Went to the festival of history on Saturday - this is a big event run by English Heritage...reenactments of romans, vikings, saxons, wars of the roses, civil war, boer war, first world war etc. When I woke up in the morning I could hear rain (I had been forced out of my bed and was in little M's bed) so went back to sleep thinking we wouldnt be going. But big M is made of sterner stuff and got up to check the weather for Northhampton and made us all get up because it wasnt supposed to rain over there (and we had to pre purchase tickets)! Frantic rush round to get ready and off in the car (still very sceptical about weather).
Rain dutifully stopped about half way to Kelmarsh hall and we were able to join the other 15,000 odd people in a cold and grey paddock. Watched a reenactment of the battle of Stamford Bridge (Vikings vs Saxons 1066) then the Ermine Street Guard came on to do some Roman drill at which the kids decided they wanted to go and look at something else...big M told me to stay and watch if I wanted and they would be back after the Roman bit was over. She had the Kids and coats, water and I gave them 10 pounds just in case (I had the lunch and picnic rug and most importantly the money). After the roman bit finished I watched some of the next thing (Romano British stuff) and started to get cold and bored so decided to wander off and find the others. 5 hours later I managed to find them (just in time to go home!) Bit of a miscalculation.
The weather here has pretty much reverted to English standard summer - lots of grey days with rain interspersed with brilliant sunshine. We have been doing evening walks along the river with the kids, and have even joined the canoe club - they have boats we can take out - so J and M are learning to paddle kayaks.

Hidden Royston

yesterday we went to Royston (about half and hour drive from here) to look at a fourteenth century Knights Templar chapel. It apparently dates from the suppression of the order, so is underground, dug into the chalk. The entrance was originally under a safe house at the cross roads, as was a smoke hole (the smoke from the chapel when in use would have gone into the house, but apparently nobody minded in those days!) It was rediscovered in the 18th century when the butter market was being built, the access was a steep and narrow shaft...a small boy was lowered with a rope to investigate. The bloke who lived over the way had some workmen dig a tunnel from his place into the cave so he could charge admission. This is how you get in today.
The 18th century tunnel
Original entrance shaft
Part of the roof of the cave was dug out when they built the old butter market so it had to repaired (so there wouldnt be a huge hole in the market!)
The lower part of the wall is covered with simplistic carvings of biblical and religious figures and Templar figures. Interestingly, in spite of claims this represents a geomantic structure eg it is under the crossroads, there is no evidence of carvings any older than the suppression of the templars and the cave is not now under the crossroads, and wasnt when it was built - it was under a house. The crossroads is quite interesting too - it is the junction of Ermine street and Icknield Way, both roman roads. There was a cross at the junction erected possibly by the wife of William The Conquerors steward and the base of this is on a plinth next to the road.

Wilde!

Just been to see The Importance of Being Earnest at Robinson College's outdoor theatre with the kids and some friends. Wonderfully overdone production and the kids loved it. J wandering around saying "In a Haaaaandbag" at every opportunity. Of course we were not sure what was funnier, the actors, or some of the audience, who were literally what one was seeing on stage! The accents, the intonation, the hand gestures......

Paris!

Afraid this is a posting without pictures, as R had the camera - see below! J and I set out for Paris on the Eurostar on a fairly warm day from Cambridge, and by the time we had taken the Parisian subway we were fairly cooked. We went with one of his school friends and his mum. Thankfully we had airconditioned rooms, wonderful hotel (Hotel Neuville Elysées) which I can highly recommend and on last minute.com was only 50quid a night per room. They even gave us bfast for 12 euro, which sounds a lot until you realise they didnt charge for the kids cos they were under 12, anyone who has seen J eat will realise this was a serious mistake on their part (each bfast for him was 2 bowls cornflakes, a muffin, 3 madelines and a hot chocolate, hollow legs I think!) Our first full day was Wednesday, which was 38 degrees and appallingly hot. The hotel was on a direct 10 minute no. 92 bus trip to Eiffel tower via Arc de Triomphe which was great - got to experience the full traffic horror of the Arc without driving it. Went up to the 2nd stage of the tower, only had to wait half an hour, but by time we got down the queue was really really really long. And it was so hot they were blowing water over the queue. So we went and lay on the lawns of Field of Mars for the next 3 hours - sprinklers were going, kids got SOAKED, but dried off in about an hour! After 3 pm walked round to the Rodin Garden which J really liked - he likes sculpture and even recognised some of those in the National Art Gallery in Canberra (maybe some of it does rub off!). Then a walk to look for a merry go round proved too much, so we bussed back to hotel to cool off. Dinner at a great Italian (I know, but pizza is one of the few things J's friend eats) restaurant where the quality was great. Off to bed. HUGE thunderstorm that night, very spectacular. As we were at the top of the hotel J was a little worried. Next day a bit cooler, but still fairly muggy. Off to cruise the river on the Batobus, first stop Musee D'Orsy to see the Van Gogh in particular, but J more taken with the Monet, and the sculpture again, even recognised the copies of the Rodin's from the previous day - glad its not all a complete goldfish mind in there! Back on the Batobus, J had had enough, no interest in Notre Dame so we just cruised past while the others went off to look etc. Bus back stopped half way for some unknown reason so we walked from Arc d'Triomphe which we both enjoyed, then some cooling off before dinner. That night we watched a Western on TV (novelty we dont have a TV - it was in English) which was good fun. Unfortunately I started to run a temp of about 40 deg that night which wasnt much fun. This is when you become thankful that you have another adult with you. Next day managed to get back to Eurostar (via a brief and grumpy stop at the Arc, deciding we didnt want to pay 8 euro each to go up it!) and finally back to Cambridge. Cab home and then to bed for several days. But feeling better now and back at work. So a successful trip in all - J keen to go again next year to see all the things he missed, think I would pick a cooler week, like this one perhaps!

Peaks Walking 2

For our second day of walking we drove over to Castleton...lots of limestone and caves. Lovely town with norman castle - just 50m from this cross you go through a narrow (4m wide) gorge that opens into a rising valley with limestone outcrops and cave entrances along it.

Little M almost didnt make it past the start line...she had picked up a flower in the town and when she asked me to carry it and I put it in a pocket it was squashed. Buckets of tears and she shot up the side of the gorge and wouldnt come down for about 10minutes.
In the end though the opportunity to clamber about the outcrops was more enticing that sitting up the hill hurling abuse at dad so we made our slow and tortuous way up the gorge. Another very hot day, but she did really well until we got out of the gorge and ran out of rocks to climb. She was bored spitless by the walk across the plateau through farmland, but didnt complain until just before we started heading downhill again...saved by the timely appearance of another limestone outcrop she could climb on.
We stopped for an icecream at Blue John cavern/mine and did the mine/cave tour. They mine a purple fluourspar called blue john in the natural caves of the area...apparently there are one or two bowls of peaks blue john of roman vintage in italy so it has been going on for a while! On the way down to the town again we stopped for every odd shaped rock, dead sheep, butterfly, piece of grass etc. Once again we were out for about 7 hours for a 6 mile walk. She says she had a good time and wants to go again (to subject her brother to the horrors of the peaks). M & J arrived back from Paris with big M running a temperature of 39, so the full story of their trip will have to wait until she is up and about again.

Peaks Walking 1

While big M and J went to Paris, R and little M went to the Peak district for a spot of walking. I think little M really wanted to do the south coast track in Tas, or maybe K2, but life is full of compromises! She has been very excited, we bought books on walks and campsites and she started hassling about packing at least a week before we left and putting aside things which she thought should go (important stuff like doggy, catty and rabbity) as well as trying on her boots and colour combinations for walking clothes.

The campsite at Upper Booth farm was really good - we could have done a weeks worth of walking straight from the tent without driving anywhere (although we did drive over to Castleton for our second days walking for some variety). Took a bit of finding...things like turn offs are not so well sign posted in the UK if you dont know all the little whistle stops on the way to your destination!

Once we had the tent up and located all the facilities we went for a 6 mile circuit walk - total height gained of about 500m. Not bad for 6 year old! Of course the M had to take her pack and the menagerie. If was really hot so it didnt take long for her to decide that dad would be better off carrying her pack (and animals).

She didnt go very fast at any point...except when she saw a rock or cliff she might climb on...but just kept moving a bit, resting a bit, moving a bit. It was hellishly hot until we got up onto the top of the Kinder Scout plateau, then we had a pleasant breeze. The final descent back to the campground went straight down a very steep grass slope for a couple of hundred metres. The track was deeply cut into the turf to about waist height in places (for me), and with the steepness it felt a bit like diving down a rabbit hole. I had a miserable time on the steep slippery surface (sore knees) but M, who was flagging a bit, just loved it. When we got to the bottom she wanted to go back and do it again! All up it took about 6 hours for the walk and we were both pretty tired and slept well.

CERF Summer Party

Another CERF summer party come and gone! Proponents of the bouncy castle won the argument over Bouncy Castle/Magician this year (again) and had a great time bouncing until they could hardly walk. Nicos wins the prize this year for entertaining the children, and should recover full use of his limbs in a relatively short space of time! They had a good go at pulling his arms off.
John finished the evening by making us all sing our national anthems - Australia, South Africa, Myanmar, Venezuela, Bolivia, China, Russia, Germany, Greece, Turkey, America, Portugal and England (he had to sing that himself).
No punting this year due to rain and all having a bit much champagne early on. Walked home across the common in very pleasant 21-22C temperatures at 10.30 at night (not really like being in england at all).

Heat Wave

Its been incredibly hot - hottest July day on record at 35 degrees yesterday and almost the hottest recorded day (which was 36.9). Its been 30+ all week and completely appalling as a result. Humidity is high and none of the housing is set up for it at all. No thick curtains, insulation not very good, no flow through ventilation, so by now all getting pretty grumpy and sick of it. Kids are almost finished school, last day tomorrow - sports day was of course yesterday (yes that was the hottest day on record for July of course). J won 3rd in grade 3 boys throwing the bean bag! All had a good time. This year of course we were in blue team (negating the nice red t-shirts mum had to buy for last year). If you want to see how the kids have grown turn to photos from sports day in July last year - the t-shirts are the same sizes! Its still pretty hot and light at 9:30 tonight, but the light is starting to go faster. J and I are off to Paris next week, while M and Dad go camping. Hopefully it wont be too hot - Monday is forecast to be 34 in Paris which doesnt sound good.

more wedding

Even mum and dad didnt scrub up too bad!!

Wedding

When Mum got back Mum and me and Dad went to a wedding. I was bridesmaid. I had loads of fun and the bride gave me a present from Hong Kong. The end.

Yarmouth

Beach English style. Mum has been away so time to catch up on the news. While Mum was away the kids went to Yarmouth. We had loads of fun and we dug a hole with J. We rolled in the sand when the water was too cold. The day was very hot. We went to a fishing museum.

Audley End

We went to Audley End house for an outing. Fabulous house owned by the Earls of Suffolk for a while and variously the royal family until it got too expensive to keep up then was given to the nation - you can see why its so big, and yet is apparently 1/4 of the original size. Children had a lovely time with dramatic slayings in the gardens!!

Big M been to NY this week which was great but exhausting, just 3 days, 24 hours travel and 48 hours there, its hard work! Good conference though. Went shopping at Macys but at 7pm decided that better go back to hotel in case I fell asleep in the shop (it being midnight UK time!). J had a play at school this week, he was the cockatoo in the mask!!

Elephants bums and fornicating snails

A busy weekend! On Saturday M took the kids to buy new shoes in Colchester and then on to the zoo to see elephants (for some reason the kids have been desperate to see elephants since we got to england). A big hit, they came home with a toy tiger each as apparently we do not currently have enough soft toys. R went for a couple of hours ride...M is off to the US for three nights next week so need to get some r&r in now!

Sunday wet and grey so of course this is the day little M decides she wants an adventure - specifically she wanted to go climbing. Managed to sell her the idea of walking around in the rain as an alternative and drove out to Devils Dyke. This one of a number of saxon ditch and mound structures (all of which seem to be called devils dyke) in this area. It runs 12 miles in a fairly straight line cutting across the line of no less than 3 roman roads. Apparently it was intended to keep the roman british at arms length in 600-700ad. Starts in a swamp and ends in forest/swamp. Masses of beautiful snails out and about...a number were observed to be reproducing. All got soaking wet and muddy so lots of fun.

Bank Holiday Long Weekend

Forget Paris and Eurodisney - we've been to Newark and the reenactment of the siege of 1646! Saturday was a quiet day pulling the wheels off the car to look at brake pads and a street bbq in Marlowe Rd at the back of the house. Beautiful day and evening, we fired up the barbie for the first time in the UK (it was far and away the biggest in the street). Sunday we drove up to Newark near Lincoln to see a reenactment of the siege of 1646. About 2 hours of 'are we there yet'.
Newark is a town which looks like it is a just a bit far from London...if it was an hour closer it would have been crawling with visitors but as it was the town centre was pretty much empty, everyone was at the reenactment at the castle, and even that wasnt too busy. Cannons do in fact roar loud...there were about 5 cannon banging away on and off all day and sporadic musketry to and from the castle. Usual displays of 17th century craft, food and military drill. J&M updated their sword collection - once again proving that you cant have too many swords! Renee came with us - last time we went somewhere with Renee was to another civil war reenactment in freezing rain, at least it didnt rain this time (not too much anyway!)

More holiday news

Time to finish the posting for the Easter term break. Last day on our journey to Charmouth we went to Maiden Castle, the largest intact hill fort in Britain, and boy is it impressive - they say about 50 football pitches inside. Really quite an impressive structure - kids particularly enjoyed rolling down the sides!! We drove back home uneventfully and had a relaxed weekend.

M went to see Bach's St Matthew's Passion at Kings Chapel and it was truly fabulous - 3.5 hours long and a very numb posterior by the end of it. Incredible performance though. Next year try for a better seat. Took the kids to London to the Natural History Museum, which they loved, it was INCREDIBLY crowded. In fact the calmest and least crowded place was the basement lunch room reserved for kids!! We didnt get to the dinosaurs part cos the line to get in to the animated dinosaurs was 1 hour long!!!!! Thankfully we were able to convince the kids that there are other things worth seeing. They were blown away by seeing the fossils of ichythasaurs collected from Charmouth and Lyme Regis where they had just been. Little M has adopted Mary Anning as a sort of heroine at the moment - way cool. She has got a whole heap of fossil and natural history books and pours over them - and makes me read her descriptions of types of rocks for her bedtime story. This is very boring for mother, but she thinks its fascinating. Obviously not a fairy story kid anymore, though has seen the Narnia video with a friend and thinks its the best ever. They started back at school today, which both were happy about, so onwards to the next break at the end of May. And the weather is finally improving so things are looking up!!

Easter break - part 2

Next day dawned gloriously sunny, though still fairly brisk! We drove down to Dorchester, which is a lovely town, and went to the 'world famous dinosaur museum' which was pretty good. Havent seen J so excited for ages - jumping around so much I doubt he looked at anything! Then on to THE BEACH. We had booked a caravan break for 4 nights but one doesnt get in until 4pm here, so we stopped at West Bay which is the first beach near where we were - all gravel of course, and R and the fossil hound went fossil hunting. A good time was had by all. Then on to Charmouth, which is one of the great fossil hunting beaches - and it was GOOD. Had everything, sand, sea, river, fossils.... and the sun shone (tho I doubt it got about double figures temperature wise the whole time we were there).

We had a great time finding fossils of ammomites and shells and looking in the mudslides and cliffs. We walked on the Cobb at Lyme. R and J walked back from Lyme Regis to Charmouth one day and while J skipped daintily across the mud, R SANK and only escaped by abandoning his shoes and crawling out. Unfortunately I have no pictures but it sounds pretty funny. J said he was going to write school holidays reports of My Dad Fell in the Quicksand - I cant wait!!

Easter Break - Part One

Well being fed up with the cold and dreary Cambridge term we decided to take off for a 5 day break. We have wanted to go to Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and Lyme Regis/Jurrasic Coast for a while so we decided to just do it. Weather on the drive down was pretty bad - we left on Sunday morning which is the only time to drive anywhere in this country, so we had a good run.
We got to Stonehenge in just over 2 hours (how do we know - cos the Audi has a REALLY ANNOYING feature of flashing 2hr at you repeatedly if you have been driving more than 2 hours - hope there is an override on this in Aust!!). Stonehenge was really impressive, as were the barrows surrounding, truly an amazing thing. Fairly packed with tourists, but not appalling - but then it was REALLY cold with a bitter wind. All photos show us cowering in the freezing wind, and then it started to rain so we scarpered. The kids were really impressed.

Next stop was Salisbury Cathedral - which on Sunday was free (donation anyway). Cathedral has amazing ceiling as well as other wonderful features. Kids loved all the amazing sculptures - including the death throes ones!!! Salisbury itself seemed a bit run down, and it was pouring with rain still so we went on through the
Salisbury plains looking for somewhere to stay. Tried one place, cheap but only a 3 bed room, no good - the next had 2x2bed but 180 pounds a night.... haha.... but just up the road found a lovely B&B in the old bakers - and added bonus it was opposite Nigel Mansell's old garage (for DD this is pictured - apparently Mansell used to land his helicopter in the field opposite and come over, as you do, the B&B owner used to like going over and looking at his cars - it was just outside Blandford Forum in Pimperne).