Just a quick note to say hi. I'm doing well here in France but I am so looking forward to Christmas back in the UK. It's been a mental few weeks with the faculty building blocked. I've missed so many classes because of this and now that lessons have started again, it's chaos.

I hope to see lots of you over the holiday.

Merry Chrismas and Lots of Love!

Kirsty

xxx

Where I'm living in France

Vieux Tours. These are some old buildings which overlook the Place Plumereau. I think they are beautiful!

Vieux Tours. These are some old buildings which overlook the Place Plumereau. I think they are beautiful!

The Place Plumereau, a square surrounded by restaurants, creperies and cafés.

This is the famous Loire River. I think the bridge is so striking. This is a five minute walk from my accommodation.

I thought I'd let you have a nose!

Love Kirsty xxx

Off to France

Just a quick post to let you all know that I am off to Tours in France on Friday. I'm very nervous and very excited at the same time. I'll be there until early January (of course I'll be home for Christmas!) and I'll be in Cadiz in Spain from February. If anyone fancies a trip over, I'd be delighted! Mum will pass on my contact details.

I don't quite know what to expect. My worries are what if no-one understands me? What if I get lost? What if I realise that after ten years of French learning, I actually can't speak it that well?

Tours looks a fantastic place. There seems to be a lot to do there so I will hopefully have no trouble in getting stuck in to life there. I'll be sure to send post cards!

Love you all!

Kirsty xxx

I PASSED! WOO HOO!

Hi, it's Margaret here just letting you know that I passed both parts of my AAT accounts exam!

I've been so nervous. It came as a shock considering I wasn't supposed to get them until tomorrow, but they e-mailed them to me. I wasn't that confident seeing as I didn't think my tutors explained things clear enough, which is why I was constantly asking them questions. Mostly 'why?, how?, or I don't understand!'.
Honestly one of them would talk about his daughter in London and family holidays and the other one (who was alright actually) spoke to you as if you already knew how to work out every aspect of accounts, even though it was our 1st year. Then again I suppose they couldn't have been too bad if I've passed can they?

I'm going out on Wednesday and celebrating with my mates. My dad's gonna pop down too. I took him, Thomas and Alex out for a meal for his birthday last week. we went to Maranto's on Lark Lane. It was good.

Anyway I'm gonna phone and text everyone now to tell them how unbelievably clever I am x

Hi everyone. I've put some photos of erica up seeing as some of you have asked about her. When she sends me photos of Kevin and Kelsey i'll post them on too.

Sixty? Never!

We appear to have had something of a 'Golden Age' in terms of family get-togethers lately. Within a few days of celebrating William's baptism we were once again together for Mum's 83rd birthday celebration at the Regan residence and the following Saturday we were at Olive's surprise 60th birthday party. It is very hard to believe that Olive is 60 - she looks sensational! I am inspired to think that it is genetic and to hope that I may have inherited the good gene. Huge thanks to Lorraine, Michelle, Stephanie and Lindsey who put on a lovely party for their mum. It was great to see so many of our cousins there.

I have given up trying to load photos onto Blogger. It's too labourious so I have put a set on Flickr instead called Olive's 60th Birthday.

Apologies to Michelle for shouting"'Ave it!" from the car when we spotted her at the cash machine by the roundabout in Wallasey Village. This was one of my more mature moments...

Wettin' the baby's head...

Well this was the most important bit of the day. Baby William has his first experience of the backwash while Mum, Dad and big sister look on.

There, now, that didn't hurt a bit...

Now it's off for some fun at William's party. Where are all the cakes?

Leah will just have to make do with a nice drink until the cakes arrive.As Michelle and Chris agree, these family dos are always a good opportunity to catch up with the cousins. Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters...Kirsty and Lol with Kirsty showing off a new hairstyle.

Here is a rare shot, Carole, Phil and the girls on one photo. John, Peter, Lindsey, Bernie and Phil being convivial...
Oh, Mum, you've spoiled the photo wiping your mouth...!

Take 2: That's better. Olive, Maria, Maggie and Carole.Let's have all the offspring together on this one. John and Tommy grudgingly join in!Carol and Jenny looking lovely.
And here is the little guy who brought us all together for the day, sleeping it off. Congratulations to William on his special day and God Bless!

Here's Thomas and Alex. They haven't half grown! Thomas is 13 now and Alex is 6. Our thomas gets his hair done in our barbers now. He doesn't like his curls anymore.

Hello! I thought I'd stick a photo on as you haven't met Dave, Lewis and Elishia. Here we're at Lewis' church fete.

Hi Aunty Carol. Sorry i haven't e-mailed you in a while. The internet in work's been playing up. How is everyone doing?

How about a family day out?

You know, last week, within a few days, 2 different people had recommended Knowsley Safari Park to me as a great day out. I can just about remember when I last visited Knowsley Safari Park. I was still at school and I went with Olive and Peter and the kids - pre Stephanie and Lindsey, so we are talking a good twenty-odd years ago. At that time Peter was driving his red Ford Cortina Mark III with a black vinyl roof (didn't Tommy end up with that one?). As we approached the monkey enclosure we saw the sign which said something along the lines of "Drivers of cars with vinyl roofs enter at your own risk". Peter was clearly a bit unsettled by this but proceeded to drive tentatively towards the gate. At that point, some chimps caught sight of us and began to scamper towards us. Peter hastily reversed the car out exclaiming "Alright, you've seen the monkeys now!"

Anyway, it occurred to me that perhaps the time is right for a return visit. And since so many of you live right on the doorstep I thought it would be a great idea for a crowd of us to go. I've had a look on the website and the ticket prices are:

Adults £11.00, Children £8.00, Family ticket (2 adults & 2 children) £34.00

The park has developed a lot recently and there are other attractions such as a children's farm, fair rides and sea lion show. What say we take a picnic along? If you enjoy it, you may even choose to buy a season ticket to enjoy the park on a more frequent basis. It's quite good value if you need to keep the kids entertained during the long summer break. To make the idea a little more concrete, I am going to suggest 3 possible dates; 16th June (Saturday), 30th June (Saturday), 1st July (Sunday).

Follow the link to check out the facilities:

http://www.knowsley.com/safari/index.html

Let me know what you think.

Good Hair Day

I got my hair done today. It's layered and feathered. Kirsty also has a new hairstyle and it looks really nice. Here is a picture of us.

I've been waiting for this day for ages as my old hairstyle was getting so boring. I've had it for 3 whole months. Isn't life unfair? Anyway it was a long wait. I wouldn't have thought the hairdressers would be booked up for two weeks.

The big day finally came though (Gosh, anyone would think I was getting married!). The appointment went well, despite the fact I had to listen to an old dear talk about her corns to the other hairdresser. Aww, bless her. Still, my eavesdropping days are over.

It was such a shock to see Kirsty's new style though. She's had about half of her length cut off! It suits her though. Now all we need to do is get showered with compliments. Hint hint...

Easter Sunday Casa Regan

Well, it's Easter Sunday, the sun is out and that can only mean one thing - it's the first meeting of the barby season for the Regans. Family numbers are on the increase in the Regan clan - Toni and Jordan are expecting their first child in November (ish). Time for Ronnie to ask the serious question - "Have I got what it takes to be a grandad?" Of course you have, Ron, but you must undergo a period of preparation first. Jeanette, make sure the kids have the Father's day list well thought out. There must be carpet slippers (brown and fawn check, preferably), brown crimpolene 'slacks' and a fawn cardigan. Make sure the cardigan has generously proportioned pockets for him to store his Werthers Originals and indigestion tablets. An ear and nose hair clipper would be useful and a plentiful supply of used matches to reach the earwax that cotton buds just can't reach. Oh, and the amber nectar has to go - practise this mantra, Ronnie, "Mine's a pint of mild". On high days and holidays you can, of course, have a glass of stout.

Emma, Ethan and Alex.

Chef Chris welcoming the prospect

of Gordon Ramsey coming to help

sort out his kitchen.

Mum and John.

Yes, Well done, Ronnie. "Mine's a pint of mild"

Stephen and Jeanette

Mum-to-be Toni and Jeanette.

Maria, have you had any thoughts on putting in an offer for next door's garden? A fun time was had by all (unless we missed any fights!). Here's to the next time!

Bridging the generations...

We spent a lovely afternoon with mum on Mother's day. It is always lovely to see the family and so it was a double bonus to bump into Olive, Peter, Lorraine and the newest addition to the family, William. So that means we had representation from four generations. We crammed into mum's room and Phil went to get us all a cuppa. We spent our time watching the slideshow (previous post) and chatting about 'stuff'.

A great day!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to Maggie,

the grand matriarch of our family.

Click on her picture to see her Mother's Day slideshow.

This requires Flash player which is a free download from Adobe. Click on the Flash icon to download.

Guess who I bumped into in the village today...

...None other than Harold Wilson, erstwhile Right Honourable Member for Huyton and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I can remember when I was a kid and I saw him in the village. It was obviously just prior to a General Election and I was given an orange sticker by one of the party faithful with "Vote Labour" printed on it. This was, of course, before the days of the spin doctors and so there were no snappy slogans. It was quite a bizarre experience for me as it was the first time I had seen someone "off the telly" in real life. I recall thinking that he looked just the same. This sculpture looks vaguely similar - and yet not.

I think it is nice that Mr Wilson is remembered in this way by his former constituents. He wasn't a bad sort. It is just a shame that the artist has made him look so camp. Phil, Lol, Mum and myself all agreed that he looks a bit of a 'Jesse go for the liver and the lightcake basket'. The hand on the hip look just doesn't go. And his legs look like rag doll legs, skinny and swinging in opposite directions. I have a theory that it was commissioned as a statue of Larry Grayson but the deal fell through. Knowsley Council managed to get it cut-price with Harold's head grafted on. Still, it beats a cow in formaldehyde!

In the beginning...

...there was Tommy and Maggie. Then there followed 5 children who all had progeny of their own. Now their progeny are begetting all over the place and it is getting harder to keep track of what everyone is up to. This is where web 2.0 technologies come into play. This blog has been set up as a sort of cyber-bulletin board. Hopefully we can all contribute to it, checking in from time to time to post the virtual postcards, messages, fridge magnets and things that make up our increasingly busy lives.

Hoping to hear from someone soon,

C.