Travel is so much more exciting than daily reality

Getting though the WA travel formalities was a breeze.  I loved the smart chip process and Immigration and Quarantine were incredibly polite and helpful.  My gorgeous husband was there to meet me despite the wee hour of the morning, and the overwhelming heat.  He seemed pleased to have me home.  When we arrived home the old dog was welcoming although I'm not sure she knew who I was, and the cat completely ignored me - par for the course!

Cassie

Chester

The house was sparkling clean although things had been moved around to suit a more bachelor existence.  Naturally that will change.  I really must put away the winter clothes now.  Just looking at them makes me break out in a sweat, and the hideously high temperatures WA has been experiencing doesn't help.  

Our house

Overlooking the park

I have been back in Western Australia for two weeks now and it still doesn't feel real.  I am fortunate to work part time so was able to get the first Monday and Tuesday off to regroup, get the hair back into some semblance of control, and make the various appointments that have been waiting my attention.

While away, the department I work in has been relocated from a "temporary" demountable at the back of the hospital where we have been for nearly four years, into swish new purpose built premises on the second floor of the hospital.  

Unfortunately, I have gone from my own office with ample storage (way too much for someone who possesses my hoarder instinct) to a shared office with minimal storage. There are still 4 boxes left to unpack - I may get to them before retirement.

Messy demountable office

New location

I have already forgotten one meeting despite having it in my diary and have presented to work because of scheduled meetings - when I was supposed to be on a day off.  I will get it right soon. Someone said it takes a day for every week away.  I think I have used up my quota now.

The name of my blog will have to change as I am no longer in Africa however if you are interested in following my musings the URL will remain the same.  Until next time kwaheri.  

Happy New Year

Our families are part of the large group of scatterlings of Africa.  Scatterlings of Africa is a song written by Johnny Clegg and made popular in the early 80s.

I wish my sister and nephew didn't live so far away from me.  I would love it if we could all be together particularly at this time of the year - every year. Even though he doesn't comment, I believe my husband feels the same about his family who are also scattered around the world.  This is especially poignant as we all age and his mother's mind succumbs to that awful thief known as Alzheimer.
 

This has been a lovely visit to mud island despite the damp and cold. We have had some lovely gatherings with friends and family.We had a wonderful meal with Annmarie's good friend Hilary, at her beautiful home, and delightful friends especially Doris.

Hilary, Doris, Annmarie and me

A fairly rowdy Christmas was spent with more scatterlings - Lynn, Sonnet and her girls, Michael and their friend Nicola and her daughter in Kingston.

 

Hilarity

Lynn, Annmarie and Sonnet

Donning the apron

Cards anyone?

My sister and I managed a lovely long walk through Richmond Park to work off some of the festive fare and a little Boxing Day shopping.

Deer in Richmmond Park

Finally to a delightful little village in Framlingham, Suffolk to stay my sister-in-law and her family. We even managed to meet up briefly with my husband's uncle and his wife.

The extended in-laws

Sister-in-law and family

New Year was a quiet affair. My sister and I cracked a bottle of bubbly and watched the Londin fireworks from her balcony. I doubt if I could have negotiated the crowds on the Southbank so our venue was ideal for part of the show.  However the smoke from the fireworks combined with the moist heavy air and southerly breeze to obliterate the show and create a sky reminiscent of the infamous London pea soup smog of the early 50s.

Countdown

The fireworks begin

The smoky haze beginning

To round off the end of my stay my sister and I took the train to the Millenium Dome and then the Emirates Air Line cable car (also known as the Thames cable car) across the Thames River to the Royal Victoria Docks and the ExCel London Exhibition Centre, then the DLR (Dockland Light Railway) back to the underground and on to Waterloo.  It was a lovely  clear, bright day that made viewing excellent.  Now it is time for me to pack my bags and head for sunnier shores.  I have been away from Australia for 4 months.  It is going to be strange to get back to a normal routine. At least until August when I return to Tanzania for some sightseeing. 

The Dome

Thames cable car

Royal Victoria Docks

ExCel Centre

Annie's Cafe

   Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all my family and friends from mud island xxx

Back to our roots

"If you're Irish come into the parlor, there's a welcome there for you. If your name is Timothy or Pat, so long as you come from Ireland, there's a welcome on the mat...."  

One wonders how the 3rd largest island in Europe has so many people worldwide claiming heritage. You can see Irish influence on literature and music and the the concept of St Patrick has certainly caught on worldwide!

 

I don't know much about my family history however three of my grandparents are from Eire. On my mother's side my grandmother is from Bray near Dublin and grandfather is born in Burt, Donegal. My paternal grandfather is from Mayo.  Dad's mother was English. I'd love to know more about the family tree.  It's on my "to do" list. In the meantime we try and visit occassionally. The most recent was a few days with my sister and nephew in December 2012.

Christmas Carols at Belfast City Airport

 

Belfast city

 

Belfast Christmas Market

We stayed with a very good friend of my nephew, at a British army barrack in Belfast.  Considering there was an increased unrest from the Protestant loyalist with a recent petrol bomb in Belfast and other attacks on the police in Derry it was a little nerve wracking.  However it was a lovely peaceful 2 days, the company was great and I really enjoyed the Christmas Market.

 

We hired a car and drove up along the coast to the World Heritage site the Giant's Causeway. This  is a series of interlocking polygon basalt columns of various heights and thickness leading from the foot of the cliff and disappearing into the sea. 

Basalt colums disappearning into the sea

 

 According to legend when there is smoke from the chimney Finn's at home.

 

Finn's boot

 

According to legend the Giant's Causeway was built to Scotland by a giant Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool). The Causeway was ripped up by the Scottish giant, Benandonner, when he fled home in terror so the 'enormous Finn', would not follow him. The legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa in Scotland.

 

From the Causeway we drove to Magilligan. We wanted to avoid being caught up in any trouble in Derry and we had been advised that the ferry across Lough Foyle to Greencastle in Donegal was in service.  Well it was a pleasant drive but just a diversion.  We were able to drive around Derry and head for the border.  My sister recalls the bus being stopped  and searched each day by the soldiers on her way to and from school in the 60s.  None of that now.  You hardly know you have passed into the Irish Free State.

 



Irish for Donegal

 

We headed for Letterkenny where we had prebooked a hotel.  Searching for a place to stay in Donegal in winter is not easy. We had a lovely time that evening listening to Irish music and sipping a few drinks at the Wolfe Tone Bar before heading back to the hotel for a hot bath and snug bed.

 



Bobby Sands

 

A trip to Ireland would not be the same if we didn't drop in at Buncrana to pay respects at my (step) grandmother's grave in the cemetary at Cock Hill. 

 

Annie "the Black" Donachey Campbell

 

10 Red Row - Annie owned the whole row.

 

We also had to show my nephew where we had both attended primary school - Sacred Heart Convent.  Apart from being bigger and the outside being pink instead of pebble stone grey, the school hasn't changed a great deal. I forgot there don't seem to be any nuns now either. 



Inside Sacred Heart Convent



 

It was lovely to catch up with a woman who has been a friend of my sister for about 60 years.  We  also met a cousin though Annie's family, in Smithwick's Bar that day.

 



Lough Swilly (Lake Shadows or Lake of Eyes)

 

 

Cottage Bar

 

The Buncrana of my memories had considerably more pubs than exist today.  It was a Nationalist stronghold in the Civil War and a number of firefights occured here. Even as far back as 1798 it was involved in the United Ireland struggle.  Wolfe Tone was arrested and held in the military prison  next to the building that houses the Smithwick's Brewary before being transferred to Dublin where he  died in Provost's Prison of a neck wound in November 1798 at the age of 35 years. 

 

The weather was closing in and time running short so we opted to spend our final day in Donegal town.  We have decided to make this our base the next time we visit.

 

 Donegal Town

 

15th century Franciscan Abbey ruins

 

River Eske

 

Dongelal Castle





  

The trip came to an end way too soon and then it was a very foggy drive through the mountains back to Belfast.

 

Fog ahead

 

Final thought before departing

 

There is so much to see here in Ireland. No doubt this will not be the last time we visit this green wet land.  

 

" Don't be dismayed at goodbyes, a farewell is necessary before you can meet again and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends"  

(Richard Bach)

 

 





Waterlogged

 I love London....

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

— Samuel Johnson

I have loved London for a very long time. When my husband and I first moved to London in 1978, I was desperately homesick for the first 6 months, but that passed. There after I found it a vibrant, exciting place to live and despite the most awful bedsitters we were able to go to the theatre, concerts and pubs, and travel fairly cheaply as well.  I was quite sad to leave 4 years later. However my sister now lives in Southbank near Upper Ground. It has been a bonus for me to be able to visit her on a regular basis. 

Modern Broadwall

 

View from the balcony

London Eye from the balcony

 Outside the British Film Industry Building

She lives in an amazing historic area - one of the oldest settlements of London.  Prior to the 19th Century much of the area was marshland. Lower Marsh Street is a rememberance to that time. Around the time of the original Roman settlements, banks of earth were erected along the south side of the Thames in order to keep out the tidal waters and to hold them in check. One of them near the river was called Narrow Wall whilst another binding the marsh to the east was called Broad Wall, an ancient raised road which followed the line of Lambeth Marsh. Upper Ground is the oldest thoroughfare in Christ Church parish. It is the descendant of the path which from the Norman period, and perhaps earlier, ran along the inside of the embanking river wall; and it still retains the narrowness and the twists and turns characteristic of a country lane. At the west end Upper Ground extended, as it still does, to Broadwall. 

During the Tudor and early Stuart periods, and perhaps earlier, the King's Barge House occupied the piece of land to the north-west of Upper Ground. The Barge House is commemorated in the narrow alley leading out of Upper Ground and over steps to a landing stage on the river strand—the successor of the "stairs near the Barge House".

I saw that recent building excavations at Borough Market have revealed a number of Roman artifacts and dwellings. I love the fact that these have to be preserved and incorporated in some way onto the modern buildings.

 Roman Ruins at Borough

Borough Market



The Shard

Shard in the distance

Southbank in the background

The residents of this area prior to the 19th Century must have had very wet feet. At this stage I can almost appreciate how they feel. It has rained fairly extensively since I arrived here, and unfortunately for a number of areas has resulted in flooding. I have always said I prefer cold weather as it is easier to get warm than it is to cool off. However I have discovered that I haven't found a way of getting the right degree of warmth. It's cold and wet outside but always boiling hot inside - why does everyone insist on having the heating up so high? The buses, underground, trains, shops, pubs etc turn the warm protective clothing into a sauna. It takes the pleasure out of shopping too. All the beautiful tempting purchases (clothes) become very unappealing when it involves having to strip off what seems like a million layers of clothing, some of which are decidely damp, in mostly communal change areas, only to have to redress in now cool damp clothes.

Dressing for the cold

Still it is lovely despite wet feet. The Christmas lights are beautiful.  It does feel so much more "Christmassy" when it's cool.

Lights in Regency Street

Christmas decorations in Carnaby Street