My 60th Year 😃

Connecting with friends, spending time together, and sharing experiences is all part of my focus for celebrating my 60th year ❤️ So in November Dave, Ruby and I headed up to the Lakes to spend a few wonderful days with our good friends JJ, Judy and Jessica. - and the new addition of Benji the dog - staying at our trusted favourite, Old Thrang at Chapel Stile. Arriving mid afternoon there was just enough daylight left for a lovely local walk, watching the sun setting on the hills beyond. Very cold, but beautiful 🤩  Beautiful Langdale Pikes in the distance  Sun setting over the fells Which way? Rubes wanting to head up the valley 😃 The following day we were super excited as Marie and Declan were joining us, driving down from their lovely house in Skinburness 😃 Once organised we all headed out on one of a favourite walks, up through the Chapel Stile quarry, over to Little Langdale, crossing Slater’s Bridge, a quick drop into Cathedral Quarry, and back across the fields to Elte...

Dave and I were delighted to accept a wonderful birthday invitation from Fiona and Andy to join them as guests at The Great Street Feast Manchester in November. TGSFT was a fund raising event from Freedom From Torture (FFT), of which Fiona is a trustee. We’d heard about this scheduled event when we attended the FFT Manchester launch event earlier this year, and were  keen to attend. This event is vital in raising funds to continue the amazing therapeutic work that FFT do with torture survivors across the north west. The theme of food was carefully chosen too, as is extremely emotive to survivors who have been forced to flee their homelands.  A Manchester icon, John Thompson was the welcoming host for the evening, who gave an introduction to the event and some of the important contextual information. Various street food stalls were dotted around the space, from which we were free to sample their wares 😃 Tastings included Lancashire hotpot, potted shrimps, Sri Lankan rolls and ...

Sitting around a table eating pizza and drinking beer at Latitude last summer, a birthday celebratory weekend was planned, with Sarah, Max, Jacqui and Paul 🥳 🥂 So in November we headed off to Bledington in the Cotswolds for a couple of days, staying at a luxuriously beautiful Airbnb house facing the church in the beautiful village - Five Bells. The Five Bells Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great, but that didn’t stop Dave and Max heading out on their bikes for a blast through the woods and surrounding countryside. The rest of us headed off for a potter around Chipping Norton, exploring all the lovely shops. Paul soon decided that his time would be best spent in the “Man Crèche “ aka the pub 🤣 That left me, Sarah and Jacqui free to shop! After at least an hour of trying on in a shop, Jacqui eventually bought a lovely jumper 🤣 Not that our time was wasted though, as the lovely shop owner had the same wrist injury as Sarah, so time was spent comparing notes and recovery times 👍 I ...