Our first travels for the summer of 2008 took us to
the quiet countryside village of Silsoe, Bedfordshire,
where we met our recently married friends Paul and Emma
Russell (Paul Russell, Emma Russell and then Valeria
on the right). Paul and Emma have moved to a quaint
country house, where they live the good life, growing
their own vegetables and outdoor living. On the right
you can see Paul trying to fit through Paul’s
and Emma’s house cat flap! This is what you can
expect to see after a drinking session in a British
pub, where we debated whether it was possible to burgle
a house using a cat flap. As you can see from the picture,
it is not a very good idea.
All
photos by Valeria Lo Iacono & Paul Symonds - 2008
After a summer spent in the wet British weather, Valeria
and I decided to spend a week end in a warmer place and
we went to Barcelona. Below you can see pictures taken
in one of the houses designed by the Catalan architect
Antoni Gaudí. The house we visited this time and
that you can see pictures of is Casa
Batlló. The photo on the left shows the stairwell
and on the right there is a detail of the roof. A lot
of the design in the house is based on things such as
waves, hence the chosen shapes in the design.
Below, Casa Batlló again with a detail of Paul’s
hand behind glass, which looks like water, and on the
right modern days Barcelona seen from one of the balconies
of Casa Batlló.
In August 2008 Valeria and I moved from Bristol to
Cardiff, Wales and one of the first events in Cardiff
we went to was the International cricket match England
vs South Africa, in the SWALEC
Stadium in Cardiff city centre. In the end though
it rained and the game was cancelled and Valeria's
introduction to the traditionally sport of cricket
was not to be. The day was a good one though with
a few beers and a good day with friends Catherine
and Clive (in the photo with Valeria) who came from
Bristol for the cricket match.
The SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff lies in the grounds
of Cardiff’s most beautiful park, Bute Park
which is next to Cardiff Castle and is well worth
seeing if you have the chance. Below right a picture
taken of a boar in the park.
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September finally gave us some sunny days here in Britain
and one of those we went to see Caerphilly
Castle, just north of Cardiff. Caerphilly Castle, which
is one of the great European Medieval castles, started to
be built in 1268 by Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan,
in order to defend the area and prevent lowland South Wales
from falling into the hands of the Welsh leader Llywelyn
the Last. Caerphilly Castle was built mainly for military
purposes, so what is impressive about it is its system of
defences, including the lake that surrounds it, the dams
and the towers (see picture on the left). As the castle
was built on marshy ground, some parts of it are sinking
a bit and one of its towers is leaning. Thus Caerphilly
can boast its own ‘Leaning Tower of Caerphilly’
(photo on the right).
In the pictures below you can see Valeria
and Paul exploring the castle’s nooks and crannies.
At the end of September we went to the
Cheese Festival, which was held in the grounds of Cardiff
Castle. That was a paradise for cheese lovers, like Valeria,
who could stuff themselves with cheese at every opportunity.
If it had been up to Valeria she'd have eaten all the
cheese at the festival. She seemed to enjoy the local
made cider quite a lot as well :)
The picture below, on the left, taken
at the Cheese Festival shows Gabi (a friend of Steph’s),
Valeria and Steph (Valeria’s work colleague). In
the photo below right, you can see our new friend ‘The
cat’, basking in the sun on our terrace. She is
one of our streets cats and she often comes to sunbathe
on our terrace.
The last picture in this monthly shows
the living room of our house in Cardiff. It is not in
every living room you see sofas 2 deep. We got stuck
with too many sofas from the property agent and the
agent hasn't been in a hurry to solve the problem.
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