A walk in the park

Boy do we have one excited granddaughter. 

She’s been on a student exchange in Toulouse for several mots and her time there is coming to an end. OK, she is excited about getting back to NZ to be with her Mum and Dad, big brother and younger sisters. But before she gets on the plane back home she’s making a detour to spend time with us here in London. The man and I will have our first trip on the Eurostar to get to Paris, which is where we are all meeting up. The three of us will do some of the touristy things there for a couple of days before coming back in Eurostar and then…well you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what we will be up to.

Did I tell you that we have bought a new camera, well we have. Person in the store asked SLR? My reply do I need one. Well she said if you’ve never used one and you do buy one you really should take lessons or at least have someone who has one show you how to use it.

Well I replied all I want to be able to do is pint and shoot.

In that case, this is on of the best for the job. It’s got all the bells and whistles, great for close us, does movies too and not only the special deal means that you get an extra battery thrown in for the same price.

So that’s the one we bought.

The Man had tried taking pictures of the moon with our other camera and was disappointed with the result. Not so with the new one, it will take a bit of practice with the settings, but already he is more than happy with the result.

We had a day in yesterday doing the domestic stuff and pottering on the computer not so today. Him and me went for a walk in Crystal palace Park this afternoon, yes it was cold, but it was too nice a day to just sit around the flat not doing much. It was a great day to take pictures too.

Read this in the freebee paper this week.  The headline reads ‘Father of 22 is spared jail to care for youngest child’ Well that’s not as nice as you might think. This chappie is described as ‘A drug dealing father of 22 children to 11 different women –He’s a 58 year old who has not worked for 10 years because of a bad back. He said ‘I just love kids’

The article goes on to quote him as claiming that he has ‘never had to chase after women…I’m easy going…they’re always chasing after me… I don’t know what it is about me but I’m never short of offers…It’s just my luck that every time I have a one night stand the girl ends up getting pregnant’  

That’s’ almost as stupid as the next snippet from the same paper.

 A girl returned from nursery with a self-appraisal form to fill in…despite being 11 months old. Her father filled it in on her behalf noting that her interests were ‘gripping dogs hair’ and exploring parents noses with fingers’

Christmas Day in Scarborough

Some in England will have had a very wet one. And may still be without power.

There is also the threat of more rain for some.

We've had a lovely day, a light brekky was followed by a very pleasant walk along the beach and around the headland. There's a castle up there, I wonder if we can get up to it.

Following the directions of a couple of locals we found the steps and soon were admiring the view across the bay. It was a good thing we were well wrapped up 'cos it was a very cutting wind.

Down through the back streets of the town our steps took us past St Mary's church. In the grounds were a couple of ruined columns that lined up with the end wall and on the ground were what must have been the bases of several isle pillars. In the well kept graveyard some of the stones we read were dated in the mid 1700's.

On the side of one of the pretty steep streets was a well weathered column about eight feet tall and protected by railings, but we couldn't find any plaque to tell us what it was for. But good ole google solved the problem.

The Butter Cross now stands at the junction of Low Conduit Street and St Mary's Street, but would once have stood, complete and with a carved head, in Cross Street. A butter cross would have stood in the market square and derives its name from the produce that would have been sold near it

Back at the hotel we enjoyed a traditional lunch complete with Christmas crackers, silly hats and silly jokes, not forgetting the pud with brandy sauce.

The Man and I hope that not matter where you spent the day and who you spent it with that you had a very merry Christmas Day.

Colchester

The Man and I had a sudden wakeup call at about one o'clock this morning. The footsteps overhead sounded like a high healed prance across the floor in the room above ours. Clippety clop clipety clop, backwards and forwards several times before the occupants settled in for the night. Ah nice and quiet. That was until 0500 this morning, when clippety clop up and down up and down. My fertile imagination provided the wearer with a bright red corset and fishnet stockings worn over long sinuous legs. After breakfast we left our things with the very friendly receptionist and went walkabout while waiting for my cousin to arrive.. There are some very old and interesting half timbered houses around.

We stayed here.

Legs stretched we returned to the hotel and enjoyed a coffee while wed waited for my cousin to arrive. I scanned and photographed some of the pictures she had brought with her yesterday. OK it might be doubling up on them, but I'm a great believer in hedging your bets.

Pictures I've scanned before have come out better than photographs, but I wasn't prepared to risk just scanning.

I can recommend the Rose and crown if you're ever looking for somewhere to stay in colchester, excellent value and great atmosphere too.

In the afternoon my cousin drove us out a little way into the country for lunch.Very yummy. Roast beef so tender it melted in the mouth, if I could get mine half as tender I'd be happy. Seems the trick is to sow cook it overnight. No hope for me then.

We're on our way back to London but will come back this way in February, hopefully by then my cousin will have sorted through her pictures and found me some more.

A day out...

Ahhh…nice not have to get up to the beeping of the monster that lives on the bedside table. Yes, you know what I mean...I expect there’s a cousin of this beastie on most bedsides everywhere.

On the way home yesterday I read about an exhibition of unique gold and silver jewellery which sounded well worth a  visit So this early this afternoon we hopped on to our regular weekday train and got off at the stop for Goldsmiths College.

It took us a while to locate the main entrance where we asked for the exhibition hall, which was within an old church, very nice.

And the exhibition itself…well that was a disappointment because what we had walked into was a modern art installation.

Hang about a minute, we’d come to see an exhibition of precious metal not papier-mâché masks hg at all sorts of odd angles from a wonky shelf.

All was not lost because we haven’t visit the area before so we went for a bit of a walk down the road and an old fire station that’s ground floor is now a fireplace store. It was the interesting window display that first caught our eye and made us want to go in and see more.

And we weren’t disappointed; parts of the store seemed to be like a museum.

What do you think of this?

We continued on thinking we would explore more until we stopped to cross the road and saw and heard a bit further along a group of young adults outside a pub. They were jeering and throwing bottles and spraying alcohol over a bus that was stopped at the red light. The driver’s window on the bus was shattered. 

Needless to say we did an about face and walked back the way we had come. At the next bust stop we worked out a route back to Crystal Palace and took that.

And the exhibition we had read about, well that was at the  Goldsmiths Company not Goldsmith College. Oh well…

Westward Ho. Day one....

The alarm went off at its usual time this morning and it was everything as usual for The Man and me..

That is until Canada Water. Usually I get off there and The Man continues on.

This morning we both got off and wouldn't you know it the Jubilee was running behind. Never mind half an hour later we were trundling our little suitcases towards Victoria Coach Station, there to catch the 0830 to Southampton. First the coach had to get out of London, that took us almost an hour. The forecast said rain and we did get a few spots but nothing to be concerned about.

But wait as they say there's more... 

At Southampton were collected by our Just Go coach to be driven towards Torquay.

If you've read the blog before you might remember that we came here last Christmas.

But we aren't retracing our steps...well not much.

The driver pointed out this and that, including Lord Blandford's Stag five legged stag standing proudly atop a gate arch. Yes I said five legged...seems that initially when the lord of the manor viewed the stag from his favourite window, port in hand of course, he could only see three of the critters legs. So he did what any eccentric lord would do he had another one added, just so the view looked better for him at least.

The driver announced that we would have a rest stop in Dorchester where we stretched our legs. We couldn't resist popping into an old church, its interior filled with organ music from a hidden musician practising. We stopped for coffee and mediocre coffee cake in a café called the Oak Room. The story goes that back in 1685 it was the court room of Judge Jeffreys of the 'Bloody Assizes' fame. And no I don't know what that is either...

We were impressed by the age of the building if not by the fare.

Back on the road and soon we were oooing and ahhing over the cutesy village of Chideoak with its thatched cottages. Insurance on these building must be crippling.

Pretty soon the coach was pulling into our hotel in Babbicomb which is just a stones throw from Torquay.

Time for tea and we are promised a nights entertainment.

Just a bit of a wander in London

I wonder how this long this summer weather can last?

A whole lot longer I hope

Yes it was a nice day rain when we got up this morning.

While I got on with the domesticity The Man went out, yes all by himself, to a friend’s place.

It’s the friend who we helped with his move a month or so ago. Seems his bed suffered a bit during the move and The Man went to have a look to see if he could affect a repair.

And could he?

Yes he could, but he’ll need to go back with some tools home to complete the job.

So after we’d finished our respective chores we met up at Sydenham station and continued on to London Bridge station. Almost on the doorstep is the Shard. It is such an impressive structure, I love the way the clouds reflect in its mirror like surface

After a quick stop for lunch with the clown we walked down Bermondsey Road to the glass studio where The Man did his glass making course. They had some really beautiful pieces on display.

After that we just wandered. It is a fun thing to do to just see just what is around the next corner.

The newly opened Blackfriars Station is clever. The entire station is a bridge over the Thames. The roodf is made up of solar paensl that provide,according tot he sign 50% of the stations electricity needs.

We came across some interesting street signs

And some interesting architecture.

When we’re out I always look up at the buildings around us, and we are frequently rewarded views of decorative features.