Saturday 29 August 2009

St. Martins Church and Bell Tower






On the way back from the craft fair last Saturday we had to walk through the town centre. We went past St. Martins church and it's famous bell tower. It's the one and only glass and steel bell tower in the world, and has been a local landmark for many years now.

Although Walter is a buddist; he appreciated the pretty church building and it's surrounding gardens. Most of my family have been married and christened at this church, so it's an important place to me and I'm happy Walter got to see it!

We also walked past a hand carved statue in the town square; I don't think anyone's quite sure what it's of, but it's been there for ages now so we took a pic of that too lol!
Walter's time in Basildon is coming to an end sadly; I've really grown attached to him! In his last week here I plan to take him shopping with me to the town centre and to Southend. Possibly on the train again, maybe by car lol!

Saturday 22 August 2009

Craftacular!










Today Walter, my Mum and I went to the Bust Craftacular in Bethnal Green, London. The venue, York Hall, is famous in London for hosting boxing matches.

Walter was excited about going on the trains and going to London again! We left home at about 11am and got to Bethnal Green station about 1 hour later. Not bad going!

When we got there we were surprised to see a massive queue going right round the corner of the street to get into the craft fair! We joined the end and waited. The first 100 people there got a goodie bag, but we were no way in the first 100 lol!

Inside there were 50 vendors selling all sorts of fab handmade items, music from live DJ's and a coffee shop. I love craft fairs, and Walter was very happy to be amongst crafty people! We had a good look round at the lovely vendors stuff and I bought too much, as usual! Walter helped me pick out some cute handmade toys, including 2 sock monsters and a bear! He made friends instantly and wanted me to buy more so he could get to make even more friends, but I ran out of money lol! We saw this really funny badge at one of the stalls and Walter said Hilary would like it, so we got it! We also picked up loads of business cards, which I'm gonna send onto Hilary too :D We also entered a raffle - I think they email the winner so fingers crossed!

On the way back to the train we were all very hungry, so we stopped off at McDonalds. Walter had a veggie burger, fries and a coke. We got back on the train and were back in Basildon in about 1 hour. My Mum needed to pop into town to look for a book for my Dad, so Walter got to see a bit of Basildon Town Centre! I plan on taking him shopping with us before he goes back to America, so we'll get some pics then :D

A nice day was had by all! And on the train my Mum and I discussed the possibility of going to Southend one evening with Walter so he can see the worlds longest pier! Here's hoping!!

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Cyprus Pt 6: Saying Bye To Friends












The day finally came for us to go home. We'd had a lovely time in Cyprus; Walter said he wanted to stay there! But I said his Mum wouldn't be very happy with me if I left him lol!

Whilst on holiday Walter had the chance to meet lots of new friends. These included the animals at Famagusta zoo, lizards at the villa, one of the noisy locus things, the fishs on the boat trip and at the chinese resturant, a massive toy monkey by the marina (I'm including a pic of him in the scrapbook!) and of course Ben Wong - my brother's toy cow! But his good friend the crocheted monkey keyring got to travel back with him in my bag, so he had some company!

We got to the airport about 2 hours before check in lol! So we did alot of sitting about. The journey was better than the one going; as we weren't sleepy and we didn't have a bumpy landing! Back in England it was, of course, rainy. After it being so hot in Cyprus it was strange coming back to rain!

So yeah, walter had a great time. He now looks forward to another trip to London, coming with me to the town shopping, visiting the glass and steel bell tower at St. Martin's church, a drive through Bas Vegas and possible going to see Russell Brand in London! He's doing some warm up shows apparently and I'm determined to get tickets lol! Keep your fingers crossed; I know I am!

Thursday 6 August 2009

Cyprus Pt 5: Protaras and Famagusta

















One day we took a 3 hour car journey to Protaras, which is on the other side of the island. I used to go there when I was younger, so it was interesting to see if it had changed!


Walter got a bit bored on the journey there, so when we arrived he was ready to go! We stopped off at our old favourite resturant for lunch, which over looked the beach, then set about looking round the place. It had changed since I was last there (then again it has been 10 years!). We had an ice cream whilst walking round - Walter had strawberry.


Our next stop was the Famagusta view point. Famagusta is an abandoned city near Protaras. When the Turkish invaded Cyprus, the residents of Famagusta were give about an hour to abandon their homes. No one has stepped foot inside the city since, for fears of landmines. Therefore everything is like it was years and years ago; including old cars, washing still out on washing lines and playthings in the streets.


At the view point there is, obviously, a view point lol! The city is quite far away so there's a telescope up there. There's also a mini museum, with a board of all the people still missing from when the Turkish invaded. It was really sad to see all them thousands of names up on the wall; it made Walter upset. So to cheer us up, we went and had a look round the little zoo they have there. There were mainly birds, of all different types and colours. Walter liked the chicks best!


After another 3 hours in the car, we arrived back at the villa. It was a tiring day, but well worth it!


One more lot of pics to come!

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Cyprus Pt 4: Boat Trip





On the Saturday of our holiday, we went on a boat trip to the Akamas, which is a reigion near Polis, I believe. Our boat was called the Alkion II.

We sailed past such places as St. Georges Church - a very old church that's in the middle of no-where, no roads or anything lead up to it and it only opens it's doors once a decade; and Aphrodite's Bay. We stopped off in a shallow bay for an hour so people could go swimming. Walter and I decided against it, and just sat looking at the lovely views. And we had some crisps from the shop they had on board too lol!

The good thing about this boat was that it was a glass bottomed boat - below deck you could see everything under the water! At times you could see fishes and coral and rocks etc, but in the picture I got of it you can't see anything but water lol!

We had a lovely time on the boat; Walter and I loved the clean sea air and seeing the fishes.

That afternoon we went back to the villa and spent the afternoon by and in the pool. I got a funny picture of Walter and I in the pool, but I'm saving that for his scrapbook lol!

In the evening we went to a fab Chinese resturant called Yangtze, which was on the road between Polis and Latchi. As Walter is a herbivore, he opted for the stir fried vegtables. I had a chow mein. The nice thing about the resturant was there were these massive fish tanks all around the place with lots of fishes in them! And seen as Walter loved the fishes we saw on the boat earlier that day he asked me to take a pic of him with some of them.

Was a lovely way to spend a Saturday!

Yet more pics to follow lol!