Just some notes

Things I achieved in 2016 (in no particular order):

• Cycled to Shoreham again without dying and this time, didn't feel totally exhausted at the end (although I was still pretty worn out). 
• Trips to Dubai, Totnes, Arles and Hull (although I forgot to write a blog for most of them).
• Helped a friend to buy a second hand tandem by sending them on an advert in the classified section of the Tandem Club journal.
• After nine years of working for the same company, I found a new job somewhere else at the end of the year. 

 Things I hope to achieve in 2017:

• Pass my probation period with my new employer and show them that they made the right decision with choosing me for the job.
• Run 5km without stopping or dying. 
• Remember to update this blog!

Another trip to FRANCE?!

The bag is half packed and I've just settled down to watch a recording of "First Dates". A text arrives from the airline "Your fight [flight number] has been cancelled. Please follow this link for a refund or to rebook". With less than 24 hours before I was meant to be in France, it looked like the whole trip was cancelled.

A frantic phone call to Megan followed. Unlike me, she doesn't worry unnecessarily when things like this happen and within a few minutes, had booked us onto the next flight which left a day later. We texted our aunt to arrange being picked up a day later than planned and were then left with a day and a half of unplanned time off in London.

After a bit of searching using a well known search engine, we decided to go to Eltham Palace on the day when we were meant to be flying out. We got lucky and the weather was good. Entry to the house included a free audio/interactive tour which provided some interesting facts about it all.

As we were flying out from Luton, I stayed over with Megan in Earlsfield ready to get the night bus to Victoria at 2am the next morning. After watching every comedy available on BBC iPlayer and a tense game of Trivial Persuit, we gave up and allowed ourselves two hours of sleep. Probably not the best move when we had to get up again.

I've never flown from Luton before and it definitely wasn't the nicest airport I've been to. That was until we got to Nimes at the other end and had to queue on the tarmac of the airport to get through French immigration. Meanwhile, our plane was already loading luggage and letting the return journey passengers back on.

We stayed with our aunt in Arles. We had originally hoped for some sunshine but sadly it rained for all of the two days we were there. Despite this, we had a fun trip to Avignon where we saw the famous bridge and Palais des Papes (excuse the French). We also had fun exploring the Roman architecture and small streets of Arles. Maybe next time we go, it won't rain so much. Here's some fun pictures to fill up the rest of this entry because I've run out of things to say:

A particularly long bike ride

On Wednesday 23rd September I did something pretty cool. Well, I think it was pretty cool anyway.

With my Dad for company/navigation, I set off at 8.30am for the longest bike ride I've attempted for some time (or ever). We rode out from Teddington with the aim of reaching the coast.

We started out by cycling through Esher and Oxshott to reach the other side of the M25. We continued using a variety of cycle paths, roads and bridleways. We'd planned in three stops to break the journey up. The first was for a much needed coffee in Fetcham. Once we'd had coffee, we continued for another twenty miles or so before stopping for lunch in a place called Rusper. For future reference, a large lunch right before getting on a bike for 40 more mies is not a great move. No matter how hungry you feel. It was made even less sensible by the fact that the hills after Rusper seemed to increase in frequency. The climbs were challenging but I made it up each one and enjoyed the ride backd own.

Using an old railway line that has been turned into a cycle path we headed towards a gap in the South Downs. In parts, the cycle way was really well surfaced but sadly in many others, it wasn't. Making the climbs and descents more of a challenge at times. After completing another twenty miles or so, we took another coffee break. Much needed as by then, my energy levels were starting to dip. We'd done 45 miles but still had twelve to go in order to reach our destination of Shoreham.

The final twelve miles was a push for my endurance. My previous longest ride had been about 44 miles and I'd probably (definitely) not done enough training for this. Finding my inner sports mentality (which is generally under used), I pushed on. It was all made worth it when we reached the beach at Shoreham shortly after 5pm - yay!

 

Awkward bike pose on Shoreham beach

Mileage at the beach

After 57 miles of cycling, we chose to get the train back to Teddington so cycled up to Shoreham station to catch a train to Clapham. From Clapham, we then caught another train to Twickenham before cycling the final few miles back to Teddington. By the end of the day we'd covered 60 miles of cycling and I was shattered. It was definitely worth it, I'm still really pleased I did it four days later. Onto the next challenge!

Return to Japan

Time for my celebratory turning 30 trip to Japan! Again! I know I only went about eighteen months ago but unexpectedly, I persuaded my friend Robbie to join me for a return trip.

We started in Tokyo and although I'd been there before, Robbie hadn't. We covered a lot of ground in the two days we had to explore the city. We visited a few temples, Japanese gardens and explored areas like Akihabara. We even met a little Japanese man in Shinjuku station who joined us for a trip to Harajuku shrine telling us lots of fun (yet confusing) stories about the Japanese Emperor and Japanese history in general along the way.

Shinjuku park

Tokyo station

After a few days in Tokyo, we activated our 7 day Japan Rail passes and caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka. Getting the Shinkansen was something I'd wanted to do for a while and was something I didn't have the opportunity to do during my previous visit. A journey of about 300 miles took just under three hours and ran exactly to the schedule set out for it. An opportunity to embrace my inner train geek and have a cheeky nap.

Once in Osaka, we spent our first day exploring the city. Osaka is a fairly industrial city but had a rebuilt castle and a large aquarium to explore. If you're a regular reader of my occasional blog, you'll know that I love a good aquarium. The aquarium was apparently one of the largest in Japan and featured various marine creatures including otters, capybaras, sharks, rays and jellyfish. The castle was a replica of one that was bombed during the war. The queue for the lift was too long so we chose to climb up the seven flights of stairs to the top level. It nearly killed me despite my improved level of fitness but there was a nice view of the city from the top which made it worthwhile.

View from Osaka Castle

Using Osaka as our base, we spent the next few days taking day trips out to other places of interest. Starting with Kyoto. I went to Kyoto last time I was in Japan but the Golden Pavilion was still just as impressive the second time around. We also headed over to the Silver Pavilion and explored the Philosopher's Walk which featured several other temples and shrines. It ended up in the middle of a suburb of Kyoto where we found an overcrowded commuter bus to take us back to the station. Forty minutes standing uncomfortably close to other people is a little bit awkward for me.

Golden Pavilion

Silver Pavilion

The following day, we went to Nara. Nara was apparently the capital of Japan at one point and is known for it's free roaming deer and temples. The deer reminded me a lot of the monkeys I saw in Malaysia. They were very friendly and were particularly interested if they thought you had some food for them. When I got some special deer food for them, I found myself surrounded by several deer who in their enthusiasm tried to head butt me to get to the food.

Buddhist temple in Nara

Meeting one of the Nara deer

By this point, we were getting a bit tired of temples and shrines. Shocking I know but there's a point where you reach overload. To take a break from this, we spent the next day in Himeji. Himeji Castle had only just reopened after a five year refurbishment so we picked the right time to go. It was probably my favourite place that we visited in Japan. We got tickets to explore both the castle and the nearby Japanese garden. Part of the fun of the castle was removing shoes to explore inside before climbing some wooden staircases in socks and trying not to fall over onto other tourists. The view when we got to the top of the castle was worth the potential accident risk. Getting back down the stairs was equally scary but luckily I didn't display any clumsy behavior and cause chaos.

View from the castle

View of the castle

The next day, we caught the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for our final two days in Japan. We spent the last day visiting a cat cafe (essential for any trip to Japan), exploring a few areas and picking up various souvenirs. Ended up spending far too long back in Akihabara helping Robbie decide between different manga/anime figurines.

New friend at the cat cafe

Next month, I am off to Paris for a few days to celebrate my birthday. I'll try and remember to write an update which is at least as enthralling as this one once I get back.

Livin' it up in Liverpool

I should start by apologising for the awful title of this entry. There are numerous better Liverpool related things I could have gone for but I can't think of them right now.

A second apology for how long it's been since my last entry. Since that entry, I've been to a few places in the UK as well as the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I forgot to write something at the time and am not convinced I'll write a good entry several months later. The most recent trip I made was at the beginning of this month so I'm hoping the memories are still fresh enough to get something vaguely interesting for the blog.

I went to Liverpool with my family as it was my Mum's birthday. Since Liverpool was the Capital of Culture a few years ago, she's always wanted to go and see the city so it seemed like a good destination for a short weekend trip.

On our first day in the city, we found a free walking tour to join. It was free in the sense that you didn't have to pay but you were expected to put in a donation at the end depending on your level of enjoyment. We had a three hour walk around the key sights of the city centre along with some interesting stories. Obviously The Beatles formed a big part of the stories but there was also a lot of interesting history stories about Liverpool's role as a key port during the British Empire.

Statue of Prince Albert and a slightly scared looking horse

Eleanor Rigby statue

short John Lennon statue outside the Cavern Club

On our second day in the city, we covered a few of the museums and the dock area. For me, the most interesting museum was the Maritime Museum which incorporated the Museum of Slavery. It was laid out really well and was really good for a history geek like me. We also visited one of the art galleries and went back to some of the sights we'd covered briefly on the walking tour.

The ferry across the Mersey was the main activity on our final day. Unfortunately, I get sea sick far too easily and the Mersey was very choppy that day. An hour on a choppy river in the cold and rain is not my idea of fun but I guess it's one of the essential things to do if you are in Liverpool.

In May this year, I have another trip to Japan planned. After my last trip (featured in earlier blog entries) I felt there was more to see so persuaded a friend to join me for a return trip. Assuming I don't forget again, I'll try and write a blog entry for that trip. Hopefully, it will be a bit more exciting than this one!

"It's about time you wrote another blog entry"

Bowing to "popular" demand, it's probably time for another entry. A few things have happened since I got back from Malaysia so I'll try and make it interesting.

The big thing is that I've now moved out of the flat I was sharing with a friend and back in with my parents. Although my flatmate found another job, it didn't pay enough for her to afford to stay and I couldn't afford to stay on my own. After ten odd years of flat/house shares, I wasn't sure I could handle any more randoms with questionable living habits. At my age (late 20s), it's a bit of a change to make. Hopefully, it won't be too long term and it means I can save up with a view to making an escape to a place of my own.

Don't worry, I have also done some (less far flung) travel to balance out my failure to be an adult.

Croydon 
Actually Selsdon - a suburb of Croydon but nobody has heard of there so Croydon will do. I went there for the periodic work annual conference. Two days of talks, awkward videos and group discussions about improving strategies and developing new ideas to become a better company. To make up for this, there was a dinner on the first evening featuring a large amount of wine and a cheesy disco.

Dorchester
Another work trip including a very long train journey. On the way there, someone started a fight on the train causing the journey to take three hours, I was incredibly bored by the time I actually reached Dorchester. I also found myself there on one of the first hot days of the year but unable to enjoy it fully. I did get time to have a wander around the town and establish that nowadays there is a little bit more to do in an evening - even a cinema.

Bognor Regis
A couple of road trips down to West Sussex's best kept secret - an amazing crazy golf course. I even managed my record lowest score of 44 and rang the bell for a free game next time I'm there. The main purpose of the visits was actually to visit my Gran and on both occasions, there was nice, sunny weather so we could take her out for a walk along the promenade.

Central London
To celebrate reaching my late twenties, I had a day off for my birthday. My policy is that I should do my best to never work on my actual birthday and so far, I have successfully stuck to this policy. This year, I went up to central London with my Mum to have a touristy day on the river boat tour. Not the crazy hardcore party antics most people my age get up to but it turned out to be pretty good.

We caught the boat from Westminster Pier and joined a trip to Greenwich. On the way we had one of the crew provide a "quirky" commentary about the various sights of London. For example, "did you know that Big Ben was named after the Clerk of Works in charge of building the Houses of Parliament? His name was Ben and he was 5ft tall. He was also 5ft wide so many people thought he looked like a bell. As a token of appreciation, they named the bell after him". Who knows whether that is true...  We had a spot of lunch by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich before joining another boat for the journey back to Westminster with more or less the same "quirky" commentary in reverse. 

Tower Bridge

The Cutty Sark

Celebratory sparkling wine

I have also relaunched my fatty to fitty campaign. Over the last couple of years, I let my fitness slide a little bit so I decided to use moving in with my parents as a motivation to change that. I started by cycling to and from work every day, regardless of weather. A minimum of 2 miles each way but I've tried to go longer routes on the way home or cycle up some more hills to improve my slightly poor lung capacity. In a week's time, I'm taking part in a ride into and around Central London (part of the Prudential Free Cycle event) which will put all this to the test. Perhaps I will write an update after that to let you know how I got on.

Sorry for the delay...

Part three - Kuala Lumpur and home

Sorry for the delay, I got distracted by work and painting the bedroom I'll soon be moving into at my parents' house. Such an exciting life I lead, sure you're wondering why I only update this occasionally.

Anyway, after the amazing sing song on the plane we collected our bags and caught the bus into central KL to find our hostel. Once we dumped our bags, we headed off to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves is home to a large Hindu temple and a massive staircase to get to the temple. Once we got to the top, it was pretty spectacular. There were statues of the various gods all over the caves in two large cavern type spaces.

Outside the Batu Caves with the massive staircase behind

Once we got back from the Batu Caves, we explored Little India and I tried a pretty hot (by my slightly wussy standards) jalfrezi curry. Megan managed to find the milder option and didn't spend her dinner frantically searching for water and tissues. I think the waiters found it hilarious and clearly thought I couldn't handle curry. They were probably right but it was nice despite how hot and spicy it was. 

After that, we made our way over to the Petronas Towers. By then it was dark and we found ourselves in a square behind the towers at the right time for a water fountain show. It was pretty impressive, Megan even took a video (link available on request). We then went to a hotel bar on the 45th (ish) floor where we were opposite the Petronas Towers. Sadly, the waiter sussed we were only really there for the view and was keen to get rid of us as soon as we'd finished our drinks. It was cheaper than going up the Petronas Towers themselves though.

Water fountain show

The Petronas Towers from the square

On our final day in KL, we joined a tour which took us out of the city. The first stop was an area well known for it's large wild monkey population. The area was quite popular and there were monkey snacks available for all the tourists which attracted more monkeys. We chose not to buy any monkey snacks but still got very close to the monkeys.

Monkeys

 After seeing the monkeys, we went to a riverside seafood restaurant (if that makes sense) for dinner. The fish we were about to eat were all in tanks at the entrance to the restaurant, bit different to anything I'm used to. We got a selection of seafood to try including crab still in the shell, a first for both me and Megan. 

When we'd finished dinner, we joined a boat trip to see the fireflies which hang out along the river. It took a lot of squinting but I actually managed to see the fireflies, it was really cool although I think I was expecting them to be much brighter.

The following morning, Megan left really early in the morning. Leaving me with most of a day to fill before I needed to head to the airport. 

I started off by trying to find the botanical gardens. Megan had recommended them to me and the man in the hostel had given me what seemed like relatively straight forward directions. After about an hour of walking around in circles, I came to the conclusion I had taken several wrong turns and decided to take a different approach. I headed to the main square with the giant flag and joined a tour bus. The idea was that I would get off when it reached the botanical gardens and in the meantime, enjoy the commentary. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of traffic and after a while it started raining, monsoon style. I hadn't reached the botanical gardens stop by this point and the rain didn't ease off. In the end, I gave up on the botanical gardens altogether and stayed on the bus until the point nearest to the hostel so I could get changed, collect my bag and head to the airport.

I got to the airport about four hours too early. I filled the time by helping a Malaysian student with his dissertation (I filled in his questionnaire about food and wine). I also spotted a man wandering around the terminal clutching a giant cheque and saw about 10 groups of travellers get their bags wrapped in cling film.

That's it for the Malaysian trip updates. It was awesome, particularly because I got to see Megan. After 7 months, it was great to have a catch up and also a holiday. I don't have any travel plans that are quite so exciting coming up but I'm going to try and write some more regular updates here anyway. Hopefully it will help me improve my writing skills and be interesting to read.

To the beach

It's now nearly two weeks since I got back to the UK and more than that since a lot of the things I'm trying to remember happened. Will do my best to write something fun anyway.

Once we landed on Langkawi island, we got a taxi to our hostel. There was a bit of confusion when the taxi driver couldn't read my handwriting but we made it. Megan had stayed at the hostel before on a previous travel adventure so had a couple of friends among the hostel staff.

We dumped our bags and decided to head straight to the beach. The beach was brilliant with white sand and blue sea. Not too busy either. I had a bit of a swim/paddle and it was lovely. We spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach and occasionally going into the sea.

The beach

As the island did not have much traffic and they drive on the same side as the UK, I had my first experience of driving abroad the next day. We hired a car to explore the island further and headed first to a cable car that Megan hadn't managed to go on last time she was on the island. Sadly it wasn't to be, the cable car was shut for maintenance for the exact days we were on the island. Disappointing. We headed on to a waterfall nearby. After climbing several hundred steps (which in the heat and humidity wasn't that easy), we got to the top of the waterfall.

We then moved onto another beach. This beach was a bit quieter than the one we went to the day before so we spent more time swimming in the sea and chilling out on the sand. Lovely.

On our final day in Langkawi, we joined an island hopping tour. There are loads of smaller islands surrounding Langkawi including one called the Pregnant Lady Island (because the rocks looked like a pregnant lady having a lie down) where there was a freshwater lake in the middle. We also got to see some eagles being fed next to another island before going onto a final island where there was a beach to laze around on.

Freshwater lake with the pregnant lady rocks behind

We headed back to Kuala Lumpur the following morning on an AirAsia flight where the captain serenaded us all with a burst of "Unchained Melody" as we were taxiing around KL airport finding our gate. What a welcome back!

I'll write about our last few days in Kuala Lumpur in my next entry.

More Malaysia - Cameron Highlands

Here we go with part 2, it's now over two weeks since I was actually there so let's see how much I actually remember.

We arrived in Tanah Rata (think that's how it's spelt) quite late at night so didn't have much time to explore after finding our hotel and getting some food. 

The next day we started our exploring by joining a tour to a large tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands. There were loads of fields up and down the hills full of tea plants. I've never seen a tea plantation before so I was pretty impressed. I think Megan has so maybe it was less exciting for her. We went on to a rose garden where we saw some roses and other flowers (I'm not the best horticulturalist so I have no idea what flowers they were). After that, we visited a strawberry farm because it's one of the only places where strawberries can be grown all year round (apparently).

Stawberries

A flower that probably isn't a rose

The following day we went on a slightly more intense tour. The morning involved a long hike in the hot and humid jungle in order to locate the Rufflesia plant. Unfortunately, the Rufflesia plant doesn't grow somewhere easy to access and in large quantities. The hike involved steep hills, precarious bamboo bridges and a lot of mud. Being a little on the overweight side and very much unfit, it was a struggle for me and I ended up sitting out the end of the hike. I did get to see a dead Rufflesia though. Slightly black and disgusting so I didn't take any pictures to prove my efforts. After stopping off for a traditional southern Indian style lunch, we went back to the tea plantation because every single tour had to take it in.

Hanging out among the tea plants

The tour then took us to the Mossy Forest, something Megan was particularly keen on but involved more hiking. Luckily, it wasn't so humid or so steep this time so I made it through without highlighting my rubbish hiking abilities. The Mossy Forest is so called because of the large amount of moss found in it. It was on all the trees and the ground, making everything quite damp and spongy.

Mossy Forest featuring some insectivorous plants

The final stop of the tour was a butterfly/creepy crawly type place where we got to have a go at holding various animals. For some reason, the guide decided Megan was really keen and let her have a go on every single creature first. I had a go at holding everything except the scorpion, although it's sting had been removed it still put me off a little bit. Animals featured included large stick insects, leaf insects, chameleons, butterflies and grass snakes.

Holding a chameleon

The following morning we left the Cameron Highlands to head to Langkawi. This featured another long and slightly uncomfortable journey (I'm slightly too tall for Asia which means leg room can be a bit cosy). We had a bumpy five hour journey to the port where we caught a very fishy smelling boat over to Langkawi.

I will write about Langkawi in my next entry, before this entry goes on for too long.

Time for a reunion in KL

I'm writing this up about a week after I got back so it may not be in exact order and things could well get missed out.

Part 1 - The journey & Kuala Lumpur

My journey to KL via Frankfurt took a grand total of about 15 hours. It was pretty fun in the end. I made friends with lots of German people (it was a Lufthansa flight) and actually managed to get some sleep on the plane. This meant I was feeling surprisingly awake and alert when I got to KL and had to deal with immigration and finding my suitcase.

Megan had got to the airport before me so was there to meet me when I got out of arrivals. After seven months, it was great to see her again. 

We caught a bus into central Kuala Lumpur which got caught up with the rush hour traffic and seemed to take ages to get there. We eventually reached China Town where we were staying and found our hostel. After dumping our bags and getting changed, we headed back out again to explore and find some dinner. 

China Town in KL is pretty busy and full of loads of stalls trying to sell you handbags, sunglasses etc. 

After wandering around for a while, we found somewhere to have some dinner. Before leaving the UK my Mum had given me a Christmas cracker to take for Megan as she'd missed out on the traditional family Christmas back in December. Turns out it looks a bit strange breaking out a Christmas cracker on Good Friday but the plastic bowling set inside the cracker made it all worthwhile.

The next day we arranged coach tickets to take us to the Cameron Highlands for the afternoon so had the morning to explore KL further. We started off by going to the old square which featured a very tall flag pole and some old buildings.

After that, we went to the KL Menara, a tower you can go up and see all across the city. Great view although maybe a little smoggy.

Wandering around a hot and humid place really makes you appreciate air conditioning. Luckily, pretty much everywhere indoors had air conditioning. However, walking from the train station to the various attractions was much more hard going than a wander around somewhere like London.

Once we were finished looking around the tower, we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a bit before our coach to the Cameron Highlands. Once we got the coach, it took about five hours in pouring rain (think we were in Malaysia's rainy season) and on quite narrow, twisty roads before we reached our destination.

I'll tell you about the Cameron Highlands in my next entry.
 

York

2014 so far has been a bit of a stressful and eventful year for me. Without boring you with the details, I will try to give a quick summary. On the negative side, my housemate lost her job and we may have to move on from the flat we currently share sooner than originally planned. On a positive note, she's found a new job starting this week which may mean we could stay on until November when our contract ends anyway. Not quite any certainties but a great deal more reassuring than the update I could have written a couple of weeks ago which I've probably already told you about in great detail if I have spoken to you in the real world recently. To have a bit of a break from all this drama and stress, I agreed to go on a short break to York with my friend Robbie. 

We got the train up on the Friday morning and arrived in York by the early afternoon. We started off by having a wander around the city. Neither of us are good at map reading so we found ourselves exploring several of York's old streets more than once as we went around in circles. After seeing the same pub a few times on our wanders, we stopped in for some dinner. It turned out to be York's most haunted pub - the Most Haunted team had apparently been there and everything. Luckily for me, we didn't see any ghosts and the food was actually pretty nice. 

The next day, we went over to York Minster. As the minster is visible from most of the city, we thought it would be the best place to start. We decided to go inside and have a look around. It reminded me a bit of Canterbury Cathedral - there was a lot of stained glass and chapels off to the sides.

 Outside York Minster

Stained glass window inside York Minster

After that, we went onto Jorvik Viking Experience, considered one of the key places to visit when in York. I'd been before when I was younger but found it a bit less impressive this time. It consisted of a small exhibit with not much information then a ride around a recreated model village with robotic vikings and weird smells. Not sure I'd go back again!

We carried on the museum theme by heading over to the National Railway Museum. Being a little bit of a geek, I enjoyed this museum a lot more. The added bonus was that it was free so we didn't have to feel like staying for longer than necessary to get our money's worth!

The next day, we decided to take it a bit easier and explore the city walls. There are about two miles worth of city wall around York to wander around and we ended up covering all of it. The walls were really interesting to walk around although some parts were quite high up and didn't have railings on the edge which made walking past people going the other way a little scary. During our walk around the walls, we also went up the remains of York castle. This featured some spectacular views of the city but meant climbing some steep and narrow spiral staircases to get there. 

Once we had explored the walls, we visited the York Chocolate Story. Apparently York was the centre of the chocolate producing industry for a while with companies like Rowntrees and Terrys based there. The tour included a good amount of free chocolate and some fun chocolate based facts. It was probably aimed at a younger age range than us though as everyone else on the tour had young children.

Having covered most of York's key tourist attractions, we left this morning and got back to London before rush hour. 

Coming up - I am going to Malaysia next month to meet up with Megan (my sister and writer of a much more interesting blog http://megs-meanders.blogspot.co.uk/ ). I will try to add some updates about our trip once I get back.

Christmas in South West London

I thought I would break my blog silence with an entry about my Christmas activities.

On the 23rd December, I went over to my Mum and Dad's house to stay for the Christmas week. The first key thing I did was attempt to bake. I should probably explain that normally I am not a baking person. I don't tend to spend my time baking cakes or pastries and although I love "The Great British Bake Off", I'm generally a bit lazy to give it a go myself. However, I decided to try making the mince pies. Turned out that making pastry is not too difficult although I was a bit terrified it wouldn't work out. Luckily, I cheated and used pre-made mincemeat so there was at least one part that was guaranteed to work. Sadly, I didn't quite make enough pastry so I had to use some cutters to make fun designs to go on top of some of the pies. I think it paid off and the finished results actually tasted alright.

Normally, my Gran and my sister are also with us for Christmas. As you may know already, my sister is in Indonesia teaching English and is sunning herself in Bali for the Christmas break (little bit jealous). My Gran was all set to come and stay with my parents from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. Unfortunately, on the 23rd December the south of England was hit by quite significant storms. Although the storms did not cause any damage to the roads we required to collect her, she decided it would be best not to come after all. For the first time that I can remember, there was just the three of us for Christmas. Very strange.

We started Christmas day off in the normal way for us by going on a walk in Bushy Park with some friends of my Mum. We decided to be energetic and cycled there, my parents on their tandem. Despite being fairly full of a cold, I managed the bike ride and the walk around the park without feeling worse. After the walk finished, my Dad took a couple of my Mum's friends for a ride around the car park on the tandem. Having grown up around tandems, I forget how weird they must be to ride for the first time. 

Once back at my Mum and Dad's house we had some wine then opened some Christmas presents. I was very lucky and got some very nice things. My parents seemed to like their presents too. Bonus. Once done unwrapping things and drinking our wine, we had Christmas dinner. Pretty traditional turkey with roast veg and all the trimmings (except brussell sprouts) followed by Christmas pudding ice cream. 

In previous years, we've followed up Christmas dinner with a drive into central London to view the festive lights in Oxford and Regent Streets. This year, my Dad didn't fancy the drive and I didn't fancy doing it instead of him so we decided to go for a second walk. This time we wandered down to Teddington Lock. The storm had caused the river to get up pretty high and there was a bit of flooding too so we didn't walk up too far. It did prevent us all from having the post Christmas dinner lull/nap time and conveniently meant we missed the Queen's speech. When we got back we managed to catch Megan for the second Skype chat of the day.

On Boxing Day, we went to Bognor to visit my Gran. Although the storm had caused some flooding and fallen trees, this had not affected the roads we used. The journey still seemed to take ages though, think everyone had the same idea of visiting relatives on Boxing Day. Luckily, the weather in Bognor was sunny and we were able to take my Gran for a quick push in a wheelchair up to the seafront. As there was a lot of shingle on the promenade, we couldn't take her too far along as the wheelchair was really not up for that kind of obstacle. 

I spent a further two days with my parents, mostly being lazy and recovering from my Christmas cold. I am still off work until 2nd January. In that time, I don't really have much planned but should be attending my friend's New Year's Eve house party on Tuesday to mark the new year itself. Here are some fun pictures from the last few days:

 My amazing mince pies

 Classy hand decorated Christmas cake

Christmas day walk

This will probably be my last entry for 2013 but don't worry, there is much to look forward to blog wise in 2014. Not only will I probably go on some trips around the UK in dubious weather but I will also be meeting up with Megan in Malaysia in April. That will definitely warrant a few blog entries and hopefully they will be even better than this year's selection.

To Hull and back

Firstly, I need to apologise for the slightly overused pun based title of this entry. However, it is true. I did go to Hull and back in a short space of time which I feel justifies it.
 
When I was at university, I studied American Studies. A combination of history, English literature, film and cultural topics all focussed on the USA. In 2013/14, the American Studies department at Hull celebrated it's 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations for this, the department arranged a 50th anniversary Thanksgiving dinner which I went to with my friend Lucy who also did the same degree as me.
 
We went up to Hull on Thursday by train. The view of the Humber Bridge as we came into Hull remains one of my favourite views ever.

 
We stayed at a hotel opposite The Deep - Hull's aquarium (known as a submarium, not sure what the difference is). Once we had arrived and dropped our bags into the hotel, we decided to take a nostalgic trip to the university campus. Turns out a lot had changed in six years since we had graduated. The students union had been done up and work was being done to upgrade the university library. Luckily the University of Hull sign at the front was still there for us to pose next to.

 

 

The meal in the evening was a lot more fun than I was expecting. Both Lucy and I were quite concerned that there would not be a large turnout. Luckily, there was over 100 people there from across the fifty years of the department. Our decade, the noughties, was a bit under represented compared to some of the other decades. There was only six of us on our table which mean that the Dean of the Faculty and Director of Cultural Studies were sitting at our table to make up the numbers. Despite this, we mingled with our former lecturers and met a lot of interesting people. Including one of the first ever graduates from the 1960s.

 

The next day, we went for breakfast in old town Hull and took a quick wander of the cobbled streets in that area. The city has recently been awarded UK City of Culture 2017 so there was a lot of excitement in the area. All the taxi drivers we spoke to were hopeful that being City of Culture could lead to great things for Hull. Hopefully, it will.

Sadly, we had to return to London later that day but I'm hoping to go back again next summer with a few more days to spare so I can fully explore the area and maybe catch up with old friends in the area



Sunshine in Southend

I recently started flexi time at work. This means that if I work any extra time, I can build it up to use as a day off. For my second ever full day off after building up enough hours, I decided to go on a trip to Southend on Sea in Essex with my Dad.

I've been to Southend once before when I was about eight when I went on a boat trip there with my family. All I could remember about it was a very long pier and not much else. This time, we caught the train there from Fenchurch Street.

Unfortunately, it was a grey and slightly grey day when we got to Southend. This didn't put us off one of our key reasons for our trip - a walk along the pier. We paid our £1 each and started walking. Initially, it wasn't too bad. Slightly windy with spits of rain. Unfotunately, it got a lot worse as we continued. The wind increased and the rain started pouring down. By the time we were halfway along the pier, we were soaked through. The little train that runs along the pier passed us at about this point, as if to remind us that walking was a stupid idea. As we had already got halfway, we carried on to the end. Getting wetter and colder as we went. As the weather was so bad, the view from the end of the pier was mostly cloudy and grey. The Thames estuary looked particularly grim.

Dad at the end of Southend Pier

 

Me at the end of Southend Pier

 

 

The weather was no less horrible after a few minutes of taking grim looking photographs so we took the decision to treat ourselves to the train back down the pier. For £3.50 in total, we could sit somewhere dry and vaguely warm. A pleasant alternative to the prospect of a rain and wind swept walk back.

 

We were both still pretty damp by the time we got back to the end of the pier so decided to find a warm café for some lunch. We found one pretty quickly where we had some non traditional soup and a Panini while sat fairly close to a radiator.

 

After we'd had some lunch, we'd vaguely warmed up and the weather was starting to brighten up. Although not fully dried out, we had a walk along Southend sea front. As it was winter, the fun fair and amusement arcades were all closed which made it a little bit depressing. Luckily the sun was starting to come out and the wind had completely eased off. Perhaps that would have been a better time to take a walk along the pier.



 

Cheeky trip to Bristol

As a bit of a last minute thing, I decided to go to Bristol for a few days with my friend Robbie.

Not necessarily the first place you think of as a holiday destination but there was an offer on with the hotel and the train fare turned out to be pretty cheap.

We spent the first day wandering around the city's marina area and checking out the shops. It feels like a lot of work has been done recently to improve both areas as everything seemed pretty modern and most of the shops were still occupied. We also checked out the aquarium (if you've read any of my previous entries, you may notice that I love aquariums). Sadly this one was a bit on the disappointing side. After promising one of the largest captive octopus in the world, we got to the tank to find that said octopus was out on loan at another aquarium while the tank was being improved.

Keeping with the animal theme, we decided to go to Bristol Zoo on the second day. After the slightly unimpressive experience at the aquarium, I had low expectations. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the animals were out and about despite it being a little chilly. Plus, we managed to get quite close to some of them, particularly the lemurs. You could actually go inside the lemur enclosure and as it had just been feeding time, they were all hanging out on the wooden barriers separating the path from the trees/rocky area intended for them to play on. I was almost close enough to touch them, pretty cool.

Giant tortoise

Up close with the lemurs

We also checked out the penguin and seal feeding time. The two weren't fed at the same time but had enclosures next to each other. The seals had been trained to do some fun tricks, apparently to help them get checked regularly by the vets. The keepers demonstrated by getting them waving, jumping in and out of the pool and generally performing in exchange for some food.

Back to normal South West London life now but I'll try to write another update soon.