In Halesowen Again

Yesterday saw us in Halesowen again visiting Lawrie, Emma and OGK (Only God Knows). We took David up with us; this was the first time that he had seen his nephew and he was enraptured. We all went out to lunch at the French Hen a relativley local pub/eatery. A very good value for money meal. and we all had a great time. We were lucky with the traffic both going up and coming home.

A proud Uncle

 The "small" teddy that we took up with us; I bought him at auction at the Church Christmas Fayre

Passing him to grandma

Thumper Hobson, the rabbit

It was Lawrie's birthday on Friday - we had to sing him Happy Birthday

Proud Dad

My Birthday Present

For my 65th birthday present my "beloved" youngest children, Lawrie and Helena got me"just what I always wanted". Well I am not so sure about that - it was a tandem skydive!!!!!! I decided not to do it in the cold of the winter and fortunately today the weather was great. The early fog and cloud burnt off and it was as good a day as I could have wanted. Though maybe thick cloud, pouring rain and high wind is what I really wanted so that I could not jump.
Anyway I did it, feeling scared (or should that be petrified) all the way up, but once out of the plane it was fabulous. So thank you Helena and Lawrie.

 Start of the day

 Ready to board

Praying hard!

 It is good fun!

 The chute works as well!

Almost back on Terra Firma

Thank you Adam

Grandson - latest photo

Losing weight and running

Those regular readers of this Blog (are there any?) will have noticed that there has not been much talk of my weight loss or running in recent months. It all started so well last year. I managed to lose about 18lbs by June last year and the running, or is it wobbling, was slowly but surely getting better. Then came the summer holidays, me reaching 65, retirement , Christmas and the bad weather! This all had a detrimental effect on both weight, too much eating out and drinking, and the weather saw me wimp out of running. So about 10 of those pounds came back on by the New Year.
So I have started dieting and jogging again. Slowly but surely the weight is coming off, I have lost about 10 lbs and the running is coming on. The first Parkrun 5km run saw me do a massive personal worst. Since then there has been a gradual improvement although I have not yet managed to beat last years best yet.
The Garmin GPS stopwatch that I got last year as a retirement gift from my colleagues is reaklly useful. Not only does it give you running times, hear rate etc but also gives you an accurate idea of distance and height gained and lost.

A few days in Devon

We went to the Lodge for ten days on the Tuesday after Easter. The plan was to have a few days relaxation; as always plans do not turn out as quite expected. the journey down was great. We called into New Milton in the New Forest to see my cousin Mary who had recently turned 90 and to take her out to lunch. Mary was in fine form. I hope I am as bright and interesting as she is should I reach 90.

We then went on to the Lodge for a few days R & R. This was disturbed by a phone call from Lawrie on the Thursday telling us that Emma was in hospital. Then on the Friday came the news that she was in labour. So later that day it was up to Birmingham Women's Hospital to see Emma and the new arrival (See previous post for photos). We spent the weekend with Lawrie at Halesowen. As the baby arrived early they had not got much of the equipment that is needed - pram, cot etc etc. So we helped them get some of this in between visiting hospital. After visiting Sunday it was back to Devon; we had planned to eat out at a local pub. We tried three pubs, the first closes early on a Sunday, the other two are shut down! So we went back to the Lodge and cooked!
The weather wasn't up to much but I guess we got some rest, although we were obviously concerned about Emma and the baby. Still it is exciting being a grandparent for the first time. We did manage a trip to Buckfast Abbey.

Julia and I are now proud grandparents

Our youngest son Lawrie and his better half Emma have just, Friday 5 April at 3:15pm., had a baby boy weighing in at 6lbs 11 ozs.  This is five weeks before he was due. He is being kept in hospital for a week so that they can check that all is OK and monitor his progress; but he is breathing without any aid and so far so good.

As you can imagine Lawrie and Emma were not expecting him quite so soon, so Lawrie is out buying prams, cots etc. 

 A few hours after meeting the world