At the moment we're staying in Bathford, just a few miles from Bath itself. Here we have a distant relative whom we stayed with last time. She attends the village church, St. Swithuns, and is fully involved there so we are being invited to several parish happenings including a coffee morning and a film afternoon; saw The Student Prince. Afterwards we drove along to Warleigh Manor Farm where Joyce was in service as a young woman as the Under Parlour Maid earning sixteen pound a year. We also went to see the cottage where she grew up and were invited to tea and a look over the now renovated house. The garden where we sat to drink the cup of tea has roses and hollyhocks, just as you would imagine, and the sun was streaming down and the dog was chasing a frisbee. At night the foxes come up to the house to be fed, this stops them taking the lambs.
Bath is exactly as you see it in the movies and is quite extensive with sandstone buildings for miles, all the same soft natural tones, none painted. The Cathedral is huge and is right down by the River Avon. There is a bridge which you don't notice at first because it has a row of shops on each side. The next bridge has a stairwell in it so you can quickly climb up onto the bridge. I saw the Assembly Rooms where they still hold balls under the huge chandelliers and watched by faces in the paintings on the surrounding walls. Yes and the walls are lined with chairs for those still awaitng partners. The Pump Room is still there and so are the Roman Baths, all fully restored now.
Yesterday we took in a tour of the environs and visited the famous village of Lacock where Emma, Pride and Prejudice 1995 and Cranford were filmed. And yes it really looks like it. Many of the cottages are used as shops and it's so interesting wandering about there. Biddeston and Castle Combe are near Chippenham and are also examples of delightful villages with half timbered houses, small pubs an beautiful churches. As you drive the roads are exceedingly narrow and often are covered with a canopy of pretty green branches.
Bradford-on-Avon is a closer village and here we found the Old Baptist Chapel mainly hidden from view behind the shops, this was to hide it during the unrest after the Civil War years. Here we sat and ate our lunch and chatted to various teams on barges who had to operate the locks to allow their holiday home barges to pass on down the Canal to Bristol Harbour where they have a regatta planned for Saturday.
As we drove into Trowbridge we were surprised to see a Surf shop called 'Piha' so far inland.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
We've moved to Valerie and Satoshi Aoki's place in West Norwood a little further south of London. I had met Valerie on our last trip and we had kept in touch. She has a Lydia too. In fact Nathan and I stayed one night with her and her son James in 2005 while her husband was in Japan with the two older children. Her girls are both doing degrees in Music. While Peter was visiting a rest -home with a team from West Hill Baptist Church Valerie and I went to Parliament Square where Westminster Abbey is and it's also near the Parliament Buildings and the River. We found the Privy Council Buildings and were able to go in and see the archives and even sit in on a session. It was a beautiful building with lots of bas-relief carving across the front. We first had to be x-rayed just as they do at the airport. On the next day Peter and I repeated this trip, this time with my camera! We also went to Trafalgar Square where Nelson stands atop his pillar in triumph. There is a large fountain there in front of the National Gallery. This gallery holds a huge collection of famous art which we sampled. After briefly looking in on Churchill's War Rooms we crossed Westminster Bridge and took the memorial walk along the Southbank passing the London Eye which is a giant Ferris wheel with amazing views of London and the surrounding countryside. Another gallery nearby is the Tate Britain which holds a wonderful collection of British art - this was facinating and also very handy to the bus home which is good news when your feet were as worn out as ours.
Friday 16th was spent looking at a car and checking out insurance for it. There are 826 car insurance companies in the UK but after filling out lots of internet applications we soon found that they don't insure non-UK residents!
Satoshi took Peter and I by overground train to Tower Bridge which we walked across. What a fascinating engineering feat it is, this is the bridge that opens to allow tall ships to pass. At the Tower of London we toured the bloody tower where many martyrs had been held prior to their execution. Then the Keep which is the White Tower in the centre of the complex, there is a lot of armour in here. Next I enquired about the queue for viewing the crown jewels; it seemed to be 40mins to 1hour long, snaking halfway around the large courtyard and also far into the building. I was wondering if the queue would be shorter towards the end of the day. I mentioned that we were New Zealanders and did not want to miss seeing our Sovereign's jewels, the guard was excessively kind and took us right to the head of the queue inside the building! Needless to say we were astounded and very thankful. The jewels were truly amazing and contrary to my expectations well worth the visit. We also saw a room where Queen Jane's name had been etched into the wall along with many other famous names as these miserable men and women had awaited their doom. Later in the afternoon we took the tube to the area near Buckingham Palace and St. James Park and there sat down to have a bite to eat while listening to a band playing nearby in a band rotunda, of course.
Sunday was spent at Westhill Baptist church with Pastor Ray Poutney and his family. Peter spoke in the morning about the rest-home work and in the evening about the 18thC Evangelical Revival. Megumi took me to the city and we visited the Dickens House Museum in the afternoon and I had a stroll around some of his haunts; he was a great walker and he had lived in two houses in this part of London. Next I finally found Liberty of London, a famous fabric shop, which was quite as fabulous as its reputation; the front door was surrounded in fresh flowers. But I didn't buy anything, couldn't buy anything!
I did find some good quality fine lawn, in a street dedicated to selling men's shirts, at tailors shop, so shirt fabric and I'm hoping to make a smocked dress out of it for some little girl as it's gingham. Nearby was Satoshi's workplace, the Japan Centre, where I managed to pick up some basic Japanese cooking ingredients (yum). When I arrived back there was the 'new' car, a Hyundai Elantra Si, so very much the same as my car at home that we had just sold.
The next day we had to navigate up to North London to Wembly to pick up some hand-brake parts for the car, whew that was some feat finding that place! Hpwever we were soon on the M4 West heading for Reading.
Our friends the Baxters who live in Reading stayed with us in 2006; the boys had worked with them at a camp in the Lake District 5 years ago and we had met them then briefly. Since 2006 they have had two children, Stephanie and Stanley. We enjoyed catching up but actually stayed at their pastor's house (an amazing home) as they were away for the week. The pastor Bruce Jenkins, had done a pulpit swap with John Levers some years back, so there is a healthy interest in NZ there.
Windsor Castle is nearby, it's where the Queen generally spends her weekends, so we had a day there and also got a bit more done on the car, Peter took the hub off a wheel and packed grease into the bearing I think. These jobs are almost impossible without tools and with no off-street parking. But the castle was unbelievable and crammed with incredible art works and armour and spears and all sorts of weapons.
(I'm typing on my case while kneeling on the floor and have just found that half my leg in completely numb!)
It's enjoyable just driving around these towns and city districts and seeing all the old houses and walls etc. The people in Britain are very similar to Kiwis in many ways an d the countryside look a lot like NZ but the houses are very different, they are almost all terraced-houses or semi-detatched, which is two houses joined with a brick wall. All the houses are made from brick; I think there was a law passed in London about this after 1666 and the Great Fire of London. In the Reading Museum there is a 70m 19thC copy of the Bayeux Tapestry and we managed to catch the tour guide explaining it, fascinating, so that's 1066.
Several families in the church are considering home-schooling so we did a seminar with them and hopefully sparked some more interest. Their church once had mainly students, now they've become parents, so there's a healthy crop of young nippers there. Two of them turned one yesterday, they are an adopted set of African twins, Lulu and Isaias, and we were kindly invited to join in the Barbeque Party in the evening. This morning at church we met a couple from Gloucester who had spent some years in Sydney with Rob and Allison and family at the Stanmore church, Jim and Pam Alcorn, so that was a surprise. After an excellent lunch with the Baxters and a few friends we were on the road again for Bathford which is very near Bath. On the way we took a back road and came across these unusual place names: Pickwick and another called Box.
Friday 16th was spent looking at a car and checking out insurance for it. There are 826 car insurance companies in the UK but after filling out lots of internet applications we soon found that they don't insure non-UK residents!
Satoshi took Peter and I by overground train to Tower Bridge which we walked across. What a fascinating engineering feat it is, this is the bridge that opens to allow tall ships to pass. At the Tower of London we toured the bloody tower where many martyrs had been held prior to their execution. Then the Keep which is the White Tower in the centre of the complex, there is a lot of armour in here. Next I enquired about the queue for viewing the crown jewels; it seemed to be 40mins to 1hour long, snaking halfway around the large courtyard and also far into the building. I was wondering if the queue would be shorter towards the end of the day. I mentioned that we were New Zealanders and did not want to miss seeing our Sovereign's jewels, the guard was excessively kind and took us right to the head of the queue inside the building! Needless to say we were astounded and very thankful. The jewels were truly amazing and contrary to my expectations well worth the visit. We also saw a room where Queen Jane's name had been etched into the wall along with many other famous names as these miserable men and women had awaited their doom. Later in the afternoon we took the tube to the area near Buckingham Palace and St. James Park and there sat down to have a bite to eat while listening to a band playing nearby in a band rotunda, of course.
Sunday was spent at Westhill Baptist church with Pastor Ray Poutney and his family. Peter spoke in the morning about the rest-home work and in the evening about the 18thC Evangelical Revival. Megumi took me to the city and we visited the Dickens House Museum in the afternoon and I had a stroll around some of his haunts; he was a great walker and he had lived in two houses in this part of London. Next I finally found Liberty of London, a famous fabric shop, which was quite as fabulous as its reputation; the front door was surrounded in fresh flowers. But I didn't buy anything, couldn't buy anything!
I did find some good quality fine lawn, in a street dedicated to selling men's shirts, at tailors shop, so shirt fabric and I'm hoping to make a smocked dress out of it for some little girl as it's gingham. Nearby was Satoshi's workplace, the Japan Centre, where I managed to pick up some basic Japanese cooking ingredients (yum). When I arrived back there was the 'new' car, a Hyundai Elantra Si, so very much the same as my car at home that we had just sold.
The next day we had to navigate up to North London to Wembly to pick up some hand-brake parts for the car, whew that was some feat finding that place! Hpwever we were soon on the M4 West heading for Reading.
Our friends the Baxters who live in Reading stayed with us in 2006; the boys had worked with them at a camp in the Lake District 5 years ago and we had met them then briefly. Since 2006 they have had two children, Stephanie and Stanley. We enjoyed catching up but actually stayed at their pastor's house (an amazing home) as they were away for the week. The pastor Bruce Jenkins, had done a pulpit swap with John Levers some years back, so there is a healthy interest in NZ there.
Windsor Castle is nearby, it's where the Queen generally spends her weekends, so we had a day there and also got a bit more done on the car, Peter took the hub off a wheel and packed grease into the bearing I think. These jobs are almost impossible without tools and with no off-street parking. But the castle was unbelievable and crammed with incredible art works and armour and spears and all sorts of weapons.
(I'm typing on my case while kneeling on the floor and have just found that half my leg in completely numb!)
It's enjoyable just driving around these towns and city districts and seeing all the old houses and walls etc. The people in Britain are very similar to Kiwis in many ways an d the countryside look a lot like NZ but the houses are very different, they are almost all terraced-houses or semi-detatched, which is two houses joined with a brick wall. All the houses are made from brick; I think there was a law passed in London about this after 1666 and the Great Fire of London. In the Reading Museum there is a 70m 19thC copy of the Bayeux Tapestry and we managed to catch the tour guide explaining it, fascinating, so that's 1066.
Several families in the church are considering home-schooling so we did a seminar with them and hopefully sparked some more interest. Their church once had mainly students, now they've become parents, so there's a healthy crop of young nippers there. Two of them turned one yesterday, they are an adopted set of African twins, Lulu and Isaias, and we were kindly invited to join in the Barbeque Party in the evening. This morning at church we met a couple from Gloucester who had spent some years in Sydney with Rob and Allison and family at the Stanmore church, Jim and Pam Alcorn, so that was a surprise. After an excellent lunch with the Baxters and a few friends we were on the road again for Bathford which is very near Bath. On the way we took a back road and came across these unusual place names: Pickwick and another called Box.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Having risen at 4:30am we took our 11 hour flight to Tokyo, arriving at 5pm local time. Air New Zealand, who have just won two world awards did a fabulous job and the trip didn't seem too bad at all. It was a great joy to be met by two dear girls whom we have had living with us previously; Minori, way back in 1992 and Hitomi, 2 years ago. They met each other for the first time; both of them had 'MOORE' signs so they could easily recognise each other : -) We chatted and ate in a tiny restaurant at the airport. Peter and I had had 2 meals already that day so we shared Oyakadombrie which is chicken cooked slowly in egg and served on rice. There was also the ubiquitous miso soup and of course green tea! All simply delicious - owshi. Taking our leave we left for the hotel on the complimentary shuttle bus and were shortly off in a whirl of motorways and high-rise hotels. This was Narita, the Tokyo airport city so we didn't actually see Tokyo itself. Surprisingly all is not 'neat as a pin', we saw plenty of weedy places, rumpty flat carparks etc. We were expecting high-rise carparks but saw none, even the hotel had a tarmac one. The room was very comfortable and cool. Although the night was misty and we were done for, we took the lift to the 10th floor and managed to find a viewing place on a balcony. There wasn't much to see; just a few roads, a sports ground and lots of trees. So our one night brief stay was soon over but not before we enjoyed some fresh onigiri (triangular rise balls that come with a separate sheet of nori to wrap it in) that Hitomi had kindly presented us with for our breakfast.
Another 11hour flight, this time with Lufhansa brought us to Frankfurt. For some reason to do with the winds the flight path went north of Russia, I could look down at the coastline and sea the pack-ice. This was truly amazing and quite unexpected. We also flew over Finland; a land full of lakes. The staff were excellent and the time passed easily and again we had the choice of Japanese meals as many of the passengers were Japanese. Here we had to transit and quickly change for a flight to London. There was no problem getting through customs, unlike many of our fellow passengers who were detained, they just looked at our NZ passports and nodded to us to proceed to the exit. It took a fair while to locate 'Travel Information' and organise ourselves and all our baggage on and off various undergrounds. Eventually we arrived at Victoria Station to meet our friend Mary, unfortunately there was a lengthy 'Comedy of Errors' an we attempted to find which of the many 'main entrances' to Victoria Station she had had in mind and also struggled with a dying cell phone. So, what a relief to finally flop down at No.21 where we were treated to a good cup of English tea.
The Tantons are all 5 years older (and so are we!) and taller (but we're not taller!). Lots has changed in their house; they've added a school-room which doubles as a guest-room and it even has an ensuite. Julian has done all of this addition himself and they're really getting lot of use out of it, and so are we. On top of all of this is their roof garden. I was keen to see this. It's 5x5m and has 4 skylight opening windows set into it like noughts and crosses. And what an array of edibles: various herbs, berries, rhubarb, cucumber, beans, fruit trees, and tomatoes and more. It really is very successful. Their church, Ridley hall is just across the road and parked outside are its 2 minivans. The church is housed in a Victorian building which also looks like tennements and is very
quaint.
.
Having spent two solid days at a conference at Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle we have since been doing a great deal of walking around London.
In one back street we saw the house of Equiano, the Black guy who worked with William Wilberforce. We arrive at the British Museum unexpectedly and hadn't brought our DayOne guide, which was disappointing, however we heard a guide explaining some things to a group and stopped to listen and then he invited us to join their tour. After a while we realised that this was the author of the book we'd left at home! When his tour group departed he offer to spend some time with us which was fabulous. He is a pastor in a church just like ours near the south coast.
Sunday was full. Our first stop was Ridley Hall, just a few steps from where we were staying. There we met a lovely young woman called Jacinth who is studying dietetics in Plymouth and also various folk we had met on our last trip. After a wonderful lunch with the Tantons we walked to find another church but instead of Zion Baptist, there was a Black evangelist stridently exhorting a small Black congregation and intermitently wiping his face with a large crimson cloth. He didn't seem to be preaching but was very enthusiastic about people's need to give offerings! They were quite friendly and the pastor came down and asked us to bring greetings from New Zealand. A bus ride brought us to Wandsworth where we joined a congregation something like our own. The pastor there is from Zimbabwe. There were several of Priscilla Drake's family there so that was interesting.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
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