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!