Dad and I outside the Palace The Palace is huge and beautiful, so well preserved and taking the audio tour and exploring the Tudor kitchens and parts of the palace you really get a better sense of what life may have been like in the time of Henry VIII in the 16th Century. Entire rooms designed for the roasting of meat, a full real blazing fire with massive spits in front of them and lots of pies where on show. The pie case, apparently was used purely as a cheap container for cooking meat. Made out of flour and water it was thrown away after the meaty contents had been scooped out. Such a waste!
Hampton Court Palace - Base Court It is obviously a very popular destination for London schools and lots of kids in uniforms were being trailed by bedraggled teachers desperately “shhhh-ing” as they went. Still, it was fun to see the kids so engaged with the experience, particularly the many Tudor characters in full costume that roamed the Palace.
The amazing gardens Dad and I popped back to the car to get the picnic whilst Jo and Maria found the perfect spot in the amazing gardens. We enjoyed some sandwiches, salt & pepper kettle chips and cheese with crackers in another indulgent meal. We could see the gardens being set up for the Hampton Court Flower Show that starts next week, hopefully the good weather will continue until then.
We walked around the gardens for a while before tackling the famous Maze. We were quite impressed as we found the centre first time in around 5 minutes! The average is apparently 20 minutes! Finding out way out was a bit harder though. We took a few wrong turns and ended back at the middle again! I looked at Jo as I wondered what time our flight is tomorrow but thankfully Jo and Maria lead us to safety – in and out in about 15 minutes!
Proof! The centre of the Maze in record timeI’d called Steven in the morning to ask if he’d like to come over for dinner, so he arrived punctually at about 6.30pm. Looking as tall as ever he arrived with CD and DVD in hand. The CD of Nickel Creek I’m looking forward to listening to however the DVD (of our holiday to Canada 11 years ago) I’m not so looking forward to! I can just imagine me captured on film in my 21-year-old-slighly-fat-glory. I might have to proof view it before it sees the light of day with anyone else.
Steve & Me Jo and Maria banished everyone from the kitchen to whip up a great baked teriyaki salmon on sesame noodles with snap peas. Yum! Clear plates all round and success for the two chefs. Varuni arrived, just in time for dessert I may add, so we all sat around the dining table chatting. It was so great to catch up with Steven after so long and it was like we saw each other yesterday as we joked and giggled as usual. It was great to finally meet Varuni too after all this time – we’ll try to plan a dinner or something with them both when we’re back in August.
We hit the sack at about 11.30pm after a long but brilliant day – up at 6am
1 comment:
God! Don't I look OLD! I look like you're elderly uncle or something!!
Good evening though, and Varuni really liked meeting both of you (at last!). I think Harvey enjoyed the fuss too - Varuni loves him almost as much as her little nephew :)
From Jo's facebook status I'm imagining something pretty major has happened back in Oz... Hope she's OK and whatever it is / was is sorted out soon :(
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