Saturday 2-Aug-03 we visited friends in the

New Forest.

Nigel, Nadia and the kids moved here earlier this

year to escape the pollution of central London.

Nigel, who also owns an estate agency in Camden Town, commutes to London each day on the train. Good call Nigel. You'd never find a home as nice as yours in Camden Town.

As we arrived in the New Forest, we couldn't

help but notice a wild horse queuing-up at the

cashpoint machine outside Lloyds Bank. These horses are genuinely wild; they're direct decendents of Tarpan horses which have roamed wild in Europe for 7,000 years. More than occasionally they'll casually strole around the small towns and villages.

The following day, we all set off for a long walk and watched these wonderful creatures grazing with their young foals

Their house is called "Gryffindor" - I can't imagine Nigel or Nadia had a say in this. Could it be something to do with Francesa and Poppy?

Nadia's sister and husband. Tanya doesn't do photographs - so this one is apparently a rarity.

Scamp

After playing with water in the back garden ( I got drenched seconds after this photo was taken) we carted the kids in the car. The beach was a five minute away.

The following day we had a cliff-top breakfast followed by a long walk in the forest. We found a stream to cool our feet and found some cows doing the same. After lunch we trooped down to Francesca school. A strange thing to do during the Summer holidays. No, an excellent move. They have an open air swiiming pool. Tom was in his element. What a wonderful way to finish a lovely weekend.

Thanks chaps, for a lovely weekend

You can just make out the white cliffs of the Isle of Wight in the background