A new life; same as the old life?

We last left our intrepid global traveller in the South of England, following a triumphant trip to the motherland. The timing of this entire trip had been dictated by the one and only date for my in laws 40th birthday gift. The Aston Martin Experience was in Oxfordshire, which meant another several hours in the car, and on one of the few days where it rained for the whole trip. We had left AJ home with Grandma, and intended to make a whole day of it. Arriving in the middle of nowhere, around 10:30am, very little signage or directions, we stumbled upon a tiny sign to get to the farm, and on up to the circuit purpose built for such events. As you can see from these pictures , they had a plethora of exotic cars. The rain was still coming down hard, but nothing could dampen our spirits as the cars roared around the circuit. We had a couple of quick sighting laps in the rally cars with the instructor, showing the lines, where to turn in, etc. We then took our turns in the Aston, 6 laps of h...

It's been a long and tiring two weeks, and now I have to go back to work. Regular readers will know that I spent the last two weeks at home in the UK visiting friends & family. It was a packed schedule, planned with military precision to maximise socialising and golfing opportunities. We landed at 5:30am and jumped straight into a rental car, headed for Scotland via the Lake District. We spent that first night with some friends at their farm/stables/guest house catching up on all the old skiing gossip from Soll. We even got AJ on a horse for her first assisted "ride". There are a few more pictures here of AJ on the horse. We left the farm mid morning and wended our way further northwards to visit my family who had never met the baby. We had checked into another guest house in Ayr, call By The Sea which we can thoroughly recommend. It has recently reopened with new ownership and a significant refit. The location is great, one block from the beach, and close to the t...