December 2015

All our very best wishes

We back… jammin'

It's nearly four years since we last made any Jam, due mostly to the yearly bounty of plums from my garden no longer being available. But this year having picked loads of blackberries while out cycling around Hurley, we then came by a windfall of apples. So we put the two together and present for 2015 our double batch of M&B jam.

Batch 1: Blackberry & Apple. 

Batch 2: Apple & Blackberry

The second batch was named differently for no better reason other than it had more apples than blackberries compared to the first batch.

Both are labelled 'Phoney Jam'. Geddit ?

November at the Cinema

The month's big film release was undoubtedly James Bond in 'Spectre', which is excellent and a must see on the big screen. 

However, two other films have come out that should also be on a not to be missed list. 

Brooklyn

The tale of a female Irish immigrant in 1950s Brooklyn, NY is a wonderful film. Starring Saoirse Ronan (pronounced Sear-sha).

The Lady in the Van

We actually saw this earlier in the year at a pre-production screening and were sworn to secrecy. Now we can tell you, it's great. Starring Maggie Smith as the Lady and Alex Jennings as the man in whose driveway she parks her van. True story.

*Coincidentally the excellent Jim Broadbent appears in both these films

Now pay attention 007. We have a budget of $245 million, can you by the 25 November make $683 million worldwide?

James Bond can do anything.

October 2015

Venice and birthday celebration.

This month has been about celebrating Margaret's birthday.
First of all in Venice
(see: http://mandbtrips1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/venice.html and then with friends at our Italian restaurant across from the flat.

Having avoided the hundreds of selfie-stick wielding tourists, here we are practising
our own selfie pose on the very picturesque Venetian island of Burano. 

Happy Birthday and cake too.

September

Much of this month has been spent planning next month !  Watch this space…..
So for now here's a couple of pictures of the amazing Red Arrows taken at the Bournemouth Air Show in August.

I also had a short video of an RAF Typhoon flying past the beach front, but it wouldn't load onto the site even though it was only 12 seconds long.

August

The highlight of this month was our day at the Bournemouth Air Show on Friday 21st August.
Unfortunately the following day at another Air Show, 70 miles away in Shoreham a plane crashed while performing a manoeuvre, killing people on the ground. 
Writing about our fantastic day and posting pictures in the light of this tragic event seems inappropriate at this time.
Maybe at a later date.

Family Photos

Left to right: Aunt Theresa, cousin Elaine, Aunt Geraldine and Margaret.

Margaret, cousin Graham and his wife Gina.

Margaret and cousins Stephanie and Sarah (with Chloe hiding)

Aunt Theresa, cousin Mandy, Aunt Eva, Margaret and Elaine.

July 2015

See: http://mandbtrips1.blogspot.co.uk

Says: Your are the better for Guinness. Don't argue, I say!

15th June: 1215 – 2015

Magna Carta 800th - The River Relay

Two days before the official ceremony at Runnymede to mark 800 years since Magna Carta, a river relay took place starting at Hurley and arriving at Runnymede on 15th June. This received very little TV coverage by comparison. We were there at Hurley Riverside for that start at 9am, to witness the re-enactment of the story and the first boats leave to row down river.
Later in the day we caught them at Cookham Moorings. Joined by the Queen's Row Barge 'Gloriana' and an extended cast of players for another performance all about the Great Charter. (We took a 13 minute video - which unfortunately is way to large a file to post here).
For more on Magna Carta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

This way to Runnymede.
Queen's Row Barge 'Gloriana' arriving at Cookham accompanied by numerous river craft.

Transporting the Charter, the lady (centre) wearing glasses, has the scrolls.

'Gloriana' on route to a place in history.

May 2015

We're back down the van, messing about by the river…

Floral Flotilla

Labelled as part of the Chelsea Fringe, an alternative garden festival, held at the same time of the year as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Henley's Floral Flotilla mustered at Mill Meadows on a lovely sunny Saturday morning in May.

Powered and un-powered craft of various sizes, dressed and decorated in horticultural harmony, filled with participants as colourful as their vessels, paraded up and down the Thames, waving and singing their merry way. 

A catamaran with a circular table and chairs, all very civilised with glasses of Pimms and a mad-hatter. Boats with wicker arbours covered in lilac, lupins and dangling wisteria. Pink wigs - at least it looked like false hair? A home-made coracle that rather waddled along from side to side, moving slower than the ducks and a boat that was actually a car that was a boat. Not really James Bond 007, more Mr Toad & Wind in the Willows.

Brilliantly eccentric and loads of fun. 

Pimms anyone ?

Is it a boat ?  Is it a car ?

Hout Bay Flat

Some new photos, in and around our flat.

Dining area and kitchen.

Up the steps, first floor balconies, that's us.

Oh no, another panorama shot.... view from the balcony in the morning.

Small but well appointed pool.

April...

As a direct follow on from the previous posting about the fires around Cape Town, we thought we'd show a few of the pictures we took while we were there.
More news of this trip will appear on: http://mandbtrips1.blogspot.co.uk

At the top of Silvermine, Table Mountain Nat Park, looking east over sand and burnt remains.

Ou Kaapseweg road sign, at Silvermine.

March 2015

March madness maybe the best way to describe the month. We've been on fire watch.

It began with reports from Cape Town of fires in the area heading towards Hout Bay. With no news coverage in the UK, we had to contact friends and family and search online for information and hope that it didn't spread as far as our property. It certainly looked bad but in the end it didn't affect us, though next week we will see for ourselves the extent of the damage caused.

These are NOT pictures of Mt. Doom from "The Lord of the Rings"

Flora Bay, very near Hout Bay.

The Cape Town Cycle Tour (formerly known as the Cape Argus Pick 'n' Pay Momentum Cycle Tour) had to be reduced from the normal 109k to just 47k as many of the roads became too dangerous to use or were closed. The change, unprecedented in 38 years of racing history, went ahead in support of the brave men and women who had risked their lives to battle the fires that had wreaked havoc on the Southern Peninsula.

We had a report from our friend Lynne, in Hout Bay, which I reproduce here. 

(A glossary will appear at the end to translate some of the words used): 

*dagga (marijuana)

*bergies (mountain homeless people)

*stompie (cigarette butt/fag end)

*sms (Short Message Service - SA version of text  message)

Then no sooner had the situation eased, when we heard of a fire in Clapham Junction. Late on a Friday afternoon, the London Fire Brigade were called to the Battersea Arts Centre on Lavender Hill. The air was choked with ash and smoke and those nearby were told not to open their windows. Unfortunately, the Grade II listed building was badly burnt, but at least no one was injured. The smoke had spread to such an extent that by the time Margaret got off the bus at Wandsworth Bridge and walked home, she had inhaled so much smoke, she wouldn’t have needed the smoked nuts we usually ask for at one of our new favourite pubs ‘The Cat’s Back’.

Battersea Arts Centre - Friday 13th March 2015

February 2015

This month has involved extensive armchair travelling.
It began with a visit to 'Travel Destinations' at Olympia, which was pretty much the same as previous years but always fires the imagination and the possibilities. Added to this we have been following my son and his girlfriend as they make their way in and around South East Asia. This has resulted in our atlas being dusted off and google searches galore, as we locate them in places we have never heard of before.
Planning future trips to Venice and finding a hotel there has taken up part of our waking hours with the remaining time divided between discussing our visit to Cape Town and arrangements for staying there in our flat. 
All this following the whereabouts of the gadabouts (7 hours ahead in Vietnam), our own mind expanding travelling, reading books and viewing websites* is exhausting and I'm getting itchy feet.
'Chocks away ginger', nearly time to fly and leave the armchair for awhile.

Relax and enjoy the flight in luxury with armchair-airways dot con !

* fyi see:
http://www.thethinkingtraveller.com/thinkpuglia/guide-to-puglia/towns-and-cities/alberobello.aspx
and
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/northeast-vietnam/halong-bay

2015: January

New idea for 2015. We'll post a monthly blog, about just anything we've been doing, with news and links to our other page 'trips' when relevant.

Square-eyes….

This month we have mostly been watching telly. (And going to the pictures).
Whether this has all to do with January being grey and dull and it makes you want to hibernate, or following Christmas you're now trying to save money after dispensing with too much of it the month before, take your pick. All I know is Margaret hit the button on our 'Sky TV on demand' and 'Download Abbey' was in progress. Over the next few days all forty odd episodes appeared in our Planner box and the Downton Abbeython had begun.
Somehow over the last four years we have not, like most of the world, got caught up in watching this TV series. But hooked we are now. Trying to avoid people telling us what has happened isn't easy, though we are racing through the episodes at such a rate we'll soon be up to date, if that's correct terminology for a period drama set nearly a 100 years ago.

Contributing further to our square-eyed persona has been a number of movies. 'Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb' - 'The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies' (Bill) - 'Interstellar' - 'Paddington' (Margaret) - and 'Birdman'.

Hopefully February will see us come out of hiding and more sociable behaviour will resume.
x M&B