Ravello

24 August 2005. Back to the Sorrento holiday!

After we left Amalfi the coach took us up into the hills and we stopped for lunch (which was pasta, which I don't like - yeuch!) and then onto Ravello.

The village is gorgeous, but we have come here in particular to visit Villa Rufolo, famous for both its gardens and as a venue for open air performances from opera to Elton John.

He wasn't there at the time we visited though, so I took advantage of an empty stage to stand on it myself and give a short but extremely worthy aria... or something...

The stage actually overhangs the cliff and couldn't be in a more spectacular setting. Wagner wrote part of his Parsifal here.

Villa Rufolo originated in the 13th century as a convent.

There is still plenty of evidence of that time of quiet religious contemplation, but try as I might I could find nun of the original inhabitants...

Never the less, these quiet remains of a previous way of life gave the place an alternative character and the cool of this vaulted room was welcome after the heat and glare of the sunshine outside.

In the next instalment we have a last look at Sorrento itself as the holiday comes to a close.

All the photos from this holiday are available as a set of montages at Flickr.

Happy 21st Birthday!

Today we played for a 21st Birthday Party out to the north of Preston. We've played this one a few times now - not always for a 21st of course, but we did the young lady's 18th and her brother's 21st and this year was her turn to be the magical 21.

The garden party started in fine form with brilliant sunshine as you can see.

By the time the champagne cork popped and smacked David in the face - were they trying to tell him something - anyway, two and a half hours of his singing had not done much for the weather, as can be seen here as he poses with the wayward champagne cork.

Not long after this, thunder rumbled and then the heavens opened and stayed open and we had to quickly drag everything back into the tent/gazebo. The rain wasn't going anywhere though and we had to dismantle and start to dry everything out.

At least we had managed to do a brand new version of Bridge Over Troubled Water for the party girl's gran - as promised a couple of years ago!

Blackpool Zoo

On Friday we met up with David and Jeannie and we all went to spend the day at Blackpool Zoo. It was a gorgeous day and a brilliant day out. We spent 5 hours at the zoo and had a great time. It would have cost a fortune in the days of films and developing costs!

End of words - photo flood follows. In the interests of space I've kept it strictly to one photo of each animal. You'll find the others at Flickr. There's 125 photos altogether.

Meerkat

Lioness and Cubs

Giant Tortoise

The Clicky Monster!

Giraffe

Rhea

Llama

Sea Lion with 3-Day-Old Pup

King Colobus Monkey

Black Faced Spider Monkey

Orang Utan

Red Panda

Zebra

Flamingoes

Pelicans

Goats

Ring Tailed Lemur

Lizard

Iguana

Baby Donkey

Day Trip to Wales

Apart from Wednesday and Thursday when I've been at a conference, I've been off work this week and on Tuesday we had a drive down into North Wales.

The view of Conwy Castle as you approach over the bridge that spans the River Conwy is stunning and I've never taken the trouble to walk back over to get a good shot. So I did this time!

We had lunch in a cafe housed within one of the towers on the city wall and bagged a window table overlooking the RNLI Lifeboat House and the river harbour. A stunning view.

Then a walk along the harbour wall. Britain's smallest house is said to be this tiny red painted cottage along the city wall. There was a group of schoolchildren sitting opposite it, all illustriously drawing it. That takes me back - remember going out to draw something from school, being very self-concious and hating it if anyone tried to look over your shoulder?

We exchanged a few words with the lady in Welsh National Dress (she didn't sound Welsh to be honest) and had a walk through the city wall and then up a steep hill to re-enter the town through another gate in the wall.

Fran bought a Liliput Lane model of the smallest cottage - the woman in the shop sounded more Merseyside than Welsh too...!

Then we drove towards Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa, Wales' highest mountain and Britain's highest mountain south of Scotland.

We were fancying a ride on the Llanberis Lakeside Railway, having last done this in 1992. It was an extended railway from the 1992 layout. It is one of the Great Little Trains of Wales and is a pleasant way to spend an hour and a bit!

From the railway you get good views of the Snowdonia mountains and travel alongside a couple of lakes, though many visitors, I'm sure, as I did will think of them as one.

A small steamer passed by in the opposite direction on the lake, passengers exchanging waves with those on the train whilst the two steam powered vehicles exchanged polite toots on their whistles!

We had our evening meal in a cafe in Llandudno - an absolutely huge chunk of gammon steak that even I had to admit defeat over... And I was always taught to clear my plate! (Looks at waistline and thinks "and see where that got me!!!")

Corporate Event Gig

Last night we played for the JISC Regional Support Centre (RSC) Northwest annual conference at Southport Theatre and Convention Centre after I had been involved in the event with my work hat on!

A few people were wondering what to expect and some were possibly a bit gobsmacked but lots of nice comments folks so thanks for that!

A birthday party on Sunday will make the 3rd gig in 8 days!

Large version of photos: creeping bentgrass

Sudden

On a few days off from work this week - with just a conference in the middle of the week - and we found ourselves in Preston for the afternoon.

There were several secondhand book stalls on the flag market and I enjoyed a good rummage round, looking through the books on offer.

Some Famous Five omnibuses were a bit tempting. But I believe you should never give in to temptation unless you can't resist it... I left them there. The Deathlands series written under the name of James Axler (though he never existed) were conspicuous by their absence.

What I did find though were a couple of westerns from the pen of Oliver Strange. My granddad had had the entire series about Sudden the gunfighter and I used to love them. These two were written in 1933, though the versions I bought and show here are reprints from the 1970s.

I've been looking for these for a good ten years - wonder how long it will take me to find the rest...?

Birthday and Charity Night

Saturday was my Mum's 75th birthday.

Ever since Dad died five years ago she has organised a charity bash at the caravan park where she lives in aid of Cancer Research. Over the years she has raised somewhere around £3000 at those events.

The afternoon is devoted to raffles, tombola, name the doll, the whisky wall and a bring and buy.

In the evening the band has played. Outside if the weather is fine and in a large barn if it's cold or threatens rain.

This weekend we were in the barn and David and I gave the residents and holiday makers 3 and a half hours of country, folk, sixties and rock and roll. We started with Don Williams' Gypsy Woman and ended with everyone in a circle singing You'll Never Walk Alone with a whole host of stuff along the way, including a first airing (without even a rehearsal) of Billy Fury's Maybe Tomorrow as part of a five-song tribute to Billy's memory.

Large versions of the photos: Mum, John and David

A Day in Zakinthos

6 May 2009. Our last day cruising on the Ocean Village II brings us to Zakinthos in Greece.

We got off the ship to a display of Greek dancing on the quayside.

The girl in the middle had a face like thunder for some reason - probably not helped by the two morons watching who were saying loudly "Oh, she's not a happy bunny in the middle!", totally ignoring the fact that just because they didn't speak Greek it was quite possible she could understand what they were saying...

Today we weren't going to do a trip. After all the excitement of Corfu I might never do one again... Anyway, we just got off the ship and wandered off on our own to see what delights Zakinthos could offer us.

It was a bit early in the season perhaps - or all the Brits that haunt the bars and fling their clothes off for the late night Sky One shows were still sleeping it off and hadn't yet woken up to think "My God - who's he/she/them?"!

A walk around the back streets and shopping streets gave us a mixed sense of Zakinthos. The shopping streets had some large shop windows and marble pavements with cool arcades to shelter shoppers from the sun whilst elsewhere, even on the same street were older, smaller shops with broken pavements and many with fish displayed outside, strong smelling and not particularly appealing except to cats and, I suppose, the locals. Though I have to point out that when it comes to fish, we don't particularly eat a lot of it anyway and of what we do probably more than half comes wrapped in batter from the local chippy!

There was a large amount of building work in evidence - I said that deliberately rather than "going on"... This probably added to making the atmosphere a bit dusty. It wasn't dusty enough to be unpleasant or to even be aware of it, but most surfaces and cars were caked in dust. Perhaps they just conserve their water, I don't know. Car parking seemed to be a challenge to many drivers. One chap found the space between two cars less than he needed, so he just left his car in the middle of road, next to them and wandered off down the street to do his shopping.

Someone else had parked nose to the kerb in order to use a small space. There were loads of cars double parked, sometimes whole rows of them, making it impossible for anyone parked next to the kerb to drive away. Your average British traffic warden would have loved it - I'll bet they all go there for their holidays, just to dream. Probably leave notes on the windscreen saying "if only this were on my patch..."

We made our way down to the seafront and walked along the Promenade for a while.

We kept meeting couples from the ship who all asked the same thing - "Is this it?". We told them about the shopping street we had found and they tried to look excited, but yes, as nice as the seafront was - that seemed to be it.

We walked for another quarter hour and then turned and walked back all along the front, buying a drink from a stall. The dancers had packed up and gone, perhaps leading away an inconsolable young woman from the middle with the words "I know I shouldn't have stepped on your foot, but if you could just look like you are enjoying it...?"

We went back to the ship and found a quiet spot to read for the afternoon. Then we had a last meal in the La Luna restaurant, served with steak by Epris and able to relax and watch the sea glide past through the window.

We ordered this gigantic banana split - 4 bananas, 6 scoops of Walls Carte D'Or vanilla ice cream, 4 chocolate twirly sticks, chocolate sauce, strawberries and cream. By heck!!! The average cruiser puts on a stone in a week. We were careful all week and put it on all in that one dessert!

Tomorrow we fly back to England. And that sorry tale I have already told...

Large versions of the photos: dancers, arcade, seafront, banana boat

Old Postcard Messages

There was an antiques fair on in the Winter Gardens today and I nipped in to have a look, coming away with a whole bag full of 15 books for a tenner - that'll keep me going for a bit - and half a dozen old postcards at 25p each. They are a bit tatty around the edges but what does that matter?

This one shows an idyllic scene of Arthog, near Barmouth in Wales and was sent on 20 August 1918 from the Vicarage to an address - beautifully simple: "The Bungalow, Llanwygwril" is all that's given.

In the picture two children are standing at the side of the road in the distance and the woman in the foreground is pouring water into a bucket, perhaps to give the children a wash which is why they've run off up the road?

One of the other postcards shows the London Embankment at night with Cleopatra's Needle in the middle of the picture.

It looks more like a painting than a photograph this one, though many postcards were a good mix of both with a painted image over a photographic background. This one was sent on March 10 1904, the postage being, at a ha'penny, half the price of the one sent ten years later.

Again no house numbers used in the address which was sent to "Moat House" somewhere in the Midlands and with a rather apologetic message:

My dear Ellen,
I was so sorry I could not send a card before but I could (then he realised this excuse wouldn't wash as he was in London and crossed out the word "could") did not go into a shop.
With love D.C.T.

You cad, Sir! Did Ellen give him the order of the boot? I shall keep an eye out for a card from 1910 that says "D.C.T. Thank you for your card of the 10th inst. Bastard..."

Ocean Village II Decktop Show

5 May 2009. We were back onboard Ocean Village II as she made her way down the Adriatic from Croatia towards Greece. Zakinthos is our port for tomorrow.

That night there was a show on the main pool deck with the acrobats and showteam. We were up there early to get a good spot against the rail on the top deck and there was a stiff breeze blowing which soon chilled us right down.

"Don't worry, the captain will steer the ship round for the show so the wind won't be felt." He must have forgotten... The show opened with singer/guitarist Chris O'Leary - a lad after my own heart!

Laser beams were shooting out, writing "PLANET" - the name of the show - against the chimney stack of the ship. I always think lasers are more spectacular if you ignore what they are writing or drawing. It's the beam itself that's more spectacular.

Then whilst the showteam sang their hearts out and danced about in futuristic costumes, the acrobats gave their performances on trapeze, cloth, swinging hoops and other apparatus way up there in the night sky on the 40 foot framework on top of the deck. One wrong move and splash!...

It was very spectacular - the acrobats were mainly from Colombia and they definitely have more nerve than I do!

By the end of the show my teeth were in danger of chattering and I had to wonder how the acrobats had managed in skimpy costumes and trying desperately to hang onto each other whilst dangling from a trapeze by their feet.

"Sorry, love, I was cold..." wouldn't quite have cut it had one of them been catapulted over the side in the dark...

After the show there was an opportunity to have your photo taken with the cast. Ever the cheapskate, I took my own. I've no idea who the people in the middle are, but they looked to be enjoying themselves anyway!

We went down below and ended up in the casino. Fran loves playing the slot machines. It doesn't do a lot for me so I usually just sit and watch our money disappear! Anyway she was down to her last 10 tokens and the woman from the next machine moved and Fran gave me half the coins and I promptly won 72 pounds much to the disgust of the woman who had simply moved behind us... Sorry, dear, if you snooze, you lose...

Large versions of the photos: Chris O'Leary, laser, acrobat, cast

Escape from The Corfu Excursion

5 May 2009. Corfu. The excursionists are being transported by coach from monastery and museum, where we have been brow beaten into enduring the museum and a dreary commentary, then rushed round the gardens which were the best bit. We are mutinous. We are desperate. In the eyes of guide-i-poos we are obviously in need of culture and knowledge...

The coach arrives at Corfu town and pulls to a halt near a marvellous old fortress, set on a cliff and surrounded by a moat.

Guide-i-poos sets us off at a brisk walk, her alsatians running round to keep the pack in some semblance of order. We walk away from the wonderful fortress without a word other than we will come back here for the coach.

We walk past a large park about which we hear a lot, stopping in a huddle as the alsations growl and snap at ankles, pushing us into a tight group around our commandant... er... guide...

We are promised another church visit and a look at the old Colonial House, remnant of Britain when she was Great.

There's a cricket pitch she wants us to see. I've seen one before and wasn't particularly thrilled then... Cricket has a lot in common with this tour - takes forever with brief bursts of interest set in a series of long boring interludes...

Wait! This could be her undoing! She's taking us through a couple of streets! We hang about until we reach the back of the group and... Yes! An opportunity! As the group carries on forwards, we suddenly make a run for it down a side street, fearfully looking over our shoulders, trying to mingle with locals and hoping they don't give us away!

We spend a bit of time exploring the streets and then head back towards the old fortress that I have been fancying trying to sketch.

The Old Fortress, for such is indeed its name, was built between the 6th and 19th centuries, presumably by workers whose supervisors were asleep most of the time... 1300 years to build... oh... I think they built a fortress and then it got added to every now and then!

In fact even the island that it stands on is man made according to some sources, although frankly, looking at those cliffs I suspect what they mean is that it used to be part of the mainland and the moat was dug out to make it an island. That sounds just a bit more practical - or if they did make the island, that explains why it took 1300 years...

I was quite happy doodling away until the sound of a whip cracking and the scraping of shuffling feet announced the return of guide-i-poos and her not-so-merry band of tourists. The coach took us back towards the ship. It took a while for all the passengers to get on board, stopping as they did to hug and weep over every officer and crew member near the gangway...

They're Back! The Nolans!

Ohhhhh.... I'm in the mood for dancing! They are back!

Yes! The Nolans! They've split up, reformed, always had another sister ready to step in if one stepped out, battled illness, been derided, but I love them! And they have reformed to go on tour again!

So as an owner of all seven chart singles and a few more besides, plus around the same number of albums, will I stir myself to see them when they play their home town of Blackpool? Anne, Bernie, Linda, Colleen and (ooh...) Maureen - you betcha!

I've gotta pull myself together, don't make waves 'cos we got the chemistry right so pay some attention to me and be gentle, don't love me too hard because who's gonna rock you? Right! Me! Spirit body and soul...

Think I got them all in... Wonder if they need a guitarist...

The Sands of Tampa Bay

Amanda, one of the Ladies-Over-The-Water spent this weekend in Tampa Bay, Florida and sent this pic to Marlene, Evy and me!

A handwritten note by email!

A Beach and Achilles

5 May 2009 and we are on a coach excursion looking round Corfu. Guide-i-poos has shown herself to be a bit of a bore-i-poos. I'm not sure why it is that guides think that people on holiday have come for the sole purpose of learning historical dates and leave out any light heartedness they might be able to put into their spiel.

I'm sure that if I was a tour guide at the battle site in Hastings for instance I'd probably open with "It all started to go wrong for King Harold that day when he tried to get out of bed and got his foot stuck in the po..."

Anyway, after leaving the monastery, we have arrived at a small beach and have 20 minutes for a drink - very welcome as it was a hot day.

The scenery is stunning and I could have quite happily - despite not liking beach holidays - have settled down with a good book and an occasional look up, but alas we were shepherded onto the coach again and driven to the Palace of Achilleion. This had been built by Empress of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as Sissi.

Her statue stands by the main doorway. Sissi used to visit the place often until 1898 when she was assassinated in Geneva by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni - a man who killed her just for the purpose of becoming famous.

After Sissi's death, German Kaiser Wilhelm II purchased Achilleion in 1907 and used it as a summer residence. The place is now a museum.

"Oh my God, I don't want to go round a museum - can we not just go round the gardens?" a rather exasperated voice chirped up from the middle of the crowd. Guide-i-poos looked affronted and drew herself up to her full three foot six...

"We will come to the gardens at the end of the museum!" she said in a tone of voice that brooked no argument. She could have just said "Yep - they're that way..." but she obviously wasn't having any insubordination in class! So the disgruntled member of our little band followed us in and glared at me as I shrugged in sympathy.

"Is it just me?" he asked.
"Nope," I said, "I'd have been right behind you!"

Unfortunately we were both proved right. In each room even where there were only three sticks of furniture she talked for a good ten minutes about stuff that wasn't even remotely interesting or relevant to us. The only bit I liked was the Kaiser's memorabilia - and we all know what happened to him...

Eventually though, we did come out into the gardens. Guide-i-poos was lamenting we couldn't visit the upstairs rooms, but thank Heavens for small mercies...

The gardens were dominated by this huge statue of Achilles, watching the horizon for enemies - he should have looked down at his feet and swatted guide-i-poos with his shield - whilst we and the other rebel wandered off as far from the rest of the group as we could get.

Apparently this was the setting for the casino scene in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. However, that is apparently the record holder for the least-watched James Bond film and I certainly didn't recognise anywhere.

We went to get an ice cream up the road and plotted to break free of the tour at our earliest opportunity...

Large versions of the photos: beach and boat, row of boats, Palace of Achilleion, Achilles

The Monastery on Corfu

5 May 2009. Ocean Village II sails into Corfu.

We are doing an excursion today. It is taking us to several places in Corfu but we start off with a trip up the coast to a monastery.

This was a Greek Orthodox monastery with a small number of monks, one of whom greeted our guide warmly as we walked up towards the monastery. The monks were called to their various offices or meals, not by the ringing of a bell, but by a pattern of knocking rapped out on this piece of wood, hanging in a small courtyard. Fran was all for giving it a bang but with the thought of half a dozen confused monks appearing and asking all sorts of questions in a foreign language, I thought it was perhaps not the best of ideas! Ah... guid-i-poos is calling us into the monastery church.

The church was quite small, but richly decorated. There were many icons lining the walls many of them gilded. A large silver chandelier hung from the ceiling.

Guid-i-poos is getting boring... We bob out of the church and race through the museum - huh? It did have some whale bones which were worth seeing - more interesting to me than the many more icons.

But they were seen at a fast pace as we literally went in one door, threaded our way through and out the other door where Fran considered another attempt at banging the wooden beam...

The only inhabitants we saw though were a collection of scraggy cats, one curled up with some tiny kittens and a thin alsation dog. Another mystery...

There was an excellent view over the cliffs down to the sea and this ancient monastic cannon used every second Tuesday during the 18th Century when the monks would gather to chortle and chant and blast the barnacles off every passing ship...

We get back on the coach, unspeakably thrilled when guid-i-poos promises us another church to look at.

Large versions of the photographs: Ocean Village II, wooden beam, church interior, viewpoint, cannon

Amalfi Coast Boat Ride

24 August 2005 and we're back to the Sorrento-based holiday. You may remember that we have brought Mum along to Italy and we are currently in Amalfi where the rest of the excursionists are gathering in little groups, waiting to get on a boat for a trip up the Amalfi coast.

Whilst we waited I started to sketch the hillside with a small monastery at the top of the hill and a cluster of churches and hotels at the bottom. The boat arrived and I had to finish it later.

No genial Gino as a guide on this one, our guide was so memorable I've totally forgotten whether it was a he or a she! But whichever - they were rubbish!

Not so the scenery though, which was absolutely stunning. The coast road - the Amalfi Drive - is world renowned for its beauty. As demonstrated by this natural arch of rock, on which is sitting a group of teenagers whilst below you can just make out the head of the one they pushed off...

It's hard, when looking at such a perfect landscape, to imagine these beaches with the charming and picturesque villages clustered around them as being the site of the Allied landings during the Second World War. Yet here is where our grandfathers and great-grandfathers risked or gave their lives for our freedom.

I can't remember the roll call of famous names that we were told had villas or mansions along the coast. Gina Lollobrigida, Roger Moore, and Microsoft's Bill Gates all had houses along here. In fact, I'm sure I remember that Bill Gates had actually bought a nunnery or monastery as a house. I'm not sure I'd want a holiday home full of nuns, but there you go...

We finished the boat ride paying more attention to sunbathing than scenery, but there were some bits where I stirred up enough energy to lift the camera and click the shutter as with this huge cavern in the cliff face.

The boat returned us to Amalfi and we headed back to the coach for the rest of the excursion before heading back to Sorrento. We were to have lunch up in the hills and then go on to Ravello to the famous gardens and open air stage that houses both opera and rock concerts. Next time, same blog...

The photos from this holiday are available as a set of montages at my Flickr account.

Gone To The Birds

Poor Fran. She had a bit of a testing day yesterday whilst I was "enjoying" myself in London for work.

Every year around this time we have a couple of weeks where birds nest in next door's roof space and raise their young. So for a fortnight we are woken early and there's nothing we can do about it but wait for the birds - thrushes I think, certainly not an owl - to rear their young and then they fly off and all goes quiet.

Anyway this year they have managed to get in our own roof space on the back corner and Fran was woken and was thinking the noise was louder than usual when Jess, one of our two cats, appeared from the hallway at the kitchen door with a bird in his mouth.

Cue screams, during which a very disappointed cat suddenly realised he wasn't going to be applauded for being clever and went to hide the evidence, reappearing a moment later with empty mouth and an expression that said "You just imagined it,Mum! Me? Catch a bird?"

Our cats are house cats - they don't go out, so the bird must have got in somehow. No windows were open. The attic hatch was closed... Fran phoned me to let off a few hysterics. Well, shock more than hysterics. Then she went off to search the house looking for the tiny bird that was certainly going to be terrified and possibly injured too. Jess, by now, was sitting quietly on the settee, ears flattened, waiting to be shouted at...

The bird was found in the toilet, cowering behind the toilet brush. Fran gathered it up and took it outside where it managed to fly off. All was well until later when she had sat down in the living room with a coffee to settle her nerves when TWEET!... from somewhere in the living room.

The cats politely raised their heads but were not going to budge after all the fuss of before. Two birds had managed to get in. The one from the toilet had been a second one and the one that Jess had managed to catch was now in the corner on the floor under my desk. So Fran had to get on hands and knees under the desk, banging her head as she jumped each time the bird fluttered anywhere near her.

She caught this one as well, in a tupperware box, took it outside, opened the box and watched in dismay as it took a brave leap - into the fishpond... The box was used to scoop it out and she put it somewhere as safe as she could to let it dry off and recover.

When I got home last night all the drama was finished with. I suspect the birds have nested on top of the wall of the house and the two small ones had fallen down the wall cavity and forced their way through a vent in the toilet which has a loose corner.

After the initial shock had worn off, Fran had been really brave and level headed about it. Not sure I'd have been any calmer actually!

Large versions of the photos: owl, ostritch (no large one of the vulture available) The owl and ostritch were photographed at Blackpool Zoo, the vulture at Chester Zoo.

Farewell to Korčula

4 May 2009. We are still in Korčula and have made our way round the town, coming out near the old defences and castle wall.

Walking a little further we found we were at the foot of the steps from the fortified gateway that we saw on my previous entry. Moving down the street opposite there was a low ring of stone around a large decorated bowl and we sat on the stone wall whilst I sketched the gateway.

Not one of my best efforts, I have to say, as I made the gateway opening much too big and therefore realised the the steps would have to stop going up! But hey - it passed some time and it is at least recogniseable!

Just a short distance away was the seafront and a view of Ocean Village II from this very attractive area. A large Martello type of tower stood on the opposite side of the road, further defending the approach from the sea and by walking past it we found ourselves back at the spot where the tender boats were pulling in, having walked a complete circle around the city.

The tender boats were bobbing up and down a bit and some of the passengers remarked how rough it was. I sincerely hope they never see a rough sea then, if they thought that was rough! I think I'd have called it slight!

So this concludes our look at Korčula and, indeed, Croatia for this holiday. Tomorrow will see us in Corfu.

Large versions of the photos: cannon, sketch, Ocean Village II, Korčula

Myerscough Open Day Gig

Eeh... it's been a busy weekend!

Today we've been playing at Myerscough College's open day - from 10:30am right through to 4:00pm with only a short break. The ends of my fingers on my left hand are a bit raw - and then I sliced my index finger on a string too. A bit sore!

Altogether in the past 24 hours we've played for 8.5 of them!!!

A few problems today when the sun came out (although I'm glad it did!) as the LCD screen of my keyboard just disappears in bright sunshine.

Thanks to all the folks who stayed to listen and to all who bought CDs and who came to talk to us - even the guy who started talking to David halfway through a song... what are people like??? Ha ha ha!

Two weeks now for my fingers to re-grow before our next gig, but then there's three in a week! Sheesh... gluttons for punishment!

Large versions of the photos: one, two

Heskin Hall Steam Fair Gig

Last night Creeping Bentgrass played the Steam Fair at Heskin Hall, Chorley - our 5th year at this event.

This year Jack, the organiser, had wanted to try something a bit different to keep people on the grounds longer and we started playing around 5:30pm, finishing at 8:00pm to be followed by another band.

With another gig today at Myerscough College's Open Day this fitted well with us as we were home by 11:00pm instead of the usual 2:00am. Particularly good as have to be onsite at Myerscough before 9:00am this morning! If you're in the north Preston area, come for a listen - we will be playing from 11:00am through until 4:00pm unless my finger ends drop off!

But bright-eyed and bushy-tailed of course with only a slightly sore throat - I think I've been swallowing my tonsils all night from the feel of it!

Oh yes, for all you steam fans out there, here's Little Dorothy. A picture of Big Dorothy some other day for all you fans of big dorothy's...

Large versions of the photos: Creeping Bentgrass, traction engine

Amalfi - Who Are You?

24 August 2005. A coach tour to Amalfi. The driver takes his time round the hairpins - far more comfortable than the frantic tear-arsing of the local bus that took us to Positano! There must be two distinct training regimes for public transport drivers in Italy.

On the coach driving training course they play Chopin and those soothing cheap CDs with the sound of waterfalls behind little tinkling piano riffs that go nowhere. They say things like, "Ok, here's a slight bend... Pip your horn to warn other drivers and slow right down before you turn or people may be forced to lean".

On the bus driving course they play Deep Purple's Rock Hits and say things like, "Ok, hairpin ahead - you need a good run up to this, get your foot down and wrench the wheel....NOW!!!"

It's a longer trip today and we actually stop for a while above Positano for people to take photos. Then it's back onto the coach and on towards Amalfi, stopping for lunch on the way at a roadside ceramics shop. As you do...

The coach went over a bridge at one point where the sea actually flowed underneath us onto a tiny triangular beach between a cleft in the cliffs.

What's the first thing we see when we get into Amalfi? Correct, a Sita bus! I beckoned the driver to lean out of his window. "Talk to him, pal," I said, pointing to our relaxed and chilled coach driver, "he could teach you a thing or two!"

"Piss-a off!" The Sita bus closed its doors on the ample rear of an Italian mamma who hadn't quite got on, due to the mass of humanity packed inside and screeched away from the bus stop. Wait - no, it was the woman whose arse was caught in the door who was screeching...

We walked into the town and found ourselves looking at everything on two levels. Looking horizontally we could see the ground and the bottom half of buildings.

But it was only by looking up that we saw the true spectacle and majesty of the setting for these wonderful buildings.

The front of the basilica is richly decorated, but the real beauty is high up over the entrance and in the columnar top storey of the bell tower.

The streets and alleys of the town are the same. The view above is often more rewarding as you find tiny pathways and alleys climbing up stepped streets and turning tight corners, buildings appearing to stack above each other, so close is the town to the rising cliff faces.

It was here in Amalfi that the magnetic compass was invented and the Italians traded it all over the Mediterranean in the 1200s. So with such a nautical tradition here we are, of course, going to take a trip up and down the coast on a boat. First I'm taking a wander up the side alleys for a bit whilst Fran and Mum hit the souvenir shops!

The photos from this holiday can be viewed as a series of montages.

Ancient Korčula

4 May 2009. We continue our look around Korčula.

The maze of streets and alleyways is not really a maze at all. The crown of the city up on the hill is very straightforward to navigate. The gateway that we walked away from earlier turns out to be far more spectacular on the other side, with this fabulous staircase, sweeping down to a lower level.

The winged lion of Venice is carved onto the front of the gate's tower and in fact the Venetian influence can be seen throughout the town. There are other influences though.

I loved this elegant row of what look like shelf supports without a shelf! Perhaps a balcony was planned? Some of the carvings under the supports are a bit bizarre - the end one is a female figure squatting over a hole in the ground... Very educational for small boys I'm sure but, what the heck?!? I'm all for quirkiness though!

This restaurant had a sign claiming that "Marco Polo found great food and love in this house. The tradition continues."

Huh? He still comes in? There was definitely a family named Polo living here at the appropriate time, but no actual records to suggest it was Marco Polo's family, so I gather. But hey - it could have been! Or they could have been experimenting with mint and holes... There are plenty of accounts that assert he was born here in 1251.

So... great food and love... That does sort of leave you wondering whether the place was a knocking shop and he barged in shouting "Is the slim one in room six free? Oh bugger, well bring me a plate of stew whilst I wait...!" And then the tradition continues? Hmmm, well I didn't get the chance to discover, but I doubt it somehow! More likely either the Polo family ran an inn, or perhaps it was just their home and the great food was of the sort "You say it's great, Sunshine, or you no have great love tonight!!!"

Oh and here's an example of those other influences I mentioned. This carving on a wall end shows a more Mongol influence than Venetian, don't you think? The Polos, including Marco himself spent much time in the company of the great Kublai Khan and he came back laden with riches and having somewhat gone native as it were.

So Korčula is a fascinating place to visit and I can thoroughly recommend it. We'll stay here for one more blog entry before we up sticks and leave as there's a bit more to see yet!

Large versions of the photos: tower gate, balcony supports, great food, Mongol carving

Korčula, Croatia

4 May 2009. We are sailing through a number of Croatian islands towards Korčula.

There's some wonderful scenery, set into the deep blue of the Adriatic Sea. Korčula itself is both island and town and eventually we anchor just off both and are ferried in by the Ocean Village II's tender boats.

We had decided just to get off and explore on our own rather than take an excursion. Korčula is quite an easy town to explore with many things to see all within a small area. A grand sweeping staircase of stone led up from the harbour road towards the town centre. The ancient part of town is built on and around a hill and many small alleyways lead off the main streets.

A glance up one of them showed a community of cats, some of them eating something which had been put out for them, a dam stretched out, feeding her kittens. There was something strangely ancient and pleasing about the scene and you knew that you could have walked past this alley a hundred or more years ago and seen exactly the same.

We came to a little square with an imposing gateway behind us. This was to prove even more imposing from the other side, but for now we elected to set our backs to it and walk up the hill through the narrow, colourful streets. The winged lion symbol of Venice was in evidence here and there but, as we shall see, there are other momentos of different cultures to be found.

Large versions of the photos: islands, steps and sea, cats, street

Vauxhall Insignia

Yesterday the hire car firm dropped one of these off for me.

It's Vauxhall's replacement for the Vectra, the new Vauxhall Insignia. Well it's certainly more stylish and good looking than the Vectra, which was a bit of a box, though I'm not sure I'd want to be a back seat passenger - the shape of the door looks like an invitation to crack your head open...

I did have a couple of niggles with it to be honest.

Why do designers not think about the practical side of things? Sure, the gear lever is great looking and the power socket when not in use is better hidden underneath a smart flush pop-up plastic cover. But when it is in use and you change into 5th gear you trap your fingers against the plug of your Tom Tom... Quite hard...

Given that many of us use a Satnav these days, you'd have thought by now that car designers would install a couple of power sockets and one of them would be up there on top of the dashboard where it's needed, rather than right at the bottom where there isn't enough space to plug anything in. Even the old house of power sockets, somewhere near the handbrake was better, even though then the cable from the socket to the windscreen tended to foul up gear changing altogether...

And talking of handbrakes, why is it so close to the driving seat? They used to be nicely in the middle of the between-seats console and easily reached without embarrassment. Now they are either right over on the passenger side, giving a nice opportunity to grope your passenger's leg - not as exciting as it used to be, but maybe that's the nature of my passengers these days. I don't include my missus in this disgraceful slur, but I can grope her leg in more comfortable surroundings if I so wish (though it may still invite a slap). Or - oops not a word to use at the start of a sentence, but I started the previous one with "either" and didn't get round to the alternative before the end of the sentence - or the handbrake, as in this case, is so close to the driver's seat that your hand automatically overshoots it and if you are wearing a jacket or coat it will have disappeared inside the folds of the jacket anyway.

Same with the seat belt socket - look at it! It's impossible to get hold of, you can only touch the very top which makes it almost impossible to find quickly and without looking. Put the bloody thing on a stalk!

All this is because in a modern car, designers think we should have somewhere to put a mug of coffee or tea and invite accidents due to hot spillage down the groin at 70mph. In the meantime the incidence of fines handed out to people for eating and drinking whilst driving are rising.

The dashboard layout is ok but I wanted to move the wheel up a bit more than it would go. Perhaps because the seat was too high but again the number of levers and buttons to adjust seating is getting ridiculous. Pressing one made the lumbar support move in and out and then up and down as I realised the button was a joystick! For Heaven's sake!!! The only thing a lumbar support has ever done for me is give me backache. I crank them in as soon as I get in a car that has one sticking in my back.

And why can there not be a big user-friendly standardised way of opening the petrol cap? Ford has the lever on the floor. Some cars have them under the dash as though you were opening the bonnet. VW hide it away in the door. The number of times people have come up to me in a motorway petrol station and said "Do you know how to open the petrol cap on this please? It's a hire car and I don't know..."

On this, despite the cover being flush to the body and with no indentation for fingers, you press the cover in and it then springs out. The person in the queue behind me was not delighted to wait whilst I searched the car interior first.

So did I like driving it? Well it was alright, but to be honest I'd rather be in a Mondeo.

Large versions of the photos: exterior, gear lever, handbrake, dashboard

Venetian Sunset

3 May 2009. We start to sail down towards St Marks Square and the Lagoon as the sun sinks ever lower behind us.

The lower it gets, the more beautiful Venice looks.

What a viewpoint we have! Seeing how high we are reminds you what a huge ship Ocean Village II is. The ferries that towered over us when we were in the shuttle boat, we are now looking down on far below. Talk about floating skyscrapers!

We reach the junction with the Gran Canal and the familar buildings of St Marks Square.

Looking backwards up the Grand Canal we can see the sunset starting to turn the sky orange.

It was a struggle to select the photos for this blog entry. Every few seconds there was a different viewpoint, a new angle, a look up a canal that wasn't visible a moment ago. To see all of the photos I took and to be able to view them full size visit the full set of photos at my flickr account.

The Venetian tugboat accompanies us until we are well into the Lagoon and about to enter the Adriatic Sea. MSC Musica is small on the horizon and Costa Serena must have gone a different way towards the western Mediterranean as we didn't see her again.

Not a lot of description I know, but this entry was more about the views and photos. There are 35 of the journey past Venice from this evening. For the best view, see them here and click on each, then select the All Sizes option which will take you to the large size of 1024x640 and give you the option to view the largest size (1440x900). Alternatively from the link I've just given, select the slideshow option.

Pompeii

23 Aug 2005. We arrive in the ancient devastated city of Pompeii. There is much more of it than you would think - indeed the ticket office is still in fine shape...

Walking along streets 2000 years old is humbling. Working on a generation every 25 years that's 80 generations away. If my ancestor had lived there it would have been my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great... you're right - it doesn't bear thinking about!

And yet look - streets, pavements, houses... The huge chunks of stone in the middle of the road by the way allowed people to cross the street without wading through the filth of sewerage and rotting food. Well, perhaps there has been a bit of progress since then...

As Lucretzia said to Bilius at No. XXIII Arena Street, "It'll never last...". And it didn't.

This is all that's left of why. At the time Vesuvius had a single coned peak. So follow the sides of the volcano up until the lines would meet. That's how high it was until it blew itself apart.

24 August AD79. "What on earth was that?!?" (Centurian Kevin)

Joking apart, it's a weird feeling when you see one of these for the first time. It's not a body coated with rock, it's a cast taken from the mould that was left in the rock when the body decayed. Even so, this poor sod was a real person, terrified and struggling to breathe through all the ash, sitting slumped down when a pyrochlastic flow swept down from Vesuvius during the eruption.


There are lots of wonderful things to see in Pompeii. It was a large city - you certainly cannot hope to see it all in one visit.

The guides leave this until the last.

The House of Mystery has the most wonderful Roman paintings left in existence. Elsewhere in Pompeii fast food shops still have their rows of bowls set into the counters - the salad bars or dips.

Vesuvius killed somewhere between 10,000-25,000 people in AD79. In 2009 over 3 million people live around it. It last erupted in 1944 and will erupt again, although the eruption of 79 was by far greater than any eruption since (at least 40 eruptions have occured since AD79). But that's not to say the next won't be worse!

The photos from this holiday can be viewed as a series of montages.

Preparations to Sail

3 May 2009, The Port of Venice. We have returned to the ship and spent an hour or so waiting for sailing time up on the top deck. The sun is setting and it promises to be a beautiful sunset.

Whilst there was still a while before sailing time I looked over the side of the ship towards Venice and took this photo. The buildings to the right look like a railway station and the straight strip of land, though bare of lines, suggest that it may well have been once.

We missed all the sights as we sailed into Venice, so we crossed to the other side of the ship - the port side would face Venice as we sailed out, so we wanted to "bag" a good spot!

Parked against the opposite wharfe was Costa Serena, seen above. Behind us was MSC Musica. MSC Musica was the first to move, being pulled by tugs out into the channel and turning to sail majestically away from us.

We shared a wave with a few people lining the decks of Costa Serena. This started Fran going. She waved at everything that moved on the water to make people wave back. Liners, ferries, shuttle boats, tugs, ducks... everything! As time came near to our leaving others joined us at the rail and they all started to wave as well. It was catching...

Two Filipino girls from the crew came up to take photos of each other. The first stood near me with her arms outstretched. It was too tempting. I took hold of her hand and smiled at the camera. They thought this hilarious! The second came straight in for the cuddle and they were squealing with delight at the resulting photo! "Oh, thank you, sir, thank you! she beamed. A bit bemused I said, "No problem... I'll be here tomorrow..." By heck, wife at hand and thinking I was too bloody old to stand a chance with young girls and now it gets easy?!? I must have had my posh aftershave on... And where was Fran's camera? These things don't happen every day - I need a reminder!

Hey up! A little panel on the side of Costa Serena has dropped down and there is a perfect little platform for the Captain to come out to supervise the reversing out of the dock!

Blimey, we brought my mother on a cruise last year and I couldn't get permission to bring a plank for her to walk and now, when it's too late, I find that modern liners have a built in one ready to pop out at the push of a button!

So now we are all on our own in the dock and after a while we cast off and start to move. The long-awaited look at Venice in the sunset is about to start.

The dock looks quite empty after we are towed out to the channel and have the room to swing around to point in the right direction. Reversing out through Venice would be so embarrassing...! We are looking forward to this and in my excitement I forget to keep an eye out for any more girl crew members coming for a photo! Settle down, you sad old fogey, it's not going to happen again!

Large versions of the photos: buildings, Costa Serena, captain's platform, empty dock