Last pictures of UK It was -7 Degrees C....

Big Mac's, HDTV's and fishing

After the excitement of Ipswich Football club it was back to Thetford and a trip to MacDonald's. That was via hte Thetford Museum. Both the museum and MacDonnalds are experiences not to be undertaken to often. We had a takeaway at Mums house and Wanna got to see some family photos. Why is it parents always seem to keep pictures of us when we were little kids?...
This afternoon was spent helping Mother in choosing a new HDTV. Drama there!!!! Which one to choose. What colour? Do the sticky labels come off? Will the stand fit in my room? Will it work properly? Does it get the golf, etc etc….Difficult decisions so we had to do a trip back to the house to measure what was there and see how well and bigger and more modern TV would fit in? Finally got it sorted out so everyone happy. My blood pressure now back to normal!! Also I can say with conviction it is now safe to leave Mum at home for the weekend. The latter part of the afternoon was taken up with a spot of fishing and we caught a few small ones. Some big ones got away. (Have you noticed it's always the big ones that get away). Check out the big catch below. Wanna still not happy with the maggots!!!

Owens neighbours.

Owen has a great location in Thetford which is made even better as he has some really good neighbours. We've met 3 of them. Two brothers Paul and Andy (Twins!) living in separate houses. Well Paul tells me he is 15 minutes youngere than Andy! Also Doreen. Seems a really good street.
Paul owns a Lotus Lotus 'ESPRIT' V8 SE and he took Wanna for a spin. 150 miles per hour down one of the country lanes. She loved it.
This was followed by a much more pedestrian trip in Owens car to the maggot dispensing machine. That’s right! A maggot dispensing machine. The idea it that anglers ill buy these and use them for fishing. Must work as the machines appear to be doing good business? There Wanna was not so impressed. "Ugh!" was the reaction when the tin was opened to reveal a bunch of wriggling little maggots. We even ended up having to fix the maggots to the fishing hooks for her. That’s another story.

Ipswich Town Go go.....

Owen had organized tickets for us to go and see Ipswich Town Football Club. ITFC !! . They were playing Watford at home. This was a Championship match. So great excitement. We, Owen, Charlie, Wanna and I to Ipswich. After parking we bought the obligatory hot dogs and paid a visit to the 'shop' (Planet blue…) where we purchased wooly ITFC hats. Then we looked the part, real supporters. The ground was packed full with an almost capacity crowd of 24,245 people. I didn't count but we were told on the tannoy system. It was real fun with the crowds around us really getting into the spirit of it all. Seems most people around me knew more than the referee on most of the decisions he made. Seems if they were to be believed he had not read a rule book for some time. They obviously had and kept trying to tell him so, but he did not seem to hear them!! Great fun. Unfortunately Ipswich lost 2-1. (Was a fair result if truth be told) Even Owen conceded to that.

Catching up with Sarah

After a good breakfast/lunch with Wanna it was off to the Angle to meet Sarah et al. We decided to walk and see a bit of the sights. Well it was cold and we had an hour to spare so we stopped in an east end pub. Had a quick beer and used the loo. (Amazing how much you need the loo in a clod windy climate!!). The folks in there were great and advised us to get a double decker route master bus to the Angel. Only three stops!! Well we waited at the stop for about 15 minutes and then along came our route No 43. Got on and handed the driver 1 pound. "Whats that for ?' He asked. "its 2 pounds each to the Angel....." he told me with a big smile. He must have seen the shock on my face and was very friendly about it all. I have only been back about 3 hours and already cannot believe the cost of everything. Real horror shock. Well got to meet with Sarah and arranged for her to join us at the weekend.

London here we are

Arrived in London. Cold or what?.... About +6 Degree C. So we decided, for a bit of fun to take the train and tube into town and catch up with Sarah. Well the 15 minutes train to Paddington took 45 minutes and the 10 stop tube ride took another hour. Terrible. After that we droppped our bags at the long stay place in Liverpool Street Station. That part of London life clearly had not improved.
Next off to see Sarah. But before anymore travcl we decided to indulge in a full English Breakfast at a local pub. Then when fully fed on sausages, bacon, beans, fried eggs and toast, we could catch up with Sarah, Christoff and Colette.
Really good to be back in UK and see so much. Things have changed and all seems to be new and very different with a lot more bright colours around. Still cold!!!
While in the pub the Landlord asked if we wanted our photo taken behind the bar. It was all starting out as being a fun trip.