Travel journal 2015
Attended the 3pm VE Day Memorial Service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.
Rosemarie's thoughts were of her family's whereabouts in London 70 years previously, and how her parents who lived through the bombings celebrated the end of the war. John's were of his father's brother, his Uncle John, a bomber pilot with the RAF, who did not live to see VE Day.
An interesting political footnote is that this photo captured the changing of the guard for the Liberal Democrats and Labour at the previous day's general election. Clegg and Millband (on Cameron's right) had resigned that morning while Nicola Sturgeon (Cameron's far right but one) had been swept in as the leader of the third largest party, the Scottish Nationalists.
Most of the last week and a half was spent at our regular spot at Walton-on-Thames with various trips into London to catch up with the children.
We met some new Kiwi friends at Walton-on-Thames, Duncan and Jenni. Duncan is heavily into model yachts at the Hampton Court Model Yacht Club, so we were treated to the spectacle of these finely tuned four kilogram boats one blustery day.
We also, at the weekend, had a pleasant lap of Richmond Park on our new commuter folding bikes (Bromptons - no other choice for London really - sad because we wanted Bike Friday Tikits), meeting daughter Louisa and boyfriend Joe for coffee.
The 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing was recognised in a moving ceremony commencing at 5am. Heavy security measures were in force, compared with last year, due no doubt to the large crowd for this landmark ceremony, the presence of Princess Anne and elevated threat levels generally. John and daughter Louisa attended, accompanied by Louisa's work colleague and friend Jayne. (As Jayne's patriotic parents had organised her birth for the day of the 50th anniversary today was a landmark birthday for her, of course). Adam Hills did a good job with the MC duties and both George Brandis (Attorney-General for Australia) and Sir Lockwood Smith (High Commissioner for New Zealand) gave moving, quality speeches. For the full program, see Anzac Day Dawn Service, London, 2015.
It was also a time for remembering John's other great uncles who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Great War, Horace Selleck and Bert Harvey, and recalling the profound moments when we visited their graves, at Villers-Bretonneux and Tyne Cot respectively, in March 2014.
We're planning to be at Walton-on-Thames this week sorting out various things including cycling spares. Had a very pleasant meal with son Tim last night at the Golden Pub on Portobello Road. John is shown here testing out his dicky knee on Moseley Heath; knee problems are now relatively rare after giving up cushioned running shoes - this problem was most likely the result of 200kms of tandem cycling recently in Rutland without enough warming up (or so he claims).
The Heath is a favourite spot for dog walkers - Rosemarie (below) making acquaintance with another Hungarian vizsla, no doubt a distant relative of Mitzi in Manly, Sydney.
First hot sunny day of Spring.
A damp but happy bunch of tandemers on a 30 mile loop in Rutland.
Easter beckons, and with it the Tandem Club's rally, being held this year in Rutland, claimed to be the UK's smallest county. Details of the rally can be found here.
