Rivenhall.....

……..we have some Kiwi friends who work on an Estate in Rivenhall, about ½ an hour from here. I thought I’d just give you a very small glimpse of how the other 1% live!!!!!! Our friend’s accommodation is the first photo, their place is attached to ‘the big house’ (see second photo). The lake is part of the ‘front lawn’ of the big house.
Ho! Hum!.......we are totally used to it. Anyway we had a great evening and decided to head for Mersea today to feast on oysters. Not as in “Ferry Across the Mersea”.Mersea is an island attached to the Essex Coast by a single road across a causeway. We headed off early afternoon, all starving hungry, boys in the front, girls in the back…….sign-”Road Closed Ahead” ….”not so” decided the boys and around the sign we went and continued several miles down the road. We came upon a gang of workmen tarsealing the road……whoops, we had to do a U turn on the fresh tarseal with a huge roller bearing down on us. Didn’t faze the Kiwis! On we went (by another route) to the only road onto Mersea. There was a sailing dinghy race around the island with the boats having to be carried over the road during the race (duh…how does that work!)??????? The police had the cars backed up for miles and as it turned out hours. Not for us hungry Kiwis, being practiced at U turns, around we went and back to the nearest place that was still serving food. Most pubs have a strange practice of closing their kitchens at 2pm until 6pm…..considering that this is the most popular form of ‘eating out’ here, we find it unusual. There are some that serve food all day but these are few and far between and the food is usually not that good - today was no exception. But we were so hungry by the time we found one, that we weren’t that fussed. We had even considered going into a cattery and eating a cat. It’s fun spending time with Kiwis AND we will have 10 days of doing just that in 2 weeks time……can’t wait……until then, lots of love xxxxxxxx