Wazza's European Adventures

So here I am. Back again, looking backwards to my European Adventure. I was, looking back, one hell of an adventure. Next post please!

Wednesday, 29th of June, 2016

I woke up with a slight chill, only to realise that I had the window open. It was still kinda cold for me... 19 degrees Celsius and people were walking around with tank tops on! I still wasn't used to it, but I found out that English summer is very, Very different. I mean, 23 degrees and people were literally stripping off, sweating like it was the middle of the Sahara. And the looks I got from the locals, like I'd bumped my head whilst trying to open a car door with my head... yeeeahhh, nanananaaaa....

I had breakfast - a couple of pieces of toast with Vegemite - would you believe it, I found it in the shops - and then went upstairs to have a shower and got ready before Brian dropped me to the train station. 

So on the train, again. It was refreshing to see other scenery, instead of the, not drab, but repetitive scenes and scenery of the Fremantle to Perth line, or the Armadale, and Joondalup to Perth lines, in which I had once lived down. There was miles and miles of fields and farming. The setup and planning here was amazing. In a country with 68 million people, there was still giant areas of rural areas, fields and farms, sometimes to as far as the eye could see. And then suddenly, over a hill or around a corner, there would be a small town or village, with a quaint name or two...

And the areas, or borough's as the English call them, are things like Nazeing, Hertford Heath, and Cheshunt, or Bayfordbury...

Anyway - travelling from Harlow to London was fun. I didn't really do it that much on this adventure, really. I realised that I had seen much of London when I was much younger, so I decided this time to see the family then see more of the country, which I eventually did... Just keeping reading the blog!

Got to London - went to Shoreditch and had breakfast number 2 with my younger cousin Romelle, who'd been there for 2 years, and was actually leaving to go home in a couple of weeks. 

We had a great breakfast. It was an Indian restaurant with a twist. I can't remember - no it was an Indian Fusion restaurant. That's the one. It was called DISHOOM, and it is worth going there. One hundred percent. It was fantastic. I wanted to eat more. I had a different kind of bacon and eggs, with a naan, or a paratha, or something. It was absolutely delicious, and I loved the freshly squeezed orange juice. 3 glasses necked!

It was about 10:30am when I gave her a big hug, and continued on for some of the sights that I wanted to see this time around. 

I managed to walk no more than like, 700 metres, when I came across a pub. I needed a beer. And it was pretty early for one, unless you're Irish. So I had one. I'm not Irish, but relatives are, so that counted.

This was a pretty busy day! I just had a look at my timeline... I'm gonna have to put up some photos! I'll be back soon!

Wazza's European Adventures!

G'day! Hi, I'm back, and here to continue telling you about my adventures that I recently had in Europe!

Did you know that after I had that double burger meal from McDonald's, it totally slowed me down? I wanted to do something, but didn't want to spend too much cash, as I am on a budget.

I went to the nearest shopping centre, and I really needed to! My brand new (3 weeks old!) Sony Vaio laptop (one of the best ones - y'know - touchscreen, flipper, the keyboard lit up), and I was really upset to see such a magnificent creation by one of my favourite companies go "kaput". I was angry. Pretty angry. I still have to go back to JB Hifi and talk to them! But anyway, I went and walked to Harlow Shopping Centre and decided to get the repairs underway myself.

"3 weeks, maybe a month..."

"GET OUT"

I left my laptop in the care of two guys that were more interested in World of Warcraft than a supermodel coming into the shop, which, in a way, kinda made it a bit more secure in my mind. I had walked all the way to the town centre, so I decided to walk around and find out what the place had to offer. 

Some really amazing shops, some usual shops, no K-mart or anything like that, but they did have those cheap shops like the Australian Reject Shops, but better, because they sold EVERYTHING, and everything was a quid each! I bought a good amount of food to tide me over, so I wouldn't be eating my cousin out of house and home (which sometimes I think he did think!), and that I'd have something to take with me to any festivals and/or pub crawls that I was intending to do.

So after a bit of a walk around, an ice cream, and buying some amazing comics that I hadn't seen before, and some movies, I decided to call it a day and head on home. 

Walking home I took some photos of the "street signs" around the area... And it's a bit harder to understand as there are no real street names, just names of the areas that you actually had a house in. It was weird... Like Nicholls Field, North Grove, Sadlers Mead... and up to 200 people could be living in each of these areas, not bigger than 5 acres of land... It's totally crazy! I don't know how 68 million people live on this island, close to the Arctic Circle (close enough!) and actually "LIKE" it!! I don't get it. And then they whine and whinge about it? I have told my cousins to move to Freo! They'd think it was paradise, and then I'd send them to the Gold Coast! They would probably think it's Disneyland! Lol. I am actually looking forward to my cousin and her kids coming over. It would make my life a bit more interesting!

I walked back home. 

I got home and put my feet up, had a smoke or two and then did something that I really wanted to do when I got here. And that was watch the football! It was great... just me and the tv... 

Couldn't ask for anything else. 

So that was this day. I'll be back to tell you more over the coming weeks

Get out there and travel!!!

CIAO!!!

Wazza's European Adventure

Hi! And thanks for coming back! :)

Today, I went to Audley Ends. A place that I went to over 30 years ago with my family. I went there with my mother Yvonne, my grandparents Jim and Phyllis, and my Aunt Joyce and her son (my cousin) Brett. When I went there for the first time I met my cousins that I hadn't seen in a few years. Sarah and Rachel came with their parents Aureen and Brian White, and we had a great time. 

Now that I have grown up (well some people may say that I haven't, and good on you!), I'm going to see this place again with very different eyes. I will actually experience this from a mature angle. 

I was looking forward to getting out of the house. It's a lovely house that Brian has let me stay in. But let's face it, Australia is a bit better when it comes to housing. Although my home town only has around 1.8 million people, it's much more spread out. There isn't terraced housing, which makes the landscape so dull and dreary. Hey! No offence to all those people who read the blog and live in terraced housing! You make do with what you got! I am just extremely glad that mum, nana and dada (mother, grandmother and grandfather) decided to go to Australia rather than the U.K. I would have turned out a very different person, and would have had a very VERY thick English accent! I do like the accent. But I love MY accent.

So we took off fairly early, as it was a bit of a drive. And in the UK, even though you may live "down the road" it can sometimes take an hour to do so!

This is just some of the grounds at Audley Ends. This photo above, is just one of the hundreds of photos that I have up on my Google Maps account. So if you do want to have a look, go to Google Maps, and enter Audley Ends, U.K. You'll see all the photos that I have put on here, on there, plus you'll see where it is.

Just look at that hedge! It's monstrous! On the left of this hedge is the car park, which always has 50 or so cars there every day. Audley Ends is not far from the village of Saffron Walden. 

"Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is 12 miles north of Bishop's Stortford, 18 miles south of Cambridge and 43 miles north of London."

So says Google. 

We were in Harlow, Essex. So it took us about an hour to get there.

Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It was once a prodigy house, a palace in all but name and renowned as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.

From the official Audley Ends Website, I have taken this:

Audley End was one of the greatest houses of early 17th-century England. In about 1605–14 Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, took an earlier house created by his grandfather Lord Audley on the site of Walden Abbey, and rebuilt it on the scale of a royal palace. Robert Adam transformed this house for Sir John Griffin Griffin in the 1760s, while Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown remodelled the grounds, to create one of England's finest landscape gardens.

This was the first thing I remember all those years ago. I remember posing in front of this as a child of about 10 years old with my cousin, who was 4.

The gardens in this estate are amazing. They are taken care of very well, and they are just plain stunning.

As you turn around from the above photo, you get to see this view. 

Unfortunately, because of security, you aren't allowed to take photos of the inside of the Mansion. But that just makes you buy the pamphlets and books that they have on sale, and they aren't that cheap!

Well after walking around the grounds for a few hours, seeing all the wonderful architecture, and all the fantastic busts, paintings and other things that went on in the Audley Ends, we decided that we were really quite hungry!







What a name for an old fellow? Capability Brown? Apparently he was responsible for the making of Audley Ends if I'm correct. Funny old fellow. But he did know how to make a palace!









Brian suggested that there was a town nearby, which was Saffron Walden. Apparently (so I was told), it was where most of the spice, saffron, came to to be sold. I can understand that, as it is a lovely little village. If you ever want to see a typical old English village, then this is the place you want to see. The architecture here is amazing, the people are friendly and the food is wonderful

As you can see, the serenity of the village is amazing. There are houses with scaled roofs, thatched roofs, and beautiful green everywhere. There are signs outside most houses and buildings, telling you a tale or two about its heritage, and sometimes the house may have been used by a famous person or two.

The streets and alleyways are straight out of a novel or a book written about the same time as Hans Christian Anderson. Or even Chaucer. But Chaucer is actually near the eastern coast of England.

 The streets of this quaint village are beautiful. The buildings have been here for over a hundred years, and still are used as shops or places of lodging, and in some circumstances they are even homes.

 The street signs... I couldn't get over this one. This one had all the right things to put on a street sign, not like "Perth 3533 kms; Los Angeles 2434 kms" etc, etc. This one had the church, museum, toilets, car parks and bridges, and places on interest on it.

Just look at this road. It was just wide enough to put a lorry down it, but somehow, it was a two way street.

The Cross Keys Hotel - a real hotel, with rooms you could rent or stay in and the age of some of these buildings, were actually stated on flags and signs, just like the one below, called "The 1569", and obviously called that because of the year it was built. And YES, it was built in 1569!!

It was converted into a coffee and cake shop. And such good cakes too. The coffee wasn't bad either!

I couldn't get over the cuteness and quaintness of these buildings, being here for hundreds of years and looking this good. No doubt they have had some work done, but they looked amazing.

And they looked colourful too!

  Above and below are photos of the Saffron Walden Town Square. It had a lovely monument in the centre, and apparently there was meetings here for the townsfolk very often. As you can see from these photos, it was a pretty busy day, as it was turned into a shoppers car park the day we were there. This happened quite often as the town is very popular

Above, is the Saffron Walden Town Hall, which was also the Library

I had to stop on our wanderings to take a photo of this colourful building. It was three houses. Two under one roof (blue and red) with the yellow one sharing a common wall

Ahhh.. the King's Arms. One of the many pubs named the same name. It was Saffron Walden's version, but I am sure that this may be one of the older buildings in the town. I wanted to have a good pint there but the time was getting by.

The map of the town of Saffron Walden.

After the day went by, the weather was turning a bit nippy, so we decided to go get a bite to eat. We landed up going to a place called "The Beautiful Ugley Chequers", which was in a place called - you got it - UGLEY. We had a couple of sandwiches, ploughman style, with some meats, and some pickles, and had a another pint of another hugely warm, but rather tasty beer.

What a name for a place called Ugley. Smart arses everywhere! But it works!

Another fine example of "YE OLDE ENGLISH PUB". Staff were very nice and noticed that I was an Aussie. Poor things. They just wanted to be like me!

And here are some photos that I took of the grounds, which I have just managed to find. The bridge on the left was where I had a photograph taken of myself and my cousins over 30 years ago. I still remember it!

Well... Now that I was totally famished, I had to eat something. And an aim of mine was to eat some sort of fast food that I could obtain in Australia, that I could also get here. So it was... MACCA'S!!!

Okay, so I got stuck into some McDonalds. And it was the first time that I had fast food since, I think, Hong Kong? So as you can see, I had a Big Mac, and a new burger that I hadn't seen before called "The Big Tasty". And as you can see, it doesn't look that "tasty"...

 Look at the size difference!!! The Big Tasty is easily double the size of a Big Mac!!! But I'll let you in on a little secret...

It is worse than any McDonalds that I have EVER tasted! OMG! It was like eating cardboard with salad! Terrible. No taste. The beef was just tasteless... I couldn't be more unhappy, but I was so damned hungry I ate both!

So that's this entry into my adventure. Next entry - I go to the local shopping centre, as my laptop goes on the fritz!

Till next time! Cheers!

Wazza's European Adventure!!

Hi, and welcome back!

After being here for a couple of weeks, I still haven't really gotten used to the fact that there are so many roundabouts here. There are hardly any traffic lights anywhere, and if there is, it's because it's to sort out the traffic for a bloody big roundabout!

We live not far from what my cousin's call "The Hamburger" - which is - a roundabout, that has a road (in this case a motorway) that goes right through the centre of it, making it look like a burger. There, is where I saw my first traffic lights besides London. It's weird, strange, but there aren't really any traffic jams around here. I'm actually waiting for a car accident!

What else I can't get over, is that most of the roads are only single carriageway. I mean - the population of Harlow isn't really that big, but Essex is a very big county. And there are a lot of people here. The terraced housing is what I can't get over. People living in a dog box. It's crazy - why don't you all just come to Australia? There's heaps of room here - but please don't make your bloody terraced housing here!

There aren't that many petrol stations either. In Australia (talking about Western Australia - the best bit!) there are station EVERYWHERE, and that's because we really have to drive everywhere. Our metropolitan district is 100kms in all directions (except West of course, where you get the water and the islands of Penguin and Rottnest). I mean, the entirety of Greater London could probably fit in Fremantle lol!

I was helping my cousin help his grandson with his car. We had to pick him up (Oliver) from the car repair place, which does certain checkups that the English motor system has people do with their cars every year or so. We picked him up and then dropped him off. He was going to France to see the European Championships, and he was going to stay in the fan zone for the next couple of nights during the games. 

I'm not that far off my own stay in France. I've booked my trip via the Channel Link, which I'm quite interested in seeing, and experiencing the whole "English Channel Tunnel" thing.

We decided the next day to go see family, which I have already documented. Harlow to Crawley is one hell of a drive. Unless you want to go through the centre of London, you take the Orbital (which is called the M25 Circular Route), go round the outside of Greater London, and continue on a straight route after you get off. 

I've seen some places, but England, I'd have to say is quite pretty. There are acres and acres of farms between towns, villages and hamlets. Turns out we were not far from Gatwick Airport in the end. A day there, turned out wonderfully, as the sun stayed out for most of the day, and it was good to see familiar faces again, even though they had all aged 30+ years! I found out that one of my cousin's husbands actually lived not far from where I live in W.A. Mandurah as a matter of fact. True!

After a weekend of sitting in front of the TV and watching football and English TV, the cousin took me to Audley Ends. 

I'll be telling you about Audley Ends in my next post!

Till then!

Travel and be happy!

Waz

Wazza's European Adventure!

Hi, and thanks for coming back! Especially after a real no - show on my adventures yesterday. I'm so selfish! lol

Okay - today I went to this wicked pub, that my cousin took me to, which was called The Fish & Eels. It is right next to a canal (yes there are canals in England), and the view was lovely, as you saw boats and house boats cruise past a waterfall from the canal itself. A higher estuary of course.

It was a really nice quaint English pub. English fare, English beers, and English hospitality

Most English Pubs have a lot of choice, but this one was exceptional, as it had these crackers! They also had their own beer, which most pubs do! If you were to drink all the different types, it'd take you a couple of years - at least.

This was my first drink (and not my last by far) of the day, and I was pretty impressed with it, but IT WAS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!!! 

But still... it wasn't bad! 

We order, and I had the tempered chicken. Wow - what a plate! It was the size of the entire plate, with salad and chips. Holy moley. I only, however, lasted about 5 mins. And I was trying to be slow with my eating! I had another beer with my meal, which I think was a...

This was a better ale because it was an ALE and not a BITTER, therefore it was COLD and it went well with the tempered chicken. The herbs and spices went well with this lovely drop.

After a lovely custard dessert, we went outside so I could have a smoke and take a few photos (which I really don't know where they are! I was supposed to put them up here! I may still if I can find them!) After a good burp, and another pint - another Doom Bar would you believe!) we got in the car and drove home.

Got home, put on the laptop and did boring stuff again! HA! Such a great day!

Tomorrow, I don't know what I'm doing, but I will put up a post if I do something! I need a rest! :)

 Ciao!

Wazza's European Adventure!

Well... I have had a bit of a break. I've been concentrating on the other interests that I have. Including a new t-shirt label, that's in the works, but I've done a LOT of market research, and have had a lot of ideas put down, and even printed. But you have to keep up with the times, y'know?

So today I just sat here and made some designs! Lucky you! You get to see some of my designs before they get published! 

My company is called Fresh Stellar Industries, and I've been doing it since March this year. 

Here, have a look, and please put some comments down! I'll number each one, and let me know what you like!

1) Pool Girl

2) Class is Cool

3) Angels are Everywhere

4) for those in the UK

5) And another for those in the UK!

6) I'm into comics, and so are some of my friends. So I used my friend Toni-Ann to send me some photos, and this is what I turned here into: Kitty Lightning

7) The Adventures of Kitty Lightning: The Nemesis of Madam Lash (Also a friend of mine - Jade Skvor!)

So as you can see I've been a bit busy. I'll still be posting up tomorrow.

Cheers

Wazza's European Adventure!

Paradise Wildlife Park - Part 3

Hello again! I'm continuing on!

Well, we just visited the tigers, and as you can tell, we got quite a lot of beaut photos'. Now, we were wondering if there were any fast cats there, and we got to the enclosure of one of the fastest in the world - the cheetah.

This girl was beautiful. She was shy, which is totally understandable if you were in a cage/enclosure, with no mates of any sort, and you had humans around you with cameras at every turn.

She came out for lunch though!

As you can see, she is really beautiful. I can't remember what her name was, but the zoologist had a pretty perfect name for her. 

It was such an obvious name - but I can't remember for the life of me!

Anyway. She came out to eat. The keepers put this large plump carcass on a stick, on top of a little landing strutting out of a bunch of grass and wood. 

The cheetah slowly, looking all ways, went up to her lunch, took it between her teeth and ran away with it.

We tried to get some other shots of her whilst she was eating, but couldn't manage any decent and clear shots. So... sorry!

After walking about 10 or so metres, we thought... "where are the lions?" So we went for a small walk around near the cheetah enclosure. And there they were. Just lounging around...

I mean, like, really REALLY lounging it..

Look at the size of the males paws! They were huge!

Just lying around doing nothing at all

 We figured that we weren't going to get any action out of the lions, so we decided to walk back to whence we came, and got a great surprise. 

We saw our cheetah feeding, and was able to get some great shots.

She was really going for it. She seemed very hungry, but throughout her feeding, she was keeping an eye out for threats. 

 Such a beautiful cat...

 I love the big cats, but what are smaller and slightly cuter?

OTTERS! These little guys were out of their enclosure and put into one where they were able to be seen a little bit better, and they were just adorable. They stood up, scuffled the floor, doing all these cute movements, And they all seemed to be very comfortable with the attention.

In the reptile enclosure, we saw these two getting up close and personal

and a few snakes here and there... especially this one below

 

 

They are somewhat more famous than others, but the meerkat was on hand, and in its own outdoor enclosure. It was such a well made one, with heaters for them (above) and plenty of places to check out things, like logs and bases of chopped trees (above right). They seemed very occupied.

And the final animal we saw, were the zebras. I love zebras. One, because they start with the last letter of the alphabet, and two, because they have amazing markings. 

All the other exhibits were under construction or deconstruction, so that was the end of our day at the zoo...

On the way back to Harlow, we stopped in at the Sun Inn. I experienced a couple of pints that I had not had before, which was good, and made it home in time to watch some well needed football!!

Thanks for coming back, and for having a read

I'll be back again to continue my adventures soon...

Until then

Cheers!

Waz