Fond Farewell & Life Goes On

This week saw our son Matthew leave the UK for a period of time in Australia. He has a one year visa, but if he does some regional work (farming or mining?) he could stay for two. As you may have read he has left his job, said goodbye to most of his friends and family and is leaving for Oz on Tuesday 9th March from Heathrow. He is flying via China, where he will have a six day stop over in the hope of seeing some of Beijing and the Great Wall. We wish him well, but will miss him and hope this blog goes some way to keeping him up to date with what's happening here in the UK. He has his own blog and Facebook too, so we should be able to keep up with him too.

Monday was spent tying up some lose ends with Matt and in the evening we went for our last supper to the Heath Pie and Mash Shop in Dagenham. Since going there with his nan when he was very young he has developed a real love of it and it was his wish that we all went there for a farewell meal. In the day we went to the cemetery to put some flowers on Pete's mum and dad's grave, as Matt wanted to go there before he left.

On Tuesday we took Matt to Heathrow. His sister came too and although we were all sad to see him go Matt was the more emotional. Still he has gone now and although we were happy to see him go off on his adventure we will probably miss him more and more as the months go by - still, a good opportunity/reason for a holiday in Oz.

Pete had to be in Essex for Wednesday so we returned home late that night. The rest of the week was spent at home and for a change we had some really spring-like weather. On Saturday Pete went for a walk to Snapes Point with Brian and Hannah his three-legged bearded collie, while Julie rowed with Nola. That evening we went out for a meal with Nola and Brian and enjoyed the singing of the combined Devon choirs (run by Nola's choir mistress) at the Seven Stars Hotel in Totnes.

On Sunday Pete had to travel back to Essex for work in the evening, but in the day we went to the RNLI open day at Bowringsleigh House. The last few times we've been the gardens have been alive with flowers, however, this year due to the cold winter everything was late and there was very little to see. It was a lovely day though and nice place to be in the sunshine for a few hours.

You can see Matt's pictures and follows his exploits on facebook or his Blog from the link on this page in the side panel.