Beached

Yesterday we had a lovely afternoon on Portreath beach. The bakers there make a particularly authentic pasty, and the seafront has good features. We avoided paying the steep car park fee (£1 per hour) with Pads' blue badge and he tottered down onto the sand nearby, where he, perched on a low seat, played a full part in burying folk. As enjoyable is it all was, we couldnt help remembering that the last time we were all together doing that kind of thing was three years ago in France, when Pads' mystery illness was really starting to bite. We'd have a great day on the beach and then he would be completely thrown by 'something'...
In my previous post, I said that The Joshua Foundation had helped us pay for the caravan. In fact it was Jacob's Starz. I've corrected that now and pinched myself again to check my facts with Ally.

Patchy

We were delighted that Pads wanted to visit the seaside yesterday with the youngsters from church. The tide was in at Southerndown's Dunraven Bay so no-one could go far down the beach or get up to much on the rocks anyway... It was warm and sunny - a rare occasion! When a few of us gave up on bathing in favour of a game in the lovely walled gardens, we ran into the young people from Met Tab who'd been worshipping with us on Sunday. They have a house-party in nearby Dinas Powis the same week as our conference. We approached this week with some trepidation about what we'd be able to attend. Now that the 'live video stream' is up and running we can view the whole thing from home. Pads was aiming to get to the evening meetings but had to pull out of Monday night because of a pain spike. Then he surprised us by coming along yesterday morning and staying to help with the CD duplication, as he had last year.
In other news, he's now having 2 fentynal patches (from Saturday) and regular paracetamol.
The photos of the Ellen MacArthur trip have been published on their facebook page. For example, this is one of him with two of the people that made him want to go back and do it again so badly: George and Starr. We're so grateful that he has such warm memories of the time with them. Sadly, there's no room for him to go again this year, but Dan reassured him that the things he liked best about the trip he'd get on the 'Over the Wall Camp' in August.
Finally, in case you hadn't noticed, Asher's been raising money for the Christian Lewis Trust through a sponsored haircut. Last night he was saying he'd like to top £500 on the justgiving page (currently £481), when Ally was playing an answerphone message from the head. They'd counted the money received as a result of a letter about the haircut and a collection at the Year 6 show and it amounts to over £800!