Abroad Susan Mary 2025

 The changeover from East Compton to Centre Parcs was easier (for me, at least) than I first anticipated… Hannah drove me the promised 20-25 minutes and we met up with cousin Steph and Ray’s son Richard and wife Sarah who drove me into the Lodge to meet up with Ray. Both twins Richard and Paul, and younger brother Russell came with their offspring  - Harrison, Cameron, Lottie, Mia, Matthew and Jack. Making a total of 12 of us, in 2 next door lodges. It was Ray’s birthday and the family had bought him an inside, professional putting green - we got him a chocolate cake, candles and all - sang the appropriate song and a he wore his large “It’s my birthday” badge with pride. The lodge is set amongst mature trees and on a variety of levels … has a number of different restaurants and shops … and more activities than I can remember - if I knew them all - and steps and slopes up AND down.  With that in mind, Ray had “serviced” and recharged the battery on a mobility scooter … for...

 All 4 of Rosemary and Philip’s girls have had an artistic “bent” and it appears to have permeated through to Hannah’s offspring. We went to the Hauser and Wirth art gallery and gardens yesterday - check out Google for more details - suffice to say Hannah is looking at her the garages and sheds with new interest after seeing some of the work on display.                                        Hannah, sitting in front of one of the exhibits, above the bar. On our return to East Compton, discussion around the kitchen table led to a far more amazing glimpse of the sort of work produced by my great nieces and nephew - though George wasn’t quite so forthcoming with his work.  (but he DID allow me to hear a small portion of a guitar piece he is writing, as I passed his bedroom door.) It all started with Alice saying she had copied a photograph of me sometime ago.  Let the exhibiti...

 Two celebrations in one day seems a bit excessive, but celebrate we did.  The birthday girl had made her own birthday cake and the family at large had prepared salads fit for a king, laid a very attractive table and generally been “ready to party” immediately.  It is hard to believe that 3 years have passed since she and her friend Izzy came to stay with me at the end of their gap year travels … Izzy graduated the previous day for the first of several scheduled degrees and it was lovely to meet her proud parents at last. Emilia, now 22, continues with her studies - far too clever and artistic for me to explain … but yesterday I sat in the kitchen with her while she produced an animated invitation for Rosemary’s birthday in September which involved a surfer, surfboard and iron - the latter of which travelled through the air and landed on front of the board.  She explained the intricacies of her work - which apparently will end up as 12 individual ‘invites’ - and rath...

I forgot to mention, yesterday, that we enjoyed another very nice pub meal while we were out and visited an small village ((Hambleden?) where according to my travel guide, several Miss Marple performances have been filmed. I made the mistake of speaking to one elderly gentleman, sitting in his garden - just a cheery “hullo” I thought - but in true Miss Marple style, he quickly picked up “an accent” and Keith left me to get out of that one, alone. “ Much ado” was an entertaining evening.  Somehow the “Dad’s Army” characters were weaved into the performance - an amateur group who remembered their words and played their parts well.   I DID wear my hearing aids but perhaps that was one of the occasions when I shouldn’t have!  The singers started out well … but left a bit to be desired as the evening went on.  Still, an enjoyable evening out with an ice cream at half time. TUESDAY 22nd Impressively, Keith was ready on the dot of 9.30 am as promised and we made our way to ...

SUNDAY Yesterday, Mandy and I wiled away the day together while Keith went to the Isle of Wight with a group of U3A friends.  We had a “pub lunch” together and I chatted to a couple of locals … of the four legged variety … while Mandy spent her time far more intellectually and found out why two lads came in muddy and dripping (there was a very welcome downpour while they were playing rugby and neither had brought a change of clothing), ordered our meals and we generally put the world to rights.   By the time we left, the rain had dried up and we went back to her house - where son George was drying out his golf clubs and bag, plus clothes - for a very similar reason. It HAS been very dry and until then everyone’s grass had been turning a lighter shade of hay - but another downpour overnight has done the trick and the gardens (and most grass) is looking much happier.  I haven’t found it unbearably hot, but many of the locals have. Meanwhile Keith and his friends hardly saw ...

The bbq and spatchcock chicken- 3rd July Mandy (Philly’s younger sister) and Vicky My heroes - without them I would never have got photos on here. How was I to know that I should put new internet details on my phone as well as my iPad each time I move on?                                          The missing mole hill from “Chiddingstone - July 11th”                              Sorry to have made such a mountain over trying to get it on the blog. 😉 Ingrid, John and Emma (and Charlotte) mentioned in 16 July blog                                       The beginning of Thomas’ designer Easter egg bag (16 July) Here they are!  Bold as brass in the women’s section of M & S (also 16 July blog) Pre show lunch with ...

 I don’t think I’ve ever sat on such hard aeroplane seats before.  25 hours total flying made even the (provided) undersized cushion next to useless.  And I was glad I had decided on my thick jersey plus polo neck as travelling attire because the (also provided) see-through blanket didn’t raise the temperature by much. But the very best thing DID occur - Karen G had let me know that her grandson, Corey, was on the same flight with his mum.  They were en route to Copenhagen.  I did accost a wrong, “qualifying” lad at Christchurch airport, but after we landed in Singapore (with a 5 hour - for me - and 6 hour (for them) layover) who should be standing at the end of my row, but Kelly and Corey.   So we (well, at least I did) had a lovely 4+ hours together exploring the overground train and a couple of other terminals, and the disappointing butterfly house, a coffee bar plus three or four different toilets.  It’s something I never would have done alone - an...

 “Six” was an amazing show - though I didn’t really need my hearing aids.  We went to the 4 pm performance - “absolutely packed” with an equally loud/appreciative audience.  Six “girls” with great voices telling their “divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded - survived” stories in song.  Quite funny in places (No 2 seemed a bit upset she’d been beheaded).  They were all on the stage from start to finish, plus four female musicians (I think .. “how can you tell”?, in Caroline’s words, “when they’re in the shadow, and have long hair.”)   But it was a lovely outing with crowds of people everywhere.  I could get used to this life of fun and generosity. We went back “home” in a crowded train - where a very kind young man gave up his seat for us and an equally kind youngish lady swapped, so we could sit together - I think a NZ accent and grey hair is quite useful in such circumstances and we didn’t complain. And so, for a couple of hours, we DID stop ta...

It’s been a busy time since I last wrote … some of which has been spent trying to get photographs on to the blog (unsuccessfully).  I DID find the photo of the bbq I mentioned (3 July) … but it refuses to appear here. And yesterday, during a quick visit to Marks and Spencer, I stumbled across “Bum enhancing shorts” which cried out to be photographed,  but is now stubbornly waiting in the wings until I can find a 4th, patient tutor to sort me out again.   No - I couldn’t believe it, either!! I’m sitting up in bed writing this … now staying with Caroline.  Her dad and my mum were cousins - both “only children” - so, by our reckoning, we are 2nd cousins.  On the other end of that “branch” is the un-cuz Sevenoaks family … but we are all related to mutual “cousins” in the middle.  I trust you are now just as confused as I am but meanwhile I’m enjoying claiming all and sundry.  There’s another branch in Wales (dad’s side) that I’ve always claimed as well - I...

 Nick, Di and I went on an expedition yesterday.  We ended up in Chiddingstone … which I recall visiting in the 1970’s with the “mutual rellies” mentioned in yesterday’s blog … though on that occasion we just had afternoon tea and returned to Sevenoaks. This time however, we visited Chiddingstone Castle - which started life as a “house” (manor, I think, really) but later had turrets added.  The owner, Denys Bower, left it to the National Trust who turned it down - so it is now run as a charity and is used for weddings and similar gatherings and nosey visitors like us. Nick read everything “going” and relayed it to Di and me, so we now know that our Denys spent time in prison, had an eclectic range of interests and collections (including a room full of Buddhist memorabilia), 3 wives (one lasting 6 weeks) and died in his bedroom, which may or may not have contained a single sized four poster bed … or may have been one of the rooms we didn’t have access to. It also had tearo...

 Sevenoaks: Swimming pool, tennis court, enough room for soccer/cricket and that’s just the BACK garden - a nosey squirrel 🐿️ a baby rabbit 🐇 and three dive bombing rooks. Julia and Di hating having their photos taken in the conservatory.              At St Julian’s Country Club with Julia’s mum and dad (Alan and Christine Bumstead) And the promise of a bbq this evening with Christine’s sister, Jill and Tom - so much for skipping lunch and eating smaller portions. By the time I go back home, hopefully I will have remembered that every time I forget to take something downstairs, I have to climb at least one flight of stairs to retrieve them.   Meanwhile, I keep telling myself that the exercise will do me good - but my middle hasn’t got the memo, yet. Christine has always called me her “un-cuz”.  Our mothers, both called Joan,  branched from different sides of the family tree, and were great friends, through mutual cousins, in their...

 It’s been a lovely three days of catch up and adventures. On Sunday, Rachel’s daughter, Kitty, arrived.  She has a birthday a couple of days after mine and so we had a combined birthday celebration - champagne, sparklers and 🎶 the appropriate song.  We were joined by Gabriel (my youngest niece) and the 3 men in her life and we went down to a local restaurant for yet another delicious meal (pork belly for me).                                            Kitty standing outside Philip and Rosemary’s house                          (L to R) Dean, Philip, his sister, Kitty, Nye and Idris, Rosemary, Gabriel. On Monday, Kitty, P, R and I went for a lovely walk through Cirencester Park (Earl Bathurst Estate) featuring, amongst other things, polo grounds (where Princes William and Harry and their father occas...

 Ray took me to Cirencester in time for lunch.  I was swept inside by Rosemary, while Philip tried to convince Ray to stay for lunch, but with Maggie 🐕 waiting for him at home, Ray drove straight back - an almost 3 hour round trip … but evidently Maggie was pleased to see him on his return.  The previous day, I took this photo of her, whilst awaiting Ray’s return from putting petrol on the car in preparation for today’s trip - upstairs and looking straight down the cul-de-sac, leaving her time to innocently be waiting at the front door when he came in. So in the afternoon we three walked into the village to see an exhibition … which we then found out is being held NEXT weekend.  But it was lovely re-acquainting myself with the very pretty shopping area and finishing up in an also familiar coffee shop for a cuppa. While we were out, Rosemary posted a letter to her sister in NZ and was shocked to learn that a recent postal rate rise meant that a very normal airmail en...

Some of the cows that aborted the afternoon stroll  3 Parry boys with their godmother and partners - leaving to join their Contiki Tour.  I was taller than them once upon a time It would be nice to get back in order with this blog but just getting on the page is an achievement on its own.  Tomorrow I think I might be nearer to people who can sort me out I hope - but no promises.  It all started out so smoothly … I don’t quite understand where it all fell apart, though probably a quick look in a mirror would answer that question. After the majority of the guests had left, Philly, Mandy, Keith and Les went for a walk across the paddocks but returned fairly quickly when some of the cows took too much interest in them.  Instead we got ready to join the owner of the Manor House (a friend of Keith’s) for a BBQ meal.  4 spatchcock chickens and left over salads.  I guess at some stage I will find the photo of the charcoal bbq but don’t hold your breath.  ...

 AND I did it all on my own!  But let’s just admit that the proof is in the pudding … I won’t risk too much effort right now, but …