The Grand Tour Part 11 and Doll-A-Day 2023 #187: Not Elves on the Shelf

   Yesterday we talked about our visit with our friend Cheryl in Clacton-on-Sea. For some background, Cheryl started out as my penpal years ago. I went to England in 1985, and we got to meet in person.

Cheryl took this picture of me in Trafalgar Square on the day we met. I don't have access to all my pictures right now, so I can't show you any I took of Cheryl that day.

When I went back the next year, Cheryl and I actually took a trip to Amsterdam together.

Where, once again, Cheryl took this picture of me, and my pictures of her are at home.

   And in 1989, a couple of months before Ken and I got married, Cheryl came over and we took her on a different Grand Tour.

Ohio...

Niagara Falls....

Cheryl and I preparing to go under the Falls.

Ken and Cheryl at Niagara Falls.

I have a great picture of Cheryl, and me, in Toronto, but also, it's at home. Ken takes forever to compose a photograph, and Cheryl doesn't have the patience for it. So there is a wonderful picture  where I'm smiling, and Cheryl is in mid "Take the picture!" It's hilarious. Maybe I'll update this post next week...

When we went to England in 2015, Cheryl came to London for a couple of days to hang out with us.

Yes, I'm standing up straight, and she's squatting to get in the picture with me.

   This time, we went to Cheryl. On the first day we were there, Cheryl took us to Colchester to see Colchester Castle and we went to a small museum full of toys and dolls. We also had to make a shopping stop, due to our desperation to find another suitcase before we had to move on to Germany. One of our big cases had a shattered wheel. We knew we couldn't move those things without wheels. So we managed to finally find a couple of shops that had suitcases. Here you can find suitcases all year long, a million different places. In Clacton there were two places with cases at that time of year, and they had about two or three each. It was like Goldilocks looking for a chair: one was too small, one was too big, (expensive)...except none of them were just right. We settled on one that was a bit smaller than the one with the broken wheel, and more cheaply made, because at least it was pretty big, and didn't cost a million dollars. 

  While we were shopping, Cheryl developed some stomach problems. She didn't feel well, and once we got back to her house she went to bed a little early.

  The next day we went around Clacton a bit. Clacton-on-Sea  is a seaside town, as the name implies. We went down to the pier to 'see the sea'. 

But it wasn't the sort of day you'd typically do that. 

It was cold and rainy.

And VERY windy!

Yes, it was as cold as it looks. 

  I remember when I was in Clacton in 1985. Cheryl and I were looking at postcards of Clacton, all sunny beaches and happy bathers, and Cheryl laughing and saying, "Clacton never looks like that!" It certainly didn't this day.

  Ken tried to get another almost-Mr. Whippy ice cream, once again, without success.

We walked around town a bit. Cheryl was still not feeling well. She was supposed to take a group for a run, but everybody bowed out due to the rain. On the way back to Cheryl's I couldn't believe my eyes. We passed this:

It's a Masonic temple, but the thing is, it has my name on it! 

You never see that name on anything, including people, so I was flabbergasted to find it in Clacton. Cheryl circled back around so I could take a picture.

  Cheryl had planned a trip to a dollhouse/miniatures shop for me, but it was closed!

  So we relaxed at Cheryl's while I fought a bit more with the luggage. I was getting worried we were not going to be able to get everything home. I had had Cheryl buy me some English magazines I wanted, because they were much cheaper there than buying them at home. I also had her buy some of my favourite deodorant for me to take home. Okay. I know. Deodorant, what?! But I am really picky about smells, (and, if you believe my family and friends, about everything else too.), and I really love the blue Mum deodorant. It used to be called Cool Blue, and now it's something else, but it smells the same. I had her buy me loads, like, a whole box full. So I was worrying about the weight. I was heartened by the thought that we still had two more lots of gifts to drop off, one in Germany, and one in Belgium. And they were both heavy. That should free up plenty of weight, right? 

  While we were out shopping for cases the night before, I had bought a second Christmas elf. Wait. A second one? Yes. I bought one in Hull too. I actually saw one later I liked, but didn't buy for financial and weight reasons. But at this point, I was being optimistic. I still thought I could make it work somehow. And at that point, I might have been able to.

  So here are my two little guys. They are today's dolls. These pictures were taken before the fire.

They aren't really that little. They're about a foot tall.

 Anyway, I mentioned before that I saw a million different rip offs of The Elf on the Shelf in all the places we went. I bought the rather nice elf in Hull at the 1 pound shop. And he was, only a pound. (A little over a dollar.) He's the guy on the left. 

He has a sweet face and he was 'made by elves' and 'North Pole approved'.

His name is Ernie. Oh. Look what else his tag says: "Keep away from fire." Were they psychic or what?

  His suit has painted on buttons and a glued on collar and belt.

But at least he has 'real' hands that are stuffed and sewn on.

The one I bought in Clacton made less pretense about him being a 'bad' elf.  

In fact, he seems downright proud of it.

The Elf on the Shelf seems to have gone from an elf who watches  to make sure the children aren't bad, to a little wretch who gets up to all sorts in the middle of the night. His tag even says, "Watch out! Elf is about!" Next they'll be selling us elves to watch our elves. But I digress.

  He has some stitched detail on the front of his coat, and a sewn on belt, but glued on dots for buttons.

And his hands are just flat pieces of felt, glued to his wrists.

   They both have pointy toed elf feet, but flat hand guy also has flat feet. I guess he couldn't get into the army. But at least their feet are stitched on, and not glued.

In Hull I also found this backpack. It's a Christmas ornament, made of felt, and the perfect size for a camping elf...

It even has a rolled up sleeping bag, that you know I took out to see if it could be done. The sleeping bag is pretty small though.

It fits Hull elf Ernie pretty well.

  Clacton elf was a bit more than Hull elf, but not by much. Ken couldn't believe I wanted to buy something else, considering. I got the usual, "Tam!' But what harm could one more little felt elf, who weighed practically nothing and could be shoved in a pocket if I really had to, be?

  So I now had two elves, which is nice, because I love elves, and Christmas, and bringing home Christmas ornaments and things from vacations. Unfortunately these two were still hanging on my bedposts when the fire happened. In a future post we'll see what they looked like after the fire, and what they look like now.

  We left VERY early the next morning, and poor Cheryl even drove us to the station.

Still squatting to get in the photo with me.

  And what of our curse? Let's get serious here for a change. Of all the people who fell upon bad luck during our trip, Cheryl fared the worst. Let's be clear, she's doing pretty well right now, and will be fine. But after we left, Cheryl made a doctor's appointment and had some tests done. Her stomach issues were signs of a serious problem. Cheryl has leukemia. She was lucky it was discovered early and can be controlled by medication. But she has been very tired and Cheryl is used to being very active. So, you know those 'prayers and good thoughts' people are always asking for? Well, whatever you believe works, it would be nice to send some of that Cheryl's way. Ted needs her.

Even if he pretends not to.

    That's today's doll(s). See you tomorrow.

The Grand Tour Part 10: Clacton-On-Sea, and Colchester/ Doll-A-Day 2023 # 186: Antique dollhouse and Modern Dollhouse

   Well the kids left in the middle of the night. We left the next morning. It's a long train ride from Hull to Clacton-on-Sea, where we were headed to visit my friend Cheryl. I guess I should call her 'our' friend Cheryl, since Ken has known her all but 4 of the 38 years I have. Cheryl came over to visit a few months before we got married. We took her to Canada, Niagara Falls, the Ohio State Fair, and King's Island. So she has spent a fair amount of time with Ken too. We also got to see Cheryl the last time we went to England. But this time we went to stay at her house, and meet her cat Ted.

Ted, owner of all he surveys. 

  On the way there, Ken did what Ken does.

Ken complained that I took too many pictures of him asleep on trains. Can I help it if there were so many opportunities to do so? To be fair, trains have always made me sleepy, but I could never fall asleep on one for fear of missing my stop. Now days I don't travel alone, so I can actually fall asleep if I'm very tired.

  We arrived in the early evening, but it was so dark so early while we were over, that it seemed later. We installed our huge bags in Cheryl's sunroom. You might remember that we had some HEAVY bags. They were about 50 pounds each for the two large ones, and 20+ pounds each for the small ones. We had thought we would be travelling lighter by the time we left Hull, having unloaded gifts for three sisters, three brothers in law, three nephews, one niece, four niece/nephew partners, five great nephews, two great nieces, two great great nephews, and one great great niece, as well as several friends. We also had a delivery of gifts for Cheryl. (You should have seen her face when I pulled out a red t-shirt and held it up, saying, "This is for you." Her perplexed look finally made me turn the shirt around to look, and found that, instead of one of the two Ohio/Marion t-shirts I had brought her, I was trying to give her Ken's Gilbert O'Sullivan shirt that Gloria had gotten him at the concert!) We thought it would be smooth sailing after that. But Ken bought food. Ken loves food. He also loves food he can't get at home. So he wanted to take the opportunity to stock up while he was in England. He did it last time too, but somehow it was less that time! I swear he bought the same things as last time, but somehow they were heavier this time. I didn't think I bought as much stuff on this trip. I bought a couple of books, and Gloria treated me to the set of Adrian Mole books I was going to buy to take home. They were paperbacks, but it was a stack. And then there were the Michael Palin books I bought for Lisa and myself at the show in Glasgow. And the posters, and the wrapping paper I brought posters home in. I bought Off the Hook Alexis, the small doll you saw the review of here, the miniatures I bought in Hull, the Tin Tin figure I bought in Iceland, the little mice from Haworth, and a felt mouse/cat, (there was some disagreement!), the day I went to Beverly with my friend Jenny.  And we were given a couple of lovely, but large gifts.

  Of course, I did bring home a bunch of fossils from England, and some rocks from Iceland...

  The big problem, besides making everything fit, was that one of our wheels on one of the big cases had died before we left Gloria's, and just shattered. So we realized we couldn't possibly drag the case around with only one wheel. This was only that case's second trip. I bought it just before the 2015 trip to England, and it hadn't been used since. But, it had to call it a day. It now resides in Clacton, where it stores Cheryl's friend's yarn. I'm glad Cheryl found it another life rather than it just being taken to the tip, as she was going to do for us. It was in good shape otherwise, and will store yarn for years. But now we needed another case.

  In any 'case', the next day Cheryl had planned a trip to Colchester for us. Colchester is the oldest city in Britain, having been founded by the Romans in 49AD. There is still some of the Roman wall around part of the city. It has been restored, obviously.

We went to Colchester Castle, which is a museum.

Cheryl and Ken in front of the gates.

Just inside the gates was Hollytrees Museum, a beautiful building covered in red ivy. I asked Ken to take a picture with my phone so I could send it to my sister, whom I was still keeping updated, as she was bored.

Cheryl with me in Colchester.

Cheryl has quite an interest in history, and if I'm not mistaken, a degree or two. Colchester Castle is one of her favourite places to go...besides other real historic sites, that is.

  

  I love museums. I love old things, and museums are sort of the ultimate in that, aren't they? I always loved History. Ken complains about my watching of historical documentaries, (but he's more disturbed by my viewing of true murder stories.) There were loads of things that were over a thousand years old, things that were just dug up in local people's gardens! If anything nearly that old is dug up in Ohio the town gets a marker, like the town with the sign reading, 'mastodon bones found here in blah blah'. Okay, mastodon bones are way older than that. My point is, if they find anything really old in Ohio, it becomes the only thing the town is known for, because it doesn't happen that often. My sister and I did find a couple of flint arrow heads in the cornfield behind the house when I was a kid. She had the whole one, and doesn't know where it is now. I have a sliver I found. It's just enough to know it was an arrow head. That's the oldest thing I've ever found here. For the record, I did find something less old in our yard once too. It was a thing that looked like a penny, but said 'Dr.s Dill and Brown, Dentists, Piqua Ohio'. It was dated 1912.

  As we were leaving I purchased this little guy in the museum gift shop. 

Even if he was actually made in Nepal, and not Colchester.

  Here I'm a bit foggy. I know we ate at a pub, but for some reason, I'm thinking we did that and then went to Hollytrees Museum. Maybe we did. I know I spotted these shop window displays that day.

But at some point we went to the Hollytrees Museum, just in time before they closed.

I was, as usual, trying to paint with the camera. This was in back of Hollytrees

 Museum.

Whenever it was, they had some beautiful stuff there. Cheryl's favourite was their collection of grandfather clocks.

There was a very old postbox, next to the fireplace, which was decorated for Christmas.

The VR is for Victoria Regina: Queen Victoria.

There were a lot of toys.  Sorry about the blurry photos. It wasn't the brightest place, and no flash was allowed, which I understand.

What's Barbie doing in there?

A Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, just like the one Ken had as a kid. I haven't shown you what happened to his yet, have I?

  And I loved this bunny painting.

  And today's dolls. They had two dollhouses. One was quite old, with an outdoor scene around it. The other was fairly new, but filled with beautiful miniatures. Let's look at the old one first. Scroll on. They aren't all blurry!

The lady behind the red hassock is holding a tiny baby, and there are two almost as small on the hassock.

Look at the eensy dollhouse on the mantel!

And then the modern house.

 

 This doll was in a separate section under the house. She's in the cellar getting coal!

  Before we left, I bought this little thimble in their gift shop.

I can barely get it on my finger and I have small fingers, so I'm not sure anybody could really use it as a thimble. (I'm not sure they could anyway!)

  But, like I wasn't just going to have it on display in the dollhouse anyway!  

   That's it for today. Tomorrow we'll see what Cheryl had in store for us on our second day. She was a good hostess and really tried to find interesting things for us to see.