When I retired, I told people I would like to travel and in doing so write about and photograph my experiences to share with others. I have posted on a web service photos of several places I have visited with brief descriptions about each and shared them with friends and family. But I was never able to provide much in the way of personal experiences, travel suggestions or the reasons behind some of the photos. I hope to do this through this blog. For those of you who are bored with lots of words or believe the axiom that a picture is worth a thousand words, I will continue to post a "slideshow" of selected photos I take on this blog (see sidebar). For those who have the time or inclination to delve deeper into my perspectives (and those of the people I travel with or encounter) read on......

England Swings (but the pendulum is now in the middle - at least in London)

I have been to London a few times since my first trip in 1984 with my wife, Marie. This time, I really noted new additions to the skyline (getting higher), London's prices (getting much higher) and unfortunately, the rapid decline of a 'British' or English identity. No longer can one find takeaway fish and chips in newsprint or paper, draught beer that is not 'supercold', Wimpy hamburger shops or free admission to Westminster Abbey. Yet there is still much to see in this cosmopolitan city, and enough differences to know that London is still not New York despite the Americanizing 'culture'. And you don't have to look any further than your feet. Or at least the edge of the road in front of your feet. At almost all intersections and pedestrian crossings, written in large letters near the curb, is the reminder to Look Right. If you look left as we do in Canada before starting to cross the road, you will be left with significant hospital bills if not worse. In Britain, you walk on the left of the sidewalk or the left side of the tunnels that lead to and from the Underground stations. Unless you are on an escalator, and then you stand to the right. Right? Right!

So on our first day in the City, we (Marie, Kerri and I) took the train from Heathrow to Paddington Station (the Underground also runs to and from the airport, but takes an hour versus the 20 minute train ride and there is more room on the train for luggage). Unless you are travelling on a generous business account or are wealthy, a taxi is too expensive and too slow. Jet lagged, we found our apartment hotel about a 10 minute walk from Paddington, and since the apartment was not yet ready, we decided to wander up to St John's Wood (a tony area of London similar to Westmount or Rosedale) to find Abbey Road Studios. Once there, we just had to walk across the famous crossing - check out my daughter Kerri's feet. Abbey Road is a busy street, so if you want to be a Beatle for a few minutes, be careful when crossing and photographing the street. The Studio building itself is kind of nondescript, but fans have covered the front fence wall with lots of graffiti, most of it references to Beatles' songs. Kerri added her own "I am the Walrus" signature to one of the columns. We met another couple from New Jersey who were doing the Beatle pilgrimmage thing and we offered to take their picture as they crossed the street. Perhaps this is a good place to mention that if you see a couple taking a picture of each other during your travels, it never hurts to offer to be the photographer and take a picture of both of them. Or offer to take a picture for a single traveller. You don't even have to speak their language. Everyone knows how to mime a camera. Many people appreciate the offer and will reciprocate.

After visiting Abbey Road,we still had a few hours to kill before we could check in so we slowly headed east towards Regents Park, one of the Royal Parks in London. Running along the northern edge of Regents Park is the Regents Canal, which is still used by boats today. Regents Park contains the London Zoo (we did not visit it, but we could smell it). It also is a quiet oasis, with a small lake, soccer pitches, tea houses and lots of paved walkways through woods and fields. We were really feeling the effects of the jet lag by now so we stopped at one of the park's tea houses for a 'cuppa' and a croissant. Kerri took a picture of Marie and I and I am not sure if she asked us to lean in for the photo, or we were just tipping over from being tired.

Feeling a bit refreshed,
we started to walk back to our apartment and passed a couple of interesting places on the way. The first is where God and his buddies apparently play cricket (only He understands this strange game), the second was Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and Imperial Tourist Trap. I probably shouldn't critique Madame Tussaud's, having never visited it. Apparently hundreds of people did want to however as the line (queue in England) went across the front of the building and around the block. We stopped in at the Pride of Paddington, a local (for us since it was a three minute walk from our digs) pub for a late lunch, then had a 'lie down' at the apartment for a couple of hours before jumping on the Underground for a trip downtown to Picadilly Circus (we never did find the animals, clowns or acrobats) to see the lights and to have dinner. (I should mention here that if you visit London for more than two days, buying some kind of pass for zones one and two where most of the sites are found for the Underground (also good on buses and the Docklands Light Railway) is a good idea). At the centre of Picadilly Circus (an intersection where several major streets join), is the statue of Eros. It was a popular meeting place during the Second World War and still is obviously, sinc a large group of people perhaps waiting for their dates to join them or hoping to get lucky had Eros pretty well surrounded. This area of London is always crowded with tourists, locals, hawkers and riff-raff, but it is very bright with all the lights and well policed. Speaking of police, people in Britain, and particularly in London, are the most watched people in the world. Closed circuit cameras are everywhere. So you might want to remember this if certain parts of your body itch or you forgot the kleenex back at the hotel. SoHo, Leceister Square (more on this later) and Chinatown are all within a five minute walk of Picadilly. We walked through Leceister Square, briefly looking at the "discount" ticket offices for theatre tickets to see what was playing, then skipped over a couple of streets to Chinatown. We picked a likely looking restaurant and climbed upstairs to the small serving room where we had a very good and inexpensive dinner. Now completely out of steam, we headed back to the Underground at Picadilly and went back to the apartment where we called it a first night in London.

The next morning, we were up early and had a 'full English breakfast' (eggs, sausage, cooked tomato, beans, fried potatoes) in a restaurant around the corner. Most lower and middle cost hotels in London now charge extra for an English breakfast - it used to be included in the cost - and their typical fee is £5-8 which is rather high. Restaurants serve the same breakfast for about £3. Then we set out to cross Hyde Park, entering at Lancaster Gate (5 minutes from our apartment) and followed the shores of the large artificial lake towards Rotten Row. Just a few words on Hyde Park and what one sees crossing it at this location. Hyde Park used to be the hunting preserve of British Royalty. It is a very large park (think Experimental Farm). At the end closest to downtown London is Speakers Corner (more later), and at the other end Kensington Palace (former home of Diana, Princess of Wales after her divorce). We passed a statue to Peter Pan that was erected in the 1800s (he really hasn't grown up), a Memorial to Diana (a large fountain, that resembles a race track. It had a locked fence around it; apparently people would walk in the fountain and slip and fall, so it has been closed for some time as a hazard), and the lake itself. All along the lake are signs that fishing and swimming are not permitted (the latter I suspect because the water is fouled with the jetsom of lots of geese and other waterfowl). However, near the southern end of the lake, we came upon some people who were actually swimming. It was a relatively warm day, but it was October folks! Maybe this is where the English saying 'keep a stiff upper lip' comes from. A little further along the path and we were crossing Rotten Row, a dirt path that is used today by people riding their horses. The term Rotten Row is an English corruption of the original name for the path which was 'Route du Roi' or where the King used to ride his horse (the Queen still does apparently). Somehow, though, after several of the horses have gone by, Rotten Row does make more sense. While we were passing this point, a few hundred people were gathering to take part in a race of some kind - a mini-marathon for a charity. We saw these runners later heading up (and returning) along the Victoria Embankment which is on the north side of the Thames. We exited the park thinking we would stop in at Harrod's Department store, but it being Sunday, it did not open until 11 a.m. so we took a picture of it and descended once more into the Underground (referred affectionately as the Tube because the train tunnels and stations are tube shaped) and zipped over towards Covent Garden, St Paul's and the actual City of London. The City of London is really only a 1 square mile area bounded roughly by St Paul's Cathedral in the west, the Tower of London in the East, the River Thames in the south and London Wall street (the location of the old Roman Wall) to the north.
Kerri had mentioned that a friend of hers who has lived in London thought that the Maple Leaf Pub (in Maiden Lane near Covent Garden) hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner, so we stopped in at the Pub and made reservations for Monday night. By the way, if you miss your fix of hockey games, the Maple Leaf does show them. And it has some Canadian beer (although by being in London, why would you want a Rickard's?). More on the pub later. We stopped in Covent Garden for an hour to shop and watch the buskers who perform there for change. Sunday is always busy (try to get there in the morning), but it is a fun place with lots of people, craft markets, regular stores, food and the performers. The guy we watched was funny and talented, balancing and walking around on a ladder, juggling knives and tormenting his helper picked from the crowd.

We left Covent Garden and headed east meaning to walk down to Aldwych and on to Fleet Street (where the newspapers used to be published - all have moved out of the downtown now) and came upon a street that is famous in a nursery rhyme, so we decided to go looking for 'The Man". But alas, he had baked his last muffin and all we found was a funeral parlour with a sense of humour. (Did I mention that if you click on the pictures in this blog, you can see them in a larger format? No - whoops, sorry).

There is a famous pub where the Strand turns into Fleet Street (actually more than one, but this is the one I photographed) where people like Samuel Johnson who is famous for the first English Dictionary used to drink. Although it looks old, it was built in 1723 and was first a coffee house before becoming a pub. Almost across the road, is another called the Cheshire Cheese, and yet another a few metres further on.
With all these pubs staring at us, and the fact that it was a nice warm day, we stopped off in one called the Tipperary, which happens to be the oldest Irish Pub in London. We decided to eat as well and headed upstairs to the dining area. We sat at the table in the window so we could watch the double decker open-topped tourist buses pass by - taunting the riders by raising our beers as they looked at us through the small window. While Marie and Kerri had traditional fare to eat, I tried something called whitefish and chips. The lady told me they were small fish and she was not kidding.
Do you recall the scene near the end of A Fish Called Wanda where Kevin Kline eats a couple of the fish in the fish tank? Well I think I ate the rest of Wanda's relatives for lunch. They sure looked sad with their little beady eyes staring up at me. But they were tasty if not a bit crunchy. And they went really well with a pint of Guiness.

After lunch, we wandered back out into the street and passed from Fleet Street into Ludgate Hill upon which sits Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, the second largest domed church in the world after St Peter's in Rome. Since it was Sunday and church services were under way, we could not visit, but we did wander around the exteriour and the garden in the back. We never did make it back to St Paul's to visit the inside, but I have done so in the past. It is well worth climbing up into the dome (provided all the anti-terrorist security still permits one to do this), not only for the views of London, but also for the accoustics of the dome. Provided there is not a tour bus crowd or two in the dome, and there are at least two of you, split up so that you are at opposite sides of the dome. Lean in close to the wall and you can actual carry on a conversation in whispered voices with the other person. Marie and I did it several years ago, so I know it works.

Now I need to mention here that if you drink beer, you certainly need to think about where washrooms might be and you cannot always count on the many public ones to in operational order. The one behind St Paul's was broken, and Marie started to look a bit desparate as we headed down Cannon Street thinking we would find another pub or restaurant close by. But there were no pubs or restaurants for about a kilometre. Finally, I spotted a juice bar in a side street and Marie went to find relief and obviously did because she came back with a papaya smoothie that Kerri promptly declared hers. We decided that we had walked enough at this point, so we popped into the nearest Underground station and rode over to the Tower Hill stop. Tower Hill is where public hangings, beheadings and other punishments were carried out on prisoners of the Tower. We did not want to visit the Tower on Sunday (too many tour groups), but we did walk by it along the river. This is a view that most tour groups would not see despite the fact that there is an exit from the Tower just to the left of this picture. OK, I admit it, I don't like tour groups who are rushed through a place, not that I blame the people in the tour. I blame the companies who try to pack too much into a day based on variety as opposed to substance. As I said to Kerri when visiting Versaille (next chapter), if I ever resort to a "if it's Tuesday we must be in Belgium" tour group to travel, please shoot me.

It was a beautiful day today so we continued on to probably the most famous or at least most photographed bridge in London. No, it is NOT London Bridge. It is the Tower Bridge. The oldest London Bridge is actually in Lake Havasu Arizona (look it up if you don't believe me. Debbie and Mike, you know what I am saying). The current London Bridge (very non-descript for a bridge that stands where the Roman bridge stood) is actually upstream from Tower Bridge. Part of the bridge was undergoing its every 6 year painting and maintenance work so one of the pedestrian walks was closed and we crossed the Thames on the downstream side which provides a good view of the old warehouses of the 1700 and 1800s and in the far distance, the towers of Canary Wharf. Tower Bridge was built in the 1800s and still functions to this day as a draw bridge (there is a schedule that can be consulted to see when it will be open. I have never seen it open in five visits to it over the years. But I never consulted the schedule either - its like instructions, right?). It is very Victorian in design and very large. The machinery that raises and lowers the drawbridge can be visited, as can the upper deck for a fee.

We visited the warehouse immediately to the left of the bridge on the South shore (to right of picture) which now has trendy restaurants along the Thames at the street level and expensive flats and offices in the upper floors. I mentioned the film A Fish Called Wanda earlier on. It was shot in one of the renovated warehouses. We actually liked the street in behind the warehouse which is cobbled and where covered walkways at various levels cross the small street from one warehouse to another.


Heading west we wandered along the southern embankment (which has no name because it is private land where people are permitted to roam near the River (watch for the small sign that signifies this). We stopped just after passing what looked like a Bollywood film shoot at an ice cream truck for a cone (ice cream trucks are not permitted in the City of London, but since we we were across the river in Southwark these bylaws did not apply).
We were now getting a bit tired, so we caught the Underground again (what a great subway system even if the Londoners think it is too expensive) near the London Dungeon attraction (not quite as popular as Madame Tussaud's) and headed back stopping at the Marble Arch station to visit Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park. Speaker's Corner since the 1800s been a place where anyone can basically say whatever they like. Karl Marx and Lenin were known to have given forth in an appropriate oration. Prior to Speaker's Corners, in the 1700s it was known as Tyburn, which was the significant site for public hangings. After listening in to three or so speakers, all of whom were preaching their brand of Christianity,
I found it ironic that religion would now seem to be the predominate theme of speakers on a place of mortal punishment. We went into the park a few nundred metres since it was such a beautiful day in the late sun's amber glow and sat on the grass for a half hour, watching kids and adults playing soccer, frisbee, flying kites and countless people walking back and forth on the path in front of us. Since it was Sunday night, the ladies wanted to find a place that served a traditional English Roast Beef dinner. We went out around 7:00 p.m. and scouted around our "neighbourhood" and eventually ended up back at the Pride of Paddington where they were serving roast beef. Now a brief note about English cooking. Think well done. Think that the only vegetables deemed fit for human consumption are peas. That sums it up.

Monday morning was shopping day. Kerri had found a store (Primark) right at Marble Arch and Oxford Street that sold discount clothes and other accessories. So we rode to the Marble Arch Underground station and plunged into the store where about 75% of London's women were already shopping. I left the ladies to slug it out with their shopping buddies and took a walk for an hour down Oxford Street and back, passing Selfridges Department store (not discount) and other shops and boutiques. Oxford is a shopping street so there was not much to see (for me) since I was not shopping. I caught up with the ladies as they stood in the long queue in Primark to try on about a million dresses and other clothes, then went outside the store where I sat on the window ledge with other shopping bachelors and watched the pedestrian and vehicle traffic go by. After another hour, Marie and Kerri emerged, we zipped down to Oxford Circus to visit another store that Kerri wanted to see (that took about 2 minutes since the prices could not compete with Primark), then it was back to the apartment for a short interlude and to drop off the purchases. We got back on the Underground and headed to the Westminster Abbey area.


On the way to Westminster Abbey, a taxi passed us and made us laugh. Taxis in London are very efficient, the drivers have to undergo significant training and have to pass exams where they are tested on the fastest and least expensive trip between two points in London (they have to know all the streets, lanes etc.). And I guess they also have some peculiar rules about riding in them as seen in this photo. Perhaps the mounted police (which patrol around certain monuments are areas of the city) are the ones who have to enforce the rules. Bobbies (the police who were named after Robert Peel who organized the first public police force in England)still do not carry guns to this day which despite all the terrorist attacks London and Britain have suffered, says a lot for the English values.


There has been a major change to Westminster Abbey since the last time I visited. It now has an admission fee (before the Abbey just asked for donations), which while a bit steep, is worth springing for. An audio guide is included in the price and the amount of detail about each nook and cranny of the church, about the history and politics of England over the past 1000 years, about who is buried there, is well worth it. I particularly liked the story about Oliver Cromwell who had executed King Charles I during the English Civil War (1649) and became Lord Protector of a republican Commonwealth. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1658. The Protectorate fell shortly after Cromwell's death and Charles II was crowned by Parliament in 1660. In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution. (The body of Cromwell's daughter was allowed to remain buried in the Abbey.) Symbolically, this took place on 30 January; the same date that Charles I had been executed. Cromwell's dead body was hanged in chains at Tyburn (now Speaker's Corner). Finally, his disinterred body was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. Afterwards the head changed hands several times, including the sale in 1814 to a man named Josiah Henry Wilkinson, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960. Expect to spend at least two hours touring the Abbey to hear these and other revealing stories about England's past.

Upon emerging from Westminster Abbey, we walked over to Whitehall Street which got its name from a former Royal Palace. Today, Whitehall is where quite a bit of Britain's civil service is located and where 10 Downing Street is located as a side "lane". You may have thought 24 Sussex is well guarded, but the British PM's street and house is now a virtual fortress. I suppose one could take a photo of the barriers and street behind it, but the British Marines carrying the machine guns dissuaded me from trying. There are other good photo ops along Whitehall and around the area (The British Houses of Parliament, although the best photos of it are from across the river - or on an HP bottle).But there is a good shot of the tower that contains the clock called Big Ben from this area. It is part of the Houses of Parliament, called the Palace of Westminster. And the London Eye, a giant ferris type wheel, can also be seen from this location. We did not ride on the Eye, but it is a good place to see all of downtown London unless one goes out to some of the hills around London which we did when we visited Greenwich the next day.
We watched the changing of the Horse Guard which is located right on Whitehall (you can't miss it if your sense of smell is working). The Horse Guards are the Queen's guard and are just itching for a chance to charge after someone with their sword. Or maybe they are just itching because of the ceremonial uniforms they wear.

We stopped in at a huge pub (is there a habit forming here?) just before reaching Trafalgar Square at the other end of Whitehall for lunch. Pubs are an excellent place to eat; this one served a variety of food - I had a Thai noodle salad). It was about this time that Kerri was going through severe 'texting' withdrawal pains, having been away from her mobile for 3 whole days, so she stopped in at a traditional phone booth but I don't think she got to text anyone. We turned left at Trafalgar Square (which mercifully has seen its pigeons relocated)and walked through the Admiralty Arch to the Mall (not a store, but a large street) that leads to Buckingham Palace. On the way down the Mall, you pass a large park on the left, and palaces such as St James (the London home of Princess Anne) and Clarence House (former residence of the late Queen Mother and now of Prince Charles and Camilla)that are located on Pall Mall to the right (Pall Mall, pronounced Pell Mell, was a mallet and ball game played here in the 17th century). Many 'gentlemens' clubs (not those kind) also line the Pall Mall, including the Reform Club where the fictional Phileas Fogg started and ended his 80 day circumnavigation of the globe in Jules Verne's book.


At the end of the Mall, Buckingham Palace (and a memorial fountain to Queen Victoria) grows larger and larger as one approaches. The Queen was at home the day we passed by, although she did not seem to want to have tea with us. Her Royal Standard was flying over the Palace to signify that she was there. We walked past the Canada Gate (to the right of the Palace as you face it), a gift to Queen Victoria to celebrate her Jubilee into St James Park. Immediately behind the Gate there are several maple trees planted by Canada, as well as a fountain memorial to Canada's war dead of the Second World War. The water flows down over a mosaic of maple leaf impressions; several actual leaves from the surrounding trees had fallen into the water to add to the effect. After crossing St James Park in search of another WC, we got on the Underground again and went back to the apartment to rest up for our next evening on the town.

After imbibing some liquid refreshments, it was time to go celebrate Thanksgiving at the Maple Leaf Pub. We were very hungry for turkey and arrived a bit early for our sitting (the pub was filled for two separate sittings; we had the late one) so we circled the block like a pack of starving hyenas until it was time to go in. The pub had been renovated since the last time Chuck Bowie and I drank there on a business trip, and it was decorated with red and white banners and balloons. We grabbed some drinks at the bar where I met a guy who was wearing a Leafs sweater (he was deep into drowning his sorrow for the season to come) and gave him my old season ticket 15% discount card for Sensations so he could at least get a good team's sweater.
Then it was time for the piece de resistance, the turkey dinner. It was actually pretty good considering that there were some distinctly English additions to the meal such as bacon wrapped bangers and Yorkshire Pudding. Kerri, a turkey connoisseur, pronounced it good as well (the Yorkshire Pudding was not up to her Mom's standards but passable). We got back to the apartment fairly late and thus ended day three.

Day four was Visit the Tower of London Day. We waited for the rush hour to get over (the Underground can be very busy until 9:30 a.m.)and rode across to the station that is close to the London Monument, a high tower built by Christopher Wren to commemorate the Great Fire of London in 1666 when the city from Whitehall to the Tower burned in three days. The Monument was built close to the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire started. However, the Monument was covered in scaffolding so we did not see it. We arrived by 10 a.m. at the Tower, bought our tickets and waited for our guide, a Yeomen Warder (Beefeater) who is a guard of the Tower to escort us through the major points of the Tower. The Yeomen Warders are retired non commissioned officers of the Army, Airforce and Marines (but not the Navy since sailors do not swear an oath to the Queen)and they live in the Tower (the doors are locked at 10 p.m. every night - a good place to raise a teenage daughter as our guide told us. It is well worth getting one these gentlemen as a tour guide, they have a sense of humour, emphasize the prison aspects of the Tower (even though it was not built as a prison) including the tortures, public hangings and gruesome beheadings on Tower Hill just outside the Tower itself, as well as the very few that took place inside the Tower of nobility (Anne Boleyne, her sister Jane, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey (Henry VIII was responsible for all these). The Crown Jewels are also on display in the Barracks within the Tower walls. The Tower was started by William the Conquerer in the 11th century and over the years, Kings of England added more towers. Be prepared to spend 3 to 4 hours to see the Tower. I was particularly fascinated with the names, dates and sometimes elaborate wall decorations scratched into the stone walls of the various towers where prisoners were held. The three people in this photo could have been prisoners since Kings and Queens seemed to incarcerate and execute people from all walks of life - including their fellow Kings and Queens.

After visiting the Tower, we went back to Covent Garden to buy a shirt Kerri had seen there the day before (it was now on sale for half price - bonus), and then to Leceister Square to buy discounted theatre tickets. All around Leceister Square are ticket booths and small shops which all proclaim to be the official half price ticket office for theatre tickets and discounts can be had at these, but not for half price. However, there is only one official discount ticket seller and it is in what looks to be a public washroom building to the south of Leicester Square. It advertizes what tickets for what shows are available that night and the price is 50% (plus a couple of quid admin fee). We bought tickets for Avenue Q, an adult version of Sesame Street. We headed back to the apartment for a couple of hours as all the walking was beginning to catch up to us before returning to Leceister Square for dinner before the play. Did I say it was an adult version of Sesame Street? It was really funny though, and the music was good - and we find out Bert's counterpart really is gay - but not Ernie's.

Day four was forecast to be rainy, so we headed over to the British Museum (as did every other tourist and school class in London) for the morning. On the short walk from the Underground, we passed some very old buildings that had survived the London fire. To get there, you get on the Docklands Light Railway which travels though the Eastern Docks area of London (and right through the Canadian built Canary Wharf complex). We had lunch in Greenwich before touring the Naval Academy buildings (some of which is now a University. At one time, Charles I had his Palace here and was attempting to build the English Versaille, but he ran out of money and Parliament refused to vote more funds so only a small wing of his Palace was built. Shortly after, he lost his head in any event. Henry VIII and his daughters, Elizabeth I and Mary were all born in the old Palace. We climbed up the steep hill to the Royal Observatory. This is where Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian come from.
Unfortunately, the English rain (more heavy fog and mist than rain) kept sweeping in, so we were limited with exploring the area, but we did manage to have a foot in the west as well as the east. The view from the Observatory is something (when the rain clouds were not passing by) and apparently watching a sunset from here is spectacular since the sun sets right over the City of London (off to the left of this photo).

This was the last sightseeing we did in London. That night, we ate in our local neighbourhood, packed and got ready to head out to Paris on the Eurostar in the morning. Good thing I suggested we go to the station early for breakfast since our train departure time had been advanced by 50 minutes as Chunnel traffic was still distrupted because of a fire in September. Thus ends Part One of the London, Paris adn Rome in Two Weeks blog.