Holidays 2017

We... love to travel. And we love to spend our days off - summer holidays - on the Coast, so each year we decide what to do. To travel or to go to the sea side?

But this year it was different. Most of my two weeks holidays we stayed - at home. You see, we didn''t really make any plans on what to do, mostly because somewhere back at our minds (mine and OH's) we knew there are some things to be done at home. 

With both of us working full time and me having one hour drive each way, five days per week, we mostly run out of time to do anything at home or around the house. And there are a lot of things to be done, believe me.

And I so much 'love' when my OH's DIY projects include me. 

Luckily my OH has a nerve to do a lot of things on his own. He... has an idea and he sees how things will look when the project he plans will be be finished. But sometimes he has trouble executing the idea and that is where I have to jump in. 

Crazy right? But that's how it is. And I'm not bragging. 

So these last two weeks - of our summer holidays - were spent repairing the balcony leading from our daughter's room and the second project was extending the terrace outside our living room. 
Don't be alarmed, we still have a lot to do as two weeks time was just not enough to do it all, and of course, we took some time off too... 

To go to the Coast. We just love it there...

In the morning...

  

and in the evening... 

Ah, well... we'll certainly be returning soon... 

London's calling

It's been a while since my last blog post. To be honest I haven't even noticed that a month has passed by. In this time my blog - this one of course - celebrated its 2nd birthday... yay!!! 

Didn't noticed until a notification came from FB. O.M.G! Really!

Spring is here - double yay! Finally temperatures reached over 20°C. Hopefully they will stay this way for some time.

Well, life is a bit hectic at the moment. Getting back my WIP for the second time from my editor, writing final corrections, accepting (or not) her suggestions, writing killing blurb, not to mention synopsis... that takes time and - let's be honest - a fair amount of concentration.

But of course I cannot blame complete lack of time only on my writing. You know... real life can be truly demanding. 

However, the weekend me and my OH have been waiting for is finally coming... As on Saturday my OH has his (ahem...) birthday, my present for him is a trip to...Ta-Dah!

Yes, sure... we have been to the UK a couple of times before; but almost never alone and then we hadn't really seen around London. All the other times, we were in UK because of our son's therapy and RDI therapist or we went on vacations (combined with our son's therapy evaluation). Nothing new for us. Basically normality for our life.

So, on Friday morning (double bonus - I'm off work on Friday and on Monday next week - tripple yay!) we are flying to the UK, then we are spending three nights in the Premier Inn London King's Cross Hotel and on Monday...

p.s. As this blog post was written a day before yesterday, I'm letting you know - yes, tomorrow we are still going. No matter what. #WeAreNotAfraid

On the day before New Year's eve

It's the day before New Year's eve and to be honest 2016 wasn't really nice. It looks like it wasn't nice to anyone. But I'm not going to moan. Too much complaining was already done through out the year. Looking back at the twelve months that now passed - actually they passed really quickly, although they seemed to last for just too long. 

So nothing bad in this blog post. Instead of writing what went wrong, I'm going to look for the reasons that made me cheerful this year and the memories of them will make me cheerful for many more. The things/events that made me really happy. The things I don't want to forget. Here they are, some most unforgettable:  

- My son's progress is seen from day to day. The steps he does might seem small, but they are huge for all of us. They are also constant and that's all that matters.

- My daughter reached the brink of puberty and although she makes me go insane from time to time, I'm proud of her daily. 

- I got my publishing rights back in April and I republished my debut novel All That The Heart Desires in June.

- We had such amazing holidays, traveling around Wales. I know I'm still not done with the 'Holidays 2017' blog post series. I left you hanging on in Bangor.  

- While traveling I meet my wonderful friend Katie Phillips. We 'met' through Facebook years ago and this was the first time we met face to face and it we just clicked. All of us.

- I did my first book signing...

- In London I met another amazing friend for the first time - Les Moriarty. I still hold this memory close to my heart. 

- I finished the third draft of my third novel in English and managed to send it to my editor. 

- My family is still whole; no-one is missing...

- Definitely not last and not at all at least - the love, our family have and share, still grows and it's still very strong. 

So, I really shouldn't be complaining at all... right?

Someday I'll see you again...

I'm sad today. Truly sad. I... I've never imagined something like that can happen and so suddenly. I'm still in shock.

I've lost a friend. A friend I had met on Facebook. Haven's knows as I don't remember when we first started to talk, but somehow we clicked and through the weeks, months and years our friendship grew. We shared the same passion - writing. 

He always had time for a chat or serious conversation. It didn't matter to him. We laughed together and we were there for each other when the going was tough...

Finally this summer, when we were in London, we met. We spent an amazing afternoon together. Thank you, Les, for your warm welcome, it was truly fantastic to meet you in person.

I thought in a few days I would be able to write you a happy blog post about our meeting in person instead of that... this horrible news waited for me when I came home. I couldn't believe it. I am still having hard time believing it.

Rest in peace, Les. No matter where you are - I am certain...

Holiday 2016 ~ Bangor & Anglesey ~ Part One

It's been a while since I wrote about our summer holidays. October was a bit hectic for me (personally) so I'm not ashamed to say that I'm glad it's over. 

In my mind I know that the next 6 weeks will be tough on me too - the weeks between Samhain and the Yule are always the toughest weeks of the year for me... but that's a completely different story.

Let's go back to Wales - to be honest - I'd love to go back in person right now, but some memories might do just as well...

To help you recollect where have we been last - hop quickly to my last Holiday 2016 blog post ~ here it is: Holiday 2016 ~ Aberystwyth.

We travelled the next day from Aberystwyth further north. Our final destination for the day - Bangor.

We stopped a few times along the road and the most interesting moment we had was crossing the Penmaenpool Bridge. The weather was a bit murky, but that didn’t change our mood. After all we were on our holidays.

As the Penmaenpool Bridge is the toll bridge, we stopped at the toll house. There he was, an elderly gentleman who was collecting the toll. While I was paying he looked at all of us and very kindly asked if he could ask a question. The thing was – he was wondering where were we from. As there was nothing to hide, we told him. 
Afterwards he told us he saw pretty much almost every European registration plates, but ours were unfamiliar to him. We had talked for a quite some time, until there were a few more cars behind us and we had to say farewell to him. I was a bit sad as he told us a few things about Penmaenpool and the bridge and I’m quite sure we could have learned more if we wouldn’t cause a queue at the bridge.

Continuing our journey we stopped at Caernafon castle and made a tour at its premises. The rain stopped when we got there so we had a nice walk around. Another impressive building I had a hard time to leave behind.

Afterwards we were heading straight to Bangor.

When we came to the town we went straight for the hotel. When we found it, we were all astounded - the hotel was situated at the verge of the coast line, with the views of Bangor Pier and the sea. 

It was perfect - outside. I took my bag and went to check us in and realised that... OH was going to kill me.

There were stairs everywhere. Narrow and steep stairs. From the parking to the hotel and reception. From the reception to the next building of the hotel, where our room was... yes, you're right if you are thinking - on the second floor. Stairs again.

You see, my OH had a motorcycle accident years ago - before we met and it looks like he never healed properly. He has troubles walking up and down the stairs and when it comes to the steep ones, it's even harder - not to mention - we needed to drag two large suitcases up these stairs as we were staying for two days...

It was late in the afternoon and after my long and meaningful persuasion, we finally left the room and went exploring the town centre.

Finally lady luck sprinkled some magic star dust on us. As you probably remember - my son does not eat everything - it has nothing to do with him being spoiled, it has everything to do with his Autism. And the one thing he doesn't eat is - brace yourself - potato. Of any kind. And I mean really - ANY KIND! His favourite meals contains, rice, meat and pasta...

and

...we found perfect restaurant for our supper.