Tales from Wales #10 :: An unexpected visit to Swansea

Hi there everyone 😃

Finally … welcome to the last of my Tales from Wales. Our two week break back in September/October certainly gave me plenty to blog about.

For this final post of this series we are in Swansea … definitely not somewhere we’d planning to visit but we were faced by a series of unfortunate events and decided just to make the very best of it.

To cut a long story short … on our way back from Llawhaden Castle we had one of those nightmare warning lights randomly appear in the car, which meant an afternoon spent finding a ‘local’ dealer that could fit us in on the following day. Whilst there is no way that Swansea could really be called local, it was the only option available so we were up at the crack of dawn on the Wednesday to drop the car in for 8am ...

The dealers were great and dropped us in the centre of town so we could at least spend our day doing something more interesting than hanging around by the dealership … Covid restrictions at the time meant we wouldn’t have been allowed to wait inside.

Neither of us have ever been to Swansea before so once we were dropped off we were quite excited to see what we could find … after making our first stop in a very nice cafe for breakfast.

Once we’d eaten, and had a quick wander round the shopping part of the city, we headed for the coastal part of town, which involved a bit of a circuitous route around an awful lot of redevelopment works. Once there it was more than worth it though ... the views in both directions were stunning ...

After a bit of a sit just taking it all in we had a really good walk along the prom ...

... before finally heading back in towards the docks ...

... where there was plenty to see ...

... and lots of places to eat if the fancy took ...

We were pretty much all walked out by now so decided to head back towards the city centre, where we parked ourselves in a Costa for a quick breather before making our way back to where we'd been dropped off for our 3pm pick up.

Our ride turned up bang on time, which was great, and we were soon on our way back to the dealer to pick up the car ... only to find they'd not really been able to find anything wrong at all, which was frustrating. Even more so when we got back in the car to drive off ... only to be faced by the same warning light, which had refused to appear whilst being inspected by the dealer's technicians.

They took it back into the workshop for another look but the findings were inconclusive so we left with recommendations to book it in for more diagnostics when we got home.

It was a bit of a rubbish ending to our holiday really and we opted to head for home a day early to try and get it booked in and sorted as soon as possible. Fortunately we got home safely, with no more incidents.

Once home we got the car booked in locally and paid again for it to have a good lookover, only to be told that they couldn't find anything wrong, so it must just have been one of those things. It's now January 2022 and there has been no further sign of the dreaded warning light so all must be fine ... but it was all so frustrating. I know these new fangled warning lights are there for a reason but this whole situation has made us trust them just a little bit less 😞

I'm so glad to finally have come to the end of this series of posts ... still plenty more to catch up with though ... I think it will be our day trip to Clevedon next 😀

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Exploring :: Chatsworth … 20 Years of Christmas Magic

Hi there everyone 😃

It seems to have a been a really busy month or so and blogging seems to have taken a bit of a back seat over the Christmas and New Year period. I’m hoping to get back into the swing of the things very soon but just thought I’d drop by with a quick post from our trip out over the weekend.

It is a little bit out of synch, as I still have lots to share with you from our breaks at the end of the year but hey … I will get to them eventually I’m sure.

Our big day out was a visit to Chatsworth House for the last day of their Christmas event … we took mum as part of her Christmas present. We had an early visit slot and, after a good run, we managed to get parked up nice and close to the house in plenty of time … giving us chance for a quick wander round the gift shop first.

Having watched a programme on the TV about the house getting ready for Christmas before we visited … we were looking forward to seeing everything for real.

When we were away with Lesley and Tom in December I was so envious of the photos Lesley could capture with her phone … I came back and treated myself to a bit of an upgrade. I’ve had a bit of a play with it outdoors and have been happy with the results … Chatsworth was a chance to see how it coped indoors and whether the zoom was anywhere near as good as my old Lumix camera.

Visiting early meant that the house was nice and quiet and I managed to get plenty of photos with my new phone … as you can see …

This year there wasn’t really an overall theme to the displays … it was more of a celebration of the last 20 years so did feel a little disjointed at times.

Whilst we did enjoy our visit and there were some beautiful decorations, I think personally I have preferred it in previous years when there has been more of a theme running through the displays.

After we came out of the house the weather had perked up considerably, we even had a bit of blue sky, so we had a good wander round the gardens … which are illuminated from dusk at the moment. It was a bit too early in the day to see it all lit up but it still looked as lovely as always …

 

   

  

After we'd finished our walk round the gardens we headed to one of Chatsworth's cafes for a welcome sit down and a very nice lunch, before giving the garden centre and farm shop quick visits before heading for home.

We'd had a lovely day, been very lucky with the weather but were all absolutely shattered by the time we got home ... time for feet up, bread and pate from the farm shop in front of Call the Midwife and Vera ... perfect Sunday evening 😀

So ... am I happy with my new phone for photos? Definitely a yes and no on that one from me. They are loads better than my old phone, which is great news. They also look fabulous on the phone itself and the iPad and I love the colours, especially the skies. The only thing that I think I prefer from my camera is the sharpness when viewing the images a bit larger.

The Lumix will be happy ... it's definitely not being pushed totally into retirement just yet 😀

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Photo Scavenger Hunt :: December #5 … Celebration

Hi there everyone 😃

Welcome to the last of Astrid’s photo scavenger hunts for 2021. We are ending the year with the theme of celebration.

For me … when there is a celebration or a big get together I seem to have become the bringer of cheesecakes.

This one is a real favourite and normally is made up for family BBQs around Easter time … it is choc full of Maltesers and as the years have passed by it seems to have become more adorned with mini-eggs and malteser bunnies too …

A few years back I started making a cheesecake dessert to take to mum and dad’s on Christmas Day. I discovered Jane’s Patisserie website and haven’t looked back … starting out with this Terry’s chocolate orange number …

The following year it was a Millionaire’s shortbread effort …

… before getting a new piping nozzle and finding piping easier than I thought it would be in this rolo number …

Then there was a mega chocolate creation for a BBQ at The Sutherland’s …

This next one is a beautiful summer creation bought to us for a BBQ by Jackie …

… and last but by no means least here is this year’s Christmas Day contribution … this time I’ve had to make two. One for Christmas lunch with Lesley, Tom and Jess and another for a family Boxing Day get together … I think I may be a bit sick of it by the New Year …

There was no cheesecake last night for New Year’s Eve … we opted for a very nice meal, with very good friends, in a Norfolk holiday cottage after a walk on the beach in the sunshine. We opted for easy on the dessert front with a treat from Tesco’s freezer aisle.

This will be the last of my regular contributions to the photo scavenger hunt but I want to say a very big than you to Kate for starting it up and Astrid for carrying it on. It has been lovely to ‘meet’ some new blogging friends, who I hope to keep in touch with through 2022 and beyond.  Happy new year everyone 😃

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Photo Scavenger Hunt :: December #4 … Stocking

Hi there everyone 😃

It’s Christmas Eve and time for the penultimate challenge from Astrid for 2021 … Stocking 😃

It’s been a busy and sometimes stressful last couple of weeks for us, with lots going on … a fabulous holiday, which nearly didn’t happen … a holiday nearly due which may or may not happen … new boilers for us and mum … good friends being hit by Covid … elderly neighbours needing lots of support … along with the usual list of getting ready for the festive season jobs.

It’s gong to be a strange one for us this year … our first without dad, and I am visiting him today to take him some hellebores so he will have some flowers over Christmas …

Then it’s housework, last card delivering and cheesecake making for lunch with Lesley, Tom and Jess tomorrow … and hopefully a nice relaxing afternoon and evening.

We haven’t really done much by way of Christmas decorating this year and haven’t hung up our stockings but here are some pictures of stockings I have made over the last few years … I really hope they are all still going strong and are hung up again this year …

And last but not least … here are some of my hand made gift tags …

So all that is left for me to say is a very Merry Christmas to all my friends, family and readers. Thank you all so much for your support this year … for reading and for commenting and making it all worthwhile.

I may not be around much over the next week but will definitely be back in the New Year to finish off my Takes from Wales, share our trip to Clevedon with you, show you what we got up to in Northumberland and have a look to see if I can tick any more goals off my ‘50 things to do before I hit 60’ list.

Take care everyone 😊

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