Norma's son

Norma's son, Kyle, has lived in the UK for the last 10 years, so while she's over she tries to see Kyle and his girlfriend, Emma, whenever she can. This year they had taken a few days off and we got to see quite a lot of them. 

 These first photos were taken in Kyle and Emma's garden when we went round for afternoon tea one day.

 Kyle is Norma's eldest son - her other two sons, Ciaran and Caelen, still live in South Africa at the moment.

 We also went round to Kyle and Emma's for Kyle's birthday on the 9th.  He had decided to have a braai/bbq and was relieved that the weather held out for him :)

 Opening presents

 Mum came with us but Dad stayed at home as he hadn't been feeling well that day.

 Norma

 Craig, Claire and Alice

 Alice enjoyed the breadsticks that were put out

 Her t-shirt was quite appropriate as it said "Daddy's little sweetheart"

This was taken round at our house on a different day when we had Mum & Dad and Kyle & Emma round for a braai/bbq.

Still working through the photos so there should be more to come :)
xx

Trip to Oxford (Part 3)

Christ Church College

After our tour on the open top bus, our final stop in Oxford was a visit to Christ Church College. It's difficult to put into words what this college was like - it is absolutely stunning! You can feel how old the buildings are and you can't help but think of all the famous people who have studied there and walked those halls (including Robert Peel, William Gladstone, David Dimbleby, Rowan Williams and Richard Curtis).  I hope that the photos below give you a sense of what it is like.

Walking in the lower gates, this is the view - absolutely beautiful!

Like a picture postcard :)

Norma and Emily at the fountain

The Cathedral is truely magnificent and I could have spent longer looking around.

Detail on the ceiling

One of the stained glass windows

The rose window

Emily taking a few final photos before we left

Out the gates and back into the centre of Oxford and time to find our bus stop again.

And this photo is for Norma who loved taking photos of bikes leaning against walls.

We thoroughly enjoyed our couple of days in Oxford and took far more photos than those shown here ;-).  I think the next place Emily and I would like to visit is Bath. Not sure that it's going to happen these holidays as Claire goes back to work soon and I'll be looking after Alice.  Might be one to think about for October holidays??
xx

Trip to Oxford (Part 2)

On Wednesday morning we were up early, had breakfast in the restaurant, packed up again and headed back into Oxford. This time we drove to the nearest Park and Ride, parked the car and took the bus into the centre (and saved a small fortune in taxi and train fares!) We went one stop too far on the bus, however, and ended up at Oxford Castle - which we hadn't even known existed.

There were a couple of school/tour groups there while we had a look around.

This sculpture (?) was on top of the restaurant at the castle. It wasn't until I uploaded the photo on to the computer that I could actually make out all the detail in it.

Late on Tuesday afternoon we had decided to hop on one of the Open Top Bus sightseeing tours but didn't get to go the whole way round. I checked the tickets and saw they were valid for 24 hours so we decided to do the tour again on Wednesday. Fortunately the tour bus stopped near the castle so we were able to hop on and complete the rest of the tour before getting off in the centre again.

Most of the photos below show the skyline and the detail on the buildings. I loved the steeples, the weathervanes and the chimneys.

Look at all the detail on the buildings :)

I was so pleased these gargoyles came out clearly. I love the detail in the faces.

If I remember correctly these busts were on the fence posts around the Sheldonian Theatre

Signpost

Bicycles at the station

And finally, the tour bus after we'd hopped off. After our tour we hit the shops again (especially the Cath Kidston store which was having a Sale).  The finally it was on to Christ Church College - but that deserves a post of it's own.
xx

Trip to Oxford (Part 1)

As I mentioned in the previous post, on the Tuesday Norma, Emily and I drove up to Oxford for a couple of days.  Emily and I have never been to Oxford before but Norma lived there for a few months a number of years ago.  We decided to go straight to the Premier Inn in Didcot where we'd be spending the night, leave the car and get a taxi to the station so we could catch the train into Oxford.

I know neither Norma or Emily will thank me for posting this photo but it was the first stage of our trip ;-)

Once we got in to Oxford, we caught a taxi to the town centre so we could begin exploring. I love going to new places and seeing the buildings in the town/city.  Oxford certainly didn't disappoint! I think perhaps because I grew up in South Africa which is still a fairly "new" country (the first settlers went there in 1820) I'm fascinated by old buildings that have been around for centuries, in some cases.

These buskers were fairly lively and the chap on the left, with the hat on, was quite entertaining :)

As it was lunch time by the time we got in to Oxford, we decided to go and have some lunch first before starting to explore. We finally settled on The Crown as the menu at the entrance had food each of us would enjoy.

Much better photo of Norma and Emily

We spent a good part of the afternoon just wandering around trying to get our bearings and enjoying the shops and the scenery.

There are loads of bicycles in Oxford, very like Cambridge.

Now, if I remember correctly, the houses on either side of this bridge were once owned by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. He lived in one house and she lived in the other and they would cross over the bridge to get from one house to the other.

After trying to find places following the map we had, we finally found out that this is part of Trinity College. We had walked past it a few times but because there's no sign to say what it is, hadn't realised.

Unfortunately, on that first day, the weather turned quite chilly and did eventually rain. One of the things Emily had wanted while we were in Oxford was a University hoodie/sweatshirt. When it turned chilly she was okay as she pulled on her sweatshirt and was nice and warm.  I was so tempted to go and buy one for myself but thought I might look a bit odd walking around in one at my age!

Our final stop that day was Christ Church College. A scene for one of the Harry Potter movies was filmed there and Emily was keen to go.  Unfortunately, as with the other colleges, Christ Church wasn't open that day because students were writing exams. However, the gentleman on the gate told us it would be open the following day after breakfast.  That settled it, we would be going back into Oxford the next day.

By the time we got back to the hotel our feet were aching and we couldn't wait to flop for a while. We had booked to have a fairly early dinner in the restaurant attached to the hotel (food was lovely) and then it was back to the room for an early night.

xx