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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.

ME in KL Airport

This aweful photo is me sleep deprived after 7 hours to KL The good thing though about flying Malaysian Airlines is that a stopover at KL is pleasant and the airport is probably the cleanest and most organized in the world.

19 more sleeps

The New Tourer

This is my new bike ...tasteful white. It has arrived in London and is awaiting my arrival with panniers
29 more sleeps!

Planning the Next Adventure

The big plan is to go across the UK along the trans pennine trail after attending a conference in early June.