Lilliput Lane

Stainton… It was lovely to stay in the old Brantwood B&B again, not only are the rooms comfortable the food is superb and it’s comforting to go back to a place we know after the long drive up the M1.

First thing Monday morning and we head off to Lilliput Lane, I was worried there would be some secret holiday or something that would keep me away from seeing how they made the little houses I collect!! (I have 103 at home)… but no, we not only had a lovely browse in the Visitor Centre called Honeysuckle Cottage, which is an authentic life-sized thatched cottage we had a wonderful tour of the whole place… check here if you would like to see more. http://www.lilliputlane.co.uk/

I did manage to spend some pounds on four little houses that aren’t available unless you go to the Honeysuckle Cottage and have enjoyed playing with them a couple of times since… this is one of the highlights of the trip, I enjoyed it enormously.

Heading West from Penrith we are now in Yorkshire and the Moors, what a spectacular sight it is and how different each area is from one corner to the next, firstly we drive through Herriot Country and see Aysgath where they filmed 'All Creatures Great and Small'… every corner we turn we are reminded of the show… it is really very beautiful and so carefully looked after…there is some seriously good farming going on here.

Now we are off to Kirby Malzeard, which is the home of our dear daughter-in-law Emma.

M1

Sunday I discovered Castle Howard closes on the 6th of November so we drop everything and head ‘Up North’… I really want to see Castle Howard, the setting for Brideshead Revisited. The M1 is three lanes of heavy traffic heading North as well as 3 lanes of heavy traffic heading South… it takes me a while to realize it’s the end of Mid Term Break and school is back tomorrow. Driving is difficult as it begins to rain and with the speed everyone is going a fine fog like mist covers the road.

We decide it’s time for morning tea and are not… no way… never… going to go into one of those roadside-rip-off-rest-stops so take the signs into Rugby and look out for a nice little English Tea House… NOPE!! Nothing is open so we drive past Rugby College with our mouths open at the sight of the beautiful buildings but head straight back to the M1 and forget about morning tea. Lunchtime arrives and we’re sure there will be a wonderful pub in Stafford so once again get off the M1… NOPE!! Pubs are open but none of them do lunch… we are beginning to wonder if it’s just us and our lack of knowledge at not being able to find that cosy little pub serving the typical English Lunch! Back on the M1 and the decision is now to try a roadside-rip-off-rest-stop.

We order our hot meals and sit down… mine is chicken and not edible, David devours his ‘All Day Fried Breakfast’ with relish then reads a sign that says if not entirely satisfied your money back and that is just what he does… he takes my meal back and we not only get our money back for the inedible chicken we get our whole bill back which totals over $15… and I buy a Snickers Bar J

The Exit to Leyland is coming up so we dive off just in case we can spot any sign of the factory that built the bus David is restoring in our Garage at 333 and yes there is not only parts of the factory left there is a wonderful museum in the Leyland Bus Body Final Inspection Department full of not only Leyland vehicles but every other make as well… so we spent the better part of two hours pottering about.

Here is a photo of a Leyland Steam Lawn Mower and a Tilling Stevens Petrol - Electric Bus.

Scotty & Lulu

David and I head off to Sussex, Tom is going to Derbyshire with the Three Waiters, Emma is teaching a dance class with Abigail Rose in the morning and has tickets to see Scotty and Lulu, who are friends of hers in the afternoon... so we will catch up with the girls in East Grinstead at 2:30pm.

We decided to try the M25 as a way of avoiding some of the London Saturday traffic, we didn’t avoid traffic and it took us 3 hours to get to Henfield in West Sussex. Firstly we searched for our first home, which was a converted stables in the grounds of Henfield House… nothing looked familiar in the back streets of Henfield but we think we found the house but where are the stables??? Off to one of the Local Pubs, The Red Lion, for lunch and to ask what has happened to Henfield House, not even a 40 year long resident knows but he says to come back and find the old Post Mistress… we promise to do just that but have to rush to East Grinstead after lunch.

Scotty and Lulu are English guys who do a children’s show, they are well known in Hong Kong and are getting a name for themselves here in England. Jackson Harry is lucky to have been given a video of one of their concerts in Hong Kong and is they’re biggest and probably they’re only Aussie Fan…. I felt rather mean going to see them without him so here are some photos for you my darling little boy... I bought you a new DVD and a T-shirt so check your mail box soon.
Queen Scotty and Lulu
Only one Humpty was needed but four adorable little people walked up on stage, here are the last two.

Look how happy Abigail Rose is at finding she has her own seat! She loved the show but wanted to be up on stage as well... I wonder where she gets that from??
Here is Lulu, Kem (one of Scotty's 6 children), Scotty, Abigail Rose and Pennie.... and what's this??? who is that in the Background??? He wasn't allowed in the photo because he preferred to go for a walk than see the show!

Edmonton for Beginners

A few weeks ago when we were about to move into Moselle Avenue, Pennie and Tom went to IKEA. That sounds simple, and back they came with kitchen utensils, tea towels some Swedish cookies and some household gear. Pennie wanted some Tupperware type things to store food, but when they made it home the water jug was cracked, and it
was obvious the whole lot was really more like Chinese takeaway material. Discussion ensued as to whether to brave the trip to Edmonton again and negotiate the vast acreage of the store. The stuff had cost all of £4.99: 12.50 dollars.

Adventure and exploration of London being the name of the game, I had no trouble deciding to set off for Edmonton by bus, from Lordship Lane, as close as the end of Tom's road. The 144 bus for Edmonton arrived and I asked if it went near an IKEA store ; no said the driver, he went up Great Cambridge Road. Not wanting to seem too
stupid, I took that at face value, and waited for the 444. The driver said no he didn't go near IKEA, but the lady in the front seat said yes, they went near IKEA.

After some time and much winding down some very tight streets I could see nothing like a landmark or familiar name, so asked a young woman who said, just over the next two rises was a huge Tesco on the right: get off there. I did and so did a Chinese girl.We walked towards the store together, and mindful of the dirty old man syndrome I said nothing until she seemed as lost as I was, so I said are you looking for IKEA? She was, so we hunted together for a pedestrian entrance to the motorist-oriented retail wilderness. I was intrigued to find a well-spoken Chinese girl here, so I asked where she was from: China and here to study at the London School of Economics. Far East Asians are not common here: when the British say Asian they mean from southern Asia: Pakistan, India, the sub-continent mainly.
At the store we parted ways: she went upstairs, I entered the warehouse downstairs, a place the size of the Sydney Cricket Ground if not larger, but found I was where you buy a whole houseful of windows, or a kitchen, and load it into your truck or wagon. Upstairs is where you find the Klokkus, the Billys, Tigglas, the Bloggos, and it is so vast that they just give you a white line on the floor to follow. Any plans you have for going straight to the right hand back corner have to be scrapped, but there are hopeful shortcuts offered from time to time, which serve to lose you in wardrobes, or bedding with no hope of finding the white line again. I asked two staff if they ever found dead bodies, of people who have been lost for days and simply laid down behind a couch to die. I was most gratified that they creased up laughing and said they'd never looked under the beds.
A shortcut said 'Restaurant and Cafe'which was most attractive at this stage, but best of all the Returns counter was right nearby. Also near was a stock of Swedish delicacies: cookies, tinned goods, and 'Glogg' in wine bottles: no doubt the origin of our word Gloggy.
A nice young Irishman took my pathetic £4.99 Return, and said he could only offer an instore voucher, or a credit to my Visa. So it had cost me £1.20 each way in the bus, we lose 1.5% on the credit card transaction, and a coffee (awful) in the cafeteria, so the return on the undertaking was pretty minimal. BUT I have been to Edmonton, which many on this planet cannot claim.

North Turramurra to North London…

Photos of our London home can be found here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbin/

Our home in Turramurra… is large and comfortable on a large block of land with not only garaging for 3 cars but room for a Double Decker Bus as well, then there’s the pool and the tennis court… family and friends have been heard to describe it as the ‘Bobbin Head Resort! It’s close to Ku-ring-gai National Park in one of the most Conservative suburbs of Sydney; we have a wonderful Village Shopping centre only a walk away with the City of Sydney a 30 min drive to the South. Three of our four children, their partners and our grandson live close by with my parents, brothers and their families only one-hour north.

A lot of people exclaimed in horror when they heard that we were going to live in Britain during the winter months but they had to agree with us that if anyone visited Britain solely for the weather they were bonkers… in fact the weather has been absolutely wonderful so far - with mostly dry sunny mild to hot days, crisp nights some cloud and some rain as well.

We’ve come back to live in Britain to meet our beautiful Granddaughter and to spend time with her and her parents as well as catching up with long time friends.

Several times we’ve thought ourselves mad for renting a tiny Terrace House in tightly packed North London and thought longingly of a cottage in Surrey or Sussex similar to where we’ve lived before… but NO… we are here primarily to be near Tomos, Emma and Abigail Rose.

In 1968 we were married in Guildford, Surrey our first home being a charming converted stables called Henfield Cottage in the grounds of Henfield House. The Cottage was small, comfortable with wonderful views of the Sussex Downs and we wondered why the only heater was attached to the inside of the built-in-wardrobe… in winter most walls ran with moisture so that’s why! In 1977, the second time we lived in England we bought a largish 3 bedroom Semi-detached house in Guildford, which we enjoyed renovating.

Our Home in Wood Green… is in an Estate called ‘Noel Park’ the homes were built in the 1880’s & 90’s for Artisans and Workers working on Alexandra Palace, it’s a sort after area in Wood Green consisting of Terrace houses smaller than ours as well as some much larger with everything in between. Noel Park is a bell shape bordered by the busy Shopping area on the High Street, then Westbury Avenue and Lordship Lane… don’t you just love that one… Lordship Lane! Lordship Lane! Rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? There are signs everywhere of the Blitz, not rubble and so on but gaps where newer but similar homes have been built.

David just paced it out… in the little part of Moselle Avenue where we live there are 16 homes just on our side of the street which is 60 metres long. That means we could put 8 similar homes along the front of '333'

Every Road and Avenue in Noel Park has many road bumps and stop signs… I counted 11 Bumps and 9 Stops from Tom’s home to ours and we are barely one kilometre away. The Area is very quiet as you may expect with so many bumps and is a much favoured area for Learner Drivers… of course the streets are lined both sides with parked cars but like Tom’s they don’t go out much, it’s easier to walk or take public transport. I say very quiet… which a tiny lie, because you do hear Police or Ambulance Sirens on the major roads, as well as car alarms but basically it’s very peaceful. Wood Green isn’t an area most people would aspire to live in but I think it is a hidden gem and Tom and Emma had a lucky find especially seeing they back onto a nice little park. They will sell up eventually and either move out further to a larger home and garden or stay in this close to the City, whatever they do they do need a home with a little more room.


Living in a 3.5m wide two up and two down house in a very racially mixed North London is quite a change. There are two small bedrooms upstairs, the larger one has two single beds up tight together… on David’s side of the bed is a chair for his bedside table and with the help of some cardboard, he’s managed to attach a reading lamp borrowed from Tom and Emma… I have the box the microwave came in covered with two blue and white British Quilt Guild tea towels, there is only space left to walk around the bed I can’t imagine trying to fit in any other furniture. The smaller bedroom is our dressing room; we have a borrowed mirror, borrowed shelves for our smalls, our suitcases and a low ironing board with iron plus a hanging rack for our shirts etc.

Downstairs we have two small living rooms that have been opened up with glass doors but no latches, in the first room we have our TV sitting on the coffee table given to us by ‘Kenny’, plus one two seater couch and one arm chair bought from second hand shops… I washed the covers and wiped down all the other surfaces using a damp cloth and lavender oil, which not only smells good, it improves the look as well. The box the TV came in I covered with a bed cover lent to me by Emma and it now makes the prefect table to keep my hand sewing plus a snack or two! The second living room holds the Fridge and the scary, scary stairs which David thinks have been put in back to front… coming down stairs to the Loo in the middle of the night is a picture I won’t spoil your image of us with… suffice to say the thought of a chamber pot doesn’t sound too bad some nights!

The old kitchen and bathroom have been totally gutted and rebuilt with a dining room off them, this has been made by enclosing what was once open space and turning it into a light bright room with a glass Green House type roof, it’s brilliant for light, air and receiving the sun and it’s a pleasure to eat our meals, read and write up Blogs. French Doors open out to a small terrace and garden but there’s not much privacy… you’d have to be brave to go in for nude sun baking! I guess our little house would sell for about £200,000.00 ($A473,960.00) just to give you an idea of the area.

The owner of our London home is M. Sadik who’s off sider is the infamous ‘Kenny’ they remind me of an Australian Comedy team called ‘Dodgy Brothers Incorporated’ The house is newly renovated and mostly done really well and tastefully but I think they must have lost interest with the finishing touches so here’s the list of things that amuse us…

Doors and Windows.
All are brand new and double-glazed which makes for a very cosy feeling… Kenny lost the keys just days before we moved in so had to get new locks, he didn’t take off the whole handles then the locks he cut though the handle plate very roughly which makes opening and locking the doors a hazard for ones fingers plus the whole thing almost falls apart in your hands if you aren’t careful… but they work!! I managed to get myself locked out the other day, thankfully Nancy, our left side neighbour is young and keen and climbed over the fence to the open back door for me! The Windows are all smeared with little bits of cement and tar from who ever was working outside… I’ve cleaned all the downstairs windows but aren’t game to try the upstairs ones.

Blinds.
There are four rooms that have Wooden Venetian Blinds on the windows… only one room has blinds that actually fit the windows and that’s our bedroom. The dressing room blind is too narrow, the living room has two blinds on one window, they are not long enough and the two together are too wide. The dining room French doors have a blind each but they also aren’t long enough by at least 50cm! I think they must all be the same size blinds but no one checked if the doors and windows all measured the same.

Cement and Tar.
In every room on every floor and on every surface there are little bits of cement, tar and in some cases bubbling oceans of insulation foam that’s been pushed into the sashes around the windows.

The Bathroom.
Has no cabinet, no mirror and no power outlet for even a shaver. It is tiled up to the edges but if there was a gap they just filled it with filler not tiles, the pipes and toilet outlet has been boxed in… well sort of boxed in!

Smoke Alarm-s!
Just thinking about using the toaster had the Alarm in the Kitchen deafen us with it’s noise and no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t shut the thing up even when David dismantled it, it kept going. Next time we thought about using the toaster the Alarm went off again but hang on we’d dismantled it!!! Aaaahhh there was another Alarm in the living room with the stairs!!! By this stage we are feeling a little guilty about having taken both alarms off and a little stupid for not noticing there were two of the things but hey we could not only think about using the toaster we did use it without noise!! Then… you knew this story had a bite in the tail didn’t you!! At around 2am about one week ago, after both Alarms were safely in a cupboard, I was sleepily staggering down the stairs as is my middle of the night wont when I looked up and there blinking at me at the top of the stairs on the small landing ceiling was yet another Smoke Alarm… we’ve let this one stay because it not only lets us think about using the toaster it actually lets us toast!!

Central Heating.
Is wonderful and in every room, David has almost mastered the Boiler which is in the first living room… he has no instructions but after much trial and error and a phone call to a very helpful young girl has got both the heating and the hot water working at once. Postscript… we can’t get hot water into the bathroom till all the radiators heat up… Kenny is coming tonight!

Cars.
We think we’re pretty posh buying a Peugeot, we know they aren’t the most prestige of cars but we reckon they’re pretty cool… for one mad moment I worried about it being parked out on the street and not necessarily in front of our home till I decided to take note of the other cars parked in the same street… right in front of our Pug Estate was a much newer grander Peugeot Estate then there were another three Peugeots, three Mercedes, one Audi, one Jaguar, two BMW, two Citroens and a couple of other nice looking cars all in 60 metres. Gave me a giggle it did!

P.S. Noise….
Since we moved in here, at the beginning of this month, Fireworks have been going off before dark and several times during the night… till way past midnight, there are some shops selling nothing but fireworks, all this for Guy Fawkes night which is not until November the 5th!! Tom says they will go on for weeks after the 5th as well.

Shopping.
The High Street has everything you could possibly want with the addition of markets on weekends which mostly sell fruit and vegetables, but our closest shops on Lordship Lane :-), are the best… the TFC (Turkish Food Market) has good vegetables, fruit, cheeses, bread made upstairs, all sorts of Baklavas and Sweets, a whole section of Olives in jars as well as from the fresh section! The butcher section sells only chicken, lamb and all sorts of offal from these animals, the cuts of meat are different to anything I’ve ever seen, the leg being enormous and they don’t sell lamb shanks! Actually now I come to think of it I haven’t been able to find shanks anywhere! Today I bought a 3.25kg leg of lamb for £16.50 ($A39.10), I asked them to cut it into three so right now there are two bits in the freezer and one cooking! YUM!
Just up from the Turkish is the Portuguese Supermarket/Café who’s Custard Tarts are almost a daily requirement for us… well at least a couple of times a week.

Happy Anniversary....

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary to our Darling Nerys and Tim... 10 years??? Yes indeed, it doesn't seem that long ago that they were married here in England at the same place that David and I were married 37 years ago Artington House, the Guildford Register Office.

They celebrate this event just after some wonderful news... Jackson Harry is to have a little brother or a little sister, the 12 week scan shows everything is going along smoothly and our new baby will be born next April which will give us time to get home, settle in and get ready for a new Grandchild... How exciting :-)))

Double Congratulations Nerys and Tim, we will toast you in Real Ale and Diet Coke at Tom and Emma's tonight.

David has found his way into the blog

An occasional Diary from an interested observer on the sidelines

I am in awe of London's public transport---I have taken to simply
setting out some mornings, walking 100 yards to Lordship Lane, or 1km to the High Street buses and Wood Green tube and going exploring.
For £3 I can buy an all-day pass and go anywhere in London's vast
area by red bus. Or for another £2.20 I can make it an all day ticket
on bus and tube. You see more by bus: the tube has an element of
mystery---you look at the the station name, Caledonian Road, say, but
you have no idea where it is or who is there 150 feet above you, but from the
top of a 91 bus you learn a lot, and see a lot of good pubs where you
can leap off, race in for a half pint of Fuller's London Pride, and
emerge to catch the next bus which will appear every 4-6 minutes on
busy routes or at worst every 15 minutes.
Next, to The Bloomsbury for a Bloomsbury Platter (bread cheese
olives radishes salami) and a half of Spitfire, or Old Speckled Hen or
Marston's Premium for 80p or £1. The Wetherspoon Free Houses chain is
having a Real Ale Festival from October 31, at £1.59 for a pint of any
of 50 "guest ales", real ales brought in from all round the country.
The Routemasters (RMs), red, half-cab, rear platform, crew-of-two
double deckers, are still running on three routes-the 38 from Victoria Station near Buck House to Clapton Pond a seedy, inner east suburb next to the marshland of Hackney and Stratford (where the 2012 Olympics site will be built). Time to buy up property in Hackney? And the 13 from Aldwych near BBC House and the Strand, North West to Swiss Cottage and Golders Green (quite salubrious). And 159 from Marble Arch (very grand) south across Westminster Bridge to Brixton (very rough) and Streatham Station, past The Oval Kennington. All the routes by accident or design, pass through Piccadilly Circus, so they are on full show to tourists, despite the sadly run-down condition of these amazing buses. (Their private operators are not going to spend heaps on a bus which will leave service within a year or so). There is huge community outcry (on the TV the other night) at their removal so there may be a reprieve in the form of one or two routes, aimed at tourists. I'll keep you
posted.
Enfield Lock sounded romantic-- I imagined a tree-lined canal, the tow path, and most critically, a pub, the Jolly Boatman perhaps. The 121 bus goes up Wood Green High Street, and its destination is Enfield Lock. As we moved north, virtually following above ground along the line of our tube, to Oakwood and Southgate, and then east to Enfield Chase through fields and rolling hills, past The Jolly Farmers on the right. But Enfield itself was bad----railways motorways huge Tescos and being mid-term there were hordes of bored school kids in packs moving around the
shops, piling on and off the bus.
Enfield Lock is at the end of Ordnance Road, a hint that there might
have been a munitions dump there. Or more likely, as it slowly dawned
on me, it was the home of the Lee Enfield .303 rifle: (the River Lee, or Lea
is why the lock is there). So the place was probably where millions of
Lee Enfields were manufactured to equip the British army and the
ANZACs in WWI. Now the whole area , an island in the swamps of the
river, is a gigantic low rise council housing estate devoid of soul, and trees, and pubs, but no doubt better than what the munitions men left behind.
So, back to Enfield Chase and The Jolly Farmers for lunch. I ordered a half of McMullens Bitter and the barmaid, quite cheerfully, said "flounce"---I am fairly good with languages and accents, and I knew from her earlier utterances she was London, east End. I was struck dumb by 'flounce', then had to ask "what did you say?". If you say 'ennyfing eowlse' very quickly, Eastender style, it sounds like flounce, instead of 'anything else'. So I ordered chilli beans (beef was off) and fresh bread, and a half of Banks's bitter---a guest ale bought in on tap for a short time only which the young rather we-behind-the -ears barman said was 'quite good' even though he's not a bitter drinker'. that should have been a warning--it wasn't much different to a lager and not nearly bitter enough for the new me. I'm getting spoiled rotten with the unimaginable number of real cask ales available here. the country divides on this issue; there are the lager men on Stella, Skol, Fosters, 1664, Carling, and the ale (bitter) drinkers who have far more choice depending on the area where the pub is located. I haven't come all this way to waste my money on Fosters.
Our local tube, the Piccadilly Line is briliant. A train every five mins from Wood Green (near us) or Turnpike Lane (near Tom and Emma) and you are in central London in 30 mins. This line is underground all told for nearly an hour, from Bounds Green in the north to west of Hammersmith en route to Heathrow, and its just mindboggling at a big station like Kings cross/St Pancras where 5 lines intersect, all on different levels and you change trains by diving up and down steps and escalators. I do wonder sometimes how the drivers don't have trouble with vitamin D deficiency: not enough sunlight.

Cheers Pennie & David

Email:- penniedavid@gmail.com
Blog:- http://penniedavid.blogspot.com/

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Anzac Biscuits

Oh No! we are in a pickle now, I decided to make a batch of Anzac biscuits for the Kurdish neighbors who gave us the box of grapes last week. I thought it was meaningful that biscuits that were first made for Soldiers serving in WW1 including Turkey, should be made by me as a thank you for the Grapes... but that night there was a knock on the door and there holding 4 Turkish home made Pizzas was Cetin. Oh No! As Emma says what will I bake for them now. The Pizzas were just delicious with a thin base, spread with minced beef and herbs... Yummo!

Mervyn (Ginge) Church.

Sunday I drove for the first time in London… no where near the Central Zone where they charge you a Congestion Fee of 8 pounds... but through the Blackwall Tunnel to Eltham, where our old friend Ginge lives. Traffic was light and if I didn't have a navigator who shouted at me for not crossing over three fast moving lanes at one seconds notice I might have been happier... it was later agreed, by those in the know, that there is very little notice on that particular intersection so it wasn't my fault. Anyway a detour of 10 miles is nothing in the scheme of things is it??

We met Ginge 32 years ago when he and his friends drove a London Bus to Australia, it was spotted by our neighbour when parked in the Lane Cove Caravan park… and being not only lovers of most things English we were also the new owners of a Sydney Double Decker bus so David, a 9 month old Nerys and myself took off to introduce ourselves to these mad Poms. One of the lads later met and married an Aussie and they live near us in Sydney… Hello Pete and Kathy…

Ginge has been a great help to Tom and Emma with advice and help with the renovations of their bathroom and kitchen so it was good to catch up with him and his lovely lady Marie and her daughter Natalie, all of whom played a major part in the preparation of our delicious lunch. How lovely it is to be able to catch up with dear old friends like Ginge.

Another 306.

Last week, after checking the Internet… Tom and David drove up to Birmingham to look at a 2001 Peugeot 306 Estate that sounded very good. On Friday David caught the train and drove our new car home.

It is a lovely dark green car and with the addition of a few luxuries is almost exactly the same as the little 306 XT I sold just before we left Australia… they haven’t changed them much. I sold my 8 year old hatchback 306 for $A8,500.00 and only paid $A8,094.00 for this bigger part leather seats, CD player, 4 year old 306 Estate! I wonder why cars are so cheap here when so many other things are so much more expensive!

Romsey

Tuesday we caught the tube to Waterloo for the train to Winchester, (Tim’s old home town). From Winchester we caught a bus to Romsey and were met by my SCQuilter friend Gay Jenkins. Gay has lived in or near Romsey for many years but spends almost 3 months each year in Australia because her daughter and family live in Sydney and that is how we met a couple of years ago.

Romsey in Hampshire is the most delightful country town and we look forward to taking up Gay’s offer of further visits while she is in Sydney, we are really looking forward to exploring the beautiful countryside and maybe making a visit to Broadlands, the home of the late Earl of Mountbatten.

We enjoyed two days packed with not only wonderful hospitality but delicious home grown home cooking (Gay has an allotment where she grows just about every vegetable and fruit possible) and a trip in the countryside taking in the only water driven mill left in the world. PLUS Quilts, Quilts and more Quilts, it was so lovely to check out lots and lots of Gay's quilts that I'd never seen before, we didn't sew a stitch but it was very special sleeping in the sewing room. Thanks Gay.

This photo was taken from Gay's Terrace, I love the glimpse of beautiful old slate roofs before the view of the wonderfully lush countryside.

Neighbours

‘The Man’ who lives across the road… has a small ancient Ford Transit with a homemade tip conversion. This truck is usually packed high with all sorts of rubbish, sits somewhere in our street and rarely moves… when we find it parked in a different position it is full with different rubbish. While this truck is parked outside ‘The Man’ periodically and cautiously climbs into the back and rummages around taking off bits of metal or banging about, I guess it’s his equivalent of a Shed although we are afraid he might be a ‘Fly Tipper’. You can see him on his truck on the ‘188’ Photo Page. I always smile and say hello and he always returns my greeting but the other day he spoke to me and I have no idea what he said… it sounded something like, ‘Do you like your ladder?’ Left in the house was an old wooded, almost broken, unusable ladder… I say ‘Yes.’ And smile well what else could I say?? Then he says, ‘I fix your ladder good… it good isn’t it??’ I am flummoxed now but it’s easier to say ‘Yes’ and smile isn’t it!! Next day I’m thinking about our first conversation and wonder if it was he who put in the new and very scary staircase???

Next Door are a family from Kurdistan/Turkey, I chat to the young wife firstly who’s name is Husne she has very little English and has never heard of Australia, there are two children a boy aged 8 and girl 4.
Next we meet the young brother of Husne who has excellent English and is called Cetin, he is keen to practice his English on us and is just delightful plus he knows sort of where Australia is… a couple of days later he brings us a box, 5kg, of Grapes from his workplace, they are beautiful and sweet little green grapes from Turkey.

Next we meet the brother of the husband of Husne… he is amazed at us having moved in to this place and to be paying the rent ourselves!! I don’t quite understand the agenda here… he says the rent on his one bedroom is 650 pounds but doesn’t tell me who pays it???

As you can see in the photos, from our back garden we are within easy chatting distance to several neighbours, several houses back onto Ahishas home and I found an Englishman (rare in this part of London) taking clothes off the line, I catch his eye and have a chat… he says our place was derelict for quite a while and is surprised to see we have moved in. He also tells me Amish husband is a businessman in the fruit and vegetable game… so that’s where all the brothers work!

As I take photos from upstairs two black men watch me from their back door of their home in the other street… I wave… they wave back and I tell them I’m not taking photos of them just the view… they say it was nice to meet me. I love this place!

Funny Things you see.

Road Signs… In Scotland we were always coming across Road Signs that said… ‘Hidden Dip’ Almost in every case we found that Dip… it wasn’t hidden at all! Road Workers… Painting a railing fence, Nine men painting with small rollers or long handled small brushes with two men in the truck having a smoko! Festival of Litter… We can’t get over the litter in the Streets, yet we see Street Sweepers almost every day… we don’t remember litter being a problem 27 years ago so what has happened? Members of the ‘Clean Up Surrey Campaign’ approached us in a Shopping Centre in Guildford, we gave them Ian Kiernan's name and told them to look him up on the Internet and ask for help… London and its surrounds really need him. Taxi Drivers Rest Room, David had heard of these rooms but never seen one… till the day we walked down the Cromwell Road to the Victoria and Albert Museum. How many Taxi Drivers can rest at one time is the question.

No Patchwork :-((

Patchwork and Quilting is very much missing from this Blog, I’ve hardly done any sewing myself because we’ve been so busy getting our little home together as well as skipping all over the countryside… so the only quilts I’ve seen since Biggar and the tiny exhibition at Alexandra Palace are the ones I’ve made for Tomos, Emma and Abigail Rose…. this week we are off to Romsey to spend a couple of nights with one of my SCQuilter Friends… Gay Jenkins… I CAN HARDLY WAIT!

Hampstead Heath.

The weather is being particularly kind with plenty of sun this weekend so the five of us took a walk on Hampstead Heath driving past some beautiful old homes and wisely parking at the ‘Spanish Inn’ where we would return to for lunch. The Heath was teaming with people just like us making the most of the beautiful day. Kenwood Estate is on one edge of the Heath and is open to the public for free so we took advantage of this wonderful opportunity and wandered through a very beautiful house full of a wonderful collection of art. Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh purchased this home to save it from redevelopment and to house his remarkable collection of paintings in a 18th Century Country Gentleman’s Estate.
Abi got crabby so Emma dealt with her under a tree in the Kitchen Garden... don't they make a lovely photo... then of Tom Carrying a sleeping Angel!


Lunch at the ‘Spanish Inn was an experience, the Inn is dated 1585 and was later on the childhood home to Dick Turpin who’s father was the Publican… there isn’t an even floorboard, wall, door or ceiling in the whole place and even I felt the ceilings too low J Lunching on Roast Lamb for me, Beef for Tom, Steak and Kidney for David, Roast Vegetables for Emma and a little bit of everything for Abigail Rose was a delight in the large Garden. Plus the added attraction of Jonathon Ross and his family dining on the next table… for Australian readers who may have never heard of Jonathon Ross… he has a late night show on the Telly similar to David Letterman, and it was only last night that I watched him interview Emma Thompson as well as Peter Andre and his wife. Here is a link about his show. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/jonathan_ross.shtml

Workday Saturday.

Garden Day at 188… we only need the Broadband to be connected and a couple of comfortable couches for our little London Home to be complete. One expenditure that amused Tom and I were the Numbers 1, 8 & 8 I bought for our front door at the cost of 41p per letter, I didn’t mind though they were made in Australia!

Victoria & Albert Museum.

Our first visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum was amazing… we will need many more visits we believe but here is just a taste of what we saw. These are photos of the old First Class, Second Class and Third Class Dining Rooms designed by James Gamble, Poynter and William Morris… I think in that order, Just one photo of each room.

A Craft Show… A Craft Show…

One of the things I did learn last weekend, from the very friendly Gerry Bixley was of the upcoming Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, which is only a short distance from us in Wood Green. Luckily Lyn reminded me because without my Calendar (another thing I left at ‘333’) my brain is short on memory. It was raining so Tomo drove me up there and picked me up when I was shopped out.

Well… I will never complain about the Sydney Quilt Show being too big again! This Show was enormous… cost me $A37.00 to get in and buy the programme and it was only stalls selling… with a very small exhibition of quilts about 50cm Square and a dead boring knitted jumper fashion show. I managed to spend a few £’s and thoroughly enjoyed 4 hours of browsing the shops which were amazing in their range of craft products especially the knitting and wools.

Alexandra Palace is a beautiful building sitting on the top of a hill with wonderful views on a fogless day! Check it our on this link.
http://www.alexandrapalace.com/history.html

Good Morning Di...

My SCQuilter friend Di Soupy opens her computer with our Blog so I thought I would say... Hello Di!

188 Moselle Avenue, Wood Green. N22 6EX

I haven't been Blogging or Gmailing because we are living in our dear little home which is proving very comfortable and will be more so when we buy a couple of second hand chairs which will be our last purchases...(Bulldog haven't put the Internet on yet so I'm still coming to Tom's to catch up)

Most of you know shopping isn't one of my favourite things to do, so you will be surprised to hear that's just about all I've done in the last few days... here are a few of our costs because I know some of you would like to compare prices or are even thinking of doing the same mad thing as us.

Fuel... 93p per litre
Rent... £950 per calendar month (We paid for the whole 5 months up front because no agents wanted to rent to us for less than 12 months)
Council Tax... about £500
Gas, Electric... ???
Broadband (Yet to come)... £60 up front then £40 per month. (That's including rental of a Landline)
TV... £99 (Wharfdale)
Microwave... £30 (No brand name made in China)
Iron... £20 (Breville)
Toaster that keeps setting off the fire alarm... £10 (No brand)
Cutlery for 8... £10
Small Vegemite... £1.16
Return trip to Guildford by Train (about 45 miles)... £46 for two (Expensive)

There you are... some food things are of course more expensive but if you shop as if you are in England and not in Australia the prices are fine. Pegs were a problem... not available in the Supermarkets nor Woolies but we found them in one of the bargin shops that there are 100's of... almost as many as there are betting shops!!!!!

I also shopped in a Supermarket buying everything from toilet cleaner to butter which took me forever as not only did I not know the layout of 'Morrisons Supermarket' I didn't know the brands either... we shop at local markets for fruit and veggies and at the local Kurdish or Portugese Supermarkets for delicious cheeses, bread,olives and of course Portugese Tarts!!

I promise you more photos when we get Bulldog to connect us up to Broadband.

Lyn & Howard Wilson

Our first Aussie visitors… How exciting it was to see Lyn and Howard. Lyn is one of my SCQuilter friends who lives in St Ives the next suburb to Turramurra, they came for lunch the day before their 8 week trip of Europe was over, they fly home today.

Our first weekend back in Guildford.

In late 1967 David arrived in England… on his arrival he noticed a sign on an Aldershot and District Bus that said ‘Drivers and Conductors Wanted’ David was ecstatic and broke... so eagerly signed up. He completed his Bus Driving Training and was going for his test when they discovered that he didn’t have a British Drivers Licence so David was the first and probably the only person to sit for both licences at once.

We returned to Guildford this weekend for the Members of the Aldershot and District Bus Interest Group Outing Day, which was a trip through the Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire countryside in any one of three old buses… a Dennis Loline exactly like the ones David drove or a AEC Reliance single deck and a red Thames Valley Bristol K6. (Yes I am being dictated to!!)

Although I enjoyed the countryside… the five hour trip felt more like 5 days to me and I’ve now made a resolution to only spend one more bus day with David…. I’m over Buses!! He can choose the day… but he must choose wisely!

David in 2005, I need time to scan the older photo into the Blog so stay tuned.

David and Peter bonding!

David first met his friend Peter Waugh in New Zealand in 1967, they were both on working holidays. About the same time that David was returning to Australia Peter was returning home to the UK… as a parting remark Peter said to David, ‘Why don’t you come to England?’ So I guess we can blame Peter for a lot of things eh??

When I arrived in England to marry David without my Dad it was Peter who filled in and gave me away so was referred to as ‘The Father of the Bride’ for many a year.

Peter came to Australia in 1973 for a holiday… we came back to England for the years of 1977 - 1978 and again now in 2005/6.

It’s been 27 years since David and Peter have bonded together… so here is a photo of them doing just that!

Yes there is a leak under Peter’s kitchen sink.

Meeting Maggie, Nick and Sophie.

Peter met and married Maggie after we left the UK in late 1978 so this is the first time we’ve been able to meet her and their children Nick and Sophie… what fun we had telling tales and getting to know Peter’s family.

Old Friends

Peter’s sister Christine we’ve caught up with many times as she calls Australia her second home and on one of her many visits worked for us in the Washing Machine Business as well as painting the interior of the Albion Double Decker
bus. Here we are with our old friends the Waugh’s.

Ikea!

Tom, Emma and Abi take me to Ikea, we all need a little thing or two for here or there.

Ikea is enormous... absolutely enormous, I have never been in anything that is as big as this two floors of 'essentials' for the home. They also have an enormous Swedish Restaurant and an enormous Deli not to mention millions of things one needs for the home.

By the time we fill our trolley and start heading for the check out we are not only exhausted but feel lost... we aren't the only ones... we hear 'Do you know the way out of here?' several times from other customers, LOL! Tom leads the way and we are almost finished, we pay, pack our goods and are heading to the Car Park when I see out the window a red London Bus... My brain says... Wow, a London Bus what is that doing here!! Duh!!! Too much of Ikea is brain numbing so be warned!

Autumn is creeping into Wood Green.

Virginia Creeper

Here comes Autumn creeping over the garden fences until it gets to Tom and Emma's garden where it stays green till it moves onto the neighbour on their left. The large tree in the park behind T & E's protects us from the Autumn chill.

I took these photos out the window of Abigail Rose's bedroom which David and I are using till we move into our little house tonight. I will take some identical shots as Autumn closes into Winter.

Breakfast at Wood Green

Abigail Rose enjoying her breakfast.

Turramurra in Spring.

White Wisteria growing on our Pergola
Cliveas up the Driveway
More Wisteria

It's Spring at home so look what a little rain has done to our Garden... Gwilym says our three water tanks are full and sent us these photos.

It's Autumn here in Wood Green but there isn't a lot of colour to be seen just yet.

Happy Birthday Nerys!

Happy Birthday Darling, we are sorry we are missing your birthday but we know Tim and our beautiful little Jackson Harry will make your day very special as well as Briony, Joon, Gwilym and Emily or course.
We love you and miss you all very much... lots of love and kisses from Mum and Dad XXXX

Amersham.

Sunday we spent at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire. The TV series 'Midsomer Murders' is filmed in and around Amersham but that's not why we went there... there was of course another reason... could it be Bus related?? Spot on, of course it could.

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/satellite/9476/locationso.htm

8:30am David and I walked up to Turnpike Lane Tube Station with Abigail and Emma, Abigail has come to expect her morning walks with David just as Jackson Harry does in Turramurra, she really loved a walk they did when the rain started to fall, David was rushing to get her home and she thought this great sport especially seeing she had rain hitting her face at speed. Abi and Emma went home but David and I had to catch 4 different tube trains to get to Amersham because of work on the Underground that goes to the Channel Tunnel... it's usually only one change of tube.

Amersham & District Motor Bus Society 17th Running Day was the reason for our trip as well as to meet up with Rick Robinson one of the Aussies on the Scottish Bus trip. First bus David spied was one single decker he drove way back in 1968 when he was a real bus driver for the Aldershot and District Bus Company. The owner of this old bus was very happy to let David pose in the Drivers seat then we went for an hours trip around the beautiful Buckinghamshire countryside passing through several delightful Villages one of which we decided to get off to have some lunch. There must have been 30 or more old restored Double and Single deck buses taking the never ending queue of visitors on trips through different parts of Buckinghamshire on a fine and sunny day...

Rick came back to Turnpike Lane where we met up with Tom, Emma and Abigail and after a long walk to a Greek Restaurant which had changed itself into an Indian Restaurant we enjoyed our evening meal. I really had fun on my day with my over enthusiastic husband and Rick, but If I ever thought I'd married a weirdo I can relax... there were a lot more serious weirdo's at Amersham!!

You be the Judge.

The Red bus is a London Double Decker, the Green, Orange and Cream the Glasgow Double Decker both very handsome buses I think.

My knuckles have been wrapped! Not only by David but by also by those closer to the Glasgow Double Deckers than me :-))) Hello Paul!

I mentioned in a past mail that I thought the colour scheme of the Glasgow Albion was a tad.... unusual... to say the least!

You be the judge... here is a London Double Decker RM dating from about 1959 as well as a Glasgow CX37 Double Decker dating from 1949.

One kind friend says about the Glasgow bus: 'then I realised that they're actually autumny like my square in a square quilt'

My knuckles were also wrapped over my dismissive comments about Burt Lancaster LOL actually I thought his performance in Local Hero was brilliant but when someone asks me who is in Local Hero and I say BL they usually dismiss my favourite movie.