Goodbye Bristol

Our last week - what an emotional roller coaster (interview by telephone, planning for holiday and lots of farewell hugs).  Saying good bye to everyone at work and lots of dinners out.  We felt humbled and touched by our gifts and lovely messages from people.  We have wonderful memories of our 4 years in Bristol and lots of friends to keep in contact with. We packed our bags and out the door - oops the handle of one suitcase broke - so we caught a bus down to Broadmead where I sat minding luggage while Harry went to find a bag shop (came back with a black bag, when there was a purple one on offer as well - I ask you!!).  Threw the little one in the big new one and then off to the bus station and then to the airport where our first task was to repack our new black bag.   Handed the old one into 'odd shaped bags' for a scan (wouldn't want to be blamed for a terrorist alert) and then found we were over weight by 6 kilos (£10 a every kilo) so we switched our heavy shoes into our hand luggage and we were sweet!! Big bag - not a lot of room for everyones luggage in the rental car. Harry thought that he could leave the bags behind as he really, really, really wanted to drive the latest model Ford Focus - but I thought clothes would come in handy during the holiday - and so he reluctantly wandered back to the  rental car desk while I sat in the 25 degrees sun minding the bags (could be a new found occupation I think).  The boot of the Renault Kangoo looked big enough and off we went to the hotel which we found surprisingly easily - Paris is always a place that confounds our best navigation skills.  The hotel restaurant was closed (all of August - I thought it was peak tourist season) and we were told that 'its o.k. just 2 minutes away by car is 4 restaurants' - there was McDonalds, KFC, Buffalo (American Grill Bar) and another bar.  Back to the hotel to get organised for our early start (Jim and Margot arrive at 7.20 am) only to find the shower is blocked - but that's o.k. our friendly hotel staff provided the tools!  Took a while to have a shower - every minute we had to plunge.

Northampton for the last time and beyond....

Saturday morning we cleaned the carpets and by early afternoon we had left them to dry and were driving to see Mike and Barbara in Northampton.  It was a slow drive up (who suggested going through Oxford?) and the last long journey in our little yellow Saxo. Our car has taken us 52,000 miles in just over 4 years and it is no wonder we have grown fond of our little Pierre (yes we do give our cars names). It was great to have a final weekend with Mike and Barbara. We went for a walk along the canal to the lake in very summery weather (Harry hadn't bought his shorts this weekend which meant it would be warm).  Had a lovely dinner and looked at photos from Istanbul and Marrakesh.  It was just as warm the next day as we got ready to picnic in Stowe Gardens.  Another interesting place - and thinking about it on our travels we have probably seen less than 1% of the interesting places in the UK.  Stowe was created by a family 'richer than the king' they say. The Stowe mansion is now a school and the National Trust run the gardens which has many follies scattered around the lake, up the hills, and around the golf course.  The school - which just happened to be the venue for a wedding (we gatecrashed some of the photos I suspect by walking across the background landscape) - is described on its site as  "a wonderful school in the most sublime setting which celebrates youth rather than stifling it. Stowe embodies the English Enlightenment and its ethos continues to be shaped by the people who teach and learn here. We offer an inspiring environment for the education of boys and girls aged thirteen to eighteen in the firm belief that every one of them has the potential for excellence waiting to be unearthed and burnished – the jewel within".  I couldn't find the fees on the net but I guess if I have to ask I just couldn't afford it.  Students, new and old are called 'Stoics' and apparently they acquire 'skills that enable them to live happily, work successfully and thrive in their future lives'.  I must admit it is set in a lovely place and if nature inspires learning like I believe it does there is some basis that kids who go to this school could do well.  During our walk we negotiated a few holes (golf that is) and watched a few golfers hit their balls in to some fairly challenging bunkers and a fairly big lake (wonder if they dredge it and sell the balls occasionally - if not it surely must be fairly full considering the course was built in the early 1920's). Langley the designer had this to say about his course “though welcome and avant-garde in its mere existence at the time, bore little resemblance to orthodoxy of construction”. He recalled “the long trudge up the hill among the mole-hills to the Armoury” and “the attempt to hit balls illicitly into the slits of the Monument after leaving the 9th green: an obtuse, inverted pleasure, since the ball was lost if the shot succeeded, yet ever-tempting like forbidden fruit”. Sounds about as challenging as Karori Golf Course at home.  We had a great picnic near the car park where some of us had a little doze and others watched more energetic folk walking amongst the grazing sheep.  We're already planning to meet up somewhere - unfortunately half way is a bit further than 'somewhere around the Malverns'.  We're taking a little friend from Northampton home - he's called Cobbler.

Everything has gone bed, tv, couch, Pierre, bikes, most of our stuff and the only thing to do is pack up our bags with everything that is lying on the bedroom floor.  We've wined and dined with friends, had telephone job interviews, tried to set up postal redirection orders online, and we've probably forgotten about a hundred other things - but hey Thursday is coming up fast. Last week we went out for dinner with some of my work colleagues and just to get our own back for coming last in too many pub quizzes we did a NZ quiz.  Some knew who Dan Carter and Gollom were but pictures of a pohutukawa tree,  Kiri and a Takahe led to some fairly imaginative answers. We're out tomorrow night with Harry's workmates, been to Jamie Olivers restaurant with Colin and Tess, seen Chris, Glen and Ben for coffee, and having our last meal in the UK with Jane and David. Rebecca and Nylan came for the weekend and we walked the harbour and took photos of all the local gorillas posing around the place. So, lots of socialising in our last week. We've had a great time but it is time to move back...

Lake Buttermere

The lake district is known for 'walking' and that is just what we did.  Our first was a short sojourn of a couple of hours around the Lake (the day after a wedding is meant for nothing but a stroll).  Pretty scenery.

A trip to the coast (to see what the beach side towns were like - say no more) and a wander around Cockermouth - home to the enormous flood in 2009.  We strolled the town (bought some travel books to start to enjoy the thought of our upcoming holiday) and then went down Cockermouths memory lane.  Some well known and, some not so well known people grew up in Cockermouth (perhaps there is something in all the fresh air and walking through countryside that inspires the brain, or maybe it was the Quaker background that many seemed to have been born into)..

• Robinson Mitchell - the first person to open an auction mart
• William Wordsworth - poet whom I wrote about in an earlier blog
• Fearon Farrows - he catalogued over 300 stars and built the first astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere (South Africa)
• John Dalton - scientist who came up with Daltons Law and developed the modern atomic theory
• Fletcher Christian - say no more.

The next day we climbed Haystacks - we did well going up - passed a family with young kids and a man that looked about 70 and managed to keep up with some others more our age.  At the top we did some scrambling for the first time over here (hands and knees up rock faces, with no clear path - just someone further ahead leading the way).  Quite challenging. At the top was some lovely scenery, tarns, lunch and the path downwards (which we didn't enjoy - shingle at a sharp gradient).

On the way back home, we had a quick stop in Shrewsbury to see Marianne, Steve and little James. I have a lovely photo of James but can't find it so will post it when I do!!