All at sea

We boarded the now very familiar Queen Victoria on Friday, were able to send Wayne's shirts to the cleaners, do a load of washing and unpack all before we even moved away for the pier. We prepared for dinner, with some intrepidation, wondering who we would be having dinner with for the next two weeks? Our fears were allayed we are dining with a delightful couple from Connecticut, and an elderly couple from Perth. 

Our first day at sea, I (of course) went along to Bingo - winner, yes $35 US, yippee. To be fair there are only about 20 people play, but it is such fun ! 

Wayne and I had a lovely walk around the deck, the weather was glorious. We counted 31 oil rigs at one point, so if you hear of someone working on an oil rig in the North Sea, not exotic - Common !!

We had lunch by the pool, I had a pizza a lovely chef made me, while he sang the Beatles tune 'Michelle'.

In the afternoon we spent some time on the walking machines in the gym, had a spa, then prepared for the first formal night on board. Wayne looks lovely in his tuxedo and new patent shoes.

We had a great night, the couple from Perth didn't make it dinner, so the four of us talked, ate, talked more, drank more and so on.......  It was a great night.

What's in store for today, more bingo, more eating, maybe even more walking but definitely more relaxing!, cheers M 

Beyond the Sea

Our last couple of days on land have been hectic, where to start ? 'Mud larking' of course. Our long awaited, and well prepared for (we did bring $5 Big W canvas shoes in anticipation of mud) adventure on the Thames. We met the tour leader, and at least another 40 excited 'mud larkers', and made our way  down to the river via the Southwark Bridge. After lots of history, our guide, a marine archeologist - who seemed to dislike people generally (because it appears we are all responsible for destroying the Thames), but lit up like a Christmas Tree at the site of a piece of old pottery, led us to the river bank. In our new shoes and wearing disposable rubber gloves (provided) - we peered expectantly at the rocks, yes no mud to be seen! Because it is an archeological site and protected, we were only allowed to pick things from the surface, no foot scrapping or prodding with a stick. We did have a fun time and surprisingly found some old bits of pottery, not Roman or Viking, but still fun !

In the evening we caught up with a school friend of Wayne's from Mount Gambier and his partner. The four of us had a lovely Italian meal in Covent Garden, while the two fifty something school friends reminisced. Then we were  home to bed, in preparation for Southampton.

Not quite the early start we would have liked found us just leaving Bloomsbury at 10.30, oops. I was driving, it's just best - I drive, Wayne navigates. I will say at this point we certainly got our money's worth out of our 'congestion tax' without a Sat Nav, only a hand held GPS it was tricky, as the buildings kept blocking the signal. Turn here, no there, change lanes, oh look that's the back of St Pauls cathedral ! 

Finally through the Blackwell tunnel and we head for Dover. With a brief stop in Bearsted, another family history site for Wayne to check out. It was just lovely, complete with a cricket club on the village green. 

We arrived in Dover the busy sea port is watched over by Dover Castle and hemmed by the white cliffs, which are amazing, the day was hazy so their brillance was dulled a little, but they are still so unique. In history and even today, they witness so many hello's and goodbye's, and so after a nice walk we headed toward Maidstone, slowly !

Slowly because our Wayne romantically (not to me, but toward the English countryside) thought it would be lovely to travel via 'B' roads to our destination. Well that means travelling at about an average of 25km/h, pulling off the road for oncoming cars, or parked cars, giving way to sheep, harvesters or any other animal, vegetable or mineral that wanders into your path! Driving our Vauxhall Corso, I feel like a turtle with a shell on my back, working frantically changing gears - but I think Wayne was enjoying the scenery !

Eventually it was 'decided' (calmly and  without raised voices) that unless we made our way back to the motorway we not only would miss dinner with our friends in Portsmouth, we would be lucky to make Southampton before the ship sailed.

Needless to say we had a great Indian dinner in Portsmouth (our friends from last year's cruise) and at 11pm we crawled into Southampton - so its cruise day, hopefully I'll still manage regular updates, M x

The Palace and The Babylon

After some initial 'cranky pants' rain we have been spoilt with perfect days. 

The advantage of being subjected to endless billboards in the tube stations, is that eventually they start to have an impact - like the 'Coronation Collection' at Buckingham Palace. We have both been before, but we booked and back we went, the collection was lovely. There was some amazing video footage of Charles and Anne (aged 4 & 2) and the beautifully preserved outfits from an event that 60 years ago took 18 months preparation. It's funny when you see the enormity of the palace, combined with its long and interesting history, it is easy to get swept up in the whole thing - I have only just recovered from the long wait for Baby George. I don't think I would ever call my myself a monarchist (I haven't forgotten Wayne driving his Ford Telstar around with the Republican stickers on the rear window, they remained long after the referendum), but I did find myself thinking as I stood behind a group of Japanese tourists in awe, "yes, well you might be impressed, this is our Queen". After the tour we sat in the garden had morning tea and caught up with our kids via text  - very civilized !

Next The Babylon, yes it did feature in the name of the blog! 

The Babylon is a delightful restaurant in Kensington, it is located on the 7th floor of a beautiful old and very large building, on the 6th Floor are the most amazing gardens planted nearly 100 years ago. The structure on the garden level, has an Art Deco feel and is complete with Flamingos wandering, or just standing on one leg as is their want.

I read about the Rooftop Gardens in The Age a few months ago, emailed them for a reservation and now the rest is history. My email citing the article in the paper was rewarded with a window seat being reserved for us. The meal and the service were exceptional, what a great experience, I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting London. I have included a photo of my dessert 'Eton Mess' if you look closely you can also see my own balsamic mess !

We spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting in the garden at the back of our apartment, studying up on Stockholm, we have decided to 'go it alone' rather than do an organised tour, I hope this post doesn't come back to haunt me ! 

In the balmy night, we wandered to the always crowded local pub for bangers and mash, (despite only 4 hours earlier declaring we would never eat again), then home to bed - perfect day ! M

The Blitz, Becks and the West End

Yesterday was an idyllic day, the sort you can't imagine when you are packing your suitcase 16,890 Km's away and it's winter. The sort that finds you standing in the sun, lingering too long to look at a bird or running water, or in our case a lock in the Regent's Canal in Camden. 

Our day was spent with a quick visit to yet another ancestoral church, this was a quick visit because except for the main tower the rest was destroyed in the blitz. Also quick because yesterday was a bank holiday, which must also mean church holiday - odd, we were unaware that churches observed bank holidays. 

After buying tickets to the new London Musical 'Once' we headed for Camden. The markets are full of life, punk rockers are still alive and well, as is a thriving tattoo industry, lots of street food, and treasures  to be bargained for. 

We returned to a pub on the lock we had visited last year, had lunch, drank too much - I've identified the problem, wine is served in a 250ml glass and beer by the pint. It seems there is a volume vs serve problem. After lunch I had nitro ice-cream, made on demand 'coconut with grilled white chocolate crumble'- divine!

Then we took a canal ride to Little Venice, past the London Zoo it was lovely, the boat went through the lock and we were able to watch, (and wait, it's a very slow process) while the valves were released, the water levels adjust, and finally the gates open - such simple technology that has stood the test of time. We floated along beside the pull trails where in history, and before motorised barges, horses led by children, dragged the cargo filled barges along the canals.

By mid afternoon the sun, the wine and the float along the river had taken its toll, I needed a nanna nap*, to prepare for the evening ahead ! 

*one of the true rewards of being on holidays, guilt free naps!

Off to the theatre, divine Irish music - we take our seats, in the dress circle , as the onstage band is limbering up to the tune of 'bound for South Australia'. Fantastic music as promised on the Graham Norton Show earlier this year. The show begins, beautiful ballads, funny one- liners and before you know, I'm hearing snoring - yes Wayne, that's just before I wake myself up with my snoring, so as you see. It was important to mention that we were in the Dress Circle, because quite honestly had we been in the stalls we may have been heard from the stage! 

In all another lovely day in London

Rain, Relatives and Roasted Aubergine

Hello followers,

I have been a little 'tardy' with my blog updates, I have missed an entire day but I am a firm believer in a 'shit sandwich', intrigued ? Read on:
Saturday, after an early start, coffee and croissant at 'Pret a Manger', a few hours of assignment work for Wayne and a similar timeframe of 'candy crush saga' for me (yes, clearly I have an addictive personality, and given freedom this is what I do to relax - ok, I'm outed), we set off to the Westminster Reference Library, in search of Burne Place, Paddington - the address of Wayne's great, great, grandfather. He retired from the police force aged 48, his discharge papers indicated the reason being: burnt out. I found that very interesting, I would like to think employees are pacing themselves a little better nowadays. Our visit to the library was very rewarding and we were able to locate details of the address. We had lunch in Leicester Square, investigated the theatre opportunities, including a stage production of 'Relatively Speaking' starring Felicity Kendall - who we both fondly remembered from 'The Good Life'. Then made our way back to unpack, we moved from the hotel to the Tiny Apartment, so a bit of sorting was necessary.
That done, Wayne was now determined to visit Paddington, he would not be dissuaded (quite frankly I had to remind him these people were dead and would not be offering tea and scones if we visited).
Arriving by tube in Edgware Road, it is pouring rain, we navigate our way to the address, only to find it wasn't blown up in the war (which oddly enough would seem sad, but firmly embedded in history), instead it was knocked down to build the Marylebone Flyover! So at that point the image of two chubby Australians, soaking wet, glaring up at one of the busiest roads in London - seemed pathetic. To the faint hearted genealogist this would be enough to send them packing to the comfort of the nearest pub and a warm beer, not our Wayne we were off to the church, and better still the graveyard. Am I portraying this as if I was having fun, sorry to mislead you, it's all about me and as Wayne scampered from grave to grave, I took comfort underneath trees and tombs and made a mental note 'that when purchasing an umbrella it is important that the circumference is greater than that of your ass! Oh did I mention that I also had a blister the size of a small nation on my heel - I think you are detecting the middle of the sandwich. Finally as the light was fading, we hopped into a London Cab to head home. The cab driver was lovely, he was curious if Melbourne was near Noosa, and that he felt series 2 of Masterchef was great Australian TV! We climbed out, with our wet umbrella's, sore feet and still very weary - so much so that Wayne accidentally left his coin purse (cash only,no cards thankfully) in the Cab. We reported it, but won't hear anything till Tuesday.
Today we attended the Sung Eucharist service at Westminster Abbey, any visit to the Abbey is lovely but a service is so enjoyable, great singing, great organ performance, a bit of a story, a bit of exercise (sit down, stand up, sit down) more singing - definitely qualifies as one of best free events anywhere.
Then it was time........ drum roll.... to go to Ottolenghi for lunch. Yotam Ottolenghi is one of my most favourite chefs, his concept of great, healthy food, available for eat-in or takeaway, with a menu that virtually changes daily is to be applauded. We had a divine lunch, everything I hoped for and more. So on that note I shall refer to this paragraph as the slice of Ottolenghi's cornbread (a secret recipe, only prepared for the restaurant, not found in his cookbooks) and the final piece of our sandwich!

London

We had an interesting, long, although extremely comfortable trip to London. 

We left Melbourne with boarding passes to Dubai, we had to reclaim the 'mega' cases (30 kgs each - "yes I NEED every one of those eleven pairs Wayne"), and recheck for the connection through to London. 

Arriving in Dubai, we were rehearsed, limbered up and ready, and the 3rd & 4th passengers off the aircraft, with little effort we overtook the two ahead of us - we were on a mission !

We shuffled at high speed, caught a train, a giant escalator (deciding that would be faster than the lift) cleared immigration (noted: the immigration officials wear a great uniform, you could hide any body shape under it, although I did point out to Wayne, that the Arab men were very handsome, almost exotic,  I did think a photo was probably NOT an option).

We made it all the way to the desk, and the staff said "well done, we can get you back on QF9 to London, in 5 minutes we will give you boarding passes" - yippee, we are pretty pleased with ourselves. 

5 minutes, becomes 10 and the lovely young girl says "oops I was confused I accidentally listed you for the next flight, come back in one hour".

We knew that flight was pretty full, we had a handfull of Dirham, an unnatural fear of sand and camels and a great sense of 'we are on holidays' adventure. 

The desert gods smiled upon us, and once again we were off, making the 20 minute train, escalator and clear 'immigration*' shuffle back to the aircraft !

*more exotic smiling officials !

French champagne, inflight pyjamas on (looking more like a track'n'field athletes, not generous sizing), we are London bound - almost.... a minor technical problem, that whilst easily overcome required the part to 'cool' completely before departing - so another 2 hours, and we left the UAE. I like to see the positives:

1. I managed to drink what was probably my body weight in champagne and Pinot Noir before departure.

2. Thanks to 1. slept well !

3. We were better adjusted to London time (although that would be arguable since I'm writing at 5.30am)

4. We were able to check into our hotel straight away.

5. I think that's plenty of positives !

We had lunch in the park at Russell Square - Tesco Prawn Sandwich* and ginger beer - life's good.  *Favourite with my sister Sharon and I, and essential on any visit to the UK.

As Wayne was frantically completing an assignment for Uni I took myself to the British Museum, I never tire of the beauty of the main foyer, so after two laps (shuffling, swollen feet, dazed look - not pretty) I settled on visiting the ancient Asia exhibitions - Tang, Qing dynasties, history of Buddhism, India, Nepal, Tibet and finally Islam - so old, so beautiful, so colorful and so fascinating.

In essence that was Day 1 - lasted longer than your average day, but after all the history I've seen, it's a reminder that we should fill each day to the brim! Cheers M