Cornwall II

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We are in Cornwall at the mo. It truly is the greatest place on earth!! On Saturday we had a big family get-together to celebrate my Nanna and Granddad's 60th Wedding Anniversary, and we had a wonderful time!

Aunties and Great Aunties and Uncles, neighbours, lots of cousins and second cousins met for a delicious meal at Nanna and Granddad's favourite restaurant, Trevaskis. Mum, Dad and the boys (my brothers) were there (see first pic), as well as my sister Jaz and Tom and baby Sebby (second pic) and we all had a fun day on the beach before the meal. Dad, Isaac and I even swam in the f-f-f-f-f-reeeezing sea!! It was absolutely beautiful though. Oliver and Sebastian looked very smart and dressed up for the occasion in shirts and sat in matching high chairs. And best of all, Oliver got to meet his Great-Grandparents!!

Here are a couple of photos to document the weekend...

It was a lovely celebration of an amazing achievement. They even got a card from the Queen! :)

Ben, Oliver and I are still in Cornwall for a couple more days. Today we went to Lands End (the most westerly point in all of England) and tomorrow we might check out the Eden Project. Having a super time- and probably more photos to follow!

The End of a Cambridge-y Era!

On Thursday morning we are moving house and it is a sad business!! I love living in Girton- it is beautiful, and Ben has just been working on the garden and it looks better than it ever has! I have made some lovely friends and they are sad to leave behind... We have had a WONDERFUL time in Cambridge, with tons of fab opportunites (rowing, singing, Mum and baby groups galore, lots of concerts and cultural things, amazing architecture, church friends, punting, working at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill!!) and it will be sad to leave it all behind.

But on Thursday we are hiring a Transit van and moving it all into Mum and Dad's conservatory, and for the next month will be embarking on a series of holidays, trips, a family wedding, a 60th wedding anniversary (not ours quite yet!) and Ben's Graduation. Not too shabby! So at the moment our front room is full of boxes, and the rest of the house looks like an utter tip which is a little bit disconcerting (since it's got to get worse before it gets better?!)

We are getting rather excited about just turning up in a place where no-one knows us, our parents or anyone else, and settling into life far, far away- just the three of us!! Sounds like fun.

In other news, it's my birthday in 1 hour and 37 minutes!! Not that I'm immature and counting, of course...! :)

We are officially moving to....

Today was pretty eventful: Ben got his exam results (hooray!!) AND we finally know where BP are sending us!!!! We are going to...

ABERDEEN!

We are very excited, although that is all we know so far. We will probably be there for 1-2 years.

Backtracking: The Isle of Wight

A couple of weeks ago Oliver and I went to stay with my family while they were off school for halfterm. It was the first week of Ben's exams and we thought we'd better go away so we didn't distract him from work, and to make sure he got enough sleep!

Tom (my brother-in-law)'s Mum has links with an Isle of Wight parish, so we amazingly got to stay in a gorgeous 6-bedroom Presbytery in the centre of Newport, surrounded by a beautiful walled garden, complete with a church! It was all absolutely beautiful.

Here are some photographic highlights:

My brother Isaac lost his first tooth

We found a scrummy full English breakfast brunch for only £2 something

Really beautiful little villages

Oliver decked out for a day at the beach!

At 'The Cod Father' ("We'll batter anything!") Battered Mars bar was surprisingly yummy.

The house was a real highlight. O and I had the top left wing.

Everyone! (minus Ed and Ben, who were revising hard at home)

Oliver is 6 months, and other news

Oliver turned six months on Tuesday (7th June). He can NEARLY sit up by himself, and is rolling about and chatting more than ever. Six months is the start of more varied and exciting foods and a LOT more mess! As well as his fruit or veg puree for lunch, this week he has had dinners featuring a piece of toast, fromage frais, a hunk of cheddar cheese, and a couple of strips of pitta bread with soft cheese on. Going well so far!

In other news, we sent in our application for Olympic tickets in April, applying for five events in the hope that we would get at least one or two, but no luck. Ben and I have been checking and rechecking our bank accounts for any stray money going out over the last couple of weeks, and feeling pretty miserable about all the sob stories about getting no olympic tickets that keep cropping up in the news. Apparantly all the money was debited by 31st May :(

BUT! Last night we were bemoaning our sorrow again (!) and I remembered that I need to pay my credit card bill- and I was scratching my head trying to work out why there was £47 going out from a company I couldn't remember buying from... it called itself WWW.TICKETS.LONDON2012...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray, we have been checking our joint debit account for weeks! I must have put it on the other account. How cooool!! No idea what it's for yet, but after the sadness of being part of half the country who were unsuccessful, we're going after all!! :)

A Bit of 'Me' Time

Here is Oliver wearing my latest creations

While Oliver has been napping this last week or so I have done some of my favourite things. This is particularly great because it seems that when you have a baby you kind of have to put aside everything that you used to enjoy doing, or that 'defines' you, but I am happy to say that I am now making time to raise Oliver as well as spend a bit of time on hobbies etc.

- This week I popped into a gorgeous little bead shop opposite Magdalene College called 'The Beaderie,' spent a bit more than planned (there were so many pretty ones!!) and I threaded a necklace. Hooray! Ben thinks I am a funny little girl, but I can't help it! I love beads- especially shiny ones, and choosing combinations. I can't wait to get some more... maybe I will make a bracelet a week?? Though that could get expensive...

Now it just needs an iron... and the actual quilt bit

- I did some more on my quilt! I only do little bits every now and again, but I have nearly got all the patchwork pieces together now.

- I wrote some music!!! Allelulia, I haven't sat down to do any writing for about a year. One of my church friends, Mo, has written a beautiful poem called, "Bless His name" that I wanted to write for two sopranos and piano. I am yver pleased to report that I wrote a couple of pretty little verses straight off! No piano part yet (I'm not so great at that) but hopefully I can scribble something before too long, and we can sing it at something this Summer. Having brilliant words REALLY helped- much better than my own personal cheesy lines!

I am having a really happy life at the mo, hooray!