Days 31 & 32: Sunday 27 April 2014 & Monday 28 April 2014

Sunday 27 April 2014

Another grey rainy day in Bath.  I don't have to be at Sutton Veny until about 2.00pm for the Anzac Day church service that starts at 3.00pm, so I have a bit of a late start, leisurely breakfast and walk around the town centre.



Seagull on my windowsill

Even in the rain the drive to SV is very pleasant, the Somerset countryside is very pretty with green rolling hills and small forests.  The wildflowers are just starting to come out with lots of bluebells around.  Some of the real estate ads advertise properties for sale with a bluebell wood as a feature of the property.

 

River Avon (again) - Bath

The church service was held in the same church as the school children's service on Friday.  However this service is much more 'proper', to my mind very English middle class and very Church of England.  But all the same still very well done and very touching.  Again the church is full, men in suits wearing their medals accompanied by their wives, some serving military personnel in uniform, members of the Britain - Australia Society, the local Bishop made an appearance, an Australian Colonel representing the Australian High Commission, a NZ Squadron Leader representing the NZ government and a smattering of Australian and NZ visitors like myself.

I had one moment of concern when I was reading the order of service because at one point amongst the instructions to stand and sit there was also an instruction to kneel.  Crikey, I thought, the old knees have stood up to this trip remarkably well so far but I don't know how they will handle this kneeling bit.  Anyway when we got to the kneeling bit most people sat down and didn't kneel so I did likewise.

The church service started with a procession of banners and flags into the church and a presentation of the flags at the altar. Flashy will appreciate that one of the flag bearers was in full Scottish regalia, including a large sporran.  There was much singing of the fine old C of E hymns such as Onward Christian Soldiers, I Vow to Thee my Country, Jerusalem and the Recessional.  During the Recessional the plate was passed around, luckily I had remembered my old Sunday school days and made sure I had some change for the plate.  The English, Australian & NZ national anthems were played and sung.  The minister gave a fine sermon about the coming and going of empires using Paul's letter to Corinthians as a starting point and talked about why Anzac was so important to the new countries such as Australia and NZ.

The laying of the wreaths, recitation of the ode and playing of the Last Post etc was supposed to be done outside in the churchyard however as it was bucketing down outside this part of the service took place in the Anzac chapel inside the church.  I was doing OK up until now however when they carried out the flags and banners in procession the church organ started playing Waltzing Matilda and that got to me again, does it every time. 

After the service I caught up with Nicki Barnard who co-ordinates the school Anzac day service and gave her some copies of some photos of my grandfather in the hospital in SV and copies of parts of his service record that refers to his time in the hospital there.  She was very appreciative of that as the school has a collection of photos etc relating to the Anzacs who were there.

Monday 28 April 2014

So this is my last day in England and apart from the flight home the last day of my trip.  My flight doesn't leave Heathrow until 10.30pm so I have a full day to fill in so I decide to visit Stonehenge which is on Salisbury plain sort of on the way from Bath to Heathrow.

Last time I was at Stonehenge was in 1986, and in those days it was just a pile of rocks in the middle of a paddock.  Guess what, it is still a pile of rocks in the middle of a paddock, although they have built a new visitor centre about 2 miles away.  When I was there in '86 there was a small visitor centre about 200 metres from the rocks, now there is a large visitor centre about 2 miles from the rocks and you catch a shuttle train thing to and fro, after you hand over your 16 quid of course.

A barrow - burial mound - Stonehenge

Stones - Stonehenge

More stones - Stonehenge

Anyway it filled in a few hours of what is often a wasted day.  The next challenge was finding the Hertz depot at Heathrow and returning the hire car.  Heathrow airport is massive, there are five terminals and I would think that each of the five terminals are bigger than Tullamarine.  However after successfully negotiating what seemed like an endless series of on and off ramps, merging traffic lanes, last minute dashes to get into the correct lane and a series of roundabouts I made it to the Hertz depot.

After dropping the car off I caught the shuttle bus to terminal three and as I was early (again) I had to wait half an hour for the check in to open.  After check in and getting rid of some bags I went through the usual security checks a made my way to the business class lounge for a well earned drink.

The flight home was long and uneventful apart from a delay of about an hour before departure from Heathrow (sitting in the plane) and a further delay of about an hour at Dubai (sitting in the airport).