The Bees #2

Stop number 8 on the tour of London's league football grounds saw Dean and his friend Zac trip out to Brentford in West London. Having earlier this season seen Brentford away to Leyton Orient, Zac proclaimed them his favourite London team.


The visitors were Gillingham. Being based nearby in Kent meant they filled a large part of their stand, and contributed to a pretty exciting atmosphere even though the crowd was only just over 6,000. The crowd was close to the pitch which was great at half time with the crowd chanting "getting sacked in the morning" at the Gillingham manager due to the 3-0 scoreline, and throwing bottles etc! One crazy fan was even waving his shoe at the opposition fans.


Wajciech Szczesny, the Brentford goalkeeper, is currently on loan from Arsenal and was in particularly good form. Given the current poor form of Alminia and Fabianski at Arsenal, he could be featuring there in the next couple of years - he will need to beef up a little bit though - he's as skinny as I was!

Livening up the game, we put some ££s on - including picking some scores, with 3-0 being the last option live at halftime. Not a great way to spend the second half - wishing for no goals. Luckily there was only one chance, and unlcukily it went in off the back of the Gillingham goalies bonce. Arrgh the 13-1 pick of 3-0 down the drain.

Stadium was pretty average - no allocated seats, and pretty tight leg room wise, in fact impossible to sit normally, lucky really it wasn't at fullcapacity, and the stand had a number of poles obsurcing the view. Food seemed to be a standard range, but the ground only had a minimal number of programme sellers. To be fair, Brentford were promoted last season, and have plans for a new stadium so there is some lee-way there.

Not a bad day out, not too cold for the middle of winter.

So that is stop 8 down. The remaining grounds are Tottenham, West Ham, QPR, Watford, Crystal Palace and Dagenham and Redbridge.

Adventures in Egypt - Christmas/New Year 2009-10

We spent 2 weeks in Egypt over Christmas/New Year with 6 fantastic friends, and really had the trip of a lifetime. Partly this was due to Egypt being such an amazing place with thousands of years of history, but a lot of it was because we opted not to do an organised tour and to call the shots ourselves and travel independent, which meant we weren’t rushed/forced to wake too early/to eat at the tourist spots etc. We’ve broken the trip down here into locations. Some of the lasting memories will be waking to the call to prayer at dawn, the traffic, the food, great local guides and forming some amazing memories with our friends – oh and the constant request for baksheesh (money) of course.

We arrived into Cairo late at night to a real culture shock – people trying to help you with bags for “baksheesh” (we quickly planned a team code word for “help me get rid of this guy” which came in handy many a time), the crazy driving (no road rules but everyone seems to know what every other crazy driver is going to do, with a system of horn honks), piles of rubbish on the roads (a reminder we were in a third world country), and lovely warmth that we were in need of after snow in London.
We arranged a tour for day one and saw the pyramids at Giza and the sphinx, did a camel ride there, visited the bent and red pyramids (including going inside the red one which was worthwhile – not a lot to see but an erie pitch black atmosphere being inside a burial chamber), the step pyramids, a papyrus factory and a carpet factory. Ended a full day with a delicious Egyptian meal where we fell in love with Taamyia – like falafel but made with butter beans and lots of green herbs, delicious.

The gang at the step pyramid

Day two was Christmas day. We kicked it off with a visit to the Cairo museum and were glad we got a guide – as expected from our research, the museum is really poorly laid out, with small type written descriptions of things, or none at all. The museum has an awesome collection of treasures from King Tutenkhamen’s tomb which we would have merely glanced at had we not had a guide. After a picnic of treats from a bakery we wandered through the back streets of Cairo (we learnt pretty quickly that to cross the road you just have to go for it with confidence!) to the outside of the Citadel where we met a random guy who led us through more back streets to his Mosque which we looked around. Disappointing when despite his reassurances that he didn’t want money (“I just want to practice my English”) he too asked us for baksheesh! From there we spent a couple of very happy hours wandering the major markets in Cairo, buying some souvenirs and enjoying bargaining and the friendly banter that went with it. Another walk through the back streets and another Egyptian meal to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas day picnic at the Egyptian museum

The next day we flew south to Aswan. We visited Elephantine Island with its Nubbian village and ruins, went to the high dam(just Dean and Lou for the dam!) and to the local markets where we bought some lovely small turquoise alabaster bowls.

Lou with hyroglyphics on Elephantine Island

An early night given the early start the following day – a 3.30am pick up to join the police-escorted convoy to Abu Simbel. The convoy takes place for two reasons – one: Abu Simbel is in the desert so it’s safety in numbers if anyone breaks down, and two: there have been attacks on tourists driving there in the past. The early departure time is because it’s a 3 hour drive and it gets pretty hot in the desert if you’re there in the middle of the day. Abu Simbel was incredible. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside by Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th century BC, as a monument to himself and his Queen Nefertari. The temple to Ramses was created so that on two days of the year the sun shone deep into the mountain to light up the faces of the statues deep within. The temples were relocated in the 1960s to an artificial hill to avoid their being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser which formed after the High Dam was constructed – an amazing feat in itself.

Us at Abu Simbel

We got back to Aswan early afternoon to get on board the felucca which would be our home for the next two nights. Feluccas are traditional wooden sailing boats – no motor, no bathroom, no stress. Our Nubian captain Mustafa treated us like royalty with incredible cooking (no idea how he did it with the basic facilities – we feasted on fresh fish, fried chicken, delicious soup, fresh figs...) and a wonderfully relaxing cruise up the river. We docked at sunset and enjoyed a night with a few drinks, some card games and hanging out. We set off the next morning after a delicious breakfast and stopped alongside some big golden sand banks and sprinted up then had a swim in the Nile. More food, cards, a shisha and a singalong that night.

The gang with our felucca and crew

We were really sad to leave the felucca for Luxor the next day. On the way there we visited the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu.

Dean at Kom Ombo, you can see the Greek influence in the pillar style

Our driver was pretty average, having no clue where our hostel in Luxor was, but he followed us into it and waited in the lobby until we returned with baksheesh! Can’t blame a guy for trying, and he successfully guilted us into it.

The next day we’d booked a tour of the West bank. The ancient Egyptians believed east, where the sun rises, is for the living, and west, where the sun sets, is for the dead, hence the West bank being full of tombs. At the Valley of the Kings we visited the tomb of Tuthmosis III after a recommendation to do so from our Cairo guide. It was amazingly well preserved with every inch of wall covered with drawings, and the roof covered with blue and gold stars. His tomb was down lots of stairs so it was pretty hot and stuffy in there. The tomb of Seti II was quite a contrast as it was unfinished, and the tomb of Septah was finished in a hurry so came to a very abrupt end at the end of an entrance way. From there we visited Queen Hatshepsut’s temple with its wonderfully preserved coloured pictures (albeit with images of the Queen erased when her stepson came to power), the Colossi of Memnon, Medinat Habu (another recommedation from our Cairo tour guide – hardly visited by tourists but a wonderful one to see, full of colour again), and back on the east bank the temple of Karnak with its huge hypostyle hall. One of the other highlights that day was again the food – a bakery lunch with fresh coconut, date and cheese rolls. The Egyptians know how to eat!

The colour at Medinat Habu temple


The hypostyle hall at Karnak

We flew to Dahab that night to begin a few days of relaxation at the resort town. Dahab is on the red sea and while much less touristy than the popular Sharm el-Sheik resort, was still set up to cater to tourists. We spent 6 nights in Dahab and, while we spent plenty of time relaxing poolside, we also went snorkelling at the blue hole, walked up Mt Sinai to view the sunset (where it’s believed Moses received the 10 commandments), enjoyed some delicious seafood platters and treated ourselves to some beauty treatments.

At the top of Mt Sinai


In our wetsuits for snorkelling - it was winter so while the sun was hot the water was cold!

Then alas it was goodbye to Egypt and back to London to snow!

Winter in London and Germany, and rugby in Cardiff

It’s been a picture perfect winter in London with lots of snow flurries (until it quickly melts to muddy sludge). We’ve been to a few shows – Oliver, Cirque Du Soleil, Aladdin the pantomime, starring Pamela Anderson as genie; and done some touristy things like ice skating at the Tower of London for Amy Yarrall’s birthday, and a few museum/gallery visits.
Travel-wise, it’s been pretty low key, keeping our powder dry for the big trip to Egypt over Christmas (see separate post).

We went to Birmingham in October to watch the Baggies win 5-0, and to Wales to watch the All Blacks win against Wales in November.

Lou in front of Cardiff Castle


Dean outside the stadium

We also visited the Christmas markets in Dusseldorf and Cologne with Dean's sisters. They were great, we feel we’ve probably ticked “Christmas markets” off the list now, and have a nutcracker and a couple of market mugs to remember that trip by.

Dean's empty plate after a delicious German meal - swine haux - basically a whole roast pig!



Lou with Dean's sisters Amy and Sarah, enjoying eggnog

In January we spent a weekend in Geneva with Lou’s brother and sister-in-law, to stay with Lou’s sister and brother-in-law (yes, confusing big family) at their wonderful new house there. We were there the same weekend that around 100 von Dadelszens got together in New Zealand to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first von Dadelszens arriving in New Zealand from Liverpool, so we had some family time together.

Lots of our spare time has been spent planning our trip to South Africa in June for the football world cup. We’ll be there for 2 ½ weeks following the All Whites around, so lots of accommodation to arrange, plus a couple of nights in Kruger park trying to spot the big five. And we’re also spending time planning a visit by Lou’s Mum in March/April this year.

Leyton Orient

A new season of English football has begun, and I have been slow on restarting my tour of London football grounds. October rolled around and an opportunity presented itself, and so Zac and I headed to E10, and Leyton Orient. The game was a thrilling London derby between Leyton Orient and Brentford.

Getting to the ground was fairly easy, a short walk from Leyton on the central line. Certainly a change from the bigger grounds, with not really a sense that there was a game on, and you only knew the ground was there once you were right outside. The ground is a fairly small capacity, about 9,000, which made for a cosy feel to the ground. The Brentford fans filled half of the main stands, which provided a good boost to the overall atmosphere. The ground was undergoing a bit of development, but mainly in building apartment blocks around the corners of the ground. One of the key pieces of marketing was advertising the apartments as having a great match day view. This had already been taken up by a few fans, with their view over the pitch looking pretty good. Though the value of the view probably isn’t too high given the low price of a season ticket.

To enliven our match day experience, Zac and I placed a small £10 wager on Leyton to win, adding that touch of interest into the match and really made us care about the result.

Another piece of commercial acumen shown by the team at Leyton Orient was the selling of a unique matchday experience. It appeared as if the match day mascots were two 40 or 50+ guys, who came out running out with the teams and joined in a bit of kickabout. What gave the game away, aside from their touch was their extreme beer bellies. In the photo below they are the two to the immediate right of the referees.

The game itself was a great example of the results based tactics of the Football league. On many an occasion for goal kicks and free kicks, all 20 outfield players were in a 20 m by 20 m square.


While the players were undoubtedly highly skilled, the desire to get results led to the tactic of pumping it forward to the central striker who would then try to play it off to players running off. What was interesting was the two different types of target men used, Brentford had the very tall and strong Carl Cort (former Premier league level), who had a natural advantage in receiving the ball, where Leyton employed a reasonably short player McGleish who had an outstanding leap and would always manage to get a touch on it.

Brentford went 1-0 up after a pretty dominant 15 mins, and it was not looking good for Leyton as after 25 mins they were awarded a penalty that was missed. But a change of tactics, switching the wide midfielders bought them back into it, and they levelled it up before half-time with a great finish from McGleish. The first half was fairly ho-hum in intensity, but after half time it really stepped up, and Leyton were all over Brentford, and took the lead when a cross came over and the Brentford right back put it into the back of his own net. Leyton sat back for the last 20 mins, causing a bit of anxiety, but were safely home. In general I was very impressed by Jimmy Smith a central midfielder for Leyton and the left back Ryan Dickson for Brentford.

Another good game to go to, and the home victory nicely subsidised the day out.

So that leaves the following team to go visit : West Ham, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Watford, QPR, Brentford and Dagenham and Redbridge.

Brokenhurst: Frolicking in the forest

We took our first proper holiday since the wedding in October (weekends don’t count as “holidays”), four nights in the New Forest, about 90 minutes south of London. We chose the forest because it seemed the perfect place to relax and to catch up on sleep and fresh air. It sure was! Wild ponies and donkies roam the village streets (it’s a bit weird) and there’s really nothing to do but relax.
So we spent a lovely few days enjoying sleep ins, cooked breakfasts and afternoon naps at our B&B, walking through the forest, and torturing our butts on a 33km bike ride. We stayed in Brockenhurst but also explored the surrounding towns and villages, and spent a lovely sunny day at the seaside complete with fish and chips.
We returned to London feeling super refreshed, so it was just the ticket!

Bruges and the battlefields

We spent a weekend in Bruges in September and were spoiled with amazing sunshine the whole time. We’d booked a day trip to see the battlefields of WW1 and were not disappointed. The tour was based around the area of Flanders which saw some pretty intense fighting throughout the war. Amazingly each year over 200 tonnes of old munitions come to the surface in the farms of Flanders. When farmers find them they just leave them on the side of the road and wait for the Army to come to destroy them. We visited a number of different grave areas, including the largest Commonwealth cemetery at Tyne Cot, some incredible museums, one of which recreated the feeling of being in a trench (almost too realistic at times), and the Menin gate in the town of Ypres.

Inside one of the museums was an installation by the NZ artist Helen Pollock, created with clay from the Coromandel. Quite a moving experience as it was placed in an area where many New Zealanders fought and died.

Bruges itself while very pretty was a bit ho-hum and really expensive, although we did enjoy a few fabulous beers. We were glad we did the tour for a whole day otherwise we would have got a bit bored (only so much ‘wandering the pretty cobbled streets’ you can handle in one year). Stopped into Brussels on the way home on the Eurostar and scoffed some frittes with mayo and a couple of waffles cause you have to if you’re in Belgium. It’s the rules.

Last night of the Proms

Going to the last night of the Proms was high on our agenda, something Dean in particular had always wanted to do. Having attended a few proms concerts in 2008 we sussed out how to get tickets to the last night in 2009. Doing so was actually very easy, we just needed to buy 5 tickets for other proms concerts to have the option to purchase for the last night. We loved the more classical proms this year, especially ones featuring Finzi, Elgar, Saint-Saëns, Bartók and Dvořák and were not so huge on Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Patience”. We’ve also learnt that visiting orchestras have a lot more spark than local ones (we were blown away by the New York Philharmonic last year and the Budapest Festival Orchestra this year were amazing).
We were all set for the last night concert, with our big NZ flag to wave, and Dean sporting his All Blacks jersey. It was a wonderful sunny September day so we enjoyed a picnic dinner across the road in Hyde Park before entering the party atmosphere.

We sang with gusto, loving “Rule Britannia” in particular. A fantastic experience, really glad we made the effort. Looking forward to going to a few more next year, but don't know if we'll get to a last night again!