May 2 - Photo of the day

Photo of the day #3.

Poulters Bridge (300 years old) over the Basingstoke Canal near my Granny's house, Crookham Village.

Saturday

The invitations arrived to England this morning! It was so amazing, we sent them early last week & I received Ann's from the postman today through the window! Talk about a sense of accomplishment.

So today John, David and I explored the town of Fleet, which is a cute little village in the country with some small shops. It was a bunch of fun to see how the people of the town live - there are no WalMarts or Timmies! just more independent shops - and there was a super cute marketplace all set up with fresh fruits & veggies. We didn't get any, though, because we saw a pub (well we saw a bunch but this one was calling us) called Prince Arthur, so we went there for some deliciousss veggie burgers & a pint of Guiness (which is included as a drink, like in Canada you get meal+softdrink.. well it's softdrink OR a pint!), which was fun & then we took an hours' walk home along the canal. It was beautiful and we met a man named Ruce, who was 84 and fought in WWII which is interesting because we're going to Juno Beach on Monday & visiting some other sites from WWI & II over the next week. We came back to the Meade House & then left to pay respects to Colin MacPherson, John's late grandfather, and visited the church where Rory & Carol were married at, which is at the same site. It was beautiful. Ann took us into the woods in the back, which were in the middle of a field of sheep, and inside was just FILLED with English Bluebells.. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't think it would do the scene justice, so I left it for my memory. Basically it was just bluebells until you couldn't see anything but bluebells, and the smell was definitely the one that inspired fresh laundry detergent, just a strong and amazing perfume. Hopefully we'll be going back there tomorrow after the church service.

This trip has been great so far. I love England, and the people I'm with.

May 1 - Photo of the Day

Photo of the day #2

From one of the many courtyards at Hampton court. So many great photos, but this one was very different, and stood out :)

Royalty!

Today was great. We woke up all rested (ok, mostly rested) at 7.15 AM England time, of course, and John, David & I went for a walk up the creek near where John's Granny lives. It was awesome, because there's so much WWII stuff around! There's tank stoppers left on the banks, which were put up around 1939-1940 in fear of a Nazi invasion, and we climbed the barb wire fence toward to get to a bunker which was set up - super duper cool - none of us went in it but we got some cool photos. Maybe by the end of the trip we'll get the nerve to do it. It's too creepy! But full of history. Canada's so different, we REALLY take care of all of our historical.. things.. because we have so little of it. England is steeping in history and so 'little things' like tank stoppers or bunkers are left to the community to protect. I find it so neat.

Then after breakfast we went to Hampton Court for the day (AKA my new second home, I think it is calling me to live there?), which was Henry the 8th's "pleasure palace" - the palace was beautiful, we went inside the kitchens, which were huge (I'm sure John would love to prepare a meal in there!) and saw the apartments of Henry which had this amazing tapestry around, which told the story of Abraham.. so cool.. and Mary's apartment which was lavish to say the least.

We brought our own picnic, instead of getting suckered into their meals, which was fun because we found a courtyard with cute little tables & chairs but it was empty so we got it all to ourselves!! We had awesome, homemade sandwhiches, 'fruit in a corner' yogurt (which is really good, I'm glad I've come into the world of richer dairy), amaaaazing cheese, some delicious chocolate, etc.

Next we went out to the gardens, walked around, went into the world famous maze - John and I didn't find it so easy but David, Carol, Sophie and Rory were waiting for us at the end - and an awesome part was to see the tennis courts where King Henry played tennis (duh), but what was cool about it was that Carol had been there when she was 9  - just about 10 years ago - and it had changed so much & so little at the same time, since then. It's living history, it's so awesome.

After a long but good day, the guys are sleeping, pizza and salad are for dinner, and tomorrow me, John and David are off to explore the local town (we're in Crookham) while Carol, Sophie and Rory visit some old friends.

Peace!

April 30 - Photo of the day.

Photo of the day #1!

A Photograph taken at Pearson Airport before boarding the plane.

Over the Sea.

We're here! The plane ride was a ton of fun - Air Canada has seriously improved, (not that I've experienced them before this) and have put screens on the back of every seat - even in the working man's economy class - and have touch-screen usability so you can pick which movie you want to watch, there's like 10 or 15 you can pick from, there's XM Radio and all those great things which keep you entertained on a 6 hour flight. And it did. Except that it broke twice, me and John and David weren't the most happy about that, but life went on. 

I was nervous because I'd never flown overseas before, but we left at 8.30 PM in Canada, watched the sun set from the plane, had an AMAAAZING curry dinner (yay for being vegetarian!), flew over night and watched the sun rise over Ireland and the clouds - it was gorgeous - and had a ice-bagel breakfast. Ice because it hadn't thawed. Breakfast even though it was 3.00 AM in Canada. 

I've never been jet lagged before, and I don't like it, but it was fine. I get pressure migraines so needless to say the arrival wasn't the smoothest one for my body, but I have bounced back! 

We got our travel van, 9 seater so there's room for 4+1 with a broken leg (poor Sophie) and our luggage, and then went to visit Sheila, Rory's mum / John, Sophie and David's Gran, and she was hilarious as always, rushing around like a busy bee to make sure we were filled with yummy snacks. Once we were there for a while and started to doze off mid-conversation (not because we weren't interested, but because it was only about 8 AM Canada time, 12 PM England time) we headed off for Mead House in Crookham Village to see Ann, Carol's mum / John, Sophie and David's Granny, where we'll be staying for the next week and when we come back from France & Germany. We slept, well, and my migraine went away, thank God, and we ate a super yummy pasta dinner after catching up. Now we've just planned tomorrow, which is going to be a trip to Hampton Court with a picnic lunch!! I'm sooo excited. This is it: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/

Hugs! Keep posted for John's new photo.

- Sam

Tomorrow!

We're leaving tomorrow! It's almost here! There's been quite a few things to do to get ready before then, so it's been a teensy bit hectic, and I have an exam today from 2 - 5 which I think I'm not the ..most.. prepared for - I've been in summer mode for about a week - so I could just really use to get on that plane and take a sigh of relief.

And I will, tomorrow around 8.30 pm.

- Samantha