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Loved it! Toulon opened her arms to us and we strolled through wide and welcoming streets, browsing the market on Cours Lafayette.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Monday, 2 November 2009
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Civitavecchia, Italy
It was easy to pick out the British tourists as you strolled through the town - everyone else was wrapped up in several layers topped with puffa jackets despite what to us Brits seemed pleasantly warm sunshine.
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Marina di Carrara
Marina di Carrara nestles on the Tyrrenian coast, protected from the cold north winds by the Apuan Alps - origin of the flawless white marble used since the time of ancient Rome, with the Pantheon and Trajan's Column being constructed using it, besides famous sculptures such as Michelangelo's David, and London's Marble Arch
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Mediterranean Treasures Cruise
Follow the arrow (and the tourist trap pulled by a very skinny horse) and that's the Thomson Destiny, home for the next 8 days.
If you want to browse a web page with the full story, email or leave a comment using the comment facility below.
Friday, 4 September 2009
Weekend in Cornwall: The Eden Project
A friend who hadn't taken a holiday in 30 
years invited me to join him on a trip to Cornwall to visit the Eden Project. We made an early start, I picked him up at the station and drove us down making really good time - we arrived just after noon having stopped for coffee on the way. Lunch at the project was tasty: baked potato and hot bean salsa - I can recommend it! Fortified, we explored the biodomes. It has been a while since I went and for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that visiting it at this time of year, the thing I had most enjoyed about my previous visit (seeing citrus fruit ripening on the trees) would be out of season.
I do find this sculpture impressive. The story of how the piece of rock was carefully chosen and specially quarried, etc, is interesting, too.
We went and booked in at the Travelodge then walked down to the local harbour where I snapped this attractive sailing boat (schooner?). Having stretched our legs, we returned to the Travelodge for a very tasty meal of ham, egg and chips, then drove back to the Eden Project for the Arts Cafe evening event.
It was a beautiful evening weather-wise, and the site looks pretty lit up at night. I'd been looking forward very much to the evening of live music but sadly it proved a disappointment. There was different music playing in each of three venues around the site, but it was so painfully loud that it was far too uncomfortable to sit near the source to listen and watch. The staff had been issued with ear defenders. I'd guess from the fact that there was a large clear area around the speakers at each of the venues that other guests also found the music to be too loud. People were clustering at the outskirts, but the problem then was that the different style of music from the neighbouring venue intruded.
We cut our visit short and went back to the blissfully quiet Travelodge.
years invited me to join him on a trip to Cornwall to visit the Eden Project. We made an early start, I picked him up at the station and drove us down making really good time - we arrived just after noon having stopped for coffee on the way. Lunch at the project was tasty: baked potato and hot bean salsa - I can recommend it! Fortified, we explored the biodomes. It has been a while since I went and for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that visiting it at this time of year, the thing I had most enjoyed about my previous visit (seeing citrus fruit ripening on the trees) would be out of season. 
I do find this sculpture impressive. The story of how the piece of rock was carefully chosen and specially quarried, etc, is interesting, too.
We went and booked in at the Travelodge then walked down to the local harbour where I snapped this attractive sailing boat (schooner?). Having stretched our legs, we returned to the Travelodge for a very tasty meal of ham, egg and chips, then drove back to the Eden Project for the Arts Cafe evening event.
It was a beautiful evening weather-wise, and the site looks pretty lit up at night. I'd been looking forward very much to the evening of live music but sadly it proved a disappointment. There was different music playing in each of three venues around the site, but it was so painfully loud that it was far too uncomfortable to sit near the source to listen and watch. The staff had been issued with ear defenders. I'd guess from the fact that there was a large clear area around the speakers at each of the venues that other guests also found the music to be too loud. People were clustering at the outskirts, but the problem then was that the different style of music from the neighbouring venue intruded.
We cut our visit short and went back to the blissfully quiet Travelodge.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Bramble and Apple Jelly
The allotment has produced a glorious abundance of blackberries and cooking apples this season. Following my successful adventure in jam making earlier in the year, a friend described how his mother used to strain the cooked fruit to create seedless jam/jelly. Naturally this inspired me to want to have a go. Studiously I searched my recipe books and the internet and decided I needed to buy a jelly-straining bag. There is a comprehensive cookshop in town and I was able to buy a ‘jam muslin’. I thought I was all set to go and began stewing the fruit, then opened the jam muslin only to discover it wasn’t a neat funnel-shaped bag as anticipated, simply a highly expensive square of plain white muslin. I couldn't immediately work out how to use it!
I got out the sewing machine and began to set it up, but managed to get a piece of cotton jammed in the mechanism. Sewing isn’t one of my special talents, and I hadn’t managed to fix the sewing machine by the time I needed to leave to attend a meeting.
Someone at the meeting was able to describe how she used her jam muslin to line a large sieve and suspend it over the bowl that way, so when I came home, that is what I did, and left it over night. Next day I completed the process, sterilising the jars, boiling the strained juice with jam sugar, and bottling it once it had reached setting point. Happily the blackberry and apple jelly was a total success.
I got out the sewing machine and began to set it up, but managed to get a piece of cotton jammed in the mechanism. Sewing isn’t one of my special talents, and I hadn’t managed to fix the sewing machine by the time I needed to leave to attend a meeting.
Someone at the meeting was able to describe how she used her jam muslin to line a large sieve and suspend it over the bowl that way, so when I came home, that is what I did, and left it over night. Next day I completed the process, sterilising the jars, boiling the strained juice with jam sugar, and bottling it once it had reached setting point. Happily the blackberry and apple jelly was a total success.
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