A W(h)ale of a Time

We are finally back from our European expedition, it is great to be within the walls of Castle Sidewalker once again. That being said we also had a fantastic time on our trip, even though we did not find any ancient Roman coins as we had hoped to, we did find £1.13 and €0.05 boosting the Sidewalker Fund to over $20 after converting the currency at some favorable rates with our family over there.

Mrs. Sidewalker left a week or so ahead of me with the kids and they found £0.07 in Sherwood Forrest, the old hunting ground of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Perhaps they were so successful at robbing the rich that they didn't miss the coins found by Mrs. Sidewalker. It was during this leg of the trip that Sidewalker Jr. came out with this little gem. One morning whilst putting on a pair of socks he said to his Grandma, "We don't wear socks in America because it is Summer there!" It gave us a chance to explain to him what 11° more of Northern latitude will do to a climate. And yes he was running around sock free today shouting "Look Mommy it is Summer again", so perhaps we need to go over that lesson once more.

I finally caught up with rest of the family in Wales and with the Grandparents present to look after the children it gave Mrs. S and I a little freedom to explore the local area. We read a leaflet about the oldest pub in Wales called the Skirrid Mountain Inn so we took a stroll down the country lanes to find it. The first mention of the Inn dates back to 1100 AD, it has apparently been open every day since then, that is until we turned up and after 909 years of continuous service it decided that Tuesday August 25th 2009 was an ideal time for a day off! We did return later in the week to enjoy a great homemade steak and ale pie.

Mrs. S was in a rich vein of form as she proved by finding £1.01 in the Llanwenarth Hotel and Restaurant a beautiful place located high on the Eastern bank of the River Usk halfway between the towns of Abergavenny and Crickhowell.

Fear ye not, I did actually find some money also. We were on a day trip to Monmouth, the birth place of King Henry V, so it was fitting that I found 5 pence whilst taking Sidewalker Jr. to see his first game of cricket. (No I'm not explaining the rules here!)

All in all it was a great trip and we will be returning in February next year to attend my sister's wedding. As we were leaving the security area at Heathrow Airport yielded some more small change. All the locations of our finds are dutifully plotted on my Cash Trail Map located in the sidebar to the right. --->

With the Sidewalker Fund now boasting over $20 in the coffers I will have to call a meeting of the investment committee and we will have to allocate the funds, but that can wait till next week as I feel another wave of jet lag about to wash over me...


-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $20.26