Waiter, there's a frog in my soup

Yesterday's flight was, as I mentioned, uneventful, which is a good thing. Some of our party found it rather boring though. We've got used to being spoiled on Virgin, with individual seat-back screens and a choice of 40 movies. This time we flew American Airlines and the entertainment was old school - central screens showing one dire Jennifer Aniston film and some sitcom re-runs, and nothing of any interest to children at all. The Girl had a sackload of books with her so she was ok for eight hours, but Man and Boy were a bit short on amusements. I'd cleverly bought a copy of Adrian Mole, the Prostrate Years at Heathrow, so time flew for me.

Today we were all up early, some of us very early indeed. We had some mild excitement rescuing a frog from the swimming pool and relocating it to our neighbours' pond. It has been a beautiful day here, sunny and hot but not humid, and we all enjoyed a morning visit to the local farmers' market.

The kids have been socializing with friends this afternoon, but have faded fast this evening. Early nights all round, I think.

Eighteen hours later

We're safely back. It's been a long (very long) but uneventful day, and now we all have some sleep to catch up on. Warm thanks again to everyone who helped us enjoy our UK visit so much this year.

Theatre of war

The last day of our stay has been a busy one. We all went into London, where we visited a favourite museum from my childhood, Pollocks Toy Museum. It's a little treasure trove of bygone toys and games, and it inspired me to many a doll and puppet-making project when I was younger. Our kids probably spent longer in the shop than the museum itself, but they seemed to enjoy the visit.

Then we walked to Dury Lane and joined my parents who were very kindly taking us to see WarHorse at the New London Theatre. Wow - an amazing production, with the most stunning life-size puppet horses. The theme was dark (the tragedy of the First World War), and we were concerned the children might decide it was all too much. They found some of it heavy-going, but overall I think they took a lot from the experience.

From the theatre we wandered over to Covent Garden, met my nephew and filled up on excellent noodles from Wagamama. Really authentic-tasting Japanese food, highly recommended if you get the chance to try it.

A night at the Coliseum

We've been at my parents' house in Watford most of the day. My brother and his twin girls came over in the afternoon and there was dolls-house and play-park fun.

This evening the Man went to visit his parents, and Mum and I went into London to see Carlos Acosta perform at the Coliseum. He's quite a star in the ballet world, with a compelling story - he grew up in poverty in Cuba and has achieved fame and fortune through dance.

Tonight he performed in Premieres with Zenaida Yanowsky. It was powerful and impressive dancing, but some of it was fairly disturbing - at any rate, the last piece seemed to be about domestic violence. Still, I was glad to have had the chance to watch something so challenging.

Fond farewell

Today has involved a lesson in solar energy, a climbing wall, plus nostalgic walks around the village and more encounters with old friends. Also, a lot of goodbyes.

Our Linton visit has gone by all too fast. I have to admit, I'd rather hoped to have just a fairly average visit, so that leaving again wouldn't seem too bad. But of course it was competely wonderful. Thank you all you lovely friends for welcoming us back and giving us such a fun time. See you next time...

Evening all

The Man had people to see in Cambridge today, but I hung out in Linton visiting more old friends and old haunts.

We've been very well fed here in Linton these past few days - home-made pizzas with Mr and Mrs Maths Expert, home-grown everything with the Rockfish family, and this evening a splendid spread laid on by Ninja Shoetrees for us and a gang of friends. It was just great to see so many people we care about all gathered in one place, and blow me if they didn't also take the opportunity of forming a recorder group while they were about it.

The kids, meanwhile, just got on with their own thing.




It's going to be hard to leave...

Son and air

We enjoyed coffee with neighbours this morning, then split up - the Girl and I to see friends/go for a walk, the Man and Boy to visit Duxford Air Museum.

They met up with Grandad, who used to work on Mosquitoes...


...and they spent many hours touring the exhibits.