Again: sorry to all readers for another long delay in posting. We've been back in the USA since July 30th and are now away again (in Pittsburgh), but will perservere at getting this blog travel journal up to date!
Saturday morning we checked out of the timeshare after breakfast and all headed to “Hilranton”, the lovely canal-side home of Bob’s cousin Michael Brookes, his wife Penny and stepson Albert, on the edge of the little village of Tixall, near Stafford, less than 25 miles from where we were staying at the Wychnor timeshare. Dianne & Peter acc
ompanied us as they have visited Michael before and wanted to say Hello again. A few miles from Tixall we drove through 
the village of Little Haywood where we lived from Sept. 1966 when we were first married, until we emigrated to South Africa in May 1968. We sat outside on the patio with Mike and Penny to drink coffee and chat, and watch a few narrow boats pass by on the canal, .jpg)
before all going to The Moat House in the village of Acton Trussell, for lunch. Acton Trussell is another place where Bob used to go fishing with his dad when he was a boy. The Moat House has had lots of additions over the years, and is a well known up-market wedding and conference venue, but the original “pub” part remains with olde worlde charm and atmosphere. We said our Goodbyes to Dianne and Peter after lunch, and they headed home to Cheshire, while we returned to Tixall. Although it was sunny, it was still quite cold, but encouraged by 
Penny, Alison joined her for a swim in the heated pool in the garden—this w
as the first time Alison’s swimsuit had been out of the suitcase since we left home over a month previously! In the evening the five of us drove into Stafford to a very nice Indian restaurant, Panache, and met up with friends of Mike & Penny, Ervin & Dorothy. We all had a great dinner and fun evening together, returning to M&P’s home for coffee and after dinner drinks.
On Sunday we woke quite early to the sounds of birdsong from the trees all around M&P’s lovely big garden, and then after a quick breakfast we bade our farewells until “next time”, whether it will be at Hilranton again, or at our home in Myrtle Beach. We then hit the road again, and picked up the M6 motorway just north of Stafford and continued north towards the Crewe exit, and then on to the home of old friends Trevor & Philippa Gomersall, between Crewe and Nantwich. Like Bob, Trevor was recruited in 1968 by Ford Motor Co. in England to go to work at their plant in Port Elizabeth South Africa as a computer systems analyst/programmer. He and Philippa arrived there soon after us, we had our first babies within a few months of each other, and we’ve remained friends ever since, even though they moved to Durban from PE after only a few years, and then on to Johannesburg. They returned to England 4-5 years ago and Trevor is now retired, but Philippa is still working as a medical doctor, under more favorable conditions than in Johannesburg, and she is also able to keep an eye on her elderly mother who lives not very
far from Crewe. Soon after our arrival at T&P’s we were off with them driving through country lanes to yet another canalside pub for lunch! This one was “The Olde Barbridge Inn” (see http://www.the-olde-barbridge-inn.co.uk/index.html and click on their photos menu to see some great pictures of this lovely old pub). After lunch we went from the pub on a canal towpath walk along the Shropshire Union Canal to its junction with the Llangollen Canal, over the canal bridge and along the 
Llangollen and past the series of locks known as Hurleston Locks (where T&P and their visiting son and family from South Africa had a slight mishap due to lack of experience when navigating a rented narrow boat a year or so ago!), and then back to the car at Barbridge. We were so much enjoying our walk, we neglected to take a picture of the Locks, but here’s a link to someone else’s picture: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4117 . Back at T&P’s home, Philippa got busy with some planting she wanted to finish in the garden, and we and Trevor settled down to watch the end of the final round of the British Open Golf on TV. Although we’d have loved “old” Greg Norman to have won after his splendid first 3 days of the tournament, we were happy to see Padraig Harrington win it a second time in a row. (We often refer to Padraig as Bob’s distant “cousin” because Bob’s late mother’s maiden name was Harrington; and Granddad Harrington’s parents moved to England from Ireland at the time of the potato famine!). We had a lovely typical home-cooked British “Sunday roast” dinner in the evening, sat chatting around the table afterwards, and it was just like old times 
back in South Africa. Next morning we just got out of bed in time to bid farewell to Philippa as she was leaving for work, and then after breakfast with Trevor, we were on the road again, heading to Coventry and a couple more nights with Alison’s sister Angela and husband Ivor.
Saturday morning we checked out of the timeshare after breakfast and all headed to “Hilranton”, the lovely canal-side home of Bob’s cousin Michael Brookes, his wife Penny and stepson Albert, on the edge of the little village of Tixall, near Stafford, less than 25 miles from where we were staying at the Wychnor timeshare. Dianne & Peter acc
ompanied us as they have visited Michael before and wanted to say Hello again. A few miles from Tixall we drove through 
the village of Little Haywood where we lived from Sept. 1966 when we were first married, until we emigrated to South Africa in May 1968. We sat outside on the patio with Mike and Penny to drink coffee and chat, and watch a few narrow boats pass by on the canal, .jpg)
before all going to The Moat House in the village of Acton Trussell, for lunch. Acton Trussell is another place where Bob used to go fishing with his dad when he was a boy. The Moat House has had lots of additions over the years, and is a well known up-market wedding and conference venue, but the original “pub” part remains with olde worlde charm and atmosphere. We said our Goodbyes to Dianne and Peter after lunch, and they headed home to Cheshire, while we returned to Tixall. Although it was sunny, it was still quite cold, but encouraged by 
Penny, Alison joined her for a swim in the heated pool in the garden—this w
as the first time Alison’s swimsuit had been out of the suitcase since we left home over a month previously! In the evening the five of us drove into Stafford to a very nice Indian restaurant, Panache, and met up with friends of Mike & Penny, Ervin & Dorothy. We all had a great dinner and fun evening together, returning to M&P’s home for coffee and after dinner drinks.
On Sunday we woke quite early to the sounds of birdsong from the trees all around M&P’s lovely big garden, and then after a quick breakfast we bade our farewells until “next time”, whether it will be at Hilranton again, or at our home in Myrtle Beach. We then hit the road again, and picked up the M6 motorway just north of Stafford and continued north towards the Crewe exit, and then on to the home of old friends Trevor & Philippa Gomersall, between Crewe and Nantwich. Like Bob, Trevor was recruited in 1968 by Ford Motor Co. in England to go to work at their plant in Port Elizabeth South Africa as a computer systems analyst/programmer. He and Philippa arrived there soon after us, we had our first babies within a few months of each other, and we’ve remained friends ever since, even though they moved to Durban from PE after only a few years, and then on to Johannesburg. They returned to England 4-5 years ago and Trevor is now retired, but Philippa is still working as a medical doctor, under more favorable conditions than in Johannesburg, and she is also able to keep an eye on her elderly mother who lives not very
far from Crewe. Soon after our arrival at T&P’s we were off with them driving through country lanes to yet another canalside pub for lunch! This one was “The Olde Barbridge Inn” (see http://www.the-olde-barbridge-inn.co.uk/index.html and click on their photos menu to see some great pictures of this lovely old pub). After lunch we went from the pub on a canal towpath walk along the Shropshire Union Canal to its junction with the Llangollen Canal, over the canal bridge and along the 
Llangollen and past the series of locks known as Hurleston Locks (where T&P and their visiting son and family from South Africa had a slight mishap due to lack of experience when navigating a rented narrow boat a year or so ago!), and then back to the car at Barbridge. We were so much enjoying our walk, we neglected to take a picture of the Locks, but here’s a link to someone else’s picture: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4117 . Back at T&P’s home, Philippa got busy with some planting she wanted to finish in the garden, and we and Trevor settled down to watch the end of the final round of the British Open Golf on TV. Although we’d have loved “old” Greg Norman to have won after his splendid first 3 days of the tournament, we were happy to see Padraig Harrington win it a second time in a row. (We often refer to Padraig as Bob’s distant “cousin” because Bob’s late mother’s maiden name was Harrington; and Granddad Harrington’s parents moved to England from Ireland at the time of the potato famine!). We had a lovely typical home-cooked British “Sunday roast” dinner in the evening, sat chatting around the table afterwards, and it was just like old times 
back in South Africa. Next morning we just got out of bed in time to bid farewell to Philippa as she was leaving for work, and then after breakfast with Trevor, we were on the road again, heading to Coventry and a couple more nights with Alison’s sister Angela and husband Ivor.
1 comment:
Great to see another update - very enjoyable! Trevor and Phillipa have not changed a bit! We'll keep watching for the rest of the England trip. I just posted Indigo's birthday and birthday party.
Love, Melanie, David and Indigo
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