It may only be April, but it was time for our family holiday to Portland in Dorset. Why Portland in Dorset? Well, I was planning on competing in what looked like a nice sprint distance triathlon there on Sunday 12th, and it was the area that I studied for for PhD. looking at the palaeoecology of the area. It was also not far from where Anna and I first met on a geology field trip sop it seemed like a good idea to take Morgan to this part of the world, especially as he has been wanting to go fossil hunting for a while.

Good Friday

We were going to stop off at my parents house for Easter on the way down to the South Coast, so we spent most of the day on Good Friday packing the car and tidying the house. I also did a nice hard turbo trainer session and went for a nice run, and spent some time putting the new roof-rack on the car. We were then loading the roofrack up with a sit-on top canoe in a howling gale and freezing rain. Halfway through this process Anna looked at me and said “Are we actually going to use this?” Judging by the cold weather I kind of agreed with her so we decided not to bother with the sit-on top. I therefore took it off the roof, removed the roofrack and continued with the packing so that we were ready to leave on Saturday morning.

Saturday

I had been waiting for my new Garmin Fenix 3 watch to arrive and had noticed that according to the tracking number it was sitting in a depot in Llandrindodd Wells and due to the Easter Bank Holidays wouldn’t be delivered until Tuesday when I wouldn’t be there. I phoned the delivery company to ask if I could collect it from the depot on Saturday morning as we would be passing close by and was told that there would be someone there until midday and that I could collect it.

We therefore set off on our holiday with the car packed and the added excitement of collecting my new watch too. An hour later we arrived at the depot in Llandrindodd Wells to find it all locked up and with no one there. We phoned the delivery company call centre again only to be told that they thought there should be someone there and there was nothing they could do. We couldn’t collect my watch after all so I arranged delivery for a day when we would be back, and said that it was lucky we hadn’t driven all the way there specially. We continued on our way to Bristol with a stop for a Burger King in Builth Wells.

Next stop was Go Outdoors in bristol to buy a climbing harness for Morgan, and then off to Ikea for Anna to have a look around and buy some fabric for her Mum. We eventually arrived at my parents house and had dinner with them

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a lazy day at my parents house. Anna and I went for a little stroll and found a geocache and then the house was invaded with the whole family; my Mum and Dad, me, Anna and Morgan, my brother Jay with his wife Jennie and children Megan, Harry, Charlie and Jack, My brother Brad and his wife Eloise, My Sister Trudi and her partner Mike, along with her children Kia and Shaun. Kia also had her partner Max there and her newborn baby Ryder. Quite a house full for a nice roast dinner and plenty of puddings. It was then off to bed ready to start our holiday proper with a drive to Dorset the next day…

Family Photo

Tags: Family