Outdoor adventures of a brother and sister

My brother David lives in Hanoi in Vietnam. He's lived there for over a year now and absolutely loves it. Despite conjuring up notions of a long and drawn-out American war, Vietnam is a wonderful country and suits David perfectly. One thing that Hanoi is not, however, is orderly and green. I've never visited, but the descriptions David gives are of a friendly but chaotic and fairly polluted city with tall, unattractive buildings. Kew Gardens in the South West of London is in complete contrast to that image; immaculately manicured gardens, endless stretches of lawn, fantastic flowers, towering palms, and orderly flower beds. The weather played along during our visit and we stayed as long as our tired feet would allow us, taking a few pictures to document our visit.

David admiring the Waterlily house from the outside

Amazed at the huge lilies inside, I'm sure I could sit on one!?!

The spectacular gardens in front of the iconic Palm House

The new beehive installation from below

"Listening" to bee buzzes through my teeth

Some more colossal leaves

A picture perfect sky with the Palm House behind

A glamorous lizard basking in the sun and the admiration of all the visitors

A red pineapple, can you spot it?!

For a blast of countryside to clear the cobwebs from David's polluted lungs, we took a trip to Dorset last week to visit Aunty Margaret on the farm. Our plans changed somewhat when we realised my driving licence had expired (facepalm) meaning the rental company wouldn't hire us a car! So, we ended up taking a coach (the equivalent of a Greyhound to you South Africans) to Lyonsgate village. We had a short stop over in the sweet seaside town of Bournemouth, I'd love to come back for longer one day. We only spent 2 nights on the farm but we manged to squeeze in a fair few pubs, a drive to Weymouth and Portland and even some work on the farm while we were there!

Walking on the farm the evening we arrived

Problem: pond weed. Proposed solution: barley bale in the ditch where the water comes in. Done! 

Isle of Portland

Important lighthouse

The monument on the Portland "beak"

A beautiful glade on the hill behind Aunty Margaret's farm

A country manor over the hill from the farm. I remember seeing this castle-like building when I visited Margaret for the first time about 18 years ago!

Some curious Dorset Sheet kindly posing for a photo

Wide expanses for sheep to roam

Overlooking the farm's fields

Some more rolling countryside, I can't get enough!

Visitors!

Moving to London has been so exciting and really rewarding but, one of the tough parts has been how far away we are from so many of our friends and family. I am so thankful for Skype, Whatsapp messages and voice notes, Facebook and all the other ways that we keep in touch, but nothing is quite as comforting as having a face-to-face conversation with someone who knows you well. When Colleen told me there was a chance she could come and visit us this August from New York, I was overjoyed! And then David managed to get some time off and visit from Vietnam. For a few days their stays overlapped which was amusing since we only have a one bedroom flat. But, with some careful rearranging of furniture and a reliance on a friend who lives nearby, we manged without a hitch.

Colleen and I got up to some really fun stuff while she was here, but we also fitted in a fair portion of sleeping late (well, later than normal, neither of us is capable of sleeping past 8), cooking, long walks and the Olympic opening ceremony. The photos don't do her trip justice because most of what was special about it was us just hanging out and catching up after more than a year and a half.

Obligatory Buckingham selfie

Despite what you'd think, a river cruise is a good way to spend a rainy day in London. The walks in the parks of Greenwich later that day weren't so suited to the wet weather.

Cycling in Hyde Park. What a fun way to experience this huge park

Ice creams every afternoon - yum!

Wandering South Bank when David arrived

Borough Market. Colleen was telling jokes to get our camera faces on

A long walk along the Thames path with a stop for some ciders and beer on Colleen's last day

D'you want to go to the seaside?

Whenever I visit the coast in a British town, the song called The Seaside by The Kooks plays in my head (listen to it here). A visit to the beach in South Africa has a completely different feeling; its more wild, hotter, sandier, wavy-er (okay, I know that's not a word but I needed a comparative adjective version of wavy!) But here in England the coastal towns just want to be called "seaside" towns; like the song, they are gentle, bright, fun, and just beg you to buy a soft-serve ice cream. The pebble beaches also change the atmosphere, no longer do you have to battle the stinging sand being blown onto bare legs, instead, you must hobble over the pebbles down to the sea for a swim.

Over the last weekend, Frans and I took a trip to the seaside town of Sidmouth. The primary reason was to visit Mark, Helen and their two children, Tom and Hope. Many of you may remember Mark from our wedding; he's my cousin and he was the vicar at our wedding ceremony. The family is moving to Jersey Island in two weeks time and we had to squeeze in a quick visit before they leave. What an incredible time we had! From the train journey across south-west England on Friday evening, Saturday morning on the beach and sunny late evening braaiing, walking up a steep hill and through the woodlands to a church service in a one thousand-year-old church and walking home along the coastal path, it was truly magical. Here are some pictures of the beautiful weekend.

The pebble/sand beaches can be enjoyed when the tide is 
low, as it was for us on Saturday morning

On the right is the, rather treacherous Jacobs Ladder (Tom lost a flip 
flop through its unforgiving steps). On the left are some pretty sought 
after Beach Huts; you can apply to be put on the waiting list to use one...

Deck chairs to enjoy your ice cream on if the seagulls don't 
steal it from you first! (Although these four chairs look like 
they've been placed to discourage talking...)

Looking back at Sidmouth across the beach. Up on the hillside, you can 
faintly see the coastal path in the right-hand field, that was our 
walk home from church on Sunday.

I loved these bright red, weedy poppy flowers taking shelter next to
the pier.

The Victoria Hotel, only a short walk from the beach.

Sidmouth pedestrian high street. 

A South African braai in Devon

Sunny supper time, Frans has a mouthful and Hope
is worried about Seagulls dive bombing her for food!

A view through the trees of the Salcombe Regis church, 1000 years old.

Views of the sea during our walk home after church with Tom

Classic Devon countryside plunging into the sea. This is the Salcome
Regis valley next door to Sidmouth.

A picturesque Salcombe Regis farmstead

Spotting Sidmouth over the ferns. We're about to descend into town on
the coastal path mentioned in the caption of the picture above.

The evolution of the personal TV

You read that title right! One of the really interesting differences that I have seen in London compared to South Africa is how people watch TV. South Africans have perhaps started to see this evolution with the introduction of DSTV Catch-Up as well as Netflix. But the really big difference in how people use these services is due to the superior mobile internet options that are available. It would seem inconceivable to a South African that you could stream a whole TV show on your phone mobile data, even if you could afford it - the internet is just too slow. Here in the UK however, both of those problems are taken care of; 3G, and in many cases 4G, is the norm and fast enough to watch a show on your phone with no buffering. Added to that is the low price of internet data. Most people I know here have not only got unlimited talk minutes and text messages but also unlimited data on their phone contract plans as well. This means that many people watch TV programmes on their phones, iPads and other tablets.

What this means is that TV seems to be going the way of radio. In the old days, families would gather around the wireless in the evenings and listen to radio shows as a group. Story lines were discussed the next day at school and the following episode was highly anticipated by all. Nowadays however, we listen to a lot less radio as that role has largely been taken over by TV. But my opinion is that the way we watch TV will end up changing too. Just as we now tend to listen to the radio on our own, whether it is on in the kitchen keeping you company or more commonly when you're driving by yourself, the ability to watch TV on a device means that people are watching TV while they commute on the train and are watching more and more personally specific shows and watching them by themselves.

I've been watching a lot of TV by myself in the past few weeks. As some of you may know, I have become a fan of The Tour de France, fairly recently compared to many people as it was only a year ago that I even learnt what a peloton is (it's the large bundle of cyclists riding together in a group to benefit from the protection from the slowing effects of the wind). Anyway, I am able to watch the Tour live on my iPad, and since Frans has little desire to have the quietness of the flat ruined by the droning (although fascinating) commentary, I take my iPad to another room and watch it alone. I have repaid him for my three-hour-a-day, three-week-long commitment to the race by ironing his work shirts for him. And yes, I do those two simultaneously!

Hickstead Derby

I have always wanted to watch a big, exciting international Show Jumping competition, and now that we are living in the UK, the opportunities to do that are much greater. Hickstead is a showground in Sussex, south of London where some of the most famous show jumping competitions are held. One of them is the notorious Hickstead Derby.

A Derby is a style of competition classified as a showjumping competition but with some differences. In classic show jumping, traditional show jumps are made of wooden or plastic poles which are easily knocked down when clipped by the horses legs. A horse and rider combination is required to complete a course of jumps without incurring any faults due to knocking down poles or a horse "refusing" a jump. Depending on the style of competition, the winner is the fastest "clear round" during the first jumping round or the fastest during a "jump off". A jump off happens when more than one horse and rider combination gets a clear round in their first round on the course. A Derby competition is the same as a show jumping competition, however, interspersed among the traditional jumps are landscaped obstacles such as a Devil's Dyke, an Irish bank, stone wall and the icon of the Hickstead Derby, the largest show jumping bank in the world. The bank is not a jump at all but a large sloping earth wall which horses are expected to slide down on their haunches. Upon reaching the bottom, they have two short strides to gather themselves up before leaping over a rather high vertical fence.

We had rather a long trip to get down to the Hickstead grounds. Since we don't have a car, we had to take the tube into London and catch a train to a small train station called Burgess Hill. From there we caught a taxi to the show grounds. But once we were there, the excitement of the day really hit. There were endless avenues of horsey shops, food stalls and beer tents. We soon settled ourselves in the massive grandstands to watch one of the preceding showjumping events. It was so exciting watching such a beautiful selection of horses take on the massive and complex course. At risk of mentioning, yet again, the British weather, it was not on our side that day. Periods of hot sunshine and clear breezy summer's day brilliance alternated with the most torrential downpours imaginable. And through it all, the show, quite literally, went on! Unlike South African horses, who are really quite naff when it comes to the rain, always spinning their tail towards the weather, these horses showed a new level of professionalism in carrying on, regardless.

A little later in the day we got a surprise treat in the form of the Scurry Driving championship. In scurry driving, each small carriage is drawn by two small (often matching) ponies. The driver is joined by a second person who keeps the balance of the small cart as it is whipped around a course at lightning speeds! What fun!

After that, we watched the Speed Derby which was the highlight of the day on Saturday. Unlike the Derby Championship which is held on the Sunday, the winner of the speed Derby is the horse and rider combination with the fastest first round. Instead of penalties when poles are knocked down, four seconds are added to the time which means that the winner is not necessarily a clear round. Every horse must be ridden at their fastest pace, right from the start, and this makes for some really exciting viewing! Unfortunately, the rain came down again during this competition and everyone, competitors and spectators alike, were well and truly soaked. The train ride home served as a rather chilly drying off period.

What a great day out, I will definitely be back! I hope the photos below do the event justice.

The showgrounds viewed from the uncovered grandstand.
Beautiful view,  but no shelter from the downpours!

Scurry ponies!

The Irish bank. Horses jump onto the bank and then off the other side.
Due to the weather, they slid and skidded their way over, legs flailing. 

The Hickstead bank. For the Speed Derby which we were watching, the course comes
down the shorter side of the bank. Still, many horses weren't that keen on doing so!

The off-set combination.

The so-called road crossing. It is the ditch behind the first element
(which we can't see) that puts many horses off.