Sat on a plane flying at a bloody high altitude on my way to London. Been on this Thomas cook economy flight for 3 hours and my ass is in agony. Really, would a little cushioning be too costly to add?

Anyway, ‘a reluctantly miserable bum aside’, I am very happy to be flying. Surrounded by people with babies, I think this is the first time I have been peaceful about having wee ones on the flight – ahh, I must be a Dad myself or something. That being said, they have been well behaved until now, we’ll see how they (and myself) do on the descent into Gatwick Airport.

This is a solo trip to visit my family in Leeds and to see my mates in London. I was wondering whether to include this on the Global Travel blog as it is not with my family but I feel there has been some great planning and learning that will assist us on our big trip around the world.

I have also been watching Long Way Down and Long Way Round recently where Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman traveled around the World on their motor bikes. Watching them plan & prepare before the trip has been inspiring and an interesting learning curve for me. However, watching them travel and just meet people around the world has been beautiful and ‘rekindled the fire’ for me about the prospect of traveling around the world with Claire and our wee gal.

I am flying into London; catching the bus to Clapham on the outskirts of London; Tubing (the London Underground) up to Kings Cross and then train up to York where my folks will meet their very tired buy happy son.

Maybe I’ll go for a bum massage tomorrow! Where was I? ah yes… I will be spending 4 days in Leeds and then to London to visit a bunch of mates.

REMINISCING
The last time I was in the UK (where I was born and lived until I was 26) was 3 years ago. My wife and I had had an English Christmas, which was amazing, but like most trips it was all very rushed, only being able to spend a small amount of time with each family member. We also went to London on the same trip where I saw a few friends but the most we spent with people was an hour or two over lunch.

This time I have at least two days per friend (sweeeet). I will be able to relax, ‘visit’ and really catch up. We stay in touch via email, but nothing will ever replace the intimacy and quality of a live conversation (especially if it’s in a pub over a pint and a couple bags of crisps).

TRAVEL INSIGHT
I am a manic organizer! I like every minute of my time to be organized. But, as a walking, talking contradiction, I crave to be relaxed and to be spontaneous, as whenever I have in the past it has yielded some great unexpected results.

So what I have learnt from planning this trip is to balance the two. I am staying with six different people (I hope they all have spare rooms) but as far as what I am doing when I am there nothing is in writing. I have a few ideas, for example,- see some Art, go to some museums, do a brewery tour etc, but what day and with whom is still open. I am liking this- it allows my ‘organized gene’ to be fulfilled, but also to have some spontaneity, to discover the unknown and the magic that comes with traveling.

This ‘new’ way of being for me is great, there was even a threat of a train strike that could have left me ‘stranded’ in London once I arrive, but it didn’t bother me. I thought if there was a strike, although it would be inconvenient (as I will be traveling for 18 hours by the time I get to the train station) it would be an adventure. There is absolutely nothing I can do to prevent a strike, so I may as well choose to chill out. I found out yesterday that there would be no strike. Ahhh, relieved – Yes. But learnt an important lesson of accepting what I can’t change and to ‘go with the flow’ a wee bit.

As I think about our global trip I wonder if we want to just get on a plane and go, or plan part of it. Do we know where we want to fly from but don’t book certain flights until we are there and are ready to leave? What if we fall in love with a certain country and want to stay longer etc. If we didn’t know where we were going, then getting entry visas could be problematic I guess.

These are all great questions that we need to resolve before we move much further. I feel a global map is required so we can start to plan our trip, even if it’s it just discussing where each other would like to travel to, or explore.

Claire and I have also discussed having the trip make a difference not just for us two and our daughter’s future, but for others around the world. Do we do voluntary work with Unicef in different regions of the world? Do we explore organic natural farms and try to eat organic the entire trip?  So many questions to be answered! The main one that still looms over us is ‘how on earth are we going to pay for it all?’ I am off to walk around and exercise my bum cheeks now. What a pleasant visual.

TIP OF THE DAY
When at an airport, if there is a swanky hotel there, go and eat your lunch or dinner there rather than the crap generic restaurants in the food court area. I had a bread basket that included the best crispy bread I have had in ages. Simple, fresh, sea salt (lots of it) and fresh rosemary. Wow was it ever good. Thank you Sheriton Vancouver Airport.

UPDATE
Have you ever been lying in bed and have been terrorized by a crow on the near by tree, squawking- away preventing you from falling back to sleep. Well, the kids on the plane started to cry and continued for well over an hour. I think it is cruel of parents to bring their kids on a nine- hour flight until at least they are two years old. It is cruel, they don’t have the ability to communicate any pain or discomfort that well and have no idea what is going on – hence the crying. I have experienced ‘ear pressure’ whilst flying, it’s not fun! If I was a wee one I would cry too. This lead me to thinking how I am an unsociable traveler over a long distance. Just get me there – then I will be nice again. This is something I probably should work on a little, maybe, otherwise traveling around the world with me maybe a little less than pleasurable for my wife and daughter.

On a different note, the Thomas Cook flight was excellent, the cabin crew were great too. Happy to be in London, I have missed this place.

LONDON
It was the breakfast meal on the plane that had England ‘flood back’ into my life. A regular North American breakfast of hash browns, scrambled egg, but then with a generous helping of Heinz Baked Beans – they were good, really good.

Then as I got into the airport I was ‘bombarded by Britain’, all the day to day things you forget when living in a different culture. Marks and Spencers, the sandwich- culture, being able to buy booze in the supermarket (always surprises me), the different words for things like lifts, trousers and how the phrase ‘Awesome’ has people think that I am an American.

On a bus to Fulham now. The driver asked us to put our seatbelts on – how cool is that, not sure we will get that in all countries when we do our global trip, especially when there are goats and chickens on the seat next to you.

More differences. Seeing the ‘bookies’ (legal gambling shop) ON THE MAIN ROAD IS CRAZY DIFFERENT; the speed people travel is wicked; there are big and huge roundabouts compared to Vancouver (and people know how to use them); most homes are made from brick or stone; we are driving on the other side of the road; we have passed several pubs in several minutes (gagging for a britney#) and finally, my free range ‘egg and bacon sanrie’ is ‘well good geezer’.

# Britney is cockney rhyming slang for Beers. Britney is short for Britney Spears  which rhymes with Beers. Simple eh!

FIRST ROADBLOCK
I am scheduled to catch the 5pm train but everything has been so smooth today I was at Kings X station for 1pm. I didn’t think I would be able to catch an earlier train as I purchased my ticket super early and it was only $40. Some people may think this is expensive for a 90 minute journey, but if I wanted to travel earlier than 5pm today it was going to be, ready for it … another $140 – oouch.

So, here I am at Camino, a Spanish bar and restaurant. I was heading out of the train station and walking in a general direction of Angel (an area where I use to work when I lived here). As the rain began to become really heavy I ducked down this little archway to take cover,- it was then when I saw this bar in the distance. After exploring a little it looked really cool. Having lived in Canada for ten years I have forgotten a lot of the English ways – or they may have changed. As I walked into this bar / cafe I was wondering if I was to sit down and someone would serve me, or if I go to the counter to order. The counter it was. Now I am curious if this is the UK way, or just here. Time will tell. These types of enquiries are fascinating to me, and something I am very curious to explore in other cultures especially where they don’t speak English and I don’t speak their language.

After this I am going to try and find a proper British pub. It would be a shame to drink my first British beer in five years in a bar, especially a Spanish Bar (my ancestors wouldn’t be able to forgive me).

ON THE TRAIN TO YORK
Overheard “I’ll come out proper tomorrow night mate”

OK, so I am on the train heading to York, the final stage in today’s epic traveling adventure. Instead of having a beer as this would have tripled my tiredness I went for a walk. I asked a local gal which way was Angel and she gave me directions to the bus stop to go to Angel. Coming from an active city like Vancouver I found this quite funny especially as it was only a 10 – 15 minute walk. Also, it reminded me of when I lived in London and tubed or bussed everywhere.

On my walk I took many photographs. They were all ‘Matt’ style of signage, garbage cans etc. I was even pulled over by the police. They asked me what I was photographing. I informed them I was talking a photo of the illustration of the man in the ‘do not walk’ sign. They informed me that it was the back of a Police station and should be careful – oooops.

My last story for the day, was at Kings X train station. I needed to use the ‘loo’ / toilet / washroom’ so off I trotted to find one. I was reminded once I arrived at the turnstile that I had to pay. 30 pence (70 cents). Give some pennies to spend a penny I guess (UK joke).

IT’S NO PERRY BUT IT’S CLOSE
I have been trying to search for Perry (pear cider) for months now in Vancouver and just before I came to England I got a lead on a place  which I will check out on my return.

But for now, as I am in the UK where cider is very popular I wondered if there was any to be found. If you don’t know, alcohol is sold in supermarkets over here, so as I was ‘killing some time’ waiting for my train  I thought I would see what cider options they had in the local supermarket.

To my surprise they had several pear ciders. Perry is a very specific type of pear cider, made from the Perry pear. They didn’t have any of that, but I did buy a bottle of Living Orchards Premium Organic Pear Cider. I poured myself a glass and then paused. As I love pears but dislike apple cider there was  a 50 / 50 chance of me liking pear cider. I waited a little longer, and then took my first taste. The wait was well worth it. I like it a lot. At 6% alcohol you could drink a lot of this stuff, especially if it was a sunny summer’s day. It was a little sweet and had a really subtle aftertaste of cider, kind of like ‘if pear juice and cider got it on and had a wee kid’.

QUALITY FAMILY TIME
It was fun this evening once the kids had gone to bed, we all had dinner. There  was my parents and bro and his wife. It was nice to sit down as a family and talk over the dinner table. At home I always seem to be too busy to relax around the dinner table, always something else to do. I look forward to seeing how families spend their time together in different regions and countries around the world. We played with lego from when I was a kid and also talked about Aids and Cancer treatments – an interesting mix of conversations indeed!

SEE IMAGES ON FLICKR:
part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4

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