Beautiful Cottage

And luckily for me, I am friends with the owners. I popped over today to drop off a birthday card to my friend Denise. She lives in, what I would say is my dream cottage. How i would love to live in a house like this. Parts are 16th century, possibly older. It is full of character and is in a beautiful setting overlooking open countryside. So I can't wait for a day when we can visit for a nice summer barbecue or gardening day, so that we can enjoy a bit of this lovely house with them. Of course, I stood well back, at the doorstep, and had a quick chat, before driving back to mum's.

Manda had been to the post office to buy envelopes so that we can post off orders of service to a few friends and family who were not able to join us yesterday. This afternoon, we enveloped up a few of those, and will do the rest tomorrow.

I've felt really tired today. Did a bit more filing of bills, and an organised file is taking shape. Mum even rang up to book her MOT today, which is due soon.

Have done a bit more family history research using some of dad's family history cds. It was another of his many hobbies. Dad picked up the family history tracing in the late 1990's, after I had made a good start on it. But whereas I had done it pre internet, but with little spare time, dad had retired and was able to start visiting Somerset House to view original documents, and buy certificates. He loved those trips as he had a deep love of exploring, and always loved visiting London, which he knew, as they say, like the back of his hand. And he really did. Dad loved technology too. When he got the opportunity he was the first in the family to get a computer with the Internet. Dial up. Do you remember that? I remember visiting them often for the weekend, just to get 'a go' on this magic new invention 'the Internet'. Then spent hours just trawling the Internet. It made our family history research so much easier. But dad had always provided us with the opportunities to explore any new technology, and in the early 80s when he bought a BBC Micro - one of the first personal computers - just before Christmas one year, i don't think we appreciated just how lucky we were. That computer featured strongly in my teenage years, broadening my interest in computers. How far we have come since then!

Anyway, another day here and then I will go home Saturday morning, so might have a go at collating more of dad's technological bits together to put in the loft for now. It will make the bedroom a bit tidier - and make me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile.