29 years of being Mrs Peabody!

Happy Anniversary to us x

29 years married xx

I carried a bouquet of sunflowers and sunflowers will, forever, be associated with our wedding.

An easy gift for Jeff to buy every year x

Our cards to each other x

A day when it's always lovely to look back at photographs from our special day. 

Still a wedding many remember, as being a fun filled, relaxed, happy celebration. 

Must have done something right as we're still smiling 29 years later x

I'm not sure where the week has gone. Feels like we've been back from Nice longer than a week. This time last week, we'd got back in the early hours. Took Sam and Poppy to the train station and started on the mountain of washing!! 

We've had good weather this week....

.....so the figs keep on coming!!

And the sunflowers are blooming.

I had my hair cut and coloured on Monday. Met up with a friend for coffee on Wednesday, early birthday celebrations for her. Then on Thursday evening Sophie arrived home  for a week. I met up with my sister on Friday for a long overdue catch up and then on Saturday....

....Sophie and I headed into Bristol.

We did a little shopping, had a nice lunch at Zizzi's, courtesy of my Tesco vouchers!! and then went to see Moulin Rouge. We've waited ages for this to tour and it was worth the wait.

The show was incredible. The main lead performer voices, were absolutely brilliant. The whole show was brilliant. Fantastic!! If you get the chance to go, go!!

And then whilst wandering back up to the car, we spotted Wallace

"that'll do nicely"

and Gromit!

And a Feathers McGraw and a Norbot!

There's a new Unleashed trail on, in and around Bristol. 

Maybe worth another visit to spot a few more!

"A Grand Day Out"

It's actually raining today, not the sunshiny day we had on our wedding day.

We're using the time to start planning out our big 30th wedding anniversary trip, next summer. 

We first holidayed together, in Greece, in 1993 and then each subsequent holiday was spent in Greece, barr our actual honeymoon, as we felt we should go somewhere different. We ended up in Majorca, staying half-board in a hotel with a pool, but wished we'd stuck with Greece. So our plan is to re-visit all the islands where we first holidayed together. Re-visit a few places and explore new parts of each island. We've already booked our flights and are now chunking out the time we spend on each island, depending on the ferries schedules.

Gosh! Don't we look young? 

And I think Jeff still has that same shirt, after all these years!!

One things for sure, I still love him as much as I did then, and marrying him all those years ago, was the single best thing I have ever done xx 

A 'nice' week away in Nice!

BONJOUR!!

Jeff and I have just returned from a bonus week away in the sun x

We spent a 'nice' week away in Nice!!

I last went to Nice in 1992, whilst inter-railing. It was the last stop of our trip. We had no money, we were tired, it rained! so my memories of it aren't great but we rectified that this week. I was somewhat surprised at how much of my O'Level French I remembered, from some 39 years ago!!

We stayed in a small town just over 10 minutes by train, outside of Nice, in Cros-de-Cagnes. 

We booked a studio on the top floor of a Villa, right on the sea front, with the most fabulous views and the perfect spot for Jeff to take his morning swim. 

From there we took the train to the neighbouring towns along the coast....Nice, Menton, Antibes and Ventimiglia in Italy. We had planned more, but it was very hot, the cost of trains added up, and so we struck a happy balance of a few exploring days and a few local beach days. As always loads of info and loads more pics are shared over on our travel Instagram page @hap_pea_travels

Samdi

Travel day and a late arrival.

Dimanche

Cros de Cagnes in the morning and Nice in the afternoon/evening

Lundi

Menton

Mardi

Cros de Cagnes beach day and market day

Mercredi

Antibes

Jeudi

A return visit to Nice

Vendredi

Ventimiglia on the Italian border

Samdi

Cros de Cagnes, beach day, travel home

We had a really lovely bonus week of sunshine and quality time together. 

Would we return? 

Yes! 

But when it's cooler....possibly even an early December trip! I want to go back to Menton when the lemon festival is on, which is late February/early March but that may have to wait until we retire or I do it with Sophie. One thing to consider is food and drink (beer in particular) is expensive. Our morning coffee and pastries, fine, around 10 euros. A supermarket lunch, fine, again around 10 euros for a baguette, salad bits, fruit, crisps from a supermarche. But evening meals averaged around 20-36 euros for a main meal and 9 euros for a beer in Menton!!!! So something to factor in.

We are now home for the remainder of the summer holidays. Although I go away with Sophie for a bonus week when Jeff starts back at school!! Lucky me!

Sam and poppy were home whilst we were away. They dutifully watered the garden, picked figs and emptied my freezer of all the food!!

 My little fig tree is overflowing with fruit this year. The gift that keeps on giving. 

He's been leaving them out for a friend to collect, so now we're home I can enjoy a few too xx

GRADUATE!!

Yesterday was all about Sam

Sam, a 2:1 History and Economics Graduate

Yesterday was a truly joyous day of celebration. 

Cardiff University encouraged whooping and cheering, and just enjoying the moment. 

And it was a really lovely day.

The ceremony was held at Cardiff Utilita Arena in the city centre.

The first of 3 ceremonies at 9.30am, so an early start!

We left at 6am, drove to Sophie's, where we all got the train into town.

We were allocated seats, so way back in the stands. Sophie, Poppy and his mate Smithy watched from the Student Union and we managed to send a link to my Mum and Dad to watch. Jeff was the most enthusiastic clapper for the 2 hour duration!! Considering the number of students receiving awards, the proceedings went by relatively quickly. A band serenaded the graduates out and closed the ceremony.

4 years of Uni done and dusted!!

It was annoyingly damp, particularly after all the glorious sunshine we've had. 

We headed through town after the ceremony, to the main University buildings for more photo opportunities. 

 Sam was allocated 2 free tickets, any more were £30 a pop, so only the three of us were allowed into the official post ceremony celebrations. So we enjoyed a glass of free bubbly, had a look around, took a few pics, then headed back out to meet the others.

Sam handed his robes in and we headed back into town for lunch!

A lovely, albeit tiring day xx