Back to London

Heathrow Trolleys

We have safely arrived back in London after celebrating the in-laws 60th wedding anniversary up in Larkhall in South Lanarkshire. A lovely evening it was too and we had a card delivered from the Queen. I find on doing some research that although it is from the Palace it is not actually signed by the Queen herself but a machine. I don’t know the statistics but to say I am disappointed is a bit of an understatement. I just checked, there were 26,000 Diamond weddings in 2007 alone. OK I stand corrected, it is physically impossible for Her Majesty to sign these. Who knew that many people lived that long!!

The card was still received with much excitement as it does come from Buckingham Palace of course. The postman arrived and they had to sign for the card so we had a little opening ceremony which I videod. Later we had the Lord Provost Russel Clearie of South Lanarkshire Council arrive and some other councillors to hand over a certificate and some flowers. He did a fine job and was very entertaining. Mum and Dad were exceptionally thrilled and I have to say the Councillors and the Lord Provost really did a fantastic job in making their day really memorable.

GPO or BT Tower

On taxiing in from Paddington to Carolines I got a view of the old GPO tower. Always a nice London landmark to catch a glimpse of and one that used to be a major draw. Once upon a time there was a revolving restaurant at the top and a visitors gallery. Shame they don’t still have that as I am pretty sure it would be a major draw again.

Pottering around London

I spent the morning walking from Holborn, where we are staying, into the City of London and around my old haunts. My first job out of University was on Lombard St near the Bank of England so I have a long, well 17 year, history with the City. I loved working up in the financial district of London with it’s hustle and bustle, it’s energy, architecture and history. It has also changed enormously and continues to change year on year. There weren’t many shops and restaurants 20 years ago but not the place is rammed with Marks & Spencers, coffee shops, restaurants, gyms and all other amenities. It really is a go to place.

St Paul's Tube Stop en route to the City

I tried to pop in on Pammy for a cup of coffee, seeing as I was in the area, but no answer on her cell phone. I did get a nice shot of Lady Justice on top of the Old Bailey. I remember popping into a murder trial at the Old Bailey once. I had never been to the courts before and a friend dragged me along. I was busy watching very quietly a trial going on and finally working out this chap was being tried for murder. Quite grim. We left soon after.

The lady on top of the Old Bailey

Next stop was down to Bank Station as I wanted to visit the Monument which is a fabulous tower you can walk up. It was built by Christopher Wren after the great fire of London in which 13,000 houses were destroyed over 430 acres. Back then London was obviously smaller but it almost wiped out the entire city. I think after doing some basic research the Great fire of London was smaller than the Chicago fire of the mid 19th century. In Chicago over 17,000 buildings were destroyed over 2,000 acres. Quite an interesting comparison. I imagine more people were probably affected in London though as everyone lived so much closer together in cramped quarters in 1666, the date of the fire. The picture below is from the top of the Monument down the spiral staircase. I think it came out quite funky and atmospheric.

The Stairs inside the Monument at Bank

Final stop or walk past was the financial district. Funnily enough I popped out of a building and bumped into an old work colleague of mine Janice, I can’t remember if I hired her or she came to me through another team. Actually I think she moved from a UBS team when Swiss Bank took over UBS, anyway she was out our first wedding in our garden in London if I recall.. What are the odds eh! we weren’t even near our old office but I caught her having a sly fag (Cigarette to you Americans) near the Reuters Memorial outside the Royal Exchange. God I hadn’t seen her in years at least 6 and she looked exactly the same bless her. Although she is now with husband and child.

Lloyds of London

Above you can see the Lloyds of London building! This caused a lot of outrage when it was built because it was SO ultra modern and hi tec. It still looks very futuristic in a Blakes 7 1980’s kind of way. I love it though.

Above you see

Farewell to Berlin

Brandenburg Tor

Weather aside…. the weekend was fun. We went to a 5 hour dinner to celebrate the civil partnership of two dear friends. It was a lovely evening and our corner all spoke English which made things super easy, everyone was very good company anyway and it was nice to see the boys hitched.

Berlin - Tegel Airport

Tegel Airport in Berlin is such a retro relic from a design perspective. The place hasn’t changed at all since god knows when. The air bridges look like something out of a cold war movie as does the airport. It’s clean, well run and maintained of course but it looks so 1980’s. I suppose to be honest Germany has many other priorities than tarting up an airport that works but a bit of modernisation wouldn’t be amiss.

At lunch on Saturday I was struck by how many smokers there still are in Germany. The restaurant we were meeting friends in was full but they had an outdoor, heated, covered section which we sat down in. It was basically the smokers section so we couldn’t complain but it was hot and boy it stank. My clothes reeked afterwards of cigarette smoke. I don’t get it any more. Why does anyone still smoke. It’s so expensive, so disgustingly smelly and deadly. Come on people that’s £35 a week or 2-3 fabulous vacations a year just going up in smoke. Do the right thing and quit…..

Anyway we are now back in London for the moment before we head off to Scotland on Tuesday. James is insisting on taking me back to Berlin when the weather is better as he says I have never seen it at it’s best, only in winter. It is apparently a summer city!

Berlin – Lunch and a walk

Weather has improved slightly so we thought we would take a quick trip to Checkpoint Charlie before we met the gels for a liquid lunch and a spot of food.

Checkpoint Charlie

We also ran across some original segments of the wall and it really is next to impossible to imagine what it was like. James bought a postcard showing the walk he regularly took when he lived in Berlin, pre wall, and the change is obviously enormous.

A section of the wall near the Gestapo torture chambers

We are off to dinner with friends who are having a Civil Partnership, the reason why we are in Berlin, so even more Sekt will be drunk tonight and we leave for London in the morning.

Coco - Jackies dog at Lunch.

Berlin on a drizzly day

Berlin like London is not a place to be when the weather is miserable, drizzling and cold outside. It’s a good 8 -10 degrees cooler than London which is noticeable. It didn’t stop us getting out and about though with our travel cards and determination to get to Potsdamer Platz, the Brandenberg Gate and to revisit some haunts.

View from the Cafe Einstein on the Unter den Linden

I was surprised at how much building work is still going on. I suppose it will be going on for a long while more. Renovations to buildings, new complexes in the place of or rather where No Man’s Land used to be. Some quite ugly buildings have been put up but they are balanced by some interesting modern architecture. Mind you everything looks grim on a drizzly cold day.

Berliner Fernsehturm

Inevitably of course you still see the shadow of World War II on buildings with machine gun marks over the side of public buildings. To think it’s 64 years ago since the end of World War II. The Nazi’s and then the megalomaniac paranoid Soviets have so much to answer for wrt the damage done to the world over the last 100 years. World War II was bad enough; but the following 50 years of mad Soviet paranoia almost completely destroyed the planet. When you think back on the senseless waste that has gone on, the millions of murdered civilians and soldiers and add the fear at the front and back of people minds. It’s just such a shame.

Bullet holes in the side of a building

The money that must have been spent to upgrade and build over the space that was the Berlin Wall must have been incredible. They seem to be doing a fabulous job and Berlin by all accounts seems to be a vibrant happening place. It still feels very 1980’s I have to say in a lot of areas but I think that’s just Germany in general. I remember when I lived in Frankfurt 15 years ago Berlin feels very like that. I suppose not a lot changes in any city over 15 years except subtle things.

A pram being pushed around the Holocaust Memorial

Old Haunts and School Days

God it was a stunning morning this morning with blue skies and leaves changing colour near our old house in South East London. I noted how, while living here, we hardly ever walked anywhere and missed out on so much. Having a dog really changes your outlook on life.

View from Hilly Fields in Brockley

I used to go to a school called Brockley County when I was 11-16 years old. At the time I hated it primarily because I was quite a small kid and I was bulllied for a large part of my time there. Kids can be viscious nasty thugs and I was such a wimp back then I just let it happen to me. I so wish I had fought back instead of having money extorted from me for 4 years and which was the most miserable part of my life when it should have been fun.

Brockley County School

Of course I look at the School now and I realise what a stunningly beautiful building it is in a most magnificent location. Towering above south east London with views to die for. So many things have changed too, the school is now a girls school, the science block sports ground has a building on it and the view is even more to die for as London Docklands now juts up on the other side of the hill offering majestic views over that part of London.

The estate where I live is now gone. knocked down a couple of years ago because the local government failed to maintain it so it ended up being cheaper to knock down and rebuild. What they built is boring and devoid of any real green open spaces. When we lived there; it had a proper caretaker and people knew each other and looked after their gardens. Council estates these days, if there are any left, seem to be devoid of people who care for them, gardens are ramshackle, they look run down and they are more than likely to contain people that really do not want to be there. We loved where we lived we took pride in it, that doesn’t seem to be the norm with social housing any more. I am not sure when it all started going wrong.

Brockley Country Shool - Now Prendergast Girls

The walk was much shorter than I remember; I guess I have must longer legs now but I did so enjoy it. We walked down to Adelaide Avenue through the alley and into Lewisham Cemetary which is a wonderful walk. Again until my last trip here in May i had NEVER in my 42 years walked through this enormous, characterful, beautiful cemetery. If you live nearby it is so worth a walk through on a crisp morning. Such sad stories on some of these headstones and you can trace back some of the sad stories to epidemics in the UK and London around 1915, diphtheria I think it was. Whole families getting wiped out so young. Also families being reunited on tomb stones, husbands and wives interred after many years apart. So sad and so touching.

Lewisham Cemetery on a warm Autumn morning

London Heathrow – Arrival

Well that was a pleasant flight, helped by the fact that I slept though 75% of it thanks to my handy Ambien CR. A fabulous thing I discovered in the U.S. which basically knocks you out with no after effects. Not something I take at any other time but on an overnight flight all I want to do is sleep. So I had a snack at the airport in the lovely Chicago British Airways lounge, got on the plane, took my pill and went to sleep.

6 hours later we have 2 hours to go until we get to the UK so I had my breakfast and landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 which is very nice and was worth the wait. There seemed to be a huge number of escalators to get to the immigration line but luckily I was quite flighty so got there before anyone else and my bags where almost waiting for me, very fast.

Baggage Claim - Terminal 5

The good thing about Terminal 5 is the height and feeling of space. I have used the BA lounge at Terminal 5 going back the other way and it is delicious. Huge and a really nice welcoming space should you manage to get in. A lot of the other terminals are really disgraceful but BAA is upgrading them all I believe over the next few years.

Also I have to say….. A lot of American Airports, despite being very efficiently run, are dull as ditch water compared to their European equivalents, especially British shopping mall airports like Heathrow. There is nothing to do at O’Hare and whoever is running the place has no imagination when it comes to retail opportunities. You have the same boring concession stands and newsagents so there is no competition or choice, you really have nothing to do. This is really strange in the land of the shopping mall but I guess the airport operators aren’t concerned with turning a profit. They are losing out massively on shopping opportunities and need to take a few lessons. Still I suppose ultimately as a traveller you want to be in and out as fast as possible but I like to get there early so I don’t stress. A cinema would be nice too, but I guess that would encourage people to miss their flights.

The picture below is of the commuters crossing London Bridge into the City of London, I took this this morning while wheeling my suitcase the other way. This is a walk I did as a commuter for over 10 years and boy am I glad i don’t need to do that any more. It wasn’t a bad commute, my trains were pretty reliable and I enjoyed the walk. But to not have to do it is still fabulous and I will never do it again anyway as we sold our house in South East London. We do still stay in touch and visit our neighbours though.

The morning grind

A Diamond Anniversary to Celebrate

I shall be off for 12 days to London, Glasgow and Berlin. It’s a monumental visit as it’s my in-laws 60th wedding anniversary. Can you imagine that, 60 years together, what a fabulous landmark. Also, you get a telegram from the Queen when you get to 60 years so that’s also something to celebrate.

Anne & Jim - 60 years together

It’s going to be a big deal, we are all flying in from Canada, Chicago and coming up from different parts of the country to celebrate it. At about 85 and 83 they are the most dynamic, entertaining, witty, active, fabulous people I have ever met and I really love being in their company. This is of course another reason I want to move home as quickly as possible so we can spend as much time as we possibly can with them and the rest of our family.

Not only are they fabulous but Anne is a wonderful cook. Oh my! her steak and sausage stews, her Empire biscuits, shortcake, curries, you name it she can cook it. Of course I am bound to put on a few pounds which is OK as I have lost a fair few pounds recently so time to enjoy putting them back on. I shall attempt to update this blog while I am away but I make no promises. I hear Tunnocks Caramel wafers calling.

We bought a house – part 2

The Drying House

We put in an offer on a house 6 months ago and it has taken this long to actually complete the purchase. It felt like torture and I was constantly worried we had overpaid but ultimately it’s a very special house in a completely unique location. Surrounded by lush country side and high hills with a ton of fabulous country walks and pubs within stones throw. Clearly we wont be moving in any time soon and we were lucky enough to have vendors who had not found anywhere yet. So they are renting it off us until they find somewhere else to live. I think we wil be very happy there, especially when we repatriate our dog from Luxembourg.

The house has some lovely features including a 200 year old listed drying house. Once upon a time our house was a Chapel attached to the bigger square behind which was a collection of weavers cottages. The drying house was used to dry the weave.

It’s an interesting building and is solid stone with 4 rooms of equal size. The walls are hollow and there are open fireplaces on two sides that used to be lit to heat up the hollow walls. This turned the entire building into a kindof oven to dry out the weave. Very clever.

A nearby attraction - The canal towpath.

Not quite sure what we are going to do with the drying house yet. We plan to do some minor renovations on it, dry it out, seal the windows and put new floors in. Perhaps turn one room into a laundry and a wine cellar with some storage, but basically fix it up a bit so it’s ready for the next few decades.

Chicago Marathon – A very chilly morning

Popped out this morning to get a few shots of those brave souls that run Marathons.  I totally understand the desire to do it and would love to run a Marathon but I know it’s never going to happen.  I could walk it but run it good god no.  26 miles is a crazy distance to run, walk, stagger, I mean I can barely run for 10 minutes on the running machine at the gym primarily because I just find it so boring. Perhaps with the right music?

At least the conditions were more favorable this year. I think it was 2 years ago there was a major disaster at the Chicago Marathon as they ran out of water and the temperature was in the 90’s. I mean running out of water is like death for a Marathon runner so really not a good thing. Anyway what a contrast between then and the 2 C or 34 F temperatures. I guess these were pretty good conditions.

Marathon Runners - Total Respect