07 August 2010

2010 August 07 Saturday

We drove from the Marriott hotel in Slough ("Windsor - Heathrow") to the Channel Tunnel. We had time to stop at Sainsbury's in Ashford, Kent, to buy groceries. Once through the tunnel, we drove to Antwerp. Not one of the three vegetarian restaurants we found was open. The rain was torrential, and very wet we returned to our hotel - the Raddisson Blu Park - where we had a suite with a kitchen. I cooked a meal using food I brought for cooking in Berlin.

On Saturday morning we drove to Ashford in Kent, where there is a decent Sainsbury's and I was able to shop. From Ashford it is only 25 minutes to the Channel Tunnel. The tunnel was very busy, and we were pulled out, once again, for a terrorist check - I have been subjected to many times more than my fair proportion of these. We arrived in Antwerp yesterday evening after a highly unpleasant drive from Calais. It rained constantly, sometimes torrentially, and the spray from the other vehicles on the motorways reduced visibility at times to below 50 metres. The Radisson Blu hotel in which we are staying is gorgeous, and we are sad that our visit is for only one night. Having got ourselves settled, we walked out in the pouring rain to find something to eat, but each of the three vegetarian eating places we could find turned out to be closed for August. Antwerp is the same size as Liverpool, so my wife and daughter could have found a pizzereria or something. However, our room at the hotel includes simple cooking facilities, so we decided to return to the hotel to cook a meal there. Ever one to be prepared, I cooked some spaghetti, and fried mushrooms, tomatoes and onions. I had chosen to bring dried basil, ground black pepper and vegetable stock powder from home, and with the unfiltered extra virgin olive oil I had bought from Sainsbury's, the meal was especially tasty. The only thing missing was a candle for the table.

06 August 2010

2010 August 06 Friday

My sister and her partner, Janine, were married this afternoon in a civil partnership ceremony held in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK. Family and friends were in attendance. Later, a reception dinner was held on Queen's Eyot, a small island in the River Thames, near Bray. The occasion was a delight.

We attended a civil partnership ceremony for my sister and her partner of several years. The occasion was a delight, for not only did we meet up with my two and a half sisters and their families, but we also met some of my new Canadian relatives-in-law, with whom we got on very well. Although the ceremony itself took place in Maidenhead, the reception was held on a little island in the middle of the River Thames, requiring a boat trip each way.