Sunday 1st June 2025

Sunday 1^st June

It was cloudy, windy, & there was drizzly rain on the air this morning. We weren’t meeting the others till 1-ish at the Drovers Inn, about 10miles from the BnB, so we headed into Ruthin for a better look around the town.

There are lots of old Tudor era houses, & buildings still around the town, which of course I had to photograph. We had a cuppa in a tiny cafe, where Geoff said the coffee was the best he’d had since we left Oz. He also found out there is a stone in the town with a King Arthur legend attached to it. Supposedly he had executed a rival on this stone!

Lunch at the Drovers Arms was an early, early birthday present from us to celebrate Judy’s 60th birthday on the 29th Sept. But as we won’t be here for that we did in now! It was very nice. 

After lunch they all followed us back to the BnB for a look around & a cuppa. When we got inside Linda said that she & Gwyn had looked at this place to buy it when it was for sale!!!

A walk around Ruthin 

Lunch at the Drovers Arms

HE SAID:

There was no hurry and we were out around 10am for a look at Ruthin (pronounced Rithun – that’s Welsh for you).It seemed a nice looking town, with plenty of old buildings, such as the 600 year old one in the town square.

Today's coffee was such an improvement on most that I have bought in the UK that I commented to the staff about it being really good. Starbucks was by far the worst at 4/10, and this one easily the best at 9/10, with several rating only about 6/10 on the Geoff scale. It was an enjoyable change. To top it off, over here they have no idea what a long black is, so they call it an Americano, which doesn't sit right with me.

After a short break we headed to the Drovers for a tasty roast lunch and a chat with Varena’s cousins. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, and then we retired back to our cottage for a cuppa. When all had departed I managed to watch a bit of the IPL qualifying final.

Saturday 31st May 2025

Saturday 31^st May

SHE SAID:

A nice slow start again; this holidaying is good!!

We headed into Ruthin to have a look around. The first stop was the old medieval castle ruins, which also has an 1800’s country house addition attached, which is a hotel now. It was a nice walk around; there were several Peacocks & hens strutting around; of course the males were showing off, displaying their beautiful tails.

From here we drove about 30mins to meet with Linda & Gwyn at Linda’s dad’s old house in Chirk. Linda & Gwyn bought Judy (her sister) out of her share of the house & decided to renovate it to sell it. After 3 years they have finished & the house is on the market.

They have transformed this very tired old house into a lovely livable place now; it is a brilliant job, which they did all themselves.

From here we headed to Linda & Gwyn’s place, near Mold, for the afternoon & evening. Judy & Margaret joined us & we had a cold dinner spread. We bailed around 8pm, all wanting an early night.

Ruthin Castle ruins & hotel grounds

Displaying Peacocks

HE SAID:

After our look at Roger’s old house we went to a garden centre for a bite of lunch. There was a series of stuff ups, and in the end all Varena and I managed to get was a bowl of soup to share. Firstly the screen input on the ordering till played up and had the cashier apologising to me, then the card payment machine had a tizz. Following that a staff member loudly dropped a couple of dozen knives on to the floor as he attempted to refill the cutlery containers, and then after the original stuff up only one soup was ordered instead of our two. We tried to make up for it back at Linda’s with a piece of cake and a cuppa.

Friday 30th May 2025

Friday 30^th May

SHE SAID:

Our plans for the day were morning tea at 11am with Margaret & Gwynne. Margaret is my aunt. Then on to Judy & Michael’s new place for lunch & dinner.

We had an amusing hour with Gwynne, Margaret’s partner; he has a very dry sense of humour which had Geoff & I in fits of laughter. Margaret came with us to Judy’s place, it is only 10 minutes away, & their brand new house which they moved into in mid-December last year. The house is much bigger than their previous place & Judy seems very happy with it.

"Our" BnB for 4 nights

HE SAID:

I knew that Gwynne was a droll bugger from our previous visits over the years, but today he had us amused with nearly everything. He’d relate a story, usually about something farming related, and drop in a Welsh place name that I found unintelligible, and then he’d ask me if I knew where it was! If you’d asked me before I’d ever been to Wales about their nearest town, Mold, I’d have said that that was a joke name, let alone these other places. It was the equivalent of me asking him if he knew where Waramanga or Giralang were.

Thursday 29th May 2025

Thursday 29^th May

SHE SAID:

Mum, Geoff & I headed for Wales soon after 9.30am. We took our time, stopping for morning tea & lunch at the “wonderful” Services on the motorways. It suited us fine; no doubt we will be overeating with the cousins!

I had one stop planned at the Snugbury’s Ice Cream Shop, near Nantwich. They have “giant” straw statues in their fields; it changes every year or 3? This year it is a 45-foot-tall Paddington Bear! 

It was also warm enough for ice cream. We had a choice of maybe 40 flavours, & they were much better than the camel’s milk ice cream we had in Dubai!

We got to the BnB eventually, as Google was wrong, & there wasn’t any signage!

Dinner was a fun & chatty affair at Linda & Gwyn's, which is 15mins from the BnB.

HE SAID:

Whilst fairly uneventful the journey from Horsham to North Wales was still tiring. The drive is about 250 miles (about 400 kms), with a fair chunk of that on motorways. But, the non-motorway bits can be narrow and winding, with more traffic than they would have in Australia, so take longer than expected. Varena drove the middle section of the trip, as there was very little navigation required by me.

Wednesday 28th May 2025

Wednesday 28^th May

SHE SAID:

Geoff & I headed into town for a few things, including getting the car cleaned for our trip to Wales tomorrow!

We had a half chat with Julian on WhatsAppp, then I got dinner prepared; we have Kate joining us for a roast lamb etc. dinner, followed by apple pie & clotted cream. 

It was a chatty evening.

Ightham Village

Pub lunch

HE SAID:

The rain in England has not been enough to keep Jan’s car clean, so we took it to a “Hand” Car Wash. Some of the cleaning is actually done by hand, but only after the car has been through the classic automatic rotating brushes arrangement. Anyway, it is much cleaner now.

Another job we did was to get a replacement strip light tube for Jan’s bathroom. Unfortunately, the new tube isn’t working either, so know I guess that there is a different problem, but I am not equipped here to sort it out. An electrician may be the answer.

Although I only remembered a few days ago, the first State of Origin match was on today. It is usually in the evening in Australia, but with the time difference to the UK it was an 11am start. It was quite an intense match, as you'd expect, and I was glad to see NSW get up. It's a great start.

Tuesday 27th May 2025

Tuesday 27^th May

SHE SAID:

It was an all-day rain day today. My thoughts of getting the car washed were postponed!

Mum & I did drive into town for groceries; it gave me a chance to practice driving in Mum’s car. It has been a year since I drove it & Geoff has been chauffeur the whole time so far. It is an easy & small car to zip around in.

Otherwise, I had a few hours to catch up with the photos, mostly naming of the orchids I have seen.

Photos from our Canterbury jaunt

Doors of Canterbury

Ightham Street

A surprise package & book animals

HE SAID:

Without the need to be the third person on a grocery run I stayed in and managed the washing and drying of our clothes and linen. Not very exciting.

Monday 26th May 2025

Monday 26^th May

SHE SAID:

Geoff & I headed for the Farthing Corner Services, on the M20, to meet with a local Kent orchid nut, Terry. He had offered to show us some orchids, several which were new for me.

We had a great day, & Terry was lovely, friendly & chatty. He told us he had never showed anyone around, let alone Australians. Somewhat of a baptism of fire with us!!!

Late Spider Orchid

Man Orchid

The Orchideers! Terry and Varena.
Common Spotted & Pyramidal Orchids

Lady Orchid (& white form)
Birds Nest Orchid

HE SAID:

We managed a fair drive around Kent looking for English orchids with Terry today. He is a nice fellow, and was very generous with his time, and of course, his knowledge and sites. It was a good leg-stretch for us, and we barely got rained on, which was a bit of a surprise given the weather forecast.

Sunday 25th May 2025

Sunday 25^th May

SHE SAID:

Al treated us to his huge Club Sandwiches for 11am brunch today, tasty but almost too big!

We said goodbye to Sue & Al around 11.45am, heading back to Horsham. We had an hour or so stop in Ashdown Forest; it is a Bank Holiday weekend in England & there lots of people out & about walking in the forest. The weather wasn’t bad; the sun & clouds were competing for dominance.

It was around 2pm when we returned, & the rest of the day was quiet.

Jeannie

Me & Sue
Al & Sue

Heath Spotted Orchids

HE SAID:

Al certainly likes his tucker, and can cook a bit too, whipping up a tasty feed. We said our farewells and zoomed off to Ashdown Forest. Orchids were found, pleasing a certain somebody.

Saturday 24th May 2025

Saturday 24^th May

SHE SAID:

We woke to drizzle & grey skies this morning. There weren’t any plans to go anywhere so no one was fussed about it.

It was another day of chatting, eating & chillin’ out, very relaxed & enjoyable.

For dinner we got Chinese takeaway.

Geoff in Canterbury

Old Canterbury

HE SAID:

Yesterday I had a little more grog than I have had for a couple of months. I had a slight headache on waking, but it passed fairly quickly, if that was even related to the drinks; it could have been the ongoing vertigo, which is still hanging around, though probably less annoyingly so.

After forgetting to pack my coffee before we left Horsham I slipped out to the local shops and bought some. It had to be done!

We had a good, lazy day at Sue and Al's, with Al's tasty "Posh Dogs" (sausages and onions in a roll) for lunch, and their favourite Chinese takeaway for dinner. There was also plenty of sport on TV to keep me and Al occupied.

Thursday 22nd May 2025

Thursday 22^nd May

SHE SAID:

It was a good drive back to Horsham. I saw a heap of English orchids, & we went to another National Trust property called Scotney Castle, which also had a new to me British orchid growing in the grounds!

We got back to Wakefield Court around 5pm. It was a great trip away & I think mum had a brilliant time.

HE SAID:

Scotney Castle was an interesting stop on our way home. While not as spectacular as many places I have seen, it was still interesting, and at over 700 years of history it was quite interesting. Varena was keen as mustard to have a look for orchids at the spot she had been given by her UK contact. Our wanderings went on a bit longer than we expected, as Jan sat patiently in the car, because we kept finding things to look at.

Varena whipped up a very tasty cauli and broccoli bake to have with our pies for dinner. Yummy, as usual.

Friday 23rd May 2025

Friday 23^rd May

SHE SAID:

We had a busy day today; we met up with my friend Steve. I have known him since the mid-1980’s when we worked together at the Intercontinental Hotel in London. He now lives in Florida but is in the UK for 10 days, as he is a mad keen Crystal Palace football fan & they had made it into the FC Cup final for the first time in decades.

He came down to Horsham for lunch & a catch up; it is probably 10 years or more since we last caught up! He had met Mum before but not Geoff. It was great to see him again.

Once we dropped him back at the station we headed back to Mum’s to drop her off, then it was off to Crowborough to stay with Sue & Al for 2 nights.

Steve came down from near Croydon to meet us.
It is at least 10 years since I last met up with him!

Sue & Me
Sue & Al

HE SAID:

I had no idea what to expect when I met Steve, but he was a friendly, chatty bloke, and the time over lunch, a beer, and a short wander around Horsham passed quickly.

We then headed off to Crowborough around 4pm for the hour's drive to Sue and Al's. As usual, we had a chatty, fun, evening over a tasty nibbles platter and a couple of beverages.

Wednesday 21st May 2025

Wednesday 21^st May

SHE SAID:

Today’s touring was along the north Kent coast, starting with a yummy big breakfast at The Bubble, a quaint old building overlooking Whitstable Bay. We were given a history lesson about the strange looking “oil rig looking” structures out in the distance offshore. They were from WW2 & are called the Whitstable Sea Forts, built to protect the start of Thames River. They look like something from “War of the Worlds”.

From here we stopped in Herne Bay, the Reculver Towers, & Roman Fort for photos, then for a cuppa at the 1950’s Morrelli’s Ice Cream parlour/ Gelato in Birchington-on-Sea. Having heard about Margate, but never been there, we had a short walk along the front & at Botany Bay Beach; a little further on I went down onto the beach for some chalk cliff photos. It wasn’t anything like the Australian Botany Bay!

The final stop was my choice, for a short look for orchids, at the old hoverport. Mum stayed up near the replica Viking ship whilst Geoff & I went for a walk down above the marsh, & the hoverport. Geoff found something that from a distance might been an orchid, but on close inspection I wasn’t so sure! (PS: no, it was a weed!)

We were back to the motel soon after 4pm.

Big breakfast at The Bubble, Whitstable

Whitstable Bathing Huts

Whitstable Sea Forts

Herne Bay Pier

Margate

Reculver Towers
Botany Bay Beach

HE SAID:

The day’s touring was enjoyable. One memorably amusing thing for me though, was to do with our mobile phones. I selected Vodaphone SIMs this time, but we are finding that away from major centres the receptions is crap- the same as in Australia. The amusing bit was when I mucked about with my phone’s roaming settings, and despite having very little signal locally, not even enough to do a web search, when I turned roaming on I received a message from my carrier saying welcome to France! Which is about 30 or 40 miles away!

Tuesday 20th May 2025

Tuesday 20^th May

SHE SAID:

Day 2 of our mini holiday & we headed into Canterbury. The first stop was at mum’s old school’, Simon Langton Girls Grammer School, on the Old Dover Road. She vaguely remembers the sports pavilion, which was all that remained of the 1950’s era buildings.

I suggested we ask at reception if there was any other building remaining from when mum went there. A kind lady spoke with the deputy principle who kindly came to show us around; mum seemed really happy that he took the time to show us around & explain where the old school had been & the building of the new school. He took ½ hour out of his day to take us around.

From there we drove past where mum thinks her first job was, & where she lived with Nan & Granddad; though No. 29 wasn’t there; the houses started from no.30, & the remembered bomb site was obviously all built on now! It was a busy road & there was nowhere to stop for a better look.

We headed for the city centre, spending quite a time in Canterbury Cathedral & the old city, which was full of lovely old Tudor buildings. It was around 5pm by the time we returned to the motel.

HE SAID:

We drove around Canterbury, to sites from Jan’s younger years. Jan’s old school, while totally different today, was very entertaining for Jan, as the deputy head gave her a personal guided tour. It was very generous of him.

The Canterbury Cathedral was an interesting, and very historical, place. It was also bloody freezing, and must have been horrible for everybody over the centuries.