Home again, home again

I didn't post because Indra was running out of uploads for the month. And now that I am home again (sigh) I will sign off on this posting business untill my next travel.

But I should mention our trip to Hampton Court on Sunday. It was way over the other side of London. We set off early in the morning and had trouble finding the entry gates so parked on the green a mile or so away: much too far for Pat and Jo. Our visit was subsequently a bit rushed. Even if you had a full 10am to 7pm you could fill it in enjoying the site. It is a proper palace. Lots of history to learn and since Henry VIII lived there much of the history is sexy. Plus the roses were in full bloom and absolutely sense -ational.

On Monday I joined Indra at her 2 hour line dance class. The last class I went to was in KL with her beginners class about 5 years ago. My feet and my head have forgotten how to talk to each other.

The flight to Singapore was forgetable (just what you want from long distance flights.) The overnight stay in Singapore was not as successful as I had hoped. It took too long to get to the hotel, too long to find somewhere suitable for Jo to eat, too short a time in bed before my brain decided that it was time to get up, in London.

Next time I will come straight home to Puffin who is very pleased to see me and is constantly testing my ability to open the door, close the door, open the door, close the door. . . .

(Thanks to Cherie for looking after her so well and for this photo)

St Pauls

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day (on and off) so the office workers took their lunch to the gardens around St Pauls cathedral and lazed around on the grass.

The entry fee is 14.5 pounds so I declined to see yet another church. The little church behind Stitalfields markets were enough.

Epping forest

The trip across the country by bus from Coventry to Stanstead was much more interesting than yesterday's. The countryside gently rolls and the bus took more secondary roads past farms and villages. Plus the weather was warmer and there was no rain.

Ro picked us up for the half hour drive to Pat and Indra's which was very nice of her. They have all gone off to Tamra's junior school concert. Tamra has a solo to perform. Jo went to bed shortly after we arrived and is still sound asleep. His "cold" seems better but two nights sitting up have exhausted him.

Indra and I went for a short walk in Epping Forest which is looking green but is very dry underfoot. What was mud is now rock hard. Here they have perfected drainage of rainfall and when no rain falls then everything dries out very quickly.

Coventry

I couldn't get a connection last night to blog. Sorry to be late.

Yesterday we went to see Ian Hall's new warehouse after a stroll through the Botanic Gardens and their birds in cages.This heron was a wild one and a bit odd to be standing on a pole out of the pond.

Ian runs the Spar warehouse which supplies all the small Spar grocery stores from the middle of England to the Scottish border plus some army stores in Germany. As you can imagine it is an enormous task. Everything is done by wireless messages to units on the belts of forklift drivers who then deliver the goods to the trucks that set off every morning full and come back empty in the afternoon.

Ian is rightly chuffed about the new facility and how well the changeover went from the old site. (His son was in charge of the IT part of it.) In celebration we went out to Pizza Express, the poshest restaurant in Southport while John was off at his Rotary meeting.
This morning he took off very early for his three day bike ride over the Pennines in the cold, windy rain. It will be pretty miserable out there but they are staying at pubs overnight so they will have an opportunity to warm up. Because it is for charity they won't give up after the first day.

We met the grandkids, Eve and Sam before catching the bus to Coventry at 10am. The countryside is green, hedgy and fairly flat. Not very interesting as we moved from one motorway to the next. But we got here on time and the hotel is a block from the bus which is a block from the cathedral. Jo just managed to stagger around the cathedral before falling into bed to nurse his cold.

Southport

We caught an early plane to Manchester and John picked us up to drive us home to Southport. After a delicious pizza lunch Jo realised that his USB stick was missing. He needs it to give prestentations to the Dept of Health and IMU in Kuala Lumpar. Frantic emails were sent to Denmark and to Australia. But later John had to take his bike to a friend's house because he is going on a charity bike ride on Wednesday. After getting the bike out of his boot he discoverd the USB stick and became the hero of the day.

So Jo is happy and I am happy because there is a resident cat here. He is a one eyed, champagne Burmese called Jasper. Despite all my overtures of friendship, he perfers Jo.

Lazy days in Denmark

We are having a lovely time eating, reading, chatting and strolling through the spring here in Denmark.

The most energetic thing we have done today is to watch some tennis in Lizzi and Erik's tennis club. It doesn't get dark until after 10pm and is light again at 4am and it is still a month until the shortest night. The big black cloud dropped rain and hail but only for 2 minutes.

Yesterday we drove to their son's summer house by the sea (not the one in the photo but nearby.) Behind us came a half hour long line of vintage US cars belching oil into the pristine atmosphere.

Copenhagen

We said goodbye to Madrid this morning and the view from our hotel balconly:

The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful. It was wonderful to be picked up at the airport by Erik and driven across town to their house in beautiful Vaelose. We went for a stroll through the woods nearby to enjoy the beech trees which have at last come into leaf after a long, cold winter.

A drama was played out before our eyes. The local authorities have provided a duck house in the middle of a pond in the forest. But the baby duckling couldn't get back onto the platform. Will it's mother be able to help it up?