Post Olympics work and travels

Hello All

So I left of last time saying it was time for us to look very seriously for work again and almost no sooner had I posted the blog when our old boss from the campsite at Hadrian’s Wall called us.  He’d been caught short again so we promptly headed north again.  Brief stops at Henley on Thames, Stafford and Little Morton Hall broke up our journey.  Then we promptly settled back into the caravan and campsite routine again.  Summer at Hadrian’s Wall proved to be just as wet as last year which was a shame.  While at Hadrian’s Wall we visited Aydon Castle, Belsay Hall and Cragside.  We stayed 6 weeks until 22^nd September.  We had to get south so Nicky could go to Paris with her sister Amy.

Hadrians Wall Campsite

Aydon Castle

 Belsay Hall

Cragside

On the way south we visited Alston, drove through some of working class Lancashire not usually on the tourist route, peak district, Sheffield (Kelham Island Museum) and visited Mark (my brother) and Dana in Northampton.  The next day we visited Stowe Landscape Gardens before meeting a prospective employer in Wickham near Newbury (where we were offered a job but to save a long story we are not there).

Stowe Landscape Gardens

Then Nicky caught up with Amy and got the train to Paris, while I visited the Tower of London, caught up with former work mates at Hireright and had a drink with Greg Spooner.  While Nicky was away I headed out into East Sussex and Kent and visited Bayham Old Abbey and Sissinghurst Castle before picking them up from Ashford Station where we went shopping at the adjacent outlet mall.  On the way to Bournemouth we took Amy to the Brighton waterfront, Boxgrove Priory, Portchester Castle and Christchurch.  We spent a couple of hours in central Bournemouth before going to Winchester and visiting the City Mill and Great Hall.  We followed this by going to Chawton where Nicky and Amy visited Jane Austen’s House.  Then we took Amy to the train at Virginia Water where she could get back to Clapham.  We had a bit of a scare on this drive when a pigeon flew out of the trees and slammed into our windscreen.

The next day we had an interview at The Grandison in Bramfield, Hertfordshire where we have now been working for almost 2 weeks.  We are live-in above the pub, Nicky has a really challenging position as the Sous Chef which is good and serve in the restaurant and bar.  We are hoping this will work well and see us through to the end of our Visa’s.

Sissinghurst Castle