A balls (and blocks) up

Morning
I seem to be slightly losing control over the whole calories in must equal calories out equation but a long hard run this morning should help even things up a little.

Noon

That was until I was exposed to the culinary delights at Borough Market, London's premier artisan food destination whilst meeting my friend Chris for lunch. Amongst my purchases was a 'fig block' from Croatia which consisted of dried fig with some herbs and lemon zest (at the stall I mistakenly read their sign as 'fig balls and bollocks', when it actually said balls and blocks).

Night

Is there an anymore confusing pedestrian crossing in london for drivers than the one outside Abbey Road Studios, where tourists congregate on the footpath waiting for their moment to recreate that Beatles album cover? Leah and her boyfriend live right around the corner and I made my way to their house for dinner, the only person on the street to cross at the other crossing (I actually think neither of them are the one in the iconic photograph).

This blog doesn't write itself

Morning
Packing, driving, airport rigmarole on minimal sleep, fun times.

Noon
"This is your captain speaking, we are now beginning our descent into Gatwick where the temperature is currently 15 degrees with a light mist." Hmmm can you turn around and go back to Spain please? We were not greeted with the nicest of summer days but I guess it was nice that the holiday within the holiday was concluded in the same way as it started, walking with luggage from the station in the rain.

Night

Like a naughty kid behind on their homework, I spent much of the rest of the rainy day on the couch working on what I'd been putting off - this blog. That makes it sound like I find it a chore, please understand it is not, that I am writing this first and foremost for my own entertainment, an opportunity to record the experience of travel and life away from day to day routine.

Back on top with a better bottom

Morning

Take off those toning shoes, step off the stair master, purchase these pants (in a choice of colours) from San Pedro markets and instantly improve your rear assets! Note. Does not come with cellulite free thighs.

Noon

Hitting the beach for one last time I was quite impressed with my progress reading the lengthy novel Anna Karenina. That is until Susan asked me where I was up to and I told her that Anna had just told her husband of her affair with Vronsky. She said that was where you said you were up to yesterday. Turns out I'd spent the afternoon reading 70 odd pages on the intricacies of Russian farming in the 1870's. Tolstoy - I'm sure he gets there in the end!

Night

When in Rome...ok so we weren't in Rome but as Marbella is a party hotspot we thought we'd embrace this culture on our last night and booked a table for dinner at the Nikki Beach Club. Delicious food - tick, camp waiter sashaying in culottes - tick, Kid Creole & the Coconuts entertaining the crowd with tropical tunes & back up dancers - tick, mum dancing - tick, DJ set by Sophie Ellis-Baxter and her husband - tick, going to bed only 3.5 hours before having to get up, pack, clean, drive, catch a flight - tick.

Help me Ronda

Morning
Hahahahahaha (see previous post)

Noon
Anyone who has known me since childhood will know I have a predisposition to travel sickness. Combine this with 'Spanish night club' sickness and an incredibly windy road and you get an opportunity to 'enjoy' the view at unplanned road side turn outs. Still, however painful the journey there (nice driving Susie), the inland town of Ronda was worth it. It spans two sides of a deep valley and features three spectacular stone bridges which traverse it. We wandered and read interpretative signs, a fair effort considering our delicate conditions.

Night
I maintain that it is completely acceptable to stay in and watch episodes of Grand Designs when one is abroad as long as it is done sparingly.

Good Mediterranean Living

Morning

I managed a run this morning, it was definitely the physical health highlight of the day because from there...


Noon

Hang on what is it we have here? A picnic in the park, looks like good wholesome fun - supplies purchased from Marbella food market ( jamon Serrano, membranillo, manchego, crusty bread, figs and cherries), enjoyed in the shade of a municipal park, still on the straight and narrow...
 
Night

Laying on a sun lounge reading classic Russian literature....then the sun went down....
Meeting up with three Irish lads we met on Sunday there may have been drinks and dinner (at the true Spanish time of midnight) and more drinking and dancing and home at 5.30am....

Gum trees on the beach

Morning
So you may be noticing that a whole week of the blog is being published at once. This is because I've had a lot of trouble with WiFi access in Spain. I am writing this from a cafe and my iPad says I have full connectivity but won't connect to the Internet. It is probably something I am not doing right but the irony is, apple help is of course online....

Noon

Gum Trees on the beach!

Working out

We figure it is because the sand here is more like dirt that eucalyptus trees are able to grow right on the beach. The beach is at San Pedro a little up the coast with a much more relaxed vibe than Marbella or Porto Banus. Exercise equipment was also a feature and Susan and I had a real workout, earning our lunch on the beach and a tough afternoon on the sun lounges.


Night
Marbella old town with it's narrow streets and window flower boxes gave me a taste of actual Spain, even if our dinner was spoiled by a very loud English woman. The 'degustation' menu may have been a mistake, whilst the tomato bread and fish skewer were delicious, I can't see what the chef EVER thought was appealing about zucchini and tropical fruits in jelly, it is not often that I can't physically eat something but this was one such occasion.

Narrow Street in Marbella Old Town

Susan's and her boutique (apologies for poor quality of photograph)

Getting around Marbella in the Ibiza

Morning
Sit in sun, read book, swim in pool, repeat.

Bedroom window view - sun!

Continental breakfast on the Continent (and the patio)

Noon
Susan well and truly honed her right side of the road driving skills as we searched the streets of Marbella for the Nikki beach club only to realise google maps had thrown us a complete furfy. We ended up back in Puerto Banus for some people watching on the marina, the term 'CUBS' springs to mind, short shorts and heels, during the day? At the beach? Really?

Ocean Club Puerto Banus, Me and my friend Rose

Night
Still adjusting to the abundance of evening light it was six pm before we went to a beach club and I had my first swim in the sea. It is hard as an Australian to appreciate most beaches in Europe, the brownish sand, the abundance of sun lounges, the smell of boat fuel....still it was more beach than I have access to in Alice Springs.


ps. It would seem (although I don't want to do it), that aligning the photos to the centre is the best way of avoiding other unwanted formatting.

Here comes the sun! (or more 'sun here we come')

Morning

A week away and I've managed four runs! This morning was down to Battersea park and along the river Thames, pagoda included.

Noon

Inconvenient yes, but walking down to Clapham Junction station, with our luggage, in the pouring rain, somehow made the fact that we were headed to Gatwick Airport, to fly to sunny Spain, more exciting, satisfying even. Knowing we were going to enjoy six days of warmth helped when a puddle was stepped in or I realised our luggage was sodden.


Night
A holiday from my holiday! I love arriving at a new destination at night, not knowing what you will discover when you wake up the next morning. Surviving our Easyjet flight to Malaga we were met by a man from the car hire company who handed over the keys to our 'Ibiza' (close but not quite) and Susan skillfully drove us (I skillfully navigated) down past Marbella to our home for the week near Puerto Banus. A late lite dinner (we discovered how grumpy I get when I'm really hungry), with a bottle of Rose, signaling the true start of relaxation Costa Del Sol style!

Not your typical English

Morning

To tell you the truth I was kind of hoping to capture a typical English motorway in this shot - that is bumper to bumper barely moving traffic. The M1 on Friday morning was however, clear and Fiona and I zoomed down toward central London. She dropped me at Wembly Park tube and made her way to work, commuting can be painless (sometimes, maybe, probably not very often).

And then it rained.

Morning

This photo is a complete lie. Firstly I didn't even leave the house in the morning (turns out the pints from the night before slowed me down somewhat).Secondly when I did I caught the tube at Clapham Common. It is not an entirely irrelevant photo, I have caught many a train from the junction.

Noon

I caught the underground to Old Street intent on exploring Shoreditch. The English weather had different ideas however, and I found myself in what felt like a monsoonal summer shower that continued as steady rain into the evening. Giving up and making my way to Liverpool St. station I found these white bunnies, their whiteness in even greater contrast to the grey concrete in it's wet state.

Night

I hopped on a train and headed north to St. Albans for an afternoon of visiting. First some family friends, a long time friend of my Dad's, his English wife, her daughter and her daughter's one year old son. Then A friend from uni who i haven't seen for years. She is living in what was her grandmothers house which the family will soon be selling, hence the lack of furniture and the comedy of her boyfriend Jurgs, sitting in a teeny tiny chair.

3 x a pickle - Losing my soul

When one is in the UK and needs cheap, light clothes that they can wear on their annual holiday to Spain (and then never again as it is never warm enough to wear the same clothes here) the best (and worst) of a bunch of high street retailers to visit is Primark. It is exactly the type of consumer retailer experience that makes me shudder, still yesterday morning I found myself bumping shoulders and manically trawling the racks with the rest of them in Primark Oxford Street in order to kit myself out for Saturday's trip to Spain. Although successful, I left a little down, realising I would never get that hour of my life back and perhaps I could've spent it reading classic Russian literature. Luckily across the street the window displays at Selfridges department store were there to cheer me up with bursts of colour and luxury items with excessive price tags. I worked at Selfridges as a Christmas temp when I was living in London and while that wasn't the best job I've ever had, it failed to spoil the magic of the windows for me.

Morning

Selfridges window display August 2011

Noon

Further healing the damage Primark had caused to my inner being was lunch in the gutter of a Soho street with my dear friend Leah. She took me to a sandwich stall and coffee shop where they know her by name and what she will order, nice to know that can still happen in a city of this size.














Night

The restoration to my soul was completed by spending the night in a pub with my two cousins - one from either side of my family. An interesting (to me anyway) thing that has occurred so far on this trip is an abundance of gherkins. At my first meal on arrival there was a little pot of mini gherkins and again on Day four's meat plate. Last night my standard pub burger came with delicious giant gherkins! I hope it is not some subversive communication about the country being in a pickle?

Britain - In a pickle?

Ladies Who Lunch - Making Our Mothers Proud

My mum and her sister have been known to partake in the art of lunching, so my cousin Meika and I thought we'd take on board all our mothers had taught us and gave it a serious go. The location was The River Cafe, an iconic Italian restaurant on - you guessed it - the river!

Morning

Meika contemplating the deliciousness to come.

We worked up an appetite by walking from Meika's home area of Putney across to Hammersmith and then wined and dined for close to four hours, I am a lady of leisure don't you know! Starting with a peach prosecco Bellini I then made my way three courses starting with Carpaccio di branzino - finely sliced wild sea bass with marigold tomatoes, garden oregano, chilli and canonici extra virgin olive oil, followed by Spiedino ai ferri - chargrilled Cornish monkfish and scallops on a rosemary branch with chilli, mint and zucchini fritti and finished with Panacotta with grappa and raspberries. All absolutely delicious! I am significantly poorer for it but as a resident of Alice Springs where restaurants are little celebrated, I felt it was my holiday right to indulge.

Our mothers would be proud (and our fathers probably groaning or sighing, even though their credit cards have come out unscathed)!

Noon

I was happy, really happy.

Night

A lady who lunches needs nothing more than a cheese and charcuterie platter for supper. Note the pot of tiny gherkins for the next post.

On the side

As a side note, has anyone else found Singapore airport in the middle of the night very surreal? Hundreds of people in limbo, not knowing what time they think it should be, eating steak in the middle of the night. Then there is the cactus garden, I am always fooled thinking that as I step outside I will be met with a burst of fresh air, not so. On Saturday night the air was so humid the lens on my camera immediately fogged up. Of course it is also a smoking area so there was a healthy dose of second hand smoke on offer too. There was an eerie moon overlooking it all.

New Improved Post. Now with 100% more photos!

As a way of overcoming my photo upload problems if only temporarily I'm using Susan's laptop in order to get some photos on this blog, it is after all the point!

So here goes for Monday August 15 2011...

Morning

Sisters Road, Clapham

A sunny morning (now just look at that blue sky!) was a great opportunity to stretch those cabin cramped legs for a run on Clapham Common. This is taken outside Susan's house where I am staying (although Dad you've probably already looked it up on google street view). What always amazes me running in London (as opposed to at 5.30am in Alice Springs) is that no matter what time of day it is, there are always others running. It wasn't my best effort but made my roast pork and apple sauce roll from Borough Market at lunch all the more delicious.

Noon

Debenhams window, Clapham Junction

Ok, so I'm breaking the rules already. There is more than one photo here for noon, but they are at least all taken at the same place. They are of the boarded up windows of Debenhams department store following last weeks youth riots. Quite an entertaining read, it is nice to see that not everyone in London thinks they deserve something for nothing. Other shops in the vicinity with boarded windows include a Curry's Digital, Pizza Shop and Chemist. Susan said they burnt down the costume hire shop, which may inconvenience her next time she has a dress up party to go to.

Yep, yoga ought to save them all!

I just like the way this lady's dress matches the colours of the brooms

Debenhams windows, Clapham Junction, artwork on brown paper stuck to boards.

and the humour/irony of this persons take on it all (Jeff, clever graffitti!), if you can't see, the hoody is making off with classic literature.

Later in the afternoon

Ok so I fail again. This image is not strictly 'night' in fact it is most definitely afternoon. If you are desperate to know what I did last night I cooked dinner for Susan, her boyfriend and her housemate, we ate on the couch and watched bad telly, now I'm not saying these people aren't photogenic just that the wine made me forget to grab the camera.

Tate Modern Gallery, London

I visited Tate Modern in the afternoon and for the first time in what must be four or five visits actually paid to see the visiting exhibition (the rest of the collection is free), partly in defiance to my previous poverty stricken London existence and partly because I am interested in the art of Joan Miro. It was worthwhile but busy, I'm still adjusting to crowds, baby steps.

Doing Lines

The British love to queue, I should have been grateful for the authenticity of the experience as I wound around 8 laps of ropes to get to the immigration counter. It was great to have been on an A380 for my Singapore to London leg (the seats really are more comfortable!) but a bigger plane of course means more people, hence the lengthy wait to be admitted into the United Kingdom. Susan was there to meet me on the other side and we were able to catch up and see the sites (literally most of London's landmarks) as we attempted to cross south of the River Thames. A major cycling race had caused major road closes and the traffic control staff were less than knowledgeable and helpful only to the point of communicating their lack of knowledge.

At 8pm the sleepiness caught me and it was a treat to be in bed by half past. Yes there is a lack of images again accompanying this post, we'll blame it on technology and the jetlag.

A less than perfect start (the only way is up, up and away!)

It seems I have stumbled at the first gate (luckily not the boarding gate for my flight to Perth). My preflight routine, sentimental goodbye and nervous excitement I feel are to blame for causing my 'not at work, yet not quite on holiday' brain to forget to take a morning image resulting in what will be the failure to submit the full complement of morning, noon and night photos on the first day! Coupled with the limitations I am discovering of the iPad to upload photos taken by it's camera, it is beginning to look like this blog may be more about words than pictures, so I'll endeavour to make them worthy.

I'm writing this from my qantaslink flight to Perth from Alice Springs, blessed with having three seats to myself (while 2 large Maori men are squished into the 2 seats across the aisle) and satisfied by a corned beef and pickle sandwich and two perfectly portioned squares of Cadbury Dairy Milk.

On the plane's ascent I marvelled as always at the beauty of Central Australia and confirmed in my own mind how deeply in love I am with the landscape of the area I now call home. There's pretty landscapes everywhere but to me the red soil, blues skies and rugged mountains are indescribably special and seeing them at an increasing distance gives rise in me a feeling of minor anxiety that for the next day my surroundings will consist of fluoro lit airports and flying cigar tins before I arrive in the populated chaos and built environs of London. Hard to take when last night I shared pre-dinner drinks and nibbles with a rock wallaby on top of a mountain (really, although he declined the delicious yet considered somewhat unrefined black beverage I was drinking from a black can).

I'm yet to have that 'in limbo' feeling I find comes with long haul flying, not really a part of a timezone so not really a part of the world, I expect it to hit once I leave Australia. I find it a confusing but necessary period that helps the transition from home-to-away. At the moment I'm still getting used to the idea that after six months in the planning I am on my way!