A little French repas!

Inspired by our sojourn to La Marche at Willoughby and our 10,000 steps a dayd,  un petit déjeuner at Frenchies was required! The food there is so good! Too good as it attracts the ever watchful kookaburra and brush turkey.

The walk with its magnificient views of the Heads, and city landscape is incredible. The perfect Australian day!

Happy Birthday Roger

 Great to share Roger's birthday with Caleb, Hiromi and Pat!  A golfing life experience ha! ha!

Le Marche - Aussie Style

 

Back to the old routine! Lovely stroll through Willoughby to the French Market.  Loved hearing all the French chatter again. fresh flowers, baguette (of course) and of all things cumquat jam!

We're back... singing, cumquatting, birthdaying, open micing, walking, concerting and BeanZing!

Oh to be back in the rush and tumble of Sydney! Home on Wednesday, rehearsing in the city on Thursday - it looked so cosmopolitan and kind of exotic! Great to meet up with everyone again although I felt sorry for Ruth who sat next to me having to put up with my lame singing.

As dawn broke off to Raymond Terrace to see Caleb and Hiromi. Of course Roger and I had been awake since 4.00 am. Arghhhh jet lag! Breakfast at the Riverside cafe... before cumquatting.

Oh my goodness what a tree! Collected 10 Kg.  I reckon there is at least 100kg left! Made up cumquat and ginger marmalade when I got home.

 

Great to be walking with Caleb and Hiromi again. This time to Fingal's Beach. 

Lots of catching up.  Jaffle lunch at the caravan and of course plotting our next trip with them. 

Love the concerts in the Utzon room...so intimate and yet fabulous views of the Harbour.  The concerts are always a bit quirky and this one was no different.  Liam Byrne a Berlin-based Irish played the viola da gambist along with Australian gambist Laura Vaughan The program was called Liquid Space, perfect as we looked out at the lapping water of Sydney Harbour.  An interesting concert with a mix of 16th- and 17th-century Renaissance and Baroque works as well as modern compositions. Great to see the two young composers sitting in the row next to us.  We are so lucky!

 

Finally it was open mic time with the BeanZ followed by dinner at the Ivanhoe Pub! Phew! somehow managed to get my feral story written. Enjoy! 

Copy of Open mic by Julie Howard

A Whirlwind Stopover in Vietnam

The. Lounge at Heathrow was really crowded but it gave us time to make those last phone calls and to gather our thoughts before we headed off to Hanoi.  The food and service on Vietnam airlines was terrific but sleep was on our minds! We were met in Hanoi by the enthusiastic guide Teddy who was supposed to take us straight to our hotel BUT he had other plans.  I'll take you on a three hour tour of Hanoi he said.  No Charge! All free!

There were half a dozen people travelling on to Sydney with us and we had all planned to use the 12hr stopover to shower and chill.  In unison we yelled out Nooooooooooo! 

Reluctantly he dropped us off, promising to pick us up for dinner. The hotel was of course was in the middle of a gloriously busy street, selling everything you could dream of. We regained our Vietnamese road crossing skills by walking straight ahead and never looking behind us.  I can't believe in previous years I've cycled here.  Most of the bicycles have now gone to be replaced by motor cycles.

 

Dinner turned out to be at a street 'cafe' - delicious food if you didn't think too much about what you are eating ha! ha! I tried to persuade Roger to have a skin fade haircut - only six dollars! No way was his response.  I actually still don't know what a skin fade hair cut is!

So back on the plane.... to Sydney!

 

London, Windsor, Ducks, Swans and FOOD!

The task this morning is to hand our hire car back and catch the National Express bus to London. After our horrendous check-in experience with rude counter staff who overcharged us (a battle we are still fighting!), we made sure to leave ourselves heaps of time  Surprisingly, all went smoothly. Surprisingly, everything went smoothly. We ended up enjoying a freshly cooked breakfast at the Radisson before wandering across the road to catch the bus.

It was an easy ride down. I even had time to glance over my music for the upcoming Benjamin Britten concert-EEEK! My first rehearsal is the day after we get back home to Oz.

We had a quick changeover at Birmingham, which proved to be a prime spot for people-watching. All I can say is that people come in every shape and size, wearing a fabulous array of clothes. Fascinating!

Exhausted, we checked into our hotel and enjoyed fantastic service alongside one of the best meals ever - and fantastic service!!!!

The next day, with seven hours up our sleeves before our flight, we took the opportunity to explore Windsor. Neither of us had been there before, so a cruise down the River Thames was the perfect way to spend a hot morning. There were flotillas of ducks and swans everywhere!

Windsor Castle was so much bigger than we expected and for the first time there were tourists everywhere unlike Southern France and Yorkshire!

As always amused by the signs and posters.

Farewells - Sheffield to Manchester

Last year was a tough year for my schoolfriend Maria, with the loss of her grandson and husband John.  It was so good to see her and to talk rather than using telephone or zoom.  We also had a chance to chat with Jeannie and Adrian.  Its good to have friends at these sad times.

Of course we also visited my grandparents, parents and cousin's graves.  I can see I have to get some maintenance done as they are starting to look neglected.  Always an emotional time saying goodbye.

But say goodbye we did and headed off to Manchester to return the car.  We stopped at Disley on the way to stretch our legs (got to keep up the 10,000 steps per day!) A lovely little village, complete with canal, quirkily named pub, a few heart thumping hills and of course a mansion or two!