“And a time for every purpose under heaven”……….

….”there is a season, turn, turn turn”……we are very much reminded of this Yardbird’s song of the 60’s at the moment. It is nearing the end of autumn and as the days get shorter and the tree’s lose more of their leaves we are forced to again ponder upon life and it’s meaning. We have always known that our job here depended on the extent of “the autumn of our employers lives”…..but we are never quite ready for the eventual outcome. Mr N. passed away suddenly last week in the early hours of the morning. We hadn’t really expected that as the focus was on Mrs N. who now has 24 hour care and is completely bedridden. It seems to have come about very quickly and yet as we look at the rapidly changing season we can’t help make comparisons. The only constant is that nothing ever stays the same and so as we deal with what we have to do here, we are also thinking about what is next for us, not knowing quite when, but in all probability sooner rather than later.
Today we are heading up to London to catch up with darling Kiwi friends Wayne and Eve and looking forward to them coming back here for the night for some good Kiwi conversation, some good French wine and a few laughs. Tomorrow Aunty Patty returns from her adventures in Manchester, Liverpool and Paris before she heads back to NZ on Sunday………much love xxxxx

We went to London…….

…….the other day and decided to go to the Saatchi Art Gallery. We wanted to see the new exhibition, which has been very controversial. I really wanted to try and get my head around Charles Saatchi, who owns the Gallery. The reason….? The man has just been on a diet for 6 months eating nothing but 9 hard boiled eggs a day!!! He lost about 5 stone, ……I imagine he also lost a lot of friends – sulphurous eggs??? And he’s married to none other than the “Domestic Goddess” – Nigella Lawson – now surely if you are a successful foodie………. ???????? Anyway folks, please do NOT try this diet at home.
The new Saatchi Gallery is magnificent and we have nothing but admiration for a man who is so dedicated to art that he makes such fantastic exhibitions available at no charge to the public.
The current exhibition is called “The Revolution Continues” and is a collection of contemporary Chinese works. The first photo is an installation of iconic buildings which form a cityscape made out of ‘dog chews’ (You know, the things you can buy in the pet section of your local super market, usually made out of re-constituted pigs ears and such). We wandered through the galleries for several hours and when we came to the last one – gallery 13 – it was filled with lifelike replicas of notable past world figures in wheelchairs randomly moving slowly around the room, sort of dodgem like but more gently………
For us this created a sense of poignancy…..at the moment we are in a very sad work situation as our aged employers are nearing the end of their lives – the thing that struck me was that the wax figures looked rather too healthy.
The other thing was……. how come such a wealthy philanthropic man can’t find a decent dietician………..?????????

Autumn is beautiful in England……..

…….the seasons here are amazing and now as we approach our second autumn, we are more prepared for the rapidity with which the seasons change and so are making the most of it. Today we went for a ‘ramble’. There is a walkway which goes through our place and meanders over the countryside for 10 miles called St Peter’s Way, we have only ever done bits of it. Today we decided, armed with our ordinance map, to go for it – 4 hours they reckon. Well, the first thing we came across was the big haystack in one of our fields. The other day there were two big machines in the paddock, one sweeping all the hay into rows and the other driving over the rows and spitting bales of hay out the back, terribly efficient – today a huge haystack – just like days of yore – no polythene wrapped monstrosities’ here! On we went, following the discreet signs. We came across a field of horses – they were so friendly and decided to follow us, but alas they weren’t up for climbing over a style – pity, we really liked them.
On we went and then as always happens in our experience of England, without warning, the signs ran out. “Not to worry” said we, “we have our trusty ordinance map”! But, with no idea of where we actually were it was a bit tricky, so we pressed on. Lovely autumn day, lots of blackberries to sustain us and then all of a sudden things started to look horribly familiar, instead of doing a lovely 4 hour loop, we had managed an hour loop….never mind ….we went back to our pond and talked to the geese while we ate our bread and cheese and drank our ales. Must get better at map reading………..miss you all AGAIN…..lots of love xxxxxxx

He aha te mea nui? He tangata. He tangata. He tangata. What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, ...

………it is people. We can’t begin to say how important this was to us on our recent trip home. It was a very brief visit and we only caught up with a few of our nearest and dearest, but those we did manage to see, thank-you. Being in NZ filled our hearts and minds with aroha and now it is back to “Te aro Anglia” – “the way of the English”!!!! “Life as a servant” hit us with all it’s harsh reality on our return, intensified by the joys of jet lag. It has been ‘full on’….the class system and it’s ensuing stratification causes some people to try to establish their place in the hierarchy as soon as an opportunity presents itself. When we left for 14 days it would appear it kicked in immediately and there was a bit of a scramble. The interim carer took it upon herself to create all manner of “rotas” (English word for “rosters”) for extra staff for weird times of the day. It’s taken a few days to sort out the lack of mandate and now we are struggling to get everyone back in their rightful place – as Rod says “it’s like herding chickens” – one of his jobs that nobody else wants! Any how we are back. The leaves are beginning to turn, swimming in the “heated pool” first thing in the morning is bloody cold and we are looking forward to the arrival of our grand daughter from Norway and Patty from NZ – yay! Miss you all even more now….get over here…….much love xxxxxx

Barb's Birthday in Bath.........

……..we had a long weekend and as we’d been promising ourselves a visit to Bath for sometime we decided to hop in the car and do it. It’s so easy here to get on the Eurostar or a plane and go to Europe for a mini-break…..but there are many places in England we still have to ‘do’!
The motorway system is great, although you have to share it with millions of other cars as well as huge road trains, but with our trusty ‘satnav’ it makes what used to be stressful and confusing much easier. We don’t know how England does it – 80,000,000 people with masses and masses of countryside and green belt areas……fantastic town planning? Anyway, there we were, blatting down a 6 lane motorway and all of a sudden …. signs (couldn’t stop to photograph them!) “Deer next 41 Miles”….we didn’t see any, but…?
Another sign that took our fancy was……”For the Oracle leave at Junction 11”. We didn’t have any good questions to ask so we just kept going.
Anyway – Bath – the name doesn’t really do it….it doesn’t seem right that such a beautiful town should have such a utilitarian name. However, it does have hot springs (the only ones in Britain) and at the end of the day it would be no more romantic if it was called Rotorua. Beautiful Georgian buildings made from local sandstone, create a sense of lightness and coherent style that the Romans would have been proud off. The River Avon flows right through the town centre which adds to the atmosphere of graciousness. Lots of fabulous restaurants and shops, the perfect place to have a birthday……..to be continued……..
In the meantime this time next week we’ll be seeing a lot of you AND we can’t wait….much love xxxxxx

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

From smugglers to Shakespeare…..

…we recently visited Hastings on the coast of Sussex, we were guests of extended ‘whanau’ – not only did we love being with whanau, we loved the sense of ‘things of yore’. Hastings is one of the closest points of England to France and so has long been a smuggler’s town. Apparently the cliffs are dotted with caves and tunnels and the old town has little alleyways and secret places. Oh! and of course there is The Battle of Hastings, 1066 and all that. We are looking forward to going back. this is a very beautiful country.
Last Thursday it was off to London and we went to a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The Globe is a very authentic reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599, where Shakespeare worked and wrote. Camera's (and cell phones) weren't an Elizabethan option! The friends that we were with insisted that we stand in the yard just as they would have done 400 years ago. Insightfully they did suggest we bring raincoats!!!! As I’m sure they did 400 years ago, we got wet….it was truly brilliant tho’ and added to the experience. But, after standing for several hours - I think I’d opt for a dry seat in the gallery next time and have a different ‘authentic experience’. The play was “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and the players were fast, funny and we were enthralled from start to finish despite getting wet!!!
Have been a slack on the blog front recently…sorry…..not from lack of thinking of everyone…just a spate of ‘writers block’ for goodness sake.. how pathetic! Time to come home for a little ‘catch up’ with everyone……….so with that in mind we will be in Auckland for 10 days from the 5th September until the 15th….can’t wait!!!!!