Back at Abbey Wood, an easy journey up with none of the usual queues at the A2 junction saw me arrive a couple of minutes just before 1pm - about the time the heavens opened!
Legs down, leccy on, beer poured, everything else could wait.
I did however knock one job off Patsy's ever present to do list - adding more screws to the condensation board to secure it and stop it creaking during the night.
In the afternoon I did little more than watch Final Score and was pleased to see my old home town team secure another impressive win.
I was getting cabin fever by now though and, whilst dinner was cooking a plan was hatched. Said dinner was wolfed down, a razor was run over the chops and I headed out to catch one of the 'Super Loop' buses for an hour long trip to Bromley and it's Churchill Theatre.
Things didn't start too well with the news that they had no red wine, and the only beer was some trendy mega hopped IPA that smelt like bleach and tasted like grapefruit.
The show was good though, I must confess that I'd never seen it before.
Sunday was, as forecast, wet and miserable. My furthest outing was to the facilities block for a shower.
The sun was back Monday morning as I headed off to Euston - via the Lizzy and Northern lines - to meet Sandra who would be joining me for the week. There was the inevitable pint in the station bar as I made sure I arrived too early!
On the Monday morning I caught my direct train to London Euston and as is usual for Euston their passenger assistance was superb and I was soon whisked to the concourse where I met Richard outside the assistance lounge.
Richard had kindly made some baps for us to eat as it was lunchtime and it was nice to catch up before we made our way to the underground on the tube to Tottenham Court Rd. Here we changed onto the Elizabeth line staying on until it reached the end at Abbeywood.
A pleasant cup of tea, swift unpacking and we were all sorted. That evening we had a lovely home cooked (I think it was a sausage casserole) some light TV after a short walk around the site and it was time for bed for a good night sleep. We had a busy day planned for Tuesday.
Tuesday was probably the best day weather wise so we were very happy to have planned the activities mostly for today. Once we were ready we got on the tube at Abbeywood making for Mile End.We had planned to go and visit Tower Hamlets cemetery but the trains had taken longer than planned and whilst the cemetery was just round the corner from the tube station while sitting having our usual coffee in a most delightful Turkish owned cafe we came to the mutual decision that we were running out of time as we had an appointment at Sky Gardens at 11:45 that morning. We returned to the station and caught the train back into the city and made our way to the Sky Gardens.
My heart plummeted when I saw the length of the queue covering something akin to around a block and ½ in American terms was already there. There is no way I would be able to stand and I looked around to see if there was a seat I could sit on whilst Richard queued, however there were none and on discussing it with Richard he said he could not stand that long either. I decided to go to the door to see if there was a disabled access queue and indeed there was. I was so grateful as it meant that I could, at long last, get to see what all the articles were talking about. The lift took moments to get us to the sky garden and I have to say the views were stupendous. There was the usual cafe/bar if you wished to have a drink but you were not allowed to eat your own sandwiches. We took some photos from each of the sides of the garden and indeed some of the plants which included one from NZ and brought back happy memories.
Afterwards we made our way down to the waterfront to consume our packed lunch, before traversing the enbankment as far as London Bridge, then boarding a bus that would take us towards Liverpool Street station and our next assignation - with Richard B, fellow Twitterer and also boss of Cover 4 Caravans.
It was great to catch up, we had a really good chinwag but all to soon it was time to go our separate ways.
For a pre-show meal the White Hart at the top of Drury Lane has become a favourite but we thought we’d try somewhere different and chose the Marlborough Head, a bit further down. Lovely environment but service was a bit slow and the food was nothing special sadly. Still, nothing ventured etc.
Shadowlands, at the Aldwych theatre was superb. Hugh Bonneville starring as C.S. Lewis was the draw but the whole cast were excellent and, whilst I love the glitz and glamour of a musical a good play sometimes hits the spot and this certainly did. Humorous, engrossing and heart-warming, it made for a delightful evening’s entertainment. Moreover, the staff at the Aldwych were brilliant, making the whole thing a very enjoyable experience.
Wednesday and we didn’t go far, mainly thanks to rain moving in in the afternoon. However we did fire up Hetty, throwing caution to the wind – and £12.50 thanks to the daily ULEZ charge – and head out for a bit of sightseeing.
Sandra:
At our last visit to Abbeywood, we had looked around on the maps to see what was around the local area. There was indeed a community park area – a 5 minute drive from the site, (sadly incurring a congestion charge). It was the former home of Abbeywood Monastery an Augustinian order linked to William the Conqueror. There were the ruins you could walk around with plenty of information boards, a children’s play area and of course the cafe. A large function room completed the central block. The cafe was open but you had to sit outside – there were a few brave souls, wrapped up to the nth degree but we decided to give it a pass. It was also the place to go for dog walking and there were plenty of them running around quite happily.
Thursday looked a bit more promising weather wise, however it was still a very leisurely start, not heading out until after lunch.
Sandra:
Another place we had on our list to visit was the Crossrail Gardens. I had seen this on the very interesting TV documentary about the building of Crossrail and all the challenges it had delivered. It is a free to enter site and very interesting with areas dedicated to various regions and its flora. Useful information boards were about here too.
I was well aware of Richard’s like of visiting the old, big seven cemeteries in London – their history is abundant. As we had said, we had to abort our trip to Tower Hamlets the day before but now we had the opportunity to visit Brompton Cemetery – with the added and unexpected bonus of it being the final resting place of Emily Pankhurst. Most of you will know that she was one of the leading ladies in the Suffragette movement. It was a privilege to have my photo taken by her grave. I also thought for a moment, would I have been able to stand here if it wasn’t for what she and her colleagues gave for us. A sobering thought.
There were plenty other interesting graves, not least one which was designed to look like an obelisk/spaceship – this, if memory serves me, was a lady artist in the 20th Century.
Even cemeteries have got in the cafe act – this one was no different. It was a particularly cold day and a hot mug of tea and use of the toilet went down very well indeed!
I do love a good cemetery as you know – no cliché left untyped – and it was great to tick another one off. It was decent cemetery weather – dull and overcast, only an ethereal mist was missing. Not for the first time I regretted not packing my old bulky DSLR.
The Abbey Arms pub sits next to the station of the same name and on our way back we decided to try it. However, despite two handpumps there was no real ale on offer. We performed a swift reverse ferret and headed back to the site and cosy Patsy.
Friday and time for Sandra to depart. As usual I accompanied her to Euston, we said our goodbyes and I headed off, planning to have a mooch around Camden and a pint overlooking the canal. Once again though, as on the previous two attempts after seeing Sandra off, the rain came. Add to that uncooperative knees and I decided to admit defeat and headed back to the site.
And that was pretty much it for me second trip to Abbey Wood. I got away early Saturday morning and was home in good time, though Hetty was noticeably thirstier thanks to a head wind. Not the most productive of trips sight seeing wise, mainly thanks to the weather but almost my aforementioned knees and general lethargy, but it was still worth it. The next visit will be in October – for half-term and more importantly Halloween – decorations are already being planned!