Silence

I am back! It has been nearly 2 weeks since my last post and you may be wondering why the silence?  In a nut shell - car issues, well not really issues, more administration and maintenance!

Last Saturday we inadvertently discovered we'd been driving around for the last 2 weeks with an out of date MOT certificate, and just in case you're wondering if that's bad, well yes it is because here's what MOT is all about.....

The MOT certificate confirms that at the time of testing, without dismantling it, your vehicle meets the minimum acceptable environmental and road safety standards required by law.

Whoopsy!  After realising our administrative oversight late Saturday afternoon we very luckily managed to get an appointment at a local garage for 8:30 am the next day.  All good except for one tiny problem - it failed.  I did have an inkling there was something a bit dodgy with the hand brake and yes indeedy we needed a new brake cable. Only problem was it was a bank holiday on the Monday and the earliest we could get in was Wednesday.

Anyway, it meant we were car-less for 3 days, our planned trip to Cambridge got pushed back and we watched a very naughty amount of Top Gear on the telly.  And as much as I love Top Gear (and of course Richard Hammond) I'm hardly going to blog about it.  Although having said that - that's exactly what I'm doing J

Anyway, we now have a car with a fully functioning hand-brake and one year's worth of MOT.  Cambridge here we come (well - after the recruitment agency interview that is!)

Oh - and a little word of warning - if you are planning to come to the UK and buy a car, start saving for your insurance now! Insurers over here will NOT recognise Australian driving histories and will NOT accept proof of a no claim discount unless it has been accrued in the UK.  Despite my many years of (near) impeccable driving and my 65% no claim bonus for life, I am placed in the same basket as young 18 year old whipper-snippers and had quotes for one year's insurance of up to £2200!  After a bit of shopping around we've ended up paying £846.

ps - interview went well and I have since had another one.  Will post all the gory details if I do manage to find some work!

Crabbing

Yesterday we whizzed 15 miles south of Billericay to one of the crabbing hotspots of the UK.  None other than Canvey Island.

Crabbing is one of the top seaside activities over here, along with sitting on rocks on the beach in the wind and rain and swimming in the freezing ocean!

Armed with home made crabbing nets (a bit of string, some bacon and one of those net thingies that cover fruit) off we went.  Daniel was the keenest as evidenced by the photo of his feet!  If you're going for the whoppers it means wading through a bit of mud!

We actually arrived at completely the wrong time when the tide was right out, so didn't initially use the carefully constructed bagged bacon string baits.  Instead we went for the bum in the air, head down, rock turning approach and at the end of the day we had successfully captured about 38 nippers.  Some of them enormous like the one on my hand!

After about an hour and a half, just as we were winding things up we noticed it - the tide coming in.  In the midst of our bums in air, heads down crabbing we actually heard it first and then looking up we could see the water level rising.  Within about 20 minutes a good 20 metres of previously exposed beach was covered in water.  I've never seen anything like it!

And with the change in landscape, and obviously the crabbing conditions, we decided to give the original carefully constructed bagged bacon string baits a try.  No sooner did we chuck one in did a wee crabby attach and was hauled into shore.  Actually hauled is probably a bit of an overstatement given our string was about 2 metres long and the crabs probably weighed all of 5 grams!

And when we finally tired of the excitement we chucked all of the little crabbies back and headed across the road for some chippies (eaten with tiny wooden chippy forks of course J) and a bit of a go on the penny-pusher machines.

All in all a good day out J

Up to date

And with that last post I am up to date and can now focus on getting ready for an interview with a teacher recruitment agency next week!

Lyndhurst

Lyndhurst is in the New Forest.  Ponies also live in the New Forest, so here it is my (second) last photo of a pony.  I had to include it because of the foal's stunning blue eye!  Very unusual and very rare and it would be remiss of me not to share it :)

And how could I not include this cute little fella.


And last but not least, to add a bit of balance a collage of Lyndhurst with a generous sprinkling of cars - ferraris to be precise. Daniel bagsed the red one straight away and insisted I take his picture with it.


Incidentally, the anglican church at Lyndhurst is the burial site for Alice Liddell - the little girl for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 (see top left photo).

And did you know that Lewis Carroll 's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and as well as an author he was an accomplished mathematician, logician, Anglican Deacon and photographer.

He attended Christ Church College in Oxford and apparently his early academic career veered between high promise and irresistible distraction. He did not always work hard, but was described as exceptionally gifted and achievement appeared to come easily to him. In 1854 he graduated with first-class honours in the School of Mathematics.

According to one popular story, Queen Victoria enjoyed Alice In Wonderland so much that she suggested to Lewis that he dedicate his next book to her.  She was subsequently presented with his next body of work, a dry scholarly mathematical volume entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants.  This story was vehemently denied by Lewis.

Dartmoor National Park

Now this is my kind of place.  Beautiful scenery and beautiful animals.  It was a detour to get here and it meant a long day with lots of driving but it was worth it.

Scenery around Dartmoor National Park - Devon

Last sheep, cow, highland cattle and pony pictures I promise (at least until the next national park)

Look at the colour of the fields in the background behind the sheepsies.  Gorgeous.

Our last night's accommodation was in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, mainly chosen because it nicely broke up the return journey to Billericay.  We stayed at the White Rabbit Hotel, which was just lovely, except for one tiny little mishap that all started when  I decided I needed a quick shower before bed.  After a quick wrestle with the new fangled tap ware out came the water.  Lovely and hot, good pressure (not always the case over here), only one small problem, couldn't turn it off.  Yes that's right, no matter how much twisting the damn tap went a quarter turn and that was it. Yar!  Called Steve - he couldn't do it, called the waitress - she couldn't do it, nor could the maitre d' or even the night duty manager.

The only solution - leave it running!  There was some tension regarding exactly how to leave it running - cold with high pressure or hot with lower pressure!  We settled for something in the middle, but boy did I fret.  I kept wondering what Mr Fix-It Ben would have done had he been here.  No doubt he would have pulled it all apart and had it sorted in a jiffy.

Anyway - there I was, permanently scarred by drought and dwelling on the psychological impact of "knowing" that the shower was running, even though the sound was not that bad. Aaargh - I won't sleep a wink, you know me, water conscious, awake at the slightest of noises, a worrier at night!

So - had my best night's sleep ever.

We even managed to crack a few jokes about it the next morning - dampener on things, looks like showers this morning - that kind of thing.

As far as I know the wretched thing may still be running, it certainly was when we left after breakfast!

The Eden Project

The Eden Project opened in March 2001 after 2 1/2 years in the making.  It is the brainchild of Dutch-born businessman Tim Smit, with the site and biomes designed by architect Nicholas Grimshaw.  Costing around £80 million and built in an old china clay pit near the Southern Cornwall village of St Austell, Eden is dominated by enormous transparent biomes.

The biomes house plants collected from all around the world and are made from hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal, inflated plastic cells supported by steel frames. The first dome emulates a tropical environment, and the second a Mediterranean environment.  The outside area is also described as a biome and features areas such as "Wild Cornwall". 

The Eden Project aims to educate people about environmental matters and encourages a greater understanding and empathy with nature. 

I found the biomes fascinating, particularly the tropical one. 

Bottom middle pictures are of Emily very nicely displaying a coffee plant
with a close up of the beans on the right

I didn't know that about pepper and I'd never seen a cardamom plant.

And I'm not sure this little fella was meant to be in here, but he was very good about having his picture taken!

Mevagissey

Rain, rain and a bit more rain.   

While it did throw a dampener on things, it didn't stop us appreciating the lovely 14th century town of Mevagissey. 

And we spent a good two hours wandering through the narrow alleys and along the picturesque harbour that is still used for fishing today.

Land's End

The weather was not kind to us today.  We managed about an hour without rain whilst in Land's End and made the most of it.  Out an about on all of paths, running, jumping, exploring and enjoying the bracing summer air J.

The picture of the kiddies was taken in heather and yellow western gorse, which they jumped into with enthusiasm. The only problem is the gorse is prickly, really prickly and very close to their bums!  Hence Emmy's expression and Jeremy's position.  Daniel looks like he missed it!

And more animals, we spent about 30 minutes playing with these little fellas.

And these ....

Port Isaac

After watching the TV series Doc Martin Port Isaac was just about number one on my must see list.  I think, however, I was a bit photographed out because I didn't take many pictures at all.  That is not to say that Port Isaac wasn't a beautiful place, but after the all the thrills and hills and steps and stairs of Tintagel and Boscastle I must have been a bit jiggered.

So this is the sum total of my Port Isaac photographic experience - which really doesn't do this lovely little town justice.  Have a look at the top right picture of Steve and the size of the cottage front door.  Steve has to watch his head quite a bit over here and he's nearly knocked himself out a few times already on low beams, sloping ceilings and tiny doorways.  Would you believe it, but even I had to duck on one occasion!

Tintagel

The remains of Tintagel Castle stand on the windswept cliffs of North Cornwall along part of England’s most dramatic and rugged coastlines.

The site of the castle has been inhabited at least since the late Roman period, and probably earlier. Between the 5th and 7th centuries AD a prosperous community was based there.

After a period of obscurity, in the 12th century Tintagel gained international literary fame when it was named by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the place where the legendary King Arthur was conceived. This may have been what inspired Richard, Earl of Cornwall, younger brother of Henry III, to site his castle at Tintagel in the 1230s.

Boscastle

My new favourite place.  We headed here quite early in the morning and were lucky to avoid the rain and even have a few moments of sunshine.  The town of Boscastle is lovely and the coastline rugged.  The kids loved running along the many paths and jumping over the rocks - yay - an early night for them tonight!

And as you may have gathered - I find it hard to resist bumblebees and flowers.

Also, Jem has recently decided he's interested in gems (perhaps it has something to do with the name?) and has started his very own collection (sigh - nice and light to bring home).

His very first purchase of a "geode" was here in Boscastle.  Geodes don't look much from the outside but apparently if you crack them open they are partially hollow and potentially full of crystals.  There have been numerous attempts at cracking it open, using the hotel spoon, against walls, tapping at it with other rocks IN THE CAR!  Needless to say the geode has now been confiscated and will not be returned until we get back to Billericay.

Continuing on ...

A big thank you to Donna for suggesting we swing by Lynmouth whilst in Devon.  It meant a bit of a detour along the northern coastline, mainly along roads like the B3116, which sound impressive, important and main, but in reality are skinny hedge-lined little lanes where (unless you’re a complete and utter maniac) top speeds range from the low to mid 30’s.  All of this means 90 miles can take an awfully long time!

But none of that mattered because the scenery along the way was fabulous.  Highlights included a loo stop at Dunster castle with of course, a “quick” 2 hour squizzie.

Dunster Castel

And a trip through the ruggedly beautiful and very windy Exmoor National Park

WINDY!!

 Where we came across these beauties…..

And at the end of part 1 of our day's journey was Lyndmouth – which was just spectacular and had me clicking left, right and centre!

After more driving and a long, long day we reached The Mill House, only to find, much to the kids delight, we were being spied upon by one Miss Molly, the border collie!  And if you think that breakfast looks good – it was! Donna, the picture of the hydrangeas is for you J.

Starting the day with a wrong turn

And look where it took us.  None other than the tiny coastal village of Trebarwith, where there was fun in the sun and of course a surf school.  Our right instead of left, combined with impossibly narrow roads meant the only place to turn around was within the village car park, and once there it was hard to resist a quick squizzie.

True to form, our quick look turned into a long stay and this is why…..sand, sun, rocks, puppies, limpets and surfing.  Trebarwith has it all.

Trebarwith

Note -the cute little puppy in the top left photo is called Penny!

Happy Hazards

Driving in Britain is a mixed bag.  The skinny lanes, parked cars, traffic and enormous roundabouts can be tricky, but any difficulties they pose are easily outweighed by how incredibly polite British drivers are.  I have heard a car horn only once or twice and nearly everywhere I've been drivers, more than often with the right of way, have stopped to let me in.  In fact this probably would have happened more in a week over here than it would have in a whole year in Canberra!

Driving around parked cars, over one way bridges and through narrow hedged lanes all requires drivers to give way: one driver waits (or backs up) while the other one goes.  And this is where the prompts and thank you's come into play.

Prompts meaning go include flashing lights, hand waves, pulling over, small beeps and, if you're like me, the wipers on full because you STILL keep forgetting they're on the left!

The thank you's include smiles, nods, thumbs up (on rare occasions the double thumbs up), waves, more light flashing and my all time favourite and one that I have only recently witnessed - the double winker.  Yes -that's right - I let a tiny car in front of me in Bath today and both orange winker lights went on and gave me, as you would expect, a big double wink, or does that make it a blink?

We have called them the Happy Hazards and they are quite delightful :)

Bath

Walk

Breakfast


Bath

Our next trip

Yes, we're off again, heading to Cornwall this time, via Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon and back through Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey.

And just so you know what this all looks like, here's a preview courtesy of google maps.

Cornwall here we come!

My first British project

Ok – I’m sure everyone is waiting with bated breath to find out what my first completed British project was. Well – the suspense is over and I have attached two photos below.

The picture on the left is of my first completed British project – a splendid, beautifully coloured, strategically planted work of art

The picture on the right is of a sparse bunch of plants shoved in a pot with some flimsy chain wire attached, obviously done by an amateur (probably a foreigner) with very little basket experience!

Or was that the other way round?

Lists and rankings

Daniel, Jeremy and Emily are into spotting cars.  They are especially fond of Jaguars, Alfa Romeos, Porches, Ferraris, Lotus’ and Lamborghinis.  As soon as they spot a good one they add it to their list.  Lots of pointing and screeching of  “on my list” happens as we drive around our luxury car rich suburbs.

They also keep lists for dogs and immediately “on my list” any pup that looks remotely like our gorgeous Lucy.

As well as lists, Emily has a developed quite a few different systems for ranking things, from ice creams to flowers to views to train trips to squirrels.

Her standard is the thumbs up, thumbs down and, for anything a bit ordinary thumbs sideways.  She also likes to allocate number scores and gives out quite a few 10 out of 7’s.  But my favourite of all is when she finds something she loves, like the mint ice creams from Iceland, which as well as the thumbs up she also gives a score of “endless supply of numbers” – her very own version of infinity J.

One last little look at Paris

After a slow post-Disney recovery, it was off to see the main iconic Paris sight we didn't manage to squeeze in last week.

But along the way we got just a bit distracted by this.....

A sweets and biscuit shop.

And then there was a tiny detour via this.......

A wee chocolate shop complete with chocolate pirate ship!

But finally made it to this.....

The Sacre-Coeur

Can we go back to the chocolate shop?

Paris Disneyland

We have survived not 1, not 2, not 3, but 12 - yes 12 hours at Disneyland!

If only we hadn't done it with 50 squillion bazillion other people.

And of course with 50 squillion bazillion other people you're going to have to do a wee bit of queuing.  In fact we became queue experts, hey we had the time!  In summary, there are

• queues that look short but move excruciatingly slowly - perhaps the most deceptive and cruellest of all.  Unanimously voted our least favourite.

• queues that move along at a steady trot but go on for 1, 2, no make that 3kms.  Moving, moving, moving but going where?  Once again, cruel and deceptive, but at least there is some action.

• queues for the loo.  Usually short, but often a bit whiffy.

• queues for dinner.  Medium length but acceptable due to excessive time required sorting out order.

• queues for the somewhat ironically named fast-passes that are (raised eyebrows) designed to allow you to by-pass the queues.

• queues that aren't really queues at all, more a mass of people generally moving in the same direction.  Most frustrating of all due to a lack of infra-structure and the occasional (narrowed eyes) pusher-innerer.

So, out of our 12 hours in Disneyland I reckon we spent

• 6 hours queuing 

• 4 hours wandering round deciding where to queue

• 35 minutes eating dinner

• 30 minutes at the Tarzan show

• 25 minutes eating lunch

• 15 minutes searching for and going to the loo, and

• 15 minutes on rides!

Which when all said and done makes those few rides, from a purely mathematical perspective, a bloody long wait and très freakin' cher!

About .0000001% of the people with us at Disneyland on Tuesday 7 August 2012.
Plus the dreaded wait time displays, 60 and a mere 95 minutes!

But hey, despite the endless, tortuous queues and the monstrously massive unending crowds we had a ball, and here's the pictures to prove it!

Mental note to self.  Never ever ever go to Disneyland again in the summer school holidays!

Château de Villandry

And here it is, my favourite château yet.  I am a complete sucker for gardens and this castle has one that has to be seen to be believed.  Even Steve liked it!

Château de Villandry was built around 1536, the last of the great chateaux constructed along the banks of the Loire during the Rennaisance. It was bought by Spanish born Joachim Carvallo in 1906, who gave up a brilliant scientific career to devote himself entirely to restoring the castle and gardens.

The plantings are extensive and include ornamental, herb, vegetable and water gardens, along with a grass tennis court, maze and the surrounding woods.  The style is formal and typical of a Rennaisance garden.

In 2009 the castle gardeners swapped their modern growing methods for organic methods: digging and hoeing and introducing insects to eliminate the need for chemicals.  The change required new work techniques and proved slightly more expensive, but this increase was quickly offset by an even more spectacular display and by the gardeners' renewed interest in their work.

Which was handy as maintaining the strict symmetry of the gardens requires constant ongoing work.  Each winter the 1015 trees scattered over the estate take a team of four gardeners three months to prune. 115,000 flowers and vegetables are planted out annually, 50% of which are cultivated in the castle greenhouses.  The box hedging totals a distance of 52 kilometres and is clipped into shape between April and October every year.

Yes indeed!  Gardens are my thing and this one was a joy to visit.  Oh yeah - the castle wasn't bad either J

Château de Chenonceau

Our second chateau and another beauty.

Built in 1513 the then royal residence, Chenonceau Castle is an exceptional site not only because of its original design, the richness of its collections, its furniture and its decorations, but also because of its destiny, since it was loved, administrated and protected by women, who were all extraordinary and who, for the most part have marked history.

The amazingly, stupendously gorgeous Loches

As I mentioned earlier, we left Billericay in a bit of a rush and my usual detailed planning was not up to scratch.  And due to our lateness, all of the accommodation we booked was based more on availability than location, so I think we were incredibly and unknowingly lucky to stumble upon the stunning medieval town of Loches.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and if anyone is planning a trip to France, I'd highly recommend trying to squeeze a visit in.

I just hope the photos do it justice, starting with the view from our hotel window.

and on to the street scenes and the Cheatau de Loches and Royal Lodge.

including some treats from one of the many patisseries

Loches was truly beautiful and we found it hard to leave.

Sunflowers

It started off with a small wish.  All I really want to see is a field of sunflowers.

And then when they started appearing the wish got a little more detailed. The flowers had to be fully open and facing in the right direction, the land had to be sloping, a tractor had to be passing and there had to be somewhere to stop the car - that's all!

And yep - found the perfect spot.  It looked a little like this.....

Glorious sunflowers

Château de Chambord

What a day!

Heading to our first official Chateau in the Loire we passed through the lovely little town of Dhuizon and of course had to stop for photos and eclairs.

And here's where we spent the next 6 hours - Château de Chambord!

Chambord, the largest château in the Loire Valley, was built between in the 1500's to serve as a hunting lodge for King François I. In reality, however, Chambord is no mere hunting lodge but a massively extravagant chateau over 156 metres long and 56 metres tall with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms!

Francois I reigned for 32 years, during which time he spent only 72 days at Chambord; he never saw his grand project completed for on his death in 1547 only the keep and the royal wing had been finished. It was his son, Henry II, and Louis XlV, also both very fond of hunting, who were responsible for making Chambord look the way it stands today.

As the château had been constructed with the purpose of short hunting stays in mind, it was actually not practical to live there on a longer-term basis. The massive rooms, open windows, exposed staircases and high ceilings were not suited to winter temperatures and made effective heating impossible.

This was perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this magnificent chateau, it was never really utilised. Despite the grandeur and the effort, for nearly all of its existence it has stood empty and it is only since it was acquired by the state in 1932 and subsequently developed as a tourist attraction has it seen visitors on the scale it deserves.

And after the splendour of Chambord it was on to the splendour of the "Spectacle équestre a Chambord" (or horse show). It told the story of Francois I with a bit of jousting, trick riding and fighting thrown in the mix.  It was a feast for the eyes and we loved it!

A little aside

Still at Chateau du Corvier and after a beautiful dinner (see previous photos) on the lawns of the Chateau we needed some entertainment, so naturally set up a hurdles course using all the spare chairs.

5 hurdles altogether and over and over and over we went.  And after the hurdles it was on to sprints.

And here comes the exciting bit.

After lots of watching and commenting, Steve decided to join in.  Over to the starting line he struts.  The big family race is on.  Emily is starter.  On your marks, get set, go!

Left the boys way behind, and while Steve claims he had me by a nose I believe it was a dead heat.

Okey dokey, bring it on.  Best of three.

And (typed with nose in the air and lots of Miss Piggy style hair flicking) no dead heats this time.  Beat him fair and square not once, but TWICE in a row.  And I was wearing a dress!  Go me!  Rah, rah, rah.  I am the fastest Price!  Not that I'm competitive or anything.

Steve's only comment "Don't put this on your blog" J

Château du Corvier

Now that I'm over the dreaded first day I've decided that driving through the Loire Valley is fun.  The roads are tiny and quiet, the scenery lovely and the tiny villages divine.....

Go little Peugeot!

some with cute water fountains in their village squares ......

No wet bums in my Peugeot!

And after our lunch stop it was on to our accommodation - it was way out in the countryside and even the SatNav found it a little tricky to find, but it was well worth the effort and driving around and around in circles, just have a look at this beauty.

I present to you - Chateau du Corvier....

Magnifique!