We have lived in the UK for 4 years but not had much holiday time locally. So we decided this year to take a Staycation! This meants we had plenty of time to check out the things to do near where we live, enjoy a few guests and more than anything relax!
So a wedding is always a lovely reason to take a trip, so when Nadine and Efren invited us to come down to Dusseldorf to celebrate, we couldn’t resist.
The trip took us through England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and we enjoyed a nice stay at a spa hotel and then off to the wedding. It was a good party and we enjoyed the coffee and cakes and then had a fun night watching the German team perform admirably in the football world cup against Argentina.
Nadine, Andrea and Lena
The wedding ceremony
Mitchell enjoying the ceremony
Signing on the line
Outside the Standesamt
Christian and Gina
Our family!
Efren singing with the Mariachi band
The Mariachi band
Andrea and Lena chilling in front of the fan
Us with the happy couple
Mitchell reflects
Mike and Sheetal
Eindhoven
Sheetal, Lena and Greg
On the way home we managed to catch up with Mike and Sheetal in Eindhoven. We looked around the city, enjoyed a nice meal at a Grand Cafe, and then we made our way back to the channel tunnel and had fish and chips for dinner in Dover with the setting sun.
Lena and Greg went to Dad’s Camp on Cookham Dean old cricket common. It was a fun weekend with about 40 dads and a hundred or so kids. We turned up, pitched our tent, and made sure the kids had a great afternoon with a big walk and treasure hunt. Once we had fed the kids and put them to sleep, then there was a couple of hours for us Dads to have fun.
Thanks to Porteur, Mike and Darryl for organising a great event and getting everyone together.
We’d like to introduce you all to our new son, Mitchell Robert. He was born in the afternoon of 6th August 2009, weighing in at a massive 4.5kg and 59cm tall already.
The latest harvest – foreshadowing a new harvest of another kind
I ran into Gok Wan today at Oxford Circus. He is of course famous for making women look good naked! He kindly posed for a photo. EDIT: Gok didn’t introduce his friend at the time but a reliable source tells me it is Ruby Wax.
Enjoying a coffee
We both had a quick coffee and shared stories and he pointed out some funky shoes which I ended up buying.
Some light construction work has been going on at the holmesmacleod household. We’ve laid down the new floors (without worrying about the underfloor heating) and as you can see in this picture, Lena enjoyed putting in a helping hand. Most of the work was Greg and his dad Brian. We had a friend (Lewis) drop by to give some handy hints and lend some tools at the start.
No daddy, do it like this!
A lot of work took place fixing the subfloor until it was slightly flatter than before. Then we put down a layer of blue foamy underlay.
Finally we topped it off with our Rustic Oak boards. They are nice broad and long boards which fill out the house nicely, in the living and dining areas. Right now we are putting the edging and final touches in.
Who knows what the next project will be, but this one was a nice piece of fun!
So we are looking at redoing our floors downstairs. Currently we have some icky green carpet which came with the place. They were icky when we moved in, and having a two year old and two slobby adults around the place have not made it any better. So out with the old in with the new.
As an idea, we are looking at some rustic oak boards like pictured from www.kahrs.com
Linnea Oak - Kahrs
Additionally to top it off, we are thinking that laying underfloor heating will help our interior design by removing the big fat radiators which line our walls in the living room and dining room. We are currently looking at http://www.heatmat.co.uk/ as a nice solution. You just lay an insulation layer at the bottom, pop down the thin electric heater roll, and then a moisture protecter and glue down the floorboads. Sounds simple enough right.
Heat Mat
Well stay tuned because Greg and his Dad are going to lay this in April, assuming that we are able to source all the necessary materials by then.
I have recently joined all the twits at www.twitter.com. Now you can track my comings and goings on the right hand side here under the heading Greg@twitter. This is the internet phenomenon that everyone from Stephen Fry to Demi Moore is using to keep their “followers” updated on their daily doings. So I now have it to keep you updated on what we are up to. Who knows who might do this next, maybe Andrea or Lena?
Last weekend I visited Bulgaria with my work mates and got to see a ski resort and country that I barely knew anything about outside of games of Diplomacy. Bulgaria is a former communist country bordered by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. We went to the resort of Pamporovo (Пампорово) near the Greek border, about 3-4 hours from Sofia where we flew in. My colleague Peter owns an apartment that has recently been built in the burgeoning resort.
As far as a countries go, I think Bulgaria has a long way to go. I could describe it as stepping into a time machine, but only partially, because you see loads of soviet style architecture, half finished houses and buildings. But there is also a mix of new developments, mansions, and some just plain odd looking stuff mixed in. Also the roads ranged from recently built to scary bumpy tracks that people overtake on in the middle while cars pass each side.
For skiing, the resort had a fair size, and on good days would have a nice assortment of runs, ranging from easy to nice fast black runs coming down the face of the mountain.
It was a fun trip of poker, snowboarding, pool and watching sport, and while I mightn’t go back soon, I would say it is an experience you will only understand if you go yourself.
