Hay-on-Wye bookshops by Henry

Henry loves bookshops and Hay was full of them, the town is know for its bookshops, and has the only specialist poetry bookshop in Britain. There were so many lovely second hand books for so little, however they were all really heavy. Geoff bought an illustrated Uncle Rhemus. This book shop was our favourite. -ed

I expected many things from Hay, but not that it had a castle and that it was a book and antiques

town. Now books and especially antiques are my favourite things, and collecting natural curiosities is another pass-time. Well, the whole town was based around dozens of bookshops, one of the most beautiful had 3 floors packed with shelves crammed with novels, poetry, literitures, even some huge books reprinted from New Zealand , a book of birds and about the Maori. The festival was started by a man who won a lottery and spent the money starting a book festoval since the town was a book town! Now it is a huge festival every year.

Bristol by George

We went to Bristol first. Henry go to see Aardman, we got to wait in the foyer, but that was good too. We got tickets to baord the Great Britain a big steamer and sailing ship built by Brunel, a famous engineer. The ship was beautiful and huge. She had a horse stable that smelled of horse pooh! She had two cannons and the bunks were thin! We went on a bus trip and we saw some of Banksey's work.

By George Cressida Cowell at Hay

We went to hear Cressida Cowell at the Book Festival. She has written the books of Hiccup the Viking. Hiccup has a dragon called Toothless. Toothless is a bit lazy ad he stutters. She stared to write because she lived on an island when she was young and there wasn't much to do and they kept finding weird fish and things in the sea. There were cliffs there a bit like in the books.

While Henry waited in line to see Cressida , he did a couple of drawings as we had left our copy of her book back at the B and B for her to sign, he had plenty of time as the queue took an hour. There were lots of people and Cressida insisted on talking to each person carefully about their feelings.

By Henry at AARDMAN!!!!

(Henry was so lucky, much luckier than all us hangers on who also wanted to see the works! -ed) I have been looking forward to visiting Bristol ever since I heard rumour of what was within it- Aardman. Where Wallace & Gromit was made. Every part f the famous programme is made there- props, models, sets, the animations, the reproductions and the moulds in which the puppets are made. I had brought along a few of my own models, and I had taken no chances of breakages on route from New Zealand. We only got in as someone was exiting the building and we got to talk to the lady at the reception desk. She checked to see if Nick Park was in when she heard we were from New Zealand! I was allowed to look in the model making department and take photos too! I saw many props and so on. It was very interesting, especially when I was shown the moulds in which they made Gromit. They had every thing one could want when it came to model making for Wallace and Gromit. I heard that there were some rooms in which commercials were made and even staff weren't allowed in, let alone a 10 year old New Zealand fan. I also noted that there was a good bit more souvenirs and memorabilia in shops around Bristol.

By Max, The Canal Boat in Wales

The canal boat in Wales was very cosy and a lovely traditional, sleek boat. The canal was thin and shallow. There was no current, the wake of the boat was big. The boat was slow, in fact george and I could easily beat it walking. We walked for miles and we could just jump on at the bridges. There were about 226 bridges on the canal. We didn't do it all because we went to listen to Quentin Blake at the Hay Book Festival. (Andrew Ashby picked us up to get us to Hay during the canal boat trip, then he and Ben and Rachel joined us for a meal and trip - ed.) Quentin Blake said to be free with your drawing and do it everyday, when ever, what ever. He liked pens, quills smudging ink, paint pencils and looking at things! He was funny too and drew us lots of pictures. He even did requests!

George adds ...

I slept on the sofa for two nights, it was cosy and fun. I cooked some spuds for breakfast. The canal boat was 16 m long and it weighed twelve tonnes. I couldn't steer it because I was too short to see! Henry tried but he beached up the front!

From Henry, Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong in a 777 200er aircraft with $1,400 of the native currency. ($300 NZ) The airport is gigantuan. It is in the tropics, so it was very, very hot. Hong Kong was different from home. Where it wasn’t green with forests and lush vegetation on steep hillsdes, it was commercial factories and domestic housing estates and huge apartment buildings as far as the naked eye can see. There are shops and hotels, and we were staying in one called the Harbour Plaza in North Point. The hotel looked grand , it was very comfortable. There was a buffet breakfast and I had a large amount, what an amazing choice, I was famished as the plane food is horrible. I passed the time studying coins and notes. (This has become a continual persuit- ed.) They were rather interesting (they have to be complex to prevent forgery). It is easy to loose ones hat in a taxi when you are very tired. The taxi was small, full of us and luggage and stopped in a dark foyer so that my best train hat was invisible on the floor in the back.

We visited the Ocean Park. My best bits were the jelly fish in large tanks in the mirrored, darkened display area and the pandas. (There was a great display of goldfish varieties and art associated with them - ed)

preliminary ramblings

By George

I hope I have enough money to buy a honda motor. If I can't get a motor I will look for a pocket knife. A Swiss Army one maybe. I would also like to look at Lego and war things. (George really enjoyed "The Machine Gunners" by Robert Westall. It is brilliant! I think he hopes to find shell cases on the ground and bits of messerschmits under bushes -ed.) And I am interested in the canal boat and doing interesting things. I will like going on the plane. I think it will be hot!

By Max

I would like to buy a pocket knife and I want to buy a Wilesco steam engine (Max raised lots on money by selling teddybears, however the boys seem to be very materialistic don't they, and the first trips proved this to be true -ed.) I looking forward to see a steam show and mountains. I want to ride on a roller coaster and a 747 and a canal boat.

I think it will be beautiful. There will be a lot more steam engines and more smaller houses . It will be crowded in some places and lonely in some.

By Henry

A few weeks ago, on a drizzly Friday, I heard that Mum has arranged and got tickets for a big vacation in Europe. I was ecstatic - I haven't been o'er the Tasman (although that was grand too). We skipped gym for a treat and ruined a bike with the trebuchet (teeheeheee - choking laughed). On May 24th I said "Au revoir" to school for 9 weeks. Went home and packed our bag. I'm going to try to use operation purswasion to get into Aardman*, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, and Chicken run. My favourite. Anyway, I'm taking some of my own models to show, they are made of plasticene, can't have them rattling on the way! So I'm taking no chances on packing (tissue inside of the ex-sewing box they are in, cheese cloth on the outside and tied with string and labels with transport details etc) My anticipations for Europe are - very bracing air, busy cities, interesting people, languages and cultures. Its history too. I'm 1/4 Dutch and low and behold, we're going to Amsterdam! Well, that's all I can say for the moment, for I am writing at home - we're leaving tonight - so that's all I can say!