Llantwit Holiday: Day Three Morning

We said goodbye to the Bennetts, who left for home and then went to the South Glamorgan show.

Llantwit Holiday: Day Two Evening

The best bit of the second day was going for a late afternoon walk with my brother in a law and my nephews. The incredible light, stunning landscape and thier wonderful company made it a very special experience.

Llantwit Holiday: Day Two Morning

Second Day, we drove (quite a long way) to a National Trust park and castle but didn't get to see an awful lot. Beautiful place though.

LLantwit Holiday: Day One

Finally got all my photos straight from the fantastic week we spent in Llantwit Major, South Wales. I'm hopless at whittling my photos down so there's quite a few posts, covering the things we did and there's lot's more pictures on my Flickr site.

Day One was driving during the morning, from London to Llantwit. Meeting up with my twin sister and her family in Tescos, Bridgend and going on a wonderful walk through golden wheat fields to Llandwit's geometric, grid-like, coastline.

Holiday

I'm still a few days away from getting through all my holiday snaps and getting them blogged but this picture is already standing out as my favourite of the whole trip. The epitome of the English seaside holiday experience: Me, the missus and the kids, (I am being ironic) eating fishing chips, on our laps, on a promenade bench, in the Welsh seaside town of Ogmore-by-Sea.

Song for Friday

This isn't from my cycle in this morning but came on last night, as I was holding little Lucas, trying to get him to go to sleep. As the song started, he succumbed and sank into a deep slumber. Holding his warm, little body, in my arms, this great song made me feel hugely paternal and emotional about fatherhood. The repeated line 'it's you and me...daddy' stuck hard in my throat.
And the video is no less sentimental and I love the magnificent father-figure of Donald Sutherland.
As I listened and held Lucas, I thought too about Pete and Karen and about baby Milo, who they've just welcomed into the world and I'd like to dedicate this song to him.

Summer Holidays

We've just got back from our very first holiday as a family of 4, staying at our friend Andy's in the wonderful South Glamorganshire village of Llantwit Major.
We've been visiting Andy here for years but I've never enjoyed or appreciated it quite as much as this visit. It just felt extra-specially good for Ibolya and I to be there with Ruby and Lucas, in familiar and easy surroundings, spending time doing holiday type things togther. And because we spent longer here than usual, we got to see so much more of the local area and incredible coastline.
What also added to the extra-specialness (not sure how else to describe it) of the holiday was that we not only got to spend some time with our dear friend Andy, who was recovering from surgery to reattach a retina, his dog Georgi, but we also got to see my sister and her family, who stayed a couple of nights. And Jerry too, who swung by for a couple of hours on his way to Tenby. I also celebrated by 41st birthday on Thursday with my little family, in a lovely place and couldn't have been happier.
I've got millions of photos to wade through, select and edit which will take me ages, so in the meantime, here are a few of the little pieces of video I took on my camera.



This is the splendid coastline nearest Andy's place



Just along the coastline is Southerndown beach, we were here on my birthday, with Ruby throwing a massive tantrum. Not sure what it says about us as parents; filming her and finding her performance incredibly funny.



After a while, Ruby recovered her composure enough to enjoy Southerndown a little more, with her inseparable pushchair.



This was on Friday 13th, at Newton Beach - a good doggie beach for Georgi.

Barbecues

We went to two barbecues this weekend, to Kate Seth and Hunter's on Saturday and to Stephen and Christophe's on Sunday.

Lucas

I was going to put a Song for Friday here but nothing much inspired me on the way in this morning. So here's a picture, from earlier this week, of my little baby boy, Lucas. He's a done a little bit of smiling this week and had all his financial affairs sorted out. He now has a regular savings account, a current account and an ethical trust fund. What an astute and prudent little rascal he is.

Toy Story 3

Does Imax, 3-D, movie entertainment get any better than Toy Story 3? I think not.

Weekend

Now that was a really great weekend. Spent mostly at home, having lots of family time and cuddles with Lucas, cooking good things to eat and catching up with lots of house-hold chores.
Things kicked off well on Friday with birthday drinks for Rupert and Shoreditch.
We had a lovely visit from my cousin Becky and her boyfriend Andy on Saturday afternoon and I had a lot of fun trying out an amazing new iphone app, Hipstamatic, which allows you to take photos using a selection of(or randomly selected) simulated vintage lenses, film and flashes. These were a few of my trials. Just need to find a way to enxtend the boarder of my layout so it stops cutting off the right hand side.

Song for Friday: Mountains

I didn't cycle into work today or listen to my ipod so I thought for this week's Song for Friday I'd stick on 'Mountains' by Prince, from his seminal 1986 album, 'Parade'. I adore this song and the extended 12" version is officially my favourite song of all time and will be played as my coffin slides into the firey furness.

INCEPTION

I went to see Inception last night and haven't seen cinema ques like that since queing up outside the Odeon, Nottingham, during the mid 70's. This was even the unfashionable Vue West 12, not even Vue Westfield! There were people standing in the auditorium it was so busy. It made for an incredible cinema going experience and the film was out-of-this-world good. By far, the best film Christopher Nolan has made since Memento and it's safe to say it will be the film of the year, just ahead of Toy Story 3, which I can not wait to see. Christopher Nolan must direct a Bond at some stage and cast Tom Hardy, the finest actor in a really great cast, as the villain.