A busy month

Good to read about everybody's comings and goings!

We've been keeping busy over this side of the world too. I can't believe that it's been more than a month since Mum went home, and I've had over two months of being forty. The week after we waved goodbye to Mum, Bruce spent a week in a tent. No, we didn't have a barney; he was working at the Green Man Festival making solar cells, batteries and woollen molecules. In the end, the molecules were made out of pom-poms rather than crocheted (but thanks for the prototypes, Mum!).

Bruce making a water molecule

The weekend after that, we enjoyed a very Welsh weekend - beer, bogs and Brecon. We spent Saturday evening tasting local ales at the inaugural Cardiff Brewfest.

Cardiff Brewfest

Then on Sunday morning we headed into the Brecon Beacons to watch some of the International Bog Snorkelling Championships.

Bog snorkelling championships

After a picnic lunch (in the car because it was starting to rain..) we headed across the hills (through Ministry of Defence land, around a rally and along some very winding single-track roads) to the Llandrindod Wells Steampunk Weekend. Apparently they'd had a whole "Victorian Week" (the era, not the place) and this was the final weekend. It was disappointing - no activities, only a couple of people in costume, and the heavens about to open. So instead of staying around for a few hours (for the music and fireworks), we drove back towards home and watched the latest Mission Impossible movie instead. :-)

The next week was fairly non-eventful, I took some leave and did nothing (ahh... doing nothing.. although I feel a bit guilty for not sorting out the photos from mum's trip..). B had to work as normal.
The weekend of 11-14 September our friends, Vicki & Steven, visited us in Cardiff. I collected them from Bristol airport on Friday afternoon and we had a lovely evening in playing Killer Bunnies.

Killer Bunnies game in progress

We had a relaxed start on Saturday - brunch and a few games of Forbidden Island (the game that Glenn introduced us to when we last visited). Vicki and Steven's visit was well-timed - it was the Millennium Centre's 10th birthday celebration, so we headed to the Bay for Ar Waith At Daith - A journey of Welsh myth and magic. The outside performance told the story of The Birth of Taliesin using puppets, storytelling, music, projection and pyrotechnics.

Ar Waith Ar Daith at Cardiff Bay

We explored Waterfall Country on Sunday. We packed a picnic, drove into the Brecon Beacons to the Waterfall Centre. We decided to take the shortest waterfall walk, the Elidir Trail - a trail past four waterfalls with a round trip distance of 4 kms. It was beautiful weather.. right up until we'd finished our picnic back at the car! Score!

Waterfalls on the Elidir Trail

Before Vicki and Stephen headed home on Monday, we popped over to Weston-Super-Mare to experience Dismaland - the depressing arty exhibit curated by Banksy. I'm hoping to get my photos sorted soonish so you can see more of the exhibition. It was such a busy (and fun) weekend!

Stephen & Vicki outside Dismaland

After another week of work, we drove up to visit B's folks - we were going to visit Grandad in the care-home but a number of the residents were ill, so no visitors were allowed. We still had a good visit with John and Gwen, so it wasn't all a waste.

As a belated birthday get-together, Vicki, Steven, Bruce and I travelled to the Black Forest in Germany last weekend to catch up with Angelika and James. Vicki, Angelika, James and I worked at Manchester University together seven years ago. James and Angelika moved to Waldkirch a few months ago, and with two small kids it seemed sensible that the rest of us would visit them.

We were only there for a long weekend, but still managed to pack a lot in. All of the things you'd expect from the Black Forest - beer, hiking, and Black Forest cake. In Waldkirch we ate home-made spatzel (a type of pasta), read books to the kiddies, went hiking on Kandel, drank champagne (for my belated birthday), and explored the lovely little town.

Waldkirch

We spent a day in Freiburg, wandering around the market and the Minster.

Freiburg

And on our final day in Germany, we went to the tourist-town of Triberg - cuckoo clocks, the highest waterfall in Germany, and tasty Black Forest cake. Yummo!

Triberg

What a great weekend!
So that catches me up.. Sorry for taking so long to get there!
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