Round the Island Race

On Saturday we did this race for the 3rd time. It starts from Cowes and then you sail all around the Isle of Wight, finishing back at Cowes again. It's about 60 miles and depending on the wind and weather takes us anything from about 8 to 12 hours. It was a fanatastic day - 1,700 boats took part in the race, setting off in groups from 05:00 every 10 minutes until 06:40.

ESOL boat trip

A lovely day out up the river with some of our Abingdon and Witney students - a beautiful 2 hour boat trip from Abingdon to Oxford going through Abingdon, Sandford and Iffley Locks and then football, games and picnics in Christchurch Meadows - perfect. Who's is that person supporting Portugal? Can't guess!

Half Term

We had a lovely bank holiday weekend sailing with my cousin and her partner and we managed to get to Buckler's Hard in the New Forest and Osborne Bay and Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight despite some rather mixed weather...


On Saturday I did another long walk - 28 miles this time around the Cotswolds. It was hot and hilly so hard work but luckily Cadburys were sponsoring the walk so there was free chocolate to keep us going!

We did it!

This is a picture of my team and I on Saturday at the 19 mile point in our 26.2 mile walk from Oxford to Abingdon - I don't think we look too exhausted do we?! It took 11 hours, with some stops along the way for the check points, food, water and blistered feet. I'm glad to say that my feet are fine because I've got to do another marathon walk on 5th June in the Cotswolds so I need to keep training!!

Marathon Walk

On Saturday I'm doing a 26 mile walk in aid of Helen and Douglas House in Oxford. We start off at 7 am in Christchurch Meadows and walk to Abingdon but via Chiselhampton and Dorchester. It could be a tiring day but I've been trying to do a bit of training to get myself prepared. I'll let you know how many blisters I've got next week!

Bank Holiday Weekend

We had a busy bank holiday weekend down in Lymington. My sister came to visit with her husband and 3 children. The picture shows the older 2 with their 'cheesy' smiles!


Paul did his first triathlon of the year and having swum 1.1 km, cycled 36 km and run nearly 10 km, about 300m from the finish they had to run through the ford that you can see in the picture! It had been raining quite heavily in the night so the water was flowing fast! Lovely to finish with wet feet!

April Holiday

Be very careful on the roads of Oxfordshire at the moment - our younger daughter Hattie is learning to drive! Over the holidays we did lots of trips so that she could practise - one evening we went to this beach at Highcliffe on Sea and walked along the sand to Mudeford. It was lovely and quiet but a lot of the sand from the beach seemed to end up back in the car...