Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday Walk in the Gardens
Still beautiful weather - Doug and I had a walk through the Botanical gardens before it got too hot.
Christmas Celebrations
Nana Loma, David and I had an enjoyable Christmas lunch at Terry and Sue's house in Grey Lynn. It was very low key and relaxing - we ate yummy food, chatted and played darts. A perfect N.Z. beautiful day. David has photos here:
Boxing day lunch was at our place. Ali, Steve and the children were there; also Robert, Stacey and Caleb, and Nana. Doug had a break from coach driving today. We enjoyed opening our presents, sitting outside, under the fejoa tree.See David's blogspot for photos.
Boxing day lunch was at our place. Ali, Steve and the children were there; also Robert, Stacey and Caleb, and Nana. Doug had a break from coach driving today. We enjoyed opening our presents, sitting outside, under the fejoa tree.See David's blogspot for photos.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Christmas Drive Thru
Well, I've heard of Drive Through Movies, Drive Through Banking, Drive Through McDonalds but this was a new one on me - a Drive Through Nativity Scene. This is an annual event at the Greenlane Christian Centre.
What a neat atmosphere - lots of excited children - the odd little Santa wandering around and real sheep! We queued up and waited to board a truck that would take us around the scenes in 'hay bale
comfort'. One truck driver had two cute puppies with him, complete with reindeer antlers tied on with a bow beneath their chins.
You could remain in your own car. They were lined up 'Cook Strait Ferry' style. A large contingent of helpers were directing traffic; taking orders for coffee, or sausages; helping people to board the trucks, and chatting.
We watched a scene at a time, then were directed through high gates when it was time to move on. The sound system worked well so we were able to enjoy the jokes. The angel Gabriel was most impressive- he descended from a very high tree - let down by rope - then disappeared again into the darkness.
The final scene looked really beautiful.
It's their last night tonight.
What a neat atmosphere - lots of excited children - the odd little Santa wandering around and real sheep! We queued up and waited to board a truck that would take us around the scenes in 'hay bale
comfort'. One truck driver had two cute puppies with him, complete with reindeer antlers tied on with a bow beneath their chins.
You could remain in your own car. They were lined up 'Cook Strait Ferry' style. A large contingent of helpers were directing traffic; taking orders for coffee, or sausages; helping people to board the trucks, and chatting.
We watched a scene at a time, then were directed through high gates when it was time to move on. The sound system worked well so we were able to enjoy the jokes. The angel Gabriel was most impressive- he descended from a very high tree - let down by rope - then disappeared again into the darkness.
The final scene looked really beautiful.
It's their last night tonight.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Charlotte's Ballet Recital
My niece Charlotte, had her end-of-year ballet recital this morning. Alex was granted special permission to take part as well - he had a lovely time 'dancing' around the Christmas tree. What a natural!
Frances wore her pretty dancing skirt and enjoyed watching all the fun. Her turn next time?
Frances wore her pretty dancing skirt and enjoyed watching all the fun. Her turn next time?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Senior Thankgiving Service
I enjoyed being in the audience this year! The two senior classes put on a great performance of 'The Pied Piper'.
In this version, after the children had disappeared, the parents saw the error of their ways. They learned to put aside their worries, and interact with their children a little more.
The miserly mayor paid over the $1000 as promised, and the children returned unharmed to relaxed, music-making parents.
I do love a happy ending!
In this version, after the children had disappeared, the parents saw the error of their ways. They learned to put aside their worries, and interact with their children a little more.
The miserly mayor paid over the $1000 as promised, and the children returned unharmed to relaxed, music-making parents.
I do love a happy ending!
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
I was only away a couple of hours ......
When I left for work about 2:30 pm, work was underway on replacing two sections of the flue of the wood fire. Doug was actually away trying to buy a larger plate to go up on the ceiling. He had been up the ladder a few times - it seemed steady enough. I wasn't really happy about the whole situation - ladder against the wall etc, but it worked perfectly well last time didn't it? (We have forgotten about the chimney bouncing off the roof and hitting the ute......that's another story.)
Two and a half hours later: As I drove up the driveway I looked up, through the living room window and noticed that the ladder was at a funny angle. It worried me a bit that Doug's car wasn't in the garage.
Worse was to come.... oh dear, the house was deserted, Dave had gone too....windows were still open... there was a hole in the wall, and tracks down where the ladder had slid.The ladder was poking through the wall one end; the other was firmly jammed against the piano.
Perhaps Doug and Dave gone to buy some wall board, I thought hopefully, before I saw the blood trail leading out to the tub in the kitchen!
Apparently the ladder slid down the wall - it was stopped by the piano. When Doug grabbed the ceiling plate he cut all the fingers on his left hand. David took him to the Dr. but didn't have time to text me first. I was rather shocked when I registered the ladder, the blood, and the empty house!
Being a reporter at heart Dave couldn't resist a photo while the fingers were being bound up, and anti tetanus administered. A few witty texts were exchanged and peace restored.
I was only away a couple of hours!
Two and a half hours later: As I drove up the driveway I looked up, through the living room window and noticed that the ladder was at a funny angle. It worried me a bit that Doug's car wasn't in the garage.
Worse was to come.... oh dear, the house was deserted, Dave had gone too....windows were still open... there was a hole in the wall, and tracks down where the ladder had slid.The ladder was poking through the wall one end; the other was firmly jammed against the piano.
Perhaps Doug and Dave gone to buy some wall board, I thought hopefully, before I saw the blood trail leading out to the tub in the kitchen!
Apparently the ladder slid down the wall - it was stopped by the piano. When Doug grabbed the ceiling plate he cut all the fingers on his left hand. David took him to the Dr. but didn't have time to text me first. I was rather shocked when I registered the ladder, the blood, and the empty house!
Being a reporter at heart Dave couldn't resist a photo while the fingers were being bound up, and anti tetanus administered. A few witty texts were exchanged and peace restored.
I was only away a couple of hours!
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Warbird's Open Day
We enjoyed the very 'low key' open day at Ardmore this afternoon. Here are the planes that I enjoyed seeing:
I remember flying in a DC3 when I was about 14. DC3's were still flown by our national airway. It was my first experience of flying, and I was scared stiff.
It amused me to see everyone looking up! This next one is a 'kit mustang'. (Thunder Mustang) It was very impressive to watch.
The good old Tiger Moth is always a favourite. They used to use these to tow up the gliders when I was a student at Ardmore Teachers'College.
Doug's pictures will be a whole lot better I'm sure!
I remember flying in a DC3 when I was about 14. DC3's were still flown by our national airway. It was my first experience of flying, and I was scared stiff.
It amused me to see everyone looking up! This next one is a 'kit mustang'. (Thunder Mustang) It was very impressive to watch.
The good old Tiger Moth is always a favourite. They used to use these to tow up the gliders when I was a student at Ardmore Teachers'College.
Doug's pictures will be a whole lot better I'm sure!
Friday, December 04, 2009
Junior Thanksgiving Service
It's nice to be in the audience this year! Lovely to see my last year's class taking part. There are some good little singers coming on!
Their production this year was It's a Cracker.
Their production this year was It's a Cracker.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Robert Moves House
Robert's rented house has sold, so he has had to find another. Doug, David and I went around to give him a hand this morning.
That huge TV was such a pain to take down the steep stairs.
Robert has managed to find a lovely little house at Bucklands Beach. The neighbours seemed very nice, and spoke to us as we backed down the long driveway. The little house is very cute. It has two bedrooms, which is an improvement on the last place - and no steep stairs!
That huge TV was such a pain to take down the steep stairs.
Robert has managed to find a lovely little house at Bucklands Beach. The neighbours seemed very nice, and spoke to us as we backed down the long driveway. The little house is very cute. It has two bedrooms, which is an improvement on the last place - and no steep stairs!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Life Returns to Normal
We have now been back 3 weeks and life has pretty much returned to normal. Doug is back driving coaches. I have been wading through our photos with the intention of putting everything that we have found onto a CD. Hopefully it will help to give family members a starting point if they visit these places one day. I hope to record the Trudgeons, Snaddons, Alexanders, Coxheads, and Jenkins families.
It's an interesting exercise. I have heard back from the lady who spoke to us in the Aldbourne church. She has sent this site address:
It's an interesting exercise. I have heard back from the lady who spoke to us in the Aldbourne church. She has sent this site address:
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Aldbourne, Wednesday
We awoke to another fine day-it's unbelievably warm - 17 degrees today. It encouraged us to put away our scarves and get our T-shirts out again.
After an excellent breakfast, we set out, on foot, to find a rental car firm. We worked off our breakfast, and more, took local advice, and finally succumbed to buying a street map. We looked at the public transport options for visiting Aldbourne, (where my Gt-Gt-Grandfather Robert Coxhead was baptised) but there were no trains or buses that we could figure out, so we decided that a rental car was the way to go. Reading has almost no street names that we could find. We did find Budget Rent-a-car and the very helpful man sent us off happily in a very new Vauxhall Something.
We programmed 'Gertie' and set off to find Aldbourne. She sprang back into life with a map of Holland, but finally found she was in England and took us to Aldbourne. This is the town where Robert Coxhead (senior) was baptised in 1820. It is a lovely old village, with houses from 1600-1800, a village green and a most interesting church, where family members were baptised, married and buried over a number of years.
What a lovely village - it was very unspoiled apart from the traffic that passes through. I am so pleased that we found it. It is built around a village green. There are two village pumps. The people were friendly and happy to talk to us.
First of all we visited the beautiful old church. We didn't search the graveyard as others have already down that without success. Many of the gravestones are covered in moss, and impossible to read. (My great-great-grandfather was buried in NZ, so we would have needed to go back a fair way.) We met a lady in the church who took my email address and promised to keep me posted on any information that may come to light.
The church holds (for safe-keeping) a couple of horse-drawn fire engines from the early 1800s. They were bought after a number of fires in the village when up to 15 thatched cottages were destroyed inthe late 1700s and early 1800s.
The home that Robert Coxhead actually left, was a cottage in the small village of Snap (nearby). We asked some locals for directions. After lunch, we set off. This village was located about 2 miles west of Aldbourne. There was a walking track, so we parked the car and found we could walk to what was once 'Snap' by following a walking track through some fields. (Stinging nettles, blackberry, pheasants,electric fences, but no cattle beasts were encountered).The village had ceased to be used in the late 1800s and was now mostly fields. We decided to hunt for 'ruins'. We located what we are fairly confident, are the the old Coxhead house remains. We had an old map and were able to locate this windmill that is shown on the map. Only parts of a couple of walls remain. Doug found a piece of brick, for me, from the rubble.
On the way home, we visited Hungerford. This is the town where (Robert Coxhead's father) was born in 1787. It is a much bigger town, on a canal.
On returning to Reading and had decided to keep the rental car overnight (at no extra price), to save us taxi fares in the morning. We will take the train to Farnham, then the bus to Heathrow that runs each 10 minutes and takes 30 minutes. It sounds so easy compared to dragging our bags without handles onto the tube!
Note: This wasn't possible - there was however, an excellent bus service from Reading Station to Heathrow.
So we end our trip in nice warm weather, with the leaves now mostly on the ground. Ahead lies a 25 hour journey back to reality.
What a lovely time away we have had!
After an excellent breakfast, we set out, on foot, to find a rental car firm. We worked off our breakfast, and more, took local advice, and finally succumbed to buying a street map. We looked at the public transport options for visiting Aldbourne, (where my Gt-Gt-Grandfather Robert Coxhead was baptised) but there were no trains or buses that we could figure out, so we decided that a rental car was the way to go. Reading has almost no street names that we could find. We did find Budget Rent-a-car and the very helpful man sent us off happily in a very new Vauxhall Something.
We programmed 'Gertie' and set off to find Aldbourne. She sprang back into life with a map of Holland, but finally found she was in England and took us to Aldbourne. This is the town where Robert Coxhead (senior) was baptised in 1820. It is a lovely old village, with houses from 1600-1800, a village green and a most interesting church, where family members were baptised, married and buried over a number of years.
What a lovely village - it was very unspoiled apart from the traffic that passes through. I am so pleased that we found it. It is built around a village green. There are two village pumps. The people were friendly and happy to talk to us.
First of all we visited the beautiful old church. We didn't search the graveyard as others have already down that without success. Many of the gravestones are covered in moss, and impossible to read. (My great-great-grandfather was buried in NZ, so we would have needed to go back a fair way.) We met a lady in the church who took my email address and promised to keep me posted on any information that may come to light.
The church holds (for safe-keeping) a couple of horse-drawn fire engines from the early 1800s. They were bought after a number of fires in the village when up to 15 thatched cottages were destroyed inthe late 1700s and early 1800s.
The home that Robert Coxhead actually left, was a cottage in the small village of Snap (nearby). We asked some locals for directions. After lunch, we set off. This village was located about 2 miles west of Aldbourne. There was a walking track, so we parked the car and found we could walk to what was once 'Snap' by following a walking track through some fields. (Stinging nettles, blackberry, pheasants,electric fences, but no cattle beasts were encountered).The village had ceased to be used in the late 1800s and was now mostly fields. We decided to hunt for 'ruins'. We located what we are fairly confident, are the the old Coxhead house remains. We had an old map and were able to locate this windmill that is shown on the map. Only parts of a couple of walls remain. Doug found a piece of brick, for me, from the rubble.
On the way home, we visited Hungerford. This is the town where (Robert Coxhead's father) was born in 1787. It is a much bigger town, on a canal.
On returning to Reading and had decided to keep the rental car overnight (at no extra price), to save us taxi fares in the morning. We will take the train to Farnham, then the bus to Heathrow that runs each 10 minutes and takes 30 minutes. It sounds so easy compared to dragging our bags without handles onto the tube!
Note: This wasn't possible - there was however, an excellent bus service from Reading Station to Heathrow.
So we end our trip in nice warm weather, with the leaves now mostly on the ground. Ahead lies a 25 hour journey back to reality.
What a lovely time away we have had!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Travel from Germany to Heathrow, Tuesday.
A lot happened today. We don't have any photos to show, as it was full on.
We were up at 6, breakfast with Annette & Georg at 6:30 . It was sad saying goodbye to Annette and Hannas the cat. We left the house in Georg's car at 7:15am. After taking the backroads we reached the Frankfurt autobahn, where there is no speed limit. It was a bit scary how some of the locals drive!
We reached the Frankfurt Airport without major incident, and drove to the recently opened, terminal 2. Georg parked the car and kindly saw us at the right check-in counter before he headed back home.
The airport security were the most detailed that we had encountered.
Doug had forgotten to pack his Swiss Army knife in the big suitcases and surprisingly, they let him keep it.
The flight was a little over an hour to Heathrow Terminal 5. We landed at about 12:30, then encountered, yet again, the queues for the non-EU passport holders. Only half an hour this time, and we then found our bags on the carousel despite the Terminal 5 computer declaring they didn't exist.
We took the underground into the city to Waterloo station. Trying to move heavy bags through the automatic gates caused failure of the second bag's towing handle, so Doug has since then been pulling both bags with bent knees. (Not a pretty sight!)
We purchased tickets for Reading and found the 15:30 train. Our bags and ourselves took 5 seats, but no-one seemed to mind as there was no other place for them.
At Reading we decided to take a taxi instead of walking 1 km with bent knees, and we were delivered to the Donnington House Hotel in the mostly standstill evening traffic. The hotel has no lift, as seems to be usual, but the desk clerk helped with our 40 kg up two levels.
Dinner in the local pub "Up in Arms' was good value and ended our day.(We're rather tired - bed looks good!)
Tomorrow will be the final day of our holiday. We plan on visiting the town that the Coxheads came from. (My paternal great-great grandfather).
A lot happened today. We don't have any photos to show, as it was full on.
We were up at 6, breakfast with Annette & Georg at 6:30 . It was sad saying goodbye to Annette and Hannas the cat. We left the house in Georg's car at 7:15am. After taking the backroads we reached the Frankfurt autobahn, where there is no speed limit. It was a bit scary how some of the locals drive!
We reached the Frankfurt Airport without major incident, and drove to the recently opened, terminal 2. Georg parked the car and kindly saw us at the right check-in counter before he headed back home.
The airport security were the most detailed that we had encountered.
Doug had forgotten to pack his Swiss Army knife in the big suitcases and surprisingly, they let him keep it.
The flight was a little over an hour to Heathrow Terminal 5. We landed at about 12:30, then encountered, yet again, the queues for the non-EU passport holders. Only half an hour this time, and we then found our bags on the carousel despite the Terminal 5 computer declaring they didn't exist.
We took the underground into the city to Waterloo station. Trying to move heavy bags through the automatic gates caused failure of the second bag's towing handle, so Doug has since then been pulling both bags with bent knees. (Not a pretty sight!)
We purchased tickets for Reading and found the 15:30 train. Our bags and ourselves took 5 seats, but no-one seemed to mind as there was no other place for them.
At Reading we decided to take a taxi instead of walking 1 km with bent knees, and we were delivered to the Donnington House Hotel in the mostly standstill evening traffic. The hotel has no lift, as seems to be usual, but the desk clerk helped with our 40 kg up two levels.
Dinner in the local pub "Up in Arms' was good value and ended our day.(We're rather tired - bed looks good!)
Tomorrow will be the final day of our holiday. We plan on visiting the town that the Coxheads came from. (My paternal great-great grandfather).
To Heidelburg, Monday
Here is a photo of Annette & Georg's lovely comfortable home in Limbach. Doug had to catch a photo this morning as we always seem to come home after dark, and we miss seeing it.
We awoke to a grey morning - at least it wasn't raining. The plan was to travel to Heidelburg . We would go to a museum if it was raining or explore the city if the drizzle cleared.
Georg parked the car in the Crowne Plaza, where their son, Frederik works. We were pleased to come across Frederik as we walked up through the hotel. Outside, we walked up the main street and looked in some of the shops.The drizzle had cleared!
We were amused by this cafe . It had blankets on the chairs for the smokers, who have to sit outside. The town was lovely. There were beautiful buildings every way we looked. Gypsies playing 'Kalinka' added to the atmosphere.
We walked on the bridge over the Maine River and up the hill for a view of the city. The statue on the bridge is tongue-in-cheek and each part is a little bit wrong. I was amused of their interpretation of the figure representing religion. (She has the cloth over her eyes!!) The scales of justice are lying against some stones in a very casual manner. Look at the face of the 'tough' warrior on the shield!
Later we walked back over the bridge and up to the castle. It was very impressive. Part of it is in good order; part is under restoration. The remainder is in ruins.
It has a very large wine barrel that has been restored. It had a capacity of 227,000 litres. Apparently it has never been full.
We ended the day with a nice meal in a small village where we stopped, on our way home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)