Tom Toms and Pocahontas……….

We decided that we were a little tired of getting lost…it was okay at first…. then we told ourselves it was part of the adventure….but eventually it became down right embarrassing and a bit of a nightmare, especially when we picked up the family from Heathrow and promptly got lost, taking several hours to get home, after tackling the centre of London on a Friday afternoon! We haven’t been altogether technologically lacking through all this, we have planned routes on the computer and then printed off the maps and directions, but, due to no fault on our part, they keep changing the road signs or worse still there aren’t any, so in light of all this stress and drama we bought a Tom Tom GPS.
Oh my goodness….what a delight…we decided to go to Gravesend, an historic maritime town on the southern banks of the Thames. Which took us to Pocahontas…. Apparently Pocahontas visited Gravesend in the 1600’s and is buried there, they even have a statue of her! It is the last place one would expect to find what one had always imagined to be a fictional character. So much so, that I didn’t even take a photo, but found out all this in retrospect, (which is usually how we find our information)! Anyway we keyed into the sat nav where we wanted to go….and a female voice said….” Proceed down driveway 400yards to Mill Green Road and turn right”…. Now we would have turned left, but no matter, we always do as we are told!!! After taking us on a rather round about way to the A12 we were on our way and in spite of a few hiccups, it was a hell of lot better than me trying to navigate from a computer print out! We love the way it tells you when you are in 6 lane traffic..“stay in the left lane” or whatever….it’s great. Two days off, starting tomorrow and we are going exploring. We just have to figure out now, how to change the very ‘British’ female voice to a Kiwi bloke, apparently that is an option?????
Spring has well and truly sprung, the daffodils are still going mad….the trees are all bursting into leaf and the goose is grumpily sitting on eggs….so much for the dreaded ‘blackthorn winter’!!!!
In the meantime we have booked 3 days and nights in Amsterdam mid April and can’t wait………..miss you all heaps…still!!

Beware the ‘blackthorn winter’……….

…….the locals, including our employer, have been warning us of the ‘blackthorn winter’, (see the dear little blossoming shrub). Granted it has been a great winter. Officially spring was declared several weeks ago and the birds and plants have been responding accordingly. But, our employer has been going on and on about the dreaded ‘blackthorn winter’!!!! The reasoning goes like this – if the blackthorn flowers all together, beware, you are in for weeks of nasty late winter. Now our theory is – if something flowers, it flowers and so we’ve been rather skeptical. However, on a trip down to Thorpeness on Saturday we couldn’t help noticing that there was rather a lot of blackthorn flowering ………The following day we woke up to an Easter Sunday covered in snow – it was gorgeous and only stayed until late afternoon, but it was enough to play in and have some fun. Whether or not we have weeks of a ‘nasty winter’ remains to be seen, but it could almost be worth it for a glorious day of loveliness!
Thorpeness was interesting – the photo shows a house build over a water tower – they call it the ‘house in the clouds’ – quaint! Thorpeness has a very posh Country Club, golf course, tennis courts, splendid weekend retreats etc etc as well as a very ominous looking nuclear power station!!!
Off to Amsterdam in a few weeks, you have to love the proximity to Europe…….can’t wait…..more about that later……xxxxxxxxxx

A special time………

………it’s been a lovely few weeks, having Ana and the boys here. It’s been great to be able to share with them just a few of our favourite places and also to re-experience these again through the eyes of loved ones. It’s been much too short though and on Friday they fly back to NZ – D Day (Dread Day!)…….In the meantime, we’ve taken 4 days off and are making the most of these last days. Sera arrived last Friday (she has a job as an au pair in Holland) and will stay a few more days – so we can enjoy the family time for a little longer. The good thing is, she is only going to be an hour or so away….yay!!!
Yesterday we visited the Tower of London and were most impressed by the Crown Jewels – you aren’t allowed to photograph them. I’m not a ‘jewelry’ kind of a girl – but they were pretty spectacular… Surprisingly they have only been almost stolen once – in 1671. Having read hundreds of historical novels it was crazy being in the midst of where most of Henry VIII’s stuff happened and to see the messages that people like Walpole, Raleigh and many others have carved into the walls of the towers.
Meanwhile the daffodils are going crazy and ‘hosts’ and ‘hosts’ of them are everywhere and in between all the excitement of having family here – ‘Life as a Servant’ has had to continue…….