Cracking the Code

We visited 4 churches this afternoon in order to discover Geocaches hidden in the churchyards. This is a series of linked caches and each one had a puzzle in it which we had to solve in order to get some digits. We would then need to put the digits together as a grid reference to lead us to the last (and hidden) cache in the series. We answered all the questions - which involved looking for certain individual's gravestones in order to find their age, or dates on the side of the church, or the number of villagers who had died in WWI, etc. It was so cold though that we decided to come home and figure out the coordinates of the hidden cache in the warm.

It took a while but, thanks to Joe's mathematical prowess, we now have it cracked! Our next adventure will be to go and find it - perhaps it contains gold coins!

2009 off to a flying start

New Year's Day we decided to go cycling in sub-zero temperatures around Watermead Country Park near Leicester. Most of the lakes were frozen over and our toes got a bit cold, but it got us in the mood for our skiing holiday later this month.

Geocaching today was a bit warmer although quite muddy in places! We managed to find 3 geocaches in the Vale of Belvoir, one of which was a the top of a very muddy hill (behind us in the picture) but had spectacular views when we got there.

Christmas!

We had Christmas Day at home this year, with Elaine's mum and her dad and stepmum over for lunch. We forgot to take any pictures though! On Boxing Day we drove down to Hook to Mike's. Mum and Dad were already there, having spent a few days before Christmas at Ragdale Hall (we met them there for dinner one night, which was very nice but I am still not persuaded to spend a day there!)

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We had great fun sending these mini hot air balloons off into the night sky and then blowing off the fireworks left over from 5 November. Mike gave us a snazzy hand-held satnav for Christmas, so our collective New Years resolution is to do a lot more (and a lot more high tech) geocaching! We tried it out by doing a few geocaches around Basingstoke centre but it was so cold we had to retreat for coffee and a warm up.

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Sunday morning Heather came to visit us. We last say her around 7 years ago when we went and stayed with her in Cyprus when the kids were tiny. She hasn't changed a bit! We had a good old goss and catch up about various of our old Thomson buddies. Heather used to be our boss when we were working out in Cyprus.

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Stomping on Burrough Hill

Us boys went for a blow the cobwebs away stomp around Burrough Hill and bumped into the hunt on the way round. Luke and Joe kept referring to them as "The upper class" - probably because they all said "Hair-lair" as they rode by. This chap told me that they were actually after a real fox (which of course is slightly illegal now) as he tapped the side of his nose.

We picked up the turkey on the way home and made the giblet stock on our return. Joe and I polished off the liver pretty quick (yum). The stuffing is now all made as well, just need to pop to town tomorrow now to buy all the stuff we forgot to buy at the weekend and today!

Theringtone Family Christmas preparations

We've decided to go with the flow and acknowledge that Christmas is coming - well Elaine actually started preparing in June I think, but I did most of my Christmas shopping on line the day before the busiest on line shopping day of the year.

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This week we went to the last nativity play to which will be invited at St Francis. Joe was very nearly a pig but managed to wangle a role as a shepherd which was a very wise move.

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Today we had the traditional tramp out to Gates Nursery for the tree and then the traditional climb all over the window sills in the conservatory to put up lights, decorating the tree and singing along to Christmas tunes.

Elaine's Christmas Tree

This is Elaine's entry for this year's Christmas Trees in the church - the Holly-istic tree. Yes, that is Prince Charles as portrayed by a Christmas tree!

And now in action...

Our friend, Noel, took some pictures on his snazzy camera. So here they are.