Driving over Tower Bridge in London, yay!
-- jo xx
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunny bank holiday
Stuck in traffic on a bank holiday on our way to go to Wales biking.
At least the sun is shining!
-- jo xx
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Thanks :)
Just a quick note to thank all who have blessed us with texts, notes, gifts, cards, and quiet words of encouragement over these past couple of months.
Truly we've been blessed.
- Matthew.
- Posted using BlogPress
Truly we've been blessed.
- Matthew.
- Posted using BlogPress
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Best Present Ever
Without a doubt the most appropriate, timely present ever. Amazing coffee at the push of a button as we wander into the kitchen in the morning for the last time each night...
Yum.
Matthew - on Jo's phone as always :)
Yum.
Matthew - on Jo's phone as always :)
Location:Home
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
One Last (pre-3-of-Us) Shin-dig
With only 5 weeks to go until bump joins our little family we took the opportunity to do some of the things that might prove to be a little more difficult with a bub.
So we're in London for the weekend staying at Canary Wharf courtesy of Catchy & Sarah. (thanks guys!)
Yesterday we saw not one, but two(!) West End shows & shared a lovely dinner at Chev Gerard French Restaurant.
We had booked tickets for 'Wicked' at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria. It is absolutely phenomenal!! Loved it loved it loved it!!! Music was amazing, staging was brilliant, & the girl who played the Wicked Witch of the West had the most captivating voice I think I have ever heard. I didn't want it to end!
After our French dinner, we were surprised by a friend who saw some cheap tickets last minute for the night performance of Sweet Charity, so off we went... Apart from being way up in the Gallery & feeling uncomfortably preganant the show was great! What a treat! Thanks Jonny!!!
We're now sitting in a lovely little delicatessan on bank holiday Monday; been here since breakfast, and just had lunch, enjoying a very lazy day.
Last night we caught up with Maciek and Una back at Waterloo and saw Invictus at the BFI- brilliant film- after a fun dinner at the pub we used to hang out at when Matt worked at Evans Cycles. One hightlight..on the way home in a packed tube, a lady very 'politely' asked a man to get up because 'this lady is really pregnant'!! Hehehe. Feeling slightly embarrassed and very red in the face I gladly accepted the seat! ;)
Such a fun weekend! To top it all off we have first class tickets back to Manchester.
Yippee!
Thankyou Matthew for a fun filled, exciting and relaxing weekend. You're the best!!
-- jo xx
So we're in London for the weekend staying at Canary Wharf courtesy of Catchy & Sarah. (thanks guys!)
Yesterday we saw not one, but two(!) West End shows & shared a lovely dinner at Chev Gerard French Restaurant.
We had booked tickets for 'Wicked' at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria. It is absolutely phenomenal!! Loved it loved it loved it!!! Music was amazing, staging was brilliant, & the girl who played the Wicked Witch of the West had the most captivating voice I think I have ever heard. I didn't want it to end!
After our French dinner, we were surprised by a friend who saw some cheap tickets last minute for the night performance of Sweet Charity, so off we went... Apart from being way up in the Gallery & feeling uncomfortably preganant the show was great! What a treat! Thanks Jonny!!!
We're now sitting in a lovely little delicatessan on bank holiday Monday; been here since breakfast, and just had lunch, enjoying a very lazy day.
Last night we caught up with Maciek and Una back at Waterloo and saw Invictus at the BFI- brilliant film- after a fun dinner at the pub we used to hang out at when Matt worked at Evans Cycles. One hightlight..on the way home in a packed tube, a lady very 'politely' asked a man to get up because 'this lady is really pregnant'!! Hehehe. Feeling slightly embarrassed and very red in the face I gladly accepted the seat! ;)
Such a fun weekend! To top it all off we have first class tickets back to Manchester.
Yippee!
Thankyou Matthew for a fun filled, exciting and relaxing weekend. You're the best!!
-- jo xx
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Date
On a surprise date. Matt picked me up from work & whisked me away to our favourite pub for dinner.
Have to cherish these moments, they're going to be a distant memory very soon.
-- jo xx
Location:A56,Manchester,United Kingdom
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Penny Farthing
Went for a lovely Spring walk with a friend yesterday & stumbled across this fun cafe which is also a Penny Farthing museum.
The cafe still has an old sign out the front that says "free tea to penny farthing riders". :)
The best bit though was witnessing a steady influx of older men meeting at the cafe, dressed in knicker bockers, tweed coats & long socks walking alongside their penny farthings, (see above) waiting to join the May Day Parade.
Just fun!
-- jo xx
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Peaks in the Sun
Sitting here in the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon on the top of Pym Chair two and a half miles NW of Edale looking up across Kinder Scout to Edale Head.
If you look closely you can see Jo, Catchy and Sarah walking the Yellow Brick Road (granitic, slab path) up the hill.
Great times !
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
'More Things Change...
Tonight signals the last night in Base Apartments, Manchester, so what better way to mark its passing than a re-visit to the Indian where it all began?
Until I figure out how to insert a hyperlink via Blogpress, check out the post on November 5th, 2006 :-) hoorah!
-- jo xx
Until I figure out how to insert a hyperlink via Blogpress, check out the post on November 5th, 2006 :-) hoorah!
-- jo xx
Location:Rice St,Manchester,United Kingdom
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Introducing...
Bump Wysel...
I've been so scatty lately that today I went to the shops to buy ingredients for a Coca Cola cake and I forgot to buy the Coca Cola ! :-)
-- jo xx
I've been so scatty lately that today I went to the shops to buy ingredients for a Coca Cola cake and I forgot to buy the Coca Cola ! :-)
-- jo xx
Friday, January 08, 2010
Colder than the South Pole
Heard on local radio today that last night, at -20 degrees, Manchester was colder than the South Pole!
Brrrrrrr!!!
-- jo xx
Brrrrrrr!!!
-- jo xx
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Vanishing Act
How to loose a car in one phone call (some preparation needed):
--Preparation:
1. Start with crazy-cold, wintery weather
1a. Discover constant current drain on the car battery (AA will help with diagnosis "sometime in the next 6 hours" for the first call-out, and "about another 2 hours" for the second call-out). In both cases a flat battery is required.
2. Slide in ice (and snow) while driving the car at the AA's instruction ("you'll need at least 30 minutes of driving...").
--Phone Call:
3a. Phone AA and request recovery for car and 2 passengers. "can't log it now, best to call back tomorrow morning"
3b. Call AA back following day; request as above.
--Vanishing Act:
4. AA Recovery driver arrives, his hydraulic line blows on flat-bed lorry, requiring his own recovery call-out. Now 24 hours after initial call.
5. Wait another few hours.
6. AA change plans: Can't fix their lorry, we're to make our own way south... our car will follow.
7. Say goodbye to packed car, warm clothes, 3 bikes, fresh food. Grab necessities. Taxi to airport, sort Rental Car, drive south. Arrive 2am Monday morning, 36 hours after initial call.
(8. Call from AA about 11pm saying our car was en-route, several hours behind us)
Still working on a good method for making car re-appear...
--Preparation:
1. Start with crazy-cold, wintery weather
1a. Discover constant current drain on the car battery (AA will help with diagnosis "sometime in the next 6 hours" for the first call-out, and "about another 2 hours" for the second call-out). In both cases a flat battery is required.
2. Slide in ice (and snow) while driving the car at the AA's instruction ("you'll need at least 30 minutes of driving...").
--Phone Call:
3a. Phone AA and request recovery for car and 2 passengers. "can't log it now, best to call back tomorrow morning"
3b. Call AA back following day; request as above.
--Vanishing Act:
4. AA Recovery driver arrives, his hydraulic line blows on flat-bed lorry, requiring his own recovery call-out. Now 24 hours after initial call.
5. Wait another few hours.
6. AA change plans: Can't fix their lorry, we're to make our own way south... our car will follow.
7. Say goodbye to packed car, warm clothes, 3 bikes, fresh food. Grab necessities. Taxi to airport, sort Rental Car, drive south. Arrive 2am Monday morning, 36 hours after initial call.
(8. Call from AA about 11pm saying our car was en-route, several hours behind us)
Still working on a good method for making car re-appear...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Edinburgh in the Snow and Fire
Jo and I have just caught up with Catchy and Singo in Edinburgh for Hogmanay NYE, and have spent the evening standing in snow storms around an official 'Fire' installation just below Edinburgh Castle.
Super !
--matt.
Super !
--matt.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
More Snow, Less Riding
Jo and I have come north for a few days of post-Christmas mountain biking at Glentress, 7Stanes, Scotland and got rather more snow than we were bargaining for.
We've both ridden in snow before, and had found that so long as we stayed to well ridden paths most of the trails were generally still ridable. Not in this much snow :)
Much of the 2.5 feet of snow on the trail had thawed into slush (on the first day) and mostly refrozen (by the second day) turning the whole trail into a corrugated slip-n-slide that sometimes held your weight and sometimes sent you sliding through to the slush beneath.
Needless to say we've not put quite as many miles away as we'd hoped; we've moved slower dragging a bike through snow than skimming over trail-centre hard-pack.
Still, it's been a stack of fun for us all, playing in the thick snow, especially as it was only the third time on a mountain bike for Joanne, James' wife who both met us for the day on Monday.
Vid's coming once we get home.
Oh, & yesterday it was -12 deg, & our car battery has gone flat.
-- matthew
Location:Peebles, Scotland, United Kingdom
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Snowing in Manchester
It's snowing in Manchester ! It looks like we're going to have white Christmas :) hooray.
-- jo xx
-- jo xx
Location:Worsley St,Manchester,United Kingdom
Friday, December 11, 2009
Elbow
Found this and thought you'd enjoy it.
Elbow One Day Like This with the BBC Concert Orchestra and choir Chantage
(if you can't relate to the words, come try living in the North of England)
Elbow One Day Like This with the BBC Concert Orchestra and choir Chantage
(if you can't relate to the words, come try living in the North of England)
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Christmas Markets
We had a trip to the Christmas Markets tonight in Manchester. So much fun! We sipped on mulled wine while pottering around all the fun stalls, visited our coconut man again - the macaroons are just as good as last year - and had a couple of beef burgers from a local farm in The Lakes - which smelt so good that we were lured away from our traditional bratwurst (Matthew: just means we'll have to go back again and try the German beer and bratwursts).
There were long lines for pancakes, strudel (I insisted on custard), and lots of little Christmasy-thing-shops selling things we needed. ;)
And we bought our Christmas Tree !
-- jo xx
Location:Manchester
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Not Wet
The past few weeks the skies have opened with rain rain rain so the thought of going biking on a weekend has been well... Wet.
We've gone anyway- not wanting to miss anytime on the bike - and each time God has cleared the skies just for us, usually just as we've hit the trail.
Recently when Matt was away I went MTB solo & the trip to Wales was torrential, there were cars pulled over because of the rain. As I continued the drive I seemed to follow a patch of blue sky & by the time I arrived in the car park the sun was shining!
Two weekends ago, Matt & I met some friends in Scotland. They had been there all week & warned us that the rain was so bad they couldn't even eat their sandwiches outside. When we arrived on Friday nite it was raining but for all of Saturday & Sunday, whenever we were riding - not a drop.
Also, last weekend we were at a church weekend away in the Lakes & in our free time on Saturday, we went to Whinlatter, a trail centre in the whinlatter forest. Now, don't forget we're now on the fourth weekend in a row that followed a week of rain. There were floods across the road, it rained all Friday nite, all Saturday morning, & then all the way to the forest. The moment we got out of the car & put our leg over our bikes, the rain stopped! Just like that!
Thanku God!
Not wet!
-- jo xx
We've gone anyway- not wanting to miss anytime on the bike - and each time God has cleared the skies just for us, usually just as we've hit the trail.
Recently when Matt was away I went MTB solo & the trip to Wales was torrential, there were cars pulled over because of the rain. As I continued the drive I seemed to follow a patch of blue sky & by the time I arrived in the car park the sun was shining!
Two weekends ago, Matt & I met some friends in Scotland. They had been there all week & warned us that the rain was so bad they couldn't even eat their sandwiches outside. When we arrived on Friday nite it was raining but for all of Saturday & Sunday, whenever we were riding - not a drop.
Also, last weekend we were at a church weekend away in the Lakes & in our free time on Saturday, we went to Whinlatter, a trail centre in the whinlatter forest. Now, don't forget we're now on the fourth weekend in a row that followed a week of rain. There were floods across the road, it rained all Friday nite, all Saturday morning, & then all the way to the forest. The moment we got out of the car & put our leg over our bikes, the rain stopped! Just like that!
Thanku God!
Not wet!
-- jo xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
