Back to the Californian Sunshine

As you’ll have guessed from the recent silence here, I’ve been on vacation. We spent a couple of weeks in England, wrapped around the Liberty sponsors’ meeting in Dublin. Some of the highlights:

• Day-old piglets at Chatsworth Farmyard.
• Gibbons, tamarins, orangutans and much more at Twycross Zoo.
• The National Railway Museum (the world’s biggest) in York.
• Alexander (our younger son - 9 months old now) had a naming ceremony at Overton Grange in Shropshire.
• Staying at Karen’s mum’s cousin’s cottage in Aston Munslow - a lovely place - check it out if you’re looking for somewhere in England to get away from it all. There is no high-speed internet access and cellphone coverage is spotty at best - wonderful!
• Dinner at the Hibiscus - one of Ludlow’s many Michelin starred restaurants (in fact, the Hibiscus is one of only 10 restaurants in the UK with two Michelin stars), about 20 minutes from the Malt House.

One of the great thing about having kids is that you have an excuse to do fun things like look at piglets, monkeys and railway engines. I love it! Of course, one of the not-so-great things about having kids is that trips to Michelin-starred restaurants are rather rare. Many thanks to Karen’s parents Ann and Tony for having the boys for the evening.