December 2nd

After picking me up at Heathrow airport, while enroute to his home (about a 3-hour drive),
Steve stopped by the hanger where his friend, Morris, is repairing one of his two planes.

I met Mr. Biggles there (the dog!) … and saw a gigantic “HARE” dash across the private air strip.

During my previous trip (July, 2003), I neglected to take pix of
the INCREDIBLE VISTA from Steve & Rachel’s home!

Clearly, I’m correcting that with THIS TRIP.
In fact, each Day’s PAGE will be headed by a VISTA PIC from that day!

Came around a corner of the house, found a dead goose,
took a pic. Ha! Get over it.

The day I arrived, three men were putting Rachel’s Christmas lights up.
“Father Christmas” has a generator to keep him INFLATED, and he’s lighted from within!

OH! Here is IVY! She’s just a puppy … but, she’s HUGE!

Here is HOLLY with IVY. (Catch the “trend”?)

Here are Andy and Jeff – 2 of the 3 guys who put up the lights.
When Andy and Jeff and their other partner arrived, Steve introduced me to them,
saying, “Come meet the lads!” Jeff was last in line (as it were),
so Andy and the other guy were introduced to me first.
“Here is Andy” … whereupon I shook Andy’s hand and said “Hello” …
“and this is Bill the Dumb” … whereupon I shook THAT guy’s hand,
saying “Hello, Bill the Dumb!” And, he didn’t correct me!
‘Twas a few moments later that I learned Steve had NOT said “and this is Bill the Dumb”
He’d said, “And his brother, Don.” But, I had HEARD “and this is Bill the Dumb”!!!

During the majority of my TOUR, the ONLY person I consistently had difficulty understanding
was the person I was WITH the most – STEVE!!! LOL!

For instance … according to STEVE’s accent these are “SQUIDDLES” not “SQUIRRELS”! (Put your MOUSE POINTER on the PIC!)

I don’t have PIX of what I did on Thursday (December 2nd) NIGHT … DAMMIT!
But, here’s a SYNOPSIS:

• Went to the Somerton Hotel Pub – a pub I’d been to on my last trip!
• RE-Met the “Landlord,” Pete Frayne.
• FIRST met MARK: My “date” for the Wedding!
  His initial comment to me: “You don’t have a beard!”
  (Hello! That’s a joke! Insinuating that Steve had told him I HAD a BEARD!)
  My reply: “You don’t have hair!”
  OOPS! HE DOESN’T!!!
• Went out to dinner at KELWAYS … a wonderful restaurant in an incredibly historic building! …
  
  with Steve, Rachel, their daughter Cody & son Celtan,
  MARIA (the youngest of their THREE Foster Daughters … and the BRIDE
  of the upcoming wedding!), and MARK!

If you have information or suggestions for myne 2004 UK TOUR Website
– or PHOTO contributions for it! –
PLZ Email Me!
c-d-miller@neb.rr.com
That’s: c-d-miller@neb.rr.com –
those are hyphens/dashes (-) between the “c” and “d” and “miller”