Last days in Hong Kong and off to London

30 September 2012

Today we are just exploring Hong Kong. We check out the Peninsula  Hotel and some of the areas along Nathan Rd. Nothing much doing today until we go up for the Spa and Massage at 5pm in our Hotel.

A bit of indulgence and we are feeling so laid back that we eat in the Hotel. Not the 2 Star Michelin Restaurant this time.

A relaxing day.

1 October 2012

Well today we are checking out and heading off to London. The flight does not leave until 11.45pm so we have the whole day to fill in.

As we are not required to book out until 12 noon we go for a bit of wander around the hotel looking for “the Ladies Market”. We find it but as it doesn’t start until midday we have a coffee and a bite and head back to the Hotel to finish packing and book out.  Then back to the ladies market….more of the same and stuff not as good as the Stanley Market so we don’t buy much.

Then we take the ferry to Hong Kong Island and have a look around the very flash shops. Prada, Armani and Versace. Wow who has that much money? The silliest thing we saw was a shop for Armani Junior. You can deck out that precious child so he or she looks a bit like shrunken version of the catwalk heroes. Who would have thought that in a communist country we could see the worst excesses of capitalism gone mad?

Back to Kowloon to pick up our less expensive but very nicely tailored clothes. Everything fits like a glove and both Margie & I are pretty happy. The new white dinner jacket looks very smart and would look even better if the head coming out the top wasn’t quite so rough.

Although we had booked out we could still use the hotels facilities so a session in the steam room and good shower washed away some of the days grime. Some fresh clothes and we off to find a Vietnamese restaurant that wasn’t too far off.

In this part of Kowloon seeing westerners in such a restaurant is a bit of a novelty and not everyone speaks or understands any English. However if you have money they are happy to see you and again the food is pretty good (still have to request some more chilli).  Margie has pho. They just call it soup here as she is still struggling with blocked sinus and headaches. With 3 Vietnamese beers the bill is almost AU$100 and the food not as good as Minhs in Sydney.

Today is a holiday and fireworks are scheduled for 9pm. Just as we are travelling to the airport, bugger. I don’t think the taxi driver is too keen on missing it either though you never hear a complaint. 

goodbye Hong Kong a C21st dialectic

London the first few days

Paying for our indulgence in Business Class last trip. Tonight we are back in row 33 on a Boeing 777 that is all but totally full. Still the 12.5 hour flight is mainly overnight and I get a bit of sleep. At  5.30 am GMT we hit the tarmac at Heathrow and by 7.30am we dropped off by a friendly talkative London  Taxi  driver at the Savile Club.

The Savile Club, it turns out, is in a very nice neighbourhood at 69 Brook St Mayfair. Just 50 metres up the road from Claridges. The accommodation is very comfortable but I think the lift was in service when Oscar Wilde was a member here. I can imagine that Stephen Fry, who is a current member, would have some trouble getting into its rather enclosed space. It has a history of having members who are involved in the arts and the walls are adorned with sketches, paintings and other memorabilia. The place reeks of the history of the London West End.

They are most accommodating considering our 7.30am arrival and the room is not only ready but spacious and has a walk-in robe and a bath. Margie  (who I am sure was allergic to HK) is too unwell, jetlagged and generally stuffed and so she turns in for a nap.

I go for a walk and meet Alex at the door of the Club. He was looking a bit scruffy and I think somewhat apprehensive about coming in. Anyway we decide to let Margie sleep and I go to do some shopping, have a coffee with Alex and catch up on what he has been up to. It was nice to get some one on one time with him as later when we go out to the Pub and have dinner his mother completely monopolizes his attention.

In the evening we meet up with Alex again and have 3 pints at “Blues and nothing but..” a pub in Kingsley St that has live blues. Then go up the road for dinner at the “Red Onion”. Alex looks like he hasn’t eaten much since he left home. The food disappears  quickly and as it has been a pretty big day we  head back to the Club to turn in.

What a surprise it is raining.

3rd October 2012.

Feeling a lot better after a sleep.

Margie goes off to get a hair cut and I have bit of a  stroll around the shops. We meet up with Alex at midday and have lunch in a Pub before heading off to the Queens Theatre, for the matinee of Les Miserables. This is the greatest story ever written. I have seen the Sydney production and watched the video so I am not sure I’ll enjoy it as I usually don’t like seeing things twice. I needn’t have worried. The production was terrific. I got a lot more out if it this time. Alex enjoyed it as he had not seen it live before. The singing was first class and the big ensemble numbers were truly spectacular. Money very well spent. 60 million people can’t be wrong.

Later we are off to Hibiscus, a 2 Michelin star restaurant, about 4 blocks away from the club. We decide to walk and it decides to rain. We make a very undignified entrance to one of London’s finest restaurants looking half drowned   (and Margie had just had her hair done.)

Oh well we make the best of it. Hibiscus is a different type of restaurant. There is no menu just a list of items the chef may use and you just decide if you want 3,6 or 8 courses with or without matching wines. We take the 6 courses with wine. I am going to write separately about all the different restaurants we eat at so you will have to wait  for that.

This was a really special meal. It encompassed both the art of food and the flavour. This is a rare thing.

What a memorable day. Great theatre and then great food.

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London to Salisbury, Stonehenge, St Austell

Today we say goodbye to London for the moment. I have arranged a hire car and we are travelling to Salisbury. Everything’s going fine until I arrive at the hire car depot without my license. Then both my credit cards are rejected. Margie has her license so we get the formalities started while I sort out the credit card issue. The banks, got bless them, have decided to put a stop on my cards because of all the overseas activity on them. Not a thought of notifying the cardholder. Just wait until he calls after suffering the embarrassment of having his card rejected.

Then we have to negotiate the drive across London to pick up Alex and our luggage and then back to the car depot to produce my license but finally we are on our way. Two and a half hours later we are negotiating St Annes Crescent in the medieval part of Salisbury looking for our accommodation. Soon we are booked in and our host (George) tells us that the Cathedral Choir will be performing at 5.30 in the Cathedral grounds. Time for a quick coffee and then off to the magnificent Cathedral. It turns out that there is a special service to invest several bishops. We sit through the whole service wondering at the choir with the boys voices soaring into the upper reaches of the cathedral. This takes sound to a new level.

It is not hard to understand how people who lived in tiny mud and thatch houses and had no understanding of reading or writing could have believed that some greater being must have had a hand in creating such a impressive structure. Also it helps me to understand the part such establishments played in the economic  fabric of medieval society.  

Marx was right. It was all about economics in the end. Even when we dress it up as spiritualism or faith or marriage it is basically just about money. Build the biggest and most impressive Cathedral and the market follows as then do the people and the economy.

 original inhabitants of the Salisbury area, or at least the first to leave any evidence of their existence were called “the beaker folk”. They were the first ones to build anything at Stonehenge. These folk built the original ditches around the current structures and they are thought to have had wooden piers in or adjacent to those ditches. This occurred around 3100BC. At some stage later a number of holes were built for some unknown reason and these were later used as burial holes. They are called the Aubery holes. Not because Aubery is a good name for a hole but because they were first identified by John Aubrey a 17th Century archaeologist. Later the smaller inner rings, consisting of stones some 2 metres high were constructed. This apparently happened about 2600 BC. The stones weighed over 4 tonnes and may have been transported from Wales  ( a long way to take  carry such a massive stone without any equipment. A modern attempt to recreate the trip failed when the stones fell from the raft built for the purpose and sank).

Later, perhaps a thousand years later, the larger stones in the outer circle were put there. These were over 4 metres high and weighted over 20 tonnes.

I cannot see how the ancient people could have possibly managed this feat.

Again an example of man’s folly or else the whole thing was obviously built by aliens  perhaps as some galactic sign post or stellular McDonalds.

Before we leave Salisbury I need to go back to the Cathedral and check out one of only 4 of the original copies of the Magna Carta, a document of great significance to lawyers and all free people of the world.

Following the capitulation of King John at Runnymede copies of the  Magna Carta were made and distributed to all parts of England. Only 4 of those copies survive today and one of those original copies is in the Charter House at Salisbury Cathedral. It is real living history.

Paragraph 39 reads

“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled. Nor will we proceed with force against him except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”

I feel in reading these words that it is a pity that every politician does not have to take a lesson in history and the Magna Carta before they start meddling with some of our fundamental rights.

I buy a couple of copies of the Great Charter (one a facsimile in the original Latin and the other a translation). I am thinking I’ll mount these along with my favourite quote from Blackstone so I can remind myself  of the fundament sense and simplicity of ancient ideas.

When we leave Salisbury it is off to St Austell in Cornwell the region from which my mother’s father’s family came prior to his father settling in the south island of New Zealand.

It’s a bleak day now and the rain is setting in. I t is difficult to see much but we finally find the Pier House at Charlestown and Kelly books us in.

Nice Pub and despite the fact that it is over 250 years old the rooms have good facilities and the restaurant is first class. I have a medley of local seafood and Margie has the sole. I have scallops to start but the standouts are Margie’s & Alex’s mussels which are the plumpest and juiciest that I can every recall having.

Salisbury Catherdral

African harmony on the streets of Salsbury

someone i know has been here before

the King

Bath, Waterford and the Trip to Roscrae

Roman antiquities in Bath

Bath Cathedral

Waterford

Our accommodation not bad despite the name

Margie and the statue for the revolutionaries at Clonmerl

The Whitten home

"who are you"?

Sli dala

6th October 2012

Bath

We arrive and book in to the hotel which is directly across the road from the Railway Station and right in the centre of the city. It is a Saturday and the city is packed and we have to park a kilometre from the hotel.

After relaxing for a while we venture out and explore the inner parts of the City. 

After dinner Alex and I find a Pub that has the Australia v SA's rugby test. However due to the time difference and the fact that the Pub must close at 1 pm we miss the last 20 minutes. 

7th October 2012

The next day we check out the Roman Baths and the attached museum. Fascinating. We also have a tour of the city which is really quite a beautiful and very interesting place. 

Alex catches up with a friend from Albury (another late night for him).

8th October  2012

Irish Ferries... Pembroke to Rosslare...Dooleys Hotel...Waterford

This morning it was an early start as we escaped the medieval city of Bath and make a dash to catch the Irish Ferry from Pembroke in Wales to Roeselare in Ireland. We make good time and have about 90 minutes to spare before boarding. Take a walk around Pembroke Port and get some lunch. It’s a grey misty day and this part of Wales looks distinctly uninviting. Shops are closed or boarded up. The few inhabitants obviously shop at one of the 2 British Red Cross Stores that seem to be the only ones doing any trade. It’s a world away from the fashionable boutiques of Bond St London. Yet this seems to me to be a recurring theme of my travels. Rich and poor.  In Hong Kong they were side by side and although not so adjacent in Britain it is still there.

The Ferry ride is calm (luckily) and 4 hours later we are driving off and heading for Waterford. There we have booked into Dooley’s Hotel on the waterfront.

Although it is after 8pm when we arrive the full extent of Irish hospitality is afforded and we are soon tucking into beef and guiness stew and venison sausages. After an excellent meal we are lured to the bar by the sound of live music. There Pat Cromford is entertaining the patrons (almost all of whom seem to well into their 80’s) with a one man  musical journey through h the hits of the 60’s. Neil Diamond and Roy Orbison are revived. Tom Jones (“Green Green Grass of Home”) is a particular favourite. The crowd are enjoying themselves and although most of them would remember the birth of the current monarch they are still capable of some pretty sharp dance moves. Is there something in the water in Ireland?

9 October 2012

Waterford to Roscrae

We have a bit of a wander around Waterford. A fascinating and very ancient city. The Vikings established a settlement here and intermingled with the locals. They initially built a wooden fortified settlement on a triangle of land between the convergence of 2 rivers. Later at the apex of the triangle a stone fort was constructed and stone walls surrounded the city. The tower has stone walls 2 metres thick at the base and narrow slits for windows so it was virtually impregnable. Eventually the Cromwellian Army did manage to take the city but not until it had seen off all othe challenges for about 400 years. The stone tower survives and we climb to top and get a taste of what life was like in the 1500 and 1600’s.

Cant come here without visiting the the Waterford Crystal shop. Aileen loves crystal so I buy her a present and they arrange the shipping back to Australia.

Then we are off to find Roscrae  the ancestral home of Margie’s mother’s  paternal forefathers, the Whittens.

We are booked into a B &  B as it is the best way to get information from the locals. We find Roscrae easy enough but we cant find the Whitten home. The B & B (Sli’dala) is operated by a lovely lady, Marie Warren and she is not only knowledgeable but also very helpful. She kindly offers to take Margaret out and show her where to go to find the Whitten House and points out the pub where one of the last remaining descendants of Gwen’s Whitten forefathers, Bill Williams, will be hanging out later that night.

We head back to the Pub about 7.30 and find Bill at the bar with one of his neighbours. He is a shy bachelor of about 70 years but is very accommodating and invites Margie out to see the house the next day. We eat a massive mixed grill at the Pub. Various parts of various animals nuked to blackness and smothered in a mountain of potato chips. Pretty much a standard in this part of the country.

The next day we find Bill’s place (the ancestral  home of the Whittens). This time we find the home at Fancroft easily and we are welcomed enthusiastically by Bill who exclaims with charming Irish  hospitality, “t’ar as welcome as the flowers in May”.

After a tour of the Whitten home where I get some photographs for the  Whitten relatives at home. 

 Next stop Bunratty Castle on the Shannon. 

Margie at roman baths Bath

Roman ruins at Bath

Whitten Family Crest

Bill's Farm

Fancroft now a housing estate

Bill, Alex & Margie at the Whitten Home

farm buildings

Cliffs of Moher and Galway

It is not a long drive to Galway but we decide on a couple of stops. First is a tourist destination, Bunratty Castle. It is a massive and well restored castle surrounded by very authentic recreations of huts, grounds and houses that would have been there in the 1600 -1900's. Both the castle and the surroundings give a good idea of life in those times. Again the history of the castle is interesting with a long history of conflict between English and the locals. Cromwell managed to take this castle for a while but when he moved on his minions where tossed out by a combined effort from the O'Neils and the O'Briens.
It is then only a short and very picturesque drive up the coast to the Cliffs of Moher. Here Alex manages to turn Margie's blood cold by standing at the edge and photographing his toes over the drop. It is a long way down. 

Bunratty Castle

its cold up here

A cottage at Bunratty Castle

chooks at Bunratty Castle estate

Cliffs of Moher

A couple of days in Galway

decor in the House Hotel

when the person who owns this chair returns you get up

a fine feed

the maritime part of the museum

old parts of the city within a new shopping centre

a fine drop

We arrived inGalway and found a really lovely Hotel called " The House Hotel". Galway is a fantastic city with theatre, museums, restaurants, music and of course Pubs. I do remember we had a very nice meal at a good restaurant but apart from that I think it was mainly the Pubs. I cant really recall much else about the couple of days we spent there. I am at a loss to explain the temporary lapse of memory. Maybe it is like Billy Connolly's warning about people who tell you what it was like in the music business in the '60's. He says if they tell you about their experiences then they are fibbing because no-one who was really there can remember it. I'll just let the pictures tell the story.

Drama Queen and Apprentice outside the Druid Theatre

A fine place to sleep it off

Dublin 

The Long Room Trinity College

Irish logic and poetry?

The grounds at Trinity College Dublin

The new library Trinity College

The Post Office O'Connell St Dublin

O'Connell St Dublin

Margie lost ....in thought Trinity College

Galway to Dublin

Dergrave Hotel

Dublin

Well after a lovely couple of days in Galway we are off to Dublin. A couple of hours down the M5 and we are approaching Ireland’s capital city. Here we are booked into an older hotel several blocks from O’Connell Street and the centre of town.

The history of Dublin obviously goes a long way back but I am mostly interested in the Easter Rising of 1916. There were obviously tensions that went back 600 years and a lot of ill feeling from Cromwellian times but the savage reaction to the declaration of Irish Independence was a classic example of overkill. It led to an independent Ireland in the south.

Alex meets a friend with whom he had spent some time in Iceland. A charming Canadian young lady (Zuzka) who is a geologist from Vancouver. The four of us have a lovely dinner.

13 October 2012

It’s our first full day in Dublin and we are going to fit as much in as possible. It is not much good trying to get going early here however as nothing happens before 10am. The sun takes its time getting up appearing about 7.30am. Breakfast doesn’t start until 8.15am and even if you wolf down your breakfast and get out on the street it is deserted and nothing opens before 10 or sometimes even 11 am.

We need some wi-fi and settle for McDonalds. We get poor coffee and poor wi-fi that drops in and out and makes using the internet a hit and miss affair.

Alex, Margie and I say goodbye to Zuzka (or Susan  as she is also known) and by 11am there are a few people on the streets and  a few places open. We head off to Trinity College that is part of the University of Dublin. At 500 years old it is the oldest university in Dublin. It is the Alma Marta of Mary Robinson, Oscar Wilde and Jonathon Swift along with many other, novelist, scientists and Nobel laureates. A Fellowship here is a worthwhile thing as you get a room on campus (central Dublin) and free meals and drinks for life. If you win a scholarship (1000 3rd year undergraduates try out every year and 70 are awarded) you get accommodation on campus, a small allowance free meals in the dining hall and all the Guinness you can drink during the 45 minutes over which dinner is served.

The Scholars Challenge is to see who can drink the most ½ pints in that 45 minutes. The record is 14. However to claim the record you must walk a straight line to the Library following dinner and write an essay on Fundamentalist Economic Theory and Marxism.

Principally we have come to view the Book of Kells and the amazing Longroom. The Longroom  (Trinity College’s Old Library) is almost 68 metres long and 15 metres high. There are over a million books stored there and many are older than the university itself. All are available to the members of the university. There is a unique filing system, very Irish, whereby the books are stored according to size. Largest on the bottom shelves and smallest on the top. There is some weird logic to this.

The Library also houses the Book of Kells. A 9th Century manuscript of the 4 gospels. Initially commenced on the Island of Iona and taken over to Kells to survive the Viking raids it was stolen and thrown away. Later a farmer ploughing his field found it and it survives pristine (as one can be after such a turbulent start to a 1,200 year  life) it is now preserved along with other ancient manuscripts in this Library. The illustration is amazing and the colour is vivid considering just what the monks had to work with. The red pigment is made from a rare beetle found in the Middle East and legend has it that only pregnant beetles make the best colour.

When we leave Trinity we quickly switch from the intellectual to the physical and soon Alex and I are on our way to RDS Stadium to see the local Leinster Rugby Club play the Exeter Chiefs in Europe’s premier rugby completion the Heineken Cup. Leinster have won this competition on several occasions and the Chiefs have just this year gained promotion into this division. The stadium is a rugby pitch with stands on 4 sides. It would hold about 15,000 people and when the game starts I can hardly see a spare seat. Oh for such a crowd at Murrayfield. The game is a lot closer than the locals would like and due to some ferocious defence and a penalty goal by Exeter in the 39th minute the scores are locked at 3- 3 at half time. Exeter surprised the locals and their scrum and lineout are on top of the Leinster 8.

I suspect the locals got a wind up from the coach at half time as they come out with much more intensity and focus in the second half. This is great rugby, albeit dominated by defence and hampered by the fact that both sides seem to have limited attacking options but the kicking is minimal, the catching and passing precise, the ball running very committed and the defence and contest at the breakdown fierce. In addition the refereeing is first class. The game continues to be close and the standard is reinforced by the fact that the  Australian  lock Dean Mumm comes on as a replacement for Exeter.

After the scores were locked at 6 all for much of the 2nd half Leinster edge ahead with a penalty goal with 5 minutes left on the clock. There follows a hectic 5 minutes in which both sides have opportunities to win or force a draw and both make mistakes letting the other side back into the contest. With the clock ticked over to 80 minutes the visitors are given a penalty about 48 metres out and  15 metres from touch. Too late to kick for touch so the Exeter 10 comes up to take the shot and try and force a draw. The locals hold their breath. (In fact for both sides the crowd afforded the kickers complete silence when they were taking their shots at goal). The kicker drags out the drama and milks the occasion for all it is worth but alas for the visitors his kick is unsuccessful and Leinster get home by the narrowest of margins.

Off for a quick bite at Pacino’s (a Suffolk St Italian Restaurant) and then its art again. This is so Dublin. Intellect, sport, arts and eating and drinking.  A very lovable and liveable city.

At the Abbey Theatre an adaption of Oscars Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey, is playing and we have the last 3 tickets. Although they are not all together at least we are in the same row. The production is a mixture of both straight theatre and stylised theatre. It oscillates between the lightness of Wilde’s witticisms, delivered in the main by Dorian’s muse Harry and the deeper, sometimes darker, issues of the Faustian trade  Grey makes to remain forever young, handsome and devoted to a life of pleasure. As always eventually there is a price to be paid. The production uses the extras as a type of Greek Chorus and the butler is the narrator.  Interesting and provocative theatre that leaves you with plenty to ponder.

The next day is Alex’s birthday. I think he has enjoyed his travels with his parents so for presents he has to make do with a small edition of Yeats’ Poetry and a couple of CD’s he has been looking for a long time. We do a city tour which is a bit of the tourist thing but  a great way to get your bearings and quickly learn about the City and its history.

The bus driver, who provides the live commentary, is like every second Irishman we meet trying out for a spot at the comedy club. He provides an interesting 90 minutes of banter ranging from  Wilde’s witticisms, “people who live within their means suffer from a lack of imagination”, to some background on  James Joyce’s personal situation, “he eventually married his long term partner but only at the request of their 2 children” to some scandal regarding the City’s famous mussel seller Molly Malone. Apparently Molly who is well known for “pushing her wheelbarrow through the streets wide and narrow”, sold something else at night. “She was a celebrate lady….she would sell-a-bit here and sell-a-bit there”. Of course  we had to wait until the bus had gone around the block and approached Molly’s statue from the front because “it would be rude to speak ill of a lady behind her back”. Pity the same manners were no on display in Australian political commentary.

I try to get into the history of any place we go and with most of the places having thousands of years of recorded history that is sometimes not easy to do. Ireland and Dublin in particular has had a long history of insurrection (usually unsuccessful) and generally followed by large scale reprisals, hangings, beheading and the like. Even with this long history of such conflicts it is impossible to be unmoved by the Easter uprising of 1916. The British really outdid their usual cruelty in dealing with this situation and the brutality of the reprisals, executing all the leaders of the Republican Movement (except the one who was an American  Citizen, Eamon de Valera, who later become the President of the Irish Republic) turned the generally unsupportive  population  into supporters of the Republicans. Again a very Irish situation.

Alex points out that we are getting the basis of a good revolutionary rugby team with Eamon de Valera at full back (loved rugby and played for Munster) and Che Guevra, a successful five eight, in that position. Prizes for any other suggestions for this team.

We were going to take the Irish Rebels Walking Tour but it is lunch time, the weather is closing in and the Tour takes 2 hours. I am sure it would be very informative but I made a pact not to torture myself any further with the Irish Situation after reading Leon Uris’ Trinity 30 years ago. So we take the cowards way out and opt for lunch at the Wine Room. Turns out to be a good choice as the lunch is excellent and the weather is bad.

This is our last night in Dublin and still Alex’s birthday so we decide on a Dinner Show at the Arlington Hotel on Quay St. A great finish to our visit to Ireland. We have heard plenty of live music over the last week and this is the best show we have seen overall. Professional entertainers with both Traditional Irish songs and Riverdance style dancing. The crowd well oiled on Guinness really gets into it. We sit at a table with a farmer and his wife from WA and an American girl from Michigan. There is lots of interesting conversation about where we have been and why. Alex knocks off quite a few pints of Guinness and seems to enjoy his 19th birthday. We all retire that evening pretty happy with our short time in Ireland and its main city.

We'll be havin a bit if music in the street