NickP’s World

We went down to Portsmouth today and went to See Kim, Julian, Megan and Molly. We arrived around 2pm and stayed for dinner. We could not believe our Molly, she has really shot up since we last saw her just after Christmas. She is well on the way to catching up with Megan.

Unfortunately we had to leave early (around 5pm) as we had others to visit and did not want to get back too late as Daisy was “home alone”.

Next on the Agenda was a quick surprise visit to see Mary and Alan. We parked up and Ann phoned to ask if “Mary could come out to play :)” … but unfortunately Alan saw me passing the window which ruined the surprise a little. We stayed for a little over an hour before having to leave to drop some keys in to Rachael H… we said a quick hello to her mum and dad whilst there.

Then finally we stopped off to collect our friend “Bingo” Julie, who has come to stay for the week.

We have just gotten back from a trip up to see Gemma, Ian and Ryan (and Wendy & Jim too). We went up on Friday evening leaving here at 7pm. We took Daisy with us - which was a first for both us and her!. She was very good and not a pain at all. We stopped twice on the way up - each time taing her out for a walk about and getting her a drink.

We arrived at Gemma’s place just before midnight. The next mornign I went to get something out of the car and as I opened the car door just a cloud of dog hair drifted out of the car … it’s going to take several hooverings to clean it up, and in the mean time I’ve got to drive the car each day going to work

We, went over to Wendy’s on both Saturday and Sunday (for dinner). Mmmmmm, a Sunday roast followed by trifle

We left to come home about 5pm and arrived back at 10pm so once again the trip was 5 hours, and again we stopped twice on the way for Daisy and Ann

Well, we are now grandparents for the second time :)  Here are just a few photos of Violet Penney on her 1st morning for those of us that are eager to see the little lass:

Violet was born at 22:14 on June 18th, in the USA, weighing in at 8lb and 2oz.  Congratulations to you both, Ashley and Lila.

I am not sure how long they’ll be here but Violet’s last scans are available here.

I went to see this last night at the Theatre Royal with Rachael H.  This was the second tme that Rachael has seen LOTR, but she said it was just as enjoyable as the first time.  To me it was really very well done.  I could not imagine how they could cover the whole story from Bilbo’s birthday party through to the destruction of the ring in 2 1/2 hours … but they did the job excellently.

This is a show that I would thoroughly recommend to everyone.

It has been talked about on many occassions in the past but Gemma and Ian finally decided that they would like to try moving to Manchester (well Salford really) to be nearer to Kim and Corinne and the rest of the northern clan.  They actually moved up there at the end of May (so they have already been there for 3 weeks).

Needless to say this is a blow to both Ann and I as we now only get to talk to Ryan (and Gemma and Ian) on the phone and we really miss them all especially the little man.  We are aiming to go up to see them shortly but it is just not the same as seeing them all as we were used to doing - almost every day

Ashley and Lila have informed us that there is to be a very special delivery arriving around June/July 2008…!

So, after the surprise has sunk in we bwold like to send a very large CONGRATULATIONS to you both/all

Ashley has only gone and moved to the USA to live there permanently … and he’s gone and got married to Lila too! So a very large congratulations to you both and here’s a large WELCOME to the Penney family, Lila, Dominic and Vanessa.

I went and picked up the rest of the bookcases today, except for one that was damaged … so next weekend looks like it may be another busy weekend.

We all had a good laugh this morning … as Ashley informed us that he felt sure that he had made a mistake yesterday whilst sending a Postal Order payment along with an SAE to make a purchase and got it slightly wrong! He believed that he had stuck everything in to the SAE and mailed it off.

… and yes, strangely enough, Ashley received a letter this morning … back had came his postal order

Gemma’s comment? “So he really is a member of the Penney family then!”

We went for a tour around the place that Gemma is planning to get married in, Chilston Park, and very nice it is too. The place is a 17th Century country house set in two hundred and fifty acres of pleasant countryside and dense woodlands … and we will have exclusive use for the day and night of the wedding.