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Coolest school fete ever
Went to a fete at an inner city public school - lots of bands played including Tunng - very good. Hello once more fine folk!
Since we last wrote, much has been seen, done and heard and we have made a small effort to see more of england than just london, although there's definitely enough there to keep you interested for months! Luckily Jeff's brother Russ has an excellent van that he offered us for a few days. This thing is a massive, bright yellow transit van with giant boxing kangaroos on the front and sides, and a bed in the back. As you drive it down the street kids point at you and wave... and absolutely everyone knows you're australian. It was excellent though, and provided us with both transport and free accommodation, albeit in everyday suburban streets - hobos.
We didn't want to go too far from london, so decided we'd head to the south west. Our first destination was canterbury, where we wandered about town, ate the most budget pub food we could find, visited the cathedral and spent a fair while (embarassingly) trying to work out whether it was catholic or anglican.....it's confusing alright? it was staunchly catholic, with the shrine of st thomas beckett and all (he was stabbed on the altar there -
very dramatic) and then henry VIII came along and it was catholic no longer. very confusing... luckily i managed to loiter quite close to a few guided tours and school excursions, so my knowledge is now somewhat more comprehensive, but still very patchy. The best part is after i learn something through said eavesdropping i can tell it to jeff over a pint that night and seem really knowledgeable! (Yes, a large part of our relationship is based on fraud - on my part at least...) Canterbury was also our first overnight stop in the van. I thought it would be difficult but it was great - we just found a quiet suburban street, quickly jumped in the back and bob's your uncle! the morning does present a few problems however, as you can imagine there are no facilities, so it's a fairly brisk walk to the nearest cafe...
Next up was dover, site of the beautiful white cliffs and dover castle. We'd seen the cathedral that morning, so decided to give the castle a miss and just do a walk along the cliff tops. It was amazing. Stark white cliffs covered with lush green grass against a perfect
Jeff on the cliff
Jeff reckons his lilly white thighs can compete with the white cliffs of dover blue sky and sparkling sea. Absolutely gorgeous! And you can watch the ferries leave the port at dover and make their way all the way to calais. It really makes you realise how small the English Channel is (not trying to take away from those people that swim it of course..). After spending the afternoon tramping over the cliff tops and eating picnics accompanied by the largest seagulls the world has ever seen, we needed to start scoping another overnight spot. We decided to head to Rye, in no small part because jeff was very excited about seeing the marshes there (i'm sure this will become a recurring theme in our travels...). Rye itself offered no likely sneaky sleeping spots, so we headed out to Rye Harbour. We found an excellent spot, right on the edge of the marshes with a lovely long walk out to the sea through a bird breeding ground and nesting area. A very nice place to visit.
Our next destintation was Battle, the site of the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066 between the Normans and the English. It was a really cool site, with an old abbey there that was built by the
victor as a way to absolve his guilt for causing the slaughter of so many people - thousands of people died in one day there, which was considered brutal even by medieval standards. So in the usual way back then, if you felt bad about something you spent a lot of money to build a church or statue or somesuch, then you'd get into heaven no worries at all! It was great to walk around the old battle field, which now is just a nice sort of parkland, and there's an excellent audio tour which helps you imagine what must have gone on there. The weird thing is that there's no real sense of the great loss of life, for me at least. It's weird, because i've been to other historical sites and really felt the sadness of what went on, but i think because it was so long ago, and all about kings and pretenders to the throne etc, that it feels somewhat academic, and i don't feel the same reaction as i might have to more recent events. Interesting....
After soaking up all that history, we made our way back to london in time to return the
Jen on the love tester
Apparently I'm "sensual", a measly seven out of ten...grrrr. van, pack our dancing pants and head to Glastonbury!!! (For those not in the know it's a huge music festival on a big farm in south west england - amazing!). For those who are interested in a highly detailed account of what went on, another blog is currently being penned by Jeff. For those who are not that interested in details of a music festival, suffice it to say that we were there for 5 days, got muddy, danced up a storm, saw some amazing bands and other quirkiness, and had a ball!
After returning from Glasto and sleeping for pretty much a whole day, our feet were once more itchy, so we headed to sunny Brighton. Luckily, our timing was impeccable, and the weather was beautifully warm and sunny for the two days we were there. Brighton was lovely. We did the typical touristy things - sat on the pebbly beach soaking up the sun, ate terrible fish and chips, strolled along the beach front, and went out on the pier to play the fruit machines. Jeff was pretty lucky that night, but i kept losing - luckily we were playing the 10p machines. And kids can play
Strolling on the pier
How romantic! (it's really not - there's nothing romantic about flashing lights and loud buzzing noises - fun though!) them! Crazy.... Also on the pier was a mechanical bull, which had closed for the night, and i stupidly mentioned to jeff how much fun i thought it would be to ride a mechanical bull. He looked at me incredulously, saying that it didn't seem like something i'd like at all, but i insisted on how much fun it would be. The next morning the pier was of course open, and jeff wanted to take me to ride the bull....reality set in and i refused. Long story short - the compromise is that i have to ride a bloody mechanical bull when we get to texas....hmmm me and my big mouth.
The exciting thing that awaited us when we returned to London was that Jeff's parents Wal and Berneice had arrived for about five days as a quick stopover on their way to a cruise around the mediterranean. Apparently they already miss us so much after just two months that they just had to come over to see us, and it has absolutely nothing to do with seeing russell who's been here for years....Anyway, we've had some fun times with them walking around london town and having bbqs, but
Me losing more on fruit machine
but if i'd won we could have travelled forever! i think the highlight was going to see Priscilla the musical which my friend Clare arranged tickets for us for. It was a fabulous show enjoyed by all, and just a whirlwind of colour, song and dance. A very fun night out. Unfortunately Wal and Berneice are off to Rome tomorrow, so we said our goodbyes today.
Next for us is a trip to the land of scots - hopefully as far up as the highlands....och aye, laddies lassies and haggis. mmmm.
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susie
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lovin it
excellent guys, keep it up. looking forward to what went down in glastonbury! have fun in the land of the scotts..