We helped beat the World Record

We really really stomped on the Americans big time!!!!

At Trafalgar Square yesterday evening the English got there own back on the Americans and beating them 3-1 at the Guinness World Record Attempt to get the largest Coconut Orchestra to play Monty Python's 'Always look on the bright side of life' the famous song from their infamous film ' Life of Brian'. Over 5000 people turned up for this earth changing event. The previous record was for only 1600 Americans who turned up in New York City last year. When you consider that there are almost 300 million people in the USA and only 1600 people showed up indicates the poor state of the World. In England of course with a mere 45 millions people (sorry forgot about the immigrants) should be 60 million really, we could get 5000 people people to turn up. They actually ran out of coconuts and many people had to share.
After half -an-hour training on how to do a horses walk, canter and run and even jumping over hedges we were ready for the BIG ONE. To make it easier the set of instructions received with the coconuts helped enormously with one half of the nut marked with an 'L' and the other with an 'R' (see below)
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Strict instruction were needed to be followed to ensure that we met the high standards set down by Guinness World of Records management because failure to comply would result in us being kicked out of the competition. This was really serious stuff indeed.
Ken Livingstone, together with the 'Python' Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones showed up and lead us to this world record. I have to say that it made Jennifer and I extremely proud and honoured to be part of this major UK event.

The BBC 10 o'clock news covered the event and it is even on the BBC website today which shows how significant the function was.

This guy was seen in the Square looking a bit lost and obviously missing an arm.

Straight out of Monty Pythons The search for the Holy Grail.

Following the World record attempt, they then showed the Holy Grail film in full.-Great.
Prior to the event we went to a little known Japanese restaurant in Chinatown and had some excellent food.

Tony Blair was noticeably absent from this event as he was writing his memoirs, four pages should be enough I would have thought. I already have the page headings
1- How I took UK to war against Iraq and failed.
2- I promise I didn't know about the Money for Honours scandal
3- How I let a Scottish idiot screw up the UK economy
4- How I ruined the Health service and the public schools system in one fell swoop.

Although a number of people thought Tony Blair was disguised as below and practising his begging capabilities. Can't see what he is holding though?


The following photo shows some of the crowds at this event. We sat next to some Americans who explained they were ashamed of their country effort





A great day out and fully enjoyed by all.

We are off to France on Wednesday to see my sister and her husband for a few days and then on Saturday we go to South of Paris to stay with some ex K+N business colleagues and also pick up some really good Champagne for our street party planned for end of June.

See the following from the newspaper!!!

Coconutters! Monty Python orchestra breaks world record

24.04.07

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The world's largest coconut orchestra, led by two Monty Python stars, has made it into the Guinness World Records book.

A total of 5,567 people converged on London's Trafalgar Square to break the previous record of 1,789 people gathered in one location playing coconuts. They were conducted by actors Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam and the cast of the Monty Python musical Spamalot.

More follows...

The crowds gather in their attempt to break the world record for the largest coconut orchestra

Jones told the crowd how the coconut orchestra originally came about while they were filming Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"About halfway through filming we realised we couldn't afford horses and had to stick to coconuts," he said.

He and Gilliam demonstrated how two people could split and share the coconuts and play them together.

More follows...

London Mayor Ken Livingstone joined Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam for the coconut orchestra attempt

The members of the giant orchestra then demonstrated their skills with a rendition of the Python classic Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, "clip-clopping" their coconut shells in time.

The previous record was set in March last year outside the Shubert Theatre in New York, to celebrate the first year anniversary of the Broadway production of Spamalot.

Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "Yesterday's event not only broke a world record, it celebrated the unique English sense of humour, making it a great way to celebrate St George's Day."

The coconut orchestra was part of the St George's Day festivities held across the capital over the past three days, with the aim of celebrating English culture.

This year's focus was English comedy and included a free programme of film and television comedy, ending with a special screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail last night.

Spamalot, currently showing in the West End, is the brainchild of Python star Eric Idle.

The award-winning show is "lovingly ripped off" from the original film, and tells the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Piplin House Planning Permission received

Well today is a good day as we have received confirmaytion that our application to extend and improve Piplin House has been approved without any changes. I thought that Elmbridge may ask for the helicopter pad to be moved away from from new extension of the River Wey which will provide our own harbour view but it would appear to have been accepted.

In an endevour to save electricity we have ordered one of the large wind turbines, they are about 200 feet high and will generate enough power to keep Weybridge happy. The neighbours could object of course...Ha

Anyway, now the hard work starts....

It's here at last

The GrovesMobile has arrived at last!!

On Thursday last week we drove up to Dereham in Norfolk to collect our new bailey Senator Louisiana Caravan.
The hand-over took almost three hours as there quite a lot to learn about setting up all the equipment etc. As it was quite late after the hand-over and that we had booked the Caravan for a security system to be fitted the next morning approx 20 miles away we had decided to stay overnight at Barnham Broom Golf Club. A nice dinner to celebrate and early to bed.

The next morning we got up bright and early to collect the van only to find they had lost the keys, what a great start. However one hour later we left Dereham and very gingerly drove down some dual carriageway en-route to a place called Downham Market, a small but interesting little town. The security Company facility was not easy to get in to and as I was not yet fully experienced in backing this large monster back around a 90 degree bend we did cause a minor traffic jam, well minor to us living in Surrey. Anyway we got it back down the driveway and we left the van for three hours whilst they fitted the GPS tracking system. This works on the principal that if the van moves without us doing it, police, army and helicopters and parts of the European defence descend en-mass to stop them. Or so the say in the advertising booklet. let us see.

Then off to the Fakenham Camping Club site where we arrived at mid-afternoon and then we had to start working where all the plugs and pipes and bit's of metal go. We now have three security systems on the van, insurers require, and hopefully it should be safe.Three hours later after reading multiple handbooks and trying things out, we now had electricity, gas and water all up and running, but no food for dinner. So we went to the Club site restaurant for a hard earned meal and glass of wine. The bed is a little bit smaller than out king size at home but is very comfortable.

On Saturday morning we spent more time playing with our new toy and we need to buy a torque wrench to be able to check the caravan wheel nuts. No luck locally and after phoning our daughter at home to get on the Internet we went of to Halfords at Kings Lynn. We bought the appropriate equipment only to find when we got back that it did not fit. Will have to go to Halfords in Weybridge to sort this out. what a pain. Dinner in the Caravan Saturday night , a nice salad followed by a walk around Fakenham town.


Sunday morning saw us towing the van on the 160 mile drive from Fakenham to Chertsey Caravan Site where we are to stay for a few days before putting the caravan in to storage. (This is unfortunate as we had planned to go away for a few weeks in France but Jennifer's dad is not well and so we are grounded for the time being). This caravan is a twin axle type and the wheel security system requires that you get both wheels in exactly the same place so that you can thread through the security bolt only during driving ,the wheels are taking difference routes, and so we can only align one wheel. It would appear that we have to jack the van side up to ensure that they are both the same, not a great idea but at least it helps stop people stealing it. When we parked the van on the site which has its own electric hook-up, fresh water supply and and waste outlets it well organised/ The washing facilities at this site are really very good even though we do use our on board bathroom.
Early evening we headed back to our house in Weybridge, 10 minutes away to raid the fridge for food and booze as we had no time to shop. A nice evening checking over the instruction booklets before giving up and going to bed.

Well we have had a great time in the last few days, towing this monster was not that bad and the Land Cruiser is an ideal towing vehicle and just sits there and chugs away without any effort.

So what have we been up to!!

Sorry the Blog has been a bit quiet of late but we have been busy and affected by Jen's dad who is not well at the moment and hence no overseas travel for us. As a result of this we have been to the GYM almost every other day and long walks in the meantime.

We recently followed the River Wey (Canal) from Weybridge to Woking, a walk about 7/8 miles on a bright sunny morning. It's a very nice walk to do and as you get nearer to Woking there are some very nice houses on the River.

After a lot of thought and discussion, we have decided not to follow many of our friends by buying houses overseas, our first choice would be France but quite frankly as we like to move around a bit, we do not know where to buy. And if we did you can bet we would like to be somewhere else. SO, we have decided to leave our French and European travels to our Caravan which is now at the Dealers going through its PDI and we are adding a few extras, like wheels etc.

Piplin House development. We are now awaiting the outcome of our application to extend our current home. This can take quite some time and we originally applied in early January 2007 but the first application was lost in the post- a great start. However by early April we should know the outcome of the Elmbridge Council deliberations. Our plan is to pull down the current garage and utility room, then rebuild the garage with two bedrooms on top together with a new family room, utility room and further additional living area, currently called the space. At the opposite end of the house we will build a large 'atrium' which will be of a similar floor space to our existing lounge. Please see drawings below. If we get permission then we would hope to start the building work some time in May/June/July time subject to availability of people to do the work. We have a young French girl coming to stay will us in August for one month and we hope to be finished by then. We will also carry out some internal changes, by taking out some of the floor of the bedroom above the entrance hall to create a bigger feeling of space and lightness. There will be some other changes but the details are not fully finalised. There is still a long way to go on this and it will no doubt keep us quite busy.

Just to add to our workload, we are in the middle of planning the next Wey Road and Round Oak Road Residents Association Summer Party which is due to take place on the 30th June. This coincides with Wimbledon Tennis fortnight and so our party will have a Wimbledon flavour, strawberries and cream and we also expect to have a live band. This should be a good day as we are holding this on a plot of land owned by a neighbour and it fronts the River Wey. So we expect to have boat rides, tennis games for the kids and plenty of booze for the adults.

Blair is finally on the way out leaving a legacy of a mess in the UK as well as in Iraq. The similarity of problems in Iraq does to a degree mirror the past problems in Northern Ireland by having the army trying to do a policing and PR job which no one wants them to do. Enough of that however. Apart from mispricing the Dome, which cost a few billions pounds, they seem to have done it again with the Olympics for 2012. With an original budget of 2.3 billion suddenly becoming 9.7 billion in less than a year does not auger well. It will probably increase to about 15 billion at this rate.

Boy, we can't wait to get in our caravan in France and keep the radio off!

A weekend in Norfolk

We decided to take a long weekend in Norfolk as the Company that we have purchased our caravan from was having an open weekend. Why we decided to buy our Caravan in Norfolk approx 150 miles away when the local Bailey caravan dealer is only 30 miles away is a long story and not for here.
So we headed off on Saturday morning to Dereham where the Caravan Retailer is based and spend a pleasant couple of hours browsing and eating bacon sandwiches. After this we headed off to Cromer and looked around the town and pier which has been restored. Were surprised at the artist appearing in Cromer, see some of the pictures on the PHOTO BLOG, including Joe Brown and 'The Bruvvers' and Marty Wilde. I though they were dead!
We then headed back to the Hotel we had found on the web. This was called the Barnham Broom Golf and Country Club which is outside of Norwich and surrounded by rolling hills and two golf courses. This was a great find, they Hotel was very nice and also quite cheap, Bed, Breakfast and 3 course evening meal for £105.00 for two people. The food was excellent and so was the Hotel and we will return.
On Sunday we went to Wroxham and a few miles we parked and did a long walk through the country before heading to the coast and have a quick bite of lunch. The weather was not to bad, a bit breezy and some sun every now and again but we enjoyed our walk and the views. This area is very quiet in January compared to the height of the season when it is packed with holiday makers.
Back to the Hotel for Dinner, which was again really excellent. Monday saw us doing a four mile walk around the Hotel and Golf Course and then down to the local villages. A very pleasant walk indeed in very nice countryside. At about 1130 we left to visit the home of The Essex Pig at
Jimmy's Farm, for those who watched the BBC TV series it was about a East End London boy who decided to run a farm and revive the 'Essex Pig'. So we visited the farm and bought some meat for later use. Then we headed to the dreaded M25 early to try and avoid the traffic which we were successful in doing.
A very pleasant weekend indeed and one that we will repeat.

The Hillier Gardens in Hampshire

The weather today was bright, although on the chilly side, and after many days of rain and wind and more rain and wind it was time to get out of the house and do something.

We had previously stumbled upon this large garden whilst driving in Hampshire a couple of years ago and so it seemed like a good idea to re-visit and spend some time there. We arrived after a slow drive in the countryside and immediately hit the restaurant for a cup of tea but changed our minds when we found that bangers and mash were on the menu.

Afterwards we looked around the estate of about 180 acres and although is was mid January there were winter daffodils already out and also the camellias were starting to show.
This garden would be great to visit later in the spring when everything is growing and this we shall certainly do.

Noel took a few photos which can be seen on the Photo Blog if you are interested.

The web site for the garden is http://www.hilliergardens.org.uk/ this place is well worth a visit and the Bangers and Mash are great to.

A pleasant drive home through the River Test Valley where there are some beautiful homes.

New Year's Day London Parade 21st Birthday

What a beautiful morning after a very good night at our friends Gerry and Toni Wensley. Together with some other neighbours and friends we celebrated New Year's Eve in a fine way.
We decided to visit the London New Year's Day Parade again as we had missed it last year as we were in Florida. So we caught an 'earlyish' train up to Waterloo Station and headed across Westminster Bridge to join the massive crowds.
We found a good spot near the start and the sun was shining down although it was low in the sky which did cause me a few photo problems. Anyway enough of that.
Around 10,000 people took part in the parade with at least 1,500 visiting from the United States of America. There were cheerleaders as well as many marching bands. Some of the bands carried out great choreography whilst delivering their music, a fantastic sight to behold and much appreciated by the growing audience.
Apart from the many bands, there were floats from many of the London borough councils.
Of course the pearly Kings and Queens were there.
The Parade started with the Choir from Walker Valley High School in Tennessee singing the British National anthem followed immediately by the Honda Goldwing Club of Great Britain. The parade lasted almost 2.5 hours without a break and some of the floats were truly great whilst some of the Chinese dancers were terrific.

The colourful outfits worn by many of the participants are seen on our Photo Blog site.
It was a really great way to spend the first day of the year and the weather stayed bright and blue for most of the day.

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