Category Archives: UK

family, friends, London, travel, UK

London Interlude

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My crazy dash to London & back started with an almost full day at work.  It was hardly my most productive day ever, still very much distracted at all that was unfolding in Christchurch.  It was great to exchange a few texts with Adele before a nice long phone call as she finished off her night shift at the hospital.  Shortly after lunch I was out of my cement-dust covered garb & in to something more comfortable before hitting the road to Calgary & a red-eye to Britain.  Air Canada was the same as always – surly staff, decidedly average food & altogether adequateness; mind you, my opinion is somewhat tainted by my having to take this trip in the first place.  At least the entertainment was good – I managed to draw myself away from it for a few hours of dozing.  Great to have Shelley & the girls pick me up as I wandered out in to the relative warmth of the T3 forecourt – after all the Christchurch drama I was pleased to see Kiwi friends & exchange plenty of hugs.

Conveniently, post-lunch is nap time in the Patrick household (well, for Amelie anyway) – I was certainly keen for one of those.  As this was apparently the best day of the year so far (a balmy 10-15ºC), we spent the latter part of the afternoon at a park feeding ducks, playing on the playground & trying not to bump in to the half-term crowds.  Andy eventually made it home from work, sounding a little croaky & the catching up continued over a Thai meal.

I was making the familiar Metropolitan/Bakerloo/South Eastern tube & rail trip to Sidcup on Friday morning to catch up with family.  I’m not sure how Trish timed it so well, but just as I started walking down Longlands Rd there she was in her car ready to pick me up.  Much more catching up & sharing travel stories as I jettisoned things I don’t need for my last few months in North America, Steve turned up & we marvelled at the changes to the back bedroom before strolling around the corner to meet Ray & Jill for a big Indian lunch.  I’d had a hankering for a proper curry for a few weeks now & I wasn’t disappointed.

Getting off the train again at Charing Cross I was early enough for meeting Levi (a friend I went through the last ten years of school with, who has moved to London since I left) at Euston Station, so I decided to follow my nose through central London.  I had forgotten just how much busier the Strand, the West End & Soho are on a Friday night than sleepy Canmore – I managed to not get lost & even find Levi at Euston (my UK sim card seems to have expired – it made meeting people a little more difficult).  I read my book while Levi finished a little work & then my Kiwi cousin Chris met us for a pint & much more catching up.  Getting a bit peckish I was happy to continue the diversity of ethnic foods – not that Chipotle is fine dining, but it was tasty & filling.  Plus it should make Megan suitably jealous – which was the main objective.

Surprisingly, Levi lives about a hundred metres around the corner from Chipotle just off Charing Cross Rd near the Tottenham Court Road tube stop – what an absolutely great location, there is so much going on & to see around here.  Of course, the rent is horrendous but it was found in a pinch & is within walking distance to work.  Twas a pretty quiet night out, but most enjoyable (some of my Steel Mill stories were even appreciated!  But that may have been my sleep-deprived state imagining it) as more travel & London stories rolled out.  Must note that it was another mild day where I didn’t need a big coat to walk around in & stay comfortable.

Rain, which I’m not too familiar with any more, was moving through the city in bands on Saturday when we (the Patricks & I) headed out for a potter along South Bank (after plenty of waffles for breakfast).  We started off at the Borough Market – somewhere I’d often walked through mid-week to get from A to B.  It was great to see it on a Saturday morning with all the stalls open & packed with people.  There was some pretty tasty food around & plenty of samples – Vittoria’s cuteness factor ensured she got a whole lot.  Check out these dishes of curries, they were particularly tasty.

There was a lot of cheese around too, in some cases Andy was lucky he had a blocked nose

Still dodging the showers & carrying the buggy up & down stairs we eventually got to the Thames & decided on Greek for lunch – very tasty.  The umbrellas didn’t get used a whole lot as we wandered all the way down to the Millennium Wheel & across to Westminster.  I enjoyed being back in the city & trying to pick various more-obscure landmarks on the skyscape.

By then thoughts were turning to getting the girls home – as it turned out that was a good idea as I had another big nap before a scrumptious satay dinner.  I got a big thrashing it what was a very frustrating game of Cities & Knights for everyone.  There was next to no wheat around with which to build cities & it was almost two hours before Shelley took out the game (very narrowly beating Andy).  Our frustration was mollified slightly by a fantastic pavlova with plenty of strawberries & kiwifruit – of which we demolished, saving a wafer thin piece for Vittoria.

I somehow managed to sleep in until eight on my third & final morning, still aware that I’d picked up a scratchy throat & was therefore fighting off a cold – probably picked up from a combination of sleep deprivation, a wet day outside & Andy’s lingering illnesss.  But that wasn’t going to put me off my breakfast – Shelley had whipped up the best French toast (bringing me up to food from eight different countries in less than four days) I’d ever had.  From what I could work out it was a baguette cut up & soaked with egg mixture baked in a pan with liberal amounts of brown sugar on the bottom & maple syrup (my token Canadian gift) with plenty of bacon on the side.

My favourite Kiwi family in London – you can just see the sun on the first spring bulbs in the yard

Brilliant sunshine continued as Andy & the girls dropped me back at T3 – as we sat on the apron, the rain came on down, good timing on my part.  Managed to stay awake for the whole flight back & drive home safely – about 15000 km, 14 hours of time zone changes, 17 hours of flying in four days over; I slept well last night.  It’s cold again, but it did absolutely puke snow down today, so I hope that there is still some fresh snow for the weekend.  My tiny little cold is going away too – so that’s nice.

around home, bikes, Canada, Europe, family, friends, MTB, snow, travel, UK

Twenty-ten summary

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I’ve spent a lot of time this week sending out a rather brief attempt at a Christmas letter (about my only concession so far that Christmas is quite soon; actually, I did send some gifts home but they may be a bit late, oops).  It really is just my take on my year & trying to remind people back home I still exist & if I’m lucky I might get some NZ (or whereever) news back.  Without further ado & my being distracted by many classic Brit comedy moments, here it is.

This Christmas finds me well away from any family (immediate or extended) for the first time – I’m still not sure exactly how I came to be living in Canada.  Never mind, it was a great rushed decision – I thoroughly enjoyed a summer chocked full of mountain-biking (& a little hiking).  Now winter is slowly rolling around – well, it’s cold but there’s not all that much snow yet; so the next few months of skiing promise to be almost as good.  For those that haven’t been keeping up with my ramblings here are a few of the many highlights of 2010 for me.

  • Ten days in Madrid & further south exploring & conversing with Spaniards trying to overcome their Spanglish.
  • Many many days spent exploring London & spending time with friends & family.

Here in Canmore I supported myself for a few months with all manner of temporary jobs before starting at a cement plant (pretty much the only industry around here) – where I still am enjoying it & I hope to be there until my visa expires in May.  I’m trying to contain my excitement with respect to next summer’s three-month mountain-bike oriented road-trip around the western USA & British Columbia.  I’ll be back in London in August next year – after that, I don’t know.

Still being distracted, damn it.

around home, travel, UK

Damn you Air Canada & referrals

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In the end I wasn’t successful in convincing Air Canada to shift my return flight back a few months.  So now I’m going back to London for a massive three-day visit, at not inconsiderable expense, at the end of February.  About the only good part of this is that I’ll get to see good friends & family – some of whom I probably wouldn’t see for some years otherwise.

Now that I actually have the odd visitor, the Stats Tracker (that’s what that funny little symbol is down  under the Twitter feed) has some little things of interest.  Apparently someone in Houston is using Netscape 4 – I don’t think I’ve seen Netscape since I was in Bangkok in 1996.  The best one so far is that someone stumbled on this post by googling “piranha fire dept saw”.  I’m not sure what I’m more surprised by – that that search term got to my blog or that someone actually searched for that.  But my little blog & its related search terms don’t really compare to what this occurrence reminded me of.

around home, family, friends, history, London, UK

Farewells again

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I’m back in one of my most common blog updating places – an airport lounge. My nine month stay in the UK is coming to an end as I sit in Terminal 3 waiting to see from which gate AC851 to Calgary leaves – I’m well excited (slept in a bit more that I should have this morning – awoke with a start at 0800 remembering with pleasure a dream about Canadian singletrack). This week has been one of mostly packing & saying goodbyes to various friends & family & unfortunately not too many photos to break up my prose. Tuesday in London started off with a jab in the arm – a booster Hep. A shot that should mean I need never have another one. Finally got to finish off the RAF Museum after that, the Battle of Britain hall was reasonably small but packed with great WWII era aircraft. As well as the Hurricane, Spitfire, Me110 I was most pleased to finally see a Stuka – that fearsome bent wing dive bomber that did so well in the early advances of the Wehrmacht across Europe.

The Sunderland flying boat was impressive due to its sheer size.

Vittoria was quite excited by the arrival of someone to play with; in amongst all the games & trips to the “hospital” & having my apparently broken leg treated by the smallest doctor I’ve ever seen, I somehow ended feeding a often-dribbling Amelie – once again, teething looks like no fun at all. After a rather quick goodbye to Vittoria, she was off to bed – trying to explain that it would be some years before she saw me again was a bit difficult as the outer limit of a long time to a two year old is probably the week or so that is often between my visit, if not shorter. Shelley had done wonderfully well whipping up a pavlova topped with kiwifruit & it was not without some sadness that I took my last walk to Rayners Lane & sat on the Metropolitan Line down to Baker St.

Wednesday’s outing was up to Great Notley (near Braintree & Stansted) for lunch with first-cousins-once-removed Keith & Carol & Keith’s father Alan (my great-uncle). The oldest of his siblings & approaching ninety (but don’t tell him that) Alan is doing remarkably well living in his own flat & pretty much looking after himself – there is some hope I might not go doolally (a much used word that day – one I hadn’t heard for quite a while). Thursday was mostly more cleaning of my bike in the morning & then I headed off to meet Matt (the primary school friend from twenty years ago that I met a few weeks ago) at the Imperial War Museum. This was, at least, my third visit to the IWM & on entry & I thought I would only be having a quick look around. But upstairs I discovered a new exhibit – this one on that most harrowing of subjects, the Holocaust. We got lost in there for quite some time as there is always a lot to absorb & try to comprehend. It was quite well done, & while sobering not nearly as depressing as the Holocaust Museum in DC. All of a sudden it was 1730 & time to head off to meet Chris after work. This time I had a genuine reason for taking that shortest of tube lines – I actually wanted to go to from Waterloo to Bank. I sat waiting for Chris reading my free Evening Standard on the steps of the Royal Exchange for the last time, taking in the wonderful architecture that is the Bank of England & watching thousands of suits scurry around. Avoiding heading in to the melee that is getting on to the Central Line in the evening rush at Bank, we walked for quite some time west & I was pleased to be able to share some of my knowledge of small London museums that are worth seeing with Chris. We headed out a little west to Chris’s neighbourhood, had a pint at his local before I got the tour of his flat (which was pretty short at two rooms) before we walked & tubed to Paddington to meet Annie – a good friend of Chris’s that I had met at his sister’s wedding in Tuscany almost two years ago. Annie is now living in Melbourne & over in Europe for four weeks. Now that it’s the northern summer there are plenty of people coming this way – it is somewhat unfortunate in that respect that I am skiving off to Canada now – there are at least six people coming over that I would have like to have seen. But that’s a small price to for what promises to be a great year of riding & skiing. After my last pints of lager for what I imagine a while & a great time catching up with what we’ve all be up to, I said goodbye to Chris & Annie before heading off to catch the last train back to Sidcup. I was sure it wasn’t just the lager messing with me, I couldn’t find that train anywhere (it’s not like they’re a set of car keys – nice Snatch reference) & sure enough it had been cancelled & I had a slightly longer & more circuitous trip home.

Somehow yesterday I managed to squeeze a lot in to my Macpac & bike bag – somehow the pack has ended up heavier than the bike bag, which is a first. A quick visit to get shorn & then it was off to say goodbye to Nora. That was one of the most difficult visits yet as, it would be fair to say, after seven weeks she is a little tired of the mundane hospital & she was really quite angry & it took quite a while to calm her down with many more rounds of Gin Rummy. The powers that be have finally decided that Social Service will pay for her residential care, so hopefully Trish & Jan can find a place they like this weekend & Nora can move to a much nicer environment next week. The final farewells were last night over dinner at a great Asian buffet in Orpington. Jan & I managed to squeeze my four bags in to her Swift her this morning, a much easier trip to Heathrow than my last one (the four hour trek across London in the snow on buses, DLR, tube) on the M25 & I was shortly saying goodbye to Trish & Jan – I’ll miss my English family, they’ve been very good to me. Well Gate 29 is open now, so this is a good spot to stop & make sure I get on the waiting Airbus.