Cornwall Piskies, Pasties and Penzance (original Beatrice pic)

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The Blogger host is not liking the upgrade to explorer8 so this month's WETHERBY blog will only get its full complement of imbedded photos if Blogger gets its upgrade act together. The user complaint log is full of angry folk so hopefully it will resolve itself soon.

I have put a # sign where a photo should be and loaded the shots referred to onto flickr (at bottom of the right hand column --> ) so you can click on the first picture under the flickr.com line then hit the (browse) key under the next picture that will come up on the right of it, browse to the Cornwall shots from the slide show. use browser return key to get back to the blog... Yeah, it's a pain. In the mean time I'll use gail's PC which I have not loaded Explorer8 on to and it still works a dream so next months blogs should have pics in order.))))))))

A quick June overview. We have been telling you for the past few months that we were heading off to the southern reaches of mainland UK and I can now report that we had a great time seeing just a little bit of the Cornish county and enjoyed every bit of the little bit we saw.

Because we did take the camera and occasionally remembered to use it I will set this month's adventure blog up below as a photo dialogue style report. (because of the Blogger site problem I have put # where the photo will be imbedded later, they are in Flickr to the right.)

This shot is of St Michaels Mount at Marazion, near Penzance.

Before I get into the detail of Cornwall trip , the rest of June info is a bit scarce as we have been rather socially uneventful,

We did manage some day trips, I took myself off for a day to the Harewood House annual Classic Motor Show (http://www.harewood.org/ events). The show attracted tens of thousands of people... petrol heads, families and various enthusiasts with the result our little local county roads were stuffed full with traffic. It was father's day, it was a Sunday, it was a rare warm, clear sunny day , so of course every mum and kid decided it would be just the greatest thing to convince dad to have a drive in the country to see old and new dream cars, ..... The faces on the families stopped for hours on the roads as I walked past on my way there and back gave testament to the fact that this would indeed be a father's day to remember for many of them. Initially I had hopped into a cab but decided it would be quicker to get out and walk. 3 miles there and 6 miles back. I had a great time while there though, spoke to all the Jaguar MkII owners, was shown over some wonderful examples of perfectly restored Rolls, Ferrari, and many English classics. I dreamed on as I sat in all the exotic new car displays, those I could fit in,,, watched the main arena motor shows, gawped at the stunt events and extravaganzas and thoroughly enjoyed the day, being as I was, unconstrained by my beautiful but mechanically uninterested wife.

We also went to look at Sheffield's southern suburbs around the Peak District. Sheffield was interesting, it is Yorkshire's southern most city, right on the border of Derbyshire and is the next city targeted for re-generation. It is of course having to re-invent following the downturn of steel/metal production in the UK. I can't make a judgement on a place after one day's visit but the little we saw was enough to encourage us to return and see other parts with a bit more of a focus on the city centre and attractions.

So, on to

Cornwall This shot is of Constantine Bay on the West Coast and is just down the road from Clare's home and holiday place but more of that later. You should know that Cornwall and Yorkshire are a LONG way from each other. Some 680kms, granted on mainly good highways, but with a lot of wiggley wobbly little roads, towns and roundabouts and heaps of traffic. As we had been invited by Peter and Ann to join them on their holiday we decided to break the journey and meet them at their home, stay overnight with them in and leave in the morning.. Good plan as it turned out. As you can see they live in a charming cottage with a nice sunny back yard. Their home is next door to a nice little pub and right in the heart of Winchcombe, a very pleasant Cotswold's town which happily is half way on the 10 hours total travel time from Wetherby to Mullion.

Up and away early the next morning we started to learn some cornish pronunciation, the gateway in the photo is in the town of Launceston (as in Tasmania) and we passed Mousehole (as in kitchen) these are pronounced Lawnston and Mowzle and both have wonderful histories and folklore I will cover only if asked. We stopped off in Launceston for a cornish cream tea. Then headed off to meet up with and stay with Clare in Constantine Bay, near Padstow on the West coast for a couple of nights.

The skinny picture just under the Cornwall heading above is the bay where she lives and she provides holiday accommodation and parking for folk wanting to enjoy it. (click the photo as it looks better big)

That night after our very first Pimms , consumed appropriatly in the Cornish sunshine, Clare took us to a wonderful local restaurant (with Rick Stein trained Chef) just up the road. Here you can see, from left to right are Greg, Peter, (some bloke at the next table) Ann, Gail and Clare, all looking ready for a party. The food was great, company better, and the sunset on Constantine bay that night was a pearler. Gail and I went for a twilight stroll after everyone was tucked up in bed.

Next day I took a walk around the holiday setup and saw the gypsy caravan # Clare uses as the fee collection station for cars entering the land she has set out for parking. A most impressive operation and part of a great lifestyle. I also strolled around to Treyarnon cove ## just around the corner to see it in the day as Gail and I had walked to it in the dusk before going to bed the night before. I returned to find the awake folk in the Kitchen with Ann talking to Clare and Peter about something I can't recall but was obviously engrossing.# Clare not only runs the holiday homes and parking business, she also has a bespoke printing business with a few franchises dotted around the world. http://www.mynamelabel.com/ She spends her UK summer time in Cornwall and summers again in Australia, which is of course where we met her a couple of years ago over cheese and champagne. Long story, again I will tell only on request. Later that same morning, while Clare was attending to her business duties the rest of us drove down the coast to Newquay and on our return stopped off at Watergate Bay # where Jamie Oliver has one of his "fifteen" restaurants. We didn't go in but had coffee at the surf cafe. Quite a nice place, the colours of the day were magnificent. # When I say we had coffee, Ann tried a pear cider, Peter and I chose coffee, Gail ordered a hot chocolate special which on delivery # she asked everyone to help her consume. Left with no takers she did manage to scoff the lot.... .

Picking up Clare on our return we went to the (http://www.bonsainursury.com/ ) Japanese Garden # which was a lovely calm place right near the Falcon Inn where chat, lunch and a pint or two were enjoyed. Due to a slight misunderstanding of UK health care protocol I ended up spending the night at Truro courtesy of the NHS (again the details on request) while Gail, Peter and Ann enjoyed a home cooked meal by Clare and next day went to Padstow. # Rick Stein has made Padstow famous in recent years through his TV cooking shows. He owns three or four eating places in the old fishing town and by all accounts they are quite special. # Gail Ann and Peter bought some Stein pasties for lunch which were consumed with various levels of pleasure. Gail being determined to find a perhaps tastier pastie as a mission of the holiday. It was then a farewell to Clare , while Peter and Ann set off to Mullion on the Lizard Peninsular, England's most southerly point, Gail drove to Truro to rescue me from the gentle clutches of the NHS and we joined our hosts in Mullion. For those of you into trivia, Land's End is the furthest point West, and in case you are interested the South point on Lizard is only about 25 miles from Land's End. We visited both. On arrival at the cottage in Mullion, we unpacked and set off to find a pub, # which was not too hard. Mullion is a sweet little village close to lots of fine coastal walks and served by a good group of shops, some churches were handy for Peter and Ann # and there were enough restaurants and food houses to limit the home cooking required for the week. After our pick-me-up at the pub we set off on a walk from the house to Poldhu Cove # #, along the coast past the Marconi Monument which we didn't see, # and on to Mullion Cove.# The Marconi monument is placed to mark where the first radio transmission across the Atlantic was made by young Guglielmo in December 1901. (The message was just the letter S in Morse code ... more on http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=7109&action=tdihArticleCategory ) Quite a beautiful spot but it would have been a cold windswept old day # in the middle of winter I would have thought..... It was chosen because of angles of transmission, atmospherics, dense air etc. You will see from the photos in this blog that the coves and ports of Cornwall are mostly protected by sea walls creating little harbours. The tidal range is wide and the weather rarely friendly. Most of these ports, contrary to the pirate legends, earned their keep by what is known as Day fishing. Some smuggling of course, even today no doubt. Day fishing is where the catch is landed to shore the same day it is caught and auctioned off and trucked to buyers immediately. There is a resurgence of fish sales in these ports now as the selective European market calls for more and more fresh fish which has not been iced or frozen by the large ocean trawlers which stay at sea for days, weeks or months at a time. There is a happy coincidence of nature around the storm ravaged coast of Cornwall that the coastal fisheries cannot be harvested by large trawlers due to the reefs and weather and the smaller boats cannot catch too many due to their size. This means that the coast is perhaps less over-fished than many other areas around the UK. There is a lot of controversy around the EU quotas and how much of the by-catch has to be returned dead to the sea. A point I will expand on but only if asked.

At the end of a not too strenuous walk we found the required warm pub # after having to walk through a coastal rain event and tried the second Pimms of our lives. Peter walked back to Mullion via the roadway to fetch Ann in the car so we could all go and visit the local chocolate factory and art galleries. LIZARD POINT We were there on a most auspicious day, it was the Volvo Yacht race and the rare, thought to be extinct Cornish rooks had returned to nest so there was a gathering of twitchers and yachties all with cameras and binoculars trained on different things, all getting in each others way and generally having a ball. There were helicopters filming the boats noisily, birdy folk calling for quiet, and everybody finally settling in to the cafe for tea and cakes. A fine morning out all in all as you can see. # # # # From there it was off to Cadgwith, # another charming little day fishing port where we had a great seafood lunch in the old mackerel packing yard, now a cafe.

The next day Gail and I set off to see Penzance and Lands End. # # What a miserable day. The only really wet day of the holiday but it was chucking it down. The day was not a complete loss with a happy lunch in a nice Penzance cafe # overlooking the carpark # and the island castle of St Michael's Mount. We returned home to a very nice local meal prepared by a nearby Mullion restaurant where the single dish menu is decided by the catch of the day and you get it how chef decides, makes it easy, . Meal was memorable for a lot of reasons but the food was quite good. Home smoked fish smoked on the front step of the shop, walk in customers were turned away as it was reservations only so he didn't have more fish than he had orders for.... sort of like visiting a strange uncle who is trying to supliment his pension.... The Tuesday saw us all heading off in Peter's car (Gail's Mini is not big enough to carrying me and three others), destination Pendennis Fort at Falmouth. This historic Port was a rival to London in years long gone when trading ships used it to offload goods which then went quicker by road to the UK markets than sailing them to London and ports north. The port has been heavily defended right up to the Second world war by the fort which was de-commissioned only in the 1970s. Great old fort # with black powder cannons in place and a great animated display of soldiers of an era long past manning a defensive response. Lunch was had at The Chain Locker, # a pub Peter had frequented occasionally on one of his recent coastal sailing adventures. # Local ale is caled Doom Bar and is a meaty drop of some note. Doom Bar is the name of the reef sand spit blocking the mouth of a port near Padstow which causes navigational trials and large surf. A simillar Bar called Cribbar off Newquay (according to a Doom Bar beer mat) attracted a group of Aussie surfers back in 1966 by it's 30ft waves. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/uk_the_cribbar/html/1.stm Since then Bar surfing, in season (early December, sometimes), has been a popular if dangerous adventure for those made immune to the cold waters by the volume of adrenalin in their bodies. Imagine contemplating falling down the face of these monster waves, like sliding down the face of a 4 storey ice building which happens to be travelling at up to 30kph. I'm quietly proud of my bold, brave or balmy countrymen for starting the trend. Having failed once at visiting Penzance and St Michael's mount, http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/aelsmount.co.uk/ Gail and I set off the next day with the plan of catching a boat over to the island, climbing to the top of the castle, and walking back over the stone walkway which is submerged at high tide. # # # The plan worked perfectly, the weather held off until we were off the island and despite our boat being the last to leave and almost getting grounded, we ticked every box. It is not permitted to take photos inside the castle but we did get a few roof shots. # # # The place has for generations been occupied as it is today by the StAubyn family but it has myths and a history as a French Monestary, a fortress, and a port going back to the C495 legend of a sighting by fishermen of the archangle St Michael. Yeah, right. The web site above will give you a better idea of the wonder but our shots are nice too. # # # As the weather was obviously going to close out on our morning # # we decided to risk driving to St Ives on the other side of the Cornwall Peninsular and hope the storm was past. It had. # # # # St Ives is now an artist town having lost it's fishing industry due to regulation and other more complex matters which I won't bore you with. One of the surprises we had was to learn the Tate Gallery had a building there and that Barbara Hepworth, http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/hepworth/ the famous Yorkshire modernist sculptor had her studio and garden there.# # Margaret died in 1975 but as her works are in every large city of the world you will probably recognise her style. I was keen to have a look, they have retained her studio and it is interesting to see works in plan, prototype and in progress at the time of her death. She died in a house fire at the height of her fame and had many commission going in the works. We had coffee high up in the Tate Gallery # which in itself is high up on a hill aove the town and while sipping we saw some fishing boats come in with their attendant cloud of seagulls. # After another walk through the streets and along the beach we selected a restaurant from the many fine looking menues along the beach, # sat outside and enjoyed a wonderful meal. # # St Ives is a lovely port, # the galleries are fantastic, the food supurb and the opportunity to stroll ancient streets, walk in the sand and generally soak up the coastal life, was a great end of the day. We returned to Mullion and enjoyed an extended night with Ann and Peter playing cards and chatting over wines till early hours. The next day was spent boodling around the countryside again in Peter's car, visiting remote little fishing coves, hidden hamlets and wonderful back lanes and narow tracks,,,, yeah okay, you are right, we were lost. Not so badly lost we didn't get to the seal sanctury where we saw # # seals and otters # on Gail's request, we also had time to end our Cornwall experience together by re-visiting Mallham Cove # for a stroll and a pint at the pub. Because I had left Clare's place in Constantine Bay without saying good-bye in person, Gail and I headed back there via, you won't believe this, a famous Cornish winery (Camel Valley http://www.camelvalley.com/ ) well, famous to Cornwall I guess. It is well hidden with no road signs to help # but the product is very good. Bought a bottle of bubbles for Clare and a couple of bottles of white for us.... As the French won't let anyone use the Champagne name for simillar wines not of that hallowed region, Camel Valley calls their bubblie "Cornwall". I don't think that will catch on but the drink is great. It was nice to see Clare again and as we headed off to the Cotwolds and Peter and Ann's for our final night together we felt like the planned attempt at 'doing' Cornwall had been mainly acheived. We have not covered all the places we saw (e.g. http://www.minack.com/ ) but I hope you have managed to wade throgh this rather long-winded report and enjoy the photo tour . July brings my lovely sister Noeline to stay with us for as long as she likes and while we will be out and about in this beautiful part of the planet I have no idea where those out and abouts will take us. We are really looking forward to her being our first summer visitor this year. The guest room has been rather under utilised ..

Oh, before I sign off....... # This is a picture of a commissioned cow called Beatrice. One of the things I haven't included in the blog for the past year has been Gail's search in every gallery and art store, furnishing shop and hardware and gardenning outlet, any place that might have a thing, any thing, the same colour of the feature wall she had me paint in our front room at Wetherby...... It is a blue/green sort of greyish teal. Anyway, Gail and I went back to Padstow one day without Peter and Ann. There was a lovely lady selling cow paintings. And piglet paintings, but I digress. Caroline Walker is an accomplished and recognised portrait and life artist who has recently taken to painting cow pics... Farmers of dairy cows have commissioned her.... Yeah, I know. Gail was walking by and saw this cow... Beatrice... loved her... wrong colour. Gees I'm a good bloke.... In I walked and started chatting to Caroline, had a few laughs, asked if she could paint Beatrice again with a different colour behind, a green/blue sort of greyish teal.... Gail pulls a colour swatch of the paint from her bag with a flourish.... No wurries says Caroline... Caroline had been given a commission to paint cows as the backdrop to the artists performing at Glastonbury this year, cows with a background of the flags of the countries each performer came from....Bruce Springsteen got a cow with the stars and stripes background for example... Yeah, I know. Seems the organisers wanted to acknowledge the fact that Glastonbury is held on a cow field and all the cows had to give up their pasture for the two week set up of what is one of the world's biggest open air rock festivals. To acknowledge the cow's displacement symbolically in artworks ... Yeah, I know. Anyway,,,, Caroline, not being adverse to accepting commissions had taken on the challenge not only of Glastonbury but now also the McInnes front room trust. Upon it's arrival in Wetherby I will dedicate a blog page to Beatrice in Blue. As long as the Blogger site gets its photo handling act together C ya.

P.S. piskies are the wee little cornish folk who make majic and other things happen. (we have seen one of them..........)

Malham Cove - Grykes, Clints, Byland abby and Helmsley castle

This merry month of May has offered us challenges in the shape of the weather, technology, the economy and news of widespread rorting of taxpayer funds by seemingly every member of the UK Parliament. I'll cover the last of these briefly if you are in anyway interested in political stuff... The UK Members of Parliament (MPs) wrote their own guidelines for claimable expenditure many years ago, set the self regulated audit process, made it self governing without public review and have proceeded ever since to suck as much money from the public purse as they could dream up for things like moat cleaning, personal property mortgages, investments, floating duck houses, home decorating, bogus travel and accommodation. The Telegraph newspaper received a few discs full of MP claims from an insider and has been exposing an MP or two every day for about a month now. MP resignations and political posturing are rife. If it wasn't so appalling the daily exposures would be getting boring but there is a morbid fascination at just how endemic it is. The disclosure of this vast MP greed is especially galling in a time when the UK economy is suffering, banks and businesses are failing, job losses endemic and public hardship increasing. Joe Public is justifiably angry and the mood sour. But that is enough about the real world. Here in Wetherby Gail and I have been experiencing all that a British May can offer. It started monumentally cold and relentlessly wet with a couple of alright sort of days but right at the end of May the sky cleared, the sun burned our skin and the shorts and T shirts were donned in 20+ degree days. You will have to excuse the quality of the photos this month as our faithful little camera had a digital fit and started to produce arty effects.... I think I have fixed it but some of May's shots are a bit iffy. As for our activity, Gail has been kept very busy all over the country and has been staying away many nights, She did enjoy another night out with the girls for a Hen's night in Nottingham which was fun if a huge bit too noisy. Greg has been occupied with not so pleasant investment problems and has been doing a short course in Leeds.. There has also been structured exercise sessions twice a week which have bought some friendly encounters. I did say last blog that we would be doing a walk of Malham Cove, in the middle of the Yorkshire National Park and the photos here show some of the scenery. It was recommended as a favourite place to go and we picked the one fine half day to attempt the walk in early May. The walk was fantastic, if a bit steep in places, with scenery from valley stream and waterfall (foss), to rolling stone walled pastures, to craggy limestone pavement with fissures(grykes) and huge flat stones (clints). The whole stroll took only a couple of hours and there is a great pub with super if simple meals at the end where we sat warm and watched the rain pelt down. http://www.malhamdale.com/ Because Gail's schedule was so tight this month we only managed one day out in Wetherby but it was a stunner. A local brass band was playing in the rotunda by the Wharfe River and the locals always gather for a relax. We enjoyed a nice cafe lunch by the river and later spent a pleasant hour in the pub garden nearby sipping and listening to the band playing jazz, blues and some big band numbers. Idyllic. I took the opportunity to go to Newcastle with Gail as she was working there and I needed to look at properties for a group who are looking to invest there. It was a good day out for me and I am much more familiar with this town now, there are some lovely, some not so lovely suburbs but Newcastle on the whole is a nice city. I went out to the mouth of the Tyne River (Tynemouth, go figure) and was surprised to see the size of the beach, it was a cold windy day but on a good day like today, it would be a beauty. The night life for the under forty's in this country seems to revolve around consuming large amounts of alcohol and standing jambed together in venues where music and general noise defeats any conversation further than two inches from your ear. Newcastle is well catered for such activity and the streets are always crowded with revellers. No harm, little foul and it feels more party than loutish. Of course it s a two university, three training hospital city so the number of students and medical newbies is huge. As we said last time we were there, the Gateshead side of the Tyne has great cultural venues with theatre, galleries and Newcastle itself has three great public galleries, museums and theatres so there is a good supply of venues and events for whatever takes your fancy. The Geordie accent does take some getting used to and a group of local revellers in good cheer is impossible to interpret by any other than a born and bred Novocastrian. Towards the end of May Gail's holiday of two weeks started and we decided to grab the forecast fine day and head off to the Yorkshire Moors for a recommended lunch at Byland Abbey in Coxwold. The lunch was in the Abey Inn and the food was worth the drive. The Abbey is just over the road and while we didn't go in to look around I can tell you it was the first Cistercian Abey to be built in England, follows most closely the layout of the original Abbey design and has the largest in situe floor of 12th Century monastery mosaic tiles in the whole world, or so we were told by the guy trying to sell us entry tickets. It would be a great place to take a picnic and a good book and spend the day but as we were eating in the pub and heading off to Helmsley later we declined the invitation. Helmsley is about six miles from the Abbey and is a beautiful little Market town with many shops, a vibrant market on Friday's (when we were there) and a fantastic castle partly in ruin, partly restored. All surrounded by lush pasture grazed by sheep and highland cattle which Gail couldn't resist chasing for the perfect shot. Camera being creative as you can see. Anyway, that is about as much as I can recall of in May, we are packing up now to head off to the Cornwall Coast with Peter and Ann for two weeks and will drop in to see Clare H. in Padstow on our way. All about that adventure next month in the blog. Do keep letting us know if there are Yorkshire places you want to know bout or if there are things you want to see.

April, The Dales, London

The beginning of Spring in Yorkshire is almost like the angel of summer is having knock down fight against the Visigoths of winter. There is promise of warmth in the sun but icy fingers are reluctant to let go their control of the clouds and wind. We have enjoyed a few warmer days but there is always that chill cut to the breeze and the reminder of the persistent and cold drizzle. I thought I'd start off the April update with this dose of reality as the attached photos depict some of wonderful days we have had this April. I wouldn't want you to think everything is too postcard up here.

April Fools found us in York for a lovely fish lunch at Loch Fyne Seafood http://www.lochfyne.com/ overlooking the canal and then a stroll through the town centre finally ending up in Betty's Tearooms for a nice cuppa and cake. http://www.bettys.co.uk/ . We were really filling in time as we (Gail) had booked tickets to see a theatre production of Women on the verge of HRT at Harrogate Theatre and thought a day out would be my reward for joining her in that. The show was everything it could be.

We set off the next day to Hawes, a lovely little Dales village very popular with hill walkers and ramblers but we were heading up to a country house for lunch. On the way we called into an open garden at Constable Burton Hall on the A684 because there was a spring garden display. It is a grand house as you can see and there is a self guided walk with an honesty box for a leaflet explaining the plants and paths. Most enjoyable hour or so, met one of the house staff and the house dog for a chat but mainly strolled alone through the grounds.

Hawes itself is built over a stream and has many quaint shops and backstreets mostly cobbled and some lovely pubs and cafe's. Our destination was Simonstone Hall and the web site tells you all about it with some better photos than we took but you can see from the ones I've included we enjoyed ourselves and the food was well presented, and worth the trip. http://www.simonstonehall.co.uk/ .

Half way through the month we visited Temple Newsam a few miles south from Wetherby and just north of Leeds. It is so called not because it is a temple but because the place was granted to the Knights Templar in 1155 until their suppression in 1307. Since then it fell in and out of decreed grants and purchased ownerships and its history does lay claim to providing accommodations to Dukes, Viscounts, Princes and Queens, It is now owned and run by Leeds Council as a museum and gallery of some note. The grounds are vast and you can really get a taste of days long gone when you are strolling through rooms furnished as they were in the time. Despite me saying I could live a long life without ever visiting another large country home or castle, whenever we do think of going to one up here they are always a very rewarding day out, Temple Newsam was no exception. www.leeds.gov.uk/templenewsam/

As a bit of more modern culture we saw The Boat that Rocked at out local Wetherby Cinema, don't know if it made it anywhere outside the UK but it was a great movie, with Bill Nighy and a great cast supported by a strong storyline and fantastic 60's music track. If it comes to a DVD near you I'd recommend it . http://www.theboatthatrocked.co.uk/

At the end of the month Gail left for London to attend a three day course and a night out with the Girls at a theatre production of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert which she thoroughly enjoyed. While Jason Donnovan was very good, the ensemble cast was spectacular and the show was not only well done it was funnier than the movie. Maybe in part because all the audience got into the swig of things by dressing for the night in appropriate garb. The pre-theatre room party and booked dinner set the tone for a wild night out which finished with some dozen or so partying on till the small hours in the morning back in Rose's and Gail's room.

The next day was spent farewelling the party goers with a walk through Hyde Park and a bit of a stroll through the streets of Padington.

The education course was in MRI and held near St Pancras and Euston Station. It was a fantastic learning event as Alliance Medical are famous in the UK for delivering the best education and as employees get it for free there is real value add especially as it is so relevant to the work here. There was also lots of opportunity to walk the streets nearby. There are lots of interesting buildings and sights to see, the British Library and it's sculptures, The new (Re-open late 2009) St Pancras Midland Grand Hotel, some 244 rooms, 5 Star and also private apartments up amongst the old spires, and the London University hospital which is a huge modern multi story glass wonderment of a teaching hospital.... and the Champagne Bar of St Pancras Station where one just has to wait for her train to leave, even if the Champagne is ten quid a small glass, the smoked salmon was as delicious as it was hugely proportioned. Quite the place to people-watch from above and imagining walking to one's spire apartment through the fine old brick arches of the Midland Grand Hotel.

While Gail was off doing and dreaming London, Greg was driving through the Dales going to see Malham Cove, often described as the best part of the Dales National Park http://www.malhamdale.org.uk/malham_cove.htm (Gail had the camera), it is spectacular but we do need to walk it together just after rain so the waterfalls are at their most spectacular, also he went to a local Theatre production of "Murder Deferred" in the Collingham village hall, and thrill of thrills, put the car into the Service shop to get a thumping rear suspension fixed, all of which was very enjoyable if a bit more of a solo affair than Gail's London triumphant girly tour of London, Piccadilly, Paddington and St Pancras.

And despite us yet again thinking nothing much happened in April it does seem that , on review, we are having a wonderful time here. We are of course not immune to the current pressures of life, the relentless calls on Gail to work long distance, twice in Scotland, and silly hours, and for Greg in trying to figure out ways to minimise the impact the credit crunch is having on our mid life adventures and future dreams. But one does have to reflect on the good times to bring some balance and we do hope everyone we know is managing with the same resolve in these tough times.

That's all for now, the month of May is looking a bit quiet for us, nothing planned except an RDPD investment seminar in Leeds City for Greg, and for Gail there is a Hen's night in Nottingham and another training day down in Coventry.

If you have read this far Peter L..... Happy Birthday for the 3rd of May! All the very best from Gail and Greg for your next enjoyable decade. See you in Cornwall!

2 years, Dubai, Sydney, a fast trip

The 6th of March was the second anniversary of our arrival on to the shores of England. So much has been done and so many changes experienced there are times when we wonder how we have done it all in such a short period. And then there are other times when we think that we have been here for such a long time we feel like old locals.... Anyway on the 6th, as we were together on the exact day, and in some small celebration of the anniversary, we took ourselves off to see some live theatre in Harrogate. Absolutely Frank is a subtle local comedy which was enjoyable and charmingly Yorkshire. http://www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk/ Our long awaited visit to Sydney turned out to be a very quick trip. We were pleased Gail's employer honoured their promise to fund her return air fare but we sort of slipped up on our holiday planning and shorted ourselves a bit on the timing, two weeks was never going to be enough to do everything and everyone we wanted to.

We did however manage to cover quite a lot of ground so I'd best start to cover some of the best bits of the adventure here.

We stopped over in Dubai for a couple of days on the way to Australia.

Dubai, for those of you who have not been there, is an amazing place which has grown from an ancient fishing port into a huge, modern city/state in just 30 years. It plays with the brain when comprehending how so much has been built in such a short period.

The photos will give an indication of the scale but the experience of shopping in the huge malls and old souks, the evening meal and dhow trip on the "Creek", the champagne supper at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht club and the big bus city tour will live in our memory much clearer than I can describe here.

Despite it's tacky tourist theme, the night time river cruise was enjoyable for its night time views of Dubai, the pleasant evening temperature, passable fare and availability of questionably passable wine (Jacobs Creek as it turns out, the ubiquitous aussi drop of plonk which gets shipped north in bulk). The Creek, or harbour, has been the heart of Dubai trade for centuries and there is continuing evidence of it's role in local shipping and commerce indicated by the docked cargo barges loading and off loading and by the many little open dhow taxi motor boats carrying workers to and from dockside ports.

Then there was the evening when we sneaked into the rather posh and exclusive Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht club through the back door, that was a fun night. (The photo here shows the club house , a triangular building on the waterfront made to look like a dhow sail, and the golf course on the right, taken from the bus tour, it can be seen better when enlarged by clicking.)

We had been strolling in the golf course grounds and were presumed by grounds staff as being guests of the ultra swank Dubai Hyatt Regency Hotel, not wanting to disagree with the nice uniformed man we accepted a ride in the hotel's golf limousine from the access road we were on, all the way up to the hotel grand entrance. We boldly disembarked the ride, confidently dawdled through the lobby and headed with purpose through the hotel's shops, bumbled into the common areas, wandered outside through the beautiful gardens, down through the ocean liner sized boats moored at the marina and tentatively pushed open the guests entrance into the Dubai Club. We received a lovely welcome, a table for two right on the waterfront and were given exquisite service even though we only ordered one entree and some bubbles. In all fairness, I think we could have been just as welcomed if we had walked in the front door as tourists but the anticipation, presumed scandal and excitement of thinking we were sneaking in was much more of a romantic adventure.

The day time bus tours of this huge city were long but constantly interesting. And we did learn stuff. Most interesting is the fact that Dubai grows and operates on income from property sales, rentals and international business profits in the main, the oil income is much less than 10% of the GDP and that oil income is spent on public infrastructure not commercial activity.

The place is a tax delight for business with whole suburbs granted tax free operation per industries, one suburb dedicated for financial services, one suburb for Information Technologies, one suburb for motor vehicle companies etc etc..... The result is that every international company has a huge office in Dubai with brand names familiar and English as the common language.

It is however always going to be a hot dry dessert and that fact is evidenced by the lack of people out and about on foot, the extensive watering systems needed for any green thing, lots of sand and everything air conditioned, cars, buses, shops, hotels, even the undercover car parks . Dubai has the highest water consumption per capita in the world and the majority of the fresh water is provided by huge ocean fed desalination plants and cunning waste water recycling, part of the public infrastructure that the oil revenue pays for.

Dubai also has the lowest crime rate of any developed economy so walking around and being adventurous is a very pleasant experience. Service is superb and the products and foods are everything you would expect of a wealthy city. The religious sensitivities are apparent with traditional headwear and flowing robes the norm, but the tourist is not constrained by fashion except if girls want to enter certain sacred places they are required to wear a head scarf and have covered shoulders etc.

Dubai is experiencing the global downturn with the exodus of retrenched expatriate workers (you can't stay if you are unemployed for more than 30 days, if I recall correctly the voice in the tour bus earphones) the expats are reportedly leaving their cars abandoned at the airport as they depart on the last day of their efforts to find more work.

We did not experience much in the way of public economising, although the shopping malls are apparently quieter than normal the products for sale are mindblowingly opulent.... Gail did have me browsing the elite jewelery stores until I was totally blinged out by all the gold and diamonds. Gail was in her element as the Dubai retail experience is something amazing but best enjoyed with another girl, sans husband.

Building works all over Dubai still are underway 24 hrs a day so I guess the sense is that all this global economic doom and gloom will abate and office and living room will again be needed.

Dubai is in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), 7 tribal/kingdom families combined and committed to building the world's biggest and best commercial and trading hub.

I will admit to being very impressed with Dubai from the moment we set foot in the arrival lounge of Terminal 3 until we departed from the same huge building, (another terminal of equal or greater size is under construction).... I didn't know Emirates Air was the largest airline in the world but seeing the Dubai airport facilities, existing and under construction and the endless number of Emirates aircraft lined up, I am in no doubt. The terminal 3 is unfathomably huge. I'll happily put Dubai on my favourites and would recommend it as a real treat if you ever need a stopover in or out of Europe.

The flikr photostream at the side of this blog will take you to heaps of our other photos, many of Dubai.

But probably enough about Dubai, it is only one city after all.... .And not a patch on my home town of Sydney.

It was amazing to visit Sydney as a tourist. We felt very different driving the streets and highways, angry at the no cash tollways but delighted that the recent rains had made the place so much greener than we remembered it. I will not bang on about the people we caught up with, the family sleep over, the wonderful hospitality and the joy of meeting up with friends but I do want to include here some of the Sydney adventures we had.

It is always a joy to walk the city and after a delightful outdoors lunch in the MLC at Martin Plaza with our good friend Edua, we had time to see the Archibald Sulman and Wynne prize exhibitions at the NSW Art Gallery. I am always amazed at the Sydney art scene, the world has none better and the city is so lucky to have such venues and artists. Once again Gail and I were mightily impressed by the selected works.

The walk to the gallery took us from the city streets, through Hyde Park, the Domain and then down to the Quay for an early evening meal with our old mate Grazie.

The pictures show we enjoyed the best of Sydney weather for our 10 days in town.

Any chance to go to a restaurant on the harbour is one we will seek out at every opportunity and we did two new places (to us) this visit. Ripples at Chowder bay http://www.ripplescafe.com.au/ and Plonk at the Spit in Mosman. http://www.plonkbeachcafe.com.au/ If there is ever a "Sydney thing to do", lunch or just a coffee at places like these is the pinnacle of things to do. We also spent half a day at Manly where we had a great lunch at Manly Grill, an ocean side restaurant, met up with our long time friend Cathy for afternoon cocktails on the first floor balcony of the Stein pub where we discussed builders architects and her trip last year to our home in Wetherby. Time flew and we were then off to a slap up Thai dinner at Thuptim Siam with friends Mando and Sal who had travelled down from Kendall and Loren who had come up from the deep southern suburbs.

It is a great tourist experience to taste the wonderful food, sample the fine wines and enjoy the great service Sydney is famed for. As a couple who had forgotten just how wonderful Sydney can be, it was a timely reminder for us and we savoured every second of the warm air, smiling faces and relaxed atmosphere.

Gail also enjoyed the chance to spend a night with all her friends at Sydney Town Chorus, they welcomed her back and she had a ball singing with the girls again. Got all enthused and wants to join the Harrogate choir here but reckons she needs to get a bit fitter as standing all night singing made her realise how long it had been since she has performed..

We also had the chance to share a fantastic Yum Cha at the Marigold in Chinatown with Matt and Ret who were by chance in town from Perth. We also got up to our place in the Hunter Valley with our host Marlies for a couple of days.

The flight home to Wetherby was long and uneventful and the 11 hour sleep we both enjoyed the first night home was a great release from the lag of the jet.

Gail has returned to embark on a stint of 5 days away to work in Manchester so she is back into the thick of life in north England while I return to the challenges of more domestic pursuits and the continued seeking of desirable paid activity. I am advised that Gail does have some days off in a row this month and that she is posted for a few consecutive days in Scotland again so there may be adventures as yet unplanned for April...... stay tuned.