Longleat - Safari park

We had read about the Longleat house in the TNT magazine and decided we would check it out. Much to our suprise the Longleat house also included visiting a safari park, adventure park and much more!! We weren't too sure if the place was going to be quite children orientated but it turned out to be a great day!! You could get up close and personal with the animals, ride on the motion master, go into the house of mirrors and so much more.

Entrance to Longleat

One of the giraffes at the beginning of our safari park adventure!!

Zebras... very cool to see them up close. In the safari park you drive around in your own vehicle and are allowed the windows open

Monkey enclosure - this was funny/scarey. The monkeys are just roaming around where you drive through and hop on peoples cars while they drive along. A couple of the monkeys had little babies attached to them. The little fellows managed to pull up some rubber on Dave and Lauren's car and we could hear this knocking as we were driving along. So naughty!!!

Video of the naughty fellows getting on the car

Rhino - s/he was massive!

Entering the tiger enclosure

Tiger coming straight for us!

Me with the tiger he crossed in front of our car - was scarey at first seeing him come towards us

Lions - there were four little cubs as well

Our lovely picnic in the park on a HOT summer day

Longleat house - this house is owned by Alexander Tynn (the 7th Marquess of Bath)

Lorikeets

Parrot show - very cute and smart

In the meerkat enclosure with them running all around you

Prairie dogs

At the end of the we went for a cruise along the lake where we saw seals and hippopotamous', also saw a gorilla that lives on an island in the middle of the lake (very sad)

Ashleas birthday - Royal Ascot races

Its my birthday!! Today Lauren, David, Paul and I headed to the Royal Ascot Races to be with the Royals... Or in our case with the commoners. It rained a few times however we managed to build a fort of umbrellas to shelter ourselves but we had great fun! Out of the six races, I got two winners and a third place :) Unfortunately Paul didnt back any winners...



Paul with his new hat!

All dressed up and ready to go

At the races - at this particular time it was sunny

Paul found his eye in the chocolate tray

COME ON!

When we arrived home they suprised me with a spongebob square pants cake :)

The cake

After the races we headed off for a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant with Lauren, David, Roger and Catherine. Perfect end to a perfect day. (Mind my face not sure why I look soo round, water rentention I think haha)

Wu Tang

 David, Roger and I headed out to Wu Tang!! A hip hop group that was part of my faverite collection when I was younger. Its great to see them live. Our ears were sore after this night.

A photo of the group

Another photo...

Dinner with friends from New Zealand

Kathryn and Phillip were over on holiday from New Zealand and were in London for a few days so we all decided to have a lovely dinner at an Italian place in town. A really nice evening with lovely company! Sad to see them leave..

Moi, Rael, Kathryn and Catherine outside Bond street tube station

Tim's visit

I received a suprise email from Tim, who I used to work with at IRD, to say he was coming to London and would like to catch up.

Tim arrived at our house with a large package from my lovely friends at IRD. I was overwhelmed with what was inside!! I received an eight pack of L & P, two packets of peanut slabs, minties (as you can see in the photo below), twisties, burger rings, rashuns, pineapple lumps, shapes (two types), fruit and nut whitakers chocolate, onion dip with reduced cream x 2... phew I think I listed everything. I was very spoilt :) Thank you very much!!!! After opening the present Tim, Matthew, Megan and I went out for a drink down the road. Had a lovely evening :)

Holding the minties (opened now) and the card that made me laugh

Birds of Prey - Bedfordshire

This Sunday we made our way to Bedfordshire to participate in falconry, it was quite sad to begin with as the birds are tied up and sit on perches and then they try and fly which isn't very nice to see. However as they day went on it got better, as we heard about their life at the bird of prey centre and how they are treated (although still not nice to see them tied up)

<>

Paul handling a bird

Hawk flying towards to me!

<>

Ash Having a go handling (Not good filming....)

Dawn - the cute little barn owl



This guy was a heavy fellow!!



Paul looking very comfortable with the bird

During the bird show this guy was flying around

Baby eagle, still has a lot more growing to do, I dont know how she was holding her up!

<> 

The little dance..

A little baby owl VERY CUTE (although he looks evil haha) This is a transformer owl (if you type transformer owl into youtube you will see what he can do!)

Battle, Dover and Canterbury

A nice long weekend means a trip somewhere, so trying to save some money, we headed to Dover which is only about an hour and halfs drive from London. On our way to Dover we visited Battle, where the Battle of Hastings took place. It was hard to imagine the battle taking place and the armies fighting eachother in such a barbaric way. 

Battle field

Me outside Battle Abbey School

Lauren, David and I at the entrance to the Dover Castle

Looking up at the Dover Castle

Table setting inside the Castle

Looking out at Dover as you can see it was very windy!

View from the top

Dover Castle

While visiting the cliffs our mobile phones thought we were in France, as Dover is the closest point in England to France (about 18 miles) We got sent a text to welcome us to France.. so we can say we have been to France!

The famous white cliffs of Dover

The crew walking to the cliffs

We spent two lovely nights in Dover (there wasnt alot going on at night) and on our last day, while travelling back home, we stopped by Canterbury. Really cute little town and very pretty.

Cute little street with the Canterbury Cathedral in the background

Canal where you could take a lovely boat ride or go punting

Canal - see if you can spot the stone ladies in the canal...