Happy Birthday!

The Birthday Boy shares his special day with Cousin Jan in Eastbourne. Jan and Sheelagh had made him mug cakes - the latest craze to hit the UK. Always on the cutting edge is the Birthday Boy.

Where's A Constable When You Need One?

If you google John Constable you will find an image of a painting called The Hay Wain. Well check this out.

Yesterday was our last full day with Malcolm and Delyth and as it was beautiful, again, we decided to visit Constable country. This region of England lies along the boundary between Suffolk and Essex. It is comprised of gently rolling fields and woodlands. It is a landscape painter's heaven. John Constable painted there in the first part of the19th century along the River Stour in villages such as Dedham and Flatford Mill where his father owned a mill.

 The Hay Wain was painted just in front of the mill which still stands today.







We had a great lunch in the Tiptree Tea House in Dedham.

 and then wandered past St Mary's Church there. Elderly folk enjoy the benches in the church yard.

The church was built the year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Can you remember that year? There is one of only 3 Constable religious paintings there. It was commissioned for 250 pounds to be donated to the church to gain favour with the man who issued pub licences. The licence was not issued and Constable was not paid for the painting. He finished it, but it is said the bottom half shows a lack of concern for its quality.

Notice the pink house. That colour is a favourite around this area and known as Suffolk Pink.

Then we went over to Flatford which is now National Trust and visited there. It was beautiful.

We finished off by watching a snail race. It was very exciting. We were glad that the racers were all safe and there were no accidents.

Off to Eastbourne on Wednesday.

We Attend Cambridge Doncha Know

Yesterday, (Oct 26th already!) the day dawned bright and sunny. Malcolm and Delyth had planned a day in Cambridge for us. This ancient university city is about 1 hour's drive from Felixstowe and so off we went after breakfast.

One does not just drive into Cambridge if one has two brain cells to rub together. One will find one driving around for hours cursing under one's breath because there is nowhere for one to park. No, one goes to park and ride and takes a bus into the city.

Cambridge is a charming tangle of streets, wide and narrow, with an array of the colleges strung along the river and through the town.

Pembroke College was one that was open yesterday so we can show you the quad and also the chapel which is the first designed and built by Christopher Wren

Queens' College, Kings' College, Magdalene (pronounced Modlin) College and umpteen others that I can't remember. They are each a separate entity operating under the Cambridge umbrella. They all have their special areas of interest and history. There are far too many stories to tell about the various characters and conflicts surrounding this place so I shall just relate a couple that I found interesting.
The kings and queens of England have always had an interest in this, the second oldest university in England.

The Henrys including the VIIIth were very keen on Kings college, and Trinity College. When Henry VIII took all the land away from the Catholic institutions, he gave a bunch of it to Trinity and made them the third largest land holder in England. And therefore they are very wealthy.  Prince Charles is rumoured to be the graduate who had the poorest marks on his entry exam. He may have known someone.
For a while, Kings College only accepted graduates of Eton. There were no exams, ever, and you emerged, after 3 years, with a gentleman's degree. This has changed.

Queen Victoria stood looking at a particular bridge that was built over the River Cam in the heart of the university. She kept saying it was like the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. Nobody was about to disagree with her, so there is the Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge.








Lastly, Magdalene, refused women right up to 1988. And when that was changed, the male staff and students wore black arm bands and carried a coffin through the streets.

We took a wonderful 45 minute punt ride on the river along The Backs of the various colleges. It gave us a little taste of the gracious life of days past.

Go East Young Man, Or Woman

Only 9 1/2 hours on trains. That's all it took. From St Andrews to Felixstowe. By myself. Sheelagh came later because of a ticket snafu. We left our lad in Scotland to get on with his work and set off for the east of England.
Our dear friends Malcolm and Delyth Mayhew moved here from Stroud a couple of years ago and this was our first chance to visit.

This is their new house. Just kidding. They are both avid bowls players and this is their beach hut that is not on the beach, but rather overlooking the bowls green where they enjoy many happy hours.

They also have a lovely new home in Felixstowe.

 Felixstowe is situated about 20 minutes from Ipswitch on the seaside east of Cambridge. It is mainly red brick buildings and very open feeling. We will be here until Wednesday and will enjoy every minute.

You Ladies Go Over There And Play

We had our last day with Dorian today. It was wonderful. Well most of it. We had to take our rental car back to Edinburgh Airport and ride the bus back to St Andrews first and that took 4 hours. But, we started early, and we were back by noon.
Dorian met us at the bus depot and we went straight over to the  Himalaya Mini Golf course.This is part of the St Andrews Old Course and was originally intended to distract the ladies and keep them out of the men's hair as they played the real golf.

It's a lovely rolling course with no silly windmills or bank shots. You just have to putt on wildly rolling greens. Great fun. Sheelagh was really good on the long shots. But seemed to struggle with the 3 foot and under ones. She became a bit testy.

 Dorian pulled his game together and, to quote him, "Smoked the last nine." Lots of laughter and gentle ribbing went on.

After that we went to The Glasshouse Restaurant for or celebratory anniversary lunch. Very good.






We went to St Salvator's quad to see the lovely garden.

Then we went to the Topping Book Store which Sheelagh declared to be wonderful because they gave her tea. We just hung out and read before we went to St Salvator's Chapel for Evensong.

Then we took a cab back to our house to pack up for tomorrow's long train ride to see our good friends Malcolm and Delyth in Felixstowe.

See you there.

Family Time

Greetings from St Andrews. For the last few days we have been enjoying the luxury of being able to spend time with Dorian whenever we wanted to. He has taken a week off from his job at the coffee shop so that we could do a few things together. We have taken drives into the country usually involving food in some form or just been together. On Friday we visited Falkland Palace which was home to Mary Queen of Scots and such. It was very grand, but you’ll just have to take my word, as no pictures because someone left the phone at home. It was an innocent mistake.

Saturday we just hung about in St Andrews and had the lad over for one of his favourites, Mum’s spaghetti. Then we tried to go to a play, “SOLD OUT”. Then we tried to go to a movie, “SOLD OUT”. So today we will spend time together and try the movie again.

Yesterday was ‘Raison Day’ in St Andrews. This is a day steeped in centuries of tradition and a lot of drinking. We decided to spend it elsewhere. 

There is a string of charming villages along the Firth of Forth a little south of here.The area is called East Neuk. We went to church in Crail, a very pretty little place. Lunch was had here also. Then on to Elie and a look at  the beach and a couple of art galleries. One being a glass artist tucked away in a tiny laneway behind other buildings. Very interesting work involving photo images transferred to glass. 

Then a look at St  Monans Church in St Monans. This was the home of 3 fishing crews lost at sea 125 years ago.

We came back to our place and skyped Liam’s family and talked to Grandma in White Rock. A great day.

A Dorian In His Natural Setting

We were very happy to meet Dorian in St Andrews this morning and do tea with him before his class. We had dinner with him last evening but Sheelagh and I were a bit zombiish.
We enjoyed Prince Of Cambridge Scones, blueberry, raspberry and white chocolate.  Very nice indeed.
We shall meet up again after class and visit Dundee.

Slan Leat

Well, it’s time to bid a fond farewell to Ireland. Tomorrow Sheelagh and I head to Scotland to visit Dorian. On Friday, John and Von begin their long, long journey, via Vancouver, to Canberra. Family and friends in Oz beware. Between them, they have 50,000 photos! We only have 30,000 because two days ago, as we told you, we dropped and broke our camera (again! we can hear some of you say) so the Kemisters won the “Most Pictures of the 43rd Anniversary Trip” race. We’ve tried to share with you the beauty of this island and Iceland and the fun times we’ve had together. We thought we wouldn’t be able to top our trip to Scotland three years ago but we have.

During the last two days we have seen a couple of the most important historic places of Ireland. The first was Monasterboice.

 This is the site of a monastery founded in the 5th century by St Buite. It became one of the most famous scholastic centres in medieval Europe. Unfortunately, a fire in their round tower in the 12th century destroyed the library and the centre went into decline. Today it is famous for it’s 3 High Crosses. Muiredach Cross is the finest in Ireland.

 It’s cravings of Old and New Testament stories have withstood everything that Mother Nature has thrown at it since 1100. It is very impressive.

The West Cross is the tallest in Ireland 

and the North Cross, one of the earliest. 

The hustle and bustle of centuries ago is hard to imagine in this quiet spot today.

Our drive today took us to the Hill of Tara. 

It has been the centre point for Irish history since Ireland has had people. The man who fought his way to be crowned on the Hill of Tara was the High King of Ireland.

 The ancient passage tombs have yielded treasures now in the National Museum.

  I still want to find a horde, sigh,sigh. We had a very peaceful visit ending with a session of sound therapy - sitting cross legged on the Hill of Tara playing sound bowls. We just needed a few crystals and we would have been a new age band. 

As Von said today, we have laughed a lot on this trip. That is a big part of our time with these wonderful Australians. We laugh and we talk seriously, until someone says something really funny and then we laugh some more. It’s hard to believe that 43 years have passed since we first met. I heard today that New Zealand will be the next meeting place. Three years hence. Bring it on.