The Mr X factor 21: British spring, British summer – March-July 2009


Back to London – Easter in North Yorkshire – singing at John’s 40th birthday gig - London Marathon madness – Kirsty & Orson’s wedding cruise – exploring York with my old mate Laurence – long weekend away: Stonehenge, Devon, Lyme Regis – Royal Ascot – Holiday on the Algarve, Portugal – Summer parties in London – loving getting back into sport


For Yorkshire photos visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhodgkinson/sets/72157619865149305/
For London life & times photos visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhodgkinson/sets/72157619853988443/
For Devon-getaway photos visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhodgkinson/sets/72157619956870370/
For photos of my getaway to sun-drenched Portugal, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhodgkinson/sets/72157621108533103/


After a wonderful six weeks back in New Zealand, I flew back to the UK via transit in Seoul, arriving into London on an unusually warm and sunny late-February afternoon, banking above the City of London, onto the approach to Heathrow and following the River Thames westwards across suburban London, before touching down smoothly.


Settling back into London life and work definitely took some time after a long holiday! After a quiet March, over Easter I headed up to North Yorkshire, with Victoria, a Kiwi friend from London, and a couple of others also joined us and our host, Victoria’s Aunty, in her lovely cottage in Swainby, beside the North Yorkshire moors.



It was a long drive to get there, but we managed to beat the worst of the Easter traffic, and the road trip was good fun. Once we got there it was relaxing and peaceful – great to see the countryside.

Over the weekend, we chilled out in the cottage, reading, watching some DVDs, blobbing out, having some lovely food etc... We also had a look around the delightful North Yorkshire dales, with a drive to/around Richmond and a visit to the Bowes Museum, famous for its moving Silver Swan.

In mid-April, a good friend of mine over here, John, had his 40th birthday bash. Perhaps against his better judgment (after hearing me sing along to Sweet Child o’ Mine) he asked me to sing in a band he was putting together for his 40th celebration. John was to be the guitar hero, rolling back the years to his youth, when he was playing regular gigs in a rock band.

There weren’t many other guys keen, and I felt I couldn’t deny him doing a gig for his 40th, so in the absence of Bono, Axel Rose and Bon Jovi, I agreed to sing a few rock anthems.

It’s probably fair to say that some of it was OK, and some of it was perhaps not (it’s really hard remembering lots of lyrics!), but we gave it everything, had a blast, and plenty of fun.

Later in April I went and watched the London Marathon – apparently this is the best community event in London to be part of. I had two friends running in it, who had trained hard throughout the winter and early spring. Matthew Page and John Mackenzie (the latter clearly having a mid-life crisis, having just turned 40!) are two good mates over here and complete legends for taking this on!! So on ‘Marathon Sunday’ a few of us headed down to Canary Wharf to try and catch a glimpse of them, around the 16 and 19 mile marks.

We managed to see John, which was great – we shouted out to him as soon as we saw him, and he stopped for a few seconds, giving his wife a kiss and us a wave, before rejoining the masses on the path to running glory.

Unfortunately we didn’t see Matt – he had started closer to the front of the 35,000 or so runners, got a good start, and hadn’t been held up as much as John had, so unfortunately we missed, him. Apparently he ‘hit the wall’ at the 20-mile mark (fair enough too!), but both Matt and John completed the London Marathon – well done boys - what an amazing accomplishment!!
Mid-May a whole bunch of us were treated to a boat cruise on the River Thames, to celebrate the marriage of Kirsty, a Kiwi girl I met over here soon after I arrived, to her husband Orson. They had got married in NZ in April, so this was a get-together for the large UK contingent who weren’t able to make it back for their big day. It was a lovely evening for cruising on the Thames – we went from Embankment all the way up to Fulham and back. It was also great to hear the story of how Orson & Kirsty fell for each other, as well as a fun night grooving on the dance floor.

Over the late-May Bank holiday weekend I headed to York, to meet up with my mate Laurence Jenner, an old friend from Wellington, now living over here in Edinburgh. Prior to this weekend we’d only seen each other twice, since I left NZ in 2005, so it was great to have some quality time to hang out and catch up.

As well as this, we were able to explore York, which we did thoroughly, visiting Yorkminster (Sunday service in the Cathedral followed by a climb to the top of it – excellent views, lovely warm & blue weekend), and checking out York’s Roman as well as Viking history, via an exhibition.

We also found some good local bars/restaurants, and walked around the city and its well kept city walls, and explored the British Rail Museum, a massive exhibition of all things trains, no doubt very exciting for trainspotters - and pretty enjoyable for us too!

Things had been pretty full on since I returned from NZ, partly because in March I had resumed doing a Theology qualification – one paper at a time - something I started ten years ago. The course I chose was a stage 2 university paper via correspondence from NZ. It was called ‘Christianity, war and violence’ – taking a look at issues such as Just War, Pacifism and the like. I hadn’t done a paper since 2003, and found it quite intellectually stimulating.

It was however quite an effort to keep up with the readings and do the two essays required. So by the time the mid-June exam came around, I was hanging out for it to be finished - even more so because I had managed to get the University of Otago to arrange the final exam around my social calendar, with the effect that my post-exam summer of fun started immediately after my exam finished, on the afternoon of 12 June, with a long weekend away in Devon!

Having written a pretty good exam, I was buzzing. On the Friday afternoon I joined up with my good UK friends (Marathon) Matt and Amanda, and a group of their friends, who were heading away to Devon for a long weekend. I hadn’t visited south-west England before, so it was new territory – and a great chance to check out Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, on the way down.

Being the only ‘foreigner’ in the car, I was the only one to venture inside the grounds and do a walk around the iconic ancient structure. The big surprise was that it was a lot smaller than it appears in pictures you see of it.

Early evening, we finally made it to our destination near Dawlish (down towards Torquay), settled into our accommodation for the weekend – a large and well apportioned cottage in the middle of Devon farm fields, separated by quaint and very narrow, hedge-rowed roads - surely impossible to find in the dark. That evening we had fish’n’chips on the beach at Dawlish. The rest of the weekend we pretty much enjoyed relaxing in the mornings, before heading out in the afternoon to explore some recommended sights in the area, chosen for us by our excursions organiser, Louise.

This included Dartmouth Castle (above) and Dartmouth township where we enjoyed a leisurely exploration before enjoying a lovely clotted cream tea, before heading back to the cottage for a lovely BBQ.

On the Sunday we visited coastal Teignmouth, where we relaxed on the beach for the afternoon. The evenings were spent playing board games, Cranium was a particular favourite.

Alas, a lovely weekend had to come to an end for us, and we drove home on Monday afternoon, via an extended and relaxing lunch stop in Lyme Regis. Lyme Regis is the fossil capital of Britain – some of the first dinosaur skeletons in the world were discovered here, and there are heaps of fossils in the surrounding limestone cliffs.

Lyme Regis was worth a quick explore, and we enjoyed walking along the waterfront – really refreshing to be beside the coast. We finally got into London at about 8pm, just as a massive rainstorm drenched the city!

Over the summer period, London’s social & sporting calendar is always packed. After heading to Lord's to watch New Zealand beat India in a 20/20 World Cup warm-up match, the next must-do event on the list was Royal Ascot – time to get dressed up for a trip to the races!

This was dually arranged for us by a Kiwi friend over here, Wendy Vowles, who is quite the London social event organiser. She keeps tabs on all sorts of upcoming London events and invites all her mates to come along. Brilliant!

We had a lovely day out, enjoying the whole occasion at Ascot, suitably attired of course, for mingling in the picnic-packed Silver Enclosure, and lining up for a small flutter on the horses between races, before heading back to the picnic on the grass, with all the masses.

To do my research on the best horses to back, I had bought the Saturday edition of the 'Racing Post', studying it dudiciously during the train trip out to Ascot, from a packed Waterloo Station. It stood me in good stead, and I had a small and enjoyable flutter on each of the major races, without winning or losing anything substantial.

Hopes for a decently hot summer were high in the UK, after two shockers in the previous two years. It has been OK, but unfortunately it hasn’t been great. So to guarantee a good dose of summer sun, at the end of June I headed to Albufeira, on the Algarve in southern Portugal, with my sister Nicola, for a ten-day holiday at a resort beside the sea.

It was just what we both needed, and much of it consisted of lying on the deck lounger beside the resort pool, sunbathing, reading or sleeping - interspersed with turning over and cooling off in the pool!! It was a lovely warm temperature - about 28 degrees - with an afternoon breeze from the Atlantic keeping things from getting too hot. It was fantastic!!

In the evenings we headed into town and found a restaurant to have dinner at, along the main strip. We also watched a fair bit of the Wimbledon tennis, via satellite TV, and enjoyed walking along the Albufeira coastline. It was great to unwind from work, rest and to read a few books – I managed to devour a Ken Follett book in during the final four days, which was really absorbing.

Naturally there have been several BBQs & parties held by various friends across London, over the summer. Amanda & her flatmate had an Ashes cricket-themed party, when the Lord’s test was on and England were going one-nil up (has been a roller coaster ride since then - come on England!!), and then a friend of hers held a pirate party a few weeks later, which was plenty of fun too.

Another night out was a leaving party for Karin, an Aussie girl I met pretty soon after I arrived here in 2005. She has been here about ten years, but was finally heading home to Victoria – so we went out for a meal and gave her a good send off – all the best Karin!! As well as that I have been to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and some pretty cool jazz sets at Regents Park – being played every Sunday afternoon through July & August.

Things have continued progressing well health-wise, with my heel problem improving a lot since late last year (see half way through Mr X factor 20). I’ve felt like a massive shadow has lifted off my life, and consequently I’m a lot happier and less anxious. Since June I’ve managed to get into plenty of sport, which has been totally great – as well as quite tiring!! I have been cycling to work once a week, swimming, seeing a personal trainer each weekend at the Paddington Rec., to work on improving my core strength, and I have also been playing golf and tennis, every once in a while.

The tennis has been the most enjoyable sport to get back into – I have been playing every fortnight or so at the courts in Gladstone Park, a ten minute walk from my flat, with my Kiwi mate, Rob Edgecombe, and it has been lots of fun pretending we’re playing out a Federer v. Nadal epic!!

Finally, I’m off to Nice in France for a week’s holiday at the end of August. And on Friday 14 August, I went to see U2 play at Wembley Stadium, which was a must-do in one's life, and totally brilliant!!

More about U2 and my Nice trip, in my next blog though.

All for now, hope you are well. Big love ;)

Dave