Best Ice-cream is in Cambridge

No time to photograph them full!

Jack makes ice cream and sells it from a bike borne cooler with an umbrella. His Lemon curd is quite possibly the best icecream I have ever tasted. - M chose it - a regular sized tub, even so the girls and I all only got one mouthful each of this delicious concoction! It is not made for sharing. No bitter lemon or fake yellow colouring just the perfect creamy balance of sweet and tangy with a fresh breath of a sunshiny afternoon with a good book and freshly mown grass.  Description a bit summer romance fiction maybe but man it was nice. Even M - a serious connoisseur of cold confection - suggested that it might be his new favourite.

I had a small tub of chocolate which was also great - just as good as the specialist choc cafe varieties.  The girls have a summer fruit sorbet which socked you in the mouth with an intense eye-watering, cheek sucking sour shock followed with a raspberry and strawberry melt.

New Zealand Grasses

We had just spent the late afternoon wandering around the University of Cambridge gardens, which cost 4:95 for non student adults to enter. The big trees, manicured lawns and ponds made us very nostalgic for the Botanic gardens in Christchurch.  A great place to spend a hot afternoon with a picnic under the broad branches of a non pine cone dropping tree.

A garden of wildflowers

Petal agreed to take a photo of Jack and his set up as we drove back past the entrance of the gardens but he had gone.  Luckily for us we spotted him pedaling his ice cream home so M pulled into a driveway to let Petal get a good shot as he pushed past. We discussed following him so we knew where to get more but Willow seemed to think that this was a bit creepery so we restrained ourselves. Hopefully we'll be able to find Jack somewhere around Cambridge again this summer.

Watching the fountains

A poppy just fell at Willow's feet?

One of the many tricksy pathways.

Walking on/in water

Entry to the gardens.

Pedaling his ice cream home.

This guy even has a facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/JacksGelato  I have recorded this so I can check to see where he is setting up his trike next time - definitely stalking!
"Get fruity - and don't forget the veg!   One of Cambridge’s most popular ice cream vendors is Jack’s Gelato, owned by Jack van Praag, who began his business in 2010. Jack can usually be found outside the Botanical Gardens, or on Grantchester Meadows, selling from his vintage tricycle.   Jack uses ingredients such as organic milk, fair-trade sugar and fruits, herbs and vegetables from his own allotment. He works hard to develop his flavours and says: 'I once made sixty different versions of a chocolate flavour to find the right one!'  Some of his most interesting flavours include Elderflower, Earl Grey, Crab Apple, Mulberry, Cobnut and foraged Fig Leaf.     ‘I would like to introduce vegetable sorbets to my range and would also like to open my own parlour, ’ he says, adding that his gelato is also on the menu at ‘Nord’ in Cambridge. - 
See more at: http://www.localsecrets.com  written by Maria Hopwood"
After reading these and other pages I don't think that the guy in our photo is Jack - maybe a student on a holiday job.

Addition - 31.8.13 - Just had a cone of turkish delight from the kiosk on the riverbank down from the tennis courts at the end of the cycle bridge from Chesterton Road.  Easy walk from town and a wonderful place to sit in the late summer sun.  One of the silver disks in the middle of the grass, which Willow thought were part of a sculpture, made a comfy seat. Rosy, chocolate delight!

Have read:
Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements.
A holiday read - put rational thought aside for the relationship issues! Interesting comment on how the step mum adjusts to the lose of the partners kid when he goes back to his ex wife. Really enjoyed the description of Florence around the ice cream making classes. A few interesting family dynamics and a great example of how to pull communities together through a love of ice cream!

Azur Like It by Wendy Holden 'Cannes life be this Nice'  I think the cover script gives quite enough detail of the tone to be found between them.

Toad Rescue

Intently going nowhere - the babies hopped more often than the adults

Same colour as the algae and moss they ate.

The basement courtyard at the back of our terrace house is tiled and covered in green and black algae. To clean it we need to hire a water blaster and buy lots of bleach but before that can happen this week we needed to rid the area of a large and uninhibited family of Toads.

A much better habitat for toads across the road.

One of the adult toads reminded me of Wind in the Willows because he would impulsively throw himself into our house whenever the door was left unguarded. I had to rescue him with a plastic bag over hand from getting fluffy in the dinning cave a couple of times. Toads don't jump very much but prefer to crawl, they were constantly trying to climb the stairs out of the basement so I decided that they needed to be rescued and returned back to the riverside willows.

With our frog catching equipment of plastic lidded box, plastic scoop and plastic gloves, M and Willow went hunting. They caught all but one - that we know of! He slunk back into their den in the hollow inside the bottom step - we'll have to get him later, I think bleach would be very bad for the poor fellow.

Cornering the last big one.

Broomstick reinforcement required.

One scoop of Toad

Bridge to Chesterton over the River Cam

Releasing toads on the bank

Bulrushes and lilypads

One crawled off with a baby on it's head

Desrved rest for the Toad Rescuers

The girls freed the Toads on the riverbank and are hopping that the little babies don't get eaten by something.











(I was quite keen for the girls to do a leap frog pose in the common to finish off this blog but they weren't hoppy about the idea - lack of cooperation with my creative genius is always frustrating!)




Reading Now:
The Perfume Collection by Kathleen Tessaro - Harper 2013
Roger the husband is a big toad but a minor character. Grace and Eva are worlds and times apart -1920/30s in New York and France and in 1950s London and Paris with a subtext of perfume manufacture and cons in casinos. Believable characters and a freedom to imagine. See the sordid reality of survival, ambition and trying to do the right thing.
''Do you know what sin means?" 'To do something wrong?' Madame shook her head. "That's one meaning. But there is another, from the Greek, hamartia, which translates, "to miss the mark". That's the meaning I prefer."p147
'Come to your senses' ... 'It means to be reasonable, sensible ... doesn't it?'  'Perhaps it's an invitation ... to return to our senses ... find sustenance in them, inspiration.' p159, Grace and  M.Tissot
"Most customers want to smell like those they aspire to become, not who they were in the past. But perfumers are always attempting to capture scents that remind us of certain places, people, moments. It's the great challenge, to capture not only a true scent but one that recalls entire experience." p191
Eva tried to take the high ground. 'Not everything in this world is black or white Sis."  "Sure it is.... You wanna live in the grey area, you're gonna find out you don't know your ass from your elbow ... and mark my words, grey turns to black pretty damn fast." p213
'Eva found the veil of normalcy the most sinister. Was any wound more painful than the one no one else could see?' p438
Wife to mistress in the French occupation ' I can see why Jacques finds you so fascinating.'  '.. He doesn't. He finds himself fascinating. But only when there is an audience.' ... "I'm nothing more than a shiny little shard of glass, madam.  He looks to see his own face, not mine.' p442

First Explore in Cambridge Town

A path in Christ's Pieces - a common between home and town.

With M away in Singapore we decided to learn the path to town.  This will probably be where Willow bikes to to catch her bus to school so we walked/biked the route and found places to leave the bike. After locking the bike up we wandered off to a tourist filled town.

The window display is only the beginning

We wandered through the town, past all the gondolier punters at the river and up to Castle Hill.  Since there we asked about Petal's school allocation at the council but were told that it may be mid August before the committee has finished sorting all the requests.

Norman Round Church

The Norman round church was full of info abut the History of Cambridge and is the 2nd oldest building in the town. The Tower of another church was built by Cnut - a lifetime or two before the Norman invasion of 1066.  The lolly shop opposite had a long visit!

The girls have decided that UK McDonalds is bland and yucky so that cheap alternative for lunch won't be repeated. The young trainee messed up our order after whinging on to me about how hot and tired he was and that he still had another 2hrs before his shift ended and they don't do a coffee frappe - only an overly sweet Mocha, I though how Julie S would share my disappointment.  It was really hot in there, no air con when outside was 30degrees, I can't imagine how hot the cooks must have been feeling.  We ate in a shady common overlooking the Cam river. The scent of recent bovine visitors was very strong.

Cow Pats a bit on the nose.

Bridge over a weir.

Relocating from Sydney - Aus to Cambridge - UK

Top Survival Tips

Things that worked from our experience.
Before you go:

• Get a Visa. You can do it yourself via the UK website but some of the language is a little obtuse so we chose to pay 'Firstchoice', a company specialising in immigration to the UK, a fee to guide us through the process. They were very helpful, all but the visit to the UK consulate in Sydney for the height, finger prints and eye scan was done via email, scanned documents and phone calls. After getting the official documents from the consulate bio test we had to post a mountain of collected documents to the visa processing office in Asia. 
• Once your Visa is approved apply for your National Health Insurance Number. Each person in the family has to have their own one.
• Do a scouting tour a couple of months before the intended move to 

1. Arrange temporary accommodation or if you can afford the extra rent, lease a place a couple of months before the big move. Being able to visualise where you are going to be based is a huge help.
2. Organise schooling. Recently the UK govt. ruled that only students from the EU or accompanying a parent with an Ancestry visa are allowed funding at state schools. If you don't fit this category there are plenty of good Independent schools in Cambridge but fees are high. Look for state schools online that have 'Outstanding' Ofsted reports. Go to the Council on Castle Hill to get a booklet that shows you the school zones or search through their online service. If there are too many students applying for the one school it comes down to the distance from your front door to the school gates.  If your child is in the last two years of school (Lower or Upper Sixth form) there are many Sixth Form Colleges to choose from to do A levels. These are best if specialising in math and sciences - no compulsory English. If intending to be back in Aus for University the International Baccalaureate is a better fit with 36/45 equaling a high 90s ATAR in most courses offered at Sydney, NSW and Macquarie Unis. Impington College and Parkside Community College are the only two State schools offering this course with Outstanding Offstead results - apply for a place early. Reports, references from current teachers, a personal statement written by the student and a phone interview will be required. For anyone younger than Sixth form you will need a residential address 3 months before entry to school if wanting to attend a state school, apply to the council as soon as you have one - they will then allocate you a school according to that address. You can give three preferences and if you don't get the school you wanted there is an appeal process. Independent schools have a variety of fee structures and entry processes. All emails directed to them were answered promptly and with good information - entry seems dependent on the class sizes they have and how much you are prepared to pay.

• Have a pile of Pounds saved - basics aren't cheap.
• Arrange for a stop over break, making a holiday out of the transit cheers you up and makes change an adventure.
• Organise a hire car big enough to pick you up from Heathrow with all your worldly goods. Your Aus license is good for a year, to get a UK one you have to hand in your passport and Aus license with form D1 from the Driver and Licensing Agency (www.gov.uk/browse/driving) Costs 50GBP - if you have a visa you don't need to wait for the 185 days stated as 'normal' but it will take three + weeks. Most insurance companies won't give you car insurance on an international license, we found that Virgin were one exception.  When back in Aus use your UK license to renew your Aus one.
• Insurance! 

1. Very difficult to get travel insurance until you have been resident for 6 months - organise it from Aus before you are no longer resident there either.  We got around this by buying it with our Channel crossing Ferry tickets - they didn't ask! 
2. Make sure you get a certificate from your car insurance company of your No Claim bonus status - some companies here will accept this and it will bring the expensive comprehensive car insurance prices down more than half. 
3. If renting, ask your landlord who they have their building insurance with and try them for contents first - with all the floods a couple of years ago the companies are all demanding flood susceptibility statements which are a hassle to get so if they all ready have a record of the property things will be a lot easier to organise.

Once you're there:

• Find a handy supermarket. The big Sainsbury is at a roundabout off Coldham Rd, Tesco is on Newmarket Rd and there is an ASDA and Marks and Spencers Food in a Homebase type park called the Beehive off Coldham Rd.  There are many express markets spread all over for milk and bread etc.
• Find a Telco. that will give you a good deal on phone, internet and TV.  Getting back online to your friends and family is essential. We had Virgin hooking us up with a great deal before the airbeds had been pumped up! You must have a TV license or face heavy fines - these can be purchased online. We bought phones and computer screens from Curry's(an electrical store - we bubble wrapped and packed our computers, keyboards and mouse') and a printer from Staples so we could scan in signed documents to send where they were needed. M's CIOness was never more apparent - we're quite possibly the only family around with fancy phones that I can page the kids on the fourth floor from the kitchen in the basement with and fully functioning computers without a single piece of furniture in the house to sit on. The box that my computer screen came in is now my office chair! My mouse is being run over the box that new plugs with the UK design for my computer came in.
• If only staying for a little while and not expected to have to entertain corporate clients, go eclectic with your furnishing style and visit one of the many Charity Secondhand stores.  The Blind Foundation on Newmarket Rd has some nice things and white goods if your rental doesn't have everything. Drive down the A10 towards Ely and you'll find a huge Emmaes Store (signs on the left in orange). Both will deliver for a reasonable sum but you may have to wait a week. The B&Q store on Newmarket Rd hires vans if you can't wait. We have managed to get a lounge suite, a two seater recliner in faux suede and a three seater couch plus coffee tables and a huge dinning table for 500 pound - this wouldn't quite buy one couch in normal stores.  They are all clean and functional.  Some in the store look a little worse for wear but they are cheaper and you don't have to choose them! Because Cambridge is a university town the population is quite transient so there is a constant turnover of goods.  For bedding and wardrobes, kitchen gear and mirrors IKEA is cheapest with the biggest range. Be aware that their bed and mattress measurements are different to the mainstream. In the UK what Aussies call a Queen is the King and what we call the King is a Super King. The closest IKEA to Cambridge is an hour west at Milton Keynes. You could use their pick and deliver service - check truck hire prices too.
• Buy a bike. Many stores have a few second hand bikes but if wanting a new one expect to pay around 250 pound for a basic one. The kids love the freedom of getting around.  Helmets aren't compulsory but my rule is that if going along or even over a road it must be worn.  There are plenty of bike paths where there is no car access.  Drivers beware - cyclists do not have insurance and if they damage your car you have to foot the bill for repairs, don't park on the red bits on the road or they'll get pretty uptight!
• Make a list of all the places you want to go to while you're in the UK. Try and visit one on your list every week until you feel settled in and at home - it keeps the feeling of being on holiday going just a little longer.

Enjoy!

Hottest day for the new Heir

Apparently July 22 2013 was the hottest day, at 33.5 degrees C, that the UK has experiences in 7 years. July 22 2013 was the day that the Duchess of Cambridge went into labour and at 4:20pm produced a healthy baby Prince. It was also the day that the girls and I decided to have our first independent foray out on the trains and into London.

We love the London rail network. Willow overheard a French woman complaining how badly it measured up to the Metro in Paris but thanks to its colour keyed lines, excellent signage and free maps(although so small it is very difficult to read!) we never managed to go south when meaning to go north and thanks to the helpful station staff were able to find the stations nearest to the places we wanted to go. The only bad things that we noticed about it were the escalator stairs modeled on crocodile teeth that would break skin easier than someone grating carrot and the hour it took to get out to Watford Junction from Euston on an all stops

train though we did appreciate the cool air blowing at our backs..

Our first stop was Picadilly Circus where we visited one of the ticket booths and got tickets for Wicked at the Apollo theatre that night. If you have lots of different shows that you would like to see you're sure to be able to get cheap tickets for one of them.  If there is a specific show that you want to see you may have to book tickets months in advance to get a reasonable price. The costume, dance and music were a great introduction to the theatre scene.  Ice creams at intermission made up a little for the fact

Tallest man left of Petal

that the only airconditioning was opening the fire exit at half time.

Rippley's believe it or not had a few very interesting displays and a ghastly human torture and capital punishment section. Luckily the school group sped through faster than we did and spent most of their time in the laser tag basement even so I was expecting a lot more bang for the big bucks it cost to walk down the five stories. The most interesting yarn was of some girl who let a helium balloon go with her name and number attached that landed in the backyard of another girl a couple of countries away that had exactly the same name, birthdate and range of pets. Ratio of photos to time spent is always a good indicator of interest. Rippleys got a big 1:85 score.

We went up Regent street as far as Hamleys Toy store which the girls thought would have been a dream come true a few years ago.  Their favourite section was the movie merchandise area with both of them looking longingly at the expensive replica time turner that Hermione Granger used to successfully save a couple of mythical characters. If only they were real! Although to quote Wicked "Don't wish. Don't start. Wishing only wounds the heart. (Elphaba) We stopped into Nandos for lunch which had a strange way of seating guests but with one glass let you fill it as many times as you could wish. Yummy Portobello mushroom and Halloumi burgers and chicken with sides enough to fill up two other hungry tums for 20 pounds in a cool basement room was a refreshing break from the streets of London.

Feeling much better after an iced tea.

Just missed the 3:30 last entry  to Westminister Abbey most beautiful door ever closed in my face - oh well, another day!

Thanks to a handy map in the front of a Pitkin booklet called 'Must see, London - Top Attractions" that we found in the Westminster Abbey shop, we were able to find our way around without too much stress. All tickets to the 'attractions' are cheaper and fast tracked if bought online so it pays to have a plan before going in. As we walked past Madame Tussauds we saw a sign a third of the way down the queue to buy tickets that said '2hour wait from this point' whereas a family walked straight through the online booking queue space and into the display.

Statue outside Baker St Station

Inside the 221B store

We had just come from the Sherlock Museum on Baker St where our decision to visit the shop and not the 'Museum' was based on the line for tickets and the following long line for entry to the museum.  The tickets were cheap but it was after all only a display about a fictional character. The shop was great but we did not give in to the temptation to take home a Cluedo game with the Cumberbatch series characters morphed into it. The 2nd season DVD did come home.

Castle Hill Adventist Church representatives at the Palace.

Sweeties

Everyone rushed to see nothing.

Walking down Buckingham Palace road we found a sweet shop called Charlie's which didn't make us think of the longest waiting royal heir. We bought an empty plastic jar labelled 'Charlies retro party jar' to put the puppy treats in ready for his arrival in August.  Of course we were heading to the Palace to see if the birth had been announced. Driven by the delight in being able to share this experience with Barney, our family's royal fan, we stood waiting and having hopes raised and dashed by helicopters, official black Limousines and staff knocking off work at five. The atmosphere was tense with a nice blind guy filling us in on everything he had seen over the last few hours which we saw more of in the one we stood there.  Cameramen rushed to and fro but the only really interesting thing that happened for us was when Willow recognised a friend from Sydney walking past. Photos and news was exchanged and then it was time to walk back around to the theatre with promises that we would come back and check after the show.

The crowd in front of the Notice

 A kindly American tourist found the news on her phone in the interval of the bonny 8lb Prince's arrival and announced it to the people sitting either side of her loudly enough for us all to hear. Prince William had relayed the news to his Grandmother via encrypted phone and the news had been announced via twitter to the world. All I could find in the Sydney Morning Herald was that someone is suggesting he should be called Kevin! Still - back we wandered (holiday speed without M setting the pace) and Petal wriggled her way through the huge crowd with my camera in hand to get a shot of the notice.  Unfortunately she is her mother's daughter and turned the camera off instead of taking the photo. By the time she was back I was agreeing with Willow's lecture to me about how dangerous it was and that I shouldn't have let her do it so I wouldn't let her back in for another try. Sorry Barney! A photo of the crowd around will have to do.  Granny will be pleased to know that the police officers were calling warnings to people that thieves were about so we hugged our bags closely to our fronts.
Nana we have bought the souvenir papers for you but will remove from page 3 on from one of them to make it  lighter for posting!  The following picture is from the Royal Baby Souvenir mag that we have posted.

22 July 2013 

2nd May 2015

We were in London at Messy Church at St John's so missed all the palava in town.

Welcome to the world Princess.

Photos from - the newspapers on line - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Little brother on his way to meet the competition.

It will be interesting to see how fast copies of the yellow flower pattern get into the chain stores.

Looks like the Queen knew the closely guarded secret of the baby's gender.

Even the military got into the spirit.

Reading Now:
Brick Road by Monica Ali
Set in a gritty London suburb ignored by the council in 2001 from the perspective of a Bangladesh bride sent to her husband from her village. A discussion of fate, philosophy and independence, of cultural expectations, bullying and liberation. A peek into the close world of women Muslim immigrants and the 'nothing to do' that poverty induces in teens.  An incredibly satisfying read of a clearly described physical and spiritual world beyond my experience.

'Anything is possible so everything I wanted was possible,' Chanu went on. 'But what about all the other possibilities? The ones we never see when we are young, but are there all along.  One day you wake up and say to yourself, I didn't choose this. And then you spend a long time thinking, but did. I? ....... The thing about getting older,' said Chanu, 'is that you don't need everything to be possible any more, you just need some things to be certain.'  p374

'Just a dream,' he said. 'Wake up and tell it to me.  When you chase it with words it will run away.'  p433

'Jorina said, 'But that is our problem - making lives for our children.  They want to make them for themselves.' p482

'She always asked for stories. She wanted the words because the words stitched her mother close.' p483