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.
Sometimes I get about without a camera on me. Luckily the Blackberry is handy. I wouldn’t say that it takes good pictures, but it is always there for when something fun happens. Also, with Mitchell’s arrival, Lena still deserves some of the limelight…
Lena loves merry go rounds…
At least the aussies won something this summer
For some reason goats turned up in the Maidenhead high st
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
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!
We had a lovely easter in the sun, to celebrate the wedding of Dee and Martin, in the Munich Ratskeller. A Ratskeller is not a place where rodents dwell, rather the cellar below the Rathaus or town hall.
The wedding started with a drinks reception in the courtyard of the Rathaus, and then we went downstairs for the ceremony and then dinner.
Dee and Martin in cake form
The happy couple
The service and facilities were top notch, and it was great to see Dee and Martin marry.
Lena celebrated in style by driving her SLK Mercedes (ride on edition) around the restaurant.
Highlights for us were the well organised wedding – meant we could just have fun!
The food was good, and of course it was great to see everyone there too.
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?
As part of my lazy updates to our family blog – Lena brought her little friend Alody up to the allotment (with a side trip to the park as well of course). Lena and Alody have lovely matching mauve jackets and every time they see each other it leads to a crazy squealing contest.