Travel memories, etc

I'm just watching the lovely Joanna Lumley presenting her Greek Odyssey program. Tonight she's visiting Corfu.

What I find interesting is that when I first travelled overseas, in 1976, I spent a few days on Corfu on my way from Italy to Athens. However, I find I have almost no recollection of my time there. I do know that I learnt to play backgammon from an American girl in a taverna, while drinking retsina, I think. Watching Joanna Lumley's program provides me with absolutely no sparks of recognition ...

To be honest I don't have many firm memories of my first trip - I know I spent about two months back-packing around Europe visiting, among other places, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece. Over the years I've revisited many of these places but have never returned to Greece. Not sure if I ever will.

In other news I've got a last-minute gig on 3MBS tomorrow. It's the Midday program; it's already programmed (by JvB) so I just have to present it. Then I spend the rest of the afternoon on Reception before coming back at 7pm to present Music for Keyboard.

This evening I booked for the Berlioz Requiem on Saturday (with P&B) and for Bill Bailey in September (with LE). 

Cambridge revisited

I arrived in Cambridge on Saturday afternoon and got a cab to the hotel I had booked - it turns out that with cheap hotels you get what you pay for. The room, on the third floor of a two-storey house is tiny - box-room tiny. There's a single bed along one wall with not much room to spare at the foot and the bed is against the curtains and the wall making them unclosable; the bathroom takes up most of another wall and there's a small desk filling in a third. wall. The last wall, of course has the door.

The bathroom has a teeny basin with a small cabinet above artfully placed so you hit your head with it when you are cleaning your teeth. The shower, to be honest, is quite good, lots of hot water. However the shower door is not easy to close from the inside - the result being that the bath mat, placed outside the door, gets soaked.

The desk is covered with: a small tray with the makings for (instant) coffee and tea, a kettle, a mirror and a small television - this does not leave a lot of room for anything else.

Oh, and there's a clock. A battery-powered digital alarm clock. Which beeps ...

On.

The.

Hour.

Who has a clock that beeps on the hour? Beautiful little gilt clocks that chime delicately on the hour (and quarter and half) I can understand, but a digital clock that just ... beeps?

It took me several hours before I actually identified that it was the clock that was beeping. However it was then a very easy job to remove the batteries.

--------

Cambridge itself has been lovely to re-visit. I have done some very long walks, yesterday spending some time along the Backs and wandering through Clare College.

On Saturday night I went in to King's College Chapel to hear the Aurora Orchestra play. They're a new group of young musicians and the program was Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, so I thought it would be nice.

They were set up in the back half of the Chapel, in front of the rood screen. However as soon as they started, with the overture to Cosí fan tutte I realised that it was totally the wrong place for an orchestra to play. The echo in the chapel is so long that any detail in the playing was completely lost. They seemed to be very good, but it was impossible to really be sure. I left at interval.

Yesterday evening I went to evensong at Great St Margaret's, which sits dwarfed opposite the magnificent King's Chapel. Being holidays the choir was made up of the "younger girls" - the youngest appeared to be around 5. But they didn't do a bad job and the congregation struggled through the hymns.

The high point of the service was the unexpected entry of a woman who announced herself during the reading of the second lesson: "How dare you!"

The elderly lady reading the lesson stopped. However the newcomer was just starting and, using colourful language, proceeded to harangue the church in general for, as far as I could work out, not allowing her to light a candle for a deceased friend. Eventually the vicar managed to carefully shepherd her out (nobody touched her at all) and shut (locked?) the door behind her.

The woman reading the lesson then continued from where she'd stopped and everything proceeded as if nothing had happened.

The good and the bad (no ugly so far)

Last Saturday afternoon I went to Covent Garden for a performance of Massenet's take on the Cinderella story, Cendrillon. The production was by Laurent Pelly (I have a couple of his productions on DVD, notably Rameau's Platée, which I love) and was a straightforward telling of the story, with a great deal of humour, aided hugely by the wonderful sets and outrageous costumes.

The glorious mezzo, Joyce DiDonato, sang the title role with Alice Coote as a rather believable Prince Charmant. The extraordinary contralto Ewa Podles did an a very entertaining comic turn as the evil step-mother. Musically the work is pleasant but fairly unmemorable, but the quality of the production and, above all, the performances made it a great afternoon's entertainment.

Life was entertaining in a different way this week with the direct broadcast of the appearance of James and Rupert Murdoch in front of the Parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Murdoch senior looked initially like a sad old man; junior was quite glib, if not verbose. In the long run, probably, not very much was achieved, but it was very satisfying to see. I've been in Britain at a rather interesting time, seeing a complete volte face being done by many in the public eye who had previously courted Murdoch and News; and seeing various people being caught up in their own webs of lies.

On Tuesday Paul B came over to Lewisham and we went to a local Turkish restaurant A&A had recommended. The food was very tasty, but there was so much (probably enough for four) that P took the leftovers home in a doggie-bag.

The next night I went to the Apollo Theatre to see a performance of Yes, Prime Minister. It has been up-dated to the twenty-first century (references to the Internet and Blackberries) with even references to the recent tribulations of News Corp. Like much of the television series the story revolves around Jim Hacker landing in a moral/political dilemma, from which he is eventually saved by Sir Humphrey. It won't win any awards, but was a bit of fun.

Last night's outing was to a concert to celebrate the life and works of the composer Geoffrey Burgon, most well known for the music for the TV series Brideshead Revisited. The City of London Sinfonia played well and other performers were the choir Wellensian Consort. Ex-Python Terry Jones, who knew Burgon from childhood, introduced the works including his viola and cello concertos, the latter receiving its premier public performance.

The bad occurrence this week was the cancelling of my Visa card - I'm not sure why, but my credit union said Visa claimed its security had been breached. I managed to use my alternative card (from another bank) successfully, but on the second attempt it too bombed out. Luckily I have my Cash Passport which still seems to be working OK - I just can't book anything online.

Dublin, Derby and back to London

On Friday I returned from Dublin and went to stay with my cousin Rosemary and her husband Brian in  Derby. They took me for a fascinating walk by the Trent and Mersey canal at Shardlow. As well as narrow-boats there was a regatta of small steam-powered boats, six of which shared the lock. After lunch at a local carvery (tasty roast pork for me) we went to Lichfield where we attended evensong at the cathedral.

On Monday I caught the train back to London and made my way to Lewisham, to Andrew G and Alyson L's. They kindly said I can stay here for a while. It turns out they are going camping this weekend and then off for another family holiday in Suffolk on Monday, and as they have a cat they're happy for me to stay and feed the cat.

More museums this week:

• the Museum of Childhood has a wonderful collection of things including a huge range of toys. It's lovely to see them, but a bit sad to see them all in glass cases - toys are not toys if they aren't being played with.
• the Handel House Museum (including a small memorial to Jimi Hendrix who also lived in the house in the sixties).
• Treasures of heaven exhibition at the British Museum. Wonderful collection of mediaeval artifacts showcased in what used to be the British Library Reading Room. Nice to see the wonderful dome, but  a shame not to be able to experience the wonderful room as it was. Nonetheless, the collection on display was pretty breathtaking.

This morning I caught up with Danny E, who I knew from work at The Age, and then later with Polly M - she and I had a very tasty lunch at a splendid Turkish restaurant near the BM.

When I got back to the house this afternoon A&A and the family were still getting ready to leave for their camping trip - the bad news is that the weather forecast isn't particularly positive for them.

After a very enjoyable week in Oxford with Taffy, Julie and Emily I left on Sunday morning for Heathrow where I got on a plane for Dublin. I was here last in 2009 and this time am staying with DVR and Kirsty H in their very nice seventh-floor flat in the redeveloped docklands area.

DVR gave me a Luas card (their version of an Oyster or myki) for me to use on the trams. There are only two lines, but they provide access to all the areas I want to visit. The system is very easy to use, but differs from Melbourne's myki system in that you must touch on with your card on the stop before you board - there are no card-readers on the trams - and touch off when you get off. An ideal way to avoid clogging the doors of crowded trams. According to DVR the inspectors (and I have already encountered one) are very strict about infringements and will fine you on the spot.

I have spent the last couple of days re-acquainting myself with the city: yesterday I visited the Chester Beatty Museum with its extraordinary collection of ancient manuscripts and books, and its current exhibition of the books of Henri Matisse.

Today I took the tram to the Kilmainham Gaol where I joined a tour around the grim prison. Starting in the earliest part we saw the ghastly environment locals were condemned to, including young children, often for very minor offences. A later section was built based on Jeremy Bentham's idea of the panopticon which housed only one prisoner per cell - this section of the gaol has been used in a number of films, including In the name of the father. Outside we were shown the bleak exercise yards and, even more sombre, the Stone-breaking Yard where many prisoners, including some interned after the 1916 Easter Rising, faced the firing squad. Grim.

After this I needed a change so I took the tram along to the Collins Barracks part of the National Museum to see, among other things, a lovely collection of Irish silver.

Farewell London, hello Oxford

On Sunday morning I packed my bag (with a bit of difficulty) and went around to St James, where Paul B sings in the choir. Bruce M also turned up for the service, which included the Byrd four-part mass. The service went on a bit longer that expected as, being Corpus Christi, we all processed around the church holding candles.

After the service Paul and I farewelled Bruce and headed off to Paddington station where we had lunch before I caught the train to Oxford. Julie and Emily were at the station to meet me and we went back to their house, not far from the flat they were in when I last visited.

On Monday Taffy, Julie and I took Emily (in the pusher) for a lovely long walk down to Iffley Lock to feed the ducks - there were supposed to be geese, but they must have been otherwise engaged.

Yesterday I walked into Oxford where, among other things, I did a walking tour of some of the colleges. Many are closed at the moment as it is exam time, but we did get to see New College, which is possibly the most impressive.

Emily is a very sweet, well-behaved toddler with a bright disposition - she sleeps through every night and cries very rarely. A delight to be around.

More museums and fun

I spent a good part of yesterday at the fascinating Museum of London, near the Barbican. Starting with a pre-historic outline of the site it covers from the stone- and bronze-ages, through Roman occupation up to the present day. There are plenty of interactive displays and a huge amount of material covering all aspects of the history of London.

In the afternoon I dropped past TKTS again and got my self a cheap ticket to see Dominic West (McNulty from The Wire) playing the lead in Butley, written by Simon Gray in 1971. Despite its age the play really isn't as creaky as I expected and West and his supporting cast (including Withnail and I's I, Paul McGann) provided much food for thought in this story of a self-destructive lecturer.

This morning, acting on a Facebook comment from Tat, I went down to West India Wharf and visited the Museum of London's Docklands museum - a very well put together presentation of British mercantile shipping, slavery and the development and re- of the London docklands .

Then this evening I met up with KM, BM, and several of their friends for drinks and dinner at the Knights Templar, an ex-bank now a pub in Chancery Lane. As expected for a Friday night it was packed but we managed to find a quiet room. Much fun was had by all.

Dirt and opera

Yesterday morning I went to the wonderful Wellcome Collection. As well as a splendid permanent collection (which includes a piece of Jeremy Bentham's skin - his whole body is just down the road at University College London) there was an excellent exhibition called Dirt which looks at our relationship with the multifarious things we refer to as dirt. Some of the art works in the show were made from dirt and house dust, and the scientific displays included some fascinating old films. The film about the Peckham health centre, made in 1948, is an interesting example of propaganda for the newly-created National Health Service.

In the afternoon I went into the TKTS office in Leicester Square to see what was available. As luck would have it they had £85 tickets for the ENO's Simon Boccanegra at the bargain price of £25. A superb seat in the middle of the stalls - perfect viewing was ensured by the three empty seats in front of me.

The production is ... interesting; and not helped by huge amounts of text explaining the back story (a complicated plot à la Trovatore) being typed across the front drop. The prolog setting is a William Hopper Nighthawks style scene with a town square on the right.

The transition between the prolog and the first act was one of the most amazing things I've seen in the theatre. The crowd scene at the end of the prolog froze and this image was projected onto the front drop; the first act then starts with two characters walking in front of this image, which then starts to shrink until it is the contents of a painting on the wall ...

Anyway, the work is very sombre: lots of low brass in the orchestration and only one woman's voice; all the men's roles are bass or baritone except for the lead tenor. The performance was excellent musically, including the small parts, but the work itself is mostly without many arias, the music being mostly declamatory.

A house guest

On Tuesday night BA, who now lives and works in Utrecht, arrived to stay for a few days. It's nice to be able to return the favour, as he put me up in 2004. He arrived around 6pm and after we'd settled him in we went out for a meal at one of the local pubs.

Back at the flat I went into the bathroom and ended up nearly locking myself in: as I pulled the door to shut it (why shut the door when you're on your own?) the handle came off in my hand. Luckily the door didn't shut completely or I would have been stuck. I'm just grateful it didn't happen when I was on my own ...*

Yesterday B and I headed out for breakfast at St Ali - unfortunately the weather has turned again and we got a little damp, but the breakfast was worth it. We visited the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum; both were full of children but we managed to see most of what we wanted to, and had a late lunch in the Science Museum cafe. We made our way home via Waterstones and the Apple Shop as B was interested in looking at iPads.

Made contact with PB yesterday, and hope to have lunch with him today.

* Maintenance fixed the door while we were out.

You put your left foot in ...

... you put your left foot out.

At the National Maritime Museum.

The lovely Polly

Lots of chatting was done, over coffee.

V&A treasures

Yesterday I made a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum. They had a large exhibition, The cult of beauty which was devoted to the Aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century and included material by and about the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. There were some extraordinarily beautiful objects on display, and some not so. Gilbert and Sullivan were not forgotten with a couple of references to Patience and the Grosvenor Gallery, where much of the new art of the time was exhibited - thus Bunthorne sings: "a greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery, foot in the grave young man".

After the exhibition I had  lunch in the courtyard before exploring the rest of the museum. One high point was the theatrical exhibit on the top floor with some fascinating material, including film clips of various notable London theatrical production of the last couple of decades.

The weather is finally starting to warm again, no rain yesterday and none tipped for today, in fact today's predicted top is 23C.

An old friend and sore feet

Yesterday I re-acquainted myself with the British Museum, though was disappointed to see that you can no longer get in to see the Reading Room. But I had a nice wander around the Egyptian and other antiquities (not all of them in cases).

Afterwards I popped around the corner to Russell Square where I met up with Polly M, who I last saw in Brittany with P&B. It was lovely to see her and she took me to a very nice Anatolian restaurant where we had a very satisfying lunch and did lots of chatting. After lunch we went to a pretty good little place for (proper) coffee and more talk.

This morning I went down to Greenwich to visit the old Naval College and the National Maritime Museum. Lots of fascinating exhibits and also lots of work being done to prepare some of the surrounding land for next year's Olympic shindig.

After the NMM I trudged up the hill to the Royal Observatory and had a good look through there, enjoying the view across the top of the glorious Wren buildings below to the less-than-glorious splendours of Canary Wharf and the Jubilee Dome.

On the way back to the station I dropped in at the Greenwich Market where amongst a staggering range of food stalls I found myself some lunch; I had a rather nice cheese and spinach pie.

I fell as if I've earned a nap today ... that's a very steep hill up to the Observatory.

Art and coffee

Yesterday I had an early breakfast at one of the many local eateries after which I set off for the Tate Modern. They had an interesting retrospective exhibition of works by Joan Miró - of particular interest was a pair of huge triptychs which I found extraordinarily beautiful.

After walking back across Hungerford Bridge I dropped in at the National Gallery, but didn't stay long before heading back to the flat.

Had a slight problem in the morning with the plug in the bathroom basin getting stuck; the shower doors are pretty useless too, so I called the main office. They said they'd send someone to fix it. Of course when I got home, there was no sign of anyone being there.

This morning I headed off to the British Library to see a quite interesting history of science fiction, mostly illustrated with copies of books discussed in the accompanying texts, some of which were quite fascinating. After having a look at some of the other highlights of the BL collection I wandered down Farringdon Road to Clerkenwell where I had lunch at St Ali, the London branch of the South Melbourne-based coffee merchants. The food was good and the coffee was the best I've had since home. A brief visit to Covent Garden and then home.

When I got back to the flat the maintenance man still hadn't been so I sauntered round to the main office. The nice woman on the desk, who looked as if she was having an awful day, rang to discover that there was someone there working on it. So I thanked her and quietly headed off to Bayswater to buy a bottle of wine to take to AL/AG's tonight, where I am going for dinner. How long it's going to take to get to Lewisham I have no idea, but it'll be a visit to somewhere I've never been before.

Back in London again

The flat is mostly good, with a few odd and annoying aspects. It's in Paddington, an area full of hotels of all kinds from the Paddington Hilton down to very basic ones. It's essentially a bedsit and has obviously been done up within the last five years or so, with everything in pretty good condition. There's a large double bed (which will be interesting when guests come to stay) taking up most of one end of the room, a kitchen along one side and a small table with two chairs at the other end. Plenty of cupboard space; also plenty of power points for a change.

In the kitchen there are a fridge, kettle, toaster, cooktop and oven and two of everything - glasses, small and large plate - but there is no cutlery. Four kitchen knives in a proper block but no knives, forks or spoons. Luckily I brought my trusty all-in-one. And for a big plus there is a washing machine, though with no dryer it will mean the place will be festooned by damp clothes most of the time.

There is a large window by the bed, but the venetians seem to be stuck in one position ... down; and the rod for changing the angle of the blinds is broken half-way up.

The bathroom is small, the shower tiny. One of the curved shower doors constantly sticks in its track and consequently, as you have to turn the shower on before getting in (to avoid a freezing blast), by the time you're under and have managed to shut the doors, the floor of the bathroom is awash. Luckily the place is warm and it all dries out fairly quickly.

That brings me to another aspect: the place is a bit too warm for my liking. In front of the kitchen unit the floor is marble-type tiles. When I arrived it was warm - I located a switch at the back of the bench which looked a likely culprit and turned it off which seems to have worked, although there is one patch which is always a bit warmer than the rest. Perhaps there's a dragon living beneath.

There are a number of electrical switches in the room the purpose of which is not immediately ovbious; in fact I haven't worked out what a couple of them do yet.

When I booked in the pleasant young woman who did the processing told me there was wifi in the room - well, yes, my netbook can see a number of networks, some of which are unsecured, but as far as I can see the management don't provide any of it. While I could connect to a couple of them, the signal strength was useless. This and the fact that my phone doesn't seem to like my British SIM card (which worked perfectly in 2009 in my previous phone) has decided me to buy a PAYG phone and a mobile wifi dongle. In the long run it will make life much easier.

Oh, and the TV only seems to pick up four channels.

But all this is nothing as I don't expect to be spending very much time here, and there is a nice range of cafes and restaurants (some with free wifi) just around the corner. And at least the place will be cleaned every three days, with a change of bed-linen and towels every week.

I managed to get a good sleep last night, waking at 4am but managing to get back to sleep until around six.

Melbourne train lines - Werribee and Williamstown

On March 19, Tat and I set off on our second expedition, this time in a westerly direction. I met Tat on the train at Collingwood and we changed at Flinders Street for the Werribee line. The train we caught was express from Newport to Laverton.

As we expected, we didn't have the verdant views we had on our first foray, rather an industrial landscape, at times quite bleak, and housing estates. On the express leg we passed the oil refineries at Altona. When we pulled in to Werribee both of us decided that we would catch the train at the opposite platform back to Newport thus saving us the cost of a zone 2 ticket.

I'm not enough of a gunzel to know what sort of carriages these are, but they seem light and airy.

The train back to Newport stopped at the stations the previous one had bypassed (on a separate line). At Newport we changed for a train to Williamstown; we didn't have to wait very long.

The end of the line is a bit odd - it just stops, in the middle of not very much at all. However the views are pretty good and there are some interesting old buildings around to look at as you walk around to the main centre of Williamstown.

It was a lovely day ...

... so we decided we would eat at Williamstown, preferably outside. We found some rather nice fish and chips at a place in Nelson Place and crossed over to the reserve where we found a shady spot - but away from the child-filled rotunda.

HMAS Castlemaine with the city behind.

After lunch we wandered through the streets to Williamstown Beach station where we caught a train back to town.

Melbourne train lines - Glen Waverley and Almein

Tat and I have embarked on a project: to travel to the end of each of Melbourne's railway lines. For our first expedition today we knocked over two lines - Glen Waverley and Alamein.

I met Tat on the 11:20am from Collingwood, which we had agreed on, and we travelled into Flinders Street where we changed to the Glen Waverley line. It was a beautiful day and the train was not very full and we had a dream run to the end of the line.

Although I travelled this line regularly when visiting Mum, I had never been past Darling so it was very interesting to travel the whole line. The route, which travels by the freeway for some distance, is quite pretty, with most houses having substantial gardens and trees.

We wandered through The Glen, a shopping centre larger than I was expecting, and as shopping centres go not bad. We had lunch and coffee before making our way back to the station.

There was a train waiting for us which we boarded; we got off at East Malvern where we crossed the Monash Freeway on what looks like quite a new footbridge.

Once on the other side we walked through the golf course to the end of the Anniversary Trail, a shared pedestrian/bike path running along the plantation left when the Outer Circle line was shortened.

The day was perfect and we had a very pleasant walk along a verdant path to Alamein station.

A train pulled in as we reached the station and we were soon on our way back into the city, the train running direct to Flinders Street rather than requiring us to change at Camberwell.

In all, a great start to our project.

Christchurch

Christchurch Art Gallery

Christchurch Arts precinct

In the Christchurch Botanic Gardens

Land of the long white cloud - Part three

Christchurch is delightful - a small city with heaps of character. Yesterday I paid a visit to the Gallery which had an exhibition of Ricky Swallow watercolours, plus an interesting survey of their own collection including many works which have been in storage. There was a Warhol Chairman Mao print, but not nearly as nice as the one I know - Christchurch's has a dark blue face.

There is a tourist tram service which circles the city but I prefer to walk - trams are no novelty to me.

This morning I walked down to the Arts Centre which occupies the old premises of Canterbury University, elegant Victorian neo-Gothic stone buildings. Over the road are the Botanic Gardens and these are spectacular; there are many mature examples of European trees (some are huge) and shrubs as well as an excellent area of New Zealand native vegetation.

Next door is the Museum. There are many old-fashioned exhibits, but over all it's a very interesting collection including some wonderful displays of native birds in great dioramas. It brought back memories of the old Melbourne museum. There is also a rather nice cafe with views over the Botanic Gardens, where I had lunch.

On my way to the Arts Centre this morning I discovered a wonderful bookshop, Scorpio Books, a friendly old-fashioned bookshop with an amazing range of books and a nice laid-back atmosphere. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my bag is already full to bursting so I only bought one book.

Mustn't be late tonight as my flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning; I'll probably have to leave around 5:00. Wish me luck!

PS I'll post some pictures when I get home.

Land of the long white cloud - Part two

After two days of concentrated walking at Te Anau, Sunday was quiet and relaxed. After a late rise we got ourselves organised and set off for St Kilda beach (I kid you not) where A and Billy (the dog) went for a beach walk while T (with O on his back) and I strolled along the park and onto the beach further down - we met the other two on the way back.

After this  exercise we made our way to a great little Chinese restaurant which was strangely empty considering it was New Year. However we heard that the evening was completely booked out. The food was excellent and included a delicious ocean cod (?) with spring onions and ginger, half of which we took away and finished off for dinner.

In the afternoon A and a friend sang through some duets with me on the piano - nothing very serious, just getting to know what was in the various collections by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Faure and others.

After our dinner of leftovers we all staggered to bed obscenely early and flaked out, but not before A booked an airport shuttle for me in the morning.

This morning T and I were up fairly early and the shuttle arrived to whisk me away to the airpot where I caught the plane to Christchurch.