VISITING IN ENGLAND

Our time in England was a time for visiting relatives and friends, some of whom we hadn't met for a while.  First thing Saturday Hilary kindly took us to nearby Heathrow to collect a hire car for our travelling in England.  The car we collected was brand new, just 8 miles on the clock.

Our first call that morning was to have been to cousin Cyril who we hadn't seen for many a year.  Cyril is blind and lives alone in Surbiton.  Unfortunately those plans were scuttled at the last minute as he was somewhere else that day which was a real shame as we couldn't reorganize.  So we drove straight to New Malden, nearby, to visit with cousin Ken and wife Gladys.  Their daughter, Lynn, was there too and we had a nice, if short visit before lunch. 

Ken, Lynn and Gladys

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click outside the image returns you to the text 

Our other call that day was to see cousins Mavis and Joyce in Welling, Kent.  To get there we chose to drive out to the M25 motorway rather than struggle through Saturday traffic in South London,  This worked out quite well even though it adds to the mileage.  

We first collected Joyce in Bexleyheath and then drove the short distance to Welling where Mavis is now living.  She lost Jim last year and had had a couple of debilitating strokes, one which had affected her thinking powers and the other messed up her sight, so it was necessary to leave the house in Bexley.  She now has limited vision in one eye only.  Her son Andrew was there as well, and even though he lives a distance away in St. Albans, he visits every day, which can mean as much as four hours  around the Northern part of M25. It was heart-warming to see the care he is giving his mother at a very difficult time. 

Ruth, Andrew, Mavis and Joyce

We then retraced our steps back to Isleworth again travelling around M25.  All in all that day we covered over 120 miles, that's how big London is.

 Hilary and Penny as we left on the Sunday morning

We made three calls on the Sunday.  The first was in Purley near Reading to see niece, Annie Berwick , Stu and youngsters, Thomas and Daniel.  Annie is finishing her midwifery training and had been up all night, but got up especially to meet us.

Stu, Thomas, Dan and Annie

Next port of call was Burford in Oxfordshire, one of the King family.  There were able to meet up with Angela and her husband, Roger, and we were pleased to be able to meet up with one of their daughters, Lucy, her husband Justin and their two children Joshua and MIranda.  

After a short visit for tea we carried on to Stourport in Worcestershire to see Don and Jean.  We had booked into a pleasant B and B around the corner from where they live.  The room we had was quite small but we mangaged to fit ourselves in OK and the location was good. 
We had a pleasant evening with Don and Jean and, still a little jet lagged, we were not too late to bed.  After a very nice breakfast the next morning at the B and B met up again with Don and Jean and we enjoyed lunch with them and Chris and Pauline at a restaurant nearby.

 Chris, Don and Jean enjoying a joke.

Ruth, Pauline and Chris

After lunch we took off to Balsall Common to see Paul, Valerie and their youngsters, Ella and Toby.  They were all in fine form and we had tea with them.  Paul is now flying with British Airways and had managed to arrange his schedule to be at home.  The transition from BMI to BA seems to have gone reasonably well and he was leaving the next day for four consecutive days flying out of Gatwick to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, a longer haul which he likes.  The plane Paul is building is ever nearer completion and is looking very fine.

Toby, Paul, Ella and Valerie

Our final stop that day was in Derby where we were going to stay with Anthony and Carol for three nights.  They had the night before just returned from holiday on Corsica.


We had a lazy day because the poor weather we had seen in Paris and Bruges was following us around.  Not withstanding that, we did get out the following day into the Derbyshire countryside but walking was not on the agenda.  We had a nice lunch overlooking Carsington Water and got back in time to meet up with Martin, who was working short term  at the Rolls Royce plant in Derby.  We went out to dinner with him and caught up with his news that included the fact that he was marrying next May.  Whether we make that wedding is an open question. 

 

We left Derby in the morning as we had a call to make in Ratcliffe-on Trent, which is not far from Derby and near Nottingham.  We had bought three Denby soup bowls on Ebay and had arranged to pick them up.  The lady selling them was home and we were soon on our way towards Cambridge.  We were meeting up with another in the King family at Great Chesterford and we had a nice visit before carrying on to Harpenden where we were staying the night with Wendy, another KIng and where we were able to see the fourth King sister, Elizabeth.  

The next morning we travelled around M25 to Shamley Green where we had spent a year on leave.  We hoped to see Jean Elliot but unfortunately that didn't work out as she had fallen a day or two before and had to go to hospital and wasn't coming home until later that day.  We had stayed in the cottage next to Ron and Jean when we spent a year in the UK at Shamley Green.  As we had a plane to catch at Gatwick for Pisa we left her a message and a present.