Christmas - and making radical new plans ...

With my back having been so bad for so long, we were a bit loathe to make plans for a new trip. We decided to stick around in London until after the New Year at least, and found a great cat sit close to where we used to live in Clerkenwell over Christmas. More on that later.

In thinking about where we wanted to go, we found ourselves discussing a whole range of possible destinations and reasons why we might or might not go, regardless of any (hopefully temporary) issues about my back.

Those of you who know us - or have seen our photos in some of the blog posts - will know that Nic and I are, well, let's just say on the large side! We've made some efforts to lose some weight before, but never really had the motivation or determination to succeed. However, since we 'retired' to be travelling most of the time, we notice the effects of the weight a bit more. Sometimes it is the smaller things, like low energy levels, difficulty buying clothes in some countries - Asia in general is not good for me, or that the simple fact that larger clothes makes limiting ourselves to carry-on luggage pretty difficult.

The bigger problem is that there are trips that we want to do, that we realistically can't. With Nic being a firm fan of lemurs, we'd love to spend time in Madagascar, seeing them in the wild, but we know that we just aren't physically capable of the level of hiking involved to get to the best places. We keep putting it off, telling ourselves "We'll wait until we're a bit fitter", but of course, we never are. We'd quite like to see gorillas and orangutans too, but the same issue arises.

We got to talking about all of this, and realised that we had finally reached the point where we were ready to really do something about it. The problem with my back helped the decision, because although I suspect my back may be a problem anyway, my extra weight isn't going to be helping it.

So we decided that, we would put our usual kind of travelling on hold, and instead of another trip like our previous ones, 2017 would be the year we get fit. And whilst Nic doesn't have as much to lose as me, so will get there much quicker, the reality is that, even with being very determined, it is going to take me well over a year to get to where I want to be, so we needed to get a good start in to have any hope of keeping the motivation going.

We knew we couldn't face the idea of diets and exercise in the gloom of a UK winter, so we decided to take ourselves off to the southern hemisphere. We also had to make sure that we went to a place where we knew we could get good, healthy food, not be too tempted by bad things, and preferably join a gym, as I'm a long way off from getting my exercise from big hikes or bike rides.

So we booked ourselves a flight to Chile in January, and figured we'd spend a couple of months in the southern lakes area, staying six weeks each in Pucon, which we had been to before and Puerto Varas. Our plan was that this would be enough time to kick start our new healthy lifestyle and make some headway in the weight loss, so that then we could spend a couple of months travelling in the more dangerous territory of Argentina.

When I say dangerous, I am of course only referring to the lure of good wine, empanadas, and that deliciously evil thing that is dulce de leche. For anyone not familiar with dulce de leche, think the very sweet, very rich toffee bit of a banoffee pie.

We are banking on the fact that once we have got going, we will be determined enough to resist most of the temptations at least, and whilst the fitness campaign may slow down a little during that time, we at least can avoid undoing whatever we may have achieved thus far.

Then after a short break back in the UK, we plan to do the same kind of thing again in the northern hemishere's summer, this time in Canada. We'll be off to Vancouver Island for a while, and then do some travelling across country. More on those plans closer to the time.

The intention is to continue in this way until we are both where we want to be, and we can finally see ourselves hiking to see the lemurs in Madagascar, or anything else that we want to do, as well as simply being fitter and healthier.

We don't know if we'll manage it, and we know that it will be a long hard slog, especially for me, but we're going to give it our best shot.

Of course in the meantime, it was Christmas, and being us, we couldn't resist the lure of one final blowout before we begin our new regime. So we filled our Christmas cat sit with turkey and all the trimmings, good wines, a chocolate truffle cake and a meringue gateau. We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas, and felt stuffed, slightly heavier, but ready to make a start when we arrive in Chile in mid January.

Wish us luck!

A Cancelled Trip ....

After not leaving the flat in Italy for a week, I hobbled my way back to the airport in Florence. They let me take my stick on the plane, transported me across the tarmac so that I didn't have to walk, and sent a wheelchair to meet me at London City airport. That was a little embarrassing, and I felt a bit of a fraud, but it was handy, as we sailed past the queues at immigration. As it happens, I would have really struggled had I had to stand in line for that long, so it was probably for the best.

We made it back to Kent for a few more days, which gave me a chance to see my GP again, and then  were supposed to have been getting ready for our next trip away, which was Intrepid's first running of their trip from Bucharest (Romania) to Kiev (Ukraine), going through Moldova, Transnistria, and including a visit to Chernobyl. We had also tagged on a bit more time in Ukraine and then Poland, including a trip to Auschwitz, and a chance to catch up with a Polish friend we'd met in Antarctica. We were really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, it was now becoming clear that my back wasn't improving, and there was no way we were going to be taking that trip. There were far to many long travel days, and long walks involved; I simply could not physically have done it. So very reluctantly, we had to cancel the whole trip.

Thankfully, whilst it was a bit of an effort to get everything needed for the claim, the insurance did at least pay out the maximum that we were covered for, so we weren't left too much out of pocket, just very disappointed not to be going.

We were offered another housesit for the cats in Stoke Newington though, which was nice, so we headed back to London, where I got myself along to the physiotherapist, and did very little except be grumpy about my back! Poor Nic, not only was he running around after me, he had to put up with my being a miserable git too. He did at least manage to catch up with a few friends while we were there though.

Gradually my back did improve, and I was able to move around a little more with the stick, but I was still pretty pathetic well into November.

London - and a trip to the Houses of Parliament

Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben, Palace of Westminster

Away from the seaside, we spent the rest of our time back in London, most of it in a house sit Stoke Newington, looking after a couple of lovely, if slightly timid, cats.

We needed to spend some time in London anyway, as our tenants in our flat were leaving and we needed to find new ones. Thankfully, after one false start, that process wasn't too painful, and we soon found ourselves a new set of tenants, who are now safely installed.

We quite liked the Stoke Newington area, but didn't end up getting to see too much of it as I managed to go down with a pretty rotten chest infection, that had me coughing, which initially sent the cats running out of the room, but they soon got used to it, and stayed put, but just gave me a bit of a dirty look for disturbing their peace!

Oliver Cromwell, Palace of Westminster

Unfortunately though, during one of my violent coughing fits I managed to put my back out pretty badly. And believe me, coughing when your back is out is not a good way to be - one time it hurt so much that I actually passed out briefly, leaving poor Nic thinking I was having a stroke or something!

Thankfully, the antibiotics that I'd been given soon cleared up the chest infection, but the back issue turned out to be rather more lengthy. You'll hear more about that later, but for now, suffice to say, I was largely immobile for quite some while.

Palace of Westminster

One thing we had managed to do before I became stuck to the sofa, was to finally get along to a visit to the Houses of Parliament. I have a fondness for the gothic style, so The Palace of Westminster has long been a favourite building of mine from the outside.

There has been a Palace of some form or other here since the Danish King Cnut, who was King of England from 1016-35. King Cnut is the one who tried to hold back the sea, and is often therefore referenced as someone vain or thinking they are more powerful than they are. In fact, historians believe that this was not the case, and that Cnut was in fact demonstrating to his over flattering courtiers that he did not have that power, only God did.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

When Edward the Confessor took the throne in 1042, he commissioned the building of Westminster Abbey (though this original was mostly demolished by Henry III in 1245, and the current one built over the next few centuries,) and a royal palace. He didn't last long enough to enjoy them though, as he famously died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror took the throne.

It was his son, William II, who built Westminster Hall, which is oldest surviving part of the palace, dating from 1097. The roof of the Hall was replaced in 1393 by Richard II, and is an impressive hammer-beam roof, which is the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

This is the place where many important events have taken place, from the trial and sentencing to death of Charles I and subsequent inauguration of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, to coronation banquets and lyings in state of royalty and other honoured people like Winston Churchill. It is also where visiting dignitaries, like Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela have stood to address Parliament.

Westminster Hall, was one of the few parts of the original palace to survive the Great Fire in 1834. The fire started when they needed to get rid of two cartloads of wooden tally sticks, that had previously been used for accounting. It was decided to burn them in the two underfloor stoves, but it seems that the heat caused the wooden panelling to be set alight, and most of the Palace was destroyed.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

It was after this fire that the Palace as we know it today was built. A competition was held to come up with a design, which was stipulated must be in either the gothic or Elizabethan style. This was because, while the fashion of the day was neo-classical, the fact that this had been used for The White House in Washington DC meant that it was associated with republicanism, and they wanted something that gave a more conservative feel.

The competition attracted 97 entries, and the winning number 64 was submitted by Charles Barry, with some help from Augustus Welby Pugin, who was to design most of the interiors. Neither man actually made it to the end of the build, both working themselves to an early death before it was finished.

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

They reclaimed some eight acres of land from the River Thames to build the Palace, and it took thirty years to complete. The Lords moved in to their Chamber in 1847, and the Commons to theirs in 1852, with the building work still going on around them.

The use of the sand coloured Yorkshire limestone turned out to be something of a mistake, as it quickly decayed in the coal burning pollution of London, and had to be replaced with Rutland limestone during the restoration in 1930-60. Even then, the pollution quickly discoloured it, and a lengthy cleaning process had to be undertaken place in the latter part of last century.

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

The Palace also suffered during World War II, being bombed like so much of London. On 10-11 May 1941, the bombing was especially bad and both the House of Commons and Westminster Hall were set alight. A former cabinet minister, Walter Elliot, hurried from his nearby home and not only made the quick decision to sacrifice the Commons Chamber to save the much older Westminster Hall, he even to an axe to the locked doors of the Hall himself to get access for the firefighters.

The tour of the Palace is good. It contains a nice amount of detail, without becoming tedious, and the inside is certainly impressive. There are lots of interesting little snippets of information along the way, about the decoration, the history, and odd little rules or customs.

Broken spur, St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

The tour takes you into The Queen's Robing Room, the two Chambers, St Stephens Hall and Westminster Hall, amongst other areas. Sadly, no photos are allowed in most areas. And you definitely aren't supposed to sit on the benches in the Chambers.

In the Members' Lobby, you can see The Churchill Arch, which Churchill suggested should be rebuilt from the bomb damaged stonework, as a reminder of the fortitude of the country during the war. This is also where he, David Wright-George, Clement Atlee and Margaret Thatcher have been immortalised in bronze.

St Stephen's Hall, which is where the old House of Commons once sat, is full of historical paintings and statues. One statue has a damaged spur, which is historical in itself, as it was broken when the suffragettes chained themselves to the statues as part of their campaign to obtain the vote for women.

New Dawn, Palace of Westminster

One new feature, is the addition of a new stained glass window, called New Dawn, which made up of 168 hand blown glass discs, that are designed to look like the rolled up scrolls in the Parliamentary Archives, and represent people and acts that were part of the movement to give women the vote.

There was also an interesting piece art in Westminster Hall, which was created by Jorge Otero-Pailos, and is called The Ethics of Dust. It is a 50m long latex cast of the hall's eastern wall, which was used to clean the wall, and so has hundreds of years worth of dust and pollution absorbed into it. It is a strange idea, but it actually looks quite good, and it is fascinating to think that hundreds of years worth of history is contained within it.

The Ethics of Dust, Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

We enjoyed our visit to The Palace of Westminster, and even picked up a couple of souvenirs in the shop. Just do bear in mind if you go, that the Elizabeth Tower, which is the clock tower that the bell named Big Ben is in, is a separate tour, not included in this one.

Palace of Westminster

  

Palace of Westminster

 

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

 

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

St Stephen's Hall (l) and New Dawn (r), Palace of Westminster

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in London (Throwbacks)

New Year's Eve, London 2014

We have lived in London for years, and have been to Trafalgar Square for New Year's Eve - albeit the easy way by being booked in to a restaurant on the square - but we have never been to watch the fireworks.


To be quite honest, we'd seen the huge crowds that form so early, and really could never be bothered to stand out in the cold, and possibly rain, for that long.

New Year's Eve, London 2014

However in 2014, they started trying to control the crowds by making the main viewing areas ticketed. This was a bit controversial at the time, but it suited us.

The tickets were only £10, and it meant that we could just arrive a couple of hours before to be in a decent position to see, rather than half the day.

We took along a stash of snacks and alcohol, and we settled in to wait for the fireworks. It was a bit nippy, but dry, and with the help of regular sips of brandy and baileys, we lasted through to midnight and those famous bongs.

New Year's Eve, London 2014

The fireworks were certainly very good and we did enjoy them, but in all honesty, I don't think I would bother again. Whilst I do enjoy watching fireworks, I'm not sure I can be bothered in future to wait that long or put up with the crowds on the way home.

Now I could happily watch them from the comfort of a convenient riverside bar or restaurant or something, but I couldn't bring myself to pay those kind of prices even when we were working, so it seems pretty unlikely that we would do it now.

New Year's Eve, London 2014

New Year's Eve, London 2014

New Year's Eve, London 2014

New Year's Eve, London 2014

New Year's Day Parade, London 2015

Another thing that we had never done, was to go along to the New Year's Day Parade.

Partly for the same reasons as the fireworks - couldn't be bothered to wait that long - and partly because we're not early birds anyway, and we'd usually gone to be so late (or is that early?) the night before, that we had no desire to get up as early as was needed.

New Year's Day Parade, London 2015

But this year, we decided that we really ought to make the effort, so dragged ourselves out of bed just about in time to get there for the start of the parade. We knew that would mean being at the back of the crowds, but we were willing to put up with that.

We found a spot close to where the seating area for the Lord Mayor etc, which was good because the parading groups would stop nearby to do their routine, but of course being on the other side of the street, we mostly saw their backs.

New Year's Day Parade, London 2015

There were various bands, as you would expect, but we hadn't thought so many of the participants would be from the USA. Actually, I suspect that this parade may have been modelling itself on the US style of parade, and I found that quite disappointing really.

I don't understand why we would choose to copy their style and tradition, when we could be doing our own thing. I much preferred when we went to the Lord Mayor's Harvest Festival Parade, with all the Pearly Kings and Queens.

New Year's Day Parade, London 2015

Overall, I can't say I was that impressed. Whether that was because we had been spoilt for parades at the New Orleans' Mardi Gras the previous year, or because we had got up earlier than we'd have liked, I'm not sure, but I can't see us bothering with that again.

Greenwich - Maritime and Mean time (Throwback post)

Royal Naval College, Greenwich

We moved in to our new flat in Greenwich just before our trip to Svalbard, but it was only really once we got back that we could get our boxes unpacked and settle in.

It was quite strange, knowing that we were only moving in for six months. We had bought a basic set of furniture from IKEA, which was a feat in itself as their delivery arrangements were a real pain. But it arrived, and we assembled it with only relatively few swearwords uttered.

Greenwich Market

Whilst we have got quite used to our life on the road, we were quite looking forward to being able to be in our own home, and to having our own stuff around us for a change.

Because we had got rid of all the basic, practical stuff, and only kept the good things that we had, it was really rather nice to unpack boxes, as everything that we took out was something that made us happy.

Greenwich Market

We were also keen to have the chance to do some real cooking for a change, in a properly stocked kitchen, which wasn't shared with others. Of course I say properly stocked, but there were occasions when, partway through making something, I would suddenly remember that I got rid of 'x' when we left, and hadn't bought a new one.

Sometimes Nic had to do a quick dash to the shop, such as when I realised I no longer had a measuring jug, while other times I could get creative, such as a wine bottle used as a rolling pin, or using the mesh strainer section of our juicer to sieve the blackberries that I was using to make a jelly.

Royal Naval College, Greenwich

It was good to be able to invite some friends and family over to us, and we also decided that, even though we wouldn't be here that long, it would be nice to meet the neighbours, so we invited those on our floor around for drinks and nibbles.

That went well, so we had them around again at Christmas, which I used that as an opportunity to have a go at a recipe for hot buttered cider that I had fancied trying.

The Queen's House, Greenwich

We bought our flat outside of the main centre of Greenwich, because while it is nice there, there are a lot of tourists around for much of the time. Our flat is just far enough away to be cheaper, allow us to escape the bustle, but still close enough to enjoy the opportunities when we want them. One of the places we like to pop along to is the market, which although busy, has some interesting stalls and a variety of food options. We tried an interesting noodle burger, where the bread roll is replaced by noodles.

Tulip Stairs, The Queen's House, Greenwich

Greenwich is one of those places that many people have heard of, just because of Greenwich Meantime. In 1884 Sir Sandford Fleming led delegates from 27 nations to agree a worldwide standard time, with one hour time zone delineations based on the 24 meridians of the longitude lines that run around the earth from pole to pole. The central of these is the prime meridian, from which all time zones are plus or minus up to 12 hours, and it runs through Greenwich. Hence Greenwich Mean Time, or as it is now becoming known, Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

Like so much of London, the area is steeped in history. It was a roman settlement, and it the Royal Palace of Placentia that used to be here was the preferred home of the Tudors, with Elizabeth I having been born there.

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

That palace is fell into disrepair during the English Civil War, and demolished in 1694, but The Queen's House, built for James I's wife, Anne of Denmark is still here, and is a very popular venue for weddings and events.

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

It is the first true renaissance building in England, with an impressive black and white tiled floor and the beautiful Tulip Stairs. This was the first cantilevered (centrally unsupported) staircase in England, and was designed by Inigo Jones.

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

In 1692, Mary II had a naval hospital built on the site, and from 1873 until 1998, it was The Royal Naval College. These days, it is part university buildings, part tourist attraction, and is regularly used for filming; you may remember it being 'destroyed' in Thor: The Dark World.

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

Another maritime attraction here is the famous old clipper, the Cutty Sark, the 6-7 mile mark in the London Marathon. The ship, which cost £16,150 to build, made her first voyage from London to China in 1870, and she was considered one of the fastest ships in the world.

However the opening of the Suez Canal removed the need for these clippers to make the journeys to bring back tea, and she was eventually moved to bringing back wool from Australia.

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

Cutty Sark, Greenwich

It is an interesting ship to look around, though of course much of it is now a rebuild, since it was largely destroyed by fire.

Tall Ships Festival, London

On the subject of sailing ships, we also went along to see the Tall Ships Festival, where they have a flotilla of sailing ships come up the Thames. It was quite impressive to see so many of them all together.

Tall Ships Festival, London

Tall Ships Festival, London

Tall Ships Festival, London

Tall Ships Festival, London