Ye Old Country

A 1c flight from Malaga got us to England's sunny shores for a week with the Price family in Quy, a pub and post office village just outside Cambridge. We were met by Bryn the Bernese Mountain dog, Gareth, Jane, Tom and Andy. We were very excited about visiting, especially Angus who was hoping to pop in for a tea with David Attenborough - after all he is from England!

So the agenda was a long weekend in the Lakes district and a lot of tequila. Apparently there was hope of a repeat performance of my infamous (accidental) tequila inhalation trick which left me gasping on the floor (dont try this at home!) Gareth had assembled 16 of his friends to join us. Last time I was here with Gareth was 20 years ago -ouch! - but who's counting.

We headed to the dogfree Cockermouth waterwheel YHA and shown around by Ray the caretaker, who was subsequently introduced to Bryn - 'I don't see a dog' - so all was cool. Phew!

The next morning the fog was thick and it was cold so we drove out along the hedge lined lanes to find a nice fell walk. As we drove up a pass the sky turned purple then brilliant blue as we emerged through the fog. Apparently it was the first sunny day since Christmas...

Now thats a bit of luck!

The climb up was great, all 21 of us got to the first peak and the view across the heather covered hills was stunning. Its really beautiful. The kids had great fun hiding under ridges and rolling down the steep grassy slopes (Andy Price was presumed dead by Archie and Angus for some time though his twin brother Arthur made a mysterious appearance)

The stone walls, hedges and narrow winding roads made it feel like we were really in England (a far cry from the M1 in a peasouper - fun....not)

We got back down for a walk around the lake and a homemade icecream. The boys thought that was good reward for getting to the top. We on the other hand got back to HQ had a few 'slammers' and followed by some limbo variants and charades. Some ripped pants and pulled muscles from the oldies put us out of contention pretty quickly - the winner was Tom Price!

Next we ducked into Cambridge for the afternoon one day, it is nice to finally see the things that I had heard of so much - the Cam and the punts and of course the colleges and bikes. Archie consigned his future to ANU after having a wobbly at of the sign in front of Kings College - 'Please respect the people who study and work here by being quiet'! I suspect Angus wont get into the Kings College choir either if he inherits any of our singing talent. But nice to look anyway.