Solihull

Today we had a look around Solihull.  It is located in the south east corner of Birmingham and we chose to go there for a couple of reasons. The first is we thought it’s somewhere we probably wouldn’t visit whilst on the cut.  Actually we thought it was far from a canal (got that wrong!)  The second reason is Sheila Napier (nb Sanity) had infomed us the Lakeland chain of stores sold EasiYo yogurt sachets and Jan wanted to have a look. 

Felicity (the gps unit) decided to take us via the scenic route which made it interesting and further enhanced my appreciation for the courtesy of UK drivers.  Poor Felicity either tells us to turn too early or too late

Eventually we arrived in Solihull and found a car parking building.  Having a small car makes it easy to park but black is obviously the colour of choice.  Our little black Hyundai appears to take considerable delight hiding with her black cousins!

For some reason Jan must have Doctor Who on her mind because she wanted to go to the “Torchwood Centre”.  Actually we stumbled across the “Touchwood Centre”   It’s a reasonable size mall and Jan started to have doubts whether there was a Lakeland store in the centre or perhaps just somewhere in Solihull.  I spotted the information centre and dragged a reluctant Jan with me.  She stood gazing around whilst I carefully examined the centre floor plan.  “There is a Lakeland in the Centre” I said peering at the plan.  “Yes”; said Jan “It’s over there!”  Pointing at the store.  My girl’s eyes were ablaze with interest as we trolled the isles.  I constantly remind myself how good I am allowing her to window shop……. but there must be no purchasing! 

As we exited the Touchwood Centre this building caught my eye

I imagine the average person in the UK passes this type of building without a glance.  However I find them fascinating.  There doesn’t appear to be a straight line in it.  I wonder if it is actually old or has just been built to look old.

The day actually started our sunny but cold, however by midday it had warmed and people were out enjoying themselves.

Jan also wanted to do some knitting and whilst she had purchased a pair of bamboo knitting needles in Stoke on Trent she had yet to purchase wool.  She hadn’t realised it might prove difficult to find knitting wool.  She had almost given up when we saw a notice in the front of the Solihull John Lewis store that there was a knitting demonstration that morning.  Well if there was a knitting demonstration it was logical they sold wool.  I now have a happy girl and type to the rhythmical click of needles!

Needless to say Felicity also botched the navigation going back to our Travelodge.  Tomorrow we head back to Rugby.

Walking around Rugby

Whilst walking around Rugby I discovered a pedestrian footpath leading from the centre of the town down across the railway lines and past Tesco to the canal.  Along the way I came across this statue to Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine.

We were last this way four years ago on a Black Prince hire boat and I recall these moorings were full.  Finding them almost empty came as quite a surprise.  Strolling north I came across a boat whose blog we have been reading for some time.

Lynne and Paul were aboard and I spent an interesting 30 minutes discussing boats and builders before realising Jan would be starting to wonder where I was.

A Great Chance

We had a most enjoyable day with James and Doug on nb Chance their new 58ft boat which had been on show at Crick and they were now returning to the builder’s yard

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I dropped Jan at Taylor’s lock on the Grand Union Canal and then drove to the end destination for the day’s journey at Kilby Bridge.  I then walked the towpath back to Jan before we then walked to the northern portal of the tunnel.  Our timing was rather good because Doug & James arrived shortly thereafter.  The first part of the journey was spent in the company of a hire boat crewed by and American couple and their daughter.  Interestingly, by coincidence the couple were also followers of nb Chance’s blog.

Jan spent much of the day inside Chance whilst I enjoyed my day working the locks.  James was very good at the tiller and I spent my spare time between locks watching his technique.  Hopefully this will assist me reduce the anticipated bangs and scrapes when we are on Waiouru.

Doug fed us a delicious lunch and even baked a Victoria Cake (I had two pieces)

I hadn’t realised how much sun I’d been exposed to until we returned to the Travelodge.  Now I have a bright red face and arms.  Hopefully everything will go brown rather than peeling.

To Rugby (the long way)

We had a fruitful day starting at Perry Bar in Birmingham and heading north to Preston.  The objective was to visit Recliners Direct, who specialise in the sale of recliner chairs.  We had found their website in Australia and noticed there was a showroom.  It seemed a good idea to physically try out the various types and models of recliner chairs before purchasing deciding on a model to buy.  After all; we will be sitting in them for much of the time during the next five years.  The visit was very successful and we have identified the model and colour chairs we want.

Leaving Preston we headed south to Solihull where Jan had identified there was a “Lakeland” store.  She wanted to look inside one of their shops to see what they sold.  Unfortunately we had a couple of minor problems when we arrived in Solihull.  The first was “Felicity” (the gps) took us to a mall where all the car parks were full; then the low fuel light illuminated.  We asked Felicity for the nearest petrol station however she was even more geographically embarrassed than us.  This is something I must rectify.  Anyway, by the time we filled the car we decided to go directly to Rugby.

I continue to be impressed with the courtesy of UK drivers.  Today I decided to emulate them and flash our rental car headlights at oncoming traffic to signal I would give way  Unfortunately it resulted in a large volume of windscreen washer liquid on our windscreen…. Oops!

Our new Travelodge is actually so new the location isn’t in the Travelodge information I downloaded to the gps.  I used Google Earth to find the location and then transferred the information to Felicity.  We have nine nights here at £19 per night.  I made the bookings whilst we were in Australia and I managed to get them wrong (of course).  Instead of booking all nine nights together as a block I purchased them separately.  This confused the Receptionist (and everyone else except me!).  Our room overlooks Rugby Railway Station.  After our first night I can assure you it’s a very busy station!  However, unlike the Travelodge at Stafford; it has a reasonable 3 Mobile internet signal.

I happened to notice this building from our hotel room window.  Yes; it’s one of the Rugby Railway Station car parking buildings.  However that’s not the thing that caught my eye.  It was the unusual wind turbines on top.  I can see three of them on different buildings in this area.  How common are they, and how much energy do they produce?

Perry Barr

We moved to a new Travelodge at Perry Barr which is a suburb of Birmingham.  Our new room is slightly smaller than the previous one however we have managed to fit everything into it.  For some reason the name “Perry Barr” had me thinking of canals and then I remembered when tracing the canals in Google Earth whilst we were back in Australia there was a flight of locks at Perry Barr.  So off I went to explore the local area.  After initially walking in exactly the wrong direction I eventually found the canal.

Apart from the graffiti, the area looked rather clean and tidy.

I rather liked the look of this small cast iron footbridge

We head to Rugby tomorrow.

We were at Crick

Jan and I drove across to Crick and spent Sunday at the show looking at stands and talking to various experts. 

Whilst walking around the pavilions we noticed two well behaved black Labrador's.  I stopped and enquired whether they were Fletcher and Floyd  from nb Caxton.  They were, and we had a brief conversation with Lesley.  We didn’t meet Joe as he appeared to be intently listening to a discussion regarding batteries.  So that’s another blogger and constant cruiser we have finally met.  We had intended to introduce ourselves to Doug and James on nb Chance but the path beside the show boats was packed and we decided against it!

On the way back to our accommodation we stopped beside the canal where I took a phone of a row of cottages with a pub at the far end.  Probably a very common scene for any UK readers but not something one would usually see in Australia.

I am very impressed with the courtesy of UK drivers.  They make gaps in the traffic to allow you to merge and flash their headlights to indicate you can turn across in front of them.  This is the reverse of what one can expect in Australia.  I can only assume the size of the country and the density of the traffic has created this cooperative approach.  However I do need to work out some of the speed signs. I believe open road dual lane speed 60 and motorways are 70.  However I have yet to work out the meaning of the white disk with the diagonal black stripe and I’m not sure of the maximum speed on unmarked single lane roads.

Stoke on Trent

We should have avoided Stoke on Trent.  But only because it’s another place near the canal!  However Jan (correctly) believes we can save some money if she makes her own yogurt.  To do this she needs a yogurt maker, hence the trip to Stoke on Trent.

The main shopping mall in Stoke on Trent is “The Potteries”.  I think we walked all of it!  No yogurt maker.  Jan was also looking for a haberdasher because she wanted a cord for her new slacks.  When she purchased then she though they came with a cord only to subsequently discovered the existing cords were false.  As a consequence her slacks were being subjected to gravity. She was starting to despair when we found the basement floor of the “Potteries” full of small specialist stalls.  She is now pleased whilst I’m disappointed!

We eventually found an Easi Yo yogurt maker in a Julian Graves shop.  Jan was especially delighted as it was reduced in price and pink!  The Easi Yo she left behind in Oz was white.  The shop also had the sachets of yogurt powder so Jan purchased six sachets (different flavours).  This will last us six weeks.  However Jan has a method that doubles the capacity of the sachet which she will start using once we are more settled.  I’ve now looked at the Julian Graves website and identified all their shop locations close to canals and entered them into the gps.

Rugeley

Today we wandered around Rugeley.  Part of the way through the day we realised this probably wasn’t a great idea as we will likely have numerous opportunities to visit the town when we are on Waiouru.  Made a mental note to remember that from now on we must plan to visit locations not easily accessible from canals.

Apparently we have been mis-pronouncing the name.  I’ve been saying “Rug” as in carpet .  Whereas the locals say “Roog”.

It was the weekly market day and the stall holders were still setting up for a days trading.  Wandering around we found two largish supermarkets (Morrisons and Lidl) where we were able to stock up on supplies.  We will need to remember these as the canal passes through the town.  We also found the local laundrette, so we are back to being fresh and clean.   The manager at the Travelodge informed us Tesco were going to build a store down near the canal.

Tomorrow we are going to Stoke on Trent as Jan wants to look for a yogurt maker.

No Wifi

One of the first things we have done is to collect our wireless router and 12v fridge/freezer.  We bought the former from Amazon before our arrival and the latter had been purchased for the boat but left in the care of the supplier.  Both have proven to be very useful.

To my surprise the “Zoom” router is actually quite small.

Although I thought I’d correctly configured the wireless router there was no internet access as neither the notebook nor netbook could make a connection.  I erased the setting and reconfigured the router twice and the problem still existed.  Then I reconfigured both the netbook and notebook.  Still nothing worked.  That’s when the penny dropped!  The 3 Mobile internet coverage in the Travelodge room was very intermittent.  I don’t suppose we can complain.  The room was very reasonable at 19 pounds per night.

Jan wandered off to see if she could pick up a signal outside without much success.  The look on her face isn’t due to the lack of a connection, but rather the sun in her eyes!

We will have to wait until the next Travelodge before making another attempt at connecting to the web.  Actually I was quite surprised at the lack of coverage from 3 Mobile.  This Travelodge is located beside the M6 motorway and I would have expected good coverage along a major transport route.

Heathrow

On each of our previous arrivals into Heathrow we have used Terminal 4.  This time we used the new Terminal 5.  I suspect this is exclusively used by British Airways.  Being in First Class means you get priority off the aircraft and you would think this would mean you were first to immigration and customs.  Unfortunately this doesn’t happen in Terminal 5.  It appears the Terminal actually consists of 3 sub-terminals.  Check-in, Departure; and and Arrivals.  They are all connected via an internal train.  So having been some of the first people to exit our aircraft we arrived at the train platform only to have to wait for the next train to the Arrivals Terminal.  Of course this meant that the middle-classes from Business and some of the peasants from Economy caught up with us!   Still our luggage was almost on the carousel by the time we reached it.  The was no problem at Immigration and customs, although I was slightly concerned there might be an issue with my two year visa.  As it was, the immigration officer scarcely looked at Jan with her UK passport.  I was requested to place my right thumb on the fingerprint scanner to the side of the counter.  It only took a few seconds for the database to match my prints with those taken earlier at the British Consulate in Melbourne and I was cleared to enter.

We had been informed by the aircraft cabin crew that there was an arrivals lounge for First Class passengers which we could use.  As we had arrived at 5:00am and our hire car wasn’t booked until 7:00am we decided to use the arrival lounge.  It had just opened for the day and we were some of the first to arrive.  It has a large number of shower room which we took advantage of. The shower had two large roses and six jet nozzles; all adjustable.

(an amazing array of nozzles in the shower – I just had to take a photo)

We were still feeling hungry (must have been the jet-lag) so we had a second breakfast; this time it was cooked! 

Part of the Heathrow Terminal 5 Arrival Lounge

At 7:00am I phoned Enterprise to confirm our arrival and request a pick-up.  We were directed to bus stop No 19 and the shuttle bus arrived about 15 minutes later.  The first thing we noticed when walking outside to the shuttle bus stop was how cold it was after Hong Kong.  We quickly delved into our baggage to find our polar fleece tops whilst the locals wandered around in their short sleeved shirts .

Enterprise processed our car rental very quickly and also gave us an upgrade to a slightly larger car.  We were given a Hyundai I20.  It looks the same as the Hyundai I30 in Australia, however it has a 1200cc engine rather than a 1300.  It appears to be just the right size to get around the narrow English country lanes.  We had some difficulty squeezing all our bags into the car.  All I could think of was how much more of a squeeze it would have been if we hadn’t received the complimentary upgrade to the larger vehicle.  Then we launched ourselves onto the poor British motoring public.  The first thing I noticed was the indicator and wiper controls are on the opposite side.  Needless to say; we have a wonderfully clean windscreen and other drivers appear to be giving us plenty of room.  How considerate of them!  At our first break I change the gps voice from Australian Matilda to English Felicity.  Poor Aussie Matilda struggled to pronounce those interesting English place names making it rather difficult to navigate.

First Class

We arrived back at Hong Kong airport from Disneyland with plenty of time to spare.  Again we passed through security and a comment was made to me about the amount of electronic equipment we were carrying.  I think it took up about eight trays to go through the x-ray machine.  Eventually we found the Qantas Business Lounge and had a shower along with a change of clothes after a sticky day.  The First Class lounge didn’t open for another two hours so we waited in Business.  Eventually we moved to the First Lounge and I have to say it didn’t look much different to the Business Lounge.

Airport Arrival Hall

View from the First Class Lounge down into the departure gate area

The departure time was delayed, however we had no trouble boarding the aircraft as there was a separate lane for First Class passengers.  Six months ago I reserved our seats.  We were in the middle of the cabin side by side.  The seats in First are positioned so as to provide maximum privacy.  There was a partition between Jan and myself, however it had a window with a sliding louver screen.  Jan sat forward and looked at me through the screen.  The scene reminded me of a McDonalds drive though window and on impulse I said “Would you like fries with that madam?”  A small giggling fit followed!

We were given pyjamas embossed with a “First” logo and bed socks.  There was also a small bag containing toiletries although I noticed there wasn’t a razor.  Maybe this is a deliberate decision based on security concerns.  Two small tubes; one to stop your nasal passages from drying and the other perfume.  Better not mix them up!

I chose the lamb for dinner and it was the best lamb I’ve ever eaten.  I think Jan had the chicken.  Obviously terrorist aren’t expected to travel in First Class as all the cutlery was steel; including the knife.  As it was now after midnight I decided to forgo the inflight entertainment and get some sleep.  Whilst I changed into my pyjamas (400 thread Egyptian cotton) the cabin crew converted my seat to a bed along with a quilt mattress and a duvet.  Each seat has a wardrobe for your clothes.  I managed a good 6 hours heavy sleep waking two hours before our scheduled arrival into Heathrow.

Breakfast was also delicious.  I had the muesli and toast.  Jan woke and was offered a cup of tea.  It came in a small china teapot and tiny jug of milk.  Meals were actually “on demand”.  I should also mention the size of the entertainment screen.  It looked about 22”.  We didn’t drink anything other than water and tea.  Jan always does this when flying and I avoided the alcohol because I was going to be driving when we reached the UK.

I changed out of my pyjamas into my day clothes and carefully packed the pyjamas and socks into my cabin bag.  They will be handy in winter on the canal.  The toiletries bag will also be useful for small items that need a home.

The only significant disadvantage with travelling First Class is……….. Jan has decided that she now couldn’t travel any other class!

Disneyland Hong Kong

We spent our last day in Hong Kong at Disneyland which is on an outer island close to the airport.  As we were leaving Hong Kong that night the cheapest way of getting to Disneyland was to take the Airport Express train to the airport and then a taxi to Disneyland.  The Taxi cost HK$120 each way.

Although the sky was cloudy, somehow the rays of the sun burned through and we both started to feel we were in need of a hat.  The humidity was also very high and we started to perspire.  The strategy we adopted was to alternate between looking at the attractions and then when we could no longer take the heat, go into the air conditioned shops and cool down.

Around midday there was the usual Disneyland parade.  Doesn’t matter which Disneyland park you go to they basically have the same agenda and layout.

Some of the floats were particularly impressive.

Had to get a photo of the castle.  Having written that; I suppose we will see plenty of them in the UK!

The heat eventually became to much for us and we headed back to the comfort of the airport.

Shopping in Hong Kong

Regular readers may recall our limited luggage allocation resulted in a decision to purchase clothing during our brief stopover in Hong Kong.  Last night we emptied my day pack and headed for the Temple Street night market.

The poor TShirt seller didn’t know what hit him once Jan got into serious haggling mode.  Plenty of genuine imitation European labels in this location!

Hong Kong can look very “grubby” in daylight but as night falls and the neon signs illuminate it takes on a different atmosphere.

The night market was only a short walk from our hotel so once we had purchased all the clothing it was a quick trip back to our room to empty the day pack.  I then went off to the Mong Kok area in search of a camera bag for the DSLR we had purchased earlier in the day.

The electronics area was a seething mass of humanity,  99% of the people being locals all all shopping.  One difference I noticed from my last visit to Hong Kong was the indifference of the shop assistants.  Getting service was frequently difficult.  However I eventually purchased a bag at a very good price.  Buying micro SD cards proved to be a very difficult task with either “no stock” or the price being uncompetitive.  We will wait for the UK.

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I rather like this photo.  By day the same scene looks very drab.

To Hong Kong

A very early start to the day with Jan rising at 4.00am.  We said our goodbye’s and left for Sydney airport before 7.00am hoping to avoid the majority of the morning traffic.  We were largely successful arriving at Kingsford Smith Airport in plenty of time.  Actually we discovered there was a one hour wait before our suitcases could be checked in.  Despite my own weighing of the cases one was over the limit so I had to juggle some of the contents between them.  However this wasn’t my major concern!  I wasn’t sure how the security screening would go given I had a media tank, four hard drives, two gps units and numerous cables in my backpack.  It took two attempts but eventually everything passes through the screening.

Although our seating was economy my Gold Qantas membership gained us admittance to the Business Lounge where we indulged in some breakfast and I was able to read the morning papers.  In the photo below you can see the morning cloud partially obscuring the Sydney CBD skyline from the lounge window..

We then wandered down the the departure gate.  After glancing at the number of passengers waiting for the gate to open I immediately realised the aircraft wasn’t going to be full.  My gold status enabled us to board early and we found our seats at the very rear of the 747.  I had pre-booked the seats after looking at www.seatguru.com.  At the rear of the jumbo there are only two seats beside the window rather than the usual three.  Jan likes the window and I like the isle which makes this part of the aircraft ideal.  There was no shortage of locker space as the aircraft was less than half full.

The flight was uneventful.  Jan dozed, whilst I read our eBook or watched a couple of TV episodes on the GPad.  Jan did comment that the rear of the aircraft had a tendance to bounce around.  For our next leg of the journey we will be seated right at the front of the aircraft, so it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in the “ride”.

Last time we were both in Hong Kong the aircraft landed at the old airport (Kai Tak <sp?>).  This time it was the new airport.  I had previously passed through the airport when backpacking through China in 2000.  However it seemed to have increased in size since my last visit.  We caught the Airport Express train to the city.  It’s a fast and reliable service, even if we struggled getting the suitcases on and off the train.  We won’t have the same problem on departing Hong Kong as the bags can be checked in at the railways station.  There is a complementary bus shuttle to the hotels from the railway station provided you show your train ticket for the journey from the airport.

Our shuttle bus only had three stops and we guessed with our luck that ours would be the last stop on a full bus.  We were wrong on both accounts.  There were only two other passengers and ours was the first stop.  I had booked accommodation at the City View Hotel on Kowloon.  It’s one of at least two YMCA hotels in Hong Kong.  We had stayed at the hotel on our last visit and thought it was centrally located and value for money.  By the time we settled into our room Jan was feeling rather tired.  I went out and found a small supermarket where I purchased teabags, milk, chocolate and a pot of noodles for Jan who had decided she was hungry.  On my return to the room we discovered there was no cutlery and the packaged pot of noodles didn’t contain a disposable plastic fork.  Jan eventually used the hotel two complementary toothbrushes as a quasi chopsticks!  Unfortunately I couldn’t find the camera.

Then it was time for a shower and bed.

Always nice when someone cooks your dinner

Jan, mum and I all went into the the city to have dinner with our youngest son.  His flat is very central in Sydney which enables him to cycle to work. 

We had anticipated going out to a restaurant, however we were surprised when Daniel informed us he had cooked the evening meal.  Cooking is obviously a trait he and his brother inherited from their mother.  For my part; I can burn water!  The evening meal was very interesting.  He had roasted the potato’s in some special way and they had what I thought were burned stalks of grass on top.  Jan later informed me it was Rosemary.  Doesn’t matter; it tasted great.  The pumpkin was also interesting but the best part of the meal was the steamed pudding.  It was his first attempted at making a steamed pudding and it’s my favourite.  I was raised on steamed puddings.  During my childhood my mum could consistently produce a soggy failure and we kids would squabble over the remains for breakfast.  I guess I get my culinary skills from my mum.

That’s a large steamed pudding…. And I got to take the remainder home for breakfast

The is a position no self respecting male should get caught in!

Notice how there is no facial evidence in the following photo!

I am NOT doing the dishes!  Rather; I am using my management expertise to check the cleanliness of the sink.  Hygiene is very important!

Sydney

The journey back down to Sydney was rather uneventful.  I think mum might have been pleased to see us and wanted to do some shopping.  This is a photo of her conventional suburban Sydney home. 

Mum is really up with technology and somewhat of a computer “nerd”.  She wanted to shopping for a notebook.  Like us; she is careful with her money which meant we did some price matching before purchasing a Samsung notebook in Parramatta.

Jan doesn’t like her photo being taken

Once we returned home I needed to get her wireless network router re-configured.  None of us knew the router network password as our youngest son had set it up some weeks earlier and couldn’t remember the password.  Eventually I reset and re-configured the router before connecting mum’s new notebook.  This will be good practice for our own wireless network on Waiouru. 

Heading South

Steve took us to Coffs Harbour airport to collect our rental car.  I was advised we had been given a complementary upgrade to an Audi A4 wagon.  I gratefully accepted as it made the task of fitting in all the bags much easier.  My guess is the rental company actually wanted the car relocated back to Sydney.

We faced a six hour, 600km journey and did our usual thing of stopping every two hours for a stretch.  On the way north we had seen Fredo’s Famous Pie Shop and we decided to tempt ourselves on the way back.

It was an interesting experience.  All they sell are pies with a very wide selection.  Beef, port, lamb, poultry, vegetarian and exotic (crocodile & camel).  I’ve previously eaten both crocodile (tastes like chicken) and camel.  I selected a lamb and mint pie whilst Jan had chicken.  Mine was delicious!

And so on to Sydney.