Holidays, part 7 – kids

And so it was time to take the kids back home so they had time to unwind before school started.  This is the bit that’s hard – that still having fun but knowing that its almost time to go bit.  Still – have fun we did and Ruth cooked us all a lovely late lunch/early tea as we played in the last of the…

Holidays, part 6 – mini golf, mini trains, castles and trees

We had almost come to the end of the holidays and there were so many fun things still to be done.  I decided to go see what one of the locals parks had to offer as I’d heard it had been done up since I was last there.  And done up it had been – lots of new play equipment, remodelling and the two…

Holidays, part 5 – flying lessons

My daughter Ella is very special.  Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I? She also has a somewhat ‘relaxed’ relationship with gravity.  As a ballet dancer, that’s a pretty helpful talent to have.  She can jump and spring like a mountain gazelle. There’s something else she can do. Fly.

Holidays, part 4 – Bluebell Railway

100 years ago, England was criss crossed with railway lines.  Small towns and villages were all connected with quaint single track upon which steam trains chuffed their merry way about, ferrying passengers in their wooden well appointed carriages.  Sadly, the second world war meant that the upkeep of a lot of the track and rolling stock fell far behind, and budget cuts meant that…

Holidays, part 3 – Groombridge Place

Groombridge Place (http://www.groombridge.co.uk) is only 30 mins drive from my parents house.  I’ve been there before about 4 years ago with Ella, not that she remembers really, just snippets here and there.  It’s a pretty cool place – an old moated English country house and beautiful gardens that also has an adventure playground and an ‘enchanted forest’ walk for children.   Good enough to keep…

Holidays part 2 – family

I gave my kids a massive hug when I got in on Friday – it had been 6 months since I saw them in person – Henry was dancing around in circles he was so excited.  Its always so fantastic to see them. The next day, after a good nights sleep, we went for a walk to the park at the top of the…

tripski – final part

We had some other nice days, went out for lunch – actually, there’s a story there all by itself Never go to Pizza Express in Sevenoaks – they were terrible, forgot our order, lied to cover it up and told us it was ‘just in the oven’ but 1/2 hour later it still hadn’t arrived, stuffed up with the deserts and eventually, after nearly…

Tripski – part 3

We went to see some of my close friends mid week. They live not too far from where I used to live in England.  Not too far away from where Ella and Henry were born and grew up. Ella remembers the place, her old friends, her school and snippets of the old house.  She’s sometimes a bit sad about it – I kinda feel…

Tripski – part 2

So, one of the first things we did (apart from go shopping for food and get very wet in the rain) was go see my youngest sister and her two kids. You’ve probably seen them on here before. We have a lot of fun with them, normally outside in the park where they can run around, but in this case, the rain prevented any…

Tripski, part 1

So, as you know, I went to England to see my beautiful kids.  England, land of the village pub, the Darling Buds of May, long summer evenings, rambling footpaths and history going back millenia. Well, it wasn’t like that.  The sun didn’t shine.  It rained all the time.  It was freezing.  The cloudbase was 3 feet above the ground – so much so it…