London, and A Weekend With Jess and Andrew.

After my last blog I did indeed have a walk through Kensington Gardens and walked to Kensington Palace for a look. I didn´t actually go inside the palace, but wandered around the perimeter. It had just been the ten year anniversary of Princess Diana´s death, and there were lots of tributes on the front gates, although I have heard that there is usually a small bunch of tributes there all year round. I also had my afternoon tea at Laduree which I said that I was going to have, and walked through Harrods again. This time it wasn´t so crowded as there was no sale on.

On the Friday, I went to Westminster Abbey, and this time went inside and had a look around. It is quite an interesting church to look through, as besides the religious symbols and artefacts, there is also a spot called Poets Corner, where there are memorials to some famous artists, singers, actors, and authors, and some of them are buried there. Also, there are memorials to some scientists such as Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton (I made sure that I looked at Newton´s as it had been in The Da Vinci Code!). As the church where nearly every king and queen of England has been coronated, the Coronation Chair is also there on display.
That afternoon I headed to Jess and Andrew´s place, and of course, made it there a bit later than planned due to train delays and cancellations on the underground.

Jess and Andrew´s new house is set in a lovely new area called Fairfield Hall. Actually, it´s quite an old area, and an old building, but the houses are all new. Basically, Jess and Andrew are living in a mental assylum. The old hospital is heritage listed and it has all been refitted and refurbished (the inside of it) and Jess and Andrew own one of these houses. It is about twice the size of the place that they were living in before (this time I had my own bedroom to sleep in!), and a really nice home.
On the Friday night, Helen and Dan (Jess and Andrew´s friends that I met the last time I stayed with them) came over for dinner. That night I kicked Jess and Andrew out of their bed and they had to sleep on the blow up mattress in their room!

The next day, we spent the morning at Jess and Andrew´s as they were having their new bed delivered which we had to wait for, and also, Andrew needed to do some "manly" things around the house with his power tools and spirit level. He ended up putting up a coat rack (there you go Andrew, it´s now in black and white for the whole world to see: Andrew Johnstone owns some power tools, and isn´t afraid to use them!).
That night we watched Ghost Busters, as I mentioned that I´d never seen it before and Andrew bought it from Sainsbury´s for two pounds and promised that it had the Phil Collins song in it that the gorilla in the Cadbury´s add plays the drums to. He built up the moment for me and Jess, saying that it was the best part of the film and that we would love it. It wasn´t in the film. We were very disappointed. Andrew said maybe it was in Ghost Busters 2.

On Sunday we drove to Cambridge which is about a 45 minute drive from Jess and Andrew´s house. There we decided that we would take a tour down the river on one of the punting boats. The three of us squeezed into the seat at the front, then waited there, cramped for half an hour, before the tour started! While we were waiting another guy went passed, punting with his trousers around his ankles and a can of larger in one hand! He was yelling out that he was looking for some people to take on a tour. A few minutes later, he passed with his trousers back up and four women in his boat!

The tour (once it finally started) went down the Cam River, passed many of the famous colleges of Cambridge such as Trinity and King´s College. Our guide told us several anecdotes along the way, and about some of the famous people who had been to the colleges. There were lots of punters on the river that day. It was fairly obvious the people who were trying it out for the first time. Andrew was willing them all to fall into the water, but nobody did. After our tour, we went to an Italian Restaurant for some lunch, then headed back to Jess and Andrew´s house, where I picked up my bag and then headed to the train station.

This was a Busker that we saw while we were walking down a street in Cambridge. He was really quite good!

That night I had to pick up my keys for my accommodation for the job that I was starting the next day. The job was in Richmond, my accommodation was in Raynes Park, and I had to pick up my keys from Wimbledon. That probably won´t mean anything to those of you who haven´t been to London, but basically it meant having to travel an hour between picking up the keys and getting to my accomodation (walking, train, then another walk), and an hour and a half to get to work every day (walk, train, bus, walk- although on the way home being as it was dark I would go walk, bus, train, bus, shorter walk). So even though I didn´t mind the work at the clinic, I wouldn´t work there again as I couldn´t stand commuting three hours a day! Although the nurses gave me flowers and chocolates and a card the day I left even though I´d only worked there one week!

On the Saturday after I finished work, I got up bright and early in order to wash my sheets, pack my bag, drop my keys off, and make it to Gatwick Airport with plenty of time to check in and get on the plane to Cologne, Germany.

Essex, Chesterfield, London

Here I am, back in London after having spent the last 4 weeks working in Romford, Essex, which is located just on the outskirts of London, just inside the M25 (the ring road which circles London). After arriving in London from Belfast, late on Wednesday the 1st August, I met up with Sandra and Wayne, a couple of Mum and Dad's friends who were visiting London for a few days while touring around some of Europe. I stayed in a cheap hotel, just around the corner from their luxurious one, and met up with them for dinner. We had a lovely meal at an Italian restaurant, and it was great to see some people from back home (although they weren't really familiar faces as I hadn't met them before!).

The next morning, I headed out to Romford in order to find the vet clinic that I would be starting at the next day, and pick up my car and get directions to my accommodation. Here, I met the boss, a vet who owns the 2 practices, and who works every second weekend and fills in for his vets from time-to-time, and lives in Ireland the rest of the time. In the first five minutes that I'd known him, he told me all about his marriage problems ("wife cancer" as one of the other vets put it). Talk about overdisclosure! But he was quite a nice man, and when he realised that I needed a car, he offered to lend me his BMW. He wasn't really going to lend it to me, but because I'd laughed when he offered it, he decided that actually I could have it. So then he drove me out to his house to pick it up (which was about 20 minutes away) and I heard more about his marriage problems, and how it's lucky that he's Irish (and Catholic) otherwise he'd be divorced by now, and also how he got on really well with the practice manager and how they think the same way, but he assured me that they hadn't slept together!! All very interesting, however, a bit uncomfortable as I'd only just met the guy!

So after picking up the beemer, I drove to my accommodation, which was another attached house, only five minutes drive from the clinic that I was working at. The neighbours were the landlords, and I met them on the first evening that I arrived. I found out quite quickly that they were busy-bodies and wanted to know everything that was going on. They were quite harmless, and only looking after their investment, but I think if I'd been living there for anytime past the month, I would have found them very irritating!

I started work on Friday the 3rd August and had to work that weekend. On the Monday, another locum, Stella, started at the other branch of the practice, and she moved into the house with me on Sunday. I actually went to uni with Stella, and it was great to have some company for a couple of weeks, especially as it was someone who I knew!

The following weekend I had off, so I headed to Chesterfield, in Derbyshire (The Peaks District), to visit my friend Elise. It was great to see her again (the last time I saw her was at the train station in Brussels). On the Saturday, we visited the church in Chesterfield, which is famous for it's crooked spire. There are lots of theories as to why the spire is crooked. One of them is that one day a virgin got married in the church and the spire was so surprised that it bent down to have a look. They think that if another virgin ever gets married in the church, the spire will straighten up again. Another theory for the crooked spire is that it was shoddy workmanship from inexperienced craftsmen who used green oak instead of aged timber.

In the afternoon, we visited Chatsworth, a grand old house which is Pemberley (Mr Darcy's house) in the film version of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley. We went to the farmstore first and bought some goodies for a picnic in the grounds. The highlight was the vine-ripened cherry tomatoes (which actually we bought from the supermarket) and homemade Victoria Sponge from the farmstore. That evening on our way back to Elise's house, we stopped at a local pub for a pint. There were lots of Pubs in Elise's area, and it seemed that Elise had been in everyone of them!

The next day we walked to Surprise View, where we had a great view over the peaks and some of the towns in the area. Elise pointed out a few spots where she sometimes goes rock climbing. In the afternoon we had lunch at a cuttlery workshop in Sheffield (apparently Sheffield, which is very close to Chesterfield, is well known for it's Steel). After lunch, Elise dropped me off at the train station so that I could make it back to Romford before it got too late.

Whilst I was in Essex and had some weekends free and a car to use, I thought that I should try and visit some of the popular sites, so I took a day trip one Saturday to Southend-on-Sea, a town on the Southeast coast of England. Here, I walked to the end of the 1.3 mile long pier, which is supposedly the longest in the world, and took the train back to the start (the train runs along the pier, obviously). There were amusement parks on either side of the pier and amusement arcades and snack stalls (with hot doughnuts, hotdogs, toffee apples, fairyfloss etc) lining either side of the street, so the town was a bit like one big carnival.

The following week I visited Colchester, which is the oldest town in England, and has a Roman castle, and parts of the wall that used to surround the town, intact in some places. I did a tour of the castle while I was there and learnt a little about the history of the town.

The next day I went to London for the day and went to the Nottinghill Carnival. The Nottinghill Carnival basically highlights the multicultural side of London, with lots of Caribbean and African stalls and a big parade. I tried Jerk Chicken for lunch and also a traditional Jamaican Pattie, and enjoyed both (they weren't as spicy as I'd been expecting, either).

So now here I am in London, doing a few tourist things and filling in time before I start work again on Monday in East London (just for a week), and then head to Cologne and the Black Forest in Germany for a week. On Monday I met Ren and Jess, some friends from uni, and we did a spot of shopping on Oxford Street and then went out to a Thai place for Dinner for Jess' Birthday. Yesterday I went and saw the Lion King (highly recommend it, I'm trying to work my way through all the shows in London!). Today I think I might take a walk around Kensington Gardens and then have some afternoon tea at Laduree at Harrods!

This weekend I'm going to visit Jess and Andrew in their new house.

Love,

Lis x.