Friday, April 29, 2005

No rest for the Helen

I spent a day relaxing yesterday after Wednesday's exertions. In fact, I got myself so good and tired from all that running around that I was out of the pub before ten. Very sad. So Thursday was spent at home, mostly updating this thing without the use of broadband. It took over an hour just to put those photos below on. But today I am back in broadband land as I am back in Felixstowe for the weekend.

Turns out that going to watch a movie at 6pm on a Thursday is not a very popular thing to do around here as me and Penny found out last night. We were just two of around half a dozen people out to watch 'The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' which I must admit I quite enjoyed. Which is good as going to the cinema was my single biggest acheivement of the day.

Today was a different matter, however. I have been feeling a little neglected at times this week, most particularly by my friend, Heather, who hasn't replied to any of my text messages. Feeling rather defensive it took my sister to persuade me that I should just call her and I was glad I did when I found out that she hasn't received any messages from me. All that bitterness for a breakdown in the network. So we made up for lost time by meeting today.

Now Heather is member of an exclusive club with only the two people in it- that is to say, friends of mine that don't drink. Plus she had an important engagement to go to later at Lambeth Palace (get her!) so there was no retiring to a pub for the afternoon. So we met at Charing Cross Station.

It was a fantastic day today. So sunny that everyone had left their offices to flaunt their ankles on any bit of grass they could find. I arrived into London and tried to keep my jacket on as I didn't want to carry it all afternoon but realised that it wasn't a good idea eventually. It was over 20 degrees today after all. In my eagerness to get out of the house and away from the daytime TV that I had gorged myself on the previous day (more reality TV, more makeover shows, more of people sitting around talking about books they have read, less plastic surgery shows, please) I arrived at Fenchurch Street a bit early. Which gave me the fantastic opportunity to run across Tower Bridge for a photo or two.


tower bridge


Now Tower Bridge is the one with the two towers on it, the clue is in the name really, London Bridge, at least the original, is in a desert in America somewhere.


on my way to the bridge


Of course I took photos of me since you guys seem to like them so much, despite how silly I must look trying to take photos of myself while not drawing attention to my Billy No Mates status


mayor's office


This is the Mayor's office, another of those funky new buildings that has appeared since I went away.


on the bridge


Even I was trying to ignore me taking photos. Then I walked around the outside of the Tower of London. I wish I could show you lots of photos taken of the inside of the tower- where the Crown Jewels are kept and some torture instruments which gave me nightmares for weeks after a trip there with the Brownies an aeon ago. But it cost the princely sum of fourteen pounds and fifty of our finest pence to get an adult in there. Think that I would rather save up and spend it all on Vietnam visas.


The Tower of London


And in answer to James's question about the price of 99's these days, I found this just outside the Tower


the price of ice cream these days


Nearly ten of those or the entrance fee? Think I know what I would choose.

Then it was off to Charing Cross to meet Heather. Charing Cross is a mainline station (which means that the trains going out of it travel above ground) which covers most of the areas that I have ever lived in while in London. I have spent a LOT of time there over the years so it is good to go back and know that any signalling failures I can walk away from


charing cross- the station that ruled my life


Though the sound of the flickerboard still sends shivers down my spine. Heather was nice and early so off we went. We walked around Covent Garden, Leicester Square


leicester square


Near Piccadilly Circus and into St James' Park, which you can think of as the Queen's front garden. We stopped a minute there to admire the ducklings


not ugly ducklings


Hum, forgot to mention the envitable stop for a panini and Mars Bar


mars bar


Heather seemed to take me taking photos of my food in her stride which is good as I do a lot of it. Though, weirdly, the paninis never seem to hang around long enough to be photographed. Strange that.


near leicester square

After our spot of baby duck admiration it was onto Westminster and over the bridge to drop Heather off at Lambeth Palace. I barely had time to take a dozen or so photos before I had to go and meet my sister at her office.

Big Ben

Just can't get enough of those Big Ben shots.

burghers and ben

These are the Burghers of Calais which, if my brief history lesson from kids' TV serves me correctly, were a bunch of people who surrendered themselves to save the rest of the city from the siege they were under. I think that the queen took pity on them and spared their lives, so noble was the sacrifice.
Tonight we drove (well, Penny drove and I talked) back to Felixstowe, stopping at the 24 hour Tesco at Copdock just to take this photo for you

sugary goodness

Warning, there maybe another of these tomorrow. I did spend a lot of time looking for a postcard to send to my friends in Gangneung but have not found the perfect one yet. By the way, looks like I won't be flying back to Korea as it will cost me 300,000 won to change my ticket and then another 500,000 won to get to Singapore. Will let you know if anything else turns up. How much is a return from Vietnam to Korea.....?

Thursday, April 28, 2005

You know what?

Londoners are actually quite nice if you smile at them. All those years I lived here and thought that everyone was rude.

So wrong.

Plus I forgot to mention that my brother found a hedgehog in the garden the other night and blinded it with the flash from my camera.

hodgeheg

Sure that it would look less evil usually, maybe we should have tried the red eye reduction thing but I always forget about that until I see the photos the next day- when it is just too late

In my day...

... all this was fields. Well, not strictly true but architecture in London has certainly become more interesting since I have been away. Don't think that there is a link though.

Old London
Big Ben
Baker Street station
the world's oldest underground railway#
New London
the gherkin
London Eye
letterbox and gherkin
I must admit that I am a fan of the mix. Plus, I just wanted an excuse to put more of my photos online :)

London, home of Londoners

Two words, Rory, real..bacon..


bacon sandwich


We have finally left the safety of Felixstowe. On Monday, we went to the airport to drop my brother off. I bought a mobile phone. It is a prepaid phone and cost the ridiculous sum of twenty quid. That'll do nicely. Sometimes I hate the disposable culture that we live in and other times it works to my advantage. It was hard to say goodbye to my brother. The three of us have been doing everything together this last couple of weeks and it has been great to spend time with my brother and sister. But I managed to soak up the pain with a sandwich. Not just any old sandwich but the sandwich that I used to wake up in the middle of the night in Korea, screaming the name of- a mozzeralla, tomato and basil panini, food of the gods. Ah man it was good.

But the weather wasn't and shortly after leaving Heathrow, a brother down, we got stuck in a traffic jam caused by an earlier accident which was probably caused by the rain. But we made it to my sister's house in the end. My sister is the only home owner in the family and she lives in London, well just inside the M25, ok ok you have beaten it out of me, she lives in Essex. But her town is just a twenty minute journey from Fenchurch Street Station in the City. Now, until she moved to Purfleet I thought that Fenchurch St was just the name of a station on the Monopoly board, next you are going to tell me that Marylebone Station exists!


board game or real life


Monday night was a quiet one spent texting people with my new phone. Now all that time in Korea and I thought that I couldn't use my phone because it was all in Korean. Turns out that I am just rubbish with cellphones. I am such a phone spastic that I even tried to change the language to Korean so that it would feel more normal. But it didn't have it. Bugger.

Tuesday morning I was up bright and early and off into London to try and find the Embassy of Vietnam. Got the nearest station, High Street Kensington, dying for the loo. Had to stop and take some passport photos (having left my stash of them in Felixstowe, smart move, H), dropped a pound which rolled away. Frantically looked for it while the machine shouted at me to put in the rest of the money. Finally an Australian girl found it outside the booth and the photos were done. Then I had to find a toilet and by the time that was done it was after 12.30 and the visa part of the Embassy was shut.

on the tube



So I went to Marble Arch and spent a very nice, though slightly surreal, afternoon with Russell, a guy I know from Gangneung. We went to the Pizza Hut buffet, where at least the surroundings reminded me of Korea. When Russ had to go I went to Tower Hill station to meet my sister and take silly amounts of photos. Many people have commented on my ak-cent since I got back. Apparantely I just don't sound English anymore. Which does work to your advantage when you are taking embarrassingly touristy shots of photo boxes and double decker buses.


phone box, taxi, tower of london


Wednesday morning saw me more determined than ever to make it to the Embassy. And, after just a couple of false starts I did. I had to buy an A-Z at the Tube station as I had forgotten to bring one with me. Armed with that I was confident I would find it this time. In fact, I ended up giving directions to quite a few people. Nice. Finally, I found it (Embassy of Vietnam, 12 Victoria Road, near High Street Kensington Tube station or a short walk from Gloucester Road).

The Embassy of Vietnam

The People's Republic of Vietnam. Not really much into sharing the wealth, judging on the very posh little house they were in. But there was no queue. So it was all over quite quickly and I walked out a few minutes later, clutching my receipt to collect my passport next Friday, ninety quid the lighter. yep, NINETY QUID. Now that is a lot of money in anyone's book. I acted all nonchalant when he asked for the money, as if dropping nearly a ton is something that I do every day, but inside I was screaming 'that's 180,000 won you theiving so and sos!'

Kensington, very nice

But I had acheived my first goal of the day and was feeling pretty good. I went to Baker Street, home of Sherlock Holmes, took a photo of the detective's statue and met my friend, Amanda (aka. one half of Des and Amanda, the couple that I went to Australia with).

by jove holmes

After a very nice lunch (panini again. London, why did I ever leave you??) it started to rain. Amanda went back to work and I walked in the rain. For about five hours.

picadilly circus in the rain


Not strictly true as it rained, then stopped, then rained and stopped etc. I walked down Regent Street, across Oxford Street, where I used to work in another lifetime, down to Piccadilly Circus and onto Haymarket and New Zealand House (80 Haymarket). I was there to get an application form for a Working Holiday visa, as in four short weeks I will be too old to get one. And if all the Kiwis are as cute as the guy in the Consulate, I might never leave. Now, Koreans aren't short but they aren't tall. I am often one of the tallest, if not the tallest, in my adult classes. But home in England and I realise that I am not tall at all. Hardly a little bit. It makes me feel quite dainty after feeling like a clodhopping heffalump for the last three years in Korea.

New Zealand House

The guy told me that if I had been just a few weeks younger (ie. born after 1st July) I could have got a two year working holiday visa but being the oldie that I am I will just miss the date it changes. Dammit. And, because I appear to have been living in a high TB risk country (nobody told me!) I have to go and get a chest x-ray before I can get the visa. Hum. The good news is that it only takes about 15 minutes to get the application done and, at fifty quid, is almost half the price of a three month tourist visa to Vietnam. So I figure that next Friday I will pick up my visa from the Vietnamese Embassy and then rush over to New Zealand House, chest x-ray in hand, and my visas will be sorted, even if my purse will then be seriously over budget.

the mall

trafalgar square in the rain

the London Eye

Horseguard's parade in the rain

Horseguard's parade not in the rain


More walking around the rain, the sun, no the rain, some more sun and it was time to meet my sister and go for my first pint in England for over two years.

first pint in England

Which I had in the Walkabout in Covent Garden, a bar which, as you might have guessed from the name, is an Australian one. One pint later and I was off to meet Cat, a girl I met while fruit picking in the bowels of North Queensland many years ago.

And finally home. It was a long day. Not doing it again today.

Friday, April 22, 2005

England, its not all chips and beer

All you Korea-dwellers, look at this

say 'cheese'
Things which are odd about being back in England include reminding myself not to treat cheese as a luxury item, ditto tomato soup, tampons and deodorant. Can't get used to seeing people sitting around in the house with their shoes on. Have not yet managed to pass anyone something with my left hand or use a toilet without looking around for the bin I expect to find next to it. Waited for ages for someone to pour me some wine the other night too.

Nice things about being back in England include spending a lot of time with my family, brother, sister, aunt, cat, taking phone calls from people in the UK and not having to worry too much about their phone bills being a nasty shock at the end of the month. In the (nearly) two weeks that I have been back I have bought a pair of shoes (from a large selection of shoes in my size- joy!) and two blouses. It was a treat to walk into a clothes shop and not be confronted with a look of shock from the assistant. Again, I had clothes to choose from and didn't have to just buy the one that fitted. No-one followed me around the store and no-one giggled behind their hands when they heard me speak English. Fortunately, so far, I have managed to suppress the urge to say 'annyong haseyo' every time I walk into a shop.

Other great things about being back in England include the countryside. The fields are not rice paddies but overflowing with flowers

the rape field

and stinging nettles which I just managed to avoid in my eagerness to take photos

stinging nettle

It is just so green here after the browness and snow of a Korean winter. I guess that Spring really is the season of greeness and I am sure that Korea is looking great now with its cherry blossoms everywhere.

I am enjoying the houses here too. Felixstowe has old parts and new parts, we are somewhere between since our house seems to date from the sixties, judging on the wallpaper behind my mum's wardrobe. But the old houses are just gorgeous. Some of them are thatched and a lot of them are painted Suffolk pink. This one isn't though

farmhouse and pond

It is an old farmhouse just behind my mum's house. Me and my sister went for a walk yesterday to an area which used to be just trees leading down to the shore. The Port of Felixstowe extended into it years ago. We stood there and said 'I remember when all this was fields' then realised that a lot of it still was

countryside meets the docks

Much as I am loving the peace and quiet of Suffolk, between the bouts of house clearing and rubbish dumping, I am going to London next week with my sister. Penny has to go back to work and I don't want to be left alone here without someone to drive me around(!) I will try and catch up with some folk in London and send some photos of the Big Smoke to you then.

I have to go now as I can hear the chime of the ice-cream van and am wondering if my sister will give me the money for a 99!

A Port, a Fort and a Resort (title lifted straight from Felixstowe tourist literature)

The way I see it, I could tell you everything that I am feeling right now and dig deep into the well of pain caused by my mother's passing. Or I could keep that to myself and come across as a superficial fool who got over the whole thing in a week. I am going for option two, some things should remain private.

People are asking where I am right now. I am back in my home town of Felixstowe, Suffolk. It is on the east coast of England and not too far from London, Ipswich and Norwich. Not helping?? well, try these maps


UK

Those of you who paid attention in Geography class will be aware that the above is a map of more than just Felixstowe. For those of you still confused, note where London is and then look at this fella

Where's Helly


And that is where I am. Felixstowe is an interesting place, no, really. It has been the site of a Dutch invasion, popular seaside resort, container port and place where I first got so drunk that I couldn't contain myself. Now some people think that Suffolk is all about this


Beware, wild animals



and there is a fair amount of those around, quite different from the soju-swilling ajummas that I am used to after three years in Korea. But grandmas often mean that there are grandchildren out there so it is not all the grey brigade. For me, Felixstowe is split into several distinct places. At one end there is Felixstowe Ferry, as pictured on previous posts, a gentle little fishing hamlet with golf course, greasy spoon cafe, wooden houses, yachts and, of course, fisherman. It is quiet and a great place for a Sunday afternoon walk.

Then there is 'our' beach, which is the bit nearest my first house here. It has ice cream vendors, beach huts and lights. Moving further along the beach you get to the really touristy part. In the old days, people used to come to Felixstowe for the fresh air and seaside fun that is more commonly pursued in sunnier climes these days. There are countless amusement arcades, with crane machines that don't grab, those annoying games with the coins balanced on shelves ('nearly got it that time, one more and they are definitely going to fall, sod that, I'll just try knocking the machine' BBBBBEEEEEEEPPPPP 'oops!'), seaside rock and candy floss aplenty. There is a minature railway which goes around and around, a boating 'lake' and crazy golf. We went there at night so the photos only really captured the lights


Felixstowe Pier

Charlie Mannings

The Prom

Pier and lights



This part of the beach is where young lads drive cars to impress girls who try their best to ignore them. And if the lights and the glamour of this part of Felixstowe is not for you then perhaps you might be more interested in a very Felixstowe hobby.

Now, as I said, Felixstowe is also a container port. It is a BIG port. Which means that there is a lot of traffic in and out of it. It also means that a lot of people are employed there. Right by the port, down the road, past the caravansite, past the Customs House, turn right at Landguard Fort (more on that another time) and there is a special place known at The View Point (it has a more official name but this will do if you are asking for directions). This is basically a car park where people go to sit in their cars and watch the ships loading, unloading and sailing away. It is a very popular thing to do at any time as this photo shows

A felixstowe hobby

And while I think that it is a strange thing to do, it is also one of my favourite things to do. The ships from Felixstowe literally carry everything all over the World. My mum could tell you which ships were going where just by looking at the names.

Felixstowe Docks

Some people may think that the Port of Felixstowe is an eyesore but for most people here it is part of a strange beauty. The other side of the View Point is an old fort and nature reserve

Landguard Fort watchtower

Now, why I am telling you all about Felixstowe? Because, in case you hadn't noticed, I am not in Korea anymore so this must be the start of the trip. Step one- England!

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