best laid Plans...

Well i know that in my last post i faithfully promised detailed pictures of Hampton Court, but after all my bragging about going we ended up not going. Chris, poor thing, woke up feeling quite unwell with a really bad stomach. He insisted that we still go...

After several attempts to stay in be we trouped off to the rail station but didn't get very far.

*enter London Tube*

We arrived at the tube station to find it closed due to emergency repair work caused by a slip on the tracks that happened over night. Great. Rush hour too mind... So we walked up to the next tube station, which im sure you can imagine was absolute bedlam with Three of the main lines from east london into the city out of action. For those that know london the district, circle and hammersmith and city lines were out. The only one available was the already overused Central line.

We were on the look out for a chemist for Chris but didn't see one on the way.

We cued up to get into the station and arrived on a platform about 10 deep in front of the train. this would have been ok if there was room for more than 50 people on each train (with about 15 carriages...) so we waited about 4 trains. people were pulling each other onto the tube and squashing each other in like sardines. Just because your feet were in didn't mean all of you was in as the door curve over at the top. so people keep getting stuck when the doors closed which slowed the process considerably.

about 4 trains later we made it onto a tube. As i'm short i ca't reach the bars in the middle of the train, and as i had no hope in hell of reaching the sides of the train i was stuck holding onto chris and trying not to topple into everyone else. I didn't even have the room to spread my feet apart for balance!

about 4 stops into the journey chris had to get off as he was (quite rightly) feeling rather unwell and hot. I had taken off my jacket and things before i got on but chris was still in a warm jumper and was overheating.

We jumped off at St pauls and eventually decided to give the tube a miss (and i told him there was no way we going to Hampton court and we were going to a chemist. ) We found a chemist and had some tea next door.

*enter shopping*

we found the street with all the second had bookshops and boarders books and spend the day reading. not a bad day all up.

came home about 3 and chris went to bed ( nothing unusual there)

It is now about9:30am and he is still in bed and says he is feeling better. a good thing since we are on a train today to Chippenham to go camping!!!

This brings me to another point! We are away for a couple of days and will have no Internet connection. Repeat. * NO INTERNET CONNECTION* until at least Monday night, maybe longer. We should be back on Wednesday - ish. we are leaving for France a couple of days after that though.

well that ends this missive.

better get packed for camping.
byeeeee

Records Office - mark two

Went back to the records office today and took photos of EVERY page in that file.... hundreds of them.

I can't currently upload the photos onto this computer and therefore the Internet. I need to hook up Chris's laptop to a network. When i do that i will load the photos.

Just out of interest, his family make a massive petition every year for his release, and go all their friends, family, neighbours, local politicians, to sign it. Each person had a name and an address....

I have the letters from his sister and an uncle begging for his release.

i can't wait to get into the data and find out more about the family and the streets they lived in.

Just as a side note, the murder took place only a few streets away from James's place in Bow. If you go to google maps http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl&q=

and type in Eterick street you will see in next to Canningtown. James lives just above the Bow Road tube station.

Anyway i had better get back to looking at the photos. I have work to do.

byee

Harry Patrick - the convicted murderer

Today we visited Fort Knox!

Otherwise named the ~ Public Records Office~ at Kew, London.

We arrived at a new shiny building set amongst very expensive buildings and Kew Gardens. After the obligatory bag search which we have everywhere we go, we had to register with the Office and have our photographs taken and put onto ID cards.#
next ~ leave everything in lockers

next~ take a pencil (no sharpener) a PRO writing pad through the security and up to the research room.

next ~ we eventually found a record and ordered the documents.


Today's Mission was to find court proceedings about my great grand uncle Harry Patrick, who murdered his girlfriend Rachel Bailey on 22 November 1885.

Was i expecting to find anything ~ no ~ did i find something ~ yes!!!~

We were told that it would take about 30mins and were given a readers seat and coded document locker. When the documents appeared they were put into a glass locker with my code on it. we could then take the documents to the assigned reading chair.

I was expecting to have either:

1. Have to look through a large book for a small entry on Harry
2. Or, to have a few sheets of paper in a small folder.

What i got was a great stack of documents about 10cm high. ALL Harry Patrick's prison files!!!! the witness statements, police and medical records, his hand written pleas to the courts to release him. And Monthly reports from the prison about what he had been doing in prison.

He was also due to be hanged on Monday the 4th of December 1885.

I found a family connection to a family called Cooper.

I had no way of copying this 300 page file which was so brittle that if i had breathed to hard it would have blown away.

I have reserved it again for tomorrow and am going back to photograph the entire contents of the file.

despite the fact that it was old and crumbled and had been handled for many years til 1901, i doubt that it has been opened more than once or twice since! It had practically melted together.

The following are two excerpts from the files:

Police report at trial

"23 November i went to 34 Beckstone Tce, Canningtown, about 1/2 6p.m.... He
said he was just getting himself ready to hand himself in... and that he was
just informing his family in person."

Recommendation for release in 1901

"On the whole i suggest that a merciful view may be taken of his case in
consideration of his contrition and unvarying good conduct.

In 1898 he said he could have a home with his uncle Mr cooper in Canningtown
and a year before his sisters and friends said they would do all to help him
lead a good life and to earn an honest subsistence..."

with the amount there and the hand writing, it was impossible for me to copy any more than that. Hopefully tomorrow i will be able to fully photograph this document so i can study it in more depth.

off now, talk to you all later

After Templar Church... out and about

Down the street....getting later now

hmmmmm...beer....

stopped to be tourists and take photos in the middle of the street...

The front of the courts..

Main entrance... soooo pretty

The view from down the road...

Knights templar

Chris outside his beloved Templar Church

This was the best stained glass that i have ever seen... it was awesome....

Walkabout Page one....

Here are the photos from our trip out today...

Her is Chris looking out over Blackfriars bridge..

This is the view over the Bridge...

guess where this is!!!!! Globe theatre.... yep....Shakespeare... we couldn't go in as Othello was playing and it was sold out. Only 5 pounds for a standing ticket...

Chris on a secret mission to visit the church of the knights templar...

Me in the courtyard of the Templar church...

I have one thing to say....

HARRODS food hall!!!

Well i thought you should all know, that today i spent about 100,000 pounds in Harrods. Well i would have if Chris hadn't been there to stop me.

Here is Chris after he had got me out of Harrods only spending 12 pounds and 25 pence.)

We wandered around the food halls first, and i have never seen such amazing foods and displays. All the fresh fish is a work of art, and don't get me started on the Chocolates.

We need to go back because we didn't get very far in. We were going to go back and get chocolate brownies but after drinking pure chocolate we were over chcolated.

I have never had such a nice hot chocolate. they melted the pure dark chocolate in with pieces of orange which are taken out after they have infused the chocolate. They use this pure chocolate and some vanilla cream to make me hot chocolate!!!! yummmy.....

We found some Fejoa fruits in the fuit section. They had been taken off display because there were only about 6 ones left. The nice lady gave them all to me pay for that one and i'll give them all to you.. very nice, but i guess they were nearly ready to be thrown.

(Here they are...) yummm

As for my mental spending, i found a perfume i wanted at 100 pounds a bottle. Not that i bought that one!!!

then i saw my perfect cutlery set!!!!! 9000 pounds!!!! but oh my god was it beeeeautiful!

it had stamped gold into the amazing handles. The alternative set was all gold with stamped silver. I prefered the silver though.

the rug, was 20,000 pounds, and looked it. About as large as our lounge and pure silk.

the antique furniture room was just "wow" i spent up large in there.

My green dress was only 890 pounds.

Then the piano. Top of the range grand piano at about 37,000 pounds. (on sale from 47,000)

so really all in all a profitable day!!

We came home and took wine, cheese and crackers up onto the terrace. Dan, James's friend brought an ipod and speakers, dinner, ice, and all sorts of other things.

PREVIOUS DAYS!

We went to see Naomi a few days ago... the day that Chris didn't go to bed till 10:00am the next morning... this is the street they live in....

Kate, one of the girls who lives there, did my hair at about 2:00am...

Ok, i had to put this picture in... We bought a camping set for the south of England (tent sleeping bags and mats for 39 pounds)

This is Chris trying out his new sleeping bag!!!!

Gone Visiting...

Yesterday was a pretty cool day in the end...

We went out about lunch time to Oxford street and had a look around. The shoe shops are fantastic... if you love cool shoes then London is the place to get them. So far, however, i havn't been that impressed by the clothes. So for the moment i can say i havn't bought ANYTHING.

We eventually made it to Convent Garden to a pub called "The Punch and Judy" at 2:00 to see Katie and Andy. it was a really good afternoon/evening/night and we finally went home about 10;00 that night. I was very much the worse for wear, but Chris was surprised that i had managed to keep up with the pints. They all had SIX pints. I manged 5, but considering my last record is one and a half pints, Chris said i did "really well". lol!!!

We had a great time and we are going to meet up sometime this week as well. Hopefully we will all meet up in Bath on the 19th.

Still booking flights/accomation blah blah blah,......

hmmmm... think i have been a bit tardy in posting over the past few days. we have been busy planning our trip and it has been taking a while.

It is currently 9:30am and we have just got home from dinner the night before. It was such a trek to get there and dinner was at 9:00 (still sunny) and the tubes stop about 11:00pm, so it wasn't worth trying to get home that night. Chris stayed up all night and is going to bed now.


THE PLAN:
6th august pick up hire car (can't buy a car as car was 400 pounds and insurance was 1300 pounds)
drive to leeds castle. stay in camping ground. visit stuff around there. Go to Dover, and over to Calais (france) for a day)
go to Brighton and hastings
Go to Portsmouth.
Go to the very south of England and see the Edgecumbe houses...
Drive to Bath on the 14th and stay there till 19th.
back to London for Chris's B;day.

now we have a week spare till we go to paris. Not sure what to do in this time. we may go to spain...

1st september, bus to paris.
6th 10th september in Copenhagen
10 15 Berlin
15- 20 Poland
20 - 25th Prague
25 whenever we can get a ticket home , in Brussels...

THEN...
up to Yorkshire and make back some of the money we spent!


over the past few days we have been sorting stuff out. The England stuff is all sorted and We have got to Paris, and from Copenhagen to Berlin, but the rest remains a mystery.

Apart from that, having a great time here with James, yesterday we went out as a late birthday lunch for me, Tapas, which was yummy and all three of us l bought massage pillows!! they are great. very small and good for travelling and planes, but the massage at the same time....

but anyway i had better go to bed or at least pretend to go to sleep as it is nearly 10am.

byeeee

tower of london video

tower of london

Saturday...

Well i finally got him out of bed and onto a tube so i can go and buy Harry Potter. I was at a slight disadvantage because i had no idea where to go. We got off at Tottenham Court Road ( yes oh so significant in the book...) and found (eventually) a TESCO's which was selling the book for 10 pounds. So feeling much happier we went off to the British Museum again.

Here i made the mistake of going into the book shop. You might all very very unhappy that you are not here, but nothing beats being in a bookshop with every book i , and any other person who loves history, could ever want, AND NOT BEING ABLE TO BUY THEM ALL!!!

Chris found book after book on armor and there were books on Anglo - Saxon clothing and a book on Condottieri (which Chris DID buy). the range was awesome. We spent about an hour drooling over the books.

Angela you would have had a field day with the books on archaeology!!!

possibly worse is seeing them and NOT being able to have them.

anyway this made me forget, only slightly, that there was a Harry Potter to be read. When we got home i hope to start then, but my plans were thwarted by another plan to find a pub for diner. which we did. Then when we got home i hoped to start then, but everyone was home. I gave in and said i had to read it at 9:00pm last night. I was still reading at 2:00 (spurred on by the endless number of Drinks that James and Chris provided me with. At 3:30 i finally crashed with 100 pages to go!!

Well i have just finished it an hour or two ago. Won't say anything however because i'm sure dad is still reading it.

I have footage that i am trying to get online of the tower of London and the museum but I'm having problems. Will try again today and hopefully upload some video onto this site or BEBO!

London History Museum

Yep another museum....
However it was free so at least it was an inexpensive day!

1. Early Britain - had lots of cool finds from thousands of years ago. Including a replica of the Battersea Shield.
2. Roman britain - scale models of London in Roman times. Shops and all sorts of things you can actually play with.
3. Medieval Britain. Full size medieval Hut... we could walk and sit in...very cool... chain maille, film on the black death...hats to try on...books... language learning stuff.. very cool...
4. London Burning - dedicated to the Great Fire of London that destroyed most of London. Ver interesting as we saw the monument for the fire the other day. I had no idea how much of it was burnt, and how close it came to the Tower of London.

very good museum. Interactive.

after that we took a wander to the Old Bailey. It is the Central Criminal Court now so we couldn't go in. I did however ask a guard how to get a hold of the records and they are in Kew, Surrey. He asked me "why was i wanting them" and i told him and he said he vaguely remembered the court case.

must go down and have a look.

We accidently wandered past St Pauls Cathedral but it was too late to go in.

Back on the tube and cooked dinner.

After Westminster...

After we spent quite a bit of our day in awe at Westminster, we decided (ok I decided) that what i wanted and wanted now was to go shopping!!! So we headed off towards Piccadilly taking a short cut through St James's Park. (See photos above. It was a beautiful day and standing on the bridge you could see the palace.

From the other side you can see the city in the background!

When we got to Piccadilly, eventually, we had a bit of a wander around and went into a department store. I nearly walked right back out again when i looked at a plain, blue, silk scarf, only to see a price tag of 390 pounds!!!! yep went right out the door again.

It was at this point i checked the map to find i was just down the road from Berkeley Square. Now this won't mean much to many people, but mum, and ange will know that Berkeley Square was a T.V show that we watched about nannies in the 1900's! (great series by the way) And here it is...

Unfortunately NOT like the show... there were cars and i couldn't find the house (if it was there at all) but it is a rich area and beautiful buildings. The buildings on the left were in the corner of the square.

We then walked up to Oxford street and had a beer at an expensive little pub called the hog in the pound. After wandering around the shops up there it was about 6:00 at night. I bought some perfume and a cheap watch (i hate not knowing the time) and jumped back on the tube to Victoria for dinner.

(Chris outside the Hog in the Pound)

Has anyone had Tapas before??? i hadn't.. We found a nice little spanish Tapas restaurant and ordered some yummy/expensive food. We had Paella, eggplant cheese and something, spicy potatoes, a lamb stew, bread and olives and a plate of deep fried seafood.

very yummy.

and here i am the following morning... telling you all about the fantastic things we have done.. Sorry about that... but we are here and you are NOT...he..he..he...

Had better get the lazy boy out of bed as it is 10:00am... and decide what wonderful things to do today.

byeeeeee

Westminster Abbey

Ok Westminster Abbey...
well it was very well worth the 10 pounds to get in, but unfortunately you can't take photos in the place so you can't have any. You can see one of the towers in the back ground of this picture, taken in the gardens out the back.

I have never seen so many beautiful old little chapels anywhere. It is truly an awesome place. We bought some little walkie talkie phones that guide you round the Abbey and explain what everything is. Everyone of any importance was there, from Edward the Confessor to Shakespere and Charles Darwin. Yes, the person who disproved the Bible's story about the creation of man. Apparantly he recanted his life's work on his death bed and said it was lies. That is why he is buried there. However it is a very plain slab of stone. Just a name carved with o decoration at all.

Even Chaucer was there (For those that don't know Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, one of the stories is called "A Knights Tale".... Yes think Heath Ledger.






We manged to sneak a couple of photos in the Abbey, this is really the only one that turned out ok. It was so amazing to be able to walk around. We could actually touch things to. Normally things are all roped off and you don't see things. appart from not getting a look at the confessor's monument, we were able to do so much and walk all over the Abbey. The stones are so worn down in places after 600 year of kings, queens and normal tourists walking all over them. Funny to think that all the people you read about in the History books have actually walked in the same spot as you.

I must stop, i'm getting far to mushy over that thought... we progress..








The back of the Abbey is a garden and other building where the monks slept. They are just beautiful!! As you can see from the photos on the left. You can just see a bit of the Abbey in the 2nd picture at the very top.

bow quarter

EDIT I have added some links to the history of Bow Quarter....

Just for those people as strange as me who love looking at houses, i though i would post up the pictures that we took from the street looking into Bow quarter. Here they are...

Post following on Westminster Abbey...

For more information look at the following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryant_and_May_Factory%2C_Bow

British Museum

We are off to the city again today. hopefully going to see someone about getting work somewhere for four weeks. We Haven't broken into our bank cards at all yet, but i'm sure the day will come when our coins run out. We are trying to avoid spending savings until we have to book transport to Europe.

In less mundane news, we are also planing a visit to the British Museum today if we can manage it. Normally takes about a day and a half if you are an avid history buff so we may need to go back!!!!

Am hoping that in 12 hours i will have some sort of a job!!! here is hoping!

Saurday

today was a good day! didn't start out exciting but we did a few rather cool things. will update more info in a hour or so when the photos are in :-)

Updated information:

Well the day started ashamed to say at about 2:oopm when james declared he needed a haircut. we all decided to make a trip into the city. while james was having we went off wondering. Went past new Scotland yard...

Then we walked past these most gorgeous houses at the gates of Hyde park... so fantastic and wish they were all mine!!!!!!!!

Stopped at the gates of dear Queenie's house....

(wish we were invited to tea)

Her guards would have stopped us i think...

Met Back up with James and headed over the bridge to Southbank ( Yes another Southbank for you Brisbanites).. London bridge in the back ground .
A Random Church we stopped at on the way to get Lunch... at 5:30 pm...

After dinner at about 6:45 we headed back over the Tower Bridge (in Full sunshire) to get ready for the party)

After spending some time at home we eventually went out at about 10:30 to a very cool (expensive) little club somewhere in London. (I have no idea where) Where we stayed, till about 4:30 am. arriving home some 20 mins later to home at the old match factory! (which i hear was also a mental institution at one point...)

at this point, being nearly 5:00am... the boys decided NOT to go to bed as the sun was rising. so they stayed up. Honestly.

so as you can imagine i'm rather tired this morning and NOT looking forward to finding a job somewhere tomorrow morning.

must be done..

Beer!!

On arriving home last night James proclaimed that it was time for beer. We had already had a pint with lunch so i was only planning on having one. Apparantly "it comes in pints" (to quote Lord of the Rings.) and only pints. I got bought two pints before i knew i had two pints.

On drinking these, i said next time only half a pint! i think i actually offended people..lol this was also just some pre dinner drinks at the local, not a night out..

any way Just come back from the "Tower of London" totally the most AWSOME place ever. Details and pictures following later...

LONDON!!!!

Welcome to the gate house... for more detail read on...

please note due to the probable amount of crap in the post,
please use the in-text headings to help guide your stay...

LEAVING AUSTRALIA

ok, well we got to the airport and everything was cool and no dramas till our place decided to come in late from sydney. this resulted in a short delay of your midnight flight to about 1;00am. Not as bad as it could have been as this shortened our long stopover (6 hours) at KL airport.

plane flight was really excelent. Night flight, spare seat next to us, good food and the best landing i have ever been in a plane for. Now dad says "any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing" but this one i didn't even feel the plane hit the runway. i was waiting for it as well.


WAIT IN KL

boring as all hell...

found a computer with short internet access to email home then spent the rest of the time walking around an extreamly boring airport.

LONDON FLIGHT

all 12 hours of it.
was good, once again we scored a free seat next to us which was great. i had the window this time to. i got to see the pretty landscape around KL the Bay of Begal, India, Pakistan, turkmenisan, Caspian sea (mostly under cloud) Poland (cloud) amsterdam (i was in the toilets as we flew over... P.S changing into jeans in the toilets is a skill!!!!) then over the channel (cloudy) and into london. We had to circle a bit waiting for a spot so i saw quite a lot of London from the air which was cool.

Got through immigration, thank god, luggage back fine and james came and met us at the airport.

we took four train to his place and it tool 30 mins total!! we didn't wait longer than 2 mins for a train at ANY station. It was also about 9 at night so that was pretty excellent. (p.s it was still sunny)

LONDON

The first thing is saw of london was getting out of the tube and seeing the Mile end marker. Pretty buildings. after a short walk we arrived at James's place. This is a pretty cool place to live. It is a whole heap of large flat building contained in a gated community with an officious looking guard on the gate.

the gate

The front buildings in the complex!!!! so many pretty gardens around them...

There are about 750 apartements in here, a bar, store, gym, pool and a red telephone tardis :-)

Ok so we live in this part of the complex, but it is still pretty dammn nice for London!!

drool away...

James and his flatmate are really nice and we had a great evening despite the fact that we had to go to bed (after 27 YES 27 hours on trasit we were buggered.) We ordered Chinese food drank some beers and went to the land of nod.

THURSDAY?? MORNING

We decided that we should venture out and go and have a look around. We went off on the tube. did NOT get lost on the tube and went to Westminster. I have never seen so many coppers running around with guns ever!!!

want to hear an oxymoron.

English copper, with gun, standing outside parliament, walking up and down whistling happily to himself, talking to pedestrians, with his gun ready in hands. Smiling away.

Had a walk around the westminster area, and had lunch outside Buckingham palace. Drank some Southern english beer. Not as bad as Chris said.

came home so the little darling can have a nap as i do this.

I will post some more photos when James and Craig come home and i can ask how much internet they have for me to upload photos.