Gail's March 08 Update

Hi
I must apologise for being so slack in keeping you up to date.
We have been quite busy since Christmas. We spent xmas day at a little hotel secreted deep in the dales in a place called Arncliffe.
This place made its reputation because of its food and we weren’t disappointed. The 6 course lunch was spectacular. We went for a long walk across the dales afterwards hoping to make room for dinner, but it didn’t work. Large platters full of lobster went begging. In future I’ll have a stash of plastic bags in my handbag.
We went to Wetherby races for Gregs birthday on the 27th. The racecourse is apparently one of the better ones and is famous for jumping, not flat racing.
New years eve, was held at home. We invited the neighbours and let off fire works and ate and drank until the wee hours of the morning. On New years day we left for a few days in the lakes district. Very pretty. It would get unbearably crowded in the summer. It didn’t get over 3 degrees while we were there and we still had trouble getting into a restaurant on a Tuesday night.
Shrove Tuesday isn’t a particularly special day for most people but there is a little town in Derbyshire that has an 800 year old tradition. Shrovetide football has been played in Ashbourne for centuries. The ball is twice the size of a soccer ball. There are 150 men per side and the goal posts are 3 miles apart, and in the river. The whole town turns up to see the ball tossed to start the game, often this is done by someone famous. Prince of Wales did it one year ages ago and now they call it the “Royal” Ashbourne game. The game starts at 2pm and finishes at 10pm the next day, unless there is a goal scored. There are only a few rules, you are not allowed to drive the ball anywhere in or on a vehicle and you’re not allowed to hide it for anymore than an hour.

All the shops in town are boarded up to protect their windows and every pub is overflowing. It was quite an interesting experience.
I don’t imagine that you would have heard of “forced” rhubarb, I certainly hadn’t, but the town of Wakefield is famous for it. Wakefield is just south of Leeds and holds a rhubarb festival every year. We went on a tour of a rhubarb farm where they force the rhubarb to grow over a 5 day period in these completely dark sheds that have warm air blown through them. Because of the dark the leaves are very small and all the energy is put into growing the stems tall in search of light. This type of rhubarb is sweeter and more tender than the traditional way and it isn’t stringy. We followed this with lunch at a local pub that had a special rhubarb menu. We had brie with rhubarb dipping sauce, rhubarb soup, pork and rhubarb sausages and crumble and parfait for dessert. All surprisingly delicious.
The building works are still continuing. I won’t bore you with the ever increasing list of mistakes and incompetence’s. Needless to say they are being penalised financially for every week they go over the completion date (15/2/08). If they keep working at the same pace we may not have to pay what’s owing. The bathroom is the only room in the entire house which has escaped having something done to it. But the end is in sight. The place is looking less like a construction site every day. The kitchen is in and we have hot running water but as yet no dishwasher. The walls and ceilings have been plastered but we have no lights and no finishes but we can finally visualize the final product. The weather has been quite interesting so far this year. We had a little dusting of snow in January, another 2 days worth in February, but the heaviest I’ve seen it was down in Manchester just yesterday (3/3/08). I was driving home and the windscreen wipers were so heavy with snow they could hardly do their job. Most exciting. We had some more flooding in February. This time all the playing fields beside the river were completely under water. It was quite windy so we had white caps on our newly aquired ocean view. The only thing missing was a couple of windsurfers. The water has subsided now and the river is back to normal size. We will be losing this view soon as the trees start to get there new growth.
We have had a few frosty days lately. Not hard to live with, just a bit inconvenient first thing in the morning. It was -4 one morning last month when I was scraping ice off my windows before work all gloved and beenied. By the time I got to work 90 minutes later, it was -9. I sat in my car a good 10minutes trying to convince myself to get out. What finally convinced me was the view out of the window. The sun was just starting to come up and field in front of me was white with frost. All the trees had ice on their branches and it was caked onto the new shoots at the tips. The air was so cold it looked misty. It was a truly beautiful site. Of cause you can’t capture that sort of this on camera. Speaking of visible air. We have had some thick fog. The fog seams to last all day here. The day of a foggy morning is normally beautiful and sunny just like it is in Oz, but the sun isn’t strong enough to burn it off. It just hangs around all day keeping visibility to about 20metres. If for any reason a foggy day remains really cold, you get this phenomenon called “freezing fog”. The fog seems to become snap frozen and it suddenly just falls out of the sky. One minute you’re in a pea souper, the next there is this hard icy sort of snow and then suddenly the sky is crystal clear.
We have had our first earthquake. Apparently they have quite a few here but they are mostly down Manchester way. This one was 5.7 on the scale and its epicenter was in Hull. It woke Greg up but I slept like a log. Fortunately the reno was not effected. The house is built on solid Yorkshire stone bedrock so it is quite stable.

Well that’s about got you up to date with ours lives.
So until the next update, keep well and happy
Love Gail and Greg

italy Sept 07photos

I know this is out of order chronologically but I have had requests for some photos of our time in Italy last year. In no particular order I have pulled out some snaps, more for a flavour of our time there than as a travelogue.
This is the castilla at Castiglione del lago just down the hill from Madonna Dela Neve, the agritourissmo where we stayed with Ann, Peter and 20 friends. The castle is the focus of the township which is a typical Italian lake village with all the facilities and charm you could hope for.

Here is Greg posing by the river bank in Pisa at the entry to the bohemian bar which was set up out of a caravan and with a couple of portaloos behind bamboo screens. We were served darn nice margaritas and could pick at free food all night. The owner was one of those widely travelled polyglot types that are immediately charming, welcoming and friendly while simultaneously making you feel rather inadequate in language and culture.. enjoyed a great sunset and balmy night right on the river .

This is Gail after some margaritas at the same little bar on the river at Pisa.

And this is a shot of Peter, Dave and Greg discussing the finer points of ....oh who cares. We are sitting on the balcony at Madonna Dela Neve farm house looking over the pool towards the mountains. I think we were drinking local wine. We did a lot of that.
The first night we arrived in Pisa we met Peter and Ann and their friends at a little restaurant just behind the tower of Pisa's duomo. Food was great, company spectacular and the bill was double what we ordered... Thankfully the team responded with calculators and in mixed Italian and convinced the proprietor that we were not your average drunk, stupid, loudmouthed international tourists. Well, we convinced them we were not stupid anyway, had the bill corrected and belligerently didn't leave a tip as we all agreed that it was not a mistake on the proprietors behalf and a due penalty was called for. Top night and a wonderful welcome to the Italian experience.... It took Gail and I back 20 odd years to memories of our house in Leichhardt, Sydney's little Italy, and the many warm and friendly meals we delighted in back then.



This is the pool we overlooked from the balcony of Madonna Dela Neve

The main square in the city of Perugia, such a special town. High in the mountains, views to Assisi and the vast valleys and mountain ranges and lakes all around. The building on the right sports bronze sculptures of the lion and gryphon (various spellings). The gryphon is a cross between the eagle and the lion. Symbolic of the earth and the heavens, the heaven and the mortal , the joining of man and god, the christ. I discovered this by reading a big book I found in the Perugia gallery/library cos nobody could tell me what it was and the bloody thing is everywhere. Vauxhaul (General Motors) even use it as their logo in the UK. I have no idea why they do but there you go.

Here is one of the views from the National Grammar language college's roof in the west of the old part of Perugia, by old part I mean really really old. History is one of the many things I am not good at. But I do like the result.

Of course when in Pisa there has to be the iconic shot of the tower, it looks a lot more tilted in real life. We resisted posing as the "trying to push it straight" photographic gag effect. The engineers have finally corrected years of bad fixes that had made it fall over more. At one point in time it defied gravity and no one could figure why it didn't fall down. Don't know if you knew, but it had started to tilt when they were building it originally, the city is built on an old swamp so most towers fell over.... anyway it got built in fits and spurts depending on which pope/ruler was in town.... The top floors are built at a different angle than the lower ones because of the elapsed time in construction so you could never straighten it.

It is one of those international engineering challenges and every expert in the globe has a shot at stopping it toppling, It seems they have now got it sussed but the engineering story is well worth looking up in a big book if you are interested....

Anyway I hope this is enough shots of the Italy trip and although I have about a hundred more, these will give you an idea of our time there.

photos around

I thought as I was sitting waiting for the builder to show up I might take the opportunity to load up some photos with some descriptions to give you an idea of what we have been seeing.
This phto is of the Old Bath House which the Wetherby Weir Preservation Society has reserved, got listed and is maintaining. The house sits lovely grounds and gardens overlooking the River Wharfe a few steps from our house. Bath houses were very popular in the 1800's as gentlemens retreats. they were spring fed and the thought that cold baths and warming fires were great therapy (people didn't usually regularly wash in those days)... In fact these bath houses were built by wealthy folk sort of like having a Porsch or yacht. The up side was of course they made ideal bases for illicit activities between consenting couples
'Nuff said.
This little snap is the best attempt from our camera to depict a small example of the xmas lights in Wetherby. They are hung every year by volunteers (begining to feel guilty at my lack of community involvement) and they extend to every entry road into the Wetherby shops. There are little xmas trees mounted above the shop entrances with twinkling lights as well as big signs in fairy lights welcomming people to Wetherby. the overall effect is quite beautiful. It is not in the least tacky and makes the cold nights , which are long long, very cheer. The shot below is Gail at the Ambervale Guest house on xmas day. The tree was about 10 foot high and beautifully clad. The food was wonderful and the room and staff a delight.

This is the outside of the guest house at Arncliffe

The Arncliffe bridge looking out from the old church yard.


Gotta go , more later

Greg's first attempt at "posting" to the blog

You will see I have sent through our 06-07 update for those of you who might not have received it when it was bulk sent. It is the update that tells you about us coming to the UK. On the other bits of the page here: The photo at the top is our Wharfe River view from of our Wetherby home and the picture of Gail and I is from a recent (06) trip to Cairns. Since December 07 we have been many places and the house has been demolished in part and rebuilt in part and at some stage soon I'll post some photos of that process For now as this is my first attempt at posting ( and by mistake I have deleted a great peice of writing by presuming I knew what I was doing) I'll just let you know that we had a great xmas new year and have been travelling a fair bit around England with our Paris trip getting closer and closer. I will come back to this site soon to add meat to the bones of the above snippets but for now Gail is driving back from Hull and we are going to eat out in town as the kitchen here comprises a cold tap and a microwave at the moment and all the frozen dishes Gail cooked in early January have now been consumed.....We misjudged the timing of the new kitchen to frozen dinner ratio by about a week. I blame the builders for being less than committed to my schedule..... A problem that seems to have rectified itself now I have told them I will deduct money every day they are later than the agreed completion date. I am sort of looking forward to updating this blog thing as it will give release to my frustrated need to write things. Who knows Imay even get to leard how to imbed photos, hey look. like this one. it's the back of our house with new roof work underway and some little bit of snow., I will get better at this blog stuff,

Hope you return here and find new stuff, if not you know where we live so call in, email or write and we'll respond. After April we will be ready to receive friends to stay so don't be shy in asking!

Annual Review 2007

Greg and Gail’s ‘07 Yu orrite? Thought we’d start with a cheery Yorkshire greeting common in these parts (trans: Is everything going well for you?) This year we sit writing our annual missive in our cozy lounge room overlooking a wintery River Wharfe and with a comforting glass of wine insulating us against the chill of the early evening. Yes we are happily settled into our new home in West Yorkshire, just on the outskirts of a beautiful little market town called Wetherby, about 12 miles north of Leeds. Both these places are currently a glitter of chrissy lights and decorations with our town looking particularly picture postcard and Leeds looking most elegant. The winter days are about as short as they are going to get now, sun up at around 8am and night fall before 4pm. No snow yet but temps are forecast for sub zero so maybe a white Christmas. We are adapting to the differences quite well and are very fortunate to have found this little haven so similar to our Lane Cove. Of course the year has seen significant change for us both. Resort Lane Cove was sold early in the year, both our cars too. A huge garage sale reduced our 17 years of accumulated stuff, some of the remaining was packed for shipping and the bulk for storage, a few trips to the tip and a million details were sorted before we landed in England early March. We spent a fortnight with friends in the Cotswold’s before driving to Leeds where we rented a little one bed unit for a few months while we found our home. It is a small 1930’s semi detached which is ideally located for Gail to get on to the motorways to travel to work and close to town and transport for Greg to get about locally. We are just starting the build of a downstairs extension and an ensuite to the master bedroom so by February we will have the perfect home for guests to come and say. Wetherby is exactly half way between Edinburgh and London and on the door of the stunningly beautiful Yorkshire Mores and Dales. The nearby countryside is littered with castles, abbeys, cathedrals, grand country homes and gardens, we feel very fortunate to have all this so close. The locals are most friendly and we have really been lucky with our immediate neighbours, all of which makes life here most agreeable. WORK: Well, this is a heading more related to Gail as despite, or more probably because of Greg’s somewhat half hearted efforts, he is yet to find employment. To be fair the tasks of establishing the myriad necessities of a new country and being life support for Gail, organizing holidays and buying and improving the house have provided plenty to do. Still, Greg is about to launch into the recruitment maze with fervor in the new year after the house build is complete. To overcome the looming boredom an interesting work challenge is in order if not well overdue. Gail is having a ball learning her new MRI skills and meeting lots of really nice folk. Her days are long with quite a lot of travel but there is time off and we do manage to enjoy the times between work days. She is just about through her probation period and that means that the study is lessening and she can relax a little more. Her employer has been suffering at the hands of the Government policies and as a result Gail’s territory has recently, hopefully temporarily, extended to include London, Birmingham and Newcastle on Tyne. We presume this will not continue and she will become more locally scheduled in the new year. PLAY: Quite a lot really, local attractions of York, Harrogate, the national parks and surrounds, London, Nottingham, The Heights of Adrian and other places as well as a lovely week in Italy. We have even done some local castles and grand houses, honestly there are quite a lot of attractions very handy, especially as Europe is only a few hours away and flights are quite cheap…. We did Italy for the equivalent of a couple of hundred dollars and the same applies to Paris which is booked in for late March. WISHES: Our very best wishes for your New Year. Do let us know of your plans by writing to us here at :-  grailinvestment@ozemail.com.au . Happy Christmas! Greg and Gail.