It's official: salad is bad for you! Graham managed to break a tooth whilst eating a mouthful of cucumber and coleslaw. Actually, the salad was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back, as his molars had been getting increasingly sensitive in the weeks prior to the incident.
Holidays
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| The North York Moors in mid October |
We hired a static caravan near Scarborough for a week in May. The weather was mixed, but it did not stop us from getting out and about. We did the coast walk from Ravenscar to Robin Hood Bay and back. We spent a pleasant day around Whitby, although getting caught in the heavy showers in the afternoon. We found some steep and slippery paths around Broxa Forest. We saw the amazing white cliffs around Flamborough Head. We were pleased to be able to walk "the Hole of Horcum" and not just part of it(!). We are hoping to return to the area, as the unsettled weather put us off visiting Goathland with its promise of a scenic waterfall.
We decided to see more of the North York Moors in October, and booked a cottage in Ruswarp just outside Whitby. All in all, it was a much better holiday than the one in May - the weather was better, and the cottage had real novelty value - it was the old ticket office on a station platform, with steam trains and regular service trains passing our front door! We did the walk around Goathland, travelled to the west side of the moors to see the Cook Monument and climb Roseberry Topping (sounds like a sticky dessert, but it's a little hill). We also did a coast walk, and another moors walk at Danby.
In November we combined a brief family visit to Cornwall with a couple of nights in Cardiff. We stayed in a shiny new Travelodge in the Cardiff Bay area, and enjoyed walking along the waterfront, and around the shopping centre and Bute Park next to the castle.
House
We had to call in our tradesman neighbour at new year, as we saw water dripping through the eaves outside the kitchen. We think it was just due to condensation, and hopefully the new ventilators have seen an end to the problem.
In the summer, with the promise of a local authority grant, we signed up for new loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. We were not very happy with the company that did the wall insulation - Dylys took a day off work, they turned up, announced that they could only do the front and back of the house and not the side due to problems with access from the garage roof, and then tried to bill us for the full job. Eventually they arranged another date and completed the job - no reason why the garage should be causing a problem!
Towards the end of the year, we had the dry stone retaining wall at the bottom of the garden rebuilt. The wooded area beyond our garden slopes down to the Bollin River, with the retaining wall keeping our back garden almost level. We had been advised when we had the house surveyed that this would be a job needing doing within a few years.
Church
At Bethel Baptist Church, Dylys took part in the Holiday Club at half term in February. We did not get as many children as anticipated, and the ensuing weekly youth club ran for only a few weeks. We were amongst a small group that went on a Child Protection training course in the spring.
This year we started recording the sermons at the church, and Graham now edits and publishes the sermons as podcasts, accessible from the church web site www.bethelmacclesfield.org.uk, which he also maintains.
Choir
Dylys continues to sing with the "Claritas" Hospice choir, as do several other members of our church. Besides the weekly practice, she has joined occasional public performances through the year, including one at Bethel in April; all raising money for the hospice.
Jobs
No change - Dylys clocked up another year at the Information Commissioner's Office, whilst Graham continued working for GPC.
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