Engerland!!

All feeling right at home now in Blightey almost 5 weeks into our adventure. Have massively loved being at Maggie's house and have had lots of fun down at the beach, at the funfair (bumper cars rule) and tripping about the countryside. Took the kids to the Scarecrow Festival (only in England) last week and to Rudyard Kipling's house where they behave appallingly with a little help from their cousin Jack. On Monday we piled them into the car and went to France for the day. The purpose of the trip was to finally get Rob's NZ passport stamped on re-entry to the UK, so he can look for work. It was boiling and we spent the day on the beach, eating French fries and wrestling the children into submission in the back seat. Yesterday Godfather Brett, who is on hols in Europe from Sydney, popped down from London for the day. We had a picnic on the West Hill before a session of bumper cars and a mini rollercoaster with the girls before putting them on the hopelessly over stated boat ride 'Venture Island'. This basically consisted of the girls sitting in a plastic log boat that travelled at the speed of a glacier along a muddy green channel of water. Even though no one else was waiting for the ride, or even using it, the bloke in charge wouldn't let them take a thrilling second go, something about it being against the rules. Just as we noticed the differences between life in the Uk and OZ when we got there, we are now spotting differences in reverse. The packaging on all food here - even fresh produce - is shocking, unncessary and quite unbelievable at times, and yet everyone seems to accept it. To make up for it however is the widespread use of reusable shopping bags, which come in a range of brilliant styles in every major supermarket. This is something people haven't embraced at all in OZ, mainly because the stores keep the bags up high on display walls instead of at the checkouts. Our Australian friends will be pleased to note that the Nanny state is just as alive and well here as in Australia. On this morning's news was a report from a consumer watchdog that had discovered that people found ticket machines at stations too difficult to navigate, 'forcing them' to join queues for tickets. Instead of punching people about the head for being universally stupid, £25 million is being spent on the machines to make them easier to use.
We have been getting used to the sheer numbers of people everywhere compared to in Australia. A supermarket here on a Tuesday morning is much much busier than any Coles on the Thursday before Easter.
The weather continues to be fab and hot in the south east, while the rest of the country is stocking up on sand bags, wellies and pairs of animals. The school holidays are about to begin, we're off to Suffolk this weekend for Rick and Justin's nuptials, then we're back to Surrey for a few weeks, punctuated by a trip to Scotland to see Moira and Fraser.
We've hardly spoken to or seen anyone yet apart from family as there's been so much going on and down time has been just that. Onwards.