Now the washing is drying!

This really is the worst place possible to write this! I can't access anything but my blog so as I have a little more time to wait I'll write a couple more days!

Saturday 25 June - Back in the UK
After doing several loads of washing (gosh, where does it all come from?) we walked into Epsom we walked down to the shopping centre where we bought another suitcase (!) and more bits and pieces for the next stage of our journey. In the afternoon we drove to Welling in Kent where Pat (who I worked with in London more than 30 years ago) and Wayne's (hubby) daughter Melanie lives with her partner and two children (Harrison of 4 and Grace almost 2). Three of Pat's adult children and their partners were there and it was so good to catch up. We last visited Pat and Wayne 13 years ago. Sadly, last August Wayne was in a serious accident when he was thrown from his motorbike into a brick wall when avoiding a pedestrian (an Aussi girl) who had just wandered into the middle of the road near Tower Bridge without looking. As a consequence Wayne is now a paraplegic in a wheelchair. It is very frustrating and sad as Wayne is such a lovely man and they are so very happy together. They actually got together officially when Pat took Wayne to our farewell function in London in 1974 and we have always kept in touch at Christmas time. They have just bought a car which has hand pedals and wheelchair access and this has made a tremendous difference to Wayne. He has a very positive attitude and is even talking of returning to work in the near future. We had such a great evening with them all - a barbeque dinner for the Aussies and lots of wine, tears and good company. I hope it won't be so long between drinks next time we meet!

Sunday 26 June
We had an early start today as we had a big day ahead. We drove for about 1 1/2 hours through lovely English countryside (so green) to Goodwood to the 'Festival of Speed'. Here we saw Formula 1 modern classic cars, hill climb races, motorbike races, sports cars and the latest Alfa Romeo which is not due in Aussi until 2006. There were several stallks and stands and aeroplanes performing aeronautics - an F3 tornado fighter plane and a Boeing 747 for example. It was very hot and there was heaps to see. We found a great stall which our Peter will benefit from! Hours later we drove back to Epsom where we had a beautiful last meal with John and Gill. Jane (22) came home later after a weekend away so we had a chance to catch up with her too and take photos. Later (much later) we packed our bags and it was 2am before I finally dropped into bed!

Monday 27 June
After brekkie and fond farewells we drove to Heathrow to catch the plane to Nice. Another debacle awaited. There's something about us and aeroplanes! We had to queue for ages and ages and nearly missed our flight (AGAIN) so we were told to RUN and take all our suitcases with us. We did just that but of course we had expected to be checking the large bags through the normal way and these had to go through the conveyer belt and of course two of the bags were stopped as they contained cutlery sets, a corkscrew and Dave's Swiss army knife - carefully NOT packed in the hand luggage. So with 10mins before the plane left there we were pulling everything out of our large well-packed bags to remove said objects. Then you should have seen us run - I think that was pretty good interval training for both of us! Yes, we made it with about 1 minute to spare and the hostess said 'well done' as she threw our large suitcases safely down the chute into the plane! That was not a great start. Unlike Aussi airports they do not allow anyone to go ahead in queues even if your plane is due well before others. It obviously pays to be hours early when catching flights overseas. Be warned those of you about to travel anywhere in the future! It was a good calm 2 hour flight but more hassles awaited us at Nice Airport trying to collect our hire car. Finally we decided it would be easier to walk to our collection point as we had a trolley full of bags which were tricky to lift into the free bus. However, there's a reason for that free bus as we soon discovered. It was a very long hair-raising walk along paths too narrow for the trolley and bags. After detouring several times and carrying bags over gutters etc we finally arrived at the hire car collection point. There we had to queue again for well over an hour to collect our car. It was extremely hot, there was no shelter and we were overdressed as we were wearing our heavy clothes. We were tired and frustrated by the time we finally received our very nice Renault Scenic which is only a month old, takes diesel fuel which should be economical and has air conditioning - yay! France is one hour ahead of the UK and so we are now only 8 hours behind Oz! The weather is wonderful when we are dressed appropriately and everyone is very brown. We drove to Eze which is not far from Nice where we stayed for one night. We are in a stunningly beautiful spot. We took an evening walk up to the Eze castle up lots and lots of steps and old villages. The gardens were closed at night but the views were magnificent. We had dinner in a little seaside restaurant - fabulous. The shops are very quaint, the accommodation is comfortable but the pillows and bed are rock hard! Double beds here in France seem to be two single beds pushed together so cuddling up in the middle of the bed could be a bit of a disaster!

Tuesday 28 June
Eze is a medieval hill-top village. There are lots of quaint little shops and gorgeous gardens. After brekkie of baguettes and pastries (included in the cost) we walked back up to the castle and through the now-open gardens. I just can't stop taking photos. Everywhere is so very beautiful. The shops and houses are built on to the rocks. After a good explore we drove on to Menton via Monte Carlo and booked in to a hotel for one night. This is another beautiful although much larger seaside town. We went for an evening swim at about 8pm in the beautiful Mediteranean ocean. The beach was very stony but the water was divine - quite warm - just gorgeous. Later that evening we promenaded (which is what one does here) through the streets of Menton. There were markets open until midnight and we watched men only playing Petanque (a form of French boules). There were so many people out - children and babies to the very old. Here in Europe everything comes alive after 10pm and continues on until midnight. There was music in the streets, open markets, lots of nightlife and restaurants outdoors. We bought icecreams and soaked in the atmosphere. J'aime Le France!