We are Aunty and Uncle again and other stories
Since it has been so long since we have actually posted a blog entry (I hear you all sigh) - my sister has gone and given birth to non-identical twin boys on the 8th August - I think their names are going to be Jacob Thomas and Luke Dreighton (Pete's family name) but I am not too sure. But either way, having boys in the family is a good thing. At least we can get them boys toys - I think their big sister Nicole shares the same sentiment.
So other things that we need to catch up on starting at the end of June:
My friend, Tess, from Canada, had just completed her whirlwind tour of London, Hong Kong, Phillipines, Tokyo, London, Ireland, London, Sicily, Florence, Rome, London. (But you can check up on her blog - linked on the right). So of course, we had to join her on being a tourist for some of that time.
The first time Tess was over, we went to a kiwi restaurant (well started by Kiwi chef Peter Gordon) - The Providores (the tapas bit). The food wasn't quite New Zealand - more like out of this world fusion tapas which impressed Tess and her English friend Pippa. The Pegasus Bay bottle of wine went down a treat and likewise with the home-made hokey pokey icecream with an equally home-made gingernut. Tip-Top - this one is to watch for!!!
The second time Tess came back, we spent an evening at Roller Disco in North London. Of course Craig was not game enough to don leg warmers and an off the shoulder giant t-shirt sporting a Charlie's Angels logo - but us girls (4 of us) had fun anyway. Although the club was totally against any food or drink going into the place - unluckily for Tess and her friend, who were flying out at 6am the next morning, and who had their luggage with them, got snacks such as "Pocky" and gum confiscated. Who knew it was so offensive??
On Tess's way back from Ireland a week later, she stopped by Stanstead airport and picked Craig and I up for a weekend in Palermo, Italy. This trip does actually turn out to be a bit of a hike as it is a 3 hour flight, and with trip from the office to the hotel takes about 8 hours. It isn't too bad, but a better trip for a long weekend me thinks. The first morning, I was longing to get on the beach - I think it had been over a year since I had seen sand and water. We managed to catch a bus over to the local beach with the assistance of some lovely Sicilians keen to help and practice their English. (The nice thing about Palermo is that it isn't too touristy yet so no-one is jaded. That and I think Palermo needs the tourism money since they have had to build themselves up from the days of the Mafia rule). Anyway, when we got to the beach, it was pumping - no real place (for free) where you could lay your towel. I think that is the problem when you rely on public transport to go to the beach - you hardly get the place to yourself. What I didn't realise is that Tess is not such a big swimmer despite having grown up in the Phillipines and some coastal areas in the US and her mum is a big diver!! So Craig and I managed to have a dip or two in the water which was refreshing.
After working on the start of our tans (to find out later this would be our only tan this summer), we headed back into town to eat some dinner. We would come to find out that eating would be one of our major past-times for the journey - because of reasons three-fold: 1) it is Tess's favourite hobby (even though she is skinny and little); 2) the food is SOOO good and 3) it is relatively cheap - especially compared to London.
So that night we went the whole hog in a lovely plaza with all 5 courses or something which you would come to expect from a proper Italian meal. The next morning, we got up had breakfast at our B&B, and then went out and got second breakfast about an hour later. This consisted of "brioche con gelati" or what I fondly nick-named ice-cream in a bun. Yes this is definitely a staple in Italy and will be eaten for breakfast. Basically it is gelati slapped in the sweet brioche so it kind of has a doughnut and ice-cream flavour going for it.
We then caught a bus up to a church up on the hill called Monreale. When we got there, being a Sunday, there was a church service going on - so we decided to take a wander around the art gallery and gardens. But by then it was Siesta time - so this meant sitting in a garden for a couple of hours as everything closes. But this was good -there was a lovely breeze flowing through and a good chance to relax. Anywhere outside the garden was scorching hot and was not bearable.
We then got pizza and returned to the cathedral, Italy's largest medieval building boasting 6,000 sq metres of Byzantine art. Some of the art is lit by lights which you have to pay money to turn on - but we were too cheap to do so.
That afternoon, we went down and explored the city a bit. The city is essentially a mix of architectures, medieval Norman, north African etc mainly because various people have ruled it over the centuries. This means there are palm trees everywhere with mosques turned into churches and a general hodge podge of buildings. This makes Palermo a pretty charming place (Tess has decided much better than Florence in which the architecture has been all done up for the tourists).
Craig had to leave that evening as he couldn't afford a day off work so soon in th contract. This just left me and Tess to our own devices. On the Monday morning, I opened the window to feel as though a blow-dryer was blowing down the alleyway - I think this must be the famous Sirocco wind which blows in from North Africa (remember that parts of Sicily is actually below North Africa so it does get pretty hot). Tess and I ventured to find the famous markets in Palermo - however I think we only found the bottom of these and then had to venture inside for ice-cream as it was so hot. After that, we managed to walk down to the harbour, but sitting there proved to be too much -despite being in the shade. Tess hadn't slept well at all the night before and was fading fast. The only thing I could think of was to drag her to the only cool place open during part of Siesta - the Santa Maria Assunta (St Mary of the Assumption) Cathedral. Fortunately for Tess, who was wearing a tank top, someone was there to hand out what looks like great chunks of paper-towel to make wrap around her shoulders and make her more modest. So while Tess sat and recovered I went for a wander around the church.
It was built in 1184 by the Norman king William II in the place of a Muslim mosque, the cathedral has undergone several renovations over the centuries, which have resulted in its current Neo-Classical style. I still think that the church in Monreale was a bit better on the inside, although this impressed more on the outside.
After our "last supper" together, I left Tess to sit in the hotel reception room as the heat was too unbearable for her. I don't know why that these sorts of things always happen when you check out of the hotel and have no respite!!
Anyway, I went to go off shopping as Palermo, weirdly enough, has some pretty good shopping to be had. I think this would be the only time I would ever have some peace to go by myself without Craig whinging.
After that it was back to the airport and back to London. Tess caught an overnight train (with busted air conditioning) to Florence. I would definitely go back to Palermo - it has a pretty laid back vibe and I think quite an enjoyable holiday destination. Might go out to an island about 1.5 hours ferry ride off the coast, Ustica, which is volcanic but has a marine reserve - the first in the Med I believe.
The only downer about the trip was that I was informed on the Sunday that my step-mother had passed away after a pretty short battle with a rather verocious cancer.
Once Tess came back for the last time about another week later, we trotted off on a Saturday morning to the infamous Portobello markets - which I think are far too huge for their own good. These are not only known for antiques on one end, there is food in the middle and flea markets dotted about the place. This all covers several blocks in London - but alas, there was nothing to be bought except for a couple of cupcakes. Although Tess did have to put her blinkers on from buying even more handbags and shoes - a certain shopping weakness that tends to affect the female persuasion.
The next day Craig, Justin, Tess and I also visited the Imperial War museum. I think it was supposed to be for the Trench experience (replete with it's own trench smell), and the blitz experience of being in a bunker in London in WWII.
So other news since Tess has left -
Craig and I have finally got wheels again - two each. Craig's six week old bike got stolen from inside our communal front hallway which is not cool. But it does seem to make a difference in getting around London - even if it is a little scary having to act like a car on the "A" roads. Things have certainly changed since biking to school at the age of 8.
I have started riding horses again once a week in North London which is fun (but not fun having to try and avoid comments when people see there are whips in my bag).
We also went to the Red Bull Air Races on the Thames near the Millenium Dome (now the O2 dome) with Shaun and Justin. This was really an awesome spectacle with all the thrills of an American event (they know how to wow the crowd). I don't think anyone really appreciates just how fast these planes go until you are right next to them. There are lots of manouevres that these guys have to pull in the race, certain cones you have to go through horizontally and some vertically and never above the cone height. In order to turn they have to do some pretty tight loops - pulling up to 10gs!!! (Apparently fighter pilots only go 4-5 gs) so this makes for some lovely facial shots of the pilots (fortunately for the crowd there are cameras in the cockpits. The helicopter that takes the shots from the outside has to start speeding up way before the planes go past them, as they often hit the start line at around 250-300 mph. Pretty scary.
Ooh and last weekend, Craig, who finally traded his driver's licence in for a UK one and is now legal, drove to Somerset for an Aikido grading. He managed to pass and get his orange belt. I then caught the train after work and met him in Bristol. We drove to Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales for a weekend of adventure at the Preseli Lodge.
This was generally a place that accommodated all sorts of people that were looking for adventures in Wales and this weekend hosted about 6 people on their own (including us) and a twenty strong stag do. Fortunately for us the stag do was fairly well behaved, although we did see a few naked streaks around the lodge on Saturday night due to people losing at drinking games I believe.
We had booked for a weekend of coasteering - which means donning a winter weight wetsuit and clambering around the rocks on the coast with a few jumps off the rocks into the water. We managed to come away unhurt surprisingly, except for a broken nail and a couple of rock scrapes.
In the afternoon, we went for a lovely coastal hike. The weather had cleared up from being drizzly in the morning so a beer was in order at the local pub. Too bad everyone forgot to bring money with them, so on we had to trek.
Craig had seen before our first coasteer that there was also kayaking on offer so opted to change to that for the Sunday morning. (Craig realised his mistake in the middle of the first coasteer as he loved it so much). The kayak was probably not one of the better kayak trips we had been on - it was very windy so we didn't get far around the coast. And it was about a week too early in the season to spot seals. The only consolation was that Craig did capsize when he was trying to hit me with a ball when we were playing "tag".
Next stop is mountain biking in the New Forest in a couple of weeks - we must be mad!!!
So other things that we need to catch up on starting at the end of June:
My friend, Tess, from Canada, had just completed her whirlwind tour of London, Hong Kong, Phillipines, Tokyo, London, Ireland, London, Sicily, Florence, Rome, London. (But you can check up on her blog - linked on the right). So of course, we had to join her on being a tourist for some of that time.
The first time Tess was over, we went to a kiwi restaurant (well started by Kiwi chef Peter Gordon) - The Providores (the tapas bit). The food wasn't quite New Zealand - more like out of this world fusion tapas which impressed Tess and her English friend Pippa. The Pegasus Bay bottle of wine went down a treat and likewise with the home-made hokey pokey icecream with an equally home-made gingernut. Tip-Top - this one is to watch for!!!
The second time Tess came back, we spent an evening at Roller Disco in North London. Of course Craig was not game enough to don leg warmers and an off the shoulder giant t-shirt sporting a Charlie's Angels logo - but us girls (4 of us) had fun anyway. Although the club was totally against any food or drink going into the place - unluckily for Tess and her friend, who were flying out at 6am the next morning, and who had their luggage with them, got snacks such as "Pocky" and gum confiscated. Who knew it was so offensive??
On Tess's way back from Ireland a week later, she stopped by Stanstead airport and picked Craig and I up for a weekend in Palermo, Italy. This trip does actually turn out to be a bit of a hike as it is a 3 hour flight, and with trip from the office to the hotel takes about 8 hours. It isn't too bad, but a better trip for a long weekend me thinks. The first morning, I was longing to get on the beach - I think it had been over a year since I had seen sand and water. We managed to catch a bus over to the local beach with the assistance of some lovely Sicilians keen to help and practice their English. (The nice thing about Palermo is that it isn't too touristy yet so no-one is jaded. That and I think Palermo needs the tourism money since they have had to build themselves up from the days of the Mafia rule). Anyway, when we got to the beach, it was pumping - no real place (for free) where you could lay your towel. I think that is the problem when you rely on public transport to go to the beach - you hardly get the place to yourself. What I didn't realise is that Tess is not such a big swimmer despite having grown up in the Phillipines and some coastal areas in the US and her mum is a big diver!! So Craig and I managed to have a dip or two in the water which was refreshing.
After working on the start of our tans (to find out later this would be our only tan this summer), we headed back into town to eat some dinner. We would come to find out that eating would be one of our major past-times for the journey - because of reasons three-fold: 1) it is Tess's favourite hobby (even though she is skinny and little); 2) the food is SOOO good and 3) it is relatively cheap - especially compared to London.
So that night we went the whole hog in a lovely plaza with all 5 courses or something which you would come to expect from a proper Italian meal. The next morning, we got up had breakfast at our B&B, and then went out and got second breakfast about an hour later. This consisted of "brioche con gelati" or what I fondly nick-named ice-cream in a bun. Yes this is definitely a staple in Italy and will be eaten for breakfast. Basically it is gelati slapped in the sweet brioche so it kind of has a doughnut and ice-cream flavour going for it.
We then caught a bus up to a church up on the hill called Monreale. When we got there, being a Sunday, there was a church service going on - so we decided to take a wander around the art gallery and gardens. But by then it was Siesta time - so this meant sitting in a garden for a couple of hours as everything closes. But this was good -there was a lovely breeze flowing through and a good chance to relax. Anywhere outside the garden was scorching hot and was not bearable.
We then got pizza and returned to the cathedral, Italy's largest medieval building boasting 6,000 sq metres of Byzantine art. Some of the art is lit by lights which you have to pay money to turn on - but we were too cheap to do so.
Craig had to leave that evening as he couldn't afford a day off work so soon in th contract. This just left me and Tess to our own devices. On the Monday morning, I opened the window to feel as though a blow-dryer was blowing down the alleyway - I think this must be the famous Sirocco wind which blows in from North Africa (remember that parts of Sicily is actually below North Africa so it does get pretty hot). Tess and I ventured to find the famous markets in Palermo - however I think we only found the bottom of these and then had to venture inside for ice-cream as it was so hot. After that, we managed to walk down to the harbour, but sitting there proved to be too much -despite being in the shade. Tess hadn't slept well at all the night before and was fading fast. The only thing I could think of was to drag her to the only cool place open during part of Siesta - the Santa Maria Assunta (St Mary of the Assumption) Cathedral. Fortunately for Tess, who was wearing a tank top, someone was there to hand out what looks like great chunks of paper-towel to make wrap around her shoulders and make her more modest. So while Tess sat and recovered I went for a wander around the church.
It was built in 1184 by the Norman king William II in the place of a Muslim mosque, the cathedral has undergone several renovations over the centuries, which have resulted in its current Neo-Classical style. I still think that the church in Monreale was a bit better on the inside, although this impressed more on the outside.
After our "last supper" together, I left Tess to sit in the hotel reception room as the heat was too unbearable for her. I don't know why that these sorts of things always happen when you check out of the hotel and have no respite!!
Anyway, I went to go off shopping as Palermo, weirdly enough, has some pretty good shopping to be had. I think this would be the only time I would ever have some peace to go by myself without Craig whinging.
After that it was back to the airport and back to London. Tess caught an overnight train (with busted air conditioning) to Florence. I would definitely go back to Palermo - it has a pretty laid back vibe and I think quite an enjoyable holiday destination. Might go out to an island about 1.5 hours ferry ride off the coast, Ustica, which is volcanic but has a marine reserve - the first in the Med I believe.
The only downer about the trip was that I was informed on the Sunday that my step-mother had passed away after a pretty short battle with a rather verocious cancer.
Once Tess came back for the last time about another week later, we trotted off on a Saturday morning to the infamous Portobello markets - which I think are far too huge for their own good. These are not only known for antiques on one end, there is food in the middle and flea markets dotted about the place. This all covers several blocks in London - but alas, there was nothing to be bought except for a couple of cupcakes. Although Tess did have to put her blinkers on from buying even more handbags and shoes - a certain shopping weakness that tends to affect the female persuasion.
The next day Craig, Justin, Tess and I also visited the Imperial War museum. I think it was supposed to be for the Trench experience (replete with it's own trench smell), and the blitz experience of being in a bunker in London in WWII.
So other news since Tess has left -
Craig and I have finally got wheels again - two each. Craig's six week old bike got stolen from inside our communal front hallway which is not cool. But it does seem to make a difference in getting around London - even if it is a little scary having to act like a car on the "A" roads. Things have certainly changed since biking to school at the age of 8.
I have started riding horses again once a week in North London which is fun (but not fun having to try and avoid comments when people see there are whips in my bag).
We also went to the Red Bull Air Races on the Thames near the Millenium Dome (now the O2 dome) with Shaun and Justin. This was really an awesome spectacle with all the thrills of an American event (they know how to wow the crowd). I don't think anyone really appreciates just how fast these planes go until you are right next to them. There are lots of manouevres that these guys have to pull in the race, certain cones you have to go through horizontally and some vertically and never above the cone height. In order to turn they have to do some pretty tight loops - pulling up to 10gs!!! (Apparently fighter pilots only go 4-5 gs) so this makes for some lovely facial shots of the pilots (fortunately for the crowd there are cameras in the cockpits. The helicopter that takes the shots from the outside has to start speeding up way before the planes go past them, as they often hit the start line at around 250-300 mph. Pretty scary.
Ooh and last weekend, Craig, who finally traded his driver's licence in for a UK one and is now legal, drove to Somerset for an Aikido grading. He managed to pass and get his orange belt. I then caught the train after work and met him in Bristol. We drove to Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales for a weekend of adventure at the Preseli Lodge.
This was generally a place that accommodated all sorts of people that were looking for adventures in Wales and this weekend hosted about 6 people on their own (including us) and a twenty strong stag do. Fortunately for us the stag do was fairly well behaved, although we did see a few naked streaks around the lodge on Saturday night due to people losing at drinking games I believe.
We had booked for a weekend of coasteering - which means donning a winter weight wetsuit and clambering around the rocks on the coast with a few jumps off the rocks into the water. We managed to come away unhurt surprisingly, except for a broken nail and a couple of rock scrapes.
In the afternoon, we went for a lovely coastal hike. The weather had cleared up from being drizzly in the morning so a beer was in order at the local pub. Too bad everyone forgot to bring money with them, so on we had to trek.
Craig had seen before our first coasteer that there was also kayaking on offer so opted to change to that for the Sunday morning. (Craig realised his mistake in the middle of the first coasteer as he loved it so much). The kayak was probably not one of the better kayak trips we had been on - it was very windy so we didn't get far around the coast. And it was about a week too early in the season to spot seals. The only consolation was that Craig did capsize when he was trying to hit me with a ball when we were playing "tag".
Next stop is mountain biking in the New Forest in a couple of weeks - we must be mad!!!
posted by CarenT at
10:05 pm
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