It is Monday, a bit chilly outside and I had a great weekend.

Friday after work, I met Scott at Waterloo station and we took the train to Portsmouth. It took an hour and a hlaf to get there, so we arrived about 9.15ish. Daylight saving is great for that, as it was still light when we got there. We found the hotel we had to pick up our keys from then found the hotel we were staying in (about 300m apart). We stayed in a place called The George. Cheap, not too cheerful, but good enough and cheap enough not to worry.

We got some dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. It was the best Chinese food we have eaten since leaving home we think. Then we fell into bed.

Saturday morning we got up early, had breakfast and went to the Historic Dockyard. We started at the far end and worked our way back towards the entrance. So we began with HMS Victory. We could climb pretty much everywhere on the ship. It was fantastic. Really interesting. It is the world's oldest commissioned war ship (it still has a small crew and a captain). We saw the spot where Nelson fell, and where he died in one of the rooms below deck. I had seen pictures and illustrations of the ship before, but when it comes to life before you, and you can really see and understand how life was like back then on such a vessel, it is quite amazing. It was fun to be able to wander all over the ship. We had to bend quite low in some places, as the lower decks, especially where the guns were, were very low. Not good if you were tall!!

We saw the Mary Rose as well. The remains of the Tudor war ship were raised from the sea floor 2km off Portsmouth in 1982, and they are now housed in a special room. The hull, or half of it really, is constantly being sprayed with something called PEG - Polyethelyene Glycol (hopefully I can spell it). This effectively replaces the water in the wood with a waxy substance, which will preserve the wood. In 2011, they will start drying the ship, which will have been kept damp in the conservation process for 30 years. they hope to house both the remains and the 19,000 artefacts recovered in a combined museum, as currently they are in two separate places. I was truly taken aback by the Mary Rose. She is lovely. The graceful curving lines of the hull are clearly evident, as are the 5 levels of the ship. I heard someone describe it as "half a ship in a car wash". I guess that's true, but not a very romantic way of looking at it!! It is truly an amazing and exciting experience to be able to see something that had been lying on the sea floor for so long, and is now up and out of the water for all to see. Quite breathtaking.

We had a look at the Mary Rose Museum as well, which houses the artefacts from the ship. There were canons, a full medical kit, clothing, weapons. An amazing array of things you would not think would survive being on the sea floor for some 400 years. But silt is a wonderful thing if it allows no air and no sea bugs to get to the atrefacts.

After the dockyard, we took a boat cruise around Portsmouth Harbour. It was amazing to see the extent of the naval area. There were plenty of warships in the harbour that day - from France, Russia, the US (called USS Barry, which made me smile).

Then we went over to Old Portsmouth, where all the prostitutes and the like used to hang out. We had a drink in the sun, then had some dinner in the Spice Island Inn. Then it was off to the Spinnaker Tower to admire the views from 100m above sea level. We were lucky to have a nice clear evening. The sun was on its way down but there is plenty of light over here until about 9.45pm.

Sunday I had the day to myself as Scott had to go back to London in the morning to go to work. I went to Southsea which is the next town. Had a look at some markets, the seaside and the Castle. I was a bit disappointed with the castle, but it was still interesting. It was from there that Henry VIII watched the Mary Rose sink. I was back in London by 6pm.

I promise to post photos shortly!

Friday!!

Scott and I are heading towards Portsmouth for the weekend. I have always wanted to go there. We are staying in a cheap hotel, which is very central. It is a 17th century building. It no longer has a bar, as the owner let the licence lapse. But it is very handy to Old Portsmouth which is where we want to be. And they don't do breakfast, but it's a cheap place, and who needs a fancy breakfast anyway, right?

Scott thinks he will have to go to work on Sunday sometime. If I am enjoying myself I think I might go back slightly later than him. Poor thing, they won't leave him in peace! He was supposed to have a big deadline today, but they have pushed it back to early next week.

So, hopefully on Monday or Tuesday I shall update you all with our adventures in Portsmouth. Keep well. xx

Photos galore

I am now up to date with photos. These are below.

If you have any requests for photos, let me know!!

Orlaith. She's so cute!!
Orlaith and Sarah on the hunt for some booty.

Find of the day!!
Orlaith passed out in the pub.
A slime covered walkway near where we went mudlarking.

More York Photos

A treasure we found in the open store area - it's a model of the Victoria line tube system.

For all those Harry Potter fans...
View from the York wheel to the York Minster.

More photos from York

Thsi is inside the NAtional Railway Museum. Lots of shiny locomotives to oggle at. It was funny to see them from ground level, as we normally see them from platform level. So they seemed extra huge.
This is a view of the city wall from the Richard III Museum
I saw this old painted sign from the wall - "Nightly Bile Beans Keep you Healthy, Bright-eyed and slim". Really? Sounds good to me!! ;-)

This is York Minster, a medieval cathedral of gigantic proportions. It is visually stunning inside and out, with lots of gargoyles leering at you.
Best street name ever.
This is inside the Castle Museum. I am very fond of reconstructions, because then at least you can see how objects were actually used, rather than just seeing them in glass cases.
I really loved the juxtaposition of the modern sign and the medieval city wall behind it.
Sunset over York.

I had a really lovely day yesterday. I will post some more photos of York etc, when I get the chance this afternoon, so the journal will look a little out of order. But I have time now to write about my day, so I will!

I met Sarah and Orlaith at Liverpool Street Station just after 11am. We wandered around a bit, ending up in Spitalfields Market. I have been there a couple of times on a Sunday, but never during the week. It was vastly reduced, with very few stalls there, but the food places were there. We got very excited about the prospect of langos, a Hungarian food. Unfortunately the place did not have any, so I settled for chicken paprika. Very nice, but never as good as mum's!! We caught up with each other's news - Sarah's honeymoon on the Isle of Wight, etc. I do wish she lived closer so we could catch up more often, but maybe in the future.....

We made our way to Shoreditch station, so we could head to Wapping. BUT!! The station is closed as they are extending the East London line. So much for that idea. So instead we wandered down Brick Lane in the hope of getting the tube, but we got a bus to the tube station (Whitechapel) and then the tube to Wapping. I was holding a sleeping Orlaith all the time we were wandering about. She is lovely, and very floppy when sleeping. Poor Sarah's back was killing her (and that was before we went mudlarking) so I gave her a rest. And I got in my Orlaith-cuddles quota.

When we finally got to Wapping, we met up with some friends of mine from work - George, Imogen, another Alex, and Alison who now no longer works there. We found them in the outside area of the Captain Kidd pub, a lovely riverside pub, well worth a visit. I bought Sarah and I a drink, the CHEAPEST pub drinks in history. It cost me 80 pence for two pints of soda water, one with blackcurrant cordial in. Tops! Then it was off mudlarking!! We headed down to the foreshore, just in front of the Wapping Water Police station (they look after the entire Thames from Teddington downwards, which is the tidal bit). My first find was a plastic sheriff's badge - very appropriate considering the setting. ;-) So everyone decided it was the find of the day. I was going to give it to the police as we left, but there was nobody about.

Mudlarking is quite relaxing really. You get a bit of a crick in your neck after a while, though. Or if you have a heavy bag on your back and a huge baby on your front, like Sarah did, you get achey all over!! But I think Orlaith enjoyed herself. How many other four month old babies get to spend time hanging from their mums while they pick up bits and pieces of once-whole items, such as pots etc. Bits of people's lives. It's an interesting thought - you can wander along the Thames any old time, well, preferably at low tide(!!!), and pick up the most amazing things. Tudor pottery, glass, modern rubbish, plastic, metal parts, rope, etc etc.

After mudlarking, we went back to the pub, to compare our finds. I picked up two whole clay pipe bowls, lots of bits of pottery, including one with a crown and GR on it, not sure which George it is though. After the pub, it was on to King Edward Memorial Park for a picnic, some relaxing in the sun and some frisbee throwing. The frisbee idea lasted all of 15 mins, when George threw it into a rather large tree, and then he, Alex and Alison spent the next half an hour trying to get it out again!

Then it was home. A great day all in all. :-D

York photos #1

This is York's answer to the London Eye. It moves much faster, and is more like a real ferris wheel really. It is smaller than the London Eye, but very enjoyable.
This is Scotty driving the boat we hired for half an hour to putt up the River Ouse.
This is the man who took our ghost cruise along the river. He was entertaining, although the cruise was a bit touristy. But hey, we are tourists right?
This is the oldest street in York, called The Shambles. Lovely and narrow with buildings that look like they need propping up.
I caught sight of this building, and I loved the fact that the two halves looked like they were leaning in on each other.

Pictures from the wedding

This is Squeaky, the pub cat. She had no teeth and was very cute passed out in the grass.
Orlaith and I. I was trying to calm the poor tike down after so many people wanted to say hi. I think it was a bit much for her. Orlaith is lovely, and makes me smile. :-)
Sarah and Jake after the ceremony.
Just after tying the knot... Sarah, Jake and Orlaith.

I have had a quiet week really. Although on Tuesday we had a slight emergency at work. We had a torrential downpour, reminding me of home, and the drains could not cope. We had water pouring through the ceiling, down into the lift shafts, onto the wooden floors, and into the floors below. We cleared the galleries of people, and set to work mopping, and replacing buckets, and generally oggling at the amount of water coming in!! The museum survived, the lifts are still drying out though. :-)

x

Wedding, random tourism and training...

Saturday morning we left for the wedding in Cambridge about midday. We took the train from Liverpool Street station, and the journey took about 1.5 hours. We arrived to glorious weather - sunshine, warmth, half naked people everywhere. ;-) We had a couple of hours to kill before the wedding, which was at 4pm, so we took a cab to the Shire Hall, the venue for the wedding, and walked around from there. We wandered past the Cambridge Folk Museum, and I wanted to have a look. So we went in. The lady behind the desk was lovely, as she offered to mind our bag for us (our large cumbersome overnight bag) while we wandered around, not only the museum but Cambridge as well. In light of this, I felt the need to pay the entry price to the museum. I had a brief look around. Nothing too exciting, although I did like the Victorian picnic set which was complete with a spirit burner to make tea. Very civilised.

The wedding was lovely. Sarah looked stunning in her wedding dress, which was pale gold and embroidered with beads. The ceremony was short, with Jake's neice Madeleine adding sound effects to it. :-) She is 10 weeks old I think, 3 weeks younger than Sarah's daughter Orlaith. After the ceremony there were many photos taken outside in the sunshine under a lovely large tree. Orlaith, poor thing was not enjoying all the attention. I stole her away and she seemed to be calmer with someone she knew holding her. She is lovely, and she had on a very cute pink lacey dress.

From there we got a lift (Scott and I were in separate cars) to the reception, which was at a pub called the Green Man in a village called Colne. I have to correct myself when talking about small towns, as I always want to call them country towns, but in the UK they are villages. :-) Often villages, although quite separate, can be only 2 miles apart.

The reception was fun. We met some new people, which was nice considering we didn't know anyone. The pub was sweet with a real character. We met a guy called Jeff, who is very funny. He has told us we have to go to Edinburgh for the Festival. I would love to, and now we have someone to meet up with, it should be great. We got back to our hotel, in the next village, at about 1am, to sleep in a four poster bed.

The next morning we took a train from the nearest station, Huntingdon, to Peterborough. From there we looked at where the trains went, and then headed to York. It was a great choice, and we arrived about 2pm, and found our hotel we had previously booked from the Lonely Planet guide. Dumped our bag and then hit the town. We wandered about, and we found a German market - complete with sausages and beer. We found what we wanted to see, which was the Jorvik viking centre. It is a museum over the site that archaeologists found the remains of the viking settlement of York, called Jorvik by the vikings themselves. We went on a ride through the viking village, complete with sights AND smells. It was fantastic, thoroughly enjoyable. From there we wandered down to the river, as we had decided to do a ghost boat cruise at 7pm. In the meantime we hired a putt putt boat and dorve up and down the river for half an hour. That was really fun. I got to drive!! The ghost cruise was funny, a bit tacky, but the guy dressed up had some good stories. We had some dinner after the cruise at a pub looking over the River Ouse "ooze" :-)

The next morning we had a yummy hot breakfast to keep us going for a touristy day. We checked out and headed to the York Castle Museum. That was a very good museum, with lots of reconstructions of streets and scenes, which I think museums should do more of. That way, people can see how the objects were used originally, and not just in a glass case. From there we headed to the Richard III museum, which is in one of the gates of the old city walls. Then it was on to the Minster. The Minster is stunning, and huge. It is a huge church or cathedral, which dominates the York skyline. We had a look in the crypt as well. There are lots of stained glass windows which are lovely, many of which are still the original medieval windows.

From the Minster we took a train, that was really a truck with trailers for the passengers, to the National Railway Museum. The NRM is the largest railway museum in the world. It was very interesting, with lots of big trains and sights to see. We walked in a bullet train, wandered in the open store, took lots of pics, saw a demonstration of a turntable. After the Museum we had a ride on the York wheel, which is a smaller than the London Eye but it gave us a lovely view of the city. After the museum, as we were kicked out at 6pm, we wandered back into town and grabbed some dinner. We started off in a Turkish restaurant but the guy was so rude to us when we entered that we left. I hate it when people in restaurants tell me where I can and cannot sit when I ask nicely. The restaurant was not full, and there were two people sitting at a table for 4 (which is where I wanted to sit but we were told no). So we walked out. We ended up in a Chinese place up the road which was very nice. Then it was back to London on the train and home from the station on the night bus.

This week at work I have endured training. It has not been too bad. They have not made me do everything, and it has been nice to get to know the newbies.

Oh, I almost forgot... I received my UK drivers licence in the post yesterday. YAY!!!!

Hello

We are off to a wedding tomorrow, in Cambridge. I am really looking forward to it. We were going to hire a car, but my licence has not come through, so we shall be catching the train. I am a bit disappointed, but c'est la vie. We will enjoy the train journey and we will be getting out of London for the weekend.

Work is pretty busy today as it is school holidays here. We have had a drama session on today. We have actors come in and pretend they are certain characters from history to entertain visitors. We had a pub landlady in today, Maeve Dawson. She is fantastic. I think I have seen her performance about 15 times over the past year, and she never fails to make me giggle. She talks about her life in the pub in a street near the river Thames. She pulls quite a crowd too. They all squish into her pub and listen to her stories. I particularly like when she talks about the smells of the streets and the river. She puts it ever so politely when she mentions horse manure, but there is always one child who yells out "poo!!" :-D

I have the next four days off work. I start my training for the full time permanent position next week when I get back. I have also said that I will start work at 7.15am on Thursday. Not sure who on earth would choose to be in that early, but the money is always handy. :-)

I shall post photos of the wedding and our adventures in Cambridgeshire next week.

:-)