Category: England

Wow! An entire month since our last post; bit pathetic really, sorry to anyone who has been checking to see if there are any updates! We promise to write a little more often, especially as we now have a few more trips planned (and not just talking about boring old Bedford).

Well,… At 3.00AM on Friday the 1st July, Philippa and I set off for our little trip to France and Spain. We had earlier decided that as it was only a week, it would be a great idea to drive to Luton airport and stay in long term parking. After driving around in circles for what seemed like hours looking for the cheap “off-site” (they weren’t kidding) parking, we finally found the place up some side road in the middle of nowhere. After checking the car in, we boarded an overcrowded shuttle bus to the airport which took another 15 minutes. Finally arriving at Luton airport, we checked in with minutes to spare and finally boarded our easyJet flight to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris!

Being a budget flight, the easyJet plane pretty well landed in a paddock and we had to catch yet another bus to the terminal. After passing through immigration and customs we flagged down what we believed was our shuttle bus (we were told by the shuttle bus company to flag down the “grey” mini bus); in broken “Frenglish”, we were informed that it wasn’t our bus – we flagged down another two shuttle busses until we found the correct one! Our driver was an interesting young guy, who had no problems having an argument on his mobile (in Hindi) and swerving in and out of lanes (in many respects, it was worse driving than in most of Asia). At one point he pointed out a young couple being rather “intimate”… driving down the freeway – he explained that sex while driving is one of the biggest causes of road accidents in France (second only to arguing on a mobile phone)!!. The trip into Paris took over two hours, apparently (according to our informative driver) we had arrived into Paris on the second day of their yearly sale! People were coming into Paris from all over France and the rest of Europe to get their hands on the latest designer labels – some up to 90% off! Wow, did we time our trip right!

The shuttle bus finally pulled up at our hotel, and we were immediately greeted by Liz, Kristy and Andy (some great mates from back home in Melbourne) who had only arrived moments earlier from Kuala Lumpa – Paris was the second stop on their big trip! After checking in and unpacking, we went on a walking mission to find some breakfast; it wasn’t long until we found a traditional Vietnamese (French) bakery where we were able to stuff ourselves on cheap baguettes and croissants. Next was Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris – the amazingly decadent Catholic church constructed in about 1345. Standing in this magnificent active church, with priceless artwork and furniture – it made me wonder if the congregation or even the vatican had ever considered selling it and moving to a warehouse out in the suburbs; the millions, if not billions they would get for the church could probably end world hunger! The rest of the afternoon involved tracking down the gelato shop recommended in the Lonely Planet guide to Paris, a long coffee in a cafe and than an afternoon snooze (we did wake up at 3.00AM)!

After waking up a little later in the evening than planned, we sussed out a local brasserie (pub) for dinner and than headed to the Musée du Louvre; unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to go inside as they were closing up, but we did get a look through some of the windows and spent a good hour or so admiring I.M. Pei’s famous pyramid in the courtyard. Some people were setting up equipment for a film shoot outside the front (although we have no idea what the film was, my guess is The da Vinci Code – as according to IMDB, they are currently filming and the Musée du Louvre is listed as one of the filming locations). After a short stroll back to the hotel, we all went strait to sleep – and trust me, I slept! These fit girls who have no concept of taxis wore me out!

Saturday morning found us up at the train station, attempting to organise train tickets for our onward journey(s); it is incredible how far you can get in France by only knowing the words Bonjour and Merci – we all found the French (in general) to be friendly if you at least attempted to speak in their language and the arrogance everyone has heard about seemed to only apply to the American tourists who refused to even try! Next we learnt to use the Paris Metro and made our way to Luxumburg Park for a nice, relaxing picnic lunch in the sun. Unfortunately lunch was cut short as a police officer scolded the girls for sitting on the grass and made them move along. I had already determined that sitting on the grass was a no-no and managed to avoid being reprimanded by sitting on a park bench on the path!

Somehow we made our way to The Arc de Triomphe and spent the next few hours navigating around the crowds trying to find a bargain in the expensive shops located in that area. The Arc de Triomphe was an impressive monument come round-about; however, other than a war memorial – I don’t know what purpose it stood (perhaps thats all it is)? Phew! The day was still young and we again navigated the Paris Metro to Sacre-Coeur, another impressive church – situated atop a mountain – offering the most incredible view over Paris. Although Sacre-Coeur is somewhat smaller than Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, the charm and view more than made up for it’s size. Sitting on the grass outside the church, enjoying the view – an old friend from School, Sonja happened to walk past – it was all a little surreal that she happened to be at the same place at the same time as us on the other side of the world! It was really great to quickly catch up with her and hear all the gossip from back home – I didn’t feel so far from home at that point!

A gentle stroll down from this majestic holy place was the notorious Moulin Rouge, unsurprisingly – once the romance of the movie dissapears, the Moulin Rouge is just another strip club in a street full of sleaze. We obviously didn’t see the show (the girl’s wouldn’t let me), but it was fun to see the famous wind-mill. After taking obligatory photos in front of the wind-mill, we quickly made a bee-line to the closest Paris Metro station as we wanted to get out of that part of town ASAP and headed to the Eifel Tower. The Eifel Tower is amazing! Postcards and documentaries do not do it ANY justice whatsoever! Unfortunately we arrived just a few minutes too late (we spent too long eating dinner, and filling up water bottles in the toilet), and were not able to go up to see the view! Following a stroll along the Le Seine river, we caught another train back to the hotel and slept, and slept, and slept. Seriously, I don’t know where these girls got all there energy from.

On sunday morning, we made our way by train to Château de Versailles, which started it’s life as a ‘hunting lodge, a little gentleman’s chateau’ in 1623. The ‘hunting lodge’ soon grew into an incredible palace by 1770, with the most unbelievable gardens I have ever seen. We spent the majority of the afternoon enjoying the sun (with the rest of France) by the Grand Cannel which stretches for 7KMs. The Château de Versailles is by far the most opulent estate I have ever seen, anywhere and if you are ever getting to Paris – it is an absolute *must see*. After a bit of a mix up with trying to work out which train to catch, we eventually ended up back at the Eifel Tower for our second attempt to get up to the top; unfortunately we missed the deadline, AGAIN!! Perhaps next time I get to Paris I will get to see the top! Miserable, we made our way back to the Hotel (via a shop that sold crepes). Monday morning we tearily said good-bye to the girls, and made our way by train to the wine city Bordeaux.

Phew! What a busy couple of days! I had an absolute blast, and have decided that France is by far my favorite European country (so far). Philippa will fill you in (hopefully) tomorrow on the rest of our trip through Bordeaux, Biarritz and Spain!

Life has settled back into a routine which makes it a bit difficult to find exciting material to keep our loyal readers entertained…(well that’s you mum and I talk to you twice a week anyway). The weeks are flying past, over the last three weeks we have treated ourselves to the theatre, going to see Miss Saigon, which was fantastic and making me believe that we are going to be visiting the West End of London a few times before we leave.

Last weekend we packed the car with our new tent and lilo and headed up to Sherwood forest to see what this Robin Hood legend was all about. Needless to say my childhood fantasies of Kevin Costner leading his merry men were quite removed from the reality. I have since discovered that the majority of that film was shot in Ireland. We visited the old oak the place that Robin Hood and his men legendarily met and the church where Robin and Marian got hitched. Across from the church we found a great cafe and an English man that can really make coffee (he had spent 3 years living in Madrid and 5 in Africa) we had a great chat with him and he excited our dreams of future travel. Strangely he had been a middle level manager in an ISP and decided he was sick of playing with the numbers on excel spread sheets. The next day we visited Nottingham with our camping compatriots (Ang and Warrwick). Nottingham was a really nice medium sized city with a really young feel. It has a bit of a rough reputation but we were given no reason to feel unsafe. We visited the man made underground caves and learnt the process of early day tanning leather. We then visited the local gaol and had a tour much like that of the old Melbourne gaol. It brought us a bit closer to home as the last exhibit was about transportation to the colonies. The back ground music was the early colonial music that I remember Grandad Harvey used to listen to.

I still am working at the same post – which has provided me some security as a locum. The team I am working with is currently 4 people down and with holidays and sick days there have been days when I am the only person in the department. So needless to say that work is hectic and the days pass quickly. Getting a glimpse at the NHS (National Health Service) has made me realise that Kennet was a pussycat compared to Thatcher and that investment in public infrastructure is so important. The building in which I am working is literally falling down around us. When we were interviewing job applicants on Friday a small drip from the ceiling began to hit the applicants shoulder, a few minutes later eventuating in the ceiling collapsing. Apparently it is a pretty regular occurrence, raw sewerage flooded the department last Christmas. So as the Psych department await a new building the NHS is paying hundreds of thousands of pound patching up the pipe system which is reportedly beyond repair. We have a man employed to run each tap in the building for 5 minutes each two times a week. The absurdities make my mind boggle and make me wonder if I am that far from Asia.

Last night we a had a staff function, Christmas in June, which was novel for most as it was “so hot” (21 degrees). It was great getting to know all my work colleagues a little better, I am really happy to have landed with a great bunch of people (and yes I have to say that because they’ll probably read this).

We have a few thing coming up to be excited about, we are flying to Paris to catch up with Liz and then travelling down to Barcelona with Ang and Warrwick. We have planned another trip in July to fly over to Sweden and catch up with Pete and Kate. And of course Pauline and Henry (Matt’s parents) are arriving in Birmingham on the 31st of July!

As always thank you all for the news from home, it always bring a smile to our face and reminds us about why home is the best place in the world. The Aussies cricket team are touring here and are copping bad press for their poor performances. Don’t think that we will get to Lords (as the tickets are pretty sewn up), but we might catch them somewhere on their tour.

After a quick look at the auctions on Saturday we jumped in the Rover and headed on a road trip to Manchester to see Philippa’s uni mate Ang and her partner Warwick. The car handled the four hour trip without any problems, although it did struggle to keep up with the speeding BMWs on the M1.

Ang and Warwick kindly put us up in their spare room and prepared a marvelous seafood dinner on our first night. I was initially apprehensive about eating fish (as I usually hate it), however it was absolutely delicious. Following dinner we headed into the city to see the Chemical Brothers, live in their home town.

The concert was absolutely awesome! Starting with “Hey Boy, Hey Girl” they played a mix set, covering all their albums. “Piku” was everything I had hoped for live, you could literally feel the base vibrating through your bones and messing with your t-cells (perhaps that’s what did it?? – it was that same song that blew up my speakers in the Sikma). I was a little disappointed that they skipped “Setting Sun” and the final encore absolutely ruined the show – they played what appeared to be random noise for at least 20 minutes at full blast, annoying everyone around us (some people even walked out); what where they thinking? The video and lighting where brilliant and really enhanced the show (gives you something to look at other than a couple of nerds pressing buttons and tweaking knobs). Overall we all had a great night, I think they went the extra mile for their home town crowd.

After waking up at some un-godly hour (or should that be after sleeping in for those who are actually working) on Sunday we meandered to the bus stop for the Ang and Warwick tour of Manchester. The city centre is a bizarre mixture of modern and classic architecture. The more recent buildings exist thanks to the clearing of land by Nazi and IRA bombing. We spent the majority of the afternoon looking at tents in all the camping stores as Philippa has decided (and I have begrudgingly agreed) to go camping, starting with Sherwood forest in Nottingham next weekend (I hope we look poor, as I don’t want to be robbed). We had a late lunch at “The old Wellington Inn”, a popular old pub; now, when I say old – I mean it – the building was built in 1548 and first licensed as an Inn in 1830. I was lucky enough to run into the renowned Manchester hospitality as I was exiting the pub; three drunk local giants blocking the exit refused to move – forcing me to navigate through the crowd to another exit. Later we met up with a couple of Ang’s friends who had come to visit for the weekend from London. After a game of hackey-sack and dinner we all retired early, still recovering from the night before.

The following morning we all loaded into our cars and headed for a short road trip to the Yorkshire Dales. After scoring a free parking ticket from another visitor who was leaving early, we had a lovely stroll through the Yorkshire Dales National Park. National Parks in England are somewhat different to home, there is no forest! We basically walked through a lovely bit of countryside, complete with lambing sheep, a flowing river and traditional stone fences. There was a beautiful active old church located in the middle of the national park, apparently it was built over 800 years ago! Lunch was beautiful in another old pub, once we managed to find a place that was open and had space for six people. Upon our return back to Ang and Warwick’s place we quickly ate dinner and headed off to a small pub to see Aussie singer Missy Higgins.

After waiting outside for what seemed like aaages for the doors to open, I proceeded to the bar to order a coke. I was finally served 45 minutes later (and was ready to start throwing punches at the girls trying to push in). Apparently everyone in the audience was familiar with Missy’s music, however when the support act started – I think a good 90% of the audience (myself included) thought it was her. I think she needs a little more publicity as nobody knew what she looked like! Unfortunately by the time Missy started to play, Philippa and I had to get going (as we had the long 4 hour trip home ahead of us) – we only managed to stay for 4 or 5 songs. Although I only knew a couple of her songs, the show was really fun and intimate – looking forward to hearing more of her music.

The long trip home was rather uneventful, except for winning £4.00 on the pokies at the road stop! Nearing Bedford, we got off the motorway and navigated our way through the small surrounding towns for about 30 miles – unfortunately due to the slow speed limits in the area, this section of the trip took us nearly an hour (Philippa found out from some colleagues the following day that the motorway goes all the way directly to Bedford and would have saved us probably 45 minutes), doh! Finally, walking in the door at about 2.00AM, we managed to set off the alarm – I slept till lunch time the following day! Phew, what a weekend – had a ball – thanks Ang and Warwick for the great time!