2025

In the winter holidays last year, everyone at my school went to Bali or Thailand or somewhere sunny, so Jess and I booked a mid year holiday this year so we could be two of the snow birds flying north for some warmth and an extended mid year break.

Come July, the situation is not quite what we anticipated, with me being on a year long leave from work and spending a lot of time driving back and forth from Orange frequently (Mum died at the end of last year and Dad was diagnosed with dementia), but Jess has earned her tropical break and I’m looking forward to some cocktails by the pool and breathing some dense, humid air. Inhaling smoke from Dad’s wood fire in his shed has given me pretty severe asthma, so I’m seeing this trip as a medical necessity. If I’d asked a doctor I’m sure it’s what they would have ordered.

We are staying 8 days at The Sands, Khao Lak, which is an hour north of Phuket.

Jess and I have both been to Thailand before but not this area. For a while I was looking forward to seeing sunsets but the weather looks to be overcast at the least and thunderstorms at the worst but that’s fine, it probably means the resort will be quieter.

Luke got up before 7am to take Jess and I to the station with our meagre luggage – we’ve both opted for carry-on only. No checked baggage! Going to the tropics for a week or two really doesn’t require much stuff.

From Ringwood we took the 7:15 train, then the Sky Bus from the city to the airport.

We were a few minutes early for check in (just the way we like it) then calmly sailed up to the security check point where I had not one, but TWO knives confiscated, since I’d brought a wooden picnic set of cutlery and not looked to see that there was a small metal knife along with a bamboo one in the set. The embarrassment!

We booked our trip through Luxury Escapes which, despite the name, combines a resort deal for 8 nights with the most bare-bones of Jetstar flights. No meals included! I brought a pile of snacks and Jess bought a toasted sandwich on the plane.

We both bought puzzle books in the airport (I *am* in my 50th year, after all) and spent most of the flight happily solving sudoku and arrow words.

Our first flight was pretty much full and we had the window and middle seat, with a tiny old lady wrapped in black clothing sitting on the other side of me. Fortunately she liked to get up pretty frequently so would get up too and have a stretch. The Jetstar plane had a USB port at each seat, so my deep fear of running out of battery on my phone was, once again, proved unnecessary.

Jess and I have a mini book club project on this trip. We each chose a novel and we are going to read chapters concurrently. I chose ‘Mania’ by Lionel Shriver, which we are reading first because I didn’t download Jess’ book ‘Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley. On the plane we read the first couple of chapters of Mania which, as I suspected, has plenty to discuss in it already.

After 8 hours we landed in a Singapore without delay or incident, and found the food court in the delightfully decorated and spacious Changi Airport. With only two hours between flights we didn’t have time to see any of the big gardens or the butterfly house, but what we did see was lovely.

At the gate Jess. noticed these rather anatomically-suggestive chairs and insisted on a photo.

The next flight was two hours and we were surrounded by a large Russian family. The dad’s seat was next to us but there were several empty rows, so before the plane took off he moved several rows away from his wife who was next to us and three kids who were in the row behind us. It was great to have an empty seat, but what an ass.

When the lights dimmed for take off we had our overhead light on so we could do puzzles and one of the kids in the seat behind asked me if we would turn it off so they could sleep. I just can’t imagine a time in my life where I would’ve had the confidence to ask a stranger who is clearly at least 30 years older than me to do me a favour like that! Obviously I said no.

We got into Phuket airport 2 whole minutes early and found the Luxury Escapes people in the pick up bay. There were a lot of people milling around but we ended up with a lovely new minibus to ourselves. the drive to the resort was an hour in the driving rain, but the roads looked pretty new and there was no traffic.

Highlights the first day:

Jess has said about five times that buying the friction erasable pens for the puzzle books was a game-changer (pun intended).

No travel hiccups and no waiting for baggage carousels.

Cheap food in Changi – Jess’ dinner was only $3!

Seeing Jess get excited about travel stuff that I don’t think about, like the condensation thing that happens on some planes – we googled it and it’s to do with the aircon system in the cabin when it starts up.

The novelty of the thick air and smells of the tropics.

Down sides:

Being exhausted and having dry skin and eyes after so long in aircraft.

I don’t know why this picture of our room won’t load properly but it’ll have to do. We are on the ground floor and our room opens onto some grass then the swim-up bar. Fun!

4Jul2023

A Big Belfast Weekend

by Miss Penny Black

For our final weekend in Belfast we did a lot of things! First up was seeing The Prodigy. I’ll be honest, I’m not usually one for going to shows like this where there’s a lot of standing around, queues for everything and apocalyptic toilet situations. However Luke was keen to go and it was a show that would be over by 11pm – a big draw for most over 40s and particularly for me, who is almost 50.

The forecast was for some rain so we (Luke, Peter, Ciara (Peter’s sister), Ash, Danny and I) took brightly coloured ponchos in little plastic balls but I also decided to take my proper raincoat. It’s such a hard decision, whether to take a coat to an event. If it doesn’t rain I’ll have to hold it all night, but if it rains and I get wet through I’ll be miserable and cold. I did wear it all evening through some light showers so I was glad I’d taken it.

I’ve always liked The Prodigy, even though almost all their music is quite angry, punk-electronic shouty kind of stuff that I wouldn’t normally listen to. Prior to the show I thought I’d only recognise two or three songs. I ended up knowing almost all of them and the ones I didn’t know I really liked. We stood fairly far back from the stage but everyone around us was dancing and having a great time.

Adding to the enjoyment of the evening, Danny had booked taxis to take us there and then pick us up outside, so the whole thing was very seamless and smooth. Normally getting home from big events is stressful with the crowds and transport but it was all so easy.

We ended up staying up until the small hours, talking and cuddling Freddie. A brilliant evening all round!

The next day (Saturday) we did absolutely nothing but sit around watching TV and chatting, as one does after a big night out. On Sunday Danny drove Peter, Luke and I to Mount Stewart, a manor house with extensive gardens.

There was a car show out the front with some very cute and stylish old vehicles. Luke and I paid for entry to the house and the ground floor was open.

After learning so much about Irish history on this trip, it’s hard for me to enjoy places like this in an uncomplicated way. Yes, I love the architecture and find things interesting, but the people who entertained their highbrow friends here so they could ‘get away from it all and relax’ in a 22 bedroom, 24,000 acre estate, were doing it while catholic families only miles away were living in squalor because the government, that these people were part of, treated them like second class citizens. Not all that different from Australian history, I guess – almost all the beautiful old buildings in Melbourne were funded by gold that was gained from the destruction of native lands and removal of indigenous people.

Still, I did like the scope of their lounge room. It managed to be enormous and yet cosy and it was interesting to think about the points made in Watching the English, the book I’ve been reading throughout my trip. The author says that at the very top and bottom of the British class ladder, people will have mismatched and old furniture. The poor aspire to matching lounge suites but the rich inherit antiques and don’t want their furniture to match, for fear of looking like new money or middle class. Very few pieces matched in this room so these people must’ve been very rich!

Luke liked these lettuce-shaped dishes where the handles were formed by the curl of the leaves.

The gardens were slightly derelict but had quite a Secret Garden feel. There was a walled rose garden with some lovely specimens.

Beautiful. Also I’m so glad I got a new phone before I left, how lovely is the soft focus!

We had a shower then sun for five minute intervals and on our 30 minute walk I think I took off my jacket then put it back on at least ten times.

I’ll only show you the sunny photos though, to give the impression we had perfect weather.

Cygnets!

The landscapes park had lots of different types of landscapes and copses of different types of trees.

After a drink at a seaside inn we dropped Freddie off home. We then headed to a venue that was usually quiet on a Sunday afternoon so we could try Belfast’s famous LASA spice bag (famous because Lizzo had recently taken to social media to complain about missing out on trying one as they were closed after her show).

However things were not as we had anticipated – a DJ was playing extremely loud music indoors and LASA, one of the food trucks lining the walls, was giving away free servings of their spice bags. Unfortunately whoever was making them had doused them in chilli flakes so we left it unfinished and moved outside.

I wish I could post a video, it was quite deafening for mid afternoon on a Sunday. There were family groups sitting around looking a bit shell shocked.

Apparently it wasn’t their normal fare – as you can see, pretty plain.

Peter got us all some slices of excellent NY-style pizza, which were much more satisfying.

The whole time we were outside there was a man with a dog and the dog was standing either on the table or trying to get to our table to get our food. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a public eating place that allows dogs on tables.

A bright rainbow came out over the rooftops.

We spent the rest of the evening at different bars. Being a Sunday, it wasn’t too busy.

This pub had live music and way too many things that required dusting.

So many flowers decorating the pubs and bars.

‘Baby Guinness’ – Tia Maria with Baileys

But all good things must come to an end, and on Monday morning Danny drove Luke and I to the airport.

Goodbye Belfast!

If one picture encapsulates our meteorological experience it’s this one.

Danny and I made vague plans to do another walking trip, possibly around The Ulster Way, which is in Northern Ireland. That might be something we do next time, who knows?

29Jun2023

One Night In Derry

by Miss Penny Black

Our overnight trip to Derry did not begin well, due to the uniquely confusing setup at Lanyon Place Station. We managed to miss the 10am train and had to wait an hour for the next one. Annoying, but possibly meant we missed the morning rain in Derry.

The trip to Derry is about 2 hours and as we got closer the sun came out and we hit the coastal section of the route. Lovely!

There was even a stretch of beach that looked remarkably like home.

We arrived at Derry station a bit after 2 and the station was a pleasant surprise. Very modern, clean and bright.

The station is on the opposite side of the river to the centre of town so we walked across the Peace Bridge.

We’d booked an Airbnb property but only brought a small backpack each so we were fine to carry our things with us for a few hours.

On a day like this it was a nice way to enter the city, although it was still spitting a bit… but also sunny. So Irish!

There was a nice-looking walkway along the river but we headed into the city.

Not many people around, which is always nice.

We headed into the ground floor of the building below. I was interested in the stained glass. I read later that the windows tell the story of Derry through the centuries.

There was an exhibition on the history of Derry, which I can poorly but fairly accurately summarise as: English people arrive and ruin everything and the fighting goes on forever. Luke and I talked about this a lot, not just what happened but what could’ve been done differently, what might have happened if the English had never come. Ireland is so small that it might’ve been invaded by Spain or Portugal, or how different it would be if it had been left to itself. Is there even such a thing, in history, as a nation being left to itself?

I didn’t realise the English came to completely drive out the locals in the 1600s to set up plantations, much like those in the US and the Caribbean, although I think this happened first.

Next we visited the tourist information centre and picked up a map. They had a lot of Derry Girls merch and some interactive exhibits.

The craft village was recommended to visit, it’s a series of little craft shops that sell very typical Irish stuff, some more modern things and several hairdressers. Not the highlight of our visit but it might appeal to some.

The centre of Derry is surrounded by defensive walls, the mostly recently constructed in the UK and Ireland. They’re in excellent condition and the wall around is about a mile and offers an excellent view of the inside and outside parts of the city.

The wall walk was also surprisingly wide and the surface seemed quite new. There were sets of stairs along the way but it wasn’t a hard walk.

If I had more time I’d have looked for a walk to do in the hills around the city.

This area, Bogside, was where Bloody Sunday occurred. More on that later.

If you don’t immediately recognise these faces you need to watch Derry Girls immediately. Go do it now, I’ll wait.

After all the walking in the sun there was only one thing to do.

We stopped in at Peaddar O’Donnall’s for a drink and to listen to the old men at the end of the bar talk about what a good movie The Mighty Ducks was.

I had to photograph the place below. We didn’t eat there but I enjoyed their scattergun approach to punctuation.

Another photo of Northern Irish library architecture. It looks like a very defensible structure.

Before heading to the Airbnb we walked to the Free Derry area to have a look at the murals.

The old style, then the new below.

Our Airbnb was back over the peace bridge in the newer part of town.

After going through this door we had to let ourselves out the back door into a grim alley then down to a little apartment that was sparse but felt pretty new and was clean.

Plus they left us bread, butter and everything for tea and coffee so we were set. Back to the pub.

There were a bunch of pubs in a row so of course we went back to the same one we were at before. We had an hour to kill before dinner at Mekong, Derry’s top rated restaurant.

An unprepossessing exterior but the food was unreal. We ordered a range of smaller plates to share.

Vermicelli spring rolls, beef laarb balls, spicy sticky chicken wings, pork belly and glass noodle salad

The flavours were amazingly fresh and rich, with each dish having a unique taste but all tasting very Vietnamese. It was really hard to pick a favourite.

Dessert was a mandarin crème brûlée with ginger biscuit, which we used to dip in the brûlée and then crumbled over the top. I had a very sad moment at the end when I realised I’d probably never eat here again. We both agreed it was one of the top five meals we’d had on this trip.

In the morning we started with a morning walk through St Columb’s park. It was a nice big green space with just one creepy statue.

There were Columb-related statues and other things to look at in the park.

After a walk through town we went to the Free Derry Museum. Before entering I knew very little about Bloody Sunday but the museum was extremely informative and had artifacts from the day, footage and recordings.

If you go take a box of tissues, it’s tragic on so many levels and really makes you sympathise with the people of Derry.

On our way to the station we bought some fancy biscuits from this very instagramable shop then forgot to eat them.

We saw some fancy cars on the way.

Back over the Peace Bridge and to the station.

On the way home we got off the train at Castlerock, a little seaside town. We had a slightly underwhelming lunch at a local bar but the staff were very friendly.

Not as friendly as local character Ronnie, who wandered over as we finished eating and told us about basking sharks, how he had dropped his cornflakes on the floor that morning, and swimming in Greece. Having an extremely thick accent meant he was quite hard to understand but we concentrated very hard and seemed to make all the right noises.

We had a nice walk along the beach in the warm, windy weather and stopped to take a few photos before heading back to the station.

The trip back to Belfast was largely uneventful apart from the train running a bit late.

The weekend just gone has been very busy so this has been my most delayed post of the trip! We’ve done a few things over the weekend so I’ll to to finish everything off before leaving London. Only a couple of sleeps until we are home!

27Jun2023

Belfast: Day 5: A Black Cab Tour, Crumlin Gaol and Pizza

by Miss Penny Black

Another trip on the glider into town!

Looking for somewhere different for breakfast, I’d spotted the cafe at the linenhall library.

Very cute!

I had the granola and yes, those are choc chips. The yogurt had coconut in it, delicious!

The weather was doing its best to match the mood of the day.

Not far from the cafe we found our driver, who was named Danny because every family here names their eldest child Daniel.

As you might guess from this photo and his job, he was quite a character. He took us for a drive around the parts of Belfast related to The Troubles.

If you don’t know what The Troubles are you should google them because I’m not going to try to explain decades of religious and political conflict. Also if you haven’t heard of the problems in Northern Ireland and you’re over 30 you’re an eejit.

We went out in a black cab, which is always nice because they’re so roomy. Some things we drove past, others we got out to have a closer look at.

The company is owned by both Protestants and Catholics and so the talk is supposed to be unbiased, although I think it was pretty clear our driver was from one side. He did emphasise his desire for a continuation of the peace process and was very proud of the tour company for bringing both sides together. The mural below is a celebration of a non sectarian organisation and was sponsored by the cab company.

Below is the longest wall left from The Troubles, and still very much needed. Bits of rubble from week-old brick-throwing was in evidence.

I say black taxi, it was more a periwinkle blue.

On the other side of the fence is a catholic estate, the brick rubble explains the wire fencing over their back yards.

Danny showed us old and new style rubber bullets. They’re huge and they have killed many people, despite being used for safety reasons.

Danny gave us about fifty hour’s homework of documentary and book reading if we wanted to learn more.

Basically we learned a lot of shocking things and were feeling pretty sad and hopeless about it all so what should we do next?

Visit a gaol!

Crumlin Road Gaol is now a tourist attraction but was a pretty dire place to be interred for almost the last 150 years.

We did the walking tour, which meant following the arrows and paying attention to the many, many audio and visual presentations.

The Gaol is across the road from the old courthouse and a tunnel under the road used to join them. It was not the creepiest part of the place.

The creepiest part was the room where they hung people. I didn’t take a photo but it was a very plain room with a noose over a hole in the floor.

One of the more interesting facts was learning the origin of ‘screws’ as a nickname for the guards.

Outside were some tanks, jeeps and a helicopter on display.

The whole experience was quite sobering but it was the last of our historical activities for the day.

After the Gaol we headed to the Ulster Museum but first we needed a fortifying meal.

Pizza!

Orto pizza was a recommendation from Danny and Peter, who hadn’t been but heard it was good. The pepperoni pizza had honey on it, which counterbalanced the saltiness of the pizza very nicely.

We also got our own pizza cutters to slice the pizza. It’s a bit gimmicky but I’m sure lots of people enjoy it. Luke prefers a knife and fork when the pizza base is so thin and the toppings drip or slide when picked up.

The restaurant is directly across the road from the museum. Finally I’d get to see the finished GoT tapestry! It had been completed by an English workshop using Irish linen as the show was being aired. The final tapestry was over 80 metres in length.

We walked in and asked a member of staff where to find the tapestry. He told us it was in storage as HBO had borrowed it.

How annoying. I’ll have to wait until next time I guess!

Here’s a little picture I stole off the internet to give you a bit of an idea of the style.

We had as bit of a wander through the museum but we were both tired and decided to head back to the house.

We spent the evening declining food (too much pizza) and watching Drag Race, which was bright and shiny enough to distract us from what we’d learned during the day.

Thanks, Ru Paul!

26Jun2023

Belfast: Day 2: Family, Murals, Muddler’s Club, Hardy Bucks!

by Miss Penny Black

When Danny and I were doing the Camino he would have a quick chat to his mum every day and I would be sure to yell hello from the background as I’d met Danny’s mother, Kathryn, years ago… decades ago, actually! So we all met up for brunch at an art gallery in the middle of the city. Somewhat embarrassingly for the rest of us, Kathy was much more fashionably dressed and had also been out filming interviews for a community project while we’d been dragging ourselves out of bed.

Brunch was lovely and the cafe was quiet despite the city being very busy when we got outside.

While in the gallery we went to look at an exhibition of teapots, which I thought I’d send photos of to Charmaine since we’d been to a tea cosy festival last year.

We did not manage to find the teapots but did spend a surprising amount of time in the lift going up and down looking for them. Oh well!

The exhibitions we did find were a bit sparse.

Much better to be out on the streets where Belfast really shines.

Excellent!

Such fantastic diversity in themes and styles and so huge! Many were commissioned as part of a festival.

Being a Saturday afternoon, all of Belfast’s demographics were out in the cathedral quarter.

We walked through a covered market and I bought some hand-painted cards.

I’m very curious about this cheese.

This one reminded me of Lea, who loved sticky toffee pudding but maybe not enough to try it as a cheese flavour.

Peter always describes people who behave wildly as ‘wee hallions’.

More art.

It’s almost everywhere you look and really contributes to the vibrant character of the city.

We popped into The Sunflower for a drink. It has one of the last remaining entry cages from The Troubles.

Nowadays they do pizzas and music and it’s very relaxed.

Yet more art, this one is one of my favourites.

Before going back home, a visit to a fancy cheese shop.

I didn’t mention Freddie yesterday, he is Peter and Danny’s dog and a cockapoo. He is very cuddly and spends almost all his time doing this.

It makes me miss Bonnie even more!

We had a very fancy dinner booked at restaurant called The Muddler’s Club so we got changed then headed back into the city. I had been feeling the hay fever again so I took some tablets, not thinking that one of them acted like a sedative and I was drowsy all evening.

Despite my sleepiness the food was amazing; two entrees, two mains and two desserts with bread and a plate of tiny appetisers.

We had matched wines and they were really well matched, especially the entree that was a scallop with iberico ham in a butter and pea sauce. I think of all the courses, that’s the one I won’t forget.

After dinner we went for a drink in this fancy building.

The drinks were absolutely delicious but they were at the top of the scale, price-wise too. Worth it for the very luxurious atmosphere and they did come with some snacks.

Slightly worried about the end of public transport time, we caught the glider (a bus/tram hybrid) back to Ballyhackamore and had a last couple of drinks at a very buzzing brewery (Bullhouse East) that we had visited the night before.

On returning home we watched a few episodes of a very Trailer Park Boys style show called Hardy Bucks, a show about some complete drop kicks, set in small town Ireland. As you could probably predict, Luke and I understood about one word in ten and none of the Irish in-jokes but found it amusing anyhow.