'Two' go on an adventure

So we took the 'Two' down to the field for a campfire lunch yesterday..

Colin had it all planned out, so much so it looked like it was spontaneous (an hour welding the grill and prepping the cart to carry the wood and stones!

So you arrange the wood like a wigwam..

.. and cook the food! (No pictures of my favourite.. banana and melted chocolate (we used Munchies.. so fab!)

Yes, he even brought carpet for us to sit on!

Later on Col's Dad (Little Pops) joined us and found the 'dead frog', which after being scared of the smallest ant, Lyla found fascinating.. maybe because it was dead!

Pops thought maybe it had not been able to find water, but we admitted that it may have been a victim of the 'flattening-the-tall-grass-with-an-old-car' behaviour that Colin had employed to get us a nice flat picnic space!

Perfect image for my TWO prompt over at Lucky 7s
Lucky 7s

(PS the photo opportunity and the tale made the whole event look much more idyllic than it really was.. one 3 year old frantic that an ant was a BEE! so requiring to 'sit on you nannie' and a competitive older sister who also thought we should go fetch a box and give the frog a proper burial made for a frantic hour or was that 90 minutes.. but we had fun and I have the photos to prove it!!)

December Daily : Day 17

Well our Zac is in dry dock in Vancouver with his cruise ship the Grand Princess this week. He has managed to call and we got a decent connection using his mobile..usually we settle for the cheaper Satellite connection but a good long technical chat is a bit overdue.

I love to hear Col on the phone to Zac..He loved working on big boats and now loves to share stories and hear tales from Zac's trips. Me, well I like to check he is well and having a healthy safe time ...oh and all about the dancing girls. .

Col used to work away himself and once got a radio guy out of his bunk to make the ship to shore connection on Christmas Day.  His parents and brother were surprised to hear from him and all passed the phone around wishing him Happy Christmas but not getting deep into conversation.  They said goodbye, wished him all the best and the call was over .

The radio guy, still weary from broken sleep, disconnected the call, turned to Colin and told him the length of the call.. 1 minute 25 seconds ...
'Worth it was it ?' he asked...
...'Not really'..said Col and went back to his single bunk in the North Sea to enjoy the rest of his Christmas Day...;-(

Funny stories..experiences..offshore life is all about them..

..We have sent two packages out to Zac for him to collect after Dry Dock when he goes down to San Francisco to get the Christmas contingent of cruise guests. I hope they all get through.. Some of the customs side of trying to get things to the USA is quite difficult. .so Jordan and I have taken pictures of the gifts to send him on 25th just in case they never turn up..It is the thought which counts ..isn't it?

Never the Novotel. .

Just had to share this with everyone. I book Colin's hotels for when he is out on customer visits and I try to get somewhere nice but also close to his next call and with easy parking for a big van.

He has stayed in many Premier Inns and they are all just the same inside so lately I have found some alternatives.  For tonight I booked a Novotel very close to tomorrow morning's call. They had a Shopping Special with breakfast and a welcome pack ..plus .. a glass of bubbly on arrival. Well all he wanted was B&B so grabbed the extras for the same money.

Turns out he has to complete a form to get the bubbly .. and this is the contents of the Welcome Pack:
Plasters
Antiseptic hand gel
Bottle of water
Some jelly beans

Yup..just what you need if you stay in a 70s style hotel which lacks .. well just about everything you are used to ..

Needless to say I am not booking that again..X Sorry hun x

Birthday boy and views of June!

So, after a couple of weeks of celebrations here and there somewhat like an Indian Wedding my Col turned 50 on 5th June. We had a few days away on our own last weekend and spent the time in Torquay (again!)  

The weather was fab and we bought this lovely little guy to remember Col's birthday by... we both love this stainless type finish and I think he'll look brill in the new kitchen..the guys in our office bought him a huge hurricane lamp for the decking, but secretly I want it in the kitchen too!

We got the boat in the water finally and have grabbed some time out, though it is still always a little chilly if I'm honest. Last Tuesday Zac and Pops posed for this month's June Mount view, nice to have a variation on the theme..  

June Mount View..

 The good weather has had us eating outside and really trying to grab the week of summer whilst it is here. That's the only trouble in England, you just never know if or when the sun will be back!







I had the girls today while M&D did a car boot and we made mini gardens and had a picnic.  

Annabelle is growing away, she is the cutest thing and, well No 3 just gets carried along don't they!

Lilly is still my glue and glitter girl, she isn't five til next month but wrote this all by herself..

My favourite view of the month in June is definitely the view towards 'where my porch once was. Yes, the new room is all but finished and this is my offering from today... Yesterday Kate won a blow up paddling pool in the shape of a car.. Col and Zac were minding the girls a minute and this was what I found when I came back into the room; they'll do anything to stop the fight over 'who's driving' !!

I am sure there is a lot I should have told you, but hey, hope this catches us up.. I still owe some thought to Lynne's thought provoking quote last week, but I need a little time for that..xx

Parttttaaaaayyyy!

Well I couldn't begin to tell you all about the weekend, but this is the potted herb history..

Thursday... Zac's friends staying, curry night, 'getting to know you'

Friday ... fancy dress hunting for wig (and then the one I ordered (unwittingly from China) arrived in the post after I got home; Tesco 'big shop' arrived at teatime, men spent evening carpet laying and we ladies cleared 'stuff' for the space we would be using and prepped the bunting and photos for the slide show!

Saturday .... making food, food, more food.. fruit, sandwiches, soup to sustain us til the evening, boys on electrics and us girls titivating the place!  Loving it! The camaraderie and banter of getting ready for the party is almost as good as the do itself. Everyone was so good,so helpful and we are so grateful to all our family and especially their friends who came along but pitched in on the jobs as well.

Saturday night .. about ten days early, but Happy Birthday Col!  We all dressed in a theme of his life and loves, plenty of scope as he is a child of the 60's, loved Thunderbirds, Punk Rock and all things marine and technical.. 





I donned a blonde bob and a gooey pink blancmange of a dress and came as Lady Penelope goes to the Ball, while Pops came as a Thunderbird and Col came as a young Jacques Cousteau whose dive programmes inspired his whole way of living.  He made a fantastic aqualung for his outfit and even fake tanned up (wash off-able) and Kate was proud of him.. me too! 

The kids were great too... Kate as Baywatch / Bondi Rescue (well she had to have a girlie outfit) JB as Dad's Safety Girl (she is so inventive!), Ross & Zac as Saudi Arabians, paying tribute to Col's time in Saudi on dive jobs.. Lisa and Co came as Beatles and glam rock, they both looked great in blue satin and the babes as little policewomen..awhhh
April came as Cinderella and was in bed before the rest of us as she had work the next day, so she didn't end up doing her Cinders trick on the dishes for once!

Later on we sang Happy Birthday and (Zac) Mr Blobby made an entrance with the last of Jordan's huge array of cupcakes and buns.

A whole bunch of people came dressed as motorbikers, safety folk, divers, heroes of the 60's and of course the odd Scouser / Liverpool footie fan! It was lovely to see people we had been meaning to see for ages. 

Sunday we had lots of clearing up to do but the sun shone too and we sat in the garden (oh after doing breakfast for 15!) .. then a nice walk at Marazion with friends who came down from up north, the kids had gone out on the boat and it was great to know they are wise enough now to go it alone.. well four of them are training to be Officers of the Watch and the other a Paramedic, plus JB and there's not a daft head in that group  so we were very relaxed.    

More barbecue eats and chat last night before a lazy day back to rain today.. so glad it is a Bank Holiday though and only four days work ..

...and I have just worked out that we have good excuses for parties the next few years too.. Pops is 80 next year, then Kate 18 / JB 21 and then Ross 30 before we rock up in 2017 with our Silver Wedding!

Love Songs and latest!

Well I did get here again before February Week 3 was over..it's been a busy few days in trolley world and the Jones household! 

 The builders are coming! Currently next Wednesday is the most up-to-date arrival date, but my porch is empty and ready to be knocked down after 16 years, ready for our new space .. and hopefully before the year end, my new kitchen. It's not that it will take til December but we are thinking that maybe we will live with the space a little while til we decide how we want it.. lots of cupboards and storage but it is going to be our family space for the next 15 years so kind of a big deal.

Col has gone off today, he is seeing distributors in France and Belgium and I am going up to meet him and see Zac on Thursday, out to see Al Murray (the Pub landlord comedian) on Friday and then a lazy trip home by Sunday.  It always takes a bit of organising, in my head as much as logistically with the kids etc, but I am looking forward to it. As they say a change is almost as good  as a rest!

Ross, April, Pops and I were out in the garden a bit this weekend, it doesn't happen often but we were all pleased with what we did, we all like to see results, what with gardening not being 'our thing'.  Lots of weeding, removal of the detritus of many years and consequently some extreme barbering of the bushes! I am glad Ross isn't looking to have a career in hairdressing, everyone would be on a Number 1 short back & sides.

and this was just the start of it!



Clearing up.. for now!

The front garden has old walls and pathways hidden under many years of overgrown woody bushes, brambles and ivy so we have decided to tackle it, so a tidy up job turns out much larger, just hope we manage to see it through.

Needed to give you a couple of sunset shots Kate took in the car the other day, I was saying to her how you can understand seeing that why the pagans worshipped the sun. Imagine not really knowing how the world was but realising that this huge orb of warmth would disappear each night and reappear next morning, the days gradually getting longer and then shorter again.   In tropical countries when you are on holiday sunsets seem to take on a big significance too, maybe it's just the honeymoon romantics..
  

...talking of romance, here is mine and Col's 'love song'. It's really a little cheesy and not very well known, but it is probably the only single he ever gave me, I think it was on cassette.  He was a big fan of Feargal Sharkey, he was the lead for the Undertones (think Teenage Kicks, My Perfect Cousin .. Col's era, even if I was a bit of a Motown Girl!)

Well in 1991 I was 30 years old, married, not particularly unhappily, but kind of treading water with two young children.  I spent a lot of time alone with the children as their Dad worked away and when he was home family-time was not the easiest option for him, being not a very relaxed or emotionally settled kind of person, often I would tell him to go scuba-diving or something if he needed to get his head straight after being away, after all I was operating pretty much as a single parent most of the time in any case.. (he was a saturation / deep-sea diver which involved living in a chamber for several weeks at a time, and it wasn't an easy transition for him when he came home) 

Add to this the fact that I had been 18 when we started out, ended up being 30 years old and not exactly the person he wanted 'in the box' he had allocated me ( ;-) )  I think I wanted more children, a full family and this wasn't on his agenda, he always wanted 'this phase' to be over so we could do one or other of the wonderful things which would be on the greener side of life, you know over the hedge, where everyone else appeared to be living.

Well we had a few close friends, one of them was a lady who I knew he liked, this made me see things more clearly, she was nothing like me, I was never going to fit in the box was I ? (Nor was she as it happened..)  The other pal was Col. He had known us since he moved to Cornwall around the time we got married. He used to go sport diving with my husband and then come home and hang out with us, often chatting to me about this and that while 'he' had his head in a book..I think it suited him to have someone to amuse me and we were a happy band of pals.  Col helped out a lot, house moves, looking after stuff if we were away, he even saw Lisa first and collected her Dad from the airport when he got home...

As time passed I tried to find Col a girlfriend amongst my pals, usually they had a ready made family, but I wanted him to find someone amongst our crew.  We talked a lot and it emerged that his ideal girl was .. well.. very like me.  Now my self-esteem wasn't so great and I didn't quite get it, but I did eventually. You see, I had to fill the space I had been trying to fill with some of my pals! We talked loads, Col was really honourable but it was clear to him I wasn't getting the care I needed (nor were the children in my friend's opinions afterwards, which was interesting).  I examined my current existence (and to be fair it wasn't much more, school, toddlers, mumsy chat and the domestic routine..) and I wasn't really 'looked after' in the way I wanted, emotionally..

One thing led to another, many hours of soul searching, putting it right in my head, justifying that this was going to be an okay decision for others as well as me..   Until this point we had never been together, despite some people thinking it was odd how friendly we were, but within four months it was done and dusted, I moved out with the children and into a rented house.  Col joined us and it seemed auspicious that even the first day the kids didn't bat an eyelid about me having him there. I think the fact that Col also worked away and I was the constant parent, things didn't really upset them too much.

Well ... it was a little more complicated, and to be truthful, quite hard at times, but we were meant to be together...one day before I left I was having a real tough time making sense of the potential anguish everyone would suffer, Col even suggested I stay put for a few months to be sure it was the right call for me, but I was anxious that we never had bad history, you know, when you look back and there is a period you wish was more positive and no room for recrimination..he told me that whilst we might not always have lots of money, might not always have it settled and easy, might have some ups and some downs,  he would always look after me and put me first..( I did ask a few times in the first ten years when the ups were coming .. but they did, we worked hard together and I think that working together for the same aims if the best way to grow together in the same direction)

This is the song he bought me in the first few months we were together.. 

..I think that's all for now!

Impossible?...yes, on reflection!

Well over at Lucky Snapping Anne has asked us to reflect on something which seemed like an impossible task.. Just over here!

I was a little late getting my views posted for week 1 of February and you may have missed it, I'm not sure, but it is here, I promise.. oh, yes, well.. it's here..! 

And now here I am on Thursday wondering about 'the impossible' .. but worrying that I am starting to be late with my posts all the time... ahh being late!...can you see the thoughts growing?....that's me.... always almost late.... and consequently that makes 'being on time'.. impossible!    Maybe it was because I was over two weeks late being born, it continued then when I had all my brood, Ross was two weeks late and the others all a good few days.  The concept of having a baby early did not come into it.

It's not that I am very late, in fact sometimes I am even running on time, or perhaps a little comfortably early.. but that means there is an extra few minutes to ... dry my hair, nip back indoors to collect something, do the dishes before I leave.. or most probably just lie in bed the extra few moments which will start off the lateness before the chance of a rogue moment of earliness is even allowed to peek..

When Col & I married we drove in our car to the Registry Office, we got there after our friends.. and that's not really fashionable at that kind of wedding. The children have grown to expect it, they have a kind of 'Mum's timing' thing going on, take the time I said and add ten minutes, so you see, it's not that late, not hours, just fashionably not on time!  ;-)

Going back to 'impossible' I have given this a little thought. I don't think I think of things happening that had 'impossible' feelings at the outset, I guess I wouldn't even embark on something if I felt like that about it... oh, but when it's done, when I am sitting here pondering back over things, so so many things we have done look NOW like they must have seemed impossible.

In 1997 we were parents to five children under 12, the baby (Kate) was three months old and we had been quietly thinking of moving house. Col was working on civils dive work which had become very weather sensitive and every job had to be a success, he was looking to do something else...we needed somewhere he could have workshops and have some scope..

Col's folks were interested in buying somewhere with us, a place of their own but alongside us, to be good for us at that time and good for them later when maybe they would need us.  We had looked at one place, a farm with farmshop on quite a busy road, it was okay, food for thought, but it was digested and spat out as not the one!  

A few weeks later I saw the details of a old ivy covered farmhouse with lots of outbuildings and 9 acres of land.  We went out to drive past it, we had only been through the village a few times before, but we were pleased to see it was at the start of a lane just on the edge of the village, so it was good for a wander to the shop, but not too far for the kids that they couldn't go on their own.  It was only five miles from where we were and we ... well I.. fell in love. I think Col saw the potential too of course, probably from a getting away from the crowds point of view (the place we lived in at the time was getting a bit built up)... so we showed some friends and our folks.. 

Gran's annexe will go here!

The front garden with it's very mature rose bushes and monkey puzzle tree was just fabulous, many a child could be reared there ... little did I know that the front path would be dug up for new water and power supplies, that the roses would be taken up as they were so mature the thorns were like wooden spears, not child friendly at all!  Only that monkey puzzle really survived the practical ideas Col had to make the place easy to maintain, gone were my secluded Victorian pathways and overgrown hedges.. but I'm cool..

The house was.. a disaster.. wallpaper peeling off the walls, asbestos panels to remove, a fire damaged floor, no plumbing or heating in the main house and that was just the obvious stuff!

But we quite fancied it.. there were two barns, one for his folks... and.. hey wait a minute.. if we move I will still spend a lot of time toing and froing to my own Mum.. lets get her to come too!! So she did! To be fair she had a nice bungalow in our old village and would probably have been fine there for a few more years, but it was going to be easier if she came along....

.. so they came along.. us 7, Col's M&D and my Mum. We sold our houses and rented a 4-bed bungalow for three months while we did a gut and make-liveable job on the 'big house' as Col's Mum named it.  Ahhh and here's the rub.. Mum and his folks got caravans and lived in them in the field alongside the barn for up to two years before they moved into their places...summer 2000 Mum moved into her annexe and we were finally all sorted, ...well it's still a work in progress but aren't most homes. 

Where the workshop joined the barn (his folk's house!)

The story goes that Jean and my Mum used to sit in the caravans over in the field, looking back at the delapidated farm buildings, big digger trucks, old farm detritis and so much work that needed doing and they would ask each other just what we had done..!! 

I think they thought it was an impossble task.. but like us they must have not really thought so because they came on the journey too.. takes quite a person to live in a caravan for almost two years when you are in your 70's, especially by choice! 



Caravans just on the right in the field!

But those days of kids playing in building sand and Kate (with two bottles, one in her mouth and one in her pocket) crawling across the wooden planks to Jean's caravan are all the things memories are made of.. just like the impossible tasks!

I must just add here one of Colin's favourite quotes ..

'If at first you don't succeed.. get bigger kit!'

We were storing this big swingshovel at the time and got to use it for the demolition work.. only trouble was it had some faults, it had an inclination to swing to the left, so you had to be careful you didn't wipe out a building when just trying to make 'improvements' !!!

Happy? Busy? Mmm, that's me!

Well it's been a busy few days. JB, April & I have been minding Lyla between us for a few days and I have been on the school run a couple of days. Things are going great with the baby and Lisa is amazingly well given how grim she felt after the c-section, though we do think it was more about the comparison to having Lyla so quickly on the front seat of the car outside maternity..than the actual birth being bad itself, in fact it sounds like it was quite routine and no probs.

(Climbs on soapbox for second.. aside from them doing great..I cannot believe that there is such a shortage of midwives. They wanted Lisa to go to the surgery for 5 day checks, saying they do not have enough staff to travel out! But how can self-employed people get there if the men work and the new Mum is told not to drive.. and in the snow....

What happened to the old fashioned period of 'confinement' and the daily visits from the same (fantastic) local midwife when I had mine?  Lisa luckily had great staff on a quiet D-day last week but the following day all hell broke loose, no-one to help post-op women get their babies, no bells working so another lady got out of bed and ripped her wound, why don't they have some nice ladies in to help new mums, just to sit, hold their hands as they take those scarey steps into motherhood.  it incenses me when they talk on breakfast TV about the new maternity services they are planning.. hello..hello?!.. they were what we had all sorted 25 years ago!!! 

... off soapbox but carrying it with me just in case.. midwifery, childbirth and breastfeeding are my specialist rant subjects in case you hadn't noticed.. ;-)  )

This week ..

Work has been busy. Col is quite proud of a new composite block handler he designed.  The company have had a few clever units from us and called him in to sort this one.   Even our design guys didn't think it would work...but Colin did! He has a new Einstein quote he is proud of too, it so suits him as he has so many great ideas and doesn't need a batch of qualifications to know if something is do-able or not..

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

-Albert Einstein

We went to look at a house with the new baby and M&D. It wasn't really suitable , too much work required but lots of space if it had been good.. back to plan B, C and maybe D, but you have to start looking don't you.. and get away from renting when you can.

We had a builder over yesterday and he is starting on our extension in about five weeks. We have an old lean-to that was a kitchen before we came here. It was due to be knocked down to please our mortgage company but we just moved the kitchen indoors and kept it as a porch...It is a grim site, built half covering my hall window, so as soon as it is gone, even before my new room is done I will have more light into my house through the hall window.. yay!

Then there is the office extension and possible new building being contemplated so you can imagine we are mentally dead beat by bed...mind you, I'd rather be dead-beat than bored.. yeah, I am not happy when there is nothing going on, in fact when things are ticking along just fine I don't like it...

Thinking about the happy prompt this week...I like the ups and downs, maybe like Anne says you have to have the downs to really enjoy the ups.  It has never appealed to be too routine and prescribed, I like the unexpected, the rush, the chaos.. maybe because it is better to feel something (whether it is stress, panic or euphoria) than not much at all!

Zac has driven home this afternoon, he had a college half day and free tomorrow so we will be chilling out and maybe doing a few things over the next few days.  the girls got the house tidy and we had a lovely curry for tea, everyone was busy talking and I was just enjoying listening.

It reminded me of how Mum didn't always have a lot to say as she got older and all the family would be round the table.  Maybe she just liked hearing all her family swapping stories and getting along, there isn't the need to say much when you are content letting the world go by and your kids are your world.  I guess she probably hoped me and Ken would get our families together more, but we are so different and so far apart years wise (he was past 11 when I was born)... we have 13 children between us but his were having children of their own almost as soon as I started, so the generations are kind of out of synch.

Am I ever happy for no reason at all?...yes.. not sure why, guess that's because there is no reason! But it is nice to feel the sun, a good track on the radio and be near the sea.  The alternative is a grey day, Cornish mist and a dreary politics chat show and that isn't conducive to 'hapy' is it.

Do I demand my own way like a child?  Mmmm depends who you are asking! I would say no, that I am pretty easy going and not a shouter or a stamper of feet... but if I am honest I do hear myself sometimes hinting that I would like a job doing, or 'when we have time' or 'could you just'... so, maybe just like a child I use that wearing down tactic to keep my requests on the agenda!

And this is a secret ... shhh.. I think I have got better at getting round Col. Maybe we are both getting older, maybe both wiser to each others ways... or maybe he just got tired and gives in sooner.. I'd like to think I just know how to work him better, when to ask, when not to nag, when to make him happy and then just quietly mention it... ahh I must be learning from my teenagers.. it's all in the timing!

To finish the post, here's a bit of what we have been up to this week..

Lyla at only 22 months is adept at working a cameraphone with her fingers to swipe and tap. She likes playing faces in the camera and loves browsing videos of what we have done..a child of the century.

Amazing, she may never have to learn an old fashioned keyboard if tablets and pads keep changing so much..

I read a quote which applies so well to learning and children these days :

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
  .....by writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, creator of Future Shock

Oh and baby Annabelle, I haven't seen her properly awake yet.. and see Lilly there in the bottom corner.. what a sweet pea..not missing a trick, I didn't even know she was there xx

365/332 Worn

You're going to like this tenuous link..my Col is an avid hater of those reality type shows which make people eat bugs and stuff. ..so, often if Kate (and I) find ourselves vegging out in front of IACGMOOH he leaves to go do jobs, bath or watch something he likes better in our bedroom.

But we have worn him down...so much so he even knows the format of evictions and (non-beastly) challenges and tomight turned UP the volume so he didn't miss something!

Result!  Great family fun all round. Xxx

365/251 Hands.

I knew I would like getting the pictures for this prompt. I was heading off out in the boat with my three generations of Jones men! It reminds me of Colin's mum who used to work in a biscuit factory and even though the women were of all different ages and styles they all agreed that their hands showed their true ages.. the young 16 year old, the mum, the grandmother etc... and when I notice a person's hands I always think of that..and wonder where they would fit in the factory hands line up!

..there were so many nice shots, I had to include them all!!

  

 

So, this morning.. a quick trip into the office and pleaded our case that we haven't had anywhere near a proper amount of holidays, (who does when they run their own business) so today was one of our holidays!  Of course I still had to make the sandwiches!

We headed off and got the boat from the Mount in good time after high tide, while there was still enough water.. the sea was like a millpond, gorgeous!  

Col and Zac swapped the prop over and got everything ready, Col is just so competant with all things boating and engines, and it is nice to see Zac so comfortable at sea.. just as well mind!  The little inflatable outboard had a cough or two so Col had to play with that when we anchored up for lunch.. he just loves to tinker with engines and I have other pictures of him many years ago looking just as happy on a boat in the Maldives when working there!

Pops did some fishing and loves messing about in the boats.. the highlight of the day was spotting a basking shark alonside just beneath the Minack, and then a pod of dolphins.. they came real close and seemed to play with us, they were really good size and kept rushing up in the wake of the boat and then as if in finale one did a big somersault just in front of us.. I was so so excited, it was fantastic to see then following the noise of our engine and then soaring around in the water..and especially as our boat in not too big it even beat seeing them from a dhoni when we were on holiday.

365/212 Dive

Loved seeing today's prompt! Not that we are a family of budding Tom Daleys, but knowing that we have lots to choose from, and it is an opportunity for me to wax lyrical about my Col. (But incidentally hats off to Tom Daley, what a fantastically dedicated lad, a great personality and ambassador for youth, sport, GB, whatever he wants to promote..he will surely be a celebrity in the correct sense, in that he has a talent and will earn the status not just let it fall upon him because of his gorgeous tan and smile (which incidentally he has and no Towie about it!!)


The house has been quite quiet as the kids are all working (and playing) and we are enjoying meals for two or three, even missing meals if we fancy, just pleasing ourselves!  Ross was in for tea and afterwards Col dug out some old pictures for my prompt, they will be copies but worth posting for the memory..




Fort William



So, way back when, about 1985 Col trained to be a Commercial Diver and later did his Saturation qualification as well. It was quite a big deal really, we knew quite a few guys who did this and it generally meant giving up a run of the mill job, investing time and most of the money you had in pursuit of a potentially exciting well piad career,but withthe danger and risks associated with being at the bottom of the ocean or dam or whatever, at the mercy of the weather and dependant on hoses of hot watr, gas and communications from the surface, again tended by another person.. the ultimate 'your life in their hands'

Diving gear!

He worked all over the place, dams in Spain, offshore in the North Sea, Norway and Gibraltar.

Dive Control.

Later on his love of all things engineering and ''big kit' led him to run civil engineering jobs and a less exotic lifestyle living in caravans and B&Bs working on submarine bases and installing equipment for the MOD, but having a lot more to do with making the job happen.. he always did like getting things done his way!

Gal Constructor

One of our civils jobs took him to India with his trusty band of men...we are still in touch with some of them and it was a busy busy time, with several young kids and every job needing to stand alone and make things work!  Nice now not to have to worry about how bad weather can make or break the profitability of your job!

As you can imagine Colin jumped at the chance to go look for shipwrecks in the Maldives in about 1990, that was before I was with him.. knew him though.. so when we went there on holiday he knew it would be brilliant for diving / snorkelling and the kids took to it so so well...