Today we went to the supermarket. Then we went to a big park. We threw the tennis ball everywhere. Then we went on the playground. It was really fun.
Katherine
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A day at Muswell Hill
Sorry we haven’t posted much on the blog. We’ve been in Cornwall without Internet access so I’m now posting all the stuff that we have done for the past five days. Also enjoying everyone’s comments!
We had been planning to spend the Tuesday (Sep 4) in London, but a strike on the Tube caused a change of plan. Although the Piccadilly line was open, we figured it would be packed with annoyed commuters.
So we looked around for things to do in Muswell Hill and environs. Firstly we went to Highgate Wood. Ross dropped us off at the gate. It’s a wonderful beech forest, apparently the sort that would have covered much of London originally. It was just a delightful place to wander around – more squirrels to spot. It also had an extensive playground. The girls had a great time with some of the local children. We noticed lots of nannies out with the kids, as well as the mothers. We had lunch near a wide open sportsfields – a cricket pitch and soccer ground. The poor groundkeeper was trying to mark up the pitch around a group of under 5s who thought the string made an interesting plaything. It was a lovely sunny day – quite warm out in the open but cool once you were in the wood. We then walked back to Ross’s house via a parkland trail, which follows the route of a railway line that was decommissioned in 1954. The trail was opened in the 1980s. It follows the top of the ridge past the back of the Muswell Hill shopping centre and has magnificent views across London. Bonny later told us this was one of their favourite vantage spots on New Year’s Eve as they could see the fireworks across all the boroughs of London. The trail comes out at the bottom corner of Alexandra Palace gardens – basically at the top of Ross’s street.
In the afternoon we went ice-skating at Alexandra Palace. It was lots of fun as E&K hadn’t been before – E did a great impression of ice dancing, K tried a couple of times to go a bit faster and ended up on her behind.
That evening Ross and Susanna hosted the ‘family dinner’ - a tradition they started when the kids moved out. Susanna’s former husband Simon and his wife Haisheida, Bonny and her boyfriend Stefan and Jacob came along. The girls were again excited to be meeting another cousin and also had several questions about how everyone was related and how they were related to everyone! It was a great night – good food, good wine, good talk.
Carlene
We had been planning to spend the Tuesday (Sep 4) in London, but a strike on the Tube caused a change of plan. Although the Piccadilly line was open, we figured it would be packed with annoyed commuters.
So we looked around for things to do in Muswell Hill and environs. Firstly we went to Highgate Wood. Ross dropped us off at the gate. It’s a wonderful beech forest, apparently the sort that would have covered much of London originally. It was just a delightful place to wander around – more squirrels to spot. It also had an extensive playground. The girls had a great time with some of the local children. We noticed lots of nannies out with the kids, as well as the mothers. We had lunch near a wide open sportsfields – a cricket pitch and soccer ground. The poor groundkeeper was trying to mark up the pitch around a group of under 5s who thought the string made an interesting plaything. It was a lovely sunny day – quite warm out in the open but cool once you were in the wood. We then walked back to Ross’s house via a parkland trail, which follows the route of a railway line that was decommissioned in 1954. The trail was opened in the 1980s. It follows the top of the ridge past the back of the Muswell Hill shopping centre and has magnificent views across London. Bonny later told us this was one of their favourite vantage spots on New Year’s Eve as they could see the fireworks across all the boroughs of London. The trail comes out at the bottom corner of Alexandra Palace gardens – basically at the top of Ross’s street.
In the afternoon we went ice-skating at Alexandra Palace. It was lots of fun as E&K hadn’t been before – E did a great impression of ice dancing, K tried a couple of times to go a bit faster and ended up on her behind.
That evening Ross and Susanna hosted the ‘family dinner’ - a tradition they started when the kids moved out. Susanna’s former husband Simon and his wife Haisheida, Bonny and her boyfriend Stefan and Jacob came along. The girls were again excited to be meeting another cousin and also had several questions about how everyone was related and how they were related to everyone! It was a great night – good food, good wine, good talk.
Carlene
Day 4
When I woke up we were short of food so we went to the supermarket to see how different it is to ours. It was different to ours and the beer and wine was not in a separate place like ours is separated. Then when we were walking home we went to the café and had a giant hot chocolate and Mum and dad had a giant latte. Then we went to the park with Dad and had a lovely time.
Ellen
Ellen
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Supermarkets
We had a pretty quiet day on Monday, September 3. Had a walk up to Muswell Hill to the shops. The supermarket – Sainsburys – was in many ways different from ours because it was in a much smaller space. I know the big supermarkets here are enormous but it was interesting to see how they tried to keep the same set up on a much smaller scale in this one. The things that struck me were:
*The huge amount of supermarket own label stuff being sold. The Sainsbury label seemed to be on more than 50% of the stuff being sold, except the wine and beer.
*A lot of the labels had nutritional info (like we have on some foods).
The fresh fruit and vegetables were all clearly labelled with the country of origin and in many cases the name of the grower, as well as directions for how to store it and use it.
*The alcohol wasn’t in a separate section of the supermarket – it was just in aisles like the other items.
*From a dairy point of view, I noticed that the range of milk was a lot narrower – skimmed, semi skimmed or full cream. So either the branded milk has been squeezed out of the supermarket or there hasn’t been much of an attempt to develop ‘branded’ milks.
Hyde Park
All of us and Ross went into London by Tube on Sunday, 2nd September. First of all we caught a red double-decker bus to the station at Bounds Green. The girls immediately pushed to the top deck and enjoyed being able to watch and see everything from up top. At the Tube station, Alastair developed a problem with the smart card technology (they don’t call it smart for no reason!). The card – called an Oyster – can be topped up with credit so you don’t have to buy a ticket every time you travel. You place it on a special sensor to open the gates. For some reason, A had a problem with this and it wouldn’t read the card – so he’d be stuck at the gate with a growing line of disgruntled locals behind him. Ross reckons it was lucky it was the weekend – otherwise they’d have just walked over the top of him.
First stop was Piccadilly Circus. This famous intersection is such a typical London streetscape – the narrow streets, the terraced buildings, the heavy traffic and the big red buses everywhere.
From there we walked down to St James Park, next to Buckingham Palace. The security in this area was intense. There were many cameras so that you couldn’t have sneezed without someone noticing you.
Buckingham Palace was great. Loads of foreign visitors like us everywhere. We then walked basically around its perimeter – again the security was really noticeable through the streets that were very much like a movie set.
We walked into Hyde Park. We have a lovely walk through part of this gorgeous park. The girls spotted a squirrel and were delighted by its cute eating manner and the way it hopped away. We walked along one side of the Serpentine – the lake in the middle of the Park, where there were hundreds of people out enjoying the last days of summer. Parts of the park are kept more like a wild wood (with longer grass and clumps of trees). The trees are already starting to turn – hopefully we’ll get a chance to come back just before we leave and see it in its autumnal glory.
Our path through the park took us to the Albert Memorial – that huge symbol of Victorian wealth and excess. As rich as places like Ballarat and Bendigo were during the gold rush, the ‘mother’ country was even richer with the wealth from the colonies helping to fund monuments like this giant gold statue of Queen Victoria’s husband.
Carlene
First stop was Piccadilly Circus. This famous intersection is such a typical London streetscape – the narrow streets, the terraced buildings, the heavy traffic and the big red buses everywhere.
From there we walked down to St James Park, next to Buckingham Palace. The security in this area was intense. There were many cameras so that you couldn’t have sneezed without someone noticing you.
Buckingham Palace was great. Loads of foreign visitors like us everywhere. We then walked basically around its perimeter – again the security was really noticeable through the streets that were very much like a movie set.
We walked into Hyde Park. We have a lovely walk through part of this gorgeous park. The girls spotted a squirrel and were delighted by its cute eating manner and the way it hopped away. We walked along one side of the Serpentine – the lake in the middle of the Park, where there were hundreds of people out enjoying the last days of summer. Parts of the park are kept more like a wild wood (with longer grass and clumps of trees). The trees are already starting to turn – hopefully we’ll get a chance to come back just before we leave and see it in its autumnal glory.
Our path through the park took us to the Albert Memorial – that huge symbol of Victorian wealth and excess. As rich as places like Ballarat and Bendigo were during the gold rush, the ‘mother’ country was even richer with the wealth from the colonies helping to fund monuments like this giant gold statue of Queen Victoria’s husband.
Carlene
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is at the top of Ross’s road. Ross’s street is called The Avenue – such a quintessential English name. I remember reading a series of novels years ago about the lives of a group of neighbours in a street called The Avenue.
Ally Pally, as it is called by the locals, is in parts in a sad state of disrepair. It was the place from which high definition TV was first broadcast. It has an ice rink at one end, a pub out onto a terrace at the other and burnt out, unrepaired bits in between. The views over London are amazing with rows of terraced houses laid out before you like spokes on a wheel. The park around the palace is lovely – with a big duck pond at one end near a children’s playground. It also has a huge skate park, which keeps the skaters off the path in the rest of the pack.
There was a fair at the park. E&K begged to be allowed to go, so we took them there on Saturday afternoon. The fair was rather tired and dirty but the girls didn’t notice. Ross challenged Alastair to a game of knocking over cans – it’s strange how when these two get together they’re like they’re 10 and eight again and everything is a competition. The girls had a ride on a lame roller coaster, but they thought it was fantastic, and a jump in a jumping castle.
Carlene
Ally Pally, as it is called by the locals, is in parts in a sad state of disrepair. It was the place from which high definition TV was first broadcast. It has an ice rink at one end, a pub out onto a terrace at the other and burnt out, unrepaired bits in between. The views over London are amazing with rows of terraced houses laid out before you like spokes on a wheel. The park around the palace is lovely – with a big duck pond at one end near a children’s playground. It also has a huge skate park, which keeps the skaters off the path in the rest of the pack.
There was a fair at the park. E&K begged to be allowed to go, so we took them there on Saturday afternoon. The fair was rather tired and dirty but the girls didn’t notice. Ross challenged Alastair to a game of knocking over cans – it’s strange how when these two get together they’re like they’re 10 and eight again and everything is a competition. The girls had a ride on a lame roller coaster, but they thought it was fantastic, and a jump in a jumping castle.
Carlene
Making Chutney
Ellen and Katherine have really put me to shame in the way that they have been working at keeping the blog up to date.
We spent Saturday, September 1, with Ross and Susanna. Bonny and her boyfriend Stefan came over - she lives about 10 minutes away. The girls were very excited to be finally meeting one of their grown-up cousins. This, however, didn't encourage them to talk and they continued their silent communication - lots of big grins and facial expressions to show how excited they were.
The project of the day was chutney making - a tradition for Ross, Susanna and Bonny. It was also important for Susanna, who had a small car accident the night before in a car she had only just bought three days before. Luckily she hadn’t been hurt but it had shaken her a bit.
Ellen worked diligently at chopping the capsicums (called peppers here) while everyone else chopped the other veggies. I find it amazing that although we are apparently an English culture (and some who argue against further immigration claim that we are completely English) that there are so many differences in the names of food. Courgettes for zucchinis, peppers for capsicums, aubergine for eggplant, butternut squash for butternut pumpkin. You can’t buy the other kind of pumpkin here because the English don’t eat it. These differences may only be small but to me they reveal that although our origins may have been English, we are a very different culture. It’s like making chutney – when you cut up all the different veggies and put them together in the pot, the result is something quite different from the original bits. Ellen made lovely brightly coloured labels for all the jars – Susanna said she didn’t need to date them as she would remember when they’d been made just by looking at the labels.
Carlene
We spent Saturday, September 1, with Ross and Susanna. Bonny and her boyfriend Stefan came over - she lives about 10 minutes away. The girls were very excited to be finally meeting one of their grown-up cousins. This, however, didn't encourage them to talk and they continued their silent communication - lots of big grins and facial expressions to show how excited they were.
The project of the day was chutney making - a tradition for Ross, Susanna and Bonny. It was also important for Susanna, who had a small car accident the night before in a car she had only just bought three days before. Luckily she hadn’t been hurt but it had shaken her a bit.
Ellen worked diligently at chopping the capsicums (called peppers here) while everyone else chopped the other veggies. I find it amazing that although we are apparently an English culture (and some who argue against further immigration claim that we are completely English) that there are so many differences in the names of food. Courgettes for zucchinis, peppers for capsicums, aubergine for eggplant, butternut squash for butternut pumpkin. You can’t buy the other kind of pumpkin here because the English don’t eat it. These differences may only be small but to me they reveal that although our origins may have been English, we are a very different culture. It’s like making chutney – when you cut up all the different veggies and put them together in the pot, the result is something quite different from the original bits. Ellen made lovely brightly coloured labels for all the jars – Susanna said she didn’t need to date them as she would remember when they’d been made just by looking at the labels.
Carlene
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