Home again safe and sound

Well, I am home safe again after my epic journey. I had another lovely man sitting beside me on the 15 hour flight, this time Ali from Lebanon. He has been a taxi driver and owned a restaurant in Australia so was a very happy, chatty man. We had a lot of talks about a whole lot of different things in life that helped pass the 15 hours.
Then a bit longer in Sydney and then home. All my luggage had arrived safely and my family were there at the airport, so life is good.
I certainly have had a magnificent adventure. Thanks for coming along for the ride. (-:

Will Mrs P get 1,000,000 pictures of the cup cakes shes made?

I found this beautifully embroidered cup cake in a craft place in Wales.  They are hand sewn by a Mrs P .  She wants to see if she can get a million photos of her cupcakes around the world. I have brought it home for obvious reasons but took it out to the sand dunes tonight. I had fun with it. Check out www.amillioncupcakes.net

Day 34 Abu Dhabi safari trip

I have to say I was looking forward to this and was really glad I booked it. It  was a desert safari trip out to the desert,doh,  going to a camel farm, driving over some sand dunes and then a ride on a camel. Next a bbq dinner at a bedouin area out in the desert.
We had a very nice guide who was very knowledgeable about lots of things in the area so I had lots of questions for him. Surprise, surprise. There was only me and a couple from Belgium in the car so I was in the front. The stop at the camel farm was nice, they are surprisingly soft to pat and do have the most enormous eyes and extra extra long eyelashes. There are none left in the wild now in Abu Dhabi. There are three types bred, one for milk, one for meat and one for racing. They weigh 1100kg!! and can carry up to 500kg. We also had a ride on one which was nice as they just plod along but you are up high and you have to hold on tight when they are first getting up!! Next, we went for a drive in the sanddunes, pretty freaky. They let the air out of the tyres a bit for better traction and have another car follow them in for safety sake which was nice. Crazy, then we found a wonderful place to see the sun set from. Its very quiet, away from the traffic and as there are no trees so no birds and all you can see is sand... There is something wonderful about watching the sun rise or set though where ever you are in the world. Magical.
Then on for our dinner. It turned out there was just the three of us booked in so it was a very quiet affair. There is usually about 20 and up to 40. We got on fine though and had some really interesting conversations about all sorts of things. The food was lovely and fresh with beef, chicken and lamb kebabs, salads and breads.  The sky was very black but no where as many stars as we see Ali, but I did spend quite some time lying down on the carpet after dinner just looking up at the sky. Very peaceful. The people from Brussells couldnt believe we see satilites all the time. He said its an announcement on their TV weather when one is going over and they couldnt say if they had the milky way. Obviously not star spotters like us.  Waited for my shooting star to make a wish.....

Lovely camp for dinner

a beautiful lamp

Posh loo

Day 34 Abu Dhabi by day

Well my last day of overseas adventures for a wee while. Coming in from the airport it  was a bit unexpected to see grass on the side of the motorways, and behind that a row of trees then just desert.
They let me check in early, (thank you for the magnificent outcome) so I could have a bit of a sleep as I hadn't had any on the plane and I was booked in for a desert safari trip in the afternoon. Had a lovely snooze then headed out for a look around.
The first thing you see is of course the mosques. They are on nearly every street corner. There are some lovely parks beside some of them and I have been surprised how green it is. I asked our tour guide about it tonight as there is irrigation pipes everywhere and he said in town it is desalted seawater and recycled water used, and further out it comes from a bore deep in the ground. I made my way towards the sea which was only a few streets away, the busiest road of four lanes each way having a underpass for pedestrians which was a good idea. It was all beautifully done in  mosaic. The walk along the Arabian sea is to a sea wall as it is all reclaimed land but there is a sand(beach) stretch further down that I could have walked too. There were tons of seats and lots of shelter with shade cloth which was nice. The sea was a beautiful colour. I found a small market with the most beautiful mosiac glass lanterns (thank goodness there was no room for them!!). It was pretty warm about 30 degrees but not really humid like at home. I managed to find my way back to the hotel and up the lifts (last photo) to get changed for tonight.

a row of black mercedes taxis at the airport

Capital Park

Capital Park

Flash marble hotel lifts

Day 33 Leaving England Boo hoo!!

Well, its time to say goodbye. I have had a fantastic time, seen so many amazing things, met family I never knew existed, along with so many amazing people, been to Crufts and Lion King and the Commitments and of course caught up with my very good friends Jo and Nigel and Vo and Jess.

Everyone has been so kind and caring and extremely hospitable to me and I will be forever grateful. Thank you to all of you who took me random places in search of WW1 memorials for my exhibition. I am very grateful.

I have found the English people very helpful and obliging in whatever job or role they are in and are very happy to hear a Good Morning or Afternoon from the public. The weather has been incredibly kind and mild. The people working at some these big attractions such as the Tower of London deserve a medal for the amount of people they see/deal with in a day.

The public transport system is of course amazing in London with the underground , but I have caught plenty of trains and buses here in Birmingham and in Kent and all very efficent. I guess thats what you get with a bigger population though.

So, I am very sorry to leave, sorry to say goodbye to my dear friends Jo and Nigel and Vo and Jess and of course Milo. I will be back to see you all, and not in another 25 years time.!!

I am looking forward to seeing my family and Saphy again.

I still have an overnight adventure in Abu Dhabi so dont sign off yet....

Day 31 and 32 Living with MS continued....

For the last two days I have shifted things out of Vos room to make it easier for her to get around and to get in any equipment she might need. We have rung everyone possible from both specialists, the doctor, to the occupational health to get the best outcome for Vo. No date as yet for her operation.

I have been driving around in her car to pick up Jess and bulk food for the rabbits and guinea pigs so thats all been helpful.

On our travels we went past the centre of the village of Bournville. I had been going to walk to here with Milo but have run out of time. Anyway i have taken a few photos so you can see how pretty it is. It is a one mile square oasis and since the Cadbury family were Quakers there is also no alcohol, pubs or off licences.

I also took some photos of the school which Charlotte is coming back to do her practicum in May/june this year. Its 20 minutes walk from Vo and Jess's place and its a beautiful school. It is only one of two places in Europe with the carillon bells and they chime every hour with a lovely tune. Apparently on Saturdays the bell player comes and plays for a while all sorts of music.  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon

The school Charlotte will be at

Day 30 Living with MS (Multiple Sclerosis)

Well, the real reason I came on this trip was very apparent today as we went to A & E at the Birmingham hospital twice today for Vo was in alot of pain in her back and her legs. She does incredibly well and gets around on her own steam even when tired with crutches, but last night she hurt her back and now we are seeing the results of that.

I dont want to go into alot of personal details for Vos privacy, but I felt I needed to show this side of my trip as it could be any of us. MS is a very debilitating disease and everyone has some different symptoms with it. The muscle spasms are very strong and painful.

Vo is a fighter and fiercely independent. She is so brave when in pain and if shes tired. She has been fantastic while I have been here and driven me around so many special places I could never have got to. We have had alot of fun and long car conversations about lots of subjects.... along with fixing the world.(-:

Anyway today was time to look after her.... We got back home from the hospital the second time at midnight. The hospital staff both times have been fantastic.

Day 29 National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire

Well, this was the memorial park to challenge all memorial parks. The National Memorial Arboretum was the brainchild of David Childs. He wanted to provide a meaningful memorial to all those who had served their country. With the support of Group Captain Sir Leonard Cheshire and the backing of the then Prime Minister John Major, along with a donation of 82 acres of reclaimed gravel by Redland Aggregates it became a reality. A huge amount of thought has been put into the planning of the buildings and the memorials themselves (which number over 300), along with plantings of over 40,000 maturing trees (many which are dedicated) . In the Millennium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness every day of the year they have a dedication, with the last post and Reveille  being played along with 1 minutes silence. Vo and I were luckily enough to get in there in time this morning for this ceremony. It was very moving.
The armed forces memorial sits atop of a little hill made especially for the memorial. There are these amazing curved walls of Portland Stone on which the names of 16,000 service men and women of the British Armed Forces who have been killed since the end of WW2 whilst on duty, died in operational theatre or been targeted by terrorists have been remembered. Fantastic that they have a place to go to. The designer of the memorial had the walls put up on the east side with a small gap between them so at the 11am on 11 November the sunlight shines through the gaps onto the bronze wreath in the middle of the monument. Amazing. We saw so many different memorials and what was really lovely about it was it was for all sorts of people to be remembered: a large amount of war ones but from lots of different regiments, policemen killed on duty, medic memorials, fire and ambulance, postal workers even still born babies.
The navy memorial was very beautiful being glass, the colour of the different oceans and at certain times of the day the shadow makes the shape of a battleship.
I was lucky enough to meet Phillipa from Creative Moments craft group who was putting up a collaborative project of a soldier standing in a field of poppies made of rag rug technique. Each person made a square and she joined it all together. It was beautiful and the poppies in particular were beautiful too. Vo brought me a beautiful poppy brooch and to end a lovely day members of the Northern Ireland medic corp let me have a photo with them!!

Day 28 Robert Owen Welsh social reformer

one great thing that happens when you are travelling without a timetable is the little interesting things you stumble upon or in this case the big interesting thing, the life of Welshman, Robert Owens. When we were wandering around Newtown in Wales looking for where the locals had sent us to find the WW1 memorial we came across this lovely statue of this man with a child standing beside him but his hand resting on his head. We saw the name Robert Owens and wondered who he was. Later, after we had brought our fresh welsh cakes and apple and raspberry pie from a market baker we stumbled across a museum dedicated in his name. Briefly born in 1771, he grew up in Newtown, then left at 10 to become a drapers apprentice. He then moved to a retail business in Manchester and with his knowledge of the trade and his way with people he was managing one of Manchesters largest cotton mills at the age of 21. He was appalled at the working conditions of the very young children and petitioned government to raise the minimum age of children in the mills from 6 to 10, have them working 10 hours instead of 12 hour days and have education available to them up to the age of 16. He did not succeed with his requests but it started him on the road to reform and creating a community where the interests of workers  and employers were not in conflict. If you are interested in reading more about this amazing man and the work he did in England and America here is a website...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen
http://robert-owen-museum.org.uk/

I will leave you with a quote from him from his deathbed.'My life was not useless; I gave important truths to the world, and it was only for want of understanding that they were disregarded.  I have been ahead of my time'. How inspiring.....

Day 27 A day in Coventry

A day of magnificent outcomes. I thought today I would catch the train to Coventry to see the war Memorial park they have there. On a website I found they had done a lot for the 100 year remembrance and I was interested to see how it looked. It is a very impressive park with an enormous memorial in the middle of the park. The families were given the option to plant a tree for their loved one when the memorial was built. About half of the families took up the offer so there are 125 100 year old trees.  There have also been trees planted for WW2 and other conflicts so the trees total a staggering 800. They are magnificent. There was a very interesting memorial for WW2 parachutists which is something I hadn't seen before. It had a knitted poppy on it.  When they opened their remembrance project it was attended by Prince William who laid a wreath and helped plant poppies with the children in the garden. I meet up with a man who told me after the Prince had left they left the wreath out in front of the cenotaph so the next day he told the park management they might want to collect it out of the weather or before it gets knicked and it now sits in a glass case. Funny! There is a beautiful sculpture done of three large beech tree leaves, within each one, cut outs of Coventry of a different era. One showing the industries in Coventry that were used during the war, another showing the role of Women in Coventry during the war as the worked in all the car, ammunition factories to name just a few. The third is about the future of the park and all the modern day uses for it while not forgetting its origins. A great piece of thoughtful sculpture. At the visitors centre they also had another piece called "Missing Faces" where they put all the 264 mens photos on the wall who were killed in WW1. They had about half the photos  of the men and left provision if others came to light they could add them.
As luck would have it, also in the visitors centre later in the afternoon , Julia O'Connell the 'artist in residence' was revealing her final works after working from the park over the year. I decided to come and see her work and I'm so very glad I did. I had a lovely afternoon having tea and cake and listening to talk along with seeing her beautiful work. She is a textile artist and had taken some beautiful photos of wildflowers in the park and turned it digitally into fabric. From that fabric she made two beautiful quilts to be used at the cafe for the public to put on their knees to keep warm and a bigger one to go on the ground as a picnic blanket for children to sit on to listen to stories. Her website is www.juliaoconnell.co.uk . After talking to various people and a lady called Ann who had been to NZ and admiring Julias work I started off back to the train station. Someone called out to me and it was the park manager running along with her plate of sponge wanting to talk with me. She was fascinated how someone from NZ got to be at the Artist in Residence talk. We talked for a while. She was very nice and it turned out it was her who took the knitted poppies off the remembrance trees which was one of the reasons I had come to the park. Never mind. I had a lovely day. I did have an amusing train ride back to Birmingham with a man who said the train was going to London , not Birmingham then cracked up at the shock on my face!!! Not funny!! I get confused because you sit backwards. I dont get it.! Anyway, we had a lovely chat about sport, not rugby as he was a semi professional football player and boxer, cricket, not getting the 5 day game and how he had been late 6 times this year to pick up his daughter from day care so far this year and fined twice. What a hoot. A fun end to a great and very unexpected day.

Day 26 at home day but fun photos

I thought I would show you some of the fun photos I have taken while I have been here. Some will need no explanation at all. For those of you who know me well, you will know I love the movie Frozen.  I have been amazed at the amount of Frozen merchandise everywhere you turn. Everything you can imagine. Even at the music store in Dublin the Frozen soundtrack was number 4 and the Frozen singalong soundtrack number 7!!

The kit kat wall at Abu Dahbi airport and the free kit kat with a bottle of 'plane' water.

And the fun ones, with of course my 'Copper' photo taken at Crufts!!! I did have to get them to put their hats on (-: