The 2010 Adventure - France

France is one of my favorites places in the world. It is probably second only to my home. And that really isn't a fair fight because home has my bed in it and I really love my bed.

In France we stayed in Grenoble, Carpentras and Carcassone. They were all great bases for travel in the surrounding areas. My favorite is Provence.

The markets in Provence are renowned for their fresh local produce and beautiful hand crafts. The weekday morning market at Bedion was the highlight of my overseas holiday. I really can not describe how much I enjoyed it or exactly what it was like. Suffice to stay that I spent all the cash I had on me, all the cash Tom had on him, then all the cash my brother (who was traveling with us) had on him, including the euros he had hidden in his shoes and I only agreed to leave after I realised I could literally buy not more as there was no atm available. Below is a photo of the town of Bedoin.

Provence was alive with flowers. The sunflowers were spectacular but as I didn't get a photo that I was happy with of them, below is the photo Tom took of lavender while we were wandering around Gigondas in the heat of the middle of the day.

Another highlight in Provence was Orange. I persuaded Tom and my bro to drive to Orange one night for dinner, it was only a 30 minute drive and a 1.10 Euro toll away from where we were staying. I had read in my guidebook that there was a Roman Amphitheater and an Arc de Triumph, as well a quite a few nice restaurants.

Now going at night meant that the Amphitheater would be closed but my guidebook gave directions for how to reach the hill above it which allowed you to see down into the Amphitheater. Taking advantage of the looonnnnng daylight hours we went to see it after a lovely dinner at a local restaurant. When we arrived it became obvious that there was a concert on in the theatre and when we tried to follow the guidebook instructions to reach the hill it was all blocked off. Disappointed we started walking back down but on the way one of the roadies from the concert tried to show us the way around to the entrance, when Tom explained that this was not where we were going because we did not have tickets for the concert the roadie asked if we would like some. Three tickets and much cudos for the success of such a complex conversation in french later we were inside the theater climbing the stairs to our seats. The concert was the Opera Tosca. And below was the view...


After Provence we went further South to Carcassonne. As my guidebook says "Medieval Carcassonne is a 13th-century world of towers, turrets, and cobblestone alleys". It was amazing, especially around twilight when all the other tourists had gone home.

Another great thing that happened while we were in France was that while we were visiting some castle ruins in the Pyrenees we stumbled apon a birds of prey show. I am terrified of birds and these one were HUGE, but they were graceful and amazingly tame. Below is the trainer with a bald eagle.

Would I go to France again? Hell yeah!
Why? I love it. It is beautiful.

The 2010 Adventure - Switzerland

From Germany we drove into Switzerland. We made a day trip of Zurich and then drove to Luzern, on Lake Luzern. The bridge over the river in Luzern was especially beautiful. I love the way everyone in Europe makes an effort to have flowers in public places. Just beautiful.














And the food! Oh the food!










From there we went to Lauterbrunnen which is near Interlaken. Below are the pictures we took from the balcony of our room. The view was stunning.














From Launterbrunnen we took the cog-train to Jungfraujock. These were the views we enjoyed for the two hours there and back.












And this was the view from the top. The middle of summer and it was freezing. The day was glorious and we had a great time playing in the snow.











Would I go back to Switzerland? Yes.
Switzerland was beautiful and while I was not as taken with it as Germany I would certainly be happy to return to see move of this country.

A bad start

Most days I eat very well. I have lots of fruit and vegetables in my diet.

Today I got off to a bad start. I had a cheese and bacon roll with ice coffee for breakfast. And that bad start to the day seemed to snowball.

I had another coffee at 9 am.

A Nutella crepe with ice cream at 10:30 am. This was followed by deep breathing and three large glasses of water. It may be have been too rich....

Some fruit for lunch, one apple, one banana at about 1 pm.

Then for dinner we bought some pate and fresh white bread and made sandwiches.

And now I am eating my third honeycomb chocolate biscuit while I blog.

Tomorrow I am having porridge for breakfast, I just don't trust myself with any other option.....

The 2010 Adventure - Germany

The European leg of the 2010 Adventure started in Germany. We flew into Frankfurt and stayed one night before picking up our hire car and driving to Bacharach, a small town on the Rhine in Western Germany.

Germany in summer is beautiful. The people are friendly. Flowers are abundant. Everything is well organised, well maintained and easy to understand (even though it is all written in German). We stayed at Pension Im Malerwinkel, which was a lovely half-wooded old house set literally into the village wall. This was our base for three days while we recovered from the hectic few weeks leading up to our trip and explored the surrounding area by car and bike. This stretch of the Rhine is covered with castles (about 65 within a 30 minute drive from where we were staying).

These pictures are of the pension, the gardens near the river in Bacharach, a nearby castle and the local bakery.



















From here we drove to Baden-Baden in South-West of Germany. This was a pretty flash town known for its Roman baths (which are still in operation), casino and horse racing.

We skipped the gambling and headed straight for a relaxing day at the baths. We went to the more modern baths as the "proper" Roman ones were closed for renovations. This was probably just as well because we found the Roman (nude) part of the modern baths quite confronting and hurriedly returned to the modern (clothed) parts. We soaked in 36 degree water, then 38 degree water, then spashed into the 17 degree pool followed by a trip to the 100% humidity room and the brine room. We stood under waterfalls, pulled buckets of "arctic" water on our heads and participated briefly in aqua aerobics. We also both had a massage which was great, if not painful. After all this we were relaxed and exhausted so returned to our hotel for an afternoon rest before going out for a wonderful meal at a hidden local restaurant. Above is a photo of our hotel and below is the view from our hotel window and a picture of the wonderfully moody restaurant we ate in one night.










From Bacharach we took a lovely scenic drive through the absolutely unbelievably beautiful Black Forest down to the bicycle-filled university town of Freiburg. The Black Forest was amazingly dense with trees and the scenery was just divine. If I were an artist this is the place in the world I would chose to paint. Below are two photos of the Black Forest, the second was taken by the car of Tom and me.















Would I go back to Germany? Yes.
Why? The landscape is beautiful, the people are welcoming and the prices are very reasonable compared with other countries in Europe. Germany was amazing and I would return there in an instant.

The 2010 Adventure - Japan

The 2010 Adventure started in Tokyo. Like all big cities Tokyo is busy, noisy and has poor air quality, but if you can get past that it is ok.

The streets are busy with short (to me) people weaving their way between each other to reach their destinations. The buildings are covered with advertisements in ever increasing multitudes of colors which have a garish and childlike look to them.

The pavements are tidy and litter free, save for the businessmen in black or gray suits chain smoking their way through their lunch breaks.


We visited Ueno Park and enjoyed walking around for an hour looking at the trees, monuments, lake, shrines, fountains, views and locals.

There were few homeless people visible during the day but many locals out for a stroll or mediation....


We stayed in Narita, a small town outside Tokyo, which is about an hour and a half closer to the airport than Tokyo. It has two train stations about 300m apart which made travel into Tokyo very convenient and lots of restaurants, including Macdonalds.

On the night we arrived we were too exhausted to look for food so stopped in at McDees for dinner. The polite young girl behind the counter seemed surprised at the amount of cheeseburgers we were buying. Her numerous confirmations about our order made more sense when we opened the burgers to discover that we had accidentally ordered double cheeseburgers.

Would I go back to Tokyo? No.
Why? It just didn't really appeal to me. Smoking is permitted everywhere and that made most places smell bad and made me sneeze. And it had a really busy feel to it and I found that stressful.

Not getting what you didn't want

There is nothing more frustrating that not getting what you want....... except maybe not getting what you didn't want but expected to get.

It is sort of like being annoyed at someone else more than you really should because they did something that really annoys you when you do it. Confused yet?

Recently I reluctantly tried to obtain something.

I didn't really want it. I didn't need it. I didn't enjoy many different aspects of it. But everyone thought I would get it and I decided that trying to get it would at least leave the option open to me if I decided that I wanted it.

So I tried to get it. And while I was waiting to find out if I had, I decided that I definitely didn't want it. I decided that once I was offered it I would turn it down graciously. Say "Thanks but no thanks" and explain that the disadvantages of the thing were more than it was worth to me.

But I didn't get it. Someone else did. Someone I know, like and respect. Someone who will appreciate it much more than me.

But because everyone expected that I would get it, and expected that I would want to get it, they are disappointed for me.

And although I am disappointed that I didn't get to say"Thanks but no thanks", overall I am more relieved than disappointed. The disadvantages are still too sharp in my focus.

But all is not sunshine and lollypops, there are some parts of the thing that I really loved. I grieve for the loss of them.

It has been such a wonderful opportunity to be gracious and classy. There is nothing like being in a bad situation to allow you to show who you really are. I am the woman who can congratulate the person who got what she expected to. I am the woman who can accept the outcome that I didn't expect.

The interpretation of my upbeat attitude to the outcome tells me so much about the people around me. Those who assume I am putting on a brave face are correct though they probably don't realise that I am cheerfully hiding the childish tantrum I want to throw for not getting the outcome I expected, even though in the end I got the outcome I wanted. Those who tell me that there will be others in the future and not to worry about this particular one are right but probably don't realise how far into the future that might be. Those who tell me why I should have got it renew my confidence in my skills and myself. Those who show absolute shock and surprise inflate my ego. And those who say nothing, say most of all. I will remember them.

But like a clever Hollywood play write once said, when God closes a door he always opens a window. I wonder what this one will be like......

The honey-moon is over baby

I am taking a break from uni this semester.

I have been studying for two years now and we need some time apart. I need some time out, to invigorate my soul so I can love it even more.....

(if that make no sense to you please watch this link)

I am hoping that six months should do it and that next semester I will be back and ready to go. Time will tell.

Birthday China

I was give these lovely Royal Albert pieces called Poppyland by a good friend for my last birthday. They are divine to drink from, beautifully soft and fine, and came with plates just the perfect size to combine tea with toast.

Christmas China

My sister in law gave me this beautiful cup and saucer for Christmas. Isn't it lovely?

New napery

Apart from antique china my next favorite collectable is napery. I have a small collection of tablecloths and place-mats. Some of these are family heirlooms that have been passed down from my grandma and others I have purchased on trips overseas.

Many years ago when I went to Scotland with my Mum and Grandma, my Grandma was kind enough to buy me half a dozen lavender place-mats with thistles on them and matching coasters. In my more recent vist to Scotland I found them again and bought another 4 of each so I now have a set of ten.

A couple of years ago I went crazy in Hong Kong and bought a massive red linen Christmas tablecloth with matching napkins, as well as a dozen red linen Christmas place mats with matching napkins. I have used both sets but in retrospect it was sort of silly to buy things that I can really only use once a year ( or twice if I have Christmas in July). Having said that though, Christmas is one time I consistently want to set the table up nicely so at least they do get used.

I also bought a couple of white patterned hexagonal place-mats in Biot (a small hill top town in the South of France). These are beautiful and I adore looking at them but because they are white I am too afraid they will get damaged to use them. I think I have used them twice, which is a pity because they are just so beautiful.

On my most recent trip to Europe I bought at the Provencal markets in Bedoin (near Avignon) a large creamy-beige linen tablecloth with pictures of roosters on it. I know that sounds hideous, but it looks really classy. I am hoping that the color and the pattern will mean that I am not so reluctant to use it as the white place-mats described above.

I also bought a quilted bedspread in the traditional Boutis style (though probably made in China) in Provence at a small town near Avignon called Vaison-La-Romaine. It is white and beige and beautiful. It looks similar to this one but without the floral pattern.

Sleep update

Well I am very pleased to report that I managed to stay awake until 6 pm last night. And I slept until 7 am this morning which is a quite respectable hour to wake.

I hope this portends that I have successfully readjusted to the Aussie time zone and will have no issues from here on in (note positive thinking).

Today I have the joyous task of washing all the clothes we took overseas and everything I left in the washing hamper before we left. Oh joy.

To sleep or not to sleep

Currently my cognitive function is at an all time low, so I thought I should blog something. Maybe that will get it working a bit better; or at the very least it will keep me awake.

My synapses can't fire well just right now because I am tired. So so tired. I haven't slept properly since Saturday night when I has in Copenhagen. Since then I have flown to Tokyo, had 12 hours in the airport there and then flown home. Long haul flights are really the pits. They sap all the joy out of traveling overseas, luckily they don't last forever and the travel memories soon overload the negative flight ones.

Anyway back to the sleeping, I really want to sleep right now, right this instant. I want to walk into my bedroom pull down the covers on my clean freshly made bed and collapse into it. But I know that if I let myself sleep now I won't sleep tonight and it will just take me longer to get over the jet lag. I have only moderate jet lag right now, it feels like I am on a boat, the world is rocking just a bit. It isn't unpleasant but it probably isn't really good either.

Hopefully I can hold out til at least later this afternoon....

Shopping while tired

There are a lot of reasons not to shop when you are tired. The primary one being that you will buy significantly more groceries than you actually need. And in my case those extra groceries usually have little nutritional value.

Yesterday I went shopping my husband and brother for dinner. We wanted some salads, bread and meat. I also had the bright idea of buying some trail mix to take on a walk we were going to do today. We found the dried fruit without any problems but I could not find the nuts. Because we were in an unfamiliar supermarket I suggested we spread out and each take a different isle.  Husband and brother both dutifully walked down their isles looking at the shelves but with no success. After checking the rest of the supermarket I went back to those isles and what do you think I found? - nuts.

It was then that I realised that neither husband nor brother actually knew what they were looking for.  Both were tired and hungry which apparently made them blindly obedient. And once we all worked out what had happened the tired shopping trip also made us all hysterical with laughter.

Sorry about that, my blogging finger was broken

Well it has been a while since I last blogged anything. This is not because I don't have anything to blog about but rather that there has been soon many things happening lately that I haven't had any time to do more than read other people's posts.

Juggling work and study with social commitments is very tricky. I need a personal assistant.

Traveling for work is crappy. I need a clone.

Planning a holiday to Europe is wonderful but time consuming. I need a travel agent.

Trying to find time to exercise is difficult. I need a personal trainer.

Sadly I think I will have to "make do" with my cleaning fairy and less sleep.

Lest we forget

Here is a photo I took at the war memorial in Canberra earlier in the year. It is sad to think that so many people have died in the pursuit of peace.

Celebrating seven years of marital bliss

I am not sure what the official gift is for the 7th wedding anniversary....my darling gets the ongoing pleasure of my company.

Here is a photo from the olden days before we were married...

Can't get that hymn out of my head

I my opinion the best Easter hymn is Christ is Risen (In the Tomb so cold). But sadly it was not one chosen to be part of the worship at my church on Sunday. This was disappointing for two reasons. 1. I was expecting it and very disappointed not to sing it 2. All I can remember is the chorus which has been stuck in my head since last Friday and remains there quite oblivious to my distress.

I have tried looking for it on Youtube and Googling it to no avail. I think I am destined to sing the chorus for the next few weeks until I finally remember some of the lyrics or my husband throttles me for singing the same two bars over and over again.

Apples, apples everywhere

I ordered a big load of groceries from Coles this week because the cupboard was completely bare.

I tried to steer away from junk food, so I bought lots of fruit and veges.

Lots and lots and lots of fruit as it turned out.

I thought I had ordered four apples, but no. I ordered four, two kilo bags of apples.

Apple pie anyone?

the Long weekend that was

After a week in which I felt a lot like I was treading water I have arrived at the weekend a day early due to some careful planning. Perhaps that is overstating it, but the crux of the matter is that I have tomorrow off and thus a long weekend.

I am planning to fly down to Canberra to see the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition. My excitement reached fever pitch this afternoon. I was telling everyone who stood still near me long enough about my trip. I am truly a nerd to get so hopelessly excited about artwork.

I painting I am most looking forward to seeing is Van Gogh's Starry Night. I have been to Arles where Vincent painted this piece and sat by the River Rhone at night to watch the reflection of the lights on the water and the stars above. The lights are obviously powered by electricity now but the image is very simialar. The vibe of the area remains the same as that captured in the painting.

Below is a photo Tom took of the scene when we were there last

You can't see the stars in the photo, but they were there.

Back at university

Well I started back at uni today.

I am only doing one subject. Frankly that is all I can handle and if I am honest I am not yet certain I will even be able to handle that. How I ever did two subjects in a semester and worked full time I will never know.

This semester I am doing Torts A. I was hoping it was a pleasant class about how to make rich layered cakes, but I was sadly disappointed. It is actually about law stuff. The unit code should have tipped me off but in fact it was the first time I looked at the text book.

I don't have any lectures or tutes until week three (next week). Apparently there is such a small amount of material to cover that they don't bother utilising weeks one or two. If I get to the end of semester and discover that they have crammed in lots of information into fewer weeks I will be seriously annoyed. I suspect it is likely.

Today I had a peer mentoring class. I went to uni early (10 am) to buy my text books, study guide, lecture pad and other miscellaneous stationery which I may or may not have actually needed. Surely every student needs a mutli coloured highlighter with a sticker dispenser attached? Anyway even if it is not "necessary" equipment for tertiary study I can claim it on my tax, so I feel vindicated.

The peer mentoring session was essentially a tutorial run by two students who did very well in the subject a few years ago. Kim and Matt were attractive 20 year olds who are in their fourth year of law studies. Despite being hideously young they were very good and covered a lot of information in a short time.

Next week I have my first tute and my first lecture for the subject. The plan is to attend the tute in person, along with all the wet behind the ears 17 year olds and download the lecture then listen to it on the weekend. Fingers crossed for a good start to the semester.

New shoes, shoes, shoes

I went shopping on the weekend and bought a few new pairs of shoes. Please let me assure you, after my rant post about expensive shoes yesterday, they were all VERY reasonably priced.

I bought two pairs of these...Neither in the green colour. I bought one pair in black and one in aubergine.

I also bought a pair of high heels with peep toes for work. I am pretty tall so I usually wear flats to work but some days and for some meetings I just MUST HAVE power heels.

I also bought a pair of black and white spotted flats with sling backs. They are awfully cute and I plan to start wearing them straight away.

I am very happy with all my new purchases but I think it will be some time before I need any more new shoes.

Shoes, shoes, shoes

I have been looking at the Peter Sheppard shoe catalogue and am horrified at how expensive the shoes they sell are! I mean honestly, who spends $350 on a pair of shoes? I don't actually care if the shoes were made in Italy by a deaf mute who eats only spinach out of the finest beige suede leather from Panama goats, I refuse to spend that much money on shoes.

If I am completely honest I did once by a very expensive pair of shoes. I think they were about $300, and they were purchased before I had a home (read: mortgage) or any real financial commitments. I should have known I was making a mistake when the salesgirl assured me that they were a classic style and would last me til at least the end of the season. I don't know about you but I keep shoes for years. I do not really care if they are in fashion so long as they and comfortable and cute on me.

Anyway, I bought the hideously expensive shoes. I then had to "keep them for good" which is something I don't do a lot since I strongly believe in using your nice/good things all the time. But in this case I made an exception which meant it was some months until I actually wore the shoes.

When I did finally wear them I was disappointed to find them uncomfortable and impractical. The backs fell off my heel and the soles were so flat and smooth I could slide on just about any surface. Wearing them was like an uncomfortable version of skiing, I constantly felt like I was going to fall down. And occasionally I did. Very embarrassing in expensive Italian heels.

I did learn my lesson though. I will never again buy such expensive shoes!



unless of course they were on sale.....

Eye camera and other randomness

I was driving home the other day and saw a young guy riding his bike on a semi major road while talking on his mobile phone. He looked silly and what he was doing was quite dangerous. I would have really liked to take a picture of him but since I was driving and without a camera I could not do so.

It got me thinking about how convenient it would be to have a camera built into my eye. I imagine it would be a quick day procedure to install. I could take pictures by blinking my eyes firmly - a little like Jeannie in "I dream of Jeannie" when she grants wishes. I expect that downing the pictures once I have taken them would be done wirelessly, I am not keen on having a usb port installed.

I think all bloggers should get an eye camera installed. Imagine the images that we could capture to the post and blog about!

Doppelganger week on facebook

I didn't want to change my facebook profile picture but I will publicly claim I look like this lady. What do you think?

Birthday Bike

Last year for my Birthday my wonderful husband gave me a bike and the promise of a basket to complete it. The perfect basket has been difficult to track down but he has done so and now I have this awesome bike!


It is perfect for French style trips to the local market and hot bread shop.

Ethiopian Try-birds

Context: In our house we have a nickname for people who are willing to try new things. We call them "Try-birds"- and to be clear, it is a compliment.

For my ever so special birthday dinner last year, I took my brother and husband to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. We may have a lot of different types of restaurants here in BrisVegas, but this one is actually the ONLY Ethiopian restaurant here.

I have had Ethiopian food in our nations capital when I have traveled there for work a couple of times and I really enjoyed it. So for my birthday dinner I located the only Brisbane restaurant to serve this style of food. Conveniently it was only a few minutes from our house.

The restaurant itself was pretty basic; very hot and humid. It was located at the back of a small suburban shopping mall next to a pool hall.

The food was excellent. The flavors in the meat and vegetable dishes were so different from the food we usually eat. It is made with wonderful blends of spices. While a bit similar to Indian food it is certainly not curry and was not too hot or spicy, just really tasty. The platter we ordered looked a little like this...



Ethiopian food is usually served on injera which is similar to a pancake or crepe as you can see in the photo above. The food is usually eaten without cutlery using the injera to scoop up the meat or vegetable dishes. I went to the restaurant prepared to eat with my freshly cleaned hands but we were given cutlery and crockery and we were glad of that, however I would guess that if we looked African we probably just have been served the platter.

We all enjoyed the meal. I was impressed with Tom and my bro for being such good try-birds.

Welcome to 2010: Reflections on 2009

Welcome to 2010 everyone.

I didn't stay up last night to watch the fireworks; we were in bed by 9.30. I did however wake up to hear my neighbours yelling Happy New Year and took the time to lean over and wake Tom up with a new year kiss.

This year, like the last one, is going to be a great one.

I have some specific goals for this year. I would like to work fewer hours, get through a few more uni subjects, start our house renovations, convince Tom to go to France for a cycling holiday with my bro and some other stuff.

I have no specific new years resolutions (despite the goals), however if I were to eat better and exercise more I wouldn't be disappointed.

2009 was a good year for me, both personally and professionally. My first niece was born. I had some great opportunities to work in some quite senior roles. I received my first high distinction for a university subject. Tom attained the professional certification he has been working on for a couple of years. We hired and fired our first cleaner. I turned 30, we had a great party.

2009 went by very quickly. I hope 2010 is a little bit longer, and feels a little bit slower. Life is good, it would be nice to slow the pace this year and enjoy it more.