Sunday 21 March

Following a rainy Saturday, sunshine prevailed as we set off at 7:00 am for Milton Keynes. The CMFRC (Canadian Military Family Resource Centre) had planned a day of laser tag and paintball for the children of Canadian Military serving in the UK.

Alexander, on the left and another young man getting to know each other by not making eye contact and kicking stones around.

Walking on the way to the paintball bunkers and trenches. I am surprised that the sheep are free of any paint, they seemed perfect targets.

Maeghan and Louise in the entrance to the gaming area.

The rest area, surrounded by netting to prevent any stray paintballs from knocking over your cup of tea. Maeghan joined in the laser tag in the morning but opted out of the paintball.

The 'gang', including some adults, all kitted out for laser tag.

Alexander with a cyclops, i.e., a paintball to the middle of the face shield.

A shot to one of the less protected areas. This, says Maeghan, is why I did not join in the "fun"!

While the young people were trying to do as much damage as possible to each other, Louise, Jeff, and I checked out ASDA, a division of Walmart, and Costco. As you can see both are, again, very civilized in offering both groceries and beer, wine, and spirits.

After a delicious carvery and a pint of Batemans cask ale at the Greenman Pub in Swanbourne, we met Maeghan and Alexander, hosed them down, and headed for home after a successful day for all.

Friday 19 March

Another warm sunny day in Abbot's Ripton.

We set a little late for our early morning walk as Louise had to be at the house at 9:00 am to meet the insurance adjuster. They were finally picking up Jeff's car for evaluation and, hopefully, repair rather that right-off. Ten days after the accident!!! Their insurance policy allows them a rental car, but that isn't supplied until after the adjuster has picked up the car. Insurance companies, they are so happy to take your money and so full of assurances that if a claim is made it will be handled rapidly with little disruption in your life. Yeah right. They are spawns of the devil! They judge not on moral or ethical grounds; their guiding light is ''how can we get out of paying this claim.''
Sorry for the venting, feels better now that I got that out of my system, but it doesn't change my opinion of them.

We chose a new route today, we were going to walk on the Estate of Lord De Ramsey; as near as I can understand, although he owns huge tracks of land, this is his personal home and grounds.

Sue and Louise (a.k.a The Ladies) have just left the main road through the village and are heading down Moat Lane. The Three Horseshoes pub is to our left.

Moat Lane

Scenes after we left Moat lane for a footpath.

An interesting approach to having water in freezing weather.

Coming up on Abbots Ripton Hall

As close as I dare get to the front of the Hall. Not to sure how the staff would treat a colonial tourist.

Nice to know

The game-keepers house.

We are now off the estate and passing through the Wennington. As I walk along the roads I like to think I am a friendly sort of person, so I usually wave to drivers of oncoming cars. During this walk I remarked to The Ladies that the drivers didn't seem too friendly as they did not acknowledge my waves. Sue suggested it was because I was in shorts and they thought I was gay. Louise put it down to sun shining off of my lily white skinny chicken legs that blinded the drivers to my waves.
Now to briefly jump ahead a couple of days, I retraced the steps of our walk with the addition of one variable, long pants - it was too coll for shorts that day, and the elimination of two variables, The Ladies. For every wave I gave I received either a wave in return, or a smile and a nod of the head. One more walk around the estate with long pants and The Ladies will confirm why the drivers did not wave on the first walk; either it was the presence of the ladies or it was my skinny, white chicken legs. Stay tuned

John and Pippa Hemsley's 800 year old house.

Nice to see that the church is still involved with the education of children.

And so home. The Merry Men (a group of volunteers at St George's Cathedral in Kingston, Ontario that fix things around the cathedral) should take note that the clock in the tower of St Andrew's Abbots Ripton does work and keeps excellent time. Perhaps David McTavish could add clock repair to his little black book.

Thursday 18 March

Thursday started with our normal 6:30 am walk under blue skies and warm temps. In fact it was such a wonderful day that I decided to walk into Huntingdon and pick up a few groceries. It is about 3 miles from the house and I was halfway there when a very attractive woman in a red MG with the top down, the car`s not her`s, picked me up and gave me a lift to Tesco, the Loblaws of England. I wanted to take a picture of this attractive lady in her MG, but she was on her way to get her hair done and wanted me to wait for the new hairdo. Keep posted.

English grocery stores are so civilized - one stop shopping for food, beer, wines, and spirits. With the exchange rate of about $1.50 CAD to the pound, I can purchase the same wines I can in Ontario but at much cheaper prices.

I had only my backpack so weighing priorities, I came away with a small number of food items and three bottles of wine, including a bottle of Wolf Blass Chardonnay Semillion, a wine difficult to find in the LCBO. I and the wine arrived home all intact about 45 minutes later - no red MG this time.

Louise arrive home from three days in Germany and we had a quick dinner as it was parent-teacher night for Maeghan and they had to be there for 6:00. 

Jeff has been monitoring a website called Freegle, very similar to Freeware in the US (it actually was started as a response to Freeware demanding that all moderators for the different groups throughout the would be US citizens.) Jeff enjoys the odd cigar in his ``Pad``, i.e. the garage. When asked where Jeff is, the answer is he`s changing the oil in the garage. If you look out at the garage you can see the cigar smoke billowing out of the doors.

On Freegle he found someone offering two upholstered chairs, a love seat (but we don`t refer to it as a love seat because it is going to be used in the boy`s pad), and a couch. He had contacted the earlier and was promised that they would hold them for him. This night we got the call that they would be around and we could pick up the furniture. Jeff and I got ready to go and realized that Louise has the Volvo SUV and we had Jeff`s little car. After 15 calls to Louise`s cell phone - she couldn`t answer because she was in a meeting one of the teachers - we decided to drive in and switch cars and leave a note for hoping that in the panic she would feel when her car was not where she had left it, she would notice Jeff`s car and check her email messages. Luck was with us as she called just as Jeff was writing the note.
Off we went to pick up as much furniture as we could fit in and on the Volvo. We were directed to a barn down a dark lane. Upon arrival we could hear a motor running in the barn. As we entered this humongous tractor pulled to a stop and a man exited the cab. Now I have a mental picture of what an English farmer should look like, and this one did not disappoint me. On his head was a sweat-stained fedora; boots and baggy pants, a shirt, a vest, a sweater, a suit coat, and a fag in his mouth completed the picture. One thing I did not expect was that this gentleman was blotto. We were greeted with a lop-sides smile and the statement that he ``had a wonderful and lunch``. Mind you, this was at 6:30 in the evening so it must have been a wonderfully long and liquid lunch! And I shudder to think he drove that huge tractor back from the pub.
We hurried to move items out of the way to get at the furniture. I was afraid if he tried to do some moving himself, he might end up on the floor of the barn and be quite content to lay there until morning.
We were able to load the two-seater (a.k.a. the love seat) and a chair in the back of the Volvo. As it was raining lightly we decided to return the next night for the three-seater. He informed us that he would be in the pub for a pint or two around 5:00 the next night and we welcome to just come and help ourselves.

The furniture is now installed in the pad and it looks quite comfortable with the exception of needing a heater. It`s a mite damp and cold in the evenings.

The chair and Jeff`s supply of cider, which is quite excellent I might add.

And close to hand if you don`t care for a glass of cider.

The work desk with the computer.

The two-seater in place.

The must have dart board.

And a jewel of a find on Freegle - a model of Nelson`s ship of the line, HMS Victory.

 Dad in the Pad ( and Maeghan Amelia)

Now everything is in place for the next poker game.

Sunday 14 March

Friday started out looking like a fine day and we were able to set off on our daily walk at the usual time of 6:30 am.
At 9:30, Louise's driver arrived to take her to Huntington Train Station; Louise was to attend a charity function at the Canadian Embassy in London.
Soon after she left it began raining, the first rain I had experienced this trip. In Canada we view March as a month that can bring snow, hail, freezing rain, and just downright dirty weather; here April is viewed as the month that can transitionally move between winter, summer, and spring. So I look forward to some interesting weather.
Saturday was a day of sports, couch potato style; we all settled in to watch football (soccer) matches and rugby matches. Well, not exactly all, Maeghan found other interests.

On Sunday Jeff and I left everybody sleeping and went looking for some boot sales (flea markets in Canada). The first one we attended was held indoors at Wood Green Animal Shelters. This is a huge complex, supported by donations, that cares for several different animals looking for homes, from rabbits right through to horses and donkeys.

We arrived about 9:15, the sale opened at 9:00, and I saw a gentleman walking out with a shooting stick that was adjustable in height, something I had been seeking for a long time. Ah well, the early bird etc., etc.
We spent an enjoyable hours or so looking at all the "treasures" people wanted to sell. We eventually came away with two whiskey decanters, a whiskey flask, and some vinyl records (clear to see where I priorities lie.)

Before the next boot sale Jeff took me for a brief tour of the facilities.

Jeff would love to adopt a greyhound retired from the track.

He might even settled for a lurcher, a greyhound cross breed.

If you look closely you will see that this greyhound has a picture on his bedside table. They do treat these animals well.

Jeff was quite taken with this pair of dalmatians. Unfortunately, they are both deaf and answer to hand commands.

They have common play areas to suit all dogs.

And well-appointed office space.

Our next stop was Huntingdon Racetrack for an 11:00 am boot sale, where another hour was leisurely spent viewing what was offered. We came away from this one with a few vinyl LP's and 45'.
I look forward to more boot sales next week.

Thursday 11 March

Today was a rather sad day as we remembered Bradley's 20th birthday with a visit to his grave. I may have spoken to some of you about Bradley, a courageous young man who lost his battle with bone cancer last October.

After this Louise and I went to RAF Alconbury to do some grocery shopping. It is now a US base and I had to present my passport to be issued a day pass. It is sad to hear that most of the people stationed at Alconbury never leave the base. They have a theatre, bowling alley, gym and a large grocery store that carries all the items from the US. They are missing out on so much by closing themselves off from the rest of the country. Oh well, their loss.
From Alconbury we returned home to rest up for another assault on Spiceland. I must admit that once again I acquitted myself very well and had to be rolled out to the car.
A small libation was the perfect ending to the day.