Off to the seaside

The forecast was good for today, so we decided to head off west towards the sea for the day. Wales is such a compact little country that we can do that quite easily in a couple of hours or so, even though we live in the north east and even when we stop in Bala for breakfast and very delicious coffee. Mind you, we didn't have unremitting sunshine and blue skies as we had been led to believe, but it was mild and it wasn't raining or blowing a gale, so I guess that was all to the good, and we got to inhale lots of sea air, also good.

We stopped at Morfa Nefyn and Paddy got a walk on the beach. (Yes, that's me in red) He also made friends with a nice chocolate labrador, who stuck to us so closely that I thought we might be taking him home with us, but no, it turned out that he was like that with all the dog visitors - anybody's for a kind word.
Then there was a secluded little place which we stumbled on called Porth O'er which had a tiny beach, also secluded, so secluded that to get to it demanded a climb down a Welsh version of the face of the Eiger. OK so I am exaggerating slightly, but, with Paddy dragging madly on the other end of

the lead, I declined to allow myself to be dragged down there head-first, so Keith very kindly took a  photo.

"A cold coming we had of it..."

So off we set in my little Renault Clio, which Keith is minded to refer to as a 'jelly mould'. Today's journey was to deepest, darkest Yorkshire. Bravely we struggled through gale force winds, traffic cones and the vagaries of the Leeds road system but eventually, we made it, without my having to say to Keith, "I'm going out. I may be some time." Made it where? To Daphne's pad of course, to meet her and Silverback. I have met Silverback before but Keith hadn't and neither of us had met Daphne before. I made a slightly facetious comment about it being like meeting film stars, but what I meant was that meeting fellow bloggers feels a bit like meeting people in the public eye because, having been a follower of their blogs, I feel I already know a bit about them and it's interesting to make the connection between that and the 'real life' them. It was also lovely to meet Daphne's husband, Stephen and her mum, of whom I am definitely in awe as she swims in the sea at Tenby in all temperatures and I can't even stand under the shower unless the water is good and hot.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay very long as we had to carry on to Bradford for an afternoon with my grandson, Paul and Claire and her partner, Chris. I will gloss over the fact that there are two separate roads of the same name but not quite in the same area, both of which can be reached by typing  the same postcode into one's satnav and the fact that this caused quite a degree of frustration. ("Well, we're here, why aren't you? Did you pass a Sainsbury's and a housing estate?" "Actually, no!") Suffice it to say, once more we got there in the end and there they were, patiently waiting for us.
It is about a month since we last saw Paul, and again it was a bittersweet time. Claire and Chris are brilliant with him. Chris has already built up a good rapport with him, which is what we wanted as we feel that the more positive male role models he has in his life the better, but watching him and Paul chasing each other on the grass outside, I couldn't help thinking how it should be Hugh playing with him, as he used to do.