Going downstairs movie

Luke made a movie today:

Winter 2010

Apparently this has been the coldest December in Britain in 100 years. We've certainly had LOADS of snow

which has meant we've been able to build our best snowman ever

and we had a huge snowball fight. Our new car (well, new to us) has coped well with the conditions. Hooray for German engineering!

Luke's helped decorate the Christmas tree and ice the cake. Only a few more sleeps to wait now until the big day!

Wales

Last week we went to stay in Wales with Luke's friend Mattie and his Mum Sarah. They have a family cottage in southwest Wales near a village called Crymych. I'll let Luke show you the cottage:







While we were there we went on a sunny coastal walk round Dinas Head


hung out in the gardens of Picton Castle


and found a frog in a tree


We also played many games of dominoes, splashed about in rock pools and ate some scrumptious seafood.

Cornwall

We spent a week at a cottage in Cornwall with a couple of our friends. The cottage had a great meadow where we could play. The local wildlife liked it too.








We couldn't believe the giant rhubarb - this was just growing in someone's front garden: We were half an hour's walk from a great little beach called Maenporth. The water was a wee bit cold but that didn't stop Luke from having a good time
while some of us just concentrated on looking cool.


We had a great time at the Eden Project. This is justifiably famous for its plants, but they also put on some kids' activities for the summer holidays. One of them was to build a 'den' from a selection of poles, materials, rope and other bits and bobs


and another was to use a selection of hoses, pumps and guttering to move water around - Luke's idea of heaven I think!
The weather was mostly glorious, but even when it wasn't we managed to consume our fair share of delicious Cornish ice cream
Near us was a garden called Glendurgan where they have a really cool maze. Mike won, to Luke's disappointment.
We found an utterly fabulous pub, the Ferryboat Inn at a place called Helford Passage. The pub overlooked a little beach with a jetty for the ferries, and you could sit and watch the boats cruise up the river whilst eating wonderful seafood. This was the view from our table

We liked the Lost Gardens of Heligan too, despite getting extremely lost on the way! Our mission for our next UK holiday is to find a water pump that actually works. There are a lot of these about but I don't think we've ever seen one that actually pumps, although Luke lives in hope.

Centre Parcs

Last weekend we went to Centre Parcs, Elveden Forest. It's a holiday park for families with lots of activities, including a Subtropical Swimming Paradise which Luke absolutely adored.

http://www.centreparcs.co.uk/

We didn't do many of the extra activities (expensive, and there wasn't much time anyway after all the hours we spent in the pool!) but we did take Luke on the Junior Quad Bike Safari (ages 6-11). First they got all kitted out:

Then the instructors showed them how to drive the bike:

Then they did a few practice circles with the instructor walking beside them with a 'dog lead' - if the kid goes out of control, the instructor pulls the lead and the bike's engine cuts out. Luke did very well - steering and braking were just like his normal bike and he soon got the hang of the throttle.

Finally they were allowed to do a few laps of the real track - with the instructor following behind on another bike, still with the dog lead!

Luke was getting pretty confident by this stage and started getting up a bit of speed:

Valentino Rossi, watch out!!

New Zealand

In March I popped home to New Zealand for a week, after a work conference in Malaysia. I was rewarded by glorious sunshine and warm weather every day. I spent most of my time catching up with family and friends. I stayed with Mum and Dad in Auckland. One day we took ferries from Half Moon Bay to the city and then to Devonport. It was lovely to be out on the water. Must be a fabulous way to commute! Here are Mum and Dad on the pier at Devonport

I flew down to Hawkes Bay for a day to see Mike's mum Sue:

While I was in Hawkes Bay I walked for half an hour on Te Mata Peak, and found this grove of redwood trees. They were planted the same year I was born. They have grown a little taller than I have in the meantime:

On my last evening I had dinner with my friend Ruth:

Brighton

One day in the last school holidays I took Luke to Brighton. We took the train - it's about 2.5 hours with one change of trains. It was cold and wet, but we had a good day anyway. When you live as far as we do from the sea, you take what you can get! And someone enjoyed getting sprayed by the waves...