Tuesday in Bath

This was alright. Went on a cool walking tour of Bath with a lovely old lady who told us all about it... and didn't cost a thing!! Saw all the major sights/sites and took a few photos.
Then, after finding a toilet and eating lunch, I went into the Baths. This is the major tourist attraction and is very professionally set up. I don't know why, maybe it was too long, maybe the monotonous voices put me off, but I found I was really flagging at the end of the audio tour... not actually listening to everything - which is a first for me.
Returned home and had dinner, then met up with Peter the American and played Fluxx.
This morning I am off to the Wookey caves (very hairy apparently) and some castle. Then tomorrow I am going back to Brum via Martin my great uncle in Stratford.
Next week I start to look for work!!!!!!

Onto Bath

Got up late, went and bought new shavers and toothbrush (forgot them...)
Had drinks with David (an ex museum guy), David (an interior decorator) and Noel (David's boyfriend and an accountant). Very nice guys, didn't have lunch until 3:45!!!
Then I had to rush off to Bath to get to my check in at 6pm. But I have ot thank Geoff and Michael for a fantastic weekend - everyone was so interesting _and_ nice!
Now I am paying £1/20 mins...so I might go!!!

Off to Lechlade

And Geoff and Michael. I got up really early to make sure I got to their place in time for lunch. Just as I was leaving the door at 8am the post arrived - and there was my passport! Sweet Alleluyah!!!
So I left feeling very good indeed. Got into Lechlade at 9:45 incredibly cold - gave Geoff a ring but it went to answering machine - I don't know where in Lechlade his cottage is. So I grabbed something to eat and eventually headed into the library to read while awaiting his reply.
The woman behind the counter made the obvious suggestion - why not look him up in the phonebook? So I did, and the cottage was just around the corner!!! I made it there at 11:15 or so and was greeted by the boys.
Got ready for lunch with John, the ambassador, Peter and Diane, the Paramount Pictures ex-MD, Jo and Jane, who both write gardening books for the BBC. The food was magnificent; capsicum entree, salmon main and 2 desserts!!
Adn the company was good too. Eventually, so full we almost exploded, we parted company but not before Peter and Diane had invited us all to see 'Amadeus' in their Home Cinema.
So we recovered a bit, had sandwiches for dinner with John (who I chatted with about math and he suggested someone who might be able to get me a job, or at least point me in the right direction) and headed over for the film at 8:30
The home cinema of PEter's is amazing - complete with ticket booth (manned by a dummy), double curtains and magnificent projector (like Bruce's, not one of these nancy ones, about 3x2 foot big). The xound was probably betyter than a good cinema - whcih was great for a movie like Amadeus!!!
We got home at 12 having had an excellent day!

Home to Brum

Got up late, headed for the Oxford Story and then Asmodean museum. Ox Story was surprisingly ok - very touristy but entertaining and worth the money - Oxford is really a tourist town.
Then rode home along the motorways - getting better at this thing, but too much in my bag (which I have since rectified)
Also I rang the people in NZ who are selling my bike - they still have it so I said to drop the price a bit.
Grandma is ok, but seems to stumble a bit more than she has been. I am a little worried.

On the friday I didn't do much at all :) I did go round and catch up with Khaled which was great - we get on really well. He's just returned from NY city and he had a great time there (though all the pictures he showed both him and Adam were grumpy...) I asked Khaled to visit GMa on Sunday to see if I am just being overly sensative about the stumbling.

I then rang the post office people and sure enough it's been lost... but the woman said that locked bags are usually signed for only once, and sometimes the guys in the PostOffice forget to record the signing - the question in my mind being what's the point of recorded mail then? Oh Well.
So I rang up the Home office and tried to find out if they _had_ received it... they hadn't. So I asked them if they had any processing under my name and they had - put me through to the department in question and sure enough on that very day my Passport had been processed and approved - it was 'in the mail'
Yay!!!!

Why can't I be more assertive?

I am terrible at talking to people when I don't have the full story.
And yet again this has reared it's ugly head.
When I went down the post office to mail my passport to the home office I couldn't remember the exact term that mum used to describe how to send it (Registered mail is the term). I didn't think this would be a problem as I could just ask the girl behind the counter.
So I said 'I need to send my passport to the home office securely', and she, quite confidently, replied 'oh, just use one of these' (Recorded mail) Now this didn't ring a bell, and it looked more like it was normal mail but with a signature to verify it was received, no actual security. But she seemed confident and I wasn't, so I went with it.
Well, 14 days later and it looks like it was lost (stolen). Along with Mum's old passport. The thing I used was exaclty what I thought - normal mail with a signature at the end simply for legal reasons ('See, you did receive this, it was signed for').
This friday will be 15 working days which is when it goes official, then I get to organise with the Aussie High Commission for a new one, and don't know what the hell I am going to do about mum's old one (the one with the certificate of entitlement to right of abode).
So I'm pretty rooted, might be coming home early (though not until after 14th of Nov, as I have to see Nick Cave play :)
This is another reason I am feeling like returning to Brum instead of going onto Bath.

Today, and all is not well

Got up early to beat the school kids to the breakfast - but they were already there. Went into town to see some sites, but they didn't open until 10:30. Rang Royal Mail about my package to find that it's probably been lost (see next entry).
Awesome.
Watched a reality TV show about some guys in a competition to win a role in a Bollywood film. Fascinating.
Jumped on my bike, got lost riding in town (knew where I was, but with all the one way streets and not vehicle access and so on I couldn't work out where the hell I was supposed to be going) but finally made it into ChristChurch college to have look at the hall where Harry Potter could have been filmed, and the cathedral.
Then off to the rollright stones. Got completely lost, in the rain, finally found them and must say they were damp and unimpressive.
Then off to the Broughton Castle. Found this one ok, only one wrong turn, but it was closed (closes 15th september). So I had a walk around and lunch - it had at least stopped raining.
Then off to Boarstall Tower. Missed the turn off, so went another 10miles too far. Found it, and it was open. Yay!
It was really cool - an old gatehouse built in the 1200's and looked cool - just like you imagine a castle to look. And someone lives in it! doubly cool. The guy who showed us round was excellent, really interesting. Well worth 2.20!!
Then home, and I'm wrecked - I ended up going 130 miles today what with getting lost so much (that's about 200 kms for those without a calculator :) I must admit I don't really have the energy and will to go onto Bath tomorrow. We'll see how I'm feeling then.

Now I'm in Oxford

Is it really that different?
I would say that Oxford is a better town for tourists, there are more and better attractions and it is better developed for them (us :). But the YHA in Cambridge is much better, and I think I would prefer to _live_ in cambridge than oxford (actually I quite like Cambridge. compares well, though in a different way, to London for me)
Got in at around 12:30 after a monstrous ride (after picking up my bike - 115 pounds of mechanic later) through rain and getting lost and so on. I am very good at getting lost in england - even if I meticulously plan my A's,B's and M's. I wasn't allowed in my room until 2 so I went off and got some food from sainsburys and ate lunch.
Caught a tour bus a little after 3 which took me around and was very interesting. Lots of crap photos later and I was done, went for a little walk then made dinner and to bed.

Cambridge for one night (20th)

Had a great time with Rohan an Irish guy and two of the girls from the hostel; Lucy (Poland) and Isabel (German/France).
For the first half of the evening Rohan and I sat in on a german school group relating the interviews they'd had with english speaking people around cambridge that day. Really funny stories. One particular girl was totally clueless and answered in the following ways
a) how many people in Cambridge
'I don't know, maybe 10,000?' (there are over 100k)
b) what do you like about Cambridge
'It's really easy to get weed' (teachers loved that one)
c) do you know any of the hisory of Cambridge
'Well the river is called Cam, and I guess there's a bridge over it, but I don't know which came first, the river or the bridge' (Not too often you redirect a river under an existing archway...)
and then a very offensive thing about the stereotypical german.
Rohan and the girls then stayed up chatting away and playing cards ('thief') which was most enjoyable except for one particular twit called John who decided he wasn't getting enough attention so he popped an E, and then acted like an even bigger dick for the rest of the night.

off to cambridge

to pick up my bike, then off to oxford tomorrow

Back in Brum

Just kicking around in Brum with grandma, waiting for my bike to be fixed. HEad back to caombridge on Monday to pick it up, then I hope to head west to Bath and stonehenge and so on.

Motorcycle woes

So I've been riding around the countryside enjoying myself, visiting some cool places, feeling the freedom of travelling where I want, when I want. But something was niggling at the back of my mind... what is that intermitent grinding noise coming from my bike?
So I checked the oil (something I failed to do on my last bike... oops) a little low - topped it up but that didn't seem to make a difference.
So I checked the tyre pressuse, the back wheel was really low so I pumped that up and felt a lot more stable on the road.But still the sound persisted. And it was getting worse.
So today, some 30 miles out from cambridge, I finally rode the bike with my helmet off so I could hear the noise properly, to find it was coming from my back wheel - the chain was completely dry (no oil/grease) and incredibly loose (supposed to have about 2cm play - was more like 7 or 8!!)
I limped home, hoping the thing wouldn't shred, or break or who knows what, but I couldn't find a workshop! Then this great old guy who still rides turned up and said my diagnoses was correct and directed me to his mechanic, about 3 miles of nervous riding away.
I got it there and the guy says 'well the chain's stuffed, should never get that dry' -> I'll have to replace the whole thing - 100 pounds of pain, and it won't even get done until Monday/Tuesday next weekSuch is life :)

Icksomething hall and the anglo saxon village

Wasn't sure what I wanted to do today, but Grimes Graves up near trentham forest looked good. So I headed there via Bury St Edmonds which had a museum and a big house to visit.
The museum wasn't open and I couldn't be bothered hanging around so I went straight to the big house. This was some mansion done in 'Italian' style and was quite magnificent. Great park for the kids and lots of places to hide, plus a deer enclosure. While I only stayed for a little while, I think a family would have a great time there with a picnic lunch. Also the house itself wasn't open (closed wednesdays and thursdays :( so I would have liked to have seen inside.
Then I went to a 'Saxon Village' which I had seen signs to - doesn't appear in any of my tourist books. It was great. Basically an archaeologist's research site where they have excavated all these old Saxon dwellings. Then they have tried to build their own versions from their findings to see if they work or not. Really interesting stuff.
So far I think I like the anglo-saxon period the best. People worked hard, but were not as precarioous as those of pre-roman times, but civilization wasn't built up enough that there was a particular structure to society yet.
What do I mean? I guess When I went round Montfichet castle the other day I quite liked that too - the lifestyle quite appealled to me. But I didn't like the Norman structure, and the punishments and tortures and religious aspects really turn me off. But the Saxons lived in their big families - sometimes 2 or three families in one place, but not too many more - so I can't imagine they could have had many more problems than your normal family has :)
Just ask the Osbornes..

Tue 14 : Cambridge

Recovering a bit today from all the riding/sight seeing I've been doing. So I went for a 3 hour walk around oxford :)
Went round the old part of town looking at the colleges and churches - up the tower of Great St Marys, into the Kings College Cathedral. As term has started, most of the colleges were closed, but Kings College Cathedral was open and was pretty amazing. I took the audio tour (only 2 punds extra) and it was great - especially having a listen to recordings of the choir _within_the_cathedral_itself. Gives a sense of the feeling one would get if one where there for the real thing.
Am about to do lunch and washing, then I hope to get down to the museum for a quick look

Monday 13

Great day - started looking miserable but I thought 'stuff it' and took off on the bike to find the weather clearing. I went back down the M11 to see the Montfichet Normady Castle. This was a wooden castle, and they had lots of nice ibts of 'education' for us to find out all about living at that time. They also had a real fire in nearly every hut which kept us warm!!
The biggest difference between this visit and everyo other bloody one was a) it was set in 1066 and b) it was also an abused animal reserve - lots of deer and chickens and sheep that had had accidents or been treated badly were wandering around 'for the rest of their natural lives.' For some reason this really appealled to me.
Then I went next door (literaly) to the Toy Museum and had a wander around that. Not bad, but not really 'educational' or (for a young un like myself) nostalgic. Did remind me of Rupert, a much loved comic I haven't read for many a year.
Then I rode a very nice 1384 up to Duxford to the Imperial War Museum.
This wasn't too bad either, but there are only so many jet fighters and so on one can look at. Highlights were going inside a real Concorde, being exposed to american propoganda in the Amrican run US exhibit and the D-Day exhibition in the land war hanger (it was mainly air war stuff)
The DDay exhibit didn't pull any punches when it talked about the fatalities and so on - with real people giving accounts of the horrific events - events that went largely to plan with 'limited' deaths!!
I don't know why I am (somewhat) fascinated by war machines, when I am so opposed to war and horror/stupidity that it entails.

Gun powder museum

Woke up on Sunday at A&I's and got ready to leave. Was out the door before 10 and headed back to St Albans to see the Roman stuff a little more. Unfortunately it didn't open until 2 so I decided that since I would visit A&I again soon that I could skip it.
So I went straight to the Gun Powder museum on the A121. IT was fantastic - really friendly and informative staff, and an amazing history all about the making of various explosives and the research and development too. Both Cordite and Kevlar were developed there.
They had a train tour, and I was lucky enough to be there on a day when they had some Militia reenacting the 1600's with canons and so on, and there are interactive exhibits as well as normal walk around and read ones. Really good and enjoyable.
I stayed there so long I didn't leave time to go and see anything else today so headed straight up to Cambridge YHA in the worst wind ever, and managed to get in just before it rained!!
And that's where I am now, having had a dinner bought from Sainsburys 'food only' (which means everything is instant) and tonight I will decided what I will do tomorrow, using Cambridge as my base..

St Albans

So on the saturday 11 Sept Iwoke up at A&I's place, stumbled out of bed to the sound of children and had breakfast. Antony had got together a number of books on war as I had shown an interest in some war museums, and we also talked about getting jobs in england (actually we talked about a lot - we are good at disagreeing with each other in an amicable way!!)
We decided we'd all head into StAlbans for the day as it isn't too far away. The cathedral is amazing - one of the best I've seen though I couldn't say why. It really felt old, and the ceilings where incredibly high. We had lunch there while a huge service was in progress with choirs and organs and so on.
We then went for a walk down around the park where the roman ruins are, then returned home via the market (where I bought a bag) and the tourism office.
Antony and I went to the shops, then we all had another excellent dinner before I retired to sleep for the next day - when I would get back on my bike!!

St Albans

So on the saturday 11 Sept Iwoke up at A&I's place, stumbled out of bed to the sound of children and had breakfast. Antony had got together a number of books on war as I had shown an interest in some war museums, and we also talked about getting jobs in england (actually we talked about a lot - we are good at disagreeing with each other in an amicable way!!)
We decided we'd all head into StAlbans for the day as it isn't too far away. The cathedral is amazing - one of the best I've seen though I couldn't say why. It really felt old, and the ceilings where incredibly high. We had lunch there while a huge service was in progress with choirs and organs and so on.
We then went for a walk down around the park where the roman ruins are, then returned home via the market (where I bought a bag) and the tourism office.
Antony and I went to the shops, then we all had another excellent dinner before I retired to sleep for the next day - when I would get back on my bike!!

The adventure begins

Or at least the next stage :)
On Friday morning I left Grandma's in Birmingham at 8 in the morning, rode through rain and wind to finally get into Keith and Anne's at 12 or so (I did get lost, going to weybridge instead of moseley at one stage..).
they welcomed memaginficently, taking me to lunch in a 15th century pub called the 'crooked pub' (where I realised I had exactly _no_money_ thanks Keith and Anne!!) and then to Hampton Court. Hampton Court was pretty amazing, though I have to admit I was somewhat shot because of the riding. We did most of the inside - the tudor kitchens being the most interesting bit.
Once done there we returned to K&As place, I caught a snatch of William their son, and then took off to Antony and Inur's (sorry I don't know how to spell that - didn't have a chance to ask..). Wonderful dinner of english and turkish cuisine. Meet Eleynor and Andrew their great kids too.
I stayed at their place in ther loft.

Tiest

Champs Elysee

I can't even spell it, how can you expect me to say it? :)
We headed here after the museums for food and a walk. Looked at a few shops, I had a Nutella Crepe with Bananas,Oh my god!!! Then we had an enormous pizza - each, before heading on up to the Arch dTriumph. That was pretty amazing, though we didn't go up it 'cos it was too late.
The most moving part for me was catching a group of soldiers taking a wreath up the the Arch, the police stopping all the traffic to let them through. Somehow it all seemed that much more real, standing on the soil where blood was spilled, watching soldiers who had seen their comrades die in defense of the very country we were standing in. I was almost moved to tears.
We then headed back to our hotel for bags, and onto the Eurostar to travel back by Chunnel to England. Which was all good until the train was delay for 1 hour, so we didn't get back to London until after 11. I just read harry potter :)

Louvre and D'Orsay

On Sunday we went in the morning to the Louvre (I started eating lots and drinking lots - I think I might have surprised Jo with how much!!)
I wanted to see the Ancient Greek/Roman sculptures the most, so that's where we went. While pretty amazing, I have to admit I didn't get the same connection I felt when I walked through the Birmingham gallery. I couldn't absorb the reality of these amazing pieces of art and their age.
I then ate some more, and went to see the Italian Paintings culminating in the Mona Lisa. While the Italian paintings weren't my favorite - a bit gaudy and boring theme wise - the Mona Lisa was pretty amazing. The painting is now quite dull, I guess after all the years under lights and with idiots flash camera ing it, but she still follows you with her eyes in an almost hypnotic way. Quite erie.
A sugar cube later and we were in the Musee D'Orsay. We went straight to the top where the Toulouse-Latrec, Van Gogh, Monet and so on are.
Wow.
This stuff really blew me away. I connected with it straight away, especially the Van Gogh... you don't realise from photos/prints how important the texture of the paint is to Van Gogh - he differentiates sections of the painting as much by brush stroke as by colour. And what colours!!
I also really liked Pissaro and Renoir, but I thought that Monet was a bit wishy washy :)

Moulin Rouge

Wow. I would have never even thought to go along to this show, but Jo mentioned it so we did.
Started at 11 at night, and we were supposed to check in at 10:30 - which meant that we were in the first 50 of the 600+ guests to be seated. It also meant that we stood for an age waiting in line as the first show of the evening ran over time.
We were seated by very professional waiters who spoke every bloddy language there is :) and given our bottle of champagne.
And then the show started. It consisted of 4 major dance acts, interspersed with 3 variety acts. The dance acts each had a large number of 'scenes' and of course each scene required all the dancers to change their costumes a few times...
The variety acts were an acrobatics display (in which the acrobats mucked up one particular trick 3 times before getting it right - on purpose or no? You can't know - which is why I loved it - you _know_ that the trick is hard if they get it wrong...), and acrobalance act (with the most attractive girl in the show) and finally a ventriloquest (who we all dreaded until he brought out a live dog that started to talk! must have had a mask on).
The dances were amazing, and short and varied enough to even keep my attention for the whole time. And the sets changed constantly and enormously - at one point a clear perspex pool rose out of the floor so a girl could go and swim with boa constrictors!!!
Was it erotic? No. Not with almost 50% of the audience female, it never was going to be.
Was it fun? Absolutly. Definitely go if you get the chance. It doesn't even cost _that_ much

Eiffel Tower and Boat cruise

Gotta do it don't you? So we went and lined up for the Eiffel Tower with all the other tourists and followed the lines, and talked and talked, and finally made it to the top. We looked at the amazing view, pointing out the landmarks, took photos, and returned down through the crowds.
It is an amazing construction, so big that as you approach it it seems not to be getting closer, and then you suddenly see its feet and BANG there it is, an enormous tower looking out over Paris.
After that we had some lunch and then met up with some of Jo's friends to go on a boat cruise on the Seine. That was quite interesting, with lots of things being pointed out, but hard to follow because the sound track was in English, French, German and Chinese! You weren't sure if the thing being talked about was ahead, behind or right along side you!!!
Still it was pretty good, and quite relaxing.

PARIS with Jo

Following are a few little reviews of the various things I did in Paris. I went via the Chunnel with Jo and stayed in a hotel near the Opera house. She organised (and paid for) it all, so thank you very much!
I would like to apologise though, because I was a pain in the arse, especially on the Saturday. My already bad mood (why?) was amplified by my lack of food, sleep and water. As you can see from my entries above, I enjoyed myself immensly even so!
Thanks Jo for everything you did.

Passport Control

Noone believes that I am only on holiday, all because I haven't got a return ticket booked. It was such a hassle getting back into london this morning. Combined with the bus/traffic I didn't get in until 2:40, an hour later than I thought and 1.5 hours later than I hoped.
Oh well. Thanks Karin and Iain for a great time - I might come back!

Last day in Sweden

Spent yesterday at a place where there are a huge number of bronze age rock carvings are found. There was an excellent museum which had a really good guide you could take around written for the iPaq. This is the first useful application of an iPaq I have seen/used, so that was cool.
Then I went and checked out their bronze age farm, which was interesting except for the rain. Then I came home (it was a 2 hour bustrip there, 2 hours back) It was on this return journey I decided I wouldnät go on a similar trip today to see a castle but instead recover a bit before jetting off to London and Paris. Instead I just went on a guided tour of Gothenburg which was more fun than I thought - one of the bridges our boat went under was so low it scrapped paint off the front of the boat!!!
I will be sad to say good bye to this city and Karin and Iain, but more adventures await!