....Oh oh oh Gardaaaaa Land! It was only one day of our two week holiday but the theme park’s (Gardaland) signature song is still stuck in my head some nine months later, what a day – what a holiday, a brilliant time was had by all, hot, exhausting, busy but extremely enjoyable was the verdict of our first time in Italy, and Ella’s first trip abroad. After an excellent week mostly spent in our Venetian Coast campsite we moved on to Lake Garda and a town called San Felice del Banaco for our second and final week. We drove via Verona and spent a day there sightseeing and eating in what was another incredible city to rival and perhaps surpass Venice for its stunning architecture. Gardaland was class, huge tree house, great rides for kids, some ... read more

Three blogs in 24 hours, what a treat for y’all, bearing in mind the last two were about our summer holiday last year the last real update was from Christmas and concerned Ella’s arrival so what’s happened in 2012? Let’s start off with the negatives and although past performance is not an indicator towards future returns you will not be surprised to hear that Fiona has been poorly again, 2012 has not been her friend. She was suffering from severe stomach pain in the early part of the year and had a sever bout of pain through the night in January, she was in agony with what we suspected was gall stones. She had an appointment on the 29th of February for a scan that confirmed this but the morning before the scan, the 28th of ... read more

After a wonderful first week of our holidays we moved on to our second base in Parentis en Born, which is on the West Coast of France not far from Bordeaux. It was a fair drive to get from our first base to here, in fact I drove over 2400 KM’s on this holiday and loved every minute of it, I’ve driven all over Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain and France and always enjoy it. I very rarely drive at home, we have one car that I pay for, put petrol in, clean and maintain but Fiona drives it… to be fair she needs it for the kids and other than a wee drive at the weekends sometimes I’m very rarely behind the wheel so look forward to getting out and about on our holidays, it ... read more

Bonjour! – And here we are again, 9th of July was our last blog so 9 months later, what has been happening to all you lovely people?? Okay, I’ll start with an update from us… It’s the 12th of April 2011 and I’m sitting in my work recovering from the weekend, I was at the Grand National down in Aintree for the second year running and am still feeling slightly worse for wear, it was a great weekend with the same eight chaps as last year and we’re already looking forward to next year. I think it’s like the pain of childbirth, kind of, by the time next year comes around you forget how sore it was and that you said you would never do this again, but ultimately you do as it’s worth it. Yes ... read more

Well, that’s us up to date, Lois is doing great and now weighs just shy of 11lbs, she’s awake and alert most of the day now and is mesmerised by light and shade. She changes every day and seems well settled into her routine, which quire frankly is eating, sleeping and playing whenever she wants…. She is now sleeping through the night which is the best gift any man can get for Fathers Day... Fiona is four months into her year of maternity leave and loves being a full time mum; I’m already concerned about getting her back to work in February. That’s one good thing about Lois being early, Fiona didn’t start her maternity leave until a few days before she was born and is now due back to work the day before Lois’ first ... read more