Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thai meal
I HAVE to tell you about last night! There is a new Thai restaurant in Matamata. We are coming up in the world you know, there is also a sushi bar opening soon!! We had heard a few good reports so decided to give it a go. Well!! We arrived to find the entrance cluttered with people waiting for take ways so had a bit of a fight to get in. We were then seated by European waitresses, which I have never experienced before in a Thai restaurant. Still I guess there aren’t that many Thai’s living in Matamata! The lighting was too bright and the lovely mural on the wall was very kiwi (a beach scene) and didn’t quite ‘go’. The menus were dumped in a pile on the table. I would like to have been handed mine! Am I setting the scene? Anyway it continued like this. It took about 30 minutes before they took our order and we were STARVING by the time the food arrived. When it finally came the young waitress, whom I feel has never eaten anywhere more refined than McDonalds, plonked a dish on the table saying “F7 not sure what it is I can’t pronounce it”, followed by “C5”. After staring incredulously until she left we burst out laughing not quite believing what had just happened. The meal ended with me dropping my jaw (to the girls amusement) when, on asking for coffee I was asked how I took it “ We only have instant at the moment you see”!!! And the chocolate ice cream was a cheap chemically variety. However the Thai food was divine, and huge portions. Even we couldn’t finish the set menu for 4 and had to ask for doggy bags. Now we know why the entrance was cluttered with people waiting for takeaways. We will be one of them next time!!
Sunday, September 09, 2007
UK Holiday - continuation Pt. 4
I failed! I didn’t finish. And now I know I am 5 weeks behind on NZ blog as well. I am sitting in a spare bed at Ann and Mikes house (Juliet’s parents). Unusually for NZ it is a 2 plus storeyed house and on an elevated section (that’s code for a seriously steep drive!). As I look out the huge picture window about half my view is sky, a third sea (the Firth of Thames) and the rest Te Puru below us. We are here for our annual “get together with J+K at Ann and Mike’s while they are out the country” weekend. I can smell Eric’s sausages cooking but have declined breakfast in favour of typing. For several reasons: a) a tad too much gin last night means I am not feeling up to it (nothing to compare with the state Eric was in last Sunday!!!), b) it’s Sunday and I don’t want to be rushed out of bed (even if it is 10am), especially after staying up until 1.30am to watch the AB’s massacre Italy in their first World Cup match, and c) I really want to get his holiday blog finished and have a busy 2 weeks ahead of me so know that if it doesn't get done now it'll be weeks away.
So, back to the UK! I really enjoyed the family reunion but the girls were bored silly. When I was their age I used to enjoy these affairs but then I had lots of cousins my age that I really enjoyed catching up with. The girls had one or 2 distant cousins under 30 there but hardly any other teenagers there. I took lots of photos of various generations of the family, which I will post as this is MY blog, even if they will not interest anyone else! Sharron, Ryan, Devon and Emma arrived looking very smart but they had just come, or were going to, a wedding. The ‘children’ all looked very grown up!
Auntie's and Uncle's (my Daddy's siblings):
Cousins: Michelle, Tricia, Pauline, Sharron, and Mary
We had our final evening at Helen and Paul’s then the very sad goodbyes. It was really hard to leave them and some tears were shed. They had been such wonderful hosts and completely unfazed by our invasion of their home over the previous month.
Up to Ava’s the next morning. Mia and Maddie were now recovered from illnesses and Harriette and Alice loved being with them. Eric’s nephew Todd met up with us all in a typical London pub. We stopped there after we had all been for a walk through the park and Mia and Maddie had shown us their schools. And Yes, Todd, like all the others, has grown up! No longer the undergraduate teenager who visited us in NZ, but a confident young man working in London and recently returned from a holiday in Mexico. Todd spent the afternoon with us and came when we went to the pub in Hammersmith for our grown up night out. Well this didn’t go quite to plan and I’ll tell you why. I could not transfer our Outlook mailing list into webmail or hotmail. I had therefore, printed it out with the intention of sending an email to everyone to let them know where we would be meeting that night in a quiet moment (!) when we were on our travels. Unfortunately, I left the printout in London at Ava’s and, as we only arrived there mid-day, I did not have time to get the info out. So. We met up with Helen, Stan, Carol and Milky only. A cosy affair. None the less, still a good evening. Stan has finally moved out of the squat (not really a squat!!) into a house. A sensible move. He has made a lot of money on his Woking flat but really needed to move into more ‘grown up’ accommodation. Well at his age!!
And so, the next day - our last in the UK. I took the girls to Primark for a final clothes shop, then packed for our departure – a mammoth task. Why did we bring so many clothes???? Again we are grateful to Ava and Henry for putting us up, and allowing us to leave bags and other stuff clogging up one of their bedrooms while we travelled. We got to Heathrow, deposited the hire car, checked in our bags (phew – no excess to pay) and went to go through the departure gates, only to find we could only take one piece of hand luggage each. On the way to the UK (prior to Glasgow) we were allowed 1 piece + laptop + handbag. Now we had to wedge it all into one. Thank heavens Eric had bought a trampers day pack which had almost nothing in it. So, under instruction from a rather stroppy security woman, we moved to one side, put the laptop and some stuff from H, A’s and my hand luggage into it so we could fit our handbags into our cabin bags and went through. We THEN find out that the laptops have to be removed (from its case in the bottom of this day pack) and be put through the screening machines in a tray on their own!!!!!!!! In the departure lounge we finished writing, and posted, the heaps of Thank you cards we had been carrying round with us. And then we left, aboard another jam packed plane heading for Singapore.
We cannot thank enough everyone who contributed to making our holiday the wonderful, memorable trip that it was. We are blessed with great friends. As I have probably said earlier in this missive, our biggest regret was not having more time to spend with people. So, once again, and for a final time, a huge Thank You to you all.
So, back to the UK! I really enjoyed the family reunion but the girls were bored silly. When I was their age I used to enjoy these affairs but then I had lots of cousins my age that I really enjoyed catching up with. The girls had one or 2 distant cousins under 30 there but hardly any other teenagers there. I took lots of photos of various generations of the family, which I will post as this is MY blog, even if they will not interest anyone else! Sharron, Ryan, Devon and Emma arrived looking very smart but they had just come, or were going to, a wedding. The ‘children’ all looked very grown up!
Auntie's and Uncle's (my Daddy's siblings):
Cousins: Michelle, Tricia, Pauline, Sharron, and Mary
We had our final evening at Helen and Paul’s then the very sad goodbyes. It was really hard to leave them and some tears were shed. They had been such wonderful hosts and completely unfazed by our invasion of their home over the previous month.
Up to Ava’s the next morning. Mia and Maddie were now recovered from illnesses and Harriette and Alice loved being with them. Eric’s nephew Todd met up with us all in a typical London pub. We stopped there after we had all been for a walk through the park and Mia and Maddie had shown us their schools. And Yes, Todd, like all the others, has grown up! No longer the undergraduate teenager who visited us in NZ, but a confident young man working in London and recently returned from a holiday in Mexico. Todd spent the afternoon with us and came when we went to the pub in Hammersmith for our grown up night out. Well this didn’t go quite to plan and I’ll tell you why. I could not transfer our Outlook mailing list into webmail or hotmail. I had therefore, printed it out with the intention of sending an email to everyone to let them know where we would be meeting that night in a quiet moment (!) when we were on our travels. Unfortunately, I left the printout in London at Ava’s and, as we only arrived there mid-day, I did not have time to get the info out. So. We met up with Helen, Stan, Carol and Milky only. A cosy affair. None the less, still a good evening. Stan has finally moved out of the squat (not really a squat!!) into a house. A sensible move. He has made a lot of money on his Woking flat but really needed to move into more ‘grown up’ accommodation. Well at his age!!
And so, the next day - our last in the UK. I took the girls to Primark for a final clothes shop, then packed for our departure – a mammoth task. Why did we bring so many clothes???? Again we are grateful to Ava and Henry for putting us up, and allowing us to leave bags and other stuff clogging up one of their bedrooms while we travelled. We got to Heathrow, deposited the hire car, checked in our bags (phew – no excess to pay) and went to go through the departure gates, only to find we could only take one piece of hand luggage each. On the way to the UK (prior to Glasgow) we were allowed 1 piece + laptop + handbag. Now we had to wedge it all into one. Thank heavens Eric had bought a trampers day pack which had almost nothing in it. So, under instruction from a rather stroppy security woman, we moved to one side, put the laptop and some stuff from H, A’s and my hand luggage into it so we could fit our handbags into our cabin bags and went through. We THEN find out that the laptops have to be removed (from its case in the bottom of this day pack) and be put through the screening machines in a tray on their own!!!!!!!! In the departure lounge we finished writing, and posted, the heaps of Thank you cards we had been carrying round with us. And then we left, aboard another jam packed plane heading for Singapore.
We cannot thank enough everyone who contributed to making our holiday the wonderful, memorable trip that it was. We are blessed with great friends. As I have probably said earlier in this missive, our biggest regret was not having more time to spend with people. So, once again, and for a final time, a huge Thank You to you all.
UK Holiday continuation - Pt. 3
(It’s now Sunday 2nd September and I will do my best to complete this epic entry before going to collect Alice from the boyfriends in Hamilton this morning!)
That evening we went into Canterbury to queue for the midnight release of the final Harry potter book. I was quite disappointed as Waterstones had advertised a street party and it was just a very long queue with an entertainer (fire eater/juggler) and one coffee shop open. To make it worse at about 00.45 people were walking along saying there were no queues in WHSmith’s!! Anyway 2 books were purchased and we headed home.
The next day we had really looked forward to. Helen and Chris have visited us in NZ (you may remember an account of spending a day on a yacht with them off Coromandel). They are avid sailors and have a lovely 40’ (I think) yacht which they charter out. A and H had noses fixed permanently to their books but looked up when Helen, seeing the books, mentioned that Timothy Spall (Scabbers/Peter Petigrew in the films) had his barge moored adjacent to them. (In fact on looking at the days photo’s later we realised we had earlier caught him in the background of a shot). She talked about how nice he was for a few minutes. As we left Alice got all excited when she saw him and, as they had the books in their hands already, I gave them a pen and they asked him to sign them – which he did, then asked if he was in the final instalment!! Great excitement and I guess they had the only HP books signed but a film cast member when they arrived back here! This excitement was tempered by disappointment. Chris had booked a days annual leave weeks in advance of our trip but got a call in the morning to say he needed to bring a ship in, his leave had not been processed and there was no one else to do it!!! He phoned as things developed and it looked for a while like he would get back in time to see us. Then the ship broke down!!!!! He was stuck on the Thames somewhere for the duration. Such a big disappointment for us all. The only consolation being, that we know we will see them in NZ before long and have been invited to spend some time sailing with them when they come – which will be great fun. They have a lovely life and much of it is based around the sea. In fact Helen gave up a high flying career in a law office in London to take some time out and ended up working in a chandlers (I just asked Eric how to describe that and he says “a boats bit shop”. He has a wicked hangover – more on that later!!). She has done lots of nautical courses and now has her ocean yachtmasters for which she deserves many congratulations. Well done Helen.
Leaving the yacht (And Mr Spall) we headed up to the yacht club to meet some of their friends and have lunch. The sun shone and we actually got a tad red! It was with sadness that we left Ramsgate but it was nice to get some insight into Helen and Chris’s lives as I have only really become acquainted with them since they visited us here. They are such a nice couple.
We had to head off mid afternoon for Blean where Pauline had arranged a family reunion. It was so strange that Mom and Daddy were not there!! It was the biggest Smith reunion for very many years, probably since my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary in 1989, (they celebrated their 72nd before my grandmother died!!). All my aunts and uncles are over 70 but there were 8 of them there, and with cousins who are great grandmothers there were generations galore!
Ryan, Devon, Eric, Emma, Harriette, Michelle, Alice and Sharron:
That evening we went into Canterbury to queue for the midnight release of the final Harry potter book. I was quite disappointed as Waterstones had advertised a street party and it was just a very long queue with an entertainer (fire eater/juggler) and one coffee shop open. To make it worse at about 00.45 people were walking along saying there were no queues in WHSmith’s!! Anyway 2 books were purchased and we headed home.
The next day we had really looked forward to. Helen and Chris have visited us in NZ (you may remember an account of spending a day on a yacht with them off Coromandel). They are avid sailors and have a lovely 40’ (I think) yacht which they charter out. A and H had noses fixed permanently to their books but looked up when Helen, seeing the books, mentioned that Timothy Spall (Scabbers/Peter Petigrew in the films) had his barge moored adjacent to them. (In fact on looking at the days photo’s later we realised we had earlier caught him in the background of a shot). She talked about how nice he was for a few minutes. As we left Alice got all excited when she saw him and, as they had the books in their hands already, I gave them a pen and they asked him to sign them – which he did, then asked if he was in the final instalment!! Great excitement and I guess they had the only HP books signed but a film cast member when they arrived back here! This excitement was tempered by disappointment. Chris had booked a days annual leave weeks in advance of our trip but got a call in the morning to say he needed to bring a ship in, his leave had not been processed and there was no one else to do it!!! He phoned as things developed and it looked for a while like he would get back in time to see us. Then the ship broke down!!!!! He was stuck on the Thames somewhere for the duration. Such a big disappointment for us all. The only consolation being, that we know we will see them in NZ before long and have been invited to spend some time sailing with them when they come – which will be great fun. They have a lovely life and much of it is based around the sea. In fact Helen gave up a high flying career in a law office in London to take some time out and ended up working in a chandlers (I just asked Eric how to describe that and he says “a boats bit shop”. He has a wicked hangover – more on that later!!). She has done lots of nautical courses and now has her ocean yachtmasters for which she deserves many congratulations. Well done Helen.
Leaving the yacht (And Mr Spall) we headed up to the yacht club to meet some of their friends and have lunch. The sun shone and we actually got a tad red! It was with sadness that we left Ramsgate but it was nice to get some insight into Helen and Chris’s lives as I have only really become acquainted with them since they visited us here. They are such a nice couple.
We had to head off mid afternoon for Blean where Pauline had arranged a family reunion. It was so strange that Mom and Daddy were not there!! It was the biggest Smith reunion for very many years, probably since my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary in 1989, (they celebrated their 72nd before my grandmother died!!). All my aunts and uncles are over 70 but there were 8 of them there, and with cousins who are great grandmothers there were generations galore!
Ryan, Devon, Eric, Emma, Harriette, Michelle, Alice and Sharron:
UK Holiday - continuation Pt. 2
…………Costa Coffee. I’m sorry that wasn’t meant to be left as a cliff hanger. It was purely chance. And now you’ll be so disappointed! Costa coffee do amazing fruit frappes and iced chocolate/coffees. Thank heavens I was on holiday and not sticking to WW’s. I’m afraid we indulged in them at every opportunity thereafter (probably accounts for most of my holiday weight gain!).
Back to Kent. We called in to IKEA at Thurrock on the way back. I have to say it was such a disappointment. Not IKEA itself but the fact that I could not buy anything :-(
We left with 3 CD cases and me planning my next trip and how much of a container I would need to purchase to return my goods to NZ. I drooled all the way round. With a big sigh we (I) left, moving on then to Canterbury where the girls shopped with Eric while I went to elderly relative (Auntie Mary) and met up with cousins Pauline and Mary (coincidentally Mary was over from Canada with her husband Bud). Another auntie, Bernie, was there as she had come down from Coventry for a family reunion organised by Pauline on behalf of Mary and I.
When we got to Mark and Caths we found Lucy with a full length leg plaster on.
Poor girl broke her leg at school when she slipped playing tennis. This is someone who played football for Charlton Athletic until they were relegated, lost a portion of their funding and ditched their girls football. Mark and Cathy had toyed with the idea of emigrating to NZ and visited us a year or so after we moved out here. Cathy got home in the early evening and we had a relaxing evening catching up. Discussing people we used to know I asked about Debbie, a staff nurse from HDU who had lived round the corner. Apparently she was still there so the next morning I popped round with a note to put through her door asking if they wanted to join us for a BBQ that evening. While there, talking to her Mom, Debbie actually dropped in between stops at work. Debbie has done well and is now a nurse consultant for ICU in South East Kent covering several hospitals. Quick chat and we planned to catch up later.
It’s now Thursday 12 July and we went to see my elderly and recently poorly uncle Bertie (whom I am very fond of) and his wife Jean in Seasalter. I was surprised to see how like my grandmother Uncle Bertie looked now he was so thin. Although quite frail he was much better than I expected after months of illness.
From here it was off to Ramsgate to meet up with my only sister Sharron and 2 of her 3 children. Emma was sleeping from her night shift. Devon is plodding through college trying to get into nursing. She has to take a long route and I admire her for her determination and perseverance. Ryan was looking very tanned having just got back from Morocco with his Dad, Alan, and partner, Debbie. He is all set to join the air-force and very focused on his long term plans. He may yet end up in NZ as Alan and Debbie, we are told, are considering moving out here in a few years time. We were very late getting back to Mark and Cath’s and I felt guilty that we were not there to help more with the BBQ they had organised. Gavin and Liz joined us. They are long time friends of M+C and we know them also as Eric and Gavin were in the police together. Neither of them have changed, Gavin is one of life’s great characters and again it was so good to catch up, and sad that it was for such a brief time. Sadly we departed the next day (Lucy’s birthday). The 3 girls are such a credit to Mark and Cathy and we really enjoyed seeing them all.
Next stop was Claire’s. We popped in to the church where Eric and I were married and the girls were christened before leaving Whitstable,
...and then deciding to take a short cut across country I managed to get us lost. The result was we arrived an hour late!!! Claire took me to a gorgeous pub in the middle of nowhere (I always wonder how these places survive) where we had a great lunch (with a huge dog lying on the floor under the table next to us) and some precious ‘girlie’ time.
Whilst Claire was spoiling me, Eric and the girls went to Folkestone so Eric could have his whelks by the harbour. Just to make him feel at home a seagull s**t on him!! A sort of ‘welcome home’ I feel. In case you don’t know seagulls plague the residents of Folkestone and Dover where we used to live! Back to Helen and Paul’s where Helen did some lamb kebab-y things for supper. Paul, who plays tenor sax, was out at his first ‘paid’ gig – and little apprehensive about it. He later said that it went well.
Saturday we dropped a pressie in for Claire (her birthday) then went over to Vanessa and her new man Mike, (well new since we left the UK) for a pub lunch. A wonderfully British affair, little Kentish village and a cosy country pub where everyone knows everyone. It turned out to be all very unreal. Vanessa used to be married to Mark (pay attention this is confusing). Also, when I was working my other HV assistant, Sharon, (Vanessa also being one) loathed her first husband and referred to him only as ‘ the a**ehole’. Well Mark was there with new girlfriend (previous girlfriend of Mike!!) and Sharon was there with her ex whom she has since re-married!!!! It was quite a strange day. We felt like we were stepping into peoples lives whom we hardly recognised, the relationships and dynamics were all so different. For the evening we went to Ann and Bob, whom we met through Mark and Vanessa but they all estranged from each other now. Ann and Bob must be the most travelled people we know heading off for foreign parts 4 – 6 times a year. They have a trip to NZ planned for a few years time. We BBQ’d but moved indoors for dessert as it was a tad cool. We had noticed lots of scaffolding as we drove around Folkestone and guessed it was the earthquake that we had heard reported in NZ even. It was apparent that Ann and Bob lived in one of the worse affected areas as it was up around every few houses, including there’s. If I remember correctly (I really should have written this much sooner!) they were in San Fransisco when they it happened, which is a bit ironic don’t you think?
The following day we headed up to Shropshire popping in on Elly on the way for breakfast. Elly is one of my oldest friends and looked absolutely gorgeous.
She has always taken pride I her appearance, so unlike me, and is about 3 stone lighter since I last saw her on account of becoming a fitness fanatic. Well maybe fanatic is not the right word but she takes it very seriously. As I have mentioned in the past, it started off getting fit to walk some of the Great Wall of China for the MacMillan Trust and has just continued. I am obviously doing something wrong as where other people run 10 miles I am thrilled when I can manage 1km! Anyway, Elly did a wonderful breakfast and we tried to cram 5 years into 2 and a half hours. One of my big regrets of the holiday is that I didn’t manage some girlie time with Elly. Next time! We then travelled to Shrewsbury where we saw the 9pm showing of the Harry Potter movie then went to Trish and Simons. They were in Italy with Alex and Dave so we had the house to ourselves, or so we thought. Now this place is a barn conversion in a tiny settlement on the edge of a village a mile down a single track lane with a few similar houses around. A little remote. We thought that maybe Sarah was home from the backpack on the kitchen floor. Alice went upstairs and frightened the living daylights out of Sarah as she emerged from her bedroom, half asleep, to investigate the noises. She did not know we had arranged to stay that night!! Once recovered, Sarah saw us settled and we all went to bed. Up early the next morning to get to Weaverham to spend as long with Eric’s parents as we could. We had a lovely day with them. Eric got some, much needed, casting (trout) lessons from his Dad in the garden and we went for a lovely canal walk. Dinner was followed by copious amounts of whiskey for Eric and John and I had great difficulty prising Eric away. I was in a real dilemma, torn between the needs of 2 exhausted children for sleep and not wanting to deprive Eric and his parents of precious time together.
The next morning we tried to book Eurostar tickets for the following day, but on finding out it was going to cost GBP530 we decided not to go. That’s about NZ$1,300 and 2 of us can go to Auz for that. Instead we booked theatre tickets for Fame in London after getting hold of Katie and arranging for her to come with us. We then hit the road once again for Kent. We got an Indian takeaway that evening for us, Helen, Paul, Adam and Katie. We were a bit disappointed with it but it was still better than any we have had in NZ. Another pleasant evening with the Major’s.
After breakfast the next day we headed for London and went to the Natural History Museum. I have to confess to being a bit disappointed. Although smaller I think I prefer Te Papa in Wellington. One cannot, however, fail to be impressed by the building itself which is nothing short of magnificent.
Of course because the Glasgow airport bombing had occurred security was very tight and we were searched before entering public buildings quite often.
We then met up with Katie and her man Woody for pizzas. In the restaurant I noticed Alice disappear to the loo a few times. She then said she had bad abdominal pain before heading off again. She was in agony shortly afterwards with pain quite high up so not appendicitis. She was pale sweaty and nauseous. With only 15 minutes from curtain up I prized myself away from her to hand tickets over to the others and explain what was going on. Woody was to stay with us (we had not got him a ticket as he was meant to be in Birmingham). The waitress offered to call an ambulance. Alice’s pain, though severe was intermittent. After a while I managed to persuade her to walk up to the theatre with a promise that if she got the pain back again I would call a cab and take her to ED. Woody walked with us and she was fine! We went in about 10 minutes late and she stayed fine thereafter. The only explanation I can come up with is that she took Brufen on an empty stomach about an hour earlier (unbeknown to me). Anyway we watched the show, which we thoroughly enjoyed (well apart from Eric who predictably, could say nothing more than it was “OK”). Not the best West End production I have ever seen but a thoroughly enjoyable way to pass an evening. My only criticism is that the vocal skills of the lead male were disappointing. Sounded good but you could not decipher the words, rather important in a musical I think. The dancing was, of course, fabulous.
We got the tube to St Pauls and then walked over the Millenium bridge (one of the things I wanted to do during our trip)
Another later night. Next day was my HDU reunion. Jan whom I worked with for many year had been busy tracking people down and even put an ad in the local paper. She had suggested Cullins Yard by Dover harbour, which was perfect. There were about 12 of us in all, including the, afore mentioned, Debbie, and people I had not seen for nearly 10 years. This included Linda who came home early from France where she lives part of the year and co-incidentally, knows my cousin (also Linda) whom I have never met but now lives in Australia. Both Lindas husbands were in the dental corp of the army together. Anyway we had a great time with teenage children joining us after school and ‘lunch’ finished around 6pm! Thank you Jan, and all the girls that came. I had a lovely time. It was such a shock when a few said they had to go back to work for the afternoon. Work had become a very remote concept at this stage pf our trip!!
Into our final week and it was Alice’s birthday, now Friday. We picked up Lucy from Claire’s and took them into Ashford shopping. Had Chinese for lunch then I popped back to collect Chloe and Kayleigh. Kayleighs family where moving that day so all was a bit hectic there. We then went 10 pin bowling and they had a good time I think.
Back to Claire’s for a cup of tea and then home to Helen and Paul’s to catch up with Katie-Ann and for pizza’s.
In the evening Alice went to school disco with Chloe but I don’t think she particularly enjoyed that feeling a bit fish out of water-ish.
Back to Kent. We called in to IKEA at Thurrock on the way back. I have to say it was such a disappointment. Not IKEA itself but the fact that I could not buy anything :-(
We left with 3 CD cases and me planning my next trip and how much of a container I would need to purchase to return my goods to NZ. I drooled all the way round. With a big sigh we (I) left, moving on then to Canterbury where the girls shopped with Eric while I went to elderly relative (Auntie Mary) and met up with cousins Pauline and Mary (coincidentally Mary was over from Canada with her husband Bud). Another auntie, Bernie, was there as she had come down from Coventry for a family reunion organised by Pauline on behalf of Mary and I.
When we got to Mark and Caths we found Lucy with a full length leg plaster on.
Poor girl broke her leg at school when she slipped playing tennis. This is someone who played football for Charlton Athletic until they were relegated, lost a portion of their funding and ditched their girls football. Mark and Cathy had toyed with the idea of emigrating to NZ and visited us a year or so after we moved out here. Cathy got home in the early evening and we had a relaxing evening catching up. Discussing people we used to know I asked about Debbie, a staff nurse from HDU who had lived round the corner. Apparently she was still there so the next morning I popped round with a note to put through her door asking if they wanted to join us for a BBQ that evening. While there, talking to her Mom, Debbie actually dropped in between stops at work. Debbie has done well and is now a nurse consultant for ICU in South East Kent covering several hospitals. Quick chat and we planned to catch up later.
It’s now Thursday 12 July and we went to see my elderly and recently poorly uncle Bertie (whom I am very fond of) and his wife Jean in Seasalter. I was surprised to see how like my grandmother Uncle Bertie looked now he was so thin. Although quite frail he was much better than I expected after months of illness.
From here it was off to Ramsgate to meet up with my only sister Sharron and 2 of her 3 children. Emma was sleeping from her night shift. Devon is plodding through college trying to get into nursing. She has to take a long route and I admire her for her determination and perseverance. Ryan was looking very tanned having just got back from Morocco with his Dad, Alan, and partner, Debbie. He is all set to join the air-force and very focused on his long term plans. He may yet end up in NZ as Alan and Debbie, we are told, are considering moving out here in a few years time. We were very late getting back to Mark and Cath’s and I felt guilty that we were not there to help more with the BBQ they had organised. Gavin and Liz joined us. They are long time friends of M+C and we know them also as Eric and Gavin were in the police together. Neither of them have changed, Gavin is one of life’s great characters and again it was so good to catch up, and sad that it was for such a brief time. Sadly we departed the next day (Lucy’s birthday). The 3 girls are such a credit to Mark and Cathy and we really enjoyed seeing them all.
Next stop was Claire’s. We popped in to the church where Eric and I were married and the girls were christened before leaving Whitstable,
...and then deciding to take a short cut across country I managed to get us lost. The result was we arrived an hour late!!! Claire took me to a gorgeous pub in the middle of nowhere (I always wonder how these places survive) where we had a great lunch (with a huge dog lying on the floor under the table next to us) and some precious ‘girlie’ time.
Whilst Claire was spoiling me, Eric and the girls went to Folkestone so Eric could have his whelks by the harbour. Just to make him feel at home a seagull s**t on him!! A sort of ‘welcome home’ I feel. In case you don’t know seagulls plague the residents of Folkestone and Dover where we used to live! Back to Helen and Paul’s where Helen did some lamb kebab-y things for supper. Paul, who plays tenor sax, was out at his first ‘paid’ gig – and little apprehensive about it. He later said that it went well.
Saturday we dropped a pressie in for Claire (her birthday) then went over to Vanessa and her new man Mike, (well new since we left the UK) for a pub lunch. A wonderfully British affair, little Kentish village and a cosy country pub where everyone knows everyone. It turned out to be all very unreal. Vanessa used to be married to Mark (pay attention this is confusing). Also, when I was working my other HV assistant, Sharon, (Vanessa also being one) loathed her first husband and referred to him only as ‘ the a**ehole’. Well Mark was there with new girlfriend (previous girlfriend of Mike!!) and Sharon was there with her ex whom she has since re-married!!!! It was quite a strange day. We felt like we were stepping into peoples lives whom we hardly recognised, the relationships and dynamics were all so different. For the evening we went to Ann and Bob, whom we met through Mark and Vanessa but they all estranged from each other now. Ann and Bob must be the most travelled people we know heading off for foreign parts 4 – 6 times a year. They have a trip to NZ planned for a few years time. We BBQ’d but moved indoors for dessert as it was a tad cool. We had noticed lots of scaffolding as we drove around Folkestone and guessed it was the earthquake that we had heard reported in NZ even. It was apparent that Ann and Bob lived in one of the worse affected areas as it was up around every few houses, including there’s. If I remember correctly (I really should have written this much sooner!) they were in San Fransisco when they it happened, which is a bit ironic don’t you think?
The following day we headed up to Shropshire popping in on Elly on the way for breakfast. Elly is one of my oldest friends and looked absolutely gorgeous.
She has always taken pride I her appearance, so unlike me, and is about 3 stone lighter since I last saw her on account of becoming a fitness fanatic. Well maybe fanatic is not the right word but she takes it very seriously. As I have mentioned in the past, it started off getting fit to walk some of the Great Wall of China for the MacMillan Trust and has just continued. I am obviously doing something wrong as where other people run 10 miles I am thrilled when I can manage 1km! Anyway, Elly did a wonderful breakfast and we tried to cram 5 years into 2 and a half hours. One of my big regrets of the holiday is that I didn’t manage some girlie time with Elly. Next time! We then travelled to Shrewsbury where we saw the 9pm showing of the Harry Potter movie then went to Trish and Simons. They were in Italy with Alex and Dave so we had the house to ourselves, or so we thought. Now this place is a barn conversion in a tiny settlement on the edge of a village a mile down a single track lane with a few similar houses around. A little remote. We thought that maybe Sarah was home from the backpack on the kitchen floor. Alice went upstairs and frightened the living daylights out of Sarah as she emerged from her bedroom, half asleep, to investigate the noises. She did not know we had arranged to stay that night!! Once recovered, Sarah saw us settled and we all went to bed. Up early the next morning to get to Weaverham to spend as long with Eric’s parents as we could. We had a lovely day with them. Eric got some, much needed, casting (trout) lessons from his Dad in the garden and we went for a lovely canal walk. Dinner was followed by copious amounts of whiskey for Eric and John and I had great difficulty prising Eric away. I was in a real dilemma, torn between the needs of 2 exhausted children for sleep and not wanting to deprive Eric and his parents of precious time together.
The next morning we tried to book Eurostar tickets for the following day, but on finding out it was going to cost GBP530 we decided not to go. That’s about NZ$1,300 and 2 of us can go to Auz for that. Instead we booked theatre tickets for Fame in London after getting hold of Katie and arranging for her to come with us. We then hit the road once again for Kent. We got an Indian takeaway that evening for us, Helen, Paul, Adam and Katie. We were a bit disappointed with it but it was still better than any we have had in NZ. Another pleasant evening with the Major’s.
After breakfast the next day we headed for London and went to the Natural History Museum. I have to confess to being a bit disappointed. Although smaller I think I prefer Te Papa in Wellington. One cannot, however, fail to be impressed by the building itself which is nothing short of magnificent.
Of course because the Glasgow airport bombing had occurred security was very tight and we were searched before entering public buildings quite often.
We then met up with Katie and her man Woody for pizzas. In the restaurant I noticed Alice disappear to the loo a few times. She then said she had bad abdominal pain before heading off again. She was in agony shortly afterwards with pain quite high up so not appendicitis. She was pale sweaty and nauseous. With only 15 minutes from curtain up I prized myself away from her to hand tickets over to the others and explain what was going on. Woody was to stay with us (we had not got him a ticket as he was meant to be in Birmingham). The waitress offered to call an ambulance. Alice’s pain, though severe was intermittent. After a while I managed to persuade her to walk up to the theatre with a promise that if she got the pain back again I would call a cab and take her to ED. Woody walked with us and she was fine! We went in about 10 minutes late and she stayed fine thereafter. The only explanation I can come up with is that she took Brufen on an empty stomach about an hour earlier (unbeknown to me). Anyway we watched the show, which we thoroughly enjoyed (well apart from Eric who predictably, could say nothing more than it was “OK”). Not the best West End production I have ever seen but a thoroughly enjoyable way to pass an evening. My only criticism is that the vocal skills of the lead male were disappointing. Sounded good but you could not decipher the words, rather important in a musical I think. The dancing was, of course, fabulous.
We got the tube to St Pauls and then walked over the Millenium bridge (one of the things I wanted to do during our trip)
Another later night. Next day was my HDU reunion. Jan whom I worked with for many year had been busy tracking people down and even put an ad in the local paper. She had suggested Cullins Yard by Dover harbour, which was perfect. There were about 12 of us in all, including the, afore mentioned, Debbie, and people I had not seen for nearly 10 years. This included Linda who came home early from France where she lives part of the year and co-incidentally, knows my cousin (also Linda) whom I have never met but now lives in Australia. Both Lindas husbands were in the dental corp of the army together. Anyway we had a great time with teenage children joining us after school and ‘lunch’ finished around 6pm! Thank you Jan, and all the girls that came. I had a lovely time. It was such a shock when a few said they had to go back to work for the afternoon. Work had become a very remote concept at this stage pf our trip!!
Into our final week and it was Alice’s birthday, now Friday. We picked up Lucy from Claire’s and took them into Ashford shopping. Had Chinese for lunch then I popped back to collect Chloe and Kayleigh. Kayleighs family where moving that day so all was a bit hectic there. We then went 10 pin bowling and they had a good time I think.
Back to Claire’s for a cup of tea and then home to Helen and Paul’s to catch up with Katie-Ann and for pizza’s.
In the evening Alice went to school disco with Chloe but I don’t think she particularly enjoyed that feeling a bit fish out of water-ish.
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