Lovely day today - went in to town and got my haircut. It is much shorter than it was - I no longer have enough hair to tie back in a ponytail! I'm happy with it tho - looks much nicer I think. Of course it is still full of all the product they put in it so I guess I should wait until I've washed it before making any rash statements!
Then I wandered around Covent Garden for a while. Saw a great string quartet doing Ravel's 'Bolero' which I always like listening to. I remember seeing an animation years ago set to it - it was very sad, with a cat going hungry I think. So I always think of that as opposed to Torvill and Dean!
I've been looking for some new work clothes for a while and today managed to buy 3 new skirts. Very exciting - although I'm not sure I have any tops to go with them... But one of them I saw in the Guardian magazine on Saturday and I went out specifically to find it. First time I've ever done that but I did buy it! So having just been paid I've spent far too much money - but I did enjoy it :-).
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Trailwalker heroes...
We went to the Oxfam Trailwalker Heroes reception last night - and once we'd got over the disappointment of the lack of alcohol until after the presentations it was good! There were a few speeches where an Oxfam man with bad powerpoint slides told us about some of the things that Oxfam spends their money on, and then a very British army guy told us how they spend the money at the Ghurka Welfare Trust - he was very funny, even if some of his humour was slightly dodgy...
Then they had the presentations to various teams. Nola's Strollers was extremely disappointed to not win the Best Team award, but we did win a prize for our fundraising category :-). We get to go to the Renault F1 Human Performance Centre for a day. We're not sure what that will entail but no doubt it will be good. Although I would have been happy with champagne and chocolates! The team who won the prize for raising the most money raised over £15k - quite incredible. We all felt very nostalgic about the walk as they showed various photos and video clips of the walk... In fact we may have even been tempted to do it again next year - had we not already found a potential challenge for next year. Check out the website for the Caledonian Challenge - 54 miles of the West Highland Way in Scotland in 24 hours. Watch this space...
Then they had the presentations to various teams. Nola's Strollers was extremely disappointed to not win the Best Team award, but we did win a prize for our fundraising category :-). We get to go to the Renault F1 Human Performance Centre for a day. We're not sure what that will entail but no doubt it will be good. Although I would have been happy with champagne and chocolates! The team who won the prize for raising the most money raised over £15k - quite incredible. We all felt very nostalgic about the walk as they showed various photos and video clips of the walk... In fact we may have even been tempted to do it again next year - had we not already found a potential challenge for next year. Check out the website for the Caledonian Challenge - 54 miles of the West Highland Way in Scotland in 24 hours. Watch this space...
Monday, October 24, 2005
Music, bling, theatre and a baby
Busy busy weekend for me and Kevin - most unusual for us, but I don't think I stopped until Sunday evening!
Friday night it was off to the Barbican to see Michael Nyman who is touring on his 'The Piano Sings' tour. We had great seats - second row from the front, right by the piano. Very cool. The show was a mix of him playing music from film scores he has written (including some from The Piano), and him playing music he had written for 3 silent films. The last one was the best - a score to an old film of Nice - that was great.
Saturday I was off to see the Diamonds exhibition at the Natural History Museum with Julia. It was absolutely amazing - very very sparkly! It had some absolutely incredible pieces, including some stunning coloured diamonds as well (which I never knew existed before). So I'm deliberating now as to whether I'd like a rare pink diamond or perhaps a stunning flame coloured orange one! Very strict security - including alarmed cabinets which both Julia and I kept touching and kept getting told off for! You also had to switch your mobile phone off (so you couldn't take any photos), and you weren't allowed to sketch or draw any of the pieces on display! Julia and I managed to very easily kill two hours meandering around the exhibition working out which pieces we would like the most!
Saturday night it was off to the theatre - a late offer of tickets from friends to see Ducktastic. Not quite sure how to describe it really - a talking duck (not real!), lots of live ducks on stage, and a sort of love story. All filled with incredibly cheesy jokes - very very funny! Very slapstick but very well done. And the ducks were very cool - very funny to watch the actors adlib as the duck patently didn't do what it was meant to do at that particular moment in the script. They managed it very well!
Then on Sunday we were off out to Sevenoaks in Kent to finally visit our friends who moved out there about 4 months ago. We also got to see their gorgeous wee girl Daisy as well - last seen when she was about 2 months old, and now a very different 7 month old! Very cute. Had a lovely day with them, went for a walk in Knole Park and saw the deer - lots of little bambi ones running around. Sevenoaks apparently now has 8 oaks - they have replanted the 6 that came down in the big storm in 1987 (? I think the storm was 1987) with 7 new ones. Well so Jannine and Stuart said - I haven't verified it as yet on the highly informative Sevenoaks life site I've just found!
And Sunday night we just went home and collapsed!
Friday night it was off to the Barbican to see Michael Nyman who is touring on his 'The Piano Sings' tour. We had great seats - second row from the front, right by the piano. Very cool. The show was a mix of him playing music from film scores he has written (including some from The Piano), and him playing music he had written for 3 silent films. The last one was the best - a score to an old film of Nice - that was great.
Saturday I was off to see the Diamonds exhibition at the Natural History Museum with Julia. It was absolutely amazing - very very sparkly! It had some absolutely incredible pieces, including some stunning coloured diamonds as well (which I never knew existed before). So I'm deliberating now as to whether I'd like a rare pink diamond or perhaps a stunning flame coloured orange one! Very strict security - including alarmed cabinets which both Julia and I kept touching and kept getting told off for! You also had to switch your mobile phone off (so you couldn't take any photos), and you weren't allowed to sketch or draw any of the pieces on display! Julia and I managed to very easily kill two hours meandering around the exhibition working out which pieces we would like the most!
Saturday night it was off to the theatre - a late offer of tickets from friends to see Ducktastic. Not quite sure how to describe it really - a talking duck (not real!), lots of live ducks on stage, and a sort of love story. All filled with incredibly cheesy jokes - very very funny! Very slapstick but very well done. And the ducks were very cool - very funny to watch the actors adlib as the duck patently didn't do what it was meant to do at that particular moment in the script. They managed it very well!
Then on Sunday we were off out to Sevenoaks in Kent to finally visit our friends who moved out there about 4 months ago. We also got to see their gorgeous wee girl Daisy as well - last seen when she was about 2 months old, and now a very different 7 month old! Very cute. Had a lovely day with them, went for a walk in Knole Park and saw the deer - lots of little bambi ones running around. Sevenoaks apparently now has 8 oaks - they have replanted the 6 that came down in the big storm in 1987 (? I think the storm was 1987) with 7 new ones. Well so Jannine and Stuart said - I haven't verified it as yet on the highly informative Sevenoaks life site I've just found!
And Sunday night we just went home and collapsed!
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Thursday's trials
Hmm - shall I tell you about my trip in this morning and turn into a real travel bore? I think not - otherwise I might feel compelled to report on my trips in every day which could get very tedious (both for me and you!). Suffice to say that there were delays (again...) and despite being on an earlier train than I was yesterday I still didn't get in until 9.15. As opposed to going home last night when I got the 18.02 from Waterloo and was in Surbiton by 18.20...
I did get a seat though and the train wasn't crowded so it wasn't quite as bad as the woes of Wednesday... Am currently reading Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly and can thoroughly recommend it. It is very funny - so subsequently I look like an idiot as I sit there and smile (and occasionally laugh out loud) to myself on the train... I'm not sure he's inspired me to visit many of the places that I've read about but it is a good read.
It reminds me of A Land of Two Halves by Joe Bennett which I read not long after I got back to the UK. Also very funny - and very good I thought. Best thing I've read for ages that even begins to capture who New Zealanders are - as well as capturing our foibles very well! If you aren't familiar with it, it is about an Englishman who has lived in NZ for 15 years, and to try and work out if he wants to stay he decides to hitchhike around the country. I read about it in a North & South book review I think.
I did get a seat though and the train wasn't crowded so it wasn't quite as bad as the woes of Wednesday... Am currently reading Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly and can thoroughly recommend it. It is very funny - so subsequently I look like an idiot as I sit there and smile (and occasionally laugh out loud) to myself on the train... I'm not sure he's inspired me to visit many of the places that I've read about but it is a good read.
It reminds me of A Land of Two Halves by Joe Bennett which I read not long after I got back to the UK. Also very funny - and very good I thought. Best thing I've read for ages that even begins to capture who New Zealanders are - as well as capturing our foibles very well! If you aren't familiar with it, it is about an Englishman who has lived in NZ for 15 years, and to try and work out if he wants to stay he decides to hitchhike around the country. I read about it in a North & South book review I think.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Winter is approaching... trains start packing up...
Oh yes. One of the joys of living in London is the daily commute in to work. Fortunately for me I do it all via overground train as opposed to the tube - and to be fair, SouthWestTrains have been very good lately.
But - the weather is starting to get colder, leaves are starting to fall - and the problems have started. I've adopted the British fixation on transport so I thought I'd share this morning's trip with you...
8.17: Get to station. Little bit late for me, but I was in time for the fast 8.19 to Waterloo so no problems. Still easily be in work by 9.
8.19: Train pulls in. Can't get on due to train being full. Little bit unusual but I'm not too bothered as the next train is another fast service at 8.25.
8.19: 8.19 pulls out. Then I realise that the 8.25 is not due until 8.31 and there are in fact, problems...
8.20: Apparently there are signal problems around Waterloo. Services are delayed and cancelled. Regret not getting on 8.19...
8.31:
But - the weather is starting to get colder, leaves are starting to fall - and the problems have started. I've adopted the British fixation on transport so I thought I'd share this morning's trip with you...
8.17: Get to station. Little bit late for me, but I was in time for the fast 8.19 to Waterloo so no problems. Still easily be in work by 9.
8.19: Train pulls in. Can't get on due to train being full. Little bit unusual but I'm not too bothered as the next train is another fast service at 8.25.
8.19: 8.19 pulls out. Then I realise that the 8.25 is not due until 8.31 and there are in fact, problems...
8.20: Apparently there are signal problems around Waterloo. Services are delayed and cancelled. Regret not getting on 8.19...
8.31:
- Late running 8.25 pulls in. Get on easily enough (I know where to stand to be by the doors - a true commuter I am!), but don't get a seat. Train fills up, not everyone gets in. Train is also stinking hot as the heating seems to be on full bore.
- Feeling very hot. Train runs fairly fast for about 5-10 minutes. Read my book, wishing I had a seat.
- Train guard apologises for the delay. Tells us that the original problem was caused by signal failure at Vauxhall, but this has now been compounded by faults on the line. Doesn't elaborate on said faults.
- Also apologises for the heat in the train, but apparently the driver cannot turn the heating off until we get to Waterloo. (!)
- Train stops. We go nowhere for a while. I desperately try to avoid thinking about the fact that I am very hot, the carriage is very crowded and I couldn't get off even if I wanted to. Since my MRI back in Wellington I've had problems with claustrophobia and it doesn't take me long to get panicky on a full train.
- Train starts to move. Stops again, this time under a bridge so I can't see daylight. Focus on the glimpse of daylight I can see and tell myself not to be stupid. There are no tunnels on my line. Resolutely quell rising panic and concentrate on my book.
- Guard announces that we will be stopping at Clapham Junction as a 'young lady' has been taken ill in the last carriage.
- Train gets to Clapham. Guard opens doors so he can get to the 'young lady'. He can't walk through the train as it is too full....
- Halleulujah! Man in seat next to me decides to get off train to find another route to London - always a mistake as it invariably takes longer. But I get a seat.
- Collapse on seat and give up on pretence of reading. Panic recedes slightly.
9.17: Train pulls into Waterloo (a normal fast service from Surbiton to Waterloo is around 20 mins during rush-hour...).
9.18: Make my way to Waterloo East where trains are also delayed, but one pulls in as I get to the platform.
9.45: Get to work.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Film news, children's books and memories
Was browsing on the Empire magazine's website the other day and saw a piece that said they are going to film 'The Dark is Rising' by Susan Cooper - that title should ring bells with Tracey and Eryn! Tracey had the hardcover (I remember that very clearly!) of the first one in the Dark is Rising series - Over Sea Under Stone and I just loved it. I think it was the fave for me out of that series - quite scary to look at Amazon now and see it was written in 1968! Anyhow - needless to say I'm quite excited by the thought of the film!!
Got me thinking about other books I'd loved as a kid, and The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien sprang immediately to mind. I can't remember a lot of it - a crown, the heroine meeting a stonemason (as in headstones) who had had to do headstones for his family, and generally the book being very dark. Again on Amazon there were a few reviews of people who had loved it as a child and had re-read it and still really enjoyed it. So I thought I might revisit my past and buy it!
I was in Waterstone's recently (who have linked up with Amazon so my plan of linking to their website seems a bit redundant now...) and I noticed that there is a new range of classic children's books out, but reprinted in the old style covers that I read (things like Swallows & Amazons, Goodnight Mr Tom etc) and they looked great. Obviously designed to appeal to people like me - except I don't have children to spend my disposable income on! But I was tempted to buy them for myself...
Got me thinking about other books I'd loved as a kid, and The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien sprang immediately to mind. I can't remember a lot of it - a crown, the heroine meeting a stonemason (as in headstones) who had had to do headstones for his family, and generally the book being very dark. Again on Amazon there were a few reviews of people who had loved it as a child and had re-read it and still really enjoyed it. So I thought I might revisit my past and buy it!
I was in Waterstone's recently (who have linked up with Amazon so my plan of linking to their website seems a bit redundant now...) and I noticed that there is a new range of classic children's books out, but reprinted in the old style covers that I read (things like Swallows & Amazons, Goodnight Mr Tom etc) and they looked great. Obviously designed to appeal to people like me - except I don't have children to spend my disposable income on! But I was tempted to buy them for myself...
Monday, October 17, 2005
My links
I finally got around to updating the links to the right - so now when I talk about Flickr you can just click there to go through to the site.
I've also included a link to Mhairi's blog - she who got me interested in all of this! And also NZ Edge - I get the newsletter from this site, and periodically dip into it. Reminds me (not that I need it often) about how cool it is to be a NZer, how great NZ is, and how many incredibly talented NZers there are around the world! Might not be of great interest to those living in Aotearoa but I'm quite partial to it :-).
I've also included a link to Mhairi's blog - she who got me interested in all of this! And also NZ Edge - I get the newsletter from this site, and periodically dip into it. Reminds me (not that I need it often) about how cool it is to be a NZer, how great NZ is, and how many incredibly talented NZers there are around the world! Might not be of great interest to those living in Aotearoa but I'm quite partial to it :-).
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Lenny - looking lovely as usual!
Lenny - looking lovely as usual!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
Adrian sent me this photo of the lovely Lenny and I just had to share it with everyone. He was a true Slobcat and I was, as Maya always said "Lenny's bitch". He meowed and I jumped. Still miss him!
Friday, October 14, 2005
Final odds and sods from my hols
Here are some of the things that I noticed while in Italia...
- An amazing range of oddly worded t-shirts. Including several with a NZ theme. I particularly liked the rugby top emblazoned with 'North Island' and mockups of sponsor's logos. Turned it over and on the back it said New Zealand, North Island, Rugby League. I would have bought it but I knew I would never wear it.... It certainly wasn't any sort of 'official merchandise' that I've ever seen! I never knew the North Island had a rugby league team - had I known I would of course be a rabid supporter of them!
- Public toilets in Naples don't seem to have toilet seats. Ever.
- Italian men can carry off some extremely dodgy hairstyles and still look rather lovely while carrying by bag! Well actually it was just one in particular, on Stromboli...
- Pizzas really are better in Italy.
- You can lose the will to live queuing in an Italian post office. And then get back and find out that most of the postcards you queued to deliver still haven't arrived 3 weeks later!
- The Italians are obviously used to it, and queued patiently with no tutting, or frustrated 'haruumphs'
Fun volcano site...
Am I starting to sound obsessive?? Probably but this is about the last volcano thing - honestly! While researching facts (actually the correct spelling of Strombolicchio) I found this site and thought it was pretty cool. You can do the virtual ascent of Stromboli, but they don't use that route any more so it isn't actually the one that we did. But I was most impressed that they had a virtual 'Tongariro Crossing' - check it out!! Swiss Education - Volcanoes of the World
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Naples & Pompeii
So... back to the holiday. We left Stromboli at 5pm and got the evening ferry to Naples - 4 hours. We were pretty lucky as they stop the ferries to Naples at the end of September so it worked out well. Otherwise we would have had to go back to Messina and get a train up to Naples which would have taken the whole day so the 4 hour ferry was a much better option.
We stayed at Il Convento in Naples - it was alright. Very dark room which looked out onto a building being renovated. First hotel I've ever stayed at which supplied earplugs!! But it had been recently renovated and they had done a lot to block out the noise so we didn't actually need them. I've stayed in far noisier hotels!
After Palermo Naples was much nicer. Although everything we had read about it went on and on about the bag snatching being rife so we were completely paranoid everytime we left the hotel. But I felt much more unsafe in Palermo than I did in Naples. Consequently there are no photos from Naples as we were too worried about taking our cameras out! We only really had one day in the City - we wandered around, went up one of their cable cars, went up to a gallery next to the castle overlooking the city. That was pretty cool - had loads of nativity sets. I will come back and update this entry as I can't remember what it was called at the moment, and my google searches don't look right...
The next day we went to Pompeii. I have loads of photos from there to add to Flickr so will let you know when they are done. It was really quite incredible. Somewhat stupidly I hadn't really thought about how big it would be - the site is over 100 acres...
Us being us we duly got our Audio Guides and set off. Little bit of Megan stress at the start as I couldn't find the Baths which we had a timed ticket for (never did get to see them) but once I'd got over that it got better :-). Spent quite a while wandering around, listening to the guides until that got a bit boring so then we just wandered around and listened when we found interesting buildings. Probably the wrong way to do it - probably missed loads of interesting things but never mind! Halfway through it started to thunder and rain which was actually a blessing as the place emptied out. It went from a lovely sunny hot day to being dark and very wet - and not many people were prepared. Of course we were as I'm a weather obsessive so we just pulled out our walking jackets and we were sorted! As were most of the English people there (also weather obsessives - I must have got the gene from my Nana I think!).
I was somewhat morbidly fixated on seeing 'the dead people' as that is what I remember Pompeii being most famous for, but the only ones we saw were in a storage barn. Still very chilling. I read that a lot of the body casts are in the archaeological museum in Naples and we didn't get a chance to go there.
It was an incredible place however - and some of the frescoes that were still around were incredible. The fact that they have lasted so long is quite mindblowing - I've included a picture below, but there are plenty more on my Flickr site as well. Coming from Stromboli I really appreciated a bit more the power of the volcano... Interesting too that some people had the chance to leave but didn't. In fact at Herculaenum (nearby) they found a whole heap of bodies about 20 years ago - they had originally thought that only about 20 people died there, but they found around 150 I think down by the sea. Very sad really - they fled to the sea as they thought that would be safer... We didn't get a chance to get to Herculaneum but it is also meant to be really interesting.
The key thing for me at Pompeii was just the realisation that the site was so big, that so much of the town was affected, and that even now you can still wander around those streets. And Vesuvius still just sits there biding its time...
We stayed at Il Convento in Naples - it was alright. Very dark room which looked out onto a building being renovated. First hotel I've ever stayed at which supplied earplugs!! But it had been recently renovated and they had done a lot to block out the noise so we didn't actually need them. I've stayed in far noisier hotels!
After Palermo Naples was much nicer. Although everything we had read about it went on and on about the bag snatching being rife so we were completely paranoid everytime we left the hotel. But I felt much more unsafe in Palermo than I did in Naples. Consequently there are no photos from Naples as we were too worried about taking our cameras out! We only really had one day in the City - we wandered around, went up one of their cable cars, went up to a gallery next to the castle overlooking the city. That was pretty cool - had loads of nativity sets. I will come back and update this entry as I can't remember what it was called at the moment, and my google searches don't look right...
The next day we went to Pompeii. I have loads of photos from there to add to Flickr so will let you know when they are done. It was really quite incredible. Somewhat stupidly I hadn't really thought about how big it would be - the site is over 100 acres...
Us being us we duly got our Audio Guides and set off. Little bit of Megan stress at the start as I couldn't find the Baths which we had a timed ticket for (never did get to see them) but once I'd got over that it got better :-). Spent quite a while wandering around, listening to the guides until that got a bit boring so then we just wandered around and listened when we found interesting buildings. Probably the wrong way to do it - probably missed loads of interesting things but never mind! Halfway through it started to thunder and rain which was actually a blessing as the place emptied out. It went from a lovely sunny hot day to being dark and very wet - and not many people were prepared. Of course we were as I'm a weather obsessive so we just pulled out our walking jackets and we were sorted! As were most of the English people there (also weather obsessives - I must have got the gene from my Nana I think!).
I was somewhat morbidly fixated on seeing 'the dead people' as that is what I remember Pompeii being most famous for, but the only ones we saw were in a storage barn. Still very chilling. I read that a lot of the body casts are in the archaeological museum in Naples and we didn't get a chance to go there.
It was an incredible place however - and some of the frescoes that were still around were incredible. The fact that they have lasted so long is quite mindblowing - I've included a picture below, but there are plenty more on my Flickr site as well. Coming from Stromboli I really appreciated a bit more the power of the volcano... Interesting too that some people had the chance to leave but didn't. In fact at Herculaenum (nearby) they found a whole heap of bodies about 20 years ago - they had originally thought that only about 20 people died there, but they found around 150 I think down by the sea. Very sad really - they fled to the sea as they thought that would be safer... We didn't get a chance to get to Herculaneum but it is also meant to be really interesting.
The key thing for me at Pompeii was just the realisation that the site was so big, that so much of the town was affected, and that even now you can still wander around those streets. And Vesuvius still just sits there biding its time...
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
More photos uploaded
I've added a few more photos on Flickr from the holiday so make sure to check them out. Still more to come tho! Also some more of Chihuly at Kew as well. All organised into sets tho so it makes it easier for you!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Apologies....
Cos I know I said that I would update the blog and I haven't done it until now. But work was pretty heinous last week - got back from hols and found that there had been a load of redundancies made, including some of my best mates at work, so last week was pretty horrid and emotional and when I got home in the evening I just didn't feel like doing anything. But onwards and upwards - I know at least Lucy has been checking to see if I've written anything new so here are some updates - both holiday and otherwise - especially for you Lucy!!
Still more holiday blogging to come - but I've been at it for an hour and a half now and I'm tired...
Still more holiday blogging to come - but I've been at it for an hour and a half now and I'm tired...
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Climbing Stromboli - aka visiting dragons...
Well this post is out of order in terms of what we did on the holiday, but it was pretty much the highlight so I figured it was ok to talk about it first! I hope you've checked out the photos on Flickr - I've had some of mine back but they aren't as good as Kev's. I haven't uploaded them yet but will do so...
We had done a bit of research before going to Stromboli, so knew it was possible to climb the volcano. According to the guide book there was two options - a climb that left around late afternoon, or a climb that left around midnight, when you went up the mountain, sat there for about 3 hours watching the lava and waiting for the sun to come up before descending again. Before we got there we thought we would do that option but (thank god!) when we got there they said they no longer offered that tour as it was too dangerous to spend all night on the volcano. I don't know if I would have been able to stay up there that long anyhow, so I don't know what I would have done if we had done it! Stromboli last erupted in Dec 2002/2003 - luckily at Xmas time so there was hardly anyone on the island and so no one was killed. Caused a tsunami though that made it to Italy... Climbs to the summit have only been running again since March 2005 - so not very long...
We climbed with Magmatrek - check out their website here. Although it didn't really occur to me until afterwards, they had a very relaxed attitude to the whole deal. In terms of equipment we had to bring a torch (my head torch from Trailwalker came in very useful again!), a jacket, water, and a bandana or something to breathe through if it was dusty on the summit. No one checked our kit though... When we went to confirm our booking and pay the money we were also told that our guide didn't speak any English. They weren't telling us that from any safety angle - just to let us know! Luckily in our group (you climb in groups of about 10-15) we had a French guy who spoke some Italian and some English so he translated for all the English speakers in the group!! So when it came time to set off he just rounded us up and off we headed. No talk about the dangers of the volcano or what to do if anything went wrong - looking back afterwards it is hard to imagine any similar sort of expedition being run like that now in NZ!!
And so we headed off. It took about 2.5 hours to climb it - around 900metres high. There were a couple of school groups ahead of us (also being guided by Magmatrek) and another Magmatrek group behind us. I'd been a bit worried about the climb, but the guide took it really slowly and it was a very zig-zaggy path so wasn't too difficult. Incredibly hot tho - to say I was a sweatball would be pretty accurate! We set off about 4.30 and got to the summit at 7. Just before we got to the edge of the crater that we took the photos from there was an enormous boom (a bit like a sonic boom that radiated through your whole body), the ground shook, and in the distance you could see a red glow. And that was it for me - all of a sudden I realised where I was, and the penny dropped that the volcano might erupt with me on it! That wasn't helped by the fact that once we were all sat down on the crater edge one of the English speaking guides (Mario on the website) said we would be there for an hour. Then a couple of minutes later he was back saying "Actually its pretty active tonight (we'd just had another display of lava erupting) so we might not stay for the full hour...". I'm sure they say that to all of the groups but I was scared!!
Where you end up sitting is on a ridge that looks down to the vents which are where all the action is now happening. It is quite possible that if it spat out enough lava/rocks it could blow back on to the tourists, but you just have to trust that they are monitoring it enough so they know it isn't likely to happen. In the hour we were up there (which felt like a lifetime to me), we probably saw about 5 of the bigger eruptions, where the lava was shooting up into the air, accompanied by that booming sound that made me convinced I was about to die... And in between those there would be lots of other smaller eruptions - so I think it is safe to say that we really got our money's worth!!
It really was an incredible experience - even staying on the volcano was quite amazing as every now and then during the day you would hear a boom from the summit - its a pretty fiery one. I don't think I've really captured what it was like but it is hard to put it into words. I thought I was pretty au fait with the volcanic side of Mother Nature - growing up in Taupo with boiling mud pools and geysers and things you get some feel for it. But they have absolutely nothing on what I saw - we really do live on a ball of molten lava - and it was absolutely incredible, awesome and terrifying (to me) to see it at such close quarters.
Coming down was quite fun - I think we basically skiied down the side of the mountain, wading through the volcanic ash/sand that coats it. Fell over a couple of times but it was just like falling on a sand dune - also weird though cos you just couldn't see where you were - you just followed the torch in front! And I just felt better the closer I got to the bottom...
But I'd really recommend the trip! Even though it freaked me out, I would have been gutted to miss it due to bad weather or anything. And now that I'm back in nice non-volcanic England its getting easier to recommend it to other people!!
We had done a bit of research before going to Stromboli, so knew it was possible to climb the volcano. According to the guide book there was two options - a climb that left around late afternoon, or a climb that left around midnight, when you went up the mountain, sat there for about 3 hours watching the lava and waiting for the sun to come up before descending again. Before we got there we thought we would do that option but (thank god!) when we got there they said they no longer offered that tour as it was too dangerous to spend all night on the volcano. I don't know if I would have been able to stay up there that long anyhow, so I don't know what I would have done if we had done it! Stromboli last erupted in Dec 2002/2003 - luckily at Xmas time so there was hardly anyone on the island and so no one was killed. Caused a tsunami though that made it to Italy... Climbs to the summit have only been running again since March 2005 - so not very long...
We climbed with Magmatrek - check out their website here. Although it didn't really occur to me until afterwards, they had a very relaxed attitude to the whole deal. In terms of equipment we had to bring a torch (my head torch from Trailwalker came in very useful again!), a jacket, water, and a bandana or something to breathe through if it was dusty on the summit. No one checked our kit though... When we went to confirm our booking and pay the money we were also told that our guide didn't speak any English. They weren't telling us that from any safety angle - just to let us know! Luckily in our group (you climb in groups of about 10-15) we had a French guy who spoke some Italian and some English so he translated for all the English speakers in the group!! So when it came time to set off he just rounded us up and off we headed. No talk about the dangers of the volcano or what to do if anything went wrong - looking back afterwards it is hard to imagine any similar sort of expedition being run like that now in NZ!!
And so we headed off. It took about 2.5 hours to climb it - around 900metres high. There were a couple of school groups ahead of us (also being guided by Magmatrek) and another Magmatrek group behind us. I'd been a bit worried about the climb, but the guide took it really slowly and it was a very zig-zaggy path so wasn't too difficult. Incredibly hot tho - to say I was a sweatball would be pretty accurate! We set off about 4.30 and got to the summit at 7. Just before we got to the edge of the crater that we took the photos from there was an enormous boom (a bit like a sonic boom that radiated through your whole body), the ground shook, and in the distance you could see a red glow. And that was it for me - all of a sudden I realised where I was, and the penny dropped that the volcano might erupt with me on it! That wasn't helped by the fact that once we were all sat down on the crater edge one of the English speaking guides (Mario on the website) said we would be there for an hour. Then a couple of minutes later he was back saying "Actually its pretty active tonight (we'd just had another display of lava erupting) so we might not stay for the full hour...". I'm sure they say that to all of the groups but I was scared!!
Where you end up sitting is on a ridge that looks down to the vents which are where all the action is now happening. It is quite possible that if it spat out enough lava/rocks it could blow back on to the tourists, but you just have to trust that they are monitoring it enough so they know it isn't likely to happen. In the hour we were up there (which felt like a lifetime to me), we probably saw about 5 of the bigger eruptions, where the lava was shooting up into the air, accompanied by that booming sound that made me convinced I was about to die... And in between those there would be lots of other smaller eruptions - so I think it is safe to say that we really got our money's worth!!
It really was an incredible experience - even staying on the volcano was quite amazing as every now and then during the day you would hear a boom from the summit - its a pretty fiery one. I don't think I've really captured what it was like but it is hard to put it into words. I thought I was pretty au fait with the volcanic side of Mother Nature - growing up in Taupo with boiling mud pools and geysers and things you get some feel for it. But they have absolutely nothing on what I saw - we really do live on a ball of molten lava - and it was absolutely incredible, awesome and terrifying (to me) to see it at such close quarters.
Coming down was quite fun - I think we basically skiied down the side of the mountain, wading through the volcanic ash/sand that coats it. Fell over a couple of times but it was just like falling on a sand dune - also weird though cos you just couldn't see where you were - you just followed the torch in front! And I just felt better the closer I got to the bottom...
But I'd really recommend the trip! Even though it freaked me out, I would have been gutted to miss it due to bad weather or anything. And now that I'm back in nice non-volcanic England its getting easier to recommend it to other people!!
Friday, October 07, 2005
Palermo, Agrigento and Cefalu
Prior to conquering the beast that was Stromboli we visited some other pretty cool places...
We flew in to Palermo and spent a few days there. Which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Didn't like Palermo at all. It was just crowded and noisy and unpleasant. Narrow pavements so you were continually stepping off them to avoid people but then had to avoid being hit by the zillions of people on mopeds and the insane drivers they have there. I've had some hairy taxi rides in Europe before but the taxi trip from Palermo airport takes the cake. The way to overtake seems to be drive right up to the bumper of the car in front and flash your lights at it until it pulls over out of the way. Continually. All the way in. I was laughing by the time we got to the hotel but it may have been the relief at having survived the trip in!
Palermo is pretty much home to the Sicilian mafia which was quite interesting. Kevin is now reading Cosa Nostra, and we're rewatching the Godfather movies as well. We weren't that far from the town of Corleone (which is where Mario Puzo got the name from) but it didn't sound like there was much to see there - and I had a feeling we'd stand out like very obvious tourists looking for mafia people if we went there - didn't really appeal!
From Palermo we did a day trip to Agrigento though which was pretty cool. About two hours on the train, so we got to see a bit of Sicily - really sun burnt looking landscape. Very harsh. Apparently it is/was known as the bread basket of Italy and during the war Mussolini had it growing all the grain etc Italy needed. However they neglected the other crops and the soil lost all its nutrients. It doesn't seem to have recovered much from the bits that we saw.
Agrigento is a collection of Greek ruins which were pretty cool. Except the best ones were not only covered in scaffolding (occupational hazard of being a tourist at historical sites), but some of them were even wrapped in plastic - that was a new one on me... Also scattered throughout the Agrigento site were loads of olive trees which were pretty cool - not many olives on them though as I think the tourists had been helping themselves! There are some photos of the ruins on Flickr. I've got more to load on to Flickr as well - but it takes ages to do it at home over the dial up so it might take some time for them to appear.
We also did a day trip to Cefalu (also photos on Flickr, but more to come) which I really liked. Had a nice looking beach, loads of eating and drinking places overlooking the sea, and nice little lanes to wander around. Would be a good place to go back to for a Sept break I think. Of course by then we were desperate to get out of Palermo so maybe that made it look even better!
We flew in to Palermo and spent a few days there. Which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Didn't like Palermo at all. It was just crowded and noisy and unpleasant. Narrow pavements so you were continually stepping off them to avoid people but then had to avoid being hit by the zillions of people on mopeds and the insane drivers they have there. I've had some hairy taxi rides in Europe before but the taxi trip from Palermo airport takes the cake. The way to overtake seems to be drive right up to the bumper of the car in front and flash your lights at it until it pulls over out of the way. Continually. All the way in. I was laughing by the time we got to the hotel but it may have been the relief at having survived the trip in!
Palermo is pretty much home to the Sicilian mafia which was quite interesting. Kevin is now reading Cosa Nostra, and we're rewatching the Godfather movies as well. We weren't that far from the town of Corleone (which is where Mario Puzo got the name from) but it didn't sound like there was much to see there - and I had a feeling we'd stand out like very obvious tourists looking for mafia people if we went there - didn't really appeal!
From Palermo we did a day trip to Agrigento though which was pretty cool. About two hours on the train, so we got to see a bit of Sicily - really sun burnt looking landscape. Very harsh. Apparently it is/was known as the bread basket of Italy and during the war Mussolini had it growing all the grain etc Italy needed. However they neglected the other crops and the soil lost all its nutrients. It doesn't seem to have recovered much from the bits that we saw.
Agrigento is a collection of Greek ruins which were pretty cool. Except the best ones were not only covered in scaffolding (occupational hazard of being a tourist at historical sites), but some of them were even wrapped in plastic - that was a new one on me... Also scattered throughout the Agrigento site were loads of olive trees which were pretty cool - not many olives on them though as I think the tourists had been helping themselves! There are some photos of the ruins on Flickr. I've got more to load on to Flickr as well - but it takes ages to do it at home over the dial up so it might take some time for them to appear.
We also did a day trip to Cefalu (also photos on Flickr, but more to come) which I really liked. Had a nice looking beach, loads of eating and drinking places overlooking the sea, and nice little lanes to wander around. Would be a good place to go back to for a Sept break I think. Of course by then we were desperate to get out of Palermo so maybe that made it look even better!
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Here be dragons...
In the Rough Guide to Sicily it says about Stromboli that it is a volcano that deserves to have a sign stuck in the top saying 'Here be dragons' and they were not wrong...
We had a fab holiday - more of which later. But this post is just to let you know that I've uploaded a few photos on to Flickr from the hols, including some of our night climb of Stromboli. I will write more about it later, but I can honestly say that I have never been so scared by Mother Nature in my life. It was an incredibly humbling and awesome experience to watch and hear the lava eruptions from a very active volcano... We were up there for an hour, and all I could think was "I don't want to die. Please can we go now!". I will describe it in more detail - it deserves a lot more, but check out the photos below, and the others on Flickr. I'll be adding to these as well - Kevin took loads so until my films get developed I'll plunder his!
Quick timetable: Spent a few days in Palermo which we didn't like. Noisy, crowded and just generally not so fab. Did a lovely day trip to Cefalu however - looked like a great spot for an off season summer holiday, and Agrigento - very cool Greek ruins. Then we took the ferry to Salina, one of the Aeolian islands. Spent 4 days there chilling out, doing day trips to Stromboli and Vulcano (which named all the other volcanoes!), then went to Stromboli for 2 nights - including the infamous climb, then to Naples for 3 nights - including a day trip to Pompeii - of which more in a later post.
It was a great two weeks tho - sadly back to reality in London now :-(
We had a fab holiday - more of which later. But this post is just to let you know that I've uploaded a few photos on to Flickr from the hols, including some of our night climb of Stromboli. I will write more about it later, but I can honestly say that I have never been so scared by Mother Nature in my life. It was an incredibly humbling and awesome experience to watch and hear the lava eruptions from a very active volcano... We were up there for an hour, and all I could think was "I don't want to die. Please can we go now!". I will describe it in more detail - it deserves a lot more, but check out the photos below, and the others on Flickr. I'll be adding to these as well - Kevin took loads so until my films get developed I'll plunder his!
Quick timetable: Spent a few days in Palermo which we didn't like. Noisy, crowded and just generally not so fab. Did a lovely day trip to Cefalu however - looked like a great spot for an off season summer holiday, and Agrigento - very cool Greek ruins. Then we took the ferry to Salina, one of the Aeolian islands. Spent 4 days there chilling out, doing day trips to Stromboli and Vulcano (which named all the other volcanoes!), then went to Stromboli for 2 nights - including the infamous climb, then to Naples for 3 nights - including a day trip to Pompeii - of which more in a later post.
It was a great two weeks tho - sadly back to reality in London now :-(
Salmonella Dub at Shepherd's Bush Empire
Hot on the heels of getting back from the holiday I was off to Shepherd's Bush Empire on the Sunday night to see Salmonella Dub. Despite evidence to the contrary I don't spend my whole time over here going to see NZ bands - its just that Fat Freddy's and SD have toured very close to each other - honest!!
So it was my first time seeing them, although I've heard Eryn wax lyrical about them often enough. They were really good - and quite a different crowd from that at Fat Freddy's. But standing by the bar wasn't such a fab idea as I just got soaked with beer - or maybe it was just the crowd... So I went home smelling like I'd drunk about 10 pints, just missed a train and had to wait in the cold for about half an hour, so all in all I think I had a better time at Fat Freddy's...
So it was my first time seeing them, although I've heard Eryn wax lyrical about them often enough. They were really good - and quite a different crowd from that at Fat Freddy's. But standing by the bar wasn't such a fab idea as I just got soaked with beer - or maybe it was just the crowd... So I went home smelling like I'd drunk about 10 pints, just missed a train and had to wait in the cold for about half an hour, so all in all I think I had a better time at Fat Freddy's...
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