Penkridge

In the morning, we went to St Michael’s church in Penkridge – a lovely Norman-style church built during the reign of King John that still has vertical scratches on the outside walls where they used to sharpen their arrows. The service was good and had a very familiar at-home feel about it. There was a nice little area at the back for Will to play with some toys and there was a mezzanine type room upstairs with a view back out into the main room where the bigger children could come and play.


The sun was shining outside so we took a walk around the graveyard and found the gravestones of both Rachel Hall and John Hall. Back at home Pamela made a lovely Sunday roast with New Zealand lamb and lots of yummy potatoes. We were all very full after finished all of that!

Simon showed me the Nintendo DS with the brain tester module that he had bought for John to keep his mind sharp. I was a bit tired when I first tried it and it gave me a brain age somewhere in the eighties. It did seem to be struggling with my accent (what accent?) a bit but I did a lot better on the Maths component managing a Train Speed for the mental arithmetic and Flying Speed for Quick Sudoku and it gave me a brain age of 23 which was much more pleasing.


Will had a good long sleep to catch up for the late night and we sat in the conservatory and relaxed in the warmth. We were still there when Will woke up. Now, Will has been fascinated with fans almost as long as he has with lights. There was a fan in the conservatory that he was really enjoying.

Lou, Will, Rachel and I went for a walk to the playground but I suggested we head down via the canal first. The canal was half a block away from Pamela and John’s and I remembered it well from my first visit. Moored on the rather thin canal were a line of narrow boats all decorated with traditional colours and designs. Further down the canal we stood and watched as the lock was used to elevate and lower the boats to the different levels of the canal. Lou was amazed at how quick it was.


We walked around the back of the village, past Rachel’s old school and her old house, to the playground where Will ran around and had a good turn on the slide and swings. Will did a funny thing at the top of the slide when we gave him Moosey and after he threw it down the slide he burst into tears. We gave it back and he was so happy. Then he threw it down the slide and burst into tears again! This happened for several minutes which was hilarious and very cute to watch.


We took some family photos and said goodbye to Rachel. She had work the next morning so she had to head back to Gloucester. The news reported that water would be back on so we all hoped for her sake that it would be. Since we had a Sunday Roast at lunch time, we had beans on toast for dinner and we chilled out in front of the TV watching From Russia with Love.