Many apologies to the people of Tewkesbury

...and Colin and Chris, for being the pedants they are, and for noticing the incorrect spelling of TEWK_SBURY (missing an 'e').

Sackcloth and ashes will be my wardrobe for the foreseeable future.

Humbly

Liza

Tewksbury & Vaughn Williams

As we were in the St James church in Chipping Campden, (which gets 4 stars in my 1000 best churches book) Jacq said, "how many stars does it go up to?" I turned the page. Tewksbury Abbey was the next church listed. It had 5 stars! "Five" I said. We looked at each other. "How far away is Tewksbury?" We worked out that it was about 20 miles. Too close to miss, we decide...and off we go!

Well it certainly was worth the journey. An absolutely stunning church (not a cathedral, they were very insistant to point out) in fact 14 of Britain's cathedrals are smaller!

As we wandering round the back of the beautiful church, round the outside of the choir, we heard this beautiful sound....



It sounded so perfect, like a recording, but as we came back round to the front of the choir, we realised that an orchestra was rehearsing for that evening's concert. A Vaughn Williams evening. Very haunting and beautiful music. It totally made the visit to the Church! The acoustics were perfect - and we decided that the sound was better when we were at the back of the choir than in the 'audience'. Fab!

Chats, Churches and beautiful strange curly things

I briefly mentioned that Jackie and I spent a lovely weekend in the Cotswolds a few weeks ago, here's a bit more detail.....

So, I'd been at a test conference down in IBM Hursley the 2 days before, and finished work at 12pm. I just got a text from Jacq to say she'd already arrived at the hotel....and so I got on my way....up the A34 and then turn left at Oxford.....towards Chipping Campden.


View Larger Map

As I got into the Cotswolds, it got so pretty, and I slowed down driving to take it all in. Woodstock is GORGEOUS!

Anyway, with a bit of help and directions from Jacq, I arrived without too much trouble in the lovely old pub where we'd decided to stay. The Volunteer Inn. Very nice.

We had a lovely chat & a catch up - can it really have been that long....? Guinness, a fire, and curry were all involved in the evening. Most lovely.

Next day we headed off to the Church - St James - it scores very highly in my 'England's thousand best churches' book. The church is gorgeous.

After the church we went to have a look at the lovely arts & crafts museum - Court barn - virtually next door to the church. It was really interesting. A history of the Arts and Crafts movement in the Cotswolds. The most interesting part was the exhibition from a local artist, Jenny Ford, who made these lovely curly things out of cloth and wire things she finds in skips! The looked like a cross between flowers (very organic) and pied piper shoes - pointy & curly! Gorgeous. Jenny was there and was incredibly interesting to talk to. She was explaining her techniques (very patient stitching of wires into cloth), and inspirations (medieval clothing), and where she gets her materials from (skips!)

Last chance to see....

....the chickens :-(

It's a sad tale, but the lovely chickens, which are kept in the best chicken run in the world, and which are just around the corner from Conrad & Michelle's house, and about which I have blogged previously, are going. Apparently some sort of disagreement has arisen between the man who keeps them, and the landowners (his landlord).

This weekend was going to be their last. Sob.

They were being picked up early on Saturday morning. There were a few solitary birds left when we went to see them on Saturday lunchtime - barely glimpsed thru the trees in the pic - but even they're destined for the pot.

We are very sad.

More Scottish Activities

After being woken up by the birdy noises yestrerday morning, we went for a wander to the Glendoik Garden Centre, about 2 minutes wander from Conrad & Michelle's. We were looking for "fireplace paraphenalia" - tongs, brush, shovel, poker, coal, peat etc - but nothing doing. It's a lovely place tho, so we did have a nice wander round.
After lunch we decided to go for a bit of a drive....

Ended up being a MEGA one....but really nice! The countryside round here is truly lovely.
We finally foound some fuel at the nearest garage to C&M's house - but no fireplace furniture as yet. That's today's job. After a small surf I've found 2 potential locations....

FIRESURROUND CENTRE (1)

FIRESURROUND CENTRE's(1)Website

1, Melville Street,
Perth,
Perthshire
PH1 5PY

Tel: 01738 624902

• Marble, Stone & Wood
• Marble Sets & Victorian Insert
• Electric & Gas Fires
• All Makes,Traditional & Modern
• Custom Made Mantels
• Bespoke Fireplaces

Burning Question (Perth) (2)

Burning Question (Perth)'s(2)Website

Inveralmond Place,
Inveralmond Industrial Estate,
Perth,
Perthshire
PH1 3TS

Tel: 01738 633113

• Wood Burning Stoves
• Rayburn Range Cookers
• Fireplaces
• Gas & Oil Fired Stoves
• Chimney & Flue Systems
• Expert Advice & Guidance

I reckon one of them will come up with the goods!!!!

Lanzagrotty Part 2

I've finally got round to putting the piccies up onto Picassa, so they're scrolling over in the slideshow for a bit but the permanent link to them is here.
Anyway, I think in my previous posting on the subject we'd got as far as taking off - no mean feat given my recent bad luck with flights! Anyway, we landed, and then the trouble started! It turns out that one of the reasons our flight was delayed was that the ATC people were having a problem with the system and therefore instead of being able to let planes take-off at a rate of about 1 a minute (at Gatwick) it was 1 every 7 minutes. You can imagine the delays that were building up - 6 or 7 hours, hence why we were merged with the XL rescue flight. Anyway, eventually that propblem sorted itself out, and therefore a load of delayed flights all took off around the same time (one minute apart!) in the evening. Of course, it being the tourist season, that meant that a load of flights all landed, late, at Arrecife airport, all at the same time. The baggage handlers just couldn't cope. Over an hour waiting for the bags.
Whilst we were walking up and down baggage reclaim, looking for the right carousel with our luggage on it, we could see out into the arrivals hall. There was a stressed-looking lady with 'ROSSI' printed on a card. I did the 'it's me' mime through the glass doors, and she looked relieved to have found us. I assumed it was the taxi we'd pre-booked.
When we got out to the arrivals, we met up with the lady whose name was Paula. She turned out to be not the taxi person but the JamesVillas rep. There was a problem with our villa (Villa Lapa) - roadworks outside the gate, and she was there to offer us a swap. Another nice villa we'd been looking at called LanzaVilla.
Going outside the airport we realised that there was a MASSIVE queue for taxis, yes even the pre-booked ones, due to all the late flights arriving at once, and so, Paula, bless her, crammed us all into her little Yaris, luggage an' all, and saved us over an hour's wait in the queue!
In the end, we decided to take them up on the new villa - in the pictures, the Villa Lapa looked nicer but actually LanzaVilla had a nicer pool and outside area - and the decor inside was just a little bit newer!
The rest of the holiday was quite uneventful - eating, drinking, laughing (alot!) and much relaxation was had.
On the way home, the only thing that hadn't happened in my recent travel traumas, finally occurred; I lost my luggage. It didn't arrive off the carousel at Gatwick. Not as traumatic as losing it on the way out - by this point it was 3am and we didn't care! Dropped Janey off home and we headed back up to Leeds arriving hime a few minutes before 7am, and we crashed out and went to sleep. At 1pm the doorbell rang and it was the luggage (not The Luggage!) delivered by a courrier. So really I never even noticed its absence! Thanks Monarch!

In Scotland

After a bit of a harrowing journey last night (5 hours, eeeeeek) during which we encountered rain, sleet, snow and howling gales, we finally reached Glendoik - Conrad & Michelle's lovely home. It was very welcoming as usual - extra special this time as they have got the fire going in the lounge. Dan and Michelle are pyros so it was great fun!

This morning we've woken up to the sparrows scrabbling against the bedroom windows. They have taken over the nests left by the house martins or swallows, from the summer. No idea what they're doing - isn't it a bit late to be having babies? - but anyway, they're as busy as bees, flying in and out of the nest every minute or so.

Also, another strange wildlife creature has appeared in the room....it's the pinker spotted Dan, wearing his Mum's dressing gown. Very scary!!! To be honest I'm surprised he's not wearing a kilt today as he's gone very Scottish on me. Conversation this morning has ranged around the subjects of Grouse, Deer, Birds of Prey, Otters, Lochs, Perthshire Honey and whether there is snow in Aviemore. All in relation to 'what we're going to do today'! Either he's fogotten we're only here for the weekend, or he's thinking of staying!

Home Sweet Home

It's an interesting fact that however far away you move, "home" is always where you grew up; not the house you're paying the mortgage on, not the one your husband/wife/offspring live in. So, this weekend I was at home. An old family friend Terri G, got married to her long term partner, Jeff. It was a FANTASTIC do. Firstly because me, Jane, Sharon & Terri were together for the 1st time in about 15 years. Secondly because an old school friend Catherine H was there. I've not spoken to her since we left school! It was such a lovely reunion.

Gorgeous Cotswolds

This weekend, me n' Jacs went for a lovely weekend in the lovely scenic village of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. We stayed in the Volunteer Inn - a cozy pub on the main street - and have spent the weekend visiting churches, drinking wine, chatting, eating lovely food and generally having a nice relaxing time.

Back Home

Haven't blogged this last week as we've been away in Lanzarote in a lovely villa for a week. I don't like updating twitter or my facebook status saying 'having a lovely time away' because that's just asking for trouble I think - so I just tend to go quiet then update the blog and all the online stuff with all the details after the event.

So, here goes.....

Last Monday we decided we'd better get our holiday booked and we looked online at the last minute section of the JamesVillas website - we came up with 'Villa Lapa' in Lanzarote - with flights from Gatwick (because from anywhere else they were too expensive - not sure if it was the XL fiasco or the fuel crisis - but flights from Leeds, Manchester or East Midlands were over £1200!!!)

On Thursday morning, we set off from home at 9am - arriving at the off-airport parking at East Grinstead at about 12:30 - well ahead of our 13:30 schedule. We hit the airport around 13:00 and met Janey at about quarter past and by half 1 we were checked in! Super early - as the flight wasn't until 16:15.

After a nice trip around the duty free, we ended up in the pub having a few swift Guinnesses! A nice start to the holiday. As we approached the time for boarding though, the gate number didn't appear on the board. "Oh no", I thought. Not another episode in the 'Liza's bad travel luck" saga?! In the end the flight was delayed. 1 hour 45 - so we left at 6pm. As it turned out it was actually not bad luck at all. Our fight was merged with an 'XL rescue flight' and so the 60 or so people who were flying to Lanzarote were put on an enormous plane with LOADS of space - we had 3 seats each!

To be continued...