Adventure in London

Evan, a friend from New Ro, was in town for work last weekend. He stayed an extra day in London after his meetings finished, and we had Grand Adventures in town.

Here he is, reading the paper (with a croissant and a cuppa). How very European!

We went an a walking tour, the Notting Hill walk, and it was excellent. We saw the remnants of the Potteries, and then Robbie Williams' house:

And we saw super-suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst's house:

This was our tour guide. He was funny, witty, full of good stories, and generally excellent.

And then, because we were on the Notting Hill tour, we saw Richard Curtis and his wife! We actually encountered his wife first - our tour guide had said "Now, Richard Curtis does still live in Notting Hill, quite near here, actually."

Then, our enormous tour (30-odd people) were crossing a quiet street while a woman in a car made a u-turn. She got somewhat stuck behind us all. So she rolled down the window, pointed to her house, and asked the guide, "Are you talking about our house?"

"No," replied our guide, "I didn't think you'd want me to!"

"Oh, no, it's fine - we figured you would. Carry on!"

And drove off.

Our guide turned to the assembled and said, "Well, that's Richard Curtis' wife (and son). And that is his house (gesturing across the road)." At which point, Richard Curtis opened his front door, looked at us, and closed it again. "And that was Richard Curtis!"

Srsly. Can't make this stuff up.

So we then went to the Famous Notting Hill Bookshop (which has since gone out of business, because all the tourists took pictures of the bookshop but nobody ever bought anything).

And then we had a lovely lunch (panini!)

And then, we got ourselves some BORIS BIKES! Love. We picked them up in Notting Hill, wove our way across to Hyde Park, then rode down through the parks to Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, where we dropped the bikes and went in search of a pub. I, naturally, steered us rather close to Liberty where we then had to make a quick visit. Who, me? Naw!

And took this picture while we were both riding. Yes, I am that clever. And no, we didn't fall off. There were a few shouts of "Evan! Keep LEFT!" Otherwise, uneventful. The whole "grab a bike when you need it, then give it back later" is an excellent idea.

HRH was not in residence but we said "hi" anyway.

Then we picked up another set of bikes and rode them across town from Bloomsbury to Paddington, where I picked up my bags, and then we walked to dinner and the tube and then home to Suffolk (or New York).

At dinner (Wagamama, of course!) we both kind of sat there, contemplating our warm bowls of noodles and our aching feet. I had been instructed to provide a fun London day out - I think I succeeded!

Went to London; rode BorisBikes; met a witch

Husband spent all weekend sailing (with EAST), so I betook myself to London on the train for a Grand Day Out. I booked my ticked last Wednesday, so it turned out that the cheapest advance single to go in was actually first class (first was £22, standard was £24). First class was great - so quiet and chill, with HUGE seats. Definitely worth the advance commitment.

When I got to London, I had intended to take the Circle Line around to Embankment for my London Walk. However, TFL had other plans. Circle Line, closed all day. Lovely. So I set off to find a Boris Bike station, you know, just to check things out.

For the grand price of £1 for the day's access and £1 every time I went over 30 mins on one particular bike (I think I spent a total of £2), it was excellent. Bike lanes everywhere, lots of cyclists, very courteous cars (it was a Saturday), and the wind in my hair. WHEEE! This was my lovely little bike, right after I parked her at Embankment station. Thanks, Boris!

Because of all my exercising, I was thirsty when I got to Embankment. So I went into Starbucks and ordered an iced passion tea. Apparently this is now an off-menu item - they use the passion tea blend for making mango-passion smoothies but aren't really supposed to feed it to the punters. Nevermind...it was delicious.

And I drank it, sitting in the park on these chairs, arranged neatly.

And then I met a real live witch (I met a few at Colby, so it wasn't all that scary), who took us on a walking tour.

Past Cleopatra's Needle. Thank you, British explorers, for bringing all SORTS of random crap back from far corners of the world. I mean, really. A postcard is cool. Maybe a magnet. A 60-foot obelisk kind of takes up a lot of room in your suitcase. But, whatev.

Found a room that if I owned I would probably never leave (top floor, please):

And then had very yummy beef udon at Misato. Not as good as the one I had in Cambridge back in March, but not bad at all. Oh, and when we took James to Cambridge last weekend to introduce him into the cult of the Brisket Udon, they told us that the half-empty restaurant had "no room." SO disappointed, especially since the vegetarian place we went to afterwards was resoundingly and virtuously healthy-tasting (read, not doing THAT again...) and all the more disappointing when contrasted with the imagined Udon.

After my noodles, I braved the rain, went to Liberty (sigh), noodled around Oxford circus, grabbed another Boris Bike, got REALLY lost in Finsbury, found my way again (thank you helpful cyclists in London taking pity on what they thought was a very lost American tourist), dropped off my Boris Bike, bought some very excellent VivoBarefoot shoes (on sale for £28!), and subsided onto my (pre-booked) train home.

Things I learned:
-once you leave the protection of a witch, it's going to start raining
-if you leave your brolly at home, it will rain in London. <-I should really know this by now
-taking a Boris Bike around the roundabout at Trafalgar Square is probably not a good idea
-the Boris Bikes need a real HEAVE to get them out of their docks
-booking National Express train tickets in advance is much cheaper than getting them on the day
-biking is very good exercise
-getting lost makes you bike further, which is also good exercise

And there you have it.

Adventures on two wheels

I spent a day in London a few weeks ago, where I went on a Fat Tire Bike Tour. I went on the Paris tours (and applied for a job as a tour guide) when I lived there. I think Paris is a slightly more bike-friendly city, since most of the London tour was through Hyde Park/Kensington Park/Green Park.

Lovely parks, all, (and the guides were great), but if I only had a weekend to see London and spent it on the insides of the parks, I might be annoyed. As it is, I know London pretty well and enjoyed the spin through town on the bikes. Especially as it was Sunday so the roads around Buckingham Palace were closed.

The bikes all had names (of people mentioned on the tour). I was being shown the town by a Mr. Eric Clapton. We got along very well.

I learned in Paris that taking a picture from the bike while riding is...er...hazardous to your health.  So here is the back of 10 Downing Street with the London Eye in the background.

Continuing the bike theme, John and I took our bikes to Cambridge on the train last weekend. In spite of the extortionate ticket prices (and recent railway strikes by overpaid but disgruntled employees), it was actually pretty painless. Bringing your bikes on the train is free (woot!), and there are special racks for them. I could see how the racks might get kind of full on a weekday, but we had plenty of room when we were going.

We met up for the day with some family friends from New Ro, who were enjoying a vacation in Paris/London/Cambridge. We rode our bikes out to Grantchester, where we hit up The Blue Ball Inn for some extremely tasty warm, flat beer of the Adnams variety. YUM. We then wobbled to another pub for more beer and lunch. Tough life. Then we went into Cambridge itself, where we walked through the gardens of Clare College and went into the Kings' chapel.

If you can't make it good, make it RED.

We had a blast of a day - the weather was gorgeous, the company was great, and we have now decided that the ONLY way to get around Cambridge is by bike. It's a long walk from the station to town, and the car situation is a nightmare. There was even a free bike parking garage at the mall. What more could you want?

Coveting: Bike Hod

This was my breakfast last weekend: a bacon and egg sandwich, grapefruit juice, and Eclipse. Heaven. We don't usually have bacon at breakfast, but there was some left over from a Valentine's Edition of Leek and Potato Pie the night before.

We had a v. chill V. Day - I rang bells for two weddings (and earned £30), and then had dinner in. I came across the world's most unfortunate bridesmaid's dress at one of the weddings - it was a strapless number worn by a 4ft x 4ft bridesmaid and there was some overspill at the back. And not just a little. MY EYES! A perfect place to use the only Dutch phrase that our family retained from my Mom's "Learn Dutch On Tape" course in the '90s: "het is geen mooi zicht." (For the non-Dutch speakers in the room: "It is not a pretty sight.)

James and I went to see Bolt today - it was really cute and had some laugh-out-loud moments. Very Pixar, and very well put-together. We inadvertently went to the 3-D version, which was very clever and zoom-y (not a word, but you get the idea). However, both of us were ready for it NOT to be 3-D about 2/3 of the way through - the glasses were a little uncomfortable. Here they are in all their Disnificated glory.

We stopped at Waitrose to pick up some groceries on the way home. This bike was parked in the entrance. It turns out that they're launching a new scheme where you can sign up to borrow one of these to do your shopping. COOL. I'm not 100% clear on how long you can keep it (i.e. do you have to run your shopping home and then bring it right back or are you the temporary owner or what? The press release is here and doesn't really explain. A little googling has found the supplier company: they are called Bike-Hod. WANT. ONE. OF. THOSE. But £275 is steep!

I should start a BikeHod fund and put spare change in it. In the spring/summer/fall we like to do most of our shopping at the farm shop, about 4 miles away, and we've found that we usually have a bit more in the way of groceries than we can sensibly carry on the bikes. This would totally solve the problem.

We rode on the highway (with no cars)

We took James on a bike ride yesterday - we went out of Stowmarket to the southwest (on the world-famous Cycle Route 51), all the way through Onehouse and into Harleston. We went down the hill towards Haughley, and under the new A14. And then found ourselves on the OLD A14 (with no cars). Rumor has it that they're going to turn it into a cycle path - I'll believe it when I see it!

Here are the boys, on the eastbound carriageway.

And here's the view from the top of the hill, again looking west:

 

After all that riding, we were hungry. John made a very tasty paella. Yum!

Birthday recap

Last weekend, we went on another bike ride - here's a picture looking from the Stowmarket/Needham Road to the north.

There was much excitement when we went to Tesco - this bird had flown in through an open door and was looking around for a place to perch. Sorry the picture quality isn't great - we only had the point-and-shoot and not the SLR.

Two weeks ago, I got an e-newsletter from the Kate Rusby folks, announcing her upcoming tour. I was super-psyched to see that not only was she coming to Ipswich (SO much closer than Norwich and Peterborough, where we've seen her play), but that she would be there on my birthday (this past Thursday). Obv, we had to go.

In my infinite geekyness, I emailed her record company asking to have a song dedicated to me for my birthday. And she DID! Hooray!! She played 'Where Does The Time Go', which is a single that I don't have (yet), and said that it was for "Kate, or Katie, whose birthday is today, I think. Or tomorrow, or yesterday. Anyway." I felt special. Her she is, in all her blurry awesomeness.

And here we are at the intermission - John bought me a Kate Rusby mug (since I already have a KR t-shirt)

To add to the overwhelming birthday goodness, I am also the proud owner of a new and exceedingly shiny iPhone. My contract was up and I had been coveting one for yonks, so that was that. I LOVE it, with the only drawback being that the battery life is completely crap. My old Motorola Krzr would merrily go 6 or 7 days between charges, but the iPhone barely eeks out 24 hours. I've been turning off some of the push-synching when I'm not using the phone (I don't need it to tell me I have an email at 3am), and that seems to help a bit. I'm having issues with the Apple store, too - as an American, my AppleID is registered to a US address, and so Apple can't comprehend that I might have LEFT the country. Bah. The interwebs have yielded a few suggestions - we'll see what happens. Other than that, though, it's great. Being able to sync my google calendar to wherever I am is awesome, and texting on the 'keyboard' is so much easier than on my old phone.

One final birthday thing - on Wednesday night when John's buddies came round, they brought me some gorgeous birthday flowers. Thanks, guys!! They brought a bottle of really tasty wine, too (no picture, it's all gone).

Further Suffolk bike explorations

After our epic bike ride a few weeks ago, we knew we wanted to go on another one, but this time with enough food, water, and a distinct route planned out.

On our last trip, we'd seen signs for Debenham, where we'd been on a (rainy) walk last winter. I checked the map and it's just under 10 miles each way, which seemed about right.

We packed some ham sandwiches and lots of water bottles, and set off around noon. We got there just after 1, after riding through 2 HUGE clouds of bugs (eew), and plopped down on a bench to eat our lunch. I think it was probably a combination of the tastyness of the sandwiches (ham and lettuce on a baguette) and the fact that we were super-hungry from the ride, but they were indecently yummy.

My camera was out of juice so here's a picture from my phone to prove that we did, in fact, ride our bikes all the way there. And no, we couldn't have cheated - our bikes don't fit in the car.

We poked around Debenham for a little while and then hopped back on the bikes and came home, arriving about 3.

The last 2 or 3 miles were a bit of a struggle - I had cramps in my feet and my work-aggravated shoulder pain which has been really bad this week was somehow excacerbated by the biking. It hasn't been a problem until now - I think it's time to go back to the physio. I've been having physiotherapy on and off for almost 2 years - essentially since I started working full-time again after working at the National Trust. I've had my 'workstation' evaluated, I do special exercises every night, I have a special chair, I drag my stupid lumbar-support roll everywhere, and it just doesn't seem to get any better. I have total sympathy for people with chronic pain - it just completely wears you out.

And before yesterday it generally disappeared soon after leaving work every day - the fact that it's now migrated to something I love doing in my non-work time is a problem. I had a tarot reading about 6 months ago where the reader (who knew nothing about my back problem) said of a card: "hmm...this one says that your job is 'breaking your back' - that's a really unusual one." Um, yeah, it is.

Post-book meh

As expected, I raced through The Pillars of the Earth. And I loved all 976 pages of it. And I was gutted when it ended. It was entirely what I was hoping it would be - an epic saga (similar to Edward Rutherford's London). I sometimes have trouble keeping characters straight in books like this (see: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell), but Follett introduced them slowly enough and with plenty of description so I managed to keep them all separate.

The sequel (World Without End) is waiting for me on my nightstand, when I finish The Book Thief. Poor Book Thief - it has the misfortune to follow a book that is now in my top 10, which means that I'm spending most of the time reading it wishing it were something else. Oh well, some book has to do that, and I don't think I would have liked it much in any case.

We went to a BBQ at our across-the-street neighbors last night - they managed to get themselves organised and invite a bunch of neighbors over all together. We've been meaning to do it for ages but the inertia is just too strong! We met some new people from down the street and got to catch up with other neighbors who we really should talk to more than we do.

We took the small boy on a bike ride today, up to Mendlesham Green. 5 miles each way, and on country lanes the whole way out. We decided to do a loop rather than backtracking, and were on roads with a few more cars on the way back. James is so much better at riding than he was a year ago - the wobbles are few and far between and even the whining from last weekend (It's too FAR, Daddy!) has diminished.

We watched Stardust again this afternoon after the bike ride - I'd forgotten how much I loved it the first time around. Definitely a keeper.

Epic Bike Ride

After all of our riding in RI, we both remembered how much we love to ride bikes. We added 'bikes' to our budget, and figured we could get some later in the fall when we'd saved up for them. We looked around quite a bit, and settled on a pair of Raleighs. We're so dorky with our matching bikes.

And then my parents decided to give me my bike as my (somewhat early) birthday present (THANKS!), which meant that we could buy them both now and get riding! Which we did. We picked them up on Saturday morning from the bike shop in Stowmarket, along with a helmet for John, some high-vis gear, and a set of panniers for John's bike. We rode home, had a few issues with John's bike, rode back to the shop, had everything sorted, and rode home again.

Saturday's total: about 5 miles. Yay us.

Then on Sunday, we rode (in the drizzle) to the Alder Carr farm in Needham Market. Here we are, on the way back. Well, here's John, anyway - I was taking the picture. Sunday's total: 8 miles.

And then today, we knew we wanted to go for ANOTHER bike ride. So we went along back roads, to Mendelsham and the A140. And then we crossed the A140 (carefully). And then we rode to Wetheringsett. And then we went in search of a pub. Further on. And then we got hungry and tired and thirsty and looked at our map and realized that home was VERY far away. Thankfully our getting lost involved doubling back on a parallel road to the one we'd taken, so when we looked at the map we were much closer to home than we thought. The wind was in our faces the entire way home and we were SHATTERED when we got back. I really like riding in Suffolk, though - there are so many 'B' roads and single-track lanes, where you get the odd car but it's mostly just other cyclists and walkers. Crossing the A140 was kind of scary, but there's a nice little crossing spot with really good views in both directions, so we just stood and waited until there was no traffic.

According to Google maps, we rode 27.2 miles. That's more than a marathon, people. Granted, we were on our bikes, and it was relatively flat and not too hot and not raining and the company was lovely. And our bikes have awesome gears and are really light. But still, 27.2 miles is FAR. And we only had my one little nalgene of water. And we kept getting lost and not finding any pubs. Next time, we'll bring more water and some snacks. And sort out the pub(s) before hand.

In other news, I went up to Redenhall (over the Norfolk border) to ring bells with them on Thursday night. I really liked the people and the bells but at 40mins each way it's a bit too much of a schlepp for a Thursday night. It was really fun, though - I got to ring the treble through Grandsire triples (7 bells, the 8th blowing behind), and then I rang some plain hunt on the other bells. It was a treat to ring methods on 8 bells - Old Newton has 5 and Buxhall and Finborough both have 6. Stowmarket has 8 but I've never rung methods on all 8. Supposedly there's going to be a Thursday evening method practice at Stow starting up again - and I can ride my bike to it!

Rural Suffolk...

Today was the first real glorious summer day - James and I puttered around this morning and rode in to town on our bicycles. It's kind of a tricky ride- the bike paths up in the housing estate are really good and well-laid out,and then you suddenly get dumped on to a main road with a really narrow sidewalk with lots of overhanging branches. And then there are intermittent bike paths in the town, none of which lead anywhere. I'm not quite confident enough of James' riding to let him ride in the road with cars - people go REALLY fast and he can be kind of oblivious and wobbly some times. Mostly he's fine, but he randomly swerves. Edward and I basically grew up on our bikes, especially in Holland and when we lived in Peterborough, so I don't think mom and dad ever really worried about us wobbling too much.

Anyway, in the afternoon we went to the Alder Carr Farm in Needham Market. I suggested that we take the back way there - it was this gloriously winding country lane that went through two towns - Creeting St. Peter and Creeting St. Mary. I love the names...and the houses along the road were SO pretty.

It's also the perfect distance to go on a bike ride - it's about 3 miles each way and a little hilly but not too bad. We're going to save our pennies and see about getting some bikes - my parents have Gazelle bikes from Holland that are beautiful and run forever but they're WAAAAY out of our price range. They have some really funny tandem ones, although I think I'm too much of a control freak to let John steer...we'd crash before we made it to the end of our street.

Anyway, the farm was incredible- they had homemade ice cream (YUM!), strawberries (PYO and in baskets) that smelled amazing, and various other little shops. One of them was an earthy-crunchy eco-friendly shop (that sells mooncups!), so we bought some enviro-friendly laundry soap and toilet cleaner. The laundry soap is cool - we can take the empty jug back and they'll refill it at a discount. Oh, the thrill.