Bracknell Adult Open 2014

Yesterday was the annual Bracknell Adult Open, and as usual, it was a delightful competition, impeccably run, very efficient, very friendly, and a good time was had by all.

We got up at sparrowfart, and left by 06:30, which means we arrived well before 08:00, but you can't leave for Bracknell any time after 07:00 and hope to get there before 10:00!  The traffic simply doesn't work like that.  So there was plenty of time to watch the solo dancers before we had to skate.

I don't think we skated that badly, and the audience liked it:

The judges, however, did not!  In this country, they do seem to judge you as if you were the Kerrs or Penny and Nick..... thank goodness we get better scores abroad.  Another couple also got really poor scores - less than 1 point better than us - so it didn't mean we were crap and everybody else was fabulous!  Still a lot of work to do before Oberstdorf, though, and not much time in which to do it.

The Swan Whisperer did his free programme, not very well, and got a costume deduction for fancy dress.... which is totally our coach's fault as he insisted.  Never mind, we'll know better for Oberstdorf, and he'll probably skate it better there, too.  He still managed not to be last, which is gratifying.

We left before the end of the competition to avoid the worst of the traffic!  I slept in the car for quite a lot of the way home.  It was a lovely day, and loads of thanks to Nicki and the team for making it a great competition, as always.  And thanks to Colin for shooting the video for us.

Being a transport geek

Over Easter week, TfL has been replacing Pudding Mill Station. The old station was in the way of the Crossrail project, so it had to go. So on Maundy Thursday, which was the last day of operations, I persuaded the Boy that it was a good place for trainspotting, and we went there (and on to the ViewTube to look round and spend pennies. Today, he was at nursery, so I was on my own. I set off from Clapham High Street station and took the Overground as far as Shadwell, where I changed on to the DLR. The first train was heading to Lewisham, so I hopped off at Canary Wharf and did the cross-platform change to a Stratford-bound train. Got off at Pudding Mill Lane, but didn't leave the station - it was the station I wanted to see.

It is, of course, very new and shiny and very dull really! But lovely views of the Olympic Park and of the ArcelorMittal Orbit

When the next train came along, I hopped on, and got off in Stratford. Did a little shopping, which I could have done anywhere really, but while I was there... and then came home on a Greater Anglia train to Liverpool Street and a 35 bus! Geeky, or what? But having been to the old station on the final day of operation, I couldn't not go to the new one on its first. I was interested to note - you can't see it in this picture, but I saw it from the train going home - that they have already taken the rails up! They don't waste time.

A weekend in Weymouth

The Swan Whisperer renewed his annual Gold Card (season ticket, basically) at Clapham Junction station this year instead of, as he normally does, at Redhill.  And, to his delight, South West Trains sent him a reward of 6 free train tickets, each of which could be used for a day's travel at weekends (including Fridays) on South West Trains.

So as we have a major wedding anniversary on Monday, we thought we would treat ourselves to a weekend away.  And settled on Weymouth, as neither of us had ever been there, and I booked us into the Riviera Hotel.  I thought it would either be delightful or disastrous....

It's a long train journey down to Weymouth, nearly 3 hours, so we set off early afternoon, and arrived shortly after 6:00 pm.  The room absolutely stank of damp and mildew, and the door didn't fit very well.  I hadn't worked out how to use the key by the time it was time to leave!  And it was either too cold or too hot until we found the radiator thermostat (which helped get rid of the smell by the second day).  No toiletries were provided, although they did give us a handful to take back to the room when we complained. And quite the worst is that there were no individual switches for the reading-lights - really, why do they think people are going to want to snuggle down at the same time?  One switch controlled both, and is why I've given the hotel such a scathing review on TripAdvisor.

We had decided to eat in the hotel restaurant because the hotel itself is quite a long way out of town, but we wished we hadn't bothered - the food was mediocre and the service appalling.  I was quite ready to go back to London next morning!

However, after a bad night's sleep because I was so cold, we discovered that the towels they provided were huge and luxurious, which is always nice, and the breakfast was delicious, copious, and adequately staffed!  So we felt different.

We went out after breakfast and walked along the beach into Weymouth, which was a lovely walk on a very windy day.  Usually nothing is sadder than a seaside resort out of season, but the sea was actually full of kite-surfers, which were great fun to watch.  There were a couple of sailboarders, too, by midday, but most people were doing kite-surfing and having enormous fun.  We stopped in a random café for a cup of surprisingly good (slightly weak!) coffee and a sit out of the wind.  Then we walked on, and found the shopping drag (I needed tissues after all that wind!), and pottered around for a bit, until we found a café to have lunch, which was a crab and salad sandwich which would have been nicer if thicker, and if the bread hadn't sat out for half an hour too long!  But it was good.

Then we found a bus back to the hotel, which, improbably, turned out to be free!  And then we explored the swimming-pool and sauna/steam room complex, which was very good.  To have been perfect, they should have provided shampoo, but they did provide more of those lovely big towels.

There was no way we were going to eat in the restaurant again, so we walked half-way back into town, up a huge hill and down again, to a pub we'd noticed en route that advertised a carvery, which was very popular and deservedly so.  Very good food!  But I was exhausted by then and insisted on a taxi back to the hotel!  They had changed the towels when they did the room, despite our having hung them up, so I used the clean bath-sheet as an extra blanket and was warmer.

This morning, after another delicious breakfast, we decided not to linger as there was a possibility of seeing my parents (which didn't happen as the party they'd come to Town for finished late), and we knew there were engineering works.  So we caught the 9.15 bus into town, marvelling at how different the sea looked now the wind had dropped, and there was just time to buy a paper before the train arrived.  We had to change at Bournemouth on to a rail replacement bus for a rather pleasant drive through the New Forest to Southampton Airport Parkway, where we caught a train to London, and thus home.  I slept most of the way on the trains and then again when we got home.... An early night tonight and I might just have caught up with myself!

Unexpected Aeroplanes

It was a lovely day today.  The Swan Whisperer and I went skating first thing, and then he went off to work, and I did a bit of shopping.  It was too nice to go home. But while I was in Argos waiting for my item to be brought up, I checked my phone, and there was a text from the Daughter to say they were going to watch aeroplanes, and would I like to come too? 

So I texted back "Yes, please", and as soon as my shopping came, I went straight home, threw the makings of some stock into the slow cooker, and went out again.

To watch aeroplanes, you go to Cyprus DLR station, which is way out near Beckton.  Then you walk through the UEL campus and there are loads of benches facing the dock, just across from the London City Airport runway. 

What wind there was was from the east today, meaning that the planes took off from directly in front of us, but they landed nearer the terminal, and came half-way up the runway to turn round, so you did get a good view of them. 

The airport is much busier than it used to be, and planes were taking off or landing every few minutes.  You seemed to get a batch of planes taking off, and then a batch landing to fill the slots at the gates, and then another batch taking off. 

We bought rather disappointing filled baguettes in a local coffee shop - two between the four of us.  Boy Too seems much keener on food than his brother was at that age, and enjoyed the bread, although he wasn't given much, if any, of the filling.  The Boy and I shared a strawberry-banana smoothie, too.

After that, we went on watching planes for a bit, although the Boy was more interested in playing trains, and found the very loud engines of taking-off planes rather scary.  Then we went and found a loo, and took the DLR back to Canary Wharf to have a potter around there. 

It's a long, long time since the Daughter and I used to go there for a wander when she was little, and it's very easy to get lost there - I wanted to go to the big fountains, but we couldn't find them.  We did, however, find a M&S and bought ourselves ice-lollies - sadly, the Boy's fell off its stick before he'd finished "And I wanted to eat it all!" he sobbed.  Boy Too, who had been napping while we were travelling, enjoyed some of his mother's lolly, and we decided we might have to buy some fruit juice and make some lollies.

The Boy said he wanted to go home on the Underground - dull, but faster than the DLR, although he does love the DLR - and I decided I would do likewise.  And then I realised that there is a new way of going home from the days when I used to work in the area, and so I changed at Canada Water.  Luckily, there was a Clapham Junction-bound Overground due in 2 minutes when I got to the appropriate platform, and I am sure I got home faster than I would have done had I done the very long and stair-ridden change at London Bridge.  I must remember that next time I want to go to Stratford!

Spring Walk

It was the first real Spring day of the year, far too nice to stay indoors, so the Swan Whisperer and I decided we would do the "other" leg of the canal walk we had been planning ever since we walked up the Limehouse Cut about 18 months ago.  So we took the Northern Line to Bank, and then the DLR to Limehouse, and then we took the first branch of the canal, which is, of course, the Regents' Canal at that stage.  There was a place hiring canoes, and we made enquiries - not that we planned to do that today, but we thought we might like to at some stage.  Actually, I'm not too sure I do want to - there was an awful lot of rubbish in the canals,  yuck.

So we walked up the Regents' Canal, overtaking some walkers, being overtaken by others, and having to climb the banks for passing cyclists.  The route was rather interesting, actually, as it goes along the side of Mile End Park, which we hadn't met before.  And of course Mile End Park finishes at Victoria Park, where the Hertford Union Canal turns right - and so did we. 

We walked along the canal - there are houses on the first bit, but eventually you see Victoria Park, which was seriously standing-room only, we thought!  Not too surprising on such a lovely afternoon.

The canal joins the River Lee opposite the Olympic Park - the stadium and the Orbit are to one's right, and the Copper Box to one's left.  I am not sure how much of the park, even now, is open to the public, although I know some of it is - the swimming pool is now a public baths, and watch this space as there may well be a visit sometime in the next few weeks. 

Anyway, that was more-or-less the end of our walk.  We would have liked to have had a beer at a recommended brewery and pizzeria just there, but we were running out of time, so we went straight to Hackney Wick station, a few hundred metres away (and a very splendid zig-zag path leading up to the platforms, much nicer than stairs!), from which we were able to catch an Overground to Highbury and Islington, and then the Victoria Line back to Brixton.

Sunday and Monday

We had ordered breakfast for 09:00 on Sunday morning, so that we could be away in good time, and were away before 10:00.  We needed petrol, but Madame in the hotel didn't seem to know about any 24-hour stations at supermarkets (French petrol is far, far cheaper in the supermarkets than anywhere else, even a service station across the road from the supermarket), but said there was one open on our way out, so we filled up there (and of course found a plethora of supermarkets on our way out of town, so typical).

We were on our way to a little town called Lezay, where we were to meet a very old friend - in the sense that I have known her for over 40 years, not that she is particularly elderly - who lives in that area, and had recommended this restaurant called l'Assiette for lunch.  We had plenty of time so decided to drive on the N and D roads, which are, of course, a lot slower, but arguably more interesting - although on the outskirts of towns one does get a little bored of the endless supermarkets and "zones industrielles" lining the roads, and the satnav's endless instructions to "Cross the Roundabout; 2nd exit".  However, we also went through some beautiful countryside on what were archetypal - or did we mean stereotypical, we couldn't decide - French roads, very straight with trees either side.

We arrived at the restaurant shortly after our friend, and after a good meal we went back to hers, where we were spending the night.  We took the dog out for a walk, rejoicing in the lighter evenings, France being an hour later than we are (although it doesn't try to get light before 08:00, which must be thoroughly depressing when you have to go to work in the dark for three months of the year).  And watched a bit of British television, and ate supper, and then talked and talked and talked until the wee small hours, just as we had done forty-odd years ago!

All too soon we had to leave next morning.  The hotel had very kindly telephoned us to say that the Swan Whisperer had left his alarm clock behind, so we had to call in there en route.  We also wanted to go back a slightly cheaper route than we had come, which had cost the best part of €50 in motorway tolls, so we went via Chartres, or the outskirts thereof, which is arguably slightly slower, but very much cheaper as there is little or no toll motorway, but quite a lot of dual carriageway.

The journey seemed, to me, practically endless!  We ended up with plenty of time to shop in Auchan and then a quick bite to eat in Buffalo Grill before getting our planned Shuttle home, but that last two hours.... oh dear.... and I wasn't even driving!  I love to see my friend, and if we go to Tours again it does seem silly not to go and see her, when she is only a couple of hours away, but it does make for a very, very long day's driving home.

Long Day

The competition started at 08:00, but as we were not involved in the first session, we ordered breakfast for 8.15, and didn't get to the rink until 09:00. To find, of course, that things were running slightly late, but they always do, and the delay wasn't bad. We also found that we were the only foreigners, as the Austrian couple who had planned to give the Masters skates a run for their money had withdrawn.

The Swan Whisperer was skating after the break, doing Bronze solo dances. We realised when he was warming up the 14-step that he was fairly obviously the weakest skater in the group, and he duly came 5th out of 5. However, his European was good, for him, and another skater had a disaster trying to make it one lobe instead of the two everybody else had sensibly settled for. So the SW was Not Last, which, considering he is at least 20 years older than any of his competition, was very gratifying.

Lunch was provided at the rink, and after it we went back to the hotel for a break. I fell asleep and then had indigestion caused by Too Much Cheese at lunch (well there was a fantastic cheeseboard), so stayed in while the SW went for a walk. Finally it was time to go back to the rink and get ready to skate out free dance.

We already knew we had no competition, but we wanted to see what sort of marks we would get, with a view to skating at Oberstdorf if we scored about 8 or thereabouts, which is normal for us. The ice was hard and fast, and I found it scary and didn't think we skated that will. We fluffed the spin, and I rushed the highlight after the step sequence, and didn't even try to be on one foot while the SW did his spiral. So imagine our delight when the scored were announced - not the 5 or 6 I thought it deserved, not even 8 or - wildest dreams 10 - but 14·32! A personal best by a mile! Oberstdorf, here we come!

After that, there was (a stiff drink and) a lot of hanging about until the presentations, after which we got changed and went to find a restaurant that would do us a meal after 10:00 pm, and fortunately there was one just found the corner from the hotel. Not exactly cheap, but seriously worth it - I had the most delicious fish, and a beer. And so back to the hotel, and bed. And trying to wind down from an exhausting day.