At the Polo

Taking up a half price offer we headed to our first polo match. “Arena Polo” to be precise. It emanates from the USA and differs from normal polo in that there are only three players per team and the smaller playing area is enclosed in a boarded and netted fence, the idea being that you can hit the ball off the sides. While the horses (known as ponies in polo) may not get up to quite the same speed, they are incredibly maneuverable and it really shows off the skills of the riders, and ponies. 

We were expecting a major day out as the event was a British Open championship hosted at a very posh facility near Windsor. When we arrived we found only about 200 other spectators and the “grandstand” was anything but – a basic structure of bench seats that at least allowed us to sit above the walls of the arena and see the action. The matches are very exciting and the riders have to keep changing ponies every few minutes to ensure they're not over worked.

Ponies awaiting their turn ...

The winning team

What made it less than a perfect day out was the wind that was born somewhere north of Siberia and headed straight into our faces on the grandstand. It was absolutely freezing - we had frosty fingers inside gloves, drippy noses, and chilled eyeballs for those of us following the action through a camera lens!  And the happy commentator in the heated commentary box continually made mention of how warm he was. And then we found out the mulled wine had run out before we got to the front of the queue at half time!  Vicki took one look at the 'tomato soup' we bought as a substitute and wouldn't touch it.  She made the right decision.

Befitting of an upper-class event were the well-dressed people and the flashy cars. Several Teslas were being demonstrated and the salesmen were very keen to talk to us. They didn’t seem at all concerned that we were minimum wage gardeners!

'My' car

Minis can't read

A day out in London

A mini-Tardis. Police boxes still exist,
this one opposite the US Embassy.

Having one of the world's best cities on our doorstep would be wasted if we didn't occasionally venture in. The trigger this time was evening cocktails (more about this later), but with the travel and expense of getting there it makes sense to make a full day of it. Not surprisingly, given it is winter here, it was a cool and damp day but not enough of either to stop us walking almost everywhere. Indeed we were probably on our feet for 10 hours plus, hence the sore limbs the next day.

London is such a good city to walk around as there are so many interesting but different sites next to each other, and the traffic isn't too bad now they have stopped the bulk of the private cars from driving there via their congestion charges. Though there are plenty of cafes where you can recharge yourself, there is a distinct lack of public toilets, and many of the cafes don't have them either, so it can get a bit uncomfortable at times!

We are lucky that we get to arrive at Paddington Station as this encourages us to walk to the West End of the city through some beautiful residential streets that are a mix of very large white Georgian-style buildings and little cobbled lanes containing two-storey mews houses. We did notice that some of these little houses were selling for over £3 million! Our trail then takes us through the enormous Hyde Park, a chance to escape the people, traffic and noise for a few minutes.

The Royal Arcade

Hyde Park leads to the Mayfair/Piccadilly area, full of very, VERY, expensive shops, from the car sales (windows full of Aston Martins, Bentleys, etc) to bespoke clothing. A highlight are the several old arcades full of interesting little shops, mainly selling hats and shoes and bags and high-end watches. Typical is the Burlington Arcade, described as (from Wikipedia): built "for the sale of jewellery and fancy articles of fashionable demand, for the gratification of the public". It even has it's own security team, three gents in top hats and frockcoats.


For something completely different we ended up at the east side of the city, at Brick Lane in Whitechapel. There is a good reason why this is the cheapest property in Monopoly, though with the spread of the financial city ever east-ward there are many new buildings, trendy eateries and markets appearing. Not nearly as scruffy as when I used to work nearby 25 years ago. There are still many of the cheap curry restaurants for which the area is famous.

 

As 5pm arrived we scurried across Tower Bridge to Bermondsey, another "working class" area showing signs of gentrification, including the little gallery that was our destination. Olympus was putting on an event for Olympus camera owners to sample some new equipment (sadly lacking as it turned out, because there was a much larger photographic event on in town) and to practice on a barman creating cocktails for us (for free). Whilst not quite as good as we had hoped, after a couple of cocktails all was well.

Heading home was a chance for a few night shots around the Thames ...

 

Living in the middle of nowhere has its drawbacks when you're planning a night out in London - few evening trains go through to Theale (our closest station, and where we leave our car), and it's not impossible to spend an hour sitting at Reading station waiting for a connection.  As is usual, though not infallible, our sense of timing and good luck held, and we were able to pack up our gear, march several blocks to the closest tube station, race through a change of trains at another, hop off at Paddington, grab a late and light dinner (filled roll and pastry) and make it to our train with three minutes to spare - and we got a seat! 

A Trip Home

Pohutakawa - the NZ Christmas tree

Last November we spent the month in New Zealand (actually Vicki spent somewhat longer involuntarily, read on …). The purpose of this return was two-fold: catch up with family and friends that we hadn’t seen for 2½ years and for Vicki to apply for a UK visa. Due to some forward planning I have dual nationality (thanks Mum and Dad!) but Vicki is “just” a Kiwi. She has been able to stay in England on a 6-month visitor’s visa, but last time she got one it was made very clear that this was the last ... and don't leave the country as she might not be allowed back in! Consequently we’ve seen less of Europe than we had planned. The only answer was to apply for a “proper” visa which would allow her to stay for a longer period and work. Unfortunately this can only be done from your home country and would take £1,000 ($2300 NZD) plus about 10 working days to process the application (as of when we were planning this trip).  So a month seemed to give plenty of time for both our objectives – oh, how wrong we were.

Our first stop was in Christchurch, staying with our very good friends Kerry and Dave. While we thought we had plenty of time it was a struggle to get around all our friends. Not quite all as it turned out. We managed to spend some quality time with my daughter Izzie and Vicki’s son Andrew. Though as Andrew was in the process of setting up his own business as a surfing instructor Vicki spent more time in front of her computer setting up his website than with him. Still, he seems to have had a successful start (with a huge response on TreatMe) and is doing something he enjoys and is very good at.

The old bakery at Blue Spur township

We then moved down to Dunedin to stay with my mum and see my other daughter Georgia, who had just got a first class Honours Degree in Archaeology. She was starting a holiday job before returning to commence her Masters. And we finally got to meet her boyfriend, Michael. They have been together for a number of years but we’d only seen a few photos. He passed the test though - seemed human, no two heads or arms scraping the ground.

NZ back country - in the eye of the beholder?

Ex-residents

It was a good chance to catch up with my mother too as she is now 93 and still living in her own house. As always when there we go on plenty of day-trips, either down the coast or into the hinterland. And always I am impressed by the sea and beaches and the pockets of unmolested bush, rare as they are outside national parks in NZ. Sadly a lot of the rest of the countryside is bare grass paddocks for sheep or cattle where pretty much anything larger than a thistle has been removed. It is very barren and only kept going by the regular diet of fertilisers. The less fertile areas are planted with exotic forests grown for their timber, or ravaged land where the bulldozers have felled them all.

We then headed up to Nelson to stay with Vicki’s parents. The Nelson area is a favourite of ours and it isn’t surprising that it is such a popular holiday area as there are more sunshine hours than most of the rest of NZ, lots of variety in the landscape, and a plenty to see and do.

 

Coffee & cake at the Mapua wharf - Nigel, Julie, Joan, Ivan

Kina Beach

 

Vicki, myself and Julie at Mapua, Nelson

Typical NZ car (not)

Brook Stream, Nelson

Boatshed Cafe, Nelson

Maurice, a local gunsmith

Andrew with his first clients

As we got closer to the time we were due to fly back the worry levels increased as Vicki’s visa still hadn’t arrived, nor her passport which had gone with the application.  All the UK visa agency in Manila would tell us was that it had been received, and their website now said that 1/3^rd of applications were being processed in 15 days, 2/3^rds in 25 days and the rest … clearly it wasn’t going to happen in time to catch our flight so Vicki had to forfeit her return ticket. I headed back on the long and lonely flight to the northern winter at the beginning of December, while Vicki spent more time with Kerry and Andrew in Christchurch, and then in Nelson with her parents and sister.

The visa, and passport, arrived in Christchurch on December 17th.  Vicki flew to Christchurch the next morning and onto London that afternoon, so was here for Christmas with a shiny multi-year working visa in her hands. All turned out well in the end though a LOT more expensive and stressful than anticipated.

Visitors

Following on from the success of our month-long holiday in Italy last year with Mum and Julie, they decided to visit us in the UK in September for a few weeks.  We were very lucky to have our 'owners' (Nigel's employers) approval to have them stay with us, so they used the son's rooms (he, like most of the family, is in the USA) - Mum grandly accommodated in his bedroom and Julie set up on a comfortable convertible couch in his office - however they did have to share his huge bathroom.  They didn't complain!

We'd planned plenty of outings, of course, so here's a bit of a run-down on the joys of being a tourist in our neck of the woods.....

Note: several of these photos were taken on Julie's camera, by Julie or Nigel ...

At nearby Basildon House, a National Trust property that's used for some of the internal rooms of the fictional Downton Abbey...

Who doesn't recognise Stonehenge?

tourists at Stonehenge

the three Slade girls at the Devizes locks (hidden behind them)

the first pub stop, in the lovely village of Marlborough

And they couldn't visit without seeing London .. twice for Mum and three times for Julie ....

on the train from Theale to London Paddington ....
 

a brilliant Charlie Chaplin impersonator busking at Covent Garden

Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the Slade sisters

on the 'Harry Potter' (Millennium) Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral behind

 Julie got very excited about the grey squirrels in St James's Park ..... especially so when one clambered up onto her knee!  Don't worry - I checked her bag afterwards, before NZ Customs got a chance!

 For my birthday in April we'd gone to a Birds of Prey centre, so Julie knew she wanted to go there too, so we returned .....

We enjoyed a great day in Oxford .... 

.... and a special day aboard the Cygnet - a canal boat on the Avon and Kennett Canal.   Having been shown the ropes we were left to our own devices for the day - negotiating several locks and travelling from Kintbury to Hungerford and return.

Julie skippering the Cygnet under a rail bridge

enjoying the comparative comforts below decks

The Cygnet and Mum (BTW - we grew up on Cygnet Street in Christchurch!)

Julie and Nigel managing one of the locks

A must-see pub, and a must-duck pub, near Brimpton - the Pineapple Pub.  You can see that the beams encourage us to duck (in preference to knocking ourselves out!).

They abandoned us for three days to visit Paris (during which time Glenn and Irene Seymour came to visit), were back for a couple of days, then winging their way back home.  It was all over far too quickly!