Spring Days

Well after two long phone calls with both Adelaide n Sydney and while watching the lightning and the rain outside, it’s time to do something a little productive today while I take some time out from life in general. Looking outside it’s a fair contrast to the weather of the past few weeks which has been nothing short of summer (for England) with sunny days of nearly 24C (or the 30C weather predicted for the forthcoming week!).

We’ve certainly taken advantage of these balmy days with daylight savings keeping the sun up til around 9.30pm at night. There’s been just a few evenings where I’ve joined Shar and Charlotte down at the White Horse pub in Parson’s Green. I’ve certainly enjoyed the rides there after work, just bombing alongside the Thames through Embankment, Westminster (giving Big Ben a wave), Chelsea and Fulham. Usually this is with a myriad of other riders as we all leave work to ride this tree filled route by the river.

The riding has been good lately, and culminated in last weekend’s London to Brighton event. Riding the 55 miles to Brighton on a nice Sunday morning is all well and good, but in typical style I added an extra 40kms onto the journey by simply riding from home to the start in Clapham (and back again).
Some great countryside to pass through and I think if I do this event next year, I’ll do it in a completely different manner. It wasn’t quite the sort of event for more serious riders, like last year’s London to Cambridge, as this one had some 27,000 entrants. Most were more casual riders making a bit of a day of it, which is exactly what I’d do next year - stop off at some of the townships and their pubs along the way, to then make an afternoon and overnight stay in Brighton. That way I probably wouldn’t have minded the massive traffic jams, or even the traffic itself (as in the cars that were still using the roads).
Oh, and I’d definitely use the mountain bike to take advantage of the extra gears that would make the climb up the Ditchley-Beacon Hill far easier! Still, I managed to ride up it to then enjoy the views of the surrounding countryside and sea. The trip down the other side that led into Brighton was good fun as I reached just over 65kmh at one point.
With the sun shining it was then time for a nice leisurely stroll along the beachfront of Brighton amid the smell of fish n chips, overhead gulls and plenty of beachgoers in their hired stripy deck chairs on the gravel beach. Onto the event coaches and it was time to travel back to Clapham for the ride home.

On the subject of exploration, I had a day off Thursday week ago and spent it taking Shar’s visitor, Naomi, around London to the sights she wished to see.
This began in Knightsbridge for Harrods, which I’ve not been to since I last came to London 5 years ago. This place is still impressive, especially the Food Hall! From here we headed for a stroll through Hyde Park and made our way to Westminster via Wellington's Arch, Buckingham Palace, St James Park and a red phone box.
We paid Westminster Abby a visit and then continued along the Thames past Big Ben, through Embankment to arrive at Covent Garden.
After watching a bit of the street theatre and browsing the stalls and shops, it was time for a coffee and to sample a pastry at Pauls (the famous patisserie). Seriously good as always.
We then filled in the remaining time for the day by just hanging out together in the park by embankment to enjoy a chat and the antics of a Big Issue seller who was convinced we should be engaged...

Last Sunday night was Naomi’s last in London so after the London to Brighton ride that day, I met up with Naomi, Shar, Charlotte and Rachelle for a few “send off drinks”. For obvious reasons I caught the tube there and back, but it was a good night and a good way to finish off the weekend. That's Charlotte and Naomi with me on the left.

With a retirement and a resignation at work this week, there’s been a few extra nights out other than Wednesday evening’s trip to the White Horse. We also had Charlotte’s night out as her final week in London comes to a close and she heads back to France. Left to right here is Rachelle, Jess, Charlotte and Shar in Eclipse nightclub in South Kensington.

Now several weeks ago, it was the end of the football season and a couple of us headed north for the final game. Read on for our merry long weekend...

Two Pools - Liver and Black

The last match of the football season saw Spurs away to Liverpool, and on Petter’s suggestion we decided to make a bit of a weekend of it. So, with Paul, Marty and Karyn, we all met at Euston station after work on Friday to hop a train up to Liverpool for the long weekend.
After a rather uneventful train ride, we checked into our respective accommodations and then met up again in a pub in the heart of Liverpool’s nightlife. Certainly an interesting night out as we checked out a band before hopping a few different bars and clubs to sample a Friday night out in Liverpool. It had some interesting moments and I do have to admit that it’s hard to talk to someone when you can’t keep a straight face at their accent. Cross Irish with Welsh and then raise it an octave (or two) - I’d love to be able to replicate it because it is so unique, but not quite in such a bad way as the Geordies...
Anyway, after having a few problems with gaining entry back into both our accommodation and room (as someone was trying to use their own house keys instead of the B&B’s), we called it a night.

A slow start to the day, but we were soon back in the heart of Liverpool where we had a look around before meeting Marty n Karyn for ‘brunch’. With discussion of where to go next, it turned out that Marty had lived nearby to where my grandmother had grown up, so we decided to go take a look along Aigburth Road (right) near Sefton Park, which is HUGE and still has small girls running about in it just like it did 90-odd years ago.

It soon came time to head back to the station in central Liverpool as Petter, Paul and myself were headed to Blackpool for the evening and night. Petter hadn’t been to Blackpool before (not that we had) so checking out this seaside resort town had made its way onto the agenda. In just under an hour we were there.

There’s not too much to Blackpool itself other than the coastal amusements, rides, pubs/bars/clubs, hotels, restaurants, etc... that line the shore. This extends from the north pier to the south pier and beyond - that’s well over a mile in length, and this doesn’t include the few streets behind this that aren’t on the seafront itself. We basically wandered the foreshore checking it all out from the north pier to the south pier, which is where our accommodation was for the night.
Once checked in, we effectively did the reverse, but this included stopping firstly in a small restaurant (for some superb fish n chips - when in Rome...) and then a host of the pubs and bars. We soon discovered that Blackpool seems to be a haven for bucks and hens nights, as well as just being an active night out. I’m not sure that quite knew how to take it when a member of a hens night proposed to him, but we were constantly asked to help out with the lists of tasks that they all had for the evening. That’s Petter obliging one of the hens... In the end, once we discovered that it was now over a mile walk to get back to our lodgings, we cabbed it back.

The next morning, our host provided a very full English breakfast and we began the day with a quick 18 holes of golf. Okay, so it was putt-putt, but it sounded good. Afterwards, we headed back to the station for the quick trip back to Liverpool and to then to Anfield.
In the Arkles pub nearby, we met up with many others who had travelled up from London for the match before heading into Anfield for the game itself. I was certainly happy with my front row seat and to be pitchside when the 40,000+ Liverpudlians struck up “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was pretty amazing.

Afterwards, the fun began as our accommodation for the night fell through. We weren’t the only ones left roomless for the night as there were several people gathering at the offices of the apartment block where we had all booked apartments for the night. Only problem was the office was locked and the guy we’d spoken to earlier was nowhere to be seen.
So the Scandinavian church it was for the night. £15 each, and a landlady who wasn’t convinced that Petter was actually Norwegian until he produced a Norwegian drivers licence. It’s funny how when you learn English that you also seem to pick up the accent of the place you learn it - hence Petter’s English being with a cockney accent and not sounding anything like the chef on the muppet show...
We may have had to make our own beds and do our own breakfast dishes, but who’s going to complain at £15 for the night?!

Anyway, with that sorted we met Marty n Karyn for a final night out in Liverpool. Dinner first then Marty showed us a venue that had about six different venues and levels to it with each area catering for a different taste. We ended up in one of the lower levels on ‘teapots’, which is where they mix up a cocktail that fills a teapot, which you then serve out to everyone (see pic) or have four goes from it yourself. A groovy spot really.

The next morning was reasonably slow, but we all met back up at Liverpool station for our respective trains home - even if they were a replacement bus to the midlands first before a speedier train back to London.

Don't forget to check out http://www.justgiving.com/aussierunner or the little widget at the top right of the webpage here. You know it's worth it, even if you throw a fiver (£5) into the pot.

While the Sun Shines

Another fine weather weekend, and what a way to kick it off with a rooftop BBQ!!
Charlotte is currently house-sitting for her boss in Fulham, so Shar, Rachel, the lovely Eleena and myself joined Charlotte to finish off the week with a bbq on the roof. A very pleasant and relaxed evening and night, which led to a very relaxed Saturday...

Sunday kicked off with a good long ride north of London that took me past Essendon again, but this time I went all the way up to Hertford. A few different lanes and roads this time as I explored more of this area. All good until I successfully managed to get myself lost. As you’re laughing, it was easily done thanks to there being Coopers Lane and Coopers Lane Rd... No harm done as it was a long and quiet road with plenty of fields, forest and some very old houses along the way until I found the sign you can see in this picture. Click it to see the full size pic and its name - can we do nothing original in Australia??
Anyway, despite showing me an extra steep hill, my detour actually shortened my intended ride by about 5-10kms to just over 70kms for the morning.
On the subject of riding, I did the Reigate Sunday Sportive last weekend (7th), which is where the picture at the top of this post comes from, as well as the picture on the left - it was taken at around the 50km mark after a particularly nasty hill, which is why I’m looking rather knackered.
Reigate itself is an hour’s train-ride south of London, and very picturesque as you travel through “rural” England. All up that day I did just over 115kms thanks to having to ride to and from home and the overland train station at Victoria.
Why all this riding? Well, other than actually enjoying it, I got roped into doing the London to Brighton ride, which is next weekend. Similar to the London to Cambridge ride I did last year, except there’s an extra mile in distance (55 as opposed to 54) and it’s for the British Heart Foundation instead of Breakthrough BreastCancer.
A good way to meet other riders as well as see the English countryside. Oh, and Brighton for that matter...

But back to last weekend.
The afternoon was then spent down near The Oval, yep, the very one that the Twenty20 cricket is currently being played at. Marty, Karyn and myself joined Suki and several others for Troy’s ‘Goodbye to London’ afternoon in a very good beer garden. Again, sunshine, drinks, a great bbq and good people... what more could you want for a lazy Sunday arvo?

While I’m at it, you’ll notice the new ‘widget’ on the right of the page here. Originally, I found the Bear Sanctuary trek in Romania, which is a seven day trek through the mountains of Romania that culminates at the WSPA Bear Sanctuary. This is where most of the bears that they save end up.
To go, all you need to do is raise the required amount of money. I later discovered that I would need to raise £2,300 by September, and somehow I feel it might be a bit harder to convince people to donate so you can go on an adventure... I’ve instead chosen to do a half marathon in September where I only need to raise £300 for entry on the WSPA team. I’d like to make £500, but that’s just me. That and I like the idea of training during summer instead of winter!! Click on one of the button’s and take a look, or just click here: www.justgiving.com/aussierunner

A Busy Month...

Allen and Judy, my thoughts are with you...

It’s been a bit of time since the last post and it’s been a pretty busy time with so much going on. Spring has sprung, and we’ve been having some glorious weather (for England) and with daylight savings keeping it daylight til around 9.30pm each night it has been too good to pass up.

This has ranged from a great number of things that have included:

- Walking the Thames (or part of it) - see below.
- Drinks after work with the work crew, which had us all on a small pub crawl one Friday night. These are led by one fellow at work who will find some battle in history where the English beat the French, and usually only last for about five pubs. The funniest part is that they’re all within about 2 city blocks - there are just that many pubs about!
- Spending the afternoon round at Husky n Kels with some others for an afternoon of food n drink to watch the FA Cup final, before heading in to Soho to join Karyn, Marty n Colin at a Thai restaurant, to be joined later by Shar n Okanya in the nearby pub. The pic here is (the backs of) Shar n Karyn doing some late night "window shopping" shortly after we’d left the pub.
- Sunday lunch in the sun at Covent Garden with Shar and Okanya, that continued on till all hours down in Clapham.
- Being back on the bikes now and enjoying the spring sunshine through the countryside north of London. Only one drawback with this time of spring - copping a bee sting to the side of my head! Thankfully the earphones of my ipod kept it out of my ear as it flew straight into me to be caught between my head and my helmet strap. Anyway, it’s amazing the little villages you come across when out on the lanes of country England (see pic on the left. Click on it to see the full pic and read the village name on the sign).
- Football matches and trips - more on that later.
- Last Sunday afternoon in the sunshine on the banks of the Thames down by Hammersmith Bridge (behind me in the pic on the right) with Shar, Adam n Juliana. Drinks, sunshine, people, boats on the river - all good. Juliana and I headed off for dinner after the others had left with the sun going down.
- Lazy evenings down in Parsons Green at the White Horse pub or in the Green opposite the pub. This included one evening after a session of NSA for my back, where after a text invite (and being sort of in the neighbourhood), I rode through Chiswick and Hammersmith to spend the evening on the Green with Shar, Charlotte, Stella, Jesse and Juliana in the sun before heading across the road to the White Horse. Pints, chicken burgers fresh off their bbq and plenty of laughs including Shar and myself convincing the rest about drop bears. What made this more comical is that while Charlotte is French and Juliana is Brazillian, Stella and Jesse are fellow Aussies and hadn’t heard of our Drop Bears...
- A night out in Clapham with Shar, Katriens, Juliana, Okanya, Charlotte and a few of Juliana’s housemates. Kicking off after work on a Friday night with dinner at Lost Society we went on into the night at the Artesian Well and beyond. Truly a multicultural night considering that of our group there was only one nationality that had more than one representative - a Kiwi, a Kenyan, a Brazilian, a Belgian, a Frenchwoman, a Swede and finally two Aussies. That’s Juliana, Tobias, myself and Karen.
- An evening with Row at a pub in Borough Market to catch up after she’s returned from a 3 month expedition through South America.
- To last night’s catch up with cousin Zara and Jarrett with some friends of theirs. This was on a boat moored on the Thames - Tatershalls Castle. An awesome set up, despite not having my sea-legs for much of the early part of the night and therefore spending a mix of my time both below and above deck. We headed on from here to a Turkish restaurant before heading home at around midnight...

These, of course, are really just the highlights as there’s been plenty more going on with life in general. I’ll kick off with one of the two main events of the month here, and will post the other shortly...

Walking the Thames

I met Karyn n Marty in the early hours at Paddington station, and we met the others on the train itself. As their new year’s resolution, Nell and Panni had decided to walk the entire length of the Thames this year. There are even dedicated guidebooks to doing this, with The Thames Path going the entire length and the ‘walks’ being broken up into different segments of the river itself.

We reached the township of Marlow to begin the first of the two segments that we were going to walk. A brief toilet stop for (nearly) all and we were on our way. Great weather and it wasn’t long before jackets were being removed as we were entertained by Richard’s dog, India. India loves the water, so at nearly EVERY opportunity she was IN the Thames.

Once outside London, the Thames itself is quite picturesque, and as we made our way along it, we got to see all manner of habitation, history and countryside. Sailing clubs, houses, castles, fields, forests and even a “sixteenth century” church built in 1232 - this is what Nell’s guidebook said!!
Anyway, we finally reached Bray, and what Nell promised as one of the best pub restaurants in the region. Only we had a slight problem - we were on the wrong side of the river and that particular lock would not get us across the river! It would be about a 5 mile detour to get there, so we continued on until we found another pub in a nearby village. As far as most of us were concerned, sitting in the beer garden under the sun with the food on offer here was pretty good. Their locally made ice-cream just topped it off.

Back on the path in the sunshine, we covered the remaining few miles to Windsor in a decent time, and with time to see both India ‘play’ with the swans of Windsor as well as stop off for a well deserved drink in a local pub. After a short time of relaxing we headed to the hotel to book in and freshen up for dinner in a local restaurant. A good way to finish off the day.

Monday - you just have to love long weekends - was a slightly slower start, but one in which we were soon underway for day 2 of our ‘walk’.

We continued towards London, although our destination was Shepparton (not the one in Victoria). This took us past Windsor Castle, Eton College and the Windsor Racecourse. Certainly a very affluent area!
It also took us past several locks, fields, some more forests before beginning to look more and more like civilisation with more and more housing appearing.
We stopped on the correct side of the river for lunch at the Swan Hotel, which was rather aptly named considering we had just passed a nesting swan on the bank! That’s it pictured here - nice how you can pull the boat up for a pint!
The food here was excellent (if you ignore the steak sandwich), and I tried what is a local “delicacy” known as Eat and Mess. This is a dessert that consists of berries, ice-cream, meringue and cream in a tall sundae glass. It’s name comes from its origin where it was accidentally dropped on creation - hence the ‘mess’ part. It’s very much like a berry layered pavlova that’s been smashed... Twas goood.

Across the river and on our way again, the Thames began to resemble a very English version of West Lakes (for want of a better analogy). Very nice housing lining the banks on both sides of the river, and it did appear a bit like a retirement location for those into leisurely cruising the river on their boats.

Upon eventually reaching the train station at Shepperton, it was time to sit back and rest our weary feet and legs on the trip back to London. We had actually just walked over a marathon in the two days as we’d done almost 30 miles!

A really nice weekend away with a good bunch of people - I’m looking forward to the next section they do.