and so you're back from outer space (Gloria Gaynor)

...and so we're back from, well, not outer space...although, come to think of it, London is looking like it exists in a parallel universe at the moment.

Amazing scenes there - people jumping out of burning buildings, police running around like headless chooks wacking people, thugs in masks smashing windows and looting shops. Madness. Fran's partner, Nic, was alone in their flat above a Sainsbury's that was smashed up. He's okay but no doubt shaken by events. Some of Pat and Randy's friends (David and Presley) live close to the initial problem area in Tottenham and didn't hear a thing (their facebook message read, "Riot? What riot?"). It's been that kind of experience, I guess. London is huge and with 16 million people it's bound to contain a few nutters innit.

Anyway - we're back in sand land after an often brilliant three weeks away. I have downloaded all of the what-we-did-on-our-holiday snaps so here we go with the (Jacky approved and chronological) highlights.

We began our travels in London with some returns to old haunts like St Paul's Cathedral, the Tate Modern, and a river cruise along the Thames (that's why there's a picture of the river cruise boat we went on).



Wozza photographed by SWMBO, outside St Paul's.

 

Jacky with pashmina - not that warm then.

The one above of Jacky is from our first B 'n' B in Chester. The next day we continued the trek north for Irene's 90th birthday party - a true highlight. Irene looked fantastic and we loved being part of the day. The look of surprise on her face when I walked in the room was priceless!!

Fran, Tom and Lew model the three different plate balancing manoeuvers.

Jacky caught red handed feeding Samantha.

The moody magnificence of Lewis senior...

...and the there's-the-door hospitality of Tom junior.



Irene Purdy, 90 not out, with orange juice (yeah, right).

 

The gathering of the Purdy tribe.

The next stage of the travel north involved our first visit to the Lake District in general and Keswick in particular. Needless to say, like everyone else who visits this magical area - we fell in love with it. Dove Cottage was one of the many highlights. Another was finding a mint vinyl copy of 200 Motels by Frank Zappa in the Keswick Collectables shop! That thrill probably means more to me than you, I guess.

On the way we stopped off at Rishworth where Jacky took approximately 367 photos of cows - I have added one for the sake of historical accuracy. By the way this was the only place that we left stuff behind - dirty clothes! Somehow we both missed a bag of laundry in the smallest room we had all trip.



A scene we don't see much in sand land.

 

Our amazing B 'n' B in Keswick

 

Oh I spose another four poster would be okay.

 



Sorry - but I love the Hollies!



Keswick in blue sky finery.



The view from the four poster.





Dove Cottage.

 

William and Dorothy's view!

We reluctantly left Keswick and headed north to Scotland. That means going through Biggar - one of my favourite places on earth. In 2003 Jacky took a photo of me posting a letter from the post office - here's the 2011 version.

Onwards we travelled, to Edinburgh and a stay at the Hotel Ritz in the Haymarket - a 5 minute walk to town. I had booked the hotel and location by mistake it turns out. I had forgotten that Jacky loved the Grassmarket area - not the Haymarket. Oops! I couldn't believe my luck to find the cheap price at the Hotel Ritz in the area I though Jacky loved. Oops again!

On the southward journey to London we stopped off for a night in York and went to Castle Howard for a looksee. In this case, it's probably fair to say that the pictures don't do the place and the atmosphere justice, nor does the word breathtaking.

A very special place.

A brief return to London was followed by a trip to Paris on the Eurostar. 



Our digs in Montparnasse.



The view from our balcony.

Notre Dame and the Seine.



Look - it's a houseboat!

 

On our way to see Mona and some other girls.





Jacky considers the way forward to see Mona.



Post Mona come down drink at Arbucks.

Back to blighty and a nostalgic train trip out to Leigh-on-Sea were the final flings in terms of photo ops.

We did see a fantastic play with Randy on our last night with him - Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead. It was a great end to a great holiday.

Outside our old house in Victoria Rd.

Nick at work in Wimpy on our fine burgers.

Possibly the best independent music store in the world!!

The Leigh high street called The Broadway.

The view from the Grand Parade over to Kent and a place called Grain!

Katy and Jacky cooking a goodbye dinner (for us)
and welcome to the shire dinner (for Janice's yet to be born daughter)
on one of our last nights in the shire.

And that's it!!

I start work again on Sunday the 14th so I dare say that will feature in oncoming updates, inshallah. Until then...

Love and peace - Wozza

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (Tom Stoppard)

There are riots in Tottenham Hale,
The Carpetright is alight, rioters bus in from north London.
A Double decker - master of routes, is left burnt out -
an ironic and tragic symbol.

It's a sad, sad situation of police sirens and puzzled dinner party speculation.
Did he have a gun? Why stop the minicab? The Feds shot each other? David and Presley
heard nothing from two streets away?

London is a big ole place.
Connections are made and severed quickly.

Blame needs to be attached.

I listen and wonder how it is that the Tottenham war zone doesn't surprise anyone.

.........

A squirrel sits on the fence that leads to the neighbour's back garden,
with green green climbers and red roses
for company.

Still. Sniffing the breeze and waiting for the next thing to happen.

Sun showers and gentle breezes in the Islington shire.

"Wake me up in half an hour", she said as the applause from Bennie and the Jets
began.

While I read the Guardian riot reports in the kitchen
with a cuppa and some light, crispy crackers.

Take you to the cinema and leave you in a Wimpy bar (Jethro Tull)

Highlights from the last few days in England centre on Leigh-on-sea really.

We spent a happy day in the sunshine and sea vistas of our former English home base. Leigh-on-sea is on the coast, about an hour out of London heading east towards Southend-on-sea.

We walked along the cockle sheds that run parallel to the rail track so that we could walk to the Broadway/high street via our old house in Victoria Rd. I was delighted to see that my front garden at Victoria Rd is still looking good.

We were impressed with the way the Broadway is looking - Adam's haunts (pet shop and factory shop) are still there but a new Costa Coffee has replaced the corner newsagents and there are more upmarket clothing shops.

The Grand, where we stayed for two weeks in 2004, has closed up. In fact we were told that this happened a year or so ago. A pity, because it's an impressive building and could be again but it would cost an arm and a leg to restore it to glory.

Of course there are three compulsory stops for us - Fives, Wimpy's for lunch and the bookshop/tea shop for afternoon tea. Fives did not let me down - I picked up a few CDs that I have searched for in vain throughout Scotland, Paris and the big guns in London over the last three weeks. Sadly though Fives, like all book and CD shops at the moment, is also struggling to keep afloat and they told me that they will need to make a decision at Christmas whether to close or not.

Wimpy's is still a great stop for us. Eddie has remarried and his wife is expecting a baby so he wasn't in the shop when we called in, but Nick cooked our meal and one of Eddie's daughters served us! Nick, of course, immediately asked after Jade and Samantha (actually so did the Fives' owner where Samantha did some work experience).

I'll add the photos when I get back to Al Ain, inshallah.

Unfortunately Jacky got one of her headaches yesterday, her first for ages, so we stayed in the Shire and I watched some rugby - warm up games for Scotland and Ireland, England and Wales before the world cup. Pretty ho hum stuff. So was the Arsenal warm up game I watched last night. We lost 1-2 to Benfica.

On last night's showing we will struggle to nudge our way into the top 5 of the premiership. Today is the charity shield game at Wembley which I'll watch on TV this afternoon - Man City vs Man United in case you didn't know (or care).

Love and peace - Wozza

Goodness, gracious...(Jerry Lee Lewis)

We are trying to make the most of things we don't have access to in sand land. That means Pretty Green (Liam Gallagher's clothing line), FOPP/ HMV for me;  Jigsaw and equestrian shops for Jacky.

It also means using the tube as much as possible, listening to BBC's Radio 2, buying the Guardian every day, visiting the National Galleries (today was the Portrait Gallery's turn to be blessed with our presence - a great display of old Hollywood glamour shots was the draw) and going to as many of the West End stage shows as we can afford while we are here. Last night we saw Million Dollar Quartet (tonight we are off to see Wicked).

Now, no way is Jacky a fan of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee or Carl Perkins - the bloke who wrote Matchbox, Honey Don't and others, including a ditty about his shoes (made of suede and strangely coloured they were), so I was a little worried she may not enjoy it that much.

Wrong. She loved it. Amazing. She always moans when I play any of that early rock'n'roll stuff (particularly Johnny Cash) but she clapped and danced along with me.

It was incredible to see great musicians also taking on the persona of their character. 'Jerry Lee' was a manic presence, 'Elvis' and 'Johnny' were spot on in vocal and character mannerisms. Scary, the talent that is out there in the world.

We are off for a nostalgic return journey, tomorrow, to Leigh-on-sea  (where we lived from 2004 to early 2007).

Love and peace - Wozza