Monday 1 June

Taxi to the small station for footpassengers to catch the EuroStar. We go through security including an intensive search by a sniffer dog. We have a first class carriage and it is very nice. Food arrives immediately and unexpectedly but, of course, we have just had a big breakfast. The trip is very quick, 1 hour and only about 20 minutes in the tunnel. We arrive at St Pancras International Station. Tina does the important things: get us pounds, get rid of Euros, buy a book for her train trip and go the The Body Shop as she has run out of moisturiser. While she is doing this I sit down next to a group of guys selling SIM cards. He kept calling out “Free Sims”. Where?

We then split. Tina makes her way to Kings Cross station and she has luck as her train leaves within 5 minutes. After one change she arrives in Cleethorpes and is met by Kate.

I go to get a taxi and approach a rank of the classic black London cabs. The woman behind the wheel pulls a face when I say where I want to go. I asked her if I had upset her in some way and she tells me to get in. I guess the trip is too short for her but my cases are heavy, my ankles are sore, I have no idea where I am heading and want to get on the road as quickly as possible.

At the rental place I am given a Mercedes! I set TomTom and getting out of London is a breeze. It puts me on this long, long road which makes driving so easy. There are lots of traffic and traffic lights so it is slow going which is great as I can see what’s coming up next. Very relaxing; one hiccup when I am trapped in the wrong lane and miss a left veer but this is fixed within a minute with a left then a right turn onto the correct street.

Lovely drive to the northeast, into Essex and Suffolk. The roads are good – but not as good as France. Then again, there are no tolls. I have a lovely lunch (antipasto although the menu spelt it antipasti) at The George And Dragon. I am not sure where I was (apart from Essex). The till receipt says Roman Road, Brentwood but when I asked the man behind the bar he said something like “Mount Nessing” but the barman was definite that I was in Essex. They had Fosters on tap!

I arrive at Woodbridge School and get sent to their prep school, The Abbey. I arrive to see 2 lessons and join in the middle school chess club ("Sir, he’s doing too many good moves!” When one boy misbehaves [he hits another boy] Adam removes a piece from the board – a great idea!!!). Unfortunately the senior school is on exams so I will not see them in action.

I go to my hotel, Ufford Park Hotel, Golf and Spa (room 203). This is kindly paid for by the school. I have dinner with Adam at the 17th century coaching Cherry Tree Inn. It has WARM beer (Adnams Bitter) and a huge Beef Yorkshire Pudding. Imagine a dessert bowl shaped pudding whose base is the size of a dinner plate. Inside the “bowl” is meat, whole potatoes, vegetables and gravy. Delicious!

News item:
“Today’s children may need to have it explained to them very slowly: that beige thing roughly the shape of a computer mouse is an egg; put it into a saucepan (like a baseball cap upside down, only metal) with some water, then place on the cooker (that big metal box that isn’t the fridge) and apply heat”. A survey has revealed that 75% of British children so not know how to boil an egg. The students reason for not know how to prepare a meal or help in cooking dinner “was that they were too tired after school, too stressed about homework or too busy watching television or on the internet to be able to help.”