I have spent the past 2 days investigating some of our family history.(The Shipton family). I hired a car from Bristol and drove to Gloucester where the history archives are. There was a very helpful lady there, Liz, who knew where to look for information. Grandpa Wright's mother was a Shipton so Pat wanted to see if I could find out about her Grandfather, Isaac. I found the church yard where the family are buried but it is quite overgrown with nettles and holly bushes so I wasn't able to identify any grave sites. A few had headstones, mostly illegible. The country side is quite pretty, open country with hills and trees. The town where Isaac and family lived is on a plateau of sorts and is hilly. They would have kept fit walking up and down hills all day. The roads are very narrow, lots only 1 car width - a bit harrowing to drive! It's also difficult to stop and look around. I also visited a quaint village called Tewkesbury (because I liked the sound of the name). The street was built of old style black and white timber homes. The shops had lots of flags flying out the front - like you see in pictures of medieval times - very pretty. Today I am returning the car, and travelling to Wales to stay with a friend for a few days.

Today I have bought one of Brian's dongles as the wifi here in the hotel is too unreliable. Hopefully I will now be able to write to the blog more regularly. On Sunday, I visited the Natural History museum to photograph the dinosaurs for Alex and Jarod. They have an amazing display with many different species and lots of information. They have created several animated models for the kids. My 2 would have loved it. They also had a sandstone slab with an almost complete skeleton of an Albertosaurus. There was a stuffed moa bird and a couple of dodos too. Yesterday I had a full day of tennis at Wimbledon. The local tube was on a direct line and we then had a short walk to the centre. I had a good seat, quite close to the action and saw Roger Federer and Kim Clisters. I also ventured out to court 14 where I had a ground level seat. Today I ventured out to Camden markets. It is sa large area along both sides of the street. There were a lot of funky clothing and T-shirt stalls as well as souvenir stalls. Unfortunately not much handcrafted work. Tomorrow I am off early to Gloucester for a few days.

The rain has stopped for now so I have been getting around quite a bit. Today I rode up in the Eye after a very slow queue wait. but the views were worth while - you can see all the famous places around. Yesterday I visited The Tower, St Paul's and the changing of the guards. Did you know Sir Walter Raleigh was Executed? I didn't. I always thought he was a hero like Sir Frances Drake. No telling what I will learn next. I haven't been able to upload the photos to Flickr from my IPad so I have to try the computer downstairs? The photos don't seem to add in here either. Can anyone give me instructions?

Well here I am in London. It was a bright sunny day today but the forecast is for rain and wind for the next few days. Hopefully all cleared up by Monday when I go to Wimbledon. I have managed to find my way around on the trains and spent this afternoon in the V and A museum. The medieval gallery was absolutely amazing - did anyone else see that, or is it new? The Islamic art was great too.

Great now I can learn the next thing. Leaving on 19th June - more after that

Well it's happening - I'm off to Europe after many years of dreaming about it. Today I'm trialling a blog - hope it works.