March 2024 – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Wine tasting and seeing Elvis

And so for our first little side-trip. After setting off from home, our first stop was just down the road. Not very far at all, but we were pleased to take Pauline and Andrew to the Freshwater Brewing Company where we’d had one of our first coffees, what feels like many weeks ago, now.

The drive to Cessnock was uneventful, we chose to follow the ‘tourist’ route rather than stay on the main road. There was a lot less traffic, and some of the views were stunning.

Happiness is an empty road and blue skies

I snapped the sign because that might well be the only wombat we see in the wild.

How exciting to be driving an electric vehicle though. What we didn’t realise at first was that we picked it up with the battery only about 65% charged. Here begins a week of time-consuming activity and anxiety, trying to find the next, convenient, fast charging point.

We stopped at a place in the middle of nowhere for a comfort break. The locals in the shop/café all stopped talking and turned around to look at us as we walked in. Just a little bit intimidating, and not at all what we’re used to in Australia.

As we drove off, Andew casually asked, ‘Where’s Pauline?’ The driver, Liesel, turned round to confirm that my sister was indeed missing from her customary back seat. While we were all getting back into the car, Pauline had wandered over to what turned out to be the actual toilet block. We can laugh about leaving Pauline behind, now…

I don’t know why, but we still laugh at funny place names: Convicts Trail, Blackbutt Creek and one that I don’t really want to report here.

To protect the Hunter Valley, its vineyards and grapes, we’re not allowed to take grapevines beyond a certain point. In other local news, there’s a huge campaign against
Wollombi Road being widened to four lanes.

The four of us stopped at The Valley Brewhouse for lunch and we knew it was the correct place when Helen and Brent walked in about ten minutes later.

It took a long time trying to explain what a shandy is. Especially since ‘bitter’ here is not the same as ‘bitter’ at home. What I got was very refreshing and a perfect accompaniment to my salad and chips. I didn’t want to consume too much alcohol yet, because later in the afternoon, our first wine-tasting session was scheduled.

Saddler’s Creek Wines has been going since 1990 so you’d think they’d know what they’re doing by now. And they really do. Our host, Scott, certainly knows his stuff.

Here’s Scott. He spent many years grooming that beard so he’d look like the picture on the label. He described each of the 13 wines we sampled, and in the end, Liesel and I bought three bottles.

Here we all are, several glasses down the hatch

I wish I could describe the wines using the same poetic, imaginative and even technical language that Scott used. He would talk about orange and lemon and water-melon, and all I could taste was a generic fruit flavour. I could tell the difference between ‘dry’ and ‘sweet’ but I couldn’t tell the difference between wine from an American oak cask and a French oak cask. This one is obviously French, not Italian in origin, he’d say. Oh really?! It seems so feeble just saying ‘ooh I like this’ or ‘nah, not so keen’.

Some of the wines were indeed ‘easy on the palate’. Some you drink on its own, and some goes well with a big fat beef steak, or sea food. Or in my case, a bag of crisps, probably.

We drove (yes, I said ‘drove’, not ‘wove’) to our gorgeous b&b in Cessnock. Just the six of us in the end, a couple of people had dropped out, but it accommodates eight people. It’s a great place, in a nice neighbourhood, quite close to the town centre, and with spectacular views. As sunset approached, we even caught some sunbeams.

Maybe because of having imbibed more wine than I usually do, especially during the daytime, I wasn’t very hungry. At The Goldfish I had double dip chips: black bean dip, hummus and corn tortillas. It hit the spot.

Back at the b&b, Liesel reversed the car onto the drive, so that we could attempt to charge the battery overnight. It worked, but not a lot of charge was added.

It was pretty much a full Moon tonight, so I didn’t hold out much hope of seeing many stars. But peeking between the clouds, I could see a couple of bright things, maybe satellites. But what a good way to end the day, by at least trying see the stars.

In the morning, the car’s battery was up to 38%, hardly a cause for celebration. And even though we were being driven about today, we couldn’t leave the car continuing to charge because you’re not supposed to leave the cable out in the Sun. And it did look as though it would be warm and sunny today.

Helen had spoken a lot about Robyne, who had the honour of driving us around today in her minbus. More wine-tasting was on the cards at three, yes, three more wineries.

First up was Domaine de Binet. Here we sampled 17 wines, if you include the gin and moscato, which, after all the wine samples, was different and refreshing. The host, Paul, knew his stuff and he was quieter than Scott

I tried to recall some of what I learned yesterday. Riesling is a notch up from Semillon. I’d learned a new word too: some wines have a high level of basic minerality: I didn’t ask whether this explained why some wines leave a chalky feeling in the mouth

As well as the wine, we were able to sample some of the locally produced chilli chutneys. Yes, we bought a jar of that as well as more wine.

The next thing I remember seeing is Brent lying underneath Robyne’s car, which was refusing to start. As a former car mechanic, Brent knew exactly what he was doing: bashing the starter motor with a big stick! It was a hot day to be fixing cars, and I did what I could to help, by staying well out of the way.

The second winery of the day was, I think, my favourite, being in a great location and, was I beginning to acquire a more appreciative set of taste buds? Elbourne Wines is a boutique family vineyard producing award-winning hand-crafted wine. Adam, the host, took us through eleven more wines and at the end of the session, Liesel and I purchased another three bottles. We’ve got to get these home somehow. Still, that’s a problem for mañana.

I can’t remember now who it was that compared Australian verdelho to Portuguese green wine: or maybe that was just a weird alcohol-induced dream.

And at all the venues, excess wine was poured into a bucket on the table, and nobody was offended. None of us embarrassed the hosts by spitting into the spittoons.

Someone said there’s no such thing as bad wine, just bad choice of company or food or environment. Well, I’ve had some vinegar that thought it was wine in the past, although that wasn’t the case with anything over these two days.

Poor old Robyne had to rent another vehicle to drive us around in, since hers would no longer reliably start. As it only had five seats, she had to ferry us around in two groups, twice as much driving.

Our delightful lunch was at Four Pines Brewing at the Farm, in Hunter Valley.

The final wine tasting session was at McGuigan’s. We’ve seen this wine advertised before Brokenwood on TV, a gentle police drama from New Zealand. After a couple of wines here, I realised I wasn’t really tasting it any more. I couldn’t even say a basic ‘I like it’, now. I think it was Scott yesterday who said that the more wine you drink, the sweeter your perception becomes. Maybe that’s why I thought I’d had enough, although at the time, I didn’t register that all the wine was tasting sweet.

Still, I sampled six wines here before giving up. That’s a total of 48 or something, over two days. But as ever, without looking at the notes we made, can I remember the names of those that I particularly liked? Nope. I certainly don’t have an oenophile’s memory.

Robyne was kind enough to drive Liesel, Pauline, Andrew and me back to our pad the long way round, so that we could see some kangaroos and other Australian icons.

The Covent Hunter Valley Luxury Boutique Hotel

This hotel has an interesting story. The convent was once in a different location, contructed in about 1876. When it was demolished, the parts were all labelled and preserved so that it could be rebuilt. It is now a hotel.

The sunset was gorgeous and it was interesting seeing stars appear one by one in the dark sky. I managed to capture alpha Centauri and the Southern Cross, after much trial and error with the phone.

In the end, the mosquitoes drove us back indoors. Helen and Brent, the young people, dined out while us oldies just snacked at home and had an early night.

Cessnock is a great little town, and that’s where we had breakfast, at a coffee shop which doubles as a Thai restaurant.

Helen and Brent both had work commitments, but we four ancients had the luxury of being able to stop on the way home. So that’s what we did, at the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, so feel free to skip this bit, you herpetophobics!

It was a perfect day for a wander and we did see some intersting animals. They’re doing a lot for conservation here too. And not everything was reptilian either, there are plenty of feathered and furry friends.

I don’t suppose we’ll ever see a platypus out in the wild, so this was a good opportunity.

I don’t suppose we’ll ever see an American alligator out in the wild, either, but that’s mainly because it’s very unlikely we’ll ever visit the Mississippi or the Florida swamps. Today, the ‘gators were just lying in the Sun, which was rather pleasant.

I’d like to say I was playing Diamond Dogs when we saw these similarly named but very different creatures. But I wasn’t.

It’s that sort of day for a reptile, I guess, just lying around.

On the other hand, we’ve never seen such energetic echidnas. Several were running round like spikey dodgems. Very entertaining.

This poor old thing (the tortoise, not Andrew) had had an accident with some rocks, which damaged his lower shell. It hasn’t ruined his appetite though.

There was a reptile show later, after which we were invited to have our pictures taken with some of the animals, a python, a koala and a couple of others. None of us were seriously tempted. We were however tempted by lunch, which we enjoyed at a picnic table, not too far from Elvis.

He wasn’t moving around much, either!

We all thought dingoes were all sandy coloured, but no, here are two very handsome black ones. They enjoyed being fed, but as soon as the bucket was empty, they lost interest in their human companion and went about their own business.

Somehow, we missed seeing the cassowary, but we couldn’t miss this lovely chap.

It was trivia night again at the Harbord Hotel, and we took part. Later, joined by Jacqui and Nat, and we all had a jolly good time. But for even more late night entertainment, we decided to try and charge up the car. We found a charging point, eventually, and felt obliged to have a drink inside the establishment. Another misunderstanding. I got myself a ginger beer, and as requested, I got one for Liesel too. Only she didn’t want one. When Liesel mentioned ginger beer, it was to warn me that here, it’s alcoholic. So, I had two glasses of ginger beer, even though I was planning not to have alcohol for a while, because I felt there was still a healthy medley of wine flowing through my system. I slept well, though.

Build Your Dreams

Liesel and I have walked from Coogee Beach to Bondi a couple of times in the past, a very enjoyable trek it is too. We abandoned plans to repeat this footslog today with Pauline and Andrew, because of time constraints. Plus, due to work commitments, Liesel wouldn’t join us anyway. So, to plan B.

Pauline, Andrew and I caught a bus to Manly: a 167, the one that goes all round the houses, offering views of some of the other beaches through dirty windows. It was also the smelliest bus ride of our trip so far, I think they must have just retrieved it from the musty basement of a museum.

After disembarcation at Queenscliff, we walked along the prom, passing a couple of old friends on the way.

The surf clubs have all moved on, so we could see the full extent of the beach. The sea was calm, but no, we still weren’t tempted into the water. Of course, we had coffee at Three Beans again, and we each consumed a sweet delicacy. Which ruined our appetite for lunch. A cookie, an almond croissant and a muffin, since you ask.

We walked along to Shelly Beach, watching some learner SCUBA divers, some snorkellers and some swimmers.

Swimming from Manly Beach to Shelly Beach (them, not me)

We continued walking beyond Shelly Beach: if we’d continued, we would have reached North Head, but there wasn’t enough time today.

This was a more challenging hike, up the steps, through the woods, up and down and we had a good time. Except when Andrew bashed his head on an overhanging branch while looking down, negotiating the bumpy, undulating path. Pauline and I stopped laughing fairly quickly. In terms of wildlife, nothing bigger than a few spiders in their webs and some butterflies and moths. The bush turkeys build their nests by scooching their feet backwards, and we witnessed this activity today, although we think they were just looking for food.

From our vantage point near the top of the cliff, we had a great view over the Pacific Ocean. A very large cargo ship made, from our point of view, very slow progress along the horizon.

I found some of the steps hard work: inconsistent heights and varying degrees of camber, the steps were just rocks, really. The Sun was hot, but we were in shade much of the time. And then, out of the blue, a few spots of rain.

What’s this, then?

Well, none of us wanted to investigate too closely in case it really was what we suspected: the world’s largest wasps’ nest.

Back at Shelly, I got myself a tomato juice at the Boathouse, after which we moseyed on back to Manly, greeting a few water dragons on the way.

After a shower and a change of clothes, Helen collected the four of us for a trip into Sydney. To a casino. Uh? Yes, we walked through a casino to Fat Noodle where we enjoyed dinner. Brent joined us after work.

There were literally hundreds of machines, modern versions of fruit machines, plus a few tables where you could play cards with real people. I didn’t have a go because I knew it would take too long learn what I was supposed to be doing, never mind gambling for real.

But the main reason we were here this evening was to visit The Lyric Theatre. We all thoroughly enjoyed the production of &Juliet. Yes, what might have happened if Juliet hadn’t died in Shakepeare’s famous play? It was great fun, yet, for reasons beyond my ken, I was nudged a few times to stop singing along to the music, which included songs by Back Steet Boys, Britney, P!nk, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson and more.

Mick, Liesel, Andrew, Pauline, Brent and Helen

Meanwhile, back at home, it was Odd Socks Day for World Down Syndrome Day. The grandchildren didn’t need much encouragement.

I’ve had way too many birthdays, and I didn’t really need another one. Yet here we are.

The main present, if I can call it that, was a visit to an Escape Room in Manly. Themed around The Dunny, we did indeed encounter redbacks and other horrors from the Aussie outback. It was a challenging hour, and the last minute seemed to last a little bit longer than sixty seconds, but we did just about escape in time! Thank you for the experience, Jenny and Helen and all,

Liesel bought me a chocolate birthday cake which, spoilers: I didn’t finish until five days later! I was delighted by the collection of cards from family and friends. A couple of puzzles to solve too!

Liesel collected our first rental car of the trip, a BYD car made in China. No doubt the American and UK authorities will be having kittens, because this vehicle will undoubtedly be reporting our movements and conversations to the Chinese Government. BYD: Build Your Dreams. It’s an electric car, with more features than you can ever possibly use.

Birthday lunch was at deVita Trattoria in Manly, tastes of Napoli and everything. Sadly, I couldn’t finish my pizza. It was just too big for me. It wasn’t the background music, naff covers of great songs, that put me off my food!

Liesel went back to Helena for another massage. Helen took me home for a birthday afternoon nap. I had to save myself for the party in the evening.

It wasn’t a party for me. It was a belated 40th birthday party for Rob and Nat, the venue being one of the many breweries in Brookvale. A great band played covers of songs by David Gray, Leonard Cohen and even the Bee Gees. I did notice that Andrew was not shooshed for singing along to a song by The Church.

A different Andrew, Jacqui, Mick, Liesel, Helen

Thanks to Eric for the photo. I was dragged along to be in this portrait from a nice comfortable armchair where I was enjoying one of the many nibbles on offer.

And so another birthday draws to a close. I’ll leave the cards on display for as long as I can. And I shall enjoy the many varieties and flavours of TimTams over the next ~~few~~ couple of ~~weeks~~ days, thanks Helen and Brent!

Tap Success

‘Who cuts the barber’s hair?’ is a longstanding conundrum. Ideally, another barber, I suppose. And so it is with Helen. She had her hair coloured at home by a fellow stylist/client, and she reciprocated. This is why Liesel and I absquatulated, making our way to the public library in the Mall, Liesel with her PC so she could do some work, me with my keyboard so I could do some writing.

As recommended by Helen, and before settling in, we stopped at Girdlers for breakfast.

I’d forgotten the joy of ‘working’ in a library, surrounded by mainly young people studying. In the olden days, there’d be a pile of books, open, a couple of note books maybe, a calculator, and a pen being being sucked. Today, they had a laptop, a phone, but only about half of the students had any books. Most wore headphones too, either listening to music or maybe to a lecture.

Funnily enough, when we first arrived in the library, there was a group of very young children over in the corner, singing songs with gusto. And there was no elderly librarian peering over her specatacles going ‘shhh!’

After a while, I went for a wander (oh, alright, and a coffee) and I found this metal art sculpture.

Unfortunately, I could find no title nor attribution. Maybe I should claim responsibility?

Other than walking around the Mall, we didn’t do much exercise today. But it’s good to have the odd day off. But the following day was busier.

An early morning trip was planned for the airport. Helen and I went to meet Pauline and Andrew on their arrival from Christchurch, NZ.

While waiting outside her apartment for Helen to pick me up, I took this picture of ‘the hill’ on Pine Avenue from the top end. The photo still doesn’t give a real idea of how steep it is. You’ll just have to pay a visit yourself.

The early morning ‘rush hour’ traffic was horrendous: I’m so glad I never had to drive to work in those traffic jams. The flight landed early, but it took a while for my sister and her partner to appear, thanks to a medical emergency on board the aeroplane.

It was the first time we’d seen Pauline and Andrew since Jenny and Liam’s wedding just over 18 months ago. So of course, it was delightful to see them both emerge from behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, Helen had to dash off to work as soon as we arrived home. After settling in, P, A, L and I went for a jolly nice walk locally. The destination was Stony Range Botanic Garden. I think we all expected a Botanic Garden to be a beautiful arrangement of flower beds and rose gardens maybe with some garden ornamentation. But no. It’s a botanic garden specialising in native Australian flora. There’s a well-defined path, a few slopes and steps.

At the time of our visit we were lucky to be able to hear the birdsong even above the noise of the demolition work next door. I’m sure on a quiet day, it’s really pleasant in here.

I pointed out an active brush turkey nest to my sister, but she didn’t believe me: she thought it was some kind of compost heap.

Well, she has a point. The male birds work hard to build these ridiculously large nests.

At one point, visitors enter a rain forest area and, on cue, it started to rain, but only lightly. We’re invited to notice the variation in temperature from one section to another.

We witnessed a couple of brush turkeys lurking in the bushes, but neither of them seemed inclined to show us how to build a nest.

After leaving this little slice of nature, we walked around the corner to a place called Brew and I. ‘Have a Brewtiful day’ suggested the notice on the wall. We did. Coffee plus a cookie (Liesel and I shared), egg buttie (Andrew) and pastel da nata (Pauline).

We can’t seem to avoid the Mall and today was no exception. Who says history doesn’t repeat itself? Pauline bought herself a pair of sandals, same model, same colour as those purchased by Liesel a few days ago at the very same shop. As Liesel said, they are now ‘sole sisters’…

In the evening, we attended Seventh Day Brewery for another pub quiz. We had pizzas from next door. Helen drove us to the venue and Brent joined us from work.

The quiz was good fun, but the acoustics in the place were awful. Way-ay t-too m-much reverb-erb in-n th-the sp-space. It’s hard to describe but it was very difficult to hear what he was asking some of the time. Still, a pleasant time was had by all. And no, our team didn’t win. But we did alright!

The last time Liesel and I visited Sydney, five years ago now, we bought Opal cards for use on public transport. This time, we’re just tapping on and off with our credit or debit cards. After a few failed attempts on the buses, I now know that any problems are likely to be due to faulty machines rather than something wrong with a card or the phone. In fact, now, seeing the payment machine flash up the message ‘Tap Success’ gives a little dopamine hit, a surge of relief. Probably not as exciting as winning the lottery but you take it when you can! You have to tap on and off buses. You have to tap on and off most ferries. You don’t have to tap off the Manly-Sydney ferry in either direction. Fares are capped daily and weekly, and you find out a few days later how much you’ve actually been charged.

And so to the big city. A bus and a ferry took us to Sydney where we walked to Chinatown. I thought it might be a hot and sweaty walk but in the end, it was cooler today, so a very pleasant jaunt.

A very modern city but every now and then, you see an old buiding nestling among the glass and steel of the late 20th and early 21st century.

We passed by another intriguing, geometric sculpture, made by Herbert Flugelman in 1979.

We visited the world-famous Paddy’s Market, hundreds of stalls selling wares that none of us wanted to buy. Even the Rubik’s cubes and variations thereon had little appeal.

We admired the iron latticework adorning the balconies of The Miramar apartment block. We have no idea how much one of these apartments would cost to buy or rent. We’re not Russian or Chinese oligarchs, after all.

We did encounter plenty of Chinese eating places in Chinatown. So of course, we chose to have lunch in a Malaysian restaurant instead. Once you get used to it, reading Malaysian menus is quite straightforward: kari is curry, teh is tea, kopi is coffee, ais is ice. We all enjoyed our various curries. But I am very grateful to Andrew for not telling us about the monster cockroach that was playing under our table. Mind you, I didn’t tell anyone about the baby cockroach I’d seen in the toilet, either.

It’s always good to see a well-designed mural. But I wasn’t too sure about this one until I learned that it represents Aboriginal elder Jenny Munro who is still with us and campaigning hard for Aboriginal rights.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours walking around the Chinese Garden of Friendship, where Helen joined us after finishing work.

The koi carp in the pond were immensely jealous of the attention given by visitors to the many lizards on the paths and rocks.

Inside, we saw a small but fascinating exhibition about tea. The beverage was apparently first enjoyed by a man sitting peacefully in his garden, underneath a tea bush, nursing a cup of hot water, when some leaves fell off, straight into his cup. What are the chances? His first thought, of course was, I wish I had a biscuit to dunk.

Andrew and I had a nice chat with a blue-haired girl who lives near Canberra because she can’t afford to live in Sydney, and who is three quarters Bangladeshi and one quarter Japanese, a most unusual and exotic combination, I thought. I felt awkward about asking if I could take her picture, so I didn’t.

Back at home (thanks for the lift, Helen), we ate outside: Greek salad at Pauline’s request, plus falafel, hummus, bread and tzatziki. Very nice, very tasty. No, it really was delicious.

A Hard Day’s Walk

Although we’re ‘on holiday’, Liesel is still working ‘from home’. It’s a different home though now of course. At this time of year, there’s a five hour time difference between Sydney and Anchorage. They’re five hours ahead, but a day behind. So on this ‘day of rest’, Liesel worked hard, while I rested. Well, somebody’s got to do the resting. And then I wrote for a couple of hours.

Down the road at Brookvale Oval, a very important rugby game was taking place. We thought about going to watch, but didn’t quite make it. But we enjoyed hearing the crowd cheer on the home team, Manly Sea Eagles who were playing Sydney Roosters. The National Rugby League competition is very popular, judging by the size of the crowd and the noise they made. The Sea Eagles won by 21 points to 14.

But how do we know it was a big crowd? Well, later on, as we were driving into Manly for dinner, we passed many, many fans, walking away from the park, or waiting for buses, or holding up traffic by crossing the roads, most dressed in the maroon and white colours of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles Rugby League Football Club, to give it its full name.

Our destination was Saké Manly Wharf for some iconic Japanese dining. Me, well, I’m always a bit cautious around Japanese food, I just can’t forget that undelicious lump of gristle found infesting my ‘vegetable’ soup that time in Japan. And then of course there’s the time someone persuaded me that oyster sauce was made from oyster mushrooms, not actual oysters!

But tonight’s experience was much better. We had a selection of dishes, all of which were delicious, edamame, crispy tofu, tempura eggplant, broccolini and, well, I’ll have to see the menu again the remind me. Thank you Helen and Brent for taking us out.

There you go, now you know what Brent looks like! Thanks to the waiter who took the picture.

Nobody had dessert apart from me. Helen ordered me a dragon’s egg, and of course, I had no idea what to expect. Later on, I asked my AI friend to explain:

ChatGPT 3.5

Mick

At Saké Manly Wharf, they serve something called a Dragon’s Egg. What is it?

ChatGPT

The Dragon’s Egg at Saké Manly Wharf is a signature dish featuring sushi rice, spicy tuna, and avocado wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber, resembling a dragon’s egg. It’s a popular and visually appealing dish known for its flavors and presentation.

Mick

No it’s not. It’s a dessert, it has chocolate

ChatGPT

Apologies for the confusion. The Dragon’s Egg dessert at Saké Manly Wharf is a chocolate-themed dessert. It typically consists of a chocolate shell filled with various decadent ingredients such as mousse, cake, or fruit, resembling a dragon’s egg in appearance.

Mick

Why didn’t you say that in the first place?

ChatGPT

I apologize for the oversight. Thank you for providing the correct information. If you have any further questions or need more details, feel free to ask!

Mick

I’d rather ask my eight-year old granddaughter, thanks though

ChatGPT

Of course! If you have any other questions or need assistance in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out.

ChatGPT can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.

Oh don’t worry, I will. Never trust AI. That’s my tip for the day.

Anyway, this is what it looks like.

It’s a chocolate egg on a crunchy hazelnut base, with some fruit, coconut mousse and rhubarb compote. The waiter pours hot miso caramel sauce over the egg, melting it. The whole edifice is presented on a base from which dry ice creates some atmosphere. So good. From my point of view, definitely not for sharing!

I’ve mentioned the hill up which we sometimes climb to reach Helen’s apartment. It’s actually located on Pine Avenue, and I tried to take a picture to show its gradient. It’s no Baldwin St, Dunedin, but it’s still quite a challenge for this old corpse.

Back to the new normal, Liesel and I caught a bus to Palm Beach. It’s a long ride, via Dee Why, Long Reef (where we visited a few days ago), Narrabeen (where we might go soon) Mona Vale and last stop, Palm Beach. It was a glorious day for a walk.

At Palm Beach, we could have walked further north to reach Barrenjoey Lighthouse, but instead, knowing we had a fairly long stretch ahead of us, we had a quick coffee at the Boathouse coffee shop attached to the local golf club. I broke the law by taking my ease here.

Well, I reckon having purchased a couple of cups of coffee, we were indeed patrons.

Our first goal was about five and a half miles to Avalon Beach. It was a lovely walk, but tough going in places.

The first real challenge was the very long staircase near the beginning. I say staircase, I can’t think what else to call a long climb, up steps, outside. How many steps? Probably over 200, but I kept losing count. Phew.

Just the start of the stairway to heaven

Another pair of walkers passed us a few times, at first walking north towards Palm Beach, then later on, overtaking us as we, more slowly, or should I say, more sedately, made our way south.

The lowlight of the day was bumping into and chatting with a local couple. The lady was nice, but the bloke was an out-and-out racist, who knew a lot of things that the government were keeping secret, he said, tapping his nose. I wished him a good day while inside, wishing I could block him like I do all the other right-wing nasty conspiracy theorists I come across on Twitter. Oh well.

We haven’t really tried a selfie recently. So here’s one of our first attempts, near Little Head, although having used the so-called ‘portrait effect’ on my phone, it could be anywhere really.

The views over the ocean were of course stunning. And this whole area seems to consist of nothing other than very big houses, some of which belong to or are rented by ‘celebrities’, although who these celebs are, our book refuses to say.

We saw a couple of whales today. Not real ones, of course, but this is one of our first sightings of Whale Beach over the houses and through the trees. This is the reward for walking up a long, long hill, along what passes for the main road, although there wasn’t a lot of traffic on it, thank goodness.

Another heart-sinking moment, seeing a sign that said:

WHALE BEACH IS UNDER THREAT

A developer has applied to the Land and Environment Court for a restaurant/event venue allowing up to 182 patrons and staff at 231 Whale Beach Road. It will require up to 50 additional parking spaces. This is utterly unsustainable. Don’t let it happen.

JOIN AND SUPPORT FRIENDS OF WHALE BEACH

That’s progress, I suppose. But it’s funny you never see a sign that says the local community has come together and they would like to build something big in the neighbourhood.

At the end of Whale Beach, there’s another open-air pool, and again, I probably spent far too long watching the ocean waves crashing onto the rocks behind the pool.

So where’s the other whale you said you saw, Mick?

Right here, adorning the local facilities.

Still, it was better to see Whale Beach than a beached whale, I suppose.

We enjoyed listening to various birds as we made progress, including kookaburras. I played the recording of a kookaburra that I’d made on our last visit, five years ago, loudly from my phone, several times, but nobody responded.

It was a good job that we’d chosen to do this walk today, bin day. The bins blocked the pavement in many places, meaning we had to step onto the road. And the kerbs here are much higher than those at home, providing a good work-out for the old lallies. But at least, fewer people park their cars on the pavements here.

Crunch time. We turned off the road onto a path that would take us to Careel Headland Reserve Lookout. Another long, intimidating flight of steps. Body says no. I’d fought through all my attacks of shortness of breath so far, but here, I knew I had to stop, or at the very least, have a nice long rest with food and drink, plenty of time to recuperate. I was running out of water, and of course, we didn’t bring snacks with us. I thought I was letting Liesel down, but she too was beginning to flag.

Squished on the ground, and drawing our attention to the canopy above, we were delighted by the bright colour of the berries on this tree. As usual, not 100% sure of the identity.

We walked a short way along the road, bought a snack and a drink at the petrol station, then caught the bus back the Mall. We visited a café called The Best Chocolate Cake In The World, and had coffee, avocado on toast (Liesel) and a cheese and tomato sandwich (Mick), but no chocolate cake on this occasion.

We did a big grocery shop in the big shop, Coles, and caught the bus back home, walking down the stairs, rather than up that pesky hill.

Since you ask, Liesel made very nice, very tasty artichoke galettes with asparagus for dinner tonight: we were joined by Helen but no Brent.

According to Liesel’s Fitbit, we climbed the equivalent of 28 flights of stairs, so we’re not complaining.

More beaches, birds and boats

After breakfast, I blogged for a while, after which Helen took me and Liesel back to Manly where we enjoyed a walk along the seafront, bumping into Bambi and Gypsy. What are the chances? Well, of course it was a planned meeting.

We continued along to Shelly beach, seeing a few more water dragons on the way – or were they the same ones again? I guess we’ll never know.

We had a drink in the Boathouse, where we were joined inside by pigeons, and by brush turkeys. I had an iced coffee. A proper iced coffee as I’ve always understood it: coffee with ice cream, a thick milk shake. As opposed to American style iced coffee which seems to be a teaspoon of actual coffee in a cup of ice cubes.

Helen and Bambi had other commitments, so Liesel and I walked towards Queenscliff: it’s a target but we also wanted to investigate the swimming pool there.

Much of the beach was taken up by the many Surf Life Saving Clubs from New South Wales. Lots of competitions in the sea featuring mostly young, fit people.

My ears perked up at one announcement, however. This was the last chance for the 65-69 and the 70+ competitors to come to the starting point. Well, sadly, I hadn’t registered and I didn’t have my budgie smugglers with me but mainly, I’m not a good swimmer and certainly not a surf life saver. So I thought I should give the others a chance.

The whole scene was very festive, so we sat and watched for a while.

We never did get to see the pool at this end of the beach but instead, walked back to Manly.

It took a while for me to stir my stumps in the morning, but Liesel was working anyway. We had planned to go for a walk around Narrabeen Lagoon, but we didn’t quite manage. While Liesel was at home working, I went off to the Mall for a couple of things. The battery icon on my pedometer was flashing, so I replaced the battery. It’s very important that my step count each day is accurate. Liesel and Helen just don’t understand that future historians won’t be able to study my step count spreadsheet properly if there are gaps due to ‘a dead battery’.

More importantly though, I needed a SIM card for my phone. I was hoping to get by without one, but after a few days, I realised that the phone’s gobbling up data way faster than anticipated, and I don’t really know why. So I now have an Aussie SIM card and I am back on the Optus network, just as I was five years ago. If you call or text my UK number, I won’t be able to respond for a while.

I took the 193 bus home. This is the one that goes up and above Helen’s apartment, so I can walk down the 70-odd steps to her place rather than up the intimidating hill.

Helen was off work today and despite the heat, she was outside weeding. Did I offer to help? I was about to, when she came in. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Later on, I was sitting outside writing, when I was attacked by a beastie. It was small, white and dangerous to know.

My extensive research leads me to the conclusion that this is a baby praying mantis. No matter how often I blew it away, it returned to my left arm. What’s wrong with my right arm, I wanted to know. At least it didn’t bite, but it was very difficult to focus the phone camera on it.

Another sunny day greeted us. Helen was working in Curl Curl and she kindly gave us a lift there. We applied sunblock while sitting in the shade of a bus shelter.

We came across some good news: 1000 native trees for Curl Curl!

As part of the NSW Government’s ‘Greening our City grant’ program, 1000 native trees will be planted in this area.

Once the weeds are under control the first trees will be planted in 2024. Planting will continue into 2025 until all 1000 trees have been planted.

By the end of the project, over 30 different species of native trees, shrubs and groundcovers will be planted, with more than 3000 plants planted in all.

The public is invited to get involved and participate in the planting phase of the project

Together can make Curl Curl a cooler, greener, and more connected place for our community and wildlife.

So the sign said, at least. And I thought, I could help out here. Then I remembered, I didn’t even help Helen in her own backyard, I’m not going to be much help planting trees.

We followed a very pleasant path along the coast, all the way back to Manly. We encountered loads of dogs, none of which showed any interest in us. And, where they were supposed to be on leads, they were on leads. How about that, English dog walkers?

The hike was mostly flat, but we took fequent breaks anyway, mainly to keep my SoB under control. And yes, I do see the irony in coming all the way here for some sunshine, and then taking every opportunity to sit in the shade.

Again, we didn’t have our swimwear with us, so we couldn’t swim in this open air pool. One day, though, it does look very inviting. And away from the relatively violent sea: you can see the waves crashing at the back.

In Freshwater, there is a Public Art Installation in McKillop Park, as part of the Coast Walk public art program.

This public artwork is by mili mili, a First Nations-led public art team

Here is a sneak peek at the sculpture: it’s currently hidden behind a fence.

Also in Freshwater, we sat and watched a learner surfer. The waves here are much smaller than we’ve seen elsewhere, but he seemed to be making progress.

The beach is picturesque, yes, but just look at those clouds! Liesel described them as ominous, but it didn’t feel like rain was coming.

We thought we were being followed, and when we turned round, guess who we saw?

Not enough birds? In a park in Manly, we encountered a swarm, a flock, of cockatoos.

Liesel went for a massage while I wandered around. Again, I am in admiration of all the young, fit life savers. Three Beans called my name again and I later found myself in the Manly Art Gallery and Museum. It wasn’t very busy, but some of the artwork was interesting.

The Secret Lives Of Us by Ashley Jean Gerber

The artist says: “My artwork comments on the diversity of Sydney, as seen within Taronga Zoo. The inspiration to use photography as the medium stemmed from my deep admiration for the stillness and reality that is captured. Patience is also a very enjoyable part of the photographic proccess, as taking the time for that perfect photo makes the outcome extremely satisfying.

The focus on animals is not only because of my diversity concept but also because I have always had a strong and deep connection with animals – often I find them easier to communicate with than humans.”

Walking by the wharf, I enjoyed the antics of this chap.

Despite the many signs telling us of their presence, I never saw any little penguins. I met Liesel in the library: she’d had a really good massage and felt much better for it.

After my best night’s sleep so far on this trip, we returned to Curl Curl. Liesel swam in the pool at South Curl Curl, but I really wasn’t in the mood for a dip. The water was cold, but still, Liesel got a few lengths in.

I sat inside to drink my coffee milkshake, and then I watched a surfer for a while. He waited for a suitable wave, stood up, and began to ride the wave back towards the beach. I could do that, I thought. Then he fell off. I could definitely do that, I thought.

Back to Manly by bus, lunch at Three Beans, then, for the first time this trip, we took the ferry to Sydney’s Circular Quay

First sighting of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House, both iconic

Because our book said you had to catch the ferry to Cockatoo Island from Barangaroo Wharf, we traipsed across the city. On arrival, we discovered that we could have caught our ferry from Circular Quay after all. A long, hot, sweaty walk through the city, all for nothing!

The ferry ride to Cockatoo Island was short, and smooth.

We were here for a nice walk, it’s more of a historical site than we’d anticipated. The island has been used as a convict penal establishment and more recently for shipbuilding. Not a lot of vegetation remains, so it feels a bit stark, compared with other places we’ve seen recently. But I thought this was quite pretty:

Sunset Sessions is a series of musical shows taking place here on this small island until April. I don’t know who was performing tonight, but way over there, at the Accor Stadium in the old Olympic Park, Helen and her friend Helen were amongst 75,000 fans watching P!nk in concert.

It started to rain while we were on the second of two ferries taking us back to Manly. It should have been quite refreshing after a hot day, and it was, a bit. From the wharf, we walked over the road and dined at Vietnam Why Not. Why not? No, that’s the name of the restaurant. My tofu satay was delicious but boy, was it hot, spicy hot I mean.

The bus took us to Brookvale Oval from where we walked back to Helen’s. Yes, we walked up the hill, and again, I managed it in one go. Even if I did have to lie down indoors afterwards!

Beaches, birds and boats

Liesel and I gatecrashed Helen and Brent’s regular Sunday breakfast date at Little Collins, a lovely little place in Freshwater. Aka Freshie. The meal was great, but even though we’ve come all the way here for some sunshine, we did have to ask for the blind to be brought down to shield us from the Sun. When I say ‘gatecrashed’, don’t worry, we were invited. This is Helen and Brent’s regular Sunday morning, before he goes off to the daily grind.

After Brent left for work, the rest of us drove into Manly. We wandered around the street market for a while, before the main event, the reason we were here: we’d all booked a massage.

Helen and Liesel went to the massage place and I was left to my own devices. Which meant of course, after a break of five years, a return visit to Three Beans Coffee. I enjoyed my coffee and pastry while sitting on a bench, in the shade, by the smaller of Manly’s two beaches.

As the time of my appointment approached, I hoped the recently consumed, large, very tasty, very enjoyable croissant wouldn’t affect my appreciation of the massage. It didn’t. It seems the therapists are allowed to use a lot more force in Australia compared with those at home. I thought I’d come away with bruises all down my backbone, but there is no external evidence of the pain and discomfort I went through. But, I think everything, every muscle, tendon, ligament and bone, that was displaced during the 24 hours sitting on a plane has now been put back where it belongs.

Back at Helen’s we showered off and Helen’s friend Jacqui collected and drove us to a barbecue at Nat and Rob’s house. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and the view from their place is stunning.

View from Nat and Rob’s house towards Sydney

Helen lived with Nat and Rob for a year between moving away from Manly and moving into her own place here in Brookvale. Nat and Rob have two boys, about whom we have heard a lot over the years: Hamish and Sebby. So, what do all these people look like? Where are the photographs, Mick? Again, I failed to take pictures of people. I’ll be getting the sack at this rate.

There was a lot of chat during the afternoon, and to accompany the music, the soundtrack outside was supplied by some crows.

A few of the guests made use of the open-air pool, but Liesel, Helen and I had left our swimwear back at home.

Rumours that the telecope is used to spy on the neighbours are, of course, unfounded. But I did manage to focus on Sydney or Westfield Tower or even Centrepoint Tower as it used to be known. Trying to get a good photo though, with my phone, through the telecope, proved impossible.

We sat outside eating, drinking, chatting until late in the evening. Seb and Hamish went to bed. Brent joined us after work. The incense sticks seemed to do a good job of keeping the mosquitoes away, although Liesel did find a bite on her ankle a couple of days later.

Later on, I felt bad, because while most people had been drinking, Liesel remained sober and was thus able to drive us home in Brent’s car. This left Jacqui to walk home on her own. If I’d been more on the ball, I would have offered to do the right, gallant, thing. Grrr.

I’ll be trying to keep the Antics reasonably up to date, and with this in mind, I sat outside and did some writing in the morning. Liesel is doing some work here on and off, for Amrit too, so we can both keep ourselves busy, in between walks and other activities. While sitting outside, we saw a beautiful blue butterfly fluttering by, but never settling long enough to be photographed. Later research suggest it was probably a blue triangle, and we’ll certainly be on the lookout for more examples. Helen was elsewhere, working.

It was another beautiful day, and we walked back to Westfield Warringah Mall.

Bin chickens! No, that’s not an Aussie expletive, but the name given to the white ibises that wander round, looking for food and redistributing litter from the bins. We saw one on a school playing field and of course, my first response was to take its picture, even though we’ll probably see thousands more in and around Sydney. Quite rightly, Liesel was concerned that a casual observer might think I was taking illicit photos of the students at the school. You have to be so careful these days.

From the Mall, we caught a bus to Manly but we didn’t realise this bus went the long way round, via Freshie, and we recognised some of the locations from our walk a couple of days before.

As we walked by the beach, we shouted words of encouragment at the beautiful young people playing volleyball. We would have joined in, obvs, but we didn’t have our outfits with us.

No, of course we didn’t really shout at anybody, words of encouragement nor anything else. We walked along the path to Shelly Beach, a familar route from years past. It was good to see the water dragons are still thriving and yes, I took a picture at the first opportunity. This one’s quite well camouflaged.

We passed by more dragons on the way back to Manly, some underneath benches on which people sat, totally oblivious to the menace underneath them. Here’s another one, more out in the open.

The wildlife wasn’t wholly reptilian on this jaunt. We encountered our first brush turkey of this trip too. It had to be shot.

Shot photographically, I mean.

Back in town, we purchased a snack which we consumed on a bench looking out to sea, watching the swimmers and surfers having a great time. Then came the announcement. At home, bluebottles are harmless, if annoying, flies that come into your house and then can’t find their way out again. Here, bluebottles are nasty, common visitors to Sydney’s beaches. Also known as Pacific man-of-war, we usually think of them as jellyfish that can sting. The public address system told us that several had been sighted close to the beach and that it would be a good idea to leave the water. Some people heeded the warning, but many didn’t.

Liesel had an ice cream and I had a mint choc chip milk shake before catching the bus back to Brookvale.

A couple of fellow passengers were very obviously out of their gourds on chemicals, harmless enough, but the girl was very talkative and she was eccentrically adorned in the head department. Like a new Steig Larsson novel, almost.

It wasn’t planned this way, but Helen arrived from work in perfect time to pick us up from the bus stop.

Brent works on Saturdays and Sundays so his weekend is Monday and Tuesday. On his day off, he drove us all to Long Reef for a very pleasant walk around the headland. I can’t remember who first noticed the pelicans on top of a lamppost.

Further along the path, we watched a young paraglider take off. No long, fast run-up like you always used to see, just a short, sedate walk to the edge and there he was, gone. Liesel and I didn’t need to say anything out loud, our respective looks said that that was something we don’t need to try, thanks very much.

Actually, it does look fun, but I’m sure if I had a go, I’d forget how to use the controls and then crash into a bush, like the one time I rode a moped.

The other day, I failed to take a picture of the blue triangle. Today, I successfully captured possibly its earlier metamorphic self: a very hairy, spiky and slower-moving caterpillar.

The path was well-made, it was a very comfortable walk. Brent spotted a native in the bushes.

We didn’t actually see him poke his little blue tongue out, so this might be another misidentification.

Dee Why beach looks very attractive in the distance, and I’m sure we’ll pay a visit one day.

Dee Why beach with the back of Helen and a tantalising first glimpse of Brent

At the coffee shop, I surprised everyone by having a mango juice instead of my default, hot, beverage.

Today Liesel and I had our first Aussie pies of the trip. Helen, Brent and I chose pies with a spicy Mexican bean filling, absolutely delicious, and Liesel opted for a spinach and feta cheese filling. Not sure it was feta though.

We’d had enough sunshine and fresh air, so in the afternoon, we treated ourselves to a movie. Bob Marley: One Love was very interesting, but we agreed that the ending was very sudden. One of the main attractions, was the air-conditioned cinema! The woman in front of left after about half an hour, maybe she was expecting a Bob Marley concert. The four of us were the last to leave having watched some of the credits.

Hoyts, the cinema, is in the shopping mall. After Helen and Brent went home, Liesel and I went shopping. Or, to put it another way, after a coffee, Liesel went shopping and I just mooched about.

As shopping centres go, this is quite a pleasant one. I just wonder what it’s like if it’s ever as crowded as Manchester’s Arndale Centre, for instance?

In the evening, we visited the Harbord Hotel, known locally as the Harbord Hilton. Not because we were slumming it for the night, but so that we could join Helen and Brent’s team for the Pub Quiz, aka Trivia. We were joined by Jacqui, who we met a few nights ago, and by Jo, another friend. Team name? Norfolk ‘n’ Chance featuring Blue Meanies. Liesel and I are the Blue Meanies, since we’re both big fans of the Beatles. Right, Liesel? Oh and no, I still didn’t take pictures of our new friends.

We enjoyed the quiz, in fact we did quite well considering other teams had up to 15 members!

Brookvale!

Singapore Changi Airport is, I think, our favourite airport, on planet Earth, at least. We only had a couple of hours to pass between flights to enjoy the quiet atmosphere, helped a lot by the carpeted floor. We missed out on the butterfly farm and the koi pond this time, but I’m sure we’ll visit those attractions on another occasion.

The other thing I like is that the airport authorities here haven’t felt the need to cram the space with ‘retail opportunities’. You can walk quite a long way along wide, spacious passages without seeing a shop, not even a coffee bar.

The only downside is that the cigarette smoke doesn’t know to confine itself to the designated smoking areas.

The second flight wasn’t as comfortable as the first: more crowded and hotter. Plus, my neighbour smelled really bad. Again, the crew acquired some decent veggie food for me. So, five stars for Singapore Airlines.

On the way to Sydney, I watched one complete film, Dune, and maybe half of another, Meg 2, during which I nodded off, but, to be honest, I don’t think I missed much.

Helen picked us up from the airport, it was lovely to see her, after having had not much sleep for 24 hours. This was our first visit to her (not so new, now) apartment in Brookvale. Needless to say, we didn’t do much before going to bed. We didn’t have the best night’s sleep ever, of course, but it was nice being horizontal. We couldn’t help but notice how much warmer it is here than at home. Funny, that…

Meanwhile, back at home, Martha and William were celebrating World Book Day. Meet Hermione Grainger and Mr Fox:

Helen was woken up by a kookaburra, but I didn’t hear it, so I must have slept for some of the night.

We drove to Manly passing by some familiar but mostly unfamiliar sites. And I did manage to take my first wildlife photo of this trip.

Maybe not the most exciting creature, I know, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

The plan was to have brunch with Helen’s lovely friend Bambi and her gorgeous baby Gypsy. We met at The Pantry, on the sea front, where we have eaten before but not for about five years.

Sun, sea, sand and blue skies, what else could you ask for? Well, in my case, a veggie breakfast. It was a joy to meet Bambi after all this time, Helen’s told us so much about her, and I think most of it is true.

So, what does she look like? I’m sure we’ll be taking pictures of grown-ups over the next few weeks, but yes, of course I took pictures of Gypsy!

The next port of call was the shopping mall. Liesel bought a pair of sandals, having thrown the old ones away. And I bought my first Aussie coffee on this trip, from Café Léluna. Very nice, very tasty.

Back at Helen’s place, it was nice and quiet, apart from a few exotic birds. I hope to be able to identify them at some point. Either there’s a very talented blackbird around, or maybe a mynah, or someone really did set off a car alarm.

In the evening, Helen’s partner, Brent joined us for dinner. It was the first time we’d met, of course, and he seems like a very nice young man! So what does he look like then? Well, you’ll have to wait to find out.

Because I have now disappeared from the UK for a while, my final Wythenshawe Radio show for the time being had the theme of Disappearance. You can listen here. You don’t have to, of course, but… FOMO?

Helen was working all day Saturday, so Liesel and I went for a walk. We planned to visit Freshwater Beach. Well, the first thing we noticed was, how hilly it is around here! Another stark reminder of how flat Northenden and Wythenshawe are. Again, we resolved to go for walks further afield at home, try and conquer some of those Peaks. Just to say, I struggled on some of the slopes.

I don’t know if Google Maps just likes to play jokes, or I’m still half asleep, but at one point we turned right when we should have turned left. We never did make it to the beach. But we did come across Freshwater Brewing Co where we enjoyed a coffee and a muffin (Liesel) and a huge almond croissant (Mick). It seemed a shame to miss out on the beach, but we decided to cut our losses and head back to the shopping mall again. We knew that, from there, we could walk home. And there’s plenty of time to visit all the various beaches around here.

Yes we did and sorry we didn’t visit this establishment

It’s late Summer, early Autumn here, although it feels like mid-Summer to us rain-drenched miserable Brits! Some of the flowers here are beautiful of course, with lots of bougainvillea all over the place.

We found our way home, taking our time. Even though this was meant to be a quick, gentle, introductory stroll, we walked over four and a half miles, so it was good to stop and have a lie down.

Well, I haven’t so far taken pictures of Helen’s friends and partners (apart from Gypsy) but I did capture some more wildlife.

This little chap was visiting Helen’s patio and of course, I couldn’t approach too closely.

I thought I’d take a look at the night sky. Such a dark sky, despite being close to the big city, Sydney. We’re hoping for more dark skies later on, and after a bit of experimenting, I took this picture.

I was very pleased it came out so well. The only accessory to the phone I used was a chair , on which I had to place the phone, pointing in the right direction. I set the timer so there would be no vibration at all.

And a jolly good night’s sleep was had by all.

And we’re off again

With just a few days to go before our epic trip to Australia and beyond, it was time to do all those last-minute jobs. Checking visas, finding passports, seeking out Aussie dollars left over from last time, and, of course, packing. For the first time in many years, even I am travelling with a large case, not just a backpack. So, one of the LMJs was to retrieve that case from the storage facility. We managed to consume most of our fresh fruit and veg before passing on the last few onions and spuds to our neighbour Ravi. The most exciting chore, though, was buying snack food items for Helen and her friends and for my sister Pauline, who’ll be joining us from NZ in a couple of week’s time. Lovely, tasty food items such as Hula Hoops, all flavours, Mini Cheddars, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Galaxy Minstrels, Twirls, Maltesers, Marmite, chocolate Buttons and chewing gum. Mind you, I visited six shops in Northenden before finding plain Hula Hoops.

We collected Martha and William from school. William proudly waved his wrist-band at us: “I bashed my head today” it said. He was alright though. We walked to the playground having said we’d buy them an ice cream in lieu of the normal snack. Upon seeing that the ice cream shack was closed today, William burst into tears. Thank goodness the nearby café sold ice cream and was still open. The children had ice cream, Liesel and I had carrot cake. The café was meant to close at 4pm, but the guy said the place would remain open for longer as it was such a lovely day. And it really was a nice day. Later on, both the children were running around in short sleeves. We said hello to the ducks as we passed by.

At the end of a school day, William especially has loads of energy to burn off. We ran around the playground, some of us faster and for longer than others. He climbed a lot and used the slides and swings. Martha had a good time too, and spent some playing with her friend Katie.

Somebody lost a friend today, let’s hope they’re reunited soon.

One unexpected surprise was seeing this newly married couple posing for pictures in the park. Very elegant and with gorgeous outfits and yes, I did ask permission before taking some pictures. Unexpected surprise? Isn’t that a tautology? Oh well, too late to edit that now.

Congratulations and best wishes to this happy couple

For the second week in a row, we had to return the children home quite early, as we had tickets for another gig in Manchester. This time, we didn’t even consider taking a tram.

After parking up, we looked for somewhere to eat. Lots of options, and the first venue we tried was full: we’d have to wait half an hour. I suggested hijacking a Deliveroo driver, but Liesel vetoed that idea. Eventually we found a pizza place, Noi Quattro, which I think is Italian for Northern Quarter, and that’s funny because it is actually located in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. The pizza here is possibly the best we’ve ever had. Highly recommended.

And then on to Gulliver’s, tonight’s venue. Sadly, we had to stand for the whole show, and that’s not something either of us enjoy doing any more. Support was Nathan Ball, who was with Martha last time we saw her, in Bath.

We enjoyed Martha Tilston’s set as usual, but she has such a large repertoire of songs now, she doesn’t always sing our favourites. And while I enjoyed her covering Kate Bush and Portishead, it seemed a wasted opportunity: she could have performed a couple more of her own songs!

The drive home was straightforwrad, thank goodness, straight to bed, and up early for the start of our new adventure.

The taxi was on time, and for the first time, we flew out of Manchester Airport Terminal 2. Check-in and security were no big deal. Singapore Airlines is probably our favourite at the moment. Although we’d forgotten to order vegetarian meals, two of the stewardesses in particular went out of their way to make sure I didn’t go hungry! As I told Liesel, my next wife will probably be a Singapore Airlines air stewardess.

Both of us had aisle seats and unoccupied seats next to us. My near neighbour was flying to Brisbane and then taking a cruise up to Cairns. I thought, we should do that one day too.

For a 13-hour long flight, it wasn’t too bad. I managed to watch three whole films, two for the first time: Oppenheimer and Barbie, both being on my ‘list’ since realeased last Summer. The third was Chocolat which I don’t think I’ve seen since it was released 24 years ago, and the book itself is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. I thought I’d watch it again because right now, I’m reading another novel by Joanne Harris, Gentlemen and Players, and I thought, well, I’ve seen it before, so if I do nod off, it won’t matter so much. Reader, I stayed awake.

Watching the flight progress, I was quite excited when we flew the length of Malaysia, past some of the places we’d visited a few years ago…

In totally unrelated news, it seems I am practically related to JRR Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. How so? Well, before we left England, and before our subscription to the service expired, we watched the biopic Tolkien on Disney+. In this film, John Roland Reuel Tolkien’s wife Edith was played by Lily Collins. She is the daughter of Phil Collins, the musician. I was born at Mount Alvernia Hospital in Guildford, and so was Lily Collins. How do we know? Because at the time, Sarah was working at Mount Alvernia Hospital, and she told us that Phil Collins’ wife was having a baby there. That baby must have been Lily. Possibly born in the maternity ward where I first saw the light of day a few decades earlier. And she ‘married’ the renowned author. I can’t work out how many tenuous degrees of separation are involved here.

Bikes, Boxx and a Beatle

It was a nice surprise being invited to babysit one night, when Jenny and Liam visited an Escape Room. I had to reassure Martha and William that of course, Mummy and Daddy would be home later but at the back of my mind was: suppose they don’t manage to escape from the Escape Room? Spoiler: they did.

William in particular wanted to stay up until midnight, so I’m grateful that he can’t quite tell the time yet: midnight arrived at about 7.30pm.

Martha’s been learning about the state of the planet at school, and in addition to a bedtime story, she told me about plastics in the sea, and microplastics, and how they get into the food chain. Good night, sleep well!

While they should have been winding down, it was necessary to perform some acrobatics on their beds. Run and jump. Martha had to jump onto William’s bed though, she couldn’t quite manage the height of her own, bunk, bed.

I joined Kyle and the Wythenshawe Star Gazers one more time, but again, it was too cloudy to see anything interesting in the sky. The Moon tried to peek through and I attempted to capture it.

I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned it at all, but we’ve had a lot of rain recently. The ground is totally saturated, so even the (rare) shortest of downpours now results in huge puddles. They make for interesting, challenging walks around the neighbourhood.

Some of the other walkers were talking about wearing wellington boots, or waders, and who knows, sometime in the future, we might have to wear life jackets on these organised walks.

Some bad news now. Even though it was raining (what a surprise) I took the car in to be washed and valeted. It all went well until the guy hoovered up our National Trust car parking sticker from the window. Now that’s a powerful vacuum cleaner!

And so my hundred years of solitude came to an end. I collected Liesel from the airport and managed to drive straight home, without missing a turning and going home via Chester or Edinburgh.

Anchorage is still colder than here but the snow is beginning to thaw. Somehow they have more hours of daylight than we do in the UK at the moment.

Liesel had 24 hours to get over the jet lag before we went cycling. Not actual cycling, but we went to Manchester Velodrome to watch a session of the National Track Cycling Championships. We met up with the family there, and after being ejected from the seats we’d wrongly occupied, we had a good time.

The cyclists hurtled towards us down the back straight for about four hours, in various races, sprint, pursuit, keirin, scratch race and a very exciting women’s points race: overall, a much longer session than anticipated. Martha and William were really good though, and they went home suitably decorated.

We look forward to seeing some of today’s winners, champions all, as their careers progress. Look out for Lauren Bell, Jenny Holl, Hayden Norris and Sam Fisher in particular. It was fun to see Jody Cundy in action again, and the children were pleased to see him too: they know him from Strictly Come Dancing.

As I said, the session was longer than we expected, so we decided to dine out in the evening. Wagamamas, since you ask. The sky was obscured by clouds but again, the Moon peeked through, albeit shattered.

It’s funny how we can book tickets for events really far in advance, and then they all arrive together. Like buses. Two days after the cycling, we went to see Seth Lakeman in concert, in Manchester.

It was our turn to collect the children from school and this time, we took them to a bookshop, with the idea of buying a book each. And what a lovely shop it is too. If you’re in the area, drop in at Simply Books, Bramhall, fantastic ambience with friendly and helpful staff.

Martha and William chose their books, after which we took them to Gusto for a pizza.

After dropping the children back home, we thought we’d go into the big city by tram. Huh. Given the local traffic conditions, it would take us nearly as long to drive to our chosen tram stop as it would to drive all the way into Manchester. Ridiculous, but that’s what we did: drove into Manchester. It was worth it though. Seth always puts on a good show, and this one was celebrating the twentieth anniversary of his second solo album Kitty Jay, and the first half of the show was devoted to that set of songs. Did we sing along? No, not as much as usual. Did we dance? Again, not so much, at least not until he told us to get up. But I was fidgetting in my seat quite a lot, not necessarily in time with the music, but trying to find a comfortable position to ease the discomfort of my sciatica. Still, mustn’t grumble, eh!

No disrespect to the rest of the terrific band, but those pictures are, as my Chemistry teacher used to say, nbg.

It’s cold. There, I said it. I even said it out loud this week, it did feel cold outside. But the Spring flowers aren’t deterred, they’ll always cheer us up.

After the Thrive walk, we visited Boxx 2 Boxx for a coffee as usual. I didn’t realise at the time, that we would become part of the Instagram marketing campaign for this little coffee shop.

I enjoyed what will be my last Thrive walks for a while, despite it being cold. The Sun came out briefly, yet it’s still cold out. It’s not my birthday for a few weeks, but Jenny and Helen had plans for me. Liesel and I had to keep March 1st free but until we arrived at the venue, The Plaza in Stockport, I didn’t know what we were going to see.

I think the last time I saw a stage show about the Beatles was with Sarah in 1975 or so, a superb production called John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert. Barbara Dickson performed all the songs on that memorable occasion.

Tonight though, Daniel Taylor told us George Harrison’s story, and performed the songs. The band was good, and after the show, I felt I should go back and listen to George’s albums again. They played a couple of songs from The Travelling Wilburys too. Some folks believe that to be the greatest ever supergroup: George, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan.

Thank you Helen and Jenny for the early birthday present! Did I sing along? Sotto voce, yes. I can recommend Something about George if you’re at all interested in the so-called quiet Beatle.

Speaking of George Harrison, he famously gave his ukulele to Sam Brown, who now conducts ukulele lessons in Oxfordshire. Well, that’s too far for Martha to travel, but so far, she is enjoying learning the instrument. She already has a couple of chords in her repertoire.

Since the last proper post here, I have sent two Wythenshawe FM radio shows out into the universe. The themes of the shows are Doctors and Wales, respectively. Set aside 4 hours for some marvellous music.

I don’t often write about the books I’m reading, but I do have to recommentd one that I have just finished. I’ve been a fan of Kerry Hudson since she came to Manchester Literature Festival a few years ago to talk about her then new book Lowborn. Well, the follow-up to that has recently been published. Newborn is just as personal, honest and moving as its predecessor and you can’t help but wish Kerry and her family all the best for the future. Highly recommended.