Seems to me now quite clear that one of the main reasons we came on this Wales holiday was to discover the beautiful town of Caernarfon.
Half an hour north of the house and very accessible.
We first went Tuesday to "do " the castle and fell in love with the place instantly. First impressions are that it seems to have everything. Dignity, pride, humility, history, aspect. The castle stands on the mouth of the River Seoint of course, proudly overlooking the Menai Straits, built to oppress the Welsh peasants by Edward 2 in the opulent style of similar fortresses in Rome and Constantinople. A stunning collection of towers, winding staircases, shadowy corridors, high bits, underground bits - wonderful for Exploration and Discovery and the kids all had a fantastic time. The "keep of the grass" rule seems a little pedantic and over-zealous, but that's my only minor criticism. And very reasonable price too for an attraction of this kind - £18 for a family ticket.
We feel loaded with cash this week (I have £400 in an envelope on the windowsill!) so day trips like this are very affordable and much appreciated. Thanks in part to Mr and Mrs V for their contribution.
Took a brief walk after the castle around the narrow streets within the old town walls and discovered a delightful tea room that we went back to again the next day with the BAs! And in the carpark, we pulled up more or less next to the little hut from which The Queen of the Seas takes passengers on a 45 minute trip up the Menai Straits to the entrance on Caernarfon Bay. Easy decision that we should suggest this as something for the whole house to do together if the weather continues to improve. Looks like the trip to Bardsey Island might be off becasue at £35 EACH it seems rather a lot. And I'm not planning on doing anything much without the rest of the family this week.
In a way I'm expecting this to be challenged by the Men and Women's Days Out we have been threatened with, and the constant offers of babysitters.
All very kind and well-intentioned I know, but this week really is a much-needed opportunity to spend some Quality Time with the kids. Does that sound twee? I hope not. EVERYONE keeps telling us what a wonderful family we are, how well we all get on, how interactive, socialable, well-balanced etc the kids are, how you would never guess-there-were-four-of-them, and all these equally humbling praise. Now is their chance to see us "under the spotlight" as it were, and see the reasons why things (apparently) present so well. And we don't intend to change it - by going out on our own, eating at different times etc etc.

Especially not after this mornings adventure. Perhaps another reason we have been brought here is to re-discover each other...
Great when it comes out of the blue. Trx always an inspiration and I was woken up by her naughty naughty fingers at half past five this morning. One hand on me and one on the bump - how cool is THAT!!!
Mother Fist, bring me your five young daughters... Has no doubt cleared the air - for her too becasue she is coming alive now as we settle into the week. It's fantabulous being around her and watching her interact socially with others around the table.
Seems to be getting on especially well with BC of course, they always have, and starting to chill with TB and SR too. Hope they can get a relationship going as I think S is looking for some confidence in her early pregnancy.

So it was back to Caernavon today (Weds) because evryone without exception agreed that the boat trip on the Strait was a good idea. We are cooking today and must get off a bit early to do The Shopping.
It's becoming a real issue with the C*s on their ridiculous Can't-Eat-ThAtkins carbfree diet. What a silly thing to start on a communal holiday week. Everyone is having to cook seperately for them, and for the kids (our kids at least) and for TB who won't eat anythng on principle and isn't allowed (??) to eat with the other children.
I got a deal on the boat (three people chose not to come) and they allowed 12 adults and six kids on for £40. Absolutely stunning - the best 'activity' of the week for me. Wherever possible I will choose a boat trip, a harbour cruise, an island crossing or something of the sort and this one proved one of the most interesting. We had a chatty and informative guide which helped, pointing out local sites and stuff along the Anglesea coast, and with DR myself and TB shouting out bird sightings every few minutes we entertained everyone. DR picked up the first seal and we had another one on the way back.
It will be interesting to see if our 'experiment' tonight with EVRYONE eating together works out. Bring the adults meal forward an hour or so to half six, and push the children later.
AND we ate in the garden becaus the weather is suddenly stunning, walm and clear. last night's BBQ didn't work so well because of the wind and the threat of rain. Mr Vicar did cook on the shiny new BBQ in the garden, but we ate indoors. And drank. And played Scrabble. Trx palyed Wordrop with three others and kept kicking me under the table and poking me whenevr we walked past each other. These things are the best signs of all that she is relaxed and happy. And of course, the more abusive she becomes, the more inspired I feel and so forth and so on etcetera....

Spent a fun hour on the beach Sunday evening doing the laddish thing of hurling pebbles at things on the beach. not as good a shot as I used to be in my days spent endlessly sea-watching off Cley and getting very very bored.
Trivial and silly, but a fun way to unwind.

Woke up early again on Monday and began to feel much more relaxed quite quickly. Cooked a breakfast for those that were up:- Trx, BC and CB, but of course young TB didn't want/couldn't have any. Mind you, he never ate any of his "Stars" either any day, despite his parents beating him incessantly over the head with a big pointy stick.
Mr and Mrs Vicar down next, and we spent half an hour with their Book of tea Shop Walks' before deciding to head south, with them, for a 3 mile walk around Pwllhelli. "Poo-ey Wellies" as the children pronounced it. Crap and uninspiring small seaside twon, but surrounded by beautiful sea and soft mountains. FULL of those Butlins types....
uick walk down the lane with one of the dogs before setting off.
Spotty Flicker on the bird List - excellent view flitting around by the stream.
The vicars seem to have adopted our family as surrogate grand-children and we got on famously with them. Mr V and Stan can just about walk at the same pace and cope with a similar distance, but it did get rather warm later at the little ones struggled with the distance. So did Trx of course, but said earlier that she felt much better for the longest walk we've done for ages. Tea shops are always good - even tho we were rather a big group to try and squeeze into the Blue Moon.

Some of the other men went on a Big Walk to some mountains, the BAs chose to re-visit Treath Beach. Seems this will be a week when various people do various things and we all catch up over far too much food and beer and wine in the evening.
We were eating for three hours tonight, interspersed with a silly game of Traveller's Trivia. BC is into listing games, so we had fun trying to name all 50 US States (we did get them all eventually)
We have a caption competition going on. AB has a photo of BC musing over his paper and has invited 'witty and amusing' comments. And a challenge for the musical ones among us:

Name four Number One hits where the song and the artist have the same name.
We have already got "Living in a Box' by "Living in a Box".
Not Number One I don't think - but what do i know.
It's doing my head in. There must be others.

Flo and ALice have made a good start on the scrapbook with maps and postcards of Pwllhelli. It will be their homework project for the week.

I don't think I've ever been so tired...
One a.m before we got back from Oxford last night, and then I sent a whole load of emails out and faffed around for ages.

Guthrie's "Lumiere Live" show was certainly 'interesting' and totally unique in my experience of gigs. Just him, a guitar, a laptop and some twiddly things playing sevral pieces of music to accompany a film he made two or three years ago.

a giddy collusion of celluloid-caught misfits and memories. An angular animation encapuring the artist's twenty years of travels and far-flung runs all immersed in an abstract of vivacious visuals and patterned peculiarites.
Then comes that inimitable indent, the film's companinon – THAT guitar sound like some celestail swingrope fashioned out of flourescence and froth, a glistening garrison of balletic bells, each chime and tumble sent sumptuously sprawling into the ether, each lucid loop serenading nothing more than a beguiling mystery – indelibly illustrating Lumiere's cacophonous couture.

Precisely.
There were no more than 50 of us at the show, and had a fascinating chat with him afterwards. The album with Harold Budd is done and will come out in a few months, but the work with Foxx is still on going and won't be finished until Easter NEXT year. Foxx has of course gone back to his lecturing position now which will inevitably slow things down a bit.
I picked up a copy of 'Continental' at the gig, as well as the two new eps 'Waiting For Dawn' and 'Everlasting'. Beautiful, inspring stuff.

Also took possession at long last of TinyColourMovies which I have so far only dipped into a couple of pieces in the headphones. Very different material this time round, each piece being the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, extensive plot notes to which (also written by John) accompany the sleevenotes.
On first impression there's too much Vangelis and JMJ going on, but it is no doubt very clever and technically superb. Multi-layered, and it really plays around in your head.
Spent a great evening in the company of RH, as well as the Mysterious Skin of EG and Mrs Ekin. All is far from cosy at the website and on several occasions he referred to his position as being 'out' with Foxx. It seems everything now comes thru Random PR, who did NOT get a good press last night and seem to have a very obvious personal agenda. But that doesn't explain why the site is so infrequently updated - it's not co-operation and input from the main man that is needed at the moment, it's time to tie up all the loose ends and regualrly amend and update that which is already on line.
I offered help with this, but "it's not as simple as that" so what happens next remains to be seen. Such a great guy and becoming quite a close personal friend, so there is a lot of tremendous potential still. I have two more interviews to work on (mp3 files) and I realised I am falling behind with the Media Archive.
It is a viscious circle...