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Barry & Di had returned to Oz, but a fresh wave of "round-the-worlders" were about to descend one of whom was Lynette Savage (Lyn) a cousin (or something) of Barry's, and he'd given her all my contact details so she at least she had "someone" to make contact with on her arrival in the UK.
Meanwhile, Paul Tucker, Wendy Tucker and Dorothy Jaques (you weren't married yet were you??) were still bombing around south-east England - trying desperately to get lost...these were out near Oxford in October/November 1965.....
Now this slide/image has had a turbulent last few
hours...... Its been boxed up with all my other slides for the last 30+ years,
but today was its turn to be digitised so I could post it here. Well - the
process requires me to set up the slides near an open window, load them into a
slide holder and then shoot them with the trusty Canon. Today - I put the top
picture in the slide-holder and the stack of following slides on the
window-ledge, this slide being the top one. Whilst getting set-up a gust of wind
blew this slide out the window - I just managed to see it go - otherwise I'd
have been none the wiser. Being the sort to panic under stress, I grabbed the
stack (to ensure that they wouldn't get blown too) and quickly looked out the
open window... We live on the 14th floor and so (luckily) I was able to see the
poor thing falling, twisting, bumping its way down. I clocked where it had
landed (near a fountain - but again luckily - not in it) and hurried downstairs
to retrieve it - no problemo!! Back upstairs for the digitising I put the slide
on top of the stack again - but moved the stack to a table just below the window
ledge, only to find that the camera battery needed charging - set that up and
went to have lunch, during which time it rained - very hard (and I forgot about
the open window with the slides sitting on the table) this top one got soaked
and is quite blotchy - hence the rather washed out effect - shame!
Both of these taken at the same gate.
And then we were out again in the early Spring of 1966 - this time Hampshire was to be our playground and this time we did get totally lost
When we
started down here - we honestly thought it was a dried up river bed (may
have been for all we found out).
And then we stuck our noses into someone's front garden to find this lovely Cherry blossom - fantastic!!
Pushing on to the New Forest...
Between these two outings Lyn and I made a trip to North Wales - what a good idea!! North Wales in December!! Well as you can see - it wasn't all cloud and rain and miserable....
First we had to do some sight-seeing - Coventry.....
Old
People's Home..... or is it..... an old, people's home???
And
the old cathedral.
Then it was a bit of a re-run - for me - of a trip with work-mates from ICT Putney days - when about 8 of us piled into a van on Friday evening in the winter (there was snow on the mountains) - with one massive tent (it had no groundsheet) and we set off for Snowdon for some mountain walking!! Basically up the A5 - a tea-stop in Langollen and then as with this trip into exciting country - Corwen, Betws y Coed and before Capel Curig - a side-trip to Swallow Falls...
Looking up-stream
then
down - lots of water!
After a trip onto Anglesey and LLanfair........, a wander round Caernafon Castle we pushed on the A487 then A479 to a most drab and miserable looking place... Blaenau Ffestiniog - so many slag/slate heaps...
Those
are not mountains in the distance - they are slag-heaps!!
Into the Snowdonia National Park...
where we got a waterfall falling onto the
road...
and
further on the road was about 12 inches deep in water for about 100 yards - The
Beetle took it all in its stride!!
We got some brighter weather (not for long) on
the way to Conway...
A quick piccie on the beach near Conway...
then south to Harlech where we stayed in a
good hotel near the castle 
and from
which I got Christmas cards etc.. for years.
We were feeling very sorry for ourselves - on the road - miles from home on December 31st!! Anyway - by chance we stopped for the night somewhere like Hereford and the hotel we'd selected was throwing a great New Year's Party into which we mixed - and had a memorable end of year celebration!
Around January or February of 1966, Lyn's sister Raymer (Raymer Savage) was due to arrive from Oz - so we went off to Southampton to meet her... this is Lyn waiting patiently for Raymer to disembark..
and then we had more sightseeing to do over the next
few weeks/months.....
Essex Coast.....
but where..?? Forgotten.....
Cliveden.....
which features unusually often in my history.. my old
mum had worked for the Astor family and they owned Cliveden, then there's this
visit, then Britta was born in the Canadian hospital next door to Cliveden, then
we as a family attended some Summer Fete or event there - pictures to be posted
soon, then Mathias Kunheim (Matt) had his 50th birthday bash there - I think its
a hotel or restaurant now....?
And now some arty shots of flowers and statues in Cliveden...
And then it was Rye in Sussex
am I
right?? this is the Mermaid pub??..
This also was a re-visit - for me - back in the ICT Putney days there was Bob Simmons and Bob French and lots of parties Olympia/Earls Court way - where a couple of ICT Demonstration ladies had a ground floor flat - what great times!! Anyway one Sunday morning (maybe nearer lunchtime) there we all were in the ?Olympia? flat after a rocking Saturday night (maybe Simmons wasn't there..??) and as a perfect finish to the weekend it was decided we'd drive down the Rye - where there was going to be an enormous November 5th bonfire etc... which we did.. nuff said!
We attended the Henley regatta during the summer - didn't bother to post the photies here - 'cos they're all of boats and rowing and I don't know the names of any of them... Also Whipsnade Zoo (why??) - just piccies of poor cooped-up animals - didn't want to post them..