3 Months at St Katherine's Dock Already

Terry & Murray in the Highlands en route to Inverness


Xmas in London with the Aldridges


My Xmas Pudding

Lois, Lesley and Tinkerbell - Culloden House

New Year's Eve - Culloden House

Lois and Murray on a Lean at Swinton Park Hotel

A BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LONDON – February 2007

We have been in St Katharine’s Dock for nearly 3 months now and apologies for our lack of communication to the blog. If you have been endeavouring to learn what we have been up to I am sure you would have given up by now!!

Anyway where has the time gone and we were thinking 6 months is such a long time and now we have only another 3 months left until we depart in the beginning of May!! We are also planning a visit to NZ in late March for 2/3 weeks primarily to meet our new grandchild due 6th of March – hooray that makes 3!!!!

We continue to enjoy the priviledge of being in London at such a wonderful spot and keep on saying ‘gosh isn’t this such a treat being next to such famous spots – Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Surprise Surprise we continue to meet the odd person on our travels around London who have no idea where St Katharines Dock is!!!!

Despite being in colder conditions than we have been use to in the last 18 months we still cannot believe how mild the winter has been so far – but I am sure it will indeed get colder during the next couple of months or maybe not? Nevertheless we are very well set up for whatever the weather can throw at us and are very cosy indeed.

Naturally we have had a great time catching up with ‘old’ friends during our stay so far and have had a couple of visitors on board staying prior to Xmas. Firstly Murray and Lesley arrived at the beginning of December and stayed for a month and we enjoyed also sharing Xmas Day and New Year’s celebration – or I should say, Hogmanay in Scotland – with them both.

The week leading up to Xmas we had Peter and Gail (I call her Kay now) from Halifax Nova Scotia stay 3 nights on board with us. Fortunately they had arranged tickets to Westminster Abbey and the Royal Albert Hall Xmas concerts which were a fabulous way to get a little culture in for Xmas week.

It was wonderful to have Xmas in London and enjoy the special atmosphere with all the decorations and lighting in the city. We even tackled going into Hamley’s (famous toy store on Regent Street) to buy a couple of small things for our grandchildren Amy and Daniel, but what chaos – oh so many people!!

We had a wonderful Xmas Day with Murray and Lesley and their son Jonathan and Lesley’s parents Joan and Harry at their apartment they had rented in St Paul’s over the Xmas break. It was a meal with all the trimmings washed down by of course some lovely wine etc. I made the Xmas pudding which was my first attempt – it turned out great so I was pleased!!

A few days after Xmas we had another lunch at our friends Ray & Brigitte Webster in Hampstead. Brigitte is French and had done some wonderful little French touches to the meal so we were really spoilt. The have just finished renovating your lovely home which took 2 years!!!

On the 30th of December we flew up to Glasgow and we were picked up by Murray and Lesley in their rental car and driven to Inverness and Culloden House which is where we were to spend the next 4 days and the celebration of ‘Hogmanay’. We joined other friends Carol Ann (Tinkerbell) and Thomas who had flown in from Atlanta Georgia a few days earlier.

Carol Ann and Thomas were married 20 odd years ago on New Year’s Day and have been renewing their vows somewhere around the world on the 1st of January ever since (which was the reason we all went there anyway)!

We were in the Mansion House which was separate to the main house where we had a communal lounge come dining area with a fireplace which was very handy to have our pre and post dinner drinks. There were four suites in the complex and we shared it with another couple from the Midlands – Alan and Sue.

We had a very relaxing 4 days of eating and drinking – the food was very good and the atmosphere even better.

Culloden House is near where the Battle of Culloden was fought in 1746. The English beat the s…. out of the Highlanders, 2000 of whom were killed. Bonnie Prince Charlie ran for it under the protection of Flora Mac Donald until fleeing to France, never to return – makes a good read.

As luck would have it we met a couple, Martin and Patrica, who live in Cambridge. Martin has a business which looks after individuals or company’s that require a professional to take care of the documentation to move their private aircraft, ships and super yachts around the EU. He has offered to help us with getting an extension for AC for the EU for 18 months! Pretty fortunate aren’t we!!
They have also invited us to visit their homes in both Cambridge and Brighton.

After three nights, we headed with Murray and Lesley in their car back towards London with an overnight en route at Swinton Park Hotel in Yorkshire which Lesley had organised at a more than very reasonable cost!

This manor house castle hotel was amazing with grounds to match. Our overnight stay was a real treat – the food, service and surroundings were superb and would probably go as far as to say the food the best we have had for a long time. Cooked by French and served by French – outstanding!! This is where you would go for something different. You wouldn’t believe the sommelier was a New Zealander! Gosh we Kiwis get around don’t we??

The next morning reluctant to leave, we headed back to London. Murray and Lesley hopped on their flight back to Auckland and we retired to our home in St Katharine’s Dock – on our lovely ‘Alpha Crucis’.

We went to the London Boat Show which was very well done. We managed to see and do everything we wanted to in terms of purchase of things and get contacts with regarding to servicing. We were lucky enough to met John Arnold who owns a chartering business and also does corporate hospitality on this marina who gave us two entrance tickets (cost 14 pounds each). John is a fun guy and has invited us to go down to Lymington on the coast where he lives and where his business is based.

Since that time we have been to visit dear friends of Terry’s whom I have met before – Tim and Ann Raven. They live in Shiplake near Henley-on-Thames. We had a wonderful couple of days with them in their lovely home and two very enjoyable lunches at one local pub and an Italian Restaurant in Henley-on-Thames. We even enjoyed some superb NZ Chardonnay that Tim got out of the cellar – nothing like it!!!

We have been fortunate to also meet some other people recently , Peter & Mary Reeve, who have their boat parked next to us and have spent a number of nights and days in their excellent company. We were invited last week to their place in the east coast where they have two and half acres of land with chickens, horses etc. They have a car leasing business and as a side line also look after classic racing cars (60 of them) for someone which we will also have the opportunity to look at – wow!!
One of these cars is being auctioned in Paris by Christies and isexpected to reach in the vicinity of 8 million pounds!!! Amazingly some of these cars in this collection have been and currently are being renovated in little old Christchurch NZ– how about that!!!

Last Sunday we accompanied them on their boat from here to their permanent dock in Wallasea on the river Crouch. They have a very nifty 36 ft go fast cruiser “Blue Tack” which averages 30 knots. The journey took 3 hours. 1 ½ hours down the Thames to Southend-on-Sea and the remainder skirting sandbanks, rounding Foulness Island and moving into the river Crouch. We had dinner at a wonderful country pub owned and operated by Jamie Oliver’s parents and returned home by train by midnight.

Megan Bonetti’s 40th birthday celebration was a wonderful evening held in a private room at a Notting Hill restaurant with 19 of their close friends. Terry was asked to speak on behalf of absent friends and family because of his lifelong friendship with the Bonetti family.

We are going to Milan tomorrow with Megan and Seally for the weekend to see the ‘Last Supper’ and celebrate my Birthday on the 10th of February.

Terry’s brother Tony and Raewyn arrive next week for 10 days on board with us and March is also looking busy with visitors – Ken Everett from Sydney and Don and Glori Watts from Washington State for her birthday. Looking forward to seeing them all!

We promise we will provide much more regular updates in the future.

Love Lois and Terry