And so it was back to my home away from home from 18-21 June, but not for much longer. It looks highly likely the Cade family will be moving to Sydney by Christmas. Bret is likely to transfer to his company’s head office in Sydney. They have very mixed feelings about it all but are looking at all the advantages. And they’ll be a lot closer to New Zealand!
But it was very good to have a few days with them all before setting off yet again for a weekend in Paris!
Following Paris, I had another from brief visit from 23-28 June when there was just time to enjoy one of the children’s activities, a fruit day! Both children decided to dress as grapes which caused lots of work for Kate and much enjoyment for the children.
They both won awards in their respective classes, so were very happy. Well done, Mum!
I popped off again for another lovely long weekend in Hampshire. Caro was kind enough to drop me at Pip’s in Emsworth so that we could travel together for this year’s Sherborne tennis reunion at Gill’s house near Wimbledon. And as the team gathered, it was back to our reminiscences, stories of what we’d each been up to in the last year and promises for keeping in touch until we meet again – hopefully with Ginia as well next year. This year, Gill’s good friend, Henry joined us for the second day.
I got back to London on Wednesday evening because Kate and Bret had won an allotment of two tickets to the Centre Court at Wimbledon for Thursday – the women’s semi-finals day. Unfortunately their seats were in the very back row so they couldn’t see much but they enjoyed the ambience of Wimbledon generally and were luckier than many who had tickets on the outside courts and missed out because of the rain.
Term was drawing to a close and it was good to be there to help the children to celebrate some of their end of year activities. One of these was the final day at the Sylvia Young Theatre School where they do singing, dancing and tap. On the final day, parents are allowed into the room to watch and it’s great fun to see what they’ve been doing all year.
Meanwhile, Wimbledon had been on TV for two weeks and very enjoyable it was although many games were rain affected. And although most of Britain was hoping for a Murray win in the final of the men’s, I was glad that Federer returned to his position as World Number One and managed to win yet another Grand Slam after a few years in the desert.
New Zealand came to England on 11 July when one of the members from my croquet club came to spend the day with us at Queen’s Park. Tyla managed to persuade him to play football with her in the Park but he missed Riley because she was on a school trip to Brighton.
Amanda, my old bridge partner and good friend, came up to London and we managed to have dinner together on Thursday so the days were flying by with so much going on.
On Friday morning the school leavers put on a presentation of Alice which was actually very good indeed.
Although all the lead parts were taken by the leavers, the school choir provided support and Tyla was among the singers.
On Saturday it was raining again so Bret, Julie and I took the girls to a swimming complex we’d heard about near Woolwich. In the event it was a very long journey and an indifferent venue, but the girls had plenty of reading time on the tube and enjoyed the outing.
And suddenly it was Sunday and time to pack again for another adventure, a Croquet Association Seniors Tournament at Budleigh Salterton.
But I was back again on 1 August and it was good to find an opportunity to catch up on emails and enjoy a bit of family stuff, like playing tennis in the Park. But it was also time to start planning for the trip to Melbourne in September which is proving to be a very expensive adventure – well over NZ$1,500.
Kate and Bret got a cash offer for their house so can now start to prepare to leave for Sydney as soon as next month. It was ‘all go’ in the household with plans and the beginning of packing up.
I managed to very quick trip down to Suzi in Farnborough for a couple of days and gave us both an opportunity to chill out. We spent on day driving to Horsham to visit Coral, one of my oldest friends, and Suzi’s godmother and had a great catch up with her in their lovely garden.
Back in London I was just in time to spend the whole day at the Olympics with the whole family. Suzi had come to stay overnight and we all left for the Olympic Stadium at 6.30 a.m.
It was incredibly well run and the police, mounted police, and the Army were all on parade being utterly delightful and unfailingly polite and helpful.
Everything had been tidied up amazingly, compared to how I’d always seen this area in the past and the River Lea, which also runs through my old stamping ground of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, had to be seen to be believed.
The girls were full of excitement and couldn’t get enough of the goings on.
As we made our way to (you guessed it) the hockey stadium where we enjoyed two semi-finals in perfect conditions! Unfortunately New Zealand wasn’t one of the competing terms but it would have been a pleasure to watch any team performing at that standard.
We were all exhausted by the time we got home but there was just time for me to pack again, ready to set off for Nottingham the next day.
Back to London again, I wondered if Kate and Bret weren’t pretty sick of the sight of me! But it was school holidays when an extra pair of hands is always useful and I'd probably been away as much as I'd been under their feet. At least they didn't seem to mind.
We went off to the Ski School in Hemel Hempstead a few times which was fun and made me realise how well the girls ski now.
It was almost impossible to catch them in action, especially from behind a reinforced glass window, but this gives some idea of the size of the place with the two girls in the group in the right foreground.
Then, yet again, it was time to pack, this time to spend a long Bank holiday weekend in Ireland with Julie and Suzi.
Back in London again with just enough time to unpack, pack and leave for Liverpool Street. to go and spend a few days with my very good friend, Alan and Sally. Alan met the train at Broxbourne and it was lovely to be with Sally again. We spent some great days together, catching up and working on Sally's computer, this time setting up systems for saving files, and particularly photos.
And as usual, the visit coincided with Thursday’s Rotary so we all went and enjoyed an evening with Rotarians who are beginning to be annual friends!
There were still more highlights to enjoy during my last few days in London. The first was a visit to The Globe Theatre – a treat for me from all three girls – to see the Taming of the Shrew. In all my years living in England, I’d never been to The Globe so this was a very special treat. We walked along the banks of the Thames, had a leisurely meal and sat in very good seats to enjoy an excellent performance. We even saw Judi Dench, who was sitting not far away. (It was very unfortunate that I had left my camera at home so wasn't able to capture some special memories on film.)
Another highlight was a visit to The Ivy, a fairly smart restaurant in the West End and an opportunity to treat my friend, Tricia, who’d treated me to a ‘smart’ lunch the year before. After all the hard work Kate was going to have ahead of her with the move, and to thank her for the many months she’s put up with me, I asked her if she’d like to come and join us.
Some of the last week was spent having talks with Julie about her plans to leave London after six years and return to Porirua to study for a Bachelor of Nursing at Whitireia. This will be a big decision and a real wrench for her to leave all her friends, but it certainly sounds like a plan and we’ll all wait to hear with bated breath whether her application will be accepted.
And almost the whole week was spent covered in dust as the builders dismantled the top kitchen cupboards to increase the size of the outlet from the gas cylinder because the neighbours were complaining about the extractor fan into the garden!
All the cupboards had to be emptied, everything throughout the ground floor had to be covered in groundsheets and, so close to their departure to move to for Australia, this was causing a great deal of extra work. Fortunately, it was soon over and the kitchen was restored to normal.
But it left quite a bit of cleaning to be done to lay all that dust which was completed just in time for a weekend lunch celebration!
And Riley wasn’t just good at cleaning doors and windows (as was Tyla). She also enjoyed helping Grammy to make Kate’s (very belated) 40th birthday cake!
Leaving the family after so many months was very sad, especially as it was the end of an era of visiting them in England. But here most of us were, together for my last weekend to celebrate a host of things.
My nephew Tim’s engagement to Betty.
Kate’s belated birthday party, which had been delayed since February and was now coinciding with their departure for Sydney next month.
And from my point of view, it was an opportunity for me to spend time with lots of the family together at the end of my wonderful 2012 holiday.
It was unusual to be able to say goodbye to everyone (except Adam and Janice) at once. Julie was very kind and accompanied me to Liverpool Street the next morning – a great help with my heavy suitcase.
And so it was that another year of fun travels, love and laughter in England have come to an end and it's time to move on - yet again. "Parting is such sweet sorrow", said Shakespeare - and he was right.