Month: May 2017

Lincoln

Posted on by becky4488

After many busy and eventful days visiting family in Swindon and Rotherham, we had a welcomed day exploring the cathedral city of Lincoln with Julie, Charlie and Jack (Mother in-law and two brothers in-law). Julie had celebrated her birthday just before we returned and we wanted to spend a day all together as a family to celebrate. Unfortunately, it’s quite rare that we ever get any time when we’re up North to see new places, we’re too busy enjoying the company, but fortunately, the last couple of times we have been able to see a bit more of the surrounding area. We all pilled into my car and after a easy and smooth hour filled with music courtesy of DJ Jack, we arrived in Lincoln.

Lincoln is the county town of Lincolnshire and is absolutely rich in history. We parked up in the downhill area, walking along the river Witham into the main shopping area. Bars and restaurants line the river and with the sun shining it was a beautiful place to be. This area had a similar feel to Gloucester, which is a place we love spending time.

After walking through the town we started our journey up Steep Hill. As the name suggests, Steep Hill is very steep, at the steepest gradient, 14%. The street was recently named Britain’s Great Street in 2012 by the Academy of Urbanism, but historically was used by the Roman residents of Lincoln to expand the settlement down the hill. We started walking up the hill, quite successfully I might add, and decided to celebrate our ability to walk up such a steep hill with a stop in a quaint tea room, Bunty’s Tea Room. Here we all enjoyed some teas and coffees. I felt like we could have been in any tea room in Devon or Cornwall with the quaint and pretty tea cups and decorations. A really lovely place.

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After 30 more seconds of walking, we made it to the top of Steep Hill. Julie got used as a photographer at this point by some tourists and the rest of us enjoyed some jazz music and had some photos taken at the famous gold postbox in Castle Square. For my readers around the world, after the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, any athletes that won gold were honoured by having a gold postbox put in their home town. This one was for Sophie Wells who won gold as part of the Paralympic Equestrian Team.

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As we approached our next stop, Lincoln Castle, you couldn’t help put feel an overwhelming sense of history. Lincoln Castle was constructed during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. Google has informed me that the castle is unusual as it has two mottes, which only two castles in country can claim. Once in the castle, we walked around the medieval wall walk, which gave us amazing views of the cathedral, surrounding countryside and Lincoln in general.

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After the medieval wall walk, we walked around the grounds and the Dowell boys, being the Dowell boys, decided they’d like to have a go at archery (I don’t think the Dowell girls were disappointed to be honest). We all had a go with a crossbow and also a longbow and we all agreed that the crossbow was easier, but the longbow more fun. We were all really good and had a lot of fun doing it.

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Next we found a lot of medieval weaponry and decided to pose for some photos. Obviously!

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The next stop was to see the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is something I had heard about through school, but I entered the museum unable to remember much about it. We watched a video to start with which explained that the Magna Carta, meaning ‘The Great Charter’ is one of the most famous documents in the world. In a nutshell, the Magna Carta established that all people, including the King, were subject to the law. In 1215 it was a peace treaty between King John and the rebel barons, but has since acted as the foundation for modern rights. One of the main clauses that we all are aware of today is that all ‘free men’ have the right to justice and a fair trial. Lincoln Castle is the only place in the world where an original 1215 Magna Carta and 1217 Charter of the Forest can be seen side by side. The Magna Carta is listed on the UNESCO’s  Memory of the World Register, which recognises its importance to world heritage. Unfortunately, you are able to take photos in there, so all of you will just have to go and see it yourself.

Our last stop in Lincoln Castle was to see the prison.  Men, women and children were held here from 1848 to 1878 for crimes ranging from stealing to murder. During this time there were seven hangings of murderers at the castle. We walked around the prison and saw the standard cells as well as the dark cell where you would be placed in isolation for up to 72 hours. We trapped the boys in little church cells, which was fun! There were lots of stories around the prison of escapees as well, which I enjoyed reading.

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Our next stop was lunch and that was very welcomed as we were starving! We walked back down to the river and had a lovely relaxed lunch at ASK! Italian. Pasta, pizza and some very tasty desserts, who could want anything more?

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Full of food and pretty content Jack took us for a little explore around his ex University Campus. It was great to see where he’d studied for those 3 years and I can definitely see the appeal of the small and compact campus. Then we walked back up Steep Hill to spend some time walking around Lincoln Cathedral. The cathedral was commissioned by William the Conqueror and completed in 1092. The cathedral has been rebuilt many times due to fires and earthquakes and when the central spire was raised in 1311, Lincoln Cathedral was declared the tallest building in the world. IN THE WORLD! What an amazing fact! It stole number one place from the Great Pyramid of Giza and hold onto this claim to fame until 1549 when the spire collapsed. We walked around, enjoyed the Gothic architecture and took in the atmosphere that comes from being in a cathedral. Jack told us about his graduation which took place in the cathedral and then afterwards in Lincoln Castle. I can’t think of a more grand and impressive venue for a graduation ceremony.

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Before leaving Lincoln we walked around the outside of the cathedral and came across the Tennyson Memorial Statue. At the time I had no idea who this person was, but upon doing some research it’s clear that Tennyson was a poet and the dog in the statue was his trusty four legged companion, Karenina.

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We’d had a lovely day exploring Lincoln and it’s definitely a city I would happily return to in the future. Thank you Julie, Charlie, Jack and Simon for a great day!

The last stop… Singapore

Posted on by becky4488

We arrived in Singapore from Melaka at about 10pm. Our bus was very fancy, for the grand total of £3 each. We each had individual TVs, a guide who would assist us with all things immigration and the largest seats I’ve ever seen. Everything went very smoothly until we made it to the border. The queues of buses getting into immigration were endless and the queues in immigration were nearly as long. However, we made it into Singapore safe and sound, if not a little later than we’d expected.

Our first experience of Singapore was a confirmation about how expensive it was, a 10 minute taxi ride cost us around £12. Oh my! We checked into our hotel, received a free upgrade (megamoon woo!) and settled in for a busy day the next day.

Uber was our best friend in Singapore, as it often is in the larger cities, and our first ride took us to the famous Botanic Gardens. I have to say, much to Simon’s disappointment, we have visited a lot of botanical gardens on our travels. Some have been brilliant and some not so much. Does anyone remember the blog about Hervey Bay? That was a terrible botanical garden. This one, was unbelievable and such a pleasure to walk around. At 82 hectares, the park is massive and it’s clear to see why it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked around for about 2 hours, which included an additional, paid, visit into the National Orchid Garden. The whole place was just beautiful, despite us dripping from the humidity. Some of the orchids have been bred specifically with celebrities and important World leaders in mind, I’ll put some examples below.

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After the Botanic Gardens, we walked to Hard Rock cafe. Being our last Hard Rock, we splurged and had a drink there.

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Our next stop was onto Orchard Road to see what Singapore had to offer in terms of malls. Firstly, we visited Scape where we ate at a restaurant (Aston specialities) that had been recommended online. Singapore doesn’t have massively cheap eating, but here we managed to have steak and a burger for the price of a typical Wetherspoons meal. A bonus was that it was super tasty.

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We walked back along Orchard Road, taking in all of the fancy shops. I saw 3 Tiffany’s and Co within about 1km! How can they all stay in business? Singapore is very clean and organised and this road showcased that perfectly. Some people told us they felt like Singapore didn’t have much character, but I think the cleanliness and orderliness of Singapore was part of its interesting character. Our next stop was to ion Orchard, one of the more famous malls. On the lower floors you can find your typical H&M style stores and as you go higher, the more expensive stores start to show their face. Harry Winstons, Dior, Dolce and Gabbana and Louis Vuitton to name a few. We headed up as we were going to access ion sky, which is a free 360 degree view at 56 floors of Singapore. The views were stunning and really gave you an idea of how far Singapore spreads out.

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Our next stop was for a rest back at the hotel. We had already walked huge distances, but we still had a lot more to explore. Our hotel was fortunately next to Raffles Hotel. Raffles first opened its doors in 1887 and beautifully shows off the architecture of the East, but also showcases the colonial architecture. Liveried Sikh doormen welcome guests into Raffles and the one on the day we visited was happy to have a selfie with us, whilst probably thinking, ‘Bloody tourists!’ Raffles is home to the famous Singapore Sling cocktail, previously called a Gin Sling. The recipe in Raffles is considerably different to most Singapore Slings you find elsewhere around the World. It was really tasty, the atmosphere in the Billiards Room (the Long Bar is closed for a while due to renovations) was amazing and you get endless free peanuts that you can just throw on the floor, but the cocktail was NOT worth the price we paid for it. $31 Singapore! Wow!!! Off the top of my head, I would say that’s around £26. Eek! Fortunately, my parents had given us a little bit of Singapore money before we left (yes, we had carried it for 8 months) as a Birthday present, so we used that towards our Raffles experience.

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We jumped on the Singapore MRT and headed towards Marina Bay. We walked around the shoppes at Marina Bay and saw the famous canal that runs through the middle. For a moment, it felt like we were in Venice… haha. It so didn’t, but it was pretty interesting to watch for a while. We ate some food in the Hawkers centre and then it was time to go and see one of the things I had been looking forward to since arriving in Singapore, The Garden Rhapsody Light Show in Gardens by the Bay.

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The music that the light show plays to changes often and whilst we were there it was to classical waltz music. We picked a seat so we were surrounded by the beautiful supergrove trees and waited. The light show plays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm every night and at the 7.30pm showing it was very busy. The show was magical. I shed a tear pretty early on, but classical music often has that affect on me anyway. Whilst watching I couldn’t help but feel a sense of closure about our trip. It was a sad feeling, but also meant that we would be seeing our family and friends soon. Yes, the light show is touristy, but it stands up as one of my favourite experiences on our trip. I honestly can’t tell you why, it’s just a load of large fake trees, covered in lights, dancing to the music, but i loved it!

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Feeling pretty warm and fuzzy inside from an excellent first day in Singapore, we walked back to the MRT to go back to the hotel. The next day, was Universal Studios Day!!

After a nightmare sorting the tickets out online, we made it to Universal using our trusty friend Uber. About the ticket situation, I would just go with the Universal official website and accept you may pay a couple of quid more. We tried an agency, that had been recommended, but they decided to do some random checks on our order (they do this for every certain percentage) and by the morning we still hadn’t received our tickets. Fortunately we got a refund and managed to get some tickets through Universal itself. We collected our tickets and were 4th in line at the gate. We had decided to not get any fast passes and just get there early running around like crazy people for the first hour or two hitting the main attractions.

I’m not going to bore you all with the details of Universal Studios. It isn’t Florida, it’s only a small proportion of the size, but it was great fun! We didn’t need fast passes and hit the main 5 rides within the first hour and a half multiple times. We loved the Transformers 4D ride, the Mummy (which is the same as Florida), had a lot of fun on Jurassic Park and got thrown around on the Battlestar Galactica dual rollercoaster. Some other highlights included the water stunt show and the lights camera action show! We ran around like crazy people and had a lot of photos taken with characters, because we’re children really! I would definitely recommend it, especially if you’re up for some of the kiddy rides. We had a bit of fun on the Madagascar one and loved Shrek 4D! Be prepared to be done by about 3.30pm if you’ve gotten in when the gates open. It’s not that big!

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Our last evening in Singapore was spent down by the Esplanade, the Merlion Park, Marine Bay and we ended up at the light show again (who knows when I’ll get to see it again). We started at the Hawkers Centre called Makansutra Gluttons Bay. This food was AMAZING!! We shared duck rice, a mix of different meat satays and some spicy chicken noodles. The food was really reasonably priced and the views of the bay were just to die for.

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After this we walked around the waterfront promenade and visited the Merlion Park. While we were walking over there I had this realisation that the Merlion was half fish, half lion, hence the name. I don’t know why my brain hadn’t processed this beforehand, but Simon found it funny. The Merlion is Singapore’s national icon, with the fish tail representing Singapore’s origins as a fishing town and the lion representing Singapore’s original name Singapura, lion city. We took some silly photos and took in the views.

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From here we walked back along the promenade and listen to some sound checks for a show that was happening in the theatre on the bay over the weekend. At this point, I realised we weren’t that far away from Gardens by the Bay and we decided to walk around and watch the 8.30pm light show again. On our walk, we walked through a sports centre right on the water and across the Helix bridge. Both spots gave us some pretty impressive views of the Singapore skyline. We went to bed that night so grateful for such an great 2nd day in Singapore and feeling a little odd that we were flying home the next day.

We slept in and stayed in our room right up to check out to try and readjust to UK time a little. Our flight wasn’t until 10pm and the hotel were letting us keep our bags there so we could explore. We had decided to spend our last day visiting the other attractions in Gardens by the Bay, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. On our way to Marina Bay, a MRT worker came and spoke to us about our plans. She told us about a little store where we could buy our tickets and get some money off. This is how friendly people are in Singapore, they’re always trying really hard to make you feel welcome. We bought our tickets from there and made our way over.

We started in the Flower dome, which appealed to me because a) it’s like the Eden project and b) it had a Dutch tulip display at that time. If you know me, you know I love tulips and I also loved my time in Holland cycling through the tulip fields, so this was perfect. Here are some photos from our time there.

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Next, we popped over to the Cloud Forest, which has the largest inside waterfall in the World. Simon and I were the only people to get up close and personal with the waterfall. Other people can be right wimps sometimes. Our visit timed perfectly with a cloud misting, which is where they pump in water vapour to mimic the clouds that form around mountains. It was great to see and we loved walking around.

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The rest of the day was a strange mix of waiting and exploring. We walked around some more and just ‘took in’ the atmosphere of Singapore. I was so sad to be leaving, but felt like we’d had the perfect amount of time for a first visit. We went back and collected our bags before heading to the airport with our trusty friend, Uber. Our driver was exactly what we needed. He spoke to us the entire time, told us more about the city and wanted to hear all about our adventure. His kindness and interest made that last 45 minute drive not as unbearable as it could have been. Stepping out of the car, we felt our last blast of warm air and before we could stop ourselves walked into the airport. The next outdoor air we felt was 4 degrees… Joyful! How is it possible to have felt more nervous going home than we ever felt leaving to travel?

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Last Megamoon photo.

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With that, our Megamoon was officially over. We made it home safe and sound to the love and warm welcome of all our friends and family. In many ways, it felt like we’d never been away. Australia seems like it was a lifetime ago. New Zealand still holds a large part of both our hearts. South-East Asia, in general, was far kinder to us than we ever expected. I can’t even begin to summarise what we’ve seen and done, but we intend to make a video of our highlights, a photo album from each country and I want to write a blog of our highlights.

Home!!

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Is this the end of my blog site? No! Of course not! It’s all about Simon and Becky’s travels and do you know what? There’s a lot more of that still to come!

 

Being home (real talk)

Posted on by becky4488

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the delay in getting my Singapore blog written. Our laptops are constantly being used for job applications, emails and research so I haven’t had enough time to get it fully finished yet. I know a lot of you are actually waiting to read it due to some trips you are planning, so I promise, it will be up by the weekend.

Being home has been great and awful all rolled in to one. I’ll try and summarise what we’ve been up to:

  1. Arrived back to the UK after a 14 hour flight.
  2. Struggled with jetlag for about 4 days.
  3. Spent some lovely time with my parents in Swindon.
  4. Travelled to Yorkshire and had a lovely, but unbelievably manic week seeing everyone up there.
  5. Travelled back to Cornwall (wow, I forgot what a journey that was) and started immediately working on the house.
  6. Parents came to Cornwall and helped to decorate 5 rooms in less than 3 days. Thank you Mum and Dad.
  7. Over the next few days completed a total of 12 runs back and forth to the storage container to collect all our stuff. Washing machines are VERY heavy.
  8. Sorted out a lot of the stuff, including rebuilding furniture, a few charity shop runs and boxing up bits for the loft (we’re not fully unpacking incase we need to move again).
  9. Worried about money and jobs.
  10. At around 2 weeks, I had a breakdown… more on this later.
  11. Started thinking about jobs (we’re at about 2.5 weeks home now).
  12. We now spend our days job hunting, applying, CV writing and practising interview techniques.
  13. Spent some time with friends, which has been such a welcomed relief.

This brings us pretty much up to where we are today. We have been home now for very nearly 4 weeks. Today, I have a telephone interview for a job I am unbelievably excited about, I’m also going to finish the application process for supply teaching today. Hopefully, that means I will only have to wait for my DBS check to come through before the work starts coming in.

As I’ve said to most of you, teaching full time is not something I’m interested in at the moment. Travelling has opened my eyes to the way I was during those few years and I know that there is a career out there that will make me happy. For the time being, supply will bring in some money from a job that I am good at (I can finally appreciate that now, as at times last year, it was hard to believe I was good at a job that made me so anxious and upset).

So, what has been hard to get used to since being home?

  1. The weather. I’m 99% sure I suffer from this seasonal depression disorder. The problem is, it’s not just in the Winter that the weather is poor here, it’s all the time. I haven’t seen the sun or any blue sky since Saturday now (it’s Wednesday). How depressing is that? I love walking, I love being active, but the weather just makes me want to cocoon away and carry on with work on my laptop. What I’d give for a bit of sun right about now.
  2. Not feeling at home anywhere. These are all pretty deep, so I apologise. I grew up in Swindon and I love visiting my parents, but Swindon isn’t home. The welcome in Yorkshire is amazing and the people are the best, but it isn’t home. Cornwall, isn’t home even though it’s beautiful and an amazing place to live. So, where is? Travelling for so long meant that there was something new and exciting everyday. Something new to see and do. Here, we’re not seeing a lot of new and exciting things. I know that everyone has to settle and get on with life, but the place we move to, I want to feel like home. There is a plan in place for this, if jobs work out.
  3. Being surrounded by stuff. Simon and I have a very average amount of ‘stuff’ in my opinion, but it’s too much. That breakdown I was talking about happened after another run to the storage container meant that I could hardly walk through the hallway. I sat down on the bed for a good 30 minutes and had an epic cry, which did help. Gotta love my unbelievable supportive husband. I hate looking everywhere and seeing ‘stuff’. We’ve spent a huge amount of time sorting through bits and bobs ultimately binning a lot, giving some to charity, we’ve sold some stuff and a lot of it has gone up to the loft to be considered in a few months. I can’t be anymore grateful to Simon for boarding our loft up before we left. I’m not sure what I’d do if I had to have everything around us like before. Living in a 55l backpack for 8 months has truly changed my opinion on materialistic items. I was never materialistic in the first place, but we had accumulated a lot and I will not let that happen again. Please please please do not buy us anything for a good few years. Amazon vouchers would be great 🙂
  4. Accepting that nothing has changed. You never fully believe it when you are told this on the road, but you get home and nothing has changed. Everyone else is still going about their business, still loving life. I am so happy to come home to a very happy bunch of friends and family, but it’s very hard for me to see how nothing big could have happened in the time we were away. So many amazing things have happened to us. Obviously, some things have changed. A couple of engagements and a new baby in the family are some examples of some great celebrations we got to come home to.
  5. Anxiety. I never was an anxious person. I can blame a certain career for creating a deep and underlying anxiety in myself. I have to say, I am more anxious on a daily basis right now, than I was at any point during the 8 months travel. Every time I speak to someone after a few days I get ‘How’s the job search?’ ‘Are you going to move?’ ‘Have you had any interviews?’ ‘Have you sorted X/Y/Z?’ and I’m feeling that butterfly feeling again. I don’t like it and I know I need to batter it away with a stick, because we are OK for a few more months without work and we are going to be fine. Breathe in and out!!
  6. Negative news. Wow! Has anyone ever stopped to appreciate how negative our media is? I have to say, this isn’t something we noticed in Australia and New Zealand. The positive vibes you get out there are 1000 x better than here. Every time I turn on the TV I see news about politics, death, prisons, crime, weather etc. Everything is just so negative!! No wonder I feel so low.

I have to say, despite the bad bits about coming home we have loved seeing family and friends. I love being in my own home surrounded by (a very small amount) of my own things and I love the familiarity of the country.

All i hope for at the moment is that we both find some jobs that challenge us in all the right ways, we can move somewhere that feels like home and we can start planning for our next holiday. Not too much to ask for, I don’t think.