David Gutteridge

Update

2009-06-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

Not blogged in a while, been really busy.

We had a fantastic holiday in Orlando, photo below, and the business has been thriving.

More photos can be found on our snapfish account:

http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=963675006/a=33280766_33280766/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=sky/

Unfortunately Jim, my partner, died last week so things are a bit in the air until the notary/will is sorted.

You can find me on facebook, seach for David Gutteridge (there are 2 of us, find the right one!) and also on Twitter, using the button below:

New House

2009-02-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

We are now settled in our new house, a nice 5 bedroom villa, with 2 of the rooms on the ground floor for the in laws. This pic just shows the middle and top floors.

Its been my quest for a week or so to get the pool ready for the summer. When we moved in it hadn't been done all winter, so it was full of rubbish and ash from the forest fire we had on the 24th January.

Over the past week I have filtered, swept and vacuumed the pool, and I have been surprised at how clean it has come up. I first thought that I would have to empty the pool to get it clean.

As you can see its looking great.

I just need to reduce the PH level and allow the chlorine that I shocked the pool with to settle down and it's ready. Although the water temp is only 16 deg C!!!

The pool gets sun all day so in the summer it will be like a warm bath.

Lucy's new school uniform and her first tooth falls out

2009-01-21T01:35:00.000-08:00

Lucy entire school has moved to a brand new school from January, and the school has taken this opportunity to introduce a uniform. Its not compulsory until September but a lot of the kids are wearing it now.

Its one of the first state schools in Spain to introduce a uniform. Many thanks to Big Grandad and Little Grandma for buying it and sending it over.

Lucy's tooth also fell out. She lost it when it fell out at school but we said that the tooth fairy would find it and still leave her some money (she thought it was a case of "no tooth, no dosh"!)

When she woke up the next day there was €2 under her pillow!

She also has another one that is about to come out, and the one that is out has almost been replaced with the new one.

Emma's school photos

2008-12-17T07:30:00.001-08:00

Emma's nursery had the photographer in earlier this month.

All this photo needs is a prisoner number on the bottom:

And her class photo:

Lucy's Pantomine 2008 - Cinderella

2008-12-14T03:10:00.000-08:00

The Pantomine for this year at the Zone de Animacion was Cinderella, performed on Saturday 6th and Saturday 13th December. The photos below were taken at the first show.

Lucy played the part of one of the mice that helps Cinderella get ready and also a princess at the ball. All the pictures were taken in the second half of the show when Lucy was a princess.

Both shows were excellent.

Lucy enjoyed her moment of glory on stage as a princess at the ball. She had to come on and do a little dance then 2 curtsey's:

At the end of the show Emma wanted to get involved and as she was dressed as a princess too we let her onto the stage. Emma looked pretty bewildered by the whole thing:

Lucy's school workbook

2008-10-29T09:48:00.001-07:00

It was harvest festival last week at Lucy's school, or La Castanyera as its known here. All week Lucy had been putting a workbook together for it and she brought it home on Friday.

What shocked us, is her ability to write. The words she has written were copied from the blackboard and we didn't think that a 4 yr old could write like she can. We are chuffed to bits.

The other thing we liked were her little doodles throughout the book, especially the one on the first page underneath her photo!

Doodles

2008-10-27T02:01:00.000-07:00

The girls got new colouring books off their Grandma and Grandad, and spent most of the weekend busily colouring in, which kept them quiet (thanks!).

Lucy will sit for ages just colouring. I have scanned them in - guess which one is Lucy's and which one is Emma's (errr.... its not difficult):

Minibus!!!

2008-09-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have now taken delivery of the new minibus, which is fully licenced and insured for hire & reward passenger transport in Spain. As far as we know, we are the only British owned, legally operating, airport transfer business in the Costa Blanca North!

Emma's 2nd Birthday!

2008-08-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

Emma celebrated her 2nd birthday yesterday, with a party at the house. It was a great day and the kids loved the bouncy castle, as well as spending some time in the pool.

Emma peeking through the castle wall:

Lucy in the pool on Emma's new elephant float:

We did the cake and sang happy birthday with the webcam on, so Emma's grandparents could see it in England.

The new house is ideal for a party as there is a lot of land and a large terrace, with patio tables and even a couch + easy chair outside, as well as a large TV with satelite signal.

The birthday girl:

If you ask Emma how old she is she says "3"! Not there yet Em's....

Happy Birthday!!!

Lucy has her hair braided

2008-08-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

Lucy has wanted her hair braiding for a while now. She actually wanted her whole head doing but I think that is chavy. We were at the Albir summer evening market this week and there was a lady doing braiding.

Video of Lucy getting her hair braided (sorry for the low quality but I was using my mobile to film):

...... and a picture of the finished braid - again, sorry for the quality.....

Lucy makes the papers!!!

2008-08-10T02:15:00.000-07:00

Click the picture for a bigger version

We got a shock when reading through our local free paper this week.

There was an article on Zone de Animacion, which is the dance/theatre school Lucy goes to, on their 2nd anniversary.

Lucy is pictured in the dome tent with her face painted as a dog (she played Toto in the Wizard of Oz). She is also in the main picture, front row 2nd from the left (next to the boy who appears to be in some form of trance!)

Lucy was chuffed to bits to be in the paper and also on the internet.

Visitors (part 2)

2008-08-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd guests of the summer were Andrea, a neighbour from our time in Stockton, her friend Lynette and Lynette's son "Captain" Jack.

Despite sporting a Newcastle shirt Jack was eventually allowed to stay (more on this saga further down).

It was a great week, they got out and about to Altea market, Benidorm and Mundomar and I think they really appreciated the break from the UK weather and the stress of work (both are paramedics).

We really enjoyed having you here, and it was great to meet Lynette and Jack. You are welcome to stay anytime.

However...... on downloading the pictures I was disturbed to see the following pictures that I had no idea had been taken:

Jack will have to be pictured with a Sunderland cap on as revenge!

Visitors (part 1)

2008-08-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

Brother Mark (makes him sound like a freemason!), Sis in Law Kelly and nephew Joseph (or jofiss as he is called by Lucy) came to spend a week with us.

We all had a great time and even managed to cram in a few hours kip at the local hospital whilst Joseph was sorted out for his chest infection.

Here is Joseph enjoying a beer with his dad:

And one pic of the 3 amigo's:

And finally one of Kelly enjoying one of the many jokes I told ;-)

Thanks for spending the week with us, we loved having you all here, especially seeing Munch Man growing up.

Lucy's 1st School Trip

2008-02-28T00:55:00.000-08:00

Lucy had her 1st school day out yesterday. They went to a place called "Cuentilandia" which is an infant playpark, indoors I think, in Alicante City.

No pictures were taken as it was a school trip and trying to get Lucy to tell us about it is like getting blood out of a stone, so I don't have any more info.

Suffice to say, she really enjoyed the bus trip and fell straight to sleep when she got home!

2008-02-20T01:50:00.000-08:00

Following the risky take off video that I posted couple of days ago, I have another gem.... This is a Swiss Air RJ85 landing at London City. Wouldn't want to be on this, I may have spilt my beer!

2008-02-18T04:31:00.000-08:00

I love daft videos, stuff that makes me laugh and things that others may find interesting. So I will use this blog to post the stuff that I like: vids, pics of the family etc......

1st up is this video from this month (Feb 2008). Its taken from the control tower at Canberra airport and shows a Russian IL 76 frieghter needing to use rather more of the runway than it should.

Whilst the video is good as it is, the commentary by the controller is even better!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aWtdtuspnoM

1st post.....

2008-02-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

mmm.... 1st post..... not sure what to put to be honest! I only got one of these bloggy things because my pal Lee in South Africa has one and it seems like a good idea ;-)