Monthly Archives: April 2015

April 22, 2015 · 3:35 pm

Dali in Dubrovnik

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Just had the most fantastic time in Croatia. The conference went exceptionally well, with lots of great discussion. Met some really lovely people. Had dinner with a group of incredibly interesting and just plain nice GPs – a husband and wife from Slovenia and a couple of young docs from Japan. It seems ‘women rule’ in Slovenia (a quote from the delightful female GP who was about my age) and it was very clear who was the boss in their relationship. She told me in Slovenia, women are given huge respect and men ‘do what they are told with no complaint’ – sounds good to me. I think our lovely male Japanese dinner guests were a bit taken aback but I am sure that if I lived closer to Slovenia we would be great friends.

I hadn’t expected the food in Croatia to be very good but it was absolutely fantastic. I don’t think I have ever eaten such consistently great food anywhere that I have travelled.

On our last afternoon, I went into old Dubrovnik (quickly – straight before our flight) as there was a very large Dali exhibition in a small gallery. It was fantastic. I really enjoyed wandering around the gallery looking at the amazingly intricate (if sometimes confronting) Dali paintings. As I left the gallery, a cruise ship had come into port. OHHHH it was mental – thousands of people pouring out of buses. Made me very pleased that we stayed on the beautiful bay where we did, and had avoided the cruise ship crowds. Carol made me laugh when she said the cruise ships reminded her of live sheep export vehicles.

The flight from Dubrovnik to Roma was so easy and incredibly comfortable. I was slightly anxious beforehand as we were flying on a dash 8 – propellers and all, but it was fantastic – left exactly on time and arrived exactly on time and much better service than QANTAS et. al. No hesitation anytime about flying Croatian airlines

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April 15, 2015 · 3:24 pm

Kings Landing

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I have been so lucky and have slept in the most wonderful hotels but the gorgeous Valamar President is amongst the most beautiful.

http://www.valamar.com/en/hotels-dubrovnik/valamar-dubrovnik-president-hotel

The view out my large glass doors of the stunning Babin Kuk peninsula is like the most exquisite postcard. My room has a lovely deck off it with banana lounges that look straight over the turquoise sea. My canopied bed is lovely with the furniture so elegantly comfortable.

We arrived at the hotel and were met at the door with a glass of Prosecco before a walk downstairs to our rooms. The hotel lobby is at ground level, with all other rooms terraced down toward the sea. Every room has the most incredible view. Breakfast this morning was incredible.

We caught the bus to Old Dubrovnik this morning – the number 6 bus only taking about 10 minutes.

The late medieval UNESCO walled city is stunningly beautiful and we had a great long walk and climb around the walls. A 50-minute boat trip enabled us to see King’s Landing from the sea. I was of course expecting to see Tyrion Lannister or Brienne of Tarth and the view of the great walls had me searching the sea for Stannis Baratheon. The town was reasonably quiet with the Croatian sun beating town so it was truly gorgeous to sit at a bar cut deep into the cliff and stare out at the stunning scenery. We had totally wonderful calamari sitting on the waters edge and I am now back with my feet up having a rest before the conference opening this evening.

I think the photos speak for themselves – the sea though, is even bluer!

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April 14, 2015 · 8:59 pm

Gondolas in Venice

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Well probably the first time I can ever say that I was kept awake by a serenade, but when you have the gondolas out the window I guess that is to be expected. Striped shirt wearing, straw hatted gondoliers rowing snuggling tourists down the sedate canal outside our window was a lovely sight. It was even lovelier with the serenading that happened every now and then. We were in a great spot between San Marco and Rialto and wandered between water bus stops. Virginia was with me and we visited the lovely Mr Cremoroni for Venice’s most gorgeous  cuisine. It was busier than Christmas but not terrible. Our trip to Murano was lovely but the sun deceptively strong. I will definitely come back with a suntan after getting a very burnished face. Our quick trip to the home of Guiletta was a lovely spot to while away a late afternoon. Our night trip back to Venice was quick, but our leisurely water bus through Venice’s deserted streets was beautiful in the dark. Virginia had a 10.30pm meeting by video from the US so we missed dinner. We had a highly balanced dinner of biscuits, Brie, Vegemite (that Virginia always travels with) and chocolate.
I am once again at 35000 feet but beneath me at this time the beautiful Croatian coast. Long fingers of land and scattered islands everywhere. There is music box music playing over the speakers of the plane which evokes images of ballerinas twirling but out the window rugged coastlines, terracotta seaside villages, camel colored mountains, the bluest water I have ever seen, but snow covered mountains in the distance. The hills are amazing – great soaring hills as we land with mountains on every side – our super short flight almost at an end but there it is straight out the window – Kings Landing – how exciting

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April 12, 2015 · 8:42 am

Farewell Hebe

Currently on another plane to the magic of Venice. The weather in the UK was glorious .. In fact, at times, a bit too hot for an Aussie who came prepared for the British cold with boots and coats – definitely no gloves and hats needed. Gorgeous day for flying. Strictly T-shirts only.
The last few days have been spent in sadness about the loss of my gorgeous Hebe girl. I am obviously totally heart broken, but in some ways, I am glad I am here. It would have been just too hard to say goodbye in person. She might have been the pup, who fitted in a hot dog roll as a baby,  but she grew to be the most gracious old lady. She has been such a part of our life it is like losing one of my children. I don’t think I have ever felt prouder of my kids who have treated her with such dignity. Juno is being well looked after by doting human siblings.
In spite of my incredible sadness, I did have a lovely time in England … Just a little more subdued after Hebes death.
My trip to Cambridge was lovely as always, with great meetings with Jill and her team of truly inspirational women. The lovely village of Cottenham is filled with thatched roof houses and only a very short drive to Pip and Tonys at Landbeach. Anna collected me at Waterbeach station and after our meetings, Jill dropped me at Pip and Tony’s. It was so lovely to see them. They now have four grandbabies so are even more busy than usual. It was so lovely to sit in their conservatory with the doves cooing and drink a bucket of my favourite Yorkshire tea. They had more baby tortoises and the lush green of their English garden was a lovely reprieve from the grime of  travelling.
Yesterday had another early start to Sheffield. A good trip up though with breakfast served at my seat on the train, wifi and beautiful English scenery out the window. I don’t think I have been to Sheffield before and had it in my head it would be an ugly industrial city. I was pleasantly surprised. I was so busy looking at the grand Northern England stone architecture that I love, and following the map on my iPad, that I wasn’t as careful as I should have been on the cobblestones. Took a sprawling, old lady, break your hip tumble and went down really hard, breaking my finger and my iPad. The iPad was quickly repaired but my finger had doubled in size and was rather sore.
Great meetings with Sian and Sarah that were incredibly helpful to my role, and then a wander, and back for the two hour trip to London.
The unseasonably hot Spring has happened ahead of the heating being turned off so the train was stifling. By the time I got to London I felt really sick, dizzy as anything and had had enough. Trying to get the Tube to Heathrow at 6pm on a Friday night was more than I could cope with, as I couldn’t carry my suitcase. You wouldn’t think a single finger would be so damn inconvenient. I had planned to eat dinner at the Tate but canceled my booking and courtesy of a lovely female cabbie was on my way to Heathrow. The Hilton, a few minutes from terminal 5, was an amazing oasis. Just so comfortable. I am so pleased I stayed there after I read about their project Search. The hotel has a large employment program for young people from Ealing with disabilities.
I have been incredibly spoilt with another business upgrade, this time courtesy of British Airways. Not really needed on a short channel hop but nice of them anyway. Bit surreal isn’t it, that I have been on the plane for such a short time but now have Luxembourg out the window. I can see Brussels on the map, and funny to think Virginia is somewhere in the air just near me, as she is coming from Brussels, and we arrive at the same time. I will see Virginia soon but those damn Chagall’s continue to elude me. They were in Brussels with Virginia, but more comforting this time,  as the Tate did at least know where theirs were! The Italian alps are snow covered out the window but soon it will be the magic of Venice!

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April 8, 2015 · 4:33 pm

Nelson and Ben

Oh I do love London. Started a wonderful day with breakfast with a view. Bathed in spectacular sunshine, I dined on poached eggs, great Scottish salmon and buckets of proper English tea. I had a lovely walk from my super comfortable hotel near St Pancras down through the West End to the National Portrait Gallery to their gorgeous roof top Portrait restaurant. Buckets of tea later I waved goodbye to Nelson and Ben out the window (OMG what a view) and caught the tube to South Kensington. I always feel much more balanced after riding the public transport system in any country and I felt very settled after my ride on the tube … The sight of mice on the train tracks was even somewhat settling (well sort of) cause it made me feel that my day was a somewhat normal one after the stress on the senses bought about by Dubai. The English commuters are all around me snoozing away .. Yes a normal London day.
There are some places I always have to visit in London .. No matter how many times I visit I just love it. The magic carpet in the V&A was exactly where it should be and the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History were all back in place after their middle of the night romping. The mummies were all lying peacefully and Nelson and the lions were shining in the glorious English sunshine. I have come back to the hotel for a half hour lie down. My room and a good book, a lovely solitude moment after a day of dinosaur mad small children. It is school holidays so they are everywhere. Tonight, a cheap ticket all purchased to Shakespeare in Love on the West End and tomorrow to Cambridge.

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April 7, 2015 · 5:24 pm

The Arabian Nights

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The trip to Dubai was relatively easy thanks to a lovely business upgrade courtesy of Emirate. Slightly confusing on arrival as they told me in Melbourne I had to collect my bags in Dubai. Wasn’t sure about that, as I didn’t the last time, but believed the nice Melbournian who gave me a ‘free’ business upgrade so dutifully decanted the power cords, nickers, comfy shoes and t-shirt that I had packed for my suitcase-less airport stopover into my suitcase.

Well of course, she had been lovely with her upgrade, but I didn’t get my case so once again found myself possession-less in Dubai. I couldn’t complain too much though as had a fantastic sleep on the way over and arrived in Dubai at 5.30am local time ready for the day ahead. Virginia who was travelling with me also got an upgrade but hadn’t snored for six hours like me so she took to bed.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to remove the lens from my glasses and of course the spare pair were part of my decanting at Tullamarine when the nice woman totally convinced me that I would get my bags back.

The UAE just seem to let you in with no fuss at all, so the no glasses was not totally disastrous with no landing cards to fill in. Whilst Virginia had a sleep I went out to have my glasses fixed. Thanks to the nice young girl with the fantastic nails, who had the lens back in with once flick of her artfully decorated palm tree pictured nails.

We left Dubai airport at about 10 and started a mad 22km walk (or race) around Dubai. After figuring out the trains and trams we headed to the beach. We thought we would visit the Atlantis – had obviously been sucked in by Aussie television UAE campaign. The metro took a while as it sped super efficiently through this concrete jungle built in a desert. Virginia was a bit keen to see the desert – well we saw it – everywhere between buildings. As per my last trip to Dubai there was massive construction happening with huge sand filled holes everywhere. Again no-one on the streets, with most activity occurring in massive shopping malls. We caught the train and then the tram and then a speedy monorail to Atlantis – well the views were stunning of the sail shaped silhouette of the iconic Burj Al Arab and the massive cruise ship in port.

Atlantis – not sure how I describe an exceptionally ugly crass building surrounded by bikini wearing voluptuous young things with most parts of their anatomy false, covered in tanning lotion, tottering on heels and sucking on shisha pipes delivered by the white coated Dr Shish – all weirdly surreal. I struggled with the image of the abaya clad women clashing with the suntanned Brazilian babes. Cause of the case incident, I was part of the surreal vision sitting at the bar with my heavy, ready for London boots on.

From gaudy Atlantis, to the beautiful historic buildings of the Al Bastakiya – a million miles away from each other. So much of Dubai is just big, shiny buildings in the middle of completely desolate sand – it was beautiful to have a wander through the streets of the few buildings on the Dubai Creek that haven’t been created in Disneyland style.

We walked miles and miles and wound our way back to the amazing Dubai mall beside the totally amazing Burj Khalifa – at 828 metres Virginia didn’t think it looked that tall – but the whole bizarre place is filled with massive buildings so its sheer size as the worlds tallest building gets slightly lost amongst the jungle of concrete and glass.

We had dinner beside the Burj Khalifa and watched the amazing Dubai fountains that ‘perform’ in tune with music. As the Arabian night settled in, the men in their robes were out parading with their totally black clad women. The image of the Brazilian babes kept coming back to me. The night confirmed I was in an Arabic country but then beneath the long black clothing I would catch site of a Jimmy Choo shod foot and amazing jewelry – the men constantly on their mobile phones drinking Starbucks coffees – a single day in Dubai is more than the senses can bear.

I did pass on the camel burgers for dinner and Virginia was slightly disappointed that we couldn’t get a glass of wine (or any alcohol) anywhere with dinner. As I sit watching the cabs and red busses of old London town out my window I really wonder whether the last 48 hours or so has been some mad mental dream !! Perhaps it is still a dream as the sunshine streaming down in London and the rather balmy 20C makes me wonder where I really am.

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