Stratford-Upon-Avon

Another glorious sunny day and we headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon. A town synonymous with William Shakespeare. But today, I wanted to see dragon boat charity race for The Anthony Nolan Trust. This charity provides  lifesaving donors for patients in need of a bone marrow transplant.

The town was heaving and it was only 11am. Lots of things happening. We drove past a group of ramblers and swerved past cyclists who are taking part in the Stratford 220 Triathlon.

The race was on-going. It looks fun and the competitors are  enjoying themselves. I hoped they managed to collect a lot of £££. I might even persuade my colleagues to enter for next year. :-)

There was a tiny island in the middle of the River Avon which was turned into a nature reserve. A footbridge was built across the river and we could observe the usual culprits : Canada geese, swans, Greylags, ducks, coots and moorhen. But this beautiful guy, a Grey Wagtail caught our eye. It was darting in and out of the island and skimming above the waters catching insects. I was mesmerised by its antics.

 

At home, we decided to have a barbecue. It was just too nice to be indoors. It's only a simple meal of burgers, roasted vegetables and sweet potatoes. Also a few sticks of sate, which turned out to be too dry. The George Foreman grill will be used more often cos the weatherman is predicting sunshine the whole of next week. Yaay...

There was more food at work. SH brought from US a bag of Hershey kisses and from Paris, DB brought madelines. There was a tombola at work for charity. CC won a box of chocolates which was equally shared. Yummy

The Piazza was alive with a carnival-style cultural festival. This was art of the China Now festival of Chinese culture taking place across the UK, a prelude to the Beijing Olympics. The food tasting session was overflowing that I gave it a miss. But I did enjoy the lion dancing, drumming and martial art demonstrations.

Today is also Mothers Day in Malaysia. For my wonderful Emak,  Mother-in-law and to all mothers out there, thank you.

Also congratulations to my uncle, RAAR in welcoming his new son-in-law into the family.