08 01 2010

A day for the trophy picture as you can see above Julie Lindsay has been in Cardiff this week for meetings and I managed to have a chat and a photo opportunity before Julie and Barbara Stefanics ( below with Julie) went back into their meetings after lunch.

Today's photoblog has given me a dilemma as this evening Debbie and I are due to join a group of work colleagues at the Millennium Centre to watch a performance of Les Miserables and I dearly wanted to make this the main blog entry however it is not every day that a web2.0 legend visits.

07 01 2010

Not my picture however I hope I will be forgiven for borrowing this one much in the news today- photograph courtesy of BBC Five Live Drive programme the NASA image below shows the UK from satellite - we appear to have become Narnia!

Snow across UK 01/07 at 11 :50 UTC

Below is my image of the day taken in the excellent cafe at Cardiff Audi which is just down the road from IB Peterson House on the Cardiff Gate Estate. The stylish coronation chicken wrap and latte that you see below served with a great small salad all for £4.50. If you find yourself heading along the M4 toward Junction 30 please avoid the Motorway Services and head straight on and take the second exit off the second roundabout.... mmmmm every bit as good as it looks and of course freshly made before your very eyes.

Cardiff Audi 01/07 at 12.25 UTC

06 01 2010

Wednesday 6th January and the snow finally hits - 12-13cm fell overnight making roads impassable first thing today. All that was left to do was to go out and enjoy the snow - above is Laura and our dainty (#snowman) built on the parapet of our local bridge. Below are some additional shots and a video from our brief walk. The walk was mainly to see the condition of our local trunk roads to gauge whether Laura should try to drive into Abergavenny to work today ( Sian and Paddy had already walked the 5 miles into town to work earlier).

It is very much a work from home day today for myself and Debbie with Laura having decided following our walk that driving would be difficult later this evening as we are due to have temperatures of -7C again tonight!

At around 1pm Laura and Debbie created this fabulous Snow-Woman in the back garden - she is around 6 feet tall - well done to the Gilwern Gang!!!

We hope that the weather abates by Friday as we have tickets for Les Miserables at the Cardiff Millennium Centre.

05 01 2010

Today's picture rather tongue in cheek is titled '6 feet of snow!'

The temperature was somewhat higher today - nearly above 0C - positively tropical following yesterday, however this allowed it to snow at lunchtime in Cardiff

However as yet only a sprinkling remains, we have been very lucky so far, as in the current cold snap SE Wales has been relatively lucky....... so far ( we are due a 'weather event' this evening)

In the office the hangover from Christmas is everywhere ahead of twelfth night ( tomorrow 6 January) when the decorations are due to come down, as our sad collection of decorations are still found scattered around.

I hope that the blog isn't proving too soporific????

04 01 2010

Brrrr.... it was cold today for the mass return to work following the Christmas break. When I left home at 7.15am the temperature displayed in the car was *-7.5 C above is the temperature when I got home at 4.54pm *-2.5C. I believe that the temperature only just made it up to *-1.0C all day. The lowest temperature in Wales last night was -12.5C at Sennybridge which is about 40 miles north of us. Below proof that along with many others I made it into work today, the feint signs of Christmas still remain.

Speaking to my boss currently at her house in Southern Mississippi this afternoon, they are having a cold snap with temperatures stubbornly refusing to rise above 70C....... I believe that Cardiff will come as a bit of a shock when she arrives on Sunday.Snow due overnight tonight look out for snow pictures tomorrow.

03 01 2010

Here we are three days into the 365 challenge and apparently I am still in the game!!! Today's flickr 365 shot is proof if any were needed that we have an Australian in the house, I am assured that both are pretty standard fare in the antipodes?

As I posted yesterday we had no room left at the 'inn' last night with the grandchildren et al. We had a fairly uneventful night and were awakened by the familiar patter of two pairs of feet and two additional bodies nudging their way into the bed at 7am ( on a Sunday morning!). We managed to hold out for very nearly an hour before breakfast and 'what to do?' had to be dealt with.

Breakfast over it became a painting/play morning -(apologies for the picture quality)

This was of course followed by the necessary nap at midday ( sadly not for granddad!!!)

The one thing about grandchildren is that they eventually get taken back - this done a 3pm time was then left to prepare for the arrival of two adults 'booked in' for tonight. Friends of Sian and Paddy down from London for a few days in Wales.

Closer to hand now with day four of the challenge tomorrow is the great return to work and the monitoring and preparing for our 2010 online PD programme again following almost two weeks away plus a plethora of 3 day weeks in order to avoid the loss of annual leave prior to the end of the year ( note to self must plan vacations better in 2010!)

02 01 2010

The dawn of another bright sunny and below freezing day in South Wales to my amazement and surprise I have managed to take a photograph for today...... before I get around to scrapping the ice from my car. As our central heating has now shut-down until this evening and as I type my fingers are getting colder!!!!!

Follow up news from yesterday, the washing machine requiring repair ( see above apologies for the washing up - it's not my house!), following much dismantling (some soap!) and some mild bad language it managed to spit out 2 10pence pieces and a 1pence piece. It hopefully will now work for a while before yet another sock or more small change bring on another visit from 'Washing Machine Repair Man'

Further thoughts on the year ahead as we enter a new phase her at the Harrington Hotel here in Gilwern - Sian and boyfriend have moved back in following both handing in their notice at their respective workplaces ahead of their move up to London at the end of January - as yet with no jobs lined up and as yet no postgraduate course on the horizon..... young people! A census taken tonight would reveal a household with 7 inhabitants- Mum, Dad, 2 daughters, 1 boyfriend and 2 grandchildren ( while there mum has a much needed night out with her friends- the first for some 4 weeks!) whereas 2 days ago there were only 3 permanent residents. It is a good job that we haven't downsized quite yet.... and there would be 'no rooms' vacant for any passing deities this evening, we do however have a shed at the bottom of the garden!

Enough already it's only 11.22 and time to go and get my spectacles repaired.... while humming 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone!!!!'.

Update from p.m. 02 01 2010 we took Paddy and Sian up to the Brecon Beacons Mountain Centre at Libanus in the snow.
There are now officially no vacancies as all rooms are full and at 8.30pm the grandchildren drifted off to sleep.