English tea

Feb 13

This was to be the day that John was to meet even more of his cousins. He got up still full from the excellent meal of the night before. When he went down to the kitchen, Linda was there and asked him if he would like a cup of tea. He did. She asked him if he would like breakfast. He didn't. Nigel came down and joined them.

After drinking tea and reading a bit of the paper, John went up to get ready for his day. His cousin, David, was going to pick him up about 10am and take him for a driving lesson to build up John's confidence in driving through the narrow lanes. In the meantime, John had time for email and the blog.

Shortly after 10, David called to say that he was unavoidably delayed due to business and would be along in a couple of hours. No worries, thought John as he settled down to read more of the paper and watch a BBC program called Click about new technolgies. In this show they were talking about Apple's new iPad computing device, mid way between and iPod and a laptop. They decided to forget the driving lesson because John has only one more journey, most of it on divided highway, back to Canterbury.

Soon, David was at the door and ready to go. It was wonderful to see David again. He was the same nice man that John remembered from his last visit to England in 1987; the very same friend John had played with at his Nanna's house when they were only toddlers.

They got into David's very cool Saab convertible (roof up in winter) and zoomed off to David's home in a village a few miles away by divided highway and local road. On the drive they talked about old times and family. It was no time before John was feeling very comfortable. It was as if the past 23 years had not happened.

They arrived at David's house in a nice subdivision and went in. A woman said hello to John and gave him the warmest hug. It was Carolyn, another cousin - David's sister who lives in London. He shook hands with Barry her husband and hugged Hillary, David's wife. He also shook hands with a fine young man, named Terry, David's oldest son and his fiancee, Rebecca. Here was yet another branch of John's family and he felt the same warmth of connection as he had with Linda's branch.

Hillary offered John a cup of tea and he was happy to accept. Then it was time to get organized into two cars (John travelled with David and Hillary) for the drive down to another branch of the family who live on Mersea a small island connected to the mainland by a short causeway. It was a picturesque drive through fields and villages that were quintessentially English.

They arrived at Mick's, another cousin and head of the third branch, five minutes before the time he had booked tables at a local pub/restaurant. So, soon after greetings were exchanged with Mick, his wife Val, and his son Simon, they once again fitted into multiple cars to travel the short distance to the restaurant very near the beach. They were to meet, Mark, Mick's other son at the restaurant.

It was not that big in the pub area and the other patrons looked up when the huge Barnett retinue walked in: Mick, Val, Simon, Mark, David, Hillary, Terry, Rebecca, Carolyn, Barry, and John. However, their tables were through the pub part and in the restaurant seating area in the next room.

It was a very nice restaurant and Simon asked his son, Alex, who works in the kitchen to come out and be introduced to John. Mick suggested a beer that John should try, which turned out to be close to his favourite back home, Upper Canada Dark.

Since it was lunch rather than dinner, everyone decided just to order a main course without an appetizer. Just as well because some of the mains were huge. John, on Val's suggestion had ordered bangers and mash. His plate was full when it arrived. Three huge English sausages, the three biggest onion rings John had ever seen, mashed potatoes and gravy with a bowl of veggies on the side. The sausages were so good - they were pork with a little zing of pepper. And the gravy was beyond excellent.

Conversation was good all around the table. It was a little more subdued than at other times when the English sense of humour was running rampant but it was fun and witty, nevertheless. One aspect that John found particulalry interesting was based on Mark's career. He worked as an engineer on Princess Cruise Lines, and indeed worked on the Pacific Princess, the famed Love Boat, of the TV series of the same name. He regaled the group with stories of his time there. He now works in software.

Soon after, Simon had to leave to pick up his wife, Shelley and his daughter, Holly.

After the rest had finished eating, the men got up to pay but David and Mick sent John and the others back. John thanked Mick and David for their generosity. As they left John captured some nice scenes of the harbour for the blog.



Back at Mick's it was time yet again for tea or coffee. John chose tea. The group sat around Mick's living room talking and reminiscing. Mick and Val showed pictures of their grandchildren and various items of interest for all. Various times, Mick was called to the phone to deal with an emergency at work.

Mark had asked to have the TV on to keep one eye on the rugby match, France versus Ireland. Unfortunately the French won 17-3.

Then another competiton show came on that captured people's attention. It is the one where contestants have to go on obstacle courses and often fall into the water under the various contraptions they have to negotiate their way, over, through or around. There were peals of laughter as various contestants tried to jump onto and across a large series of huge rubber balloons and most often bounced off into the water.

Simon, Shelley and Holly came by. John had met Shelley when he was last in England but Holly was not yet born. It is strange John thought how fast times can fly. Here he was meeting a young woman who had not been born when he was last here and Simon was middle aged. John remembered Mark and Simon about three years old holding onto Val's hand.

The room, due to simple body heat, became very hot. John thought it reminded him of Melbourne even though it was cool outside and there was no heating on in the house.

Around 8:30, the visitors started to make a move to go and they headed back. Timing was important to ensure that the causeway wasn't flooded by a high tide that can close the road to all but the biggest trucks.

John drove back with David and Hillary again. David who has always been a professional driver negotiated the dark, narrow roads with ease.

Upon arriving back at David and Hillary`s, David got out some memorabilia, such as a painting of their Nanna Barnett and a wolf cub album with David on the cover while Hillary made tea. David also brought out a precious container with pictures of his Dad (John`s other uncle Ted) as a prisoner of war in WW2. Talk turned to old times at 33 Brunswick Court where Carolyn and David`s Mum and John`s Dad had lived as children. They talked of their grandmother and their aunts and uncles and the good times they had had playing together as children when they visited. John was sad not to have the chance to see his cousin Diane, who is David and Carolyn`s older sister.

Too soon, it was time for John to go back to Linda`s and John said his farewells, happy to know that all would be coming to the family get tgether the next day. When David dropped him off at the door, John went in and had a short talk with Linda and Nigel about his day and headed up for bed after declining Linda`s kind offer of a cup of tea.

TRB