LAST DAY!! Can't believe all our time here has come to an end. Last minute visits, followed by desperate packing, squeezing everything in as well as we could, checking flight details, booking in on line. Piece de resistance........a fast and furious ride in the MG!!! Fabulous thrill and great views as well. I want one!!!photo are On their way. All too soon, family driving us to the airport and sad goodbyes. Homeward bound, leaving on a jet plane , don't know when I'll be back again.

Relatively idle days in Brighton, scenic drives around the old haunts, shopping, visiting friends, walking well known streets. We visited Borde Hill Gardens, and saw and learnt new things...Himalayan poppies and paper handkerchief trees were new to me. Also a 'haha', a ditch dug across the bottom of the garden so that the cattle and peasants could pass across the estate without the gentry seeing them from the grand house.

A must-do was a walk at Cuckmere Haven, a favourite spot further along the Sussex coast. Krista came over. She and I have been friends for over 50 years. A blowy walk from the top of Seaford Head down past the coastguard cottages with stately Views to the even sisters, the chalk white cliffs that are completed by the far horizon of Beachy Head. Below us the Cuckmere River wandered through the flood plains to the sea. We followed the way up beside the river where it continued its path along the valley. It is a very peaceful spot.

We lunched at Litlington, a small cutsy village, where lay the Plough and Harrow pub. Once fed and watered we continued our meandering journey to Alfriston. Thence by car to collect Krista's car.Bob and Sheila returned home, and the three of us found coffee and cake along the coast before K dropped us back home and she herself headed west to her part if the world by the New Forest. The Sussex coast is amazing geologically with pockets of the most amazing countryside, but the coastal towns and villages are not always attractive and seem to be victims of poor 60''s housing schemes. The better villages are slightly inland, taking refuge for the modern age but hiding amongst the trees. Tuesday saw us back in Brighton and after a quick view through a couple of shops. W meet up with Sheila, had coffee and saw M off on a bus to visit an old friend. meanwhile twking advantage of time and weather we went off to visit the pier, a haunt job childhood and also where Peter worked when he first came over to the UK. Very busy for a weekday, but a nice enough day to see along the coast in bit he directions. Te wreck of the West Pier standing forlornly out to sea, more of a wreck this time than it was three years ago. The North Laines was where Peter spent time, so we wander through the narrow streets that ran up to Trafalgar Street and behind. These had been dingy back streets once upon a time, but nowadays lined with ethnic, eccentric and eclectic shops, peopled by people fitting the same descriptions! An afternoon well wandered with many nostalgic thoughts and memories.

The evening was spent with our niece and her new husband. Faith and Jo bought a shell of an old house some time ago and have spent time and energy making it their own. As soon as you walk in the door, you know it is a home, a warm fuzzy feeling. Holly the cat completed the picture. Will miss all my nieces, they are a special lot, not to mention their parents!!

Quite a surreal day today really. We went over to Helmsley on the bus, and spent money at the Jet shop( jet being one of the local stones) and then rendezvous with Lyndsay whom we had previously met in Taupo. She whisked us off over the hills, through Thirsk, past the James Herriot centre and out to her Mother and stepfathers house. A rather splendid Georgian house, with an amazing garden...covering acres, with peacocks roaming around. The house itself has huge rooms,decorated in the most vibrant colours, with large cellars for the wine, a fantastical attic, countless bathrooms, a garden room that was converted from stables, study and offices. It was a wonderful visit with Sandra, Lyndsay and Kevin so welcoming. I wish I had pictures to show you, but we felt it would be impolite to be snap happy. Might have not ask L to do some photos for us. It truly was magnificent. And so home on the bus, our last day in Yorkshire, and so we greeted ourselves to a meal out at the Bay Horse, which was very pleasant.

We could not get a taxi for love nor money and so friday saw us trundling our large suitcases along the road to the bus stop. Didn't seem so bad as when had arrived, and we had plenty of time. The bus came, we got on, it proceeded to York, stopping at every corner it seemed to load a gazillion passengers on. Had a train to catch!!! We made it to the station with 10 minutes to spare and breathed a sigh of relief to be on the train bound for King Cross. We had great instructions to get to St Pancras for a train to Brighton which did away with a cross London trip. Brother John had had a hand in the design of the station which cleverly integrates the old station with the new.

So, we were met by brother Bob and deposited at the Hove residence. Later that evening we joined family at Stanmer House,for a family meal. Stanmer House was a large home set in a woodland that was our childhood playground, the woods not the house. Many a Sunday we would walk though the woods, down to the village, looking at the animals in the pens, having an ice cream at the shop. Much of the woodland was decimated in the hurricane of '87 , but now th re growth is obvious. Unhappily the village is dilapidated now, and while Stanmer house is refurbished and grandly so, the farm buildings and the Sty are sad, grass growing through the cracks, very forlorn. I remembered the donkey wheel, which I am sure was used for grinding corn, but M seemed to think that it was used to pull up water. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanmer_Park I