It occurs to me that I haven't posted anything but pictures for a while. Of course, not much has happened except us working on the house, but still, I don't want anyone to feel that we are slacking!
Martin had a good birthday, I think. He enjoyed his gifts from me and his family, and looks forward to receiving the ones from the other side of the pond. He got his card from Grandma Lofley yesterday, and wanted me to post a quick thank you to her. We had a barbeque for his birthday dinner. We were going to have it at our house, but decided it was in too much of a state to have anyone over. Instead we did it at his parents' house, and I think we taught them a valuable lesson in how to host a stress free and low maintenance BBQ. We just did burgers (Martin's request--his favourite are Carls Jr.'s western bacon cheeseburgers, so we got all the trimmings for those), mom's italian pasta salad, green salad, drinks, and home made apple pie for dessert. Everything was done in advance except the cooking of the meat, and everything was served on paper plates. It only took about 30 minutes to clean up. Much easier than their party last month!
Martin's gifts seemed to follow a golf theme. I got him a gift certificate for a golf course near his office. He got a golfing shirt from his nanna and grandad, and his mum and dad got him a golf bag trolley. I hope he puts all of them to good use, as his game is really suffering! (so just kidding--it's only suffering a little bit)
So I am a mean wife and made him work on the house on his birthday, but we took a day off yesterday and went to Alton Towers. It's a theme park in Staffordshire, down in the midlands, and it was so much fun! There is a castle at Alton Towers, just like at Disneyland, only this one is REAL! After the last of the Earls of Shrewsbury died without an heir, the estate was used to house troops during WWII. Then it was sold to a local group of businessmen who opened the gardens to the public and built a theme park. Part of the revinue generated by the theme park is going into restoring the towers. It's a fantastic old castle, and it will be even more fantastic when fully restored. So we got to ride really great roller coasters, stroll through fabulous gardens, and walk around a castle!!! All in all, a wonderful day!
Today we are working on the house some more, and then tomorrow, we are going to do it again. But we are leaving at around lunch time to drive to Preston. It's time for another temple trip. We're going to take A roads instead of motorway to get there, which takes about twice as long and is at least 4 times more fun! I'll have the camera ready for any marvellous shots that come up, and I'll post again this weekend.
Bye for now!
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