Author Archives: Miss Penny Black

Quick update: Wales and Dublin.

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The internet is rubbish here so no photos and just a quick update for now.

We picked up Mum from Heathrow two days ago, and being the trooper that she is, she had a quick shower at the hotel (and curse you, Heathrow Hilton for charging so much for the internet) and then we hit the road.

I’d read up on pretty drives through Wales and so we took the M4 towards Cardiff then turned off and drove up the A470 most of the length of Wales. The scenery was nice to begin with – rolling green hill, then the Brecon Beacons then the OMG-amazing Snowdonia National Park. As I commented to Luke, it was like driving through a car commerical.

After 8 hours or so we arrived, exhausted, in Holyhead and checked into the Boathouse Hotel, which was full of Australians who were also catching the ferry.

We left the lights on overnight in the van so we needed a jump start in the morning. The good thing about being a super-early person is that there’s time to start the car, drive around to charge it up, get to the supermarket for some bits and pieces and then get to the ferry terminal in plenty of time.

The ferry crossing was pleasant and the sun was out all day, despite predictions of rain. Speaking of weather, the drive through Wales was more Melbourne than Melbourne – I think we went through maybe 10 showers and 10 bursts of bright sunlight during the day. It was quite odd.

We drove from the terminal to our apartment and became very frustrated with Dublin’s one way streets. Luke was driving and he doesn’t really like driving in the city at the best of times and got quite cranky by the end of it. Still, we found our place and we’d been upgraded to a two bedroom apartment, which was nice.

We went to a pub around the corner for a couple of drinks and a snack mid afternoon. Turns out it was a Czech pub and they were watching ice hockey, which we’d already learned was huge in central Europe. Lots of shouting and cheering and a great atmosphere.

Our apartment has decent cooking facilities so I cooked a pasta dinner and mum had a quiet night but Luke and I took a ghost bus tour. I’ll go into that more later.

I’ll also post about seeing Rowan and Kerry in London as soon as I can – must add photos to that post:).

Today we’re sightseeing in Dublin then off to Waterford tomorrow.

Nottingham – Amanda’s solo adventure.

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We have been having some communication and organisational issues with our friend Matt who was organising a car for us so yesterday I decided to go to Nottingham. Andrew was going to Manchester for two days for work so he offered to drop me in Nottingham as it was sort of on the way. I booked myself a room at the County Hotel around the corner from Matt’s  and then we set off.

Cambridge’s sunshine quickly turned to clouds and then rain the closer we got to Nottingham – and on my way back I emerged from rain into sun when Cambridge came near, reinforcing my idea of Cambridge having the best weather in the UK. Which it clearly does.

I tried to book into the hotel – which was more like a B&B – but no one answered the door. So I went to a nearby pub and had a hot chocolate and used their wireless to finish the previous blog entry. At 4 I went back and checked in and then Matt called to say he’d come past at 6ish. He eventually came by at almost 7 (waiting is my favourite).

We headed straight to Doncaster, an hour away, to pick up the van. That went pretty smoothly, although the previous owner had left just enough fuel to get to the nearest petrol station. Thanks a bunch, jerk. That, the smell, the pet hair and the fact that not one square centimetre of the upholstery was unstained, left me wondering wtf was wrong with the guy. I swore to myself I’d get it detailed at the earliest possible moment.  Possibly twice.

So we stopped to have a drink at the nearest petrol station/coffee place and sat for about an hour while Matt tried to sort out insurance over the phone. I’d left my licence at the hotel (you can drive here without having it on you… not that I’d thought about that at the time) so we couldn’t sign it up in my name and Matt hadn’t brought a credit card and mine weren’t accepted by the system… yet more frustration. In the end we decided to risk it and head back to Nottingham.

I drove the van. It wasn’t too bad. The steering is somewhat loose but I can cope with that. The main issue is that it was raining and the wipers made this high pitched noise like a family of dying mice. By the time we got back to Nottingham I just wanted to fall into bed. Which I did. A big, soft, fluffy bed that I had in a room by myself. Possibly the best part of the trip.

Second best part of the trip was the English breakfast.

I drove to Asda the next morning and bought a SatNav, as GPS units are called here, plus a bottle of Febreeze-equivalent for the stench and some other car cleaning gear. Back to the hotel to pack up my stuff then I hit the road.

Only one major issue occurred on the way home because I hadn’t updated the SatNav (although I’m not sure I could’ve, given the trouble Luke is currently having with it). I came to a freeway that wasn’t on the map. I couldn’t understand what the computer was trying to tell me, I didn’t know which direction to turn in and I went the wrong way several times, driving up and down the same stretch of highway repeatedly. I was in tears of frustration. After all the issues we’ve had in the last week I was having trouble coping with being lost and alone in a totally unfamiliar place.

Eventually I pulled over to have a think, turned off the SatNav, got out my phone and took some back roads to cut across country to the highway I wanted. Along the way I drove through some amazingly beautiful countryside which cheered me up and as I was going along I thought that if I saw a pheasant I’d take it as a sign that I wasn’t going to make any more wrong turns (I have to play games like this to stop myself from going crazy… the games aren’t crazy, right?) and then I saw one! Closer than I’ve ever seen one before and it was beautiful.

Turns out I didn’t make any more wrong turns and the sun came out and I got back safe and sound. Thanks pheasant!

We took the van to Tesco’s for detailing. They looked kinda sad when we came back to pick it up because they didn’t think it looked much better. But it did… sort of. Then we went to get car seat covers and a socket set and we peeled off the horrible sticker someone had stuck over the back window.

Airing it out. Probably won’t help but you gotta try.

It doesn’t look great, but no doubt it will grow on us and we’ve done our best tidying it up.

Everything is kinda broken. Le sigh.

For those who are interest Matt said it cost around 800-and-something pounds and it’s a 1996 model Toyota Lucida. Because it is imported just replacing the windscreen wipers is going to cost about a gajillion dollars.

We’ve decided to call it Van Failen.

Walking in Cambridgeshire.

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After a slow start this morning (due to spending too much time on the internet as per usual), Luke and I finally grabbed the new map and headed out on foot to explore and practice our navigation skills.

A charming country church.

We walked through little copses and along quiet country roads. We saw a number of cute little rabbits but no pheasants. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my favourite countryside game of pheasant spotting. Pretty much every time I’m in a car or on a train going through fields I’m looking for pheasants. Even though Andrew says they’re ‘dumb as a brick’ I think they’re extremely pretty – like birds of paradise, really. They also tend to stand in places where they’re easy to spot (as would I if I looked as good as them). Luke will tell you, should you ever ask, how ridiculously excited I get whenever I see one – and because I’m in a car or on a train there’s almost never time for anyone else to see them too so it’s also like they’re my secret. Which is all beside the point because I didn’t see any today. Boo.

So many trees covered in blossoms.

We initially headed for a nearby village called Dry Drayton but there was nowhere to get lunch so we headed to the next village, where the pub wasn’t serving meals and didn’t even have packets of chips for sale (criminal!) but the guy behind the bar gave us instructions to get to a shop half an hour away. So we walked. And walked. And walked and came across one of those stretches of road that goes on forever, has no footpaths and lots of traffic. We continued along for a while, alternately stepping in mud and almost being knocked into a ditch, before getting quite cranky. At that point, fortunately, we spotted a path that went off between some fields and was signposted as ‘Cambridge 3 miles’.

After a short stretch in which we were encouraged by the signage to stay on the path rather than get shot into a million pieces due to the paddocks on either side being a military firing range (and we could hear them firing), we came across the charming village of Coton. We stopped at the pub and ate some generous tapas portions before heading on to Cambridge and then catching the bus back to Bar Hill.

Blossom trees everywhere!

A not-too-shabby 17kms in total. It felt really, really good to walk a decent distance for the first time this trip.

Almost at the end!

Several lessons were learned today.

Firstly, pack food and water. Feeling compelled to buy whatever is on offer simply because there are no other options is less than ideal.

Secondly, stay on the map. When we took the directions from the guy at the pub they led us off the map and we both felt more anxious.

Thirdly, plan ahead if deciding to stop for a break – make sure the place will be open and serving food if that is what is planned.

Lastly, get off our lazy butts and leave the house before lunchtime. I used to get up before 6am to go walking… what’s happened to me?!

Possibly the biggest disappointment of the day – apparently we’ve missed the opportunity to see some Morris dancing. Shame.

Embarrassing Confessions of the Financial Kind.

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But first..

The view from a bridge over the river Cam.

Yesterday Luke and I caught the bus into Cambridge (we’re in a little suburb that’s out along a freeway) and our first stop was a camping store to find an OS map. Now, even though Luke assures me that there is barely a handful of people in this world who are as interested in maps as I am, I’m going to explain that an OS map is an Ordnance Survey map. They were created by the army to help defend England in the 18th century by accurately mapping the south of England.

And when the army said they were going to ‘accurately map’ they didn’t muck around. OS maps are incredible. They have *everything*. They show every dirt track that is open to the public, small groups of trees (and differentiate between coniferous and non coniferous) and buildings, four kinds of rocky ground, about 30 types or buildings… it’s amazing and incredibly useful.

Not to mention hilarious.

One of the things I like most about England is that there are public footpaths pretty much everywhere. In Australia you just wouldn’t think to walk across fields (usually because there’s barbed wire to negotiate, deadly animals,  it’d take all day and there’s cars for goodness sake) but here it’s only a kilometre or two to the next village and the most direct route is through a farm, between two fields, past the pond and up a lane. It helps that it’s just so darn pretty too.

England is made for walking. Later in our visit I’m hoping to tick something off my bucket list by walking across England via Hadrian’s Wall, 80 miles of scenic countryside where Scotland and England meet. We’re going to cheat slightly and use a porter company that takes our bags from hotel to hotel while we do the walking in between. Pretty much my ideal way to get around.

But back to yesterday. We bought two OS maps, one for Cambridge and the other for Bar Hill and decided, since it was starting to rain, to head along the river to the Green Dragon a couple of kilometres away. The Green Dragon is a wattle and daub building that has been a hotel since medieval times. When I first moved to Cambridge Andrew and I lived just around the corner from it. They used to do the most epic Sunday roasts you could possibly imagine but the menu is a lot more generic these days and their lawn down to the river was being dug up by a gas company. A shame, but it was a nice walk anyhow and lunch was cheap.

We walked back into town and did some shopping before catching the bus back to Bar Hill. I’d promised to make chilli for dinner so we bought ingredients and also a phone card to finally solve our bank issues. Feel free to skip the next bit unless you’re fascinated by tales of ineptitude. Anyone who knows what I’m like with money will not be in the least surprised.

Before we left Australia we decided that we’d deal with our finances in the following way:

  1. Cash: we’d spend from a shared pool of money. This has worked pretty well since we’re eating, traveling and staying together all the time. Much, much easier than splitting every single meal and hotel etc. I took out $1000 AUD each in baht, euros, pounds and US dollars before we left and Luke paid me for half or it. Then when we need to top up we get out cash in turns.
  2. Cards: I have three cards –  one 28 Degrees credit card that has no international fees and no interest if paid off within the month, and my regular NAB credit and debit cards. Luke has a 28 Degrees credit card, another credit card and a travel card.
  3. I’d record all our spending in my diary. So far we’ve written down nearly every cent we’ve spent but I haven’t yet tallied it all up yet. Our first 9 days in Thailand came to $120 a day each and we stayed in a 5 star resort for most of it, so not a bad effort.
  4. Budgeting: we are aiming for an average of $100 (not including flights) a day.

Our only issue so far has been with our cards. It takes 3 days for any money moved to Luke’s travel card to show up so we’ve had to plan ahead and keep an eye on when it’s getting low. The travel card has been our main source of extra cash because (to no one’s surprise, particularly my own) I’ve lost my debit card somewhere along the way and don’t have the pin numbers for my other two credit cards (yes. I know). To explain (sort of), I pretty much exclusively use my debit card or cash when I’m at home and only use my credit card online and, somehow, the need for a pin didn’t occur to me until we left. Luke (much more surprisingly since he is actually good with money and keeping track of stuff like that) also didn’t have the pin for his credit card.

On top of all this we had the added problem of sms id on my accounts, which means I can’t transfer large amounts of money without a code that is sent to my Australian phone number, and Luke’s bank changing their operations in a manner that was difficult to resolve from overseas and caused him to be unable to access one of his accounts.

So, between our stupidity and banks changing their rules we’ve been mildly inconvenienced and we couldn’t sort it out until we got to the UK because we were either out of phone range or didn’t know where to get international calling cards. Luke has an international sim in his phone but the rates are extortionate and there was no way we wanted to be several dollars a minute to be kept on hold for god knows how long.

To cut an extremely long and boring story slightly shorter, we bought a phone card that is a few pence a minute to Australia and we called our banks and sorted everything out. At no point have we been without money, and we have been able to use our cards to buy tickets and pay for hotels and meals so it’s been ok, I just prefer to have as many options as possible when it comes to paying for things.

I suppose the lesson in all this is that it’s good to have multiple cards and multiple accounts just in case and it’s good to travel with someone who makes up for what you lack.

Cambridge: a short update.

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We’ve been in a bit of a limbo since we got to the UK, as our plans hinged on the promised car/van that a friend was organising for us and apart from one phone call he’s been almost incommunicado since we arrived. He got in contact this afternoon and told us that he has bought a van and needs to pick it up tomorrow and will drive it to Cambridge Wednesday night. Hurrah! We’d spent today researching hire cars and other possible cars to buy off our own bat and it was looking to be an expensive proposition. Not to mention time consuming.

Apart from that we’ve been playing board games, watching tv, and this afternoon we went to Colchester to visit Andrew’s brother and his family. Tomorrow we’re going to go for a walk along the river Cam.

Also, I’ve created a new page (which is listed at the top of this page) of the details of our itinerary – it’s a work in progress. It’s mainly for the use of our families and friends who’d like to catch up with us along the way.