wicked on purbeck

where's hone?

thanks shippie for driving us.

thanks nige for not losing us too many times.

thanks claire for showing us the good times.

thanks oxford for not floating away just yet.

many pairs of tights tried. only one would succeed.






amazing what you can do with a camera these days





the pub where sex, drugs and alcohol were all invented in 1012. sold out just before we got there. except for the beer. was ok.

this is the thames creek in flood. just prior to 3 oxen being swept away to a watery gloom. (rescued later by the oxless 4's life saving team... ohmygod sorry).


ahhh the full moon. setting. [note la trying hard to shelter from the dazzle. no avail.]

punt

thanks mum for coming and staying and showing us good times! friday was spent doing a wee bit of walking around old london (who would've thought that there was still a roman wall?). london museum. st katharines dock. southbank and the good ol ferris wheel.
and for saturday. this time it was a punt on the cam by the bridge. mum displayed her none too shabby kayaking style. very important. we all had a punt and a punting good time was had.

highlight was queing for evensong @ kings college after getting barred entry into pretty much every other college. must have heard about mum's rep from wai col huh?

ladies at the beginning of the day. now you know where we live when you come to visit. kfc was just out of shot. sorry. bad frame.





and this is to show you the corner where we banished mum. and these are the brochures she had stashed after we confiscated 1/2 a suitcase worth (was very embarassed when we had to return them to the transport for london fella. he was nice about it tho.)

Sick day

Today I got up, got dressed and ate my breakfast as usual, before deciding that I was too sick to go to work. So, instead of spreading my germ with the millions on the tube, I stayed home and treated myself to a sick day.

I love sick days; they're the greatest. It's so nice having time on your own just pottering about. Today, I found myself starting to think about random things again (like what is the meaning of life in london) and being enthralled by the sun shining in the skylight through the rain as the worlds shortest, and most intense, thunderstorm hit. I watched 'Notes on a scandal' (fantastic) in bed on the laptop and planned our trip to Turkey in September (always takes longer than you think, trawling through the empty promises laid before you so enticingly on ever so many to choose from websites - remember the good old days when you went into a travel agents and they sorted your holiday out for you while you sat there and looked at the enormous map of the world on the wall behind the counter, dreaming about far off places...ahhh. yes)

Today I felt the world go round at just the right speed. I even had time to put a slow cooking beef stew with sage dumplings on to cook. mm mmm goodness. Jon is heading home now, tubewilling he will be here by 9 for kai before bed and the end of my lovely sick day.

the fridge

nothing like out of towners to help you feel more attached to your adopted town of choice. so choice it was and choose we did. thanks london. i guess. finally. i mean, being in the northern hemisphere and not being in the arctic we were hoping for some not rain and cold some times (expectations have always been low but...) anyway it arrived with leanne and kane (always rely on the east coast to shine on thru) who stepped off the plane on thursday, and had wisely booked us in ahead of time, so we were well primed (kinda) for 24 hours of londra.

um. briefly. like jockley. portobello rd with all the italians looking for the pretty door (dov'e?). dodgy cherry guy. velvet jacket for bryce. handbag for shippie. shirts for leanne. cd for me (rjd2 thank you - first cd purchase since 2003! because i was too lazy to downsteal it. what is the world cominng to?). alana - what did you get? kane got a smile and some sunshine.

a little bit of wandering off the beaten track took us thru notthinghill and on the way in hyde for the tour de france... which decided to start in london this year... so there were chaps (are there any ladies?) riding along a support vehicle complete with 3 changes of bicycle - just in case you didn't have anything to wear i guess. flouro lycra only goes so far (yeah like back 20 years. it really was that long ago. and that was the LATE 80s)

more lying around in the sund and back to relax on the deck (feijoa 42 below never tasted so good!), a little dinner and some sprucing before landing ourselves on to the district line and into the suber club FABRIC (forever more THE FRIDGE thanks to leanne).

how do i describe it? memories. clean. star trek hand dryers. really. doorman at the toilet cubicles (who needs engaged anymore?) techno room. detroit house room. dubby bass moving into housey house room. chill out beds. munters from munterville (fat ladies arms was mentioned more than once). guantanamo bay for smokers (herded into corrals for general mockery and derision). PA was solid all round. djs mediocre. company: genius.

taxi ride thru the deserted streets of london under the scruffy dawn sky was a treat. the sunrise over shephards bush with eggs and toast quite a treat. saying farewell to chums less so. but then they were going on to the holiday of a lifetime so i didn't feel so sad...

love

bryce: infinitely good or infinitely evil? you tell us.


kane and leanne. a little bit of gissy for us all.


one of 20 cctvs in the kitchen


not so secret







afterwards

the sun always shines on tv

sometimes the sun does shine
so in recognition of the longest day we're gonna have for a while, some sunny photos. afternoon gorging ourselves in kew garden followed by Xtreme frisbee in the forest with morris and ellie and nige and shippie. ace.


nige remembers where he left the smarties...


not sharing.


and that's all


sweet and short right?

i'll be

yeah so there was an amnesiac memory card but no longer! so its...

AMSTERDAMnER II.

thank goodness. really. i know how to get the most out of my tourist miles. no, really because your kids are paying for it. tell it to the polar bear.

some fellas hanging round outside biggie and rene's

again??>!>!?!>!?


geoff and alana find the first beach of the day. cafe inside a glass house. sounded like a good idea at the time...


real life dog. none of that CG stuff. nono. funny too. bow wow. ee.


second beach of the day.