The bass has arrived...at last

 

 

There were a few hitches getting me to Melbourne, but the bass had more hoops to get thro. But its here, at last. Customs didnt fumigate it, nor did they charge import duties. Yay to both. And a huge thank you to Michelle Fink for taking me to pick it up at Tullamarine. And taking this shot to celebrate!

In Melbourne....where its windy!!

I was meant to land in Melbourne on Mon 3/9 local time. My flight from Manchester to Doha was delayed, so we circled the airport waiting for a landing slot.....by which time I had missed my connection to Melbourne. Or Qatar had oversold the seats on the flight!! Either way I ended up in a 5 start hotel in the desert. More food then ever I could eat. But no grog of course.

So I landed on Tues eve. Wed was windy - this house had its roof blown off on Harcourt St, North Melbourne.

Am staying with Johnny and Mimi - life is good

Carvery lunch at the Fairview

The weekend before I left for Melbourne we went to the aptly named Fairview in Shaw for a carvery lunch, with Mum, Julie, Steve and the girls Sarah and Charlotte, who were both on fine form. £4.50 for a carvery lunch - wow.

It was a beaut day, as the photos atest.

And all taken with my iPhone - how did we survive when phones just made phone calls??

Edinburgh Aug 2012

In late August Stuey was working with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra doing a concert in the Edinburgh International Festival. Nic popped up too for a long weekend or mixed weather to celebrate our 22nd anniversary.

Dinner at Greywalls was amazing. Its a beautiful old house in Gullane, 6 miles East of Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth. As you can see, Nicky scrubs up good for a woman married 22 years, and she is looking very excited about her scallops entree!

We had a great walk up the Pentland Hills just South of Edinburgh, which offers a great view of the Forth, the bridges, the City and nearby dry ski slope and golf courses. Everyone plays golf.

Next was Roslyn Chapel, made famous at the end of the Da Vinci Code book and film. Stunning.


We made a soggy trip to St Abbs Head, which would have been marvellous had the weather been better. And the seabird centre at North Berwick is cool - there are cameras on the 5 islands in the Forth, packed with birdlife, such at Gannets on Bass Rock. And a trip to scotland would just not be the same without a visit to a distillery, and this time it was a tour of Glenkinchie, and its subtle lowlands scotch.

Barcelona July 2012

One of our goals in Europe was to visit new places. In July 2012 we added Barcelona to our list. Nicky was very keen, Stuey less so. It's the sort of place that doesn't sell well in guide books, but as we found out, was well worth the trip. It's the 4th busiest tourist city in the EU after Paris, London and Rome. And we've been to all them. It's 17th in the worlds most livable cities, Melbourne coming top, of course.

We left Bristol early on Thursday 19 July 2012, at the end of two months rain and cloud in the UK - the Poms were at thier whinging best. The jet stream passed north of Barcelona so we were greeting by welcome sunshine. It was 23-30 degrees for our stay, Noice.

Our first arvo was spent getting our bearings on the open top tourist bus. Nicky got into the swing of things with a siesta, then G and T, then a walk down La Rambla to Port Vell. The Regina hotel (highly recomended) is just off Placa de Catalunya, at the top end of La Rambla, which is the main tourist artery thro the old city, tree lined and packed with shops, tourists, pick pockets and police. The guide books and locals warned about the crooks but the police seem to be on top of it.

Supper was black paella (calamari ink) on the beach at Barceloneta, at Kaika. Yum. We strolled back thro Barri Gotic, the old city and had a cold beer in the bar that was to become our local, Bootleg. We got chatting to a few poms, one of them damon, a jazz trumpet player who has worked with our old friend Jonny Scott and the Jules Holland band. What a small world?! The trip back was the first of many thro winding narrow alleyways that often lead to open placas. Stunning.

Friday was the day to start Barcelona in details, and first up was Anton Gaudi's magnificent Sagrada Familia. We ignored advice to book tickets online which cost us a 45 min queue. Everything is much quicker if booked online in Barcelona, largely due to the locals tendency to chatter, to anyone, before tending to customers. Mañana indeed!!

Sagrada Familia is Barca's icon. It's huge and awe inspiring. Most cathedrals were built over many decades and SF is no exception - a church, tourist attraction and building site all in one. It's very much work in progress, being built to the Designs gaudi left behind having died after being hit by a tram in 1926. Barca's architectural style is Modernista, Gaudi being its most famous architect. Gaudi's main influence was the natural world and the video shows a good example - the internal columns of SF branch off like trees at the top.

After 3 hours at SF we headed north to another popular Gaudi site, Parc Guell, for more groovy Modernista designs including the mosaic lizard and some real live parrots. PG was packed, hilly and bakingly hot, so the ice cream shop at the end of the no 24 bus home was very welcome.

After a siesta it was off to supper. Reader might start to see a theme here. We stopped at a small wine bar and tried a catalunyan red, yum once more. Next was Nicky's choice of restaurant, an excellent one, Señor Paradella, but it wasn't open til 8.30 - the locals eat SO late. So we had tapas instead. When in Rome and all that...but Stuey didn't consider it a proper meal!! Back to the hotel via Bootleg.

Sat 21st was Cooler, overcast. After a later start and obligatory tea from Starbucks we cut thro La Rambla, Barri Gotic, to the La Ribena walk, Museo Picasso (which we saved for Sunday due to the queue), antic market, more laneways and Santa Maria del Mar. 

Lunch was at the Santa Catarina market, bread, jambon, queso, bread, yumo. Next we headed north to Palau de la Musica Catalana, an awesome modernista concert hall, by Lluis Domenech i Montaner not Gaudi. What an awesome concert hall - now that would be a great place to work

But we were soon back in a Gaudi building after a tube ride to Diagonal. La Pedrera or Casa Mila is remarkable, especially the out of this world roof and attic. Most designers treat the roof as a functional space rather than aesthetic - not Gaudi. The chimneys are works of art and the roof undulates rather than being flat. Inside is an apartment in period style.

The 28 bus got us to Starbucks for refreshments prior to our siesta. then it was back to the Bootleg and a local tip for dinner, El Salon to sample Catalan food, with a local Chardonnay, yum yum.

The locals are seriously into dogs, but not so into rules - check out the No Dogs sign just by the Catalan to in the photo!

Sunday started with tea, then the Cathedral. As with every other building there are many Catalan flags and crests - locals are Catalans first, Spanish second.

After a croissant it was off to the Museo Picasso, which focused on a few early periods. Stuey doesn't really get the cubist and later stuff. His early realist and impressionist work matches the masters - remarkable that he was only a teenager. Some of the late stuff looks like the work of a 6 yr old!! The blue period was...blue. It was a great insight into P, or Pable Ruiz, as he signed his earlier work, using his fathers surname.

After a baguette lunch we walked thro the La Raval region before watching Sir Wiggo win the tour de France at siesta time. Next was the metro to the beach - packed with young bodies. It's very like Sydney with glorious beaches in the city. Stuey had a dip in the Med. It's great for people watching, and some of them had clothes on! Picasso would have been confused as all noses seemed to be between eyes, ears on side of heads etc...

After cleaning up it was off to Señor Paradella for a magic yummy dinner of jambon, seafood both and roast lamb with a big ballsy Priorat red.

Monday was our final day, which started with smoke haze from bush fires further north near Figuiras. After tea we rambled La Rambla picking up wine and jambon to take home.

And when the lovely folk at Eastjet delivered us in Bristol the sun was shining - in fact it was only 1 degree cooler than Barcalona. We shall have to go again!!

House is looking good

Bristol might not have been a complete success for us (!) but the house has been wonderful. We love it, terrific building, layout and it feels like home.

 

France Mar 2012 - Reims, Paris and Albert

France is a big place - there is so much to see. And as you can tell from this and the previous blog entries, we tried to do it all in a week!!


Sat 10/3 Beaune to Reims

First job was breakfast, of course. Next we cleared up and left Vergisson, to head North towards Beaune (pronounced “bone”). This is the heart of serious red Burgundy. After a short 100km drive North we popped into Beaune to check out the market and architecture. We then did a driving tour thro Cote de Beaune, to the South of the town. The countryside is similar to Macon, hilly with quaint villages dotted among vines as far as the eye could see. We stopped for lunch atop of one of the hills and feasted on jambon, bread and cheese from the market.

Next it was North again, heading towards Dijon and the Cote de Nuit area. This is a narrow strip of vines which contains some of the biggest names in the region, France, indeed the world. And they are tiny – Domaine Romanee-Conti is the most expensive and most famous pinot in the world. Wikipedia tells me that a single bottle of the 1990 vintage has sold for almost US$11,000. No, it was not on free tasting, and no we didnt buy any!! And the vineyard is 4.4 acres – Geoff and Leanne, our friends in Melbourne live on a 5 acre block that is bigger than Romanee-Conti. We popped into a Cave and tried wines from a few areas around Beaune, and the credit card was given a nudge once more. Am sure the car groaned when we got back in, with another box of wine.

It was then time drive North, from Dijon back to Reims. Time for a couple of Leffes then bread, cheese, meats and wine. Yum once more.

Sun 11/3 Paris

The 9.15 Train took us to Paris est. It was meant to be a 45 mins journey but took 2 hrs! What little comfort we had was knowing that its not just the UK rail system that has problems

The Metro tipped us out at Place de Bastille – a flashpoint in the revolution but nowadays a groovy spot with the biggest opera house I have even seen. We did a walk thro two arrondisments – the Marais and Les Halles, covering the Jewish quarter, the Pompidou Centre, St Eustace, Forum Les Halles, the Bourse (stock exchange) and the river Siene. Lunch took the form of a falafel in the heart of la Marais, which was noteworthy enough to make this blog entry.

For our main course, we headed North to Stadt de France to see the best rugby match we have had the pleasure to watch. Thank you Bob for the tickets – everything about it was just wonderful; the atmosphere, bands, tension and the small matter a very close match that ended France 22-24 England, but only after a Trahn-Duc drop goal attempt dropped a meter under the bar. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot....

We managed to get an early train back to Reims for a mirror image of the previous night – beer, bread, cheese, meats and wine. Yuuuuuuum. Readers may be starting to notice a thread here....

12/3 Reims to Albert

Our last full day in France on this trip started with breakfast then a quick schlep across to Reims Cathedral. This is at least our 3^rd trip to Reims, yet Notre Dame never fails to take the breath away. It is architectural history, from the middle ages to now. French kings were crowned there, one at the behest of Joan of Arc. It was clobbered on both world wars. Some of the older stained glass remains but much was removed by the Germans, and some of the modern replacements includes the work of Mark Chagall among others. These word will not even try and do the place justice – its a staggering building.

Grog lovers will know that Reims is in the champagne region. So off we popped on our next driving tour, down to Epernay and its surrounding villages. The scene was very similar to Burgundy further South - miles on miles of vines, with lots of people bending over pruning back the vines to the main root.


Our trek towards Calais saw us detour slightly to the West, to the Somme. We were last here in 2001, but the place is so huge there is always more to see and take in. Our first stop was Villers-Bretennoux and the Australian memorial. Like many sites on the Somme, it is a sobering, yet inspiring place to be. The rows on rows of white headstone, beautifully kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are a sad reminder to those who fell in battle. Even more so are the names of 11,000 or so whose bodies were never found, doe to the fortunes of war. As recently as 2010 as large mass grave was found at Fromelles, which has created big news in Australia recently, as relatives of lost soldiers have been asked for DNA to help identify lost men. And this all happened close to 100 years ago. The memorial is pock marked, after fighting in the second world war.

We drove down the road from Albert to Bapaume, dropping into the remarkable Newfoundland (Canadian) Memorial at Beaumont Hamel. The Canuks bought a piece a land where the Newfoundlands came up against heavily entrenched German lines, just a few metres from their own. The trenches have been retained, and a short walk allows people to see just how close they were. No mans land is like a lunar landscape thanks to relentless shelling. Two more cemeteries show the outcome.

13/3 Albert to Calais to Kenley to Bristol

We just had time to visit the Somme trench museum in Albert before heading off to Calais for our train thro the tunnel. A 250m disused WWII bomb shelter has been converting into a fascinating museum, with a great trench simulation with lights and sounds and a few stuffed rats.

Our train was at 12.20, we had lunch with Nicko, picked up the bass, which only just fitted into the car with all the grog, then headed back to Bristol in time to unpack and tend to a couple of attention starved cats.