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!

Postcard!

Yesterday I got a postcard from Gladys! Here's what she said!



Thank you Gladys and Becky for sending it to me!! I'm really glad you're both having a fab time!