Not Just a Granny

Life’s a beach…..

October 6, 2016 by notjustagranny

Two years ago my daughter up sticks and moved to Broadstairs. I’d heard of the place but never been there.

Broadstairs – a seaside town in Kent

My heart wrenched when I left London – I rent a room from her for the times I’m not working, so I had a choice of finding somewhere in London to live or continuing our previous arrangement. Saying goodbye to London and the River Thames was really hard.

view of the Thames from Twickenham Bridge…I loved this view

I had many. many happy memories of our time in Twickenham/Richmond and spent so many hours walking alongside, photographing and just staring at the Thames that I could live another life, it is a truly beautiful area and stretch of my favourite river.

I camped out in an empty house for two days after she left on the 4th, but finally my time ran out and 2 years ago today, with suitcases and bags in hand (travel lightly you say!! How???), struggling to drag and carrying my load along the sidewalk and across roads to the station, I finally arrived at Broadstairs; 3 train journeys and 3 hours later.

my luggage – from St Margarets to Broadstairs

What an amazing place…….and that beach!!!! Our lives are spent walking along that….

a view of the bay from the cliff top

The house is a tiny, charming little place, a home where we’ve since acquired a kitty by the name of Elsie, a rescue cat, who after months of lots of TLC has settled in like she always lived there!

Elsie waiting for her adopted Mama to come home LOL

Elsie on the windowsill catching the breeze 🙂

The town a treasure trove of history and places to explore……

a delightful seaside shop in Broadstairs

Bleak House, Broadstairs

this is Bob the Boat…..so named coz it’s cute and bobs about in the water. 😉

colourful beach huts in Broadstairs

Viking Bay – Broadstairs

scenes of Broadstairs and Viking Bay

…..but the best thing about living in Broadstairs are the sunrise and sunset.

Now we don’t always get to see either of these due to the inclement UK weather, but every now and then a real charmer puts on a display like no other. Winter is the best time of year to watch the sunrise (for me that is) coz it comes up later and I’m not an early bird…although I have been known to drag on my clothes, eyes still sticky with sleep, teeth unbrushed, grab the keys and dash along to the esplanade….sans my first cup of tea!!! which is a miracle, but some days the miracle is happening on the horizon.

sunrise over Viking Bay, Broadstairs

We’ve watched many a sunrise and quite a few sunsets since moving to Broadstairs. We’ve watched calm days when the water is so still you feel you could walk across it and other where the wind lashed the waves into a fury as they lash out and crash against the harbour wall.

sunset over Viking Bay, Broadstairs

Viking Bay and the beach that ‘belongs’ to Broadstairs certainly is in my opinion the most beautiful of all the beaches/bays in the area, is a constant gift of beauty. It is the first thing I head over to when I get home and usually the last thing I wander over to look at before I leave on my next assignment. It is a constant draw and even when we’re home, we walk along the esplanade just about every day.

beautiful Viking Bay, Broadstairs

I have explored the streets and museums, eaten at the tearooms and restaurants, walked this way and that along the coast; either northwestwards to Margate or south to Ramsgate. It is the start and end point of my practice Camino walks and has been like a cosy blanket in my memory when I am working away and longing for my bed and the familiarity of the streets.

wish you were here….

Now, two years later, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It has become home……just in time for my daughter to up sticks and move again LOL At the moment she is house-hunting with a plan to buy her own home. I guess in the foreseeable future I will be landing somewhere else to watch the sunrise and sunset….who knows where?

So long as there is a beach 🙂 Life is after all……a beach!!

Posted in around the UK, family and relationships, It's my life, lifestyle, seaside towns of Britain, Travel | Tagged lifes a beach, living around the uk, living in broadstairs, seaside towns of Britain, viking bay in broadstairs, visit england | 1 Comment »

Work and Travel

September 24, 2016 by notjustagranny

One of the benefits of my job as I’ve mentioned before is that I get to travel around the country…not just in England but Scotland and occasionally Wales too. Since 2007 I’ve travelled east, south, north and west of the UK. In that time I’ve pretty much been to nearly every county in England, a few in Scotland and over the border into Wales, then out again. In the years between 2002 and 2007 I mostly worked in London, and that of course has become my passion. However, it is brilliant to be able to travel to new places and see the country.

uk-map A while ago I was working in East Sussex, not the first time in this county, but in a new town. I was chatting to my client, sharing travel stories (she’s also quite well travelled), and just for fun I had a look at the map of Britain and listed all the counties I had either worked in, or travelled to during the course of my job…..i.e. some clients enjoys driving so we get to travel far and wide. Needless to say I do the driving 😉

I have been to villages so small that they don’t even have a Post Office never mind a traffic light or stop street, where the evening traffic jam is sheep going home! I’ve worked in numerous towns, and quite a few cities…namely London of course…I always jump at the chance to work in London although I’m not sure why since my breaks are so short I seldom get time to do much exploring…but still it’s a constant thrill to me to wake up in the city that never sleeps. I’ve also visited a few counties in Scotland and Wales, but those in the capacity of a tourist, rather than for work. For the purposes of this article, I’ll stick to those I’ve been to for work….

So heading round the country, these are the counties I have worked in and travelled to; 27 so far:

ENGLAND

Suffolk, Middlesex, Norfolk, Essex

and my favourite county of all Suffolk….amazing!!!

Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire

Beautiful Cambridge and surrounding areas

Shropshire, Herefordshire,

work and travel as a carer herefordshire

quirky and fabulous Weobley

Gloucestershire, Wiltshire

the views from St Briavels are hard to match

Somerset, Devon,

another of my favourite counties, Somerset is splendid

one of my favourite counties – Devon is on the Jurrasic coast…

Warwickshire, Hampshire

as with Kent, there are many farms in Hampshire as well as fabulous villages

Oxfordshire

the bells ring out in Oxford….stunning city

Surrey

pretty as a picture, and snow…

West Sussex

West Sussex has a most amazing array of historical towns…and quite a few castles

East Sussex

Stunning houses and pebble beaches

Kent

the garden of England – Kent is mostly farmlands and fields

Greater London

wonderful, wonderful London I’ve worked in so many areas, I’ve lost track..

Worcestershire – which is the latest and where I am now 🙂

Worcestershire…..what a delightful surprise, and those hills

view of the Malvern Piory and countryside of Great Malvern, Worcestershire

I’ve visited Cornwall, Dorset and Warwickshire whilst working, but not yet actually worked in those counties. I’ve travelled through (by train), but not actually stepped on the soil of 4 others: Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland…I will have to address that pretty soon!! I have however noticed that there are still quite a few counties to go, particularly in the Midlands…see you there 😉

SCOTLAND

Inverness-shire and Ross and Cromarty – I’ve worked in both these counties and truly Scotland is amazing.

One of the most advantageous aspects of this job of mine is that I go to places I would probably never have considered, simply because they’re not on the ‘Visit England’ tourist trail so to speak. However, these places invariably have a fascinating history and if you visit the one thing you will find in every hamlet, village, town or city…..the church, you will learn the oftentimes extraordinary history of the area…sometimes stretching back as far as pre-Norman times. Reading the epitaphs and headstones, you gain a fascinating insight to the history of the area. I’ve even been into a church where there are marks on the entrance where knights of yore used to sharpen their swords!!! Mind-blowing.

My most amazing experience was in Midhurst. As town names go it’s fairly simple, but did you know they have a castle!!!

Midhurst….one of my most delightful discoveries

caravan

I’m desperately keen to travel the width and breadth of the UK and initially I had planned on buying a campervan…those cute little symbols of the 60’s, but since I will be spending a lot of time travelling and living in the thing, I’d prefer something I can actually stand up in…so the search is on. It is now my goal to buy a motor-home within the next few years…by my 65^th birthday in fact, & then travel the width, breadth, and length of this country…visiting outlying islands, historic cathedrals, ancient villages, quirky pubs and the furtherest points of the island; north, south, east & west.

Once I find what I am looking for, I shall be off. I plan to travel and work, work and travel. Mostly in the spring, summer and autumn months and in winter I shall head to Europe. What a plan!!! Why not come along, travel with me and see all the wonderful things I shall see.

If you have any suggestions of quirky traditions or places you think I should add to my list, then please leave a comment and I’ll add them to my itinerary.

Have a fab day.

and talking of quirky, here is a blog you should definitely follow. The Quirky Traveller

Posted in Castles of UK and Ireland, Holidays, It's my life, photography, Travel | Tagged notjustagranny, travel and work, travel in the UK | 4 Comments »

We are the architects of our own destruction

September 9, 2016 by notjustagranny

After reading this article on recycling clothes and the ‘fast-food’ fashion industry I’m reminded of all the other ‘trash’ we dispose of so readily without much or in fact ANY thought to the effects we are having on this planet and our environment. It’s like we’re all walking around in this little bubble of “oh that doesn’t affect me” or “what can my little bit do?” or “it’s someone else’s problem, not mine”.

And yet, this is the only planet we have. We’re decimating forests at a rate of acres per minute, discarding tons of unwanted goods every year, dispose of tons of uneaten food, unworn/wanted clothes – Excerpt: “They’ve been bleached, dyed, printed on, scoured in chemical baths.” Those chemicals can leach from the textiles and — in improperly sealed landfills — into groundwater. Burning the items in incinerators can release those toxins into the air.” We reject our phones and computers annually in favour of the latest Apple/ iPhone model (And weirdly, we admire these large corporations for their innovative products!). We inject millions of tons of plastic into the rivers, lakes, seas and oceans on a daily basis, and slowly but surely we are causing the extinction of one species after another.

This ‘trash’ is building up. It’s producing potent greenhouse gas methane as it degrades. It’s polluting the oceans. The fish are becoming polluted with plastic particles. Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans. We eat those fish….what’s left of them. Our air is so polluted we can’t see the stars at nights, in some countries they can’t see the sun during the day! We eat the food that comes out the ground, ground polluted by chemicals from our trash and of course the chemicals deliberately introduced by spraying.

The volume of plastic pieces, largely deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing, was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world’s oceans.

Corporations like Nestlé come under constant attack by the protest organisations that highlight how they (Nestlé) are buying up fresh water lakes and rivers and bottling the ‘fresh’ water and selling it to us in ‘single use’ bottles…plastic bottles. – Nestle: Bottling water in drought-hit California – And we sign the petitions and vent our anger on the relevant pages, but do we stop buying the bottled water?

And yet, corporations continue to manufacture short-lived items; clothing, food, computers, phones, plastic (anything that can be made from plastic), and we….continue to buy, buy, buy and buy some more…..and the corporations and their share-holders are getting wealthier by the minute/day and we, the sheep, the ‘I want’ generations, the ‘I deserve it sectors’ are buying, buying, buying…and contracting all manner of different cancers, and birth-defects and ailments on an unprecedented scale.

We’re unable to ‘resist’ the latest fashion….no matter what it is, and slowly but surely we are killing this planet, and killing ourselves.

We are the architects of our own destruction.

Clothes – http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/no-one-wants-your-old-clothes/ar-AAim8tF#image=5

Oceans – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/10/full-scale-plastic-worlds-oceans-revealed-first-time-pollution

Water – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36161580

Species – http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/orangutans-extinction-population-borneo-reasons-palm-oil-hunting-deforestation-rainforest-a7199366.html

Deforestation – Zika Virus – http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/where-did-zika-virus-come-and-why-it-problem-brazil/ deforestation followed by agriculture and regrowth of low-lying vegetation provided a much more suitable environment for the malaria mosquito carrier than pristine forest.

Perhaps it’s time for US the population of this planet to take more responsibility….if we don’t buy, they can’t sell.

Posted in around the UK, news from around the world | Tagged deforestation and the zika virus, nestle bottling water, on-one wants your old clothes, orangutans will be extinct in 10 years, plastic pollution in the oceans, pollution of the planet, recycling, recycling trash, the second hand clothes industry | Leave a Comment »

Fire! Fire!! London’s Burning…

September 7, 2016 by notjustagranny

….could there have been a more terrifying way to waken, on what was perhaps a chilly autumn morning, that day, September 2nd, 1666 than to the words of Fire! Fire!! London’s Burning

autumn

– except perhaps to the news that the French were invading…..or was it the Roman Catholics….

The French

or perhaps Roman Catholics

“The ignorant and deluded mob, who upon the occasion were hurried away with a kind of frenzy, vented forth their rage against the Roman Catholics and Frenchmen, imagining these incendiaries (as they thought) has thrown red hot balls into the houses.” William Taswell.

…..they weren’t; it was just a rumour!

In the early hours of September 2nd, on Pudding Lane, at the premises of the Baker to the King; Thomas Farriner, an untended coal flared up…perhaps teased by a whisper of a breeze, just enough to kindle the embers of the bakers oven.

Pudding Lane

Within a few hours the fire had built and all too soon, while Londoner’s and foreigner’s slumbered still, the flames jumped and ran….

From the Diary of Samuel Pepys – Sunday 2nd September 1666

About seven rose again to dress myself, and there looked out at the window, and saw the fire not so much as it was and further off. By and by our Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above 300 houses have been burned down to-night by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all fish-street, by London Bridge. So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places, and there I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the bridge. So down, with my heart full of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it begun this morning in the King’s baker’s house in Pudding-lane, and that it hath burned St Magnus’s Church and most part of Fish-street already. So I down to the water-side, and there got a boat and through bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters that layoff; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the water-side to another.

great-fire-of-london-painting-by-philip-de-loutherburgh

A trivial beginning that soon turned into a raging inferno, the city was soon ablaze and word went out that London was burning. The Mayor of London, one (fairly dimwitted) Thomas Bloodworth was unperturbed and reckoned ‘a woman could piss it out’….his words came back to bite (burn) him in the bum and by the time the hapless creature realised the extent of the inferno, it was too late to save the city!

Samuel Pepys climbed the steeple of Barking Church (All Hallows by the Tower) to view the fire.

The steeple at Barking Church – All Hallows by the Tower

“There was the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw. Everywhere great fires. Oyle-cellars and brimstone and other things burning. I became afeared to stay there long, and therefore down again as fast I could.” Samuel Pepys.

Alerted by Samuel Pepys as to the extent of the disaster unfolding, by 3pm on that fateful day, King Charles II, accompanied by his brother, James, Duke of York, sailed down the Thames to observe the fire, and immediately gave orders to “pull down buildings to create a fire break.”

From that luckless Sunday till the following Thursday the flames leapt and bound from dark narrow lanes to streets and courts,

“The streets full of nothing but people and horses and carts loaden with goods, ready to run over one another, and removing goods from one burned house to another.” Samuel Pepys, describing the city on the Sunday evening.

fanned by an east wind….torching wooden houses and stone buildings.

John Evelyn; 3 September 1666

And as it burned the flames destroyed 13,200 houses, 44 Livery Halls, numerous warehouses along the banks of the Thames crammed with combustible materials; coal, tar, pitch, hemp, rosen and flax (ropes), Baynard’s Castle, the Great Conduit

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site-of-st-bartholomew-by-the-exchange-burnt-1666-1

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and four bridges within the city as well as razing 87 medieval parish churches to the ground. Weirdly, the house of Samuel Pepys in Seething Lane remained standing….

Much terrified in the nights nowadays, with dreams of fire and falling down of houses. Samuel Pepys.

Samuel Pepys’s house perchance? copyright belongs to John Y

Even that most holy of churches was not left unscathed, and St Paul’s, which had stood at the heart of London life for over 500 hundred years, the 4th cathedral to stand on this spot since 604AD,

Old St Paul’s Cathedral – the medieval church destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666

was consumed in the inferno, it’s roof melting in the heat, imag7697 causing molten lead, “glowing with fiery redness” to run in streams down Ludgate Hill. On Tuesday, September 4th, a combination of factors caused the building to burn with great ferocity; which catastrophic blaze consumed the cathedral….

Old St Paul’s Cathedral – copyright belongs to John Y.

“Thus lay in ashes that most venerab[l]e Church, one of the [antientest] Pieces of early Piety in the Christian world, beside neere 100 more.” from the Diary of John Evelyn; September 7th 1666

….little did he know it then, but up and coming architect, Christopher Wren was just about to be given the biggest opportunity of his life….the rebuilding of the City of London churches, and St Paul’s Cathedral, his masterpiece that took 35 years to build!

Christopher Wren

St Paul’s Cathedral

The fire burned for just under five days, devastating the City, from Tower Hill in the East to Chancery Lane in the north, it swept westwards as far as Inner Temple Hall on the 4th day, which burned to the ground, and by some miracle it burned out before consuming Temple Church.

Temple Church

From the diary of John Evelyn – Tuesday September 4th, 1666

The burning still rages, and it was now gotten as far as the Inner Temple; all Fleet-street, the Old Bailey, Ludgate Hill, Warwick lane, Newgate, Paul’s chain, Watling street, now flaming, and most of it reduced to ashes; the stones of St Paul’s flew like (grenades), the melting lead running down the streets in a stream, and the very pavements glowing with redness, so as no horse nor man was able to tread on them, and the demolition had stopped all the passages, so that no help could be applied. The eastern wind still more impetuously driving the flames forward. Nothing but the almighty power of God was able to stop them, for vain was the help of man.

London’s Burning

Lost to the inferno were countless treasures; art, books and documents, many of which were held in the Livery Companies Halls – 44 of which were completely destroyed; amongst which were the Cutlers Hall, Mercers Hall, Merchant Taylors Hall, Saddlers Hall, Brewers Hall, Coopers Hall, Drapers Hall, Dyers Hall, Fishmongers Hall, Innholders Hall, Pewterers Hall, Stationers and Newspaper Makers Hall, Tallow Chandlers Hall

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and to add a touch of irony; the Bakers Hall!!

“We walked and walked and found nothing but heaps of stones and cellars still full of planks and smouldering beams.” Francisco de Rapicani.

Only 8 Livery Company Halls survived the fire; Armourers, Bricklayers, Carpenters, Cooks, Glovers, Ironmongers, Leather-sellers, and the Upholsterers…..others were partially damaged or destroyed by the fire and some were rebuilt, only to be destroyed during WW1 and WW2.

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After the 6 centuries over which the Medieval city of London had slowly built up, and just five days after a small fire which began in that bakery on Pudding Lane,

Pudding Lane

the City of London stood in ruins, almost completely destroyed, and as he explored the ruined streets of London, John Evelyn described how the ground was still almost too hot to walk upon, how water in fountains still boiled, and how the iron bars and gates of prisons had melted.

The Medieval City of London – Agas map

6 months later, on March 16th, 1667 – Pepys recorded “I did see smoke remaining, coming out of some cellars from the late great fire now about six months since “.

Great Fire of London 1666

By 1680 London’s first Fire Brigade came into existence, funded by the insurance companies, and the first publicly funded fire service was created in 1861, following the Tooley Street fire.

The Great Fire of 1666 was not by any means the first fire to rage through the streets of London, it was however the most devastating, and has perhaps the most detailed recordings by way of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn and others.

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Great Fire of London 1666

1666 – 2016 The Great Fire of London 350th anniversay

Below is a map showing the extent of the Great Fire of London 1666 the-photo-at-the-top-of-this-article-is-by-ben-sutherland-used-under-creative-commons-2-0-license-attribution-it-is-a-map-prepared-by-the-museum-of-london

Footnote: The majority of the photos in this blog are mine. A young man, John Y, whom I met at the burning of the effigy on Sunday kindly sent me some copies of his photos…I have noted them as such. Furthermore, for the purposes of this blog I have ‘borrowed’ a couple of graphics and a map from google images.

Posted in Historical, interesting things that happen in London | Tagged Christopher Wren, great fire 350 anniversary, great fire of london 1666, great fire of london anniversary, london history, londons burning, Samuel Pepys | 1 Comment »

The Great Thames Row

September 2, 2016 by notjustagranny

On Saturday 17th September 2016, Naomi Riches (London 2012 Paralympic Gold Medallist) will start her latest challenge – to set a new Guinness World Record as the fastest woman to row down the River Thames in a single scull… 165 miles from Lechlade to Gravesend Royal Pier.

Follow her challenge on Twitter

#165challenge

For more about this challenge http://www.thegreatthamesrow.org/

River Thames 01.01.2011 a misty overcast day

Posted in around the UK, interesting things that happen in London, Uncategorized | Tagged #165challenge, paralympic sports, River Thames London, rowing, rowing on the thames, the great thames row | Leave a Comment »

Growing up with violence in the home.

August 26, 2016 by notjustagranny

I’ve just signed a petition on Care2; ‘Stand with women working to end gender-based violence‘.

The petition calls on the UK Government to fund the women’s groups working towards ending violence against women, and as such resonates with me and my past. They mention that one in three girls and women suffer violence in their lives. I think it’s higher than that, but I’ll take their word for it. It’s vitally important that this issue is faced head on and that Government, and us, takes the opportunities offered to make a difference.

I am one of those three girls and my mother was one of those three women….my sisters to a lesser and in some instances greater extent, were also one of those girls. We lived with extreme violence for much of our growing up lives; emotional, physical, mental and yes, even sexual violence, much of it directed at my Mother who eventually caved in under the onslaught….yes, she died. Aged 52. I know the official verdict was stroke, but I feel it was despair. She ate too much, she drank too much, she smoked too much, she lived under some of the most dire circumstances (in all three of her marriages)….and all of those combined to kill her….and what the coroner didn’t say was that all these too much ofs that she partook of were caused by stress and despair and pressure.

I don’t consider myself a victim, although in my younger years I felt victimised. I’ve grown up, I’ve become tougher.

But the scars remain. Those same scars affected how I raised my daughter and that affects her still today. I won’t ever say I hate men, coz I don’t, on the contrary. However, my language right through my adult life and through my daughter’s growing up years has been negative; urgh men!! You can’t trust a man. Never trust a man. Well what can you expect; he’s a man!! – you get the idea….I never realised how powerful those messages were to a young brain growing up, and now it’s too late….the dye has been set and she finds it really difficult to form a lasting attachment or relationship. I set the boat on the water and I tore down the sails.

My sisters and I have all grown up to be tough, strong women, proud of who we have become. We don’t cave in. We don’t suffer fools. We don’t, with the exception of my younger sister (from my Mother’s side – 3rd marriage), have successful relationships with men. They are always fraught with anxiety, frustration, angst and determination to not be ‘the weaker sex’. I gave up on relationships 13 years ago. I can’t be who I become when I’m in a relationship.

There is an inordinate amount of violence towards women. Culturally (and I’m talking about world-wide culture in all ethnic groups bar a few). We, (and yes even in our enlightened Western culture) have been raised to believe that women are ‘the weaker sex’, of lesser importance (see the ongoing debate about salaries and managerial positions). If you look at many cultures today they are still fiercely Patriarchal. Women are refused entry to, kept out of, stopped from doing, have to ask permission of, cannot marry freely, are repressed and vilified, their natural cycles considered bad, disgusting, and a reason for being kept behind closed doors; being forced to stay behind closed doors is a more reasonable assumption. My first marriage rendered me unable to even open a Bank Account without my husbands a) permission b) signature and that was in 1972.

So that said, and oh I have SO much more to say, especially with this recent humiliation and repression of a Muslim woman in France, I ask you to please sign the petition. Thank you.

If however, you feel you don’t want to sign the petition, then please step-up, become an advocate for women, look out for signs of violence…those bruised eyes, the broken arms, the cowered down-cast expression, the sudden withdrawal from society, and if you see it…do take action. It could be within your own family. It was within ours. And no-one stepped up.

Posted in family and relationships, Health, It's my life | Tagged care2, cultural violence towards women, signing petitions, stopping violence towards women, violence towards women | Leave a Comment »

Procrastination bit my bum…

August 23, 2016 by notjustagranny

Yes, I admit it…..I am a full-on, no holds barred, well-versed and dedicated procrastinator!!

Hi, my name is Cindy. I am a procrastinator….. There I’ve said it…..

So you know how it goes (those of you who suffer the same predicament), tomorrow is always another day…I have been meaning to buy a 2nd external hard-drive for months now. My daughter is constantly urging me to do a back-up…in the cloud? Hmmm, not sure I trust ‘the cloud’….what with hackers and all.

So the long and the short of it is, I haven’t yet bought that 2nd hard-drive…always finding something else to do (I don’t buy much stuff these days), my money is rather saved or spent on experiences…like the Herne Bay Airshow, or a visit to Canterbury or paying HMRC Customs a hefty chunk of £££££’s for the privilege of shipping my belongings from SA to the UK and such like. So there is always a reason why I haven’t yet bought one.

And yesterday my pigeons came home to roost.

I dropped my external hard-drive.

Not Just a Granny having a tantrum!!!

So, initially I went ice-cold. My body went into shock. My mind started whirling. Too terrified too cry, the tears had dried up in horror!!

Then the enormity of what had happened hit me and I made a frantic call to my computer guy…HELP!!!!! Does this mean I’ve lost all my photos ( 10 years worth at least, if not more) all my spreadsheets, documents, downloads, e-books…etc etc…in short…my life is on that little black plastic box meant to be safe and secure and shock-proof in it’s little black shock-proof casing!!! I felt like throwing up!

At my computer man’s suggestion, I ejected the hard-drive (done that…no t-shirt), and try again….nope, the screen is still telling me that I have used 0 data…..oh the sheer horror of seeing a great big (it seems enormous) fat 0 data used staring back at me….especially as I know full well that wasn’t the case (no pun intended) 5 seconds before I dropped it.

Of course, I have subsequently been asked ‘don’t you have a back-up?’ – Uhmm, yes, that was my back-up…… I had recently moved ALL the files and folders from my computer to the hard-drive as the computer is about 4 years old and sends me nasty messages occasionally! – or – Don’t you save your documents etc to ‘the cloud’…again Uhmm no! Buy hey…..I WAS going to be buying a 2nd external hard-drive to save copies of everything on to…next month! I just hadn’t gotten ’roundtoit’ Like that helps now doesn’t it?? Procrastinator!!!

The irony is that I was in the process of copying photos off my phone from a recent trip to Canterbury to celebrate my daughter’s birthday ( I had only got as far as copying them) when I leaned forward to pick up my phone to send my niece (currently a tourist in London) a message…and knocked the bloody hard-drive onto the floor. Not from a very large height either I might add…no more than 3 inches, but it seems it was enough…to render the data to 0!!!

Anyway, an appointment has been made to see my computer guy next month (next week!!) and hopefully he can indeed retrieve the data as he suspects he may well be able to do. If not, then I will have to have it looked at by professionals…and apparently that can cost upward of £700!!! which brings me to my next ‘issue’….the bloody Universe. I swear it’s determined to keep me poor to my dying day. Just when I think I have worked hard enough, taken on extra work to start saving, something crops up to drain my bank account.

So the long and the short of it (and expense) is…..if you too suffer from procrastination…get help!! aldwych-station-tour-2013-16

It’s a bastard, it costs money and it bites you in the bum when you least expect it! Grrrrr.

Oh! and in’future’ I will do today, what needs to be done today….after all, today is yesterday’s tomorrow. It would do me well to remember that. *squinty eye picture* if I had one. LOL

Posted in idiot category, It's my life, wealth and finance | Tagged computers, external hard drives, lessons from the universe, procrastination | 2 Comments »

Camino 2016; My Way

July 8, 2016 by notjustagranny

When there’s something you’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and suddenly you make the decision to do it and it’s nerve-wracking…..which is weird really but there it is – I’ve finally put a date to my Camino.

It’s been a dream of mine to do ‘The Camino’ for a very long time. I’m not sure when exactly I first became aware of The Camino, that, is lost in the mists of time. But some years ago my father planned to do The Camino on his bike and suddenly I was like….Oh okay….then during some visit or other to the UK he and I discussed the possibility of doing it together but due to the fact that he wanted to cycle the route but I wanted to walk…unfortunately we never did get that off the ground.

My Dad and I in 2011, the last photo ever taken of us together

Although he did do it again last year with one of my younger sisters, albeit not very successfully apparently as by then he was in the early stages of dementia and not only lost his passport but was terribly slow and struggled along. But since he was in his mid-80’s by then, he could be forgiven for struggling. And of course he has since passed away (not connected to the Camino).

Doing the Camino was one of the ‘things’ on my ‘list of things to do’ once I got my British Passport 🙂 and like the sorting out of my possessions in South Africa the time has now come. And so project #Camino2016 has begun!

I immediately started doing some research on routes and best time of the year to travel etc etc. What I discovered is that there are numerous routes besides ‘The Way’!!! I finally decided on the Portuguese Coastal Route starting from Porto. Besides the fact that it is relatively flat in comparison to The Frances route which is 790kms and traverses mountain ranges, I have always wanted to go to Portugal so this was a great way to combine the two. I would love to go to Lisbon of course, but since it’s a lot further and I don’t have unlimited time, I settled on Porto as my launching point. However, on the plus side Porto looks amazing, so I’m really excited about starting there.

I’m planning on spending 3 days in Porto to explore then on the fourth day I shall head over to the Cathedral and start my 285km Camino journey from there.

I joined a group on Facebook; exclusively for women, the group allows women who have already walked the Camino, no matter which route, to offer advice and encouragement to those planning their journey. It allows us to ask for help or information and allows women who are already walking to post photos and tips and hints on what to wear, where to stay, what to expect en-route, what to look out for (like insane gropers), where to eat and also just some of the most stunning and amazing photos. It’s certainly made me impatient to start!!! LOL I’ve also starting studying photos on Instagram. Ohmygosh! Some of the places are just stunning.

Next was suitable gear…..I had bought my jacket while I was in South Africa as well as pants with zips and lots of lovely pockets (I love pants with pockets). I also bought a thermal top and leggings, socks, shoes, gloves and other bits and bobs. So thrilling to start getting my gear together. camino 2016.05.24 camino(4) Once I got back to the UK, I started doing more research on what to take and what to leave…keeping in mind the recommended weight of 10% of body weight…..I’m trying really hard to NOT lose any weight so I can take more with me!!! Hahaha.

I got online and ordered a whole lot of goodies from Mountain Warehouse, a parcel I received with much excitement and couldn’t wait to get it all on and start wearing it in. I’ve also bought stuff that I will clearly not get to use (go figure) and some that after trying it out I have found to be unsuitable. 2016.05.31 (1) So it goes I guess. But slowly I’m whittling it down to what I will or won’t take. Veterans of the Camino recommend weighing EVERYTHING and note it down…apparently after carrying the backpack for a couple of days for up to 8 hours a day, the pack gets heavier and heavier. Hmmm. camino (2)

I also got online and started to plan my route. As I say the Portuguese coastal route appeals to me the most…there’s also an inland route, but the thought of walking alongside the seas (well ocean actually) for 5 days appeals greatly. So I zoomed in on the maps and listed the towns along the way; potential places to stay and noted the distance between each. I don’t want to walk my feet off, so I’m limiting my distance to 28kms on any one day.

I also noted places that have lots of historical buildings and churches and things to see. I can’t go to Portugal for 2 weeks and NOT explore….that would be sacrilege. And so after many, many hours online I have identified the best places to explore where I’ll stay for two nights, and which towns I can just sleep over and leave the next day.

Working out the various stages has been fun too…I worked out the distances with great care since as I say I didn’t want to walk more than 28kms on any one day…some places just don’t play fair…33kms!! So it’s been a real challenge to plan each stage. I’ve also learned so much I never knew about Portugal…I may just end up not coming back to the UK LOL. Portugal sounds absolutely fantastic. The towns have so much history and having looked at photos of some church interiors, I can tell already that I’m going to be taking a LOT of photos.

At the midway point of my journey, I’ll leave Portugal from Valenca, cross into Spain and walk the final stages from Tui to Santiago de Camino…oh my word, when I write that it gives me a thrill…of anticipation and a healthy dose of fear. I love walking and that will be a real pleasure, I love being on my own so that’s something I’m looking forward to and exploring is right up my alley….it’s looking to be a really amazing journey. The section from Tui to Santiago is the most important stage, I’ll do this over 5 days via Vigo and at just over 100kms it will qualify me for my Compostela….the certificate you receive from the Cathedral in Santiago for completing the route as a pilgrim. In order to ‘prove’ you’ve done the required 100km’s you get stamps in your Pilgrims Passport along the way from all sorts of places, churches, alburgues, restaurants and other such places…not always easy to identify but apparently once you say you’re a ‘pilgrim’ the locals are mostly very happy to help. I am planning on learning some Portuguese and Spanish so that I can communicate.

My sister is loaning me her Spanish phrase book so I guess it’s time to start learning a new language.

Bring on the Camino!!!! camino 2016.05.24 camino(3)

Posted in Camino 2016, family and relationships, It's my life | Tagged baby boomers travel, Camino de Santiago, have passport will travel, health and travel, travelling | 4 Comments »

Sorting my ‘stuff’ in South Africa

July 1, 2016 by notjustagranny

The last time I visited South Africa was in 2011. After I left I said that that would be my last visit….uhmmm, nope!!

In February of this year I finally got my British Citizenship and realised that I needed to sort out my South African ‘stuff’ – my worldly possessions, most of which had been in storage for the past 15 years. I hadn’t wanted to make a decision to move everything to the UK in the event I didn’t get my citizenship and have to move it all back to SA.

So now that I had it (my citizenship), I planned a trip.

Just a couple of days after our Paris trip I boarded a plane to France (go figure) en-route to SA. We flew via Charles de Gaulle. By the time we left it was dark and by my absolute luck I had a seat with a view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower…it looked magical. Soon after taking off we were asked to close our portholes so after that I didn’t get to see much else.

Paris by night – the Eiffel Tower

The plane was really empty and I had a row of 3 seats to myself and managed, by dint of wriggling and strategically places cushions and blankets, to get a good night’s sleep….well as good as what you can get on a noisy plane. I had a seat on the left hand side of the plane as I was hoping to see the sunrise in the morning…..hah!!! I hadn’t bargained on the extraordinary brightness of the sun at that height…I opened my porthole a sliver and promptly shut it again…nearly blinded! Of course the sun had risen while I was sleeping, so I had missed the best of it.

Flying in over north of South Africa I was dismayed to see just how dry and brown the landscape was – I have become so spoiled by England’s green fields. I was also surprised to see how empty the Johannesburg International airport (aka Oliver Tambo Airport) was…the last time I visited it was packed to the brim.

…how dry it all looks

I spent the first few days in Honeydew, staying with a friend who has a caravan parked within a caravan park….quiet and peaceful, the serenity belied the reality. Beyond the iron gates and electrified fence are the sprawling mass of a township; a place of unrest and discontent, with frequent riots and tyre burning…..the burn marks clearly visible on the tar of what is a national highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria…two major cities.

Waking up in this park that borders on a nature reserve was a treat. As someone who treasures quiet mornings, I would make myself a cup of tea and wander down to the fence to watch the animals and birds at the waterholes. The sunsets in the evenings are stunning; colours in the Highveld are like no other…it’s an African thing – something I suspect has to do with the air.

I had planned to see one of my younger sisters whilst there; Joanne, my Mother’s 3^rd daughter, 10 years younger than me. She is currently being cared for by a charity in Soweto. After a dangerous descent into the underworld of drugs, she was, 3 years back, made a ward of the state and sent to an institution for detox and care. After they said she had to be moved on my sisters looked around and finally found this charity where she is currently staying and where I visited. Essentially although to all appearances she looks well, her brain has been irreparably damaged and she is unable to care for herself.t broke my heart to see the situation she has put herself in……I refuse to accept blame and will not allow anyone to say my sisters or I should care for her….she deliberately took the drugs to spite us against all pleading and arguments to not go down that road….and much as it breaks my heart to see where she has ended up, it is better than in an alleyway somewhere, and she is actually very happy and well cared for. The lady who runs the charity takes very good care of her albeit with very strict rules and if she breaks any of them she is denied her small freedoms…like being allowed to go to the store on her own. We simply don’t command the same respect and my sister, although very friendly to people, can be and has been very, very abusive towards her sisters, and my Mother when she was alive. Anyway, that’s another story altogether, so moving on.

It was lovely to see her and I’m glad I made the journey despite my misgivings. I was most grateful to my lovely niece Tracey who has kept in touch with Joanne and visits on a regular basis, also being my go-between for birthdays and Christmas…being Postie for cards and presents. It was so lovely to see them too, the kids are growing up so quickly!!

Then it was off to Cape Town….flying over the country from north to south I was dismayed to see how dry and brown it all is. Many droughts have plagued the country and when you have idiots in Government who say that the previous Government failed because they built the dams too big, which means they take longer to fill up….you can only wonder. Although of course droughts are a common issue in Africa, still it was saddening to see how much it has deteriorated in the last decades. Made me long for the green fields of England.

I was absolutely delighted to have a fantastic view of Table Mountain coming into land and if there is one thing I do miss about SA, that would be it…..the sight of Table Mountain….it really is quite extraordinary…as well as which the difference from before and after the mountain ranges is quite remarkable.

Table Mountain – Cape Town

The Cape is green…on the whole, very green in comparison to further north. I was also astounded at how the ‘squatter’ camps in Cape Town had grown and how many houses had replaced the shacks, as well as which in a very innovative move which I think is just excellent, were that each house has a solar panel for generating hot water!! Makes absolute sense. Oh and satellite dishes galore!!

How wonderful it was to see my sisters at the airport…..I had only been expecting to see my friend Cheryll with whom I was to stay for the weekend and my younger sister Caroline and her hubby, but suddenly out of nowhere two of my other sisters Valerie and Sue appeared!!! We had a great time catching up. Of course Sue is now also working as a Carer in the UK but due to our work schedules we seldom see each other. You can imagine the noise at that table LOL…all of us talking 19 to the dozen….

Then it was time to go and my sister and her hubby kindly drove me through to Cheryll’s place where I spent the next two days…..sunshine every day! I had forgotten what it’s like to wake up to sunshine every day! Mind you, just the week before I arrived the Cape had experienced some terrible storms that took trees down and lifted roofs off! I had packed my bags accordingly and as it turned out I had no need at all for the warmer clothes I packed! IMAG3550

From there it was over to Somerset West to a place I had booked via AirBnB…a first for me and I was hopeful it would be okay…..after all I had already paid for it all. The place turned out to be lovely and very well appointed, but unfortunately I had a falling out with the host due to her nosiness and sly comments about my being vegetarian. But it was comfortable and safe and at least the hire car was safe and not too far from the storage unit in Strand which is where I had my possessions – the reason I was in SA in the first place…..time to sort out my boxes and keep, sell or pack…for shipment to the UK.

I had always said that as soon as I got my British Citizenship I would head over to SA and sort it all out. It had been in storage for 15 years already and costing me a small fortune.

Thankfully my sister and brother-in-law were with me when we first opened the storage room….I took one look at all the boxes piled high and would have just shut the door and left again LOL…… But disaster was averted, and we decided to start sorting stuff out right there and then…first thing down was my mattress….now bearing in mind it had been in storage for 15 years….there was not a mark, or moth or mouse poop anywhere to be seen…..well done to my sister for all the safeguards she had thrown willy nilly over it all hahahaha. It worked! In fact it worked so well I decided right there and then to send the mattress to the UK!!! It’s one of the best I have ever had.

my marvellous mattress…can’t wait to sleep on it again

And so began the next step of my journey…..what to keep, what to throw away and what to sell/donate. Oh lordy……it was really hard. I had over 40 boxes to sort through and although I hadn’t seen or needed or used any of it for the last 15 years….it was very hard to make the decision to get rid of things like my precious books. But the reality is that we don’t have anywhere to put them here in the UK and I am damned if I am putting anything into storage here!!! Besides which, storage in the UK is more than double the cost than in SA.

I had a fair idea of what i wanted to keep and what not…clothes in particular, although there was a fair number of favoured items that I wanted to bring over…. Kitchen implements and the dinner service et al were easy….time to go. Over the years we have accumulated more than enough and frankly I didn’t want to end up with loads of things again.

My sister had had the brainwave of hiring an extra unit across from mine so I could have space to move and sort. It really made the job so much easier….whatever I wanted to keep I just took across to the other side where I had boxes taped up and numbered, ready to absorb the things I wanted to ship to the UK.

a household reduced to a few boxes

all my possessions…

Finally, after 7 long days, lots of bending, sorting into keep, throw, sell, donate with packing and unpacking, as well as walking back and forth between units – utter exhaustion, braving heat and an unexpected south-westerly wind that ensured I took more SA beach sand back to the UK than I had ever intended…I narrowed it down from 43 boxes to 26!!! Hahahaha. But I can tell you, it was really difficult to part with some of the stuff….as the last day wore on, more and more little bits got ‘squeezed’ into various boxes…stuff I suddenly felt unable to part with. I’ll probably end up donating it to charity once I get it here!!

But after all that, the most difficult items to part with were my books. It nearly broke me to force myself to leave behind all the Encyclopaedias and nature books I had collected over the years. The novels were easy…I had read them all anyway and could easily buy them from charity shops in the UK if I so desired to read them again….but my encyclopaedias…..really hard. My sister promised to donate them to a library which assuaged my emotions…but then promptly started giving them away to people she knew.

I put a lot of the household items up for sale, the many unwanted toys my daughter had accumulated, clothes, ornaments and such like, but after all I ended up donating 70% of my unwanted items to a charity in the Strand area. I felt really happy with that as the woman who runs the charity is taking in unwanted and abandoned children from the surrounding area and was desperate for all sorts of necessities. The delight on the children’s faces when they got the toys was amazing. So the stuff all went to a good home.

Then it was time to say goodbye. The final bits and pieces had been loaded and taken away, and to my utter joy my sister took the fabulous rosewood dressing-table that I had acquired some years ago (29 to be exact! – where do the years go?). It was in a right sorry state and desperately needed a good clean, some fixing up and a lick or three or four of polish….a lot of tlc. I would dearly have loved to bring it over to the UK, but I have absolutely nowhere to put it and it certainly won’t fit into my motorhome!! LOL

Next step was the removal company to collect all the boxes and ship them over to the UK. (fyi I had a really good experience using Biddulphs). In all it feels really weird….essentially I have now, except for family ties, cut my ties to South Africa…the land of my birth. And even more weirdly, I can no longer stay there in excess of 90 days without permission….that was the most odd of all the discoveries I made. Cést la vie.

Now it wasn’t all work and no play….I spent the following Sunday and Monday with my younger sister Valerie in Fish Hoek and finally got to meet my little nephew Luca…who is just the cutest little boy. Initially he was very shy but within a few minutes we were best friends and the three of us had a fantastic day on the beach, splashing in the waves….well Val and Luca did…I watched from the sidelines and filmed the fun!

Then we met up with my youngest sister Deidre (Luca’s mummy), and her hubby and my niece Maya….what a charming and delightful little girl she is. I had not yet met either of the kiddies and my heart melted. They are just adorable. We spent the next day with them too and had a most enjoyable time.

The following weekend, and after we had shut the doors of the storage unit I spent the weekend with another of my sisters; Caroline and her hubby Ewart at their home in Wynberg. What a pleasure to wake up to the amazing view of Table Mountain each day. We went up Lions Head in the evening to watch the sunset which it seems is a ‘National Occupation’ judging by the number of people.

sunset at Lions Head, Cape Town

Friday was mostly a wasted day with fiddle-faddling in their garage sorting boxes etc, but a highlight of the weekend was a ride on my brother-in-law’s motorbike….I rode pillion of course but oh my word, I hadn’t been on a bike in over 30 years!! Superb! When i got off the bike I said forget the motorhome….I’m buying a motorbike!!! LOL

Saturday was also a bit adhoc with none of the plans adhered to, but we did meet up with a friend of theirs and went to see a show which was just astounding and very very emotional for me. The story really captured my imagination and suddenly I found my South African identity again and it threw me completely. I had over the last 15 years lost any joy in the country and any affiliation with or towards the country, so this sudden emotional connection left me feeling quite bereft…I cried on my sister’s shoulder afterwards.

We went for drinks afterwards and I had the most enormous Bailey’s Milkshake you could imagine…..I felt much better after that!!! LOL

Sunday we took an early ride up Table Mountain in the cable car. Oh my gosh the views….I had completely forgotten how stunning Cape Town is from that vantage.

a trip up Table Mountain South Africa

a trip up Table Mountain South Africa – looking towards Hout Bay

a trip up Table Mountain South Africa – me and the outlaw

a trip up Table Mountain South Africa – me and the kid sister

a trip up Table Mountain South Africa

We spent a couple of hours walking around the top of the mountain before heading back down and meeting my two younger sisters and the kiddies at Kirstenbosch Gardens for a picnic. So much fun. It was lovely to relax in the sun and chat and play…and eat 😉

So there we were…..4 sisters together. If my other two sisters Sue and Joanne had been there it would have been the first time in decades we had all been together. We all came from different parental relationships which has been really difficult and quite tricky over the years, with all of us together happening probably never. In fact I simply cannot recall any occasion where we were all together without exception. How sad is that! My brother too lives in another country with his family. Maybe one day it would be amazing to get everyone together….sisters and brother along with nephews, nieces, great-nephews and great-niece….all in one place. How marvellous.

Meanwhile my time in South Africa was drawing to a close. After our picnic in Kirstenbosch Gardens we decamped briefly to Deidre’s house for a couple of hours and then suddenly it was time to go. I felt so sad saying goodbye. It’s unlikely I will see them again for some years…it’s quite expensive travelling to SA and it’s also now become really expensive in the country. In years gone by you could get good value for your Rand, but not anymore.

Next morning is was up early and off to the airport. I said goodbye to my little sister with pain in my heart and my brother-in-law kindly drove me to the airport.

leaving the Cape – looking towards Gordon’s Bay

Back to Johannesburg, overnight at my friend in Honeydew and then goodbye South Africa. As we flew out of Cape Town I had one last glimpse of the mountain and flying over the cape plains I felt an unexpected tug at my heart….unexpectedly I was sorry to be leaving….I guess that means this trip is not my last after all!

a final South African sunset from Johannesburg Airport

A very long night later, with little sleep on the flight we landed at Charles de Gualle and in no time at all I was in-flight to the UK. I had asked for a window seat, but unfortunately none were available. Just before we started making our descent into London I took a walk along the passage and noticed that 6 rows at the back were empty!!! I asked the Attendant if I could sit there and oh my gosh the pilot could not have given me a better view of London as we came in to land even if I had asked 🙂

beautiful London from the air

After what turned out to be an amazing trip to South Africa I was home.

Posted in family and relationships, It's my life, Travel | Tagged british citizenship, its my life, relocating to the uk, travel to south africa | 1 Comment »

Paris for Lunch

May 29, 2016 by notjustagranny

Yes!! We went to Paris for Lunch! How marvellously indulgent is that. Having a British Passport really opens up the world.

When I first arrived in the UK back in 2001, I was on a South African passport with the accompanying ancestral visa. Having this was, in my ‘book’, just the ultimate! It meant I could live and work in the UK, it also meant I could apply for visas to visit Europe and the USA…I really thought that was the ultimate.

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But as the years went by, I realised more and more what a real gem the ‘little red book’ is, the places I could go……instead of having to apply months in advance, spending a fortune and having to take off a lot of time (sometimes losing out on work due to visa appointments), the time got nearer to my making the decision to become a British Citizen (although that was a given anyway…I really wanted to be a citizen of the UK from when I first arrived), and apply for my British passport…..and now I have it. 🙂

caravan

I have a list of ‘things I want to do’ when I get my passport, and one of them was to just book a ticket on the Eurostar and visit Paris for the day. Thanks to my ‘wish angel’; aka my daughter, as part of the celebration of becoming a BC and getting that little red book, she, along with two of my sisters arranged a day trip to Paris for lunch!!!

Wowww, amazing!!! What an extraordinary feeling it was to be able to just get on the train and go….no visas, no limits! I didn’t really appreciate the freedom having a British passport would give me.

We set off really early in the morning of the 24^th April, the day after my birthday and headed for Ashford where we were due to meet the Eurostar.

5 minutes to go…..Paris for Lunch by Eurostar

To say that I had butterflies of excitement would be an understatement. I hadn’t ventured to Europe, or Paris for nearly 8 years…it just got tooooo expensive for the necessary visas, and after the trauma of getting a visa for our trip to Iceland I had decided I wasn’t planning any further trips until I had my British passport….but finally we were on our way!!!

Paris for Lunch by Eurostar…and a bit of a selfie there 😉

Bubbling with excitement and barely able to keep my feet on the ground, we finally reached Ashford then whoosh, the Eurostar whizzed into the station and without further ado we were on our way! me and train I could scarcely contain myself. My grin almost reached my ears. It was really awesome to be able to share this trip with my daughter and we chatted and planned and took dozens of photos…and we hadn’t even left the UK yet!!! LOL me and cj

Suddenly, like Alice, we were hurtling at speed through a tunnel and under the sea…or was that Nemo?

I still marvel at the engineering feat of the Eurotunnel. How extraordinary to be able to travel beneath the sea in a train…..okayyyy so it goes through a tunnel, but you know what I mean!

Before we had drawn breath we were in France…..although if you had woken up after a sleep you’d think you were in England….the landscape is exactly the same. The modern accoutrements of roads and telephone wires, houses and bridges etc are of course somewhat different, plus they drive on the wrong side of the road on the continent, but other than that….the landscape is just the same. I recall in 2008 seeing the rapeseed fields in England and after popping out the tunnel on the other side, seeing exactly the same fields in France. It’s weird.

The excitement built the nearer we got to Paris and then we were there, on the outskirts and none too soon we drew to a stop at Gare du Nord. The last time I had been there was in 2008 and of course prior to that, the most marvellous trip my daughter and I made in 2005 for my 50^th.

Heading straight for the Metro we planned our journey through the maze and soon we were in the centre of Paris and a short walk from Notre Dame.

the maze of the Paris Metro system – remarkably easy to use

Wow, that building is just awesome. I love that it stands on its own little island in the middle of the Seine; il de la cité….quite appropriate.

Paris for lunch

We didn’t go in but set off to find the restaurant that my daughter had in mind for lunch. It was a place she had visited previously on a day trip, and felt it would fit the bill. We tramped about, along the West Bank, down lanes and across bridges but the restaurant was nowhere to be found!!! Eventually she got onto google and located the place…right where we had initially been!!! LOL. By then I was beginning to despair and time was flying by. As usual, channelling my inner tourist, I was really keen to see as much as possible, but as she reminded me, the purpose of the trip was to have ‘Lunch in Paris’…

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The restaurant, la fourmi ailée, was an absolute delight. The interior is quirky, and very very French (naturellement)… 20160424_131621 - Paris for lunch 24.04.16

We made our way to a table at the rear of the restaurant and I spent the next few minutes simply gawking and admiring…..the place is a delight. Two of my favourite features were the painted ceiling and the books from floor to ceiling. We selected our meal and placed our order with the delightful waiter…oh that French accent….it’s amazing how the French accent combined with the language can turn a simple phrase like ‘clean up your mess and wash the dishes’ sound like music to your ears…unless you understand what’s being said of course LOL

I do love it. And yes I think I do love Paris in the springtime. I’m so lucky to have my birthday in spring in the northern hemisphere….in South Africa I was an autumn baby (which explains why autumn is my favourite season), but of the joys of seeing the trees smothered in glorious clouds of pink cherry blossom, the parks alive with hundreds of spring flowers; a rainbow of colours…. IMAG3174 - 2016.04.24 Paris for lunch

Although the weather was overcast and a bit wet, after lunch we set off to see ‘as much as possible’. I really wanted to walk along the West Bank of the Seine to Pont Alexandre III.

Pont Alexandre III

So after a second visit to Notre Dame we set off, but instead of sticking to the riverbank we did a sort of zig-zag and strolled along cobbled streets that meander here and there, leading to tiny squares, secret parks and hidden churches, enjoying the marvellous French architecture, patisseries, charming little shops and quirky lanes that lead you further and further into the depths of the city.

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I adore how in Paris all the cafes have chairs on the sidewalks….they look so chic! IMAG3163 - 2016.04.24 Paris for lunch

It fascinates me that some of the houses and buildings still have the pockmarks from exploding shells and bullets during WW2 occupation. 20160424_144156 - Paris for lunch 24.04.16 - Copy The architecture is wonderful, in many places so old and deteriorating, so bad you wonder how it stays up, but that all lends to the charm. We discovered amazing street art, secret symbols and charming murals.

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We managed to flash past some of Paris’s most well-known landmarks and saw a few in the distance.

We killed two birds with one stone….from a roundabout on the Champs-Élysées 20160424_160116 - Paris for lunch 24.04.16 we could see the Arc de Triomphe,

Arc de Triomphe

from Pont des Invalides we managed to see the Eiffel Tower in the distance,

the Eiffel Tower in the distance

while at Notre Dame we saw the amazing statue of Charlemagne,

Charlemagne

were just a stones-throw from Fontaine Saint Michel,

the famous ‘Metropolitain’ sign IMAG3173 - 2016.04.24 Paris for lunch and the infamous ‘love-locks’ bridge.

One of the things I find most fascinating about Paris are the plane trees…they are so beautifully sculpted like soldiers in a row. IMAG3189 - 2016.04.24 Paris for lunch

All too soon we had to make our way back to the station.

…is it really that late already???

On our way back to Gard de Nord we stopped for a quick look at the ‘Wall of Love’; now a landmark in its own right, this love-themed 40 square metres (430 sq ft) wall in the Jehan Rictus garden square in Montmartre, Paris, France. The wall, created in 2000 by calligraphist Fédéric Baron and mural artist Claire Kito, is composed of 612 tiles of enamelled lava, on which the phrase “I love you” is featured 311 times in 250 languages.

The ‘Wall of Love’ in Montmartre

We also bought and devoured one of the most delicious Nutella crepes I have ever had, and viewed the fabulous Sacre Coure in Montmartre….one of my favourite areas of Paris.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica and often simply Sacré-Cœur

Along the way we walked past the Grand Palais

Grand Palais

passed through the 4th, 5th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^{th, 10th}and 18^th Arrondisement and stumbled across a protest march near Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt 20160424_154701 - Paris for lunch 24.04.16

Then suddenly we were back at the station….6 hours in Paris had whizzed by and it was time to board the Eurostar for London….tired but elated!!

We had just been to ‘Paris for Lunch’.

19 ; 01 à Londres s’il vous plaît

Paris both repels and fascinates me. I find some of the buildings to be quite ‘cold’ although the wrought-iron balconies are charming.

I find the wrought-iron balconies on the buildings rather charming

The parks are wonderful and of course the famous landmarks are wonderful to see up close….or not so close 😉

20160424_142142 - Paris for lunch 24.04.16

Although I seldom visit a place more than once and try to see everything I can on any one visit, I suspect that there is so much more to Paris than meets the eye. I shall look forward to another such visit….it would be sacrilege not to! 😉

Bonjour and au revoir Paris…..till next time

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff, It's my life, Travel | Tagged fun things to do on a weekend, la fourmi ailée, landmarks in paris, Paris for Lunch, top things to see in paris, travel by Eurostar, travel to europe | 1 Comment »

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Over the Hill and Still Travelling

“The ignorant and deluded mob, who upon the occasion were hurried away with a kind of frenzy, vented forth their rage against the Roman Catholics and Frenchmen, imagining these incendiaries (as they thought) has thrown red hot balls into the houses.” William Taswell.

“There was the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw. Everywhere great fires. Oyle-cellars and brimstone and other things burning. I became afeared to stay there long, and therefore down again as fast I could.” Samuel Pepys.

“The streets full of nothing but people and horses and carts loaden with goods, ready to run over one another, and removing goods from one burned house to another.” Samuel Pepys, describing the city on the Sunday evening.

Much terrified in the nights nowadays, with dreams of fire and falling down of houses. Samuel Pepys.

“Thus lay in ashes that most venerab[l]e Church, one of the [antientest] Pieces of early Piety in the Christian world, beside neere 100 more.” from the Diary of John Evelyn; September 7th 1666

and to add a touch of irony; the Bakers Hall!!

“We walked and walked and found nothing but heaps of stones and cellars still full of planks and smouldering beams.” Francisco de Rapicani.

By 1680 London’s first Fire Brigade came into existence, funded by the insurance companies, and the first publicly funded fire service was created in 1861, following the Tooley Street fire.

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