Day 145, 26 November 2012, Chelmsford, Travel arranging and packing day. It was pouring this morning and lying under the roof with the rain beating onto the skylight, getting up was the furthest thing from our minds. But we got there eventually. Pictured you see the flooded path we encountered yesterday on our walk - it was actually worse than it looks. Fortunately today we'll be heading in the other direction - a walk into town to secure tickets for our 6 am ...

Day 144, 25 November 2012, Chelmsford to Writtle walk for lunch at the pub. Mission failed. In complete contrast to yesterday, today dawned with blue sky and blazing sunshine. So despite the urge to curl up in bed, we dressed and headed off for a walk in the country. You may recall we headed to the nearby village of Writtle last week, and had a huge time. We tried to do it again but half way there, the path was covered in flood water and we had to backtrack ...

Day 135, 16 November 2012, Chelmsford. Having (eventually) done everything on our to do list yesterday, today we walked to the town centre via Admirals Park at the edge of Chelmsford. Very gray, cold, misty day and even the ducks looked a bit chilled as they paddled about aimlessly. We explored the local Chelmsford Market and felt the first pings of Christmassy-ness when we saw wreaths with holly and berries. It was getting dark by 3 pm due to the low clouds s...

Day 134, 15 November 2012, Chelmsford... Enough to make you avoid information desks... We headed into town after lunch to print out our many and varied e-tickets and booking confirmations for the forthcoming trips to York, Edinburgh ad Budapest. Not knowing the town too well, we googled the Visitor Information Centre. That led us to the County Hall where there was a mildly helpful looking receptionist... but no information as such. (Note, just to get here we ...

Day 133, 14 November 2012, NEWSFLASH!!!! Actually left the house today to explore downtown Chelmsford - Walked to the railway station and then kept going and discovered Chelmsford's bustling high street, specialty shops and malls. Crossed the Chelmer River twice and even saw the Cathedral (picture from internet... who knew we'd need the camera!) Browsed the real estate agents windows, looked in the clothes shops and pressed noses against jewellers windows. All...