So it begins

Last week of work

Published Date : October 4, 2004

Last Thursday, Gray and I went to see a couple of German films out at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.  Only £4.50 for a double-bill.  Both of them were exceptional.  Good-bye Lenin was about a family in Berlin; the mother has a heart attack and is in a coma for 8 months, during which time the Wall comes down and East Berlin becomes entirely capitalist.  Her doctors tell her family that any shock would give her another heart attack and certainly kill her, so they recreate communist East Berlin and act like nothing has changed.  It was a really well done film, and it had a great sense of nostalgia for what things were like before reunification.  Well worth seeing.  For all the soccer fans out there, The Miracle of Bern was the story of the German win over Hungary in 1954? (not entirely sure on the date) in Bern, Switzerland.  But for a twist it’s told as secondary storyline to a family coping with the father’s return after 9 years in a Russian prison.  Another film well worth seeing.

Little Venice

Yesterday we spent a cold rainy day wandering around Little Venice in north-west London (Warwick Avenue Tube station) on a London Walks tour.  It was named Little Venice by Robert Browning because of its one canal.  Despite the weather it was a nice afternoon.  The trees are all starting to turn, so it was very picturesque with all the brightly coloured houseboats and golden trees lining the canal.  Little Venice is a bit of a unique area though.  It’s the only place in London that I know of where you can find a £12,000,000 mansion right across the street from a council estate.  It doesn’t seem quite right somehow.

So, this is my last week of work and I’m exceptionally excited about that!!  I’m especially looking forward to throwing out most of my work clothes on Friday night.  That’ll be such a great feeling ��  I’m starting to feel the strain of impending departure though.  It’s going to be very bittersweet:  I’m definitely looking forward to getting on the road again, but it’s going to be difficult saying goodbye to Gray for 8 months.  Ah well, made my choice, now I’ve got to live with it.

In the meantime, it looks like the trip to Cornwall is a go.  Woohoo!

Last day!!

Published Date : October 8, 2004

This will be my last blog entry from the village of Fulham in London, England.  We rented a car through EasyCar for £180 for 5 1/2 days, and starting tomorrow morning we head off to Sussex, Devon and Cornwall. We’ll be back in London for one day, and then next Friday my adventure begins!  Today is an easy day of clearing my work bench and getting cards and presents and cakes and goodies at afternoon tea break.  It sure is going to be a tough one [/sarcasm].

I can’t really say I’m at all sad to be leaving London.  When I first came back to the UK, I had hoped to get work somewhere up-country.  While it wasn’t my first choice, it was definitely a worthy experience.  There were a lot of good times, and I’ve met a lot of great people.  I’m just not cut out for big city life, especially London life.  I need open spaces, friendly people, and nature around me.  It also wouldn’t hurt to get some palatable food and decent weather for a change.  Haha!  This is another chapter of my life finished.  On to the next one!

Everything is looking good.  There was a bit of concern about the flight out of Gatwick next week.  The baggage handlers are on strike the day I leave, but Adria Airlines doesn’t use the company that’s striking so no worries.

Everybody sing it now…..on the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again…

Roughing it

Published Date : October 9, 2004

Battle Abbey with actors in costume

We were up bright and early this morning and out to Earl’s Court to pick up the car from EasyCar.  We were immediately hit with paperwork problems. Since I’m under 25, I had booked the car under Gray’s name, but I paid for it using my credit card.  They also said that we needed to show them proof of address, which made zero sense to either of us.  After a bit of hassle we finally managed to sort things out and get on the road.  Thanks to the AA’s awesome journey planner we managed to get of London in about an hour with no hassles at all.

Down to Hastings and rolling green hills, we both immediately felt ourselves starting to relax.  It was cloudy and freezing cold, but neither of us really minded.  We spent a couple of hours at Battle Abbey, enjoying the Battle of Hastings re-enactments.  With traditional 11th Century music, courtesy of Haut Bois, floating across the field, we watched a re-enactment of the Battle of Stamford Bridge, a Norman cavalry/hunting/archery demonstration, and explored the Abbey ruins.  After spending far too much money on souvenirs (a history of our family names and some viking/celtic pendants, etc) we decided to move on.

Re-enactments and demonstrations at Hastings

Back in the car for another hour or so, we enjoyed a scenic drive along the coast to Brighton.  We only spent about 15 minutes there, just to get out of the car and stretch a bit.  The plan was to spend the night in Bournemouth, but all the places we called were full up for the night.  We were hoping to stop off at Tourist Info in Brighton to see if they could book a bed for us, but we were having problems with getting the car into Reverse, so we didn’t want to risk getting stuck.  Instead we decided to just keep driving.  We stopped for dinner in Poole at about 7:30pm, £7 each for a full pub roast.  Mmmm, tasty!  Another half hour or so in the car and we rolled into Weymouth.

By this time we were expecting to spend the night in the car, but we had a look around at accommodation anyway.  No vacancies anywhere.  So after a bit of a drive around we found a secluded spot near a nature reserve, folded down the backseat of the car and made the most of it.  A fun start to our trip.