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Published: December 18th 2006
Well, well, well.
Here we are again - heading into Winter time & all the glorious festive stuff that goes with Christmas. Now, although you might hate the cold (as I do), I'm really serious when I say that it's not that bad. In January I will be singing a different tune though I'm sure, as it becomes completely freezing all day every day, but at the moment the onslaught of Christmas is kind of nice. This country goes hard-out to make it all seem rather festive - especially with the lights everywhere (& I mean everywhere), which look so effective as it gets dark at about 3:30pm! There's all kind of decorations, fake snow, jolly santas, people bundled up in hats, coats, scarves, gloves, kids ice skating, roasted chestnuts, caramel roasted peanuts, yorkshire puddings, eggnog - all that stuff. Yay! It's actually really nice - except the big deal that everyone made about the giant Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square with the amazing lights, which goes up every year - this year, on close inspection by us this past weekend, we discovered it is neither giant, nor does it have amazing lights! All that aside, it's not that bad
to be here right now - there's heaps to do, as you can see below!
Bournemouth - We just went down to Bournemouth for the day one weekend a while ago for something to do. It is near-ish to Portsmouth, the place we went to on another day trip earlier in the year, but Bournemouth is quite different as it is a kind of beach town. It was a fairly big place with a lot of activities & things to visit. The weather was quite nice when we went although it wasn't that warm because of the wind. Bournemouth has a large pier (like Brighton - these British folk seem to love their piers) which had a few rides at the end of it, as well as a large cafe. The difference in Bournemouth was that there was actually a beach, with REAL SAND! I'm not kidding! Seems like forever since we have seen proper sand. There were also quite a few surfers out there braving the cold water, & I can imagine there being some quite decent waves at times. In the distance you can see the Isle of Wight (which is the southern-most piece of English land,
although it is an island). We had a walk around the beachfront where there was an big abandoned IMAX theatre, as well as a few beach-front cafes, restaurants & the like. After spending a bit of time wandering around the pier & beachfront, we crossed the road & headed up towards the town centre. The walk was really nice, taking us through some botanical gardens with a fantastic wee stream, a well-kept mini golf course, & rockery gardens filled with young people just hanging out for something to do. The main shopping area was pedestrian only (so common over here too), & there were heaps of families bustling around the 'high street' shops, as well as the tourists looking at the stalls in the middle of the pedestrian-area, which sold all kinds of cool things. We went back down to the beach & got some KFC for a change, before heading off back to London again. Just a quick wee last-minute visit, but it was well-worth the drive. Nice one Bournemouth!
Richmond Park - this place is awesome. It's located south of us in Richmond, near Kew Gardens which aren't actually too far from where we live in Ealing.
It is one of the largest parks I have ever seen. It has all kinds of things there - horseriding trails, mountain bike trails, football fields, old-school coffee caravans (none of this Starbucks nonsense), open fields galore - it's really nice to get out there & have a walk around. The parks in Central London (such as Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens) are well manicured, made for pedestrians, & completely different. Richmond Park is more like a nature reserve. And the best thing about it - WILD DEER! Of course, you can't shoot them, but you can see them sitting & wandering around in their herds, usually with a big buck (male) out the front, with giant antlers. There are several different breeds in the park - small spotted ones, & larger plain ones. We have been to Richmond Park a few times now, & you always get to see the deer, but there are very few places to park your car so it can be hard to get up close & personal with them. I managed to get some photos when we went again recently, until Vaughan got too close & scared half of them away - typical! But
after being in the city for so long, where a drive to anywhere in the wilderness means going all the way to Scotland, Richmond Park is really nice.
Southall - the Indian section of London. It's right next to Ealing so we are spoiled for choice when it comes to a good curry! Indians celebrate a festival called Diwali on October 21st, which is essentially Christmas to them. Apart from exchanging gifts, they enjoy setting off heaps of fireworks. Southall & Wembly (also an Indian area, & also near us) were both fantastic to drive through - people had professional-style fireworks even just in their own backyards, so there seemed to be lights & sound everywhere! We went into Southall, to the pub where my workfriend, Sara (from school) moonlights several nights a week behind the bar. It is quite a nice, bright, large pub, that has a good mix of locals & Indians. Of course, they had their own fireworks display, which they let off in the street, & you could see other displays just by looking out the window. The pub had free Indian food at 9pm, so Vaughan was right in there, but we didn't stay
too long as I was feeling quite unwell (this was the build up to the chest infection I had on the trip to Paris) - it was still fun though & we were both glad we went!
Ravenscourt Park - On Guy Fawkes night we decided to make the effort & go to the large display at Battersea Park. When the time came to depart we kind of backed out, deciding it was too much hassle (it was cold & dark, & there was no transport close to it, so it might mean getting up off our bums - shock, horror!). In the end I suggested going to Ravenscourt Park, in Acton/Shepherds Bush which is just a suburb away from us, where there was also meant to be a display of some kind. We didn't want to pay to get in, so we found a wee random side street & got the last car park - woo hoo! The small street cut through a wee alley & onto the main street right outside the park. There were a few park benches there & a lot of people had gathered there with their kids, also to watch the fireworks display.
It started off a bit late but it was quite good - we got to see a lot of fireworks types that we had not seen before, which really was quite cool. It was nice seeing the faces of the wee kiddies as well. It didn't last as long as I had expected, but I was really glad that we went. I think Vaughan enjoyed himself as we managed to show up just before the fireworks started, watch the display for free, then dash to the car, do a u-turn, & then tear out of there before most people even made it back to their cars. It's unheard of in London to attend an event without getting stuck in traffic for 2 hours afterwards. We were home about 10 or 15 minutes later, so it was a really successful mission.
Cardiff - always ncie to get away from London, to a place where people actually smile & say hello. Most of you will know by now that I had booked a weekend there along with some tickets to the All Blacks vs Wales rugby game in November, for Vaughan's 30th birthday (11th December). It managed to remain a secret
right up until the day of the game (about 5 hours beforehand in fact), as Vaughan did not know we were going to Cardiff until we were driving there, & then did not realise that the rugby was also on the next day. Here's the lowdown.....
We headed off from London on the Friday at about 4:30pm, so it took us a wee while to get there, as traffic out of London on a Friday afternoon/evening is always gross. So many people travel into London for work each week, & then go home on the weekends, so there can be a lot of traffic & accidents about. I just told Vaughan to get on the M4 & keep driving. When we got to Bristol he asked me which way to go & I told him to still just carry on, & he sounded surprised that we were going to Wales. When we got to Cardiff I directed him to the hotel. They didn't have a car park but there was parking very nearby, which was lucky as it was pouring with rain by this time. The hotel was right in town, about an 8-minute walk from our gate into
the stadium, & next to all the pubs & bars so we had plenty of things to see & do, as well as a choice of places to eat. Vaughan still had no idea that we were in Cardiff for another reason. We went to Lloyds Bar, a chain of bars all over the UK, which was right next door to the hotel. We had a nice dinner & some drinks, & found a laid back area upstairs with couches & stuff, where you didn't even have to wait to order anything. I don't think people figured out that they could get served in half the time up there!
The next day we got up to have a look for some breakfast, & had generally decided on just having a walk around until we found what we wanted, as it was only drizzling off & on, & wasn't cold at all. We went to check that Vaughan's car was safe, & people were carpark-stalking us because they wanted the park. We were very lucky to get it - it had become quite chaotic in the central city! Parking was really reasonable, so we just left the car where it
was the whole time we were there. When we went back past Lloyds bar on the way to the centre of town for food, Vaughan suddenly said "Oh, there's so many people wearing All Blacks tops" & it was just so funny. Then he looked at me strangely & said "Is there a game on? Are we going to the rugby?" - it was about midday & the game started at 5pm, so that was a pretty good effort at giving him a surprise right up until the day. He seemed excited & we really enjoyed looking around the shops, & an old fashioned indoor market that I am positive we went to last time. You could buy rugby stuff all over the place - hats & scarves & flags, etc at the street vendors that had popped up all over town. We went back to Lloyds Bar before the game & although we were obviously not in an NZ pub, no one seemed to mind & they all wanted to have a chat. It was quite busy, even upstairs, by that time. There were a lot of older people & it was heaps of fun, with everyone being really
good-natured. Then we decided it was time to go to the stadium - the gates opened at 3pm (for a 5pm kick-off), & it was 3:45pm - it only took us a few minutes to get there. All the roads were closed off & there were people everywhere. Our seats ended up being right up the top, on the side opposite the tunnel where the players come out - we were in the second row from the back, right up among the lights. They didn't get in our way as we were looking down, but I don't think we got on camera as we were just too far away! It was an excellent view though - like a shot you would see on TV - almost aerial! I hadn't realised that the roof covers the pitch below as well (I had thought only the crowd were covered), so there wasn't even a breeze or any drizzle being blown in. In the end it was warm enough to even probably just wear shorts & a t-shirt, but at least we were prepared.
It was nice to be there for the national anthem. When all the formalities were done, the All
Blacks split out into their starting formation, & everyone was really disappointed that they didn't do the haka! Even though the game had already started, people started chanted 'haka, haka' over & over until it became one huge noise, all around the staduim. Everyone was bellowing it out - even the Welsh fans! It sounded really impressive, but they still didn't do the haka. I didn't even think it mattered that much to the game until they didn't do it (never mind, I saw them do it one other time when I saw the All Blacks play France in Christchurch). The game was good but I felt sorry for the Welsh, as they just weren't up to their usual standard. I would have preferred a closer game but it was still fun. It was hard to know specifically who was scoring points, as of course, at live games there isn't any commentary, but it was still really good. The final score was 45-10. Vaughan seemed to enjoy the game, as well as chatting about rugby to the other guys around us, so it was really excellent! After the game we went to get some dinner, but just stopped off in
a place we nicknamed 'Kebab Alley' as it was a row of 5 kebab shops & 2 Chippy shops, just off the main street - quite funny! From there we just wandered around looking at all the people, & then went for a couple more drinks. The streets were just chock full of rubbish - it was SO bad that you were wading through it - it was 1m high in places (against walls), but there were no bins to put your rubbish in anyway. The road was slippery with all the grease from the food - it was quite crazy! I liked how Cardiff just 'became' the rugby - it's nice when you can see that a place cares about their sports teams. Usually all you see here are football (soccer) hooligans beating the crap out of each other (& missing the game anyway). My Dad had tried to call us while the game was on, which was really great, but we got to talk to him later anyway - thanks Dad!
The next morning we checked out, went for a cooked breakfast & a mini-walk to get some proper Cornish pasties for the drive home, & just
kind of tiki-toured around in the car. We went back to the Penarth waterfront (where Vaughan's Dad was from), & then headed off to Barry Island, which seemed to be an almost old-fashioned fun fair/beach/headland/tourist spot, as you imagine older seaside towns to have been like in their hey day (like New Brighton). It was a really nice day, but still a bit windy, so we decided to go & see Castle Coch, the other main castle near Cardiff apart from Cardiff Castle itself. It was really impressive (skinny but tall) & was situatied on a hill behind Cardiff, overlooking all the land down to the sea. We didn't go inside, but just had a look around for a few minutes, & then decided to head back to London to try & beat the influx of traffic that would be there later in the evening. So that was another successful mission. Plenty of other nice things happening at the moment too..............
The City - Central London goes hard out decoration-wise for Christmas. The tree in Trafalgar Square is meant to be an example of this, but it just kind of looked like a pine tree with some white lights
on it. After having a laugh at the tree for a while, we took a walk up Regent Street, towards Oxford Street, to see the lights there. Some of them were the same as last year, but there were a few different ones. There were so many people you could hardly walk! The area is kind of cool though, with all the fancy boutique stores & random things in storefront windows (quite old-fashioned-London type items). When we reached Hamley's Toy Store it seemed like we had stepped back in time - they had a snow blower on the roof so fake snow was falling everywhere. It was awesome! Apparently it's the place to go for Christmas - we managed to fight our way inside, & were both quite impressed. Although it sold new products (Bratz Dolls, Bob the Builder stuff, etc), it also sold a lot of old-fashioned products (old-school train sets, marbles, cool models etc), & the coolest thing was that they had several groups of employees demonstrating how some of the toys worked ("Roll up, roll up, have a look at this - we have an amazing toy for you") - kind of like the old store owners
do in their old-fashioned toy stores in the movies. And there were all these areas where you could also play with the toys yourself. It was really interactive & fantastic to be in a toy store that was massive, but yet somehow managed to get back to basics. Vaughan really enjoyed looking around the 'boys section', despite all the people he kept standing on. We had been going to go to Harrods as well but decided to save that for another night, as getting through all the crowds took quite some time. It was nice to be out with all the shoppers & the lights. A good atmosphere!
Vaughan's Birthday - OK, well I knew that I had already done the rugby thing for Vaughan for his birthday, but for the actual day we decided to do a couple of extra things to make the day special. He had a few extra gifts, plus some cards & a box from NZ to open. I think Vaughan was quite relieved to be home from work, as his day had not been very good & he had been grumpy all weekend after receiving a second parking ticket in 8 days! After
coming to grips with turning 30, his mood improved, & he seemed really quite excited about the (childrens) cake I had bought him - Colin the Caterpillar! Nice! We just went out for a pub meal & ended up at O'Neils, just a few minutes down the road - go the Irish! Although fairly quiet, Vaughan seemed pleased with his day. On Saturday, our friends Pete & Sueanne had arranged to come & spend time with Vaughan for his birthday - they showed up in the evening & we headed down to Ealing to an American/Mexican restaurant called Old Orleans which I had booked, as Vaughan & I had been there once before & really enjoyed ourselves. The whole place was decked out for Christmas, with each table having christmas crackers, whistles, tom-tom drums, stunt balloons & other amusing things to use while you were waiting for your dinner. They also provided crayons so you could draw on the (paper) tablecloth while you waited - much fun! We all really enjoyed our food & even had dessert for a change, which was really nice! After that we headed to one of the pubs around here & found a seat in
a dark corner while taking the mick out of the DJ who was terrible! But it kept us laughing, & somehow we ended up staying there for quite a while, despite the music. I think it was more that we didn't want to give up our seats & end up standing around for hours if we went somewhere else. Sueanne & I whipped across the road to check out 2 other places (I even got asked for ID at one of them - haha - I'll take it as a compliment) but we ended up staying where we had been originally. After a while we decided to go home, & Pete & Sueanne came back to stay at our place. They don't live too far away, but there are very few transport links at their end & it is difficult to get back there at night time. We just mucked around here for a while watching TV, talking & having a munch out on some corn chips. Not a bad night out, I must say, & Vaughan kept saying afterwards that it had been a good night. Yay! Happy birthday Vaughan!
That's it from us for now - will
talk to you next in the New Year with our adventures of Christmas in Spain. Muy Bien!! Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year - we miss you! Please take care of yourselves over the festive season, & we look forward to hearing of your own adventures over the summer. Hopefully they will keep us going through this cold dark winter (actually it's not that cold yet for some reason, but it's definitely dark - I'm hanging out for some vitamin D!). Don't forget that you can still wish Vaughan a happy belated birthday on vaughanshi@hotmail.com if you feel so inclined. Love yas xxxx
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