Category Archives: around home

around home, history, UK

Rochester Castle & Cathedral

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Back home after two rather busy days of travelling & helping a MTB buddy, Andy, move house to Bristol, it was a bit of a surprise to see it clear wonderfully this afternoon. Of that – more a little later. With a short ride on a quick train from Waterloo to Farnborough on Tuesday morning, Andy, Rich & I were quickly filling up the large van. I was just a little envious of someone moving to Bristol (I’m keen on the idea) & actually having a settled normal life owning furniture (imagine) & more importantly – five (all necessary, naturally) bikes. I’m not sure how we managed to fit all of Andy’s stuff in to his rented Bristol place (it’s a bit smaller than the flat he’s trying to sell) yesterday – I think having a garage to stow less-used things in helped. With two days of moving done & a lot of driving along the M4 corridor & A-roads (nice countryside, especially turning off towards Bath) I rushed back up to London to have some final drinks with NZ (first) cousin Chris. A little sad to see the last of my Kiwi family leaving UK, but it was a good night & it was fun swapping travelling stories with similarly-accented Kiwis. It was funny to be back catching the last train from Charing Cross back home – vague recollections of many such escapades well over a year ago.

Back to today – I was sitting on the couch taking it easy & trying to start the job-hunt in earnest (baby steps are probably the best description) when Trish realised that it had become a nice sunny afternoon. It took us a while to decide where to go but we eventually settled on (unvisited by me) Rochester. Only half an hour down the A2 we wandered down the main street & ducked in to a old almshouse built in the 1580s or some similar very long time ago. Even I almost had to crouch as we wandered around. Built for poor travellers, it was nice to poke around & appreciate not having to sleep on such beds. The rest of the street was a nice hodge-podge of differently styled old buildings.

We wandered in to Rochester Castle & clambered up & down many uneven stairs as we explored inside & between the huge stone walls that are all that remain of the structure. It was quite incredible just how much had survived considering that parts of the fort go back to 1088. The walls were suitably thick & the beams that stretched between them to support the four floors must have been similarly impressive. The view over the Medway River was pretty good too.

We also took a quick look inside the cathedral. Bigger than it looked from the outside, there were a few other sightseers poking around too. The cathedral must have some unexplained link to the Royal Engineers as there were inscriptions to fallen servicemen all around the place. Strangest sight however were the five young women congregating in full goth regalia.

This paddle steamer was moving quicker than I expected – see how its stack has been folded down to fit under the bridge

around home, history, UK

Chartwell House

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One of the great delights of being back in England is the accessibility of interesting historical things. The previous few days had struck a similar pattern – miserably wet & cloudy in the morning before clearing to a reasonably nice afternoon. The same happened yesterday, so Trish & I were looking for somewhere to go. Initially the Hop Farm looked like a good idea, but it seems to have turned in to a family park which would be teeming at this time of the year. Eventually we settled on a shorter drive south to Chartwell House in the Kentish countryside.

I’m not sure how I wasn’t aware of this place on my last stay here as it’s quite close & satisfies my historical interest being the home of Winston Churchill from the early ’20s until just before his death in 1965. We managed to snake a parking space – of course many other people thought it would be a good time to visit such a nice spot. The grounds aren’t particularly large, but there is a nice big lawn sloping down towards a couple of ponds & looking out over the Weald of Kent. There were also plenty of ponds & walled gardens – the first walled one we came across was a very nice rose garden. Further past the house & the croquet lawn was an extensive kitchen garden – some of the walls for this were built by Churchill himself. Also out in the grounds is the studio where Churchill pursued his love of painting.

The house isn’t from the outside overly exciting or ostentatious. Entry inside was timed so that one could still move comfortable in & between the rooms. No photos allowed inside – interesting to see where Churchill had written most of his many books. Shortly after taking over the house, Churchill had a lot of work done including adding a wing facing out towards the lawn & ponds. This at least gave a lot more space & light to the interior. More of Churchill’s better paintings & an extensive library abounded. Upstairs there was a small museum detailing some of his life & achievements, as well as many of the various ceremonial & other clothes that were very interesting. Overall a very pleasant afternoon pottering around & enjoying the Englishness of it all.

around home, London, UK

Settling back in to London

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From the lofty heights of a prolific 80+ posts since the USA Roadtrip began at the start of May, I have comparatively little to mention of what has been a very pleasant first week back in the UK. Being quite familiar with the place I haven’t even taken any photos – shock, horror.

In amongst the sorting & storing in my room (which has had a great makeover since I left) I’ve managed to get a couple of trips in to the city already. Saturday afternoon was a great catch-up with Levi, a school friend from my earliest, & in fact all of my, Te Puke days. We wandered a round a bit, I finally had a curry on Brick Lane (which was prolonged as we waited for the rain to pass – which it did) & was in the strange position of giving a brief London history lesson. Somehow we ended up on Charing Cross Road, with a bus ride back & a brief Tesco stop (alcohol is so much cheaper here than in Canada) we were back at Levi’s where Marki soon had a huge roast chicken in the oven. Although still quite full from the curry, it was a great meal & very good company.

Monday I do remember actually getting stuck in to updating & revising my CV (including getting rid of 26 ampersands – I do like ampersands!) and even sending one off. But that enthusiasm has fallen by the wayside as birthday season settled in. Trish & I dashed off to London one afternoon to catch the matinee of Mousetrap in the West End. Catching a show was one of those things that never quite happened last time I was here, so with the recent (& still going) Agatha Christie spree it was appropriate that I went & saw the Mousetrap. It was great fun to be sat high up on very steep seats & see typical Christie characters come to life on the stage. It was funny in parts, as the books most assuredly are, but a little odd being set all in one room. A few of the plot devices, particularly the identity of whodunnit, reminded me throughout the play of a few of her books I’d read recently – but I’ll say no more on that subject. Good pleasant fun – followed up with great cake, hot chocolate & a wander to Trafalgar Square. Alas, the New Zealander, Sir Keith Park has gone from the Fourth Plinth (another statue of him can now be seen in Waterloo Place).

The rest of my birthday was pretty quiet – but it did clear up nicely in the afternoon & Trish & I spent a good while strolling around the beautiful grounds of Hall Place. Followed by scones with clotted-cream & jam – very nice. Here’s a picture of Hall Place from my visit almost two years’ ago – I assure you it looks the same.

around home, bikes, event, friends, MTB, snow

Trying out a 29er

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29ers have been around for a while now, but until this week I’ve never ridden one on a trail before. If you don’t know, a 29er has 29 inch wheels as opposed to a normal mountain-bike which has 26 inch wheels; also, that maybe a sign that this post will be of little interest to you. With larger wheels, they are supposed to be easier to roll over bumps &, once you get those big wheels rolling, easier to keep moving with the extra rotational inertia. With my bike still waiting for a part to turn up to get it back to a rideable state, Megan has generously let me use her bike a bit to enable a little riding during the start of my final three weeks in Canmore. She & Alex have both now got shiny new 29ers recently – I have in fact ridden Megan’s a couple of times, but as there was this much snow in the Canmore Winter Meltdown Triathlon it hardly counts as trail-riding.

The first thing I noticed riding through town to the G8 was that the tires were hard & fast – pumped up for the recent 24 Hours of Adrenalin event in town. Tire choice & pressure make a big difference to a ride & while I love the Crossmark on the rear, it never gives me much confidence on the front. I prefer something a bit chunkier with enough tread on the side to save me from washing the front wheel out too often. Near the start of the G8 is a decent climb that I only conquered a few times last year on my bike – it’s steep enough that the biggest flaw in my bike’s geometry tends to show itself & the front wheel becomes very difficult to keep on the ground. The 29er got up this easily, although with the bigger wheels I was spinning the granny-ring a bit earlier than normal to keep them turning at slow speed. This was a pleasing climb, but pretty much what I expected. With the big wheels requiring an easier gear, it was nice to make my way up the rest of the climb feeling that I wasn’t spinning excessively (the reason I prefer the middle-ring on 26″).

So having shown that the larger wheels made the more difficult climbs easier, it was time to see how they would go on faster undulating & then downhill terrain. Generally, the roots & rocks were absorbed better – but perhaps due to the setup, not markedly so. I did also notice that I would repeatedly have the rear tire skidding a little in the strangest places – perhaps better brakes & the hard tire a bit, but not completely. It was hard to keep the control I wanted with that wheel not gripping. Also, through the twisty parts of the trail the large wheel is not nearly as nimble & agile – but when you can just hit things & roll over them, it doesn’t matter so much. As suspected, I didn’t have much confidence in the grip of the tires to rail the corners as I normally would.

On the downhill, there was a strange disconnect from the trail – a little hard to describe, but I just didn’t feel the trail as much. It’s noticeably less work, less rewarding & less fun. The bike would also pretty much stay planted on the trail – which can be good & bad, but in this instance I was really missing not popping off the odd root or rock. So after that first ride, the least enjoyable part (uphill) was easier – but the most enjoyable part of the ride was less fun. Not completely sold yet, but it sure was nice having a shiny new bike to ride.

I let a bit of air out of the tires yesterday for a little spin around the Nordic Center. This improved things a bit, but I still had that same problem of the rear wheel not gripping the surface properly. Consequently, on a couple of chutes that I usually ride at speed & with ease I was just past the edge of control & mildly alarmed. Good to be out on the bike on another glorious Canmore day, so I can’t be too picky – especially as I won’t be buying another bike for a while yet.