Birthday Boy

Today is Dave's 31st birthday!

Some random things that happened to us over Christmas...

We talked to Sara's relatives in the States on Christmas day on a sort of video-conference thing using webcams. Although the camera kept going down at the American end (makes a change to things going wrong at the Brit end!) it was an amazing experience and makes you marvel at how quickly this sort of technology has become available to us in our homes. A great experience and a great way of keeping in touch with folks a long, long way away.

We went to Prenton Park to see Tranmere v Barnsley on Boxing Day. We sat quite close to the away end so enjoyed the barnsley fans singing "Feed the scousers, let them know it's Christmas", what a rib-tickler! Sara confessed to divided loyalties as the Barnsley fans also chanted "Yorkshire!" Great to see the ground packed - 11,500. Not so great to see us throw away 3 points when Barnsley equalised deep into injury time which sent the away fans into heaven. Although it finished a draw, it felt like we'd lost the game. Dave met an old school friend after the game who's recently moved back to the Wirral from London and is loving it. Dave felt a twang of envy...

We went out to Lyme Park where some of the BBC's Pride and Prejudice was shot and set off on a country ramble. Alas, we miscalculated how much daylight we would have and were only half way through the walk when we realised it was getting dark very quickly! We pretty much ran the second half and scrambled down a hill somehow finding our way back to the car park in the darkness. Next time we're definetly taking a torch.

The tsunami disaster has had added resonance for us as we were were on honeymoon in one of the places that was hit - Penang in Malaysia -only last March. We haven't yet seen any pictures of what it looks like now but have read that our resort was badly affected. Things like this make you put your own problems into some sort of perspective.