America's Cup

The America's Cup is now New Zealand's Cup again. An amazing David and Goliath battle and incredible result. 7-1.

Home again

We travelled with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong.  They gave us a day room
For some of the hours we waited for our next flight. Really helped the jetlag!

The first photo shows a fraction of the taxis waiting at the airport. Drivers cleaning them and washing themselves too.

Good to be home. Beautiful clear skies and clear air, if a little cold.

The gardens at Little Moreton Hall

Beautiful gardens with the quirky house in contrast.

Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire

This is one of the most fascinating timbered houses I've seen. We took a tour and the guide was most entertaining and knew his subject.

Under the National Trust, the house was first built in 1216 and added to by various generations of the Moreton family over centuries. It is basically a farm house that was owned by a wealthy farming family, so a practical house that pronounced their wealth and political leanings. For the latter, it was confiscated and went into degeneration to be restored to the family survivor in Victorian times and finally handed over to the Trust.

Because it has no foundations, it has sagged and leaned throughout and had to be reinforced to allow it to survive. Walking through it, it gives you the peculiar sensation of being out of control or drunk. Every room leans differently and even within a room, there are differing angles.

The history of it and the people in it was delightfully enlightening and interesting.

Deliverance!

We drove the long drive back down to Portsmouth to hand over the motorhome in part exchange for the new one, which we will collect when we return at the end of July. It has to have a towbar fitted of course, and an awning. The handover went well after the mandatory damp test.

They drove us to the airport at Southampton where we had a decent meal. We finally got home to Robin and Sue's just before 10pm after a very expensive taxi ride with a 10% surcharge for credit card! We have run out of pounds! Time to go home!

It was a long day.

Hot humid days and hard work!

We spent two of the hottest days packing up and cleaning out the motorhome.  We filled Robin and Sue's loft above the garage. Hard work lifting boxes up. We cleaned the motorhome and it's ready to go.

We also tried to find a jockey wheel but nothing was the right size. We ordered one online which hopefully will arrive before we leave.

Entry to Goodwood complete!

Time ticking now! Depart Saturday.

Back to the Gemini!

Two days of lazing around, including quote a lot of emails, calls and organization, must come to an end!

Monday morning, we had a text from Matt that the part had arrived. So we reluctantly packed up and headed north again.

When we arrived the car was clean, the part installed and Matt and Noel proceeded to put everything back together again. Matt had done a couple of other things after suggestions from the boys back home, but it is really all guess work. Nothing leaked, but then, it hadn't leaked when it was static before. All a bit of a punt.

About 7pm, everything was packed up. We said our goodbyes and thanks to Matt and headed off into the sunset. It was 34 degrees!

An odd noise made us stop about half an hour out. Noel discovered he had forgotten to lift the jockey wheel on the trailer. It had been dragging on the ground and was totally destroyed! Something else that has to be done tomorrow.

We finally arrived back at Robin and Sue 's about 11:15pm. They were asleep so we crept the rig into their front yard, closed the gate and slept in the motorhome. Exhausted!