Feb 27, 2009

Dressing for the Cold Australian Style

Dressing for the Cold Australian Style

Daytime Pursuits

Pin Mill Daytime pursuits for the first week or so involved a slightly hectic balancing act of seeing relatives and old friends.

James and Jane had given us a lift up to somewhere near Duxford where we met in a very rainy McDonald's car park with Nicole's folks and proceeded to Necton where her Grandad lives.

To be honest I don't remember that much about it. It seems like an awfully long time ago. But I'm pretty sure that humus was consumed by me, and that we went out for a drink at the Servicemen's CLub in Swaffham before proceeding Southwards again.

Mum's that night, and very nice it was to see her and her home improvements, then fall asleep in front of the television (I assume).

On our first proper day in Ipswich, after my trip to Flix, we met up with Sam along with Adorable Amelia, Sarah with Potentially-Mad Max and Faye with No-Accent Esmee. We went to the local "Soft-Play Centre" (new terminology for me) where huge edifices of avoidable death for infants towered over us drinking crap coffee.

Instead of availing ourselves of crap food we went down to the docks where we consumed at Pizza Express. Jolly civilised considering the average age.

Then we popped in to see Dad and Shirley at Gavin Mansion, obviously good to see them too, before nearly falling asleep as the sun fell and jetlag set in and having to bail out.

The next morning I do believe and very early start was had by me and I drove down under the bridge and down to Pin Mill where I was forced to avail myself of the local facilities between tramping around on the muddy quays amongst the quaint old shippery.

The rest of that day is a bit of a mystery... but now I think of it, I volunteered to mind Esmee at Faye's house so we stayed there that night. So, thinking back, that might have been the day that Mum and I went out whilst the girls took an afternoon nap to check out the local churches.

The remarkable thing about that was mistaking the field at some church in the middle of nowhere for its car park... and being unable to get the car out of the field again.

Only when Mum procured help from the locals did salvation present itself in the form of a 4 wheel drive. Relief all round. The wind blew very cold over the flat lands of Suffolk that afternoon!

So that night I fell asleep at Faye's house in front of the TV.

Orwell Bridge

Orwell Bridge So morning times saw me visiting old favourite places in the early morning, driving out in Nicole's Grandad's car and getting back in time for breakfast.

Invariably youtube would be on or recently finished, playing 3rd & Bird, an entertaining cartoon we don't get in Australia with an extremely irritatingly catchy theme tune.

Jet Lag

Dawn Detector Jet Lag means that even days after arriving back in the Motherland, you still wake up at 6am.

As the sun doesn't rise in England until 7am in late January this creates certain opportunities.

After a couple of days with James and Jane, visiting potential wedding locations and blocking their toilets (that was Eloise combined with inefficient flushing power), we set down at Mum's place. I went to Felixstowe in the morning to allow my fingers slowly to numb whilst wandering around the pier.

Later, I suffered an almost catastrophic bladder urge which was only satiated by sneaking into the leisure centre.

Feb 24, 2009

Night Time Dislocation

Through the Oval Window I keep waking up in the middle of the night, not knowing where I am.

Generally I suspect in the dark that I am in some rickety old cottage and generally feel my way around, almost sleepwalking, trying to avoid steps, creaky floorboards and protruding rafters until I reach some kind of light.

Yesterday I was just putting Eloise to sleep and put the book down when I fell asleep and consequently my surroundings were especially unfamiliar. It got into the hallway before things became clearer again.

I suppose that's the consequence of having slept in nine different beds in the last month or so.