Author Archives: browney

London, England – A boyhood dream

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Today I did something I once only dreamed of – seeing Arsenal play live.

I don’t recall why I decided to barrack fro Arsenal. Living in Adelaide there is no logical reason but sometime in the early 70s I reached that decision. Beartie Mee was manager, Charlie George was someone I’d heard of and that was really all. I don’t think I knew they had won the double. This was a time when we got the classified scores on the radio Sunday mornings and the scores in the paper on Mondays. We had Match of the Day highlights during the week, and the only game we ever saw live was the FA Cup Final.

Fast forard 45 years and today I was at The Emirates to see Arsenal play Burnely.

It was a lunchtine kick-off which for a football novice was a bonus.

I wanted to soak up the day Continue reading →

Coimbra, Portugal – How good are the Ham and Cheese Toasties?

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Just over halfway between Lisbon and Porto is Coimbra.

My favourite person and I travelled by train from Lisbon to Coimbra. It’s about a 2 hour trip, including a short wait at Coimbra B railway station for the train into Coimbra itself. It’s about an hour from Porto if you are coming the other way.

Coimbra was once the capital of Portugal, although that was a long time ago. Today its a modern provincial city with a preserved medieval town and an impressive historical university.

However for me Coimbra will always be the place that I truly embraced Portugal’s favourite food, the Ham and Cheese Toastie, although by the time we’d completed our visit I’d become a connoisseur, and my preference was for the ham, cheese and tomato version.

Before I arrived in Portugal I had assumed the national food was the Portuguese tart!

In preparing for our visit to Portugal we had read about Coimbra and seen a number of blog posts suggesting that Coimbra was place to spend more than a day visiting, We took the advice and stayed three nights.

Our late afternoon arrival gave us a chance to visit the Santa Cruz Church and Monestary in the square, Praça 8 de Maid. Continue reading →

Lisbon, Portugal – How good is it?

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I had a feeling as we were flying to Lisbon that I would love this place!

Coming into land across the bright blue water, big sky and the bright white buildings with red rooves I was certainly getting a positive impression.

Through the modern and busy airport and then onto our hotel, just behind Lisbon’s ritzy shopping street. I really was thinking “How good is Lisbon?” Continue reading →

Itria Valley, Italy – Truly or should I say Trulli?

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As we reached the halfway point of our European Trip we booked a tour of the Itria Valley.

A full day visiting four quite different towns.

The first stop was about an hour from Lecce, the stunning Polignano a Mare, a beachside town built into the rock. More than that it is the home of the man who wrote Volare (listen here)!

Polignano A Mare is just a stunning. Continue reading →

Lecce, Italy – a writing day

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Napoli Arch and Obelisk, Lecce

When we planned our trip to Europe I knew I would need to do some research and writing. I was quite looking forward to it. When we’d been away in 2015 I had used the early mornings and afternoon siesta time to write and that was in winter.

This time it’s summer and its hot and humid making the afternoons not that pleasant. As a result, it hasn’t been hard to spend many of our afternoons reading and writing while we have been travelling. My PhD supervisor will be pleased!

One task I have over and above my PhD research is to write a chapter for an academic book due for release next year. My contribution is due about a month after we get back and has been the main focus of my attention while we have been travelling. The topic is aligned to my PhD research which was why I pitched the idea in the first place.

With breakfast done, the day set to be hot and humid and a disappointing but not unexpected loss to my beloved Adelaide Crows out of the way, I sat down to write.

Continue reading →