It was to sweltering, swimsuit weather that we arrived in London on June 25, for one of England's heat waves. With paddling pools at the ready, we managed to get over our jetlag in a few days and be alert enough to have a wonderful reunion with Maria and Jack and entertain old friends Liz and Mike, Richard and Tracey and Ruth and Eddie with a lunch in the garden at Dad's house in Barming with its amazing views down across the fields to the church Rob and I were married in. As with all visits to Dad's we are fed very well, with multiple meals and courses throughout the day.
Undeterred by the hot weather we took the kids off to Hever Castle, Kent, childhood home of Anne Boleyn and the location of the one of my favourite mazes enjoyed as a child. Since my last visit, a new water maze has been installed - step on the wrong paver and a massive jet of water soaks you through - providing instant relief from the heat and sun.
Next stop, London where we spent a week with Helen and George. The kids loved hanging out with their cousins William and Libby and despite an incident involving someone drawing on someone else's picture, Libby and Scarlett enjoyed sharing a room and loved scootering together to Wandsworth common. It was also great for the cousins to all be together for Libby's 6th birthday.
With William and Libby still at school during our stay, we dragged Scarlett and Flo around the West End, Covent Garden and Islington, to the National Gallery, British museum and National Portrait Gallery. This was achieved without complaint as long as we threw in plenty of tube and bus rides. We made the multiple pitstops for clothes shopping work by letting the girls try on whatever they wanted.
On the hottest day we took refuge in St James Park enjoying ice crean and deckchairs before showing the girls where the Queen lives.
On Sunday night Rob and I jettisoned the girls in favour of a boat ride with champagne up the Thames from Waterloo bridge to the O2 in Greenwich (the former Millenium Dome) to see Madonna in concert. That's her in the background. It was a top night out with lots of dancing and singing along, although we both could have done without the 15 minute Gypsy kings tribute. Helen and George were kind enough to let us host a great long lazy 'lunch' at their house to catch up with Moira and Fraser (fresh off the plane from Majorca and on their way back to Scotland), Neil and Lorna, David and Andrew, Ruth, Paul and Saska. We also fitted in a breakfast catch up with Lorraine and Sprout on Wandsworth Common.
Helen, who I can thoroughly recommend as an alternative to an expensive car service, brilliantly drove us back to Kent after our London week. Next stop France for the day to visit a few of the little towns Rob and I used to visit a lot when we lived in London. The girls loved the ferry and looked quite perplexed when children in a playground in St Omer spoke to them in French. Next stop Hastings, East Sussex where William the conquerer beat Harold by poking him in the eye, and more recently where Maria, Jack and Lawrence (Lol) have made their new home. It's a massive Victorian pile, half way through being renovated, but which we could see will be amazing when it's done. Until then we used a temporary kitchen in the basement and mobile phones to find each other in the multi roomed house. Maria and Lol's wedding was the reason for our UK trip in the first place and we stayed for 9 days to help out with the pre and post wedding jobs, fitting in a trip to Battle, a hen 'night', an afternoon at the beach front fun fair before dinner out, Jack's 7th birthday party at the great aquarium and Sunday lunch with Maggie and Popi. Maria looked amazing in her wedding gown and the lads and the girls washed up well as groomsmen and flower girls.
Maria and Lol were married in Lewes but held their reception at the truly beautiful Griffin Inn in the picture perfect village of Fletching, West Sussex. It was brilliant to see Maria so so happy and in love with Lol and to see Jack so chuffed with his new family, one that will be expanding again at the end of the year when they welcome a new baby.
The highlight of the reception (apart from the food - a whole pig on a spit) was Lol's heartful and funny speech about Maria and Jack and how they got together again 10 years after their initial romance, which ended with him taking to the floor with a microphone and serenading Maria with Jack on guitar. They performed again the next day at the garden party back at the house.
After tearful farewells to Maria, Jack and Lol as they headed off on their Italian honeymoon, to Don and Ray who headed back to New York and to Lara and the rest of the Sparey gang, we were off to our next destination, Whistable on the north Kent coast to catch up with Liz, Mike and Charlie. The last time we visited the Baileys it was winter and Liz and I were pregnant, so it was great to see the results of our bumps playing so well together. Apart from, that is, when Flo hit Charlie round the head with a dustpan and brush. We spent a lovely hot afternoon on the garden cathcing up over wine and barbecued mackerel and a day at their cute beach hut.
After Whitstable it was back to Barming for Alexandra's birthday. Her youthful good looks (she doesn't look a day over 58) are attributed to the life of hard labour she enjoys with my dad, taking care of him, the gardening, decorating, cleaning, ironing, washing and stain removal all on a steady diet of gin and tonic and sauvignon blanc.
After the Barming pitstop, we hit the road north east to Suffolk, to the gorgeous rural home of Rick and Justin. They live in a perfect pink cottage in a tiny village near Bury St Edmunds and spend their days swinging in the hammock, gathering a multitude of home-grown veggies from their incredible garden and picnicking in Justin's very own 50-acre wood, complete with folly, deer and amazing bird life.
We spent 5 glorious lazy days mainly eating and drinking and swinging in the hammock, but also going to church, going on country walks, barbecuing, playing games, holding baby chicks, patting horses and having dinner in the wood at sunset. All completely heavenly. We returned to Dad's several pounds heavier and full of woe for our imminent departure back to Sydney. We had time for one last morning of kite flying with Dad and Alexandra before we went back to London for our final night and then to the airport. Looking forward to the next trip back already.
Rob and I broke our recent trip on the wagon with a small outing last night involving 3 large gins. Thus lubricated, we sat down and laughed and laughed our way through the film Airport 75 on Fox Classics. The airline disaster movie, starring Karen "Which of my cross eyes is looking at you?" Black and Charlton" Make mine a shotgun" Heston, tells the thrilling and often hilarious tale of a light aircraft that crashes into a 747 on approach to Salt Lake City. The film is so close to the spoof film Airplane, it's a wonder anyone thought the spoof necessary at all. This morning we woke still chuckling at the memory of stewardess Karen Black taking the controls, with not a hair out of place, despite the massive hole in the cockpit.
We also received visitors in the form of Mark and John Russell, the Duthie family's oldest and closest friends, who are in Sydney from New Zealand for the weekend for tonight's Bledisloe Cup match. The rivalry between the All Blacks and the Wallabies is legendary and they had an inflatable Wallaby at the ready with which to insult Australian rugby fans. On our way out the door with them to the local growers' market, we discovered a huge slab of wet cement right outside the house, recently laid by the council. It was obviously too good an opportunity to miss, so after engraving the names of the girls and our next door neighbours kids for posterity, we also left a comment regarding the Ashes test going on in England at the moment.
Returning 2 hours later from the market we discovered our artwork completely removed, care of a council employee's trowl. That didn't stop us making a second imprint in the now quick drying cement. Ha!
