After spending time in Derby and Brum with the Woodwards we embarked on the massive mission of catching up with as many people as we possibly could… whilst continuing to munch through Matt’s food wish list.

The rolling English countryside!

Saturday morning we got up and drive over to Hereford. Hereford, is where I was born and where most of my family lives.   We drove straight to my Nan and Granddad’s house and caught up with them for an hour or two.  We walked in whilst they were in the middle of decorating their living room so Matt made himself useful by taking down the blinds! They both seemed really well which is relief as Nan has had quite a few health issues this year.  The only resident of the house hold who seemed a little subdued was mad dog “Whiskey” who amusingly seems to have put on so much weight he didn’t manage to greet us in the passageway as he usually does… he can’t fit through the pet door anymore.  He also seemed far less inclined to bounce about and spin on the spot.  Other than that I’d say everyone, including Jason the cat were all good!

Uncle Nigel was also there being chief wall paper person so it was great to see him too before we headed off to catch up with other relatives.

One significant thing I had to do was visit the grave of my late Nan and Granddad.   A week after we left England my Nan passed away and I didn’t have the chance to attend her funeral and say farewell.  So, rather than grabbing chips from the college chippy and having a cup of tea with her we had to head to the cemetery to say hello.  It was very strange and sad but it was good to take some flowers to cheer up her resting place.  In fact, we ended up picking up sandwiches and eating them on the park bench a few meters away from where she rests; I reckon she’d have liked that, us having lunch with her.

After visiting Nan’s grave we headed over to my cousin’s house.  She had a little baby girl whilst we were away and we’d never met her.  It was lovely to catch up with her and her brood.  They really are awesome kids, she should be very proud of them.  We arrived at a point where he oldest son had to apologise to her because he’d managed to hit her with his toy dinosaur… His response was that “big t-rex did it” and when she replied that big T-rex better apologise then he put on a monster voice and said “sorry mummy” .  Very cute!

It was also really cute to see the traditional Lloyd style sibling personalities in evidence.  Oldest one…  noisy, confident and independent.  Youngest one… shy, clinging to mum and quiet.  Tee hee!  Even Matt said I can see you there and Kelly there!   lol  It was really cool to catch up with them all.

Now.. this is BALTI!!! YOM!

On the same day we’d booked ourselves into our favourite Brummy curry house, the  Shylhet Spice Cuisine, in Kings Heath.  I can’t tell you how amazing it was to eat a proper curry with a proper Naan! Lol  I’ve really missed an actual Balti.  Our local curry house tries hard to make them but they’re just not the same as an authentic Brummy Curry!  YOM!

The curry gang! Thanks for coming you guys! :0)

What was even more lovely was that nearly 20 people came to eat with us.  Some of them driving from North Wales just to spend a couple of hours with us!  We are really lucky to have such fabulous friends.  There was a lot of love in that room !

We graciously gave ourselves Sunday off from our mad dash and, after a very important breakfast at Beckett’s Farm (sausages)  spent most of the day at Mum’s setting up their NAS drive (NERD ALERT!) Matt, of course, made sure that he had the opportunity to drink more English Ales in the evening; I was so tired of going out that I stayed in… Unfortunately, I didn’t know that Matt had taken a house key with him and so ended up staying up until the wee hours so I could let him in…. you might have seen the Facebook status! Lol

We bounced back into the swing of things on Monday, heading to my favourite place in the whole of the UK… Stratford upon Avon. I just had to go and see the new theatre and have a yummy cream tea by the river! I know it’s a clichéd British thing but I really do love a cup of tea and a scone with proper clotted cream!  YOM!

We were joined by friends of ours so we were given another opportunity to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for a while! All good

By Tuesday lunchtime we were on the train to London so that we could spend some time with my bestieN8 and her husband – I need to invent a little name for him    It’s always awesome to catch up with her and we’d planned in a little spa day to ensure that the gossip wasn’t interrupted by smelly boys.  That meant that we left Matt to his own devices.  He ended up catching up with a friend in the pub at lunchtime… and didn’t finish drinking until late that night…  I force-fed him about 2 liters of water that night… there was no way I wanted to travel back to Adelaide with a really hung over husband!  NO no NO! I think it worked too!

On the Plane home.. Matt didn't know what I was up to

And that was that.  A plane out of Singapore down to Adelaide and we arrived home Saturday morning! A whirl wind tour of Britishness and now it’s all back to normal…. Sunshine, 20 degrees, coffee at the beach….

Having left Italy, our first stop was Birmingham Airport and then Derby to visit the female side of the Woodward clan.  Matt’s sister very kindly picked us up and gave up her bed for us for 2 nights so that we could catch up with her and their mum and aunty.  It was really nice to see them to go shopping with them and  to swap stories.  It’s good to see that everyone’s alright and have a chance to catch up in person.  Skype is a wonderful thing, it helps you to feel connected even when you’re really far away, but nothing replaces the option of hanging out with your family in person.

Matt and his sister having a good look at her new scarf from Singapore

Shopping with Mum

We had a lovely tea in some nice gardens, wandered around Derby shopping center; and Matt started on his long list of English foods that he needs to taste before we return!  He had a lovely steak cooked by his sister and we got to re-experience English fish and chips for the first time in 20 months.  Chips just aren’t the same in Oz are they?  They’re all frozen chips and no curry sauce for starters!  Matt, of course, opted to add item 2 from his UK foods list and add a Pie-Minister pie to the equation!

In Marks and Sparks Matt was spoilt rotten by his mum as she bought him various t-shirts and ties – lucky boy!  It was really nice to catch up with them all and very generous of Matt’s sister to drive us around, share her home and cook us all dinner

On the Tuesday we headed off back to Birmingham to catch up with Matt’s Dad who had come all the way from North Wales to hang out with us.

Yes, this IS a PINT of WARM BEER... and he LOVES it!

We went up to Solihull and headed to Whether spoons where Matt began re-aquatinting himself with English beer and burger deals. We had a wander around the shops and saw a film together before heading back to the pub for a carvery.  Quite a chilled day really.

At the end of that day, Matt’s sister  drove us all the way back to my Mum’s place! Thank you!

Mum has set me up on her car insurance so that we could get around and catch up with everyone.  The next day we wanted to spend some more time with Matt’s Dad so I had to drive into Brum.

I’ve always been more than confident driving in Birmingham.  About 2 weeks after my driving test in ’07 I forced myself to drive to the center of Birmingham town centre to get sheet music so that I’d get over the fear of driving in cities (of course I told mum I was off to Sainsburys..) Since that day, I’ve always found driving in Brum very natural and easy.  BUT….what a difference 20 months living in Adelaide makes!  With it’s relatively quiet and extra wide roads and my car with no gears the drive was very different to back home!  I drove to pick Matt’s dad up (about 30 mins) and was exhausted by the time I got there! Very interesting.  The roads felt really thin, there were buses, people and random bad drivers flying all over the place and whilst I was keeping and eye on all that I had to remember to change gears, in a sports car, without letting it stall.  I’ve never driven a sports car in my life before!  After a few days I was used to driving in the city but i was really surprised at how I responded to something that was so easy and natural before.

Spot the criminal in Birmingham City Center

Shops boarded up in Birmingham Post Riot

Poor ol’ Matt’s Dad got to experience me driving the car, nervously into the city center and we explored.

Now, you may have heard on the news that there has been a “little” disturbance in the cities of England of late.  It was really sad to see so many shops with boarded up windows and “open as usual”signs.   It was also very interesting to see which shops were targeted: Spec Savers (Sun glasses?), Car-phone Warehouse (Mobiles)etc.  It’s been even more interesting watching England respond. Facebook has been full of people saying “RIP” to “Broken Britain” – What’s interesting is the perception of what Britain is… isn’t it made up (at least in part) by YOU, you British people you?  I could rant on and on about community responsibility, how we all have to take some responsibility for our own countries culture… blaming others seems to be a major part of that…  anyway… this isn’t a post about riots  ;)  I did like the big screen in the center of town showing images from cctv to help the public identify the perpetrators! Thankfully, I didn’t recognise anyone.

It was great to catch up with Matt’s Family in person (rather than virtually) and to have a wander around some of our old haunts to see what has changed / stayed the same.

Matt and Dad

I’m pretty sure that we wouldn’t have been taken pictures of shops that were once houses built in 1571!  As Matt snapped these photos someone walking past loudly stated that he had no idea why anyone would want a picture of that….  Britain…. we have Heritage and history!  Move to a country with only 200 years of history and suddenly wattle and daub built in the reign of King Edward the VI seems very exciting indeed and beautiful too!

I found these videos a few weeks ago when someone asked me what a Brummy accent sounded like..

They are so interesting.. Very inspiring to watch. I wonder what the Shenley Kids would make of them?