This newsletter covers our 2001 vacation in the UK. It was released to an unsuspecting world on August 25th, 2001.		As promised (to some!), here's a "special edition" newsletter with all the goss from our recent UK trip. It was great to have chance to meet up with so many friends and family... I've just been jotting down a list of names of people we saw, and the list is already over 70 names... sorry we didn't get chance for a proper chat with everybody, but thanks to all for making the effort to get together, it was much appreciated by Lynne and me.... and a special thank you to those who allowed us to 'camp out' on their driveways etc... I hope the various trees, gateposts, walls etc that I may have 'modified' whilst manouevering the mobile mansion have survived the experience. So... where to start?? At the beginning, I suppose. We arrived fresh (if a little late due to weather & air traffic delays) at Gatwick, with a daunting day ahead - we had to go across to Kent to pick up the campervan, then head north to our first overnight stop in Manchester via Bracknell and Stratford... (don't ask! – but thanks to John and Laura for the loan of bedding and one mobile phone, to Jack for testing out the campervan’s ‘facilities’ and to Jennie, in her absence, for the loan of HER (nice pink) mobile phone). Luckily we'd done that Melatonin thing (better living through drugs!) so the jet lag was not biting too hard, and all was accomplished without incident. After an initial 'Oh my god!!!!!!' on first sight of the size of the campervan, and some very tentative driving through the narrow Kentish lanes on the way to the motorway, the campervan proved relatively easy to drive, if a bit sluggish up the hills. It was also fun to be riding so high above the road (especially compared to my old MR2!) as we got a great view over hedges, fences etc as we made our way around the country. Our first real stop was Manchester, courtesy of our old pals Jools and Paul. We finally arrived around 11:00pm on the Saturday, and got the first of many, errr..., shall we say 'interesting' reactions to our chosen mobile holiday home... these usually went something like "What the #$%& is THAT??" or maybe "Didn't they have anything bigger?" from the wits. Have to say I enjoyed Jools' comment "But you used to have such a NICE little car..." best though. We managed to get the van onto their drive, and had a good weekend (what was left of it, at least) in Manchester catching up with old pals Linda S, Kath, Linda G, Lesley, Geoff, and Lou and (in what was to become a recurring theme) hitting local curry houses to get our fixes of that good old traditional English delicacy Chicken Tikka Masala. (there are some good Indian restaurants in SF and Berkeley, but somehow they just don't match up to a Rusholme special...) We also were able to get a couple of very lazy mornings with long lay-ins (or should that be ‘lays-in’?) so by the time we set off southbound we were pretty much synchronised into UK time, and definitely in 'holiday mood'. We stopped off at a supermarket on the way out of Manchester to stock up on stuff for our travels... realised (too late!) that it's good to find a big double length parking spot (that I could drive into AND out of without having to reverse!) when trying to park a vehicle so long... The 'big Tescos' seemed strangely small after the Castro Safeway in SF (and nowhere near as good for people-watching).. but it seemed to have all the basics (though in not quite as many varieties – how can people survive with a choice of only 5 types of milk?) so we were soon stocked up and away. Took us a while to work out the vagaries of the fridge, cooker etc in the campervan (and we never actually got the heater to work, but fortunately we never really needed it). Next stop was my sister & family in Mansfield, after a very pleasant drive across 'the tops', over the hills between Manchester and Chesterfield, complete with 'lunch stop' in a lay-by, using some of the van's facilities for the first time (but not quite ‘under our own steam’ as we hadn’t yet found the various gas taps required to get the cooker working to boil the kettle). Couldn't quite fit the van on the drive here, so camped out on the street outside the house, and actually slept in the van for the first time... remarkably comfortable, and another long lay-in... but this was probably due in some part to the fact that we'd been out to dinner with sister Julie, husband Pete and family, and also met up with an old school pal of mine called Steve who I hadn't seen for (it turns out) 31 years! So we adjourned back to the house and were up till the early hours swapping stories of teenage exploits and catching up with what happened to other friends from that era ("Oh, he went to jail for embezzlement..."). And it really was true that at around age 13 we built a rubberband-powered balsa wood plane with a propeller so big that the prop stayed still and the plane rotated.. Then off to the east coast... Mablethorpe to be precise, where my mum & step-dad have a static caravan which they use in the summer. It was great to get to see this caravan at last, and very smart it is too... (and probably bigger than my first house!). However, the weather (which had been pretty grey and damp so far) really turned bad and we had a restless night being buffeted by torrential rain and heavy winds. This brought back long-forgotten memories of wet childhood holidays in the same area (though most of these were under canvas). That distinctive noise of heavy rain heard from the inside of a tent or caravan must be one of the saddest sounds...  but weatherwise, things began to improve from then onwards, and by the time we hit Harbury for the first time (the itinerary was carefully synchronised to Hereburgh Morris practices so that Lynne could get back up to speed for the Warwick Folk Festival) things were looking much brighter. While Lynne re-acquainted herself with her old accordion, some old tunes and of course lots of old pals, I re-acquainted myself with the Dog Inn and then the Shakespeare, where the morris crowd turned up after practice so we had chance to bore them all with our San Francisco photos, and tales of Treasure Island. And a special thank-you here to Doug who (by skillful manipulation of a sweeping brush) managed to raise the branches of the tree in his driveway so that I could (equally skillfully) reverse the van in, only slightly bending the lamp on the corner of his garage in the process. Time for me(Lynne)  to chime in here – it was great to be back in Harbury again – though playing slightly more tentatively once I realized that unless you keep practising these tunes they eventually get rusty…..  and remembering the dilemma over those dances you love dancing, but which have tunes you love playing…. I had such a wonderful welcome and I was really looking forward to being part of Hereburgh’s contribution to the festival the following weekend. Sad to see that the after-practice meeting-place had changed to the Shakespeare, but glad to hear that it (and the Folk club) would soon be moving back to the Dog. The next morning we were off again, this time on the longest single leg of our journey, down to Lynne's sister and family in Plymouth. Weather seemed to be improving all the time, and we had a very pleasant journey, again with lunch stop. We were well into the swing of things now, with coffee brewed on the cooker each morning and everything assigned it's place in the campervan cupboards.  Michele had joined us for this part of the trip, so we had some company. Unfortunately for her, we'd also discovered the delights of Radio 2, and so usually had this blasting out as we pootled along. Definitely aimed at us 'oldies' these days, lots of 70's music (not to mention 70's DJs too). One thing that sort of surprised me was (wait for it) how small England was. I've obviously 'osmosed' some of that American sense of distance and space... I was constantly amazed that to get across a good part of the country (even at a leisurely 60-65 mph and with lunch stops etc) only took a few hours, and our initially daunting itinerary became easily achievable. 3 nights in Plymouth, and Lynne's turn to wander around an old home town and relive times past. (Yes Lynne, there definitely WERE more trampolines in that park on the seafront in the old days... and I'm sure they were MUCH bigger, too...). As with Mansfield, lots of changes, some good, some not so good. But great to spend some time with Lynne's sister Anne, husband Terry and family, and we also managed to meet up with ex-Depper's bridge neighbour Brenda and old school/sailing pal Ian, who gave us the VIP tour of the boatyard he now runs. Michele had decided to head back to the Midlands slightly earlier than us, so from Plymouth we took a leisurely drive along the south coast to Poole, where we could put her on a train which went direct to Leamington. A very pleasant drive, in bright sunshine, ending up at a nice campsite in the grounds of an old manor house. A nice quiet spot, with good showers etc. Still discovering new bits of the van to play with, we tried out the awning for the first time only to discover one of the legs was broken... An early start on Monday morning to get Michele onto her train, then spent the rest of the morning wandering around Poole old town in brilliant sunshine, before heading on to meet up with pals Bill & Jane at their place near Beaulieu. A couple of very lazy days here, soaking up the rays and sampling the delights of various local hostelries, as well as a great day out sailing on the Solent in their boat where we went from Keyhaven across to Newtown on the Isle of Wight, then back via Lymington. And then it was Wednesday again, so time to head back to Harbury for the last morris practice before the festival. Another pleasant drive up the M3 to Fleet to meet ex-colleagues Ian, Will and Pete for another good outdoor lunch stop before continuing up the 'backroads' to  Stratford, to meet up for a meal with Maurice, Norma, Claire and Michele, then on to Harbury with Claire hitching a ride. While Lynne was doing that morris practice thing I was tasked with finding somewhere we could park/camp overnight in the van. Luckily, those nice chaps at the Dog Inn were very accommodating (literally), and all for the price of a couple of beers - though I must admit I did feel a bit bad towards the end of the evening as I left the van there and headed across to the Shakespeare to meet up with the Hereburgh mob.. A leisurely breakfast in the Dog car park, and then off to Eathorpe to meet Lynne’s ex-Aardvark ceilidh band colleague Mike for lunch in a pleasant country pub. Lynne’s turn to do the photo-show commentary, and lots of muso-goss to catch up on from Mike. Another excellent stop, only slightly marred by the intermittent noise of construction work going on over the hedge.. also very hot, as the weather really got into gear for what was to be a brilliant weekend at Warwick Festival. So then we moved on to Warwick – arriving late Thursday afternoon to join the advance party at the Hereburgh enclave, we got there to find the aforementioned Doug busily setting up tents and reserving spaces. I helped (a bit) and we managed to set up the beer tent with the entrance exactly opposite of what had been intended (ie round the back near the hedge). After a brief consultation we decided to leave it that way, and if anyone asked we’d say it was a ‘security measure’. Lots of familiar faces wandering around to say ‘hi’ to and a glorious sunset over the church set the mood. We decided another curry was in order so wandered up into town and found a suitable place. On Friday the festival began for real, and Lynne was off to do some stewarding duties while I ended up playing ‘traffic controller’ and ‘talking in’ new arrivals to the right place on the rapidly filling campsite via our borrowed cellphones. A lunch stop at a pub by the canal and chance to meet up with another ex-Aardvarker Kate, and we were also joined there by my ex-band mate and work colleague Ade with wife Linda who I’d managed to divert en route (aren’t mobile phones wonderful?). Back to the campsite for another lazy beer, and some more ‘traffic control’ (Neil this time) as lots more familiar faces began to populate the Hereburgh tented village, including Michele and friends. Lynne again: Thanks to Jim for giving me a spot on the information desk – not sure whether that was a help or hindrance to him, as there were so many familiar faces to say ‘hello’ to and catch up with.  The van was to become a popular spot for ‘hanging out’… I’d like to think it had something to do with our popularity amongst our friends, but I suspect the fact that we’d got the gas fridge working and therefore had a supply of cold wine and beer had something to do with it too. When Lynne’s stewarding stint was done we all went out for food (yes, another curry..) and then into the main concert marquee in time to see Jenny Crook and Henry Sears and Slainte Mhath – both excellent. Neil, Lynne and I then mooched around the campsite café for a bit where a session was in progress – and Neil proved his bravery (or foolhardiness) by trying a black pudding burger.. Saturday dawned bright and warm, and began with a fry-up breakfast courtesy of Linda.. a perfect start to a great day. Neil bade us farewell but was rapidly replaced by Mark, Colin, Chris and Kate. Ade displayed hitherto hidden talents with a piece of bungee cord and fixed the awning support so we were able to extend our territory and arrange a nice shady place in front of the van. The Hereburghers were dancing in the town, so we watched them head out and then followed a bit later on. Got to the market square to find them performing in baking heat, so dived into the Rose & Crown to get liquid refreshment for ourselves and a (by then very pink) Lynne. Followed the Morris tour for a bit, then headed back to the campsite where Lynne had some more stewarding to do. Ade, Linda, Colin, Mark, Chris, Kate and I wandered into the main marquee to see what was happening and by chance managed to catch the set of Colin Carroll, an amazing young guitarist. This guy was incredible – at one point I turned around to the others to say ‘Wow!’ and saw that all four of the guys (who are all guitarists) were standing there staring, with mouths agape.. wish I’d had my camera handy! Lynne again: A wonderful morning’s dancing.  I really enjoyed being out in a very sunny Warwick in Hereburgh’s company. We then returned to the campsite to chill out for a while and clap in the exhausted Hereburghers as they straggled past, joining them for their barbeque (where we took along… yes, you guessed it… a curry!) and getting chance to catch up with more folks, and to meet Mike’s groupies the (now legendary) Wild Women of Stroud. Lynne again: Barbecue over and washing up done, now was Berkeley morris’s chance to ‘get their own back’ on Hereburgh, and I managed to persuade six intrepid Hereburghers to have a go at ‘General Ludd’, a dance written by a Berkeley morris member.  Berkeley Morris is the side I’ve joined in the US (Yes, they even do it out there…).  I taught Berkeley the very first dance from the Hereburgh tradition, and I and its author (and, no doubt, the rest of Hereburgh) are delighted that they’ve since incorporated it into their regular repertoire.  Between us we managed to re-interpret the notes I’d been given, and I played while Pete Johnson organized himself, Peter McD, Pete B, Celia, Mike and Liz (apologies if I’ve got that wrong..) .  General Ludd is also a song, and I’d asked a Berkeley member to email me the words, but these hadn’t arrived by the time I left for holiday (more of this later)…. By the time it was dark, I think they’d got the gist of it, and I left them with the notes and music. The Hereburghers were out strutting their stuff again early on Sunday morning at the church service… I was on my way to watch, but was waylaid by the excellent pairing of Colum Sands and Steve Tilston doing a gentle morning session in the marquee. We’d seen Colum at a house concert over in Berkeley, and it was great to see him again (and again later as it happens in a ‘meet the artist’ session). Lynne returned from the church thing to find a small impromptu session in progress under the awning, with Ade, Colin, Chris and Kate doing musical things in various combinations. A quick change out of morris gear and into her ‘Stars & Stripes’ trousers and Lynne joined in (ignoring disparaging comments about ‘silly trousers’). It’s probably the first time she’s been accused of changing out of morris gear into something even sillier. News of Sunday morning from Lynne: What Dave missed was a ‘Folk Festival’ morning service in the beautiful St. Mary’s church. Led by rector David Brindley (who, unbeknown even to some of his own parishioners, is a member of Hereburgh) the service featured two performances by festival groups as well as a folk related sermon. The acoustics in the church are wonderful, and the performance of two numbers by the West Gallery group a real treat, but the highlight of the service for me (OK, so I’m biased) was to see David descend from the pulpit, remove his cassock (under which he sported his Hereburgh kit) and join the set for the dance Speed the Plough. As Sunday afternoon turned into evening, the campsite started to thin out as some folks headed for home.. but not us! A walk into town to take some pics of Warwick (more of which later) and to have a bite to eat (Italian this time, for a change!) before dropping in at the ceilidh and chatting with a few Peeping Tom pals during their break. Then on to the marquee for the final concert – great performances from Tarras and Meet on the Ledge, and a final nightcap with a few of the Hereburgh hardcore. After such a great weekend Monday came as a bit of an anticlimax, especially as we had to a) drive down to Kent, b) say goodbye to our mobile home and swap it for a more conventional vehicle and c) head into WhiteCross Bracknell office to do some work… so the journey south was somewhat subdued. Having done all the necessary juggling of vehicles and luggage we eventually wandered into the office on Monday afternoon. Lynne again: While we were packing up, there was a knock on the campervan door, and a lady called Jenny (known vaguely to me from ceilidhs and folk festivals) introduced herself and handed me…. the words for General Ludd! I’d been getting messages all weekend that someone was looking for me, but I didn’t recognize the descriptions various people had given me, and no-one knew why she was looking for me!  It turned out that she was also known to the Berkeley Morris member (Jonathan) who had given me the notes for the dance and who had said he would email the words. Mystery solved , heartfelt thanks to Jonathan and Jenny for going to so much trouble – and I was able to deliver them to Hereburgh!. It was a little strange going back into the office – pretty much the same layout etc, but lots of new faces that I didn’t recognize (at least 50% of the staff I think!). As luck would have it my old office was free for the duration so I set up camp in there, and spent the rest of the week watching some of the more long-serving employees wander past then do a huge double-take as they saw me sitting there, just like 2 years before.. The week was taken up with working in the day, and frantically cramming in meet-ups with the south-eastern set of friends before we headed back to US. So many thanks to Dan, John H, Dave M, Ian C, Mike C, Martin and Petra, Eileen, Nigel, Anne, Pete (again!), Alex, Huw (twice!), Ade (3 times?), the WhiteCross mob and the Met office mob for turning out and keeping us busy – it was great to revisit old hang-outs like the Stag and Hounds, Sullivans and the Hide-Out and chat with everyone! Having said that, towards the end of the week we were both starting to think about heading back ‘home’ to San Francisco… it’s a strange feeling having 2 houses in the UK between us, but nowhere to stay since they’re both rented out. We decided that home ISN’T ‘where the heart is’, home is ‘where the majority of your stuff has been for at least 6 months’. Another indication that it was time to go was that my ‘curry quota’ seemed to have been reached, and I was starting to get a craving for some good sushi… The final event was a big family barbeque at Lynne’s brother John’s place in Crowthorne on Saturday, so various family members started arriving on Friday night.. many thanks to John and Laura for hosting this, as by the time things kicked off in earnest on Saturday I think I counted about 18 of us eating and drinking them out of house and home. A very jolly time was had by all (despite some occasional heavy rain showers), and a great way to round off our epic journey. The final leg was an earlyish trip to Heathrow on Sunday, where we were waved off by Claire and Michele, and a long and reflective flight back to San Francisco. Overall impressions looking back on the whole thing are a mixture of stuff – How green England is (especially after summer rain!), and also how small it is. Renting a campervan worked out really well, and we’ll probably do it again, maybe over here in the US too – it gave us a base and some privacy, meant that we weren’t constantly packing/unpacking and (hopefully) we weren’t a huge imposition on our various generous hosts. It was wonderful to see everyone, if at times a little frustrating as we didn’t get chance to chat with everyone properly. And of course Warwick Folk Festival lived up to all expectations (and more!) – brilliant weather, great company and excellent music. We’re already working out how we can arrange to be in Warwick again next year… So maybe we’ll see you all there! Dave & Lynne. P.S. Apologies for what’s turned into a very long diatribe – and if I forgot to mention anyone… but it was difficult to trim without leaving important chunks out… I’d forgotten that we did quite so much! It’s also been reasonably hectic since we got back here too – a great concert by Eric Clapton the week we got back, then 3 arrivals in 2 days – Lynne’s eldest Jennie in for 2 weeks from Sydney after her 3 month Oz backpacking trip, Lynne’s dad for a couple of weeks too, and Michele returning from her summer break. I think they’re all just about synchronised to SF time now, but for the last few days it’s been slightly weird trying to organise people who are on 3 dramatically different time zones. But we’ve managed to squeeze in shopping, a party (celebrating the fact that the 4th July caterpillars won a prize in the parade – for those who remember the photos), a visit to a local safari park (very good – see www.safariwest.com) and last night a great concert featuring 2 good Scottish bands Burach and Old Blind Dogs. We have a busy schedule of concerts etc coming up – lots of good Brit folkies lined up, a festival or 2, and we have tickets for Nanci Griffith this Friday.. and also we’re expecting a steady stream of visitors leading up to Christmas… which is probably when I’ll send another newsletter. FINALLY – I mentioned taking some photos of Warwick – these were because one of our regular SF watering holes, The Holding Company, has a set of antique drawings on one wall which Lynne identified as views of Warwick – so we took pictures of the same views and have framed them, and our modern day pics will be up on the wall next to the old ones. No doubt this will become part of our ‘standard SF tour’ – so any of you who visit us in the future should be warned! And FINALLY FINALLY – cos it’s taken so long to get all this down, yet more stuff has happened!! We did the Nanci Griffith concert last night, and it was excellent – not just because of Nanci & Blue Moon Orchestra, who gave a great performance, but also because of the location – Paul Masson’s original winery on top of a mountain with spectacular views out over Silicon Valley. Turns out there are concerts there every week or so, and I’m sure we’ll be back since the setting is a nice contrast to the slightly sleazy clubs in SF or the massive arena gigs in Oakland. See www.mountainwinery.com to get a feel… And to finish off with (really this time) I found out via the web that the old Treasure Island Yacht Club will shortly be returning to be based at the marina on the island here – seems that they were originally affiliated to the naval base here, and when that moved out, so did they. But after 3 years of being a ‘virtual yacht club’ begging moorings from other local marinas, they’ve done a deal to move back to Treasure Island.. so of course Lynne and I have signed up (and you may or may not be surprised to know that I’ve volunteered to edit their newletter (called ‘Jibe’ BTW). So hopefully we’ll soon be doing some sailing out on the bay at last! © Copyright Cooke-Shuttleworth Enterprises 2001