A happy Christmas and New Year to all our readers

We wish you a happy Christmas and an even better New Year

Noel and Jennifer

Well after an early morning start from home we headed towards Folkstone and the Channel Tunnel for a quick trip across the English Channel, or under it really!

We arrived near Lille Airport and stopped for lunch in a nice restaurant that Noel have eaten at before whilst on business a business trip in this area.
The prime reason for this visit to Lille, apart from increasing our wine stocks in time for Christmas, was to visit a number of Bathroom shops to get ideas for the development of our house in Weybridge. The price of bathroom furniture appears to be around 30 per cent cheaper than the UK and with a bigger choice.

It was raining but we still spent late Monday afternoon walking around Lille old town. We were hoping to visit the Christmas Market but unfortunately it was closed so we went to see the film by Sacha Baron Cohen, 'Bhorat' a tour of America, really quite funny, followed by a visit to a small restaurant for a Gallette Raclette and a wee drop of the house red wine. Excellent.

Tuesday was a beautiful day but cold. This was a great day to walk around the town and see all the sites, well almost all. The Christmas Market was in full swing with many English people and school parties there. The atmosphere was tremendous and so was the Hot mulled red wine. That evening was spent with my ex- business colleague Laurence Henno and her husband with their son Nicolas , a very pleasant evening indeed but a bit late.

We were staying in an Hotel called Alliance Couvent des Minimes, which is an old Convent which has been converted in to a very nice Hotel indeed and it is well placed if you want to walk around Lille old town.



One thing about France is their love of lunch, where else in the world would you find somewhere in the middle of a busy Town where you can park your car for free at lunch time, albeit only for 90 minutes. On Wednesday we left the Hotel and headed South towards the French part of B & Q called Castorama. As previously mentioned these stores sell pretty much the same as you get in your local B & Q but much much cheaper. One item selling for 850 Euros was a combined power shower and walk in shower cabinet with multiple smaller outlets that sells in the UK for £1450.00. You work it out, is this a rip off or what??
The Castorama we visited was at a new 'Centre Commercial' about 15 miles south of Lille in an area the size of Heathrow Airport, if not bigger, and it had just about every major department store chain known to man. There were also cinemas and multiple restaurants. We visited 'Auchan' in a building about the size of Wembley Stadium, most impressive and the choice was phenomenal. For anybody that's interested it is off Junction 17 of the A1 between Lille and Paris. We will return!!! Then back to the coast for our train back to 'Blighty', we made it back to Weybridge by 7pm. I could not believe the M25 was so quick, I can only assume there was an accident somewhere holding them all up. A very good journey indeed.

A few photos of Trees in our garden and a visit to Shere

A few pictures of our trees as they change in the Autumn weatherand also a few photos around a little village called Shere.
See main PHOTOBLOG for more pictures.

We have bought our new Caravan at last

Well, we have finally gone and done it, as they say... We visited tha caravan show at the Excel Exhibition centre and ordered a new caravan for delivery next March/April time. Its a a model called a Baliey Senator Louisiana.
The picture to the left is of a similar model. and a little dirty, but you can see that its quite a big van.
In fact its about 25 feet long and 7' 6" inches wide and weighs about 1750 kilos when fully loaded.
We have chosen the basic colour scheme for the upholstery and will add a few extras like a caravan mover, which is an remote controlled system, which drives the wheels by electric motors when parking. NO REVERSING FOR ME OLD CHAP!!!

It comes with a complete shower and full bathroom, oven and microwave and a large refrigerator and freezer, so this allows plenty of room for the booze and some food. Ours a fixed double bed model, so no making up beds en-route.


So next year starting around April or May we shall be heading of for France for a few weeks to get used to it, we will come back to our home in July and and August and then continue our tour of Europe in September and October or until the weather gets to bad.
We are both looking forward to getting or caravan and starting a travels in Europe. We intend to visit as many countries as we can during the months of April to October, with the balance of the time at home or Florida or wherever its warmer than here.
We shall have to call the caravan a name, so any suggestions would be greatfully received

Florida Botanical Gardens and Historic Village

We spent half a day at the above location , well worth the visit. For fulle photo shots see the photo blog on phanfare.

Back to the cold weather

Well we arrived back in Gatwick Airport on the BA flight from Tampa at 0900 on Wednesday morning where it was grey and overcast with a temperature of 6 degrees centigrade. Welcome home after 3 weeks of almost wall to wall sun and at around 30 degrees C. We spent the last couple of day after the part of the week just recovering and taking it easy except when we went to Culture Centre in Indian Rocks.All pictures of this very nice park are on the Photo Blog so please see link to view. So the Blog will become a little quiet until we head off again... All readers take care.
PS :-The above picture is of the sun going down over Weybridge-if only

The Joyce Jenkyn 60th Birthday Party, 3-5 November 2006

Relatives and friends from around the world, USA and UK actually, came to join Joyce and celebrate her 60^th birthday. Actually Joyce’s birthday is the 25^th December which is not a great time to celebrate as other events also take place on this day. So it was decided to bring the event forward, avoiding Thanksgiving, and making a three day party of it.
The Holiday Inn at ||Indian Rocks was chosen as the party base with those travelling from greater distances arriving over a couple of days and to meet for the opening event at the pub in the hotel followed by dinner at the famous ‘Crabby Bills’. We had about 25 people attending this opening event. The seafood was excellent and so was the company.
Saturday morning brought about a late breakfast in the hotel and we all made our own way to Adrian and Joyce’s Condo about two miles away. Jennifer and I walked with Wanda Pointek via the beach both before and after the lunchtime session which finished around 3.30 pm. The evening event was in the ‘Brewmaster’ restaurant in the Hotel where about 20 participants joined in. A number of Joyce and Adrian’s friends at the Yacht club could not attend this night due to this event clashing with a Yacht Club event. The hardy ones carried on in Adrian and Joyce Hotel room. The evening was made extra pleasurable as they had arranged for a caricaturist to create pictures of the attendees; these will be published on the Jenkyn.com website in the near future. Going to bed was a little later tonight than planned.
Sunday saw us all off to a good start and we hit the trolley bus down to ‘The Pub’ for a brunch. This little restaurant right alongside the inland waterway was a great place to start the day and a number of Bloody Mary’s and pills were seen to be in strong evidence.
Following breakfast we went back to the trolley and down to Johns Pass, which is a waterside shopping and restaurant area. Upon arrival we immediately set about the beer and a few more Bloody Mary’s to kick start the shopping spree. We all departed our own way to meet later but it was not long before the troops turned up at the soon to be famous ‘Bamboo’ Pub where the resident Pizza delivery man ‘Mike Calzone’ was entertaining the audience with some great music and songs of all types. A very pleasant 45 minutes was spent listening to this chap.
However, the Commander in Chief, Joyce got us up and running back to the Trolley for the drive down to Pass-a-Grille, interesting name for a place, where we would view the sunset from the terrace of the Hurricane Restaurant and bar. To see the demise of the sun we all took on board the drink of the bar called a ‘Hurricane’ which contains most liquor’s together with sulphuric acid and a few other chemicals. At the appointed time 1753 hrs when the sun should be dipping below the horizon and casting a beautiful light over the sea, all we got was black clouds. Uhmm something went wrong with the arrangements here however the moon popped up the other side and we looked at that instead. We then had a short but excellent and illegal firework display before we hit the trolley back to a restaurant for the final dinner.
A number of people had unfortunately returned to distant parts and the numbers were dwindling down to the hard core. The dinner was very nice and ‘Curtis’ our waiter worked quite hard to satisfy the demands of the remaining few.
A few short speeches were made in the blur of alcohol before we all headed, very tired, back to the hotel.
It was a lovely few days, it was great to meet a number of people who lived in Tokyo during our time at the start of the ‘Tokyo British Club’ and also meet Joyce’s family members.
Most of the people attending the event took photos galore, and many will soon to be on the Jenkyn website whilst we will do our usual Blogs with photos as well.
A good time was had by all and now we all need a day to recuperate.

Thursday/Friday 2-3 November Last days in Sarasota

A good walk to start Thursday was very good with the sun shining and a great temperature. After yesterdays busy day we took it easy and went to the cinema to see a film called ‘The Departed’ which was a very good, but bloody and violent, Boston based cops and crooks drama. Well worth seeing if you can understand what is going on.
After sorting out the house on Friday morning we headed North back to Indian Shores and to the Holiday Inn Hotel which will be our base before we leave back to Blighty. We are back in Indian Shores to attend Joyce Jenkyn’s 60^th Birthday party which is subject to a separate report.
On our way back from Sarasota we crossed over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, see picture, this is an amazing piece of architecture and very interesting to travel on.
The next Blog will contain all the Party Information and events during the three day party.

Wednesday 1st November- A Doctor’s Visit and USA observations

My ear has been playing up for the last couple of weeks and so I decided to see a local Doctor. ‘Oops!’ About £100 pounds later I left after being seen for a total of about 9 minutes having waited almost 45 minutes, so I assume they charge you for waiting in their surgery as surely it can’t be £600 per hour, or can it?
Anyway I have just discovered that the food store that we raved about in an earlier bulletin is opening their first shop in Kensington in 2007 and this will certainly be worth a visit. Also whilst having lunch and looking at the internet I noticed that, I think it was Abbey National, will be offering mortgages based on five times salary.
By comparison I came across the following advert for a home mortgage and quite frankly I don’t know what they are talking about.

Here it is, word for word

Up in Arms over your adjustable rate loan? How about these options

+100% 80/20 Confirming and JUMBO COMBO with fixed 2nds

+One single loan at 100%

+Low fixed rates

If you can work that out please let me know as I don’t have a clue.

The fountain outside the apartment started working today, at last, it looks very nice indeed but the Alligator has moved on to more peaceful surroundings.
The mid term elections are taking place and the TV, radio and streets are full of adverts for the various participants. Most of the TV is what you would call negative campaigning. One party even accuses another party of quote ‘not even showing up for work during his time in the house’

John Kerry, presidential campaigner has just blown it by losing his words and stated at a University during his campaign speech that you can work very hard at University and get on in life or if you do not you go to Iraq!!!. George Bush is elated by this blunder whilst families all over USA are demanding personal apologies for his comments about their kids in the forces in Iraq. Way to go!!
Finally, a film has just been released here which is made up of video footage and called The Death of a President all about the killing of George Bush whilst President, there has been an outcry about this but people are going to see it, maybe to get ideas?

Isn’t free speech a wonderful thing.

Tuesday 31 October- Halloween in America

Well at the crack of dawn (0900 hours actually, which is crack of dawn for us retired folk, we left Sarasota on the Interstate 75 going south to Sanibell which is north of Naples, Florida and is an area where the rich people live along with considerable wildlife, hence our visit.
We spent a couple of hours at the Tarpon Bay Nature Reserve which we visited earlier this year only to find that the birds were on vacation in England or somewhere, anyway there was not much wildlife about apart from a couple of birds.
So we headed North through miles and miles of new housing developments, some were Ok but others you wonder why they were built?. Some houses were built in the middle of a large field no doubt to await the arrival of other new houses, how horrible. But the amount of housing being built just in the small area we saw was incredible, I didn’t know there were so many trees in America.
The roads to Venice were the typical boulevard which went on for miles with malls, car breakers, cheap take-away restaurants and then the occasional expensive gated housing. We also saw housing developments for the over 55 years, so we could with a bit of luck get in there.
However after an hour or so we arrived in Venice, Florida and not like the real Venice in Italy however as it was Halloween night the local families were parading the streets and allowing their children to take advantage of the ‘trick and treat’ tactics. All the family seemed to get involved in this practise as yo can see from the photographs. We arrived a bit late for the event and we were luck with the timing as suddenly the heavens opened and it bucketed with rain. Out timing was good as we had just arrived back at the car.
We also came upon the shop selling Green Parrots, the relevance of this is only known to the close Groves family group of the 25 year old Green Parrot Club the home of Rover the invisible dog.

So we left Venice and headed North as it began to get dark, now that the clock has gone back its gets dark here around 1800 hrs. And so to bed….

Monday 30th October, Bird Sanctuary and Aquarium

We visited the ‘Pelican Mans’ Bird Sanctuary which is named after the founder, a Mr Dale Shields. The story goes as follows.
In 1981 Dale rescued an injured pelican. There were no wildlife Hospital’s in Sarasota then so he nursed the bird called ‘George’ back to health by himself. Soon afterwards Dale had a heart attack and while in the hospital he promised that if he got well, he would take care of wildlife for the rest of his life. Dale kept his promise and was nicknamed the ‘Pelican Man’.
Dale was so successful in helping Florida’s birds that he attracted many volunteers, and in 1985 he founded Pelican man’s Bird Sanctuary, which is a non profit organisation. In 1987 the City of Sarasota leased Dale this land on the bay for USD 1.00 per year.
Most of the birds in the hospital have broken wings or are blind, some are received with damage and then are released when fit although this does not happen to all birds. It was a very nice place to visit and some beautiful birds are there. Almost all of the photos are taken through the wired cages and so I hope they are ok.
We then went next door to the Aquarium where there was a large selection of fish as well as dolphins and Manatees. The dolphins were very young when they were brought in so are unable to fend for themselves in the wild.
The shark’s tank was great but difficult to take photos.

They also have an area where they treat injured animals like turtles, sharks or dolphins that get caught in nets or are suffering from infections. They are cared for here and then returned to the wild as quickly as possible.
Both Jennifer and I preferred the Bird Sanctuary of the two visits and would certainly go there again.
It was very hot today and so after a late lunch downtown we headed back for a book reading early evening. Jennifer looked out at the lake and there was the resident alligator sunning itself on the fountain, which is still not working, Noel has put the picture on the photo blog.

It was a very pleasant day indeed.

Sunday 29th October- Sarasota Market Day

After a good three mile walk we headed in to town to do some shopping at the food market we visited the other day. We arrived at Main Street to find that there was a small market taking place with many artists displaying their wares. Some of the painting and photographs were extremely good.
We took the opportunity to take a few more pictures of the statues that are around town, all with a circus theme. All this was due to the Ringling Brother Circus Group being from around these parts.
On the way back to the apartment we noticed some ‘Open house’ signs (For Sale) in The Meadows and so we took a look and visited two. Both were very nice but price wise were quite cheap compared to the prices in London. In fact prices are dropping and will continue to drop for some time due to over building and the cost of insurance in Florida. One house we saw had three bedrooms, two bathrooms and nice views over the golf course all for about GBP 200 K, fifty thousand pounds cheaper than a two bed apartment in Stretton Lodge (The Gables) in Wey Road. WOW.

Nothing to report- Friday/Sat 27-28 October

Well Noel started suffering in a big way with his cold on Thursday and struggled through Friday but is slowly improving-thank god, and he's hopeless when sick.

So nothing to report until we start our life again tomorrow

Update Sunday Lunchtime

Well the above is not entirely correct. As a result of not feeling great what with colds etc, we have started to do a long walk after breakfast each morning. The walk lasts up to two hours and we are covering between 3 and 4.5 miles depending which way we go and how often we stop, which is not much.

All of the walking has been carried out round the Meadow Estate and over the past few days we have appreciated even more this place. It’s a huge area covering 1600 acres, 90 lakes of varying sizes and all of the apartments or houses overlook a lake or a part of the gold course. There are 54 fairways or 3 golf courses, a tennis and fitness club. There is 12 miles of walking paths, a football and separate baseball pitch and children playground and a heath centre for the ageing population. Anyway it’s been a great place to stay and we are pleased that our neighbours Clive and Heather have allowed us to use the apartment. Lets hope by Sunday we have gotten over our colds etc.

The sun continues to shine in this state most of the time and we would certainly return here next year and take advantage of this great weather, perhaps we could become ‘Snowbirds’.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the ‘Target Superstore’ on University Parkway, it’s a great store but we noticed that most of the food they sell is pre-packaged ready made meals rather than fresh food, makes you think how much paper and packaging waste there must be.

Watched TV last night and they had on two good films, Men in Black and Shawn of the Dead

It was of course full of adverts but you have to live with this if you live here. Anyway enough of this rubbish, we are planning trips to Venice and Naples next week, both places are South of here and we have briefly visited them before and would like to spend some more time there. We also wish to Sanibel Island which is a very nice nature reserve.

See you tomorrow as we are off to down town Sarasota for some shopping.

Wednesday 25th October, It’s getting warmer again

Well that was the end of the cold front for the moment, it lasted perhaps 1.5 days and today the temperature got back to about 85°F. We decided that today we would explore Sarasota Town and also Siesta Key and see what it was like. Sarasota is a very quiet town at the moment as the hoards have not yet arrived from the frozen North. The town is quite small really however we parked near to ‘Marina Jacks’ and then headed up by the waterfront on to a promenade which goes in to the middle of the bay. There is a lovely statue of Dolphins and you can see the pictures in the photo blog.
However, Shock and Awe we discovered that in fact Sarasota was founded by the Scottish and they were also quite involved for many years in running this town, they also built the first golf course in the United States of America here in down town Sarasota. Those wiley Scots!
We then headed in to the town and walked up Main Street, this is full of mostly empty restaurants but there were many antique and also fine art shops together with some really lovely pottery and glass outlets.
There were also a number of interesting statues around town, mostly of clowns, which are pictured.
We ended up in the most amazing food mart where the presentation of the fruit and vegetables was magnificent and the quality was quite superb. They also had a lunch outlet where you could purchase sandwiches of all descriptions and a selection of hot and cold food to make a Londoner go mad with jealousy. Oh how I miss the K+N Colnbrook Sandwich Bar - YUK.
Following our walking tour of the town we headed out to Siesta Key where we had lunch and found an Internet Café to connect and to check mail etc. This area is full of developments of new houses, apartments and condo’s and the most obvious sign everywhere was ‘For Sale’ or ‘For Rent’. There must be some good deals around at the moment with the amount of houses and condo’s for rent. Siesta Key is a very nice area and quite expensive looking in places and would be a great place to live, providing you wanted to live in Florida.
Again it was very quiet with very few cars and people but it will get busier after thanksgiving and thereafter for the next few months. This was a pleasant day’s travel and we headed back via one of the large shopping malls, had a quick look round and left without spending a cent, brilliant.
Last night we had one of Costco’s great New York Sirloin steaks, how they get such good quality at such a good price is amazing anyway tonight its Crab Cakes, should be interesting.
Not sure what we will do tomorrow, perhaps go to the Antique Car Museum or a wildlife area.

Enjoy the photos on the Photo Blog

Monday/Tuesday 23/24 October

Monday was a slow day for both of us due to our suffering somewhat from colds. So not much to report apart from a little bit of shopping, reading and checking emails etc.
On Tuesday the weather changed and became a little cooler and much better for us as we could turn off the air conditioning completely. It’s dropped from around 90 degrees F to about 70 degrees F so we decided to go for a walk through The Meadows to get a better idea of our surroundings. It was a very nice walk indeed of about three hours duration along to the Country Club and back via the shopping village. We stopped and watched some of the golfers and realised that this is not a sport if you want some exercise. It’s about 20/30 paces from the Car Park to where you pick up your electric caddy car and then you are off. At each hole you get out of you little car and walk two paces to hit the ball and another two paces back, times 18 holes that is around 36 paces, and then you drive to where the ball landed and here you may have to walk more and this depends how good a golfer you are. So this could be anywhere between 4 and 10 paces and so after all the 18 holes you may, if you are lucky, only walked about a couple of hundred yards. Then it’s back to the golf club and racing the other carts back so that you can get a place near the bar where you won’t have to walk too far either. Am I being unfair to golfers??? I don’t know but looking at most of the overweight golfers that we saw I think this is a fair and accurate impression.
Anyway the walk through The Meadows was very nice indeed and in fact the place should be called The Lakes. We walked quite a few miles and saw some very attractive views and also many birds and flowers. This estate has been laid out extremely well and every house has a lake view.
So now it’s off to the shops to sit outside the KIVA JUICE BAR, as they are the guys with free wireless internet connections near to us, so that we can send and check our emails and update this blog.

See you all tomorrow.

Sunday 22nd October 2006

Quite a slow start really, 9.30 am actually, and we had decided to go to St Armand’s Circle (roundabout to you Brits) to have a good American breakfast. It’s still early in the Florida season and so quite a few of the restaurants were closed but we found a place where we had to wait for 25 minutes, but it was worth the wait. The sun was shining and Noel was beginning to feel the effect of the late night and also seemed to be getting Jennifer’s cold. We did a slow walk around the circle and looked at the shops and then Adrian and Joyce headed home to complete their upgrading of their apartment.

We continued to look around the shops for a while but it was getting hot and when you are suffering from a cold the heat does not go well with it.

The Circle at Sarasota is a very nicely laid out area with some great shops selling everything from antiques to watches to some really good glassware and knick knacks. A nice place to visit, if only the breakfast had not been so large we would have hit the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlour. We took a slow drive back to the apartment as by this time Noel had a sore throat which was as good a sign that a cold was on the way.

We hope to visit the Antique car museum later this week and also several other attractions. However the single biggest attraction is the weather, it is very hot in summer but very nice in winter when the ‘snow birds’ arrive. Snow birds are people who live in Northern USA/Canada who come down to escape the harsh winters and they rent apartments for months or arrive down in their battleship size RV’s (recreational vehicles ) which is a good name as you could put Weybridge Recreation Park in to some of these vehicles.

It was a very nice weekend and so we spent a quiet evening in the apartment watching the television adverts which were continually interrupted by programmes.

Saturday 21 October- A beautiful day

Jennifer is still suffering from a cold, no doubt caught on the flight over, and so we have been a little slow doing things over the past week but we hope to make up for it this weekend.

In the morning we went shopping for some speakers for our I-Pod so that we could listen to our own music. We ended up in Walmart with a JBL set which works quite well. In the afternoon our friends Adrian and Joyce arrived down from Indian Shores as we were all going to the Clearwater Yacht Club function on Saturday night at ‘Marina Jacks’ a popular local watering hole, this event takes place every year. Those with boats sail or power down the coast from Clearwater to Sarasota and tie up in the Marina. Other members of the club who don’t come down by boat are known as the Land Cruiser group as they drive down.

Marina Jacks is right in the middle of the harbour and surrounded by boats costing a few million bucks I guess and certainly a little bit larger than our boat ‘Piplin Two’ which is about 8 feet long.

It was a very nice evening and we were made to feel most welcome, the party had a disco at the end of the evening and so we rocked the night away, well until 10pm when the music stopped.

The tables had eight places and the couple next to me were very nice although we could not see eye to eye on how clever and brilliant Tony Blair is. He thought the General in charge of the UK armed forces should be shot for treason!, following his recent comments about the war in Iraq, at this stage it seemed safer to go back to the merits of English football.

Anyway a nice evening in a great location, we will go back again for a drink one evening.

Friday 20 October 2006 Weybridge

Well we went for a longish walk around the estate today trying to avoid the alligators and the golfers, who kept shouting fore- or do they mean four. The Estate covers I think about 160 acres and is created in amongst several golf courses with a mixture of apartments, small and large houses. All very tastefully laid out.
Our walk took through the houses and via the large amount of lakes where birds, and alligators, vie for the food. Its all very green and very attractive. We took a few photos, which are now on the photo blog. And then it was time for lunch and a small afternoon siesta, its really hard in the tropics.
In the afternoon a quick visit to the bank and also some shopping and to check emails etc. There is a small shopping mall where there is a juice bar which provides free internet access and so we could update the Blogs. Its very warm at the moment with the temperature around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and so we are doing limited walking and wait for a bit cooler weather and when we have got rid of our jet lag.
Our friends Adrian & Joyce will be coming to Sarasota tomorrow and we wil join them for a night at the Clearwater Yacht club event being held here, About 20 boats from Clearwater will make the trip down to Sarasota and we will join the crews for an evenings entertainment at Marina Jack, a well known local dive.
Florida is a very flat state with lots of water and the occasional hurricane!!!, however what with the amount of new condo’s being built and also the heavy increase in the cost of Home insurance there some good deals to be done. When looking in a local real estate shoppee’ we found a house with about 4200 sq feet, a private lake or pond of about an acre, plus a load of other space for about GBP 350 K. Not bad really, we might go an take a look next week just to see if the info is correct. The traffic in this area of Florida is quite good compared to the Weybridge in Surrey and so over the next week we will explore the beaches and all other areas surrounding Sarasota.
In the meantime I hope you like some of the photos from the Weybridge Florida community

Thursday 19th October- Off to Sarasota

We have rented an apartment in Sarasota from friend’s who live in Wey Road near us. So we headed down the coast and one and a half hours later arrived at our destination- Weybridge.

Yes, the apartment is in an area called Weybridge and was built by Taylor Woodrow a UK based company and also the areas and street names are English street names and so we feel very much at home. The apartment is a very nice two bedroom/bathroom overlooking a lake which has an alligator and many birds, see photos. So swimming in the lake appears to be out and as I do not feel like another Steve Irwin (RIP) we shall stay away. Interesting enough, on the news last night was a story about two fishermen off the coast of Sarasota. They were in their small boat and in jumped a stingray and promptly panicked both the animal and fisherman and so the stingray barbed one of the guys right through the heart, similar to Steve, only this time the fisherman did not try to pull it out and his went to hospital where the surgeons actually pulled the barbed end through the heart rather than pull it straight out, This guy is still alive although critical. Its amazing really that this type of attack never happens then suddenly in the space of a few short weeks it’s happened again!

I digress, in the afternoon we did some shopping; there is a small mall about two/three miles away with some good shops. Dinner that night was a shared New York Sirloin steak, these steaks are bigger than I thought, and they are 16 ounces each. The cook was Chef Noel and I can safely say it was the best New York Sirloin I think I have ever tasted. We have a few left so if anybody fancies a steak in Sarasota, give us a call.

Tuesday/Wednesday 17/18th October

Well the flight over was pretty much OK, the BA 777 was quite full however the crew were good and the food not too bad at all. We were met at Tampa Airport by Adrian and then headed off to their Condo by the sea in Indian Shores. A couple of nightcaps later we were off to bed after watching Adrian’s new Philips 50 inch Plasma HDTV television. What a great machine this is.

On Wednesday we did a long walk along the beach but as it was quite hot and we were jetlagged we headed back via an ice cream parlour. Referring back to the Jet lag bit, as we were walking along the road from Adrian Condo we passed by some workers who were digging a hole right next to an electricity pole. As they dug deeper they suddenly found the bank caving in and they had to get out of the hole pretty damn quick to avoid being buried. At the same time the pole began to tilt towards the road. They suddenly realised what was happening and went to get a JCB type digger and tied a chain around the pole to steady it. And then they all stopped work and started scratching their heads wondering what to do next. All this was talking place whilst I was holding my camera and did not take a single photo of this event.

The afternoon was spent visiting a local COSTCO stores to pick up some supplies for our stay in Sarasota, we do like this retailer as their meat is excellent. In the evening we went with Adrian and Joyce to the Clearwater Yacht Club for a Greek Evening. The food was extremely good and after an ouzo and wine we bid farewell and headed home for bed.

Doesn't Time fly

Well its been a fairly busy week and we start to get ready for our trip to Florida. We are leaving on Tuesday 17Th for three weeks, spending part of the time at Indian Shores, then Sarasota and finally at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Clearwater (which is unlike any other Holiday Inn you have seen). The journey is planned to enable us to join our friends at a Birthday party in early November to celebrate Joyce Jenkyns birthday, age information is held secret. We will update our Blogs with our travels and exploits over the next few weeks.







Anyway, last Friday night we were invited by our friends in Wey Road, Toni & Gerry to go to an opening night of a new David Lloyd Restaurant chain that was offering a fresh approach to high quality take away food at a location in Richmond. The chain is known as Dinners Made which is an idea taken from an American chain called Dinners Done. The idea behind this concept is that you order you menu on the Internet then arrive to prepare the food and then take home the finished product and cook. The staff will help you prepare the vegetables and provide advise on cooking procedures whilst they will have partly prepared the vegetables in advance for you. They also have a restaurant and bar where you can eat a drink to your hearts content, which is exactly what we did. As Gerry's company provide the meat we all tried the steaks and chops which were truly excellent. So even if you do not want to go to the hassle of preparing your own dinner, to eat there is fine and with a great atmosphere.
It was good evening for the wine producers of France as they received an unexpected bonus as a result of our efforts. for more information go to http://www.dinnersmade.co.uk/

On Saturday night we joined some friends at their home in Reading. These were Noels ex business colleagues and it was a great night reminiscing about people and places. The discussions covered everything from how bad the Blair (ites) were/are to the current immigration policy (or lack of one)
Rogers Cassoulet was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening but it was rather late as we got home about 2.30 am, a bit late for us old ones. As a result Sunday was a slow day.

Spamalot- A great new London Show

Earlier this week we went in to the 'smoke' to see a performance of the new London Show called 'Spamalot' written by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame.
The show originally opened in New York last year to great acclaim and now it has finally reached London in all its glory. Tim Curry is excellent as the King and the rest of the cast. are brilliant. The story is very loosely based on King Arthur and the search for the Holy Grail. It jumps time zones in a brilliant manner and is extremely funny.
You can see the cast are having a great time and that they are enjoying their work and so if anybody likes Monty Python stuff then this is the show for you. And even if you do not like Monty python this is still a great show in it's own right.
See link below for more information

http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/

Saturday 30th September- More rain and we do need it

My other sister Madeleine and her husband Ken arrived for the weekend. In the evening we went to the local church hall to see the Weybridge Mail Voice choir together with the Hart Mail Voice Choir for a great evening’s entertainment.

The voices were great and they provided a very different choice of music and then combined for the last few songs. About 250 people attended the evening and they provided wine at the half time break (beats oranges any day)

Friday 29th September- It’s raining again

We left the Hotel after a heart breakfast and headed for Longleat Safari Park

(http://www.longleat.co.uk/). It was a greyish day but looked to improve. We decided only to do the Safari Park bit and ignore the train and boat rides and so we headed of to the jungle.
We took a some pictures during our visit and they are on..
They have done a good job and it is well organised and even the animals follow the instructions not to eat the guests. We decided to stay away from the Monkey area
as these will damage your car and are know to rip out radio aerials, windscreen wipers and even wing mirrors and petrol cap covers. This is worse than the bad places in London.
Anyway the Tiger and Lions were the main attraction for us and we had a very good view, so see the photos on ourPhoto Blog at

http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/

We left the park around midday so as top avoid the Friday night traffic and headed home where we arrived around 2.30 pm.

Thursday 28th September- Its time to leave Salcombe

After the usual good breakfast we headed down town to the over 60’s coffee morning which is held in a purpose built location right by the sea with a great view over the Salcombe Harbour. After tea and biccies we headed of to Darting ton Hall (www.dartingtonhall.com)

This was a beautiful spot where you can stay in the small amount of rooms that are available whilst visiting the gardens. Unfortunately time was running away and we had an excellent lunch at the ‘White Hart’ pub located in the park. We had decided that we would like to visit the Longleat Safari park on the way home and this is located not far from Trowbridge. Our plan was to arrive at a Hotel we had booked at Bradford upon Avon around 4.30 pm however there was a bad accident on the A 303 which delayed us for a while and so we arrived at our destination around 6pm. The hotel was the Woolley Grange Hotel (www.woolleygrangehotel.co.uk) and was a very old hotel set in lovely grounds which we could not see as it was dark! Anyway the rooms were nice and the food was excellent.. Our bedroom was unfortunately above the kitchen and this became apparent later in the evening when they insisted on dropping empty bottles in to their bottle bank up to almost midnight. Needless top say I complained the following morning. Otherwise this was a very nice hotel and we would stay again but in a different room.

We had a lovely time in Salcombe and Annette and Peter made great hosts and Cyril thoroughly enjoyed his holiday.

Wednesday 27th September- Here comes de rain

Well the rain arrived as promised but we had decided to go along the coast to visit Dartmouth which is a very nice town with an attractive harbour and there place was bustling. En-route we stopped for a visit at Torcross which was a small town which was used during the Second World War as a trial landing site for D-day. Unfortunately many American service men lost their lives when during the practise run they were spotted by German submarines and two troop carriers were sunk. There is now a old American Tank to mark the spot. Torcross is also the location of Slapton Ley a wildlife sanctuary which is a fresh water lake which is next to sea and protected only by a road. There were many birds on this lake and also it is a sight for conservation experts to spend there time. For more info visit (www.slnnr.org.uk/)

Then on to Dartmouth we went where we were in urgent need of a cup of tea, and some of us had the Devon Cream Tea, which went down very well indeed.

This is a nice little town with small shopping street and also the Dart Valley Steam train leaves from here. The weather was not great so we decided to head of back to Salcombe. It was rather grey and misty so I decided not to take any photos of the bays en-route home.

All photos on Photo Blog http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/

Tuesday 26th September- What beautiful weather

It was a a really beautiful day and so we headed of to Kingsbridge to take a harbour tour to Salcombe Bay and almost out to sea.. It was a great photo opportunity what with the egrets, oyster catchers and many other birds in great quantities. During the trip we had an excellent view of Salcombe Bay and and also the remains of Salcombe castle which was built by Henry VIII. To protect the harbour from foreign invaders. For more information see link below

www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_south/202/salcombecastle.htmails see

We were able to take may photographs during the boat trip and they are available on

Following a light lunch of smoked salmon we departed to visit the National Trust site called ‘Overbecks’. This was an old house which was used in the first world war as a rest and recuperation site for the many injured personnel. This house has a prominent position on the headland with great views over the estuary. The garden was very nice with many plants just going out of season but this place was well worth the visit. For more information see

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-overbecks/

A very nice day was had by all.

Photo Blog http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/

Monday 25th September Going to Salcombe

Together with Jennifer’s Dad, Cyril we left around 1030 for a pleasant drive to see my sister and husband who live in the Devon village of Salcombe where they have lived for quite some years. Our route took us down the A 303 via Stonehenge which is a group of stones built in the year 3100 BC, for more details see the link below. The journey took on the outside of Exeter and finally via Totnes in to Salcombe. About 200 miles and almost five hours driving.

After a short stay at home and with weather sort of okay we went down town to have a look at Salcombe and have a very necessary drink at the Marine Club.

A few glasses of wine at home and off to bed for all.

http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/about.htm

Its been a funny old week

Well it’s been a funny old week; our plan was too possibly to go to Scotland for a few days but as there were a few things to do in the garden we did not quite make it. The pond filter needed cleaning and also the patio stones and wooden decking also had to be cleaned to stop anybody slipping.

We are expecting Cyril’s sisters and partners this weekend to possible visit and so we need to clean up the place for reasons given earlier. Mady and Ken were also due to come this weekend but had to cancel.

We also went to Windsor for the Wednesday afternoon with a view to take some photographs as it was such a lovely day. However, no sooner did we get there and start walking about the sun disappeared and so only a few pictures were taken.

Well next Monday we drive to down to Salcombe to see my sister Annette and her husband Peter and we are taking Cyril for the ride. Salcombe is a lovely place if the weather is good and so I hope to get some good photos.

Its not long before we go to Florida to attend a close friend birthday party. We are looking forward to this very much.

See more pictures of Windsor on http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/album/120179

The following little article just appeared and I thought it might make you laugh

Sounds Familiar

I was recently diagnosed with AAADD - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder, which manifests itself in this way.

I need to wash my car. As I go to the front door I notice the post on the mat. I decide to open the mail before washing the car. I put the keys on the hall table, and put the junk mail in the waste paper basket and notice that the basket is full, so I decide to put the other letters on the table and empty the rubbish.

But then I say to myself, that as the post-box is near the dustbin, I may as well pay my bills first. I get my cheque book and realise there is only one cheque left - my new cheque is in the drawer of my desk, so I go to my desk, where I find an open bottle of beer I had been drinking, I decide to put the beer in the fridge to keep it cold.

As I went towards the kitchen a vase of flowers catches my eye. They need watering. As I put the beer down on the kitchen unit I notice my reading glasses, which I had been searching for all morning. Before I put them safely on the desk I decide to water the flowers first and put the glasses down on the kitchen unit again. While topping up the flowers I suddenly spot the TV remote, which someone has left on the kitchen table. 1 realise that tonight when we go to watch TV we will be looking for the remote and no one will remember where it is, so I decide to take it back to the TV room where it belongs, but when I watered the flowers I spilt water on the floor, so I put the remote back on the table while I get a kitchen roll to mop up the water. Then 1 head down the hall trying to remember why I am going in that direction and what was I planning to do.

Now it is evening: the car is unwashed, the bills are not paid, there is a bottle of warm beer on the kitchen unit, I cannot watch TV because I can not find the remote or my reading glasses, and I do not know what I have done with my car keys. 1 try to work it out, why have I done so little today. I am really baffled, because I know I have been really busy, and now 1 am really tired. This seems to be a serious problem which needs help. So could you please ask around for a solution to my problem.

P.S. Thought for the week: More money is spent on breast implants and Viagra than on Alzheimer’s research, which means that by the year 2020 there will be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no memory of what to do with them!

Sunday morning bacon sandwich walk to Walton Bridge

On this beautiful Sunday morning it was very nice to go for a walk along by the river to Walton-on-Thames bridge where there is a little riverside cafe serving bacon sandwiches amongst other food items. What could be better after a fast 45 minute walk to end up by the river in the sun tucking in to a bacon and mushroom sandwich together with a cup of tea.
The river looked great today and so we took a few photographs of both the River Thames and also the River Wey. There are some nice houses on Wey Road which back on to the river and so there are few extra pictures on the Phanfare for you to view
http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/album/117284

Well today Chelsea will play Liverpool again and let's hope we win this time.

Its time for a change

Well its been an interesting week what with my PC going bang and there was a delay in SKY starting our new broadband service to us. Now we are established and this means new email address etc.

Jennifer is now jennifergroves@sky.com
Noel is now noelgroves@sky.com

Skype addresses
Noel is noelgroves
Jennifer is noelandjenny

My New Secretary Application Letter

Deer Sir,
I waunt to apply for the secritary job what I saw in the paper. I can Type real quik wit one finggar and do sum a counting.I think I am good on the phone and no I am a pepole person, Pepole really seam to respond to me well.I´m lookin for a Jobb as a secritary but it musent be to complicaited.
I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety. My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth,I can start imeditely.
Thank you in advanse fore yore anser. .hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr. Sinseerly, Peggy May StarlingsPS : Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me taken at my last jobb.


Noel's response:......Dear Peggy May,It's OK honey, we've got a spell check and high chair

This cannot be true????

The following article has just appeared on the BBC website. See my comments later.
Surrey 'has best quality of life 'People living in an area in the Surrey stockbroker belt have the best quality of life in Britain, a survey has found. Earnings in the Elmbridge local authority area are among the highest in the country at £1,112 a week and 95% of householders enjoy good or fair health.
The area has the highest average house price outside London at £457,461, the Halifax home insurance survey found.Hart in Hampshire, Wokingham in Berkshire and Chiltern in Buckinghamshire, are just behind.
More sunshine.more than 75% of Elmbridge residents own their own home and the area enjoys two hours more sunshine a week than the British average. A total of 16 out of the top 25 local authorities with the highest quality of life are in the South East."Looking across a range of indicators it's clear that residents in Elmbridge in Surrey have the best quality of life in Great Britain," said Halifaxeconomist Tim Crawford.
"However, house prices in Elmbridge are the highest outside of London, showing that residents clearly have to pay a premium for their high standard of living."
Chief Executive of Elmbridge Borough Council Mike Lockwood said: "Whilst we can't take the credit for the sunshine, we are delighted that Elmbridge has received the recognition it deserves. "
Noels comments
There is no mention of the following negatives.
1-The quality of road surfaces In Elmbridge is extremely poor and downright dangerous in places.
2-The traffic pollution and noise together with amount of traffic jamsd on the M25/M3/A3, to name but a few.
3-Heathrow Airport is about 6 miles from Weybridge, as the coughing crow flies, where there is the highest poluted area in the UK. One Airport surrounded by motorways etc

Stress, What Stress!!!

Oh, The Joys of Air Travel

The following happened to me about four years ago as I was leaving Indianapolis on a Friday afternoon for London via Chicago with American Airlines.

My meetings that day in Indianapolis had ended a bit earlier than expected, I was due to leave from the Airport around 5.30 pm and fly up to Chicago and connect with the London flight from there. The Airport Hotel where I was staying had sent round a notethat morning to say that the Hotel would be fully booked that night and so no room extension time would be possible, in other words get out latest by 1pm.

So rather than hang around in the Hotel reception area for a couple of hours I decided at 2 pm to head to the AA terminal to see if there was an earlier flight to Chicago which would give me extra time in transit rather than the 65 minutes allotted. There seemed to be lots of people in the terminal when I arrived and considering the time this was surprising. Anyway I checked in and asked about an earlier flight and the check in lady said there was a flight which should go at about 3.30 pm, great I thought. As there were no bags to check in, nothing like travelling light, off I went to the AA lounge or so I thought. When I got to near the gate it was full up with adults and children and the board with my flight number was showing it was delayed from 1130 AM, this morning what I thought, how can this be, what is going on?.
So I went to the gate attendant who said that Chicago Airport had been closed most of the morning and the flight I had been put on was the delayed earlier flight and she did not know when it would leave. Come back to the desk in about one hour or so and we will give you an update. As time went by it was reaching 5pm and no sign of a flight. So I rang American Airlines to check on the alternatives, they said there was a flight from New York to London that night but they did not have a flight from Indianapolis which would connect. They also mentioned that the weather was so bad they did not think there would be any flights out of Chicago at all today.
So I sat on the floor of the Airport departure lounge and turned on my computer and looked at the ABC flight book. I could not change airlines as I was travelling on restricted tickets and as a flight via Chicago was most unlikely today let alone tomorrow morning, and as there were no Hotel rooms in Indianapolis (there was a marching band competition on), I decided not to hang around here but find some other way to get home. AA had a flight from JFK Airport New York at 9am the following morning and so further investigation showed that there was another airline with a flight to JFK that evening from Indianapolis and so I purchased a ticket. Know I needed a Hotel Room at Kennedy and this took a little while to arrange. My new flight from Indianapolis was not due to take of until about 6.30 pm.

So having made the new arrangements for flights and Hotels etc I started to walk to the new gate, on the way I passed the original gate, and just as I was passing by the girl on the AA desk shouted at me that I was going to Chicago and that whilst I had been away from the gate the flight had loaded and they were leaving in five minutes so get on board quickly, which I did and I don’t know why but I followed her instruction.
I sat down in my seat and suddenly thought what the hell am I doing here?, I have booked another ticket to JFK, I have a Hotel at JFK and changed my seat with AA from Chicago to the JFK flight, so what possessed me to get on this AA flight to Chicago which will, knowing my past luck, will or will not leave. I could not get off the aircraft as the door was closed and we were being pushed back and very soon afterwards in the air. I thought what a stupid thing to do Groves. What happens if the flight to Chicago gets delayed, what happens if they have a flight to London but I have cancelled my booking, then Icould be stuck in Chicago Airport with thousands of other people? What a fool!!! I need my head examined but I guess it was the pressure of the gate staff to board the flight, I suppose years of waiting to board flights I guess.
I was very aware of the need to get home as I was leaving on the Monday for the Far East for two weeks and I would like at least one night at home before leaving. My travel plans during the past few months were very heavy.
My mind on the flight to Chicago worked overtime and kept going over the various scenarios, could I change the AA flight ex JFK back to Chicago, what happens if the flight was cancelled from Chicago, what happens if it wasn’t cancelled but they had given my seat away., what should I do about the Hotel at JFK, was the other airline looking for me in Indianapolis as I had a boarding pass, my mind was a in a whirl. Anyway after a few minutes I realised that nothing I could do would make any difference and so as per the Beatles song, Let it be.

As we got closer to Chicago and let down for arrival the snow outside the window got worse and I thought here we go, perhaps a diversion to somewhere else, but no we landed about 20 minutes before the London flight departed. Those of you who know Chicago Airport will also know that is a very large Airport and it took me almost 30 minutes to get of the first plane, go though security and get to the new gate. I arrived breathless and sweating from the run of about 10 miles it seemed like and asked what the flight position was. She said that the flight had been delayed by one hour and yes we still have your booking on this flight and who did you change it with as it had not been changed? Wow I thought, had I gone to JFK I am not sure what would have happened. She then checked the flight for the next day from JFK and said I was not listed and the flight was totally overbooked anyway and with my restricted ticket the chance on getting on this flight was remote, In fact all JFK flights that Saturday were over the top for some reason and it would be unlikely for me to get a seat. WOW.

So, whoever made me get on the flight from Indianapolis (perhaps my fairy godmother) had without realising it enabled me to get home to my family for two nights prior to leaving for the Far East rather than hanging around JFK indefinitely.

Just out of interest when I got home on the Saturday I decided later in the day to see if the weather affected New York, and it did as most of the flights that day from JFK were heavily delayed or cancelled.

Stress, what stress!!