The trip

It started well. Indra drove through a five o'clock thunder storm in peak hour traffic to deposit us at the KL Central railway station and we jumped on the express train to the airport with one minute to spare. Negotiating KLIA2, the domestic terminal was a new and confusing experience but we did find counter Z with a Jetstar sign. But no staff. This was three hours before take off when you are supposed to arrive. We have found that the staff doesn't arrive until 2 hours before take off. 
They did come and the connecting plane departed only fifteen minutes late which was going to make our connection in Singapore a bit tight. Jo hoped that we wouldn't have to change terminals.
When we arrived with half an hour to find our connection, I left my sweater on the plane and didn't realize it until we were well out of it. It is my hand spun, hand dyed, hand knitted, self designed guernsey. I could not leave that behind. So I fought my way through the still deplaning passengers, grabbed it and ran to find Jo at the information board which told us that our connecting flight had been "retimed". It wasn't due to leave until 0350, in four hours time. . . . 
We, eventually, were told that it had been held up in the repair shop in Melbourne. . . . doesn't Qantas have extra planes?
As usual the food was inadequate, the service was minimal and barely pleasant. So our dislike of travelling on Qantas has been reinforced.

We got home too late for me to pick up Sonic as I had organised. He had to spend an extra night with his French mistress. But I picked him up today. He has more baggage than I do.

Sonic's luggage

Battery dead

This is the view from Indra's office. The windows are not (too) dirty and there wasn't a heat haze. The buildings are built crooked.
The last photo was of the pair of foot rugs that I made to fit Indra's feet that go cold and cramp when she sits still for too long.

We had a great meal at the Grand Imperial restaurant. One of our dishes was ice leaf salad with miso dressing. The leaves come from the Netherlands and are have a very short season. Eating was just like crunching crushed ice and they left no aftertaste. Delicious. Even Pat had three helpings! (Jo didn't even try them because they were uncooked.)

This morning Indra and I walked in the park with her walking group. Twice around the lake makes almost 6K. The most exercise I have done in weeks.

This afternoon we head home.

Running out of battery

I neglected to charge my camera in Cape Town where I had borrowed a transformer plug from the hotel. So these may be my last photos until I get home because I didn't bring my Malaysian plug with me. Life in the electronics age is so complicated.

I spent today editing Indra's father's memoir which is fascinating. She would like to publish it as a web page but my capability only extends to a blog page. . . . which is perhaps a good start for the next helper who comes her way. 

Pat and I went to the Lake Club for lunch again while Indra and Jo were at IMU today. Then we all had a scales/fins only banquet with Abu Bakar et al which was delicious.

What happened to yesterday

It is confusing to fly eastwards. Time gets compressed so that your day is foreshortened but you seem to be able to fit in a day's worth of meals. 

We arrived safely in KL.The most exciting thing that happened was watching one of my knitting needles slip off my lap and down the aisle at take off. Singapore Airline hostesses are sweet.

Good Hope

We joined a bus tour to the Cape of Good Hope today. The scenery was great, the passengers undisciplined and the guide didn't know his business. I don't like being herded.

But the scenery is impressive.

Thee lighthouse on the Cape of Good Hope.

Amazing Kirstenbosch Gardens

Don't eat the daisies

This morning we rode the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. Jim, don't do it. It is seriously scary.

Notice the abseilers who pay to risk their life!

The views at the top are wonderful, if you can stay far enough away from the edge to appreciate them. The flowers are fascinatingly different.

Basking on the rocks near the cable car station was a scattering of dassies and a sign that said "don't feed the dassies, they might bite".

In the afternoon I went in search of something to knit with on the way home. . . . I didn't pack enough. After some internet research I set off in the bus. But I must have read the google map wrong, 'cause I couldn't find the street let alone the "shop" which may have been in a house which is a bit wary-making. There was a fall back position so another bus took me back to the V & A waterfront to Cowgirlblues yarn designers. T seemed appropriate to buy some merino from South Africa.

All the bus tripping was a good opportunity for people watching while seated. Some schoolgirls got on the bus wearing virtually the same uniform that we suffered except it was a nicer green with more ultramarine in the dye, but still green.

Tonight was the official dinner. It was poorly organised and exceedingly loud. We came away before desert.

Stuffed

I set off for a fabric shop today. None of their buyers is red headed. The locals seem to prefer slinky fabrics. The shop had three floors of cloth and the messiest collection of haberdashery. Nothing tempted me whereas I could easily have bought a length in most of the tiny shops we visited in Port Louis, Mauritius. There the fabrics are displayed unrolled which is much more appealing.

Then I went to the Museum with about a hundred squeezing kids. I had not realised how big hyenas are. You never see film of a person standing beside a hyena. They are almost as tall as a lion. 

Stuffed but cute

Then I went to the Malay part of town which has painted itself a riot of colour. (I suspect that the paint is donated to attract tourists.)

We dined with a group from ANU.

Cape Town

We arrived yesterday afternoon and got settled into our hotel, registered for the conference and attended the opening ceremony complete with a government minister. All necessary but forgettable. I, at least, got a sock knitted on the plane.

Today Jo went off to his sessions and went to find the SA Art Gallery having first confirmed that it is in a safe part of town. It is. There are "security" folk on most blocks and scads of happy looking tourists enjoying the warmth and sunshine. The locals would enjoy a good rainfall. They haven't had their winter rain this year and the drought is now 3 years old. The grass is still greener than Sydney's. 

The Gallery is beside the Company Gardens which are lush European with grey squirrels and local geese with goslings. I thought to sketch the park but every bench was occupied. Eventually I found one with a view of what started out as the tool shed of the gardens but later was converted into some  official's residence. (So said a passing tour guide.) 

Lesson learned: White buildings behind white fences are too hard for me. Passers-by, including school girls, were sympathetic.

The Art Gallery had some fabulous fabric.

This is raffia cloth made for a King

This afternoon I visited the Victoria and Albert port area. It is like Birkenhead + Darling Harbour + the Rocks on steroids. The yachts that are racing around the world are resting there for a few days. The advertising said they "are people just like you" . . . . not an iota like me. 

It must have been a fascinating area before it was gentrified.

Old friends, Oct 28

We spent the day with erstwhile colleagues of Jo. 

The first, who drove us over the mountain to Port Loiuis is still on the ball and teaches on line courses to UNstaff. 

On top

The old fish market was degrees cooler than outside.

Which one is the vegetarian?

The second lost the plot on an ashram and believes he can diagnose on sight and cure with his magic hands.

The third is sorting out a beastly spouse who made hay while she solved problems in third world countries

This is a small island. It is smaller than Sydney with 1.3 million people so the pot to pick out leaders is small too. And tight so that relationships tend to get tricky.

Prone in Blue Bay, Oct 27

Jo had carefully organised a colleague for today but she couldn't make it. So we had an unplanned day off. We missed the morning snorkel boat and the afternoon boat was fully booked. Which meant that we spent the whole day lying on banana lounges under a palm tree, in a soft breeze, with the sound of the waves breaking over the reef  500 m from shore. . . all day long. We both read a book and I finished a sock but was too slothful to take a photo of the heavenly sea.

This resort was suddenly depopulated today. A bus load or two of French folk have gone home, perhaps. We anticipated a quiet dinner (breakfast and dinner buffets are included) but another bus load of Chinese locals arrived and a large group of drummers/singers are having a picnique just over the fence in the public park.

We are expecting three separate colleagues to visit tomorrow.

PS : thanks to hours of jet lagged awakeness, I finished listening to "The Vicar of Wrexhill" by Frances Trollope. The ending rewards hours of turgid prosetilizing by vanquishing a thoroughly nasty villan.  

Weather vagaries, Oct 26

It has rained, been cloudy, in full fun. . . a dozen times today. I asked what the weather was likely to be and got a shrug and "whatever". And Melbourne thinks that they have dibs on the most variable weather! At least here it is uniformly warm.

We snorkeled the"marine reserve" adjacent to our resort. Unfortunately the powers that be did not declare it a reserve until after the tourist boats, local fish hunters, etc had damaged the coral. It was rather like snorkelling over a cemetery. But I did see a very big schnapper at a cleaning station. . . at least an arm's length.

Our resort is full of enthusiastic French speaking guests and staff. The staff talk incomprehensible patois to each other. They organise lots of activities for the adults and children with background music so that even if only lying on a banana lounge you are part of the action.

Jo's toes are pseudo goutish and he fears he might be getting a cold. He hopes that the aspirin for the former will nip the later in the bud.

Breakfast with Penny

I will jot down the family news before I get on a plane and it is all left behind.

Penny has 5 grandkids. Josephine has two daughters, 15 and 13, Jasmine and Indy. Both are brilliant. The older is already looking at which uni to attend as she has skipped ahead two years at school. William has a son (?Cameron), 11, and two daughters, aged 9 and 7. The nine year old has a horse. They moved to his wife's parents small town further south because the mother-in-law developed a serious muscle wasting disease 4 years ago. They will be there another year and then move back to Perth. William works in Perth 3 days a week then goes home to his family.

Josephine will build a granny flat in her backyard that Penny can move into, eventually.

Doug had 4 kids and has 8 grandchildren, including 1 boy(I think). His eldest hasn't had any kids.

Mary's Tom has two daughters, 5 and 3. They have just moved to be closer to Mary. Jonathon's operation was a success. The lesions in his liver and gut are nothing to worry about (at 84!)

I tried not to show my ignorance.

Guild visit

Ann Miller took me to the WA HWS Guild today as this is their weavers get together morning. The tapestry weavers were all busy elsewhere (cataract op, grandchild being born, overseas, sick. . . All had good excuses). They are working on four panels on their very wide, high tapestry loom. It is a lovely design.

We sat around and chatted to the 5 other weavers . . . very pleasant. One of them got one of my tea towels in our anniversary exchange and another didn't quite got hers finished so was glad to learn that we are doing it again.

Ann is not confident driving in downtown Perth (she lives in Fremantle), so she dropped me on the other side of Government House and the gardens were open for me to walk through. The smelliest rose was the President Lincoln. . . . smelled just like rose water. The roses are fabulous in every front yard. 

Ever heard of a naked burger? I hadn't until dinner tonight.

Free in Fremantle

There is a long term advantage in being overlooked . . . if you are a small town. Fremantle has retained its boom time (late 1800s) buildings which have now been lovingly restored by young trendies. 

The statue in the foreshore park that was put up to celebrate some local explorers who heroically died while tangling with the "natives" has a recently added plaque that says, in effect, "don't forget the people that they killed." All very PC. 

The Norfolk Island pines are very tall and healthy.

We visited the Maritime Museum (didn't see cousin Doug's name anywhere). It has a special exhibition of the last day of Pompei which was good. Otherwise it rather reminded me of the Broome museum. . . . crammed full. I had not realised that Fremantle was a submarine base in WWII. it is hard to remember that Perth is closer to SE Asia than the east coast. 

Here you are reminded of that by the number of Malaysian restaurants, not to mention that the majority of tourists from that region. 

Free in Perth

The best laid plans are not immune from senior moments. Cousin Penny thought that wer were coming next Sunday. The only time she has to slot us into her busy life is on Wednesday for breakfast before we catch the plane to Mauritius.

So, with a free day, we explored the Perth Cultural precinct. The museum is closed. It will open with a huge glass annex stuck onto the grand old brick edifice in 2020. The Art Gallery has already been "done". It used to be the Police Court 

and now has a pentagonal annex with all the bells and whistles. I am delighted that there are heaps of women artists on the walls.

Across the plaza is the state library which featured a show about Hairy McClary's nemesis

Scarface Claw.

Tonight we plan to go to Miss Maud's for a smorgasbord. Haven't had an excess of herrings for years.

And I finished my Shropshire dicky. It started out as a small bag of white fleece. I spun it, dyed it ( the colours are more olive and grey between the orange and blue) then knit it three times. Now I am done because I used all the yarn to the last 6ins.

To Perth

The flight was uneventful. . . which is the best thing that you can say about any trip in an aeroplane.

We caught the local bus into the city and the lovely lady bus driver said "no charge for you lot on the weekend". She charged some locals but not other obvious tourists. Must be a thing here. 

Our hotel is around the corner from the Law Courts in a quiet corner of downtown. We found a good Japanese restaurant for dinner, Edosei. They were very nice as was the food especially the Japanese rice. 

Now we are in bed at 8:15 local time but 11:15  Sydney time . . . well past our bedtime.

We are off

We lazed away the day in the sunshine to try to store some melatonin. The Super Shuttle was booked to pick us up at 6pm. At 5:50pm they rang to say that they couldn't come until 6:40 because the traffic was so bad. We cancelled them and caught the Long Beach shuttle that had no problems with traffic and we were the only passengers! Now we are safely enconsed in the United lounge for the next hour and a half.

What did I achieve on this trip? Wrist warmers to sell at the Guild 70th anniversary celebration this weekend.

We did get to the Getty Centre which is an impressive set of buildings on a mountain top with a European collection. The Impressionists were nice.

There was a cat.

by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau. Never heard of him.

Down day

Jo's cold has made a come back . . . . those over air conditioned conference rooms. So instead of trekking crosstown to the Getty Centre we relaxed this morning and shopped this afternoon. He did not find any white tennis shoes. He rejected the lack ones. But we did find some stuff at the local outlet mall. I got three organic T shirts for $5 each, some cotton leggings (5% elastic) for $8 and a wind and waterproof but breathable (they say) jacket for $41. 

Jo got a light weight fleece for $8! This is the place for a bargain.

And I found these photos in my camera:

Puffins at the aquarium

According to the cage card, these and other arctic birds were wild captured when young and put in the same enclosure but looking after them was like watching a soap opera and eventually they had to remove some of the more rumbuctious birds to other zoos.

Long Beach is a huge port and it seems cruise ships come here too. . . . probably to let their passengers look at the Queen Mary. We decided not to tour her. They say that she is haunted.

Down day

Jo's cold has made a come back . . . . those over air conditioned conference rooms. So instead of trekking crosstown to the Getty Centre we relaxed this morning and shopped this afternoon. He did not find any white tennis shoes. He rejected the lack ones. But we did find some stuff at the local outlet mall. I got three organic T shirts for $5 each, some cotton leggings (5% elastic) for $8 and a wind and waterproof but breathable (they say) jacket for $41. 

Jo got a light weight fleece for $8! This is the place for a bargain.

And I found these photos in my camera:

Puffins at the aquarium

According to the cage card, these and other arctic birds were wild captured when young and put in the same enclosure but looking after them was like watching a soap opera and eventually they had to remove some of the more rumbuctious birds to other zoos.

Long Beach is a huge port and it seems cruise ships come here too. . . . probably to let their passengers look at the Queen Mary. We decided not to tour her. They say that she is haunted.