February 11th-14th, 2024
It was a two-hour flight from Prague to London. By chance, Naomi and I, who had booked our
tickets separately, ended up sitting in the aisle seats of the same row which
was pretty fortuitous.
It was 9 in the morning and Naomi was shocked when we saw some people drinking beer in the airport. I mentioned that I could have one. When she found out that they had the popular Czech mulled wine (warm wine), she changed her tune and we sat down for a cheeky one.
I was trying out "Jec-Man"!
After a bit of a wait for our luggage, we opted to take the
Heathrow Express Train, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. I was shocked that it was 25 pounds each, for
a 20-minute train ride! I had taken it before,
but it was one leg of a train journey from Weymouth to London back in
October. That ticket was $55 CAD which
is about 31 pounds and that was a three-and-a-half-hour trip! Naomi was probably getting sick of my whining
about the price but as we quickly arrived in Paddington station, she also
thought it was a rip-off. We took the
tube a few stations to Oxford Circus and then had a 3-4 block walk to our
hotel, the Treehouse.
The entrance to the hotel:
The hotel was located next door to BBC’s studios, and it was
a lovely place (well done Naomi on booking it).
Strangely, even though there was someone greeting us on the ground
floor, we had to go to the top floor (17 or 18 storeys up) to check-in. Our room was a few floors down from the top
and it had a great view of London as well as the constant procession of jets on
approach to Heathrow, but they we could not hear them in the room. I enjoyed checking an app to see where the
plane was coming from.
Part of the view out of the front door of the hotel:
We ventured out to a find a late lunch. The first pub we entered was packed, slightly
surprising for a Sunday afternoon, and there was at least a half hour wait for
a table, so we decided to try another nearby establishment. It was so empty that we questioned whether
they were open…crazy in that the pubs were less than two blocks apart. The place seemed nice, but you couldn’t help
but think that something’s got to be wrong with it since there was hardly anyone
there. However, it turned out to be
lovely. We sat by a fireplace with an
actual fire burning and had some excellent fish and chips.
That evening we enjoyed dinner in the hotel’s Mexican restaurant on the top floor with Naomi’s cousin Orit and her husband Steven. Steven grew up in north London and they met when they were around twenty years old, and Orit was visiting England from Israel. They have been married for twenty years and have three kids. Steven took care of ordering a variety of appys and entrees and the food was delicious. It was a very fun evening.
Naomi and I grabbed a train to Weymouth the next day. It was a lovely sunny day, albeit not too
warm. We were picked up at the train
station by my cousin’s husband Charles who took us back to my aunt’s
place. Schools were on a mid-term break
so the daughters of both of my cousins were on holidays. We were greeted by the girls at the house and
Annabel had even made a welcome sign for Naomi in Hebrew!
Our lunch on the train:
Naomi's welcome sign:
Since it was sunny and the forecast for the next few days
looked rainy, I convinced everyone to go for a late afternoon walk. We ambled through the lovely neighbourhood of
Sutton Poyntz, where my aunt lives, with its old and quaint English homes along
with a small pond and creek. We walked
along the side of a field before popping into a small, forested area where the
girls had fun on some homemade swings over a little creek. Inevitably the younger ones got a bit wet.
The following afternoon, once the rain had subsided, we
walked down to the beach with the dogs, Rico and Nala, my cousins Sid and Gemma’s
dogs respectively. It was quite windy
and a bit chilly, so I was impressed that there was a guy in his late 60s (at
least) having fun with his old school windsurfer. Rico’s energy was impressive. He’s a spaniel and his tail just never
stops. In fact, sometimes it’s going so
fast back and forth, you’d almost think that his backend would start lifting
off of the ground! He loves to chase birds
and he ran almost all the way up the 100’ high hill beside the beach in hot pursuit.
Bowleaze Cove:
The rain was even worse the following day but Gemma had it
sorted, she got everyone tickets to go and see a one-hour live show called “Rude Science”. It billed itself as “The naughtiest,
funniest, most revolting science show in the world!” and promised enormous
bottoms, fart machines, snot cocktails, vast whoopee cushions, urine-powered
fireworks and vomiting mannequins! How
could we not go?!?
The last time that Naomi was in Weymouth, we saw a pantomime
in the same theatre, and were almost sitting in the same seats. It was pretty busy with kids and parents, not
surprising since it was a rainy afternoon during half-term with all of the
young kids home from school.
I think all of the adults in our group were happily surprised
by how entertaining and educational the show actually was. It centered around fascinating, yet sometimes
not talked about, bodily science. So
yes, there were simulated farts, but educational ones. One of the highlights was this short, stubby,
cannon looking contraption that shot out huge smoke rings, perhaps 3 feet in
diameter, which stayed intact all the way up and past us on the upper balcony!
We also got a good giggle, especially the girls, when the host said something to the effect "You shouldn't be embarrassed about farting, everyone does it, even Granny and Uncle Dave!".
A sampling of the show:
One of the incredible smoke rings:
It was a fun three days with a full house at my aunt’s place. Naomi and I decided that an overnight trip to Bath, a city she’s never visited before, was next on the agenda.
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