Aug 20 Derby

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19 August, Derby, 1:30 pm-ish.After a slow grinding progression along record- long queues at immigration (even those who travelled there regularly claimed it was much slower than usual), we headed for the exit. We knew our brother-in-law, Jerry, was meeting us but had thought Robin would probably not come and be visiting their sick daughter in hospital instead. Ann was the first to spot Jerry amongst the sea of faces then "Robin's there too" at that the tears just welled up in my eyes - there were huge tear-filled hugs all around and I realised it had been 9 years since I had last seen my sister.


It was still hot and sunny when we arrived. We stopped for a coffee, Jerry gave me a peculiar look when I asked for a flat white - no such thing here but the latte tasted great.

Arriving in the evening the worse of the traffic was gone, I was not looking forward to 2 hours in the car after 12 hours on the plane but the time passed so quickly as we chatted and caught up that I didn't even notice and couldn't believe it had taken us that long to get to Derby. Pip & Kirsten (neices) were away so it was just the 4 of us last night. We got the tour and met the menagerie. The bunnies are Tommy & Honey, Bailey the chinchilla was delightul (skuttles across the floor very quickly and you have to watch where you put your feet) and Toby the hamster very cute. Meg the border colley is oder and more sedate but very friendly.

Ann had not slept at all on the plane & was a complete zombie. I had had several snatches and felt like I was starting to wake up as we arrived. Ann crashed in bed and Robin I talked until late. Rob had made a blue setting the timer on the breadmaker and had to wait up for it to finish. By the time the animals were all fed and attended to it was very late in bed.

About 6.30am Ann was saying - "sue, roll over" - clearly my snoring was disrupting things - that may be a reucurring theme during this holiday! It was quite hot and once awake I realised I was not going back to sleep. Robin had mentioned she was doing Kirsten's paper run for her while K was away - she normally uses the bike but offered to walk if I wanted to join her - so I did and have a photo to prove it! 40 minutes of winding around circular streets here in Mackworth - some very cute houses.

Robin left about 10am to visit Mim in hospital. I woke Ann & we decided to walk across to Mackworth shops to see if we could get some money our of our new travel cards. We found a machine that would accept them and now have some Britich pounds in our possession. Off to the little coop supermarket to get some supplies.

I got a little something to eat and decided to eat it in the garden at Robin's. I left the door open and called out to Meg to see if she wanted to join me in the garden. (I was eating a cornish pastie - which seemed to me to be quintessentially British) I looked up to see the rabits happily escaping into the garden. arrgh Ann come and help me - then Ann & I were chasing the bunnies round and round the garden trying to catch these blessed rabbits or even heard them back inside, laughing our heads off - what a sight! eventually managed to heard Tommy back inside. Honey however was having none of it. Eventually she wandered near the run and quick thinking ann lifted up the fence and dropped it the other side of her trapping her in the rabbit run. Ann then climbed in and tried to catch her in there to no avail. We decided to leave her there, stretched out the netting over top of it to try and limit her chances of escape (Robin had said she was a great escape artist. Rob was on the way home by this stage so I sat by the dining room window typing my blog with one eye on the errant rabbit until she arrived. (my misguided attempt to lure Tommy out from under his hutch so I could put him in th erun with Honey only resulted in being growled at by a rabbit - who knew they could do that? so I gave up on that idea.

After Robin got home we took Meg for a walk. What a goreous intelligent obedient dog! There is a lovely park about 2 minutes walk from Rob's place and fetch was a popular game. A nice refreshing swim in the pond was icing on the cake for Meg. In this park there are some craft shops sited in the old stables of what used to be a stately home (stables looked impressive wonder what the home was like). Apparently the only son & heir of this family went down with the Titanic so they left the estate to the people of Derby. There is no sign of the original home now but the park (& stables) are lovely.

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Photos

Meg, the dog
Meg - beautiful & intelligent

The Bunnies
Tommy & Honey - honey has the golder colour and is the little ratbag

Bailey
Chinchillas are gorgeous