Where do we begin?

Our blog has been allowed to go along the wayside in the past year. Chris and I have been busy and 'updates' just don't really happen - sorry.

So what have we been up to?
In June we had a lovely time with friends Phil and Debs being invited to share in Deb's 30 +10 birthday party.

It was lovely seeing them both again and the time we spent in Wales was blissful, sunny weather brilliant company and a relaxing weekend.

The Brecon Beacons

We haven't really gone anywhere this summer apart from the odd weekend to Roscommon and a recent weekend to Dublin.

With a new addition to the Bracken household arriving in the next few weeks we have been trying to get a space prepared for the little bundle to enjoy and it is taking a lot more time than expected... The walls had been painted, the woodwork primed for glossing and on Saturday evening I returned from work to find this...

Chris said the paint had 'bubbled'... but ....

Then the plaster came off

So after some lining paper




And a coat of paint, we're hopefully ready for the carpet to arrive tomorrow!

So with all this work getting done, Willo has been very patient and has been settling down really well. She also has learnt to jump into the boot which is very handy as she is loving the puddles in the parks and I am not going to lift her!

So we'll keep people more up to date in the next few weeks...
But that's all for now!

Goings on

Chris and I have had a busy couple of weeks since the last update. Amongst many other family birthdays, both our nieces have gotten a year older. Grier is now two and Ruby turned one. Simon and Bronwyn brought her up at the weekend and they all got to meet Willo, Ruby loves her.
Willo is filling out and is keeping us fully fit. I really do love having a dog, but it does tie you down a lot more! Chris laughs when I come home after the morning walk and tell him all about the people I've met in the park and the conversations we've had... but it opens up a whole new world or dog walking!

Willo relaxing after a walk in the park

Chris has been going through more of our 18,000 photos and was asked by a colleague and good friend to give a talk to the WI. He did this and the presentation which he prepared was really good (if I may say so myself) and it bring back a lot of memories about our travels.

Chris was asking what the high and low points of our year out was... and we could think of so many high points, but low ones... we couldn't think of any and we were so lucky to be able to say that. But when asked would we do it all again... yes and no, next time I'd bring a roller case!!!!

Changes...

In my last posting I mentioned about getting a motorcycle...

Well, this is me in my father-in-law's garage, but I have been out on it but due to the really icy roads, I haven't been out
for a couple of weeks. It's a lovely Suzuki Marauder and I love it. I'm calling it Juanita!

If that wasn't enough... Chris has finally given in and allowed me to get a dog. We were going to get one as soon as we returned from our travels, but as we were going to South Africa for a couple of weeks, it wasn't very fair on the dog. So last Monday we got Willo from the dog pound and she is slowly getting used to life in the Bracken household and we're slowly getting used to her! We had her dancing in the kitchen tonight!
It was very difficult trying to pick a name for her, but from the seven we'd come up with, Willo seems to have stuck. Our Niece, Emma, wanted to call her Crispie, but that was met with a quick No!!!!

Here are a couple of pics from when I took her out for a walk at the pound... She's a lot happier now despite being spayed and being given her inoculations!

Stomp!

It's been a little while since I've put up a post and although there have been lots of different things I could have blogged about, the time has passed and so it's become irrelevant. (Me getting a motorcycle... settling back into home life...)
But not this time!

For various reasons we purchased some 'Stomp' tickets for Chris' Nephew Nathan and for my parents for it's opening performance. Chris and I had the delight of seeing it being performed just off Broadway in NYC with our couch-surfing host Barbara, so when we saw it was coming to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, we just had to go.

Despite my concern about the physical size of the building (being quite a big) the interaction of the audience was actually better than that of the small theatre we'd originally seen it in.

The opening act with the brushes was so 'hard hitting' that they broke about 5 of the 'brooms'!! It was over 90 minutes of constant entertainment and some additional moments of side splitting laughter.

Everyone who went enjoyed the performance and I was pleased that we had stayed with Barbara and her husband Matt for us to have been able to see the show in the first place to realise just how good it would be.