Ellie's Dairy has a holiday ..

Well here we are - back in the land of blogging.  Seems that it was not only me who was having the problem.  I did a little bit of internet research last night and put my teccie hat back on.  Seems that Google/Blogger have decided that we should all be using Google Chrome to write our blogs ...

So, I have reluctantly upgraded to Chrome and (fingers crossed) all seems to work again at the moment ..

Anyhow, enough ranting ... what do you reckon to this blog title then?!  Not often you read all those words in the same sentence!

Yes indeed folks .. David and Debbie have had 2 brief holidays since we last spoke. Leaving Auntie Anita and Milking Mel in charge of those goatie girls (or was it the other way round?), we went off to spend a couple of days in London last week.

The original plan had been to drive to East Dulwich, park up outside Franklins Farm Shop and then hop on a bus into town.  But the transport union managed to scupper this idea by calling a 24hr bus strike. Plan B ... drive to Blackheath and park up at the station.  Hop on a train into town and then tube to Kensington to check in at our hotel.

The main purpose of the break was to enjoy the Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall - this was our Xmas present to ourselves!  So, we just extended the visit and booked ourselves into a rather nice hotel just round the corner from Albert.

We managed to check in early, dropped our bags off and then skipped across the road to Imperial College to find some of our friends at the South Kensington Farmers Market for a scrummy lunch.  Then David was treated to the 'Debbie Walking Tour of London' as we tramped for several miles to see the sights ..  Here is a passing tourist at the Queen's house ..

And another one!

The Albert Hall was as stunning as I remember it from years ago when I used to live in London and was a regular season ticket holder to the Proms.

And the show was just incredible.  Utterly amazing.  If you ever get a chance to go and see the Cirque du Soleil, then go!  Unbelievable acrobatics, dancing, music and costumes.  A night to remember.

After a very comfortable night (and several text messages from Auntie Anita to assure us that all goaties and Gracie Moos were all surviving very well without us!), we set off for the Science Museum to peer at exhibits and play with things.  Of course, we had to look round the Agricultural section!

In true Ellie's Dairy style, food obviously played an important role in our little break and so we set off to find Casa Brindisa for a delicious lunch of tapas and wine.  And the photo on the wall above our table was an added bonus - mountain goats in Spain!

And finally, a taxi ride to visit fellow traders at Borough Market and wonder at the sheer height of the amazing Shard.

Back home and back to reality for a few more busy days .. then off again to Herefordshire yesterday to take some more of our little goatie girls to their new home.  We took 13 of the newest babies to join the 130 youngsters that we moved in September.

It was great to see Andrew and Diane again and the goatie girls just looked amazing.  Lovely and round and most of the goatlings now well in kid.  They are due to start kidding in a few weeks and, thankfully, Andrew almost has the new milking parlour finished and ready to go.

I would love to be a fly on the wall for those first few milking sessions - it's going to be chaos!!  Maybe we should send some of our older girls down to train the youngsters in parlour etiquette.

A brief overnight stay at the same lovely farm B&B as last time - Lowe Farm - and then back home to Kent via the scenic route round the Malverns and down through the Costwolds.  Utterly gorgeous.

So that's it for the moment!  Two nights away in two weeks .. who would have thought it!