Friday 13 March 2009

Babysitter required - only 11 months notice

It was a big struggle, but on Thursday morning I was able to secure two tickets for Michael Jackson at the O2! This was after trying for much of the morning on Wednesday, but falling victim - like many others - to the Ticketmaster gremlins. It was a big relief to have an internet connection at the cottage, otherwise we would definitely have missed out, and we didn't want that. I saw him live at Roundhay Park in Leeds in 1992 and vowed I would see him again - we'll have to wait until February 2010, but it's something we're both more than happy to do, the man is an entertainment genius.
So, we'll be looking for a Wednesday night babysitter! I did try to get some more tickets this morning during the General Sale, for the summer shows, but Ticketmaster was even worse than it was on Wednesday, and they still have the bare-faced cheek to charge £9 booking fee per ticket!!!!!!

The Witch's Cauldron


Today has been our last full day here, and we waited to see what the weather was like before deciding what to do. In the end, it was rather grey and threatening, so we postponed leaving for a walk until late morning, and it started to rain as we loaded up the car at 11am - typical! The plan was to drive to Moylegrove, just outside Cardigan, and walk along the coast path to the Witch's Cauldron, a collapsed sea cave. We hadn't expected the path to be along the tops of 40 metre high cliffs, which meant we kept Mishka on his lead and I trod very carefully with Lara on my back!
The photo above is one for the Geology graduates, especially those who were on the Liverpool University GPG course 1992-1995, it's just like those outcrops we saw that first Easter!

We kept an eye out for seals and dolphins, but to no avail, so it remains that we saw a seal's head on Monday at Dinas Head, and that's been it, but there's always next time!


As usual, we couldn't escape from letting Mishka run around on a deserted beach, and indeed there was one close by at Ceibwr. We did wind up poor Mishka though by throwing treats into the sea, a few metres from shore, to see if he'll go in and swim... he'd wade in as far as his chest, but then chicken out. That was until he was hit by a freak 2-foot wave at the wrong moment, which went over his head - he hardly went back in again after that, the poor lad!

Thursday 12 March 2009

A trip to Mwnt

How do you say Mwnt? It's a lovely bay just 10 minutes from the cottage, especially out of season. We were the only people there at first, and that meant Mishka could have a runabout off the lead, but then we were joined by a couple of metal detectorists (they were unsuccessful!)
Perhaps Mwnt is actually the hill overlooking the bay, but either way, it was a great place to spend an hour or so. The weather was poor in the morning at the cottage, with heavy drizzle, and it was time to deploy the raincover on the baby carrier for the first time, but this just guaranteed that the drizzle would blow over and the sun came out.
The wind was strong, which meant that the surf was very much "up", but this didn't stop one visitor from going for a swim after we'd left the beach to go and see the 13th century church overlooking the bay..


One we were back at the cottage, Olga had a dabble at some painting while Lara and I played on the decking, checking out the animals in the field below. This photo shows Lara telling Olga about what the pigs and chickens had been up to this afternoon:

Wednesday 11 March 2009

So far so good

Today was another greyish day, but mild, and we went to Aberporth, a little village on the coast just 10 minutes drive from the cottage with a lovely beach, rather like this one above, which is actually Pwllgwaelod, at Dinas Head, a few miles south west of Cardigan. We walked round Dinas Head on Monday when the weather was sunny but windy.
Mishka enjoyed coming to Aberporth, as there was a 6-month old border collie male puppy playing there, and with no other dogs around, and the beach being rather enclosed, with not much chance of them disappearing onto roads, we decided to let them both play off the lead. It was great to see Mishka playing with another dog under fairly controlled circumstances for the first time, there was no aggression towards, or bullying of, the puppy, which was very pleasing to see. They played for 5 minutes or so before they both began to tire of chasing each other around the beach, and we had a fun old time trying to recapture them! The lure of a sausage worked on Mishka, and although he only played for a few minutes, it seems to have tired him out. Just think if we got another dog..!
So we had a lazyish day today, like yesterday, just pottering around the house in the morning, then going to Aberporth at lunchtime, then off to another little market town for a wander round the shops, and back to the house for 4pm. Being on holiday makes no difference to our timings though, after cooking tea, bathing Lara and putting her to bed, it's still 8pm before we can sit down and put the TV on. Lara is sleeping really well though, we've not had to get up at all for her while we've been here, and she's waking at 6.30-6.45am consistently, but from listening to the monitor, she seems happy to play with her tellytubby for 20 minutes while Mum and Dad have a lie-in till 7am! She's also eating well, we've pretty much done away with jars completely now, although we keep one in her changing bag in case we're caught out anytime. She's just eating the same things as us for lunch and dinner, with just her usual yoghurt and porridge for breakfast. She still has a cough and cold, but the cough isn't as bad now, but her nose is still running. She's as smiley as ever, and Dad seems to have taught her to wink, and now not only is she smiling and waving at strangers in cafes and pubs, but now she winks at them too; it's very sweet, and funny to watch the reaction of those on the receiving end!

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Meeting the Locals

We got here on Sunday afternoon, after having all four seasons in one day on the drive from Catherine's.
The cottage is lovely, at the end of a lane, in the head of a valley, part of a small farm with two minature shetland ponies, some goats, two pigs and lots of chickens. We had reasonable weather yesterday, lots of blue sky, but some strong wind. Today was a little greyer, but it brightened up later in the afternoon, and we went to see the animals in the fields just below our cottage...