Carving out a life

So now the thesis is finished I've been able to actually start living properly again. I'm not saying I worked solidly for the last 9 months and had no fun at all (because, lets face it, if that was the case it wouldn't have taken me 9 months!) but whenever I have been enjoying myself I've always felt that guilt in the back of my mind - 'you should be working!'. Now that's gone I'm starting to carve a proper life for myself here. I've started playing badminton with Ben and some friends one evening a week and I've also started taking Welsh lessons. I'm hoping that it'll be useful for work, interesting and also a way to make some new friends as well. I've only had 3 lessons so far but its going quite well I think and I'm enjoying it. I'm also planning to get a knitting group started soon as well (if anyone from the area reads this and would be interested then get in touch). I'm really starting to enjoy life again and loving being here in Wales with my man :)

Man make fire, fire good

Here's a selection of photos from the first barbecue of the year round at Sian's house. Despite the fact that all the meat had already been cooked, Ben and Hank decided that they needed to show off their manliness and make fire:



I'm loving Ben's pose on this one!

Another successful day of being a man:

Sian's garden remained more or less in tact after this display of 'machoness'. Sarah's garden at a barbecue later in the year was not so lucky after an episode involving her chimnea, a bottle of citronella oil and very nearly the loss of my eyebrows ;)

Summer highlights

To mark the end of summer I've dug out my camera and found a few choice shots from this summer. Here's next door's cat having a sleep on the manhole cover in our back garden:

Here's a great view of Menai Bridge:

This is a gorgeous one of the Snowdon mountain range. I think it was sometime in April and there was snow on the mountains but lovely sunny days and it just looked perfect.

This one is from somewhere within the mountains when we went for a drive one day.