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.