David Currie

721We’ve spent a very relaxing weekend in Ludlow with Christine’s old boss Russell Cheng. They have retired to a lovely old listed building in the centre of Ludlow from where we could make short forays out in to the town. I last visited Ludlow as a scout when, as a group of patrol leaders, we were remarkably allowed to find our own way to Ludlow from Hertfordshire and then walk from there to Shrewsbury, staying at hostels on the way. I have to confess to remembering nothing of the place! Particularly exciting for Emma was spending the weekend with Truffle and May (a dog and cat respectively). Emma perfected her ‘lie down Truffle’ which was needed frequently during mealtimes (perhaps related to Ann’s excellent cooking!). A small selection of photos are on Flickr.

I took Friday afternoon off so that we could get a head start on the crowds heading up to the Lake District. I successfully anticipated that the oil warning light would come on and we had already purchased the requisite supplies. Unfortunately after about an hour it became clear that there was growing noise coming from the exhaust. Not withstanding sounding like a boy racer, this started to give me a splitting headache (hopefully not due to petrol fumes!). Consequently, as things started to slow up as we approached Birmingham I was happy to fork out £4.50 to take the M6 toll road – a first for me – which also gave us the option of another set of services (Norton Canes).
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Whoopee – our shipping finally arrived yesterday – a mere four weeks after it was collected in Oslo! It’s amazing how much you miss some really small things. For example, with our weighing scales back we can now start making bread again. (Christine tried guessing weights once and the result wasn’t pretty!) We also have our wireless router back (no more fighting over the internet connection) and Emma has more toys than she knows what to do with (not to mention a cot). Only negative: this morning Christine spotted a couple of inch long slashes in the high chair where it looks like someone has been a bit heavy-handed taking the wrappings off with a Stanley knife. Hopefully it’ll be covered by the insurance.