Travel – Page 9 – Where is Phil now?

Mihintale

Friday 15 March 2013 – Mihintale.

Last night I arranged to meet Benne, the German guy I met on the train a couple of days ago, this morning to go to Mihintale for the day. It is a small town fifteen kilometres out of Anuradhapura that has a few places of historical significance, and therefore of interest to me! Benne went there yesterday and wanted to go back to a special place to meditate. he had met a great tuk-tuk driver/guide that he said we should use again, it all sounded like a good plan to me as I was going to go there tomorrow anyway.

I was up at 8:00 and wandered back down to the place I had breakfast at yesterday for more of the same today. Though sadly they had neither of the things I had yesterday so I tried a bun with a fried egg on it plus an onion roll – or I should say an onion and chilli roll, it damn near took the roof of my mouth off!

On the way there and back and during breakfast I had versions of this conversation, I have it about twenty times a day. Mr X is a tuk-tuk driver. If you have travelled anywhere there is tuk-tuks you will know this conversation.

Mr X – hello
Me – hello
Mr X – How are you?
Me – Good, thanks. How are you?
Mr X – Where you from?
Me – New Zealand
Mr X – Ah, New Zealand, nice place. How long you in Sri Lanka?
Me – One month
Mr X – You like Sri Lanka?
Me – Yes, I like it very much
Mr X – how long you in Anuradhapura?
Me – Three days
Mr X – Where you go now?
Me – Shop – just there.
Mr X – Where you go later?
Me – Riding a bike around.
Mr X – Where you go tomorrow?
Me – I don’t know yet, not sure.
Mr X – I give you good price for tour.
Me – No, thank you very much.

Mr X drives off.

I am wondering if I should just get my answers printed on a t-shirt, save everyone some time. Its all part of the fun I guess and I am sure most see it as a bit of a game.

I met Benne after breakfast and we walked up to Main St where we caught a bus to Mihintale, we seemed to have picked the right time of day as it was not too crowded and we were charged the local price as well, 30 NZ cents for the thirty minute ride. On pretty diabolical roads !

We met our guide for the day, Amara at the bus station and headed off to visit some of the sites. Benne wanted to go and spend some time meditating alone at a spot he went to yesterday so Amara took me round the places that Benne had already visited.

We started with some rock caves that Buddhist monks had lived in for centuries, but were finally closed in the 1980’s. The hill complex Rajagirilena contains a number of old monk houses as well as the usual collection of cheeky macaques.

From the hill we went to the Indikatu Seyu complex, a 9th century site that is believed to have been an active Mahayana Buddhism monastery, which is unusual in an country normally associated with Theravada Buddhism. These gate posts represent jars of water, flowers, milk or other offerings and they are at the entry point to most of the sites here.

At the base of the main temple complex was the remains of a monks hospital, consisting of a number of cells as well as this herbal oil bath. Though that does not look herb infused oil to me…

Ammara and I then went back to the Dark Water Pool to collect Benne, who I found sitting on the top of a large rock. The area is incredibly peaceful and I could see why he wanted to spend some time alone here.

The large pool was man-made probably around 1200 years ago. The large site had a number of buildings including a library and this reading room.

There was a meeting hall, complete with bathroom.

The small rock hill on the side of the pool has a number of caves that are still being used as homes for monks. We were allowed to walk past the monks houses while they were at the monastery for lunch. I liked the walking meditation path, I have not seen/noticed these before.

We stopped for some water and short eats in a road side shop, where the owner brought her son out to see us – and have his photo taken.

This other boy was quite interested in us as well and wanted his photo taken as he rode past. The people of Sri Lanka are famous for their smiles and it is a very friendly place.

Mihinthalaya is the birth place of Buddhism in Sri Lanka (the first temple was monastery was built in Anuradhapura) when Mahinda, the son of Ashoka – a great Indian Buddhist leader, converted Sri Lankan king Devanampiya Tessa in 247BC. The temple complex here is quite large and up a load of stairs. We were told by Amara that there was not too much at the main dagoba at the top of the hill, which I later found out was not quite true and I was disappointed we did not go up there, I should have read up on it before going – a rookie mistake! Anyway, what we did see was pretty cool though.

When we arrived a large group of school children were coming down the stairs so we waited for the bulk of them to come down before taking a walk to the first landing. Many waves, hellos and smiles were exchanged with the children and the accompanying adults.

We turned off here and went up another set of steps to the Kanthaka Cetiya, constructed around 210BC.

There were some quite nicely preserved carvings and a painting of lions.

Behind the dagoba was a set of rocks the main one had an inscription, thought to be the oldest recorded in Sri Lanka, from around 2000 years ago, dedicating the rocks and caves for the purposes of meditiation.

We had a good grovel and clamber around the rocks, admiring the view out over the mainly flat forested areas surrounding the town. I am always amazed at how tree roots work their way down to water.

We plodded back down the steps feeling all a bit dehydrated, before heading back up another small hill to Giribhanda Citaya. A smaller dagoba that is mostly under ruin, there was a good view down over the ruins of a small monastery at the base of the steps.

Which I visited next.

For our last stop we took a fifteen minute ride out to the edge of one of the large tanks in the area. A tank is basically a large reservoir and there a number of them in the area. They are mostly man made and must have been a major construction project when they were made centuries ago. The wind picked up as we got in the tuk-tuk and a sudden storm blew over the area, luckily we were not still on the hill as we would have been completely soaked. The wind was blowing the water over a small spillway.

Which made crossing the ford a damp affair.

We stopped on the ford for a while to watch the amazing collection of water bird life, some of my colleagues from the Africa trip would have loved it here, we saw a huge variety of bird life – and I did not photograph any of it – Ok I took a couple, but they were crap!

Our final objective was this granite bridge, thought to be the oldest bridge in the country, pre-dating the great Buddhist building work so over 2300 years old. It is in the middle of nowhere !

I really like the tool marks in the stone.

And that was it ! back to Mihintale through a brief shower.

And on the bus back to town. I went round to Benne’s guest house for a large and nice rice and curry dinner, my guest house does not serve food. Benne is off to the coast tomorrow which does not fit in with my plans, though we will probably catch up further down the track.

It was a good day, again!

A class above first class

Wednesday 13 March 2013 – Colombo – Anuradhapura.

I had a far better sleep, but still felt shattered when I woke. I was up earlier than the day before but faffed for a bit in the morning, got some washing done and semi-packed for my departure in the afternoon, basically I did sod all.

I took a tuk-tuk back to the Pettah market area and this time declined the day tour. My first stop was the Colombo Fort train station, this is the main station for Colombo.

I collected the ticket I had booked on line for this afternoon’s journey to Anuradhupara as I didn’t want to put pressure on myself trying to organise ticket collection while carrying my pack and day bag – especially in this heat. I then walked around Pettah for an hour or so, but really didn’t see much that was photo worthy, or that I felt comfortable shooting. I have seen lots of Asian market places selling shoes, bags, cheap clothes, cell phones and plastic stuff so a wee bit jaded by it all. I did like this section, which I have dubbed ‘speaker corner’.

I decided to do the stupid thing given it was hot and sunny, and walk the five or so km’s back to the apartment. I could do with the exercise, it has been too long and I am getting way too saggy… I had made it out of town and was walking along Galle Face when I was approached by a man who told me he was teacher in the monastery I visited yesterday. He had very good English so we chatted amiably as we walked, before taking a tuk-tuk back to the monastery where I had a better look around and was shown a Buddha in a tree which I do really like. Of course I had to give him a tip, and only had the equivalent of $10NZD so left feeling a bit ripped off. A lesson learned – keep small bills at all times. Which is harder said than done !

I mooched over lunch back at Trudy’s and had a wee doze before getting another tuk-tuk back to the station for my train. I was quite early so I picked up a sim card and some mobile data before I boarded.

I have gone with Expo-rail, which I think is a private company that tack their own carriage on the end of the main train. It is about double the price of first class, but still ridiculously cheap and I thought that for my first train ride in Sri Lanka I would travel in style.

Once on board the stewards provided us passengers with warm towels, mints and water as we departed Colombo Fort Station on time. I made an attempt to write some blog as we went through some of the flat farm land on the edge of the city but the train was rocking and rolling all over the place and it proved to be too difficult, and really I should be looking out the window anyway ! The carriage is facing backwards though which is a real shame, it is supposed to be safer that way, but I always like to see what is coming up!

I met a German guy, Benne on the platform and we chatted for a part of the way to Anuradhapura, he is staying in a different place to me and we tentatively arranged to meet up tomorrow. The journey was quite bouncy and there was not a whole load of interesting things to look at outside, the windows were too grubby to photograph through, which was expected, yet disappointing. It rained really heavily at dusk and by 6:30pm it was too dark to see much outside so I tried to doze for a bit before dinner was served. I had requested a vegetarian meal but ended up with rice and beef, oh well. I ate some of it but was not particularly hungry anyway, though it was most adequate. We finally arrived thirty minutes late at 8:45pm. After crossing under the tracks to exit the station I grabbed a taxi to my hostel, had a beer and posted a blog and went to bed – tired…

I am glad to be back on the road again, interested to see how it will all go, today was a good day though and at least I know there are other tourists in town !

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.

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 !

Moved.

Friday 8 February 2013 – London Bridge

Well, it has been ten days since I last scribbled anything. A fact I find quite remarkable since my life has not been dull and boring, yet seemingly little has happened that is blog worthy. Maybe my interest in the blogosphere has finally started to wane – for now…

I have some news that is sort of worth sharing, and I guess moving house is of some vague interest to some.

Yesterday I moved from Shepherds Bush/West Kensington in west London to London Bridge in south east London, back to a flat I have stayed in a couple of times before. This time I am here for a month rather than just a night or two. I really enjoyed my stay in W14, though I am looking forward to exploring SE1 now. Politically and spiritually (I do hate that word, but right now cannot think of anything else) SE1 is more “me” than the west. Though it is changing rapidly around here and will soon be a place I could never afford it still has a little element of grunge that I do like.

Big thanks to Phil for letting me use his room while he was away, it was very much appreciated and I loved staying there !

I had a brief walk around some of the neighbourhood today, following a route I was shown yesterday that ended at a Banksy painting. Today I took my camera….

I have also been photographing the closed pubs that I see when I am out, something I never expected to see in London!

I am really looking forward to exploring this part of London.

I have failed to find myself a contract, I have applied for a few roles, though as my BFF pointed out, probably not as hard as I should have. I was talking to a recruitment agent last week and they get hundreds of applicants for all roles, so my competition is tough. So, to cut what could be a major waffle short – I have given up. I gave myself till I left Phil’s to find a job and now I have left Phil’s I have officially stopped looking for work. This means I will head back to New Zealand where I hope to get work a bit more easily, at least I have contacts there I can harass – be warned !

I have been looking at a raft of options for a return trip and it is kind of getting bigger and longer and the idea of a quick flight home has well and truly gone. I have not committed to anything yet so I will not reveal plans just yet, but hopefully it will involve amongst other things; diving, temples, elephants, sun, sea and a boat…

I have done a few walks recently so here is a little bit more street art. The wonderful Phlegm pieces on the walls of the Village Underground building I posted on January 22 have been replaced already. One of the things I love (and hate) about street art is that it can be so temporary… This is now the back of the Village Underground, I did not have my wide angle lens on!

A ROA, I havent found many of them, but they are all cool.

A Jimmy C – or three.

And I just like this.

Art – new, old and older still

Monday 28 January 2013 – London

Today was really the first day in ages when I had absolutely nothing planned at all. The forecast was average at best and I really didn’t fancy getting soaked. However I was itching to do something so I made a quick plan with the help of Google maps, packed my camera, got dressed and walked out the door.

My first stop was to hunt down this piece of street art from Space Invader and I was surprised it was still there as it has been here a couple of years apparently. This is on a wall just off Holborn in the central city and there is almost no art or graffiti in the middle of downtown, so a rarity. Apparently there used to be a Banksy around here as well, but that is long gone.

I walked down Drury Lane (muttering Monty Python sketches as I went) down to The Strand. There is an incredible amount of churches in London city.

I was visiting Sommerset House and the Courtauld Gallery inside. In a stroke of good luck the gallery is free on Mondays. To balance my good fortune there was an exhibition by Cartier-Bresson that finished yesterday and I had no idea it was on ! I have yet to find a really good single spot to find good exhibitions in London and only stumbled upon the Courtauld by accident.

The Courtauld is an amazing gallery, quite small but it has an incredible collection of art works, including a really good collection of early 20th century pieces from the likes of Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Seurat etc. Basically the period I like the best, they had some lovely Seurats.

They also had a good collection of very old religious work and I really liked the altar pieces, especially this one from 1345.

The gallery is great and I highly recommend it to anyone who has not been, unlike the bigger galleries it was also quite empty!

To counter-balance the work of some of the old masters I crossed the Thames and looked around for some work from more modern, and less appreciated artists! It was cold and starting rain as I crossed Waterloo Bridge and it was looking like my plan would be thwarted before I was halfway.

Like the centre of London the South Bank has few designated areas for graffiti, and someone had obviously broken a rule here as this has mostly been scrubbed off the wall.

Though these were obviously in the right place.

I walked past the South Bank skate park and took a couple of pictures, the skaters were a bit off-putting, a bit of macho posturing so I didn’t go far into their lair and take pictures, though what was there was mainly graffiti which is not so much my style. I had lunch after and waited until the rain stopped.

I love the South Bank in the rain – very few tourists. On a sunny day this area is heaving.

My last planned visit was the Graffiti Tunnel near Waterloo station, I walked through and took a few pictures, but again, mainly graffiti and not what I call art. At the far end there was a group of the Met’s finest standing around talking to someone so I decided to not take pictures there just in case, you never know what the police think when it comes to cameras!

I then passed the interestingly shaped Plaza Hotel.

Before crossing Westminster Bridge

Past the Houses of Parliament and back to Tottenham Court Rd tube station for the journey home. It was a good few hours out, if a touch damp on occasion.

My camera had a few hissy fits today, and had to be shutdown a couple of times. Fingers crossed it is not the start of a complete failure – though I guess I could upgrade then 🙂

A walk in the park. In monochrome

Monday 21 January 2013 – Kensington, London.

After a fairly busy past week I had fully intended to spend today doing not much at all. I am well into a Rebus novel on my e-reader and have one chapter left in the real book that I bought myself for Christmas. It just seemed like a good day to do nothing more than read and listen to music. However, the weather forecast for the week has taken a turn for the worst – or better, depending on your point of view of course, and the snow that was due tomorrow is no longer arriving – at all. Bugger !

Today was obviously going to be the day I went to Kensington Gardens to see the snow in more park like surroundings. I was hoping to be there as it was falling so I could capture some images of fresh snow. unsullied by humans and their pets, but as that was not to be I wanted to at experience as much of a white world in London as I could.

Even with a planned activity for the day I still managed to laze in bed for a while before dragging myself out into what was actually quite a nice day. Sadly for the snow it was relatively warm and once I had reached the park gloves and woolly hat were no longer necessary. I walked around for a couple of hours, taken pictures here and there, but mainly just enjoying the relative lack of people in such beautiful surroundings.

As the scenes were quite monochrome, I have just nudged them all a bit further in that direction.

On the way home from the park I stopped by what seems to be my new favourite organic cafe for a coffee and a wee slice of chocolate chip flapjack. Heavenly.