The Old House B&B

The B&B was built behind the farm house. Joanne, the proprietor advised to keep all doors closed as the dogs would come in and nick stuff. The other guest was a lively octogenarian, Alan, born and bred in the north but who had lived in Brisbane but was now living with his second wife in the Shetland . They had met in Brisbane but she came from the Shetlands and they have retired there living in a croft. I now understand the ownership of crofts and the role of the Laird ..yes there are 2 lairds...brother and sister

MANCHESTER

Saturday in Manchester with teeming rain. The art gallery was just over the road so I popped for a tea. The gallery is very child friendly with heaps interesting things for kids including being able to put up their drawings as an exhibition. Lots of 18thand 19th century portraits and Rembrandt's self portrait ..which I thought would surely be in Holland. Went to the massive Arndale Shopping Mall and got lost. When the rain abated I walked south down Oxford street to the Whitworth Gallery past Manchester Royal Infirmary (what a name for a hospital!) BBC manchester, Manchester Uni (enormous). Gallery very limited due to preparing for some event and had some Tracey Emin etchings which I could quite get. Having time on hand finished the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Association" which is a lovely book about the German occupation of the Channel Islands during the 2nd WW and the ways the Islanders coped. Recommended light reading.

Sunday came with a slightly better prognosis so I set off early along the canal towpaths out of Manchester. There were few people but a number of canl boats...not like our big one in France because the locks are tiny and very narrow and the bridges pretty low.

Made it to Hyde by morning tea which I could only find in a pub. Being Sunday morning many blokes were on their third pint and were quite chatty re my travels. Lots of navigational advice offered. I headed off to the town of Glossop, a typical grey stone Midlands Town which reputedly had an interesting heritage centre...which was closed. I chowed up on food to prepare myself for the ascent of the Woodhead Pass to cross the Pennines. I set off and the rain came down and the wind decided to blow hard from the direction I was heading. Undeterred , I struggled up from Glossop to the moors and stopped at the first place that offered acccommodation. They were booked but recommended me to the "Old House" B&B which the helpful proprietor pointed out was DOWNHILL. I arrived wet through but felt much better after a shower.....amazing you can stand under the shower for ages and not feel guilty here. It was 3pm and cold so I retired with another book.

Liverpool to Manchester

I set out from Liverpool at the extraordinary hour of 0730 trying to beat the weather (heavy rain ) that had been forecast. I overshot the mark heading up the Mersey and had to back track to make sure I rode along Penny Lane. t was entirely unremarkable and I nearly got skittled by parents in Jaguar sports cars dropping their kids off at Liverpool College. I managed to get on to the Trans Pennine Trail and basically it was flat and rather boring until along way out of Liverpool. The St Helens Canal sound rather nice but the trail was narrow , gravelly and on either side were vicious looking fences and slimy water. Hovering over this scene were the 4 towers of the Fiddler's Ferry Nuclear Power Station. The trail then became more rural with no fences and some pretty villages. The sun was boring down and despite the pathetic effort of 35 km in total today I was seized by pangs of hunger at 1100. I was ejected from a Morrison's shopping mall when I tried to take my bike in but fortunately , in the town of Wilderspool there was Jasper's Cafe where I could sit outside in the sun, keep and eye on Betsy, and have a lovely cup of tea with coconut cake...which was very much needed. I could have sat for longer but the clouds were thickening so I hatched a cunning plan to ride only as far as Alchricham then catch the train to Manchester where I would stay to wait out the rain. At least I could get out and look at stuff in Manchester even if the heavens opened. This plan worked so I am at the Premier Inn, St Peters Square , Manchester and its raining cats and dogs with lots of thunder. I went to the bar to buy a bubbly drink ...guess what...only one was Jacobs Creek sparkling rose.

Liverpool

Here are some of the new and old buildings round Liverpool. Last night I went to the conference dinner in the Liverpool Cathedral. It is the biggest Cathedral in the UK , completed only last century. It also has the highest Gothic arches. Food was splendiferous and I was sat between some Glaswegian psychiatrists, A British trained Indian gentleman (only description possible as he was more British than the British) and a Liverpudlian who had been working in Yellowknife North West Territories , Canada for many years. Fascinating convo and I am brewing a plan to work in the UK in the next few years.

No Photos Yet

ON Monday I went to Simpson's Cycles in Kentish Town to pick up Betsy. She is gleaming white, is reasonably light and looks quite a head turner with her new panniers. The only problem is that I am quite paranoid about having her stolen which is something I didn't have to worry about with my last bike.On the trip to Liverpool she had to go untended in the guards van so I sat in the adjoining seats keeping a lookout on the movements of 2 guys with trick BMX bikes parked with her.

Liverpool is a city of amazing architecture ..old and new. The three Victorian buildings on the water Front have had the grime scraped off and look really grand. One is the Old Cunard Line building. Behind them are old dock wharehouses converted into hotels, apartments and a branch of the Tate. Then there are the new buildings , glass and concrete at odd angles and with cantilevered floors. Central Liverpool is a mixture of modern shopping mall and preserved quarters but there are lots of shops and offices for let and my guess is that this is a city really feeling the impact of the GFC as it seems that it is reliant on the universities and tourism for revenue. Its also a bit scary in the evening as the old pubs seem to spill out into the street and are populated by loud men yelling at each other.

The conference has been interesting so far with some sessions on the use of Human Rights Legislation to gain resources for psychiatric PDRSS's, somthing I need to think about for our patients and I found out from a Human Rights lawyer who had worked in Australia that Victoria and ACT actually have Human Rights Charters. Another interesting point was the discussion of a public health approach to aggression. The Chief Medical Officer from Scotland described the measures that Scotland has taken to curb alcohol fueled violence which is apparently the worlds worst. Notable the peak area is Glasgow and this correlates with the level of social disadvantage. She also highlighted measures taken to intervene in parenting to reduce the production of antisocial behaviour in adolescents. This is very boring for a travel blog.

The main problem is that the conference stuff is moderately interesting and so the Liverpool things I would like to visit are on durig the day...tommorrow I will play hooky and do a bit of sightseeing.

Paying Calls

Of course I was wide awake @ 4 am despite the sip of wine and the big walk around Belgravia . Went to Church at St Pauls for 8 am Communion along with about 20 other people ...we sat in that enormous building in the choir stalls to be near enough to see the vicar. I haven't heard the old fashioned english version of communion with the thou's and thy's since I was a kid. Sitting in the absolutely huge and very ornate church it was really the anthesis of the message but I felt virtuous and emerged into the sunshine to savour the day which was BEAUTIFUL.

Caught the overground to Ashford and met up with Cath and Kevin and kids. Cath is a friend from Maroondah Hospital who has returned to her native England with her Australian husband and Australian kids Matthew 6 and Caitlin 8 and has now bought a house and had a British baby. Michael is 7 months and gorgeous. We had lots of cups of tea, caught up on psych hospital gossip and went out for lunch at the Barley Mow in Englefield Green.

I then dropped in on Dick Cowles who is living in Teddington with his son Lee, daughter in law Fiona and 3 (naked) little boys, Freddy, Jake and Barney. Dick was quick on the pour and we sat in the back garden enjoying a drop. Dicks got a house in Hamble one row back form the water , is joining the Royal Southern Yacht Club and now just has to get his containers ad move in. THEN... the boat. He is a bit non plussed by the cost of a marina berth there but I think it will suit his Australian Crew fine .

I then caught up with Ginny Atkins, friend of Ali, whos got a real job working for a mental health foundation doing art projects in Southwark. Gin is loving it here really enjoying the multicultural house shes in..shes the only one whose native language is english and looking forward to a big trip shes planned for next month .

Still on Aussie time so up at the crack and did a circumnavigation of the Serpentine in Hyde Park. They have there own version of the Icebergers. Despite the lake being inhabited by flocks of pooing waterbirds and green slimy grass there is a fenced off area for swimming and this guy was doing laps! Gross!

Off to pick up bike.

Royal Thames Yacht Club

Saturday stretched on forever all 36 hours of it and I watched in fascination out the window as we flew over the contries of Turkmenistan and Georgia which seem to be all desert . Even form 30000 feet you could see small settlements ...then we crossed the chanel and the green ness of the uK was such a relief














From Heathrow its a direct tube ride to Knightsbridge which was good because the bike bag was not ideal to carry all the luggage and there I was strugging against the tide of Saturday shoppers coming out of Harrods as the bike bag with its one set of wheels took out peoples and my shins.

The RTYC "cabin is just that... slightly bigger than on Folie but at 75 pounds per night
in the centre of a nice bit of London its brilliant.
From the outside it as got to be the ugliest building in the street. on either side are beautiful Goergian buildings housing the Kuwait Embassy
and , I suspect, a brothel , with harvey Nicholls Department Store opposite. At the "back " of the building is Hyde Park. Inside though it is pure 60's
and has a model room with books and magazines dating back to the mid 1800's. It also has a library, dining room ( sounded a bit expensive) and seemed to be deserted over the weekend.