Pics and stuff

We're moving to our new digs in West Byfleet today, so we're expecting to be offline for a while until the broadband gets hooked up. So, to keep our legions of blog fans happy, we thought we might post a few pics that we had lying around.

It's also worth reporting how cold the weather has been this week, especially after last week's mini-heatwave (26 deg). Monday was a public holiday in the UK and we were thinking about attending the Surrey Show in Guildford (another picturesque town) but the day was cold and rainy, with a top temp of 7 degrees (yes 7) so we canned that idea. We went to a local "Tesco Home" store instead and (as far as one member of the family was concerned) it was a great day out.
For the record: http://direct.tesco.com/

Anyway, enough of that, here's the pics.....

More of Kew Gardens





Around abouts:

Eton (but not Windsor)

Its another bank holiday weekend (the second long weekend in May - I hope every month is like this, but I'm guessing not). Unfortunately the weather is starting to take a turn for the worse, so we decided to get out and about on Saturday, as this will be the best day of the weekend.

We drove over to Windsor and Eton to take a look around - its less than 30 mins by car. We were hoping to finally catch up with the Queen here - she knows we're in the country, but its so hard trying to find free time in both our busy schedules. The morning was coolish, but nice, and we started our tour by crossing the Thames and checking out Eton, home of the famous school - the uniform is like a dinner suit with tails - and a pretty high street. This is where they filmed quite a bit of Chariots of Fire (Academy Award for Best Film, 1981), by the way.

We took a few photos of Eton (see below) before disaster struck in the form of the battery on the camera going flat. So whilst we quite enjoyed the sights of Windsor, we can't share them with you today. Might I suggest you try:
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Travel/Tours/England/Windsor.htm
if you're real keen for a look.

Anyway, this is Eton.....

The bridge between Windsor and Eton




Through the tunnel here is the courtyard where they filmed the "College Dash" scene from Chariots of Fire.... No visitors - that was a bummer cause Keezee fancied his chances against the 11 o'clock chime.
Eton Chapel... not a bad size for a chapel.

At the Playground and Stuff

The weather's been very good this week - you could almost say its been hot. There's a pretty good playground just down the road in Old Deer Park, Richmond (so named because all the old deers like to meet there, as I understand). Anyway, the girls have a good time everytime they visit.....

And here's some photos of the ferals 'hanging out around the flat and stuff' (as Lucy would say)....




Lucy took this one...

The Queen wasn't home

Caught the train to London to see the sights today. We've been wanting to do this for a while but organising somewhere to live is time consuming.... Anyway, we finally made it in and the weather was pretty good, so the photos look a bit brighter then they would have last weekend.


The rarely photographed London Eye... we plan to go on this soon!




Tourists





No, this is not a postcard, but it should be, according to the photographer.


The bloke on the horse wouldn't let us into No. 10, so we had to settle with giving Tony a call to wish him all the best for the future



Said bloke on said horse.




Bloke and horse's other mate.





Deck chairs in St James park are 2 quid an hour... keep moving girls



Here we are at Buckingham Palace, but the Queen wasn't home apparently.






The guy with the big gun said she was at Windsor Castle.... sure she was.







Nice gate!





Daddy's work.





Q: The girls were quiet, well behaved and respectful of other passengers comfort on the train home - True or False?
(Hint: The answer is False)

Richmond Park

Now that we have a car, we decided to take a drive around Richmond Park. Its too huge to walk around easily, so the brand spanking Ford Mondeo hire car got the job. It was surprising to see that most of the park is pretty much untended, as we were expecting playing fields, lawns, garden areas and the like. We were also expecting to see a few deer, which we did - lots of them in fact. We also saw lots of deer poo, but luckily no close encounters, which is a pleasant change with these kids.

Oh Deer!

More deer

The gang

Our intrepid photographer had to work hard to get this wild beast on film

View of the Thames from Richmond Hill - apparently Mick Jagger enjoys this view from his place.

The Richmond May Fair

Richmond is a great part of London and we've enjoyed our time here so far. Saturday was the annual May Fair which is held on the lovely Richmond Green, right in the middle of town, surrounded by stately homes and a sprinkling of attractive pubs (which we haven't been able to enjoy with two kids and no babysitter!). Unfortunately it rained for much of the afternoon, but it didn't seem to keep too many people away.