Jersey, Chichester and London, oh MY!

It's been a busy few weeks. After the garden party with the Queen, Jamie took off to St. Helier on Jersey (yet another of the Channel Islands) to work for a week.

Jersey is the largest of the islands, with a population of about 90,000 (about the same as Kelowna, only no strip malls and much closer to France). I flew out on Saturday morning (another really early morning flight - I had to get up at 3:00am).

Jersey is really nice, although I have to admit that I prefer Guernsey. When I arrived, it was overcast and drizzled a bit on and off. Despite the weather, we had a great time - we took a boat/bus thing (basically a bus which had been raised higher than a normal bus, and a propeller installed on the back end - I assume they also did some waterproofing) to Elizabeth Castle, which was built by Sir Walter Raleigh and named after Joan Simpson. (not really)






Having had enough of sight-seeing and general touristism, we took the boat/bus thing back to St. Helier and found a restaurant which had been recommended by some of Jamie's Jersey co-workers for lunch. Then, for something different, we found a pub and spent a fantastic afternoon at an outdoor table having various snacky-type items and perhaps a few beverages.




Later that afternoon we met up with one of Jamie's co-workers and had a decent dinner at the hotel restaurant. Ben and Debbie are our kind of people - they enjoy good food and good wine, and as far as we could tell have the best behaved baby in the world - not a peep out of her the entire time we were sitting at dinner (at one point I checked to see if she was a) real, and not a doll, and b) still alive).

Sunday dawned early and rather too brightly, in my opinion (okay, if you want the strict truth, it was 10am and slightly overcast). We had made plans to visit the old War Tunnels in the middle of the island (left over from the German occupation during the war), but decided that it was just too beautiful out to spend the afternoon in a tunnel in the side of a hill. Instead, we went to visit some of my relatives at Durrell Zoo (I assume distant relatives of some sort based on the similarity in back hair at the gorilla enclosure).

We spent a few hours wandering around in the beautiful sunshine (which is so rare for Britain) and looked at any number of almost-extinct species such as...well...I can't remember their names. There were rare bats, andalusian bears, hopping rat things, aye ayes which are odd little vampire squirrel things, and other freaks of natural selection.

I took the evening flight home. Not much to say about that.

The following weekend we took the train to Chichester to see Ken in his new production of "The Music Man" at the Chichester Theatre Festival. We caught the 9:38 from Clapham Junction and I managed to stay awake the whole way, which is unusual for me - normally I fall asleep on my morning train journey to work.

Chichester is an interesting little shop town - very small but all the high street shops you could ever want to see. Very busy, full entirely of people under the age of 18, over the age of 55, and us.






We stayed at a pub at the edge of the interesting bit of town. Seriously. It was called The Nags Head and in addition to a very nice pub, a decent restaurant, it also featured a dozen or so half-decent rooms (better than I'd expected for a pub to be honest). We spent the day wandering around with Christie, Steve and John, after meeting Ken for a quick drink before he headed off to do his matinee show.

Ken's show was fantastic - it features Brian Conley who is an odd combination of Dick Van Dyck and Neil Diamond, both in looks and more specifically in sound. The show was light and moved along quickly - it was done in what seemed like minutes despite it's 2.5 hour run time. Ken was, as expected, fantastic (interesting side-note - as I type this, Nickleback is being used as the backing track for a DFS commercial - DFS being a British furniture company...odd). We met Ken backstage after the show and went to the bar with all the other performers for a pint or two.

Sunday morning, Jamie and I grabbed a copy of the Sunday Times and went to the park to read a bit after breakfast. We arranged to meet Ken and John for lunch at the fancy-pants hotel in town, during which Christie and Steve joined us. After lunch, Ken took off to do his matinee and Christie and Steve took off back to London.

Jamie, John and I thought we'd try to get to the beach to catch some sun and sand but were put off by the MASSIVE line of traffic heading out. We took the executive decision to head back to the park and spend the afternoon relaxing in the sun on the grass. We spent a few hours reading the rest of the Time Times before Jamie and I had to catch the 5:15 back to London. Yet again I managed to stay awake the whole trip back to London, which I count as a major victory. It was a fantastic weekend.

Lunch with Lizzie and Old Phil

Today was an exciting day for us - we went to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, hosted by none other than Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (aka Lizzie and Phil, we're now that close).

We arrived at the Grosvenor Gate at about 2:30 pm this afternoon and stood in the line, waiting for the gates to the palace grounds to open. We met our friend Mash (from Vancouver) and not long after getting in line, we were let in (with only our passports checked, no Heathrow-style security checks).




Tim and Heidi met up with us just inside the gates and we meandered through the extensive grounds (which are stunning - ponds and gardens all over) to the main field behind the palace itself.


(very brief and shaky video of the general layout of the lawn)

The main lawn is HUGE - they had massive tents set up on either side, one with tea for the commoners and the other on the far side set up and cordoned off for tea for the Royals (there were any number there). We found seats in some shade and waited for something interesting to happen.

Soon enough it did - the tea tent opened. Jamie, Mash and I headed over to see what was on offer. As expected, and somewhat stereotypically, there was tea and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, but there was also egg and mayonaise and ham sarnies, and any number of different types of pastries etc.



Soon after our lunch, the band (of which there were two) started playin "God Save the Queen" - Liz and Phil were on their way onto the lawn. We walked over to the lines of people and waited to greet them - we had assumed that they were excited to meet us, but I guess there was a miscommunication somewhere and we were not at the front of the line. We saw Prince Philip go past (he's awfully spry for his age and condition, and severely upset his handlers by going off-script and talking to random people in the crowd). We soon realized that there were two different lines, and the Queen was in the other one. Jamie and the other girls rushed off to see her - Tim and I after a brief glimpse of her Highness bolted for the lunch queues again.

It was at about this point that I fully comprehended the error of wearing new shoes on a hot day where I was going to be on my feet all day....oh, the blisters of death...

We met back up with Jamie and the girls and explored the interior of Buckingham Palace - I've decided that we get our new big place, it'll be like that. We sat for a bit on a very nice couch in the air conditioned reception room (yes, we couched it in the Palace of the Queen of England...damn we're important, at least in our own heads).



Sitting around in someone else's reception room can only hold our interest for so long, so we went back outside to enjoy a bit of sunshine (which must be taken advantage of whenever it's available in London, as it is infrequent at best).



We left the Palace through the main doors in front - it was odd being on the other side of the massive iron gates. We felt very important and all - although we didn't want to get too close to the guards, as despite the festive bear-fur hats, had very large daggers attached to their fully automatic assault rifles. Videos and photos of us leaving:




and finally the video of us leaving:

(notice us on the important side of the gates, and the commoners on the other side -yeah, that's how we roll).

Picadilly Pub Crawl

The day dawned bright and early unfortunately - the kids decided to get up far earlier that Jamie and I had planned for after having a few beverages out for Heidi's birthday the previous night. Typical of British weather, it was a beautiful and sunny morning, so once Charlie had jumped on my head and Hamilton has spent a noisy 2 minutes licking his man-gear, the prospect of another 30 minutes of sleep seemed somewhat distant.

After having a quickish couple of cups of coffee, we decided to head into town to the Maplins to pick up a UK to US power converter so that I could play some extremely violent video games on my Canadian x-box while Jamie is away in Jersey later this week - exactly the sort of games my mother wouldn't have let me play when I was young (sorry mom...).



Once we got into town, we realized that we'd forgotten to eat breakfast (other than, obviously, my coffee) so we decided that lunch was in order. We'd gotten off the tube at Embankment station, which has a conviently located Wasabi Japanese take-away just outside. We picked up 20 quid worth of sushi and walked the relatively short distance down Pall Mall to St. James Park just outside Buckingham Palace to eat. We found a convient little bench and sat down to eat our sushi, getting some very odd looks from people walking past - apparently raw fish isn't that common in London.

After lunch, we quickly realized why we try to avoid central London in the summer at the weekend:


On the other hand, where else in the world can you see this sort of thing while you're just walking down the road:

(I'm assuming these blokes are something to do with the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, but I'm not sure. Soon after they went past, a little street cleaner went past and swept up all the horse mess - talk about efficiency).

We walked through the throngs of people and through Green Park on our way to find a nice pub for a quick pint. We ended up at The Blue Posts on Bennett St where we had a nice Guinness and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc while we perused a brochure on quality pubs in London. We decided on a new mission for the summer - to visit every pub in the brochure by the end of the year - ambitious I know, but that's just the sort of people we are.





Next was The Captains Cabin, then The Devonshire, then we met Jeff, Ryan and Maxi at The Glassblower just off Picadilly Circus. Finally, we wandered down the Strand for a final bevvy at Edmunds Wine Cellar under The Coal Hole at The Savoy Hotel.

We came home for a tasty dinner of fillet of beef with good ole Canadian "Montreal Steak Spice" with roasted mushrooms, courgettes and red peppers with spicy couscous. I really should be a professional chef, cause damn I'm good. And modest too.

Pneumonia for Amatuers (or Elton John Live in Downpour)

Last night was the first of our "Visits with English Queens" that we'll be undertaking within the space of a week - Elton John live in concert at Brookfields Racetrack (now home of Mercedes-Benz World, an amusement park for luxury German motors).

As you might expect for July, middle of a British summer, the weather was horrid - torrential rain and cold. Jamie, Heidi and I were drenched within minutes, despite my wearing a giant bright red rain coat and Jamie wearing several stylish bin liners (I think from Stella McCartney's new line):


Elton was in fine form despite the rain, and played a good mix of his new songs which we didn't know, and most of the oldies which we sang along to with great gusto, much to the dismay of those around us.

It was an odd crowd - mostly people our parents ages, dancing wildly despite their advanced years and the rain, plus two very drunk older lesbians who were extremely entertaining, especially when they fell over in the mud.

The rules of the concert strictly banned all recording devices, however they didn't ban mobile phones so I managed to get the following videos:

Pinball Wizard, as performed by Elton (he was the original Pinball Wizard in the stage version of The Who classic):



And Your Song:



Goodbye Yellowbrick Road:


and finally, Tiny Dancer:

Sorry about the rather crap video quality, tinny sound, and shaky camera work. In my defense, it was taken on my mobile phone, and I defy you to do better with yours.

Flat Update July, 2008

We visited our flat again yesterday and took some shots. We now have 4 sliding doors, and most of the exterier walls!! Apparently its ahead of schedule, but they are still saying Spring/Summer 2009. We are hoping March/April but we'll see...you notice in a couple of pics that there is a Young's pub opening stumbling distance from our flat. There's also going to be a Starbucks, a sure sign of regeneration!