OK, another first in England; actually, it is a first for me, period. I was quarantined by the NHS (National Health Service). But I will get to that later.
After a quiet cup of tea on the patio, it was time to get ready for the party. The house was given a thorough cleaning much to the dismay of J.J. He does not like the vacuum cleaner and I think he also fears it will sneak up on him while he is not looking. He has to know where it is which means constantly checking on its progress and then darting off to the farthest place in the house. It is no good putting him outside as I believe he thinks he must protect us from the monstrous sucking machine. It does put a little fun into a tedious task.
With the work done early we had time to rest and prepare for a busy evening.
The guests began arriving for the pot luck dinner, which was brilliant - fish pie, sausages in gravy, perogies, and much much more.
The guests were the same wonderful group I had met at the village hall for badminton. We had to put in some time before the 10:00 pm service at the church so we divided off into groups; some to play poker, some to play spoons, and others to drink and chat. I am sure you know about poker, but spoons may be new to you. It is a game that involves four cards being dealt to each player and a pile of spoons (one less than the number of players) being placed in the centre of the table. The objective is to get 4 of a kind and is achieved by each player passing an unwanted card to the left. This continues until someone has four of a kind and makes a lunge for a spoon. This starts a free for all and the player without a spoon at the end of the melee leaves the game. Physical injuries are not uncommon. Maeghan was left with a bleeding lip and a cut finger - but they all had fun.
It was soon time to head off for a short walk to the Christmas Eve service. We left the 'heathens' to continue playing poker with a promise to say prayers for them.
I was concerned about finding space for us all, but we arrived to find plenty of space. I am still blown away with being in a church that was built before the new world was discovered. The list of rectors begins in 1130!
The service was conducted using the New Rite (I hope I have the correct term) which is very similar to our page 185 service. I thought I was following the leaflet closely, but was told after the service that I "lapsed" into what they assumed was the Canadian service.
We arrived home to find two experienced players looking very glum, while their student Bradley counted all of his winnings.
After a few more hands of poker the party broke up and all went home to await the fat man's nocturnal visit. I fell asleep nestled all snug in my bed, while visions of poker chips and flying spoons danced in my head.
Unfortunately I did not awake feeling too cheery, in fact it felt like the worst hangover I have ever had, not that I have had that many hangovers. I had not had that much to drink the night before, some pear cider, some wine and a nightcap of scotch, but nothing else seemed to explain why I felt terrible.
Jeff was not feeling too well either, so it was assumed by the rest of the family that we had had too much to drink the night before.
After we opened the presents I went back to bed and stayed there until Christmas night. Louise had cooked a wonderful Christmas dinner, the table was set in the festive mode, but all I could stomach was two pieces of cucumber and a glass of water. I had to go back to bed. That started an evening of hourly visits to the bathroom.
The next morning Jeff told me that he, Louise and Maeghan had started throwing up last night. Jeff did a little research and made a couple of calls and found that we had the dreaded Norvovirus. Jeff then received a phone call and was informed that we were quarantined by the NHS.
The next few days were a blur as we all tried to cope as best we could. Only Alexander seemed to have escaped the the old P&P ( I will let your imagination figure out what the two "p's" stand for).
We were suffering from cabin fever by the 29th and ventured out for a trip into Huntingdon and an order of medicinal chips.
Monday night we had our first full meal since Christmas Eve. We were all pretty nervous about what would happen after eating so much food. But all was well, except for Alexander, who finally succumbed.
It is now New Years Eve and we are about to venture out among people again, hoping that the old P&P will give us a miss until next winter.
We have been sticking close to home these last few days. As we draw closer to Christmas traffic and crowds become more of a problem.
I had to take a break from writing this post and take J.J. out for his morning you know what. J.J. has one of the most curious noses I have ever seen. He must make the rounds of the orchard, checking for anything new since last night before he gets down to business. A good friend, Doug Wigle, refers to this morning sniffing as the dog reading his newspaper.
It may be cheeky of me, but I have to tell you that I was quite comfortable outside with just shorts and a T shirt.
Monday afternoon was occupied with a quick dash into Peterborough; quick until we hit the city limits and then a slow crawl into the city centre. We picked up last minute things for Christmas and beat a hasty retreat back to Abbots Ripton.Monday night we went to the Village Hall for the weekly get together of badminton and ping pong. As there were Christmas decorations hanging from the ceiling, we had to give badminton a miss. In lieu of badminton, a WII (pronounced wee) was set up and projected against a wall. In teams of two we played doubles tennis. Although it was an electronic game that required only small movements of the handheld sensors, one soon got into the spirit of the game with true to life serving and bobbing and weaving.
Just to keep Maeghan happy (and quiet) I wrapped Christmas gifts Tuesday morning. The afternoon was spent at the cinema with Maeghan and a friend watching the just released Twilight, a movie based on a series of books Maeghan has been reading. Louise, Alexander and I had planned on seeing Australia, but as it was not to be released until Boxing Day. We settled on Madagascar 2, a really fun movie.
Tuesday evening was spent in front of the telly watching the International Darts Tournament with Jeff. For some reason Louise, Maegan and Alexander found this "boring". Louise went to the kitchen, to begin preparing for a Christmas Eve party; and Maeghan and Alexander went to their respective computers.
I have been remiss in not introducing my family before this. From the photos you see Maeghan, maybe not looking directly into the camera, but had she seen me taking the photo, I would have captured an excellant photo of the back of her head. Alexander is a little better as he simply lowers his head when he sees a camera. Louise can be seen slaving away in the kitchen, while Jeff and I relax over a pint at the local pub.
As I write this the weather is cloudy with sunny periods and 12 degrees. I see that Kingston is experiencing minus 16 with a minus 25 wind chill factor. I'm glad I am here.
Sight seeing has been put on hold until after Christmas. The traffic and crowds make meaningful sightseeing impossible and there is work to be done to prepare for an Abbots Ripton Christmas.
Jeff and I did a little walkabout and I took a few photos of the village. The Lord of the Manor, Lord Ramsey has a tremendous amount of control in the village. Home owners are allowed only 4 colour choices for their homes, pink, yellow, green, or terra gotta; and he must be consulted on any proposed changes and there is usually a fee to be paid to him.
We had planned a stop in the pub for a pint, but there was a wedding reception going on in the large rooms behind the pub, so the pub was closed. The village people are not to fond of this pub since it was renovated and reopened. The pub fare consists of foie gras, and many unpronounceable french dishes; a rather strange choice for a small village pub.
Se we returned home muttering to ourselves and shared a bottle of Blandford Fly, a very sweet beer. Not sure if I would try it again. Had to have an Innis & Gunn oak aged beer to clear the palate.
Hope you enjoy the pictures. The large pink house is where Jeff and Louise live and is my home away from home. I can only include 5 photos per post, so I will publish another post with more photos.
I hate to keep repeating myself, but Thursday was another warm sunny day. I have just checked the weather in Kingston (7:08 GMT) and I see it is -14, brrrrrr!!!!
We decided that we would see what the day offered without making any plans. After breakfast and getting the kids off to school, Jeff, Louise, J.J. and I set off for a walk around the country side. It was interesting to see flowers blooming and crops growing in the fields.
Along one stretch of woods we came upon some mega bird feeders, 45 gallon plastic drums filled with oats. One of Jeff and Louise' friends explained that farmers raised pheasants and grouse for hunting. They released the birds just prior to the hunting season and kept them close by with theses feeders until such time as the farmers can come out and kill them. They release close to 10,000 birds in this area and only about 500 will survive the dogs and guns.
After our return home and a cuppa tea, Jeff and I set off for St. Ives to do a little Christmas shopping (we are upholding the time honoured tradition of men to leave Christmas shopping until just days before Christmas) and to do a little geocaching.
The shopping was a struggle and we worked up quite an appetite so we headed to the nearest pub. Finding a pub was not the chore it was in Peterborough, as they seemed to be everywhere. We chose the Robinhood Pub on high street and I had my first fish and chips in an English pub. Bangers and mash are next on my list. I also tried one of their cask ales, Courage Director's Bitter, another truly delicious English ale. I limited myself to one pint as we still had some walking about to do, looking for gifts and caches.
We were able to find one caches that Jeff missed on a previous visit because the gate was locked. We missed the second cache because of a locked gate. Later we discovered that had we crossed the bridge we could have walked right to it. Oh well, another day.
We gave up on Christmas shopping since we still had 7 days to go and were not under any pressure, yet.
After supper, we had a Gray's Anatomy marathon and a good night's sleep.
p.s. I took the photo of the grave stone because of the pot of skulls in the upper right corner - rather gruesome
Another glorious day in Abbots Ripton, sunny and warmish. Today was a return trip to Peterborough to view Peterborough Cathedral.
This time we drove to Peterborough, rather than taking the train, at a more leisurely pace and I was able to see more of the country-side.
The Cathedral is another ancient site that began as a Monastic Church founded by King Peada in 655. The Danes destroyed the Church in 870, which was rebuilt as part of a Benedictine Abbey in 972. An accidental fire destroyed the Abbey in 1116 and between 1116 and 1238 it was rebuilt to its present form.Admission was free but I had to pay £2.00 to take photographs, a small price to pay to have permanent reminders of my visit to the Cathedral.I know that the phrase "history comes alive" is over used but it truly did for me here in the Cathedral. I saw the former burial site of Mary Queen of Scots, and the burial site of Catherine of Aragon. In 1177 relics of Thomas Becket, a blood stained piece of clothing, a piece of stone stained with his blood and other items were brought to the Cathedral.
I was unable to identify the Cathedra as none of the seating near the Altar seemed to stand out as our Cathedra does in St. George's. Maybe they had ready moved it down to be closer to the Nave Altar.
After our tour we set out to find a geocahe hidden somewhere on the Cathedral grounds. This was a puzzle cache which involved finding five sites around the grounds where we would find numbers somewhere nearby which we had to record. Two of the sites were under ancient sundials on the Cathedral walls, while another involved counting the number of crosses in view and subtracting the number of large swords we could see. It gave us the opportunity to see many of the outbuildings and the cemetery. We eventually found the cache container in the hollow section of a tree nearby to the memorial of the first mayor of Peterbourough, whose name I forget.
After all that exercise we set out to find a pub for some lunch. After an exhaustive search we had to settle for Pizzaexpress, which may sound like a fast food restaurant, but was far from it. I had my first pizza with a sunny side up egg in the middle, and it was delicious.
We arrived home in time for an early dinner so that Jeff and Louise could joins others in the village for a door-to-door carol sing. I had to forgo that pleasure in order to babysit Alexander and Maeghan.
One thing I have noticed here is that they do like their "drinks" After the carol sing the carolers were to meet at the pub for "drinks". And I believe we are to get together for "drinks" before the 10:00 pm Christmas Eve Service. I think I shall give that a miss so that I will still be awake for the service.
Today is a day to catch my breath. Had breakfast. Watched a 12 and a14 year old complain bitterly that there was nothing to eat!!! To translate, there was nothing that they "wanted" to eat.
I was going to take some photos but feared for my life, so I kept quiet in hopes that they would not see me.
Jeff was home early as the world is in a quiet state, so we went to Tesco to do a grocery shopping. What a civilized country, I was able to but some scotch and wine in the grocery store as well as some wonderful Stilton cheese from a company that has been in the business of cheese making for over 100 years.
Monday nights are for badminton and ping pong in the Village Hall. I shall sit out the strenuous games and sip tea and catch up on the village news.
I have to admit that I gave Church a miss today. The other Canadian couple posted to RAF Molesworth came over for a marathon cooking bee for Christmas, perogies and tourtieres. We prepared all the ingredients and broke for lunch. We went off to the Greenman Pub for a carvery, a huge dinner of beef, pork or lamb, roast potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding all smothered in a delicious gravy. The vegetables had to be served in separate bowls as there was no room on the plates.
I must remember if there is work to do in the afternoon, do not have a huge meal and a pint of cider and a pint of Old Peculiar. It was a wonderful meal in a tradition pub atmosphere (I had to keep my head down when walking around).
The rest of the crew tackled the mounds of ingredients while I went for a time out. I was eventually dragged back into the kitchen and taught to make perogies, many, many perogies.
After that very filling meal I didn't think I would be hungry again until breakfast, but so as not ti insult the cooks, I had some perogies and a slice of Louise' delicious tourtiere.
Friends dropped by to sample our wares and we finished the evening sipping single malt scotch in front of the fire.
We woke up Saturday morning to cold temps, high winds and the threat of heavy rain; just another normal day in Cambridgeshire. We decided to follow through with our plans to see a football match in Peterborough.
We took advantage of the fantastic rail service here and took the train from Huntingdon. For the three of us, Jeff, Alexander and myself, it was £11!! I am not sure of the distance from Huntingdon to Peterborough, but at 160 km/hr it just seemed like we got ourselves comfortable and we were there.
Technology never ceases to amaze me. The day before I had purchased a 2 gig card for my GPS that allowed me to down load onto my GPS all of the roads in the UK and Europe, along with all of the hotels, pubs, restaurants, recreational facilities, tourist attractions and much more that I am still learning about. I was able to locate the football stadium and the GPS gave me the rout and distance. As they say here, brilliant.We had some time to spare before the match so we did a little walkabout. I saw the exterior of Peterborough Cathedral and it was truly breathtaking. I will definitely be making another trip so that I can spend more time in the Cathedral.
I am now officially a senior!! Jeff's ticket for the match was £20.00, Alexander's was £5.00 and mine, as a SENIOR was £12.00!!! I like this country.
Peterborogh FC ( also known as the POSH) played Odlham Athletic to a draw, 2 all. It was my first professional football match and I thoroughly enjoyed, even with the high winds, cold and rain.
Another rapid trip home and an early night.
Louise and I had to make a return trip to Ely to return some merchandise and find a reasonably priced Christmas tree. Unfortunately we could not return the merchandise as the store was in administration (receivership) and the market was closed. Not a good start to the day, but we soldiered on looking for camera batteries and thumb tacks. The market was closed and I couldn't find the type of batteries I needed, but Louise did find the thumb tacks in a Pound Store.Our search allowed us to see more of the town and I found it a very quiet, peaceful place. The beautiful Ely Cathedral is constantly in view as we walked around the town.On the drive back we kept our eyes open for Christmas trees with little luck. Louise had just about resigned herself to an artificial tree when we spotted a sign amongst some houses. The path led us to a gardening plot and some standing trees. For £10 we were able to purchase a 15 foot tree! Unfortunately we had to cut off 4 feet so we could fit it into the car and another 3 feet when we got it home. But it is still a magnificent tree!!After supper, dinner, or tea (I am still not sure what to call it) friends of Jeff and Louise dropped by for drinks and a chat. We spent a quiet evening in front of the fire talking about their country and customs.Another wonderful day in a country I am becoming quite fond of.
I have been a week here in England and the weather has been fantastic, sunshine every day.
My arrival was delayed a day because of some incorrect information given me by an Air Canada rep as to where I was to check in my travelling companion,J.J., the Labrador Retriever. It was not a routine delay as there was a time limit on J.J., with medication administered in Canada. He had to be in the country within 48 hours. Through Gmail chat and a web cam I was in contact Louise and she was able to arrange a flight the next day for J.J.
It was great to see everybody and settle into a beautiful house in a small village with pigeons (a lot bigger than their Canadian cousins), grouse, pheasants and peacocks wandering around the grounds.
I had a day to catch my breath before we set out Saturday morning for Norwich. There was a geocaching event sponsored by Jeff's group scheduled for Sunday so we thought we would spend Saturday sightseeing.
There was a huge market in Norwich and with being the Christmas season, the crowds were spectacular. We were able to see Julian of Norwich's church and her cell attached to the church. It was interesting to see that the construction was mainly of fist sized rocks bedded in mortar. Later repairs used quarried stone.
Because of the crowds we gave the Cathedral a miss for another day and had a pub lunch with J.J. quietly sitting beside the table.
Our accommodation for the night was a Bed & Breakfast that was part of functioning railway station. The boys, Alexander, J.J. and me were given the room facing the tracks and we sent some time out the windows waving at the passengers on the passing trains. I didn't count the trains, but I am sure there were more trains stopped at that station in 2 hours than in 24 hours at the Kingston station in Ontario.
The crossing barriers were stilled closed manually for each train, one of the few remaining in England.
After a full and delicious breakfast we headed back into Norwich for the event and spent a couple of hours walking around the town following coordinates.
Monday through Wednesday were spent acclimatizing and catching up on the news with the Hague family.
Thursday Louise and I travelled to Ely to view the Cathedral. The trip wasn't too traumatic as I am getting use to the cars being on the "wrong" side of the road. Jeff and Louise purchased a Volvo SUV with plans to take it back to Canada, so it is left hand drive, which makes the experience of the passenger even more interesting as you are facing oncoming traffic.
The Cathedral was breath taking both inside and out. I found it very interesting to view a cathedral that was founded over 1000 years ago and to see physical evidence of what Cromwell (an Ely boy) and his followers did to the cathedral, especially the Lady Chapel where the windows were destroyed and the sculptured figures had their heads knocked off, much like Charles I.
After another pub lunch and a bit of shopping we headed home with a side trip to pick out a Christmas tree. Louise decided to pass on the £60, 4 foot trees and we decided we would look tomorrow.
