Blogs from Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Lovely day out in Smart Arse today exploring the local area to the East of Woodbridge. We crossed the Deben river and drove through the pretty Suffolk countryside passing lots of enormous tractors on the way. Made Smart Arse look even tinier. This is an agricultural area, fields full of crops and quite frequently full of pigs, each with their own little hut. Loving the architecture. Lots of thatched cottages, pastel coloured houses and tall twisted chimneys. First stop at the Ramsholt Arms on the banks of the river and nothing else anywhere in sight except moored up boats. Perfect spot for lunch. Further down river from there until we came to the estuary at Bawdsey. From there we could see across to North Felixtowe. There is a little ferry which crosses the river but we ... read more

Excellent day today exploring some of Suffolk's treasures. First to Sutton Hoo, site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries. One cemetery had an undisturbed ship burial with a wealth of Anglo-saxon artefacts. The burial mounds are clear to see and there are lovely walks across the site with views down to the river below. Fortunately summer has returned so we had a glorious blue sky for our walk. There is also an exhibition explaining how the treasures were uncovered in 1938 and examples of the finds. Fascinating. We haven't seen The Dig film yet but will as soon as we get home. From Sutton Hoo our faithful little Smart Arse took us a little further north to Snape Maltings. Here on the banks of the River Alde are repurposed Victorian ... read more

The act of writing about myself and my experiences is a very new thing for me so bear with it, I can only get better! (not 100% if bear/bare..?) After months upon months of planning, the day has finally arrived where we pack up and jet off to Bangkok. The packing has gone awfully, as I am so indecisive about the necessary items, the everyday items and the items I want to take but really don't need. The act of packing has yet to be done, but my bed is covered in all the stuff I'm travelling with, having limped round the house all day locating these items. 20kg seemed more than enough for my weight limit, but now I am not so sure looking at the sheer amount of all the gear. The grandparents have ... read more

It has been a week now since the final London goodbyes were said, since we filled a tired and beaten hire van with our worldly possessions, cleaned the flat from top to bottom, handed the keys to the new tenants and headed for Suffolk to deposit said goods at my kindly mothers residence. It has been two weeks since I finished work, and after five years of rigid structure and discipline in an almost school like atmosphere, the feeling of not having to anything other than that which I choose is still one I am adjusting to. On Thursday Michelle and I fly to Dubrovnik to begin the first step of our next adventure. We have no timing plans and no definite end destination but we aim to see a bit of Eastern Europe before heading ... read more

Firstly, if we’ve not yet been in touch in 2010, we wish you a Happy New Year. Amazingly, it’s now less than ten days before we take off on our ‘Grand Tour’ and the excitement is certainly mounting! We’ve finally got the new laptop which will help us stay in touch with everyone - hence this posting a quick test of the machine and the blog. Another great leap is that we’re now on Skype too - should you ever feel like calling or messaging . John & Valerie ... read more