Pics (by Liam)

Hi, Liam here, I am posting for Ruth as she has no internet access unless she drives 3-4 miles down the road and sits in Tescos car park. Anyway, I have a couple (well a lot actually) of photos to keep you going until she is online. Liam

P.S. The pics are in a really odd order because I can't quite work out how to move them. Hope it kind of makes sense.

This is the view from a road about 5 mins from our house. I was driving down it and decided to stop as it really shows the main reason we decided to move.

This is the upstairs bathroom.

The is the room currently known as "The room that will be Martha's room". That's because we are going to make it Martha's room. One day...

This is another bedroom at the front of the house, this is the one known as "The place where all the stuff to go in the attic goes." We try not to think about this room.

This is the upstairs shower room.

This is the landing, for completeness, should have been at the bottom but can't really work out how to move it. Don't worry, things do get better again.

Downstairs bathroom, complete with unopened boxes, this is a bit of a feature of the house at the moment - but we're getting there...

Alcove in our bedroom, there is a little bathroom behind me.

Our bedroom.
Another view of our bedroom.

This is the room Martha is sleeping in at the moment, but she will be moved into the other room when it is ready.

The dining room from the kitchen

The kitchen (extra points if you can spot Ruth, she didn't want to be in the pic so hid but you can play "Where's Wally" - or "Where's Waldo" for the Americans out there...)

Closer in on the dining room

Martha's toy room - she has far too many!!!

The office, it's a bad picture for a number of reasons, not least that you can see my pants in it... but it's the only one I have so here it is.

We live somewhere on the left of this picture, probably hidden by the trees.

Our fish pond (hope Ruth remembers to feed them while I'm not there)

The garden
The garden from the other end, and the back of the house.

The vegetable patch close up.

Moving soon!

Well a week today we move house, I personally will be glad when this week is over, I can see it being very stressful and also very emotional for me. Liam will still be around in London during the week and will probably see his friends. However I have built up some really good relationships with people here and knowing that I won't see them as regularly is starting to hit home. Yes we are planning to make trips down to London but with 2 children its not going to be as easy as that! I was writing some cards last night and that got me started, I really thought that I would be ok this week and the move wouldn't hit me until next week at the earliest but it looks like I was wrong!! Get me a box of tissues now!!

Liam has managed to find a flat with a room share in Vauxhall now and that was a relief. He has also been upgraded to a double room rather than a single room for an extra £30 a month, which is great as he was worried about fitting his bike in, also it means that if we do make trips down to London there is enough space for all of us just for the weekend. It is a fairly basic room and the decoration isn't great but then I suppose you get what you pay for!

It is all going to be very strange this time next week knowing that we are in Wales for good, I think that we are doing the right thing and I know lots of people agree but we also have people say to us, "won't you find it hard", I know it will be a big change but if it really is not working out then we will have to reassess the situation. I know that for the children it will really make a difference and hopefully for our little family it will too. Hopefully we will have your support and fingers crossed it will work out ok!

On another note, Sarah, Anna and David bought us a photo session for Xmas which we finally got round to using last weekend. We had the photos taken in Richmond Park and they are now available for you to view as www.lifepix.co.uk/library then in the box you type in rb80608. This should allow you access to view the pics. There are some really lovely pictures there and we are going to struggle choosing just one, I was quite surprised as Martha was a bit of a grumpy grumps on the day and didn't think we would have had many good ones. In the end there are quite a few good ones, probably a good job she wasn't in the best of moods otherwise we would have even more of a difficult job choosing. Here is a little one for you to see!

First ice lolly

Long weekend and Frans wedding

Last weekend saw us jetting off on a plane, yes a plane to Italy for Frans wedding. It didn't start to well with Martha having a tummy bug which then got passed on to myself and Liam for the Saturday before the wedding, nice. On the upside Martha being ill the day we travelled meant she fell asleep during take off stayed asleep most of the flight and then on the landing she was asleep- great stuff.

We were in Italy for 5 days but stayed in a hotel, wouldn't do that again with children- no facilities whatsoever!! Not even a kettle!! Makes life a lot more difficult, I would definitely get some sort of apartment next time. Day 1 was travelling, Martha being ill and then going round to Frans for a bite to eat later on and meet some of Roddy's family (I think we became honary members while we were there!).

Day 2 we went to the beach, the weather was nice and the beach was empty, Fran later said it was too early- if it was this country week or weekend the beach would have been a heck of a lot busier! That evening we got invited out to dinner with Fran, Roddy and quite a lot of Roddy's family. It was lovely and Martha had a very late night but coped with it- I think it was 11.00 we got home possibly even later.

Day 3- Liam and myself ill- nice!

Day 4 Wedding day, what a lovely day, the weather was even warmer and it was just perfect fro Fran and Roddy. The wedding wasn't till 4.30 and after the service it was a bit of an eating marathon, tons of canapes, then 3 savoury courses followed by cake! The last savoury course was a steak and that came out at about 11.00- I had gone to bed with Martha at that point, she was tired and I was knackered to put it mildly! It was a lovely being at an Italian/ Scottish wedding, I think there was a lot of Britishness in it and only a little Italian- that being the food!!!

Fran and Roddy both looked amazing and every time I go to a wedding I wish it could be mine again!! Crazy or what!

Day 5 BBQ at Frans parents . Yet an even warmer day- possibly too hot dare I say it, it was one of those days you need to be doing nothing by a pool! It was great to see everyone from the day before and go over the days events.

Day 6 Home to rainy England!! with delays! Martha was very good for the flight home, we were delayed already and then piled onto the plane to find out we were going to be stuck there for another hour before we could even taxi to take off! Martha managed to fall asleep before take off so missed that part again and during landing she just looked out of the window! What a little star!

I am going to put more pics on Liams website but here are a couple from the day, incl Martha at Heathrow airport off on her travels.

Also meant to mention that it was also great to see Jo, John and Tony and meet his girlfriend Vanessa.

Super cool dude!

Martha has had a pair of sunglasses for quite some time but has never liked wearing them much, so we had given up putting them on her. She has however taken an interest in wearing mine and smiling as she does so. Anyway last week I was with my parents and her things were emptied out of the car and she found her sunglasses on the floor. I thought I would give it a go at putting them on her, talk about serious cool dude, not smiles and showing off like she does in mine just serious cool dude face. It was hilarious, even more funny was that we ended up in Ammanford town centre that afternoon and it was raining. Martha preceded to walk down the high street in her cool dude shades in the rain!!! How funny. I didn't get a pic of her doing this but here is one and you will see what I mean by serious face!!!

Our new home

If you tried to use the link to our new house, then it seems you wouldn't have got anywhere as no sooner than I put it up it got taken off the website.

Anyway here are some pics for you to feast your eyes.