Hockley Heights Gazette

On Saturday the team and I departed Wickford on the 9:45am to Liverpool Street, caught the circle line to Kings Cross and then walked, via Russell Square to the British Museum. We spent 4 hours just scratching the surface of the approx. 6 million artifacts on display. The picture you see was taken in the "Enlightenment Gallery", which is a general introduction to the sort of objects you are likely to see in the Museum. Highlights for me was holding a 350000 year old Neanderthal weapon/tool fashioned from stone for a right-handed cutter, but also the Rosetta Stone was an amazing experience. Jackson liked the giant statues taken from the Parthenon, Mitchell thought the Egyptian mummies were great (including some that were around 5000 years old), and Kym thought the central reading room was amazing.

After the museum we met up with some friends for coffee at a nearby cafe and then tootled back to Wickford. Once back we bought some furniture from another friend who is moving house, and finally we went out for a magnificent dinner at Tom and Isobel's house in Hullbridge, including a nice walk down to the river and a surprise sing-a-long by Tom and I practising Giovanni Franceso Anerio's "Requiem Aeternam", in latin! The boys were much bemused by that performance.

Today (Sunday) we went to church, sang a bit, then there was the Estoril MotoGP to watch and finally we made our way over the The Hawk pub in Battlebridge for a humungous Sunday roast dinner with all the trimmings, yummy!

From Kym:

Penang was a blast! The resort was very well laid out with the pool and beach very relaxing. The taxi drivers and traffic was very chaotic and the weather was very hot...and the mosquitoes insatiable...and the shopping hours endless and the attractions very exotic and not what you would find in Leeming. We saw many things including the War Museum, Tropical Fruit Farm, Aquarium, Spice Gardens, Butterfly Farm, Snake Temple, Reptile Park, Sleeping Buddha, Ferry etc, etc

Then onto England....lots of traffic, tube is very warm...squirrels are cute..the British Museum was amazing..and now we are planning a night away up north somewhere next weekend..perhaps the lakes district. The boys will be spending a day at St John's tomorrow which is an independent fee paying school in Billericay and I will try my hand at driving the Ford Mondeo and trying not to get lost!

Looking forward to the internet being connected for more information availability ansd checking emails...not long now I am told. Catch ya later, Kym