Story Time

Some great (well mediocre) stories to regale you with from the past few days:

Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today

I've been meaning to get my British drivers licence for a while now. I think the law over here is that if you've been here for more than 6 months you need to get a British licence. Further more, if you want to exchange an international licence for a British one, you have to do it within 5 years of arriving in the country.

As we always thought we weren't going to be here for a long time I always put off getting my licence exchanged because I figured we'd be heading back to NZ at some stage and I'd want my NZ licence again (the UK destroys your NZ licence when exchanging it, so you can't have both).

However as our 5 year anniversary of living in the UK is coming up and as we're planning on staying here for a while longer I thought I should get my licence changed over, I picked up the forms from the post office about 2 months ago. I filled in the form about 1 month ago, and last week went into the office to make the exchange with all my documents.

What I hadn't reckoned on was the fact that my first stamp on my UK Visa at the UK border was actually from the 7th of July 2006, when I came over for a holiday to watch the football world cup in Germany. Not September 2006 when we moved over here for good. The chap at the drivers licence counter told me there was nothing he could do, as far as they were concerned I was resident from the 7th of July 2006 and they could not exchange my licence.

I had missed the 5 year deadline by 20 days!

I was angry and annoyed at myself especially as I had the completed forms sitting at home for so long. The guy told me I could write a letter to the head office asking them to give me a break so I'll see how that goes.

One good deed

My drivers licence debacle happened at the beginning of the day, I went to work disappointed and angry with myself. On the way home from work that day, still feeling a bit shit I had an opportunity to do a good deed and thought this would be an opportunity to turn my day around.  It went something like this...

The train I was on normally stops at Wimbledon, Earlsfield and Clapham Junction, which is where I get off. The train wasn't too full, I had two seats to myself as did most people in the carriage. I was facing the back.

At a couple of points before reaching Wimbledon the train guard announced that the train would not be stopping at Earlsfied due to signalling problems. When we pulled in to Wimbledon the announcement was made again at which point a lady across the aisle from me, said something very English like, "oh crap", leapt up from her seat and just got out the doors before they closed and the train left. It was a bit of a performance.

Anyway, the train carried on, not stopping at Earlsfield, a bit before we got in to Clapham Junction I noticed there was a wallet or diary on the seat where the lady had jumped up from. As the train pulled in to Clapham I went to the seat (no one was sitting there), picked up the diary/wallet, asked the people around if it was theirs, it wasn't so I decided to take it to hand it in.

Standing on the platform at Clapham I decided to check inside the diary to see if there was a phone number I could call. I noticed at this point that it was a combined diary and wallet, it looked very heavily used and would no doubt be sorely missed by its owner. There was a number and a name. So I called Georgina, there was no answer so I left a message saying I'd found the diary and would either hand it in at Clapham or hang on to it. I tried another number which turned out to be her doctor. I called Jackie for advice, no answer. So I called Georgina back, straight to voicemail, I left a message saying I was going to hang on to the diary and gave my number for her to call.

I got on my next train to Balham, holding this diary awkwardly all the way. As I got out of the train at Balham I had a frantic call from my new friend Georgina, she lived down the road in Tooting and we agreed she would meet me at the Du Cane Court reception. She turned up about 10 minutes later. We did the exchange, she was "much obliged" and off she went.

Thank you Georgina for loosing your diary so I could find it to give back to you so I felt better about myself.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Final story, I'll try and make this short.

For those of you that don't know, wild foxes live in London, you can see them pretty much anywhere, usually at night or around dusk and dawn, they wreak havoc with poorly stored rubbish.

Also, most of you will not be familiar with the Balham odd bods, the beggars, drunks and just generally odd types that you see around Balham. There are no more of these odd bods in Balham than in other places and they're not all over Balham but they are around and you get to know their quirks.

There is one odd bod in particular who is relevant to this story, he is tall, walks very quickly with a backwards lean, almost like he is going to fall over backwards, and he will usually ask for spare change to buy a cup of tea/coke etc. I have on one occasion seen a clever person give him a can of coke rather than the money, as you never know what the money will get spent on.

So on Saturday morning I go for a run, it's about 9:30, I've just left home, running along the high road towards Tooting and there is our odd bod, walking along, arm aloft which is unusual, not one of his normal oddities, and then it hit me. He was holding a dead, slightly emaciated fox aloft, walking along the street.

This is completely inexplicable, I was running so only had a few second to take it in. I saw some people who had spotted this from their balcony come running down to the street to get a closer look but I had just a short time to take it in.

It still baffles me, where did he get the fox from? where was he going with it? what was he going to do with it? was someone going to stop him and point out that all this was very unhygienic, let alone very creepy?

Anyway, this is by far the weirdest thing I've seen in Balham.

This is a picture of a man holding a fox. It bears no resemblance to the scene I saw in Balham.

That's it, story time is over. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

Jackie's Bournemouth Birthday Bonanza

This is a photo heavy, text light post about our trip to the South Coast for Jackie's birthday.

Before leaving we went to the food market at Balham, to stock up for the day, it was raining quite hard at times but they were still quite busy

I was allowed to have a Lamb Burger (and sausage roll) to eat straight away

On the train we got stuck into our food, here Jackie is modelling a Moroccan and a Mexican wrap with Apple Juice Box

Followed by feta and pine nut bread

Old favourite the lamington (we shared this)

Pastis de nada (one each)

And to top it all off two chocolate chip cookies sandwiched together with chocolate icing, it was a bit much actually

We were staying at a Premier Inn, which is a budget chain of hotels but we managed to get the penthouse suite which was huge

View from the bed, you can't see it in this photo but out the windows is the sea, great view.

Shower for two (or one pregnant lady!)

There were miles and miles of beach huts, we (Jackie especially) appreciated the effort that had gone into the colour schemes

Blue for boys

More huts

Jackie had to ask for 20p to play this game, the aim of which was to pick up a sweet, Jackie failed. The game made a huge amount of noise when you put the money in, so there is no way you could secretly try and win a sweet with no one knowing

We went to nearby town called Poole, they were making these boats, there were two identical boats being finished off. They are big, you can see a person in the centre of this boat in a fluoro yellow top, tiny compared to the boat. 

As well as boats, Poole is famous for pottery, in one of the shops we found this collection which is one of their discontinued lines. Jackie has a coffee pot, three coffee cups, sugar bowl and milk jug from this collection. To buy the same from here would have cost over £100, Jackie got the lot for £12.

Poole old town. Poole new town was pretty horrid so no photos.

View of Bournemouth Pier from our penthouse suite on Tuesday, it was sunny. 

View along Bournemouth Beach down to Sandbanks from our apartment

View out our window to the ocean

Jackie flexing her belly on Bournemouth Beach

Beach huts with a different colour scheme

We thought when we got to this sign we should turn around

At the train station waiting to go home this old school steam train pulled in

The train had day tripping passengers on board, those in first class were having lunch served, those not in first class were getting stuck in to their packed lunches, which looked pretty good to. 

On the way home we got off at Brockenhurst, which is a village in the New Forrest, to have lunch. It wasn't spectacular so no photos.

All in all a nice trip, we wouldn't really recommend Bournemouth or Poole though as must see places in the UK.

Nothing bigger than your elbow

EDIT (14/8/2011) I noticed the other day that the title to this blog is wrong, it should read nothing smaller than your elbow. That's the saying, it's funny because people try and put their elbow in their ear when they hear it and that is just stupid. So anyway, it was bugging me for a while but I decided to leave the incorrect title on the blog but put this note in just for my own peace of mind.


What an eventful day we've had.

It actually started last night. I was out for a curry with a few mates when I got a text from Jackie, it read:

"Hi darling what time do you think u will be home. I think I have cotton bud end stuck in ear and need you to try and get it out. Might need to do to doctors or a&e tomorrow."


So I called Jackie to check her level of hysterics. She seemed reasonably calm and in no pain so I went back to my curry. I got home about an hour later, smelling of curry, and peered into Jackie's ear with a torch and tweezers, I didn't see anything and tried to be reassuring.

Me, trying to clean out Jackie's ear.

 Jackie was quite worried having read some horror stories on the internet of exactly her problem and was particularly concerned about getting an infection that would require antibiotics, a no no with a bun in the oven.

We went to bed, me smelling of curry despite having specific instructions earlier in the evening that I would need to have a shower if I stunk of curry - whoops.

Waking up the next morning, me still smelling of curry we got ready (including me getting rid of the curry smell) to go to the local doctor that does a walk in weekend service.

We were told we would have at least a 1 hour wait which wasn't too bad given we didn't have an appointment. While waiting we were able to talk about a couple of surprises I had arranged for Jackie's birthday.

The first was a lunch booked for today at 2pm. That's all I had told Jackie, but while waiting at the doctor's I told her we would be going to Chez Bruce, http://www.chezbruce.co.uk/ which is often voted by diners as the best restaurant in London and it is just a 15 minute walk from our house. We've often talked about going there for a special occasion but never found the right time. I figured we better go before Baby Bush arrives otherwise we might never get there. Jackie was very pleased with this first surprise but had to start fretting about what to wear.

While waiting I let slip the other birthday surprise, the conversation went something like this...

Simon: I wanted to take you to a nice restaurant for your birthday so I thought we'd go to Chez Bruce cause I didn't know of any nice restaurants in Bournemouth to go to.


Jackie: So have you just told me where my surprise birthday trip is to?


Simon: Ahhh, shit.

As Jackie was embarrassed about her cotton bud situation I had to go into the doctors room with her and was quite pleased when he gave her a stern telling off for using cotton buds, he checked her ear and confirmed what I already knew - there was nothing in there, and no cotton bud either ;). The doctor finished the consultation with the old story that you should never put anything bigger than your elbow in your ear. He was quite chuffed with that little anecdote, although both Jackie and I had heard it before.

So off we trundled, Jackie feeling comforted by the fact that we'd had it checked out.

By this time it was pouring with rain so we went up the road to a cafe, a pecan pastry and two flat whites (decaf for Jackie). However it was taking a long time to get our coffees so I went up to the counter, where all the wait staff were having a good old chin wag so I told them, in a very curt voice that we were waiting for our coffees, the person that took our order seemed oblivious, a couple of others jumped in to action, I returned to make sure one was going to be a decaf which gave the owner (who had been involved in the chin wag) the opportunity to give me our money back for the coffees. That was a good result I suppose but still disappointing that this nice new cafe can't get something like good service right.

After our coffees we went home to get ready for our special lunch.

Jackie (and Baby Bush) ready for yummy lunch

It was still pouring with rain so we got a taxi the short ride to the restaurant like proper posh people would. We then sat down for a wonderful two and a half hour lunch with exquisite food, we had:

Entrée:
Jackie: Courgette and sorrel soup with garlic and parmesan
Simon: Crisp fillets of bream with cod brandade crostini, sauce vierge, tomato chutney and shrimps

Main:
Jackie: Warm roast chicken salad with deep fried egg, bacon, aïoli and tarragon
Simon: Sauté of calf’s kidney, sweetbreads and bacon with sage beurre noisette, shallot purée and cocottes

Dessert: 
Jackie: Raspberry, vanilla and almond tartlet
Simon: Cheeses from the board (there must have been about 30 to choose from, I just had 5)

From their 40 page wine list Jackie had a glass of rose (special treat for her b'day). I had:
2009 Riesling Kabinett Trocken (Dry), Georg Mosbacher, Forst, Pfalz, Germany
2008 Quinta de Tourais, Touronio Tinto, Douro, Portugal (I asked the sommelier to suggest something to go with my main, I'm pretty sure this is what he gave me)
2007 Recioto di Soave, Le Colombare, Pieropan, Veneto (I think this is the one I had, again it was the sommelier's choice)

The food, service and setting were all exceptional. We couldn't have asked for anything more. We didn't feel at all out of place either, most people there seemed relatively normal, even the American's sitting next to us weren't annoying, one table had a little toddler who was extremely well behaved.

Probably the most unfortunate aspect of the lunch was the person in the restaurant who got the most drunk also had some form of physical disability, which created quite a scene when she needed to go to the toilet and couldn't move her legs at all which was a result of her disability and the wine she'd been quaffing. As we left she was still knocking it back though, her friends looked a little fed up by this stage.

Jackie looking glamorous and windswept outside Chez Bruce after lunch.

Family Ties

It's been a family week for Jackie and I.

It started on Monday when we had Jackie's cousin Jen over for dinner. We reprised the lasagna dish from an earlier blog post and finished off with homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Jen brought a nice bottle of Italian red which went well with the meal, between the two of us we polished off. The big topic of the night was Jen's big Oxfam Trailwalker walk which she is doing next weekend, it's a 100km walk in the South Downs, quite a challenge but it sounds like she has been doing all the right training.

More about this walk for those that are interested can be found here...http://www.oxfam.org.uk/trailwalker, if you fancy sponsoring Jen and her team to give them the extra motivation to get over the finish line you can do so easily online by clicking here.

Then on Saturday (yesterday) my cousin Hannah and her boyfriend Jim had a farewell at a great pub (The Edinboro Castle) in Camden. Jackie was working so I was flying solo on this one, I bought the paper for the journey up the Northern Line. It was a fine day and they had a great spot outside. Had a good catch up with them, they've been travelling around the UK and Europe for the past few months so it was great to hear their stories. It was a shame I couldn't stay longer as the bbq that was going smelled so good but I had to get home to cook for my working wife. I made bbq chicken wraps to make up for not getting to eat at the pub.

And today we took my other London based cousin, Carla, out for a birthday treat lunch. We went to an amazing tea shop in Barnes, which is just a few train stops away. The tea shop is called Orange Pekoe, which is apparently a name derived from a grade of tea leaves.

We started with ice tea for Carla and I, Jackie had a Chai. To eat Jackie had the vegetarian platter, I had the ploughmans and Carla had the smoked salmon salad. All the meals were large servings, pictures below, but we knew we wanted to have cake as well. That didn't stop me eating all of mine, some of Carla's bread and Jackie's cheese and pickled onions.

The three of us with our meals before we got stuck in

Jackie's vege platter

My ploughman's

Carla's smoked salmon salad

For pudding Jackie had a fruit scone with clotted cream and jam, I had the carrot cake, as did Carla. We all shared a pot of Afternoon Blend Tea. Very delicious and civilised. I would definitely go back there again -  thanks to Carla for once again introducing us to a great place in London.

Outside after stuffing our faces, it was a bit of a walk back to the station (via Fara kids shop) which was good. We also got off at Clapham Junction to walk to Balham to try and walk off some of the cake too. At least we don't need dinner now. 

And for a bit of nostalgia linked to the title of this post...

London in Bloom

Last weekend a 'heatwave' was forecast for London, which means temperatures around 30 degrees. Jackie and I didn't have much planned which was great, it meant we got to spend the weekend mooching around our neighborhood.

We started off by heading down to the Ritherdon Road street party. Ritherdon road has just a small row of shops, fewer than 10 shops in total but most of them are cool shops with our favourite being Quirky Dovetail which is an antique furniture shop.

Jackie at the Ritherdon Road St Party, we couldn't stay for the magic show but maybe next year (or the year after) Baby Bush will take us to the magic show. 

We bought a cheese and herb scone which was fresh out of the oven, had a look at the furniture in Quirky Dovetail and had a chat with the people from NappyValley.net which is a website mainly for mums in our neighborhood - it's a great website for getting local advice on pregnancy and parenting issues and also for keeping up to date with local gossip!

From Ritherdon Road we went to Argos, which is a peculiar shopping experience, maybe the topic of another blog post. We picked up our Moses basket from here.

We dropped off the Moses basket and headed off to Northcoate Road, walking through Wandsworth Common along the way.

Jackie in Wandsworth Common, Common's are a particular type of  park, they used to be common land for grazing your heard and most commons still have relatively wild parts which are not mowed, in fact they'll quite often come through at the end of summer and make hay from the long grass. Not livestock anymore though.

London in Bloom is the title of this blog for two reasons, lots of flowers out and Jackie has definitely reached the 'blooming' stage of pregnancy with her belly getting bigger by the day but looking great and generally feeling good too. 

More blooms on the way to Northcoate Road.

Northcoate Road is a great spot with lots of cafes, restaurants, antiques shops, charity shops but also maternity wear shops, baby clothes shops and pram shops - we spent a fair bit of time in these shops, I didn't mind so much as most of these shops had air conditioning.

Northcoate Road was buzzing with lots of people sitting outside at restaurants,  the one in the background is a great Italian restaurant, we went there a few years ago and had a great night.

Jackie blooming in the hot London sun

The two bits of the day I enjoyed most was our visit to The Breadstall, photos below. This place is great, fresh bakery goods including monster sausage rolls that are worth eating (unlike most of the sausage rolls you get over here). They even have pies but given the heat I went for a crayfish baguette.

The Breadstall, yum

Looking very pleased with herself - probably due to the self control exercised in not buying anything sweet.

"Jackie stand in front of that restaurant so it looks like I'm taking a photo of you" - this is a Spanish Tapas restaurant which we've not been to but want to go to some time. It would be best to have one of these outside seats where you can watch the world go by.

My other favourite bit of the day was before going to the park to eat our lunch Jackie needed a loo stop so I allowed her to go into the Draft House  to use the toilet. The Draft House is a great little pub with a huge range of beers and a nice French restaurant menu. I started with a Dark Star Sunburst half pint and because we had a great spot perched at a windowsill looking out to Northcoate Road, a great place for people watching, Jackie let me have another half pint, so I had a Camden Brewery Wheat Beer. A couple of photos from our prime position below...

Yours truly with a Dark Star Sunburst, it might not look it but I'm happy. 

Some of the beer taps at the Drafthouse

Our view from the Drafthouse over Northcoate Road. Note the girl in the bottom right has three half pints just for her. I actually think this is a deal the pub has so you can taste more of their beers.

We eventually tore ourselves away from the spot at the Draft House and went to Wandsworth Common to have our lunch. All in all a great, relaxing day spent in our neighborhood, one of our favourite things to do in London.