Wales. And Coventry again 
Currently back at my mother's house, sorting through suitcases and planning the journey to Paris. Or at least to Euston. The rest is a lot easier.

A lot has happened! We spent a few days in Wales, in a cottage near Dolgarrog, somewhere south of Conwy. The lounge window looks out to a bird feeder, specially designed for small birds. Rachael was most perturbed by our discussion about tits. Beyond that is a small paddock with some one-year-old lambs, and beyond that, open marshland stretching out to the hills on the other side. A very cosy and well catered cottage, although they seemed to have an issue with light bulbs!

Went around Conwy Castle. It's remarkably well preserved, but lacking in roofs and railings, so it's a bit scary from the top, but a fantastic view. We then did a trip round Anglesea. There was a lot of rain overnight, which had turned the tops of Snowdonia brilliant white, but had cause quite a few floods. We stopped at Llanfair PG, and got the obligatory photo by the railway station. On the way back, we attempted to visit an ancient burial mound. However, there was a puddle. It was six metres long, about four inches deep and covering the entire width of the path. On one side was gorse and on the other side brambles. It was also very cold. After toying with a few stepping stones, we gave up!

Headed back to Coventry for the big reunion on Saturday. This was in our old church, or rather on the site of our old church. Nothing is left, although I recognise the paving slabs still around it! They're about to split the morning service, since their 600 seat main hall is already full. I can remember the days when we were lucky to get 80.

The reunion went spectacularly well, but very noisy since everyone was trying to talk to everybody else! We appear to have triggered quite a few reunions, because several people turned up that hadn't seen each other for twenty years, let alone us. It went on an hour longer than planned.

Sunday morning was more of the same. There were a few people who hadn't made it to Saturday, and a few who wanted to talk some more. We had a great afternoon at the Browne-Markes, a brief visit to our old neighbours and then back to church again in the evening.

I'm going to have to sit down and process it all. There's a number of people I want to talk more to, and a number of births, marriages, divorces and deaths to catch up on. I was pretty shattered by Sunday night. Rachael was finding it all hard to cope with. Too many people. But she's a lot better now it's quietened down.

A few more visits on Monday and Tuesday, plus a bit of shopping and wandering round the city centre. Posted a pile of stuff back to NZ to reduce the amount in the suitcases. Then met up with Bronwyn's aunt who had a pile of stuff for us to take back to Bronwyn's mum!

Warwick Castle on Wednesday. They've changed it a bit since we last went, but that means there's new areas we hadn't seen before. We had a rather full on history lesson from the tour guide (the saga between the different kings and owners is rather complicated!) but managed to piece most of it together as we went round. Sarah had issues going up the spiral staircase, but it was a lot safer than Conwy, where Rachael decided to sit on a ledge with a 20 metre drop on the other side!

Back at my mother's. We've got a few hours to pack and head out again...


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