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A tuk-tuk tour of Colombo

Tuesday 12 March 2013 – Colombo.

Damn it, I knew this would happen! The night before last I managed to get about three days worth of sleep in one go, so I had to make up for it last night by having none, not a second. So frustrating as I am back to being tired all over again. As well as my body clock suffering from the jet lag of being five half hours out of whack with London it was also a warm and very noisy night. Though they are not supposed to be working at night, there was concrete drilling going on at the construction site next door at 1:30 am and then grinding at 3:00. I was not a happy chappy when I did get up.

Though I did make the most of the day and was out the door by 9:00, I was going to get a tuk-tuk into the Fort area of Colombo and then walk up to the Pettah district to look around the markets. As with most tuk-tuk drivers any opportunity to open a conversation is a potential business opportunity and my driver, Lateef took the chance to offer me a two hour tour of Colombo for the princely sum of $30NZD, I found this remarkably funny and we eventually agreed on half that….

It was worth it as I did get to see quite a few things I would not have seen on foot, plus he knew a bit about some of the history so that made it all the more worthwhile.

It appears that all developing countries have to have some Bob Marley and Che Guevara stickers and posters around the place !

We first visited some of the old and not so old Hindu temples, or kovils in the local Sinhalese language. Both the new Kathiresan and the old Kathiresan Kovil are on the same street. It was enjoyable cruising up these noisy and crowded streets in a tuk-tuk, I am sure I have said it before in what now seem to be posts from so long ago, about how much I enjoy travelling by tuk-tuk.

Our next stop was this catholic church and for the life of me I cannot remember what it was called, but like the Hindu temples it was busy with worshippers rushing in an out and beggars of all ages, shapes and ailments crowding the footpaths and entranceways.

We next visited Sri Ponnambalam Vanesar Kovil one of the key temples in Colombo. The temple is unusual in that it is built from granite slabs and is unpainted, inside and out. Inside is wonderful, but no photos were allowed. Blessing with milk is carried out here so there were a number of cows in the grounds as well as two bullocks used for work. As we were in the temple grounds we were barefoot, I really needed to be careful of the puddles.

We next visited Wolvendaal Church built by the Dutch in 1749. It is a large but simple church and I quite liked it. Sadly my camera battery died when I arrived and the spare I recalled was sitting on the floor in my room at Trudy’s place. Damn ! Luckily I could use my phone for a few basic shots.

I was given a tour of the church by one of the staff, there are five gravestones inside were the bodies of the families of the first five governors were buried. The skull and cross bones mean they died of disease and were not to be dug up.

The church is sighted on the highest point of a largely flat Colombo and could be clearly seen from the harbour entrance when ships arrived. After full independence in 1948 a Buddhist stupa was built between it and the harbour entrance so this was the first religious symbol seen by arriving sailors. Sri Lanka is largely Buddhist.

We next visited the food market and had a walk through the fruit section, I was given a few of the twenty four banana varieties to sample as we walked through a banana house.

On the way out we passed the very fresh chicken section – choose your own !

That was pretty much the end of the tour so it was back to the apartment for a lie down and some lunch before heading back out for a walk round Victoria Gardens to the National Museum.

I really enjoyed the museum, though I didn’t like having to pay an extra camera fee, especially given how poorly lit it was inside, but hopefully the money goes to the museums upkeep so I cannot complain.

I did like some of the Buddhas, especially this sandstone one from the 9th century. If you have followed some of earlier travels through SE Asia you will know how much I love the symbols and statutory of Buddhism.

There were some very good carvings of some of the Bodhisattva as well, many well over 1200 years old.

The only time someone asked to see my photo permit was when I took a photo of this 9th century bronze cast of Tara – I found that so amusing…

In the museum grounds there was a good example of the vine covered trees that are all over Colombo, many filling round abouts. I really like them and something I miss from SE Asia. My tree photography is somewhat lacking so I have not captured this wonderful living thing as well as it deserves.

On the way out of the museum I grabbed a couple of samosas from a street vendor and munched them on the way through Victoria Park, which seems to be completely under construction at the moment. Trudy told me that CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of government meeting) is here in November so the place is getting tarted up – at great expense to a poor nation : (

I also passed by this roundabout temple – where devotees have to brave the seemingly constant traffic – except for the second I clicked the shutter !

Back at Trudy’s I spent thirty minutes doing laps of the pool to cool down. There was no sun shining on the pool as it is between the two apartment blocks so it was extremely refreshing.

It was a good day 🙂

Sleep, sleep and more sleep ! oooo and a visit to a temple

Monday March 11 2013 – Colombo.

OMG – Not a saying I use often, if ever but, OMG – I slept fairly solidly for almost fifteen hours. OK, I will admit to some light dozing towards the end, but fifteen hours !!! I don’t normally sleep that much in three days, let alone one night. I was obviously really tired when I went to bed.

My plan to get up at 6:15 and get outside before the heat of the day was well and truly scuppered by my waking up at 12:30 in the afternoon!

I was really groggy for a while but once I had downed a litre of pure caffeine I was only feeling mildly groggy, but with a caffeine rush going on as well – confusing 🙂

Trudy has a housekeeper, Irene, who comes in most week days to do stuff in the apartment and it took me a while to relax into letting her make me lunch and get coffee, I am not used to having help and mildly uncomfortable with it. Given unemployment, low pay and poverty in Sri Lanka I can see the benefits for this sort of work to Irene and her family. We are all considered wealthy compared to most of the Sri Lankan population, so an opportunity to feed back into the community should be taken, but it doesn’t mean I felt OK with it, different strokes and all that. It is a conversation I can see both sides of I guess, and not a topic for a lightweight travel blog!

After lunch I spent a few hours trying to put together a cohesive plan for the next couple of days. Similar to Laos, I found it hard to get useful and current information from the internet, information that was applicable to me as a traveller spending a month here rather than a week or ten days. My next goal is the ancient cities or ancient triangle and it seems a lot of the folk who have blogged their experience have hired cars for a couple of days and whipped around whole thing. I was sort of thinking of spending a couple of days in each place, maybe I am just fooling myself on how interesting they really are. I am also just starting to get to grips with the cost of entry fees which are frankly, outrageous – though I had been warned !!

After much faffing about I have booked myself a first class train seat to Anuradhapura, about four hours from Colombo. The first class seat plus a meal came to a whopping $14 NZD. I could have gone 2nd class for cheaper, but meh – I want to enjoy it ! It cost me more to go to Dartford from London – a thirty minute ride through the less scenic parts of east London, so this is really worth it. I will have to do one 2nd class journey for the experience though. Once I get there I will work out where to go and what to do next.

With that and some reasonably priced accommodation booked in Anuradhapura for three nights sorted it was time to go outside. I went out to visit the nearby Gangaramaya Temple. The temple is the biggest Buddhist site in Colombo and sprawls all over the place including over the road where I found these relics from a former building.

Next to the temple entrance is a small elephant enclosure with a chained up temple elephant, that looks like it has gone as nutty as the polar bears used to be in Auckland Zoo, rocking back and forth. I really felt for the poor beast.

The temple was interesting though not informative, it had a vast collection of historical items from Colombo’s as well as its own past, but no information on them. However, I really enjoyed walking around the temple site, I really do like the Buddhist imagery and idealism. Though I do need to get back into the temple viewing groove, it always takes a few days to relax back into visiting Buddhist and Hindu temples and the freedoms we tourists have to look and photograph things without restriction. They are often quite serene.

I liked these trucks on a side street outside.

I feel like I have taken the first baby steps back in to traveller mode today – and though it was a rocky start, it felt good at the end !

Bring on the adventures !

A new adventure begins !!!

Sunday 10 March 2013 – London – Colombo, Sri Lanka

After bidding farewell to El I walked back to the flat to shower and finish (start) packing before saying a thank you and see you later to Kevin. I left him sitting in the lounge with the entire contents of the kitchen stacked around him as a total kitchen renovation had started a couple of days ago, fortunately arranged around my departure date. Thanks Kevin, I really enjoyed staying in the flat and your company.

I left in the late afternoon and walked in a cool drizzle back to London Bridge station and caught the long slow tube out to Heathrow Airport. I was there semi-early and the check-in process was smooth, friendly and pain free – basically the best part of the Sri Lankan Airways experience… Once in the departure lounge I had a couple of glasses of Shiraz in one of the bars, caught up on some last minute emails and FaceBook messages and wondered if I would enjoy a month on my own on the road again.

The last bit of solo travelling I did was back in August in Spain and it was a fairly miserable time, with pretty much all of it spent as the sole English speaking traveller in the small villages I visited in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Hopefully Sri Lanka will have a good pool of travellers to share stories, experiences and the occasional meal with.

I am also a little concerned about the cost of Sri Lanka, from all I have read and heard it sounds like it is not a cheap place to stay – especially as a single traveller – has to be cheaper than London – surely!

For a full service flight, albeit a cheap one; the flight to Colombo on Sri Lankan was, as commented in the many unfavourable internet reviews – entirely average. I could not eat the food, the worst type of low quality airline food that I thought went out in the eighties. The service was slow – but with a smile, so credit where it was due. The seat was uncomfortable and I was wedged in next to a rather large young man, who sort of oozed over onto my seat as soon as he sat down. I had screwed up my seat selection and ended up in the middle two seats in the centre block of four, damn airlines inconsistent seat numbering systems !!

What good there was to say about it was the ride was smooth all the way to Colombo, and it was a relief to get off. Getting through immigration was a breeze as I had arranged visa on-line before departing London and I was soon in the back of a car that my friend Trudy had booked to take me the thirty kilometres from the airport to her apartment in Colombo’s district 2.

First impressions of Colombo from the back of a car ?
Clean and tidy. As is usual in Asia the horn is the most used piece of the car, even if the roads are not crowded. It ‘feel’s OK, I don’t feel intimated by being in an alien environment like I did the first time, nothing looks really strange. I like knowing that I have grown from my first touch of Asia fourteen months ago, and even the heat wasn’t too bad…

Trudy is an old friend from way back, we travelled Europe together twenty five years ago and though she is Australian and I have seen her a few times since, most recently in London in June, she has a job that gives her a 10th floor apartment in a 35 story block just outside the ‘centre’ of town in Colombo 2.

There is a lot of building work going on in the area as more tower blocks are being built, which is as usual a bit short sighted as there is too much capacity as it is, though I guess no-one knows what the future will bring.

Once I had got myself sorted we went for a walk down towards the waterfront and Galle Face Green. It took about twenty minutes to get to the ocean and we passed this open air laundry on the way.

Galle Face Green faces onto the Indian Ocean and is hugely popular at the weekends with people flying kites, bathing and couples courting. It was a lovely evening so the beach was very crowded as we left. I love the modesty of the Sri Lankan people, no bikinis or even swimsuits here. I find it quite endearing.

We walked to the far end of the green to the old lighthouse, bizarrely only the side facing the see has been painted, or maybe that just be logically!

This is the old parliament building and taking photos of it is prohibited, sorry Sri Lanka I am bad. But it is a lovely old colonial building and there are not that many that can be photographed.

We walked back to the Galle Face Hotel for a couple of sun downers

before heading back to Trudy’s, in a tuk-tuk. I was knackered, the heat zapped me today. I am sure I wont take long to get used to it though.

I was dropping off through dinner so had an early night, barely making it to 9:00 PM. Sri Lanka is five half hours ahead of London, which is just so out of whack.

Final London days

Saturday 09 March 2013 – London

Another week has passed; this one all too quickly, I am not sure how really ready I for solo travel in hot and humid climates again, I guess I will find out when I get to Sri Lanka tomorrow.

On Wednesday I caught the train for a thirty minute ride to Barnehurst in Kent where I met Joan and Alan – an uncle and aunt. We all went down to Canterbury in their car to meet up with some more of my dad’s family, his two sisters – Barbara and Margaret, Margaret’s husband Roy and my cousin Anthony for lunch at a pub. Barbara lives there and it is the most central location for all. It was lovely to catch up with everyone again and I had a great time. For dessert I had banoffee pie, I have never heard of it before, a mix of banana and toffee on a biscuit base. It was so sweat, heart attack pie. Yum! I have been sleeping really badly the last few weeks so highly unusually for me I fell asleep in the back of the car on the way back to Barnehurst and my train back to London.

As it was my last week in town El took Thursday off work so we could hang out for the day, we had sort of planned to go to nearby Epping Forest so I could get some photos of the bare trees, however the weather did not play ball and it was raining. We decided to go the massive mall at Stratford as at least we could get a walk in, plus shopping is always good fun. We lunched at the Real Greek, a chain restaurant and it was damn good !

We took the tube up to Bethnall Green to the Childhood Museum, a vast collection of toys and things that entertained small people over the years. It was really cool, I loved it. So many of the old books, games and toys I remembered from mine and my children’s childhood. It comes highly recommended, especially for your inner geek.

On Friday I went back up to Dartford on the train to take the rest of my accumulated junk back to my Uncle Jim’s place. I was going to send a load back to New Zealand, but now I am not so sure on whether I will stay there or come back to England after my trip. I have decided to leave stuff here in the interim, though there was more of it than I thought. Jim and I had lunch in the local pub, The Ivy Leaf. I cannot believe how much cheaper food was outside of London, lunch for both of us was under six pounds, be lucky to get lunch for one in a pub in London!

Friday night El and I went to see the Welsh band ‘The Joy formidable’ at the Camden Roundhouse. This was my first gig of the year, I cannot believe I have slipped into the routine of not going to see bands so quickly ! It was great to be able to go to a gig with someone though : ) The show was good, the roundhouse is not a bad venue, I would call it midsize, but I guess it is considered small by UK standards. I really liked how they had the drummer stage front and side on – Fraser, one for you ?

Saturday was my last day in England for a while and my last day for a while with El, it was a funny old day. I had decided I wanted to have a final good English breakfast and as El had not seen my flat in London Bridge we went over to the south side for the day.

Starting with a visit to a recently fully re-opened Borough Market; which is just fabulous if you like cheese, bread, wine and deli-food from all over Europe – and funnily enough I do. The lunch options were just so tempting, but I had greasy breakfast on my mind, so we just had to walk past and enjoy the mingled aromas coming from the various stalls.

Next stop was one of my old favourite south bank haunts, the Tate Modern, I really like this gallery, the building is amazing and I love the wee stands of silver birches out the front. I really should have come here in the snow as one of my MUST DOs is to photo silver birches in the snow – I guess I will have to take a trip way up north to get them in the wild.

I also found the huge Monet ‘Water lillies’, I have no idea how I have missed this on my previous visits to the gallery ! As I have said before , I really appreciate being able to take photos in the Tate.

I bought a couple of prints this time, my first Tate acquisitions; though I am talking six pound art prints, not multi-million pound originals !

After the Tate we wandered slowly back up the Thames to Bermondsey St, where against all hope Al’s Cafe was open. He does a great big breakfast and I fully enjoyed my last one, too much so as I did not think to take a photo. It was great to share my last meal in England with El before showing her round the flat and introducing her to Kev and Phil.

And that was that, really. I walked El back up to the station at London Bridge and bid her a farewell – not a good bye, as I hope and want to see her again.

A quick walk to Greenwich

Monday 04 March 2013 – Greenwich.

A quick post. I am running out of time before I leave and though I am reasonably busy and sort of excited about getting onto the plane and travelling again, I am also very unmotivated and going through a rather lazy patch!

I have been meaning to visit Greenwich for weeks but have never ever made it and today I had no intention of making it either as I had a number of things to do, but….

I needed to go to the post office to get a couple of boxes to mail some stuff back to New Zealand and Australia. I would be arriving in the late autumn and would have no clothes suitable for the colder weather and now I have shopped here in London I really did not need to buy any more clothes. The Borough post office is not that far away from here so early-afternoon I decided to walk in the opposite direction, capitalise on some nice weather and get a decent walk in. I just seemed to carry on going east and ended up in Greenwich.

The Thames path moves in and out of side streets and sadly cannot follow the river all the way from London Bridge to Greenwich so for most part I just walked the main roads, it was still an interesting walk, occasionally I dropped down to the river for a look.

Canary Wharf from the other side.

A really helpful sign!

I reached Greenwich mid-afternoon and did not give myself enough time really see the place. I had not realised how big the historic site is, and a beautiful place it surely is. A place I will certainly come back to when I do get back to London.

The Cutty Sark is one of only a small number of preserved clipper ships anywhere in the world.

I know nothing about most of these buildings, just that I like them.

I have heard an awful lot about Greenwich, none of it bad, and I can see why. It is another beautiful part of London, especially on a stunning spring day like today. I cannot wait to come back again.

Five more sleeps until I am on the plane to Sri Lanka !!!

A week of it

Sunday 03 March 2013 – Bristol and London

With my departure from London looming I seem to have become incredibly busy all of a sudden. The ‘things to do’ list seems to grow longer and longer as the time to do them grows shorter and I remember all the things I need to take with me when I travel to rather more tropical climes.

Shorts and t-shirts seem more appropriate in 30+ degree Sri Lanka than the jeans, jackets and scarves that I have here in London Bridge so I took a trip to Dartford to swap winter clothes for summer and catch up with my uncle for a wee while.

On the good news front my lovely daughter Meliesha arrived home from three months travelling in India with her partner – so I took a trip down to Bristol on Tuesday to see them both. They are between homes at the moment and dossing on a friends couch while they hunt for a flat so I ended up staying the night in a ‘cheap’ hotel. It was ab fab to see them both, looking so well and brown and relaxed. As always it was a great time in Bristol and I will miss her when I leave, just as I miss my sons Dom and Aiden now.

The view of the Bear Pit from my hotel stairwell.

My current favourite street artist is Phlegm, from Sheffield in England, I really like his characters and the level of detail in them, each unique. He has painted a wall in Tangalla in Sri Lanka and I am going to try and find it when I am there. It was great to just come across a wall of his in Bristol’s Stokes Croft.

Mel, who hates having her photo taken and will hate this even more, sorry!

Back in London, on Thursday El and I went to see an exhibition of portraits from the photographer David Bailey, he is mainly known for his fashion photography and for images of the rich and famous, however this exhibition focused on some of the work he did in the 60’s in the east end of London where he was brought up. It was really good and I am always amazed at the quality of these old images, especially when we spend so much time these days ‘pixel peeping’ digital images at 400% magnification to look for flaws…

The exhibition was in the William Morris Gallery in Walthemstow, east London so after the gallery we took a walk around the old part of town; with buildings dating back to the time when it was a small village on the edge of Epping Forest. It constantly, and pleasantly, surprises me that in the middle of so many of these suburbs and suburban towns there is an enclave of ancient and well preserved buildings, with some of them trying to record and maintain the history of the area, just very cool.

Saturday was a visit to another photo exhibition, I cannot believe how much good quality free art is available in London – if you know where to look of course ! There was an exhibition of work from Norman Parkinson at the National Theatre. Parkinson is a fashion/society photographer who has worked in the industry for decades. There were some great images from across his career, including from the sixties music scene. This is a recent photo of him.

From the exhibition El and I walked a bit of the South Bank

Finally, crossing the Thames to the city side. I have had a look for this bridge leg a few times, it is well known as the final resting place for skateboards that get broken at the South Bank skate park.

Ever since I arrived in England I have been pondering the purchase of a new camera and have had a look at a variety of options as well as brief thoughts about buying an underwater housing to go with a new camera. After a lot of reading on the complexities of underwater photography plus the price tag on a housing I decided to give up on that idea. However, I still wanted a new camera and had been looking at the Panasonic Lumix GX1 – an upgrade on my travel camera the GF1. They were on special so I decided today was the day and dragged El up towards Oxford St so I could go shopping. On the way as we passed through the back of Denmark St I spotted a small Space Invader on a building, these are quite rare and seemingly hard to find, so it was cool to find one.

This was followed by finding a Stik on the back of a building though I was unable to get a clean shot as access was fenced off.

And then another Space Invader – wahoo 🙂 I love it when I unexpectedly come across some street art!

This is my new purchase, the GX1, it looks and feels similar to my GF1 but works totally differently, it took me ages to work out how to change the aperture in manual mode, and I still had to Google it.

I have supported Arsenal Football Club for many years and this year they are playing average at best. Sunday was a season defining game against north London arch rivals Tottenham Hostpsur so I decided I would walk up to Islington – Arsenal homeland, and find a pub to watch the game in. It is not a huge walk from London Bridge, maybe one and half hours – but it does pass through part of Shoreditch so I was looking for opportunities to try the new camera as well.

A bit of the past, present and future. I really like the ‘Gherkin’ it is not as cool as the Shard, but still a dramatic building in the downtown business heart of London.

I walked past the Village Underground building to see the completed wall that Thierry Noir and Stik were painting a few days ago – I wonder how long this wall will last before a new piece is painted on it ?

Thierry had also completed the pieces on the front of the building as well.

As I walked up Great Eastern Rd towards Islington and I found this large Stik on a car park wall, I am getting quite a good collection of Stiks. Admittedly they all look kind of the same, but I still like finding them around the place.

And round the back of the car park I saw these guys finishing off a piece, I do not know who they are though and they were too far away to talk too, but it looks great and I think it is fabulous that some property owners allow, or even commission, artists to paint their walls.

And finally this on a window in City Rd. Possibly the last bit of street art I will see in London this time round, I really like it though.

I made it up to Islington well before the game started so bought a paper – The Observer, and found a seat in a pub for a pint and some lunch. I really like The Observer, a great Sunday read. I will really miss quality English newspapers when I leave – and yes I can read them on line but it is not the same, browsing a paper is the just best way to keep informed on all the random bits of news that I never pick up on on-line.

Anyway, I won’t say anything more about the game other than I and the rest of the jam packed pub left disappointed.

To all the people who read my blog, this message on the back of a sign in Soho Square, says it best.

I have just ‘discovered’ embedding links to other places on the web. I always knew they were there, just have never used them, something I now regret. So very useful.

Shakespeare country

Sunday 24 February 2013 – Stratford-upon-Avon

I am blaming the bard for causing an almost complete mental block and now I am stuck on how to go about starting this post. If I only I had a small jot of his ability to string phrases together it would all be so much easier.

In true tragic-comedic fashion, now that I am committed to leaving London in less than two weeks time I have met a woman I like and naturally she is unable to travel in the immediate future. We have been hanging out a bit over the past few weeks and have had some good times. For reasons I will not go into I have agreed to not post a picture of El, but she has an impeccable taste in music, likes to read books, has a wicked sense of humour and I think she is very nice.

Anyway, we decided to do something different and went to Stratford upon Avon for the weekend, the birth and burial place of the bard himself – William Shakespeare. I am reading the fabulous Bill Bryson book on Shakespeare and it really highlights how few actual facts there are about old Bill, his name has been recorded as – Shakspeare, Shagsper, Shackspere and another twenty plus variations – a number of those variations were in his own signature.

We caught the train up from Marylebone Station in London on a bitterly cold Friday evening and arrived in our hotel in time for a late dinner in a bar packed with middle aged men in tuxedos – I felt a wee bit out of place in my jeans and boots – Stratford is not London!

On Saturday we took a walk around town, it was quite cold outside so numerous visits to historical houses were made. If you have lived in England over a winter you will know all about the bitter wind that howls down from the Siberian Steppes, it does not bring rain or snow but it cuts through as many layers of clothing as you can possibly wear and even my ‘windproof’ leather gloves were no match. Having said that, there was a constant very light fall of massive snow flakes all day. I was possibly the only person praying for a massive snow fall…

Stratford itself was sort of disappointing, due to my own ignorance I was expecting a cute wee village rather than a proper ‘town’ so the lovely old buildings were scattered and a bit incoherent. Not that there were not beautiful in their own right, just in between were the normal English high street chain store blights like Starbucks, Currys and the soon to be gone HMV. I imagine in not such a long time we will all be looking back at high street shopping as quaint and old fashioned.

First stop was a quick look at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre on the far side of the River Avon. It was great to see a wee bit of Olympic legacy with the number of keen rowers out on a cold morning.

We were looking for breakfast and coffee and were momentarily tempted by three inches of pure dairy fat in the middle of this scone. Jam and cream scones as part of an “English cream tea” are very common, but I have never seen this much cream – ever. I was not tempted through the shop door (OK I was, but I did not dare!)

There are very few real facts about Shakespeare and his life, no paintings of him were made during his life time and no copies of any of his work exists in his own hand writing, most of what we know comes from other accounts of his life. Due to reasonably good record keeping in the UK from a very early time we do know where (not exactly when) he was born, got married, had children and died. Our first stop post breakfast was the house where he was born and lived when he was a child.

It is a museum now and frankly a wee bit odd. I guess the flow of the museum is really designed to cater for the masses of visitors that would come through on an English summer day. As you can see he was not born into poverty, though his family were hardly rich, just well off…

It was a wee walk through town to our next stop.

I really liked these old alms houses from the mid sixteenth century, partially renovated in the 1980’s and now lived in, the look lovely. What really impressed me with this street and outside our next stop at Halls Croft was the fact there was no parking out the front – finally an opportunity to see these wonderful buildings without cars and vans parked in front. Well done Stratford !

Halls Croft is the house where Shakespeare daughter lived once she was married, it is quite ramshackle and I loved in a partially renovated way and I loved it, especially how the floor boards squeaked so loudly as we walked around.

I loved this little croft house nearby, and really regret not getting some close ups of the wood of the door.

England’s most visited parish church, Holy Trinity is the burial place of Shakespeare and his family. It was an interesting visit, I am used to visiting the big old cathedrals but this is a lovely old building with some very nice stained glass windows as well as the Shakespeare burial site.

From the church we completed the loop walking back along the side of the Avon and past the Royal Shakespeare Co theatre.

The building did not impress me at all from the outside, however we went to see a play in the evening and the inside is totally different to the out. The theatre is lovely, a horse shoe shape with steep galleries around the stage. We saw “The winters tale” it was my first live Shakespeare, and the first theatre I have been to in decades. I was very unsure on whether I would enjoy it or not and at three hours long it could have been a long and uncomfortable evening ! However, I surprised myself by really enjoying it, not that I understood half of what was being said. The cast was excellent and really allowed the story to work without needing to understand all the dialogue.

It was a good night that followed a really nice day. Though I slightly criticised the town at the start of this post, it was a lovely place to wander through, with some great things to see. Winter is a great time of year to visit !

Street art in action

Wednesday 20 February 2013 – Shoreditch

The past few days had been really quite warm, on Sunday I almost worked up a sweat when I walked into town and at one stage even took my jacket off. This ended today and there was a freezing wind blowing down from the Siberian steppes to remind me that February is still winter in England. It was back to thick jackets, gloves and a scarf when I finally ventured out of the house late in the afternoon.

I had arranged to meet a friend for a curry in Shoreditch; which was extremely convenient as one of my favourite street artists, Stik, was painting a wall very close by…

I decided to walk to Shoreditch as it is only a few kilometres from home and meant I could walk through the old business heart of London around Fenchurch St and Aldgate, an area I had to walk through, unexciting as it was !

But it did allow me to walk through Brick Lane an area I had yet to fully explore for street art. There was plenty to see and a few other people photographing it as well.

I really like this Jana and JS piece, I am going to have to try and find some more of their work. I have seen two and both are fabulous.

I love these huge arrows sticking out of the side f the building.

The walls of the Village Underground are the site of regular organised art works and yesterday and today there was a joint painting project organised by Street Art London. Thierry Noir is a French artist who has been part of the street art scene for decades. He was made famous in the 1980s when he painted large sections of the Western side of the Berlin Wall – at the time a risky business as the East German government were very unhappy with people approaching the wall, from either side. Thierry was joined on this project by one of my favourite English Street artists – Stik. I really like his figures and this one from Brick Lane today is definitely my favourite.

I stood and watched them paint for a while, had a brief conversation with Stik before moving on to a nice warm curry house for dinner.

A run in East Grinstead

Saturday 16 February 2013 – East Grinstead

Last Saturday the running club I am a member of had another social run organised, this time in East Grinstead in West Sussex – almost directly south from me and an hour out of London on the train. Fourteen of us met at London Bridge station on another stunning clear English winter day and were soon on our way out of town.

There were a couple of guys on the train who have done and are training to do some serious multi-day off road ultra-marathons, one of the guys is training for the Marathon de Sables, a six day race in the Moroccan Sahara desert. The run is self supported so he was running today with ten kilograms of barbell in his pack. I struggled just running with half a kilo of water !

The first mile was through East Grinstead town, and Alan our guide pointed out CJ’s cafe where we were to meet after for refreshments. Soon enough we were at the trail head, the run was pretty straightforward – a there and back jog along an old railway line through some nice Sussex country side.

This was a great run for me, an out and back meant I could run at the pace I wanted to and if I was dropped then I could just turn around and head back until I was picked up again. Which is sort of what happened 🙂

I ran with the faster guys for the first couple of miles and then started to take a few photos of the old road bridges that crossed the path and soon got too far behind to catch up.

This allowed me to run on my own for a while which I really enjoyed as I got to settle into a nice pace that suited me and I enjoyed just being able to run for a while. Yeah some of you know what I mean !

At the hour mark I just turned round and headed back the way I came and picked up one of the stragglers heading back to the start. I ran with her all the way back to the cafe and to be honest I needed it. I was knackered, a two hour run after not doing anything more than fifty minutes for weeks was a big ask… I appreciated it when my companion wanted to take a couple of wee rests on the way back 🙂 Not sure what it was but my feet really did not enjoy running on the harder surface, give me mud !

It is hardly art, but someone has been using paint cans – even out in the country.

Back in East Grinstead town I stopped to take a few photos of some of the lovely old buildings, pity about the parked cars !

After a very nicer lunch at CJ’s cafe we all caught the train back into town and a couple of us stopped for a couple of pints at the historic George pub in London Bridge.

It was a most enjoyable day.

No (Roger) mooring

Tuesday 19 February 2013

I have had a fairly hectic few days; in between the long lie-ins I have been out and about and seen a few of the things I have on my to-do list. I have been really lucky in that the weather has been very kind to me with almost no rain for most of the last few weeks, though there have been some cool days.

Last Friday I finally got around to visiting the British Museum. I have fond memories of the mummies and Egyptian collection and was keen to go back and have a look. Of course any visit to the British Museum is tainted with knowing that a lot of the exhibits were dubiously collected and really should belong in their country of origin. While I do like seeing these lovingly cared for and well displayed exhibits in one central location, a part of me would like them to be returned home.

The museum itself has changed significantly from when I was last there – I think. I certainly do not recall this amazing roof.

I really liked this crystal skull, it is a semi-famous as it was found in Mexico and supposedly pre-Columbian. However, tests proved that it was probably made in Europe in the late 1800’s. I love an artefact with a bit of a dodgy history.

As I mentioned earlier I do love the Egyptian collection.

And these bits ~~stolen~~ legitimately acquired from the Parthenon are very cool too.

Saturday I went for a trail run and I will write that up in a separate post.

On Sunday I was very excited to be able to go and see the Man Ray photographic exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. As you will know I am not big on portraits, but I do like the work of Man Ray, especially the things he did in Paris in the 1920’s. An incredibly influential and innovative photographer. Living in 20’s Paris as an artist must have been incredible. The exhibition was fabulous, covering work up to his death in 1976. I really enjoyed it and if I had the time I would go back on a quieter day.

After the exhibition my friend and I had a couple of quiet whiskies in a whisky bar on Trafalgar square. Kilchoman is the first distillery to open on the isle of Islay in over seventy years and this was their first production, a six year old single malt. It was a lot lighter than a typical Islay malt, but very very nice…

Monday was a glorious glorious day and even quite warm in the sun!

I had coffee with my old NZ buddy John near where he lives in Earls Court and then took a two hour meander back to my place in London Bridge, it was a great day to be out walking, but it definitely got cool out of the sun.

Tuesday started off very foggy !

So I went back to bed !

As the sun started to peek through the clouds I decided I would head off and walk one of the parts of Regents Canal that I have to walk, the middle section from Kings Cross to Camden Lock. To make the walk more interesting I decided to walk to Kings Cross as well, naturally I got a bit mis-placed on the way so it was a longer walk than planned, but another great day for it.

I really like walking the canal, I would love to live near it, but man, sooooo expensive…

For a country that is in the economic doledrums, building is booming in London, there is mass construction everywhere, it will be a different city again in two years time.

I just loved this simple addition of “Roger” to this sign, some times graffiti can be extremely clever. – I accept not everyone is going to agree with the sticker though.

I had lunch by the canal in Camden, a Thai chicken curry – the first meat I have eaten in the best part of a month, I think I needed the protein. I have not consciously chosen to go almost fully vegetarian, I was always partially so, and the horse meat scandal was not a factor, I have just not bought any lately.

Amy Winehouse was a regular in the Camden area.

And the day ended completely differently to how it started.