Paris

I went to Paris for 2 days to see family, and this is the Eurostar - the only real way to travel!

Unfortunately I can't afford that way... but I did see it as I got the train out to Luton to fly with Easy Jet!

This is the view of where my family have their boat on the river, very pretty :)

My uncle had to work in the morning of my full day there, so I went for a wander around Paris and saw all of the famous places.

I've been so lucky with the weather which is great!

I think the Smart car in front is a good look - there are hardly any asian cars over this side of the globe - love it!

Looking down the Champs-Elysees

lots of flash car shops around, in the Citroen shop they had some of their shiny rally cars on turn tables

After Rupert finished work, we got a bike each (in Paris you can use bikes which you pick up and drop off at various points within the city, they are free for the first 30 mins and cheap after that too), Rupert had his flash new one, with auto lights, which he is very proud of!

Rupert and police horses in front of Notre Dame





Can you guess where this is??!
Love the detail close up

There were heaps of police about, even on scooters... I could take them on for sure!

Then, as we were cycling about, minding our own business, a Scirocco drove past!

Like a crazed member of the paparazzi I cycled after it taking a video, but I was holding up people on scooters and couldn't get in front of it :( Still exciting though cause its the first one I'd seen!

The bike which I had only had 3 gears...

Later on we went to see one at a dealership. I had a sit in it, and it is very tidy - I do prefer mine though :)


View towards the city from where the boat is kept

Here is the Albatross - my families boat

Family pics;

The girls are growing up so fast!!

Jade (now 11) likes to discuss things such as "The thing with gays is..."

She is brilliant!

Paris was great - brilliant to see my family of course. But I wasn't very impressed with the airport; I'm not going to rant, but it's lucky that the country is run with better efficiency than Charles de Gaul, and I don't see what makes the french so special that they can't form queues!

Brighton!

Brighton is a pretty cool place!
I went down for a night and a day to hang out with Toby a bit more, and see a bit of one of the UK's most well known coastal towns...

So what's in Brighton??!

Well there is of course there is the Pier, which was home to several people attempting to eat their fish and chips outside, even though it was a pretty crappy day... The Brits are nothing if not determined!

And of course Brighton is famous for its gays!
Where else, except in Briton's 'Gay Capital', could you find this extremely gay real estate sign??!
Very cool!

Toby and I were much more sane than the people on the Pier, and had our fish and chips INSIDE... Although we were still foolish enough to order mushy peas, which for some reason tasted rather like cigarettes... not so good! The fish and chips were great though, and we even got a free chips refill each :)

Toby is also displaying some 'car porn' which I got for Lane (My mechanic) - its hard to get old VW mags in NZ

Bye Toby!!!

More Farm pics

Here are some random moments from the farm from the last few days. They aren't in any particular order sorry!!

First here is the new Saddleback Piglet. She's VERY cute, and its great that she's arrived as they are a very rare breed and many seem to be infertile due to loss of their genetic diversity...
Pheasant in the fields (running away from me!)
Andrew, Barney, Toby and Bron on the lawn - I realised that taking photos through old glass windows doesn't work very well... ops! Grandad and I put the box around the statue a few days ago to keep her safe over winter
Deer in Further Hollow Field

The barn roof

The morning of my birthday!
Farm entrance

Time lapse of the sun over the lawn

The statue before we put her in her box
Barney with one of the Sussex bulls. We were collecting blackberries for a crumble I made!

Snorting bull

Autumn is here

First here is a video of the last stretch of road to the farm, called Steep Road. I've been along here more times than you've had hot breakfasts! (unless you are very old...)

Lots of classic Autumn shots from around the farm! Blackberries in the hedgerows and the Quince falling off the trees in the orchard...


HAGGIS!!
I found a Lacewing at the Farm which was pretty cool, haven't seen one of those for a few years! (they are good to have about cause they eat bad things like aphids)

I went for a nice walk around the farm on Wednesday...

You can see the neighbours vineyard across the valley
Real style through a REAL hedge!
This is an apple tree I used to have in a pot on my roof garden in London - the last time I saw it it was about 6' tall!
The Oast house in all it's glory (with my apple tree on the left!)
The farmhouse
Grandad's perfect lawn in between