London

Guess what I am in England!!!!!

Yeh I know you know, but I still can not believe it!!!! But seeing the sights of London helped...

Well we planned to go to London on the Sunday as it would be the quietest of all days... but NO..St Patricks day march was on so a few million people decided to join us....

One thing about this trip is I don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life... We are having a ball, and creating many wonderful memories....

After leading the troops through the Underground I am ready to tackle the world....

On the Tube

3 excited little kids on the Hop on Hop off Bus...

Shocking photo, but who cares we are in London....

Big Ben

Swanbourne 12th March 2011

I still can not believe I have been to Swanbourne, where our Grandfather was born and raised until he came to Australia in 1873.. To see the country side in which they lived and worked on the local farms.
Today we meet more family and spent getting to know each other over lunch at the Swanbourne Tea Rooms.

A beautiful Cottage in Little Horwood

Waiting for the train at Swanbourne, will be a long wait...

Enjoying lunch at the Swanbourne Tea Rooms

Walking around Swanbourne with newly met family

Seeing the sights by foot, with Ron

WE Arrived..

Howdy,

We arrived safe and sound just very tired.... gee its a long way....without sleep... flight was good bit rough over the Middle East.... left Sydney and hour late but arrived at Heathrow on time... London supplied us with a nice sunny day...

After collect car, I took the liberty of getting very LOST!!!! but we saw heaps of the country side.... and it is beautiful....

After finally meeting up with Ron & Shirley Currell in Bicester, we had a well deserved coffee.. Ron then took Beth, Linda and I for a walk to see the local graveyard and church..

The Grange Cottages are to die for, the country side is yet again beautiful... the animals make us feel right at home with Harry the black Lab, Tilly the cat that laid on your foot with every step, Alpacas, and an Irish Horse and 3 ponies...

We had our first English Pub experience and it was everything we thought it would be...Yes a fire and great personalities.... not to mention a yummy curry... On leaving the publican gave us a memento to take home, a house shoe plaque, very fitting as dad loved his horseshoes....

We all enjoyed a good night sleep, just want to find our land legs... still get the odd sway happening..

Today we are off to Swanbourne to meet some of Ron's family and walk the grounds of our ancestors....

Stay safe

Lots of love the Girls....

Bangkok

Happy Traveller's

St Edburg, Bicester

The Daffodils Pauline promised we would see

Dinner at the Pub in Fringford

See could have brought the dogs....

The Butchers Arms....

Left :)

Finally the day has come......
they have borded their plane and are on there way :)

mum said to mention there were no tears....

Daddy, Mummy, Me

    Mummy, Aunty Beth, Aunty Linda, Grandma

5 sleeps... wooowhoooo

So 5 sleeps out its time for a recap....

Yes we may be flying cattle class for 23hours straight and be hit by jet lag at the other end...but it is much more civilised then our ancestors who took months on ships to travel here.

Everyone has said to us..."oh you can't just go for 2 weeks!"  Oh but we are.. it is better then nothing and the reason for the trip is to meet family and see for ourselves the land from which our family came. To see any sights of England will be a bonus..

Itinerary

Thursday 10^th March 2011 Fly to London, collect hire car (very thankful they drive on the same side as us) and spend 7 nights at Godington in self contained cottage.

While here will spend time exploring what England has on offer.

·         Buckinghamshire (this is the family history region)

·         London

·         Cornwall/Devon

·         The Cotswolds

·         The Slaughters

·         Bath

Godington itself is significant in our past, so being able to stay so close to our history is amazing. While here we will meet Ron & Shirley. Ron has done significant family history research and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the Currell family. He will show us all the sights of Buckinghamshire of where our ancestors once lived.

Friday 18^th March Depart Godington on route to Calver for 3 nights.

We spend this day driving through Wales, with the chance of visiting Llangollen, Snowdonia National Park, Snowdon Mountain railway, Hafod Eryri, and Chester just to name a few.

Calver is situated in the Hope Valley of the Peak District and it is here that we will meet our second cousin Peter and spend time with him and his family. Peter is through our Grandmother Maud’s family. We know very little about Maud and have no idea what brought her out to Australia in 1913, but one thing is for sure her dreams were not fulfilled.

Monday 21^st March depart Calver and bid farewell to Peter & Lorna as we head north up into Scotland.  We will spend 2 nights in a semi-detached fishermen’s cottage which lies in the pretty village of St Abbs with its picturesque harbour.

On our way north we will visit York, North Moors National Park, Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby, Newcastle Upon Tyne just to mention a few.

Tuesday we will explore Scotland, visiting Perthshire, Pitlochry, Glenshee & Loch Rannoch. We do hope that Beth will have the chance to see snow for the first time, so weather gods please be on our side that day.

Wednesday 23^rd March we leave the UK to fly to Paris.

Well, what can I say about what we will get up to here, who cares we will be in PARIS J

·         Champs-Elysee

·         Eiffel Tower

·         Arc de Triomphe

·         Notre Dame

·         cruise down the Seine River

·         Laduree

·         shopping

The list could go on forever but one thing is for sure, I will eat myself silly here, Personally I just want to absorb the Paris atmosphere walk where Carrie did.... etc...

So on Friday 25^th March our trip will come to an end L as we leave Paris to head home to Sydney. Arriving in Sydney Sunday morning 27th.. So no voting for us...

So I do hope you follow our journey, it will be lovely to have a mum and her 3 daughters together for such a once in a life time experience.

I know for a fact their will be lots of laughs and tears throughout the trip, but most of all their will be memories made that no one can take away from u....

14 sleeps till departure :)

With 14 sleeps left I have 2 things left on my To Do list to tick off, so as you could imagine I am pretty stoked about that... main thing though is trying to keep the butterflies at bay....

 I pick up the rest of my Pounds tomorrow, can't wait to get that in my hot little (chubby) hands.... I really do need to try on my clothes I have out to pack, but I am guessing that will happen next Saturday when I might actually have a free minute... I have replaced my camera and I love it... poor people on Facebook must be sick of all my practice shots... But I wanted to have it down pat before I leave...

We   have Katelyn having a birthday prior to leaving and lets just say nothing has been done about that yet...So something to add to my list.

The first few days of our trip have been planned and we are all very excited about them.

Day 1 Fri 11th: arrive Heathrow, collect car and proceed to Bicester to meet Ron & Shirley. We will have lunch and check out the general area with them before we all proceed to check in at our cottages in  Godington. R & S are spending 4 nights in a cottage next to us.

Ron & Shirley have been so kind to offer to do a small shop for us so we don't have to worry about that..considering we don't know how we will pull up after long flight.

Day 2 Sat 12th: Spend day with R&S looking around Swanbourne and meeting 2 of Ron's sisters and a cousin. Lunch will be at a lovely Tea Room.. This location was actually scourced 12 months ago. This day will be one of the most rewarding of all our time away.. Definitely a few hankie kind of day.

Day 3 Sun 13th: Day trip into London :-) thought we should take advantage of the weekend to visit this city.

So I hope everyone else with travel plans on the horizon are just as excited as us. Travel is a wonderful experience and I am so very grateful for this opportunity.

To everyone affected by the Christchurch Earthquake, our hearts and thoughts go out to you all <3

Till next time

AJ

Under 4 weeks till departure :)

So all those counting sleeps is starting to finally pay off... too think I started around  300+ and now down to 26... now its time to really start getting excited and a little nervous...

So I thought considering our busy schedule over the next few weeks I better think about pulling out my winter woolies to see if I have enough suitable clothing to pack.. Yes I do, just need I pair of trackies and I am sweet to zip up the case.. I am also proud of myself, as I put half of what I pulled out back! well done I'd say..

On the home front everything is organised, I didn't really have to do much just make sure calender was up to date and write down some menu ideas for Matt to cook. I prepared meals in freezer and that is all I had to do, too easy... Oh I will have to teach Matt how to Skype.. We wont have mobiles with us so will rely on Skype and email plus don't forget Facebook.

My folder, maps, lonely planet book, family tree is already to pack, just have to find my passport. Na jokes I think I know where it is.... oh yes I do... ;)

It really is hard to believe we are going to finish the jigsaw puzzle that Dad/Cliff started 19 years ago. It is sad that he isn't here to share the experience with us, but I think he would be proud that we are going for him. He is always in our hearts <3

Note to self extra hankies....

Our last family photo 2003
Jo, Cliff, Linda
Beth, Grant, Joanne