What is Rich up to?

2011-12-20T21:44:00.004+01:00

As I said in closing my last update, life's good. So good, in fact, that I've once again been so busy drinking from its merry cup that I haven't had a second to blog anything at all.

But that's about to change, my hearties, as here comes November! (In bullet form, as far as possible...)

- I drank a rum, chocolate and bacon (yes, really!) cocktail with Jürgen
- I had drinks with a bunch of gay expats (the monthly meeting is called Queer Beers!)
- I baked scones for Bénédicte, Ivi & Rüdiger
- I had dinner with Josef at Kreuzberger followed by drinks at Café Glück
- Caro visited HOORAY! and we had dinner with Michaela & Christian
- Matthias visited from Zurich and we spent a whole Sunday in Europe's biggest sauna complex in Erding, just near the airport
- I played badminton a few times and went to the gym a few times
- I caught up with Frank, Richard, Oliver, Bernie, Richard, Olaf & Peter
- I had lunch with Michaela (who is now finally, after several years, back in the EPO building just near my office HOORAY!)
- I had cocktails & a burger with Susi in Schwabing
- I went to the Skybar with Bénédicte, Marie-Laure and Corinne for a Latino night
- I had lunch and later coffee & drinks with Colin, and met his delightful friend Josephine
- I had a whole weekend of choir rehearsals, interspersed with a WHOLE WEEKEND of drinking: first with Matthias (up again from Zurich) in a variety of bars on the Friday, and then with Martin & his mates for his stag do on the Saturday...
- Karin popped in for port and cheese one evening
- The Christmas Market season started just in time for Advent, and I consumed much Jagatee and Glühwein (and indeed am continuing so to do...)
- I found a new yummy coffee place called Café Crème (with Wendy from work), which is almost up there with Café Loretta and Café Vits and the place on Viktualienmarkt!

There's one chunk of November that I just can't do justice to with bullets, namely a long weekend I spent in New York. Yay and double yay!!!!!!

I flew over on the Thursday, to be met at Newark airport by Rich's chauffeur and driven to his house in Teaneck. Paul was home, and we chatted for hours, nibbling a variety of foods that I hadn't had since last I was in the States. All rounded off with a soak in their outdoor hot tub. Ahhhhhhh.......

Friday was cool: Paul dropped me off at the park & ride and I caught the bus into Manhattan, then walked all the way through Chelsea (seeing cool galleries and the Sky Line park, a converted disused elevated railway) to the West Village to meet up with Kate at NYU Law School. We walked across to the Clinton Bakery, then grabbed a cab to Bryant Park to go ice skating. From there I caught the Subway to Long Island City and walked to Dan & Shoshana's 40th-floor penthouse apartment overlooking Manhattan - yay! Dan & I had a cheeky drink, then we headed back toward Grand Central station to have dinner with Shoshana, followed by some drinks back in LIC.

Saturday started quietly, with the splendiferous view from Dan's floor-to-ceiling windows out over Manhattan and Queens (his windows open disturbingly wide, and it would be way too easy to just topple out to your death), but things quickly got stressed when I discovered the Subway doesn't run at weekends (engineering works - felt just like London!) so I had to dash off to catch the ferry so I could walk briskly up to Grand Central to meet Claire. Thankfully she was still waiting for me, even though I was hideously late (she never got my message; bloody AT&T!)...

We went and had some brunch, chatting and catching up (she lives on the Upper East Side now with her hubby; I haven't seen Claire since a boozy evening in Düsseldorf ages ago!) before heading across to Brooklyn to meet up with her husband Noel and a friend of theirs, Lisa, to walk their dog around Prospect Park for a few hours. It was bracing weather, with a chill wind, but luckily it was mostly sunny and it was a good walk. I then tackled a journey with several changes all the way up from Brooklyn to LIC to have dinner with Dan & Shoshana in a local bistro before a spot of wine and a well-deserved, leg-restingly long sleep.

On Sunday I helped Dan reposition every single furnishing in his living room to pretty much every possible position, before finally settling on an arrangement that made what we felt was the best use of the space, with due consideration of Feng Shui, incident light, and colour coordination. Then, my (very occasional) interior-design urges satisfied, I headed back across to Manhattan on the East River ferry, and on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I met Rich, Paul and Steven. We spent a good few hours in there, heading first for the new Muslim Art suites, before going to Café Loup in the East Village for dinner followed by a few beers in Ty's. Next stop: that divine hot tub in Teaneck!

Monday was a short day. I was still knackered from walking all around New York all weekend, so another hot tub soak was definitely called for. Then Rich took me for proper Jersey pizza and on to a huge cash & carry supermarket, where I picked up a fabulous hunk of mature cheddar among other delicacies. And, before I knew it, it was time to head back to Newark airport. Rich drove me there, with a last-minute panic thanks to crazy amounts of unexpected traffic, and a few short hours later I was back in Munich, and heading pretty much straight to work from the airport.

What a MARVELLOUS weekend it had been! And what a top-notch month of amusements it was embedded in too! Amusements which have continued into December - but that, my friends, is for another blog...

2011-11-10T21:16:00.002+01:00

Folks, it's time for October!! Oh yes it is!

So I celebrated German Unification Day by unifying myself with copious amounts of beer and food at the last day of the Oktoberfest! Michaela & I had booked an afternoon table in the Hippodrom tent, and we had great seats upstairs in the cast-iron windows looking out onto the main thoroughfare of the Wiesn, seeing thousands of people milling past in various states of inebriation. We joined them after a few hours of swiling beer, shoving meat and radish into our faces, and dancing along to the oompah music.

A few rides and bumper car experiences later, we all headed to mine to devour what was left of the divine tiramisù that I'd made at Lorna's request a few days before. And I have to say, it was BLOODY good! Everyone at the Stammtisch thought so too, when I brought it (and Lorna and Bénédicte) along even later that night.

October proper started on the following day, Tuesday 4th. "The fun's over", as they say in these parts when, ahem, the fun's over. Only it wasn't! Because I had dinner with Harry & Dieter that night. And the following night was the first (and less scandalous) of two nights of entertainment with work: we had almost all our freelancers from around Europe over for a "conference". Which of course started in the Pschorr beerhall on the end of the Schrannenhalle, just off the Viktualienmarkt.

The big big night was the following night though, which started in the Kleine Schmausefalle (where the food was delicious!) and then went on to the bar called Holy Home just off Gärtnerplatz. Ronald and I left there at about 3.30am, then ended up having some more beers that we bought at the kiosk on the Reichenbachbrücke, and ultimately we crashed at mine - at 6am! On a school night!! How naughty...

After minimal sleep, we headed in to work and I somehow actually managed to function. At least, until the end of the working day. Then I headed to Christoph's place and five of us drove to our choir rehearsal weekend in Blaubeuren. I was only half-alive during the journey - and barely more awake during the two-hour rehearsal that night, to be honest!

Saturday and Sunday were much more awake days. We did a WHOLE LOT of singing - but still managed to find time to visit the Blautopf, an exceptionally blue lake that leads into a vast underground complex of caves and rivers, and the monastery. It was bizarre to walk around in all these little cloisters and to be reminded so strongly of being a student at Oxford. I suppose I'd never realised quite how religious the architecture of my university is/was.

The weather in Blaubeuren was proper chilly! It felt like the official end of summer - but then again, we've been saying that with every (occasional) grey day, only to be stunned by how gorgeous it turns again. On Sunday evening I popped in on Michaela before heading over to Ivi & Rüdiger's to listen to some cool music. A mellow end to a crazy week.

The following week something very special happened: Harry won two tickets to see Kraftwerk live! When he asked me I nearly fell off my chair. I was so excited!! Not that I'd consider myself a huge Kraftwerk fan really, but the chance to see them live - their first concert on German soil in 12 years - really captured my imagination. And OMG the concert was AMAZING!!!!!!!

Their retro 3D visual show was mesmerising - as was the only partially disguised smirk of absolute joy that kept slipping across the face of the fourth band member, a newbie who replaces one of the original four sexagenarians (who were all of course standing there, totally cool). And the music was, well, Kraftwerk, baby! (Hah! iTunes has decided to play a Kraftwerk tune as I write these very words!)

On Friday I flew to London - as you do - and headed straight to the Royal College of Music, for a performance of Handel's Flavio with Hugh. It was crazy seeing an opera with not one but two countertenors, and the costumes were rich and enticing - especially the frock coats! Afterwards we headed back to Hugh's and drank a vintage sauternes, which was ably accompanied by Hugh's mince cheesecake.

On Saturday I had brunch with Hugh & Lee in a little place tucked away in an alley near his place in Old Street. Then Hugh & I spent the whole day just wandering around London. The weather couldn't have been better: blue skies, warm, not a cloud to be seen, but not hot. Marvellous. The views of St Paul's cathedral from atop the new shopping centre that stands where once was Steve & Jezza's offices were great.

After fortifying ourselves with bread & cheese (& ales & alcoholic ginger beer) back at Hugh's we headed across town to Hyde Park and then wandered slowly into Mayfair, to the Coach & Horses pub. This was the venue for our "OMG it's 20 years since we started at Oxford" gathering of a trusty band of Worcesterites: Foggy, Steve, Jezza, Hugh, Justin, H, Rupert, Nick & me. Still going strong, after all these years. Some are married, some are fathers, and all are still up for a huge meal and lots of booze. Friends!

After an evening of reminiscing, Hugh & I felt the urge to embrace the here & now a little, so we headed into Vauxhall for a boogie - ending up in a gay & lesbian R&B disco. Now THERE's something I never thought I'd live to see!! But I suppose if you're going to have an event like that anywhere, it'll be in London...

On Sunday I met up with Em for coffee and a gossip at the Tate Modern, before heading out to Justin & Sam's for a proper old Sunday roast, and then Justin kindly dropped me in Guildford at Chris & Kate's, where I met Sophie's lizard for the first time. Owing to shite organisation on my part, Chris very very kindly woke up at OMG o'clock to take me to Gatwick airport, whence I flew home to Munich and went straight to work. Ouch.

Yes, folks, we're only HALFWAY through the month! But don't worry, it gets less detailed from here on in. I had dinner at a yummy Italian near my office with Silke (she used to live round the corner from there), went to see Ivi DJing in Paradiso club with Stefan, went to a tiny Liszt concert in the Künstlerhaus (that used to be the Mövenpick restaurant) with Béné, went partying with Bernd, sang in an amazing choir concert (Beethoven's Missa Solemnis - we rocked it!), and had schnitzel with Mikey & Fritz.

The last week of the month went like this: badminton, Stammtisch in Haidhausen, gym, choir, dinner with Josef, a Männerrunde dinner in Sendling, helping Edith & Chris move house with Christian and lots of other lovely people, dinner at Béné's, drinks in town, and a day trip to Schliersee with Ivi, Rüdiger, Ivan and Tamaris - followed by my own bodyweight in delicious Bavarian fare at Liebhart's in Aying.

And the last day of the month - unexpectedly a day off, when Anton decided to close the office - I spent with Michaela & Russ, first watching Thor with the boys, and then having a few pints in the Forschungsbrauerei. Then I popped in at Bar Teatro, just to say hi to Ivana, before cycling across town to Schwabing to celebrate Anja's birthday in the Salon Irkutsk, with Erwin, Uli, Heidrun, and a whole bunch of other people. So many parties all in one day! Life's good.

2011-10-20T23:01:00.003+02:00

I've just realised that September should be pretty quick to blog too. Seeing as it mostly consists of drinking FAR TOO MUCH beer at the Oktoberfest and other similarly alcohol-inspired events...

Lorna came to visit, and we went with Michaela & Russ to the Erdinger Herbstfest, a mini-Oktoberfest in a nearby small town that gives you an idea of what the Oktoberfest was probably like 50 years ago: smaller, less crowded, cheaper, and altogether charming! We headed back into town and ended up drinking monster G&T's at the Pestalozzistraßenfest. And then finishing the night in a VEEERY dodgy bar called Rendezvous.

The baking hot weather was fabulous at weekends. One highlight was a day spent at Feringasee with Bénédicte, Corinne and Eric. We were the only group to have brought a full-on picnic hamper with us; everyone else just had a towel to lie on, but we had apéritif, champagne, wine, and food! (How I love my French friends!)

I had Dietmar & Dirk down for a few days from Leipzig - at last a chance for me to repay the hospitality they always show me when I'm visiting them! And the first weekend of the Oktoberfest was full of activities: brunches, dinners, parties, and of course the big all-day event in the Bräurosl tent on the Sunday. Ouch my head.

For the middle weekend I had Hamish & Duncan visiting from Scotland. And for the last weekend Lorna was back in town! We did a non-beer day on the Saturday, instead lying by the Isar in the baking sun and polishing off two bottles of prosecco and one of aperol!

But I've just realised that that weekend was already in October, so I'd better stop there...

2011-10-20T22:50:00.002+02:00

August. In a nutshell. Promise.

The weather finally started perking up. Just in time for Christine's birthday party on the shores of Lake Weßling. Followed later that evening by Anja's exhibition out in Baldham. Although the sun had set by the time I got there. Didn't stop me drinking prosecco though.

Lunch in town, dinner with friends, drinks all over. Beergarden visits - with no rain! A Senegalese jazz evening. Riding my bike along the Isar. More business trips to Stuttgart.

And a fabulous fabulous fabulous week with family in Austria! It was as close to the lazy summer days of my childhood as I can possibly get now: watching my nephews & nieces enjoying splashing about in the river or running around in the fields. Eating & drinking. Spending time together. And feeling the intensity of the bonds of love with my brother & sister and their families. Marvellous.

We did touristy stuff as well as gushy bonding stuff though! Foremost among the things we did was a four-hour archaeology tour of the salt mines at Hallstatt, where we got to see the world's oldest wooden staircase. Yes, as a supposed friend of mine pointed out, Austrians have been burying people underground for thousands of years!

I'll finish on the Weindorf festival in Stuttgart, which was really cute: a cross between the Oktoberfest, a wine festival, and a Christmas market. Followed by grungy beers in a grungy bar in the centre of town with my new Bosch friends. Great!

2011-09-01T23:06:00.001+02:00

So, it’s about time I wrote about July now. It being September and all that…

Well, the early part of the month was lovely in a local Munich way. You know, meals and drinks with friends. Christoph’s 50th birthday was an early highlight. There was a tasty barbecue with my French demoiselles at Béné’s place. And of course Stammtisch at the Kloster.

And then it was time to fly to Spain! Yippee! I SO TOTALLY love that country. Even if, as on this occasion, my holiday starts with a killer five-hour drive from Madrid to Seville. But even that turned out to be fabulous in the end, because I was just driving into Seville as the sun was setting, so I got to enjoy golden skies, inky black silhouettes, and the white skyline of the city all in pinks and purples. Fabulous.

In Seville I caught up with Pete from Melbourne, and for the next week we had a whale of a time travelling all over the place and generally living life to the tapas-fuelled full. On the Sunday we did Seville on foot, on Monday we hit Cádiz and ended the day in Jérez with a tour round the sherry bodega of Tío Pepe followed by incredible arroz negro in a bar just near the main square.

On Tuesday we saw an amazing horse & carriage display at the Andalusian Equestrian School and then drove off to Portugal, where we stopped in the delightful little seaside resort of Tavira. We hit the beach at this jewel of the Algarve the next day, then drove up and into the centre of Portugal to visit the UNESCO World Heritage town of Évora. Such beauty! Followed by a mad night dash to Badajoz, so I wouldn’t have to attempt to speak Portuguese when booking accommodation (what a coward I am!).

Badajoz showed us its delights on Thursday morning, but I was much more impressed by Cáceres, which is a truly gorgeous mediaeval town on a hill. My mouth was made happy there too, with a huge plate of pungent meats, sausages and cheese. Oh yeah! Then we drove on to Salamanca, where I hadn’t been for almost 20 years. But the place is just as lovely as I remember it. We found ourselves a cute little hotel right in the centre, then went exploring in the evening light. Marvellous.

Friday was a day of milling about Salamanca in no particular hurry, just soaking the place up. We strolled out to the main station and back into the old town, passing through the gigantic Plaza Mayor with a pause for people-watching, before heading on over the ancient bridge and walking along the river, gazing with satisfaction at the spires and towers of the city across the water. There is so much to see there, I can’t do it justice in this abbreviated blog. Just go there yourself! You’ll love it. And you’ll love the sangría at Bar Libre. Find it. It’s worth it.

On Saturday I bade farewell to Pete and took myself off to Ávila – another fabulous fabulous hilltop town, this one with perfect city walls right round – before reaching my final destination, Madrid. I left the car at the airport and then headed into the centre of town to enjoy one last evening of Spanish fiesta feeling, before flying home the next day. (I just had a big sigh thinking about how amazing that week was!)

But I had no time to wallow in memories, because no sooner had I reached Munich than Rainnie turned up again too! We had a cheeky beer at the Nockherberg before heading to Mama again for Vietnamese goodness with Christian and then coffee and gin & tonics at mine. She shot off by train for foreign climes the next morning...

The rest of the week was enjoyable too, in a I-live-and-work-really-centrally-in-a-cool-city kind of way: lunch and dinner with different people pretty much every day, plus a spot of table tennis with Sabine at the table by the river just outside my office. The crowning event of the week, though, was Lydia’s birthday party in Karlsfeld. The weather had turned shite again, but that didn’t stop us from having a fabulous time drinking beer and roasting a whole pig. And then I headed to Martin & Barbara’s double birthday party in Pasing. Life’s good!

The last week of July was good, but once again it was the weekend that made it. I flew to Amsterdam with Béné and we were met off the plane by Kim & Linda, and then later by Rainnie, who’d got the train over from Hamburg. The weekend was a truly delightful and delicious one with all of my (okay, Béné’s really, but they’re mine now too) Amsterdam Frenchies. The afternoon at the Brouwerij t’IJ and the barbecue at Nath & Marcel’s were so cool. So was the couple of hours wandering around the centre of Amsterdam with Rainnie and the picnic by the river to play boules with Dutch stoners and drink red wine in the setting sun.

And, before we cared to know it, it was time to fly home. I’m really glad we decided to stay the extra night and fly home on the Monday morning, because it meant we could really enjoy Sunday to the full (even squeezing in a cheeky return visit to Canvas op de 7de) without stressing about getting to the airport. And then, at Schiphol, it was time to hug Rainnie for the last time on her Europe tour, as she was flying home to Australia that very day. See you again soon, I hope, gorgeous girl!

2011-07-24T15:33:00.003+02:00

Man, this whole blog delay is getting way out of hand. Here's June in a nutshell:

I flew to Cologne on Thursday 2nd, caught a train to Düsseldorf, had lunch with Lorna, then we flew to Prague, had dinner, wandered the streets of the old town by night, and finally headed back to our plush central hotel after a cheeky martini.

The next morning we flew to Odessa to marvel at the differentness-yet-sameness of it all (it feels like another universe, but then you keep being reminded that you're in Europe after all) as we were transferred to our plush central apartment. We wandered about the streets of this giant but crumbling but rapidly refurbishing pastel-coloured jewel of 19th-century urban grandeur, adrift in a non-English-speaking universe of impressions, stopping for blini and vodka near the exquisite opera house, and later drinking delicious Crimean champagne all evening.

Saturday was to be our beach day. We walked through Odessa's Shevchenko park to the beach and lay among what sounded like almost solely locals to cook in the Black Sea sun all afternoon. Dinner by the beach was accompanied by more Crimean champagne, before we walked back into town for more drinks along Deribasovskaya Street, the bars-and-restaurants drag.

On Sunday morning we had one last walk through the old town, this time heading a little further north to take in some faded-glory inner suburbs, before having lunch on the terrace of a pretty restaurant serving Georgian food (I had khachapuri - yum!) and then heading to the airport. Back in Prague, we checked in to the airport hotel, then headed into the old town for a wander (including a Mediterranean food and wine festival) and some dinner in a rip-off restaurant right on the main square.

Monday morning saw us rising at a distinctly ungodly hour to head back to Düsseldorf. Lorna headed straight to work; I headed to Cologne and lay idly in the (much weaker) sun in a park in town, before making my way to the airport - only to be held on the tarmac for an hour and a half while a monster thunderstorm closed Munich airport - and we were simultaneously battered by an only slightly less ferocious storm ourselves. Finally, back in Munich, I rounded off my day with a drinkie with my Stammtisch friends at our usual haunt, the Kloster in Haidhausen.

The second June weekend saw me cooking paella for Fritz & Bénédicte, having lunch with Andreas & Christian, then coffee with them at Michaela's, watching the musical Hair at the Deutsches Theater with Michaela, Vera & Stephanie, and then having dinner with Andreas & Christian at Mama, my all-time favourite crazy Vietnamese.

The next week I was in Stuttgart on business, so I managed to visit Dieter again while I was there. Back in Munich, I managed a mini tour of beeergardens, including the Augustiner on Thursday, the courtyard of the Hofbräuhaus on Friday (with Jezza, who was over hosting a conference), and the Nockherberg on Sunday for Michaela's birthday (where we managed to eat stacks of food outdoors despite the hideous weather). On Saturday night I had a most satisfying game of Monopoly with Ryan, Charlie, Dan & Dave. It was really nice to spend quality time with the kids!

During the final week of June I took Dan & Dave to Bar Teatro for quality tapas, had lunch with Béné at my favourite coffee place Vits, and went to the theatre with Christian, Sabine & Rudi (who were freshly married!), before flying to London for a long weekend with Rainnie & Kat and then with Hugh & Lee. It was fantastic! Lots of beers in pubs around Old Compton Street and a delicious Chinese meal at HK Diner on the Thursday, then lunch with Steve at Bishopsgate & coffee with Chris at Broadgate & drinks in the Southwark Tavern with Kat & Rainnie before a slap-up tapas dinner at Brindisa near London Bridge on Friday, rounded off with too many alcoholic ginger beers at a dodgy pub in Leyton near Rainnie's house.

On Saturday Rainnie & I met Hugh at Borough Market, where we had a delicious coffee at Monmouth (truly the best I've ever drunk in London) before wandering through the market and buying too much cheese at Neal's Yard Dairy, then having a drink at the National Trust-owned George pub. After that Hugh & I headed to Lee's place for dinner before going out for a boogie and a gawp at XXL (from which club I returned home at 5am - and yes, the sun was already up!). Sunday was a relaxing one, with a quick coffee at Look Mum No Hands (wow! another excellent coffee in as many days!) and then a quick swim in the pool at Hampstead Heath with Hugh, before a lazy game of backgammon on the lawn outside Lee's place and then dinner at his. What a relaxed weekend!!

The last week of June was a chance for more beergarden touring on my part: first the Hirschgarten with my choir crowd on Monday, then Wiener Platz with Fritz on Tuesday (which was HEAVING!), and then the EPO summer party (which sort of counts as a beergarden since we were sitting on trestle tables) on Friday. With the most incredible roast pork dinner I've ever had the honour of eating on Wednesday at lunchtime with Christiane at "Maria". I am SO going to go back there.

I'll end this rather long nutshell of an account with two things that I've been meaning to mention in my blog for a long time. The first is that something I thought physically impossible happeneed on the Isar river one afternoon, as I was lying there soaking up some lunchtime rays (well, it IS opposite my office, after all): a mother was blowing giant soap bubbles for her child, and these were drifting off upstream. Then there was this one bubble that floated down onto the water. I watched it and fully assumed it would burst on impact. But no! It actually not only survived contact with the water, but actually threw up a bow wave as it ploughed into the river, fighting the current for some two or three whole seconds before its eventual demise!!

And the second thing I want to write about is one of the beautiful and precious luxuries of living in Munich, namely its seeming lack of crime. This story is based on multiple stupidity on my part, which is balanced by the multiple loveliness of people here. Three times I did something silly, and three times I was spared the potentially disastrous consequences.

First, I left my iPod resting on my bike saddle during a whole two hours of badminton, only to find it NOT stolen upon my return. Second, I left my house keys stuck in my bike lock during a whole choir rehearsal, only to find neither they nor indeed my bike had been stolen when I finished singing.

And third, I was cycling along at speed up the Giesinger hill when an even faster cyclist managed to catch up with me and flag me down. It transpired that I had dropped my keys out of my pocket (or out of my bag on the back of the bike; I'm not sure), he had seen it happen, had stopped to pick them up, and then chased after me up the hill to return them. I was lucky he was such a sporty type (you know, lycra shorts, racing bike, not an ounce of fat on him) because not many people would have had the power to catch up with me on that stretch of bike path (which sounds arrogant, but I actually cycle quite fast).

So there you go: three reasons to love Munich even more than I already did.

2011-06-23T18:41:00.000+02:00

Okay, so where were we? Oh yes, I was whizzing back to Germany on a speedy French TGV train to visit Matthias in Karlsruhe. Well, that's pretty much what happened! Matthias met me off the train and we headed to a little restaurant in a little village near the French border where all they serve is chicken. Not even chips. Just chicken, and a slice of bread. Oh, and beer of course. And the chicken comes in various grades of spicy. It was really rather tasty.

We spent the night in the caravan Matthias shares with a group of his work colleagues. It's in France - so I was back over the border almost before I'd left! - but still onlny just up the road from Karlsruhe. I love the increasing irrelevance of land borders! I've also never actually stayed overnight in a caravan before. I was a little apprehensive of the titchiness of it all, but in fact it was pretty spacious - and there were two things that were marvellous: the fridge full of beer that night and the fabulous coffee machine the following morning!

Because it was a very early start the next day so Matthias could bring me back to Karlsruhe for my train to Stuttgart, where once again I was spending a few days on business. I was staying in a hotel in Gerlingen, a little suburb-type town out to the northwest of the city, and this time I didn't even bother going in to Stuttgart proper of an evening. Instead I took it easy in Gerlingen, eating at a nice open-air café near the hotel, and generally chilling.

I got back to Munich on the Thursday night - and the Friday was my birthday!!!! Loads and loads of people came, despite the hideous weather - although, ironically, even though the rest of Munich was suffering Biblical deluges and diabolical thunderstorms, it didn't actually rain at all in the beergarden round the corner from my house where I was having my party. Just a few drops, and then dry!

Dry is NOT how I'd describe my beverage choices for the night though: it all started with a cheeky couple of Ramazottis at my place with Julia from work (we'd left before five because I'd said to people I'd be in the beergarden from five). Perhaps I drank them a little too quickly. Or was it the cheeky schnaps that followed them?

Anyway, I'm convinced I didn't have more than three litres of beer at the beergarden - but it seemed to be enough. MAJOR chunks of the evening missing from my head! It all ended really late at mine, fittingly enough, with a few die-hard drinkers seeing me into the first day of my 39th year on this planet...

And the next day I had to party some more, because Franck was having his delayed birthday party in the form of a massive paella cook-up at his place - with plenty of delicious French wine and delicious delicious French cheeses!

The final week of May was lovely. The weather settled back into being warm and sunny, and I did plenty of eating and drinking with friends at lunch and dinner. On the Saturday I caught the train to Augsburg to visit Matthias, who cooked me birthday pizzas - yum! And that was pretty much that.

2011-06-07T19:28:00.000+02:00

A bit like the weather, May was getting better and better. A few (working) days of light relief ensued for my liver, featuring badminton, singing, lunch with Karin, lunch with Karen & Michaela, and drinks with Fritz. And then, that weekend, came the next May adventure: a long weekend in Brittany...

I got up hideously early to catch the tram to catch the train to catch the plane. I saw the sun rising over the fields to the northeast of Munich as I whizzed along in the S-Bahn to Munich airport. The flight was over in a jiffy – there was just time for a croissant and a glass of water (no juice was offered!) – and at Charles de Gaulle I worked out over an overpriced sandwich and a disgusting espresso how to get to Versailles in the light of the drivers’ strike on the RER suburban trains.

From Gare du Nord I was obliged to jump on the Métro and take line 4 to Montparnasse; this took somewhat longer than the RER option would have, but it meant I got to see a classic side of Paris – and was reminded of London’s Underground a number of times (crowded trains; ’30s tiling on the walls of the underground walkways; the press of urban hustle & bustle). At Montparnasse I had another disgusting espresso and then headed for my local train to Versailles.

On the way to Versailles Chantiers, where I was to meet Vincent & the others, I saw a fabulous view of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower and the Tour Montparnasse to the right and all the glittering tower blocks of La Défense to the left, and the broad expanse of Paris lying in between the two. At Chantiers I went out the back exit as instructed and then saw a Japanese woman looking slightly lost. I guessed – rightly, as it turned out – that this was Vincent’s friend Megumi, and together we made our way to his office building.

At one o’clock Vincent emerged and soon after his wife Natasha & her friend Anya turned up. We all jumped in the car and made our way westwards on the Route Nationale, stopping for a quick (mercifully not disgusting) espresso near Verneuil sur Arvre and stopping for a longer walk around (and bakery run) at Fougères, the gateway to Brittany with a huge castle.

Our next stop, after a longish traffic jam on the Autoroute, was Vincent’s village, Béninze, on the Rhuys peninsula south of Vannes on the south coast of Brittany. We were met in his family’s house by Hugh, Lee, Patricia & Steven. After a dinner of snails disguised as mushrooms so as not to shock the English, we drank rather a lot of wine before turning in for the night (luckily, it’s a big house and there were plenty of beds for everyone).

It had been great fun talking with Megu (from Japan), Natasha & Anya (from Russia), Vincent (from France), and Hugh, Lee, Patricia & Steven (all Brits) about all sorts of things, and in all sorts of languages – well, okay, in English & French mainly, but with a smattering of Russian and Japanese thrown in. Nobody was in a position to talk German with me, but that was okay. I get to do that pretty much every day anyway!

The next day, our first full day in Brittany, we had a classic French breakfast of croissants, coffee, jams & stuff and then walked down the road to the 15th-century tidal mill called Pen Castel. This sits in the Golfe du Morbihan, a huge gulf that is connected to the ocean by a very small opening at nearby Port Navalo and consequently has some bizarre tidal behaviour – not to mention lots of islands, peninsulas, and bird sanctuaries.

We walked along the beach (it was low tide) and round to where the oyster beds are, opposite the village where Vincent’s mother was born. From there we walked back to the house along dappled tree-lined footpaths that led along the coast and through fields back to Béninze. These paths used to be the domain of salt smugglers in days of yore.

Vincent’s village of Béninze is itself very charming. It is made up mostly of large houses that generations of sea captains have built for themselves and their families using the money they get when they retire from the Navy. The houses are sometimes very old (like the one we were staying in, which was from th 17th century) but sometimes very new. But they all had lovely gardens, and even the verge of the village road was delightful with poppies ofvarious different colours and other lovely flowers. The white stone houses had a style all of their own that sometimes reminded me of England and sometimes of Ireland but was basically just Breton.

All this walking was giving us an appetite, and so we headed to a crêperie just outside the village of Boderin for some delicious Breton galettes: crêpes made with white wheat flour called sarrazin. There was plenty of cider to wash them down – both the savoury ones with local meats and the sweet ones with local salted caramel sauce. And a bottle of Telenn Du, a Breton beer that tastes remarkably like stout.

Our next stop was the Atlantic beach just near the castle of Suscinio, where we made the most of the gorgeous sunshine. In Brittany, you take the sun whenever you can, just like the rest of the Celtic lands in the top left corner of Europe… After a good few hours of lying doing nothing (except saying goodbye to Lee, Patricia & Steven who were driving back to England), it was time to hit the supermarket and prepare to cook dinner. This was followed with a cheeky drink in the gulf-side village of Logeo before a well-earned night’s sleep.

On Sunday I decided to actually burn some of the many, many calories I was pushing into my face in the form of beer, cider, wine, butter, flour, sugar, cheese, meat, more butter, and more booze: I would cycle with Hugh to the beach rather than ride in Vincent’s car. We headed off through Arzon (stopping at the bakery to buy quikg amann butter & sugar cakes for the beach) to Port Navao, where we looked at the opening of the Gulf before heading to a market to pick up some rhubarb, to make Vincent some rhubarb crumble – his favourite English dessert.

After dropping the rhubarb back at the house, we headed to the nearby Atlantic beach of Kerver, just near the village of Tumiac. It’s a nudist beach – naughty! And the weather was absolutely perfect for a bit of sunbathing: not a cloud in the sky. The sea was very fresh, however, so I only went in the once – and even then, when I got out again, it felt like my arms were on fire. Whether from the shock of the cold or the effects of the evaporation, I don’t know.

A few hours later we cycled along to Port Crouesty, a marina and shopping area that was built maybe 20 years ago, for a bite to eat. We also called in on a shop specialising in Breton goodies, where I accidentally bought loads of buttery sugary deliciousness. Then, back at home, we ate even more, in the form of a barbecue (with me in charge of the meat!) and rhubarb crumble (which me & Hugh made) and more yummy cheeses. France is dangerous for my waistline.

On our last full day, which started chilly and overcast, I accompanied Vincent and Megu to the gulf-side beach of Le Poul, where they spent a couple of hours collecting clams while I sat or lay sleeping or thinking and generally recharging my batteries. Oh, and I threw a few rocks into the quicksands to see whether they would get sucked down into oblivion, but they didn’t. Probably not heavy or wriggly enough.

We headed for lunch to Port Crouesty again, this time for moules frites (mussels and chips), again washed down with local cider, and followed by a pancake slathered in salty caramel sauce. By the time we’d finished lunch the weather had turned gorgeous, so we headed back to the Atlantic beach near Tumiac for a few hours. I am seriously pretty brown now – all over… Dinner that evening was pasta accompanied by all the clams Vincent and Megu had caught that morning – exquisite!

And so, too soon, our last day had arrived. We spent the morning cleaning up the house in readiness for standing empty again until the next visit by someone from Vincent’s family. Then Vincent took me & Hugh to Vannes station, where we boarded our TGV to Paris. We were lucky enough to sit together for much of the journey, but in the end the train was so full that we had to split up to our booked seats. I ended up talking about all sorts with a retired civil engineer who – as luck would have it – lives in a small village just near Béninze.

In Paris, we had time for a quick coffee before I had to head for my next train. And that’s what I’m sitting in now, on my way to Karlsruhe to see my friend Matthias. So I think I’ll stop there and start watching the French countryside whizz by (you’ve got to hand it to the French: their high-speed trains really are high-speed – and they don’t mess about with loads of intermediate stops. It’s Paris to Strasbourg in a oner!)

PS Note to observant readers: no, I'm no longer on board the TGV heading for Strasbourg. I wrote this a while ago...

2011-06-01T23:31:00.000+02:00

But there was more to April than Rainnie & Kat's visit (although that was fantastic enough as it was!)...

The last week of April (the week after Easter) consisted mainly of seeing friends I hadn't seen for a long while. During the week I had a drink with Frank, I had lunch with Felix, and I had a couple of drinks with Fritz.

Then at the weekend I had dinner with a whole bunch of guys: out of the madness that was the Starkbierfest, a new Stammtisch has been born! In the end there were 18 of us dining together in the Ennstaler Stubn, an Austrian restaurant in Munich's Slaughterhouse district.

The weekend continued in an alcoholic vein, with lunch at Viktualienmarkt with Bénédicte followed by an afternoon of beer and giggles at the Chinese Tower beergarden in the English Garden, with Michaela (briefly), Tim, Tim's mum & her partner, the boys, and Veronika plus a friend of hers. It was a CLASSIC beergarden afternoon & evening: you can't remember anything much of what was said, but you know it was all a total laugh at the time!

Sunday was once again not that liver-friendly: I met up with friends at the Maibaumfest (maypole party) in the Glockenbach. The weather was threatening to be shite, but it stayed dry long enough for me to have a few beers with Felix, Peter, Bernd, Ralph, and Wolfgang from Salzburg. When it started tipping down, me & Felix went to the cinema (where I ran into Alasdair and then Petar - coincidences!) to watch a film about a gay Turkish policeman in Berlin who falls in love with his girlfriend's cousin. The acting was pretty dire, but the story was cute (as were the guys).

The rain had thankfully stopped by the time we came out from the film, so we headed back to the Fest and caught up with Ralph & Wolfgang, who had been joined by Otto, Klaus, Mikey and Declan. After another couple of beers, we ended up heading for Schnitzels at the Krablergarten, where we dined with Jame & Ralph.

I thought my liver could really do with a rest at this point, so I decided to cycle home. But then a glance at my mobile phone changed my plans: Bénédicte had invited me to dinner at hers with Marie-Laure to pre-celebrate her birthday. I couldn't resist! (Sorry, liver.)

And so it was May. The first highlight of the month was Bénédicte's birthday party weekend, festivities for which started on the Friday night at the Frühlingsfest (Spring Festival; a mini-Oktoberfest if you will). Lots of Bénédicte's friends had flown in for the occasion: Kim, Linda, Nathalie, Marcel and Véronique from Amsterdam, plus Aleks from Berlin. We were joined at the Fest by Marie-Laure, Franck, Corinne, Eric, and a few other EPO people. Oompah music, grilled chicken, litres of beer, dancing on tables. The works.

On Saturday I played tour guide for Béné's visitors. I took them on a zig-zaggy walk through the centre of town, ending up at Spöckmayr for lunch - at 4pm! I thought we might have a choice of dining options by that time, but the whole city was heaving with people. It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day - but I haven't seen the streets thronged like that since I don't know when!

Our late lunch was followed by coffee at Vits - where else? - and a nice walk along the Isar to the Auer Dult market on my side of the river, where I introduced everyone to elderflower champagne - mmmmh! From there we headed back to Bénédicte's place and partied the night away. There are lots of incriminating photos which I SHAN'T be posting...

The weekend was rounded off by an all-afternoon choir rehearsal just for the men's voices. It was a crime to be sat indoors singing when it was so gorgeous outside! But we knocked off reasonably early and Bernd, Martin & I cycled along to the Thurn & Taxisgarten beergarden near Nymphenburg castle for a cheeky one before the sun went down. From there I cycled all the way round to Bénédicte's for a fabulous leftovers-from-the-party dinner with Corinne, Marie-Laure, Kim & Linda. I was actually struggling to drink alcohol. It was time for the weekend to end!

2011-05-29T11:27:00.000+02:00

So let's talk about April:

Yay!!!! Rainnie and Kat came to visit!!!!

At long, long last, Rainnie is in Europe and has finally been able to come and visit me! And the cherry on the cake was that Kat came along too for a long weekend. We hadn’t been together the three of us since the Philippines back in ’07, when I was there diving with Christian. Of course we made sure to get together all four of us too. Such fun!

The weather was absolutely spectacular for the whole time Rainnie was over, with gorgeous sunny days in glorious succession – and rising temperatures to boot. We managed to do SO MANY cool things too, thanks to it being Easter and me consequently having lots of time off work.

The girls flew into Memmingen (sorry, ahem, Munich West) on Friday afternoon and I met them at Hauptbahnhof after work. After a coffee disaster in the station followed by a coffee delight at Vits, we walked up past the Deutsches Museum and along to the Nockherberg, where we proceeded to drink the first of many, MANY beers. And ate the first pile of many, MANY cheeses.

Saturday was a day for walking around Munich, first to look for shoes for Rainnie, then for coffee at Café Glockenspiel, a cheeky beer in the beergarden in the inner courtyard of the Hofbräuhaus (which I’d never sat in, bizarrely enough), more heavenly coffee at Vits with Christian, and a quick wander through the new Globetrotter outdoor clothes shop (replete with low-temperature area, low-air-pressure area, and a whole lake to see if your kayak floats).

From there we walked through the Viktualienmarkt and past Gärtnerplatz, admiring all the little shops, to catch a tram up my hill for a long lazy afternoon & evening at the Nockherberg, this time in the garden (at least to start with). We were joined there by Michaela & the boys, and it ended up being a classic beergarden session, with lots of bollocks being talked and lots of fun being had by all!!

On Sunday, Christian came to pick me & the girls up and we all headed to Michaela’s for a champagne breakfast. Then at lunchtime I took Rainnie & Kat to Tegernsee, where we walked around town, ate ice cream, had a sit on a pebble beach at the lakeside, and then retired to the beergarden of the Tegernseer brewery. We were a bit beered out, to be honest, after the excesses of the night before, but it was lovely just to enjoy the hot hot sun and then head back to Munich for a calm evening at mine.

On Monday I had to be back at work (sniff!) but I met the girls for lunch at Kaimug on Sendlinger Straße and a coffee at the place that does Danesi coffee on Müllerstraße – yum! In the evening I took them to Blue Nile, my favourite Ethiopian restaurant in Schwabing. We stuffed our faces and then waddled back through Schwabing and into town before heading home.

Tuesday was the day Kat had to head home. Boo hoo! It had been such a lovely visit!! But at least I didn’t have to get too depressed, because Rainnie was staying for another whole week! I met Rainnie for lunch at L’Angolo – only we took our sandwiches down to the Isar to enjoy the summer-like sun. In the evening we had dinner at Michaela’s place.

On Wednesday evening I met up with Rainnie after work for coffees at two different places along Pestalozzistraße. Then I headed to my choir rehearsal – for the first time since I had been ill on the day of the concert – but because in fact my throat was sore again and my cold was back (albeit with reduced severity, thank heavens) Holger the choirmaster sent me home again. So I used the sudden spare couple of hours to at last change my tyres on my bike back to the summer ones. Something was telling me that I wouldn’t be needing those spiked winter treads for a while…

I took Rainnie to Vits for lunch on Thursday after we’d hired her a bike just near my office. Then I headed with her upstream along the Isar for a bit before heading – with a slightly heavy heart – back to work. That evening I took her to Prinz Myshkin. I thought it would be a real treat to take Rainnie to a fine vegetarian restaurant, but in fact the food was a little disappointing – and the wines hideously expensive. Not sure I’ll be back there again in a hurry, sad to say, however delicious the Malai Kofta cashew nut balls are. I drowned our prandial sorrows with a drink at Nil followed by a cheeky schnaps whilst waiting for the tram at Moro.

Good Friday was the start of four days of madness. Rainnie & I caught the train to Füssen, where we had a bite to eat before catching the bus to Neuschwanstein castle. Oh My God. The queues were like midsummer tourism madness! (In fact, we were later to discover that the crowds were indeed comparable to a busy summer’s day – with the added nightmare that there was only a skeleton off-season staff on hand to deal with everyone, poor things.)

Because we had a four-hour wait before we would be allowed into the castle, we decided to go up the next-door mountain in a cable car. I didn’t realise that Rainnie had a problem with heights, so it took me by surprise when she clung on to my arm for dear life on the way up – and the way down! But once we were at the top it was great. We watched intrepid hang-gliders jumping into thin air from a special ramp off the side of the slope before heading back down.

From the base of the cable car we walked all the way to Neuschwanstein the back way, which was a real delight because there were no madding crowds, just pleasant meadows and rushing mountain streams (the Pöttschlucht gully was particularly fabulous). The tour of the castle itself was a bit shite, to be honest, but given the staffing situation I suppose I have to let the woman off. She sounded extremely cheesed off with life – but then again so would I after a manic day like that, I guess. We just had time for a pizza in Füssen before our train back to Munich.

On Saturday we caught the train first to Prien am Chiemsee (where we DIDN’T see the lake, sadly, for lack of time) for a desperately awful Alfredo coffee, then to Salzburg. Our walk from the station into town took us through a delightful park that I don’t remember ever seeing – unless it was there that we played an open-air concert when I was on tour with the Harrow School for Young Musicians’ Symphonic Winds wind band and Philharmonic orchestra…

In town we singularly failed to find anywhere with a decent selection of vegetarian food, so we ended up in Afro Café where at least they had some crazy bulgar wheat dish that was okay. After walking through the Getreidegasse and past the major sights, we headed back to the station and back to Munich. That evening we met up with Christian and his friend Bernd at Mama, where I had the owner Anna’s stupendous Vietnamese beef salad for the first time in ages and was very very happy. We headed to Christian’s for a few glasses of wine after that.

Well, in fact for too much wine: our heads suffered in a BIG way the next day. So much so, in fact, that we really didn’t manage to do anything constructive until that evening, when we headed over to Bénédicte’s for dinner – and, inevitably, more wine. Only we managed to be a little more restrained, which was a good thing!
Easter Monday was my last chance to do a day-trip with Rainnie, so we headed to Tutzing on the S-Bahn and visited Lake Starnberg. At the beergarden there on the shore, there was a proper oompah band playing proper Bavarian music – a first for Rainnie. And they really weren’t bad! We headed round to Starnberg itself and walked along to the Strandhouse for a few aperol spritzes in the hot very-summer-like sun, then headed home, and back out to Bar Teatro for tapas (but sadly Ivana wasn’t working that night).

And that was that. Ten fabulous days of sharing with my best friend in Australia a little of what makes me so happy to live in Munich, which is another way of saying what makes it bearable not to be living nearer her in Melbourne. See you again soon, gorgeous girl!

2011-05-23T18:07:00.002+02:00

Goodness gracious me! - or, as they've been known to say in these parts, "Cross, pear tree, elderberry bush!" About time for an update. The only thing is, it all happened so long ago that it'll have to be a very brief update - that, or the sheer volume of alcohol has eased the relevant memories from my mind. Because it was a bit of a boozy time, was March...

So after I got back from California it was Shrove Tuesday, or mardi gras, or Fasching. I had to work all day (poor me) but that evening I went into into the mêlée of the streets of the Glockenbach quarter of Munich and enjoyed the general crush of happy people out drinking and laughing. I caught up with Bernhard & Steffi, saw Andreas & Frank, and had a few ales with Felix & an Israeli friend of his.

Felix had taken the whole Fasching thing very seriously, shaving off his beard and wearing a blonde wig and a voluptuous slinky dress. I honestly didn't recognise him when I saw him!

On Ash Wednesday Christian threw his usual Käsespätzle party at his place. This time, he'd cooked for 35 - yes, thirty-five - people. And, needless to say, there was also at least 35 people's worth of wine on offer... A crazy night.

I had another wonderful weekend in Leipzig, visiting Dietmar & Dirk. I was invited up for Dirk's good friend Holger's birthday on the Saturday. It was a lot of fun! So was the walk around Leipzig on Saturday and the tasting of various local alcohols in the Bayerischer Bahnhof beergarden on the Sunday, including Gose wheat beer and Allasch caraway schnaps. But all too soon I had to go home.

There was more booze the following weekend, first on Friday at Matthias & Christian's place out in Uffing (out in the sticks, and lovely for it, replete with cowshit odours and cheeky bar staff) and then on Saturday at Corinne's house. Her birthday party was, shall we say, not Alcolics Anonymous compatible. Neither was it anywhere for people who don't like to eat their bodyweight in crêpes. So I was fine!

I had a visit from Arne from Hannover the following weekend. I haven't seen him for a couple of years, so there was lots of catching up to do. On the Friday I took him to Nockherberg. On Saturday we met up with Michaela & my rellies from Austria who were up for the day for lunch at Spöckmayr. Sadly, I had to leave them then to go for a huge choir rehearsal for the following day's concert...

...which I then managed to miss, because in the night from Saturday to Sunday I fell absolutely hideously ill with such a combined flu and sore throat that I literally couldn't get out of bed! I haven't felt that ill in a very very long time - and I was majorly pissed off that I couldn't sing in the concert that evening, after all the months of rehearsals that we'd been putting in! But I just couldn't leave the house. Until April in fact. Yuk yuk yuk. What a sad end to Arne's visit.

And to the month of March, which on the whole had been really rather splendid.

2011-04-24T13:04:00.002+02:00

California!!!!!!!!

As luck would have it, I acquired a laptop just before heading to the US for eight days with my friend Bernd from choir. So here is an (ever so slightly condensed) account of what we got up to, written actually at the time instead of two months later:

Saturday 26th February
Arrived at LAX after 11-hour flight, caught bus to Van Nuys airport. Met by our friend Ian, drove to his house. Dropped bags, out for a few drinks - THAT's how to nip jetlag in the bud!

Sunday 27th February
Ian drove us to hills above Bel Air for great views across Valley to snow-capped mountains. Then through to Venice canals, then LAX. Bernd & I picked up car, drove to Venice Beach, walked all along beach, ate at Fig Tree – delicious salads! – walked back to pier, drove to Getty Center but closed, so drove to West Hollywood along Santa Monica Boulevard, walked around a bit, had a drink in Hamburger Mary’s. Drove to Hollywood, saw outside of Oscars building, then back to Ian’s. Drove to Griffith Park observatory (guy with crazy laser firing at stars), back to Sherman Oaks Galleria (home of Valley Girls), ate Chinese, back to Ian’s for huuuuge glasses of Cointreau.

Monday 28th February
Breakfast at Café Marmalade with WiFi and crazy waitress who liked my shirt (we thought we were getting a parking ticket, but it turns out the woman was standing by her own car and fumbling for her keys, not by our car writing in a book!), back to Ian’s, drove to Getty Villa, architecture tour with mad old woman, great Roman house, met Afghan security guy who had lived in Germany, fantastic Greek & Etruscan (& Roman) sculptures, lots to see, lunch in café (not so great salad bit too cold - but I can see how that would work in warmer weather), drove to Malibu, up through hills, view on Mulholland Highway, faaaat strawberries from Mexican guy at side of road, drove to Santa Monica beach, walked out on pier for sunset, drove to Ian’s, met his friend Mikey, drove to West Hollywood to Hamburger Mary’s again, this time for dinner, walked to The Abbey for coffee & the biggest slice of cake I think I've ever seen, drove back to Ian’s for small glasses of Cointreau.

Tuesday 1st March
Breakfast at Ian’s, drove to Getty Center, two-hour dash through permanent exhibitions, saw Afghan guy again (the staff rotate locations it seems), excellent pictures, sculptures, Chinese photography, drove to Ian’s, then straight to Midori sushi (all you can eat but only for one hour plus normally evil but today super friendly service at tabeerrrrrlllll), ate own bodyweight in sushi, drove to Palm Springs, stopped for petrol from nice beardy chap whose only German was the phrase “rein, raus” (in and out) - bizarre! Drove to outlet shopping but overwhelmed by level of choice so carried on to my friend Mike’s house. Beautiful house and pool. Drove round Palm Springs and saw all the shops, restaurants, bars, hotels, city center, dog bowl attached to wall... Back to Mike’s, typed up all this, hit pool...

Wednesday 2nd March
Grapefruits for breakfast straight from the tree, then drove to Joshua Tree National Park. Bought packed lunch, drove in, Keys View (San Andreas Fault), dam, Hidden Valley, climbed through White Tank boulders, Cholla Cactus Garden, ocotillos, sunset over mountains, drove back to PS on I10, dinner at Trio with Mike – delicious sauvignon blanc from California! – back to Mike’s for another cheeky dip in the pool (amazing how cold it is when you get out and the dry desert air just sucks the moisture from your skin!).

Thursday 3rd March
Drove up to Palm Springs Tramway, up San Jacinto mountain, three hours walking through snow in inappropriate shoes, great views of valley, salad lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, back to Mike’s. Coffee at Koffi with Mike's friends Richard & Brian, walked through Village Fest, dinner at Grind burger bar, back through Fest, spot of teeshirt shopping, home.

Friday 4th March
Breakfast at Mike’s, went to Fresh & Easy for shopping, then back to Mike’s to give him flowers and make beds. Drove to Salton Sea along the 111, stopping for more shopping and muffins. Salton Sea, then inland through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Crazy dune buggy convention in Colorado desert! Beautiful cactus and ocotillo flowers in park. Church Lane with so many churches in Borrego Springs. Amazing changing landscape to Julian. Apple pie & cider in Julian, then drove to San Diego. Hotel, check in, then to Top of the Park to meet Elliott, Peter, and their friends Cecilia and another Mexican chap whose name escapes me. Drinks on rooftop bar, then to The Loft, a dodgy bar on Fifth Street with pool tables and a rough clientèle. Café round corner for “Night Owl Special” meals, back to hotel, quick nightcap with Bernd in local bar – nasty! Back to hotel.

Saturday 5th March
Smelly breakfast room, check out, to shopping centre for luggage, drove to Coronado, walk along beaches, drove to Gaslamp Quarter, walked around, nasty hot dog, drove through Embarcadero to Mission Beach, walked along, then Pacific Beach, then La Jolla, stopped at Starbucks for internet, drove halfway to LA, stopped for petrol and then steaks at the Cheesecake Factory, drove to bar in North Hollywood to meet Ian & Mikey, back to Ian’s.

Sunday 6th March
Brunch at Renaissance Hotel with Ian & Mikey. Drove into Downtown, looked at Walt Disney Concert Hall from outside, walked all through downtown, through Grand Central Market (mmm fish ceviche!), caught Metro to Union Station, El Pueblo, new Church of Our Lady (crazy tapestries!), Metro to Pershing Square, Biltmore Hotel (filming going on), MOCA, drove all through Hollywood again, then down Santa Monica Boulevard to LAX. Brought hire car back, got changed, ate a grapefruit from Mike’s garden, boarded. Screaming children, but still managed to sleep. Weather in Paris cool but sunny.

All I'd say in conclusion is that I had the best time with Bernd! We have a similar approach to travelling: attempt to do too much, and barely have a second to spare for anything mundane like resting. We probably did more in eight days than was sensible - in particular I felt like I could have spent a whole week just seeing San Diego properly - but it was a fantastic experience. Hurra for travelling!

2011-04-18T18:49:00.001+02:00

And then it was February!

Yes, my dears, I've found a second to squeeze out another entry before Easter. It was a good job I had a business trip to Stuttgart the other week, and time to type up some of my exciting life movements...

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned l’Angolo dei Sapori. It’s a little haven of Italian “gumjoy” (as they say around these parts) with the yummiest sandwiches – oh, pardon me, of course I mean tramezzini! – ranging from your classic panini to foccacce and piadine, all with a variety of fillings (salami, crudo, cheeses, rucola, tomatoes that taste of tomato, the works). Mmmm, even just typing these words is making the juices run together in my mouth! OMG and I haven’t even told you about the little pastries they do with their coffee (which is top-flight too): dainty confections of almond, butter, pistachio, cream, chocolate, jams, and more almond. Oh Yes.

Anyway, what makes this place special for me is not only what’s on offer there but also the fact that it’s round the corner from my office – how handy is that! Occasionally, we’ll head there in little groups for lunch, maybe just me & Julia, maybe Heiko too, or just me & Birgit. I also bring visitors there if they’re staying at mine during the week – because it’s literally just down the hill from my place too. We’re talking central, both to Munich and to my life!

So in early February I’m walking back from l’Angolo to the office with Julia, and we’re just strolling and chatting, and all of a sudden a huge “roof avalanche” smashes into the ground right before our very feet! This is when all the snow that’s on a building’s roof slips off when the weather’s warmed up a notch and the layer right on the tiles has melted. Usually, the roofs in Munich have a little anti-avalanche gate along the edge, to give the snow something to hold on to before it jumps, but this one clearly didn’t. And we very nearly got it all over us! Thank heavens the slab of cheesecake we’d just shared was so massive it had caused us to waddle ever so slightly, slowing our progress.

I had another exhilarating culinary experience that first week of February: Michaela & I decided to splash out and go to one of Munich’s “in” restaurants – just for the hell of it. It’s crazy really, but in the five years I’ve been living here now, we’ve probably only been out just the two of us about twice. For the most part, it’s either in big groups or with the kids or we’re just at hers. So we decided to do something about that, and we ended up booking places at Nektar. We had no idea of how the evening would pan out – there wasn’t even a menu on the website – but that’s part of the fun.

So we arrived, left our coats, and headed downstairs into this very louche bar area, to be met by two babes in bodices and high heels. Bizarre. Where would we like to sit? Would we like an aperitif? Did we want a tour of the place? We had a quick look round, then had a cheeky mojito at the bar, before being led into the dining area. We slipped off our shoes and climbed up onto the massive sofas, then snuggled into our spaces between two other groups and were brought bread & water.

Yes, this restaurant has no tables! Or chairs, for that matter. You have to eat off your lap. And, between courses, there’s a bit of a floorshow: singing, dancing, performance (we had some sort of shaolin monk style kung fu guy – not bad). The food was also pretty good, it has to be said. But – and maybe I’m getting old, or I’m some kind of fuddy-duddy – I just couldn’t get comfy up against the wall, with barely enough cushions, and then having to balance a plate on my lap. It’s just not me. I mean, I don’t have a telly! I don’t have a reason to eat off my lap. Hence no practice, I guess.

It was only when we got outside again that we realized just how bad the air was down in the restaurant. Blimey! We thought we were knackered, but actually it was just oxygen deprivation. Invigorated by the chill night air, we decided to head to El Teatro for a cheeky drink before heading home. Ivana was on duty, and rushed off her feet, but she managed to grab a few minutes for a chat with us in between waiting tables. Bless!

That Saturday I went ice skating with Michaela & the boys, plus Giulio, Ryan’s friend. I hadn’t been skating in about four years – and it showed! Oh my aching feet! And arse: yes, I fell over. But only once. It was classic. All the way round the long track (there was a hockey game on in the smaller middle rink) I was thinking “pride before a fall, pride before a fall” and taking it really easy. Then, just as the spot I’d started at came into sight, I was like, “wow! I made it! I CAN do this!” With predictable results!

That evening it was Susi’s 30th birthday drinks in Schwabing. OMG. They served their cocktails in BUCKETS! And we had one (or two, or perhaps three) too many buckets between us. I don’t actually remember saying goodbye to anyone, but apparently I did, so that’s all right then. It had been a great night, catching up with some of Susi’s friends that I knew and meeting others for the first time.

The following weekend I had Lisa & Rob over from Dublin. They flew in on Thursday, and I took them from the S-Bahn at Rosenheimer Platz straight to El Teatro for a slap-up tapas dinner before we even dropped their bags off at mine. Priorities! Friday lunch was at l’Angolo (for reasons outlined above), and dinner at Nockherberg – always a great night. The next morning we picked up Michaela and drove through the Bavarian Alps into Austria, then past Innsbruck and up into the Kühtai, a crazy high valley (the village is at 2000m) with unexpectedly karsty rocks.

I happen to know the owner of our hotel there, the Kühtaier Alm; always handy! We dropped off our stuff, met up with Mirèia & David (who drove in from Zurich) and then hit the slopes. Ah! What fabulous views! What a delightful place to ski! Even if the snow was a little thin… Harald (the hotel owner) told me in all his fifteen years in charge he’s never seen as little snow as this season. Ah well, at least it was high up enough for the snow that did fall back in December not to have all melted yet.

Lisa & Mirèia had never skied, so they had a private tutor, while me, Rob, Michaela & David headed off to see what we could do. But it was already 2pm so we only had a few hours before stopping for dinner. And oh my! What a dinner! Harald’s hotel has a fabulous restaurant. I had a dumpling fest: liver dumpling soup, cheese dumplings for main, and curd cheese dumplings for dessert. Yes!! Everyone was knackered after dinner and retired for the night, but I sat up for another couple of hours for a few drinks with Harald.

On the Sunday, after a hearty breakfast (and not a small amount of faffing) the boys hit the slopes while the girls went for a long walk and girly chat. We made it over to the other side of the valley, where the snow was much better, and the views bigger too. Lunch together at our hotel, and then Rob decided his feet were suffering enough so he stopped skiing. Me & David went off together, and it was exhilarating to ski with him, a Swiss who had been skiing since he was a child (although, bizarrely, not once in the last twenty years). I was really enjoying that combination of mild exhaustion and heaps of adrenaline. I love skiing!

After an uneventful motorway drive home, I took Rob, Lisa, David & Mirèia to the hotel near my place that I’d booked for them, and then we went for a Greek meal (where really too much was ordered – but we ate it all anyway). I took them back to mine for a few drinks, but everyone was totally knackered from the weekend’s exertions so we called it a night pretty soon.

On Monday I met up with the four of them for lunch at Spöckmeier in town, and then in the evening I took Lisa & Rob to the Alpenhof, the Italian up the road from my place. Sonja was our waitress again. She’s amusing! Then Tuesday we had lunch in a little place just opposite my flat that was very cutesy and appears to be open only at lunchtimes. We said our farewells there, because they would be gone by the time I came home from work that evening.

But I didn’t sink into a pit of lonely despair. No! Instead, I went for a drink with Bernd that evening at Moro, meeting a friend of his who was in town for a few days. Then, on Wednesday, after choir we went to NewsBar for a change – but it was very loud and full of young people, so I don’t think we’ll be rushing back there. On Thursday night Veronika came to visit me. I cooked a paella and she came up with the bubbly.

On Friday night I had a beer after work at Trachtenvogl with Julia B from the office (yup, I work with two Julias – but the B isn’t some kind of derogatory qualification, it’s her initial; the other Julia is Julia H). It wasn’t a planned drink, but after we’d seen all the action at the river with the rescue helicopter and the crowds of emergency service vehicles we felt it was a good time to have a sit down.

At the weekend, I had Bénédicte and Al (who was over from Washington for the weekend) over for lunch at my place. Al left before Thierry arrived. Yes! His month in Africa was over, and he was picking up the few bits & pieces he’d left at mine when he was here with Dirk. Later in the evening I went for drinks with Al, Bernd and my mate Oliver (no, a different Oliver). On Sunday I met up with Al again, this time for lunch in town. We went to Nero, the wood-fired pizza oven place near my old office, and then on to Café Glockenspiel for a coffee in the covered garden. It was starting to snow again as we left. Will this cold wintry weather ever end?

The following week I met up with Felix for lunch at Sesto Senso (the divine pizza restaurant that’s owned by the same people as l’Angolo dei Sapori); with Bernhard for a drink at Edelweiß (round the corner from mine) before having dinner at mine; with Harry for dinner at Anton’s (also near my place); and with Anton (my boss) for lunch at Haguruma, my favourite non-sushi Japanese restaurant in Munich. Busy busy busy!

And that’s where I’m going to end my account of my February, because the last few days of the month belong properly in a separate blog: the one I’m going to write about my trip to California!!

2011-03-30T16:51:00.002+02:00

Ah, erm, ahem, err, oops! Sorry. It's been a while since the last one again, hasn't it!

Well, seeing as I'm off work sick with a hideous 'flu (I managed to get almost all the way through winter without getting ill, though, which is good I suppose), I've got a little time to update my e-diary...

But I'll keep it snappy, don't worry!

So, where did I leave you? Ah yes, with the delights of Jerez de la Frontera's Christmas parade. What a spectacle!

So anyway, we got back to Germany and that very evening I was transported to France - but only by the tastebuds (and the ears) - by virtue of a Galette des Rois dinner party at Bénédicte's place with Marie-Laure, Corinne and Eric. Much alcohol was consumed (quelle surprise, I hear you squeak) and then, after a round of steaks and potatoes dauphinoise, we hit the galette: France's answer to Xmas cake, a solid almondy buttery monster - with a little token baked into it. Whoever gets the slice with the token is king (or queen) for the evening. Well done Corinne!

Did I mention that my luggage DIDN'T MAKE IT BACK from Spain? Actually, it was a total disaster area at the airport. There were bags lying EVERYWHERE! The poor woman behind the baggage tracing counter was telling us that all the hideous weather over the Xmas period meant that thousands of items of luggage had either got stuck or not been connected with their owners - who, themselves, had either missed connections or simply given up. But they were operating a policy of last out, first in, so our bags should come quickly... Actually, they did come relatively quickly - in fact the next afternoon. Better than other recent luggage experiences I've had!

I spent the weekend with Michaela, sorting through stuff at hers. But I got away on the Saturday night for dinner at Marie-Laure's place - where (can you guess?) much, MUCH alchohol was consumed!

On the Monday I had my second trip to the dentist in as many months. That damn tuna sandwich in Granada that had totalled one of my fillings! I mean, a tuna sandwich? How lame! Friday was dinner at Bezi & Moustapha's with Bénédicte. It was the first time I'd seen them since they'd moved back from Zurich. Right back into their old flat again, too, in that lovely old feels-condemned-in-fact-can't-believe-they-haven't-knocked-it-down-yet-but-thank-goodness-they-haven't-because-it's-delightful-and-classy-in-a-faded-glory-kind-of-way building in Schwabing.

On Saturday morning Michaela, the boys & I drove down to Austria for Martha & Poidl's golden wedding anniversary. The weather on the Saturday was cool but clear, and we once again had magnificent views of the mountains. We went for a walk above Neustadtl with Martha & Hans to the Schützenhütte, where we had a view of Grein partially flooded by the Danube. Then, on the Sunday, we drove across to Nöchling (the floodwaters had subsided by then so we could get through Grein) for a delicious meal in a Gasthaus followed by Kaffee u. Kuchen at Dreimühlen. It was lovely to see Onkel Fredi again for the first time in what feels like twenty years. Well, actually, thinking about it, it WAS twenty years!!

Back in Munich, I dropped in very late on Ivana's birthday drinks at KraftAkt (it was past midnight!) and then went home, tired but happy after a lovely weekend back in the Old Country.

The following day Dirk (who I met years ago in New Zealand) and his French friend Thierry came to my place to stay the night. They were flying to Namibia the next day to spend a month motorcycling across Africa to Kenya - the way you do - and so we managed to catch up again for the first time since we met back in '04. It was great! We headed to the Nockherberg with Bénédicte for dinner, then back to mine for a few drinks.

The following day was Ivana's official birthday party at her place in Neuperlach. Bernhard & I went over and promptly doubled the number of German-speakers in the room. All of Ivana's other friends appeared to be Brazilians! Later in the week I caught up with Felix for a bite to eat. At the weekend Michaela & Lisa came to mine for cheese soup, I went to Bénédicte's for sushi, I went to Michaela's for food, and Bénédicte came to mine for soup. A bit crazy.

The next week Bernhard & I used our birthday vouchers for an evening of relaxation at the Mathilden Hammam, just behind Sendlinger Tor. I have to admit, it was a little less spectacular than I had hoped, given the price of a ticket. But it was relaxing nonetheless. We went for a quick beer at the Glockenbach afterwards and then parted company.

At the weekend I went skiing with Michaela on the EPO bus to Zell am Ziller. What a riot! The weather was splendid, the snow just right, the crowds nonexistent, the Germknödel a dream. I needed a big old sauna by the time I got back home though! My aching thighs! And on the Sunday, Michaela, Lisa & I had a big jazz brunch at The Big Easy. Delightful!

Right, that's January 2011 covered. That'll do for now, methinks. Toodlepip!

2011-01-23T19:40:00.000+01:00

Right, so essentially this is going to be the quickest round-up EVER of what I've been doing - because it's a good few months overdue...

But where are my manners? HAPPY NEW YEAR!! And Happy Xmas and all that too!! When are you visiting me?

Right, let me get back to my update...

October highlights:
- Getting a job!
- Visiting the workshop of one of Europe's foremost organ makers, Jürgen Ahrend, just outside Leer in northern Germany, with Olga from Barcelona and Roman from Salzburg -fascinating!
- Visiting Bremen with Olga & Roman too, including a crazy huge funfair called Freimarkt, and the statue of the famous Bremer Stadtmusikanten: some animals standing on each others' backs.
- Doing the "Long Night of the Museums" in Munich with Béné and Diane - we hit six museums, including the Potato Museum and the City Observatory, where the guide looked like an extra from Star Trek!
- Heading to a small theatre for some crazy Canadian action with Béné.
- Sinking lots of red wine but still basically behaving myself at my new boss' birthday party.
- Going for a lovely walk up a small mountain just by the Danube, in the Waldviertel, with the extended family of Hans & Martha (and eating my own bodyweight in delicious Austrian food about every two and a half hours for a whole weekend).

November highlights:
- Feasting on poutine, Canada's national dish of lumps of mild cheese curds with a variety of toppings, with Bernhard and Sara.
- Feasting on the Swabian delicacy of sausages and lentils at Uli & Heidrun's place with a whole bunch of people from choir.
- Enjoying some delightful winter sunshine on the terrace of the bar in Landshut castle.
- Having Gareth over to visit for a weekend, which perforce involved a good deal of eating & drinking, including unexpected sausages at an Audi showroom.
- Drinking FAR too much at a Beaujolais party with Béné, Marie-Laure, Corinne and others.
- Making the most of a weekend in Düsseldorf with a whole host of my old Powergen friends who have now left E.ON, so I won't be seeing them again any time soon boo hoo. Christmas markets offered MUCH Glühwein, and the surrounding restaurants offered MUCH food.

December highlights:
- Suffering nine hours on a train that should have taken only six hours to reach Berlin, but then enjoying the rest of the weekend immensely with Bernhard at Ina's, including more Christmas market fun, a rooftop bar near Potsdamer Platz, and brunch in Prenzlauer Berg.
- Almost but not quite embarrassing myself at the Christmas party (I was one of the last three to leave, but since the other two were my bosses I think I got away with it...)
- Hitting Munich's Christmas markets with Michaela, Rosanne & Sarah, and then stuffing our faces at the Haxnbraterei just near the Hofbräuhaus.
- Visiting Matthias & Stefan in Augsburg with Bernhard, with a quick dash round the Christmas market before fleeing the cold and eating delicious Flammkuechen at Matthias' place.
- Spending time with Chris, Kate, Sophie & Livi who were over for the weekend of Livi's birthday, including lots of food, Christmas markets, a variety performance at GOP, and a huge snowball fight walking back to Michaela's.
- Having David over to visit from Australia, and being able to repay some of the kindness I was lucky enough to receive when I was travelling around the world (including crashing at Dave's in Canberra for a while).

Christmas & New Year highlights:
- Doing a fabulous trip to Spain with Bernhard: Madrid (CRAZY bars!), Jerez (squid), Seville (meeting up with James & with Alberto), Carmona (Roman necropolis), Córdoba (gotta love that mosque!), Priego de Córdoba (vertiginous drops), Málaga (surprisingly pretty and great tapas), Ronda (weird chasm in the middle of town), Arcos de la Frontera (elongated old town), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (New Year's party at Javier & Isidoro's), Cádiz (bizarrely huge old town), Tarifa (off the scale amazing tapas at El Feo), Tangiers (a bit naff, but at least I can say I've been to Morocco now), Gibraltar (see Tangiers), Granada (OMG the Alhambra is fabulous - but SO are the tapas!!), Antequera (nice castle), Jerez (amazing Three Kings parade).

So, there you have it! I have to admit, I thought that now I'm working again, I wouldn't have time to do so much travelling. But it seems I'm managing to fit amazing things in around the constraints of a nine-to-five. And the best thing is, I'm STILL really enjoying my job! I can't remember there ever being a time where I could honestly say that!

Much love to you all, until my next blog.

2010-11-19T19:27:00.002+01:00

Ohmygod it's been like ages since my last update. This is going to be a real quickie too. But the main news is I'VE GOT A NEW JOB!!

Yes, my dears, there will be a tad less travelling and laziness going on for a while now, as I'm busy earning money - and enjoying myself at the same time!!

I'm now a translator and editor - and it's five minutes' bike ride from my house!!

In other news, the weather's been pretty naff - but then again, do I really care? I'm indoors now working anyway - and enjoying it!!

And one last little titbit for you: I've just seen that when they took the Streetview photos of my street, the weather was gorgeous. But more amusingly, they've blurred out the name of a company on the bonnet of a van just outside - but left the (MUCH larger) same name on the side of the van completely legible!!

2010-10-10T17:51:00.002+02:00

September was a bit like August: you know, part of the year 2010, a mixture of sunshine & showers, and a time of seeing lots of friends. The main difference was that where in August I went to the world, in September the world came to me. The reason for this sudden popularity of the idea of visiting Rich in Munich? You guessed it: Oktoberfest!

There was life before Oktoberfest however this month: I popped up to Nuremberg for a day to catch up with Johannes & Alan, who were over from Sydney and spending a month or so travelling around Europe. We did the new art museum, walked round town, and visited the transport museum as well (full of trains). Good fun - especially the Bohemian restaurant we stumbled across in the Old Town.

Bernhard & I finally made it into the Alps for a day too, something we'd talked about again & again since about April. We caught the train to Schliersee, then went to Spitzingsee and walked up the Rotwand. Lunch at the restaurant near the top was splendid, and the weather was just perfect: sunny but fresh, so we didn't get too sweaty.

I visited the Allianz Arena stadium with my mate Matthias from Augsburg. Even though I'm not into football, it was an impressive spectacle. So big! So well designed! Food for thought - which we followed up with proper food in the form of divine Schnitzels just round the corner from my place in a restaurant called Giasinga.

And then it was upon us: the Oktoberfest (or Wiesn, as Bavarians call it). My first set of guests were Andy, Emmanuel & Stefan from Saarbrücken. Andy hadn't been back to the Fest since that time we went with Isa back in '02, and his two work colleagues had never been. They had a wild time!

Unfortunately, I was unable to join them in their tent (they had queued to get in from eight in the morning), so instead I sat in the beergarden of the Augustiner tent with Bénédicte, Marie-Laure, and two of Béné's friends from Amsterdam, Marcel & Jaap. It was a classic Oktoberfest day: too much beer, much silliness, and some madness on rides to round it all off.

I headed on to Schwabing after that full day of drinking to drink some more, with Bernhard & some of his friends from his days as a canoe guide in Sweden. Sara, Benjamin & Jutta were good fun, and we ended up dancing the night away in the Gasthaus zur Brezn.

Some non-Wiesn highlights included lunch with Gabi & Giovanna at a splendiferous little Italian hidden in full view downstairs in the Hauptbahnhof, brunch with Holger in "Maria" in the Glockenbachviertel, and dinner in the Indian near my church choir rehearsals with the usual choir crew.

But back to the Wiesn: I went along on the Monday night with EPO people, and again on Tuesday night with Bernhard & his friend Steffi. Then my liver had a few days' rest before Ali & Charlotte flew into town. We did the Wiesn BIG STYLE on Friday - but not before lining our stomachs with some cheese and Federweißer (which is this year's not-quite-finished-fermenting white wine: tasty but seriously bad for your head!), then having a few shots at the Wiesn, and then getting stuck in to the ales.

It all got a bit messy, especially when the weather suddenly turned from hot & sunny to cold, windy & pissing with rain. But that didn't stop us going on a few rides before catching the bus back to mine. The girls crashed pretty quickly after that, but I had to wait up because Lorna was flying in that night and her plane was delayed by the self-same storms.

Saturday was a bit of a washout, both in terms of weather and our physical & psychological wellbeing. Poor Lorna! She was desperate to catch up, but none of us could really face it. Not that that stopped us; by the evening we were having a few beers in the Funkstadl (having singularly failed to get in anywhere on the Wiesn and given up to find beer elsewhere).

We made a better fist of it on Sunday, with brunch round the corner from mine at Edelweiß, after which Charlotte had to fly home to Dusseldorf. I slipped away for a cheeky choir rehearsal, then rejoined Ali & Lorna at the Augustiner in the Arnulfstraße. From there we went to Pardi, Lorna's favourite Turkish restaurant just ronud the corner from where she used to live in Neuhausen. It is STILL delicious!

Lorna left early on Monday morning, but Ali still had time for breakfast with me in Haidhausen before she had to head to the airport. Then I had just over 24 hours to get my house in order before my next batch of visitors: Hamish & Rod from Edinburgh.

We did the Wiesn in a BIG way on Wednesday, getting there for lunch with Michaela, Danielle, Dave & Tim. Then I slipped away for another cheeky choir rehearsal before rejoining Dan & Dave, as well as Bénédicte, Marie-Laure & Corinne, at the Löwernbräukeller for an After-Wiesn party. Ouch my poor liver!

Thursday was a little calmer, with just a few Weißbiers at the Wiesn with Hamish, but Friday was mad busy again. In the morning I went with Hamish & Rod to the BMW World near Olympiapark, in the afternoon we walked all through town, meeting Johannes for a quick coffee at Hauptbahnhof (he was just passing through), and that evening Béné had tickets for seats at a table in the Hackerzelt. After the obligatory two litres of beer, we headed out of the tent and ran into Marie-Laure & her friend Roger, then walked round the Wiesn for a while. A busy day.

The final Saturday was calm, but the Sunday was once more a beer-soaked frenzy: Bernhard & I had seats from midday at a table in the Schottenhamel with Christoph, Ekke, Peter, Stefan, Ivo & Patrick. It was going to be my last day at this year's Oktoberfest, so I went for it in a BIIIG way. Some ten hours & five litres of beer later, it was time to go...

And that, as they say, is that. There's lots to tell ALREADY about October, but I think I'll leave this post here for now. Big hugs to you all, my dear readers!

2010-09-13T15:02:00.002+02:00

August was a tad busy. In all the right ways, mind! Here's a little roundup:

Kev & Cath at their girls Molly & Ruby were over visiting Michaela, and we had a few fab days together, including down at the Flaucher on the Isar, and out by the lake at Murnau. They were generally lucky with the weather while they were over. Lots of laughs, lots of fun - as always with Kev!

Bénédicte & I drove to Zurich to visit Bezi and Moustapha, and while we were there we went to the Rheinfall, Europe's most impressive waterfalls. Okay, it's no Iguaçú, but it's a huge amount of water nonetheless, and very pretty (apart from some '70s crimes of architecture on one side). We also drove to Luzern for a swim in the Vierwaldstättersee there, stopping for lunch in the middle of nowhere on the way, and finding a delightful mediaeval square in Luzern to eat fondue in that evening. And we visited Einsiedeln, site of a huge Baroque monastery. Not to mention the copious amounts of wine we drank on the first evening, with my mate Reto...

I went for a swim & a sun at the Gretelmühle lake outside Landshut with Bernhard. That evening we had delicious tapas in Landshut, right on the Isar, sitting on crazy neon orange beanbags and drinking a very smooth Spanish red.

We had more tapas later the same week, in Munich with Bénédicte & Marie-Laure, but they weren't nearly as good - or as filling - so we ate Ethiopian food that night too! Followed by more than a few drinks (beers with schnaps chasers - yikes!) at Schwabinger 7, which is very different now that there is no smoking any more in bars in Bavaria.

One evening we had a choir reunion meet-up in the beergarden at the Parkcafé. After all, it had been some weeks since we'd last seen each other!! Plus I think it was only about the second time I'd actually been to a beergarden this year, what with inclement weather & various travel plans. Good fun was had by all.

Michaela & I went for a boogie at an over-30s disco party (ohmigod that sounds so tacky! - well, it sort of was!) with Rosanne, who was over visiting her with her son Alex. We left Alex looking after the boys & went out on the tiles. It was held at the Löwenbräukeller, upstairs, and there were two dance areas, with the more intimate one playing some really good tunes!

On 14th Bernhard & I travelled to Straubing to visit the Gäubodenvolksfest, Bavaria's second-largest beer festival (after Munich's Oktoberfest). It was HUGE! And they had the hugest deep-fried onions for dinner!! Incredible! They made up for some serious food faux-pas that I suffered earlier in the day, including the dodgiest horsemeat frankfurters (they really looked disgusting - and tasted it too) and a plate of cold chips. At least the beer was tasty - and cheaper than Oktoberfest too.

And then, in the second half of August, I was all over the place again - just like the old days! I flew to Barcelona with Bernhard, Michaela & the boys, and we met Chris, Kate & the girls off their plane, then headed into town, where Bernhard & I put the others onto their train to Port Aventura and then headed down the coast to Sitges for a few days of sun & relaxation. It's really a lovely spot! Full of tourists and yet not in the least bit tacky.

Bernhard flew home on Thursday, and the others came back up to Barcelona that evening. Our rented apartment on Passeig de Gràcia was supercentral, right opposite La Pedrera, Gaudí's crazy block of flats. And we did LOADS of lovely things, quite a few of which centred on eating & drinking!

I headed up the coast to L'Escala to catch up with my friends Carles & Maica, and they had a fabulous surprise for me: we went for a scuba dive at the Illes Medes marine reserve! I wasn't expecting to see so much variety of sealife in the Mediterranean, but there were huge fish (including eagle rays) and loads of nudibranchs too! And the many, many culinary delights of L'Escala, both in Carles' kitchen and in the fishing village itself, were just incredible.

I caught up with my friend Olga (a wonderful soprano: www.olgamiracle.com) a couple of times, once in Barcelona with her partner Jordi and once in Vilanova (just west of Sitges) with her uncle who was visiting from Marseilles. It was a delight to hear all about the ongoing struggle for Catalonian independence and to talk in depth about some of the music she is singing at the moment.

And then it was time to fly home again - but only for a day! The next morning I flew with Bénédicte to Amsterdam, where we met up with her friend Suzie for lunch, then Kim & Linda for a beer, then Kim, Linda, Nath, Marcel, & Mélo for an evening of French cuisine interspersed with French chansons, in an intimate little dining room in central Amsterdam, with live guitar & singing between each of the courses of the five-course meal. And plenty of wine!

Saturday was even madder: we ended up spending twelve hours in ONE bar! The original plan was a beach picnic, but the poo weather put paid to that plan. So then it was going to be just a quick lunch in town, at this place on the roof of an old office building just south of central Amsterdam called "Canvas op de 7e", but they had really tasty white wine and comfy seating, so we just stayed. And at ten o'clock the whole place turned into a nightclub, with a fancy dress party laid on! So we got dressed up and shook our stuff on the dancefloor until one in the morning.

On Sunday I popped down to The Hague to see my friend Simon. It was a filthy day, with flash flooding and wall-shakingly heavy rain, so we just stayed in, drank tea & caught up on news. Then I just had time to mix some Pimm's & lemonade at Kim & Linda's place in Haarlem before Béné & I had to go back to the airport. Busy busy busy!

And that pretty much wraps up August, my lovelies!

2010-08-09T15:43:00.001+02:00

June was good and wet. July was good and FINALLY hot & sunny! AT LAST!! It feels like I've been waiting a decade for good weather. Crazy to think that it's only just over six months since I was baking in the antipodean summer...

So anyway, here's my end of June and start of July in a nutshell: FABULOUS!

The last few days of June & the first couple of days of July I was in Tenerife. Bernhard has a couple of mates in Regensburg who holiday there every year for a fortnight, and we decided to take an apartment in the same block as theirs for a week. We were based in Puerto de la Cruz, but we had a hire car for the duration and we made good use of it, travelling all over the island.

Highlights of Tenerife for me include the natural (Punta Teno in the northwest with its craggy hills; the black beaches of Benijo in the northeast; and of course the joys of the Teide volcano, Spain's highest mountain), the cultural (UNESCO World Heritage at La Laguna, the template for Spain's cities in Latin America; local colour at La Orotava; the twee town of Garachico built on an apron of lava), the social (good times with Reinhard & Peter; good times with Bernhard; meeting a few friendly locals, including our La Laguna tour guide David), and of course the cuisine (papas arrugadas, the wrinkly salty boiled potatoes; tapas galore; cheese; wine; sausage; fish; and more papas arrugadas).

I'd only been back in Munich a week before my next highlight, of quite a different kind: I went on a yodelling seminar in the mountains!! So I can now officially yodel - I've got a Diploma and everything! And the craziest part of it all is that I really didn't learn much at all. I'm what they call a Natural Talent. Yay! (In this as in so many other things, I hear you all cry...)

One week further on into July it was Christopher Street Day (CSD), which is German for Gay Pride. This was Munich's 30th annual pride festival, and the parade was really quite impressive. Okay, it wasn't Sydney, but it was long & lively nonetheless. Michaela & I walked through town and enjoyed the day. We even ran into Ivana, our favourite waitress from the tapas bar called Bar Teatro.

In the evening I had beers with Bernd in the spirit of CSD, after our very unfortunately-timed choir concert in Schwabing. But we weren't too badly-behaved because the following day we had another choir concert in church in the morning, followed by a day-trip to a church in the Tyrol. In the bus on the way back home I taught everyone to yodel. Well, I've got a Diploma after all!

And the last weekend of July I was in England! I flew to Gatwick and caught the train to Guildford, then spent a couple of nights at Chris & Kate's, spending lots of quality time with Sophie - who has morphed from a gorgeous girl into a gorgeous teenager! - and having more quality with Livi & Chris & Kate too.

I took a hire car on Saturday & drove to Winchester, where I visited the famous - and huge - cathedral, before continuing my journey to Lyme Regis (a seaside resort that just sounds like one of those places you ought to have been to in your life) and ending up outside Exmouth for Dawn's 40th birthday casino party event. MADNESS! Everyone was there: Siobhán, Helena, Caroline, Mim, and of course Dawnie. What a night!

On Sunday, after a VERY hung-over fry-up at Dawn's favourite beachside greasy spoon, I drove up to Frome to visit Steve & Andrea and their gorgeous kids Natalie, Nicholas & Jacob. I haven't seen Steve & Ange in years & years. It was SO GOOD to catch up again! And on Monday I had another well-overdue catch-up, this time with Laura and her two lovely babies Paul & Samuel, who I met for lunch in Devizes.

Then I had to rush back to Guildford to return the car, walk along the river Wey to the railway station, and head into London to visit Simon & Hester & their girls near Turnpike Lane. Which was marvellous! Hester cooked a delicious lamb tajine and the girls were both delightful. I can't get over how much like Simon's dad they both look.

On the Monday I had coffee with Simon in Camden before meeting up with Lorna in Dulwich Village for a pub lunch. Then I had to head to Gatwick for my flight home. Only the flight home was CANCELLED bloody EasyJet! They put us up in a hotel - but not before leaving everyone wondering what the hell was going on for three hours (the flight was due to leave at 6.30pm but no information went up on any screens until after nine o'clock!). Our plane was even an hour late leaving the next morning.

So a slightly sour taste to end my English experience on - matched by the slightly bitter initial arrival experience of being herded onto the airport bus from the plane to the terminal like cattle. But this negativity was balanced by the general wondrousness of the six days.

And I'd even had a pang of homesickness for Blighty on my very first day back there, when I was in Guildford town centre and needed to draw some money from a cash machine: I went to my bank, saw the two cash machines in the wall, and - how my heart leapt! - saw that a SINGLE queue had spontaneously formed in front of the two holes in the wall. This could only happen in England, spiritual home of the queue.

And that, my dears, was July.

2010-07-22T16:46:00.000+02:00

Hey people! Before I do a quick roundup of June, I should just mention a lovely little detail for something that happened at the end of May:

The city council of Munich is running a campaign at the moment to promote the use of bicycles, called "München sucht den Radlstar", which is a play on the German title of the TV programme that's the local version of "Pop Idol". My friend Karin was in the top 20 of over 1000 people whose photo was taken on their bikes, and the top 20 were interviewed for radio live on stage at the Street Life Festival on the Leopoldstraße.

The radio presenter was really crap, with an annoying, grating voice and a decidedly dodgy taste in music. But then suddenly, just after the interviews had finished and we were waiting for Karin to join us, a normal song came over the huge sound system. It was Keane with "Everybody's Changing". And a whole group of lads walked past singing along! They like totally knew all the words! Cute.

Anyway, so on to June, the month that STILL didn't bring summer, even though it did bring World Cup fever, and everyone was betting on the weather being fantastic again for the World Cup like it was in 2006.

I escaped to Italy - well, it HAD been several weeks since I'd been there last! - with Bernhard to celebrate Lorna's birthday. Charlotte flew down from Düsseldorf to join us too, which was great because I hadn't seen her since Oktoberfest. It was a short visit, but we packed plenty of action in: Bernhard & I had a quick day-trip on the train to Genua on the Friday; the four of us took the train to Lake Como on Saturday; and we even squeezed in some sightseeing of Milan itself on the Sunday.

Needless to say, we ate & drank marvellously all weekend. On Thursday night Lorna introduced us to the concept of aperitivo, which is a bit like tapas in Spain, where you pay for the drink and get loads of snacky food thrown in. On Friday night we ate in a delicious restaurant with a delightful inner courtyard just to the south of the Duomo. Saturday's gourmet experience was a lovely shady garden on the banks of Lake Como, in a tiny little village with views across the lake.

I had the pleasure of an evening of stupendously good food the following week, when Benedicte took me to accompany her to a meal at one of Lake Starnberg's most prestigious hotels. The head chef actually demonstration-cooked the meal as we looked on, and then when he'd finished each course out came the food for the rest of us on silver platters. It was DIVINE!! Molecular cooking, 3-star cooking, wow cooking. And the wines were a bit of all right too!

Gareth visited me that weekend, and we did a lot of walking around Munich, as well as a fair bit of beergarden visiting and eating (quelle surprise!) It was Franck's birthday party, and he did a delicious paella at his place for a big group of French friends of his (plus a few sundry French-speakers like me & Gareth).

We went to see Janie in an amateur-dramatics production of the French play "Je veux voir Mioussov", a farce on Soviet bureaucracy that was much much more hilariously funny than I was expecting (partly because I was worried that, this being the first time I'd have been to the theatre in French, I might not get all the jokes). Afterwards we (Bene, Franck, Marie-Laure and Janie) hung around in the salsa bar next door to the theatre and had a lovely evening of wine & dance.

I discovered a new place for fabulous coffee in town, just opposite the Pinakothek der Moderne. It's called TimBallo Food Lounge, and sadly it's only open during the day. But what sandwiches! What coffee! And WHAT cheesecakes!!

A highlight of the month was Michaela's birthday party, where at the stroke of midnight the waiters in the Greek restaurant brought out round after round of ouzo and quite suddenly everyone turned from merry to absolutely blotto!

Another hightlight was watching Ryan in his school production of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, where he played the granddad who accompanies Charlie round the factory. He was hilarious! And the other kids were great too - especially Emily who, quite against type, played the annoying whiny Verruca Salt with real gusto.

I'm going to leave June there. It was a good, if wet, month.

2010-07-07T18:41:00.002+02:00

NEWSFLASH: I'm doing another blog entry! This one will cover May, the month in which I turned totally old (or 37, as it's otherwise known) - but not as old as some people...

Because the month actually started with Bénédicte's 40th birthday party in Tuscany. I flew down to Pisa with Janie, and after a quick peek at the Leaning Tower (which really does lean at an alarming angle) we picked up Franck from the airport and headed down together in my hire car to the Agriturismo hotel outside Volterra that Béné had picked as a venue.

The Friday night (the last night of April) was dedicated to the Queen of the Netherlands, it being Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) and there being lots of Dutch at Béné's party: friends from the years that she spent working in Amsterdam. We all dressed up accordingly in orange and had lots & lots to drink & eat, first at the side of the pool, then in the delicious hotel restaurant, and then on into the night back at our apartment building (on its own hill - fabulous!).

The first day of May was similar, to be honest, minus the orange clothing. We started with a fabulous breakfast, went on to spend most of the day at the pool. In the afternoon we had a quick sightseeing stroll around Volterra, then we headed back and enjoyed a barbecue & lots more to drink. The party went on until 4am, at which point I had to drive back to Pisa airport for my flight back to Munich at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Because that afternoon I absolutely definitely had to be at a choir rehearsal. It was almost time for our performances of Bernstein's "Mass", which we were doing in conjunction with an orchestra and several solo singer/dancers in the newly reopened St Mark's Church in Schwabing. The rehearsals were much trickier now that we were having to memorise all the music and learn moves to go along with the singing.

The final dress rehearsal was on Thursday 6th, but we rehearsed on Monday night & Wednesday night as well. What with three performances on the next three nights, it felt like all I existed for was Mass! In fact, it was very bizarre NOT singing for three whole evenings before the final performance the following Thursday night!

Just as I came out of my choral phase, I had the pleasure of Rich visiting me from New York for a few days (en route to a conference in Prague). We had a great time in Munich (for instance at the Löwenbräukeller, and later at Barysphär bar with Béné, Bezi, Marie-Laure & Janie) and outside town (with a day-trip out to the monastery & beergarden at Andechs with Harry, Dieter & Bernhard).

And the following week it was time for me to get OLD. The weather was disgusting, which helped. But some twenty or thirty people braved the cold & rain to join me at Nockherberg and commiserate the passing of another year. That was the night that Hugh & Lee arrived from Paris on the train

We had a cracking long weekend with them in & around Munich. Highlights included a bit of culture at the Pinakothek der Moderne (I can highly recommend the painter Neo Rauch, by the way); a visit to Chiemsee and Mad King Ludwig's castle on the Herrenchiemsee island; a memorable night in Carmen's disco; a proper picnic in the Wienerplatz Biergarten; and a slap-up dinner at Béné's place.

The weather at LAST started turning a bit nicer, so we had a day out at Starnberg with Michaela, Lisa & the boys, and then I rounded off the month with a monster English roast dinner at my place for Béné, Marie-Laure, Bernhard, Anja, Uli & Heidrun. There was Pimm's & lemonade as an apéritif, I did a prawn cocktail starter, roast beef & all the trimmings for main, and a huge trifle for dessert. Followed up, of course, by a selection of British cheeses. YUM!!

Voilà a whole month, condensed into a bite-size snack of an overview - well, bite-size for me anyway!

2010-05-18T21:15:00.000+02:00

Sorry folks, it's been a while (well, a bloody long time actually) since my last blog entry. I think the UNENDING crap weather has sapped my will to live - or at least to type. But here's a quick overview of what I did in April (ohmigod has it really been that long since I updated this thing?):

At the start of the month, Ali was still here doing her German course. We played badminton, ate lots of food and had a couple of drinks here & there.

I did quite a bit of "local" tourism in April, visiting Munich's City Museum for an exhibition of photos by Andreas Gefeller (fabulous!) and taking a double dose of modern art, at the Pinakothek der Moderne and then the neighbouring Museum Brandhorst. The latter gallery houses a preposterous collection of huge Cy Twombly paintings that I dearly wish I could detest - but annoyingly the set of twelve pieces commemorating the Battle of Lepanto are actually quite good...

I popped out one afternoon with Bernhard to Walchensee, a lake near Garmisch to the southwest of Munich, followed that with a visit to Garmisch itself (where I had a delicous schnitzel). I also visited Landshut, and back in Munich I cycled along the Isar (looking back, there were at least two dry days this spring).

A highlight of the month was Munich's Spring Festival, the Frühlingsfest. This is kind of like the Oktoberfest but a bit smaller - which means it is still enormous, just not mind-bendingly so. Bénédicte's friends Nath & Marcel were down from Amsterdam, and I went to the Fest with them. It was sunshine & showers.

Of course, I spent many a pleasant evening in the company of friends, eating at a variety of locations and drinking plenty of alcoholic beverages. The bizarrest food experience was a Quebecker brunch at a small Canadian delicatessen, which featured random (and, I have to admit, not particularly tasty) preserved fruits.

The most amusing drinking took place at Bezi's 30th birthday party, in her cousin's flat in Schwabing. Bénédicte & I got to know lots of Bezi's Munich friends (Bezi now lives in Zurich, which is a great shame) and I ended up drinking & dancing in the kitchen until five in the morning!!

The most unusual thing I did in April was probably helping Bine film a mini-documentary about the lions' heads outside the former royal palace (the Residenz) that people rub for good luck. I've never been involved in a proper filming before, so it was great fun providing some cheesy lines ("You've got to rub it! Rub it good!") and generally getting all arty and creative.

D'you know? I think I'll leave April at that. Short & sweet. This blog misses some of the minutiae of life that enliven other entries I have done, but it is a masterpiece of concision, I think you'll agree!

2010-04-07T10:41:00.003+02:00

Hello again, my e-chums! Time for another quick update about my favourite topic: ME.

So, what have I been up to? Ah yes, I was in Austria with Michaela & the boys to see family. It was lovely, but sadly all too brief (for me at least; Michaela's extended drive home again is entirely another story); I only had a day & a night there, and then had to get the train back to Munich for a choir rehearsal on the Sunday.

Still, the Saturday was fabulous. We left Michaela's nice & early, and got to Greinsfurth in time for a delicious lunch at Martha & Hans's place. Then we popped in on Inge & Otto for a quick cuppa & an even quicker white wine spritzer, before driving over to Martha & Poidl's for coffee, cake, & a full-on Jause of meats, cheeses & salads. It was, as you can discern from these lines, a high-calorie visit.

Back at Martha & Hans's we had a remarkably restrained - for us - evening of wine & chat before turning in. And the next morning, after a delicious breakfast with farmhouse bread & extra-fresh sheep's cheese (the likes of which I have never even seen outside Austria: it's a bit like fromage blanc and tastes marvellous with paprika), Hans dropped me off at Amstetten station. I caught a train to Salzburg and then another train to Munich, then headed straight to the rehearsal.

That evening I celebrated the arrival for her two-week German course of my dear friend Ali. She & I had a bite to eat near Sendlinger Tor, and then we headed to mine for wine & an ample cheese board, where we were joined by Bénédicte.

A pretty busy weekend, all things considered!

The following week was pretty full-on too. I hung out with Ali most evenings, allowing her to wind down from a head full of German each day (she was doing an intensive course at the Goethe Institut). At lunchtimes I caught up with EPO people and with Michaela & Charlie.

And then, on Thursday, it was time for my next international adventure: a long weekend in Budapest!

I caught the train to Vienna in the morning, where Bernhard met me at Westbahnhof and we headed to the Naschmarkt for lunch. It was a pleasant sunny afternoon in Vienna, and we wandered around enjoying the atmosphere (until I got a bit of grit under one of my lenses and suffered PAINNNNNN). Then, at four o'clock, we got back on the train and headed to Budapest.

Our hotel, the EasyHotel, was very central, close to the Oktogon square and lots of restaurants & bars on Liszt Ferencz Tér. We dumped our bags, freshened up, and headed out to enjoy the sights & smells. Actually, that's pretty much what we did all weekend, in a variety of cafés, restaurants, bars & pubs.

Budapest has lots going on, not just in terms of sightseeing - which one can do PLENTY of, what with beautiful bridges, palaces, churches, Europe's largest synagogue, and marvellous hot spas - but also in terms of nightlife.

There's a very lively underground bar culture - literally bars in the cellar of lots of buildings. But our favourite Pub, Dupla (just behind Liszt Ferencz Tér) actually goes over three levels: upstairs is a quiet area for board games (the Hungarians love their backgammon); the ground floor is pubby with a piano; and the basement is a funky bar with a discoball & cool sounds.

In a fit of photo-efficiency, I've already uploaded a representative selection of my photos on my main site. Enjoy!

Essentially, we did Buda & the centre of Pest on Friday, the rest of Pest - including the Szeczenyi Baths - on Saturday, and Memento Park (a collection of Soviet-era statuary in the suburbs) & the Gellert Hill on Sunday. And, after an action-packed couple of days, we hopped on the train on Monday morning that took us all the way back to Munich.

Back in Munich, we met Ali just by the station and had a bite to eat with her before having a drink in the Isarpost café (actually a huge club venue, but when there isn't an event on they open their foyer which has comfy sofas and cool sounds).

On Tuesday I took Ali to the Hofbräuhaus - a must for visitors to Munich, if they're not here for the Oktoberfest - with my mate Jürgen. After a beer & a chat with random strangers on our table (in true Oktoberfest style) there, we went on to Opatija, a Croatian restaurant round the corner, for a bite to eat, and from there to The Lodge for a cheeky limoncello.

I rounded off my March with a spot of culture: Ali & I went to the Neue Pinakothek on Wednesday afternoon and had two hours of new visual impressions before I left to go to my choir rehearsal. We met up again afterwards for a few more drinks.

And that, ladies & gentlemen, is my story up to the end of March. Peace out.

2010-03-19T22:04:00.002+01:00

Oh me oh my! It's been such a long time since I wrote this blog. Sorry, peeps. But at least I've been doing other exciting online things in the meantime, like getting myself totally up to date on the uploading of photos. I just LOVE my Australia pictures! They bring back such vivid memories for me of my recent fantastic trip.

But I have been doing lots of offline things in recent weeks too. Here's a round-up:

- Carnival! Mardi Gras! (Or Faschingsdienstag, as they call it here.) Lots of silly costumes, lots of beer, and thankfully lots of sunshine too, even if it was a bit bloody freezing. The photos tell their own story...

- Another marvellous weekend in Leipzig. This time, we did some more sightseeing, including the Memorial to the Battle of the Nations (Europe's largest monument, which was built in 1913 to commemmorate the victory of a coalition of forces against Napoleon there a hundred years earlier) and the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum - try saying that when you're pissed! - (the museum of the key points in the history of the so-called German Democratic Republic, otherwise known as East Germany).

- Me & Veronika went to see our mate Rocky's band "Hetoro" play in Moosach, just to the northeast of Munich. And they were BRILLIANT! I pretty much knew every single song they played, and the singer was great, and the atmosphere was marvellous.

- I visited delightful Landshut, a small town northeast of Munich further downstream on the Isar. There's a castle, some cute pastel-coloured houses, and some great bars & restaurants, not to mention the churches, the waterfront and the coffees...

- Starkbierfest!! Oh my God, the strong beer festival is not for the faint-hearted. It's proper Bavarian: litres of extra-strength lager, brown and sticky-sweet. Supposedly it's what got the monks through Lent. I suspect it helped them SLEEP through Lent. You certainly don't enjoy waking up after a night on that stuff!

- A weekend's skiing in Austria with friends from the EPO. I've never stayed overnight on top of a mountain at a ski resort before. That was cool. And the hazelnut schnapps was truly memorable! Bénédicte & I drank far too much of the stuff...

And of course I've been having lunch & dinner with a whole host of people, as is my wont. The long, long, long winter seems finally to have drawn to a close. It was teeshirt weather this afternoon, and I was out bouncing on the trampoline with my nephew Charlie. Not bad, considering the trampoline has been shrouded in snow for months...

Tomorrow we're off to Austria to see our rellies there. I can't wait to tell you all about it.

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2010-03-15T15:23:00.001+01:00

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2010-02-18T17:10:00.000+01:00

Wow, I'm back in Munich! 2010 holds so many possibilities for me, and I feel like I'm at the beginning of a journey. One that might perhaps not cover quite so much geography as I have done in recent years, but might instead see me travelling emotionally and psychologically in a new direction. (Gosh, that sounds self-important doesn't it!)

But of course, there are exciting things happening all the time, and that's what this blog is about. So here's a selection of tidbits of what I've been up to since the last entry:

- I've been skiing twice. Once was in constant snow - but at least it wasn't too cold or windy. And once was in blazing sunshine. Yay!

- I've had lots of choir rehearsals for our upcoming huge concert of Bernstein's Mass. It should be an amazing production, with soloists, costumes, extra choirs, and all sorts of shenanigans.

- I've been hanging out with my nephews, playing board games, Wii games, and generally messing about. They've been ill quite a lot this winter, so it's been handy that I'm free during the day so Michaela doesn't have to take so much time off work.

- I've met up with various friends, old & new, for lunch & dinner. It's lovely to catch up with people again after my long time away.

- I've been thinking about what to do next workwise. And then, after a few milliseconds when it gets too depressing, I've been distracting myself with pretty much any other activity whatsoever.

- I've endured the freezing temperatures of this winter, with loads of snow lying unmelted for ages & ages. At times I've been tempted to sew myself into my thermal long johns. But then thoughts of personal hygiene have stayed my hand.

- I've spent a long weekend in Italy, visiting Lorna in Milan. We took a train across to Venice to experience the spectacle of Carnival there, with lots of people dressing up in traditional costume - us included (well, we got masks anyway).

I promise to get some of my Australia photos up on my website soon...

And that, folks, is I think my briefest blog entry in a VEEEEERY long time!

2010-01-22T16:38:00.001+01:00

Okay people, let's finish this! One more blog (this one) and then I'm basically up to date, inasmuch as we'll have reached 2010. Hold onto your hats:

I boarded my Emirates flight to Singapore without incident. I didn't even look out of the window much, preferring not to dwell on the thought that I was leaving Australia behind me. Instead, I watched a series of films courtesy of the in-flight entertainment system. Don't ask me what they all were: they were recent, they were okay, but that's about it.

A couple of hours on the ground in Singapore, and then it was back into the skies, for our flight to Dubai. More films, some dozing, then a few more hours on the ground there, before once again climbing into the heavens en route for London.

Dubai, of course, now boasts the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, at over 800 metres. It was bizarre to see this futuristic jaggedy spike sticking up out of the ground as we took off for the UK; I felt like I was on the cover of a sci-fi novel.

I couldn't quite believe my eyes as we came down through the clouds and flew in over Gatwick: there below me was a winter wonderland of patchwork fields all in white, sewn together with seams of highlighted hedgerow. A far cry from the heat of Melbourne, Singapore & Dubai.

The UK is enduring its coldest winter in over 30 years, with snow & ice before Christmas and again in spades after New Year. So much so that my flight home to Munich was cancelled. Twice! But I'm getting ahead of myself...

I caught the train from Gatwick to Guildford and was met at the station by Chris & Livi, who gave me a great big hug and then offerred me a mince pie. What a great girl! Back at Chris & Kate's I hugged Kate & Sophie, then brought my many bags upstairs. Soon Michaela & the boys arrived from their visit in Oxfordshire, and the Family Christmas officially began.

It was a marvellous few days! It was so much fun just hanging out with the kids, and hanging out with the adults too. There was lots of food, drink, chat, and mirth. We saw a few other people too, which was lovely, but the focus for me was my nephews & nieces. I didn't have much time with them in the summer in Rome, so I made the most of this holiday with them.

On Christmas Eve we all went to see the pantomime. It was Cinderella, with Gethin Jones (of Strictly Come Dancing fame, for my UK readers) as the Prince. I haven't been to a pantomime for such a long time! It all felt very English and comfortable, a bit like a Carry On film or a cooked breakfast.

Christmas Day was exactly what it was supposed to be: presents, happiness, a huge feed (I helped Kate in the kitchen), and then a whole lot of nothing in particular. The kids really enjoyed the table football that Chris had bought, and the grown-ups had a few games too.

After Christmas Day itself we visited a few of our remaining cousins. First up was Roy & Sheila, and the next day it was the turn of Bob & Iris, with the added bonus of cousin Audrey & her husband Nick, as well as Bob & Iris' youngest daughter Shelley & her husband Richard.

Michaela, the boys & I went from there to visit Selena & Neil in Watford. (Chris, Kate & the girls went home to Guildford.) The next day we drove across to Ann & Colin's in Cockfosters, where we also got to see Kevin & his family and Julie & her ex Fred. It felt just like family; no surprise, since we worked out that Kevin has known me for fully 25 years!!

Over the New Year period I caught up with lots of my other London friends: Hugh, Nick, Justin & Sam & the girls, Steve & Becky, and Memet & Justyna. I also caught up with Adam from Adelaide, who was over for a few days, and Julie my old Powergen colleague and exceptionally well-travelled friend, who I was overjoyed to find in London for a change.

And then it was already time to leave the UK. Or so I thought, anyway... I was supposed to leave on Wednesday but was informed by text message that the flight was cancelled, so I rebooked online for the next day's flight.

On Thursday I didn't get the cancellation text until I was already at the airport with Michaela & the boys (whose flight, we discovered on arrival, was also cancelled again), so they rebooked me on the spot for Friday. And then my Friday flight was delayed by two hours. But at least we got away.

Bénédicte was a total star and picked me up from the airport, even though the weather forecast for Munich was really bad (more snow). She dropped me off at Michaela's house and made a quick getaway, so the roads wouldn't be too icy. At Michaela's the winter woe continued however, because her heating had broken down while she was away and the house was freezing!

On Saturday I felt pretty lousy, so I didn't move all my stuff back into my flat as planned. Instead I had a hot bath, then another snooze under warmer covers, and then had a bite to eat. I met up with Christian for coffee in town later, then headed back to Michaela's for a spot of dinner with her & Charlie (Ryan was at a party).

Sunday was reasonably quiet too, with a spot of breakfast next door at Vera's. I gave her daughter Stefanie a lift to her stables outside Munich and we took her horse for a walk through the snow & ice. It was very cold, but the walking warmed me up. And the ice formations on the trees were fascinating!

That evening we had a roast chicken dinner and then I headed back to my flat, to start the task of unpacking all the various boxes & bags that I had put my life into before leaving for Thailand.

2010-01-19T14:50:00.002+01:00

So we've reached my last weekend in Melbourne. Boo hoo! I have to head back to freezing cold, dark, miserable Europe in three days' time! Let's make the most of the time I have left...

Saturday morning Rainnie & I cycled into Fitzroy and I did a whole bunch of Christmas shopping at the Rose Street arts market. Considering I don't like shopping, I managed to find loads of nice things - all in the one place, too! Result!

That evening I met up wtih Stuart at a nice pub called The Fox. A friend of his was having a leaving party (he's off to London for a few years) and Stuart smuggled me in. From The Fox we went to The Laird and ended up partying in the beer garden there until about five o'clock!

On Sunday Peter drove me out to the Botanical Gardens at Cranbourne, to the east of Melbourne proper. They're in the middle of extending the gardens to include a huge exhibit of plants from all over Australia, and there was lots to see. It was handy having Peter there: he's a professional gardener, and so could tell me all about the plants and flowers we were looking at.

Peter dropped me off back at Rainnie's and after a little bit of faffing she & I cycled back into the city, to have my leaving drinks. I'd invited a few people to meet me that afternoon in The Lounge, another old haunt on Swanston. We were joined by Emily, Peter & Stuart, and had a quiet couple of drinks on the balcony there, overlooking the goings-on on Swanston.

We went our separate ways as dusk fell, Rainnie & I cycling back up Lygon and to the little Italian just at the top of her road, called I Carusi. We had a Pizza For A Friend for old times' sake, with a bottle of the house red. Ah! The memories! I still love that pizza: feta, rocket, pine nuts and roast pumpkin. Yum!!

My last two daya in Melbourne felt much more like a holiday. Rainnie had time during the day to show me lots of different parts of town. We cycled all over the place, criss-crossing the city and the inner suburbs in search of coffees, meals, and sights.

Highlights included lunch at DonDon, the funky little Japanese place on Swanston; Chinese dumplings in Richmond, coffee in a converted little warehouse, and the views of the city from the cycle path along the Yarra and from Docklands (where a substantial number of tower blocks have gone up even since I was living here four years ago).

I also made time for a couple of interviews with different massage colleges, just to see what is covered in their Remedial Massage training. Food for thought...

On Monday evening I met up with Peter for dinner at an Afghan restaurant on Brunswick Street. For dessert we hit a nearby gelateria (mmm, blood orange!) and then Peter drove me out to Kew, from where you get quite the most stunning view over Melbourne's CBD. We caught it just at the perfect moment, as the sun sank beneath the horizon and the sky cycled through a progression of crepuscular hues, followed by the starry heavens unfolding above. Sensational!

And there it was: my last moments in Melbourne. The weather was finally turning reliably hot & sunny, but it was all to no avail. I had to pack my bags and get ready to go. The cycling with Rainnie took my mind off my imminent departure somewhat, and the tour of phenomenal coffee shops was wonderful (Oh My God, the one called Brother Baba Budan is simply off-the-scale amazing!), but the end had to come.

Rainnie took me to the airport in her car, and we had one final chat together (in McDonalds, of all places) before I was on my own again, London-bound. Farewell Australia! You are in my heart. And I shall see you again!

2010-01-16T15:49:00.000+01:00

Perhaps it's time to wish all my dear, dear readers a very happy New Year! I kind of got all caught up in trying to get caught up with myself, if you see what I mean, so I didn't do the whole "Merry Christmas, everybody" type blog when I should have. Ah well.

So, back to the story: there's one thing I forgot to mention about that Sunday night in Melbourne. After the stupendous buffet dinner David had to go back to his hotel to prepare for the following day's meeting, so I wandered through the CBD vaguely back towards Swanston Street.

I decided to check out one of the bars that Rainnie had recommended: Cabinet. It was tucked away upstairs on an alleyway, like all the best Melbourne haunts. I was feeling so full of food that I couldn't face beer or even wine, so instead, much to my own astonishment, I plumped for a single malt whisky!

I have to say it was delicious with just a dash of water to encourage the aromas, and I made it last a good hour, sitting on the balcony overlooking Swanston and watching the world go by. (Okay, I read a magazine as well; there's only so much people-watching I can do in one go.)

My second week in Melbourne was just as much fun as my first week. On Monday I had myself a delicious Nepalese lunch on Lygon, then in the evening I caught up with my good friend Pat for a bite to eat and met his friend Nick, which was a lot of fun.

On Tuesday I spent the afternoon and evening with Emily, Tiffany & her son Herbert down on the beach at St Kilda. First we got some gluten-free fish & chips and some white wine, then we headed down to the beach, then I messed around in the water with Herbert.

At one point we started building a huge sand castle (with a very fine moat, though I say so myself!), and this other little kid joined us. I was beginning to look like the Pied Piper of Hamlyn, according to the girls! But the best bit was when Herbert went into the sea to get some seaweed for decoration, and the little kid said to me "where's your brother?"!!!

We went back to Tiffany's for more wine and I ended up crashing at hers the night. Which meant I was able to have a late breakfast with her in St Kilda the next morning, before catching a tram into the CBD, picking up my camera from the mender's, and then heading back to Rainnie's place in the afternoon.

That evening I met up with Peter to go to the Summer Night Market, a multicultural shopping, eating, drinking & dancing thing they put on at Victoria Markets that reminded me strongly of summer Tollwood here in Munich.

On Thursday I caught up with my old massage teacher Michelle, out at her house in the inner eastern suburbs. It was SO lovely to see her again! She was looking fabulous: freshly in love, and full of the joys of life. She gave me a massage but for me it was more about having a chance to catch up on what's happened in the last four years since we spoke.

After the massage I headed back into the city for a quick coffee in another of Rainnie's recommended coffee shops, hidden away in an alley. That evening I met Stuart at Melbourne Town Hall and we went to Sahara for dinner followed by a couple of drinks at a couple of bars that Rainnie had suggested to me: The Workshop (a first-floor place on a corner of Elizabeth Street) and Sister Bella (tucked away on a side-alley off an alley).

Friday was Rainnie's last day of her studies to be a teacher. She finished relatively early, and as it was another lovely hot day we went on a cycle ride to celebrate her freshly-regained freedom.

We headed to Ceres, the alternative lifestyle place just up the Merri Creek from her house, and spent a while fixing up the bike that one of her teacher colleagues had just given her. It was a bit rusty but basically sound. I've never tightened spokes before, but they have all the equipment you could ever need at Ceres' community bike shed, so it was no trouble at all in the end.

And so we came to the evening, which we were billing to ourselves as a reprise of our 2005-standard "Bodyweight In Beer" evenings. (Rainnie always used to complain, the day after having been out with me, that I should remind her next time that she can't drink her bodyweight in beer. Somehow, it always slipped my mind to do so...)

Our first port of call was Cabinet, the bar I'd had a whisky in at the weekend. I'd forgotten, but when Rainnie had told me about it it was because of their amazing g&t. So this time I had one. The gin they use is Xoriguer, from Majorca, and I have to say I was very impressed! Full of flavour, balanced, and very smooth.

From there I took Rainnie to Siglo, the second-floor terrace bar on Spring Street I had become acquainted with through Matthew the previous week. We had martinis but somehow they weren't quite as tasty as the ones I'd had last time. At least the olives were just as plump and tasty as I remembered though.

From there we headed through the CBD towards the river. We stopped for a loo break at the Euro Bar but then ended up staying there for a beer because the live band that was on was playing excellent tracks and we felt like a bit of a boogie on the sticky carpet floor (it reminded me of cheesy nights with Powergen mates at the similarly-floored nightclub in Leamington Spa).

Then we went on to Recorded Music Bar on Collins Street, where we ended up chatting with these two girls who work for some sort of medical charity. It was such a bizarre, wine-bar type conversation with people I'd never in a million years normally come into contact with!

A few beers later we headed on again, to Cherry Bar, scene of many a drunken night in my year in Melbourne. Sadly, for the first time this trip, my happy memories of 2005 were spoilt somewhat by the reality of 2009. Rainnie rightly pointed out that we were at Cherry at altogether the wrong time of the evening (it was barely past midnight; it only kicks off there around two or three), but it was still a shock to the system to find anything negative at all about Melbourne. I'm over the shock now, thankfully, but at the time it was BAD!

We actually managed to catch the last tram back up Lygon towards Rainnie's place - and then both actually managed to fall asleep in said tram! We woke up about four stops beyond her place, swore liberally at ourselves and at one another for our stupidity, then started walking - well, staggering - back. We stopped for a late-night falafel pita sandwich and then strolled munching back to her place.

2010-01-05T09:33:00.000+01:00

Ah! Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne!

Rainnie was a darling and met me at the airport off my flight from Adelaide. We went back to hers, then jumped on bikes and cycled down Lygon Street a bit to a wine bar called Atticus Finch for a bottle of (it has to be said mediocre) red wine to celebrate my return to Victoria.

On Sunday morning we cycled to Fitzroy Baths for a swim and a tan top-up. Yes, it was hot & sunny in Melbourne! This wasn't always to be the case, however, which somewhat saddened me. I'm sure it didn't rain nearly as much in my whole year here in '05 as it did in my fortnight here this year! But no matter.

That afternoon we made pizzas at Rainnie's house and ate them. Yum!! Lebanese flat bread, a bit of tomato paste, some cheese, some veggies, some olives, and hey presto. Or the other one, which was just garlic, red onion, potatoes and rosemary. Wow!

I'd arranged to meet up with my friend Stuart later that afternoon in the beergarden of the Laird, my local when I was living here. To my surprise I not only saw Stuart but also got to know his best friend Peter AND I ran into Johannes' friend Dez! Of course, everyone knew everyone else already. But it was great for me to reconnect with Melbourne mates en masse.

For dinner, Stuart & Peter took me to the nearby Park Hotel, which is a pleasant pub with excellent food and is a regular haunt of theirs. Then I walked slowly back across Fitzroy and towards town, passing by a new pub I'd heard about called Sircuit and running into my friend Pat there unexpectedly.

Most of the daytime that I was in Melbourne I spent writing up my blog, to be honest! It took a little longer than it might have because I was using Rainnie's old laptop, which needed a lot of TLC - and updates galore - to get it working. Even then it was slow as, but it beat spending all my time and money going to internet cafes, that's for sure!

My evenings I spent catching up with people, reacquainting myself with favourite haunts, and getting to know new coffee shops, bars & restaurants. I love Melbourne!

So, on Monday, I dashed into town to eat masala dosa at a restaurant on Swanston Street cheesily called Curry Paradise. It deserves the name, is all I say. Wow! I've daydreamed periodically over the last four years of savouring their masala dosa, and now here I was acting out my fantasy. Bliss!

Next I got a key cut so I could give Rainnie back her house keys, had a quick coffee down Manchester Lane, and got a haircut at the slowest, gentlest barber I've ever experienced. AND he was ethnic German to boot! Then it was back to Rainnie's for a natter.

I met Dez on Smith Street for a drink at a bar confusingly called Kent Street that evening. We had dinner at a Vietnamese place nearby and then went to the Laird for a few underwear-themed drinks. Dez had to get to work early the next day, so we left at about eleven and I got a tram back up Nicholson Street to Rainnie's.

On Tuesday I popped in to Melbourne University to ask about doing a teaching diploma there. It's shocking how much more it costs to do the course as an international student than it does for Australians or permanent residents! We're talking tens of thousands of dollars more.

That afternoon I met up with my dear dear friend Emily on the steps of Flinders Street station, a traditional Melburnian meeting place for decades. We went for a coffee & cake on Degraves Street, and then we caught the train out to Yarraville, where Em had parked her car. A quick visit to the supermarket for ingredients and then it was back to Em's for a delicious dinner of baked salmon and veggies, washed down with a fine New Zealand sauvignon blanc of my choosing. Mmmmm!

In a bid to catch up with myself in cyberspace, I'm going to try to bullet-point the next few days, which all followed a similar pattern of internet by day and fun by night.

Wednesday: caught up with my good friend Ross in St Kilda for a bite to eat and a lovely evening.

Thursday: caught up with my good friend Matthew (who used to live in Canberra) for a delicious traditional Melbourne parmigiana (I know, me eating schnitzels is seriously coals to Newcastle, but it was a very good one) and then far too many martinis in a posh bar on Spring Street.

Friday: my very first onsen (Japanese spa bath) experience - having been denied one in Japan by all of them being closed - with Stuart and Peter, followed by dinner at the Park Hotel and a very lovely evening.

On Saturday I had lunch with Peter and a walk round The Convent - literally an old convent that's now an arts centre and all-round lovely spot in Collingwood. In the afternoon I baked an apricot tart for Rainnie and that evening Rainnie & I went to the theatre to see a satirical show about the current Australian political scene.

We followed this evening of culture up with dinner at Sahara, a little place upstairs on Swanston Street that I remember fondly from four years ago. The poor waiter got into a tiz with time zones though, when I mentioned to him that I live in Munich (they were selling Paulaner Oktoberfest beer, which prompted my comment): he said something along the lines of "oh, so it's March over there at the moment isn't it?" before realising just how foolish he sounded and then dropping his tray!

Sunday was a lovely day, if a little cold. I had brunch on Brunswick Street at the Red Tongue cafe with Ian, Kris and Kris' daughter. Later that evening I caught up with my good friend David from Canberra, who was down in Melbourne on business. We had a few beers and then headed to the Crowne Casino to feast on their seafood buffet. Wow!! It was just divine! So much lobster, so many prawns, and the most delicious swordfish medaillons I've ever had the pleasure of eating! Not to mention the dessert bar and the cheese selection...

2009-12-29T09:44:00.001+01:00

Typical! You leave a town, and that's when the weather clears up! Ah well, but I can't really complain. The rain on my last full day in Perth was no more than a couple of showers, which actually made a refreshing change from the heat & dust of the previous three weeks.

So I jumped in a taxi at the crack of dawn and headed to the airport for my flight to Adelaide. The view out of the window was strangely familiar and yet unknown. I realised that it was the same crazy desert scrub that we'd been seeing from the van, only from a new vantage point. The dry river beds we flew over looked to me like giant bunkers in a planet-sized golf course.

I was met at Adelaide's swish new terminal by my cousin Su & her husband Barry, and they whisked me off to their house on the eastern edge of the city. After a quick bite to eat, I had a dunk in their fabulous swimming pool. We carried on chatting all afternoon, catching up on family gossip from both sides of the planet.

That evening we drove up to see their daughter Julie's new house at Ashton, up in the Adelaide hills. Julie & her husband Stuart are completely rebuilding a house along ecologically-friendly lines, with things like grey water evaporative cooling, double glazing (I know how bizarre it sounds to trumpet double glazing as a new technology, but in Australia it really is!) and photovoltaic cells on a specially inclined roof. The highlight for me was their farmyard, complete with chickens and alpacas!

For dinner Su, Barry & I walked round the corner to their local Thai restaurant "Sawasdee". Being in a suburb, I wasn't sure how good it would be, but I was willing to give it a try because Su & Barry were raving about it. And it turns out they were right to: what a treat! Friendly service, delicious food, and a pleasant interior.

We finished the evening back home with a luscious bottle of red wine out on the patio, which helped me shrug off the two-and-a-half hour time difference from WA.

Thursday was a pretty action-packed day. Barry suddenly had a free day (he thought he would be at the cricket, but the Test against the West Indies didn't start until the next day) so he drove me & Su all over Adelaide. We started with the view over the city from Montefiore Hill, then had a little stroll along the Torrens river through Elder Park, where I got the chance to take a series of photos of a pair of black swans courting, then shagging.

Next we headed to the botanical gardens, where we visited the new tropical house. Called the Bicentennial Rainforest Building, it looks somewhat like a gargantuan metal slug. We were getting a bit peckish by this stage, so we decided to head to Semaphore Beach for some tasty fish & chips. They're a recurring theme whenever I'm with Su & Barry: we worked out that we had had fish & chips together in Port Melbourne, in upstate Victoria, and now in Adelaide as well!

The beach at Semaphore is almost as fabulously white, long and empty as at Swanbourne in Perth, which I have to admit I wasn't expecting. Sadly, the wind was whipping up a fine blast of sand, so we didn't spend too much time by the sea. Instead, we drove round to Port Adelaide, where we had a cup of coffee, a little stroll, and then stumbled across a microbrewery where I had the serving platter of all six of their beers.

That evening I met up with David, a friend of Johannes' in Sydney. We had a drink at the Universal Wine Bar and then dinner at a Greek restaurant nearby called Eros. Cheesy name! But the food was good. Next stop was a beer at a super-traditional Australian pub that looked just like a super-traditional English pub, and we finished with a coffee in a very posh-looking coffee shop.

Friday was a little less busy, but just as much fun. Julie & Stuart came round for coffee in the morning. We had a snacky lunch and a relaxed afternoon in the pool. Later on I went into town with Su and we visited the Migration Museum, which was not that great to be honest but dealt with some interesting issues, in particular how Anglo-biased the migration policies of Australia have been throughout the history of the country.

Su & I had a cheeky coffee in the middle of Adelaide's shopping district, and then I met up with my good friend Adam. He took me to the opening of a solo show at a gallery in town. The artist is a good friend & colleague of his who has done lots of stage set design for Adam's theatre productions. The pictures were great!

We had a quick wander round Adelaide's famous food markets before heading to a Thai restaurant that Adam knows well for a delicious dinner (I had soft-shell crab for the first time - weird but tasty). The evening was lots of fun!

Saturday was my last day in Adelaide, so it was lovely for me to be able to have a big family breakfast with Su, Barry, Julie, Stuart and their two kids Callum and Elise (who, bless them, remembered me from my last visit to Adelaide in 2005) at ETC, the East Terrace Continental, a wonderful relaxed brunchy place with funky furnishings, great coffee and delicious food.

All that remained after breakfast was to pack my bags, have a farewell dip in the pool, and then head to the airport. Su & Barry had a drink with me in the terminal building, then left me in the queue to board my flight to Melbourne. Farewell, South Australia!

2009-12-28T08:27:00.002+01:00

I had a couple more days to spend in Perth, and I did it at a radically slower pace than I had become used to over the course of the camper trip. It was weird to think that I didn't have to dash around and see everything I wanted to see in about half an hour, then jump into my vehicle and drive for another six hours. Instead, I "did" Perth in my old-school backpacker style: Lonely Planet walking tour interspersed with food & drink as & when.

Perth is a smallish city with big ambitions. There's clearly money sloshing about here, what with the whole extractive industries boom and related service sector growth. Everyone had told me how English the people of Perth are, but I was surprised by how many Chinese I saw walking around. It's a boom town alright. You talk to people about the current economic downturn and they say "yeah, but it's going to go up up up really soon".

Architecturally speaking, Perth's centre is a little grid of streets with many Art Deco buildings but more & more brand spanking new skyscrapers in the modern glass-and-steel mould. I have heard that Perth is fond of blowing up its historical buildings, but I'm glad to say that there are at least a few nice ones left. For now.

Among the prettiest gems is His Majesty's Theatre, or The Maj as it's affectionately known. I had a peek inside courtesy of a very kindly gentleman who works as a volunteer guide there. He was very friendly and clearly chuffed that people would come from far & wide to visit "his" theatre, but the poor dear didn't really have all that much to say. Ah well, it was a treat just to stand in a 100-year-old theatre and look around at how they've restored the velvet seating & the paintwork.

After lunch I had a quick coffee with Blake, then meandered back through the CBD and up into King's Park. This huge open space sits atop a hill that has a commanding view over the city and all across the Swan River, which at Perth becomes a huge bay before flowing into the Indian Ocean at some narrows a few kilometres further west at Fremantle. Perth's botanical gardens are in Kings Park, and they have a fabulous treetop walk bridge thingy that takes you through the canopy of the local forest.

After the considerable amount of walking that I'd done, I decided to treat myself to a sunset at the beach. Perth has absolutely fantastic beaches: white sand, big surf, and most importantly hardly any people! I went to Swanbourne beach (which was itself a good half-hour's walk from Swanbourne railway station, it has to be said) and then strolled up and down the monster expanse of gorgeous beach. Almost the only other people I saw were kitesurfers who were plying their way slowly northwards in the stiff sea breeze.

I plonked myself down on my trusty green striped beach towel that I'd bought in South Africa all those years ago, and enjoyed a last bit of hot sun on my bronzed body, shielded from the wind by the dunes I had climbed up into. It was heaven!

The trip back into town was a lot easier thanks to the coincidence of me passing the beach bus stop just at the moment the bus was doing the same. I hopped on, changed onto a train, and then walked back to Blake's apartment to get showered and changed for dinner.

I met with my friend Shane, a self-employed property developer who does up big places out in the bush and then sells them on, for some Malaysian food and a few drinks. But before long I was in bed, worn out from the day's exertions.

Tuesday was more of the same, with a slow morning of repacking my luggage (this time without a hangover and the time pressure of having to bring the van back - phew!) followed by a spot of lunch. Then I took the train out to Fremantle and walked around there for the afternoon.

Fremantle is, or used to be, a separate town that serves as Perth's port. It stands at the mouth of the Swan River and has a lovely compact and ornate city centre with fine Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings. It's also famous for being the home of the Little Creatures brewery. Little Creatures has a brasserie-cum-beerhall out on the marina which is a bit of a backpacker mecca, but I have to say I was underwhelmed. The one in Melbourne which I'd been to a month before with Rainnie was much more atmospheric in my opinion.

Perhaps it wasn't Fremantle's fault that I found everything a bit less attractive than I had expected. It might instead have been the result of this being my last day in Western Australia. Sure, I was distracting myself by walking all over and looking at stuff, but there was no denying that I was on a bit of a downer after the manic three weeks in the campervan.

Thank goodness I'd had a little pilgrimage to the beach yesterday at Swanbourne, because Fremantle doesn't have a beach to speak of. I would have been extremely cross at myself if I hadn't luxuriated on a big fat white sandy beach one last time, considering how many gorgeous such beaches Rainnie & I had seen on our trip.

My mood perked up when I saw the sun set over the marina. For once it wasn't a case of "golden orb drops into cobalt sea", but rather - thanks to the dodgy weather that day - "copper orb lights up sky in flood of purples and reds before dropping into steely sea". At last, some colourful sunset photos!! (Ooh, hark at me, bemoaning the idyllic weather conditions of the previous fortnight!)

Moodwise, things only got better after sunset: my friend Robert in Sydney had given me the details of a friend of his in Perth, Francois, and I had arranged to meet Francois that evening in Fremantle for pizza. He brought along a friend of his, Simon, and the three of us had a delightful evening of wine and conversation, first at the pizza place and then at a gelato bar.

I do enjoy meeting new people who I have some slight connection to (as opposed to random strangers, which I always find a bit daunting - which is not to say I can't or won't meet random strangers, but it's always nicer if you're introduced to someone, even in the vaguest of ways, I find).

Francois was kind enough to drive me back into the city - which was lovely, considering I was still wearing shorts & a teeshirt but the temperature had dropped into the mid teens with the wind & rain. And then I got changed into warmer clothes, walked into Northbridge to do a spot of internetting, and walked home again, safe in the knowledge that I was checked in for tomorrow's flight.

2009-12-25T09:10:00.002+01:00

The initial shock of being back in a city slowly wore off. We found ourselves a room for the night in one of the many many backpacker places in Northbridge (it was a dump and horrendously overpriced, but we were too knackered to worry about it overly), extracted what we would need for the evening from the camper and then began the gradual process of re-urbanising ourselves: showers, the trimming of fringe (Rainnie) and beard (me), putting on a wash, getting changed into "presentable" clothes.

It was Friday night, and I had decided to put on my dancing shoes and celebrate the end of our trip. But we were so knackered that we accidentally fell asleep! An hour later, I awoke extremely groggy and spent a little while rousing Rainnie from her slumber. We pushed on through the thick heads, had a cheeky cider to start the evening, and headed out to the Belgian Beer Cafe for a swift one. We just got there before they started closing up! It was eleven o'clock.

Our next port of call was a cavernous bar with a number of different rooms and dancefloors called the Court. At one point we found ourselves talking to a very very scary older lady. Rainnie felt honour-bound to remain in conversation with her, but she was SCARY so I finally convinced Rainnie to do a runner. We pretended to go to the toilet, then left quick-sharp! From the Court we went to Connections, a cheesy nightclub near our backpackers. But somehow we managed not to get to bed until four a.m. so it can't have been all that bad...

On Saturday morning we paid a heavy price for the excesses of the night before. Not only had we drunk a skinful, but also I had to get up at eight o'clock to renew the parking ticket on the van! And again at nine o'clock. And at ten. But then I realised we could't put off the inevitable any longer: it was time to Return The Campervan.

But first we had to check out. The geezer in the backpackers kindly let us use one of the common rooms to organise our luggage. Oh my God! The pile of our belongings was frighteningly huge. And it all had to fit back into two pieces of luggage!! Even random strangers were gasping at the enormity of our packing task. But somehow we managed.

Unfortunately, the packing sapped Rainnie of any remaining energy she had for the day. She was apologetic but it was clear to me that she was in such a bad way, she wouldn't be able to help me clean the van. So I did all of that, whilst she held her head in the vicinity of a bucket.

From the rental return station (handily close by in Northbridge) we took a cab to a nearby doctor. Rainnie was really in a bad way. The doctor sent us to the hospital for blood tests, fearing that Rainnie had hepatitis! And so we spent the best part of Saturday afternoon in hospital, Rainnie in various emergency beds and me - courtesy of administrative cock-up - in the waiting area, wondering what the hell was going on.

Oh well, on the positive side it gave me the chance to start writing up the three-week trip round NT and WA (Rainnie's laptop was in her bag with me). But when my head had cleared a bit I realised I should ask for an update at the front desk. They then told me "oh yes, of course you can go through to see her, but we don't bother calling up individual visitors". So how am I supposed to know I can go through? Argh!

By about five o'clock Rainnie was sufficiently rehydrated to be allowed to leave the hospital. We got a taxi into town, and the driver was a very entertaining and friendly chap from Kenya who had previously lived in Melbourne. And, as everyone knows, in Melbourne it's ALL ABOUT coffee, so Rainnie and he spent a good five minutes discussing the merits of various Melbourne coffee bars, and he bemoaned the fact that you just can't get a decent coffee anywhere in Perth!

At least I could tell from this exchange that Rainnie was feeling better... So we went to have a little lie down in a park in the centre of Northbridge, where they'd put up a huge widescreen TV and were showing bizarre cartoons. Then we indulged in a spot of internetting back at the backpackers.

We had a last bite to eat together at a Vietnamese place, and I had the best pho (beef noodle soup) I think I've ever had outside of Vietnam. Oh my God it was good! (It might just have had something to do with the fact that this was the first time in three weeks that I'd eaten meat, but I like to think that it was more about simply how well prepared it was and how fresh the ingredients were.)

We followed this delicious meal with a dismal coffee up the road, and then it was time for me to bid farewell to my travelling companion of the last three weeks. Rainnie flew home to Melbourne that night.

But I had a few more days in Perth, and they started about five minutes after Rainnie jumped into her airport taxi: I met up with Blake, a chap I met at Foggy's wedding in Northern Ireland in March. He owns a gorgeous flat right in the middle of Northbridge that he rents out, and handily it was empty from Saturday for a few days, so I moved in there straight away and then we had a few beers and a catch-up.

The plan for Sunday was delightful. Blake had gathered a few mates together and we did a little bit of a winery tour in the Swan River Valley, just north of Perth. Blake picked me up in the morning, then we swung by his friend Brett's house to pick him up as well. The three of us drove to the Duckstein Brewery, a German beergarden and brewhouse, where we met up with Blake's friends Holger & Melanie (a German couple) and Chrissie & Cherry.

The food was enormous and the beer was pretty good. But deary me the prices! It was hard to see how much they were getting away with charging for bog-standard German fare. I mean, it hurts my feelings to pay the equivalent of €20 for a schnitzel that I could buy in Munich for maybe €8! Ah well, but here we were on the other side of the planet, so I guess it had rarity value.

After the brewery we went to a couple of wineries. They have a great system here: you pay two dollars and get to taste six or seven wines. So there's no guilt-driven pressure on you to buy any wine at all, like there might be if you were getting all your tastes for free. At the first winery, the guy was a bit boring, but at the second one the woman we had was hysterically funny. She must have been eighty years old, but she was all dolled up (lippy, the works) and she had SUCH banter it was hilarious!

We went our separate ways after that winery, Blake Brett & I back to Brett's, where his wife gave us delicious cupcakes. Then Blake & I drove back into the city, left the car at his place and walked up to Mount Lawley for a bite to eat at a Greek place. We followed this with one of Perth's best coffees (according to Lonely Planet - but then again, how could I ever trust a coffee recommendation from that book again?) but I reckon Rainnie wouldn't have rated it.

We walked back to Northbridge and Blake drove home to his place in the suburbs, whilst I luxuriated in his exceptionally well-appointed place in town. Ah! to have so much space to myself, after 21 days sharing a campervan! It was exquisite.

2009-12-21T00:09:00.000+01:00

So, it's Thursday, we're in Monkey Mia. How else to start the day than by watching dolphins getting fed?

There was quite a large crowd of people on the beach down by the jetty to enjoy this daily spectacle: dolphins coming in from the wild to interact with humans and get a free meal. To be fair to the organisers, they don't feed just any dolphin. The recipients of food are all descendants of the original group of dolphins that were first fed some thirty years ago.

It was wonderful to see dolphins so up-close and personal. Normally you only ever see glimpse them from on board a ship, or at best when they're swimming past you at high speed. This was a real treat - although it would have been even more amazing to swim with them rather than looking on whilst standing in a big long line on the sand.

After the dolphin feeding we went along to the meeting place for our Aboriginal walk. The guy taking us on the walk used to be a famous Australian Rules footballer - and he is a well-built man in his thirties with a distinct aura about him. Now he is an evangelist for Aboriginal-owned and -organised tourism, working closely with indigenous communities to ensure that their wishes are respected.

The walk he took us on brought us into close contact with Australian plants, animals and soil in a completely new way for me. It was fascinating to hear him talk about traditional ways, bush tucker (the plants you can eat that grow wild here, as opposed to food plants imported by European settlers), and the intimate relationship that Aboriginal people have with their environment. It really makes you look at the world around you with different eyes.

We left Monkey Mia and headed back to the mainland, but with one last stop at Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites, which are bizarre communities of bacteria that have existed for over three billion years. They look like rocks, but they're alive! They too depend on the hypersalinity of the waters of Shark Bay, a factor (along with the biodiversity) that was decisive in this whole area's elevation to World Heritage status.

And, sure enough, once we left the vicinity of Shark Bay, the plants and trees either side of the road seemed somehow less vibrant and full of energy. It was almost unpleasant to get slowly sucked back in to the "normal" Australia again after a few days enjoying the richness of Shark Bay and Monkey Mia.

We drove on south, eventually reaching a new area of lush vegetation in the form of the Kalbarri National Park, famed for its banksia trees and other flowering bushes. In fact, it was quite bizarre to find ourselves driving along and suddenly to notice that the scenery had undergone another colossal change. Where there had been scrub, now there were huge stands of trees. Where there had been two colours: ochre and dusty green, now there were little flowers in every hue.

We had a sad encounter with a very recently deceased emu that blocked our half of the highway. It was tragic to see this proud bird - whose cousins we had so recently played with in Exmouth - sprawled across the tarmac, still bleeding from its fatal car impact wounds.

We left the main highway to head to the coast and had a bite to eat at the small town of Kalbarri, enjoying the spectacular inlet there, with foaming waves crashing over a submerged rock and beaches stretching to either side. Then, as we headed back inland, we stopped to enjoy the sunset in a landscape that felt decidedly European: fields, fences, farms, and a general lack of the sense of vastness that had accompanied us pretty much all the way from Darwin.

We could tell we were nearing the end of our trip, but we had a few more excitements ahead of us yet.

Relatively quickly, the pastoral idyll we found ourselves in gave way to a briefly forgotten but sadly all-too-familiar dystopia of multi-lane highways, garish lights and that bane of modern life, traffic. The weather turned even windier as well, which made it all the more scary when huge road trains decided to overtake us on roads that were much narrower than they had been further north.

We drove right past Geraldton, the first town of any size we'd seen since, well, Darwin to be honest. Instead we pressed on further south, deciding to leave the main highway again and head coastwards towards Jurien Bay. We found ourselves a secluded parking spot off the road and hunkered down for the night under our sleeping bags, the wind once again howling and keeping the van very cold.

It was Friday, and for once I was awake a little before Rainnie. I snuck outside to have a little walk around. We had guessed that it might be pretty round here, but in fact it was a beautiful spot! Quite by chance we had parked at the top of some cliffs that looked down over a delightful little bay, its pristine beach spread at my feet as I contemplated the tumble of rocks & scrubby plants that formed a promontory before me, resplendent in the early morning sun.

We had breakfast just at the very top of the cliffs, then drove to the small town of Green Head where Rainnie treated herself to a cold shower and I decided I wasn't smelly enough to undergo that ordeal. The beach at Green Head was beautiful, as indeed it was all through that part of the world. We stopped slightly inland from there at a big viewing point and enjoyed a panorama over inland salt pans and a huge river valley.

Our next stop was at Jurien Bay. Can I just say that the Lonely Planet is LYING when it says you can get a decent coffee in that town. You SO can't. It was revolting. I actually honestly couldn't even drink more than one sip. I can't remember the last time I've left a food or drink item I've ordered standing, but I had to here. Gross!

We drove back inland a little way to the Pinnacles desert, part of Nambung National Park. The pinnacles are a bizarre sandstone formation, the genesis of which scientists have yet to agree on, made up of thousands of stalagmites standing singly or in groups in the middle of the desert. It's like nothing you've ever seen before.

They've built a huge new visitor centre which has lots of info on the local fauna & flora as well as the rocks, but the best thing about our visit here was that they've also laid on a track that you can drive on which takes you through the heart of the pinnacles themselves. Kind of like a safari park, only with rock instead of lions.

As we headed back to the highway, we passed huge pure white sand dunes. At the highway, we rescued a blue-tongue lizard from certain death in the middle of the road. Or, to be more exact, certain death beneath our tyres: the silly thing just froze in the road and it was lucky that it was between our wheels because we couldn't break fast enough!

Then we started the final stretch of our journey, heading through the increasingly European-looking countryside, past windfarms, the traffic steadily getting heavier. And then suddenly we were on the main highway to Perth: traffic jams, roadworks, road rage, all the joys of big-city living.

It took bloody ages to get as far as Perth's ring road. At least we had nice vineyards on either side of the road to enjoy looking at as we sat in the traffic jam while lorries hurtled past us in the other direction. When we reached Perth, thankfully Rainnie knew the area of town we should head for to find accommodation, and I successfully navigated us between, under and onto various flyovers and other scary roads.

There we were: smelly us in our skanky clothes, our dusty campervan parked up on a city street, and people walking past us in suits and ties. Never in my life have I felt so out of place. And me, a city boy from London! It's amazing how just three weeks in the bush had changed me. The mark of a fantastic trip, methinks.

2009-12-19T01:46:00.000+01:00

Two weeks in to our trip, it was time for a little bit of r&r. We left the Cape Range National Park, drove round the headland to Exmouth, refuelled, looked at the new marina that's being built there (it will be very posh in a few years' time), then drove south and west to Coral Bay.

Coral Bay is a tiny little place - it doesn't even have a post code, how about that? - right at the other end of the Ningaloo Reef. Rainnie had lived and worked here for a couple of months some ten years ago, and she was VERY excited about going back there, because she had such good memories. And I don't blame her: it's a gorgeous place!

We found ourselves a spot in the caravan park right opposite the beach, then promptly went for a snorkel off the beach. Suddenly, after a fortnight of manic driving, it felt as if we were on holiday properly, with no stress, nothing to make us leave. It was really quite relaxing!

In the afternoon we walked right along the beach, round a small promontory, and on along the next beach. There we found what we were looking for: a small lagoon filled to bursting with baby reef sharks! It was just too cute seeing all these sharks swimming in the shallow waters between the sandy beach and a bar of coral.

The rest of the day consisted of a spot of shopping, a bit of coffee drinking, and generally not much at all.

Monday was a bit more active. We had booked ourselves two scuba dives with the local dive operator, and had to be there at eight in the morning to set off. We were driven slightly south of Coral Bay to the new jetty (the bay onto which the beach gives is a marine park, with restricted boat traffic). The plague of flies that had descended on us as we embarked was gradually blown away by the wind as we set out to sea, and we settled in for a bit of a cruise.

The diving was phenomenal! We saw lots of fish, lots of sharks, lots of corals, and had lots of fun. Both dives were great, but the second one just had oodles of sharks, including two huge grey nurse sharks. Sadly, the underwater camera that we bought that morning packed up after the first dive so we didn't get many shark photos. The lady in the shop kindly swapped our leaky one for a new one when we got back, and we used it the next day when we were snorkelling.

In the evening we walked along the beach in the other direction, enjoying a massive sunset and watching the rocks & sand change colour with the progression of dusky hues in the sky. That evening Rainnie worked on her university assignments some more and I finished reading the Somerset Maugham book I started in Thailand.

On Tuesday we had a delicious morning snorkel (with underwater camera) and saw SO MANY snapper! After breakfast we did some internet & stuff, had some lunch at the bakery where Rainnnie had worked all those years ago (where we ran into the lady from the turtle sanctuary and her kids again), then prepared to leave Coral Bay heading south along the coast.

We were barely out of Coral Bay when a series of little tornadoes started up inland from us and spiralled red sand and dust up across the highway. In fact, a particularly big one managed to splatter rubbish all over the sensor of my camera, which meant that all my pictures from then on have an annoying speckle pattern across them.

Our first stop was Carnarvon, where we refuelled, went to the post office for Rainnie to send some postcards, and then left again. It wasn't really a particularly interesting town, but it had a nice enough waterfront. The most remarkable thing about the place was that it was the last time I saw a bend in the road for 40km!

In fact, the highway just south of Carnarvon is ridiculously straight. There were only three bends in the next 100km of driving. It's quite bizarre when you see the road you're on stretch to the horizon behind you and in front. The Romans couldn't have done better.

The straightness of the road was aggravated by the heat of the day and the monotony of the countryside in these parts. It was difficult to shake off the torpor that tried to grip me at the wheel. Thank heavens for music!

Where the road started to get bendy again, the land changed to become more hilly. We left the main highway and headed up a steep rocky driveway to watch the sun set from atop a barren outcrop, the wind whistling through a cairn of dusty rocks and whipping our hats from our heads, then pushed on into the night in an attempt to reach our next destination.

In fact, we didn't quite make it all the way to Monkey Mia, deciding that we were just too knackered to continue. It was a strenuous drive for Rainnie avoiding all the bunnies, kangas, cows & sundry creatures great & small. We pulled up in a layby and slept, hoping that dingos wouldn't eat us in the night.

Wednesday was another day for incredible experiences with nature. We started the day at Shell Beach, a beach that is composed literally of one kind of shell. The sea at Monkey Mia is hypersaline and very few kinds of sea creature can live there. As a result, the shells that get washed up on the beach are are almost all from one species. These shells get compacted down by various processes and form a kind of stone that was mined by early settlers to build their houses.

After Shell Beach we drove further up the narrow isthmus to Eagle Bluff, from where we had amazing views over the huge underwater meadows of sea grass that are much bigger here than anywhere else on earth. Dugongs, animals a bit like manatees, live here and feed on the grass. But more about them later...

We stopped in Denham for coffee, then drove on to Little Lagoon, a, well, little lagoon. We naughtily drove along the compacted white sand beach of the lagoon for a bit, because it was so beautiful. Then we continued to Monkey Mia. At the campsite there we got a spot really close to the beach. We parked up, got changed, and had a quick soak in the supershallow waters before heading to the jetty for a boat trip.

It wasn't any kind of boat trip. This was a dugong expedition on a converted racing catamaran. The two-man crew were hilarious, and got a few of us to volunteer to help hoist the rigging. Rainnie & I of course volunteered, just so we could get some cool photos of ourselves working the boat.

The trip lasted three hours, and in that time we saw a couple of turtles and DOZENS of dugongs!! They look like a bronze-coloured cross between a dolphin and a sealion. The crew/guides said they very rarely saw as many as we did that day. Normally they might hope to see two or three. But we just kept on seeing dugongs, singly as well as in mother-and-daughter pairs. It was awesome!

Back on shore we realised just how much sun we'd caught on the trip. There was just enough time to do a spot of internetting and get changed, then we headed back out on the same boat, this time for a sunset cruise. This was rather different to the afternoon trip. Where the waters had been extremely calm earlier, now the seas were getting really quite choppy. And the crew were loving it! They sped up and aimed for waves with the express intention of getting the passengers soaked.

After the first big soaking, one of the crew came around handing out waterproof jackets, but to be honest it was too late. We were all absolutely drenched. I was lucky my camera didn't get soaked too; I managed to slip my bag inside my coat literally a second before the next monster wave came crashing over the side.

With the sun setting, we came back to shore an hour after setting off. It was getting really windy and we were very cold. We'd arranged to do an Aboriginal evening walk but were wondering whether we could face it. The wind was getting really quite strong! Thankfully, the other people booked on the walk were also unkeen, and even the guide said it wouldn't be a great night for it. So instead we arranged to meet him the next morning.

2009-12-17T05:57:00.000+01:00

The night we spent at Fortescue River roadhouse brought a new experience for us: Cold. It was hot when we parked up, but the wind got steadily stronger through the night, and when the darkest hour came (which is just before dawn, as any Mamas & Papas fan will know) it was actually bloody cold in the campervan! I never expected to have to crack out the sleeping bags we were given in Darwin, but we did for once.

On Friday morning we refuelled, refilled the water tank, and set off. But we stopped about twenty metres down the road because the Fortescue River was breathtakingly beautiful! In all the desert dryness we'd been driving through since Broome, criss-crossed only by dried-up river beds, it was delightful to see free-flowing water, lush trees and flocks of birds. A photo stop was obligatory.

About 100 metres later we had to stop again, because a kestrel was sitting posed on a small tree by the road. We just had to take more pictures. And 1km down from the bird, we saw a huge goanna making its way slowly across the highway. We pulled over to take some snaps, and saw another car pull up behind us.

Thinking they were going to take pictures too, we headed over to them. But in fact the Aboriginal people in the car had quite a different plan for the goanna: one of the two ladies who got out told us they were going to catch him and eat him. She promptly started sharpening up a big piece of scrap metal that happened to be lying at the side of the road.

A guy got out of the car then carrying an air rifle. The goanna defiantly stood his ground despite being surrounded by three humans, legs straight and neck up, but there was nothing he could do about the gun. As soon as he was hit, the other lady quickly grabbed him by the tail and swung him through the air, smashing his bleeding head on the tarmac. She proceeded to break both his back legs, just to make sure he couldn't get away. But to be honest I think he was already a gonner.

We got back in the van and carried on driving, somewhat stunned by the proceedings with the goanna. The day was full of experiences. And it wasn't even nine o'clock yet!

We turned off the main highway and took the road heading north to Exmouth, which was our next destination. As if responding to the diminished status of the road, the trees in the fields either side of us shrank to more of a bush landscape. It was quite a weird, flat, undulating terrain that put me in mind of Mars actually. Clearly, the heat was getting to my head!

Exmouth is at the northernmost extremity of the Ningaloo Reef, the second-biggest tropical reef in Australia. It was fitting then that we started our visit to this reef with an encounter with nature: just as we pulled in to the tourist information office in Exmouth, we were approached by our first emu of the trip. It was alone in a big field that backed on to the car park and walked right up to us to give us a good long look with its big eyes. Emus are quite large actually.

After refuelling we drove north out of town and saw a small beach at the top of the peninsula, then headed up to the lighthouse which stands on a small hill. From there we saw whales out in the distance. So, for today, that's kestrel: tick; goanna: tick; emu: tick; whale: tick. Wildlifetas-tick!

We drove round to the western side of the peninsula, into the Cape Range national park, and had lunch on a very very dusty beach with very thirsty kangaroos begging us for scraps. The wind had picked up again, and was whipping sand and dark red soil into my eyes and all through the camper. Everything got pretty filthy pretty quick, even though we left that beach as soon as we'd eaten.

Our next stop was Turquoise Bay, where we had our first snorkel on the Ningaloo Reef. The water was bloody cold, but very clear, and the reef promised to be very exciting. After a while in the water, we got out and dried off. Rainnie spent a while repairing her camera and then we went about finding a place to camp for the night. We ended up (after seeing lots of kangaroos and an echidna) at Osprey Bay, a little further to the south, where we had dinner and then turned in.

Saturday morning proved to be much more clement than the previous day. The sun was strong, and the wind had died down. After breakfast we took an early morning stroll along the gorgeous, deserted beach which lay just behind the parking bays for campervans. In the hour-and-a-half that we were walking, we saw just one other couple.

Next we headed back to Turquoise Bay, this time opting to do the drift snorkel out in the sea rather than stay in the safety of the bay. It would have been perilous yesterday, but today the seas were much calmer and the deeper waters cool but inviting. The snorkelling was FANTASTIC! We saw countless fish big & small, and the icing on the cake was a white tip reef shark that swam lazily past us.

We took lunch in the heat of the day, and I got a very noticeable tan line across the tops of my thighs just from sitting outside the camper eating our pasta salad. After lunch we snorkelled in the bay again just for fun, then made our way slowly north, checking out some of the other beaches in the park and heading for a beach just outside the park that was reputed to have turtles looking to lay eggs.

But first we decided to fill our water tank at the one and only bore hole in the park. There was another camper already there, but they soon left, which meant we had the whole spectacle to ourselves: it was a wildlife free-for-all!! Clearly, this is the only regular source of water anywhere in the area, and don't the animals know it! There were dozens of kangaroos and dozens of emus hanging about, waiting for a human to turn the tap on and let out some precious water onto the ground.

Rainnie & I took a gazillion photos, knowing that we would rarely if ever again get this close to this many animals in the wild. It was intense! Rainnie was stood at the tap, and kangaroos were hovering to her left with the emus to the right. There were two biggish pools at her feet, one quite shallow which suited the lapping tongues of the kangas, and one quite deep which suited the beaks of the emus. I had to think of Aesop's fable with the wolf and the crane.

One kangaroo was even so bold as actually to lick Rainnie's foot! We swapped places after a while, but the animals were a little shier of me. Perhaps it was because I was that little bit bigger. But the photos and video footage are absolutely magnificent. Wow. Wow. Wow.

So we pressed on to the turtle sanctuary beach and got there just in time for sunset. We also soon stumbled across a huge green turtle in the process of hauling herself up the beach and into the dunes, to dig a hole for her eggs. It was weird to see this giant of the sea struggling exhausted on the beach, so out of her element.

There was a human mother and her two kids already ensconced behind a couple of rocks, watching, so we joined them. It turns out the mother is from country Victoria. She clearly felt she had a rapport with us, because at one point she upped and left us with her daughter for about half an hour!

The wind really picked up as the sun went down, and it was actually quite chilly that night. We cooked ourselves up some tofu satay noodles, then headed back to Ned's Gully, a beach we'd found that day, to park up and sleep. What a day it had been!

2009-12-14T06:03:00.000+01:00

Having narrowly escaped death in the desert the day before, it was somewhat ironic that we only narrowly escaped death in the deeps that night! Yes indeed, folks, we managed to park BELOW the tide line! We had wondered what that wooden barrier was for as we parked up against it in the dark, but we didn't give it a second thought.

It was the next morning that we saw the dried watermark lines on our tyres, and realised that had the tide been any higher we would have been sat with a flooded engine or - worse still - a flooded campervan.

So it was with a feeling of relief mixed with foolishness that we lied through our teeth (well Rainnie did the talking; I pretended to be asleep) to the Ranger who came to tell us we were camping illegally. For it was he who pointed out our near-brush with the Indian Ocean, as he was telling us to move along.

We moved along - eventually. But first we allowed ourselves the luxury of an early-morning dip in the waters that had so nearly carried us off. The Pretty Pool was indeed pretty: an inlet from the sea that bent in a right-angle, the end of which was next to where we'd parked. After a swimette, we sorted ourselves out some breakfast, then drove up to the toilet block back up by the road for a shower and to do the washing up.

We drove into the heart of Port Hedland just so I could experience yet another side to Australia: Industry. Port Hedland can't claim to be a pretty town, but what it lacks in beauty it more than makes up for in majestic purposefulness. The harbour is enormous (huge coal barges are filled here; Australia's busiest coal railway ends at the docks). The piles of salt, sand and ore are gigantic. And the town revels in this industrial reputation, styling itself "ore-some!"

It took us a while to find an acceptable coffee, but even that was to be had here. I'm guessing the majority of people in this town don't give a toss about the finer points of coffee roasting. At least, they look like guys who've got better things to think about, strutting around in their high-visibility workwear and helmets, or driving their big white 4WDs, each emblazoned with the name of one of the great companies in Australia's mining & minerals industry: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and their ilk.

We watched a video about coal transportation in the visitors' centre, because there were no tours running at all that day and they couldn't offer us anything else to do. Then we went down to the port to watch a boat pull out, but it didn't. So we left and headed on west, stopping for lunch at Point Samson, a delightful lookout with a small coral reef.

We decided to have the first snorkel of our trip here, in the next-door bay called Honeymooners Cove. The oyster beds were treacherous to walk in over, but the water wasn't too cold and it was delicious to be out of the heat of the day. As we showered afterwards, we got chatting to a married couple who qualify as my first "grey nomads". These are people who've decided to sell up their house, buy a seriously luxurious camper truck, and travel around Australia for a few years. It's a growing phenomenon here in Australia for people to do that.

We drove through the afternoon until we reached Karratha, another mining boom town. Instead of going into the town itself, we refuelled and then drove up onto the Dampier Peninsula. There we saw our first outback traffic jam. It was insane! A kilometres-long snake of white 4WDs interspersed here and there with a white bus carrying workers heading home to Karratha for the evening. But where were all these people coming from?

We followed the traffic to its source and discovered, tucked away behind some hills, Australia's biggest LNG terminal, the North West Shelf. This quite simply blew the socks off any other industrial site I've ever seen. It was gargantuan! Row upon row of shiny chimneys, huge storage caverns, giant buildings, and the biggest pieces of machinery just lying around. And because we'd got there after home time (it was just gone five in the evening) the place was deserted.

After staring agog at this temple to raw material exploitation for about half an hour, we drove away again, but instead of heading back to civilisation we took a side dirt road down to the coast. From there we had stunning views of the sun as it set over the gas facility. We also saw kangaroos hopping through the bush. It was a queer juxtaposition of two worlds that I would never have thought could exist side by side like that.

We left Dampier Peninsula, went back to the main road, and continued westward. It was dusk now, so we had to keep our eyes peeled for stray wildlife and cattle. In fact, we had a very near miss with a huge cow once it was completely dark. For the next few minutes we were picturing to ourselves what the van would have looked like if we'd hit the cow.

And then, a few minutes later, in a bizarre twist of fate, we were flagged down by two guys in one of the ubiquitous white 4WD vehicles who had just hit a cow! Even though their ute was fitted with roo bars, it was totalled by the impact. Worse, the cow's head wrapped round the side of the car when it hit and destroyed the passenger side door. The guy sat there was lucky to escape unharmed.

We took a load of photos of their wrecked car, then gave them a lift back to their camp. It was interesting to talk to them about the work they're doing up here. Both of them are from Melbourne, and just working on contract for a few months as electricians, installing huge transformers for a monster gas project.

We dropped the two boys from the "cow car" off and headed on into the night, surviving a few more near-misses with kangaroos. It was past eleven when we finally pulled up at the Fortescue Roadhouse, another of these pubs-cum-petrol stations in the middle of nowhere. The federal government of Australia subsidises these outposts heavily, because without them it would be impossible to travel across this country.

Anyway, we arrived and everything was shut, but there happened to be a chap sitting on the front step. Which was bizarre. He told us he was waiting for a friend who was arriving on the bus, and that he worked in the kitchen. As we couldn't track down the manager of the place, the kitchen guy told us we should just park up in the campsite and worry about registering/paying the next day. So we did just that.

2009-12-11T03:30:00.001+01:00

Ah! The Indian Ocean! What a sea-change (ouch pun!) from the world of dry, hot, ochre hills and spiky plants that we had been travelling through for the last week.

Cable Beach by day was even more fabulous than Cable Beach by night. We had an early-morning swim, watching a group of enthusiastic housewives doing aerobics at the top of the stairs down to the beach, then a spot of breakfast. Our next task was to find a campsite for the night (having slept sort-of illegally in the car park that night). We picked a spot in a nearby site, then cleaned the van of all its desert skankiness and did a big wash of our now-brown clothes.

Broome is smallish and quaint, with a long and colourful history: it started out as a pearling station, with dark stories of slavery, but has since become a prime tourist destination. (Yes, I spent an hour in the town's local history museum.) It's laid-back and cruisy. And it's growing fast. It was amazing to see how many houses are being built in behind the seashore. But I have to admit I didn't warm to the town really. It does however have some great beaches!

One of the highlights of Broome is Matso's Brewery, which does some delicious beers with all sorts of flavours. Our favourites were the mango wheat beer, the chili lager and the ginger beer. You can also buy them in bottles to take away, which makes them perfect as a drink to watch the sun set with. And boy were the sunsets huge!

Just outside Broome is Gantheaume Point, a bit of land that juts out into the sea opposite Cable Beach. The whole coast is made up of outlandishly bizarre rock formations, and you get to see how the bright red soil of this part of the world competes with the bright white of the sand to outshine the bright blue of the sea. Rainnie & I each took hundreds of photos, because everywhere you turned you saw an even more incredible chunk of multicoloured rock or a more astonishing juxtaposition of colours. Wow!

The road up to Gantheaume Point is 4WD-only, but we risked it anyway with the van; Rainnie had been here ten years ago in a VW Combi, so she knew it was passable. I was driving, and I totally didn't know where to stop because I was too busy concentrating on the ruts and drifts in the sandy track to see the sign. So in fact we went far too far up this dodgy road, and turned around once it started to get really difficult to drive on. We really didn't want to get stranded in a place that might invalidate our insurance...

After exploring the rocks in the intense heat for a few hours (we both of us caught plenty of sun that day; in fact Rainnie was driven to comment that evening "Oh my God my cleavage is on fire") we drove on out of town to visit the port of Broome. Here we walked right out on the long jetty, with people fishing off it all along and seagulls circling, then stopped at an unexpectedly nice-looking cafe back on land. I had grilled king prawns, thinking this might be the kind of place that would have amazing seafood, but I was a little underwhelmed.

We called in at McDonald's to use their free wi-fi (okay it's not free because you're expected to make a purchase; but 50 cents for an ice cream isn't too bad) before driving around town to find a spot where we might get away with camping for free. We ended up right on Town Beach, which was thankfully deserted. We took showers on the beach (I even dared to go naked because I could hardly see the nearest people and it was dark after all) and then turned in.

On Wednesday morning we were woken by a cloud of flies that got in to the van through the open side door (we hadn't bothered with opening the back of the van and putting the mozzie net across because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves in the carpark, but we needed some air). The flies really are persistent in Australia. They want to land up your nose, on your eyeball, pretty much everywhere, the little bastards. At times I craved an Aussie hat with corks on...

We had a morning swim at Town Beach, naturally bringing our cameras down to the water's edge with us to take some beach photos. And then we got carried away in conversation to the extent that we totally didn't notice how far the tide had come in. Then Rainnie suddenly jumped up out of the water and ran full tilt back up to the sand, because she happened to see that waves were lapping at her camera case! Thankfully she got it out of the water just in time, but it was a close one!

Then we had breakfast outside the van, and it was the turn of the gulls to swarm around us like, well, like the flies had earlier on. I made the mistake of dropping a piece of apple on the floor, and it only took one enterprising gull to notice this for a whole squadron of them to come shrieking to our feet.

It was time to bid farewell to the coast for a little while and take the highway inland heading south then west. The countryside was full of trees and then suddenly empty of trees. Weird. And the wind! Oh my goodness, we were fighting to keep the van on the road most of the time, wrestling with the steering wheel. No wonder, when you consider how high and how square the van is. But it meant we were burning through petrol.

In fact, we very nearly had a huge disaster: petrol stations are quite far apart in this part of the world, so it's always important to fill up when you can. But with the wind we really couldn't help the fact that we were running literally on empty (it was really full-on, with the little red indicator light shouting at you as well as the needle under E) for THIRTY KILOMETRES! If we had run out, we would have been stuck in an inferno of treeless wasteland. Maybe a car would have come past. But then again maybe not. There isn't much traffic up here.

But we were very lucky and made it to Sandfire, a petrol station with a small roadhouse attached. And I was doubly lucky because we got there just in time for me to be able to call Charlie at home before he had to go to school and wish him a happy birthday. Of course, there was no mobile signal, but the petrol station had a payphone that was working. Phew!

Our next stop was on Eighty Mile Beach. This is a mind-blowingly enormous stretch of coastline that has millions of identical little flower-shaped shells lying atop superfine squelchy grey sand. It's also totally weird because the beach shelves so gently into the water that you can't actually tell where the land ends and the sea starts.

You start at the sand dunes and walk for maybe a kilometre out towards the sea, shells crunching underfoot, and where at first your feet are just wet underneath, slowly slowly the sand becomes softer, then there you cause little ripples in the skin of water over the beach, then there are slightly bigger pencils of water here and there, then you're walking over a corrugated surface of sandy channels, then you're mesmerised by the shifting reflections of sun and sand all around you, and then it's up around your ankles but you didn't notice.

It was windy as, of course, which masked the heat. But by the time we'd walked back on land I realised I was feeling rather sunstruck. Rainnie was a star and cooked me some lunch while I lay down in the shade of the van feeling helpless. The satay tofu revived me very effectively however, and soon we were back on the main road (Rainnie drove the 12km of dirt track to the beach and back at an impressive speed, the van juddering less than it would have had we been going slower because the wheels weren't really going down again before the next bump, so it was more like a hovercraft than a campervan).

We drove on through the evening until we reached Port Hedland, a very industrial town with a huge docks for shipping coal. Rainnie remembered there being a cute little beach somewhere near the centre of town where we could camp for the night. We found it eventually. It's called Pretty Pool. Aah! It being pitch black again, of course, we couldn't actually see if there's a pretty pool there, so we just parked up and had some dinner, then slept soundly with the sea breeze to cool us.

2009-12-08T03:11:00.002+01:00

One of the coolest things about the camping ground at Katherine Gorge is that it is overrun with kangaroos!!! Oh yes, we had our first close encounter with Aussie wildlife whilst setting up for the evening. And in the night the place was veritably overrun with the little cuties!

So that evening I managed to rustle up a passable risotto on the small cooker in the van, and we washed it down with red wine before turning in. I was woken the next morning by the sound of innumerable strange birds calling to one another in the high tree canopy above our heads. Living in a campervan really reconnects you with life's natural rhythms. Early to bed, early to rise, and all that. It's impossible to sleep much after sunrise - and that's without factoring in all the wild animals loudly going about their business.

We did a boat tour of some of the gorges along the Katherine river. The scenery is spectacular! And there are Aboriginal cave paintings to be seen as well as natural beauty of the rocky sides of the gorges. It was fabulous weather, with barely a cloud in the sky. I look forward to looking at all the photos I took.

Back at the camp ground, we had one last swim in the marvellous pool (and I managed to graze my knuckles on the floor of the pool; they're STILL not completely healed, which is pretty bizarre I think) before breaking camp and making our way back to the town of Katherine. There we had a bit of housekeeping to do, in terms of shopping and getting Rainnie's laptop PC working. Even though the coffee shop in Katherine had the added bonus of wireless internet connectivity, it took us a good few hours to get the lappie working, including a manual uninstall of Microsoft Office. Yuk. The kid in the computer shop was useless too. Well, maybe that's what you get for dropping out of school at the age of 13.

We spent the night down near the hot springs that are just outside of town. There were millions of flying foxes there in the trees; I haven't seen such a spectacle as their mass departure at sunset since India. They'd actually started flying before the sun set, while we were still driving, and one managed to fly smack bang into the roof of the campervan! So much for echo location...

There were some unsavoury types camping near us (one guy who went into the loos just before me washed up a very suspicious looking spoon) so we kept to ourselves that night. Also, it wasn't an official camp ground, so we hoped we wouldn't get moved on by a ranger. We were lucky that night and left after a spot of breakfast the next morning.

So it was Saturday already! We had a huge long drive from Katherine heading south, past hundreds of Gaudi-esque termite mounds, down the valley of the Victoria river and through the Gregory National Park (which has amazing table mountains). The scenery was breathtaking!

We stopped for lunch at a tiny town called Timber Creek. It was baking hot and there was barely a whisper of breeze, but we found some respite from the sun in the shade of a huge boab tree that stood outside the 100-year-old local police station (which is now a museum). The building was surprising because it really wasn't very different at all from the buildings you still see all over the Outback. I'm guessing the newer ones have a toilet though.

After lunch we drove through the hot, dry landscape, marvelling at all the boabs we could see. There was one that was just enormous, so we stopped to take some pictures. And then we drove some more. And some more. And some more. And a bit more. You get the picture. It was all gorgeous, but it's difficult to describe the slightly hypnotic effect of driving through the bush.

We eventually reached the border with Western Australia, where we realised that we hadn't really thought about the inter-state quarantine regulations very hard. Basically, we had the choice of throwing away all our fruit & vegetables, or cooking everything up; cooked food is no issue, but raw stuff isn't allowed. Rainnie was feeling decidedly knackered with the heat and the driving, but I just couldn't bear to see all our food go to waste, so I cooked up about a week's worth of veggies while Rainnie squeezed all our remaining oranges into a juice box (which we got away with tee hee).

The unexpected delay at the border pretty much ate up all the two-and-a-half hour time difference between NT and WA. Now THAT was weird! I don't think I've ever driven a car across a time zone border before. We carried on driving, and soon reached the outskirts of Kununarra, a lush and prosperous town at the centre of a huge irrigation project from the 1960s. We were just in time to watch the sun set over the lake at the edge of town. It was a beautiful purple sunset, and with the leaves of the water lilies in the lake it felt like standing in a Monet painting.

The campsite we found was nice enough, but frustrating because we tried site after sit but the electrics just wouldn't work! Eventually we figured out that it was in fact the circuit breaker behind the driver's seat that was to blame for our travails. So we just had a nice swim in the pool (where Rainnie kindly taught me how to dive into water; I'm just not a water baby), a nice shower, a bite to eat, and turned in.

As if Saturday's drive hadn't been enough for us, we decided on Sunday to do a mad desert dash. We had to stay on the sealed roads sadly, as our campervan was only two wheel drive, so we couldn't go via the Gibb River Road through the heart of the Kimberley Mountains. Instead, we followed the main road south and then west, keeping the mountains to our right and heading slowly but surely towards the coast.

It was the hottest day of the trip. Even the campervan engine started to feel the heat; we were worried at one point that we would be stuck in the middle of this godforsaken desert landscape with an overheated engine, but luckily the fan kicked in each time the needle on the temperature gauge got scary.

Once again, the landscape's slow evolution from one vegetation type to another proved hypnotic. But now we were getting animals added into the mix. There were cows EVERYWHERE! Australia is clearly too big and sparsely populated to have fences across it all over the place; the consequence is that livestock roam free and you have to watch out if you're using the roads.

Our first stop after Kununarra was at Halls Creek, a town which is notable mainly for being somewhere to stop after Kununarra to get fuel. We reached it in the worst heat of the day, and thankfully there was a green open space in the centre of the one road that constitutes this township where we could stop to have a bite to eat. We also discovered Halls Creek's hidden charm: a public toilet that sings to you, gives you a precise dose of toilet paper, and won't let you out again until you've washed your hands!

Our next stop, after a brief pause to gather wonderful quartz stones from the side of the road at a particularly alluring side-of-the-road parking area and an even briefer pause to have my driving licence checked by a passing police patrol, was at Fitzroy Crossing. The sun was just setting as we pulled into the petrol station (or servo, as they call them here) - a fact that strongly improved my impression of the town, hiding its worst uglinesses as it did in a dreamy wash of pinks, purples and (most importantly) shadow.

From there on, the drive was a little bit cooler. The desert air was still hot as it rushed over our arms (and the passenger's feet stuck out of the side window) but it wasn't being superheated by that bloody big yellow thing in the sky any more. It was our first long stint of night driving, and we had some excellent "road train" experiences: these are big articulated lorries that can have up to five trailers hooked onto one cab. They're monsters!

At one point as we headed west, we found ourselves driving through a stand of eucalyptus that smelled just delightful. It was like driving through a cough sweet! We pulled up on the forecourt of a small roadhouse just after this forest to swap drivers, and soon found ourselves surrounded by a press of cattle. It might have been a cute scene by day, but in the black of night there was something sinister about this bovine blanket that smothered our campervan. We drove away as soon as we could, and on into the inky black yonder, the only light thousands of diamond sparkles in the sky.

We were knackered, but we had a goal: THE OCEAN! Finally, finally, we reached Broome and headed straight for Cable Beach, an expanse of fine white sand just to the north of town. By this time every single surface in the van - the dashboard, the steering wheel, the windows, the water bottles, our arms & legs - was coated in a slick of sun cream mixed with desert dust. It was really quite repellent. The only thing for it was a midnight swim under the stars, with an exfoliating wash of sandy seawater to strip away the ickyness of the day. And then we slept in a dark corner of the car park, refreshed and relieved.

2009-11-28T08:02:00.003+01:00

So, what does one do when one is sitting in the waiting room of the emergency department of a hospital in Perth? The answer on this occasion is: start writing up my blog for the monster three-week trip around the north and west of Australia that has just ended. Rainnie is ill - hopefully nothing too serious - and I'm using her laptop.

It's a good job I've taken notes of everything we've done as we went along. There is simply no way I could write down all that we've experienced in these last 21 days without an aide memoire. We've done SO MUCH! So let me scrabble about in my bag for a moment and retrieve my little diary book thing...

Let's start where I left off, with the flight down from Sydney to Melbourne. It was late leaving, which was a bit shite, and they charged me an obscene amount of money for fully 2kg of excess baggage, which was a lot shite, especially as it was a bottle of duty free that I wasn't allowed to take on as hand luggage in these ludicrous "if there are no liquids in your bag you won't be blown up by terrorists" times we live in. But enough ranting.

Rainnie picked me up from Tullamarine airport and we had a joyous meeting. I haven't seen Rainnie since we were diving together in the Philippines two years ago. How lovely it was to have her once again before me!!

We drove to hers, dumped my bags in her room, and then got ready to head out again. We cycled to the Little Creatures brewhouse on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and met up with her friends Ros & Jess and their brother who was down visiting from Brisbane.

It was great cycling in Melbourne. The weather was fine and warm, the bike path along the Merri Creek (which flows past Rainnie's house) pleasant, and the view of Melbourne's CBD skyline was delicious! Once we reached the brewhouse I quickly changed into a fresh teeshirt round the corner. We proceeded to drink ourselves silly and eat some slightly disappointingly small but otherwise tasty snacks, ending the evening down the road in a funky cocktail bar.

Sunday morning was sore head central, but at least we had most of the day to recover and get ready for our Big Trip. We headed down Lygon Street for a delicious breakfast of poached eggs, Persian feta, beetroot chutney and scrummy avocado. Then we did a spot of shopping & whatnot in town - including for me a quick trip to Carlton to see my old house aaah!

That afternoon we packed our bags and had a final fish & chips session with Rainnie's housemates Leah & Bron before setting off for our Big Trip. And so I come to the flight up from Melbourne to Darwin. Leah was kind enough to bring us out to the airport in her vintage VW Golf, and we checked in without problems. A coffee and a water later, we were on board our plane and could settle in for the three-hour flight.

The last time I'd been to Darwin airport, we'd had to do an emergency landing on the way from Hong Kong to Sydney to let someone off who'd had a heart attack. This visit was much less stressful. Even though it was already midnight, the heat was like a brick wall as we left the terminal building and queued up for a taxi. I was back in the tropics again, after only having just left them behind me on Phuket!

Our room in the backpacker hostel was pokey and not really very nice, but it was only for a night so we didn't care. And it did offer us shelter from the enormous thunderstorm that passed over us about five minutes after we got there! There was a swimming pool but it didn't look too inviting; I'm not sure I've ever seen water that particular shade of grey in a public swimming facility before...

The next day we headed out to find a coffee and then collected our campervan, our home for the next three weeks. There was a certain amount of paperwork and faffing but an hour later we were on the road. We went back for our luggage and then parked up outside, so we could walk down to the harbour.

It turned into a monster walk in the heat, and we were both pretty bowled over by the tropical temperatures. A nice lady in a big car - she was checking bee traps set by the customs officials in the area around the port, to make sure no evil species had arrived on a passing ship - gave us a lift from the shitty end of the harbour where we'd ended up (it's a construction site at the moment) round to the nice end. There we treated ourselves to a Thai meal because we were feeling so tropical.

We walked back into town, past the new artifiicial lagoon (a bit like the one in Cairns), and had another coffee before doing a spot of shopping for our trip. Then we spent ages trying to find a campsite for the night. All the ones that were marked on the "Welcome to Darwin" brochure we got in the airport seemed to be nonexistent, but eventually we found one out past the airport. It turned out to be lovely, with a fabulous swimming pool, spotlessly clean gas barbecues and great facilities.

On Tuesday we drove back into Darwin to do some more shopping, including a little FM radio transmitter for my iPod so we could listen to tunes on the van's radio. We also went to a huge Chinese supermarket outside town to pick up supplies and a giant chopper (the utensils provided with the can left much to be desired). One final stop at a hardware store to buy and then fit mosquito screens to the van's windows - can you believe they gave us a van that didn't have mozzie screens! - and then we headed out on our road trip.

And boy, were we glad we'd bought the iPod transmitter thing! We turned the radio on as we left Darwin, and found ourselves listening to some weirdy religious broadcast, with some guy going on about how all things fade away but only God remains. The message is conventional enough, but the guy chose the coolest list of false permanencies: "...the pyramids of Egypt, the Mona Lisa, Andre Agassi..." - no, really! Topical, okay, but OH PUR-LEEEEAZE!

Our first destination was Litchfield National Park, where we visited huge termite mounds before parking up near the Buley Rockholes. These are lovely little natural swimming holes. We weren't the only ones enjoying the refreshing waters either: a lizard actually jumped in and swam with us! After washing the day's dust off ourselves we were ready for a bite to eat, so we headed back to the van, lit a fire, and cooked up a big veggie barbie which we washed down with cider. Yum!

A kangaroo came and watched us eat, and birds swooped down to catch the flies that had gathered around us. Then the sun set over the parched landscape of eucalyptus trees and scrub, and soon we were enveloped in a stunning night sky, its velvety blackness studded with pinpricks of diamond.

On Wednesday we had a fabulous morning swim in one of the bigger Buley Rockholes (where Rainnie started teaching me how to dive into water - because I'm crap and I can't) and then walked on downstream to the Florence Falls. Oh boy! What an incredible place! A huge waterfall cascading down into a huge pool, the water crystal clear and full of big fat fish. There weren't even too many other tourists there at that time of the day, so we could swim and splash and enjoy ourselves to the full.

We cadged a lift back to our van off the driver of a small tour bus who had just brought his group to the falls. This was much preferable to the stinging heat of the tropical sun, especially now that it was even higher in the sky than when we had set out that morning. Back at the van, we packed up and set off to see some more of the National Park.

On our way to Wangi Falls we found a section of scrubland right by the road on fire! Of course, fire is a natural part of the life cycle of the plants around here, so there was no panic or fire engines or such. We just took some pictures and moved on. After a swim at Wangi Falls (where the water was really hot) we drove past the Tolmer Falls, where we had spectacular views over the eucalyptus forest that stretched in all directions to the horizon. Then we headed out of the park and south on the Stuart Highway.

We had our first panic of the trip that evening, when we discovered how unreliable the petrol gauge on the van is. It seemed fine for a long time, then suddenly started dropping at an alarming speed - and we were miles from the next petrol station! We were lucky though and made it to a roadhouse with fuel, so we weren't stranded at the side of the highway, with no mobile phone reception and almost no passing traffic. It was a lesson to me on remoteness, which as a European is not a concept I have much direct experience of.

We took a road off the main highway to the Douglas Daly Hot Springs, which had been recommended to us as a good place to visit by the lady sat next to Rainnie on the plane up from Melbourne. The sun was already down and my second lesson in remoteness started to come out of the bush: wildlife. Luckily for me, Rainnie is incredibly good at spotting kangaroos (and sheep, goats, emus, cows, lizards, snakes and rabbits - but I'm getting ahead of myself) at the side of the road, so we didn't have any collisions, even when the tarmac ran out and the road became not much more than a path beaten into the red earth.

And no sooner had we parked up in the camp ground - a very spartan affair, with no more than a toilet block and some bins - than another huge tropical thunderstorm engulfed us. The ground turned into a lake, as all the rainwater failed to soak in at once, and it looked as though we were in the middle of a mudslide. But soon the storm subsided and maybe an hour later all the water had disappeared. Incredible.

On Thursday morning we went to have a look at the hot springs, and discovered that they are bloody hot! There was no way we could swim in the water, even though the hot spring itself flowed into a (cold) river, because this being dry season the level of the river was far too low to compensate. And, to be honest, even if we had been physically able to swim there, I wouldn't have wanted to because the whole place stank with the sulphurous fumes associated with the spring, and the sandy muddy soil was like glue. On the plus side though, I found a frog in the shower when I was trying to get the mud off my feet.

We left the Douglas Daly Hot Springs and headed to the Edith falls further south. The falls aren't huge but the lake at their foot is enormous - and great for swimming in. We had a picnic there after our swim and then drove to Katherine. It's the first town of any size since Darwin, but it's really not much more than a main drag with some supermarkets, some petrol stations, and a few shops. Thankfully there was a decent coffee shop there, so we had a soy latte and then made our way up to the Katherine Gorge, which lies in Nitmiluk National Park.

The campsite at Katherine Gorge is fantastic, with another marvellous swimming pool like the one outside Darwin. We did our first load of washing there, and made the discovery that Australian desert dirt doesn't really wash out. Ah well, I can just pretend my white teeshirts are deliberately tie-dyed or something... I had bought a tent in Katherine, because it was pretty cramped and too stuffy in the van for me & Rainnie to sleep well, and Rainnie proceeded to use the tent for the rest of the trip (except where we couldn't put it up).

2009-11-08T08:04:00.000+01:00

Ah, Australia, Australia, Australia! What a fine place! How I've missed you.

No sooner had we touched down in Sydney's Kingsford Smith airport than an irrepressible grin started to spread across my face at the thought of where I was and what awaited me here. The friendliness of the natives made itself apparent even BEFORE I'd cleared immigration. In fact, I was barely off the plane when customs officials made us line up in single file so they could pass the sniffer dogs along us. It was the affable cry of "Good Boy!" that one of the handlers let out as his hound reached the end of the queue that started my grin. Then the guy whose job it was to tell people which passport control queue to queue in was warm & humorous. The guy at the desk who checked my passport was friendly too. Even the people scanning the luggage were chatty.

So it was no surprise to me at all that the lady who sold me my first Aussie coffee was a hilarious, cheeky chatterbox. And so it went on: the super smiley guy at the Vodafone counter who actually told me the truth about it being cheaper to buy a SIM card in the supermarket, the random guy in the lift down to the trains, the lady behind the train ticket counter, the guy in Kings Cross station who I asked for directions. They were all SO cheerful! And not in that American, seemingly forced way either. I was reminded again and again how genuine Australians' niceness really is.

So anyway, after changing out of my skanky travel clothes at the airport I caught a train into Kings Cross and headed on foot downhill to Woolloomooloo. There I waited in a small park (okay I slept for a bit under a huge gum tree) for Johannes to come home and let me in. As it turns out, I ended up staying with his friend Alan who lives in the same building. That way I could have a room of my own, rather than crashing on the living room floor.

I lad lunch with Johannes at a place up the hill in Potts Point, where we had a super friendly waiter called Stefano. Next I bought a SIM card and contacted everyone I know in Australia to give them my new number, then went back to Alan's to settle in (okay I slept a bit more - well I was a bit jetlagged). That evening I took a taxi with Johannes (with a super friendly driver) to a pub in the south of the city and had a beer with him there (with a super friendly waitress). Then we went to a tiny theatre round the corner (where I met a super friendly South African) to watch a production of As You Like It. We finished our evening with a drink & gelato and then caught the train home.

On Wednesday I had an early start to meet Kate at Circular Quay. I walked across the Botanic Gardens to get there and was amazed first by all the bloody flies and then by all the swallows that were swooping around at knee-height eating said flies hurrah! My meeting with Kate was one of those ones where you're so busy looking everywhere find the person you're meeting that you totally don't see them when they creep up on you!

We walked around to the Marriott hotel on the waterfront for brekky, sharing a delicious portion of eggs benedict (ah! I haven't had them since the last time I was in Oz, I think!). Then we wandered around the city, catching up on all our gossip. I ended up doing all sorts of shopping: for a new camera case in a Crumpler store, for an Aussie Akubra hat in the QVC (okay I didn't actually buy it), for shorts & a cap in the Haymarket.

We had a delicious noodle lunch at my all-time favourite noodle bar near Haymarket. Oh what joy it was to be there again!!!! After the huge food we were super full, so we waddled to the nearby Pumphouse pub for a posh drink, then strolled through Darling Harbour and on into town. We bid each other farewell at Hyde Park, whence I walked down the hill to Woolloomooloo. That evening I had a German dinner at Maggie's with Johannes and Alan and their friends Robert, Mark & Tony. We followed this up with gelato in Potts Point and then headed home.

Thursday was a bit of a housekeepingy nothingy day, with lots of emailing etc. (Yes folks, that's the last time I updated my blog.) I had dinner that evening at Johannes' place with his houseguest Suzanne and his friend Mark who I'd met the night before. Johannes cooked a lovely risotto and we talked about all sorts. It was great! After dinner Mark, Johannes & I headed up the hill to grab some more amazing gelato, and on our long meandering walk back to Woolloomooloo we visited the flat where the latest series of a cult Australian drama programme is being filmed. Mark is the props manager for the filming, so the overnight security guard recognised him and let us in for a look around.

On Friday I did the long walk all the way round Mrs Macquarie's Chair to Circular Quay, then caught a ferry to Parramatta to see what all the fuss is about. (Parramatta doesn't have a very good press amongst Sydneysiders who live in more salubrious parts of the city.) The ferry journey was delightful, taking me from the hustle & bustle of Circular Quay under the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and then along past all the posh waterfront housing. I was surprised when we started sailing through mangroves, having forgotten how warm Sydney really is.

When we reached Parramatta I walked along a jacaranda-lined path into town and then visited Old Government House, the first seat of the leader of the original colony of New South Wales. To be honest, there's really bugger all else in Parramatta except cheesy dollar shops and scary-looking people, so I took a train back to Sydney and comforted myself with bubble tea in a Chinese place near the station.

I spent the rest of the afternoon just walking all over town. And then, just as I reached home, I saw Johannes & Suzanne leaving together so I caught up with them to ask where they were off to. It turns out that for a short time only there's an art trail through all the little back lanes in the CBD, with art installations at strategic points to make you reconsider your relationship with the city. Thankfully, there's an arty-alternative bar at the last installation where you can grab some arty -alternative cocktails (served in jam jars) and consider the walk.

I had walked past a Japanese noodle bar that caught my fancy, so I headed there for dinner after the walk, then met up with Johannes to go for a few drinks on Oxford Street that evening. We caught up with his friends Robert, Richard & Peter, had a few beers, then walked home.

And so I came very quickly to my last day in Sydney. I just about had time to pack my bags and have a quick breakfast up the hill (at Stefano's place) with Johannes, Suzanne & Mark, and then it was time for me to catch the train back to the airport. Destination: Melbourne!

2009-11-05T06:11:00.004+01:00

Greetings, my mostly northern-hemisphere chums, from Down Under! Yes, I've made it all the way round to Australia, where I shall be spending the next couple of months getting hot and sweaty in the southern summer sun.

I just thought I'd write a few words about the week I spent in Thailand, half-way here more or less, and leave the start of my Aussie stories to the next blog. So here goes:

It all started with a series of rather risky flight connections that were all under two hours. The things we do to save money! On Monday I flew from Munich to London Gatwick, from Gatwick to Dubai, from Dubai to Bangkok, and from Bangkok to Phuket. Only the Dubai-Bangkok connection was guaranteed; the rest was all with different airlines! But I got away with it - this time...

I arrived at my final destination, Phuket, on Tuesday afternoon. I was met at the airport by my friend Andrew, who I'd last seen - fittingly enough - on my last day in Australia, just as I left to go back to Europe back in '05. Andrew & Chris were kind enough to invite me to stay with them in their gorgeous house on Phuket island, where they now live.

The weather was a bit grey and wet - but it was HOT HOT HOT! Such a change from the wintry stuff I'd left behind me in Munich. But then again, we're practically on the equator here so it's no surprise that it's tropical and steamy.

After a very welcome shower & a quick swim in their pool, Andrew & I went to pick up Chris from his work in Phuket City, where he lectures to students who are learning to be TEFL English teachers. From there we drove to the Phuket Brewery, a restaurant and bar with its own brews which is housed in a building that looks like a ship. I didn't dare try their Weissbier or their Dunkel, but their Pilsner was very refreshing.

The food at the Phuket Brewery was delicious! Oh how I love Thai food! I had a spicy squid salad that after the first mouthful I thought might defeat me it was so chilified. But in fact it was just that I managed somehow to get a huge piece of chili on the very first forkload. From there on in, once I'd regained sensation in my tongue, the salad was spicy but delicious.

My first full day, Wednesday, was very relaxed. I had some fruit for breakfast, did a spot of emailing, and then basically lounged by the pool. We drove Chris into work at lunchtime, stopping briefly to pick up some super tasty pockets of chili pork and vegetables wrapped in fresh rice paper, then Andrew took me to the Lighthouse restaurant at Chalong bay. This is where most of the dive boats leave from, and it's very much a working port, with hundreds of boats bobbing in the clear turquoise waters.

After lunch, we drove south to Rawai, the area in the bottom lefthand corner of Phuket, to see the beautiful beach at Rawai bay. Then we went inland to Wat Chalong. This temple is not very old, but it's quite a big complex altogether, with all the ingredients of a buddhist place of worship: temples, a bell tower, a huge urn for incense burning, gardens, palaces, and a little market.

That evening we picked up Chris from work and drove across the island, past the "honking temple" (where people toot their horns as they drive past for good luck), through Patong on the west coast and up to Surin beach, to one of their favourite beach bars. The plan was to have cocktails and watch the sun go down, but alas it was raining! So we just had a quick beer or two and then headed to dinner at a restaurant called Black Cat which is owned and run by a Frenchman and his Thai wife - whose name really is "Miao"!

Thursday was similarly relaxed to Wednesday, with a morning of fruit, pool and sun lounger, a light lunch at home, and another sightseeing drive courtesy of Andrew. This time we went down the west coast to the Karon Viewpoint, from which you have a huge view back up the coast over Kata and Karon beaches. Then we stopped for a quick drink at Ao Sane beach, a tiny little beach with just one drinks shack and a handful of bathers.

From there we drove along Rawai bay again and then up to the Big Buddha, currently being built up on the second-tallest hill on the island. Standing at his enormous feet, you get fantastic views over the whole of the east coast, from Phuket City down across Chalong and all the way to Laem Phromthep, Phuket's southernmost point. And, most excitingly of all, we saw a troupe of macaques feeding in the trees around the base of the Buddha platform!

From the Big Buddha we drove to pick up Chris, then headed to the beach bar at Hat Bang Tao, in the middle of Bang Tao bay, near where the enormous Laguna Phuket hotel & aparment complex has been built around the flooded tin mines which are now indeed lagoons. This evening, it was sunny so we actually got to see the sunset - hooray! Once it was dark, we headed home for gin & tonics and a spot of dinner.

Friday was once again relaxed in the morning. For lunch the three of us went to an expat pub at Tinlay Place. In the absence of any Thai food, but craving another chili fix, I had a chicken jalfrezi from the Indian section of the menu. It was good! After lunch, we spent the afternoon at Nai Thon beach on the northwest coast. The water was like a hot bath! Every now and then there were some enormous waves, but by and large it was calm and restful. I walked quite a way up and down the beach as well as swimming in those delightful waters. A real beach treat!

After a couple of hours there we drove home, had showers, then headed back out for sundowners at Layan beach, north of Bang Thao. At last I had a sunset straight into the Andaman sea! But the sun's timing was impeccable: less than ten minutes later, a huge rainstorm rushed down from the north and obliterated the entire view out to sea. It was so wet, we hesitated to leave the safety of the beach bar to go back to the car, but a very kind waitress took up a sun shade and escorted us across to where the car was parked.

We drove through pouring rain and along invisible roads to the airport to pick up my mate Matthias, who was starting a two-week holiday of his own in Thailand by catching up with me for the weekend. But by the time he was through immigration and had his bags, the rain had died off. We headed home to get Matthias showered & changed after his long flight from Munich through Singapore, then back out for dinner at Black Cat.

Saturday was a truly unrelaxed, hectic day! Poor Matthias, barely arrived from Europe, and I was making him get up at six thirty. But I had good reason: I'd organised a day's diving for us both. Chris' Thai friend Cam is a freelance tour guide and travel operator, and he had assisted me in sorting out some diving. He also chauffeured us to Chalong to catch our boat.

We dived with South Siam Divers, one of the biggest outfits on the island. The boat took us to three dive sites: Koh Dok Mai (where we saw ghost pipefish and nudibranchs); the King Cruiser wreck (which boasts Phuket's most famous toilets); and lastly Shark Point (which lived up to its name, because we saw not one but TWO leopard sharks!!).

It was a strenuous day - even for me, rested as I was from lots of lazy days, but especially for Matthias, who had only had about three hours' sleep. Cam picked us up and took us home, where we could have a little rest before heading out for the night: Chris & Andrew were taking us into Patong, that den of sin & vice...

The trip there was already exciting. We drove part of the way, then grabbed a tuk tuk into Patong. Our first stop was for dinner at Yo Yo, which has fabulous food and very friendly staff. Then we took a walk along Bangla road, where all sorts of people get up to all sorts of things - made all the more intriguing this weekend by there being 3,000 American marines on shore leave!

There was really nothing at all attractive about Bangla road or its inhabitants, so after gawping for a short while at all the drunk tourists and all the cheap prostitutes we headed for drinks behind the Paradise Hotel at Time bar (where we met the owners Dan & Jessica, friends of Chris & Andrew). We finished the evening with a halloween-themed ladyboy show at Boat Bar. It was quite disturbing to see ugly men dressed as pretty women disguised as hideous undead!

Sunday was blissfully relaxed. In fact, I didn't wake up until after 1pm! We lazed the rest of the afternoon away by the pool, and then went for sundowners and dinner at Laypang restaurant on Laypang beach in the middle of Bang Thao bay. This is Chris & Andrew's favourite restaurant, and it' easy to understand why. The location is idyllic, with tables on a raised platform stretching out into the inviting sands. The food is delicious and keenly priced. And the cocktails were the best I'd had all week - and cheap too!

Having missed the Vegetarian festival by one day (so I was spared the sight of priests in trance shoving pokers through their cheeks and then carrying baskets of fruit on either end), and being set to miss the Loi Krathong festival (where people honour the water spirit by the light of the full moon), I was most pleased when we spied lantern-sellers making their way down the beach! It meant I could take part at least in the build-up to Loi Krathong and send up a lantern (and a wish) into the night sky. My lantern was given extra oomph by having a tail made of sparklers attached to it, which made it look like a slow-motion space rocket as it rose up up and away.

After a delightful dinner, we headed home for a few more drinks and a midnight dip in the pool. What a lovely day!

And then it was Monday, my last day in Thailand. I got packed, had a final swim, and then headed to the airport with Cam to catch my AirAsia flight back to Bangkok. There I transferred my luggage to Emirates, cleared immigration and set out on the final outward leg of my journey - to Australia!

2009-10-27T18:39:00.002+01:00

The countdown to Australia has started...

What does one do in one's last week in Munich for a couple of months? Well, in my case the answer is panic. In as panicked a way as I'm capable of, which isn't really that panicked really. But nonetheless, I'm getting a serious case of Reisefieber, as they say here. My thoughts are turning more and more to distant lands.

But there are still a few things to do, like sort out my flat so that my flat-sitter can move in. And of course meet up with friends who I won't be seeing for a while. Breakfast with Christian, lunch with Thomas, dinner with Paul, a final choir rehearsal, cocktails with my EPO girls.

Not to mention sorting out the increasingly complex saga of the new bathroom in the flat in the UK. Argh! It's bad enough when you've got that sort of thing to do on your doorstep. Somehow, arranging for plumbers to go round and give you quotes is a tad trickier when you're sitting in the wrong country.

*****

It's tomorrow now, and I've got to mention a little happening from when I was in Bamberg with Justin, Sam & the girls which isn't in my ever-so-cursory blog of that week but which I remembered last night in the pub after a fantastic concert of a cappella modern classical music by a choir called Collegium Vocale - check them out at http://www.collegium-vocale-muenchen.de/ - with a few members of my choir. Erm, where was I? Oh yes, the story in Bamberg:

Well, I wrote that we had to drive the wrong way down a one-way street at the behest of a slightly irate - and armed - policeman. Well, as we were inching down the bendy road, fearing a head-on collision at any moment, an old lady who was sweeping her hallway emerged and started totally having a go at us for going the wrong way down her street! But I told her that a policeman had told us to do it, and her whole demeanour changed suddenly from one of affronted-regulations to one of cowering-before-authority. It was most amusing!

*****

Right, I'm having to unplug my PC now and pack it away. (Of course, by the time I actually publish this post, I'll already be somewhere exciting and tropical, but let's stick with the present tense just for the narrative immediacy of it, shall we?) Tara for now!

2009-10-26T16:26:00.002+01:00

It feels like I haven't stopped living la vida loca in MONTHS!! But, then again, looking back at my diary since July, it's TRUE!!!

So it was strangely pleasant to have a few days of nothing much, at home in Munich. I had a few lunch & dinner appointments, and I also had the stress of trying to sort out some plumbing problems in my flat in the UK, but mostly I was able to just chill out and start getting ready for the next phase of my adventures in November. In the suddenly freezing cold - even snowy - weather, I wasn't up for much more than that in any case.

There was one more excitement in store for me, however: a weekend in Cracow with Béné. Ladies & gentlemen, I HAD A NEW COUNTRY!!!!!! Having never been to Poland, I was very excited about this trip.

We drove to Memmingen airport (ludicrously referred to as "Munich West" - although, the actual Munich airport is also really quite far from town) and flew from there to Katowice in Silesia. From there we got the bus transfer to Kraków, which took 90 minutes - as long as the flight, in other words.

Once we'd arrived in Cracow we walked through the historic Old Town, taking in some of the sights but mostly just hoping the rain wouldn't get any heavier. Our hotel was in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of the city, just south of the Old Town and east of the Wawel castle. After checking in we headed out to look for a restaurant.

There were lots of restaurants and bars in the area, but they all seemed very empty. In the end we plumped for a place specialising in pierogi, small dumplings with a variety of fillings. We had a portion of lamb & rosemary, a portion of liver & bacon, and a portion of plums & cinnamon. Tasty! Following that, we had a couple of drinks in a bar and then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday was a full day, with lots of sightseeing and - thankfully - no rain. We walked up to the Wawel castle, and from there on into the Old Town, visiting church after church. So many of them were full of worshippers! The Poles take their religion seriously. The church of St Mary on the main square is fabulous.

We were a bit thirsty after all that sightseeing, so we found a funky bar with newspaper clippings all over the walls and had a beer. Then we went to a splendid restaurant called Miód Malina for a delicious lunch of Polish specialities. I had bigos, a kind of meat & cabbage stew. Yum! After a couple of schnapses (I had a DIVINE sliwowica or plum schnaps) and a portion of plum dumplings just like the ones you get in Austria, we headed to the tourist info office and joined a tour group to the salt mines at Wieliczka.

The mines were fascinating! Some 350m deep, although tourists only go down half that far, they have been worked since the middle ages and only recently stopped producing salt. There is cavern after cavern down there, many decorated with salt sculptures, salt altars, and even a whole salt church, with every bit of it carved out of the walls of the cavern. Well worth a visit!

When we got back to Kraków, it was already dark. We decided to attend a concert of chamber music in the church of St Peter & St Paul. The pianist was technically excellent but he lacked expression. Actually, what he lacked was warmth of spirit. Pity. The string quintet were also impressive. But by the end of the concert we were both FREEZING!

We rushed across the Old Town to a restaurant called Chlopskie Jadlo, recommended by Aleks and warmed ourselves over piles of hearty food: bread smeared with lard and sour cream & chives; a warming sour cream & potato soup; smoked mackerel in a creamy apple & onion sauce; roast pork with prunes; turkey pieces in a creamy mushroom sauce. Funnily enough, we didn't have space for a dessert! But then again, my hot beer with fruit compote in it was sort of desserty...

Suitably warmed, we made our way back through town at a more leisurely pace. I took lots of atmospheric photos. It felt really quite Christmassy. I can imagine Kraków being a great place to do Xmas markets - provided you're wearing your thermals.

On Monday we did lots more sightseeing. We took in Kazimierz, visiting the Old Synagogue which is now a museum. Then a few churches - just for a change! Then we found ourselves on the bank of the Vistula river. And - shock horror - the sun was out! We took our climatic cue and hopped on board a floating bar for a cheeky lunchtime beer with views onto the Wawel castle. By the time we'd finished our beers, the sun was gone again. But no matter: we'd needed our sunglasses after all!

Just by our bar was the take-off and landing platform for a tethered hot-air balloon that affords views over the whole city. Neither Béné nor I had ever been in a balloon, so we jumped at the chance. I have to admit, it was a whole lot scarier than I thought it would be! I had a few visions of the cable snapping and us drifting off into the wild grey yonder, or of the balloon collapsing and us hurtling back to the ground. But mostly I tried to take my mind off these thoughts by enjoying the view - and shivering in the icy wind.

Back on terra firma, we walked past Wawel and into the Old Town from the other side. We headed to a Georgian restaurant for a late lunch of khatchapuri, or cheesy bread with roast vegetables and chicken, and a bottle of just-about-not-too-sweet Georgian red wine. After the meal we continued our meanderings through the Old Town, exploring the northern end a bit more. Churches, some churches, and a few churches. Oh, and a theatre!

After some more scenic nighttime photos, we wound up in a cellar bar and, following the waitress' advice, drank some lemon curaçao shooters. Not quite sure why now, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Then we headed back to the hotel for a quick freshen-up before finding a bite to eat nearby and one last drink before turning in.

And suddenly it was Tuesday morning and time for us to leave. The weather decided to be sad at our departure and it was rainy and nasty for the short walk to the tram stop. The tram was packed solid, but we were only in it for about eight minutes. And at the bus station we found our minibus quickly. An hour and a half later we were at the airport, with a few hours to wait.

The weather cleared up somewhere over Austria, and I had a fabulous view of the Alps as we came in south of Munich to land at Memmingen. Sunny & almost warm! That made it a lot easier to be home again after a fab weekend with Béné.

2009-10-25T12:55:00.001+01:00

I thought of a fantastic way to avoid being depressed at the end of the excitements of Oktoberfest: go on a huge trip around the whole of Germany for a week!

On Monday morning, Lorna & I travelled together to Munich airport. She flew back to Düsseldorf, whilst I flew up to Berlin. I was met at Tegel airport by Chris, my good friend from Canberra who I haven't seen since I was living in Australia.

We had a lovely day, catching up on news and gossip. I met Chris' friends who he was in Berlin with for the weekend (who, incidentally, were kind enough to let me stay in the flat they had rented for their visit just near Nollendorfplatz).

It was so cold! After the gorgeous weather of the Oktoberfest fortnight, it was a real shock to the system to have to wear a hat & gloves. Luckily, I'd brought them with me. And luckily also, it didn't rain or anything silly like that. But talk about sudden arrival of winter!

We had lunch in KDW, the huge department store in West Berlin that was such a symbol of capitalist decadence during the Cold War. Then we went for a long walk all through the city, ending up at the Hackescher Markt. There I introduced Chris to onion cake & Federweißer.

That evening, we met up with his friends again at the television tower on Alexanderplatz. We were going to go up, but we would have had to wait an hour, so we decided instead to grab a bite to eat in a huge but nonetheless perfectly acceptable Italian place just by the Rotes Rathaus.

After that, we headed out for a few drinks in the vicinity of the flat. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that there was so little going on. Okay, it was a Monday night and it was cold, but come on, this is Berlin for Christ's sake!

On Tuesday morning Chris had to dash to the airport early to catch a plane to the UK. I had a few more hours before my flight to Düsseldorf, so I had a brunch with Chris' mates and then made my way out to the airport. In Düsseldorf I caught the bus to Lorna's place and met here just coming in from work. We had a quick chat and a drinkie, then headed out to meet the rest of the E.ON UK crew.

I was soooooo excited to see so many people I hadn't seen in years!! Claire was there, René was there, Eva was there. And of course I saw Lorna, Phil, Charlotte, and Ali, as well as Annika who I'd met in Munich a few years ago. What a lovely evening!!

Wednesday was my day for travelling to Bonn. I was met at the station by my friend Andreas, and after dumping my stuff back at his we headed into town for an evening's stroll through the centre. We ended up at an Indian restaurant, had a few drinks at the studenty indy bar next door, then called it a night. And we got back to Andreas' flat just in time: the mother of all thunderstorms came over and gave a spectacular light & sound show about ten seconds after we walked through the front door.

After breakfast on Thursday, we headed through the centre of town and out to the south, to where all the German parliament buildings were located until the decision to move everything to Berlin after unification. From there, we worked our way slowly north, through the posh fin-de-siècle suburbs to the southwest of town (where we stopped for lunch) and on past the university into town. After a walk through the middle, we stopped to admire the view up the Rhine before grabbing a coffee in a classic grannies' coffee house. Then I had to go to the station already! Not fair!

But it was fair really, because it meant I could have dinner with Lorna & Annika, then a drink with those two lovely ladies plus Phil. And of course a cheeky nightcap at Lorna's before turning in and getting ready for the next leg of my big journey.

Because on Friday I caught the train to Leipzig. It was a journey of almost six hours right across the heart of Germany, industrial cities giving way to fields, countryside, forests, small towns, more fields, more down-at-heel towns, and finally the city of Leipzig. I was met at the station by Dietmar & Dirk, my hosts for the weekend. I hadn't seen them in a good few years, so it was lovely to catch up with them again!

I had a marvellous weekend with them, which started that very evening: 20 years ago to the day, the big peace marches started that ultimately brought down the Communist government of East Germany and led to unification. It was a very moving experience to walk, candle in hand, with 100,000 other people along the very route that people had taken back then. This time, instead of tanks and riot police, the marchers were accompanied by art installations and footage of the original marches beamed massively onto the sides of buildings.

I can't stress enough how amazing it was to be there. I remember, 20 years earlier as a schoolboy in England, seeing the marches on television and thinking "this is history in the making". And now here I was, reliving those moments on the very soil where they took place, and surrounded by people who had lived through those incredible times. Overwhelming.

On Saturday, after a lazy morning and a generous breakfast, Dietmar & Dirk took me all through Leipzig to see the whole city, including the view from the top of the tallest tower in town. The weather was so-so, but the rain held off for most of the day. Leipzig today bears almost no resemblance to the weary, dreary, post-Communist conurbation that I visited back in 1993. Many many buildings - but still not all - have been restored to their pre-War glory and the city shines in renewed urban pride.

That evening, we went for dinner with four friends of Dietmar's that were also visiting that weekend. Ralf and Dirk were also staying at Dietmar's place; luckily there's plenty of room for guests in his flat! After dinner we all went on to the BärenStolz party, where I got to meet some of Dietmar & Dirk's other friends & acquaintances. We stayed there until around two o'clock, then caught the night tram back home. A good night was had by all.

On Sunday, Dietmar laid on another sumptuous breakfast, then Ralf & Dirk carried on up to Rostock (where they were spending a week's holiday). The three of us went into town and had a quick coffee at the station, and then *sniff* it was time for me to leave. I just made it onto my train to Munich in time! As the train pulled away, I waved goodbye to Dietmar & Dirk, truly the hosts with the most.

2009-10-24T09:22:00.001+02:00

Just because I was back in Munich didn't mean the fun was at an end. Quite the opposite in fact! Because just one day after getting back from Paris, I was due to climb up the roof of the Olympic Stadium with Christian. We got there in the early evening, the sun already a dark yellow but still a way off from setting, and joined the group. There were ten of us intrepid climber types.

First stop was a room to watch a half-hour video of the history of the Olympic Park - with original 1970s backing music. I could barely resist the urge to jump up and disco dance. Then we got our safety harnesses and ropes and headed back outside to the roof. The sun was orange but still visible.

And so we climbed up the steep initial section and on to the slightly shallower main curve of the edge of the roof. The plastic panels are riveted to lengths of rubber and connected to spans of thick wire, such that the whole roof is suspended from essentially one metal string! Crazy. The views from up the top were delightful, especially as the sun was now turning deep ochres and reds and setting the roof ablaze with crepuscular crimsons.

After the final steep descent we could remove our safety gear and amble back through the grounds of the Olympic Park, stopping off to look in on the swimmers in the Olympic pool before heading to the Italian place just off Rosenheimer Platz called Il Cavaliere for a well-earned dinner.

A few lunch appointments later, and suddenly there it was: Oktoberfest 2009!!

I had a fair few visitors this year. First up were Jamie & Claire, over from London. They flew in on Friday lunchtime. We had a few bevvies, did a spot of dirndl shopping (Claire wanted a new one, just so she had a choice of dirndls over the weekend, while Jamie needed braces for his Lederhosen) and then had a few more bevvies, ending up at my very very favourite Vietnamese restaurant, Mama, with Lorna (who had flown in from Düsseldorf that evening). We met this crazy Russian Afghan dude in an Oktoberfest-esque talking-to-strangers-on-your-table way.

And so the opening day of Oktoberfest was upon us. We took it easy in the morning, and got down to the Wiesn just as the cannon were firing their midday salute and the Anstich took place (that's where the mayor of Munich officially taps the first keg of Oktoberfest beer). We were very lucky, because Bénédicte and her parents were already at the Wiesn and managed to secure us some places in the beer garden of the Fischer Vroni tent. We shoehorned ourselves in among the revellers and stayed the rest of the day, getting progressively more merry. Ah, Oktoberfest!

Sunday was a bit messy thanks to the previous day's excesses. We managed to crawl out of the house and grab some lunch at the Paulaner on Maistraße; we couldn't face the shrieking masses on the Wiesn itself. From there we had a few quiet ones at Moro and then had a bite to eat in the Fraunhofer, where I introduced Jamie & Claire to the joys of Federweißer, or this year's fresh white wine. And then we stumbled back to my place, sated.

On Monday morning there was just time for a farewell breakfast of Weißwurst and Weißbier at the Nockherberg beer garden before Jamie & Claire had to head to the airport. I had approximately ten minutes to be sad though, because I hot-footed it back to the Wiesn to meet up with Béné and her French crowd (her parents & their friend Isabelle, her friend Chrystèle & parents & husband Olivier) in the Hacker Festzelt. Béné had booked a lunchtime table, and we had lots of fun eating & drinking & making merry. But after the weekend I'd had, I decided to call it a day when we had to vacate our table at four o'clock. My liver will love me for it.

Barely three days later, I was back at the Oktoberfest with Béné, this time for an evening session in Café Kaiserschmarrn, organised by InterNations. 'A tent with no beer?' I thought to myself in horror, but it turned out to be good fun. The live band were excellent, the cocktails plentiful and the chat with random international strangers entertaining.

On the Friday Christian & I went to the cinema to watch the new Pixar film "Up" in 3D. I'd never seen a 3D film before, and I was very excited to see how good it was. And the answer is: excellent! I thoroughly enjoyed the 3D-ness of it all - and the film is fantastic to boot. I can highly recommend it.

The next day we made the most of the lovely autumn weather by going for a bike ride along the Isar, all the way down to the WaldWirtschaft beer garden, where we met Veronika for a drink or two. She lives close by. I hadn't seen her in ages & ages! Later that evening, Christian & I had dinner with Michaela, Lisa & Claire at Cooperativa in the Glockenbachviertel. I do like the stark décor in there. And the food is tasty too!

On Sunday I had an all-afternoon choir rehearsal. It was tragic to have to sit indoors on such a golden autumn day! But at least the hard work was rewarded in the evening when Uli & Heidrun invited me, Martin & Bernd back to theirs for onion cake and Federweißer. A very pleasant evening was had by all.

The second week of the Oktoberfest saw me back there again and again. First on Monday with Dieter & Harry for a quick litre in the Fischer Vroni, then later the same evening in the Hofbräu tent with Béné, Marie-Laure & a huge crowd of EPO people.

Midweek I had time to spend an afternoon & evening with my nephews, to have breakfast in town with Holger, to research some jobs at the unemployment office with Dieter, to accompany Béné to the vet (her cat Guimauve was gravely ill, but has made a good recovery hurra!) and to have dinner with Christian at Mama.

Then the final weekend of Oktoberfest was upon me. I had the pleasure of hosting Charlotte & Ali, who flew down from Düsseldorf. I met them on Friday morning in town and took them back to mine for a cheese feast. That was followed by some more dirndl shopping (Charlotte indulged, Ali held herself back, and I bought a new check shirt) and then we headed straight to the Wiesn.

This weekend was totally different from last, mainly because Ali was up for going on loads of rides. So it wasn't just drinking; there was also some walking about and some screaming! We did the pitch-black indoor roller-coaster, drank shots, went on the bumper cars, and then settled in the beer garden of the Hofbräu tent, before sneaking in to the Ochsenbraterei for a few cheeky ones in the warm. Then we did the crazy-glasses-makes-it-hard-to-negotiate-the-obstacles thing, and finally the huge Olympic roller-coaster with five loopings. Aaaaargh!

On Saturday we met up with Michaela, the boys & Christian in a beer garden in Perlach - just to make sure we weren't on the Wiesn the WHOLE weekend... After a lovely few hours sitting in the sun that were rounded off by some super ice creams at Pfanzeltplatz, I took the girls back to the Oktoberfest.

First off we went on the big wheel, then we headed to the beer garden of the Bräurosl and eventually found a spot to stand - around a wheelie bin! We were met later on that evening by Matthias. The four of us ended up back on the bumper cars, and then Matthias & I both did the crazy helter-skelter ride that has a mad super-high-speed rubber conveyor belt to get you up to the start of the ride.

Hitherto I'd only ever watched people try - and fail - to get up the conveyor bit, having to be grabbed ignominiously by the attendants and dragged up to the helter-skelter. I'd never even considered having a go myself! But there I was, drunk & up for it. And, shock horror, I DIDN'T fall over! Result!!

The last day of Oktoberfest saw us back there for lunch in the Käfer tent with Béné, her cousin & husband, and Aleks from Berlin (who I hadn't seen since her birthday in May). The food was delicious, the beer was flowing, and the sun was streaming down even hotter than it had been all fortnight. Truly spectacular Wiesn weather.

After lunch, we headed to the Hacker Festzelt to join Michaela, who was there with Kate and her visitors from Wales. I don't know quite how she did it, but Aleks managed to smuggle us right in to the already full and officially impregnable tent. It never ceases to amaze me what blonde hair, big tits & a self-confident smile can achieve!

Argh! Charlotte & Ali had to leave! I accompanied them back to mine and saw them onto the tram. Lorna & Tomasz met us at my place, and so I headed straight back to the Wiesn with them to carry on where I'd left off. We managed finally to get back in to the Hacker (thanks to Aleks' interventions from inside) and had a wonderful evening of it with much singing, dancing - and drinking. Oktoberfest 2009: ten out of ten!!

2009-10-23T11:15:00.002+02:00

Friday morning was another fine day, so Martin & I decided to walk up the cliffs next to the beach at Les Petites-Dalles. Up at the top it was very windy, and we had magnificent views along the shore in both directions. There were loads of blackberries up on the top too, and they tasted uniquely salty-sweet thanks to the sea spray.

After lunch at Geneviève's our coach took us to St Martin de Boscherville, a tiny town with a huge church confusingly called St George de Boscherville. This church is the last Romanesque church to be constructed in France - in fact, the finishing touches were already Gothic with pointy arches. It's 1000 years old, built at the time of William the Conqueror, and its incredibly vivid primitive carved decoration seems otherworldly in its difficulty of interpretation for our modern eyes. A fascinating building, with beautiful gardens set around and behind it.

The parish laid on a sumptuous buffet dinner for us (and yes, I ate more than my fair share of cheese - again), and then it was sunset and time for our concert in the marvellous church. The concert went very well, but sadly someone broke in to the parish hall where all our luggage was stored and stole money from a dozen people's wallets. Argh!

The mood in the coach back to Geneviève's was dark as a result, but hearts were warmed that evening through the liberal application of wine & pommeau, the local drink that is a blend of cider & calvados, as well as by a hilarious rendition of classic German cabaret numbers by Klaus, ably accompanied by Stefan on the suitably out-of-tune old piano.

On Saturday we headed into Fécamp, where Geneviève had arranged with her favourite restaurateur for us to have a delicious set menu of fish & seafood. Yum! I popped in to the Benedictine monastery that is home to Bénédictine, the liqueur, to buy a bottle of the sweet stuff. Then a few of us wandered down to the beach. It was bracing but still sunny.

That evening, we gave our final full concert in the abbey church up on the hill. This church is actually a bit longer than Notre Dame in Paris, thanks to regular extensions that were paid for by the huge number of pilgrims who came to see its precious relics. The concert went extremely well, and everyone was in such a good mood afterwards that we partied well into the night back at Geneviève's, with the last of us finally turning in around thee o'clock.

The late night made Sunday morning hard work. Added to which, we had to pack our bags and say goodbye to Les Petites-Dalles, because straight after our appearance in the regular service of the Abbey Church of Fécamp we had to jump in our coach and head back to Paris. The service went well, despite the lung-chokingly huge clouds of incense that were wafted all over the altar and into our faces!

The bus journey back to Paris was uneventful, with a few stops to let people out at Rouen (Christoph was catching a train home from there) and Charles de Gaulle (where most people got out). Back at Kellermann - oh yes, a few hardy souls were staying another night in Paris, me included - we dropped our bags and went straight out for a coffee. There Martin bade us farewell and headed for his train.

I headed out on my own for a bite to eat. I hadn't had any mussels the whole time I was in Normandy! So I made up for that by eating a huge bucketload of moules marinières in a Belgian beer restaurant near the Gare du Nord. And then I met up with Glenn, an American chap I'd met last year when I was in Paris with Johannes from Sydney, for a couple of drinks and a chinwag. It was a very pleasant evening!

On Monday I decided to do a bit of culture, so I went into the Centre Pompidou and soaked up some lovely 19th and 20th century paintings. Plus, from the top floor of that crazy building, I could enjoy the view of Sacré Coeur up on its hill and all the way round through La Défense, the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides to the Tour Montparnasse. Ah, Paris!

2009-10-22T17:56:00.003+02:00

The week I had with my choir, the Markus Chor München, in Paris & Normandy was FANTASTIC! I have to say, it was so much better than I was expecting it to be. We were exceptionally lucky with the weather - not a drop of rain fell on us, in fact quite the opposite: there were a few sun-burned faces by the end of the week.

There were negative aspects: the shitty hotel in Paris, the theft of money out of people's wallets during one concert in Normandy. But even these downers pale into insignificance compared with the wonderful time we all had of it. And the concerts just got better and better! By the end of the week, we were sounding very fine indeed. Lucky inhabitants of Fécamp.

And now I'll revert to my customary chronological rendering of events. Now where were we?

Ah yes, it's Sunday afternoon, and I've just hauled my cheese-laden arse from Champagne to Paris in a train. I was met off my train at Gare de l'Est by Christoph & Martin, my two best tenor friends in the choir. They had just got in on separate trains themselves. Together we made our way out to the CISP Kellermann, a cross between a youth hostel and a gulag out at Place d'Italie in the southeast.

We were in the Kellermann because it was the only reasonably-priced establishment that could accommodate the whole choir - all 50 of us including hangers-on. I think, overall, we would've been better off scattered across several hotels. The only real benefit of being all together was that we could get on our bus to Normandy without delay. But be that as it may, we were all together. And our first group experience was the buffet dinner. Average is too kind a word.

Thankfully, we could quickly put thoughts of mediocre dining behind us, when Martin suggested to a few of us that we go to the Tour Montparnasse to enjoy the nighttime view across Paris. And golly gosh is it a stunning panorama! The Eiffel Tower sparkling, Notre Dame aglow, the Seine a dark finger drawn across the tableau, and all the imperial majesty of the city laid out before you.

We headed back to Place d'Italie for a nightcap and then turned in. I was in a three-bed room with Christoph & Martin. Dismal is too kind a word. The third bed was slung above the other two, and there wasn't a single hook anywhere in the whole room to hang a coat on! The bathing cubicle was a 1960s style bubble of plastic containing toilet, sink & shower all in one. I'm reminded of being in a Zorb in New Zealand; I had about as much room in there too.

The one highlight of the Kellermann was that they had very good croissants at breakfast. But you were only allowed one, dammit!!

On Monday I went with Martin, Anja & her boyfriend Erwin to the Père Lachaise cemetery. We quickly found Jim Morrison but struggled to locate most other graves. The exceptions were Chopin, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde, all three of which were very popular with dead-people-visitors. In general, the cemetery was very pleasant: it's huge, for one thing, and quite hilly, so it's a nice place to amble round. At first I was reminded of the cemetery in Buenos Aires where Evita is buried, but Père Lachaise is more restful than that one.

After the cemetery, we had a bite to eat. Anja headed back to the hotel but the three of us went on a bit of a bus adventure round northern Paris, ending up near the Opéra for another coffee. Martin & I left Erwin there and we to our first rehearsal in the church known as Les Billettes in the rue des Archives, just behind the Hôtel de Ville. It's tucked away behind high walls in an area full of bars, so the last thing you're expecting is an oasis of peace, but it is - and it boasts Paris' only original mediaeval cloisters. Plus it's got a reasonable acoustic too.

That evening, Martin & I bought some cheese & wine before heading off to join the rest of the group for a trip on a Bateaux Mouches. The views were lovely! After the boat trip a few of us headed up to the Arc de Triomphe and then back to the hotel.

On Tuesday - yet another gloriously hot day - Martin, Christoph & I found some breakfast together, and then Martin & I went to the Catacombs. There are lots & lots & LOTS of dead people there. Skulls, thigh bones, all tastefully arranged into stacks. A bit mad really.

After a late lunch we went our separate ways. I headed to the Institut du Monde Arabe, where I took in the museum and an obscenely expensive glass of tea on the rooftop terrace. The view of Notre Dame and the whole heart of the city was spectacular though.

Tuesday evening we had our first concert, in Les Billettes. It went reasonably well, so afterwards we traipsed off for a celebratory dinner down near the Seine. Everywhere was chocabloc, but I managed to negotiate a space for ten people in a pleasant brasserie with a nice terrace. I treated myself to some fois gras. Sorry, geese of the world, but your force-fed organs are SO tasty!

On Wednesday morning we left Kellermann in a big bus and headed north. Our first stop was Giverny, to visit Monet's house and his marvellous gardens, complete with water lilies. The weather threatened to turn a bit shite, and we feared the worst for our time in Normandy, but in the end it stayed dry. After Giverny, we stopped in Rouen for lunch. Christoph ordered a salad and it came with a bonus: an enormous huge wriggly caterpillar!!

After some sightseeing around Rouen - beautifully restored to its mediaeval half-timbered splendour after being pulverised by the Allies in the War - we headed off again, this time to our "home" for the rest of the week. Geneviève, a member of our choir, has a summer home in the tiny seaside resort town of Les Petites-Dalles, just up from Fécamp, and fully 28 of us were able to stay as her guests!

The others were in a few hotels in Fécamp. Unlucky for them: because Geneviève and her husband Paul were insanely good hosts. We had delicious hot meals, a sumptuous breakfast spread, wines galore, and - most importantly - we were all able to eat our own bodyweight in CHEESE!!! Yay!! Just when I was getting withdrawal symptoms after Champagne.

On Thursday our coach took us to Etretat, where we walked along the cliffs and enjoyed the stunning views of the pinnacle rocks & the beaches & the hillsides. We ate our picnics (provided by Geneviève, of course) and then the coach took us to Honfleur, just over the Seine from Le Havre. What a pretty little town!

Back at Les Petites-Dalles, we took our places for dinner (I mixed it up and sat on a table without a single other tenor!) and then tucked in to yet another delicious dinner. I don't know how she managed to prepare SO MUCH food - and serve it all up in one go. Thankfully, the kitchen was big enough for whole work teams of volunteers to clear up after the meals. And then it was time for a constitutional stroll down along the beach with Christoph & Martin. Ah, how the sea air revives!

2009-10-16T19:28:00.002+02:00

I had a few days in Munich before my next trip, believe it or not, so I managed to squeeze in a few drinks with the Kloster crew on the Monday night, a lunch date on the roof of an Augustiner brewery with Bénédicte and Tobias from the EPO, a dinner date in Augsburg with my friends Matthias & Stefan, an afternoon visit to my nephews for a spot of Wii-ing, elevensies in a cute café in town with my friend Jürgen, and a cheese & wine party at my place with Bénédicte, Christian & Karin.

And then it was time to jump on ANOTHER plane! France, here I come!

From Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, I had to take a train to Champagne. It's a good job I had plenty of time before the train set off though, because I had a classic piece of Frenchness to experience before I could get on. It goes like this:

I'd pre-booked my train ticket on the SNCF website, where I had been informed that some non-French credit cards don't immediately work in the French ticket dispensing machines. The answer to this problem was, apparently, to type in the booking reference number into the machine, and all would go well. So, on arrival, I queued at the nearest ticket machine, and some 10 minutes later got to the front. I swiped my card, typed in the reference, and was then told that I couldn't proceed! Argh!

So I had to find a human. I headed for the ticket office, where I was greeted by an enormous queue that snaked all the way back out of the office and into the station plaza. Even though there were twelve ticket desks, only TWO of them were actually manned. Argh! Some half an hour later, I finally reached an employee, gave him my card and my reference number, and all was well.

In passing, I mentioned to him that it was a pity the ticket machines don't accept non-French credit cards even though they're supposed to. His response was gold: with a world-weary shrug of the shoulders, he blew out a puff of air, tilted his head in fraternal sympathy and said, "c'est la France"!

But, as I said, luckily I had a couple of hours before the train left. So I even still had time to find a sandwich and a bottle of Orangina before my TGV pulled in. I jumped on, sat down, and watched France whoosh past my window at an extraordinary rate of knots. Sunsets at high speed are somehow even more restful on the eye.

I was met at Champagne-Ardenne station by Sébastien, who I hadn't seen in years & years! The last time I saw his wife Aurélie, he had been stationed in Côte d'Ivoire with the French army. Now he's back, in charge of a unit of dog-handling soldiers that do bomb sniffing and perform other tasks where dogs are advantageous. He drove us to Châlons, where he is now living (and stationed, it being a big garrison town). He & Aurélie and their son Mayeul have a flat slap bang in the middle of town, a stone's throw from the town hall and directly opposite a UNESCO World Heritage church, the Eglise de Notre Dame-en-Vaux. Not bad!

We spent the rest of the weekend eating, drinking and being merry. I ate my own bodyweight in cheese - again! - and tasted many regional specialities, including champagne (duh!) and tarte aux mirabelles. Because it was mirabelle season, and everyone knows that the best mirabelles (small yellow plums) grow in eastern France. In fact, I was so taken with Aurélie's mirabelle tart that I begged her to show me how to make it. Which she did. So I did. And it was good!

It just so happened that my visit coincided with the Foire de Châlons, France's biggest agricultural show. Séb took me there on Saturday, after we had been round town buying cheese and looking at the lovely old buildings of Châlons. At the Foire we tasted Quebecois beers, Austrian ice wine, and Dutch ale, as well as marvelling at the hugeness of modern farm equipment.

There was just time on Sunday to go and have a look in the UNESCO church before I had to catch a train to Paris, to join up with the rest of the members of my Munich church choir - because we were ON TOUR for a week!! More about that in my next instalment...

2009-10-13T18:01:00.003+02:00

I don't think I was even properly dry from the huge thunderstorm yet, but already I had to jump into an aeroplane for my next exciting adventure: Denmark!

I flew via Amsterdam Schiphol, which gave me a chance to pick up important Dutch items like stroopwafels and delicious goat's cheese. And then suddenly I was at Billund airport, being met off the plane by Rasmus' parents Josef & Ingrid as well as his kids, Johan & Marie. I really wasn't expecting such an enormous welcoming party! We caught up on years'-worth of gossip and sang songs all the way to Guldenmuld, just outside Skanderborg, which is the name of the commune where Rasmus & Lene live.

Now, when you say "commune" to me, it conjures up images of long-haired hippies, tie-dye clothes, marijuana and lice. But in fact Danish communes are altogether different. It's more like a housing estate without garden fences, with an added community centre. It just so happens that the community centre is the dining room for everyone in the commune: each grown-up has to cook for everyone two evenings a month, which gives you around 28 evenings a month where you don't have to worry about sorting out dinner for you or your kids.

Dinner on my arrival day, however, was cancelled so we could get on with setting the room up for the following day's wedding reception. I put myself at Rasmus & Lene's disposal and spent the rest of the evening on a variety of jobs, including moving furniture, lugging crates of drinks about, and setting up long trestle tables. It was thirsty work, but luckily Rasmus had already plumbed in the beer kegs (complete with compressor and chiller unit), so we could carry out periodic tastings!

Saturday was not the best weather-wise - but hey, we were in Denmark, not on the Côte d'Azur. Thankfully the rain stayed away for most of the time we were still setting up (laying tables, getting marquees up, inflating the bouncy castle, fetching extra cutlery from a neighbouring commune) and for the actual wedding itself, which took place in a delightful little old church up the road. And then, back at Guldenmuld, the fun began! Lots and lots and LOTS to eat & drink, and lots of people I hadn't seen for years to catch up with: Jesper, Bjarne, Erik, Rolf. And lots of new people to talk to too!

Things hotted up in the evening, as the dancing began and the beer & wine flowed freer than ever. I was amused by the Danish tradition of cutting the ends of the groom's socks off after the first dance. It was a group participation event, with all the guys having to hold him up in the air while the girls did the deed on his feet. I just love Danes!

Sunday was altogether a quieter day - especially as we had to get up really early to roll up the bouncy castle and bring it back to the hire place in the next village. About all I could manage was to watch kids' videos with Johan & Marie. It's surprising how much I could understand, although of course it helps that I've seen Lilo & Stitch and Kung Fu Panda before. Great films, both of them!

And then, just as I was getting acclimatised to the damp windy weather, it was time for me to pack my bags. Rasmus, Lene & the kids took me back to Billund airport (which was a very kind thing for a newlywed couple to do, I thought!) and then I flew back through Amsterdam to Munich. I felt pleasantly calm after the excitement of the weekend and the chance to talk with Rasmus about life, the universe & everything.

2009-10-07T15:01:00.002+02:00

It hardly seems fair to write such a brief account of my fab week with Justin & Sam & Grace & Maisie on the road in Bavaria, but then again it's not fair to have waited this long to write about it at all! So, hold on to your hats:

Nuremberg - sausages, sun, steep hills, cool old buildings, harrowing coverage of Nazism in the Rally Ground museum, and praise from the guide of our tour of the old city dungeon for my translation skills (she really shouldn't have claimed to be able to do the tour in English, but luckily I was there to save the day).

Bamberg - the archetypal mediaeval city with insanely narrow roads, made all the more insane by it being the first day of the Sandkerwa, Bamberg's biggest festival. I haven't driven straight through thronging crowds of people since Fallas in Valencia back in '94 - and then it was a wide boulevard, whereas this time Justin had to avoid mediaeval house walls as well as drunkards! What a fine hotel we stayed in though - after being directed the wrong way down one-way streets by an irate policeman. And aaaah, the smoky local Schlenkerla beer: it tastes like Murphy's mixed with bacon!

Würzburg - scary bed & breakfast guy, worrying weather (but it got better again), delicious wines, delightful old town, exquisite royal residence, fine castle up on a hill. Pity Sam fell over and did herself a serious mischief on the gravel path.

The villages & towns of the Romantic Road - each one prettier than the last: Bad Mergentheim, Weikersheim, Creglingen, Rothenburg, Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen, Donauwörth, Schongau, Füssen. I never had any idea that north and west of Munich was so lovely!

Our hotel in Austria - behind the first hill over the border, up from the Lechfall waterfall, and round the corner into Pinswang. Goodness gracious the divine food!! Garlic soup, schnitzels, all super tasty. And an idyllic setting to match the wow factor of Neuschwanstein Castle the next day.

On the way back to Munich we stopped at Tutzing on the Starnberger lake and ate a tremendous Steckerlfisch, which is a huge smoked mackerel.

And then two day trips from Munich. The first was to Tegernsee where we swam at Rottach-Egern and did the boat tour before settling in at the brewery. The second was to the monastery and brewery at Andechs, followed by a swim in the Ammersee lake.

All this travelling in hot hot summer sun, which showed Bavaria at its finest. Except for the monster thunderstorm at Tegernsee, which we had to run through to get back to the railway station. I haven't got that wet in rain for I don't know how long!

2009-09-29T11:53:00.002+02:00

So I was actually in Munich for a change! It had been a while, so I felt the need to reconnect with people here. I met up with Michaela, the boys, Rosanne & her son Alex (who were over from the UK) for fab Chinese food in Pasing on Monday lunchtime. I met with Christian & the Kloster crew for fab German food on Monday evening. I met with Rudi for fab Italian food just round the corner from me on Tuesday evening. I met with Bénédicte for fab French food in Schwabing on Wednesday evening. I met Judith for coffee in town on Thursday.

And then it was the weekend, and suddenly it was Visitor Season! Ali flew in from Düsseldorf for a night to make the most of the Munich summer - yes, it had finally turned hot. We walked all through town, along the Isar, and out to the Flaucher beergarden, before heading back into town to visit the Hans-Sachs-Straße festival, where I ran into (among others) Rudi & Jürgen, Holger, Jens & Doris, Marko, and Petar & Fadil. Then Ali & I rushed out to Bogenhausen to meet Christian for sushi at Sushi Cent. Oh how I love that place!!

On Sunday morning it was still hot & sunny, so Ali & I went for a walk around my neighbourhood in search of a nice café. Bizarrely, they were all shut. But then we spotted a Peruvian tapas bar literally round my corner and stopped for fruit juice. It was most strange to be lying on sun loungers in the street, with fake plastic palm trees for shade!

Our juice break didn't last long, though, because Justin & Sam & their girls Grace & Maisie soon arrived in their hire car from Munich airport. We met them, brought their bags up to mine, and headed straight out to the Nockherberg beergarden for some traditional Bavarian afternoon sun. Christian joined us, then Ali had to leave to catch her flight back to Düsseldorf. I saw her onto the tram, then headed back to the others.

Later we all headed back to mine for Federweißer - this year's not-quite-ready white wine that is basically fermenting grape juice; the longer you keep it in your fridge, the more alcoholic it gets - and then had a bite to eat at an Italian round the corner to soak up the headache juice we'd just consumed at mine.

Monday saw Justin, Sam, the girls & I head into Munich for a spot of sightseeing, shopping & lunch (at the Augustiner place in the pedestrian zone). Later in the afternoon we headed to the Kloster and had dinner with our usual Kloster crew. Tuesday was similarly relaxed, with breakfast at mine followed by a trip into town, followed by a swim at Schyrenbad down by the river, followed by dinner at Wassermann. That evening Christian jump-started the hire car (bloody battery was dead!), which calmed Justin's nerves somewhat.

And then on Wednesday began a crazy week of trans-Bavarian road tripping! Justin & Sam kindly invited me along for the ride, since I had time on my hands (unemployment has benefits). We headed all over the place to loads of places that I hadn't been to before or hadn't been to for years. And I'll write about it all very soon...

2009-09-22T15:18:00.003+02:00

Did I mention that I totally got checked out by a Hollywood star while I was sitting having an icecream in New York? No, really!! The only other explanation is that he thought he knew me; he stared right at me for much more time than is necessary to decide whether or not someone's going to hassle you for an autograph (which I SO wouldn't, by the way). I feel compelled not to mention his name, for fear of some crazy US-style libel action, but suffice to say that despite his "long-term girlfriend and child" alibi, the eyes of this particular actor, famous from Six Feet Under, were all OVER me that sunny afternoon in the West Village.

So yes, I was in New York, and I'd met up with Charlotte & Sarah, who were over from Dusseldorf for a spot of shopping, for a bite to eat at a French brasserie in the meatpacking district. And then we fancied dessert sitting at a pavement café, which obligingly presented itself soon after we started walking into the West Village. And there was Said Actor, sitting at the next table! He wandered off after a bit, but then five minutes later came back the way and totally checked me out! I was abashed and looked away, then thought "sod it" and looked back again, and he was STILL checking me out!!

After lunch the girls & I had a bit of a walk around through Washington Square Park before stopping for a coffee. Then it was time for them to head to the airport. I carried on walking, then headed out to Brooklyn and walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge - which apparently is only sitting on one of its feet, the other having been built in a swamp where they never actually found a bottom! Then I walked across to the Hudson River side and walked slowly up towards Christopher Street Pier, enjoying the setting sun.

Rich & Paul met me in a bar on Christopher Street for a drink, and then we went along to a great little Italian place nearby and ate some delicious pasta. Then we headed across to Jersey and enjoyed the view of nighttime Manhattan from Hoboken. Wow! All the skyscrapers lit up and just sitting there being gorgeous!

On Tuesday I got the bus in from Teaneck across the George Washington Bridge and then took the Subway to the Upper West Side, where I found myself a yummy falafel restaurant for lunch. Then I walked into Central Park, passing through Strawberry Fields, the garden named in memory of John Lennon, who was shot just outside the park there. I did a spot of sunbathing on a big rock in a hilly little glade in the middle of the park. Ah, what luxury! It was too easy to forgeet that I was lying slap-bang in the middle of a sprawling urban metropolis.

My next stop was the American Museum of Natural History, which was full of exhibits but also full of people. The new annex built just next door is fab though, with two building-sized displays: one is designed to literally walk you through the history of the universe since the Big Bang, with the last 15cm or so corresponding to the time man has been on earth; the other uses the huge spherical cinema at the centre of the annex as a point of reference for a journey through scale, i.e. if the huge sphere is the universe then this pebble is our galaxy, or if the huge sphere is a molecule of hydrogen then this marble is an electron. Both exhibits were very cool!

I took the Subway and the bus back out to Dan's place in Queen's that night. Dan was a bit knackered from his hectic doctoring work at the hospital, so we just had a bite to eat in a delicious South Indian restaurant round the corner and then watched a DVD. Well, I did; Dan went to bed half way through! It was possibly the direst superhero movie I've ever endured: Watchmen. Oh My God. Every now and then there's a good bit, but mostly it's just clichés and dialogue off the back of a cereal packet. And it's SO LONG!!! Never again.

On Wednesday I met up with Bezi from Munich and her cousin. It's crazy: you fly a quarter of the way round the world, then keep meeting up with people from home! I love it though, because it makes me feel all that much more jetsetty. Anyway, we met at the Museum of Modern Art and spent the whole lunchtime & afternoon there. There's just SO MUCH cool stuff to see there!! Around each corner is a world-famous picture, and around each other corner is some cool thing you've never seen before. I totally love that museum.

We cooled our arted-out heads with a cocktail at their fabulously exclusive hotel just off Central Park and then I got a bus back to Jersey. Rich kindly picked me up from the bus terminal and took me home, where we had dinner with Paul and Rich's friend Dean who was in town on business. Once again, the jacuzzi was a life-saver for my achy feet. Tourism is so much more civilised when one is staying with Rich!

And then, suddenly, my last day was upon me. Rich took me to a proper Jersey Italian pizza place, and I learned that Jersey is a huge mozzarella (or muzzarella, as they call it locally) production centre as well as being a garden state with orchards galore and more fresh produce than you can shake a muddy stick at.

After lunch, I finally succumbed to the lure of shopping in cheap-dollar-land. It all started because Maggi asked me to bring her some sweets that you can only get in America. But once the floodgates were opened I shopped like it was going out of fashion. That naughty Rich kept asking me what I need, and I kept answering "well I really don't need anything, I mean, the only thing I could buy would be..." and that sentence ended variously with "jeans" or "winter boots" or "maybe a shirt" or "some snacks" or "agave syrup". Good job I brought two bags to check in!

The flight back to Munich was uneventful. I arrived on Friday morning and just had time to unpack, wash, and repack, before flying on to Hannover to visit Maggi & Jens for the weekend. Our first stop was an Australian pub, where we drank cider and ate barramundi with friends of theirs.

On Saturday we drove to the Marienburg, a nearby castle. The woman doing the guided tour was quite possibly the most boring person alive - if indeed she is alive. She had the craziest monotone, only it wasn't a monotone because now and then she would inject a burst of enthusiasm - but for the wrong things! One example among many, many, many: "and HERE we are standing in front of some WOODen DOORS" - no, she didn't say anything ABOUT the wooden doors, she just stated that that's what they were.

It was super duper hot that afternoon, so we just sat in their garden and ate Greek snacks. Later in the evening Maggi drove me into town in her Mini (Jens was feeling really ill and went to bed), so we could go to the Maschseefest. It's a beer & sausages festival on the lake shore of the Maschsee, the lake right in the middle of town that WWII bomber pilots used basically as a big arrow pointing at the Old Town.

We met up with my mate Holger, who happened to be up from Munich this weekend too, visiting his parents, and he taught me how to drink Lütje Lage, which is a special local beer that you have to hold between finger and thumb whilst simultaneously balancing a glass of schnapps on the top edge of the glass with another finger, and then drink both together without pouring it all down your front or up your nose. I took to it like an alcoholic fish to vodka - all the locals were impressed at how dry my teeshirt remained!

Maggi & I finished the night with a cocktail in a rooftop beach bar. What a way to improve a city-centre multi-storey car park!

On Sunday the three of us took Bubble, their uncommonly huge American bulldog, for a walk in the forest. It was again a lovely day, and the destination of the walk was an observation tower. Sadly the view from the top was very hazy, but Jens & I had a good view of Maggi waiting down below with Bubble. And then, after a very very relaxing weekend which had consisted mostly of eating, drinking, and dozing in the sun, they took me back to the airport and I flew back to Munich.

2009-09-03T12:46:00.002+02:00

Time to write a few more words, I think. Basically because I'll be off again for another week as of tomorrow afternoon, this time to France with my choir for a couple of concerts in churches in Paris and Normandy. Should be great! But more about that probably in about three months' time, when I finally get around to writing about September...

Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, just back from a scorcher in Rome. Well, I had about 18 hours to do a load of washing etc. and get my bags packed for my next trip, this time to New York. (It's sickening I know, but I really am jealous of MYSELF sometimes, with all that jetsetting!) Rich & Paul kindly agreed to put me up again in their house in New Jersey, like last year in May.

But the trip was altogether different this time. I had more time to play with - nine days instead of six - and more people to catch up with too: Dan has now moved to Queens to work as a doctor in a hospital there; Charlotte & Sarah were over from Dusseldorf for a long weekend of shopping; and Bezi was over for a few days with her cousin who had just been in Canada.

Ah! New York! It's just too good, it really is. City, nightlife, people, sights, country, rivers, seaside, islands, drinks, views, food, culture, international flair: it's the city that's got it all. Plus, Rich had a few days off work to spend with me, which was really great because I always love to visit a place with a local rather than have to rely on a guide book. So I got to see a broad spectrum of what NYC has to offer.

My first evening was a quiet one at home with Rich & Paul, reacquainting myself with their decadent hot tub in the back garden as well as with Rich's culinary prowess. The next day, after slightly iffy jetlaggy sleep, we went into Manhattan for lunch and a wander round. Initially we thought we might pick up tickets for a Broadway show, but just as we joined the monster queue for last-minute seats the mother of all downpours came!

I haven't seen rain like it in I don't know how long. It was tropical and crazy. (Rich reminded me how far south NY actually is, which explains how it is that they get their weather from the Caribbean.) It was raining so hard, the parts that were sheltered by our umbrellas were soaked through by the drops bouncing off the floor. We held fast for a minute but then decided to screw the tickets and head for some shelter, whereupon I came face to face - or rather, face to hat - with a recent New York phenomenon, the Naked Cowboy. YouTube him, it's mad!

No, he's not naked - at least, not in a European sense: he wears a white ten-gallon-hat, white knickers, white cowboy boots and a white guitar. But for an American he's pretty naked! And now he's standing for mayor of New York City. He was strumming gently whilst standing next to a table with flyers and info about his campaign. Which was handily under cover, hence our proximity until the worst of the rain had past.

From Times Square we jumped in the Subway and headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we had a quick mad dash round for an hour before they closed. It's great! A bit like the British Museum, with bits of everything, including a whole Egyptian temple complex, whole frescoed Roman villa rooms, picture galleries, statues, and a fabulous exhibition of art from the National Museum of Iraq that had been buried to protect it from the atrocities of recent times.

After chucking-out time at the museum we had a lovely walk through some of Central Park back into Downtown, then headed back across the Hudson River to New Jersey for dinner at a sushi place near Rich & Paul's. After all that walking and weather-beating, I was most ready for a bedtime hot tub visit!

The next day Rich was kind enough to drive me out of the city and a little way upstate. We headed for the town of Beacon, and more precisely to a converted biscuit factory that now houses the Dia: museum of modern art. It's a huge huge huge space devoted to 20th-century works that by their nature are difficult to display in normal galleries. For instance, the enormous iron sculptures of Richard Serra have their own wing here, as do a giant series of Dan Flavin flourescent tube installations. There's also stacks of Warhol, Beuys, and other important artists.

I have a little confession to make at this point: I found a large proportion of the art on display to be utter shite. But I delighted in the whole shiteness of it all!! As I strolled from gallery to gallery, I marvelled at how well-off human society has become that it can devote time, money & energy to such pointless exercises in artistic masturbation. It really does make me ever so happy in my heart to think that mabye one day war will be forgotten and differing opinions on abstract bits of plastic/wire/cardboard will constitute mankind's major source of confrontation.

So you can imagine my elation when, from time to time, I found a piece I actually found arresting as well as self-important! There were works by Louise Bourgeois, John Chamberlain and Sol LeWitt that I really quite liked. And the extension that's been built on the waterfront of the Hudson River was also most pleasant, especially when we got to watch a guy taking his windsurfboard out onto the water, and to see him gradually get smaller and smaller as he headed out into the middle of the river.

Back in New Jersey, we met up with Paul outside his office and then headed for dinner at a Colombian restaurant. The food was tasty but most importantly HUGE! I had a grilled whole red snapper with avocado and fried banana that would have fed a family of four in the UK. The piles of food on the tables of those around us (who were almost without exception Latinos; we were the only white guys in the place) were eye-wateringly generous too.

Amusingly, the waitress couldn't understand a word I said because of my accent. When she asked what I wanted to drink and I said "a glass of water" her faced clouded over and then she turned to Rich & Paul asking "what does he want?". To which they replied "a glayass of waaaaahaterrrrrr". To which she said "oh okay". Two nations divided by a common language.

On Friday Rich & I drove out to Fire Island, that wonderful retreat from the hubbub of the city. Although this time, in contrast to last year, there was plenty of hubbub on the island too! Well, it was midsummer after all, and the weather was supposed to be hot & sunny again after the lashings of rain that had fallen across New York in recent weeks. We had a very relaxing time, walking on the beach, having drinks with friends of Rich, and bodysurfing on the big waves that were rolling in from the Atlantic.

Paul joined us on Saturday afternoon and that evening we had a big barbecue party on the verandah of some friends of theirs, where I got to chat with a Dutch lady and not be the only European on the block. Then on Sunday Rich & Paul dropped me off in Queens at Dan's house, where I had a great reunion with him before setting off with him & his girlfriend to a kosher Turkish restaurant. An Israeli waiter there had some very unsavoury views about Muslims which I expect he only shared with me because he thought I was Jewish.

Right, I'm going to leave it there for now. We can't have you getting eye fatigue from reading an overlong blog now, can we!

2009-08-27T08:25:00.003+02:00

Cor blimey, I'm getting very behind on my quirky but sometimes hopefully amusing narration of the publishable bits of my life! Where were me? Ah yes, Rome:

Well, Rome is a fab place - but I needn't write that here! It was hot hot hot all the while we were there, which made a blessed change from the dreary summer in Munich. Our first foray into the city (after breakfast in our deliciously central hotel) was past the Castell Sant'Angelo and over the Tiber into the windy narrow roads of the heart of the city.

From there we wound slowly hither and thither through Piazza Navona, past innumerable churches, soaking up the atmosphere (and the sun). We stopped for a quick coffee before entering the Pantheon - ah! what a building! And I love the fact that today's technology is not in a position even to explain, let alone replicate, this temple's peerless concrete monster of a roof. Hats off to the Romans of yore!

There was lots more sightseeing (past the Trevi Fountain, to the Spanish Steps, over the Piazza del Popolo) and some dangling of our weary feet in refreshing fountains before we had our first gelato of the weekend. Oh My God!! I wasn't sure how good an idea it was to have ruby grapefruit ice cream, but I ordered it anyway and it was DIVINE!!!

For dinner we headed out to Trastevere to find a nice little place, and ended up in an okay little place with unexceptional food. We made up for this slight downer by having coffees and Duff Beer (of Simpsons fame - what an inspired piece of marketing) and watching people go by. Then it was a quick walk up and down the Tiber to get nighttime photos of St Peter's and finally a bus back to our hotel.

Day Two was much the same as Day One really, only with different churches and the huge added bonus of meeting up with Chris & Kate (they left the girls with Michaela at the beach). Together we wandered past the Colosseum, along the Forum and up the Vittorio Emanuele monument before diving into the old town again for a second Pantheon stop and other delights.

We parted ways in the late afternoon and Christian & I had dinner in Trastevere a second time, this time in a delicious restaurant with pleasant conversation with an American lady at the next table who was reasonably high up in Barack Obama's election campaign in Florida. She bemoaned the numbskulledness of her compatriots at another nearby table (a gaggle of girls, one of whom it seemed had mastered the dark art of simultaneously eating pizza and talking shite).

Day Three (Sunday) we reserved for the beach, taking the local train out as far as it went and then jumping on a bus to cover the stretch down the coast to Torvaianica, where Michaela, Chris and the others were all staying. We met up with them at their hotel and then went to Michaela's friend Tony's house for lunch (it was Tony's birthday party the night before that had led Michaela to choose to come to Rome this week in the first place).

That afternoon we messed around in the sea with Chris and the kids, playing piggy in the middle with the frisbee that Chris had brought along. It was scorching hot, and the water was the perfect temperature. Sadly though, it was not very pleasant-tasting; I'm not sure I'd rush back to that beach for water quality...

The journey back into town took an age, because it seemed half of Rome was on the same narrow road and what had taken us half an hour in the morning now took more like two hours. This was doubly annoying as I had arranged to catch up with my mate Nikos and his girlfriend for dinner in town. They ended up eating alone but we had a drink with them instead and it was lovely to see a new part of Rome (near the pyramid) with a couple of "locals" as guides.

Our last day was dedicated to the Vatican Museum. I had handily pre-booked tickets, so we didn't have to join the monster queue that was already stretching around two corners when we got there at nine o'clock. What a marvellous museum!! As if Rome wasn't chocabloc with art and history already, here was a distillation of over two thousand years of human creativity, with countless world-famous objets.

Primus inter pares (if you'll pardon the slip into Latin - well, it IS the Vatican after all!) is of course the Sistine Chapel, but I was particularly taken with the Etruscan art gallery - not least because it was a little off the beaten track and hence refreshingly uncrowded. Also unforgettable were some of the sculptures (the Laocoön springs immediately to mind).

And, in a deft piece of museum design, we were able to avoid total art fatigue by virtue of there being a café right before you get to the Sistine Chapel! I think the majesty of that space would have been wasted on me, had I not had a cheeky espresso macchiato and a cornetto (that's a croissant to you and me - and there was me thinking it was just a kind of ice cream!) just beforehand.

After about four hours of solid museum-going, it was time to bid Rome farewell. We headed back to the main station and thence to the airport, where one last treat awaited us: pizza! It seems hard to believe, but we hadn't actually had any pizza yet all the time we were in Rome. Okay, so it was a fast-food joint, nestled between a café and a Burger King. But this was ITALIAN fast food, and the pizza was so much better than most (but not all) of the offerings this side of the Alps.

So, all in all, another TOP weekend!

2009-08-14T22:28:00.002+02:00

Possibly, some of you who have little else to worry about have been asking yourselves why I haven't written anything for ages. Well folks, there's been a whirlwind of activity in recent weeks!

I was in Munich, then in Rome, then in New York, then in Hanover, and now back in Munich. That's the very short version of events. But now for something a little longer:

Picking up where my last blog left off, on my second day of rubber-stamping I was too efficient for my own good, so on the third day they moved me to the sorting office. There I was given the task of alphabetising rejected applications to the Uni. My heart sank.

I alphabetised like a frenzied librarian on speed, and they were impressed so after lunch I was promoted to putting away the accepted applications in filing cabinets (alphabetically of course). My heart reached somewhere about the level of my thighs. After a few hours of that, I was eventually allowed onto the computer OOH GOODY to update the applications with a note to say they had been filed.

One girl showed me how to do this, and then got me to do it to show I had learned it. I did it too quickly for her, so I had to do it again slowly to prove that I hadn't missed out any of the three steps. Argh! I could feel my heart pressing itself into one of my feet.

The work was so incredibly dull, I could only console myself with the thought that it was my last day. So when I heard the overseer ringing my temp agency and asking to extend me I nearly died. He came over to me and sounded most disappointed that I only had two more days working for them, but looked forward to seeing me on Monday. I nodded weakly and began to fall very very ill.

No, to be fair, I was already coming down with something. Perhaps that's why my alphabetising was so feverish: because I was. Anyway, my body rebelled at the news that I would have to come back for more synapse-dissolving filing work and by that evening I had a massive 'flu. I was basically bed-ridden all weekend and was still ill enough on Monday to go to the doctor and have myself written off sick. It was SUCH a pity that I couldn't work at the Uni any more...

Thankfully though, by the time Christian & I flew to Rome on Thursday afternoon I was feeling much better. We nearly didn't make it onto the plane though, because Alitalia's check-in machines don't like Alitalia's online ticket purchase reference numbers. I got a boarding pass but Christian didn't. Of course, there were no humans anywhere we could go to for help. We just queued up to hand in our luggage and were informed that we would have to wait until everyone else was checked in before they could confirm our seats. Argh!!

Bloody airlines and their overselling of seats, honestly. We were shoehorned in at the very last minute (there was a group of four that didn't make it) and flew down in one of the smallest planes I've travelled in in a long time, with just two seats on either side of the aisle.

Rome's Fiumicino airport greeted us with a blast of hot stale air on the ground, and we were treated to a fabulously blood-red orb hanging low in the sky as we walked through the many glass tubes that lead from the terminal to the railway station. It was the kind of rich, almost purple sunset that you can only really get in cities that are smothered with smog. I was reminded of Santiago de Chile.

The trains were all late, so we had time for a coffee - ah! the coffee in Italy! always a pleasure - and to look in a map book to try & locate our hotel (I had foolishly not printed out the how-to-get-there instructions). After some confusion, I located what I thought was the nearest Metro station and once in Rome we made our way there.

Sadly, I had got it a bit wrong. The Metro, Valle Aurelia, was nowhere near the railway station we actually needed, Stazione Aurelia. The security guard in the station helpfully told us which bus to get (there was no Metro connection) and, only 45 minutes later, a bus picked us up from the windswept overpass atop which we were standing, lorries and coaches thundering past us as they laboured up the slope.

It was a bus ride of a good half-hour, during which time we left civilisation, joined a motorway, passed a big road sign with "Roma" crossed out, and frankly started fearing for our lives. When we finally reached our stop, which incidentally was the terminus of the bus route, the description on the hotel website "close to the Vatican" loomed absurdly over the desolate wasteland we found ourselves in, with only our bus driver, a homeless drunk and the hiss of the cicadas for company.

I rang the hotel, only to learn that in Rome you have to book your own cabs, no-one's allowed to book a cab for you apparently. So I rang the cab number the receptionist gave me, and explained that we were at Aurelia station and needed a cab to take us to our hotel (the bus driver hadn't heard of the hotel or the road it was on). The woman on the other end of the line said "what road are you on?" and I said "Aurelia station" and she said "no, what road?" and I said "I don't know the road, I'm not from here, but it's a big station" and the bitch hung up!!

I figured it might be my ropey Italian that was the problemgot the bus driver to speak to her which he kindly did. Still, I think she hung up on him as well, although he assured me a taxi was on its way. Some 45 minutes later (it was past eleven in the evening by now) I rang the hotel for an update, and after speaking to the taxi company he told me the cab was five minutes away. Ten minutes later the last bus was starting up to head back into Rome, and Christian quite rightly insisted we get on and find a new hotel in town.

Which we did, without a hitch! Thank you Lonely Planet. It was pretty basic, but veeeeheeery central (a five-minute walk from the Vatican - now THAT's what I call "close"!) and no more expensive than the one out in the wilds would have been. Breakfast was acceptable and we even had a view of St Peter's from our window. What more could one want?

I'll write about Rome itself in my next blog. For now let's just enjoy the fact that one of my less pleasant travel experiences of recent years makes for a jolly good yarn after the event!

2009-07-16T21:22:00.002+02:00

Well, I'm writing again soon-ish anyway, which will have to do. So there.

Yay! I've got sunburn!! It's finally been hot enough - for the first time this summer, I might add - for me to actually get a bit crispy and English-looking after spending a couple of hours on the banks of the Isar this afternoon. Everywhere else in Europe has been having a stonking heatwave for the past month, but there's been a big fat thunderhead over Munich for all that time, with the one positive aspect being some zowie lightning strikes and much storminess.

But what have me & my prawn-coloured skin been up to recently, I hear you cry! Well:

I've not only been eating well, I've been cooking too. The highlight was a recent Sunday Roast - on a Monday. I did roast beef (oh my God is that cut of meat expensive here! I can't remember it being that much in England...) with all the trimmings and a huge sherry trifle for my Kloster friends, and I am pleased to report that they all have a much better view of English cuisine now than they did a month ago.

I've also done more tapas, and a few fish bits & pieces (just shoved in foil in the oven with a bit of lemon juice, olive oil & herbs, then served with a fresh tomato salsa), as well as Mama's puff pastry mouthfuls with cheese & ham.

There was more excellent eating at Tine & Olli's wedding, in the fabulous little castle of Blutenburg, just to the west of the centre of Munich. The mediaeval chapel was chocabloc with relatives & friends, and the priest was a bit of a comedian. Only - and it pains me to admit this - I didn't understand everything he was saying because he had such a deep Bavarian accent! The weather behaved itself (some thunderclaps during the service didn't turn into the feared downpour) and a lovely time was had by all.

Christian, Bénédicte & I went to Tollwood, the summer festival in the Olympic park, to sample some of the international culinary delights that are always on offer there. The big hit for us this year was a monster Moroccan tent, complete with bazaar shops, low couches, hot sweet mint tea & live music provided by crazy North Africans with tassles on their hats that they kept spinning like helicopter rotor blades in time with the music.

Last weekend Michaela, the boys, Christian and I headed to Biberach to take part in the joint fortieth birthday celebrations of Stefi & Tommy. They had organised a guided tour of the town for us all (there were about ten adults plus sundry kids down for the party), which was very good! Not only was the guide amusing & informative, but the town itself is pretty & historic. Then we headed to a pizzeria with an excellent playground that managed to keep the kids quiet all afternoon and evening (thank heavens for trampolines).

The next morning, in our hotel, we all met up again for a leisurely breakfast/brunch. The weather, which had been lovely & sunny for the tour and the party, had turned manky & wet, but we were lucky & had a dry period for our post-prandial perambulation through town again. There was almost as much going on in town on the Sunday as there had been on Saturday - lots of live music, stages, children performing huge dance numbers, and general enjoyment.

Did I mention I've been made redundant? Yep, Gigaset didn't have the money to extend my temporary assignment with them, and my temp agency claim I'm overqualified and they can't find me any other work. So I've had nothing to do workwise since the start of July. Until yesterday, that is: my agency decided to send me to the Technical University of Munich - to sort mail!

Well, they're paying me a salary whether I work or not during my notice period (until next Tuesday), so I suppose it's better from their point of view for me to be doing trivial shite rather than nothing at all. The gits. Still, I got to collect some nice stamps. And get my rubber-stamping eye in again; it's been a while since I had my last spate of stamping, back at the EPO in '08...

So I've been putting my suddenly lots longer spare time to good use, cooking, eating, shopping, sunbathing, oh and writing my blog!

2009-06-28T13:55:00.003+02:00

Since Berlin I've been mostly in Munich, catching up with people for food. Examples: Schnitzels with Harry & Dieter down the road from me; brunch at Michaela's with Montserrat and her kids; crêpes at Béné's made by her goddaughter Tiffany from Nice; a birthday dinner for Fritz at a marvellously lively Greek place where they threw serviettes instead of plates, which was a good thing seeing how many they threw; a belated birthday dinner for me at L'Osteria with my old EPO friends - HUUUUGE pizzas!; and dinner with Lorna & Tomasz.

The exception to this recent Munich rule was a weekend in Austria with Michaela & the boys, catching up with family for food (Tante Martha baked heavenly Guglhupf for us once again) and sunning ourselves on the banks of a nearby lake: yes, there was finally a bit more summer! The drive down and back was blissfully uneventful and stress-free - oh, apart from nearly dying when someone pulled out of the slow lane right into the side of us. The A8 motorway from Munich to Salzburg is usually full of roadworks, but this time it was absolutely clear both ways.

And now it's time for a general observation: This year's weather is just no good. It's not consistently cold & wet, but it's just not what you'd call summer either. We're having to get our sun whenever we can, which in my case includes stopping off on the banks of the Isar for an hour or so on my cycle ride home from work.

Luckily for me, food quality is not affected by ambient temperatures - or at least my consumption of it isn't! I've had some knockout food recently. The first super duper meal of recent weeks was a complete surprise: Christian & I headed out to Feringasee for a spot of dinner at the local Bavarian restaurant there and I really wasn't expecting much, but my grilled fish platter turned out to be divine!

The zander was not too hard, the trout was exquisite and the char was just out of this world! Dessert was a treat too: we drove to Ostbahnhof and found a gelateria with very exciting flavours, then ate our ice creams whilst wandering through a village-style fête that had appeared in front of the station. It was bizarre to see such non-cityfied people in the heart of Munich.

My second meal of note was at the Kloster. Oh my, am I glad we go there most Mondays! The wine list is fab, the company wonderful, and the food is always great and often awesome. On this occasion though, they really outdid themselves: fior di zucca - lightly battered courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and parmesan. Oh My Gooooooooood they were amazing!!!!!!!!

Just to prove I can write about stuff other than food, here's a mad coincidence that happened to me recently: after about two years of peace on the Underground, they came round checking tickets the other evening on my way home from badminton. And then again, the following morning, on the way to work! Twice in 24 hours! Good job I had a ticket...

And another coincidence: I was just on my way to an Internations party, where I was meeting Bénédicte, and I ended up missing a tram connection and walking through the centre of town, when who should I run into (almost literally) but Karin, on her way home from buying Lebanese groceries in the Landwehrstraße! And it was a double coincidence, since she had just bought me some houmous and was going to give it to me next Stammtisch on Monday. Instead she gave it to me there and then. Which meant I had houmous in my pockets for the party, but what the heck.

Just at the moment it's raining non-stop. The Isar is bursting its banks along the bit where I cycle to work (I managed to avoid an absolute downpour this morning; yesterday I took the U-Bahn cos there was no way I was getting on my bike in THAT weather) and I felt a visceral excitement at the spectacle of the raw power of the floodwaters as they rushed past. At one point I even braved a bridge underpass that was still very much underwater.

It took me back to the time I foolhardily set out to cross a Thames in full spate on my bike back in Oxford in '95. Since I could see the lampposts that edged the cycle path across the flood plain, I thought I might be able to make it. But about 20 metres in I realised that the path was sinking lower and lower into the floodwaters, and I would soon be swept from my bike, so I did the sensible thing and turned around. Sodden in the shoe department but otherwise unharmed.

Anyway, that'll do for now. I'll write again soon, I promise!

2009-06-19T18:24:00.000+02:00

Madness! Utter madness! Weeks of silence, and then two great big fat blog entries, one hot on the heels of the other!

Berlin. Ah! What a city! I could totally spend a chunk of time here. A long weekend just wasn't enough - but it was better than nothing. It's ages since I've been up to Berlin. I must do it more often.So, Christian & I drove up with Béné. I'm beginning to recognise whole stretches of the A9 motorway, what with spending so many hours on it the previous weekend to Dresden and now again to Berlin.

The traffic was kinder to us this time though, and we were in Berlin in about five hours from Munich. We headed straight to Aleks' flat, where we were also staying, and dumped our stuff. Béné spent a few hours with Aleks catching up (they know each other from Béné's time in Amsterdam) while Christian & I went for a walk into town, strolling along the Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin's main shopping district (Gucci, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, you name it, it's there) until it started absolutely CHUCKING it down, at which point we dived into a very nice coffee shop.

That evening was Aleks' birthday party. She had managed to borrow a villa - no, really! - in a very posh outskirty bit of town, and the party was WILD! Christian ended up managing the barbecue, whilst I assisted in many different activities (getting the kitchen sorted, barbecue, making sure people had drinks, that sort of thing). The cellar room was converted for the evening into a bar area, a dance floor and a chillout room, whilst upstairs was lounge, kitchen, and terrace (with barbie). There were lots & lots & LOTS of people, and I stayed till four thirty bopping my little socks off with a variety of French, Germans, Dutch, Danes, and Americans.

The next day, Sunday, a bunch of us went to a small lake near the zoo for brunch. The food was great, but the service was dire - Béné ordered a hot chocolate & a croissant; they managed to forget both for almost an hour. In mid-afternoon, we went along to a huge street festival celebrating cultural diversity. It was PACKED! Way too many people for comfort. Christian & I slunk off to a less crowded bit, leaving the others stuck in a huge human traffic jam looking for cocktails. There was a cloudburst but it seemed to skirt around us so we managed to avoid the worst of it. We ended up watching part of the street parade (we got to see lots of Korean nuns bashing gongs) then having a coffee and heading back to Aleks' place.

That evening we went for sushi. It was pretty good! The conversation inevitably turned to the happenings of the night before at the party, and in particular the unfortunate incident that saw Jessica from Amsterdam spitting out her drink all over a guy at the shots bar in the cellar! Her exploits earned her the nickname SprayMalay (she's Chinese-Malaysian actually, but let's not squabble).

We just had time for a spot of breakfast at Aleks' place on Monday morning looking at everyone's photos from the weekend, and then a relaxed coffee in town (at the same coffee shop that Christian & I had found on Saturday) before we headed off back to Munich. Once again, traffic was okay, and we got back to Bénédicte's before sundown. A quick bottle of prosecco & some cheese, then we drove home.

And that, folks, was Berlin!

2009-06-12T18:29:00.000+02:00

Ooh blimey! Once again, I fail to update my blog very quickly. Well, it's a sign I'm enjoying myself at least. So, where were we?

Ah yes, Dresden. It was a hard start: the Wednesday night saw me drinking too much beer in the beergarden, surrounded by friends who came to celebrate my birthday with me. So I didn't feel too fresh when I had to get up early on the Thursday and pack for a long weekend away. At least Bénédicte was kind enough to come and pick me up from home in her car. We drove together to the EPO's main offices and there joined a merry band of international types on two coaches, bound for Dresden.

The journey took much longer than expected, partly because we had to wait for ages for a replacement bus (the other bus - thankfully not the one I was in - had a fault with the door locks, such that it kept beeping even though it was shut, which understandably wore down the nerves of the passengers). Lunch was dire - the longest I've EVER had to queue for fast food - but we finally arrived in our luxury hotel in Radebeul, just outside Dresden, in blazing sunshine.

We were met by preparations for a monster welcome barbecue evening. Rarely have I seen so much food in one place. And it was accompanied by limitless drinks from the bar. It's fair to say that Béné, Franck, Marie-Laure, Pierre-Jean & I (I was an honorary Frenchman for the weekend) drank our own bodyweight in red wine that evening - and our tongues were dyed a pleasant shade of deep blue for the following 24 hours to prove it!

The hotel had a lovely wellness area, which Béné and I tried to use each day. The pool was reasonably long and reasonably empty, the sauna hot enough and the quiet room quiet. All good!

We went on lots of excursions over the next few days, including a city centre walking tour (for which the rain held off; it started to piss down just as we broke for lunch) and a "catamaran cruise" along the Elbe (which turned out to be a dodgy inflatable raft with rickety chairs, but what the hell). The leitmotiv of the weekend was, however, food.

Oh, My, Gohhhhhd!! And I thought I was bad!! Clearly the organisers of the EPO get-to-know-people-from-the-other-sites event had decided that the only way to get to know people is over truckloads of delicous food & drink. No that I'm arguing with that theory, oh no! But the sheer scale of the buffets was overwhelming! Even the picnic lunch in the vineyard that we had as part of our "cruise" was obscenely well-stocked. And so much wine everywhere! If I hadn't felt so uncomfortably full all the time, I would have said I was in heaven.

I suppose I should say a few words about Dresden, the visiting of which was my primary motivation in going on this trip with Béné; believe it or not, I didn't know about the whole food angle until I got there!

Dresden was built pretty much all at once a few hundred years ago, then it was pretty much destroyed all at once in 1945, and now it's been restored pretty much all at once. The pearl of Dresden was - and now is again - the Church of Our Lady. This too was destroyed in the firestorm of '45 that followed the Allied carpet bombing, and the Communists decided to leave its ruins (basically one bit of wall, one arch & a pile of rubble) untouched, as a warning against Capitalism. Now it's been rebuilt, using as many original stones from the rubble pile as possible.

These old stones (and the surviving arch) are easy to spot because they are black, whilst all the new stone (the vast majority of the church) is white. We were informed by our guide that Dresden's local limestone naturally turns black because of its high iron content, so it's not a question of industrial-era pollution as in so many other cities. All around the city you can see shiny white details on walls, or statues, or bits & pieces, in otherwise black buildings.

It feels ever so slightly Disney to walk around all these brand new chocolate-box pastel buildings. I think in ten years' time, when the new stuff is a bit weathered, it will all look much more authentic.

One cool building is an old cigarette factory just on the edge of the old town, on the river. It's shaped like a mosque, complete with a huge glass dome and two slender minarets. These were a ruse to get around the ban on chimneys in town at the time of construction (in the 1920s). The factory has closed down, but it's been turned into an arts venue. And on the roof there's a beer garden with spectacular views across the Old Town. We had dinner there one evening (just the French gang plus myself and Astrid as honorary frogs).

After dinner at the factory, we headed over the river to the New Town - which, of course, is not that new at all. It was spared the worst of the wartime destruction and so has a completely different flair. There are lots of grungy bars and student hangouts. We were up for a bit of a boogie, and just followed our ears to what we thought was a happening bar - but it turned out that the music was coming from the car parked outside the entrance!! We nearly stopped to dance around the car, but then decided that would be a little too silly, even for us.

As was bound to happen, the weather on our day of departure was spectacularly hot. Béné and I headed for the farewell brunch buffet and ate our fill, then walked into the centre of Dresden to get a few photos of the beautifully restored Baroque old town buildings in sunshine rather than rain. Then we caught the tram back to the brunch, ate some more, and finally hauled ourselves into our coach. The journey back to Munich was even longer than the journey up. It was cruel to see such lovely hot sunny weather through glass. But you can't have it all...

2009-05-29T21:56:00.004+02:00

I'm having that feeling where everything is going a bit too fast - and I haven't even had a coffee!

It's a mixture of excitement at a long weekend in Berlin starting tomorrow morning (driving up with Christian & Bénédicte), exhaustion after the first five-day working week in what seems like ages, and residual sensory overload from last weekend's four-day stint in Dresden (with Bénédicte and a host of EPO people). Oh, and still being a bit ill from the cold from my last post, I suppose. That makes sense. That and being A WHOLE YEAR OLDER than I was ten days ago.

I feel energised but tired, almost a bit too energised, like it's all going to collapse in a minute. Part of me wants to just switch off and do nothing, but most of me wants to get out there and live. Argh! Perhaps those sugared almonds were a bad move for dessert this evening.

Anyway, I'll try to stop rambling now, and give you an update on things since the last blog. Well, actually I've already mentioned everything except going to see the new Star Trek film - which is fanTAStic by the way!

So yes, I'm 36 now. That's, like, WAY old, isn't it? I made an evening of it by inviting people to come & drink a beer with me that day in my local Beer Garden, the Nockherberg, a handy five-minute crawl round the corner from my flat. The weather that day was the best all week, and it was a lovely mild evening & night. The last to leave were Bezi & Mouhammad, true to form! They'd also been in a party mood the previous weekend for Bénédicte's birthday bash.

I'm going to leave this blog there. Basically because I've already been to Berlin now, which feels like it ought to be a fresh blog all on its own - action-packed weekend!

Which makes this one of my shortest blogs EVER! Notable by its rarity, I'm sure. Stop waffling now Rich, you're spoiling the moment. Byeeee!!

2009-05-13T17:24:00.004+02:00

Is it a good time to write a blog entry when you're feeling ill & sorry for yourself? Let's find out. Because, dear readers, I've got a nasty cough & a sore throat - so much so that I was off work yesterday and today. I knew I shouldn't have let those pigs stay in my living room the other night!

Yesterday was mostly about sleep, but today I've managed to be alert enough to do some paperworky stuff in the flat and now I'm taking the opportunity to write a few words here, having decided that I'd be best off not going to my choir rehearsal tonight.

So, what have I done recently that's noteworthy? Well, the first thing that springs to mind is a wonderful evening spent at my Peruvian friend Elmer's house last weekend. Elmer invited me & Christian to dinner, promising to cook some Peruvian delights. He served up a pastel de choclo (a sort of savoury rice pudding with ground sweetcorn instead of rice) with some delicious shredded chicken, and there was plenty of food for all! In fact, we all ate enough for three people EACH!

I hadn't seen Elmer for a long time, and it was great to have a chance to catch up. We spent the whole evening sitting out on his terrace, enjoying the distant rumbles of thunder as we chatted. Amusingly, his company and my company used to be part of the same division of Siemens. And even more amusingly, he lives just around the corner from where I now work, and I live just around the corner from where he now works! If only we could office-swap...

The other highlight since my last blog was a delicious dinner at Bénédicte's house to pre-celebrate her birthday (her proper party is next weekend). Now, those of you who know me (and I doubt many people who don't would bother to read this - but email me if I'm wrong) will agree that I am a bit of a bon viveur, but it's fair to say that Bénédicte outclasses me in bonvivicité - and if that's not a word, it should be. Let me set the scene for you:

No sooner had I walked in her door than she started slicing the limes for a round of caipirinhas, with finger food to go with them. Next came a round of blinis with sour cream and smoked salmon, washed down with a bottle of champagne. We opted to skip the main course (which would have been cassoulet) because we'd both pigged out on the salmon, but we didn't skip the red wine that would have gone with the main course - OH no!

Then came the cheese course - obligatory in any good French household, I should say. Well, the red wine was just a touch too wet all on its own. And to round the evening off we had banana splits to go with our digestifs. Small wonder, then, that I managed to break my saddle in half on the way home!

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I've just remembered something that HAS to go in this blog!! We've rediscovered Mama, my all-time favourite Vietnamese restaurant that used to be round the corner from my flat! After a hiatus of almost a year, Anna the proprietor has found new premises and reopened. And the best thing is, it's not even that far from me either! Just a short tram ride away.

Christian, Edith & I saw the signage as we happened to cycle past a few weekends ago, on our way into town to meet up with their old Uni friends from way back when, Birgit & Wolfgang, who were in town for the weekend from Vienna. We couldn't stop there & then, but we decided to go back the following night.

While I'm on the subject, I should say that the Saturday we spent with Birgit & Wolfgang was lovely! The weather was hot & sunny, and we spent all afternoon sitting at an outdoor café just near the synagogue, drinking refreshing drinks & chatting. This was followed by a huge Indian meal in Haidhausen, where we were joined by Bine, Anja, and Chris.

But anyway, back to Mama: Christian & I turned up on the Sunday evening (at a time Anna herself suggested) to discover that her new place is less than salubrious. It suffers mainly from having been a dodgy dive of a locals-only bar in its previous incarnation. Anna's only had it a couple of months, and she's in the process of remodelling the kitchen area so that she can offer the full range of food that she used to in the place near me. For the moment, the menu is a little limited, and the quality wasn't what it was in my mind either. But I'm sure it will pick up.

Anna herself seemed a bit preoccupied and not the chirpy, mad thing she used to be. But she seemed to cheer up as the evening progressed, not letting the drunken banter of her regulars-for-now get her down. It really was a shock to the system though! A whole group of people who I generally don't have anything to do with. My, don't I sound pretentious! Well, maybe I am a bit. I just don't have anything AT ALL in common with those people, other than that we were in the same restaurant that evening.

Anna wants to tart the place up, so that she when she invites all her old regulars back she can be confident that they will come again. And she's hoping that her local patrons will "learn how to behave in a proper restaurant" (her words) if they start rubbing shoulders with people who are there for the food, rather than because it's the nearest watering hole to their flat. I'm going to take a leap of faith and go back there from time to time, to support her worthy aim of turning the place around. But I have to admit, I think it's going to be a long haul for her.

Right, let's stop there shall we? I'm feeling a bit tired after all this typing. I think I'll have a little lie down now. Got to look after that throat of mine! Else I won't be able to go to work tomorrow. Tootle-pip!

2009-05-01T13:29:00.004+02:00

Oh my goodness me, it's been way too long since my last update! I've done lots and lots and lots - as usual - and will have to keep it brief.

So, Gareth was over for a long weekend from the UK. It was lovely to see him again, almost exactly a year on since we visited him in India. He came and had lunch with me at the Siemens canteen (where he himself used to have lunch when he was a trainee at Siemens some 14 years ago!) on Friday, and we had dinner at Michaela's house on the Friday night: Christian cooked a monster lasagne that was simply divine and we ate portion after portion even though we were totally full.

Saturday was spent in Munich, doing a spot of shopping, a spot of eating and a spot of sightseeing. That evening Christian, Gareth & I popped in on Bénédicte for apéritifs, and we were joined by Lorna & Tomasz (who had just got back from a weekend in the South Tyrol, bringing me a crazy strong piece of pecorino with truffles that we had with the champagne at Béné's). We then all headed to Neuhausen, to Lorna's favourite Turkish restaurant Pardi. Michaela joined us there too, and we had lots to eat & drink before heading home with the last U-Bahn.

On the Sunday Christian, Gareth & I took the BOB train to Schliersee (it's less than an hour from Munich) and we walked right round the lake, treating ourselves to coffee & cake at one end and a more substantial snack of beer, sausages & rice pudding at the other end, before taking the train back to Munich. It was a lovely spring day, but there were still patches of snow in shady bits of woodland and chunks of ice on the lake.

On the Monday evening Michaela & Gareth joined me & Christian for our usual Stammtisch drinks with our Monday friends at the Kloster. Red wine and fun were had by all.

Gareth had to fly home on Tuesday, but this was good in one way (and one way only; in every other way it was sad!) because it gave me a chance to do my laundry and clean my flat before the next set of visitors, Rasmus & Lene, arrived from Denmark on the Wednesday night! No sooner had they arrived than we walked across to the Nockherberg for a spot of Bavarian dinner.

On Thursday Rasmus & Lene had a day round Munich town centre while I worked my last day of work before Easter - did I mention I'm cycling to work now? Thankfully there's a shower there so I can recover from the über sweat attack that cycling up the steep hill at Thalkirchen causes me to suffer, and not stink like a pig in the office. In the evening, the three of us walked across to Christian's flat where he had prepared another Bavarian dinner for us: Leberkäs and potato salad - yum!

On Friday the four of us drove out to Chiemsee for the day. It was a scorcher! The drive out through country roads was lovely, although much much longer than going on the motorway (which we did on the way home). Once at the lake, we parked up and took the ferry across to the Herreninsel, where we did a tour of King Ludwig's (unfinished) castle with its opulent state & private rooms, before pigging out on yet more Bavarian food and then taking in the art museum in the old monastery. There was an exhibition of Julius Exter, a 19th century artist, which was really amazing. I couldn't believe I'd never heard of him before!

Back in Munich that evening we headed across to Schwabing for a meal in my favourite Ethiopian place, Blue Nile. It was delicious, as ever, with the lentils once again exciting me the most.

On Saturday I took Rasmus & Lene on the BOB train, this time to Tegernsee. We got out and found that the weather was even warmer than the day before. Perfect for a bit of a hike up one of the hills surrounding the lake, Neureuth. With a 500m difference in height from lake to summit, my Danish visitors informed me that we were going to be climbing up higher than two-and-a-half Denmarks! But compared to all the other Alps around us and stretching to the horizon, Neureuth was a mere pimple. And a hot one at that!

The blazing sun followed us up the hill and meant we had to sit indoors at the summit (bloody pale-skinned Danes!). But on the way back down we had to trudge through a massive snow field. I was TOTALLY wearing the wrong shoes for such an endeavour! Back down in the town, we sought out the Bräustüberl of the famous Tegernsee brewery, and had beer after refreshing beer watching the evening sun turn the lake and snow-capped mountains golden, then pink. Back in Munich the three of us popped across to one of the small locals-only Mediterranean bars round the corner from my house (complete with Turkish or possibly Greek old men playing cards inside), then called it a night.

Easter Sunday morning saw us having a relatively early breakfast at Christian's, joined by Michaela for a bit of a chinwag, before Rasmus & Lene had to start their long drive back to Aarhus. Christian & I made the most of the still fabulous weather by going on a long cycle ride.

First we headed across town and out to the Botanical Gardens behind the Nymphenburg Palace, then we went across and up to the Olympic Park (taking in Christian's old university halls of residence, which were themselves the Olympic Village for the 1972 Games and are being renovated right now), then back across to the east side of the river and through to our favourite hostelry, the Kloster, for an afternoon snack. We had dinner back at Christian's place, a satisfyingly huge pile of pasta with a delicious ragú of all the vegetables either of us had left over in the fridge. Yum!

On Easter Monday we drove out to the Allgäu to visit Christian's parents, and had a lovely lazy day in their garden, soaking up yet more sun and generally chilling out, which I have to admit I needed by then, after so much visitor activity.

Back at work, things were hectic of an evening, what with having to pop out to Béné's every few evenings to feed her cat while she was on holiday, as well as doing my own thang:

- we went to the theatre to see Shakespeare's Troilus & Cressida in a jazzed-up modern version, with a most entertaining shouty guy;

- Veronika came over to mine and I cooked her dinner before finally going through my India photos with her - we've been meaning to get together to do that for twelve months! - and having a good old natter;

- I went to the cinema with Christian to see an excellent Austrian film called "Der Knochenmann", a kind of twisted very black humorous take on the detective genre;

- I went for a Greek meal with Dieter from Stuttgart, who was in Munich to meet Harry after his three weeks in Vietnam;

- I cooked a monster fry-up at Christian's with the Cumberland sausages Gareth had kindly brought over from the UK;

- Christian & I went with Michaela & the boys to the Gasthaus zur Post near Michaela's house to sit in the beergarden there and soak up more rays.

Right, that'll do for this blog update, methinks. More soon - honest!

2009-04-17T17:37:00.001+02:00

So, there I was, back in the UK just five days after having left...

Justin did a far better job of bestmanly organising for Steve than I did for Foggy. And I managed to join them early enough on the Friday evening to really take part. I joined them just as they arrived at a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant and we proceeded to eat various bizarre wobbly animal bits and drink Sapporo and hot sake. Delicious!

Next stop was a private karaoke booth in Islington. This was far less dodgy than it sounds. Nine of us (Steve, his brother Robert, Justin, myself, H, Nick, Rupert, Tom and another friend of Steve's whose name escapes me) had what was basically a padded cell with a flatscreen TV to ourselves.

Our throats were readied for singing courtesy of the "thirsty button", which you pressed to make a waitress appear with beers. The rest of the time we could sing to our hearts' content, with no pesky strangers to be embarrassed about, just a seemingly inexhaustible list of tunes on the computer to choose from, two mics, and a few kitsch props to give us that popstar feeling (the rainbow shiny wig was a personal favourite).

Steve, Justin & I got to our hotel near King's Cross at about three in the morning, and some six hours later made our way, bleary-eyed, to the breakfast buffet to line our stomachs for Saturday's mammoth pub crawl. Foggy met us on the other side of town an hour later, and we proceeded to pub number one for a darts match and our first drink of the day at ten thirty.

To paraphrase a current popular ditty, I Drank A Shandy And I Liked It! The Taste Of That Beery Liquid. I Drank A Shandy Just To Try It, I Hope My Boyfriends Don't Mind It. It Felt So Wrong, It Felt So Right, It Don't Mean I'm A Lightweight Tonight. I Drank A Shandy And I Liked It, I Liked It!!

Justin & I did feel like a couple of twats ordering shandy, it has to be said, but with woozy heads and strong sunshine the idea was So Wrong - but it really was So Right! Hard-core Steve went straight onto the hard stuff, and of course Foggy was not the worse for wear from the previous night so he got stuck in straight away too. I have to say, though, the many, many other beers of the day slipped down so much more easily after the rehydrating and reinvigorating effects of that small quantity of lemonade.

We walked from pub to pub, Steve carrying out Justin's many pub-name-related challenges at each stop along the way. And as we progressed, we picked up more & more co-drinkers: Jezza joined us in Hammersmith, Nick in Chelsea, erm, um, my memory is a bit hazy now about who else joined where, but suffice to say that we were a very merry band of men by the end of the evening in a pub opposite the Palace of Westminster.

It was left to four of us (Steve, Justin, Foggy & me) to take it to the limit by going out clubbing in Clapham, but we rose to the occasion. Okay Tom was there too but he left early so that's a thousand jesse points to him. The four of us finally made it back to the hotel at about three o'clock once again.

Sunday morning was like Saturday morning only more so. We broke the fast and then jumped on a train to Justin's house in Sunningdale (losing Foggy along the way to go back to Kath's in Kent). There Sam, Grace & Maisie brought happiness into our addled brains with pizza and laughter, before we drove off to Wycombe to watch the Wasps play the London Irish.

We'd arranged to meet up with Nick Tostivin at the Park & Ride car park, but the traffic coming off the M40 was mad, and the car park was overflowing by the time we got there. We managed to meet up with Nick, and then played "find the parking space" all round the edge of Wycombe, before finally deciding to park ever-so-slightly illegally in the Park & Ride after all. We made it to the game only a few minutes late, (missing the first try) and saw pretty much all the action.

Justin was kind enough to drive me to Heathrow after the match, and this time - for the first time for me - Terminal 5 was efficient, pleasant and stress-free. I sat in Wagamama savouring my udon noodles and reading the Economist, then made my way to the gate with a minimum of fuss.

2009-03-26T18:44:00.000+01:00

How time flies when you’re earning money!

To use the set phrase unadulterated in the context of recent weeks would be to give a false impression of the level of enjoyment I derive from my current job. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really quite nice, and the people are great, and the canteen has big tasty portions, but any job is going to be less fun than doing whatever you feel like, all day, all week, like I have been for the past several months.

Well, what’s been doing since last I blogged apart from earning an honest crust for a change? Let’s see now, I’ve been back & forth to the UK a couple of times for stag dos, I’ve been ill, I’ve got better, I’ve eaten dinner with a variety of people, I’ve been to the theatre a few times, I’ve been to the gym not enough times, I’ve been to feed Béné’s cat while she was on holiday, I’ve sung in my choir, I’ve played badminton, I’ve drunk beer & wine & champagne & spirits & coffee & tea.

I could leave it there actually! I mean, it’s a complete list. A bit sparse on the detail front, but does that really matter? Okay, perhaps I should offer a little bit more about the most exciting parts of the last month, namely my two stag dos back in Blighty:

The first one was in a sense “my” stag do: I have the honour of being Best Man at Andrew & Kath’s upcoming nuptials, and so in theory I should have put loads & loads of effort into arranging a memorable day for the bridegroom-to-be. This proved a little tricky however, given that I live in Germany and the stag do was to be held in Liverpool. The result was a minimalist tour-de-force, a do that was pared down to the essentials: a bunch of blokes, a bunch of beers, a couple of pubs, some rugby on the telly, a curry and a bit of female flesh.

I had a great time! Andrew picked me up from Manchester airport and we had some time in the car to have a proper catch-up (it’s been a while since I saw him for any length of time). Then, after dumping my bag at his, we headed into town to get my train ticket for the morrow and then on up to the Philharmonic Pub, our first port of call. There the two of us slowly became seven: Andrew, myself, Chris, James, Jamie, Jezza & H. Our original lunch plan got ditched in favour of lots of crisps.

About six pints later we moved on to our second venue, the Fly In The Loaf, some 100 yards away from the Phil. There we drank more, ate some (well I did – a tasty slab of pork pie and pickled onions), and watched the rugby, joined (in a refreshingly modern way) by Jamie’s girlfriend. The extra beers (including exotica such as Australian microbrewery specials that I haven’t seen in years) and a cheeky round of sambuccas gave everyone an appetite, so we headed to a nearby curry house.

It really wasn’t a very good curry, but no-one was in a state to complain, after by this time about ten pints apiece. Instead, we wolfed the food down, drank our Cobras up, and moved on to pub number three, the name of which for some reason now escapes me. From there, we moved on – at the strong insistence of the youngest member of our troupe – to a nearby lapdancing club. Fun was had by all – especially by the owners, who are raking in the money with the prices they charge!

The next day getting up was hard. I had to leave quite early, because I had left myself a huge safety margin for the train journey down to London. The last thing I wanted to do was miss my flight! But in the end the train was only half an hour late into Euston, so I rang Dan and had lunch with him at one of those delicious all-you-can-eat veggie curry places behind the station. We stuffed our faces, as only the True Pie-Eaters can. Then, after a coffee, I left Dan & headed for the nearest Tube station, only to discover it was shut!

So suddenly my trip to Heathrow became critically cutting-it-fine stressful. I made sure to check in online in an internet café, but I made the mistake of not printing out my boarding pass. This, two hours later, cost me my flight and my peace of mind. Because, ladies and gentlemen, the bastards at Terminal 5 didn't let me go through security owing to the fact that I was 30 seconds - really, thirty seconds! - late joining the queue.

This being because I had had to queue for ages to get a boarding pass printed out, and the lady who did that not telling me to get over to security double-quick, so instead I went for a pee (I was gasping after that long Tube ride and the lunch & coffee with Dan), and thence to security, and thence via a succession of BA staff to the desk to be waitlisted for the next flight. Which of course ended up being delayed an hour. But at least I got on that one (had to be shoe-horned on, mind; it was über full!) and so didn't have to crash at Chris & Kate's that night!

And then, five days, two feedings of Béne's cat and one Greek dinner with my mate Hias later, I had lots of stag do fun all over again, this time in London...

2009-02-09T21:36:00.003+01:00

Ooh-arrrr, me hearties! Ahoy there from the good ship Blogger, making steady headway in the choppy waters of the Sea of Employment! As I mentioned in my last Captain's (B)log, I got a job. No, really! It's been three weeks now; suddenly my days are a whole lot fuller than they have been in recent months.

I'm working in the Human Resources department of a company based here in Munich, and when the weather gets a little milder I'll be able to cycle to work in under half an hour, which will be nice. If I'm still there in the spring: I'm temping, and currently I'm only on board until the end of February. But we'll see...

But, in other news, I've been making the most of living within spitting distance of the Alps by actually going skiing a few times. I've already been more times this year than I did all of last year, and it's only February! Mind you, my March weekends are pretty much all booked up in the UK, so I'm not sure how much more skiing I'll be getting in this season.

Let's see, what else shall I mention here? Well, the whole inviting-people-to-mine-and-cooking thing is coming along nicely. I've had Bénédicte over; I've had Christian over again; I've had Tom over; and I made a to-die-for tiramisù which I took round to Michaela's for dinner one Sunday.

I've also done some "away" eating, notably at Bezi's house (where Bénédicte & I got to enjoy an authentic couscous cooked by her Moroccan husband Mustafa) and at Harry's house (where he & Dieter cooked up a storm in the form of chicken & chips with oooooodles of cream to make a very naughty but nice sauce), as well as at a fab Afghan restaurant called Lemar, which had a divine beetroot starter that I can't really describe; I'll just to go and eat it again a few times...

The weather here has been properly wintry (although not as extreme as in London and other parts of the British Isles!), with day after day of fat, heavy snowflakes falling through the air and collecting on every available surface. On occasion it's been blowing a gale too, but then on other occasions it's been gloriously sunny - and warm enough for a bike ride along the Isar to the zoo!

It was Ryan's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I got to enjoy the raucous birthday party in a (hopefully soundproofed) basement bowling alley underneath an Italian restaurant near Michaela's house. It all went very well, considering there were a dozen pre-pubescent lads running around and getting progressively more boisterous.

I dressed up for my first Fasching (=carnival) party of the season on Friday night. It was a fancy-dress party organised by the EPO's social affairs people, where you had to dress as a star. I went as Clint Eastwood, not because I think I look anything like him, but because I've got a poncho (and it's real alpaca wool, don't you know, which I bought in Chile). Bénédicte went as Penélope Cruz. There were lots of people in crazy costumes. And TOO MUCH food!! I was stuffeder than I've been in a veeeery long time.

And Lorna was here briefly this weekend too. She was skiing in Tegernsee, but popped in to have a drink, a meal & a chat. I miss her! I was in her old stomping ground the other day for Susanne's birthday, in The Big Easy, just up the road from where Lorna used to live, and I thought of her then too. She had lots of stories to tell from her three weeks in Mexico & Belize. How jealous was I?! But hey, perhaps 2009 is a year for knuckling down and doing a bit of work.

Which brings me back to my job, and to the fact that it's getting late, and I have to get up for work in the morning, so I think I'll stop there, my dear readers. Tootle-pip!

2009-01-23T17:51:00.004+01:00

Tah tadadah tah dah DAH!! It's 2009! It's a blog! I've got a new job!

Yes, earthlings, my time of relaxed participation in the non-work aspects of daily life in Munich has all but come to an end. As of Monday, my nose will be back at the grindstone. More on that once I've had my First Day and then picked myself off the floor...

But January has been lots of fun until now too. I mean to give you a little taste of what I've been up to:

German media considered it newsworthy that, at New Year 2009, there was roughly a doubling in the number of SMSs sent by revellers to wish their friends & family health & prosperity. I did my bit, sending an inordinate number of texts and receiving quite a few in turn.

But the best text was sent by a German friend of mine who had spent Christmas visiting friends in the UK. I quote (translating): "This year I celebrated in your ex-homeland. We pulled apart exploding sweets and I received a crown. Lovely traditions!" It took me a second to realise she was talking about Christmas crackers. And then a wave of pleasure ran through me at the sheer deliciousness of something so familiar being described as a first-time experience!

I started the New Year as I mean to go on, by heading to my gym for a workout. No, dear readers, you haven't suddenly gone mad, I did write - and I do go to - "gym". Argh!!! It's only five minutes down the road, it's cheap as chips, and somehow the press of hot, sweaty bodies surrounding me when I'm there spurs me on to greater heights. It SO beats exercising alone, that's for sure!

The next few days I spent at Michaela's house, helping her to sort through stuff old & new. We really got a lot done, in part because the boys were at their father's so we weren't so distracted. We rewarded our hard work with a day's skiing with Claire & friends of hers from Ireland. It was my first ski day of the season - and, it being January, a much better start than last year, where I didn't hit the slopes until April.

We were at Söll, in Austria, where a surprising number of the guests - and an astonishing number of the staff - were English. I found it quite amusing, but it actually freaked Michaela out to have English-speakers where they're not supposed to be! (She's been living here too long...) The weather was pretty good, and the snow good too, so we had a nice easing back in to things.

The first memorable meal of the year was at Karin's house. Most of the Stammtisch crew were there (me, Christian, Edith, Chris, & Bine) and Karin cooked up a storm! Her parents both have Lebanese heritage, and she put on a spread of Mediterranean marvels for us. Her stuffed vine leaves were particularly subtly flavoured, the secret being to cook them resting on a joint of lamb. Fabulous! Later, Karin showed her love of whisky in an eloquent introduction for us to the joys of that tipple.

Christian & I met with Rudi & Sabine at the theatre later that week. Rudi's sister joined us too. Sadly, the play was well-intentioned but awful: some miserable Austrian piece droning on about World War II and its psychological aftermath in the German-speaking lands. I could see where the playwright was trying to go, but it was too undigested.

One Thursday evening I amazed Christian with my cooking skills. I decided to try out some of the recipes from the tapas cookbook that Michaela got me for Christmas, and they all turned out pretty well, especially the little spinach & anchovy empanadillas. One of my New Year's resolutions is to invite more people to dinner at my place & to cook for them; I reckon I'll get into the swing of it pretty quickly.

I've already been to a couple of parties this year with Bénédicte. First we had dinner with her friend Frank at SAF, the vegan place (the food was not quite as amazing as it had been last year with Christian, Richard & Christian) and then we went on to the French Party at Ampère, a small club just by the river near the Deutsches Museum. We drank a lot of prosecco but didn't do a lot of dancing, because the music was pretty dire.

The second party was just the other day. It was organised by http://www.internations.org/, a networking site for expats that has its origins here in Munich but has groups all over now. The venue was a new one to me, called Beach 38°. I wasn't sure whether this meant the whole place was superheated or what. Sadly, the number relates to the house number not the temperature, but in fact it's pleasantly warm and done out like a tropical beach bar, with sand & decking. Also, they have an attached beach sports hall, which was full of people playing beach volleyball when we were there. I might be tempted to go back there...

And another party I've been to was at the EPO's SkyBar, for the 50th birthday of a friend of Michaela's. The buffet was splendid, the drinks free and the atmosphere buzzing! I've been in SkyBar before, and it's always been a bit disappointing, but now I see that it can really get going in there once there are enough people. There must have been 200 of us in there, with good music getting people onto the dancefloor in droves. A good time was had by all!

Lorna has finally left Munich for good now, handing back the keys to her flat the other week. We had one last weekend of fun, first with Tomasz at the Augustiner in Arnulfstraße & at Ryan's Muddy Boot, the Irish bar in Neuhausen, and then the next night just the two of us, starting at Pardi & ending up back at Ryan's Muddy Boot for midnight crisps. I shall miss her, and our spontaneous beers! But, like Lorna says, we'll still have the planned beers to look forward to.

I spent a fabulous three hours at Therme Erding, Europe's largest spa & sauna centre, the other day with Matthias from Augsburg! There are SO MANY different saunas, spas, jacuzzis, whirlpools, and just plain old swimming pools to choose from! And it really is special to be swimming along (naked, of course!) in hot water, steam billowing up in clouds that obscure the buildings behind you, and snowflakes landing on your head as you lazily make your way around the outdoor section of the main pool, before heading back indoors and perching on a seat at the in-pool bar for another beer.

Last weekend was most relaxing too. Christian & I drove down to his parents' place in the Allgäu because it was his mum's birthday. We didn't do much apart from eat & drink while we were there, but it was really cosy in their warm house on such cold days & nights as we've been having here recently.

The weather has been unrelentingly cold since the start of the year. It snowed on New Year's Day, then hasn't been above zero since, so there are still scraps of snow around & about. It's been sunny on a few occasions, but mostly overcast. I'm already kind of over the whole winter thing, and it's not even the end of January yet! Ah well, I'll be heading into the mountains again this weekend for a spot of skiing. Perhaps the weather will be cheerier there...

2009-01-11T18:22:00.001+01:00

Folks, it's time for a final blog for 2008. Yes, I know it's already 2009 - and I haven't even wished you all a Happy New Year yet! - but there were some fun things that I got up to after I was back from Japan that I want to share with you. So here goes:

I got back to Munich on the Friday night, and on the Saturday afternoon we had a final choir rehearsal. The concert was on Sunday, and it was followed by a big dinner for the whole choir at our nearby Greek restaurant (amusingly in Türkenstraße). I was luggageless and consequently lensless for the whole time, but I managed to sing in glasses okay.

I went to visit my mate Uwe in the hospital at Neuperlach on the Monday. He had had some minor surgery, and I remember myself how bloody boring it is to be in hospital, so I was more than happy to go and see him for a couple of hours. On the Wednesday I had the beers with Holger (as mentioned in my last entry) where I got the whole luggage story off my chest.

Michaela, Ryan & Charlie seemed to spend the whole of the rest of 2008 bouncing various diseases amongst themselves, so at various times I was over looking after one or other or all of them. I thankfully didn't succumb myself; but I'd been ill enough a month previous to last a while! Despite illness we still found the time & energy to go to Sealife Centre Munich for Charlie's birthday. It was much better than I was expecting, but still not a patch on diving in the Red Sea.

Christian & I went to Bussone for great pizzas and cheesy karaoke one Saturday night with Lorna & Tomasz. But as soon as the regulars in that place started smoking - despite the smoking ban, and with the naughty acquiescence of the owner - we headed off for a coffee in a restaurant in the Glockenbachviertel. I can't remember what it was called, which is a pity as the menu was enticing; I'll have to wander around there until I find it again.

I had a lovely afternoon & evening of food, photos & conversation at Christoph's flat with Martin. These two are tenors with me in the St Markus Chor, and Christoph wanted to show us his new flat and photos from his summer walking in the Alps. All accompanied with piles of cake & cheeses - my kind of evening!

The following week I had dinner with Rocky, who I used to work with at E.ON when I was first in Munich. I haven't seen him for literally years! I think the last time we met up was early in 2007. So it was great to catch up with him - and to savour the delights of the Italian pizza place just near his office by Westfriedhof. I'll have to go back there; the wood-fired pizza oven worked wonders.

It being December, and Advent, of course the many Christmas markets of Munich sprung up on squares across the city. I visited a good few of them, meeting up with Tom, Fritz, Susi, Thomas, Lorna, Christian, Michaela, Lisa, Claire & Bénédicte at various times at Sendlinger Tor, Marienplatz, Stephansplatz & Tollwood, enjoying Glühwein, Feuerzangenbowle (Glühwein with even more alcohol in it), 1/2 metre sausages, exotic foods, schnaps & hot coconuts (hot coconut milk with rum -ooh yeah baby!). It's a cold time of year, so you need to warm up well...

The run-up to Christmas itself was actually quite quiet, the one big Christmas-themed exception being Moyra's Christmas party at the EPO, where once again Michaela, Christian & I stuffed ourselves silly with lashings of traditional English Christmas dinner & divine mince pies. Being unemployed, I of course had no office party of my own to go to. Instead, I got to spend a day being bored OUT OF MY MIND on an absolutely pointless training day during which I was supposed to learn how to write an application letter. Oh my God. That day, I earned the dole money I've been getting, I tell you!

I managed to eat stupendous amounts of non-Christmas-themed food during December as well: notably at Molos, that fab Greek in Maistraße, with Lorna & Tomasz; a couple of times at Bénédicte's house (her parents were over for a weekend and we ate a full raclette with several wines & champagnes from her dad's exceeeeeedingly extensive wine cellar); and one evening at Christian's, where the Kloster gang gathered to feast on pizzas & chocolate mousse. There was a large brunch at Christian's too, when Wolfgang & Christian came up from Salzburg to visit.

Christmas Eve we spent at Michaela's. I cooked a gulasch, while Christian did the bread dumplings to go with it. Michaela rustled up a fantastic trifle, and the meal was complete. Apart from all the wine & Baileys of course.

Christmas Day we were at Christian's parents in the Allgäu, along with Ralf, Bettina & the girls, who were down from Osnabrück for the holidays. It was quite a quiet one, with Bettina actually in bed almost the whole time with an evil flu. Christian brought his new projector down with him and we showed photos from Israel & India. It was strange to see all these hot places while it was cold & miserable outside.

Boxing Day had me heading down to Salzburg airport to pick up Kate, my Aussie friend who I met on Samoa back in 2004. She is currently living in London, and was at a loose end "between the years", so I said she should come over. Boy did we have a ball!! If the pre-Christmas week had seemed a little quiet, the post-Christmas week was anything but. We did many many fun things! Here are the highlights:

A WHOLE LOT of shoe shopping in every shoe shop in the whole of Munich - but of course, in true girly style, Kate failed to buy a single pair! - as well as lots of shopping of the non-shoe variety;
Coffee & cake, Asian snacks, Ethiopian dinner, an Australian pub, German food: Jungschweinbraten mit Kartoffelknödel (roast baby pig with potato dumplings); Kaiserschmarrn mit Zwetschgenröster (scrambled eggy pancake with plum compôte), big fat cocktails, coffee in an Italian bar called Box, Thai food, Italian food, bakery food...
Quick desserts in Salzburg town centre (Salzburger Nockerl, a kind of meringue that looks like a wobbly tit on a plate, and Topfenknödel mit Marille, curd cheese dumplings with apricot compôte);
Amusing comedy deafness moments: Kate heard me saying "that's where I had tram sex" when in fact I was saying "that's where our tram stop is"; I heard Kate saying "do you want it up the bum?" when in fact she was saying "do you want lip balm?"
Upmarket shopping in Ludwig Beck, where we saw a puffer jacket that looked like a sundried tomato and felt like when you put your finger on an old balloon, and in many branches of Zara;
Many a happy hour spent browsing the Viktualienmarkt, including a lunch of grilled ox & Weißwurst (traditional Munich veal sausages), as well as tucking in to the free pralines we got with our coffees just behind the market;
Culture, in the form of Kate going to the Kandinsky exhibition while I did the next-door Glyptothek & Antikensammlung (many great statues!), not to forget the book of street art that Kate bought in the funky Kandinsky art shop, which we spent the 3/4 hour of queuing for tickets reading;
More culture, in the form of the Salzburg modern art gallery, where we saw a Paul Klee exhibition as well as a bunch of photography, some of which was even good - and I suppose the Austrian lunch with Wolfgang & Kazumi was sort of cultural too, what with the traditional Austrian restaurant and the classic Austrian dishes (Fritattensuppe or pancake soup, Fleischfleckerl or pasta with pork);
Yet more culture, in the form of the Nymphenburg Palace, but we didn't hang around there because it was BLOODY cold that day, so instead we headed into the Backspielhaus for more coffee & cake. And we gave up on the idea of ice skating at Stachus for the same temperature-based reason, settling for the Glühwein instead;
A trip to the cinema to see Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was bloody good (let's agree to disagree about Scarlett Johansson, Kate - either she's wooden & boring & can't act, or she was very convincingly playing a wooden & boring American - but the other actors were all fantastic);
Some interactive wildlife pleasure, in the form of the butterfly house in the Botanical Gardens, where we were attacked, Hitchcock's The Birds stylee, by enormous butterflies, before taking refuge in the other, plants-only parts of the palm house.

Kate's visit ended on 31st December, when we caught a train down to Salzburg and had lunch with Wolfgang & his friend Kazumi, who was over from Japan for a few days of mountain pleasure. Then Kate & I headed up to the gallery.

As the sun was setting, Just after the ridiculously loud musket fire from all the hills around Salzburg's city centre, and a cheeky hand-made Mozartkugel chocolate in town, I put Kate into a taxi to the airport and headed back to the railway station to catch my train back to Munich.

And then it was suddenly New Year's Eve, which Christian, Michaela, the boys & I spent at Jackie's house, along with a bevy of other British expats from the Patent Office. Oooooh the stilton!! Happy New Year everyone!!

2009-01-06T11:54:00.005+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen! It gives me enormous pleasure to announce the final instalment of this, my epic memoirs of a few days in another country quite far away!!

The last day of any experience is tinged with sadness, but in this case I was reeling from all my new impressions and frankly I didn't have the mental capacity to get too worked up about having reached the end of my time in Japan.

I got up really early, having sensibly packed most of my stuff the night before, and did my morning ablutions. By the time I was about to leave, Steve was up & ready to go to work, so we walked together to Roppongi. There he bade me farewell and I went down into the Metro for one last time.

The route was familiar to me already, because once again I was going to Tokyo station, only this time I wasn't catching a Shinkansen but rather the airport express train. I just had time for a quick coffee & croissant (my god the croissant was unashamedly delicious - but also unashamedly expensive!) before going to the airport train platform and jumping on board.

An hour or so later I was at Narita, where the check-in procedure was smooth & orderly. The wait at the gate was uneventful, the flight uneventful, the views wintry & for the most part dusky (well, we were heading over the arctic in winter, so no surprises there). Arrival in London was uneventful, and even Terminal 5 was less chaotic than it had been on the way out. The onward flight to Munich was uneventful.

Things got eventfuller on arrival at Munich, when to my horror I discovered that my luggage hadn't made it back with me. My luggage, with all my liquid items in it of course, including my contact lenses. There followed a period - lasting DAYS - of absolute chaos, with phone calls to call centres in Italy, misinformation, cock-ups galore, and the most laughable text message I've ever been sent: "BA would like to inform you that your luggage will probably - note the word probably, people! - be arriving on day blah-blah on flight blah-blah" - which, naturally, it didn't.

And of course, because Munich was my final destination not my holiday destination, I didn't qualify for a penny of compensation. And of course, you can't actually ring BA customer services - oh no, we don't want to be speaking with Customers! And of course, I haven't had a reply to my "disgusted of Munich" email either. Bastards. British Airways can kiss my custom goodbye.

My mate Holger, who works for Lufthansa, had the misfortune to agree to meet me for a few drinks later that week, and I'm ashamed to say I vented all my airline frustration on him. But for fuck's sake, even once my bag had reached Munich, the arsewipes were still incapable of ringing me and arranging a delivery time, so that I might have a chance of being at home. No! Instead they just sent a driver, who turned up at my door with my bag, THEN rang me to say he would be taking my bag back to the airport because I wasn't home!

The second time this happened, I had to plead with the driver to not go back to the airport but instead to deliver his other bags and then come back to mine an hour later. Grudgingly, he obliged. But really, it was no skin off his nose whether he went to my address twice or not, plus this way I was out of their hair. He was worryingly close to being a total jobsworth, but I should thank my lucky stars that he had a milligram of flexibility. Anyway, I could at last see properly again.

The bag episode coincided neatly with a choir rehearsal & concert, which I admit complicated things. But the concert went off well (we sang some Fauré and some Rossini, and we had a full orchestra accompanying us). But I'm drifting away from Japan at this point, so I think I'll just stop writing now and leave this blog there, with the agony of luggage and the ecstasy of travel.

2009-01-01T17:33:00.000+01:00

So here we are, folks, Day Six of my week on the Pacific Rim.

My last full day in Japan nearly didn't get started at all: I was in such need of sleep that I managed to wake up after midday on this, the only day I had left to see the rest of Tokyo! I quickly changed my plans (okay, to be honest I'd already decided last night to bin the idea of getting up at 4am to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market, even though I know I would've loved it) and cut straight to the chase: lunch.

I found a small soba noodle place in a shopping mall near Roppongi, and had a bowl of what seemed to be beef gulasch, accompanied by a lovely mound of cold soba noodles. The two businessmen at the next table had enormous piles of soba noodles with a small dipping sauce - and a chunk of fresh wasabi root with a little grater - which I was coveting, I'll admit, but sadly I couldn't find it on the menu, and I didn't feel cheeky enough to point across the restaurant and say "me too". But mine was delicious too. And the best part was the tea they brought me when I'd finished my meal: it was the noodle water my soba noodles had been cooked in! Crazy but true.

After lunch I went to Roppongi Hills and paid the JPY 1500 to go to the Sky View observation deck on the very top of Mori Tower. This is a brand-new attraction that has stunning views over the whole of the centre of Tokyo. You can see out over the harbour, watch planes land at Haneda airport, glimpse the snow-covered peak of Fujiyama, spy the '70s boringness of the tower blocks of Yokohama, and peek into the secret gardens dotted about the middle of Tokyo.

I stayed up there for ages, just soaking up the view (and the rays; it was a chilly but very sunny day again). It was quite exciting to be standing at the edge of a helipad, over 200 metres above the city, and so peaceful too, despite the buffetting wind gusts.

My next destination was a total failure. In fact, this is - apart from the horrendously strong yen at the moment - the only negative thing about my whole week in Japan: I didn't once get to try an Onsen, or Japanese sauna. The one in Kyoto was closed for the exact duration of my stay, and the one in the centre of Tokyo has been closed down permanently! Damn it! I wanted to do the hot mud and hot springs and hot other stuff! Ah well, next time.

From outside the closed Onsen, I headed to Akihabara, Tokyo's Mecca for spotty geeky youths who like computers, grunge music and manga. I had a quick look into one of the many enormous electronics department stores, and tried out an electric foot massaging machine. It was okay, but just no comparison to a real person. Then I bought some Pokemon cards for my nephew's birthday, which I was missing because I was in Japan. And a teeshirt for myself that was covered in karate-chopping pigs. It's very me.

Then I had an unexpected Japan moment when I found a telly facing out from a tiny bar onto the street that was showing a sumo fight. But even in this most Japanese of sports, you can see the effects of creeping globalisation: the bout I watched was between a Belarussian and a Samoan. I have to admit, it was odd and even faintly unpleasant to see a Caucasian dude in one of those sumo nappy outfits; it just seemed so wrong, a slight on this centuries-old tradition. But I guess it's just a case of getting used to it.

There's another tradition that deserves a mention, although it's not as old as sumo: Japanese tourist information maps are handily placed at lots of intersections, and they're really useful, but it takes a while to get used to reading them. Unlike maps I've seen in other countries, which are uniformly oriented so that up equals north, Japanese maps are oriented to match the way you are facing when looking at the map. In other words, if you're walking down a road heading east, the map you look at will have east at the top. Which makes sense, I suppose.

I met Steve under the huge mother-spider sculpture at Mori Tower (it's the original; I've seen exact copies outside Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum and in London's Tate Gallery), and we headed to our dinner destination, a teppanyaki restaurant by the faintly amusing name of Bamboo Grassy. This was recommended to him by a work colleague, so I was prepared for a swish place. It took a while to find, but after we'd spotted a small sign and made our way down a dingy flight of steps, we stepped into a very well-appointed bijou eatery.

We got seats at the bar, right up against the hot plate, and opted for a standard menu of several courses, including vegetables, fish, seafood (I haven't had sea urchin since I was in Madagascar) & some beef. All washed down with refreshing beers. Well, I did glance at the wine menu, just out of interest, but decided I didn't want to pay upwards of sixty pounds for a bottle you can pick up in any supermarket back home for under a tenner. The meal was splendid: absolutely delicious ingredients cooked to perfection; friendly, attentive service; and lively conversation. These factors together made the EUR 100 per head price tag bearable. And that, my friends, is the most I've ever paid for a meal - with my own money ... ah, corporate plastic, how I miss you!

2008-12-23T16:30:00.005+01:00

Welcome back to Day Five - THE BIG ONE! The last time we saw our hero, he was making his way through the throngs of tourists up the Philosophers' Path. Clearly, they named this before it became a popular tourist destination; philosophers can scarcely get a moment's peaceful thinking in here these days.

So, the northern end of the Path leads to the temple complex of Ginkaku-ji, which is most notable for its outsize conical pile of gravel just inside the main entrance. Really, this is a big big pile of gravel. And so perfect! Not a single stone out of place. We're talking not just physical shapes, but Platonic Ideals, fallen from the heavens and landed in a nice garden.

My camera had been working overtime for the last few days, and of course although I had a battery charger, for some reason the bloody international plug socket converter thingy I bought on the way here in Munich is a bit shite, and doesn't really like to let power through much. So I had to keep buying un-rechargeable AA batteries. But my camera chews through these at a rate of knots. Exasperated, I kept trying to take just the most spectacular pictures. But the problem was, it's ALL spectacular!!

I gave my camera a break after Ginkaku-ji, and instead of batteries I bought treats for me - yay! I had caramel-coated hot rice flour balls on a stick (they had a slightly charred taste from the barbecue, but they were okay) and then I had an incredible thing, so full of taste that the image in my mind was of the moment in Over The Hedge where the packet of tortilla chips gets ripped open, giving rise to a thermonuclear mushroom cloud of flavour over North America. Now I truly know the meaning of "rice cracker"! Not the poxy things you buy in Europe that look - and taste - like flattened toilet rolls, no no! These are just on another plane entirely. Wow.

As the sun set, I made my way back to the main railway station. It was getting very cold again, but I was lucky enough to go to the toilet in the station, where they not only had underfloor heating but also undercheek heating. You've just gotta love Japanese toilets! I love toasted buns in the morning...

The shinkansen bullet train back to Tokyo was chockerblock, but I managed to find a seat in one of the carriages for people without a reservation and I promptly fell asleep until Tokyo. There, I negotiated my way through the Metro system (I still had Steve's second Metro electronic pass card thing in my wallet; it's like London's Oyster card or similar things in Hong Kong & Singapore) and got back to Steve's place in Akasaka. He had only just got back in from work when I arrived, and we headed straight out to a nearby Korean restaurant for dinner.

The Korean place was much better than it looked from the outside, with delicious scrolls of wafer-thin wagyu beef that the waitress fried for us in the big wok-shaped grill pan in the middle of our table. There were also these crazy mushrooms that look like mini haystacks with delicate little heads on the end of bunches of tiny pale stalks. Delicious! We skipped dessert, instead heading back to Steve's for a few more of the beers we bought the other night.

Steve introduced me to Shaun the Sheep on DVD. He told me how he had become hooked on Shaun the Sheep when he was visiting his two-year-old niece in the summer. I have to say, it's one of the best kids' programmes I've seen in a long time. So amusing, on so many levels! It brought me back to normal after what had been a fantastic few days of otherworldliness in the temples & shrines of Kyoto.

2008-12-22T11:22:00.004+01:00

On the fifth day of my Japan visit, I made the most of the time I had left in Kyoto, before jumping back on the bullet train to Tokyo and catching up with Steve again.

It was another beautiful autumn morning, with a chill in the air that was offset by the sun's rays warming that part of my skin that was exposed to the elements, ie my face. I walked towards the station again looking for a new breakfast option.

It struck me, as I was crossing a road, that it should come as no surprise that mobile phones are pre-loaded with naff ring tones: the pedestrian crossing, rather than simply bleeping at me, was whistling a merry little tune of electric crapness. Then , at a busy junction I found what I needed: a busy-ish plastic-ish chain restaurant with muzak and chairs that were fixed to the floor, but more importantly with "breakfastu settu" menu options that were intelligible to me - and cheap!

I opted for the filet of salmon set, which thankfully tasted much less weird than the previous day's effort. I was flummoxed by the mini nori seaweed sheets that came on the tray in a little plastic sachet like some sort of refreshing towelette, until I saw someone at the next table use them to pick up lumps of rice, and I have to say, after following suit, that it was a good taste combo.

I felt pleased to have partaken in what I am guessing - and hope - is bog-standard Japanese everydayness. And then, energised for the day's sightseeing, I found the bus I needed to take me to my first port of call in Namzenji, northeast of the centre of town and a short walk from the bus stop through a quiet residential area.

This is another delightful collection of temple structures, once again with a two-storey wooden entrance gateway, but this one you could go up. Following the now-standard temple visiting routine, I dutifully took off my shoes, put them in the plastic bag proferred to me, and climbed the low-ceilinged staircase to the viewing platform. The view over nearby hills and back into the city was lovely on this cloudless morning.

I walked up into the hills behind the temple but quickly realised I was going the wrong way. It was pleasant walk though, so I headed on through the majestic trees and up the deserted ridge until I was in danger of not being able to find the way back. Then I walked along the aqueduct that passes behind the main temple complex, at one point waiting for a whole hoard of giggling primary school kids to pass over a narrow crossing. So much for being in the middle of nowhere!

After visiting the main temple building, with its beautiful gravel gardens and antique wall screens, I headed back into the hills (on the right path this time!) and to the Oku-no-in forest shrine, where I found an elderly lady busy praying to the small Buddha icons placed inside the dark cave at the top of the ladder. From there I continued along the mountain stream and up over this ridge of hills, past a large cemetery and down to the Nyakouoji shrine.

To my great delight, a woman was selling bento boxes in front of the shrine entrance, so I bought one and got stuck in to my first true-blue Japanese lunch box experience - accompanied by a bottle of water from a nearby trusty drinks vending machine. It had the works: rice, pickles, soy beans, shiitake mushrooms, some smoked eel, and some slices of the special rougher tofu that they use here for desserts. Yum!!

Duly re-energised, I headed for the splendid temple complex of Eiken-do, with its marvellous revolving Buddha statue and hilltop pagoda with more breathtaking views over the city. From there I walked the Philosophers' Path northwards alongside a quiet canal, stopping at one point for gelatinous slices of what I assume was green tea coated in coarse flour. Looking back, I remember the texture to be like soft Turkish delight, but at the time I have to admit it felt like I was sticking my tongue in whale blubber. What's more disturbing is, that wasn't disturbing! The taste was most refreshing.

My next stop was Horen-in, which made a nice change from the other temples simply through being off the beaten track; its bucolic charms were unspoiled by the hoardes of tourists to be found at many of the other temple complexes in town. The most remarkable feature was the huge mounds of fine gravel that from afar looked as though they'd been formed in a sandcastle-like manner by turning 20-metre-long moulds upside-down.

Back on the Philosophers' Path, things were hotting up in the tourist hoardes stakes. I could tell we were approaching a big big sight, because the number of small tourist tat vendors was increasing. I stopped to sample the wares of a small manufacturer of pressed ginger snap biscuits that reminded me of those little pictures on starch that you used to get in cereal packets that you could colour in and then put in the oven and they would shrink down to be the size of a keyring. I think I had one once from that dodgy sci-fi film The Black Hole.

Wow! Day Five is turning out to be a whopper! I think I'll stop there, and leave you wanting more; either that or gasping in relief that the end is come...

2008-12-19T12:10:00.003+01:00

Okay, so here comes Day Four, hot on the heels of the day I arrived in Kyoto:

After sleeping like the proverbial (which was nice after my initial jetlag issues in Tokyo), I headed towards the main station for breakfast. I wandered around the building, marvelling at the panoramic views from its 13th-storey rooftop garden, then headed back to ground level for a traditional Japanese breakfast, or "brekfastu settu", as it's known in these parts.

Well, I won't be doing THAT again! The foods on offer ranged from the fine (rice) through the unexpected (super salty shredded salmon) and the bizarre (pickled seaweed, I'm guessing) to the frankly unpleasant (congealed partially digested soy beans), all washed down with some seriously astringent "match" tea. But I'm glad I tried it at least once.

There is a bakery just at the main bus station area, and I treated myself to a remarkably crunchy sugar-crusted doughnut and a steamed ginger bun that was almost McVitie's Jamaica Ginger Cake in its yumminess, then joined the long, long queue for the bus to my first temple of the day. Just behind me was a group of young, annoying, punchable Germans. I felt the need to join a different bus queue, just to avoid them. But as luck would have it, they of course were heading to the same temple as me. And yes, I kept seeing them (and, what was worse, hearing them with their arrogant bullshit conversations) the whole bloody day!

But let's put aside my petty issues against annoying tourists and concentrate on the sights...

Kiyomizu-Dera temple complex was first built in 798, but the current buildings date from 1633. There are loads of big temples, a huge veranda and a darkened hall containing a fabulous statue of Kannon, the 1000-armed goddess of mercy, flanked by amazing guardian statues, one of which in particular had really remarkable grace & poise, seeming ready to jump into the air.

Just up the hill is a small shrine, Jishu-jinga, dedicated to a pre-Buddhist local deity who is believed to help lovers. All I can say is, if that god came towards me down the street, I'd be running the other way! His companion is a two-metre-tall white rabbit that looked like a cross between Donnie Darko's imaginary friend and one of Moloko's Killa Bunnies!

I then proceeded to do the Lonely Planet recommended walk for southern Higayishima (the area of town east of the river), which takes in Teapot Lane (where traditional chestnut-paste-stuffed pancake makers were obligingly handing out free samples); the roads of Sannen-Zaka & Hinen- Zaka, with their pleasant olde-worlde wooden houses and geishas strolling along; Kodai-ji, a temple with marvellous gardens & a monster seated Buddha in a small temple next door that serves as a war memorial; Maruyama-koen, a large public park popular with picnickers.

By this time, I was getting a bit peckish, but - alas! - Lonely Planet had no decent recommendations for food nearby. This is where I had a bit of an epiphany, and decided to just follow my own nose for a change. Sure enough, within about two-and-a-half minutes I had found a small street packed full of restaurants. I picked one with prices that weren't too outlandish, and treated myself to a lunch of hot tofu chunks in vegetable broth. It was better than it sounds!

My full embracing of the traveller experience was heralded by a sudden change in the weather from grey & overcast to strikingly sunny - if a little chilly. This sunny weather stayed with me for the rest of the day. My first stop after lunch was the incredible Chion-in, which is just enormous in every way. I decided to rename it Chion-Bling for all the glitzy gold & sparkling silver on display. But it was also the most templey temple I visited, with full-on monotóne chanting of monks, beating of drums & clashing of cymbals.

The entrance to Chion-in, at the foot of the hill just beyond Maruyama park, is marked by the two-storey wooden behemoth of an arch that is San-mon, Japan's biggest temple gate. And just to the south of the massive main hall stands a belltower with Japan's biggest bell, a whopper at 74 tonnes cast in 1633. They say it takes 17 monks just to make the bell ring; I can believe this, having seen the size of the tree that they knock against its side to get it ringing.

Chion-in has everything: a fantastic view over Kyoto, a contemplative cemetery up against a cliff, side temples galore, and the whole thing is built on a majestic scale that cannot fail to impress.

At the foot of the hill is a completely contrasting little garden complex that is the opposite of Chion-in: it's small, understated, intimate, delicate. It reminded me of the Japanese garden I saw in Ipswich in Queensland, but only in the sense that this "real" Japanese garden put that one to shame. Although, at the same time, I could appreciate what the Ipswich garden was trying to achieve all the better for having now seen the "real deal", as it were.

My next temple stop was Shoren-in, a slightly more subtle complex of buildings that is most remarkable for the pair of enormous (and enormously old, by the look of them) camphor trees that stand either side of the entrance from the road. I've never crushed a camphor leaf between my fingers before, and the smell is intense! Inside, the temples changed character as the sun fell behind the hills, and I left at dusk in a truly autumnal atmosphere.

It was getting pretty cold, so I headed into a posh-looking café nearby for a restorative caffè latte - and a sit-down, more to the point! - before walking up to the incredibly massive bright red lacquer posts of the Heian-jingu shrine and catching a bus back into town. Back at the hotel, I treated myself to another herbal bath, then fell sound asleep on my futon.

A few hours later, feeling rather groggy but knowing I would regret it if I slept any more that evening, I walked into the now icy cold winter's night (thank heavens I had warm clothes with!) and made my way to a ramen noodle bar I'd spotted from the bus. It was fantastic! Suburban, unpretentious, but nonetheless with an amusing play on Christ's Last Supper as its logo (twelve dudes around a long table, drinking their soup from huge bowls). And the ramen & gyoza were just WOW. I had come to Japan longing for a bowl of ramen, and now I'd finally had one. Yay!!!

Of course, I was wide awake now, and didn't want to head straight back to the hotel. Instead I carried on up the street and went into a nearby place. I got into a conversation with Kevin, a student from California who was over for a few months on a Buddhism course. He was nice enough, and met my need for conversation, but he was really on a Buddhism trip and didn't have much else to talk about, so after a while I left.

I headed back to my hotel to read for a while, but first I allowed myself to go into a big late-night supermarket, just to see what products were on offer. I really do enjoy foreign supermarkets! They shed light on a different side of life. Of course, I couldn't even work out what half the things were - but that's as it should be. Satisfied with my peek at Japanese domesticity, and armed with a strawberry-creme chocolate bar that reminded me of the kosher chocolate I had at my old schoolfriend Stuart's house twenty years ago, I trudged through the icy wind back to my hotel.

2008-12-17T08:39:00.002+01:00

Wakey wakey! It's Day Three here in Japan! There's lots to read about!

So today the weather got suddenly much sunnier, but also a lot cooler. A gorgeous autumn day in fact. Perfect weather for sitting in the bullet train heading west and admiring the courteous train staff service (they turn & bow before leaving each carriage!), which was how I spent that morning. And a big bonus was the splendid views of the conical volcanic delight that is Mount Fuji - which of course I HAD to photograph with my Fuji camera! - just as we pulled away from Yokohama and headed out on the long (but only three-hour by shinkansen super-fast train) trip to Kyoto, Japan's historic & spiritual capital and home no less than thirteen UNESCO World Heritage sites. The city was thankfully not bombed during the Second World War, so its thousand-year history has survived largely intact.

Kyoto's main railway station is brand-new and mind-bogglingly big & complicated, but I managed to find the tourist information desk after a while - and after a Chinese bun from a bakery that was eerily identical to the one I used to get my Chinese buns from in Melbourne. There I managed to get a room in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese guest house, just to the east of the town centre, perhaps a quarter of an hour's walk from the station. The hotel wasn't all that, to be honest, but it's full-on tourist season here right now, so I could just be glad to find anything at all.

Bags dumped (in my tiny room where there was just enough space to unfurl the single-sized futon and position the cherry-stone-filled pillow at its head), I headed out to a nearby Lonely Planet recommendation for lunch. All the way there I tried to learn the phrases for "I would like ..." and "how much is ...", but in the event I just walked in and was immediately served with the day's special, a tonkatsu breaded pork chop with rice & pickles, that wasn't as good as the one I had with Steve in Tokyo but was a fifth of the price and still better than some Schnitzels I've had in Munich.

The restaurant itself was small, with a few tables and a long bar that faced onto the kitchen area, where people were busy tossing vegetables in woks and scrubbing pots in a big sink. It seemed a family-run place, with granny and grandad arguing about something whilst the kids looked on. At one point a hoard of suited business types emerged from a back room, pulled on their boots and filed out behind me. I think there was also some kind of guest house upstairs, but it certainly wasn't aimed at foreign tourists as there wasn't a word anywhere in English.

Sated, I went out and started what was to become a magical forty-eight hours of touristy trekking & rubbernecking from temple to temple, with regular stops for food & drink. First stop was Higashi Honjan-Ji temple, the biggest wooden building on earth (what with the royal palace in Antananarivo, Madagascar, having recently burned down to the ground). This is one of a few big temples that are in the centre of town. Most of the others are further out on the fringes of the city, at the foot of the hills that form almost a complete ring around Kyoto.

I took a short local train ride to Tofukuji, southeast of the centre, and there visited the complex of temples that between them have amazing plant gardens, gravel gardens, rock gardens, tree gardens, and pretty much every conceivable combination of elements in gardens. I was very much NOT alone in my appreciation of the place; the crowds of tourists were overwhelming! It felt like Heathrow Terminal 5 all over again, only with much, MUCH nicer views. The crowds are here for the blaze of autumn colours that rolls down over Japan each year. Second only to the "sakura" or spring cherry-blossom season in popularity, autumn is truly a wonderful time to visit Japanese gardens.

So, after Sokusyu-in, Ryogin-an, and the Hojo "Hasso" Garden, I walked back to the railway, headed back to the centre, caught a metro train north, and thence walked all through the main shopping area of Kyoto to Gion, just over the river. This is a historic part of town with lots of warehouses & art galleries, as well as what Lonely Planet deems "the most beautiful street in Asia". It was very pretty, but I'm not sure that it was THAT good: a small river, a cobbled street, a row of pretty houses, a line of majestic trees.

Still feeling a little unsure of myself in my new/old traveller mode and in a country where I can't even read the signs, let alone understand them, I opted for another nearby Lonely Planet recommendation for dinner, but then wished I hadn't almost as soon as I'd walked in the place. It was a tempura restaurant and it offered all sorts of things in light tempura batter, including lotus nuts, but I was pretty much the only customer, the service was cool, and it all tasted way oily and basically shite. I really should have just followed my nose to somewhere less tourist-trappy. Ah, hindsight, eh?

Gallingly, in my search for the Lonely Planet recommended expat bar I passed restaurant after tasty-looking restaurant. Of course, the bar, once I found it, was empty and shite, but this time at least I had the sense to turn around and walk right out again. I instead treated myself to a "cortado" coffee in an unexpected Spanish-themed café downstairs in the same building.

I thought I would treat my now-aching bones to a traditional Japanese "onsen" bath-house experience (saunas, hot pools, cold pools, the Japanese answer to Turkey's hammam) and found my way to the Lonely Planet recommendation out west of the town centre - which journey included a long wait for a delayed commuter train on a freezing cold windy platform, with me not really dressed for the sudden coolness that came with nightfall - only to discover that the place was closed for today and tomorrow, or in other words for the two days I was going to be in town!!

I was really rather miffed at this, yet another Lonely Planet recommendation gone wrong, and determined to try trusting my own instincts a bit more from now on. Then I treated myself to a taxi to bring me back to my hotel, where I was able as a consolation prize to soak in the traditional herb bath on offer. It might not have been at all picturesque - it was in a small windowless bathroom with décor more like a boiler room - but at least I was rested & soothed and unlike the previous night in Tokyo I had no difficulty whatsoever sleeping through.

And that was Day Three, folks!

2008-12-08T08:38:00.004+01:00

Let's get back to the thrilling story of my week in Japan:

We left off last time just as I was crashing, jetlagtastically, into a couple of hours' deathlike sleep at Steve's place. Well, let me tell you it was GREAT! So great in fact that I had to really force myself ever to get up again. After several false starts (bless you, snooze function!) I dragged myself out of bed and through the shower - with a brief but most pleasant visit to the heated toilet seat! (These are standard in this country; in fact, Steve told me that his toilet is one of the least interesting he's been on, in terms of functionality; sadly I didn't get to experience any unexpected jets of water or air or electricity while I was in Japan...) Then I headed out, alone, into the Great Unknown that was Tokyo.

My first port of call was the nearby area of Akasaka, which has lots of restaurants & bars but also a big temple on a hill, the major attraction of which is the hundreds of crimson prayer flags that line the staircases to the top. I duly walked up & down stairs for a while, then found my appetite and wandered into the morass of eateries. It didn't take me too long to settle on a nice-looking sushi bar. And OH MY GOD it's true: the sushi in Japan is just incredible. Every grain of rice was heaven; the fish was exquisite; and the cold fresh beer did my head a world of good.

Steve met me in Akasaka and took me to the rooftop bar of one of the posh hotels nearby. We had an exorbitantly priced cocktail and enjoyed the view over the nocturnal cityscape, then brought ourselves back down to earth by heading to his nearest offie & buying a bunch of beers, then heading back to his place & having a proper chinwag. And so ended my first day in Japan.

Sunday didn't get going for quite a while. I slept like a zombie in Steve's super comfy guest bedroom, and there was no noise or disturbance from outside (it's quite a posh area). I finally emerged around midday and Steve revived me with a coffee. Then we headed out to do a spot of sightseeing. The weather was somewhat overcast but it didn't really rain, it just sort of fogged.

We went by Metro to Shinjuku and walked through some of the shopping streets before reaching the Tsuan tempura restaurant. There we were treated to the full-on tempura lunch, complete with sitting awkwardly on the floor beside a low table. The tempura was delicious, especially the huge pattie of shrimps but also the vegetable & fish ones. I accidentally took the dining room's sliding door off its hinges whilst putting my shoes back on after lunch, but we made a fast exit & I think we got away with it unnoticed...

A restorative Illy espresso & cinnamon bun later, we walked through Shinjuku to its big park and marvelled at the delicate beauty of the chrysanthemum displays (it's the time of year for them). The park itself was delightfully laid out too, with a more relaxed "English" section and a more thought-through "Japanese" part replete with rockeries, pools, bridges & a huge pagoda donated by the Japanese community in China.

From the back of the park, we walked to Meiji-Jingumae, Tokyo's main Shinto shrine, which stands in another large park. There we saw couple after couple in traditional dress lining up to be married. By this time it was getting a little darker overhead, but somehow the grey skies seemed to me expectant, exciting, full of promise. I love travelling!!

We walked through the rest of Meiji-Jingu park to Harajuku, where sadly the dodgy weather meant that there were far fewer freaks in Elvis Presley costumes than on a typical Sunday. Still, we saw a gaggle of people in '50s outfits & matching hairstyles dancing along to boom-box beats at the entrance. After a quick adzuki bean dumpling (yum!) we crossed the main road and found ourselves in the heart of the Tokyo Dance Music Festival! Gothtastic Harajuku girls aplenty, along with lots & lots of youngsters who looked like they'd been partying hard for about the last four days.

Our stroll took us past the Yoyogi National Stadium and on to Shibuya, a trendy shopping area with the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. Now THAT was quite something! Five roads intersect here, and all five of them have simultaneous red lights. Then a flood of people crosses in all conceivable directions for fully two or three minutes, before normal traffic flow is resumed. The other amusing attraction in Shibuya is Love Hotel Hill, which is home to a number of these archetypally Japanese service centres: what with Tokyo flats being so small and so expensive, young people often live with their parents, making intimacy at home difficult to achieve in privacy.

With all this walking, we were developing quite a beer thirst, Steve & I. So we took the Metro to Ginza (a very glitzy shopping area) and headed to the Lion Beer Hall, an art deco confection that is slightly reminiscent of Munich's beer hall culture. Well, the staff wear dirndls anyway. Oh yeah, and they serve "German" snacks like sushi & sauerkraut! The beer was tasty and the decor made a change from the modern steel-and-glass grandeur of the shopping precinct around us.

Our final port of call for the day was back in Akasaka, in a tiny - and I mean TINY! - restaurant that specialises in wagyu beef and wild boar dishes. Our table was recessed into the ground with a footwell around it, so at least I didn't have to lose the blood flow to my legs in another crouchtastic dining experience. We had a stew of wild boar and a few side dishes, all washed down with draft beers. And then we crept out through the hobbit-sized front door and headed back up the hill to Steve's.

Thus ended the second day of my sojourn in the land of the rising sun.