Michael, Stephen, Winter, Christmas and New Year 2012

From November 3rd to April 21st 2012


A very big thank-you to Michael and Stephen for the accommodation in London

We decided somewhere along the way that once we returned from the Spain, Willy would go to Norway and I would go to North Wales until we were due to meet up with Michael and Stephen early in December. Both of us needed a time without travelling and a bit of a break from the 24/7  constant companionship - no real problem but you do run out of things to say!

We arrived back in Portsmouth from Santander (Spain) on Thursday 3rd November and drove to Banbury for a night at Judith's. Owing to a clerical error I managed to book Willy out to Norway the following day. This was a pure accident caused by the Ryanair website not allowing you to go back and check your dates....an honest mistake.

A relaxed WRK in Gran Canaria

Willy was booked out of Stansted late in the evening, unfortunately getting to Stansted from Banbury involves a section on the M25 (London Circular) which, for those not in the know, is a disaster of a motorway with frequent mile long queues and never ending road roads as they try and widen it to cope with the  every increasing traffic.

We did actually manage to find a bus, but he wasn't having any of that nonsense as it meant he had to get out of bed before midday.  Anyway managed to get him to the airport with only a couple of hours to spare and off he went.

From then until our rendez-vous with the Lutterals not a lot happened. I spent most of the time in North Wales doing a bit of walking but nothing too energetic.

Willy arrived safely in Oslo and stayed with Kirstien for a few days before flying up to Averøy. There he remained in splendid isolation until his return to the UK which was on 24th November when I picked him up from Manchester airport. it was lovely to see him again....

From Manchester we went back to North Wales and stayed there until the 2nd December when we caught the train from Colwyn Bay to London to meet up with Michael and Stephen.

Friday 2nd December to Thursday 15th December 

The Shard

Michael and Stephen were renting an apartment in Shoreditch near Angel and kindly offered us accommodation for a couple of weeks. They too had been travelling and had spent the previous 4 weeks in the US.

Much of the time in London was spent eating and drinking with several visits to some of London's gentlemen's bars - more visits by some than others! Also went to the infamous Vauxhall Tavern. Normally I don't like drag acts but the "Dame Edna Experience" is really hilarious - just don't stand anywhere near the stage!

Michael's Nightmare

One night we caught up with an old friend of mine, James, from Singapore. This ended up being a very drunken night in a great restaurant somewhere near Trafalgar Square. That's where the photo was taken. I must admit I found it on my phone several weeks after the night-out.

St Pauls

Michael and Stephen were spending Christmas in Italy and were driving there from Paris via Milan just before Christmas. Stephen took off for Belgium on 14th Dec and Michael, Willy and I took the train to Colwyn Bay on Thursday 15th. Unfortunately on the way up I started to feel rather flu like and spent the whole of the weekend in bed.

Michael, for those of you who don't know him has the widest circle of friends which included a couple - Phillip (Australian) and Aldo (half Welsh half Italian) - who happen to live in London and have a weekend place in Colwyn bay and what's more were going to be in Colwyn Bay this weekend.  That small world again!  They all went out for Saturday Lunch at The Toad whilst I stayed on my death bed.

On the Sunday we drove down to Banbury dropping Michael off at Bicester to catch a train back to London. Willy and I went to Banbury for a family lunch. All Judith's children and grand children were there as it was their pre-Christmas get  together.

Christmas at the Klovens

We stayed there until 20th Dec when I took Willy to Stansted to catch his flight to Oslo. He was then going to drive from Oslo to Averøy with his sister Kirstien and Arild for a family Christmas. I was flying up to Norway on the 28th December to spend New Year in Averøy with William and the Klovens.

I spent Christmas in Banbury with Bill and Judith. It was their childrens' year to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws so it was a quiet Christmas and did the usual seasonal over indulgence in food and alcohol.

Thursday 28th December -   Up really early to catch a 10:00 flight from Gatwick arriving in Molde (Norway)  about 18.00. Was met at the airport by Willy. Norway was much colder with snow most of the way from Molde to Averøy about a 90 minute trip. Went to Willy's brother for dinner which was home-made pizza - someone had given them a pizza receipe book as a Christmas present. Norway eats more pizza per head of population than any other country in the world.

New Years Eve - 2011 - A rather quiet new years eve, Robert (Willy's friend from Spain) came over for dinner and then we wandered over to Willy's brother's house and stood on the bridge (connects Averøy to the next island Langøy) setting off fireworks. It was a really nice evening very low key but a good start to the year. Quite different from the usual Tropical Fruits party in Australia.

We stayed in Averøy until 19th January when we travelled down by train to Oslo. The first part of the trip from Molde to Dombås is a great trip as it cuts through the mountains to the rail head at
Dombås. Once at Dombås it's the mainline train to Oslo which is also a nice trip if not so dramatic. There was snow most of the way with temperatures down to about -16c.

We had booked into the cheapest hotel in Oslo. Maria, Willy's niece had kindly offered us her studio but it didn't seem right taking that over so we went for the hotel. It wasn't too bad but three night was enough.

Oslo was very cold and snowed most of the time, still it's a nice city, easy to get around. We visited Jan and Siegfried and went to the famous Vigeland Sculpture Park which I have been to many times before but is a great spot. Lots of locals out with their skis and toboggans...

On the Saturday night we caught up with a couple who Willy knew from many years ago. Had a great evening with them and their family.

We flew out of Oslo on  22nd January in to Gatwick and then spent a couple of days with Bill and Judith before returning to North Wales on the 29th January.

Kitchen renovation

On the previous stay at North Wales I had decided it was time to so something about the kitchen, wallpaper was beginning to peel off the kitchen walls and I needed to find out what was going on. Unfortunately the investigation went a bit further than I expected and by the time I had finished there were large areas of missing plaster.

As it turned out, at sometime in the past, the lining paper had been painted with gloss paint and a foil lined paper used on top of that. This was having the effect of damp building up behind the paper which was then reacting with the metal electrical conduit.

The updated kitchen

So when I last left North Wales in December the kitchen was in a bit of a mess. So it was now time to finish the repairs and put it back together again .

Fortunately WRK was wonderful doing lots of carpentry and repairing my mistakes so now it looks rather good. Pity about the colour as it's a bit boudoir like, not really what I was looking for.

Sunday Feb 26th - Could this be the beginning of Spring - decided to go for a walk in the Conway Valley and did the Llyn Crafnant walk.

Lake Crafnant

 This is a nice level walk around the elevated Lake Crafnant near to LLanwrst which is about 30 minutes drive from Colwyn Bay. The walk was good if  a bit wet under foot. The fields around the walk were beginning to show signs of Spring with lots of daffodils and small fluffy lambs gambolling about.

Wednesday 29th February. Fixing floor boards, you know who got a bit gung-ho and managed to put a screw straight through one of the central heating pipes. Didn't realise until several hours later - fortunately the leak was very slow and didn't flood our neighbours downstairs. Certainly was panic stations for a while! Oh dear Mr Grumpy was not happy!

Thursday 1st march - Must get a life - the new washing machine is delivered - at last can get rid of the piles of dirty washing that have accumulated over the past 10 days.


Friday 2nd March - Weather has been really nice for the past few days - WRK up early to go into the mountains for some sun-rise pictures. I have a tooth that is becoming very sensitive to cold - have put up with it for a couple of weeks but today it's too much so off looking for a local dentist.  Diagnosed as a cracked tooth have to go back in 10 days time for a filling. Hope they manage to save the tooth and hope the insurance covers it

The Master at work
 in Bodnant Gardens

Not a lot happened over the next few days - we booked a holiday in the Canary Islands for 12 days starting 19th March (WRK reliving his youth), I finished the kitchen, caught up again with Aldo and Philip (Michael Lutteral's friends) for dinner at the 'trailer park' in Mochdre and that was about it.

Family mausoleum
Bodnant

We did go to Bodnant Garden which is a rather lovely spot about 15 minutes from the flat. I can remember when I was a child and would be out for a drive with the parents it was always a great relief when we drove past Bodnant,if we stopped it meant hours of wandering around boring gardens and there no obvious fun in that.  

Tuesday 13th March -  Back to the dentist to get the tooth fixed. All went well until the dental nurse decided to faint, fortunately, although I still had a mouth full of dentists fingers, the actual drilled was finished. Not sure exactly what happened, just heard a crashing sound and felt a sense of mild panic in the room. The dentist was excellent, he managing to finish my filling while directing the first aid for the nurse who had managed to faint behind the door of the surgery.

As it turns out dentistry in the UK is much cheaper than Australia, X-rays, filling and drama all for $140.

Today WRK got his first pair of prescription glasses - another major milestone in life...

Playa del Ingles - Gran Canaria

Saturday 17th March - The flight to Las Palmas was from Birmingham airport. As the flight left at 7.30 and Banbury is only one hour from Banbury decided this was better than driving from North Wales to the airport.

*Could this be
you know who?

Monday 19th March - Up at 2.30am to drive to Birmingham a really heavy frost with an iced up windscreen. Found the long stay car park and checked in O.K. Arrived in Las Palmas at 11.30 and eventually arrived at the hotel at Playa del Ingles about 13.00. Literal translation - The English Beach - or Euro Trash Central.

Fortunately the hotel was four star and not too bad which is just as well as WRK had book 1/2 board - Breakfast and Evening meal.  You could get full board which included Lunch and as much beer and wine as you could drink between the hours of 9am and 10pm - messy.

chat chat chat

*Seen wandering around the Playa del Ingles nightlife at the Yumbo Centre - Could this possibly be the man who was supposed to be on sick leave from the NSW health department - certainly looks like him! 

We spent the first 3 days getting used to the sun and sampling the night life which was plentiful if a little dilapidated.

PC correct name for a place
full of Germans?

Spent most days on the beach which was quite a walk from the hotel. The place has many different microcosms and one appears to be arid dessert condition in one particular part of the island where the main beach is. So getting to the beach was either a long walk along the beach or a shorter trip through the sand dunes and desert.

Norwegians on the
Beach

The first day we did the longer walk along the beach and came across some Norwegians on holiday as shown in the photo. You can tell they are from Norway by the walking poles.

As always with European holiday resorts, the whole place seems to be populated with Germans and a smattering of Scandinavians.  WRK even managed to run into an ex boyfriend who he hadn't seen since leaving Norway 20+ years ago.

On about the third day I managed to get a really bad case of sun stroke and spent the night thinking I was going to die, not that this seemed to trouble WRK he just took a sleeping pill and slept through my delirium.

The sun stroke was unfortunate as we had booked a car for the next day which we had to cancel.  However the sun stroke passed and we hired the car for the following day.

Up in the Mountains

Not exactly sure what to expect from the trip but you can certainly see the mountains rising steeply not far away from the town. This is after all the remains of some fairly big volcanic activity. 

Once you get out of town you realise just how rugged this country is. Most of the roads are single track with some zig-zags that seem to go on for ever.

Fortunately the roads are not very busy and most roads, but not all, have safety barriers. You may or may not know that WRK suffers badly with vertigo and can be stubborn - this adds a new dimension to car trips.

More Mountains

Unfortunately we badly underestimated the time taken to get anywhere and ended up driving in pitch darkness on some very difficult roads. However we made it back safely to the hotel.

Whilst we were looking for a car hire company came across this advertising sign - spot the give away about the Playa del Ingles!
 

What's wrong with this sign?

Departed  Las Palmas on Saturday 31st March arriving back in Birmingham about midnight. Fortunately the plane was almost empty so was a good flight.  Eventually got back to Banbury about 2.00.

As my nephew Jonathon and family had been there since Friday so we had a big Sunday lunch with some rather smashing roast pork.

Tuesday April 3rd - April 21st  -  Off to the airport again, but this time Gatwick for a 09.00 flight so up and away by 06.00. William needed to get back to the ancestral home while sister Kirstien was still there so he could get final instructions on the verandah he was about to build.

Planned Trip to Norway
- April 2012

Once WRK went off to Norway I took myself off to North Wales to get the car MOT'd and collect together the gear from the previous summer  - tents, sleeping bags etc.  Much soul searching about taking the car over to Norway or flying. As it looks like we are going to be there for sometime, probably until mid June, I decide  to take the car but using the lazy (and more expensive) route using ferries rather than driving through France and Germany.

Not much else happened. It eventually stopped snowing in Norway the week after Easter so WRK could make a start on the verandah - just hope the back holds out or you know who will be humping stuff around. I managed to do some good walks in North Wales before the weather turned cold and wet again in the middle of April.

Sychnant Pass walk

Had one very trying experience with ANZ bank when my Verified by Visa stopped working. Was told there was absolutely no way I could get it working again without either (a) Visiting a branch of the ANZ bank in Australia, (b) going to the Australian High Commission in London or (c) finding either a Justice of the Peace, policemen or high court judge in North Wales who also happens to be an Australian citizen Oh dear - so much for technology and the ANZ bank.

Now looking forward very much to the Priests (Brian and Grant) arriving from Australia mid May and then several days touring in Norway. Once that's over it will be work work work on the verandah.

The plan after that is a slow drive back via Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France with camping stops on the way - more on this is the next update.