To Kingdom Come - Let's go riding on wild horses yeah yeah

Friday 10 June to Friday 1 July

PART TWO

Day one on the farm

Or perhaps let's not go riding on wild horses and instead let's leap over electric fences to escape the bolting, steely eyed, flat eared creatures who apparently do not wish to participate in the human/horse bonding session.

This post commences on Monday 20 June, where we leave Liverpool behind and board a train to Helsby for our first WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) experience. 

For the very reasonable price of ₤30 I've signed both of us up to gain access to the contact list of farms offering the WWOOFing experience.  We then contact the farm to see if they have work available, which we will exchange for food and board.

I managed to find a sweet sounding a berry farm-come-B&B with horses and dogs that could take us for a week's worth of work, outside of Helsby in Chester, along the Sandstone Trail (a walking track which runs throughout the region).  The farm is two short train rides and a 6km drive away and we agree to meet one of the ladies at the station on the Monday after we visit Liverpool.

We arrive at about lunch time and are greeted by three dogs, a sister of the lady who collected us and another WWOOFER, Niels who is Dutch and has riden his bike all the way from home.  It's a gorgeously sunny English summer's day and we're shown to a quaint little caravan, decorated with fresh flowers and over looking the raspberry patch, where we will stay during our visit.  Once we're settled we met Niels in the garden for lunch in the sun.

The two sisters, who were probably in their 60s and called each other "Watson" (across the paddocks and through the house), were obviously pleased to have two strapping lads about and showed their appreciation for this by sending them both off into the horse paddock to clear a hectare or two of of thistles by hand.  My job for the afternoon was a little more relaxed and I was sent to the orchard to pick raspberries and black currants in the sun.  This was a tame beginning to a week that promised to be far more hectic, as the sisters were planning to host a mid summer market at their property on the coming Friday afternoon with a variety of food stalls, a band and a fortune teller due to set up camp on this pretty run down property.

That was when we were told that we were expected to re-locate from the caravan to a tent for at least the Friday night.

So knock off time arrived and we took turns washing away the day in the showers located inside the stables (the bathroom inside was not for WWOOFers) and got ready for dinner.  And waited and waited a bit longer.  To pass some time I headed to the kitchen to see if I could be of any assistance, but instead of finding any makings of a dinner I found a load of dirty dishes, a pair of washing up gloves and a suspiciously small pile of cooked vegetables that I assumed were for the compost.

Thankfully I didn't make any moves to shift the vegies to the compost as I did the dishes as I then learnt that they were promised to our pizzas.  Pizzas?  I don't see any pizzas!  We were called to the table after the clock ticked over to after 8pm and my stomach was rumbling like mad, I was ready to devour a family sized, deep crust, extra cheesy supreme in one mouth full!  Come on girls, serve me up!

With a look like Oliver Twist on my face I held my plate up to be served and withdrew my newly filled plate to discover it was not so filled...  We had each been allocated a single slice.  Even Big Niels!!

So I took my time on my dinner, trying to make it stretch not only the eight hours from lunch to dinner that had already passed, but also from dinner until breakfast the following morning.  To my relief, when each of us had consumed every crumb on the plate and had started eyeing off the dogs as potential food sources we were each invited up seconds and a second slice.

After taking the dogs out for an evening walk we were then invited back into the house and beyond the walls of the kitchen, into the sitting room to watch a detective show with the girls on telly.  Things were going well with us all until one of the characters on the show stabbed another character in the eye with a pen, Niels let out a great big yelp of an F word and I spilt my tea on myself in shock.

We weren't invited inside to watch tv again after that.

That night Jono and I nestled into our super dooper sleeping bags inside the caravan and repeated our mantra of 'home is where you make it' (or in the Waterboy 'I like to see homeboys naked') as we drifted off to sleep.

To Kingdom Come

Friday 10 June to Friday 1 July

PART ONE

With our departure from New York came the end of our original planned trip and sometime in the days before we boarded the British Airways flight home we had reached the decision that we'd return to Sydney early.  Conveniently, Dan and Jen (who were taking care of the rent in the Manly apartment) had wussed out on the daily commute to the city (being 'a thousand miles from care' is the hint on that one); and Jono's company were ready to welcome Jono home with open arms.

As such, we decked out our remaining days in the northern hemisphere with as many visits to family and friends as possible.

This being the case, it was an obvious choice to head to the local Thai takeout, Thai Rice Thai Rice,  for dinner as soon as we got off the tube.

Saturday and Sunday (11 & 12th)


We had two days of lazing about in Maida Vale, with a garden party in Notting Hill, as intermission.

Recovery from said garden party, included a return to Thai Rice and a midnight Jennifer Anniston movie in Roz's bed... not sure many of us made it past the opening credits before dozing off.

garden party dance floor antics.... I think this one was a Michael Jackson number.

Monday through Friday (13th to 17th)


Every wary that we were taking over the girls' lounge room with every visit and with the decision having been made to head back to Oz, we spent the week planning our final month and making some house visits.

Monday we stopped by Russel Square for a coffee with a Can Too running buddy, Tori and caught up on each other's travel goss (she's still there, just did Portugal, off to Turkey later this week, living the life!).  We finished off the day with a walk around the city, fitting a bit of culture in on the way.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we headed off to Cheltenham on the megabus (approx ₤4 for the both of us) for another visit to cousin Jess's.  It was rainier this weekend, but we love staying with Jess!  The tapas lunch on our last day also went down a treat!

Getting caught in a summer rain shower

Friday, we finalised some trip plans.  We'd organised eight days of WWOOFING at a berry farm near Chester for the following week; were headed to Liverpool the next day; and needed to buy our flights back to Oz.  AKA Trip Admin day.

Saturday and Sunday (18th and 19th)

We made a quick getaway from Maida Vale to the train station to catch the train north to Liverpool for a couple of nights.  Except for Cheltenham, we'd really not been outside of London on any of our trips and had only the typical preconceptions for the city.

Hooray for the fast train and free wifi, but boo for having backward facing seats and two hours of motion sickness.

As the train pulled in to Liverpool through the suburbs we got our first idea of the city, but it was nothing like what we had expected once we rolled into town.  Sharp edged glass buildings juxtaposed against ancient buildings, statues and 70s architecture.

Jono had booked us in to the Days Inn, which we'd assumed would be something like a Formula 1.  Our great mistake!  After an upgrade after a mixup over the booking, we'd scored a huge room with lovely white sheets, a tv and modern bathroom!  We had no problem settling into this new found luxury, especially given the accommodation we were in for later in the week.

Our first few hours in Liverpool were spent wandering around the juxtaposed architecture and checking out all the statues we could find.  Before locating a John Lennon statue on Mathew St we stumbled across a free natural history museum and spent a couple of hours wandering the exhibitions.

Something to make you feel old!

Later on, back at the hotel, there was a miscommunication between Jono and I over our use of the ice machine on our floor.  I'd assumed I was on a mission to collect a cup of ice for Jono's strained ankle, until I returned and the duty free bottle of gin we'd procured in the States had made its way out of the bottom of a bag.

So that was the end of that day.

The following day, in a style perfected at our uni days at Bruce, we made a dash downstairs for the hot breakfast just before the kitchen closed and then skulked back upstairs for a little lie down.  Later on, behind dark sunglasses, we emerged with enough energy to explore the water front.  More statues, more Beatles museums and one hellishly bad coffee and scaldingly hot coffee (yes, Rolo and Ella - possibly worse than the Kamloops attempt, but we didn't have the energy to order another).

To Jono's delight, there was an international cheerleading competition taking place on the waterfront.  To my amusement, it was co-ed.

Ok, enough sunshine, enough wind, enough people, enough movement.  It's time to find some yum cha to fortify our stomachs.

Easier said than done.

China Town, a good 40 minutes walk away, turned out to be China Ghost Town.  So excited were we that we had finally heard voices and seen movement behind what we thought was a restaurant door that we nearly walked in on a private family lunch.

Eventually, at the end of the street we found a place serving up hot chow and we hadn't missed the yum cha service.  Weak at the knees we quietly ordered our cokes and settled in and waited for the trolley.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

This clearly wasn't Marigolds.

But the food arrived, and with a new found energy we went off to make some last minute Liverpool discoveries...

Regret.. more adventures required to burn this off...

An Empire State of Mind

New York - Sunday 5 June to Friday 10 June. 

Writing from the always dependable Troubadour.


Arrived: By bus from Montreal, it was a 10 hour journey but there was wifi, power points and a list of rules as long as your arm on appropriate behaviour on board.  This was followed by our first New York cab ride - quick, cheap and with google maps and the news on tv in the back to show you where you are and what's going on.

Stayed: West Side YMCA - recommended only for the desperate.  If we were cashed up enough to pay for real accommodation during a New York summer we would have stayed at The Jane or The Pod.  But we were in a great location, with Central Park at the end of the street, shops and cafes at the other end of the street, free access to the gym and pool, and right near some good Metro stops.

I met a guy in the subway who was doing a cracking trade - this particular station didn't have a ticket booth or office and I ran down the stairs ready to jump on the next train only to discover I'd run out of credit on my ticket.  This guy swooped in with his topped up ticket to let me through the gates and I paid him my fare plus a premium.  Good business for when you're in a hurry.

Ate: 
Matt's Grill  - for meatloaf and martinis.
Death & Co - for Crispy Pork Belly, Goat Cheese Profiteroles and a whole lot of cocktails.
Katz's - for and 'I'll have what she's having' pastrami sandwich with a side of pickles.  It's not just a sandwich bar, it's an institution.  Don't miss the opportunity to send a salami to a boy in the army!

Saw: Central Park, the Guggenheim, Little Italy, China Town, Soho, Tribeca, Broadway, the Financial District Bull, the Statue of Liberty, a giant blow up koala in an outside bar, Starbucks on every corner (which is a good thing when you need free wifi and public toilets) the outside of The Late Show, Brooklyn for a pit stop after we missed our actual stop, the Meat Packing District, a very popular kebab stand and lots of very unpopular kebab stands, 1970s Playboy magazines at an outdoor book stall,  bananas for 5 for $1, a turtle in Central Park and the Hangover II when I could no longer beat the hot weather with a frappucino.

Departed: In a Yellow Cab to JFK for the flat rate of $45 and onwards to Heathrow.

More photos to come, these are just the ones taken on my phone.

No Moleste indeed!

I saw this and thought of Gags.

The Statue of Liberty is in this picture.

Good iced coffee and intriguing use of champagne corks for miniature furniture. 

This building has a horses head on it.

Thank you Matt's Grill, we had some great times

And thank you barman John for making us feel so welcome!  This is a place where you can sit at the bar with a friend to enjoy dinner and a drink, sit by yourself to read the paper, or catch up on the local sporting teams' successes and failures.

Death & Co pork belly...
i think.

While I manned the table Jono got a snack platter of pastrami as he waited for our jumbo sandwiches to arrive.

I'm pretty sure I did.  It was amazing!

Before

After

Riding the subway.

Riding the Staten Island Ferry.

Our last night in NYC.

And then the heavens opened.

So we hid from the weather in a French bistro and simultaneously stepped back in time to the 1960s (I don't think they'd updated the decor since then).

Columbus Circle