Experiences: Highclere Castle

And getting straight on from the Harry Potter Studio Tour, that evening my Mum and Dad arrived and the following day, the Sunday, Mum and I headed out to a castle about an hour drive from London.

It was Highclere Castle, better known to many people as Downton Abbey! This castle is a 'living' castle, in the sense that people still live and work in it (residents as well as servants), and now it is a home, and also has open days, takes tours, serves afternoon tea, has an exhibition, and of course a gift shop! I have been rewatching the series lately and that really helped me to really feel the moments I have seen while exploring the castle.

Even just arriving was delightful. We came up the long driveway (playing the soundtrack, of course) and around a corner just as Highclere came into view. It was gorgeous and took my breath away! The driveway is long and we parked in the carpark before walking onto the grounds proper and up the crunchy gravel driveway. The approach to the castle is exactly the same as in the show, with the main door standing open as we arrived. The only downside was that you can't take any photos inside the castle...

We went pretty much straight to the door as our tour was starting in only a few minutes! They took our coats on entering to hang them until the tour had ended, but then we were straight into the main hall - and straight away Mum and I were oohing and aahing at the location we recognised from the show! In all the rooms they had used for filming they had stands up showing production photos taken during filming, showing the cast and crew and where they had been. I really appreciated this insight into what rooms were used for which episodes.

Once everyone had arrived into the entrance hall, we were split into 3 groups to start our tour. We went first to the Georgian staircase, where we got a brief history of the castle. There had been a building there for hundreds and hundreds of years, and the house had belonged to Lord Porchester (including the Lord Porchester known as 'Porchy' who was friends with the Queen), before being passed on to the second son, who was Lord Canarvon. Different pieces of the castle belonged to different eras going back as far as Georgian times.

We then headed up the stairs and around the landing at the top. This is where we saw many of the bedrooms that had been used in filming. We saw the Mercia Room, which was used as Lady Grantham's room while filming. We also saw Lady Edith and Lady Sybill's rooms, and the room which they carried the body of poor Mr Pamuk into after he died. It was also used by some of the real life royals who had visited and stayed at Highclere. Unfortunately, the main bedroom used in Downton Abbey, Lady Mary's, was not filmed at the castle. Due to the filming schedule of Joanna Froggatt, who played Anna her lady's maid, that bedroom was on a set in London. The same is true of the kitchens (although given they're still used today that's probably a good thing!).

To get downstairs we descended the main staircase in the house, the one which they always walk down in the show. It was created with the steps at the level where you look like you 'float' down the staircase. I emulated Lady Mary on her wedding day by floating down the stairs to Mum and asking her, 'Will I do?' It was quite lovely.

Downstairs, we went into the drawing room, and the library, which I instantly recognised. Funnily enough, the first thing Mum and I both noticed was that the desk the Lord Grantham uses in the show is actually normally on the other side of the room to the show! That was when we learned that actually, about 80% of the set in the show is just Highclere itself - the paintings, the furniture, the writing desks... that was very interesting. Even the silver was from the castle stores! In the library we were also able to stand where Maggie Smith stood, by using the production photos to find the exact right piece of carpet and stand there too. The other room that was a real thrill to see was the dining room - almost everything was in the exact place and you could just imagine Carson the butler coming through the door with the letters on a silver tray.

After our tour, we were taken down to the Egyptian exhibition. One of the Lord Canarvon's had been on the expedition which had found King Tut's tomb in Egypt in the 1920s, and there is an exhibition about the trip, and showing some of the objects which they had found outside of that specific tomb. While I'm sure it was interesting to others, it was not the main reason Mum and I were here and by this time we were actually quite hungry for the next part, which was afternoon tea!

We were then led out to the out buildings, where afternoon tea awaited us. It was gorgeous, mini sandwiches, quiches, scones, cakes and the most delicious soup (curried vegetables) which I am now determined to recreate! We ate as much as we could, before heading out to the grounds for the golden hour to catch as many photos as we could before we lost the light! We got some gorgeous ones, and I even sat on the bench everyone uses on the grounds to contemplate and think.

The last stop was the gift shop, where we got our goody bags. They included a copy of the At Home at Highclere, written by the Countess herself which was signed. We even met the Countess at the shop and she personalised the books for us as well! I also got a lovely tote bag with a drawing of the castle on it and a beautifully smelling candle as well. Then we were headed back for the drive to Wimbledon, with the soundtrack playing all the way home.

Besties in Barcelona: Day 5

Onto our final day! We didn't have to check out of the hotel until 12, so after another late night we got ready and made sure we had everything before checking out, leaving our bags at the hotel and heading out for the day.

We headed to the Museum of Catalonian Art for the day, partly because it had lots to explore, and partly because of the air conditioning! We first explored the Romanesque works, most of which were originally on the walls of churches, and had been painstakingly removed and pasted into the museum. I was fascinated by the process and the conservation work which went into this process!

We had lunch in the museum cafe (sandwiches and French pastries, of all things), and we attempted to go in the art exhibit, which was a giant white bouncy castle! Unfortunately, they had closed it for cleaning so we missed out and we were very disappointed about that!

After eating, we went to check out the modern art. It was more my style, with bits of Gaudi and Picasso thrown in amongst the other names we didn't recognise. We didn't have as much time as we would have liked, because we had to leave to get back to the hotel.

We made it safely to the airport with plenty of time, but unfortunately the flight was delayed and we took off about 40 minutes later than we were supposed to. Once we were in the air we were glad to get home - and now Australians can use the e gates so it was very quick through to the arrivals gate and the train station!

In the end, I got home around 9pm, just in time for dinner and a cuddle before bed. I was hoping for cooler weather in London, but it's having none of it with 39 tomorrow!

Besties in Barcelona: Day 4

For day 4, we had a rather long sleep in, getting up around 10 and getting ready in a leisurely manner. While our aircon had apparently been fixed, I'm not sure it was much better and we haven't been sleeping well in the heat. And with another hot day ahead, we headed up to Park Guell to explore the outdoors.

It was great! We explored more than last time, although slowly, and we still weren't able to see the dragon. It turns out that the main part of the park (that you see in pictures and is actually the main entrance) is ticketed, and not only did we not want to line up to get one they were sold out! So I guess that's still on the list of things to do...

We did, however, go to the Gaudi House Museum, which I didn't do last time. It was really interesting to see the actual house he lived in and how austere his life was, especially compared to the sometimes ostentatious nature of his architecture. They had some of his furniture, and presentations which elaborated on his later life, which I didn't know a huge amount about so far.

By the time we were done, we headed away from the park and back to Las Ramblas. It was time for food! It was approaching 2:30 by this point and we were hungry, so we stopped in a restaurant for a late lunch, where I had a salad because it was so hot. I just couldn't bring myself to eat some hot food...

After lunch we headed over to the Picasso Museum, a totally new Barcelona experience to me. I didn't even know Picasso had lived in Barcelona! It was really interesting, given that what myself (like most people) know about Picasso is about his later more modern art. However, the museum covered his whole life and tracked the evolution of his works through his life, which I found interesting. I also hadn't realised that Picasso had used so many mediums - there were sculptures, photography and film, both by him and of him working, which was so interesting. I guess I hadn't realised quite how recent his life was, and the technologies he had at his disposal.

By the time we had finished there and returned to the hotel, it was 6pm and we were pretty shattered, so after a rest (trying not to melt under the terrible aircon), we decided to head back to Asian Ways for dinner given how yummy it was and how convenient the location was (less than 5 minutes down the road!). This time I had rice paper rolls and tempura prawns, and they were also excellent!

Before bed, we packed a little and I checked to find out that check out was 12pm! So not the rush I thought it would be in the morning.

Cultural Experiences: Wimbledon 2019 Day 6

Another year, another trip to Wimbledon for the tennis! It was just Jess and I this year, and we got to the queue around 5:15 to receive what I realised looking back was the worst queue number yet... Oh dear. But it seemed fine at the time. We napped our way through the morning and I spent about an hour total queueing for the bathrooms (kind of mental), and then about 10:30 we really started to move! On the way in I picked up my programme and got a free Wimbledon radio for having an Amex card. We then got in with our Grounds tickets (about 11:15), and headed straight to Court 17 to catch Sam Querrey playing John Millman, an Australian. We queued up for a while with some other Aussies (there were a lot and I talked to a few of them!) for a while, before getting in in time for the third set. It was nice to cheer on an Aussie, but unfortunately that was the final set as he lost shortly afterwards.

By that time it was just after 1pm, so we picked up some lunch and found ourselves a spot on the Hill to watch Ashleigh Barty play on the big screen (she was on Centre Court). I had a delicious sausage roll and Hibiscus ‘drink’ which was like sweet cordial and I loved! Ash dominated against Harriet Dart (from the UK) and beat her in straight sets with some great points. She really is an excellent player and I hope she can win Wimbledon this year!

After that we weren’t super sure which court we wanted to go and see. We wandered around, bought some balls from the second hand store (did that last year as well), went to the gift shop (candles again, I love the grass scent!) and went down to the Southern Village which is where the VIP area was last year (it seems like this year that its across the road instead). Robinsons, the squash/cordial brand, had a stand with their summer special flavour which is Strawberry, Cucumber and Mint. It was so good and we each bought a bottle which came filled with it, fresh strawberries and mint and free refills!

Then we decided to head over to Court 3, where the Bryan brothers were playing in the doubles. We stayed there for most of the match because it was excellent. Towards the end our plan was to leave and head to Court 12, where Ash Barty was due to play in the doubles with Azarenka, but play was suspended in the match two before theirs. It turned out that a spectator had had a medical emergency and even a defibrillator was needed so play got suspended for several ours and they had evacuated the court and the players. So with a match and a part of another before Barty was due to play we decided we weren’t going to be able to catch that one. There was also a mixed doubles which had Andy Murray and Serena Williams playing together, but at 5:30 that still hadn’t been scheduled on a particular court, so we decided to head home. We picked up our strawberries and cream (free with HSBC!) for the walk home along with a refill of squash.

Once we got home I checked the order of play and realised we had made the right call - the Barty/Azarenka match was rescheduled onto Court 2, which had already finished for the day, and the Murray/Williams mixed doubles was put onto Centre Court. With both of those ticketed courts, we wouldn’t have seen them anyway, so instead we watched the Barty/Azarenka match on iPlayer while eating Five Guys burgers for dinner. A lovely day had by all!

Hong Kong Holiday: Day Seven

This was our earliest morning we had had so far, getting out of the hotel by 9:30 and heading to the train, to Tung Chung (the end of the line). The train was very busy but the stop before ours was the interchange for the train to Disneyland and many people got off there so that was reassuring. We were headed to the Nyong Ping 360, a cable car up to a tourist village at the top of a hill on Lantau Island (we had changed islands while on the train to Tung Chung).

However, we were sorely disappointed. We had even booked our tickets online to try to make it a faster progress on to the cable car proper. But when we got there, the line was MASSIVE! I was so glad to have my Kindle, as I read a lot of my book and listened to a podcast while we lined up to collect our tickets and then lined up for the cable car itself. All up, we arrived at 10:30 to the queue, and we got on a cable car at 1pm. It was 2.5 hours!!!

The cable car itself was pretty cool though - it’s a 25 minute journey and we had booked the “Crystal Cabin”, which meant the cabin had a glass floor so we could look down as well as out. It was a very cool ride, although I couldn’t look down for long! At the top, there is a whole village of food and touristy places, so we started with lunch given the time. We ended up at Subway purely because it had the shortest queue. We were patiently waiting for someone to serve us when this chubby Chinese kid pushed in front of us, said ‘excuse me’ loudly and repeatedly and then ordered while we stood there, dumbfounded and shocked. We tried to say something, but they didn’t appear to speak English (or were pretending not to), which was frustrating and rude!

After our lunch, we decided to check out the fishing village nearby, as it was a bus to get there which finished running earlier than the cable car. So we waited about 10 minutes for the bus then stood as it swayed and bumped its way down to Tai O. It was gorgeous there, warmer and sunny. People ran shops out of their front rooms selling every kind of dried fish you can imagine as well as trinkets and treats. We got a voucher with our cable car ticket to a boat ride, which took us through the streets (well, canals) of water in between the houses. Almost all the houses in the building are on stilts in the water and we got to really admire them as we went through the village. Then the boat went out into the ocean, in the hopes that we would see a pink dolphin! However, it was about 2pm by then and bright and sunny, so we did not have any luck spotting anything other than seabirds. Then we wandered more through the village, got some delicious donuts to eat as we walked, and generally explored, before heading back to the bus back up to Nyong Ping.

Once back in Nyong Ping, we went to the monastery, which was beautiful. They apparently have a fantastic vegetarian restaurant there, but it was closed, so we just wandered through the temples admiring the buildings. Then we headed right up to the very top of the mountain, to what is probably the main attraction, a giant Buddha statue right on the top of the hill. It was so big and so welcoming, even though it was also closed by then. We were able to walk around though and admire his calm stillness. Despite not being spiritual, I really enjoyed the Buddha. By that time, it was about 6pm and we decided we’d better head back to the cable car to go home for dinner. However, many other people obviously had the same idea because the line was huge! Again, we waited in line while I read my book, and shivered in the cold breeze as the sun went down. I was only wearing a tshirt and shorts, and it was cold and windy. Not a very pleasant time!

This time it was only 90 minutes we were in the queue... Before we headed back to Tung Chung, and Central from there.We stopped at a place there called Tsui Wah (a kind of Chinese fast food place, a restaurant with a very extensive menu including Western food). We both picked noodle dishes, which were so yummy and after so much walking we were both very hungry! We were also tired though, because we then went straight back to the hotel and into our bed.

Hong Kong Holiday: Day Eight

I had one more day in Hong Kong - I flew out on Thursday evening (actually my flight got delayed and it ended up being very early Friday morning instead), late enough that I actually had time to spend doing things! I had another terrible sleep due to the bad bed and pillows, so gave myself some time to relax a little. I was also sore from lots of walking over the past week. So I wandered around Central for a little while before meeting Richard at his work for lunch. I got to request what I wanted for my last lunch - dim sum, obviously! So we went to a little place where we got some of our usuals (bbq pork buns, shrimp dumplings) and some new ones (pork and quail egg dumplings, which were quite delish!). Richard then had to go back to work, so I headed back over to Mong Kok to make good on some shopping I had been hoping to do a few days ago but hadn’t been brave enough to do. First I picked up a skirt from a store, which was a lovely layered grey skirt with silver stars on it. I saw lots of these styles of skirts in HK and luckily they have elastic waists, so will definitely fit me even though I’m not the same body type as most Asian women.

I also went back to the Ladies Market, where I had my heart set on a Michael Kors handbag. I have wanted one for a long time but couldn’t justify the cost when I already have nice handbags at home. However, I went in and looked at a bag before asking the price. I was quoted $380 (about 38 pounds), but here you haggle, and I had a price limit of $300. So I offered that, and the lady at the stall countered with $350. So I looked at it again, before saying it was too expensive and turning to walk away. But before I had taken a single step the lady grabbed me on the arm, saying ‘okay, okay’ and accepted my price. I was so pleased! I did have to go back, as she took out the long strap by mistake. I was worried that this was a ploy to get more money out of me, just for the strap, but it wasn’t and I got it with no trouble.

After all that tiring bargain shopping, I headed back to the hotel to chill, pack and shower. Richard and I had a quick dinner in the hotel before I headed to the airport. With my flight delayed, there was a lot of passing time, but after reading most of my book we eventually took off and I was on my way to Sydney!

Hong Kong Holiday: Day Five

Today Richard worked again (it is Monday, and for HK natives, the day before Chinese New Year), so again I had the day to myself. I therefore had a reasonably relaxed morning (sensing a theme? We’ve been staying out late and it’s taking its toll...) and left around 11 to head out to something I was a bit nervous about. My plan for the day included going to the jade market, however after reading some reviews it didn’t sound particularly pleasant for me (lots of stories of being corralled to stalls, you have to haggle, they put things on you to try and coerce you into buying things), so I decided to only go if I could go with Richard on another day. We shall see...

So I headed on the train from Central to Sham Shui Po, an area that is known for it’s fabric shops, haberdashery and craft stores. However, I did pick a not very good day to go, as I couldn’t seem to find the fabric stores. That was because none of the ones I found were open (I had a map made by a crafty person that was supposed to be reasonably up to date, but of course that didn’t take this into account which is fair). I did find a street with about 5 open stores, most of which were craft stores. I picked up some gorgeous appliques (a floral motif in turquoise and 9 butterflies) in one of them. There was also the loveliest ribbon shop which had every kind of ribbon you could imagine and more! Plus about 100 different styles of tiny bows (like for ladies underwear). I actually went in there first and picked up some plain black ribbon and some black velvet ribbon to hand-sew onto a dress I need to finish soon, then I returned because I couldn’t get the amazing range out of my head! On my return trip I picked up some navy ribbon for trims, some black and gold elastic for an elastic waist skirt, and some silver piping to use for trimming a future project. All for very reasonable prices!

After that I headed back to Central, intending to go straight to my next destination - however, I remembered that I hadn’t eaten, it was 2:30pm and I got suddenly hungry! So I went to Tim Ho Wan, a train station branch of a Michelin starred restaurant serving dim sum. They do incredible shrimp dumplings, and the most phenomenal baked bbq pork buns. I got nearly the last order of them for the day (they closed at 3:30 for CNY) and they were so delicious!!!

Then I headed back out to Causeway Bay to go to a book shop. I have decided that I am going to try and buy a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in the language of the countries I visit. I have Icelandic and Spanish from last year, and picked it up in Traditional Chinese today. It was just a little complicated finding a bookshop that had Chinese books in Central, as they all had mostly in English.

After that I felt like I needed a rest, so I headed back to the hotel to rest up until Richard finished work. He came up to the hotel when he finished and we discussed going to Wan Chai for the last night of the CNY night markets, but we were too tired to go out on the train, so we walked down towards Central until we found a good dinner place. We had roast again, and it was actually a little more expensive than we intended, but it was very tasty and I tried goose for the first tine which was yummy! Then back to the hotel to type up these blogs (written two tonight after our big night last night), and to bed before midnight for a change.

Hong Kong Holiday: Day Four

Richard was up early this morning to go on a bike ride with Rapha in the morning, so I was able to get a good sleep and do some knitting and such before he returned around half 11. He cycled around most of the island and reported that it was fantastic, if rather muggy. After he was ready, we headed into Central, caught the train out to Prince Edward station and then the no. 81 bus up to Kam Shan Country Park. This area is also known as Monkey Hill! A long time ago, people in the area had pet monkeys which they let go. Now... A hill full of wild monkeys! From the bus stop, there is an access road which also serves as the walking path. We took a detour off the path to the ‘family’ walking trail, which basically took us up a massive flight of stairs to the top of the hill. It was all quiet for a while, then you turn a corner and there are monkeys lying in the path! Mostly they were hanging out in pairs, picking off bugs, or just chilling around and in the path.

They have some rules when it comes to seeing these monkeys - firstly, do not bring plastic bags! The monkeys have been conditioned to recognise plastic bags and the sound they make and they associate this with food. So if they hear a plastic bag noise, they will run at you and try to get it away from you. We saw this happening to people up near the bus stop, and the monkeys were much more aggressive than I expected with those people. I actually had a little bit of food in a plastic bag, but I kept it tucked away inside my handbag and I didn’t have any troubles.

The monkeys are safest when they are relaxed, so another thing to avoid is staring at the monkeys. Of course, we were there to see them so that was hard, but there were certainly times where I just pointed the GoPro at the monkeys as I studiously avoided their gaze as I walked by. You could look at them, but at one point we stared a touch too long at a cute little one, only to have another monkey (presumbly its Mummy) start screaming at us, which made us jump and walk away very quickly! You can definitely look though. There were some splashing in the water, lots of grooming, babies playing in the trees, some of which seemed to have diseases, and even one old monkey who had lost an eye! It was so interesting to be so close although a little intimidating. But they’re clearly used to having humans around so there wasn’t much to worry about. 

After the family trail rejoined the main path, we turned back and headed back to the bus stop, the train and the hotel. We had just enough time to shower and change out of our sweaty things (it’s warming up now and quite humid during the days), before going back down to Central and catching the train down to Causeway Bay to meet up with my cousin Ben. He’s from Wagga Wagga in NSW but currently living in HK (and used to live in London too), and we catch up whenever we get a chance. He’s excellent to chat to and despite living overseas for years, has never lost his Aussie attitude. He picked an all you can eat hotpot place on the 29th floor, which also featured all you can drink! So we ate, and drank, and drank, and chatted, and went onto the terrace to drink and chat some more. It was so fantastic to catch up, and we were there until closing (6 hours all up!) before we headed home to flop into bed.

Hong Kong Holiday: Day Three

Over night I slept very badly, due to a combination of terrible pillows (classic 3 bears story - one was too soft, the other too hard), which resulted in me waking up at 3:30 and being awake for 2 hours. We had set alarms for 7:30, but before I'd even realised, Richard was poking me because we'd both just woken up and it was 10:40!! So we got ready to head to Macau anyway, as we figured it was the best day to do it, even with limited time.

We got onto the 1pm ferry with minutes to spare (and discounted tickets!) and headed over. We caught the ferry into Macau Taipa, which is closer to the old part of town, then a taxi closer to where we wanted to be. We started our exploring with one of the most famous sights, the ruins of St Paul's. There is only the front facade and some of the foundations left of this church, and it's remarkable, standing on the top of a hill surrounded by all this hustle and bustle. From there we went across to the next small hill where Mont Fort (mountain fort) stands. Again, only the edges are remaining, but it was a great spot to look over the city, and the Museum of Macau is in the centre of the fort.

Then we wandered more through the old part of town, where Richard sampled baked goods from stores, jerky which they seemed to be selling fresh at every shop, and bought some egg tarts (basically, Portuguese tarts, as Macau was originally a Portuguese settlement). I didn't partake as I spent most of the day not feeling well, I assume related to my lack of sleep. We walked all the way to the edge of the water on this side (Macau is split in half by water) where we arrived at the Wynn hotel and casino. We took a short walk through the casino before using their taxi rank to grab a taxi to the biggest casino in Macau - the Venetian.

The Venetian is also famous for having gondolas you can get rides on surrounded by a shopping mall. Richard had tried to find this on Google maps but confusingly hadn't been able to. We worked out pretty quickly why... It's all inside! All the blue sky in the photos is painted on. So it's a massive indoor shopping mall designed to look like Venice with gondolas you can go for a ride on, with many designer brands (a recurring theme after getting used to HK a bit). We walked around and did a bit of window shopping, but didn't actually buy anything except postcards. We walked all the way through the shopping centre to a different casino, the Parisian (they're all connected on this side of the road so you don't have to go outside to go to a different bit, convenient for the rainy season). 

The Parisian, as the name might suggest, has something in common with the real Paris - the Eiffel Tower. There is a half size one at the hotel/casino! We bought tickets to go to both the accessible floors, 7 and 37. Floor 7 at the base of the Tower had an ice skating rink for the winter, a cafe, and the lift. Floor 37 was the top viewing deck with the most amazing view over the rest of the casinos. They even had holes in the floor so you could look down at the lights on the Tower from above (I didn't like that much, but it did make for cool photos!) After going back down to 7, we sat on the terrace having an alcoholic drink and watching the lights, before deciding to find some dinner.

We actually ended up eating in the food court of the Parisian (japanese though, just for a change), before heading down into the casino for a spot of gambling.

The casino at the Parisian was bigger than I expected, and had lots of different games. There was a lot of slot machines and digital games, as well as traditional games like roulette, poker, and baccarat (which I have no idea about). We didn't play on any of the tables because they were all priced out of our range (the cheapest buy in was $300), so we picked a digital roulette game and put in $200 to play with. We just played until we were out of money (we did win a bit, but then kept going) before heading back to a taxi rank to get the get Water Jet back to HK.

We didn't get back until 11pm, so it was a late one, but it was also a late start, so that's okay. I enjoyed the casino time more than the old town, but I think that's just the kind of fancy lady I like to pretend to be!

Hong Kong Holiday: Day Two

For Day 2, Richard was working, so I had a lazy morning in, sleeping in, chilling in the hotel, and putting in some laundry of Richard’s for him. Richard and I were having lunch with Frankie at a dim sum restaurant of her recommendation, and it had an app with a digital queue. We were number 30, but the numbers went up quickly. It got to 20 about 12:15, so I headed down towards their work, however they had to run over to the restaurant (if you’re not physically there when they call your number you miss out) so I met them there instead. I think I’m getting the hang of these walkways!

Lunch was super delicious (food quality is clearly high in HK) - we had prawn dumplings, crab roe dumplings, bbq pork buns (love them!), spring rolls with prawn, and there was even more. Green tea to accompany, of course. Definitely worth the rushing.

After lunch Richard and Frankie had to return to work, so I decided to walk slowly back to the hotel and explore along the way. Frankie suggested Hong Kong Park, so I headed through the Paradise Place shopping centre to the Park. It is beautiful with lots of lovely lanscaping and fountains. I wandered through all of it, including the bird enclosures. Unfortunately the Aviary was closed, but it is due to reopen soon so I might try and go back later in the week. Then I wandered to its nearest neighbour, which is just across the road from out hotel... the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Park. It is bigger than HK Park but not quite as nice, although it does have quite a few kinds of monkeys and some meerkats you can visit!

On the way back to the hotel I found a supermarket, where I picked up some Pocky to snack on and a drink, then back to the hotel to chill for an hour or so until Richard finished work.

I met Richard back at his work just before 7, and we headed into one of the shopping malls to get me my belated birthday present - an Apple watch! So exciting, although I couldn't open it for hours while we went out afterwards. Then we caught the ferry across the harbour to Kowloon to watch the light show. Unfortunately we were too late to get access to the upstairs area where most of the speakers were, and there were lots of people talking downstairs so we couldn't hear the music very well at all, but the lights were very pretty regardless.

We wandered around the waterfront area for a while looking for somewhere to eat, but couldn't find anywhere that wasn't too fancy and/or too expensive, so we decided to head back into HK central and Richard suggested we go to a burger place he found when he had first arrived. When we arrived, Richard was greeted by the owner/chef, who remembered Richard from earlier in the week and seemed really pleased to see him again. The burgers were incredible (I had Frying Nemo, a catfish burger), and I also had garlic fries which came with truffle mayo and were so delicious! The owner and his wife were so chatty and friendly, they offered us recommendations for our time here, gave us a free drink, and even wanted our pictures for their Instagram! It was so lovely to chat to them and they looked after us so well.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel and set up my shiny new watch before going to bed. Up early to head to Macau for the day tomorrow!

Hong Kong Holiday: Day One

As a part of our crazy visa stuff, I needed to be out of the UK on the 30th Jan. So instead of coming straight back to Australia, we decided I would stay for a week in Hong Kong with El Husbando, who is currently working from there. So I had a chilled day on Wednesday getting ready, leaving the house spotless, and hanging out with Katya before I left. I was flying out of Terminal 5 at Heathrow which I had never done before, but with my boarding pass on my phone it was a super fast process and I was through security with a full 2 hours before my flight. I grabbed a Pret and a couple HP souvenirs (they have a Harry Potter shop there!) before getting the transit train to the C gates where I was due to depart from.

The flight itself was a bit disappointing, actually. After flying Qantas last time London - Perth, on a brand new plane, flying BA was a bit of a let down. The food wasn’t great (and there was no menu, leading me to choose pasta when the chicken looked much nicer - but the only choice we were given was “chicken” or “pasta”), the screen was tiny so I didn’t use it, and the plane itself was freezing the whole time! I did at least sleep pretty much the whole time between meals though, so that was something.

I landed in HK about 2:30pm, and easily made my way to the transit train to central (QR code ticket - so convenient). It was there I got very, very, VERY confused. I was supposed to be walking to Richard’s work to meet him (at the Hong Kong Club Building), which was only supposed to be 15 minutes away... But there were exits A through F, plus multiple malls, and when I got outside I couldn’t work out how to get where I needed to go! There are a lot of raised walkways above the road, it turns out, that I should have taken, but I only knew that after the fact. So I took one exit, then went back in, then out again, then back in, then found a helpful exit, then missed the pedestrian subway, then found it, then took the least convenient exit, then overshot the building by a block, then finally got to the right place! And all of this in humid 22 degrees in a sweater and long leggings... Fun.

Richard gave me the hotel key and directions - oh, it’s just up that road. Great - only that road is super uphill, and I have about 20kgs of stuff! I had to stop about 6 times and was extremely sweaty by the time I arrived at the hotel at 5pm. I unpacked a little, chilled (literally), and got ready to head back into Central to meet Richard for dinner. Downhill is much better than up. And by the time I got back outside it was perfectly pleasant and I was appropriately dressed which made everything much better.

I met Richard and we went for a wander around the quay area. HK is really pretty at night, lighting everywhere and a rabbit warren of paths and small staircases. We wandered around a while, just catching up, before walking past a place Richard had looked at online, called Wah Fung. They specialised in roast meat (pork and duck in particular), and was very reasonably priced so we headed in. We had a platter of pork and duck, some stir fry veg and bbq pork with noodles, all of which was super delicious and cost us just under 300hkd!

Then we wandered back to the hotel the long way (through the staircases and botanical gardens), where Richard was supposed to have a 10:30pm phone meeting, which luckily got cancelled so we could go straight to bed.

Day Out: Paris

On Tuesday I decided to head to Paris for the day (got the Eurostar for 29 Euro each way and eveything!) before heading to Hong Kong. I was originally scheduled to be on the train leaving around 8am, but some trains were being cancelled due to the predicted snow in France and Belgium, so instead I left St Pancras at 7am. That was rather early when you factor in being there an hour before you leave and it taking an hour to get there, but oh well.

I arrived around 10:30 Paris time, to find it grey and freezing, but with no snow to speak of. I do think that was better though for me, given I walked everywhere for the day. I headed first to a sweet little knitting shop near Forum les Halles called Lil Weasel. Having just bought some yarn from Australia while I there over Christmas, I couldn’t really justify buying any more at the moment. But I was able to pick up some knitting needles which I had been wanting and couldn’t find in person near our place in London. I feel like it is a little hard given I don’t speak enough French to hold a conversation, but I do do my best.

I had only about 3 hours, I figured, before I would have to start heading back to Gare du Nord for my return journey. I decided to go to the Louvre, before I looked it up on Maps for directions - only to find that it being Tuesday, the Louvre is closed. So I looked up which other museums would actually be open on a Tuesday and it tunrs out, most of them but not the Louvre.

My choice then was inspired by the second series of Marvellous Mrs Maisel, in which they went to Paris and particularly the Rodin Museum. So I went there. It is only a short walk past the Musee d’Orsay, but I had never been there before. On the way over I picked up an extremely fresh baguette with ham and cheese, which was still warm it was so fresh, not to mention super delicious! I bought my ticket and wandered straight into the sculpture garden, where I sat in the garden to eat. I do wish it had been more than 2 degrees though!

I actually found the Rodin museum super interesting. He had a pretty regular life, but surrounded himself with amazing creatives and did so much more than the few sculptures you might know him for. He was also a beautiful painter and they had many of his tests and steps towards the major sculptures. Of course, I did also see the major works - the Thinker, Burghers of Calais are the ones I know the most, but his work is so realistic. In fact, for one of his early sculptures he was accused of taking a mould to copy rather than sculpting it himself! While there I bought a cute mini tote to carry in-progress scarves (an A5 size) with Rodin on it. Perfect for the knitting I’m bringing back to Hong Kong and Australia while I’m back!

Before I’d even realised, it was time to head back over the Seine to Gare du Nord. I stopped in the station to pick up a few macarons (I should have done it elsewhere though, I forgot the ones in the station aren’t the best). Then it was back on the train to get back to Wimbledon and my sweet kitten for one more night. Next up, Hong Kong!

Cultural Experiences: Old Bailey

Last week I went with my friend Jess to the Old Bailey. You can go into the public gallery and watch court trials in progress. It's an amazing experience which fascinated us both and we enjoyed it immensely.

We left our phones at a real estate agent down the road, headed to security and promptly got rejected for having other electronic devices (power banks, my fitness watch...) So we went back to add more things to the checked items, even our headphones!

The second time we got in, however we were told that because it was August it was relatively quiet. The first floor (there are 4 courts on each floor) there were no courts in session, so we went up to the next floor and sat in Court 8, where they were getting ready to start a trial. However, we had barely sat down when we had to stand up for the judge to leave as they had adjourned for about 40 minutes. We went outside and up another floor, where there were two courts in session, but the public galleries were full! We waited, but nobody was leaving so nobody could go in. We ended up back downstairs in Court 8 at 11am.

It was a trial of Gary Walker, who was accused of making threats to kill and assault by beating his stepfather. Essentially it seemed to be a tenancy dispute over who got to live in Walker's mother's house after her death. It was an interesting snapshot of the case - they swore in the jury, gave opening prosecution argument, had the first witness (the stepfather, who gave evidence from behind a curtain), cross examined, re examined, then sent the witness and jury away. At this point the defence barrister asked about prejudice, as the witness had said things that implied the defendant had been in jail before. He had, but that was still not to be mentioned as it was 10 years previous and not relevant. So they decided they couldnt get past that prejudice, then they called the jury back in and dismissed them! They warned the witness about what had happened and not to do it with the next jury. Then they stopped for the day around 2:30.

After that we went back upstairs, where we got into one of the two courts running (I think it was Court 12), where they were questioning the defendant in a murder case. Interestingly, he didn't seem to speak English, so he had an interpreter in the box with him. It looked hard for the barristers as they had to ask their complex questions in different ways and in multiple parts. The jury in this case had booklets with photos of evidence and locations which they kept referring to and which we were trying to see from up in the gallery! After a bunch of questions, the barrister said he was going to ask questions about written testimony, and they broke for the day at 4:20.

I don't know the results of the trials we watched, only that the first is finished and finished on Tuesday, and I believe that the second is still running.

Jess and I are going back next week, we enjoyed it so much. Such a great insight into the legal system for anyone interested... Just be warned, there is quite a lot of downtime. It is exciting, just kind of in slow motion. Well worth it though!

Cultural Experiences: The Postal Museum

Today my friend Karla and I headed up the Northern line to Angel and jumped on a bus to the Postal Museum. It is in two parts - the Mail Rail section is in the ground floor of the postal sorting building (Mount Pleasant district office) and the Postal Museum proper is across the road in a separate building. When you buy tickets, you get both and the time you choose is simply for the Mail Rail. The Museum is accessed with a separate ticket but is not timed and valid all day for the same day as the Mail Rail.

We had 10:55 tickets and so went straight to the Mail Rail section. We arrived at the entry line at 10:53 after browsing the shop to kill time, only to watch the train pull away without us! Luckily there is a train every 15 minutes or so we were able to get the next one. It is so small and a little claustrophobic, if you are that way, because you’re actually sitting in the old mail carts which had been converted with seats. You get to go on a journey through the tunnels, stopping along the way to learn more about the tunnels themselves, see the station platforms and watch movies they project on the wall about what it was like to work on the Mail Rail. It was so interesting!!!

There was also short exhibition which went along with the Mail Rail ride, which was about the way that it worked and maintenance they did on it. It was short but interactive and interesting too.

Then we went back out into the rain to see the main Postal Museum, which is just up the road and in a different building. We had lunch first at the cafe which was lovely, then headed in. It chronicled the way that British people communicated, from the invention of Mail (originally just for Henry VIII, the most selfish monarch), to boys on horses, through carriages and telegrams and the wars to cars, advertisements and newer updates. They had a booth showing the promotional (if psychedelic) films the GPO made in the 30s. There were lots of exhibits to look at, it was very interactive and I learned a lot! There was so much cool information to learn.

(First ever stamps)




(My favourite review of the Museum!)

Right at the end was a mini-exhibit about a boat that had been sunk by a u-boat during WW2 and which had been carrying silver and Mail, among other things. After years and years underwater, they recovered much of the boat and with it some of the letters and Mail it had been carrying. It had been preserved by the lack of oxygen and the pressure from being under water and covered in sediment for so long. We got to read the letters and learn more about many peoples lives. Again, fascinating!

The Postal Museum is a finalist for Museum of the Year this year, and I think it fully deserves it! I will be trying to vote for it. Anyone who reads this living in London, visit this museum. It’s been open less than a year but it’s incredible. Highly recommend.

Cultural Experience: Buckingham Palace State Rooms

Last Saturday, we went to Buckingham Palace for the annual opening of the State Rooms. This is the part of the State Rooms which is used when officials visit and for functions such as the Garden parties and ceremonies.

It was really interesting. We booked online and arrived from Victoria station just a few minutes late, but after picking up the tickets we still got in on time which was good. You go in the side entrance, but you get to see the entrance that royals and dignitaries use as you enter. Then you get to go through State Rooms, rooms which were built by Queen Victoria, banquet rooms, State Rooms, drawing rooms... many official rooms. They had all the usual furniture, my favourite of which was a gorgeous antique piano which was built especially for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert because they were both great musicians and used to play piano together. There was even a two-handed arrangement of a Mendelssohn composition which was arranged especially for them to play. Very cool.

Lots of the rooms were also filled with artworks. This year the State Rooms ‘theme’ was the art charities Prince Charles supports. There are three of them and because of that, there was an exhibition which features artworks from the different charities. They were great, but I think we were hoping to see more of the palace. There were even a couple of paintings by Charles himself of Balmoral, which I particularly liked.

It took us about an hour to go through the State Rooms and then we emerged into the bright sunshine of the gardens. There is a cafe at the end of the tour, where we got icecream made from cows at Windsor... It was delicious!

We took a wander through the gardens which were really lovely, and of course browsed the gift shop on the way out! We also converted our ticket into a year pass, but I don’t think we need to go again this year. As long as we go next year before August, we get next years for free!

Theatre Trip: Wicked! (And National Portrait Gallery)

WICKED

Apollo Victoria Theatre
Date: 1st August (Wednesday), 2:30pm
Seats: Stalls Row A 18-19

(With Karla!)

I had planned to line up for the day seats today on my own, but when on Monday Karla messaged me asking what I was up to and if I wanted to help her check off some of her summer to do list, I suggested she join me and we tick something else off together as well! So we met at the Apollo Victoria about 8:15, and were about 16 in the queue. Time passed very quickly when you have someone to talk to (and someone to hold your spot if you need to duck out of the line) and at 10 we went into the box office and snagged the last centre seats for the matinee, just as we had planned! We were on the right hand side of the centre block next to the aisle, such amazing seats with a brilliant view.

After picking up our tickets, we walked past Buckingham Palace, through St James Park to Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Gallery. Actually, this was a really cool gallery, with all the artworks arranged so that when you enter the gallery you go up an escalator to the top floor and then work your way down through the galleries, which go in chronological order. You start with the Tudors, some of the earliest portraits which are really cool to see people you read about in history books painted in portraits which were mostly done during their lives.

Then there's a room for Stuarts, 18th century, Victorians, 18th century, war era and contemporary. My favourite areas were the Victorian paintings of the royal family, it was really nice to see portraits of Victoria and Albert together! The contemporary one was really cool too, with portraits of Roald Dahl, Beatrix Potter and many other names I recognised. It was a really great way to kill the time.

After that we picked up some Pret for lunch, stopping on the way back through St James Park to sit and eat in the sunshine. Then back to the theatre to get a program (£8!) and our seats just in time for the show.

I noticed a few new things in this performance - you would think after seeing a show more than a dozen times, it’d get old! But I keep noticing new things every performance. In this show the main thing I noticed was their accents - they all seemed to be using a strange hybrid accent where some words were super British sounding and some super American. I found it odd and a little off putting if I’m honest. The Doctor Dillamond actor and Fiyero (Chris Jarman and David Witts respectively) were both quite new, having only started about a week and a half ago. Doctor Dillamond was excellent, but I didn’t like Fiyero all that much. He sounded too generic pop instead of musical theatre, and he didn’t actually hit all his notes, which was disappointing. 

I really enjoyed Madame Morrible (Melanie La Barrie) and the Wizard (Andy Hockley) - I have found in the past those roles have a tendency to get cast for actors who are celebrities (Bert Newton is a classic example in Australia), however I find those actors don’t often have enough of a singing voice to pull off the role properly and speak too much. But both of these actors really could sing and they only spoke what I believe they were meant to and sang more. The Wizard in particular was really effective, I thought. Nessarose (Rosa O’Reilly) and Boq (Jack Lansbury) were quite good. I did think Nessa was a tad subdued during the main part of the show but then in her solo she really went for it and it was amazing!

G(a)Linda (Sophie Evans) was great, she hit every note right and had great emotion towards the end. You could really tell that she has a great relationship with her Elphaba and gave a really heartfelt performance. But for me, the standout performer was Elphaba (Alice Fearn). She was the main reason I knew I had to come back and see Wicked again soon, as I heard her perform at West End Live and was blown away by her Defying Gravity. And her songs were brilliant, with new riffs I hadn’t heard before and really strong voice. She also was a great actress who showed a lot of small emotions and things which maybe weren’t noticed by the people in row Z, but we’re certainly noticed and appreciated by me! I’m quite pleased I got to see her perform in the role.

And the perk of a matinee is, I can still get home in time for dinner and playing with the cat! What a great way to spend a Wednesday.

Short Sojourn: Solo Paris Day 1

After such a terrible evening, during which I melted but also couldn't breathe because my whole face was blocked up, I slept terribly and let myself sleep in. Which meant that I didn't get up until after 10, but that's okay. First thing I headed to the Montmatre area of Paris, which was about a 45 minute walk from my hotel. My intention was for today to be fabric shopping day!

I started at Les Coupons de St Pierre, on the Place St Pierre. It is the biggest and linked to Marche Saint Pierre which is across the street. The coupons are precut lengths (mostly 3m) which are labelled with prices and ready to buy. Super convenient for people like me who want to buy fabric, but are terrible at French! I picked up a cut of poly which I think will make a nice slinky dress and maybe some pajamas, and a 2.7m cut of a gorgeous African wax cotton. I had actually looked for wax cotton last trip to Paris but at that stage could only find it in 6m cuts, which is way too much for one person! So I picked up those for €10 each.

Then I decided I was hungry and had lunch at the most convenient nearby place, which happened to be a McDonald's... Oops? It was tasty though and quick, which is what I wanted. Then I headed back up and went up what felt like a trillion steps up to the top of the hill to the Sacre Couer to check it out. When I had checked the opening times on Google I had read warnings about scalpers who the strings on you and then make you buy them, and being on my own I was worried about them, but I didn't even see anyone like that which was reassuring. There was no queue to get in, even! It is gorgeous inside and I spent a while admiring the gorgeous architecture before heading back down those many steps.

Back down the hill I noticed another coupon shop I hadn't seen before, Sacres Coupons on Rue d'Orsel. In there I found another few pieces, one of cotton and one poly, which weren't 3m cuts but were such lovely fabrics. They set me back another €25 for them both. And then, on my way back to the route to the hotel, I found in the "3m for €5" bin out the front of Les Coupons de St Pierre which had some lovely cotton in... So I got 2! Doing well then.

Then I headed back to the hotel to have a brief rest and drop off my purchases, before heading out for a walk in the opposite direction to a fancy sewing shop called Anna Ka Bazaar. They are known for their lovely curated selection and the line of fabric Atelier Brunette, which they make themselves. So I splurged on a length of Atelier Brunette sweater knit to make another Linden sweater like my favourite sweater from last autumn.

On my way back to the hotel I stopped at a patisserie to pick up some macaroons for dessert, and dropped those and my purchases back in the hotel again (they are delicious, by the way). Then I headed out to dinner to a creperie nearby which I had noticed the evening before. I had ham and goats cheese for main, and honey and lemon for dessert with homemade lemonade, which was delicious and also hopefully helped me with my cold as well. I took my friend Bri's advice and brought my Kindle with me to dinner which was great advice which I will do again, it helped pass the time without being on my phone.

Now I'm settled back in my room, nibbling my macaroons and typing this up. Then Netflix before bed! Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight...

Amazing Experience: Wimbledon (again)

On Friday, I got a phone call. I had entered a competition a few weeks back by downloading an HSBC app to my phone. What had I won? Oh, only Centre Court seats at Wimbledon for the Women's Final!!!

So we got all dressed up (because it's guaranteed Centre Court seats on a final day, so who knows how many famous people you might see?), and headed to Wimbledon station all leisurely like around 10:30. There was a special HSBC shuttle (a Jaguar) to drive us over to Gate 9, which is where the entrance to the VIP Village is with all the hospitality chalets (their phrase, not mine) is. We were greeted with Pimms and champagne, which we drank on the deck as we chatted about the day and waited for lunchtime. There were cameras around filming people as they chatted, including us, which was a bit of a strange experience.

Lunch was served at 12pm, and it was amazing! We got to pick which and starter we wanted (Richard and I both had king prawns with mayonnaise and cucumber) which was totally delicious, and then luckily instead of having 7 mains and 4 salads to choose from, we had the main course buffet style! I had some poached salmon, pulled ham hock, kung pao duck and a few savoury tarts as well as bread. Everything was delicious. It was then almost 1pm, and with the men's semi final set to resume at 1, we got our goodie bags (with seat cushion, Wimbledon radio and pockets for snacks) as well as cold water, Pimms and Haagen Daaz and headed to the court.

Our seats were in section 317, which is actually quite close to the Royal Box. We could see Meghan Markle, Kate Middleton and even Emma Watson in the box! We did miss the first point though, so we had to wait until the end of the first three games before we could go to our seats. The tennis was amazing - they both clearly wanted it so much and there was some amazing rallying going on! As I'm sure you know, Djokovic won but it was a close thing and some amazing tennis got played. We were so pleased and feel so lucky to have been able to see that as well as what was to come.

The men finished playing at 3:35, so they announced a half hour delay before the start of the women's. So we returned to the hospitality area for some afternoon tea of little sandwiches, cakes and scones. Then, armed with fresh Pimms and cold water, was returned to our seats. Again we missed the first three games (although 3 games in the ladies is much faster than 3 games in the mens) but it was a very interesting match to watch after the men's. Serena didn't seem to move around very much and barely ran at all- but she didn't look injured, only tired. Kerber had some strange footwork which meant some of her shots she had to crouch to hit because her feet weren't in the right position, and she seemed to be the queen of getting back shots she shouldn't have been able to return! In the end, it was a straight sets win to Kerber for her first Wimbledon win. It was really cool to be able to watch that experience for her.

We stayed to watch the presentation of the awards, then headed back to the hospitality area to pick up our gifts - personalised Championship towels for each of us! A very cool memory and an amazing experience! Definitely once in a lifetime... Although I hope not.

Day Out: Wimbledon 2018

It's Wimbledon season! And this time around, we actually live much closer (like a 30 minute walk) to the grounds! So, after I finished work on Friday (I'm now on Summer Holidays, YEAH!!!) I headed home and tidied up the flat so that Jess could come over! She went to the Protocol boat party, then headed over but we didn't get to bed until midnight... So we got less than 4 hours of sleep before getting up at 3:45.

We left the house around 4:30 and walked to the Queue, which unfortunately means going the long way around the park but meant that we arrived around 5:15am. We got our queue cards and guides and joined the queue! We were numbers 03551, 03552, and 03553, which is better than Jess had last year on the Saturday (8th July), but worse than when I went on the 7th last year (which was a Friday). There wasn't much playing games in the queue, we were all so tired after the week (and in my case, going out on Friday to celebrate the summer holidays!), so we mostly just chatted and napped until te morning was up. We first moved about 7:30 to squish up the queue after all the tents had been packed away, then again at 9:00 when the queue started to move out of the field. By 9:30 we were moving properly and the queue moved faster than I remembered from last year. Queue highlights included free swag - strawberries from the Estee Lauder team and a free tennis ball jam doughnut from Doughnut Time and Amazon Prime (I'm sure they'd want me to tell you that the US Open is exclusively live on Prime in return for that delicious doughtnut!)

We were at the main gates and getting our tickets by 11 - we had hoped to maybe get a Centre Court seat between us, but there were only grounds tickets left by that point. That was fine, we'd sussed out the draw while in the queue and headed to Court 3 (after getting ourselves a program of course) to watch Ashleigh Barty (an Australian) play in the ladies singles. She was playing Daria Kasatkina, and was doing really well in the beginning of the first set - until towards the end of it she was broken against. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the end for her, as she never really recovered from that break and lost 7-5 6-3.

Then we decided it was lunch time as it was almost 1pm. We picked up lunch from one of the food areas (burgers and chips for Richard and Jess, chicken teriyaki for me, with lots of cold drinks) and sat on the Murray Mound to watch Nadal playing on the big screen while we ate.

After that we decided it would be a good time to go for a wander, browse the shop and do a few other things. We started with the shop, and picked up a few souvenirs - a Gentlemen's Championship towel for Richard, a mini sports towel for us (now our hand towel in the bathroom), and the mini candle set (3 - fresh cut grass, strawberries and fizz, and english rose scented) for me. Richard also got a special plastic beer glass which he got with beer in it from the bar and brought home. Then it was just before 3pm, at which time 2 things happen - resale tickets for Centre Court and Courts 1 and 2 go on sale, and they have a sale of used championship balls (as in, the balls that go away when the call 'new balls' and make the ball changes!). So Richard stayed in the ball resale queue, and Jess and I went to the ticket resale queue. We had only just arrived though, when they said that there weren't any, and to come back at 6pm. Oh well. So we rejoined Richard and bought a can each (one for us, one for Jess) of used championship balls. They are labelled with 'Slazenger Wimbledon 2018' on them, and even had bits of authentic Wimbledon grass attached to some!!! They even come in a specially branded tin. We have decided to set aside 1 of the 3 balls to be a permanent souvenir, and the other 2 are going to be special cat toys!

Then we picked up some strawberries and cream (free to HSBC cardholders like myself and Jess), and headed to Court 6, but the queue was massive. So we went to Court 18 instead where there was another Australian lady playing. Daria Gavrilova (#26 seed) was playing against Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus. It wasn't a close match (6-3, 6-1), but was still interesting to watch, especially to see someone get aggressive. Gavrilova threw her racquet, challenged a call, and even got an obscenity warning before the match was over!

That was the last match scheduled for that court, but there were extra matches on the schedule. These matches are apparently not given to any particular court, but filled in as courts are finished for the day. Richard was keen on seeing some Men's Singles, but we didn't want to move courts as we had good seats, so instead we stayed as Men's Doubles was on next! It was a fabulous match - Brits Liam Broady and Scott Clayton against Maximo Gonzalez and Nicholas Jarry (both from countries in South America). It was really good tennis - fast paced and exciting. There were a few body hits, challenged calls which were correct, and at one point the umpire overruled a linesperson. Unfortunately one of the body hits was on Liam Broady's wrist, and after taking a medical timeout and playing a few more games, they withdrew from the match, ending it early. Score was 7-6 (6-4) 6-3 1-2 when they retired, which was a shame.

By that point, it was after 6pm, and we were all shattered. None of the outside courts had any good matches left, and we didn't want to sit back on the Mound with everyone else, so we decided to head home. We were too hot to walk so we ended up catching an Uber home and getting straight into a cold shower! It was 31 and we spent most of the day sitting in the sun, so it was a very hot and sweaty day, but the strict application of sunscreen made sure that nobody got sunburnt and we all had a lovely day. You do sleep well after a day like that though! What a brilliant day - and next year, bring on Wimbledon 2019!!!

Day Out: Brighton and St Albans

On a sunny Saturday, for no reason other than it was going to be a lovely day, I decided to go with some friends to Brighton! Bri and Patrick live in St Albans, so the plan was to catch a train to East Croydon, where I would get on the same train as them to Brighton for the day. It went really smoothly, I made it on the correct train, even in the same carriage, and then only one stop away, the train stopped. The train in front of us had a signal failure, got stuck, and we had to stop. Luckily we were at a station, so they made us disembark, change platforms and change to the next Gatwick Airport train so that we could get to Brighton. It seemed like it was going to be a really big disruption, but in the end it was only about 15 minutes. We were lucky enough to get off the train quickly, make it to a good spot on the platform, and onto the very next train! It was even a fast train to Brighton in the end.

When we arrived, we decided the first thing we wanted to do was get lunch, so we walked to the pier. When we got there, however, we had done a quick google and realised that one of the apparent best fish and chip shops in the city was only 10 minutes walk away! So we strolled up and down the pier, as you do, then returned back the way we had come to the Regency restaurant.

The fish and chips was pretty great! I'm not sure that it was the best fish and chips I've ever had, but it was definitely very good and I haven't had excellent fish and chips in ages. Well worth it. Then we went for a stroll towards and around the Laines. We stopped off at my favourites, Choccywoccydoodah and the antique sword shop. They were super interesting as usual!

Then we wandered over to the Pavilion, which of course I had seen from the outside often, but we went inside, which I'd never done. It was really interesting, with lots of beautiful period furniture, and I learnt a lot about George (the 3rd?), including how ridiculed he was... He loved food, and parties, and apparently once had a meal with 100 courses at the Pavilion, so no wonder he ended up obese! Apparently he was one of the first people to use what was effectively a wheelchair because he was so big. Wow.

After that we had some tasty icecream (but not banoffee pie, which we pointed out to the shop was growing mould!), and then headed back to the train. It was a lovely sunny hot day, with weather which is frankly quite Australian.

Then we caught the train back to St Albans, which was much smoother than the other journey, made delicious pasta and drank cocktails while we watched Bake Off. A lovely way to end an evening.

On Sunday morning, we went to Gail's for breakfast. Their brioche French toast was just as good as their cinnamon buns! Then I headed home - and what a delightful weekend.