Paris: Demonstrating in the rain

Here we are in wet and dreary Paris. After a smooth and enjoyable journey from Ebbsfleet International Station to Gare du Nord, and not forgetting our picnic breakfast,

we stepped off Eurostar to be greeted by torrential rain and grey sky; we also found that of all the days to arrive in Paris, 31st March was probably the worst possible choice. The transport systems and other public services have been affected by a national day of action and protest against the French government's plans to change the labour laws to make it easier to hire and fire staff and to relax France's current strict 35 hour working week arrangements. So we found that the metro and other train services were disrupted. However, we stuck with it and were able to get across to Gare de Lyon with only one change using the RER system. One hint for anyone else travelling by RER and Metro, keep walking past the ticket machines at the entrance to the station, which have long queues, and use the machines further into the station - no queues at all.

On arrival at the huge Gare de Lyon, we navigated our way to our hotel but not without first having to pass a sizeable group of riot police with batons at the ready and then cutting across the demonstration itself to get to the road we needed. The activity we saw seemed good natured and peaceful, although apparently there had been some skirmishes between a small group of demonstrators and the police earlier in the day near to the station. I must say it did hearten me to see thousands of people walking through torrential rain to let the government know how they feel about the planned erosion of their working rights when in the UK we seem to just moan about it, but do nothing to really signal our concerns when the welfare of the most vulnerable are threatened.

We ended the day with dinner in a brasserie just round the corner from our hotel. We both noticed how many tables, at least 5, were occupied by single men having dinner, not something you would see that often in the UK, where eating out is more of a social occasion, rather than just having a meal. We would have ended the day with a stroll but it was still raining so we opted to go back to the hotel for an early night and some reading and blogging. I think we are both tired after all the planning and anticipation, and my husband worked late last night to leave things at work in good order. Also, we are planning an early breakfast tomorrow as we have booked a special lunch before we board the train tomorrow afternoon for Switzerland and don't want to get too full at breakfast time so we can't manage our lunch. The forecast for tomorrow looks a lot better too, so we want to get the full benefit of that in the morning.

Last minute prep for inter-railing trip

Well, it's just after 9pm and I think we are ready for the off tomorrow; my lovely new holdall is all packed and doesn't seem to be that heavy, particularly with the wheels to help, and my husband's smaller case is also packed and ready to go.

Yes, it's smaller but then he isn't taking books, apart from his Bradshaw's 1913 facsimile (familiar to those of you who watch Michael Portillo on his tv rail journeys) which is certainly a chunky volume, and I am panicking that I won't have enough quality reading to keep me going through all those miles on the trains when I won't want to look out at the scenery, or when I'm waiting at stations. Apart from not wanting to waste the opportunity! Hopefully if I get through the three sizeable volumes of literature and I exhaust my interest in reading the thick and comprehensive travel guide to Europe, there will be English bookshops in many of the cities on the route, and a lot of hotels have shelves for travellers to swap books.

I suppose a Kindle would have been a good investment, but I'm not convinced that sitting on trains, speeding across Europe and then having to read from a screen would quite do it for me. I am taking Henry James "Portrait of a Lady," which is one of my all time favourites, and which I last read around 1977. The pace of the prose and the story itself, a gentle unfolding of the reality of what is happening to Isobel, the Lady, just doesn't lend itself to the modernity of a Kindle, so the price to pay is having strict limits on the number of books in the bag with the exciting prospect of searching for and hopefully finding more reading material as we go.

Most of the serious packing has been going on since Tuesday so today was just last minute bits and things that came to mind during the course of the day. Good job we are going tomorrow or that kitchen sink might just have made it into the bag - taps and all!

The main danger of overload though sits with the hand luggage in the form of a small rucksack with quite a lot to be fitted in - including my MacBook, so I can blog regularly; the A4 folder with all the documents for the journey and most important of all, the packed breakfast and lunch, which includes a bottle of fizz, a couple of boxes of chocs, croissants, sarnies (not sardines as the spellchecker wanted to make it!) and fruit. That's all alongside my beautiful travel wallet, a very indulgent ad treasured present from my ex-colleagues and friends, which is holding the passports, EHICs, currency etc, plus the normal contents of my handbag.

Hope you'll visit this blog from time to time as I'll be keeping in touch and sharing our experiences of travels and destinations from Paris to Trondheim.

Easter weekend round up

It's the dog end of the Easter weekend and been fun, and pretty lively with our three kids and two partners here. It's been lovely to have all the family back home for those few days but it has made me realise how quickly I've got used to a quieter, slower-paced way of life as I am now quite exhausted. We've had lots of food, alcohol and even some warm sunshine on Friday, which seduced us to a nearby country park we've never visited before after a stroll into town for breakfast, hot cross buns and some Easter hymns from the Salvation Army.

On Sunday, my sister and my two nieces joined us and we all ate more than was good for us and reminded me that there is always a price to pay for over-indulgence.

Last night's visit by Storm Katie caused us some problems this morning, on top of the planned rail engineering works across the networks in our area. Our youngest has to be back at Uni for Tuesday to complete a placement he's been doing in a local primary school and because of the bus replacement services in place for today we'd arranged to drive him 15 miles or so to take an alternative line into London Victoria for access to Victoria Coach Station. On arrival at the station we were told there were no trains running because of a fallen tree blockage, further up the line, so we ended up driving him to Victoria where he was in good time to catch his bus, and hopefully a good run up north. Fortunately the roads to London were clear and it didn't take too long to drive there and back.

Our daughter and her boyfriend left at lunchtime so there's just one son with his girlfriend still here, and leftovers from yesterday for dinner - bliss, no proper cooking to do today.

Thoughts now turn to packing and last minute prep for our trip, now only 3 days away!

Cover it up with marzipan!

Well, cake made and decorated!

I used a different recipe this year as I usually make the Mary Berry rich fruit cake and decorate it simnel-cake style and have it ready a few weeks in advance to feed it with rum or brandy. Somehow I didn't get round to it this year, so decided only yesterday to make one, opting for Mary's actual Simnel cake recipe, which is a lighter mix and has a layer of marzipan baked through the middle of the cake. It came out of the oven smelling delicious and looking well formed, however, it sadly started to sink after a couple of minutes so probably should have had a bit longer in the oven. Not to worry, the top layer of marzipan and the kitsch chicks in their nest have covered up the crater and I'm sure it will taste good when we cut into it.

Two out of three of the kids (plus one partner) are now home and will be good to have them all here on Saturday and Sunday, before the eldest and youngest go back on Monday.

Tomorrow morning we plan to go into town to our local traditional bakers for breakfast in their cafe and to buy lots of their yummy hot cross buns, which will be devoured enthusiastically by all of us, and in huge quantities by some members of the family!

At the same time, packing for next week is now underway. My new holdall on wheels arrived during the week and I've started to put into it some of the essential things as they come to mind, plus newly washed clothes that I plan to take. This time next week we'll be in Paris, so it's all starting to feel real and exciting.

Happy Easter and thank you to all of you who take the trouble to read this blog. I hope that once we are on the move, there'll be a lot of interesting information and impressions to share and you'll stick with me.

Spring day in London with the stars

Our youngest has come home from Uni for Easter and I took the opportunity to go up to London for the day to meet him off the bus. My plan was to go to an exhibition at the National Gallery then see a film I've missed on the local circuit, A Bigger Splash. However, as it was such a beautiful Spring day, the warmest this year so far, I decided to skip the art and save it for another trip, and walked from Victoria Station to Oxford Street, strolling through St James Park, enjoying the sunshine and the sight of so many people sitting on the grass, relaxing and chatting.

The thing I really love about London is that no matter how much time you spend there, and in my case that includes living and working in north London for 4 years as well as countless stays and day trips, you can always find new routes to walk, through streets and small pedestrian cut-throughs which reveal buildings, shops and landmarks you haven't seen before. Today, cutting through from the park to Piccadilly, I came upon the statue of Beau Brummell in Jermyn Street outside the Princes Arcade, which I don't remember having seen before, and stopped to admire him. After a bit of shopping in Oxford Street, my reward to myself was afternoon tea in the John Lewis coffee shop, which turned out to be filling enough to replace dinner, so didn't feel like too much of an indulgence.

The walk to the cinema in Leicester Square took a bit longer than expected due to the levels of  security in the square for the premiere of Batman v Superman. Ben Affleck and the rest of the cast were walking the red carpet, with big screens up around the Square. The normal route through was sealed off and large crowds were waiting to catch sight of the stars which made for slow progress; however, I made it in time for the pre-film ads but had no chance to take much notice of the goings-on in the square itself.

I was quite disappointed by the film, which turned out to be less gripping and dramatic than I'd hoped for and, at almost 2 hours, was longer than it deserved to be. The real star of the film was the beautiful island of Pantelleria, off the west coast of Sicily, which was stunning and much more interesting than the human characters. Tilda Swinton, as an ageing rock star, did wear some fabulous clothes though.

Anyway, I can cross that one off my list now and the timing worked well to meet my son off his bus and catch up with the news on the train home. Our daughter and older son will be arriving home on Thursday so will be great to catch up with them all!

Getting ready, Easter prep and the meaning of retirement

Only 11 days now until the start of our April inter-rail trip and things are beginning to really take shape. I met a friend for lunch yesterday who was in Rome a few weeks ago, and was able to supply some helpful tips about which sights to prioritise and how to make best use of the transport system. She advised that if we want to use our time wisely it's advisable to book for the Vatican and that we really should go there as top priority. I have a cousin in Rome who I haven't met for about 12 years and we had a loose arrangement to meet for lunch while we are there. I contacted him yesterday and we've now agreed on a date to meet and have booked the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel for the full free day. My cousin and his wife are going to take us round the area they live, to the south east of the city, which we wouldn't have been able to do under our own steam.

My new hold-all on wheels is to be delivered tomorrow so as soon as I have it I can start to pack into it the little piles of things I've started to gather together. Last week we had a delivery of the non-euro currencies we will be using, i.e. Swiss francs, Danish kroner, Swedish kronor and Norwegian kroner, and as we don't really have a clue what any of these are worth, we are likely to be more reckless than with the euro, that we've come to know and love. From what we've heard about the costs in Scandinavia, we will probably have no choice but to be reckless if we want to enjoy ourselves and partake of the local goodies.

This past week has been a busy one and next week will be the same as we approach the Easter weekend and holiday. Both our sons are coming home from University this week and our daughter will also be coming back at the weekend for a rare family reunion. It is also our youngest son's birthday on Saturday and my sister and her daughters are joining us on Easter Sunday, so I am busily stocking the freezer and preparing food for the celebrations.

On Thursday one of my colleagues retired from work and it was great to be able to go along to her farewell event and wish her well. She didn't work in the same department as me, but when I first joined the organisation in 1990 she had been doing the same job a couple of years before I was recruited and her name was on a lot of the documents in the files I was working with. She had also occupied the same office I was allocated to so I felt I knew her, although I had never actually met her. One of my colleagues used to talk about her and what a great person she was. She subsequently returned to the organisation to a different role and I had also moved on, to the Personnel Office, but we met through our jobs and immediately "clicked." She looked on Thursday the same way I felt on my last day, excited and full of anticipation, but with that question, "What will it really be like?"  I have no doubt that I have done the right thing and am enjoying the choice and freedom that retirement brings. As my friend said in her farewell speech, it's like the other side of taking your first job after University, when you suddenly realise that you have to  be in the office from 9 till 5 and your control over what you do, when, has gone. With retirement, it's like taking that control back and that choice and freedom is incredibly liberating. Looking forward to some lunches with her after the travels!

Travels, the generation gap and toads

We travelled up to the Midlands to visit our daughter and her partner in their new flat at the weekend and were rewarded with some lovely sunshine and spring weather and some very indulgent food - a good combination. I also spotted quite a few lambs in the fields, the first I've seen this year.

The area they are now living in is very attractive and it was pleasant to walk round the historic streets and call in just a few of the comfortable pubs on our way round.

We enjoyed a meal on Saturday evening in a small Spanish restaurant, with only 4 tables, which my daughter had managed to book ahead. There was no menu, but the owner/chef came out and told us what he was cooking and checked we were happy to go ahead on that basis, which we were.

Our first course was a plate with hummus, serrano ham, olives and some delicious warm bread, followed by a slice of hot and tasty frittata. The fish course of cod in a cream, onion and ouzo sauce was particularly delicious and a hit with us all, and the meat was amazing, as he brought us some perfectly cooked steak, followed by a dish with slices of my favourite, roast lamb. We enjoyed both the white and red Spanish wines we were given and our only reservation was that there was no dessert. However, as we were all stuffed with what we'd eaten, it was probably just as well. The restaurant has only been open for 4 weeks and the owner said he would be looking at bringing in some desserts in the future.

On Sunday morning we drove to another historic market town nearby to pay a visit to a patisserie and cafe that my daughter and her partner had spotted when house hunting, and we all had a coffee or hot chocolate with a lovely cake. That was on top of the hotel breakfast my husband and I had eaten a couple of hours before, but the cakes were too good to miss.

Mine is the salted caramel eclair nearest the camera.

On a more serious note, I took the Saturday newspaper to read during the journey and was concerned by the front page article which focused on the reported significant increase in the number of young people who perceive that their future is economically bleak in comparison with the experience of their parents, headlined, "'A permanent divide': stark call to act on generation gap." There is a sense that the government has protected pensioners at the expense of young adults, who have been hit by the tripling of University tuition fees, the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance and changes to the rules regarding housing benefit for single people between 25 and 35. Add to that the high costs of housing and the drop in levels of home ownership for young people and the picture is far from rosy. It also pointed out that these circumstances are likely to lead to greater social division where those young adults whose parents can afford to help them financially will leave behind those who come from families without the means to provide that support. It made me realise how lucky I am to be receiving a decent occupational pension, another area that is changing for the worse for those who come behind, even though I still have to wait a few years for my state pension. The government may yet have to rethink its current plans for the state pension and the budget on Wednesday may provide some pointers.

To end on a brighter note, I enjoy collecting humorous spelling errors on public signs and notices -markets are often a rich source of these. Today I walked past a house a few minutes walk from our house which has a sign on the front window asking people not to park on the pathway/road that runs up the side of the house. "Parking for residents only.  Other vehicles will be toad."

Retirement Top Ten

I’ve been puzzling over what to blog about, which is a first since I started blogging, as subjects just seem to have arisen without too much consideration. I am thinking that this is probably because the original rationale for the blog was to comment and reflect on making the transition from full-time employment to retirement and the adjustments to lifestyle and ways of thinking that created. I expected that would probably take a full year or so, but I have to say I already feel I am now a fully-adjusted retired person and it seems like years since I went out to work, so the way I am living now has become my new “norm.” I have very quickly established a routine for those days when I don’t have any outside commitments, but which is flexible to accommodate seeing and communicating with family and friends, and the days are just flying by and still so much to do. I really struggle to understand the concept of boredom when there are so many challenges and interesting things with which to fill the time.

I thought it would be a bit of fun to create a Top Ten benefits of retirement, and here goes (if you’re old enough to remember Alan Freeman and Pick of the Pops on Sunday teatime imagine his voice as the intro, “Welcome Pop Pickers.”)

1. Getting up between 8.30 and 9.00 in the mornings instead of 6.20 (specially on dark winter mornings)!
2. Wearing jeans and t-shirts, and socks instead of tights, for 90% of waking hours.
3. No need to plan those packed lunches, just have a little of what you fancy, and if nothing in the fridge appeals, nip down to the shops.
4. It’s ok to be in pjs till lunchtime.
5. Choose your own goals and deadlines (mostly, anyway), and reject stress.
6. Having time not just to shop and cook, but to plan meals in a logical way.
7. Having time to walk to places as opposed to driving everywhere to save time.
8. Becoming a regular visitor to the local library, coming out loaded with books on travel, cooking, crafts as well as novels and biographies.
9. Being so much more in control of how my time is spent, i.e. being able to embark on long and frequent travel and being able to spend more time with family and friends.
10. If you don’t feel like doing it today, then do it tomorrow!

In the interests of balance, there are some disbenefits, but not sure I can stretch to ten.

1. Less money.
2. Less contact with the people I really valued as colleagues and friends, but then again, I am going to be meeting up socially with many of my closest friends and colleagues tomorrow evening, i.e. quality time, and will continue to do so.
3. Lack of involvement in a team, but this can be incorporated into life outside of paid work, and might be something to include in the future.
4. Less sense of mission in life, i.e. feeling that the work you do is helpful to others, again, this can be achieved outside of paid work.

I think that’s about it, so on balance, the benefits do massively outweigh the losses. Of course, something may jump up and change my feelings about all of this, as it is still early days, but at the moment, I  really do appreciate retirement.

I went to the theatre last night and can honestly say that I didn’t once feel like I was in danger of drifting off to sleep, which used to happen all the time, even in the most exciting and action-packed tv programmes, plays and films, as I was always deeply exhausted. This is in the context of a very busy week which started with a trip to Heathrow to pick up our daughter and her partner on their return from 3 weeks in Australia, then helping them to prepare for moving to a new home and jobs in the Midlands. Looking forward to visiting them in their new home at the weekend.

The sheer hell of getting ready to travel

Four weeks today we will be in Paris ready to start the first leg of our inter-rail trip on April Fools' Day of all days! We are starting to line things up already, knowing that the next 4 weeks will be busy for us; we are picking our daughter and her partner up from the airport at the weekend when they come home from 3 weeks in Australia and then prepare to move home and jobs to the Midlands during next week; the following weekend we are going up to stay nearby to take any stuff to them that they can't fit in on their trip; we then have Easter and both our sons are coming home from Uni and then we leave the UK on the Thursday after Easter. So trying to get ahead of myself, today I went to a nearby Shopping Centre to buy some stuff for our travels.  This is what I came home with after a few hours in my favourite shops, John Lewis, Lakeland and Waterstones!

So, oven rack cleaner (I'm getting a bit fixated on my cooker), a nylon sieve, a brush to scrub dirt off vegetables, a new sink rack, a knitting pattern book, foil-coated silicone paper and the only item among this lot that is holiday-related is the book, The Master by Colm Toibin, which brings together two of my favourite writers in Colm Toibin's novel on the life of Henry James, and which I plan to slip into my bag for the trip.

My husband came to pick me up on his way back from a work meeting and I had to tell him I hadn't yet got the tee shirts & knitwear I'd come for, and after a quick dash into Uniqlo I acquired these:

The travel wardrobe looks like it will comprise tee shirts, jeans, warm jumpers and maybe one or two  dresses for when we treat ourselves to decent restaurants. With moving around so much it won't matter that I will be wearing the same clothes time and time again. I am considering a thermal vest for Sweden and Norway as it's likely to be bloody cold there, and I might be glad of it. We plan to wash stuff at our hotels and maybe in Berlin, about halfway round, treat ourselves to the luxury of the hotel laundry service. There is always the option of buying the odd thing en route, although that seems unlikely once we get to Scandinavia as we've been warned that coffee and cake for 2 will cost about £30, and basically you've just got to get over it and get on with it, or spend the whole time dwelling on that rather than enjoying the beauty around you.

One big thing I did do this week is  to pay a visit to my dentist, in preparation for being away and out of easy reach of his skills. I had my regular check-up before Christmas and everything seemed to be fine until he spotted a small crack across the back of a crown. He x-rayed it and pointed out to me that it would need to be dealt with and proceeded to give me 3 options, of which the last one, "wait and see," seemed by far the most attractive at the time. I said I would think about it, but his last words were that it could "shear off" at any time. I made an appointment for my next check-up in May, after the trip, thinking that I would be careful with eating and brushing and hold onto the cracked crown until then. I don't know what made me suddenly wake up in the middle of the night not long before we went to Porto, but I suddenly started to hear the words, "shear off," in my head and contemplated what I would do if that very thing happened while I was away and unable to get it repaired. The word "sheared" conjured up images of sharp edges, violent cracking and splintering and me with a mouth like Jaws of James Bond fame, impaling my tongue on the vestiges of crown and unable to smile or eat - not a happy prospect. So I made an appointment and saw him on Monday, explained my predicament and with 3 weeks needed to get a replacement made, he asked me if I had any plans for the day. I told him I hadn't, so next thing I was having the dreaded needle in the gum and sent back to the waiting room till he could find a space to fit me in. I was there for 4 hours in all but I am so pleased that all that has to happen now is a 15 minute appointment to have it fitted and I won't have to worry about the shear hell (get it!) of it breaking on me while we are away. All the prep still to do, in comparison with this, will seem like child's play!

Anyone for pasta?

Today I went to London for an italian-themed cookery class. I'd booked this at the beginning of January via an email from one of the voucher experience companies, which was offering access to a range of courses at a good price and I liked the idea of using some of my free time to develop new culinary skills and invigorate my cooking. I considered artisan bread making and Spanish tapas, but was drawn by the italian option and the dates for this one worked well.

The course was held in St Katherine Dock near to Tower Hill, and there were 9 of us participating plus the Chef leading the course. I hadn't been sure what to expect; perhaps it would be like Masterchef with each of us working at our own work-station. In fact, it was a massive kitchen with a huge table which we all sat round so we could watch the Chef at work, and each of us got pulled in to take over individual tasks from him once he'd demonstrated. So my hands-on contribution was to make the tomato sauce as instructed by the Chef after other participants had prepped the garlic and onions (the dullest part of the process, although we learned some useful techniques for chopping onions and crushing garlic quickly and efficiently).

We made 4 lots of pasta dough by hand, and my part in this was to hand roll one batch with a rolling pin, as the other 3 lots of dough were put through a pasta-making machine. It was quite hard work to do it by hand, but quite relaxing at the same time; something I wouldn't mind doing at home if I wasn't in a rush and was listening to music or a radio play.

The machine was used to cut all the dough into tagliatelle, and the ribbons were hung up on coat hangers until it was time to cook them. We then moved onto making gnocchi, again by hand. We all got to knead the mixture of mashed potato, eggs and sage into a dough and to produce the traditional shapes, all of which had to conform to a common size to ensure they all cooked properly for the same length of time. We were handed back to rework any that failed to meet the standard. The Chef prepared the sauce of olive oil, chopped walnuts, lemon juice, garlic and parmesan in a large bowl into which the gnocchi would be tossed when cooked,

The final dish was a dried mushroom risotto, and my role in this was to chop up a boardful of mixed dried mushrooms. The Chef first squeezed out the water they had been steeping in to add to the risotto with the wine and the veg stock to enrich the depth of flavour.

We ended the session with a bowl each of tagliatelle with the thick, rich tomato sauce; the sage-flavoured gnocchi with the walnut sauce and the mushroom risotto which was a perfect creamy consistency and full of deep flavours.

It was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, trying out new dishes and sharing culinary ideas and experiences with the expert and other people interested in cooking. I took away at least four new techniques to try out at home and when we are emailed the recipes I am definitely going to have a shot at homemade pasta. The only problem is that my husband hates pasta so I will have to find some willing family and friends to share. Unless I can convert him, of course!