Saturday, September 29, 2007

Not quite my birthday

Decided I wanted a family day out as it's nearly my birthday. We were supposed to go to Cardiff, a bit late setting off as we had to wait for my husband. Although I was up late I came downstairs ready to go unlike him! On my appearance he goes off for shower!!!
Driving to motorway we hit diversion and ended up coming back on ourselves. On moving from M5 to M4 encountered guy waving to slow down. Around bend traffic was queuing due to a nasty accident, whilst waiting I picked teasles from roadside. Then started conversation with a lady who was going to her daughter to celebrate her birthday which was also on Monday, she would be 72. We had to reverse back onto M5 and ended up going towards Swindon on M4. Went into Bristol via M32.
Decided to stop and have meal in Bristol, we sat by dock and watched the world go by. Then wandered around Bristol.
It was nice to have a family day out :-)


Friday, September 07, 2007

Camping in Wales






Decided to take boys camping for a few days.









This is the view from our tent. The campsite was on a slope. I drove around field twice trying to find a suitable pitch. We were only there a few days but my calves were solid by end Saturday.



To get to beach we walked downhill. The route took us through a pretty wood which was pleasant and cool. Then over dunes and finally a steep drop on to the beach. It took about 10 minutes to get there then it took 20 to get back!










Oxwich Bay has been voted the best beach in Britain. On our second day we walked to Oxwich and then up to castle.














Counting dead jellyfish to as we walked along beach.






Actually "castle" is a bit misleading as it was a Tudor manor house and now mainly a ruin. There was an exhibition about the history of Wales and it's royal family. Two things stuck me, that people were living in Wales 35,000BC and Wales was actually only an independent country for about a hundred years before Edward II defended them and declared his son Prince of Wales.

Of course after walking there we had to walk back.








No wonder boys slept in!





Whilst I cooked breakfast!





Wasted talent?

Yesterday Pavaroti died, he was probably the most popular opera singer in the world. Today the Independent had a special pullout section devoted to him, amongst the articles was one that stated he wasted his talent never fulfilling the promise of his youth instead selling out to mass culture. I suggest that as he grew older his priorities changed, when we are young we can strive for our own fulfilment as we marry and have families we need to provide for them. Elsewhere it was said that like all Italians "family" was important to him, I don't think Italians are the only people who place their families high on their priority list but maybe they just aren't afraid to admit it.
Pavaroti's voice stirred the hearts of millions of people, his voice will live on in recordings maybe forever, he leaves behind a family who he loved, I don't know if he wasted his talent but I do know that he didn't waste his life.