A windy Day at Englands Defences

OThe day started watching the antics of the squirrel that lives in Mark and Virginia's garden!

Then it was off to visit Dover Castle for the day. The weather was fine, but you needed to make sure the old wig was nailed down as very windy at times. 

Went through the secret wartime tunnels, where we got to see, hear and feel the danger as the 1940 evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk was brought to life. This event was the turning point in the role the tunnels played during WW II.

Next on the agenda was lunch. We had a picnic lunch finding a sheltered nook, as the wind had increased during our time below ground.

After lunch we headed off to look through the the castle. We were lucky enough to have some live performers moving through the various rooms of the castle. They would explain what would be happening in the particular room in preparation of the visit of King Henry II.  In the Kings Chamber, Luke and Virginia were lucky enough to participate in the play. Luke taking a major part, we were a little confused, as Luke did start the play using a Scottish accent but it seemed to disappear along the way. At the end of the play we all had to take part in the Christmas dance. Stephanie did ask Luke why a Scottish accent, reply 'oh can't do any English accent', he was quite surprised when he found out his normal accent was English! 

We visited St Mary in Castro church which apparently is the finest late Saxon building in Kent. 

The Castle and surrounding buildings have gone through substantial restoration over the past years.

On our way part 2

Boarded flight all going well, then got told flight take off delayed. Deja vu! 

The loading lift was broken but this meant it was stuck to the plane, had to wait for technical team to come and fix then they could continue to load. 

One hr 5 mins later we finally departed.

No upgrade but we did get 3 seats between us and also some extra goodies courtesy of one of Stephanie's client. We both managed to get some sleep although it was an extremely bumpy flight. 

Arrived in LA late, got through the increasingly confusing transit reboarding. 

At this stage flight is 50 mins late leaving!

Flight through to London uneventful, unfortunately didn't get the the extra seat between us this time. Not able to have much sleep on this leg.

We arrived in London a little late, but we were on the road to Canterbury just over an hour after landing.

On our way!!

We have had an interesting start to our holiday. Had it all planned we would basically arrive at the airport within minutes, but you know what they say about best laid plans!

Stephanie's shuttle arrived15 minutes early and Diane's plane left 2 hours late!!!! At one stage we weren't too sure if Diane would actually make it to Auckland today. But it an answer to prayer, the plane took off and Diane finally touched down in Auckland at 8pm.

By that time Stephanie had made herself comfortable in the lounge and had a much needed welcome drink waiting for Diane.

 

Waiting for Diane

Finally arrived 

Christmas has come early!

The unwrapping has started (getting in practise of things to come!)

Dinner this evening was shared with Stephanie's mum and dad which was a nice end to a wet and windy afternoon.  

We had presents to swap so it was quite exciting with tea cosies, hot water bottles, shortbread and colouring books in the mix.

The packing is nearly done, just the final odds and ends for the road trip to add. 

This week it will be time to contemplate duty free and in transit shopping!

15 sleeps to go

The movies are chosen - its a choice between hot bodies in Magic Mike (Diane's choice), the emotions of Inside Out, Minions wrecking havoc, and the Man from UNCLE (Stephanie's preferred eye candy!). We hope that there are no dodgy screens in sight and can watch a whole movie without going to sleep.

Why is it, you can sleep during a movie, but not sleep at sleep time!

We still have our fingers crossed for the upgrade so here is hoping that we get a special treat to start our flights. We do have lounge passes, so can use them to while away an hour after the duty free shopping.

Is it a shame that we can't see the menu option? Or is the surprise worth waiting for anyway? Diane remembers when booking a vegetarian meal meant it came out first and you could be asleep before anyone else was served. This was in the days of the one movie choice - oh those were the days :)

It's a Wrap

Well, the gifts for those at home are nearly all wrapped and some are even chosen for the Canterbury house.

It is too early to be excited about wrapping presents!

Only four weekends to go, fairly sure that the time will pass quickly for us both.

Diane has a trip to Dunedin planned for Alice's graduation as a doctor (after six years of hard work and study)
Stephanie has a final trip planned to visit Stratford to collect Christmas presents and to do the final Christmas online shopping. What did we do before the power of the online shop??

We are still watching the weather and although snow would be nice, we are driving so don't really want too much of it.

Bags Packed

This is just a short note to keep you up to date with the excitement levels!!!

Well it is only six weeks to go and we will be on the road to the airport.

We could say that our bags are packed but really we are just looking at what clothes we need to take, washing them and folding them nicely, just like our mothers taught us. 

Diane has packed her winter pj’s and Stephanie has got trousers under control. The number of bags is sorted so we have space for shopping and a visit from Santa Claus as well.