26 May 2014 (drizzle but we don't care-we're at Ray's)

After a great nights sleep, awoke at Rays place in the town of Desborough, to yet another overcast day. The plan over the next two days is to rest Julia’s knee and enjoy the company of an uncle I haven’t seen for about fourteen years. When Olga, (Rays wife) was alive, they used to visit us in New Zealand on a regular basis and we enjoyed many good times both in New Plymouth and Whangamata.

Olga, sadly, died three years ago and I wasn’t sure if I would get the opportunity to see him in England again, so it has been nice to share some memories and check that he’s okay.

Did just that over a leisurely breakfast before Ju got busy on the editing of photos and I concentrated on trying to plan where we were heading for next.  We had planned to visit Julia’s aunty and uncle, Mary and Bryan, but think we might be pushing it a bit with Ju’s knee to fit them in before the Isle of Wight.

This afternoon we’re going to the cemetery to visit Olga’s grave and tonight we’re heading to my cousin Lesley’s for dinner.

Ray has been an excellent host and won’t let us lift a finger. 

A quiet afternoon  gazing at minor roads on the map. I watched some play-off football on tele, Julia did the wages and checked on the e-mails.  Managed to get some washing done and I’ve  lost a sock somewhere.  How do you lose one sock and not them both? At 5.30pm we walked 200 yards (notice we are not in metric) down the road to my cousin’s place.

Lesley and I haven’t seen each other for 36 years. She is married to Mark and they have three sons, Daniel, Matthew and Michael. The last time I saw her was in 1978 but this was the first time I’d met Mark.  Reason being that for many years Mark was in the forces so they were all over the place.

It was great to finally meet him and hear about their lives. We first met Matt when he came to New Zealand in 2011, so it was nice to catch up with him also. They have three dogs, so it filled the void of not having Rufus around for a number of hours. After enjoying a delicious meal and great company we made the 200 yard walk back to Rays, where it was straight to bed to see what tomorrow would bring.