Yes Minister - Episode two.

13/8/12 

The Yes Minister type drama continued today. Chemist number two decided that after waiting for Suzanne's medication to arrive, he couldn't supply it because...yes, you guessed it, the prescription wasn't on a pink form. Suzanne has now gone four days without this medication because of bureaucracy. I went back to the medical centre and picked up another prescription for something different and got it from the chemist immediately. I hope it works.

We're not avoiding you Jo. I'm starting to think it's a conspiracy to keep us away though. I know you're busy for a while now so we're planning on heading up to you around the end of August if that's OK. Maybe we could help with some of the Wolfe jam preparations.

14/8/12 

We finally got mobile and our target in just north of London. A place called Hitchin. Thank you Oliver family, we really appreciate you putting up with us and looking after us while we were there. Good luck with the project. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Our friend Carla Jane drove down, picked up our suitcases and Suzanne, (I'm sure there's a line about picking up bags there, but I'm not that brave) and we were off to Hitchin for a few days. It was good to catch up with Carla and Barbara, Carla's mum. We did a bit of food shopping and planned an early night. It was never going to happen and we called it quits a bit after midnight. 

15/8/12 

Tomorrow is Carla's birthday and we needed to get her a present. The biggest shopping area near us was Stevenage, so off we went. That was an experience. I think Stevenage must have the youngest average age mums on the planet. These kids were about seventeen years old, pregnant, pushing a pram with a baby, and with a toddler in tow. I'm also guessing that the welfare system gets a thorough going over here too. Anyway, we got our gift buying done and headed back to Hitchin.

We had to go food (read drinks) shopping again and picked up Carla's friend Tom afterwards. Tom's birthday is the same day as Carla's so it will be a double celebration. Tom is a total crack up so whenever he's around there is bound to be some fun. It was another midnight finish with lots of laughter.

Tomorrow it's off to Southend on Sea and then Carla and Tom's birthday dinner.

Where's Rex's Buff?

Carla's mum Barbara. She's a good sport.

The quest for Kinder Pinguis continues.
Like the Aussie Olympic competitors, I won't give up!

12/8/12

I want Kinder Pinguis! 

It's becoming an obsession. Why can't I find them anywhere? 

I searched the web and found a mail order grocery service that sells them, but I have to order seventy quids worth to get it delivered. I don't really want seventy quids worth of Pinguis, and I don't need any other groceries. Somebody help me, please...I went out today and visited another supermarket and came away empty handed.

WANTED

REWARD OFFERED.

After that I went to a camping shop and bought a Camelbak. For those of you that don't know, a Camelbak is a water bladder inside an insulated bag that holds two or three litres of water. You can carry it on your  back like a back pack and it has a hose connected so you can suck water out of it any time you get thirsty. I've got this so I can mount it on the bike and we can get rid of the water bottles in the tank bag. Now we can drink on the go. This should give us a better range between stops. The only problem I can see is stopping Suzanne from filling it with gin and tonic.

I also picked up a syphon hose so I can syphon fuel out of the tank on the bike and fill the fuel bottle for the stove. Up til now my methods have been bit hit and miss. Even stealing a section of garden hose in Slovenia didn't work. It was too short.

With my shopping expedition out of the way I headed home (The Oliver's) and managed to focus long enough to book our flights to Rome so we can get on the cruise. When that was out of the way we sat down to a sumptuous BBQ dinner. Julie's dad Stan showed up as well. Stan is a feeble, ageing, 85 year old, pensioner. Ha! Not bloody likely! Stan is as fit and a fiddle and  lives life to the full. I wish I was as fit as he is, and he's got thirty plus years on me. I've passed on a few phone numbers for you single girls in Perth. You know who you are.

What a fantastic bunch of people. Brian, Julie, Louise, some old bloke, and Stan. It was a pleasure meeting you Stan and I hope I'm just like you when I grow up.

At the end of the BBQ the dog thieves struck. Poppy and Callie hit the kitchen bench, the rubbish bin, the BBQ, and the out door table in a coordinated attack to steal what ever they could. I'll give them their due, they didn't give up. Take one thing away from them and they'd go straight back and grab something else. It was very funny watching the carry on.

Partners in crime. Callie and Poppy.

They wouldn't do anything wrong would they?

We finished off the BBQ and were talking to Louise. We found out she had a video on You Tube that she had put together for her Media Studies course. Of course we had to have a look. Take a look and see what you think...

Not bad for a bunch of 17 year olds with mediocre equipment eh?

We finished off the night watching the closing ceremony for the Olympics, and what a ceremony it was. No gimmicks, no outrageous fireworks, no fluff, just a genuinely fun and entertaining presentation by some truly talented artists. I loved it.

Where's Rex's Buff?

Jo taking Rex's Buff to places it's never been.

Is this an episode of Yes Minister?

11/8/12

OK, plan B. We had intended leaving Essex today and riding north to catch up with Jo, another painty friend, and a have a little fun. (Knowing Jo, it would be lots of fun). The day before we'd been to the doctor and gotten a prescription for Suzanne's medication. Everything was progressing according to plan. That was until...

"I'm sorry madam, I can't give you this medication because the prescription is written on the wrong form. It's a controlled drug and the prescription needs to be on the pink form, not the green form" (in an Indian accent). We've purchased these before without any problems. I felt like an extra in the TV series Yes Minister. To be fair the pharmacist had only qualified ten days ago. It was his first week in his first job and he was sticking to the rules. I can't blame him for that.

We found another chemist down the road who was happy to accept Suzanne's illegal paperwork and ply her with drugs, but they didn't have any in stock. We have to hang around until Monday to pick them up.

On the plus side we got to catch up with Emma, Brian and Julie's older daughter. Emma has been working on the broadcast team for the Olympics and has been flat out for the last couple of weeks. She's just out of college and must be doing something right because a Canadian TV station have asked her to go to Canada and work for them. How good is that?

Suzanne also took advantage of the day to "get her hair done". Those four words strike fear into the hearts of mortal men. The only thing worse is "What do you think of my new hair style?" So for the price of a new back tyre Suzanne has a new hair style / colour / shape / smell / design. What do you think?

So, what would you rather have? This...

...or one of these? Please comment.

Plan B is to now leave Essex on Monday and head north. Hopefully we'll get there.

Where's Rex's buff?

Carla Jane sexing it up for Rexy's buff.

The only way is Essex.

8, 9, 10/8/12

We're squatting at Brian and Julie Oliver's home in South Ockenden, Essex at the moment. There's not much going on as we're in the planning and preparation stage for the next leg of the trip. We have spent four days in pure luxury in the Oliver's Summer House. One place, with a room, and a real bed, for four days. This was a real treat. It was actually a double recliner, but boy was it comfortable. I slept like a baby.

Our palatial abode at the Oliver's.

We emptied every bag and box we have on the bike and have a selection of stuff we can get rid of. Less weight, excellent.

I rode up to Heather's in Watford and picked up our two small suitcases and some paperwork had we left there. We'll need this stuff for the cruise. I must have looked a real sight riding down the Motorway with purple and silver suitcases strapped on the sides of the bike. Once I got back to Essex and opened the cases I discovered our paperwork wan't there. I mustn't have put it in the cases like I thought and in it was our invitation letter to Ukraine. To get a visa to visit Ukraine you must have an invitation letter or it's no go. My stress level went through the roof. We have cut it fine time wise to even get a visa before we leave on the cruise, and of course we'll need our passports for that. Now without this letter we had a real problem. We emailed our contact, Lisa at Harvey World Travel Booragoon, to see if she could arrange another letter, or had a copy of the original. I didn't even know if the Ukrainian Embassy would accept a copy. Because of the the time difference we had to wait overnight for a reply. Stress! 

While we were waiting for our email from Lisa, we finally made it to a laundrette. We washed all our clothes (except for the ones we've been wearing for four days, sniff, sniff), and boy did they need it. Now we just needed to wash the clothes we were wearing and our riding gear and we'll be as fresh as a couple of daises. We were so happy the we went to the local for lunch and a drink.

I woke this morning to find an email from Lisa. She's a gem. She came to our rescue and sent us a copy of our invitation letter to the Ukraine. It was on the bike and off to the Ukrainian Embassy, with our invitation letter in our hot little hands, to apply for our visas. Visa applications are only accepted between nine am and twelve thirty, London is only about an hour away. We're on the road. No problem.

There is some sort of sporting event on in London at the moment (obviously the Aussies aren't competing as we've heard nothing about it) and because of this a lot of roads are closed, and some are reduced to one lane with a dedicated Olympic vehicle lane. It works really well, if you are an Olympian. The traffic was bedlam. 

We finally got to the embassy, with a little time to spare. I was expecting to have a problem here (again, preconceived ideas are usually wrong) and had double and triple checked we had every necessary piece of paper possible, so we were ready. Or so I thought. "Where is your proof of insurance?" What? Nowhere on any form did it mention we needed this. Luckily I thought to bring along our laptop with our life on it. Of course this meant we had to go and find somewhere to print off copies of the insurance documents. It was only fifteen minutes before the visa section of the embassy closed, and it was Friday. If we didn't get this done today, it would be another three days before we got everything sorted. The gentleman behind the bulletproof glass just smiled and said "Go and get your copies, pay for the visa applications at the bank, come back, knock on the door, and I'll let you in". And true to his word he did. We had a nice chat while he processed our paperwork. Job done. Our passports with visas, will be available on the 28th, and we fly out to Rome and meet my sister on the third.

Now we are in a foreign country and have no passports. It's an odd feeling.

Just down the road from the embassy we found Portobello Road so we spent a couple of hours wandering around here and looking at shoes and stuff. My favourite pass time. At least we had some lunch, and a very nice ice cream.

We finished of the day with a very nice dinner with Brian and Julie at Tarantino's Restaurant. All in all a pretty good result.

Suzanne and Julie glammed up for dinner.
(Rex's Buff made a sneak appearance here.)

The plan now is to spend a couple of weeks tripping around England and Wales while we wait for our visas. It will be a good chance to catch up with some friends.

Where's Rex's Buff?

It had to be Julie today. Jules has lost about 70 kg over the last twelve months. Well done Jules. You're a legend.

Calais to Dover. The Germans couldn't do it, let's see if we can.

7/8/12

We were woken this morning by a tapping at the window. The seagull that Suzanne was trying to entice up to our window sill with food last night was outside tapping on the glass with it's beak. Tap, tap, tap, tap. All the food was gone and he obviously wanted some more. Cheeky bugger. These gulls are much bigger than our gulls, about half as big again, or more. They have a very pleasant call, unlike our screeching Aussie gulls. When you wake up staring at one about a metre away from you it's quite a surprise. I'm glad we closed the window because it was a bit cold outside last night.

 The culprit. I think it might be a shegull, with a family.

We rode down to the ferry terminal to book our tickets and were taught a very valuable lesson. I'd checked the prices the day before and it was 20 Euro for both of us and the bike one way from Calais to Dover. That's pretty reasonable. When we booked our ticket it was 45 Euro. Bastards! They more than double the price on the day of departure. I won't get caught like that again.

We boarded the ferry, had lunch, and settled in for the roughly two hour trip to Dover. I managed to get a few photos of the White Cliffs, but it was pretty overcast so the were really grey cliffs.

Into the bowels of the ferry we go.

Things like this make me think about the number of dogs I pat while we are out and about.

They're white, they're cliffs, and they're in Dover. You work it out. Check out the sky. Welcome back to the UK.

Once we cleared the congestion at the terminal we made tracks for Julie and Brian's house (again) which would be our base for a few days while we prepare for the second leg of our trip. We nearly took a lot longer getting there than we had planned due to a fuel issue with the BMW. I missed the turn off from the motorway for the services area, and we needed fuel badly (really badly). The sign said the next services were available in twenty one miles. The BM computer told me I had ten miles worth of fuel left. After a bit of deft work on my calculator I worked out that we probably wouldn't make it. I backed right off the throttle, held my breath, and did a little slipstreaming along the way. We rolled into the service station on fumes. The BM tank is supposed to hold 33 litres. I put 36.9 litres in the tank. She was pretty dry.

When we arrived at Julie and Brian's and were greeted back by Poppy,

and by Poppy's new little sister, Callie.

It felt like we had gotten home. 

Tomorrow the work begins and we have a lot to do before we start stage two of our trip. Stage two will be Suzanne's relaxation time. I don't know how I'm gong to cope being on a ship for three weeks as I have to be doing something. 

I just had a thought. There must be a gym on the ship...maybe I could be Suzanne's personal trainer.

Dogs, lollies, chocolate, and gulls. 
Calais day two.

6/8/12

We were both dog tired and slept in. It was so late we almost missed breakfast. Oh no!

My breakfast kiddy plate. I didn't see the grown up's plates. Honest.

After a late breakfast we went for a stroll down to the port area, stopping at a few shops along the way.

I got a bit homesick here. It made me think of Fremantle.

We were hungry and decided it was time to have lunch. Suzanne said as long as it's not Pizza. We haven't eaten much Pizza, but EVERYWHERE we go we see Pizza signs and Pizza shops. We walked around the corner and look what we found;

No, we didn't.

We found a small bar close to the hotel that served cheap food in large quantities. That's what we wanted. We discovered that it was five pm, so this would be dinner not lunch. As we sat there an organised motorcycle tour rolled up and checked into the Mercure hotel across the road. There were about twenty of them and I wondered how hard it would be to control twenty riders of different skill levels, and who didn't ride together or even know each other. I reckon it would be a nightmare. It was also interesting to see that only one rider had dark hair. Everyone else was grey. It still beats a bus tour.

It was time to check out the Town Hall and parks we saw on the way in yesterday. We met a few four legged friends on the way.

Introducing Hermes. As I said on Facebook: "One of these is
all grey and wrinkly with floppy jowls. The other is a dog."

Hermes is only three months old and is far and away the best behaved puppy I've ever met. He sat in the doorway of his owners shop and didn't go outside. We had a bit of a play then said goodbye. I reckon he'd fit in one of the panniers if we got rid of Suzanne's shoes.

Then it was down to the Town Hall. Check this out.

Outside the town hall there was an art installation. There were giant lollies (sweets, candies, depends where you come from) painted in the EEC country's flag colours. These looked stunning in the sunlight because they had a metallic fleck through the paint as well. Sweeeeeeeet!

One for my Pommy friends who are watching the Olympics.

The gardens were some of the nicest I've seen. This is what I want my front garden to look like, but the garden fairy hasn't been. Maybe Paige will do this while we are away.

Then we met Sunny.

Poor Sunny didn't know what to do. She had a beef chew that she didn't want us to have, but she wanted to play. Life is full of difficult decisions, even if you are a small dog.

Then it was off to the park across the road. Lot's of big trees, a huge kid's play area, an open area where people were playing Bocce, and lots of open grassed areas. And a little fountain in the middle.

They do fountains and statues so well over here.

It was time to call it a day and head back to the hotel. We stopped at a supermarket for some supplies. A bottle of gin, ten Euros, a large bottle of tonic, 80 cents. That's cheaper than one drink in Switzerland! That along with a few food products should see us through the night. I'm still scouring he shops for Kinder Pinguis (That's Pingui, not Pingu as I've been writing) but with no luck. I tried another Kinder chocolate, but it's not a patch on my Pinguis. I am sad.

Calais is an odd place. Parts of it are truly beautiful, but then other parts are pretty grotty. The redevelopment of the port area looks like it will bring a new lease of life to the place and should be stunning.

So back to the hotel we went.

The seagulls here are giants. 

OK mums, who remembers this?

"Muuuuummmmm, I'mmmmm huuuungryyyyy".

Suzanne! Feed me now!

Suzanne has been trying to coax one onto our window sill with food, but it's stayed well away. Suzanne went to the bathroom and the bloody thing landed on the sill. I called her quietly as I reached for the camera, but when she opened the bathroom door the gull flew away. I think the plan may have been to get one to come into the room. Maybe it's lucky that didn't happen.

Next stop, Dover, United Kingdom.

Where's Rex's Buff?

Meet Louise. Louise is a little shy.

To Calais - What is that up on the hill?

5/8/12

We made the most out of our late check out at the hotel and rode out of the car park late morning. It was back on the Autobahn again with a plan to make Calais tonight.

A few hour later we were cruising along and I saw something very large on top of a hill off to the left and pointed it out to Suzanne. We'll give a wonderful display of our ignorance now. I said if it's on top of a hill, and it's big, it's go to be a church. Suzanne said, no, it's something new, probably a sky scraper. We had to go and have a look. About twenty minutes later we were riding up a road into a very old walled city. We were both hungry and found a restaurant so we sat down for a very pleasant lunch sitting opposite what we discovered to be a "church".

Suzanne enjoyed her glass(es) of real French Champaign. I broke my rule and had one as well.

After lunch we wandered around and took the usual tourist type photos of the area. It was a beautiful place and we really enjoyed walking around it.

We aren't really into churches and were about to leave when I said to Suzanne, "We really should go inside and take a quick look seeing as we are here". Suzanne agreed so in we went. This church we were inside just happened to be the 850 year old Notre Dame Cathedral. Oops. We felt just a little silly. I blame our education system. I'm glad we didn't ask anyone what it was.

OK, I've just read this - "Notre Dame simply means our lady, so there are many churches devoted to the Virgin Mary called Notre Dame (Notre Dame de Chartres, Notre Dame de Rouen, etc.). The most famous Notre Dame Cathedral (with the Hugo story and Disney movie and all) is located in center of Paris".

It turns out that this Notre Dame is in Laon. I don't feel quite so silly now.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4c4e4/1c10a/

Our bike went to church. I'm not pushy, I'll let it make up it's own mind about religion.

The Cathedral is a bit run down, shows it's age in some areas, and is in need of repair. I guess "The Church" spends all it's money helping the needy. I hope I can get my tongue out of my cheek tomorrow.

We had some very black clouds roll in while we were there so the waterproof liners went into the jackets and we were back on the Autobahn in no time. I'm thinking I might have to retire from motorcycling when I get back to Australia. After a few hours on the Autobhans today, even at enjoyable speeds, riding in a straigt line on flat ground just plain and simple sucks. I believe I have been spoiled for life with the riding I have enjoyed over the recent weeks.

A couple of hours later we rolled into Calais and found an Ibis Style hotel. I looked at the posters in the windows and it looked like rooms were only 65 Euro. Suzanne went inside and yes, Ibis Style have a promo on and are offering rooms for 65 Euro til the end of September. We'll be contacting our friends at Ibis Style about last nights bill in Troyes.

After sharing a few a few drinks at the bar with some other guests it was off to the land of nod for both of us.