Where by “Peas” I mean “girls”, and by “Pod” I mean “blanket”.

Can you tell they’re related?

Dean, Lea, and Kylie had never been to the Cotswolds for a clotted cream tea! And since Dean and Lea are making their way back to Australia (taking the very, very scenic route!) we had to remedy this situation yesterday. We had an absolutely gorgeous day of sunshine, so it was a perfect day to be out in the country!

We started at Bourton on the Water – “The Venice of The Cotswolds” as they say, simply because it has a stream. Creative. We made the others take the Dragonfly Hedge Maze challenge, and they came through victorious.

Next, we hit up Stow on the Wold for some lunch. Having been there before and remembering the abundance of shops that were there, I thought we’d be loaded for choices of places to eat. But after walking around most of the town, we didn’t find anything that jumped out, and we eventually settled on a hotel who served us a fairly ordinary meal (or at least I thought so). This was certainly not the highlight of the day! We made a few obligatory purchases in the local chocolate shop before trundling off to Chipping Campden for the main event – Clotted Cream and Scones.

Oh man, they were so good – and so big! Usually two scones is the order of the day, but each of us could barely get through one!

It’s a bit of a hike to get there, but The Cotswolds always makes a lovely destination for a day trip. And now, I want some more clotted cream…

Almost three years living in London, and we still hadn’t seen the changing of the guard! Well, all that changed yesterday when we met up with Weezy and Kylie outside Buckinghuge Palace to see what it’s all about. It was a gorgeous day yesterday, with temperatures reaching 20 degrees in the afternoon! And yet, I was still quite surprised at how many other people who had the same idea as us, and worse yet, had got there before us and taken all the best viewpoints! Even the cops came out to enjoy the show!

Truth be told; the ceremony was a bit of a non! All that happened in the 40 minutes that we were there, was:

• The new troop of guards marched in to the gates on the left;
• A band marched in to the gates on the right
• Some dudes on horses trotted past

That’s it! Admittedly, there seemed to be a lot of action inside the palace gates which we couldn’t see from where we were, but from what I could see, it looked like it was just people marching back and forward. Whiz bang.

Oh well; no real complaints, that’s one more thing ticked off the list – and watching the police yell at all the misbehaving tourists was a bit of a laugh. Plus, the girls all looked like celebrities in their dark sunnies.

Nice.

Last time that Nick, Suzie and I went mountain biking in the New Forest we had such an awesome time that we all resolved to do it again. And this weekend, to make the most of an amazing spring Saturday, that’s exactly what we did! This time we pumped our numbers up from three to nine, adding Kylie, Julian, Eva, Peter, Anisha, and Kerrie to the group. We were a force to be reckoned with!

The forest was noticeably less green and lush compared to the last time we went. In fact, the ground cover was so brown and dry that I could have fooled myself into thinking we were back in Australia! This made some of the off-track areas a bit treacherous to ride on – one large stick through the spokes and it would have been game over!

Still, that didn’t stop us from trying – some of us more so than others. Predictably, Nick decided that following a track was taking the easy way out, and instead decided to carve his own path. Mostly this worked out well for him, though I think he found some of the terrain a little bit more difficult than he had anticipated.

Overall, we were following the Deer Sanctuary route as recommended to us by the bike hire company, which included lunch at The Trusty Servant in Minstead. It was a lovely pub, yet it was full of polar opposites! For example, the fish and chips were delicious (good!) – but they came with normal peas (which are on my “list of foods that should never be eaten”) instead of mushy peas (which are fine – boo!!). Also, the outdoor dining area was enormous, and just lovely in the sunshine (good!) – however we found the locals a little too friendly, and I for one wished they would have maintained their distance (boo!!). I think Anisha felt the same way.

Not long into our return journey, we somehow managed to miss a turn, and we ended up on an off-road path through some swampland. Still, it’s all part of the fun isn’t it? Plus, I couldn’t take Kylie out of London without bringing her home at least partially covered in mud; it just wouldn’t be proper! But with a little bit of compass work, we managed to find our way back to the bike shop in the nick of time – only 10 minutes before they closed up for the evening! Phew!

Once again, an awesome day out, and one I’d be keen to repeat at anytime! I think I need to get me some padded bike pants though; my butt was aching afterwards! (TMI?)

To fulfil one of her life-long ambitions, Cousin Weezy is heading over to France as an Au Pair. Now, I’d be lying if I said I remembered exactly what part of the country she is heading to, but I know it’s somewhere in southern France. So I’m going to make something up right here, and say that she’ll be living in a castle near Toulouse, taking care of 3 children – Julien, Franchesca, and Xavier. As it turns out, Fanchesca has been promised for marriage to the Prince of Nantes county, even though she is only 4 years old. As such, Louise will effectively be taking care of royalty, and as such she will be rewarded with a new BMW each year, and served Creamy Garlic Escargo on each new moon.

(I’m pretty convincing, huh?)

Anyway – to farewell Weezy in style, a selection of family celebrities gathered at Robbie & Michael’s house tonight for a French feast. Following dinner, we took some scenic photos with The Eiffel Tower, and then moved downstairs for some EyeToy action. Being my first time playing with such technology, I fairly sucked at it – however Lauren and gerrod.com were definately the Kung-Fu masters. Whilst Weezy and Sherrie were the firework queens, and Kylie showed everyone up when it came to window washing, the EyeToy Championship winners were Jess and Kristy.

gerrod.com also shocked everybody by hosing the dancing challenge… but what can I say, it’s all the natural Jamaican rhythm…