One adventure after another

It's great being a granddad. Well it is whilst little (or not so little) James is still fairly static. Maybe it won't be so much fun when he's a bit older and scrambling about, with his old granddad trying to keep up. We popped over just after new year, to see him again and we got to spend a fair bit of time with him & Jen/Chris. We even managed to get in a walk/pram push, though the rain did its best to ruin that. James is definitely a baby who thrives on bodily contact. A grizzling baby in the pram, quickly turns to one asleep in your arms, almost as soon as you pick him up. My plan is to pop over again in March, to coincide with Jen's birthday. Before that though, Cath & I have another adventure, my 60th birthday cruise holiday.

James, a baby Gooner.

Yes, this time next week, I'll be finalising my packing, before on Thursday, we jet off to Barbados. Once there, we shall board the Marella Celebration, the smallest cruise ship in the TUI fleet. On board, we shall spend 2 weeks cruising the Caribbean, calling at St Maarten, The British Virgin Islands (twice), St Kitts, Guadeloupe, St Vincent, Antigua, Dominica, St Lucia and Grenada. We are both really looking forward to it and both will have a birthday on board.

On the 24th February, we shall celebrate Catherine's birthday in St Kitts. On my birthday, on the 27th, we'll be back in Barbados, the end of the first week. That would have been the day we flew home but what sort of birthday would that have been?, so I booked us on the back to back cruise, which stops at 5 different islands.

We've pre-booked a few excursions, about 5 in all I think but have also done plenty of planning, so we can get about by ourselves, on those islands we don't have a TUI trip booked. I shan't go into details now though. Assuming we can get free wifi from somewhere, then I'll try and blog as we go. The ship's internet is something extortionate, £8/£9 per day, with limited access around the ship, so I shan't be using that. You might just have to wait till I get back home, to catch up with everything we've been up to.

That's all for now.

Marella Celebration

What?

Those keeping up with this blog will remember on 23rd October I talked about my next big adventure, becoming a granddad. Well, rather than six weeks, my grandson James, decided he was ready to enter the world, just 9 days later. My adventure (and not just mine) therefore, began on 1st November and not 4th December.

2 weeks after the birth, I was holding the little fella in my arms, proud as punch. Can't help feeling 59 is young to be having grandchildren but maybe not, if I think how old my parents were when my kids were born. Maybe it's because I still feel like a young man in my head, though my body is definitely telling me something different.

I'm hoping to try and get across to Wales to see James, every couple of months. I/we already have plans to pop across after new year and I'm looking to maybe ride across in March. My 60th birthday weekend with the girls is May, so I'll see him then too. It'll be interesting to see how much he has grown since I last saw him. By all accounts he's putting on the pounds OK.

Not much else to report, as winter is beginning to set in.

Proud Granddad with baby James