Magical mystery tour...

Belated post for this weekend - as many of you know, it was a 3-day weekend here in England, and Ashley whisked me away for a surprise holiday. Surprise in that I didn't know where we were going... I knew enough to pack a bag at least! And, amazingly enough, it remained a surpise location until we were almost there.

So - where was the mystery location? Morocco, in Zanzibar. Well, the Morocco room in the Zanzibar hotel, technically not exactly in Africa, but instead in the small seaside town of St Leonards-on-Sea. Which, true to its name, is on the sea side - the south coast, about a 3 hour drive from London.

The B&B was great, very different - I have to say I've never had such a friendly greeting... including Champagne on arrival, very nice. And Matt, the owner, was just great, recommending a place for dinner, and chatting about his plans for future work on the hotel - it's just getting started, really.

And by complete random coincidence, the Guardian that Saturday morning of our departure, reviewed a restaurant in that very town, and we were lucky enough to get one of the last table. St Clements was cozy & yummy & just right for a lengthy lunch before venturing out to explore St Leonards and nearby Hastings. (yes, 1066 and all that).

However, I think we saw the highlights of the area with the hotel & lunch. For although the Guardian article referred to a local "renaissance" - I think it's eeeeeaaaarly days at best. Umm - how would I sum it up? Sad. Faded, really. One of those classic old English seaside towns that hasn't moved on. And there must've been more take-away restaurants per capita than I've ever seen. Chinese after Chinese, with the odd "Kentassee Fried Chicken" thrown in. (Where's Kentassee? I have no idea. Somewhere less expensive than KFC-franchise-land).
And I suppose the rain that first day didn't exactly show it in the best light... still, we had fun, walking on the pier, buying candy, visiting the Fisherman's Museum (one of the town's most popular tourist attractions!), playing air hockey in the amusement park, as you do...
Still, as we didn't take in any rides, nor did I indulge in the famed jellied eels, I feel I've not properly 'done' Hastings...



Sleepy now, so that's all for this installment - tune in tomorrow for Sunday's adventures - can the intrepid duo venture beyond Hastings for the day?

Trains, waves, and underground

Had a very touristy (touristic? touristish?) Saturday, with Ashley's mum over at ours for a few nights - started by boarding the incredibly conveniently located boat at the Kew Pier behind our flat, for a trip down (up?) the Thames to Westminster. We managed to dodge most of the rain, and had a pleasant journey of about 80 mins - a little longer than it would've taken by other forms of public transport, but much more picturesque. I've certainly never seen Westminster and the London Eye from that view before!

After a quick lunch (during the heaviest of the rain, phew!), and a short stop to watch the tail end of a street performer's set, as he endeavoured to escape from a straight jacket (amazingly enough, he succeeded, in exactly 2 minutes, which was the time limit he set himself), we headed off to the Tate Britain, for the Constable exhibit. Ok, I must admit, landscape portraits aren't really my thing, but I found it interesting to view the life-size sketches he made first, side-by-side with the final paintings - to see how he changed the composition, etc., and how that really did affect the overall mood of the painting. However one thing I did *not* like was the mass of people there, as this was the last weekend of the exhibit. HOW many times do I have to remind myself *not* to go to major exhibitions, especially on a weekend, and even more especially on the last Saturday of the show. D'oh. I find myself feeling almost claustrophobic, and just rush through the show - whereas if there's few people there (like the time I saw the Vermeer exhibit in DC at about 2:30 on a weekday afternoon) I could spend hours...

Ah well - enjoyable afternoon anyway, including in the shop, where I bought a book called ...isms so I hope to educate myself on various art styles, from "Absolutism" to "Verism"... and - though I'm not sure why it was for sale in an art museum - I couldn't help buying the reproduction of Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942, because remember: "It is always impolite to critisize your hosts; It is militarily stupid to critisize your allies"

And finally, after the museum, it was back on the Tube and on to Roast , a restaurant at Borough Market, for an early dinner. Yummy starters - a FANTASTIC 'soused' herring on a mustardy potato salad bed - but then a little less exciting from there. I should've just ordered more herring for my main! Still, great location, and well decorated interior, and serves me right for ordering from the bargain set menu - especially the vegetarian option in a place called 'Roast'. Next time we go (if we do) it'll be a juicy steak all the way...

Returned home by train from Waterloo (making it with about 20 seconds to spare) , thoroughly sated by art, food, and the various forms of public transport - so all told, a good day out!

*i have no idea what has happened to the photo option, btw - have tried to upload photos from the day 3 times, with no luck. So, will publish now, and possibly update later!

Funniest Dilbert Ever

Ok, I'm probably not supposed to just paste a cartoon here - but hey, Scott Adams, I give you full credit (as if anyone in the world doesn't know Scott Adams does Dilbert...), and thought this was just so funny I had to share it with the 4 people who read my blog!

If you want to see more, visit www.dilbert.com - and you too can get your daily dilbert, and then spread cartoons to the world.

(not) doing my civic duty

I'm embarrassed to admit that I saw a real, honest-to-goodness crime being committed yesterday... and did absolutely nothing about it. One of those situations where - before it ever happens to you - you might think "what would I do in this situation?" And I didn't do what I thought I would.

So, what happened? I had just started to cross Kew Bridge, when I heard the sound of glass breaking. I thought perhaps there'd been a car accident, and turned to look. And what I saw, was a man, reaching into a car, and grabbing a briefcase & something else, and then jumping on a bicycle to ride away. I just was just riveted watching this, probably took about 10 seconds, thinking "oh my god, what should I do? Call 999? Take a picture? I should do something." I was so in shock, that I didn't even realise a) I already had my phone in my hand, and b) I also had a camera in my bag.
In my alternate heroic reality, I fished out my camera in a flash, shouting 'oi, stop that', so he turned around, and I got a clear shot of his face; he dropped the briefcase, I called the police, they caught the guy, and all was right with the world.
In my real life reality, however, by the time I came to, the man had disappeared, and I thought about calling the police, but had no idea what help I'd be. I could barely remember what he looked like, and figured by the time the police arrived he would be far gone.

And so, I'm more than a little ashamed to say, I just headed on over the bridge. I mean, c'mon - I would've missed my train otherwise!