Bo the Poodle

On the train ride from London to Edinburgh last week I sat next to an author of children's books - Annabel Claridge - she was off to attend a book festival!

The stories are about a poodle (based on her own cute pup) who travels in time and takes part in historical events - Cleopatra, King Charles 1... Great to meet you Annabel (thanks for a copy of the book!)

Check out her website: http://www.bothepoodle.co.uk/bo/home.html

St Ives and Blakeney

After a lovely dinner at a friend's house in Wolverton (near Milton Keynes) on Thursday night, we drove through the fens (reclaimed coastal swamp land) up to Blakeney on the Coast in Norfolk on Friday afternoon for a lovely three days in the sun and country side. The gardens everywhere have been absolutely beautiful. Roses everywhere (I won't bore you with too many more rose photos - I've taken a million!!

Blakeney is a small town on the North Norfolk coast which has a tidal river/quay with lots of little boats. You can go out from here to see seals on the point and there are many and varied birds and birdwatchers in the area.

We had coffee one morning, and lunch the next at the beautiful Wiveton Hall and farm - a lovely cafe in the middle of a small farm where you can pick your own strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries and whatever else is in season. We chose to eat at the cafe instead where the menu varies daily based on what is available from the fields. Delicious!! We went for a walk in the woods around the hall and went around into the old walled garden - absolutely beautiful!! I loved the Secret Garden as a child, and as I walked through the wrought iron gate in the stone wall into the garden, I was enchanted. The garden had beautiful flower gardens (yes, more roses), fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and all sorts of goodness. I'm inspired to replant my vegie patch when I come home!

There were also mummy hens with sets of baby chicks following them around. One mum had nine chicks all of whom followed her as she wandered amongst the tables and chairs outside the cafe keeping an eye on what was happening - so cute!

Weird and interesting (or just plain traditional) English food I have eaten so far:

• Cornish pastie
• Meat and Ale Pie with peas and mash
• gooseberry crumble - hand made by my hosts!
• Fish and Chips at the pub
• Kippers - cooked on the BBQ
• pork pie

the verdict... YUM!!

Wimbledon and World Cup

We've been keeping an eye on the tennis over the past few days - the longest ever tennis game ended up going for about eleven hours and was won by John Isner of the USA. As a soon to be Frenchwoman, I was disappointed for Nicolas Mahut who lost with a final score of 70:68 in the fifth and deciding set.

Poor old England bowed out of the FIFA World Cup yesterday after being defeated by Germany 4:1. England were down 2:1 when they made a second goal that was disallowed to much hollering in pubs around the country, and went on to be defeated...

Amazingly, the headlines in the paper the next day didn't say "We was robbed!"

At least if Germany goes on to win, the Aussie first round match will look better.. :)

Birds of Prey

The raptor centre was pretty amazing with lots of birds of prey they flew from one to another. They even had a kookaburra, the offspring of a pair they got from another centre that closed.

Owls (including a star of a previous Harry Potter film), eagles and falcons were pretty impressive.

Cambridge and St Ives

We went into Cambridge yesterday and had a lovely time punting on the Cam River sharing a pitcher of Pimms! We had a tour guide who told us some of the history of the various colleges while we sailed smoothly past the ducklings and under the overhanging branches. The weather has been absolutely magnificent for the past few days and it was very relaxing and beautiful out on the boat.

We had lunch in the Anchor - one of the pubs by the river. I had a pie with potato mash and peas - very english!! We wondered what was going on as people started filling the pub, but when the tv was put on we realised it was the England Slovenia world cup match. We watched the first few minutes - there was a definite sigh of relief over here when England won the game and proceeded through to the next round... sadly not the same outcome for Australia.

Wimbledon is on over here at the moment too, and I'm hoping to go along one day next week. We thought we'd spend a little time in front of the tennis yesterday afternoon watching a game between Mahut and Isner - which was looking possible for a record breaking long match... Nearly five hours later they suspended the match due to poor light - 59 all in the fifth set!!! incredible. I'll be impressed if the two guys can walk today - let alone play tennis!

The queen is at Wimbledon today too, and the UK's great hope - Andy Murray is playing on centre court - exciting for sports fans!

We had a look through St Ives Norris Museum this morning, which has some amazing artifacts from dinosaur, roman and Napoleonic times - this really is a part of the world with lots of history. I've been for a run along the 'Great Ouse' (river) both mornings so far and seen lots of lovely swans, and even some cygnets this morning - so cute! The bridge in the middle of town has a chapel in the middle and there is a statue of Cromwell, one of St Ives more famous (infamous) sons in the middle of town.

Off to see the raptors this afternoon -birds of prey.

As I was going to St Ives...

I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats. Every cat had seven kits; kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St Ives?


Me!!

Farewell Scotland!

I've spent the past few days in Edinburgh, absolutely glorious in the warm sun of summer. The sun stayed up longer than I did, days stretching out to past ten o'clock!! Very confusing for an Aussie girl who's expecting sunset at 6 or 7 pm at the latest... Sadly still no daylight savings in Queensland...

We had a brief visit into Glasgow yesterday morning, for my goddaughter's percussion exam - so impressive, she's really musical! I spent the afternoon wandering about the Royal Mile up to Edinburgh Castle on the hill overlooking the town. The touristy part of town, I bought a huge stick of Edinburgh Rock Candy and a box of Dairy Cream Fudge.. yummo!

Mary Kings Close is an old street which still exists under the modern town - under the House of Commons. There used to be a large number of streets that ran from the Royal Mile down to the lake (where the Princes Street Gardens and train lines are now). These streets were incredibly narrow and had buildings ten stories high on either side. People lived in small houses, very close to each other and threw their 'waste' into the streets to flow down the hill into the lake... ew! "Guard i Loo!!"

I did a tour of what's left of Mary Kings Close and some of the other surrounding streets, very interesting, although it was a bit spooky and the ghost stories didn't help!!

I've said Farewell to family in Scotland and am now on the train to visit friends in Cambridgeshire. Free wi fi on the train - thanks East Coast trains!

International Cricket

Spent a lovely day in sunny Edinburgh sitting in the sun and watching Scotland v England one day international.

Scotland started strong scoring 211 runs against the English team (recent world champs for 20:20). Unfortunately the England team batted really well and managed to take out the game.

A beautiful day in the sun (I even managed to get a bit sunburnt, but only on my face as I was wearing long pants and a jacket!!)

I'm having a fantastic time spending time with my family, my young cousin and I even walked up to the town to look at the castle - impressive!!

London, Baby

Greetings from across the world!! I've arrived safely in London.

After 24 hours flying time and a an hour or so each in Singapore and Dubai, I made it! Settled in quickly with friends and slept like a log! So good to be able to lie down fully!

Heading off to Edinburgh today (bus, tube, then train) just after lunch, it feels great to be on holidays!!

Places to see

Does anyone have any ideas for must see locations? Please feel free to comment with ideas...

• La Rochelle, West Coast Fr
• Saint Marie-de-Re, West Coast Fr
• Epernay, Champagne, North Fr
• Strasbourg, North East Fr
• Les Calangues, Limestone cliffs and beaches, South Fr
• Cassis, South Fr
• Avignon
• Pont du Gard
• Le Moulin de Lourmarin
• L'Isle sur le Sourge - island in a river through the middle of town - antiques
• Orange - opera in a Roman Amphitheatre, Provence, Fr
• Les Baux de Provence
• Uzes, near the Pont du Gard
• www.theluberon.com
• 
  

Wine and Food Recommendations

Hi everyone!!

I'm looking for recommendations of the gastronomic variety..! Have you been to France or UK recently? or even Budapest? Please send me your recommendations for restaurants or regions to visit.

Here's what I have so far:

• Bras, Laguiole, France. http://www.michel-bras.com/
• Epernay - the capitol of champagne. http://www.epernay.fr/en/
• A restaurant in the hills above Napoleon used to visit?
• Strasbourg - French/German influence food. http://www.strasbourg.com/
• Bechard - patisserie, Cours Mirabeau, Aix-en-Provence, France
• Buoux - Restaurant
• Nougat - Sault, Provence, France
• Chateaux-neuf de Papes - Red wine

Itinerary

June 2010

Thursday 17 - Depart Brisbane for London, via Singapore and Dubai

Friday 18 - London to Edinburgh to visit my cousin and his family including my goddaughter

Tuesday 22 - Edinburgh to Cambridgeshire to visit the Jardines

Weekend 26/27 - Blakeney with Jardines, Caroline, Freya and Harry, and Carrie's brother Max and his family

Monday 28 - London to visit a bunch of old school friends

July and August 2010

Sunday 4 - London to Marseille, then Aix-en-Provence, Saint Cannat and my little cottage!!

Monday 5 - commence 2 week "Discover Provence" course - French language classes in the mornings and field trips and activities in the afternoons

Monday 19 - commence 2 week French language classes in the mornings

Weekend 31 July/1 August - Paris weekend with Tara!! shopping!

Saturday 28 August - depart cottage - maybe Italy?? Genova, Milan, Venice?

September 2010

Thursday 3 - Budapest for one week to visit Remi and Julie and look around

Thursday 9 - Budapest to London

Friday 10 - London to Brisbane, via Dubai and Singapore

Sunday 12 - Arrive in Sunny Brisbane - effectively missing winter for 2010!

Welcome!

Bonjour et bienvenue!

Hi, and welcome to my foray into the world of blogs!

I am heading off on "sabbatical" to France for a couple of months, to learn french, eat cheese, drink wine and have an extended break.

I'm leaving in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday 17 June and will be away for three months until mid September. I'll have a couple of weeks in the UK visiting friends and family, two months in a stone cottage in Provence and then a week in Budapest.

Stay tuned for more updates

a bientot