A recent conversation with my daughter-in-law and the birth of our first grandchild provided a point of reflection on where I am at in “What’s Next”. Perhaps my impending 60th birthday was an added impetus?
It’s been over three and a half years since my last day in the office. While I didn’t formally retire until 30 June 2015, I effectively retired from my firm at the end of March in that year.
So here’s my report card.
I haven’t missed the office for even one day! Continue reading
Chatting away with friends who’d just returned from a trip to Italy started me off comparing Pompeii, Heracleum and Ostia. Pompeii and Heracleum were all buried by ash and Ostia silt.
Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background
Pompeii is, of course, the most famous. Heracleum is its poor cousin. Ostia often doesn’t rate a mention but is perhaps the most impressive.
Source: www.visitingeu.com
My favourite person and I think that one of the best things about going to Pompeii and Heracleum is that its best reached by the Circumvesuviana, the local railway that runs between Naples – Sorrento. Catching the train at the Naples railway station is something to behold. It’s the local’s railway. Each of the carriages is completely covered with graffiti.
The train is a chance to see how the locals live. In the afternoons it’s full of teenagers catching the train home from school. It’s boisterous and not understanding the language a little confronting. On the weekends’ its still chaotic but the trains are full of kids and families. Then there are the buskers – I use the term loosely. In our experience, the train buskers have been pretty ordinary but I am sure we have been unlucky.
Making sure your on the right train is the next step. Not just that you are on the right line but that it goes all the way. One day when we were travelling through to Sorrento, the train just stopped and then everyone except us got off. For a short while, we wondered what to do until a local realised we had no idea and told us that we needed to get off and catch the next train.
Pompeii has a dedicated station and for Heracleum, the train stops at the town and then there is a walk to the archeological site. Continue reading
Ring of Brodgar
I caught up with a former colleague recently who was just back from a cruise that included a day in the Orkney Islands, a place we’d had the pleasure of spending a week last year. With such a short time in the Orkneys he’d only had the opportunity to see some of the many spectacular sites including the Ring of Brodgar.
My colleague said that his guide had said it was extraordinary how those standing stones were exactly as they were at Stone Henge. This was something I had not heard before.
We too had been to the Ring of Brodgar and that certainly was not mentioned by our tour guide.
It’s not surprising that he’d heard a different story to us, as they are just stories about seemingly random locations where a group of stones were placed a few thousand years ago.
So what of standing stones? Continue reading
The talking draft horse – Nhill, Victoria
Nhill is about 350 kms from Adelaide, just over the border into Victoria. It is a place we’d driven through many times, heading to Melbourne or other parts. If we’d stopped it had only been for a comfort stop and petrol.
Not this time. My favourite person and I had driven across to NE Victoria so I could collect data for my research.
This would be an out and back trip. The 800km plus trip each way meant we were looking for the quickest route so it would be straight through and when I say straight I mean it. The GPS barely comes to life on these types of trip. Often its silent for a couple of hours before piping in with taking the second exit of a roundabout in 270 kms – that means slow down but keep going straight.
As we drove we mused over driving holidays of days gone by as children with our parents, in our early years of marriage, just the two of us and then with children. Oh the country towns and dodgy motels! These trips had made us appreciate just how big Australia is, something lost when you are 30000 feet up flying between capital cities. Country Australia and the capital cities are different worlds these days, more is the pity.
The drive through the Adelaide Hills and then on through the south east of South Australia saw the countryside quickly change from the greenish brown tinge of late summer to the straw brown of the flat quintessential South Australian countryside.
On the way over we’d stopped at Bendigo, a historic gold rush town. Stopping in Bendigo meant we’d only have a half day drive to meet my interviewees the next day. Bendigo is synonymous with the 1850s gold rush and has buildings that are reminiscent of a bygone and wealthy past. Today its home to about 100,000 people and is typical of a large country centre with all the mod cons. It’s also home to a lovely local hotel, the Bridge, which we were lucky enough to strike on T-bone Tuesday! A large steak, fresh vegetables, salad and a glass of wine for under $20. A perfect way to break our journey on the way over.
The next morning it was a 3 hour drive onto the winery I was visiting. My interviewees were a delight providing me with much rich data, for my research. Our time there enabled us to take a tour of the winery and conduct my interviews enjoy a lovely ddinner with on e of the family member and then set off on the return journey.
On the way home, we decided that we’d break the journey in half and settled on Nhill, Victoria. Continue reading
The Harbour is what makes Sydney, as everyone knows, and so what better way to get around it than by ferry?
We’d taken the ferry to Balmain on our first day in Sydney and so as the clouds cleared on our second morning, we grabbed our Opal Cards and set off. This time rather than getting in the ferry at Pyrmont Bay we decided to walk across the Pyrmont Bridge and walk around to Barangaroo.
Barangaroo is a new trendy mix of business and hospitality. Being a Saturday morning it was not particularly busy and so rather than stopping for a coffee, we decided to hop on a ferry and head to Circular Quay. I thought we’d have an early lunch at Cafe Sydney, but it was closed and with the weather still a bit dodgy we decided to have a light lunch at one of the Harbourside restaurants. I was surprised how pleasant the meal was given these are so often straight tourist traps! We were able to sit and watch the people and ferries go by as well as look across to a large passenger ship moored at the International terminal. Looking at the ship again reconfirmed why I remain not that keen on a cruise – all those people and nowhere to hide!!
As we sat the weather cleared and we decided we head into Watsons Bay, not for lunch as we had originally planned but for a glass of wine. It’s about a half hour trip via Rose Bay. This ferry ride gave us a great chance to see the Harbour in all its glory.
Once at Watsons Bay, we headed for the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel and it’s 800 seat bar and dining area, known as the Beach Club. How can anything that seats 800 be boutique? Continue reading