Category Archives: food

city, family, food, friends, London, UK

On the Thames

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After two rather strange events at the end of last week – I joined a gym & bought runners (need to burn energy somehow while I’m off the bike) – I headed up to London for the weekend. Mostly it was to catch up with people I haven’t seen for some time. Since I last saw them two months ago just after my operation, Levi & Marki and Jeff have been to NYC, Czech & Turkey in different permutations. So with my Rome trip as well, there was a fair amount to discuss. Time was a bit limited as they were heading off to the O2 to see Kayne & Jay-Z (maybe I’m just boring, but I didn’t see the attraction). However, someone had decided that a good way to get to the O2 (which is well away from the centre of London) was to get a ThamesClipper (a pretty fast catamaran passenger ferry) down the river.

I jumped at the chance as while I’ve walked over, under & beside; driven over, under & beside; cycled over, under & beside; and ridden trains over, under & beside the Thames many times over the last four years I’ve previously never found reason to get on a boat on the river. It was good fun watching so many landmarks slide by from a different vantage point – I particularly liked going under Tower Bridge.

Meeting up with more concert-going friends in the O2 (I’d never been in before – it really is an incredibly large tent with all sorts of shops, restaurants, a squash competition & of course the arena), I joined them for a very late lunch before riding buses back to Sidcup. Trish picked me up & went out to watch the Bexley Village world go by as we savoured our Moroccan meal. I’m not sure acoustic Lily Allen & Lady Gaga is traditional Moroccan music, but whatever.

Sunday was spent driving north into Essex & visiting various family – the main point of the weekend away. A very pleasant cup of tea with my great-uncle (Grandad’s brother) as he regaled me with stories of his travels in WWII as a wireless operator. Still can’t picture Blackpool as a place to go & learn Morse code or why exactly Alan was shipped to Brazil, Durban, Bombay, Iraq, Cairo & Libya. But then war doesn’t make a lot of sense on much higher levels than that, so I’m really not too fussed. Always a delight to spend time with a very switched older generation (with a surprisingly good grasp on current news) – there’s some small hope that I won’t completely lose my marbles in fifty-odd years. Plus Alan was interested in my USA roadtrip (particularly Yellowstone) photos, so I got to show some of those.

A little bit back towards London, I spent the afternoon with Carly & her family. One of only two second-cousins on my maternal grandmother’s side (compared to the plenty on grandad’s side), it’s been sometime since I’ve seen them – the kids & house are now much bigger. As Carly & David honeymooned in Banff, there’s always plenty of Canada talk which is good fun; family also is a hot topic, as Carly’s brother, father & grandfather are all quite funny (/crazy) there is generally much amusement.

around home, food, friends, UK

Lazy weekends with sun

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After a really dry & mild winter, some bright spark decided that most of the lower half of England was in drought. Naturally, it has pretty much rained since then. I haven’t been too perturbed as I’m still unable to get outside riding, or even running, & the rain makes a nice change & things are growing. Strangely, the last couple of weekend have had most of the week’s sunshine allotment so I’ve had a spot of walking in various different places.

The May Bank Holiday weekend was mostly a recovery from the Rome trip & delayed-flight consequences – but I did pop over to Poole (a couple of towns west) to visit Mum’s cousin Pamela. After a good lunch, many cups of tea & much catching up of recent travels & family gossip I popped down to Sandbanks for a stroll along the beach. There’s some pretty big homes down there, but I wasn’t surprised as I keep hearing how Harry Redknapp lives there. Apparently, by area it has the fourth highest property value in the world. But I just wanted to walk along the beach in the sun catching up on podcasts, not buy a house – so that is what I did.

Looking across towards Swanage

This must be a popular place in summer – those curious English things, beach-huts, were two-storied

This weekend just ending has mostly been spent eating & walking. Friday night I was around at (workmate) Henry’s place – I was trying to see if The Castle was funny outside of Australia & NZ circles. I didn’t hold out much hope as Henry has never seen the Holy Grail or The Princess Bride & therefore doesn’t understand a large percentage of my babbling. The film is looking really dated now (it’s been sometime since I’ve watched it), but I’m pleased to report that it was apparently funny from an Englishman’s point of view. We then set about making a pavlova while Nicole diligently wrote reports – there are many reasons I’m not a teacher, & taking work home is one of them.

A Full English (breakfast) Saturday morning necessitated a big walk along the Barton-on-Sea cliffs to Milford & then finding a route back home inland on the footpaths that dot the countryside, but don’t necessarily go in a straight line.

Across the Solent to the Isle of Wight

First barbecue of the summer at another workmate’s house back over on the side of the Forest where I live & we all work. It was just warm enough to spend most of the evening outside in a T-shirt (although I drew the line at shorts) eating much meat (the NZ lamb steaks were pretty good, it must be said). We retreated inside to devour the pavlova (the pavlova is only getting so much mention as it was the first I’ve ever had to make) & play boardgames.

Nicole destroyed the symmetry by not liking kiwifruit

family, food, UK, vehicles

Christmas-like Easter

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A four day weekend was once again too much to stay at home & read & watch Spooks with my arm in a sling, so a good excuse to get away. Tedious buses & trains took me to Somerset for Easter weekend – which was strangely much more similar to Christmas than I am used to. It’s not Easter Sunday as it is in NZ, rather Easter Day. I’m not completely sure what is a normal Easter at home – but I wasn’t familiar with sitting around eating copious amounts of food, drinking well, fruit cakes, masses of cheese & biscuits and receiving cards & presents. I approve of little-Christmas – especially as all the exercise I could manage was walking to town & down the beach.

Gary was Stationmaster for the afternoon at the local miniature railway, so I escaped into the sun to watch for a few hours. There were plenty of little steam engines chugging around the 3.5″/5″ double-gauge track carrying a surprising number of children and parents/grandparents around. That smell of steam and partially combusted coal is still good on such a small scale. I managed to get a couple of loops of the recently extended track – but of course all I wanted to do was tinker with the little levers, fill coal boxes & water tenders. Alas. Anyway, that was different experience & I got to hear some proper West-Country accents (most of the people I know in the area are imports) – where you don’t have to have a eye-patch & a wooden leg for it to be acceptable to say yarrrr.

food, friends, UK

Reading escape

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Life post-operation has settled into a routine of coping with one usable arm – kind workmates give me lifts to & from work, not being allowed in the plant at work, shopping done online, groceries turning up, eating a variety of pre-prepared meals (which aren’t quite as bad as I expected), reading a lot of books & watching many series of Spooks. This isn’t too bad, the worst thing being that the weather has been exceptionally good (& unseasonal) lately – many afternoons spent outside in the sun eating lunch at work or reading at home after work with temperatures the high-teen or low-twenties. But one weekend of that was enough – there’s only so much walking around in the sun that one can do without getting itchy feet.

So it was up the line to Reading last weekend (only fifty minutes on the train) to finally see Anna & Luke (Anna being one of my sister’s best friends & the sister of one of my best friends). They’ve been over in these parts for about a year now & like most Kiwis over here, have many travel stories to share. It was great to see some faces from back home – including one I suppose I’ve known for over twenty years now, there’s a sobering thought. With my slight disability, there wasn’t much planned – but I was more than to happy to wander around a charming (big) town, up & down the Kennet & Thames rivers and eat ourselves silly.

Saturday was a little cloudier & cooler than recently, but coffee/hot chocolate in a coffee house dating back over five-hundred years on the nice big pedestrianised main thoroughfare warmed one somewhat. Luke & Anna have only just moved in to a new loft flat on a nice Georgian square. The architecture isn’t quite as regular I’d usually expect from that period, but it is charming all the same. The nice big lawn & garden right out their front door is quite a bonus. My left-handed attempt at using the camera on my phone is up to its usual standard, oops.

After dumping my bag, I was treated to Anna & Luke’s walking tour of the area. For the transport historian, the Great Western Railway and Avon & Kennet Canal were of note. After strolling past the prison, a ruined abbey & Forbury Gardens – home of the Maiwand Lion, which it turns out that the sculptor of didn’t kill himself over getting the gait or feet wrong – we popped in to the museum & got a brief history of the city from an amusingly dated video. Reading grew to prominence trading the three B’s – beer (Simmons), bulbs (mail order seeds) & biscuits (the home of Huntley & Palmers). More wandering took us to a great & large lunch beside the Kennet – the sticky toffee was incredible & apparently the brownie wasn’t too bad either.

After chilling back home for a while & remembering how to play Yahtzee, we were keen to head out to the cute village of Twyford – but still feeling full from lunch, headed out for another walk. This time we went further down the Thames & then cut over to Palmer Park (land donated by the biscuit family). Eventually we were in the car for the only trip that weekend & heading towards the Gaylord. This tandoori house was highly recommend by someone to Anna & as well as providing fantastic food & some interesting, almost dictatorial, service the name was the source of much amusement well into the next day. This lack of biking must be reducing my appetite – the amount I was able to take home with me was shameful. More great picture taking on my behalf, this one’s for you Adele.

Sleeping well considering the proximity of the Royal Berkshire Hospital & its ambulances, it was a slow start to a very sunny Sunday. When we did eventually head out for brunch, we found ourselves cut off from the centre of town by the Reading Half-Marathon. Luke was wishing he was out there, but couldn’t really do much about that as we waited for thousands of runners to thin out just so we get across the street without being trampled. My reward was Eggs Benedict – which I haven’t had in ages, yum. With more pottering around town in the sun, when Anna & Luke started itching to do something beyond my current capabilities, that is running – actually, I can’t/won’t/don’t run at the best of times – I left them to it & started my little trek back home. Turned out to be a bit more of it as I had to walk to West Reading station due to engineering work – I saw first hand why it was good Luke & Anna had moved from that area. A delightful weekend with good friends & a lot of outstanding food.

OK, this is from more gloomy Saturday