On Thursday night we ventured to a little Indian Restaurant (we will become regulars shortly) as it was Harry's turn to choose where we met his team for a meal and so curry it was. We enjoyed the conversation and the food (they do Indian well over here). I looked at a painting all night that had the following written on it 'Having an aim in life is the best fortune you can have'
. I am not sure whether it is entirely true (I think I would put health, family and friends right up there as well) but food for thought anyway. I was particularly interested because on Monday I have been asked to facilitate a group meeting that is discussing the need for change, its vision and mission and some of the challenges that we will need to deal with. It should be an interesting time and good fun as the people are really nice to work with. On the Friday we took off for Ladrum Bay. Paul, Sheila and their dog Tilley invited us to their static caravan in Devon for the weekend. After a few weeks of recuperating from operations and bugs it was lovely to have some company and a change of scenery. There aren't many motels here but heaps of caravans on sites all over the country. They are called 'static caravans' and because they are semi-permanent they are like New Zealand's little holiday cottages or beach baches. You can purchase one for 15 years (the period of time before the sea air is considered to render the chassis unsafe) and enjoy all but the winter months at the resort which offers great beaches, scenery, fun for all ages (sports grounds, play areas, night clubs, restaurants). Sheila and Paul spend most of their summer weekends down there and as they know many of the other campers it is quite a social and fun time. We certainly enjoyed it. We went for a walk in the evenings along the hills and down to the pebbly little beach on the south coast of Devon not far from Beer (where we incidentally stayed one year previously). Ladrum Bay is about 2 hours drive from Bristol by motorway and little roads with high hedgerows that took us through little villages with lots of little thatched cottages (some for sale for £500,000) and then through Budleigh Salterton which has a nice fish and chip shop (Paul had had the foresight to ring and order them the previous evening for 7.00 and we arrived at 6.50 which I thought was pretty spot on considering the traffic etc). Besides admiring the little villages we spent some time planning Sheila and Paul's 3 week trip to New Zealand in February - I felt quite excited discussing all the things they could do (bungy jumping, white water rafting, rock climbing as well as the more low key things like sitting in hot pools in Rotorua and going to art deco week in Napier).
On the Saturday we picked our own strawberries and raspberries for dessert and then drove to Lyme Regis. Geologically Lyme Regis is on the edge of the Jurassic Coastline and as you can imagine the pebbles on the beach have been washed down many millions of years ago by giant rivers which now no longer exist. The cliffs have suffered from erosion over many years and there was a photo exhibition of the cliff face in the early 1900's compared to now. Where did it all go? The cliffs are red (they look the same as those in Dover but just a different colour), the pebbles white and pink, but no where near the size of those in Ladrum Bay which were as large as the foot of a primary school child (or mine as some people might say). It is apparently loaded with fossils on the cliffs as well as the sea shore and so another time we will wander along the beaches - preferably when the tide is out as there might be some sand. We wandered around the town, which for a while was home to Jane Austen (we are finding more about her life as we travel around) and where she based part of her story 'Persuasion'. The little town is perched on a hillside and not too touristy, so we enjoyed drinking coffee and eating toasted tea cakes, chatting, wandering through the gardens (lavendar, flaxes, petunias, begonias, geraniums and hydrangeas), laughing at Tilley as she tried to make lots of dog friends. Tilley, was exhausted by the end of the day and lay about giving the impression she had done a hard days work. Admittedly all that sea air, exercise and good food did tire us out and after a few games of scrabble we wandered off to bed. But not before I had remembered how fun the game is ("if only I had a p or s or a or e", "why do I get all the consonants and you guys all the vowels?", "what can you do with a v, j, k and w?"). We had great fun making up words (Harry maintained that NIKE was a Greek God and proved it today on the internet - the Goddess of Victory).
On the way back from Lyme Regis we stopped at Seaton where a year ago we had a thermos explode in our boot, we got very wet and spent most of our time in a local cafe drying out and warming up. It was sunny this time and we rode on a tram to Colyton a little village about 3-4 miles away. We rode through pastures where rabbits hopped, foxes played and deer, cows, sheep grazed. We wouldn't have seen Tilley if she had not had her leash firmly held. She is a little Welsh Terrier and renowned for her lovely personality and her ability to scamper off and not to return even to Paul and Shiela's worried calls late at night. The tram (Barbie we named her) was built in 1968 in Eastbourne and was painted pink in support of Breast Cancer. She took us to rather a nice little cafe in a converted barn where we sat in the sun and ate baguettes and drank coffee - otherwise the town seemed closed for the afternoon - but the old English Rose gardens were rather picturesque and smelt wonderful. Other trams were built between now and 1906 but we managed to get Barbie for both the outward and inward bound trips. She trundled along passing other trams and drivers stopped to discuss passengers, wildlife and timetables.
On the Saturday we picked our own strawberries and raspberries for dessert and then drove to Lyme Regis. Geologically Lyme Regis is on the edge of the Jurassic Coastline and as you can imagine the pebbles on the beach have been washed down many millions of years ago by giant rivers which now no longer exist. The cliffs have suffered from erosion over many years and there was a photo exhibition of the cliff face in the early 1900's compared to now. Where did it all go? The cliffs are red (they look the same as those in Dover but just a different colour), the pebbles white and pink, but no where near the size of those in Ladrum Bay which were as large as the foot of a primary school child (or mine as some people might say). It is apparently loaded with fossils on the cliffs as well as the sea shore and so another time we will wander along the beaches - preferably when the tide is out as there might be some sand. We wandered around the town, which for a while was home to Jane Austen (we are finding more about her life as we travel around) and where she based part of her story 'Persuasion'. The little town is perched on a hillside and not too touristy, so we enjoyed drinking coffee and eating toasted tea cakes, chatting, wandering through the gardens (lavendar, flaxes, petunias, begonias, geraniums and hydrangeas), laughing at Tilley as she tried to make lots of dog friends. Tilley, was exhausted by the end of the day and lay about giving the impression she had done a hard days work. Admittedly all that sea air, exercise and good food did tire us out and after a few games of scrabble we wandered off to bed. But not before I had remembered how fun the game is ("if only I had a p or s or a or e", "why do I get all the consonants and you guys all the vowels?", "what can you do with a v, j, k and w?"). We had great fun making up words (Harry maintained that NIKE was a Greek God and proved it today on the internet - the Goddess of Victory). 
On the way back from Lyme Regis we stopped at Seaton where a year ago we had a thermos explode in our boot, we got very wet and spent most of our time in a local cafe drying out and warming up. It was sunny this time and we rode on a tram to Colyton a little village about 3-4 miles away. We rode through pastures where rabbits hopped, foxes played and deer, cows, sheep grazed. We wouldn't have seen Tilley if she had not had her leash firmly held. She is a little Welsh Terrier and renowned for her lovely personality and her ability to scamper off and not to return even to Paul and Shiela's worried calls late at night. The tram (Barbie we named her) was built in 1968 in Eastbourne and was painted pink in support of Breast Cancer. She took us to rather a nice little cafe in a converted barn where we sat in the sun and ate baguettes and drank coffee - otherwise the town seemed closed for the afternoon - but the old English Rose gardens were rather picturesque and smelt wonderful. Other trams were built between now and 1906 but we managed to get Barbie for both the outward and inward bound trips. She trundled along passing other trams and drivers stopped to discuss passengers, wildlife and timetables.
The next day our friends drove us to Exmouth. Another seaside resort, but with a long sandy, golden beach (great for wind surfers, paragliders and kite flyers), a river estuary (great for wildlife and wandering around), more lovely gardens enjoyed by wood pidgeons and squirrels (Tilley again stretched the lead and tried to climb a few trees - they sat on the branches laughing at her probably out of relief). As we parked the car we were amused that one side of the road had black 'pay and display' machines and the other side grey. One side the parking money went to East Devon Council and the other Devon Council - presumably two people empty the machines and police the areas!! We were also amused by the notices along the footpaths 'No dogs on beach for 698 yards' then further on 'No dogs on beach for 703 yards' - us kiwis would have rounded it up and hoped that no one would take the trouble to measure to see if the sign was accurate or not. And that took us to Sunday afternoon and back to Bristol - we had a lovely time made more special by sharing it with others.
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