Coffee morning

Warren had to go to Bunnings this morning to finish a project so he asked if I wanted to go for a coffee there.

Of course, I would. As it was getting past morning tea, we went to the cafe first.

This was how our coffee was served! Certainly put a smile on our faces.

EOFYear sales

Our washing machine has made a couple of funny noises when starting. It washed okay but it seemed that maybe a belt was slipping or something. Of course nothing is worth while getting fixed.

Sales are on but do we really want to spend the money if we dont need to do so.

We spent an week, back and forth, now is a good time to buy but maybe the washing machine is okay for a bit longer.

The vac had sparks and an electrical smell so that needed to be replaced. Of course I wanted to check out the prices for when we did need to upgrade and of course we came out of the store with both.

Saleman was good he even changed my mind about front loader, could have had something to do with less water, less electricity and cleans better. Plus the fact that there was a difference of $150 between now and July.

All installed, the neighbours gave us the cabinet underneath as they couldnt use it.

We advertised the old washing machine to give away and jt was picked up today, hopefully they will get a year or so out of it.

Hiccups

I dont suffer too often from hiccups thank goodness and of course there are many supposed cures for them.

One is drinking water from a glass upside down, can never work but how to do that so never tried it.

Lucy (the dog) had hiccups this morning, she was sitting on Warren's footstool while we were having out morning coffee. I could see her whole body jerk every few seconds, at least she didnt make any noise.

I remarked to Warren that she had hiccups, he lent down and said "BOO!" near her ear. This woke her and she looked a bit confused but no more hiccups. So in her case a fright fixed them. I dont think she was that happy at being woken abruptly but they set off for a walk soon after so then everything was again all okay in her doggy world.

Chloe the cow

When we stayed at a bnb in Gretna, I was very taken by the art work in the room. It was Chloe the cow.

I looked up the artist and read up about him. He had done a series of the Highland cows. When we went for breakfast the next morning, there was another one called Charlie in the dining room.

Heading south, we stopped at Barnstaple and walked through a small alleyway, we saw a gallery and in the window was a cow but in muted colours. I went in to ask if it was a Stephen Brown (name of the artist). The girl hadnt heard of Stephen Brown but told me the artwork was done by a local person from magazines. I bought one and luckily it fitted into the top of my suitcase.

I asked Warren if he could make a frame for it. This is the result.

He cut the wood using old fence palings from when we changed the side fence and then white washed it. It has not been hung as yet but will go in the dining room. 

Winter specials

Today was a caching day with lunch out to finish off.

I had picked out four, first one was called something like ring my bell, as it was just off a bike path, it seemed appropriate but it was better than that. We wandered around following our phones and the hint said between knee and hip, hum so its off the ground but not too high. Ha, there it is, it was a small dinner bell hanging from a branch.

Did not find the next one but ten  inutes after posting a did not find, I had a message from the owner to give us a hint.

Next one had a hint that said, enjoy the view of the airport, really, we were in bushland, then it dawned on me that it was a tree climb, well that wasnt going to happen. It would have been about a 5 to 6 metre climb to get above the tree cover.

Last one was an ammo can and was difficult to open, had been out for a long time.

Time for lunch at our favourite pizza place opposite the beach. Only one problem, all tables were full as we drove past. Parked the car and walked back hoping that people had eaten and left. New Turkish restaurant interested us, so being fickle, we decided to try that. They also had a winter special on of all meals were $10 each.

Warren had a mixed grill, chicken, beef, chips and salad with Turkish dips.

I went for the all day breakfast of eggs Benedict.
A

Bubbles and more bubbles

First morning home and I got up and went into the city for a flash mob turn out. I had gone to bed at 5.30pm the night before, we arrived home about 4.30pm, not much unpacking had been done on my behalf, but as we had been travelling for thirty hours, there was no guilt at all.

Flash mob was for 10am but first we were meeting some others to try to locate a cache in the city. We all stood around and looked, it was in a tree, concenus was that as coubcil had recently trimmed trees, it was no longer there.

On to the bridge for the flash mob get together, there had been one last year but I didnt go and I didnt know about jt til after. I was going to also met the members that I am spending a week with next month.

A small group of us went for coffee after, it was a fun time.

Winter flowers

Out walking with Lucy, I have been surprised to see flowers starting to bloom.

Wattle.

In the northern areas, these are around to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

This, I have no idea about, the flower was about to come out and it was well over my head, probably the top was about three metres above the ground. There were another two around the other side of the tree as well.

London 6

Heading back to the tube station we see a cut price pharmacy advertising perfumes in particular. Warren suggested that I may be able to buy the perfume that I like and use sparingly as it is fairly expensive. Too expensive in my mind to use every day anyway. We had looked at duty free stores in Beijing airport but apparently the perfume house is only a small one and they dont carry it.

In we go, lots of cosmetics, I tried a lipstick and ended up buying it plus a small tube of toothpaste. Sounds silly but I have not been able to find toothpaste at home for smaller than 110gms. When we came home from New Zealand it was only carry on and we both had to ditch our toothpaste as they were over the 100gms limit.

Yay, they had my perfume, all perfumes were behind the front counter.

I was amused to see that while there were women assistants walking the floor, there were only men serving at the checkouts. All were dressed completely in black.

My whole order was £21, same size bottle of Lulu here at home is about $49 if I can find it.

Mission accomplished and we continued on to the station, had to go down two very steep escalators to get to the platform. My photo doesnt show how long it was as I had to get my phone out and ready first. Many people were walking down and up them, I was content to hold the rail and ride.

Bomb Blasts London 5

Warren took me on a walk where he used to walk to pick

up the mail and papers each day that came from Australia.

Massive buildings lined the streets and it was hard to beleive that we were in the heart of London.

Warren pointed out the building that had bomb damage from World War two!

We turned a corner and then I saw lots of Australian flags flying, Warren informed me that the building was Australia House.

I wanted to go in but it was just an office to get a visa to visit so not much there at all.

Bells of St Clements London 4

Walking along the street, suddenly a tune started and I listened for awhile and then realised that I knew it. It was the nursery rhyme "Oranges and lemons".

What the?

Warren pointed out that we were near St Clements Cathedral. We/I decided to step in for a look. What a beautiful building although not as big as I thought it may have been.

There were several people doing the same as us and a couple of tours happening.

London 3

After we had discovered the little pub, we sat on a street corner under the shade of a tree. It was quite hot and we had walked quite a way.

Taking in the sights, we noticed a group of business men about eight or ten of them on the footpath, chatting and looking at their phones. Then we noticed another bigger group off to the side, this group had a couple of women as well but again everyone had their phones out, lot of chat and checking their phones.

A guy dressed all in black, black jeans and black shirt seemed to be in charge and was going between both groups. The first group suddenly all moved away still with their phones out. The guy in black then came to the second group, after a few minutes they did the same.

We were intrigued about what they were doing and as the guy in black didnt go with them and he had moved closer to where we were sitting, we asked what they had been doing.

The guy told us that they were chasing or doing Pokeman Go! These men were from the ages of mid thirties with a couple of guys in their late sixties, all were wearing suit and ties, the women also looked professorial. I would have guessed their occupations to be lawyers, doctors or property brokers.

The guy in black told us that there were two gyms, one on one corner where we were and there was another one on the next corner and they were waiting for the two to come into sync which didnt happen very often. He had already recorded it the last time so he was telling them of his experience which may have helped them.

I didnt think pokeman was still a thing any more and it was surprising their ages and status.

London 2

Warren retraced his steps re where he used to work, not sure if the building is still used the same or not. After so long, no one that he knew would have been there so we kept walking, went past the Law Courts and the Old Bailey, it was a daily walk for him when he was there. Lots of massive buildings and some of them had pock marks from bomb blasts from world war two. That was quite shocking to see at first hand.

Found the tiniest building front that I have seen, it is Twinnings tea and nestled between two massive buildings.

We also dicovered a 16th century pub, it is still operating as a pub but surprisely it is not open on weekends. It is located down an alley between tall buildings.

London (1)

Safely negotiated into the hotel alongside of Heathrow, filled the car with fuel, checked in and dumped our bags then dumped the car and walked back.
Although the hotel didnt have too many choices on their menu, we didnt want to go any further so shared a platter. So many chips!
Next morning we set off for central London!

Warren had sussed out how to get there and once we were all packed for the flight home left all our stuff at the front of the hotel. We could have lodged it at the airport for a mere £12 per piece, hotel was free. One suitcase and a backpack each so quite a savings.

Our bus stop was a very close 60 metres away and one stop to get to the airport. Warren had also discovered that we could use any card to tap on and off the train and bus all day for a one off cost.

The train or tube was pretty quiet when we got on but it soon filled up.

Many stops, it took about an hour to get to Holburn where we were getting off and it was also where Warren used to work.

Swindon

Warren asked me where I wanted to stay for our last night before London. Like I had a preference! Then I remembered, years ago when we were in London before, we or rather he had a job to do which involved taking some sailing equipment to Swindon on the train. I went with him and then the day was our own, I know we did some shopping and bought my eternity ring somewhere in Swindon. So I said lets go to Swindon.

It is about an hour and a half from the heart of London or at least Heathrowe.

Warren did his magic and found a nice studio apartment. It was easy to get to and had a washing machine fridge and microwave. Nice to be able to wash some clothes.

Swindon has a computing museum and put the address into the gps, it was not that far. A couple of false starts and we found an actual car park, used the rest of our small change and got an hour twenty. Luckily the car park was pretty close, sign on the door says use other door, had to walk right around to discover it was only open Friday and Saturdays.

I said well lets find a cache, there was one near by near this building.

After we found it, it was straight to London as we figured there could be hold ups on the road. Able to check into our hotel that the travel agent booked for us which is very close to airport and the hire car place. Delivered the car and walked back to hotel.

Steam train

Driving around the coast line today we headed for Swanage knowing nothing about it but we thought we would find something to do there.

As usual parking was an issue.

Finally we found a place to park and we walked down to the beach and museum. I looked around while Warren chatted and discovered that there was a steam train that went up into the countryside to and past a castle. Sounded like a fun thing to do.

This was our train coming in, they had to take the engine off and then move it to the other end.

Almost ready to go, nice comfy seats.

The ruins of the castle, a lot of people got off here but continued to the end one more stop and then the turn around to go back. £13 return ticket and £1 each way for dogs, a lot of people had their dogs on board. One couple that we were chatting to, had three dogs.

Pizza in Weymouth

Bit of a funny place, heaps of cafes to eat at during the day but dinners are very different. There was an Italian restaurant across the road from our guest house on the water front. We headed there around dinner time however the menu that they had posted was less than desirable and rather expensive.

We moved on by then most cafes had closed. I was keen on fish and chips but Warren had had a headache from the time before so we gave that a miss.

We saw a self serve restaurant roast pork with vege for £6.95 sounded good so we wandered in. Saw two guys serving up meals but none were what was offered on the boards outside. We stood around like a stale bottle, there was another young guy doing not much maybe he was waiting to clear down tables. A girl was making drinks and refused to make eye contact. I could have spoken up and asked but I was annoyed by then so I said to Warren rather loudly that no one wanted to assist us so we were leaving and then walked out.

Maccas was an option but we decided to go back to fish and chip place and Warren would have a hamburger, we had walked about a kilometre and a half so turned back.

Surprise, surprise a pizza place with no customers. We wandered in, got a welcome from the girl behind the counter and asked if we wanted to order. Yes, they could do hot chocolate would we like cream on top.

This was our pizza, we almost finished it.
The place was trying to an old fashioned American pizza parlour I think, the decor was all route 66 with 60s rock and roll music playing.
However the food was good, service was good and cheerful and the price was pretty good too. Fifteen quid for pizza, garlic bread and two hot chocolates.

A Summer day in the UK

Beautiful day today, we left early with no jackets, did an eight k walk around wetlands. First we saw remote controlled sail boats on the water.

Six guys were on the footpath, seriously concentraing on operating their boats around three bouys. We continued on around and over the bridge so we were on the other side.

These were very popular, £3.50 for 30 minutes, kayaks were £5 for the same time.

A clock with four faces dominated the foreshore.

Unfortunately we saw a lot of people around lunch time, who we think will be very very sore tomorrow. It seems the sun is quite rare and people dont use sunscreen that much. Lots of shirts off, many women were in dresses, more dresses than I have seen in a long time.

Deck chairs were out along the promenade but they too were a hire thing, £2.20 for the day, guess it does save bringing their own. Parking is such a nightmare here that it seems that people park a few kilometres away and then catch a bus. We saw buses heading to a spot about 5kms away and called park and ride.

These are the streets around, most cars are parked with only about a foot to spare. Our guest house has a parking permit and we are parked in the street about a block away.

Fish and chips on the beach at Weymouth

We are one street back from the beach so of course we had to have f & c.

We had a visitor while we were eating.

The seagulls here are very big.

There was some sand where the people were and then there were rocks.
Lots of cafes along the beach road but no restaurants, we discussed the fact that we had no cash with us, Warren reached into his pocket and said that he had two pounds. Well, we could have bought a cone of chips (the smallest size) but they did have card facilities so not a problem.
There was an off license on the way home so we thought we might have enough cash for a coke

Bodmin Moor

I have read lots of books over the years that mention Bodmin Moor and now we are staying on the north west corner of it.

I took this photo out of our bedroom window around 6 pm, nice and sunny still and again it stayed light until about 9.45 pm.

This flower looks like a gladdie but it is growing wild down on the coast about 20 minutes drive from here.

After dinner last night we went for a walk down to the front gates about 800 metres away, the above photo was taken on our return about 7.30 pm. The mist was really rolling in and I could understand how people could easly get lost on the moors. 

Pt Isaccs

We headed off this morning to go to Pt Isaccs, it is the site of the Doc Martin series filming and the scenery looks amazing.

GPS told us to go left out of the golf course, seems a bit odd but we followed along. It was a road but so tiny and windy. Glad I wasnt driving, I was dreading meeting a large tractor or any other vehicle for that matter.

Her in the box says take a sharp left, we couldnt even see a turn, whoops, yes there is one a very sharp left and quite steep as well, finally we got onto a wider road. Then she said go right and again it was a very tiny road, had to pull over a couple of times to let oncoming traffic pass and one time a car had to back up so we could continue, rather nerve wracking.

Around a couple of corners and there was Pt Isaccs.

Yellow lines mean you cant park.

Three tiers of parking which was paid parking and highly sought after, we are further down in our Mercedes (just had to put that in, just imagine a merc for a hire car!)

Lots if people around as it is half term school holidays. 

Apparently, there is a map that the post office has that people can walk around and all the buildings that were used, we walked the headland a bit then bought an ice cream for lunch before continuing on.

The Highlands

After our lunch stop, I ordered coffee then Warren saw the menu with scones jam and cream, they were good!

We set off for our next stop to Barnstample through the highlands, travelling on small roads and we think mist or clouds.

These cattle were on the side of the road and they werent going anywhere unless they wanted to.

Not much traffic thank goodness.

Very pretty, often the trees met above the road so it was like driving through a tunnel.

Whaten

A quaint little place on the coast. Trying to find somewhere to park in small towns is a nightmare, luckily we were able to pull into a marine park, after buying a parking ticket we walked out to the lighthouse.

Then we went along the pier, its half term week so busy with families and kids.

Some quirky buildings that I liked the look of.

Car Boots Sales

Driving down a secondary road this morning, we saw signs for car boot market. If we could get there, we would go. The signs were far enough out to get into the right lane, yay we are going to a car boot sale.

There was a line up to get in, we figured that we probably had to pay something and when it was our turn, I asked the young guy how much. When he said a pound, I realised that was what he said in the first place but I didnt catch it. I had a few coins in my hand so handed over the shiny coin. They are quite pretty mainly silver with gold around the outside. More like aluminum and bronze.

We parked up and walked in. Of course we weren't buying anything just looking as mindful of weight restrictions etc etc.

Warren did buy some fruit, three peaches for £1 and also four mandrins for another £1 except they called them satsumas. I only know satsumas as plums.
It felt muggy so he had to take his jacket off, the rain came later.