The Trikidoo, a bicycle meant for four! It's funny how you go into any one of the three Teeton boys' garages and you find a mass of bikes! Big brother, Paul takes the cake though! If anyone believes in pedal power, both Paul and Andrew swear by it and Paul manages to get his family of 6 around the streets of Rugby with ease on the trike that manages to fit two children on a bench behind the rider and one little ‘un' up between the handlebars and the rider himself. It's a sturdy velo and safe, but it seems it needs gears now. This was evident on our ride through the school that occupies most of the southern streets of the town of Rugby, past St Marie's, the children's primary school, past their very elegant church, St Marie's and it's cloud piercing spire and along the cycle path about two kilometers to some more school playing fields, the polo turf and the stables. Older brother, Bede is an athlete in the making. Due to his extensive gym training up until now, (he has been a member of a gymnastics club), he has exceptionally good upper body strength and has mastered rope climbing, which he demonstrated at one of our many stops along the way. He also loves his bike and is very capable on it indeed. Jemima whomis now 5 and Delilah Rose, three, sat like two very well behaved princesses behind Paul. The weather was freezing for a summers day and there was a biting wind, yet we were having fun, just doing things together. In the afternoon we had a great walk to a number of the key points of interest around the Close, the green where rugby the game was first played thanks to pupil, William Webb Ellis. A well known film, Tom Brown's schooldays is set set at the school and we recently watched the latest version of the film, starring Stephen Fry. He acts as the famous headmaster of Rugby school, Mr Arnold, his first name escapes me at the moment. Arnold introduced many structures to his school in the mid 1800s such as the house system, team sports or games and so on. It was so successful in its implementation that it was adopted by the English public schools on mass and of course found its way to the colonies, hence we South Africans are also familiar with Arnold's school sporting and leadership structures. It was good to have rugby practices taking place, teams taking part in pre season training that I must admit looked well planned and rigorous. We visited the beautiful chapel with its world class stained glass windows (I feel I can say that now), the Big Old School Room, various tastefully arranged quads and the school shop where we bought two lovely prints, one for Paul. The streets are flanked by boarding houses, one after the other and of course we bumped into many of the staff who stopped to congratulate Paul on the birth of Adelaide six days earlier. We had a family evening, the cracking open of a gorgeous bottle of real Champagne and it ended with Paul taking me out for a pint or two at a lovely pub, five minutes walk away, The Merchants.
The day of our departure from Rugby was a satisfyingly, slow morning just spending time playing Scalelectrics, trains, jumping on the trampoline and nattering over several cups of coffee. I hate to sound that I'm over emphasizing the bonding that we were experiencing, but I have to reiterate the feeling the kids, Carol and I got, staying with Paul, Liz and the family. It was just so DAMN GOOD to all be together!
Our farewell was a sad one as we will miss the wonderful moments we experienced. We had to go via the village of Teeton, since it was only seven miles east of the town. We had our photograph at the sign at the entrance to what is actually a hamlet rather than a village, and went via Northampton back to Blackheath.
It was great to see Andrew again and we went out onto the Heath to enjoy another five star picnic. I'm going to miss the bottles of Tanglefoot, Fursty Ferret and Bishops Tipple.
Another late night, another early morning. Let's do this thing, was the saying when we planned to go sight seeing, so with a London transport day pass, we boarded the train for Waterloo station, and walked up to the War Museum at Elephant and Castle where mom once taught. I think she'd be impressed with the place now. We spent four hours there and found it fascinating. We coul come back two more times and still not see everything. Picnic in the gardens, washed down with a good coffee and we then hopped on a bus for Parliament square. Front seats, double decker and a fabulous guide in Andrew made the short trip interesting. We ambled down Whitehall, past No 10 Downing street, past the closed entrance to horse guards parade, under Admiralty arch and then back to Trafalgar square. G and C had their photos taken with one of the sentries, Gus knocking his sword as he tried to give him bunny ears for the photo. The guard flinched. We were rather embarrassed though. South Africans!
The rest of the afternoon was spent very pleasantly doing a brass rubbing in the basement of the church, St Martins in the field, in Trafalgar square. The time went so quickly! It was Andrews birthday the following day so to celebrate it we decided to buy tickets to a concert by a string ensemble and harpsichord at seven. It was brilliant and although we had very uncomfortable seats we really appreciated the incredibly high standard of the performers. They played Mozart and Vivaldi. We intended to walk back to Waterloo over the Hungerford foot bridge but got sucked into the vibe that was, The South Bank. An incredible son et lumier in the Houses of Parliament and an electronic house music performance caught Gus's attention from afar. Everyone was in such good spirits,seemingly without too much spirits, and we had to pull ourselves away to catch the 11.30 train back to Blackheath.
The M25 was quiet at 9am this morning and the trusty camper van and Andrew got us to the Easyjet check in on time.
Andrews generosity has been overwhelming and words cant express our gratitude to him.
Our flight to Rome was uneventful, although the weather was wet and NOT what we were expecting. Our plans to go for a last dip in the Med were a complete mess, firstly by the weather, secondly it was Sunday afternoon and no place to have lunch/supper. We eventually ended up going from the airport to Porto, the mouth of the Tibre, then to Parco Leonardo, a massive shopping mall, having a very ordinary pizza slice and the having to catch a train with no ticket (the Tabac shops had sold out), but it was only a 5 minute ride and we chanced it getting to the airport unscathed.
I am now sitting in Dubai airport terminal three, an impressive place with a quiet spot to lay our heads. No sleep last night for some! It's 6am and 33 deg. Outside.
I am now sitting in my office back at work. It's all rather surreal!
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