"Messing about on the river" Dee and RHINOMANIA

Its great when Dad comes because we do touristy things...

...like messing about on the river, this time a 2 hour boat cruise along the Dee on the fairly new boat "The Jackie"








We were soon past the famous suspension bridge








along the straight mile



... through 'Eaton Estate', home of the Duke and Duchess of Westminster past Heron Bridge and Eccleston Ferry, meandering around the crook of Dee and through 'Eaton Estate' with its most beautiful and peaceful scenery



Aldford was next,
then the wonderful sight of the Iron Bridge, before returning to Chester.



It was lovely. And we had just enough time to see a few rhinos!

Chester has been brightened up with 62 colourful rhinos dotted about all over the city all 6 feet in length and weighing 60 kilos. In addition there are 116 baby rhinos decorated by local schools. During the school holidays the town has been full of families with their rhino maps following the trail, some are really stunning.

click here for all 62 designs...RHINOMANIA













They have also made it over to the Choaks



My favourite so far is the Jigsaw Rhino. (Puzzled Rainbow, number 14)

Geoff takes his eye out.

Cataract operation successful!! So time to take the new eye out to test it-where better than the cricket club with Pooch.

It was nice to see some of our young lads doing a bit of ground work.



Dad supervised from the bench.



So far so good





The flower tubs were looking good. Dad thought they looked lovely and colourful




as did the splendid hanging baskets

The Glen Roy Open 2010

The crowds were out in force yesterday (well the next door neighbour anyway) to witness the first match in the newly established Glen Roy Open, generously funded by Mr D. Sville to whom we are all extremely grateful.

Teams lined up as follows:-

Mr D. Sville and Mr GG
Mrs Aliholli and Richy "Maurice" Benno
Mrs Smith and a Cub
The Bear and the Edster

The organisers were obviously expecting some crowd trouble...




One of the competitors schneaked in a little practise shot...



Ed teed off first..



Followed by a very keen Mrs Smith..



It was all looking very good for a par 3



With no puddles to jump in, the Cub controlled the crowd.



GG takes a shot and stuns us all, he was GOOD!



This is excellent technique, these are good straight arms.



Dislocated shoulder??? This is also a fantastic shot.



Mr Perfectpants



Is it just me or does this look like a little ball tampering going on? 2 shot penalty I thought.



The ball has to be inside all 5 cones... sorry Wills..



Good chip for a birdie



ball-over-fence-prevention (fail) (!)



GG was really good (and very cute)



"Hit it Mum"



So I did.



It felt great whoop whoop!!



Chris, where did your ball go???



A flying head butt???



eueueuwwueueueuuwww terrible shot lads, must be a bogey



And the winners are....... HUSB AND ED!!



"....and we all played well and we all enjoyed the game...."
(memories of Stoke Park)

VENICE!!

The Doge's palace
Day 2 and we were up early to use our unlimited vaporetto tickets into Venice, this time for our tour of the Doge's Palace where we heard the tale of Casanova's escape in great detail!




Having visited the prisoners cells and then walked along the Bridge of Sighs



we were left to explore the lavish rooms of the Palace. Tintoretto continued to impress us, this being the longest oil on canvas masterpiece in the world



All this culture left us a little peckish so we did what one has to do when in Venice...we found ourselves a lovely little pizza place and had lunch.



It was no wonder my dress was feeling tight!



Venice.... loved it.


Doge's palace (worth a click!)