andrewsfamily.id.au

We’re off on holiday tomorrow.  We’ll be in Centre Parcs in Holland from Monday, but we’re stopping on the way in Canterbury and the Antwerp.

We’re all really looking forward to the days in Centre Parcs.  Edward, Toby, John and Rose are coming with us and I’m sure all the kids will play together in the swimming pool

Then a day in Bruges on the way back.

I have resigned from work today.  It is exciting to be taking the next step towards leaving, but it was also a bit sad as it has, on the whole, been a good company to work for.

I know I am leaving my boss in the lurch a little as there are a lot of changes going on at the moment and in the near future but he was expecting it sometime soon.

We have accepted an offer on our house.  So fingers crossed eveything will go smoothly and we exchange contracts at a time suitable to us.

I have added a Family Tree page to the web site.

The family tree is set up on some ‘Family Tree Maker’ software, and then I upload whichever tree I want onto the website.  At the moment there is a tree showing all the people in the family tree (591).  You can move around the tree to see the different parts of the family.  There is also a tree just showing my direct descendants.

Most of the research has been done by other people and I’ve just put it onto the computer, but it has been fun doing this and I intend to try and take it further.

On Sunday it was raining, so we took the kids on a small steam train.  This is fairly near us and is always enjoyed by us all.

The railway goes for about 20 minutes along a track through some very nice countryside, woodland and fields.  Then the engine is turned round and we come back again.

There was a new playground there and Jack and Grace ahad a good run around before we came home.

Last weekend Jack planted a sunflower in the garden.  It was transplanted from a plastic cup where Jack had planted a seed at nursery.

When it was put into the garden it measured 10 cm.

While I was in hospital yesterday, Sarah has booked our flights to Australia.

We leave from Heathrow on 5th September and fly into Sydney on 14th September.  On the way we are going to spend a week in Kuala Lumpur, so if anyone has any advice on places to go or see please let us know.

When we arrive in Australia, my thought at the moment, is to buy a cheap campervan and travel around a bit up till Christmas.  But these ideas change regularly!!

I hurt my knee in February playing footall and it has not been right since. So after seeing a consultant I had an ‘Arthroscopy’ yesterday.

This is keyhole surgery where, using a camera, the inside of the joint can be looked at.  As expected I had a fairly bad tear in my cartilage.  As it was the inflammation around the tear rather than the tear itself that was causing me pain, it was a simple procedure to cut out the damage part of the cartilage.  The inflamation should now come down and I should be back to normal in a few week.

So I’ve now got an enforced week away from work which is quite nice.  Though unfortunately, due to wonders of modern technology, I can plug my laptop into the internet, log into work and it’s just like being at my desk.  So at least I can keep a little up to date.

I can hobble around slowly already and I go to the physio next week.  When I told the physio that I want to do a Mountain Marathon at the beginning of July she was a little shocked but said it should be possible if they intensify my exercises, which I was very pleased about.

We all had a long weekend last week so we made the most of the good weather.

 We set off to the coast in the rain on Saturday morning, butit was perfect sunshine by the time we got to Filey.  We spent the afternoon on the beach playing in the sand.  Then after a walk on the promenade we drove to Bridlington for tea.  We went to a pub with a play area so Jack and Grace could finish wearing themselves out.

After tea, as it was such a nice evening and the kids fell asleep, we drove down the coast to Spurn Head, which is a sand bar at the end of the Humber estuary.  I’d never been there before and it was impressive to see how narrow it was between the sea and the estuary.  The road had been altered in one place as the original road was being washed away.

Then on May Day Monday itself we went to a fair in Thornes Park in Wakefield.  This had the usual rides and stalls but also had an arena for shows.  Jack and I watched a great one with different types of minis.  There was one which had been shortened and could turn on a sixpence, and another which was two front halfs joined together.  It was driven by two people, one forwards and the other backwards.  The highlight of this one was when (in a bang and puff of smoke) it split in two and each half drove off by itself.

After show we had a barbeque with the Blades.  The first of many barbeques over the summer (hopefully).