Mowersure

Aunty Jenny and Uncle Charles have a little shop in Southfields (southern London) called Mowersure where they sell and service lawnmowers.  They drove in from Little Bookham every day so we could just catch a lift in with them.  It was a great base for us as we could easily walk to the tube station, and could have a place to dump bags or have (free) hot tea :)

In the workshop - Geoff and Uncle Charles

Geoff getting lawnmower engine instruction from Uncle Charles

London - friends, culture and tubes

In the last week we spent some time in London visiting friends and seeing some of the sights.  It was great to see Geoff's cousins Bonnie and Neil Hayden and Adrian and Phil Selfe at a Greg Eden's engagement party.  Then on to Adi and Phil's lovely flat in Crouch End, North London where we spent the night. Adrian was available to show us round his neighbourhood the next morning - what a lovely area - and a great chance to catch up. 

On another day we met up with Alice Robinson for a drink and to catch up with her before heading up to North London again to spend the night with Tam and Johann Napp in their beautiful apartment - was great to see them settled in after joining them at their wedding in Franschoek, SA, 3 weeks ago :).

The next day we raced through the London Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.  They were far too vast to be able to do justice to so we focussed on a couple of exhibits that interested us.  The highlight by far for us though was the architecture of the Natural History Museum.  It was custom built as the natural history museum and has amazing relief and carvings of fish and birds and animals and plants on all the columns and archways with amazing murals on the ceilings, mosaics on the floors and coloured brickwork - definitely worth a visit!  And you can just pop in and out of these museums as they're all free.  Only some of the special exhibitions have an entrance fee.

We were put in touch with some family friends of the du Toit's (actually, distant family) whose grandfather, Philip de Laszlo was a highly regarded portrait painter from the turn of the 20th century till the second world war. Damon and Sandra de Laszlo invited us to join them at Damon's offices in Piccadilly where some of his private portrait collection was on display. It was an amazing opportunity, not only to see more of the collection (Geoff grew up playing beneath one of de Laszlo's portraits as a child in his grandparents house) and to get a better understanding of the artist, but also to meet friends from a very different walk of life. We are visiting friends of Damon and Sandra in Devon shortly.

We then spent a night with Pierre Harwood and his lovely girlfriend Joe down in Putney and to braai in the rain on possibly the driest evening we had yet experienced in the UK! Pierre works in the local construction industry so Geoff really enjoyed learning a bit more about how the industry is doing in the UK. On a more personal note it was great to reconnect with Pierre whom we typically see annually on the Harwood crayfishing expeditions!

We made it to the Tate Modern, which like the other museums in London is just too big to take in in one go - and Geoff had slept in so combined with the terribly long travel times meant we had only 45 minutes to see something significant. Thankfully Geoff had an idea what to look for so headed straight for the Dali, Miro and Calder items justifying the trip. We also took in the HUGENESS of the old brick turbine halls.  

We managed to catch Chris Ainslie up north for a lunch where he was rehearsing for an upcoming opera. It sounded very challenging - but he is having lots of fun!

Dorset - ruined castles and steam trains

Last weekend Aunty Jenny and Uncle Charles took us camping down in Dorset near a place called Corfe Castle.  The weather was fairly good and we even had a fair amount of sun with only interspersed rain and hail - pretty good going!

Headed down Southampton way and then to Sandbanks at the entrance to Poole Harbour.  Across the chain ferry and on to some white chalk cliffs and Old Harry's Rocks.  Scared the wits out of Uncle Charles taking jumping photos near the edge of the slightly overhanging chalk cliffs :)

Geoff at Old Harry's Rocks

White limestone (chalk) cliffs with "rocks" - the broken off pillars

Then on to the ruins of the once very impressive Corfe Castle.  The stone castle was built in the 11th Century by William the Conqueror and it stands on a little hill in the middle of a break in a ridge - very picturesque!  The castle must have been impressive when it was fully functional as there remains some beautiful stonework and it was at least 4 storeys high. Below the castle lies the town of Corfe - all made out of local Purbeck limestone with thick slabs of slate for roof tiles, and we retreated there for cream tea to get out of the rain for a bit.  Then on to Corfe station which has been restored and they run a steam and diesel train service for a couple of miles.  Was like stepping back in time to see the station as it would have been 100 years ago, complete with old suitcases and trunks piled on the luggage trolleys.  The the railway system is all run by volunteers (it was restored by volunteers too) and we chatted to a very passionate old chap in his 3 piece suit, watch chain and cap about the railways.  We managed to talk our way in to see the old (fully restored) signal box too and the signalman (also a volunteer) explained how the mechanical signals work and the key system that they use so that the don't have 2 trains on the same piece of line, etc.  It was really fascinating.

Corfe Castle

Looking down from Corfe Castle with the steam train and rape fields. 

Corfe Castle from the Station.  The signal man is exchanging "keys" with the driver in beautiful leather pouches

We "glamped" (glam-camped) on a little field near Corfe - once again glad for our down sleeping bags, down jackets and wet weather gear.

Swanage Station

Sunday morning we headed down to Norden to catch the first steam train and rode through to Swanage, a seaside town.  Swannage was quaint and we went for a wander along the cliffs to a castle ruin (a Victorian folly) where we found an exhibition called "The Crochet Garden" - use your own imagination! I'm still in two minds about it.....  The rain shortened our walk and we headed back to the train before heading back to Little Bookham.


What a fantastic weekend!

Up the Thames by boat

Last week we spent a day on the beautiful Connaught, a 101 year old passenger ferry, run by the Colliers.  What a beautiful way to see London, and to see a very different side of London.  We started at Westminster and you see the usual side of London - beautiful bridges, old and new buildings (including the (very) inconspicuous MI6) - and then as you head up it becomes more and more green, with islands with trees and heron nests, flowers everywhere and mud banks to the river.  It is beautiful!  

barges and houseboats

beautiful bridges

sunshine! YES PLEASE!!!

Thanks so much Louise and Arthur for organising it for us - we loved it.

Back at Westminster we decided to walk up Victoria Embankment to see some of the sights.  Very pretty despite the looming grey clouds.  When the thunder started, Geoff made a dash for a phone booth to call for sunshine...

....unfortunately no luck.... so we walked for the next hour in a HUGE thunderstorm - lightening, thunder, hail, the works!

The Thames and the Shard in a thunderstorm

We were once again very grateful for our waterproofs!!!

Spring in London (well, greater London anyway!)

We left Cape Town with loads of luggage - mostly toys for camping, climbing, general playing and a few necssary clothes.  At the last minute we got an sms from Aunty Jen in London saying that the weather had got a little chilly again so we should't leave all our warm things behind... so we tossed in the down jackets, a pair of thermals and a scarf each.  Hmmm... we weren't quite prepared enough so had to pick up waterproof trousers, gloves and waterproof boots too!  We're now good for the rain, thunderstorms, hail and sleet that we've had complimenting the patches of blue sky and dramatic clouds.

After sleeping a lot and resting up, we wandered around London for a day, found a beautiful castle ruin in  Guildford, traveled up and down the Thames by ferry and have seen friends and family.

But Springtime has been beautiful!

Bluebells in the woods

Daffodils!

Gardens at Guildford Castle

Cold and wet in London

Buckingham Palace

Spring at Wisley Horticultural Gardens

The Journey Begins: Goodbye Cape Town

Cape Town: the sun, the sea, the beach and of course the beautiful mountain!

We are taking an opportunity to take a 6 month sabbatical to travel, learn more about ourselves and each other, visit friends and family and to expand our knowledge base in areas that interest each of us.
We've taken leave from our jobs, packed up and rented out our house, found a temporary home for our kittens and we leave tomorrow.

So, where are we going?
We're not 100's sure. Definitely the UK and Croatia, and hopefully Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Tasmania (I know that's not a separate country). We'll see where the road takes us.

First stop: Spring in London.