20 January

Well... a bit of a discovery tonight. On the way from my house to a nearby restaurant for dinner I passed a bar that I walk past every night. It is called Saphyr chez Soir. Tonight however was the first time I actually looked in the window and saw the hookahs. Then looked a little further in and saw the group of people sitting around a table, with hookahs between them. Oh. That'd be a marijuana bar then.

I am most smug. I went to dinner and ended up having quite a decent conversation with the waiter. After dinner he sat down with me and we chatted. Well, chatted is perhaps too strong a term for my clumsy attempts at the French language, but we actually managed to have a conversation in French, where we even managed to, mostly make sense!! Wooohooo!

19 January

A few people have asked me what my new place is like... It isn't the Ritz, but it is ok. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself.

Standing at the door looking down the corridor to my living room/bedroom	The living room/bedroom	My spacious kitchen
The bathroom (lousy shot but I can't get further back to take a better shot)	Standing at the doorway to the main room looking the front door	standing in the far corner of the main room looking towards the corridor

There you go.. thats it.

12 January

Woohoo... what fun! Tonight I caught the bus out to a little village called Collex, not far from Geneva, to go to a choir practice. It was just SO wonderful to be singing again, however rusty I am. Whats even better, its all early music. They are thin on the ground in the soprano side of things, so I sang soprano for the night, but I am learning the alto parts so I can sing them maybe too. Various choir members were really sweet about my voice, but between you and I wasn't exactly brilliant. Still, fun was had by all.

After practice, Jon, who is an Australian, gave me a lift home, via a stop in the house of another choir member, Pasqual, for a glass of wine and a bite of cheese. We ended up having a lovely chat, and consequently I only just got home a moment ago. (it is half past midnight) I had such a wonderful time I just had to write it down. You know, I don't even know if the choir has a name! Ah well, I am sure I will find out.

There were some challenges... all the directions given to the choir are in French, so it got a wee bit challenging at times figuring out when I was and wasn't supposed to be singing. (occasional moments of embarrassment included at no extra charge!) I figure this is going to do my French speaking the world of good.

So I have moved into my new "apartment". It is the size of a size 12 shoebox, but hey its home. I have even managed to fit my stuff into it. Thanks to leaving it all back in Australia of course. Although it is remarkable how much stuff I seem to have been able to accumulate over the last few months. I am not quite sure what it all is! I have bought a few books, but sent a bunch of them home... some clothes but not that many. A few pieces of fabric that I picked up in England, a couple of DVDs, some books that I bought at the English library sale. How did all this fill a car?

Living in Pâquis will either be good or bad for my ego. I walked to the phone booth today and 4 times between here and there men tried to chat me up.Should it be good for my ego that blokes are trying to pick me up, or bad for my ego in that all of them were sleazy middled aged Swiss/Frenchmen who thought I might actually let them pick me up? I doubt that any of them thought thought for a second I could be a working girl, but were trying their luck anyway. I know that this is the red light district of Geneva, but this is ridiculous. I was wearing a cardigan for goodness sake! I can tell that living here is going to be... interesting.

However... back to my trip to England. Where was I?

On the morning after Coronation, my friend Terry and I headed back to the crash space, and then went to visit a place called Llancaiach Fawr Manor. This manor house was built in 1530 and has been restored to be as close as possible to what it was like in 1645 when Colonel Edward Prichard and his family lived there. When you go into the entry building you pay your entry fee and are given an introductory letter so that when you go into the manor the servants will let you in. The servant's costumes were excellent and the restoration quite seamless. I wish I could show you photos, but I realised that I had left my camera at the youth hostel! I gave them a call though, and after going to the manor went back and picked it up. A place worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

I dropped off Terry at the train station and had a look at the map. Where should I go? I had two more nights to stay and I had to return to Heathrow. I could either head further in or out of Wales, or go somewhere else. Looking at the map I realised how far I had travelled to get to Ludlow and how far I could travel in a day, so I felt like most of England was at my doorstep. I decided to head to the South of England, to stay the night in a youth hostel in ????? Off I went.

Unfortunately I got there to discover that they were closed. I decided to head back to Exeter. The Youth Hostels seem to be really well signposted. I headed in to the centre of town to discover that the tourism building had no map of Exeter, and there were no signposts to be seen. I called the hostel and they gave me some directions. I still managed to get lost, but eventually found my way, arriving somewhat tired and grumpy. Still I had a bed for the night and at the price of just £11.50. I was sharing my room with quite a few ladies: a group of retired ladies planning on going for a long distance walk the next day, and one of them persuaded me that I should head to Glastonbury in the morning. I decided that the thought of having to be up in time for breakfast which closed at 8.30 was just plain wrong, so slipped the earplugs in and curled up for the night.

In the morning I started out by going to a car detailing place. My gorgeous Jersey cream had leaked onto the back seat of the rental car and I just knew Avis would charge me a mint if I returned it in that condition, and besides it would also end up stinking. While the detailing was going on, I wandered through the industrial estate to find the inevitable sandwhich bar, where I had a good hot breakfast. I chatted to two lovely blokes who were sitting at the same table, discovering that they were brothers, two of 16 children. No I didn't mistype that, 16. WOW. They told me that there were lots of hippy shops in Glastonbury... I wondered how much it costs to buy a hippy nowadays.

Anyway, I headed out to Glastonbury. The place is pretty ruined, but atmostpheric, and I got to see King Arthur and Queen Guinevere's gravesite. Apparently their bodies were found on the south side of the lady chapel and moved to a black marble tomb in 1278 and the tomb survived till the dissolution of the abbey in 1539. Who knows where they are now..?

The building most interesting to me was, unsurprisingly, the Abbey Kitchen. Not only the only remaining whole building, but of course of interest to me because of its use. Finished it is thought around 1375, it has an interesting design including a chimney at each corner, and a high "lantern" roof to stop kitchen smoke and smells sitting around.

Last night I had the sad news that my friend Gawyne lost his battle with cancer. I haven't been really close to Gawyne - we hadn't spent all that much time in each others company, but I really liked him and thought of him as the epitome of a gentle knight. He leaves behind his wife Yve, another lovely gentle person. I only hope that the love and support of those around her can support her through this terrible loss.

Now.. I promised you more details about what I have been up to since Christmas. Well, the UN doesn't give you a public holiday for Boxing Day so I was back at work immediately. For New Years, I decided that, as I had a flight in the morning on 1 Jan, I should get a relatively early night. Driving to Basel for a party, although a fun idea, would have meant I had to start driving back at 5am... bad idea.

So instead I went out to dinner with Sheila, Cairine and Cairine's sister Siona and her husband Terry. The dinner was a very fancy one at a restaurant called Restaurant Le Pirate. Wines were included, and a fixed menu as follows:

Click on image for larger version

Aperitif: Crème de Fruits rouge (a champagne with fruit liqueur) Petites Mise en Bouche: Huitre en gelée d'eau de mer, Gourmandise d'oursin, Nougat de saumon mi fume. (that'd be a trio of tiny entrees. Salade de homard, Compote de topinambours Moelleux de foie gras, capuccino de courges, lait de beafort (a gorgeous tiny coffee cup filled with a pumpkin soup poured over foie gras and with a wee layer of fluffy milk) Gambas et boudin blanc roti aux châtaignes (damn, I can't remember what that was) Granité de mandarine au parfum de Cuba (a mandarin and rum sorbet) Filet de loup soufflé en duxelle de cepes, creme de truffes (sea bass with mushrooms in a truffle sauce) Delice du Berger (a wee moon shaped crouton with grilled goats cheese on it) 3 Gourmandises de l'An nouveau (a meringue and icecream swan, sponge tower filled with chocolate mousse and a chocolate and custard tart) Wines were a 1997 Aoc Bourgogne Cuvée Latour (de chez Louis Latour) and a 2000 Aoc Côtes de Blaye Chateau Bertinerie We toasted the new year with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, including a toast to you... absent friends.

Oh, and I forgot, there were also three different petit fours each to go with coffee. Now that sounds like an awful lot of food doesn't it? But I finally found out what nouvelle cuisine is all about... each of these dishes was tiny, 2, maybe 3 bites each. Each were immaculately presented and absolutely scrumptious. I actually took photos I was so blown away by the presentation.

On New Years day I flew out to London. I picked up a hire car, and drove to Cardiff. Since I arrived there quite early in the afternoon I decided to drive on to some other town to stay the night. I headed in the direction of Shrewsbury. I passed through a village called Ludlow and thought it looked gorgeous, and when I drove a bit further and didn't find anywhere interesting to stay, turned around and returned to Ludlow for the night.

I spent the night in "the Feathers" Inn, which is an early 16th century building. All the floors and walls were at odd angles, and there was some of the most beautiful wood panelling (they believe it might have been stolen from the castle) in the guest's living room. Although the room was expensive, in the end I was really glad to have stayed there. Through the hotel I arranged to meet with Dr James Harrison. An architect and a bit of a local expert on the town, for a mere 5 pounds, I had a two hour walk around Ludlow with James. It was a fascinating walk and I learnt a lot about this amazing village and it's remarkable place in English history. If you ever get to this part of England I cannot recommend James' talk and walk shighly enough.

I then headed off to Pewter Replicas, the workshop of a pewtersmith quite near Ludlow, who makes reproduction period jewellry and feasting gear. I lashed out and bought two spoons, a plate, a cup, and a knife and fork, as well as some odd buttons and decorative belt rivets. There was soooo much more I lusted after, but I restrained myself - I find it helps greatly to translate £s into Australian dollars, or even Swiss francs.

Then, back to Cardiff, and the Youth Hostel, which was, thankfully, beautifully signposted. After some confusion and a dose of getting lost, I tracked down my friend Terry who was also staying at the hostel, then found some dinner and headed to bed.

The next morning it was off to Caerphilly castle, via a shoeshop. There, I got to witness the Crowning of King Elfin and Queen Signy, and got to help cook the feast. Kind of interesting that an Australian King was being crowned and his feast was being catered by an Australian (Thomas Flamanc), with lots of help from his lady (Siban, also Australian) and a bit of help by me. We antipodeans are taking over!

6 January

What can I say? I went to England for a couple of days and this is what I saw...

and

and this is who I was hanging around with

and this is where we hung out....

and this is where I stayed for one night..

and here for another...

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