Talacre

The Lighthouse

When I first looked at this photo I thought there  was something wrong with it!. Then I realised that there was paint missing on the lighthouse itself. Most of the ones I found on the net must have Photoshopped it out !!

Kahless showed me some of the local shells. I’ve got no idea what they are called and an internet search hasn’t helped at all at this stage. I will add anything if I work out what they are.

Here’s another one:

Isn’t it cool.

This is the other side. Kahless reckoned you never find them whole and we found them whole much to her surprise !! This one had one side whole.

I’m not sure what these are. Wooden thingees sticking out from the beach, but aren’t the timber colours stunning.

As we walked along the beach, the sand shapes changed. So of course, I had to photograph it.

I’m tempted to try and Photoshop the brick out. It is really irritating me !!

It’s a great spot for dogs. We watched one of these dogs lose their ball and circle around and around to try and find it. Ally would have love this spot.

You can see how cold and windy it is. Everyone is rugged up nice and tight.

The dunes (you can just see the lighthouse in the background)

And the beach

The other direction

Nothing like the Australian beaches that’s for sure.

Out in the ocean we could see the wind farms. I reckon they would be great here. The whole time I was here the wind was blowing a gale.

  

Also, off in the distance I could see:

Oil Rigs I think. They were a long way away and it’s only the fact that I’ve got such a good zoom on my camera that I could photograph them.

A sign

I know I certainly wouldn’t swim in this water. It would have to be an awful lot warmer before I even thought about taking some of my clothes off let alone getting into bathers.

By this time, we were both getting cold so we decided to head into Chester to check out the sights. And that’s another little story.

Madeleine

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

North Wales: the trip

I'm sitting in the train station feeling very important with Lara on the table. For some reason it feels quite decadent to type on a computer in a train station. I'm incredibly early as usual. I arrived at the station with almost an hour to kill, in spite of stopping at La Croissanterie to pick up my lunch. I sat in a seat for a while and then went for a wander and this is where I found the tables and chairs.

Oxford Train station

There was a man sitting next to me, old, long gray beard, looking like he was asleep. A young man on the other side of me, a student? reading a sheet of A4 paper and making notes. I do like having a Lara to work with. Means that my blogs are written as I go as long as I have spot to sit and type.

The chairs are all metal and incredibly cold on my bum so I am sitting on my coat to try and keep my bum warm.

For some reason, I still get incredibly excited about trips. You would think at my age, and with the amount of travelling I have done, that I would be inured to it, and would take it more for granted. But not me. I can't wait to get moving. I've just taken out something that I can't blog about, gives too much information about another blogger !! But I will tell them about it later !!

Here's my train coming into the station. I mean, Madeleine, what an idiot. It's only a train!!

Not too cold here this morning. I have already taken off my coat and sitting here in the station quite comfortable with just a jumper on. Apparently it is supposed to rain all weekend, more so in Wales than in Oxford. So should be an interesting weekend.

When I was packing I couldn't seem to get my wellies to fit in my case. I put them on top. Then had to take everything out and put them on the bottom and pack around them. Worked a treat. So they are in my case, along with almost every piece of warm clothing I own. Probably don't need that much, but if it is going to be wet, then I might need them all.

On the train, there were push button doors to get on and off the train and to move from carriage to carriage. They were also on the loo. You have to remember to push the lock button or someone else is likely to get a shock. I pushed it and hoped it worked cause there was nothing to say it was working properly. Also I didn’t “hover” for those who have read Kahless's blog ("Hovering is the best strategy"). There is no way I am hovering over a loo seat on a train. Guaranteed the train will move, I will fall, slip, something, and me and the loo will wear it.

Train travel is so much nicer than air. I can look out the window and there are things to see. I was even surprised at the size of the loo. Clouds in the sky, green grass, fields, bridges, sheep. I can even take a photo if I want. Sun can be irritating when you are trying to read and it is coming through the trees and then through the my window - going flip, flip, flip on the page I am trying to read. Makes it hard to focus on the words.

But it is a sign that the world is still there.. Not like on a airplane where the whole world disappears for hours on end. People sitting across from me got off so I’ve moved seats and just realised what a mess I’ve made under my seat when my baguette wrapper fell apart.

Then I was able to set Lara up and type up impressions.

Arrived safely in Chester. Interesting sign

Some buildings outside the station. The Town Crier (I've no idea what this building is. My first thought was a newspaper, but who knows) (addition later - this is a pub)

Westminster Hotel - lovely buildings.

 

Kahless met me as planned and all went well. More about that later.

Now it is time for bed. I don't know when this one will be posted.

Cheers

Madeleine

Friday, 7 November 2008

 

Wales: almost the end

Well my weekend in Wales is almost over. What a great time I've had! Everything was as close to perfect as you could wish. Even the cold, wet weather hasn't slowed me down at all. This trip could have been great or awful. I was coming, alone, to a town in Wales with little public transport, meeting someone I'd never met before. A blogger mate called Kahless. We have had email conversations, blog conversations and one phone call. What was I getting myself into. Was this woman who she said she is? Was my intuition right about her? Was she actually a woman or a man luring me into slavery? I know that is my imagination working over time, but I didn't know.

Today, I said to Kahless, that being with her was like catching up with an old friend I hadn't seen in years. But someone I had history with and that I was comfortable with. I had a great weekend and I hope Kahless did as well. We walked. We talked. We laughed. We ate. We drove (well Kahless did) all over the countryside and walked ourselves exhausted. Thank you Kahless for a great weekend. I feel I have a new friend and I hope you feel the same way.

The weather forecast for the weekend was rain, rain and more rain. Saturday we had bits of rain, cold, windy in places (like up in the mountains), but far better than I expected. We covered a lot of ground, outside, and the rain held off until we got home at night. Sunday was cold and wet. Rain off and on most of the day until about 3 when it settled in for the day. At which stage, Kahless and I both were quite content to head home and play computers for a while. In spite of the rain, we still managed to see some incredible sights so as far as I'm concerned, the weather was fine.

To top the weekend off, the place I picked to stay was absolutely perfect. You will hear more about what Kahless and I did as well as the B & B (bed and breakfast) as the posts come through. What I would like to say tonight is that the hosts, Llinos and James were great hosts. Friendly and welcoming, even taking time out from their work to show me around and give me some of the history of the house, parts of which were built in the early 1600's. You will see photos in due course. I would highly recommend Stokyn House to anyone who plans on staying in this area.

Tonight I am exhausted and plan on sitting in front of the tv until it's time to go to sleep.

It's back to Oxford tomorrow and I have the next week to process this weekend and write a bit more about what we did, and show off my photos. I've got over 500 photos to go through and decide which ones to keep, which ones to delete and which ones to post and write about.

So until my next post my friends in Australia (and elsewhere)

Good night

Madeleine

Sunday, 9 November 2008

Llangollen

Accosted in Debenham's

I went to Debenham's the other day to see about getting some gloves or mittens to keep my poor little hands warm. Debenham's is a department store with about 3 levels. The children's department is up on the top. So up the escalator I go and on one of the levels I am accosted by this man. He asked me if I did anything with my nails. I said, no, I didn't. Then he asked if he could see my nails. I looked at him in surprise, and said, no he couldn't. He looked at me in surprise, almost taken aback and off I went. I'm not sure why he wanted to look at my nails, but personally I found it totally invasive. I also think he is not used to people saying no to him, which I must admit gives me the giggles.

Today I went into town again to mail a parcel for K at the post office. Now I am becoming quite confident with my walking around Oxford so I didn't take my map. I wandered down the streets, still eyeing off the shops to find some gloves that fit and suddenly realised I had run out of shops, and had still not reached the post office. I had remembered it as being quite a distance from home. I paced back and forth for a couple of minutes trying to get my bearings and then asked a man who was standing at the bus stop. I had become too confident and gone down the wrong street !! Damn. Maybe I should remember to take my map with me next time I go out shopping. I had to retrace my steps and turns out the post office was much, much closer than I had remembered.

And that brings up another thought. When I first arrived here in Oxford, the walk into town seemed to last forever. It seemed like miles and miles away. Now, I realise just how close town really is. The problem is, my mind still has itself back in that original sense of being miles away and when I get organised to go out, I have to remind myself that it's not really as far as I think it is. Funny how first impressions last even in the face of reality.

I'm off to Wales tomorrow to meet up with Kahless and may or may not have time to write anything or to post any pictures.

So until I return,

Ciao

Madeleine

Thursday, 6 November 2008

Alice's Shop

Today was practical day. Bought my ticket to Chester for this weekend and then wandered off to find a map and to mail a post card to the one person I said I might send a post card (everyone else was told to read my blog !!).

While I was out and about I happened upon Alice's shop again. Remember, I wrote about that in one of my earlier blogs (Thursday, 2 October 2008). This time I got some great photos and I went inside. I'm not saying what I bought because one of them is a present for someone and I'm not giving away any secrets at this stage. I will take a picture of what I bought and show people later. It's only a little something, but I think they will think it's great. They are also incredibly kitch and I won't admit to the whole world that I actually spent money on this sort of tourist thing.

Here's the rabbit outside the shop

And the building (It's the one on the right)

A close up of the shop.

Some flowers in the garden behind where I was standing. It's on a busy road, so I had to wait while buses and people went past so I entertained myself taking pictures of these flowers.

The shop was all about Alice in Wonderland and was definitely a tourist shop ! It was small and pokey and had Allice in Wonderland pens, erasers, cups and saucers, you know the sort of shop I mean. But hey, I've been there now, so I don't have to wonder.

And one more sign.

Maybe later tonight I will get to a post about our trip to the Harcourt Arboetum on Sunday and our lunch at a delightful pub in a town near.

Cheers

Madeleine

Monday, 3 November 2008

The Umbrella Dance

Interesting day Saturday. K and I decided to go to Banbury to go shopping. M had to work and took the car. So K & I hopped on a train and went shopping.

This is Banbury shopping centre.

We had ourselves a great shopping trip. I got a nice warm winter coat for 5 pounds (my machine doesn't have a pound sign) from a second hand shop. I tell you, Banbury has lots and lots of second hand shops !! I also got some really neat wellies. I've been tossing up as to what to wear on my feet. I keep getting them wet and cold and wet pant legs on my travels. So I decided on some snazzy wellies. I will wear them in Australia. I have a pair of boring black ones that I wear. I know I look like a total dork and that Kahless is going to piss herself laughing when she sees me, but I really don't care !!

We also picked up some other little bits and pieces and off home we wandered.

When we arrived home, we discovered that the power was off on our street and we had not only no lights, but no heat. Candles don't keep you very warm and they are very hard to read by for any length of time. K and I were really quite philosophical about the whole thing, but M was a bit cranky. He had worked all day to come home to a cold, dark house. Not a happy chappy. K couldn't even make herself a cup of coffee to go with the cookies we bought !!

About 6 we decided to go out for dinner. it was either that, or pizza, again - our nearest take away place. The rain had settled in, the wind was blowing and it was cold and wet and dark. People dodging with their umbrellas - doing the umbrella dance. K and I realised that with the differences in our height (my umbrella is about most people's eye level; K's is at normal height.), I do a duck, dodge and weave, where she does a lift, dodge and weave.  M, well, he just does the dodge and weave tactic.

Wet pant legs: Everyone had wet pant legs. All the way to the knees on some people. Wet shoes, wet trouser legs, cold wind blowing. Damn. That felt almost icy and wintry.

I have also learned how to fold my pant legs so they fit in my wellies !! I have a vague recollection of this technique from when I was a young child. But it is only a very vague recollection.

Madeleine

Sunday, 2 November 2008