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Sojourn Britannia

August - October 2022
We'd plannedthis trip for September 2020, but the Covid_19 pandemic put paid to that, so we're trying again now in September 2022. Read more
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  • Sojourn Britannia
    Day 1

    Getting Out of Town

    August 27, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    I write this first footprint sitting in Smithy's Bar at Rydges Hotel Sydney International Airport on the afternoon before our flight. It's been a huge challenge just to get here. Not that getting from Newcastle to Sydney was a huge deal, that was pretty straightforward. A bus from Waratah into the Newcastle Interchange, a train to Sydney and a further bus trip out to the airport where we've showered, bought chocolate and have just ordeded a coffee. A drink will follow shortly.

    No, the lead-up to our holiday has been pretty full-on for both of us. Lots of stuff to deal with, some personal stuff, some house stuff (we're buying new sofas) and a hell of a lot of preparation to leave my Practice for a month. My clients, my staff, my contractors, my intern. You can't just decide to leave town for a month, even for a week, without some fairly serious planning in a job like mine. Anyway, it's all done. And I could not be happier to jet off with my man across the seas on our first trip to the UK.

    There's a funny ambivalence comes upon me while packing for a big trip like this. It's a feeling like you're leaving all the comforts of your home and life to set out for a series of minor discomforts; living out of a suitcase and clear sandwich bags full of toiletries and medicines for example. At the same time, there is a feeling of excitement and exhiliration. Travelling by bus into the Interchange, I could still feel the pull of Newcastle, but now that I'm at the airport, that feeling has receded. And I'm feeling excited and so so looking forward to our discovery of the UK together.

    As we are both writers, we will of course be writing our journey as well as experiencing it. I'll do some FindPenguins footprints, maybe not every day, but many days, and I'll try to share the journey with you, those who are interested in following along. See you in the next footprint. For us now, a long flight ahead to Singapore then London.    Read more

  • Sojourn Britannia
    Day 3

    Getting There

    August 29, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Our journey to get to the UK was always going to be epic. Just how epic, we could not have known. We started at 4pm Sydney time and flew to Singapore, an 8 hour flight, disembarked, re-emabarked, then flew onto London. Another 13 hours. With time sitting in the plane on various tarmacs, we were a full 24 hours of non-stop travel. That is a very long time. We arrived in London 4pm Sydney time the day after we left.

    What can I say about Economy class? Or cattle class as it is commony called. It's expensive enough to fly to the Northern Hemishere, but crammed in with strangers, with tray tables down, feeling like you've been concreted into position, it really is a challenge like no other. Every muscle aches, back sore, buttocks in anguish, thighs seriously considering giving up the ghost, head pounding, and during the pandemic, we're all wearing masks for the entire time. Good grief, I think Hannibal's troops crossing the Alps with the elephants in 218 BC had an easier time of it.

    I helped pass the time by listening to music, a selection of favourites I chose before I left. And also watching the movie, The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren which I thorouhgly enjoyed. I also watched three episodes of The Gilded Age starring Christine Baranski set in early America when wealthy families owned and ran New York. Lots of class prejudice, new money vs old money, that kind of thing.

    The flights however were smooth, and getting through Customs at Heathrow an easy stroll, although Chris' new moustache did trick the Passport computer which didn't recognise him, necessitating a human to human contact. Unfortunately, due to a stupid mess-up by me, our apartment in Vauxhall was not available for us to access till 3pm. So, we've had to kill time since a 7am arrival when all we needed (desperately) was a shower and a small sleep.

    But we're here. We're safe. Hello London.    Read more

  • Sojourn Britannia
    11
    Day 4

    You Can't Go To London and Not See ___

    August 30, 2022 in England ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    Today was a big day. I'm at the end of it and my feet are telling me, "that's it, no more, you're not doing that again".

    Chris and I both ran out of life after our long journey here about 7.30pm last night. I was struggling to keep my eyes open to watch the news and knew instinctively to give up and listen to my body. Chris too. We were both in bed by about 8pm. I woke once at 2am and went off back to sleep by 2.30 and slept through to 7am. A relatively calm and deep sleep. Almost eleven hours.

    We started the morning by a walk along the Thames to find coffee. Our building overlooks the river, and I have come to understand now that I've seen it, just how important the Thames is to the life of London. It is the life-blood of the city, running through the middle of it, with plenty of London on both sides of it banks. Sadly no coffee just where we were, so settled for a Pret a Manger coffee near our building. Not great.

    After a wrestling match with the vanity plug in the bathroom, where it won the first round, and I won the second, Chris went off to the barber for a beard trim and shave, and I met his parents, Graham and Jo, who are also over here right now on their way to Spain for a grand adventure. We planned it so that we'd have a few days of overlap so we could do London stuff together.

    After Chris returned, looking very spiffy indeed, we all Tubed it into the city where we spent some time at Trafalagar Square, looking at the Square, Nelson's Column, which is much grander in real life than it is on television or in pictures, then went to the National Gallery to start with coffee and onto a few of its wondrous galleries. Standouts for me were Holbein's The Ambassadors that Chris did an hommage to some months back, a portrait by da Brescia of a young hottie, Count Fortunato Martinengo (1540), who I thought was just so handsome I couldn't resist, and many many more.

    But my favourite from our visit today was a famous painting that I first came across when at boarding school at about age 14, the portrait of the Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck, painted in 1434. It is so clever because van Eyck put a mirror on the back wall and painted the backs of of the bride and groom as well. I was actually just about to leave the galleries and go to the shop when I saw that they owned the van Eyck and so galloped into that gallery to take a look. It was just wonderful to see it, one of my favourite images of all time, right there, the real thing, in front of me. Takes me back to my teen years when living in the Monastery. My photo, like van Eyck's mirror has a reflection of my camera in it. He would be proud I think.

    The National Gallery is so vast, it would take a week to go through it all. I'll just have to come back.

    Lunch beckoned, so we headed across the way to a pub close by, The Chandos, which must have a history of entertaining the opera world (Covent Garden is just a few blocks away) as it had lots of opera posters and composers on its walls. A hearty pub meal of a sausage sandwich with caramleised onion and mustard with a side of chips and a Taddy Lager to wash it all down was just the thing. My first British pub was an opera pub. Who would have thought!

    Tiring, we decided to walk down the Mall, through Admiralty Arch to see the grand vista of the Victoria Memorial statue with its golden angel of victory atop and an imposing Buckingham Palace behind it. I've seen other people peer through the gates of the Palace all my life, but never really thought about when I might do that. Well, today was the day. It is very grand. Of course, it was meant to be. Built in the time of a young Queen Victoria when Britain's Empire still existed, it was designed to show the glory and might of Britain. I must say that even as the Empire faded, Buckingham Palace itself could do with a good scrub.

    Standing there in front of these golden crowned gates, it was hard not to think of the Republican debate back in Australia. Is it still okay to have a British monarch, the titular head of the English class system, as Australia's Head of State? I don't think so. England is not mother-England anymore, and hasn't been for along time now.

    A Tube back to Graham and Jo's digs to relax and unwind, with a surprise view of The Tower of London and Tower Bridge when you come up out of the Tube Station as a bonus. Then home to relax after a big day. You only get to do these kinds of days when you're a tourist. They're not quotidian things, but special. A day I'll remember.    Read more

  • Sojourn Britannia
    Day 5

    Chris' Birthday

    August 31, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Birthdays are always special. Having one in a foreign country is even more so. Chris woke up today the age of 45 not in Newcastle but in London. I gave him his birthday card, purchased at the National Gallery the day before (a Monet painting of Westminster Palace from Westminster Bridge), and we headed over Vauxhall Bridge to Millbank for coffee at Cafe Soceity, run by a pocket rocket Italian learning to speak French. Two coffees each and a shared croissant and we were ready to start our day.

    We had agreed back in Australia that I would buy Chris a birthday present in London. He had wanted a new cologne, so he did some on-line searching and found Blooms Perfumery in Covent Garden. This part of London is famous for its opera house of course, but also for its up-market shopping among streets and criss-cross laneways. Blooms was in one of these latter. Finding it was easy and upon entering, we were met with a world of diffferent fragrances.

    Chris was in his element. He has actually read up on the science behind perfume making and knows how to speak the language. Not speaking perfume myself, I left it to him and the lovely shop assistant Sarah to make their way through the various scents and their idiosyncratic notes. Chris was successful coming away with, not only his birthday present from me, but also three little samples of ones that made the cut but were outdone by his final choice. Very neat.

    Graham and Jo's present to Chris were tickets at the Harold Pinter Theatre near Piccadilly for the Checkov play The Seagull starring the mother of dragons herself Emelia Clarke. Also starring was one of Chris' favourite actors Indira Varma whom he was even more excited to see than the billed star.

    What can I say? A wonderful performance by an ensemble cast with leads all taking us to Checkov's world. The Seagull is not for the faint-hearted. It is quite a depressed story of relationship dysfunction and spurned love with a bit of theatrical introspection as to the nature of art and creativity. Still, the darker side of the human condition is not to be ignored for Disney all the time. It's good to get down into the mess and process it sometimes. We joked at Intermission that I had seen each of the characters in my Practice many times. A great play by a great playwright and a tour de force performance, I know Chris will never forget it.

    Dinner at at an up-market Italian restaurant, followed in Piccadilly Circus. This place is just wall to wall Massive Victorian architecture as far as the eye can see, the home of the theatre district, and a place full of people. It never stops. Such an energy and a vibrancy. Busy but friendly and welcoming. It's been lovely for the four of us to spend some more time together and for Chris to have such a very different birthday, one I dare say he will never forget.

    A look at the sunset over the Thames ended our day before retiring to our apartment for the evening.
    Happy Birthday my darling man - Love you xx    Read more

  • Sojourn Britannia
    Day 6

    Greenwich Happy Time

    September 1, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Today was our last day with Graham and Jo before they head off on their own adventure to Oxford and the coast for a few weeks before heading off to Spain. Although we are still jet-lagged, (yes, a 24 hour journey will do that to you) and therefore dog tired and still achy all over, we wanted this day to be special for all four of us, so we pushed on.

    Chris and I caught the river clipper to Greenwich. A lovely journey in a high-speed ferry that zig zags back and forth over the Thames to dock at piers on both sides of the river to pick up passengers. A few stops down the river, we picked up Graham and Jo and we enjoyed the view of the city the river affords.

    Greenwich is steeped in history. They have the Cutty Sark there, which we decided not go on this time, the Royal Observatory, the old Naval College, the old Seaman's Hospital, the Painted Hall, the Hospital Chapel and various maritime offices and sqaures and forecourts, all adorned in gigantic columns and declaring that the might of the British Empire was the might of the British Navy. There can be no question about it. The Empire was Naval down to its DNA. And the buildings here in Greenwich attest to that.

    But first, coffee. Cafe Rouge did the trick and we were ready for the day.

    The Observatory was fun. We all got to stand on the Greenwich Meridian. As the equator divides the world into northern and southern hemispheres, the Greenwich Meridian divides the world in to East and West. If you stand astride it, one leg will be in the East and the other will be in the West. Some incredible history at the Observatory around Halley and telescopes, and measurements and inventions. The building itself was part designed by Christopher Wren and opened in 1676. The views over the city of London are wonderful, even on a cloudy day.

    A short walk down the hill had us heading past the old Naval College, now a Maritime Museum (to be investigted on a future trip) to the old Hospital, Chapel and Painted Hall. You've gotta see this architecture to believe it. It just screams Naval might, power, majesty and invincibility. Columned corridors and squares all over, the two domes staring at each other as if to dare who could outshine the most.

    The Chapel is beautiful. Sick seafarers were supposed to go to services there every day. Its ceiling is understated in its beauty. The remarkable painting of St Paul shipwrecked on the Isle of Malta adorns the front panel and a beautiful pipe organ the back.

    The Painted Hall is a Sistine Chapel kind of thing. Its vast ceiling is painted to show off the glory and values of the King and Queen William and Mary. Trompe l'oeil is used to incredible effect to fake 3D throughout. It is very busy, very symbolic (we did a 30 minute tour to have it all explained) and very beautful. It was originally used as dining room. Now that's a fancy diner!

    All of us tired to the bone, we left Greenwich the richer for our visit and caught the train back to St Katherine's Docks (Graham and Jo's digs), there to enter the Dickens Inn for a late lunch early dinner pub meal and a good sit down. Apparently, it is owned by Dickens' grandson. Back at their apartment, another coffee and sad farewells, although we will keep in touch by social media, we will not see them again until their return to Australia in November.

    A wonderful way to spend the day and a very special time to share with family the fascination and fun of London.    Read more

  • Sojourn Britannia
    Day 7

    Westminster Abbey and Westminster Palace

    September 2, 2022 in England ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    Today was all about our visit to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. These are effectively next door to each other, so you finish one tour and your group just lines up for the second.

    Our Abbey tour was one and a half hours. Even though this sounds like a pretty good time for a tour of a very large church, it actually wasn't. Our tour guide Emily told us before entering that the Abbey is so full, so utterly choc a block with stuff that you have to be selective on what you stop and look at let alone read, otherwise you'll never get out again. She was right.

    Everywhere you look in Westminster Abbey, every nook and cranny has some memorial, some statue, some inscription, or some grave taking up residence there to the point that it can all be a bit intimidating. Emily told us that there are over 3000 graves in the Abbey so we were sure to be walking on graves no matter where we stepped. But the Abbey is beautiful.

    It is beautiful in its own way; ancient, colourful, interesting, arresting, awe-inspiring, and as an engineering feat, incredible. Its earliest parts are around 1000 years old.

    Highlights for me was seeing Newton's and Stephen Hawking's graves, Poet's Corner, where Browning, Hughes, Larkin, Dr Johnson, Chaucer among many others are all buried. Of course, there are the composers too; Purcell, Vaughan Williams, and Handel, this last a real treat for me.

    The vaulted ceiling is so high up, I don't think I've ever seen a cathedral ceiling so high. And it is stunning. The side chapels where various Kings and Queens are buried are very ornate. And the final exhibit was the coronation chair itelf which dates back to Edward the Confessor, the guy who built the Abbey in the first place. It's a plain old wooden chair, but every monarch since has been crowned upon it.

    Miraculouly, some might say, Westminster Abbey was spared the bombings during WWII, bar one incendiary bomb which burned straight through its landing site and landed on the floor far below, doing considerable damage, but not destroying the Abbey.

    After the Abbey, Westminster Palace, as the Houses of Parliament were origninally a royal residence. Unlike in the Abbey, no photography beyond the Great Hall was allowed, so I have only a few pics to share, but it was a delight. Of especial interest was the process by which the monarch of the day arrives once a year, vests ino full regalia, is recognised by the Lords as he or she passes between them all lined up, then processes into the House of Lords to give the Queen's Speech from the golden throne, a piece of wonderful significance and it must be said, theatre, many of us will have seen televised.

    A half hour before the end of our tour, police and security men came running through the building and told us all to evacuate. So, just as our guide Luke was warming up his House of Lords speech, we were ultimately all ushered out of the deep interior and we missed going into the House of Commons. Damn! I was looking forward to that. Before the explanation for the evacuation, I also want to add that much history was offered as we progressed through the building, the edifice itself and its own history helping to shape the history of the nation, including Magna Carta, women's suffrage, the Abolition of Slavery, Cromwell, Guy Fawkes etc. Fascinating stuff.

    Turns out that some climate activists from Extinction Rebellion had absconded from a tour and had super glued themselves to the Speaker's chair in the Commons. Some had scaled ramparts outside. Police everywhere, and teleision cameras. I watched it on the news at night, and thought, wow, I was there.

    I wish I could have finished my final 25 minutes of the tour, but all in all, it was wonderful. I would go again.    Read more

  • Sojourn Britannia
    1
    Day 7

    More Pics The Abbey and Parliament

    September 2, 2022 in England ⋅ 🌧 21 °C
  • Sojourn Britannia
    1
    Day 8

    Renewing Friendship

    September 3, 2022 in England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Today was a day of rest for me. I laid around the apartment reading the newspapers and catching up on Twitter goss in the early morning while Chris was writing, and then as luck would have it, my friend from my teaching days, Susanne Scott, a former Novocastrian, was free for coffee.

    Susanne and I go back to my St Philips teaching days. Neither of us have great memories of those years in that workplace, although obviously some. The work ethic of a fundamentalist school is not great. I describe it is some detail in a book I'm hoping to get published, so hang on to your horses till then.

    But, Susanne and I hit off straight away. We are both musos, she, voice, and me piano. Susanne won Gordon Boyd's 'Showcase' way back when. And we both taught English together at St Philips. We also put on the school's first ever musical; an effort that was both enjoyable and incredibly draining. And finally, back in my churchy days, Susanne and I did a series of tv commercials for NBN 3 for the Combined Churches crowd.

    Today, we met at Victoria Station and over a few coffees and a tasty pastry each, we caught up, reminisced, mentioned this one and that one, and chatted about the future. Wonderful. While there, her daughter, whom I taught for a short time, rang to tell us that she had found the audio to the NBN 3 Earthquake Anniversary show where Susanne and I did the Via Dolorosa - the way of suffering. Georgina sent through the audio and we listened to part of it at the table. I've got to tell you, it was good. Susanne has a beautiful voice and I played pretty good piano. She reminded me that we recorded it at the studio in one take. I had forgotten.

    Home in the afternoon and a relax, before Chris and I went out, in fact back to Victoria, to have dinner out. Fabulous meal. After it, we strolled down to Buckingham Palace just down the road on a post-prandial and joined various gatherings on the Victoria Monument, the great giant statue of Queen Victoria with golden angel atop in front of the Palace. Just next to the inscription below the old broad, 'Victoria Regina Imperatrix', we had a kiss right under the golden angel to show our love is the equal of anyone else's and that the homophobic values of her Empire were rubbish. And a nice kiss it was too 😊

    A lovely day.    Read more

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