Sunday - Croke Park, Guinness and it all goes downhill...

Sunday we headed off to Croke Park. We've been to a few stadiums on other trips so it seemed appropriate that we continue the tradition. Another great experience as well. It is home to the GAA and there was a really good exhibition in the museum on the history of the Association and its part in Ireland's history. It was at Croke Park that the British went in in retaliation against Michael Collin's killing of several British intelligence agents - part of the 30 killings on Bloody Sunday. Yet again it was another guided tour (the Irish seem to do these really well) and it was just great. Great mix of sport and history.

After that we schlepped miles across town to go to the Guinness Storehouse. Again this was something I had done when I first went to Dublin, but wow was it ever different! Very high tech and glitzy! So we went and had our free pint of Guinness at the amazing circular bar at the top of the storehouse. Stunning views - and the Guinness wasn't too bad either!

Then we went for dinner and it all went downhill... Don't know what it was but something didn't agree with me - had a horrendous night on Sunday. So endeth our Dublin trip (I won't bore you with the details of my health issues!). I felt so flakey on Monday that we didn't do much before heading out to the airport.

Saturday - Gaol, cowboys and a damn fine Thai

Bit of a slow start on Saturday - due to sitting in a smoke free pub you see... A real novelty for us as smokefree pubs haven't been brought in here yet. So we went out for brekkie to what was Bewleys - an Irish institution. It has been renamed Cafe Bar Deli but still does great breakfasts.

After brekkie (well brunch really) we headed off to Kilmainham Gaol. Again I had been here when I first went to Dublin and I was pleased to see this hadn't changed. The power here is that it is still so stark, and you go around with a guide which just gives you a completely different perspective. Still very harrowing - an incredible piece of Ireland's history.

After that we were feeling very tired - its a right schlep down to Kilmainham so we took ourselves off to the cinema and finally watched Brokeback Mountain. Which I just loved. Thought it was superb. Then we went off to a Thai restaurant and had a lovely dinner. So not very Irish but very nice nonetheless.

Friday - Book of Kells, shopping and a happy reunion

We spent most of Friday wandering around the shopping area and working out the lay of the land. First up was finding somewhere we could find some toothbrushes and contact lens stuff for me in case our bags didn't turn up... We rang the helpline for our bags in the morning (based in India ironically) who told us the bags were put on a plane due in Dublin at 10.30 and should be with us by early afternoon so with fingers crossed we headed out to explore... A lot of time was spent on Grafton Street which was full of Scottish men in kilts! It was the 6 Nations Ireland v Scotland game at Lansdowne Park that afternoon - if there were any men left in Scotland I'd be amazed!

Back to the hotel around 2ish, but still no bags. My stress levels were a wee bit high - my cup tends to be half empty rather than half full so I was convinced we'd never see them again - or that they'd turn up on Monday morning. But we couldn't do anything about it so we headed out again...

Went to see The Book of Kells which was something I had done in my visit to Dublin (10 years ago now) and had really enjoyed. When I first went you went through The Long Room which just blew me away (being the librarian that I am), and then down stairs to the room where the Book is displayed. Now there is much more glam exhibition that leads into the Book of Kells, then you end up going through the Long Room. Personally I think the old way worked better but there you go... Regardless, it is still amazing, and The Long Room still blew me away!

Back to the hotel via cake and hot chocolate at Cafe Mimo at Powerscourt Shopping Centre where we were reunited with our bags! Oh the relief! So we went out and celebrated with some Irish beers at The Stag's Head. Kev's tipple was Guinness and I was on Smithwicks - which went down very well!

Thursday (or should that be delay day?)

So we headed off to Heathrow after work - so far so good. Checked in ok, and with loads of time to spare for once. However this didn't stop us having our usual airport squabble... I am getting worse and worse when I travel and just want to get to the gate. Kevin doesn't - he can look in every duty free shop going rather than go to the gate (or so it seems to my tortured soul) and we always ending up having a stressed squabble about getting to the gate, missing the flight etc etc. And this happened again :-).

We did eventually get to the gate where our plane was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. No BMI staff to question, and when the plane finally turned up we took off just short of two hours late. Interestingly I noticed on the flight back to London that if it is over 2 hours late they have to offer compensation...

So we're on the plane. All well and good. Get to Dublin - fine. Go to collect our bags... No bags. Despite the plane being almost two hours late it appears the airline could only get half of the plane's luggage on. So for the third time in my life, I am at my destination with no luggage. I now know to make sure I put my toilet bag in my hand luggage...

So after logging our skimpy details with the airline we head off into town to our hotel - The Leeson Inn. Great taxi driver - highly entertaining which helped take our minds off our lack of bags!

The week that was

Despite thinking that I didn't have a busy week planned I ended up being a busy bee this week - hence no posts till now :-). Quick review below...

Saturday: Kevin went off to watch Villa draw 0-0 with Charlton and I went in to town in the evening to meet him and his friends for a very delish burger at the Eagle Bar & Diner. Bit like eating dinner in a night club but it was a fine burger! Friends of his friends were down from Scotland - all very happy as Scotland had beaten England in the rugby that day.

Wednesday: We went to see The Exonerated which was just superb. We had Stockard Channing, Delroy Lindo and Aidan Quinn in our cast - so I've now seen two stars from The West Wing at the theatre here recently. It was a great production - read more about it on the The Exonerated's site here. It is worth checking out the stories under 'Facts'. It very simply tells the stories of innocent people condemned to death in the USA and how they manage to avoid being murdered. Very very powerful.

Thursday: Went out with friends to celebrate our friend Nicola's new job - she was one of the many made redundant from EY last year so we were all very happy to toast her new job at The Horse Bar. Although I must learn that mixing champagne with beer doesn't work so well the next day...

Friday: Hooray - Kevin the star managed to get us Saturday day tickets for the V Festival. Great lineup and as it sold out in a record 3 hours it was a pretty cool achievement as well! So we will be off to Chelmsford in August!

Saturday: Nothing too exciting yet, but Kev and I went for a lovely walk along the towpath from Surbiton to Richmond. Beautiful day but still very cold. And in a couple of hours we are planning to watch the Hurricanes play the Cheetahs - go the 'Canes!

Strange conversations....

We heard the most amazing conversation on the train last night. We sat down opposite a guy who looked very cross - I thought he was cross cos we had encroached on his space. But no! He later got on the phone and proceeded to tear strips off 'Annie' who had behaved appallingly at a staff do that night. He was a doctor, and I think she was his PA - he was most distressed at what she was wearing ("You can't wear clothes like that and keep the respect of the staff"), the fact that she had been flirting with the porters (ditto the comment above), altho he did then go on to tell her that of course he does flirt with people as well, but not to the level that she did, and her most heinous crime seemed to be that she had completely ignored Andrew (whoever he is...).

This conversation went on over two phone calls while Kevin and I tried desperately to not look like we were following everything he was saying! Sadly we had to get off at Surbs so we don't know how it ended. My theory is that he was jealous of the porter and thats why he was so cross!

The return of Jack Frost

Absolutely freezing here at the mo! Winter seems to have returned with a vengeance... Starting to see the snowdrops come out, the days are getting longer (it is now light when I leave work!), but the temperatures aren't rising - it was trying desperately to snow in London/Surbiton yesterday. Sadly when I got up it wasn't to a white winter wonderland - just a freezing cold winters day!!

What I'm listening to...

Still loving Breaks Co-Op and am currently thrashing 'The Return of Fly My Pretties' which Mhairi has loaned to me. Definitely one I'll be ordering from the Loop website very soon! And also getting into KT Tunstall as well - not someone I would normally buy but she is currently getting very high rotate on my ipod!

Walking once more - and why didn't I do more in NZ?

Finally got out to go for a walk - the first this year with the Nola's Strollers crew but there was only 3 of us - me, Kevin and Craig. We did 9.5 miles, walking from Witley to Haslemere in Surrey.

It wasn't a very exciting walk - it was only 2/10 in terms of toughness, and it was a very grey day, but it was just great to get back out again. So the next one will be a bit tougher I think. We had done the walk by lunchtime so instead of lunching enroute which you normally do we had lunch at the end of the walk and were home by 3pm. It was all a bit surreal really. We had a lovelyl lunch in Haslemere but it is pretty posh - surrounded by National Trust land and enormous houses - real stockbroker territory. As Craig put it you know that all the children are going to be called Jack and Rosie...

So while out walking we were discussing about how good it was to be out walking, and how we want to do lots more, and where we would like to walk etc and it made me realise how crazy I was to have not done more walking when I lived in NZ. I have so many memories of Adrian trying to get me to go tramping with him, and me just hardly being interested. Different story now - I'm buying Country Walking when it comes out now and will probably subscribe!

Crazy week

Well I didn't have quite the week I thought I would have - nor did Kevin... He was told late on Tuesday that he was being made redundant. Pretty much out of the blue and having only been at his firm for around 6 months, a bit of a scary prospect... But the guy who recruited him in did some sorting out, and by Thursday he was employed again, to do the same job he was recruited to. All very stressful but he does still have a job which is the main thing...

Went to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on Friday night - who were really good. Supported by Doctor Dog who were also very good - albeit a band who look like a throwback to the 70s. Find it somewhat scary that I am now old enough to be living through a 70s revival! Then we went to How Does It Feel for a while where I felt very old and very uncool :-).

Seeing where you live

I had one of those moments on Friday when I realised again that I live in London as I looked around at all the buildings. I left work about 5.30 to walk over to Leicester Square to meet Kevin. It was dusk and all the lights were coming on. I walked over the Hungerford Bridge which is my fave bridge, and looking down to my left could see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben all lit up, then I wandered through Trafalgar Square, past the National Gallery and then up Haymarket to meet Kev. London just seemed stunning in the dusk light, and I thought about how often you just 'live' somewhere, walking from A to B, but never really looking at your surroundings. I often used to think that in Wellington as well - particularly coming from London I could never get over how stunning it used to look, and how amazing it was to live in a city that had such stunning views everywhere.

Arguments for both sides of the world I guess...

And a bit of UK birdlife...

Kevin took this photo of the Ring Necked Parakeet on Friday when he was working from home. This is one of four that he spotted! According to 'Complete British Birds' these are a feral population having escaped from captivity and reproduced, and favour living in South London!

Ring Necked Parakeet
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

American wildlife...

We went to see Grizzly Man last night - the documentary by Werner Herzog about Timothy Treadwell, a somewhat bizarre man who spent 13 summers living with grizzly bears in Alaska before being eaten by one of them. Really recommend it - but it was a tad strange as well. Very poignant at parts - and also very funny, although you feel somewhat guilty laughing. I first read about this guy in Vanity Fair magazine, so it was fascinating to see the film - mainly drawn from the video diaries he kept over the last 5 years. Great film - although both Kevin and I felt somewhat disturbed by it for quite a while afterwards.

Freezing freezing freezing cold

High of -2 today according to the Met Office.

High of 2 in London tomorrow.

High of 2 in London on Saturday.

We reach the tropical temperatures of 8 on Sunday - can't wait...

Great escapes, shopping and a movie

We went to the Imperial War Museum yesterday (Saturday) which was cool. Lots of tanks and planes on the ground floor which were heaven for all the boys and men there (and there weren't that many girlies there!), but we spent our time in a special exhibition - Great Escapes. It was really interesting - about POWs escaping from different prisons, but focused mainly on the famous ones - Colditz and Stalag Luft III (the Wooden Horse escape and the tunnel - made famous by the movie The Great Escape). Quite fascinating to read how POWs saw it as their duty to try and escape, and how the Germans expected them to. And also how as they had signed the Geneva Convention they weren't meant to punish them too horrendously (which didn't work for the tunnel escape where 50 of the 76 men who escaped were shot by the SS on the orders of Hitler).

I learnt from Kevin that after the war when his dad was a lawyer down in London one of his clients was Oliver Philpott - one of the three men to escape through the wooden horse! I thought that was pretty cool. And also that New Zealanders were involved in the tunnel attempt - two men escaped through the tunnel but were caught and shot by the SS and a third was captured at the mouth of the tunnel and survived. I think two of them were flying in the RAF. Both websites I've linked to above have good information on the escape attempts, along with the names of the survivors and victims if you're interested...

Then we went and did a bit of shopping and then went to watch Jarhead - just to keep the war theme going. Thought it was very very good. Has been criticised apparently for not focusing too much on the futility of war, but I thought it conveyed that pretty well. And the details about the soldiers lives in Iraq were interesting as well - a Wall of Shame where photos of wives and girlfriends who had cheated on them or dumped them were put up... Definitely a film I'd recommend.

Memoirs of a Geisha + Walk The Line

Went to see Memoirs of a Geisha last night - quite good, but a bit too long. Could have easily cut 20 mins out of it without weakening the story.

But it was great to see Gong Li in a film again - I love all her older Chinese films like 'Raise the Red Lantern', 'Farewell My Concubine' etc.

But my hot film tip of the moment is Walk The Line - go and see this. It is really great. Superb acting (they should both get Oscars for their performances) and the music is fab too.

Dentists and doctors

Well poor old Kevin had a very uncomfortable weekend last weekend suffering from toothache - really badly... Not having a dentist down in London there wasn't much he could do except quaff painkillers until he could get to one on Monday. But what I thought was interesting was that on Sunday I thought we could go to an emergency doctor to get some painkillers - nothing is ever that easy over here tho!

Rang my doctor's surgery which had a recorded number for emergencies. So rang that number and said what I wanted. The guy on the end of the phone told me to a) Go and ask my neighbours who their dentist was and ring them, b) Call NHS Direct to get names of dentists in my area (which I'd already done over the internet) c) Gave me a 'Dentist Line' number to call. So I rang them and they said they were having an emergency surgery in Slough, and could we get there. Well even if I could drive Slough is in no way handy to Surbs. So we went to Boots and Kevin just kept quaffing those pills...

My memory of things like that in NZ tho is that there is always an emergency doctor on duty? Or has that changed? Anyhow, Kevin went to the dentist on Monday who gave him some more pills and told him to come back in a couple of weeks! So still no real resolution...

Hicksville and a whale

Just finished a really good graphic novel by Dylan Horrocks - check out his website at Hicksville. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it so much because of the NZ elements to it, or because it was about comics generally, but I would really recommend it. Definitely something I will go back to and re-read.

The whole of London has been buzzing about the whale swimming up the Thames as well. As suspected though it did not have a happy ending. We tried to see it yesterday from the top floor of our office (we've just moved back to Waterloo and overlook Westminster) but there were too many buildings in the way. It will be interesting now to see if people start to blame organisations etc for not trying to rescue it yesterday...

More band emails...

Am currently listening to and greatly enjoying the Breaks Co-op cd at the moment - a fab xmas pressie from my sister after I raved about Fat Freddy's Drop last year.

But the label has copy-protected it... :-( Means that I can't put it on my Ipod - very very frustrating.

So I thought I'd email them and tell them that! Will be interesting to see how they respond! But I did also see on their website that they will be touring over here later this year so that is something else to look forward to!

Comedy and a cold

We went to see Lee Mack on Friday night - I hadn't heard of him before we went but he was very very funny. Language was fairly strong at times, but still good. Great audience participation - I was pleased that we were sat in the back row of the stalls so well out of any areas where I could be spotted or picked on!

Since then I've been sat at home feeling very sorry for myself with a raging head cold. I was supposed to be walking on Saturday but I just couldn't have done it. Took all my energy to lug myself around to Kevin's place. So I'm plowing through the tissues and waiting to feel more like a human being again!

Feeling happy

Got back to my flat to a Christmas card from an old friend (it took a long time to get from NZ to these shores...). And it had a letter in it which was lovely :-). It happens so rarely that I get post so it is an extra special treat when I get 'real mail'!! Of course perhaps if I wrote more letters I might get more... Then I had a belated happy new year text from another old friend, rang my Mum and had a lovely long chat to her, checked my email and had two emails from two other old friends. (I use 'old' here purely in the sense that we have known each other for a long time, not in relation to our age!).

So all is good and lovely with me this evening.

And I have 9x68p stamps for the christmas cards I never sent to NZ so watch those letter boxes - you just never know what might land in them one day!!

Cold snap and plumbing work - not a good mix...

Well we are in the midst of another cold snap (apparently it is freezing out today, although I haven't ventured out yet...) and Kevin is having lots of plumbing work done (new radiators installed, new boiler, radiators getting flushed through, shower installed). Which means no heating... not great timing! It was supposed to be done by Thursday, then we got back to the house on Friday and the plumbers were still here saying that there were problems getting the boiler going so it would be Monday before the work was done. So a quick jaunt was undertaken back to my flat to get my heater so we could survive over the weekend! We could have just gone back to mine, but Kev's got a much better sofa and tv - not to mention the dvd player - just what you need for a cold weekend! So with my heater in the lounge and a newly purchased fan heater being moved between the bedroom and the bathroom we are getting by. But roll on Monday (hopefully) when normal service will be resumed!! Still - at least Villa beat Hull and are through to the next round of the FA Cup so the weekend hasn't been all bad :-).

Happy New Year!

Little bit late but here is a 'happy new year' entry... We had a very quiet New Year's but it was good. Kevin cooked a delish lamb roast from the Moro cookbook and we had a lovely bottle of NZ wine from our mixed crate we bought from the NZ House of Wine. All very civilised and lovely!

On New Year's Day we went to see King Kong which I thought was just fab. Really really enjoyed it, although the scene with the creepy crawlies had me squirming for a long time afterwards - those big wetas were just a bit too realistic for me! And I cried at the end... Can't beat a sad ending...

No snow

While the rest of the UK seems to be drowning under blankets of snow, sadly it has not hit Surbiton... Once we had got back to London I was quite happy for it to snow down here but it seems to have missed us :-(. And now it is raining so that will be it until the next cold snap. Sigh - I do love it when it snows!

Happy Christmas!

Hi all,

Well I hope you had a good christmas. As I type Kevin and I have just returned from our christmas up in Wem. Winter has hit the UK now and there is lots of snow around. Not in our area yet and luckily we didn't hit any snow on the way back down. We went up to Wem on Friday morning - very early, so we were up there by 10. Then on Christmas day it was off over to Telford to spend the day with Kevin's sister and family. Haven't spent christmas day with a four year old for a few years now - had forgotten how noisy they get! Then on Boxing day it was back to Wem as Kevin's aunt and uncle were coming over. Then on Boxing day evening Kevin got ill... No one can work out if it was food poisoning (both his mum and sister strenuously deny it was them!) or too much rich food but he was not a well boy. While Kevin's mum, dad and me sat and watched a frothy version of 'Under the Greenwood Tree' poor old Kevin was in the bathroom feeling very unwell.

So we had an extra day in Wem while he recovered but are now both very happy to be back in Surbs. Hoping for some snow, planning to hit the sales and go and watch King Kong - happy holidays indeed!

And a somewhat formulaic response from the band...

Hi MeganThanks for dropping us a line. We do appreciate the effort you made to attend the gig and take note of your concerns. Take care.Cher!
Freddy

The UK and a smoking ban

So the Labour Government over here is struggling with trying to bring in a smoking ban for pubs etc (a la NZ and Ireland). It was going to be an all out ban, but they wimped out so now we are in a stupid situation where if a pub is serving food it has to be non-smoking, but if a pub doesn't serve food it can be smoking.

So everyone is leaping up and down saying it is going to be unworkable (which it probably will be), and that all the bar staff in the pubs that don't serve food will be unfairly affected by even more smoke than usual... People on the radio were talking about rest homes - in theory they are public spaces, but they are also people's homes - there are just so many glitches that everyone but the Government seem able to see.

If NZ and Ireland can bring in these bans, it is crazy that the UK won't. It needs to be either or... Watch this space!

Fat Freddy's - what a disappointment...

Well I was so excited to be off to see Fat Freddy's again, this time with Kevin in tow, his mate and NZ girlfriend.

Except that they didn't come on stage until 10.50 - which when you live in London is pretty unheard of for a gig, unless they actually advertise it as a DJ set. So even tho it was in Hammersmith (which is the same side of the river as us), we had to leave by 11.45 to make sure we could at least get a tube to Richmond, and if we were lucky (which we were) get buses from there back to Surbs. Either that or be looking at at least 35 quid for a taxi... Wasn't impressed at all. Added to the fact they had some crap guy lip synching to country music on for half an hour from 10-10.30 and he was unbearable. Except to all the really drunk NZers there who had been in the venue since 7pm when the doors opened...

When they finally came on the performance was pretty lacklustre as well. I suspect they were hungover from winning some BBC award the previous night. But I think in future I'll take my chances and buy a ticket to see them on the day - I paid almost 17 quid for just under an hour of music. Not impressed.

Have emailed them as well via their website so it will be interesting to see what (if any) response I get. Mhairi also emailed them - she didn't even bother going - living in North London and going to West London to see a band that isn't scheduled to start until 10.30 (but they were late) is just a non-starter on a week night unless you fancy spending hours and hours on night buses getting home.

Rob Lowe and a sneeze...

We went to see A Few Good Men last night which was really really good. Featuring aforementioned Rob Lowe and Suranne Jones (ex Corrie actress for those who watch Corrie...). At one point in the play Rob Lowe was standing right at the front of the stage, and the whole theatre was quite. Except for me about 5 rows back from the front trying to stifle my sneezes! So I think I can safely say that Rob Lowe has heard me sneeze!! :-)

Nursery rhyme reminiscences...

I got talking to a friend at work today about nursery rhymes (don't ask how - I'm not even sure how we got on to it!) and she sent me a link to The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash - check it out here.

I used to love this rhyme when I was young (er). I can't remember what book it was in, but I think it may have been in a big yellow book I had of nursery rhymes and stories that one of my brothers (either Bruce or Jonathan - can't remember now) gave me and it had lots of cool ones like that in it. And re-reading it now, it is just great - the dragon eats the pirate! And Ink and Blink gyrate around him cos he ate the pirate! It is just brilliant - can't imagine many rhymes for children being written now where a dragon eats the baddie - that would probably be considered completely un-pc...

So I've now bookmarked the poem and will keep reading it when I need something to cheer me up - I think it is just cool :-)

And back to 'Kiwis come home'...

I've started to read the North & South's I bought at Kiwifruits, and have read the article about New Zealanders returning home after their OE's.

I thought it was quite interesting, but again just seemed full of very typical stereotypes of London - and also the age group they seemed to be writing about. Too many descriptions of London's 'grimy streets' (they aren't all grimy) and the UK's drinking culture (which yes we do have, but I don't see as being much worse than that in NZ - just different in that in the UK more people drink in pubs). In fact from memory one person commented that the culture in NZ seems to be around families and sports more while in the UK it is more around alcohol which I thought was a bit rich. Perhaps that reflected more accurately her age group rather than the whole of the British pysche... Then there was the woman who had spent 20 years here and didn't see anything wrong with NZers only hanging out with other NZers over here 'because where else could they do that?'. Well NZ springs to mind... mind you she was also praising the existence of The Church and recommending that people make a visit to it. Anyone who has seen or lives near The Church and has seen the volumes of paralytic Antipodeans exiting from it on a Sunday afternoon would have to query the wisdom of that statement. There's not much pride in being a NZer when you are barred from pubs around it because of the behaviour of your fellow countrypeople...

It would have been interesting (I guess cos it is more relevant to me) to have had interviews with slightly older NZers who are still in the UK or who have just gone back. Most NZers go back around the time they hit 30ish, but it is the ones who stay (like me and most of my NZ friends here) that are more interesting I would have thought...

Still it is obviously a burning topic at the mo as I read an article on Stuff about it recently as well. Still haven't seen any of those ads on the tube yet tho...

Megan the brave

So on Friday night I went to my first gig by myself! Very proud of myself I was. I went to see Hard-Fi at The Astoria.

I had bought the tickets ages ago for me and Kevin but then he was offered tickets for another gig he wanted to (a Canadian band, Stars) and as Hard-Fi are UK and play loads he figured he could see them another time. So I wasn't going to go, but was then listening to them a bit on the ipod and really enjoying it, so after a bit of encouragement from Mhairi (who has been to a couple of gigs by herself) I decided to go. I sold the second ticket through a very cool website, Scarlet Mist, which has been set up so people can buy and sell tickets at face value, and not have to go to a tout and pay exorbitant prices.

And the gig was really good. Once I had got in and found a spot I realised that the whole venue wouldn't be talking about me standing there by myself and I relaxed a bit. Not sure I'd like to do it loads, but now I've done it once...

The heart of New Zealand...

in the heart of London. Had to go to Covent Garden at lunchtime and ended up very close to Kiwifruits, the NZ shop...

Always fatal :-). Still I kept my spend to under £20 which was not bad for me! Two issues of North & South, a big bag of Twisties (I don't think I'll ever grow out of them!), two chocolate fish, two buzz bars and a can of Watties Creamed Corn - can't get it over here and it just makes toasted sandwiches the best!

They are on to such a money spinner there but I just can't not spend when I go!

Trailwalker 2006 - NZ style!

Finally got around to checking out the Trailwalker site for the inaugural NZ Trailwalker - set around Taupo no less! Check out the website here.

I would so love to do this one - I sat at work and went into a daydream about the Shields family putting a team in, with me doing my training over here and then coming back to do the walk. But then reality kicked in and I realised that the training as a team is so important that it wouldn't really work.

But I can't encourage you all enough to give it a go! It was one the best things I have ever done, and I am still so tempted by the NZ one... How cool to do it in the UK and the following year do NZ - and around Taupo as well! Sigh.

If you are around Taupo when it finishes make sure you clap and cheer people who are finishing - you have no idea how wonderful that was for us when we were finishing...

I'd love to hear if any of you take up the challenge - Taupo in April tho... Was a bit suprised by that - the UK one is in the middle of summer - and we got less time to do it in! We had 100km in 30 hours, NZ is 36. Have I raved enough?? Check out Nola's Strollers again if you need reminding!

And Saturday's lesson is...

don't accept glasses of champagne from an unknown man at a bar, even if he is wearing an AllBlacks top...

On Saturday night I went out to help my friend Simon celebrate his 30th birthday - at Motion bar - Kevin was at home feeling poorly. All was going well until I went to the bar to get a round of drinks in and this guy started talking to me. He started off by asking me about my accent and then told me he was from NZ and pointed to the Allblacks top he was wearing. So we had a bit of a chat about how the AB's (as he kept referring to them), had won the grand slam and then he offered to buy me a glass of champagne to celebrate the grand slam. I was a bit wary but as I kept making it very clear I was going back to my friends it seemed fine (and they were only a couple of metres away from me) - and who am I to turn down a glass of champagne!? He did know NZ. In fact his father was a friend of one of my old dentist's in Taupo. All very surreal. But despite having lived and been to school in NZ he constantly referred to it like he was a tourist who had only been there on visits, so I couldn't work out what was true and what wasn't. Although I really didn't believe the bit about him being a Harley Street doctor who did facial reconstructions on sportspeople, including several "ABs"...

All's well that ended well however - following a bit of help from my friends he realised that I did mean it when I said I was going back to them... Very entertaining - these things don't happen to me much!

Jeff Tweedy - what a gig!

So on Tuesday night it was off to see Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg fame to name but a few...) at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Wilco is one of Kevin's must see bands so we had seen him earlier this year as Wilco, but this gig was him doing an acoustic set.

I'm not best fond of SBE as a gig venue anyhow (see earlier posting on getting soaked with beer at Salmonella Dub for starters...) and also Wilco at SBE are a particularly bad memory for me. They played a legendary gig there a few years ago - legendary for all the wrong reasons I might add. They were at the end of a long tour, and I went along expecting some nice alt-country music (which was all I'd heard of them at that point) and I got an evening of noise, an incredibly surly singer (aforementioned Jeff Tweedy), which was topped off by a roadie singing on stage during the encore. At which point I finally came to my senses and left.

So I had always sworn to Kevin that I would never go to another Wilco gig... And that resolve lasted a few good years. But I went earlier this year and they were good (great according to Kevin) so was happy to go along to this gig. But I was a tad worried - I was tired, it was freezing out, and I didn't feel like going. But...

It was amazing. He was brilliant. It is now in one of my top 3 gigs of the year (Fat Freddys Drop being one of the others - jury is still out on gig 3). It was just superb. His singing was incredible, the songs were great, and his banter with the audience (including a reference to the infamous last appearance at the Empire) was very funny. Did a great stream about how the audience was his psyche talking to him. Did a song about absent family as well which made me tear up a bit (I'm a sucker for a sad song...). So check out the review in the Independent here, and if you're really keen, his set list here. There are some very keen Wilco fans out there... It was just one of the best gigs I've been to for ages, pure and simple.

Comics in Brighton - and Harry Potter

So on Saturday we were off down to Brighton for the inaugurual Brighton Comic Expo. We've been to the Bristol one a few times but thought we'd see what this one was like... Good reason to go visit the seaside!

I always find the Expo's slightly odd. They are full of some very dweeby comic fans (sort of like Sci-Fi fans), but also full of lots of other bods as well. Although whenever anything like this gets on telly they only ever show the ones who are dressed all in black or are in Star Trek costumes or something silly like that. I'd like to point out that there was no one in a Star Trek costume at this one! One particular highlight for me was the guy flogging Kevin a new irish comic who then turned to me to tell me that there was 'even a story for the girls' at the end of the comic... He needs to learn his market a bit better methinks - there are lots of comic girlies in this world - me included!

I didn't buy much, but Kevin got some great new sketches for his book. Loads of the comic artists set up stalls and will do sketches etc of characters for a small fee and so Kevin has a lovely leather bound book which he gets them done in. This time he added a 'Saint of Killers' drawing by Glenn Fabry, 'Constantine' by Sean Philips and a Judge Dredd by John M. Burns. All very cool - Saint of Killers is from the Preacher series which is one I've read and it is just superb. Can't say that the Saint is my favourite character but its not my book!

Then we wandered off to find a pub to watch a very exciting game of rugby where NZ managed to beat England - I was one of the few kiwi voices in the pub, then we went to see the new Harry Potter film. What can I say? Absolutely brilliant - I thought it was superb. Best one yet!

And did I mention the worst travel day ever...?

Got to the station on Friday morning in plenty of time for my 8.08 train - had lots of work to do so was keen to get in relatively early. But it was not to be...

My heart sank when I saw on the information board that there had been a cable fire at Clapham Junction - its not called the busiest junction in the UK for nothing... And problems at Clapham mean problems for lots and lots of trains...

Normally when it is that bad I would have just taken the day as holiday but I had to get in to get my deadlines met so when the first train came along (after 20 minutes waiting on the platform) I squeezed on. And I mean squeezed on literally. I was right up against the door with a mass of bodies all around me. At least I could turn my head and see out of the door. Of course once the train started moving I realised that it had been a bad idea to squeeze on as I don't cope with those situations so well anymore. I had a few bad moments, but I just focused on my music and thought over and over again 'This journey will end. We will get to Waterloo. This journey will end'.

And it did end. Over an hour later. So I was stood on the train for an hour. In my little heels which hurt if I stand too long (I don't normally wear them if I think I'll be doing much walking...)

I finally got to work just before 10 - not bad for someone trying to get in early-ish!

Starsailor at Brixton - a good gig...

So on Friday night we were off again to see Starsailor - one of our regular live bands this year, and also the band that gave me the idea for the name of the blog (see my very first entry). As usual they were very good, but I don't think they fall into the 'fab' category of the last two gigs we've been to. It would have been good if they had played a few more songs from their new album 'On the Outside' but minor quibbles really...

Own up (sibling)

Harumph. If you are going to leave comments on my blog telling me that I really am that old (see posting from 15th November), at least have the decency to leave your name so I know who it is!! None of this anonymous rubbish!

Double harumph.

I know it has to be a family member...

Wine tasting... lots of lovely NZ wine

So Kevin and I went off to the NZ Wine Tasting last night. This was organised by the NZ House of Wine and it was really good. Unfortunately it was the day of my red wine reaction so I couldn't try any of the red wines, but I got through a fair few tastings of the whites!

It was all very civilised, there were a couple of semi-famous rugby players there (Paul Tito and Glen Jackson) who I didn't recognise. Kevin picked out Paul Tito (but you would have known he was a rugby player from his ears anyhow!) and I asked someone who the other guy was. Both have played for the NZ Maori apparently, and Glen Jackson now plays for Saracens (I looked them up on Google in case you are wondering....).

We did (of course) end up ordering a mixed case of NZ whites, but we made sure it included two bottles of Lindauer Fraise which I've never seen over here - looking forward to those! Got a couple of bottles from Mt Difficult, Saint Clair and I can't remember who else. I did try a chardonnay which was £34.99 per bottle and while it was gorgeous did think that was a tad too much to pay!

Will definitely go again tho - and make sure I don't go out the night before the next time!

A weird reaction...

I went out for drinks the other night with a few bods from work, and ended up drinking far too much red wine. I don't normally drink wine when I go out, and certainly not in the quantity I had that night...

The next day was very strange. I wasn't hungover (well, ok - I did feel a tad seedy), but my nose was just streaming and I was sneezing all day. It was like a hayfever attack. People kept assuming I had a cold but I just didn't feel coldy at all. I remember I had a flatmate a few years ago who was dairy intolerant and she couldn't drink red wine for the reason that it made her all bunged up and snotty the next day. And I think that is what happened to me! All very strange. Never happened before - it was either the red wine or the chips as I didn't eat anything else different that day...

The National - another fab gig

Went to see The National - a US band that Kevin put me on to (as he does with nearly all of my music!). Check out their website here.

I hadn't listened to all of their cds much, but had been listening to Alligator - and they were absolutely brilliant. Sound fairly lowkey on the cd, but the live performance was superb. Really full of energy, great voices, and generally a great gig.

We've been going to a few good gigs lately - the last two in particular have been real highlights for me this year. Still got a few to go before the end of the year as well! Including the return of Fat Freddys Drop.... Soooo excited about that!! Have got my ticket already!

Am I really that old?

Listening to Radio 5 this morning and they had a piece on the fact that Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' was released 30 years ago today.... I don't explicitly remember it being released - but 30 years!!

Walking in Kent and birthday celebrations

Nola's Strollers (minus Owen and Finbarr + Sarah and Nola) got together again and went for a gorgeous autumnal walk in Kent on Saturday. Walked from Hever to Leigh (pronounced Lie), a distance of 9 miles. It was absolutely gorgeous - a nice sunny day (amazingly as it had rained all week and we didn't think we'd get to walk) and the colours of the countryside were amazing. I do like living in Surrey, but Kent really is a wonderful place to walk. Lots of Oast Houses , and generally just beautiful countryside. Not called the Garden of England for nothing I guess!

This walk was a tad on the muddy side (which made me thankful that I hadn't chosen the walk Time Out had described as muddy...) and we only got lost once. Well, not really lost, but the directions didn't make sense but then all of a sudden we were where we were meant to be anyhow. Which was just as well as it was getting late (we'd misjudged the time a bit) and poor old Nola was getting a wee bit cold. As we all were actually!

We passed some amazing houses - beautifully kept old places, swimming pools, tennis courts, and immaculately manicured gardens. How the other half live... But possibly the highlight was coming around the corner of a church through the churchyard (towards the end of the walk so all looking a bit bedraggled and all muddy) into an extremely posh looking wedding... If we'd been about half an hour later we would have seen the bride, but instead we had to satisfy ourselves with lots and lots of young men (no doubt all called Tristan and Tarquin and things like that) all in tails - not just the ushers! Very funny - although we were tempted to loiter we decided they would probably frogmarch us off the property!!

Then it was home, shower, quick scoff and off out back into town to have a birthday drink with Owen at the Prince Regent pub on Marylebone High Street. We three were all a bit unsociable as we got a seat and just stayed sat down the whole time - too tired to stand! But Owen was understanding :-). And despite the comments on thre website review I thought it was a good pub. So a very long but very good day all up.

Come home kiwis - your country needs you...

Mhairi noticed this item on the BBC website yesterday and sent me the link. I'm always interested in things like this. Apparently the posters are on the tube, but as I hardly take the tube I haven't seen them. Will be on the tube tomorrow though so I'll keep a look out!

Next week we're off to a NZ wine tasting hosted by the NZ House of Wine (over 100 wines - can't wait!) so it will be interesting to see if there is anything about it there. Read the BBC news story here.

Fab time for TV

Was thinking the other day how much top tv there is on at the moment. Shows I am particularly enjoying are Bleak House (new BBC adaptation), Lost (great US crap!) and Rome (another BBC offering).

Not that I spend my whole life in front of the tele, but we seem to have hit a bit of a good period at the mo! Lost for silliness is my fave, but I'm really enjoying Bleak House as well - I do like my period dramas...

Just finished re-reading Pride & Prejudice as well so had to re-watch the BBC version of it last night - Kevin was off out playing poker. So I had a lovely girly evening with a glass of wine and P&P. Bliss! It was interesting having just finished the book to see how they adapted it - and it made me realise again that the recent film just didn't do it justice... Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle will always be Mr Darcy and Miss Bennett to me!!

Sufjan Stevens - fab gig

Went to see Sufjan Stevens play what was meant to be an acoustic set, but it sounded just like his albums. Check out his website here. He was absolutely superb - beautifully played music, and his voice is stunning. One of the few times I've been to a gig where I really thought that the singer was using their voice as an instrument. It was in a small venue as well so it felt very intimate - he had also played at Shepherd's Bush but Kevin hadn't managed to get tickets for that (seeing as how he buys most of the tickets!), and in retrospect that was a good thing - it was lovely to see him in such a small venue.

Can well recommend people going and hunting out some of his albums - particularly Seven Swans and Illinoise. He has a plan to do an album based on every US state - he has done Michigan and Illinoise so far...

Haircut, Bolero and shopping

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 :-).

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...

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!

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.

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:

• 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.

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...

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 :-).

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!

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

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...

Frescos at Pompeii

Frescos at Pompeii
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Frescos at Pompeii. 2JPG

Frescos at Pompeii. 2JPG
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

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!

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...

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!!

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!

Me at Agrigento - Greek ruins on Sicily

Me at Agrigento - Greek ruins on Sicily
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Me in full on tourist mode complete with audio guide - Agrigento

Me in full on tourist mode complete with audio guide - Agrigento
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

On the harbour wall - Cefalu, Sicily

On the harbour wall - Cefalu, Sicily
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

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 :-(

Stromboli lava eruptions at night

Stromboli lava eruptions at night
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Stromboli lava eruptions at night

Stromboli lava eruptions at night
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

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...