28th April - Made our way to Meadowhall to try and buy an overnight bag for our travels (since Ralph has been told by the doctor that he has a hernia we are trying to lighten the daily load!) and some European travel books.After finding that all the overnight bags cost an arm and a leg and realising that we can buy the travel books on the internet cheaper, we made our way back to Barnsley.

29th - A quiet day around the house to catch up on some of our favourite t.v. programmes we have missed whilst being away.Kirsty went to Mama Amalfi's, a lovely Italian restaurant within Meadowhall Shopping Centre to meet her friend Jenny for tea.

30th - Another quiet day until teatime where we travelled over to Lincoln to see Kirsty's sister Kariss' production of the play Tissue.She has been working on the production for months, dealing with lighting, stage management etc. as well as playing the main character Sally Bacon.The play is put on in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre at Lincoln University and is assessed by the drama degree course leader as well as other lecturers on the course, who took up the front row.We were under strict instructions from Kariss to sit further back so as not to distract her, as this assessment forms a large chunk of her marks for her second year.The play was performed in quite a narrow studio, and as we went in Kariss was already on stage, crouched under a spotlight, arms hugging her knees like a child.Tissue is a play about breast cancer and mastectomy, a brave topic to broach for a second year drama student!The play only has 5 actors, 3 women and 2 men, and constantly jumps backwards and forwards to different stages in one women's life (Sally Bacon played by Kariss) who eventually has to have a mastectomy, from childhood and teenage through to being ignored when she finds a lump in her breast, as well as waking up from the operation.The play was wonderful, extremely quick paced, funny at times and at other times extremely sad.Kariss played her part perfectly and managed to portray a whole host of emotions playing this one character through the years.Once the play ended they had to clear the set ready for another play being put on in a couple of hours time, have her initial assessment feedback from the course leader and then she could final celebrate it all being over.We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant called Yo Yo's with Kirsty's mum and dad, sister Kaycia, Kariss and her boyfriend Scott.It's Kariss' 20th birthday on Friday but as she has 4 essays to write and hand in before Tuesday we will not be seeing her on her birthday as she has to stay at university, so we had the meal (and some interesting green cocktails!) to celebrate!By the time we drove back to Barnsley it was past Midnight, and time for us all to go to bed.

1st -A quiet day but Kirsty went to watch her sister Kaycia at her ice skating lesson at Ice Sheffield, near Sheffield Arena.Kaycia is currently learning her level 4, which consists of skating on one leg and doing small turns on the ice.After that Kirsty and I went up to the local pub, The Travellers for a couple of drinks with her old ASDA work colleague Darren.

2nd - Happy 20th birthday to my sister Kariss!!We went to Meadowhall as Ralph's diet is not working quick enough and yesterday he managed to rip his jeans!A new pair were bought along with an engagement card for our friends Michelle and Andrew (congratulations guys!) and then it was off to ASDA as Kayica and I had promised to cook tea for everyone tonight, so its lamb stew (called lamb tagine in the book!) followed by orange drizzle cake, all from the Slimming World magazine especially for my mum!A night in beckons, with the film St Trinians to watch.

3rd - We set off to Nottingham to go to the City Ground to watch the Nottingham Forest v. Yeovil Town match.This was a very important game at the end of the season for Forest.If Doncaster, above them in the table, either lost or drew and Forest managed to win, Forest would be promoted to the next tier of English football, the Championship.The match was pretty full, with 28,500 fans packed into see what would happen.Most people (including us) had the radio on with an earpiece so that they could listen to what was happen in the other game.We had an added advantage that our friend Andy Schwab was at the Cheltenham v. Doncaster game and so could give us updates by mobile phone.Ralph managed to get a picture with the Forest mascot, Robin, which seemed a good omen.Forest started well and scored 2 goals in the first 20 minutes.Yeovil got one back to make the score 2-1 and then we heard that Cheltenham had gone in front against Doncaster 1-0, if the scores stayed like this, Forest were going to be promoted!Forest then got another to make the score 3-1 but then Doncaster got one back in their game to make their score 1-1.Yeovil then scored again to make the score 3-2 and things were on a knife edge at the City Ground, as if Doncaster got another, Forest would not be promoted automatically and would have to go through the play-offs, something they have proved previously not to be too good at!We then heard on the radio that Cheltenham had scored again and the place went into raptures.Forest held on to their win and as the final whistle blew the celebrations began, with the fans invading the pitch in ecstasy, they had been promoted to the Championship and would be playing their rivals Derby next year, as well as my team Barnsley.Ralph had a brief spell on the pitch and then everyone went back to their seats to allow the Forest players to come back onto the pitch for a lap of honour.We left the ground and headed back to Ralph's parents for the evening.

4th - We set off at lunchtime to Stoneleigh park ground in Warwickshire, where the country's largest kit car show was being held, and where our friends Claire and James were for the weekend as James is on the board of directors for one of the kit car clubs.It was an overcast day with showers on and off but luckily we managed to put up our tent before it got really wet. We had a lovely day, completed by a barbeque at teatime where we stuffed ourselves on burgers and hotdogs, before drinking started in earnest, Ralph managing to drink a couple of bottles of wine plus some beers!Conversation between the group went well into the night, and you would not believe the topics we covered, including politics, religion, immigration, as well as sexual acts on hamsters (it was one of those sort of nights!).We retired to our tent about 1 a.m. to listen to the pitter patter of rain as we fell asleep.