Hampton Court to Kingston and Visitors.

I spent last weekend at a conference working and presenting a talk. (It's been a long week!) 

This weekend Mom and Dad came down for a quick trip, mainly to look after me. I had to go into hospital on Friday afternoon and needed someone to look after me for 24 hours afterwards. Friday night I wasn't up for much, though Mom and Dad availed themselves of my wine collection and seemed to have a good time.

On Saturday, we decided to go for a walk along the river. We got into Hampton Court in time for the rain. :( So sat and had dinner while it cleared. And get ice-creams for the walk!

Happy days

The walk is from Hampton Court to Kingston, the same one I did a month or so ago. The tree were more in bloom this time. And there were baby geese! very cute, thought their parents were a little nervous.

We had a nice meal on Saturday night (I was able to eat a proper meal by then) and a Sunday lunch the next day. But I forgot to take any photos. :(

Cotswolds

For the Bank holiday weekend, I picked Clare up in Richmond on Friday and we went to meet Matt and El in the Cotswolds at the same cottage as last time. This time we left earlier and got there at roughly the same time as Matt and El, in time for food and a movie. We were all complete rock stars over the weekend and in bed by 10pm latest (often earlier). Getting old.  

The goose shed - our cottage

The cottage is lovely and very cosy. Though on Saturday morning, I stepped on a very large beetle in our living room. I didn't realise what is was until I flicked it off, still alive and it started crawling over the floor. Yes, there was some screaming involved in this.

The weather was hit and miss most of the weekend. On Saturday we went for breakfast and passed a farm shop on the way back. It has some lovely things including some nice English wines and ciders which we enjoyed over the weekend. And also Chuckleberry jam. It sounds fake but it's amazing! We are all addicted. Initially I brought some to try (given the name, how could I not?) but after we tried it, we had to got back so we could all get some. It's a cross between a recurrent, blackcurrent and a gooseberry. And delicious!

It's real.

On the afternoon we had a walk up the lane and around the fields to the bluebell wood, disturbing  a few sheep on the way.

Hello?

Lambs!

Bluebells.

Clare and Matt strolling ahead.

The bluebell field was very lovely, a thick carpet. 

We carried on walking for a bit along the rapeseed field. The weather doesn't look great but it was dry and reasonably warm.

El, Matt and Clare

We turn back at the yellow brick road. Seriously, that's its name! 

Yellow brick road.

Given that no one really uses the red phone boxes before, Grafton village have put it to another use: a library.

Given the lovely weather (and because I hadn't been to a BBQ in years), we did a BBQ on the evening. We had some slight issues as I remembered everything except matches. We are rubbish at starting fires. We tired the cigarette lighter in my car and then the grill. We got it to smoke a lot but no fire (proving where there is smoke, there doesn't have to be fire!). Clare and El gave up and went to buy matches in the end. I thought Matt and I were getting close to success. :)

Finally. Fire!

BBQ

We even remembered to buy marshmallows to roast over for desert, which is becoming a tradition. Plus it was much warmer sitting by the BBQ. We huddled back inside soon after for another movie.

Toasting marshmallows.

On Sunday we went to Cheltenham. I think we missed the nice part. We ended up walking along your average high street. We did get a nice lunch at TGIF. But we got bored of shopping and went back for more movies, and sandwiches for tea.
And Monday, the weather was not great again, so we went to the cinema and had lunch before we all had to head back. The trip back to London wasn't too bad, though my GPS has decided to start giving me directions in relation to pub locations. That is a new one.

Sister Act

On Saturday, I went into Westminster on the evening to meet Betty and go to Sister Act with a live choir. I get there early so sat looking over the river (on the quiet side) with a drink and reading my book until Betty arrived.

We found somewhere to eat, a nice little restaurant. Betty ordered a chip butty. And convinced them to make her one. :)

Enjoying her chip butty.

Tackling my muscles.

Outside the theatre.

Pre-show drinks

The show was the Sister Act film on a huge stage, with a live choir singing all the songs. They even had a pre-show concert. And dancing. :)

Pre-show singing

I might be tempted to turn religious if it was all this cheerful.

Tribute to the Westminster acts in March.

It was a great night. I really miss live music and the theatre.
Sunday was spent doing boring stuff like washing, but I need to get ready for next weekend, a weekend away with friends. 

Falmouth and Treyarnon again

Overall we were very looking with the weather. It only rained on Friday. And Mom had caught a cold. So we went to Falmouth for a brief walk around the shops (including a boots for mom) and had lunch. We took a look round the harbour but it started to rain by then.

Falmouth harbour

On our last day we did some errands in the morning. We hoped to go to Padstow and get some more seafood and a pasty but we couldn't find anywhere to park. So we gave up and headed to Treyarnon again with the beach gear, found a place out of the wind, and settled there for the afternoon. Dad went  swimming, trying to bodyboard but the waves weren't great. Mom and I just relaxed and enjoyed a few hot chocolates. It was way too cold to even think about swimming for us.

We took a walk around the headland to Constantine bay, then headed back and got some food at the local YMA.

Rocks at Constantine

The best thing about the caravan site is the peace and the great sunsets.

On the last night, we went to the local pub for a few drinks (or my and mom's case, a bottle or two). Mom get very tipsy and it took us much long to walk home as we were all giggling too much.

We headed home on Sunday, me leaving mom and dad on the M5 as they head north and me east. The trip home took a lot less time than the trip there and the car seemed just fine! And no traffic. Woohoo!

Tintagel

My legs were working ok after the bike ride, so the next day we headed to Tintagel, the birth place of King Arthur. The weather was supposed to be dull and a bit miserable. Turns out the weather forecast lied. It was lovely! And my little car got us there safely. And back!

The walk down to the ticket office was a bit steep and much worse going back later in the day. 

On the way down.

Directions to events in Arthurs life

First stop was Haven, the black and Merlin's cave.

Headed to Haven.

Haven and Merlin's cave

Inside Merlin's cave.

Looking out

Then we had to walk up. Along way. A lot of steps, some very steep. The views were great from the top.

Looking down on the beach

Just some of the steps.

Ruin of part of the house

We found a bench and had some lunch, cracks and some cheeses we picked up at the market in Padstow a few days ago. 

At the top there is statue to King Arthur. It was very popular; I only got to take a few photos.

We walked along the cliff tops, mainly because we were all dreading the steps we had to take for the way down.

Checking out the seagull.

Dad, a little close to edge!

Once we got back to the bottom, Dad and I decided to climb the other side, a decision I really regretted for the next few days. The steps were incredibly steep! Mom sensibly waited for us at the bottom. 

It used to be all one finger of land. The middle section collapsed in the 15th Century. Hence the very steep steps. 

Headed up.

Dad climbing and scaring me!

On Thursday night, we went for a gorgeous meal at The Old Mill in the next village. It was very nice and we had a great time.