I went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary the other week and I held a Koala and fed Kangaroos and saw a Dingo. Koalas and Kangaroos are really soft and cute. I've got an amazing video of a Koala leaping over its friend to get to more eucalyptus leaves and I had Kangaroos surrounding me and the children, eating food out of my lap. and I saw a Joey (I call them Roos in my world), out of it's Mum's pouch. I fed it and stroked it and it was so cute and tiny and i'm really annoyed that I haven't had my phone fixed yet for the pictures! You can see the Koala photo here though...
www.koala.net/photo/1206004752.htm
Sweet mofo. Will post the pic links when I get them up. There's loads and I can't be bothered to sort through them. I'm posting loads of pics that I probably will never ever look again, but I want to just keep them so that when I get home i'll have them printed and do scrap books. These pics are for myself not you, so don't bitch at me about my shitload of pics. This is aimed at you Mum.
Love to you all
x xx x
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Well, it seems that you're more settled and for that I'm glad. It will mean that your trip will be enjoyable if you actually want to be in the place you are and regardless of where you go Keri, remember that your baggage goes with you, or if you travel OneWorld BA then maybe not but that's another story.
Just thought I'd post my weekend trip to Blackpool up as we had a stonking time.
Friday lunchtime, arrive at Auntie Debbie's early and head off to Auntie Sillys to get some lunch in the little cafe in the High Street. Rosie is also en route from work and we bimble off for a panini and a cup of coffee before bimbling back to Hils to pick up gear and get the cab.
Cab booked at 13:20, at 13:25 Hils phones said cab company and asks where it is, "3-4 minutes away" at 13:35, Hils phones the company again and states that the cab is now 15 minutes late, we have a train to catch and we're not paying for shoddy service. At 13:40 the cab rolls up, we bundle in PDQ and tell the driver you have less than 7 minutes to get us to the station to catch our train, stuck behind the world's slowest scenic driver aaaaarghhh!!!! Pull into station as I spot a train leaving (uh oh). Get out of the cab, cabbie says "£6 please", "NO WAY!" we say "we told your control room we are not paying". Head into station to have it confirmed that the train just leaving was in fact ours. Cab driver, clearly has a death wish, comes into station and tells us that not paying is illegal (you stupid man!). At which point the four of us all turn round and individually give him a large dose of verbal, mine included "don't have to pay for services not received etc etc etc." He backs out of station and disappears.
The lovely man who works for the railways, tells us we can get the train to MK and change for the train to Preston, we do this and arrive at MK with an hour to kill before the connecting train arrives. However, we do get to see the train we should have been on, belt through MK Central at 125mph... Have a coffee and a chat and you phone me to say helloooo, we all say "hello". Speak to nice Virgin Train man who says that there has been a fire alarm at Euston station so the station had to be evacuated, therefore lots of people to go on the train we are waiting for, ooops, we have no seat reservations, thought of standing all the way to Preston, not good. Nice Virgin man says that coach G of first class has been declassified and if we stand just here on the platform we should be able to get on it, how handy. Train pulls in, we get on in first class and stay there, although we are sat in 2 lots of 2 one seat away, but this is not a problem. Head to the buffet car for vodka and gin to start the weekend as we mean to go on. Roll into Preston and off the train another hour to wait for our connecting train, use the amenities and take a photo, will send it to you somehow, probably facebook if I can figure out how to do it... Hang about a bit and then board the last train of the day to Blackpool South.
Sky is blue and the wind is low at this point, fantastic, charge off to the Premier Inn to check in and change as we are now running an hour late due to the cab and need to be at The Big Blue in less than 40 minutes for our dinner reservation. Check In is heaving but not too long a wait. I'm sharing with Rosie and do a quick change order a cab, screech up to The Big Blue at 7:30. Sat next to a table load of RAF Officers who are due to re-enact the D-day landings on Blackpool beach over the weekend and other army stuff zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, sorry I nodded off then. Leisurely 3 hour dinner with wine and champers and good company, laughed a lot and then laughed some more. Cabbed it to the Paris Casino and spent 2 hours playing craps I was up £35 at the end, Rosie is hooked and will now spend all available spare cash rolling dice down a green baize table. We decide at 1:30 that as we have a long day ahead, we should leave and go to bed. Cab back and sleep.
Awake early because that's what you do when you get old and aren't sleeping in your own bed with your own pillow, next to your husband. Left Rosie sleeping because she's obviously not old and can sleep anywhere! Have a cup of tea with Deb & Hil then get dressed and ready to play 'FIND A CAFE' This is no mean feat as we are a demanding crowd with expectations that are high, but we are optimistic that the task can be achieved. Find a cafe, looks clean, seems like it could be a winner. Give the orders over all with specific instruction about how the eggs/bacon/general cooking quality should be, FAILED, eggs are not just set, yet not snotty with a runny yolk, bacon is not crispy, owner turns out to be a chatterbox and tries to talk our hind legs off. Clearly we are not returning tomorrow, another one bites the dust. As we leave the cafe it is precipitating liquid sunshine from the sky, Deb and I have not bought a waterproof and Deb has no enclosed shoes, we are all wearing shorts or cut offs and we make the deicsion to return to the hotel to change into more appropriate clothing. We do and emerge into weather that does not look like it is going to improve any time soon.
Head up to the Pleasure Beach, to discover that it is not opening until 11:30 today so spend some more money on coffee and sit and chat for an hour, (have you noticed a theme running through our weekend yet?) finally we're in, head for the new ride InFusion and get in a reasonably small queue, Rosie does not like rides, however feels that InFusion is not too bad, this is because it's new and you are strapped in nice and tight and you feel secure, all other rides at Blackpool are not like this, clearly she doesn't have the adrenaline junkie gene that Nanny Pam, Auntie Debs, Myself and you do. Flit to several other rides, the rain get harder, spend some time queuing indoors for things to stay out of it. The Big One is not funny, rain and wind battering my face so badly I can't keep my eyes open and have to use my hands as shields to protect my cheeks from the weather beating I am currently getting. Wander around do a few more of the large rides, do Avalanche, by this time the rain is horrific. Deb and I have invested in a Valhalla poncho to try and keep us dry, not working. Coming down Avalanche, Rosie bought the photo we are all in it we are very wet although Deb and I know when to smile for the camera! Decide to take a break for lunch, go to Thor's Plaice & Loki's Bar, have fish and chips and pint of cider to warm us up and try and dry out, it sort of works. Over the PA system in the pub we hear an announcement for the HOT ICE show, which is included in the wristband price, this will get us out of the rain for at least an hour, we decide as we haven't ever been to show before we'll do it. Get another hot drink when we get in just to continue to try and warm and dry us (thank God that Rosie and I put a shot of Bailey's in our coffee, Deb and Hils unlucky as Tea with a shot just doesn't go). It was awful, bad dancing with bizarre costumes strange musical numbers on a shite PA. The dancers must have thought 'big crowd' as no-one in their right mind would actually pay real money to see this. Apparently yes they do the evening performance of the sister show costs £25 a ticket, by now my adrenaline rush is well and truly over and we head for the ghost train to get under cover for a bit and decide what to do as the Pleasure of the Pleasure Beach is not quite what we had hoped. We decide that the weather is still crap so head back to the hotel for a hot bath/shower and warm up before going down to Coasters for dinner, we have to pass Passage Del Terror and Rosie has to do it as it's initiation, guess who gets picked to do it with her, I have now done it three times, Deb and Hils wander off to the bar where happy hour is occurring and hit the vodka and Archers. I have a hot bath, I am so happy, my feet have had the feeling returned to them, please remember this is the longest day and the first day of summer! Get changed, head off in a cab to Coasters. Cabbie is great it's a black cab he gives us his mobile number and tells us to phone that direct and he becomes our personal cabbie for the whole night, excellent.
Coasters is as usual what you expect, huge portions at reasonable prices, have a couple of cocktails, feeling chilled, dry and warm fabulous. Ask the waiting staff about what to do in Blackpool that doesn't involve me having to scream in a club littered with 17 year olds or hen/stag parties. Recommended Nellie Dene's a karaoke bar, we're up for that, phone Derry (our cabbie) and head on up to the North end, he recommends Soul Suite, plays old soul music, Roxy's Transvestite bar or Nellie Denes, well I'm sure you can guess where we ended up, oh yes bring on the transvestites! Actually it turned out to be a bar with a transvestite DJ but played funky fabulous retro totally sing a long music, we danced, we screamed we drank, we laughed, we had a funkytabulous time. After about an hour and a half I suggested that my ears needed a break so we left to see what else we were missing, not a huge amount I have to say, as we were walking round the block we came to a champagne bar, good, entered, Crooning can be heard, excellent, check the dress code as I'm wearing Hilary's tie dyed purple trousers and a pair of Tevas, this is apparently acceptable, we go up to the bar, live singing, Frank Sinatra, Dene Martin, Bobby Darin, Andy Williams, we order 2 bottles of champagne and totally chill for another 2 hours. Leave when the bar shuts and phone our cabbie. Get back to the hotel and I'm not ready for bed, so walk over to the Casino and promptly lose £20 on craps (heigh ho), Deb loses on craps but decides on just one spin on the roulette table, she wins £35! Back to hotel and bed, I'm very tired its 2:30.
My sister very kindly wakes me by phoning our room at 8:30, I don't like her anymore. Get up and go to check out The Premier Inns breakfast, no vegetarian sausages although the rest looks okay, veggie option not appealing, discuss options, decide to walk to The Big Blue and have breakfast after first checking that we can eat there as non-residents. Breakfast is charged at £10.50 pp as opposed to £7.50 at Premier Inn. Vegetarian sausages are available and eggs are cooked to order apart from this the experience is not good. The fruit is tinned (fresh at Premier Inn), mushrooms are tinned (fresh at Premier Inn) tomatoes are tinned (fresh at Premier Inn) Tea and coffee you have to get from a machine yourself, this a hotel that wanted to charge me twice as much to stay there as staying at the Premier Inn, even B&Bs bring tea and coffee to your table, you have to toast your own bread, even B&Bs do this for you. I apologised a thousand times to the girls as I had been the one who wasn't happy with The Premier Inn. Anyway lesson learnt, we won't book to stay at The Big Blue as the breakfast is not worth twice the Premier Inn and we'll just have to keep playing 'FIND A CAFE'.
Took a taxi back to the hotel as now it's not raining it's blowing a gale, remember the second day of summer! Pack and check out, leave luggage and head back to the Pleasure Beach to spend copious amounts of money winning tickets to trade for crap prizes, oh yes very crap prizes, just you wait to see them. The guy behind the counter must have thought we were muts, we were so competitive to try and get as many tickets as possible, other people gave us theirs as they clearly didn't want the tut on display, they missed the irony. Stopped for another coffee and watched the world go by for another hour, whilst talking and laughing and pointing at people wearing totally inappropriate clothing for a theme park.
Picked up baggage and trundled off to the station, across the windswept desert of car park, luggage took off it was that windy. Arrive at station with 15 minutes until train. 2 men in the shelter tell us that the next train is at 15:25 not 14:25, before we decide to wrestle him to the ground and jump on his head he says "oh no my mistake there is a 14:25 train" Catch train, uneventful to Preston. At Preston have an hour to kill, buy more drinks and some food sit and wait for train. Speak to nice Virgin staff member who says that the train before was cancelled so thousands of people waiting for this train. Speak to girls, make a decision we will upgrade to First for 15 quid and be done with it. Get on get a set of four seats, we're happy. Train pulls out lovely jubbly, decide to get a drink. Rosie and I head down to the buffet car, order drinks as we are doing so we have stopped at a station, 6 million people try to get on. Rosie and I decide to leg it down the train using the platform, get three carriages down, whistle blows, leap on train into massive throng of people, need to move down inside the train another three carriages, get to next carriage, blokey says " Where are you going, there are no seats down there", we politely tell him to move his arse as we KNOW we have seats down there, it takes 15 minutes to move through two carriages and back to our seats. We unfortunately have got seats in the quiet zone, which means no mobiles and no unnecessary noise, this causes us to produce huge fits of the giggles and then an alarm goes off, which we tell Hilary is a noise alarm as we are making too much, this makes us even worse. My face ached from laughing so much. Train inspector comes down the train to say as the train is so busy are declassifying First and those that have first class tickets will get their complimentary tea and coffee but no-one has to upgrade, so we don't pay out 15 quid each and still get to sit in First Class. No-one comes around to give the first class passengers their tea and coffee, if that was me I'd ask for a refund. Off at MK change and head down to Hemel. Oli collects us and returns us to our vehicles to head on home. Arrive at Quainton very relaxed to my husband who has cooked me dinner and listens to me relay the whole of the above story whilst smiling at me. he tells me that he loves me, he misses me and that he really appreciates everything I do. I love him beyond words or reason. I love you too. I'll send another novel after the next trip, which will be after the Cornbury Festival weekend after next.
Love to Pol
Love you loads
GR
xx
Arrive at Quainton very relaxed to my husband who has cooked me dinner and listens to me relay the whole of the above story whilst smiling at me. he tells me that he loves me, he misses me and that he really appreciates everything I do. I love him beyond words or reason.
That's what i'm looking for Mummyface. Just that.
someone who listens to my bollox and smiles and tells me he loves me.
x xx x
Hello Upside-down Bunny,
Just reading through your Mum's rendition of our Blackpool trip - brings it all back like it was yesterday, laughed until my sides hurt, especially the 'noise alarm' on the train, God I was in tears. Then Hilary said, 'It's not really a noise alarm, is it?' and killed us all for another ten minutes. The poor people who had moved to let us sit together at the table must have been rueing their generosity!!
I didn't intend to but I did exactly the same thing when I got home - spent the whole evening reciting the entire trip, still laughing. Your Dad never once said, 'You had to be there, right?', brough me wine and even laughed encouragingly at appropriate moments like I wasn't boring him to death with our girly silliness. Then when I'd just about burnt myself out, he gave me a big cuddle and said, 'I missed you'. I got all choaked up. Very happy.
On Thur 26 June I went to an Army vehicle event at the military 'prooving' ground with my boss and some of the team at work. Fantastic! Huge new military trucks and Landies. I got taken around the track (read as obstacle course!) in a Man Essex. Daft name. Quality machinary. The driver stopped at the head of this enormous 'swimming pool' of muddy water. He announced the trench was 2 metres deep and then floored it into the water. The vehicle launched almost vertically down into the trench and caused a mini tsumani. The cab went completely underwater. I squealed. He was in stitches. 'You're the first person I've had in the cab today who screamed' he said. I pointed out it was hardly a terrified scream, I was merely surprised by the mud bath. As soon as I was out of the vehicle I called your Dad on a mega high to tell him. I would have liked to get a ride in some of the other kit but the idea was that you were being shown the vehicles ability as a prospective buyer. Being that I can barely afford a new tyre for my old 86, let alone the latest, desert camo, fully armoured, high powered Land Rover I'm not really in that market (excuse me whilst I splash cold water on my face)...
That weekend I pack up a whole heap of stuff (including the boxes you ear marked) and head for the boot sale ready to off load the useless to those prepared to take it off my hands. Cali and Phil had been round a few weekends earlier, Blue Peter style, to help clear out the garage in preparation. The idea had been for Phil and your Dad to clear out the gutters and treat them but it turned into a bit of gardening for the boys while me and your Mum got to grips with the garage. We filled my Landie and Gav, twice, for runs to the dump. The rest was boxed for the boot.
On Saturday Cali and Phil arrive to ensure I don't bring anything back. It's a gorgeous day and we're having a great laugh in the sun shine. Your Mum's modelling bras (over her t-shirt, may I point out) and I'm trying to convince girls who are skinier than me that my clothes will look great on them because I've got too fat for them, hence they're in the boot!
At first it's going pretty well, people are buying things and the piles are decreasing in size. Then suddenly the constant haggling starts to get to me. It goes like this:
'How much for this (clearly rather nice item)?'
'50p (because I don't want to take it home)'
'40p'
At which point I'm in two minds - yes, take the 40p and let them feel like the saving of 10p has made their tiny life a better place to be or go 'fuck off, I said 50p and I'm not taking a penny less' in which case I may as well just pack everything up and take it back home right now. I didn't swear. I took the 40p with a smile. And then they want a God damn bag to put it in!! 'Are you taking the piss? These are Tesco bags for life - they COST me 50p!!' I don't see the boot sale lark becoming a regular event but it was nice to halve the 'tut mountain'.
We were booked in for a big BBQ round at Krista's this weekend but the weather has been dreadful. You would never think it was July. We have had rain and wind and general nastiness just about every day - oh yeah, except the day I took the motorbike to the garage for the MOT. I'm standing outside the house waiting for your Dad, trying to time it so I'm entirely covered and not on the move for as little time as possible. The sun is already out and it's got to be the hottest day this year. He comes out of the house. I pull on my lid and buckle up. I'm struggling with my gloves, already sweating, when he goes back inside. I wait. Four minutes is a long time when you're human 'boil in the bag'. Your Dad comes out and seeing my gloves are not on says, 'aren't you ready yet?' Yeah, hang about a bit more, I think I've lost weight!!!
Got to say though, it's lovely to be back on the bike. I haven't riden for about a year and it was like I'd never stopped (save a dodgy moment on the first tight right on a mini roundabout, lots of swearing at myself and pathetically bad wobbling - not very Lara Croft at ALL). I think I need to ride. I get stupidly frustrated behind the wheel and on the bike I can just go, I'm too busy judging distances and working out my chances to get too fussed about other drivers. I love it!!
Your Dad says he loves you. I'll write more soon. Kisses from Charlie too. XXXXXXX
I do have to point out to you both that as much as i'm overjoyed by the fact that you both have that specail someone to share your life with...
I'm a little heartbroken at the moment so you'll excuse me if I cry a bit won't you.
The boot sale sounds brilliant. Sorry I missed Mum modelling a bra in or out of clothing.
x xx x
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