Shawn's visit

While Nina was in Ireland on a geology fieldtrip at the beginning of September, I was busy finishing my workshop extension. I was also feverishly painting a piece Nina had asked me for when we moved in last year. While she was doing fieldwork last November I painted a red piece for our living room which matched the décor of that room. This time, I was to create a similar piece for our bedroom, in blue, to match the colour scheme there. I had never gotten around to it for a myriad of reasons including the fact I just wasn’t inspired.

I took the opportunity of being alone in the house and finally painted it. As much as Nina wanted the finished piece, I think she would have had a hard time seeing the mess I needed to make in order to actually create the piece. Since the final layer involved splattering paint onto the canvases, I had to create an area where I could splatter without the fear of getting paint onto anything else.

To accomplish this, I built an enclosure in the corner of our kitchen by the back door. I had amassed a lot of sheet plastic for this very purpose and laid some on the ground, taped some into the walls and then created an overhang which was supported on the backs of two bar stools (also covered in plastic). Wearing my painting clothes, I headed in with the pieces and freely flung paint and created a real mess. A couple of minutes later I emerged with the finished painting and wearing a healthy dose of the paint myself. I took the liberty of photographing this setup to help you appreciate the amount of work (and care) this process takes. I am happy to report Nina returned to the surprise of the paintings hanging on our bedroom wall. And, she was unable to find any paint on the kitchen walls or floor.

Shawn was here for four days over the weekend and then headed to Glasgow to visit a mutual friend (and fellow Canadian) Monty. This past Friday he returned to Leicester for a final two days before leaving yesterday afternoon.

I made a bit of a mistake last weekend. I showed Shawn all the attractive buildings and the nicer parts of Leicester and now he has this misguided view that it’s actually a fine place!

He arrived Thursday afternoon and was determined to stay awake until night time in order to acclimate to UK time. Nina was heading to her horse in the afternoon, so she took us with her and dropped us on the outskirts of Leicester. We walked along the meadows by a stream and enjoyed the closest natural spot we have within walking distance. We spent the next couple of hours walking back to town along the outskirts. We followed the Soar River into town and along the back of De Montfort University which is bound by the river. One of the campus pubs sits up against the river with a patio looking out over it (probably the only one with a water view in town) called the Soar Point. We sat on the deck and had a drink in the afternoon sun and then headed back to the house where I cooked the three of us dinner.

Friday was spent in town. Nina had to work and wasn’t interested in spending a day walking around town as she had been through all that when her parents visited last April. She also knew there would be ample more opportunities with my mom and dad arriving this fall and the promise from a few of her friends to make it over before the end of the year as well.

We went to all the “must see” locations such as the infamous Leicester market, Cathedral, Castle Park and town hall. We walked through the De Montfort University campus and I showed him where I will be studying over the next two year. Then In the evening we met up with Nina and went downtown for supper.

Saturday and Sunday we earmarked for day trips around the surrounding countryside. One of the real charms of Leicester is not the city itself, but the surrounding areas with the hundreds of quaint hamlets and towns that dot the countryside. We felt a trip to this region wouldn’t be complete without experiencing these aspects of Leicestershire.

Saturday we drove to Foxton Locks; a set of 10 locks on the Grand Union Canal which help the boats gain or lose the 75 feet in elevation that spans the hill. Built in the early 1800s and utilizing gravity, they are an amazing feat of engineering.

I drew a crude picture depicting the set up to show you how it works. In between each of the locks is a filler pond off to the side with pipes running to the lock above and below it. The lock above will drain its water into the filler pond (which is water travelling downhill as the pond is slightly lower) and the lock below fills up using water from the same pond (which is still flowing downhill as the pond is slightly higher). Of course, due to the placement of the ponds, this also works in reverse to allow boats to move up and down the lock network. It is quite remarkable the way they devised this system over 200 years ago which didn’t require the use of pumps.

In the middle, between the fifth and sixth locks is a passing area so a boat can start coming down from the top at the same time as a boat coming up from the bottom and they simply pass each other in the middle. However, when we were there, all the boats were moving in the same direction and were spaced out with one empty lock between each one.

They have turned this area into a wonderful park. The grounds are well kept with lush grass and the buildings that were once industrial are now restaurants, pubs, shops and cafes.

We took a short canal ride on one of the long boats that gives tours along the canals (not through the locks). And afterward, we walked along another arm of the canal and enjoyed the sunshine.
I had ridden out to the locks on my bike this summer, so this wasn’t anything new for me. However, for Nina and Shawn this was their first time and they really seemed to enjoy the experience.

The pictures of Foxton Locks were all taken by Shawn:






































As Foxton sits a few miles out from Market Harbourough, we stopped by on our way back home. I hadn’t seen much of it other than passing through in the car. We strolled through the town centre and found a place for an afternoon coffee before heading back to Leicester. That evening we treated Shawn to dinner at Don Leone; our favourite neighbourhood Italian restaurant.
Sunday we headed east to Rutland Water. Nina and I had gone out there in July when we first discovered the beautiful reservoir and had since learned of many other noteworthy places to see in the vicinity.

A finger of land sticks into the middle of Rutland water. It is home to a small village, many meadows and forested land. The perimeter has a walking path that follows the shore and we spent the late morning walking around it. It was the closest thing to walking in a “real” forest I had experienced in England. It offered pleasant views over the lake and onto the surrounding hillside and we finished off our walk back in the small village of Hambleton which sat in the middle of the peninsula. One of the main draws of this particular village (apart from its scenic location) is Hambleton Hall; a Victorian house that has been converted into a Michelin Star restaurant and Relais & Châteaux hotel.

We went into the reception to get a copy of the menu (and we plan to return for a special occasion in the future) and see the sweeping gardens that disappear behind the massive house. It was extremely impressive as were the prices to stay there, so we left.




















Our next stop was Burgheley House in Stamford. This grand 16th century country house was built by Sir William Cecil who was the Lord High Treasurer of Queen Elizabeth I. Since then, his descendents have continued to reside in the house. Today, they use one wing for their private residence and the other half of the house is open to the public to view.

I am always far more interested in viewing old houses/castles that are still properly furnished and decorated as if the inhabitants were still there. This house did not disappoint. What I found the most impressive were the detailed frescos on the ceilings of almost all the rooms. One room in particular; the Heaven Room, had a continuous fresco that started at the floor and incorporated 3 of the walls and the entire ceiling. To accomplish all this work the Cecil family hired a famous Italian fresco painter and he (and his team of 3) dedicated 10 years to working on these rooms. The Heaven Room alone cost the Cecil family £500 pounds at a time when a low-income earner was making £5/year!











We drove into the small town of Stanford which was an interesting experience. We got turned around a few times and in doing so we crossed into another county before heading back again. By the end of the day we had been in 5 (Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire).

Stamford was attractive, as are so many such towns. The buildings were all old and in good repair and the town centre was packed with historic churches. A river meandered through the centre of Stamford with a park that straddled it and headed out of town. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but what we did see we were really taken with.

On the Monday Shawn headed up to Scotland to stay with Monty and returned to spend his final weekend with us the following Friday. Shawn arrived at 5pm, so we headed back to the house to drop off his bags and then went off to the pub as is the tradition on a Friday afternoon.

The Leicester International Music Festival was happening this same weekend, so we took in a lunchtime concert on Saturday. It involved two people playing one grand piano and was called 4 Hands One Mind. They played a variety of pieces including Schubert’s Allegro in A minor & Fantasie in F minor and Schumann’s Zwölf vierhändige Klavierstücke für kleine und grosse Kinder.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the botanical gardens which is run by the University of Leicester, but is located on the edge of Oadby near Irene and Tony’s house. We had travelled by it many times, but had never gone in. It was far bigger than I had anticipated and the grounds incorporated 3 old houses which are now used for different types of functions.
Sunday was Shawn’s last day and we spent the early afternoon at Begrave Hall. It makes up one of the Leicester city museums and is a perfectly preserved example of an early 18th century house and garden. Interestingly, it is also reported as being one of the more haunted locations in the area. All you have to do is type “Belgrave Hall Leicester” into Google and you are inundated with information on this element of the house’s history.

This was not why we had come to visit the house. We were drawn to it by a far stronger pull; food! This past weekend was The Belgrave Hall Good Food Fair. The garden was full of stalls and there was a fantastic selection of food to eat on the spot as well as items to buy and farmers selling their wares. We even signed up for an organic fruit & vegetable service where they will deliver us a box once every two weeks with a selection of locally produced and organically grown produce. And, we indulged in some locally made ice cream.

This marked the end of Shawn’s English adventure as we literally drove from Belgrave Hall to the train stall to bid him farewell.

Having finally put my website usability workshop to rest (including the extension) came with a certain feeling of accomplishment. It was accompanied by the realization I had a noticeable void now as I had dedicated close to a year to that project. I suddenly found myself with time on my hands which I needed to fill.

Over the past number of months Stefan has been showing a certain restlessness and lack of contentment with his company and its inability to grow. A lot of staff have come and gone in the two and a half years I have worked with him, but none have stayed or showed themselves to be reliable in his eyes. This has meant he has been the main workhorse and I guess the past 5 years have finally caught up with him as he started indicating he needed a change. He didn’t want to close up shop, but he also didn’t want to keep on going as is. So he decided to float the idea of merging with another recruitment company, if any would be interested. He flew back to Amsterdam (he currently lives in Croatia) and in the space of a few days he had three companies showing interest. The talks moved quickly and he narrowed it down to one like-minded IT recruitment company with a similar outlook, reputation and business model as ours.

The merger went through this week and I will be kept on, at least through the end of 2010. It’s up to me and my new “bosses” to see how well we work together over the next three months (the merger happens on Oct 1). Hopefully I can forge a space within this company and they will keep me as busy as Stefan has. They know I am working remotely (which they seem fine with) and I have decided to head back to Amsterdam for 3 days at the end of the month to meet these new people face to face.

Since moving to Leicester I have been looking for an excuse to go back to Amsterdam and this merger has afforded me the opportunity. I have made plans to see my old room-mate Marc for an evening which will be nice.

I only fear it will be hard to get me board the plane back to Leicester after a few days in my old home of Amsterdam.