Bury St Edmunds

We were sad to leave our friends behind - we had such a wonderful time with them. We flew from Dublin to Gatwick and were greeted by grey drizzle which we drove through on the M25 around London, to Bury St Edmunds which is a town close to Cambridge.

My aunt lives here with her husband and we arrived in the late afternoon in time for a cup of tea. They have just moved into this house, which is incredible. It is built into the ruins of the Abbey which fell into disrepair during Henry VIII's reign. At that time, it was the largest Abbey in Europe. There is now a cathedral and the most beautiful gardens around the ruins which are open to the public. There is a wall of houses beside the Cathedral which is where their house is.

It is really the most amazing place to live. It is four storeys, and the top floor has been labelled the grotto by Susan, as there is this cave like wall that cannot be touched and the house has been built around it. Next to the front door is a wall, and behind this is the kitchen, but the wall is fourteen feet thick!

It was dark on our arrival and in the morning, when I looked out of our bedroom window, this is the view:



I have been fighting a cold this week and the weather is not exactly enticing for the tourist. But it has been fun to lie low and pretend that I live here in style. Yesterday we had a mad panic realising that we had to apply for visas for China and needed to do this now, rather than on our arrival in Hong Kong, which is what our travel agent had advised. The rules had changed on November 1st. We had to pay a fortune to get it done via an organisiation in London, who do the leg work for you, but it removes the angst and hopefully, they will arrive by post on Monday, with our passports! The Chinese Embassy is just around the corner from where we were staying in London - silly me!

My cousin by name visited yesterday who I had not seen for thirty years. We had such fun together and reminsced about our teenage exploits and the fun we had had together in Sydney in 1978. She now has a thirteen year old son who is autistic and is his full time carer - so she had a 24 hour break which we managed to fill with eating, shopping, talking and laughing endlessly.

Keith went into Cambridge by bus and registered to use the library and spent the remainder of the day there. He has returned there today and Susan and Ricky have left us alone for two nights - they have gone up to Cambridge together. I think this is my first afternoon and evening alone and I am about to cook dinner on the Aga and a quiet night in.

It is nice not to be a tourist and just be domestic. I think that Susan and Ricky are hoping that we don't burn their house down in their absence.

Tomorrow I am going into Cambridge with Keith to meet up with Gerald Bray and Marty Forde.