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The Badminton Estate is owned by the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort. On one day of the year, they open their gardens to the public, with proceeds going to charity. We bought our tickets a few months ago and had a lovely visit in the sunshine yesterday. We had a picnic in the grounds and later met up with our friends Krista and Stuart
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JD's birthday has spread over a week, with go-karting last weekend and presents, cake and birthday meal today (the actual day) with our great friends Krista and Stuart who pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable occasion. JD's present revolved around hamsters, typewriters and badminton. And we enjoyed all his favourite foods - duck pancakes, pizza, trifle and carrot cake (plus a KFC planned for tomorrow to round off a lovely 12th birthday!).   Last year, my good friends Krista and Stuart promised me a trip to see Everton play for my 60th Birthday. So this weekend Stuart drive us to the Molineux Stadium to see Wolves play my favourite team. A 1-1 draw was a fair result after a less than scintillating, but thoroughly enjoyable, match. We are now 8 matches unbeaten!  On Christmas Day evening, we welcomed Krista and Stuart to our house for a Chinese twist on a Christmas Dinner - duck pancakes, sprouts & bacon, potato cake and a game of "forfeits" pass-the-parcel.  Fantastic Christmas Eve evening spent at Krista and Stuart's. Delicious meal with all the trimmings and some silly games and quizzes to give us time to digest it all. We return the favour tomorrow.  JiaJia, JD and I joined Krista & Stuart and some of their church friends yesterday evening for a hour of Carol Singing in the neighbourhood. It was a very traditional event for Jiajia to participate in (despite not knowing any of the songs) and we enjoyed hot chocolate and party nibbles at the church afterwards. 
With our good friend Krista away in India we thought it would be nice to invite her husband Stuart over for a meal last week. Jiajia excelled herself with a delicious chicken and veg meal for us all.  Our move to Chippenham, and indeed to the UK, 6 months ago would have been sooooo much harder were it not for our good friends, Krista and Stuart who previously helped us purchase a couple of properties whilst we were in China, and then furnished our temporary house in preparation for us moving in.  In our first half-year here, they have been invaluable friends - showing us the Chippenham ropes, taking a real interest in our lives and making us feel so welcome. We attended their church last weekend (it's 50m from our house!) to see Stuart leading the service and preaching. And we are hosting them for a meal on Christmas day.
 Lovely visit today from the Sams family. Jo and Rob's two boys are so grown up now, considering we last met up with them 6 years ago. Both graduating/graduated really well from University and thinking about careers and girlfriends!! Well, sorta....
We have a nice carvery meal before heading to mutual friends Krista and Stuart's for desserts and watching a decidedly odd Olympic Opening Ceremony from Paris! My brother Dave drove us from Hereford to Chippenham yesterday and we saw out new little house for the first time. It's in Gabriel Mews, a 2-bed with a small (overgrown) garden. Our good friends Krista and Stuart live in Chippenham and have been buying furniture, decorating and repairing our house over recent months to make our move there as smooth and homely as possible. They've done such a great job - we were gobsmacked when we arrived at how "ready" it was for us to move into.  Tomorrow we plan to go hunting for a washing machine, a car, a TV and a hoover!
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 AuthorPaul Hider started this blog to share his rather odd life living in China for over 20 years. Since returning to the UK in 2024, the blog now records his more "normal" lifestyle! Past blog entries
May 2025
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