Skye, Alston, Staithes, Saltburn, Viana Do Castelo, Porto and Uncle Tom Cobley and all....

A recent request for written material made me realise that my blog had not been updated for about 6 months! No great loss to the general public, I hasten to add, but in the effort of keeping a sort of vague record of my life, it's pretty damn remiss of me, Jeeves.

So, a brief resume of previous months:

February: A great and final gig for No Sleep 'til Bedtime in the Village Hall. Probably our finest hour and yet no recording or pictures to be had, which makes it even more special somehow. You just had to be there...and most of the village were!!

April: A fabulous trip to the Isle of Skye, discovering dramatic scenery and fine local beers.

May: A friends Civil Ceremony in Harrogate - where I wish my father could have been there to shout in his usual fashion "all them as can't dance is puffs!". He'd have never made it out alive.....

The D.J's were funky too.....

Also in May, Matt became a TEENAGER!! Yeah!

We then had a weekend away in Alston. This is just in Cumbria but placed seemingly in no-mans land. You drive forever across high granite hills, the occasional lonely stone shed and samaritan-phoning sheep in sight. Richard had also been warned that this town had the highest ratio of men to women (4 to 1). By the time we got there a slight paranoia had set in about sexually deranged menfolk rampaging through village streets searching out unsuspecting female tourists. OK, so I was paranoid - but intrigued all the same....
Oh yes - we also road-tested a rather fine and sporty volvo, which was a bit of a bonus on the trip .

Alston - the town of high testosterone, and the car - thank you Volvo!

June : A lovely day out, en famille, to Saltburn and Staithes where the sun shone so much and the sky was so blue that you can hardly believe we had the most wet and miserable summer ever.

Saltburn and Staithes

July & August: Two whole, knackering, glorious weeks with just my beloved on a trip to Northern Portugal, exploring the Duoro and Minho valley from small villages to a major historic city i.e. Porto

Statue of Viana Do Castelo (in the town of the same name) and The Ribiera, Porto

Workwise (what that?), I've been concentrating on putting on an event in Malton on 31st August for young people. One of those pieces of work that takes forever, you think you'll never finish, there's loads to remember and organise, you get totally wound up and stressed about it and then... it's over. What now?

Well, in order to recover from said event, we have booked a weekend in the village of Marloes on the south Pembrokeshire coast.

View next blog to find out more - (probably at Christmas!!!).