We go home and take Cyril

Cyril only had a moment of ~Cyrildom, and that was brief, on our journey home. We stayed in an hotel in Puerto Rico, just opposite the CockFighting Club, on the fifth floor with very noisy air conditioning which fell apart in the middle of the night. We had two princess beds in a double room, I don't know who they thought that we would be bringing in, maybe a princess or two or maybe they expected a whale or two. The ceiling tiles were falling off! oh where was the Maria Callas suite of the Botel! We didn't have to be there long, and it didn't live up to its name which was the Coral by the Sea, no sea there, no coral either. This was more like the Hotel Midland in Mumbai. But cheap though and as we were asleep that was all that matters, who needs lapping waves and room service when you are asleep anyway and your dreams might take you to the place you were trying to avoid. We took a taxi back to the airport, and spent hours there, it was clean and we both had books. We flew to JFK, New York and into another shopping airport space, two hours there and we boarded our flight back to the UK. Mary met us, yippee, took us back to Lionel Mansions, we yawned our way down the A1 to daffoldils at Great Staughton. Liz has cooked the first supper in two months and it was fine. Letter opened, fire lit, children contacted, washing done, daffoldils picked. All that remains is to get into a good old English bed.

Caribbean Cruising with Bob

Bob's boat should be called the Botel because it is as good as being in a first class hotel with staff. Charlie met us at the ferry and scootled us across to the boat. We had the Maria Callas suite, aka, the Mr and Mrs Owner Suite. On board were the deputy lieutenant of Pembrokeshire, curiously, a Scot, and his lady wife. They had been sailing with Bob on Adastra for the last few days and had not had such good weather as we were about to get. In this part of the world you feel as if you are in a brochure, the sea really is turquoise, the sand really is white, yes there really are turtles and steel bands which echo through the evening into the early morning with that ring. All the days are now melted into a similar theme, sailing in the day, stretched out whale like on the deck, hoping that it would not be sick making, covered in sun bloc but hoping all the time to catch the sun. Every evening pronto the gin and tonic came up from the below with lemon and ice just as the sun shot down below the horizon, at twice the speed it does in Hammersmith or even St Neots when it just quietly drops in an English way, unnoticed below the horizon. And almost every evening we would don our slightly less crumpled garments and attempt to arrive on shore undamp and we would walk along the caribbean streets looking in at the restaurants which were French in flavour and expensive in genre. We ate well which was why Liz tried to swim every moment the boat was still and she could get over the side, remember the ~Ghirandelli chocolate shop, there was a long way to go. The absolute best thing which nearly rotted the resolve to leave the world and take to the way of the renunciate was the introduction to diving, admittedly just with a snorkel, but oh the quiet of that under water world, the beauty and uninterrupted life of the little brightly coloured fish, and the malevolent look of the ugly ones, the groupers and their mates. If I could stay ever young, ever safe from predators and just sink beneath the waves, oblivious of all the back and forth of life, I might forget that old age follows youth and just become a sea anemone.

Travel with Cyril

Travelling with Cyril

As we have travelled along Liz has been reading all of the Alexander McCall 44 Scotland Street Books which has sometimes been embarrassing because in public places, ie aircrafts, she will suddenly become mildly hysterical. These are the most delicious travel companions, written at the sort of speed which is restful and as well as being funny, they are full of observations of life which not only make you chortle but also nod in agreement. In the Scotland Street Community there is a dog called Cyril, he belongs to Angus who he loves and who feeds him little delicacies like cappuccino from the cup in Big Lou’s Café and glasses of beer in the local pub. So like a human is he that his thoughts have been recorded and amongst them has been identified a predilection to bite the ankles of a few chosen people. Suddenly Liz realises that Cyril is like Richard or Richard is like Cyril. When travelling, especially in airports and maybe in cars, Richard, who is usually excellently behaved, changes, his lip lifts and a snarl, not audible to many precedes a growl and beware the poor airport staff member whose ankles are luckily usually hidden below the desk. Identifying this characteristic as a hidden tendency, perhaps from a past incarnation, has vastly improved the travel routine, the Cyril factor is not allowed near those who might tempt his gold tooth into action.

We, without Cyril are now floating around the Caribbean on Bob’s floating hotel, the Adastra. It is just like the pictures, the sea is turquoise blue, the sands are white, the people have mostly got lots of money which has turned the little villages into offshoots of Gucci and Prada interspersed with wonderful French restaurants. Here the recession is not obvious. We have been swimming and snorkelling while Bob spoils us something rotten. This is the perfect end to our gap year, I think we have done everything that anybody could ever dream of doing.

more photos soon

just to say that it hasn't been possible to load any more photos up because the computers in business centres don't allow it, however, as soon as we get back home, we will load up a few more photographs to show what we did after Tasmania and of course we will tell everybody about Bob and his boat.

NO more chocolate please

We took the courtesy bus back to the airport, fortunately it wasn't yesterday's driver who Richard had expressed some displeasure to owing to the lateness of the hour and the fact that our modest little Holiday Inn Express was the last hotel drop off. We then took the train back to town and walked. We notice that all Americans have got excellent white teeth, and this is one of their gifts to the world and is perhaps why they all smile. They are just as polite as can be and even when you knock into them they say "And how are you today" as if they know you and might give you a kiss if you leant towards them.
Liz was allowed into two shops! and there are some of you out there who may benefit in a modest way. She now has a pair of Puma shoes and looking down at them thinks they look so good that they might be a pair of feet from an advertisement. Having worn almost nothing but open shoes whilst we were in Aus and NZ, this American spring has a distinctly chilly feel. So well equipped we could have walked for miles but because the trams and buses are so good and you can travel as an OAP for 50 cents, we rode down towards Market and then went along the Embarquolade passing the old wharves which are mostly now turned into warehouses for the bustling shopping area which constitutes San Fran high life. This goes all the way along to Fisherman's Wharf via Pier 39 which is a proper pier with a mass of restaurants all with the same menu, lots of souvenir shops and a roundabout. One of the sights though is to see the sea lions who arrived here after an earthquake shook them from wherever they were before. They lie in considerable piles of family on the different platforms which float along the side of the pier, mostly they were asleep but still put on a bit of a show for the tourists watching them. There was a great sweetie shop with barrels of sweeties and Liz was also allowed in here, not for long though but long enough Sophie, Lottie and Eleanor to come out with sweeties that fizz. Back on another 50 cent bus to the actual Fisherman's Wharf famed for crab chowder served in sourdough baskets, scooped out sourdough loaves with the chowder inside. We watched the bread being made through the window of Boudins, an old Bakery. Although some of it is hand made, mostly there are great bits of machine which knead it and steam it and shape the loaves because they need so many. These are then sent along in baskets overhead to the shop end where they are tipped into more baskets and sold or else they have their heads chopped off for the chowder to be put inside. We walked along to a restaurant where we had crab and that very good bread. This was very good but almost as good was the party in the middle of the restaurant who were celebrating several birthdays of several different members and they took up a lot of room and had us guessing who was related to who and whose child was whose. This is probably what happens when you have been travelling for so long! We just kept enough room to go to Ghirandelli's chocolate shop. DO THIS any of you and yes DO GET the huge chocolate sundae and DO GET TWO spoons for one because even the most intrepid chocolate eating person won't get through one on their own. We didn't want to do any more walking after this even with those good walking shoes, we just wanted to come back to the Holiday Inn Express and lie down and never eat anything again.

from san francisco

Not quite the end, but near. We arrived in San Francisco at near to midday this time, having left Auckland at 7.00 pm their time, we have gone backwards, travelling taking place on the same date. Somehow our brains must have known what was happening because neither of us slept for more than an hour which gave ample time for watching films. I should think that there are very few unviewed movies left, we have seen Slumdog Millionaire, Australia and Quantum of Solace amongst many, in fact Liz managed to watch 5 films en route this time. Once we arrived we found our way to our new Holiday Inn Express (very good value) had a brief rest and then took the airport bus back to the airport(free) and the subway BART into town. San Francisco is about 10 times as large and a million times as lively as most of the places we have been put together. Richard had already been here so knew what to do and we took a tram up the hill from Powell, got out at the very top and walked back down window gazing. We had a very good dinner in a jolly diner, jam packed and then walked about a bit downtown taking in the still busy shops and general feeling of spend. No obvious signs of recession, ie not many Sales but perhaps this was because San Francisco is unique and draws people from everywhere. Perhaps as a consequence of watching so many films and then taking in so many different impressions, we slept SO deeply that we didn't wake up until 9.00 am local time.

final call from this hemisphere

This is a final post probably until we get home and put up the photographs and tell you about our sailing with Bob in the Caribbean! We leave this afternoon after a very good and rather restful stay in Auckland where we have caught up with Molly and John Julian, lots of laughter and recounting old shared memories and of course finding out about what each of has been about during the last 30 years! During our time with them we went out by ferry to Waiheke, a small island about 30 minutes by boat from Auckland, and we had lunch in the New Zealand Royal Yacht Squadron, we joined a philosophy group in the very fine Auckland School House near Mount Eden, chatted about Justthisday 2009, we had a jolly evening with Mark and Elisse Broadwith after meeting small Broadwith person, a very fine specimen of mankind called James who was exceptionally good! We went out to dinner with them at a smart restaurant, Oh Calcutta, just round the corner from our apartment where lots of children who had been pupils at the Ficino School whilst he was headmaster, came up and greeted him, very touching, and the owner of the restaurant whose children had been there insisted that we had the very good meal and wine on the house. Now we are all packed up, we have washed and shaken every garment, we have said goodbye to almost everyone and are off for Richard's final bluff oysters, we are having lunch with Barrie and Emilie Preston before we drop off the car, the sat nav, god bless her, and get back in to travel mode. Richard is already thinking about what he can worry about but being so relaxed it is difficult for him to find anything. We thank everybody in Australia, and in New Zealand who has made beds up for us, given us breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea, amused us, shown us around and we will look forward to returning hospitality to anybody who comes our way.

Auckland to Coromandel and back

We went in to the Auckland harbour area for supper before hopping in to our two double beds which Ventura Inn provide, we wondered if this is for very fat people! Also they had a swimming pool which was on the roundabout in front of the reception, all blue but fenced in so that you would be sipping your pina coladas and doing your lengths whilst the traffic whirled past you. George and Sophie arrived while we slumbered and in the morning we took off via the coast road towards Coromandel which is a beautiful stretch of beaches and coves running up the east side of the North Island. Except for the fact that the road went up and down like a switch back and also wove a slalom like route, it was a great way to see that part of coast and mountains which in places tip down towards the sea. Arriving with Peter Bigge, who is just as nice as ever, we went for a swim at the end of his road which goes right down to the beach. There were quite good waves which knocked us about a bit. Peter and his wife Linda gave us a jolly nice dinner outside their house and we all departed for an early bed knocked out by sea and sun. The next day we explored back up the coast to Cathedral Cove. This is beautiful but you have to walk quite a steep path down and up and down and up again for about 40 minutes. Once there you have the most wonderful beach and sea and a huge cathedral like open arch made by the sea. Very good fun swimming there, whilst we were in the sea a large seagull opened Liz's bag and took out the packet of postcards which were in a brown paper bag. George took off up the beach after the naughty bird which caused a lot of mirth amongst other beach people. It finally dropped the bag in the sea so anybody who gets a salty pecked post card can blame the bird.
We had a cheerful evening at the fishing club in Wangamata which is where Peter lives, watched the tide go down emptying the estuary and again had a wonderfully early night. Peter cooks a great breakfast and on Monday after his scrambled eggs we left, heading back to Auckland in time to show George and Sophie the harbour and our Friday evening dinner spot, Portside which is just by the fish market. We took them to the airport, very sad to see them go after 4 weeks of seeing them every weekend.
We headed back in to Auckland, and to our rather smart serviced apartment which sports a washing machine and an iron so every garment which has been lingering in our suitcases has had spring treatment. Our first day here and we are taking life rather easy. We met up with Moles Julian and John her son for dinner, such fun to catch up with old friends, time just disappears and it made saying goodbye to G and S rather less awful

Wellington

On to Wellington, and we are now so taken with our GPS that I think that Richard plans to get one for domestic use! We were collected by Cathy Dean and taken to their 53 bedroomed house! We were staying in the School of Philosophy, Wellington, house which once upon a time was the headquarters of the Salvation Army. It was a training school but seriously impressive, high ceilings, great big rooms and all made very lovely and at the same time, nicely familiar to any philosophers reading this. We felt immediately at home and couldn't have been made more so than by the Dean family who managed to fit us in with several grandchildren and groups of philosophers all needing attention as well as showing us round and in every way giving us the best of times there. On the middle day we went out to their house by the sea for lunch and for a swim for the desperate to swim everywhere swimmer. The sun shone and it was a great drive along the coast. The vegetation had become more tropical again, not much but so interesting to see how this changes as you inch your way along the different latitudes. We went out for a particularly cheery dinner with Michael and Gillian Harris on our last evening and after meeting Bruce for lunch and packing our cases again, we took off for Auckland. However, we met an old friend, Mark Broadwith at the airport, he was coming to where we had just left! but we made a plan to meet up next week. We arrived, checked in to the Ventura Inn where we wait for George and Sophie and Liz picked up a brochure on whale watching in Auckland, they promise 75 per cent success in seeing whales and this is what she has come all this way for, maybe this is why swimming everywhere is such an obsession, she is looking for a whale. Will keep you all posted as to our success!

Arrival in NZ

We flew into ChristChurch, picked up our car and drove out along a flat flat road towards out destination. Where other airports were surrounded by car sales places, ChristChurch airport has tractor sales and saddlery shops! and the sheep graze almost up to the runway. This is one of the nice things about it, it is a proper growing place and as we discovered once we had been shown round the lovely farm where Graham and Sharon Peck now live, there is nothing which is not producing a crop from the grass, the sheep eat the grass, they get shorn for their wool and also bad luck on them, they get eaten! The deer eat the grass and their antlers are shorn for velvet which feeds mostly the Chinese and Japanese, and they are also then eaten, mostly by the Germans who like a bit of venison at the right time of year. We immediately felt at home as in home like Britain, the landscape although flat sports English oaks and other trees, there are sparrows and little birds as well as a lot of black and white magpies but there is less of the semi tropical vegetation, just enough to be interesting. Sharon's garden had phlox and wonderfully healthy roses amongst other more exotic things and I am ashamed to say that I trod on a baby hedgehog, I think it was dead before my little foot came crashing down on it. We had a good catch up with Graham and Sharon and were spoiled with every sort of delicious thing and with their time as well. We saw Jilly and Carl and their baby Ella and also poor Rowan who had dislocated his arm in a kayaking adventure. As they had a wedding to organise and also Rowan's arm to mend, we were incredibly grateful for all the trouble they took to look after us. Graham showed us round the farm which we loved, we saw where the sheep were shorn, where the deer were de antlered, and we felt great admiration for those two managing great big strong pushy deer in a shed with a lot of doors. However, if you should ever be a deer, what they do is to get you into the shed and then suddenly the left hand wall speeds across and traps your head so you can get your antlers shorn off. Best of all, despite the weather, they took us to Lake Tekapo which is a most beautiful turquoise blue and as we went over the hill, as promised, the sun came out and we went from one weather system to the next. They have a jet boat which is a speedy little number which skimmed across the lake when Graham drove it, but when he kindly asked Richard if he would like a go, as Richard's eyes lit up and he turned the ignition, the boat refused to go. We had a very adventurous return with Richard playing the part of Captain Bligh and I think I was Fletcher Christian. We paddled back across the vast expanse of turquoise blue water until we reached the side. Sharon ran back to get the car, I bravely walked along the edge in my clothes holding onto the rope until almost on cue I fell over a rock, splosh. Richard left the boat and almost miraculously Graham turned the key and the motor fired up again. What we should have done was put Jonah out in the middle of the lake! Anyway, great fun and thank you the Peck family for a really sploshing time! We'll be back

GPS guest blog in N Z

Just a brief report from the GPS to you all, especially my brother and sisters in other Budget Car Hire place in New Zealand. I received notice that I was to travel with Winston Churchill soundalike and wife when they arrived in ChristChurch, and of course had been warned that said lookalike didn't totally trust us. Fortunately, something must have happened, some magic occurred because he has been heard to extol the virtues of our

Australian Countryside

We leave Australia tomorrow for New Zealand after a weekend in a Swire farm house in new South Wales.  We went off on Friday evening in two cars, a friend of George's from Swire shipping came too and drove for 4 hours or more!  However when we got there we were at the top of a hill with a ha ha round the grass in front of a very nice modern house.  Of course it was dark when we arrived so after a cheery supper we all went off to bed.  It would be hard to describe how beautiful it was when we woke up, both beautiful in terms of landscape which rolled in comfortable hills away from the house with a green valley below which spoke of a river.  But it was beautiful because there was no artificial noise, just the sound of many birds and of course the cows and sheep who called across the space.  There were masses of swallows who were practicing their flight from the house and more exotic birds like crimson rosellas and flaming gallars as well as doves with cockades and many many species.  Richard saw some early morning kangaroos who obligingly showed up and then jumped away into the wood.  We went down to the river with fishing rods and walked along a fairish length, George and Liz swam, or sort of, got into a rather shallow bit just to show it could be done.  We had an evening barbecue, and again the morning arrived with all the glories of nature on display.  More dangling flies in the water in the morning before lunch and heading back into Sydney.  Will post some photographs before too long  but don't know when we will next be near a computer.