Southwold beach day

Had a fantastic day at the beach today in Southwold in Suffolk. I have never been there before but I will certainly go again. It was only an hour journey from Alex's Mum and Dad's house in Banham in Norfolk and apparently the Skinner family spent many a happy seaside day there when they were growing up.

When we arrived Benny went straight for the beach of course, we walked there, fully laden with our deckchairs, blankets, picnic, pop up tent, sun umbrella, wind brake (I am not kidding!) books, towels and togs (the children's not mine, I am not that game in England in September) only to discover it was high tide. But of course Benjamin is nothing if not resourceful, so instead of walking down the steps to the beach (the bottom steps were submerged in water) we lowered ourselves from the promenade onto about 1.5 metre width of sand (to be honest, at that point I was sincerely wishing I had brought my togs). Alex's mum told me (conspicuously from the safety if the prom' above) that it shouldn't come too much closer and we should be fine, but maybe we should keep an eye on it, just in case. I watched the dry seaweed with vigilance, ready to make a hasty doggy paddle escape should the need, and the tide, arise. It is a good thing I have been taking swimming lessons recently.

Anyway, you may have guessed the ending, the tide did go out, we did not drown, and we made it back home with enough time to brief you on the whole dramatic episode;)

After that, we did the usual English seaside things, made sandcastles, buried various people in the sand, walked along the pier, ate ice creams then put our socks and sandals back on, and came home again.

Here is one of many photographs I took of the beautifully coloured beach huts which span the beach front. They are approximately 4 metres by 3 metres, have no garden to speak of, back onto a carpark and can apparently sell for up to £100k, which is surely the price of a small house!?! This just goes to show how much the British 'do like to be beside the seaside'.

Yes, Southwold is a lovely place....(even though the IPad keeps suggesting i write 'Spitballs' every time I type it....just what exactly are Spitballs anyway?)

Love
Est xxx

A Friend from Home

We went to the local village playground today and got talking to a lovely little boy with a rather familiar accent. Turns out he has just moved to Norwich from
the Bay of Plenty! His name is Gabriel, he is seven years old and he is Benny's new friend. We have arranged to see him at the park again on Friday!

Small world eh?

Love
Est xxx

Quaint Olde England

Yesterday on my big six hour car journey (I am still recovering, Alex, hurry up and come over and join us so I can get in the passenger seat again!) we passed by a little village named 'Spital in the Street'. We have passed through this place so many times on the road between Hull and Norwich and I have always been somewhat amused by the name, and always felt a little bit embarrassed for the people of Spital in the Street having to tell people that they live in Spital in the Street. Just imagine it.

Anyway, yesterday I stopped and took a photo, so you too can join me in my amusement.

Tonight I just googled it. And there is was, the 'Spital' is short for Hospital.

It's not really as funny as I thought it was now:(

Love
Est xxx

New Cousin

After a lovely four and a half weeks with the Edwards family today we left Hull (and the thriving metropolis which is Withernsea!) to head back to spend time with Nanny and Grandad Skinner in Norwich.

We decided to pop into Nottingham on the way (which it was, kind of) to visit Alex's brother Michael and Hayley and their new baby Isobel who is only 8 weeks old.

What a delight she is, she slept lots, and didn't cry. I think they ordered well!

Congratulations Mike and Hayley, on the beautiful new addition to the Skinner family.

Love
Est xxx

Belles of the beach

Here is a promotional poster advertising Withernsea in it's heyday - the sea is still that colour!!!

Actually, I think I recognise those ladies, I am sure I saw them earlier today, sitting outside the pub in their mobility scooters!!!

Love
Est xxx

The Lighthouse

Today I supported the Withernsea Tourist industry and paid my £2.50 to have a walk up (and down) the 144 steps of Withernsea Lighthouse. Benjamin and Naomi opted to collect stones on the beach with my Mum instead, traitors.

The lighthouse is a little unique for a lighthouse in the fact that it stands a quarter of a mile inland! When it was built in 1894, as a result of a number of shipwrecks in the area, it was built on the closest solid ground to the coast. A promenade and houses have since been built around it.

The light could be seen from as far as 17 miles away at sea, and I assume the people in the houses around it could see it quite well too!

The lighthouse shone it's last beam over the North Sea on 1st July 1976, after 82 years of service.

Great views from the top!

Love
Est xxx

Christchurch is here with me!

Today Mum and the kids and I went for a visit to Bridlington with Adam and Debbie and I spotted this beautiful church called Christ Church. What a lovely surprise!

Bridlington was fun, it is a little seaside town about an hour north of Hull, complete with amusement arcades (Ben and Naomi just love those sliding 2p machines, their addiction is getting out of control) bumper cars, mountains of sticks of pink seaside rock and every food you could think of to cause complete and sudden heart failure.

And, of course, 'naughty' British seaside postcards are a must. Sorry, I didn't get you one, you have to be happy with a photo of a church;)

Love
Est xxx

Mmmm....

...can I phone a friend?

I bet they're great neighbours(!!!)

Love
Est xxx

Dangerous drivers

Spotted this sign on the Tesco window in Withernsea.

Told ya!

Love
Est xxx

Spot the difference

I am sure you will recognize the K6 (kiosk number 6) telephone box, circa 1935, made famous by... er...? Clark Kent, Superman and various Dr Who's (?) but I bet you have never seen one this colour before!

Kingston upon Hull is the only city in the United Kingdom which is not under British Telecom. The telecommunications network was owned by the Hull City council so the phone boxes were painted cream and the crown was omitted. The system was later privatised and is now owned by Kingston Communications.

When KC decided the decommission any pre-2007 K6s it was met with media attention and public outcry. This led to KC agreeing to sell 1000 of them to the public. The beloved telephone boxes were quickly snapped up, no doubt for use in people's living rooms and gardens (outdoor loo?) around Hull and today there are only 125 in operation.

Another cool and exciting, possibly made up fact, brought to you by your intrepid explorer on the ground, and in the box, Esther Skinner.

Love
Est xxx

The Big 37

Important day in history yesterday. On 19 September 1974, Esther Siobhan Edwards was born into this world.

Ben and Naomi woke me up to a lovely rendition of 'Happy Birthday to you, you did a big poo', followed by pink hamster and musical monkey birthday cards. They then reached under the bed and gave me a hairbrush, conditioner, ring and necklace. I said, 'thank you my angels, I love them.' And I really did love them! ...I put them back on my dressing table;)

Had a very busy day, went out for lunch with the siblings then off to see Mum in hospital and then out with Jen and her boys for tea.

Mum gave me some chocolate, a lottery ticket and a kiss for my birthday (she didn't have much choice in the hospital shop and I didn't need disposable knickers). But, the draw is tomorrow, so you never know, it may be a pretty good present!!

And Collette gave me this lovely new bag. I said 'thanks Collette, it is lovely', and she said 'they do yellow and purple handbags in that colour aswell.'

Classic Collette, you are definitely not adopted;)

Thanks everyone for the e-mails and FB's and blog comments, it is wonderful to hear from you!

Love
Est xxx

Mum is out of hospital

Brought her home tonight. They have made one diagnosis and have given her some drugs for that, but still haven't done another test for another problem she may have, but have given her her marching orders and will do the test as an outpatient.

The doctor said there are lots of germs in hospital and it is better that she go home in case she gets ill.

Honest!!!

It is nice to have her home again though:)

Love
Est xxx

I guess it's good exercise!

The remote control for Mum's DVD player has gone. I don't know where and I don't know when, but it is definitely no longer here.

Honestly, you do not realise just how disabilitating this is! It means that I have to watch everything with subtitles. Can't turn the damn things off! And, at the moment I am watching a cool BBC series that Jenny has given me about a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf living in the same house (I know!!!) called 'Being Human' and I cannot choose an episode, I can only press 'play all'.

So, that means I have to watch three hours together in one night, or watch one hour and then watch the same hour again the next night to get to the second hour!

The other night sat and watched two and a half hours again to get to the third episode I couldn't keep my eyes open for the night before!

Is this inconvenience worth it you ask? Or, should I just go to Asda and buy another DVD player for (probably) £29.95?

Sometimes life is just one long series of confusing questions.

Love
Est xxx

Ok, it had to happen at some point

New Handbag!!!

And, best of all, it's different to all the rest. Because it's furry!!! You should feel it, it is lovely. Like a squirrel, or a possum, or an adorable little rat, under your arm!!!

Maybe I should get a little chihuahua to pop into it!!!

So exciting!!!

Love
Est xxx

William Wilberforce

Yesterday we went out with Jo and Jessie to William Wilberforce's house (ok, it was after a going to a cool, interactive museum for an hour and a half and I thought that they owed me to have a quick look around a rather boring house for 10 minutes, to be honest, it was the least they could do).

I forgot to mention William Wilberforce in my list of famous Hull people in my 'It's Never Dull in Hull' blog. How could I forget? William Wilberforce was very cool.

Will was born in Hull in 1759 and later moved to London and became an MP and was unrelentless in his pursuit to abolish slavery. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807.

In later years, Wilberforce supported the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, that campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire. Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured.

If you are interested in finding out more, in a more exciting but probably less historically accurate way, you could also watch 'Amazing Grace' movie with Ioan Gruffudd.

Love
Est xxx

PS. You may have already guessed that the picci is William Wilberforce's staircase. I do so love a good staircase. Thought I would post something you can't find on Wikipedia;)

All sounds a bit fishy to me!

So, there is a new craze in town. Garra Rufa Foot Spas.

Basically, you sit with your feet in a tank of Garra Rufa fishes and they literally nibble all the dead skin off your feet! Urghhhh!!!!

Apparently your feet feel lovely afterwards. My sister Jo said 'they feel like new feet!!!'

I am not sure though. Would you try it?

Love
Est xxx

Good name for a Bakery!

Today we went out with my sister Jo and Mike and Jessie to 'The Deep' in Hull. The Deep is situated on the edge of the Humber Estuary and is the World's only Submarium. Which all sounds very impressive (and it really was) but I can't help but wonder, is it the World's only Submarium, because they just completely made the word Submarium up?

It was incredible to see so many weird and wonderful sea creatures up close. My favorite was the sword fish. Apparently there are only 150 swordfish in the world, not quite sure how they know this but we must trust the experts, and two of them are at The Deep. It was amazing to see one. Or, maybe we saw both of them. I don't know.

Naomi and Benny loved it, they were running around shouting, 'wow, look at this, look at that'. When I asked them afterwards which part they liked the best, Naomi said 'the play area', and Benny said 'the cafe'. Oh dear, what can you do?

Love
Est xxx

PS, Mum still in hospital, she is ok, just still waiting for a test to find out what is wrong. Good old National Health System.

Anyone for a tipple?

Now I have really seen it all. Buy a plastic glass of Chardonnay from M&S for £2.50, peel of the lid and away you go.

Haven't seen this much convenience since the pre-mixed baby formula in a carton shock of 2007!

Love
Est xxx

Withernsea

We are back in Withernsea at the mo (Mum lives in Wiv and the rest of the family live in 'ull). Withernsea is a little seaside town about 40 minutes drive away from Hull on the East Coast.

Withernsea is famous for it's lighthouse (which I am really keen to climb up but the kids aren't too keen on windy staircases, I will go by myself one morning and send you a picture) and for being the mobility scooter capital of England. I did actually just make that last bit up but who knows, it might be a fact, it has got to be up there. There are also an inordinate amount of net curtains and knitted loo roll holders (probably).

Love
Est xxx

PS, Unfortunately Mum has been admitted to hospital today for some tests. Everything is probably fine but they have to be careful with her complicated medical history so fingers crossed. I hope she comes back soon, it is very quiet here tonight with no Mum to talk to:(

Edwards Family

Here's Jo, baby of the family and completely spoiled, even now!



Here's Collette, poor middle child, we did tell her she was adopted when she was little (sorry Collette!)



Here's Adam (number one and favourite son) and his lovely better half, Debbie. Adam didn't like his name when he was younger, he always said he wanted to be called Winston, or Wolfgang, or Desmond (absolutely true story!).



And lovely Esther, oldest and wisest and bossiest big sister.



And here are the five cousins, little Jessie first, Jo and Mike's daughter, Benny and Naomi of course and Collette's girls Ellie and Ciara. They are all having so much fun together this holiday, it is fab!

Love
Est xxx

All a bit Pink!

Here is my new outfit, at last, the photo kept coming up sideways last night, and believe me, it wasn't very flattering being in a portrait photo stretched to landscape. Not nice at all;)

Collette kindly humored my vanity and snapped this for me at Adam and Debbie's house today. Had a lovely afternoon with the family. Happy Birthday Debs!!!

Adam disappointed me and didn't even comment!

Love
Est xxx

PS, At last I have worked out a (very long and drawn out and probably not the right) way of adding more than one photo at a time so I will send some family photos next

Shopping

Jenny (lovely oldest friend, Ben's godmother and also previously starred in 'disappointment' blog) and I had a bit of a girls day today, went for a lovely long lunch (1pm 'til 5pm is a bit of a record, even the waiter commented!) and then had a 'bimble' around the shops (I say tootle, you say bimble, let's call the whole thing off;).

Tried on a lovely outfit in Next. I felt so happy and gay and Parisienne when I came out if the fitting room that I asked Jen to take my picture for the blog.

Think Jen thinks I am a little mad.

I asked the lady in the shop what she thought and she said, 'I'm not sure, I like the shoes though'. I said to her 'haha, the shoes are already mine, (refer previous New Shoes blog) and I think it all looks great so I will take it!'

So I bought the lot!!!

How exciting!!

We are going to my brother Adam's and Debbie's house tomorrow for her birthday celebration and I think I will wear it all together. He will just laugh at me. Haha.

Love
Est xxx

Bugger, sorry no photo. Came out sideways and hit a wall trying to fix it. Why can't I install Adobe flash player on the IPad? Apple people, I am not happy.

San Francisco Accomodation?

Just found this rather delicious apartment on a beautiful interior blog that I watch (vtinteriors.blogspot.com). It is in San Francisco. What do you think Alex, keen to hire it for a week or two on our travels???

Love
Est xxx

A Rather Unique Art Exhibition

Today we went out for the day with Mum and my sister Jo. We went out for lunch and a bit of a tootle round the shops in Beverley.

Beverley is a small (up)market town just outside Hull and it's where the posh people lived when we were young. I think they are still a bit posher than Hull now actually, so good charity shops!!!

Jo pointed out this painting to me, it was a bit of a surprise to see it on the outside of the building, so I had to snap it and share it with you.

Here is the info about the exhibition, I googled it when I got home.

'Discover the paintings of Fred & Mary Elwell as you walk through the centre of Beverley.

Born in Beverley in 1870, the painter Fred Elwell trained at the Lincoln School of Art and the academies in Antwerp and Paris before returning to live back in Beverley.

On his death in 1958, Fred bequeathed a large collection of his paintings, together with a selection by his wife, to Beverley Art Gallery. With the support of Beverley Civic Society, the Elwell collection has been liberated from the confines of the gallery walls. High quality replica paintings can now been seen throughout the town, enabling a wider audience to enjoy the Elwell paintings in settings that proved so inspirational to the artists. '

Cool eh?

Love
Est xxx

Stress?

I think I am driving the children up the wall!

Love
Est xxx

Glasgow Science Centre

After we left Edinburgh we headed to Glasgow to see our old friends Jennifer and Andrew and their beautiful new baby Heidi. Jenny and Andrew were very kind putting us all up for the night, especially as I only called them that morning to tell them that we were in Scotland!!! Not very organized, I know. Thanks guys!!

We spent the evening catching up on old times (Jenny and Andrew were in Wellington on a KPMG secondment a few moons ago) exchanging news on all the KPMG'ers and drinking lovely NZ Sauvignon Blanc (all the way from the Tesco's around the corner;). I will have you know that I am still supporting the NZ Vintners Association from the UK, even though it is the most expensive wine on the shelves!!!.

The next morning Jenny and Heidi and all of us went to the Glasgow Science Centre. It was fab. Hands on, interactive fun at it's best. We spent five hours there and didn't do half of it.

I didn't feel too bad that Naomi and Benny had not done any school work in Scotland at all, as I am sure they learned heaps that day.

Thanks Andrew and Jen and Heidi, it was lovely.

Love
Est xxx

PS, Did you know that if we decided to dig our way home and jump down the hole to NZ rather than fly, it would take us 42 mins at a speed of 17800mph?

See, I learned something too!!!

(Obviously, you would go faster the first half of the journey, as gravity would be on your side, the second half would be a bit slower.)

I am so clever.

In An Ideal World

Found this postcard in Edinburgh. Perfect!

Love
Est xxx

Pub Poetry

Enjoy!

Love
Est xxx

I Love Scotland

By Royal Appointment

We decided to stay a couple of extra days in Scotland. It was a close call as mum thought she had run out of one of her tablets but she found some extras at the bottom of the bag so crisis was averted. Next time we really should bring a trailer for the drugs, or our own personal pharmacist for easy medication.

Yesterday we had a day in Edinburgh and popped in to the Queen's official Scottish residence, Holyrood Palace. Unfortunately Liz wasn't home but the kind people on the gates said we were still welcome to have a look around in return for a relatively large donation.

We got to see 16 magnificent rooms and I was in heaven. Even the children tolerated it. They got their own audio guide and they looked at me wide eyed whilst they were listening, saying things like '250 years old!!!' (Naomi) and 'stabbed 46 times!!!' (!?!)(Ben)

Loved it. Loved the grandeur, loved the splendour, the pomp, the ceremony, the history, the symmetry, loved it, and loved Edinburgh full stop (even though it cost me £4.15 for a rather disappointing sandwich - I don't think HRH would have approved, I took it back for a refund).

Highly recommended.

Love
Est xxx

Oops

Don't worry Alex, he's fine, we pulled him up again. No harm done;)

Love
Est xxx

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday was the day after the wedding so we had a bit of a quiet day.

Went to a lovely country park in the afternoon for a bit of a stroll. Vogrie Country Park and the beautiful Vogrie house with sweeping driveways and beautifully landscaped grounds was once a privately owned estate but is now open to the public with a golf course, adventure playground, walled garden, miniature railway and even squirrels!

Love
Est xxx

Wedding

Had a lovely time yesterday at Sheryl and Kevin's wedding at Oxenfoord castle in Scotland.

Sheryl is almost part of our family as she lost her parents when she was very young and our Mum took Sheryl under her wing.

It was wonderful to celebrate with them and to enjoy the wonderful architecture of the castle, the Scottish dancing and the kilts of course!!

Love
Est xxx

Mum 'isms'

It is always a longer journey when my mum is the navigator...

Me - 'Which way at the roundabout?'
Mum - 'Yes, go round the roundabout.'

Mum - 'I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with tree.'

Mum - I don't understand this atlas, why can't it all just be on one page?' (That would be the whole of the United Kingdom she is referring to).

And, at 60 miles an hour when Naomi asked Mum to open the window and she opened the door!!!

Never a dull moment!!!

Love
Est xxx

Good clean fun

The kids are enjoying watching the front loader!!!

Love
Est xxx

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall was built by the order of Roman Emperor Hadrian following his visit to Britain in AD122. The defensive wall stretched from coast to coast between England and Scotland, a distance of 120 kms. It formed the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire.

Yes, we just found this part of it on the side of the road. No protective gates, so we just jumped up and had a walk along it!

Very cool.

Love
Est xxx

New Shoes

Ok, I did go into the shop.

Love
Est xxx

Durham Cathedral

Stopped in Durham overnight and it was beautiful. It is a lovely historic town with an incredible Cathedral, a Castle, a river running through it, lovely market square and cobbles for England.

Turns out that Durham Cathedral was originally built as a mausoleum for St Cuthbert. St Cuthbert was beheaded in battle and his body is buried in the cathedral along with the head of St Oswald. What a gruesome tale!!!

The were also some great shops. Couldn't resist taking this photo!!!

Love
Est xxx

Life is a journey, not a destination

Sorry I have been offline for a couple of days. We are currently in a very small village called Gorebridge near Edinburgh in Scotland and there doesn't seem to be any service. I have just connected to some network. I don't know whose it is, but they should probably have secured it in some way:)

We came up to Scotland over two days stopping in Durham for the night. Thank heavens we decided to stop because it pretty much took us the full two days to get here!!!

On the way to Durham we just happened upon a lovely little village with an incredible old ruined castle in the middle of it. We could believe it, it wasn't even signposted as a destination to visit and yet there it was. Just sitting there for the last thousand years. As you can see, only the four corners are standing now and it is quite breathtaking.

We spent about two hours in Sheriff Hutton (unusual name eh - I can only suppose it was named after an enforcement agent of the past, Sheriff Hutton) and even bought a book all about the history of the castle from the local post office.

Lovely. Just shows what you miss when you take the motorway!

Love
Est xxx

Disappointment

Went to visit my dear friend Jen and her three children yesterday for the afternoon.

Jenny gave Naomi her birthday card. To which Naomi responded, 'Mum, aren't cards normally attached to presents?'

Oh dear. Life is hard.

Love
Est xxx

It's never dull in Hull

Errrr.....?

For those not familiar with East Yorkshire, this is the Humber Bridge (photo again cunningly taken through car windscreen and this time timed between windscreen wiper swipes whilst trying not to crash, that is commitment for you!).

When the Humber Bridge was opened in 1981, it was the longest single span bridge in the world. Now for those of you who don't know what a single span bridge is, don't ask me, I have absolutely no idea. It is just something I was told when I was at school and it stuck in my head, not many things did, so I hope it is a fact.

The Humber Bridge crosses the river Humber into 'Kingston Upon Hull' which is the posh name for Hull, which is where I was born.

Other famous people from Hull include Maureen Lipman (Actress and comedienne, possibly only known in Hull actually), Roland Gift from the 'Fine Young Cannibals' (saw him in a pub once), Amy Johnson (Female aviator, first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia - 1930) The Housemartins ('Caravan of Love', 'Happy Hour', you will know them) and The Beautiful South ('Song for Whoever' is my favourite).

See, isn't Hull exciting!!!

I love you all from the bottom of my pencil case.

Est xxx

PS. Heading up to Durham tomorrow and then on to Edinburgh on Friday for a wedding on Saturday. More driving, lovely.