Showing posts with label Birmingham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birmingham. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Easter fun and car stresses

Just before Easter my daughter took her car into our regular garage as there was a knocking noise when she went round corners. The guy in the garage took the wheel off to have a look and found that the brake callipers were worn and rusty. So advised my daughter to go round to another guy that does car repairs to get him to have a look and see if he could get it done quicker. To cut a long story short, the brake callipers got sorted out, but much to my daughters dismay the original knocking was still there !! This causes so much stress as any car repairs are a major financial headache in this house, so she knew that even more money was going to have to be spent on the car. However lack of cash was going to stop the 2nd job from being done anyway.

My daughter was so het up about the car later in the day, she accidentally let it slip that one of my sons was planning a surprise visit with some friends of ours from Birmingham the next day !! Friday duly arrived and my son and our friends arrived a little fraught as the traffic on the M6 was terrible. After some discussion they booked into the Auckland Arms in Menai Bridge for two days. I felt terrible when they went to drop off their luggage and came back saying that the place was way below the standard they expected from the website. The kettles were filthy inside and had to be brought round to my house to be scoured out before being used. Not a good start !!! They came back and we talked quite late into the night catching up on each others news, and my son bought us a chinese meal for our dinner ...I had king prawn curry it was yummmmmm lol. Then off they went to their B&B for the night.

The following day they came round ready for a day out sightseeing. It turned out that things didn't improve when they got back to the Auckland Arms, as the beds were very uncomfortable, also the breakfast in the morning wasn't up to much either. It took ages to get served and even when it did arrive it wasn't very warm, the toast had been put on top of the disgusting tasting beans, making it go soggy. My friends were not impressed !!! At £240 for the two nights they were here they expected better, so I advise anyone looking for B&B's on Anglesey to avoid the one I've mentioned here. It's obvious from the link that follows that my friends weren't the only ones that found this place substandard either, just wish I'd found these reviews before they'd booked in there !! Trip Advisor.Co.Uk

It was a warm and sunny day, so we set off to Porthmadog's black rock sands, for a day on the beach followed by a trip through the mountains on the way home. Much fun was had by all, playing frisbee and football.My youngest sons huge 6ft kite was the most popular thing to have a go at though lol. My friend Mandy went off to the loo and was gone for at least an hour and half, we were all wondering where she'd got to when she back clutching a load of leaflets and telling us all to get in the minibus she'd got us an invite to a free bbq lol. She'd gone to have a look round a caravan holiday park and the owners had invited her and the remaining 6 of us to go to the bbq too. By the time we left there, there's no doubt in our minds that if she'd have had the money to buy one of the holiday homes there and then she would have, she was so impressed. After that we took a leisurely drive back through the mountains to get home. We were quite surprised how much snow there was still on the ground in places, some of it quite thick.

Another sunny day dawned on Sunday, and we'd arranged to go to the car boot at Mona. Much to my surprise my youngest son and his heavily pregnant girlfriend had managed to get up in time to come too. This son is not known for getting up early I might add lol. I was disappointed to see that there were only 4 rows of booters even though it was Easter, but I suppose as the weather had been so unpredictable earlier in the week, it wasn't that surprising. I managed to find myself some new books to read, a little tea light lamp and a cardi. My friends Mandy and Mart surpassed themselves and bought an X box and a motorbike lol. That's the first time in all the years I've gone to car boots that I've known anyone spend over £600 lol.

Once we'd got back to my house and had a coffee, my older son decided he wanted to treat us to Sunday lunch before they set off back home. As we all have healthy appetites it was decided to try and find a carvery not too far away. We found one in Pentraeth but sadly it was already packed to the rafters, so we carried on towards Benllech and found a little pub which didn't do a carvery but their food was gorgeous. I just wish I could remember the name of it to give them a plug but I can't :o( All to soon it was time was my son and our friends to start their journey back home to the Midlands again. The time had gone way to fast, but we'd all enjoyed it !!

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Monday, 29 December 2008

Another early morning

Yet another early morning for me, I was awake at 4am arhhhhh. It seems to be my destiny in life to be wide awake when everyone else is fast asleep.... oh well.

As expected we went off out yesterday, we decided to go to a place called the Jinny Ring Craft Centre. We eventually found it after going up and down the same road a few times lol.The craft side of the centre was dissapointing as most of the little workshops there were shut, but luckily there were a couple of ponds there with some ducks for us feed, which everyone enjoyed no matter what their age lol. Then it was off for a tour round the local countryside which was pleasant and then we called in at a park to run off some of my youngest granddaughters energy on the way home. By this time it was getting late and it was freezing !! But we persevered and went to the kiddies playground, what a revelation that was, so many weird looking things for kids to play on these days, the only thing that I recognised was a swing lol. One plaything was a pole with a stand at the bottom which spun round. I got a very interesting effect taking a photo of Jenny on that.

Today it's off to my sons warehouse in Birmingham where he sells 1/2 price Argos stuff, so I shall be having a good old mooch round there as always. I'll also be able to catch up with two of my sons there hopefully. The plan is to go and visit some friends afterwards for some fire spinning, but I'm not sure if that will happen as Jennys not feeling too well at the moment, but we'll see.

Dissapointingly it hasn't been cold enough for frost while we've been here. I was going to have a play with my daughters digital slr camera while I was here with some super macro shots of frosty plants.

A very typical family photo feeding the ducks lol.

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A not so typical photo of feeding the ducks lol.

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This was my favourite photo of the day, Jenny spinning on a new fangled toy in the playground.

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