Sand castles, then

It's the third day in a row that it's been sunny and not at all like winter so we thought we'd spoil ourselves... thing is, the rest of Norfolk had the same idea.

The good thing about Wells-Next-The-Sea is that the beach is huge so there's plenty of room for everybody. It's one of those amazing North Norfolk beaches which is a huge expanse of sand and sky. And when the tide's out you can even hear the sea let alone see it.

Fortunately, there's a great estuary left behind which is spot-on for the kids - not that Luke's bothered, he'd paddle in puddles if he could. So today we built sandcastles. Olivia's was spectacular as you can see. With no help from Caryn, it's such a girl castle - dainty and intricate with the swirling moat.


Bit different from the one me and Luke made which was entirely practical, plenty of thought given to repelling invaders with its deep moat and high walls as you can see.

Boys and girls then, neatly summed up in two sandcastles.

Soggy campers

When we booked a couple of nights at Clippesby, months and months ago, we figured the weekend before August Bank holiday would be a banker...

The above picture should have been better - the four of us, drenched, stood in front of our tent. The children wouldn't get out the car though.

It was a double family trip, with our pals Simon and Louise and their three. I don't think we'll be seeing Simon in a tent again, ever. Sensible man. You can read what they've got to say about it all on their rather lovely blog, which is here... they seem to have stolen the march on blogging, and say things so much better than my rushed attempts these days.

Anyway, the weather wasn't the greatest from the moment we arrived on Saturday, but when we went to bed on Sunday night we thought we'd got away with it. We'd managed to dodge the showers, and cook and eat without getting soaked. Not much of a problem. Then, at 3am on Monday morning it started to rain. Properly.

It's now Thursday and the tent is hanging over the swing in the back garden, it's still as wet as it was on Monday morning.

I think I'm saving up for a camper van. A nice Hymer like this one. Anyone lend me £5k or so? That said, it's probably not a camper we need, it's an ark.

Ebenezer Terrace's Summer Vacation

Yes, yes, I know. But this really is the very first chance I've had since Olive's tooth fell out back in July. We've been stupid busy. Stupid. So what happened? I'll apologise now for the lack of pics, I've more somewhere or other. I will find them... soon.

Briefly, on the day Olive's tooth fell out, we went to Montreux on a work-related Jazz Festival jolly. Left the children with Grandma and Pops and had a very rare weekend to ourselves. Got wined and dined very nicely. Were offered a 5kg lobster on the first night, how much? £400. Splutter.

Crossed Lake Geneva on a speedboat for lunch in Evian the following day, like you do, and supper was by invitation at the home of Claude Nobs, the founder of the festival. Apparently, every band playing in Montreux gets invited up to his gaff in the mountains. It is an utterly spectacular way to spend an evening.

He wasn't home when we were there, which made enjoying his hospitality a little surreal. There's so many great story about him, including how Deep Purple came up with 'Smoke On The Water' when one of the festival's venues burnt down following a flare being fired at Frank Zappa. He's the Funky Claude mentioned in the song.

Anyway, we came back to reality for a bit before we headed out on our hols to Wales. Caryn's dad's family are from Denbeigh and she wanted to head that way and spend some time in the land of her father... We even got a phrasebook for the utterly unfathomable language too. It remains utterly unfathomable.

So anyway, we decided to do a bit of a jaunt and try out a few places for a couple of nights, rather than the same place for a week. Worked a treat.


The wonderful Greenlooms Cottage B&B (pictured, above) in Cheshire and a pleasant evening in the company of owners, Peter and Deborah, to start, followed by the seaside at Llandudno (the cable car scared the bejesus out me I'm not ashamed to admit) and then the mountains of Snowdonia to finish. All wonderful and left me feeling like working for a living is no longer a 'good thing'. A sure sign of a good holiday.

Snowdonia was just gob-smacking. We stayed in a place called Llanberis which sits at the foot on Snowdon - it's a proper climbing hang-out, a little rough round the edges, but with the amazing Pete's Eats at its epicentre. We ate there a lot in two days, even breakfast once when the girl running our hotel didn't manage to get up in time to feed us on our first morning! A generous discount was negotiated.


Llanberis is also home to the Snowdon Mountain Railway which is as spectacular as things get. Opened in 1896, it's a railway up a mountain for no other reason than the Victorians could build a railway up a mountain. It is as awe-inspiring as it sounds. Sadly, they're building a cafe at the summit (!), so the train stops about a mile and some 300m short of the top until next year. I think we might be back.

There really is something quite magical about the area. It's hard to put into words, but I'm working on it!

And that is kind of us. Caryn and the kids seem to be enjoying the summer hols - there's been lots of late nights and lazy mornings which make a wonderful change from the usual chaos. And I'm working like a double dog which is better than not working at all, I guess.

I will, as I always do, promise to at least try and post on a regular basis. Please, no taking bets on how long it'll last. Or if you do, I'll have a fiver on under two days.

Sigh.