1 Year Anniversary

It's finally happened.....married for one whole year. They say the first year's the hardest, but I think it's gone a smooth as a gentle sea breeze. :)

In any case, the Hubby and I had a wonderful time for our anniversary. We went down for the weekend to a little Seaside town in the Gower(Wales) called Mumbles.

We stayed at a small B&B that was a short walk up from a private little cove. The room, for a B&B, was very modern and nicely decorated.

View of our bedroom, in the Langland Cove B&B

Tea Tray in the room.

The bathroom, simple beach theme.

The Cove, was only a few minute walk down the street and it was mostly empty the whole time we were there cause it was just a small little cove, unlike the main beaches/piers around mumbles. It was especially interesting to see the cove at the different tide times. It’s amazing that the sandy area where we layed out on the beach, could be completely covered in water a few hours later.



Before the tide washed in....This was taken down by a huge rock at the side of the cove(below on the right) Notice here how much sand there is, and then gray rocks closer towards the staircase.



At high tide....This was taken from the side of the staircase in the above picture, ...now look how little sand there is and how far the water has gone in(noting that at low tide, the sand extended past those rock clusters on the left and right.)



On the first day Rob and I just took a walk around the area. We started walking along the coast, stopped at a beachside café/restaurant for a drink, then continued walking around the coast towards town….only we had no idea how far it was and got caught in a massive rainstorm. Luckily, I brought my umbrella.

But unfortunately, on the way back to the B&B, it POURED down on us, and my umbrella broke in the wind, so we got absolutely soaked by the time we got back to the B&B.

After a quick shower and change of clothes, we DROVE to an Italian Restaurant called Castellammare. Lovely place, the food was great. I had an earthy-tasting Veg Medley pasta, and Rob has a real fishy seafood pasta—you could REALLY tell how fresh everything was in it.

Finger lickin' good. ALLLLLLL gone.

Besides being rainy, our first day in Mumbles was pretty good.

Saturday, the weather was more in our favor. The rain had stopped for most of the day(which sort of sucks, because I bought a new dome umbrella to replace my broken one and barely got to test it out), with a few showers throughout, but it was still overcast, with little peaks of sunshine later in the day. Perfect weather for meandering about town.

First stop on our journey around town was the shops. We went through a lot of the town center shops and managed to find a few things for my cupcake business, to decorate a market stall (including a mug that says “keep calm and eat cupcakes”. Perfect J )

Next was a local Arcade, where we played a game called “Stack ‘em” and won a few consolation prizes, played a few rounds of air hockey, and ran around like little children with coins in our hands, waiting for the next game we could play.

We went to a local ice cream shop across the way which I think is 2^nd on my list of top ice creams (1^st  would by Cold Stones). …we ended up having “Joe’s Ice Cream” 4 times throughout the weekend. It was goooooood.

We wandered along the pier and saw boats,

.......ate at another Italian place for lunch(this time is was food court sort of style)...

Pizza, with 4 different toppings, but instead of mixed in each of the 4 slices had a different topping on that quarter of the pizza.

 Pasta with cockles(like mussles)...Yum yum!

...played mini golf at a local park—a fiver for both of us (Rob won)...

 ....visited the local Oystermouth Castle(for only a fiver as well)...

Through the grand window pane of where the church in the castle used to be, you can see the ocean.

ON the second floor of the castle, instead of rebuilding the flooring so tourists can walk around, or leaving it completely bare and missing all the detail in this room(the parish) the national trust put in these glass walkways so you can see all the left over artwork on the walls.

They had re-enactments the day we went to the Castle.

Archery! My favorite!



Crawling through secret passage ways underneath the castle.



....we went to the Mumbles Pier, won tickets/prizes at the mumbles pier arcade(we got a fridge magnet and it only cost us about 7 pounds worth in ticketed games), and walked along the beach before the tide came in.



View of the beach/pier from the castle. Mumbles peir is all the way at the top to the left.



Shells on the rocks on the beach.



Rob: "I feel like I'm on Lost!" Me: "You could be charlie, with your hoodie"
Hence....Charlie on the beach picture was born.
Me: "All we need now is a permenant market to write Love/Hate on your knuckles".
LOLZ

Climbing over the rocks on the beach causeway.

Hubby spreading out on the beach, on our new Store 21 Beach Towels! Mine has Ice Cream on it! :)



It was such a nice day, I got to wear my new sundress!



.......So much and all of this we did in ONE DAY! It was quite enjoyable to walk around town with no plan and just see something and say to each other ‘let’s go do that!’ like little kids at an amusement park.

After all the fun we had in the day, we had a late dinner at a bistro called CJ’s Grill….not the best food or service, but it was somewhere and it was cheap.

Sunday, our actual anniversary we took things a little easier and chilled out for half of the day, on the beach…I climbed rocks, Rob sat on them and watched puppies playing in the water. And I had my first Sunday Roast at The Oxwich Bay Hotel, where we were (although according to Rob, I still haven’t done a Sunday roast because theirs wasn’t good enough to be called traditional).

My first Sunday Roast.



Rob sitting on the rocks.



Me at the top of climbing on the rocks.

But the main event of our anniversary was a place called Worms Head. Essentially it is a 2 mile walk out to the ocean and back to the mainland, but it’s a very HARD trek. You have to pass 2 rocky causeways, which can only be crossed at ‘low tide’ which is about a 4 hour gap in the middle of the day). 

The start of Worms Head. Rocky Causeway(UpperLeft) moving toward an island(upper right).



...Then from the island, another rocky causeway(this one with death defying drops on some points), to the second and third connected island.



Causeway #1 in detail....Rockys, uneven footing and pits of seawater trapped even during low tide.



Most of the rocks in the causeway were covered in mussels.

Then part of the trek was just following a trail around a grassy mountain top on the two connected island.



Causeway #1 leading up to the first bit of island.



On approaching the island there was this sign that basically said, if the tide comes in and you get trapped here, ring the bell so the coastguard can come rescue you.



A closer view of the worm's Head and the second bit of island.



The hardest, but most enjoyable part was the death defying moments. At one point we had to cross a causeway of jagged, cliffy, volcanic like rocks, which if you missed a step could send you plummeting down between rocks or straight down into the ocean(127hours style).



Me sitting on a giant wish-bone-shaped Tree that stretched a little ways over the jagged death-trap rocks.



Towards the end of the trek, there was a lean (a slanted area of land/rock that was steep to climb up), and then about  15-20feet straight climb up to the top(which forced us to do a little rockwall-style free-climbing....really fun for me, scary for the hubby who's afraid of heights), which was a grassy open area on the very top of the ‘Worm’s Head’. Below us would have been a 200ft drop from the top of worms Head into the water. It was marvelous! Spectacular views, and I just about had time to snap a few shots before my camera died.




Panoramic view of the ocean and the way back to the mainland(aka, everything we had walked/climed/trekked across). If you can see the edge of the beach--the light brown in the mid-right of the picture. Right above there is where we started walking.

 



A closer glance at the trek....(from Top to bottom), Mainland....to a rocky causeway(hidden by mountain), onto the main island, crossing another rocky causeway, onto another island, and a climb up to the very top where this picture is taken from.



The Vidlers, 1 year together today.



At the very edge of the Worm's Head, Ocean in the background.

Dinner that night was at a seaside brassiere. Good food, and we walked from our B&B into town  and back with no problem and some scenic views.

Something funny that night was that we kept seeing cats on our walk home. Normally, that wouldn’t be that funny(interesting, not funny ha ha), but the days we had been there  we had seen LOADS of dogs….at the beach, in the coves, in town, on walks, EVERYWHERE! And Saturday I was complaining that I wanted to see more ‘Gower’ Seaside kitties and I hadn’t seen any. With the span of a 30min walk, we saw 6 cats…..4 of which were friendly enough for me to pet…the other 2 were too scared to pet. Here’s one of the cats that appeared out of some apartment complex on the walk around the bays.

All in All a great weekend getaway, full of childhood wonder(because we ARE the “Young at Heart” couple), and lots of love….and I even got to see some kitties.

 

Weight and Cakes Update

 The first thing, is that for the past few months my weight has been gained back on, lost again, gained again, lost again, food patterns changing, lack of going to the gym the past month, etc etc.

As of right now I've maintained my weight at 140.4 lbs. I still want to lose another 10 lbs in the long run, but for right now....I'm happy with MAINTAINING the weight. It made me so sad to be 150 lbs through last winter...so much that I had had enough of my free-willed food cravings and decided to kick my butt into shape.

Even though I haven't been losing any more weight, I still keep an eye on my food (I let myself indulge every once and a while when I crave 'real food'), go to the gym when I can (which at this rate is once every 2 weeks :( ) and I'm maintained my weight, which makes me feel alot better than I did in the winter. And I think I'm starting to look 'good' again to my standards.

A Picture of me I took in a mirror at the Charity Auction.



Same night--at the charity auction, but a close up on my face to comepare to how I was in the Winter.



New Years, a little chubbier in the face and arms than I am now.



 Now on to the last few days. The Herefordshire Council started this inititive to help lanch new businesses on the local market scene. There are markets every thursday and Saturday in Ross, where eople hold little market stalls and sell everything from local produce, carpets/rugs, knick-knacks, books, etc.

They want to make market days bigger and busier so for one day (which was Saturday) the Council was offering a free market stall for new enterprises who might be interested in holding a weekly market stall in the future.

Normally in order to be part of the market scene you would have to have 3 things(besides what you were actually selling):

-Personal Liability Insurance(which the cheapest would be about 40 pounds a year)

-15 pounds per day, paid to the council, for a 'spot/pitch' on the market

AND

-Either provide your own table, or rent one from the council

So, for this one day....the council gave the pitch and the table to new business for free to 'test the waters' on the market scene. And that's what I did!



Me with a sheet of Peanut Butter Drops, ready to chill in the fridge, before dipping them in chocolate. Yum yum!



The 'back' side of my table....with shortbread cookies, cake photo on display, and a sample plate.





The 'front' side of my stall. With Cakes and Peanut butter Drops on display.



Fresh with tea in hand at 7:30 in the morning.

I preped and baked everything the 3 days before Saturday after I came home from work.

Wednesday--went to work. Came home. Made peanut butter balls and mixed up the dough for sugar cookies.

Thursday--went to chambermaid at the hotel. Came home. Rolled, cut and baked sugar cookies and mixed up and made 2 dozen cupcakes.

Friday--work again. came home. Frosted Cupcakes and cookies, and packed everything up for saturday.

Finished Peanut Butter Drops

Teapot Shortbread Cookies, with pink frosting.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes on display

 I didn't get to sleep friday night until about 2am(just from tossing and turning of sheer nervousness) and work up at 6am, Got ready and was at the market by 7:30 so I could get a good pitch...and this time i did. I was in the middle of the market, in the shade so my cakes wouldn't be in the elements, and the first stall people saw when they came up the stairs in the market square.


Some of the good points of this market(compared to the last market i did, the May Fayre) is that:
-I was in a good location
-The market was busy because the french market was in town as well
-I had pictures on diplay to show people I can do personalized cakes as well (for functions and business parties) instead of JUST telling them and having them not see anything I've done.

(Left)Patrick Star cake I made in March. (right) 'Cake Shots' I recently made....a layer of vanilla cake, then a layer of bailey's frosting filling up a shot glass.

-I didn't make as much as I did at the May Fayre, so I came home with less left overs.
-I had a great experience, talking with other stall keepers, getting the exposure to hand out more business cards and get my name out there, etc.
-Alot of people praised my cakes, which made me feel better that people actually enjoy them as much as I do. One lady said my cakes were 'moorish'(which confused me at first, so I had to search it on my phone....appartently is means it's so good that you want to keep eating it, that you want some MORE of it. Also, these two teenage boys bought 3 cakes (because I offered them to them 3 for 1 pound, which is too good to resist) and when they bit into them, they almost died---eyes rolled back into their heads and they said my cakes were 'LUUUUUUUSH' (Lush over hear means really really wonderful).
 
 
 
Some not so good things that happen:
-Didn't sell out of everything.
-I have alot to improve on if I intend to start up my own market stall.
 
There was a nice lady who has been on the market regularly for 6 months who was giving me advice about how to boost my business.
1. I need CLEAR domes to cover my cakes. I had these cheap netted ones. They kept things off my cakes, but it wasn't clear enough so that people could see my cakes.
 

2. My table was too white, so I need to get colourful squares to decorate my table with to livin it up a bit.

3. Also, my father in law(who passed by my stall on his way through town) advised me to have more cakes on the table because people don't want to buy things if they see there's not many 'left'. He used the motto, "stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap".

All things to consider. I'm thinking of doing the market full time...so these are all things I'll look into but it was a great experience and I made about 33.50 pounds on the day (but after supplies, that means I only made about 6pounds....but the most important thing is that I'm getting my name out there and building the business slowly but surely).

Josh's Wish to Walk

Last night the hubby and I attended a charity auction at Bishopswood House (a stately home and garden used for weddings and other big functions, up near mum's house at the Dam Barn).

The event was held in honour of Joshua Freeman, a little boy who is friends with Tony (my 8 year old brother in law). Josh has been in a wheelchair all his life, and until now had no chance of being able to walk again.

Whenever Josh and his brother Johnny(who has no physical impairments and for all intents and purposes is a very healthy active 7 year old boy) come over to play with Tony it's always the same old story.....The boys start off in the livingroom, Josh's mother Luda sits Josh on the couch to play with the other boys, playing on video games or watching TV. But then Tony and Johnny soon get bored ad decide to go run off and play outside, leaving Johnny to play or watch Tv by himself.

But now an opportunity arose for Josh. There is an operation he can get in America which will enable him to walk. Albiet, he'll start on crutches after the operation(after not walking for 8 year of his life, walking will obviously not come natural after regaining feeling in his legs...he'll have to learn how to walk, and build up strength in his legs), but eventually he will be able to walk.

The only thing is that he has to raise upwards of 40,000 pounds to get it. So, his family and friends have been putting out charity boxes at local establishments, and last night they held an auction. There was about 70-80 items donated to be auctioned off(everything from a service--ironing, to handmade wooden candlesticks, to signed shirts and photos of famous people, to meals out at local pubs and restaraunts, to hired rental car for a weekend, to tickets to see shows in London.....lots of things were donated, and a few more (20 odd) were donated to be raffled off as well.

The auction was not done very well, but Rob and I bid(with our friends Lyndsy and Greg) and managed to get 4 tickets to this Ice Age LIVE show in Cardiff. We(just Rob and I) won in the raffle a meal for two at The Mill Race(where we took my mum and dad, and alice for dinner one night while mum and dad were visiting).

There was also food, champagne, a lot of chit chat, a disco(dance party) at the end (of which only the children ages 12 and under atteded.....seriously, even the DJ was 12). The best part of the whole evening though, was Josh's Dad standing up and saying a few words about how much this means to them and thanks for all the time and effort people give just to help out Josh....and then Josh wanted to say something...and all he said was a simple "thank you for coming".

I don't think I've ever seen that little boy smile so much in one day....and when his dad said in his speech "this will change Josh's life forever", it was the biggest smile I have ever seen on Josh's face.

Pictures, as Promised

As promised, some pictures and video of Robert and my walks around Herefordshire.

Most of the time we've been walking around the feilds up by the dam barn and there are ALOT of sheep and baby lambs up there, so we often go for walks just so I can have an excuse to see the lambies. :)

Little lambies jumping around. They're so cute when they jump!

One of the lambs in the feild decided it liked to be around people more than it's fellow lambies. It was so sad, after we left and carried on our walk it was bleeting for us...it was cute but oh so sad. Poor little Ramy-Lamby was lonely!

 One walk we went on was over an old railway bridge that you could look down through the cracks. The pictures above and below is of Rob, on the railway bridge, and me down below on the ground. But this bridge goes across a pretty wide part of the Wye River

 On one of the walks near the Dam Barn, one of the sheep in the feild kind of looked like a cow.

 Near the Dam Barn, our neighbor, the horse.

Another walk that we went on was to this old pub in Wales. To get to it you have to park your car on the otherside of the river and walk across a bridge to get to it. The pub was recommended to us by James(dad) and so we decided to walk around there since it was on the River Wye. The pub was a quite local one, but the area it was in was so cool.
Nevermind the fact that the pub is RIGHT on the river bank, but it's up against a cliff face, so there were waterfalls coming down the side of the cliff, running under bridges in the beer garden out back, and then traveling into the river Wye. Pretty freakin cool.

 At that pub, we met a cat. Me, obsessed with cats, was thrilled that I had another kitty to adopt. So far I think I've adopted 6 cats in and around Ross and we've nicknamed them all(if we didn't know their real names).
1. Misty: neighbor cat who just had kittens.
2. Pumpkin: lives across the way, never leaves the roof that edges up against our garden wall

3. "Mysterious Black Cat": only comes out in the dead of night, has been seen in our flat complex, but lives up the road in the old jail house(which is now just a house).
4. "Sebastian": a kitty that frequents the carpark up the road from our house.

5. "Robert Kitty": a recent kitty I met when walking down to the river in Ross. It's a ginger kitty, so I named him after my hubby.
6. "Rivendell Kitty": aka, this cat, because the pub we found it at and surrounding area with all the waterfalls reminded us of Rivendell from Lord of the Rings.

The view of the bridge and a very muddy(from the rain) River Wye, from the beer garden of the pub.

Another walk around the Dam Barn.....

The fields are getting alot brighter and more colourful.

 Me, feeding Ramy Lamby from the 2nd video(above).

 More sheep.

 More Lambies!

and of course our friendly neighborhood peacock. Yep. There's a peacock up near the Damn Barn too. We just have ALL sorts of animals in the countryside.

 After the May Fayre we went to the pub with Mum and tony to "celebrate", but afterwards we walked from the pub up to Symonds Yat Rock. It's quite steep, but the view from the top was amazing.

Here we took a two hour walk along the River Wye. All the way from Goodrich Castle, down along the river almost into the Forest of Dean District. There was a little lollygaging with me taking pictures and ROb trying to find the old train line, but it was a great walk and awesome to take advantage of the bright sunny day.

 Rob, posing in the sunlight. "HERCULES!"(apparently).

This is what a 2 hour walk does to you! Happy Happy Happy!

We've been taking alot of walks lately...mostly because we don't have enough time or effort to make it to the gym...or we've taken advantage of the rain stopping and there being sunshine for a while. (I'd post you guys some pictures and videos....but this new Blogspot layout is a loser and is making it way too complicated and it's late....so....next blog...all pictures of lambies and countryside and such. )


Other than walking our feet off we've still been working and living life normal. Life is back to normal with me after the May fayre. Since I'm not planing for the May Fayre, I have nothing to do when I don't have work. Store 21 has been cutting hours, so I'm back to 4 hours a week. So I've been applying for other part time jobs, but in the meantime my father in law has been paying me to do jobs around the hotel.

James got a new carpet cleaner for the hotel and he's asked me to test it out and clean all the rooms and other places around the hotel. This past week I cleaned the carpet in the hallways(on all three stories), the dining room, and 8 of the rooms that were unoccupied. This next work I'm supposed to come in when the other 8-9 ish rooms are free to do them, as well as a few other odd jobs(like cleaning the curtains in the restaraunt, and cleaning the windows in the rooms of the hotel) and one of the chambermaids wanted a day off so they asked me if I could fill in for her with housekeeping for a day. So....for now, even though my hours have been cut...I am still working about 15-20 hours a week.

What else.....yesterday was my manager's last day at Store Twenty One. Alice is leaving to basically open up her own retail shop, so all the girls got together last night at the pub had a meal and a few drinks to say goodbye to her. She was a really great manager, at least I thought so, she hired me after all, so it'll be weird without her.


That's about all the news for now concerning The Vidlers. The only other exciting things are:

1) Chelsea, the football team Robert supports has now snagged 2 League Cups. They won the FA cup(which is one of the football leagues in England). And they won the Champion's League(a european football league, which basically means their the best international team in Europe). So, my hubby is VERY pleased.

2) The Olympic Torch has offically landed in England and is making it's tour all over England. Next week, it stops in little old Ross on Wye, going right past the Kings Head Hotel. So that's exciting.

That's it for now. I promise pictures will come once I figure out this new layout and get it to work faster than it does now.