Owyagowin Mate Orrite?: London Part 3

About a week into our stay in the United Kingdom, my great uncle invited Allison and I along to Badminton. Basically its a big Horse race held a fair way West of London. I think it would have been really easy to get there on the bus my uncle had hired if we hadn't gotten lost in the streets around his house and missed the bus by all of a couple of minutes. At that point we had a decision, head into town and see more of downtown london, or brave the public transport system and attempt to get into the middle of the english countryside.

We chose the later and I believe it may have cost us close to 50 quid each as a result, but it was an experience we aren't going to forget in a hurry. A train, a bus and a taxi later, we were there. And although the transport there was thin, there were hundreds of people there in what is basically some rich guys' backyard (Lord Badminton or something, hence the name).

It was also a big excuse for people to bring along there dogs and a chance to push for the relegalisation of the fox hunt. (Below Right is the rich guys house. Left: some of the many dogs.)

Once there after our marathon journey, we watched a fair number of horses race by, (one at a time) probably a little boring and not worth the fortune we spent getting there, but it opened our eyes to some English culture...

Above: My family in England, Right: One of the many horses that came by, jumped a jump and rode on...

Above: My great uncle Ross, looking on, Some roaming horses, the sticker on the horses bum is a sticker "bring back the hunt".

Getting home from there was MUCH easier than going and I believe one of the reasons the trip was so expensive out was that we weren't using the tickets return. I think the ticket on the train was 29 pounds one way or 29.50 return. So you might say we weren't getting the most for our money. We found that to be the case with several of the transport options in London... Crazy Poms. So yeah, I digress, we caught the bus we should have gotten in the morning home and in no time and effort we were back in the small town of London. Whilst tired from our mammoth journey, we took the time to ride on a double decker bus and go to Piccadilly Circus. (Perhaps a let down after Times Square in NY but we were also a little tired and couldn't take it all in.)

That night I think we stayed back at Simons house (Allisons Uncle #1 of 2.) and celebrated another birthday. It was Ruebens 3rd birthday and it was celebrated thanks to Thomas the Tank engine and his other sponsors the Wiggles.

One of the last few things we did was stay a night with my great uncle at his college just south of London. They own a magnificent house that has more rooms than you would imagine and there are just the two of them living there. (Ross and Ruth). This is partially justified by the fact that he has children around in the Summer time for riding camps were they stay for a week or so and ride horses all the time. They also have some permanent tents just outside that they also use for the kids to stay.

The picture on the left is not actually anyone's house in particular, it's just so English I thought i would put it up. Unfortunetly it was overcast (for a change from the English weather, although we were fairly lucky the 10 days we were there), so the colour is a little washed out. The right hand picture is looking up Ross's driveway to the house. The paddock just below the house actually has an old concrete storage building that they used for the storage of ammunition back in the past world wars, and I believe they even had a factory for it somewhere close by as well. There is also a photo below, but they have pillboxes (C & C style) scattered about for the final defence of England if the Germand were to have ever invaded in WWII. Ross's neighbour now uses one as a wood storage shed...

Before it was too dark, Allison and I took a walk up the hill to look over the property. I still can't get over how green the place is, particulary after being back in Australia again. I think i appreciate the rainfall more here now. Anyhow, there are Rabbits everywhere, they actually hire hunters every now and again to cull the population since they make divets in the ground which can cause the horses to break there feet and ankles etc. We say many, in the seemingly empty photo on the right below, the specs that you may or may not be able to see, are ALL rabbits.

One of the many pillboxes, this one was all sealed up except for the gun holes, and they had a fair amount of rubbish thrown into them. Actually on this hill a bit further was a monestary and their bells were ringing a few times a day.

We had to drive to go and visit Ross's horses, they were on another property in order to let their fields lie in fallow (Is that the right word). And to get there attention we fed them 'POLO' mints.

We also saw an old church that was just down the road, I thought I would have a bit of a bible reading behind the fancy eagle bible holder... I also gave Ross a hand digging up some of the weeds in the chook pen which also gave the chickens some worms and the like to peck at. Apparently they have had a couple of fox issues with the chickens and have now got the fence going a fair way under ground to stop them digging under and also have a lip on it to stop them jumping it.

The Nyes always have the token Volvo, this one was Diesel too, although in a bit better condition than Grand John's. Ruth's Vegetable garden was amazing, I think they grow everything in it.

After a long 10 days we were down to the last evening in London, we took the oppurtunity to farewell Allison's extended family. I kept Tomas the long haired hooligan in check and brandan didn't want to sit still long enough for a good photo. As a group we had a final dinner at an Indian place letting Anthony choose the dishes, in retrospect it was a little silly of us, and some of us (mainly me) had some scorched mouths but it was delicious so who was I to complain.