Antipodean visitors...

Susanne and Mark have been visiting Bath since last Saturday - when we picked them up from Heathrow Terminal 4. We have done a great deal of tourist-related activities including trips to the Roman Baths, No.1 Royal Crescent, Cheddar Gorge, the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum and the SS Great Britain. For the first five nights they stayed with us at our house and are now staying at Andy & Fi's house for the weekend before we all go to London for a night in the Park Lane Hotel.

One of the highlights of their stay so far was the fantastic meal Mark cooked for us on Monday - chicken, mango & camembert filo with spinach and asparagus along with a fine Sauvignon Blanc from Oyster Bay, New Zealand.

There will be many photographs of Mark and Susanne's stay in one of the next posts... stay tuned!

Sunny days...

It is a beautiful day in Bath today. I took this photo on my way to work this morning. It shows the view East (roughly) towards Batheaston, Bathampton, etc.



We played softball last night. Even though we lost I thought we played quite well. I was happy with my play and there were also great moments from eveyone else - including a home run by Griff.

Susanne and Mark arrive on Saturday. Hooray!

Update city...

Rascal appears to be completely better. He eats as much as he used to and has started going into next door's garden - he's not supposed to do that!

Liverpool have qualified for the Champions League by finishing 4th in the Premiership. Newcastle drew with both Wolves and Southampton and so the game tomorrow at Anfield will have no bearing on 4th place.

Neill's book sold well at the launch - he estimated 70 sales.

My parents have just returned from their trip to Skiathos (Greek island) - it was a good trip apparently. Haven't seen them yet - but they called when they were on their way home from the airport.

Had the first meeting of the Classic Movie Club last night. Six of the ten of us got together and watched The Godfather. What a movie! Voting has begun to see what the next film will be, the nominations are Bringing Up Baby, The Maltese Falcon, From Here to Eternity, The Graduate & Chinatown.

The weblog is so bland without pictures... maybe next post I'll have something to show you. Practicing softball on Sunday so maybe I'll take the camera.

Neill's Book Launch...

Neill - the photographer I work for - had the launch of his new book last night. It was quite a nice event at the Victoria Art Gallery here in Bath, with a few high-profile guests including the Mayor of Bath. The book is a coffee table book called BATH and is written by Kirsten Elliott with all the photos taken by Neill. It's jolly nice. You can buy if from Amazon.co.uk here.

I am now 30 years old...

The birthday celebrations have passed. Here is a brief report: Camping, as previously mentioned, went well. On Wednesday - not my birthday - My parents, Joe and Marla & I went to Bottelinos in Bath. It is an Italian restaurant that I had fond memories of. Unfortunately, I found the food not so good. My piccante pizza was not at all piccante. After dinner we went back home and I opened my presents from Mum & Dad, Marla and Joe. Plus we had cake that was made by Joe and was the sweetest cake ever. Dinner aside, it was a great evening.

Then on Thursday - my actual birthday - we had Andy, Fi, Joe, Paul, Rach, Griff, Jay & Marie over to our place. It was a great evening. Rachael made Lasagne, Griff brought a starter, Andy & Fi brought dessert (plus we had some of Joe's sweet cake left over). It was a fab meal. Then there were presents again. It was all finished off with a game of Cranium - which my team won.

All in all, a great birthday. Photos can be found in this Ofoto album.

The only downside to the week was that Rascal was not well at all and we made a couple of trips to the vet. Luckily, he appears to be a bit better today, so hopefully he is recovering.

Now thoughts turn to Susanne & Mark's visit at the end of the month!

P.S. The Premiership season is drawing to a close. Liverpool are still in 4th spot and are still in the "driver's seat". A win against Newcastle next weekend will do the business. As I type Newcastle have just drawn 1-1 with Wolves which means that they have to win their mid-week game vs Southampton and the game in Liverpool to finish 4th.

Camping...

We had a very nice time camping this past weekend. We did not go far - a place called Stowford Farm about 10 or 15 miles from Bath - but it was far enough away to feel like a bit of a holiday. Weather was mixed - with rain on Saturday and Monday but fantastic on Sunday. It was the first outing for our tent (the Vango Gamma 450) and for the Clist's tent (the Blacks Kintail - sorry no link) and both tents performed admirably. My parents and Joe & Jenny arrived Sunday afternoon and camped with us too. Joe got to try his new tent (the Vango Delta 300) and was pretty happy with it.

The funniest moment of the weekend was when Joe fell through the chair he was sitting on. Wine went everywhere, but he managed to keep hold of his hotdog. Paul was quick on the draw and managed to get this good photo:



That's all for now. My birthday on Thursday, so more after that I should think.