Biggin Hill RAF memorial chapel

Visited this small chapel at Biggin Hill RAF station dedicated to all the young men of the Commonwealth
who flew off from there and never returned.  This writing was engraved on one of the windows:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, joining the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds - and done a hundred things you have
not dreamed of.
Wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along and, flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never a lark, or even eagle flew and, while with silent mind I've trod the high untresspassed
sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Magee (Royal Canadian Air Force) 1940

more about the holiday

The thoughts make me laugh now but at the time it was quite alarming.   On our first breakfast day a fellow (not my fellow surprisingly) set the toaster on fire and the alarms throughout the hotel screamed out so we all piled out
into the carpark some still clutching their toast and me (handbag).  We did not return to the dining room as it was smoky and smelly.   Second morning we woke up to find our bathroom flooded as water trickled out of the cystern so we eventually went off for the day half ready as we had to move pronto to allow the plumber to get in.
That's that -  we were saying to each other the following evening as we all returned from a day out but as we put our foot in the entrance hall the alarms went off again and the kitchen staff ran outside  (not before us though!)
this time it was an over heated hotplate in the kitchen but it took the next hour of on/off sirens before they set the alarms again.   'They must get it right so they can go off again about 2.00am' says my dear one!   They didn't.

Holidays

Just back from a short holiday in Kent - weather was good - hotel excellent - friends on good form - lovely places to visit - but now we're back and the house is full, and I do mean FULL of dirty washing.  The oldies did not creat too much but the younguns brought enough back from their holiday in Cornwall to fill six washing machines and it is all piled high in my kitchen waiting to be dealt with.   Do we need any of it just at this moment? noooooo of course not - it will wait for my pleasure.  There are downsides to everything and unpacking, washing and replacing everything in the drawer is the darker side of a holiday.   It won't stop us doing it all again as soon as we get some more money together.

Funny and true!

John Bishop is a Liverpool comedian who makes me laugh a lot and the other night I watched him on TV and he said::-
       'It does help if you look at old photographs of your teenagers from time to time just to remind
        yourself that you once loved them!'              Yes............

A difficult day today!!!

Today has been a day needing a lot of patience - dear one away for the day - packing for four people's holidays - a teenager feeling unwell with tonsillitis - and simply stacks of washing/ironing.   However! days like this come to try us and next week I won't be able to remember it.

I like this:

The world is out there
the sun in your eyes
the wind in your hair
a flutter of snow
a shower of rain
love - hurt - misery........whatever!
it's yours
this day will never come around again.
Treasure your life.

Busy Day

Our day started early with an 8.30am appointment in the centre of the city at the orthodontic clinic.  Setting off at 7.30 to fight our way through the early rush hour we found every traffic light at GO so we went  -   and managed to get there early.  Poor Miss Hickett has a real mixed up set of teeth so the visit was for her but Jamax had to come along too as he is home from school with tonsillitis.   All sorts of things happened as the orthodontist who said his name was Peter tried to sort out the best way to make a good brace for her before she goes to High School in September.
All my TV viewing for this evening had to be set aside as we planned an outfit to wear for school tomorrow.
It has to be a well known book character and though we thought of plenty of them we did not have the materials (or time)
to make an outfit.  Eventually we settled for Mary Poppins as we do have a long black skirt, a top and a long cardigan, so these topped with a hat and umbrella looked quite good.  If she doesn't get house points for the outfit there'll be trouble.

I like this remark by a lady called Babs??
'Stop worrying about the potholes in the road,
just enjoy the journey.

Oh! if only we could.

Wednesday

Haven't blogged for ages as I have not been able access my account - don't know why but after trying for a while I would lose interest and drift away but this morning I tried every version in my head and diary and eventually I succeeded - I guess this is just a temperamental blog space as it happens all the time with my
friend in Oz  
.Woken up at 6.45am by Jamax in my room with a glowing red face and a soaring temperature
after a bit of TLC and a cold cloth he resurfaced and has been fine since he woke up again at 9.30am.
Must have been a bug - hope he's alright for school tomorrow as I have lots to do.
I have to pack 4 cases with all weather holiday clothes - rain,heat,cold,hot and any other type of weather the
climate can throw at us.....only in the UK.