Baggas’ Blog

Quick update from our last few days in California.

We arrived on Friday (eventually) after an extended delay when our plane broke down at Dallas airport. They found us another one and we managed to get to LA, get our car and make it to our hotel in Anaheim before dark.

Saturday we went to Disneyland, which was perhaps not the brightest idea. It was very busy and quite hot so much of they day was spent sweltering in lines. They have a fast-pass system where you can take a ticket and come back later to avoid the queues but you can only get one such ticket every 2-3 hours which kinda defeats the purpose. My favourite ride so far was Space mountain but we’ll be going back tomorrow to do the rides we missed on Saturday. Also disappointing was just how few Disney characters were walking around - compared to say Movie World in Queensland there were much less characters to take photos with.

Sunday was a quiet day - spent time in the hotel and went and saw The Simpsons movie which was great. I had planned to maybe go and check out Saddleback Church which is not too far from here but by the time we’d slept in that idea was out the window. Guess I’ll be well and truly overdue for some church time when we get back.

Yesterday we drove down to California Legoland, which is towards San Diego. In contrast to Disney, we had a great day there - plenty of cool rides and interesting things to see. It wasn’t quite as hot but there were plenty of opportunities to get soaking wet which we took advantage of. Food and merchandise were not too exorbitant there and they had a cool “pick n mix” shop where you can fill a bag with all sorts of Lego pieces so I grabbed a pounds worth. I used to love Lego when I was a kid and my boys are showing a similar liking so it’s good to build the collection. Would definitely advise everyone travelling to southern California to consider spending a day there. And if you do, be on the lookout for coupons - almost everyone I could see buying tickets had coupons of one sort or another. I was lucky that on the night before I’d seen an ad for Burger King offering some free child entry coupons with any purchase so that morning before we left I drove around the corner to “BK’s” and for the price of a cup of coffee got some coupons which saved us $88, getting both kids in for free!

Today I had considered hitting Disneyland for the second time but once again by the time we were all up and ready it was a bit late. Also Owen was feeling a bit worn out today so in the end we left him in the hotel with his Nanna, and Jen and Luke and I drove up to Hollywood, which was actually quite a pleasant day. We saw the Hollywood sign, walked along the walk of Stars on Hollywood Blvd, and Luke got his photo with a heap of movie characters (there were more there than at Disney, including an amazingly true to life Captain Jack Sparrow) - on the way home we cruised along Sunset Boulevard, where I received a text message saying that my newest nephew “Toby” had just been born. Congratulations Scoot & Kim and family! Weirdly, his birthday is the 1st of August which is strange considering it’s still the 31st of July here - his birthday is in the future! Anyway we thought it was kinda weird and cool.

But for now Jen is wanting to use the laptop so I’ll bring this post to an end. I’ll try and get a few pics up in the next day or two.

Sitting here in DFW Airport in Dallas with a couple of hours break between flights on our way from Nashville to Los Angeles. This has been one of the better airports we’ve visited on our travels. Our flying experiences have been a real mixed bag. If I had to generalize, I’d say that the airports here in the US are much more efficient than those in England. Nashville airport, like the city in general, was compact but very pleasant and friendly and easy to get around. Boston airport, the first we hit in the US, was also full of helpful staff, although we really had to rush to make our connection there. And Dallas so far, though much bigger, has been fine. Not too far to walk with a monorail running between terminals. The only dodgy thing about this place has been watching out the window the baggage handlers roughly throwing luggage onto a plane and imagining my new guitar, which is checked in somewhere in this airport, being treated in a similar way. Otherwise, it’s been nice here exchanging a few text messages with ob1, who happens to be staying here in Dallas at the moment. In fact, when we arrive in LA tonight it will be the first stop on our travels where we haven’t had someone we know to catch up with.

English airports were much more crowded, rushed, and disorganised. Queues were much longer and security staff less pleasant. In Manchester airport we had to wait nearly an hour for our flight’s luggage to start circulating – longer than the time we spent in the air! At Heathrow our plane was waiting for 40 minutes or so on the tarmac for someone to come and attach the doors so we could get out.

So that’s airports – how about airlines? South African airways were fine – nothing too special but no problems. British Airways we had a long flight from Africa with great service, individual seat TVs etc and then a short flight to Manchester with pretty average service. American airlines have been okay, although our first flight today had a water leak dripping from the ceiling on take-off. The other airline we flew was American Eagle, which I wasn’t very impressed with – disorganised check-in, average in-flight service and a tiny plane with a bumpy ride that made us all a little sick, especially Jennifer..

From here on in we’ve only got four more flights between here and home – two on American airlines : from here to LA today and then to Honolulu next Saturday, and then two on Qantas : from Hawaii to Sydney and then Sydney to Perth. In 2 weeks from today we’ll be home.

Today’s our last full day in Nashville so it’s  good time to share some of my impressions of the place before we fly off to Los Angeles tomorrow.

Firstly, Nashville is a very easy city to get around by road. They have an excellent system of concentric ring freeways with other freeways radiating out like spokes on a wheel. You can get anywhere in town fairly fast. Yesterday evening we headed out to visit Jen’s cousin at his house. On the map it looked like it was halfway across town, but it really didn’t take us long to get there at all. I’ve found driving here to be generally a fairly easy experience, once I got used to driving on the wrong side of the road.

One thing that’s impossible not to notice driving around Nashville is just how many churches there are. It’s not hard to see why they call this city the Protestant Vatican. It would not be an exagerration to say there is at least one church every mile along every major road in Nashville, and often two or three. And while some of these churches are small, most of them have impressive buildings that would dwarf the majority of churches back in Australia. From my perspective this is another positive aspect to Nashville, but we were talking to someone else who found it a bit of a negative point - if you’re not a church-goer then the fact that almost everyone here does go would be a bit intimidating I’d imagine. It makes you realise just how different the religious landscape is back in Australia, and makes the point of this post from Hamo even more vivid - we in Australia shouldn’t blindly follow American or any other models of doing church, since the religious millieu of the community is vastly different.

We’ve only been here a few days but I’ve really enjoyed Nashville. It’s a pretty city, a friendly city, with a really great atmosphere - a great mix of music and religion and good ole southern hospitality. In our case it’s been extra special because we’ve been visiting some wonderful people here, which all four of us have really valued. I can’t wait to get back to Nashville again. 

Getting late here but I haven’t updated in a couple of days so time for a quick recap.

Monday morning I got up nice and early, bundled the boys in the car and drove halfway across Tennessee to Memphis, birthplace of the blues and home of The King - Elvis Presley. Was a smooth 3 hour drive through some beautiful countryside before we arrived at Graceland. And Graceland itself was well worth the effort, not only to see the 70s style home decorating, and Elvis’ cars and planes and gold records etc, but to really step back into history and connect with a man whose legacy is still with us today.  Graceland, and the city of Memphis, would have to be the rock ‘n roll Mecca. It’s a shame Memphis was such a drive because there was so much more I wanted to see there - Beale St, Sun Studios, the Gibson factory - but after a drive through the city along the edge of the Mississippi, we had to head back East to Nashville, along the aptly titled “Music Highway” - between these two cities there is an awful lot of music history.

Today I created my own piece of Nashville related music history (well sort of) - I visited a couple of guitar shops and picked up that Fender VG stratocaster I’ve been wanting. The first shop didn’t have any but when I walked into the second there it was hanging on the wall, in the exact colour I wanted - Suburst with maple neck. Actually it’s the same colour as the strat in the domino picture I’ve had in my blog banner all these years which is kinda cool. So far I’m quite impressed. The essential strat tone is great, and the simulations seem very good. The alternate tunings see to track flawlessly, and there’s virtually no noise from any of the guitar sims, even the acoustic ones. Before now all the acoustic simulators I’ve ever tried have had a terrible hiss. I also grabbed a Roland Micro Cube amp so I can plug in and play for the rest of this trip, and as a useful practice amp for back home. Wish I had the money and the luggage space to pick up some more guitars - they had a huge range of beautiful Fenders, Gibsons and others at pretty good prices - but until the next trip this one versatile guitar will have to suffice. Oh, I also visited the Gibson store on Sunday after lunch - never seen such a fantastic range of Gibsons in my life, including some quite unusual models. Might try and get back there tomorrow for another look, since we’ll be over that way again.

Anyway everyone else is snoozing so I’d better log off. If it get time over the next couple of days I’ll post some more pictures (including Graceland), and my overall (very positive) impressions of Nashville and more updates on what we’ve been up to.

A little bit of down time this morning before we head off for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe  and a walk through the big shopping mall here in Nashville (which includes the Gibson store!) so I thought I’d upload a few of our photos from our time in the UK…

(1) Owen & Luke by the Thames

(2) The Tower of London

(3) A Tower Guard

(4) Return of the Jedi

(5) Parliament Square - Big Ben - Looks like rain?

(6) Picadilly Circus with Uncle Matt

(7) On Blackpool beach

Today was perhaps the best of our trip thus far. We drove over to our friends’ house in Nashville, where we spent a pleasant morning and had lunch. It was great to see how quickly our kids bonded with their two, who are of very similar ages.

After lunch we drove into the city and had a look around the centre of Nashville. Even early on a Saturday afternoon this city has a great atmosphere. Live country music being played in a number of venues along the street, buskers on the street, horse drawn carriages everywhere. We checked out a guitar shop (made me wish I was able to bring home 3 or 4 - the prices and range here are awesome), had some ice-cream, and then went down to the Cumberland river. After that we took a drive through “Music row” which is the epicentre of the music industry here, where big record labels, famous studios and tons of other related businesses all mingle in the setting of a couple of leafy suburban streets. Although there’s a few large office buildings, most of these studios and business are in old houses and even a church. If there’s one thing you can say about Nashville it’s that the place has character. The city centre has a great atmosphere, and the green, spacious suburbs have the feel of a big country town. It’s terrific.

We finished the day with a visit to a local park, where the kids enjoyed playing in the playground. By the end of it Owen had a following of about 6 kids leading them in some sort of time travel game.

So as I said before, this was one of the best days of our trip so far - in part because we are in a great city, but mostly because we spent it in the company of good friends. Looks like this is going to be a really nice week here in Tennessee.

Well we’ve arrived safely in Nashville, Tennessee after another long day of flying - we’re all pretty exhausted so I’ll have to make this brief.

Yesterday was my birthday (and also Matt and Jess - Happy Birthday!) which we spent in Blackpool, England. We went out on the pier and walked along the beach and the kids had donkey rides as well as some fun fair rides. Of course I had tobuy myself some Blackpool rock which I used to love as a kid.

Today we left Manchester early for 3 flights - Manchester to Boston; Boston to Washington; and then Washington to Nashville. All up a very long day of flying. Our flight into Boston was late landing which gave us a very rushed race to get to our next flight, which was fortunately a bit delayed. Other than that I’ve been quite impressed with American airports - very efficient and courteous staff - a big contrast to British airports. Unfortunately our second two flights were on a tiny plane which was uncomfortable and rough - made us all a little sick, especially Jen. I did get to see the White House, Capitol building and Washington monument out the plane window so at least I can say I’ve seen that much of DC.

Nashville airport we picked up our car, which is a great big Ford “mini”van and made our way to the hotel with very good directions from a guy at the gate. I didn’t get lost at all and only found myself driving down the wrong side of the road once, not too bad for my first time driving on the right hand side. The hotel is not bad but we got a smoking room which has a bit of a smell to which Jenni is especially sensitive. But we got a wonderful suprise when we arrived here - a gift basket from our friends in Nashville which really cheered us all up after a long tiring day flying. Looking forward to getting to hang out with them tomorrow, but in the meantime I seriously need sleep - the other three are all here snoozing around me.

Bible Belt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bible Belt is an informal term for an area in which socially conservative Christian Evangelical Protestantism is a dominant part of the culture. The term “Bible Belt” was coined by the American journalist and social commentator H.L. Mencken in the early 1920s.

In particular, in the United States it is an idiom^[1] for the region where the Southern Baptist Convention denomination is strongest (though many other denominations, such as the Church of Christ and Assemblies of God can be found there as well), usually meaning the South and nearby areas.

Much of the Bible Belt consists of the American South. Ironically, this region was originally colonized not for purposes of establishing a religious haven (as was the case in the Puritan colonies of New England), but for economic reasons - specifically, for the growing of cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, rice, and indigo. During the colonial period (1607-1776), the South was a stronghold of the Anglican church. Its transition into a conservative Protestant Bible Belt occurred gradually over the next century, as a series of religious revival movements, many associated with the Baptist denomination, gained great popularity in the region.

Thus, the region is usually contrasted with mainstream Protestants and liberal Catholics of the northeast, the religiously diverse Midwest, the Mormon Corridor in Utah and southern Idaho, and the relatively secular western United States, where the percentage of non-religious people is the highest in the nation, reaching its maximum in the northwestern state of Washington at 27%, compared to the Bible belt state of Alabama, at only 6%. [..read more..]

Nashville, Tennessee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nashville is the capital and the second most populous city of the U.S. state of Tennessee, after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. Nashville is a major hub for the health care, music, publishing, and transportation industries.

Nashville has a consolidated city-county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The population of Nashville-Davidson County stood at 607,413 as of 2005,^[1][2] according to United States Census Bureau estimates. The 2005 population of the entire 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,498,836,^[4] making it the largest and fastest-growing metropolitan area in the state.

Nashville was founded by James Robertson and a party of Wataugans in 1779, and was originally called Fort Nashborough, after the American Revolutionary War hero Francis Nash. Nashville quickly grew because of its prime location, accessibility as a river port, and its later status as a major railroad center. In 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee.

By 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a very prosperous city. Tennessee reluctantly sided with the Confederacy and became the last state to secede from the Union. The city’s significance as a shipping port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river and railroad transportation routes. In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops.

Though the Civil War left Nashville in dire economic straits, the city quickly rebounded.^{[citation needed]} Within a few years, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and also developed a solid manufacturing base. The post-Civil War years of the late 19th century brought a newfound prosperity to Nashville. These healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area.

It was the advent of the Grand Ole Opry in 1925, combined with an already thriving publishing industry, that positioned it to become “Music City USA“. In 1963, Nashville consolidated its government with Davidson County and thus became the first major city in the United States to form a metropolitan government. Since the 1970s, the city has experienced tremendous growth, particularly during the economic boom of the 1990s under the leadership of Mayor Phil Bredesen, who made urban renewal a priority, and fostered the construction or renovation several city landmarks, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Public Library downtown, the Sommet Center, and LP Field.   [..read more..]

Boston Tea Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest by the American colonists against Great Britain in which they destroyed many crates of tea bricks on ships in Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been seen as helping to spark the American Revolution.

On Thursday, December 16, 1773, the evening before the tea was due to be landed, on a signal given by Samuel Adams, the Sons of LibertyMohawk Indians, left the massive protest meeting and headed toward Griffin’s Wharf, where lay HMS thinly disguised as Dartmouth and her newly arrived, tea bearing, sister ships HMS Beaver and HMS Eleanour. Swiftly and efficiently, casks of tea were brought up from the hold to the deck, reasonable proof that some of the “Indians” were, in fact, longshoremen. The casks were opened and the tea dumped overboard; the work, lasting well into the night, was quick, thorough, and efficient. By dawn, 90,000 lbs (45 tons) of tea worth an estimated £10,000 had been consigned to waters of Boston harbor.^[1] Nothing else had been damaged or stolen, except a single padlock accidentally broken and anonymously replaced not long thereafter. Tea washed up on the shores around Boston for weeks.  [..read more..]

Royal Liver Building - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Royal Liver Building (prounced [ˈlaɪvə]) is one of the city of Liverpool’s most recognisable landmarks. It stands at 90 metres (295 feet) and has 13 floors. Since its completion in 1911, it has overlooked the River Mersey from its waterfront location on the Pier Head, and forms one of the ‘three graces’ along with the Port of Liverpool Building and the Cunard Building. It was designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas, and is one of the earliest examples of multi-storey reinforced concrete construction. This is reflected in the building’s Grade 1 Listed Building status.

The building is crowned by a pair of clock towers from which a ship’s crew could tell the time as it passed en route along the river. The clock faces are actually larger than that of London’s famous landmark, Big Ben, and hold the distinction of being the largest electronically driven clocks in the UK. In 1953, electronic chimes were installed to serve as a memorial to the members of the Royal Liver Friendly Society who died during the two World Wars. During hours of darkness, the clock dials are illuminated.

Atop each tower stand the mythical Liver Birds, designed by Carl Bernard Bartels. Popular legend has it that while one giant bird looks out over the city to protect its people, the other bird looks out to sea at the new sailors coming in to port. [..read more..]

After a crazy 3 days in London it’s great to be back in Manchester, where Jen and I spent a month or so back in the 90s. Our “quick” flight from London ended up taking a whole lot longer due to delays at both ends. But once we got out of the airport, with a lot of help from Jen’s uncle it felt great to be on the road behind the wheel and in control again, no longer at the mercy of taxis and trains.

The hotel we are staying at seems like paradise after our experiences in London. Well organised, kid friendly, comfortable rooms, good facilities, and a great restaurant. It’s really great to be here

Manchester - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manchester (pronounced /ˈmæntʃɛstə/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester, which has had city status since 1853, has a population of 441,200, making it the most populous district of Greater Manchester.^[1] Manchester also forms part of the larger Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2,240,230,^[2] making it the United Kingdom’s third largest conurbation. Two opinion polls in recent years have shown that many believe Manchester to be the United Kingdom’s second city^[3][4][5][6].

Manchester is often described as the “Capital of the North“.^[7][8] Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. Manchester is also regarded as the second best place to locate a business in the UK after London.^[9] It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh.^[10]sporting connections, with two major Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City,^[11] and hosted the XVII Commonwealth Games in 2002. Manchester is also well known for its

Manchester is credited as one of the world’s first industrialised cities^{[12][13][14][15][16]} and for the subsequent central role it played during the Industrial Revolution. It was the dominant international centre of textile manufacture and cotton spinning.^[17] During the 19th century it was nicknamed Cottonopolis,^[18] denoting that the area was a metropolis of cotton mills. Manchester City Centre is now on a “tentative list” of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mainly due to its network of canals and mills, which facilitated its development during the 19th century.    [..read more..]

Cleopatra’s Needle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cleopatra’s Needles are a trio of obelisks in London, Paris, and New York City. Each is made of red granite, stands about 21 metres (68 feet) high, weighs about 180 tons and is inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs. Although the needles are genuine Ancient Egyptian obelisks, they are somewhat misnamed as none has any connection with queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. They were originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, around 1450 BC. The material of which they were cut is granite, brought from the quarries of Aswan, near the first cataract of the Nile. The inscriptions were added about 200 years later by Ramses II to commemorate his military victories. The obelisks were moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesarium — a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony — by the Romans in 12 BC, during the reign of Augustus Caesar, but were toppled some time later. This had the fortuitous effect of burying their faces and so preserving most of the hieroglyphs from the effects of weathering.

The London needle is in the City of Westminster, on the Victoria Embankment near the Golden Jubilee Bridges. It was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by Mehemet Ali, the Albanian-born viceroy of Egypt, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. Although the British government welcomed the gesture, it declined to fund the expense of transporting it to London.

The obelisk remained in Alexandria until 1877 when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished anatomist and dermatologist, sponsored its transportation to London at a cost of some £10,000 (a very considerable sum in those days). It was dug out of the sand in which it had been buried for nearly 2,000 years and was encased in a great iron cylinder, 92 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, designed by the engineer John Dixon and dubbed Cleopatra. It had a vertical stem and stern, a rudder, two bilge keels, a mast for balancing sails, and a deck house. This acted as a floating pontoon which was to be towed to London by the ship Olga.   [..read more..]

A brief update for today, which was fortunately free of any major mishaps. In the morning we went on the London Eye, then took in the Star Wars Exhibition at the County Hall. Owen was picked to take part in ‘Jedi School’ which was very cool.

After that we had lunch sitting in Parliament sqaure in the shadow (almost) of Big Ben, walked around the city for a while, took a look around the British Museum where we saw lots of cool ancient historial artefacts including the Rosetta stone. We finished up with dinner in a pub before heading back out to our hotel.

Tomorrow is still a bit up in the air, except for the end which will be a flight up to Manchester at dinner time. We’re there for 2 days before we fly to Nashville, USA on Friday.

Well yesterday was certainly an eventful day. I’ll start mostly with the good stuff since it actually was a very good day for the most part, despite an awful finish.

We were awakened around 6am with a visit from Luke after a poor night’s sleep the night before - partly because it was quite hot and our cramped room had no air-con, fan or ventilation, and partly because the hotel was noisy. The walls were certainly not sound proof and I could hear everything that was going on - and I mean everything!

But anyway, after we’d all woken up and got a shower we hopped on the tube into Covent Garden where we met up with Matt, a good friend of ours who lives in London now. We spent a great day hanging out with Matt and seeing the sites of London from the top of a roofless bus. I’ll post some pictures later.Took the kids to the Tower of London to see lots of cool armour and weapons and the crown jewels, looked into an awesome bookshop, and finished up with dinner at planet Hollywood. Then we bid farewell and caught the tube back to our hotel in Marble Arch.

Arriving at the hotel we discovered that we had been moved from one of the small double rooms that we were in the night before to the triple room we had paid for, although still up several flights of stairs. Reasonably satisfied I went back down the stairs to Jen and my room to use the bathroom - and that’s where things rapidly deteriorated. I had locked the door in the bathroom when I went in there and on trying to leave I discovered the lock was jammed and I could not get out. And I had the key to our room so Jen could not even get into the hotel room itself. After tring for a few minutes to get the lock open I heard Jen knocking on the door outside so I shouted for her to get help. The lady showed up, let Jen into the room with an extra key and then disappeared again, for several minutes. Jen had no luck opening the lock from the outside and after a while had to get the lady back to try and help. She was worse than useless, initally trying to call people to come and help, and then banging around on the door with no idea of what she was doing. Meanwhile I was sweltering in this hot cramped room with this awful banging on the door. The kids had come down and were outside getting stressed about it all. I was just glad it was me and not them locked in there, or Jenni, who has been a bit sick at times the last week or so. Eventually, after more than half an hour of me being locked in this tiny hot room, they basically ended up kicking the door in and breaking it up, with me cowering in the corner of the tiny shower, worried about the door falling on me.

I took a minute or so of silence to recover my composure, had a hug from Owen, and then calmly walked into reception to inform them that we would be checking out immediately and would need a full refund for the next two nights. And this is where things got even more awful. I had got a “cheap” rate on this hotel by booking a non-cancellable or refundable rate, although in retrospect even that rate seems exorbitant for the quality of the room, but nevertheless I was not prepared to stay in such a hell hole any longer and considering my traumatic experience I considered it quite reasonable to expect a refund for our unused two nights. But this woman would not understand. She offered me a 50% refund but said there was no more we could do. I demanded a full refund. She tried to call her manager but he was unavailable in a meeting (late on Sunday night?) so I said she needed to take responsibility. By now it was coming up to 8:30pm and the kids were not in bed after a long tiring day. Anyway to cut a long story short it took over half an hour of arguing with this woman to finally get our refund. And I’m sure the whole hotel would have been aware of what was going on.

Once we finally had our refund I then had the task of trying to find us another place to stay, in London late on a warm rainy Sunday night. So I trapsed around looking for internet access - supposedly Starbucks had it but it wouldn’t work, neither would McDonalds. And no-one in this part of Beirut London seemed to be able to speak a sentence of English or give me any guidance whatsoever. Finally I found an internet cafe and started getting numbers and phoning around, but no-one had any rooms. Meanwhile Jen’s mum was talking to the staff at the hotel and the lady said she would try and find us a room. Eventually she came out saying she had booked us two rooms at a good price at a Travel-Lodge “not far away” and had ordered a taxi to come and pick us up in “5 minutes”

Half an hour later the taxi finally arrived, charged us 10 pounds more than the price we were quoted and started driving to our new lodgings, and driving, and driving, and driving…. After getting lost twice on the way and spending 20 minutes outside the wrong hotel trying to work out if this was the one, we eventually arrived at the travelodge, to find that they had no idea who were were and the lady had not booked us any rooms. Fortunately the guy here was very helpful, found us two rooms for the next two nights (very basic but at least we have room to move and a spacious bathroom with a working lock) and helped get the luggage and two sleepy kids upstairs for a much better night’s sleep.

So that’s about my worst hotel experience ever. I’d better stop this now as we half to walk half a mile to the station to catch a 35 minute train ride back into the city in time for our booking on the London Eye. Today is going to be a good day, no matter what.

London Eye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, is an observation wheel that completed construction in 1999 and opened to the public in March, 2000. As of June 2007, it is the largest observation wheel in the world, although there are larger ferris wheels, such as The Star of Nanchang, and a contender for the title in the Singapore Flyer due for completion in 2007.

The London Eye has become the most popular paid for UK visitor attraction, visited by over 3.5 million people a year.[1]

The London Eye stands 135 metres (443 ft) high on the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames in London, England, between Westminster and Hungerford Bridges (Coordinates: 51°30′12″N, 00°07′11″W). [..read more..]

Marble Arch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument near Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, at the western end of Oxford Street, London, England, near the tube station of the same name. Only members of the royal family and the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery are allowed to pass through the arch. 

In 1828, John Nash designed the arch based on the triumphal arch of Constantine in Rome. It was originally erected on The Mall as a gateway to the new Buckingham Palace (rebuilt by Nash from the former Buckingham House).

In 1851, the arch was moved to its present location during the building of the east front of the Palace. (A popular story says that the arch was moved because it was too narrow for the Queen’s state coach to pass through, but in fact the Gold State Coach passed under it during the Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953.) [..read more..]

I couldn’t leave the blog on such a negative note so let me share with you a quick episode from our last day in Kampala yesterday….

We were up in our (spacious, air-conditioned, retrospectively wonderful…) hotel room taking it fairly easy and getting packed for our trip to England. Luke was looking out the window with Jenni and they noticed a little boy, maybe 3 years old, begging with his mother in the street below. And then our three and a half yar old Luke decided he wanted to give that boy some of his toy cars - and he picked out two cars, also got hold of some biscuits and got Jen to walk him downstairs and across the street to give them to this little boy, along with a little money. Jen couldn’t understand what the mother said in response but it was quite noisy and happy.

In taking our kids to Africa I’d always hoped they might start to learn a bit of a lesson about generosity and developing a heart for the poor, but I’d thought that woul be a gradual thing, and that our boys (especially Luke) were too young to really get it just yet. But perhaps I underestimated the effect that such an experience can have, even at such a young age. Even if that were the only reason it makes trips like this worthwhile. I was so proud of my little Lukey

Well we arrived in Pakistan London this afternoon after a quite pleasant British Airways flight from Uganda. Things were fine at Entebbe and in the air but from the moment our plane came to a halt it started to go a bit pear shaped. We had to wait for 40 minutes in the plane because they couldn’t find a ground crew to come and attach the stairs. Then a lengthy wait in customs and then finding two of our suitcases (including one brand new one) were busted. Taxi ride into the city was fine (though expensive) and then we reached our hotel, which I had booked over the internet a few weeks back. Their website looked really nice and the price of just under $1000 for 3 nights for 2 rooms, although expensive anywhere else, seemed pretty good for central London.

Never trust a hotel website. Not were our requested rooms not ready due to a plumbing leak, but then ones they gave us were so small we can’t even fit our suitcases in, let alone the extra bed we need for one of the kids. It is stifling hot and there is no air-con or even a fan. Kinda reminds me of the Happiness Hotel in The Great Muppet Caper but without the happiness, or the muppets.

Anyway I’m going to try and get some sleep if I can. The plan for tomorrow is to get out of this place ASAP after we wake up and go and see some of the sites of London. We’ll be meeting up with my old mate Matthew which should be nice. And who knows, we might actually see some English people - sure haven’t seen too many so far in this litte part of Islamabad London. Tired and grumpy so I’d better stop now, but hopefully I’ll have some more positive blog material in the next few days…

London Heathrow Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), is one of the busiest airports in the world.^[1] The airport is the United Kingdom’s busiest airport, as well as being Europe’s busiest airport for passenger traffic (see Busiest airport claims section below) and the world’s busiest airport by international passenger traffic. The airport is owned and operated by BAA^[2] which is owned by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.^[3].

The airport is located towards the southern end of the London Borough of Hillingdon, 24 km (15 miles) west of Central London. It is one of two international London airports to be located within the boundary of the Greater London Area. To the north, Heathrow is surrounded by the built-up areas of Harlington, Harmondsworth, Longford and Cranford, to the east are Hounslow and Hatton, and to the south are East Bedfont and Stanwell. To the west, the M25 motorway separates the airport from Colnbrook in Berkshire.  [..read more..]

Yoweri Museveni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (born c. 1944,^[1] Ntungamo, Uganda^[2]) has been the President of Uganda since January 29, 1986.

Museveni was involved in the war that toppled Idi Amin’s (1971–79) rule and the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of Milton Obote’s (1980–85) regime. With the notable exception of northern areas, Museveni has brought relative stability and economic growth to a country that has endured decades of government mismanagement, rebel activity and civil war. His tenure has also witnessed one of the most effective national responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa.

In the mid to late 1990s, Museveni was lauded by the West as part of a new generation of African leaders. His presidency has been marred, however, by involvement in civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other Great Lakes region conflicts. Rebellion in the north of Uganda continues to perpetuate one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies. Recent developments, including the abolition of Presidential term limits before the 2006 elections and the harassment of democratic opposition, have attracted concern from domestic commentators and the international community. [..read more..]

The last two days we have spent at the Bulrushes Baby Home in Kampala, which is part of Watoto childcare ministries. I hesitate to make any sort of comparison between Bulrushes and Sanyu Baby home, where we were earlier in the week, as Bulrushes really stands in it’s own league.

We were really blown away by the care and organisation at Bulrushes. The staff there are excellent. The building is beautiful. It is a very well run facility and the babies are lucky to be there - they are so well looked after. Not only that but the big difference here is that these babies will have a clear hope for the future as they eventually “graduate” to be raised in the main Watoto villages where they will be placed in a loving home with an adoptive mother and given an excellent education. This is not just a babysitting facility watching over these babies until they eventually (if they are lucky) find a home elsewhere - this is the beginning of a whole lifetime of care.

Whilst there Jennifer again assisted in care, and I was able to contribute medically, giving check-ups to a number of the babies on both days and advising on treatment. In general most of the babies were in pretty good health, a testament to the excellent care they have been receiving. Apparently when it first opened in January many of the babies were quite sick. Now most of their problems are relatively minor, although I did see one little fellow with tuberculosis and another pre