Warm Sussex days and tummy bugs

After a long stopover in Singapore on the trip over, Dave and I finally arrived at Gabs and Jamie’s on Friday morning around 9am, 35 hours after leaving Emu Heights. Bec arrived a couple of hours later as she had travelled on later flights. Never were there more enjoyed cups of tea and showers. We spent Friday afternoon with the family, with Gabs and Jamie juggling work from home, and Rupert and Digby returning from a morning spent with Heather next door at around lunchtime. Bec and I did some cooking. We also picked fresh raspberries and blackberries from Heather and Julian’s huge kitchen garden. 

Our first weekend has been spent around the beautiful home Gabs and Jamie only finished renovating in February this year and enjoying the sunny weather with temperatures in the low 20’s. Their home was originally the barn of the main house and estate next door. It has been tastefully decorated with period features including windows overlooking green hedges and paddocks. 

We played with the kids in the yard and I did some baking. 

Unfortunately, on the flight over Bec has contracted a tummy bug with vomiting and diarrhoea marring her first night and second day in the country. Dave has also suffered from a bout affecting him from lunchtime Saturday. However, he was well enough to catch up with his Kambi colleague Andrew in a pub called the Coach and Horses in Danehill about 12km from Chailey Common where our hosts live.  

On Saturday we enjoyed a lunch at Julian and Heather’s with a few of their neighbours and then I went back to catch up with Susanna and Graham and their girls having a swim with the Hendersons, before an early dinner. Meanwhile the patients slept and rested or read at the ‘barn’. 

Gabs and Jamie put the boys to bed then headed out to a party Saturday night. We too had an early night. 

On Sunday we attended Sunday worship with Gabs, Jamie, the boys and Heather at the thriving parish of All Saints Anglican Church in Lindfield. It is a parish in a well to do area of Sussex with an amazing ministry team and attracts many young families, right up to adolescents. 

In the afternoon we went off to the Fletching Open Garden Trail and saw some beautiful gardens including Clinton Lodge, with its formal gardens.