This is the End My Friends... This is the End

Or is it?

This is my last UK post but I plan to publish one more when I'm back in New Zealand, with selected photos of the trip!

During the last few days I had lunch with my old friends at the BMA and today Caroline and I have our final lunch together then we say goodbye (for now anyway). My flight isn't until 8.00pm tonight but I need to check in around 5.00pm which means catching a cab to Paddington and from there the Heathrow Express.

What a journey this has been! Four and a half weeks has made it seem as if I live here. The time has passed by not too fast, not too slow and it has been a very important visit for me in many ways.

I am ready to come back to New Zealand and be with Paul, Stan the mog and my family and friends. The weather has just started turning chilly today so I guess I am leaving at the right time.

Goodbye for now England; it's been fantastic. x

Cream Teas I Have Known

I've managed to find places serving scones with jam and clotted cream all over the place but the top picks are (and obviously too):

1. The Randolph, Oxford.

2. The Landmark Hotel, Marylebone London.

3. Harrods, Knightsbridge London.


I have decided to resurrect the tradition of 'high tea' back in New Zealand and plan to seek out hotels and cafes in Auckland that serve a good cream tea!

Jody's new mantra:

Cream teas are a vegetable. Cream teas are a vegetable...

Internet Cafes I Have Known

Here they are, complete with ratings!

Internet Cafe, Stokes Croft Bristol

Friendly guy and good lighting. Just a ten minute walk from the hotel and as it turns out, only a few metres from one of my old workplaces in Bristol! Good value at £1 an hour.


Backpackers Cafe, Glastonbury

Nasty seating and it times you (and charges you) by the minute! One small issue: there are delays of several seconds at the end of each sentence, adding on time to my bill! High cost at £2.50 per half hour and no USB or PS/2 ports.


Falafel Cafe, Glastonbury

Didn't get far with this. The ancient PC was running Linux and I crashed it as soon as I connected my USB drive (USB ports at the back of the CPU - hard to reach).


Cafe Galatea, Glastonbury

Cafe Galatea and I have a long and bloody history. The first day I was ever in Glastonbury in '95, just before I went up the Tor for the first time, I had some dinner here. It was a huge portion which I didn't finish and the owner got really upset with me and kept interogating me as to why I didn't finish the meal. Fast forward to '06 and I try to use their PC and get the same negative and dour vibe I used to get. Some things never change!


Anna and Simon's PC, Hillside Glastonbury

Anna kindly let me use her PC and let me burn my photos to CD. Charming hosts and no charges! :)


Internet Cafe, Baker Street London

I'm typing this at this cafe right now. Cheap service but home to the rudest human beings on the planet. I've only had grunts so far but hey - it's the PC I need!

Talking Toilets I Have Known

Yes, I have another one to report to you!

This one is on Regent Street at the Oxford Circus end. It costs 50p to get in and this one not only warns you of dire consequences should you overstay your welcome but it also has a digital clock timer on the wall, counting down as you um...er... do your thing!

As a seasoned user of speaking toilets, I knew what was expected of me so I didn't waste any time (who really wants to hang around in a public toilet for too long anyway?). I pressed the button to unlock the door and you guessed it, a woman's voice boomed at full volume as I stepped onto the street: 'Please leave the facility immediately!'.

I was just grateful that this was a Sunday morning and not rush hour on a Friday night!

Opera, Ballet and More Cream Teas (I'm Not Addicted)

Friday 27 - Sunday 29 October

This weekend has produced some memories I'll treasure.

Friday night, Caroline and I went to dinner then to La Boheme at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. I'd never been there so it was great to finally see it. The opera was exquisite and the venue is amazing. At the interval, we had icecream (which I also had at Spamalot) and I think that's a very civilised thing to serve at this type of function. Unfortunately for Caroline, hers reacted badly with her and she was unwell throughout the night when she got home...

Saturday we met up and went to an old haunt of ours: the Victoria & Albert Museum (V & A). Before Caroline arrived, I spent some time at the nearby Science Museum which was awesome. I just had time to check out the lower floors but it was great to see things like working examples of a Watt steam engine and 'artifacts' (an Apple II PC from 1976, an early video recorder from 1979 bigger than a TV etc) from the 20th century.

The V & A is an amazing place which houses an incredible collection of things. We loved the stained glass windows, the glass and the fashion displays. There was a 60s fashion exhibition on which again made me think of my Mum who lived in London 1961 - 1965 and who wore Mary Quant outfits!

We had lunch (then afternoon tea) at the V & A cafe then took off for the apartment to change and freshen up. We then went off to dinner in the West End then back to the Royal Opera House for opening night of the Royal Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty! Now I loved this. Such beauty and grace and the costumes were gorgeous. Caroline didn't partake of the icecream this time but I did! Thanks to all the walking I've done for the past month, my weight is about the same as it was when I left New Zealand, but my poor tootsies and ankles resemble those of the Elephant Woman (Paul doesn't know it yet, but he will be my slave for a couple of weeks when I return and part of his duties will be foot massages).

Caroline had to dash to catch the late train home but I wandered around Covent Garden for a while, just taking in the sights and sounds. A warning though: it's tough negotiating cobblestoned streets in your high heels!

Sunday, Caroline and I met up again and headed off to the Tate Modern gallery via the Millennium Bridge. Now these appeared since I left in 1996 so I was keen to see them. The Tate Modern is an amazing space but I'll admit I'm more of a classic art fan than a modern art fan. A lot of the works were macabre and some were downlight twisted but I tried to keep an open mind.

One painting had just been displayed the week of our visit and was getting a lot of attention and attracting controversy. It's a portrait of Queen Elizabeth but this is one she never posed for. It's almost like a cartoon or carichature of an old woman (like the 'pepperpots' Monty Python used to portray). Anyway, she's got her teeth out and her bottom lip is placed over her top one and she's all in lolly pink! I just cracked up seeing it. She's got such old lady attitude, like she's saying 'Get stuffed the lot of you!'. Just fab! Unfortuately there was no postcard with the print because I thought it would be a great thing to have pinned up in my cubicle at work (next to my snow dome of Cologne Cathedral Paul got me and the radio shaped like a lemon). Those who know me know I'm not insane...

Then we walked along the South Bank to Waterloo Station and went - yep, you guessed it - to have a CREAM TEA! Heh heh heh heh....

But this was not just any old cream tea my friends. This was at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone (around the corner from my apartment). It's real posh with shiny things and shiny people everywhere and a bloke in a top hat opens the door for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow! Ya-boo! Boy!

I behaved like a lady. Promise.

Our tea was served on a three-tiered plate with little sammies (yes, there were cucumber ones) and little cakey delights and of course scones, jam and clotted cream. We stretched this out for over an hour and in such sumptuous surroundings, thought ourselves totally spoiled and utterly fabulous.

No need for dinner this evening!

Spam, Spam. Spam, Spam...

Monday 23 October

I spent the day in or around Covent Garden today just looking at the markets, doing a bit of shopping and taking in the atmosphere.

I got back to the apartment, had a shower and changed then headed out for an early dinner before heading up to the West End to see Monty Python's Spamalot - the musical! This was my first West End show. They've never really interested me but Spamalot is a perfect fusion of Python and the holy grail legends!

Now, I've been a Monty Python fan since my early teens and I was so happy that a show of theirs was on during my time in London. And I got to see Tim Curry (mmmmm..... Tim....).

Ahem. Anyway, the show was fab! All singing and dancing and amazing Pythonesque animations. The characters were copied from the film and the show must have lured out all the Python fans from hiding (like me) as we all cheered at the start of famous scenes from the film like the French taunters, the Black Knight and the killer bunny (a cheap and nasty hand puppet with fangs and you saw the guy with his hand up the puppet because the scenery falls down!). It was just fantastic. I was buzzing after the show so had a coffee and txt'ed a bunch of people saying how I was in the West End... 'just having a coffee after the show don't you know..'.



Tuesday 24 October

Today I went to the Museum of London and the National Portrait Gallery. This took the whole day as there was so much to see.

The Museum of London was awesome. You walk in and start at prehistoric London then walk around through Roman occupation, Saxon invasion, Norman conquests and all the various stages in England's history and how this affected London. It is a hands-on museum like Te Papa and you get to touch flintstones and things. I recommend it to others as it's not listed as a highlight in some guidebooks (I found out about it by chance).

Then off to the National Portrait Gallery which was great. Very well set out and spacious. There was an exhibition of Beatles photos including original record sleeve photos like Abbey Road! Caroline and I went to dinner in the West End that night.


Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 October

These days I took it easier. I wandered through Carnaby Street, thinking of my Mum who lived in London 1961 to 1965 and was very chic (why didn't you keep those Mary Quant clothes, Mummy?!). I browsed through a vintage clothing store and wondered if anything in there belonged to Mum!

I bought presents for various people in Carnaby Street as it's crammed full of funky and quirky stores. I also spent some time in Fortnum & Mason which is a sumptuous department store but with a lower profile than Harvey Nichols and Harrods so was far less crowded. I got permission to take some photos of the lovely ornate architecture and their Christmas shop.

I went to dinner with Caroline and her niece Sian who I last saw when she was fourteen (she's now all grown up at 24). We had a great time and Sian is lovely.

Friday I'll be experiencing Portobello Road then in the evening, Caroline are seeing La Boheme at Covent Garden!

Friends Old and New

Thursday 19 October

Today I went to the British Medical Association (BMA) where I worked for all of my time in London in the nineties. It was just lovely to see some of the people I'd worked with and I really enjoyed being there.

Caroline had taken the afternoon off as we were to have lunch in the City with Clive who is a consultant architect to the BMA Estates department. Clive, Caroline, myself, Jo and John (Jo and John couldn't make it sadly) used to have lunch together frequently. It was lovely to see Clive again and we fell into the old banter easily!

Caroline and I went and had a coffee to round off the afternoon.


Friday 20 October

I'd planned to go to Portobello Road but it was pouring when I got to Notting Hill Gate so I turned around and went back to the apartment and changed (it was fine when I went out!). The single redeeming feature of the tube is that you are more or less greeted by a train within a minute or two of stepping onto the platform. Sure beats waiting thirty minutes or more for a train in Auckland!

I ended up covering a lot of ground on a day that turned out to be very warm and sunny. First, back to the National Gallery to finish my rounds. Then to St Martin-in-the-Fields (gorgeous) and to the Crypt cafe for a lunch of roasted veges and gravy for £2! Thanks to Caroline for the tip about this place as it's very expensive to eat in London. If you convert the currency to NZ$ it breaks your heart...

Then I walked down Whitehall and went into Westminster Abbey. It was jam-packed with people unfortunately but it was amazing to see the tombs of people like Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.

I walked around Whitehall a bit longer then when I got back to the apartment I noticed the capillaries in my ankles had burst and I sported bright red marks on both legs! So I am becoming increasingly decrepit I'm afraid. Think of me when I buy my first pair of support hose thirty years earlier than I'd planned to...

I also need to go to an Osteopath as my back is not good. The fall must have done more damage that I thought and it's affecting me in all sorts of imaginative ways.


Saturday 21 October

Caroline and I met at Victoria station to catch the 'Oxford Tube' bus service to Oxford for the day! £14 return which is really good value and we sat on the top of the double-decker. No arguing about that: couple of kids that we are, we scrambled up those stairs and sussed out the seats with the most window for a good view. Just over a hour later, we were in Oxford.

We were hoping to catch a tour of the city centre and luckily, about 45 minutes after we arrived the Inspector Morse Tour was due to start. Neither Caroline or I are Morse fanatics but we know the series and we thought it would be a great way to see some of the sights and be entertained at the same time by a proper guilded guide with a badge and everything. My friend Paul Grey will be so envious as he's a big Morse fan.

So we had a yummy ciabatta sandwich at a local Italian restaurant then we got back to the Oxford Information Centre to meet the tour party. We got a very enthusiastic slightly eccentric (in that lovely English way) lady complete with perm, big glasses, long macintosh coat and brolly - and the proper badge and everything.

We went along at quite a pace but it was a good tour and we saw many wonderful things. Our guide was authorised to take us into various Colleges including Exeter (gorgeous, dark, gothic stained glass I wasn't allowed to photograph) and Merton where a choir and small orchestra were rehearsing. The music filled the place and it was warm inside and I think we all wanted to stay longer but the lady was motioning us with the brolly...

The guide had a habit of stopping us outside and talking about some murder victim in some episode of Morse which was fine until the weather turned cold very quickly and it rained. My sandal-clad tootsies (the only comfy shoes I could wear that day due to my poor ankles) were wet but the rain was soothing and cooling. At one point it started to sleet. I turned to the now hooded Caroline to tell her and she said I was clearly barking mad (well, she didn't actually say that but later she confessed she didn't believe me!). It was sleet but it cleared and soon the sun came out again.

When the tour was over, Caroline and I went and had coffee and thawed out (Thaw - get it? John Thaw... Morse...? I crack myself up!) and then it was time to meet up with Clive's PA Terri and her friend Sally at the the Randolph Hotel for you guessed it: a cream tea!

Now this was no ordinary cream tea my friends. This was the best one yet. Terri had booked us a table for 5.00pm and we all sat down in the sumptuous tea room and the pots of tea arrived followed by two layered silver plates of scones and little pastries and cakes as well as jam and clotted cream. Terri and Sally are both fantastic and we all got on a treat and felt like ladies sitting there as the sun set outside, sipping our tea and discussing the merits of clotted cream.

What a lovely way to spend an hour and a half!

Then it was time to head off to the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building for the Mozart sonatas recital by pianist Melvyn Tan which was starting at 8.00pm. We walked through the city at night and it is just stunning all lit up.

The concert was magnificent. Superb. Melvyn Tan was amazing and the music beautiful. Sometimes I closed my eyes but mostly I was watching the incredible expressions on his face as he played and I thought about how good my life is: that I am so lucky to be in such lovely company in Oxford listening to this beautiful man playing. Plus I have Paul, Stan the ginger moggy, friends and family, great clients and colleagues and work I adore waiting for me in New Zealand.

Caroline and I said our goodbyes to Sally and Terri (I'll miss them! Isn't it great how you can form friendships with some people in a matter of hours? They've promised to think of me the next time they take tea at the Randolph) then made our way back to London on the Oxford Tube. I was in bed just before midnight and I had a wonderful day and memories I'll treasure.

Coffee, Spam and Cream Tea at Harrods

Monday 16 October

Caroline and I met for dinner tonight and it's been ten years since we last saw one another. She is totally ageless and I must ask her secret to looking so young. Ten years melted away over a yummy dinner and we chatted like we'd never been apart and planned our time together.


Wednesday 18 October

People who know me know I like a good coffee. I was worried I wouldn't find anywhere good in London as it was hardly cafe culture ten years ago. Well I've had no problems and have a great little local cafe (Caffe Saporito) where I get my morning latte before heading off on my daily adventures. It's about two minutes' walk from the apartment.

Today I headed for the National Gallery as it was always a favourite when I lived in London. Unfortunately I chose the wrong day as there was a warder strike so only part of the gallery was open. I did see, and fall in love with, a painting by George Stubbs called Whistlejacket which was acquired in 1997 so this was the first time I'd seen it. Look it up on the net as it's magnificent - a life-sized painting of a race horse.

There wasn't much more I could see so I decided to come back another day and instead visit some London institutions: Harvey Nichols and Harrods!

I wandered through the designer floors of Harvey Nicks, feeling only slightly shabby. I then went up to the Food Hall and bought some treats (for Paul of course).

Down the road in Knightsbridge is Harrods and of course I wandered around with the throngs of tourists in awe of the magnitude of the place. If there was ever a place dedicated to the gods of decadence and desire, this is it. I spent the grand sum of £3.75 on some Christmas bikkies (for Paul of course). I did spend a bit of time looking at the stained glass ceilings and the lovely architecture.

There's a ticket office at Harrods so I ended up booking my ticket to Spamalot there. This is a new musical which rips off the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and is penned by Eric Idle, one of the Python team, and I'm going on Monday night. I told my friend Heather before I left that I'd be seeing it and that Tim Curry was playing King Arthur and she was very envious! Tim... mmmmm.... I know Mum will also be impressed as we both love watching him in The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

After booking my ticket I had a cream tea (number seven or eight since I arrived in England... I lose count). It was expensive but pleasant.

London Changes

Essentially, the place is exactly as I left it back in '96 but there are some social changes which I will try to explain...


Communication

In 1996, cellphones were an emerging popular technology. Like in NZ at the time, they were brick-like and even more expensive to own than nowadays. If you had one, you were special. Well, like in NZ they are everywhere and many ears are pressed to them on the streets (and txting while walking is also common, dammit). It's something that was missing from the landscape ten years ago. No reception in the tube though.


Clothes

Most major women's clothing chains cut their pants and jeans long. Ten years ago there were only a few doing this. Trinny and Susannah's much-suggested retailer Zara is great. I've had a look already and bought a few things. One pair of pants I bought I'll have to have taken up. The clothes are smart and funky and very affordable (everything is expensive here).

The other thing I notice is that I don't feel like a country hick here. My first adventure on Oxford Street in 1994 a couple of weeks after arriving saw me hide in a shop as I was so embarrassed about my clothes. It was the nineties but back then, NZ fashion was still very much in the eighties. Now I feel I blend in well apart from my anti-social behaviour and facial ticks.

Mind the Gap

The voice announcing 'Mind the gap' in the tube is now female and she doesn't say it like that anymore. It's less concise: 'Please mind the gap as you...' etc.


Terrorism

Still threatens, but now it's not the IRA we all fear on every bus and tube...

Southport and Liverpewl - Tarrah love!

Friday 13 - Monday 16 October

I met John and spent Saturday with him. Then I spent Sunday alone in Liverpool which is about 30 minutes by train from Southport. It was nice but I hardly had time to get a good look around.

I'm posting this from my local internet cafe in London so I am back here. Meeting Caroline for dinner tonight. Tomorrow I can finally start to explore London.

Glastonbury to London

Thursday 12 October

Today I spent the morning in Glastonbury town centre and went into a shop called Venus. There I met Lisa and George who were very mystical and friendly - great to talk to. I told them of my return here and the adventures I've had this time around.

I went out onto the High Street and a man from one of the bookshops recognised me and gave me a warm and friendly smile. Great to have some friendliness here on my last day to counter the negative vibes from shopkeepers over the past week!

I had lunch at a cafe staffed by intellectually handicapped people and got awesome service.

Then it was time to leave and Anna kindly drove me to Castle Cary, the nearest town with a railway station. It was lovely to spend some more time with her before leaving Somerset.

Before we left, I had a great laugh with Anna and her friend about the talking toilet in St John's carpark in Glastonbury. I know toilets are becoming a feature of this blog but I feel I should share this. I told them that when I visited these toilets, just as you sit down a polite lady comes over the loudspeaker and booms 'This facility is monitored by a security system and you may only remain in the facility for a limited time. You will be told when to leave'. Then you get some stirring classical music to assist you.

Now, I didn't stay long enough to see what would happen if I ignored the warnings. I wondered if the polite lady would slowly raise her voice, get agitated then eventually start making threats. Anna, her friend and I mused about what would happen if all the warnings were ignored. Would the seat be ejected through the roof? Would a trap door open? Worse - would the toilet door open for all to see? Anna's friend thought that your photo would get taken but we then all wondered, where would it be published? Anna was going to ask her elder son Frankie to wait around in the gents and find out! If she lets me know what happened, I'll post it on the blog as a special posting!

The train trip to London from Castle Cary was stressful. My bag was heavy, my back hurt and there was nowhere to put my bag when I boarded the train. One of the staff eventually let me store it by the door. I was on edge the whole time and of course, I had to get up and move the luggage at every stop! When I got to Paddington, luckily a porter saw me waddling along and lagging behind everyone. He ported my luggage to the taxi rank and I tipped him generously. The only gentleman I met all day. I know it's his job but I really appreciated his help and so did my back and bum!

I got to the apartment in Marylebone quickly and there met Jean my host for the next two weeks and her dog Charlie. Jean's nice (a tad eccentric as is Charlie) but friendly. I settled in quickly then went to search for some food as it was about 6pm by this stage. I bought a sandwich and I've also managed to find a cordial here that is not artificially sweetened which I mix with bottled water to try to replicate Mi Zone.

I got an early night as I had another train journey the next day - this time to Southport to meet John.