Gus's 50th

It was Gus's 50th birthday this weekend and we went to their party on Saturday night out in Kenilworth. Carol put on a fabulous party as always with lots and lots of delicious food. We had a really fun time and things got extremely festive as the wine flowed. We overnighted in Bubbenhall at a cosy B&B with Dave, Susan and Kerry. Great to get the all Hoar sibblings together again. The image of the balloon is my first attempt at artistically manipulating a photo in photoshop.

Pictures of Gus's pride and joy - his three daughters.

Yatchs featured prominently in Gus's party, not suprising as they are a major passion of his. Nicola did a beautiful painting of Gus's boat which was extremely impressive and caused lots of excitement all round. As you can see, five of Gus's birthday cards also followed the yachting theme. Incidently, Ally's homemade card is the blue one in the middle (in pride of place.)

Carol made a T Shirt for Gus called "This is Your Life" with photos of him from young boy till today. Photo themes included young Gus at school, sailing his first boat, parachuting, his wedding, arriving in UK with his family, making his boat, completing his ultra runs, programming on the computer and so on. Fantastic present and beautifully done. Gus is inspiring with the very full life he lives and the way he manages to integrate all his passions. If I have half his energy at 50, I'll be very happy!

Photos of us

Dinner at Kew Grill (Ally)

Sally has worked for Kew Grill a Anthony Warrall Thompson's resturant in the dessert section. I was determined that we should go and we certainly had a night to remember.

The starters we had were girlled mushrooms, cheese phyollo pastry and chilli squid. Then we all had steaks which would rival Barristers in every way apart from price! Sally had made all the desserts so we had every one on the menu - 6 between 5 of us and I got to have my favourite - florintene tart.

It was pure heaven and lots of laughter around the table. It was good so to get everyone together.

Looking very smart

Mum sent this rather dashing shot of them on the boat in their evening dress. Wow, I can't remember seeing Mike in a tux before - be looks very debenoir!!

Getting one with nature

Colleen came to stay this weekend which was wonderful. We had Martin and Sunjung around for dinner last night and then went to see a movie (Hero). Then today we went for a walk in the Cambridge Botanical gardens where we took these photos. It was a rainy day but we had lots of fun.

That's Colleen's shoe through the hole in the table. The marshmallows were delicious.

The flowers were beautiful

Keira's blogging!!

Keira, my lovely cousin in Canada, has just embarked on a trip to explore the tropical beaches of SE Asia and she's blogging her travel stories as she goes. I love the way she writes. Follow her journey!

Autumn evening in Cambridge

A photo from our balcony of the sun setting on a beautiful autumn evening. Just had dinner and are settling down for the night. What bliss.

Sailing on the Solent with Gus

We had a great weekend sailing with Gus down on the south coast. It was raining on Saturday (check Gus and Ally in their gear)and we managed to bank ourselves on a sandbank that the tide saved us from, so not an auspicious start, but Sunday the sun emerged (check me in my gear) and it was gorgeous.

I'm starting to get the hang of sailing now and where the sails should be in relation to the wind. Saturday night, we all slept on the boat which was a snug fit. Amazing that Gus built this boat himself completely from hand with instructions written on a few pieces of paper. The name of the boat is "Just Right" - nice name in anyone's language...

Copenhagen

I went to visit Microsoft's European Headquarters in Copenhagan on a fact finding mission. The building is set in a beautiful forest setting on the outskirts of the city - not a bad place to work!

The Little Mermaid is the most stared at little statue in all of Denmark. Much smaller than I expected, but a tremendous attractor of the crowds. Someone should introduce her to the Manneken Pis - they'd make a cute couple...

The poor gaurd's at the Queen´s Palace have to be very patient - the tourists can go right up to them and take photos right under their noses. I think the Buckingham Palace gaurds get a better deal, protected behind the gates from the hordes.

Scenes from Copenhagen's most famous church. I liked the statues outside - lots of different characters in different poses, all looking very serene and saintly. There must have been twenty of them.

Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

Wow, what a brilliant book. I have always enjoyed Bryson's hearty travel books but he's really blown me away this time with his rivetting account of everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation. This book should be on every school's reading list because it makes physics, chemistry, biology and geography and all those other cob-webby text book subjects come alive like I'd never have thought possible. Brims with strange and fascinating facts that make you gasp and contemplate, I can't recommend this book more. 

My cousin, Kyle

Mike and Trish sent this great action shot of my cousin, Kyle, from Canada. Great photo. I can't believe how grown up he is. I still think of him as a little kid. This shot sure dispels that! Makes me feel a little old. And wistful I haven't met him yet.

Gothenberg

Off to Gothenberg on Wednesay and Thursday. I was rather busy so no time for siteseeing, although I was here over 30 times last year so did't mind too much. I was upgraded in my hotel (they said it wsas beacause I am a preferred customer but I think they ran out of normal rooms...) to a palacial suite with three rooms and two TV's. Did't get too much time to enjoy it tho - just a place to crash.

I met up with some friends from work after a busy day in Gothenberg. THta's Caroline you can see in the doorway, looking smashing in the red coat against the blue door. Smaka is famous for it's Swedish meatballs and the food was great as always.

Amorous Andrew

Andrew after a couple of glasses of wine.

Crepes in Cambridge Square

This is one of our most popular rituals - stopping off for crepes after visiting the Cambridge Library on a Saturday morning.

Visit to Buckingham Palace

We went to visit the inside of Buckingham Palace with Rosemary, Nick and Sally. Wow, what opulent banquet halls - quite exquisite. The palace has 500 rooms and 78 bathrooms, so I doubt the queen and her hubby ever have rows about who takes a shower first or who is taking up the most cupboard space.

Proms at Hyde Park

Then off to the Proms. Lots of Pomp and Circumstance, flag waving and singing at the top of our lungs. The Corrs also featured, who I love, so I was rivetted. The weather threatened a few times, but ended up behaving itself. All in all, a wonderful, truly British experience.