Fundraiser reminder

Just a friendly reminder that all profits from sales of my prints this month will go to the HAFS charity. You can find more information by clicking on the "Charities" tab.

Prestatyn Day 1

Greetings from Prestatyn, Wales!

Today started out like any other Saturday. Paul woke me up at 5am and we got up, got dressed, and had breakfast. Then he went off with Moira from Barnardo's for a few hours. Barnardo's is a great charity. They take Paul out every fortnight on a Saturday for 3 hours so that I can get some house work done, take a shower, do a quick food shop, and such.

While Paul was off having fun with Moira, I started packing for our week-long holiday. We ended up bringing two overnight bags with enough clothes to last us both the week, my rucksack with my laptop, tablet, and DS (and assorted chargers), and two carrier bags of food. Paul got back home at 12:30pm and our ride to the caravan arrived at 2:30pm.

After returning to the house once to pick up the caravan keys that I had forgotten, we were on our way! We arrived at the caravan park at about 4pm. This is where the day got stressful. The caravan park has installed key card operated barriers at the entrance and exits. I needed the card in order to get in and the woman in reception was hesitant about letting me sign for it. After about five minutes, I finally talked her into giving me the card and we were able to drive into the caravan park and up to the HAFS caravan.

We got out of the car and I went to unlock the door. The keys wouldn't work. Turns out that they were new copies and were not made very well. Allen, the guy who gave us a ride here, went back up to reception to get their spare key. By this time Paul was totally inconsolable and it was nearly 5pm. Too late to go out shopping for food, even if Paul would have been in a good mood.  Luckily, I had the presence of mind to pack enough food to get us through tomorrow morning as a just-in-case thing. So we have plenty of fresh fruit, cereal, uht milk and tea to last us until we can go shopping in town tomorrow.

Here are a few photos of the inside of our caravan. The kitchen and living room/dining room areas are pretty much open plan. There are one and half bathrooms (one with a shower and the other just a sink and toilet) and two bedrooms. Also, one of the sofas unfolds into a double bed. The final photo is of Paul in his room, playing with his special "holiday books." It's a Vtech Bugsby Reading System and Paul loves it!

Tomorrow we go shopping. There is an outdoor market near the train station on Sundays, so we'll probably start there.

A Week Away

Sorry about my week long absence. My illness got worse before it got better and a friend came over on Sunday to help me out. I'm better now and he left this morning and arrived back at his home safe and sound this afternoon.

Paul (my son) went on his respite care Wednesday and is due back home today. Since my friend was here, we decided to go on a nice leisurely day trip yesterday to Nantwich, Cheshire.  Nantwich is a very historic town near Crewe and contains several very old and rustic buildings. I've included a few photos here that I took while we were out. It was a nice day. We looked through several nice little shops and bought a few keepsakes each. I bought a travel notebook, some essential oils, and a humanist "bible." My friend chose a worry friend book, some oils, and an autographed copy of "Wonders of the Universe," a companion book to the BBC series of the same name. Naturally we stopped off at a café for tea and cake and on our way to the train station at the end of the day, we went into a pub and shared a very large pot of tea between the two of us. After 4 cups of tea each, we finally gave up and left another 2 or 3 cups worth in the pot! 

Tomorrow Paul and I are off to Prestatyn, Wales for a week. It is my hope that I will be able to make at least one or two entries here, detailing what we've seen and the fun we've had.

Until next time!