About time for an update...

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Good Afternoon my loyal readers,

You've all waited so patiently for me to update you, so it's about time I rewarded your patience...

Where to start, where to start... It's been so long...

Let's start with my current circumstances and work from there.

I'm still living with Jo in our little apartment in Limehouse (near Canary Wharf). We have one flatmate, Duncan, who is a friend of Jo's from New Zealand. I recently started work at Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) as part of their Science Quality Team. My office is in Westminster, so I walk past Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben every day. Not quite as nice as my view in Nelson, but it could be worse.

Jo and I do a lot of travelling when we can find the time. Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend, so we jetted off across Europe with a couple of friends to Stockholm in Sweden. Stockholm was absolutely gorgeous!! The weather was warm and fine, the buildings were old and picturesque, and it's situated on the sea giving it a great outlook.

The highlight of our trip was definitely the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a Swedish Man o' War built in the 1600s. It was to be the pride of the Swedish Navy and was decorated with beautiful carvings... unforetunately, 20 minutes into its maiden voyage it capsized and sank. There it lay for 333 years buried beneath several metres of silt. In 1961 it was raised from the seafloor largely intact, protected by the brackish water and silt covering. It is now the only existing man o' war from this era.

It was restored and repaired over several years and is now housed in its own museum. While you can't go onto the actual ship (it's a bit delicate for that), you can walk around the outside and get an idea of its grandeur. The museum also houses relics from the Vasa including several skeleton's of the crew that drowned when it went down. Each skeleton has been given a name and is displayed with the artefacts found around each body. The y have also examined the skeleton's to give each one a short history (age, height, weight, likely diet, injuries suffered during life, etc).

Recently, Jo and I both had a week off so travelled to the Channel Islands. Where I might hear you say? The Channel Islands are a British protectorate lying in the English Channel, quite close to France. Because of their proximity to France the weather tends to be a little more temporate than the UK mainland.

Once again the weather was great (I mention it so often because the weather can be so horrid in London) and the surroundings picturesque. It actually reminded me a lot of NZ because of the farming, rolling hills, and rocky coast. I don't see any of those very often any more.

We managed to fit in some time for a trip to the beach for a swim, some wine tasting at the only vineyard on Jersey Island, and Jo did a little waterskiing (my high centre of balance isn't really conducive to successful waterskiing... I tend to fall over a lot). All in all we had a very pleasant and relaxing time (just what we needed).

Stay tuned for my next update (hopefully not too far away) on my trips to Paris and Venice.

Until next time, stay safe
Nick

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Photos

Af Chapman
This is actually a hostel (though formerly a sailing vessel)