Out and about and around London

I've been scolded for being a blogging slacker, so here are some pics from recent times.

If you come to our house, you can use the "London Loo" that has been in our front yard for....oooh....3 months now. When you walk up the steps, you can enjoy its sweet aroma and marvel at the large flies that are in residence.


The Millenium Dome in all its strange splendor, as viewed from Jim's office.


Jim works with these yobs. Kevin gives us free chocolate because his sister works for Mars Bars or something like that. Simon (on the left) gives Jim all my messages.


THere is a mall under Jim's office:


Corporate types stroll about in Canary Wharf:


We went swimming in Hampstead Heath's famous pond. It was very cold and we left covered in pond scum.


There were lots of people at the pond. One lady removed her underpants in a not so subtle way and many men appeared to be swimming in Fruit of the Loom Underwear.


Refreshed after the pond!


When I walk to work, I get to see a lot of this in Regent's Park (Blue Heron in the distance!)It's funny to watch the blue herons hanging around with the pigeons, waiting for bread.


We saw Richard and Colleena in Princes Risborough! Lizzie and Cordelia love ice cream:


Jim in dreamy pub light:


Jim's ear in dreamy pub light:


There are a few gas lamps left in London:


In our neighborhood they don't have "duck crossing" or "deer crossing" signs. They have "elderly people crossing" signs.(We especially like the graphic on this sign)


Blogger won't let me post anymore pictures at the moment, but tomorrow I will add:

Sunset and a bus.

AND

Jim medidates on Primrose Hill. This morning when I was running I saw:
1. a guy asleep (passed out) on Primrose Hill.
2. four youths still up from the night before and watching the sunrise on Primrose Hill.
3. a guy who was had just woken up and was checking his watch on Primose Hill. (I never realized that Primrose Hill was such a popular place to sleep!)

We also hung out with Howard, Holly and CLara yesterday, but being morons we forgot to take pictures of them. Clara has become an expert aerobie thrower and chaser and almost could climb over the fence in front of Kenwood House. When she realized she couldn't quite do it, she would cry, "Stuck! Stuck!" and Howard or Holly would rescue her.

Time for bed for me.

Bocce Ball!

We got a Boules set (that's what they call it in England) so today we went out into the sunshine to try it.
Jim shows off his form:

I looked a little less professional. We didn't know what we were doing, had only a vague idea of the official rules, but still had people stopping to watch us as we attempted to hit a very small ball with some bigger, heavy balls.

I got a little distracted halfway through the match (and lost my ability to spell)....

and ultimately, I lost. After which I discovered that I can't do a pull up. (Jim can do a pull up.)

Fortunately, we threw the aerobie without any tree incidents (although it did get stuck in a stroller once) and by the time we got home, I didn't feel too bad about being a bad boules player and a weakling. It was a good Sunday.

And when the sun came out...

We went on a walk in the country! New country walk enthusiast, Aurelie, joined us and we were off to the South of London, where there were no floods and the trains were not having issues. We walked from Petersfield to Liss and were definitely feeling the fact that we haven't been on a walk in a long time.

Immediately we hit some colossal puddles, as evidenced by this "walk like an Egyptian" style move I had to bust to get through this kissing gate without water up to my knees:

Early in the walk, we passed a waterfall...foreshadowing of the turbulance to come...
Here are Jim and Aurelie at the waterfall:

At this point, we entered a nature preserve with a lookout hut!

And suddenly, THE HILL was on us. Little did we know that we were about to walk about 500 meters straight up hill. As you can see from my expression in this picture, I didn't think it was that big of a deal:
"Hill Schmill! I've walked up lots of hills before! Allez! Allez!"

"I'm really trying to look like this is fun, but I think I'm dying and no, I really don't care about the view."

Bringing up the rear:

3/4 of the way up we came to a bench, where we contemplated taking a nap or quitting (I don't remember JIm complaining at all. He was having too much fun taking pictures of the rest of us suffering.)

At the bench there was also a plaque commemorating a poet. Aurelie was very excited because the poet was from where she lives in London and was killed where she lived in France (not sure that was a good omen...)

After the hill there were some horses, which made AUrelie a little nervous (see horse chasing us through field on the last walk blog), but these horses were pretty scared of us, too, so took off up a hill as soon as we walked into their pasture. And after the horses were some really beautiful fields of flowers. Before taking pictures of us in the flowers, Jim took some pensive pictures of himself. Here is Jim, at peace in the country:

And the girls in the flowers:

And a fancy car on a fancy farm:

And another fancy car, burned out in the woods:

And, of course, in the middle of the woods, a cat appeared (because
there are always cats appearing when we are out and about. There are a lot of friendly cats in England!)

At the pub, where we again contemplated taking a nap, a nice man took our picture under the pub sign:

And then, while pointing out this fabulous view of a church in the distance:

Jim slid and slowly, slowly fell into the mud on his back and then rolled around like an upside down turtle while I tried to compose myself (scolded by Aurelie who said, "you are not nice.") enough to help him up.

The mud was really abundant, so we slipped and slid our way through a lot of the walk. Jim was wishing for my fall, but I disappointed him by staying upright for the entire walk. Aurelie also demonstrated the superior balance of the female sex.

Jim on a log:

A stream:

Aurlie looking apprehensive about walking through a field of cows. She bravely made it through!

Jim couldn't resist the call of the aerobie and, of course, the aerobie couldn't resist the call of the tree (see Charlie Brown and the blog about the Tour de France. This aerobie spends most of its life in trees). Much time and energy was spent getting the aerobie out of the tree:


...and ten minutes after we got the aerobie out of the tree, Jim threw it into another tree. He borrowed a passing lady's walking stick (Aurelie's idea) to get it out and I forbade the use of the aerobie for the rest of the walk:

Just before the aerobie got stuck in the second tree, we passed these funny creatures, which we decided were sheep crossed with llamas crossed with white bunnies:

Aurelie finally ran out of energy and we had to push her to the train station in a wheel-barrow:

After an 11 mile walk, battling the trees for the aerobie and having to wheel Aurelie, JIm was was so pooped that he went into a trance. Aurelie was revived by a delicious chocolate treat: the Curly Wurly (so good). And I fell asleep on the train.

A weekend in Bath

Apologies for the lack of blogs lately. It's been raining and we have been forgetting the camera a lot, but this weekend we took the camera and went to Bath in the west of England.

When we arrived at Paddington Station, things were kind of chaotic.

Because of the heavy rain and flooding in England, many of the trains had been cancelled. As soon as our track was annouced, people with their suitcases rushed the gate and then, when they opened it, they RAN to the train. Jim and I rolled our eyes and kept walking, which was a mistake because by the time we got onto the train, there were no seats left. Here is a picture of some people standing on the train.

I started out on the floor, but eventually, as more people got on, I stood up to make more room.

Without fail, people (mostly women)complained loudly about the injustice of it all, how they couldn't believe that nature would have the nerve to flood the tracks and inconvenience them on a Sasturday, how clearly all of the rest of us packed in like sardines were just NOT MOVING, etc. Everyone on the train is always the victim. Especially those who can't fit.

Fortunately for us, the train ride to Bath was only about an hour and a half when when we arrived at our hotel, it was worth the cattle-like conditions getting there. We stayed at a place called Combe Manor and this is what it looked like:


It even had bunnies:

Our room had a beautiful view with a window seat. Jim graciously posed for this picture:

Our hotel also had a country club attached to it, so we played tennis and enjoyed the indoor pool, steamroom, and spa beds. The spa beds were violently bubbly and kind of weird. Here, Jim "relaxes" in the spa bed:

On our first night, we decided to stay kind of local to our hotel, which was about three miles outside of the center of Bath. This was not a good idea. The first pub we went to had some biker looking people outside of it. The next pub only served ham sandwiches and beer. So, we gave up and went into town where we had a delicious Mediterranean meal and wandered around. One of the main attractions is Bath Abbey, which is very ornate and gothic looking. Here it is at night:

And, in the daytime:


We did not see the Roman Baths because we didn't want to pay 12 pounds each to get in. But they were nice from the outside.

There were huge groups of tourist of varying ages and cultures, so the baths probably wouldn't have been that fun to look at anyway. Plus, you can't even get in them!
In the square outside of the Abbey, a very talented classical guitarist played. Around the corner, three young violinists performed and later a classical xylephone player was in the square. It was very cool and nice to hear beautiful music while enjoying the brief sunshine.

Down by the river, a band was playing in a gazebo and for a pound we could go into a beautiful park, sit in some lawn chairs and listen. Here I am doing my best Pillsbury Dough Boy impression:

Later, we lounged in our chairs:

and enjoyed watching cute little kids:
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Fun times...we are sorry to be going back to work tomorrow. Probably in the rain.