Venice - Saturday/Sunday

Date: 12th - 16th April 2009
Purpose of trip: holiday
Getting there:

• Easyjet from East Midlands to Marco Polo.
• ATVO flybus from Marco Polo to Mestre.
• Trenitalia train from Mestre to Santa Lucia.
• ACTV buses between Mestre and Venice.

Travelling companions: Karen and Cynthia

A year ago, it looked like I would never make it to Venice. But here I was on the brink on a second trip in just 6 months. This time it was a girls' trip so it kind of qualifies as an Off The Leash. It had been booked at the beginning of the year and hadn't taken a lot of planning. But things looked grim 24 hours before we were due to fly, as I slammed into the doorway in a fit of excitement. My toe is still tender now and I suspect it may be broken. But as long as I could get my shoe on and hobble, I was still going to be on that plane. A bag of frozen smoothie mix applied to the affected toe for a few hours on Saturday night worked wonders and by Sunday morning I could even walk without limping. On Monday morning it looked like this.

Return to London with a Vengeance

Date: 6th April 2009
Purpose of trip: various
Getting there: Bus to the station, train to London St Pancras. London transport buses and tubes
Travelling companions: Pete and Hannah


It doesn't seem so very long ago since I was ranting about our experience on the train to London. East Midlands Trains did respond to my complaint and sent us 3 complimentary first class tickets. On Monday April 6th we used our tickets to repeat the trip to the capital.

Travelling first class for the first time was a nice experience. Just a few days earlier I'd 'enjoyed' a bacon sandwich on the trip to Darlington. It tasted good but was presented to me uncut, microwaved in a paper bag. This time I got something rather nicer and which I felt warranted a photograph.

We'd all gone with our own agendas. Peter's was magic. We headed off to the International Magic shop in Holborn but it was closed when we arrived so we took a detour which led us to the fantastic Magma bookshop on Clerkenwell Road. It had something that apealed to all of us and could have spent hours in there. I investigated their website when I got home and wasn't too surprised that Magma is more of a philosophy than a bookshop.

Another detour found us in Waterhouse Square.

From there we went to Covent Garden.

We often have waffles when we go there but today I got to try Amy's paella in the courtyard. Wonderful. We watched the street entertainment for a while and Pete and Hannah visited David and Goliath.

From Covent Garden we made our way towards the British Museum. I wanted to call in at Blade Rubber Stamps so dropped the kids off at Starbucks with money for lunch and went to indulge myself. The British Museum looked enticing and I'd never been but we already had too much on our itinerary. We did peek through the gates and saw what we thought at first was an archaeological dig. But it turns out they were preparing the ground for an Indian landscape display.

Hannah's priority for the day was to visit Harrods to do research for her A level Graphics project. I'd never been before so had a very pleasant surprise. We roamed the food departments with our eyes on stalks and considered getting a bank loan to finance a treat at Morelli's Gelato.

Hannah wanted to visit Piccadilly Circus and Peter wanted to check out Hamleys. Their magic section was disappointing really but a visit to the Bear Factory resulted in Pete and Hannah becoming the proud parents of a baby panda called 'Bamboo'. I was flagging by this point so had a brief saunter (okay, stagger) down Carnaby Street before collapsing in Starbucks with a fruit salad.

We ended the day at Davenport's magic shop at Charing Cross station where Peter picked up a few bits of kit. Then it was back to St Pancras for the First Class return home.

It had been a good day but we'd have liked to visit the Palladio exhibition at the Royal Academy which has now finished and the Le Corbusier exhibition at the Barbican. I guess we'll just have to go back again soon.

Detour

Just occasionally, I submit to a regular family holiday. My trips off the leash are quite self indulgent as a rule so I feel that the family holiday is sometimes a compromise. Any compromises I made last week were well worthwhile however. I haven't blogged the trip here, as it breaks the rules. But, should you feel inclined, you can view my travel photos in my Venice album or read the minutiae on our family blog, newly created to brag about the holiday.

Gone to the Dogs?

Date: 27th - 28th September 2008

Purpose of trip: Visit to the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show, Alexandra Palace, London

Getting there: Bus to the station, train to London St Pancras. London transport buses and tubes

Travelling companions: None

This is a bit of a cheat as it is a regular trip of mine and I was sure I'd blogged it before. But I see I haven't so I really must get it 'out there'.

Alexandra Palace is the most wonderful venue. It is imposing on the outside and just as impressive on the inside. My experience of the interior is limited to the Palm Court and the West(?) Hall.

The Great Hall is truly magnificent but I've only managed to see that on tiptoe with my nose against the glass from the West Hall doors. The show is here twice a year and the weather has been great every time, showing the park at its best with great views across the city. I usually have sunshine for my visit but on Saturday morning the whole planet seemed to be inside a cloud. I expected to be disappointed but I wasn't. I just saw another side to the park. And, as you can see from the photos, the sun had broken through by the time I reached the palace.

My usual accommodation at Borehamwood was out for this trip because I didn't book soon enough. Instead I stayed in Chingford/Walthamstow at the Holiday inn Express. I wasn't daunted by the 2 bus journey in each direction. Quite the contrary!

Extra points for:

1. My local bus company who run a service to the station early enough to have saved me from a long foggy walk in the dark. Barton buses celebrated their 100th anniversary just this week.
   
2. All day travel tickets which save the problem of trying to describe your destination to bus drivers. Then, when you find you're on the right bus but going in the wrong direction and have to jump off fast and cross the road, you haven't wasted your bus fare. (Not that it happened to me of course :-) )


3. The Transport for London journey planner. Love it! Especially the 'wizard' which shows little stick man me, walking to the bus stop on my virtual, mapped journey.


4. All those wonderful craft demonstrators who keep going all day, showing us how they achieved their masterpieces. It must get very boring by the 10th time.
   
5. Walthamstow didn't sound too inspiring when I booked my room but when I saw the Stadium across the road I was quite chuffed.
   
   
   
   What an iconic place. The race at £3 was a snip but sadly clashed with Strictly Come Dancing.
   
   
   



6. Art at Kings Cross
   
   



7. History at Kings Cross. I once read an article in the English Heritage magazine about these gas tanks. Not everyone's idea of heritage but another icon nevertheless.
   
   
   

Points deducted for:

1. Having to get up at 4am to get the train as it meant I snoozed away the whole of the train journey.


2. I think the barista at Costa was still training. She took forever. I was there around 9am and thought at last I'd catch sight of the elusive Chocolate Twist. Wrong. I asked the guy in charge how early you have to be to get one. He said he sold the last 2 at 8.30 but they are changing their supplier any time at all. Better quality, he promised, and pain au chocolate too. I first fell in love with Costa many years ago when they were Costa Coffee and serving (no pun intended) at the Guardian Direct tennis tournament in Battersea. The coffee was nicer then and no frills (although I seem to remember that was the first time I'd seen sugar in paper tubes). We hadn't seen them in the provinces. I could go on but suffice to say my last stop before the train home was Starbucks.
   
3. No workshops at the show. The organisers told me there wasn't sufficient interest from the exhibitors.


4. Missing demonstrator! I love to watch Rob demoing at the shows. He is one of my faves. But he wasn't here and my friend says he wasn't at the Harrogate show either. His blog has gone quiet too so hope all is well.

Crafters' Day Out

Date: 2nd September 2008
Purpose of trip: To check out Whichcraft in Doncaster
Getting there: Bus to the station, train to Doncaster
Travelling companions: None on the journey but spent the day with my crafting 'kindred spirit', Lesley


After meeting in the virtual world, Lesley and I met in the real world at a Graphicus workshop this summer. Having found that we share similar tastes and hitting it off really well, we promised ourselves that we would meet up again before I went back to work in September. Our first choice was another workshop but we didn't quite pull that one off this time. Instead we went to visit Paula Walters' Whichcraft in the Corn Exchange at Doncaster. We thought we had plenty of time but we filled lots of it with chat and nearly ran out of shopping time. Next time we will manage a workshop.


Extra points for:

1. The man at the station ticket office. I think he smiled at the lady in front of me in the queue. Or it may have just been wind.
   
2. The Corn Exchange. What a beautiful building. The ironwork inside is superb. I remember it from my childhood when I made shopping trips to Donny with my parents but hadn't realised that was where we were heading. We had lunch in the Gallery Tea Room and I really can't think of a nicer setting.
   


3. Coffee and Walnut cake in Costa. We almost didn't care that the chocolate twist shelf was just crumbs.
   
   Points deducted for:

1. The Frenchgate Centre car park. Yes, there are apparently three Level 4s! So, of course, 66% percent of first time visitors are going to think they have had their cars stolen.


2. Being too busy talking to get out my camera. There were plenty of photo opportunities but I don't multitask. Sooo...we have to go back!

The Nostalgia Trail and InMe

Date: 29th August 2008
Purpose of trip: Day - Revisit my old haunts

Evening - InMe in concert at Sheffield Corporation
Getting there: Bus to the station, train to Sheffield via Derby
Travelling companions: My ace travel buddy Pete

This was one of those very special days with happy memories not just at the end of it but also at the beginning. In its own way it was perfect but there were some hitches too. I'd wanted a sunny day to visit the restored Botanical Gardens in Sheffield. It was very warm. But no sun. Then the usual travel problems. Not the trains, for once, but the buses. Our local buses are generally reliable but today 2 buses failed to arrive and the third was too full to stop. So we walked 40 mins to the station, after which we'd missed not only the train we'd orinally planned to get but the two that followed it in the timetable. Miraculously, we arrived in Sheffield only an hour late.

Arriving in Sheffield is a real treat now. There is the most fantastic water feature at the station. It's almost worth the trip just to see it. But then there's a new attractive route into the city very different from the one I used to take when I lived there. It culminates in the fantastic new Peace Gardens.

On the way we passed what used to

be the Pond Street site of Sheffield Poly but is now Hallam University. This is what you can now see/read on the side of the building.

We walked through the newer features of the city centre, past a few less attractive parts to the Ecclesall Road area where I spent most of my student days. I regaled Pete with my tedious stories as I dragged him round all the places I had lived/eaten/shopped etc. We got philosophical at times and talked about how today would one day be part of the nostalgia trail. Then we made it to the Botanical Gardens themselves. Not changed too much since they were part of my everyday routine. We enjoyed watching the lively squirrels, admired Peter Pan and scared each other in the bear pit before going to eat in Yankees on Ecclesall Road before the gig.

Meanwhile, the police had descended on the Corp. Apparently the venue should only be admitting under 18s if they have membership. We waited in a long queue of confused youngsters to see if a confrontation between the management and the police would be resolved in our favour. Eventually we were picked out of the queue because we were parent and son. We think the unchaperoned youngsters probably made it in eventually but can't be sure.

InMe delivered. They were on stage for a little over an hour because of a 'curfew'. We don't know if they managed an encore as we had to leave at 10.15 to get the last train home.

I didn't get my camera out at the gig but Pete took this pic on his phone, hence the quality. But I think it's a great picture anyway.

Extra points for:

1. Everyone involved in the development of Sheffield. I'm heartbroken that we moved away before all the positive changes. I wouldn't need asking twice to move back.


2. Yankees on Ecclesall Road. Their food too is just as I remembered it. Pretty much the same menu and flavours. Nothing wrong with that. They must be doing something right to have survived all these years. Ditto for Uncle Sam's, just a few yards down the road, whose chargrilled burger aroma brought the memories flooding back.


3. Pete, whose ears must have hurt even before the gig but who never lets on how bored he is of listening to me talk about how much I love Sheffield and how great it was being a student there.
   
4. InMe. The metal equivalent of the chocolate brownie - just a little bit crusty on the outside but soft and chewy beneath the surface. Thanks, guys, for indulging us with some oldies and most of all for finishing with Chamber (see video at the end of the post). That song goes into my ears, straight to my soul and out onto my skin in the form of goosebumps.
   
5. Some great street art which pushed Pete's buttons.

Points deducted for:

1. The Corp for not doing things by the book. Get it sorted!


2. Grumpy railway station staff who have no concept of customer service. At our local station we have one guy who barely tolerates customers and has never been seen to smile. But there is another guy who will do anything for you. Let's hope he gets all the promotion he deserves!


3. British weather. Hot all day but no sign of the sun.


4. Teenage boys who decided it was appropriate to mosh to Chamber. Not this one, fellas.


5. The powers behind student loans who have seen to it that Pete will never have a student experience like mine.

The Banksy Tour

Date: 14th August 2008
Purpose of trip: Tour of Banksy street art and Tate Modern
Getting there: Train to London St Pancras
Travelling companions: 2 - my gorgeous son Peter and his equally gorgeous girlfriend Hannah











Sorry, but this has to be a bit of a rant as the whole day was dominated by an unpleasant incident on the outward train journey.

I most often go to London on the coach because the fare is so much cheaper. But because Peter was coming with me this time it made the train journey cheaper because I can use the Family Railcard. Although Peter has turned sixteen since I bought the railcard, he is still entitled to child fares until it expires. But the conductor on the train was ignorant of that fact and would not accept the ticket I'd bought. He made me pay an additional full adult single fare for him amounting to over £60 (the ticket I had originally bought for him had cost me less than £10). After much wrangling with the man, I seethed for 2 hours on the train, frustrated that I didn't have the terms of the railcard in black and white to show him and also very angry that we had been made to look like fare dodgers by this incompetent man. I've written a letter of complaint today but the only real justice would be for that man to acknowledge to me that he was wrong. Instead I'll probably get a reply from some drone who really doesn't care how I was made to feel.





Anyway, moving on... a word on how we came to be back in London again so soon. Last week we walked along the South Bank with the rest of the family and admired the street art on the walls of the Tate Modern. Peter said he'd like to go round London looking for the Banksy murals. A couple of years back we stumbled across the Girl with the Balloon and admired it before we'd even heard of Banksy. It obviously struck a chord with Peter. As we'd been talking for some time about visiting the Tate and the V&A, I suggested we go back this week and do exactly that. In the meantime I did some research and Peter sent away for a couple of books to help us locate the artworks. Then yesterday we made it all happen (well, some of it anyway)...

Extra points for:

1. Martin Bull's book "Banksy Locations & Tours".


2. Research on the internet which gave us a map of London locations (shame I didn't print it off as I assumed there would be one in the book).


3. Peter, my perfect travelling companion, who lets me do my 'independence' thing but then looks after me, making sure I don't get trapped in tube doors, run over by taxis or leave my shopping in the restaurant. (Yes, ok, maybe not so independent after all)


4. Fantastic food in Covent Garden and lovely sunshine while we were eating.


5. Hannah, who doesn't say much but who smiles all the time and has an unforgettable laugh.
   

6. The Navigators in Hays Galleria, a favourite landmark of mine.

7. The Meeting Place by Paul Day at St Pancras station. I saw it for the first time earlier this year and came to the net to find out more. It elicits strong reactions from people. I think it's wonderful but I can understand why some people would disagree.

Points deducted for:

1. East Midlands Trains staff. I generally moan about the trains but this time they went too far.


2. Thunderstorm while we were in Trafalgar Square and getting soaked watching the Olympics on the big screen.


3. Wear, tear and overpainting. Banksy pieces that can now only be seen in books and photos. Such is the transient nature of street art.


4. Us for the jinx. Within five minutes two women fell over on station escalators just a few feet from us. What's happening there then?