Of course I have not spent all of that time sitting in front of the computer doing nothing, I did go to Somerset for the weekend and have been going some more research on my family tree. The weather we have had over the last few weeks has been fantastic and even though my hay fever may have been triggered it has been nice to get out and about. I've taken a few photos and have had two enlarged as I am pondering the idea of selling some photos – have not really thought where I would sell them or if anyone would want to buy them but its an idea.

This photo was taken just up the coast from Watchet in Somerset, I took quite a few photos of the setting sun.

3rd June and I celebrated my birthday, a rather quiet day with me searching graveyards looking for potential relatives. I enjoy walking around graveyards but have to admit to feeling a little sad when reading some of the inscriptions or seeing a grave that seems to have been neglected. One section of the graveyard I visited the headstones had not weathered particularly well and it is a shame and did get me wondering if I should take photos and record the inscriptions so that the resource can be used by others tracing their family trees.

I would have walked about three miles taking photos and hoping that my batteries would last while I was doing my circuit and it did – I actually took about 200 photos so difficult to know which one to add to this post. Of course not all the photos turned out as I had hoped but I am happy with the majority of them. I really will need to make sure that I get out more this year with the purpose of taking photos as it was good to go out and just take in the scenery.

Took out the subscription to access the 1911 census records and have already begun looking at distant relatives while adding and extending more branches to my own family tree, so it has already been worth the cost involved. I think this year might be an expensive year for my research as I am going to need to get a lot of birth and marriage certificates.

Now most people know what this term means and speaking to a solicitor regarding the circumstances has been very interesting.

Anyway please be aware that you are able to take photos out in public.

On Monday however I went up to Llyn Y Fan Fach which is a lake found in the Brecon Beacons and like most places in Wales comes with a legend, that legend tells of a young woman from the lake who marries a local farmer.(I will eventually link to the legend) It was a pretty easy trek up to the lake and safe enough for people with children as long as they keep to the path as this is a mountain with streams and rivers running down. There are no facilities here or even in the car park (I use the term lightly) at the foot of the mountains so make sure you take a packed lunch. A gentle walk to the lake will take about an hour and that gives you plenty of time to stop and enjoy the views and take photos. At the lake you can enjoy the views with your packed lunch but please remember to take all your rubbish back with you.

I managed to pull myself away from the computer last weekend and get out and about with my camera. In fact last Sunday I ventured up to Carreg Cennen Castle that can be found near Llandeilo, which is a twenty minute drive from Carmarthen. Carreg Cennen is maintained by CADW and they do make a small charge for entry. (I used my discount and got in for £3.00, adult tickets are only £3.50) and they do charge if you want to hire a torch. I would advise that you either take your own torch or you hire one, as you will need one to be able to venture down into the cave underneath the castle. You would also need to be relatively fit to get up to the castle as it is quick a walk but the views you will experience once at the castle are breathtaking and on Sunday the weather was fantastic and it got some really great photos which can be viewed via my Flickr account, or clicking the image above.

In fact I was surprised at how busy the castle was and at times it was a little annoying trying to take photos without having others in the shot, I was also a little concerned to see parents allowing their children to climb all over the castle I can only assume that they thought that it was a “bouncy” castle – well it is true that if anyone fell from the castle they would bounce!

This was not my first visit to the castle and I can remember going as a child with my father who was to mean to hire a torch and being unable to go into the tunnel and through to the cave under the castle but I had been told that it was not that interesting so when I went on Sunday I did not hire a torch but thought that my flash on my phone would be good enough to guide me though the cave. Take my advice take a proper torch or hire one, as you will need it as I found that the flash on my phone was just not good enough down in the cave.

I have already mentioned that it was busy and may people had the right idea about taking a picnic with them and just enjoying the views but there is a little place to eat close to the car park and prices are a little on the steep side but then again you need to consider supply and demand.

Please don’t think I am some greedy pig but in most of the hotels I have ever stayed in will allow you to have a bowl of cereal or some fruit along with your cooked breakfast. After breakfast we made our way to the Bank of Ireland which is located in what used to be the old Irish parliament. And was the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house. It served as the seat of both chambers (the Lords and Commons) of the Irish parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland for most of the eighteenth century until that parliament was abolished by the Act of Union in 1800 when the island became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was an interesting chat, not that we got to see a great deal of the building as it is a working bank and a lot of the building had to be changed when the bank took it over. It is worth noting that this presentation was free and you might be surprised to learn that not many locals know a great deal about the history of the building or what it was used for. So if you’re in Dublin it is well worth a visit.

Afterwards we had planned on jumping on one of the frequent open top tour buses that you can find in Dublin, the aim was to visit all the sights of the city on the bus and having the chance to take photos. It cost €15 for adults and the ticket lasts for 24 hours and with two routes which are slightly different it is well worth travelling on both. The bus we caught was the red route and this bus has a recorded guide in a variety of languages, they even provide headphones – I found that English was best!! As you would expect I must have some complaint about this aspect of my trip, and that would be as it was a recorded guide when we were stuck in traffic the guide was still harping on about things we could not see, also I found it very hard to actually take any photos. I had hoped on the second circuit to have an idea of where we were going and to be ready with the camera but again found it difficult to get any decent shots.

On this second circuit we got off at the Guinness Storehouse, to visit one of Ireland's top tourist attractions. If you have arrived here on one of the tour buses be sure to mention it when you buy your tickets, as you will receive a discount, or like me show your student union card for an even bigger discount. If you are interested in the history of brewing or just like Guinness then you will more than likely enjoy your visit, you do get a sample half way though the tour and an explanation of how to taste test the product. I would imagine that a child who be bored senseless here as there is a lot of reading and videos to watch, the videos are presented well enough but I felt there was not enough “hands on” activities to try out.

Eventually you get to the top of the building and to the “Gravity Bar” which provides a 360-degree view over the city of Dublin to enjoy your free pint of Guinness. I found the views pretty good but there was not really the opportunity to sit down (lack of seats and lots of tourists) to take in the view and relax. To exit the tour you take a glass lift down to the foyer where you are more than welcome to spend your money in the Guinness Store.

In fact it had taken a few hours to get around the Guinness Storehouse and once back into the heart of the city we decided to get something to eat before returning to the hotel. I really did not want a repeat of what had happened the day before so I suggested that my friend pick somewhere and fair play he found somewhere that had a set menu and the prices were reasonable, unfortunately we soon discovered why they were so reasonable it was because the portions were so small. I had ordered the chicken and that is exactly what I got, chicken and nothing else, I was not expecting much but it is normal to have even a token amount of vegetables!

Once finished we made our way back to the hotel, it had been decided that we would go our own way that evening and that is exactly what we did.

The third and final day saw me have the continental breakfast with the waffles, and I was able to help myself to two other items from the table! We had decided that the first port of call would be to check out of the hotel and get to the coach station to store our luggage before spending the rest of the day going around shops. It did take us slightly longer than planned to get to a position where we were free of our luggage and it had been hoped that we could use the 24 hour pass for the bus to have another spin around Dublin but could we find one of the buses that had been all over the place yesterday – no.

I think the third and final day was the only day where I took charge, I suggested that to save walking back on ourselves that we get back to the main area of Dublin, close to the statue of Molly Malone. As my friend wanted to do the touristy things such as shopping of all things, now I can think of nothing more tedious that shopping, so suggested to my friend that we once more went our separate ways he could go shopping and not have me following behind wishing I was anywhere else. So it was arranged that we would meet back at the statue of Molly Malone and go off for lunch, I had even decided where we would be going for lunch, it was all a part of my plan to get back to the coach station in time for the bus back to the ferry port. I used the time to visit a St. Stephens Green, which is a large green space in this busy city and just spent the time walking around. The weather by this time had taken a turn for the worse with rain so I was glad to get to the pub I had selected for lunch. I would call it a pub as it was nowhere near as formal as a restaurant, I quite fancied the full Irish breakfast they were serving, after seeing others who had obviously ordered it but I decided to opt for a burger and it was a pretty good size. Service was rather slow, not in getting our food to us just in taking our orders for desert, the choice was rather limited with only two deserts but considering that it was more a pub than a restaurant it was fine and again the portions were ample. We had yet another long wait for the bill to be bought to us, some people might complain that they had some waiter/waitress hovering around as they ate. As I said to my friend I thought it completely possible to just walk out of that place without paying and they more than likely would not realise.

We did end up spending more time there than I had planned for but as I saw it better to be sitting in a pub than waiting around in the coach station. A three-hour coach journey later and we were back at the ferry terminal where we had a further two-hour wait to board the ferry. I hope I have not put you off a visit to Dublin, maybe I had not done enough forward planning for my stay and needless to say Erin I doubt the Dublin tourist board will be looking for any reviews from me.

For more information on Dubin.

I think I can finally say that I have got all my Christmas presents, picking up something for my brother today. I sent off a batch of Christmas cards yesterday to friends overseas and for those of you expecting a cards off me, sorry if you don’t get one but I left my card making rather late this year. Yesterday I also went for a walk up a local mountain, I did not realise it was two and a half miles up hill just to get to the look out area and if I am honest the quality of the photos I took were not that brilliant, not worth the long and tiring walk at any rate!

After all that I ventured in to Swansea to do some last minute Christmas shopping, it is still hard to believe that this time next week it will be Christmas Eve! Last night my card factory was in overdrive trying to make enough Christmas cards for everyone, in fact I shall have to finish them off tonight.

As for today I was up with the birds and got busy wrapping presents and made good progress before I realised that I had run out of vital supplies and made a trip in to town where I picked up the last of my presents. I then endured a trip to Tesco (nearly getting driven off the road by some manic driver) but could not find the things I was looking for so will have to make a trip to ASDA after work this week.

It a shame that I never took any photos of my first car. One of my friends just happened to have this photo that was taken after they had decided to increase the value of my car by covering it grass and leaves – you would have thought they would have left the tree alone.

The amount of mickey taking that I had to endure with this car, I can remember the Flintstone jokes but at the time I thought it was just great to have a car and any car was better than none. As you can tell from the above image it had more than a few patches of rust on it and the bottom of the doors were full of filler but no matter what anyone had to say about that car it served me well (apart from the two instances when the brakes fell off). I was young and spent way to much money on this car, and with hindsight I really should not have ploughed more money into it as in the end it got to a stage where I had to make a decision about the future of the car, this happened one day when I was doing some work on the car and discovered that the petrol tank was rusting away. That on top of my doubts that the car would pass its next MOT I finally decided that it was not worth spending more money on getting the petrol tank removed.

So the car was finally consigned to that great scrap yard (I gave it to the local fire brigade to be used to train new fire-fighters) back in 1998, having been in my possession since 1996. what days those were.

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This is one of the photos I took today, been messing about with the camera settings to darken the image to capture the colours in the sky.