Today was A'level results day here...

Matthew's A 'level results are as follows:

Economics A, Politics B, Maths C and General Studies A

This was not quite the 2A's and B he needed for his conditional offer from York, however he has been accepted at his Lancaster University where he had his insurance offer, so he will be off to Lancaster in the Autumn - he is very happy with this so all is well!!

Ian, the boys and I just spent a fabulous weekend at Paris Disney. We all travelled to Paris on Friday evening and spent the night at the Hilton at Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was a lovely hotel with a really cool glass elevator and fabulous views of the airport (couldn't hear any planes though). The boys enjoyed a late night swim in the pool there.

The following morning we caught a train to Marne-le-Vallee and took our bags to our hotel where we picked up our Disney passes. Then it was off to the parks to commence two days of pretty much nonstop action! The weather was glorious, hot and sunny, and the parks were very busy, especially on the Saturday. Queues were sometimes very long, but we managed to get round all the well loved attractions like Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, Pirates of The Carribbean, Tower of Terror, Haunted Mansion etc

The boys scarcely stood still long enough for me to catch a photo of them, but a got one or two!! For the most part I had to settle for landscapes which didn't run away from my camera! Here are a few of my photos: ( Read more... )

It was great weekend, very tiring but huge fun... it brings back lots of happy memories for me of all the times we spent at Disney parks when the children were younger, but perhaps best of all it was great to see Chris so full of energy, he went on more rides than any of us and only has sore feet to show for it, and he is not alone in that!

I'm finding it hard to believe that just a week ago we were enjoying the sun and sea of Malta, and that just a week from now we will be at Paris Disney!

Meanwhile...

We came down to earth last Thursday when Ian was up not long after 5am to make his trip down to London. Not too much later Chris and I were off to Alder Hey for a routine appointment, it was unremarkable though pretty long, (9am till after 1pm) mostly just sitting round waiting for things to happen... we shared some birthday cake with Ethan and his nan (Ethan, who is at exactly the same point in the same regimen as Chris was turning 3 years old the following day!)

Friday was more fun, just after midday David and I met up with Moth, Fledge and Jamie in Chester. We all walked down to the park together and then David went off to do his own thing, while the rest of us settled in the park to have a picnic. We followed that up with a walk and icecream down by the River Dee - all very pleasant! Later we headed back to town to meet up with Chris (Moth's friend), we had coffee and sat in the gardens outside the cathedral until it was time for me to go and catch the train home!

A few pics: ( Read more... )

Today was our last full day here in Malta, tomorrow we will be heading home, I can't believe the time has flown past so fast...

Any way being the last day we all decided that we would do our own thing; in the event Ian and the boys pretty much just popped to Valetta and then spent the rest of the day hanging round St Julians and the hotel, whilst I headed to the south coast, details of my day below... Ian bought a whole lot of nougat (local speciality), Chris bought a big flag of a Maltese Cross!

Ian and I had tea at the Blue Elephant Thai restaurant again, just as nice as last time... and this time they gave me an orchid at the end of the meal!

Now my day in photos:


I visited the Temple of Hagar Qim which is protected by a huge white tent!! - this is to protect it from the elements, which I'm sure is a good thing in the long run, but isn't particularly aesthetically pleasing! I have to admit that this is a pretty exposed spot... ( Read more... )

Today we headed by bus to Mdina/Rabat. We spent the first few hours in Mdina (the silent city) where we went to the Mdina Experience, walked along the walls a bit and looked out at the view and had a look inside the cathedral...

Later we headed out to Rabat where we went into the St Agatha Catacombs where we were delighted by a very informative and knowledgable guide. We also had lunch in Rabat and visited the Roman Domus where there were some lovely mosaics as well as other remains.

After that it was back to St Julians for a swim and our evening meal.

Some photos of the day:


Approaching the walled city of Mdina through the main gate ( Read more... )

This morning we headed out to Bugibba where we picked up a cruise which took us to St Paul's Island, the Comino caves and the Blue Lagoon on Comino where the boys and I had lovely swim while Ian rested on the beach!! The boys swam right across the lagoon to a beach on the other side which wasn't so busy, I did not venture so far but still had a pleasant swim. Later we swam some more in the hotel pool and went up to Paceville for dinner!

Some photos:

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This morning we headed over to Paola to visit the Hypogeum. This is a really fascinating underground structure dating from megolithic times, when it was used as a burial chamber and place of worship. It is remarkably well preserved and the tour was very interesting - there are no photos from this part of the day as cameras were not allowed down there... After that we moved above ground where we went to explore the nearby Tarxien Temples. We had lunch in Paola before catching the bus back to Valetta, where we had a look around the church of St Paul's shipwreck, had a drink and an icecream before coming back to the hotel for an other relaxing hour or so in the hotel pool... We rounded off the day with dinner at a little Italian place not far from the hotel!!


The entrance to the Tarxian Temples ( Read more... )

Today we took a day trip to Gozo. We caught a bus to Cirkewwa where we caught the ferry to Mgarr in Gozo. While we were in Gozo we visited the Ggantija temples and Victoria (Rabat) where we went up to the citadel which dominates the town. We all went swimming when we got back to the hotel and then headed up to Paceville where we had our evening meal at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Here are a few photos from the day:

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We arrived in Malta very late last night after a straightforward trip. The hotel is lovely though we didn't fully appreciate until this morning. After breakfast we set off to explore St Julians and Sliema walking around the bays to Sliema ferry. There we picked up a cruise around the Grand harbour - very pleasant. After the cruise we had lunch and then caught a bus into Valetta, where we had a look round and went to an impressive presentation called the Malta experience. In the evening the boys went for a swim and then went to a local steak house while Ian and I went for a lovely Thai meal at a restaurant at the hotel.

Some photos of the day:

A view fom the hotel ( Read more... )

It's been busy with comings and goings here in the past month or so.... In addition to Ian's weekly sojourns to London and back, David has spent three weeks in Edmonton, Canada, Matthew has turned 18, had a day trip to Amsterdam with me, a night in London with his father and five days in Newquay with friends from school and Chris went to France and Belgium with his school on a trip to see the Battlefields... While Chris was in France I went to London for a few days and went to Greenwich amongst other places!

In addition to the various voyages long and short, David passed his first year at university, Matthew went to his school prom and Chris won a trophy from school...

On Wednesday Ian, Matthew, Chris and I are off to Malta for a week (hoping to escape the endless showers of rain)... Can't wait!!

Meanwhile here are a few random photos of what we've been upto and where we've been under a cut ( Read more... )

H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y   J E N N Y

Hope you have a wonderful day and a great year ahead...





With lots of love xx

Tomorrow I have to attend a meeting in Guildford so tonight I am staying in Wembley in a hotel which is where Ian often resides during the week...

Here are a couple of views from my hotel window this evening...





Matthew also finished his last A level today, so he will be celebrating tonight!

I enjoyed another gloriously hot day today, though some on our tour seemed to think it was a little too hot!!
We started the day with a trip to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue a little village situated on an island in the middle of the Sorgue River, apparently it is known as the Venice of Provence, though its outstanding feature seemed to be waterwheels!!



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Today was gloriously sunny and hot. Our first port of call was the ancient Pont du Gard, Roman aqueduct:



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Today we visited the city of Arles where we had coffee at the cafe made famous by Van Gogh in his painting, Le Cafe la nuit.



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We arrived in Avignon yesterday after a long day of travelling on the Eurostar and TGV. We arrived to blue sky and sunshine, today has been more overcast but still deliciously warm.

Last night we explored Avignon, I was particularly impressed by the Palace de Papes and its associated cathedral...



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It's a long time since I posted anything here and I'm not even going to try to fill in the gaps!!

It is now just over a year since Chris was diagnosed and he has just finished his intensive blocks of chemo and moved onto maintenance treatment which will last for the next two years. They have promised to remove his central line next time he goes to theatre (a week on Thursday)and he is very excited, counted down the days!!

Meanwhile tonight I am in London with Mum (using a very dodgy internet connection), tomorrow we will be travelling to Avignon where we will be spending the next few days...

Hoping to update a bit while we are there!