As we prepare to leave London

The last couple of weeks have been both interesting and challenging.  We have had to make a few last minute changes to our plans and will now leave here on August 12th, when we will fly to to Naples.  We were originally driving to Italy, but it seems the universe had other plans for us and we have gone with that flow.  Bruce, our ever reliable Volvo, will go to the scrap yard here in London and we will hire a car in Italy for our time there instead.  We will spend a week on the Amalfi Coast staying in an apartment in a Villa and then will move to Spoleto in Umbria for a further week.  Situations have made it necessary that we approach our time in Italy in rather a laid back manner.....not a bad thing at all I am thinking.  After Spoleto we will have four days in Rome and then will fly to Bangkok for about eight days before flying back home to Australia arriving on September 10th.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Illfracombe in Devon, for a lovely weekend with friends Gill and Deva.  Richard went to Uni with Deva and it was through Richard's girlfriend at the time that Gill and Deva met!  We had a lovely time going for walks, visiting delightful seaside villages and going out for meals and drinks.  They have the cutest little Cocker Spaniel, Ren, who has made such an impact on me!  I really am thinking that I am not sure that life will continue for too much longer in our household without the sound of little paws!  Let's just say I have been doing a lot of browsing lately!  Here are some of the sights we enjoyed around Illfracombe

...and this is Gill, Deva and Richard enjoying a drink in a lovely little bar called 'Eclectic'

We also visited a gorgeous little town called Clovelly (pronounced 'Clo' -like toe and 'Valley').  It clings onto a cliff side and the only access is walking in via a cobbled roadway.  We were speculating that it was probably a smugglers den in years gone by! The cobbles are small and I guess you could very easily turn an ankle on them.  It is incredibly steep.  To get stuff in and out of town the locals have old plastic bread crates that they have attached wooden slides to (I wish I had taken a photo) and they drag these up and down the hill.  The sleds are either pulled by humans or donkeys.  There is a road to the bottom, but there is very limited access that way!

The back of Gill, Deva and Ren!

It was certainly a lovely weekend!

Check out this cool graffiti I found a few days ago just down the road from my house!

Finally for this post, on Tuesday I went out for dinner with some of my favourite Londoners.  I will miss these people enormously!

Now back to some more packing and organising!