As I think I mentioned last time, I was delighted to receive so much chocolate for my birthday. But amidst all the excitement, of course there’s a reminder of why our great nation is often referred to as ‘Rip-off Britain’. There’s even a TV programme with that title. I opened a box containing a large bar of chocolate, I couldn’t wait to sink my fangs into it. Very nice, very tasty, but also, very small. A lovely cardboard box containing a plastic tray holding a bar of chocolate much smaller than the depiction on the outside packaging.
Yes, I’ve eaten some, but look how much smaller the actual bar is, compared with the picture. And the plastic tray, lovely and sturdy as it may be, is no good for anything else apart from recycling.
Haha, and you thought that by passing my three-score year and ten, I wouldn’t be whingeing nearly as much! You’ll be lucky.
So, let’s look up and not down. Nothenden is becoming more colourful as time goes on. Cherry blossom, magnolias, daffodils, even more blue skies. And when the northerly wind stops, it can even feel quite warm.
In local news, progress is being made to repair the weir. I wonder if it will be finished in time for the annual Northenden Boat Race, at the end of August?
We went into Manchester for a lunchtime concert. As we walked down the road behind the prestigious Midland Hotel, we couldn’t help but admire their enterprising thinking by providing tents on the pavement for their less affluent customers.
The concert itself was most enjoyable: a performance by the Royal Northern College of Music Brass Band. They played three pieces by unknown (to us) composers. I especially liked Flight by Mario Burki, which included a thunderstorm halfway through as we ‘flew’ across the desert.
Afterwards, we had lunch in Society, just along the road a bit. I was tempted, but did not choose ‘Big Mick Fries’.
We packed for a weekend away, just a couple of small bags, you’d think, but we took a tonne of food with us. We were meeting Jenny and family in a cottage on the Isle of Anglesey, Ynys Môn.
As we crossed the border into Wales, we saw our first red dragon. Soon after, we noticed some pink elephants. We watched as a herd of cows walked across the bridge over the road in front of us. And then, an old lady pussycat on the back of a bus that is the venue for afternoon teas. When we drove closer to the sea, we noticed a few white horses, it was that windy.
Mainly though, animal life consisted of sheep with many, many newly born lambs gambolling in the fields.
The drive was mostly uneventful, just a 5-minute hailstorm that was loud and a bit scary, coming on as suddenly as it did, but we were absolutely delighted by how stunning the views were, all the way through the Welsh mainland.
After a bit of a fight with the GPS, and Google Maps thinking there are two Ship Inns close together and close to our final destination, we parked up at our lovely new home in Red Wharf Bay.
The view from the living space in this house was pretty good too. We could have sat there and looked out over the bay for the whole weekend.
Jenny, Liam, Martha and William set off straight from school and arrived a couple of hours after us.
It’s an upside down house, in that three of the four bedrooms are downstairs, while the living room and kitchen are upstairs. Very disorienting yet exciting from the children’s point of view.
In the evening, we walked up to the Tavern on the Bay for dinner. We were happy to pass by some fairies in the bushes.
I think we agreed that our house was a much nicer place to stay than in one of the seemingly hundreds of caravans, all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked just the same.
By the time we’d finished eating, it was dark, so the walk back home was a wee bit challenging. Torn between needing a few more street lights so we could see where we were walking, and wanting fewer artifical lights so that we could better see the night sky. I was very proud of Martha for spotting Orion’s Belt, and of William who realised he couldn’t see the Orion Nebula because of the light pollution. Still, we got home without anyone falling in a ditch.
After a good night’s kip, and after a jolly good breakfast, including Coco Pops, we all went for a walk a bit further along the coast, starting near Moelfre. The cold wind came back, and was determined to find its way into my very sensitive lugholes. Other than that though, we had a good time. And yes, William probably walked and ran twice as far as anyone else.
All the while, I was looking to see the partially eclipsed Sun, but with the clouds that thick, it was hard enough to even see where the Sun was. Folks in other parts of the country got some great photos. Oh well.
We walked by a couple of small shingle beaches, where Martha, Liam and I had a go at skimming stones. I got nowhere near my personal best of 14 skips. Selsey, since you ask, in the mid 1990s.
The other interesting beach at Moelfre is covered in cairns or stacks of stones. My effort was just about knee high, but there were some very tall stacks here.
In places, the path was quite rugged, but we all managed, including Leslie who was walking with her stick. Martha and William lapped it up: they’re a pair of mountain goats, after all.
After a big lunch, we went over the road to the ‘beach’: the tide was out again. It was still windy, an ideal day to fly kites. I stayed out with them for a few minutes but that wind was too strong for me so I went back inside. It was also too much for the kites, just blowing them inside out, so no lift and they kept crashing to the ground. A little bit disappointing, really.
Liesel and Leslie watched the activity from the comfort of the nicely heated living room: whoever decided to install large windows here is a hero.
In the evening, we dined at The Boathouse, a much shorter walk. The menu didn’t really sell the meat to me. ‘This morning, this lamb was playing in a filed, now, it’s sitting on your plate.’ No star-gazing this evening though, due to the clouds.
Back indoors, we played games. Martha is fascinated by Backgammon. Then we all played a game called GoGoGo!, the party game, in which over several rounds of different activities, we compete to win three crowns. William deliberately picked a yoga pose that involved balance skills, knowing that his Grandad would be wobbling all over the place. Still, it was all great fun.
A huge breakfast comprising of waffles and fruit and Liesel’s family chilli eggs was a good way to start the day, before a much longer walk than yesterday. So glad the wind had died down. We thought the children would be impressed by the place with the longest name in the UK, even if none of us could pronounce it correctly.
We continued our drive to the west side of the island, and set off on a hike through Newborough Forest. Somehow this felt like a proper forest, moreso than the woods back home. Tall trees, silence and the possibility of seeing red squirrels. If we saw any at all, they were disguised as ravens.
Some of the paths and tracks were covered in thousands of seashells, making a nice crunchy sound but providing us with a nice dry surface. I kept thinking how nice it was to be out of the cold wind, today.
Eventually, we found our way to the beach, and I for one was surprised to see so many people here, in quite an isolated place. We walked along the beach and up and down the dunes as far as the lighthouse, Goleudy Tŵr Mawr.
Martha picked up several shells from the beach, with which she plans to decorate a picture frame back home. Liam spent a long time opening an oyster shell, but sadly, there was no pearl inside.
William is happiest away from terra firma. Any opportunity to climb, he’ll take it. If you glance away for a couple of seconds, he’ll be waving at us from the top of a rock formation on the beach.
Although it’s a bit scary to watch hime someties, I really hope he doesn’t lose his sense of adventure.
Surprisingly, there were some ponies up near the lighthouse. One of them approached Martha and William, presumably looking for some grub, but it soon lost interest and wandered off.
We walked back along the beach to the car park. But with brilliant foresight, Liam and Jenny brought kites for the children to fly. And once the kites were launched, the string unravelled to its fullest extent, they remained in flight for the whole length of the beach as we walked along. A much more successful kite-flying day than yesterday, when the wind had just been, ironically, far too strong.
In the evening, Jenny and Liam packed, we all ate dinner and there was time for one more game of GoGoGo! No acrobatics for me this time. It was sad to see the family depart, but I know we all had a great time.
In the morning, Liesel, Leslie and I packed for our departure: we had to check out by 10am. As requested, we left the house as tidy as possible, and we even left the tide all the way out, just as it was when we’d first arrived.
The drive home was uneventful, no problems with traffic, we just stopped for coffee once, arrived home, unpacked, and… time to relax.
Interesting question of the week: if there is no letter J in the Welsh alphabet, how come Jones is the most common surname?
Mick and Liesel's Antics 