Monday, April 29, 2013

Katy in London

Inspired by the book 'Katie in London' by James Mayhew, given to our Katy from UK friends a few years ago, we decided to do our own day trip to London. For the many of you that aren't as familiar as we are with this book it's about Katie, her brother and Grandmother who visit London. While in Trafalgar Square the Grandmother nods off sitting on a park bench watching the children climb on the lion. The lion suddenly comes alive and takes the children on a tour of the sites of London - St Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, cruises up the river on a boat to the London Eye, past Number 10, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Harrods to name a few.....

Leaving our flat at 8am, we caught our first double decker bus into town, walked the kilometre to the train station and were on the 9.30am train bound for London.


Our train pulled into Paddington Station at 10.30am and our first port of call was to visit the Paddington Bear Statue. We did a lap before spotting the little bronze statue hidden amongst the tourists. We had planned a loop that could be shortened or lengthened depending on everyones mood and the weather during the day. First was to catch the underground to Tower Hill which proved to be a challenge with track works on the two lines we'd planned to use. Another lap of Paddington Station before we found ourselves on our way. After a change of lines we did reach the Tower of London.




 The Tower of London is a very popular tourist spot so we spent a bit of time in queues...to get tickets, to get into the gate, to look at the crown jewels and look through the exhibits at White Tower. Like many tourist attractions, the girls get pretty restless and won't let you read all about the history. I'm sure you could spent a whole day there learning about English history, however after a few hours we were more than ready to catch a boat to our next destination - London Eye.


Turned out to be perfect timing as we walked straight on to a boat about to depart. While we cruised down the Thames River for 30mins, we were given a great commentary on the various important buildings and sites all while eating our lunch and resting our weary legs!







Standing at 135 meters tall and with a diameter of 120 metres, the London Eye was the largest ferris wheel when erected in 2000 but has since been surpassed by the Singapore Flyer. The ferris wheel has 32 ovoid capsules, representing each London Borough and each are able to hold 25 people. Carrying over 10,000 tourists per day it's a pretty busy place.  Even though we pre-purchased our tickets online, we still had to wait in a rather large queue for our ride.Thanks to Nana and Grandad who actually bought us the tickets for our birthdays.

The ride itself takes approximately 30 minutes to complete one revolution, with 360 views over London.  We could identified many iconic places. Of course both girls were happily snapping away during the ride. It seems Katy was taken with all the metal framework while Ella was focussed on the happenings below especially the river craft!! A selection of their photos are below - Katy's on the left, Ella's on the right.

 



We disembarked from the Eye to discover a playground in Jubilee Park! We had a 15min break here before commencing the next section of our journey, walking across Hungerford Bridge to Trafalgar Square. The clouds gathered and raindrops appeared as we approached the square, so it was decided to have a coffee in the ideally located Waterstone's Bookshop to wait out the shower.

Trafalgar Square was built to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, with Nelson's Column honouring Admiral Horatio Nelson who died. At the base of the Column sat the lion - not one but four! Our intentions were to have a photo with the girls on the lion's back, however we soon realised this would no be possible. Each lion is approximately 6 m long and 6.7m high and place on top of 2+m high granite blocks. Hence we compromised with sitting in the lions lap.

As it was only 3pm by this stage and the girls were holding it together, we walked down the Mall toward St James's Park. Once inside the safe confines of the park, the girls burnt off some of their energy trying out the deck chairs and photographing flowers and brides(?) As they were wrapped up enjoying themselves, it meant there were no complaints about walking the kilometre or so down to Buckingham Palace. For me going along the Mall brought back 10 year old memories of finishing the London Marathon!

 
Buckingham Palace was looking splendid as ever with flower beds bursting with colour. We spotted the two Queens guards which according to the white and green plume on their bearskin hat are from Welsh Guard Regiment. Now we had well and truly missed the changing of the guards ceremony which occurs at 11.30am most days, but were lucky enough to see the guards complete a few robot walk laps to get their blood flowing again. Apparently the Queen it seems was not in residence because when she is there are four guards on duty.

From Buckingham Palace we made our way across Green Park to the underground. Picked up some sushi for dinner at Paddington Station before embarking on the journey home. We were impressed that the girls handle the 11 hour day without any major meltdowns. In fact they were still happy and skipping from the bus stop to home!


Guess Who is Six?

Ella celebrated her 6th birthday today.  She opened her presents before heading off to school. Her loot included Emma Lego (from Katy) a rocket (from Pippa), The Magic Faraway Tree and a camera (from us).



The camera has proven to be a good choice. Ella is always asking to borrow our camera to take a photo  and now especially visiting many touristy spots while in the UK she'll get to take her own! Below are her first photos - Katy's soft toy Kitten (yes I know it is an elephant!) and Katy.


Ella was excited by the prospect of her class going to Forrest School for half the day. Apparently the class goes by bus to some local woods where the children can explore, build and learn by interacting with the natural environment. Unfortunately there was some complication with the bus driver so they ended up walking across the bridge to Cutteslowe Park and playing on the large playground for most of the afternoon.

Ella did bring home the class soft toy, Bobby Bear for the weekend. So the afternoon was spent playing with her various presents followed by pizza and fairy birthday cake!!



Saturday, April 27, 2013

Cutteslowe Primary School

One of our tasks as we settle into Oxford has been to get the girls into some sort of educational institution. We've been trying to organise this for about 4 months now. Most schools in Oxford are full, but our local school (about 1.3 km walk from our flat) consistently said they would have room. And, it turns out that they have room not just for Ella, but also for Katy.

We visited the school on Tuesday afternoon to scope it out. The deal is that Ella has gone into year 1 -- their second year of full-time school, which may stretch her a little -- and goes from 8:50 am to 3:00 pm each day. Katy goes to a nursery in the same school, but only from 12:15 pm to 3:15 pm. Since it takes half an hour to walk each direction that leaves little time for Nat to lounge about at home by herself, but it's better than nothing. "When would you like them to start?" asks the Deputy Headteacher ... "Errr, well, how about tomorrow?" Done.

So, Wednesday morning arrives and we all march off. Ella is dressed in her school uniform. Ironically, the uniform is identical to that of Aranda Primary School, which we left at home, so we're patching her together with what we can find. (Other parallels with Aranda -- the headteacher is Mr Gray, and there is a Miss Jones co-teaching Ella's class; but of course she's not cut from the same cloth as our own Miss Jones.) Katy doesn't need a uniform, to her great disappointment. But getting to go to the same school as Ella probably makes up for it.


The school itself is sort of interesting. It's called Cutteslowe Primary. Cutteslowe itself was an estate built before the war -- i.e., built to house the working class, and apparently a pretty rough neighbourhood. When they started building posh houses nearby, they built a wall across the suburb to keep the rich people safe from the thugs that lived on the estate. Like that would make a difference?

The wall is now gone, and I gather that Cutteslowe Primary pulls students from both sides of the old wall. The school itself looks like a cross between a factory and a jail!! It has a large chimney stack on top of it (see photo) and is surrounded by 8 foot padlocked fences. Apparently this is normal, but I haven't ascertained whether the fence is designed to keep the kids in or to keep the riff-raff out. So far, both girls are happy. They seem to be making friends and like their teachers; Ella is looking forward to "forest school" where they go each Friday (except for today, unfortunately).




Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Blenheim Palace

Ella was desperate to see a castle or palace and we are lucky to have both within reach however after investigating we decided to visit Blenheim Palace on Sunday.

Blenheim Palace was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill following his famous victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. It is also the birth place of Sir Winston Churchill in 1874. The Palace and it's formal garden and parks were created a world heritage site in 1987.


From our perspective this Palace was simply amazing. To think that in the era it was built, the division between the rich and the poor must have been staggering! We walked through the Churchill Exhibition which meandered through the building. There was the Great Hall, China Ante Room, Bedroom where Winston was born, Red and Green drawing rooms, 1st, 2nd and 3rd state rooms followed by the long library (55m in length!) We marvelled at the Baroque architecture, the extensive collections of portraits, the intricate ceiling designs, the famous huge tapestries as well as the magnificent organ at the end of the long library. We weren't able to read very much - trying to entertain (and contain) 2 energetic girls in such an environment was enough of a task! However the girls were given a booklet which involved spotting animals in each room - so they became Palace detectives - which did help to keep them occupied.



From the Palace we ventured outside to enjoy a well deserved coffee and cake overlooking the Water Terrace. Our intentions from here were to catch the miniature train to Pleasure Gardens an area dedicated to families. Unfortunately we turned up to catch the diesel locomotive Sir Winston Churchill, which pulls several canopied carriages, to find that it was full so off we set to walk the mile or so.


Before launching into the fun at Pleasure Gardens we sat down for a picnic lunch. First stop was the Marlborough Maze which apparently is second largest symbolic hedge maze designed to reflect the history and architecture of the Palace. Here is an aerial image of the maze from the net, with the entrance in the bottom slight to the right of the middle. Was worried we were going to lose Ella who showed no hesitation and ran in (through the exit) and off. Luckily there are a few dead ends so we did catch up with her but as we were wondering around there were quite a few parents calling out their child's name! Meanwhile Katy and Andy began at the start, visited both towers and the central point finishing before us!


Also at Pleasure Gardens were a series of puzzles which kept Andy occupied for a while! We played on the adventure playground, visited the lavender garden (which was not looking very good probably due to a long and cold winter) and finished off at the butterfly house (our 3rd for the trip so far!)


We timed it perfectly to catch the Sir Winston Churchill back and headed home for a much needed rest!


UK Friends

One of the best aspects of this trip for us, is to reconnect with our Southampton friends we made 10 years ago. Over the years we have kept in touch following their lives with interest. Several of them have had children similar in age to our girls.

On Saturday we headed over to Reading to meet up with Robin, Jo and daughters Emma (5) and Sophie (3). Although Andy had caught up with these guys on several trips to the UK, the last time I had seen them was in Vienna in 2005.

Turned out to be a perfect but still cold sunny day, so we met at a Caversham Court Gardens for a picnic. Originally a house built sometime in the 12th century for the canon of the adjacent St Peter's Church. Various people lived there but eventually the house was demolished in 1931 and was opened as a garden for the public in 1934. It was refurbished in 2009 to its current state.

The girls played beautifully together - climbing trees, rolling down the grassy hill and exploring the foundations of the house. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grassy banks of the Thames, watching the white swans, rowers and boats including houseboats glide past.

Eventually it was time for Emma and Jo to attend a birthday party, so we decided to meet up with Robin and Sophie at Pangbourne for ice cream before driving back home via the Sainbury's superstore to buy more food.

A great day out and looking forward to seeing these guys again soon!

On another note, both Andy and Ella seem to have mostly adjusted to the time zone change while Katy is struggling a little more. Her body clocks wants to wake up around 4.30am especially as it is quite light by then too. Funnily enough it is the same time I've been waking up to go to the toilet! Main problem is that she becomes very restless and is not content to cuddle and doze back to sleep. So eventually by about 5.30am both girls are awake. On the plus side, they are asleep by 7.30pm! We just need to work on pushing back those last few hours as otherwise it makes for a long and tiring day.

26 Bishop Kirk Place, Oxford

After a huge continental breakfast, we continued driving for 45 minutes before reaching Oxford. Andy was exceptional in handling the funny drift out roundabouts and we reached our new abode via the Oxford ring road. It turns out we were too efficient and therefore too early to meet the landlord so we walked to Summertown, the local shopping area about 10mins away. Luckily there were numerous coffee shops to choose from. Unfortunately the one we chose didn't live up to Andy's high coffee standards!  Did a spot of shopping (new shoes for the girls) followed by some essential food purchases before heading back.

So this is our place.... the first photo is the front of the building with our VW Golf hire car on the right. Our apartment turns out to be on the 2nd floor at the rear of the building (photo on the right). It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with separate lounge and kitchen/dinning - just perfect for us. The nicest part is it faces south so is quite sunny (well has been for the past two days!) and overlooks the communal garden.


We're adjusting to life in the apartment...trying to keep the girls mostly quiet (which is difficult at times), doing the laundry in the kitchen including tumble drying our clothes, figuring out what exactly we can cook with our limited kitchen utensils and appliances! All in all we're pretty happy with the place.

In the afternoon we caught the bus into town. Picked up some sim cards for our phones, bought bus cards and checked out the tourist info centre. With enough time we visited Andy's work, met some of his colleagues and saw his office (not sure if I can find it again...it's a maze in there!) Then back home on the bus. A very efficient day really.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Goodbye Singapore, Hello Oxford

Was a little nervous embarking on our next leg of the journey with a 13+ hour flight and 6 hour timezone change but must admit it all went very smoothly. We bid our farewells to Singapore and flew out around 1pm. The girls entertained themselves drawing/colouring in, making velvet pictures, playing Uno and of course watching the onboard TV programs (with the Wiggles being the most popular). Ella tried her hand at some of the games with varying success. I was even able to watch the Life of Pi in fits and bursts. By 9.30pm both girls were asleep. We arrived at Heathrow just after 1am (Singapore time) with traditional small wait in a holding pattern to land followed by time spent waiting for a ground crew member to arrive in order to connect the air bridge to the plane. Both girls wheeled their own carry on suitcases to the immigration line before the tiredness set in. The line was several rows deep so it took a little while but eventually we did reach the front of the queue.

When applying for a visa, both Ella and Andy had to provide fingerprints and retina scanning at the British Embassy in Canberra. Katy was too young for fingerprinting and I've got a British Passport so didn't need to. Now Andy has his fingerprints scanned - all matched and ok and then it was Ella's turn - not ok even after 2 attempts! The immigration lady explains not to worry, this often happens with young children as they move during the scanning process and therefore getting a smudged print which doesn't match. So another 15 minutes waiting while the immigration person verifies Ella! Not really sure about the point of having children fingerprinted if it causes so much hassle.

Off we go to grab our bags, out to the Europcar courtesy bus to get the hire car. One brand new VW Golf picked up, with a bit of squishing of backpacks between the girls and off we went to negotiate the motorway! About 40 mins later we arrive at our hotel in High Wycombe.

By this stage it is nearly 10pm UK time (and 4am Singapore time). With the girls having already had 5+ hours of sleep under their belt, Andy and I both thought that we'd be in for a rough night.  We decided to order some food which we ate in our room before crashing out for the night. Katy woke around 3am but promptly fell back to sleep and didn't wake until 7am meanwhile Ella slept straight through! Perhaps we'd avoided the jet lag?? Stay tuned to find out ...

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Gardens by the Bay

Our itinerary today - Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Flier and a touch of shopping. With so much travel on the underground, the girls were mastering the process. Each taking control of their own ticket and making their (mostly) own way through the (man eating) gates!!


The hot and humid conditions seemed to affect Katy. She would struggle walking outside - complaining, dragging her feet and eventually have a 'cuddle.' However as soon as we came into an air conditioned section she would perk up again and be off chasing Ella. Thus it was quite a long and hot walk from the train station to the Gardens. We did have some distractions - within the station there were large floral images combined with mirrors which proved to be a bit of a distraction.

We concentrated our visit on the Bay South Garden. The overall concept of  its master plan draws inspiration from an orchid - a representative of the tropics and Singapore. The orchid takes root at the waterfront (conservatories), while the leaves (landforms), shoots (paths, roads) and secondary roots (water, energy and communication lines) then form an integrated network with blooms (theme gardens and super trees at key intersections.

Leaving the unique Marina Sands Bay Hotel (ie the hotel with the boat on top as it was known in our family) behind we crossed over Dragonfly Bridge. The Supertrees and conservatories dominate the skyline making for a spectacular image.



The Supertrees are just amazing. They range between 25 - 50m and are vertical gardens that perform a multitude of functions, which include planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens
Next were the two conservatories - Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, which won World Building of the year at the World Architecture Festival 2012. The Flower Dome replicates the cool dry climates of the Mediterranean regions - South Africa, California, Italy, Spain and Australia.





The more impressive conservatory was Cloud Forest. It boasts Cloud Mountain, a six storey artificial mountain which one ascends to the top by lift before descending via two walkways. The mountain has been densely planted with a mixture of orchids, delicate ferns, bromeliads, bergonias and also carnivorous pitcher plants! Each level was named - The Lost World, Cloud Walk, The Cavern, Waterfall View, Tree Top Walk, Earth Check, +5 Degrees and Secret Garden. It was great to see that the topic of climate change was being address in two different areas inclding a short video which predicts what will happen in the years to come if we do nothing about the impact on the environment.





As it was overcast, we decided to give the Singapore Flier a miss as we thought the views would be suboptimal, so instead we headed for one of the large electronics malls where the family purchased an iPad mini for my birthday!!