England in May –a bright welcome home

What a wonderful way to wake up –warm croissants, fresh fruit, fragrant coffee and according to the pilot, a hot and sunny day is forecast for England. Soon I can see those unmistakable London landmarks: Big Ben, the London Eye, St Pauls, Charing Cross station or is Waterloo and the Thames bending its way through the urban sprawl.

A smooth landing, my looking-rather-worse-for-wear suitcase with its pink notice me strap appears on the carousal for the last time and soon I am waiting in the morning sunshine for Julie to take me home.  Everything is very familiar –the coolness of the ground floor office, a familiar scent upstairs and in the front garden the Cercus Covey Lavender Twist is dripping with purple.  I ignore, for the time being, the nine week tower of post on my desk, make a cup of tea and enjoy the abundance of growth in the back garden. Its getting hotter –such good weather to come home to.

I tax my car, discover it has a flat battery –soon fixed by the man from Green Flag who is thankfully strong enough to pull the car backwards out of my small garage.  Driving to Leatherhead is a joy –Horse chestnuts are wearing their special shade of pink, cow parsley and hawthorn give the lanes a white out and everywhere is so very greeeen  … this is a beautiful country. As I wait for a new battery to be put in my car I become aware that in reality its the middle of night! I need to sleep …

Before the alarm can wake me Sue phones with an invitation to supper, the next thing I hear is the Archers intro … I just keep falling back to sleep. Tomorrow I’ll sort the post, the laundry, and there’s the small matter of buying some fresh food … I cannot have porridge for breakfast and lunch on more than one day, can I?

My travelling is over for the time being. On Monday Jen and I will be planning our 2011 South American trip but that’s some months away. I realise that I’ll miss blogging so watch this space, there maybe entries on some not so distant places during the summer.

Blogging in transit

Two good flights to Bangkok and reports say that southerly winds over Europe are keeping the ash cloud away.

My little hub seat on the upper deck was comfy enough for a nice sleep and then I watched A Single Man. I’m reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters –the last few pages will fill take off time from here … then I can go back to Wolf Hall which is harder work even though I find the e-reader a good device to read off.  I’m hoping that there will be another good film as well.

Its hot here, I’ve just had a shower so feel like a new day has begun. I’m not really sure where I am time wise –I just put my watch back a few hours and start from the new time.

Both the BA and Qantas flights out of Bangkok are full –all is calm here but the NZ papers this morning reported a sniper on every rooftop and hotel guests being advised to keep their curtains shut.

A very quiet international airport …

Its very quiet here at Christchurch airport … Heathrow will come as a shock. I’m blogging from the lounge, reflecting on a wonderful few weeks, all the new and not so new places I’ve visited and, most importantly, all the friendly people I’ve met.

Its a cliché but travel does broaden the mind. we all have so much in common, the small things differ …

Light switches in NZ flick up for on, down is off, in some places orange traffic lights are redundant, wherever you are people prefer summer to winter. The US has yellow school buses, Tehran has yellow taxis, autumn leaves are yellow everywhere. We  speak different languages even when the grammar and vocabulary seem the same –the kiwis make pavs, drink sav, take their togs to the beach. Learning one local word like salam in Shiraz means children giggle and mothers smile.

Champagne is best drunk with friends on the Sydney Opera House Terrace, Pohara Beach is my idea of paradise, I’m still dreaming about white herons & pied stilts and, oh dear, I’ve just had to pay to leave NZ.

The last day …

Christchurch in the rain: willows that weep in more ways than one, splashes from the tram tracks and people shivering because its 10C. Given that I have been travelling in the southern hemispheres autumn/winter months most times the weather has been very kind. My waterproofs and umbrella made it out of the suitcase today and I soon acclimatised.

With my first task of rebooking my flight from Bangkok to London completed I walked into the city to visit the museum and other galleries. The Botanic Gardens were unappealing …

I also found the Medical School bookshop in Christchurch Hospital and bought a book of poetry called Playing God. Dale had let me see her copy last night and it is a book worth paying the high cost of books in NZ. I think books here, and in Australia, are at least 1.5x UK prices whether they are imported or not.  The bookshop was an ideal place to add to my list of future must reads and to note down more titles to suggest to my book group. I hope some in the long list I’ve been collecting over the last 8 weeks will appeal to them for future meetings –certainly many of the authors are new to me and I doubt we would have come across them in the UK.

Lunch was a very good fish chowder in Dux de Lux –with some good music and a chance to write thank you notes to Dale and Marianne for their hospitality this weekend.  I’ve had lots of very good company in the last 8 weeks, some planned and some unplanned. There’s a welcome in England and France for all of you at any time.

I’ve just made sure my ITouch and e-reader are fully charged for the long journey ahead. Three flights, very reasonable transit times between then in Sydney and Bangkok and I arrive home 7 am Weds. Fortunately I am travelling with Qantas so, once again, I will avoid the BA strike. Fancy me thinking in March that the dispute would all be settled by the time I returned in May! Now there’s only that volcano to possibly delay me …

Change of plans

Sunday16th 8am -I've cancelled my Bangkok hotel reservation –hard decision but the unrest seems to be worsening. UK foreign office advice is not to travel which invalidates my insurance and other websites are telling people already there to stay indoors. There seems little point in being there if I can’t go anywhere. I seem to remember that last time the political situation was very bad the airport was closed –no fun being stuck either in the hotel or worse still at the airport!!!  Now all I have to do is change my flight home which means the interminable wait listening to dreadful music to speak to a BA agent tomorrow

Sunday 16th 9pm

Just blogged on-line on the B&B computer so here’s some pics from yesterday and today in and around Ch-Ch –the Kate Sheppard memorial, a Maori flax weaving in the Cathedral, the foyer sculpture at the Art Gallery, fishing at the end of the wharf and Harry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure when I’ll be able to post this … perhaps I’ll be at home.

Watching the ash cloud

Just about to leave for Christchurch airport, a very long journey and maybe an interruption to my travels by the ash cloud, and I thought the UK and Holland had been asking for cash, not ash, from Iceland. Snow is predicted for Canterbury by the end of this week and I had that in Denver so its time to end this wonderful adventure.
I've enough reading on the e-reader to last several flight delays, my Itouch is fully charged and, if all else fails, there's always the work that has acculumated in the last 8 weeks to fill in between films.
Maybe I'll be able to update this en route but if not my next post will be from home.

Enjoying a wet Sunday in Ch-Ch

Quick entry on B&B computer so no pictures but today was not the day for photography -wet, warm and lots of low cloud. Spent the morning at the Art Gallery  - thought provoking installations and a great exhibition based on the colour blue, meant for the kids but many big kids like me were enjoying it. The outdoor market was minimal given the weather but with some interesting local crafts. Yesterday I found a quilt shop (just five fat quarters of NZ fabric to fit into my suitcase) and a statue of the leaders of the NZ women's sufferage movement. It felt like I had come full circle from Rochester and the bronzes of Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady-Stanton.
Then Dale became my tour guide to Akeroa, over Summit Road where usually there are great views of the place where the French tried to claim NZ as theirs. We settled for afternoon tea and a walk out to the end of the wharf to watch some local boys fishing. I'm just back from supper with Dale (and Harry the dog) -I'm so glad I met her in Sydney, its been great to have a local friend in Ch-Ch. I had supper last night with four of her friends -good conversation, a home cooked meal, some very good wine and more insights into the NZ way of life.
My first task tomorrow is to rearrange my flights so that I travel home from Sydney avoiding the planned 2 days in Bangkok -the worst thing will be listening to BA's recorded message and awful on-hold music during the long wait I know I'll have to speak to a real person in Auckland. The Bangkok hotel have just confirmed my cancellation and I'm told that NZ are withdrawing their embassy staff ...