Warm beer and old churches

Despite the risk of upsetting all our Southern African friends, I have to admit it has been an absolute pleasure to drink real beer again now we are back in the UK.

Fizzy tasteless lager is perfect in 40 C temperatures but now we are back in the middle of a typical British summer (16C and copious rain) it has been a joy to sink a few pints of proper beer!

After leaving Dad in Cornwall we've thrown ourselves on the hospitality of Alan & Jane in Reading, where we visited The Bell at Aldworth, a lovely old pub in the Berkshire Downs (for those of you unfamiliar with the logic of the English language, Downs are actually upland hill areas). The Bell is the epitomy of the English pub, very old, unspoilt, serving simple food and great beer and owned by the same family for more than 200 years.

Whilst in Reading we caught up with neighbours Jason & Emma and retrieved our mail (which we pay the Post Office to re-direct by the way) from our house, currently rented out to a Polish family with 3 teenage boys. They are our third tenants since we left for Africa in June 2006, and the house seems to be in remarkably good condition, all the walls are where they should be and the roof is still attached!

It was interesting walking around Reading as non-working visitors instead of wage earning residents. The average salary in Reading is apparently £588 per week, which helps when a tea and coffee cost over £3 and pubs are charging £3 for a beer! Despite talk of UK economic stagnation and recession the place looked incredibly prosperous, vibrant and safe.

Typically, one thing never seems to change, the UK print and TV media are still telling us how our schools and hospitals are failing, how our transport system is falling apart and how the rest of the world has left us behind. They should be made to spend a year in South Africa to get things in perspective again!

Having no transport we have relied on friends to drive us around. Bill and Lesley (who some of you will remember risked a 6 week holiday with us earlier this year) drove over from Kent to pick us up in Reading. After a very alcoholic stopover at Karen & "4 Landrovers" Graham in Hampshire, we crashed out with Lesley & Bill in the lovely old Kentish village of Newnham.

A 3 mile walk to another typical old pub reminded us, if we needed reminding, of the beauty of the English countryside in summer. Overgrown paths, fields of wheat, magnificent beech forests and cattle grazing in beautiful flower meadows are not something you come across in Botswana! Of course, unlike Botswana, the wildlife is much harder to spot but at least it doesn't have the urge to eat you!

The Norman (late 11th century) church at Eastling, with a Yew tree in the graveyard estimated to be over 2000 years old, provided the historical and architectural interest on the walk. It is worth noting that the current vicar has the Christian name "Penelope", which unless the Church of England has allowed transvestites to take the cloth, is the first female priest in a roll call that can be traced by name back to 1205AD.

From Newnham, assuming we are not evicted by Lesley & Bill for eating them out of house and home, we are scrounging a lift to Angela's parents in East Sussex.