Monday, 31 December 2007

Midhurst

Here's some photos we took back in August when we visitied the nice little town of Midhurst. We actually stopped off to buy some lunch on our way back from the beach. At this time of year it's a little hard to imagine the weather can actually get so nice and warm..... bring on summer!



The Swan Inn (from the Pub photo collection archive)


The Spread Eagle Hotel (from the Pub photo collection archive)




The old place in the background is Cowdray a good place to watch a spot of polo apparently (chin, chin.. pass the Pimms please Mr. Bottingham)

Saturday, 29 December 2007

Pea Soup and Fish Supper

We decided to drive into London last Sunday (Sunday's the day - free parking and no £8 congestion charge) to have a look at the ice rink at the Museum of Natural History. We were rather indecisive about it because it had been foggy around our place all day, and we weren't sure if we would be able to see much.

It should be about a 45 minute drive into town under normal conditions, but our indecisiveness meant we didn't leave until 4pm, by which time it was getting dark, and we decided to take the M25, which was living up to its reputation of being the world's biggest carpark in the fog, being a classic London pea-souper; so in the end it took us nearly 2 hours to get there. But despite dire predictions of our foggy demise from the front passenger seat, we finally made it, and found a park right out the front - ha!

We travelled back via the A3 - a much better option:
View Larger Map

It was quite a sight, with hundreds of skaters getting into it on a cold Sunday night. We enjoyed watching, but none of us had the heart to strap on the skates (I won't mention the fact you have to book weeks ahead anyway). But no worries, there was something for everyone... a Christmas market for Mum, a merry-go-round for the girls, and a public toilet for Keezee (who forgot to go before we left home).

We finished the evening off by eating alfresco in 0 degrees, as you do when you're hungry! We've haven't been eating enough fish and chips since we've been here, and the fish supper (as Nigela, Jamie and Gordon call it) is a national institution, so it was high-time to tuck into some cod.


Mummy and Lucy


Daddy and Caiti (who was fascinated by the skating).
Here's a short amateur photography anecdote for you........ We would have asked someone to take a photo of us all together, but it was too foggy to use a flash (honest - the flash lights up the fog - look at the photo below) and it was too tricky for a passer-by to get a good night-time shot on time exposure.



Arty shot of the merry-go-round with the museum behind, bathed in eerie green-light. Hmmm... the fog lifted a bit for this shot it seems.



Merry-go-round girls.


Fush n Chups!


Arty Shot 2: The nearly-empty rink between sessions.

Monday, 24 December 2007

Happy Christmas

We'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. We miss you all especially at this time of year and we're thinking of you all.

Here's a few pics of the Christmassy things we've been up to.....


Lucy met Santa at her school bazaar... Caiti was there as well, but was a bit too shy to be photographed.




Santa and her little helper


Christmas lights at a house near us.


Lucy made a Christmas hat at school (amongst other things).


And here's the snowy winter scene she made as well.

Another School Concert Video

We got some good feedback on the School Nativity Play video, so I trawled the archives for Lucy's other school concert, where all the kids were dressed as animals.

Lucy was the rainbow fish and had a starring role. She was fantastic, and is certainly in line for a Tony award or whatever the primary school equivalent is called. Unfortunately, a user error by the cameraman meant that we missed Lucy's star scene - I won't say which member of the family it was, but he was very unpopular for a while afterwards. We got some great video of the audience's feet though!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy. As usual, press the play button to start the video.