$120 parking ticket

On Friday friends Des & Steve along with their friends Brett & Mary Kay were in London for one night on their way through to Croatia so we decided to go in to town to meet up with them. I found out where we could park near a tube station for the cheapest way to get there. We drove to Richmond, found the car park (that's parking lot in American English), and took our credit card over to the pay machine. That's where the trouble started. The machine rejected our credit card so we stepped back to dig out some cash and let another customer use the machine. He pulled a paper stub out of the machine and asked if it was ours. We took it and thought, well, maybe our credit card did work. Then we saw that no, it showed the last 4 digits and it wasn't our card but hey, it was only a few minutes prior to when we got there so we thought someone else had paid and then left their stub in the machine. Happy days for us right? Free parking! We put the stub on the dashboard and skipped off to the tube station. There we were confronted with another payment machine. We put our card in and were just getting ready to push the buttons to get 2 travelcards but before we did the machine spits out 2 tickets. Well, we couldn't figure out how it knew we wanted 2 but off we went. Robin sailed through the automated gate but I would put my ticket in the slot and then slam up against the non-opening gate. I showed my ticket to an attendant who informed me it was only a receipt. Doh! Okay, back to the machine to get another travelcard. By the time we got into central London my brain had started asking "was it possible that our "free parking" ticket back in Richmond was only a receipt???" Not only possible but it actually was only a receipt as confirmed by the 60 pound "penalty charge notice" on the car when Robin returned several hours later. Ouch! Okay, if we pay it within 14 days it is "only" 30 pounds (still over $60!). Needless to say I am appealing using the "we are stupid American tourists" defence. Keep your fingers crossed - this could be the difference between good english ale in the pub vs yucky tasting tap water at home for the next month!

The British are truly whacked!

Apologies to my British friends but I've had further proof today that, as a whole, the British are whacked! Robin and I went to B&Q which is basically a Home Depot. We spotted this item for sale.

We could not figure out why someone would come up with a butt shaped rain barrel with a spigot coming out the "business end". Goggling "rain barrel butts" when I got home shed some light on the subject. In Britain a rain barrel is called a water butt. Okay, so that explains the "double entendre" but still...

Newbury Cycle Sportive

We rode the Newbury Cycle Sportive on Sunday. Our friends Ken and Barbara Robson were organizing so we knew it would be a good event. Cycle Sportives are organized to encourage cycling at all levels and to provide a competitive (although technically not a racing) challenge to those that want it. Robin rode the 115 mile event and achieved the silver medal standard (discovering after that he missed gold by only a little over 2 minutes) and I rode the 75 miler achieving the bronze medal standard (missing silver by 4 minutes). Since neither of us bothered checking to see what the time standards were ahead of time we weren't really aiming for anything. Robin rode hard to challenge himself while I enjoyed the countryside and rode a different paces matching along to different people to chat. A good day out followed by my favorite English beer - Kings Down. Kings Down is brewed by Arkell and is only available in a handful of pubs - none really close to our place in Farnborough unfortunately (?). Maybe I like it so much because so far I've only had it after a full day of cycling! Cheers!

A Walk at Fleet Pond

We set out one morning for a walk around Fleet Pond before Robin went to work. It was a nice day and a lovely walk - but somewhere along the way I lost my favorite Smith Bazooka Slider sunglasses. I suspect this guy but he never cracked under interrogation.

Love at first blog?

In an attempt to be more timely with webpage updates I am giving Blogger a try. If all goes well I'll get some pictures and words up from the last 9 months that I haven't gotten around to posting on the traditional webpage. Starting with way back in winter 2006...

A W(h)ale(s) of a Time

The windtunnel broke down for a couple of days and the weekend was open so we decided to drive to Wales. A couple of years ago Robin visited a village called Hay-on-Wye in Wales that is famous for its many and varied book stores. Right up my alley! We arranged a B&B for 2 nights and hit the road. As we got close to Hay I saw signs for "Arthur's Stone" so once we settled in we got out the bikes and headed out on our "quest" to find it.

The terrain in Wales is quit unforgiving to cyclists. Very narrow roads with steep steep pitches. Plenty of great scenery but you are either in oxygen-debt trying to get up a hill or holding on and watching out for rocks, holes, cars, fences, and sheep on the way down. At the bottom of one hill was a sign that said Not Suitable for Heavy Goods Vehicles (also sometimes referred to as HGVs). As I ended up pushing my bike part way up this hill I've determined I must be an HGV.

Arthur's Stone was the name given to a Neolithic burial site. It was in use many many years before the legend of King Arthur ever came to be but it is a good name anyway.

One of Robin's co-workers, Dave, was in Hay that night too so we had a nice dinner with him. Next morning Dave was heading back to Farnborough but we were doing a bike loop that would bring us back to Hay through the Black Mountains. More unforgiving hills and sheep but a very cool ride. We visited a little church tucked way back in the hills that had this intricately carved wooden screen, St. Issui in Partrishow. A little further north we saw the ruined Tintern Abbey.

Next morning we looked in a few book shops before leaving town but didn't buy anything. Stopping in Ross-on-Wye we found a plague cross in the churchyard. It is a plain stone cross commemorating more than 300 townspeople who were buried by night in unmarked graves during the plage.

We were about 45 minutes from Farnborough when Robin's boss, Rick, called on the mobile to say the wind tunnel was back up and running. Good thing we'd decided against staying one more day in Wales!

Mark and Laurie come for a visit

Our friends Mark and Laurie had arranged to come for a visit here in England combined with a week in Paris. They were due to arrive on Friday Sept 7 but missed their connecting flight in Chicago so we were robbed of one day with them. Still we made the most of their time here:
A day's outing seeing the sights of London, here at the Tower Bridge
and here at the Tower of London where we saw the first ever female Beefeater, only appointed or commissioned or whatever the previous week.

A lovely day out on a countryside and town ramble.
A visit to Stonehenge (including special pre-arranged access to the stone circle prior to official opening time).

We also took a drive in the country followed by lunch at one of our favorite pubs, Saturday evening at the Hatch Warren Beer Festival and visited Hampton Court (one of Henry the VIII's cribs),

Thanks for visiting guys!