The Mini Moss Project » grandparents

Sally’s 60th in Perugia

barn — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:22:08 +0000

Despite the Lambeth Registrar’s best efforts, we finally got a birth certificate for Indie and Pip went directly to Petty France for an express passport application. Indie was interviewed to determine her suitability for British citizenship, a passport photo taken in the split-second between Pip removing her supporting hand, and Indie’s head rolling off to one side was accepted, and the passport arrived last Saturday lunchtime. On Saturday evening we’d booked flights for the Wednesday, for myself and four Moss women – Pip, Laurie, Indie and my Mum.

We flew out to Bologna early on Wednesday morning and drove three hours to Perugia, where we furtively rendezvoused with Ginny. She led the way up into the mountains where Sally and David had rented an trio of enormous converted farm buildings (1, 2, 3) on in isolated hillside for Sally’s 60th birthday party. We got Laurie changed into her swimming costume and rubber ring just in time, and Sally was overcome (to say the least!) when we sprung the surprise.

People were coming and going all week, but on the Thursday it was full house for the main event with around thirty of us. Caterers came in to cook us a big Italian dinner, there were speeches, singing from Janie Dee and Jo, and Maureen led some vigorous dancing.

The rest of the week we spent our time around the pool, visiting Assisi (as in St Francis), Cortona and Perugia, and walking up and down the Roman road outside the villa.

Here’s a slideshow, and the full gallery (now with hi-res versions if you want a print) is here.

Update – my Mum’s posted her photos here!

Update – Keith’s posted his photos here!

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Last camping in the three-man tent

barn — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:40:17 +0000

Pip, Laurie and I spent our last free weekend before we’re in the drop-zone by going camping as a family of three for the last time. As it was the Tilmanstone Church Fete that weekend we camped outside Folkestone, and my Mum & Dad came in their motor-home as well.

We had a very English weekend – here’s our checklist!

Sitting in a tent in the rain
Scampi and chips in a pub
Sandy beach and sandcastles in the sun
Half a mile of thick mud between the end of the sand and the start of the sea
Church fete
Live jazz
Punch and Judy
Losing at tug o’ war
Barbecuing after the weather’s gone cold
Rowing boats
Blackberry picking (from rowing boats, extra points)
A picnic
A steam train ride
A miniature railway ride
A miniature steam train ride (extra points)
Climbing a lighthouse
A shingle beach in the drizzle
A cream tea on top of the White Cliffs of Dover, overlooking France.

The full gallery is here.

Sally & David Williams’ Ruby Wedding Anniversary

barn — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:03:01 +0000

We spent this weekend in Kent at Pip’s parents’ house, celebrating their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations, Sally & David!

The house was full, there were motorhomes in the paddocks, campers in the garden, and a jazz band in the bolt-hole. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah were the guests of honour, and in the Saturday night barbecue competition they chose my burgers over all others.

Sunday was a church service, then some memorable speeches and a lunch, accompanied by Jo’s Mother Hubbard’s Traditional Jazz Band, and the London Adventist Chorale.

On the Monday I took some formal photos, then Pip, Gin, Laurie and I went to the beach at Broadstairs with Venetia and Dave and their four boys. I swam in the sea for probably the last time this year (and the only time in Britain!)

The rest of the photos are here.

Update 22nd July 8:15 – Pip took some (weird false colour) videos. They’re on YouTube here, here and here.

More Dorset Photos

barn — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:21:22 +0000

My Mum’s posted her photos from Dorset…

Pants

barn — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:59:54 +0000

A video from my tech-literate Mum! You need the sound on. A cute first half, loses its way in the middle, but has an ending no one expects. So you have to watch the whole thing, but it’s only 90 seconds long.

Full screen and high-quality recommended.

Christmas at the Mosses

barn — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:15:00 +0000

We spent Christmas at the Mosses’ in Felixstowe. That was a long time ago, but I’ve been trying to do some fancy stuff with my website. It hasn’t worked, so I’ll just post the photos.

Full gallery here.

Morocco Photos

barn — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:24:56 +0000

We’re back from our Morocco holiday, and I’ve uploaded the photos. Pip’s going to blog her holiday diary with the full story, but for now you can see my photos on the gallery here (page 2 here), and Gin’s photos here.

Here are a few to keep you going…

Dom and Asia’s Wedding, Poland August 2008

barn — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:01:17 +0000

Dom and Asia became Mr & Mrs Collison in Torun, Poland on 23rd August 2008. We all flew out on the Thursday morning and spent a couple of days enoying the city.

For a full city panorama click here or go direct here.

We stayed in a fantastic hotel with two-storey rooms, where the reception was held. The reception lasted two days, but Ryanair screwed up our flights so we had to come back on the morning of the second day.

The wedding was in a huge cathedral in the town centre.

The reception included a 14 course meal running from 5pm through to 3am (borscht), washed down with 72 litres of vodka for the 80 guests! Music was provided by a live band, and by Jo and Rob when they could hijack the instruments.

See the full gallery here.

I’m still working on my short film of the trip!

Le Camping

barn — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:24:26 +0000

We’ve just got back from France, where we camped for the weekend with my Mum and Dad. They’re just finishing their 2008 Grand European Tour and hadn’t seen Laurie for around four months.

We went down to Kent on Thursday night after work, then caught a ferry from Dover first thing Friday morning. We were with the Grandparents in time for lunch. They’d found a nice little campsite next to a river below the walls of Montreuil Sur Mer, Pas De Calais – about 15 miles inland from Boulogne, and around 45 minutes drive from Calais.

Laurie’s obviously grown a lot in four months – Mum required an emergency osteopath session after trying to lift her into the motorhome. Get well soon Mum!

We put up our giant tent next to their giant motorhome, and went into the town that afternoon. The next day we visited Le Touquet, and on the Sunday we mainly looked for the car keys, also having lunch at the beach.

Lots of rosé, steak frites and moules frites were consumed, and we got the ferry back on Sunday night (eventually, after missing the first one).

The rest of the photos are here.

Marathon Ran

barn — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:45:45 +0000

On October 7th 2007, my brother-in-law Jo & I ran the Loch Ness Marathon. We both finished, he in 4:15:24 (866/1427), and I in 4:36:05 (1096/1427).
Pip & Ginny ran the River Ness 10K at the same time, and Griff, Clare, Amy and Skye came up to babysit, as did my parents in their motorhome.

Despite the hills I didn’t have any of the injuries I feared, except for a bad case of jogger’s nipple where I lost a nipple-nut after around 10 miles.

See all the photos here, or download a Google Earth KMZ file here.