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!