Knock knock. Who's there? Dr...

Dr Who and the Who's Who of Croydon...


Right now it's August. The ninth of August.  19:19, on the 9th of August.  June dissolved into July some time ago and July was sucked into the gaseous vortex of the eighth month, spiralling out of control…  Sorry.  Watching ‘Dr Who’ after spending the arvo at ‘The Dr Who Experience’.  Charlie's here to protect us though, with his sonic screwdriver and brash boldness.  It was a lot of fun!  Hands down, the Weeping Angels are the creepiest alien race across the whole history of Dr Who and I really, really want one in my garden (when I have one again).  Not a Roman statue or cherub peeing into a pond.  A frightening, snarling, "Don't blink, don't look away" Weeping Angel.  Watch it if you don't know what I mean…

We went to Kensington Olympia today (where the Doctor was waiting) after Croydon seemed to have calmed and quietened after Monday night’s riots and people seemed to be going about their daily business - shopping, working, etc.   Riots in Croydon, riots across London, riots now spreading to the Midlands…  There's no way that they are in correlation to the shooting death of a supposed gangster, Mark Duggan, by a police officer on Thursday.    These rioters last night and today are spurred en mass by online social networks and instant messaging and have no specific cause or protest.  Doubt many even know who Mark Duggan is.  They are keen only on damaging buildings and cars - small businesses run by local people like themselves, creating chaos and looting when opportunity arises.  The regular call for parents to know where your children are and keep them with you is disturbing.  There are kids a young as 10 and 11 involved in the looting.  It's these parents the police are talking to.  Tonight the police are far more prepared and have 16,000 officers spread everywhere.  There were 3 police vans parked on our avenue earlier with around 30 officers milling around - part of a plan to protect and prevent further disturbances.  


They've gone now and it's the quietest it has ever been in Croydon since we moved here!  On the way back from the station this afternoon, the high street and main drag were dead.  Most shops were shut and many had taken extra precaution by boarding up their windows.  Restaurants shut.  Corner shops...  The pub across the road - The Crown and Pepper - have boarded the windows, painted them black - in keeping with the pubs Tudor facade -  but remained open with extra security.  Since Tesco had closed early again.  But, if all remains quiet tonight, you can expect the usual order of things to be restored.  Except those places that were burnt to the ground or those people who’s hearts were ripped out when loved ones died senselessly.  No normality for them.

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Bath


Prior to all this, we had been cruising around the countryside as usual, making the most of weekends when Pete is not at work.   Bath was wonderful with its Roman history, fabulously old buildings, brimming with character.  Guided by our friends Rob and Emily, we went to Charles Dicken’s house, caught the echo of our clapping amongst the oak trees at the Circus and checked out the Roman Baths.  The boys though, what was their favourite activity that weekend?  Putting way too much bubble mixture into the spa bath at Emily and Robs and having a raucous, hilarious and carefree time.

Voldemort?

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Dorky Dorking


On another outing, we caught up with good friends Ramon and Rhian from Oz who live in England now with their cuties, Saskia and Sylvie.  Giggling all the way, our destination was Dorking.  Funny old name - makes me laugh every time.  Ah, the simple things.  Cute place though!  Ramon drove us from Dorking up to a place called Leith Hill, the highest point in the South East of England.  My god, it was stunning!  Real life forest straight our of Robin Hood with gnarly trees and mossy earth, then clear grasslands with views of all round and a tower smack bang in the middle.  Perfect place for a ‘Rapunzel’ pantomime.  We fluked it with a kids’ day that the National Trust had arranged with story-telling, shield making and a treasure hunt so we were sorted!!

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Us 


Pete got all muddy and dirty but had a blast with the blokes at Glastonbury.  You can check out his little retrospective media collage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PctFeofJ4bc.  I’ll leave it to him to fill you in with any details...

We even had a night to ourselves - stayed in Soho, went to the London National Gallery then a variety of pubs and bars and met come colourful locals!

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Freya, the Birthday Girl


In the week just past, we celebrated my nieces 13^th birthday by basically having a family reunion here in London!  My mum and her partner Neil were on the tail end of their OS trip and since it coincided with Freya’s birthday on the 3^rd August, she came over with her mum, Tina from Copenhagen and my brother, Jon came over from Melb.  With Kelly, Nick & Harry only 30 mins away from us in Croydon, it made for quite a large family gathering!  Actually on Freya’s birthday we had a 30 degree day and so went to Brighton.  The first time I have swum in the ocean since Dec 2010 and I missed it so much!  Felt so great just to have the salt water wash over me again, despite the thousands of others who graced the pebbly beach with us.  But hey, no sand in my eyes or caught in my bathers, and the deck chairs, I love it, so bonus!

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Shakespeare at the Old Vic


And last weekend?  Couldn’t have asked for a better Sat arvo.  Pete and I went to Waterloo, had a great Indian feast for lunch and for dessert, soaked up Kevin Spacey as King Richard in Richard III at the Old Vic.  "A horse, a horse!  My Kingdom for a horse!"

And so now here we are, the 9^th of August.  Despite the social chaos and the heavy police presence, it’s still school holidays and frankly, we have things to do!  Next week?  Scotland in a motorhome.  Bring it on...

Here, There and Everywhere.

We’ve had some more jaunts around and out of London - making the most of England while we can.  There are plenty of people to visit and places to see, and it’s looking far more likely that we’ll be spending the whole year in Britain without venturing ‘abroad’.  I love that word.  Makes me think of lace parasols and travelling on ships to conquer other nations, sipping tea...

Swanage

So there we were in Swanage with Ned (an old friend from Hong Kong) and Sarah, hosting our little band of 4, filling us with great wine and fabulous cheeses.

Swanage is great.  A beachside town (with sand!), where the boys played in the water while we sat (rugged up), watching them. 

We took a wonderful old steam train up to Corfe Castle and explored the ruins and then played oversize board games in a miniature model town.

Corfe Castle is pretty intact for a ruin, and has a great energy about it.  The boys put some medieval clothes on and charged up and down the hills for quite some time.

Later that night we had the boys babysat while we drank cocktails and beers, and checked out a band.

Finally, topped off the weekend with a visit to the Tank Museum, which far exceeded my expectations!  No guessing that the boys LOVED this - there were hundreds of tanks, a lot to climb and military gear to try on.  Well, we all enjoyed it, truth be told.

I quite liked the forest-like camouflage outfit myself.

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Sunderland v West Ham

The boys first football game in England, Sunderland v West Ham.  Playing at West Ham’s local ground in London, the fact that it was the last game of the season was no dampener.   The stadium was packed, the chants started before the first bounce (um, I mean kick.  Whatever it's called), and just kept on going.  Tyler really got into it, singing the chants too and laughing and looking around in wonderment at everyone.  The energy was high and it was a 3 – 0 win to Sunderland, so our part of the stadium was on a high.  West Ham were relegated which made for more joy for the Sunderland fans who comfortably stayed in the Premier League and could jeer at the losers.  Saw Pete’s cousin, Woody briefly before he went searching for beer with his mates.  Even the bus back to the train station was exciting as we were first on and top front on the double-decker with crowds all around.

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The extended Bowen clan and Little Harry Carter

Spent a lovely few days with Kim and Dave, my brother and sister in law, who live in Tamworth, outside Birmingham.  Pete ended up going to Sunderland instead as him mum had a knee replacement and his dad was poorly as well, but the boys and I still hung out with Kim (Pete’s sister) & Dave.  They have 3 daughters - Jo-Ann, Nicola and Leanne, all with partners - and Jo-Ann and Nikki both have kids of their own so when everyone got together there was quite a brood in the end!  With all the staggered ages among the 6 youngest children and a wonderful sense of family, there was never a dull moment.

How similar are we?

How similar are we?

There’s a castle in Tamworth town centre that happened to be having an exhibition day so we spend hours there, roaming around.   Squires helped you into armour, ladies of the court led us in dance and the children supported the band, playing instruments.   On the way there we saw eagle owls in the marketplace which was very different.  (They weren’t being sold, but were raising awareness of the local wildlife refuge centre.)

On the way home, we went via my sister’s place.  My cute little nephew Harry was having his 1^st birthday party and there was celebrating to do!  We chatted together about what he thought of his first year of life and his goals, you know.  He's making plans.  Going to be a big brother in October so he's feeling pretty good.

Oasis Academy - school at last.

When it got to the month of May, I was pretty sure that I would just continue to home school the boys and not bother with them going to a local school while we were here.  I was getting really peeved at the processing time for the school application through the council – they were not joking about taking 4 weeks and never could give an update until that 4 weeks was up.*  

I was also feeling very daunted by the likely heart-wrenching I would endure with having several teachers tear Charlie off me to even get him into the classroom.  This was pressing down on me pretty hard, actually, as I had tried to get him to go to school when in Sunderland earlier on and that was a real mess.  I also thought that we would have freedom without the school routine so to see different things around London, etc. 

But then there was the other voice of reason in my mind pointing out that the boys could do with some interaction with other kids, might make some friends, would gain from just going to another school in another country... I could also do with some time on my own too to do things, like visit my sis & write this for example!

So off they went to Oasis Academy.  

That was 3 weeks ago and I happy to report that Charlie did not kick off and although he was sad in the first few days (“I didn’t cry today but I just wanted to be with you, mummy.”  Awww.), he has settled well and is enjoying it.  Tyler had no probs settling in.  He met kids from his year even before the first day when we visited the school and scored a birthday invite on his second day there.  

Still, the boys (Tyler particularly, as he can compare experiences) are looking forward to going home and to Errol St Primary.  Tyler has already voluntarily given me 3 reasons why he prefers Errol St Primary.  He’s quite into “three reasons why...” discussions at the mo!  On this occasion, he started by saying that he did like Oasis Academy and the teachers and kids there, but at Errol St...


  1.  There is a separate library and art room (these are Tyler’s 2 favourite things to do).
 2.   There are green areas to play on (all bitumen at Oasis unless you’re in the reception / Year 1 area).
 3.   No school uniform (what’s so wrong with a purple jumper?  I like them!)

The kids at this school are pretty multicultural, very out there and confident.  Most are into Bayblades and not a Mighty Bean being traded anywhere.  There are some pretty vast differences between influences in the sense of what TV shows and Playstation / Xbox / Wii games they play compared to Tyler and Charlie, but that is a rite of passage in the schoolyard I guess.  We’re still going to stand our ground with South Park, Family Guy and Call of Duty being off limits though. 

And now the summer holidays are looming and as of 22^nd July they will have 8 weeks off!  They will both go back to school for a little while when the year starts in Sept, but probably for only 4 weeks or so.  Then we’ll be upping sticks from Croydon and heading North, Pete having put his contract work behind him.

* Let’s talk about process for a moment.  I love a good process and with my customer experience and performance improvement hat on (intricately crafted hat too, through my 12 years at Optus) I could see the holes in this one.  Taking a step away from my usual ‘keep quiet, say nothing’ attitude I suggested to the council that they could call all 6 schools on my form in 1 day to enquire about places and email or call me with the outcome the next day to speed things up.  Oh no.  Britain has this strange pride over retaining antiquated ways of doing things, so this meant that the council had to send all 6 schools letters...  through the post.  The schools then get 5 working days to reply and they must do so in writing... through the post.  Then the council will update me with the outcome... through the post.  And then it was only to write to me to tell me the 6 schools I put down had no places.   In my wait, I had called another school, Oasis Academy, and the administrator there told me there were 2 spots for my sons, but of course you need to apply through the council.  I called the council on the exact 28th day and spoke to my case officer.  I told her Oasis had room and to speak to such and such herself to get the boys there.  She was very grateful for my help seemingly as 2 days later I got an offer for enrolment at Oasis Academy... through the post.  I’m still waiting for my cheque for the 6 weeks worth of work I did for the council, but it probably got lost... through the post.  

Mater and Pater Forster

Pete’s mum and dad, Norma and Alan, came to stay the next weekend.  The boys and I met them at Kings Cross to chaperone them through the transport system home to Croydon.  The boys were excited and exuded plenty of energy.  Charlie was full of observations about Grandad particularly.  He shared them with Grandad of course, and in doing so shared with the rest of the train as you need to speak up with Grandad.  It was pretty standard cute-kid stuff (“You’ve got really white hair, grandad”) but I should have predicted Charlie’s mind would wander in the direction of Star Wars.  “You’ve got big ears, Grandad.  You look like Yoda!”  It was funny and I laughed, grandma laughed, Tyler laughed, the lady swaying next to us in the carriage laughed...  Grandad didn’t catch it and just kind of nodded which actually made it even funnier - the wise, all knowing, Yoda.

 They were our first overnight guests and there’s quite a bit of space in our 2 bed apartment!  Only 1 instance of a bathroom walk-in and the hot water didn’t run out once.

It was nice to have some time in and round London and so we all did another Bus tour (with the sun on us this time and just 1 or 2 rain drops) and spent time in Trafalgar Square.  Climbing the gigantic bronze lions in the square was a lot of fun (yes, I got up there too).  Charlie flaked out on the bus and nodded off on some woman, but she was very kind and happily stayed put so he didn’t wake up.   Good job too as even though it is exciting to voluntarily watch London Bridge open and close on one of only 2-3 occasions weekly that it does so, being stuck near the bridge in a bus waiting for it to be over is not...

         

The Sunday was just a chilled out local day with football at the pub and a play in the park, and after a weekend where we had the opportunity to spoil them a bit, we saw Norma and Alan safely off.

Hastings

Over the May Day long weekend, we went to Hastings.  We didn’t really know much about what would be in store but just planned on meeting up with friends, Paul and Vanessa and checking out the Jack in the Green Festival that takes place there annually.  Paul is another RAF mate of Pete’s and Pete organised the weekend back in March when he saw them and they mentioned going. 

Jack in the Green is an eccentric festival really.  It celebrates the start of summer (people dressed in green, faces painted, many layers of fabric - all flowing and leaf-like) and the end of chimney sweeping for the year (other people dressed in black outfits and blackened faces), since the weather is warmer and the coal fires are no longer stoked.  There was traditional dancing in the streets and impromptu group singing in the pubs.  The shop facades, houses and railings – most of Hastings Old Town main streets really – had been entwined with leafy boughs and branches and ribbons...  And since this was Hastings, as in the Battle of Hastings, 1066, so we were also treated to medieval knights fighting with vim and vigour in the town square to the great delight of the boys (and us). 

I can tell you now, we walked / scooted till our feet almost dropped off.  Back and forth along the foreshore, to and from the B&B, up and down the hills, around the castle, down into the smugglers caves, through the streets, into and out of many different attractions...  We had the warm company of the sun shine and friends again, so it was worth the effort each day.


This was the weekend of the Royal Wedding too, so I made sure we saw Kate arrive, checked out her dress, compared it to Di’s (I‘m an expert now thanks to British TV) and then toddled off having seen enough, really.

The weekend was topped off with a massive bike rally where literally thousands of motorcyclists descend every year (20,000 according to one source) and all park up along the foreshore as an enormous group.  The sound of the bikes was awesome and we surprisingly really enjoyed watching them riding in and then wandering through all the bikes, checking them out.  There were some very impressive machines!

 So we pretty much crashed on the train home, truly content we made the most of it.