On Saturday 12/09/2015 Sam and Pete were married in Mauritius. This was later followed by a wedding receptiion at The Great Barr Hotel. Please click the Pictures to see the various photo albums.
Wedding Honeymoon Reception

On Fri 03/07/2015 With Paul and Zena we went to Bletchley Park
On  Sat 04/07/2015 A Party was held at The Methodist Church, Meriden to celebrate the twins 3rd birthday.	Photo Album 1  Photo Album 2  Video 1  Video 2
On Wednesday 29/07/2015  With Keith and Allison  We went to Fradley Junction
On  Sun 05/07/2015 With Carol and John We Visited National Trust Rock Houses - Kinver and also Bridgnorth
Thu 30/07/2015 Daniel & Faustine came over From France until Monday 10August
Tue 11/08/2015 Keith's Dogs Came to stay for 3 days Until 13/08/15
On Tue 04/08/2015 we took the twins for a day out at Packwood House (National Trust	On Thu 06/08/2015 we took Bryony for a day out at Beacon Park - Lichfield
On Tue 11/08/2015 we took the Twins for a day out at Beacon Park - Lichfield	On Sat 22/08/2015 there was a big family gathering and BBQ at Christine's house to celebrate Liam's 18th Birthday Party
On Sat 22/08/2015 Neil and Donna celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary Party at the Community Centre.

Once again it has been such a busy period that I have not had the chance to update my website until now! Here are my main highlights:
Saturday 11 April Oscars First Birthday was celebrated with various family members attending Jimmy Spices Restaurant in Sutton Coldfield. To View my photo album please click here
Friday 24 April With Carol and John we visited Packwood House a timber-framed Tudor manor house near Lapworth, Warwickshire. Owned by the National Trust since 1941, the house is a Grade I listed building. It has a wealth of tapestries and fine furniture, and is known for the garden of yews. To View my photo album please click here. Later the same day we then visited Visited Baddesley Clinton. Belonging to the National Trust Baddesley Clinton is a moated manor house, located just north of the historic town of Warwick in the English county of Warwickshire; To view my photo album please click here.
Tuesday 26 May Steve and Paul Went to the Barclaycard Arena (Formerly called the NIA - National Indoor Arena) in Birmingham to watch a Dr Who Spectacular. This live show featured over 100 performers and was conducted by Ben Foster, who conducts and orchestrates the musical scores for the TV series. Music was be performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and members of the BBC National Chorus of Wales.The show also included a host of the Doctor’s famous adversaries including the iconic Daleks and Cybermen, the spine-chilling Silence and many more fan favourites. To view my photo album please click here.
Saturday 30 May Bryonys 3rd birthday was celebrated by way of a buffet and garden party at her home with several family members in attendance. Click here for my photo album.
Sunday 7 June Rebecca is proud to share some photographs of Oscar in celebration of his first Birthday. Click the picture to view the album.	Tuesday 9 June 2015 Carl and Heather finally announce the forthcoming new addition to their family. Her baby is due in mid December. Congratulations to both proud parents. Click the picture to view the picture in large size.
Sunday 7 June With Carol and John we visited Waddesdon Manor a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898). The house, set in formal gardens and an English landscape park, was built on a barren hilltop overlooking Waddesdon village.The last member of the Rothschild family to own Waddesdon was James de Rothschild. He bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust in 1957. Today, following an extensive restoration, it is administered by a Rothschild charitable trust that is overseen by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild. In 2007–08 it was the National Trust's second most visited paid-entry property, with 386,544 visitors Click here to view my photo album.
Friday 26 June Paul and Steve went to the Symphony Hall, Birmingham to a live concert A Night at the Movies With David Arnold & City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. From James Bond to Sherlock, Independence Day to Godzilla, re-live some of the most iconic film and TV music moments of all time with the man behind the music. Please click here for my photo album.
Saturday 27 June This date saw a family outing to Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. Carl, Heather, Christopher, Alison, Ryan, Rebecca, Amelia, Megan and Bryony all attended together with gail and Steve. Click here to view my photo album.

Congratulations to Christopher who has now been promoted to Sergeant and has began working at Coventry.Since my last update we have been on a Warners Holiday at Alvaston Hall, Cheshire. Please click here to see our photo album.
At the end of this mini break we visited a National Trust House - Little Moreton Hall. Please click here to see our photo albumOn Wednesday 25 March we visited another National Trust location - Calke Abbey. Please click here to see the album.I mentioned in my previous post that our fitted Freezer had been replaced with a dishwasher. As luck would have it we then found that our combined fridge/freezer unit also required replacement which has also been done.Keith and Alison now have another King Charles Spaniel. "Lady" is approx. 4 years of age and has already enjoyed a couple of sleep-overs with Otis and Millie! Here are some pictures of them together.My Forum software is driven by PHPBB3. The software was recently updated to PHPBB 3.1.3  bringing with it several new changes. One of which is called a "Pages" function. This has led to me altering various parts of my website to take advantage of this new function. Two examples are 'Gails Page' and 'Family Tree' - you will notice these pages integrate into the website much more smoothly especially the Family Tree. Whilst doing this work I discovered that the Family Tree software was out of date and so this has now been updated to webtrees 1.6.2. Also the software that provides the page you are now reading has also been updated to Serendipity 2.0.1. The version of PHP has also been updated to 5.4.27.  Our Virgin Media Superhub 1 has also been replaced with a superhub 2. Hopefully these changes should improve your viewing experience.

The first 6 weeks or so of the new year have seen a number of items replaced. These include the Back Bedroom Computer "Earth" which was several years old. Originally "Earth" was located downstairs and provided my web server which is what you are now reading. Having managed to get another 3 years use out of the old machine it finally bit the dust, the hardware was becoming very unreliable and this in turn could lead to the loss of a lot of valuable data. The replacement computer is a HP Pavilion 500-319na Desktop PC with 8GB RAM / 2TB Hard Drive / Intel Core i5-4460S Quad Core Processor which in layman's terms means it runs as fast as lightening.

The next item to give up the ghost was our built in freezer. After 11 years of faithful use some of the parts were broken which in turn led to the build up of ice. The decision was taken not to replace the freezer with another but instead we purchased a SmegD4SS-1 slimline Stainless Steel dishwasher. The 15cm Gap was filled by purchasing a Norboard 150mm Pull Out Unit

Yet another item that required replacement was our internal telephone system. Up until now we had been using 2 base units which between them provided 5 handsets. Like the previously mentioned items these were also quite old. We no longer required 5 handsets and so have replaced the existing system with a BT8500 single base unit providing 4 handsets. Should the need arise you can add a further 2 handsets to make 6 in total.

Christmas always begins with our traditional visit to Mary in Porthcawl. This year our trip took place on Friday 05 Gail, Steve, Nicola, Rebecca were joined by Oscar.

On Sunday 07 Gail, Steve, John, Carol, Pete and Karen Visited Hardwick Hall - A part of the National Trust.

Saturday 13 Gail, Steve, Heather and Bryony went on the Santa Train at Chasewater Railway Museum

On Sunday 14 Steve Won a Nescafe Dolce Gusto 'Mini-me' coffee machine at 'Open the Box'

Friday 19 Gail, Steve, John, Carol, Pete, Karen, Paul and Zena all went to see a pantomime - Jack and The Beanstalk at Birmingham Hippodrome.

This years annual  Xmas Family Gathering was held at Carls on Sunday 21st.

Between Monday 22 until Sunday 28. Daniel and Faustine came over from France to Spend the week here. Stopping with Gail and Steve overnight - during the daytime with Paul and Nicola.

This years Christmas Day Dinner took place at Toby Carvery, Shenstone.  Gail, Steve, John, Carol, Keith, Alison and Annette took part.

On Friday 26 Boxing Day Dinner was cooked by Chris and Ali for Gail, Steve, Michael and Suzanne.

Our New year Mini Break began on Tuesday 30th. This year  Gail, Steve, John, Carol, Pete, Karen went with HarryShaw Travel on their London, Cambridge & Windsor New Year Special at Mercure Hatfield Oak Hotel for 4 Days / 3 Nights.

Itinerary: 30 December - we started with a departure from the One Stop Shopping Centre, Perry Barr. We were taken to Piccadilly in central London. There we took a ride on the London Underground and visited National History Museum, then the Victoria and Albert Museum. Next we went to the nearby Trafalgar Square and also went inside The National Gallery. Afterwards we were taken to our hotel – the Mercure Hatfield Oak. All rooms are well appointed and features include a bar and restaurant. Tonight we had a 3-course dinner and entertainment in the form of a male singer. Day 2 – New Year’s Eve – after breakfast we were taken to the University City of Cambridge. We spent about 5 hours there before returning to the hotel for our 4-course Gala Dinner followed by a disco and dancing through to the New Year. There was a midnight toast with a glass of bubbly to welcome in the New Year. Entertainment continued until approximately 1.00 hours when bacon baps were served. New Year’s Day – 01 January – a late breakfast followed by a leisurely walk to the Galleria Shopping Centre. After returning to the Hotel a 2-course lunch was be served at around 13.00 hours. Later in the afternoon the Hotel laid on a fun general knowledge quiz. Our a farewell evening event was a Winter themed hot and cold buffet and entertainment from 19.00 hours making this a wonderful finale. Day 4 – We were taken to Windsor and visited the castle for about 5 hours. We then Continued our journey home, arriving back just before 2100 hrs. 

The Highlights of this month are summarised as follows: On Saturday 8th we went to the Community Centre for a 40's Night. Song sheets were provided and lots of people were in fancy dress reflecting the period of the second world war.

 

 

On Friday 14th Paul and Steve went to Walsall Showcase Cinema to watch Interstellar.

On Monday 17th British Gas came to do our annual boiler service. This time it was a bit different because the engineer told us about a computerised heating control system called "Hive". With this system we can turn our heating on/off and set the temperature from a computer or even using a mobile phone app. We could even be on the other side of the world and turn it on/off!

On Monday 24th Christoper, Ali and the Twins went with Gail and Steve to Cadbury World and had a fantastic day out.

 

 

Thursday 27th Carol, John, Pete, Karen, Gail and Steve had a "Festive Meal" at the Whitehouse.

Sunday 30th Carol, John, Pete, Karen, Paul, Zena, Gail and Steve enjoyed a day out at Worcester (Victorian) Market.