http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog Tales from a 'down-shifted' family - Making the most of modest means Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:22:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_1106" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="All the fun of the fair!"][/caption] The fair is in town, so after a play in the playground, a walk along the prom, watching the starlings above the pier and dinner in KFC we headed off to the fair. It isn't something we normally do, but Morgan ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/all-the-fun-of-the-fair-aberystwyth/ [caption id="attachment_1097" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Starlings and Aberystwyth Pier"][/caption] It was a lovely day on Saturday so we decided to head into Aber and take a walk through the castle and along the prom. I'm glad we did as we were treated to a pretty spectacular display as a huge flock of ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/a-murmuration-of-starlings/ There was a pretty impressive view of a couple of planets in the night sky last night. Lickily it was clear when we got home so as well as being able to see plenty of stars and a crescent moon we could see Venus and Jupiter. [caption id="attachment_1094" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/planet-spotting-jupiter-venus/ [caption id="attachment_1089" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Twin Lens Canon 450D"][/caption] I've been toying with the idea of a new camera or two for a while now. My existing camera is good, a Panasonic DMC LZ10 but it isn't quite perfect. When I bought it I was after the best of both world, the ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/new-camera-bargain-hunting/ Hiding gecoaches for others to find can be rewarding. It can also be quite time-consuming. First you have to identify a suitable hiding place, then you have to create the cache itself, hide it, write a description and possible devise a puzzle for it and then create the listgin on ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/geocache-appreciation/ I haven't been for a walk in the hills for ages so decided to head off to the north side of Cadair Idris on Saturday for a walk and to do some geocaches. I parked at Ty Nant and walked back along the road a little way to the Gwernan Hotel ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/geocaching-on-cadair-idris-2/ Those who know me or read this blog regularly will know that I fund my 'Simple Life of Luxury' as a freelance website designer which in many ways allows me to get my work-life balance just right. Although, as I've said elsewhere in this blog there are pros and cons ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/work-life-balance-restructured/ As I mentioned in my last blog post we spent the day on the other side of the Dyfi estuary on Saturday as Morgan wanted to go out an take some photos. he took quite a few and once again some of them were pretty good.. Although he does seem ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/more-photos-from-morgan/ Anna's car has decided to die on us... Perfect timing as this has already been an expensive few weeks! First we're having some work done on the house which will cost quite a bit, we've bought some new household appliances too I lost around £750 worth of windsurfing kit at ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/expensive-times-in-the-credit-crunch/ Amazon.co.uk WidgetsI had a nice ride around the ClimachX trail just north of Machynlleth on Monday. Unfortunately on the first bit of singletrack a rock flicked up and snapped the little gear cable guide that runs under the bottom bracket shell on my bike so the rear gears ... http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2008/more-mtb-mechanicals/