One Night In London

by Miss Penny Black

We left Belfast around midday and flew to Luton, the only London airport I had yet to pass through. Our flight was the bumpiest I’ve had in years. I won’t blame EasyJet… but should I?

The trip from Luton into the city was straightforward and we had booked a nice-ish hotel, the NYX London for the final night of our trip.

It was very centrally located in Holborn, close the the British Museum and Seven Dials, where I was hoping to get in a final visit to the Gudrun Sjoden store.

The hotel foyer looking a bit like a Vegas casino.

We dropped off our bags in our room on the ninth floor. It wasn’t high enough to escape the traffic noises but it wasn’t too bad.

We had booked the hotel because it had a pool and I wanted one more holiday swim, but by the time we got there I couldn’t be bothered. We went out for a walk instead.

On our walk we had one of the more disturbing experiences of our trip. We were by the Thames and it was rush hour, with hundreds of cyclists going by every minute. We saw a man on a bike, who was probably in his late 50s and without a helmet, go sailing off his bike. He looked like he’d just fainted while in motion and he just sort of flew onto the road head first.

It was so shocking, we were about 20 metres away and a number of other cyclists immediately stopped to help him. We stood for a couple of moments to see if he’d wake up, which he did, and one of the cyclists called an ambulance. The whole sight was quite distressing and even now, two weeks later, I wonder how he is recovering.

I didn’t even know Twinings had a store. I meant to send this photo to Jess but forgot so here it is for you!

For dinner I did a search of local pubs and booked us a table at The Ship Tavern.

It turned out to be a great way to spend our last evening. We ordered a steak and ale pie for two and sat in a cosy booth drinking wine. Lovely!

Despite being in a tiny room the pub restaurant was full of character. The staff were lovely too.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to spend some of last £20 notes. We had a couple of fancy cocktails but then discovered they don’t take cash, which I hate – if it’s legal tender it should be accepted in businesses. We tried to spend it at the airport the next day and came across the same problem. So if anyone wants to buy £80 off me let me know!

Our flight the next day wasn’t until after 8pm, so we had a whole day to fill.

First up was the hotel’s buffet breakfast, which was quite nice. I forgot to take photos, which Mum will be happy about as she told me there were too many food photos in the blog.

We went for a walk around Seven Dials and Holborn.

There’s a public art space in the area that is a huge screen that wraps around 3 sides of a large undercover area and also covers the high ceiling. Anyone can walk in and it shows a range of artworks.

This is all screens, it was very entertaining.

I went back to my favourite store to find that there were lots of things on sale (yay!) but also lots of things sold out (boo!). I bought a bunch of patterned tops and bits and pieces and the lady gave me a discount if I promised to join the store club online, which took me two weeks but I eventually got around to it. She even remembered me from my previous visit! I don’t think they’d ever had anyone so excited to be there.

After that we went to see the new Wes Anderson movie.

We both agreed that it was the most Wes Anderson that Wes Anderson had ever Wes Andersoned.

Before and after the movie we spent some time in Foyles, a five storey book store with a fairly small sci-fi and fantasy section. I didn’t find anything I wanted but I thought this cover was funny.

Last stop was a drink and some food at a pub not far from the hotel. Unfortunately it was full of day office workers but we were happy to be indoors watching the rain come down.

Some extremely unhealthy snacks for our late lunch.

Eventually we went back to the hotel to collect our bags from storage and headed for Heathrow.

We decided to catch the new Elizabeth Line. The sign at Tottenham Court Road said all trains stopped at Heathrow, but once we got on I noticed it said it was going to Reading (pronounced Redding, just to be difficult). As I anticipated, the train did not stop at Heathrow.

We were very early, which was lucky as I might’ve had an aneurism if we had come near to missing our flight. It was also absolutely pouring with rain when we got off at the next stop. A rail worker on the platform told us there would be a bus nearby but we followed his directions and found no bus stop, nothing.

We ended up catching an Uber to Heathrow and the driver was very happy to have an airport fare, so I guess that was something!

At Heathrow we found a table at one of the bars and ordered some drinks to fortify us for our plane, which had been delayed past 9pm.

The flights weren’t too bad. We slept through most of the first flight, which was the longest (14 hours) and I slept through about half of the second flight.

The changeover in Korea was tiresome as we had to go through security again, despite not leaving that wing of the terminal. After sitting for so long a bit of standing was fine.

In line for security was a woman with a small white poodle. I’d never seen a pet in an airport before, it was kind of weird.

Apologies in advance – from now on there’s hardly any photos as I was too tired and not thinking. Plus there wasn’t much of interest to photograph!

The food on the flights was good and we had an empty seat next to us on the first leg. Luke was convinced we’d have the same on the second but ended up with a fellow next to us.

We arrived in Sydney around 7am to discover my bag was still in Seoul. Sigh. I filled out the paperwork and they estimated I’d have my bag within two days. It actually ended up taking six, rather annoyingly. I did have an AirTag on my bag though so I could, frustratingly, see it sitting at the terminal in Sydney for five of those days.

From Mascot we caught the airport train to central station then a train to Bankstown, following signs directing us to change there for trains to Lithgow. My brother was supposed to be meeting us there, which was very kind of him!

Sydney was a balmy 20 degrees Celsius, lovely! But as we got into the Blue Mountains things cooled down. We also discovered that this train, which a station attendant in Blacktown assured us went to Lithgow, actually stopped two stops earlier at Mount Victoria. You’d think we’d have learned not to trust rail employees by this stage!

Fortunately Michael was happy to drive a bit further to get us and we waited in a cafe to avoid the arctic winds. Luckily I’d put a cardigan in Luke’s bag!

We stopped for lunch in Bathurst then made it back to Michael’s place, where we both fell into bed. Luke was particularly exhausted, having been up for almost 24 hours at that stage.

We waited an extra night in Orange (hoping for my bag to be delivered – it wasn’t), and I had a catch up evening with friends, which was lovely, and spent some time with mum and dad.

Next stop was Albury. I think I was so pleased to be driving a car for the first time in three months that I got carried away and did the whole six hours. We stopped for lunch in Gundagai and I, rather pointlessly, took Luke to a lookout that was shrouded in mist.

We only ended up spending one night in Albury but it was lovely to see Luke’s family and on the following morning we stopped by Kath’s (Luke’s grandmother) to pick up some gigantic orchid pots to take back to Melbourne.

This turned out to be the most harrowing part of the whole cross-planet journey, as I had not really considered what would happen to all the cockroaches and beetles and various other bugs during the four hour drive.

It didn’t take long for them to start exploring the car and thank god Luke was driving or I’d probably have caused an accident. Eventually we made it home and, after giving the house a hug, we pulled the pots of the car and I emptied a can of fly spray into it to fumigate.

Bug drama aside (and what more Australian way could there be to arrive home, really?) we were very glad to be home. The only things left to do were pick up Bonnie, which we did the following morning, and wait for my bag.

Bonnie was predictably unenthused to see us.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we’d trained her to greet us calmly you’d think she didn’t want to leave Amanda and Matt and their three dogs. that’s what we told ourselves, anyhow.

My bag eventually arrived, only six days late.

Now life is almost back to normal. Luke has gone back to work on The Hundred with Andy Lee and I’m enjoying pottering around the house and having lunch with friends. Melbourne winter doesn’t seem so bad after staying in Orange for a few days and it’s mostly been sunny. Basically, if you can manage to be away from home long enough to enjoy getting back then I think you’ve hit the jackpot, travel-wise.

So that’s it for the blog until next time! to finish here’s some food photos of dishes I’ve made since I’ve got home that were inspired by my travels.

Are you looking for somewhere to eat in Greater London? Click here to try looking through recommendations on Restaurantji.co.uk.

29Jun2023

One Night In Derry

by Miss Penny Black

Our overnight trip to Derry did not begin well, due to the uniquely confusing setup at Lanyon Place Station. We managed to miss the 10am train and had to wait an hour for the next one. Annoying, but possibly meant we missed the morning rain in Derry.

The trip to Derry is about 2 hours and as we got closer the sun came out and we hit the coastal section of the route. Lovely!

There was even a stretch of beach that looked remarkably like home.

We arrived at Derry station a bit after 2 and the station was a pleasant surprise. Very modern, clean and bright.

The station is on the opposite side of the river to the centre of town so we walked across the Peace Bridge.

We’d booked an Airbnb property but only brought a small backpack each so we were fine to carry our things with us for a few hours.

On a day like this it was a nice way to enter the city, although it was still spitting a bit… but also sunny. So Irish!

There was a nice-looking walkway along the river but we headed into the city.

Not many people around, which is always nice.

We headed into the ground floor of the building below. I was interested in the stained glass. I read later that the windows tell the story of Derry through the centuries.

There was an exhibition on the history of Derry, which I can poorly but fairly accurately summarise as: English people arrive and ruin everything and the fighting goes on forever. Luke and I talked about this a lot, not just what happened but what could’ve been done differently, what might have happened if the English had never come. Ireland is so small that it might’ve been invaded by Spain or Portugal, or how different it would be if it had been left to itself. Is there even such a thing, in history, as a nation being left to itself?

I didn’t realise the English came to completely drive out the locals in the 1600s to set up plantations, much like those in the US and the Caribbean, although I think this happened first.

Next we visited the tourist information centre and picked up a map. They had a lot of Derry Girls merch and some interactive exhibits.

The craft village was recommended to visit, it’s a series of little craft shops that sell very typical Irish stuff, some more modern things and several hairdressers. Not the highlight of our visit but it might appeal to some.

The centre of Derry is surrounded by defensive walls, the mostly recently constructed in the UK and Ireland. They’re in excellent condition and the wall around is about a mile and offers an excellent view of the inside and outside parts of the city.

The wall walk was also surprisingly wide and the surface seemed quite new. There were sets of stairs along the way but it wasn’t a hard walk.

If I had more time I’d have looked for a walk to do in the hills around the city.

This area, Bogside, was where Bloody Sunday occurred. More on that later.

If you don’t immediately recognise these faces you need to watch Derry Girls immediately. Go do it now, I’ll wait.

After all the walking in the sun there was only one thing to do.

We stopped in at Peaddar O’Donnall’s for a drink and to listen to the old men at the end of the bar talk about what a good movie The Mighty Ducks was.

I had to photograph the place below. We didn’t eat there but I enjoyed their scattergun approach to punctuation.

Another photo of Northern Irish library architecture. It looks like a very defensible structure.

Before heading to the Airbnb we walked to the Free Derry area to have a look at the murals.

The old style, then the new below.

Our Airbnb was back over the peace bridge in the newer part of town.

After going through this door we had to let ourselves out the back door into a grim alley then down to a little apartment that was sparse but felt pretty new and was clean.

Plus they left us bread, butter and everything for tea and coffee so we were set. Back to the pub.

There were a bunch of pubs in a row so of course we went back to the same one we were at before. We had an hour to kill before dinner at Mekong, Derry’s top rated restaurant.

An unprepossessing exterior but the food was unreal. We ordered a range of smaller plates to share.

Vermicelli spring rolls, beef laarb balls, spicy sticky chicken wings, pork belly and glass noodle salad

The flavours were amazingly fresh and rich, with each dish having a unique taste but all tasting very Vietnamese. It was really hard to pick a favourite.

Dessert was a mandarin crème brûlée with ginger biscuit, which we used to dip in the brûlée and then crumbled over the top. I had a very sad moment at the end when I realised I’d probably never eat here again. We both agreed it was one of the top five meals we’d had on this trip.

In the morning we started with a morning walk through St Columb’s park. It was a nice big green space with just one creepy statue.

There were Columb-related statues and other things to look at in the park.

After a walk through town we went to the Free Derry Museum. Before entering I knew very little about Bloody Sunday but the museum was extremely informative and had artifacts from the day, footage and recordings.

If you go take a box of tissues, it’s tragic on so many levels and really makes you sympathise with the people of Derry.

On our way to the station we bought some fancy biscuits from this very instagramable shop then forgot to eat them.

We saw some fancy cars on the way.

Back over the Peace Bridge and to the station.

On the way home we got off the train at Castlerock, a little seaside town. We had a slightly underwhelming lunch at a local bar but the staff were very friendly.

Not as friendly as local character Ronnie, who wandered over as we finished eating and told us about basking sharks, how he had dropped his cornflakes on the floor that morning, and swimming in Greece. Having an extremely thick accent meant he was quite hard to understand but we concentrated very hard and seemed to make all the right noises.

We had a nice walk along the beach in the warm, windy weather and stopped to take a few photos before heading back to the station.

The trip back to Belfast was largely uneventful apart from the train running a bit late.

The weekend just gone has been very busy so this has been my most delayed post of the trip! We’ve done a few things over the weekend so I’ll to to finish everything off before leaving London. Only a couple of sleeps until we are home!

27Jun2023

Belfast: Day 5: A Black Cab Tour, Crumlin Gaol and Pizza

by Miss Penny Black

Another trip on the glider into town!

Looking for somewhere different for breakfast, I’d spotted the cafe at the linenhall library.

Very cute!

I had the granola and yes, those are choc chips. The yogurt had coconut in it, delicious!

The weather was doing its best to match the mood of the day.

Not far from the cafe we found our driver, who was named Danny because every family here names their eldest child Daniel.

As you might guess from this photo and his job, he was quite a character. He took us for a drive around the parts of Belfast related to The Troubles.

If you don’t know what The Troubles are you should google them because I’m not going to try to explain decades of religious and political conflict. Also if you haven’t heard of the problems in Northern Ireland and you’re over 30 you’re an eejit.

We went out in a black cab, which is always nice because they’re so roomy. Some things we drove past, others we got out to have a closer look at.

The company is owned by both Protestants and Catholics and so the talk is supposed to be unbiased, although I think it was pretty clear our driver was from one side. He did emphasise his desire for a continuation of the peace process and was very proud of the tour company for bringing both sides together. The mural below is a celebration of a non sectarian organisation and was sponsored by the cab company.

Below is the longest wall left from The Troubles, and still very much needed. Bits of rubble from week-old brick-throwing was in evidence.

I say black taxi, it was more a periwinkle blue.

On the other side of the fence is a catholic estate, the brick rubble explains the wire fencing over their back yards.

Danny showed us old and new style rubber bullets. They’re huge and they have killed many people, despite being used for safety reasons.

Danny gave us about fifty hour’s homework of documentary and book reading if we wanted to learn more.

Basically we learned a lot of shocking things and were feeling pretty sad and hopeless about it all so what should we do next?

Visit a gaol!

Crumlin Road Gaol is now a tourist attraction but was a pretty dire place to be interred for almost the last 150 years.

We did the walking tour, which meant following the arrows and paying attention to the many, many audio and visual presentations.

The Gaol is across the road from the old courthouse and a tunnel under the road used to join them. It was not the creepiest part of the place.

The creepiest part was the room where they hung people. I didn’t take a photo but it was a very plain room with a noose over a hole in the floor.

One of the more interesting facts was learning the origin of ‘screws’ as a nickname for the guards.

Outside were some tanks, jeeps and a helicopter on display.

The whole experience was quite sobering but it was the last of our historical activities for the day.

After the Gaol we headed to the Ulster Museum but first we needed a fortifying meal.

Pizza!

Orto pizza was a recommendation from Danny and Peter, who hadn’t been but heard it was good. The pepperoni pizza had honey on it, which counterbalanced the saltiness of the pizza very nicely.

We also got our own pizza cutters to slice the pizza. It’s a bit gimmicky but I’m sure lots of people enjoy it. Luke prefers a knife and fork when the pizza base is so thin and the toppings drip or slide when picked up.

The restaurant is directly across the road from the museum. Finally I’d get to see the finished GoT tapestry! It had been completed by an English workshop using Irish linen as the show was being aired. The final tapestry was over 80 metres in length.

We walked in and asked a member of staff where to find the tapestry. He told us it was in storage as HBO had borrowed it.

How annoying. I’ll have to wait until next time I guess!

Here’s a little picture I stole off the internet to give you a bit of an idea of the style.

We had as bit of a wander through the museum but we were both tired and decided to head back to the house.

We spent the evening declining food (too much pizza) and watching Drag Race, which was bright and shiny enough to distract us from what we’d learned during the day.

Thanks, Ru Paul!

26Jun2023

Belfast: Day 3: A Drive Around The Ard Peninsula

by Miss Penny Black

After a lot of wine and a late night for some (everyone but me), we all had a quiet morning before Danny took us on a very scenic drive around the Ard peninsula.

But first, Luke and I took Freddie for a walk to the supermarket. He was extremely well behaved and didn’t do any of the annoying things our own dog does.

Danny, with a medium amount of interference and obstruction from Peter, cooked up an absolutely perfect breakfast.

Danny does the mushrooms with a melty cheese and marmite and they were indeed magical! I shall be giving this a try at home.

Eventually we got ourselves into the car with Danny at the helm and Peter assisting with directions. Luke and I were left to admire the rolling green landscape and blue skies.

The houses along the coast are lovely colours.

We spotted an icecream van and got out for a stretch and some photos. Lucky we captured the sky at this point because the predicted storms that Danny had pooh-poohed earlier were lurking over the horizon.

The weather was just lovely and, most importantly, not too hot.

Normally photos taken by strangers are terrible but this lady did a great job!

I thought the clouds behind the van looked a bit like icecream.

We drove along the coast for a while and Danny pointed out landmarks. We lined up for the ferry across the narrow strait.

Dark skies do make for great photos though

Catching the ferry was fun and the flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder added a little spice to the scene

Not long after we drove off the ferry the rain started absolutely smashing down and then the hail started.

Apparently you can be fined in Ireland for driving through a puddle and drenching a pedestrian, which doesn’t seem like a policy in line with the famed Irish love of craic but there you go.

We saw a lot of tractors and I forgot I was collecting photos of them (and I’ve forgotten why) but here’s a terrible photo for the fans out there.

We stopped at the door of the Mourne Mountains in a little town called Newcastle. The mountain behind the town made it look a little like the Lake District but it was on the Irish Sea. It has a very shallow bay, apparently when the tide is low you can walk a very long way out.

We took a walk along the very pretty seafront, which was marred by a high cement wall and worse around the town’s public swimming pool.

We stopped in a pub for a drink. The whole place was very quiet for a not-totally-freezing Sunday afternoon.

On the way home the sun came out.

Irish rainbows have to be extra special, surely?

We finished the evening with a picky tea of fancy cheese and Peter’s delicious soy and chilli cucumbers – yet another dish I’ll have to try out at home.

Good night!

26Jun2023

Belfast: Day 2: Family, Murals, Muddler’s Club, Hardy Bucks!

by Miss Penny Black

When Danny and I were doing the Camino he would have a quick chat to his mum every day and I would be sure to yell hello from the background as I’d met Danny’s mother, Kathryn, years ago… decades ago, actually! So we all met up for brunch at an art gallery in the middle of the city. Somewhat embarrassingly for the rest of us, Kathy was much more fashionably dressed and had also been out filming interviews for a community project while we’d been dragging ourselves out of bed.

Brunch was lovely and the cafe was quiet despite the city being very busy when we got outside.

While in the gallery we went to look at an exhibition of teapots, which I thought I’d send photos of to Charmaine since we’d been to a tea cosy festival last year.

We did not manage to find the teapots but did spend a surprising amount of time in the lift going up and down looking for them. Oh well!

The exhibitions we did find were a bit sparse.

Much better to be out on the streets where Belfast really shines.

Excellent!

Such fantastic diversity in themes and styles and so huge! Many were commissioned as part of a festival.

Being a Saturday afternoon, all of Belfast’s demographics were out in the cathedral quarter.

We walked through a covered market and I bought some hand-painted cards.

I’m very curious about this cheese.

This one reminded me of Lea, who loved sticky toffee pudding but maybe not enough to try it as a cheese flavour.

Peter always describes people who behave wildly as ‘wee hallions’.

More art.

It’s almost everywhere you look and really contributes to the vibrant character of the city.

We popped into The Sunflower for a drink. It has one of the last remaining entry cages from The Troubles.

Nowadays they do pizzas and music and it’s very relaxed.

Yet more art, this one is one of my favourites.

Before going back home, a visit to a fancy cheese shop.

I didn’t mention Freddie yesterday, he is Peter and Danny’s dog and a cockapoo. He is very cuddly and spends almost all his time doing this.

It makes me miss Bonnie even more!

We had a very fancy dinner booked at restaurant called The Muddler’s Club so we got changed then headed back into the city. I had been feeling the hay fever again so I took some tablets, not thinking that one of them acted like a sedative and I was drowsy all evening.

Despite my sleepiness the food was amazing; two entrees, two mains and two desserts with bread and a plate of tiny appetisers.

We had matched wines and they were really well matched, especially the entree that was a scallop with iberico ham in a butter and pea sauce. I think of all the courses, that’s the one I won’t forget.

After dinner we went for a drink in this fancy building.

The drinks were absolutely delicious but they were at the top of the scale, price-wise too. Worth it for the very luxurious atmosphere and they did come with some snacks.

Slightly worried about the end of public transport time, we caught the glider (a bus/tram hybrid) back to Ballyhackamore and had a last couple of drinks at a very buzzing brewery (Bullhouse East) that we had visited the night before.

On returning home we watched a few episodes of a very Trailer Park Boys style show called Hardy Bucks, a show about some complete drop kicks, set in small town Ireland. As you could probably predict, Luke and I understood about one word in ten and none of the Irish in-jokes but found it amusing anyhow.