Charlie's WorldBack to England – last part!
Posted on October 14, 2012
We had a day with the cousins and saw my sister’s teeny premature twin boys which was cool. Ella loved holding them – they’re so tiny!
We went swimming (again) and Henry managed to swim unaided for 3 or 4 meters, which for a skinny 5 year old boy who last year, was afraid of the water, was really cool. I even had him jumping in off the side and helping him duck down and touch the bottom. Lesson there, parents, is to get a good pair of well fitting goggles. It transforms how much fun they have in the water.
But then it was time to go, which is always the worst part – knowing we have a few more hours, a little more fun and then I have to leave them and fly home again. Read More
Back to England – part 8
Posted on October 8, 2012
A few days later, we decided to go to somewhere new. Not too far away is the Historic Dockyard at Chatham. On the banks of the River Medway, there has been a naval dockyard there since Tudor times (1540’s) – the yards were part of the assembly of the fleet that took on the Spanish Armada, later (mid 1700’s) built Admiral Nelson’s HMS Victory and then went on the build warships for the steam age and finally submarines for World War 2.
It’s only half and hour or so away and it was a beautiful day – perfect for exploring. There are lots of things to do there, including tours around a World War 2 Destroyer, Cold War submarine and a converted Victorian era steam warship. Perfect. Read More
Back to England – part 7
Posted on October 7, 2012
So, we went off to the woods to see about building a den.
I spent my childhood building dens and camps and shelters in these woods, so I was quick to lead them off to build something amazing. As luck would have it, only a short way into the woods there was a den already started, with a good top piece and a lot of wood collected already, it just needed fixing up and extending. Read More
Back to England – part 6
Posted on October 1, 2012
I’m stringing you all out here with my England stories! Mostly cos I haven’t done anything of any significance since I got back apart from work and buy paint for the bedroom walls. Aforementioned paint is still safely in its tins – sickness has meant that Chez Charlie has been keeping a low profile for a couple of weeks – a lot of that low profile spent in bed, making painting doubly hard. Ah well.
Now, where were we.
It was another beauty of an English summer day, so we decided to go for a little walk rather than go on another long drive. My parents live in a beautiful village, so I thought we should explore some roads we didn’t know and look at the old houses and take in some clean air. Read More
Back to England – part 5
Posted on September 30, 2012
It was scheduled to rain for the next couple of days, but it wasn’t supposed to hit until much later in the day, so my sister and I took the chance to head down to the beach. It’s an hour’s drive to Camber Sands but the traffic wasn’t too bad and the sun was shining. We decided to leave early and be packed up by lunch ahead of the rain and the rush (this place gets so busy once the sun is out)
We arrived just after 9 and the place was almost deserted. Awesome. Buckets and spades purchased, we walked off up the beach and set up our untidy little camp. As soon as we put the bags down, the kids were off.
Back to England – part 4
Posted on September 19, 2012
The weather was unusually kind to us, so we had plenty of time to lark about – we went swimming where Henry actually learned to swim properly (rather than just flailing) – Ella is a fully fledged dolphin already and there’s no stopping her, but it was really nice to see the boy graduate into the swimming camp rather than the sinking camp.
Anyways, with all this fine weather, we spent a lot of time in the woods walking, exploring, making dens and camps and having fun. Read More
back to England – part 3
Posted on September 16, 2012
We went out for Pizza for lunch – my mum and dad’s idea – lots of kids, vigorous exercise and then a treat – can’t much argue with that.
My dad sensibly peeled off from the park early to go back up to the town to book us a a table, but we were sufficiently early that we almost had the place to ourselves.
Back to England – part 2
Posted on September 10, 2012
The weather was beautiful, so we made the most of the local parks and my parents garden (which has a teeny freshwater crayfish in the brook that runs through it), playing with the kids and generally having fun. We made good use of the village shop and bought all kinds of yummy treats – thats the one good thing about living in a village – the trusty shop, which sells all kinds of esoteric stuff, including some yummy Kentish beer 🙂 Read More
Back to England – part 1
Posted on September 9, 2012
It was time to see the children in England. I’d booked the flights ages ago – but as the Olympics were on, they were massively expensive and only the less desirable flight times were available. I worked all day Friday and then caught the flight out at 2am *bleaugh* was a very long day. I got a bit of sleep, did the 2 hour stop at Singapore and then the next leg – the joyous 14 hour hop to London.
Anyway, it was all good – the airport was unusually quiet and I popped out into arrivals into 32 degree heat – rare for England and almost summer temperature for Perth! Picked up my hire car and drove to my parents house where my children were waiting for me.
Read More
Charlie's World 