Monday, August 2, 2010
Bali, Beaches and Bintangs.
We set of from Canada in high spirits, only to find that 40 hours of flying and loitering around airports is as not fun as it sounds. Nevertheless, we arrived in Bali late Thursday evening in murderous moods. Copious sleep and liberally applied Bintang slowly returned us to normal and we set out immersing ourselves in the cultural diversity that is Bali.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Scrapes, Shuttles and Sheep Shaggers
My, what big wheels you have!
Thursday 15th July day 21
We packed our bags and bid farewell to London. As we made our way through the streets to the tube station, I question the wisdom of wearing crocs after it rained the night before. Daniel found it amusing to watch me, top heavy with a backpack, inch my way down the street like someone learning to ice skate.
We were picked up at the airport Kathy and Roger and spent the next few days relaxing and catching up with family and friends, generally getting lost in the hire car.
Sunday 18th July day 23
We piled into the Camry and went to a car show called “Scrape by the lake” only getting lost on the way once. Checked out heaps of sweet rides and watched a competition where the owners try and “bounce” their cars higher than anyone else.......................................hmmmmmm....... I’m not sure how this relates to a cars’ main purpose of getting from point A to point B, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it, especially when the car came back down with enough force to dislodge parts from the body. The girls didn’t feel like staying around for the bikini contest.
Daniel amused us by spraying bright yellow mustard all over his white shirt. We ate poutine and now my chest hurts a little bit. We got lost on the way back but enjoyed views of Hamilton from all possible angles as we circumnavigated the city then ducked through downtown for a different perspective.
Monday 19th July day 24
We loaded up the Camry and with Kathy at the controls, we hit the Queen Elizabeth Way and before an hour was up, we were in Niagara falls. Well it would have been less than an hour if we didn’t go freestyle and get lost on the way.
We checked into our hotel (no, we will take it for the whole night thanks) then set out unsuccessfully in search of the golf course we played at 15 years ago.
With golf off the agenda, we headed north to Niagara on the Lake and Morgs, Daniel and myself grabbed seats on the Whirlpool Jet boat(Kathy said her heart wasn’t up to it, once was enough). Our guide was fully stoked to be taking us on his boat, continuously insisting that we pump our fists in the air whilst exclaiming that we were having an awesome time. We assumed his enthusiasm was real, I can’t imagine anyone being paid enough to be that excited. Nevertheless, the ride was exhilarating, powering through class 5 rapids and getting completely wet through. At times the boat seemed to completely fill with water. The boat operators put on an exciting manoeuvre where the jet boat completes a 360deg turn. We were all very impressed, I can tell you! They proudly announced it was named the “Hamilton Turn” after the designers of the jet propulsion system that was invented by the Hamilton Jet Boat company in New Zealand and, encouraged all the passengers on the boat to give a cheer for the New Zealanders. We received sour looks when instead of giving enthusiastic “hoorahs” we responded with “dirty sheep shaggers!”. So we had to explain to the other passengers that “yes, they can be quite inventive, but, they tend not to wash and have a weakness for “getting some wool on””. The other passengers looked at us differently for the rest of the boat ride. Their eyes seemed a little wider or something.
A dry Kathy collected us from the dock and whisked us back to the hotel in Niagara, then headed out for the evening while I took the kids to the wind tunnel for a bit of free fall sans aeroplane. I chose not to take part as a quick calculation showed that the vast amount of thrust required to get my fat arse airborne is generally reserved for somewhat grander projects like the propulsion system on the space shuttle.
We packed our bags and bid farewell to London. As we made our way through the streets to the tube station, I question the wisdom of wearing crocs after it rained the night before. Daniel found it amusing to watch me, top heavy with a backpack, inch my way down the street like someone learning to ice skate.
We were picked up at the airport Kathy and Roger and spent the next few days relaxing and catching up with family and friends, generally getting lost in the hire car.
Sunday 18th July day 23
We piled into the Camry and went to a car show called “Scrape by the lake” only getting lost on the way once. Checked out heaps of sweet rides and watched a competition where the owners try and “bounce” their cars higher than anyone else.......................................hmmmmmm....... I’m not sure how this relates to a cars’ main purpose of getting from point A to point B, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it, especially when the car came back down with enough force to dislodge parts from the body. The girls didn’t feel like staying around for the bikini contest.
Daniel amused us by spraying bright yellow mustard all over his white shirt. We ate poutine and now my chest hurts a little bit. We got lost on the way back but enjoyed views of Hamilton from all possible angles as we circumnavigated the city then ducked through downtown for a different perspective.
Monday 19th July day 24
We loaded up the Camry and with Kathy at the controls, we hit the Queen Elizabeth Way and before an hour was up, we were in Niagara falls. Well it would have been less than an hour if we didn’t go freestyle and get lost on the way.
We checked into our hotel (no, we will take it for the whole night thanks) then set out unsuccessfully in search of the golf course we played at 15 years ago.
With golf off the agenda, we headed north to Niagara on the Lake and Morgs, Daniel and myself grabbed seats on the Whirlpool Jet boat(Kathy said her heart wasn’t up to it, once was enough). Our guide was fully stoked to be taking us on his boat, continuously insisting that we pump our fists in the air whilst exclaiming that we were having an awesome time. We assumed his enthusiasm was real, I can’t imagine anyone being paid enough to be that excited. Nevertheless, the ride was exhilarating, powering through class 5 rapids and getting completely wet through. At times the boat seemed to completely fill with water. The boat operators put on an exciting manoeuvre where the jet boat completes a 360deg turn. We were all very impressed, I can tell you! They proudly announced it was named the “Hamilton Turn” after the designers of the jet propulsion system that was invented by the Hamilton Jet Boat company in New Zealand and, encouraged all the passengers on the boat to give a cheer for the New Zealanders. We received sour looks when instead of giving enthusiastic “hoorahs” we responded with “dirty sheep shaggers!”. So we had to explain to the other passengers that “yes, they can be quite inventive, but, they tend not to wash and have a weakness for “getting some wool on””. The other passengers looked at us differently for the rest of the boat ride. Their eyes seemed a little wider or something.
A dry Kathy collected us from the dock and whisked us back to the hotel in Niagara, then headed out for the evening while I took the kids to the wind tunnel for a bit of free fall sans aeroplane. I chose not to take part as a quick calculation showed that the vast amount of thrust required to get my fat arse airborne is generally reserved for somewhat grander projects like the propulsion system on the space shuttle.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
shampoo, shoeshine and showercaps
Sunday 11th July Day 17
Some tight arse had not selected the breakfast option when booking the hotel on line and we would have to do without our morning wheelbarrow of pig fat.
Kathy guided us through a maze of streets to Portobello Road which had lots of interesting shops and a pub that sold breakfast.......a dangerous, and yet enjoyable way to start the day. Eggs Benedict and pilsner urquell go down a treat for brunch. We’ll worry about the coffee later.
After Portobello Road we walked through Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park to speakers corner where we were pleasantly entertained by the local loonies of the day. After a couple of hours we moved on to Harrods. I couldn’t find anything I wanted at all. Kathy and Morgan managed to fare much better.
Due to the streets around Harrods grinding to gridlock soon after closing, we decided to walk back through Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens to our hotel stopping on the way for dinner at an Italian restaurant. We found pizza and beer and I was happy.
We saw Shane Watson in Kensington Gardens and Morgan may have wet herself with excitement. Daniel might have as well.
Monday 12th July Day 18
Awoke to another day sans pork fat. I can actually feel my arteries beginning to unclog.
We’d had enough of the girls and their shopping, so we tubed them off to Heathrow for a non stop flight to Toronto.
I took Daniel on a tour of my old haunts around London, whilst explaining responsible drinking to him.
Tuesday 13th July Day 19
Another pig free day.
After a series of London Underground challenges, we made our way to Lords cricket ground for the first Test between Pakistan and Australia. The weather swung between cold and miserable with occasional showers. Ponting let us down by getting out cheaply.
Interesting, they let eskies with grog into Lords but confiscated Daniels Australian flag.
After the cricket we returned to the hotel to “freshen up” which consisted of Daniel saying “are you ready yet? Come on, it’s time to go. We’re going to be late”. Then made another confusing series of tube connections to the KOKO where we lounged around for a couple of hours before the Hill Top Hoods came on. Daniel was fully stoked and spent the entire show in the mosh pit. I had a couple of quiet beers with myself somewhere at the back where the volume only hurt my chest a little bit. Man, what potty mouths. I guess that’s the kind of language that Adelaide people grow up accustomed with.
We finished with an evening meal at Macca’s at 1AM.
Wednesday 14th July Day 20
Off to the cricket for day 2.
A triple bacon ciabiatta did the trick. Artery walls back to an acceptable thickness. Daniel outsmarted the security guards by wearing his Australian flag singlet into the ground. You just knew they wanted to “look after it” for him. Watto had a day out bagging 5. Ponting let us down by scoring a duck.
Whilst most of the time watching the cricket on both days consisted of us sitting in the stands watching Katich blocking balls, out of the 24 wickets that fell over the 2 days, I managed to miss 8 of them due to being at the bar. 7 of the wickets I missed were Australian which led Daniel to believe that somehow I was jinxing them and therefore choosing beer over the Australian cricket team. After a while, I felt unpatriotic just going for a wee.
I uncovered Daniels stash of contraband lifted from previous hotels and while I can understand the shampoos, I find the shoeshine and shower caps perplexing. He says the bra is one that Morgan forgot. I am currently practicing answers that will inevitably be asked at customs.
Back at the hotel I set about unburdening ourselves of any containers of liquids above 100mls in preparation of the flight tomorrow.
Some tight arse had not selected the breakfast option when booking the hotel on line and we would have to do without our morning wheelbarrow of pig fat.
Kathy guided us through a maze of streets to Portobello Road which had lots of interesting shops and a pub that sold breakfast.......a dangerous, and yet enjoyable way to start the day. Eggs Benedict and pilsner urquell go down a treat for brunch. We’ll worry about the coffee later.
After Portobello Road we walked through Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park to speakers corner where we were pleasantly entertained by the local loonies of the day. After a couple of hours we moved on to Harrods. I couldn’t find anything I wanted at all. Kathy and Morgan managed to fare much better.
Due to the streets around Harrods grinding to gridlock soon after closing, we decided to walk back through Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens to our hotel stopping on the way for dinner at an Italian restaurant. We found pizza and beer and I was happy.
We saw Shane Watson in Kensington Gardens and Morgan may have wet herself with excitement. Daniel might have as well.
Monday 12th July Day 18
Awoke to another day sans pork fat. I can actually feel my arteries beginning to unclog.
We’d had enough of the girls and their shopping, so we tubed them off to Heathrow for a non stop flight to Toronto.
I took Daniel on a tour of my old haunts around London, whilst explaining responsible drinking to him.
Tuesday 13th July Day 19
Another pig free day.
After a series of London Underground challenges, we made our way to Lords cricket ground for the first Test between Pakistan and Australia. The weather swung between cold and miserable with occasional showers. Ponting let us down by getting out cheaply.
Interesting, they let eskies with grog into Lords but confiscated Daniels Australian flag.
After the cricket we returned to the hotel to “freshen up” which consisted of Daniel saying “are you ready yet? Come on, it’s time to go. We’re going to be late”. Then made another confusing series of tube connections to the KOKO where we lounged around for a couple of hours before the Hill Top Hoods came on. Daniel was fully stoked and spent the entire show in the mosh pit. I had a couple of quiet beers with myself somewhere at the back where the volume only hurt my chest a little bit. Man, what potty mouths. I guess that’s the kind of language that Adelaide people grow up accustomed with.
We finished with an evening meal at Macca’s at 1AM.
Wednesday 14th July Day 20
Off to the cricket for day 2.
A triple bacon ciabiatta did the trick. Artery walls back to an acceptable thickness. Daniel outsmarted the security guards by wearing his Australian flag singlet into the ground. You just knew they wanted to “look after it” for him. Watto had a day out bagging 5. Ponting let us down by scoring a duck.
Whilst most of the time watching the cricket on both days consisted of us sitting in the stands watching Katich blocking balls, out of the 24 wickets that fell over the 2 days, I managed to miss 8 of them due to being at the bar. 7 of the wickets I missed were Australian which led Daniel to believe that somehow I was jinxing them and therefore choosing beer over the Australian cricket team. After a while, I felt unpatriotic just going for a wee.
I uncovered Daniels stash of contraband lifted from previous hotels and while I can understand the shampoos, I find the shoeshine and shower caps perplexing. He says the bra is one that Morgan forgot. I am currently practicing answers that will inevitably be asked at customs.
Back at the hotel I set about unburdening ourselves of any containers of liquids above 100mls in preparation of the flight tomorrow.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Trails, Taxis and doing time
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Wednesday 7th July day 13
The day dawned grey and drizzly. Well, we assume it did although no one was up at 4:30 AM or whatever the time the sun rises over here in summer, but it was looking pretty grey when we got up somewhat later.
With a fair bit to look over in Castle Acre, Morgan with her blisters, Kathy with her cold and me thinking that walking fully sucked today, a proposal was put forward that we take our wandering around Castle Acre and, when we feel like it, call a taxi to take us to the next stop. The proposal was met with startling enthusiasm, so we set about doing very little. The employee behind the bar at our hotel was very laid back, when asked what time was check out, she replied “whenever”. We all went back and had a nice long lay down.
After spending a few hours crawling over the ruins of the castle and priory, we were picked up by the taxi and within 30 minutes we were delivered to the doorstep of our next pub. Now, this was more like it! The kids found the internet and TV and I found the beer garden.
We chose to eat at the hotel we were staying at due to there being nowhere else in the village. The meal was sensational, the bill met the meal and doubled it.
Thursday 8th July day 14
After a morning meal of pig fat, we all agreed we had the energy to at least see out the remaining 10 miles of the trail. A small concession was made to Kathy who said she would walk only on the condition that a taxi was found to take her backpack. It seemed a bit of a waste that a taxi would take only 1 pack so it was decided that all our packs would go. To be fair of course.
We staggered into Hunstanton after a brief lunch at the Ancient Mariner and booked into our hotel....which was a few stars less than our previous lodgings. We took our evening meal at the seaside bar across the road imaginatively called “the Seaside Bar” and somehow became involved in a quiz night in which we faired quite poorly. Our protests that the general knowledge questions were actually local knowledge questions fell on deaf ears.
Friday 9th July day 15
Over this mornings rations of pig fat, sausages consisting mainly of bread and pork fat and bum nuts, Kathy casually remarked that the breakfast cook looked like someone who had just been released from prison. As our stifled giggles subsided, I casually glanced around the room at or fellow diners. It immediately became obvious that we were staying in some kind of half way house to gradually ease felons back into society. We had grifters, grafters, fish and chip shop robbers and pros. The room was cheap. We ate our grub and kept to ourselves. I slipped a shiv into my shoe, well, it was acually a bread and butter knife into my croc. It fell out when we went to leave, but at least they knew I could be packing.
Morgan and myself walked a couple of miles to a golf course, eager to play a round only to be told our attire did not meet acceptable standards. This from a country club located within a caravan park! So, we walked the 4 miles to the other golf course, a pitch and putt on the other end of town only to be told last tee off was at 4:30. It was 4:45. Are these people mad? The sun will still be up for another 5 hours! We walked back into town and went to the pub. It was open and was indifferent to the way I dressed.
After dinner we went to the local theatre to see a drama festival of local acts vying for a prize at the end of the productions. After the first act, it became apparent that we were the only people there who were not related to any of the actors. We slipped away and went and saw a local thrash metal punk band who we couldn’t understand and made Kathy’s chest hurt. We then saw a band that had appeared to have forgotten their trousers and were on stage in their underpants. This seemed to attract other trouserless drunken fans. We began to feel uncomfortable. It was time to go back to the big house and go to bed.
The day dawned grey and drizzly. Well, we assume it did although no one was up at 4:30 AM or whatever the time the sun rises over here in summer, but it was looking pretty grey when we got up somewhat later.
With a fair bit to look over in Castle Acre, Morgan with her blisters, Kathy with her cold and me thinking that walking fully sucked today, a proposal was put forward that we take our wandering around Castle Acre and, when we feel like it, call a taxi to take us to the next stop. The proposal was met with startling enthusiasm, so we set about doing very little. The employee behind the bar at our hotel was very laid back, when asked what time was check out, she replied “whenever”. We all went back and had a nice long lay down.
After spending a few hours crawling over the ruins of the castle and priory, we were picked up by the taxi and within 30 minutes we were delivered to the doorstep of our next pub. Now, this was more like it! The kids found the internet and TV and I found the beer garden.
We chose to eat at the hotel we were staying at due to there being nowhere else in the village. The meal was sensational, the bill met the meal and doubled it.
Thursday 8th July day 14
After a morning meal of pig fat, we all agreed we had the energy to at least see out the remaining 10 miles of the trail. A small concession was made to Kathy who said she would walk only on the condition that a taxi was found to take her backpack. It seemed a bit of a waste that a taxi would take only 1 pack so it was decided that all our packs would go. To be fair of course.
We staggered into Hunstanton after a brief lunch at the Ancient Mariner and booked into our hotel....which was a few stars less than our previous lodgings. We took our evening meal at the seaside bar across the road imaginatively called “the Seaside Bar” and somehow became involved in a quiz night in which we faired quite poorly. Our protests that the general knowledge questions were actually local knowledge questions fell on deaf ears.
Friday 9th July day 15
Over this mornings rations of pig fat, sausages consisting mainly of bread and pork fat and bum nuts, Kathy casually remarked that the breakfast cook looked like someone who had just been released from prison. As our stifled giggles subsided, I casually glanced around the room at or fellow diners. It immediately became obvious that we were staying in some kind of half way house to gradually ease felons back into society. We had grifters, grafters, fish and chip shop robbers and pros. The room was cheap. We ate our grub and kept to ourselves. I slipped a shiv into my shoe, well, it was acually a bread and butter knife into my croc. It fell out when we went to leave, but at least they knew I could be packing.
Morgan and myself walked a couple of miles to a golf course, eager to play a round only to be told our attire did not meet acceptable standards. This from a country club located within a caravan park! So, we walked the 4 miles to the other golf course, a pitch and putt on the other end of town only to be told last tee off was at 4:30. It was 4:45. Are these people mad? The sun will still be up for another 5 hours! We walked back into town and went to the pub. It was open and was indifferent to the way I dressed.
After dinner we went to the local theatre to see a drama festival of local acts vying for a prize at the end of the productions. After the first act, it became apparent that we were the only people there who were not related to any of the actors. We slipped away and went and saw a local thrash metal punk band who we couldn’t understand and made Kathy’s chest hurt. We then saw a band that had appeared to have forgotten their trousers and were on stage in their underpants. This seemed to attract other trouserless drunken fans. We began to feel uncomfortable. It was time to go back to the big house and go to bed.
Saturday 10th July day 16
Hunstanton is mad! People arrived around 8 in the morning to sit in the sun for the day. Do they know that there will be sun for the next 15 hours?
We had had enough, we took the local bus to Kings Lynn and then a train to London. We located our hotel with only a small amount of retracing our steps out of Paddington Station. We then made our way across Kensington Gardens where we were met with a remarkable sight. Londoners were out in staggering numbers, sprawled, limbs akimbo, eyes dazed and rolling in their sockets, semi naked in the blazing 29 degC sun. We carefully picked our way through them, careful not to startle them to flight lest the ensuing stampede destroy London. We ate pizza and had beers. I went to sleep happy.
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