Monday, October 15, 2012

Weekend in Kent

On Friday afternoon we trundled off to visit Elaine's sister in Kent - it was about a 4 hour drive from Stone with motorways virtually all the way.

I liked this Austrian truck we passed on the M6 ...
 
Bombo travels very well in the back seat!



Past the Luton turnoff (my town of birth).  I quite enjoyed it there when I was young, but now - what a dump, must be one of the worst towns in the UK!


Sam likes to sit in the front and see what is going on...


Nothing like a Friday arvo on the M25!


The QE2 bridge is most impressive - spanning River Thames at Dartford.


What do sisters do when they meet?  They play with their hair!
 
El's sister and her hubby live in a over 200 year old house in East Farleigh ...


El's brother-in-law is a Professional Illustrator and Artist - check out his website if you get a minute - he does some amazing work !

El's niece also has a little fluffy white dog ... kind of a mixture of Bombo and Sammy !


El's niece and her husband have bought some land near Maidstone and are building some livery stables and a house; in just over a year they are charging ahead, the stables are fantastic and oh-so-clean!

Nice big sky over the paddocks, it was quite a warm day ...


One of El's Great Nieces (yep, she is a Great Aunt !!!)


Another Great Niece - they are 2 very lucky little girls ... they each have a pony, plus dogs, guinea pigs and chickens! It really is a great location and lifestyle to grow up with!


The dogs enjoyed the run around ...

The girls ...
 
Elaine doing some horse jumping ...


Then it was my turn ...
 
Then it was time to feed the chooks ...



Plus give a rescue chook her medication ...

Then it was time to say goodbye to Elaine' Brother-in-law, Niece and Sister ...

On the way back we drove through the centre of London, rather than going around the M25.

Approaching the Gherkin ...

Over Tower Bridge ... (at this point we were going the 'wrong way' but we soon got back on track !)

And onto the start of the M1; the Citroen performed faultlessly which was good. 

So back home to the boat.  We had left the cats on their own so it was a tad smelly when we got in - but it was all in the litter trays so no probs, plus we left them plenty of food and water.  We think it was too long to have left them though and if we go away again over the winter we will put them in a cattery, in case it gets too cold on the boat.

Today Elaine gave the inside of the boat a good clean whilst I polished one side and touched up the blacking.  I will have to turn her around tomorrow and do the other side while El goes to the hairdressers (again!)

Good to hear that Elly and Mick are joining us on the marina for the winter!

5 comments:

  1. been reading the blog this summer and i also come from luton originally what part did u live in?

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    1. Hi Nicky
      Born in Stopsley, also lived in the Saints Area (St Catherines Ave), Crawley Green road, Tavistock Street,Sundon Park and finally Hockwell Ring. In between that also lived in St Albans and Marske by the Sea, which is on the North Yorkshire Coast.....Phew

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  2. LOL i lived in stopsley from 2 years old till i was 16 ashcroft road, then heswall court in the town centre till i got married we then livd in clifton road by the football ground and and then brendon avenue by the airport then 26 years ago we moved up the motorway to newport pagnell where we have lived since, may a lady ask your age lol im 50 this year

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  3. 56 years young. My claim to fame is that I worked at Vauxhall with Paul Young...he was a good mate, we still stay in touch today. He lived in Stopsley and went to Ashcroft school.

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  4. small world I went to school with his sister x keep up the blog a have the use of a narrowboat, well its a friends and i spend as many weekends as i can on it one day hope to have my own.

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