Sunday means South Fork

hi there

well, as summer seems to be in its last throes here, with an ever cooler breeze growing stronger on an afternoon, what better way to enjoy the heat and the sun than to take a turn past the magic of South Fork? my dear friend Mike was, as those following this site will be aware, staying there overnight, making it a very good idea indeed to pay a visit.

indeed i did is the answer to those of you asking "did you take a proper camera with you, though". the blueberry thing serves me fine for ad hoc incidents, but it is always better to have a proper camera for proper pictures. well, as proper as Sony can make one.

James very kindly took some time out from playing Lego Star Wars on his PSP thingie, and indeed took a break from checking out the excellent Lego Star Wars watch that Mike had brought him to pose long enough for a quick picture.




that's not bad work at all, since he was at a crucial stage of smashing something or other up in the Star Wars universe!

William, alas, was feeling very much under the weather yesterday. he does tend, however, to simply shrug off any and all illness if it gets in the way of him running around playing. this would not be the greatest picture ever taken of him, but it is not the worst and a good deal better than nothing!




i am happy to say that it was clearly one of those "one off" 24 hour bug things that was bothering William, or maybe just something that he had eaten, as this morning he was rather chipper and pretty much back to his usual self!

back to South Fork and, of course, news of the happy chap that lives there, my Dad. he had of course taken upon himself to welcome Mike and help him relax after his flight in his usual way, which of course involved getting Mike to assist him hammer some random planks of wood onto a door and indeed invite him to assist with a spot of plumbing on the roof. Mike declined the latter offer, somewhat wisely.

we did take the liberty of warning Mike in advance that my Dad has developed one or two curious hobbies of late, the most baffling one of those being "dogging" or at the least his interpretation of it. as it turns out, the phrase "dogging" has not yet entered the standard vocabulary of Australia, but Mike soon clocked what it actually involved. Dad, somewhat thankfully, believes that it means as you can see something different all together!




as for Mike himself, well, it has been superb to see him and catch up as you can imagine, but the lad is rather worn out from a good deal of time in the skies and in different time zones. this did not, of course, stop us having a great time, in particular going for a swim.

now, for some reason my Mum thought it would be excellent to get a picture of the two of us doing handstands in the pool. gone are the days when Mike and i would bike to Berwick Hills or Stokesly baths and still be fit enough for such stunts (well, for me anyway), but we had a good crack at it.

after one or two pictures that didn't quite show it off, this one turned up, which if i say so myself looks rather smart!




for some reason my legs have been getting some rather complimentary words on the grand social network, which leads me to believe they are probably looking at Mike and thinking it is me. for a guide as to which legs belong to who, here is one of us the more conventional way around in the pool!




all of that, and we got to watch those two lesser teams from the North East, Newcastle and Sunderland, play too!

i would imagine, then, between excellent KFC, the Gautrain, seeing Mike again, swimming and watching football, that it goes without saying that we had a very excellent weekend indeed. i can only hope and trust you all did too!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!