Entry #2

In my series "Bastard mates who have sportscars". See if you can guess who's silhouette we have here.

My jealousy was allayed somewhat (somewhat) by the fact that I was being conveyed in said sportscar to Perth beaches and around Swan river wineries on an idyllic Australia Day - my first back in Australia for around 9 months. Not wanting to give away the game here, but I will anyway - thanks Mo for an awesome weekend. I'll post more of the fun and games in Perth soon, but in the meantime, here are some city shots that I snapped while walking around the CBD.

Snow long

Having received many dire warnings about the bleakness of English winters, I have to admit I find myself somewhat let down in the weather-induced depression stakes. Perhaps I'm suited to wintry climates, or maybe this winter has been particularly mild (personally I suspect a mix of the two) - but if the prospect of a long and dark winter is offset by the opportunity for your neighbourhood palace to look like the above, then I'll sign up for it any day.

At any rate, the day I was getting on a plane to head back to Australia for a few weeks' visit, I woke up to see everthing outside my bedroom window was covered in a 1-inch blanket of soft snow (see view below). Urban snow still being something of a novelty for me, you can imagine this wasn't met with disappointment, to say the least. And the fact that it turned pretty much everything outside into a postcard view was just the thing to try out the new toy on...

EOShering in a new era

So I've finally done it - I got myself a replacement camera for the old workhorse that is the A40. What a camera she's been, and with what I've dragged her through - up mountains, through jungles, across deserts, to the top of a volcano and into the muddy waters of an Amazonian tributary, she has done a beautiful job. And it won't be the last time a photo from it's battle-scarred lens is seen here.

However, times are a-changin' - the majority from here on in are going to come from the new Canon 400D. I took it for a spin down in Rochester and Dover on the weekend. The first thing I was astounded by is the fact that now with an ISO setting, I can take photos inside - with no tripod, no flash, and no camera-shake. Bliss! So here are a few shots from inside the Rochester Cathedral, taking advantage of the new levels of control. Lots to learn here, so things should improve as I go along.

Great weather for them...

They're small, yellow and apparently make bathtime a lot of fun - that's right, rubber ducks. This was possibly the most bizarre spectacle I've seen for many a year - an entire English village, stuffed to a man with the Christmassy excesses of the day before, turning out in the freezing cold to watch over two thousand rubber duckies get dumped into the canal running alongside the Lincolnshire town of Saxleby.

To add to the excitement, there was absolutely no wind to be spoken of, and no flow in either direction along the canal - so the duck race, in which eager punters put their money on the finest-looking specimens to be first to cross the line, turned into something of a duck push. The gallant local lads, along with one not-so-local one (look closely - there's a distinctive paddling style there that a few Leonardians may recognise), being forced to propel the hapless thoroughbreds towards the line, about 100 yards away. The derby took a thrilling 70 minutes, in which all the highs and lows a Boxing Day Duck Race can exhibit were on display. I heard the viewing described by one enthralled spectator as "compelling".

Only in England.

To provide some background to all this - I was very fortunate enough to have been invited to the village of Saxleby, just outside Lincoln, by good friends and erstwhile stars of these pages, Mlle. Alexandra Kemp and M. David Law. I had a brilliant time, experiencing what I, at least, would consider a truly English Christmas - carolling at Lincoln Cathedral, eating, playing games, eating, opening presents, eating, having a few pints, and more eating. It was ace, and thanks again to all the Kemps for their wonderful hospitality.

I'll leave you with a final image of this classic northern hemisphere Christmas. Oh, and both these photos are supplied by the lens of the lovely Alex, as skilled with a camera as she is with smoked salmon, dill, gin and cream cheese (may sound obscure, but you'd understand if you tried her salmon gravlax).

Good food, good Rhine, good company

Castles and wine... almost more than a boy can bear. An idyllic day was spent in the Reisling-growing region along the Rhine near Frankfurt with local newlyweds (well... almost; it's been more than a year, I can't believe it!) Ganga and Vale. See below for a few choice shots of some spots we stopped at - gorgeous cellar doors and a restaurant with an amazing terrace overlooking the valley... Oh, and some nice desserts too.

Thanks guys for your amazing hospitality and a brilliant time in Frankfurt.

What I want to be when I grow up...

That's right, a gypsy folk trio. They were busking in the central platz of Freiburg, while the market went on around them. Music can turn a charming scene into a magical one, which is what the fellows did for the market, at least for my money.

The open road

Some of you may be aware that I have a small fondness for a nice stretch of road - it really doesn't matter where it's going, as long as it's windy and hilly. I can honestly say the detour we took into Austria via this glacial Alpine valley was one of the best days driving I've ever had. And to those casting pitying thoughts towards my hapless passengers - they slept through most of it like babies. Nyah.

Speaking of insanity...

Neuschwherestein?

Dawn at one of the most brilliant examples of why insanity is to be nurtured and encouraged wherever it may flourish. Neuschwanstein is the pièce de résistance of the certifiably bonkers Bavarian King Ludwig II. In the years before his subordinates could commit him to an asylum (and quietly do away with him, in all probability) in a desperate move to rescue the country from bankruptcy, the man managed to almost complete the most ridiculously fastastic castle the world has to marvel at. In case you don't think you are familiar with it, you are: the castle is used as the logo for one of the world's biggest entertainment corporations, the Walt Disney Company.


Seeing this place for the first time goes straight into my top-5 "jaw-dropping moments" - the view from the bridge above the castle is spectactular - and while that hasn't translated into a particularly exciting shot, I'll include it for reference...

Gratuitious landscape shot!

Reflections in Swan Lake, near Neuschwanstein.

The Flying Munchener

If you are in Munich any time during the warmer months, two things are a must - a bike tour (we went with Mike's Bikes, and they were good enought for me to be perfectly happy to plug them) and a swim in the Englischer Garten. As we found out, one provides a prime opportunity for the other; the river Isar has been diverted through the "English Garden", the largest urban park in the world, which has produce fast-flowing canals carrying water pretty much direct from the Alps. Jumping into this in impromptu swimming costume (read: underwear) was one of the highlights of the whole trip. See above for Herr Law's attempt to dry out at speed.

The opportunity to quaff (oh yes - quaff) the official Oktoberfest beer at the chinese pagoda beer garden in the middle of the garden a week before the festival kicked off was another high point - which continued to several more high points at the Hofbrauhaus, possibly the most famous beer garden in the world, in central Munich. Oh, and there were lots of interesting architectural, cultural and historical delights to experience, but somehow not being served in ONE LITRE PORTIONS seemed to take away from them somewhat.

Mann's best friend

There is a little village, the name of which completely escapes me, by a lake somewhere in Bavaria, that played host to the wedding of my friend Lara's Polish grandparents - if you get the chance, ask her the story; it's worth listening to.

We were there to try to find the church in which they were married. We may or may not have (apparently a few things have changed in the past half a century - who would have thought?), but in any case we did see a lovely part of the countryside at a superb time of year. It was quite at random that we came accross a statue of a man holding out a stick to his dog - I found it quite a striking, if odd, addition to the lakeside scene; and looking closer, was surprised to find that this was a tribute to the author Thomas Mann who used to walk his dog in this spot.

Not earth-shattering I know - but an interesting addendum to our small interlude in this little corner of Germany, and another reminder that you never know what piece of history you might be walking through in this part of the world!

Congraduations!!

A huge (and, as with all things on this blog, belated) congrats to the all-singing, all-dancing entertainment phenomenom that is my brother, for his massive effort in achieving a stupendous 87.25 ENTER in his final year of secondary study. We all knew you'd over-achieve Matt - no matter how much you pretended to be playing computer games all year, we knew what you were really doing.

So, here he is taking part in the traditional celebatory coffee-bean hug.