England

There is an art to queueing and a lot of unwritten rules we found out when we went the Prom Concerts at Royal Albert Hall. The tickets to gain access to the standing areas are only 5 pound and because of that you need to get there early and wait … and wait … and wait. But it is not so bad – everyone comes prepared – there were a group of high school students playing cards, several couples and larger groups with wine and nibbles, people sleeping or listening to music and we found it a good opportunity to meet people and chat with music or Proms officionados. It was a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere with a lot of people being long term queueing buddies.
Depending on which queue, you can gain access to either the Gallery right up high with a perfect view but a long way back or to the Arena – right at the stage but with potentially tall people standing in front of you. Still everyone is very polite and respectful of the spot you claim for yourself.
The concert we saw was only 1 1/2 hours so not a long concert to stand for and it was very good to be so close – I felt like I was in the orchestra too.
We are trying another of these standing cheap tickets tonight for Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theatre. People have said it is great to be a ‘groundling’ right at the feet of the actors and in the thick of it. (Mind you its is 3 hours standing this time!)
But it is certainly a good way to get to see some of London’s top quality performances for almost nothing and feel like we have done something that is very much part of the tradition and custom of the place.

London this time around has been much more successful. We have been staying in Parson’s Green, right beside the tube station. We are literally the closest house to the station but in the house it is surprisingly quiet. The general plan is do galleries, museums, markets or other free activities in the day and help out with Paul and Renee’s house and go to events, music, theatre etc at night.
We have seen a few museums and galleries and all the national ones are free to get in so are great for us. We visited Abbey Road made famous by the Beatles, Camden markets and a few other landmarks.
In the evening we went to Stomp, a West End production, and it was great. Tap, body percussion and rhythm. Very tight, well choreographed and entertaining. We saw some open-air dance and a production of Helen of Troy. We are going to the Proms at Albert Hall and The Merchant of Venice. We have to make the most of all the theatre and music there is around.
Max has had a friend visit from Norwich where we spent the last month. He and Helena did their own sightseeing including the giant ferris wheel called the London Eye with great views over London and the markets. It is more interesting to do things with people his own age apparently.
Paul and Renee had a big birthday/house warming party here, so there were lots and lots of Kiwis and Aussies. There are Australians everywhere in London but we hadn’t met many at all before this. It is funny, the English can’t tell the two accents apart but it only takes a few words to know. We could almost sit back and look at the party as outsiders, notice the different accents and cultural differences the Australians and New Zealanders have compared to the English, and appreciate the friendly, relaxed and easy-going nature. You can only see it when you have been away from it for a while.

The UK is steeped in history – there are ruins of castles everywhere, everyday buildings date back hundreds of years before Australia was even settled. The oldest pub in Norwich where we have been staying was built in 1242! And the English really love their heritage. In particular they like to recreate the old days and during the summer there are medieval re-enactments all over the place. These include the clothes, food, tools, weapons, occupations and sometimes even the battles.

We went to a re-enactment day at Castle Rising Castle (yes that’s its name). It was great. A group of devoted followers of British history were all in costume, and playing the parts of various people in the village – the lord, the priest, the notary (writer), the archer, the cook, the musician. They were having lunch when we arrived – all authentic with wooden bowls and goblets, bone spoons, and some rather nice looking baked food. After that we could talk to each person about their part in the village etc. They stayed in character all the time and it was very interesting. As a highlight to the day they staged a battle – complete with knight in full armour (we watched him get dressed and that alone took 30 minutes) and 6 archers all firing rubber tipped arrows at each other. They were a bit short on numbers but we got the idea and it was very entertaining.

Wooden swords and bow and arrow set were on sale and every kid seemed to have one so at times it felt like you were in the middle of a battle too with arrows flying about. Those sorts of toys are not encouraged in Australia but they are all the go over here because it is history.

Make sure you book train tickets more than a week in advance to get discount fairs; make sure you have a good map or guide book; make sure you have spare camera batteries; make sure it is the right day for the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace; make sure you buy tickets for the theatre early before either the ticket office closes or the tickets sell out or both, make sure that free events listed for a week are really going to happen everyday; make sure that the train tickets you have are transferable to later times without additional cost.

We didn’t.

So we had a very long, tiring and quite expensive day in London without getting to see or do much. We did see some of the mounted horse guards, the outside of a few landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Cathedral and Big Ben. We walked across Tower Bridge, caught a tube or two, went to a pub and came home. Covent Gardens were good though with very entertaining buskers, even a very heavily tattooed one from Australia, and the Thai restaurant had nice food but very strange decor - and it didn’t rain.
It is hard work being a tourist especially with the exchange rate so bad for us at present. The information available on the net is not always accurate and without any local knowledge it is quite hard and frustrating getting around.

There is really not much to make you go to Salthouse, a tiny village on the Norfolk coast, except for the annual art exhibition at St Nicholas Church and Cookies Crab Shop of course. It is not the sort of place you just happen to be passing but with some local guides (Chris and Richard), with inside information and transport this was a very pleasant day. This week Cookies made it into the Guardian’s (newspaper) 100 Top Alfresco Venues in the UK but by the number of customers there last Sunday, people already know.

It is a tiny wooden shop with tightly packed outdoor tables under a canvas awning on gravel. The tables are booked all through the day allowing you 1 1/2 hours to eat and move on before the next occupants arrive. It is simple, unpretentious and very inviting. There is even and a fishing boat leaning by the small front gate that looks very much at home.

Inside the Cookie’s shack, the menu and rules are tacked on the walls: Please do not bring your own food or soft drinks, as we serve these here. Please bring your own wine glasses, there have been many breakages. We are not a tea room, we do not serve teas or coffee. Closest toilets are in the pub around the corner.

The only things on the menu are salads - Crab Salad, Crayfish Salad, Salmon Salad, Lobster Royal Salad, King Prawn Salad and on and on, all fresh and straight from the fishing boats. They were generous servings and quick - great big meaty servings of fish and shellfish surrounded by slices of tomato, cucumber and beetoot, and spoonfuls of coleslaw; and all the dishes came with faces on them. I noticed the pâté smiled with a tomato face. The salmon looked at us with olive eyes lined with pink shrimp eyebrows. There were sticky toffee puddings and icecream sundaes on the menu, I wonder if they had faces too.

Luckily we had parked the car at the top of the hill and walked down so we were able to walk off some of our lunch then The rest we walked off along the beach from Sheringham to West Runton and back along the cliffs with the precarious caravan parks gradually falling into the sea. It was a perfect, warm summer day, (one of the few we’ve had this summer)– we even swam!