My dear friend

On Wednesday 20th May a light went out in New Zealand. A very dear friend, Cameron Anderson, passed away. Steve and I are devastated.

He would have been one of the first people we saw when we got back to New Zealand. That he won't be there is inconceivable.

RIP Cameron, we can't be at your funeral but we are holding a memorial in London on Monday afternoon.

I love you. You will be truly missed

xxcharlotte

Adieu, adieu to ye and ye and ye

See: lots of the good friends we've made (some we brought with us) in our time over in the UK
Smell: ....
Hear: lots of laughing
Touch: Played quoights, darts, pool, lots of hugs
Taste - best snacks ever! And a bit of tipple admittedly

Well more than a bit.....it's Wednesday night and I have only just recovered sufficiently to update. Thank you to everyone who came along to our going away party at The Dog & Truck on Saturday. It was great to see you and Steve and I had a really great time.

Having a few teary moments as the goodbyes begin to come round. Tell you what is easing the pain a bit though; it's my last day of work on Friday for months (plural).

Running out of time to do things in. We are pretty much booked up every day/evening until we leave now. We have 7 boxes packed so far so we are feeling fairly organised but trying not to be smug about it as complacency will probably turn round and bite us on the bum.

Well back to it. Hmm what else can I try and organise before I go to bed?

xxc

Farewell Watlington

See: A box of memories saved for a lifetime in a garden shed
Smell: Cut grass and loam
Hear: The boys cutting the lawn with a weed wacker
Taste: G&T at 6pm
Touch: The leaves of the vine growing over the final resting place of two very special people

Last weekend, Steve and I went up with Russell to Elbow Cottage, Uncle Ray and David's old place in Watlington to tend to the garden and for us to say our goodbyes.

When we first arrived in the UK in June 2005 one of our first outings was for Steve to see his Uncle and meet his partner of 45 years and also introduce me - his blushing bride. It was the first of many enjoyable visits we had to the cottage.

Sadly since then both have passed away, Raymond Stringer in 2006 and David Waite in 2008. Their ashes are scattered on their favourite spot in the garden and the cottage, though now empty, has not lost the sheen of the life they shared within its walls.

As we worked in the garden on Saturday the sun shone, the red kites circled overhead and a mischievous robin played games with me all afternoon as I chased it around the garden trying to get a photo. Going through the garden shed, we uncovered a box full of David's old photos and amongst it all I found a post card written by David to his father when he was a young boy:

Dear Daddy

I hope you have finished your book

here is a little story

One day Mr Brown

wanted to go

for a walk so

he went for one

The wind was

so strong that

it took his

hat away ha

ha ha

love from

David x x x

Ukulele madness!

See: The ukulele orchestra of Great Britain
Smell: Nothing - too much pollen up my nose
Listen: 6 men and 1 woman do amazing things with 8 ukuleles
Touch: As little as possible - I am almost out of hand sanitiser
Taste: Belgian chocolate peanuts for dinner

Well I went to see this last night and had such a good time! Highly recommend it. My particular favourites were 'Life on Mars', 'Shaft' and 'Wuthering Heights'.

I am now considering becoming a ukulele groupie.

Charlotte

Not long to go...

See: The evening sun on the bluebells growing in the woods around Great Missenden.
Smell: Fox poo - as rolled in by Sarang the rhodesian ridgeback (even managed to eclipse the bluebells at one stage).
Listen: with my aunty, likening birdsong in the tree tops to the sounds of water.
Touch: Pulling the burnt skin off a marshmallow to toast it for a second time.
Taste: Tried welsh rare-bit at the Hollybush pub in Hampstead. Essentially cheese on toast, not the flesh of some mythical creature.

So this first blog post comes at the end of a weekend full of family walks and barbeques. It is now less than one month until Steve and I leave the UK on a one way ticket to China! Visas, malaria medication, walking shoes, camera(s), japanese encephalitis injections, clothes, cancelling bills have all been sorted but there appears to be a neverending list of things that need to be done before the first of June. It would seem that the intention of having very few fixed plans for the next 6 months requires an awful lot of planning!

Well, the feeling of pushing fox poo up a hill with a sharp stick is lessening in direct proportion to a growing sense of achievement and we are just trying to balance the planning with quality time spent with the people we are going to miss.

Tomorrow night I am off to see a Ukelele orchestra which was an experience I just couldn't pass up when invited along by my lovely friend Rose.

I'll have some feedback the next time I come online.

Later,

Charlotte