Michaels Graduation day at Brooklands College, Weybridge

After quite a few years of hard work Michael has passed all his exams and was very  pleased to attend the Graduation day presentation at Brooklands College in Weybridge where he has been studying for the past few years. This  was in addition to studying  at  home whilst holding down a full time job as a Senior Paramedic for London Ambulance.
Michael also spends a lot of time  teaching students who go to St John Ambulance and provides tuition on many subjects.

Michael with his fiancée Becky

Today's event was well supported even though it had been delayed from last year following the severe weather just prior to Christmas and the presentations were made by the Spelthorne  Mayor and also the teaching professors. Following the presentations there was a buffet prepared by the students of the catering department whilst it was also a great opportunity to meet Michaels main tutor.

Michael with his proud parents

It was an enjoyable and very proud day for Jennifer and me to see our son succeed in this manner and we hope that this success will assist his future.
The sun finally arrived at lunchtime which made the day especially pleasing
All the photos can be found on our Phanfare photo blog or by following this link


http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/4987990

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Politician's No Nuffink

A recent appearance on Sky Neva by Alan Johnson, the Labour opposition to the Chancellor, proved how much or little he knows about his job and Taxation in General.
Isn't it about time we started employing 'Professionals' .in Senior Government Roles and not these 'wannabes' .who 'No nuffink' but believe that they can be a Chancellor or Minister fro Transport or even a Prime Minister.
Its about time we privatised Government and Local Councils and ran them like a business and not for the benefit of those people who could not get a job in the real world..Of course there always exceptions to the rule and there perhaps a few who have an own business but they tend to be in the minority.

A happy New Year to all our readers

Santa's little helpers

Well this is the start of another year of travel however at this point in time not much has been finalised except that we plan trips to Ireland  in February and Germany and Switzerland in March and of course our usual sojourn of several weeks in France.. This time we want to wander down the West Coast of France for a couple of weeks before heading to the Lot Valley and our site at Chateau de Lacomte in Carlucet.
At the moment we are enjoying the English weather which is somehow between snow and and cold and rain and full sun with temperatures ranging from minus 10 Cent  up to plus 10 Cent.
We had a great few weeks leading up to Christmas with dinner's at friends (see photo) and  then a family Christmas followed by New Years Eve at Piplin House with friends from Wey Road. The booze consumption this night will take some beating next year and with Elmbridge having to send two trucks to cart away the 'dead men'
Finally we can look forward to a year without the three 'B's (Brown, Bush and Blair) and hope that Government come to their senses over pointless wars' where young people. soldiers and innocent citizens alike. loose their lives for reasons that no one can comprehend ( except the three 'B's)
Lets hope this year of the 'Rabbit' will bring to this world.

"People born in the Year of the Rabbit are articulate, talented, and ambitious. They are virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste. Rabbit people are admired, trusted, and are often financially lucky. They are fond of gossip but are tactful and generally kind. Rabbit people seldom lose their temper. They are clever at business and being conscientious, never back out of a contract. They would make good gamblers for they have the uncanny gift of choosing the right thing. However, they seldom gamble, as they are conservative and wise. They are most compatible with those born in the years of the Sheep, Pig, and Dog."


Just thought you would like to know all about the Rabbit people whilst Noel was born in the year of the 'Horse'


"People born in the Year of the Horse are popular. They are cheerful, skillful with money, and perceptive, although they sometimes talk too much. The are wise, talented, good with their hands, and sometimes have a weakness for members of the opposite sex. They are impatient and hot-blooded about everything except their daily work. They like entertainment and large crowds. They are very independent and rarely listen to advice. They are most compatible with Tigers, Dogs, and Sheep".


This does not sound like me at all


Anyway have a great Year of the Rabbit

Food for thought

If at first you don't succeed then become a politician
Those who can, DO
and those who can't become a Politician

A few days in France

This was a trip we had planned some weeks ago and fairly tight upon our return from the USA but Hey Ho, live the dream as they say!!

.We had booked for a Monday morning ferry but the weather prior to this time was getting worse and heavy snow was forecast to hit Kent on the Monday morning and so we packed our bags and left early and stayed the night at the Premier Inn at Dover, nice Hotel I must say, and then the following morning we caught the ferry over to Calais where we arrived at about 12.45. As we had a little time to spares we drive to a place called Guines which is about 10 miles from Calais and there is a very good overnight caravan site we had heard off and it certainly is in a good location and it looks like a nice site although there was some snow here and there. We picked up some sandwiches from Carrefour, and also some new kitchen pans, and then headed of to the coast to hopefully enjoy our sandwiches overlooking the sea in the sun. However by the time we got there the sun had disappeared and the fog had arrived along with sleet, nice. We therefore had a quick bite and then took a short cust to the motorway which we had to abandon due to snow getting thicker and as we were in the Supra with a poor turning circle we decided to go back and start again.

    The trip to Montreuil Sur Mer was short and we arrived just after three pm and joined up with Roger and Sue for a walk along the ramparts of this old town and as time was getting on the 'beer time' was calling we stopped  in for a couple on the way back to the Hotel. Prior to dinner R & S came to our room with a nice bottle of red and some beers which were quickly demolished and then to dinner. R & S have been to this Hotel several times in he past and the food certainly lived up to its reputation. Three bottles of  excellent wine later we headed back to the room to test out some Calvados that Roger had brought along. A nice evening indeed even if the     restaurant was a touch on the     chilly side.

    The following morning R & S headed off home and we took the Supra along the coast around f Le Touquet where we stopped for lunch. It was interesting to see several coastal     towns which were completely devoid of people and closed due to them being summer only resorts and then we headed back via Etaples where we stopped to take some     photos     of the 2^nd world war cemetery and to see so many white crosses makes you think alittle as the advantages of war. In the evening the restaurant was still quite empty but the     surprise starter was 'snails' a somewhat interesting taste of two tons of garlic and four pounds of butter. This time we tried a nice bottle of Sancerre with our fish andagain it was a nice meal in very good surroundings and we would certainly return.

    The next morning we left for Lille and going only by country roads, there was some snow in places but overall not bad at all. Where there had been a lot of snow the road gritter's     had done a great job of removing it. We stopped at a Carrefour after visiting a restaurant we used to use to see if it was still there, and it was, but as we didn't have time for a l    ong meal we didn't stop and made do with an omelette at Carrefour. Our Hotel in Lille was slightly out of town but there was a tram directly from to the main station in     Lille     and it took 15 minutes and very convenient location indeed. We stopped in the Christmas market for some hot red wine and then continued walking around for a couple of hours     and then had dinner in an Italian Restaurant and then back to the Hotel.

    The following morning we did some shopping in yet another Carrefour where Noel topped his wine supply fro Christmas and then back to Calais Port where we boarded a Ferry at     1400 hrs which was very wise to go earlier     than expected as the roads M20 and M25 were a nightmare with virtually no snow cleared and hardly any 'gritters' and cars all over     the place and accidents galore. Luckily we got home without a scrape almost three hours later and when you consider it only take one hour and 20 minutes to get there you     can see what I mean.

    This was a nice little break and something we will do more often.

21st November- It’s a bit chilly out there

It is expected to be cold today, around one degree centigrade the weather channel says and so we dressed up nice and warm and went for a warming breakfast in a Diner opposite Boston Common.

It wasn’t the best breakfast in the world and most New Yorkers would not have accepted it but it’s Sunday morning in Boston and hardly any shops or restaurants are open.

The sun was great this morning so we went back to the park and walked down to Back Bay where there are some expensive and big houses which are also quite old. Then on down to the river and along the side for a couple of miles until we reached the Railway Station for a necessary comfort break, as they call them here.

We ended up back in the market place and this time there was hardly anybody there and the restaurants were extremely quiet compared to yesterday.

We had lunch in a nice place which was also very quiet. We appreciated this whilst testing a bottle of Chardonnay from Argentina which was very good. We already knew that by mid afternoon when the sun is going down it will be much colder and so we went to another cinema and watched a rather silly movie called ‘Unstoppable’ which was about a runaway train going down the track (with some dodgy chemicals on board), Who Who!! and Denzyl Washington saving hundreds of lives. Of course it all ended happily ever after. Apparently it was based on a real life incident, so be warned do not travel on American Railways. 

George Washington out for a ride in the Park

Then back to the Hotel to print boarding passes for tomorrow. The BA online check-in is a B……y nightmare and I will complain when I get back to the UK, it took almost 35 minutes to check in, Virgin make it so easy by comparison.

Tonight we must pack up for our early departure tomorrow morning. The flight leaves around 0815 and so it will be an alarm call around 05.15, and a taxi around 0600.

We are hoping that 7 hours later we shall touch down in London and be home local time around 9pm in time for a cuppa, a good shower and a good nights sleep in our own bed.

That ends this trips report and the next one will start in a weeks time when we head off to France for three days.

20th November- A walk around Boston Town

We looked out of the Hotel window when it was light and we have great views of the office air conditioning plant for next door.  Also the sun was shining on the golden roof  of the nearby State House.

We left the Hotel for a walk through the streets of Boston and initially went through Boston Common which is quite a large park in the middle of the town. We were immediately struck by the number of vagrants around the streets, sleeping in doorways, and standing around in groups and one large group waiting for the soup kitchen to open. No good compared to New York where just about all the vagrants have left town, and no doubt took the United shuttle to Boston.

We continued walking around and arrived in Quincy Market Place which has been extensively rebuilt over the years with new shops.  The inside was full of food shops selling everything from burgers to lobster rolls but the smell of food everywhere was not good at all so we left pretty quickly after walking around. We were intending to do a Harbour Cruise and headed off in that direction and arrived just in time to board a small boat along with 50 or 60 other folks for a fifty minute tour of the harbour which could have easily been accomplished in half the time had they not dwelt on so many facts. They talked a lot about beating the Brits, and then mentioned the useless fact about Boston being level with Lisbon, well that explains the vagrants we thought, see earlier report on Lisbon.

Falun Gung doing Tai Chi in the Park

We noticed that there was an IMAX Cinema so we went there and watched a 3D film of undersea wildlife in Indonesia and Australia.  It was very good indeed and would have been better if a baby had not cried pretty much all the time during the performance.  Misery guts Noel complained but it seemed to go over their heads.

We then walked back to the Quincy Market where they were planning to light up the Christmas tree, we watched that for a while and had previously decided to go back later to the Imax to watch a film called Inception with Leonardo De Caprio and also Michael Cain in a bit part.

This film was the most imaginative, clever, confusing, unbelievable,

exciting, fast moving film we have seen for a long time that we did not fully understand.  Its all about ‘Dreams’ and how they can be made to work for you but boy is it difficult to understand but well worth watching.

And then back to bed

19th November- Heading to Boston, Mass. .

Mayflower 11-The sequel!

We left the Hotel and did a tour of the local area which is interesting but nothing to write home about and then left Weymouth in the direction of Boston but using the lesser road for more interest.

There have been a lot of houses built along this coast either for weekend use or for rent as most of them seemed empty. After trolling along for a couple of hours we arrived in Plymouth where the pilgrims landed all those years ago. There is also a full size replica of the ‘Mayflower’ called ‘Mayflower II’ which in about 1957 (I think it was) made the same trip as the original but when you see the size of this boat it would be frightening to travel on and it also seems top heavy. The town was gearing up for ‘Thanksgiving’ as there were several large tents set up with a bandstand and so no doubt they have fun and games in store. This US Plymouth compared to the UK Plymouth is much smaller and not surrounded by Navy as this is primarily a fishing port and we would think the population is quite small. Shortly after we arrived about eight coaches turned up and kids were everywhere and so we took our photos and left as it was getting very cold, the coldest we had experienced so far on this trip.

Its a stone I tell you!-Its called Plymouth Rock

As we got nearer to Boston the quality of housing improved and then we stopped for lunch at a Panera Bread outlet for a nice bowl of soup and then were ready to head over to the south west side of Boston to find a Best Buy where Noel could buy a charger for the I-Pod which seems to have gone missing. Noel could not stand seven hours on the London flight without his I-Pod for comfort.

We are also a little concerned about the car which has a constant reminder that it needs a service whist the battery is really struggling to start the car so lets hope that it holds up for the day.

From Best Buy to downtown Boston took a little longer than expected mainly due to this annoying American habit for when dropping off kids from school. As soon as the bus stops and puts its flashing lights on every vehicle within sight must stop and wait for the kids to get off before all can continue. So as this bus stops every few hundred yards or so and other school buses doing the same it causes severe traffic jams and thats what we got involved with and this made us about 45 minutes later at the Hotel than planned.

Anyway we reached the Hyatt and dropped off our stuff in the room and then back down to the lobby to collect the car and take it back to Hertz which was about half a mile away.

On the way back we got a little lost due to the signposting not being great but eventually we arrived back at about 6.40 and decided that a snack in the Hotel would be the plan for the evening, followed by some severe relaxation before we hit the streets tomorrow.

  

18th November- Coventry, Richmond, Harwich, Yarmouth et al

We left the Hotel and unfortunately at the first turn the Sat Nav let us down as it took us down a dead end road instead of the slip road on to the I-95, Ah! modern technology.

A few minutes later we were on the correct road with our plan to drive to the far end of Cape Cod and stop for lunch and then take a slow drive back to our Hotel in West Yarmouth.

Motorway driving can be a little boring and so after a while we stopped to pick up some ‘gas’ where the 50 year old slightly plump-ish lady on the till said, gee I love your accent, can you say some more and what about staying here for a couple of hours as I just luv that accent.  Perhaps if she had been in the early twenties then maybe but not this time. We had a coffee and biscuit and then headed back up the various roads with ever reducing sizes, three lanes each side , then down to two and finally two way traffic and so we think we are almost there.

Provincetown is right at the end of Cape Cod and this town was incorporated by the Brit’s in 1727 and then some years later the Portuguese started arriving and now it is still known as a Gay Town, although we did not realise this until after our visit. Still we had a light lunch in the ex “Post Office and Cabaret” before taking a slow drive back down the coast via towns which are well known in the UK until we reached West Yarmouth and the Hampton Inn and Suites, our home for the night.

We decided to head off to a recommended restaurant to test the Lobster and we were not disappointed at all.  Jennifer had their Lobster served with pasta in a cream sauce and Noel had the steamed lobster with shrimp and scallops with a nice baked potato and a good size glass of Chardonnay, absolutely brilliant . We have tried Lobster in several places but none could equal those we had in Thailand but this was very good indeed, not tough but also tasty and soft. The restaurant was very good indeed with a waiter who knew what he was doing for a change.

Tomorrow is unplanned but we need to be in Boston by about 5pm so as to beat the traffic and also drop off the hire car.

Anyway looking forward to a good nights sleep.

17th November- Time to leave New York

We arose round 0700 and finished packing and checked out of the Hotel with Noel having a go at them about their terribly slow internet which you have to pay for. When arranging Hotels for the next few days last Monday, it ended up with the same Hotel booked twice, brilliant and it cost USD 18.00 telephone call to correct this and so after a quick complaint the money was refunded.

We had a quick breakfast and picked up the Hertz Rent a car from a nearby building and whilst walking there we almost got blown over with the strong winds. We picked up the Honda Accord and then entered the details in to the Garmin Sat Nav we had purchased prior to leaving UK and headed off to Long Island. En-route we went through Brooklyn (named we think after David Beckham’s son) and Queens ( named after George Michael and Freddie Mercury we believe) and then found our way East on Long Island and eventually stopped at a Costco store for some quick shopping, lunch and to purchase a chicken Caesar salad for tonight.

We then drove along the scenic route to the very end of Long Island to find the ferry which leaves from Orient Point for a place called New London in Connecticut. This area seems very quiet but we were very surprised to see that there were so many vineyards for miles and miles. We arrived at what you might laughingly call a port, one man in a small wooden shed, and he was able to get us on the ferry one hour earlier that we had booked. The vessel was quite old but overall reasonably comfortable but a lot smaller than the UK Cross Channel ferries. Although it was still windy the crossing was not too rough except for one moment when a largish wave hit the ferry and knocked Noel’s tea over the floor, but nothing like the Atlantic crossing.

Our Sat Nav guided us off the ship and down on to the famous motorway called the I-95 and shortly afterwards we arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn in Groton which is not far from Hyannis. There is quite a naval population around this area as we had noticed submarine pens when arriving in to New London port.

We are planning a quiet night tonight as we are both a little tired after our very long walk yesterday and the early morning today. So we spent the evening watching a specialist film channel showing Charlie Chaplin films with the first one being ‘The Kid’ with Jimmy Coogan playing the kid.

Tomorrow we drive up to the top of Cape Cod and we sincerely hope they have some chips there as well.  

Note- No time for photos today

16th November- Put those walking boots back on!

We awoke to grey skies and the strong chance of rain and in fact when we left the Hotel there was rain in the air. We had a quick breakfast in the Au Bon Pan Café nearby and then went on the PATH train uptown to 33rd Street. From there we walked and walked up to Central Park by which time it was getting to lunchtime. We had noticed, back a few hundred yards, a Deli called The Stage Deli where Noel used to eat occasionally when visiting New York in the late 70’s and 80’. So in we trooped and ordered the Turkey on Rye with gravy and chips, brilliant it was but far too much food as their must have been almost half a turkey on each plate and so we had no space for the amazing cheesecake they serve.

We went back via 8^th Street and walked down to 42^nd Street, which was infamous in the late 70’s and 80’s for just about everything. In fact as soon as the lights went down it was not safe to be on the streets. Today it is so different and it is clean, there is a lot of new building and Times Square is now a pedestrian area as against a large traffic island.

We continued along 42^nd until we reached Grand Central Station where another amazing job has been done to bring what was almost a dilapidated station in to the 21^st century and there are restaurants galore, all the old furniture has been restored and it is now a hive of activity. After a short and necessary break we walked all the way down Park Avenue to East Houston street via the area called The Bowery where there are still a lot of tramps although strong efforts are being made to improve it. We found a Whole Foods store, they are great, and went inside for some rather powerful broccoli soup to attend our upcoming hunger needs.

The whole day the sky had been grey (not good for photos) and with odd spots of rain and even at 4pm it was dark and now by 6pm it looked like heavy rain might be on the way and so we found a subway station back to the WTC station and then took the PATH back to Exchange Place and the Hotel.

We have walked miles and miles today, far more than last Sunday and we were both exhausted and need baths and shower and then went to bed around 1030 as we have an early start tomorrow.

15th November- A pleasant day and taking it easy

Another nice sunrise over the Hudson River greeted us this morning and we took a late breakfast in a little café not far from the Hotel. The buffet breakfast in the Hyatt on a nice day overlooking the river is really great but to do this evry day would impact significantly against our pension plans and so the little café it is.

Noel then went to his ex office in Jersey City and met up with some ex business colleges for about two and a half hours which he enjoyed and then met up with Jen and we had a snack in another local fast food joint.

Jen, Francis and John

Our plans for the remainder of the week are to leave New York on Wednesday morning and then drive along Long Island avoiding freeways and generally visiting some of the nice towns and then up at the far end of Long Island where we can take a ferry across to Connecticut. However we also need to book ferries and Hotels in Connecticut and also Massachusetts and so the afternoon was  spent planning this aspect of the tour. So with Hotels and Ferries arranged we went to the bar of the Hotel to meet up with some old friends/colleagues at around six pm and spent a great couple of hours and having a good laugh. The two friends were Francis Blackmore who worked with Noel in London in the late 1990’s and John O’Sullivan an ex Lufthansa man who joined K+N in London some time ago and was posted to New York for three years. John’s sister is married to Ray Lake another of our good friends. It’s a small world.

Jens cold is not really improving as much as she hoped for but with some extra medication we hope it will improve soon. Tomorrow we are off to up town New York and hope the rain keeps off.