The fiery portals of the east (and the west midlands)

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England

What better way to mark a return my return to England, after almost three years away, than with John of Gaunt's monologue from Shakespeare's Richard II. Settling back in to life on the top end of the world has its ups and downs, but England has undeniable gravitas.

I was fortunate enough to see a brilliant production of Richard II at the Tobacco Factory last weekend. It was the first time I had seen Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory in action and they were so good. I think when you see a good Shakespeare production, you understand it completely even if you don't fully understand all the language. This was one of those.

John of Gaunt's son was Henry IV of England. Richard II's father was Edward Plantagenet, the Black Prince. The tombs of both lie in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, and I visited them a few weeks ago. Well, primarily I was visiting my sister, but Henry and Edward were almost as exciting. Bec was doing a concert with her Chamber Choir in the cathedral crypt, but we spent the day visiting firstly the Museum of Canterbury, then the Cathedral.

Canterbury is a lovely city, very small and neat and old and historic. We learnt its history in the museum, right through from its beginnings and Roman occupation, to the building of the Cathedral, Thomas Becket, Christopher Marlowe, Bagpuss, Clangers and Rupert the Bear (as a long-term collector of Rupert annuals, my dad was EXCITED).



Clangers are knitted bodies on a meccano skeleton! The museum is really good and at little over 3 quid quite a bargain.



Through the gate to the Cathedral. The Cathedral is huge, monumental and magnificent.



Inside there is so much atmosphere and history - a small flame marks the site where the tomb of Thomas Becket stood (destroyed by order of Henry VIII). Around this lie the aforementioned tombs of Henry IV and the Black Prince. We spent a good long time inside, gallivanting around. It was cold though, but I imagine the heating bills must be pretty high.



Bec's concert was really good, and well attended. The following day, we left her behind and journeyed up to Wolverhampton so Père could attend the football at Molineux and we could visit uncle Alan and auntie Jenny. We had a nice quiet Saturday evening in with them, then on Sunday morning went to the Beacon Hotel to drink the best beer in the world (if you are my dad), Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild (brewed at the pub). I am actually also a big fan of Ruby Mild, it is TASTY.



I love this picture of Père and uncle Alan as it shows what a serious business drinking Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild is. I also love the Beacon, as it is a perfectly preserved victorian pub. It's like a museum pub.

Return

I think it is time to write again.

England is like another world. Adjusting back is strange and harder than I thought.

But I am not going to talk too much about England yet. On our way back from Sydney, we had an amazing stopover in Hong Kong and I must commit my memories to type.

We arrived direct from Sydney on Tuesday, early evening. The flight went well, plane was near empty so we had a row of seats to ourselves and it was really quiet, no queues for toilet etc. Landed in Hong Kong in some serious fog, boarded a train to HK Central station, then squeezed our mega amount of luggage into a Tardis-like HK taxi for a crazy-driving mad dash to our hotel in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island.

The hotel was amazing. We got a deluxe room which had plenty of space, and a great view over the racecourse and the edge of the skyscrapers. But we were hungry so headed straight out on the free shuttle bus to get the Star Ferry across to Tsim Sha Tsui on the mainland.



The Star Ferry is brilliant! The view from the water is fantastic, and with all the bright lights at night the fog didn't matter so much. And it only costs about 20p for a crossing. The ferry dropped us off in the heart of Kowloon and we made our way towards HK's mega shopping street, Nathan Road, endless shops, designer and more traditional, huge crowds and the obligatory shady men offering "copy bag, copy rolex". I completely misunderstood what was going on at first and was wondering what "coffee bag" was, whether it was like a tea bag. Then I realised that was Chinese pronunciation of 'copy'.

Somewhere off Nathan Road we found a vegetarian restaurant recommended in our Rough Guide, which had all you can eat Cantonese vegetarian buffet. It was so cheap and had free green tea and the food was really good - we were so hungry that I definitely had my money's worth anyway! Then it was train back to HK Island and bed.

The following morning we made our way over to the central business area of Hong Kong Island, walking around super-smart malls on our way to get the Peak Tram. The Peak Tram is a funicular railway that takes you up to Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island, an upmarket residential area that until 1930 was reserved exclusively for non-Chinese.



The tram ejects you into a little shopping centre that seems especially designed to prevent you getting out. We did find the exit eventually though and had a good walk round. There's a great view from the top over the harbour, although unfortunately the fog was still thick so we couldn't see as much as we would have liked. We climbed up a bit further and found a pleasant garden, with a signposted walk that we did, thinking it would take us in a circuit but we ended up somewhere completely lost on the mountain with no people in sight! We retraced our steps in the end and found our way back to the tram.

We found a gallery cafe in Central for lunch with a thai vegetarian buffet - really nice. Then we caught the Star Ferry back over the Tsim Sha Tsui and wandered around a bit, got a coffee, then realised from the guide book that the Hong Kong Museum of History, which was just round the corner, was free entry for the afternoon. We went along and it was a brilliant museum - really well laid out and with plenty of detail covering the whole history of Hong Kong, from pre-history right through to HK being handed back to China and the creation of the Special Administrative Region. In one bit they had done a reconstruction of a Hong Kong street circa 1930 and you could wander into all the shops, it was fascinating!

We headed back to HK Island and got some sushi rolls in the mall near the hotel for dinner. We were stuffed after lunch still. We had a look round the shops too, which were really festive as they had late night shopping for Chinese New Year (a few days later) - it's like Christmas there! Then bed.

Thursday morning we made our way down to the Ferry Terminal once more, but this time not for the Star Ferry, oh no! We boarded the Lantau Island Ferry, to Mui Wo.

The ferry was pretty awful. Even though it only cost about 80p, it took almost an hour, was really rickety, and the route was really unscenic. The fog was still really thick so you couldn't see far enough to see anything interesting, but parked out in the sea between the islands are all these horrible huge industrial junky boats, container ships, some boats that just look like they are rotting away. These things kept looming out of the fog at us as we sailed past. Blah.

Lantau Island is the largest of HK's islands, and very mountainous. It feels very rural, even the town Mui Wo seemed rather sparse. We boarded a bus next in the main square and that wound its way up high into the mountains, giving some amazing views! Hong Kong is very craggy. After about half an hour, we arrived at our destination, Ngong Ping, next to which lies the Po Lin Monastery and its massive 26m high bronze Buddha statue.



The photos really don't give the best impression, the Tian Tan Buddha looms over you wherever you are.






It's very beautiful around the monastery. We went up into the dining hall where the monastery dishes up hearty vegetarian meals for a tiny price. The food was quite basic (mostly just plain rice and vegetables) but nice and there was plenty of it! We had about 5 different dishes.

After filling up, we made our way up to the summit and the statue.





After a good look round, we were back on the bus to Mui Wo and back on the boat to Hong Kong Island.

We wandered back to the hotel and kind of spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around in bed, drinking green tea and watching the sun set out of our huge window. It was really nice. We got up again eventually and went for a really nice dinner at a crazy cantonese vegetarian restaurant we found online. You had to go into this slightly grotty looking tenement building and up in a lift to get to it, but once in it was great, really busy, and even though there was a slightly awkward language barrier the staff were really welcoming - I think being slightly off the tourist trail, they weren't really used to international visitors!

A last look round the lights of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, and we went back to the hotel to pack up and sleep before the long long long flight the next morning. There was a slight mis-hap checking in when my suitcase accidentally went down the luggage chute without a luggage tag, but it all got sorted in the end! The flight this time was not so fun. Halfway through I genuinely thought I was going to DIE of BOREDOM (13 hours aghhh) and this time the plane was really small and really crowded, and the seats didn't recline properly. McWrinkle wasn't too happy as he had his own seat on the first plane but this time had to go under the seat in front with my bag. I did fall asleep for an hour or so though, and the rest of the time watched Tudors.

Then we arrived back in Heathrow, passing through the corridors of arrivals with cheery photos of London sights on the walls, a positive beginning. Then it was COLD. SO COLD. And dark. I had two nights in a row without a day in between. And thus, with a seemingly endless night and some photos of London on the walls, began a new chapter of life.

Bye January, Bye Australia

January has seen some crazy times, that seem a world away now as I sit here wrapped in blankets, fire blazing, looking out of the window over frosty English countryside...

...The new year 2011 started as it meant to go on with layers of thick, sticky heat falling over Sydney.



We took a trip out to visit our old house in Meadowbank and caught the Parramatta River ferry back to the city, like we always used to do back in the day.



We hung out at Sydney Observatory and on Observatory Hill, my favourite place in the world...we did the night tour at Sydney Observatory also, got to look at Jupiter and a lovely nebula!



We took our last day trip out to the Blue Mountains - where the air was fresh and clean and delicious - walked the giant steps, Furber steps and through the Jamison Valley. I ached for the next 3 days.

We've seen the sights, walked over the Harbour Bridge, swam at Balmoral, and spent a lovely evening with Dean at the free open-air concert in the Domain, Sydney Symphony performing a Shakespeare-themed set of works, with our accompanying selection of wine, cheese and antipasto. We saw Kitty, Daisy and Lewis play some fun rock 'n' roll at the Sydney Festival, and The National play an amazing gig at the Enmore Theatre. We braved the queue for the Annie Leibowitz retrospective at the MCA and found it thoroughly worth the wait. We had flat whites and falafels at Shenkin in Erskineville (my favourite home for always), thickshakes at BuzzzBar in Newtown, poached eggs at Baffi and Mo in Redfern, rojak and cendol at Mamak in Chinatown, polenta chips and many other delights with David and Kristie at Bloodwood in Newtown, Four Ate Five's excellent chips in Surry Hills, Crust Pizza in Neutral Bay (Crust Pizza!!!), and the most fabulous 3 course meal with the most delectable bottle of wine at Glebe Point Diner.

I had my last day at work and my colleagues bought me some beautiful antique silver rose earrings. Mark and I held our leaving party at Emma's shop, we had a vegetarian BBQ, and we drank our 2003 vintage Moet that I had been saving for such an occasion.

Our last day in Sydney was a busy one, made rather difficult by the fact the weather suddenly decided it was a good idea to be 36 degrees (THIRTY SIX DEGREES) for the day. Poor Mark had to carry an 8kg box to the Post Office, then we had to find lunch somewhere that had air conditioning before we passed out (Deus ex Machina sufficed with their lovely salads, giving us a chance to cool down). Then a trip to the bank where I lost the plot slightly and Mark had to do my accounting for me which probably made the bank people think he was trying to steal all my money or something.

Then a trip up the Sydney Tower!



For some last minute postcard sending and surveying of our beautiful land...

And the day was over. Just the evening was left, a last drink with Dean at the Art House Hotel and then onwards into the night to watch Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Emma's in Surry Hills.

On Tuesday 25th at 8am, a taxi came to Neutral Bay, a taxi came and took us away. It took us over the Harbour Bridge, past Circular Quay, and south to the airport. A final flat white later and we boarded a plane, one final loop over Sydney, beautiful Sydney, Sydney my home, and we were gone.

Neutral Bay

My current bedroom in the Neutral Bay sharehouse. I like this house a lot, it has space in. The only downside is obviously that it is on the wrong (north) side of the bridge. It is SO straight here. So vanilla. And there are like, 5 supermarkets all within a few blocks of each other. At least we are not far from the beach. I am now one of those terrible people for whom there is no life outside the inner west.

In one week I will no longer live in Sydney. No longer live in Australia.

two thousand ten/eleven

December rather flew by. I assume it happened, there wasn't anything on the news about it going missing. So it must have just gone really fast. I don't remember a whole lot happening, other than going to see the Australian Ballet's most wonderful production of the Nutcracker at the Opera House. We both loved it so much, I want to go to the ballet again soon. And it was so Christmassy, the perfect show to see the week before Christmas.

Christmas happened and passed almost unnoticed as we weren't really able to do much normal celebrating. We had a rather super Christmas Eve though. I left work at midday and we trooped on down to the Fish Market, not a particularly fun walk in the searing heat but all worth it in the end as we stocked up on tasty sea creatures.



The fish market was heaving as seafood is Australia's Christmas dinner of choice. It took us a while to get round, but we eventually came away with oysters, a huge tuna steak, and some salmon and tuna sashimi as well as smoked salmon. After taking the fishies home to the fridge, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the city, wandering around the shops (I bought a rather fancy new iPod for myself, naughty).

Walked up to Crown Street in the evening to eat at Yulli's, the vegetarian restaurant, had a lovely bottle of wine then emerged again once more onto streets full of festive cheer....the Clock Hotel across the road seemed to call us in, the bar staff were all dressed as elves, and we demanded glasses of port, which took rather a while to find, but finally some tasty christmassy port did emerge. We drank it out on the balcony, under the clock tower for which the pub is named.

Christmas morning saw a slow start. We got up and made our way over to our new friend Emma's house, on the way we walked passed the Salvation Army office, they were throwing a party with lots of families there and they had a truck loaded up with bags of toys they were giving out. It warmed our hearts. Collected Emma then altogether walked down to Central and took the train to Newtown. We spent the day under the beautiful sun in the garden of a King Street terrace, in the company of a number of miscellaneous adults, an 8 year old, and 18 month old, and the world's most excitable dog. We feasted endlessly on prawns, roast vegetables, salads and large amounts of wine. An excellent day.

The next three days rained. Solidly. We stayed at home and watched the cricket. On Tuesday, we moved up to our new (and final) house in Neutral Bay, where we will stay for the next couple of weeks until the time comes to make the journey back to the UK.

I had to work Tuesday-Friday, and it was frantic. I have never known it so busy and it was really hard to keep calm, especially as we had a couple of minor disasters involving things going wrong and a couple of member complaints. Especially demoralizing as it seemed every other person in Sydney was still on holiday! Oh well, come New Year's Eve I was ready for some fun, after a nap of course.

We met up with some friends at a barbecue at a house in Surry Hills, then walked over to Oxford Street to try our luck getting into a mythical secret party which may or may not have existed. That failed, and since midnight was approaching we taxied down to Moore Park to sit on a hill, drink wine and watch the fireworks. It was nice up on the hill, just a small crowd of people, mostly just local families and quite a few children. There were 2 policemen but they just let everyone carry on drinking even though it's technically an alcohol-free area, as no one was causing any trouble. It was nice.



Mark, Emma and Anya on the hill.



Mark and I


Our view of the Sydney city skyline.

We went back to Emma's shop afterwards and cleared the rails for a party.



Ended up dancing and drinking and dozing on and off until the sun came up on 2011, and Mark and I made our way back to the North Shore to sleep our way through the rest of an extremely hot New Year's Day.

Strawberry Fields forever

I arrived at work this morning to find an inexplicable pile of avocados on my desk. Also on my desk, a present from our department's middle manager. I brought all of these things home. This brings the Christmas 2010 grand present total to a staggering....THREE. Oh well, at least I have a lot of avocados. Yum.

What HAS HAPPENED? It has been a long time since I last blogged. Oh, Mark's parents came to visit! We had a week up in Port Stephens around 3 hours drive from Sydney on the north coast of New South Wales, a week of perfect weather sandwiched in between days of heavy rain. Lady Luck smiled upon us.

We rented a little flat for the week in Nelson Bay and spent the first couple of days lazing around on the beach at the bottom of the road and buying mangos from the market. Around the third day, we caught the ferry over the bay to Tea Gardens and Hawk's Nest, watched dolphins play in the river and found the beautiful Jimmy's Beach.



We drove for a day to the Hunter Valley and visited some beautiful vineyards - wine tasted at Vinden Estates out in the most perfect courtyard with the most perfect view.



Also visited the well-known Tyrrell's wines and went on a very enjoyable and informative tour of their wine-making facilities.



There were so many big barrels!

A long drive home (and a dead kangaroo :( ) later, we refreshed ourselves with a good nights sleep ready for a hike up to Tomaree Head, which gave amazing views out over the ocean on one side, Shoal Bay on another and over the little ocean beaches of Zenith, Wreck and Box on the third.





One of my favourite things was our visit to see the sand dunes at Stockton Beach. At around 32km long and 1km wide they are one of the largest mobile sand masses in the world and are fascinating, desolate and desertlike, especially considering we visited on a savagely hot day.





It was kind of an odd pilgrimage as I have this fascination with sand dunes and their mythology. In my mind they are just places where everything is very hot and very absurd. I guess I have read too much Kobo Abe. But my goodness I loved that novel.

Weather

The weather has gone crazy. That hail storm actually happened. *shakes head in disbelief* Global warming? I think it's just global bizarre combustion of all sense and reason.