Advertisement
Published: September 29th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The four of us.
Paul and Claire with us in Melbourne! Hi to everyone from East Midlands and the Slee family home! It's Monday morning here and the sun is shining. Hopefully you have all recovered somewhat from the Cats loss. Dean had the alarm set for 5am Saturday morning in order to listen to the game online - it was frustrating to listen to so we can only imagine how difficult it must have been to watch! So on to happier things.....
We are having a wonderful time here at Paul, Claire, Christian (12), Dominic (10) and Nattie's (3) home. They have been so welcoming and warm and we've had lots of laughs and lovely meals together. Paul kindly picked us up from Earls Court Road on Friday morning and it took about 3 hours to get here. We had 'a cup of tea' and rolls, then unpacked some things and got the washing machine going! It was a glorious afternoon so when the boys headed up to the local for a quick 'pint', Claire, Ains and I took Nattie over to the little park 2 doors down and along with a Hardy's chardonnay (very popular here!) we sat in the late afternoon sun and put the world to rights. A
'Oblivion'
Gives an idea of the drop in store!! I'm sure Ains and Lochie will be able to describe it all in detail.. very friendly cat decided we were her new best friends, so Ains was chuffed when 'Maisie' thought her knee was the best place to be. It was lovely to meet Christian and Dominic after school, and we all got together around the table for a family dinner and a few glasses of wine. A latish night followed, but we were all up and out the door, eventually, for a big day at Alton Towers the next morning. Alton Towers is a huge theme park in Staffordshire (500 acres!), built in the grounds of a semi ruined gothic revival country house with many amazing rides and beautiful grounds and gardens. Unfortunately the whole of northern UK decided the day was perfect for them to go too (or maybe they'd heard the Fullers were going to be there?!) as it was sunny and warm. Claire said she had never seen anything like it, and they'd been there quite a few times! We still had a fun day, with Ains, Lochie and Christian tackling the worst of the worst - 'Oblivion' - the world's first vertical drop roller coaster which needs to be seen to be believed!! At its highest, it drops 60
metres with a 4.5Gs pull, straight down into a huge black hole in the ground!!! Yuk...fun to watch though! We ended up getting home about 7.30pm, so the boys picked up pizza and we opened some wine.....
Yesterday was much more low key, with a 5 minute drive to 'Melbourne' (yes! really!) - a village close by with a beautiful Norman church built around 1120, a beautiful lake, gardens, gift shops and gorgeous homes with traditional thatched roofs. We spent some time in the church taking in the architecture and atmosphere - an Australian and Melbourne flag (did anyone know our Melbourne even had a flag?!) hang proudly from the roof along with the British flag. Off to feed the ducks and a walk along the lake in the drizzling rain, then a picnic, play, and to finish off the afternoon - a visit to the local village pub for a pint for the boys and a half pint for the girls!! Claire's Dad and step mother were joining us for tea so we headed home and hit the kitchen, with Claire teaching me the proper way to make yorkshire pudding! Dinner was delicious and fun - 11 of us
The kids.
Lochie, Ains, Christian, Dominic and little Nattie! crowded around the table eating a British beef casserole out of the slow cooker, mash, steamed leaks and yorkshire pudding - what more could we ask for!!! Of course, it was joined by some great Californian merlot and wonderful company. The kids were found later all piled on Paul and Claire's bed with their laptops, playing the same game and chatting away. Considering the age and interest differences, they have got on really well. Lochie has been such a pleasure to have around this trip, and it's been so nice to be able to spend so much time with him and watch him interacting with the other kids and playing with little Nattie. Paul and Claire have a good piano, so needless to say he has missed his instruments and is enjoying being able to play again! Ains is always around anyway for cuddles (!), and she's enjoyed talking with Claire about different things and playing with Nattie too. We are really enjoying our time here - it will be difficult saying goodbye tomorrow morning knowing that it may be several more years before we see them all again. Next time you hear from us we will be on our 'last leg' - in warm Hong Kong and, hopefully, shopping up a storm!!! Take care everyone and lots of love from us xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0426s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Wattsy, Kath & Little Ruby
non-member comment
Great Travel blog
Hi Fuller family just enjoyed reading the travel blog maybe you try to get a job with lonely planet as pretty informative, kath and I were only saying it is 2 years since we went to europe so places like london, paris, venice etc brought back some fond memories as we both love the place. Enjoy the rest of the trip and try to erase the horror from last Saturday from you mind. Cheers