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UK Trip Report ? 2006
21st February to 31st March, 2006
This trip was to be a bit more organised than the last one (2004), when I didn't pre-book a lot of my travels, and ended up hiring a car for weeks and having to back-track on myself, just because people couldn't see me in the sequence I was trying for.
Janet had zoomed off to Tokyo earlier in the day ? so all I had to do was some last minute packing and get myself out to Changi around 20:00.
February 21 and 22, 2006 ? Checked in, pre-booked a window seat (not to watch the scenery ? because it was a mostly night-time flight, but so I didn't get disturbed by fellow passengers pushing past to get to the toilets) 50K on British Airways flight BA16, and off I went to gate C23 and I waited opposite Gate C13 (these two are opposite each other across the gangway) ? hoping to see/meet Andy and Muriel Roland who were Transiting in Singapore for a couple of days on their way back from Oz ? shame our bookings didn't coincide, otherwise we'd have had a couple of days fun..... Suddenly, there they were ? amongst the crush of exiting passengers. A quick hello and ?get up-to-date? after 30+ years, and then I had to get into the boarding area for my flight. Plane was completely full and I tried to sleep the whole way ? no dinner, but only managed 7.5 hours then another 2 then another 2, around breakfast (rubbish!!) arriving at Heathrow on-time at 04:45AM ? Brilliant!!
Terminal 4 was mostly empty and I was in no hurry to get over to Terminals 1,2,3 where my bus was leaving from, because I knew I had ?hours? to kill. I was wandering about, bought some shampop, then trying to find an eating place (some chance!!) when I realised I had way less than 1 hour to get over there, so went racing mad...... you have to get the Tube from 4 to 1,2,3 ? and the walk to the platform must be about 1 Kilometre ? luckily someone had suggested I use a trolley otherwise I'd have expired!! Onto the platform, trolleys not allowed... come on, come on... train eventually pulls in.... cannot board ? security checks have to be performed... come on, come on!! The long trip round to Terminals 1,2,3 ? then racing around the bus station trying to find out where Service 032 (National Express) was leaving from... come on, come on ? I've only got 1 or 2 minutes before it leaves...panic... run up to a bus with the driver installed and show him my ticket....... he says... ?what's your hurry ? your bus doesn't go for another hour!!?....Bugger!! I'd either set my watch to the wrong time ? or just miss-read 06:55 as 05:55 ? into the waiting room ? very, very cold!! It had 4 sets of automatic doors, which meant that a gale was blowing through it, most of the hour I had to wait ? it must have been around freezing!! Got onto bus to Victoria Coach Station ? liked the Bus Lane on the M4 ? just about empty whilst the other 2 lanes were jam-packed with commuters. That has to be an inefficient system....??? Over a 10 mile distance there may have been 3 or 4 buses ? each with say 30 people on-board, so a total of say 120 passengers ? zipping into West London in about 10 to 15 minutes......whilst...... about 5,000 cars, each with say 1.5 people on-board (say 7,500 people) are held up, and have to spend 40 to 60 minutes doing the same distance!! But.... it was fine for me!! Cold in Victoria Coach Station too, then sleet/snow on the way to Maidstone, Kent ? arriving there 6 minutes late at 08:26, where good old Brian Stoate was waiting to pick me up ? just like clockwork!
Off to see Vonnie at her workplace ? hello, hello, kissy, kissy ? back home to Carmans Close, chitty, chat ? some shampop later in the afternoon, then out to Italian dinner where the first of my failing credit card escapades occurred. Back home ? chitty chat until 23:00 then to bed...... where I had weird dreams.....
Now I have to plead my innocence here, because I'm sure I will be blamed....
I was back in ?My Bedroom? - although Vonnie calls it ?Her Make-up Room? (because she does all her hair and warpaint administrations therein) ? which has a single bed underneath a sloping roof/ceiling ? at the foot of which is a small door into a sort of crawl-space where Brain and Vonnie store suitcases and the like. Its not a loft, but its like one!
So, there I am... fast asleep... when I dream that I'm bursting for a pee, get out of bed, cannot find the door to the landing loo, so go through the small crawl-space door, bump my head on the sloping ceiling, see a pair of shoes on the floor, move slightly away from them and pee up against a wall..... Finished, I return to MY bedroom, where I realise that I've splashed my trouser bottoms, try to work out how I shouldn't get back into bed with these wet things on...cannot figure out a reasonable solution and just crawl back into bed.... happy!!
The story continues later on.....
February 23, 2006 ? Bright awake at 06:00AM, Brian goes off to work, breakfast with Von and I phone First Direct to sort out my failing Credit Card. They say an alert has been put on the card, because it hadn't been used for years, and then there were some transactions earlier in the month. They said they'd take the Alert off ? good!! Got SIMM card in Tunbridge Wells and then we were off to Tabitha and Poppy for lunch ? lots of jumping and paying games (Poppy thought us quite bizarre) then off to Andy, Marc and Amily in their wonderful Canadian House (very impressive!!), Brian comes there for dinner (Spag Bol) ? home by 23:30.
February 24, 2006 ? Awake at 04:00AM ? Vonnie zooms off to Teneriffe, Brian and I commute into London (stupidly I pay 27.50 Pounds for a return Travel Card ? which would have cost 16 Pounds after 10:00AM!!) into his office for 45 minutes ? then I'm off to meet Margaret Leng/Charles and The Newburys at Waterloo Station at 11:30AM. Good to see Maggie again (she provided a couple of snaps of Ealing Tech - and it looks just the way I remember it (thanks Maggie)...
Front entrance - shame
they were digging up the road
Side entrance -
everything to the right of the entrance is new (not there in my time).
And then Colin and Yvette Newbury with sons Zeb and River, brother Grahame (who is off to Thailand again soon), sister Bridget ? Maggie and I went for lunch in Covent Garden and came up to date... then back to south of the river met up with Newburys again at the Salvador Dali Exhibition near The Eye, chitty chat .....
Blocking up the entrance to the exhibition - (l to r - don't know who
the lady at left is) Me, Grahame, Colin, River, Zeb
same team again - good luck with the restaurant in Thailand Grahame!!
me and Colin - good to see you all - and looking so well too!!
Then it was....Maggie off home, Newburys to various points... and me back to drinks with Brian at Canary Wharf and then a commute home.
Saturday February 25, 2006 ? Brian and I ? up early and off skiing in the punchy Volvo. Onto the ferry, weather blustery... into Langhans Brasserie for a good breakfast.... I throw up (seasick) ? waste of 15 quid!! Easy journey down through France, getting to Val Thorens around 20:00 ? very small apartment ? with daft arrangement of 2 bunks in the corridor between the lounge/diner and the front door, right opposite the bog! Out for dinner ? all very pleasant.
From here on its down to my memory ? and I'll do sections of the trip in weeks....
View from our apartment left
to right - not stitched.
February 26, 2006 to March 5, 2006 ? Must have got our boots (Brian left his back in Kent ? silly sod) skis etc.. and (it was a cloudless, beautiful day) had our first outing. We'd both decided not to go daft, but rather enjoy our runs and not tire ourselves out. This we did... we had a couple of brilliant days... Mike Waller joined us, having driven up from Vence ? his arrival made the bunk/corridor sleeping arrangement even more weird/unacceptable ? it was also very claustrophobic!!
Wal and Brian - first
drinkie-time....
Wal and I had an enormous coming together on the slopes ? slamming head-on into each other, but luckily no lasting damage. When it came time for Wal to depart ? his punchy Merc couldn't get up the slight rise from the Parking lot (he had to park outside
because the village was
full), and we had to struggle to fit chains...
Or, more correctly, THEY had to struggle to fit chains..
Apparently that was the only place he needed them ? getting into the village!! The weather turned after Wal had left ? grey, miserable, snowing so we didn't ski for 2 days then decided the weather forecast was offering nothing better ? so carried our gear down to the Volvo (no chains needed) and smoothed home 2 days early ? bought some shampop for Brittsy. We decided that Austria has to be returned to for future Ski holidays... we need trees, small chalets/bars/restaurants on the slopes rather than the stark (no trees and ?in village? eating/drinking) of the high French resorts. Back into Kent life with Brian and Vonnie and then...
March 6, 2006 to March 13, 2006 ? Brittsy and Gary down there in Taunton, Somerset. There was little Brittsy jumping up and down ? same as last time ? and Betty (their new (10 years old) VW Transporter van) parked just across the road. Throw the bags in the back and 10 minutes we're home. Big things happening in their lives... Brittsy had recently walked out of her job, and Gary was gearing up to go self-employed ? he actually started 20th March, they'd sold a big saloon car and bought the van for Gary's tools and upcoming work, Brittsy was getting her Interior Design skills and portfolio organised and whilst I was there we were able to set up a web-site for Gary.... www.garypage.netfirms.com ? for those of you who live near Taunton and need a Fitter/Electrician of Kitchens and houses in general. Went 10-pin bowling with Gary's kids, Brittsy and I did a walk round a reservoir ? super, visited Dunster again, went to Glastonbury and walked up the Tor (very, very windy ? but great), reviewed the garden (doing very well) ? good time!!
The reservoir walk.... 
Brittsy and..
getting arty....
Dunster......
Glastonbury.... and up the
Tor...
Having viewed it and
genned-up on it... we now had to climb it - you cannot believe how strong the
wind was at the top....
Brittsy is actually leaning into the wind.. great view..
Views from my bedroom at Brittsy's - Victorian terraced housing,
the other side of the street seems to be mainly 2 storey whereas Brittsy's is 3!
Too many cars in Britain!!
March 13, 2006 to March 20, 2006 ? The it was all too quickly over... off to the bus station again for the 10:35 National Express service 336 to Truro, arrived there around 14:30 with Inga's instructions to find Mannings restaurant/bar (no problemo), bought some shampop (buy 2 get 1 free ? brilliant!!) and waited for Ing to finish her school-teaching-day and come and pick me up. There was the little red Peugeot around 17:30 and off we got to Ben and Inga's rented cottage in a village called Grampound Road. There's a track about 1 Kilometre long (lots of pot-holes) leading to the cottage which is in the middle of farm fields, nearest house must be 1 Kilometre away...very remote!! But lovely!! These are piccies of arial piccies of the house etc...
The track is coming in from
the top-right, turning right into a white/graveled parking area, and the house
is next to this, all the rest is gardens...
This one is the other way
round... track coming in from bottom-middle, to the white/graveled parking area
with garage to the left, house is central, lots of little out-houses and sheds.
Ben was home already, so a chitty-chatty evening (he cooked Toad-in-the-hole - and very good it was too) and then off to the cold floor ? upstairs....it was very cold weather and Ben/Inga are saying the cottage costs too much and is very difficult to keep warm, so maybe see the summer out there, then move on. Got Ben onto Netfirms, then whilst they were working I used Inga's car to visit St. Ives (unbelievably cold ? grey, windy ? but a nice town nonetheless), Eden Project ? that was very impressive and not too many visitors ? I thoroughly enjoyed the Tropical Dome (where the temperature was around 30C)
Really well done - lots of
"weird" things... here's a giant bumble-bee landing on some flowers..
Drove into the village to see Inga's school, Britta and Gary came down for the weekend and we had a lovely day on the beach at Watergate Bay (amazing) ? Ben took his kite along and flew it on the beach ( this is not one of those small kites, its about 10 to 12 feet wide and maybe 2 feet deep, shaped like a base-jumping parachute and can lift the operator off his feet. Another day we all went to Falmouth (saw where Inga lived for a short time) ? another windy/cold day.
Brittsy and Gary arrive in
Betty and we're off to Falmouth....
Inga, Gary, Britta
Gary
Ben at left
Gary takes more photies
than me....
Then - a much more lovely day - and Watergate Beach.......first views... left to right...
what a fantastic place....
BUT - they'd all gone off like an army on maneuvers... wait for me....
so now it was time to launch
the Kite......
All preparations completed, safety-checks made.....
Lift-off!!
Fantastic!!! Well done
Ben!
Meanwhile.... Brittsy and Gary had been off exploring.....
and she reckoned that she'd found some lovely
mini-wave-ripples...
just over here - alas the piccie doesn't capture the effect...
Time for some lunch and a
sit in the sun!!
Then it was an early (04:30AM) start, Inga ran me into town ? and I was off to Yorkshire!!
March 20, 2006 to March 27, 2006 ? Service 500 via Plymouth and Birmingham to Barnsley was on-time all the way until a crash on the M1 and then heavy traffic getting into Barnsley caused us to be 1 hour late ? and there freezing his whatsits off was good old Rog. Quickly home in the smooth Mondeo (via the shops to get flowers for Elaine ? those Yorkshire types don't like/drink Shampop ?) met the old dogs (Calley and Charlie again) and the new little Poppy ? a Westie. Went and saw JR & Cynthia working away on their new real-estate investment, played snooker with the boys... Bob, Wade and Mike, visited Roger's mum and dad a couple of times and they bought a very enjoyable birthday lunch for us all on Roger's birthday, some walks with the dogs and a couple of shopping expeditions, tried to fix the PC (scanner cable was b*ggered) and then I was off again...
Rog and Elaine's house...
Putting the dogs out...
He said the dogs wouldn't
come out all that well - Calley's not so bad - but what bits are Charlie and
what bits are the blanket - I cannot fathom!!
March 27, 2006 to March 31, 2006 ? Service 560 at 11:25, got me into London on-time at 16:20, a wait for the 021 service to Maidstone ? and there was Brian ? quickly home for a lovely meal and then Brian and Vonnie were back to work whilst I got up to London (16 quid return), met Brian at his office and then off to Knightsbridge to meet up with Paul Basson and all 3 have dinner at a nice Italian place ? what a good chatty evening ? well done Bassy ? similar the next day except that the rail ticket excluded tubes, so only cost 13 quid to see the boys from yesteryear. Then it was a taxi to Service 021 departing Maidstone at 15:15 then from Victoria coach station service 412 arriving at Heathrow 18:25 ? and that is where the chaos started!! Terminal 4 was absolutely jam-packed, you couldn't have got another person in there....and it appeared to be a regular/expected event, judging by the arrangements and staff deployed..... I had to queue for 1 hour to check-in, then join another queue which actually went out of the building into a tented area, then came back into the building , but under the control of ?marshals? who allowed our queue to cross passenger traffic moving up and down the terminal and then joining one of 4 large queues for security checking. I only just got through all that by the time of boarding the fully full aircraft ? 21:25. Into Changi on-time, Janet nearly missed me ? back to warmth!!