Epilogue Part 1 - The Cup Of Tea Party

17th July 2008
The cup of tea party on the 28th June.
What a lovely day – apart from the rain showers! It was so nice to see everyone and the event certainly got to us – because we even gave free tea and scones to people who didn’t get any questions right on the blog – that’s generosity for you! There was some spice tea from India on offer and the strawberry jam was homemade by brother-in-law Bob from America. We managed to serve tea until about 6pm, then the crowd got nasty and the bar had to open!!

There was also another visitor from America – click the picture and look closely, that’s the outsourcer been fed scones by sister Ginny and plied with tea by Shirley. Paul and I in the background doing our best smiles!







Here’s the Outsourcer again collecting her spoils. Somebody must have told her it was cold in England because we definitely think she’s overdone the whole pink knitwear look!





This is Rory celebrating his victory over his dad Peter. We just couldn’t figure out how he’d won because I’ve never seen dom’s played that way before!





Suzanne and Alyson are chatting in the background, meanwhile in the foreground an argument is in full flow as Jenny and the outsourcer dispute who should have the last cup of tea.




Three regulars of the blog! Paul Sandersfield on the left, Didge in the middle and ‘Un Big One’ (brother Ron) on the right. There were three Ron’s here on the day – just in case you’re confused: Ron Elves (Suzanne's Dad), Ron Hodgson AKA Bomber (my Dad) and Ron Hodgson Jnr AKA Un Big One (my brother).


In the background (seated) that’s Mam Elves and sister-in-law Nicola Elves. Alyson on the right and Jenny getting into the tea again on the left. Andy and his son Sean also to the left. Sean made the tragic mistake of taking on Ron, Andy, Bob and I at garden quoits – he was left scarred for life (see later)!


Hovis on the left (aka ‘boy in the bubble’) looks on as Ginny reminds Paul of how many cups of tea she won compared to him.






Jenny demonstrates the ‘down in one’ method of dispatching a cream scone as her partner Andy (sconeless) can only imagine what it must taste like. That’s Ron Elves in the background organising the garden games.




This is my Sister Paula from Manchester trying to decide which cake to spend her well earned ‘free scone answer’ on. Although we were only going to provide scones, an English high tea is never really complete without a proper array of the sweet stuff. Apart from the scones all the other cakes were made by our guests – ooh what a lovely lot you are!






Poor Sean – having been in the final of the quoits competition six times and loosing on every occasion he just couldn’t take it anymore and the tears started flowing (click on the picture -you'll see what I mean) off camera to the right, four adults are laughing and celebrating doing the ‘congo dance’ around the rose bushes! Shortly after this picture Sean was again, taking up his season ticket discount price seat on the last train to ‘Loserville’

This is Mam Elves at the laptop doing a great job of narrating the Blog. In the background that’s Sarah, another good friend of ours. John Jones is in the hot seat getting ‘blogged’. In the background the Outsourcer is seated waiting to answer any questions the blog readers may have.



Ron Elves showing us all that too much tea does not stain your teeth, sharing a cuppa with Un Big One. That’s our good friend and Rory’s Mam in the background, Lynn.





This is Janet, Lorna (not usually reknowned for drinking tea!!) and – yes Jenny again!! All good friends of ours.






After fifteen scones and eighteen cups of tea, Jenny’s party looks like it’s just about over – but she was determined to have what she won so she ‘battled’ on.






Here are some of Suzanne’s w-w-w-w-work (such a difficult word to say) colleagues, Fiona on the left, then Ailish who has now left Sunderland and sissy Ginny.





On the right is sister-in-law Pamela Hodgson and next to her, looking like she’s sucking a lemon, that’ll be Lindsey Loo, our niece.






Sister Poll on the left, nephew Ryan at the back (AKA Dave), Auntie Jean quaffing some coffee cake and Mam Hodgson on the end (provider of said coffee cake). The outsourcer is busy keeping a check of who has what.




Thanks to everyone who came along - we had a great time and we hope you did too. Look out for the last blog entry: 'Epilogue of the Blog' which I'm busy writing and will be on the blog in a few days time.

Home on the range!!

Final pictures on the blog! This is us sitting on the plane from Bombay to London - you kind of know the game is up when you see the Union Jack flying on your wing tip!

And this is our first view of dear old blighty.
That'll be London down there folks!

Flight number 32 of the year was the last one - from Heathrow to Durham-Tees. Here the doors opening and the blurred movement of Ron and Ann coming towards us at a great number of knots!! (Pictures courtesy of Paul and Shirley).











Someone asked in a previous blog 'who would be the most excited at the home coming' - here's your answer! Ann and Suzanne.









Despite the lateness of the hour, our lovely friends came along too, there's Shirley (with bump) and Paul in the background looking for sympathy with a chalk on his slender lady like wrist! Not so much of a CS now eh?




Notice we're all smiling! Shortly after this picture the outside doors opened and a gush of English summertime wind hit us and Elvis and I had problems breathing as our lungs struggled from the cold air.





This is the next day - ahhh look at how pleased me Ma is at having her FAVOURITE sibling back (he he he). My Mam even said I look well despite being two stone lighter and an inch shorter than when I left - but that's what Mothers are for - I may look like I've just been released from a hard labour prison but your Mam doesn't see any of that. By the way - I've an appointment there tonight for a lamb dinner, I'm on the road to restoring the lost pounds!.



Back home and clock the yellow ribbon!

Here we are back in the house - Elvis being carried over the threshold - again!

My secret is out - this is how all those pictures of the both of us were taken - the long arms come in useful!

We couldn't get used to the house - it didn't seem right having more than one room to live in.

On Monday Ann and Ron had a welcome home party at their house. It was fantastic to see all the pale faces from home! Not many pictures unfortunately, just a couple of 'long arm' ones from me!

This is Christopher sporting his new Vietnam hat with Suzanne.

Dear Bloggers,
Well this is it! The last blog will come in two parts because right now I don't have the Internet at home and I can't get the pictures onto the blog from this computer - so look out for the reunion pictures in the next couple of days. We eventually got back to Durham Tees airport at 11:15pm on Sunday the 8th June 2008. It was wonderful to see Mam and Dad Elves and Paul, Shirley and Bump! We went back to our house and had cups of tea for a couple of hours until we all got too tired!

It has been VERY strange the last 24 hours. It's amazing how quickly it all starts to become a dream and 'normal life' edges it's way back.

So have a laugh at the last re-union pictures (they'll appear in this blog soon) and then find someone else to follow around the world you nosey buggers!!

A big thank you to all of you who have followed us around, family, new friends, old friends and some of you we've never met before and may never will. We've really enjoyed writing the blog and loved to get your comments and e-mails. Now all I have to do is work out how to turn the blog into a book - because this is a year we'll never ever want to forget.

Just one little matter to close on, the final cup of tea question. The last COT question is answered with a question!!. The answer was of course: 'Do you mean an African swallow or a European swallow' Anyone who knows their Monty Python will know that. Top marks to Sister Ginny who not only correctly answered the question, she even quoted the famous line 'How do you know so much about swallows!' Full marks Sissy!

Best wishes and love to you all
Keith and Suzanne AKA Hodgie and Elvis xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ps There's plenty of other places in the world we never got to visit - if anyone wants to take up the baton.......

This is blogger control over and OUT.

THE END.

Royal Enfield Goodbye!

You should get a video clip on this post, but we've had lots of problems with it, so if nothing appears then the clip didn't work!

Goa

Today is the 7th of June - tomorrow we fly home - so this is it - or is it? We did think of doing a blog of 'getting off the plane at home' so we'll see. This is certainly the last blog from foreign shores. Today we arrived in Bombay on the overnight train - it's pittling down right now as the monsoon season starts to take a grip. As my Sissy Gin often says, it's much easier to leave when the weather isn't good! So have we been sight seeing in the rain - not a chance! We've been to Bombay's biggest mall, watched the Indiana Jones film and ate western cack all day (we don't want dodgy stomachs on the plane now do we?)
So here are the last images of India and of course our trip around the world. As you'll see we went out in real style! You remember we mentioned sometime back that in India they still make the old English classical motor cycle: 'The Royal Enfield' - well we hired one for the day and had a trip around old Goa. For the motor bike connoisseurs among you, this is a Royal Enfield 350 Bullet (and it wasn't Rusty in case anyone was wondering!).


Here I am on the old girl(the Motorbike - not Elvis!!) getting her 'warmed up' for a blaze through the old town - more of that later!











This is where we chose to stay after coming off the train, a place called Colva. A nice little beach with plenty going on and around to keep us amused for a couple of days. The waves were MASSIVE but, the rip currents are really bad this time of year, so alas, Hodgies body surfing school remained closed for business.





Here's a couple of pictures of the beach and beautiful sky!









The guys from the restaurant we were staying near loved cricket - so during the quiet times they'd get the gear out and have a game, I joined in. This is me mercilessly smashing their fast bowler for a six (Elvis did well with the picture because you can actually see the ball on its way!)




This is an old building in old Goa 'not half'. The ruins of the church of St Augustine.

It went to ruin when the Portuguese wouldn't allow people to use it, then one day half of it 'fell off'.

These pictures are from Panjim, the capital of Goa. It was run by the Portuguese for a number of years, that's why it has that Mediterranean feel about it.


This is us stopping in a Portuguese style hotel for a little light refreshment. No beers though - there was a big bike to drive back to Colva - what a chore!!



















For anyone who is going to be turning up at our tea party without a free scone win under their belts and would be therefore forced to sit and watch everyone else quaffing away, here is your last chance: Riddle me this:-


If you want your tea for free, you must answer me these questions three:

1. What is your name
2. What is your favourite colour
3. What is the average wing speed of an unladen swallow

Last scone question - Ginnon Ginny with a dose of CS'ness that even out does CS Sandersfield. A free scone with your own jam for you.

Fort Cochin & More Cooking!!

Spot the fake turban wearer amongst these two jokers, I know who has the real turban but you must admit the moustache looks a bit 'clagged on'!!















Fort Cochin was a stop on the way to the train station for the next trip to Goa - but it turned out to be much more than just a stop - it was a fantastic little place.


No cups of tea for guessing what's in this tea pot folks! It's the same colour as tea (well the same colour as my brothers tea - maidens 'watter') but has an entirely different effect all together! They're not really allowed to sell alcohol here, so they pretend that they giving you tea and you drink your beer from a tea pot and china mug! Just remember not to add milk and sugar - yak!





A late scone at the tea party could be won for the first person to tell me what in tarnation is this contraption?

This is real tea!! This is a place called 'the Tea Pot' and much tea and cake was consumed! You can see Elvis' humongous slab of chocolate cake in the foreground! Five seconds later it was gone!

This is our little driver boy Ramesh - young enough to be my son! He called us 'movie stars' because the Indian people were always taking pictures of us!

This was one of the most wonderful things we saw that day - for once I wished I had a video camera. This little boy had obviously been told to wait for his cousin to come along and take him to school - he must have been told not to move from that spot. Look at the concern on his face! We were sitting in the 'Tea Pot' watching. All of a sudden his little face lit up and he was just about to run ... then stopped ... remembering he can't move, so he jumped up and down on the spot smiling his little face off. The older boy came along, put his hand out - this little fella grabbed his hand , never looked away from his face and skipped off down the lane to school - pure magic!!

Residents and visitors to England will all be delighted to know that that is me at yet another cookery class! This time making the delights of the Southern Indian cuisine! This is me with the expert chef - Leena (not Leena Lorna Turner!)

Some would say that Elvis has the best deal here. I slave over the cooker for two hours then Madam shows up for her dinner, sits down and gets served by the chef and I. This time I made a fantastic dish called Marsala Dosa and a vegetable curry. Prepare yourselves back home for some Indian delights!!

Scone's 'R' Us: Outsourcer takes the lot again and never mind trying to make teams, we think your team of Outsourcer and Google are already doing pretty well. Mumbai is the new name for Bombay. The dish of the City is Bombay Duck and the main ingredient, despite the name, is dried fish. Our Paula - Lancashire hotpot is good - but it's not right. Say what you see though!

It's not over yet folks - look out for another blog in the near future!