Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I arrived back in Australia on the 13th October after a looonnnggg trip. It took 6 hours on the bus to Heathrow, 5 hours wait there, then 14 hours flight to Singapore, then 4 hours wait there, then 8 hours flight to Brisbane, then a 5 hour wait there. I was never so glad in my life to hit the shower and recline on the couch. I was fussed and tended by my dear KISA and I slept like a log that night.

It was a quiet week, slowing getting my wonky brain back into Australian time, and it pretty much rained all the time. So although it was quite hot compared to the UK<>

One evening we got this great sunset, and we don't often catch them as we don't have a window facing west, other than the bedroom, and we keep that closed most of the time to keep it cooler. Looking down our street, the electricity poles are such an Australian sight.

Hope you don't get sick of sunsets...
The weekend after I got back, KISA and I decided to go to Eungella for a bushwalk and a picnic. He wanted to drive The Beast over the Diggings Road, and we planned a bushwalk, as I had been doing a lot of walking in England and Wales and wanted to keep the momentum going. So after a drive over the track, which The Beast took in its stride, we parked up and headed off on the Crediton walk. It was a lovely walk though the damage done by the cyclone in March was still evident.

This fallen tree is so big! Thankfully it had been sawn through, but there were plenty others we had to climb over.

The track follows the river, which makes it peaceful. It wa swarm and sunny, although plenty of rain a few days before.

No platypus were spotted, too warm now to see them in the middle of the day. We can always spot them in winter or in the early morning or at dusk. We saw this cormorant sitting on a rock drying himself off though. I am still a fan of things mossy and moist, and this log in the rainforest was no exception.

While in the Lake District with D, I bought some Cotton Trader clothes for KISA from the outlet shop in Ambleside. I am happy to report that the fitted beautifully. He looked so good, I took him out to dinner at the new Indian in town, called Marsala. I am good like that...

Week in Liverpool/ Wales/Home again

The day after we got back from the Lakes was a Sunday and D drove me to Liverpool to spend some time with L&K. We arrived early in the afternoon, and we all went to the city, which was not far away, one could walk it easily, where we had a sunday lunch at a french restuarant. It was fantastic and such a reasonable price for three courses. What else I really liked was the portions were small enough that you could actually enjoy all three courses. Over here, portions are so large that I can't remember the last time I was able to eat three courses at a restuarant. Wish I could remember its name so I could see if it had a web page!
D stayed over and drove back the next morning and L and I went down to the waterfront to check out a couple of museums. Now we would need a good week to really look at all of them, so we had to pick and choose. Today we chose the Slavery Museum and the Harbourmasters House at the waterfront. On the way down we passed the main museum. Isn't it a beautiful day? Then we walked around St Georges Hall. This is a magnificent building.

From the front (or back, not sure which). One day we were watching Antiques Roadshow at home in Oz and it was held in Liverpool in St Georges Hall. As we were watching, KISA saw a person in the background looking on and yelled out, "I know him!" Small world, huh.

This is the Liver Building, the two Liver Birds on the top are where Liverpool gets its name from. I think.

The same building from the waterfront. I was hoping to get a full shot of the three amazing buildings called the The Three Graces, but the middle one was all covered in scaffolding, and I didn't think they would uncover it just for me. Pity because it was such a great day for taking such a photo.

This is the third one, this is the Port Of Liverpool building. This was a seriously wealthy city in its hey day.

This is the Albert Dock. They used to load the ships here. Because the River Mersey has such a big tidal range, the ships had to pass through a lock system to get into this lock, where they could be loaded and unloaded without suffering the vagaries of the tide and the wind. Pretty clever, huh? It is now shops, museums and posh residences.

Just near here was the Harbourmaster's House, which is all set up as a 1940's house. It was fascinating and very interesting to see how it was during the war time. I love looking at old houses like that, domestic history being one of my interests. We then walked across to the Albert Dock to go to the Slavery Exhibition. L and I had a cup of coffee here before we went through the Slavery Museum. That was an amazing place. We came out of it thinking we were both peckish and should think about lunch. When we checked the time, it was a quarter to five!

I got this shot looking over the new constructions to get a glimpse of the older Liver Building. The glass place is a new museum, still not opened, and the one on the right is apartments. You can see boats in dry dock in the foreground. The river is just to the left.

The River Mersey and the ferry that crosses it. Go on, sing the song..you know you want to!

This is the ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast, across the river at Birkenhead.

This is a new part of the Albert Dock. Seems like it is the fashion to have a big wheel to ride around in, everywhere has got them now! This is the front door of the Port of Liverpool Building. KISA used to work here. In fact this is where he was when we first met online in 1976.

He worked in the basement, like all good IT guys did back then. This is his basement window.

This is L&K, taken the next day when we were on our way to the Liverpool Museum. We only looked at one floor, there just wasn't time to do anything else, but it was fantastic. I do miss that sort of stuff living in Australia, we don't have much cool stuff in our museums as England beat us all to it! They took me to lunch in this pub, owned by KISA's cousin. It is a real ale pub and serves boutique beers and real Liverpool food. I had Scouse, a sort of lamb stew that really sticks to your ribs, I could only eat half of it! It was a serving for a wharfie I think! The chips were the real deal too. Thank you L&K! I should have stayed longer in Liverpool, I thought L&K were working all week so arranged to go to Wales on the Wednesday. I barely scratched the surface of this amazing city. Turned out they had another day off so was sorrry to miss out another day with them. My train left about lunch time, and after two changes, I settled in on the train to LLandrindod. It took about 3 and a half hours and R met me at the station and we walked home to hers.

R's car is not ready to drive yet so we walked everywhere, which is easy to do in a village and very good for my waistline which seems to have grown since being here!

As R had to work a few hours each day as she is eased back into it after Phils' death, we had a quiet couple of days. We did some shopping and cooking and chatting over cups of tea.

On one day R and I attended a funeral of a lady who R had worked with as a young girl first arrived in Wales. We walked out to visit Phil as well.

One afternoon, we went for a stroll in the park where the spa springs that put Llandrindod on the map flow. In Victorian times, the town became popular as a place to "take the waters", so is a holiday spot. Most of the buildings are of that era. This water fountain is one of the springs, and is a water rich in iron, as you can tell by the rust marks on the base.

The track follows the stream, all lovely and green and leafy.

You can just imagine all the Victorian strolling around here taking the air and waters. Every year, the town holds a Victorian Festival, where the townspeople dress in Victorian dress for the week and attend events. A lot of tourist come to the town for this.

R said this was carved with a chainsaw! Pretty clever, I told KISA he had to refine his technique with the chainsaw!

This is the bowling green. Not a roof or artifical green in sight! What a lovely outlook! This park and the bowls club are all a few hundred yards from the centre of the town.

Another view while walking in the park.

Isn't Wales a beautiful place..this is taken on the same walk, just a bit higher up the hill. We came out in one of the streets just beyond this spot.Hard to believe it is so close to town.

One evening R and I were sitting in the conservatory enjoying a glass of wine, when we saw this amazing sunset.

I couldn't choose between these two pictures, so I put them both in.

On the last weekend I was in the UK, R and I cleaned out Phil's greenhouse and cleaned it, ready for it to spend the winter. It was a severe winter last year with lots of snow, and they are expecting much the same this year.

On the Sunday L&K cam down for their days off to help R with some odd jobs. This is the last evening I had with them, I imagine one of the last they would have spent on the deck this year as well, as the weather was starting to cool down.

The next morning they very kindly drove me to Hereford to catch my bus to Heathrow. And bought me breakfast in a genuine Greasy Spoon cafe!

I really enjoyed my extended stay in the UK and I really appreciated the opportunity to spend time, good unstructured time, with each of my sisters in law, three lovely women. I am very grateful for your generous hospitality and friendship. Thank you so much.

Week in Southport/ Lake District

LMS drove me to Sheffield to catch a train to Southport. I booked this a week early and it only cost 20 pounds. KISA's sister D picked me up and we went to their home. Because the family had to work I spent the next 4 days relaxing, pottering around the house, doing nothing much and generally being underfoot! It was very nice to not have much to do as it had been pretty busy the previous 3 weeks or so.
On the Tuesday evening we went to see a play by Oscar Wilde, it was very very good and the quality of the local dramatic group is very high. The costumes were exceptional too. D's son is involved in this theatre group and is in rehearsals for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I can't remember the last time I saw a play and the script was excellent, why it has stood the test of time I suppose.
On the Wednesday, I went down to Liverpool on the train, to spend the evening with L&K and KISA's Auntie, who was visiting that evening. We had a lovely time, lots of laughing and I slept overnight, and caught the train back to Southport the next day when the family all headed off to work.
D was working split shifts which makes for long days for her, but we spent time catching up in the afternoons and evenings. She had cleared her schedule on the Friday, so we headed up to the Lake District for a night and two days. There was some big golf thingy in Wales called the Ryder Cup starting that day so the predominately testosterone fuelled household was not going to require our presence. We headed off early with our breakfast wrapped in foil. That would be bacon and brie sandwiches!! It was teeming with rain, torrential even. Unknown to us, the Ryder Cup got postponed. It is a tribute to the optimism of the English that we even left the house! The motorway was not a joy to drive on in that weather, but never the less we made it in one piece and checked into our hotel.
I can't remember the name of it but it was in Bowness, overlooking Lake Windemere and this is the view from our room. There are lots and lots of trees here and they are just thinking of turning into their autumn colours.





This is the view from our window with the zoom. You can just see a bit of the lake through the trees.
It was still teeming and visibility was not great, so we went to The Village Inn pub for a coffee then went for a mooch through the town, seeking shelter from the weather, yet clocking up a couple of kilometers so still technically a walking holiday! We decided to return to the pub for dinner that night as the menu looked good. The rain let up long enough for us to grab some lunch at this baguette shop, this was the view from the table where we ate our sandwich. Pretty place isn't it.

On our way back to the hotel, we noticed the mist had cleared enough to see the lake and surrounds, so we took a quick picture in case the weather was foully repeated the next day. This coat was a stray found on L&K"s coat rack.

We were certainly rugged up warmly, I got a bit nervous when I saw D getting all snugged up, however it wasn't really too cold and if it wasn't raining we could have left the parkas off. D

always looks stylish! Even in a parka and hiking boots! By late afternoon, the rain and gone and we went out on the patio of the hotel and enjoyed this glorious sunset.

More hot pink ivy, the hotel walls had quite a bit of it. This seems to get in early for autumn, as the other trees were just getting started.

We went to The Village Inn pub for dinner, I had Whitby Scampi, it was delicious. D and I had a couple of bottles of champers and some strawberries and cheese back in the room. It was a great evening!

The next morning we went down to the patio again, and the weather had fined up considerably, though not what you would call sunny.

Another shot of the hotel. I should have gone down to the front and got a shot of the whole building in one go, but that would have involved walking down a near vertical driveway, and having a heart attack on the climb back up.

We decided to go for a cruise to Ambleside, since the weather was clearing, so we hopped on an open topped boat.

It was not even cold, so we had a very enjoyable cruise to Ambleside, and sat up the top all the way.

The scenery was stunning, lots of mountains. Would love to come back and walk this area for a couple of weeks.

There were some amazing buildings on the lake shore. Most are hotels I think, but may have started their lives as someone's home.

I think this one was built by a Liverpool doctor. No ancestor of ours anyway, mores the pity!

A couple of tourists asked us to take their photo, so we got them to return the favour. Even a bit sunny there!

Another grand lakeside house/hotel.

Fields, trees, mountains...drystone walls, stone cottages and sheep. I was in heaven!

Pulling into Ambleside. We stopped in front of this marina and had a coffee and a blueberry scone straight out of the oven. It was divine....

We walked a mile or so from the marina to the village and went for a meander. I found a Cotton Trader outlet shop and bought KISA a few clothes. He loves Cotton Trader, and since he got so skinny needs new stuff. So I bought us each a cotton fleece jacket, and him 4 polos and a pair of chinos. I now officially will need to get a new case as I know this stuff won't fit!

Earlier that morning as we were getting out of the lift near our room in the hotel, I saw a pen and ink drawing on the wall of a little building. It is called Bridge House. I said to D I have a model of that Bridge House in my cupboard at home, I have owned it for 20 years or so, is it nearby? I had never had any idea where it was. She said yes, it was in Ambleside, we will see it today! So here is my little model..

And here is the real thing! It is the tiniest little place, literally one room up and one room down and an outside staircase. Let's not discuss bathrooms! It is a tourist information centre now, but someone lived in once.

So so cute!

Look how small it is...

We treated ourselves to a light lunch in the village and headed back to the marina via a different route. We came across this terrace of stone houses. So precisely done.

Then my heart nearly stopped when we saw this drystone house! Not a speck of mortar are holding thoose stones in. D pointed out to me through the upstairs window, that the walls are about a metre thick, and are rendered inside. It certainly looks cosy!

This is the Youth Hostel at Ambleside. It has a great view and it right beside the pier. It was getting chilly by now, the wind was getting up. We headed back to Bowness and the car, still in the car park of the hotel. We had to drive back to Southport. It had been a lovely week, topped off by the mini break at the Lakes.