Blogs from England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 1697

Over the past few years Dad has done some extensive genealogical research of the Astle family tree. He has traced it back to what ship the Astles arrived into NZ and then even further back to a town in Derbyshire called Draycott. Mum, Dad and Todd visited the town a few years ago and made some contacts who lent us a key to the local church, St Chad’s. Before going in we had a feed by the nearby lake. The recent flooding in the area could be seen with water lines well back and the park benches still half under water. Make sure you check out the video of Mum being attacked by the killer swans. The church has a scattering of Astle headstones, some hidden deep amongst trees and shrubs, others covered with giant slugs ... read more

So today people can no longer smoke indoors at all! Yet, I did not get to enjoy the turning point revelry the last two nights. I will take you all back to Thursday evenig. After class, I came home to a nap and some homework, oh yes, and laundry. Let me start with our laundry: we have this very interesting machine that is an all-in-one: it washes and dries! Yet it takes about 3 1/2 hours per load and they are tiny loads, so we pretty much have it going all the time it seems. I do not complain though because it's free! Our things do either come out damp (steam dry), or wrinkled, so the iron is also our friend! Then John, one of my flatmates, and I, headed to the Foundling Museum. This little ... read more

Hiya. Today is our second last day in Manchester, we are off to London on Tuesday. I'll miss the Mancunians and their accents. Londoner accents sound so whiny compared to the Northeners. Oh well i'm looking forward to London all the same, it's going to be great. On Tuesday night we're going to Frank Sidebottom's private art exhibition opening. Free food, drink and of course we get to meet FRANK. Finally. We also have to find jobs in London straight away. We can't actually stay at my cousin Tig's house until the 16th of July, so when we get to London we're staying with a friend of a friend but I have no idea how long she'll let us stay. Sooo we may have to find a youth hostel, which is why we must get ... read more

Hi Everyone Sorry it's been a while since our last Blog but we have been quit busy.... Terri, Sarah and terri mom charmaine were in training for the race for life a 5km fundraising event for cancer research... it was a great day fun was had by all sarah and terri ran the whole way on the hilly and challenging route and both came in with very good time sarah finished in34min and terri came in just behinde with 38min run she did very well and leondre's very proud of her... she didn't think she'd beable to run the whole way and she kicked butt... after the race we had a picnic in the park where the race was held and later went to the mall on the way home... And the big News so ... read more

Things I did in India that I've never done before and may never do again... Wear a saree wear a saree all night long Dance in the monsoon rains in a wedding procession in a saree Go to a squat toilet in a saree (do you see a trend developing?) Have a driver for myself for the day Go for a midnight motorbike ride with no helmet in heavy monsoon rains, side saddle (yeah, I know, stupid, but I will most likely NEVER do that one again and it was SOOOOO much fun) Dance bollywood style in a club with new found friends Get drenched in a rickshaw ride to the airport with extremely heavy rains (do you see another trend?) Get stuck at the airport for 5 hours because of flooding on the runway ... read more