Twenty Sixth Day.

Another travel day. A late breakfast, full English, set me up for a day on the train. At least this time I got the Gainsborough-Doncaster connection right, the trip only taking thirty minutes. The trip down to London, with only one stop was uneventful. Sarah was home when I got there, I cooked tea, chatted and went to bed.

Day Twenty Five.

Doom and gloom......the morning dawns fine so no gloom there...the forecast for the day is good so no doom there......but the course is closed! My wish to bring nothing I didn't use looked in danger. My golf shoes were in their unopened plastic bags. But suddenly the gloom lifted. Another course was open about a twenty minute drive away. The day turned out fine if cold. We saw the sun at times if watery and low in the sky. The golf was tolerable.
In the evening Diane, Glen and Charlotte came round for dinner, a fine way to finish off my stay in Gainsborough.

Day Twenty Four

Weather awful, no golf, golf club closed. We went for a walk in the afternoon and even that was interrupted by heavy rain. Weather forecast for tomorrow not too bad. We sleep in hope.

Day Twenty Three.

My 82 year old brother lives in Scarborough, a seaside resort on the Yorkshire coast. In February he goes into hospital for a heart operation so a trip to the seaside was a must. My brother-in-law Colin kindly drove Pat and I over to see Ken. Reasonably fine weather turned into misty rain as we approached Scarborough. Ken was very perky and very pleased to see us. He entertained us in his room and we all had dinner in the dining room. Traditional Sunday fare; roast beef, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, vegetables and rich brown gravy. A starter of hard boiled egg, egg mayonnaise and salad set us up for the main course and apple pie and cream finished us off! Wanting to get back before dark we set off home about 3pm soon losing the rain and finishing the journey as we started it, in fine weather.
Will we be able to play golf tomorrow? The weather forecast suggests not.

The Twenty Second Day

Stewart, Pat and Colin's son turned 50 last month. We headed off to Lincoln for a family lunch at an Italian restaurant, "Ask". We headed in to Lincoln early so we could visit the Usher Art Gallery. "The Usher Gallery was founded in 1927 following the bequest of an outstanding collection of decorative art including clocks, watches, porcelain, enamels, miniatures and silver. The fine art collection features paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture dating from the 17th century to the present day.Artists and subjects associated with Lincolnshire are afforded a particular focus and include work by William Logsdail, Frank Bramley, C H Shannon and William Warrener. The Gallery also holds the most comprehensive collection of works by Peter De Wint. Amongst the other artists in the collection are J M W Turner, John Piper, L S Lowry, Salvador Dali, George Claussen, Ivon Hitchens, Vanessa Bell, Sickert and George Stubbs. The Gallery holds a fine collection of portraits including a magnificent painting of Joseph Banks by Benjamin West." This taken from an internet site. I enjoyed seeing three Lowrys, many paintings of Lincoln and its cathedral. Among the glass, porcelain and silver there were examples of quaichs, rummers and muffineers.........what are you waiting for, google them!!
Off to lunch then to join Glen, Dianne and family, Charlotte and Michael, and of course the guest of honour, Stewart. We all enjoyed a good Italian lunch. Michael and Stewart went off after lunch, they both live in Lincoln, and the rest of us headed off to Heapham where Glenn and Diane live. A chat and a couple of beers and we were back home. Another good day.

Day Twenty One

Burleigh House closed for the winter.......Doddington Hall closed for the winter. One of the down sides of coming to this part of the world in the winter months, many tourist places are closed. So it was in to Gainsborough for a bit of shopping. Marshall's Yard is the latest shopping area. An old engineering works has been revived as a shopping area with shops in the old parts of the factory and with the addition of some new buildings, designed to merge with the old, a derelict space has been turned into a very attractive place to shop. There are the usual concerns that it will remove trade from the older established high street shops but I suspect there is room for both. After a coffee we went home for a lunch of cold meats, including the aforementioned haslet, some excellent ham and pickles in fresh bread rolls.

Day Twenty

Woke to a grey, damp morning. We went over to Retford, the place where I was born and lived for the first 19 years of my life. Lunch in a delicatessen/cafe which served beautiful cream of vegetable soup with freshly baked bread. Off then to the local museum.. but it was closed for refurbishment. We wandered round town reliving old times, the market square, East Retford Church where I was a choirboy and gained my love of church choral music, Bacon's butcher's shop still open and looking as it did 50 years ago. We bought some haslet there which I had forgotten about. (http://thefoody.com/meat/haslet.html) It is a pork meat loaf usually sliced and eaten cold. I also checked out the site of my mate Phil Jackson's Dad's typewriter shop which is now a bar!! Back home to Gainsborough and the papers and TV.

Day Nineteen

Said goodbye to Anne and to Doug after he had dropped me off at the station in Aberdeen. The train journey down the coast to Edinburgh, as I mentioned before, is spectacular. At times the track runs along the seashore. In this direction, the Tay bridge is approached on a long bend so that you can get a great view of the bridge, a structure to rival its better known cousin, the Forth Bridge, in Edinburgh. The North of England was very wet with evidence of flooding all over the place. Water from one river was pouring over its floodbanks. Many fields were under water. I arrived in Doncaster and boarded the train to Gainsborough. I quickly realised why the journey was going to take an hour and forty minutes rather than the 30 I would have estimated. we headed off to Sheffield!! This is out to the west and I wanted to go east. we went all the way to Sheffield and then back to Gainsborough by another route. Pat and Colin were at the station to greet me. It was good to be back at Lea Road again.

Day Eighteen

Sadly said goodbye to my sister today. Anne and I took her back to her place. It has been great to see her again and to spend a few days together. Anne and I then returned to Westhill, lunched and then a gave her a little help making dinner, my request, a lamb curry. Delicious. A quiet night chatting watching a bit of TV and then early to bed as my train leaves at 8.50 am tomorrow.

Day Seventeen

Mild but wet again. Tickets for train to Gainsborough arrived through the post. Anne and Kathleen and I went into Aberdeen. They went off shopping and I went to revisit the art gallery. I wanted to see the part of the collection of painting devoted to the early years of the 20th Century. To the fore is a painter called Samuel John Peploe, a member of a small group called the Scottish Colourists, their paintings showing influence from the French Impressionists.
I then walked over to Provost Skene's House. " Dating from 1545, Provost Skene's House is one of Aberdeen's few surviving examples of early burgh architecture. It now houses an attractive series of period room settings, recalling the elegant furnishings of earlier times from the 17th century Great Hall, Parlour and Bedroom to the 18th century Bedroom and Georgian Dining Room, as well as a Nursery recreated from the late 19th century.Visitors can see an intriguing series of religious paintings in the Painted Gallery....", (Copied from some tourist blurb). The most interesting room was "The Painted Gallery" in which wooden panels on the walls and ceiling depicted scenes from the life of Christ. Rediscovered in 1952 behind other walls they have been restored and are now in constant temperature and humidity conditions. Upstairs was an exhibition devoted to printing in Aberdeen, from the earliest examples to the present day. An early printer, Edward Raban, before he established his printing press enlisted to fight the Spanish Catholic forces in the Netherlands and describes a get together before he and his comrades embarked for the war. "We made day and night all one, with eating, drinking, playing, swearing and haill fellow well met....he that could not quaff of a dozen pots of beer or a pottle of wine and swear an hour together he was not fit to go on our company"
On the walk over to the house I had noticed a sign indicating "The Marischal Museum" and so decided to investigate. Marischal College was originally an independent university but is now part of Aberdeen University. It houses a museum, the best part of which displayed artifacts from this part of Scotland in a somewhat idiosyncratic way. A display case would have a panel in it on which there was a dictionary definition of a word say "Trinket" and alongside it there was a piece of Viking jewellery and a Nelson Mandela badge and everything in between. The whole room had this wonderful collection of artifacts from the distant past to the present day.
( http://www.abdn.ac.uk/virtualmuseum/) Lunch called so I met Anne and Kathleen as arranged. Home again to watch a bit of Australian Open Tennis on TV.

Day Sixteen

A much milder morning, with rain. A day to spend with the Sunday papers. Doug and I went out to the shops a couple of times, we were to have guests for dinner. First port of call Marks and Spencer food store. I was surprised by the number of different countries represented by the fruit, vegetables and other produce on sale. Prawns from Madagascar and Honduras, Raspberries and Peaches from South Africa, Blueberries and Peaches from Chile, Blackberries from Mexico, Potatoes and Strawberries from Israel. Everything seemed to be wrapped in plastic, even the potatoes.
After an afternoon devoted to the papers we welcomed Marion and Jim, Karen's parents. The usual glorious meal, roast chicken, potatoes, carrots, parsnip with some cabbage and leek, washed down with a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and followed by mincemeat, apricot and marzipan tart, cream and ice cream. A wonderful evening lots of chat and laughter all finished off with a small dram of Talisker.

Fifteenth Day.

Greeted by a hard frost we drove over to Inverurie to have a look at the small farmers' market, held there on the second Saturday each month. Various stalls were offering meat, cheeses and vegetables. I was particularly taken by a stall offering a good number of potato varieties (Peru used to grow 4000....yes you read it correctly...4000 varieties of potato). Anne bought some "pink fur apple" spuds, a small long thin variety. I bought a blue cheese. We were disappointed that the bread stalls were not there. We went home the longer, scenic way, the frost heavy on the ground round Inverurie still. Back in Westhill it was milder and no longer white. The afternoon was spent reading and dropping off to sleep watching a Harry Potter movie which says more about us than the movie.

Beautiful steak and onions and the afore mentioned pink fur apples was the main part of another delectable evening meal. The potatoes, a waxy variety, were delicious, lacking the slightly acid(?) taste of a lot of waxy potatoes. More Bakewell tart rounded off the meal. More Scrabble filled in the evening, very evenly contested this time. Cheese and biscuits and a drop or two of "The Macallan" saw us off to bed in a mellow mood.

Day Fourteen

A quiet day in prospect. I booked train tickets to and from Gainsborough and spent the rest of the morning reading, bringing the blog up to date and searching for chickens' feet recipes on the net!! Early afternoon we all went over to the place that will host Helen's wedding reception, Norwood Hall. This is an old house set in a tree covered park which in spring (it is an April wedding) will look terrific. Back home then for a quiet afternoon reading and chatting. It started to get very cold as we went down to "The Sheperd's Rest" for dinner. I had fish and chips for the first time on this trip followed by steamed treacle pudding and custard. Thank you Kathleen. It was even colder as we left the pub and settled down to a couple of games of Scrabble, Anne emerging as champion on the night. We saw the evening out with a couple of glasses of the amber liquid..........need I say more?

Day Twelve plus One

It was forecast to be cold and damp and then colder and damper. But did that put us off?......no it did not. Anne after all has a reputation to keep up of taking her Uncle on freezing walks........just joking, but there was one trip to Loch Mich a few years ago, when brass monkey did not even begin to describe how cold it was. This time we went over to Crathes Castle and walked around the estate. A walk of an hour on formed tracks and in parts on wooden walkways, it was a great way of "getting out t'house". Even in the depth of winter it was an attractive walk, mainly in forest and often alongside the river. Home for lunch and then over to Kathleen's place for dinner and a natter about old friends and old times. A beautiful pork casserole with peaches and apples followed up by apple and fruit mince crumble and custard. Back over to Anne's then, Kathleen with us for a few days. Once Doug got home from Hamburg we enjoyed a couple of whiskies.......of course.

Day Twelve or Day One in Scotland

Bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.....yesss. Doug is off to Hamburg on business so I catch a lift into Aberdeen with Anne. First stop Waterstones bookshop to spend the vouchers Sarah gave me for Christmas. Quickly find four books including one recommended by Phil Jackson. It is very cold with an icy wind so I head for the Art Gallery. The ground floor is given over to an exhibition of modern art most of which I would put in the rubbish basket. Perhaps one day someone will be able to persuade me that I should take some of this modern stuff more seriously but they will have to work hard. What looked like temporary tiered seating was curled into a part circle and......well that was it!!! Beats me.

In the upstairs galleries there was the usual permanent collection, and much more to my taste. The first room full of Victorians, including a number of paintings by William Dyce, apparently a favourite of Prince Albert. One of two of his paintings showed Pre-Raphaelite influence. A large Landseer dominated one wall. In the next room there were paintings by Peter Bruegel, Joshua Reynolds, William Hogarth. More modern artists occupied the next room, including L S Lowry and possibly my favourite a painting of Southwold Beach by Stanley Spencer. It was time to meet up with Anne again but I intend to get back to this gallery if I can.

We had 45 minutes to kill before lunch so we went into the Maritime Museum. This was an attractive place recently expanded into a neighbouring Methodist church. It houses displays on the local fishing and shipbuilding industry and of course plenty of exhibits on the offshore oil industry. Lunch called to interrupt our visit. La Bonne Brasserie was a quiet, bistro style eatery with an excellent menu, Anne had duck salad, I had creamy chicken pasta all washed down with a glass of Chilean sauvignon blanc.

Back home then for a quiet afternoon and evening, reading, dozing off in front of the television etc.

Day Eleven.

A day of travel in prospect, I said goodbye to Sarah for a couple of weeks. It has been really good to catch up with her and find her so happy. I set out for Kings Cross station for my trip up to Aberdeen. After a wait at Kings Cross I quickly found my first class seat for the journey to Scotland. The train left on time and kept time all the way to Aberdeen. It rapidly increased its speed to the point at which it became impossible to read the names on the stations we flashed through. I had hoped to see my home town of Retford but missed it completely. However I did see Durham Cathedral, which I visited a few years ago. In Edinburgh we crossed the Forth Bridge, an iconic steel structure, another fine example of Victorian Architecture. From this bridge we can see the rather more elegant and slender road bridge. Another is being planned I understand. Later we crossed the Tay at Dundee on another equally spectacular bridge. By then it was getting dark so I settled down to Sudoku until Aberdeen. Doug met me and it was home to a warm house and an even warmer welcome from Anne and my sister Kathleen. Beautiful dinner of meat loaf, potatoes and veg followed by Bakewell Tart. Haven't had any for ages so that was a real treat. (http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/536214) It was good to see my "scottish" rellies again! We took Kathleen back to her new place of which I approve, very comfortable, and I will return tomorrow for dinner. We then headed back to Westhill and a whisky....or two to round off a great day.

The Tenth Day.

Another day in London and this time with my mate Norman. We had arranged to meet at 10.30 on the steps of the National Gallery so as I arrived early I popped in to the National Portrait Gallery for a few minutes. England's history in the faces of its rulers, politicians, actors, writers and others......fascinating.
Norman and I set off down Whitehall to catch a bus to the Tate Gallery. We sprinted, yes sprinted, to catch said bus, and, puffing still, arrived at the Tate. We were there to see an exhibition of paintings by the English painter Millais, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The paintings were superb. The Pre-Raphaelite period works characterised by fine detail and vibrant colour. Millais was more than a Pre-Raphaelite painter. He produced some wonderful portraits of the good and the great, Disraeli, Gladstone, Lily Langtry. In fact he was earning £30,000 a year at this time, late 19th century. I take an almost childish delight when I see actual paintings of pictures I am familiar with. In Millais' case, "The Childhood of Walter Raleigh" and "Bubbles" (used as an advert for Pear's soap) are two paintings that I first met, in books, many years ago and here they were. After the Millais, a real treat, and a coffee, another real treat we wandered into the Tate permanent exhibition but quickly decided we had seen enough for one day (How I wish I could pop in every week or so.) and headed to "The Old Bell" in Blackfriars. A pint and Pork and Leek sausages and mash went down well. Over a second pint we again put the world to rights.
Not too far from the pub is St Paul's Cathedral and since Norman hadn't been in we made a visit. A charming lady took us round for half an hour pointing out aspects of interest: only the queen and other important people get to enter through the big West Door; the fact that such a huge heavy door opens to a touch; nobodies remains lie in the cathedral itself but in the crypt; Wren seems to have pushed for more elaborate decoration around the high altar than was wanted and he got away with it; in the crypt is a memorial to an American who joined the Royal Air Force before the Americans officially entered WW2. We climbed, slowly, up to the whispering gallery and enjoyed the gob-smacking view below us.
Home then to cook tea for Sarah and pack for the trip up north.

Day Nine

Up reasonably early and certainly before the rest of the household. Outside there was a cloudless sky and it was cool and fresh. I walked for about forty minutes and then treated myself to a scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast washed down with a moccachino.
Returning to the flat there was still no sign of life so I caught up with the papers until slowly people emerged. Sarah had organised a meeting in a local Pub with Jan (her Dunedin friend), Mike(aka Henry), Mike(aka Wool), Mike(aka Jan's boyfriend), Kheang, Viola (Henry's girlfriend), Shannon, Clayton and Rory(Mike's mate). It was probably one of the largest gatherings of ex Hutt Valley HS pupils (5) outside New Zealand!! It was a long afternoon full of laughter and chat. Sarah cooked chicken and noodles when we got home.

One Week + One Day.

An early breakfast and I was off to London before the crowds. I headed for the Faraday Museum in Albemarle Street. He was responsible for a lot of the early work in electromagnetism and electrochemistry. It was a sort of geeky choice partly designed to avoid the crowds. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/faraday_michael.shtml) There were no crowds. It was closed!! The building is being refurbished. Disappointing. What now? I wandered through Piccadilly and chanced upon Burlington House and the Royal Academy of Arts. This featured a permanent exhibition of paintings by Reynolds, Turner, Gainsborough, and many others. There was also a showing of paintings from the collection of an American Paul Mellon. This guy must have been wealthy as the exhibition featured works from Stubbs, Turner, Constable, Blake, Gainsborough and others. I was a touch resentful that this rich American had made of with such a treasure trove of English paintings. However his collection is now housed in the Yale Centre for British Art so I'll forgive him. The paintings on show here were magnificent, a large Turner the highlight for me. (http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/mellon/)
I decided to walk a while and stumbled upon St James' church Picadilly. Designed by Christopher Wren it had a simplicity of design and decoration that appealed. Outside in the churchyard was a market selling the usual tat sold in markets the world over.
Over to Lambeth and the Imperial War Museum.The main ground floor area is filled with planes tanks and other military hardware. Having just read a book about the America/Russia space race I was interested to see an example of a V2 rocket with which Hitler terrorised southern England at the end of the war and which was the forerunner of the bigger rockets that took men to the moon. The real gems of this museum are the separate exhibitions around the central area: paintings of conflict in the middle east; a display of Victoria and George Cross winners with photographs and stories; an exhibition in conjunction with the ITV production "My Boy Jack" about Rudyard Kipling's son killed in WWI; and the harrowing Holocaust exhibition.
A long pre-lunch walk took me to the river at Lambeth Bridge and then along the river to Dogget's pub for a pint and some sausages and mash. Continuing along the river I found the Bankside Gallery showing a large collection of water colour paintings and prints, all for sale. The gallery is the home of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. I would happily have bought a number of the works on display had I the money.
By this stage I was weary so headed home but not before calling in to St Pancras railway station. It is the set off point for the Eurostar and had recently undergone refurbishment. It is a magnificent example of Victorian architecture with the main concourse housed under a huge iron arched structure (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2007/11/07/etpanoramic107.xml) There is a life size bronze statue of John Betjeman, himself a great advocate of Victorian architecture. There is also a huge statue of two young people kissing, presumably goodbye or possibly hello, either way appropriate for this magnificent terminus.
Henry and Viola were back from their Polish holiday when I arrived home and so we all went out down the street for a burger.

A Week Already.

Early breakfast and out to London with Sarah. She went off to work, I posted a few cards and headed off to the British Museum. China's Terracotta Army was all booked up so I went for a wander and happened upon a small collection of clocks, the earliest dating from the middle of the 15th Century. The craftsmanship displayed was superb. The various measures taken to keep pendulums swinging correctly were ingenious. It was a strange contrast to see man's first attempt at tools in a small display of early axe heads and scrapers. a room full of displays of fossills and rocks left one in awe of early collectors of such material. they often did not know what they'd found but recognised it as important, leaving later workers to sort out what it all meant.
At lunchtime I caught up with an old schoolmate, Phil Jackson, who I hadn't seen for 36 years.( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0413946/) We chatted for four hours about the stuff we'd done together as young lads and about all that had happened since. It was good to meet again after all this time and find that we'd developed similar tastes and similar opinions.
Home to enjoy chinese cuisine, delivered to the door. Sarah went for a run.

The Sixth Day.

A very quiet day. Breakfast, a walk round the common, steak and kidney pie for lunch at The Three Tuns in Uxbridge. It was then back to Sarah's place after a wonderful four days at Norman and June's. They are very hospitable and it has been good to catch up with them again.
Sarah home early from work. More chat and snoozing in front of the tele', until Anthony cooked us pork chops, vegetables and rice.

Day Five.

It is colder. A biting wind, from Russia the papers say, cut through three layers and forced the beanie on for the first time on the trip as we walked round the common after breakfast. After an early lunch we set out for London, a twenty minute journey expanding to forty minutes as a result of a breakdown. First stop the National Gallery. Bedlam. Huge crowds. Glorious paintings: Constable, Turner, Seurat, Gainsborough. But the crowds! Once again the gloss is knocked off a visit to a glorious gallery by wall to wall people. Nevertheless it was good to indulge in a magnificent collection of great paintings.
Sarah joined us for tea at Pizza Hut. Then on to the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a performance of William Wycherly's "A Country Wife". Bawdy Restoration Comedy performed at a cracking pace. It was difficult to pick up the words early on but gradually we got tuned in and the second half was wonderful with a great performance from David Haig (Second groom Four Weddings and a Funeral and Inspector Grim from "The Thin Blue Line".)

New Year's Day.

A long walk to work off the excesses of New Year's Eve? Is there a pub at the end of the walk? Yes there is! Then a long walk will be just the job. After a latish breakfast we headed out, skirting Uxbridge town centre, to the Grand Union Canal. The Chesterfield Canal was a part of my childhood so wandering along the canal bank brought back memories. Very soon we had left the town behind and after only thirty minutes walking we were into the countryside. We passed numerous houseboats permanently moored. Strange way to live. You'd have to be very tidy in the confined space. The canal bank walk gives way to an area of parkland cut through by two or three rivers. Walking tracks criss cross the area and even on a cold morning there were lots of people out walking and riding bikes. After about an hour's walk we reached Denham village and the promised pub. Once again both the village and the pub were exactly what one would expect. Narrow streets, picturesque cottages, expensive motors!! One pint is all we allowed ourselves and it was back on the road, through and round the back of the village and back along the canal. The usual excellent lunch (the Clarke's in Uxbridge is a fine hotel!) was followed by a prolonged snooze. There's a lot of boozing and snoozing on this trip.

New Year's Eve.

Up and about at the crack of eight o'clock to a breakfast of porridge with raisins and toast and marmalade all washed down with the obligatory cups of tea. The morning was spent chatting over old times and generally sorting out the woes of the world to no noticeable effect judging by today's headlines. We also had a quick walk to and around the common to work up an appetite. The weather was still mild and we headed out into the Buckinghamshire countryside first of all for a pub lunch. A lovely old pub with a roaring fire welcomed us to Fingest ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingest). Two pints of Brakspear's and a tonic water for June the driver washed down an excellent if unusual lunch. Sausages, very tasty ones, smothered in mustard, were put between two pieces of fresh baguette and served alongside a fresh salad. Over the road then to feed the spirit. We went into St Bartholomew's church. The tower is clearly Norman (no not my mate!!!!). The nave was very narrow seating about 60 people. On then for a walk up a side road away from the village. We managed to persuade ourselves that it wasn't quite the right time to tackle the hilly part of the walk, another time perhaps. June then drove us to Turville (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turville) the setting for the Vicar of Dibley series and many other TV shows. We had a look round the church of St Mary the Virgin which had some interesting recent stained glass windows. We then drove the the beautiful Buckinghamshire countryside to the village of Cadmore End where we visited another pub, The Ship Inn.......is there a pattern here? We were joined in our drink by a large bassett hound called (tbal). On home then for a snooze, an essential if I was to have any chance of staying awake until 2008 arrived.
Early evening and the plan for the night was revealed. Round to the local for a couple of pints to start us off. No we are not alcoholics........ We found the local was having a ticket only do but Norman manged to persuade them to serve us a pint and we watched in bemusement as patrons wandered in dressed in school uniform, especially the younger ones. The older partygoers clearly felt dressing up in school uniform was not their thing but obviously, as the music volume was turned up, a good night was about to be had by all. I was glad we hadn't bought tickets!!!
Back home we tucked in to a glorious pot roast pheasant with spuds and fresh vegetables. A first for me, I enjoyed the gamy taste. We then collapsed onto the couch and with wine, chocolates and whiskey accompaniment we saw the New Year in with Jools Holland and his guests, flicking over to another channel to see the fireworks from London. Happy New Year!!

The Second Day.

A slow start to the day, porridge and toast included. We decided to go for a walk on Hampstead Heath. Sarah has done some of her training on the Heath as it's only twenty minutes walk from her place. As we approached the Heath the properties became increasingly posh. I can't understand why people with an attractive house are happy to leave all the rubbish paraphernalia in the front garden! Hampstead Heath has featured in any number of books, TV programmes and movies over the years so it was interesting to at last see it. It is a mixture of wooded areas and open parkland with walking tracks criss-crossing it. We had a long walk and talk with a moccachino thrown in. Back at Sarah's we were ready for soup and toast.
I then packed a small case and, oyster card in my hot hand (Does anyone know why it is called an oyster card?), made my way over to Uxbridge to stay with an old University mate Norman and his wife June. They had stayed with us in New Zealand back in January/February. After a warm welcome and a nice cup of tea we went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant.