Mark & Sarah - 06/11/98 11:12:59
My URL:http://www.connemara.net/photography/landscape/clifden2.jpg
Comments:
Wednesday, 10-Jun-98, Clifden: The weather was drier and brighter but much windier, so we walked Sky Road. At the very end of it we were almost blown off the edge, which would have been something given how we were on the very edge of Europe at that.
Mark & Sarah - 06/11/98 11:09:07
My URL:http://www.connemara.net/vf.fire$/photography/landscape/castle.jpg
Comments:
9-Jun-98, Clifden: The weather was completely random today, but skewed towards very wet rain. So we did a walk along the beach road to Clifden Castle (a folly built 200 years ago) and then went back to our room to read our books. Sarah finished off "Pride
and Prejudice" and I am continuing the Bernard Cornwall series on Arthur.
Mark & Sarah - 06/11/98 11:06:02
My URL:http://www.connemara.net/vf.fire$/photography/landscape/clifden.jpg
Comments:
Monday 8-June-98, Clifden: We managed to fix Sarah's camera with some sticky tape, then bought me some decent walking boots. Then we hopped on the bus to Clifden. The early part of the road from Galway to Clifden seems to have been somewhat developed sinc
I was last here, but the latter part of the road was just as spectacular. We arrived in Clifden at about 8pm, but with the sun going down so late, we were able to go for a bit of walk along Sky Road. Stayed in the Kingstown B&B.
Mark & Sarah - 06/08/98 10:53:55
My URL:http://tecfa.unige.ch/etu/E72b/96/Maillard/Irlande4.htm
Comments:
Sunday and Monday 6-7-Jun-98
Galway. Did a day bus tour of various things in the neighbouring county of Clare. It was a beautiful day, and the highlight was the cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are covered in seabirds with weird names like "Puffin" and "Fulmar". It reminds me of the early
chapters of "Moonlite". Had dinner at the Cafe De Journal, which was hopeless. I complained that the pizza had tomato paste instead of chilli paste and the orange juice was not freshly squeezed as promised and they gave us #10 of food for free. The joy wa
unforunately shortlived as on the way out I dropped Sarah's camera, which is now disabled like mine, so we are now cameraless. Lucky is pouring rain so we can't go outside anyway! Right now we are stuck inside waiting for a bus to Clifden.
Mark & Sarah - 06/08/98 10:45:42
My URL:http://www.archeire.com/archdublin/20thc/airport.html
Comments:
Tidied up Liz's flat and flew from Heathrow to Dublin. Too cloudy to see out the window though. Landed in Dublin airport, caught the bus into Dublin, the caught the train straight to Galway. Dublin Airport is cool. The main building looks like a ship's br
dge.
Mark & Sarah - 06/08/98 10:42:10
My URL:http://www.adnama.force9.co.uk/gllery_1.htm
Comments:
Friday, 5-Jun-98
Went to Kew gardens, which I found more interesting than Sarah. I particularly liked the "Order Beds", which had heaps of related families and orders of plants all next to each other, order by order. Made a brief visit to the National Portrait Gallery, wh
ch was fairly dull. We had already seen the really good portraits elsewhere.
Mark & Sarah - 06/07/98 17:13:18
Comments:
Thursday, 4-Jun-98
Did a slightly boring Dickens tour of Islington. After that we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was fascinating. We feel we need to go back there. We spent half an hour in the wrought iron section alone! Caught up with Craig again but did not
meet Hanna.
Mark & Sarah - 06/07/98 17:10:24
My URL:http://www.shakespeare.uiuc.edu/mapping/index.html
Comments:
Wednesday, 3-June-98
London. Bought a new pair of jeans each and then went and saw Merchant of Venice at the new Globe theatre. We had "Groundling" tickets and it was fantastic, but missed out on the very first bit cos we had to rush there. I had forgotten that MoV had a happ
ending! It was so good we plan to see "As you Like It" as well.
Mark & Sarah - 06/07/98 17:05:37
Comments:
Tuesday 2-May-98
London - i1st night in Liz's flat, which is near Little Venice and has high ceilings, big bay window and a faulty plumbing.
Met up with Craig Calvert, but did not meet his new girlfriend Hanna.
Mark & Sarah - 06/07/98 17:00:15
My URL:http://www.visitbritain.com/introducing/brighton.htm
Comments:
Visited the crazy Brighton pavillion, the lanes (which are just like a big King street). Caught a late train back to London - uncomfortable seats.
Mark & Sarah - 06/07/98 16:55:29
Comments:
Sunday, 31-May-98
Brighton again. Had a very long lunch at Becca's, who is very nice, considering she is on prozac ;).
Mark - 06/07/98 16:53:57
Comments:
Sunday 30-May-98
Visited Portsmouth, seeing Nelson's ship the Victory, and other nautical miscellanea. What was amazing was that Nelson's crew were 2/3 pressganged and ex-crims, fed weevilly bread and maggotty meat BUT were allocated a ration of 12 pints of beer daily, to
acco and coffee. That gives me some ideas on management ...
Stayed at Jo and John's in Brighton. They have a mad cat who bites you and we saw John play heaps of Beatles at his gig in a small restaurant.
carole lewis - 06/01/98 00:43:30
My Email:carole.lewis@deetya.gov.au
Comments:
Sarah and Mark
Sounds as if you are both enjoying the trip - Ireland next? Griff and I became grandparents on 26 May - born at Katoomba Hospital, a boy (as predicted!), 7lb 12oz called Sam and he's gorgeous !! Life in VET Branch is REALLY FUN and we miss you Sarah ! bu
ENJOY, ENJOY!
Andrew Studer - 06/01/98 00:05:04
My Email:ajs@ansto.gov.au
Comments:
Dear Mark,
Enjoying your diary, hope you're enjoying your
trip (sounds like it). Apropos your Birmingham
commentary, I think I read in the Guardian Weekly
that one of the advertising posters in buses for
the G8 conference read: "take out your dentures,
Edna. Bill Clinton's in town".
Mark - 05/30/98 18:48:07
My URL:http://www.bath.ac.uk/Admin/Estates/magazine/images/more/assemble.htm
Comments:
Friday 29th May:
After lunch we went to the Costume Museum and Assembly Rooms. The Assembly Rooms were the setting for scenes in "Northanger Abbey" etc. We were disappointed because they were closed due to a private function. But we lucked out because we walked past them
t late after our "Bizarre Bath" walking tour, and saw a lot of BBC vans outside. A couple of people were going in, so we just followed them as if we knew them past the security guards into the main ballroom (see URL above). It turned out they were filming
a special on the Bath Festival, and the people we had followed in were somehow related to the performers. We just followed them in and sat down, but the table we ended up on was right at the front. We were drinking the compere's water! The special itself
ould have been fairly dull to watch - one of those things watched by English older people who stay at home on Friday nights. But it was fun seeing how it was done and imagining how cool it would be if we could get a copy on video as a souvenir. It was a
ig day.
Mark - 05/29/98 11:53:21
My URL:http://www.bath.ac.uk/Admin/Estates/magazine/images/more/hot.htm
Comments:
Friday 29th May:
Today we went to the Roman baths, and we are just about to go to the Costume Gallery and check out the inside of one of the houses on the Royal Crescent. Right now we are in Bath Library, reading up on Roman Britain. The plumbing that the romans left stil
works!
Mark - 05/29/98 11:52:30
My URL:http://www.bath.ac.uk/Admin/Estates/magazine/images/more/cres.htm
Comments:
Bus to Bath. Again, we regretted paying extra for the train, as it took us virtully all day to get to Bath. Sarah had a headache when we got here, so I had a bit of a wander around. The Georgian architecture is brilliant, and I spent a while taking candi
photos of people sprawling on the elegant lawn in front of the Royal Crescent
Mark - 05/29/98 11:47:10
Comments:
Wednesday, 27th May:
Caught the Tube into London and visited the British Museum and the National Gallery. Luckily they are free, so we can go back later. Today we concentrated on the Egyptian and Assyrian stuff. I like the Assyrian stuff - its about Law and War, whereas the E
yptian is all about a morbid religion. If only they had buried things apart from when they were burying dead people.
In the National Gallery we concentrated on the early Italian paintings up to Botticelli. The new gallery they are in is fantastic - the deep blues and the gold leaf almost jump off the wall at you. Then we met up with Liz, Will and Louise, and we saw "Lo
es' Fire", an American production of 7 short plays "inspired" by Shakespeare's sonnets. They were pretty good.
Mark - 05/29/98 11:36:13
Comments:
Tuesday, 26th May:
Travelled from Birmingham back to London. Wish we'd taken the train, as it was a long trip along boring motorways.
Mark - 05/29/98 11:30:51
Comments:
Monday, 25th May:
Went to Ketton to drop off Polly's horse Ted to its new home near Louise and Daren's hotel in Rutland. We visited the hotel briefly, but there doesn't seem much chance we'll make it back there.
Mark - 05/29/98 11:28:50
Comments:
Sunday, 24th May:
Hung around Sally's place with Louise and Daren (not my spelling!) opening their presents, making innumerable cups of tea for the relatives. Went down to Bewdley for some excellent fish and chips.
Mark - 05/29/98 11:26:24
Comments:
Saturday, 23rd May:
Having stayed the night in Sally's house, which is just outside the main Bewdley village, we went down and had a look at the village. It has a very elegant bridge over the Severn, and was filled with shoppers. Very pleasant.
Then we went to the wedding on the bus with the Baile family. It was in a lovely old church, with stone columns on one side and wood on the other. Rudyard Kipling is buried there. Apart from Will (who was doing the reading) being v late, and the organist,
the wedding went without a hitch, despite the swarm of bridesmaids (7 in all). The reception was nice too. We sat with John, Jo, Will, Louise and Liz. Some of them were on their best behaviour...
Mark - 05/29/98 11:20:12
Comments:
Friday 22nd May:
We saw a bit more of Birmingham today, including the Jewellry Quarter. We decided against going to Cadbury world as it didn't have factory tours.
We went down to the George in Bewdley, which is something like 300 years old to meet up with all the other wedding guests. It has very comfortable chairs, and I fell asleep in front of all the relatives after only one beer. Apparently I had my mouth open
oo.
Mark - 05/22/98 09:49:19
Comments:
test
Mark - 05/22/98 09:47:31
Comments:
Well I'm taking over my own visitor's book while I'm overseas as a travel diary.
Wednesday: flew out of Sydney via Singapore. Read a fat book about King Arthur etc by Bernard Cromwell and started "The Player of Games" by Ian M Banks. Most of the trip the view was blocked by clouds, but the Australian desert was clear. Its a mix long d
nes, rocky parts, flat wide watercourses & salt plains. We really must spend some time there.
Thursday: Arrive in London, at 5:30am. Its very grey, but some blue sky is showing. We get on a bus for Digbeth almost immediately. I'm reassured that my phone connects to the Vodafone network, but the cells don't have user friendly names, so don't tell m
where I am. Ken picks us up from Digbeth, and takes us to his house, which is gracious and large, with a huge garden with vegetables, camelias, pond, climbing roses and azaleas. They live next door to the drummer from UB40, who also has a large house, bu
otrherwise they are surrounded by huge 1960s blocks of units and other public housing. They take us on a tour of Birmingham, including the coffee shop just visited by Bill & Hillary (Birmingham just hosted the G8 meeting, so is puffed up by civic pride.
n the afternoon I go out with Ken to a local school where I help him supervise some primary school kids learning soccer. They live in the huge blocks of flats. After ridding the inner city community of prostitution, Ken and his friends in the local Asian
ommunity are now planning to increase the level of activities available to kids. I am hopeless at it though - I don't learn their names and they just run around kicking the ball into the stinging nettles.
