England Weekend in August

I had a nice weekend at Susie's .

I went up to Susie's on Friday (August 6) as I had a golf game set for Saturday with a former colleague  from Kohler who happens to live in Bloxham. I have known Phil Davis since about 2003. He is now doing freelance HR . Takes jobs when he likes and takes holidays when he likes.  Anyway, I thought I would head down early and join Susie and Mike in a English tradition that I had never had...or at least I cannot remember having. Takeaway fish and chips from a fish shop.  I arrived about 6:00 on Friday, and Mike and I went into the village to get the food, Susie set the knives and forks and warmed the plates. It was quite good, but the portions were very large, a lot of chips, and a big piece of fish. I had expected it to be quite greasy, but it did not seem that bad.  I must try it in Cheltenham some time.

On Saturday I went for my usual morning walk in the village, and just after 1:00, Phil came and picked me up for golf. We played at a local course, with the very lovely name of Banbury Golf Center. The price was right 15 BP. It was a strange day.  Drizzling when we teed off on # 1, we were quite hot as we made the turn at 10, and it rained a bit again on 17, and then we sat out and had a beer in the sun when we finished.

View from the 14th tee

Phil hitting a great drive

After golf Phil invited me to his home for dinner. I had met his wife Judy in Kohler about 5 years ago when there was a gala dinner at Kohler near Christmas. Genya had taken her and a couple of the other spouses shopping in Sheboygan for an afternoon. They have  a nice house overlooking fields on the outskirts of Bloxham. I also met his son Chris and his 11 year old daughter Helen.  We had a nice evening.

On Sunday I slept in, as I usually do at Susie's. Then I went into Banbury to Tesco to get a few things, mostly groceries as the stores all seem to close at 4:00, and by the time I get home Sunday it is too late to get my dinner or things I may need for breakfast. I also filled up the car with petrol and took it thru a car wash.

After our usual Sunday lunch fry up at Susie's, I left for Cheltenham about 4:00. Now I am getting pretty good at doing this trip, I no longer need a map and I am more comfortable driving on the left hand side of the road.  However just past Stow on the Wold, the police had the road blocked, and instead of my usual route, I was waved onto a different road. I was a bit worried, but I figured I have maps of the region, and I could go cross country to meet up with my normal way back. However this is England, and the roads are so narrow, and the hedges and fences so close, unless you come across a lay-by, there is not safe place to stop. So I drove for about 20 minutes before I could stop. By then I was almost in Burford. After checking my map I saw that just after Burford, I could link up with the A-40, which is the road into Cheltenham.

CRASH ON A-40

Bring a Sunday evening in August, the roads are quite busy, caravans, antique cars and just generally heavy traffic. I am still quite cautious, and I am driving a stick shift. In traffic near the place where I would have met the  A- 40 on my normal route, traffic slowed down, then appeared to speed up. Suddenly the car ahead of me, a gray Range Rover, ran into the back of the van ahead of it, quite hard, smashing the back window of the van and pushing it forward. The hood of the Range Rover buckled and it seemed to immediately have steam and water coming out from the engine. Suddenly the occupants of the vehicles all exited. The driver of the van had a cut nose and was bleeding. He quickly took his family (3 children and his wife) out of the car to the side of the road. then the driver of the Range Rover exited with her companion....then, apparently from nowhere, 3 Indian ladies in Saris appeared...there had been a red car in front of the gray van ! It has been the first car to stop !

The vehicles in the accident on A-40

The car behind me had also stopped. (by this time a lot of cars had stopped). The driver of that car and I got out and went over to the assembly of other drivers and passengers. Except for the cut nose and some scared kids, everyone was OK. The three Indian ladies seemed very worried, as if they felt they may have caused the accident. By this time cell phones were out and in about 4 minutes the police arrived. As I was the car immediately behind the accident, the police officer asked "who was the driver of that car". I identified myself and she took my name, age and address, and also noted the registration of the car. She asked me  a few questions about what I saw, and if I was hurt. (She did not ask for my drivers license, which may have required some explanation, showing of passports, visas and international driving license)

My view (notice how I managed a safe and controlled stop a safe distance behind.) This was taken as I was leaving and the police had arrived and were taking statements. You can see from my angle in the car, I could not see the red car...

Home Safe ...whew

I am leaving England on Wednesday for the US, not back until September 7th.

Chester House

During my trip to Paris at the end of May/beginning of June, we packed up Stephen's little flat near the Bastille, and moved to Cheltenham in the UK (see previous post).  Well, the service apartment was only meant to be temporary until more permanent accommodation could be found. 
Lucky me.... I always seem to be around when it's time to move.  At the end of July, I found myself packing and unpacking again.  I was going to give Stephen credit for finding a lovely 2 bedroom flat but the truth is - he hired a property agent, looked at one apartment and then rented it.  Just as well.... I probably would have wanted to look at a half dozen places and by the time I would be ready to make up my mind, my favourite apartment would no longer be available.  So maybe I should give Stephen credit for a job well done.  He now has a larger flat,  in a nicer location,  no busy traffic,  lots of windows and a lovely view.

Schlepping from one apartment to the next.  Actually, the next day,  Stephen had a car and we made about four more trips.

This is a view of the front entrance.  It seems that all buildings in Cheltenham have to have their own name.  Stephen is now living at Chester House.  By the way, that's his balcony on the top left.

Kitchen

Living room/ dining room

Bedrooms

View from the Living room

British Open Saturday...July 17, 2010

...and I was playing !

Well, I was actually playing at Rye Hill Golf Club near Susies, but as I walked around the course I could hear Peter Alliss commenting on my game.   "Oh, there's a lovely shot" and  "..that should have gone in...what a pity" and "...he's making a real pigs ear of this hole"

The Rye Hill Course is about 5 minutes from Bloxom, and I have played it twice before. Once about 7- 8 years ago with rented clubs...and last Saturday. As this area  has not seen a lot of rain, last Saturday the course was very dry and while there was a lot of roll, the fairways were fairly hard and bounces were highly variable.  Yesterday was much better as there had been rain during the week.

It is what I imagine to be a typical course over here,  all golfers walking, not a lot of amenities like  we see on the US courses, benches, ball-washers etc. The fairways on this layout are quite hilly with lots of sideway lies... and the rough is pretty rough.

Below is the club-house of Rye Hill. Also the link if you are interested.

http://www.ryehill.co.uk/

Photo of the Golfer.  I was alone until the 9th hole, so the camera

is sitting on top of a low tee marker.

Beautiful views on every hole

I had a few challenging lies. This one in front of the local hazard of choice,

a variety of gorse that is pretty vicious. The green is in a line directly behind the bush.

I had to hit sideways which required a delicate backing into the gorse.

Gorse up close.

Challenging lie # 2

Challenging lie # 3

(but I did get up and down in 2 !)

No houses, no rangers, no cart lady...no other golfers !  On both weeks I have just shown up on a Saturday about 11:00 am and  walked on. I pay in the pro-shop, and they just point you to the tee. No need

for a slip as there is no starter.  Except for a "honour pay" course Genya and played in New Zealand ( With a sign at the entrance that stated "Please close the gate firmly as you leave"), this is the most natural course I have played.  I imagine it to be pretty typical of the area.

I shot an 89, only lost 2 balls.

Commuting II - Cheltenham

Aside from my walk to work at  Kohler, the Cheltenham commute is the most residential. it is not particularly "old England", but I do enjoy the walk. So far I have not had a rainy day. My view may change in winter.

Below

The building on the right is my apartment. It is larger than Paris, but has no outstanding qualities except it is bigger, and has 2 rooms.  It is on a busy street.

From my street, I connect to a quiet street connecting the downtown to more of a  residential area...

Of course a roundabout.... need to be very careful crossing, look left...no...no look right first

...and then it gets pretty residential.

Past a football field...(notice the sponsor ..MIRA)

Another residential street...

Front gate....It is a working factory

...past the factory....

another boring office building.

Next blog....castles

Commuting

For the past 5 and a half years I have not driven a car on a regular basis. In Shanghai or Paris I would never consider driving. The only driving I did in "Asia" was in New Zealand.  The rest of that region intimidated me too much to even try.

Even though I lived close enough to Kohler to walk, when I lived and worked there, I mostly drove. Now that I do not have another car in Kohler, when I do go back for meetings etc,  I am walking to work most days. 

There are many theories about commuting to work. I have always subscribed to the "shorter is better" school of commuting. I have been able to pull this off by managing to live and work in small towns for most of my career. (Prescott, Brockville, Cornwall, Searcy and Kohler).  I lived far enough away from work that I felt I had to drive, but for the most part it was a short drive. I know many people who have long commutes and they say that they use the time to decompress or to prepare for the work day (that would then be "to compress"?) . In the context of short and long commute, it was always assumed that one was referring to a long or short drive.

 For about 2 and a half years in Shanghai, I could  actually walk to work. This added a further level of environmental PC to my commute. In June of 2008, we moved to an office park that was on the outer ring of Shanghai....walking was no longer an option.  This was  the last 12 months of my time there and I took the subway. I was lucky to live close to a station, and from the end of the line it was either a commuter bus provided by the  office park, or a 15 minute walk. The subway ride was about 20 minutes, and usually not to crowded as I came early and left later. It was always much less busy than I would experience on a Saturday if I went shopping. So the total commute was about 35 - 45 minutes on average.

As for using the commuting time to decompress or prepare for the day, I am not sure I did. I am more of a people watcher/daydream commuter I think. I tried reading, but I am not able to read books in short spurts, I need long periods, plane trips, weekends etc.

In Paris I took a subway and a train for 12 months. The Paris route had me change from metro to RER. Daydreaming was risky as a couple of time I missed my stop...and that was hard  to do as about 80% of the people got off at the metro at the station Gare du Nord. The Paris commute was more interesting however for people watching.  Shanghai did not have buskers, beggars nor the wild variety of characters or dress that is offered by the Paris metro. A virtual feast of humanity in all its colours and shapes.

In Cheltenham, I walk again.

I thought I would share some pictures of my commutes from Paris and Cheltenham...first Paris:

This is the street outside my apartment. I am heading to the Metro. A typical Parisian street scene.

Entrance to the Metro.

My metro station. mentioned in an earlier blog, Brequet Sabin is a small station

Usually not very busy at any time of the day or night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A9guet_%E2%80%93_Sabin_(Paris_M%C3%A9tro)

Gare Du Nord...controlled chaos every morning. this is where I change from the Metro to the RER

Getting on the RER. Only one stop on this train.

The view from my stop. Plaine de Stade De France. The Paris metro/rail system is amazing and  very large.

From the RER station, it is about a 15 minute walk.

I pass a small area of urban garden allotments, nice to see progress every day.

Suburban office area outskirts of Paris...where the office is located

The office building.... boring....

 And finally the entrance...

In my next blog I will share my Cheltenham commute.

Moving

It seems as though I am always running behind in this blog.  I still have lots of potential entries for our stay in Paris but we are now moving to Cheltenham in England.  Actually, I guess it would be more accurate to say that we are in the throes of moving.  Tomorrow, we fly back to Paris and Stephen will return to the UK with the rest of his suitcases at the end of the week.

So, goodbye Paris flat.... hello Cheltenham.

Outside the Paris flat

View out the window.  It's a little deceiving because normally there wouldn't be as much traffic....there was a strike taking place that day in Bastille Square and cars were being diverted. 

Having left the flat, we moved into temporary accommodations in a nearby hotel.

I thought the flat was small...

At least we had a nice view

The one picture we didn't take was of the 7 boxes that were shipped to the UK ahead of us.  It's easy to accumulate "things".  I thought Stephen was going to downsize when he left China but it seems that socks, and underwear, and shirts, and books tend to multiply in spite of good intentions.

Here are some indoor pictures of the new flat in Cheltenham.  It's a one bedroom - much appreciated after the studio flat in Paris.

I didn't mean for our laundry to show up in this picture.

View form the bedroom window.  The traffic is very close so it can be a bit noisy.

Since the above view isn't that attractive.... here's a more pleasing impression of Cheltenham.

And finally, I couldn't resist showing a picture of the birthday boy - celebrating after settling into a new apartment.