Sunday, June 30, 2013

Sun walk - Walking around London in a bra








Getting to London at 9am on a Sunday is interesting, trains take 3.5 hours because of engineering works! So, instead of a 1.5 hour journey to Hitchin, we drove half and hour. I can categorically say that I was the scruffiest I've ever been in London, wearing my shorts and t-shirt ready for the walk. The tube was interesting though, it was a game of spot the bright pink hats, and all of us doing the knowing nod.

We sat on the ground while everyone warmed up around us. We just tried to avoid the sun. What amazed me was how many men were there, in their bras. Then, the hooter sounded, we were off on a half marathon, through central London, Ali wearing a bra and shorts, me with a t-shirt under my decorated bra. We walked through Battersea, Millbank tower, down to Blackfriars, back up to Big Ben, Royal Albert Hall. I gave Ali a sightseeing trip en-route. Going past the London eye was interesting, becuase we didn't have a pack of walkers through us, and it was rammed. We had quite a few strange looks.

Overtaking other walkers was fun, except when I had to stop for something to eat and the 82 year old, the oldest person in the walk, overtook us! Duting the start of the walk I was Ali's pacemaker, during the end Ali was mine. Good team work. We got to the end in 3 hours 50 mins, feet were a little sore, but the flip flops and medal at the end were just what I needed.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Classical choir concert - fllag waving


Oh I love a bit of flag waving, sincing Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, and Jerusalem.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Guide camp - a trip down memory lane




It's been at least 15 years since I last went to guide camp, and it was a trip down memory lane. Memories of hitting the wooden pegs into the ground on the patrol tents, memories of wide games such as whiskey, kick the can, kick the bucket. Something I don't remember though is how solid the floor is, has it got harder in my old age! All i did in the morning was complain about how my hips were sore. We ate from an open fire, made nests in the woods. The cutest thing was that to build their nests, they couldn't use one arm and had to pretend they were a bird. The brownies pretended to have a beak and collected the material as though they were birds. So cute.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Battle of hastings, with a briefcase and pull along suitcase





Breakfast in a war themed Bed and Breakfast is quite surreal, but good. Off we walked in a gale to get to the train station to Battle. Who knew that the Battle of Hastings wasn't in Hastings, it's in Battle! But then, I guess you couldn't call it the Battle of Battle could you. What does everyone need to visit a battle site? A briefcase and pull along suitcase! Trouble was, the pebble footpath caused quite a lot of drag, which enetertained me even more. 7000 people died there. What struck me was how small the site was, which later homed an abbey.

We then visited Yesterdays World, a sort of living museum without the characters, but lots of shop fronts and insides houses. Health and Safety clearly wasn't a consideration in the attic room, Phil limboed, I got stuck. We had a lovely afternoon tea and thought of why Phil struggles with the simplist of things. For example, there is an etiquette of eating a scone, you cut it, you put jam on, cream on, then eat half at a time. You don't put the contents in, sandwich it, then it completely crumbles....

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Hastings - Castle, smugglers, fisherman, shipwreck and all terrain shoes





Little did we know that the Battle of Hastings isn't actually in Hastings! But no matter, we found lots of things to do in the town. It's a strange mixture of antique shops and emporiums, next to trendy cafe's and restaurants. We visited the old town hall museum, old fashioned sweet shops, went up the West Cliffe funnicular, the deepest in the UK. We walked around the castle in gales, watched a fantastic video about the Battle of Hastings...that's in Battle, not Hastings. Slight bad experience going into the video room as it was pitch black, thank goodness I didn't sit on anyone.

We moved onto Smugglers Adventure, maybe the title should have told us that it's more of a theme park in a cave with lots of things to play with, but little information for adults. Something I did learn is that Oxo cubes were created not far from hastings, and I didn't know what Gibbet chains were, I do now.

We boarded the East cliff railway on a funnicular, however, Phil not found of country parks meant that we didn't stay long. Besides, he forgot shoes so was wandering around in his work shoes saying they are 'all terrain'. We visited the Fishermans and shipwreck museum, walked along the stade and then visited the leaf and petal museum to see what it is. Luckily the owner didn't hear us come in, so we made a sharp exit.

Walking around the old town was wonderful, some gorgeous buildings including one like a chunk of cheese. We then played crazy golf, in a gale, me having the purple ball and Phil loving his pink one. Trouble was, I would always win from the beginning, then it went downhill and I lost both games. But I did get a hole in one :) We refreshed at the bookshop that has bookcases as wall paper, then an afternoon nap...it's our age.

Sunday, June 02, 2013

London bus tour - impossible in 5 hours







What a gorgeous day for another bus tour, and we thought 5 hours was sufficient for the London bus tour...but nope. We only managed to do one route, we didn't get to do the boat part of it, and pretty much spent most of the time in traffice and waiting for the bus to move. We did see an Israli festival in Trafalgar Square, had lunch in Victoria, saw the sights...but I left thinking I could have done that on a tube ticket.

Saturday, June 01, 2013

Cambridge....twice




What's better than doing the Cambridge bus tour once? Doing it twice! With mum and dad, we paid £14 for the bus tour, managed to get a discount code online, and off we went on the tour. We enjoyed it so much that we did it twice. We stopped at the garden centre for a snack. On route we saw the mathmatical bridge four times, it was the strawberry field festival on so we smelt the festival before we saw it. There really is a 'festival smell'. We visited the various colleges, American cemetary, Kings Run where people had to drink a pint in every pub. The college where mature constituted as over 21 years old. Great fun and informative.