and in general.....

well, first of all apologies to anyone that I've not been in touch with properly........ we have really had a very hectic time since we arrived and our main priority has obviously been to spend as much time as possible with our precious babies as they 'do their time' until we can all be together as a family again.......... at least we can report that they are all doing really well and we have wonderful visits with them which totally lift our spirits right up there! every time!
then there's been the whole 'organising our new home' issue which is hopefully nearing completion now....... we're on the last bits and pieces of it all now so hope that soon we'll have the keys to our new home!
so time has been in short supply often and interspersed with massive 'worry moments' and 'panic attacks', etc... but obviously we've had some good, relaxing bits here and there too!!! which have helped us get through what is definitely one of the hardest things to do in life.... a complete and utter new start in every way..........
so each step we take draws us a little closer and we feel a little better and bit more relaxed!!!
time now for a glass of wine..... where would one be without that I wonder...............?
xxx 

a pot of tea for two at minnis bay!

yet again my lovely best friend jules came down for a visit and this time we 'went for tea at the minnis'........ about three hours later we finally pitched back at the dog and duck with justin's beers.........!! it was lovely to spend some precious time just yacking with jules about anything and everything over tea, more tea and even more tea as the sun lowered in the sky over the sea.......

cheers!

time is rushing by.......!

oh, oh, oh..... so much time has gone by and I haven't been posting pics, etc on the blog....... so.... where were we........................?
a few weeks ago we shot off camping to a site in Bodiam right near Bodiam castle. kirst, nick and the kids went first and we joined them as did gaz, kathryn and charlie. such a cool campsite with fire pits........ had lovely weather, enjoyed being able to test out our new tent replete with the 'linzi loo' in it's own compartment!!!

we enjoyed braais, beers, brimming glasses of wine, bodiam castle and barrles of laughs! what more can i say?!!
a nice reprieve from the worries and angst of putting together our whole new life here!

latest happenings

we had a great afternoon last sunday, with my cousin kirsty, her hubby nick and their kids solly and tals (solomon and taliyah). they were staying at a lovely park round the corner from us in the next village so we went round and had a good chat and a laugh for a few hours! it was great to catch up after so long...

linz, tals, kirst

nick, solly, justin

we also took kirst and the kids through to see our 'kids' on monday for a short visit and our kids behaved very well! ziggy was very good about being swooped up by tals and let her hold him but the look on his face said 'why, oh why do i have to suffer this indignity......' overall it was a good visit and did our babies good to spend time with some 'little people'! afer that we went into deal and had a wander along the beach for a while, all very pleasant!
below are a few pics of our last visit to the babies on friday, just for up to date pics!

i think plenty of you will notice a new 'slimline satchel' bless..........
anyway, another trilly round deal followed that visit and as we were feeling thirsty we decided to have a drink at the king's head circa 1764 i believe...... and so pretty.......................

so there we go, not much else to update for now, came through to mum & dad's last night and stayed over, had a delicious pizza delivered for dinner, very naughty.........
went to lakeside the other day to research beds! it will be the very first priority item needed when the house goes through...... but how to choose amid so much choice and so many offers, etc......
we might go through to bluewater park this morning and have a look in john lewis......................
anyway, time to go for now!

long overdue update!

It's been ages since I posted an update on the blog as we're either rushing around or have no signal!
So, since getting back to Kent we spent lots of time visiting the Kent coastal towns and found that there were many areas which we would be happy to live in.
Our main concern has always been our 'babies' so a quiet road and a garden have been the most important things............................. then a view would be lovely.................
Anyway, as things stand we have found a lovely little cottage about three or four minutes drive inland from Deal, a lovely 'old-fashioned' coastal town........ it's on a tiny quiet and narrow lane, has front and back gardens and looks straight over wheat fields............... with distant sea views............... so we are in the process of going through the legalities currently and will see what transpires! The babies would love it and so would we!
We've been on the road a lot lately due to all the research we've been doing but have still been enjoying ourselves, having the odd meal out, etc.
Things we've enjoyed particularly about the UK so far: (in no particular order)
self-service checkouts at supermarkets (even if we do get it all wrong!!!)
'pay at pump' option at fuel stations - fill it up yourself and stick your card in and take your receipt! sooo clever!
sunday morning boot fairs! we came away with some dvds, a cd, a book and a punnet of resh strawbs - all for under a tenner! not bad!
Loving the hot weather, it's perfect for smoked salmon salads with french bread.........
Anyway, onto other things, we saw our kids yesterday and all is well with them so they continue on their countdown as they've passed their halfway mark now!
We've been doing lots of gardening at the van, Justin's an expert grass cutter and strimmer now!! I've been doing all the cutting back! We've been weeding, trimming, cleaning fences, you name it! Think I forgot what hard work it all was!!!
Anyway, all very satisfying and good practice for when we move into our own home.........
I had to do some ironing the other day..... SHOCK HORROR!!! Now that's hard work!!!!! I've been able to get away with most of it due to the highly efficient tumble dryers at the dog and duck's launderette!!!
Anyway, not a big deal in the scheme of things!
That's all for now, will try to do another update soon!

camping in cornwall........ not quite glamping!

We went we saw but we didn’t conquer! We spent a week in Cornwall and it started out fine although the nights were cold in the tent!!

Drove past Stonehenge on the way down and snapped a quick pic out of the car window!

beautiful stonehenge

 We spent the time visiting all different parts of Cornwall from St Just to Penzance, St Ives to Liskeard, Padstowe to Bude……… you get the general idea…. Lots of pretty villages both by the sea and inland slightly but yes, pricey to say the least….. plus as the weather got worse………… and worse………….. and, yes, even worse……………….. it dawned on us that we were spending more time coping with camping in the cold wind and rain that we were with househunting!! Nonetheless, we were happy enough with our research on the West Country and did view some fantastic cottages……….. one even had it’s own bridge over the stream further down the garden…. We were sorely tempted as you can guess………………. So we’ll see what transpires as all options are open……………..

We visited Mevagissey on our journey into Cornwall and had our first Cornish pasty!!!! Such a pretty place again…………….

post pasty linzi!

pastied out justin!

at higher chellew

We loved our campsite at Higher Chellew nr Penzance, quiet and rural and had some delicious bacon and egg brekkies, yum!

Padstow (where we also camped for a few nights) is really lovely and, of course, famous for Rick Stein’s chippy! It was so busy that we had our fish’n’chips at another chippy down by the harbour and they were good enough for us!!

walking back to camp in padstow

So, anyway…………. When the weather did it’s worst we had moved on to Devon,Somerset and Dorset, criss-crossing back and forth over the borders and checked out some areas as we drove….. Nevertheless, we felt that the need arose for a night in a ‘real bed’ in a ‘real bedroom’ in a ‘real pub’!!! (she says, gleefully!!!) So we found ourselves booking into Waterloo Cross in Devon, a Marston’s Inn and had a wonderful night there, great food and a lovely room plus great brekkie, we felt fantastic after that!!!

We then decided to take a break and get back to the Dog and Duck, see the babies and spend a few days researching the Kentish Coast so here we are back in ‘the gutter’!!

Saw our beautiful ‘children’ yesterday and they are all fine and spent today visiting possible areas where we could also settle…………………….

testing the tent before going to cornwall!



justin hard at work!



plenty of room!




with mum & dad

We are now in cornwall but before we left we tested our new tent by putting it up at the dog and duck.
It's quite easy so that's a relief as we will be putting it down and setting it up plenty of times over the next few weeks!
Mum & Dad came and visited us before we left as we hadn't really had any time with them since our arrival!We got treated to dinner out at the dog and duck and set off to cornwall the next morning just after 5am.........
so far we've camped for three nights and have one more night left at our current site, then we move on to a new site up near padstow.
We've had lovely weather but it gets really cold at night........ brrrrrr! 
Re. the house hunt..... it's early days and we've registered with lots of agents already plus driven around and checked out areas of various houses and had a peek of the outside of a few but so far nothing suitable for our animals...... we'll keep at it!
must go for now as time is tight..... back soon!

babies and braais

parents, children & godparents at the font

at the font again

Caroline, Linzi, Jules & Lindsey!

and again, shadesoff!

So Sunday dawned bright and sunny and turned out to be yet another heatwave day! We’re getting fed up with all this heat, we left Zambia to get away from it!

We got ourselves ‘glammed up’ and headed off to the christening, as previously mentioned, did the whole business in the church, hymns, guitar-playing vicar…… gave us a bit of a chuckle that!, gathering round the font for the official bit – Holly and Adam were great!, etc, then back to Jules’ parents’ for a delicious spread and a very pleasant afternoon spent in good company with a great bunch of people, some old faces and some new, very enjoyable!

Visited Gaz, Kathryn and Charlie, freshly back from their hols in Cornwall, later on that day, for a great evening and lots of catching up over a delicious braai! (we’ll have to watch all these delicious spreads we keep  getting tempted by……)

our cute as a button nephew Charlie Nokes!

Gaz, Kathryn & Charlie



Booked in for a night at the Sealand Court B&B (in other words crashed at Mum & Dad’s!) and spent a very busy Monday sourcing odd bits and pieces that we needed to get in preparation for our first trip to Cornwall to begin househunting.

Today (Tuesday) we got up early and while I did the laundry (like, everything, bedding, towels, clothes,rugs, you name it…) Justin did the gardening (again, like, everything, cutting the grass, strimming the edges, turning the soil….) so we have been feeling very pleased with our efforts all day!

We then went to see our babies and had a great visit with them all with lots of chatting and cuddles!

Had hoped to get to Minnis Bay to join up with Jules, Daemon and tribe, if only for an hour or so, but we couldn’t make it in time and by the time we were ready to finally set off there they were packing up as the tide was rushing in!

So we spent time sourcing a few more bits for our trip and Justin also organised himself some weights as he’s missing his gym…….. I shall feel guilty now and feel the need to also do some kind of healthy exercise!

So that’s all for today! It was another hot one but we finally got a little rain tonight, not sure it was enough for the garden though……………

a new day.....

End of another lovely day weatherwise…….. sunshine all day so we decided to visit Broadstairs……. A lovely old-fashioned seaside town in good old British tradition and holding old childhood memories for me of trips here with Grandma and Grandad Carps!

Everyone was going mad on the beach, much to Justin’s amusement! He said he’d never seen a beach scene quite like it! It was total chaos! People getting sunburnt, kids splashing in the sea, surfoards, windsurfers, yachts, fish and chips, ice creams, funfair, amusement arcades, seagulls squawking when they found a chip packet, all mixed in with beautiful ancient buildings filled with Dickensian history………. A very pleasant little day out!

I should have taken a photo of the chaotic ‘Brits on the beach’ but forgot! I did, however, take a pic of the windfarm just off the coast – very surreal – hope it comes out in the photo…….

windfarm in the distance....

|We get visited by the wood pigeons each morning and they love to land on the roofof the van and clatter around making a right racket..... I'm sure they're female and all wearing stilletoes!

wood pigeon!

The moorhens keep visiting us at ‘the gutter’ and are very cute to watch….. they’ve all got little babies with them and seem to come up into the little garden for the birdseed perhaps…..  got a lovely picture of one little baby with it’s parents……

baby moorhen with parents!

We very nearly tried to get to the Hop Farm music festival not far from here….. great line-up…. 10CC, Bryan Ferry, The Eagles and The Human League…. Damn! We just couldn’t do it as we found out about it only the day before and couldn’t manage it! Maybe next time…..

Tomorrow (2^nd July) we have a christening for Holly and Adam, Julie and Daemon’s twins, our new God Children! So we’ll be responsible for leading them in the right direction in life, together with Amelia, their older daughter, also our God-daughter…… hmmmm…… leading them in the right direction eh?! Well, something like that!!

We now have four God-children as we won’t forget Donald and Michelle’s daughter Jessica back in Zambia and we do hope that they’ll all get to visit us over here some time in the future!

For now we will enjoy the evening sun with our wine……………………….

sunsets and the sea!

we had a beautiful late, late evening sunset at the van a couple of days ago...... although Justin was noticing how much lower the sky is here in England, compared to Africa....... he's right...... I hadn't noticed it until he mentioned it.......

late evening sunset at the dog and duck 

after another wonderful visit with all our kids on tuesday we took a drive through to old minnis bay..... a lovely 'old-fashioned kind of seaside spot'....... remembered from my youth............ it was hot, hot, hot..... and the sea wasn't too cold! so we both had a paddle!

Justin's first paddle at  Minnis Bay!

Linzi's first paddle at Minnis Bay!

our first two weeks in england!

Well, here we are in the UK at last! We’ve been here for two weeks and our feet haven’t touched the ground yet, it’s been wonderfully chaotic , mad and exhausting and we’re loving it!!

BA were very generous with their wine!

happy fliers!

We stepped off the plane to sunny weather and Gaz (my big bruv ) met us and took us back to his and Kathryn’s where we met our lovely little nephew Charlie for the first time!

Mum and Dad were there too so we had a quick cuppa, Kathryn very kindly put us on the insurance for her car and then we set straight off for the Animal inn and our babies!

We had a fantastic reunion with all our babies and left a couple of hours later happy, grubby from massive hugs and with aching faces from all our grinning and laughing with total happiness!

So happy to be with my babies again!



I've missed you so much!



everything is right with the world!

Finally!

Your dad's missed you two!

Gypsy's back in her dad's arms!

Hello Zig our gorgeous!

and hello clyde as lovely as ever!

there's our boy!

From there, after a bite to eat in Deal, breathing in the sea air, we followed Mum & Dad to our new home for the next few months – the Dog & Duck at Pluck’s Gutter! (www.dogandduck.co.uk)

We freshened up and Mum & Dad took us out for a delicious meal at the Rising Sun down the road….. this is definitely the life!

The next few days were taken up with much baby visiting as the English weather did it’s thing and slowly changed from hot – we actually got sunburnt on our first day! – to cold and rainy!

Justin takes in the view of the river stour

Since then we’ve sorted out our wheels -  via a series of family connections, phone calls, etc, (thanks Uncle John and Beverley!!) we ended up with our lovely Vauxhall Astra,hereafter known as ‘Tali’ after our little girl.

We’d barely got Tali on the move when we heard that our shipment had arrived in Felixstowe, had been selected for random x-raying (could that be because it was from Zambia by any chance?!), had been cleared and was about to arrive at our storage depot!

So Justin got to do some major weightlifting on Friday as we spent many hours sorting and heaving boxes into a storage unit, putting aside our boxes with our clothes in….. and true to the unpredictability of British weather, the sun decided to blaze down on us at the most inconvenient time! So we left there hot and tired but pleased with all that had happened so far!

Last night (Sunday 26^th) my lovely best friend Jules came to visit and stayed over so we had the most brilliant evening catching up over a glass or two of wine….. or do I mean bottles….? Boxes even…..? We all three had scampi and chips at the Dog and Duck pub (delicious! My favourite old pub meal ever!) and finally crashed out at some stage!

Justin & Jules at 'the gutter'!

Justin & Jules get down & dirty with Pat's vacuum cleaner!
  

Enjoying our new temporary home!

first night out at the dog and duck!

Only to awake to a mini heatwave…………. Today (27^th) has been unbelievably hot, to the point where we have been reduced to minimal/non-existent clothing and needed to ‘make a plan’with a hosepipe, sprinkler and tree’ to attempt to cool down! It was that or take a dip in ‘the gutter’, which, being green and frequented by many moorhens was not our preferred option!

We’ve been going ballistic in the shops! ASDA is, of course, still my most favourite supermarket ever!! But the ‘2 for 1’, the ‘buy one get one free’, the ‘buy three pay for two’, etc, deals, are almost too much for us to take in after our years in Chingola with the famous ‘Shoprite’!

I won’t even attempt to describe our first attempt at using the ‘self-service checkout’ except to say that the queue that formed behind us was probably the longest they had seen for a long time!

So that’s the first update and we will now relax with our wine on this very pleasant evening, listening to all the birds, waiting for darkness to descend at perhaps 10.30pm…. or thereabouts!