A bit about our travels...

So now to the travels. First in UK.

We took another trip into the Cotswolds a while ago and visited a National Trust house called >> Snowshill Manor. It was a big old house that an eccentric old man lived in. He had traveled the world and collected a vast array of 'stuff' that he kept in the house. Every single inch of the house was covered in 'things'. He couldn't even live in it - he slept in a small cottage out the back. The garden was also very beautiful. Unfortunately I lost my phone (left it on the train would you believe) and with it about two months worth of photos so here's some from the web.

first the front of the house...

then the back and the garden...

and finally, on the way there, we passed a lavender field. It wasn't in flower yet but here's a pic of it in full bloom...

So after visiting the Manor, we decided to take a long way back to the motorway and passed through our 'new favourite village'TM. Broadway. It was a true Cotswold village and the shops...we could have spent thousands of pounds! Once again, photos were in camera that I lost but here's some web photos.

So that was our trip to the Cotswolds.

The next big adventure was going to see Michael Ball in Concert at Oakley Manor in Basingstoke.

It was a bit of a rush to get to the concert as I was flying back from Madrid (in Arun's private jet no less!) but we made it to the concert with just minutes to spare before it started. We had Gold seats right up the front. It was an outdoor concert in the grounds of this huge manor house in Basingstoke called Oakley Hall.

There was a drinks tent and all different types of food. It was very civilised. There was only about 500 people there so felt very intimate - like he was performing a concert for a few friends in the backyard (some backyard though!!!)

The concert was awesome and he was in full voice. It felt very weird that we were watching this guy sing after being introduced to him in an Andrew Lloyd Webber special on TV all those years ago in Wellington. He even sang at our wedding (Love Changes Everything)...tonight we finally got to see him sing it live.

It was funny, he started singing this song about an hour into it and it was like the cue or something because all these women just started rushing for the front of the stage creating a mosh pit! Man, it was funny. All these grey haired ladies banging along at the front of the stage. We actually joined them after a while so we could get a close up look. We have some phone photos but will add these later.

It was a superb night and made us truly grateful that we had been given the opportunity to live here for a year.

Another occasion where we loved being in the UK was a day at the Polo. We got to watch Prince William and Prince Harry play in the Vodafone Charity Polo Cup. Here's a few photos of the day (but we didn't take them)...

There was only about 150 people there. We were at a charity lunch but didn't really know anyone and then wandered down to the pitch to watch the game. It was an entertaining game - easy to watch - and we all went in and 'tread the divots' at half time.

After the match there was a prize giving and here's a few pics from our video camera...just to show how close we got...

There was a little bit of coverage in the press as apparently Harry drove around the grounds with friends on the bonnet of his car drinking...shocking!

Finally...a couple of trips to Europe.

I got to fly to Madrid for the Chief Executive's first Roadshow. I flew with Arun in his private jet and have to say - that's the way to travel! I was only in Madrid for 24 hours and didn't get to see much of the city but did go out for dinner with the Spanish comms team. We ate in an outdoor restaurant in a large plaza (square). Dinner was at 10pm (as is the way in Spain) and was a Tapas meal with a few glasses of wine. European food is simply the best!

The restaurant was just to the left of this photo...

I also travelled to Milan this week which was beautiful (Rome is still my favourite though). I was there for a meeting and got to spend a couple of hours looking round the centre of Milan - lots of Gucci, Prada etc and LOTS of tagging and graffiti but also an amazing cathedral (Il Duomo). Unfortunately, as seems to be the way round Europe at the moment, it was being restored and so the front was covered in scaffolding. I had my bags with me so couldn't go in (didn't really want to leave them with the guards) so here's some photos from the web.

Have some more photos (like the beer glasses when we had a beer in the Gucci shop!) but will need to get these off my phone - more soon...