Now its all over. Thanks for reading. If you want more, you'll have to wait for the scrapbook diary.

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Thursday 28 August Tullamarine to Yendon

We had breakfast at the motel and caught the shuttle bus at 9:30. We arrived in Ballarat around 11:00, took a taxi to Tim and Bec's and after lunch drove ourselves to Yendon.
Welcome home us.

Wednesday 27 August .... to Tullamarine

We arrived at Tullamarine at about 20:00, and had booked the night at the Formule 1 Motel at Tulla.

Tuesday 26 August London to ....

We returned Mr Avis’ car to him at Heathrow, with apologies for the scratches, and were glad that we had taken out extra insurance cover. Then we checked in our bags, and waited until called for take off at about 12:20. But true to form, there was a delay, and we finally left at about 13:10.

Monday 25 August Oake to London

We left Oake about 9:00 am for Salisbury. There I minded Daniel

and bought the souvenir, and the others, including Matt, took the 11:15am guided tour of the ceiling and tower of the cathedral.

They had a talkative guide,

who went 45mins over time, so it was lunch time before they returned to ground level. We had lunch together, then said goodbye. They stayed on at Salisbury, and we went to Winchester.

We wandered around their cathedral,

which is the destination for pilgrims seeking St Swithun (who is down a hole),

then had afternoon tea at McDs.
We headed for London, and despite it being the end of a long weekend, got to junction4 of the M4 without any hassles. We were booked at a B&B in Sipson, just 2 miles from Heathrow. After checking in we walked to a local pub for tea, and came back to rearrange bags for the last time.

Sunday 24 August Oake

Most of us went to church at Silver Street Baptist (one went on a 10km fun run on Sedgemoor.) We called in at Tesco on the way home. We were going to go out for a drive after lunch, but decided that we had been out too much, and it would be better to just have a lazy afternoon catching up on last minute things.

So I finished off writing this, and will probably not do any more until we get home. Tonight we all went out for dinner, with Chris, to the pub at Allerford (just down the road). While we were waiting for desert, we all went outside to the adjacent level crossing, and watched a steam train, out for its regular Sunday tourist trip from Bath to the south coast, come roaring home.

Saturday 23 August Oake

Jon went running this morning, and didn't get home until after 9:00, so it was nearly 10:00 befoe we got away. We went to Beer, on the south Devon coast, to Pecorama, which is another model train place. We arrived at 11:00, and to our dismay, we found out that on Saturdays they close at 13:00. How ridiculous, we thought, when families want to come out together. So we went on their little train,

looked at their model train display,

had a quick play in their playground, and left again.
We then went to Branscombe beach for a picnic lunch and a play on the pebble beach.

On our way back home we stopped at Colyton, where they had a good playground. We got home at about 18:00.

Friday 22 August Oake

It was sunny today!!, the first nice summer's day in about 2 weeks. We did 3 loads of washing, then went out at 11:00.
We caught the park-and-ride bus from Bishop's Hull into Taunton, and wandered around the shops for a while. Then we went to Vivary Park, the big gardens in Taunton, where we had a picnic,

played in the playground,

fed some ducks and chased some squirrels. Then we caught the bus back to the car and came home.
While we were gone, the men finished off the driveway with bitumen, but we can't drive on it until tomorrow. Daniel went to sleep, so rather than disturb him, I sat in the car in the public car park and read and had a nap.
Then it was time to visit Jon's current building job, which is extending and converting a 400 year old barn into a 4 bed house. We admired his mortice and tennon joints in green oak wood secured with wooden dowel pegs,

watched the thatcher do his last little bit for the day

and were envious of the beautiful soft green lawn waiting for the family to move in.
Kath and Jon have gone out for dinner tonight, and we are the baby sitters, but all is quiet as usual. (Maybe I shouldn't write that. Maybe it will be a jinx.) - (It wasn't.)

Thursday 21 August Oake

This morning some workmen came at about 8:00 and started to dig up the guttering to install the new driveway into Kath and Jon's front yard. This was not expected to happen for a couple of weeks, so some discussions were needed with the neighbours and Jon.
We left home at about 10:30 and drove into the hills a little north of Taunton and went for a walk up Cothlestone Hill.
We came back to the Asda supermarket, did the shopping, and had a bit of lunch in their cafe. Kath and Matt had a chiropractor's appointment, so we only had time to turf us and Dan and the shopping out of the car and they went off, leaving us to put away the shopping and play with the boy. They got home just before 17:00. Kath having taken advantage of being able to spend some time with Matt on his own.
While we were having tea, a hot air ballon arrived in the golf course over the back fence, and was inflated and took off.

This happens sometimes, and I had made inquiries before we left home to see if we could go for a ride this week. However, they do not take under 7 yrs, and Kath said that it takes about a year for your booking to reach reality.



Wednesday 20 August Oake
We left home about 10:30 for Bickleigh, just south of Tiverton. This is the home of the Devon Railway Centre, which Matt has visitied a few times. There is a short narrow gauge railway,


a miniture railway for riding on,


three rail coaches full of model train layouts,


playgrounds, picnic facilities etc.


We stayed there until about 15:00, and then headed further south to Bovey Tracey, where a glass manufacturing plant has a number of complicated marble runs. As the Flinds have just adquired a game of 'Mousetrap', we thought Matt would enjoy this. It was a little bit involved for him, but he said he liked it. We didn't leave until after 17:00, so were later home than we should have been.



Tuesday 19 August Oake
In the morning Kathryn went to her aquarobics class, leaving the boys with us. She said it was the longest she has been away from Daniel in his 11 months. After lunch we all went to Wellington to the library, and then to Matt's swimming class. Not a very exciting day, but at least we were out of the house.

Monday 18 August Oake

Jon went back to work today, and the rest of us had a very lazy day.

We played Thomas trains, did puzzles, read books and Pop got the new Thomas computer game to work. Kathryn hung out the washing so it rained, and by mid afternoon she brought it in to the drier. Then the sun came out - a little - and Matt and I went for a walk around the village and played in the playground. I started to repack our bags.


Sunday 17 August Oake

We all got up a little bit early today because included in the 10:00 family service

at St Bartholemew's church at Oake this morning was the thanksgiving for Daniel. Kathryn had prepared some of the food last night, but we did a bit more before the service. No photos allowed during the service, but Kath was allowed the video the small part when Matthew spoke about what it's like to have a little brother.

Family and friends came back home afterwards, for early lunch.

Some left fairly quickly, the last to go went at about 15:00. Although I seemed to be washing up most of the day, there was still cleaning up to do. Then we spent a bit of time talking to the neighbours who had offered us a lend of their campervan. At least we thought it was a lend, but after they juggled other arrangements so that the van was available, we found out it was a hiring. But never mind - it's cheaper than a B&B. So the van came into the backyard, and we moved in.

Saturday 16 August Oake

After breakfast, David mowed the grass, Jon did weeding and other garden work, Kath went shopping, and I looked after the washing and Daniel. As David moved our car out of the front yard so that he could continue the mowing, he didn't notice the gate post still standing where the end of the hedge used to be, and made a big scratch in Mr Avis' car.
It started raining by about 11:00am, so then I was in charge of the drier. We did nothing much else, played farms with Matt, put lots of shopping away, put lots of washing away, and Kath and Jon planned for tomorrow.
Nothing happened about new accomodation for us, so we will be in the loungeroom again tonight.



Friday 15 August Abergavenny to Oake

We helped the Flinds pack up, and we were all on our way by about 9:45am. We headed straight for the M5 south of Bristol, to go and meet a genealogist who contacted me the day before we left home. Peter is connected to Nan's mother's family, and I thought we may be of mutual benefit to each other. We reached his home in Nailsea about 11:00, and left just after 15:00, loaded with books, photos and miscellaneous papers.
We then drove through Cheddar Gorge

to Wells to get our cathedral souvenir,

past Glastonbury,

and reached Kath's house at about 18:15, only about 30mins after them. So it was late tea, junk everywhere, and we slept on the sofa-bed in the loungeroom. There are tentative arrangements to borrow a campervan or a caravan, but nothing definite yet.
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