Roger & Sally's Travel Blog & More

London – December 2018

It was beginning to look remarkably like Xmas with all the lights having been switched on down the main streets and shopping areas. The Winter Wonder Land in Hyde park and the South Bank Xmas Market were in full swing and the shops were bustling with people eager to get those pressies in the bag. Folk rave about the Xmas Markets in Germany, Holland etc but London has a lot to offer that rivals this in IMHO.

It was the 1st December so off we went to get a twee. With high ceilings and full height window in the flat we were going large!

There was nothing twee about the tree we struggled to get up the stairs and into the flat but it filled the space perfectly 🙂

Arty Sal had made some brilliant decorations and the finished tree looked magnificent all decked out and lights switched on. Christmas had officially started.

The plan was to go to Cornwall to spend Xmas with my mum so we didn’t need to worry about baking etc and could spend time enjoying what London had to offer.

First it was New Bond Street with all its finery and then, drum role, it was the grand Xmas Light ‘switch on’ at the Warwick Castle, our Local. The official duty is the privilege of the ‘Local of the Year’ who this year was Pete, or Irish Pete as everyone knows him. It was a great evening and all the locals turned out to celebrate the start of Xmas.

Xmas light – ‘ON’ – at the Warwick Castle

We strolled down to the Winter Wonder Land in Hyde Park one evening. It was mid week and absolutely packed with revellers in the Beer Keller tents with Umpa bands adding to the Christmas spirit. The site is enormous, the rides huge and there are plenty of pit stop bars. Two that particularly grabbed our interest were the ’roundabout bar’ – sit and watch the world go by (about every 3-4 mins) – and the Tipi bar with its brilliant fire pits inside the tent and some great music playing. Winter Wonder Land is well worth visiting.

We had an excursion down to Eel Pie Island, an island in the middle of the Thames at Twickenham. We spotted in the Time Out Magazine that it opens up to the public twice a year, a weekend in December being one such occasion.

The Island is only accessible via boat or a foot bridge from the Twickenham bank of the Thames (near The Barmy Arms where many happy rugger bugger hours have been spent over the years). Eel Pie Island used to have a hotel where many famous names performed at the dance hall between 1957 and 1967. The island has a fascinating history; take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_Pie_Island for more detail.

Today, the island is mainly residential and home to a range of artists. It also has a rowing club and a boat yard – I had a lot of joy fumbling around that.

The open day exhibited much of their art and craft – really talented and imaginative people – and a small but perfectly formed Christmas Fair with mulled wine and much merriment. It’s a beautifully qwerty place and one for the ‘must visit’ list.

Once off the island there’s a very nice craft ale shop / bar on the Twickenham High Street; it would have been rude not to stop and have a couple of cans :-).

We’d also heard a lot about the Churchill Arms near Kensington so on the way back we stopped off to see what all the fuss was about. It’s famed for not only being a great Fullers boozer but also being the pub sporting the most Christmas decorations in London. Wow! you can see why. It is covered from head to toe with Christmas tree’s and a nice drop of London Pride beer to help savour the moment. Oh and a Thai restaurant at the back of the pub – heaven :-). I think we went back a few times …

Christmas parties were in full swing at work but also with friends and we had one very pleasant weekend weekend down near Broadstairs on the Kent coast with a bunch of friends. It was posh nosh fine dining at a culinary school and we stayed overnight at a hotel right on the coast.

We had a great evening and the following morning the skies were blue and the sea was like a millpond (when we arrived the previous evening it was shedding it down with rain and dark so we couldn’t see anything) so we decided to walk along the coast to Broadstairs Town & Harbour and then back along the beach (as the tide had gone out by then). The weekend overlapped with my birthday; what a lovely way to spend it.

….and back into London for some more Christmas lights before heading down to Cornwall for Christmas.

A day out in May 2020

For this post, and with the slight easing of lockdown restrictions, l’ve flashed forwards like a time machine from November 2018 to the present day (19th May 2020) to share some pseudo normality.

I took the decision to drive from our current location in Essex (more of which in later posts) up to Woodbridge to see my middle son Oli and then to see a good friend, Pat, to do some work on a boat. For the reassurance of anyone who dares to think otherwise, both encounters were strictly adhering to social distancing guidance 🙂

Firstly Oli and I had a smashing walk along the bank of the River Deben from Woodbridge to Kyson beach then up across Broom Heath and back into Woodbridge. Although i’ve taken these pics a thousand times its such beautiful river they deserve to be shared.

River Deben looking downstream from Woodbridge towards Waldringfield, Ramsholt, Bawdsey and on to Felixstowe

I then headed off to the boat yard where Pat and I have been renovating Kingfisher, our launch, in readiness to navigate the River Thames from its source to Southend, when, of course, restrictions allow.

We’ve had Kingfisher for quite a number of years and used her a fair bit on the Deben in the early days.

She is an 18ft canoe stern launch with a 4 horse inboard Bukh diesel engine.

She didn’t winter well a few years back and needed some serious TLC so we covered her up and started some renovation work.

This has been going on now for more years than I care to mention but she is coming together nicely.

I’ll give some more details on the renovations in future posts.

London – November 18

I couldn’t resist this picture of the London skyline taken one early November evening from the flat.

It looked like the Great Fire of London II had kicked off.

November of course means fireworks on Guy Fawkes night! errr… what day is it?

Hard to imagine that this little tinker tried to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Houses of Parliament with gun powder back in 1605. He was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered but actually fell from the scaffolding of the gallows and expired from breaking his neck… a lucky escape from errr being drawn and quartered!😏. Still, any excuse for a party so off we went to the Battersea Park display.

We had a lovely walk down to Battersea, stopping en route in a Chelsea pub to watch an England Rugby Autumn International.

We had a look around the power station development (impressive with all the cranes lit up) before strolling down to the park.

The fire was huge and the fireworks really stunning, but note to selves, take cash next time (we will be back) as the bars and food concessions are all cash only…. wonder why?😜

On actual firework night we walked up to the top of Primrose Hill to get a view of the fireworks across London. Sadly the weather wasn’t up to much and neither was the view. Nice walk though.

Now Christmas light switch on season was upon us and we headed firstly to Oxford Circus.

Expecting a pop or TV ‘star’ to turn on the lights it was disappointing that (due to the delayed opening of Cross Rail) they had reused the lights from 2017 and a random bloke leant out of an office window to turn the lights on – early. Hilarious!

And an elegantly decorated bus passed by…. ‘nough said about the lights LOL!

Tom Chaplin at the The London Paladium singing Queen

Tom Chaplin of Keane fame was recording a live concert celebrating Queens’ Music for Radio 2 at the London Paladium. Naturally we popped along.

It was the first time at The LP for us; what a beautiful theatre.

Tom and the band played two x 45min sets and although Freddie he is not, what a great voice.

The following Saturday it was down to Kent for a friend’s firework party.

On the Sunday we visited Gravesend and sought out a Remembrance Service.

Gravesend gets a lot of bad press but its definitely worth a visit with plenty of maritime and cultural history. Gravesend has a significant Sikh population and one of the largest Sikh Temples in the UK. It’s enormous and although we didn’t know it at the time, they welcome anyone in for food, prayer or simply solace at any time. Pocahontas died in the town after falling ill on a boat bound for the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has one of England’s oldest surviving markets that was chartered in 1268 and an 18th Century fort protecting the entrance to the Thames; both are worth visiting.

The following weekend we rented a cottage down Symonds Yat near Ross-on-Wye as I had been working down that way for a few days. Ginny and Chris (sister and brother-in-law) joined us for some walking and a bit of fun in the great little local pubs.

We had a really lovely and fun weekend culminating in a slow roast lamb Sunday dinner after our 6-7 mile walk along the Wye river bank and across the Welsh border to Monmouth. The birth place of Henry V is just a glimpse at some of the amazing history in Monmouth. It’s is a real ‘go back to’ place for us.

We had intended to walk back but the pub beckoned and so after a few pints and a bit of a laugh it was late so we got a taxi :-). As we walked back into the cottage from the taxi our noses were all twitching at the lovely smells from the slow roasted lamb. LOL one by one we realised that there weren’t actually any smells, it was all wishful imagination; we’d forgotten to turn on the cooker before the walk. It all turned out fine… cooking it (slightly quicker than planned) gave us plenty of time for a few (more) drinks and everyone likes their lamb pink right?

The very beautiful old church on the bank of the River Wye (which sadly I can’t remember the name of) is very popular for weddings where the bride arrives by boat from Monmouth.

The following weekend we were actually back in London. Phew!

Saturday we hosted some friends at the flat for a Spanish Tapas night. Really great fun and rather a lot of wine was consumed meaning the early start to get to Mondo Scripto, the Bob Dylan exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery was a bit of a rude awakening.

There was an amazing display of all his albums and all the associated press coverage from the early 60’s to date. Mind blowing.

The exhibition was brilliant and displayed some of his life works (to date) as a song writer, artist and sculptor.

Every day is a learning day as the saying goes and we had no idea that he’d written half the lyrics that he has.

Hi art, whether drawing or painting gave atmosphere to the lyrics but being philistines we didn’t ‘get’ some of the context.

His sculptures, as depicted in the picture frame, are mostly implements, cogs and tools welded together. Some of the gates on the display were amazing.

On the way home we took in a few Xmas lights.

Annabel’s the dead posh club on Berkley Square had really gone for it! and the other pic was only taken because the tree is taller than the BT Tower 🙂

To bring November to a close Hamish my cousin from Canada came to stay whilst in London on business. He was due to fly back to Canada the following day. Having a Cornish mother and being born in Cornwall, Hamish loves the Cornish ways. Home made pasty was therefore the obvious dinner – yum!

Home made Cornish pasty and chips – what’s not to like!

London – October 2018

So, back to October in London and a bit of a music fest’ 🙂

First up was the great venue of Dublin Castle in Camden, famed for being the stage where many bands and performers such as Madness and the late great Amy Winehouse broke through into the big time. Through the back of the pub bar and into a small dark venue, its perfect and really worth a visit. Most nights of the week there are 4-6 bands in the line up, just turn up and pay on the door.

Next we were off to the Pizza Express Jazz Club in the basement of their restaurant on Dean Street. It’s a superb venue with relaxed cabaret style seating where you can eat pizza and sip a drink whilst watching some great jazz performers. We saw Theo Croker, a brilliant trumpeter supported by the Star People Nation who are so talented. Many of the big names in Jazz play here so its worth checking out their website and booking a table if you want to guarantee a seat. Well worth it!!

Also, I mentioned previously when regaling our search for a camper van that we saw Ash, one of my favourite bands from the late 80’s / early 90’s. What a great night at the Brixton O2 Academy; it brought back fantastic memories of getting to the mosh pit.

Oh and I almost forgot, when we were picking up the camper in Winchester, we came across “The Dead Beatz”, a street busker with his mechanical skeleton drummer. Yes, we donated – rude not to.

The calendar of Christmas events was launched at our local, The Warwick Castle. Very excited about Irish Pete turning on the Xmas lights 🙂

We transformed the flat’s balcony with some fab planters that Sal’s Dad made.

October 18 is eyes down month for Glastonbury 2019 tickets. We tried, along with friends from Jersey, but despite many devices on the go, lucky hats worn, Bob the Buddha giving us luck and many cups of coffee we failed, miserably 😦

The up side is that after many years it gee’d us up to try something new. End Of The Road 19 festival in Dorset here we come 🙂

The end of October brought Halloween and we’d spotted an advert for a fancy dress contest and quiz at the Sun In Splendour pub in Notting Hill. We are rubbish at quiz’s but hey it seemed like a bit of a giggle so we signed up…. what could possibly go wrong?

Well, to start with nobody else attempted fancy dress – slightly embarrassing…

And, predictably, we came last in the quiz.

We did have a laugh and a lovely dinner though 🙂

Cooking Interlude – October 2018

We had a surfeit of cooking apples from Sal’s dad. It seemed a shame not to use them so I had a crack at an apple slice. I surprised myself, it was very tasty and relatively simple to make. I think I subliminally picked it up from a Saturday morning (or similar) cooking programme (credit where credit is probably due). As I write this during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, I wish I had some cooking apples to hand – sadly it’s a bit early. Anyway, give it a go when you get your hands on some CA’s!

You need a pack of puff pastry (or make it but you need to be some sort of mentalist to do that), some cooking apples, some eating apples, a little sugar and some butter.

Peel and chop the cooking apples. Put them in a saucepan, add a little water, bring it to the boil and then simmer until the apples are soft and mushy. Add a little sugar to take away the tartness (to suit your taste) and then simmer again to reduce it down to a jam-like consistency. Allow it to cool.

Cut the eating apples into thin wedges with skin on and no core.

Role out the pastry so that it just fits on your biggest oven tray. Lay it out on greaseproof paper on the tray and then use a fork to cover the surface of the pastry with little holes. This allows the air to escape when the party cooks and it doesn’t puff up! (I suppose it begs the question – why use puff pastry?).

Spoon the cooking apple pulp onto the pastry and liberally spread it all over.

Arrange the eating apples on top as per the pic(s) and pop it in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for about 30 mins until the pastry looks cooked – or slightly burnt in my case…. oops!.

Remove from the oven and brush melted butter across the top to glaze the tart. Allow to cool for c 30 mins and then cut into 12 pieces (less if you are feeling cheeky!). Serve with Cornish clotted cream or ice cream. I ate a few slices and then froze the rest between grease proof paper. They are a really easy snack or dinner desert. Just pop them from frozen in the oven at 180 deg C for about 10 mins and you can “voila” your guests.

London – September 2018

There was no Glastonbury in 2018 (a fallow year) so we, the Glasto boys, opted instead for Festival {No6} at Portmeirion in north west Wales. None of us had ever done this festival and I’d certainly never been to Portmeirian so a treat all round.

I set off early from London in Dave the Smart Car and picked up Andy from Chertsey; the rest made their way from Suffolk. Amazingly we got everything into Dave’s tardist like boot and set off for Rugby where we had planned to rendezvous.

We made it to NW Wales by mid afternoon (a lot further than I’d remembered) and parked up the cars in the park and ride and then loaded with all our camping gear got on the transfer bus to Castell Deudraeth and the campsite just outside the Portmeirion village.

Tents pitched we set off to explore the village and festival venues before grabbing a beer or two and some very yummy street food.

The festival, with such a varied range of bands, venues, films, performances, classes and exhibitions was, whilst perhaps musically not the best, intriguing and the location made it special.

The grounds were beautiful, with footpaths that wound their way up into the woods and down to the beach.

There were secret dance venues hidden in the trees and the views across the bay were stunning.

You can see why people come and holiday here in the hotels and cottages that make up the village.

You couldn’t escape references to the cult 60’s series, The Prisoner, for which, in part, Portmeirian is famed.

Mr Tim Burgees (The Charlatans) put in an appearance which was very sweet. He did a little acoustic set in the village.

This all added to the atmosphere as we immersed ourselves into the festival.

And Suggs too, but sadly he was going way too fast in his golf buggy to stop and speak to the likes of us … tee tee.

Another cracking Glasto boys weekend over we set off home on the Monday, stopping of course for the obligatory fat boys breakfast en route 🙂

Anyway back to London, to “do London”. Here’s a little bit of London porn to tempt you…

Lovely Spanish bar just off Oxford street – Jukebox 🙂

Ah there you are… tweeting the Shard as usual… its love

Ha ha, well that lasted for a couple of days and then it was off to FROGOLF, an annual society golf trip to France and more recently Belgium and Holland. This year it was Brugge and Waterloo.

Lovely courses, great food and the Belgian beer… what can I say 🙂 Brugge is a great place for a long weekend. Very historic with many beautiful buildings in between all the canals. I will deffo go back with Sally.

And back to London… periodically we had spotted these green huts around London but had no idea what they were.

They are actually cabbies’ cafes where they can take a break from driving somewhere warm to get a quick meal. They are dotted around London and they also sell coffee, tea, bacon / sausage / egg butties to the public at a very reasonable price. Billy bonus!

Cabbies’ cafe next to Warwick Avenue tube station.

The first was built in 1875 and there were once an awful lot more but sadly only 13 now survive to support the supposed 25000 black cabs in London.

London – August 2018

Before we get ‘lifted’ by the trades descriptions folk I need to ‘fess up that although we did a lot of park walking, picnics and exploring, in August we also snuck out of London a bit – Shhhhh

A few days down in Cornwall to see mum and do a bit of coastal path walking. Not brilliant weather (and I know I am biassed) but the stretch of coast line walk from Gunwalloe Church Cove to The Lizard point is, IMHO, the most beautiful and dramatic in the UK.

A few days in Kent for our friends’, Mike and Sandra’s 25th wedding anniversary. They had a evening garden party with a live band that was great fun, despite the horrible weather. Well done everyone for hanging in there; perhaps the garage bar helped. We walked through a fantastic (enormous) orchard to get to the party from our digs at the Darnley Arms in Cobham. Mike and Sandra said it was straight forward. We got lost! but a very kind lady (who appeared from nowhere) walked with us to get us there – slightly weird but helpful. The following day we had a lovely meal at the Leather Bottle Hotel in Cobham. A beautiful part of the country and you can see why it’s known as the garden of England. Sorry, we didn’t take any pictures (also slightly weird, abnormal even, for me) apart from this one. The Darnley Arms put a steel band on over the weekend.

The following day was Bank Holiday Monday so we headed back into London for the Notting Hill Carnival. What a spectacle, best described with pictures.

London – July 2018

July was an amazing month to move in. The weather was brilliant and there was so much going on in the parks and generally. Apart from settling in we orientating ourselves with plenty of walking; mainly using pubs and parks as way points and memory triggers.

Some ‘Glasto friends’ came down for one of the Hyde Park British Summer Time concert weekends which was great – we had a lot of fun but I can’t remember who played

My only media archive suggests that Slowdive were playing but the rest is a haze – we had a nice time:-) maybe I should look up the line up?

The Great British Beer Festival at Olympia was a giggle and well worth a visit if you are that way inclined.

Fortunately we didn’t go until the evening otherwise it might have got messy. Some amazing new ales and ciders as well as some of the old fav’s. Very pleased to see Cornish brewers putting on a good show.

Sal was very happy, she met an old friend and found a bar that sold wine – by the bottle – it’s the only way to go at a beer festival 🙂

No amount of weed on the canal was going to deter those signets from following mum!

And at our new local – The Warwick Castle in Little Venice – we stumbled across a film crew using it as a location in a film called “How to Build a Girl”. It’s a Caitlin Moran & John Niven film based on Caitlin’s novel and was released in 2019. Don’t ask.. we haven’t seen it!

‘Doing London’

The first thing to note, and something that we’d increasingly appreciated since moving into the London flat in July 2018, is that completely “doing London” is impossible. It’s so big and there is so much to do, see and experience that as soon as you do/see one thing, two more things emerge. London is constantly evolving in sight, sound, culture and ethnicity. It’s brilliantly amazing and we loved our time there.

All that said from the point we moved in we gave it a bloomin’ good bash. We enjoyed the parks in the different seasons, we went to loads of live music gigs, theatre, museums and art galleries. The street food and pop up bars supplemented the already amazing array of pubs and cafe bars. The canals provided perfect routes to exercise and get from A2B via vibrant new communities without having to touch the main streams. The 20 or more original villages that have now amalgamated to form what is London today are still visible. Head to their historical heart and you can still see them laid out in front of you.

We had a list of ‘must do’ things and despite having achieved loads, we literally only scratched the surface in our 19 month tenure. We had lots of friends and family come and stay in the flat which was perfect, and we loved sharing it and London with them. We eventually left London safe in the knowledge that we can return many times in the future and never be bored.

Lots of great memories and photos that we’ll attempt to share in the next few posts.

Exiting work

This was the crocodile closest to the canoe so needed a bit of effort.

My replacement was advertised globally but the selected candidate came from within my team. This made the handover relatively straightforward and was done by Xmas 18. For the last quarter is was able to wind down with some interesting project work which was perfect. Sal waited until I was about to retire before securing her sabbatical. A sabbatical rather than resignation offered a good safety net should things not go to plan in the next 12 months or so 🙂

At the end of March 2019, I, along with with two other retiring colleagues were afforded the most amazing retirement bash with family, friends, colleagues and customers up the 34th floor of the BT Tower. It was really ace. The food and drink flowed, the views were amazing and the extremely generous momento’s and words spoken will act as a constant reminder. What a night.. and it continued with family back at the flat into the wee hours.

I shall be eternally grateful for that bash and even more so for the 40 + years of interesting, worthwhile, challenging and dare I say it, fun, employment with the GPO and latterly BT.

I’ll really miss the people I worked with in the company and wider community. I’ll also really miss what we and i did but the time was definitely right for a change.

Events on the day of the bash and the weeks surrounding it, nicely drowned out Brexit’s constant white noise 🙂

On the 31st March we celebrated with a lovely meal and bottle of red; not for brexit, but for Exit! It was done.

Sal’s sabbatical was triggered in March 2019. It came and went in a flash. A year on from my retirement everything was broadly going to plan and so in the middle of March 2020 (13th to be precise) Sal formally resigned and left Accenture after 27 years. Leaving straight from a sabbatical meant it didn’t get marked in any way by the company, which is sad, but we had a few drinks and a nice meal to mark it in our own way.

We were fully on our own four feet now.