Sitting in the morning sun, waiting for the evening to come

We were all up early on Boxing day morning to go and watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. It was a beautiful sunny day and it seemed that everyone else had the same idea as us, so there were crowds of people trying to get the best vantage point on the route from the harbour to the open sea.
Rather than go with the crowds to the headland, we decided to get our own prime viewing point in the world famous Doyles Fish Restaurant at Watsons Bay. From our dinner table we saw the flotilla of yachts leave the harbour with dozens of boats and helicopters in tow. Two fish courses and a bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc later, we wandered up to the headland to see the views across the bay after the crowds and yachts had left!
As usual with us our trips everything seems to revolve around where and what we eat! On Friday evening we found a great Brazilian Restaurant above north Bondi beach, which was not licensed, so it was BYO (bring your own) so we took 3 bottles of wine & enjoyed great food.


Last night we had a Bondi Flying Pizza experience at the north end of the beach there is an Italian restaurant of note, we had tried to get in a couple of nights ago but there was a 3 hour wait (no bookings taken) so me n Liz arrived at 6pm to get an early table, we still had to wait 1 1/2 hours, Carmel joined us at 7.30 just in time to get the table (we were 3 G&T’s ahead of her by this stage) unlike the Flying pizza we could stand outside in the sunshine whilst we waited for our table.
We had been snorkelling during the day, we met up with Carmel and 3 of her friends very early in the morning and did the cliff top walk to Bronte beach, had breakfast and walked to the next bay (Clovelly) where there was an area for snorkelling. En route to this beach Carmel’s housemate Ruth took us to see her family tomb in the cliff top cemetery. Where there are generations of her family buried and where she will be too!
We spent today wandering around an area in the Harbour called ‘The Rocks’. There are loads of hilly winding streets with wonderful old buildings and markets and a great atmosphere but even more impressive are the real ale pubs here. We had lunch in the The Australian Hotel (which means pub), Keith had Kangaroo pie, Liz had kangaroo pizza and Carmel had Kangaroo salad!!! Bouncing!
This week Keith will be mostly buying new shoes, ok (I brought the wrong shoes with me), my old flip flops from Corfu (which are called thongs over here) slide off my feet more times than they are on them, so in a moment of stubborn independence I decided to go off on my own and buy some more. I soon realised that the pair I had bought were too tight across my toes and within 200 metres I had rubbed the top of my feet raw! Not wanting to admit that I had made a mistake in buying the wrong size, I insisted they would wear in. So the following day in protest at Liz’s best advice about what shoes to buy, I walked mainly barefoot & blistered the soles of my feet instead. (And he went and bought a second pair of ill fitting shoes!!)

Today I bought some quality walking sandals (third time lucky!), and now everything is right with the world again!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

The Christmas message brought to you from Sydney Australia
by my husband and I (HRH Elizabeth England)
Our apartment pictured above is the building with the red roof!

It is Christmas Day and Keith has already been for a jog along Bondi beach, we have both been for a walk down to Bondi where there are crowds of people gathering on the beach all with Santa hats on getting ready to party!! (they do an orphans Christmas party for all those away from family at Christmas).
We have just had pimms and lemonade at Carmels house. Now we are off back to our roof terrace to bbq the fish we bought yesterday. It is tradition to get up in the middle of the night and get to Sydney fish market at the crack of dawn to buy your Christmas fish. So by bus, train and tram we arrived at the packed market at 6am. We bought King prawns, Tiger prawns, sword fish, trout and barramundi (Yum) No turkey!

We had an uneventful 24 hours of flying, we left Manchester at 10am Thursday morning which was -2 degrees, then 12 hours, 4 films and 3 meals later we landed in Singapore 26 degrees hotter! We had 3 hours to browse the shops in the airport before taking off for another 7 hour flight and 2 more meals to Sydney. Getting into Oz is quite strict, you are not allowed to bring in all sorts of things including wood & food (little did I know when I told the customs official that we had nothing to declare that most of Carmels Christmas pressies were edible! Chocolates, cakes and coffee!) still we got through unscathed.
Carmel met us at the airport and this was the start of a grand tour of exotic breakfast locations over the next few days. The first morning we went for breakfast with her close friend Matt to Brown Sugar. There is a great attitude to breakfast here it really is the best meal of the day. We had poached eggs, spinach, hash browns, bacon, cooked tomatoes and seeded bread and great coffe (I have a ‘flat white’ Carmel has a ‘long black and of course Keith has a ‘short black’!! The next morning we went to Gertrude and Alice book shop café for breakfast, then yesterday was Katipo café and so on, fab!!
We spent Christmas eve in the Opera bar at the Opera house drinking wine and soaking up the atmosphere. It is the most beautiful harbour very vibrant and lively.
It is great to be spending this time with Carmel.
Need to go now and light the Barbie
Happy Christmas everyone!!

“Going to the land down under”

Well we are off again!
In just 1 weeks time, we will be setting off on our latest adventure. We are travelling to Australia to see Carmel in Sydney for Christmas!!

CARMELY CHOC

Since we last blogged in September we have both been very busy, working full time! (Even Liz is working for O2 for 6 months) and Keith has increased the amount of gigs he has been doing in the UK.

We have also been to lots of gigs including Crowded House, The Fast Show, Frank Skinner (don’t mention Frank Skinner) we should ‘ve gone to see The Police as well but Sting had a sore throat (ahh bless!) so it was cancelled.

Also Jema made Keith a grandad for the 3rd time. She had a beautiful little baby girl called Arwen on 25th October, which was also the same day that Pippa was 18 !!!!

CAITLYN, FINLEY AND ARWEN

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY PIPPA !!!!!!!!!

We are flying with Singapore airlines from Manchester, leaving on the morning of Thursday 20th Dec at 10am and arriving in Sydney on Friday 21st in the evening at 8pm. We have both got our groovy flight socks, our blow up travel pillows and travel tooth brushes, so we are prepared for anything!!

Liz is preparing for at least 24hrs without a cig. (no she’s not going to sleep all the way) she has armed herself with patches, lozengers and nicotene gum, though she’ll have to watch herself in Singapore because chewing gum is banned. And the good news is Sydney has the strictest antismoking laws in the world, not only indoors, but outdoor bars and restaurants don’t allow smoking and even Bondi beach!!!! Is no smoking!! Not that I’ll ever mention it.

Emails have been frantically flying backwards and forwards between Carmel and Liz for the last few weeks to plan our trip. Liz has put all the activities Carmel has booked, onto a spreadsheet (OCD) So nothing can possibly go wrong (mmm) Carmel has booked a variety of shows and gigs because we will be there during the Annual Sydney Festival which is a major Oz holiday event. We are staying with Carmel for the first 10 days because her house mate is away for Christmas, then we have rented a beach side apartment til we leave on 11th Jan. It has a roof top terrace with BBQ! And we are planning on doing a couple of trips overnight possibly to the Blue Mountains or the Hunter Valley Wine region, we will see?

For New Years Eve we have booked a table in a restaurant which overlooks the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House, so we will get a birds eye view of the fireworks (if there are any left after the accident in the firework factory in Sydney last week!)

So consequently we have done absolutely NOTHING Christmassy this year, we have not sent cards or bought pressies or put decorations up, or anything, it’s been very weird. So instead, we will be spending all the money we would have spent on a UK Christmas having a fab time in Oz

(Yes Paul....LIZ 'N' KEITH ARE GOING TO BE IN CORFU - Oorstraylia?

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !!!!!!!!!

"The long and winding road that leads to your door"

Well “the time has come the walrus said, to talk of many things,” and so our time on Corfu has come to an end. The Three months has flown by but it also feels as though we were there for an age. At 5am and in 26 degrees of heat we left our lovely Greek house and set off to Corfu Town for the ferry and saw our first sunrise in 3 months.

We left Corfu with the same amount of amusing confusion at the ferry port as when we arrived in June. Two ferries leave Corfu at the same time, two separate ferry lines Minoan & Annek, both running the same route so it was only understandable that the port authorities would tell passengers for both ferries to be at the same dock at the same time! As both the ferries steamed into port, passengers for the Minoan line (ours) were told that we should be ½ mile away at the new port. Consequently cars raced off in all directions, foot passengers had to power walk, dragging large suitcases behind them to the other dock. There seemed to be thousands of back packers of all nationalities queuing for the journey home, at this point and throughout the crossing we were so glad that at the last minute we’d managed to obtain a cabin!

People slept everywhere, in walkways, under-stairs, inside & outside, there where even a couple of tents & a hammock set up. It was like being at the aftermath of a massive teenage party!

First stop was the Greek mainland, which involved lots of complicated unloading and loading of various vehicles. Then 2 hours later we were sailing back past Corfu on our way to Venice!

All the TV’s on the ferry were tuned to channels showing the latest news of the tragic fires all over the mainland, which made us realise how small the mountain fire was that we had seen back in June.
Because of the large numbers on board all the restaurants were very busy, so we ended up sharing a table with two other couples. An Austrian couple who were both teachers & musicians and a Swiss couple who lived on the Italian side of Switzerland but spoke French to each other and spoke German to the Austrian couple & English to us. We had a fascinating couple of hours sharing tales of our experiences in Greece.

After a fairly early night we woke as the ferry edged its way into the port of Venice, it was 7 o’clock in the morning so it was deserted and looked even more beautiful than we had seen it 3 months earlier. We set the Sat-Nav up to go to Sheila’s & hit the road. We arrived in Simione mid morning and Sheila had cooked us a “Full English”! Still confused & “ferry lagged” after 3 months living a rustic Greek lifestyle, Keith very nearly went to the toilet in Shelia’s bidet by mistake & so nearly put the paper in the plastic water bucket next to her washing machine, sorry Shelia! Later after a bit of retail therapy and a glass of wine (no cameras broken) we headed off for Debbie & Franco’s in Milan for an overnight stop.

Deborah had made us a huge turkey pie, as she too thought it would be nice for us to have some “English style” cooking for a change! We had no problem finishing it off & with the help of a bottle of Red wine that had managed to travel outside of Greece and still taste ok, we tucked in & then went happily to bed. Zzzzzzz.

Wednesday morning up early & off to Heidelberg to stay with Liz’s brother and family. By now the weather had started to change & the temperature was dipping down to the low 20’s. We hit rain before we reached the Alps but it was still an amazing journey through the mountains & lakes.

We arrived at Paul’s between 5 & 6pm the kids were away so Paul & Milena were giving their house a complete makeover, none the less Milena had prepared the most delicious Italian food & with a couple of bottles of red wine we had a chilled out evening, dining out in their pretty courtyard followed by a stroll round their local town. We slept very well in their superb annex!

On Thursday morning we set off on the last leg of our journey up to Brugge to catch the overnight ferry to Hull. This time we drove up through Germany, which was very different from the drive down through France 3 months ago. The German autobahns have got to be experienced to be believed, they are so fast. Which was ok for Liz (behind the wheel) but having experienced Paddy’s driving @ Mach2 on the autobahn before, I was building my version of the Berlin wall until the Belgian roads kicked in, then we slowed down to a sedate 90mph. Think I saw lots of vineyards in the Mosel region of Germany but in all honesty it was all a bit of a blur!!

The one thing we did notice was how much space there is in Europe compared with islands like Corfu & Britain, such vast areas of land between towns all the way from Switzerland right up to the coast in Belgium.

The ferry was the usual cross channel stuff except that now the smoking ban has kicked in the only place one could smoke was in the cabaret lounge. The “turn” must have thought they were the best thing since sliced bread, they weren’t, it was the only place that smokers anonymous could gather on board so the lounge was packed. We had an outside cabin with a window for the journey, & as dawn broke we watched Hull sail into view on a grey Friday morning. Welcome Home!!!!!!
We have been home for 3 weeks now, back at work, central heating on, wearing socks and shoes, watching telly, goin‘t’ pub, RAIN! Home sweet home. Still we have a few gigs booked to look forward to, Crowded House, Police and an evening with Frank Skinner …… and Liz is working!!!! 6 months contract (aren’t they all)

And of course we have got Christmas in Australia to look forward to and so have you guys because we are going to keep on bloggin !!!

“Workin 9 to 5 What a way to make a livin”

"Get your motor runnin' head out on the highway"

There is a strange sense of ground rush (the sensation you get as you are about to land in a plane) During our last 2 weeks here the days are going much faster & the visitors arrive in larger numbers and we have to get ready to make for home.
During our last week here we have had 5 visitors, my friend Lorraine, who stayed with us and Helen, Martin, Paddy and Lorraine who all stayed in an apartment in San Stefanos.

So Keith decided not to do any gigs this week and take our last week off as a holiday and just hang out with them all. We have had such a fab week.

Most days have been spent on the beach or by the pool, only interrupted by having long lazy lunches and visiting our favourite restaurants for dinner in the evenings. We have been showing off all the new friends we have made out here.

On Monday we went to Costa’s in Roda, this is a traditional taverna and Costa has a Faulty Towers approach to his customers and we love it. Half way through the meal, without any warning he suddenly poured some dressing onto Paddy’s fish, luckily Paddy liked the dressing.

On Tuesday we went to one of our favourite restaurants where 3 Greek musicians play great Jazz and chill out stuff

On Wednesday we went to a pizzeria in Sidari, we have been here once a week every week since we got here because it fitted in so well before one of Keith’s gigs. It has a huge wood burning pizza oven and it is incredibly cheap. Lots of Gin & Tonics and loads of Wine and it was still only 10 euros each.

On Thursday we all went for the ultimate fish experience. We went to the restaurant we have mentioned before which you can’t get to by road. So 7 of us got the boat taxi and 15 minutes later, when we arrived’ we were told by a very hot, stressed owner in no uncertain terms that we would not be able to have a table that evening. But as our taxi had already left us we asked him (or should I say Keith & Helen ‘assertively persuaded’ him) if we could all have a drink before we phoned our return taxi.

He eventually came round found us a table & we were treated to a fish feast, whilst Costa plays at faulty towers this guy is the real deal! He glares at you, whilst chewing gum loudly when you are trying to order your food, barks at you if you want salad instead of veg or potatoes instead of fries! Even Paddy said whatever he brings I’ll eat it.
It was worth it!!! The biggest tiger prawns you’ve ever seen and Lobster in Baileys & Metaxa sauce with Spaghetti. Keith had a whole Red Snapper; Paddy& Martin had huge fillets of Red Snapper.

All this & the most amazing uninterrupted view of the sun set. We guzzled wine & beer the taxi came for us at 10.30 in the pitch dark to speed back to the main beach, a bit of skinny-dipping & a nightcap in a local bar then off home to bed. On the last day everyone had different flight times so we ended up just me, Keith & Paddy & we went to an old favourite The Delfino overlooking San Stephanos Bay quality food in an amazing setting, what a way to round up the holiday experience!

We have packed the car and we are ready to get our ferry to Venice at 7 in the morning

"..............Looking for adventure and whatever comes our way"

See you all soon

X

Reggae band in the Veggera bar!

In August much more effort is made to put on entertainment for the locals. Last week, in a beach side bar close to us, called the “Veggera Bar” they provided an amazing Reggae band from Athens.The Veggera bar is one of the coolest places to hang out, it is full of ‘beautiful’ young Greeks, on the beachfront, full of palm trees & umbrellas and at night there is a DJ with the best collection of tunes I have ever seen. This DJ doesn’t do any voice over tracks but any tune you ask for he seems to have it, & the music he plays is a sort of chill out rock, like early Chris Rea & JJ Cale mixed with Morcheba! Things you haven’t heard for years together with tunes you want to find out what they are so you can go out and add it to your ipod collection.

“Global Vibe” are a 7 piece reggae band with drums, bass, 2 guitars, keyboard, percussion & vocalist + a guest trombone player, white guys, some with “dreads” all from Athens but sounded like they came from Kingston Jamaica. They were due to start @ 10 we could hear them sound-checking from our house then @9.45 they started playing so we set off to see them. We didn’t need to rush, as the bar was fairly empty & we got great seats, they played 2 songs then stopped, they were still sound checking! Each of the 7 muso’s in turn asked the sound engineer (Yep they came with the full rig, desk multi-core, lights) for their sound to be raised slightly so they could be heard a bit better in the mix, but of course by the time he got to the last guy, the mix was as it was ½ hour earlier only generally a bit louder.In true muso & Greek fashion, time keeping was not an issue, they eventually ambled on stage @ 10.50 to start the gig, the place filled up & more people were on the beach, with plenty of space to dance.

It was all reggae, early Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals stuff, some classic Ska songs & some, what I must assume were original Greek reggae songs, but they sung most songs in English with great Jamaican accents. It reminded me of a few years ago, when a crowd of us went to the cavern in Liverpool and saw a German Beatles tribute band, they all sang in English (with scouse accents) announced all the songs in English but when we spoke to them afterwards they didn’t speak any English (a bit bizarre.)Anyway “Global Vibe” were great, fantastic harmony’s, really tight rhythm section & the beach was full of people dancing, we left well before the end & we could still hear them playing from our home when we fell into bed, apparently it went on to the early hours & the band were seen leaving about 3 in the morning.

Chipero club
It would be wrong to call Chipero a drink it is an experience!
Chipero is a spirit, an illegal spirit in the same way that moonshine, raki or pocheen are. It is a mainly Albanian drink but it is also made in the northern mountains of mainland Greece, and arrives in Corfu via the Albanian workers who run bars & do a lot of the low paid manual work that the local Greek population won’t do.
Chipero is made from the residue left from wine making, all the pips, bits of leaves, twigs & unfermented grape juice are placed in a straw lined cauldron, suspended over an open fire, then distilled via a series of copper pipes & tubes leading through a large container of water to cool & aid fermentation. A clear strong liquid is drawn off, usually at least 40% volume & it is drunk neat!!!! It has an unusual smell to it a cross between petrol & the P20 sun cream that Liz uses,And is considered to be the elixir of life to those who know it well, offering apparently no hangovers or aftertaste just a nice warming glow as it goes down.

It is used, all over Corfu, Northern Greece & Albania as a cure for all ailments, as an after dinner shot, a first thing in the morning wake me up, & generally as an excuse for anyone who wants a “cheers” moment. A load of shot glasses are lined up on the bar, filled with chipero, then everyone downs it in one, with the cry of “yamas” & slams the empty glass down on the bar!

The chipero club at the “Tassos” apartments where we are living, is organised by Romeo, the Albania co- owner of the poolside bar, it is a group of old timers, by old timers I mean people who have visited this holiday site for several years & a few newer hangers on.Any time of the day you find chipero being offered up as a shot, but these guys, including a few women (chipero club is not a sexist organisation) drink it in the morning! They convene at the poolside just before 9am everyday, no matter how late they went to bed, and have a piece of cake a coffee & chipero just to start the day.
You can only drink chipero over here, not that it doesn’t travel, like the wine you bought on holiday & when you get it home tastes like cat pee. It’s just that you can’t buy it in the shops; it is kept in large demi-johns or old spirit bottles under bars or in a back room. Some of these chipero drinkers have tried to take it home, in 7up bottles in their suitcases & aroused the suspicions of the airport security people as the bags go through the scanners; it is promptly confiscated, maybe to be drunk later behind the hangers?Sounds an interesting club & I have seen them sat there with cake coffee & a silly grin, unfortunately we are never up early enough, to join in but I think my liver & kidneys are all the better for missing the experience.

Yamas!!!

Out and About, Creatures and More Amusing Signs

It’s nearly 2½ months since we arrived here & it’s still amazing & amusing to see so many contrasting things as we are out & about. Liz has had a fascination for trying to sight an old man on a donkey, something we used to see quite often when we first came to Corfu several years ago, and so she was very excited when we spotted one on the road from Roda to Sidari. It was several weeks before we spotted him again when we had a camera in the car, & we managed to get a couple of shots for posterity. I imagine when he has gone, the tradition of using a donkey for transport will not pass on to subsequent generations!

And we found the old couple in the mountain village selling home made honey, wine, olives and olive oil. We had bought honey from them years ago when the old guy slapped Liz on the bum, Liz insisted we stopped again to buy some honey & olives, he got quite excited when we asked him to pose for a photo & he managed to keep his hands to himself this time! She is now on the lookout for little old ladies, in traditional Corfiot dress, including headscarf and no teeth, (think she’s looking for a role model for future years?)

Also unique to these parts is the 3 wheeler truck, the engine is a cross between a motorcycle & a sit-on lawnmower. I often think this would be fun to own, to go to gigs in with my entire PA in the back but as it’s a single-seater cab so Liz would have to travel with the baggage as well! Mmnn!!

The wild life is not as obvious as you would first think, no foxes, rabbits or hedgehogs (although rabbit is on sale in all the butchers) & yesterday Helen saw a hedgehog crossing the road near our villa, moving about the same speed as a tourist, all the cars stopped for it (which is more than they do for the tourists). We have bright green tree frogs where we are staying, you hear them bleeping in the night like a car alarm on standby, we actually found one on the wall of our house one night.

We had lunch in Paramonas, on the west coast yesterday after a drive down to the south. This is largely a German resort, where last year, Keith famously ordered a Greek coffee after his meal and stirred it and drained the last drop which was like drinking sand off the beach mixed with tar! Not recommended! This time we managed to spot a very rare creature, not often seen on this Island, emerging from the sea onto a beach full of semi clad tourists. It was a man in a full wet suit. We half expected him to unzip the suit and step out in a full dinner suit 007 style.

One evening we came home to find a bat resting on our doorstep below the shutters, it resisted most attempts to move it, finally clinging onto the sole of a flip flop offered to it as a substitute branch, we left it in the grass next the house after posing for photos with us, & in the morning it was gone. The cig packet does not belong to the bat, we put it there to show you how small the bat is.

We do have an abundance of small lizards (geckos), which seem to be the staple diet of the local cat population, although they do scrounge from the holiday- makers when they can. There is also a stray dog issue in Corfu, wherever you go you see unkempt, scraggy looking mutts, a local rescue organisation exists but the number of dogs on the streets seems to be growing.

We try and wait to eat dinner after sunset (about 9pm) so that wasps do not attack us throughout our meal. We end up constantly wafting them away and looking like a bizarre Morris dancing troupe. But then as soon as the sun sets you have the Mosquitoes to deal with, and the whole ritual of lighting citronella candles and incense burners and spraying yourself all over with mosiguard, so you end up smelling like a cross between an old peoples home and an old donkey!! You have to be very vigilant out here not to leave anything around that could attract ants; they instantly appear for the slightest crumb. You find yourself constantly sweeping the balconies and verandas. (Liz in her black dress again) She is enjoying it so much I think we’ll sell the Dyson & buy her a “Ewbank” sweeper (readers under 30 check Google for a description of what a Ewbank is).

When you are driving around the Island and see this on the roadside it makes you feel a lot safer......

Here are a couple more endearing signs.............

Bye for now x