First Week

17th July

Gran and Angus (G&A) were looking after a friends' dog, Becky, so we went for a walk through foot's cray meadow.  It is a pretty place, with a stream and pond. There was a family of 9 swans (imagine having 7 kids :S). The name of the bridge is 5 Arches because there is... well 5 arches. 

In the afternoon, we went to a National Trust location - Ightham Mote (pronounced something like 'item', the ight, is the same as in light), a 700+ year old house. And yes, the place did have a moat! Just not a very deep one :P.

18th - 22nd July

Caught the train/tube into London and then onto Hatfield for Training. Training was quite typical, and we learnt all the health and safety stuff, manual handling, etc. I met some lovely girls at training, and still keep in contact with some of them (especially Vicki). Most nights we went up to a traditional English pub for drinks (Pimm's and Lemonade or Apple/Pear Cider mostly). On the walk home from the pub on the first night some f*&kheads (they were really!) through a cardboard cup of something out of their car window as they drove past, and hit poor Laura square in the eye. Gave her quite a shock (understandably) and she was lucky not to be seriously injured, or the contents of the cup were not more sinister - Vicki and I were worried that it could be something dangerous from the way she fell to the ground almost instantly, but I think it was just watered down softdrink. The rest of our pub experiences were much more pleasant, and on the final night of training we all went there for dinner.