Leeds - The Merry Widow

And so off to the Grand Theatre in Leeds, what a stunning theatre beautiful staircases, spectacular mouldings and designs on the ceiling and walls velvet seating and carved wood railings etc.

I didnt mention we had a little trouble driving in did i?... We have replaced James, actually no we havent, james is now in the rover taking care of Nic's motoring needs, i have bought a new sat nav system that links to my phone, so is very handy for me and this way.. we can both get lost at the same time :)

So... we put the address into "Fanny" (i couldnt remember her name and decided that was an ideal name) we headed off merrily toward Leeds, she took us directly into the city centre with consumate ease, ahhh Fanny, my newest friend..." turn right in 400 yards" her soft sweet voice requested," take the next left", " Safety camera ahead" she whispered to me... hahaha.. Goodbye and good riddance James.

Oh.. ok, yes i will turn left here oh wonderful Fanny, but, this looks not quite where im expecting... yes, ill take the 2nd exit at the roundabout.. but, it really does look as though we are going to a dead end street... oh.. turn around when possible... I DONT REALLY HAVE A CHOICE DO I FANNY? im stuck in a cul de sac between 3 huge hotels arent i.

Clearly Fanny and James are part of a world wide conspiracy designed to test my patience and see at what point i become a serial killer (keep an eye on the news, that day is coming closer)

After a trip or two round in circles and some entertaining roadworks avoidance we eventually get to where she says we are within a 200 yards of the Theatre, the show begins at 7;30, the time is 7:20.. a five minute walk should see us arriving jusssst in time.  Poor Nic, who looked just beautiful dreessed with style and a touch of glamour... although not a lot of warmth, tried to keep up with my fast paced walk, whilst expending most of her energy shivering on a crisp and somewhat cool autumnal evening. we walked up the main road, still not sure but following the huge tourist signs that said the theatre was this was way... 3 mins of walking and lots of buildings that couldve been the theatre... but werent.. we asked a couple of locals.. but no, they didnt know where it was... walk further.. still no sign... 5 mins...ask more locals...umm no dont really know... turn around and go back... 2 more mins.. (7.27).. oh this is not working out well... ask more locals, they point us back to where we asked the 1st locals and said its just up that road there... the pace reaches extreme as we arrive at the theatre at 7.29... grab our awaiting tickets from the box office and begin to go to our seats..

no.. we hadnt bought on the floor (im too cheap for that), we head up to the first floor... show tickets  to the usherette.. who says no.. "go to the end and turn left..go up there"... we go to the end...turn left.... and there is...... there is... A BLANK WALL... we turn to the look back to the usherette... she frantically motions for us to go through THE BLANK WALL (apparently assumed we were at some Harry Potter kinda of magic dooorway).. we gestured there was no doorway... another usher interupted her and told us we needed to go up another flight of stairs....we did that.. HUZAHH, we find the magic doorway (7:31)... we are greeted by another usherette who scowls at us, in a way that only someone ushering at the opera can scowl.. and says, "sorry your late, its started,  theres no way i can get you in"... then proceeds to open the door and it is literally a total of 5 steps to our seats... where we quietly sit, to enjoy the opening musical number.

The show itself was wonderful, very theatrical   and very very stylish most people are aware of my opinion of opera, so there was some concern about this... but in truth i really enjoyed it.. sure some of the high notes caused my eyebrows to lift over the top of my head and we couldnt make out most of what was being sung... the story and the acting were entertaing and enjoyable and again, the surroundings were spectacualr.

All in all it was a delightful evening and our return to the Chavley was simple and uneventful :) Nic also spent some time snapping some pics from around wakefield and leeds, the buildings are wonderful and just everywhere.

Still more Leeds

So, day by day was just going into the office in leeds and learning how to sell etc... somewhat interesting but mostly been done before, it was quite exciting as the office is right beside yet another spaghetti style junction... as i headed in i was watching the sat nav when i suddenly spotted the building... so a quick manourvre across 3 lanes of traffic and i found s great parking place just a 2 minute walk from the building.

Tuesday.. let the excitiment begin... I am off to Elland Road, to watch The mighty Leicester Citeh, take on Durty Leeds... again, the sat nav offers direction, but a slight error means i take a wrong turn.. HOWEVER, on this occasion it couldnt have been better, i found a fantastic FREE park, a 10 minute walk from the stadium. I tucked my City scarfe into my jacket. I had been told during the day that the locals still dont take to the away fans...by "dont take to" i mean... they quite like giving them a good kicking, so i quietly made my way to the ground, remembering that if i was spoken to... i must use my broadest aussie "gday maaate" to keep myself safe.

Into the ground for my first ever away game, to be honest, i was expecting to lose and had said to Nic just to see us score would have done. Once again i wanted to be standing, but all the talk ive heard was that leeds were verrrry strict about standing and would kick you out...nevertheless, my ticket was half way down and there would definitly NOT be standing there.. so, once again i quietly made my way to the back of the stand and casually stood alongside some others... fortunately, there were a bunch of young lads away to my right who were keeping the stewards busy, so i was able to stand for the entire game... also, as away fans tend to be more vocal... the leicester fans sang all night and with some adjustments to my accent i was able to join in... on top of that, WE WON!!! 2-1... fantastic celebrations all around me, when we scored the 2nd, a young lad who was shouting and cheering and bouncing turned and grabbed me in a bear hug and jumped me up and down... all in all a fannntastic night.... and everything i had hoped an away day would be.

Next post will be about the Merry Widow  :)

Still going to Leeds....

Well from Bess of hardwick we continued on up to Leeds. Before we arriving at the hotel,  we stopped at Nostell Priory, which is a fantastic old stately home still filled with the glorious furnishings etc, unfortunately no pics allowed inside so just a few.

Now, our (noses) discovery about old men who volunteer, has been matched by a discovery about old women... not noses... they suffer from an incredible shrinking disease, it has reached the point that it would appear that many of these women are made from sponge...and someone is slowwwwly removing water from the middle of them and therefore, they are quietly disapearing inside themsleves. Mind you, that hasnt stopped some of them studying Hitler and ensuring they follow his example when dealing with the public... " YOU VILL GO ZERE... YOU VILL NOT GO ZAT VAY!!!" ( pfffft,, we actually will go there, AND we will take some pictures just to prove the point ...haha)

Sneaky pic inside the house... was a beuatiful old building.

and so to Leeds and the "Chasley (CHAVley) Hotel"...

we had searched the net for a cheap place in leeds... but couldnt get anywhere.. so instead we went a little further out.. Wakefield, and the "Chasley"..it was cheap and cheerful, nasty, filthy disgusting..., it was just blech!! The wallpaper was peeling off the walls in the hall ways, the lift looked like one of those lifts you see murders take place in.. in New york crime shows, in fact the chalk outline still on the floor suggests they maybe filmed in the Chasley INSTEAD of New york... The Bronx just wouldnt look filthy enough.

On entering the room, we assumed the worst was behind us... however... a sliiiight misjudgement obviously,  every wall was marked and dirty, no remote for the TV, the supposed free wireless internet doesnt connect, the sealant is hanging off the shower door...and we discovered that the shower didnt so much empty... as it filled with water and then seemed to flush the pipes back out into the shower, a delight it was.

However, the weather was fantastic and it was a very lovely/interesting view from the window.

The pic doesnt actually show the filth.. but heres the room.. shows how pictures can lie... if we had read trip advisor before we booked instead of after...

we renamed the Hotel from Chasley... to Chav-ley.. see below for a little info about what is a CHAV...

 Easiest answer is to google....  chav  ... and see what you get.. but the hotel is a place designed for these fine upstanding "humans"

Chav dictionary define

Ok, will do more next couple of days... covering the awesomeness of visiting Elland rd and watching Citeh demolish the Durty Leeds... and the the delights of an evening at the opera..

Hi Ho, its off to Leeds we go

So begins a week of induction, taking place in Leeds, about 130 Kilometres north of home, we decided that we would stay up there for the week rather than drive back and forth after days of searching we find a cheap hotel in wakefield about 15 minutes from the office.... but we shall discuss the hotel later.

First, the trip up, we left sunday morning to take in a few sights on the way, our first stop was Stainsby Mill an old water powered mill, apparently there was some form of mill on the site from the 13th century... and the mill we saw was built in the 1700' a lovey old building, mixed with such clever engineering.

Iterestingly we have come to the conclusion that volunteering at old buildings etc.. has a particular effect on men... apart from making them ALL really old... it seems to cause their noses to grow in direct correlation to the age of the building.. eg  building, 200 years old = big nose... 300 years old = big red nose, 500+ years old = masive red bulbous nose that actually seems to have a head attached, as opposed to a head with a nose.

From the Mill, we went on to "Old Hardwick Hall" yet another stunning old ruin from the 1590 and was built by Bess of Hardwick, at the time the 2nd richest woman in england behing queen Liz 1st, just a fantastic ruin with some lovely old plasterwork and fabulous thick walls etc etc.

Right next door is "New Hardwick Hall" also built by Bess (she really was cashed up this lady), she began building the new hall before the old hall was completed, she then passed the old hall on to her son and moved into the new hall which is a grand total of 300 metres away. This building however was not in ruins, iyt is in fact still in almost perfect condition and is simply beautiful, both inside and out... pics are probably better so see below...

From here we went to "Nostell Priory... but i will do that update tomorrow...couple more pics....

Didn't he have a lovely time the week he went to Sheffield

Glenn said he didn't want to blog this because it would sound too negative. Well that depends on how you look at it because we have laughed about all of it and he laughed when I read it out so I think that makes it funny....what do you think?

His first week went okay although one guy he was sent out with quit on Thursday, the car park is a ten minute walk up a gradient about the same as Mill road only twice as long, the guy he went out with complained all day about being cold but never put the car heater on, the guys car did a clutch and they were stuck for an hour and had to get towed and then had to walk half an hour back to the office (and that were a wee bit chilly too), there are NO tea making facilities in the building, his company car is a 7 year old Astra (although petrol wise and acceleration wise this is much better than the dear old Rover), he was told by one rep not to risk leaving his briefcase in the car while they went into a business, BUT, on the good side he has a job, he has a car that will be repaired by someone else, he got to go past Bramall lane and Hillsborough which he was apparently stoked about? he gets to be entertained by the 'foreign language', particularly if they are whispering eg 'I ad a reet fane kip last neet' and, all newspapers are filled with football. Lets see how it goes in two weeks when he has to find his way around all the streets and find parking and combat the 'we're doomed, we're all doomed attitude'.

And, to add to this, he was informed on Thursday afternoon that the induction in leeds is TWO weeks not the one we had apparently assumed it to be. Mega cheap hotel here we come. At least the company have agreed to pay for some of the expenses and, we get two weeks in exotic Leeds! Roll on pay day.

Home or bust

Okay, Nic here, attempting my first ever blog. I hope the blogging fairies are with me although the many signs around the UK telling me that 'There is no dog poo fairy', lessen my faith in the existence of said Blogging fairies. Today was Glenn's first day at work and I was responsible for driving the car home so that he could collect his company car; woohoo no more worrying about breakdowns and using THOUSANDS of dollars of petrol for the 5 min trip to Ashby.

So, I have worried myself grey about this journey for a week. If driving the M1 in morning traffic wasn't daunting enough, we've had the worry of the car seat not moving. Yes, once again, we bought a car with electric everything, even heated seats which have come in handy the last couple of weeks as the heater isn't working on my side and in fact blows out cold air instead. We stopped in at a mechanic and were told the cooling system need flushing BUT we risk blowing our head....hmmm.....be cold or...........?????$$$$$$$$


Anyway, the electric car seats are inherently faulty in this model and there is no manual override. There is a Rover website on which owners share info and I found a guy whose seat back was stuck all the way forward which rendered his car completely undriveable and 65 miles to a mechanic ahhhhh the company car!! Yesterday afternoon, having been unable to move the seat more than a smidge, and wondering what the hell we were going to do, I stuck my head under the seat and flipped a white piece of plastic TADA the seat works. Don't know what or why and don't care.

So off to Sheffield we headed in perfectly reasonable traffic and no major problems at all. Glenn says goodbye. I programme the Sat Nav, otherwise known as James, buckle my seat belt and off I go. I can see I have to turn right so I drive until James tells me to turn, only he doesn't and I'm at a dead end. I calmly turn around and wait for my next instruction from James; 'turn right'. Hmm I think, that doesn't make sense when I was supposed to turn right just now, I should be going left shouldn't I? Well I don't know the streets and it's the first time I've driven in England and I decided to trust James; that was my mistake! I take the next right and he suddenly shouts 'recalculating route'. Okay I think, don't know what I did wrong but....keep in mind, that as I wait for him to recalculate, I am on a narrow street with traffic starting to wonder what I'm doing and I have to make a decision on my own; I go straight, just as James says 'take the next right'. 'Bugger' thinks I. 'Recalcuatling route' James says again. 'What do I do' thinks I? I take the next right, given that James clearly wanted me to go that way. 'Recalculating route' he says again.

So now I'm getting a tad agitated and calling James a few choice names other than James. Then I come to a left turn only, so I'm going left. James finally catches up with me and tells me, of course, to go left. Great James, thanks for your help. I turn left and am redirected back the way I've come at a nearby roundabout. I've calmed down and I'm in the right lane for James' next instruction 'Take the next right' I see the right turn approaching and it's a sort of roundabout but it looks like the lane has a straight on only arrow; but james is saying turn right...there's nothing coming...what do I do??? Turn right. Did I break the law? I don't know and I'm past caring! Then James says 'Take the next left then take the first hard right'. Okay, I take the left but.....there is NO right! 'Recalculating route' says James. 'Take the next right' he says in plenty of time so I do as instructed. I should perhaps tell you that at this stage it has taken me 15 minutes to go about a mile. What fun.

Then James tells me 'Take the next left'. Easy peasy, it's a quiet little spot, almost no-one else around, I turn left. 'Take the next left' says James again. I approach the traffic lights at the next left only to find it is a no exit. There is a bicycle lane and for a moment I consider using it...I've had about enough of this but, it's one thing to not be sure you are breaking the law, another thing entirely to do it on purpose and risk running down an unsuspecting cyclist, so I turn around. Now here's the problem, apart from the fact that I am furious and my legs are shaking and I'm going to burst into tears at any moment and there's a good chance I'm going to call Glenn on his first day at work and scream 'I can't get the hell out of Sheffield', but the real problem is that James doesn't know that this is a bicycle lane only, and he is redirecting me to go around the roundabout and come back the same way again........It is now time to redirect James!!!!!!

Then, as my legs got shakier and my eyes welled more and my hand got closer to the phone, I saw a sign; M1 SOUTH. YES! I screamed, I'm saved. I managed to get on the right road, followed it to the M1, got on the M1 without any real hassle apart from looking in my mirror and thinking is that enourmous thundering truck going to crush me like a bug as I entered, because Rover's have the suckiest accelaration ever. I then made the smooth 1 hour drive back to lovely Measham where I immediately had a nervous breakdown...well a peppermint tea and a spot of relaxation therapy anyway. Of course this could all have been a whole lot worse if it had not been a beautiful sunny day, and, it will now be a complete doddle to go to Ashby or Coalville to do the shopping on my own but the real moral of this story is do not trust sat nav's called James!!

The Malverns - Witley crt part 2...October (go down for part 1)

Following our trip to Witley, we went on towards the Malverns..interesting fact... England doesnt do the "petrol Station" very well... we had effectively driven all morning and not seen one since we left home, wasnt a huge issue, but interesting that you can drive for hours and not see one.

First stop after Witley were the ruins of a church built in the 1100's we entered the church gorunds only to be rushed by sheep, who were grazing there... the grounds also house a "new" church, built in the 1800's and still in use.

we then headed on toward Great Malvern and the The Hills, what a beutiful part of England...we (foolishly) decided we wanted to climb "The Beacon" which is the highest peak in the area... point one, 3 pounds to park!! what a liberty, we are the only people there for goodness sake...and... seriously, if your going to charge me to park, then make the blinking car park closer to the top...anyway, we set out.

Tthe first 1000 metres were the toughest, (or so we thought)... we met a couple on the way down who told us, they hadnt made the top.. but it wasnt to far..only 20  mins or so.

First 1000 metres...

We continued, the second 5000 metres were the toughest, (or so we thought), as we rounded yet another bend and looked up, realising that we were still a lonnnnnnnnnnnng way from the peak. we decided a rest was in order as we had already been walking virtually up a 60 degree mountian for 35 minutes.

5000 metres...

We continued on... the third 50,000 metres were the toughest (or so we thought) at this stage we were treated to an air show as 2 awesome jet fighters flew across the mountains, now, the fact that the jets were flying BELOW us...shouldve told us this 'walk" was getting out of hand.

50,000 metres...

We continued, the fourth 500,000 metres were the most difficult (or so we thought)..we decided that the top was actually never going to arrive, Nic anoounced that this was a good location to lay down for a snooze, i chose to head on toward the elusive summit.

500,000 metres...

The summit, the last 14,000 kilometres were the hardest !!. (I shouldve flown, superman style)

But the views were stunning

longish video...

Now was time to head down... lets just say... It was the first 7 million kilometres were the hardest.... it took a long time and was a long way :)

Chips for dinner on the way home and arriving at about 7pm... we was well and truly..umm tired :)

This, i assume will be the last of the very  regular and exciting updates, as with work now happening...the blog would consist of... went to work.. came home. Thrill a minute i know :)

Witley Court (part 1)

Our last chance to grab some viewing time before work and winter overtake us, we headed a little way south to Hereford and Worcestershire. First to Witley Crt.

This is another ruined stately home, interestingly the house was first built in the 1600's, and underwent incredible changes and upgrades until the 1800's. The pic below shows the huge changes that took place (double click to make it bigger)

then in 1930's a fire burnt out a quarter of the home and it was left to go to ruin, eventually being sold for less than 4000 pounds.

keep in mind when it was upgraded in the 1800's it was assumed to valued (in todays money) at somewhere near 100 million pounds!! to let it just fall to bits is incomprehensible. The English heritage have since stabilised the building and have redeveloped the gardens and fountains, simply beautiful.

They also had their own church which you can just see the top of to the left of the pic... we took a walk into it...simply a stunning building, containing some of Englands oldest stained glass windows early 1700's and an incredible ceiling.

Again lots of pics..coz so lovely... have a look at the door ts HUGE... Nic looks like a doll or Alice in wonderland...

A short blog - Football and a Ker-Plunk! update

I went to the football yesterday, saw Leicester City win 3-1 and creep off the bottom of the table, also saw our new manager (Sven Goran Erricksen... yes the ex england manager) come to the ground to be introduced.

I was interviewed by Sky Sports or BBC or someone, but didnt see it on telly anywhere. I assume that the aussie accent wasnt what they were looking for.

Anyway... Sven... what a coup, one of the most recognisable managers in the world.. is now with the Foxes..and is talking about us getting to the Premier league.. woohoo.

I spent the 1st half in the west stand, which is the cheapest area $40   but is also the least inspired area..was more like a library...so i snuck into the spion kop for the second half and stood with the" Fosse Boys" who are a group (about 40 odd) of young 18-25 year olds who are trying to bring back the atmosphere of days gone by... Since the implementation of all seater stadiums has affected the atmos, with standing now banned and the singing being much less prominent.... it was fabulous to be with them and spend the whole second half standing and singing.

Ker-Plunk!
Game ..umm whatever... sees Nic win in a most convincing manner 4-29 leaving me in the lead of games won.. but her infront in total scores...the kerplunk excitment know no bounds.

Pic one is taken from the Kop, before the game...

P

Pic 2 is taken from the west stand as the players warm up.

Below is a slightly smaller video taken as the players enter the ground, the sound is the Post Horn Gallop played at every home game... i swing round to the directors box to see Sven...but i dont think you can see him  :) then i swing round to the right to show the Kop.

more of kenilworth part 2 - (go down a bit for part 1)

Ok.. trying again, hopefully the computer will play this time...

14th century...

16th century....

I love castles 3 - plus Coventry.

Ok, well look, before i start with the castles etc, i have a tip for anyone reading this... invest in card shops! (birthday card - xmas card etc)

We have discovered that you can get cards anywhere and everywhere in this country...apparently there must be an incredible increase in card usage throughout the world to justify the proliferation of card shops... one has just opened in MEASAM for goodness sake... we have hairdressers, real estate, and express supermarkets..a high st that pretty much consists of 10 shops... and one of them is a card shop!...still at least our emergency card needs are now covered.  (as an aside, we went into 2 card shops yesterday to buy.... well,.. to buy cards obviously... which kinda explains the need for the card shops i guess... but nevertheless... we had longer queues in the card shop.. than at any other place we visited all day... ok.. enough about card shops.  :)

Off to Coventry...and it was soo much better than i expected, i had heard of it being rather downtroden..dirty and unpleasant.. infact not the case at all. we began at Spon st, which is a street made up of old 13th-14th century buildings that have been dismantled and rebuilt  n the one place, it was incredible to see these fabulous oldd shops ..Nic is (unsuccessfully)  trying to appear not freezing in the pic above.

We wandered through the markets and then found the cathedral... Wow!!.. what a stunning building yet again, the ruins since the war are still standing and was just a glorious place, we also poked our head inside the current cathedral.. just awesome place, we also saw some cute squirrels  awwwwwwwwwwww :)

From Coventry on to Kenilworth Castle... what a surprise.. this was even bigger than the other castles, it was used to house Elizabeth the first on her tours around..it was actually a series of castles built in the 12th..then 14th.. then 16th centurys again lots of pics and lots of  superlatives, but really just lots of fun.

12th century

14th century

damn,. silly computer wont let me do it.. ill load some more in another post :)