EEZOME!!

Got in last night about 7pm and opened Safari only to find that there was nothing on the blogger for the past three weeks (during our absence from the IOW) so I hopped over to Firefox this morning only to find all your lovely messages, Thank you, thank you.

Sorry Nic about the mobile phone but I had left it in June's car as it was plugged in to the charger ready for our next trip out!

Just got up and I will let you have a boring note of what we have done and where we have been. lateron. Still coughing, but also still breevin. Got all chocolate in me teef.
Love from an old DAD

Happy Birthday Dad, I did wonder whether you may have left your handphone switched on for your birthday, but alas the day has passed. Many happy returns and I will be there to celebrate with you in June. Rock on 2007, should start planning something heh?

Love Nic and all

The French Connection

and zee mainee grewreetings from zis lurvely contree where all zee times it durss piece down.

And a happy birthday from him..

Greetings from the part of the family with chins, and many happy returns

Squashed Tomatoes and Stew...

What will you do about being nearly eighty?

Many Happy Returns Dad

Happy birthday Dad

Hi Dad,

I don't seem to be able to contact you at the moment - no doubt you are still travelling around the country but nevertheless, best wishes and we all hope you have had a lovely day.

Lots of love from all of us in sunny Spain

I'm 79..

I'm Seventy Nine you know!

Mothering Sunday

First it was on, then it was off, then it was on, then off. Today I find it's been and gone. But nevertheless, we love you Mum and thanks for being such a great Mum, Happy mothers day (belated). Singapore celebrates the USA mothers day - so confusing!, will send you a card in May, just like last year.

Explanation, i heard a rumour mothers day was coming, then I forgot about it, Sunday our priest also gave a blessing, we phoned our friends here- no mothers day, checked my emails from last year and the blogg, we celebrated in May 2005 last year, Capital Radio this morning (which of course is never wrong) it was yesterday!

Love Nic

Oh la la!

Hey, remerciez le Seigneur de ce logiciel de traduction sur le tableau de bord. Sans lui mon Franglais serait Esfrañolais. Je ne sait pas ce qui serait mauvais!!

I may need some help with booking a French camp site as toggling between the dashboard translator and the campsite web page could be dangerous!

Happy birthday to Gemma for last week. Fortunately I don't have any embarrassing photos of you with daisies on your head....and happy birthday for you Dad on Wednesday. Hope you will be home to receive a call. What's the news on this Skype thingummyjob. I still can't find anyone else in the family with a Skype name and contact details.

Happy mothering Sunday ma. You cannot know how much I appreciate having a mum like you. You have had such a brillliant influence on our lives (I think I speak for all us siblings) and I had a tear or two to shed in church this morning when the pastor plucked a few heart strings. He mentioned how his mum's mum used to scrub the front step and then scrape the leading edge with a block of pummice...which set me thinking. We used to have an old pummice stone that Grandma gave us. It was tear shaped and flat underneath and I always wondered why there was a grove worn into it. I guess that generation all did the same thing, hey?

I'll call you later to have a chat. In the meantime, here's Amy about a month ago when the almonds were in bloom above Bolulla, near Callosa (about 10km away from us).

Hesty (belated) Birdy to me!

Who's That?
Originally uploaded by ezappy.

Don't know what to do about being nearly 30!

Brer Pierre.. le Campings

Il y a de Campings Municipal prez de Meze!
Zut allors.. it's only a few thousand centimeters from le Gite max!

hello!!

Hello everybody!
Its beth here.
Just want to thank everyone who sent me cards and emails for my birthday.
I apreciate it. Tuesday was great thanks to mum + dad!
Thanks again,
beth
xxx

Grandad's Old Bedroom window (Oxford Prison)

See Grandads old bedroom (left of their old front door on the first floor- is that right Grandad?). The Merrows moved here when Great-Grandad was promoted from Wandsworth Prison. Cool eh? Its now a swanky hotel and restaurant 'Malmaison' and Clive's Mum & Dad tell us that you can go on a tour round the hotel and see the cells that are now plush rooms (and that the elevator is padded). I also read in a newspaper review that there is TV set into the prison wall that has a loop of Porridge episodes! We had lovely dinner last night with G & G at the Spread Eagle, Thame. They had a great time at the party even hitting the dance floor and saw lots of old friends from Chinnor & Thame. Today they are off to Kent to stay with June, where I understand they will be for Mothers Day (26th March) and Grandad's birthday.

Still a bit out on a limb...

Apart from feeling understandably insulted (Scumbag College indeed - everyone knows Loony Tunes end with "That's all folks"!!) I still feel out on a limb (sob, sob!). No email address to write to and I have yet to get Skype working despite now upgrading the hard drive and installing Tiger which should allow me to connect. When I last did a search a few minutes ago my Skype search facility couldn't find anyone called Merrow-Smith anywhere in the world other than me. No ezappy came up either. Is anyone still using it?

ps. "That is all" is also what Mr Tinkles says in Cats and Dogs. What a classic film that is! Serves me right for having goggle-box kids, though truth to tell they are pretty good and enjoy proper films too.

Did you get to see the what's his name gardener in the end Julian?

Sorry Scumbag College deducted 5 pts...over to Lord Snootys for a bonus

Its M*A*S*H* Robert Altman's 1970 film. Its the how the camp announcements were signed off! And when I mean camp I don't mean camp i mean well camp...

Ruby

Clive & I visited Mandy, John & Ruby last weekend at their new home in Crouch End, London . I took these cute shots of Ruby & Bear at playtime. Ruby is now nearly 15 months old. Everyone here looking forward to Sete in July.

High everyone. Hope that Grandma and Grandpa enjoy their stay in Cornwall.

We have had a school holiday this week, so I took today (friday) off and took the two children out. We went on an open top bus ride and also had a look at Hamsters, we are thinking of pets since the fish have all committed suicide.

Last night, Jen and I took Joshua and Esther (and Claire) to Disney on Ice, part of a birthday gift. Something neither of us had done before and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Claire has been filling her time at a painting class which culminated in a visit to the Botanical Gardens. She had a lot of fun and feels some sense of achievement, I don't suppose she would part with her paintings even for US$100.

House Guests!

Just to say, Grandma & Grandad arrived for their stay with us, after their drive from Cornwall where they left Dad this morning.

"That is all" (name that film quote!)

lv Gem x

Happy Birthday all. We are having a lot of birthdays here in Singapore too, with Great Grandma Peck being 95 on saturday, Grandma Ivy Peck who was 68 last week, celebrating together with Joshua (12), Esther(11) and Uncle Francis Ivy.

Again, happy birthday to you all, love Nic and all.

Ooh-la-la, been 38 oC these last few days. Bit warm.

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Bethany & Mandy.

Love Gem & Clive x

Happy birthday to..

Beth, happy birthday to Beth, happy birthday to Beth,, squashed tomatoes and stew.

uhmmm doesn't seem to rhyme. Hope you have a lovely day from a sunny but frosty Couguieux,

Manon, Oscar (miaow), Ruth and Juliebums

Long time no talk!!

Hi everyone! It's been ages since I even looked at the blog! lol. but we finally got internet back. I think I won't go through everything that I've missed!! ha ha. The weather here has been really nice, getting much better. I hope its here to stay. Yep, Beth's birthday on Tuesday. We are going bowling on Wednesday with some friends cos one of them has his birthday on Saturday. I'm looking forward to the summer cos it seems like ages since we last had a re-union.
Well, lunch is on e the table so I better go. It's great to be in contact again! Loads of lobe Jess :) xxx
p.s whats with all the gobble-de-gook earlier on?! I can't understand it! LOL

Two Days, Two Days

Soon be the 14th and Beth's Birthday. We are off to Cornwall this morning so we will be closed down for three weeks. Love to you all from merrow@wight365.net or patrick@merrow-smith.org Cheers l!!

An address, an address, my kingdom for an address!

As my new hard drive (upgraded from 40 to 80 gig) is now working, the email is up and running and we have internet and all that jazz....well now I need email addresses to reload my address book.

So, please feel free to contact me at the same address I always had...I'd love to hear from everyone just so I can send you all money when I get to be a rich and famous philanthropist.

Love to all and looking forward to France 2006.

Pete and Jan.

Rick Stein

Mum loves meules marinier and I love fish stew/soup/casserole/bouillabaise. I didn't really have any doubts - honest - I know you too well!! Tell Neptune to get his trident out and bring in some good fish. See you on Monday - What did you want from Launceston - put you order in.

Oh Ye of little Faith...

Oy!
Tell your friends we're booked in at 9.30 pm on Wednesday evening so bring your credit card!

Welcome back Pete

So good to hear from you to hear that your Mac has been repaired - perhaps that is a lesson to all of us not to try and improve on an already fantastic facility.
We are almost ready to blast of to Cornwall and have decided to make a holiday of it by catching the 10.50 ferry from East Cowes on Sunday morning and booking in to a B&B in Bridport (why can't I remember the name of that place) Sunday night and leaving am for a sedentary drive to Launceston (where Steve wants me to buy some paint) on Monday morning. We then go to Wadebridge and on to Rock where Gloria's house is. I hope the weather is as good as it is here (Not 25c but nearer to 10). My friends tell me it is hopeless to try and get a table at Rick Stein's fabulous restaurants, so we will have to settle for the local F&C shop! Have a good weekend blogging, Pete. You will have a lot of "P from P" and Meanwhile somewhere in France blogs to catch up on. But I hope you will agree that they are worth it. Have a good game!! Love from Mum and Dad

We are back...

At long last we are back on line. It's too late to do anything now. I've been sorting all my 260 emails (mostly junk) that have been on the computer for a couple of months. Now I have relaunched firefox and skype, checked the blog and now need to update my mac security...still don't have a cd drawer yet but maybe next week.

Will blog at the weekend. Lovely weather last two days. Well over 25 centigrade for much of the time. Wind has returned tonight just in time for games tomorrow...

Love to all

hoo is she?

ch4nce wood 8 4 f!n3 th!n6
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DIN I LARF

Maggie is the baby - the saxy one is Lisa?? You will have to show us a letter/number alphabet, although after a while I could read the sentences quite easily - Similar to leaving out the vowells. Good idea about the passwords.

Go Maggie!

Are the Simpsons real? Is there a Springfield?
I thought I was Homer?

















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i wish

wish we could be with you in cornwall. My favourite place on earth, no doubt. Never been to Padstow but please have a good one and raise a glass to us.

Moreton in the Marsh sounds good too....mmm a nice pint o'.....MMMM

The mistral is wrapping itself wildly round our house and we have had a quiet hungover day after dinner last night with blog friends (gail of openbrackets.com and dean of textism.com) who brought out an entire collection of chateauneuf du pape and californian classics. Our Cuvée Florence and Cuvée V (our two favourite wines EVAH) hardly got a look in. Julian is replying to the fan mail.(What's new!) Power cuts abound. It's nice to be home!

My best friend with whom I shared a room since the age of 11, Carla, is coming Tuesday for 2 months and staying in a gite walking distance down the road. Perfect! It'll be nice to have a GIRLFRIEND around! Tomorrow there's Bedoin market (if anything stays on the stands in the mistral) and my yoga class and the bio dynamic builder coming round to give us a quote at 4. OK, I'll skip padstow and MOtM just this once but next time....

ps my concert in Uzes while you are all going to be here has just been cancelled. they won't let the soloist away from the Salzburg festival for more than a day. Sorry.

They all live round here you know!

Clive & I took a spin out into the countryside yesterday ending up in Moreton-in-Marsh. We stopped at The Black Bear for a lovely lunch. Well we drove back through Lechlade on the way home ( to call in on Clive Mum & Dad in Abingdon for a cuppa and an iced bun). As we waited for the lights I looked across the road and saw a tiny little antiques shops with a familiar looking chap looking in the window. That bloke looks like... and it was it was John Noakes! Remember him shinning up Nelson Column to clean all that pigeon @*%! Didn't see Kate Moss though (she lives near in Faringdon).

Clive and I are having a few days up in central London for my birthday week. We gonna do all the sights, including for definite - London Eye, seeing the giant squid at the Natural History museum (see their website www.nhm.ac.uk for pictures) and numerous other museums (John Soanes, V&A, science...),plus some nice food and drink and hopefully a trip to the theatre.

Looking forward to seeing you both G & G next week.

g x

Sunny Sunday

What a beautiful morning - sun geting stronger as the days lengthen. We are enjoying breakfasting in our top front bedroom where the sun is so warm. I can imagine Pete and Jan having the same sun only an hour earlier, as we look due south. After an hour or so the sun gets obscured behind that massive conifer tree on the other side of the road, but by then we are down stairs checking on blogs and emails. Pete, sorry about your Mac troubles -- you ought to look on E-Bay . We were staying with you on Beth's last birthday ?remember the pizza party? in Alphaz. Congratulations on your cricketing prowess. Love to you gels. Hope you enjoy a trip to La Marina, Beth!!! Did you hear any more about the "Lion's" picture competition which you won in Alphaz?
Julian, why do you not remind all those postcard-hungry Yanks that you also do commissions (at double the price). Oh to own a genuine Merrow postcard, painted especially for li'l ole me. Just a thought !
Nic, have you entered the Singapore competition I sent you earlier in the day. Lovely to hear you on the phone the other (night) day. Cathy and family are looking forward to your visit to Wales.
Steve has invited us to join him in Cornwall next week where he is doing some work at Gloria (Smith)'s house near Rock, just opposite a certain fish restaurant - wish we had a boat to row over to Padstow! So - we will once more be away from home -- this time from Monday week (13th March) til probably the end of March. We travel to Oxford on 16th, hopefully to stay with Gemma and Clive, then up to Stourbridge to visit my 80 year old sister Lenny on 17th (Paddy's day). Return to Oxford, hopefully to stay with G & C. aagain. On Saturday 18th we will be attending the Golden Wedding celebrations of our friends in Chinnor, Birdie and Dave Powell and afterwards a banquet at the Spread Eagle Hotel in Thame, where Steve has thoughtfully booked us in for the night. What a lovely boy we have. Thank you so much Steve.
After our visit to Chinnor/Thame area we will take advantage of our mainland trip to visit June in Kent, which she has been looking forward to for a long time. Perhaps if there is time we might get to Essex to see Mum's brother, Peter, which is only about an hour away from Sevenoaks as the fly crows.
Love to hear you on the phone, Cath. Glad to hear that the kids enjoyed their half term break. How is the shed coming along. First dismantle it, then bring it back to Nythfa to re-erect. Should be a boon to you if you don't let it get filled with 'stuff'.
Today we are off to a Lions Charter Lunch in Bembridge at a nice hotel (The Windmill) where we have lunched before.
Mum has bought herself a lovely stripey jacket and cream coloured skirt to match,in Godshill, plus some super matching shoes. She looks a stunner.
We both send you all our love and look forward to the next blogs. Mum and Dad

Presque verson nous a larmes

Reading your Meanwhile,Somewhere ......blog brought both Margaret and me to tears, Ruth. Ain't life cruel sometimes.

Sorry Gemma, I thought Elaine and wrote Lorraine. Must be the French in me "En passant par a Lorraine, avec mes sabots"
old French marching song, probably mis-spelt but something we sang at school all those years ago. Another was La fiacre - un vieux monsieur qui passez, etc., etc. and of course la Marseillaise Allons enfant de la patrie, le jour de gloire at arrivee. I could go on. Not now Arthur!! Votre vieux granpapa

Whos is Gemma Lorraine?

Gemma Elaine Grandad!!

g x

HAPPY MARCH

Happy birthday to all Davids and Daffodils. This month Bethany Charlotte(13) on 14th and Gemma Lorraine(29) on 23rd and me Patrick Hugh(79) on 29th. Dad
P.s to Cathy if, after you have published your blog you wish to amend it you can click on the cigarette shaped thing at the emd of the blog and that will enable you to edit your blog. After editing you would have to Publish Post again. Try it!