Hockley Heights Gazette

Three trips into London in the last couple of weeks, and lots of fun one and all! First to the Natural History Museum to catch up with the dinosaur display, plus a host of other displays such as creepy insects, geology and mammal exhibitions. We spent about three hours at the museum after meeting with Kym for morning tea at Kings College.
Our next big day out was an early trip to Lords. Because we were paying peak hour prices, we nearly choked at £47 return for one adult and two children from Wickford - they must be dreaming! The entry fee for a two hour tour around Lords, including the Long Room and Committee room, was just £22 by comparison (and damn fine value for money as well). We were supposed to then go back outside and buy a ticket for the day's play, but the boys and I sneakily melted into the crowd and ended up staying most of the day to watch Notinghamshire v Middlesex, including Stephen Fleming make 110. What a lad! We did see the tiny urn that contains the ashes, but unfortunately not allowed to take a picture. Unlike Aussie grounds, we were let out during the lunch break to sit on and generally admire the hallowed turf (see pic).
Today we took our last trip of the holidays into London, this time to Arsenal's Emirates Stadium to see Arsenal v Portsmouth. Sadly, as a Portsmouth supporter, we failed 3-1, but the atmosphere was fantastic, with 60114 people bellowing rather incoherently. What distinguished it from a typical AFL match was firstly that the crowd was surprisingly smaller. Also there was a MASSIVE police presence, it seems that the Poms take their weekly tribal outing rather more seriously.
Today is my second father's day of the year, and I was surprised to find a brand new expresso machine on the bench this morning when I woke up - no excuse not to be awake for school tomorrow! Speaking of school, Friday was a great first day of general and genial introductions, and the next three days are also pupil-free so it promises to be a nice return to my career-on-hold.
Kym spent the last three days of the working week being punted along the channels of Cambridge by eager students whilst she attended a conference, but I'll leave her to explain all that in a day or two. Have a great week y'all, and do leave a message for us! We get lonely!