Gus Is Home!

I'm happy to report that Gus made his way back to Oz safely afew weeks ago! Yay! He was very tired after his journey apparently!

Thank you again for being my Little Visitor, Gus. It was a pleasure!

Gladys Is Baaack!

To my suprise - Gladys arrived back home to me on Friday! It took less than a week to get from Australia to England! Here are the fab goodies she brought with her...

Here's the amazing scrapbook and some of my favourite pages...

Some cute toys and origami!

Shot Glass from the zoo, 3D glasses, Guides Badge, Chop sticks and a really pretty cross stitch

Bookmark, Oz Slang book and leaflet

Sweeties!

Beautiful Aboriginal art work

Also, not pictured, was a fab bag I was told was used as packaging, but I love it! I gave it to my Mum to carry her shopping in!

Once again, Thank you beckashell for all the great goodies and for looking after Gladys so well!! She won't stop talking about her adventures! :D

Return To Oz

It was very emotional, but I said goodbye to Gus on Friday :( He is on his way back to Australia.


I've had such a great summer with him - we've been on tons of adventures and had lots of fun! I sent him back with lots of goodies for Becky and her family that I've been collecting for the past few months - the package cost a fortune to post!!

I'll let you know when Gus is back home safely - hopefully it won't take him too long :)

Take care, Gus!! -x-

Sussex and Mail

I got a 3rd postcard from Gladys today!




Thank you Gladys and Becky! It's gone straight onto my postcard wall!

Last week we went on a road trip to Sussex. I haven't got any pictures to show you as I only got 4, and they're going in the scrapbook :) But I can tell you a bit of what happened :)

We set out in the morning and made our way, yet again, to Kent. We've been there so much lately! We traveled all the way through Kent and into the county of Sussex. I haven't been here since I was a kid.

Our first stop was the seaside town of Hythe. It has a pretty peddle beach and a fab chip shop! Gus shared my chips as we sat in the car :D Next we went onto another seaside town, Camber Sands. My Mum used to go here on holiday when she was little.

We went to the beach, but the tide was so far in that there was hardly any beach there! We did see a MASSIVE seagull there though! We had a walk round and visited some gift shops in the area.

We then went to Rye, which is a little town that's full of antique and craft shops. There was so much stuff there! Gus loved the little needle felted donkey I bought. They got on really well!

Our last stop was yet another seaside town - Hastings. I have to admit - it wasn't my favourite place. It was a bit grubby. But we took a walk down the seafront anyway, and bought some postcards.

We were stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam on the way back to the Dartfort tunnel on the way home. It was sooooo boring. Gus kept us entertained though with tales from all the LV swaps he's been on. He's been a very busy turkey!

This will probably be our last adventure :( I'm in the middle of finishing off his scrapbook, and will then think about sending him home next week. I'm really gonna miss him!

Chislehurst Caves and Tilbury Fort

On Sunday we took the drive down to the county of Kent, to visit Chislehurst Caves. I've wanted to take Gus here ever since I found out I would be taking part in the swap! I couldn't get any pictures of Gus in the actual caves themselves as it was too dark - but here he is with some locals...


Notice the picture is blurry? I took several pictures here at the entrance to the caves and they all came out blurry. They say the caves are haunted! Spoooooky!

Chislehurst Caves are a network of man made caves dating back all the way to the Saxons, Romans and the Druids. The caves are split up into them 3 parts, the Druids part being a maze of walkways and also contains Druid alters where they held human sacrifice. In WWII the caves were opened up to the public to use as a sort of under ground bunker to shelter them from the bombs above. It cost 1p a night to stay! Down there they had churches, shops, a cinema and a hospital. A baby girl was even born down there. Here is Gus looking at old photos from the war.


I've been on the tour before, it's great! We also learned that rock concerts have taken place there too, bands like The Who, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix and lots of others.

After the caves we travelled back up to Essex, and to Tilbury Fort. The fort is from the 16th century, and was built along the Thames Estuary to protect London. It's said that Henry VIII built the first fort, and Queen Elizabeth I rallied her army here to face the Armarda. Here is Gus taking a look at some of the tank/gun things they have on display there.


On the approach to the fort you walk along the side of the Thames, and on a clear day like Sunday you can see Gravesend in Kent on the other side of the water.


After that we headed back down the A13 home. It was a fun day - Gus said he liked the caves best! So did I!

Yesterday we went on a road trip to Sussex. I'll have pictures up soon!

Ikea

Last week we all went on a shopping trip to Ikea, in nearby Thurrock.


We were on the look out for bathroom cabinets, but that didn't stop Gus and I having fun!


He said his favourite department was the beds, because he got to have a rest from all the photo taking!


Today we went to Chislehurst Caves and Tibury Fort - pictures to come! :D

Postcard!

I recieved another postcard from Gladys! Yay!

Sounds like she's having a fab time with Becky in OZ! I wish I was there!

Thank you Gladys and Becky, I've just started collecting postcards so this is great! :D

London Part 2

On Monday Gus came along on our second London trip :)

We visited Embankment again because we were out of Wasabi Peas - Gus' favourite new snack! We also visited Big Ben, The London Eye, Houses Of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and took a LONG walk along the South Bank of the Thames. This picture was taken from Blackfriars Bridge...


Along the South Bank, by the London Eye (where it was PACKED with tourists) are people dressed up in various costumes and doing tricks and stuff. Look who we found!


Yay! I introduced him to Gus and they got along well! The man held him for a while and said he was 'good quality - not from Ikea' lol! Gus took it as a compliment!

We had trouble finding a station after our walk! But while wandering round looking for one we came across this cool statue...


I have quite afew pictures from our day, but like always I'm saving them for the scrapbook :)

Langdon Hills

On Wednesday we took the short drive to our local country park, Langdon Hills. Here is Gus at the entrance to the Westley Heights area.

It is a huuuuge park and wildlife reserve down the road from us, with acres and acres of fields, woods and hills.


Gus took in the countryside views, and spotted this lone house in the middle of Westley Heights. Must be so peaceful to live there.


We walked around for a bit and found a bench made out of concrete and tree trunks, with this written into it:


Here's Gus relaxing on a gate lol!


Then it was on to the One Tree Hill area, which is about 5 more minutes away. Seriously, Langdon Hills is massive!


My Dad helped Gus climb on top of these wooden mushrooms! Trust Gus to want to sit on the tallest one there! :D


Dotted around Langdon Hills are these wooden sculptures made out of old tree trunks. Here's a few of them...




... and a toilet used as a flower pot!


We climbed up the steps to the top of a hill, where there are some fab views. We found the place also where there used to be a sun dial, but it's gone for some reason :S Probably stolen...


As it was a nice day, we decided to drive back to Westley Heights to have a drink at The Crown - a local pub that's been there since before I can remember. Gus had a coke and shared some peanuts with my parents. I hate peanuts.


I was determined to see some cows. And my Mum wanted to see rabbits - so we had a little wander into Westley Heights again. We found some cows!


But that wasn't all we found :( Just seconds after this picture was taken we were attacked by a load of angry wasps! They just came out of nowhere! We all got stung, except Gus who I defended to the last! My Mum's sting got so bad she's had to go on anti-biotics :( I kind of wish we hadn't gone looking for them cows...

Apart from that, it was a nice evening. Gus said this was what he thought England would be like - all countryside and rolling hills. I'm glad he wasn't dissapointed! Or stung!

Town Centre and St. Martin's Church

On Friday we went on the weekly shopping trip to Basildon Town Centre.

First we stopped off in Card Factory to get a birthday card. Gus made friends with some of the bears...

Then we went to Wilkinsons, where he helped me pick out some fab yarn for my crocheting. He liked the blue :)

We walked back up the mall towards Asda, where we found this massive World Cup statue in Eastgate!

We then got to Asda to do the usual boring food shopping and stuff.

Whilst in town aswell I stopped off at St. Martins Church. It's our local church, everyone in my family has been married and christened there and I thought it would be a nice place to show Gus.


It also has the worlds one and only steel and glass bell tower - saving that pic for the book!

Although it was only a shopping trip we had a nice time. Gus helped us unpack everything when we got home too - he's very helpful!

London Part 1

On Saturday Gus came along with my Mum and I on a day trip to London.

We started our trip at Basildon train station and got the C2C train to Fenchurch Street, which is opposite the Tower Of London and London Bridge. So we stopped there for a little while to take in the sights and get some photos. I'm saving most of them for his scrapbook though :)




We then headed to Embankment station. My favourite sushi shop Wasabi is at Embankment, so we stopped off there and I spent £12 on sushi lol! Gus had a big seaweed Onigiri - he said it was yummy!

After our sushi stop in a nearby park we walked along to Chinatown, but on the way we passed Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square - que more photos at places like the Odeon cinema where they do all the premieres, Nelsons Column and the National Gallery.



I've never been to Chinatown before, even though I've been visiting London for 25 years, so it was all new to me too! It was great there - all the chinese resturants and shops selling asian goods. Gus' favourite shop was a sweet shop that sold Japanese sweets and food. He talked me into buying a big tin of wasabi peas to take home with me, and some fun chocs for Becky. While we were in Chinatown we also visited some gift shops, where again we collected some bits for Gus to send home with him.


We then wanted to visit Covent Garden, but got lost :( But it was great that it happened as we found some fab shops along the way! There was a Kidrobot shop, The London Bead Store and a cute shop selling Totoro toys and gifts! I spent waaaaay to much money in these places!

We got back on the train and headed to Bethnal Green. It was one of the hottest days of the year on Saturday and the trains were all sticky and nasty. Gus hated it, he said he thought England would be all rainy and cold!

At Bethnal Green we visited the Bust magazine Craftacular - a big craft fair that's held at York Hall twice a year. As Gus is a turkey he didn't have to pay to go in! He had fun looking at all the great crafts available there and stopped off at the bar for a coke.

Back on the train and we were heading back to Bank station, where we got a connecting train to take us back to Fenchurch Street and home. We were all really tired when we got back, but Gus said he'd had a fab day looking round London. I told him if he liked it that much we could go back one day soon and look at more of the sights if he liked, and he jumped at the chance! So there will be a London Part 2 coming soon!