England & Wales Autumn Dispatch - Monday, 29th October 2018

We said goodbye to Leith & Scotland last Wednesday & travelled to Robin Hood’s Bay near Whitby, where we were booked to stay in a B&B for two nights. On the way we stopped at Morpeth and had our first cream teas with jasmine pearl tea – yum!

Next stop was Whitby, which was fascinating. It was full of visitors as it was half-term holiday. The most popular spot, with people queuing, was The Magpie Café, which has a reputation for best fish & chips in England. As well as fish & chips, it has a menu of 9 gins, lots of wines & lots of other options. We must come back & sample the wares sometime.

Robin Hood’s Bay is like a smuggling village & we drove from our B&B to the car-park before descending umpteen cobbled stairs in search of dinner. The places recommended by Trip Advisor were closed, so we went to the appropriately named, Smugglers, where we enjoyed drinks & eats & finished with the best sundaes ever.

Our B&B had a great bed, plenty of lights & mirrors, but very parsimonious hosts, who seemed to begrudge our use of anything other than the bare minimum, and offered one of the most basic breakfasts ever. We’re not sure they like having guests!

On our way to Torksey Lock, Lincolnshire, to visit Jeff & Kev, we stopped at a wonderful farm store, The Whole Hogg, where the staff excelled themselves finding suitable lunch offerings. We were sent on our way with carefully packed steak & ale pie, vegetarian quiche just out of the oven, & Yorkshire curd, a local delicacy for afters. We had already found a bottle of Mateus rosé to accompany this feast.

Our visit was wonderful – Jeff & Kev had made extra efforts which we really appreciated & we were able to sit up at the table & share many stories & memories together.

Jeff with Karen & Kev

Karen & Wes with Kev

We were very sorry to leave, but had a long drive back to Robin Hood’s Bay, where we could only fit in a drink with some fruit cake!

The next morning we were headed to Liverpool, where we could check in after 4pm. So our first stop was Macclesfield, where we found the Church of St Michael, full of Wes’s more noble relatives – Sir John Savage 4^th through to 9^th. There are effigies of all of them & even a special chapel. Wes was very chuffed.

We celebrated with another cream tea at the delightful Cherry Blossom café.

When we arrived at our AirBNB accommodation in Liverpool, we were very disappointed. It was furnished with cheap items & reject stuff from the grand house – one of the worst places we have ever experienced. We were pleased to escape to a lovely Thai restaurant, ChaBa ChaBa for a yummy meal.

The next morning we were up early to watch Winx break all sorts of records to win her 4^th Cox Plate & become the undisputed champion of Australia if not the world. We had booked a Beatles walking tour, so caught a bus into the city (about 25 minutes) and found the meeting point before heading into a café on the Pier for breakfast.

Amazingly these statues are only a few years old – Liverpool was very slow to claim the Beatles!

Our walk included a visit to the Museum, which was featuring John & Yoko; The Cavern; Brian Epstein’s place of work; lots of history of Liverpool, and an explanation of what it was like when the Beatles met & formed their group.

Afterwards we had booked tickets to see an Alan Bennett play The Habit of Art, starring David Yelland. This is a play about the friendship between Benjamin Brittain & W H Auden as shown through the eyes of a writer watching the rehearsal of his play. All the actors were excellent & we were so pleased we saw it.

Overnight was the end of Daylight Saving in the UK, but we were totally unaware of this & it was only when I was speaking to my sister, Leanne, on Skype, that she pointed out it was 6pm her time, not 5pm as I thought. Of all the places to get an extra hour, The Coachhouse in Liverpool would not have been in our top 100 choices!

Yesterday, we drove to Wales via Lyme Hall, an old stately home, which was renovated extensively by another of Wes’s forebears, Thomas Legh, who was a gentleman commoner, explorer & generous head of the household. This was a wonderful experience & as we are National Trust members in Australia, we gained free entry.

Wes in front of the orangery – I think we could be getting one of these in our backyard in Daylesford any day soon!

We then drove to Conwy, which has a famous castle, but they were celebrating a weekend of food & wine & we couldn’t get within cooee of the place. Instead we kept going until we reached our current accommodation at Y Felinheli, where we are much more comfortable & have been able to wash & dry our clothes.

Last night we headed to La Marina, a popular local restaurant & bar, which serves wonderful drinks & small sharing dishes. The food was lovely, but I really enjoyed my Ophir Oriental Spiced gin served with peppercorns.

Today we drove to the nearby island of Anglesey and did a delightful tour of it. We headed to Holyhead & found an unforgettable café called Holly Molly, which was full of characters – both staff & patrons & did our best to get through an omelette & a toasted cheese & bacon sandwich Wes said the hot chocolate was the best of our trip so far.

We spent a couple of hours at Beaumaris Castle, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is an unfinished castle ordered by Edward I in 1295. It is amazing that so much of it is still standing & that visitors are able to walk the parapets, the internal stairs, visit the Chapel & inspect the toilets & bedrooms.

Our last stop was to photograph the longest word in the world (I assume) at the James Pringle shopping centre. The centre itself was a real disappointment, but the word is great – not enough room for it today!

Scotland Autumn Dispatch - Wednesday, 24th October 2018

You missed out on hearing about our trip from Pitlochry to Leith as I ran out of time last Sunday, and I do think it is worth mentioning. We were sad to leave, of course, and promised ourselves we will be back to our favourite spot in Scotland very soon.

We had woken early to watch the Caulfield Cup, thanks to racing.com & a very exciting race it was indeed! We can’t seem to have any bets here, which will be frustrating come Melbourne Cup time, but that is a small price to pay for a great trip full of wonderful experiences.

On our way we saw a sign to The Hermitage and turned in to find out what it was. How delightful to find ourselves in the car-park of a pleasure grounds, run by the National Trust of Scotland (as National Trust Australia members we were entitled to free parking!). We spent an hour wandering around this beautiful spot, which was frequented by poets & writers in years gone by.

Wes enjoying the water & Autumn leaves

Our next stop was Dundee to see the new Victoria & Albert, which is a stunning building right next to the beautifully restored Discovery. However, we were underwhelmed when we entered as there is no crowd control except for queues to pay for exhibitions or queues to get into exhibitions. The rest of it is a mish-mash of cafe, lift, shop, toilets & sight-seers all getting in each other’s way.

We left there & walked around the city of Dundee instead looking for a cuppa, which we finally found in a quiet little muffin spot.

We arrived in late afternoon at our accommodation in Leith. This was an airBNB unit & we were able to stretch out at last after being confined to small rooms. We had views of the water, two bedrooms, a laundry, a fully-appointed kitchen, lounge & a large dining table on which the laptop sat happily. That night we enjoyed the goodies we had bought at The House of Bruar that morning.

Sunday was a fun day. We set off at 10.30am to catch the bus into Edinburgh where we had booked a tour called Secret Food of Edinburgh. This was hosted by a young female comedian, who took us on a three hour plus journey around the city with stops for Cullen Skink, haggis, whisky & tablet, fudge, cheese and tea & cakes. Each place was expecting us & had a table for 10 ready & waiting. It was most enjoyable and we had some good chats with the other 8 participants.

Afterwards we walked to the Queen’s Gallery at the end of the Royal Mile, but it was the final day of an exhibition of Venetian paintings & the queues were long, so we found the Playhouse Theatre instead & collected our tickets for the show Some Guys Have all the Luck, which purported to be the story of Rod Stewart’s life. I’m glad we had a couple of drinks beforehand as I was underwhelmed from the minute it started. I found the chap playing Rod lacking in charisma, stage movement & a good voice. I was in the minority; the rest of the audience & Wes thought he was excellent. I felt he was at his best when he stopped singing & let the audience take over the numbers. We felt as though we were at a rock concert, with mostly 60-70 age group up dancing in their seats or the aisles.

Wes walking across Pitlochry golf course on our way to the Black Spout & enjoying his decadent hot chocolate

On Monday, we set off to walk the Water of Leith trail into Edinburgh, which we enjoyed doing last time we were here, only in reverse. Sadly there were road-works in a few spots & we had to keep leaving the track, which meant we missed out on the beautiful Dean cemetery & St Bernard’s Well. However, we found our way to the Edinburgh Portrait Gallery, where we had a hot drink before tackling the wonderful exhibitions.

There was a stunning main display by Victoria Crowe, a woman with magnificent insights into her subjects & every painting was worth spending time over. This is my favourite. He is the well-known celebrated man & she, the vivacious wife, is about to checkmate him.

We spent ages exploring at this Gallery until our heads were spinning & we decided to have lunch at a little café called The Square, which served freshly made sandwiches & soups & had a French flavour to it. Good choice.

I forgave them ‘Tuseday’ when I discovered they filled hot water bottles for the homeless!

We walked back to Leith, mostly along the water, and rested for a couple of hours before putting on glad rags & walking 50 metres to our local pub, Teuchters Landing, for a drink & meal. We were overwhelmed by the size of our dinners and were unable to finish them.

Salt & pepper calamari with a kilo of thick cut chips & fish & chips with peas!

On Tuesday, we explored Leith by foot – in spite of a very strong wind. The weather was very good for our time in Scotland, a bit of rain, but nothing to worry about & quite warm temperatures, mostly around 15-17˚during the day. After a coffee break at an Italian café called Toast, we set off to drive to the historic town of Berwick on Tweed. We were totally underwhelmed by this town with its air of neglect & abandon. Lunch was at a brand new café called Café Nine, which had opened the day before. Mine host was panicking & his partner, Alan, refused to come out of the kitchen to help. We had soup & bread, which were very yummy & I took these photos to help us remember the occasion!

                                                                                                  

                   Wes is smiling as he has just realised that a book on Scotland won’t contain any info on Berwick on Tweed & we couldn’t believe the blackboard specials – misspelling & errant apostrophes dominated the menu as well!

Back home we decided to watch the wonderful film Sunshine on Leith, which our hosts had left for their guests, and after about 30 minutes of trying to make the DVD player work we were successful. Dinner was finishing up our bottle of claret, cheeses, biscuits, olives & mackerel. Very yummy indeed!

Now we are packing up and saying goodbye to Scotland until next time. Our destination is Robin Hood’s Bay, via Whitby. And tomorrow we spend the day with much-loved aunt & uncle, Jeff & Kev Hoolihan.

Scotland Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 21st October 2018

Last Sunday was our last day in Glasgow. We set off to find an interesting spot for breakfast & were most successful in discovering a French brasserie called Cote, where Wes had the best coffee of the trip to accompany his French breakfast, while I tucked into eggs Royale, poached with smoked salmon.

We headed off to St Enoch’s station to travel on Glasgow’s Underground, of which we knew nothing! It was built in 1896 & has 15 stations which loop around the River Clyde. We alighted at Kelvinhall & walked around the University, dodging the film cameras which had renamed the entrance as “St Hugo’s Hospital” (complete with ancient ambulance). Our goal was the Hunterian Museum, which was mind-boggling. William Hunter was a great collector & anatomist, who bequeathed his substantial collections to the University of Glasgow in 1793.

Eventually I could walk & gaze no more, so we caught the underground (called by locals the Clockwork Orange) back to St Enoch’s Station which is the closest to Glasgow Central Station & rested for a few hours. Dinner that night was at Charcoals, a busy Indian restaurant nearby & we enjoyed the change in cuisine.

The next morning we left Glasgow by taxi & picked up our Avis hire car (a Citroen) before heading to the Isle of Arran. We are not used to driving European cars & it takes quite a while before you hit the indicators instead of the windscreen wipers as everything is on the reverse side. However, Wes got the hang of it quite quickly, and after a couple of hiccups, we found ourselves driving towards the ferry terminal at Ardrossan. We detoured to the harbour-side town of Irvine, where we stopped at Gro Coffee, a highly-recommended cafe for brunch. It didn’t disappoint.

The ferry took about an hour & we found ourselves on Arran driving around as it was too early to check into our B&B, Monamore in Lamlash. We looked at a ruined castle, admired the mountains & horses & windy roads & enjoyed looking at water wherever we went. Our room was very well-appointed & welcoming & after a rest we headed out for dinner. Most of the pubs were family places, so we ended up at Glenisle, where two overworked waitresses were managing four rooms of diners. Eventually a table became free & we enjoyed an excellent meal.

Wes about to tuck into venison

Sadly, I became ill overnight, not sure it was the food, which was very fresh & well-cooked, but it meant that the next day was cancelled as I couldn’t get out of bed. Wes very kindly stayed with me all day, which was reassuring.

We got up early on Wednesday & drove around some more parts of Arran before catching the ferry back to the mainland & driving to our favourite spot, Pitlochry. First stop was the House of Bruar, where we had a cuppa & admired all the beautiful foodstuffs & clothing etc.

We checked into Tigh Na Cloich, an old guest house built on the site of the stone that gave Pitlochry its name. I think we had the smallest room in the place, but the warm welcome & thoughtfulness of our hosts more than made up for it. We had dinner there that night – a small menu, with everything cooked to your tastes. Quaint & delightful.

Next morning, after a yummy breakfast, we set off to look at some of our favourite things – here is the dam with mist above & below.

Then onto the Fish Ladder, where I was extremely disappointed to find that the tally box was inaccessible. However, we managed to walk around as much as we could & I even spotted one salmon getting ready to climb!

We walked back into town, after collecting our tickets for Chicago, visited some of our favourite shops, stocked up on Glacier Mints, a Scottish favourite, and had a quick cuppa in Morton’s, our preferred coffee shop.

That afternoon, we saw the matinee of Chicago, and as is usual here, were blown away by the quality of the production. Everyone in the repertory group accepted each year for Pitlochry Festival Theatre has to be able to act, sing & play at least one musical instrument. This year’s group has talent in spades. We were sorry not to have seen the rest of the season, which goes from May to October & finished last night.

Walking back to Tigh Na Cloich after the show

Back in our hotel, we opted for a Hendricks gin & an Edradour whisky before dinner in the old-fashioned lounge of our guest house. We had planned to try other restaurants, but the food here is as good as we have eaten anywhere in Pitlochry.

On Friday, we did some of our favourite walks – through the golf course, to Moulin & onto the Black Spout. We walked back into town along the main road & discovered the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, with the neatest graveyard I have ever seen! After a reviving hot drink at Morton’s, we headed for the second-hand bookstore on Pitlochry Railway Station, where the volunteer, Carolyn, turned out to have been our guide on our backstage tour of the Festival Theatre four years ago. We very much enjoyed our encounter with her again & her 18-year old grand-daughter, who was busy getting the children’s books in some order.

Our guesthouse Tigh Na Cloich, us at Black Spout waterfall, the neat graveyard at Holy Trinity Church, garlic at the House of Bruar & dinner at Tigh Na Cloich

Daylesford Scottish Dispatch - Sunday, 14th October 2018

Before we headed off on Thursday afternoon, we were very grateful we could attend Jessie’s celebration funeral along with hundreds of other mourners. It was the biggest funeral I have ever attended & very inclusive, with lots of immediate family involved in the Requiem Mass. Later we were amazed to be given a gift bag from Jessie with a framed photo of us with her, an imprint of her hand with a special message for us, a bookmark & a hand-made necklace.

We drove to Strathmore so we could park our car at Leanne’s place, where she will look after it while we are away. The Emirates car whisked us away to the airport in no time at all & after a brief stop to order spirits to collect on our return, we relaxed in the Emirates lounge with Moet & smoked salmon!

We had three long flights of about 7 hours, stopping in Singapore & Dubai, where we were able to have a very welcome shower. We both caught up on some films – I saw On Chesil Beach, Mary Shelley & Edie & enjoyed all three. Wes also saw Mary Shelley, a spy film & some documentaries on WWI.

We arrived at Glasgow Airport, were greeted warmly by Immigration & collected by Emirates to be driven to Glasgow, where we are staying until tomorrow morning. We had booked into a brand-new hotel, next door to the Central Station (where we stayed last time). The location is great, the staff excellent & the room small, but well-designed.  We had intended to have a sleep that afternoon & go out, but we slept through instead, waking briefly for cups of tea.

Yesterday we found a delightful vegan cafe called Picnic, (the owner had heard of Smith & Daughters – Melbourne’s premier vegan restaurant) & enjoyed breakfast before catching the Hop On Hop Off bus for the tour of Glasgow. We did the whole thing before getting off at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall to collect our tickets for our concert last night.

Wes at Picnic

The afternoon was spent at the People’s Palace, which is a wonderful museum of the history of Glasgow & its people, including a Winter Garden under a glass roof.

We came home for a rest before donning our best clothes & walking to Mussel Inn for dinner. This was halfway between our hotel & the Concert Hall & a great choice for a meal. Wes enjoyed haggis rolls followed by mussels & chips & I had oysters & pan-fried King scallops.

Wes about to tuck into mussels & my King scallops are shown below

The concert was stunning – the first half was excerpts from Grieg’s Peer Gynt plus Ravel’s Scheherazade. The second half was Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 1, conducted by Thomas Sondergard & played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. I had booked our stalls seats online & we were very delighted with our choice of Saturday night entertainment.

 The rain has stopped & we are looking forward to breakfast out followed by some walking & a visit to the Glasgow Modern Art Gallery.

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Sunday, 7th October 2018

Our dear niece & my God-daughter, Jessie, died early on Tuesday morning after fighting GBM, a serious & aggressive brain cancer, which was discovered in July 2017 after she had a brain tumour removed. We are in awe of her strength & resilience & determination through this time, and so proud of her husband, Anthony, her sister, Michelle, and her parents, Terry & Mary, who have done everything in their power to give her the best possible love & care over these past 15 months. We were lucky enough to visit her three times during that period & to tell her how much we loved her & had treasured her time in our lives from her birth on 9^th October 1975. Her funeral is on Wednesday in Narre Warren, about 150kms from Daylesford.

Whether everything got on top of me or I was due for a bout in bed, that is what happened. On Wednesday, after a lovely walk around Lake Daylesford & a good gym session, I visited Dot & John Smith to meet their new puppy, Patsy, a very affectionate black & white short-haired pointer. However, by the afternoon, I was starting to feel quite unwell & we cancelled plans to see Ladies in Black in Ballarat.

I’ve been in bed ever since, with Nurse Warren looking after me very well indeed & doing the cooking, shopping & gardening, Yesterday, he accompanied Barbara to Melbourne to attend a self-defence course, while I read & watched the races at Flemington, including a last-minute win from the champion Winx, who was boxed in for much of her race.

We will be in Glasgow next Sunday when my next Dispatch is due. I’ll do my best to keep up the routine, but it all depends on wi-fi, the laptop & a functioning brain!

Lovely 2015 photo of Mary with Jessie & Michelle

Daylesford Spring Dispatch - Monday, 1st October 2018

It’s been a very busy week since I last wrote. Breakfast at Boathouse Daylesford was yummy & we were thrilled to have our neighbour, Rob Griffin, join us so we could hear about his recent wonderful trip to the UK & France with his partner, Dene, who was catching up on sleep, still jet-lagged after a busy week at work.

While I was watching the replay of the footy in the afternoon, I received a very welcome phone call from Loud Gayle to say she was 99% sure of an MCC reserved seat for me if I would like it. I was thrilled to bits, as I had been dreading the long, early queue for 9,000 seats on Grand Final morning. She was able to confirm the seat on Monday afternoon & I was very relieved indeed.

On Monday Judi & I caught up over a long late breakfast at The Food Gallery. We had lots to discuss, especially as Judi will be looking after our place during most weeks while we are away. Our meals were yummy as usual & we do miss having regular breakfasts at this café.

Wes & I fine-tuned our trip again that afternoon. Our friends, Paul & Pauline Jackson, have booked us into Rick Stein’s restaurant in Marlborough for our catch up with them, which is very exciting. Gillie had given us some suggestions for Brussels & Venice that we have acted on & the Sunday Age had a very timely list of 20 great things to do in Belgium, which we needed to consult.

On the Tuesday afternoon, we had our first experience of the bulk-bill surgery at our local medical centre. That was a great success – we both saw Dr Kat, who took our blood pressure, wrote the prescriptions we needed & furnished us with letters outlining our health issues for while we were away.

Finally, it was Thursday morning & time to go to Melbourne to meet Tom Tyrrell & Deborah Fowler for lunch at Crystal Jade in Little Bourke Street. We left early to catch Collingwood’s training session, but couldn’t get within cooee, so ended up parking in Parkville & catching the tram back into town. We arrived an hour early for lunch and took the opportunity of checking out the new Creswick Woollen Mills shop in the Block Arcade.

We both enjoyed spending time with Tom & Deb over a long, leisurely lunch & then headed to Danny Millman’s house in Northcote, where Wes was staying overnight & I had booked in until sometime yesterday!

A selection of Danny’s very elegant decorations!

That night we had dinner at The Lomond pub in Brunswick & got ourselves into Grand Final mode with lots of memories of games past.

Breakfast the next morning was at Square & Compass, about 10 minutes’ walk from the MCG with Jane & David Knox & Gayle Gibson, who floated in with my reserved seat ticket & stayed for a coffee.

Danny, Gayle, Wes & David listening to Gayle happily holding the fort

After breakfast, Wes drove home, where he spent some time in the garden before opening his early birthday gift of a new Tom-Tom. The previous one was 10 years old & it is amazing how the technology has advanced in that time. That night he took his sister, Denise Anderson; her partner, Barry Phipps, & his friend, Barbara Simpson, to dinner at the Daylesford Bowling Club.

Meanwhile Jane, David & I walked to Jolimont Station with Danny before heading back into town through the Fitzroy & Treasury Gardens & watched the Parade from the start in front of the Old Treasury Building.

Selfie in the Conservatory in the Fitzroy Gardens

Afterwards we sat around together chatting over pots of tea, before they headed back to their hotel & I caught the train back to Northcote – all of us to rest before dinner. Danny & I had an early very yummy Vietnamese meal locally & we tried to sleep in spite of terrible nerves before the big game.

On Grand Final morning we had an early breakfast at Barry in Northcote & then I headed to the MCG & Danny spent the rest of the morning preparing for his party guests – 25 in all – family & partners & offspring. I found Gayle & bought her an early glass of bubbles to thank her for my seat & we enjoyed a great chat before it was time to head out of the ground again & find my friend, David Lazzaro & his family. David’s wife, Helen, had won 2 tickets to the game, which she used to take their son, Daniel. Their elder daughter, Jess, was watching on the big screen outside Gate 3 with her boyfriend, Alec. Finally, I walked around the perimeter of the MCG soaking in the atmosphere & there was plenty of it.

My last catch-up was with an old friend, Josephine Ward, who was sitting 10 rows behind me. While we were talking the chap behind us (wearing Western Bulldogs gear) offered us blocks of chocolate that he had been given at the station on arrival! When he discovered we were barracking for the Magpies I thought we were going to have to give the chocolate back!

The footy was fantastic – one of the best Grand Finals I have ever seen (& this was my 44^th). I was so proud of Collingwood, but we were beaten by the taller, stronger, high-marking side that deserved to win at the end. I stayed around watching the presentations & clapping the players until it was time to go.

What a lovely surprise to find all Danny’s offspring & families still there when I got back to Northcote.

Greta, Pat, Lauren, Celia & Danny – smiling despite the result!

I managed to down a couple of glasses of Prosecco while chatting with everyone & catching up with their news.

We had a quiet, early night after everyone left & got up early yesterday morning to finish off the cleaning up. Danny had done most of it, but I was able to dry the good glasses & big dishes & hang out washing before we headed up High Street yet again for breakfast.

Wes arrived just after midday to pick me up. He had watched the game with Barbara on Saturday and gone to the Sunday Market & Sunday Breakfast before driving to Northcote using the new Tom-Tom. Needless to say, it was a rather quiet afternoon here – I did a huge load of washing before sitting down to read the weekend papers from cover to cover.

This morning we woke early, cancelled the walk & got cracking on all the chores that needed doing before I went to gym, where everyone was sympathetic. Shortly after I got back home, our dear friend, Bill Longley, arrived to return nine books, request some more, give us lemons, coriander & olives as bribes, & then entertain us with stories from his very interesting life for an hour or so. It is always good to see him & Wes was happy to come in from the gardening to share a coffee & chat.

Beautiful cineraria & primula in the Conservatory