Throw out the Itinerary!

Hola from San Francisco! What? I hear you say. Weren’t they supposed to be in Yosemite? Well, yes! Yesterday was our day to get a car and head up to the mountains for some fresh air and then a drive down the Big Sur to LA. So off we went yesterday morning to Hertz to get our car… or at least try to, as they refused to rent it to us! This was because we had a valid driver’s licence in M’s name and a valid credit card in mine but not both in a single name! Due to a series of decisions and coincidences, M’s new credit card arrived late and should currently be sitting with J and I decided not to have my new driver’s licence sent across from Australia as I wouldn’t be driving and it’s currently languishing with my parents. We didn’t think it would be a problem as we have rented cars in UK and Europe with separate licence/credit card matches and it has been fine. Unfortunately it’s quite a different story in the US as we rang and visited about 15 different car rental places from big to small and none would rent a car to us!

Of course this put us in quite a pickle as the Yosemite place we’d booked was not accessible except by car. To cut a long story short, we spent all of yesterday trying to get out of said pickle, even going to the Australian Consulate for help, ringing M’s bank to ask them if they could issue an emergency card through a sister branch here and ringing up my poor Mum at 5am to get her to send my driver’s licence across (because of Easter it wouldn’t reach us until next week. Otherwise we could’ve paid $807 for the privilege of having it on the next flight!). We even looked a buying a 2nd hand car! (nothing below $1000 actually worked)

We then found a dodgy car rental place that would rent us a car, despite their website policy, but checking them out on the internet, TripAdvisor was rife with stories of cars breaking down and making strange non-braking noises. We decided it was too risky to go with them as our head was filled with stories of breakdowns in the middle of the mountains and being eaten by ferocious bears. Then we felt our LA trip rapidly diminishing too as our hotel (which incidentally was entirely pre-paid) was in the middle of nowhere and miles away from LA’s notoriously bad public transport. And then my head got filled with visions of breaking down amidst some gang gun fight in Watts or East LA.

And then came the liberating moment! We had finally ascertained that cars were not an option, so I suddenly burst forth with The Suggestion (not to blow my trumpet or anything, you understand): “Let’s go to San Diego!”

It was more of the concept than the idea, because we decided not to go to San Diego but to Las Vegas instead. So today we’ve spent at internet cafes organising the rest of the holiday. We had to cancel all our accommodation (luckily the LA one only incurred a $15 cancellation fee, but the Yosemite one was much more expensive. However, the others were fine) and then book flights to Las Vegas, a hotel there, 2 more nights at San Francisco, a day trip to Muir Woods and… (ta-da!) an overnight bus tour to the Grand Canyon!! So, after a bit of a hopeless, stressed day yesterday, we’re now looking forward to a great rest-of-trip that doesn’t involve cars.

The itinerary now runs like this:

8/4: SF

9/4: Monterey (we would lose a lot of money on this hotel so we are taking a bus down for the night to have a look-see)

10-11/4: SF (Muir Woods tour on the 11th)

12/4: Las Vegas (at special New York New York hotel with cable TV so M can watch the golf masters, he hopes)(I will be having spa treatment)

13/4: Grand Canyon tour

14/4: Las Vegas again

15/4: leave LV at about 2pm and arrive in Los Angeles airport at 3:44pm in time for our flight which is 10pm. Talk about a long trip!

So, having seen the light yesterday we then treated ourselves to a nice French jazz restaurant near our place to calm ourselves down. And this leads me to a quick dissertation of our food experiences in SF which can be summed up in two words: Lori’s Diner! Well, okay, so we’ve only been there twice in 5 days… but we really like the frozen root beer and the Orange Freeze (orange sorbet with vanilla ice cream with tonnes of whipped cream on top and finished with a juicy, artificial-tasting cherry), and of course there are the burgers that go down like a lead balloon in your stomach… but they’re really tasty! Today we went to Mel’s Diner for lunch and had a chilli fries as well.

Okay, so it sounds like we’re going to diners all the time but actually we’ve also had great Thai, a Chinatown dinner (with “Peking duck” – just the duck and nothing else) and clam chowder.

Argh this internet is sucking us broke so had better stop now. M suggests it is sucking us DRY of funds. Either way, it’s not too bad as we haven’t actually done anything these last two days except make copious phone calls from the hotel (which have treated us exceedingly well, which is great as we are staying there now a total of 8 nights!), numerous visits to the internet cafe and dream about winning back the money we have lost at the one-armed bandits in Vegas!

I want to be a part of it

New York! New York!

Eek, internet access is so expensive here, we just paid $5 for 1/2 an hour that has just gone down to about 13 minutes. So, I shall type fast.

We’ve been doing so much walking since we arrived 3 days ago, we’re getting Rome Foot. This is the condition of the foot where it hurts so much, it still hurts after you take weight off it and indeed sleep overnight. The moment you put your foot on the ground, it remembers it was hurting the day before and starts hurting again!

Anyway, we’ve been taking in the sights and spending money as though it flowed through our veins and we’ve just received a major artery cut. For instance, today I died and went to retail heaven. We went to Century 21 which is a designer discount store, a really massive one, of course, where they sell Branded Items at less than 50% of the original price. So M was looking at a Marc Jacobs jacket for $450 rather than $1200. Anyway, we walked off with $115 worth of purchases… but the receipt said that we also saved $113! That’s so nice to know! This $115 comprises work Rockports for M, sandals for me, a Ralph Lauren t-shirt for M ($15!) (not factorial!) and a handbag for me (branded, but I can’t remember the name, Kenneth somebody or other. I’m sure some of you will recognise it).

And this was after a really expensive night out last night listening to jazz at the Iridium club near Times Square. It was a Hammond Organ trio and M had heard of the organist before so was quite excited to see that he was playing and that we in fact could attend!

Yesterday we also went to the Whitney museum of American art (a very nice morning out) and took a quick cut through Central Park while trying to get there.

In terms of food (yes, has to be addressed!), we’ve been duly eating traditional American food. So far, we’ve covered Burger King, hot dogs, pizza, Shake Shack and Subway. Not MacDonalds yet, but to my surprise MacDonalds is outnumbered here by the Starbucks outlets! (Yes, we’ve had Starbucks too) We’ve also become bagel converts and have been enjoying our morning raisin bagel with “schmear”, that is, cream cheese and a cup of sweet milky coffee. How could I have maligned this excellent pastry?! Well, we’ve also had our share of interesting meals, such as a humungous burrito at Qbota (Mexican chain), a large plate of St Louis BBQ ribs with cinnamon sweet potatoes and collard greens tonight, and a brunch yesterday of waffles with bacon and maple syrup (yes, all together!).

Well that about brings us up to date and anyway I’ve just run out of time. Buh-byeeee!

Trying to keep up my end of the deal

… and failing miserably, I might add. In my defence, there are 2 half full boxes to be shipped home with things strewn around them, and two almost full suitcases that I’m a bit worried about – M’s is already almost bursting at the seams and mine doesn’t yet include my underwear and sock drawer, and I just read about the great 2nd hand bookshops in New York that I’m definitely going to visit (Strand bookshop has 18 miles of books…). Tomorrow is designated Cleaning Day because Wednesday is Inspection Day. Time to get all that unsightly black mould off the walls and the rust off the stove elements! Then the plan is to pack up the boxes for shipping tomorrow as Wednesday is Collection Day which also means completing the inventory and insurance forms. It’s all last minute because we want to keep using certain things, like this computer. Tonight is the last night of computer usage (argh! we’re stumped for things to do on Wednesday night when the box is gone!) as it has to be packed up tomorrow. So all this stuff is occupying my mind at the moment, so much so that I’m finding it hard to even think about a telephone interview I have tomorrow night for a job back in Aus. My head is in a completely different planet from work and my CV at the moment.

We’ve had pleasing success with the selling of our stuff, though. We wrote a list of things we wanted to get rid of and stuck it up on the front door of our building and have thus managed to get rid of (or get bookings for) the computer speakers, DVD player, frying pan, iron and toaster. Advertisements on Gumtree.co.uk have made J’s single mattress walk out the door, together with the ironing board and microwave (and we discovered last night exactly how long it takes to reheat a lasagne in the oven rather than the microwave). Tomorrow somebody has pledged to turn up and remove the single duvet, a couple of pillows and my wonderful Pyrex dishes.

Anyway! We got back from Barcelona late on Thursday night, back to cold old London. Hey, I’m saying that phrase a lot it seems. Barcelona definitely turned on the sunshine for us, though. We could… wait for it… walk around without a coat in the daytime!!!!! However, when the sun went down, we were still forced to don warmer gear. The city did not disappoint with its crazy Gaudi architecture. The 2nd day we were there, we headed out for a Lonely Planet guided walking tour of modernista architecture and took in the weird and wonderful Casa Batllo, and, in the afternoon, the unfinished cathedral Sagrada Familia.

Casa Batllo

Of course, being in Spain, we also ate heartily and well (must report on this topic, naturally). We ate the old tapas favourites like patatas bravas and pimientos de padron and drank plenty of sangria, but also managed to fit in (into our stomachs, that is!) some Catalan food, notably on our final day where we went to the oldest restaurant in Barcelona (est. 1786) and had goose with apples and wild boar stew. We also had botifarra (Catalan sausage) with white beans, and I had a great rice stew with rabbit and artichokes in a random roadside cafe.

Hm, it appears to be Tuesday now, that is, Cleaning Day! I had best go to bed to prepare myself for the scrubbing ahead. This will be the last time you hear from me in London… wow, when you put it that way, it is quite a momentous day. After 9 months of living here, this is The End! I’m so caught up in the moving and packing that I haven’t really sat down to appreciate this. Memo to self: do it on the way to New York.

I’m still here, Professor van Helsinki!

No, sorry, that’s not a reference to a forthcoming trip to Finland, but an in-joke that approximately 2 people will get. But it basically is to inform y’all of The Return of The Blog! After A Hiatus Of More Than A Month Due To Extreme Laziness On The Part Of The Blogger. As advised by YB, I am coming back to the blog to generate interest in it for the forthcoming trip to the US so you will all know to keep an eye on it from now on.

So! As most if not all of you esteemed readers will know, financial circumstances have forced us to return to Australia about 6 months before we wanted to. The recession here in the UK was just getting worse and worse and the jobs were drying up, especially the contract jobs because companies were turning towards employing cheaper permanent staff. So we decided to cut our losses and have one last Hurrah and travel  home to Melbourne in a blaze of glory, or via the US, whichever was cheaper. It was an all-or-nothing stance for us, rather than eke out a meagre existence on a check-out chick job which would not provide us with enough savings to actually make trips, we would use our current savings to, well, basically not work for 2 months!

We are currently living the Last Hurrah. M’s Mum, to be known as J, arrived for holiday about 2.5 weeks ago, and M finished work the day before she turned up. My contract ended 2 weeks before that so actually I’ve been Last Hurrah-ing for over a month now (yippee!). Last Hurrah-ing comprises going on short European vacations and seeing lots of London, including many shows, in a very relaxed, sleeping-in fashion. So here is a report on the main things we’ve seen and done in the last 2.5 weeks to make y’all jealous (I’m practising my American).

We started off with a week around London, trotting around with J and seeing the sights. That must’ve been a very festive week because we spent loads of money eating out. We went to many markets, including a new entrant in my Top 10 markets, Borough Market. Every time we go to Borough Market we purchase expensive marinated olives and a hideously expensive slice of French Comte cheese. Last time we also got some glorious salami and crusty bread for a full-on picnic feast. We also spent an afternoon at the Science Museum, attended a Sunday afternoon organ recital at Westminster Abbey, ate two lunches at Camden Market (where J went bananas at a 2nd hand bookshop, so now we are afraid to take her to another lest she buy up the whole store and will have to check herself into the cargo hold as luggage and give her seat to the books), enjoyed Shai Wosner play Debussy Preludes and Schumann’s Carnaval at a Wigmore Hall lunchtime recital and were affected by seeing a production of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge at the Duke of York theatre. And we also ate out frequently at such august establishments such as Masala Zone for Indian thalis, Baozi Inn for Beijing noodles and Le Pain Quotidien (twice!) for delicious coffee, tarte tatin and tartines. Quite a full programme, I think you’ll agree, but that was only the first week!

The second week, M and I went to Florence, that is, in Italy, while J visited rellies in Colchester. We ate gelati almost every day, with the most memorable time being on Day 3 when we had a walk around Oltrarno and stopped by the Arno River in the sun, nicked across the road for a tub (lemon, dark chocolate and a peach and orange mix for me; M had a great combo of dark chocolate, banana and rum baba) and sat on the river wall, legs dangling, warming ourselves and licking away.

We arrived last Tuesday quite late in the pouring rain and this inclement weather continued into the next day, so much so that I had to swap my leaky boots for too-small wellies! We still managed to see the sights, like go into the Duomo, and see the sculptures in the Piazza della Signoria, but alas!, David was undergoing restoration and was covered up. We could only see a glimpse of massive thigh so decided we had to go down to the Galleria Accademia and see the whole hog.

On Thursday we hired a car and drove down to the Chianti region, through towns with names ending in “in Chianti” like Greve in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti. Unfortunately it was still pouring so we viewed the rolling Tuscan countryside through a haze of rain and fog. We stopped at the medieval fortified village (more of a castle, really) of Monteriggioni for lunch and were literally blown into the nearest restaurant where I had the dodgily named but divine tasting Risotto with Sausages and Chianti. I think this interesting place warrants a picture:

Monteriggioni

 We also visited San Gimignano, another medieval village, before heading back to Florence. I should add that we were given a Smart Car which was almost a covered motorbike for two, and with this we were meant to negotiate the hazards of driving in Italy! Actually, it wasn’t that different from driving in France and M, having had so much experience, was quite relaxed about the whole affair, even when somebody created his own lane at a roundabout to cut past us. We were the slowest car on the road, letting zoomy large cars overtake us as we pootled along the windy roads.

Smart Car, as modeled by ME!

Day 3, as I mentioned earlier, took us on a Lonely Planet-guided walk to Oltrarno and in the afternoon we did as all good Florence visitors should do and spent our time in the Uffizi. Day 4, that is Saturday, was our flight back to London from Pisa. We took off in the afternoon, so we spent the morning in Pisa itself (about an hour’s train ride from Florence). It was an absolutely glorious day, and so warm we had to strip off down to a t-shirt! Unheard of! And here’s proof:

T-Shirt weather!

We did the usual Pisa touristy thing, posing beneath the Leaning Tower, holding it or pushing it. There was a whole line of weirdly posing tourists actually, arms held aloft.

This photo was voted best touch by M

but I quite like this one even though it's not touching

Anyway, you can see what a great day it was, and it was even more so for sun-starved Londoners who in fact are taking vitamin supplements to boost their calcium and vitamin D intake! An outdoor, in the sun thermometer put the temperature as an amazing 23 degrees! This must be mentioned, so impressive was it. Then we jumped on a plane and went back to cold, dreary old London.

However, that was week 2! In week 3 (still in progress) we have done Even More than in week 1! How is that possible, I hear you ask? Well, we have attended another Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert where violinist James Ehnes dazzled us with his fantastic renditions of Prokofiev’s 2nd violin sonata and Ravel’s Tzigane, then M and I had afternoon tea in the woody ambience of Ray’s Jazz Cafe in Foyles bookshop. We spent an afternoon in Judd’s Bookshop in Bloomsbury, taking J in with some trepidation, but she resisted temptation admirably! On Wednesday M and I wandered around Highgate Village and we all attended an evening performance of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and Brahms’s 1st Symphony by the London Philharmonic in the Royal Festival Hall (we had actually, optimistically, booked tickets for a concert in June so luckily could swap them for this concert).

Yesterday M went to play golf at Royal St George’s in Sandwich which was a long whole-day affair (not far from Dover, he says, and he glimpsed the cliffs from his train window). I had a day out in town and went to a matinee performance of Billy Elliot which I enjoyed thoroughly and which actually moved me to tears at one point (no mean feat!). As I was wondering if I should fish around for a tissue, I heard a loud “PARP!” from somewhere behind me and a few rustlings for tissues, including next to me. I glanced casually over and saw next door wiping her eyes with her fingers! Gratuitous weeping aside, the performance of the 13 year old who played Billy was absolutely stunning. As M pointed out, 13 year olds have a lot of energy, but this guy was leaping around the stage for almost 3 hours, and dancing fabulously in so many different styles: ballet, contemporary and even tap, rounding off the performance with several well-placed somersaults, including one off a piano! I suppose I am amazed because I do have vivid recollections of ballet school end-of-year concerts where kids around that age ran like headless chickens around the stage, so it’s pretty amazing that such a performance is mostly carried by a few, incredibly talented kids.

Well, that’s it for the news for now. Oh, except for the following newsflash on moving: we have sold the TV (for the same price we bought it for!) and the guitar! Anybody want a DVD player? We plan to go to the Tower of London today but M is recovering from his day of golf yesterday… or should I say, he’s sucked in by A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (which is a novel in English, so he hasn’t suddenly learnt another language) and guffawing.

Before I go, I shall just put down the itinerary for our trip home.

16 – 19 March: Barcelona (all 3 of us)

20 – 26 March: Clean and pack up house in London and move out

27 March – 2 April: New York

3 – 6 April: San Francisco

7 – 8 April: Yosemite

9 – 11 April: Drive down Californian coast, stopping at Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara

12 – 14 April: LA

15 April: Fly home

17 April, a.m.: Arrive in Melbourne!

17 April, p.m.: Depression kicks in!

London transformed!

Woohoo! Any excuse for a day off work, I say, and this is one of the best! The snow started falling last night about 6pm, after a brief flurry in the morning and when we woke up this morning (Monday!) to go to work, we were greeted by the magical winter wonderland sight that we’ve been wanting to see for so long.

A great sight for sleepy eyes

Yes, Britain’s heaviest snow fall in 20 years has struck, right in the middle of the coldest winter in 13 years. It provided Yark with an unexpected holiday as all London buses were cancelled and all tube lines but one were either suspended or had severe delays. Hurrah! Without too much thought, we telephoned in to work and then proceeded to head off to frolic in the deepening snow.

After our previous smatterings of snow, we are now experiencing the Real Deal. At the moment, the snow in our back garden comes up to our ankles!

Snow up to ankles!

We constructed a little snowman but the snow is still falling and I think he has been blinded by excess fall.

Bon Homme du Neige

 Then it was time to step out of the front door.

View out the front door

And view what the night had done to our street.

Our street is eerily quiet

We walked down the road to Golders Hill Park which is also part of Hampstead Heath. The place was full of kids snowball fighting, toboganning and making snowmen after a large proportion of London declared it a public holiday. We, of course, simply had to join in the fun.

Anyone for tennis?

Not almost falling over

Note duck trails in the ice covered water

Snow blocks keep falling on my head

We walked further into the park and found ourselves in part of Hampstead Heath which was just magical, with paths winding through the snow covered trees.

M doing an attractive tree-side pose

A snowy woodland scene

Luckily, when we got hungry and wet, we managed to catch the only bus that seemed to be running in London back to Golders and headed home. The snow seemed to be even thicker than before!

The garden has almost disappeared!

The snow’s now falling heavier than ever. We’re all set for a warm night in our hosue, all heaters going at full steam… except we appear to have run out of milk! And we must have constant cups of warm tea. I think it’s back out into the snowy wilderness for us now…

Not only Paris post (inc photos!)

Hi all, it seems that after a prolonged quiet period, there is a sudden glut of blogs. Cheer all Yark blog fans! So faithful readers, sit back, relax and enjoy…

 Actually, it will be rather shorter than the YS blog as she has advised me that the recent Paris trip has been covered already. Still, she is the person for the job, not least because she can remember the French names of everything.

 

No doubt YS has also given you a descriptive entry encompassing the current economic woes that our temporarily adopted isle is facing (I haven’t read it yet). In fact, I believe the antipodean news has been spreading the word of the UK’s joys. So, now that the winter solstice has passed (some time ago), along with what was the ‘officially’ most depressing day of the year (last Monday according to the media here), we can allow ourselves to be swept along with the euphoria surrounding a certain recent historic presidential inauguration and look to the future with optimism (or dare I say ‘hope’?). Also, we both have our CVs in for one whole job each! This is a truly momentous occasion and should be savoured…

 

Ok, so in reality we are in a period of uncertainty. I had never expected to be in this situation worrying about getting work as there have been jobs aplenty up until now, especially in planning. Things were not looking the best late last year, but we (as in the country) keep plunging deeper and deeper into recession at quite an alarming rate to the point where we (as in Yark) are seriously wondering whether we will be able to last the distance…or will we be home soon with our tails between our legs?

 

Of course, when we look at all we have done so far, it has been an incredible experience and one we will never forget (get ready for a whole week of slide shows everyone!!). Still, I can’t help but be disappointed at thought of not being able to hop over to Paris or another magnificent European city for the weekend or upcoming holiday. This last thought arose in my mind upon the first real acceptance that we may be forced to cut short our journey. The night before I was feeling homesick! How quickly that changed. The grass is always greener?

 

Speaking of trips to Paris, we have just returned from a wonderful weekend there. This time we got to do what we had always said we’d do there sometime, which was take time to just walk the streets and boulevards and enjoy the ambience of the city, stopping in for a coffee and crème brulee at our leisure so we could partake in that great Parisian pastime: people watching. Or should I say, very stylish people watching. Maybe it was the thought that we may in fact not return later this year, as we had always planned, that made me really appreciate every minute. It really is a city of food – there are so many little specialty food shops, in addition to the magnificent pastries etc to be found all around.

 

Well, having spoken about our Paris trip in such glowing terms, I should put some photos up here as they will speak many more words than I will write tonight – I’m getting hungry for dinner and it’s almost 8pm. G’night all…

Dancin' Queen on the streets of Paris! A jazz band was playing on the street corner.

 

Under the Eglise du Dome in the Hotel Invalides looking to Marshall Foch's tomb.

A wintry Paris looking across the Seine to Notre Dame

Paris Post

What better time to write a nice juicy blog than when I am house-bound due to a nice bout of diarrhoea, surrounded by boxes of vitamins and Diareze, existing only on dry bread and salty fish porridge while dreaming about all the lovely food I would rather be eating? Okay, too much information I hear you say (which is what my boss said this morning when I rang to say I would not be in yet again – but I did want to impress her with the gravity of the situation, rather like when you put on a “cold” voice by not eating or drinking anything before ringing up work to make sure you sound appropriately ill).

Anyway! Last weekend we had a lovely long weekend in gay Paris. We took an early Eurostar (6:55am from St Pancras to be exact) on Friday and so arrived in Paris in the late morning. The holiday was a wonderful combination of food and sight-seeing and I believe we got the balance just right. We stayed in a B&B that we’d had our eyes on since before leaving Aus, because it was right in the heart of the Latin Quarter but also had its own kitchen, sitting room and piano! As I think I mentioned, we had dreams of doing the whole French-baguette thing, which we did, only without the baguette.

The first day we were there we took in a few touristy sights, like walking to the Luxembourg Gardens. In our previous trips to Paris, we’d always stayed nearby but hadn’t actually looked around, so we decided to this time, only to find that it was very wintery and barren, and also quite muddy, so we decided to come back in spring or summer (hah!). So we headed to St Chapelle, stopping only to pick up a huge cheesy crepe from Rue de la Huchette, our favourite plate-breaking, cheap food, Greek restaurant saturated street. We have been to St Chapelle before, back in 2007, and that day was a gloriously sunny day but they were doing works on the chapel and so the entire front section (ie, the most impressive bit) was blocked off and in its place there was a consolation picture: this is what this place would’ve looked like had we not been doing works! So this time we were quite keen to see the front bit without the works, which we duly admired. Unfortunately it was quite a cloudy day (the forecast had been for heavy rain over the entire weekend, but we were very lucky because it only rained while we slept! – which of course was quite a lot of the time) and the interior of the church was actually colder than the outside so after a while we had to beat a hasty retreat to a cafe opposite where we enjoyed a cafe au lait and creme brulee to share. We’d always meant to kick back and relax in a Parisian cafe, but our previous trips had been too full with sight-seeing adventures and we never had the time to do so. This, in some ways, is the beauty of travelling in winter (that, and the lack of queues and people) – it is so cold that we are forced to slow down the speed of travel and, well, enjoy the finer things of life. We spend much more time in our accommodation, so we make sure we get something we’d like to spend time in, and we are unable to sit for too long in parks when we get tired so we go to cafes instead!

That night, much to our hosts’ consternation, we elected to cook in. The kitchen was fairly well equipped, but not fully, and we had to borrow things like a spatula and knives from our hosts. I think they couldn’t understand why anybody visiting Paris would not eat out! Just a minute from our apartment was Place Maubert which contained a row of Parisian food shops: a boulangerie/patisserie, fromagerie, charcuterie/bucherie, poissonerie, grocerie (har har?) and wine shopperie, and a supermarche was just down another street for items like cream and butter. That street was begging us to wander down it and go into each shop in quick succession, so we came back with a couple of slices of lamb’s leg, some potatoes, an onion and green beans and a nice bottle of wine to make a thoroughly satisfrying dinner. And not just that, but I actually managed to understand the butcher saying, “Et avec ceci?” and respond correctly, “Ce sera tout.” My French high point! Oh, that and understanding the guard asking us to close the door behind us.

The following day our hosts provided us a goodly-sized breakfast from the Kayser bakery. That bakery is supposed to be a very good one and well known, and we decided that it must be the case after seeing a huge queue of people the night before, standing in the cold and dark, waiting to go in! We spent most of this day exploring Ile St Louis. Considering it’s right next to the Ile de la Cite, I’m quite surprised that we haven’t visited it before. It’s filled with cute little shops alongside narrow, cobbled streets. We also walked to the Marais and the Bastille roundabout which were also new areas to us. The day was a great foody one because at the start of the day we walked along Boulevard St Germaine and went to Cacao et Chocolat, which is described in the Lonely Planet as making the best chocolate in the world. Not something to be claimed lightly! We had a hot chocolate each, one with epices and the other plain and both were extremely rich – but of course, very good. This was after we discovered Rue de Buci and the pastry shop there which I can tell you from personal experience sells excellent pink custard macaroons with raspberries, and also the olive oil shop, which sells very expensive, very interesting olive oils infused with bergamot, mint, green lemon or mandarin. We now have a small pot of “salt and herbs for meat” sitting on our kitchen bench, together with an even smaller pot of tomato powder, but I can also vouch that these two in combination with basil infused olive oil is excellent on toasted baguette.

That night, we headed to Rue Mouffetard for our special expensive engagement dinner, and discovered, to our horror, that we CAN eat badly in Paris! We had originally salivated over a menu at Polidor (an old favourite from a previous visit) but then left, deciding it was too expensive, and picked a place in Rue Mouffetard specially because it offered a mini fondue for entree. This may sound bad, but after sitting down and ordering, we noticed that the restaurant was run entirely by Indians, which could have been a warning sign. However, the two-cheese fondue was very nice and we were waiting expectantly for our duck breast. This was supposed to be done medium-ly but the moment I speared my knife into mine, the entire plate flooded with blood! It was possibly the worst main I have eaten in France (and that includes the kidneys or liver that I ordered in Lyon last year), with the duck being so incredibly tough and plain that I ate all the potato wedges and left most of the meat. The dessert of souffle did somewhat make up for the mains, what with being doused with Grand Marnier and set alight, but I must say it doesn’t resemble any picture of a souffle I’ve ever seen, and the only explanation I can think of was that it was actually an ice cream souffle which I just came across in Wikipedia, for it sure tasted like vanilla ice cream. Ah, now I am reading about cold souffles… that must be it. Anyway, M says we should make the phrase, “Remember the duck!” into a reminder that it is possible to eat badly in Paris and that we should always go with recommendations when wanting to do an expensive treat meal.

The following day we went to the Hotel des Invalides, the last of the Top 10 sights in our Paris Top 10 book that we haven’t seen. We marvelled at Napoleon’s tomb and went around the Army Museum at a speed that increased in proportion to our hunger. That was a great day, with the golden Eglise du Dome shining bright against a cloudless sky. We had a €10 menu for lunch that was actually better than our expensive meal the night before, I am sorry to say. Or maybe that was just because it included onion soup which was lovely and warming on a winter’s day. And that was our trip to Paris – we made our way to Gare du Nord and back to London on Sunday night.

Now that the last of the January festivities are over, we are turning to the depressing task of finding work in credit-crunch London. Everywhere we turn here, we are pounded by depressing news about the economy, with even an investment guru saying in The Times yesterday, “I would urge you to sell any sterling you might have. It’s finished. I hate to say it, but I would not put any money in the UK.” What are we doing here?! We are now looking at fleeing back to Australia earlier than we had anticipated and wanted to, simply because there seem to be hardly any jobs available. So don’t be surprised to find us cheerily waving at you in Melbourne sometime in the next few months! Watch this space for updates…

I just wanted to note that it snowed on my birthday!!! Ahem. It was very exciting. And also very cold. And I’m sure most if not all of this blog’s readers know of our new Engaged status, and we’re very grateful for all the well-wishes and congratulations we’ve received. However, I’d like to note my colleague’s reaction: he said it was “dead cool”!

Happy New Year

We watched the BBC1 coverage of the NYE party last night and it was quite strange to see dragon’s breath coming out of people and hearing interviewees say, “It’s soooo cold!” What? Cold? But it was 40 deg a couple of years back… oh. Wrong country. Despite the fact we’re in this vibrant city that is London, where surely the NYE celebrations would be jolly and lively (with lots of jolly especially), we elected to stay in with a little dinner and a good bottle of wine and watch the fireworks on TV. Apparently last night was the coldest NYE night since the mid 90s. People are saying nowadays, “It’s a REAL winter. The last few ones were too warm.” Hurrah! I must say the fireworks were very impressive. Perhaps they even beat the Sydney ones! Could that be?? They seemed to go on forever (if forever is 15 minutes) and the centrepiece was the London Eye, so there were massive crowds on the Embankment. One person commenting on the Time Out website said that to get a good view, you had to be there from 6pm onwards. Eek! The temperature was only a balmy zero degrees.

I forget where I got to in the Prague blog. Oh yes, we were exhorting the sky to snow (about twice every hour). On Christmas Eve, we went to the New Town and explored Wenceslas Square, where a huge equestrian statue of Prince Wenceslas has prime position. In front of him is a memorial to the victims of communism, the spot where Jan Palach set himself on fire in 1969 to protest against the Warsaw Pact. As we were walking back, we popped into the nearby Our Lady of Snows, thinking we should pray for snow on Christmas Day. And Our Lady granted our wishes! Only thing was, we forgot to specify that we wanted 2 feet of snow outside our accommodation on Masna (street), and so this is what we got:

Snow!

Yes! Those three white spots are actually snowflakes! When we were out walking on Christmas Day (we could only be out for at most a couple of hours because the temperature suddenly plummeted on Christmas Eve and, as M said, our noses felt as though they were going to break off) we had the tiniest snow flurry, where we couldn’t see the snow hit the ground. This was the second one of the day, and so while we didn’t have quite the white Christmas we were hoping for, we can’t say that it didn’t snow.

After lunch on Christmas Eve, we retired into our apartment to begin our Christmas hibernation and basically didn’t leave again until we checked out on the 27th, except for a few walks around town. I think we even spent a greater percentage of our time indoors in a horizontal position, rather than vertical!

Here are a few Prague pictures to make you jealous.

Preparations for Christmas are well underway in Kampa Island, just under part of Charles Bridge

View from Charles Bridge back towards the Old Town. It was probably only about 4pm then

View of the Vltava River from Charles Bridge with special heavenly effects

Trdlo!! Our favourite crispy sugary snack! That's what it looked like, as well as being a sign

Jazz band playing on Old Town Square on our last day

Enjoying a walk on Kampa Island

Oh yes, I just remembered that we’ve been meaning to put this photo on for ages.

This is an Ugg boot from Australia

M took several photos of the Ugg boot shop at Cheltenham (this is back in Sept) because he simply could not believe that Ugg boots cost that much here. And now, we’re finding that it’s a fashion fad over here to go around in your expensive Australian Uggs (possibly teamed with a pair of short shorts over black tights). “Waaa,” M just said. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Hermann and the Christmas Tree

This is our festive get-up in our flat. In fact, it’s still there, but with a few more cards (thanks to all!). The Christmas decos and Hermann the owl are from the Vienna Christmas markets, and you’ll notice we could even put the present from M’s Mum UNDER the tree! We’ve now acquired a little clay golem from Prague to keep Hermann company. We hope it doesn’t run amok like the original golem did.

Mould!

And finally, just when you thought you could get away with ending on a lovely Christmassy photo, here’s one of our famous paint-stripping mould! Actually, the mould has been wiped away and what you are seeing is the mould’s superpowers, and how much paint it managed to strip all on its own! Luckily (although the stripped patch has gotten bigger), we may just have found the solution: vinegar! Fingers are crossed, but we put vinegar on the patch a couple of nights ago and no new sproutings have been observed with the naked eye yet.

And on that gross note, goodnight!

Almost all the weather forecasts must be right

We’ve become obsessed with the weather nowadays. Our days in Prague have settled into a little routine: wake up late, head out at about 11am, walk non-stop for about 7 hours (excluding a lunch break), go to the supermarket, stumble home exhausted and then rush straight up to the internet to check the weather. For the last two days, almost all the weather forecasts we’ve looked at have predicted snow for Christmas day, and the ones that don’t predict snow, we refuse to believe (M said their methods are obviously lacking in scientific rigour). Weather-wise, we’ve been pretty lucky. There’s not been much rain and yesterday was even 8 deg! At other times, though, we’ve been freezing our arses off. I’m nicely dressed up in my mega-jumper (thicker than the Lesser Jumper), thermals and down and still my nose is cold. However, all the “rigorous” forecasts are saying that from tomorrow onwards, the pleasant weather is going to take a turn for the colder and a couple of sites are even predicting the princely range of -3 to -7 for Saturday. One site predicts sleet/snow for tomorrow, so I’m going to be extra vigilant in doing my morning snow check (another part of our Prague routine in which I leap out of bed and stare out the window to see if there’s snow).

Well, I’ll just do a quick rundown of what we’ve seen before I go and cook dinner. The thing we have smelt the most is the lovely alcoholic fog of mulled wine. We are just a skip and jump away from the Old Town Square, where they have a great Christmas market. The first night we were here, we had dinner there, with roast duck, cabbages and dumplings for me and beef goulash served in a bread bowl with handles for M. We have also tried such delicacies from the market as sausages in a bun and trdlo (crunchy cylindrical pastries of vanilla and almond, covered in sugar and baked over hot coals – yum!), and of course the omnipresent mulled wine. Actually, we had punch, which I prefer. Unfortunately, mulled wine doesn’t agree too well with me as I get jolly and tipsy after about 2 sips, so I haven’t had as much as I would have liked.

On our first full day we headed to the Jewish quarter on a Lonely Planet-guided walking tour and went inside the Old-New Synagogue and peered into the Jewish cemetery from the outside (so as not to pay!). Yesterday we checked out Prague Castle and went to the Old Royal Palace, St Vitus’s Cathedral, the Prague Castle story and Golden Lane (to see the crossbow range, which we didn’t try, and the medieval torture chamber, which we certainly didn’t try). We bought a “long tour” ticket which was valid for 2 days and which also included entry to the Picture Gallery and St George’s Basilica, but, OF COURSE, when we went out today, we had already made it to Charles Bridge before discovering that we hadn’t brought the tickets with us! So thus we instead explored Mala Strana on foot, looked at each of the statues on Charles Bridge carefully and exhorted the sky to snow at regular intervals. The afternoon was spent in St Nicholas’s Church, where we saw the Liberace of organs – huge, and in white and gold, with gold cherubs adorning the pipes. We saw these two statues next to the high altar – one was St Ignatius of Loyola “beating a heretic” and the other was St Francis Xavier “converting a heathen”, to which M immediately said that he would much prefer to be the heathen and to be converted rather than experience any pain!

Well I think it’s time to cook now. We’ve been dumpling-ed out, and that didn’t take long. In fact, it only took one dinner of super salty goulash and dumplings to scare us off them! We did have a fabulous dinner in a Jewish restaurant last night, though. M had an unbelievably good rack of lamb. I can’t describe how tasty it was, with rosemary, garlic and honey glaze. Oh dear, I’m sounding like YB now. I had a very nice rabbit with mustard sauce and herb rice, but it wasn’t half as good as M’s lamb. It was just as well the food was so good, because we were slapped with a 19% service charge AND a 30 crown “table charge”! What are they going to charge for next? Cutlery? Napkins? Breathing?

Christmas cheer and paint stripping mould

We’ve been busily getting into the swing of the festive season. In fact, we appear to have been getting into the festive season since before it hit December! So in that sense, Christmas has been a very long time coming. Heck, it’s been Christmas since we went to Vienna and bought 4 Christmas tree decorations and a Christmas owl (now known as Hermann for some reason. And I just added an extra ‘n’ at the back too). Having the 4 decorations in our sweaty hands meant that we had to then get a Christmas tree, which we duly got from Paperchase, a one foot high sparkly green one that got dwarfed by the decorations and which is now situated on top of the DVD player and next to Hermann. We actually managed to put our presents under the Christmas tree – by lifting up the tree and plonking it on top of the presents slid under it!

Such has been our festiveness that we had Christmas dinner last night, complete with roast ham and Christmas cake (made by yours truly, courtesy of Nigella, my new food bible, borrowed from the library). It definitely feels like Boxing Day now because we have ham coming out of our ears and lots of mince pies and cake to finish up (the cake isn’t the type that keeps for 2 months) before we leave for Prague on Saturday. Hurrah! All the more festive cheer for us! We opened most of our pressies last night too, reserving just one or two small ones to take to Prague for the day itself (M suggested we take the tree to Prague, and he may have only been joking, but I have my doubts on that). I now have a new food bible because M gave me another huge fat cookbook called Falling Cloudberries. It can stun robbers when it’s not being used as a cookbook.

As for other news, there’s not been much going on, hence the lack of blog communication. I think everybody now knows about my new job (of data entry monkey – that’s the official title!). I’m into week 3 but spent half of last week sick in bed so I still feel quite new to things. We had to cut short our Christmas holiday for me to get this job (the agent told me they would offer me the job if I cut it short, so I duly did – we were thinking of going to Berlin for the new year), so we will spend a week in Prague and then come back to work on the 29th of Dec. However, just last week my boss told me I could take off between Christmas and NY if I wanted to… after I’d booked the flight home and it was really too late to get anything for a reasonable price! How irritating, especially as she will be away for the entire 2 weeks and longer. Anyway, to make up for that, we are going to Paris for a long weekend in January instead. We have a nice self-contained Left Bank apartment in the Latin Quarter. It even has a fireplace and piano! We’re going to do the romantic Parisian thing, shopping on Rue Mouffetard and carrying home large baguettes for lunch. Ooh, really am looking forward to it! And we have a week in Prague beforehand! I think I am quite enjoying this life. M just said, “Woohoo! We’re living the dream! Woohoo!”

The only other big news from this end of town is the paint stripping mould (mold? mould?). Somehow the mould here in this house is so powerful, it actually strips the paint from the walls. It bubbles up under the paint (which admittedly is rather thin and easily scratched off), bursting forth in a flower of furriness and when wiped off, takes the paint with it. I’ve never seen such mould! And it comes back with a vengeance shortly after being wiped off. That’s survival mould, that. And I think I should take a few pointers from it, as my new guide to life.

After coming back from our last holiday, we decided our resolution was to “do” London and make full use of the exciting things going on in this city. To that end, since coming back, we’ve been to see a photography exhibition in the Royal Festival Hall foyer (the World Press photography awards), heard a lecture by Simon Schama on his new book / TV series, An American Future: a History, attended another organ recital at St Paul’s Cathedral and gallivanted around the Hyde Park Christmas markets (it was more like a fun fair with more rides than Christmas stalls, and we dined on mini Dutch pancakes and a frankfurter in a bun – the whole market had a very German feel to it). On Friday I had my London “debut” on the organ in a community charity concert at church. So, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy, and have already booked shows in January and February. Stay tuned for reviews!

Well, the Falling Cloudberries are calling for my attention, so I shall sign off here by wishing all my faithful readers (and also the non-faithful ones) a very Merry Christmas!