Adam has a new job

Hooray hooray!!

Adam has a new job.

It is very difficult to find work at the moment, and it is even more difficult for some people athan others, so I am even more pleased that Adam has been successful.

He has been looking for a while now and although he hasn't been successful up till now, I think he has found a good niche now.

He has a full time job as a cleaner in Rookwood hospital. Rookwood is based in Llandaff in Cardiff so it is on the right side of Cardiff for travelling, and it is the spinal injuries unit for this area. It is one of 12 specialist units across the UK, and in addition to spinal injuries it is a rehabilitation unit, so that there are a lot of long term patients rather than people in who are ill for a short period of time. Mike's partner Karin is a nurse, and her mum is also a nurse and used to work there and says it is a lovely hospital to work in, really good atmosphere and very nice place to work. His shift is 7am-3pm 5 days a week, so he will avoid all the rush hour traffic which is a good thing and makes the journey so much easier.

He has finished at Cowbridge school yesterday, because next week is half term so he isn't in work, and he starts in the hospital next Friday.

So hooray for Adam. We are all delighted.

Wedding!

I am now terribly excited and starting to get a bit nervous as our wedding is now less than a month away! After a frankly hideous month or so at work I finally have some time to actually spend doing wedding stuff and finish getting everything sorted out. Carl to his credit hasn't been the useless groom that I seem to hear talked about a lot - he's done loads and is at this very moment sorting out our cake of cheese (that's as opposed to a cheese cake). All I have left to do is sort out what I call niff naff details like favours, centre pieces and flowers - oh and of course tone myself up so I look like Cindy Crawford or one of the female Strictly dancers by the big day :)

Can't wait to see all of you who are coming and for those of you who aren't and have asked about wedding list details, we have our list with Trailfinders and would gladly accept any contributions to our honeymoon trip to South Africa! Almost more excited about that than the day itself to be honest! We're flying to Cape Town on the 30th December so will have New Year's Eve out there which should be fun. We're then aiming to squeeze in some cricket, some sightseeing, lots of wine tasting and some safari action. As someone who usually goes camping in the UK on her holidays I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to the sun. Details are here:

https://secure.trailfinders.co.uk/WeddingListService/contribute/WedGiftform.jsp

And the ID for the list is: 5B2EJ9

In the meantime, hopefully I've managed to avoid turning into this:

Love Kate xxxx

some photos of the area around our neighbourhood at this time of year. Notice the magic carpet one walks on.

Parrot Fun (Uhem!)

I've decided, from looking at the Lincoln pictures, that I've definitely missed out. It looks like a lovely place.

However, the true reason for my blogging here is this clip which, I think you'll agree, is extremely funny... sadly you may not be able to see it if you're not in the UK.

More anon... xxxx

Lincoln

Well, I am beginning to feel a bit sorry for Kate so have decided to put some more modern pictures up.
We have just returned from a weekend in Lincoln. Lincolnshire is famously flat so we laughed when we found a street sign called "Steep Hill" - we weren't laughing when we had to climb up it!

Lincoln is very pretty. The cathedral is amazing. It was the tallest building in the UK until the 20th century and you can see it from 17 miles away. It has a famous imp in it's stonework.

We didn't manage to spot him until a family going round at the same time paid to have the spotlight shone on him! It is amazing what stone masons could create.
Lincoln castle is also very impressive. We walked around the walls and the Red arrows happened to be practicing at the same time. Lincoln castle used to house the town prison and during the 19th century they decided on a policy called separate imprisonment which they copied from Quaker example(!) in New England. It meant that the prisoners were kept in solitary confinement and if they came out of their cells they had to wear masks. They had to attend chapel which was laid out like a lecture theatre but with individual cells and they were only allowed to take off their masks once they were locked in. Seriously, I don't think it was the Elizabeth Fry branch of penal reform.

We also had a trip to the coast which is lovely. Huge beaches, vast salt marshes and miles of dunes with hardly a person in site. Here are some Pictures.

Hairdresser Helen

Love those giraffes, Alice!
Anyway Helen talking about her talents as a hairdresser led me to dig out a couple of examples. Also I will be missing the Hen night so this is a small embarresment for the blushing bride at the same time.
Rather clumsy images as the scanner at work only produces pdfs and the help that I found suggested using something called Scribd.
Enjoy!
Kate 2
Kate