Spring Break (2)

Second day of our break starts by having brekkie with kids again. After the usual madness, we got them off to the bus, and then headed for Cookstown to collect the new radio mic for the church hall.

On the way back we decided to detour, and found ourselves Lough Fea, which probably would be nice to see, but not today, as it was miserable and cold. Coming home we took another detour around Garvagh, where I was looking for an underwater bridge, or Ford, which I had childhood recollections of. We eventually found it, and I have to say that it wasn't easy to pluck up the courage to drive my car across a river. But I did it, and it was great, much to the amusement of SWMBO we made it through unscathed.

Next we decided cream buns would be good, and went into the "bakery" in Garvagh, and ended up coming out with scones. As we were in the area we popped over to Mums for a wee cuppa.

Afterwards we got some prices for tyres for my car, and then went in to pick up car2. On the way home we met a man on Captain Street, which may not sound unusual, except when you realise its a one-way street!

We picked up Kate from school, got tyres for my car and tried to get the alignment done, but because of a seized nut no-one would touch it.

After tea we all went for walk on beach in very strong wind, which was amusing, but freeezzzing.

Then home and kids to bed :) The End for today.

Spring Break (1)

Today SWMBO and started out holiday with a little lie in. We started the day with a family breakfast, followed by the usual hectic act of getting ready for school. Any Tuesday starts the same way, I kick off the latest '24' download. Then its off to the garage with my car for its service.

After dropping the car off I had some time to kill, so I did something I've been meaning to do for some time : make an appointment with our dentist.

With that sorted, I just had to stand on Railway Road, in the rain, until SWMBO picked me up. Then we popped over to B&Q for cups and pads to protect the wooden floor from the furniture.

Next we went over to Limavady to Bradleys to see if they could fix our thermostatic shower, which had grown distinctly less "thermostatic" over the last few weeks. Turns out it is under a five year warranty, so that should be fixed shortly.

We popped into Tescos to get some food for lunch, and then it was back home for tea. Lazily we killed a couple of hours watching "Mr & Mrs Smith" before having a pizza for lunch.

That is the holiday over, the usual procedure begins : pick up Kate, do homework, pick up Matthew, off to swimming lessons, all good fun.

After swimming it is time to pick up car1, and leave in car2, and have a heart attack at £380 bill!
Home for tea, then got Kate off to GB, then picked her up, and retired the kids to bed.

Time for a quiet evening watching 24, another action packed episode, great stuff.

Afterwards I watched William Crawley's interview with Dawkins, which was very interesting and informative, and certainly worth a watch. Sad really.

This is of course followed by falling asleep in front of the telly, and off to bed. Goodnight ;)

Paragliding

Today was a pleasant Saturday, breakfast with the family, then a few chores, the first of which was to pick up 12 sheets of 8x4 3/4 ply for under the wooden floor.

As the Sun was setting we saw the sunset was going to be beautiful; at this time of year the Sun sets further round the coast, and so we set off for Gortmore viewpoint. We got to see the sunset, and got a couple of snaps, which do not do it justice at all, but the cool thing was seeing a para glider come up from behind the cliff!

It was quite bizarre, but really interesting, and he was close enough to wave back to the kids, which they thought was great.

Roe Valley

Today we visited the Roe Valley Country park, which is a great park, just outside Limavady. We visited before recently, but the rain came on, and as we weren't completely sure about our solubility in water, we decided not to risk it, and got back into the car.

Today, however, it was not raining, but dry, mild, and calm. A perfect location for a great walk.

We walked southwards down one side of the river, and crossed over at the first bridge, and back along the other side. It was about 3 miles, which we walked in just less than an hour. A great way to spend Friday afternoon.

When we were almost around we spotted this Robin, and it sat on the branch while I got closer, and managed to snap this shot!

Riding in Cars with Boys [2001]

Having a quiet night in I randomly flicked through the films tonight on my TiVo. I ended up with "Riding in Cars with Boys", which I would never consciously choose, and to be honest if I hadn't been doing other things on the laptop at the time I probably would have switched over.

It's really a quite tragic story about two teenage friends who fall pregnant* and how these events profoundly shape their lives. Its a very emotive story, touching on all sorts of family problems including marital breakdown and drug abuse.

It's not the kind of film I like, but by the end I was gripped. Watching this film made me realise how amazingly privileged we all are. We live in nice homes, in nice neighbourhoods, with pleasant friends and loving, supportive families. Our lives and close families tend to be free from all the problems in the film, for example I have never had to attempt to nurse my spouse through cold turkey as they come off heroin. Many people in the world do have this and similar or even worse experiences. Maybe tonight we should spend time really thanking God for the bounteous gifts we enjoy on a daily basis.



* this phrase always amuses me, its not like anyone has ever just "fallen" pregnant...

Out of hibernation

Hopefully the lull in postings here has ended. The reason for the lull is simple. Each time I post it is because I have been doing something which I think is interesting. I simply haven't done anything that interesting recently.

This weekend was different though, with the unusually warm weather and bright sunny skies. On Friday afternoon we reassembled the trampoline which had been taken apart for safety reasons due to the high winter winds. It was great to get it back together, and a few bounces later it was as if it had never been away! Great!

The kids were mad to get out for a ride on their bikes, so on Saturday we packed them into the car and made our way to Castlerock where we had a great walk on the beach. The moon is full just now, meaning the low tide is very low, and fortunately low tide was early afternoon, meaning a huge amount of the beach was hard wet sand. The kids loved it and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

The best bit for me was the way the waves were splashing against the end of the pier. This seems to happen periodically when the waves are big and the tide is low. It can be quite spectacular, and worth a look. The great thing about it is that while the pier can be dangerous at high tide, at low tide the only danger is getting wet by a cloud of spray, as the water doesn't actually wash over the pier at all.

There were a couple of guys at the end of the pier attempting to get a good photo, but I think they weren't standing far enough back; I think I got the picture they were looking for.