Friday 31st August 2012……3 months later!!!!!!

For my last day awoke to a lovely sunny and warm morning…….after breakfast I took my last trip into town to buy a few last minute items to bring home and at Noon Janet had asked me if I would come  here

to help  out her and Malc in the kitchen.

Every Friday Janet goes and prepares and feeds anywhere from 20 – 40 homeless people and today they were short staffed so Malc went in with Janet and I came later.

I was kept busy washing dishes whilst Janet concentrated on serving the meals…

Then it was clean up time including the washrooms!!!!

I was only too happy to help and know what a difference my family makes to the less fortunate in that area of town and I am so proud of them and all the voluntary work they both do.

Back home at 3pm and time for a quick cuppa before Malc and I took off again doing some voluntary work for the Army……September is there big campaign to raise funds from the public so the job this afternoon was to go to some estates and push these envelopes through the letterboxes.

on Monday Malc and some other volunteers will collect them.  We think we gave out perhaps 300…..

Home by 5pm and a couple of hours to relax before I treated the family to a farewell dinner…..the meal was awesome and  unfortunately, Claire, Mark and Tom were away!!!!

So my time in England is over not that I spent much time in England…..I have had a most memorable holiday and big thanks to Janet and Malc we tease each other a lot actually it is me that does the teasing but we laugh hard and love each other…..my family… all of them are great!!!

My final sleep…Andy is driving me to the airport in Manchester at 8.15 am

my flight leaves at 1pm and I arrive in Vancouver local time at 2.20pm  ..I am then taking the float plane over to Nanaimo and Heather will meet me at 4.15pm and back home to the Bank!!!!!

Thank you to everyone for coming along on this journey..tomorrow a new chapter in my life starts as I prepare to make the move to San Miguel later in September….the Big great lake walk is on the 15th…56 km so better get my walking boots on…..

Have a great weekend blessings Les

Thursday 30th August 2012…..Rain stop play!!!

It rained most of the night and was still raining this morning…Malc and I had planned to play golf but had to revert to Plan B which was me spending the morning getting my stuff ready and packing some of my things away.

After lunch Malc suggested that we go into town and play some snooker…….it was still cold and wet so we went and played 4 games of snooker….here is my Bro concentrating so hard!!

We both really enjoyed the games!!!

Back home had time to read the newspaper and then it was off to Claire, Mark and Tom’s for supper…they cooked a lovely meal and we all had a great family time the last time we shall all be together for a while…do I have a beautiful and handsome family or what????

Mark, Andy and Malc in the front

and Claire, Sam, Darren, Janet and Tom!!

I said goodbye to Claire, Mark and Tom as they are leaving in the morning for a weekend in their caravan…..it has been wonderful to connect again with everyone and Tom sure is turning into a great young man!!!

So this is it my last full day tomorrow!!!!!!!

 

PS

 

 

 

 

Did I forget to mention that I am the snooker King??

Wednesday 29th August 2012…back home again!!!

Had a great sleep but woke up to quite heavy rain…….the breakfast in the B & B was awesome this morning and I do like this type of accommodation I met the three other guests and we had some good stories over breakfast.

I was back on the road by 10am and chose a route that covered mainly the smaller towns and less busy highways.

My first stop…

Another 45 minute drive and I was at

I walked around here in the rain but saw some interesting formations!!

It was then an uneventful 2 hour drive home and I got back at 5.00 pm.

Janet, Andy and Malc were home and after supper we just caught up and watched some TV and hoping for sunshine tomorrow.

It is good to be home and now getting down to the end of the trip …3 more sleeps!!!

Tuesday 28th August 2012……2 day road trip!!!

I was all packed up and ready to leave by 8.30am and after my little Brother talk from my big Brother….you know don’t talk to strange women etc. etc.…. I was all set to go……..I had done some Internet research and my goal was to go see the highest waterfall in England and this is the route…

A is Cottingham the start and B is High Force waterfall…

 

 

 

It was about 2 hours of mainly motorway driving and the Cod head handles very well and soon I was at my first stop.

These ruins were really not close anything and the parking was free, no entrance fee and no one else there but me, very beautiful!!

A beautiful building

but I did not go in!!

I love the farm animals

 

The horses…

The sheep

The cows..

 

and of course no farm yard in Britain would be complete without the CAMEL!!!!!!!

The highest waterfall in England is called High Force and I was at the parking lot at about 12.30pm and I had found a map which showed a circular hike of 8 miles…so I was packed up and away I went.

I get two “digs” in with this photo!!!!

Hey Janet are those real sheep???

Ian check out this WALL!!!!

The hike up to High Force was fairly flat and very picturesque..

I could hear the falls before I saw them!!

Beautiful…..had my lunch here!!!

The next part of the hike got a bit dodgy after this bridge..

The path seemed to disappear and the ground was very boggy and I had to make numerous detours but still managed to get my feet soaked and it took me longer than I thought to get back to the car..I reckon I walked about 10 miles…but it was really enjoyable!!!

I read in my guide book of a B & B in a nearby village which was only priced at 30 pounds about 45 dollars so I checked it out and booked for one night!!!

The room is delightful..

The seating area outside my room.

The kettle was soon on and a wonderful cup of tea….life is good.

There is no Internet here but in a few minutes I am going to walk down to the village pub for dinner and I think they have Internet so will try and post from there…..then will come back here for tea and watch some TV…

Tomorrow more exploring and will be home tomorrow night.

Yashi Koshi!!!