CATCH UP

Thought it was about time that I did an update as its been over a month since I last posted,and what better way to start than putting on some pictures of the flowers Lyn got from Jonny and Matt for her birthday a couple of weeks ago.As you can see they were (and still are) gorgeous,and the smell each mornong when you come into the lounge is sensational.
So whats been happening,well we still continue to ring the bells and are now regular Sunday ringers and both feel pretty confident about ringing in general,although I did make a mistake this morning on a card that involved over 70 changes and that was with Lyn calling the changes over my shoulder.
The allotment is taking up less of our time now (thank God),as its the time of the year when not much is happening.We are clearing our plot and putting the rubbish on a big pile ready for a bonfire on the 5th.By the look of things there will be quite a few fires.John our next door allotmenteer will be supplying the chairs and booze whilst we will bring along the food.
Quiz nights are still good fun.John and I ran the quiz the other night which was good fun and noisy as there were 10teams,About 10 of us meet down the pub for dinner prior to the quiz,before splitting into teams ,me with THE DREAM BOYS and Lyn with 4 or 5 PORTIONS OF TART.
We rarely win but always try and cheat our way in front of the girls.
Golf is great and is the beast thing I have done since moving up here,not onl;y do I get some good excercise I have also met a great many new friends,plus my game is coming along nicely.
We always seem to be doing something,whether its to do with the house or out and about with friends etc.We really dont know how we had the time to work.
Well I'm not going to do anything else today as its raining quite hard and pretty dull,so will settle down in front of the TV, read the paper and probably have a snooze.
Oh whilst I'm doing this Lyn is making a treacle tart.My mother made the best treacle tart in the world,that is until now of course.As long as there is plenty of lemon in it it will stand a chance.Will report the outcome at some later date

MEET THE LARSENS

There was a film released some time ago called MEET THE FOKERS where both sets of parents meet for the first time and all sorts of things go wrong leaving the prospective bride and groom wishing the meeting had never taken place.Let me explain.
Lyn and I went over to Norway to see Matt last Wednesday to meet his bride to be for the first time.Needless to say we were both nervous .Matt met us at the airport after an uneventful flight with Ryanair.We had expected to have to cram into his Ford Puma,but no he had just taken delivery of an Honda CR-V,very nice indeed,so the ride back to Stavanger was very pleasant.He dropped us off at his batchelor pad,as that was where we would be staying as he lives with Erin in Hommersaak some 30mins away.Our first meeting with Erin was planned for about 7pm as we were all going out for a curry in Stavanger,so we spent the next few hours getting ready and worrying about what she would think of us,and I know from Matt that she was also very very nervous.Anyway to cut a long story short we had a great evening.She is a great girl and both of them seem very happy together.The meal was very nice, the cost probably settling the third world debt.So the ice was broken and we hoped it would all be plain sailing from then on.Friday we were to have dinner at Erins parents house,so this was going to be the Foker experience.We first went to erins house and then walked down to her parents which was only a couple of minutes away.They were great hosts plying us with lots of booze and feeding us with crab and prawns.Lynn got herself in a real mess smashing the crab claws with the wooden hammers provided.The more messy things got the more laughter there was.Erin was concerned that her dad might show her up,but he was fine and managed very well considering his English is not brilliant and our Norwegian is non existent.I think they would have been happy if we had stayed all night. Saturday Erin and Matt took us to see Viking Stavanger play footie in front of a near capacity crowd of 15500.Viking won 3-0 and the home fans were in full voice.I had forgotten what a great atmosphere live footie is.Sunday was home to the Uk with Matt and Erin running us up to Haugesund for our flight home.
Oh I forgot we also went up the fijord again,only this time the weather was a lot clearer and the views spectacular.
So we are back in the Uk after an eventful few days.Matt and Erin will marry either next year or the year after.They plan to come over to see us early in the New Year,perhaps she will bring her two boys with her.

PRODUCE SHOW

Saturday was the big day,or it could have been.When we first started our allotment we had high hopes of entering lots of produce into lots of different categories and perhaps coming away with a shield or a couple of cups.But reality soon struck and we realised that a couple of manky cabbages and a lot of odd shaped spuds wouldn't win anything,so we had to try and persuade others to enter,namely our neighbour Vernon who is a Northwold man born and bred,and whose father won countless prizes at the show.Anyway to cut a long story short on his behalf we entered some of his tomatoes and a indoor hydrangea.I had to weigh and polish 5 tomatoes and obviously pick the best looking,we also thought some of his beans might be ok but not knowing the standard we had them for tea instead.Saturday morning saw us carrying all this stuff down to the hall,Lyn had decided to enter some dahlias also,and we had to pick up a flower arrangement from Kirsten (wife of Ole my golf pal) so we had a full car.We paid our entry fee for each category(40p in total) and sat back and waited until the evening .
At 5.30pm the doors opened and we rushed in after paying our enrty fee of 20p each (as you gather there is big money involved) Guess what Lyn won 2nd place for her dahlias (4op) and Vernon won 1st for his toms and 1st for his plant(£1.20) Kirsten won nothing.Going round one of our friends and I decided that for next year if we were to enter the sponge finger,gingerbread men,apple turnover,cornish pasty,and flapjack categories we would at least come 2nd and 3rd as there was only one entry in each catergory,so thats our aim.Next year if nothing else we will win the cooking shield and win a couple of quid also.
Joking apart it was great fun and very typically British,and we ended up down the road at Ole's having a couple of beers ,Great.
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SOME MORE

Just a few more

A YEAR ON

Its now just over a year since we moved into Adam Cottage and although there is still quie a bit to do we are both happy at the progress that we have made considering what needed to be done when we first moved in.It has been a hard year but we are now reaping the rewards and taking the Diy more slowly and concentrating more on doing other things.Winter will see some more painting and we plan to replace the Kitchen in the autumn with some units that are more in keeping with the cottage.We have also stopped our picture hunting having amassed some 125 from various charity shops from the surrounding towns.Old books are now our thing to go on the shelves recently put up,and again we won't pay much for them .

MORE BLADES

Cool or what

BIGGLES

On the 5th July we went to Sywell aerodrome so that I could have my Tiger Moth experience which Matt and Jonny had given me as a retirement/birthday present.It had had to be cancelled earlier due to bad weather but the 5th was fine if a little breezy.The flight was great and very basic as it was real seat of the pants stuff.My pilot was an ex 747 captain who does this for fun and to boost his pension.We were at one time going slower than the cars below which was kind of strange,and looking at the aiespeed indicator we were only doing 40knots.He let me have a go at flying it,and it was surprisingly easy if a little bumpy.He did say that a 17 knot crosswind was about the planes limit for landing and that it was gusting 20 at times.However when i said to him that he would need all his skills to land it he said that luckily few skills were needeed and true to his word he put it down without a bump but with a lot of sideslip.
Based at Sywell are a group of pilots called THE BLADES all ex Red Arrows .They were having a corporate day and two of the group put on a spectacular aerobatic display for their guests and of cours anybody else who was there.So thanks to Matt and Jonny for yet another flying experience.

BACK AGAIN

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted,I don't know why its been so long but I promise not to be so lazy in the future.So whats happened since I last posted.Life continues to be very busy with seemingly not enough hours in the days do to all that we want.I play golf at least twice a week and my game is steadily improving to the point when I won my first prize money which was the grand total of .65p.Lyn also plays at least once a week and her game is also improving,but no prize money yet.The allotment keeps us very busy as its a real task to keep the weeds down,but on the produce front we shall have enough spuds to never buy again,cabbages are not too bad but its a toss up as to who eats them first us or the slugs.Courgettes are also good but are not too prolific yet.We shall be down ther first thing tomorrow mornig to do battle once again.Bellringing has progressed to both Lyn and I ringing on Sunday morning so I think we can now call ourselves accomplished ringers.We have made loads of good friends in the Village and spend time with them either at the Quiz nights on the golf course and at bellringing and not forgetting the allotment.
We can't believe we have been here over a year as time has flown by, but we have and we enjoyed every aspect of our life here.
We now have over 130 pictures from charity shops and car boot sales so I think it is time to slow down.We have now switched our attention to old books to fill the shelves recently put up.
We have had a number of visitors including Shaun who was up for a golf match in June,the weather was lousy but the company was good.
Thats all for now and Ipromise to be more posty in the future