This is to wish you a lovely Christmas and a very happy New Year. This year, the Salvation Army and the East Anglian Air Ambulance are benefiting from the money that I usually spend on cards and stamps, so please count this as your own special Christmas greeting from me, with love, Ruthie :-)

Good hair day :-)

A couple more snaps from the evening... you can see what fun we had... 

I rather like the multicoloured look... :-) I may have to experiment some more!

New Hair Day!

This is what the wonderful ladies at the golf club did... :-) The evening was huge fun.. the lady who cut it and the two who coloured it did a wonderful job! We raised £180 for the Air Ambulance :-) And I love it! :-)

Long, long time... and no blog!

Thought I'd better update a little. This year has been very busy, mainly with Golf, but also with Phil returning for a couple of months before heading back to Korea, and Tim moving into a flat in Bedford. Bridgie is happily ensconced in Manchester and Keith has been on his usual trips to Ethiopia which has meant that I have been able to concentrate on golf without too much guilt. Most of the time it has been huge fun although I have had my moments when there have been a few things to deal with as well.

However... purpose of the blog is to show you my hair!  It hasn't been cut since August of last year and it is due to be cut on Friday. 

Friday is the Ladies Presentation Dinner when all the awards and prizes are presented for the year. We usually have a little entertainment too.. but this year it will be The Hair Cut. One (or maybe more) of the Ladies is going to cut my hair.. maybe colour it... who knows!

Over the year we have been collecting donations towards the East Anglian Air Ambulance.. and this particular effort has been christened The Hedge Fund (...you know... "You look like you've been pulled through a hedge backwards!") It stands at about £90 at the moment. Bridgie and Phil would both like me to keep it long... I am certainly enjoying it long so may well simply grow it out again - it seems to grow quite quickly!

So, I am looking forward to seeing what they do.. I'll keep you posted!

Captain Pugwash?

Saturday was the initiation of the new captains at the golf club... we played a competition first, then had the 'Drive in'

Seemed appropriate - borrowed from Tim!

The aim is to raise money for the charity that we have selected for the year, which for Trace and I is the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Trace, Ryan and Yours Truly!

Suitably kitted out (and joined by the Juniors' Captain) we each hit a drive as far as possible... with fellow golfers having guessed where our tee shots may end up, with prizes for the closest. At a pound a square this is a good fund raiser :-)

But the Drive is not without its distractions!

Welcome Lady Captain!

Buckets of water scooped from the nearby pond... leaves and all... are used to make you feel at home!

It was actually great fun... we raised over £300 on the day, and the best bit? I hit my drive further than the men!  (Mind you... they did have rather more water thrown at them!)

So all is done and dusted now and we can get on with the year proper... it looks very busy on the calendar... and hopefully will be full of golfing fun!

Catching up!

:-)

Some catch up pictures...

Holywell

                                                                       

Perran

                                                                   

A Hedgehog - Cornish ice-cream, clotted cream... hazlenuts... 

                     

Carvoza Rd

                                                                   

Carvoza Rd

                                                                     

 Bridgie on her roof terrace -  central Manchester beyond 

                                                       

A place for parties I think...

                                                             

  Sunrise at Caswell

                                                             

Sunrise from the flat

                                                           

I had a few days in Cornwall when it was blowing a gale and the sea was magnificent :-)
The house in Carvoza road looked squashed and cramped... not so much the old one.. but the new one... odd to see it so changed!

This was followed by a visit to Manchester and Bridgie's lovely flat... she loves the city and  her roof terrace is amazing... I see lots of fun there. I doubt if it is visible in the pic but there was snow on the Pennines that day..

And then down to the flat at Caswell for a final few days before all the business of the golfing year!
 It was wonderful.      Each morning I sat in the flat doorway wrapped in a sleeping bag watching the sun rise...

:-)

..Korea cont..

The Trip to Suwon on the bus gave us great confidence in getting around and the next day Bridgie went exploring on her own. I was very tired and had to rest so Bridgie caught a taxi to Suwon station where the big shops were. She was fascinated by these aquariums...

Bridgie spotted Nemo in top left!

I felt a bit guilty leaving her on her own to explore but she was very happy and the rest did me good. When she got back she visited our favourite little eatery...

Bridgie's favourite snack :-)

We met up with Phil in the evenings, about 10pm and would go out for a meal together with his mates, before returning to the hotel any time between 1am and 5! It worked really well as it was sort of in keeping with our body clocks!
Bridgie and I ventured into Seoul on the bus - the buses were brilliant, inexpensive and frequent, though some of the driving was 'interesting'. The bus lane was the fast lane of the motorway so when a bus joined or left the motorway it just headed straight across the 5 or 6 lanes seemingly ignoring everyone else - it took a little getting used to.

Seoul was lovely, we both found it a fascinating place and easy to get round. Phil leant us a lonely planet guide and we did a walking tour which took in some lovely sights. The Hammering Man was fascinating... though I decided it might be a woman...

Here are some pictures from that day...

There was an amazing display at the entrance to one of the palaces..

 More soon :-)

Phil sets off today to Buenos Aires for his 6month adventure travelling S America :-)  He's hoping to write a blog.. if he does I'll send the link

...Suwon fortress

Continuing the story... this was a wonderful day, the fortress wall encircles the old town and we were able to walk the whole distance. You can see we had lovely weather and the chance to strike the huge bell, you could strike it three times, each one a prayer, for family, friends and the world.

The prayer areas were beautiful, though I managed to clobber my head on the low lintel on this one and saw a few stars!

Looking out from the walls, Suwon was spread below us, and high rise as far as the eye could see.

This chilli shop was amazing...

and this hat museum

..Bridgie was a lovely companion on the trip, she put up with my foibles very well, and she was great fun to be around :-) and she loved these signs... the other pics are self explantory...