PBI at Stonehenge

I've had a week at the Peace Brigades International (PBI) General Assembly (GA), it's triennial global gathering. It was really nice to have a week without having to think about where I'm going or where I'm sleeping (except for the night at Stonehenge - this is a real contrast with my biggest process complaint at the GA - that there was no negotiation of the agenda) and also to have a break from the bike, though I've actually really enjoyed getting back on it the last couple of days as well.

The GA was really hard core, probably the most hard core conference I've been too. This is due to the combination of a consensus process with a representative structure meaning that all the various delegates (about 40?) were supposed to be representatives of their constituencies, (meaning they discussed all of the various proposals with them before hand) and that any proposal would only be approved with the consent of everyone. We also had a very full agenda with PBI's first ever six year strategic plan and a raft of proposals for implementing it and others not related to it, and reports from each of the five projects (countries where PBI has teams doing protective accompaniment) and a couple of workshop spaces as well. I can sort of see why the agenda wasn't negotiated, there was just no time if we were going to get through everything.

We did have quite an interesting process of achieving all this consensus though using a sort of matrix small group structure of affinity groups and theme groups because there was no way we could approve it all in plenary. First we would meet in affinity groups where our role was to voice any concerns of our constituency on about four specific proposals and hear the concerns of other constituencies. Then we would mix into theme groups so that each theme group had a member (or more) of each affinity group. In the theme groups our job was to represent our affinity group and all of the concerns raised in it about one specific proposal and then form a recommendation to the wider group about whether it should be put to up to test for consensus, amended, needed further discussion between some differing parties or should simply be dropped due to there being chance of reaching consensus. Also remember that through all of this we were working in both English and Spanish the two official languages of PBI with plenaries having simultaneous translation and small groups working either in English or Spanish. Luckily about half of the participants were bi-lingual so the only slight problem was some of the spontaneous small groups where we usually had to get a participant to translate for a couple of people. There were also some people who were working in their third or fourth language as well of course. But it definitely helped my Spanish a bit. We went through three cycles of affinity groups and theme groups dealing with different proposals each time. So you can imagine it was fairly exhausting process. By the end of it though we reached consensus on all but two major proposals, one of which is very controversial and the last GA hadn't reached consensus on either and the other which was only introduced during the GA and the main issue was that people hadn't had a chance to consult their constituencies'

It was really great to be there though, just to get a picture of PBI beyond Australia, meet lots of people involved, hear directly from people working as part of each of the projects, and get a sense of how the other country groups are going. I came out of it feeling much better about PBI Australia's activities which I've always felt were small compared to other countries. We did have some great times together (despite there being no scheduled 'community time') over meals or out at the pub, particularly the last night which saw some loud drunken singing of songs from all our countries in the local square until a resident came and told us off - not quite PBI’s desired image I'll admit.

Anyway, as to the other bit of the title, not only did I make it to Stonehenge in the middle of the GA but so did four others who decided to join me. When Michael from the US heard I was going he wanted to go to and Chris (also US) was also keen and had a local friend interested as well. Originally I was going to train and bike but with four of us we decided to hire a car. Once that was decided Christine from Canada was interested as was Lin (my Australian co-delegate) luckily Chris' local friend dropped out so we all fitted in the car, and that was that. The other bonus of having the car was that we didn't have to miss any sessions (a requirement of Mike's as he'd been paid for by PBI USA to come) as the festival was overnight. So we left a bit after 9pm (end of the day's sessions - told you it was hard core) trained out to Heathrow (the only place we could pick up a hire car that late and saved driving through London anyway) and arrived at Stonehenge some time in the wee small hours.

Stonehenge had been open since 10pm but the car park was only half full when we arrived. Stonehenge itself was jammed full of people, including some climbing on the rocks unfortunately and others in sleeping bags. So yeah it was a big festival, no amplified music allowed but plenty of drums, various pipe instruments and even a traditional English (not Scottish) bagpipe we heard as dawn approached. We had a great time wandering around, mostly outside the stones themselves which were too crowded (although we definitely went in there and touched them) but one could actually better appreciate the scene (both stones and people) from outside the circle. We saw a beautiful orange full moon set about 3am just as dawn was breaking. Mike and I heard a few minutes of a performance historian telling the history of how the stones were cut into shape and brought from all over England and even Wales by some otherwise unknown civilisation between 5000 and 3000 BC and then joined together by hollowing out some holes and these being filled with wood and then mortar to join the top and bottom ones. We warmed ourselves by the fire a bit cause it got pretty cold, forecasted down to 10 degrees celcius, Lin who has poor circulation struggled a bit. As dawn approached Chris and I stood in the crowd (an alternative source of warmth) just outside the stones to watch this dawning of the longest day. It was amazing to watch the mist rise, cows appear on yonder hill and discover that what looked like low cloud on the horizon were actually trees covering surrounding hills. Sunrise eventually happened to much jubilation at about 5am, accompanied by several rounds of cheering, applause, blowing of horns and banging of drums, as some cloud low on the horizon made the actual moment of sunrise open to dispute. Someone suggested it was when you could see your shadow on the stones, but sunrise had been popularly acclaimed about half a dozen times by then. In any case it was the only sunrise I ever seen greeted with such popular acclaim and one I will never forget. Once it had happened though Chris and I high-tailed it out of there as we wanted to get on the road quickly and beat the traffic to get back to London by 9:00. Unfortunately we were in such a hurry we didn't see the others waiting at our agreed meeting point and hurried onto the car assuming they'd got cold and gone ahead as we were a few minutes late. An hour later after waiting and then going slowly back through the crowd making sure we didn't miss them and getting back to the car we got in what was now the queue of traffic waiting to get out. Luckily we had had the foresight to park near the gate (disobeying parking attendant instructions) and walked past a lot cars trying to get out and to so didn't have to wait too long. We did however run into quite a bit more London peak hour traffic than we'd hoped and arrived back at the hostel having had 1-2 hours worth of snatches of sleep in the car and on the train. Mike and I had split the driving as neither would have made it all the way by ourselves without falling asleep. I went straight back into session then had to walk out of one later as I was falling asleep taking my notes (you could even see where my writing trailed off into scribble). I lay down for a 20 minute nap but of course my body would not except anything less than 3 hours. This was enough to get me through and after that I was no more tired than anybody else. So we had a great adventure, and it was great to be able to share it with some others rather than be by myself and the car worked out at £10 each instead of a £20 train ticket. Awesome.

gotta go though
James

Pugsworth in Kent

I had a week left before I had to be back in London for the PBI General Asembly. So I decided to do a tour of Kent (the Shire in the very south east corner of England, between London and Dover, and hopefully a bit of Sussex (next shire to the west, directly south of London). This would be a good test run for touring the rest of England. My basic plan on starting was a night in Rochester, two nights in Canturbury and then a night each in Dover, Hastings and Tunbridge Wells but of course it never turns out exactly as you expect. here's a bit I drafted after my first couple of days...

I've had a couple of long days on the bike, 50 miles (80kms) yesterday from Hyde Park in London to Cuxton near Rochester in Kent and then 30 miles (48kms) today I've only converted those distance just now, it seems so much further!. Today was supposed to be 40 miles but I jumped on a train in order to arrive on time to my Servas host. It's been quite hard work follwoing the National Cycling Track which isn't great quality and not very well signed. I've missed several turms and had to double back. Today I picked up a wider map of the area with cycle paths on it so I might just decide to find my own way. At one point Yesterday the path lead me down a very narrow path with a fence collapsing on one side only to run into a bridge that had been fenced off (obviously for some time) and having to go back and right around to the main road to cross the railway. Today I had to find my way through a makeshift rubbish dump to find the track continuation, thanks to some help from a local. I think I'll ring the national cycling network tomorrow and complain and suggest an audit of the route, sign markings and track quality. The map says that the route will be an "attractive, high quality, sign posted network... a national asset, open to everyone, there forever" it should read, "deteriorated and under-developed cycle tracks, for the experienced cyclist - a strong sense of adventure required!" Bu then I guess that you have to have a strong sense of adventure to do what I'm doing anyway. - Funny, I was reading a summary of Roald Dahl's work at the B&B last night, including some statements about him by colleagues and family. The biggest thing I picked up was everyone repeating how he thought it was so important to have a spirit of adventure. I geuss it rubbed of on me at least, and from Dad as well. I discovered there is a museum in his memory in Buckingham, which I will have to visit.

So my first night was a B&B in Cuxton approx 8 miles south of Rochester and had to pay £30 -($70!), the cheapest B&Bs are £23 or £20 if you're lucky but it was very nice and the cheapest thing around I could find - but I won't be relying on the B&B option too much any more.

The cycling is making me tired but I haven't noticed much soreness yet, just a bit in my quads, (front thigh muscles), they've been a few hills in the last couple of days. I have Bevan's old gloves but only use them in cold wind or rain. I've also had some good points to the cycling, great views of the countryside, laneways through farm country, a beautiful view of Canturbury Cathedral on the way in tonight, and a few things that have just appeared out of nowhere which has been great.

I spent the next two nights with Pauline a servas host in Canturbury, she is a retired teacher who used to work with young people with learning disabilities. She is the only host in Canturbury and has had quite a few travellers since joining last year and is really enjoying it. She was a bit hesistant about taking me at first because she's been really busy but we quickly warmed to each other and both really enjoyed my stay.

Two nights gave me a day to hae a look around Caturbury a beautiful little town (about 20,000 people I think but that is doubled by the temporary university population). The univeristy gives a great feel of vibracy as well, lots of young peple and all that. so with that and the Cathdral there is this real mix of the new with the history of old but still quite a small town. I spent a few hours at the Cathdral, a really beautiful place, much more space for reflection than Westminster Abbey (interestingly I found a place called Minster on the map in the north of Kent, including Minster Abbey, so presumably that's how Westminster got it's name). I particularly liked the two crypts at the Cathedral, sort of under ground, fairly dark with a very quiet reflective mood, (not in anyway creepy but just) a sense of retreat from the busy world. It was weird seeing several school groups coming through from different countries in Europe, I guess with all the history in Europe so close it makes complete sense to go on a school excusion to a whole 'nother country! Not something that ever occurred to me living in the Antipodeas (a term used regularly to refer to Aus and NZ). The other thing that seemed weird was that there was a school within the Cathedral compound - Kings no less. That's not weird in itself but can you imagine going to school, and even living, next to Canturbury Cathdral! It seems so weird.

Then I spent the afternoon looking around Canturbury, I rode around the old city wall, and then walked along the top of a section of it. Checked out the ruins of the old castle - free and was quite surprised to find someone sleeping in the dead end at the top of the stairs in such an unnatural position that it took me half a second to recognise it was a person - you know what the stair cases in these places are like, so tight you bump into something before you see it. I don't think I disturbed the person though. There actually are quite a few homeless folk in Cantubury given it's small population. Last stop in the way home was the beautiful creek which truns through the middle of the town and made for a great ride.

Tuesday I set off for Dover via Sandwich and Deal - about 30 miles The track was much improved from here and much easier to follow - actually it had been for the last 10 miles into Canturbury from Whitstable - however from Sandwich on I was going into a strong head wind. If I'd been smarter I would have done my looop the other may as the prevailing wind seems to be a south westerly which is basically stright along the coast here. Anyway, sandwich is a pretty little town, quite a maze actually of old buildings, and a nice park by the river, apparently ships used to be able to sail up what is now a small creek when the sea level was higher several hundred years ago. Deal reminds me of a typical Aussie seaside town except the the peach is all large pebbles and quite steep and all the buildings are old and english.

On the way to Dover I had a long ride up long hill but luckily this sheltered me from the wind and it was actually easier going uphill with no wind than flat along the beach into the strong head wind. Dover was pretty amazing, the harbour is completely a human construction with three sections of wall ringing of a section of the sea from all the walls and currents, pretty spectacular extending from the bottom of the more famous cliffs, which also looked great. Town then runs back up a couple of valleys away from the sea. (Noone builds on the hill tops becuase it is just too windy and unpleasant.)

Wednesday was overcast, wet, very windy and generally miserable, so that was a good excuse to take the train to Hastings and spend a few hours at Dover Castle first. The castle remains the best I've seen so far, so impressive on the hill top with about four rings of walls and then the keep - it must have been completely impregnable, it is also set up with some good historical displays which give you the feel of what it would have been like when inhabited, particularly all the different sounds that just play in the background as you wonder through. There are also the tunnels used during WWII which are quite interesting. I got to the train station about 4pm to discover the link between Dover and Folkstone is closed for major works with replacement bus services running. so I 8m rode to Folkstone and got the train to Rye, which Jo Beck had suggested was a beautiful little town worth seeing. She was right too, it's twon centre is quite historic, old cobbled streets on the hill top over looking the Romeny Marshes, I quite enjoyed crusing around it for an hour between trains. I then stayed at in the Hasting youth hostel (actually at Guestling Green so I never got to Hastings). This was my second night in a YHA, which are cheap enough to use out of London. My first was in Dover, wher I met Gareth who had cycled from Liverpool in a week including a couple of 70m (110km) days - not that's hard core! Not surprisingly he was coming down with something, but I've just heard from him and is okay, battling strong head winds on his way down the French cost to Spain, he has a job there from September so hopefully we'll catch up there later.

Thursday I rode up to Battle, as in the Battle of Hastings 1066. I had a great wander around the Abbey William the conquerer built around the field where the battle took place, and enjoyed exploring that story in some more depth. The town did not exist until then and grew up around the abbey. Next stop was Bodiam castle one of the finest examples of a Tudor Castle and one of the few remaining with a full moat. It was very picturesque - on the outside at least. Advertising was a bit misleading though because inside, not a lot remained, enough to piece together though the general lay out and there was an interesting video about castle life. From there I rode to Royal Tunbridge Wells, another interesting town. It was quite posh, oweing to it's fame as a place of 'health giving' hot springs (aparently there is a high iron content in the water?) and so it was frequented by high society and various members of the Royal family in times past - thus it's title officially bestowed by one of the Kings. So the malls were really quite something - lots of restaurants - but not quite as classy as Henley, and it was one of those place names I'd often heard and wanted to visit. The only problem was that B&Bs started at £45, no way. So I had to head back to Blackboys YHA near Uckbridge which meant bike to train 4miles, train 9miles, and bike to YHA 4 miles. Total for the day 30 miles (48kms) but over some quite steep terain. It was worth ducking back though, because I only paid £8 for the bed, got the train trip for free and best of all saw a wild deer in the woods on the way! Often as I ride along I disturb something close by in the woods as they dont hear me until I'm close and I hear things darting away, usually there only squirells or the occassional rat and so don't usually bother trying to spot them but this was much bigger and I looked just in time to see a beuatiful red dear leaping away through the trees - a magnificent moment. I also rode past a place called High Rock where there are these huge rocks remaining completely exposed on top of hill, (much more unusual here than in Oz) walking past were a group of people one carrying a digerdoo. Apparantly they were going to have an evening of 'natural' (my word, drums, dig, etc) music in amoungst the rocks. I would have loved to join them but had to move on.

Friday was my last day with the GA starting in London that night. The main event was Pooh Corner and the surrounding (100 acre) woods where AA Milne set the stories of Winnie the Pooh and his friends. On the way there was a great few of south of Kent and Sussex, down to the Southern Downs (where Battle is located) and some locals pointed out some key land marks. I visited 'the enchanted place' where AA Milne was laid to rest by his son Christopher Robin Milne, a beautiful little spot, within a feeling of enchanment that even a cynic like me could detect. I did an hours walk down to 'Pooh Sticks Bridge' where AA and Christopher played the first game of pooh sticks. I was quite obviously the right place as down stream from the bridge the river was choked with sticks used by all the tourists. there were even warning signs to collect stick before reaching the bridge and use only use 'pooh sticks' from the ground, not breaking them off trees. so I kept to small sticks to minimise my impact on the river and did some experimenting to see what sticks were better and what part of the river ran quickest. Smaller sticks were definately quicker. During my walk I also saw a pheasant, another tick on my list of English wildlife. The other highight of the day was passing this really really old steam tractor, which someone referrred to a traction machine. It was huge, made mostly of cast iron, including the front wheels which had no tire, only a kind of rubber belt around the cast iron. It was pulling an old iron trailer and an old (bit not quite as old) caravan - very cool.

I caught the train back to London and headed for the PBI GA at the Indian YMCA in Fitzroy Sqr. It had been a great week, mostly on the move. I've decided that I'm going to try and stick to 20-30 mile days to give me a chance to stop and see things and use the train in between to cover the distances. I'll also make more use of servas in the interesting towns and cities to give me rest days and time to have a good look around. All this will mean a bit of scaling back my expectations of how thoroughly I'll be able to explore the country side. England, might be small, but it's not that small and is so dense with people and history that there is a a lot to see. I am looking forward to a break from the travel during the conference.

Pugsworth in London 2

Wow! so much to write about, having such a good time.

I'm getting used to road system here now, although the quality of the actual pavements is very poor and I'm still breaking a few rules as usual. I've done most of the Monopoly board now, Fleet St, The Strand, Trafalgar Square, Oxford St, Regent St, Picadilly, Bond St (old + new), and Pall Mall - ah the Union Jacks. My favourite spots in the city though would have to be Soho Sqr and St Katherine's Dock. Soho is just this cool little sqr in the middle of a block of old narrow winding streets, so it's away from the traffic. But it's popular with young set and is probably the closest thing to Brunswick St - except it's just the cafe's no shops and a grass square in the middle. St Katherine's dock is just west of Tower Bridge and is more up market but a beautiful setting. The old docks are now a marina set in amoungst old buildings and brick pavements meander around the edge and across a couple of bridges that rise up to let boats through as needed. The best thing was the way I discovered these spot, Soho, completely by accident while trying to take a short cut through the city and St Katerines Dock when I heard a local on Tower Bridge explaining to his visiting friend that it was a nice spot for lunch. Then I just happned to have time to kill on my way home and decided to check out, I must have spen almost half an hour riding around and stopping to take in the scene of returning yachts.

I've now done a few of the museum's - and there's heaps to see just in the free ones! I've been through Tate Britain, half of Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert (an amazingly numerous and diverse collection) a bit of the Science Museum (mostly child oriented), and the British Museum. Still want to do the Museum of London, the Natural History Musuem and the other half of Tate Modern. My favourite so far would be Tate Britian (maybe because it's the first one I did, but) it was great to get a sense of the history of Britain through it's art from 1600 until now, particularly 1600-1900 which I new less about. My favourite room featured work by George Frederisk Watts whose art reflected his concerns about materialism, gambling and promiscuity. His foresight (on the first two at least) is remarkable for a man painting in the 19th century! The best peace featured people worshiping Mamon - the god of money and Watts plan was to erect a statue of him in Hyde Park so that those who worshiped him could at least be honest enough to bow down in public worship! The other piece I liked was by a 20th century young female artist whose name I've forgotten. It was simply two statements written in pink neon lighting - "Is anal sex legal?" "Is legal sex anal?"

I've now also visited the Tower of London, Windsor Castle and the Abby. The Tower was fun to explore, a big castle with lots of interesting history, not sure why we're still proud of all the weapons though. I was dissappointed that not everywhere was open to the public, ie. the northern battlements which I would have loved to walk. I asked a Yeoman Gaurd why not and he said "Security Reasons" "What do you mean?" I asked, "That's as far as it goes", he replied cutting the conversation of abruptly. - Bloody excuse for anything these days I reckon. Windsor Castle was also cool but a bit less of an exploration adventure becuase it's still in use. The funnies thing was exploring this castle that goes back centuries and still having planes flying overhead every minute to land at Heathrow. Queen Mary's Doll's house was cool but it was surpassed the following day when on returning from Henley (a town so classy it has people spruiking for charities on street corners, but absolutely no fast food joints and only one take away food place) I (again completely accidently while riding down a narrow path in the back of nowhere) discovered someone's private miniture railway including a miniture three storey railway station, three times the size of the dolls house, although not with quite the same detail of ornaments and furniture etc.

Anyway travelling's exhausting, and not just the riding bit, taking everything in and constantly meeting new people is quite tiring. I had three nights with Taryn, which was great, fairly relaxed, two more nights in a youth hostel (brining my total to five so far) including one where there actually wasn't another Aussie in the room - a couple of cool American's though one of whom gave me some great tips on Ireland and has just gone to Spain so more tips to come there. Then I've had the last four nights at Wokingham with my third cousin Jo Beck and her daughter Waverly who were also really relaxed and rode to Windsor and henley from there (on different days).

Had dinner with Dave and Teigan last night so cool catch up with them while we're all over here, they're well enjoying themselves, off to Italy for a week shortly. Tonight I'm back to a hostel and then tomorrow I'm off to Kent for a week. The following week I'm back in London for my PBI conference, then a I have a few free days here including hopefully one at Wimbledon and then I fly to Sweden for a week before returning to head up the east coast.

Some of the little but best things so far:
My gel seat cover - the only bike soreness I've had so far has been for about the first 30 seconds on the bike each morning - so practically nothing. Recommend it to anyone who does any sort of regular cycling - $15 I got mine from Rebel Sport.
The Holeproof rain jacket I bought - is great against wind but also completely wind proof which is very handy but also quite comfy - I have no fear of the elements - thanks for the tip Mum.
Flapjacks - the english version of Muesly bars, shorter and thicker in shape but so much more tasty and a great texture, not so chrunchy or chewy.

Enough for now, more to come including a whinge about whinging British buskers.

yours in permanent excitment (damn it's exhausting)
James

Pugsworth in London

Hi again

Yes I'm still alive, I've just been having a great time because the whether here has been so nice! the first couple of days were what I expected London weather to be grey and showery but since then it has hardly rained and most days have been between 20 + 25 - perfect for cycling and beautiful warm evenings. We even had a 30 degree day last week which I spent on a ferry on the Thames. Today is the first real rainy day we've had - I've haven't had to put my long pants on yet!

For the record let's go back to the start though. The flight to London was okay 13hrs (from KL) is a long time on a plane though, something you can't appreciate until you've done it. Yes I know there are longer flights, I'm just glad I'd got into KL to stretch my legs. I watched Oceans 12 and slept quite a bit. I also really enjoyed looking out my window seat at India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, some of the old soviet states and the Caspian Sea. I didn't find Osama but the lanscape was fascinating, some huge rivers, roads and villages visible and then mountain ranges - pretty much all brown and dusty though until the framland of Poland and Germany and then mostly cloud.

Once I arrived I didn't really have trouble getting through passport control at Heathrow, just a few questions about why I was saying so long - and I only told them 30th of August as that's when I have my train to Paris booked for though I plan to change this to about October.

I found my bike okay, nothing broken, box still intact etc and re-assembled it in a corner underneath a stairwell without any trouble. After a bit of a hiccup where I found myself on a motorway (freeway) on the way into London and then a little trouble working out London's streets and squares and their numbering systems I finally made it to the accomodation I'd booked at Victoria Hostel. It was a great feeling, I'd found my way here and made it. The adventures have begun!

So London is I guess as you'd expect, a busy place, lots of local centres. Lots of historic spots both in the city centre and around the place, lots of Museums and Galleries - i think I'll stick to the several free ones. One thing I hadn't expected is the large and numerous public parks. So far I've explored Hyde Park, Kensington Garden's, Buckingham Palace Gardens, Green Park, St James Park (the most beautiful so far Greenwich Park, Valentines Park (alas no Valentine), Battersby Park, Clapham Common, Gunnersbury Park, Richmond Park, Hampton Court (only the public garens so far) and the north-west corner of Hamstead Heath. You might think this gets boring after a while but's it's all dispersed with other things and each park has it's own unique character. Some are simply open lawns for people to enjoy the sun or play football (eg. Hyde Park + Clapham Common), others have lots of trees and ponds or lakes with ducks etc (eg St James), some have formal gardens and other facilites (eg Battersby), some are old hunting grounds with small forests and open but overgrown grasslands with more a wild feel (eg Richmond) and others are full of local history like Gunnersbury where I was surprised to find part of the Rothschild legacy. The parks also vary in how welcoming they are of bicycles. I've been quite annoyed to find that some (eg Buckingham and parts of Hyde Park) don't allow cycling at all - not that I (or others) paid much attention to that, but it didn't make me feel a welcome visitor.

In fact I've found London to be not very cycle friendly at all. Cycling lanes are not as common as Melbourne and often end in the middle of nowhere leaving cyclists lacking in legal options. I was pulled over by a gaurd in my first couple of days and told I could be fined for riding on the pavement (footpath), something I was not pleased to hear as the pavements come in very handy for getting around London's many one-way streets. Some of the cycling tracks that do exist are very poor in quailty, I had one that was like gibber! At least the drivers are okay. I've only been hooted once and that was when I found myself on the motorway and was more for information than abuse and they generally give you heaps of room on the road which is good. The pedestrians have got no idea how to deal with you though. One of my best rides was through Epping forest in the south of Essex, more of a mountain bike ride along it's many horse tracks jumping fallen logs and dodging piles of mud - great fun!

For accomodation I had three nights at the hostel to start with, then i stayed with a couple of Servas hosts both middle aged women living alone. Jean in Chingford (who also had three boarders and then Valerie (and her dog Benjo who I had a great time with) who invited me to stay a total of four nights. I was able to help both with things around the house as a thank you, cutting back ivy and mowing the lawns. Valerie also introduced me to a great local peace group called Conflict and Change check out www.conflictandchange.co.uk who hosted a great exhibition called 'The F Word - Stories of Forgiveness' - I even bought the £5 booklet version. Then I've had the last three nights with family friends the Krolls, great to have some young company again. Tonight I'm staying with Taryn an old work colleague, I must go as I supposed to be meeting her now.

I've been seeing lots of sights and a few other bits of London too!

Counties visited so far Middlesex (London), Essex, Surrey.

more soon
James