Update

JoJo is putting us all to shame with her renewed zeal for blogging, I think we should all take a leaf out of her book and pull our fingers out!!...that is if we can tear ourselves away from our farms, fairy gardens, scrabble games and scavenger hunts!!... Facebook has a lot to answer for.

So following JoJos excellent example I thought I had better file some updates on life in Chez Smith.

The Pub Quiz season has resumed... well it resumed in September while I was away so I missed the first couple of games. Our team (Ianto, Mywanwy and myself) decided that this season we would also join the Milford Haven league, so we recruited my friend Angharad (again names have been changed to protect the innocent) and ditched Blodwyn and signed up to play out of the Horse and Jockey (our team name in the Milford league is The Jockeys... for obvious reasons). As I mentioned I was away for the first game so we had to forfeit it but the next two we won, the first one quite convincingly and the second by a whisker (2 points). Unfortunately I was unavailable last Sunday, as I went to see Cerys and they lost :0X I am also unable to play for the next two Sundays, but we are the question masters one week so that's not too bad.

In the Neyland league we still have Blodwyn on our team (unfortunately) and she is still as annoying as she was last year and it is making life interesting trying not to let slip that we are also in the MH league. The first week in Neyland we were the question masters so it didnt matter that I was way and we won our second match against the Benbow but last night we got hammered by the Artists. The questions were set by the Yacht Club and were truely dire... do you have any idea who played Professor Higgins in the 1935 version of Pygmalion???... no nor did we but for future reference it was Trevor Howard.

Life in Chez Smith is ticking over quite nicely, Erin is still with Martin, after a few hiccups in recent weeks and Ffion is with Craig. Most evenings it is like a conveyor belt in my kitchen as they all work different hours and each cooks dinner separately for their other half.. unfortunately they tend to leave most of the washing up for me to do!!

Work is realatively uneventful, although management in their wisdom have decided to f**k about with our penison scheme and end the final salary, non contributory scheme so from January next year I shall have to fork out 6% of my salary towards my retirement.

I still do not seem to be able to motivate myself to do some serious dieting/exercise despite all my good intentions when I returned from holidays, but without my head being in the right place there is little point in trying... one day it will click again I'm sure.

So that is just about all for now.. I shall try to be more regular and in the meantime I shall leave you with this very very funny video I found on Scary Ducks blog.

Classic Cerys

Last night we went to the Torch Theatre to see Cerys Matthews. I have been a huge fan of hers for years and one of the best concerts I ever went to was Catatonia at Margam Park in 1999... OMG that's 10 years ago and it only feels like yesterday!!!

I love her voice and have quite a few of her albums so an opportunity to see her live was not to be missed... and boy did she not disappoint. She was accompanied by two musicians she met whilst living in Nashville and she played a selection of songs from the whole of her career. The highlight for me was an acoustic version of Road Rage which was just brilliant and this one



A combination of a Galway Shawl and Strange Glue... which is one of my all time favourite numbers, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

It was a brilliant evening and we bumped into loads of people we knew, mostly from the St. David's area which was to be expected seeing as Cerys now lives in Trevine.

RIP Tufty

While Kerry just has a psychotic, cowardly cat, unfortunately I have four psychopathic ninja killing machines!!

Noel came home from work tonight to find Chicken outside the back door chewing the head off Tufty the Squirrel..... well proably not "the" Tufty the Squirrel as this one was grey not red and wasn't wearing a blue jacket and yellow trousers

Erin and Martin arrived home shortly afterwards and Erin was completely freaked out and was running around screaming and shouting about how horrible and gross our cats are. Martin found it completely hysterical and was taking photos with his mobile.. things like that appeal to lads his age obviously.

Having devoured the best part of poor dead Tufty, Chicken was then mugged by Henry who has always been a sucker for something soft and fluffy, and is currently rolling around on the lawn with his "new toy"


Apologies if anyone finds these images distrubing as Kerry told me earlier... nature is very cruel... but quite funny sometimes... or is that just my warped sense of humour!!

Waterloo - Portaloo

Sometimes I love my job. First day back after two weeks of relaxation and overeating and one of the first calls I get on the radio from the patrol launch "HAKIN"..... "there appears to be a portable toilet floating down the Haven in the vicinity of the Outfall Buoy!!"..... you just couldn't make it up!!

I am back by the way, refreshed and relaxed and a full account will appear shortly on the Holiday Blog, once I get my pictures all sorted and my arse into gear...... Did you miss me??

Sailing into the Sunset (Again)

Well if it's not in the suitcase now it isn't going with us!!

Yes it is time for us to be off again. I know it seems like we have only just got back (it's actually 6 weeks since we returned from Norway) but tomorrow we are heading south again and Saturday afternoon we shall be sailing off into the sunset... yet again.

This time our destination is the Mediterranean on the good ship Oceana. First port Barcelona, then Monte Carlo, Elba, Rome, Naples (we are visiting Capri from here), Cartagena and Gibraltar. We have been to most of them before but this will give us an opportunity to explore a little more and see some of the sights we missed the first time.. can you belive we went to Rome and never even glimpsed the Collesseum!!

It has been a bit rushed, having to work up right up to leaving, but I did manage to get the majority of the packing done on Sunday. Since then I have just been throwing bits and pieces into the cases as I find them.

Today Erin and I went food shopping to make sure they have at least some food in the house while we are away. I also bought a new small digital camera as I broke our other one when I was on Emma's hen weekend a few weeks ago, I think someone stood on my handbag because both the camera and my mobile phone had cracked screens.

There is little else to report I am afraid, life has involved working, sleeping and more working. We did go to Druidstone on Tuesday for their "Greek feast" which was very nice, but other than that we have been saving ourselves for our holiday. Try not to miss me too much whilst I am gone (I am sure you won't seeing as my blogging has become so hit and miss) and I shall see you all in October (we get back on the 3rd)... and then I suppose it will be time to think about Christmas!!!

Morning Wonders

I think I may have mentioned before that working nights can have its advantages.

This morning just as I was starting to really flag after a very long and very busy night, the dawn was just breaking and the sky was a beautiful orange colour. Suddenly out of the west flew a skein of geese in a perfect V shape right past the window of Port Control at eye level.

It was a wonderful sight, there must have been at least 20 of them and they flew east into the sun rise where they were sillouhetted against the orange sky as they made their way up the Haven. It was the perfect antidote to a tiring night and lifted my soul.

Anniversary

This blog seems to be becoming a weekly event now. I really must make an effort to do more.

Tuesday was our Silver Wedding Anniversary... 25 years of married bliss (allegedly!!). We have never particularly celebrated our anniversaries, the date seems to come and go with the odd card, usually from our parents. This year however, the cards started to mount up a day or so before hand and by the actual date we had quite a little pile to open.

We also had presents.. a very rare occurrence. Three variously sized silver photo frames, a bottle of Southern Comfort, 2 bottles of wine and a bouquet of flowers... not a bad haul really.

We decided to celebrate quietly on our own and went to Stone Hall (see pic) for dinner. It was really nice, if a little quiet (only us and another table of 4, but then it was Tuesday night).

I had a warm smoked duck salad with basalmic dressing to start while Noel went for the escargot (that's snails you know!!) which were lovely with a really rich garlic butter. For mains I had a rack of Preseli lamb with a garlic crust and Noel had a fillet of beef with pink peppercorn sauce. The vegetables were braised fennel, green beans, carrots and new potatoes and everything was superb. Dessert was a creme brulee for me and a hazelnut meringue with fresh raspberries and whipped cream which looked absolutely delicious and from the small spoonful he let me have tasted as good as it looked.

Unfortunately we had had to drive so only a small amount of wine was consumed (with soda in my case as I had volunteered to drive) but it was a really pleasant evening.

I was back to work yesterday and today and it was pretty hectic and stressful (today isn't quite so bad). The weather has suddenly decided to improve greatly, typical when I go back to work, but I am now counting down to the next Cruise which is a week on Saturday. I shall endeavour to blog again before we go.