Wow, hadn't realized how much time had passed since I last updated everyone! What can I say........!
The big Family party was amazing! The setting was an old Country Hotel which we more or less had to ourselves and was like a setting for an Agatha Christie book.Everyone was in their best bib and tucker, and after a round of bubbles we sat down to a sumptuous meal and many hours of banter and some story telling.
As the Hamblin clan descended on Wimborne we vacated our rooms at Mums to make room for some of the others and based ourselves in Weymouth with big brother, Colin. The weather was hot and sunny so we made the most of it and had a family surfing lesson.... fantastic even if I was the only member of the family who didn't get onto my feet, and of course I haven't been allowed to forget it! The outfit was run by a Kiwi who was very pleased to have some fellow countrymen and woman to teach. I am hoping to have another go this week so I can keep up with the others!
Some other Kiwis from Cambridge got in touch and we ended up meeting them at Stonehenge. I think I had been there as a child but didn't really remember it. Quite a surreal place despite the people but the boys weren't impressed that it is all roped off and you can't climb on the stones.
Weymouth is the quintessential English seaside town with its promenade backed by a Georgian Terrace, deckchairs for hire and donkey rides. On a summers day there is no room on the beach, but in the early evening light when all the grockles have gone it is quite beautiful with sailing boats in the bay and the white cliffs to the east. I like the harbour where there is always something happening with all the boats and people and funny little houses along the edges. There has been alot of upgrading going on in and around the town as Wemouth is to be the sailing venue in the 2012 Olympic Games. Chesil Beach is an impressive and unique geographical feature. Nearly 11 miles long, it is a huge bank of pebbles with an area of water behind it called the Fleet. Fishermen can find their position by the size of the stones which vary greatly along the bank. On a stormy day the sound of the stones as they roll back down in the backwash is more of a roar!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wales
Q: How do you get two whales in a Mini?
A: Over the severn bridge!
We used to love that joke when we were kids, but when my kids hadn't heard of the Severn Bridge, or the River Severn for that matter it didn't have quite the same effect! Of course now there are 2 bridges across the Severn and Dad tells me that the new one is the most magnificant bridge in Europe!
Anyway off we went over the old bridge and into Wales (had also told the boys that they would need there passports but they didn't fall for that one)! To start with we noticed that the road signs wer in English with the Welsh written underneath, but the further into Wales that we got, the Welsh was at the top! We stayed in the Brecon Beacons National Park and our Welsh Long House was on a hill looking across to the Black Mountains. We were a long way from any towns down impossibly narrow lanes, onto a dirt track and over a ford....Brilliant! We did go into a couple of the nearest towns, but 3 of them all started with Ll, Llandeilo, Llangadog and Llandovery. Not suprisingly we got quite confused as to where we were!
It was a great week, with lots of walking including taking the Boys up onto Pen y fan (about 3000ft) where the SAS do alot of their training. The area is also a place where the Red Kite birds of prey have made a comeback from near extinction. It is a beautiful bird with a 2m wingspan and distinctive forked tail.Hundreds of breeding pairs are now thriving in Wales and we had 2 to watch every day out infront of the house!
This part of Wales is relatively unknown and is so beautiful and yet it is so close to the heavily populated "Valleys" area.
We came back to England over the New bridge and boy as that impressive!
The interesting thing was we one only had to pay a toll going into Wales, but not coming back out!
A: Over the severn bridge!
We used to love that joke when we were kids, but when my kids hadn't heard of the Severn Bridge, or the River Severn for that matter it didn't have quite the same effect! Of course now there are 2 bridges across the Severn and Dad tells me that the new one is the most magnificant bridge in Europe!
Anyway off we went over the old bridge and into Wales (had also told the boys that they would need there passports but they didn't fall for that one)! To start with we noticed that the road signs wer in English with the Welsh written underneath, but the further into Wales that we got, the Welsh was at the top! We stayed in the Brecon Beacons National Park and our Welsh Long House was on a hill looking across to the Black Mountains. We were a long way from any towns down impossibly narrow lanes, onto a dirt track and over a ford....Brilliant! We did go into a couple of the nearest towns, but 3 of them all started with Ll, Llandeilo, Llangadog and Llandovery. Not suprisingly we got quite confused as to where we were!
It was a great week, with lots of walking including taking the Boys up onto Pen y fan (about 3000ft) where the SAS do alot of their training. The area is also a place where the Red Kite birds of prey have made a comeback from near extinction. It is a beautiful bird with a 2m wingspan and distinctive forked tail.Hundreds of breeding pairs are now thriving in Wales and we had 2 to watch every day out infront of the house!
This part of Wales is relatively unknown and is so beautiful and yet it is so close to the heavily populated "Valleys" area.
We came back to England over the New bridge and boy as that impressive!
The interesting thing was we one only had to pay a toll going into Wales, but not coming back out!
Birthdays
Its official, I now have a 10 year old! We were very pleasred with ourselves as we managed to throw a suprise party for Lachie. All I had to do was get him out of the house for a while and what better excuse than having to buy new clothes for Grandpas party..........and he fell for it! Left Nikki, Erin and the others to blow up balloons etc and BINGO....
Quite a laugh when it came to pass the parcel and we didn't have a CD player. Sam volunteered to hum tunes from behind the sofa so we had everything from the Dr Who theme to music from Pirates of the Caribbean and James Bond.
On Friday Dad turned 80! When you reach that milestone you are allowed more than 1 party, so on Friday it was the turn of his old friends, better known as "the Grumpy Old Men" and their better halves! It was a lovely lunch and good for us to see so many of the old faces from our childhood. Colin and I had raided the old photo boxes and put a couple of boards together. We found some great shots of Dad as a teenager and of him doing what he loved, hiking and climbing in places like North Wales. We also dug out some of National service days and his posting to Hong Kong!
Next weekend it is the turn of the family, including us 5 children and most of the Grandchildren. It will be the first time that we have all been together for 8 years so will be a very special weekend. So special that I have even been out and bought a frock (with the guidance of my niece)!
Quite a laugh when it came to pass the parcel and we didn't have a CD player. Sam volunteered to hum tunes from behind the sofa so we had everything from the Dr Who theme to music from Pirates of the Caribbean and James Bond.
On Friday Dad turned 80! When you reach that milestone you are allowed more than 1 party, so on Friday it was the turn of his old friends, better known as "the Grumpy Old Men" and their better halves! It was a lovely lunch and good for us to see so many of the old faces from our childhood. Colin and I had raided the old photo boxes and put a couple of boards together. We found some great shots of Dad as a teenager and of him doing what he loved, hiking and climbing in places like North Wales. We also dug out some of National service days and his posting to Hong Kong!
Next weekend it is the turn of the family, including us 5 children and most of the Grandchildren. It will be the first time that we have all been together for 8 years so will be a very special weekend. So special that I have even been out and bought a frock (with the guidance of my niece)!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ships: New and old
Had a great day in Portsmouth this week.....don't think I've ever been there before!
So much to see and do and a day was not enough. First onboard HMS Warrior, the first part iron, part wood and part sail, part steam battle ship. When she was launched in 1860 she was the largest, fastest and most powerful warship in the world. Now I wasn't sure if I was really going to enjoy Portsmouth, but I was Soooooooo impressed with Warrior and her 40 canons that I couldn't wait to move on the The Mary Rose and HMS Victory! If truth be told, I could see that historically the Mary Rose was impressive, but there really isn't that much left of her.
Victory was a different story, you could stand in the very spot where Nelson fell in 1805, and go right down into the hold and imagine the living conditions of the sailors; not nice! I read about the punishments dished out on a regular basis that kept the crew on task and disciplined. Apparently for stealing, 600 lashes were seen as appropriate. However because not many people could cope with 600 in one go,they often dished out 200 at a time with a break of 2 weeks in between. Imagine the anticipation/horror of knowing your next 200 were coming up!
We also had a harbour trip and there were about 20 present day Royal Navy ships in and I got a bit carried away with the photo taking. I did note that nobody seemed to mind me taking photos of any of them, even the newest and most up to date stealth ship....HMS Daring! (in Chile I was advised not to take photos of their fleet). There were also 2 aircraft carriers, Invinsible and Ark Royal, very impressive up close!
There was also an interactive centre called Action Stations where you could do things like fly a helicopter simulator and do Royal Marine fitness and agility tests......the boys loved the rotating climbing wall which tilted back and forth and just kept going until you fell off! Lachie has now decided that he wants to fly helicopters when he grows up!!!!!
What we didn't have time for was the Submarine museum, D-Day museum, and Royal Marine museum, so guess what, we are going back again!
So much to see and do and a day was not enough. First onboard HMS Warrior, the first part iron, part wood and part sail, part steam battle ship. When she was launched in 1860 she was the largest, fastest and most powerful warship in the world. Now I wasn't sure if I was really going to enjoy Portsmouth, but I was Soooooooo impressed with Warrior and her 40 canons that I couldn't wait to move on the The Mary Rose and HMS Victory! If truth be told, I could see that historically the Mary Rose was impressive, but there really isn't that much left of her.
Victory was a different story, you could stand in the very spot where Nelson fell in 1805, and go right down into the hold and imagine the living conditions of the sailors; not nice! I read about the punishments dished out on a regular basis that kept the crew on task and disciplined. Apparently for stealing, 600 lashes were seen as appropriate. However because not many people could cope with 600 in one go,they often dished out 200 at a time with a break of 2 weeks in between. Imagine the anticipation/horror of knowing your next 200 were coming up!
We also had a harbour trip and there were about 20 present day Royal Navy ships in and I got a bit carried away with the photo taking. I did note that nobody seemed to mind me taking photos of any of them, even the newest and most up to date stealth ship....HMS Daring! (in Chile I was advised not to take photos of their fleet). There were also 2 aircraft carriers, Invinsible and Ark Royal, very impressive up close!
There was also an interactive centre called Action Stations where you could do things like fly a helicopter simulator and do Royal Marine fitness and agility tests......the boys loved the rotating climbing wall which tilted back and forth and just kept going until you fell off! Lachie has now decided that he wants to fly helicopters when he grows up!!!!!
What we didn't have time for was the Submarine museum, D-Day museum, and Royal Marine museum, so guess what, we are going back again!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Catch-Up
We seem to have had a busy couple of weeks involving Legoland, a 21st birthday and a trip to Cornwall.
Legoland was fantastic......even for us adults. It was priceless to see the looks of sheer excitement on the faces of L and S as they literaly ran from one thing to another. The work that had gone into the building of some of the models was incredible. We found out that there are 6 full-time model makers and another 2 part-timers! I want that job!!! There was a life-size Darth Vader and an enormous Pharaoh amongst other things and of course Sams favourite ride was the one that involved getting very wet.
3 years ago when I was last here I was able to help Nikki celebrate her 18th and last week it was her 21st! How time flies! Her coach, CP, is enjoying the UK so much they are staying an extra week before heading to Belgium. N and fellow athlete, Erin are making the most of the endless footpaths and bridleways that allow them to stay off the roads. Graham was invited to do their long run with them and didn't do too badly.....reckons they covered 25km in 1hr 40, with a few stops to read the map! N very kindly came with her Mum and I on our run, but she did ride her bike and threatened to ride into the back of us if we slowed down too much!
We had a lovely long weekend just inside Cornwall, near Tavistock with Colin, Pam and the athletes.
The athletes had a track session in Plymouth on the Saturday, so the rest of us went too and some helped with time keeping while the sensible ones went and found a coffee (still not up tp NZ standards but 100 times better than Chilean)! Later we headed to The Hoe, where Sir Francis Drake was playing bowls as he spotted the Spanish Armada. Supposedly he finished his game and then headed off to sink most of the Spanish ships. Interestingly, seen as a hero by the English, while we were in Chile he was described as the biggest pirate to sail the seas!
We found a fabulous cheese shop in Tavistock and were able to sample before we made any decisions. We couldn't resist the one called Stinky Bishop and of course had to have some proper Stilton.
Being as far west as we were we decided to continue on to Falmouth to stay with some old friends who moved down there 3 or 4 years ago. We had a great time and had a look at St Michael Mount. We managed to get across to it via the causeway, but then the tide came in so we had to get the boat back!
We also managed to fit in the Eden Project which we all enjoyed. We spotted all sorts of NZ natives and loved the tropical biosphere (and not just because it was warm).
Back in Dorset now and Saturday involved 3 generations of Hamblin girls on a shopping trip! Need I say more except that one of my neices has incredible shopping stamina and that Grandma coped very well! Afterwards we met up with all the men (and boys), and took over the local Italian restaurant.
Today we hit the beach and the temperature hit 26 degrees. It must have been warm because even I swam and realised that the last time I swam in the sea was on Easter Island and it seemed such a long time ago. The boys did comment on the number of other people on the beach and my reply was, just wait till its school holidays!
Legoland was fantastic......even for us adults. It was priceless to see the looks of sheer excitement on the faces of L and S as they literaly ran from one thing to another. The work that had gone into the building of some of the models was incredible. We found out that there are 6 full-time model makers and another 2 part-timers! I want that job!!! There was a life-size Darth Vader and an enormous Pharaoh amongst other things and of course Sams favourite ride was the one that involved getting very wet.
3 years ago when I was last here I was able to help Nikki celebrate her 18th and last week it was her 21st! How time flies! Her coach, CP, is enjoying the UK so much they are staying an extra week before heading to Belgium. N and fellow athlete, Erin are making the most of the endless footpaths and bridleways that allow them to stay off the roads. Graham was invited to do their long run with them and didn't do too badly.....reckons they covered 25km in 1hr 40, with a few stops to read the map! N very kindly came with her Mum and I on our run, but she did ride her bike and threatened to ride into the back of us if we slowed down too much!
We had a lovely long weekend just inside Cornwall, near Tavistock with Colin, Pam and the athletes.
The athletes had a track session in Plymouth on the Saturday, so the rest of us went too and some helped with time keeping while the sensible ones went and found a coffee (still not up tp NZ standards but 100 times better than Chilean)! Later we headed to The Hoe, where Sir Francis Drake was playing bowls as he spotted the Spanish Armada. Supposedly he finished his game and then headed off to sink most of the Spanish ships. Interestingly, seen as a hero by the English, while we were in Chile he was described as the biggest pirate to sail the seas!
We found a fabulous cheese shop in Tavistock and were able to sample before we made any decisions. We couldn't resist the one called Stinky Bishop and of course had to have some proper Stilton.
Being as far west as we were we decided to continue on to Falmouth to stay with some old friends who moved down there 3 or 4 years ago. We had a great time and had a look at St Michael Mount. We managed to get across to it via the causeway, but then the tide came in so we had to get the boat back!
We also managed to fit in the Eden Project which we all enjoyed. We spotted all sorts of NZ natives and loved the tropical biosphere (and not just because it was warm).
Back in Dorset now and Saturday involved 3 generations of Hamblin girls on a shopping trip! Need I say more except that one of my neices has incredible shopping stamina and that Grandma coped very well! Afterwards we met up with all the men (and boys), and took over the local Italian restaurant.
Today we hit the beach and the temperature hit 26 degrees. It must have been warm because even I swam and realised that the last time I swam in the sea was on Easter Island and it seemed such a long time ago. The boys did comment on the number of other people on the beach and my reply was, just wait till its school holidays!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Daleks & Cybermen
We went to the Dr. Who exhibition in Coventry. The Tardis was there. Behind the Tardis was the Empress of the Racnoss, which is a giant spider with a human head and body. It was huge and moved up and down. Then there were pilot fish dressed up as Santa Clauses with flamethrowers disguised as trombones and Christmas bauble grenades.
The Slitheen were behind that with the damaged part of Big Ben after they hit it with their spaceship which was piloted by a pig.
The Ood were there. They were in a space capsule and it showed how they made the heads and faces for the costumes. One Ood talked if you pressed a button. Then there was the werewolf from "Tooth & Claw". The scarecrows from "The family of blood".
There were also Sontarans with their guns and helmets and muscle disablers.
There were others but Lachie & I got a real fright when we pushed the red button in front of the Cybermen, who came to life and wanted to delete us. The Cyber-controller was in there with them.
But the scariest one of all was the Daleks. Lachie & I hid around the corner and watched as they wanted to exterminate us. They blew out lots of smoke and green lasers came out of their exterminater guns and shone through the smoke. Just when that was over, Davros the creator of the Daleks came to life behind us and said some things.
sam
The Slitheen were behind that with the damaged part of Big Ben after they hit it with their spaceship which was piloted by a pig.
The Ood were there. They were in a space capsule and it showed how they made the heads and faces for the costumes. One Ood talked if you pressed a button. Then there was the werewolf from "Tooth & Claw". The scarecrows from "The family of blood".
There were also Sontarans with their guns and helmets and muscle disablers.
There were others but Lachie & I got a real fright when we pushed the red button in front of the Cybermen, who came to life and wanted to delete us. The Cyber-controller was in there with them.
But the scariest one of all was the Daleks. Lachie & I hid around the corner and watched as they wanted to exterminate us. They blew out lots of smoke and green lasers came out of their exterminater guns and shone through the smoke. Just when that was over, Davros the creator of the Daleks came to life behind us and said some things.
sam
Legoland in England.
Hello everyone.
Sorry that we haven't written on here in a while but there has been so much to do here.We have just been to Legoland where there are rides and attractions all based on lego!There were Viking water rides,roller coasters,driving school and a ride through an 'Egyptian tomb' where you blast lights with lasers in a dark tunnel!And the great thing was that we stayed the night in a hotel not far from Legoland so we could do it again thenext day!
Lachie.
Sorry that we haven't written on here in a while but there has been so much to do here.We have just been to Legoland where there are rides and attractions all based on lego!There were Viking water rides,roller coasters,driving school and a ride through an 'Egyptian tomb' where you blast lights with lasers in a dark tunnel!And the great thing was that we stayed the night in a hotel not far from Legoland so we could do it again thenext day!
Lachie.
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