Introducing Mr & Mrs Clark

And so to the second week of our UK visit and as has been the focus for every visit we have made whilst we have been living in China, it was time for a wedding, on this occasion of my little sister, Zoe to John. The build up began with us all heading over to have breakfast with Zoe and Chloe (unfortunately for John he had to work). It was lovely to see them and also meant we were able to handover the 30 pairs of dancing shoes that we had brought over from Shanghai. 

Lucy then set off with Zoe, Chloe, Kaytie, Alice, Jo and Amy on a girly day down in Bognor Regis . They had a great day having manicures, given by 3 Vietnamese men, which I think Lucy found slightly strange and when she started to excitedly chat to them about her recent holiday to Vietnam they then had to admit to never actually having been there themselves.

Whislt Lucy was enjoying the pampering , I headed over to Bucket Nut with the boys. We had a lovely day with my Father, Harry and my Aunt Ilse. The weather was lovely and William and Oliver had great fun playing in the garden with their cousin Charlie and having a ride across the field on the tractor.

       

Jeremy and Natasha then arrived and we all headed up to the Gallipot for lunch. As ever Father played the perfect role as landlord and we enjoyed some lovely food and drink in the beer garden. 

       

After the lunch had been polished off the three boys happily headed off down the garden to play and sometime later came up to announce to their Grandpa that they had come up with a plan to make him lots more money by making his garden furniture look wonderful, which they had achieved by flower arranging, luckily not with Granny's flowers!! 

       

On Friday, we met up with Zoe, John and Chloe, Kaytie ,Richie, Alice and Charlie, Harry and all of my cousins and my aunt Ilse at the Weald & Downland museum. It is an open air museum, with a collection of houses and buildings from a variety of different periods of British history that have all been moved to a single site set in the beautiful Sussex countryside. Both Lucy and I had visited several times as children, so we really enjoyed being able to take Oliver and William there. It was a lovely sunny day and we all enjoyed wandering around the grounds and enjoyed eating lunch by the lake.

      

                                  

It was a great chance to catch up with my family, given that we are all scattered around the globe. I then took the boys back to Guildford whilst Lucy and the others headed to the hotel to get settled in. By the time I arrived everyone had clearly not been missing me as they were enjoying drinks on the terrace, where it was lovely to finally catch up with my aunt Nita. More guests gradually arrived and we got a chance to meet John's family. We enjoyed a lovely meal and then as people gradually made there way to bed us youngsters settled in for the night at the bar, staying for possibly one or two drinks more than we should have! 

We had an early start on the Saturday and made the most of the buffet breakfast with proper British bacon and sausages. Lucy then went to have her hair and make-up done whilst I went to collect the boys from Guildford. 

 Eventually everyone was ready and piled on the coach to go to the venue and I had the honour of driving my little sister on her last journey as a Hawkridge. Richie was taking the Bridesmaids and as we were setting off I thought I should just check that Zoe knew the way. She has never had any semblance of a sense of direction so I should not have been surprised when she said she did not, but fortunately Richie had the trusty sat nav. A quick look through the list of recent destinations saw a post code that Zoe and I both recognised, so we assumed that must be the one. Richie led the way but just as he pulled on to the dual carriageway and I was about to start imparting some pearls of wisdom to help Zoe with married life, Zoe suddenly turned to me and said 'oh hang on, that's my house's postcode' After a few quick phone calls I managed to get hold of Richie and call him back, set the correct destination and we still made it to the venue with plenty of time to spare!! 

It was another sunny day and the wedding venue was a beautiful converted barn complex. The ceremony was lovely; Zoe looked gorgeous, John scrubbed up well, Kaytie's reading was excellent, William, Oliver, Alice, Charlie and Chloe performed their duties and reading brilliantly, Justin sang wonderfully during the signing of the register and Harry just about managed to operate the iPod correctly for the music. 

                                       

       

       

       

       

With the formal part of the day over with, the children made the most of being able to run around and play and also eat lots of sweets, naming the tables after sweets proved very popular.

                                    

                                 

The meal was excellent, as were the speeches and then it was time for the dancing. The whole day and evening ran smoothly and on time thanks to the considerable skills of the mc!  It all got started with a barn dance, which was a lot of fun and then the DJ arrived and the drunken dancing began. 

                                   

                                       

Some of the children even re-appeared to join in the fun!!!

                                    

 As midnight arrived it was time for us to all make our way back to the hotel on the bus and whilst the boys slept we enjoyed a good sing along, not sure who could have started that off!! Finally, with the children tucked up in bed, all of us youngsters found ourselves back at the hotel bar for a few more whiskeys before finally collapsing in bed, proving we had clearly not learnt from the night before. 

All in all it was a fantastic few days, a great chance to catch up with the family and I hope John and Zoe will look back on an amazing start to married life, as we certainly had a good time.

Harry, Hosteling and Holiday fun!

Our journey to the UK did not get off to a great start when our plane, having reached the runway, had to return to the terminal to off load a passenger who wasn't well.  However, we reached London in fairly good time having used some shortcuts according to the pilot! As we were circling over London, William announced that if we kept doing it until the fuel had gone we would drop out of the sky!

The main reason for our return to the UK at this time of year was for Zoe and John's wedding, however it was also perfect timing to meet Oliver and William's newest cousin, Harry.  It was lovely to spend a couple of days with Anna, Antony and Harry who is gorgeous.  All of us enjoyed lots of cuddles and loved spending time with him.  

       

                                  

                                  

                                  

       

On Mother's Day I managed breakfast out with my mother and then we all attended a tea party given by William and Oliver at which Harry was the guest of honor!

                                  

We also spent time with Sue and Suresh during the first week.  They came to Guildford and the boys took them to Costa and the Farmer's market.  They were also keen to take them to explore Guildford castle and it's grounds.  

       

Oliver and William spent a day with them and Alice and Charlie while Sam and I went school hunting and we also spent a day together at Godstone Farm.  

       

        

        

Anna's birthday fell at the end of the week and we had a lovely family brunch which was a proper English fry up, much to Sam's relief.  

        

During our middle weekend we rented a youth hostel in the Devil's Punch Bowl, where we met up with the Rowland's family, the Magee family and the Hughes family.  

                               

There were nine children altogether who had great fun making dens and sharing rooms and even beds!  

      

The adults didn't do any of that but we did share a few bottles of wine!  

                                  

It was great to catch up with our friends and the first time we have seen Lisa and Darren in the UK.  

                                   

The following couple of days were spent relaxing in Guildford and shopping for bits to take back to Shanghai.  The boys even did some gardening with my mother, which yielded results in the short time we were there.

                                  

       

On the Wednesday we took the train up to London and met up with Ellie and Dan at the London Dungeons.  Initially, William and Oliver were a bit scared but they soon got in to it and enjoyed seeing Ellie locked in a cage and Dan being hit on the head with a hammer!