A Trip to Tainan

A trip to Tainan (Taiwan)

 

Shangri-La

For Yellow Sugar’s birthday, we were lucky enough to be put up in the Shangri-La hotel in Tainan.  I always feel like part of the proletariat and out of place in these places; but who am I to complain about being put up in a fancy hotel.  I’d wanted to go to Tainan for a long time.  From what I had heard, I was expecting a city similar to Kyoto in Japan.  Kyoto is famous for its many temples and is the former capital city of Japan.  In fact, Kyoto was removed as an atomic bomb target in order to preserve its architectural treasures.  Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan, is also the former capital of its country and is known for its many temples.  Tainan has 166 temples, it is said ‘these is a God every five steps and a temple at three’.  Kyoto is one of the favourite places I have visited, so you can imagine the eagerness I was feeling to experience Tainan.

 

Chi-Kan Tower Turtles

We travelled down to Tainan via the HSR; this is the most convenient mode of transport from Taipei.  You have to transfer to a slow train at Shalun station, but this is a simple and cheap task.  Conveniently for us the Shangri-La is located right behind the station, so it was the shortest of walks to get to our destination.  We arrived too early to officially check in, so we picked up a map of the sights and temples from the concierge and headed out for a wander.  I always think if you are going to discover a city it is best to do on foot, otherwise you are likely to be moving too fast and miss it.  We headed first to the Chi-Kan tower.  Originally known as Fort Provintia, it was built by the Dutch during their colonisation of Taiwan.  Eventually, it was surrendered over the Koxinga (who is a big deal in Tainan) when he defeated the Dutch and used as his centre of government.  It was later destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt.  Despite this the insides of the towers have a great deal of original artwork and beams.  The gardens outside surrounding the towers are particularly peaceful and have ponds full of carp; one of these pounds is lined by stone statues of turtles with tablets on their backs.  I’m still not sure what they mean, but they look pretty interesting.  With the original features and peaceful gardens, this place has a great feel to it and is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. 

 

Chi-Kan Tower

 

God of War's Blade of Justice

After a spot of lunch at a local dou hua place we continued our temple run, heading to Ji Dian Wu Miao (The God of War Temple).  This is one of my favourite temples in Taiwan.  In a small entrance there is huge Dynasty Warrior style sword and from there the temple has a magnificent labyrinth of rooms, it continually turns round corners taking you to areas the humble beginnings would not let believe the temple could possess.  The further into the temple you wander the further into another time and culture you find yourself; by the time you have reached the end, you feel as if you could be back in the 17^th century when the temple was made.  The fact it was made in the 17^th century, during the Ming Dynasty, makes it one of the oldest surviving temples in Taiwan (along with the Confucius Temple, which we visited later).  The God of War temple is back to back with the Grand Matsu Temple (Great Queen of Heaven Temple).  It connected by an old street, which adds to the wonder and feel of no longer being 21^st century.  This temple lacks the age and mystique of the GOW Temple, but it is still a splendid temple with many areas of court yards to explore and it is one of the grandest temples in the land.  Across the way from the entrance are two turtle statues; one of a regular turtle and one of, what I can best describe as, a dragon-turtle.  This dragon-turtle looks like one of every boy’s favourite villains, Bowser.  Since seeing this statue I have been become convinced this is the inspiration behind one of our most beloved bad-guys.  Taiwan has a strong Japanese influence and who can forget Mario, and thus Bowser, are from the Japanese Nintendo.  All this temple hunting had worked up a thirst, so we headed for one of Tainan’s signature drinks, Dong Gua (Winter Melon) Tea.  It tastes very much like barley tea, it was extremely refreshing and just what we needed to pick us up.  At this point, we thought it would be good time to head back to the hotel and check in.  On the way back we wandered past many more sites, but nothing that jumped off the street and dragged us in.  Apart from one, a Catholic Church (helping prove the God is every five steps theory) and as it was advent there was a delightful nativity scene surrounding their carp pond (a nice Taiwanese touch to Christianity).

 

 

Grand Matsu Temple

Bowser?

We arrived back at the hotel to check in and relax before tea, and then it happened.  I found out I had no swimming trunks!  I had been waiting for months to try out the pool and hot tub in this 5-star hotel and I had forgotten my swimming trunks!  Fortunately, this gave us further opportunity to wander around and discover things.  After relaxing in the room, we decided to go to Hua Yuan night market.  It was about 25-30 min walk from the train station, so not too far and very walkable.  Hua Yuan night market, is maybe the most crowded night market I have visited in Taiwan, there is not even the slightest bit of personal space; it was akin to being at a moving Rolling Stones gig (with no Rolling Stone music, obviously).  We decided to have a variety of small things for dinner.  We had blow-torched steak, a Japanese rice ball, and some ji-pai (chicken steak) with tempura and rice sausage.  We washed this down with some Indian milk tea.  All in all, the food was very sweet and the drink not sweet enough.  If you make it to Tainan, be prepared for sweet tasting savoury snacks.  After the meal, which we ate in the car park, as it was near impossible to move hand to mouth in the night market, we went around the shops.  Hua Yuan night market has wide variety of shops; it literally has everything.  They sell some really nice things, especially clothing.  It is quite hard to stop and have a look as you are being carried in a wave of people, but it has a lot of nice and funky things.  Unfortunately, as it was winter, swimming trunks were not one of these.  Although, on the way back to the hotel we ran into a huge decathlon store, It was not particularly in keeping with Tainan, but I was able to purchase NT$100 trunks to use in the 5-star pool and hot tub.  By the time we home, it was nearly 11pm and the pool was about the close, and it was nearly time to call it a night.

 

Hayashi

South Gate

In the morning after quick bite of breakfast at the hotel, we headed out for a wandering tour of Tainan.  We first headed to Hayashi; an old Japanese department store that opened in the 1930’s.  It was one of the first buildings in Taiwan to have elevators, which is one of the big attractions of the building.  The inside of the store is pleasant and has all the things you’d expect of a Taiwanese department store, but the real attraction, in my eyes, is the roof.  It has a very nice and picturesque roof garden which manages to capture a real Japanese feel.  It also has some good views of Tainan.  Rather than use the incredibly busy elevator we decided to walk down the funky steps at the back, which I thought was a much nicer experience.  From the department store went to the South Gate (大南門).  It was closed, but you could see the fortress from outside, which was classic East Asian architecture.  After a quick photo stop and rest under the shade of a large banyan tree, we headed to a temple I was particularly excited to visit; the three concubines temple.  It was such a contradiction in terms of western thinking, concubines and religion, it had to be good.  It was surprisingly (to me) a small humble temple in the middle of park.  It had the three concubines painted across the doors, leading into three small rooms.  After this temple we moved onto a larger place with a bit more pizzazz, Koxinga Shrine.  Koxinga shrine has a large courtyard, you can almost imagine being in 1600’s.  It also has many side rooms you can wander into, including one with an old style working, which is great fun to play with.  It is surrounded by a large garden with some interesting artefacts and a nice pond with giant dragon fountain. 

Yellow Sugar at the Concubine Temple

 

At this point of the afternoon we were well and truly tired of walking in the burning Tainan sun, so we decided to get a bus to Anping.  However, the bus driver had other ideas.  We followed some people to the bus who changed their minds at the last moment, then instantly the bus driver steamed off into the distance off without a glance back to see the people (namely us) running and waving in his mirrors.  This meant a quick jaunt across Tainan to try and get the bus at a different stop, or risk waiting nearly an hour waiting in the heat.  As luck would have it, we made it with time to spare and graciously the same bus driver allowed us onto his bus.

Koxinga Shrine

 

Anping Fort

The bus arrives right by Anping Old Street, a classic Taiwanese old street.  It has so many sights, sounds, and smells, which you don’t experience in modern night markets.  It was busy, but not overly crowded, so we had a nice stroll through the street.  At the end of the street you can either go left to Tian Hou Temple or right to Anping Fort.  We picked up some Bai Tang Guo (白糖粿) for a snack and ate it at the fort.  Anping fort, otherwise known as Fort Zeelandia, has old relics from the original fort and still has the three layer construction built to elevate the old fort, but the old fort is no longer there; this is because it was burned down by the British.  This allowed for the building of the modern new tower in 2008.  The three layer construction with the tower on top is good fun to wander around and made me want to play kind of the castle like a little child.  You get some great sea and city views from the new tower.  The modern tower is white, with clean straight lines, and it contrasts and complements the old- style architecture nicely.  With day getting old we headed to the highly recommended Anping Tree House.  This is an old trading warehouse which had been abandoned for many years.  Over these years banyan trees reclaimed this warehouse for nature.  It was good to see nature winning the battle with a man-made structure, especially one which is not much more than 100 years (rather than approaching 1000 years old).  You can walk through the building right up to trees and see it all or you can walk around on metal walk ways and see it from above.  It may be slightly over sold at times, but it was definitely a must see, as it is not something you come across too often in your life.  I may be a little harsh in my assessment of the tree house, as upon our arrival my camera battery ran out of charge, so I was both tired and grumpy.  By the time we were leaving it was getting dark, so we went for some Anping Bean Jelly (安平豆花).  This is red bean jelly in sweet soup/water served either hot or with ice.  I cannot imagine wanting anything warm in Tainan’s heat so we went for the iced version.  It was just what we needed to cool us down and refresh us for the journey home.  So we got on the next bus and headed home and for a bite to eat.

Tree House



 



 

 

The time had finally arrived for me to use pool and hot tub.  I was nearly has excited about this as I was visiting Tainan.  Pool rules stated that you had wear a swimming cap in the pool and is we didn’t wanted to do real swimming we decided to give it a miss, which has disappointing, but we were too tired for real swimming.  So, we decided just to go and relax in the hot tub and go for a steam and sauna.  Unfortunately, I had not considered Shangri-la is an Asian hotel.  This means men and women hot tub separately, so I was all alone, this was compounded by the fact that bathing suits are not allowed in the hot tub, sauna, or steam room.  I had waited too long for this, so I swallowed my sense of British uncomfortableness, stripped down and jumped (figuratively speaking) into that hot tub; all the while lamenting the fact I needed no swim suit after going through so much to find one!  After a nice relax in the hot tub and a quick sauna (and deciding the Asian males were far too comfortable in their birthday suits) it was time for bed.

Confucius Temple



Lion/Dragon (above) and Water Dragon (below)

The final day had arrived, and arrived too quickly, so it was time to fit in as many things as possible.  After all, we had not yet visited the Confucius temple, maybe the most famous temple in Tainan, possibly even in Taiwan.  So this was where we went first.  The Confucius temple in the Tainan is one the very few temples in which you need to pay for admittance, but it is a small amount and nothing to worry about.  The Confucius temple is understated; it is all made of fading terracotta and very modest and unassuming.  It is has some great stone dragon heads coming from the walls and some classic lion-dragon statues (qilin; 麒麟).  It feels like a place more devoted to study and worship than being too ornate or extravagant.  As you leave there is place to write your wishes to Confucius; as he is remembered as teacher, people generally wish for educational excellence, or the best they can do.  I figured Confucius was humanistic and a nice kind of guy, so I wished for happy travels instead, hoping he would grant my wish despite being out of the norm.  From here we had a wander around the streets of Tainan, had a Guan Cai Ban for lunch (incredibly greasy Taiwanese sandwich traditionally with soup in the middle) and then had some ice-cream from Quan Wei Jia.  A highly recommend Japanese style store and it tasted delicious.  They only offer two flavours a day, so you don’t know what you’re going to get, but you know it will be freshly made.  That day we had chestnut, but I’ve heard them serving tiramisu, oolong tea, assam tea, green tea, mango, or even simple chocolate.  Then we went check out the National Cheng Kung University next to the hotel before collecting our bags and making the short walk to the train station.  After a walking filled three days, it was definitely nice to sit down and finally relax.

Quan-Wei Jia Ice-Cream

 

Wish to Confucius

Tainan is a place you should definitely visit in Taiwan.  It’s quite small so it seems like you can walk everywhere, apart from Anping because that is out of the city, but I would recommend getting scooter or some transport.  There is so much to do and so many great places to see, that even though it is a small city, it is still a lot of walking.  I would mention that drivers and scooters in Tainan appear to have a death wish, so if you have scooter or car, be watchful.  Also despite many people loving the food, it was too sweet for me and did not match the hype.

 

Tainan is place with many, many historical and cultural sites to visit, so I will recommend with a rating 8 Cups of Tea with 5 Sugars (8.5).

 

Hot Tea

 

P.S. Sorry this took so long to write, I started Chinese classes again and time and energy has been limited.

A Christmas Abroad

A Christmas Abroad

 

Merry Christmas Everybody! (Slade, 1973).  I can still say it till 5^th January.  I had a great Christmas and I hope you all had an awesome Christmas, too!  This is my second Christmas abroad, in a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas (that’s not saying Taiwan ignores Christmas entirely).  All I can say is, like at home, Christmas is what you make it.

 

Our Christmas Tree

There are different ways expats deal with the holidays.  Some seem particularly disenchanted with it all, some love it, others just go with the flow and expect what will be will be, and some fly home for the holidays.  Me, I love Christmas!  I am one of the ridiculous foreigners who tries to spread Christmas joy.  I don’t know why, but I find myself celebrating Christmas more the less, for lack of better a term, white folks are around.  Last year, Christmas day was the only day I had off in my first 11 months in Taiwan.  It’s a time of year to be foolish, after all the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear! (Elf, 2003).  This year I decided to spread Christmas cheer in my school by wearing a Christmas Jumper or T-shirt every day, the kids loved it!  I also brought an Advent Calendar into class and decorated my classroom; the kids of Taiwan may not celebrate with the same kind of consumerism as the western world, but they still love Christmas.  I remember Yellow Sugar once told me she used to ‘hope Santa would come to Taiwan this year’. 

 

Our Stockings (can you guess mine?)

Last year, I didn’t have a busy teaching schedule and was allowed Christmas day off, so I had quite a relaxed Christmas; making it feel kind of like a mini holiday.  This year, I was much busier.  Not only do I have a more crowded teaching schedule, but I had to work late on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (with half pay).  To compound this, the government decided the country would work the Saturday after Christmas, so the only day of rest I had on Christmas week was the final Sunday.  Your brain is so used to having most of Christmas week off that it is strange and frustrating working extra hours over Christmas.

 



I am Santa!

The reason I was working extra hours, was because I am the only white guy at my school, I was Father Christmas!  As disillusioned as I was to working late on this most sacred of days, I was still delighted to be Santa Claus.  I never thought, considered, or ever really wanted to be Santa before, but it seemed something that would look good on the bucket list and something I could tell the children with grand kids (but, not the grandkids).  I can tell you, when you are as fat as Ol’ St Nick it is very hard to bend down and it is particularly hot!  I was not much use at helping clean or carry things.  The reaction of children and parents alike is enough to bring a smile to even the most scrooge-est of faces; I had to stay a long while taking photos with people.  As part of my performance as Santa I had to speak a mixture of Taiwanese, Mandarin and English, which was interesting to say the least.  This was followed by giving candy (I’ve been teaching American English too long!) to all the children, who are like vultures when Santa and sweeties are about.  My first performance of Santa was very amusing, my jacket kept coming undone and my man-boob pillows were determined to escape.  Fighting this was made all the more difficult as all I could see was my manager trying to stopping laughing.  The 2^nd event went much more smoothly, as I’m sure the 2^nd ever Christmas did; it takes time to learn how to become Father Christmas.

 

Christmas presents and Die Hard

Christmas Goose!

As I have mentioned, I was working late on Christmas Day.  This meant I didn’t get home and have Christmas Dinner till about half past nine!  Turkey is hard to come by in Taiwan, but goose isn’t, so I have been having Christmas goose since I’ve been in Taiwan; it is delicious!  This late start to Christmas Dinner was only one aspect of what was a strange Christmas Day.  Everybody works on Christmas, so my housemates left for work in the morning and I didn’t return till late; also I only had to go to work in the afternoon, so I was relaxing in our flat surrounded by all our wonderful presents.  I made it through this part of the day by watching Match of the Day and The Greatest Christmas Story Ever Told, Die Hard.  It was strange waiting all day to touch presents and not have that mid-afternoon, early evening relax because of that mixture of over stimulation and over eating.  So, after my TV marathon, teaching, being Santa, and finally eating Christmas Dinner, it was half past ten and time to open our presents.  It definitely felt an odd order to things; who has heard of Christmas Dinner before Christmas Presents!  My family go crazy at Christmas and sent both me and Yellow Sugar lots of presents, so it is almost like being at home.  In November, I went home and on my return I felt like Santa Claus himself; I was carrying over 30kg of presents from the UK to Taiwan, I know the big man uses reindeer, but a mixture of Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 worked a treat.  Although, over this transit a few tags and bags had moved, so I was up at 4am trying to work out what was what; how Santa does all those houses in one night I will never know!  I had a wonderful time sharing gifts with everyone even though it was at such a late hour and we had no time to play with them!

 

My classroom board

There is a good chance if you teach in Taiwan, you will have a responsibility to add Christmas into your lessons, and even if you don’t, it can be fun to do it anyway.  In my school we had loads of Christmas activities to fit into our lessons, but no extra time given, so it has been very hectic.  I enjoy adding Christmas into my lessons in small segments.  It’s fun to do Christmas warm-ups, let the kids make Christmas team-names and sing the odd Christmas carol if you have time at the end of class.  As I’ve mentioned, I brought an advent Calendar into class, this worked as good way to teach about Christmas, vocab, and as a great motivator for the kids; I should mention it wasn’t a chocolate calendar, just a normal one, I didn’t want to open that can of worms.  One thing I would suggest is to make sure that you keep track of who has opened a window or it can lead to arguments.  I’d also recommend decorating your room/s (if you’re allowed); make them a jollier and more welcoming place.  My many Christmas jumpers also added much interest and intrigue (and Christmas spirit) to the classroom.  My kids certainly enjoyed the decorations and jumpers, and they give you new and interesting examples to use in class.  One fun thing I got to do during my Christmas lessons was prove the existence of Santa Claus to my class.  My kids told me ‘he didn’t exist’, so I asked them ‘who gives me presents, as my mum and dad are in England?’  This worked as an unexpected teaching tool, as it made the kids name all the family members they could as they tried to work out who gives me presents.  As they are all in England, my kids finally accepted it must be Santa (I’m not sure they all believed me, but at least they were confused about it).

 

I've got the gifts, run!

I will also warn you Christmas shopping can as/more brutal in Taiwan than in the UK.  If you are buying normal things it is fine because people aren’t all buying presents, but if you are buying a Christmas themed gift it is another story.  The stores by X amount of stock and it all goes quickly; Taiwanese people love Christmas things!  I had been on a scouting mission for gifts to see what people would like and then I came back a week later without said people and it was all gone!  So, if you want to buy Christmassy Christmas presents plan early and act fast!

 

Christmas can be great abroad, if you want to celebrate you can, if you want to ignore it you can, and if you just want to do what the rest of the population do… you can.  Sometimes you may have to work longer, but generally the bosses of the schools are very understanding.  They have loads of foreigners coming through and know the drill.  Also, you may get to be Santa and that offer doesn’t come around too often!  You have the opportunity to make Christmas your own; have it your way!  Embrace this opportunity celebrate Christmas in your own style. 



Santa at the North Pole

 





Last Year my mum sent me a reindeer head



If you’re worried about being lonely this Christmas (Mud, 1974), have no fear you can always find Christmas cheer!  Drink, Sing and be Merry!  I was a little concerned, especially, about my first Christmas, when I left home, that I would miss my family and feel alone.  I don’t know if I’m strange, but I have never felt lonely abroad and maybe because of good cheer, even less so at Christmas.  I have only missed home once and that was a few days after my family left when they came for a visit; probably because it reminded about having family around (and I found out my visa was getting cancelled in a week).  With Skype and all the modern technology it is so easy to keep in contact with family at Christmas time and throughout year, so there is no need to fear.  If you are a little worried remember, as long as you put a little effort in you can have a great Christmas time.  I know I did!

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Hot Tea

 

Here are some strange Christmas snaps!

My toilet seat at Christmas

Everyone loves stockings!



The United Colours of Santa



Is this against the spirit of Christmas?

The even more united colours of Christmas

Merry Sithmas

The Sith taking over Christmas

A Holiday Home

A Holiday Home from Abroad

 

When I left England and set off for new pastures, I had no particular plan to return to the green, green grass of home for many a year.  I did, however, contemplate several people who I would consider returning for if they got married or had some particularly special life event, if time and circumstance allowed.  Unfortunately for me, one of these inconsiderate souls decided to get married.  My friend who I set off travelling with many a moon ago and helped me catch this travel bug decided the knot must be tied.  He is partly to blame for my affliction and being in Taiwan, how could I say no.

 

If you have read my blog before you will know it’s been nearly a month since I returned from my trip, but a holiday home is tiring endeavour and I needed another break to catch up.  The jet lag lasted a week, but my body clock only caught properly after a couple of weeks.

 



Congleton Town Hall; my home town!

A trip home is a very particularly peculiar experience.   It starts on the plane when you start considering you’re going to be heading back soon, but you’re not going to be somewhere tropical or exotic, you’ll be at home; mundane, regular, ordinary home.  You also have to consider your time constraints; there are people who want to see you and people you want to see.  You cannot see everyone in your short time frame.  Who will get more time family or friends?  You may also have to face the fact that with all your friends working it is very much up to you to get up and down the country to see everyone, unless you can offer them a weekend.  This is where it gets tough, who gets the few valuable weekends you have left?  You will feel inexorable guilt to whoever you don’t get see or don’t have the quality time you would have hoped to.  Another question, are you allowed a day off to relax?  There are going to so many things you want to do (it’s your home after all, you know too much!).  You may feel more guilt for being lazy or maybe do stupid things you wouldn’t normally do.  Personally, transport was a key issue, I had no car at home, so it was terribly tricky to get around during a weekday (and expensive).



 

The oatcake shop; a Congleton must!

When I arrived from an incredibly long flight, I was picked up by my dad.  As I have mentioned it felt very strange.  It had the feeling of returning from holiday, but very much in the knowledge I was going back soon.  I should mention, despite living abroad for 18 months, I very much feel as though I am on holiday right now.  I am on stage one of my mega journey, so it was like a holiday from my holiday.  It was also odd going on holiday to normality.  No matter how long you have been away nowhere is more normal to you than home; it is called home for a reason.  It took me all of twenty minutes to get back into the swing of things of being back home, although I may have reverted back to younger age than I should have.

 



Elland Road; part of the to-do list.

The key difference between my prior days of England and current visit to the homeland was my lack of my own transportation.  This made the time constraints of the holiday even harder.  I considered renting a car for the period, but I decided the cost-benefit factor was not right for me.  England may not be the largest of countries, but large enough to inconvenient to get around.  I relied on getting lifts with friends and family to many places and sent far too much on trains.  When you are in a place as familiar as your country, there are many places you know, too many.  You want to do so many things as you don’t know the next time you will get the opportunity.  I did pretty well, but still missed the odd thing.  I was into my list almost immediately off the plane; I had a pub dinner the night I arrived back.  It was delicious, but it was too soon off the plane, my stomach was not ready for heavy English pub grub right off the plane.  (To anyone in England or heading there soon, I would highly recommend ‘The Bear’s Paw near Sandbach, Cheshire).  Then the next morning I was hitching a lift to the train station on my mums drive to work to do things on the other side of the country.  After this I had to do more cross-country traveling, as unfortunately I had a funeral to attend.  A sad time, but it did bring the family together for me, which I am thankful for and will always be grateful to my aunt.

  

Trip to Leeds: LUBS

Leeds City Market

 

Leeds Uno Business School



This brings me to what was maybe the hardest part of trip home; how to split my time between family and friends.  Weekends become valuable commodities with everybody being grown up and having jobs.  You may have enough time and days to see everyone, but not everyone has the time to see you.  You find yourself trying to fit into everyone else’s schedule.  You come down to earth with a thump after you realise you’re not the minor celebrity you thought you were when coming off the plane.  I only had two weekends and I gave one to my friend’s wedding (after all, it was the key reason I came home).  So, I had one weekend.  My friends happen to be from all of the country, but a large chunk has ended up in London.  This offered the choice of an expensive London weekend with my friends, or a relative cheap family weekend.  Cheap and expensive didn’t come into to be fair.  I was out and about very often and my family were at work, so I would have felt worse to not spend that time with family than with my friends.  It was also our ‘first’ Christmas, where we celebrate a month early because we live in the four corners of the country, it is always a most enjoyable weekend; this one was spent in a Hilton, we felt very posh indeed!  I felt terrible that I could only offer my friends a weekday and they let me know how annoyed they were that this was all I was able to give them.  We had a great night, even if it was not the riotous night I was expecting.  To great thing about good friends is, it doesn’t matter how long you’re apart, after about thirty seconds it is like old times; so very little time was wasted with idle chit chat.

 

 

Tower of London (glad I could be back to see it)

 

 



Double Cheese Oatcake!

Mow Cop: It's all folly!

You have guessed I was brought up in a catholic household by the amount of guilt I felt and am talking about from holiday.  My last piece of guilt for this evening is the guilt of wasted time.  You’ve had a long flight, you’ve been busy racing around the country, are you allowed a day to relax in your child home?  You have a long list of things you want to do, can you afford to take a day from this?  In the middle week of my holiday, I had very few plans during the day, so I thought “I can’t waste these valuable time, what can I do in my beautiful home town”.  As I have mentioned I had no transport, so I had to make a plan within walking distance.  I live in Congleton, the local area is known for one thing; walks, canals and pretty views.  I decided to take advantage of this, so I walked into town to get one of my favourite things in Congleton (a double cheese and bacon oatcake from The Oatcake Shop) and went to walk down a canal to a pretty view; “two birds with one stone” I thought.  The canal was Macclesfield Canal; the pretty view was Mow Cop Folly.  It’s called Mow Cop Castle, but it’s a folly; it never had any practical purpose, it was built to look aesthetically pleasing, to call a castle would be… well… folly.  This walk would put me on a near 10 mile round trip, which was not flat or on beautiful pavements.  We’re in England in winter, walking along a canal, any of you who have done something similar will attest to slippy slidely journey you are about to embark upon.  After a near hour on the canal, mostly trying not to fall over or more importantly fall in, I got to solid ground.  After a short walk along the roadside, I arrived at Station Bank.  This is a hill known as ‘The Killer Mile’, it starts off as fairly steep hill, but at the end it really ramps up, you’re not sure whether to try and climb it or keep walking.  At this point it is a 25% gradient; to put this into context I used to put my 1.2 Vauxhall Corsa into first gear to keep moving, I know it’s far from Land Rover, but that’s still steep.  By the end of the hill, I was actually tempted to run up just finish the job, it sounds crazy, but I just wanted it to be over.  The views to be fair were stunning and on balance probably worth it, but it was very, very cold and windy up top.  I hadn’t really considered the walk back; I was pushing the falling sun.  By the time the sun was setting, I was not yet home.  I was stuck with the choice between slippery canal walk at night and walking along a country road at night.  What scared me more falling and drowning or getting hit by a car.  I decided the car was preferable.  I was walking along the roadside, periodically jumping into bushes for safety; don’t worry I made it home.  I’ve been told it was the wrong choice, but I know too much people falling into canals and getting grabbed by things underneath (plants mostly); I don’t know too much about being hit by a car (not that I was keen to find out).  After this experience, I allowed myself the next day off.  If you’re going to make use of your time, make sure you think your ideas through.  Don’t go on slippery, steep, 10 mile round walk just because you feel guilty for wasting your holiday.  Saying that, I don’t regret thing and I learnt something, so you could say it was a productive journey.

 

Jodrell Bank from Mow Cop

I had a nice trip home, but as all holidays are, it was too short and I needed another holiday to recover.  If you are considering a trip home, remember you will have a lot of decisions to make.  If I were to give any advice, it would be to do what comes naturally to you.  You have been away for a while, so I’m assuming you have not had much family time or what is normal time for you with your friends and/or family.  As strange as it may feel, getting back into old routines is kind of like a holiday, and let’s not forget you’re on holiday to relax, so you are allowed day or two taking everything in; it can become overwhelming, having people aspiring to have your acquaintance.  As is life, you can’t do everything, so just make best of it!

All the best,

 

Hot Tea

 

Now check out some of my photos!

 

Congleton Town Centre



Macclesfield Canal



More Macc. Canal

Station Bank, Mow Cop

Mow Cop Folly

 

View from the top of Mow Cop

Heaven Café< leeds

Best Hot Choc in Leeds, Heaven

 

Billy Bremner Statue, Elland Road