Portsmouth

Afternoon in Poole

Dan dropped us off at Donna's place in Poole and headed back to the BABS convention for some more singing. We had such a lovely afternoon! Such great company and such lovely weather. Amy took a shine to Donna's guinea pig Ollie, and really enjoyed feeding him salad leaves. After we had all caught up a bit and the girls had had a little play with Donna's old toys from when she was a kid, we headed off on a mini road trip all around Poole Harbour. We stopped off at Corfe Castle, Donna's dads old stomping grounds.

 We found a pleasant little path around the bottom of the castle and the girls enjoyed a spot of adventuring.

 I love that Amy loves Donna so much, it makes me so happy seeing them getting on like a house on fire.

One of the most exciting parts of the drive was the Sandbanks Ferry crossing, although short Amy was so pleased to be able to go on her first ferry (not technically true because she's been to Arran). She throroughly ejoyed watching the captain take his seat and seeing us leaving Sandbanks and the gap between the ferry and dry land getting bigger.

We spent a bit longer than expected on our little trip, but when we arrived back Donna's friend Jodie, her other half Paul and little girl Ameila were all at the house. Amy could not pronounce her name so spent the rest of the evening calling her Cameila! It made he laugh everytime. They played well together. Donna's parents put on a gorgeous spread, Dan turned up again and we all made pigs of ourselves.

I had such a lovely day, I'm looking forward to planning another trip to the South coast soon!

Sunny May Bournemouth Bank Holiday

 We spent the bank holiday in Bournemouth for Dan to take part in the annual BABS (British Association of Barber Shop Singers) conference. Dan was there just for the Saturday when the different chorus's compete, he is currently in Grand Central Chorus who won last years competetion, so souldn't compete but had lots of opportunities to sing throughout the day.

After a very, very long drive from Dan's parents we eventually made it to Bournemouth. Dan had a quick rehersal in the conference centre and we headed down to the beach for a quick paddle. It was so lovely 

in the gorgeous sunshine.

 

 After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we headed down to the beach at Boscombe for fish and chips and a stroll along the waterfront before bed.

 Dan had an early start on Saturday morning so the girls and I were left to fend for ourselves. Breakfast was a complete disaster! Food literally went everywhere. We had a few hours to kill before meeting Dan for lunch so I decided to walk along the beach to the conference centre at the next peir.

It was so freezing and there was such a strong head wind for the entire two miles or whatever distance it was. Amy was spurred on by the sight of a giant Spongebob Squarepants inflatable slide far in the distance at West Peir. The funniest moment had to be when I went in my bag to fish out some sweets from my bag to keep their spirits up, and my bag and all its contents were swimming in suncream. I had a right job cleaning everything up espeacially my camera, as we were getting totally sandblasted.

 Things brightened up a bit by the time we evetually got there. We didn't even have time to go into the centre of Bournemouth. Amy and I enjoyed a ride on Eileen on  the carousel.

Learning to crochet

I've been meaning to learn to crochet for a while and never got around to learning. While in Holland  I purchased a really chunky crochet hook (it was all there was in the shop) and Hannah's mum showed me the basics. Back in England I set to work on this pair. Amy had spotted a pattern book in our new library and picked our the yellow and red ninja/vampire/superhero character.