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  • TravelerTravels with the Beggsies
    Day 25

    Paris

    August 20, 2018 in France ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    I don’t know where to start today. Ollie,Audrey, Tabby and I were up at 7.00am breakfasted by 8.00am and on the train by 8.30am to Nation the station we catch the train to Euro Disney. We arrived at our destination at opening time. The nightmare started here. There were so many families queueing to go into the venue it was not a sight that stirred up any enthusiasm. When we finally received our official tickets to enter the venue a whole new world opened up. The set up of Disney is designed for the wow factor. The buildings are spectacularly American. The fact that you have spent $125 for a day pass most of the buildings are shops designed to relieve you of another few hundred. The simplest measure of Disney's worth. The first place to look for a simple valuation of a company is the price that the stock market puts on it. Disney currently has about 1.61 billion shares outstanding. With a share price of around $94 per share, that puts Disney's market capitalization at roughly $150 billion.Sep 8, 2016.

    In the merchandise sector, each shop has a very different atmosphere in terms of friendliness and encouragement. Many procedures are treated like a military operation where you are considered to somehow be a threat to the company in terms of stealing money from the tills. The counting of money at the end of the day can be very stressful, as if you are not 'even' on your till by even 0.05 euros, you will receive feedback and warnings. Hardly any choice in shifts.

    Got a daughter who dreams of being a princess? Take it from someone who's worked as a real princess at Disney World--the job is not all it's cracked up to be. A former Snow White actress from Disney theme parks—called a "face character" in Disney parlance—is anonymously dishing behind-the-scenes policies and drama in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), summarized on Business Insider. Among the juicy tidbits from the Disney princess confidential:
    —You've got to have the right body type. While princesses are between 5'4" and 5'7", Tinkerbell, Alice and Wendy must be more petite—between 4'11" to 5'2".
    Princess age out quickly. Most are played by women between 18 and 23. A 27-year-old princess would be considered over the hill—ouch!
    There's some serious princess primping. Getting the look—costume, makeup-wig -- takes about an hour, with frequent touch-ups throughout the day.
    Princesses deal with stalkers. This particular actress dealt with a creepy fan who was convinced she was the real Snow White, and threatened to kill the imitators. Security!
    It's hard to make it a career. Princesses make about $13 to $16 an hour, which works out to a starting salary of around $27,000, with little chance for a significant raise.

    I found Euro Disney to be a complex place for families. True it was school holidays in Europe and England so the place was swarming with families from every country in the EU and beyond. The American mind set for these venues has nothing to do its families enjoying themselves and kids coming away fulfilled,it is a cut throat business to make big dollars. Sell, sell, sell. Hard sell too. A belle princess dress will put you back €69....a fridge magnet €10 a tee shirt or pair of mini mouse ears €20. Nothing is free. Apparently at peak times queues can wait up to two hours for a thirty second ride.

    Our biggest nightmare happened at Disney. Not the prices,the queuing, the extortionate prices for food and gifts, no the worst nightmare a family could have we lost a child. Or more to the point he lost us. We had been so careful of keeping together,talked out plan A B and C but Ollie lost us.
    For twenty minutes our world stopped. Thankfully Ollie is an intelligent eight year old and his survival skills kicked in. He did all the right things. He found a family and told them he had lost his family,the family found an official Disney employee who took Ollie to the lost child centre and all he had to do was wait for us to retrieve him. Meanwhile we noticed him missing,informed a member of staff and the whole retrieval operation was set in motion. Thankfully within twenty minutes we were all reunited. A valuable lesson was learned from this episode,write your phone number on your child’s arm or put a note in their pocket. So that if this happens to your child,someone can contact you. A small thing but crucial to your state of mind and a quick reunion. After my fall in Bristol I have worn flat shows when on walking marathons,but that did not stop me from nearly falling down a flight of slippery steps in a dark adventure cave.

    So how would I rate the day,overall out of five I would give it two. Theme parks are no longer value for money,they are large, overcrowded, expensive, noisy, unfair in their ride times and reflect the greed of the American machine which grinds away without any heart or dignity.
    We as a family enjoyed leaving the park to those that enjoy that type of commercialisation but it is not us. Goodnight diary.    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with the Beggsies
    Day 24

    Home Sweet Home

    August 19, 2018 in England ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Linda has her sixty ninth birthday today. Happy birthday sister......Where are we today ? We are ensconced at Birmingham airport waiting for our flight to Gay Paris. We set off quite early as we had to drop the car off and check into customs and security. The kids as always were hungry and thirsty so we headed for the first Burger King we could find at the airport. We at least know the kids will eat here. We are now at gate 56 awaiting boarding. The only perk you have travelling with children is you get to board first. So it’s sit back and wait for the plane to take us high in the sky and to the beautiful city of Paris......

    The good thing about this journey is we get picked up at the airport. Our driver was a young Romanian man who was obviously lacking sleep. Tabby tried to have a conversation with him and he told us he spoke four languages,his family were still in Romania and he was in France because the pay is better...dropping us off he made no attempt to help us with our luggage,he was off. We are booked into The Novotel hotel in the suburb of Pasteur close to Montparnasse station.

    Montparnasse was a community where creativity was embraced with all its oddities, each new arrival welcomed unreservedly by its existing members. When Tsuguharu Foujita arrived from Japan in 1913 not knowing a soul, he met Soutine, Modigliani, Pascin and Léger virtually the same night and within a week became friends with Juan Gris, Picasso and Matisse. In 1914, when the English painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse, on her first evening the smiling man at the next table at La Rotonde graciously introduced himself as "Modigliani, painter and Jew". They became good friends, Hamnett later recounting how she once borrowed a jersey and corduroy trousers from Modigliani, then went to La Rotonde and danced in the street all night.

    Between 1921 and 1924, the number of Americans in Paris swelled from 6,000 to 30,000. While most of the artistic community gathered here were struggling to eke out an existence, well-heeled American socialites such as Peggy Guggenheim, and Edith Wharton from New York City, Harry Crosby from Boston and Beatrice Wood from San Francisco were caught in the fever of creativity. Robert McAlmon, and Maria and Eugene Jolas came to Paris and published their literary magazine Transition. Harry Crosby and his wife Caresse would establish the Black Sun Press in Paris in 1927, publishing works by such future luminaries as D. H. Lawrence, Archibald MacLeish, James Joyce, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker and others. As well, Bill Bird published through his Three Mountains Press until British heiress Nancy Cunard took it over.

    Cafés rented tables to poor artists for hours at a stretch. Several, including La Closerie des Lilas, remain in business today.
    The cafés and bars of Montparnasse were a meeting place where ideas were hatched and mulled over. The cafés at the centre of Montparnasse's night-life were in the Carrefour Vavin, now renamed Place Pablo-Picasso. In Montparnasse's heyday (from 1910 to 1920), the cafés Le Dôme, La Closerie des Lilas, La Rotonde, Le Select, and La Coupole—all of which are still in business— were the places where starving artists could occupy a table all evening for a few centimes. If they fell asleep, the waiters were instructed not to wake them. Arguments were common, some fuelled by intellect, others by alcohol, and if there were fights, and there often were, the police were never summoned. If you couldn't pay your bill, people such as La Rotonde's proprietor, Victor Libion, would often accept a drawing, holding it until the artist could pay. As such, there were times when the café's walls were littered with a collection of artworks, that today would make the curators of the world's greatest museums drool with envy. We booked into our room and after having a little rest and freshen up we went for a walk.

    We were looking for the station to take us to Euro Disney tomorrow. After sorting out where we were going we walked back toward the hotel. Stopping On the way we found a nice Italian restaurant and settled in for pasta and wine. By the time we arrived back at the hotel it was time to relax and get ready for our big day tomorrow. Tomorrow is Hell Day..........Euro Disney......goodnight diary.    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with the Beggsies
    Day 23

    Mama Im Coming Home

    August 18, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    A busy day in the city today. Tabby wanted to buy a few dresses for work,presents for her workmate, a present for Damon and some books as clothes for the kids. I was not in the mood for shopping as I have the flu and it has put a full stop on my mojo and the urge to even look in the shops. I mainly held the shopping and sat with Ollie as he had no great desire to shop either. We got into town about lunchtime and after four hours of frantic shopping we hauled the newly purchased items back to the car park. The car park was a filthy,derelict looking building. It smelt of urine and we were surprised to only see a dozen cars cars parked on a Saturday afternoon. I though they must all be home watching football. It was a strange feeling being in a nearly empty carpark on a weekend. It would never happen in Perth.

    TRAVEL GUIDE
    Coventry is a city in central England. It’s known for the medieval Coventry Cathedral, which was left in ruins after a WWII bombing. A 20th-century replacement, with abstract stained glass, stands beside it. The collection at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum includes paintings of local heroine Lady Godiva. A statue of her, naked on horseback, is nearby. The 14th-century St. Mary’s Guildhall has a vaulted crypt.

    Weather: 18 °C, Wind SW at 8 mph (13 km/h), 83% Humidity Coventry has had three Cathedrals in the past 1000 years: the 12th century Priory Church of St Mary, the medieval Parish Church Cathedral of St Michael and the modern Coventry Cathedral, also named for St Michael.
    Celebrated as the UK's favourite 20th century building, Coventry Cathedral is known all over the world as a beautiful and unique venue. Designed by architect Sir Basil Spence following the bombing of the city in 1940.

    In the evening we had to repack our bags for our trip home via Paris and Dubai. It has been a frantic three weeks and the strain of being on the move constantly is taking its toll on Tabby. She is tired and a bit cranky at times. Not the lovely fun girl of old. But she is middle aged now so maybe I am expecting too much. But she never looks really happy. I mean genuinely happy. I have decided to not annoy her and keep out of her way. I am not expecting too many visits when I am in the nursing home. She always has far too much else going on. It is her life and all you want for your children is for them to be good people and happy in whatever they choose to do in life. The kids watched SHREK IV and then it was time to head up to the attic with Ollie and sleep. Goodnight diary....xxxxxx    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with the Beggsies
    Day 22

    Homeward Bound

    August 17, 2018 in England ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today we are out for lunch with Tabbys friend Nikki and her daughter Florence. They live in Ashby St. Ledger which is the next village from Kilby.

    The nearest large towns are Rugby, 5 miles (8.0 km) north west, and Daventry, 3 miles (4.8 km) south. The A5 road), the Roman road Watling Street passes about a mile east. Rugby has the nearest railway station on the West Coast Main Line with trains.9
    Ashby St Ledgers is a village in the Daventry district of Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 173.The Manor House is famous for being a location for the planning of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.[3]

    The manor was given as a gifde Grandmesnil by William the Conqueror and passed to various other occupants until 1375 when it passed into the Catesby family, and became their principal residence.

    The manor was briefly confiscated after the attainder and execution of William Catesby, one of Richard III's counsellors, after losing the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, but was later returned to his son, George. It passed down the male line to Robert Catesby's father, Sir William Catesby, who managed to hold on to the property in spite of massive debts caused by recusancy fines and years of imprisonment for his brave adherence to the Roman Catholic faith.

    A contemporaneous engraving of the conspirators (detail). By Crispijn van de Passe the Elder.[4] Use a cursor to explore
    The manor's central location was also more convenient to the houses of the Catesby's many friends and relations. It is this central location that made Ashby St Ledgers a type of 'Command Centre' during the planning of the Gunpowder Plot.

    It was here, in the room above the Gatehouse, with its privacy from the main house and clear view of the surrounding area, that Robert Catesby, his servant Thomas Bates and the other conspirators planned a great deal of the Gunpowder Plot. Catesby was killed at Holbeche House whereas his servant was executed in the following January.

    Following Catesby's death in 1605, the manor was confiscated by the crown as the property of a traitor. In 1612, it was purchased by Bryan I'Anson (1560-1634), Sheriff of the City of London.[5] He was the father of Sir Bryan I'Anson, 1st Bt., of Ashby St Ledgers; Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles I of England.[6] In 1703, Esther I'Anson (Sir Bryan's elder brother John's great-granddaughter) sold the manor to Joseph Ashley, a London draper. When his great nephew, also called Joseph Ashley, died in 1798, the manor was passed to his daughter, Mary, who was the wife of Sir Joseph Senhouse. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married Joseph Pocklington in 1835, and the manor remained in their family until 1903, when it was sold to Ivor Guest, 1st Viscount Wimborne.[5]

    Until recently the house suffered from decay and neglect, in need of restoration. The former owner*, Lord Wimborne, estimated it would need about £10 million to save it for future generations.[7] In 2005, The Crown Estate bought the Ashby St Ledgers estate (minus the Manor House) .[7] It will continue to be run as an agricultural business, but run by its Rural Directorate.

    The sale of the 2,337-acre (9.46 km2) Ashby St Ledgers estate did not include The Manor House. The land was put up for sale in July 2005 on behalf of the Baker brothers, a family which has owned the grounds since 1982, having purchased it from the British Airways Pension Fund. The site includes an organic dairy farm, a country sports centre and Chapel Farm, which 150 years ago was the home of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School. The Manor was sold off separately by British Airways and passed through a succession of speculative owners until it was eventually purchased in 1998 by former owner Viscount Wimborne's grandson and namesake, Ivor Guest, 3rd Viscount Wimborne, in an attempt to save the Manor House from total ruin. The ownership of the Manor and its gardens, as far as is known, remains with Lord Wimborne.

    Nikki’s house is what was once the old pump house on the main estate,but has been converted to a house. But it still has all the character of the pump house and is protected by the heritage act. It is a fascinating long house. All the rooms are in a corridor and with Nikki’s artistic quirkiness it is charming. We were welcomed with champagne and home cooked sausage rolls and Victoria sponge. It was a delightful three hours of sharing country life. On arriving back at Ritchie’s it was a quick turnaround and off to Tabbys farewell with the YOG crew. I really should have stayed home but I wanted to meet her friends and the people that are so important in her life. It was a great fun night and I took lots of photos. We left the car in the city and Ubered home in a taxi. Another full day of happiness.goodnight diary.    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with the Beggsies
    Day 21

    More than one way home

    August 16, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Sam and Ritchie are off to Cornwall today but not before we have our last pancakes cooked by Ritchie. He has been so wonderful with the kids and I don’t think they will ever forget his pancakes. We spend a quiet morning at home with the Hunt-Kings and our last meal with them was a delicious cheese board,with olives pickles French sticks, chicken nibbles and three tasty cheeses. Then it was off to Cornwall for them in their campervan.

    The good news of the day was that Tania had passed her entrance exams to university which was an excuse to celebrate. This family is a tight knit family,they are respectful.fun and caring. Tabby has known Ritchie and Sam for over twenty five years and they are as tight now as they ever were. They have put themselves out to make us welcome,shared their home,food and their time , to make sure we have a good time. Everyone should have friends like the Hunt-Kings.

    In the afternoon we had been invited to afternoon tea at Katie’s mums house. Sue and Ben are another couple who when Tabby lived in England at eighteen,took her in and made sure she was ok. Tabby had left home and had been ejected from her cousins home for having a party while they were away. I think Tabby did the wrong thing by using their home for a party,but she was young and maybe immature. Her friends made sure she was ok,and the mums from Yog kept a protective eye on her. I will never know all the stories of this time and perhaps it’s a good thing that they stay with her. But she has turned out to be a strong woman and I am proud of her.

    So back to the morning tea,it was old home week,talking about friends we knew and had in common. I wish Keith had been there he would have loved the banter. We spent a couple of hours there and then home to feed the kids and for Tabby to get ready to go out. She is taking Jarrod,Tania,Kyra and Jarrods girlfriend out for dinner tonight as a thank you to Ritchie and Sam. The kids and I are staying in with me. We are watching Jungle book and playing Rapidoe. I have the flu again.....bummer so by nine thirty we were in bed in the attic room. Goodnight diary.    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with the Beggsies
    Day 20

    Ride Like the Wind

    August 15, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today we are heading back to Coventry. But before we do we are heading up to The Alexander Palace for breakfast and to see where TV began in Britain. Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed[2] entertainment and sports venue in London, located between Muswell Hill and Wood Green. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm.[3] Originally built by John Johnson and Alfred Meeson, it opened in 1873 but following a fire two weeks after its opening, was rebuilt by Johnson. Intended as "The People's Palace" and referred to as "Ally Pally", its purpose was to serve as a public centre of recreation, education and entertainment; North London's counterpart to the Crystal Palace in South London.[4]

    Alexandra
    Location
    Alexandra Park
    London, N22
    Coordinates
    51°35′38″N 0°07′48″W
    Public transit
    National Rail Alexandra Palace
    London Underground Wood Green
    Operator
    Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust
    Capacity
    800 (Panorama Room)
    1,750 (East Hall/Ice Rink)
    2,000 (Palm Court)
    2,500 (West Hall)
    8,250 (Great Hall)
    Construction
    Broke ground
    September 1865
    Opened
    1 May 1875
    Renovated
    1873–75, 1980–88, 2016–17
    Construction cost
    £417,000
    (£36.6 million in 2016 pounds[1])
    Architect
    Owen Jones, John Johnson and Alfred Meeson
    Builder
    Kelk and Lucas
    Website
    Venue Website
    Building details
    Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
    General information
    Inaugurated
    24 May 1873
    At first a private venture, in 1900, the owners planned to sell it and Alexandra Park for development. A group of neighbouring local authorities managed to acquire it. An Act of Parliament created the Alexandra Palace and Park Trust. The Act required the Trustees to maintain the Palace and Park and make them available for the free use and recreation of the public forever. The present trustee is the London Borough of Haringey, whose coat of arms shows lightning bolts depicting the Palace's pioneering role in the development of television.

    In 1935, the trustees leased part of the palace to the BBC for use as the production and transmission centre for their new BBC Television. In 1936, it became the home of the world's first regular public television service. The broadcasting system was the 405-line monochrome analogue television – the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. Although other facilities soon superseded it after the war, Alexandra Palace continued to be used by the BBC for many years and its radio and television mast is still in use. The original studios 'A' and 'B' still survive in the so.

    Breakfast was lovely as the owner of the cafe came out to talk to us and make sure we were enjoying our meal. We walked around the venue for over an hour before heading off to Stanstead to drop Miguel off. He is flying home to Xabia today. It will be sad to see him go. But hopefully I will see him in October after my cruise. We arrived back at Ritchie’s just after five o’clock and although we were going to take them out for dinner,we decided everyone was knackered so we ordered takeaway. By ten thirty I could not keep my eyes open so Ollie and I went to bed. He is such a lovely boy......
    Week diary that’s goodnight from me. X    Read more

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