Kent

As regular readers would probably recall, I grew up in Kent (south east England) and it’s still a very special place for me, especially in the summer. You see, I had great summers in Kent. As a kid, we had endless hot summers, playing in the garden to the smell of freshly cut grass. As a teenager, I had more freedom and I remember…

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…

flowers

The one good thing about my little LX5 (yes, I’m still harping on about it) is that it has a macro capability, plus you can set it to different aspects on the camera (square, landscape etc) – which is pretty handy for composing flower type pictures. I’m not really that into taking shots of flowers – they’re pretty enough and close up, they can…

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…

Holidays, part 1 – Perth to England

So, after a full days work, I hastily packed up and went to the airport to catch the midnight flight, the first leg of my journey, to Hong Kong. Sadly, Cathay Pacific’s maintenance crews in Hong Kong had forgotten to file some paperwork, so we sat for 2 hours whilst the captain sent several rockets to obtain this before we could depart.  2 hours…

two went on an adventure

It was one of those weekends coming up where the girls were round at their father’s, the weather looked ok and we were looking for things to do. Usually (as past posts have clearly shown), we’ll wander out for coffee and end up having either breakfast or lunch and then spend the rest of the weekend sleeping off all the calories. Well, not this…

In transit

Did you see what I did there… 😉 Regular readers may recall that I travel a fair bit, mostly back to the UK from Australia.  I’m always running from place to place trying to maximise my time off, my funds and my time with my kids.  It was always the same with business travel too – squeezing the schedule as much as possible