Scavenger Hunt

Sundays are for family fun days,  Miss Boo has always liked Sundays as they are family days, so one Sunday with our Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt List in hand we set out on a Road Trip - no real destination in mind we climb into the Roberts Mobile and headed to the petrol station for Fuel and "Shut-ups" ( a whole other story).


The List:


Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt 2012



1. A pier
2. A clothesline
3. A border
4. A roadside stand selling something
5. A train
6. A historical landmark
7. A person playing a musical instrument
8. A person dressed as an angel or a statue of an angel

9. A fountain

10. A horse

11. A shadow

12. A maze, labyrinth, or trail.

13. A library

14. A person playing with a ball.

15. Someone dancing.

16. A bride.

17. A church, chapel, cathedral, mosque or temple.

18. A movie poster

19. An outdoor stairway

20. A swing hanging from a tree (or a hammock)
21.  A picture of you standing with something that symbolizes your nation.
Substitute Item (new this year):  If you find any of the above too hard, you may substitute a photograph of either a heart-shaped stone or a four leaf clover for one item; however, you may not substitute this item for #21. 

We looked at the list and noted that a Boarder was one of the things we had to photograph so I headed towards Chepstow and the English Boarder..........  unfortunately Biker Boy wasn't aware that riding shot gun meant both navigating and photographing (well he had to be good a one of those)  and we missed the boarder into England as we headed up towards the Forest of Dean as I had spotted the Forest of Dean Railway on the Map and as one of the 
items in the list was a train I figured that this might be an interesting one instead of a boring intercity one.

So we drove and found Park Dean, we pulled up outside the station and decided to go and see if any trains were running today, we were in luck not only were they running but there was a special event on and there were lots of trains running today both diesel ones and steam, so we sat an waited for the trains - well some of us sat others stood and willed the train to appear!

Then the toot toot of a steam train filled the air and we all got excited and then the train appeared

The the sound of rumbling tummies drowned out the train and we decided that the call of the carvery was too much and we headed across the road to the luckily named pub.... which gave us another tick on our scavenger hunt and LUNCH and sunday lunch at that 

The Carvery looked spectacular and miss boo enjoyed her's minus the meat

But definitely PLUS dessert

After the feast it was decided that we sound have a stroll around Parkdean as we had seen a sign that said there was a local church open day and as church was on our list and where there is a church there are usually angels we decided this could be a good day out and we would get lots crossed off our list, plus we really needed to burn off the calories of the sumptious lunch.   

BUT as we strolled across to the path way to the parish church we saw the twirly outside stairs (plus tiggersuit on the washing line) and the gorgeous one on the Parkdean Works building.   we couldn't decide which was the better one so we took both......

It was a beautiful day and so we strolled up the hill towards the parish church and it's little grave yard and the sweetest little angel statue you could imagine.  Once we had looked around the church and Miss Boo had signed the visitors book.


She did it all by herself, and wrote that she thought the church was beautiful and she especially liked the way the light shone in through the windows.








As it was a Sunday and there was still school, on monday we decided to head home the pretty way, and as we were in the Forest of Dean it meant heading down the Wye Valley, and through 
Tintern.  Well it would be criminal not to make the joke........................






T'int an Abbey - Yes it is Big church look

Where we finished the Sunday in the most perfect way with a cream tea for me a pint for Simon and friends to play with for emily, whilst watching a local Cricket match so we got two more things off our list someone playing with a ball and a shadow.....

me and my shadow of me taking a picture of my shadow, well i thought it was clever.  But we left the bets till last as we came down through Chepstow a different way this time past the Race Course - we noted that they had put in a new roundabout and on the round about was a horse - we decided that NO-ELSE would have a horse like this one....................

Remember don't call them ......

This story has been brought to you through "Story-telling Sunday" invented by Sian Fromhighinthesky  Why not pop over there after you have read my story and see all the other stories




Around 2007 Me, Biker Boy and Betty Boo were living in Oldham (near Manchester), when we suffered the loss of a friend in an accident, which made us reassess our lives and our priorities, and for me made the longing to return Home to South Wales (something I had not even thought about for 21 years) very strong.  

After much discussion and phone calls home to mum to see if we could crash land into their lives, and job searching Biker Boy got offered a Job in Cardiff, so notice got ready to pack our lives into boxes.  

I however had still not got a job to go to and was beginning to get a bit worried about this, with three weeks to go before we all moved and only a week to go before Simon had to move down (he started a week before I could finish as a Practice Manager for  GP) I got a letter inviting me for an interview as a Practice Manger for a Drugs Team.  This meant a long over night drive to mums, and my lovely WSD (wicked stepdad) drove me up to Pontypool for my interview.

Now as any good jobseeker knows you have to have a question to ask at the end of your interview, and it must NOT be about money or holidays, and everyone asks about training and promotion possibilities and I like to be different, but my research had turned up nothing!!!!!.   So the day of the interview arrived and I arrived a little early (I HATE WAITING) and was shown into the facility and the "drop in" area and asked to wait,  as there were several notice boards I took the chance to look around and glean some much needed info into the Drugs Team, and I noticed that they had clinics everywhere EXCEPT the newly crowned CITY of Newport,  There was my question!!!! why were they not running clinics in Newport.  I went into my interview convinced that this was the job winning question...............

The interview Panel consisted of three people two women and a man I can only describe as a Welsh Graham Norton, dressed in a red shinny suit with a Hawaiian Shirt and Red Doc Martins, with a Colonel Sanders Moustache and a Valley's Accent.  The interview went well, i gave intelligent answers to very well thought out questions,  then came the final question, "have you got anything you would like to ask us?"  this was it would this be the question that got me the job.........................................

Now I must stop at this point to mention that all my friends had been worried about me taking this job and working with "druggies' smackheads, etc etc you name it they have given me a slang name for the service users I would be working with, and I had been at pains to make sure that I did not use any of these slang terms during my interview!!!!!.

So here we go I asked " I noticed the boards in the Drop in area whilst I was waiting and I was wondering why there were no clinic sessions in Newport, as I am sure that they have to have at least one  .......... wait for it DRUGGIE, to qualify for CITY status................. there it was I had got the the last seconds of my interview and I had slipped up and said the word DRUGGIE................... the two women, both dropped their heads and smiled as the man carried on answering the question with such vigour, very pleased I had noticed this and keen to given me the answer to what proved to be the perfect question.  He appeared not to have noticed my GAFF, i however was mortified and wanted nothing more than the be swollowed up by the ground.  i heard nothing of his answer the sound of my own voice saying DRUGGIE DRUGGIE DRUGGIE......................

The nice welsh Graham Norton finished answering my question smiled at me and when i said i had no more questions showed me out, I was convinced I had blown it and walked down the hill away from the building slapping myself on the forehead saying "DRUGGIE, DRUGGIE, how could you get all the way through and blow it like that you MUPPET"  My lovely WSD arrived to pick me up and asked as i got in "how did it go"  "don't ask" i said : you won't believe it but i said DRUGGIE"  i then explained and he laughed and said maybe they didn't notice..................

I drove back to Oldham and arrived just in time to collect my darling daughter from the child minders, when my phone rang.................. I answered it saying "hello"  Hi said the voice "this is Jeff, I am happy to say we thought you were fab and would like to offer you the job"   - " "Your Joking" i said  "no when can you start"    "Well I move down friday" i said, "great can you start monday" he said (and I am now sure he wasn't joking) " um well got to get unpacked and find child care, can we make it the following week"  "yes great he said see you then"  and hung up the phone.

and so my two years of the steepest, most taxing, but absolutely the most fun learning curve started at GPwSI Consortium, and when we lost the contract two years later and I was attending an interview for a job in a Psychiatric Hospital, Jeff text me and all the text said was "Remember don't call them NUTTERS  and a text smiley :) "  and i knew that he had heard me  that day but had decided that this was the right job for me, and to this day I am soooooooo glad he did......