A Fleet of RTs on Route 11

Sunday 02-November-2014

We had an unexpected change of plan thanks to a friend on FaceBook alerting us to this event. We abandoned our intention to walk part two of the North Downs Way and, instead, went for a ride on the buses.

"London Bus Museum to operate 60 year-old RT-family buses over full route 11

Route 11 is London’s most famous bus route, passing the Bank of England, St Paul’s Cathedral, Fleet Street, Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Victoria, Sloane Square and Chelsea’s Kings Road.

Before the famous Routemaster came the RT, the first of which ran in London before the second world war, 75 years ago in August 1939." See more at: RT buses recreate full Route 11

We walked along the Thames Path and over Hammersmith Bridge to the bus station at Hammersmith Broadway where we awaited our transport of delight.

Part way through the journey we caught up with the prototype RT1. We swapped buses and paid the five pounds to ride on this original - all the others were free - and well worth the money to go on a piece of vehicular history.

On the RT1 you get a proper conductor and a bus ticket.

A sign you do not see on modern buses.

We rode as far as Strand to buy me new Ecco walking shoes and then caught a different RT bus back to Sloane Square for more shopping.

From Sloane Square we walked back home via Albert Bridge and an atmospheric sunset.

I was reminded of a song from my childhood: Transport of Delight by Flanders and Swann. My favourite line:
"We like to drive in convoys - we're most gregarious.
The big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus."

A full set of pictures on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157646932275914/show

A day far more fun than I had expected. Hold very tight please! Ting-ting!

Walking in the Lake District

An superb weekend with over 10 hours of walking up hill and down dale with excellent weather and beautiful scenery plus a bit of eating and drinking as well. The weather forecast had been rain the whole weekend. I am glad to say they got it badly wrong there was a little drizzle Saturday morning then it cleared up. Sunday was lovely and sunny all day, I spent most of it walking in my T-shirt.

We took Friday afternoon off and caught the 13:30 Virgin Trains express to Glasgow, change at Oxenholme for Windermere. We went first class with comfy seats, complementary newspaper and free food and wine. Not realising it was all free, at Euston I suggested we bought sandwiches for a picnic on the train but the free glasses of Shiraz went down nicely thank you. I can definitely recommend Virgin Trains.

We arrived at Windermere and a short walk down to the Oakbank hotel in Bowness arrived at almost the same time as our friends Bob and Lynn who had driven up from Hampshire. After settling in we went across the road to the Angel for a pint of Coniston Bluebird and excellent it was too. That evening the four of us went for a meal at the Fat Olive and an early night.

The next morning we drove up to Elterwater and did a walk round Chapel Stile Great Langdale Beck, Blae Tarn and the Langdale Valley.



About 11 miles in total which took four and a quarter hours walking time. We ended up at the Three Shires with a pint of Coniston Old Man and Dark Ennerdale.



That evening we met up with Mary's uncle Ronnie and wife Avril for a meal in Villa Positano and afterward a night cap of a half the Black Sheep at the Angel.



The next day was a longer walk: Troutbeck, Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Thornthwaite Crag, Caudale Moor and back to Troutbeck.



In total about 13 miles in six hours plus a total ascent of over 3000 ft. A write-up of pretty much the route we did: http://www.lakedistrictwalks.com/yokcau.html



We then went to the Queen's Head for a pint. Mary had a pint of Dizzy Blonde and I went for a pint of Old Tom. As the barmaid poured it she asked "are you driving" as it was 8.5 ABV. Well that helped me sleep on the train home for sure.



Full set of pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8179454@N02/sets/72157621811827441/detail/

Another MMG-style four part day

Another quiet MMG*-style four part day on Sunday.

1. Trip to the local auction house to look for sideboards for the breakfast room and claret jugs.

2. Visit the RHS garden at Wisley to check out smelly perfumed roses for May's garden in Scotland.


RHS Wisley: smelling roses


RHS Wisley: Rosa Hot Chocolate 'Wekpaltez'


RHS Wisley: 200 year old bonsai

3. A picnic in NT Hatchlands Park followed by a whistle stop tour of the Gertrude Jekyll** garden. We will have to go back for a fuller inspection.


NT Hatchlands Park: picnic


NT Hatchlands Park: Gertrude Jekyll garden

4. Afternoon tea and cake in Farnham with the Aged P's.

5. A quiet supper of picnic leftovers and an early night.

* MMG = Mary Mitchell Galashan, aka "SWMBO", aka "her indoors"

** Update: 30-Jul-09. Post edited. Do not confuse Gertrude Jekyll (garden designer) with Gertrude Stein (American writer).

A Weekend in the Cotswolds

This weekend was a long weekend in the UK as today is a Bank Holiday (public holiday). Mary and I worked at home Friday and made a fast getaway to The Lamb Inn, Great Rissington in the hyper-cute Cotswolds. We joined usual suspects Bob&Lynn who had gone up Thursday and had just done a 17 mile walk around Bourton-on-the-Water with 100 of Lynn's work colleagues.

John&Andrea, formerly in St Albans, have recently relocated to Cranham, 25 miles down the road, so they joined us for dinner at the Lamb where we were on a "bed and evening meal" deal. The pub's "signature dish" is a slow roast half leg of lamb that just falls off the bone.

Saturday was a gentle 8 mile walk into BOTW and round in a big circle. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the countryside round there is delightful with gentle rolling hills and all the Cotswold stone houses. We ended up back at the Lamb for another fine meal - eaten very slowly by me.

Sunday was over to J&A's via the farmers' market in Bourton for a short walk to the Black Horse for a pint of local ale (except me - boo!) After lunch we headed back to London so we could get up early today and crack on with odd jobs about the house and garden.

Health and Beauty

We had a good last day for May and Duncan's visit on Tuesday. We took them to Simpson's in the Strand for dinner and then saw Porgy and Bess at the Savoy - an excellent production.

Wednesday we dropped them off at Heathrow and headed straight to Grayshott Spa for four days of detox and relaxing. My project decided on the cost-saving idea of making all contractors take a mandatory three week break: good for them but not for us. So we decided to make use of the enforced down time and take some time out.

The Health part consists of not eating so much and only drinking a glass of wine a night instead of a bottle a night. Mary has gone completely dry for a few days. Though when I say dry that is not counting the gallons of water; it may be good for you but it don't 'alf make you pee a lot.

Also we are getting up at 7:15 every morning for the pre-breakfast power walk through some lovely NT countryside which will make the Monday morning alarm less of a shock.

Not sure how much it is doing for my "beauty" but is is very pleasant to have various massages and scrubs and being forced to lie about doing Su Doku and crosswords. Do I really have to go back to work Monday?

Happy New Year 2007

A Happy New Year to all my readers.

We had a pretty good NYE. Six of us went to Albannach on Trafalgar Square for a gala dinner with ring side view of the revellers outside. The food and wine was excellent as were the band, apart from we were sat next to them and had to ask to be moved to enable conversation to resume.


Me and Mary's mum, May

The restaurant showed the fireworks on a big screen and they looked pretty darned spectacular.

We got a taxi in OK but the return journey was a little more problematical. After booking we discovered that most of north of the river was due to be closed to traffic. No problem: get the tube to Waterloo and get the taxi to pick us up there.

Unfortunately the crowds were such that the police were restricting access to Charing Cross Station. We had a chat with the constable on the barrier and explained that we had not one but two registered disabled with us. They let us through and, as luck would have it, a Waterloo East train was due in about 5 minutes.

Then the taxi driver phoned to say that he could only get as close as Lambeth Bridge and could we get there. No chance with May's conditions! When we got to Waterloo there was only one train showing, leaving for Wandsworth Town in 10 minutes - another result!

So we got home about 2:15 am. A little later than intended but May coped incredibly well under the circumstances. Next time we will arrange something closer to home. That is if we are not in South Africa for Christmas as we hope; we are planning a trip there for this time 2007/8.

Live Long and Prosper :-)

Visitors from Elgin

This weekend we had Ros&Craig from Elgin (see"Elgin Itinerary") staying with us for the weekend. We decided to do a Young's Brewery tour after the success of the last one (see "Piss up in a brewery"). We were joined by another friend, Paul, who is a big Young's fan. He plans to have a drink in every single Young's pub and has managed well over a hundred so far.

The tour was even better than last time, the guide knew his stuff and kept the facts, figures and anecdotes coming. At the end of the tour we retired to the Brewery Tap for a tasting. Last time we were served a pint (or two halves). This time the guide said, "Ok we'll sample all the keg beers then move on to the bottles".

The tasting glasses were about a third of a pint and we sampled the ordinary (bitter), the special (best bitter), waggledance (a honey beer), St George's (seasonal summer ale), stout (a dark beer) and double chocolate (a dark, sweet beer with, you guessed it, chocolate). Then on to the bottles: a lager, Ramrod, and finally Old Nick - a barley wine at 8 percent - not advisable for a long drinking session!

A most excellent tour after which we had to retire to the garden and the sun-loungers for a little siesta.

Sunday we took our guests on a walking tour of the local environs: along the Thames path, over Wandle creek, lunch at 'Ghillies on the River', a circuit of Wandsworth park and back home for a quick turn-around and out again into central London.

We queued up for two and a half hours to get into the Comedy Store to see the Comedy Store Players (including Eddie Izzard) do a two hour set of 'improv'. It was OK but I think I would have preferred standup comedy. An Italian meal after and home by midnight. Then Monday go into work to recover from the weekend.