Playing the tourist - August 30

Today was our final day in London. Once I worked out taht the London Metropolitan Archives was not open on Friday's I abandoned plans to do further reseach. While Trevor went to a local laundromat to wash our clothes I tackles some emails.

On Trevor's return we headed out. Our first stop was Microsoft. Long story and vedry unhappy outcome.

Just across from the Microsoft office was Westminster Cathedral. We wandered in and had a look. This is the catholic Westminster church as opposed to Westminster Abbey. I forgot to take any photos. Still upset with Microsoft!

London has a huge variety tour bus options. This was one of the quirkiest we saw.

London has a heap of green spaces scattered throughout the city. This was one we passed today.

The day was warm so the stippled shade looked very inviting.

Our meandering took us past the Palace Of Westminster.

and down along the river. What a lot of craft were on the Thames

We had not realised just how close the london eye was to the centre of action, well the political centre of action

We were still near the parliamentary area when Big Ben struck 12 midday

I'm still amazed at the number of cranes decorating the London skyline

After a bite to eat we continued our wander. There were oodles of people out and about and lots of families. This is probably not too surprising as most of the children go back to school next week.

Trafalgar Square was well populated with people

I am not sure of the significance of the rooster. It was very blue and very big overlooking Trafalgar Square.

Next came St James' Park. Once again people were taking advantage of the nice weather and lots of them were scattered throughout the park.

Here are some views along The Sepentine with the London Eye in the background.

Leaving the park we wandered past Buckingham Palace passing through the Australia Gate. Gosh, I had no idea that we Aussies had provided a gate to keep the Buckingham Palace residents in check. The Canadians have also provided a gate which makes ours look a little ordinary. No, I didn't take a photo.

Trevor outside Buckingham Palace

We cam across a protest opposite the Japanese Embassy. There were protesting about the killing of dolphins.

By the time we got back we had covered about 18km on foot. Good preparation for our upcoming walk.

A day at the National Archives

This morning we were woken by our alarms. That was a good thing as it means that we are finally getting into the timezone.

Trevor suggested that we have breakfast at a cafe we had found on Tuesday. It was only a short distance down from our hotel. The Victory Cafe was cheap and the food plentiful.

Then for the first misunderstanding of the day. My intention was to spend the day at the National Archives out near Kew Gardens. Trevor saw me checking my "how to get there" diagram and incorrectly concluded that I was going to Kew Gardens. I had said more than once that I was planning to go to the Archives on Thursday ....

When Trevor asked opening times and charges for Kew Gardens I duly checked the details for him. I was somewhat taken aback when he was surprised that I was not going to Kew Gardens.

Trevor changed his plan and decided that he would do something else.

I headed out to the Archives in search of information about my disappearing 3xggrandfather william Maling, oh he of the Maaster Mariner occupation, husband of Mary Smith and father of John Smith Maling. Uunfortunately I drew a blank on William Maling however it did give me some pointers for future research.

Some of the birdlife on the pond near the entrance to the Archives

Another water feature at the Archives

The entrance to the Archives

Trevor appeared soon after I got back to the hotel. He had spent his day walking with three circuits of Regents Park amongst others.

We headed out to have a look at London as night closed in. A dinner stop at an Italian restaurant provided sustenance. We wandered through quite a few areas including chinatown (does every city have one of these?) and finally arrived at Piccadilly Circus. At this point I figured that Trevor had done enough walking for the day and we caught the tube back to Kings Cross.

Out into the countryside - August 28

I forgot to include details of our dinner in yesterdays blog, so better late than never. While walking around our neighbourhood, Euston, we came across a Nepalese restaurant. Trevor commented that he had never eaten Nepalese before and we decided to give it a try. The Great Nepalese Restaurant has been written up a number of times across the years including by none other than Michael Palin. Nepalese cuisine is very similar to northern indian food. It was pleasant and the service good.

Today I had arranged to meet one of my Brangwin cousins, Sally Scagell, at the Beaconsfield station at 10:10. Our train left from Marylebone. walking through the station we discovered a huge bike rack.

It took a mere 22 minutes to get to Beaconsfield (pronounced Bek-ons-field not Bee-cons-field). Sally was waiting for us.

Our first stop was the church at Little Marlow so that Sally could take photos of some headstones to be used for one of the cemetery tours that she does. Like most of the village churches these days the church was locked except when services are being held however we discovered a group of preople coming out of the church. The keyholder kindly let us in to the church to have a look.

Our next stop was at Burford Farm house. Burford Farm was farmed by one of the many members of our extended family at one time or another. Like many a farm close to London the fields are no more, gobbled up by houses and associated infrastructure.

Burford Farm House

I'm sure that people thought that we were caasing the place as we prowled around checking it out.


It was certainly good to have a local taking us about. Sally zipped along the little country lanes and through the villages and towns with ease. We were in her backyard and it showed.

I had arranged to visit Handy Cross Farm. Louise Morris had kindly agreed to let us visit her home. Handy Cross Farm was farmed by John Dreweatt, my 4xgreat grandfather, and the father of Loser John. He was farming here at the time of his death. A number of Loser John's siblings were born at Handy Cross Farm.

Louise was very generous with her time and showed us all over the house from the cellars to the attic. She told of of the many changes that had happened to the house over the centuries from the blocking up of windows when the window tax was applied (and even then they would have paid a fair amount of tax as the house was a plentiful supply of windows) to the moving of a wall to accomodate the widening of the road that runs alonside the house (this part of the house was subsequently rendered and painted white). Handy Cross farm is still a working farm. It had been a diary farm but the herd has been sold off with the last remaining cows to go to their new home early next year.

Some of teh timbers that bhave been exposed when opening up walls to let in more light

Louise in the kitchen. A number of walls have been taken out to open up the area

Trevor in the kitchen demonstrating that the ceiling was rather low

Part of teh exterior. The white, rendering is a relatively recent modification

One of the many outbuildings with huge beams

Leaving Handy Cross Farm we stopped for lunch at a nearby pub.

Our next stop was Ray Mill in Cookham. This was where loser John was  born. The mill asppears to have been greatly modified and is now a sqanky restaurant. We did walk around Ray Mill Island and stopped to watchboats passing through the lock which operates on this part of the Thames.

Boats using the lock

Our next stop was in Maidenhead. Loser John and his siblings had been baptised at the Maidenhead Independent Chapel. Sally had discovered that this was probably what is now the Maidenhead United Reformed Church. When we arrived at the church it was locaked up. We decided to walk around the back to see if the churchyard had survived and discovered that there were people in the building. One of them kindly let us in. Inside the church I discovered a plaque dedicated to the Rev. John Cooke who had been the minister for the congregation for over 40 years, dying in 1826. The Rev. John Cooke had baptised the Dreweatt children so this was indeed the chuch that some 200 years ago was the Maidenhead Independent Chapel.

Interior of the Maidenhead United Reformed church

Exterior of the Maidenhead URC

Another significant place in the lives of my ancestors had been tracked down.

Sally took us back to her place where Robin had been working on the manuscript for a book in her absence. After a cup of tea Sally and Robin returned us to the Beaconsfield Station were we caught a train back to London.

By the time we got back to Euston it was after 7 o'clock. We grabbed a sandwich and a coffee and headed back to the hotel after a very successful day searching out ancestor haunts.

London - Tuesday 27 August

Yes, Murphy was an optimist. if anything can go wrong it will. If more than one thing can go wrong the most problematic will.

By 4 o'clock I gave up my pretence of sleeping and got up and did some swimming stuff. Trevor said later that he had been awake from the time I got up. Perhaps he had been but I would argue that he sounded very much asleep.

Just after 6, having showered and dressed, we headed out expecting to be able to find places serving breakfast. Yes, there were places open in the Euston Station area if all you wanted was coffee and pastries. We walked around until 6:30 when a place serving real breakfasts opened.

Suitably refreshed we returned to the hotel.

I have frequently carried my portable Cannon printer with me when I have traveled. To date I have had no problems with it. It was working last week when I checked it out but alas not this morning. Bother! I had not printed out the details of the people I intended to research today. In teh end I figured that I would just have to work from Thingy if I needed to reference anything.

Trevor finally left. He was going to the Victoria and Albert museum hoping to revisit the textile collection that had so fascinated him in 1981. depending how long that took he had a number of other things to do.

In the meantime, having given up on the printer, I checked my emails and got ready to leave. The first problem was that I could not find either of the London maps that I had purchased. In the end I concluded, correctly, that Trevor had obviously taken both with him. Given taht I was walking to the various places I had on my listed I figured that it was easier to pick up another street directory than stress out any further about the missing ones.

I planned to start at the London Metropolitan Archives. As I didn't have a readers ticket I needed to take two bits of ID along. Simple. Drivers licence, which also provides address details, and my passport. Passport? What had happened to my passport? I had had it on Monday but could I find it? I seached through my bags multiple time, as well as through the items that were scattered around our room, to no avail. The level of panic was starting to rise. lost passports when you are away from home are a real problem. Finally I decided to search through Trevor's bags and, much to my relief, there it was. The seaching had taken the best part of an hour so I was much later leaving than intended.

I finally got to the Archives and got my ticket, actually a photo id card, only to discover that the records I had been intending to search through have now been digitised and are available on Ancestry.com. I could have done the search from home! The mariner records held at the LMA are too late for my needs. I could locate the probate documents that I was after and the marriage licence did not come up in any of the searches.

In the end, feeling tired and frustrated, I decided to give further reseach at LMA a miss and headed out into sunshine.

I sopped for lunch at Exmouth Market. The place was packed with people strolling along this pedestrian thoroughfare, obviously enjoying the fine day. The outside tables were well patronised, too.

I had decided to head over the the Society of Genealogists however, by the time if got there, I just was not in the mood to do any research so continued my walk. I had spied St Paul's ahead of me and decided to refresh my memory of this iconic building. The gardens surrounding St Paul's were full of people both in the sun and the shade.

Enjoying the sun in the gardens of St Pauls

Some of the crowd who were sitting on the front steps of St Pauls

The vista of this wonderful building is limited by nearby buildings

Leaving St Paul's I walked across the Millennium bridge.This is a footbridge across the Thames and it was crowded with people.

I am feeling really tired so will complete this post tomorrow.

... and here is the continuation.

I walked along the river and was amazed at just how many cranes were visible on the top of some very tall buildings under construction. The wholer skyline of London has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. I crossed back to the other side of the river walking over Southwalk Bridge.

A view from the Millennium Bridge

And what is this building?

Look at the cranes as seen from Southwalk Bridge

and yet more cranes!

This next photo is for Anto. Cycle Surgery ... the mind boggles.

Yes, it was a bike shop.

There is a surprising number of people who ride around the streets on bikes. There are also frequent bike hire points, too.

I wended my way back to Euston. Trevor was already back. He had started at the Victotia and Albert Museum, which was very quiet and disappointing as the frabics that he had planned to look at are no longer on display. He then went on to the Natural History Museum which was crowded. It is the last week of the summer school holidays and everyone is out with their children having a last minute fling before returning to school. The queues at the National History Museum were very long as a consequence. From the National History Museum Trevor went on to Regent Park. Here are some of his photos.

... and what bird is this?

Let me know if you work out what this bird is.

On our way

Trevor and I were both up early on Sunday 25 August. This was not because it was Anto's birthday, which it was, but because we were flying out to England later in the day and there were still a few things to do.

Michael collected us just before 7:30am and the whole family went to breakfast to celebrate Anto's birthday. Astrid was a little over excited. I thinks that she associates birthdays with parties and lots of people and was probably a bit disappointed that it was only the six of us.

Michael dropped us at the Airport just before 10:30am and I was a little disappointed that our confirmed upgrade only turned out to be Premium Economy and not Business class. Then, any upgrade is better than cattle class and I was grateful for that.

The flight to Sydney was uneventful and we took off just a few minutes late from Sydney on the leg to Dubai. I worked hard at sleeping as much as possible on the long 13 hour leg between Sydney and Dubai but it was hard work.

In Dubai we check out the Emerites Lounge and were suitably impressed. We will definitely take advantage of their many offerings during our long layover when we fly from London to Amman.

Back in the air we managed some sleep on the shorter hop to London and arrived shortly after 6 in the morning (Monday 26 August). It didn't take long to collect our luggage, and go through the entry processes. We took the tube into central London and then walked to our hotel which is part way between Kings Cross and Euston stations. When we arrived at the hotel we were able to check in so we happily dumped all our bags in our room and headed our.

It was actually sunny ... pleasant after our miserable weather of the past week.

We made our way over to the Liverpool Street station so that we could get a train out to Chelmsford, in Essex, as we were visiting friends who live in a village a short distance out of Chelmsford. At Liverpool Street Station we got SIM cards for our phones so now we can communicate to each other without it costing arms and legs.

Our friend David picked us up outside the Chelmsford station and we spent a pleasant afternoon with David, Margaret and their son Alex and his girlfriend Cat.

By 4:30pm we were both wilting and decided it was time to head back into London.

No photos today ... perhaps in our next post.

August ... countdown

With only weeks to go until we commence the Coast to Coast walk it is not the time to break oneself. So imagine how annoyed I was to slip on some stones, which were on a footpath, and end up flat on a road with skin off my right knee. Having walked over rough terrain in all sorts of light conditions and not had a mishap I was not happy. Fortunately, the damage was not too bad.

During the past couple of months Trevor and I have been trying to identify the many small birds that we come across on our walks. We have a variety of wrens (wrens, fairy wrens and scrub wrens), robins, thornbills and weebills. There are other birds that are still proving challenging. The small birds, with the exception of the robins,  tend to flit about and never provide sufficient opportunity to get close so it is rather hit and miss in seeing features that would provide clues to their true identity. It certainly makes our walks more interesting as we keep an eye out for these little feathered folk.

On Sunday August 3 I tackled a longish walk. Starting in Duffy I tracked through horse paddocks, negotiating electrified fences designed to keep horses in, and finally picked up the Cooleman Ridge circuit which also doubles as the Bicentennial National Trail, or BNT for short. The BNT is one of the worlds longest marked multi-use trails stretching some 5,330km from Cooktown in Queensland, through New South Wales and the ACT to Healesville in Victoria. It runs the length of the rugged Great Dividing Range through national parks, private property and alongside wilderness areas. The BNT follows old coach roads, stock routes, brumby tracks, rivers and fire trails. It was originally intended for horses, but is these days promoted also for cycling and walking. So I only walked a very small part of it. One day I might tackle a longer section. No, I don't intend to ever walk the full trail! The trail is not well marked and I managed to lose it a couple of times. I kicked myself for not having taken all the maps I needed to follow the trail. I finally diverted from the trail and headed along the Urambi Hills ridge. This was challenging as the wind was gusty and strong and I was almost blown off the ridge top. Now, that would have been difficult to explain!

The Murrumbidgee valley looking south from the Urambi Hills trig point

Looking north along the Murrumbidgee valley from the Urambi Hills trig point with the ranges in the background

Monday (August 5) was a bit of a miserable day. The wind had a chill to it and by late afternoon it started to drizzle. Still, it did not keep either of us indoors and we both managed a good number of kms for the day. Regardless of the weather conditions we encounter in England we will still have to complete the days stage so getting used to walking in whatever conditions are thrown up is good practice.

The weather for the remaining part of the week was expected to be pretty awful and Tuesday did not disappoint. The temperature got to 10 and then dropped. The wind was frigid and the rain, while not heavy, was chilly. I only walked 6km for the day. Pathetic.

On Wednesday (6th) I managed to do almost 20kms of walking. Rain threatened throughout the day but held off. Not surprising, given the weather conditions, none of the small birds were out.Sensible creatures!

Thursday saw me do a circuit of Mt Taylor in the late afternoon. The mountain was relatively quiet indicative of the fairly unpleasant weather conditions. Still, it was not raining ... just cold with a freezing wind.

Saturday turned out to be a glorious day after the rather ordinary weather that we had during the week. Although complete madness as I had a schedule that was almost impossible to achieve I decided to do a circuit around Mt Taylor in the middle of the day. It was very pleasant and relaxing and great to be out with the sun shining and the sky a brilliant blue.

After my circuit of Mt Taylor the rest of Saturday was frantic. Trevor and I had an enjoyable interlude at a baby shower for Danielle and Joel Anderson who are expecting their first baby next month. It was lovely to finally meet Danielle's parent and sister having heard so much about them over the years. After the baby shower was a frantic shopping expedition for supplies for the D Squad day camp being held on the 11th. My first stop was Fyshwick Markets where I stocked up on fruit and veg. I didn't have much time before the stalls closed so it really was a bit hit and miss. Next came a huge shop at Costo. The only times I have been there are for swimming catering. Finding things isn't always straightforward and I tended to waste qhite a bit of time looking for things that I never found. Still, I did manage to get most of the remaining items on my long shopping list. A trip to Woolies finished off the acquisitions. By then my card was so full of stuff for the D Squad day that I really could not for in anything else. This meant that I returned home rather later than expected with nothing organised for dinner.

I continued with preparations for the D Squad day late into the night and finally dropped into bed about 1:30am. I was obviously anxious as I kept on waking up and when the alarm went off at 5am I had finally dropped into a deep sleep.

I'm not sure why I do large scale catering. I'm sure that there are easier ways to spend a weekend. After a got up I spent just on an hour grating carrots, slicing tomatoes and other salad items and preparing to make 120+ lunch rolls of various types. Firstly I did the ham and salad rolls. This was followed by the chicken ones and finally it was cheese and salad. By the time I packed the last of the items into the car I looked like I was moving house and intending to live in my car for the next few months!

The day involved a lot of walking but nothing that I included in my Runtastic stats. I managed to rack up over 30,000 steps for the day just running around like a chook without its head!

Monday August 12th started off as a really miserable day. With heavy cloud, drizzle and a freezing wind, which meant that the morning felt particularly chilling, it did not bode well for a good walking day. Trevor and I were attending a funeral out at Cootamundra in the afternoon so allowing for the drive out and back, a little over 2 hours each way, left little choice but to fit a walk in during the morning. I headed out to do a circuit around Mt Taylor. I only came across one other person in the reserve. The kangaroos were in evidence and appeared to be looking at me as if I was very strange indeed. Parts of the track were very sloppy particularly the areas with a high clay component. I certainly needed to keep a close eye on the track in order to avoid potential disasters. I did manage to do 10kms by the time I got home, did a quick change and jumped in the car for the trip to Coota.

Tuesday 13th was a glorious sunny day. What a pity that the wind was freezing cold. Trevor and I lunched at Woden. A visit to Kathmandu to get a pair for by sole walking pole was unsuccessful as they had no poles in stock however they did determine that there was one, actually a match for my existing pole, at their Belconnen store. After walking home from Woden I drove over to Belconnen and purchased their last remaining pole. Now when I tackle the Pennine bogs I will have poles to assist me. At least that is the plan.

In the late afternoon I did a circuit of Mt Taylor. I didn't see any small birds. They were obviously sheltering from the cold wind. Sensible creatures. The kangaroos were clustered in sheltered areas, too.

This week is looking like a slack walking week. Wednesday I walked down to the gym and back. The weather was warm and sunny on the outward journey. On my return I was buffeted by a gusty wind which had a frigid edge to it. I was pleased to get home. All up it was 13.88km.

Then came Thursday when I squeezed in only a short walk - my Marconi Crescent walk. Gosh it has been ages since I did this particular walk.

By Sunday I had managed to average over 20,000 steps each day for the week.  I was pretty pleased with this as it meant that for the last 8 weeks my daily average across the week had gone over that mark. It had been a year since I last had 8 continuous weeks of 20K+ daily averages. Will I get to nine? Time will tell!

On Tuesday 20th I had a meeting down at Woden and I headed off with a little time up my sleeve as I was hoping to see some of the little birds as I made my way around Mt. Taylor. I was not disappointed. There was quite a gathering of Weebills going ape on the wattles which were in flower. It was fascinating watching these small birds clutching the stems of the bushes which were laden with yellow flower balls. Getting a photo is another thing entirely.

As the week rapidly charges by I am conscious that we will be flying out on Sunday. If at all possible I'll do daily posts starting on Sunday so keep an eye out for a steady stream of posts across the next six or so weeks.