A Stone circle

Hello, I hope you are still there. Sorry, we've been in the UK for the last week, hence no blogs. Anyway, we set off last Wednesday from Zurich airport - Ilona loved the shiny floors and luggage trolleys, whilst Bluet was very entertained by the moving walkways. In fact, Bluet is very excited in general by flying, which is great, and even carries her own luggage. We flew Swiss air, which was nice as they gave us free Ice Cream and chocolate, and a stuffed aeroplane that has become one of Bluet's favourite companions (see trampoline picture below)

Our first stop was to see Steve, Dorthea and Caroline in Swindon Wroughton (near Swindon). Because there are no transport links from the East to the West of the UK that don't involve going through London, I have spent very little time on the West coast. Turns out it is quite interesting over there - they even have historical things like Stonehenge, and in Avebury (a short bus ride (at the front of the top deck)) from Wroughton, there is a stone circle that is almost 5000 years old. Here are some pictures of stones and excitable children. Fortunately those architects and engineers from 2600 B.C. knew how to design something fun for children to run around, whilst remaining fascinating for adults.

I can't see Bluet anywhere

Stay tuned for more pictures from the UK..........

Conversation #5

This morning, apropos of nothing, just Bluet remembering something from our time in the uk

"I dropped Miffy"

You did? What happened then?

"Gran Helen put it in her backpack"

Where were you?

"Outside"

(This is not something we've discussed for a couple of months)

Cambridge

After a little more motorway driving from York we parked the car and spent the last few days of our trip in Cambridge with Gran Helen. I think Bluet's favourite activity here was walking by the Cam and feeding the swans, followed by talking on Gran Helen's phone (pictured above) which somehow she knows how to talk into even though she's only ever seen an iPhone before. She definitely enjoyed spending lots of time with Gran Helen, and in the end wanted Gran Helen to do stuff with her more than with either Of us. I enjoyed showing Bluet places I knew from growing up and going to university, and it was very nice to be able to walk around and not have to get into the car for a couple of days. All in all, visiting Gran Helen in Cambridge made the perfect ending to a very pleasurable two weeks.

Bluet eats a 'pernanna'

Bluet tries on rubber gloves (a lot of fun for her)

Out for a walk

 

Party!

And then it was the party. Two weeks ago now, many people arrived in Aberdeen from all around; from Missouri to the east and Finland to the west, Dorset to the South and Oslo to the north. It was wonderful to see so many people all at once in the glorious Scottish sunshine, and later to sit round the campfire in the dark, drinking moonshine whisky. I was fairly certain that if you had an 'informal' wedding celebration then there would be no speeches, but apparently this was not the case. So people wore smart clothes, and mingled and played croquet, and ate and drank and were merry, and listened to an impromptu speech and did a toast, and it was as glorious as the weather.

Despite the delicious food and great company, I think Bluet most enjoyed the train. Every time it came round the track she exclaimed 'Look Dadn, it's a train' from her perch atop my shoulders. Was it really only two weeks ago? It seems half a lifetime. We'll have to find an excuse to do it all again next year.

And in then end, Bluet went to sleep

And we're back

We've just returned, refreshed/exhausted, from a thoroughly splendid 2 weeks in the UK. In our little black VW Golf we covered almost 1600 miles, traversing the whole country - stopping in York, Aberdeen, Glasgow, York and Cambridge. On the way we saw many people, ate some chocolate, saw some more people and ate some delicious food. As I go through the photos and upload them to the internets over the next few days, I will try and recall what we got up to. In the meantime, here is what we saw at Heathrow Airport this morning (spoiler alert - I am the new Doctor Who and Bluet is my companion)

We're all going on a Christmas Holiday

Here we are all packed, ready to leave our apartment. In the next ~17 hours we will then walk to the subway, take the subway to the airport, wait hours at the airport (fingers crossed no delays), get on the plane; here Bluet will fall asleep as the plane lifts gently into the air around 19:30 tonight, allowing us several blissful hours of movie watching as we fly towards the Old Country. Then, we'll land around 7.50 in the UK, breeze through customs, get on the heathrow express to Padington, take the Underground from Paddington to King's Cross, get on the train at King's Cross to Cambridge (pausing briefly to purchase either a triangular sandwich or a cornish pasty and a Cafe Nero coffee I expect), meet my Mum at Cambridge station, and take the bus to her house. That is a lot of travelling. I'm betting Bluet will love every second of it.