Fetes, fiascos, flowers and flights!
Sorry for the late posting guys, can’t be helped when you’re lazing about at the beach in the sun…more of that later. For now, last weekend…
We paid five pounds to get into the Innocent Village Fete on Saturday (two weeks ago – I know, sorry I’m still catching up – can’t help that I’ve had a fantastic week and a bit!), Lija booked online and Ali came too. It was up in Regent Park, right opposite the zoo (which we still haven’t been to). It was sponsored by Innocent smoothy juices, which are similar to what Australia has called ‘nudie juices’.
The five pounds got us far – we had a heap of free smoothies to keep us going all day, which was great because it was quite a warm day. Ok, so it was hot and we still managed to get sunburnt even though we got free sunscreen from the lastminute.com bus!
The festival was huuuuge! There was a big farmer’s market where you could get any type of food and drink – stands with cider, beer tents, Pimms had its own double-decker party bus complete with sandy beach front.
You could get coconuts – whole big coconuts that African guys were hacking holes in and customers were sipping the milk from straws; big chunks of watermelon freshly cut; slices of ultimate chocolate brownies (yes, Lija and I had to try – one each was too much and we felt like guts for the rest of the day!!!); dishes of every nationality, the tastiest being the rice – Lija and I had a rice seafood mix for lunch.
There were shows on in the pavilion – dogs mustering sheep, children dancing around the maypole; we even watched a ferret race. We walked around to there ten minutes before it started and thought we may as well sit and watch it, with the few people who were milling around, by the time it began the area was packed with spectators!
Needless to say, of the four ferrets, the Australian one won the race! They had little kids lift the boxes and the ferrets had to run through five metres of plastic and glass piping to little bowls of milk at the other end!
There were heaps of family friendly things to do for little kids, water play and rides, making craft things. There were big tents with line dancing, salsa dancing and other music.
Lija and I didn’t get home until late, but it was a really good day!
On Sunday we were going to visit Westminster Abbey, but of course someone doesn’t want us to see all of London – as it was Sunday, it was closed to tourists. So we walked along the Thames and found ourselves a bit um, in the wrong place.
We sat and waited for a bus, which after an hour still hadn’t come, so we checked the map and walked up to Victoria Station, which turned out to be about twenty minutes walk – half the time of waiting for that stupid bus!!!
We got some salad stuff from Marks & Sparks and went and sat in St James Park, where we could hear a big band, so we went and sunbaked in the beautiful weather while listening to the band play music from Mary Poppins, the Beatles, West Side Story and other classics.
I couldn’t concentrate at work on Monday, way to excited that I was spending a week in Jersey. I had to take my pack with me and then catch the tube down the District Line and across Piccadilly to Heathrow. It’s so much easier to get to Heathrow than the other airports. The flight was all on time and everything so I had no problems getting there. Gran picked me up.
She said they’ve chosen their new car, but because France is on holidays this month – yeah, the whole country, they have to wait till next month to get it. I can’t remember what it is, but they got to borrow it for the weekend and test it out. Pops said it was the first time he got out of the car easily, and it even fits his three-wheeler in the back, which will give him the ability to go places if he wants to.
We set up the air bed in the lounge room, it was inflatable from a plug that switches on from the wall – turned out to be a double bed about two feet high! Well, weren’t we surprised! I had to push the couch right out of the way to set it up.
I definitely must have been tired though, cos Tuesday morning I slept in till 10am! Oops! We went out for lunch in Gorey, and it rained the whole way there that we even had to stop by the side of the road to wait it out for ten minutes or so, not to mention Gran’s hooning through the water puddles!
Well, Pops wanted lunch from old Don’s restaurant, someone he knew from way back, but it was closed, so we went to the one next door. It was really nice, I had Jersey Plaice (a type of fish that I had grilled) with sautéed Jersey new potatoes and salad. Pops had his strawberry ice cream for dessert and Gran and I shared a chocolate cake.
Afterwards Pops sat in the car and watched the boats, while Gran and I climbed to the top of Gorey Castle. I had already told Gran about our personal trainer in the house, Brenton, and she was hiking up the stairs ahead of me, when she turned around and said “Just think about Brenton!” and we both started laughing! We did have quite a week though!
On Wednesday Gran and I went into town for the morning, I had a few things I was looking for but we were just looking around. I got a perfume that I’ve wanted for ever, actually, for the past few months – Ralph Lauren Rocks, very fruity and summery. I bought it out of my birthday money from everyone, it was twenty pounds. We found a gorgeous pair of green shoes in the marketplace, which I couldn’t make up my mind on, but Gran bought them for me!
We also had coffee and cake in Marks and Sparks which was really nice, though like Gran said it was served in cups as big as fish bowls! Well, we used up the whole two hours Gran had put on parking, and when she got home she told everyone she’s never “mooched about town like that” before! But I think she enjoyed it, I did!
We drove over to Green Island in the afternoon where I went for a swim in the ocean, it was bloody cold! But I went all the way over to this big rock, then jumped off into the water. Of course Pops was enjoying taking photos only luckily it couldn’t zoom that far so no swimmer pictures of me!
Thursday was Gran’s birthday, I had already given her present on Monday. I’ve been sewing a cat and vase that Vecmamma gave her years ago, but Gran didn’t think she could do it, so she gave it to me. I am not quite finished; just have the backstitch to do so I’ll be sending it over soon hopefully.
Both dad and mum called at 9.30ish in the morning. Now, I said to dad, “What day is it today?” “Thursday” “And what does Gran always do on a Thursday, rain, hail or shine?” And his reply was: “Oh, shiiit!”. Yep, Gran had gone to get her hair done, and although it didn’t take long, the traffic was already heavy for the day of the battle. Pops and I had finished breakfast and were both trying to get ready for the day – it took me an hour before I could brush my teeth because first dad called, then we got a delivery from Dolly and Eric – a huge basket of fruit! Then mum called just as Uncle Mark dropped by with a big bunch of flowers from everyone, and eventually Gran got home!
Aunty Jo called, then mum called back again and then dad, and by the time the three of us were off the phone it was lunch time! We ate rather quickly because Gran and I walked down through the park and along the promenade where everyone was getting ready for the Battle of Flowers. Now, this was a momentous occasion for me, for ten years I’ve heard Gran and Pops tell me about the annual parade of floats decorated in flowers of all colours and shapes, and I finally, finally have been able to see it!
We walked down past First Tower where Uncle Peter is, and found a good spot leaning against the barriers with the sun on our backs. And boy, after two hours the sun really was on our backs – I only had my bikini top and halter neck on, so came home with a sportingly red raw back, and even Gran got a bit of sun on the back of her neck. Oops!
But the parade was great, and when you look at all the detail of the floats up close it’s so beautiful, each flower placed carefully to make an animal, or an object. There were floats of every scene you could imagine – check out the pictures – from jungles, to safaris, the little mermaid under the sea, the wild west, masquerade ball, Viva Las Vegas, Peter Pan, the pirates and the lost boys, the lion king, well – you get the idea!
The Wild West was great – there was this kid in a coffin with a painted white face and the undertaker sitting next to him, Las Vegas had the funniest kid dressed as Elvis doing the best impersonation – flicking his hair back and twisting around, air-guitarring and mouthing the words.
This one float playing Lou Bega’s “Mambo number five” got stuck in front of us and played over about three times before moving on, so Gran and I had a bit of a dance! We shook our booty’s and sung along!
Well, we popped into Uncle Peter’s on the way back to say hello, and wandered slowly through the park to home, only stopping to pick up the Post on the way back. By that time, we had to get ready to go out for dinner for Gran’s birthday, and we picked up Aunty Betty along the way, meeting Uncle Mark and Karen there.
It was the same restaurant as last time in Greve de Lec, but they weren’t AS good, pop’s meal was cold and the waitresses took forever to clear plates and bring out the meals. But I enjoyed mine; I had garlic bread and the pork ribs again.
But of course we had shits and giggles all night long with Aunty Betty 🙂 She keeps things interesting to say the least!
Gran and I had to run into town on Friday for a few things, not to mention another coffee at Marks. We were looking for a cross stitch for Aunty Inga of a Jersey Cow, but I have some very bad news. The lady who does the kids, I bought the Jersey Island kit ten years ago, has decided to stop making them, so it’s only what’s left in stores. We went to about three or four around town and they even called up some of the tourist places for us but we’ve had no luck! I’m so sorry!
However, I did have a look online and found this one:
http://www.genuinejersey.com/member%20pages/creativestitches.htm
which I think is very pretty.
I also bought for Lija a beanie puppy and a beanie bear for me – they are heat-able in the microwave and will keep us warm when winter comes – they were also bloody heavy to carry back in my backpack! It weighed six kilos heavier coming home, that would also be because I nicked two ice cream containers worth of Uncle Peter’s fresh black and yellow tomatoes from his greenhouse, and we went for a drive down five mile road to pick up a bag of Jersey new potatoes for Lija – don’t ask! We also stopped off at one of the surf beaches down there and I had a right old time jumping the surf! Haven’t seen a beach in three months so this was heaven for me!
I had no flight troubles, although it took half an hour for the bags to come through, then I just caught the tube home, got back at half past eleven, re-packed my bags and slept for five hours before getting up to go to Birmingham for the weekend.
Oh and wasn’t that a fiasco – because Mile End station was closed again I had the biggest trouble getting to Marylebone on Saturday morning. In the end I hopped on a bus that got me to Liverpool St station and from there got a taxi to Marylebone but by then I already knew I missed the 6.30am train, turns out the ticket was open and I caught the next one at 7.30 so I didn’t get there till 10am.
Anyway, it turned out to be perfect timing and Lija and Chris were walking in as I was coming out. Now the way it works is that my Uncle Steve’s mum Grandma Walton is Chris’s wife Gill’s mum’s sister – so Uncle Steve and Gill are cousins. What a mouthful! Well, their daughter Fiona, who is around our age and studying audiology at uni (which I found out after going ‘huh?’!), took us out for the day to see the city.
They live about twenty minutes from Birmingham city, but still in the same borough. Birmingham – pronounced sort of Birming-gam – the accent is a bit thicker up there, is England’s furthest away from the ocean town. So when we were wandering around the city there were several areas set up for beach soccer and beach volleyball!
We went all around the shopping district and had lunch at Nandos – I tried the HOT chicken and damn it blew my head off! I had to have several bites and then dip into the coleslaw to cool my mouth down. Needless to say I walked out of there with lips like Joan Rivers! Haha
We had a BBQ for dinner in the evening, with a few other relatives who came round too. It was really nice, good weather for it too. And a lot of good banter. But I was stuffed – buggered and full – so it was a loooong sleep in Sunday morning, before we went up the top of Licky’s Hill to see the view of Birmingham and return for a beautiful English dinner (lunch, people!) complete with the yummiest Yorkshire puds!
The two and a half hour train ride back sucked and I’m not looking forward to the ten hours it will take to get from London to Nice!!!
Hope you enjoyed the thesis – it was ONLY just over 2000 words! hehe
Tags: Travel
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