Relax, we are still alive

I know it has been forever since I updated this blog and I have no excuse other than slovenliness.   Well thats not quite correct.  The other reason is that we have been distracted and although there have been no overseas trips or amazing adventures we have been doing, well, lots of things.

I have started a new job, a few days a week working for a council funded scheme right here in Wetherby.  I walk to work and am having a right good time.   Gail has started to do some contract MRI work for an agency and has replaced her overtime with Alliance with the agency work which she enjoys much more.  I managed to sell out of the commercial property in Singleton NSW which took some doing but has meant the stresses of long distance landlording are a thankfully receding memory.  Not to ever be out of the woods, Gail started buying little homes in Middlesbrough to let to uni students.  We now own three little multi lets one of which is fully let, the other two just finished with the builders and furnished.   If I never see another flatpack screw it will be fine by me.  

But, as usual this is a picture-driven blog and even tho we have been without camera there are things we took.  

This is a view from one of the windows in our room in the Cleveland Tontine a 16th century roadhouse where we often drop in on our way to or from Middlesbrough.  They are a nice bunch of people and do a good food spread.   It is also very close to the Mt Grace Priory.  We went to the priory to see an outdoor play.  A Sherlock Holmes adventure.  The Tontine provided us with a hamper of grand proportions with all the trimmings, and champagne, the chairs are ours.

Some attendees got more into the spirit than others.
Everyone was in fine mood and good humour.  The cast and crew spent time among the audience prior to, during and after the play.

The Priory  presents rather well on approach

and expands to the ruins once through the side gates.

The ruins were the ideal backdrop for the actors and the show was a rollicking harbour-side mystery that borrowed cleverly from the stones and mortar.

Another day saw us re-visit other ruins, well we really returned to visit the pub opposite the National Trust's Byland Abbey ruins.  I object to paying to walk into a field of stones so we have never walked the abbey ruins.  The menu regrettably has returned to a National Trust level of service and food as the previous excellent restaurateurs failed to negotiate an ongoing commercial deal with the Trust.  So the great food has left the great place.  Shame.

Middlesbrough is known as Captain Cook's birthplace, and is home of the design of the Sydney Harbour bridge.  It shows this history by its own collection of fine river crossings.  This one is the Transporter Bridge.  You drive on to a road platform which lifts you up and tracks along the overhead rails, lowering you again to land on the other side of the river.  It is back in service after a lottery funded repair and overhaul.  Looks amazing and as soon as we can we are taking the ride.

House guests John and Sara took advantage of us in October and among the many places we visited was the Timble Inn ,  Sawdays recommended eatery in the Yorkshire moors , about 30 minutes from Wetherby.  It was our first visit but nice place and good food..

I said we were now landlording in the UK.... This is one of the houses Gail found to buy for student letting.  It now has a sparkling new front door, all new walls and a glistening kitchen, new carpets and furniture, glistening bathroom and fancy lights throughout.  With its new paint outside too, we can't wait for the happy tenants to move in.

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To close off this little update I'm including a few shots of a side trip we took from Middlesbrough to Helmsley along the North York Moors escarpment.  Oh, did I say I'd bought a toy car, its a little Msport BMW and yes, a convertible, takes me back to my MGB days... We have been grinning stupidly, top down,  at the countryside all this summer which has allowed us many a fine day's tootling.

 The destination was not Helmsly but a stop a few miles before it, a three hat Michelin restaurant specialising in game cooking.  It is a restaurant in a residential pub perched in a tiny town called Hawnby.  Hawnby comprises ten homes, a B&B, a post box and phone booth.  And an amazing restaurant.    We had the grouse.... if we have now had the world's best grouse, then I am no fan of fresh killed local grouse.

Still, the surrounds were spectacular, and the service was low key Yorkshire country friendly.


I will try really hard to post more of our adventures and to remember to take the camera out more.  Maybe when we both upgrade our phone contracts we may have easier access to capture images, if we remember to do so, the blog is often the last thing on our minds.


See ya soon.

BritCits, Le bike, Sir Dukes, GYS, and Wetherby FoodFest, quite the fortnight.

Okay, Starting with the personal knews,

BRITISH CITIZENSHIP.
Gail and I got Brit Citizened.
For all those who think we are OZ deserters, au contraire mon amie.  We are now DUAL , or as I like to think, WORLD citizens who can pass unmolested in the EU and no longer be non-dom in the UK, removing at the same time a significant cost exposure.

Here are some shots of the dignitaries who gave us our certificates.

 Nice people with nice words and holding a big sword to make sure we behaved.

   We did.



TOUR de FRANCE, le grande departe Yorkshire.
I said in my last post that I would load some pics of Yorkshire's 2014 role in the Tour de France.  I haven't. I know anyone interested in our pics would fall into the estimated 3.6 billion worldwide TV viewers who would have seen or can look at 'tinternet for the far better and more spectacular video coverage.  So I will just load a heap of Leeds shots we took while getting neutralised, to give you the flavour of the spectacle that was such a sunny success for our adopted county, some say, godzone county, Yorkshire.

 

The above shots are of our hotel room wot we stayed in to celebrate the coming of our Britishness.  Its The Queens Hotel Leeds.  A Grand Old Dame of art deco plush. 

For those of you who appreciate things bike, you will know the win colours of the rider's shirts are white for best youngest rider, green for best sprinter, red dots for king of mountain, and yellow for overall champ of day.  These phone booths show typical routs around Yorkshire that would suit these shirt winners.... cute huh?

                    

                                    

 And as usual, the naked women electric lamp light holders  (Alfred Drury's Morn to Even sculptures) in Leeds Square got some modesty shirts for the occasion.  They always get dressed up for Leeds events, any excuse to party.  The Queens Hotel is the building behind.

 The wagamama "Lycra welcome here" tag was a strange touch.  Its not welcome anywhere as far as I am concerned. Puts me off my food.  I learned a new word too.  MAMIL....for middle aged men in lycra. Urk.

 And there was street entertainment, bands, lots of sales in the stores and a general Leeds welcome feeling and good humour all round.
 The Corn Exchange made an effort and the Trinity covered streets had a countdown clock....

 
This is a shot from our Queens hotel room, from one of its windows, it had double aspect, posh huh?  In this pic though you can see the Aire river, the Leeds rail terminus, some offices, apartments and in the distance, and why we love it here, you can see sheep in the fields.  Well, not from this shot, but you can on zoom. We are surrounded by dales and countryside.        
So that was Leeds a day before le bike thing.
The actual tour de france was amazingly better than all this, half of Yorkshire's population (est 2.5 mill) filled the streets, in the sun, it was a blast all day with every village throwing a full on party, but we don't spend all our time taking pictures so you can look all that up on t'interweb. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-28179818 for a taste.

WETHERBY COCKTAILS....
Yep, a city style cocktail enterprise invited us to a free food and free cocktail night on Monday.  We felt obliged to attend.

 

We have returned since and actually paid for a meal and drinks because we did think it needed our patronage.  I mean a cocktail bar just down the road,  how like our old Tokyo home  is Wetherby getting?

GYS

Every year, except last year when it was too wet, Harrogate hosts the Great Yorkshire Show, England's largest rural event.  Gail was working all three days of it this year so I got her to drop me off one day when she was working in Harrogate Hospital.  I went to see the cars and the machines and the animals.  It is retail heaven if you want to get decked out in tweed and flat caps, buy art, acquire tools, eat yourself fat or buy stuff on special from stall hawkers that you'll never use. If you have ever been to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, and some of you have, it's like that but with more tweed, bowler hats, and much more animal.

  I got involved and didn't take many shots but here are a few my phone took when I remembered to. 

There were sheep, cattle, pigs, poultry, small animals and dogs but as I said I was enjoying, not photoing.



WETHERBY FOODIES DAY
This weekend was the Wetherby Food Festival, where providors and cooks from around the district were invited to present the locals with a fine couple of days out, I can hear the music playing still as I write this on Sunday afternoon.  It was the first such event for the town and a huge success so I expect it will repeat annually.
A flavour of our Saturday visit follows.

 The traditional

The Organic..... wot's the point?

The delicious, with cream.

The Cuban temptations

The endless snack choices

The dog's delight

 A cider bar for the Morris Dancers


Always remind me of  this Neil Simone painting .  

 




weak American cocktails

Deep and meaningfuls, over a sip.

And a half hour to eat a local (Bay Horse Pub, North Deighton) massive burger.  None succeeded .











And that was it for the first two weeks of July, rather a full fortnight I think.
Roll on the Yorkshire summer!  
To get our Brit Passports we have to hand in our OZ passports again.... there is a 8 week process time.... we will probably therefore be stuck here enduring this sort of thing all summer.
Don't feel too sorry for us.