Temptation!
Those teasers at Travelzoo.com just emailed me with this tasty travel morsel.
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Home again!Well, we got Will back home yesterday. Yay!
Dave and I went up to LAX to meet him off the plane from Sydney. I know he's a resourceful 17-year-old, but, secretly, I was just a bit nervous about him doing the trip from Perth alone for the first time. Four hours from Perth to Sydney at sparrow's; then getting from the domestic to the international terminal at Sydney; green form for Australian immigration; a fourteen-hour flight; white form for US immigration; US customs ... you know the stuff.
Of course, it was a breeze for him. He wasn't even tired! And his phone started buzzing almost immediately - before we even got to the car.
Once back at the house, he was soon off to catch up with his mates and spent the afternoon on the beach at Encinitas.
Bed at 8.30 last night and up at 7am for lots of this:
It's SO GOOD to have him home!:: This is a pic of David and me with Lily and Will at the farm at Eagle Bay, just a few days before Dave and I left to come back to the US:
:: It was wonderful for Lily and Will to get back and see all their mates and to be back on home turf. Will says he was sad to leave Perth again but ready to get back to San Diego all at the same time. And looking forward to school!:: There's an oak tree at the farm, just the same size and look as the one Garry and I used to play on when we were kids in England; we called it The Old Oak, but it probably was only about 20 years old.
Lily and Will climbed this one with Devon (left) and James. Devon was our next-door neighbour at Gloster Street, and James lived three houses down.
They were all born while their families lived in Gloster Street, and they've remained friends.Dev's studying psych at Curtin; James is studying aviation and aiming for the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra; Lily's a sophomore at the Evergreen State, WA; and Will's about to enter his last year at high school with his sights firmly set on the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.
James took Will to Perth airport to see him off on Tuesday night - such a kind thing to do at 4am. Dev and James are coming out to California to spend Christmas with us - so I'd better get cracking and book a cabin up in the snow!
:: Now all I need is for Lily to return to the fold!
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
Book-keeping
I feel I've neglected book reading lately.
We subscribe to some fantastic magazines, which are SO cheap here, and SO good, that they sometimes are all I have time to read. Recently, for example, I've started receiving the 'New York Review of Books', which is heaven on a stick. Just take a look:
The size of a tabloid newspaper (I had to scan it in two bits) and printed on newsprint, with very few photographs or illustrations of any kind, it has page after page of articles by brilliant writers. Lots of recommendations and lists.
:: Because this is the summer of A Very Important Harry Potter Book, and because I cannot for the life of me remember what happened in the earlier HP books I read, I have started again at book one. Loved it and finished it yesterday with the morning's tea and toast in bed. So I'll be off to B&N this morning to get the second volume. My guess is that by the time Lily gets back, early next month, I'll have caught up enough to discuss the latest one with her!
:: HP has interrupted my reading of Monica Ali's Brick Lane, which I was also thoroughly enjoying. It's about a Bangladeshi woman who finds herself in London after an arranged marriage to a much older man. Well-drawn characters and a fascinating picture of England. Why do I, an English-born Australian living in the US, enjoy these novels about transplanted people so much?
:: I recently finished yet another mind-bogglingly excellent book by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams. I find that when I read her stuff, like Ian McEwan's, i want to w-r-i-t-e. It's a bit like how really great paintings make me want to p-a-i-n-t!
:: Talking of great paintings, David and I were up at the Getty Center again yesterday (we had time to kill in LA before meeting another of our Australian recruits at the airport). On loan, and on display in its own beautiful room, is Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. Oh bliss!
In adjoining rooms there was a big exhibition of 1800-1900 Modernist drawings from the G collection, by artists like Turner, Delacroix, Seurat, Daumier, Van Gogh, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec ... Just edible!
We didn't have time to see the main show, The Painted Menagerie, of life-size paintings of animals by Louis XV's court painter, Jean Baptiste Oudry.
So exciting at the Getty. There's this vast treasure trove of priceless art, and they make it such fun, and so accessible. There were huge tables set up on the marble tiles in the beautiful courtyard so kids and parents could paint and make stuff inspired by items in the galleries; and on the other side of this outdoor space, an artist had set up a classroom to demonstrate how the old masters had painted animals, and explain their techniques. Wonderful stuff!
:: Okay - now I want to hear from you all what you are reading. I miss your book chat!
I feel I've neglected book reading lately.
We subscribe to some fantastic magazines, which are SO cheap here, and SO good, that they sometimes are all I have time to read. Recently, for example, I've started receiving the 'New York Review of Books', which is heaven on a stick. Just take a look:
The size of a tabloid newspaper (I had to scan it in two bits) and printed on newsprint, with very few photographs or illustrations of any kind, it has page after page of articles by brilliant writers. Lots of recommendations and lists. :: Because this is the summer of A Very Important Harry Potter Book, and because I cannot for the life of me remember what happened in the earlier HP books I read, I have started again at book one. Loved it and finished it yesterday with the morning's tea and toast in bed. So I'll be off to B&N this morning to get the second volume. My guess is that by the time Lily gets back, early next month, I'll have caught up enough to discuss the latest one with her!
:: HP has interrupted my reading of Monica Ali's Brick Lane, which I was also thoroughly enjoying. It's about a Bangladeshi woman who finds herself in London after an arranged marriage to a much older man. Well-drawn characters and a fascinating picture of England. Why do I, an English-born Australian living in the US, enjoy these novels about transplanted people so much?
:: I recently finished yet another mind-bogglingly excellent book by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams. I find that when I read her stuff, like Ian McEwan's, i want to w-r-i-t-e. It's a bit like how really great paintings make me want to p-a-i-n-t!
:: Talking of great paintings, David and I were up at the Getty Center again yesterday (we had time to kill in LA before meeting another of our Australian recruits at the airport). On loan, and on display in its own beautiful room, is Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. Oh bliss!
In adjoining rooms there was a big exhibition of 1800-1900 Modernist drawings from the G collection, by artists like Turner, Delacroix, Seurat, Daumier, Van Gogh, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec ... Just edible!
We didn't have time to see the main show, The Painted Menagerie, of life-size paintings of animals by Louis XV's court painter, Jean Baptiste Oudry.
So exciting at the Getty. There's this vast treasure trove of priceless art, and they make it such fun, and so accessible. There were huge tables set up on the marble tiles in the beautiful courtyard so kids and parents could paint and make stuff inspired by items in the galleries; and on the other side of this outdoor space, an artist had set up a classroom to demonstrate how the old masters had painted animals, and explain their techniques. Wonderful stuff!
:: Okay - now I want to hear from you all what you are reading. I miss your book chat!
Friday, 3 August 2007
A pot of basil (here pron. bay-zill)
Basil always makes me think of Keats' Isabella, whose proud Florentine brothers did away with her lover, Lorenzo, and buried him in a shallow grave (of course!) in woods by the Arno. But love wins - sort of - when Lorenzo's ghost tells Isabella what happened. So she goes out in the dead of night (of course!) and digs him up, cuts off his head, wraps it in a scented hanky and takes it home. She cleans him up, brushes his hair, kisses him a bit and then - brainwave! - plants his head in a pot of basil. All of which is a pretty dodgy plan which, needless to say, doesn't end at all well. Though she does grow a fantastic crop of basil, apparently.
Much like mine here, which was given to us by our dear friends, Paul and Debby Hopper, who had us out to dinner at their house in beautiful Rancho Santa Fe on Tuesday night. The basil they gave us has almost filled our house with its sharp, sunshiny scent - yum. They also grow zucchini, pumpkin and the plumpest, reddest, juiciest tomatoes:
They even save the seeds to plant for the next summer.
I do so miss having a garden when I smell their basil and the warm skin of their tomatoes - sigh!
:: The weather in San Diego is absolutely, spot-on, perfectly perfect. This week, the expected maximums are all in the 26 to 28-degree range, and the nights are so cool that I had to put a cardie on last night when we were having drinks by the pool.
:: Keeping the summery theme going - and to remind you of the glories to come over there as your wet and wild winter really digs in - here's a pic of the lovely golden tulips that newly-arrived Bondi recruits Steph and Matt, from Perth, brought me last night when they came over for a home-cooked meal:
And she forgot the stars, the moon, the sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees,
And she forgot the dells where the waters run,
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not; but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore ...
And she forgot the blue above the trees,
And she forgot the dells where the waters run,
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not; but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore ...
Basil always makes me think of Keats' Isabella, whose proud Florentine brothers did away with her lover, Lorenzo, and buried him in a shallow grave (of course!) in woods by the Arno. But love wins - sort of - when Lorenzo's ghost tells Isabella what happened. So she goes out in the dead of night (of course!) and digs him up, cuts off his head, wraps it in a scented hanky and takes it home. She cleans him up, brushes his hair, kisses him a bit and then - brainwave! - plants his head in a pot of basil. All of which is a pretty dodgy plan which, needless to say, doesn't end at all well. Though she does grow a fantastic crop of basil, apparently.
Much like mine here, which was given to us by our dear friends, Paul and Debby Hopper, who had us out to dinner at their house in beautiful Rancho Santa Fe on Tuesday night. The basil they gave us has almost filled our house with its sharp, sunshiny scent - yum. They also grow zucchini, pumpkin and the plumpest, reddest, juiciest tomatoes:
They even save the seeds to plant for the next summer.I do so miss having a garden when I smell their basil and the warm skin of their tomatoes - sigh!
:: The weather in San Diego is absolutely, spot-on, perfectly perfect. This week, the expected maximums are all in the 26 to 28-degree range, and the nights are so cool that I had to put a cardie on last night when we were having drinks by the pool.
:: Keeping the summery theme going - and to remind you of the glories to come over there as your wet and wild winter really digs in - here's a pic of the lovely golden tulips that newly-arrived Bondi recruits Steph and Matt, from Perth, brought me last night when they came over for a home-cooked meal:
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
Make that Venice, Las Vegas!Had a fab two days in this wild desert city. It's so h-u-g-e, and so glittery, and so gorgeously tacky. Whatever you feel about it - and for me, two days were plenty - you can't help but be caught up in the sheer buzz and excitement. I just wish David had been with me to explain the arcane machinations of craps, which is the only game he reckons is worth playing in a big casino.
:: So this (below) is where we stayed, in the golden edifice of The Mirage ...
... which is in the heart of the Strip (below):
:: I had a luxurious room all to myself on the 25th floor - and, on checking in, I was asked if I'd like a pool view or to see the volcano. Obviously, I plumped for the volcano ... but it was a bit of a fizzer really: half-hourly pyrotechnics with scorching yellow flames, and red lights playing over a waterfall.For all its comfort, the Mirage seemed to have a crisis of identity: at any one time you could see its dolphin pool with baby dolphin, or the white tigers of Siegfried and Roy, or the wonders of breast augmentation in the admirably succinctly titled 'bare pool'.
The casino, spread out across almost every inch of the ground floor, was impossible to avoid. Wherever you needed to walk - from the flowery, leafy jungle-style atrium to the guest elevators, or from the marble lobby to the restaurants - the route would take you through its noisy, gaudy, fake-wood-and bright-lights poker machines and gaming tables. And they whirred, whizzed, hummed and bing-bing-binged 25 hours a day.
:: There was no such thematic confusion over the road at the Venetian, a massive and very ornately grand resort, complete with its own Grand Canal (with gondolas, natch), Bridge of Sighs, Doge's Palace, and Italianate tower thingy with recorded church bells that chimed on the hour.
But I don't remember the canals of Italy's Venice being this sort of inviting blue. I could be wrong, but they seemed more olive green, and much more viscous than these temptingly cool and chlorinated waterways!
There were dreamy colonnaded walks that looked over the canals - almost as good as the real thing.
:: Not far from the Venetian, and just a little farther up the Strip, we discovered the Trevi Fountain. But of course! It had gorgeous statuary and romantically misty water, with a great view of Caesar's Palace next door - conveniently near the Colosseum.
Caesar's Palace has the most opulent lobby in the whole of Vegas, I reckon - at least out of all the ones we saw:
:: Next door to the Mirage was a resort called Treasure Island. It had enormous pirate ships bobbing about in its pool out the front:
Four times a night, a team of talented actresses and a team of talented actors would bump and grind their way through a short but gripping musical play about sirens luring seamen to their fate.The sirens all wore bikinis and cowboy boots, and occasionally chains and cutlasses. They pole-danced on the ship's rigging and sang songs loaded with double entendre about 'coming on board' and so on.
The pirates, who, needless to say, succumbed to these wenches' tempting charms, looked like the Chippendales and didn't put up too much of a fight. There were some cannon shots, fireworks and an explosion, the boys' ship sank, and the finale involved a song in which the captain discovered 'the real treasure lies within' as he frolics up the mast to the crowsnest with the head siren.
Sigh.
:: By far the best and most spectacular free show was outside the Bellagio, where the wonderfully choreographed fountains danced for the masses every fifteen minutes, to a different song each time:
:: Fortunately, Don and Laura had come up with the perfect antidote to all this gilt and glistening shimmy-shammy:
A daytrip out to the Western Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Words can't do it justice, and photographs don't come close. Truly awesome. Massive. And utterly breathtaking. And this is only a minor part of it all.Laura and I took deep breaths and went out on the Skywalk.
I hope you click on the link and have a look - we weren't allowed to take cameras out there. We stood on the Skywalk's glass bridge that juts out from the canyon wall, 1400 metres above its floor. It's one of the best things I've ever done in my life.
And afterwards, we had lunch, though not at these tables right on the edge - a definite appetite killer!
And get a load of the weather: it was not too hot, it was raining, and there were big flashes of lightning. As if there weren't enough drama.:: To give you some idea of the scale of these pictures, click on this one to see it big, and then you'll notice a helicopter whizzing through it.
:: Back to earth now, home in sunny and beautiful San Diego, where the air is clean and crisp and the temperatures never seem to get any higher than a delightful 28 degrees. Perfect!
Comic-con - 120,000 visitors - has been on at the convention centre downtown, and the Bondi has had a fast and furious weekend. It's been brilliant. Dave reckons we had 1000 people through the doors on Friday alone - yee ha!
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