Another birthday!

As yet another birthday approahes, we have yet another of our bucket list to tick off. We have booked another cruise, the third one this year, to the Norwegian fjords. We have not, as yet, cruised the fjords. Especially the western coast of Norway, which we have been hoping to visit for some time now, will be a reality in a couple of days. I had mentioned a couple of other cruises this year, they were also fantastic. One being to Rome, Istanbul inTurkey, Athens, and Malta. All places I would like to visit again. The other with family from the states to the Carribean.

I'm sure I'll have some pictures to share from this fantastic trip, which happens to be on my birthday.

Holidays

Where has the time gone? It's a new decade and time for new adventures. Reservations have to be made early to avoid the rush and disappointment of being sold out. Where will you go this year? Will it be the same as last year or will you strike out on a new adventure? We have flights booked to go skiing in the mountains of Norway to a cabin at the top of a mountain. We've only ever seen it the summer season when only the last bits of snow are left. The lakes of snow melt to make coffee on long walks will all be frozen over.

Will this be the year you've waited to take your children and/or grandchildren to the magic of a Disney park? We've booked a holiday for us and our son's family to Disney Paris for the second time. We waited patiently until the grandchildren were old enough to visit Disney for the rides and now they are both tall enough for all the rides. Plus it will be the last year that they both stay free. The look of excitement on their faces when we arrive at Disney is priceless, the tickets are just expensive. Oh what fun we will have while we are still able to enjoy it ourselves. It will be something they will always remember, and I will too.

The fun we have while we are together!

Winter

Winter has definely set in for the southern region of England. It's -10C this morning, roads have been closed, airports closed and reopened, travel disrupted for many people. I'm glad to be home. We had an early Christmas with family in Norway and had plenty of cold temperatures and lots of snow, now they have more. But we were lucky enough to get there and back without too many delays.

This has been an exciting year with visitors, it started with a weeks visit from our son and the grandchildren in May. Which came after we finished our extension, so now we have more room and an extra all important bathroom. Followed by my wife's sister and brother-in-law, whom are retired now, who stayed with us for a month. We traveled to Spain for a week and Wales for a week. So the time flew by, as we were always busy. We look forward to our adventures with them next year.

This was followed by a visit from my sister and brother-in-law who stayed a week of their european vacation. They also visited Paris and Ireland. Hope they have the travel bug now like we have and will come to visit us again soon.

It's been some time now since I've blogged, but a lot of things have happened since my last blog. Most significate being, We now have permanent resident status in the U.K. We've traveled to Norway a couple of times this year, how the time flys. We've put an extension on our house and I've doubled the size of the conservatory. Plus, always a treat for us, the annual visit from our son and grandchildren, they left mom at home this year to study and work, her decision.

We're down to the wire on finishing before company arrives again from the states for their annual visit. We're going to Spain with them and a secret place we haven't told them about yet, so I won't mention it here.

We started our project in April, so we're not doing too bad, but would definately like to get it finished, over, and done with. We have to get ready for full retirement. Brenda's division has been sold and we're not sure what that means for us, as of yet. Should know by the end of the year, so they say.

It's June now and we've had that extension built and moved in. Now we're looking to extend our conservatory across the back of the house to meet up with the new extension. We took a weekend off to go exploring to Land's End. As the name suggests, it is at the end of land and the most westerly tip of England at the very tip of Cornwall. We had a lovely B&B outside Truro and explored from there. The Cathedral was having a concert so we didn't get to see that, but everything else we wonderful.
We also explored St. Micheals Mount which was a place we've always wanted to see. Then Plymouth on the way home which is just over the border in Devon. What an exciting time we had. We took the harbour cruise in Plymouth, seen where the Pilgrims left from, or nearly, now it's the ladies loo of the pub Admiral McBride because the pier has been built out farther. We found a pub of course to have a nice meal.

New Status

A lot has happened these past several months, mainly my wife and I have permanent resident status in the U.K. now. This means all kinds of things for us, mainly that our staying in England no longer depends on our employment status. This is important since we are close to retirement. Now we can see family in Norway whenever we're invited without the fear 'we may have to move back to the U.S. of A.' Which by all accounts is not a bad option, unless you're trying to stay in the U.K. Jobs are not to be taken for granted, but we are happy to not have to depend on that option.

Now, on to happier things, we were happy to get back to Norway to see family again. My, how they've grown and matured since we last seen them. Thank goodness for web-cams so we can stay in touch. But on a different note, we off to see other family in the U.S.A. We are somewhat overdue them a visit. We have been busy seeing Europe instead. We look forward to going to the states for a visit, but now consider ourselves at home in England. After all, someone said 'home is where you hang your hat'. We've made a home in England.

Speaking of homes, since we got permanent status, my wife has seen that as time to redecorate the entire house and buy new furniture. So, I have been busy wallpapering and painting. We've also been talking to builders and architects about an extension. We really do need an extra room and bathroom. We look forward to their completion. Then, just maybe, I can get a big screen TV.

Read more books

We had a lovely day out today, we travelled to Hay-on-Wye, a village on the Welsh border that has more new and used book stores than any other place certainly in the UK or in Europe possibly in the world. It's one big book store sprinkled with coffee shops. One store alone boasts more than 200,000 books. We browsed the book stores and a few other shops such as antique shops and cook shops plus buying something from the baker for our afternoon tea. We also had a good lunch in one of the many pubs.

There are currently over thirty major bookshops and with a population of only 1500. That's a lot of books per capita.