2012: Week 47

Saturday 17 November

Today we saw New York in both the daylight and the dark, from the top of the Rockefeller Center and Empire State Building respectively. We also did a tour of Yankee Stadium and a bus tour of famous New York TV and movie sites and had dinner in a lovely French bistro. Here we are at the 'Top of the Rock'.

Sunday 18 November

Today we did a 'Food on Foot' Tour of Hell's Kitchen then did some shopping this afternoon. Not much to take photos of there, so here's a shot of us yesterday at Yankee Stadium.

Monday 19 November

One of my favourite views in the world :).

Tuesday 20 November

My fifth visit to New York, and I finally got to take a horse and carriage ride round Central Park. The weather this weekend was perfect - chilly but not too cold, sunny and bright, and no rain! Jon loved his first trip to the US, and wants to go to Boston or Washington DC next. Not sure when that will be, but we'll make it back eventually!

Wednesday 21 November

Much as we loved our weekend away, it was nice to see Daisy again. She's showing no signs of getting any better at travelling - she was sick in Rob's car this morning on the way home, so it's probably no wonder she looks a bit green in this photo.

Thursday 22 November

I didn't take any photos today, but we went to Southampton to visit friends for the weekend and I have loads of good photos, so here are a couple, and I'll do two more next week. Here's Daisy making music.

Friday 23 November

Beautiful Hattie. Peekaboo!

2012: Week 23

Saturday 2 June

Daisy went to Rob's this morning for the Jubilee weekend and Jon and I spent the second half of the day travelling to Madrid, arriving at our hotel at around 23:30 local time. While we were waiting at the airport for our ride into the city I mentioned to Jon that I hadn't taken any photos today, and he took this. So this is the best you get, I'm afraid.

Sunday 3 June

Our first proper day of holiday saw us making a fair few wrong decisions, but none of them had serious consequences. One of the best decisions we made, however, was to go to the Bernabeu Stadium and do the stadium tour, which was excellent. When we got there I took Jen's camera out of the bag - she lent us her hybrid camera, which is smaller than my SLR but takes better pictures than a point-and-shoot - and only then did I remember that she'd said I should put my own memory card in it... So all the photos we took of the weekend were on our phones, and not the best quality, but we still got some lovely shots. Here we are pitch-side.

Monday 4 June

Today we took the train to Toledo, about 50 miles away. It was a beautiful town and we had a lovely afternoon wandering round the tiny streets.

Tuesday 5 June

I didn't take any photos at all today, so here's a shot taken on Sunday of Madrid from the Teleferico, a cable car that goes over the Casa de Campo, a huge park on the west side of town, and gives great views over the city. We flew home today, arriving back into a rainy, cold Heathrow. I wished I'd put some socks and shoes in the boot of the car; my feet were freezing by the time we got home :).

Wednesday 6 June

Another one to add to the collection!  I don't actually know which Madrid landmark is depicted in the picture; I've tried googling it but haven't found it yet.

Thursday 7 June

Daisy does her best impression of a robot before heading out to nursery.

Friday 8 June

The weather was awful today, and as it was half term there were none of the usual activities going on, so Daisy and I slowly drove each other crazy all day. We made a tunnel in the lounge, then made a bigger one in the dining room, but the shots I got of her in the bigger tunnel weren't as nice as this one.

A Week at Nanna & Grandpa's

Daisy and I just got back from a lovely week at my Mum & Dad's. We left last Thursday and drove to Manchester - the journey was fine; she slept all the way and when she woke up I pulled into the nearest service station and fed her, then we got on our way again - and we spent the afternoon with Grandma & Grandad (aka Rob's Mum & Dad), Auntie Kath and Uncle Tom, then we went round to stay the night with my friends Catherine and Ben, their dog Betsy, cat Chester and as-yet-unnamed 24-week-old foetus. The following day we drove up to Mum & Dad's, and Jen arrived after work for the weekend. Mum had arranged to have people round for a meal that evening before I decided to come, so there were 8 of us for dinner. I got Daisy up at 23:00 for her bottle and everyone cooed over her.

Saturday was my birthday, and I got the best present from Daisy - she didn't wake up till 06:20! Saturday was also the day that my old recorder teacher, Jane, was in town from her home in Peebles with her husband and son. I haven't seen her since her wedding day over 7 years ago so we arranged for them to come round for lunch. We also invited the four girls I used to play in music groups with - first I was in a trio with Lisa and Anna, then Anna and I joined Laura and Louise in a quartet. Lisa and Laura couldn't make it, but Louise and Anna came round with their girls - Anna has Tamsyn and Louise has Eden and Saffron. I haven't seen Anna for 10 years and Louise for 15, since I left for university, but neither of them has changed all that much, except that Louise has done what I've done and ditched the high-maintenance blonde highlights in favour of chocolate brown :).

We made a few attempts to have a group photo, but with 5 kids aged 6, 4, nearly 3, 9 months and 11 weeks, it wasn't all that easy :). This is the best we could do - there's another reasonably good one but Eden is mid-fidget and has come out very blurry ;).

Back: Jane, Timothy, Louise, Saffron
Front: Me, Daisy, Tamsyn, Eden, Anna

Later on my uncle, aunt and cousin arrived from Huddersfield, so there were 7 of us for dinner that night, and again for lunch the following day.

Sunday morning we went to church, thereby killing lots of birds with one stone as we saw quite a few people who wanted to see Daisy. On Sunday evening Mum & Dad babysat while Sarah, Jen and I went to the cinema to see a recording of the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables, which took place at the beginning of October at the O2 Arena. It was fantastic - Jen bought me the DVD for my birthday but it isn't released for another couple of weeks; can't wait to get it and watch it again!

On Monday my Godmother and Aunt came round for dinner (that's 6 for dinner that day, for those keeping count - Mum did a wonderful job feeding everyone!), on Tuesday morning Suzanne came round, Tuesday afternoon Jen and I went to visit Carlie and her boys (Noah is 2 and Ben is a couple of weeks younger than Daisy), and on Wednesday we went round to see my friend Sue and her son Theo, who's just turned 1. Jen went back home on Wednesday evening as she had to go back to work on Thursday, while Mum, Daisy and I went up to Durham to see Susie, who I worked with last year in Winchester and who is now at the university studying Music. So not exactly a quiet week, but we had a really lovely time and are looking forward to seeing Nanna, Grandpa and Auntie Jen again in a month.

I took this photo while we were there; makes me laugh every time I see it ;).