Can it really be more than three weeks since I made an entry here. I'm not like Janis or Annie who write reguarly, with me its far more sporadic.

We have just had a wonderful bank holiday weekend. The weather was glorious, not too hot, just very pleasant. Our friends Elaine and Brian came for dinner on Saturday evening, we cooked on the raclette, we drank Champagne and had a very enjoyable evening. Since knowing Elaine and Brian we seemed to have adopted their habit of drinking Champagne at every opportunity:).

On Saturday afternoon the culmination of my sailing course was the 'Ladies Race'. I was at the helm and Steve was my crew, I don't think letting me 'drive' his boat was an easy thing for Steve to do. However we finished the race, boat in tack, unscathed and unplaced! After weeks of sailing lessons, I couldn't have taken the helm with out Steve's presence, advising, guiding and telling me what do! Were even talking about doing it again next year, but will need much more practise.

We finished off the weekend with a barbecue on the beach, friends, good food and more Champagne. Jane had cooked and prepared so much food, while the rest of us just brought along what had been agreed. The evening finished with coffee at our house as we are the closest to the beach.

It's early on Saturday evening, I'm laying on the settee with my laptop and Steve is in the kitchen cooking dinner. Steve usually cooks on a Saturday evening and although its not 'Cordon Bleu' its always nice to not have to do it myself. Tonight its a very quick pasta dish which I'm sure will be delicious. Its been another glorious day. This morning it was sailing, the last of the lessons until September. Although there was very little wind, it was a great morning to be on the sea. I have gained in confidence and wasn't even phased when I jumped off the boat a little too early into deep water. I'm a poor swimmer, but wearing my 'girlie pink' buoyancy aid gives me such a confidence and the sea was so warm! This afternoon I have been on 'tea duty'. The sailing club is in some respect stuck in the dark ages, it is only the woman who do the tea duty and while some refuse as a principle not to take on the task, I take my turn and have to admit its very grudgingly!

The news today tells of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, its a hundred days since the little girl went missing. The Portuguese Police have today said that they believe she may have been murdered. How her parent manage to carry on with life day to day is remarkable. Sadly it hard to believe that their darling daughter will ever be returned to them.

Wow, what a beautiful day yesterday, the hottest since April! Having arrived back from holiday the day before I had a ton of washing to dry and it was just the day. As if I didn't have enough to do, I stripped off the bed and laundered the sheets etc. I even put the same ones back on the bed last night and one of my small pleasures is that lovely smell of sheets that have been dried on the line! (how sad). It was lovely to have a day at home, I didn't do much else, spent some time sitting in the garden with a book, made some garlic bread as we had invited Paul and Sandy to join us for a barbecue. Our pleasant evening ended quite early as Steve and our guests had to be up for work on Monday:). I however could have had a lay in this morning, but I was up with the lark. I have done more washing, I tend to leave guest beds until I know that friends who have only slept in the sheets for one day aren't coming back, thus saving myself extra work. This morning and as the sun is shining again I decided to take advantage of a good drying day. I have spent quite a bit of time ironing and cleaning , my Tesco delivery arrived, I can't quite understand how I managed to order just one mushroom. I'm not going anywhere to day until I go across the road for my aqua aerobics class. Sometimes I just like being here all by myself.

It's back home after a week in beautiful Abersoch in North Wales. The scenery was truly breathtaking and we were blessed with lovely weather, warm enough to spend sometime on the beach and to swim in the sea. The reason for the trip to Wales was so that Steve and his crew Tim could take part in the Laser 2000 national sailing championships. At the same time of the 2000 nationals the Laser 4000 nationals were taking place. Sadly one of the boats in this group was involved in a tragic accident and one of the crew drowned! This obviously had a depressing effect on the rest of the competitors, but the event did continue. I'm sure that it was the right thing to do and that the sailor would have wanted the races to go ahead. The dead man was 48, the same age as Steve and I'm sure just as keen on his sport as Steve. My thoughts are with his family at this time.
Steve and Tim went on to win second prize in the Silver fleet, well done to them both.
We stayed in a very small cottage with Jane and Tim, it was well equipped and situated in the middle of town, backing onto a small picturesque harbour. The only drawback was that there was a pub right opposite and so it was a mite noisy, though I invested in my first pair of ear plugs and slept very soundly after the first night.
I tried to walk most mornings along the beautiful coastline, the beach was empty apart from the occasional dog walker, the miles of sand were such a contrast to the rough broken cobbles of Lee On Solent.
Jane and I ventured out during the week, we visited little towns such as Pwelli and Cricieith where we climbed up to the top of the castle to see the spectacular views of the LIyn peninsular.
Wednesday was day off from sailing and the four of us went out for the day. We visited Port Merrion, the village built by Clough Williams Ellis close to Port Madoc. We ended the day back in Abersoch for a meal at the 'Sandpipers' restaurant to have an early celebration for Jane's birthday on the Friday.
Today we left early and made a stop in Wigan to see Matt, just for an hour, but the icing on the cake of a great weeks holiday.