A last look at the streets of London

It's unbelievable that xmas is almost upon us!  Where did 2010 go to?

For us it'll be a very different festive period to last year when we celebrated our second wedding on the beach at Wainui, and had lots of family and friends around.  This year I'm working from 0700 to 1500hrs on xmas day and then again Boxing Day night - the things you do for money aye?

The week after xmas we have our house rented out to people working at 'Rhythm and Vines', the hugely popular three day New Year outdoor concert being held for the eighth year running here in Gisborne, increasing the population of Gisborne by around 20,000 for a few days.  So from 28 December to 2 January, Barry and I will be camping with some friends about half an hour up the coast from town, yards away from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - another way of trying to make some money back and not such a great hardship, apart from the basic toilet facilities but we've coped with worse than that!

Barry passed his 'Bar Manager's' course last week, and is working part time for 'Wright's Wines' helping with their wine tasting and sales (he has a little experience in the alcohol field I think!).

Anyway, that's an update from Gisborne, now onto the next blog about our last day looking around the Big Smoke ...

Monday 27 September

After a busy weekend we didn't manage to get organised to venture out onto the streets of London until around midday.  The tube was back to normal so we bought another day ticket and set off for Leicester Square to buy tickets for a show tonight.  Seeing as we're off to Paris tomorrow, the obvious choice was Les Miserables, celebrating it's 25th anniversary in 2010.

Tom had considered taking the train to Brighton today as it's only an hour and a half away by train, but the weather forecast was gloomy so it wasn't appealing - it's not a lot of fun wandering around a seaside town alone in the rain.

Looking towards the end of the Paddington Arm - the strange looking barge (?) on the left is an office of some kind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We caught the tube from Paddington to Leicester Square for show tickets

After purchasing the show tickets, we walked to Trafalgar Square to look around, then caught the tube to St Pancras to collect our pre-booked tickets for our morning ride on the Eurostar to Paris - we wanted to check out where to go so we didn't have any hold ups (well I did, Barry would be quite happy leaving it all to the last minute as usual!). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick look around the National Portrait Gallery, then Trafalgar Square to Euston Tube Station to get to St Pancreas Station to collect our rail tickets for tomorrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St Pancreas sits at two levels with local trains below and Eurostar above

'Welcome to the machine' !

More walking followed, crossing London Bridge then left towards St Pauls, then back over the river on Millenium Bridge to South Bank.  We had a cursory look inside the entrance to The Tate Modern, then a stroll past the London Eye - sadly by the time we got there it was way too late to go on (or we'd have missed the show!) - I've been on the eye some years ago when I lived in London, and the boys weren't too bothered surprisingly as it's a fabulous view from the top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very claustrophobic feeling with all the tall buildings around - much rather be on an isolated country canal 

 Trains and boats - no plane but no doubt there'll be one along in a minute!

 No narrowboats to be seen dodging the big boats today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 More oppressive structures packed in at every turn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple fixtures and fittings certainly look grander in London!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The modern converges with the old ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... which are both still better than the era (or should it be error?) in-between

I think St Paul's Cathedral will be more likely to stand the test of time!

  Very impressive, especially with the open parkland surroundings 

 We headed back across the Thames, over the Millennium Bridge, looking back to Tower Bridge

The Millennium pedestrian bridge with St Paul's Cathedral dominating the skyline behind

The imposing 'Tate Modern' Gallery - an ex power station building ...

  ... and an artistic portrait that could hang in 'The Tate'

Plenty of wall space to hang some pictures - but where are they?

It's art Jim but not as we know it - not as we know it!

Chilling by the river - makes you want to go to Paris maybe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short rest, but time was marching on, so we had to keep moving

On yer bike - a different view of The London Eye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Some more unique angles on a few of London's top attractions

Westminster and the HoWestminster and the Houses of Parliament looking magnificent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dave and Nick's place

We headed back to Leicester Square to eat dinner and get to the theatre on time, stopping at a pub that looked as though it served wholesome British tucker but sadly didn't live up to it's expectations!  If only I'd remembered that China Town was close by, we could've gone there and ate some tasty food - ah well, life's full of regrets and the phrase 'I wish I'd...' or "I wish I hadn't ...", and just occasionally we get it right!

Les Miserables was a fabulous experience, and a great one for Tom and Barry's first taste of a musical with the most incredible voices - well worth the expense.  I had to listen intently to all the words of the songs as I only vaguely knew the story and was too tight to buy a programme, lol!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dinner and a pint before the theatre - doesn't get much better than this (shame the food wasn't up to much though)! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And a walk around China Town after the show 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The illuminated Piccadilly Circus 

 The gloomy backstreets of Chinatown - just like a movie set 

We returned to the boat after midnight, straight to bed ready for our overseas trip tomorrow and my 51st birthday!

 Have we covered all the underground routes yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It may be under the ground, but it's not drab

It was still wet on return to Paddington with the now familiar cobblestone trek to the boat

The family portrait on the roof of Northern Pride - on our English wedding anniversary!

Yesterday we celebrated Barry's 55th birthday - it'll be a slippery slope now towards his 60th, lol!  Timely then for us to be considering where we wish to meander along to our retirement years; maybe New Zealand, but possibly England.  The conversations currently are around saving to return to UK in about two and a half years time, to buy another boat and live and work in some capacity from it.  But that seems a long way away, so in the meantime, we're having fun in Gisborne and making some time to publish more blogs from 2010 ...

Sunday 26 September

I was rudely awoken by Barry at 0645hrs, after a restless night trying not to disturb Lisa sleeping beside me.  Sadly Kim's grandma died in the early hours and she'd been called by her father to give her the sad news.  Barry waited a while, having been there to support Kim as he was sleeping on the floor next to her bed, then gently woke me up saying "Kim's nana has died"  - I jumped up in horror because I thought he said "Kim's nearly died"!  Grace had been poorly for a few years, but it's still a shock when you lose someone dear.  So Kim was making plans to return home that morning, ready to travel up to the midlands to see her dad and family.

It took a while to get the remainder of the sleeping beauties up, especially on a cold morning with no heating.  No-one had much sleep, but we wanted to make the most of us all being together and get a family portrait on the roof of the boat, even if we were all a little worse for wear!

Lisa, Sandra, Kim, Barry, Tom & Jamie

The photo was taken with Barry's camera on a timer, perched on Tom's tripod, with the wind blowing a gale and the boat moving - it's amazing we got anything!  But we're tenacious people, and eventually got a shot that we were happy to gaze at affectionately in years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The oldies and the youngsters (note the NZ boat in the background)!

Kim left for Brighton after a quick breakfast, bless her.  The rest of us managed to sort ourselves out and catch a bus to Camden - the London Underground was doing its usual work on the lines at the weekend so there was hardly any service.

Camden is such an amazingly vibrant and colourful place, with an array of 'stuff' to tempt your wallet into buying things you never knew existed never mind ever 'needed'.  The lock market that we passed on Northern Pride a couple of days previously was just a smidgen of the place, there's a long road with outrageous shop fronts and then more markets to wander around - as well as a few eccentric people too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camden Market and the shop frontages all seem to want to outdo each other but in reality they all end up looking pretty similar ... ... though with some very elaborate props

The view as seen by gongoozlers on the bridge at Camden Lock

 Making the most of any 'canvas' available - this the railway bridge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Beauty and the beast?

Time to eat lunch, but getting anyone to make a decision wasn't easy - far too much choice!

They'll try and tempt you with a free sample, then hope to coerce you in to buy 

 Even a horse hospital - hopefully no equine flesh was for sale on the food stands!

 

 

Decisions made eventually; lunch stop for two of the three of the family living in England ...

 

 

 

 

 

... and the three New Zealand residents temporarily in the British Isles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lovely Lisa all wrapped up, and a statue holds up well

I'm sure it's not all cr*p - there must be some necessities in there somewhere? Something useful for on a narrowboat maybe?  But we didn't discover 'just what we needed' thankfully!

The 'Verve' of London - we have a ''Verve' cafe in Gisborne - owned by Barry's brother Ray 

 A buzzing, bustling place

After we'd seen all we could handle of Camden, Lisa had arranged to meet some friends for a Sunday roast at 'The Hawley Arms'  - apparently where the singer and exhibitionist Amy Winehouse regularly drinks and 'performs' (not necessarily in an entertainment/singing capacity!).  We all went with her and had a drink before saying our farewells to her ...

Sarah, Lisa and Liz and their spangly scarves - part of a beautiful group of friends from Sutton Coldfield for around 23 years 

Tom, Jamie, Barry and I then had a bit of a mooch around Camden Lock Market, where we came upon a stall with piranha like fishes eating away at people's feet ...

 

 

 

For a few pounds you could have these flesh eating fish nibble your dry feet skin away - tempting to try, but we resisted ... 

 

 

 

 

 

Camden Lock Market - not quite so colourful and exciting in the rainy British weather - so different to our English wedding day on 26 September 2009!

Late in the afternoon, Jamie caught a bus back to Wembley and we jumped on one heading to Paddington.  After managing to get some diesel we all fell exhausted into bed around 2300hrs.

 

 

a bus trip back to Paddington to the boat ... 

 

 

 

 

 

... and the relief of the timely arrival of P.J.Wakham's friendly diesel and pumpout boat 

 

 

 

 

 

 Not a lot of living space up at the front

 

This little fellow had fun scampering all over the boat watching the proceedings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom has less than five days left in England, with lots to pack in during that time - including a trip on the Eurostar to Paris on my 51st birthday on 28 September.  I suspect Barry and Tom may find a few things there worth photographing too  ...