Happy Birthday Ma'am......

Despite the heavy rain we celebrated the Queen's 90th birthday, street party style (squashed into our garage and thank goodness Hubby had use of two large gazebos)

Theatre: A Midsummer Night's Dream.......

Sir Trevor Nunn returns to his home town to direct William Shakespeare’s comedy of mismatched love.

Patron of the New Wolsey Theatre, and former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has thus far directed 36 of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, with this production completing the collection.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the Elizabethan writer’s most popular plays, enjoyed worldwide by audiences and school children alike. A play dedicated to magic, amazement, theatrics and passion - it showcases the poetry of Shakespeare in an entertaining and accessible way to all, with plenty of humour and audience asides.

As well as marking the theatre’s 15th birthday year, and concluding Sir Trevor’s repertoire of directing Shakespeare, 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and joins many theatres across the region and UK who will be marking the celebration with groundbreaking productions and festivals.

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Slight change of plans as I'd said yes to a ticket when Daughter asked about two months ago, as it was her and all three children and me so a fun family outing. However the night before I got a call to say Daughter and two children needed to be elsewhere so I was to take R and collect tickets at the box office. I had a quick phone round and neighbourJ said she'd love to use one of the spare tickets but I couldn't find takers for the other two.

Well the three of us loved this performance. It was set in the 1920s in colonial India but with full Shakespeare script. All the actors were brilliant, leads down to children faeries included, and brought each character to life. It was hilarious! The costumes and sets were very well done too.

We went to the matinee and nearly all seats were sold, and there were two large school groups in the audience and by all the cheering at the end they thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Well done to all involved.
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Wales Holiday, 11-18 June 2016.......

All packed and ready Saturday morning, R and O should have gone to their drama class all morning but it was cancelled so we set off a bit earlier than planned. Both Daughter and Hubby were recovering from colds. No traffic problems and we arrived in Wiltshire in good time. This is where Son and his fiancé live and we were en route a bit more than half our total journey to south Wales so a great place to stop and also as R and E were seeing their dad for the weekend it was an easy place for a people swap as their other grandparents were coming up from Dorset to collect them......are you keeping up with all this?

Son and fiancé made us all very welcome of course. Their cottage is very small and they laughed at this being the most people they've had in their home at once. They have a little dog and even invited the other grandparents in for tea along with their dog so she wasn't left in the car. The girls, their grandparents and their dog went off and a bit later Daughter, O, Hubby and I left having been well fed and even came away with food for later  :-)

We reached our holiday cottage in Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, Wales about 8pm and was met there by the owner who showed us around. By the time we'd cooked and eaten the pizzas Son gave us, and unpacked the car it was time for O to go to bed and actually we followed up soon after.

Sunday started too early for Hubby still full of cold, and O joined him so they both had breakfast long before Daughter and I came down. Definitely no rush as it was raining quite hard. As soon as it eased up we went out for a walk, found the local shops and onto a wonderful beach just minutes away. Loving the location!

We found the biggest barrel jellyfish any of us had ever seen, and there were lots and lots of them over the sand

Lunch on the beach, we each had something and chips from the kiosk. Back home for a cuppa then Daughter drove off to collect R and E while Hubby, O and I watched tv had some dinner then due to the lack of books here O and I told made-up stories for bedtime. After they got back and a quick snack Daughter and the girls went out for a late night walk to the beach and didn't come back until it was really dark.

Monday and another slow start as another wet grey day. Out by about 10:30am and off to see the caves and dinosaurs

Unfortunately my aches and pains got the better of me, so as I'd done the first major cave before lunch I stayed in the cafe with my book while the others went off to do the rest. Even that had its consolation as I'd noticed a young mum struggling with a baby over her shoulder while trying to undress a toddler, so I offered a helping hand and she immediately thrust the baby on me saying I was a life saver, the toddler had had a major drink spillage incident just as her husband had gone off to the toilets, so I enjoyed bonus baby cuddles! Supermarket stop on the way back and then an evening of games and the Captain America film.

Tuesday and I stayed home in the morning while they did the steep walk up to the castle (still raining this morning too). R didn't go with either deciding that her bed was far more inviting. Here are a few of the photos Daughter took

When they came back we all had lunch and while we were deciding what to do for the afternoon it rained and rained, so decision made we stayed in. Actually Daughter and E went out as E wanted some art materials. Dinner tonight was in the local pub and very nice it was too.

Wednesday was a busy day as we went to The National Botanic Gardens of Wales and it rained and rained and rained so lots of running between buildings. R and O couldn't resist the straw maze solving the puzzle then jumping over 

Plenty to see inside the tropical dome too 

We came back and threw pizzas in the oven for dinner and it suddenly got really sunny and warm so after eating out in the garden we took a walk to the beach and while we went for a walk Daughter and E made shell art

Thursday was a bit of a longer drive to Aberdulais Falls and tin mine museum. It's quite compact but really interesting. 

Then it was into Swansea for a mooch around the shops (guess what, still raining). We came back with large dinner of Chinese and Indian ready meals plus vegetarian oven things and ready to bake tear-n-share garlic bread from Tesco which is just when the microwave decided to stop working. Daughter then did an amazing jiggling around to get it all through the oven and onto the table.

Friday we woke to a lovely sunny dry morning but as we'd had two busy days we decided to stay local and let the girls have a lie in. After a brunch/lunch to use up as much food as we could it was time to go out.  R has now got the head cold Hubby has just got over so she decided to stay in today anyway so without her we all set off for the beach, although I didn't get very far before realising my knees were too painful for me to ignore so I turned back insisting that Hubby, Daughter, E and O go on. Tonight's dinner was a bbq in the garden, still so lovely and warm! 

Saturday and it was all up, packed and ready to leave by 9:30am and as luck would have it a dry day, which actually we were pleased about for Daughter driving all that way home. We made just one comfort break at a motorway services and bought food to eat in the car. Home about 3pm!

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Definitely No Ugly.....

The Good.....
FriendHM has just had a big birthday and her family had made her a surprise bbq party and I was asked to spread the word amongst her friends but as it was Bank Holiday Monday they were all busy so just Hubby and I went. She was suitably surprised.

The Bad......
FriendDJ is now back at home, but as he lives in a first floor flat with no lift he may not be strong enough again to leave it. The hospital forecast he has about two months left to live. He told me he had six more model plane kits to make and he's not going till they are done, I replied "if that's what it takes I'll buy you more"!

Art group this week were just five of us. So hard to get new members!

After art we always go to a large lorry park where there is restaurant, bar and live music. We've just heard it had been sold, now all worried that the live music part will change, hope it doesn't.

The weather has been too cold, too wet and too windy for me to do any gardening. My clever strawberry planter that I made went over in the storms and we had to rescue the pots but dismantle the stack, never mind.

The Entertaining........
When Hubby and I arrived at friendsN&T for our lunch date they had a power cut from the overnight storms, so no cuppa first just straight out to the pub, they were closed and the sign on the door said they were flooded, second pub sign on the door said power cut and finally when we sat down in the third pub they said slight delay as they've only just got the power back on. Totally worth the wait, the food was delicious, think we'll go straight there next time.

BFriendM cooked for us all Wednesday night specially for friendHM and friendDJ's birthdays, of course DJ couldn't come. A lovely evening :-)

The Hilarious......
Had a shock then a giggle the other night as I was driving away very late from our night out when from inside the glove box my satnav, which had been switched off, suddenly started giving me directions home! 😨

Which reminded me, I've also had it fall off the dashboard at the start of a journey I didn't really need it for so left it silent on the floor, then got myself 20 miles away got slightly lost and recovered then just as I pulled into the pub car park a voice loudly announces "you have reached your destination" hahaha

The Long Wait........
More than six weeks ago Hubby was referred by the GP to Dermatology and about three weeks ago my GP sent a referral for me to Nephrology. Because we are about to go on holiday I thought I'd chase and give the hospital our holiday dates. They told me I had at least another 18-20 weeks before getting an appointment. Hubby's referral wasn't even there! Rang the surgery and they are chasing up both.

Also waiting to hear from sisterS about the birth of her first grandchild, any minute now!

The Experiment.......
Because of the hospital referral delay I asked for a GP to phone me as I was in too much pain to wait and convinced it's a side effect of bp pills. GP phoned and agreed to change pills yet again and read everything to see what I can take but whatever they give me is totally trial and error! Watch this space for results (and keep all your fingers crossed).

Back to physio this week and he and I agreed that it's best now to see if the prescription change does the trick and with the holiday coming up we didn't make another appointment he'll leave it to me to rebook when I need to.
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