UK Friends

One of the best aspects of this trip for us, is to reconnect with our Southampton friends we made 10 years ago. Over the years we have kept in touch following their lives with interest. Several of them have had children similar in age to our girls.

On Saturday we headed over to Reading to meet up with Robin, Jo and daughters Emma (5) and Sophie (3). Although Andy had caught up with these guys on several trips to the UK, the last time I had seen them was in Vienna in 2005.

Turned out to be a perfect but still cold sunny day, so we met at a Caversham Court Gardens for a picnic. Originally a house built sometime in the 12th century for the canon of the adjacent St Peter's Church. Various people lived there but eventually the house was demolished in 1931 and was opened as a garden for the public in 1934. It was refurbished in 2009 to its current state.

The girls played beautifully together - climbing trees, rolling down the grassy hill and exploring the foundations of the house. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grassy banks of the Thames, watching the white swans, rowers and boats including houseboats glide past.

Eventually it was time for Emma and Jo to attend a birthday party, so we decided to meet up with Robin and Sophie at Pangbourne for ice cream before driving back home via the Sainbury's superstore to buy more food.

A great day out and looking forward to seeing these guys again soon!

On another note, both Andy and Ella seem to have mostly adjusted to the time zone change while Katy is struggling a little more. Her body clocks wants to wake up around 4.30am especially as it is quite light by then too. Funnily enough it is the same time I've been waking up to go to the toilet! Main problem is that she becomes very restless and is not content to cuddle and doze back to sleep. So eventually by about 5.30am both girls are awake. On the plus side, they are asleep by 7.30pm! We just need to work on pushing back those last few hours as otherwise it makes for a long and tiring day.