Worcester Beacon

I went to Swansea for three days this week - felt quite shattered from long days in the office - but enjoyed meeting lots of people and sitting having dinner outside in the warm evenings. The office and hotel are quite close to the water front and during the lunch times I wandered down to the harbour and looked for seals while eating my lunch. Harry went to June's birthday party by himself as I was rather late back on Wednesday evening and then we had a dinner at the little Mediterranean cafe around the corner which had changed its menu and lowered its prices. After that we both welcomed a couple of nights at home before our next adventure - walking up the Worcester Beacon with Barbara and Mike. It rained on the way up the motorway but by the time we arrived it was warm, so we enjoyed sitting in the sun waiting for our friends to arrive. We had forgotten Harry's phone (it had Mike and Barbara's number on it) and I had mine (which didn't have Mike and Barbara's number on it) and Mike had his phone (but only our home phone number on it) so after sitting in another car park waiting for us for a while Mike decided to come looking for us - and eventually we found each other.
Great Malvern is a lovely little country town (if you call 35,000 little) and was developed mainly in Queen Victoria's time with the visitors and locals 'taking the waters' - yes it is another spa town. Both Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens 'took the waters' and we stopped at St Ann's Well to do the same. Apparently, there is a business in bottling Malvern Water - Schweppes have the monopoly (began the bottling business in 1851 but bottling did occur as early as the 17th century). You can get it for free from the various springs - the internet says to 'take note of any warning signs re quality' and when we stopped at St Ann's Well there was one such warning above the well, so we settled for tea.

And further up we climbed through the fox gloves, pink and brown grasses, past the Belted Galloways (Harry thought a belted galloway was a bird much to M and B's amusement but it is actually a cow with a white circle round its tum). I think Harry must have been thinking about the 'bird man' competition in London this weekend where two enthusiastic people tried 'to moo-ve into the sky on a flying cow ... but ended up making udder fools of themselves'. Needless to say they didn't take the £25,000 prize for flying 100 metres off Bognor Regis pier in West Sussex.

Anyway, you'll see from the photos that Harry enjoyed the 'dizzy heights' of the Worcester Beacon hills as we all did. From the top we could see seven counties, churches and large houses in Great Malvern, Little Malvern and Malvern Chase, a little bit of industry, Pierre parked in the car park, lots of large hotels, a wide range of trees, rolling hills and plains. We walked from the highest peak across to the north peak (slightly lower but steeper to get to) and then down another steep path back to our picnic in the 'Winter Gardens'. Great fun with friends.

On Sunday we had a slow start - not surprising really after our 5 hour hike the day before. (We discovered we aren't 'ramblers' - they go faster and usually with a map - but we fit into the 'ambler' category - slower, stop to look at the view, take photos etc). In the early afternoon we biked down to see the Banksy exhibition (left that for another day -queue was rather long and we didn't feel like standing in the sun for an hour) so rode to St Andrews park where the Dixie Hotspots were playing New Orleans Jazz. It was amusing to watch the band set up as the trombonist and trumpeteer were late in arriving (30 minutes and 60 minutes respectively), even though given maps according to the drummer they had set their satnav and ended up in lands far from Bristol!! The others weren't that impressed and I must admit the music did pick up a bit once the those two instruments arrived. The players arrived rather hot, sweaty and anxious and I think it took a few tunes for them to get over coming in late. So, for two hours we sat in deckchairs, eating our last packet of pineapple lumps, listening to the band, watching families enjoy themselves, and little children dancing. It started to rain at the end (no they didn't start playing "I'm Singing in the Rain") - I wondered why everyone was putting up umbrellas but Harry pointed out I (not him) was sitting under a tree.


News this week - the recession continues ...

• 60,000 students many of them with straight A 'A' levels can not get places in universities - there has been a huge increase in demand as young people are heading towards further education as they can't get jobs
  
• benefits bill this year is forecast to be £25 billion higher than the tax take this year, made worse by increasing immigration

But there is some good news - a couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary the other day - the husband said 'You go on a learning curve, you learn to appreciate and respect and that goes on with your love'.

Boating and Biking

It was our weekend for boating on the Waverley. So, we arrived at Clevedon Pier early on Saturday with coats, hats and well prepared for any weather - which was good because most of the trip was cold (going south was against wind and tide), with only a glimmer of sunshine most of the day. We sat outside most of the trip on this little paddle steamer, and were surprised that we knew more of the coast line than the locals did. We sailed past Minehead (where there is a Butlins - complete with its huge white marquis), past Heddons Mouth (where we wandered beside a stream to the stony cove one weekend not long ago), past Lynmouth and Lynton (where we spent a day wandering up and down the gorge and rode up the hill on the water powered cliff railway), past the Valley of the Rocks (which we climbed not long ago) to Ilfracombe (where we sat on the beach for a while, had brunch and wandered around the town also not long ago). We had about 40 minutes in Ilfracombe (due to the slow trip down and the captain not wanting to get caught in mud on an outgoing tide) and bought some postcards and fish and chips before climbing back onto the boat for the trip back - where we saw all the same things again but in slightly warmer conditions and with the sun behind us for some of the time. The Exmoor coast has the second highest cliffs in the UK and the highest in England - they didn't look that big to us but I guess at the top looking down (which is how we normally view them) is a bit different to looking at them from a boat.


The Waverley is the last sea-going Paddle Steamer in the World – it was rather special even to the novice boater. Restored in 2003 it was complete with varnished timber decks and chairs and polished brass tools and fittings - enough to make many people want to go home and varnish their wood work and polish their brass (but not us). We could also see the steam engines working and the paddles turning as the boat moved along. The boat was built in 1947, and can take 925 passengers - it would have been a bit crowded I think. When she sailed towards Clevedon Pier to pick us up she appeared to be listing quite severely - we were pleased we had taken the time to make Caramello his own life belt!!.
After doing very little all day and sitting in wind, cloud, sun and sea air we were rather tired by the time we got back - we did manage to get to the supermarket to find an Indian to heat up before climbing into bed - but that was it for Saturday.
On Friday night we had spent an enjoyable evening at David and Jane's chatting, eating their good food, and looking at slides of their Japan and Thailand trips. Must go there too!! They mentioned that on Sunday they were going on Bristol's Biggest Bike Ride (I think they have one every year - but it must get bigger each year to live up to its name) and as it was a stay at home weekend we crawled out of bed on Sunday morning and went on the 14 mile bike ride too. It was a lot of fun (we passed not only young families, but lots of other people) and realised that we were reasonably fit going up the hills. The route 'followed the Portway through the Avon Gorge, turns through Shirehampton and over the dramatic Avonmouth Bridge returning to Harbourside via the Ashton to Pill cycle path'. Going through Leigh Woods brought back memories as we had walked some of this track when we first arrived in Bristol. Surprisingly enough, we arrived back about the same time as Jane and David - we lost each other in the crowd - and had lunch at the Watershed (again - more memories we used the free WIFI when we first arrived in Bristol - a lemonade lasted as long as the time required to write emails, the blog etc) - nachos and olives and hummus for lunch this time. Yum. There were bands playing creating quite a festive atmosphere (the best thing was you could make your own smoothie by riding a bike that turned the blender sitting on the back) - but we didn't stay long as we were off to Chris's for tea that night.

Elton and bike riding

Another week goes by - and it must have been quite busy because one morning I stood in the kitchen (must have looked a bit lost) and Harry said 'You need to get your bowl and cereal'. I knew mornings and I weren't natural partners but ....
We went to "Singing in the Rain" at the Hippodrome on Wednesday night. We quite enjoyed it, but it was one of those shows which just didn't seem to have the vibrancy and the energy that makes a good show a memorable success. We sat near a Welsh couple who had come to the show with their children and grandchildren and after making a few comments started to talk about Wales and then on to the shows they had been too. One of the funny moments was when we both tried to remember the last show we had seen at the Hippodrome and we couldn't - a bit sad!! Anyway, the musical is about the beginning of the talking pictures and at one point the previously silent actors were learning to speak 'proper' using tongue twisters - I have always enjoyed trying to get my tongue around the impossible and so here goes:

• Moses supposes his toes are roses, But Moses supposes erroneously, Moses he knowes his toeses aren't roses, As Moses supposes his toeses to be.
• Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew. While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew. Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze. Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze.That's what made these three free fleas sneeze.
• Something in a thirty-acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew the thug - although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty year old thug thought of that morning.

Friday, I drove to Swansea and spent the day working - I had a good trip there and back (about 90 minutes each way). It would have been different if I was driving west towards Cardiff. There was an Oasis concert on and the traffic was backed up all the way from Cardiff nearly to Bristol - I have a feeling that some concert goers would have been a tad late. Saturday started with a late morning - it had been a long week and quite unusual for us we didn't have a lot planned so we had a bit of a lie in, a wander down the street for some hot bread, lunch in the sun (our own version of a ploughman's lunch) and then read newspapers and books till it was time for dinner. By, the time we had done the 20 quiz questions we had decided we needed to go to a Formula One Grand Prix, a polo match and Ascot Races before we leave England. There was an interesting article on Ascot races and how they have created some golden rules for racecourse etiquette. 'Last years organisers' tightened the dress code for entry into the royal enclosure in an effort to discourage the worst fashion faux pas' - sounds like something we would wear to the Rugby 7's in Wellington might not be the thing to wear at Ascot. This year organisers thought they should tighten up on etiquette - some of the rules are (and I quote)

• eating in public requires all private habits to be closeted. Pace yourself, so neither hoover like a wolf nor pick like a sparrow. Bring food to your mouth rather than drop your head.
• a man should stand up to greet a woman when she first arrives. There is no need, however, to jump up and down like a jack in the box every time she enters or leaves the room.
• hangovers are generally self-inflicted, so you should approach the day after an evening's overindulgence with stoicism, and keep your misery to yourself.
• being punctual always scores bonus points. You will come across as someone who cares about other people, and is efficient, organised and reliable.
• men holding doors open for women is still a chivalrous gesture, even in our less gallant time.

and so it goes...There was also an interesting article on the migration of animals - and how some have actually stopped migrating due to the changing climate - migration is all about best food sources and as climatic conditions change the food sources go...quite thought provoking when you think that 'inbuilt' radar now says to animals 'don't bother it isn't worth the effort as the grass isn't greener on the other side'. And the last article worth mentioning was about recycling. England recycles about 30% of its waste. It ships quite a bit abroad so that cheap labour in other countries can sort it and then also buys in recycled waste from other countries to keep its industries going - sort of makes you think.
Saturday night - a real treat - an Elton John concert at the Gloucester Cricket Ground (about a 15 minute walk from our place). We couldn't believe we hadn't seen the concert advertised, but Harry got an email a fortnight ago about cheap accommodation and a show ticket - we didn't need the accommodation - but bought a ticket. It would have sold out months ago in NZ (I'm assuming some kiwis like Elton's music) but we had no problem getting a seat - and it wasn't a capacity audience on the night. I guess over here, as shows and music go, England is spoilt for choice and at the prices they tend to charge, people don't quite get as excited as we do when musicians and artists coming to town. We wandered to the show down some streets we hadn't been before - they had closed the roads so the crowd moved slowly and orderly along the street - tempted by the children on the footpath selling home made cup cakes and drinks and older people trying to make some cash hawking rabbit ears, pink hats, Elton glasses and things that glow in the dark. It was a great show - they are all gifted musicians and the lighting effects added to the show, without detracting from the musicians. The people in the hot air balloons above must have had a good view. When the band first came on it made us realise how age creeps up on us. The support act was a young (20) singer called Richard Fleeshman - he reminded me a bit of the kiwi singer Sean Preston whom we have had the pleasure to listen to a few times. Anyway besides being the support act for Elton, Richard has been a Coronation Street star for a short time (he played Craig Harris) but I suspect that his support to Elton is doing his career more good than being a star on the 'Street' (oops did I say that?). He must be learning heaps from the veteran. Most of the Elton band now live in the US, and indeed three of them (not the original) are Americans. There is:

• Davey Johnstone (only 59 - but he look as though he has had a hard life) - he is Scottish and the rock guitarist and vocalist and has also played with Alice Cooper and Meat Loaf - he has performed 2000 shows with the band.
• Guy Babylon - the keyboardist and orchestrator for the band he joined in 1988 - both Harry and I thought he was pretty good.
• Bob Birch - is from Detroit and is the bass guitarist - often in the background on the stage but a really interesting looking character.
• John Mahon - percussion and backing vocalist - he had a huge range of different instruments (some looked as though they were home made with paper mache) used to make all sort of interesting sounds.
• Nigel Olsson - the drummer who has done 1500 shows with Elton.
  
• Elton (Sir Elton actually) - a great pianist and singer who has sold over 200 million records and who we enjoyed listening to on Saturday night.

Sunday dawned nice and sunny so we took a picnic lunch and our bikes and rode along the canal path from Bath to Bradford on Avon. The path was in good condition, so no punctures today, and it was rather fun riding along the path looking at the various conditions of canal boats and ringing our bell so that all those in front (walkers, children, dogs, cyclists, cats, runners) knew we were about to overtake. We had canoed along a bit of this canal in the middle of winter (our first winter here) and so we stood under the bridge where we sheltered from the icy rain and laughed at some of the things we do - it was so different today. After 3 hours of cycling - what else would we want to do when returning to Bristol - sit in the sun a bit more and read.

It was Trooping of the Colour in London on Saturday - we didn't go, but Mike and Barbara did - so here's a photo of theirs. Another thing we have to do next year.