Bath

The Roman baths were twenty pounds but the showers were free & frequent!
Bath was wet, cold & the hotel was appalling. The staff were friendly but completely inefficient! the hotel was expensive & rambling, we kept returning lost guests to their correct floor. The room was hot, but the heating was not on, so we had to have the window open and we were kept awake by the most raucous sea gulls I have ever encountered .
The good bits were the Roman Baths, the architecture & a great meal in a Turkish restaurant. hmm... Roman Baths , Turkish Restaurants

Dorchester-on Thames

This village is just south of Oxford. It is pretty without being twee. Chris made us walk for miles in dangerous territory. Cousin Brian wasn't the only one wondering if Oxford hospital is OK!

Some photographs

These relate to the previous post, so..the family gathering...

In England Now...

Not quite so easy to put in photos etc just yet. We are staying in London, spending lots of time with Melissa & Tim, had a lovely evening with Patrick & Annabel on Friday.
Yesterday we arrived in Dorchester-on-Thames, a village just south of Oxford. The rivers Thame & Thames meet here. Cousin Chris organised a big family reunion of Litrizza and Murphy clans. Great to catch up with cousins, many of whom I had not seen for decades, as well as those who come to Australia.
We had a good lunch, Mass for a few at 6.30. Those who remained for the night went to a pub for dinner 4 miles away. The clever ones went in a car, the rest followed Chris' firm encouragement to walk down along by the river, through several fields full of a variety of animal life:-bulls who wanted to follow us to the pub, picnickers who had moored their boats at the banks, skinny dippers (we think we might have interrupted some other activity), and other happy campers. Of course we had to walk back, this time along the road as it was dark.Nearly got swiped off the road by a few mad drivers, but survived! Photos later.

Last Day in USA

Just had for lunch, Bush's Baked beans. "98% Fat free, high in fiber". Clearly no relation to another more well known Bush!
There has been a lot of media attention here to the availability of the Human Papilloma virus vaccine. No mention anywhere, that it is the work of an Australian.
Ian Frazer is currently Australian of the Year.

Around & about

Today I went for a paddle in a kayak for the first time ever. Up the Hudson river. I enjoyed it despite paddling against a stiff breeze. (Clare I will say 'yes' next time you ask!)
Later I walked the 188 steps to the top of the Monument & took some photos. sorry about the flyscreen effect

Have a nice Day!

We did have a very nice day yesterday (Tuesday). We left the house at 6.45 am. John took us to the Amtrak station at Albany (the state capital of New York). We caught the 8.10 to New York, a beautiful journey that travels for the most part alongside the Hudson River.Peaceful stretches of water, with the occasional beach or boat ramp. and some amazing buildings in the most unlikey places. Arriving at Penn station, we bought a $7 Metro ticket which lets you on most subways & buses, at least on Manhattan. We went for a FREE ride to Staten Island & back. On the return journey, Michael commented to a fellow passenger about his camera. Turns out that Scott & Michael are both members of the same Olympus newsgroup!
Then we headed off to the Guggenheim museum.
when we came out of that , that stretch of 5th Avenue that houses many museums had been closed off for a 'museum mile fair'. After popping into Central Park, we wandered past stalls of artwork (no, the Guggenheim was not selling off it's overstock of Kandinskys cheap)some good, some appalling, & finally caught a bus to Times Square. Having visited most of the expensive, over heated (it had been a warm day) & disappointing camera shops on Times Square, we attempted to get to the Observation deck on the Empire State building. Long queues made us turn back at the last minute . 30 years ago , I left it until my last day in NY to head for the top, but it was shrouded in cloud that time. Maybe the next shot will be the lucky one!

Visit to Massachussetts

We drove into Massachusetts on Thursday. The weather was cool, wet & getting wetter. Michael was disappointed in the Springfield Armory Museum. He would have preferred fewer guns & more on the machines that manufactured them. No, the Simpsons were not to be found either.
We then headed to Lowell to visit The American Textile Museum. A great museum, wonderful displays, if somewhat formal and inaccessible.
then we drove to Waltham , had a great meal a good sleep & up at a civilised hour to get to the Charles River Museum.A bit haphazard, almost as if waiting to be sorted out, but far more informative and accessible than the others. Steam engines were overlooked by clocks & watches!
American museums appear to receive little public funding , and so rely on endowments form private donors and the work of (mostly) volunteers. Michael had wanted to visit all these industrial museums as they represent the technology that made this such a great nation in the previous 3 centuries. As an educator, I see the value of museums as important parts of a cultural heritage and community knowledge, but unfortunately amricans will miss out on this knowledge. Like Australia, the US is suffering a skills shortage, and like Australia, governments have failed to invest in education.

around and about

A few images:
A squirrel near the museum at the Charles river in Waltham on the outskirts of Boston.
A snapping turtle pays us a visit in Monument Drive. Princess the cat is none too sure about it. I might add that the rest of the household agree with her!
I hire a red Dodge for Michael to drive!
Some museums disappoint, others delight, more on that later.

Home thoughts

After posting the birdsong link, some local people asked for one on australian birds. So here it is!
And here is a photo of a tree I can see from my back door in Leichhardt. I love this tree! Also a spider that was outside my back door (I hope it has now gone, Julie?)

Interesting headstones

This nation is even more determined than our own to deny the possibility of death. The culture of fear goes beyond phrases like "War on Terror". The denying of death is everywhere. In fact the most powerful messages are around health. Americans are constantly being told to avoid cancer, heart attack, stroke, wrinkles, acne, & germs of all kinds. It is a national obsession.And no wonder many are so willing to feel this fear.
So I find it fascinating that during the 18th Century, they created these beautiful carvings on headstones. The winged face of the deceased represents the carrying of the soul to heaven.

Early morning calls

I mentioned earlier that the birds wake us at 5 am , well now it is 4.50. You can hear some of them at this website!

A Trip into Vermont

We went to Windsor to visit the American Precision Museum
yesterday. Michael was very happy as you can imagine! Fortunately he has just found out that they have volunteers who 'adopt' a machine to repair & restore them. I suspect he would enjoy such a project as this!

We also discovered that there was an exhibition of the work of Maxfield Parrish, a well known artist. We used to sell a number of his prints as greeting cards at the shop , so it was great to see some original prints & paintings.