November 6th 2010 - Cambridge

Hi everbody!  It has been two months since the blog was last updated (in case you hadn't noticed!).  There really hasn't been a lot to talk about that we thought you would be interested in so decided to give it a break for a while.  The last couple of months have been taken up with sorting out our house after our tenants left, getting it ready for new tenants to move in, which unfortunately to date hasn't happened!  However we have another agency on the case now and sincerely hoping that it won't be long before another family moves in. We are both going a bit stir crazy as we just haven't been able to get on with our "life" really for such a long time!  Every time we thought we were going to be able to go off and explore the East Anglian waterways we ended up having to be back in Cambridge for one reason or another so we have been pootling backwards and forwards between Ely and Cambridge since the beginning of September!

Our son Gareth finally got his house emptied and the keys handed over and he is now very happily working for my brother and enjoying every minute of it, especially the salary that goes into his bank at the end of each month, having been unemployed for the last two years!  He is currently of no fixed abode as he is travelling quite a bit and doesn't really need a place of his own just at the moment. Our daughter Vicki is very happy in her little love-nest with partner Ben and she even got a promotion at work too.  So, finally, both our children are happy, contented and solvent so we are rather surplus to requirement, therefore there is really nothing requiring our presence here for the time being so we have made the decision, following two very harsh winters on the waterways, to fly South for the Winter! 

On Sunday 28th November we depart from Heathrow Airport, Terminal 4, at 10.10am on a Royal Brunei flight to New Zealand, with a brief stopover in Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) to refuel.  Our return flights are booked for 10th May 2011!  Our beautiful home, Lady Arwen, is going to spend the six months we are away nestled up to other narrowboats in a marina not far from Cambridge where she will be safe and well looked after for the duration. We are initially going to stay with our very good friend Lindsey Britton who lives not far from Auckland.  We will spend Christmas with her and her sister Philippa and then sometime in the New Year we plan to do some travelling, hopefully in the Britton's ancient campervan (it must be 25 years old if its a day!) which is still going strong and should serve our purpose admirably.

We have decided to resurrect the blog in order to keep a record of our Antipodean sojourn so if you are interested in knowing what we get up too, where we are and seeing some photographs do keep checking in from time to time after December 1st, there won't be another blog until then.

One other thing, here is a photo taken recently of me, just in case you wondered if Clive had got rid of me and got a new woman! I had my hair cut!!  It had got so long, having not been trimmed since last December, I decided to be drastic and have a bob.

The new "do"!

So, bye for now and watch this space.....................................................:)