The long, first day

Brum!

How I laughed when Bethany said she was looking forward to the plane! She was well and truly over it before we even reached Singapore, but everyone had at least some sleep during the second and longest leg. Towards the end, I had the feeling that we had always been on the plane, and always would be, but we enjoyed our movies, and it came to an end.

We were dropped at our digs, where we were way too early to check in, so we left our bags behind, gave everyone a pep talk to keep them going, and headed off.




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  We found cool houses and shops, told off a barista for thinking we were American, and hopped on an open-topped bus to see the sights.






• Joss was pretty thrilled to see real Van Gogh and Monet paintings at the art gallery. I confess that I don’t enjoy taking poor photographs of beautiful paintings. Somehow, I don’t mind an average photo of the beautiful ceiling.






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   I did start crying from happiness and a sense of history and beloved book settings coming to life. I’ll have to drink plenty of water the day we go to Thornfield (Haddon Hall has played Thornfield from Jane Eyre in three adaptations).





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  We were upgraded at our accommodation to a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment. It is huge, and gorgeous; we really love it. We are now all showered, just about to find something for dinner, and very much looking forward to bed.