Our Stuff Arrives from Australia!!!!

This was another excuse to go and visit the wonderful Mary in Sandford Orcas. But to validate the need to travel we did do some sight-seeing first. So here is the story of the last few days.

Pippa, Anouk and I set off just before lunch on Tuesday to head for Mary, mainly to stay overnight to be ready to meet the removals truck at 9am at Sandford Orcas. Our first stop was Taunton to get a SIM card for Pippa's 3rd attempt at a reliable phone. We had forgotten Anouk's lead so we had also to visit the £2 shop and buy another lead. The '3' shop said the phone was locked on a 2 plan and could not be upgraded to a 3 plan. What ever!! The general mobile shop was happy to sell us a SIM card and would test if the phone was unlocked from the previous card. However as the phone was not charged, we could not test this and the visit to Taunton was declared hopeless and we headed for the M5 for the fun part of this trip and cheese and pickle sandwiches which are also fun.

First stop, Nunney near Frome, for a look at the 14th century Nunney Castle. We scoffed on cheese and pickle sandwiches along the road for lunch. Nunney Castle is the ruins of a castle built by Sir John de la Mere as he gained favor with the royals and his affluence, and influence, grew. It is small on a castle scale, but big enough to be impressive, even as a ruin. There is a moat surrounding and apart from the few bits of litter in the moat, it was very picturesque.

After Nunney Castle we still had time before Mary was expecting us. So I navigated through the lanes to King Alfred's Tower. We had no real idea what to expect but we thought we could see it on a distant hill. Navigation and driving fine, we found the road leading to the Tower. We spotted what we thought was the tower in a valley and decided this must be it and stopped. What ever we saw on the hill was something else. However the 'tower' we saw was St Peter's Pump.

St Peter's Pump marks the head of the Stour River on the Stourhead Estate. Of course we only found all this out after parking and walking down the valley to the 'tower'. A National Trust sign identified the Pump and gave the history of the Hoare family who own the Estate now and the 6 wells that use to feed the fishponds and ultimately the Stour River. But even discovering this was not King Alfred's Tower, it was worth the walk as the valley was beautiful and Anouk got a much needed run around.

Back in the car and 2 minutes down the road we saw a 'tower' on a hill top. Gee I wonder if this is King Alfred's Tower? Well of course it was. But built in honour of King Alfred, rather than by King Alfred. Still very impressive and marking the site where Alfred the Great, King of Wessex mustered the Saxons to fight the Danes before joining England as one country. It worked and he went down in history for this achievement and a few others...like giving the English their language back.

The tower is brick and 3 sided. In the summer it is open to the public and one can climb the 300+ steps to the top. Apparently according to Mary it is worth it for the views. However we were there in winter, it was freezing....even according to Pippa... and we walked around it briefly for the happy snaps and made a quick bee line to the car. Anouk, with all the running, had kept her feet clean until the last puddle before the car and promptly jumped into it.....bloody dog!!

From here a quick drive, except that I was challenged by left and right in Wincanton, to Mary's house and the promised pub dinner (see previous blog). The pub was the Mitre Inn in Sandford Orcas and it was great. The food was superb with Pippa and I having the mushroom and nut roast with a red currant gravy/sauce. Big comfortable wing backed chairs and atmosphere to boot. I love English pubs, which for me is a big call as I hated Australian pubs with a vengeance.

But we were here to assist in our stuff arriving which it did. I would like to say in good order. I think the Pickfords people in England were great. They unloaded everything in Mary's garage and a few things into the house. However my piano took quite a hammering and the frame was broken. It was fairly shaky and I hope it still works. Unfortunately we could not test as we did not have a British/Australian adaptor to plug it in. A close call with one of the ski bags which looked very bent on the truck but after inspection from Pippa showed all to be good.

So apart from the damage to my piano which I don't know the full extent of, we had a great few days and saw heaps. I fly back to Australia on Monday night and will land on Wednesday morning then off to Canberra a few days later. Not looking forward to being separated from Pippa and Anouk again, but am looking forward to catching up with everyone as I thought it would be years before I would be in Australia again.