Festive Fun

Christmas down in Bournemouth has been a heap of fun this year. Christmas Eve was spent with John, Angie, Jenny & Mark having a few drinks and nibbles, and some Who Wants To Be A Millionaire interactive DVD fun!

Pressies for me this year including new jumpers, shirts and the customary undies & packs of socks. The 512mb Flash Drive will come in handy too. For Sheryl the highlights were a new cream coloured wooly beanie, white Morgan de Toi slippers and a cheap and cheerful 512mb MP3 player.

After the present opening we headed to my Uncle John and Auntie Angie's place, via Nan's sister Deed's place for a cheeky brandy (cup of tea for us), before a fantastic Christmas dinner! The rest of the day was spent sipping on wine or beer and watching telly. Great day all round I reckon.

Boxing Day was spent at Karen & Trevor's place where we caught up with the rest of the family.

Our New Years Eve plans haven't gone according to plan, but we made a last minute decision to make the most of the situation and we'll be busing to London on Sunday afternoon and getting involved in the public festivities. About quarter of a million expected to be in central London and, yes, public drinking is allowed! So a couple of bottles of wine and some plastic cups and a little spot by the Thames will do us fine.

After the New Year sounds in thanks to Big Ben there's fireworks off the London Eye, so it should be good fun. We're catching the first bus back to Bournemouth at 10am so it's an all nighter for us before getting home for Nan's open day New Year spread!




(Christmas Eve in Kinson)


(The pre-Christmas dinner brandy at Auntie Deed's)


(Christmas dinner at John & Angies)

Fun with the Grandparents

Last Saturday, after Sheryl recovered from her all day hangover from the birthday bash, we went out for a nice meal in a nearby pub called The Curlew with some of the family. The grub was good and my Nan especially enjoyed the special coffee at the end of the meal. The cream-mo is most definately a funnier step up from the regular milk-mo.



After the weekend we came up north with my Dad and spent a couple of days with my Grandparents in North Yorkshire. Always good to see them, and even though we only had time to spend two nights with them we squeezed in (another) trip to a local pub for a drink and a meal. 'Tis the season to wear silly paper hats.

Back down in Sheffield for the rest of this week we've spent two days Christmas shopping in amongst the madness and on Saturday the three of us headed to Hillsborough to see the Owls take on top of the table Birmingham. We outplayed them for most of the match which sounds funny when you consider we lost 3-0.

Today it's back down to the south coast (again) to Bournemouth where we'll be spending Christmas. New Years plans aren't set yet but a few days in the capital seem on the cards.

Hope you all have a great Christmas wherever you're reading this from.



Merry Christmas!

Dale & Sheryl

Knees up in Bournemouth

Friday night turned out to be the knees up we knew it would be! You know it's been a big night when Sheryl can't haul her ass out of bed until 6pm the next day. That said, I wasn't feeling the brightest either.

The night started with a good hearty meal from Nan (and a couple of glasses of Merlot), followed by a bottle of Lanson champagne at Jenny & Nikki's place (my cousins).

We went to four places throughout the night, one pub/cheap drinks place and three clubs. Waited in line for a six seater taxi at around 3.30am and rolled into bed about 4. Great night, fun times (cue Borat voice...for anyone who's seen the movie).

Grey, Windy & Wet. Happy Birthday Sheryl!

We’ve been back in England now for a little over a fortnight, catching up with family and preparing for Christmas. Normally at this time of year Sheryl and I are so snowed under with work that the festive seasons seems to fly by unnoticed.

We spent quite a lot under what we had budgeted for the European backpacking trip so we have enough money to see us through the New Year, when unfortunately we shall have to rejoin the working world and start saving up again. Seven months without work is a pretty good effort I thought!

I suppose the crappy grey, windy and wet weather we’ve had solidly for two weeks since our return comes as nothing of a surprise. It was bitterly cold in Germany for the most part of our three week stay there but we managed to avoid the rain.

It’s Sheryl’s birthday today and we’re heading to town for the first time with my cousins and their friends. We’ll report back, with photos, on what should be a good old fashioned knees up.

My Dad is coming down for the weekend from Sheffield to see the family before Christmas, and we’re heading back north with him after the weekend for a week or so, and with a small trip planned for North Yorkshire to see my other Grandparents again it’s another busy period of travel. And that means more budget travel thanks to our friends at Megabus!

That’ll be all.