It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, so bear with me!
Although reluctant to agree with the previous CEO of Qantas, he probably had a point when he said Australians have forgotten how to travel and be good passengers. It feels great to be on the cusp of travelling again, but also a tad scary! My brain is certainly getting a good workout trying to sort flights, accommodation bookings, timetables etc. Pretty amazing to be able to do it all on my phone!
Our aim this time is to conquer a pocket of Scotland, venture briefly over to the Orkneys, avoid the rain in Skye, and mull over Mull.
We then meet up with our partners in crime for a little canal barging around the middle of England with a small detour into Wales. Yes, the Awesome Foursome of John, Jenny, Grahame and myself are taking on the ducks, fisher people, pubs and locks for a third time together.
Next, catching up with friends and family in southern England will feature intermittently, along with a stint in Paris. Ooh lah lah!
So, just a few last minute things to do…..
Last minute personal grooming
Last gym class and lunchwith the aqua crew
Pre-celebrating birthdays we’ll miss
And of course squeezing in as much Millie time as we can!
So, with the passport, money, credit cards and phone packed, that’s it!
It’s time to leave our safe, comfortable post Covid Australian bubble and catch up on lost time.
There’s this horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realise ‘the party is over’. The bags are packed, but you want to stay. You want the adventures to keep on going.
Happily, that feeling dissipates about 6 hours into the 14 hour leg from Dubai to Sydney, when you realise you’re on your way home. By the time the plane hits the west coast of Australia, you’re positively on a high in anticipation of enjoying all those things you missed.
Cloudless blue skies that stay that way all day, any type of fresh beautiful food your heart desires, soft comfortable pillows and of course a decent hot, full-pressured shower!
Our 2 month journey has been a wonderful but exhausting, experience.
We’ve travelled the slow lane, puttering around The Four Counties Ring at 4 miles an hour on a canal barge with Jen and Grahame, in stunning originally designed scarves and beanies (with the added bonus of a weekend visit on board from Katie and Chris). Awesome!
We’ve travelled the fast lane in London, finding wonderful new sights, experiences and people around every corner.
We’ve travelled the not so fast, not so slow, incredible landscapes, mountains and waterfalls of Iceland. And seen the northern lights!
As Outlander’s, we toured a ‘wee’ part of Scotland, the breathtaking and lonely Cairngorms.
And not forgetting catching up with family and friends, old, new and unexpected!
Best of all, we spent time with Katie and Chris. It was pretty special sharing the Iceland experience with them, but getting to know their London was really important to us.
Now, all the months they are away, we’ll be able to picture them in their Amwell St flat, at their local, the George and Monkey, with their friends, and at work and play.
All they talk about on those long distance Skype and phone calls has now gained context and relevance.
After 2 months of spending time together 24/7, John and I managed to return home still smiling and talking to each other!
Probably because he always let me get on the bus first!
The day started early. I was off to Westminster Abbey for 8am Holy Communion.
It was a foggy morning, not many people about. Sherlock Holmes weather!
But what a disappointment! No music, no singing. Only bonus was, no sermon!
At the end of a very average service, I wandered towards the exit, looking at the monuments along the walls. An officious looking man ran up to me and screamed in my face “This is not a walking about looking around day! It’s Sunday! You need to get out now!“
I was gobsmacked and so startled I literally ran out! How wonderfully Christian of him!
Goodbye Westminster Abbey. Thanks for the welcome. I probably won’t be back!
John and I spent the afternoon at the Victoria and Albert museum, a wonderfully weird collection of, well everything! The V&A is one of the world’s leading museums for art and design, housing over 2.3million permanent items spanning a period of over 5000 years from all over the world.
Originally an offshoot of the Great Exhibition in 1851 which was largely the brainchild of Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, the V&A started collecting and getting itself organised in 1852.
It would be easy to spend months inside, but as we only had a couple of hours, I decided to fast track myself and follow the ’20 Treasures Trail’.
I managed to see only three!
The Raphael Cartoons are a set of seven full-scale designs for tapestry painted by Raphael (1483 – 1520), and are considered one of the greatest treasures of the Renaissance. They were commissioned in 1515 by Pope Leo X for the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. This one depicts the loaves and fishes bible story.
This evening coat was designed by Italian fashion house mogul Elsa Schiaparelli who ran a famous couture house in Paris during the 1920’s and 30’s. It depicts a surrealist design of two faces with lips about to kiss, with intricate embroidered roses on the shoulders.
My favourite was the Bed of Ware, circa 1590, regarded as a national icon. Mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the bed is so big it can hold 4 couples.
The massive rooms housed massive items- sculpture, ironwork, and John’s fav, this staircase!
I spent an hour alone in the jewellery room and didn’t even have it on my intended ‘plan’. It was interesting not so much because of how precious the pieces were, but how they had them displayed in chronological order so you could see the development and trends in design.
I must admit I’m a sucker for tiaras. Combined with my insatiable love of the royals, this tiara belonging to Queen Victoria ticked a couple of boxes.
Designed by Prince Albert, it was cleverly hinged so it could be worn as either a crown or as a coronet around a bun. Like this.
We tackled Hyde Park on a long walk back to Marble Arch, intending to visit the theme park set up for Christmas called Winter Wonderland. But the queues were so long, we gave it a wide berth and moved onto Speaker’s Corner. Being a Sunday, the nutters were out in full force.
Open-air discussion and debate might be the intended purpose of this very democratic institution, but it seemed like most speakers were pushing their religious or racist opinion in a one-way public speaking fashion only. The guy from Salam was pretty impressive with his high tech props!
Very entertaining!
But, as they say in the classics, all good things …..
London has markets of all description around every corner. As well as the traditional cheap as chips homeware type markets, there seem to be foodie markets galore.
One of the most famous is the Borough Markets in Southwark. There have been markets on the site since the 12th century, with the current buildings dating from the 1850’s. Today it specialises in gourmet food and beverages.
We braved yet more huge crowds to experience the vibe.
It was complete bedlam, and you just had to move along with the human flow of traffic.
But the food and produce were beautifully displayed and looked very inviting!
The paella looked good but we opted for empanadas…the queue was shorter!
Wandering along the back streets by the Thames we stumbled upon Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and right next door a funny little house that turns out was where Christopher Wren lived. Pretty much opposite his greatest masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral.
Had it been around in the day, Christopher could have popped over to check up on the building works via the Millenium Bridge!
The next market on our list was Spitalfields Market, famous for handmade original clothing and accessories. The whole area is going through a period of revitalisation, and although there have been markets on the site for over 400 years, the old Victorian buildings blend in with new additions and clever architecture.
Polka Dots are definitely the go for next summer!
The quality of the goods on sale was top notch, and so was the price!
The last market we wanted to see was the Columbia Rd Flower Market, a London institution. It too, has an interesting history. Originally the site of a notorious slum, in 1840 a local philanthropist called Angela Burdett-Coutts purchased the land and built the markets, giving the space back to the people. What a nice lady!
With Christmas around the corner, it was also pretty busy, with lots of people carting Xmas trees off under their arms. The prices were very reasonable and I could see why people made the effort to travel there.
Exhausted, we made our way home and retired to a newly found ‘local’, the King Charles 1. Hiding in a back street only about 100m away, it was quiet and absolutely gorgeous.
Oliver the resident cat, was ensconced on a chair by the fire.
Katie was in raptures!
We celebrated our last night out together at the Flat Iron restaurant, eating our first steak in 2 months! God it tasted good!
The sun was shining so we thought we’d give Friday lunch by the river at Hammersmith another go.
A 30 minute tube ride later found the weather had turned yet again.Whilst it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t sunny either!
Lucky we found a pub that was cosy and warm, just by the river.
After fish and chips (of course), we needed to stretch our legs so decided to walk along the Thames from the Hammersmith Bridge to Putney Bridge.
This part of the Thames is where they have the Head of the River race between rivals Oxford and Cambridge, and the rowers were out in force.
The path was beautiful, and in places you felt you were in the middle of the countryside.
We passed an abandoned warehouse for Harrods that looked as grand as the store itself. It even had it’s own wharf. Fulham football club, spectacularly sited right on the river bank, was getting a makeover.
We headed back into central London as I had a Friday afternoon drinks date.
Back in Australia, I belong to a ladies group, loosly called the Dancing Mums. All our girls danced together for 15 years when they were growing up and we have remained firm friends. One of the ladies, Lyn, has a daughter Leah, who now lives permanently in London. Leah danced with Jane. I promised to look her up.
Leah works at the Apple store in Covent Garden, which is a groovy place to hang out. Whilst I was waiting for her, I joined in a free tutorial on how to make your photographs better. Pity I have a Samsung! I had severe Apple envy!
It was lovely to see Leah again and I think she really appreciated us reaching out.
Before we headed home, it was time to brave the Christmas lights in Oxford St. The crowds were overwhelming, but we managed to squeeze through the throng and enjoy the Christmas fairyland.
We parted ways this morning. John went in the direction of the British Museum and I did what I do best- mooching around the streets marvelling at it all. Oh, and a bit of retail therapy too!
We rendevouzed for a clandestine meeting at the Shard. Ahhh….!
The scene was speccie, inside and out!
Feeling nice and relaxed, we crossed the Thames and headed to the West End for the matinee performance of ….
We were transported back to Victorian London and the magical world of Mary Poppins for a ‘feel good’ couple of hours. Petula Clark, now 87, even made a guest appearance as the Bird Woman! A long way from ‘Downtown’!
Lots of singing, dancing and a finale to rival the best, with MP flying across the theatre above the audience. Even John liked it!
The highlight of the day was still to come!
Our gourmet evening had arrived! Chris’ friend Zac, who had joined us last weekend on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, had invited us to his workplace, a Michelin star restaurant called Brat. Zac is head chef there, and luckily for us he was taking the night off and eating with us! We got to meet his girlfriend Hilary too, who had just received a promotion at her work, so it was champers to start with, of course!
We had two main dishes I’d never tasted before. Mallard and Turbot. The Turbot was absolutely melt in your mouth fish. Zac gave us an explanation of each part of the fish as he served it. As guests of honour, John and I were given a ‘cheek’ each! I didn’t know fish had cheeks!
That’s £100 worth of Turbot on one plate!
Mallard is duck, and it was stuffed with pate. Very rich.
Had I known that only a month ago I’d been feeding Mallards on the canal, I probably wouldn’t have eaten it!
Sorry Jen!
We had a fabulous night, great company, delicious food and wine, superb service.
Of course the day wouldn’t have been complete without a trip home on red double decker London bus. Up the top, at the front!
This post has taken me ages to write. I wanted to get all my facts straight and it has meant a lot of research. I hope I’ve done it justice.
Louis Wain was my Grandad’s cousin.
After sleuthing him for the past few days, more questions than answers seem to have arisen! I think it’s probably more likely he was a second cousin.
As kids we were always told about ‘Cousin Louis’, and were shown books of his cat drawings. As a family who loves cats, Louis was always something of a ‘hero’ in our minds.
Louis was known as the ‘The man who drew cats’. In Victorian England, he was a household name.
And he spent the last 15 years of his life in a mental asylum.
This is my story of finding out why.
Louis was the eldest in the family and had 5 sisters, two of whom were also artists. His father worked for a firm of drapers and his mother designed church embroideries and carpets for a hobby (which will perhaps later give some explanation to his work). He was born with a cleft palate, and on a doctor’s advice he was prevented from attending school until he was 10.
Louis studied art at the West London School of Art, then became a freelance art journalist, producing drawings on many different subjects for newspapers and journals.
When he was 20, his father died and he was left to care for his mother and sisters.
He started a relationship with his sister’s governess, Emily, marrying her when he was 23. She was 10 years older, and it was considered quite scandalous at the time. Tragically, she died 3 years later of breast cancer (although I wasn’t aware that was a recognised diagnosis back then).
During Emily’s illness, Louis tried to amuse her by drawing their pet cat Peter, in ‘humanistic’ poses. It was the start of his very prolific career drawing anthropomorphic cats (cats with human characteristics). He was highly successful, and produced thousands of drawings in books, newspapers, postcards, even a regular Christmas Annual.
Louis was a hopeless business man, and despite his popularity, he suffered financial difficulties. He made bad investments and sold his pictures without retaining rights to their reproduction.
He remained financially responsible for his mother and sisters, none of whom married. Interestingly, the youngest was certified insane at the age of 30 and committed to an asylum.
In his 60’s, Louis’ behaviour started to deteriorate, and he became erratic, threatening and violent. When the sisters couldn’t tolerate it any longer and with no money, they had him committed to a pauper’s asylum. A diagnosis of schizophrenia was made, although aspbergers and even toxoplazmosis have also been suggested more recently.
Discovered in the asylum by a random member of the public, his plight came to national attention. Figures such as HG Wells and the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin took up the cause and money was raised to transfer him to a better facility. Firstly in Bethlem Private Hospital then Napsbury, he remained in much more pleasant surroundings, still drawing, until he died, aged 78.
Series of his paintings have often been used in psychology textbooks to explain the deterioration of the mind as psychosis takes over.
As none of the paintings were dated, they were arranged in order to support these theories. Defenders of Louis say that they could also reflect his mother’s paisley tapestry designs and indeed some may even have been unfinished works.
So how did I find all this out?
We went out to Bethlem Hospital which now houses a special museum. Bethlem Museum of the Mind. What an interesting place!
Not only does it have about 35 of Louis’ originals, he is quite their celebrity patient. The shop is full of his cat drawings in books, postcards, mugs, keyrings…anything you can put an image on really!
But I digress!
The museum was exactly as its name suggests, full of interesting exhibits to do with the history and treatment of mental health.
You could see examples of restraint devices, electric shock machines, chemical remedies and clothing such as straight jackets and a dress that looked reasonable at first glance, but was actually embedded with metal!
Thankfully, the museum also looked at how mental health problems are dealt with today, and a lot of the time, it is getting patients to express their feelings and emotions through art!
On learning why we were visiting, the attendant asked Colin, the museum archivist to come out and talk to us. He told us so much about Louis, a lot of which is the basis of this blog post. He was very much of the opinion Louis was not schizophrenic but perhaps bipolar, as some of his later work, produced at Napsbury, is certainly quite ‘normal’. We both agreed that when you look back on Louis’ life experiences and responsibilities, it was enough to send anyone ‘off the rails’!
Actually Colin himself had a few ‘interesting’ characteristics!
I had read that Louis was buried with his father and asked Colin why not with his wife? Colin had no idea, so l was spurred on to try and find out.
My journey took me over to the other side of London to Kensal Green Cemetery, another massive cemetery of the same era as Highgate, but much uglier!
Google had given me the grave number, and the cemetery office were very helpful. I mentioned to the office guy I was surprised Louis was buried with his father and not his wife, to which he replied, “Oh there are 6 of them down there”!
Oh my goodness! In my head I was thinking, yes! He is with Emily after all!
But no! The cemetery records, which the man kindly printed off for me, didn’t add up.
For starters, the father’s name was given as William, and I’d always thought it was Richard! To add to the mystery, the gravestone named him as Matthew! At least the dates on the headstone matched with the cemetery records.
Louis was there, along with 4 females, all with the surname Wain. From the dates of their death and ages given when they died, I can only conclude that Caroline, Claire, Felecie and Josephine were his sisters.
More questions! Where was Emily, Louis ‘ mother and the 5th sister buried? Emily and his mother predeceased him, so why weren’t they in the family plot but Louis was?
I guess the final puzzle was the grave itself. Not what I expected at all. It was very unassuming, derelict, and difficult to read.
The inscription simply said:
‘Pray for the soul of Matthew William Wain who after long and patient suffering died on October 27th 1880.’
That was it!
As the man in the office said, “Twenty years ago I used to get many inquiries and visitors asking about the cat man. But not now. His popularity has certainly diminished.”
I’d like to think there were a few cat lovers in the world who would disagree.
When we are in England, we always make a point of visiting Avril and Bob, my dad’s cousin and her husband, who live in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire. A beautiful part of the country.
Both are in their 80’s now, and Bob has recently had several mini strokes so he’s not as active as he was when these photos were taken in 2016.
My younger brother Bruce and I lived with Avril and Bob and their 3 kids, Helen, David and Tony way back in 1973, for about 3 months.
And it was Avril and Bob, who in 1982, first introduced us to canalling by taking us for lunch at a canalside pub near their house. We immediately booked a week on a canal barge with Dotty and Jenny who were both travelling in England too.
Avril, Bob and the kids joined us for a day on the canals where you can see we went all out for lunch!
And Helen’s son Troy is currently in Australia and stayed with us earlier in the year.
So there’s lots of connections there!
It was great to see them again! They picked us up from Princes Risborough Station and whisked us away for a pub lunch in the countryside at The Boot.
As an added bonus, Helen and Tony were there too!
We had a lovely lunch catching up on family news then went back to ‘theirs’ for tea, cake and reminiscing over family photos.
This picture was taken in 1958 when Avril came out to Australia and lived with my Grandma and Papa for a year. She was Grandma’s niece.
And these are my great grandparents, (Avril’s grandparents), Edmund and Annabella with my dad on grandfather’s knee. It was taken when my Grandma took my dad back to England for a visit in 1930. It was the only time she ever went back!
NB: If you don’t like cemeteries, this blog post is not for you.
In 2016 the Partybanks’ tried to visit Highgate Cemetery only to arrive and find it just about to close for the day.
In 2019, you can only visit the west cemetery if you book on a tour. There is also a charge to visit the east cemetery. I’m not surprised. The maintenance on such a huge area must be phenomenal. Add to the mix that the cemetery is run by a charity these days, to be honest, you have to wonder about it’s future viability. Lucky it is so stunning.
It is the most beautiful and peaceful place.
And crooked and run down and abandoned.
The reason the West Cemetery is ‘visit by tour group only’, is that it is dangerous!
So, how can you spend a whole day in a cemetery? So easily!
We started in the East Cemetery, the less ‘ostentatious’ of the two. Armed with a map of ‘famous’ graves to visit, we found the ones that hit a nerve.
George Eliot (novelist), Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols) and Sidney Nolan.
The most famous of course is KM. Howdy comrade!
Others unknown to us were simply interesting for their individuality.
This headstone was a homage to being gay. Note the two penguins holding hands (usually one on the actual books), and the word ‘Partner’ with space left for the usual ‘s’. Jim Horn lived 1976-2010.
Anna, daughter of Gustav. She lived a good age but the sculpture, I think, says ‘grief’.
This one is simply out there!
The West Cemetery which was the oldest, showed the importance and connection the Victorians placed on burial, status and wealth.
The closer you were to the ‘main drag’, the more you paid for the plot, and the more elaborate was your memorial.
The attention to detail was amazing.
This bloke was a coach (as in horse) driver who broke the record of travelling between London and Brighton. His prize money paid for his monument!
Note the horse whip and horse shoes!
This mausoleum paid homage to a military man. The posts on the chain fence were cannons!
The West Cemetery is famous for various features reflecting the passion of the times. The Egyptian Avenue, lined with 8 private vaults on either side, is a passageway entered by a huge arch flanked by columns and obelisks.
The Egyptian Avenue leads directly on to the heart of the West Cemetery, The Circle of Lebanon.
The huge cedar tree at its centre had just been removed because of the damage it was doing to the vaults below! But the good news is they are replacing it. So in another 100 years, it should look like this again!
Above the Circle of Lebanon are the Terrace Catacombs. It’s pretty eerie wandering along the corridors, with coffins still fully visible in various states of disrepair.
But I have to say, the angels were my favourites.
Sometimes pointing or looking upward, they represented resurrection and indicated the deceased on the way to heaven. An angel looking downwards represented mourning.
It’s amazing to discover something wonderful that’s literally been under your nose the whole time.
We’ve walked down Caledonian Road a dozen times in the last week and missed this gem every time. Until this morning.
Keystone Crescent, formerly Caledonian Crescent has the smallest radius of any crescent in Europe and is unique in having a matching inner and outer circle.
With its cobblestones and lamposts, it felt very Mary Poppinsish!
Not only that, but on the corner of the Crescent and three other cross roads, used to stand a grand statue commemorating the reign of George 1V. Hence why it is known as King’s Cross.
Nine years after the memorial was erected, Queen Victoria succeeded the throne, the statue came down to ease the traffic, and nowadays only a wall plaque remains. George 1V…easily and quickly forgotten!
Walking the other direction from our little bolthole, only 200m away, is the London Canal Museum! Originally an ice storage warehouse, the owner Carlo Gatti imported ice from Norway, transported it across the North Sea to England where it was taken by canal barge to London. Carlo’s ice helped develop ice cream as being an everyday treat for the masses, not just the wealthy. Amazing.
The museum was tiny, old school, no bells and whistles, but fascinating! I learnt so much!
I had seen plates such as these in lots of second hand shops, but I didn’t realise they were inspired by the lace as featured on many canal boat windows. They used to thread ribbon through them to make the food look even fancier.
We started walking along the canal in the opposite direction to Camden.
And just kept walking!
A picnic lunch and a few pints along the way made for a pleasant couple of hours. There were some very pretty areas.
And some pretty ugly ones too.
People living rough, lots of sinking boats, and an apartment block made entirely of shipping containers.
What amazed us was how much canal traffic there was and how many permanent moorings there seemed to be. In the middle of London!
We’d walked so far we realised we had nearly reached the Thames, so kept going, finally emerging at the Limehouse Basin.
We had such sore feet and legs!
Luckily, there was a watering hole nearby, so we enjoyed a well-deserved beverage and watched the sunset over the river.
A much quicker trip back to Angel on the tube found us with Katie and Chris at the Pig and Butcher for a Sunday evening roast. With just a small yorkie or two!
Kanga And Wombats Adventures 