Blogged down

Hello again, this is the first post for a couple of months but everything is going well aboard Kestrel. Keeping a blog going obviously requires posting regularly and over the last year it had become something of a habit. Unfortunately with a month away in Siberia and the excitement of coming home, getting engaged and being very busy at work we both fell out of the habit of posting and this site fell abruptly silent.

We have done a great deal in the last couple of months, including organising our wedding for the new year, walking in Snowdonia, stepped down as Chesterton RC Club Captain only to be elected Mens Captain instead, making numerous trips to Eastbourne, going to Wembley to see the NFL and chivvying the Chesterton men to train like never before not to mention catching (and recovering from) Swine Flu (not as bad as its made out to be).

I don’t want to let the blog die completely so it will become what it was originally supposed to be, a cruising log for nb Kestrel, rather than a diary of everything we do. This means it will be quieter than before but the occasional post should appear from time to time. Starting with a few back posts for a very pleasant cruise I took last weekend.

In local news I am coxing a rowing VIII for the first time in ages this evening, so readers on the Cam might like to keep a good look-out!

A proposal....

Apologies for the lack of posts over the weekend. On Friday James arrived back from his fieldwork in Siberia, (having been away 32 days), and after picking him up from Heathrow airport, we headed to my parents and Eastbourne for some RnR.

Saturday was spent mainly lounging in the garden listening to the cricket and reading the paper. Late afternoon James wanted to go for a walk on the seafront before dinner to stretch his legs and see the sea, so off we headed.

It was during this walk that he stunned me into silence (normally quite hard), with the line "will you marry me?" and a ring....... 

For those of you not already aware, I said "yes"....

Dinner became a celebration as we told my family and on return to my parents house, James rang his. All families are shocked, but excited (I think), and already a lot of questions are already being asked. 

So now, the planning starts, when, where, what.....

Daring Deben

Whilst looking through some old photos I came across these from when James, Elisabeth and I kayaked the River Deben in 2006.

We camped in a lovely little campsite and on the Saturday morning set off from the dock near Ramsholt to kayak the 12.5 miles to Woodbridge before stopping for a picnic lunch at Melton, Woodbridge (past the harbour and up near the station) and a quick trip to the Smokery. 

Then as the tide changed we headed back, it was a glorious day and definitely worth the effort of it all...

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