Trooping the colour

Friday night the Carters introduced us to the local Ten-pin Bowling spot in St Neots. The champion of the evening had to be G who managed to stay in the game despite a broken finger!

Notice bandaged finger.

Laat waai!!!

Biting the lip helps the ball go straight?

Lekker tekkies!

Saturday was an early start for Chants, G and I as we headed to London to see the trooping of the Colour, an annual event help in honour of the Sovereign's birthday. Al unfortunately had to work. It turns out that this parade started in the 1700s as a vital military exercise when a Regiment's flag or its "colour" would be paraded through the regiment reminding them what the flagged looked like so that they could recognise it as the gathering point on the battlefield. Nowadays its basically the Queens birthday parade. It was great. Hundreds of soldiers, marching tunes, and even canon salutes and fly overs by old war planes. The queens typically inspects the troops (quite a task considering there were over 1100 of them) and so the royal family put in their appearance and we got some great views of them.

The green queen.

Look ma, just one finger.

The heavens opened as the planes began their fly-by.

Afterwards we did some touristy things. Piccadilly circus in the rain.

Hamleys Toys Store, said to be the best toys shop in the world. There are 5 floors!! The huge Lego section reminded me of SPD.... you would have had a ball Steve!

I enjoyed this.... apparently fashion was as important to them then as it is today.

Sunday morning we visited again at the Open Door Church and then I suggested we spend a chilled afternoon at Grapham Water, a dam not too far away.

A great spot to kick a ball around, and believe it not, a great place to watch and photograph birds :-)

Flapping lips

Can't believe we've been here over three weeks already... time is flying. This weekend was a nice change to last few in that we geared down somewhat and took it just a dash slower. Friday night we went to the local driving range where Al and Chants showed us their stuff, and I showed Al how to break the head of his wedge. Sorry Al.

Saturday we visited the Milten Keens spending most of our time at the Xscape Centre which boasts and indoor snow ski slope and an indoor freefall ski-diving simulator. This thing was a blast! At 35 pounds for a 2 minute ride we gave it a skip and just sat outside for an hour or so watching the public give it a shot. You can't imagine how peoples lips and cheeks flap when they're hovering in a wind tunnel suspended by winds of 160km/h. Loads of laughs.

Sunday we visited The Open Door Church in St Neots. They are part of the New Frontiers Group. Had a great time and met loads of folks after the service. Confused loads of them with our "we are from East London" story.... in their minds our accents were anything but east London. The afternoon was spent having a pub lunch in the village of Ware with Alans friends Stephen and Sam. You can imagine the jokes... we're going to Ware Alan?

After a lovely evening walk earlier this week, this little guy caught our attention as he inspected the tread on the tyres of the neighbours car.

Bingam

Wednesday G and I packed two backpacks and headed for Birmingham (or Bingam as they call it here) to see boetie Rich and Simes for four days. The education continues. The train ride there was just short of 3 hours and quite entertaining. We couldn't understand what on earth the person making the announcements at the station was saying. Rich later explained that heavy Birmingham accents are quite a challenge to decipher. Thank goodness for clear signage.

It was a great few days there and we did loads. Highlights were:

The train ride:

Smooth, quiet and fast. Good way to see the English country-side. Quaint little stations.

Cool architecture:

Birmingham channels:

Bingam has a huge channel network running throughout it. The only boats one sees on the channels are narrow, long barges, often brightly coloured. Some folks live in the barges permanently. We took a cruise on one.

Eating out:

Birmingham is said to be the curry centre of the UK so Rich took us to his favourite Indian restaurant, Mother India. These guys don't mess around. The menu is extremely long and confusing with words like, Buna, Vindu and Jalfrezi, which mean nothing to us uneducated saffers. Rich suggested I order a medium Jalfrezi. I should have know better.

Before we started eating the curry.

After the first mouthfull!! Eesh, the burn was beeg.

Cadbury World:

On Saturday G and I, Rich and Simes (Dannel wasn't feeling great so didn't join us) took a trip to Bournville, home of Cadburys chocolate. The tour was great fun and very informative. The pick below shows the replica of the original Cadburys store, showing that Mr Cadbury was first a tea merchant before becoming a chocolate maker. Wise move. After touring the factory and eating masses of the yummy brown stuff, I was seriously considering establishing the UKs first squatter camp right outside the factory, and spending the rest of my days breathing in the chocolaty fumes.

Richards Jacuzzi bath:

No more do I have to wonder what happens when you put bubble bath in a jacuzzi.

All in all, a great few days in Birmingham. Thanks to Rich, Simes and Danell for playing tour-guides.

Sunday night G and I were play fighting and I somehow managed to break her finger, noted by a loud SNAP noise. So yesterday we spent the day in Huntingdon, first at the hospital (they just wrapped it up and told her to take it easy for 2 weeks), and then doing a self-guided historical walk through the town. Saw the font in which Oliver Cromwell was baptised and a bridge which was constructed in the 1300s. It still is use. Hectic.

G, all historied out, takes a break on the town hill, the site of the old Huntingdon castle.