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Stuart EdserStuart Edser
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Psychologist | Author | Academic | Musician | Gay Silver Fox Okumaya devam et Newcastle, Australia
  • UK Beckons Anew
    Gün 12

    Cambridge

    12 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Yesterday, we left London, ready to take things at a slower and more leisurely pace. Little did we know.

    The train trip was only an hour. We could connect with the train at our own home port of Farringdon and we had first class tickets, a bit silly really given that we would only be on the train for just over an hour. FIrst class means you get a small table in front of your seat and an antimacassar behind your head. Not a great deal more of creature comforts I would have thought than the riff raff in the other carriages.

    The trip was uneventful, as you want them to be. We arrived at Cambridge about 11am and well ahead of our official check in time of 3pm. However, the good woman who owns the joint said she would clean it quickly and we could have it as soon as she was finished. She would message us.

    Thus, we hove to, and carted our bags bearing all our worldly goods to a cafe that she had recommended, the Hot Numbers. Fortunately we did not have to wait long for a message and the walk to our apartment was literally around the corner. She arrived as we did and she showed us how the new fangled app works which allows us entry to and from the apartment. We dropped our bags and left her to it.

    The next thing to do was to go and organise the rental car. It is a truth universally acknowledged, or should be, that car rental companies will do you over, in some way. Ethics? Nah. Morality? Absolutely not. Being flexible with the weary traveller? Forget it. This happened last year, and they -ucked us over again here in Cambridge. You can use the m or the f for the elision in that word as you please. I know which one I use.

    By the time we had sorted out the apartment, we got to the car rental at 3pm rather than the agreed time of between 12 and 2pm, a range of time I might add that was always an estimated time of arrival, not a horological moment set in Cambridge stone.

    No, sorry, you are late. You have forfeited the deposit you have paid and the car you asked for is no longer available. Since you booked through a third party and not directly with us, there is nothing we can do for you to amend the booking. All we can do is to upgrade you and you'll need to pay the difference for the cost of the better vehicle. Enter a Mercedes Benz, which was just about the only thing they had left. Needless to say, the upgrade cost us a pretty Cambridge penny.

    If ever you see me contemplating hiring a car in the future, feel free to kick me where it hurts.

    At the end of the day, we found Cambridge's main pool and took ourselves for a much needed swim; this to calm the nerves and wash off the stress of the day as well as the heat and the humidity. The pool was large by any standard and in a dedicated building with lots of facilities. It was most welcome.

    Today, in the early part of the morning, we did our best to outwit, rather unsuccessfully I might add, the need to pay excessive parking fees. Street parking outside our building is only free after 5pm and there is no other parking around. Thus we had to go to a large shopping mall, basically adjacent to the University district, and park the car there for the day. Expensive.

    Accepting the uncontrollable is one well-known way to lower stress. It's good modern psychology and the Stoics believed it too in Ancient Greece. We parked the car, left it to accrue its hours, and headed for the fudge shop where we were to meet up with our tour guide. We had purchased tickets to do a two-hour walking tour of the University ending inside Kings College Chapel. Our tour guide was a Classical scholar, Dr Sonya Nevin, part-time lecturer and published author.

    Sonya was fabulous. She started off by explaining the University of Cambridge college system, where the many Colleges are independent autonomous bodies who all teach much the same subjects (courses) with a few exceptions. The University proper handles admissions, enrolments, fees, graduations and the like.

    The University began in the year 1209 with Oxford academics fleeing Oxford due to the riots between locals and the unversity; 'town and gown' riots. Enough of them settled in Cambridge to start the first College.

    We heard so many wonderful stories today. We heard so many famous names. We stopped for a pint after the tour in the Eagle, the pub where Watson and Crick announced their discovery of the workings of DNA. I had an Eagle DNA ale.

    We leaned against the wall where Christopher Marlowe had his digs and saw many of the famous Colleges, many in their medieval glory. It was a fabulous tour and Chris and I both felt we had very good fortune indeed to be led by such an intelligent and informative scholar.

    Of course, the famous Kings College Chapel is very special in this place. It is beautiful beyond ordinary architecture, its vaulted ceiling both geometrically perfect, aesthetically gentle and architecturally marvellous. The dark panelling of the choir stalls where the boys sing their Palestrina and their Allegri all have candle holders and must look a sight. A Rubens painting as an altar piece stands wonderfully at the front of the chapel.

    There is way too much to see here in Cambridge, especially in the limited time we have left to us. There are galleries and museums attached to most of the Colleges so you'd really need a considerable time to see it all.

    The weather has started to break today. Only about 20° today, ominous black clouds, but still high humidity. England's heat wave is just about over. As is our time in Cambridge. We are very glad we came.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • UK Beckons Anew
    Gün 10

    Last Day in London

    10 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
  • UK Beckons Anew
    Gün 9

    Sightseeing

    9 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    This and the next footprint are a little less formal. This actually matches our sightseeing around London where we've done all the main things we wanted to do this week already and what remains are the little serendipitous treasures that one finds along the way. London is full of them, so there's no shortage.

    These two days complete our last two days here. There is no doubt for us, it's been a fun, intoxicating, adventurous week for us which we have loved. But, it's also been a big week for us both, emotionally, as we come down from a very challenging year, and also thinking and conversing through a number of issues that we saved up till we got here. And of course, the sheer physicality of venturing out into a city of 9,000,000 people on foot every day in 30° humid heat. What a week!    Okumaya devam et

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  • UK Beckons Anew
    Gün 8

    Discovery Day

    8 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Today was a day to try to slow things down a bit and not to have anything too planned. We still wanted wanted to head into the city, but we were happy to just discover London's treasures as we came upon them.

    Chtis thought it might be good to check out the Shard, the tall weird looking building shaped like a shard of glass. We got ourselves to the base of it and checked out the prices of going up to the viewing platform. Unsirprisingly, we baulked at the price, given that it would have cost us about $130 Australian dollars. Also, given that we'd seen comparable views from the dome of St Pauls for about £14, we didn't feel like we had missed out on all that much.

    We took a stroll up the street and came upon Kings College, now part of London University and therfore part of the Golden Triangle: Oxford, Cambridge, University of London. It is very prestigious and its campus in the city had parks and ivy covered buildings. A coffee and lemon drizzle cake at one of its cafes did just the trick.

    We may recall that London is very hot and steamy this week, so walking anywhere in the open sun is trying and even walking in the shade is sticky. But, we had a walk around and ended up on Bermondsey Street, a vibrant district full of arty places, pubs, bars, cafes and plenty of people who frequent such places. This was the traditional home of leather and tanneries, but we were hot and tired, so were really looking for somewhere cool and less packed-in for a sit down and a drink.

    Enter Leadenhall Market. This is a famous covered market in Central London painted up in burgundy and ornamentation, with shops, cafes, bars, restaurants and up market wares. It is lovely to look at, and though bustling with people, did not feel crowded or oppressive. We stopped off at Old Tom's pub and had a half in the cool of the upstairs area.

    A little bit of walking around followed by checking out the amazing architecture in this city led us home to relax, and to meet our friend Wayne, just off the plane, for dinner at a local Farringdon Italian, which as the weather would have it, was oppressively hot without air-conditioning and a lot of people packed in. I'm really not sure that the UK is ready for the effects of climate change. We ate and left and found a beer garden where we shared G&Ts all round and said our goodnights.

    A slower day, but a necessary one. We are feeling the effects of going out every day, which is wonderful - don't get me wrong - to see different wonders and in this oppressive humidity. Neither of us is twenty five anymore.    Okumaya devam et

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  • UK Beckons Anew
    1
    Gün 7

    A Day of Heights

    7 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Today has been a big day despite the fact that we tried to make it a little easier on ourselves. After a brekky of eggs and coffee at Prufrocks, we tubed into the city to see St Paul's Cathedral.

    I saw this the Cathedral myself last year and actually did a 45 minute tour, but I wanted to experience the majesty and interest of this building with Chris, so was more than happy to look through again.

    I think St Paul's is Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. He was in his seventies when the dome, the final structure was beiing built. A little too old to walking up the scaffolds and steps to get up there, he would have himself hailed up there in a basket.

    We had a very good look around the cathedral floor, taking in the various sights like the modern 3D cross, the font, and sitting looking up at the ceiling and dome. St Paul's is the only domed cathedral in all of Britain. It is majestic but not gaudy. Its blue and gold colour pallette for the ceilings is something Ihave not seen before.

    After, we climbed the spiral staircase up to the main gallery at the base of the dome. This is inside the cathedral and is known as the Whispering Gallery due to its incredible acoustic properties where you can hear a whisper on the other side of the gallery. It is very high up, and once again and not unexpectedly, I became acrophobic up there. I needed time for my parasympathietic nervous system to kick in and settle me down, so I just sat quietly and watched Chris make his way around the circle and back to me. At that point, I felt calm enough to try myself, so I gingerly walked around the circumference myself. I was pleased with the effort.

    Then, up to the dome on the outside of the building. I had been up here last year and knew what to expect. I did quite well and my nervous system calmed me down after only a few minutes. There are unparalleled views of London from the dome of St Paul's and it really is worth the climb of 528 steps up there.

    After the retracing of all the steps back down again, we took a dive down into the crypt under the cathedral floor where lots of famous people are buried, including Wellington, Nelson, Florence Nightingale, John Donne and Christopher Wren. A lovely surprise for me was when Chris found the floor plaque over the grave of Sir Arthur Sullivan of Savoy Operas fame.

    A coffee ensued and a walk to the Guildhall, London's original seat of power for the city. It is still used today for that purpose. It is a medieval grand hall started in 1411 and finished 29 years later. In recent decades, the city has built a dedicated Art Gallery to house its over 4000 item collection. This runs perpendicular to the old hall. It is a wonderul collection, but is also the custodian of London's Roman amphitheatre which hosted brutal gladiatorial games. Its remains are carefully preserved underneath the gallery.

    A brazen question by myself to the authorities to see if they would let us into see the Guildhall itself turned up a yes, and we made our way through a modern wing adjacent and into the Hall. There were Court proceedings about to start in there, but they let us go in regardless. It is vast and cavernous, has its own fascinating history and is well worth a visit.

    This evening we had tickets to the theatre. At the Barbican Centre we saw a musical called A Strange Loop, an American black gay production that looked at identity, culture and religion. It was powerful, funny and wonderfully performed by a small ensemble cast of actors/singers. A two hour performance without intermission.

    We were pereched way up high in the front row, so I became acropobic again. However, after everybody who needed to get past us moving to their seats had passed, I settled right down to enjoy the show.

    We bought some touristy bits n pieces today, and did a fair bit of walking, although we did go and sit with the lunch crowd in a park in the middle of a circus which was lovely.

    Another great day. What a wondeful time we are having.    Okumaya devam et

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  • UK Beckons Anew
    1
    21
    Gün 6

    Tower of London - Part 2

    6 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
  • UK Beckons Anew
    Gün 6

    Tower of London - Part 1

    6 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    A good night last night. Woke up once but went back to sleep. I did wake however at about 5am so got up at 5.30 after realising I was not going to go back to sleep.

    Breakfast today at Prufrock, a local upbeat cafe up the street from us in Leather Lane. Run by a couple of gorgeous guys, it had plenty of nice looking people in there alongside us and excellent coffee.

    Off to the tower. Like the Barbican, I did not realise just how big the Tower of London really is. It could be a city unto itself. We purchased our tickets and led ourselves through rather than a guided tour by a Beefeater or a self-guided tour with head phones and device.

    It was a gentle tour for us I must say. We were not in a hurry and we had already deided that the Tower would be our one big thing for the day, so we just took it easy and moseyed through the various cavernous halls of the various buildings, reading some of the plaques, leaving others, following the laid out path, taking some pics on the way and making the occasional observation to each other.

    A highlight for me was not the Jewel Room where are kept the Crown Jewels, but the beautiful Norman Chapel St John's Chapel in the White Tower. Streaming with sunlight through its front windows and enlivening the sandy coloured stone walls, it was just beautiful. I could have sat there for ten minutes and just soaked in the atmosphere. I can perfectly understand that the early Kings and Queens who used it might have been transported in reflection, prayer or even transcendence. There was a serenity in that space that touched me.

    Given that I've mentioned the Crown Jewels, I should say something about seeing them. A small line-up in front of us shuffled slowly into the first room where we came upon a small throng of folk looking at various earlier crowns. It was difficult to get a good look as they were three and four packed in tight up against the glass. An occasional space would open and I would dart in to take a closer gander.

    Eventually, we did get to see the late Queen's coronation implements and clothing, the crowns and sceptre and orb. Being thorough-going republicans, both of us were underwhelmed by the fabulous wealth and power these items of regalia were meant to evoke. They felt like they were for another time, not the 21st century. We did not linger, but left fairly quickly and left the gooing and gahing to the Americans who love monarchy. The memory did come back to me while in that darkened royal jewel tomb of the old maxim, "all that glitters is not gold" and I thought, "well, not in this room".

    A coffee at the Raven Cafe in the Tower precinct. We heard a beefeater say that should the ravens disappear from the Tower, the White Tower will fall and crumble. The ravens are still there all right. They are huge and their caw is lower than our crow call. It sounds rather ominous actually.

    Leaving the Tower, we hopped on a bus for the first time and rode through to Covent Garden where we went to the same Perfumery as we visited last year. Chris bought himself something very nice indeed with some birthday money.

    A trip then to the laneway treasure that is the Nell Gwynn pub, a free house, a term used to describe historically an Englilsh public house that was not owned by the breweries and which could therefore sell any beer it wanted. A half pint for us each and a read of the the story that says there is a secret passage in the pub that leads to the Druy Lane theatres where Charles II would secretly meet up with the actress Nell.

    Then a walk around Covent Garden, peering in the shops and looking at the beautful people and ultimately, lunch. We headed in to one of the pubs, The Prince of Wales, where we ate lightly. A trip to Foyles bookstore followed where I bought two small anthologies of W. H. Auden whom I decided on the plane over here, I would like to re-read, and Chris some historical fiction about Catherine Parr, one of Henry VIII's six wives..

    So there you have it. A most enjoyable day. As a side note, the weather was sunny all day and the temperature reached 30°. Little breeze, so bloody hot 🥵    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • UK Beckons Anew
    11
    Gün 5

    The Barbican

    5 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Some pics of the Barbican. Its sheer size (it is a city unto itself) makes it majestic, but it shows no majesty in its aesthetic.

    Çeviriyi gör
  • UK Beckons Anew
    Gün 5

    Let's Get This Show on the Road

    5 Eylül 2023, İngiltere ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Well, I confess, I thought my circadian cycle would have adapted by now, but no, I awoke again at 3am and this time, unlike the night before, I could not go back to sleep. I spent the few hours till 5am solving problems and imaginaing scenarios; scenarios that did not need imagining at any time let alone in the wee small hours of the morning. Fingers crossed for tonight.

    This morning we headed back to our old haunt from last year, Vauxhall, there for Chris to have a massage, and me to wait for him. I sat happily in the Kenington Lane Cafe - they don't pronounce the e in cafe here - had two lattes and a cherry muffin and wrote some stuff and read the papers back home. I am disgusted with the No campaign on the Voice referendum and I see in today's SMH that Warren Mundine, the most compromised man in Australia, will probably be preselected to replace Marise Payne in the Senate. I have a visceral reaction to that man's treachery.

    In due course, Chris arrived and we had coffee together and planned our day. We decided we would go into the city centre and go to the National Portrait Gallery which was closed when we were here last September. Like its cousin across the street, the National Gallery, the NPG is huge. We covered only a small part of it, but chose the 19th century portraits of famous people, the Tudors, some famous 20th century people, some WWII portraits and colonialism. That was enough. It was educative and fascinating to see famous portraitists of the time paint the Kings and Queens of England which gives us as close to a photograph of them as we might get. I snapped a few pics but they don't do the subject or the portrait itself justice.

    Time for a beverage, so we returned to last year's watering hole, the Chandos, where we sat upstairs in the Opera Bar and cooled ourselves with a beer. It's really hot here right now. The sun beats down and the fair skinned will easily burn.

    A quick look for me through the St Martin in the Fields Church which was open. Stunning low hanging simple chandeliers down a centre aisle, surrounded by dark wooden panneling, and an ornately decorated white ceiling with a giant Dieu et Mon Droit arms at the front. I think the famous classical music Academy of St Martin in the Fields must perform there as their home base? Not sure of that. Anyway, very glad I saw it.

    The church overlooks Trafalgar Square, so it's hard for two Australians not to wander over and look at Nelson's Column and the fountains and lions. It's pretty splendid to be sure. From there, we hightailed it back home to rest and then head out to Brewdog, a local where we ate burgers and a small enamel cup of chips washed down with craft beer served to us by a young guy from Melbourne. Very nice.

    So full were we that a post-prandial stroll around the district inevitably took us to the brutalist Barbican. I did not know what to expect, but seriously, this is something I have never seen before. The Barbican is a huge living complex of towers and rectangles and circuses and crescents, floor after floor. It is dark and ominous and it looks like it would be right at home in Gormenghast or Soviet Russia. Yet, it has a long common with pools and fountains and eateries, people milling and lolling about drinking champagne and wine and full of discussion. I still can't make the whole thing out.

    A lovely walk home and a relaxed evening awaits us.    Okumaya devam et

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