Saturday Staying Local

Today was the first of the projected cooler days, so we allocated it to household activities like running the washing, visiting the supermarket and a trip into Lloyd's office to see if the network connection was now working so that he can print some documents for Monday afternoon's seminar.

The washing and supermarket trip were successful, although the washing machine and dryer both take much longer to complete a cycle than the ones at Dai Court. Nevertheless, all washing and ironing are now complete in readiness for Judi's departure to Birkenhead on Wednesday.

The trip to the office was not quite as successful. The cable connection still did not work, but we were able to get Lloyd's laptop onto the University of St Andrews secure network. We think that Judi may not have provided the correct Mac address, sowe emailed an alternative in the hope that it can be set up before Judi leaves. Unfortunately, printing over the network depends on being connected on a cable, so Lloyd had to put a USB key into the computer attached to the printer in order to print the documents.


North Point Café

The remainder of the day we spent just wandering around St Andrews and visiting the local shops - of which there are plenty. Very near the house is North Point Café
which has an interesting sign in the window which reads:, 'Where Kate met Wills (for coffee)'.

Pipers Welcoming Guests

One very attractive aspect of Scottish Towns and cities (including St Andrews) is the prevalence of bagpipers. They are not performing as such, but being used to welcome people into hotels and buildings, or in the case of a wedding at the University Chapel yesterday, heralding the arrival of the bride. While we were having afternoon tea yesterday, the pipers in the photo started up across the street to mark the start of some function in the building. It is a strikingly appropriate sound for these contexts.

Visit to Perth

Perth Bridge

We are making the most of this patch of lovely sunny spring weather to visit some of the local towns. In the case of Perth, it is in fact no longer a town, but was conferred with 'city status' for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on March 14, 2012.

It is a very pretty place (about an hour's drive from St Andrews) accessed by the Perth Bridge over the River Tay.

Perth City Hall

We parked the car as soon as possible after arrival in a typical UK multistorey carpark. The entry and exit ramps for the carpark are only just wide enough for a car and go around hairin bends. The parking lots are also about wide and long enough to house a 'Smart Car'. I needed to let Lloyd out before parking, and once into the spot, I had to take a deep breath to be able to squeeze my way out of the car!

As soon as we had abandoned the car we walked aoround the town and back to the river. Perth has a very attractive City Hall, but we learnt from a program about Perth shown in Melbourne recently, that there are plans to demolish this building to create a 'city square', since there is currently no such designated area.

Judi & Perth Bridge

We are particularly enjoying the fact that these towns and cities in Scotland have many independant shops and not just the chain stores that are so prevalent in the south of England. We found a lovely old-fashioned department store called McEwans that seemed to also have maintained old-fashioned service to match the goods sold. That said though, we have been delighted with the general friendliness and good service we have experienced here since arriving.

St Andrews by the Sea

Looking up North Street

The weather has been so glorious over the past few days that we decided to investigate the local area on foot. The first photo shows a view of the street we live in (North Street) if you look left when leaving the house. In the bottom left hand corner of the picture is our car (a Ford Focus).

Cathedral Ruins at end of North Street

Cathedral Ruins

Turning the other way, you can see the ruins of the old cathedral, which is right on the clifftop by the sea.

St Andrews Pier

St Andrews is perched up on a rocky promontory between two sandy beaches. An easy walk from the house leads down to the pier.

Castle Ruins

Castle Ruins

Sea View from Castle Ruins

 

On the other side of the promontory from the pier are the castle ruins. The views out to sea from both the castle and the pier are magnificent.

Settling into St Andrews University

Lloyd gave his first seminar on Monday morning at 11.00am. He had been a little concerned that jet-lag might impact on his ability to deliver the material, after hearing similar accounts of problems of this sort from colleagues back in Melbourne. However, in the event, everything went fine.

Between this class and a seminar Lloyd was attending at 4.30pm, we were introduced to the administrative assistant for Arché, who showed him to his room in the Arché building. Accessing this building necessitates a series of button-pushes, and is a little difficult to execute accurately on the first attempt. Lloyd was provided with a temporary network password on Monday, but yesterday, he received his University of St Andrews staff card, email address, library access and permanent network access. The network access allows Lloyd to print from his room to an extremely fast laser printer.

We both have spent quite a bit of time at HR as well. Before leaving Melbourne we received documents about salary payments that seemed to not match the contract. Eventually yesterday the cause of the discrepancy was resolved and (with a bit of luck) Lloyd should get paid next week before I leave to head south.

One of the hardest things seems to have been to get a milkman to deliver milk as I had arranged before leaving Australia. The problem is definitely exacerbated by the house being accessed via a narrow alley. There is a gate at the end of the alley with the name of the house 'Cobwebs' written on it.

Milk was due to come for the first time on Monday morning. I looked in the alley and outside on the pavement at the other end of the alley, but there was no sign of it. I rang the dairy and the person with whom I had been in email contact answered. She was very apologetic and offered to deliver it on Tuesday - even though the delivery days are Monday and Thursday. I explained about the alley to her. Tuesday morning, I started the milk search again. I eventually tracked our two pints up on the top of a set of steps next door. I rang the dairy to let them know that the milk had gone to the wrong place and that the milkman needed to put it inside our gate. We even went out and bought a small metal milk carrier and put it, with the empty milk bottle from Tuesday's delivery, on the bottom one of the steps leading up to our front door. Today is Thursday and there was no milk again!! My telephone conversation this morning made it quite clear that if the milk is not here and in the correct place on Monday morning, I will be cancelling the order. We'll see what happens.

Arrived in St Andrews

Gate into Garden & Cobwebs

Back of Cobwebs from Garden

The house we have rented here in St Andrews is very typical. It is part of a terrace of 3 storey stone houses in one of the main streets (although not a shopping street).

We have the top two floors with a separate entrance and private walled garden. The living areas - lounge, dining area and kitchen - are upstairs on the top floor. Two bedrooms, a study (with shower and toilet) and the main bathroom are on the lower of the floors.

View of Garden from Patio

Lloyd on Patio

We woke today to a cool clear morning with the sun breaking through. By mid-morning it was a glorious spring day and Lloyd and I went for a walk around St Andrews. The sun was quite hot on our backs despite it only being late March. In fact it was so warm and sunny that we had lunch outside on the patio by our front door.

Judi on Patio

This afternoon Lloyd and I drove to Dundee over the Tay Bridge. This bridge is much longer than we imagined, and the centre of Dundee is more or less immediately at the end of the bridge. On the way we passed the nearest train station to St Andrews, called Leuchars. The mainline trains pass though this rather small village in the middle of nowhere and I will be catching the train to Manchester from Leuchars next week.

Dundee itself is quite large with two shopping precincts. We parked in one and after looking around it, we walked to the other, rather larger centre in the main street.

Tomorrow Lloyd gives his first seminar at 11.00am. He is hoping that he will not be too jet-lagged.

Last Day in England

Thursday was a bit overcast in the early part of the day. I had a lot of email to sort out in the morning so it was about 11.30am before I was ready to set off for Maldon via Little Baddow.

I went past Wayside Cottage. They have pretty much finished all the alterations by the looks of it and there is just some external painting needed where they have blocked in the porch area near the front door. There were no cars in the driveway, so I think the owners were out. Next time I'm in England I think that I would like to visit the finished product.

I then drove down and looked at and photographed Little Baddow Church where Lloyd and I were married. It was open as there were some women arranging flowers (possible for a wedding on Saturday), so I took some pictures inside too. From there, I went down to Paper Mill Lock which is where we used to launch our canoes and then went to Maldon. I did my usual walk up the High Street and then along the front. When I was leaving Maldon, I decided that I might try to find Mill Beach where my childhood next-door neighbours had a beach hut. I did finally find it and the sun was now fully shining, so I had a lovely walk along the front before returning back to Joy and Roger's.

I will put up pictures of the day rather than trying to describe it further. The pictures in order are: Little Baddow Church from a distance, Little Baddow Church outside and inside, two views of Paper Mill Lock, Maldon High Street, Maldon front, Mill Beach, the Harrod's Beach hut, Joy with me and Joy and Roger.

Heswall to Chelmsford

I checked out of the hotel at 10.00am and went to Uncle Jack's. We went to a coffee place we have been to before in Birkenhead and after he had driven us both back to his place, I set off for Chester.

Before going to Chelmsford, I needed to make a brief stop in Chester to buy some tobacco for Lloyd as the shop had been shut on Sunday. I easily found the car park again. However, I was a little disappointed to find that the minimum stay I could pay for was 2 hours and the cost £4.00, but I wasn't about to try anything clever, and just stuck the ticket to the window. I was successful with buying the tobacco and then started my trip to Essex.

I had been a little concerned about how I was going to get from Chester to the M56 as I had passed the exit to it by going into Chester itself. I know that one can get into quite a pickle with Motorways in England by not joining them correctly and I didn’t want to find myself heading to Aberdeen. As I was leaving Chester, I saw a sign which had much too much writing to absorb in the time, but at the bottom it said 'for the M6 Birmingham, follow the A41 to Whitchurch'. I thought that this was probably my best bet and off I set. In fact it would have been useful if we had been warned that there would be an hour and a half's driving on single track windy roads through country villages behind trucks with 'Birmingham' appearing and disappearing off the signs before joining the M6.

Once near Whitchurch there was the inevitable Ring Road and no sign of Birmingham to be seen. I had to guess from the towns on offer and eventually stopped at a garage to ask. I was still on the right road and now apparently needed to follow signs to Wolverhampton. I did eventually get onto the M6 as I said, but it would probably have been quicker to return from Chester to Birkenhead and start again!

Soon after the M6 Toll (the entry to which I had also overshot and had to follow the rather disconcerting signs to M6 North to join), I stopped for lunch. I had been on the road for a long time and was pretty stressed by now. However, the rest of the trip was uneventful and the M25 was pretty clear, so I actually arrived here only 15 minutes after my estimated time of arrival. Probably, it was one of those cases that the Motorway route is much further, but faster.

In the evening, Joy and Roger had a rehearsal of their orchestra which David now conducts. Joy had managed to borrow a clarinet for me and I joined them for the night. It was a very good clarinet and I enjoyed the experience. The only problem was that they are near to a concert and therefore are well practiced at the music. I was, of course, sight-reading and was only really able to play about 70% but no one seemed to mind. Needless to say that there was the inevitable comment about people travelling all the way from Australia to attend the rehearsal, but it was exciting to eventually see Caprice after hearing about it over many years. It is a voluntary organisation that performs and donates many thousands of pounds to various charities.

Some of the players went back to Joy and Roger’s house afterwards for drinks, one of whom lives in Chestnut Walk, Little Baddow (about 100 yards from where I was born and lived for all my life before I was married).