I have just come back from a 4 day trip to England. Olivia and my Host sister were invited go and stay with my God mother Elizabeth, her Husband Ted and their three children Olivia, Rupert and Cordelia
I will start now to write about England….however I did so much I will have to divide the days into entries.......so today’s entry is of my first day in England.

Olivia, Michele (My host mum) and I awoke at 6am on the Monday so that we could catch the 7am train that took us to Biele. From Biele we then took a train to Geneva so we could catch our Plane at 11:30am. Michele came with us on the train and then after dropping us at the airport went and visited one of her friends in the area. Olivia and I went through customs and then waited for ages until we could board the plain. Sitting waiting to board the plane was really interesting. I like to sit and look at all the people around me, in the air port on Monday I could see a few different types of people; young parents with little children who where trying all the tricks in the book to keep their children quite, smartly dressed business people who were edgy to get on the plain, and sun tanned and happy travellers who were about to go home or embark on a new journey. Olivia and I fitted into the last category as we were about to embark on our journey......even though we personally were not suntanned like a lot of the other travellers.


Once through the check in we went to board the plane. Now there are disadvantages of having cheep tickets and this can mean not having allocated seats….and when your boarding group is group D (Which means that you board last) you end up having to be separated form your travelling buddy and sting next to a very involved newly wed couple for the hours flight. After doing a bit of German learning and reading the whole of the in flight magazine I arrived in Gatwick airport and went to find Olivia so we could get through customs and go and collect our bags together.

We arrived at the customs and immigration desks and once again Olivia and I had to split up as she has a European passport and I have an Australian one.



I looked at my line and was at that moment pleased to see I only had 2 other people infant of me compared to the 45 or so in front of Olivia. I went to my line filled in an entrance card and proceeded to wait in my line so I could get through customs. I waited and I waited and I waited. I could see Olivia’s line getting smaller and smaller. Then I was my turn to go to the custom officials desk. After being asked…….no interrogated about where I live why I am coming to England, who I am staying with, why do I have an English god mother, why was I in Switzerland etc. I finally got thorough customs, was stamped and was greeted by Olivia who had been waiting for me on the other side (her line despite the people was really fast)


We then waited another 30minutes to receive our bags (another disadvantage of cheep tickets), walked out of the international area of the airport and went to meet My Godmother who was waiting for us on the other side.

It was wonderful to see my godmother aging. I gave her a huge hug and then we all went off to find the car so we could go to her house. Once we found the car and had escaped from the talking elevator that decided to tell us each time that he door was going to open and close, we started to drive to Elizabeth’s house. WE drove through all of this wonderful English county side. It was just amazing as it really did remind me of Wind in the Willows and every time I was a river bank or a pond I could imagine Mr toad driving along in his car with Ratty on the water in his boat.

We drove for around 45 minutes through lush country side, and in this time and a really nice chat. It was so refreshing for me to be able to really talk to people again. My German is not bad but it is not at in depth conversation level and to have proper conversations was such a special treat for me.
So after talking away for the duration of the car ride we arrived at Elizabeth’s house.

This house was just amazing. It was built in the 16th and is a beautiful old English farm house. The house is just wonderful and comes fully equipped with a well, and barn and a cottage.

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Once we went inside we were greeted by Ted and the children (all minus Olivia …..As she was at Boarding school ……we will call her Olivia D-T to stop confusion).

After many hugs were exchanged Olivia and I put or suit cases up in Olivia D-T’s room (where we where going to sleep) and then came down for a well deserved lunch. We had a proper English style lunch with hand and cheese sandwiched and tea.

After lunch Rupert and Cordelia showed us their tree house. And when I say tree house ....I mean a Real tree HOUSE... this tree hose was so amazing it came with two levels a balcony ropes and of course the curtail ladder to get up to it. This tree house was like a dream house for me. I have always wanted to won one of these but have never been able to convince my parents to let me have one.




After exploring the tree house we went around the garden This garden was just so beautiful, It was so well kept and just so lovely.






We even had a tour over to the fence so we could see into the neighbours garden. These neighbours are no ordinary ones...they in fact Genisis. Yes my god mother lives next door to Genisis. We peered over the fence and being tourist Olivia and I took photos of Phil Collins box. Robbie Williams has even been spotted there by Olivia D-T and Cordilia when they were up their tree. They saw him sitting in the garden with is guitar writing songs....How exciting



After our near encounter with fame (Sadly we didn't See Genisis or Robbie) but we did see the band manager) It was time to go shopping in the local village. We drove down to this village through more lush country side. Once we arrived a the village I was so amazed to see it looked just like all the villages do in the movies…it really was a true midsummer Murders village. (However hopefully with out he killers).





We went to the cricket shop to buy Rupert some cricket pants.I was amazed at the huge range if bats and gear they had. There where so many different types of sockes and tops and jumpers all for playing cricket.



After looking around the village and going into a few shops to buy food etc. we went and saw Cordelia`s School. This school was such a cute school. It looked like a little cottage school and was just so English. On the way home we discussed how the children in England go to school at the young age of 3 and can all read well at 5. I was really shocked. We then dropped by Rupert’s school which was a converted farm house…fully equipped with huge ovals and a lake that the boys can row in.

We then went home had a house tour and then had dinner. A lovely meal of crumbed chicken, vegetables, pasta and potatoes was consumed.
After giving my `thank you card` and clip on Koalas to the family, we all go ready for bed as we where all so tired.
I had had a great fist day in England and was so happy to see my god mother and her family again.