, here are some old photos of Katharine and Simon’s Wedding.