Isle of Wight...... Land of the McDoogles...

A very big SORRY to Karen Brown.

I apologise to Karen for not writing in my blog about the wonderful Isle of Wight and all the fun I had there......... 

On the Isle of Wight in a little house in Newport (that is surrounded by such a lovely garden - it even has a newt pond!) lives the lovely family of the McDoogles. The leader of the family is Karen, such a wonderful person (a one in a million kind of person) she just accepted me into the family, made me feel at home and loved. Yes she did also make me do the ironing and help her clean up the garden but this was fine as I wanted to help anyway.

This is an extract from my journal...
16/5
Stirling aged six is wonderful, so lovely and lively, just a great little boy. We had a falling out the other day over such a little thing, so we where "no longer friends" but eventually I got in his good books again. 

I can't write how he says my name, but its like a- COO-sha-la. 

We are all sorts of things together, like pirates looking for treasure; or secret agents on a mission to capture daddy; explorers trekking through the wild jungle of the amazon.
I really love his outlook on life, the simplicity and joy of childhood. He is so imaginative and just plain old sweetie pie... most of the time. :)

Time is running out... I will continue to shamelessly flatter the Isle of Wight another time.
xoxo Cush

Jane Austenland - Bath

Just a quick line to say.....
narny narny nar nar I'm in Bath.......and it's wonderful!
lots of love Acushla.

England

What to say?
I arrived at Heathrow and had no problems going through. I had to go up and ask if I was allowed to bring in dates and other organic material that you could never get into Australia, but unless you've got too many kilogrammes of cigarettes or too much alcohol they don't care and waved me through. I met Polly who is really nice. We then took the Tube into London. As soon as we got out of the station you knew you were in London - everything about the place screams ENGLAND! The funny houses, the people running around in big coats, the 'Tube' and even the stop signs are English. The weather where everyone said it was lovely, sunny and mild, but I still had on 3 jumpers. (I am actually getting used to the climate and am only wearing one jumper). Polly's family are so lovely. The next day Polly helped me open up bank accounts and do all the paperwork that needed doing. We also just 'walk(ed) the streets of London'. We went to Hamleys toy shop which was so cool. People were paid to play with toys all day and there was like six floors each one for a different kind of toy - "Boys", "Girls", "Soft Toys", "Games" etc...
We also went to Libertys (Maddy you may have to come to London for the fashion).
We went to Piccadilly Circus and saw Eros. Then to Kings Cross railway station and St Pancras which Polly is very proud of. It is a lovely station and a real effort was put into restoring it - it does look really lovely. We had quite a busy day and got lots done.
That night we had some more family over for dinner - more lovely people. And, as it is the show to watch here, Polly, Jamie and I watched "The Apprentice" the first bit of TV I have watched since leaving Australia.

On Thursday I caught a train up to Skegness to see Grandma and Grandpa Burden. That is where I am now just looking around the local towns. Today we are going off to Lincoln if the weather will let us.

I really like it here - everything is just so different. And it is great to just hang out with Grandma and Grandpa.
Love you all lots,
Acushla