Reflections on our first week...

Our first full week in Britain is an amazing experience due to the welcoming spirit of our friend Steve as he takes us into his home, shares a slice of his life with us and also an amazing amount of local knowledge and history.

We meet locals - talk about the weather, NZ, laugh and joke with them - they are all very friendly and helpful especially when we need directions or help with our money.

We watch an episode of Father Ted each night just for the fun of it. And the British news each morning and see the Queen featured most days.

Max gets to visit Steve's school and give a 20 (really 40) minute talk about the earthquakes in Christchurch to a geography class.

A typical example of a Cream Tea

We eat fish and chips and apple crumble at a little country pub, the Marquess of Cornwallis, where strangers are greeted with a curious stare by locals but given friendly service from the barmaid.





We drive over 'rumble strips' (bumpy strips that cause vibrations in the ground when driven over) on the main road to alert the wild deer so as to avoid any casualties. I even see a little Muntjac (small deer) carefully crossing the road. He is safe for another day.

We drive along roads that go through dark tunnels of wooded forests where you could just imagine Robin Hood leaping out from behind a tree with his band of merry men in tow.

We see so many squirrels that we now know why the locals don't excited - these cute little vermin are pests and known as 'rats with fluffly tails'. I still try to photograph them but they are camera shy. They move with alarming speed. Quick, behind a tree and up they go.

Walking through the English countryside

We see little signposts on the edge of narrow lanes in the middle of nowhere that say 'public footpath' and point to a vague track that leads deep into the fields. We take a walk though crop fields with not a wire fence in sight. We enjoy the magic of the setting sun as it casts a bright gold glow over a gently rolling Suffolk landscape of acres and acres of barley and wheat crops. Not a woolley sheep in sight.



Ickworth House showing one wing and the Rotunda



We visit Ickworth House Park and Gardens, an amazing building which consists of two wings (one now a hotel) and joined in the centre by a Rotunda (built in 1795 and finished in 1829). We wander around the grounds, spellbound by the visual size of the 'house'. There is a vineyard and 70 acres of garden and woodland walks. Finally, we see sheep. And lambs. The baa-ing is such a familiar sound and reminds us of home.

It is only through Steve that we discover these little treasures and we leave feeling as though we got so much more from our visit than we could ever have expected.

Goodbye, Suffolk. London. Here we come!