Merry Christmas from London!

Wishing all our beloved friends and family a very merry Christmas.



We are enjoying a simplified Christmas in England with Dan's parents Rose and Al, his sister, Lesha and her partner, Sean. Happily everyone arrived safely in the last couple of days, however only Lesha arrived with luggage, which means that most of our Christmas presents, stockings, and other festive items are somewhere between here and Halifax. Robin had some stocking stuffers for everyone, so we decided to improvise this morning and used oven mitts, hats and a cosmetics bag as make-shift stockings (see the picture of these odd stockings under the tree below--notice the mushrooms in the background, as there was no more room in the fridge). For fun, Lesha wrapped up some random cookies and things from the hotel across the street where they are staying this week. And we happened to have bought clothes for each of the people that are without their suitcases, so they were able to change shirts! We enjoyed a beautiful Ukrainian Christmas dinner tonight, perogies, kutya, cabbage, and all, as well as a lot of laughter. It's been a very happy Christmas for us despite the missing items. We hope that you and yours are having as much fun together as we are. We'll see you in the New Year!

Love from Robin, Dan, Rose, Al, Lesha, and Sean

Oslo: Our First Random European City Weekend Jaunt (of hopefully many)

After a long four months apart, we were happily reunited in time to plan our first random European city weekend jaunt. Destination: Oslo, Norway. You might ask why we would choose to go to an almost equally expensive city to London, seeing as how Oslo is forth most expensive city in the world; next to London at third. It's also a city further North than London and winter is quickly approaching. Well, we had a couple of reasons. One was that our sister-in-law Kate’s brother, Paul, is doing a semester in Oslo and we thought it would be fun to visit him. Also, we wanted to choose a city in a country that neither of us had been to, and as Dan’s been to most major cities in Europe, that left us with few options. Frankly, though, Norway just seemed like a pretty cool place to visit.

Despite the cold and the ridiculously priced… well, everything… we managed to see some pretty neat things. We flew Ryan Air and landed just outside of Sandefjord, which is just under a two-hour bus ride from Oslo. We were amazed to see how similar the landscape was to our familiar Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, with the ragged coastline, colourful houses, and little fishing villages. Once in Oslo, we hopped on the tram and headed to our hosts’ flat in the trendy neighbourhood Grünerløkka.

To help keep costs down and have a more enriching experience we decided to try couchsurfing.com. We joined the website and requested to stay on the couch of a couple named Linn and Brom, who happily welcomed us into their home. We learned a little about Norway and Norwegians (such as the fact that Norway is so wealthy that they had a surplus of $360 billion last year!) Also, Linn is Sami, who are an indigenous people from the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The Sami are known for herding reindeer, which is still practiced by a small minority. Brom is from central Norway, near the Arctic Circle. They also have the two most beautiful cats you’ve every seen, Pixel and Stella. Luckily, Dan's allergies didn't act up too badly.

On our first night, Linn took us to see a couple of local bands. She works for the venue and was able to get us in free. The music was great, and we absolutely loved the band, Katzenjammer. They're a female quartet, who rotated among 12 instruments between each song, featuring the accordion, mandolin, guitar, piano, balalaika bass, glockenspiel, trumpet, kazoo, melodica, drums, banjo and xylophone. They also took turns on vocals and had a guest violinist. It was a really, really fun concert. Check it out for yourself:

On our second night, we feasted on smoked trout, warm bread, salad and dilled potatoes with Linn and Brom. They were great hosts and we will definitely couch surf again on another weekend jaunt.

Over the three days in Oslo we walked all over and saw some fabulous sites, including the Nobel Peace Museum, the Munch Museum, the National Gallery, the Norwegian Royal Palace, the Vigeland Sculpture Park with it's dozens of bronze and granite nude sculptures, the Akershus Fortress and its museum detailing the Norwegian Resistance to the Nazis, and the Museum of Architecture, which features the plans of other European museums. We also had lunch with Paul and visited his school in the north of the city, which is in an incredible building. We sampled Norwegian fish and brown cheese, and Dan sampled the expensive beer (about $12 per bottle). And we shopped a wee bit at the massive complex of Aker Brygge.

We loved how the pubs, restaurants, and cafés not only provide outdoor seating and tables for smokers or dog walkers, they also leave blankets on each chair to keep them warm. We enjoyed sitting outside a café on our last day and sipped cappuccino while snuggled up with warm woollen blankets and watched the city bustle by.

We’ve posted our pictures on facebook. Enjoy them here.

It's Amazing What Technology Can Do

So, it's been a month since Robin left to get her visa, and I have to keep myself entertained somehow. I put together a few slideshows of some of the pictures we posted earlier set to music:


Upon arrival in England


Visiting London, Bath, Cornwall, and Portsmouth with Robin's parents


Driving to Paris, Vimy, and Canterbury

Any comments on whether or not you like these slideshows or facebook albums would be much appreciated :-)

Driving to Cornwall, Paris, and Points In-between

So, what a fantastic few weeks it has been. We have seen new parts of this country, and for a couple of days we were even able to step outside of it. The whole trip was such an adventure that it is hard to determine where to begin. Taking the advice of Lewis Carroll, I shall begin at the beginning and go on till I come to the end.

Robin’s parents, Rob and Chris, arrived at the beginning of June, and during their first week, we got out of the city and took our first, and most extensive, of three road trips. As you can see from the map below, we covered a lot of ground in just three days:


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We started off by visiting the Uffington White Horse, a massive chalk outline that dates back to the Iron Age. No one is really sure why the native Britons carved this drawing into the mountain, but they sure did have style :-)

Our first B&B, just outside of Bath was a little more out of the way then we had expected. The roads were so narrow, that I was scratching both sides of my car with branches at the same time. And to add to the situation, it was not on a one-way road. You really become intimately connected with the width of your vehicle when driving in the English countryside. And to top it all off, Rob was almost attacked by a watch goose. We toured around Bath for the evening, and then again the following day. Without a doubt, Bath is my favourite spot outside of London, and next to Edinburgh, it is the most beautiful city in Britain. In fact, I often wonder why we didn’t move out here instead.



For the rest of the trip, we drove down to Cornwall, a rarely explored and often misunderstood part of the country. Relating more to the Welsh than the English, Cornwall has its own language and culture, and they are very proud of their unique distinctions. While there, we went to Tintagel Castle, the suspected birthplace of King Arthur; The Eden Project, a massive biodome built out of a quarry; St. Michael’s Mount, a castle built on a tidal island; and the coastal town of St. Ives. Fantastic all!

On the way home, we had lunch after winding our way through the narrow streets of Dartmoor National Park in Devon before standing before the megalithic stones of Stonehenge. And since no trip to Stonehenge is complete without visiting the awesome cathedral in Salisbury, we had dinner next to the Avon River and toured around the beautiful medieval town.

After a few days of sightseeing around London, including a fantastic performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, we went for our second trip out of the city. This time, we started off at Windsor Castle, the weekend home of the Queen, which is really just around the corner from where we live in Walton. After we were told that most of the Castle was closed, to prepare for Lizzy's birthday bash, we decided to drive down to the south coast and visit the Historical Dockyard of Plymouth. We stood on the decks of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's flag ship, HMS Victory, and took a moment of silence on the spot of where he was stuck down by a sniper's bullet during the Battle of Trafalgar.


Windsor Castle


HMS Victory

And speaking of Nelson, the following day, we took our third, and most ironic, roadtrip from our meager flat to the City of Lights. First we had to drive to the channel tunnel, cross through customs, and drive our car onto the train. It took about 35 minutes before we arrived in France, and after we all shared a baguette and some French cheese in a small town, we drove right to our hotel. For two days, we wandered around Paris, climbed the Eiffel Tower and Arc d'Triumphe, and even took a river cruise down the Seine, courtesy of our new friend at Hotel Le Globe, Phillipe. On our way home, we made a short stop to pay tribute to the Canadian soldiers who fought at Vimy Ridge, one of whom was Robin's great-grandfather.



We ended our whirlwind tour in Canterbury; the spiritual home of the Church of England. We wandered around the old city, and stopped into a 500 year old tea house before heading back to real life.

So, in about a week and a half, we drove about 1500 miles (2500 km), ate Cornish pasties and drank Cafe au Lait. We walked through over 2000 years of European history and stood on the battlefield where our nation's identity was born. If anyone still questions why I wanted to move here, I sincerely hope that you now have your answer.

The full albums of our travels can be found by clicking here for England and here for France.

Finally Settling

It's been a few weeks, so I thought I'd post a little update to let you all know that we are well moved into our flat, and are connected to the internet at home for the first time in a while. Now all we need is a couch, and that will arrive on Wednesday. Overall, we are enjoying our new hometown of Walton-on-Thames (how English does THAT sound?) and the new job is going very well. I just started my first group today and I've been seeing individual clients for a couple of weeks. Here are a couple of quick pics of our new flat. It will look much fuller when all of the furniture is in place.




We have had a great time travelling around, especially after we bought the car in March. Here is a link to some of our roadtripping. Just click here.

Robin will be going back to Canada in a few weeks, so that she can apply for her visa. Until then, however, we will be going on a couple of road trips in the coming weeks. First, is a brief trip to Devon and Cornwall, and after that, we'll take a road trip to Paris. We'll be sure to post pics for you afterwards.

We're Locked In Until 2009!

It took a little longer than expected, but it looks like we're finally settling down. I just got a job offer with the National Health Service working as a Counsellor, and now I'm just waiting to dot some i's and cross some t's before I finally start seeing clients again. It's hard to believe that it's been just under 6 months since we left Nova Scotia. So, now for the details. The job based out of the hospital in Weybridge, which is south west of London in the county of Surrey. Robin and I just found a great flat in a town next door called Walton-on-Thames and are locked in until at least January. We'll be about 30 minutes by train into the heart of the city, which will be great for weekends. So, our couch will officially be open as of May 5th. Book early to reserve your space. Here's the map:


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The job itself will be a combination of both individual and group work with people with depression and anxiety, and also a great deal of psychoeducational seminars. I have always wanted to do more public speaking, so this will be a great opportunity for that. Since I'll be travelling around north Surrey, Robin and I had to purchase a vehicle. All-in-all, it's been more of a financial investment than we anticipated, but once we start working, it will well be worth it!!



So the next step, after we move in to our place next month, will be to get the paperwork going on Robin's visa. That's going to take some time, but we'll keep you posted as things move along.

First flat in Maida Vale

We have settled in to our new flat in Maida Vale, London. It's only a three-week let, but it'll give us a chance to explore London and find something long-term.




Over the weekend we took advantage of Maida Vale's biggest charm: the canals. We started at the intersection of Grand Union and Regent's canals, known as Little Venice where a lovely park overlooks the moored narrow boats and barges. We followed the boardwalk passing a precariously perched cafe, incredible mansions, the London Zoo, a beautiful aviary, went down steps, through tunnels, and under bridges until we finally reached Camden Market. The market was in full swing with every kind of person, food, and ware to be found. We sampled some Israeli and Spanish cuisine and sickeningly sweet fudge (liquorish flavour is a new personal fav) before wandering back to our new flat.




I'm including a picture of the room, cause I know our mums will want to see what sort of place we are living in. FYI it's a bedroom with couch, tv, table and chairs, and we share a kitchen and bathroom with another couple. It's very private and quiet and we have a lovely view.

Lots of love to all and thanks for reading! We look forward to and always appreciate your comments!
Robin

February in a Nutshell

It's been a busy, but very memorable last few weeks, and it's hard to figure out where to begin.  First of all, let me tell you about one of the most incredible lunch experiences we had with a potential distant cousin of mine.  I hope you're sitting down for this, though, because it's a bit of a trek to explain it all.

About 10 years ago, long before the word "google" was even a verb, I was surfing around on the internet one day, and decided to type my last name into a search engine that probably doesn't even exist anymore.  I had done this once or twice before with little to show for it.  My last name isn't exactly common, and for all I knew, there were only 10 of us in the world.  Then I came across this page. It's a list of all of the recipients of the highest medal issued in Poland for services of valour.  It lead to a series of seemingly unanswered questions.  Who was Antoni Michal?  When did he live?  How far back would any potential family link go?  I searched around for years without any answers. 

As the internet developed, and google finally made a miraculous appearence, I started to find out more information.  Apparently, Antoni Michal was a Polish World War II fighter pilot who served in an all-Polish Royal Air Force squadron based out of London, England.  Again, however, the trail went cold after that ... until the day before we left Halifax.


I received an e-mail from a man at the end of October, who claimed to be married to the daughter of the mysterious Antoni Michal.  Arthur too was an RAF pilot and he responded to a post that I had written on a website about 5 years ago.  We sent e-mails back in forth, and I was thrilled to hear that he and his wife, Stefania, live just outside of London. 

So, a couple of weeks ago, Robin and I were finally able to meet with them.  Arthur had chosen the RAF club near Hyde Park in London, which was a brilliant idea.  Not only is it a very beautiful venue, but aviation seems to be a running theme in both of our families (my father and aunt both worked for Air Canada for over 30 years, my sister is a pilot, and we spent 6 years in Air Cadets when we were in high school).  They are wonderful people, and while we still can't figure out how far back our families split off from one another, if there is even a connection at all, it's possibly the closest family connection that either Robin or I have in all of Europe.  They also have a son and daughter around our age, whom we're looking forward to meeting in the not too distant future.



Also this month, we had the opportunity to visit some very good friends of the family in Gloucester: John, Teresa, and their sons Simon and Dan.  I hadn't seen them in over 8 years, and we had a great time catching up.  John and Teresa were kind enough to take us to Bath, one of my favourite cities in the entire country, and Robin loved it as much as I do.

The last of the news, is that we have decided to take the plunge and get out on our own and into the city.  These last few weeks in St Albans have been great, and Annabel who has played a great hostess (especially since she went on TWO short holidays, leaving her flat to us).  This Friday, though, we're moving into a flat on North West London for a short stay, while we look for something more permanent.  We'll keep you posted on how it goes  :-)

Cheers

"Frankly, I just don't see the point..."

Our time wwoofing was a wonderful experience in many ways, but it was also a somewhat challenging lesson in tolerance and patience while we attempted to adjust to new people and their different ways of living. While we are quite comfortable with roughing it and "making do", one night of sleeping in an unheated cabin with a compost loo out back in the coldest part of the damp English winter was the final straw...

We spent our first two weeks at Fingringhoe pruning apple trees (see previous post). Afterwards we boarded the train to Norfolk and spent a week with beekeeper Steve in the Stallands, near Wymondham (pronounced Wind-um). And then we were supposed to spend our final week with Mark and Christine in nearby Spooner Row. However, after that first sleepless and cold night, we knew we couldn't make it through the week. At lunch the next day we booked the first ticket back to London we could... Monday morning. So, we had three nights in our cramped and cold cabin and two days of collecting tree trimmings, which was far from the romantic notion I'd had of working on an organic farm, milking cows, feed hens, collecting eggs and planting seeds! A little naive I suppose... especially at this time of year, but they sure did feed us well! We've never eaten such good, healthy, vegetarian food in our lives. I definitely learned some great new ways of cooking.

And so we are back in St. Albans and know well, that while we love love love to spend time in the country, we are definitely, definitely big city people. I kissed the air when we stepped off the bus in London.

As for beekeeping... our new friend Steve, the beekeeper taught us quite a bit about the ins and outs of it all while we replaced last year's frames with new wax for the bees and labeled many a jar of honey. We've been enjoying the delcious honey we were able to take home with us and look forward to returning later in the season to see our frames put to use. To see pictures visit this album on facebook.

Robin (& Dan)

PS The title of this blog is a quote from Emma: "I don't play Monopoly. Frankly, I just don't see the point". Funny, funny, Emma.

Hams Farm in Fingringhoe

For a little over a week we have been at Hams Farm in Fingringhoe near the town of Colchester in Essex County pruning apple trees. It's been quite rainy, a little cold, and a lot of trees (:-P), but we've loved (almost) every minute of it.

Emma and Andrew, our hosts, have been most gracious and we've eaten very very well. They have the most adorable white Alsacian dog, Sharky (Sharky-warky-barky, as she is often called), who is the sweetest dog ever and loves listening to music. While here, we have been able to explore the village of Fingringhoe, visit nearby Mersea Island (Eastern-most island in the country), and Colchester (the Roman town Camulodonum). Check out our pictures.

We've learned a little about maintaining an orchard and a lot about keeping warm during the damp English winter. We are here for a few more days before we head to our next farm in Norfolk. There's been talk of beekeeping, but we're not sure what's in store for us there...


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Pictures of St. Albans

I've just created a facebook album with some pictures of our time in St. Albans:


Pictures

St. Alban's

We have fallen in love with Annabel's town, St. Albans. We've spent the last few days here with her and it seems to offer everything lovely about a smaller English city. It was once the Roman town Verulamium and is supposed to be the oldest continuous settlement in Britain. It has some remnants of the Roman walls, lovely old pubs, narrow winding streets and little crickleways (small passages from one street to another), cobbled roads, etc. The river Ver runs through it, which is covered with ducks and swans and surrounded with green parks. We ate at the Waffle House beside the river and had the most fantastic savoury waffles ever. We will definitely be spending more time here, and pictures will come soon.


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Around Town

What a week! I didn't realize just how much of London I had left unexplored, but we've been busy everyday and have had a wonderful time reconnecting with this fantastic city. For the rest of last weekend, we just relaxed and didn't get up to much. On Saturday night, we met up with Annabel again, and walked around Covent Garden after dinner and on Sunday, Annabel took us out to St. Alban's, which is just north of the city, to see her town and new condo. The rest of the week, however, was just go-go-go.

Before we left, Robin had found online a package called The London Pass. For a certain fee, you are allowed into a long list of London attractions over a certain period of time. We bought a 3-day pass, thinking that we might save a few pounds. Well, it was actually worth it just for the first day, and everything else was basically free after that.

On Monday morning, we started off with a Thames river cruise that took us from Big Ben and parliament to 'Bankside', with is where they recently reconstructed Shakespeare's old theatre, The Globe. We took the tour, where we watched an actor audition for the role of Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing. While we didn't think that HE was right for that role, we do hope to come back to see the production. It used to cost the people of London a penny to see a performance five hundred years ago, which works out basically to £5 by today's standards. Tickets, then, for the performances here are only £5 ($10).

After the globe, we walked across the recently constructed Millenium footbridge, which takes you across the river to St. Paul's cathedral. We climbed the 450-500 steps to the very top, for a fantastic view of the city, and thoroughly enjoyed walking around one of Britain's most beautiful churches. It was then only a short bus ride to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, two of Britain's most recognizable landmarks. Oddly enough, there seemed to be a rather macabre theme running through our tour today. Just as a point of interest, apparently the men behind the creation of The Globe, St. Paul's, and Tower Bridge all died before their resepective completions. Just a piece of useless knowledge for you should you ever need it.

On Tuesday, we took the train out to Hampton court; Henry VIII's palace, which had been used as a royal residence until about 250 years ago. We walked the grounds, and took the tours, and pictured what it must have been like to hold feasts in the great hall. Afterwards, we went for dinner, and then found a pub that was showing the Chelsea vs. Everton football (soccer) match. I've been following the premier league since shortly after the last World Cup, and have taken a bit of a liking to Chelsea FC, despite how uncoothe some might say that is. The important thing is, my team won :-P

Following up on my (our) team's win, we went on a tour of the stadium's facilities on Wednesday and can't wait to catch a game live. Tickets for premier league matches are quite pricey and are hard to come by, so we'll probably wait until after we start working before we get any. We spent the rest of the day walking around and visiting museums (including the museum of Tea and Coffee, and the Tate Modern) and enjoying Cream Tea (pot of tea, scones with clotted cream and jam, and cake) before collapsing back in our hotel room and watching a few hours of British tele.

All in all we saw a ton of amazing sights and have lots of pictures to share. Just click here. And here is a video tour of our small hotel room:

Some pictures, finally!

Here are a few shots of our first couple of days in London. We were with Annabel at Giraffe for dinner our first night and then on Saturday morning we wandered the Camden market area. More to come!

London! (WOOT!)

We've arrived in London at long last. The flight over was filled with understandable excitement, and mild giddiness on Dan's part. We were kindly met at Heathrow by Robin's former co-worker, and good friend, Annabel. She drove us to the EasyHotel at Earl's Court, passing by Dan's old flat in Acton along the way. We squeezed our bags into our cramped 6-square metre room (video to follow), and had a quick dinner at Giraffe.

We accidentally slept through most of our first full day here as our room has no window and we didn't get much sleep on the flight over. We were only woken by a hotel employee warning us of test fire alarms that would be going off shortly and realized it was already 1:30pm! We had 3.5 hours before we were to meet Annabel at the pub, so we dashed off to grab some breakfast on our way to Trafalgar Square - Dan's favourite spot in London, and now pigeon-free. We spent the evening wandering the city in the rain after a delicious meal at Wagamama's

This morning (Saturday), we wandered the funky Camden market and are now headed to the British Museum this afternoon. There's talk of seeing a West End play, and tomorrow we're taking a day trip to St. Alban's to visit Annabel's new flat. We were hoping to add some pictures here, but the USB port doesn't seem to agree. More to come!