Arlington Court and Church

Zoo fun

EJ was really taken with these peacocks. He is animal mad and I'd a hard job convincing him that he most definitely could not cuddle the cheetah :)

Croyde Bay Devon

Well, we're back over a week so thought it was time for a quick update. I keep tossing up whether or not to can the whole blog thing but when I do get around to updating them, I find it enjoyable. I'm working on my time management and computer time has been slashed. I find reading and learning when online more beneficial than anything I have to say!

The trip to England was enjoyable although we did have a character strengthening weekend on the way back home :) I blame Land Rover although I guess they weren't even remotely at fault. Hubby this year, switched allegiance to Toyota and picked up a '97 tidy Landcruiser which would have lasted for years to come ... or so I thought. After less than two months, he was pining for a Land Rover and bought this old defender on ebay in September, to be picked up on our way home. If the house ever does sell and we move back down under, the plan is to drive part of the way and ship from the middle east. If we're stuck here, we may take a tiki tour round the interior of Turkey next year. Either way, I guess we'll need more space.

An object of great beauty - in the eyes of my husband

As the Landy didn't have a gear box- among other things, we hired a car trailer in Portadown, unhitched it in England and then drove it home. Hubby figured that one of the tyres was suspect and chugged along fairly slowly next to the hard shoulder on the motorway. On the Sunday morning we had a blow out and what should have been a three hour trip to Wales, turned into an eleven and a half hour endurance test. We'd spent a hairy night in the Birmingham F1 the previous night with youth of today running up and down the corridors banging on the doors (although a close encounter with this crabbit old thirty something woman at 4am put an end to that) so it was lovely when we finally arrived at the home of our friend's to celebrate their son's birthday. Thank you again guys for your kind hospitality. We had a wonderful time.

And now, as they say it's back to porridge and I'm sitting here playing with photos, some of which I'll share here.

The coast around north Devon is pretty. We'd never visited this area before and the kids don't get to the beach often at home so they really enjoyed themselves. It is great fun doing all these things again with an inquisitive two year old.

Checking in from Devon

I've been without internet access for a whole week now! No noticable withdrawls.
We're in north Devon by the sea and the weather has been favorable. Tomorrow we hope to drive on down to Cornwall.
We ended up not camping. At 4.30am on our way to the port, it dawned on dear husband that he'd forgotten to pack the one (only) thing he was in charge of - the tent! We had sleeping bags, new inflatable mattresses, replacement foot pump etc. - just no tent. So we ended up staying in a friend's mobile home on their farm. I felt awful as we had planned to pop in on them for an hour after arriving in Wales and ended up as house guests. Still, it was lovely to catch up and the kids had a blast.
My internet credit is almost done. I'm allergic to radio and it's blaring in my ear so I don't think I'll feed this any more coins. Will be back on the 20th God willing.

Home away from home - will she ever camp again!

England

At 3 am we plan to drag everyone out of bed and drive for four hours to catch the morning sailing to Wales. We had originally planned to camp near the port this evening, however it is freezing cold and blowing a gale outside. Here's hoping it calms down a bit as we're booked into a campsite in Wales tomorrow night to break the journey down to Devon.

Once in Devon we've managed to hire a cheap caravan - off season is great - and will do the same again in Cornwall. On the way home, we will attempt to camp again. When you have this many kids, the budget dictates it. They on the other hand, view it as a huge adventure.

The reason we're heading to the south west of England is that our daughter is due back at the institute for brain injured children where she attends, for her bi annual review. TG was sustained a traumatic brain injury at three months of age due to a series of hospital blunders (of course, they're not saying that) which has left her with severe cerebral palsy. Someone asked me recently if I wasn't bitter and mad. The answer is no. I believe that this happened in the permissive will of God. I've been following a thread on another blog lately and am grateful that I understand and believe in the sovereignity of God. But that is by the by and probably a topic for different blog.

We plan to make this as educational for the kids as possible. I've been saving my Tesco coupons and have enough to pay for one of the ferries and a couple of days out. In Devon we hope to use them in Exmoor Zoo and visit The Big Sheep. We also have our NT membership so have packed the guide book and will plan as we go - weather permitting. In Wales, all the museums are FREE which is brilliant. A few years ago we did the Big Pit. This trip we hope to do the Museum of Welsh Life in Cardiff which is an open air folk park. In Cornwall (the reason for heading down there) we will revisit the Eden Project.

So, hopefully wifi permitting, I'll get some blogging done on the road but for now, it's off to bed.