Look out NZ… here we come!

Flying high

We are about to embark on a wonderful trip to New Zealand with my Dad, who hasn’t had the pleasure of overseas travel before.  Part of our trip will include a double flight from Taupo to Queenstown, including a flight in a 19 seater from Taupo to Auckland. Colin doesn’t take to flying too well so we have organised a special seat for him (see pic).

Bad planning but maybe it will be fun!  We didn’t realise how big NZ is and booked our accommodation from North to South Islands too close together so we have had to fly instead of driving. I’m planning on sitting up the ‘other end’ so I don’t have to hold the sickie bag for Col.

Our Itinery:

11/2/10: Fly to Auckland and stay for one night

12/2/10: Arrive in Taupo and stay for 6 nights

19/2/10: Fly to Queenstown and stay 7 nights (including day trip to Milford sound)

26/2/10: Drive to Christchurch and stay for 2 nights (including day train trip to Greymouth and return)

28/2/10: Fly home

Stay tuned for the blogging of our adventures!

Queenscliff Music festival 2009

Our 5th year in a row, but yet another awesome weekend of music, food, laughter and exhaustion. Our weekend was enjoyed with friends Andy and Jen (the ‘Louise’ part of our Thelma and Louise duo). The B&B we stayed in was quite a hit, especially the fruit salad and omelets in the morning. Andy didn’t have to whisper, like last year, so he was very happy.

You would swear these 3 were having the worst time of their lives (and that Andy was asleep) but it isn’t true. Promise! It is possible that tiredness was setting in while waiting for the next band to start up. Understandable for us oldies who were trying to burn the candle at both ends all weekend.

Friday night, Col and I partied with one of the headliners for the festival- Marcia Heinz while poor Jen went home with a migraine. Luckily she woke up feeling better in the morning. Marcia was a huge surprise for us as she is a top performer and very entertaining.  Unfortunately I didn’t get chosen for the Australian Idol old people series, but I will keep trying!

Saturday was spent sipping cappuccinos and skipping from one artist to the next. I particularly enjoyed the eclectic music of ‘Revolver and sun’ (mix of Rock and ?), who are both entertaining and gobsmackingly ‘different’. Their sound can only be described as a mix between ACDC and the Beatles. Imagine that? At one point half the audience were on the stage with them and the security guys were having a little panic attack trying to get them down. Considering they are teenagers, it is heartening to see up and coming performers such as them. It is one of the things I love about this festival.

Not good sound on this but it is a nice little glimpse…

 

I momentarily returned to my hippy days Saturday night with a magnificent performance from one of the headliners for the festival- the ‘Original Wailers’… without Bob Marley but I hardly missed him! Ahhh the memories.

Sunday afternoon we took a leisurely stroll at the market, after two very late nights and early mornings Col and I were getting pretty weary but fired up to watch Ella Thompson and on the return trip, Jimmy Hocking on the QMF train. If you have never been on a train with a rock/blues band… you haven’t lived! Jimmy even managed to balance on the moving train whilst playing his guitar behind his head and singing at the same time. Such talent.

The train is a great addition to the QMF experience and quite unique for a festival. There is one act in each carriage, which changes each trip each hour. The musicians find it a bit of a novelty too! Click on the image (left) to see Jimmy playing behind his head.

Sunday afternoon, I just HAD to go see Peter Coombe, who my kids adored when they were young. Sophie was so envious that I couldn’t resist rubbing it in by asking him for a pic afterwards. I think he was a little surprised but afterall, his audience was 25% small children 60% Gen Y and the rest my age.

I didn’t watch his whole performance, you will be glad to know (I am not totally loopy then!), because I had to go watch the final festival headliner- Tim Finn with Col. What a performer! He was so entertaining and topped the weekend off just nicely.

Now I will play my Jimmy Hocking and Rob Fowler CD’s until next year and look forward to another totally exhausting weekend!

Are you wasting your life on the internet?

Our Trip to France… condensed into 9 minutes!

Blog swapping

Now that I have finished my travels, I am more likely to post on my ‘work’ blog  http://jennywood.edublogs.org

You are welcome to subscribe or follow me on this blog, particularly if you are interested in e-learning.

Ciao!

all good things…

… must come to an end.  Our flight wasn’t until 10pm so from Bath we took off to Stonehenge and then spent the day visiting random villages.

We were excited to find a few villages with thatched roof houses as these are not typical in Cornwall (or London) where we spent most of our time.

Our flight to Hong Kong was 11 hours and as comfortable as it can be sitting on a hard seat with food being delivered at random hours of the night! Who has tea at mid night and breakfast at 4am? Breakfast was hot dogs and cakes. Hmmm! Yum. Then another 9 hours to Melbourne. Once we arrived, Sophie was meant to pick us up but she was lost and very upset. She was ’somewhere near Melton’, so we tried valiantly to direct her back to Tullamarine. In the end, she stopped at a petrol station and a man asked her to follow him in his van. Obviously stranger danger means nothing to her LOL. She arrived in one piece and we were very grateful for the lift home where we were greeted by the others waking up and the dog doing loops with excitement.

Oooh! It’s chilly here. Now to unpack… and sleep.

More pics of our last day here….

Taking a Bath

Baths are always lovely… and this one was both wet and gorgeous. The weather forcast was ‘Sunny with rainy periods and cloud’.  At least they are accurate with their weather forecasts in England.

I have lots of pics here: Photos of BATH, UK, including some of Colin where he was dragged into a Comedy routine (of course).

Roman baths

Everyone told us Bath was beautiful and it certainly was. It has been nicely preserved and has lots to see. We spent our last 2 nights there, at a B&B about 4 kilometres away. We walked from our B&B to the city centre several times (and back) and all around Bath (for 8-12 hours) easily, with our new found fitness!

The ‘Bizaare Bath’ comedy tour came highly recommended to us by a Fireman at Col’s station. Typically, Colin got dragged up from the audience. The guy blindfolded him and tried to smooch him. Col had no idea until he saw the photos: Photos of BATH. It was a walking tour of Bath by night, which was a well executed mixture of comedy and magic. If you happen to be in Bath, it is worthwhile going.

Plymouth

We booked our trip to Plymouth to see my Great grandmother posed in a famous painting, which is held at the museum there… but as you probably read in my earlier post, we ‘accidently’ found it in Penzance where it was on special display for a month. The funny part is, that the museum in Plymouth was CLOSED on the days we were there anyhow (Sundays and Mondays)!!  Imagine how upset I would have been if I hadn’t already seen it in Penzance.  We spent one night in Plymouth. It wasn’t what we expected but like all of Europe, rich with history and character.

I couldn’t resist this pic of the ‘Wet Wok’ Chinese restaurant sign… Hmmm. You see some sights when you travel!

Us Cornwallians

The GPS has been invaluable, but sometimes Tom (Tom) has led us up some hairy paths, especially in Cornwall. One time, the road was so narrow that the grass growing out the stone walls at the sides was touching either side of the car at once… on a two way road. I have video footage of this so watch this space!

I was excited to find my maternal grandmothers house where she was born, in Camborne (63 North Pde). Her father worked in the tin mines and she attended the Salvos church nearby.  I managed to get photos of both of these also. This Grandmother died 30 years ago at the age of 81. She had her children late and was a strong woman, a pioneer in all things. She made a mean pastry, in true Cornish style!

My paternal Grandmother is now 94 years old. Her mother was from Redruth, which is next to Camborne. The two Grandmothers were good friends, despite their age differences, because of the Cornish link. So we explored Redruth, but didn’t find any real traces of my Cornish blood there! The towns are both mining towns and have merged together.

People with Cornish roots are the best!!

After picking our car up from the centre of London, we managed to drive the 5 hours to Marazion, in the far West of Cornwall. We soon discovered that the rumours of narrow roads in Cornwall were not exaggerated. The road to Marazion is one car width with stone walls either side (right up against the road) but with traffic often coming from the opposite direction. It is an art form, trying to reverse or pull into a spot to let traffic through and sometimes hair raising. Still, driving through this and the centre of london is NOTHING compared to driving in Nice, Marseille and Lyon in France.

Tide is out at Mont St Michael

Marazion is just gorgeous and has a little island, ‘St Michaels Mont’ with a castle on it… all within walking distance. There is a cobblestoned path to the island, which is covered by sea for most of the day but when the tide is out there is a constant stream of tourists going to see the castle and gardens on the island.

Mousehole, Cornwall

We are very close to Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole (pron: Mouzel). Mousehole is our favorite so far but all of Cornwall is filled with charm and character.

The Cornish have had the ability to put letters together to create words which are impossible to pronounce! Some of them are just plain funny (Skillywaddins cottage?). I resisted purchasing a packet of ‘Pisky poo’ (chocolate covered raisins) in the local shop. Colin has taken to ‘having a yarn’ to the locals, who are very friendly and amuse us with their accents.

Our visit to Newlyn was filled with anticipation of seeing the beach where my great grandmother posed for a painting. Strangely enough, an unexpected thing happened (ooh ahhh!). One of my dreams in life, has been to come to

A fish sale on a Cornish beach (Newlyn)

Cornwall to see the painting of my Great Gran, by Stanhope Forbes, the most famous of the Newlyn painters. So this was my Number 1 goal for coming to Cornwall and since it is held at the Plymouth museum, I booked accommodation in Plymouth and was all prepared to go see it there at the end of our trip. HOWEVER….we spent a day in Penzance, 2 miles away, and ‘wandered’ into an Art gallery. Lo and behold, the painting was ‘on loan’ to the gallery in Penzance and on their advertising fliers and posters!! I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea it was so huge or so magnificent.  The painting is far more exquisite than the copies and pics I have seen. They would NOT let me take a photo of it: (   Some might find it hard to believe, (said with a hint of sarcasm) but I argued with them about it. After all,  it is ok to take photos in the Louvre and I have one of myself with the Mona Lisa, taken without a flash, (!!!)… but they wouldn’t budge on their rules. It is copywrite, they said. I wonder who owns the copywrite???? Anyhow, no sense in dwelling on it. I bought lots of cards, posters, postcards and books with the painting on it and also found some interesting information about the painter. That was soooo exciting. The art work was incredible.  Much more ‘down to earth’ than the art we have seen in Italy and France.

Minack theatre

Another highlight, was going to the Minack Theatre. It is an open air theatre which was single handedly carved by a woman down a cliff face, looking over the bay. The stage sits about 700 metres above the sea with a sheer drop over the side.

The Minack Theatre is the most famous cliff theatre in Britain, possibly in the world, carved into the granite cliff overlooking the spectacular panorama of Porthcurno bay.

Minack theatre in action

We pre-booked our tickets before we left Melbourne to see ‘The happiest days of your life’ (aptly named?), which is a British comedy. The performance was wonderful but the atmosphere was something I will never forget.

More photos here