The Busy Family, In Search of White Horses

As we leave the cottage and say goodbye to the proprietress, she tells us that her family were referring to us as "there goes the busy family" due to the amount of things we had planned that week. I say we but of course I mean Carole. I suppose it's better than being called the lazy family.

We are moving on to Reading where West Ham will be playing away tomorrow...It's not the nicest day and we toss up whether to go the long way via Stonehenge or leave that for another trip but we figure Stonehenge will be more interesting than Reading and head south.

Get to Stonehenge and see hippy types parking up a dirt road,presumably to avoid paying in the official carpark so we follow suit but turns out the car park is free (a rarity in Englnd!). Doh.

Admission is pretty reasonable at £7.80/£4.70 which includes an walk around audio tour gadget. The rocks are reasonably impressive and all the recent rain has caused them to close the footpath that goes around the back behind the circle. That was actually advantageous since it means we could take photos without any tourists in the shot. Bonus.

Afterwards we walk up into a nearby field to see some burial mounds known as barrows.

Still have time left before we can check in at Reading so we google for the nearest white horse. There are 14 White Horses carved into prominent hills around Wiltshire out of natural occurring chalk. We managed to find one and it was worth the drive..the photos don't really do it justice, but we were happy to see it.

Rock up to Reading and check into our Holiday Inn paid for with Amex reward points (8000 pts per night. The Holiday Inn is only about 500m from Reading's home ground, the Madjeski Stadium. It was built in 1998 on a former council tip purchased for £1 and while modern, is one of a number of cookie cutter stadiums built throughout England with no soul. A plastic ground full of plastic fans. Maybe that's just me being bitter as Reading beat us again despite being 2nd bottom in the league thanks to a James Collins howler gifting them a goal. That's 2 trips in consecutive seasons to Reading for us and two losses. Yep I'm bitter :)

To make matters worse after looking like Carole & Ben would miss the match without a ticket I managed to also get them seats in the Reading end for an outlay of £60 so they got to share in the misery, in the back row of the stadium.

Have a cheap feed at the World Turned Upside Down pub up the road which has a £4.20 Roast buffet and £1.49 bottomless ice cream and try to forget our misery.

Hanging with the Marquess of Bath

Head to Longleat which is the estate & home of the somewhat eccentric Marquess of Bath but best known for it's very well renown drive through safari park, supposedly the first one outside of Africa. Again I have to say this wasn't something I was expecting to be super entertaining (rather, something that Ben will enjoy and I'll get my enjoyment out of watching his enjoyment, sort of thing). But it was excellent. Not just the drive through safari park which was very good with some incredibly active lions literally climbing trees and racing about as we dawdled along in the car in amazement. We bypassed the monkey section of the safari park since stories of damage are common and I didn't fancy explaining the ripped off wipers on our Volvo to the rental agency! We watched through binoculars and virtually every car had monkeys on the roof or bonnet.

But there was a lot more to the estate that we had access to. There was

- an outdoor ice rink complete with a large skiing snowman
- a massive Christmas tree with a super sophisticated light and narrated music 'show' that came on every half hour after dusk
- an after dark owl show put on by the nearby hawk conservancy trust where the owls literally fly so love over the audience you need to duck your head or they will hit you
- a walk around jungle kingdom zoo
- a massive (and I do mean massive) hedge maze that was so large they close it at dusk or you'll never find your way out, and
- Longleat House itself which is an Elizabethan country 'house' that had live actor pantomime characters throughout interacting with you as you toured the house.

And the whole thing was done like no expense had been spared. There was a lot of wow factor. I kept telling Carole how it may be the best value £30 we had ever spent. And that was for all 3 of us. The whole thing was massively entertaining.

Bargains, Dead People & Ale

Guarantee that blog title will be unique on the internet!

Boxing Day is spent at the sales picking up some bargains...kids sketchers shoes for £12.50 ($20), new Clarks school shoes for £21 ($32)....any Mum's with kids will know how cheap those prices are.

We also went off in search of Carole's distant relatives in some church cemetery's but its like finding needles in haystacks when the churches are closed. It takes you to nice villages though and the churches are normally quite impressive stone buildings that have been there for centuries.

Finish the day back in our local village sampling some traditional cask ales at the George Inn. Rather boring name for an English pub but the Broadside Ale and mulled wine goes down a treat on a cool evening in front of the fireplace.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day in our little cottage in Wiltshire. Santa managed to find Ben and obviously has him on the nice list as he has left lots of presents. He got the magic set and a watch both of which he had been asking for. There was some Star Wars Lego, a mini tops football pitch with Lego footballers on sliders (very cool) and various other odds and sods.

Carole and I both got each other the same box of Bassett's licorice allsorts unbeknownst to each other. Quite funny when we exchanged them at the same time. Carole got the new camera she wanted (some of you may know that I broke her previous one on a pub crawl in Sydney) and the temporary replacement one has been passed on to Ben who loves taking photos.

Afterwards we head out for a drive to a picturesque nearby village, Castle Combe. There is no castle but there are a lot of stone cottages and buildings and the sun comes out for a little while to allow us to get some pictures with blue sky!

Back to the cottage for our low maintenance lunch which works very well, along with giant crackers/bon bons...fortunately the explosive doesn't match the size of the cracker or it could have been messy.

Apparently the pubs in Lacock are open today so we go for the 20 minute walk into the village. Only thing is its more than 20 mins and the pubs are shut when we get there so we trudge home but at least we got some fresh air.

'twas the night before Christmas..

Since we will be on our own at Christmas (and not seeing family or friends, for perhaps the 1st time ever?), we have planned to have a pub meal on Christmas Eve of roast turkey with all the trimmings and then a low maintenance Christmas lunch in the cottage on Christmas Day. So we head off to Sainsbury's to get pork pies, cold meats, quiches etc. Pickled onions for 30p, giraffe bread (had to see it to know why I called it that), cider, salads, Xmas pud & custard. All sorted.

After hearing about the local church's annual Christmas eve nativity service where the children dress up, we forego the planned christingle service and head to St Cyriac's in Lacock where we find out we are the first ever visiting participants. Ben handles the pressure and does a good job as a shepherd (albeit a rich one with a crown!), we sing some hymns, remember what Christmas is really about, and then head to the pub. As you do.

We go to the Mill House and have the £12.90 three course slap up Christmas turkey. Same meal on Christmas Day is £37.90. We pat ourselves on the back for our frugality and go off in search of Ben who is tearing about with a bunch of new found friends in the massive indoor playground.

Head home, put Ben to bed, finish off the present wrapping and we drift off to sleep with one ear out for Santa.

Which Way To The Arbor?

Lazy Sunday morning sleep in before heading into Swindon to check out the designer outlet centre.  There are so many things I would buy if I lived in a cold climate but they are just not practical for Australia.  We decide to head back after Christmas when things might be even cheaper!

Carole has booked us into something called "An Enchanted Christmas" at the national arboretum at Westonbirt and it turns out to be an interesting walk through a forest trail at night where trees are lit up with lights and special effects.  Some of them are very cool including massive colored smoke rings, video cameras projecting your face up onto tree trunks, noise activated lights.  And of course there's Santa (dressed in forest green) and fairies and roasted chestnuts and mulled wine.  To be honest I wasn't expecting much but it was very good.

Match day 2 - Home to Everton

Early start to be up and ready to catch the 8.25am train to London from nearby Chippenham.  Carole has pre-booked cheap tickets.  £17 return each for us and £8.50 for Ben.  It's about a 75 minute trip in and we spend some of it trying to decide if the London Dungeons will be too scary for Ben.  Ben has the final say, and its a no.  So as we alight in Paddington we need a new plan.

It's a drizzly day which rules out a lot of things including Ben's requests of Buckingham Palace and Big Ben (of course) so I make an executive decision and we head to the (free) science museum.  The South Kensington tube stop is busy with families making their way to the nearby museums so it seems like a good choice and it turns out that way. Rightly or wrongly we feel sorry for the kids being taken to the natural history museum as we carry on to the science museum.  It has loads of interesting and often interactive exhibits but there are also shows you can go to.  There was one about Christmas that included exploding snow, how crackers work and how Santa gets around the whole world in one night.  There was a bubble show with cool effects like bubbles inside bubbles, square bubbles, bubbles large enough to fit 2 people inside.  It was all very good and had Ben completely captivated.  He volunteered to go up and hold some sort of chemical bubble.

I leave Carole and Ben there and head off to meet Micky for a beer at the Duke of Edinburgh near the West Ham ground but Micky is having a transport nightmare so I have a feed in the kebabish across the road.  Order the house specialty which turns out to be several different types of meat blended or puréed into something that looks like poo but tastes pretty good when mixed with rice and slathered on naan bread.

Micky finally turns up 15 mins before kick off and we scamper into the ground.

Everton are a team without stars but are always very hard to beat and their manager David Moyes gets the best out of his squad.  Their 6'5" gollywog Marouane Fellaini is suspended after head butting and punching incidents in his last game which we hope will blunt their scoring chances.  Everton have what looks like a fair goal disallowed and we immediately head up the other end where Carlton Cole buries the ball in the left corner and its one nil to the cockney boys.  I grab Ben and we start jumping and dancing around celebrating.  We make it into half time 1-0 up and we start to think about the 3 pts.  Unfortunately Everton are used to coming from a goal down and they eventually score a goal via a looping header and it's all square again.

Not long after the ref makes a massive cock up and shows Carlton Cole a straight red card when he goes for (and gets) a ball just as an Everton player ducks his head in from the side.  Free kick, yes.  Yellow card, maybe.  Red card never in a million years.  Both sets of players are stunned by the decision and Cole trudges off.  Everton have the momentum and go on to score a 2nd.  The home fans all sing "2-1 to the referee".  In injury time the ref sends off an Everton player to even things up but it is another over-reaction and dodgy decision and both sets of fans unite to sing "you don't know what your doing".

We have chances to snatch a draw but its not to be and we traipse out of the ground with a bitter taste in our mouths.  Micky is heading to the Duke but we need to get back for our train so we join the tube line that I'm not exaggerating when I say is nearly a kilometer long.  But once we get to the end of it,it moves pretty fast.  Hammersmith line to Paddington and we've got time for a quick pint and a feed at the Mad Bishop & Bear.  We head down to find our train but the board informs us our train has been cancelled due to a crew shortage.  Outstanding.  The staff tell us the next train is 30 mins later at 8pm but of course we no longer have reserved seats but we manage to get on and sit together.  It's been a very long day and we are very glad to finally get home to our little cottage.

What Do You Mean There's No Knife Factory

Friday we headed down to a cottage near Lacock in Wiltshire that will be our home for Christmas. Had been worried it might be a nightmare trip with people knocking off work and heading away and clogging the roads but we breezed down the motorways on the 3 hour trip.

The cottage is a barn conversion and is very nice (it cost £430 for the week). Ben's room is up some very steep stairs (almost a ladder) which scares me quite a bit, particularly in the middle of the night if he gets up and is a bit groggy. Have blocked it off with a big suitcase and told him to call down to us if he wakes up and needs something. So far so good. We've got a lot of stuff planned over the next week starting off with a trip on the train tomorrow into London to see West Ham play Everton.

Hands up those who knew Wiltshire knifes have nothing to do with Wiltshire County in England but are actually an iconic Australian brand?

Chilling in Nantwich

Drove up to Nantwich in Cheshire to spend a few days with Carole's relatives. Once again stayed with Joanne & Trev and the boys (another big thank you to the Palmer's for making us feel so welcome). Ben gets so excited when he sees them. I think he thinks they are the coolest family in the world.

Caught up with Glen & Sarah who came over for a curry. Cracked a bottle of French champagne that night since we will be down south for Christmas & New Years.

Ben went to a junior football clinic at Crewe Alexandra (they are in the division below the Championship i.e. old 3rd Div) and had a great time. In the game he scored 2 and hit the post with another, but I was most impressed when he was the designated centre midfielder and several times he received passes with his back to goal, turned & broke a tackle and dribbled forward. Just needs to work on looking up for options after he has broken into space. I picked up some good coaching ideas and tips too. We'll go back for another clinic in the New Year.

Carole went and visited her Nan's grave and did a bit of family tree research. Had a chat to the Vicar who is a Coventry City fan - apparently we were both at the West Ham Coventry game last season.

Also took the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping. Going to be on us before we know it.

But it was a bit of a lazy week, chilling and catching up with friends & relatives. Which is a good thing.

Match Day 1 - West Brom Away

Picked up the rental car in Ilford. We struggled with what to book. My leg is still recovering from surgery and radiation so I didn't want anything too cramped but its hard to tell on the net how much room some of these obscure models have and in most cases you don't get what you booked anyway, you get something similar. I was also keen for cruise control so that I could rest my leg on the motorways. We booked a Skoda Octavia but were given a spiffy Volvo V60 which is the next class up. Heaps of leg room, cruise control, built in Sat Nav, leather seats, voice activated audio, 6 star safety rated. It's a $60k+car. Jackpot.

Headed north to West Bromich which is very close to Birmingham in the midlands. Carole got a great deal on a Premier Inn for £19 ($30) and the room was palatial with ceilings about 20 feet high with massive windows and curtains. Don't know if there is a bed bigger than a king but I think each side of the bed was in a different post code!

Caught the bus across the road for the short trip to West Bromich Albion's home ground, The Hawthorns. No Hammers on board and some rum looking types. On the top deck there was a pit bull sleeping in the aisle! Grabbed a quick chicken tikka on a baguette and headed to the away turnstiles. We were patted down as we entered but Ben was left alone so we'll have to remember to hide our flares and weapons under Ben's coat next time!

Great seats about 15 rows back but as always it's problematic for Ben and to a lesser extent Carole as the away fans stand up during the game and sit at half time whereas the home team sit during the game and stand during the interval. At half time Ben tried his luck and went and sat on the steps in the aisle of the front row and no stewards moved him on so there he stayed, later joined by Carole.

West Brom have no super stars but have started the season off incredibly well occupying 3rd at one stage until a recent slump of 3 losses on the trot. West Ham are missing several crucial players due to injury including our main striker, Andy Carroll and our marauding midfielder Momo Diame. And we missed them both, especially Diame in the 1st half where we allowed them far too much space in midfield and it was only their poor finishing that saw us go in level at the break. We came out with a greater sense of urgency in the 2nd half and closed them down much better but they still had several chances to take the lead but our defence was resolute with our 2 centre backs Winston Reid (a kiwi) and James Collins (a welshman) being immense. Perhaps they have a sense of solidarity over their shared cultural fondness of sheep. Carlton Cole came into the game a bit more and we also had some chances but towards the end we settled for a draw. A very good point away from home.

The papers called the game a snore draw and a Christmas turkey but it was far from that.

We couldn't get back to the bus stop after the game as we were corralled out with the away fans in the wrong direction but one of the thousand police bobby's told us we could catch a tram back into town. Melbournesque.

Sunday night away games are pretty dead afterwards as people head home for work the next day rather than stay over and the bar at our digs was dead. Had a nice feed (steak so probably more mad cow, I'm still banned from donating blood thanks to a Uk trip in 1991), and then back up to our Palace drawing room.

Boooo Hissss

A couple of days in London to start the trip. Pretty jet lagged after arriving at 5.30am so spend a fair bit of day 1 sleeping. Day 2 we head to West Ham's ground to sort out re-prints of this seasons membership cards and to check out the club shop. Then it's off to Stratford Westfield (largest centre in Europe) for Santa's grotto and a bit of a wander. It's packed to the rafters with shoppers (what economic slowdown?). Catch the tube to Farringdon to meet Risky for a pub meal and to collect some tickets we had mailed to his local address. He tells us Weatherspoons pubs are great value and we prove his theory correct at the Sir John Oldcastle .  After leaving we have a close call. 200m down the road Carole realises Ben's bob hat got left in the pub and when I head back to get it, I discover she also left her small shoulder bag hanging on the (now occupied) chair with her purse and phone inside! Lucky.

Saturday we head into Ilford for a look around and Carole comments that its much better than Westfield. Salvation Army band playing carols, street markets. 2nd trip to the club shop to use Risky's season ticket to get a discount on a few things and then we head into Hackney for a pantomime. We're onto a good thing with Weatherspoons and there's one right across from the theatre so we have a cheap feed and a couple of pints at Baxter's Court. Then it's into the Hackney Empire for Dick Whittington & his Cat. Little Miss Organised (Carole) has pre booked front row seats and as we sit down an usher informs us to be careful as there will be performers running up and down our aisle! For those who don't know about pantomimes, they encourage vocal audience participation in the form of cheering the good guys and boo'ing the villains, in this case a Rastafarian rat! We all get right into it with Ben drawing the attention of the rat who points to him and says "watch it kid!" which sends Ben into fits. The whole thing is excellent entertainment. And it's not confined to families as we see several groups of 20 something's drinking ale from the bar and getting into it (in the right spirit).

Safe & Sound in London

"This is your captain speaking. There's going to be a slight delay on the ground here in Singapore while we wait for the congested Afghanistan airspace ahead to clear a little."

No need to worry though, no sign of any ground to air missiles and we had a smooth flight with excellent food and friendly service. Don't get why people complain about airline food. We fly a lot of different airlines and without exception the international flights have very good food and there always seems to be something coming down the aisle. On this Qantas flight (with an all British crew), Ben's child meals came out early before the adult meals, with his name on. We had a choice of 2 meals both sounding like they would be at home on the menu of any gastro pub and washed down with a choice of beers including James Squire Chancer Golden Ale. Lovely Jubley. Ben and I managed to get plenty of sleep, Carole a little.

Touched down at Heathrow about 15 mins late. Figure that's acceptable on a 10,000 mile flight lol. Breezed through customs and baggage claim, grab a trolley and make our way to the Piccadilly line that runs directly into Heathrow. 80 min trip across 2 tube lines to the other side of London for less than £3. Are you listening Brisbane? £3 or about $4.50.

Walking from the tube to the Holiday Inn (paid for with CC reward points) it is bloody freezing. Which reminds me I didn't pack gloves!

Tomorrow it's the fancy smancy Santa's grotto at the massive Westfield at Stratford with an included 5d movie (Santa has gone high tech) and then meeting Risky for tea. Risky is a Brisbane Hammer who is over here living the dream as a West Ham season ticket holder and teaching at a London school.

Panic & Tears

Caught our 12pm flight on the 12/12/12. It may or may not have been 12 mins and 12 seconds late. Despite being a flying veteran of some 15 or so previous flights, Ben has recently become very concerned about the take off part of the flight and making comments about not liking it. We had to fly to Melbourne 1st. He worked himself up into such a state that it was almost full panic and there was a lot of tears. Very sad. For the Singapore flight the entertainment system worked pre flight and during take off so he was pre-occupied and didn't get worked up.

Had a pretty new A380 Airbus with 2 floors. Plenty of leg room and even with the seats in front fully reclined I had room to stretch my legs out, which was extra important this trip due to my recent surgery and radiation treatment. And those 380 seats recline a long way. Too far IMHO. Doesn't effect leg room but the entertainment screen is about 6 inches from your face unless you also recline.

Sending this from Singapore airport while we wait for refueling. Next stop London.

Ben thought he had outgrown his Thomas suitcase and fancied something more grown up. As we were going to the gate we found this orange one for a bargain price and he was very chuffed.

The Road to Wembley Starts Here

Managed to get 3 tickets for our FA Cup game against Manchester United. Yippity.

Rough Itinerary

This is the rough plan, thanks to a ton of work by Carole!

12/12 Depart Brisbane 12pm

13/12 Arrive London 5.10am

14/12 London, Santa's Grotto at Stratford , meet Risky for tea

15/12 London - Dick Whittington & His Cat Panto

16/12 Drive to Birmingham for West Brom vs West Ham

17/12 Nantwich (Cheshire), Joanne & Trev

18/12 Nantwich 

19/12 Nantwich

20/12 Nantwich

21/12 Drive to Barn Cottages, Lacock Wiltshire

22/12 Lacock Cottage, Train to West Ham vs Everton

23/12 Lacock Cottage, Stonehenge, Westonbirt National Arboretum Enchanted Evening

24/12 Lacock Cottage, Christingle Service at St Pauls, Millhouse Pub for Christmas Meal

25/12 Lacock Cottage, Christmas

26/12 Lacock Cottage, Arsenal vs West Ham if we can find tickets somehow!

27/12 Lacock Cottage, Longleat Safari Park

28/12 Drive to Reading, Holiday Inn

29/12 Reading vs West Ham

30/12 Drive to Hemel Hempstead near Watford

31/12 Hemel Hempstead

1/1 Hemel Hempstead West Ham vs Norwich

2/1 Chesham

3/1 Roydon Cabin, Ben goes to Spurs football clinic in Ware

4/1 Roydon Cabin, Ben goes to Spurs football clinic in Ware

5/1 Roydon Cabin, FA Cup West Ham vs Manchester United

6/1 Roydon Cabin

7/1 Nantwich, Joanne & Trev

8/1 Nantwich

9/1 Nantwich

10/1 Bolton with Louis & Dorrie at their cottage

11/1 Bolton with Louis & Dorrie at their cottage

12/1 Nantwich

13/1 Nantwich 

14/1 Lake District Whinfell Forest Center Parcs

15/1 Lake District Whinfell Forest Center Parcs

16/1 Lake District Whinfell Forest Center Parcs

17/1 Lake District Whinfell Forest Center Parcs

18/1 Nantwich

19/1 West Ham vs QPR

20/1 - Option 1 Fly Out of UK to a beach resort in Malaysia

Option 2 - Fly to Europe to Ski somewhere

29/1 School resumes

Testing photo posting stills works ok

Holiday Time!

We fly out next Wednesday (12th). No stopover this time. Going to be a lot cooler in the UK than it is here!