So with my time on JET over, I took advantage of my courtesy ticket home to the land of pubs, country walks and roast dinners for a short respite before I start my new job in September. I love daylight saving hours, Japan should do the same thing. The sky was still light at 9pm at night?! Imagine how much more mountain I could cover with that extra time!
[On a 30-km country walk just outside of London in the Essex & Herts area.]
[Waltham Abbey Church, Essex, is apparently where King Harold II is buried.]
[A mallard in Waltham Abbey.]
[After more than five years, my dream was finally fulfilled at Toby Carvery!]
[Fields of Gold.]
[A field of flax.]
[Bangers and mash with a half-pint of cider, for my lunch on a 30km walk in the country.]
In two hours, I scoffed my way from Brick Lane Market to Spitalfields Market with apple strudel, a coconut slice, nutella & strawberry crepe, watermelon juice, takoyaki and Patisserie Valerie's blueberry and After Eight ice cream. There were so many other foods that I wanted to try, but the stomach was protesting against any more :( As soon as I got home, I did some hula-hooping to take away some of the guilt.
I also bought some new hiking gear from Kathmandu, including a pair of Merrell Chameleon's:
Thought I'd check out Okinawa Day today, and unfortunately the patisserie interested me more than the event (definitely go and try the ice-cream at Patisserie Valerie, I tried scoops of Blueberry and Ferrero Roche!). The event was small, and the entertainment didn't really seem like entertainment. Disinterested, we headed to South Bank and enjoyed the busking instead.
School trips are pretty exhausting. I was in charge of two boys with a scant amount of English. The farm was tiny, with cattle grazing in one paddock. Watching roosters and other poultry birds running loose around the farm was quite amusing, the farm crew would be tossing hay, whilst the roosters pecked about in the haystacks. There's nothing quite like eating lunch to the sound of crowing cockerels either.
After lunch, we went to the park next door and let the children loose for a run. I joined in too ;) and together we raced around the park and rolled down slopes ;) Loadsa fun, unfortunately most of the parents/carers didn't join in, I suppose running around in 25 degrees wasn't so appealing!
A pair of Eason Chan Europe Tour 2010 London tickets came into our possession, a kind soul had given us their second tier tickets at the Royal Albert Hall which were worth £88 each. Eason Chan 陳奕迅 is earning a lot of money, apparently tickets for his London and Manchester concerts have been sold out.
Yes, I've heard Eason's voice from CDs, but hearing him live really takes it up to the next level... and guess what he's fluent in English, when he did his degree, he went to the same university as the one I attended last year!
I was sitting too far away for my camera, so I wasn't able to snap him clearly :(
New year at Embankment was packed. I was there on duty, providing first aid to people who knocked themselves out with drink. Unfortunately, the 7-and-a-half-minute fireworks display was nothing spectacular, the daily Symphony of Lights in HK far outclassed it. Nevermind if it's on duty or not, I will never go to another New Year's event in London ever again, period. The drinking culture over here is going out of control - a majority of cases seen to were drink-induced - when patrolling along the bank, I couldn't help feeling pretty uneasy, even with scores of police around.
My first ever duty as a First Aider at my first ever live football match started at 1pm today when Tottenham Hotspurs played at home against West Ham United...and later won against the guests at 2 - 0.
My team didn't get the best seats - back seats in the corner - my debut went very smoothly too ie. no incidents at all to deal with. An opportunity not to be missed, I watched the match... and it was... sorry, other than the score, I don't really remember what happened in the match... except for the atmosphere.
It's not something a person can feel from a tv, a person can get high on this atmosphere. The sound of several thousand people singing in unison, their cries and calls, their emotions richocheting around the stadium is absolutely amazing. The songs are certainly innovative... The Spurs and West Ham fans were having singing matches while marching up the High Road, which involved some fists. The local police with their horses, dogs and batons sorted out any disputes. All in all, it was an interesting experience. I will go again.
[Around 35,000+ people came to watch.]
[The West Ham goalie on one side, everyone else on the other.]
Essays were handed in, trudging through snow required. The whole campus site was covered in snow... and I just had to forget my camera :(
Had an early treat yesterday (tickets were free!), with a trip to the theatre to see 'The Lady or the Tiger' at Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. The venue, let alone the show, was unexpected. The stage was at ground-level, and surrounded on all sides by a closely seated audience. We were lucky to get balcony seats, but really the actors positioned themselves so well, sitting anywhere would have offered a great view.
Based on the story of the same name by Frank Stockton, the plot involves a semi-barbaric king, a not so virginal princess, a hero, and a prime minister who plays several other characters by changing his hat. Out of boredom, the king decides to administer justice by giving offenders the choice of two doors. Opening one door to a lady would mean innocence and an enforced marriage, while opening the other would deem the offender as guilty and instant subjection to death-by-tiger.
It's a crazy story with an undisclosed ending, but it was an interesting performance with some great music played by a 2-man orchestra.
Bad days forgotten, I enjoyed a nice cycle home in the rain.
About two weeks ago, I participated in Walklondon's Autumn Ambles 2009 event, and did the Highgate to Stoke Newington walk. It retraced most of the same route from the Slow Down London walk I did earlier in the year, but it's a nice relaxing stroll to do after lunch.
The Mayor of London's Skyride was a blast. Thousands of cyclists, both big and small, attended this event in Central London. It was one serious hands-on crash-course for dummies, between 10:00-17:00, my bum only came off the saddle for less than half-an-hour at lunch-break. The leader and his marshals were great, as was the group I rode with to and from the event, everyone was so supportive in giving this amateur some tips. Tomorrow, when cycling to uni, I'll be aching but will definitely be riding with more confidence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mayor of London's Skyride Report Sunday 20th September 2009 - Report: Eddie Allen
Skyride rocked London today, giving thousands of cyclists an unforgettable opportunity to ride some of the world's most famous streets, traffic free, and show their communal love for the bicycle.
The 15km route started on the Mall and took in Trafalgar Sqaure, Victoria Embankment, St Paul's Cathedral, the City and the Tower of London. The roads were closed from 10am to 4pm. The sun shone and cyclists arrived in their droves from all over the capital and beyond to savour the unique experience.
So what is it like to ride the streets of the London with thousands of other riders? In a word, awesome... The memory of riding Victoria Embankment surrounded by riders from all four points of cycling's compass is one that I'll never forget. At one point, on Northumberland Avenue, I witnessed cycling gridlock. But unlike it's motoring equivalent, it was a happy, sociable gridlock. One rider next to me commented: "It's wonderful. It's surreal, it's like riding in a dream."
I rode the course all day, taking photos and chatting with fellow riders. At one point climbed to the top of Blackfriars bridge and was bowled over by the sea of cyclists flowing into Blackfriars Tunnels, which had been turned into a sonic experience courtesy of Skyride's ‘Go Loud' drummers.
It was the same on the Mall, which was wall-to-wall cyclists, flowing up and down the regal avenue, passing Buckingham Palace and the Victoria monument. St James' Park and Green Park had been turned into a cyclist's festival, with food, entertainment, BMX and trials displays, chances to meet GB stars Chris Hoy, Jamie Staff, Ross Edgar and Shanaze Reade.
Trafalgar Square was locked down by cyclists, with an endless stream of florescent Skyride bibs flowing past Nelson's Column. Tourists looked on, enthralled, or bemused, or normally a combination of the two. The usual cacophony of cars, buses and taxis was replaced with the ringing or bells and the hooting of horns. The usual miserable looks of city commuters replaced by smiling cyclists.
There were many, many reasons to love Skyride London. But perhaps the best was the way it brought the many cycling tribes together. There were Mums and Dads with their children in trailers. There were London's cooler-than-cool fixie community, weaving amid the two-wheeled crowds on their custom fixed wheel bikes. There were hard core roadies in full club kit mixing it with mountain bikers. There were couples elegantly gliding through the cycle-traffic on classic Dutch roadsters. There were guys on cargo bikes with huge PA systems, blasting out tunes. There were clowns on Tall bikes, men in top hats on Penny Farthings, there was even a gorilla on a bike (don't worry, he was wearing a helmet).
As a vehicle for showing the world the potential cycling has in terms of health, travel, fun, fitness and social cohesion, Skyride is a tough act to beat. Skyride London has once again given Londoners an eye to a utopian future - a rare glimpse of what their city could be like if more of us chose to use two wheels.
As one rider said to me on the Mall - "I wish it was like this all the time".
Left the house at 7am, but with all the adjusting to the new bike and map-reading, I arrived a bit late, so wasn't able to participate in the Cycle Friday this week :( Doesn't matter, the scheme will run for another 2 weeks.
With no Cycle Friday, I went on my own little journey. On a circular route from home, via Finsbury Park, Hornsey and Wood Green. I stayed on the back roads since I don't, as yet, have the confidence in cycling on main roads or up hills.
What was crazy, was the extremely steep gradient on Inderwick Road in Hornsey. The 1st 1/2: It was a bit scary, I was going down so fast, the thought of jamming down the brakes crossed my mind but I didn't want to take the chance of going head over heels down the road. I nearly went out of control when the front wheel started swerving, but managed to firmly hold it back in place. The 2nd 1/2: Once the bike was stabilised, I couldn't help but feel exhilarated, eyes wide, I watched the scenery flashing by as I hurtled to the end of the road.
At the bottom, I pulled over. The legs needed to calm down a little.
After celebrating my lil' bro's birthday in *New Loon Fung Chinese Restaurant 新龍鳳, we had a walk along the Waterloo Bridge. The bridge overlooks the Oxo Tower, Somerset House, the London Eye, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and a lot more.
[London's famous landmarks at night]
[London's Most Famous Hotel: Savoy, along the bank of the River Thames]
*Recommended, decent food and EXCELLENT service.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Earlier:
I had Hep B in one arm, and Hep A in the other, not quite sure which. A chinese health clinic was offering free Hepatitus B vaccinations, so today I went to have the 1st of three jabs of each vaccine done. (The nurse was kind enough to offer me Hep A, after I had explained my 'regular' travels abroad.) It did hurt, but only when the liquid was forced into my muscles, but after that no pain. Sorry ;-)
Yesterday, I went to a couple of parks with a friend and her children. It's been a while since I went to London's Royal Parks. We had a picnic with the kids in Green Park, followed by a game of football and ice-cream. We had a jolly good time ;) Football became hand-ball, and hand-ball became pram-ball, seriously wacky ^.^
I had brought a loaf of bread, so we took a detour past Buckingham Palace (the flag was up, so the Queen was in residence), posed at the Victoria Memorial, before heading into St Jame's Park to feed the ducks.
[Friend, her children, and I at the Victoria Memorial]
The friend is from Nigeria, and she plans to return home to open her own nursery. She has kindly offered to employ me... work opportunities in Nigeria now... something to think about.
We took a day trip to Dover, a major ferry port in south-east London which faces France. We left London early in the morning, and arrived in Dover 2 hours later to have breakfast.
Route: Dover Town > Dover Castle > Fox Hill Down > Upper Road > 'Gateway to the White Cliffs' visitors centre > Langdon Hole > along the cliffs to South Foreland Lighthouse > Lighthouse Bay > St Margaret's Bay > returning back to the visitors centre > Eastern Docks of Dover >Dover Town.
Length: approximately 11.2-miles (18.0-km)
It was a nice walk with varying terrain i.e. concrete; chalk rock and grassland; fields. On the Cliffs, there are naturally uneven and undulating surfaces with some steep slopes and a height gain of 107 metres.
Unfortunately it was a hazy day, so we weren't able to see the French coast. We were definitely close enough though, as we were able to pick French signals on our mobile phones. From the nearest point in England, South Foreland is just 21 miles from Cap Gris Nez in France, so swimming across the English Channel to France is a popular route.
The price of sight-seeing is extortionary in Dover. We ended up not going to any tourist attractions that require fees. It cost £30 (currently HK$383.757) per adult to enter Dover Castle!
[Eastern Docks and White Cliffs, reminds of Tsing Yi Peak]
[South Foreland Lighthouse]
[A big ladybird, haven't seen one of those small ones for a long time.]
Deadlines and uni are over, so I went for a long-awaited walk. The journey was about 12-miles from Tottenham to Greenwich, where we mainly followed the River Lea to the Thames.
Route: Tottenham Hale Station > Warwick Reservoir > Walthamstow Marshes > along the aqueduct to the Middlesex Filter Beds > pass Hackney Marshes > through Hackney Wick, and branching off down the Grand Canal >pass Victoria Park > Mile End Park > Limehouse > Westferry > Mudchute Park > Greenwich (under river) Foot Tunnel > Cutty Sark.
The route winds through the more rural parts of London, where we got to appreciate the fresh air, open spaces, and English greenery that bloomed with flowers and overgrown with wild grass.
On Tuesday, we made a short visit to Dorich House which is currently hosting a Dora Gordine exhibition. Our mission was to come up with ideas for activities for young children, from this house of sculptures.
Running Boy With Balloon 1960
I found this little guy on the roof top patio, as if he was placed there to enjoy the wind, all alone except for the company of two white doves.
[The London Eye]
[Our location wasn't the best for fireworks.]
[Around 35,000+ people came to watch.]
[The West Ham goalie on one side, everyone else on the other.]
[Tiger and Princess]
[The Semi-Barbaric King]
[Parish Church of St. Mary's Stoke Newington]
[Miles of Cyclists]
[Away We Go!]
[The red tarmac road to Buckingham Palace.]
[Wild deer in Richmond Park.]
[Alone on the path.]
[Gotta have a signpost pic.]
[London's famous landmarks at night]
[London's Most Famous Hotel: Savoy, along the bank of the River Thames]
[Friend, her children, and I at the Victoria Memorial]
[South Foreland Lighthouse]
[A big ladybird, haven't seen one of those small ones for a long time.]
Deadlines and uni are over, so I went for a long-awaited walk. The journey was about 12-miles from Tottenham to Greenwich, where we mainly followed the River Lea to the Thames.
I found this little guy on the roof top patio, as if he was placed there to enjoy the wind, all alone except for the company of two white doves.
