A WEEK OFF

I will try hard not to make this a 'what I did on my holidays' blog, but I can't promise not to as all I have done since I last posted was go on my holidays!  As the picture to the left shows, one of the highlights was watching Sussex beat Durham at Hove last Tuesday in what was one of the most thrilling 50 overs matches that I have seen.  I can honestly say that even if we had lost I wouldn't have minded (too much) as the cricket was great to watch regardless.  As it was we won in an exciting last over run fest and we returned to our campsite very satisfied indeed. The rest of the week was spent touring National Trust sites in God's own county (with an occasional deviation into Kent). This has tended to be the way most of our holidays have worked out in recent times, albeit in different parts of the country, but this is perhaps unsurprising since we decided to purchase life membership of the NT a couple of years ago.  

Outside Batemans

We had a blissful time at Nymans, Bodiam Castle, Scotney Castle, Petworth and Bateman's - the latter being particularly relevant since I plan to use Rudyard Kipling's writings as my theme for classic literature next term :-)  We stayed in two perfect campsites (found on the 'cool camping' website, which I thoroughly recommend if you like your camping basic and unadorned as we do).  

Relaxing by the camp fire

Ricard working his charms at the Green Cross

We also had a wonderful meal out in a pub which had the perfect saloon bar cat called Ricard (his brother Pernod sadly came to an untimely end on the road outside a while before).

Isabella, Ronnie and 'Badger' on the new slide

We returned in time for our grand-daughter Isabella's 4th birthday party today, refreshed and ready for a final week of preparation for departure to Africa next weekend.  My unaccompanied baggage is collected on Monday so once that is gone I will really feel that the move is properly under way. After we have handed the campervan over to Charley, the final major event will be preparing the house for being empty for a year.  First though, we have the really pleasant prospect of going to worship at, and then sharing lunch with, the church that we attended for 3 years and at which we were married nearly 16 years ago.  I am really looking forward to renewing old friendships tomorrow.