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Posts Tagged ‘walking’

Finally I can sit at my desk

Posted in A writer's life, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

With family visitors, the office needed to be gutted and my desk moved. I have only just now uncovered it. We had two drawers to assemble for our new bed and we had to deal with them before I could sit down and type. How wonderful it is!

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with way too much food and loads of presents. I was so full I feared I would burst. I received Tansy Rayner Roberts’ latest kickstarter because it was so shiny and I asked the Dweeb to get it for me. But he also was my kringle choice so he also got stuff on my wish list. A photo printer, papers, and a voucher to frame a print. Other goodies some lovely tawny port, some really beautiful embroidery items from Ms Li brought from China. A lovely fan and a lovely scarf, some redwood earrings from California, chocolate and more.

A picture of Kickstarter from Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Yesterday, is my day off. People eat leftovers generally and we did and I watched rom coms the whole day. T’was the Text before Christmas, and the commentary was: “would someone really chat to a stranger? ” and you had to suspend belief for this one, but I liked it, I wanted to watch While You Were Sleeping (an oldie). Prime wanted $19.00 for it and I figured I’d just go buy it but then I found it on Disney for free. The Holiday was another one I hadn’t seen before but really liked. I also watched Love Actually before bed.

Christmas presents and not all there yet.

This morning I was out of the house at 6.30am to walk around Lake Burley Griffrin with my younger daughter. A good five kilometres! I needed it and a bit more. Today like I said uncovering the desk and finding my computer after some furniture assembly.

Food

My writing plans before Christmas went out the window. I had to go to NZ in a hurry for my brother-in-law and sadly he passed away after suffering a lot. I had to leave my sister behind but she’s surrounded by her son, her daughter-in-law and grandkids and I’ll go see her soon when she returns to Aussie.

I ended up maxing my credit card and spending all my money. Something I have not done for a while. Luckily I get paid again next week and things are better now and the need for spending has ended. I did save for Christmas but a few unexpected things came up. We also go the dishwasher repaired twice so that was not a nice Christmas expense. We found the problem was these soap sheets we were using made too much suds. We weren’t using them right in any case but the technician said don’t use them and use a level teaspoon of powder. My iphone battery died too and needed replacing. NZ trip and hire car.

We are also dog sitting because my elder daughter and my youngest grandchild have relocated to Sydney and we are watching the dog for a bit until she gets him after New Year. The cat is not impressed as he’s confined to one part of the house and he usually owns the whole place. I had to encouraging to leave our bed last night because I couldn’t get my pretzel shape comfortable and it was too hot to have car fur against my leg.

That’s about it. I haven’t thought of a plan for the year yet. I do need to get more of Amber Rose drafted ASAP. I appear to be more worried about the Dweeb’s deadlines than my own. He got a nice lecture from me this morning. Lol.

The immediate family and visitors are all well and happy and that’s a lovely thing.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas if you celebrate and my best wishes for the New year.

A lovely tranquil view from me walk this morning around the lake.

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Travelling in Winter

Posted in Travel, UK, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The things you do for your art. Matthew and I wanted, among other things, to experience a Northern Winter in the UK. Add visiting family into the mix and here we are.

My first week was plagued by sickness. I do not recommend. Not Covid. Much worse than my bout of Covid in October. I had a painful fever for three days. I had to isolate and also stressed about getting well enough to eat Christmas dinner, the whole reason we had come to this particular place and our particular cousin host. No runny nose per se, terrible chest and stomach ache. I still have a cough. However, while I was lying about on Christmas morning contemplating going to the A&E about my gut, I thought I’d try one more thing. I had two mugs of hot chicken stock. That helped. Not a cure but I could be normal. I don’t think my appetite is quite back to normal but that’s probably a good thing.

Being sick also induced homesickness in both of us. Matthew because he was worried about me being sick (separate rooms) and we had hired an EV car and couldn’t get the blasted thing charged. Many of the apps required our app store to be set in the UK. We tried doing that but the app store would not accept our Australian credit cards. Stupid, stupid system. I was lying in bed feverish and fretting. I made up my mind we should just take it back and swap for a hybrid. However, at long last Matthew found a place and was able to charge. Once on the motorways it was even easier as there are plenty of charges that just take credit card. No need for apps.

It was very windy and drizzly in Saltdean (near Brighton). We did a walk in the fields where I had walked in the summer of 2019. Totally different with the fields empty and rolling mist coming in from the sea. Lucky I had a down overcoat from Macpac. My daughter urged me to get one and I went the day before we left and there was a sale and I got a great deal. The magic is the squash into the hood so takes up very little room in the luggage.

There was a break in the storm and we went out to the seafront this time. What surprised me was how many people were out and about. It was Boxing Day so I figure public holiday and people had been holed up with their pups and kids. Also, a drop in the wind had made so much difference. The next day the wind was back and we went for a walk along Telscombe Tye (the common on the rise). There we were nearly blown off the face of the earth and the sea was raging. Those lovely seawalks that people were on the day before were crushed by huge waves that slapped and grabbed at the white chalk cliffs. Inexplicably my phone camera would not take shots. My iphone 13 has been a bit dodgy recently. Matthew took some photos thankfully.

On the way back to our cousins we stopped for a coffee at a little cafe called Daisy’s and shared a sticky bun, sort of looked like a Belgian Bun, but not quite.

Our plans for New Year had to change due to a friend’s illness. We had a bit of a brainstorm about what to do. I think New Year can be a hard time to invite yourself to someone’s house on short notice so we ended up in York for New Years. We upscaled to DoubleTree by Hilton and it’s nice, just by the walls and an easy walk into the old part of town. We can either join the fun in town or stay in at the bar on the day.

Last night we went for a walk after we arrived. There were so many people out, going to restaurants and bars and just walking. I knew it was like this in summer as we stayed in the city in 2019 but was surprised that even in the cold and rain people came in numbers. We ended up at a York roast place after walking around for a bit. When the rain set in we went back to the hotel and sat in the warm while Matthew sipped a Bulgarian red.

Compared to Brighton there is half an hour less sunlight than Brighton. I guess they make up for it in summer with more time. However, for me personally the lack of sunlight is such a challenge. I don’t feel fully awake until the sun is up and even when it is up it’s a pallid thing leaking through streaks of cloud. In the afternoon it starts to get dark at 3.30pm and it’s totally dark by 4pm. I feel like it’s very late at night when it’s barely 5 o’clock. We are still taking naps and I have to set alarms to get us out to eat otherwise I fear we’ll just keep sleeping.

I’m on hotel wifi so I’m not sure if any photos will load. Yay!

This is Saltdean Beach as discussed.

Above is the cliff walk, which the next day had pounding waves.

Our cousin fed us the most amazing food. We had this venison roast on Boxing day.

Now this is what I call a bank of chargers. There was also a bank of Tesla charges.At times people had to wait for a spot.

Us driving up to Monk Bar where our hotel is.

This is the first time I’ve switched on my computer so far. This of course translates to no writing. I’ve been sick so I have an excuse. However, hence forth, not much of one. We are about to head off to find some breakfast. Talk again.

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Highlights from my trip to UK and Ireland part one

Posted in A writer's life, Travel, UK, United Kingdom, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I was away for two and a half months. I cannot put all the photos I took on the trip here. Maybe if I had blogged the trip I could. Alas, I did not do that. I put most photos on Facebook over the period.

So without much blather about this and that, I’m going to put some photos up here. We were located in Saltdean for the first part, not far from Brighton. We did a short trip to York and Nottingham, as well as a few places around Sussex, such as Scotney Castle (Kent) and Tunbridge Wells, Charleston House (Bloomsbury set), Monk House in Redmell (Virginia Woolf’s house) and the Burlington Gap.

We’ve stayed in Saltdean before but had not explored the bridle paths behind the suburb. The weather as you can see was amazing and I believe that is linseed/linen growing behind me.

 

It was so peaceful walking in the bridle paths and it seemed like we were alone forever. Here are some views of the fields and to the sea. See the poppies growing wild? I love UK for the wildflowers.This was a short kind of wheat growing here.

A lovely shot of the linseed, looking across to the rear of Saltdean, not far from Telscome Tye (the common).

A look along the bridle path. If you don’t know what a bridle path is, it’s a public right of way through private lands brought about by the historic use of these paths for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Some are just walking paths. This one you can ride horses.

This is a shot from Burlington Gap of the Seven Sisters. It is being eroded at a fast pace as the cliffs and most of the Southdowns are made of chalk with flint in it.

 

The next is a shot of my daughter and granddaughter as they went down the stairs to the beach. We had good tea and cake here in the cafe. The rocks are the flint from the chalk.

A view along the coast from our walk to Brighton Marina along the footpath.

Just to break the monotony of these gorgeous landscapes! This is the largest internal waterfall inside a mall at Singapore. The mall is attached by a walkway to the airport. We broke our journey from Canberra in Singapore and stayed at the Crowne Plaza. We were totally spoiled and hung out at the pool. Sadly just one night.

A few local places we went to next.

A very old pub in Alfriston, the George Inn, where they serve the most amazing Welsh Rarebit. And next, Monk House in Rodmell Village, Virginia Woolf’s own room.

A bust of Virginia Woolf that was at Charleston cottage and Monk House.

A short trip to York, which was so great. Our apartment was right in York, near the river. We thoroughly recommend Jorvik and we also saw another place, Barley Hall. Here is me in a kids’ dress up.

Here is me at the York Assembly Rooms, which is an Ask restaurant. Ask is very similar to Zizzi’s so not overly expensive.

Here is the obligatory shot of the Shambles in York.

Two shots of Scotney Castle, near Tunbridge Wells. My second visit. This is an iconic shot of the ruins.

Scotney has a Victorian house and then the old castle was ruined to make a folly. This is a view from the front of the house down through the amazing gardens.

Nottingham. I don’t seem to have a lot of photos from Nottingham. I did a tour of the caves under the mall. My daughter got claustrophobia and couldn’t do it. This was my second visit. The tour guide was great.  The photo is from the caves, which contain the oldest tannery, from about the 12C or something. Nottingham was visiting friends and family and a spot of shopping.

After leaving Nottingham we went to Southwell for the morning. There is a cathedral there, a minster actually and it is said the least well known. We fell in love with this village. So quaint and lovely.

The Southwell cathedral is famous for a gargoyle that looks like Donald Trump.

There are a few walks around Southwell, one that takes you to one of Lord Byron’s houses.

Near Southwell, actually within walking distance, is the first workhouse. In later years it was for assisted housing, but this workhouse served as a model for others. It was seen as a way to save money in looking after the poor.

 

These are some of the highlights. Part Two will have to be Cornwall, Lyme Regis and a few great houses.

See you later for the next instalment.

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