Tenby for a Holiday

Why would hubby and I want to stay in a Tenby Self Catering Cottage next spring? Well, we both have birthdays quite close together, one near the end of March and the other at the beginning of April. It’s good to take a holiday around that time and go away somewhere, so we can both feel we’ve treated each other close to our special days.

Tenby is a place I’ve driven past a few times on the way to Pembroke for the ferries for Ireland, but I’ve never followed the signpost into the town. People say it is a popular and beautiful seaside resort. When an opportunity came up on PayPerPost, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and find out what the area has to offer.

If you are a regular here you will know that the sea is important to me, so I first looked at the beach areas. Tenby boasts four separate beaches – South Beach, Castle beach, Harbour Beach and North Beach. From Easter through to October, boat trips go from the harbour to Caldey Island which only about 2 miles away. Cistercian monks s till live here in their abbey above a village with a green and a Post Office which is also a museum.

We might be too early in the year for that, and for warm, lazy days on the beach or swimming in the sea, but we can always take a 351 bus from Tenby to Saundersfoot and walk the 4 and a half miles back on the coast path.

If we book our Tenby self catering cottage at Celtic Haven at Lydstep, just outside Tenby, we’ll have golf courses close by, plus wild cliffs and a rocky shoreline. Only a mile away is Manorbier, with its own beach and a magnificent example of a 12th century castle also open to the public from Easter onwards. Another castle, at nearby Carew, together with a tidal mill, will definitely be open when we can get there. And Pembroke Castle is under ten miles away.

At the weekend we might be joined by some younger members of our family and visit some of the other Tenby attractions. If they don’t fancy the town’s Museum and Art Gallery, we could try out the Great Wedlock Dinosaur Park or the Silent World Aquarium & Reptile House. We could even check out the quad bikes at Ritec Valley Buggies.

I’m getting more enthusiastic about staying in a Tenby self catering cottage by the minute. All I have to do is persuade hubby. I don’t think it will cost as much as visiting the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. But if we don't make it in March, I'll definitely find time for a Short Break Wales.

AWOL

Ok. So I wasn't here last week. My last blog was on Friday 4th April. And I'm supposed to be here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. That's one of the rules I've written into my schedule.

But I forgot to give myself any leave. So when I planned some holiday breaks, I just had to go AWOL.

For anyone who doesn't know, that means absent without leave. I probably wouldn't have known that myself if I hadn't spent four years in the WRAF (before they dropped the W) in the dim and distant past.

Funny how you can go months and months with no break from the tedium of working at home, and suddenly everyone seems to have a very good reason to want you to be somewhere else, week after week.

Last Monday it was a special birthday party in Eastbourne. This entailed breaking the journey (with a detour to south London) to overnight at my daughter's on Sunday, and then doing another overnight in an Eastbourne B&B, before visiting the birthday pal's new house (some people do manage to sell their houses and move) on Tuesday and then making the long trek home.

So, while I was in my office at home on Wednesday, I couldn't find time for my blog with all the catching up and then preparing for family descending on me on Thursday - before we took off on Friday for a long planned 4 nights in a caravan at Woolacombe. We three generations of females, grandma (me), mum and daughter(4) with friend(7) in tow, had a wow of a time. Every time we phoned our respective homes, they were drowning in rain while we were basking in sunshine. Hope it doesn't mean we've had our luck for the year.

Anyway I'm just back from there. And have be in Torquay by Friday to see my sister and some friends over a couple of days. After only two weeks free before I'm booked to babysit the 4 year old while daughter swans off to Madrid for a hen party.

And would you believe it, as I write, I get an email asking if I can do a weekend in Bovey Tracey at the end of May, and then take a call from my husband's nephew to invite us to his engagement party on 17th May - in Leicester?

Hopefully I won't be AWOL from here too often, but if you do miss me, at least you know why.