Well, we haven't been doing too much since the last letter I sent. I have been assimilated into English culture though - I drink tea in preference to anything vaguely coffee-like. I mean, you can always drink a cup of tea, no matter how awful it is (weak, lukewarm etc), but coffee varies wildly. Coffee always smells great, but it can be anything from brownish water to tar, and anything inbetween. I've decided it is infinitely better to stick to something that takes a lot to make it undrinkable. So, should anyone ask me now, it's 'Tea, with milk please'. I think most people understand that, although the other morning at McDonald's I got a carton of milk instead. I actually didn't know you could get milk instead of coffee or tea with their McMuffin meal, so I might try the milk carton thing again. Speaking of which, the jug has just boiled for a nice cup of tea. Hold on a mo'.
Mike has finally rebelled against my trip planning. I may have become the monster I discovered Mum to be one trip to Canberra when Karen & I were younger. It must have been about 1982 (can't really remember), and Mum made us run from bus trip to boat trip, to visitor's centre - all in 40 degree temperatures. Perhaps the cycle has repeated itself and I now try to get Mike and myself to all these places. But Mike has finally asked if we can have a weekend at home, completely unplanned. I tried, but I think I may have planned something. Oops.
It's my birthday soon. Woo hoo! We might meet Vivienne and John the weekend following my birthday in York, as it is John's birthday the day before mine. Sounds like a plan. York is supposed to be lovely.
Well, we did go to Bath the weekend following our Cambridge trip. You have probably received postcards confirming the fact. Bath was great. We arrived by train early Saturday afternoon and walked up the street towards town. We found a great wee B&B a couple of blocks from the station and dumped our stuff there. It cost £16 each, so we thought that was pretty reasonable - especially as it was the same price in our guidebook (which is two years old now).
We then headed into town and stopped at Sally Lunn's house. Now, there is a story behind this caper. The bread item we all call Boston Bun in our household is amazingly referred to by others as a 'Sally Lunn'. I was first enlightened to this fact in Wellington by work colleagues. Most called it Boston Bun, but there were some that insisted on calling it a Sally Lunn. Of course, nobody could figure out what it actually meant. Well, why is it called Boston Bun too? But, anyway, we found Sally Lunn's wee house. It is the oldest house still standing in Bath (built some time in the 1400's) and Sally Lunn was a woman that baked in this house in the 1600's. They still make Sally Lunn buns there and Mike & I tried one. Yummy it was too. Nothing like a Boston Bun mind you. The bread itself was very similar, but there was nothing resembling icing with coconut. That was that.
Feeling replete, we went to the Roman Baths in the centre of town. When the Romans occupied England, they were delighted to find a natural spring pumping out water at about 46 C in this region. They promptly built a town around it and plonked a bathing complex over the top of the spring. It was the height of fashion to come and immerse yourself in the spring at Bath. Then the Romans left and the English returned to their notorious state of great unwashness (as non-English people would have you believe).
The spring went neglected until early 1800's when it experienced a huge revival. Eventually the Victorians built a pump room and excavated the roman ruins around the spring. They actually did a good job, and managed to keep with the roman theme for what they did rebuild. They didn't destroy what remained of the roman ruins, but built around them so you could see the original structure.
The spring water was regarded as medicinal during Victorian times, and some people were told to drink 10 gallons of it per day (although most illnesses required only a glass or two a day). Mike & I tried a glass - bluuuggghhh! Horrible stuff. Tasted like warm, flat mineral water. Even London tap water is better then that.
Then we went for a wander around the township. There are some lovely Georgian houses still in Bath (although many were demolished in the 1960's to make way for modern houses - they are all protected now), and some of the finest architecture in Britain. There are streets called The Circle and The Crescent, and they both contain beautiful looking houses (needless to say, in a circle and a crescent).
After grabbing some dinner, we wandered back to the B&B and slept well. Next morning I made Mike ask for a cooked breakfast thinking I'll get his bacon and eggs. Trouble was, it came with baked beans too. Mike nearly made me eat them. He said he'd get WeetaBix next time, regardless of what I say. Fair enough - but I can't help feeling we're not getting our money's worth when he only eats Cornflakes and toast.
Today it was raining quite heavily, so we thought we'd do the indoor things today. Nothing touristy opened until 1pm, so we went for a walk around the river (Bath is on the Avon) and admired some lovely bridges and Super 12 rugby jerseys (Bath is a rugby town - none of this football stuff). At 1pm we wandered through Bath Abbey. It is a C of E abbey built on the site of a catholic church that was demolished during Henry VIII's conversion to Protestantism. That he had ulterior motives is neither here nor there - it certainly changed the course of English history.
There were many memorial stones in the abbey and we read quite a few. Arthur Phillip (the dude Port Phillip bay is named after) is there somewhere. There are a few famous residents there (can't remember any more though).
After that we went to see William Herschel's house. Herschel was a German that came to England as a band member and stayed - mid to late 1700's). He set up home here in Bath and set out to teach music to supplement his income as a bandleader. And, in order to be recognised as a gentleman and move in the right circles, he took up a hobby. Astronomy. And he was quite good. He built his own instruments (self-taught from journals of the time) and was the first person to discover a new planet (Uranus) with the aid of a telescope. All other planets had been found with the naked eye. You can actually see Uranus without a telescope, but it is very faint.
Canny wee German that he was, he sought to gain favour from the king, and named his new planet 'Georgious'. Published his find in a journal and, sure enough, caught the king's attention. The king was so impressed he asked Herschel to become his personal astronomer. There was already an Astronomer Royal, but this was a new position. So, Herschel upped and moved to Slough - nearer the king's residence, but out of London's smog. In Slough he built the biggest telescope to date. Unfortunately it didn't really work. It was 40 feet long and about two feet in diameter and rested on a platform constructed out of wood and rope. Trouble was that the rope would stretch and contract in the warmth and damp, and distort the images. But, Herschel was well regarded and many of his instruments were of high quality compared to others on the market.
Please bear Herschel in mind for later in the letter.
We spent quite a while at Herschel's house before catching the train back to London at 4:30pm Sunday evening.
We have also found a climbing gym ten minutes from our house and Mike has finally bought some rock boots. It is huge and there is plenty to keep you occupied. Mike is doing well with his unusually long reach. We're off there again tonight.
When the weekend rolled around, I pulled Mike out of bed and dragged him off to Greenwich. The Royal Observatory is located at Greenwich, and was the objective of my trip. Saw the Cutty Sark on the way and the Gipsy Moth (a yacht sailed solo around the world in the late 1960's). At the Royal Observatory I straddled the east west meridian. One foot in the Western Hemisphere, and one in the Eastern Hemisphere. Zero longitude. There was a museum there dedicated to the astronomers that occupied the position of Astronomer Royal (not the one Herschel had). But, coming back to Herschel and his 40-foot telescope, the only remnants are located here outside the planetarium. There is a ten-foot section still visible under a perspex cover.
But wait, don't forget Herschel just yet. He crops up again later.
3/2/1998
That was the extent of our trip to Greenwich. Quite touristy, but OK to have a wander around. There is a ball on the top of one of the Royal Observatory buildings that marks one o'clock in the afternoon and you can set your watch by it. It climbs to the top of a mast and drops at 1pm. From everyone's anticipation I thought this was going to be a great affair. Talk about anti-climatic. The ball just slithered to the bottom of the mast at 1pm, and everyone just sort of looked around as if to say 'Was that it?'. Well, that was it. No bells or whistles. This is England. In the States it would probably set off cannon fire or something.
So, the following week I was at Spargo's office in Slough for a few days. This was their technical office, but it is mostly comprised of mainframe computer nerds. They are just starting to get into Windows programming there - hence my visit as I'm a Windows programmer. So, while I was having lunch there with a colleague, I noticed the street across from the café was called Herschel Street. Yep, same bloke. Slough was where he built that huge, non-functional telescope for the king. So, there was his name plastered over the street sign. After I explained its significance to my colleague, he thought that perhaps Herschel was following me around. Quite possible, if he hadn't been dead for three centuries.
I'm finished with Herschel now.
Now, let's see. Yes, the following weekend was the one just gone. We went to an Otago University reunion at a pub in Islington on Saturday afternoon, and then we went to see a NZ band play. They are called The Muttonbirds and this was the fourth time I'd seen them in concert. Good value. Judith's sister (Judith is John Holloway's wife), Sue, came with us. She's very nice and we had dinner with her during the week. She goes sailing too, so we might have found a potential sailing partner.
Judith has had an operation on her knee to try and find the cause of her pain. Turns out they couldn't fix it, but they have found the cause. Apparently it's nerve damage and there is nothing wrong with the knee itself. Judith has been in hospital for about two or three weeks on self-administered morphine and is now at her parent's place. We spoke to her last night and she says the knee has flared up again. She says she's missing John - I think she's been away from him for about a month now. That's a long time for having only been together for a month over Christmas as a married couple. She was hoping to return to Southampton with John this weekend, but if the knee has flared up again, it will probably postpone that idea. There is a flight of stairs to get up in their wee Southampton flat in order to get to the bathroom. Not convenient at all.
Sunday we tried to go and visit Charles Darwin's house out in Kent. The guidebooks never mentioned the fact that the English Heritage houses shut down over winter. We got all the way out there and it was shut. I have a work colleague that lives out that way, so we went for a drive to another big estate house and just walked around the garden. It was shut too, but you could circumnavigate the walled house. We had dinner at my friends house - lamb chops.
7/2/1998
Well, it's the day after Waitangi Day, and the cue for me to remember Stephanie's birthday. Unfortunately, it was the 7th in Melbourne by the time I called her - and she wasn't even awake. Spoke to Sharon for a wee while and had a chat about their wee dog and the kids. As I was saying goodbye, Stephanie woke up, but I think I confused her when I told her it was still her birthday where I live. She handed the phone back to her mum pretty quick. Sharon said I have to demonstrate the time difference next time I'm in Melbourne. I'll need a couple of balls to simulate the Earth's movement around the Sun - and maybe a lamp to show the darkness aspect.
Mike and I are going to head off to Oxford St now. I want to pick up a few things if I can. I also have to give Mike a shopping opportunity as my birthday approaches. As for plans in the near future... Well, we're going skiing in Chamonix from March 15 for a week. We will be with Kara and her brother Duncan. Should be a lot of fun - I'll have to brush up on my high school French. It is sadly lacking. Mike speaks it well as he spent the last 18 months in Wellington going to the Alliance Française while I went to the Goethe Institut. He actually was told by a French woman in Paris that his French was very good. Any praise from a French citizen has to be fully appreciated as they aren't high on compliments to foreigners. Mike tries very hard and I think they appreciate that. The American tourists on the other hand just speak English very loudly without any effort to speak French at all. At least they could learn the numbers - that would be something.
After the skiing, Mike has ten days in France wandering around while I head back to work in London. He plans to visit Provence and the Pyrenees region. He will be back in London for the 2nd of April, as that is the date his parents arrive here. They will be in Britain for about three months and Mike plans to tour around with them a bit. I'll try and join them for a week canal boating - John and Vivienne have expressed an interest to tag along with this too. That'd be good fun.
