David, Grace, Sarah and Emma Bellis

On last summer's trip to Milford Haven I was lucky to catch up with some old school friends. We called in to visit Mark Jones' mum & dad, and got Mark's phone number. Turned out he was arranging a party where Peter Morgan and Wendy Trew came along too:

The fuzzy spots on the photos are the Pembrokeshire mist he kindly arranged, to give me that authentic summertime feeling. It was great to see them again - I think I first met Mark and Peter aged about 7, when we all joined cub scouts at around the same time!

I also bumped into Sharon Jones in Tesco, and saw Robin Copley's dad while in Dale. He says that Robin is still in Pembrokeshire too.

We didn't see anyone else from school on this trip, but on our 2004 visit we were a bit more mobile and made it down to visit Huw Thomas at his home near Southampton. Here's a photo of Huw and his daughter Ellora from that trip:

Take a look at the 1979 photo of the Grammar School staff & pupils to see how we've changed.

Here's wishing you a healthy, wealthy and happy year of the pig.

We had a busy New Year's day, cooking in the morning:

We took the finished article along to Yuen Long for the New Year pot-luck meal with Grace's family, and finished the day at Angela's, to wish her a Happy New Year.

Nope...

Elizabeth sent this funny bath toy for Emma's first birthday. It sings, but when you turn it over it changes to sound as though the toy penguin has its head underwater. I'm not sure who's had most fun playing with it - me or Emma!

You can see it in this video, along with a few other clips of Emma's first year of bathtimes.

We tried an afternoon visit to Disneyland yesterday, collecting Sarah from Kindergarten after lunch and catching the train out to Disney for a couple of hours. It went well - ie no tantrums when it was time to leave! And although we only stayed a couple of hours, we got to see lots of things as the queues were either short or non-existent.

If you look at the photos below, you can see that Sarah still has mixed emotions about meeting the characters. While it all seems good in theory, when she's standing right next to them the awe takes over ...

We paid Mark & Jasmine a visit on Sunday to see Maya for the first time. She's a cheerful young lady, full of smiles. Here she is with Grace & Jasmine:

The girls all had fun playing in the garden, and Mark shows definite potential to be a 'Creative Kids' supply teacher:

Grace & I will be at Zentro's (above Airport Express) by appx 6:45 this evening. Hope to see you there.

Emma is one today.

Here she is at breakfast admiring her birthday card & new Piglet from Nana.

And here she is at this time last year!

Yesterday saw Sarah on duty as part of her kindergarten's welcoming committee. Each morning several children stand outside and shake hands with all other pupils as they arrive.

It's not something I'd heard of before, is it a common practice?

Also we had a bit of a muddle in communications. I thought I was supposed to accompany Sarah and join in the welcome line, which I did, and had a wonderful time. Though about halfway through I realised that A) there was only one other parent present, and B) they weren't in the line. Ah, what the heck, noone asked me to leave so I had a happy quarter-hour spent kneeling down and wishing each new arrival a cheery "jo san" (good morning).

Here's Sarah's favourite teacher, Luk Lo-si, just before the crowds arrived.

Sarah enjoyed it. If she ends up with a career as a politician, we can blame it on this.