Fri, 21 Nov 2003

author Tim	location Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England
posted 18:04 GMT 23/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Final Farnborough Frolic ( No photos )
It was time to battle the London traffic for the final time, Peter expertly piloted his new Peugeot 307, which he calls "Son of Percy". He purchased it from the same place we obtained Percy from after being impressed with the original Percy. This one is of course newer and better, with enough buttons to keep the driver occupied for years to come.
Our first stop was Farnborough, where Peter and Liz's mother Margaret were brought up. We drove up Starts Hill Avenue to look at the house and around the area in general. There is far more traffic and traffic lights of course, but not a lot has changed with the house itself.
Next it was on to the cemetery where Peter's parents (and hence Liz's grandparents) are buried. There are plans afoot for a new memorial plaque, but that won't be organised for quite a while, so we braved the rain to have a look around before deciding to move on.
It was of course Peter's birthday! So, a celebration was called for, and the venue was to be none other than the Change of Horses, our favourite Farnborough-ish pub. We had lunch there, our shout for Peter, and I just had to order one final serving of spotted dick (photographed here with Liz and Peter) before we left the country. Liz and I gave him a Swiss Card for his birthday, purchased of course on our way through Switzerland.
Back on the road, we battled south London traffic to get across to Pearly, where Margaret Knight lives, a friend of Peter and Margaret from way back. We had visited her with Margaret quite a while ago, but arrived a little too early this time. We went for a walk up on "the common", meaning a grassy reserve. In this case it was up on the hill, and a wonderful reminder of how beautiful London can be on the outskirts, complete with fog and drizzle. Wonderful.
After a bit of a walk through this area, excellently preserved from development by the Corporation of London, we went back to Margaret's house to find she was now there. We didn't have a long time to stay around, but a cup of tea and a chat, getting her up to date with at least some of our travels since we last met worked out well.
We wanted to get moving, as we had to get through rush our traffic up to Milton Keynes to stay with Meaghan and for the night. As it turned out, the traffic on the M25 and then the A1 was horrific, the journey taking several hours. We sat and listened to the radio to all sorts of characters ringing in with their opinions about the two news headlines - George Bush's visit to Tony Blair's local pub where he ate Fish, Chips and Mushy peas. The town had its usual population of 1500 swelled to 3000 just with security staff and media for this event. The locals were amazed as they told tales of how Bush had said the place was nice and other assorted small-talk.
The next story of course was the impending Rugby World Cup final, where the excitement was reaching fever pitch. The next morning we would see how it all played out.
During this, we drove onwards to Milton Keynes.

author Tim	location Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England
posted 17:42 GMT 23/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Meeting Peter, Les Misérables ( No photos )
Midway through the day, after Liz and I had done some serious packing and organising of our luggage (so much to sort through!), a knock on the door heraled the arrival of Peter, Liz's uncle who we stayed with so much up in Carlisle.
He was down to say a last goodbye for a couple of nights before Liz and I head off, and also to see some sights with us around London.
After Les and Pearl provided plenty of cups of tea, we borrowed Peter and his new car for a drive into Hornchurch to post lots of things back to Oz. A little while later, we had 20kg of books and things packed into two boxes on their way back to Oz. One is going airmail so it may actually beat us home!
Peter found us a nice pub in the main road for lunch, where we ate a hearty lunch with a couple of ales before heading back to Les and Pearl's for the afternoon.
A little later, Peter mentioned that he would like to treat Liz and I to a night in a West End theatre! Not ones to complain at such ideas, we grabbed the papers and set out to find something we all wanted to see.
It didn't prove too difficult for Liz and I to come to the conclusion that the one thing we really wanted to see that we hadn't was Les Misérables, showing at the Palace Theatre. Peter approved of the idea (he'd seen it before, but mentioned quite rightly that it has probably changed quite a bit in the ten years or since he saw it, and even more so in the eighteen(!) years it has been running).
So, we got our walking shoes on (Liz's blister had healed quite a bit), and walked up to Romford station. It is quite a marked change from a year ago now when we were spending time up with Peter in Carlisle just how keener Liz and I now are to get on our feet and walk! Second nature now, and it was good to have this in common with Peter, a long-time walker.
Changing at Stratford onto the Central Line (and crossing our fingers as we passed along it through Chancery Lane, site of the derailment that stopped the line for three months earlier this year), we got off at Tottenham Court Road and walked down Shaftesbury Avenue to the Palace Theatre. We couldn't have missed it if we tried with the huge sign out the front, the crowds of people and touts standing at the door, un-ashamed of their trade.
Despite an annoying start with ushers checking tickets right in front of us due to some mix-up or other, the musical was highly enjoyable. Liz's smile didn't fade the whole time, and we were all bopping along to the music, Liz and I having played the pieces in Georges River Concert Band when it existed and Peter having sung many of them in his various choirs. Liz and I didn't know much of the plot line, which was interesting to discover, but the highlight had to be the very clever props (with a big rotating stage), and the shere professionalism of it all. That they can do it night after night is amazing.
Les and Pearl had kindly offered Peter a bed for the night (saving the hassle of finding a B&B and of course the cost), so we all went back there and got some sleep for the coming day.

author Tim	location Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England
posted 17:15 GMT 23/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Lost in London ( No photos )
Another slow morning before we got motivated to get into the city and do a few last things which needed doing.
First was a trip to Harrods to answer Meaghan's request for one of the famous Harrods bags. My sanity left me and I let Liz lead us to where she thought it was, but we were quite mistaken! To be fair, I had no better idea than she, and we enjoyed our walk to the correct area (Knightsbridge), after lunch at Spittalfiends market, our last red bus ride (a Routemaster on route 8 from Liverpool Street to Oxford Street), a walk down Oxford Street then across Hyde Park.
The security all across the city was truly amazing, all for 'president' Bush's visit. In the middle of the park there were hundereds of police on horses, in four wheel drives and vans. Most had fully-automatic weapons, and almost all were sitting around reading the paper, happy to be paid for doing not much except for the fact that all their leave had been cancelled.
If we were still taxpayers here we would have been pretty angry at the fact that £5 million or so has been spent for a three day handshake visit so Bush can put a photo with the Queen in his re-election portfolio.
So, that behind us, we wandered further through the park we had been to a few times before, seeing it this time in a different season, and rather pretty light.
The main aim for the night was one last catch-up with my old work mates at (suprise, suprise) The Gun, the 'local' near my old work.
Plenty of people turned up, it was good to chat to people we hadn't seen for a long while, and also for the people to chat to others they hadn't seen since we left London. We're gonna miss those guys, and, dare we say it, that pub.
After closing time, we somehow found our way back to Les and Pearl's place for the night.

author Tim	location Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England
posted 17:11 GMT 23/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Sore Feet ( No photos )
It's quite funny really - Liz and I have walked around most of the cities of Western Europe and Scandinavia, all with no blisters at all on our feet. After wandering around London on Monday night, however, Liz had a massive blister on one of her heels. That's what happens when you wear silly fashionable boots!
As such, we didn't get up to much at all, just a wander up the road to find out postal rates back to Sydney for our excess stuff. Much more expensive that they were in The Netherlands, but not much else we could do.
We were tempted to get around London to see a few more things, but decided to wait until the next day, due to the rather high cost of transport from out here in zone 6.

author Tim	location Hornchurch, Essex, England
posted 11:39 GMT 18/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Meeting up with Mates ( No photos )
We spent the morning doing some organising of things we need to get sorted before we leave for home. Things like Liz's tax, travel insurance and claims for the problems with Rosie.
At about 12:45, we headed out in the teeming rain to get into London. This involved first getting some pounds from an ATM (when will they give up and adopt the Euro!!) as the bus/train ticket seller at the newsagents didn't take cards. Completely covered in rain on the outside, it failed to get through our nice thick coats - a big change from when we didn't have them.
The bus took us to Romford station, then we jumped on the First Great Eastern service into Liverpool Street. Seeing all these places again was quite strange - on one hand it feels like home as I walked around this area every day for six months, but on the other hand it's just like we are tourists now, seeing the sights rather than just walking past them to get somewhere else.
We did eventually get somewhere else - my work's Local pub The Gun, where we met with Trevor my old boss. It was good to catch up, and we traded silly stories and generally boasted about how each other's respective countries stand no chance in the forth-coming Rugby World Cup Final.
Some pool playing and several British beers later, Liz and I set out for a walk to see a place we hadn't quite made it to last time - All Hallows by the Tower Church. The tower in the name is the Tower of London, and as such we needed to walk south from The Gun along Bishopsgate towards the Thames, then turn left at Monument Tube and walk for a little while.
The reason we wanted to see this church is that one of Liz's uncles was lost at sea in 1979, and his name is entered into a big book there which is reserved for people who have been lost at sea. The book itself was in a locked case, but one of the church attendants was happy to let us have a closer look.
The church itself was interesting - smaller than many and not exactly quiet due to its location and the number of vehicles driving by. Still, it is a fitting place for a book which contains such memories.
That done, we walked back the way we had come, and stumbled across a STA Travel office with a sign for cheap travel insurance on the door. We hadn't been successful earlier in the day organising this, and luckily so. We ended up getting a special youth insurance which covers us just for the flights (which is exactly what we want) for about 20% of the price we were trying to pay earlier in the day!
After spending a couple more hours at The Gun where we were joined by Alwin (a Kiwi) who was of course hassled for the way his rugby team lost to the Aussies last weekend, Liz and I were eventually the only ones left.
We had been shunning Indian food for the previous few weeks as we knew we would get back to London and wanted to go to the famous-for-good-curries Brick Lane. So that's exactly what we did. The hawker out the front of Dawaat Bangla Cuisine was the most convincing, so we sat down to a meal of way too much excellent food. Hey, that picture looks a lot like one from back in Singapore!.
No problems getting home with the tube from Aldgate East to Liverpool Street, then the train and bus back to Les and Pearl's.

author Tim	location Hornchurch, Essex, England
posted 12:09 GMT 18/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Feet Firmly Up ( No photos )
After such a busy day, and as it was a Sunday, we had no grand plands for this day. We got up nice and early to watch England beat France in the Rugby World Cup semi-final. Nice that they beat someone finally, especially after loosing the League Ashes series yet again. Liz and I are actually starting to hope that England win the final next weekend just so they feel a bit better. The tabloid papers never stop having a go at their sporting 'heroes' at every opportunity.
Several nice conversations with Les and Pearl on various matters took up quite a bit of the day, along with using their fast internet connection to find out what was happening in the world.
Pearl's sister came over and the five of us ate a magnificent roast dinner, Liz and my first for a long long time. Somehow we fit in servings of a wonderful dessert also.
We unpacked all of our things we had carried, plus the suitcases we left here while we travelled around and put it all in different piles. By the time we had done that, we were in no mood to do any more, and it all just sat there on the bed in different piles until we wanted to go to sleep!
We also dosed up on English TV, glad to see that not much had changed at all. So many lifestyle shows, text-in-now-to-vote shows and celebrity gossip garbage!

author Tim	location Hornchurch, Essex, England
posted 12:21 GMT 18/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Back off the Continent ( No photos )
(Continued from The Netherlands 4)
Back into British airspace, we encountered something that on previous flights in and out of the place we hadn't - the weather actually looked better than it had in The Netherlands!
The ridiculously short flight was at an end with a safe touchdown at London Luton, and we all filed off the plane, once again thinking that EasyJet might be a cut-price airline, but they do everything very well. Not one whinge out of us.
After a quick look back at the plane, we filed into the terminal building. Immigration gave me no problems, and once we had passed through customs it dawned on us that that meant we had everything back into the country!
Once again a luggage trolley assisted us carrying our way-too-much luggage, and we purchased train tickets through to Romford. There was lots of track work going on, which wasn't that much of a suprise, but perhaps our journey would work out ok. The shuttle bus took us to the station, past places we remembered from when we last used this airport on our way to Amsterdam back in April.
Despite having to use three different trains and hence lug our bags on and off them, the trip went ok. People stared at us funny as we had so many things to lug around, but it didn't bother us - this will probably have been the last time we need to move things like this!
From Romford we took a cab to Les and Pearl's place, bringing our total number of means of transport for the day to nine - a Walk to Utrecht Centraal, train to Duivendrecht, train to Schiphol Airport, plane to London Luton, bus to Luton Airport Parkway, train to West Hampstead, train to Stratford, train to Romford, then cab to Les and Pearl's!!
We arrived there about 4pm, and not too suprisingly all we wanted was to dump our things and have a shower. Pearl cooked us a great English meal of fish and chips, and we watched a bit of TV and chatted before it was time to collapse exhausted into bed.

(customised)