These are some of the properties overlooking the Brisbane river. All with their own moorings... VERY serious money here!
Monday, 28 May 2007
Expensive real estate...
These are some of the properties overlooking the Brisbane river. All with their own moorings... VERY serious money here!
Brissie real estate
These are fairly typical of the average suburban house in Brisbane. A three-to-four bed house (almost certainly with a pool at the back) seems to be around the £225
Still in Brisbane...!
Well, yes, I'm still in Brizzie...
Went for a river cruise out to Newstead House - an old colonial villa 45 mins down the river. It was actually a very good trip - the commentary was informative and chatty without the usual attempts at chronic humour. The skyline of the city is truly amazing, esp as one passes the financial bit - some stunning sky-scrapers...
Also went to an excellent concert by the Queensland Orchestra. 'French Gems' was the programme title - but somehow Mr Mozart managed to gatecrash his way in with a violin concerto. Otherwise it was Debussy's L'Apres-midi d'un Faune and Ravel's Tzigane and Daphnis & Chloe Suites I and II. The concert hall in the Q'land Arts Centre is a traditional shoe-box shape with a judicious mix of concrete and wood, so excellent accoustics. The solo fute in the Debussy just seemed to float above a bed of orchestral sound - quite exquisite. Mozart's Mozart - nothing special there. The Tzigane was fun in it's gypsy way and of course Daphnis & Chloe is a gift to any competent orchestra. The ups and downs of the orchestral wave were superbly handled by Emanuel Plasson and the end properly orgiastic.
Spent the weekend doing a personal development course recommended by a number of people I've met on this trip and them today sorting out my travel arrangements: tomorrow I head off up the coast to Fraser Island and then on to Townsville and Cairns, where I plan to visit the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree. Then, possibly Darwin... Well, that all depends on how the ensuing time goes! Watch this space (but then you already are!)
Went for a river cruise out to Newstead House - an old colonial villa 45 mins down the river. It was actually a very good trip - the commentary was informative and chatty without the usual attempts at chronic humour. The skyline of the city is truly amazing, esp as one passes the financial bit - some stunning sky-scrapers...
Also went to an excellent concert by the Queensland Orchestra. 'French Gems' was the programme title - but somehow Mr Mozart managed to gatecrash his way in with a violin concerto. Otherwise it was Debussy's L'Apres-midi d'un Faune and Ravel's Tzigane and Daphnis & Chloe Suites I and II. The concert hall in the Q'land Arts Centre is a traditional shoe-box shape with a judicious mix of concrete and wood, so excellent accoustics. The solo fute in the Debussy just seemed to float above a bed of orchestral sound - quite exquisite. Mozart's Mozart - nothing special there. The Tzigane was fun in it's gypsy way and of course Daphnis & Chloe is a gift to any competent orchestra. The ups and downs of the orchestral wave were superbly handled by Emanuel Plasson and the end properly orgiastic.
Spent the weekend doing a personal development course recommended by a number of people I've met on this trip and them today sorting out my travel arrangements: tomorrow I head off up the coast to Fraser Island and then on to Townsville and Cairns, where I plan to visit the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree. Then, possibly Darwin... Well, that all depends on how the ensuing time goes! Watch this space (but then you already are!)
Thursday, 24 May 2007
More Brizzie pics
Left: Queensland State Library
Right: Looking across from the Southbank Performing Arts complex
Brizzie
Brisbane's a really smart place. I'm not a city lover, but I really quite like B's modernity. Actually, the total lack of historical clutter in both NZ and Oz is very refreshing. Because of its climate (currently it's 25C during the day) this is very much a cafe society. Everywhere you go there are street restaurants, coffee shops, food courts, bars serving pretty much any cuisine you could choose. Forinstance, I have just come back from eating in a Vietnamese restaurant: a large bowl of noodles and salad topped with spring rolls and minced prawn, plus a soft drink and the obligatory tea, all for £3.70!
The art galleries are superb - big, modern, airy, with a good selection of stuff old and new. I particularly liked some of the modern aboriginal art and some very spiky carved 'trees'. Oh, and a room full of Anish Kapur sculptures: a hemisphere covered in darkest blue matt pigment that seemed to swallow light - you really could not see the centre and a huge block of stone with the space in the middle also dusted with dark pigment, also impenetrable. Fascinating and completely unphotographable!
The art galleries are superb - big, modern, airy, with a good selection of stuff old and new. I particularly liked some of the modern aboriginal art and some very spiky carved 'trees'. Oh, and a room full of Anish Kapur sculptures: a hemisphere covered in darkest blue matt pigment that seemed to swallow light - you really could not see the centre and a huge block of stone with the space in the middle also dusted with dark pigment, also impenetrable. Fascinating and completely unphotographable!
Settling in...
Sunday we had a family gathering with my cousin Martin's daughter, Nikki and her husband Shane coming over. Not seen her (or her brother Chris) in quite a few years!
L toR: Sylvia, yrs truly, Chris, Martin, Shane, Nikki
Monday Martin and Sylvia took me out to O'Reilly's Reserve right down on the border with NSW: lots of Rosellas (big budgies), lorikeets and bush turkeys. Also a slightly hairy 'tree-top' walk along a decidedly bouncy boardwalk suspended up in the canopy...
Wonderful drive through a countryside that is definitely different from NZ. More parched for a start - they are chronically short of water here. Reserves are down to 19% and 'Level 5' restrictions, which means no hoses, watering the garden (by can) only twice a week between 4pm and 8pm, only 4 minute showers etc. Level 6, due to come in in five or six months, will be even more draconian. Part of the problem of course is that they don't recycle any of their water back into the system. Seems so obvious when one comes from the UK (and esp when one has lived in London) where so much of our water is re-used. The attitude here is that they dont want to drink sewage thank you very much... Well, they may not have any choice in the matter if they dont get major, major amounts of rain very soon!
Sunday, 20 May 2007
AUSTRALIA... Wheeeee
Well, so here I am in a new country... Staying with my cousin Martin and his family in Brisbane for a week while I decide what I'm going to do here for the month and a half... We went for a walk in central Brisbane which, even on a Sunday has a pleasant 'bustle' to it. The weather helps: it's a glorious 25C during the day (albeit somewhat cooler at night).
I'm not really into big cities, but some of the buildings here are spectacular. Amazing glass-clad office blocks vie for space with old churches and the Anzac memorial park... Fascinating.
Oh, and the harp survived the journey ok. Now I just have to get it back in tune...
I'm not really into big cities, but some of the buildings here are spectacular. Amazing glass-clad office blocks vie for space with old churches and the Anzac memorial park... Fascinating.
Oh, and the harp survived the journey ok. Now I just have to get it back in tune...
Post script - LOOS
Travelling round any country as much as I have this last couple of months one does become a bit of an expert on public loos.....
Well, I can happily report that almost without exception all my experiences have been good. I doesn't seem to matter HOW remote the loo, it is always clean. Not, I fear, something one can easily say about most British public loos...!
Well, I can happily report that almost without exception all my experiences have been good. I doesn't seem to matter HOW remote the loo, it is always clean. Not, I fear, something one can easily say about most British public loos...!
Goodbye New Zealand
My last few days in NZ were lovely. Back with the guys at Koromiko Homestay, perched way above the Aro Valley above Wellington. Wonderful views over the city, day and night. The room at the top, with the wooden cross-stays, was mine. A bit like sleeping in a glass lift, but to wake up with the sunrise was just fab.
Right: Hosts Andy, Kris and Chris
Monday, 14 May 2007
Bookbinding
Nearly forgot: gave a two-day bookbinding course last weekend - it's always good to pass on one's skills - even to the point of how too cook up one's own flour-and-water paste! I had three very eager and willing students... Two of them are pictured below:
Winding up (or should that be 'down'?)
I HATE packing... Especially when I have to reduce all the collected bits of two months accumulation down to 30Kg (including the harp)... before the trip to Oz next weekend.
Getting the harp home is proving a challenge: it's just a bit too big to go on as cabin baggage (and they are so picky these days about what can and cannot go onboard) so will have to go in the hold. It's just a bit too big for the biggest suitcase (they seem to stop at 75cms high) so I have had to find an alternative... A large plastic bin basically. It has a handle and wheels, so does sort of look like a suitcase... The harp should be safe enough once safely packed up.
And to cap it all, I've developed a heavy cold... Hope it eases off before I go down to Wellington at the end of the week {:-(
Getting the harp home is proving a challenge: it's just a bit too big to go on as cabin baggage (and they are so picky these days about what can and cannot go onboard) so will have to go in the hold. It's just a bit too big for the biggest suitcase (they seem to stop at 75cms high) so I have had to find an alternative... A large plastic bin basically. It has a handle and wheels, so does sort of look like a suitcase... The harp should be safe enough once safely packed up.
And to cap it all, I've developed a heavy cold... Hope it eases off before I go down to Wellington at the end of the week {:-(
Thursday, 10 May 2007
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
Journey's End?
Well, this leg of my holiday is beginning to draw to its end... :-( I head off for Australia on the 19th May (and will be back in the uk on the 27th June). In the meantime, I'm giving a two day bookbinding class this weekend for my Palmerston North friends and their friends. Very much on the fly - I have no teaching notes with me and not much basic equipment either! Still, sometimes the best stuff comes out of the least. I think I'll start it off with a cookery lesson anyway: how to make your own flour and water paste!
Tuesday 8th May
Catching up with my e-mails whilst stopping in Taupo. Beautiful sunny day, the water on the lake sparkling like so many diamonds... On my way to Napier to re-visit my friends Roger and Ros, who have a beautiful 1920s villa up on the hill overlooking the port. Excellent hosts the4se two!
Oh, I forgot to mention the Waitomo Caves. A two-hour walk through spectacular limestone caves with glow-worm colonies here and there. Part of the subterranean walk took us above a group of black-water rafters. Made me quite glad I decided NOT to take that particular trip: the underwater river is very turbulent and you get absolutely soaked! Simon, you'd have LOVED it!!!
Last Sunday was one of the less brilliant days as I drove from New Plymouth all round the west coast bulge of Mt Taranaki in driving rain. Could'nt even see the mountain!
Oh, I forgot to mention the Waitomo Caves. A two-hour walk through spectacular limestone caves with glow-worm colonies here and there. Part of the subterranean walk took us above a group of black-water rafters. Made me quite glad I decided NOT to take that particular trip: the underwater river is very turbulent and you get absolutely soaked! Simon, you'd have LOVED it!!!
Last Sunday was one of the less brilliant days as I drove from New Plymouth all round the west coast bulge of Mt Taranaki in driving rain. Could'nt even see the mountain!
I think I'm in love...
Well, there was always the danger of the 'L' word creeping in somewhere down the line, but I thought I'd successfully dodged it so far...
Until I drove into Raglan that is. I was only going to have a cup of coffee and a wander round, but I got hooked by the magic of the place and stayed all day and on into the next... A wonderful mix of very creative shops and extremely friendly people. They manage to serve tourism without actually being 'touristy'. It helps that the countryside roundabout is the 'lumpy bumpy' stuff I like.
Strange, but everywhere I've been that I feel I really like the area, there's been goats around... Perhaps someone's trying to tell me something... lol!
From Raglan I drove down to the Bridal Veil Falls - a spectacular waterfall that just shoots over the edge of the hill, exactly like a bridal veil hanging up. Then I followed a sign to Kawhai (my next destination) to find it dissolved into a dirt track. By which time I was too far along my journey to turn back. It was one of the roughest roads I've yet been on, but also one of the most beautiful, skirting round an inland bay through native bush. Distant views of hills and the odd flock of black swans ...
Until I drove into Raglan that is. I was only going to have a cup of coffee and a wander round, but I got hooked by the magic of the place and stayed all day and on into the next... A wonderful mix of very creative shops and extremely friendly people. They manage to serve tourism without actually being 'touristy'. It helps that the countryside roundabout is the 'lumpy bumpy' stuff I like.
Strange, but everywhere I've been that I feel I really like the area, there's been goats around... Perhaps someone's trying to tell me something... lol!
From Raglan I drove down to the Bridal Veil Falls - a spectacular waterfall that just shoots over the edge of the hill, exactly like a bridal veil hanging up. Then I followed a sign to Kawhai (my next destination) to find it dissolved into a dirt track. By which time I was too far along my journey to turn back. It was one of the roughest roads I've yet been on, but also one of the most beautiful, skirting round an inland bay through native bush. Distant views of hills and the odd flock of black swans ...
Hamilton
Bit of a grim drive down thru Aukland to Hamilton, esp when it started to POUR with rain. And I mean pour!
Why Hamilton? Well, a lovely harpist called Lisa had offered to give me a harp lesson! My first in about nine months... I was a little concerned that my technique might have slipped a bit, but it seems it's not too bad. All thanks to the redoubtable Dorothy back in Hereford!
Have to say it was really grand to get my hands on a 'big' harp again: my little one is fine and lovely, but there's just more to play with on a bigger instrument! We finished the lesson with Lisa playing me some music on her beautiful 1830s Erard pedal harp. A beautiful, full sound from an instrument that's only 20-something Kg!
Why Hamilton? Well, a lovely harpist called Lisa had offered to give me a harp lesson! My first in about nine months... I was a little concerned that my technique might have slipped a bit, but it seems it's not too bad. All thanks to the redoubtable Dorothy back in Hereford!
Have to say it was really grand to get my hands on a 'big' harp again: my little one is fine and lovely, but there's just more to play with on a bigger instrument! We finished the lesson with Lisa playing me some music on her beautiful 1830s Erard pedal harp. A beautiful, full sound from an instrument that's only 20-something Kg!
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