The Home of Tom & Morven

Writing this from Singapore Changi Airport, Morven and I have a 6 hour wait before our flight home. The sore throat I got within 1 hour of setting foot in Scotland has come back, which made the 14hr flight from London to here horrible. Morven’s also been having back pain as of yesterday, I think the 5 degree C of Glasgow has “seized our bodies up right royally”. We’re both using codeine pain killers (for my throat and her back) which should help us get home. Only a 6hr flight from here now to Adelaide!

We are very appreciative of being able to stay with Morven’s family friends, who looked after us and showed us around. When we arrived on Tuesday, and did a bus tour of Glasgow. On Wednesday we slept in for preventative medicine, walked around the town and then got taken to

Stirling to see the castle (which is in the city of Stirling, which is about an hour from Glasgow), and the Falkrik Wheel on the way home. I was particularly excited about seeing the

Falkrik wheel, as it’s very much a feat of engineering. Wednesday night went out for dinner to a very “unique and hip” restaurant in Glasgow, of which I kept the menu for as I’m sure it will be of interest to my artist friend, Jordan. After dinner on Wednesday we got taken for a drive around the streets of Glasgow city and had the ins and outs of the various areas of property and history of property explained to us. It was about this stage I was really feeling horrible, as my leg muscles were all sezing up from the cold and my sore throat was coming back. Morven’s back seized up at this time too, so Thursday morning was very relaxed, and we just went out for lunch before heading off back to the Glasgow Airport.

REALLY looking forward to just getting home, soaking in some sunshine, having a good shower, drinking a bottle of cough syrup, putting some clean clothes on, and sitting on the couch! Currently waiting around for Morven to finish her 30 minute neck and shoulders massage.

Morven & I have just sat down on the bus from Aberdeen to Glasgow.

We arrived safely in Aberdeen, and were picked up by Richard. He took us on a scenic drive along the coast to Peterhead, where we stayed for two nights with his lovely family, who looked after us very well. Monica is an outstanding chef, and I very much enjoyed her Scottish breakfasts and the Monk fish curry. I am a new fan of Scottish breakfasts, and am looking forward to my next haggis (of the vegetarian variety). I hope I can find Vegetarian haggis in Adelaide!

We had lots of fun playing with their sons Ross, (almost 2 years) and Gregor (nearly 5 years). I read the Gingerbread Man story to Gregor. Ross doesn’t speak much yet, so he calls lots of things “dodo”. They are sooo cute we wanted to keep them!

Richard took me to see the local division 2 Peterhead soccer match against Queen’s Park, who happens to be the oldest soccer club in the world. It was a great match to spectate, but at the end I got really cold, so that night I had to go to bed early as I started to become really sick.

I also had a go on Richards big Honda sportbike. It’s a lot heavier than I’m used to so I only went close by around the local streets. Makes we want to go to a bigger bike, even if it does make it harder to slip through the traffic.

I also met Richards younger brothers Chris and Mark, Monica’s father, and Richards parents. The North-Eastern Scottish accent is so strong that I actually thought that Richards mother sounded more like she was speaking Arabic than English. If we both try really hard we can communicate, but it’s easier for Morven to translate for me! It is so true that Scottish really do have different dialects. I also met Morv’s Aunty Verena.

Morv’s Aunty Sheila took us for a long scenic drive to MacDuff, and showed us the “slum” where she lives. We went to see a massive Scottish Castle which Queen Mary once stayed in. I couldn’t believe the history between Queen Mary (of Scotland) and Queen Elizabeth (of England). From what I understand they were both latively devious, but I’m surprised that Queen Elizabeth actually beheaded Mary after imprisoning her for 19 years - bitch! I’ll have to read more about this later. Aunty Sheila t
En took us for afternoon tea at a really nice place where we enjoyed the most amazing hot chocolate and chocolate cake that’s ever existed.

That night we then stayed at Mark’s house in Aberdeen, as we planned a day ski trip in the Scottish Highlands. We got up there to find there wasn’t exactly a huge amount of snow, so we decided to go for a walk around to suss out whether it was worth it or not. So we caught a chair-lift up, and walked around and down. I was getting a run-up and sliding on my slippery shoes on the icy snow for several metres at a time, good fun! Morv stacked it in the mud and got mud all over her bum and leg, and when we got to the bottom she realised she didn’t have her camera, so we had a short (and successful) adventure to retrieve it!

Eventually we all got on the snow boards, and being all beginners we stuck to the baby slope. Mark switched to skis pretty quickly as he’s a good skier and wanted to try the bigger runs. Morven had a few short runs of about 10m on her snowboard, and was doing really well until stackIng it rather awkwardly on the cable pulley lift thingy, which you’re meant to put around your arse to get pushed up the hill but Morven’s just knocked her right over. I was secretly cracking up laughing as she lay on the ground, because I knew it was just her pride that got hurt. She then also switched to skiis, and managed to survive the rest of the day without stacking it thanks to me carrying her skis up for her instead of using the lift thingy, and helping her rember how to ski. So far in her skiing career, she has never stacked it when skiing on real snow! I got a few more snowboard runs in, and by the end of the day, managed to board the entire baby run without stacking! Quite happy with that for my first boarding experience.

On the way home we stopped at the Forbes Arms Hotel for a High Tea dinner, indulging in a delicious Lemon Sole. Mark introduced me to blackcurrant and lemonade, a good thirst quencher. We were all very tired so went back to Mark’s place to crash, and the next morning here Morven and I are, on the bus to Glasgow.

Writing this from the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, we are waiting to board our flight to Aberdeen, Scotland, via the London Heathrow airport. I just had a “freak-out session” because I thought I had lost my camera. I rang the hotel, & the shuttle service, which cost me about AUD$30 of credit! ….

Morven: This is morven here waiting 4 our plane to scotland. It has been delayed and it looks very foggy outside so I wonder if we will be stuck in france!!there are worse places to be stuck!

… Now that I have regained control of my PDA, I shall continue my story. I found my camera in the bottom of my Crumpler bag underneath Morv’s hairdryer. Thank the holy Crumpler gods!! I always put my valuables in the zip-up compartment, but the camera got thrown in the main section this morning when the van to pick us up from the hotel arrived, and I realised I had packed our tickets in my densely packed, locked-up suitcase! Much rummaging around happened very quickly on the side-walk, and somewhere un that process my camera got thrown into my bag in a non-systematic fashion which “bit me in the arse”! Despite the Optus rip-off overseas phone call charges using up all my credit, I am feeling very relieved!

The day before yesterday (the 13th) after Versailles, we went to see the Moulin Rouge building. We didn’t actually go in (I hear tickets are expensive) but just checked out the building. We ate dinner just down the road, and I attempted speaking french to the waiter. However, for some reason he started speaking english as soon as I said bonjour! Morven found this quite amusing.

Whilst we were in the red light district of Paris, we visited the “Erotic Art Museum”. I had very little idea what would be in such a place, but it turned out to be a lot more tasteful than we expected. It was interesting to read about the history of brothels, pimps, and prostitutes in Paris, and how laws over time changed and evolved for and against it. I am very puzzled as to why someone, even if it was hundreds of years ago, would carve a wooden statue of some monkey type animal with a gigantic penis. Apparently this is art, but I want to know what really possesses someone to spend numerous days carving a gigantic monkey penisn out of wood!

Yesterday (Valentines Day) was the coldest day in Paris. We went to go to go walk through the Catacombs, but we got there a bit too early as it doesn’t open until 11am. Being 10:30am, we hung around until it was supposed to be open, but it never opened. Reading the sign in French more closely, we discovered the opening days of the week had changed since Morven’s Paris book had been published a few years ago. Not to worry, we (when I say “we” I mean Morven) then decided to seek the warmth and comfort of Paris retail. I tried looking for some french cosmetics for my mum that she requested, but had no luck. I should have looked up the cosmetics website to find out who actually stocks it. Morven was sad that she already had a full suitcase, and that in general we could hardly afford anything.

In the early afternoon we went back to the hotel to relax, wind down, and re-pack Morven’s more than 30kg suitcase since we have a 24kg limit with British Airways, and a 20kg limit with Singapore Airlines. Fortunately, by filling up my case and Crumpler bag with some of her items, we got hers down to 25.7. But, now my case weighs 23.7, and we still need both of our cases to be about 23kg or we risk excess baggage fees with Singapore Airlines. Fortunately we’re offloading gifts to her family, and combined with the clothing I brought which I’m prepared to throw away, we should be okay. I also introduced Morven to the art of filling up small voids with small clothing items, which means we don’t have to sit on her case to close it anymore!

Now I’m writing from Heathrow airport, flights running on time. I am wondering what to do about Morven’s hairdryer she got for Christmas from her lovely boyfriend, it has started to not work correctly since we got to Paris, and is currently pretty useless. Seems to me there is a problem with the electronics, and therefore may be a warranty job.

Before going to dinner at Hédiard, we exchanged Valentines gifts. I was lucky to receive Ben Sherman brand cuff-links with the UK flag and red buses suspended in a liquid! [Edit: This is where I then proposed, story of which is contained in a private blog post.] When we got to Hédiard, the waiter had a terribly apologetic look on his face as he explained how the gentleman that took our booking for 7pm made a mistake, as they don’t serve until 7:30pm. Unfortunately we were already going to be pushing it for time for our 8:15pm pickup to our Paris Illuminated Bus Tour & River Cruise, so we were shafted at the last minute to find somewhere else to eat. It was really annoying as we had already spent an hour on our way home that afternoon looking for a nice enough place that could feed us earlier, but everwhere nice was all booked. We ended up finding there was an Italian restaurant right next to our hotel which catered to our strict time requirements, and it was deliciously yummy so it worked out really well. It’s funny because this restaurant supplied the room service to our hotel, which is what we had that afternoon previously considered arranging instead to avoid rushing, but it was too late to organise when Hédiard cancelled on us so at the last minute. We were also disappointed that we gave them our phone number at their request when booking, yet it seems they didn’t attempt to contact us. Enough whinging!

We were lucky that we were the only ones doing the illuminated bus tour that night, so we had our own personal chauffer drive us around in a nicely heated van. Paris is definitely much more beautiful at night, as most of the famous buildings and monuments are lit up, creating a very eye-catching effect. The river cruise was spectacular. All these famous and historic buildings and bridges appear as you progress along the Seine, looking very majestic as they are also illuminated. The commentary on the bus and cruise was exceptionally good, and both Morven and I enjoyed the night very much. I am truly fascinated with the history of France. The only thing I don’t understand is for a city with so much history and experience, why do they all drive like insane loonatics, and pedetrians have suicidal missuons wuth the way they walk!

By the time this post us readable, I’ll be in Scotland.

Getting ready to go to the Versailles palace, after a good sleep-in. Yesterday we went right to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It didn’t really impress me at first glance when getting out of the underground metro, because it was nowhere near a glossy & shiny as in all the photos & magazines. It also looked reasonably small, but as we were walking towards it & I realised we were much further away than I realised, it really was rather impressive. Standing underneath it was very impressive indeed. Buggered if I can see how they constructed it, I will have to read about this when I get home. We went all the way to the top, as far as you can without going through the security shield fence, which means about 10m from the top. We took the lift because there was much more walking for us yet to be done. Fortunately the weather was still very kind to us so we could easily see everything, but the photos I took aren’t particularly impressive as you really need a wide angle lens. Morven taught me how to say “Il fait du vent et très froid”, which means “It is windy & very cold”, and it certainly was so we went back down to earth pretty quickly!

After we got down we walked away from it to be able to take a photo of us in the background. Amazingly, the younger couple we asked to take our photo for us happened to be from Adelaide! What are the odds!?!?!?

After this we kept walking to try & find another Metro station to get us to the Arc de Triomphe. Morven got us lost (we weren’t really trying too hard, we were happy to get lost & explore the city). We ate baguettes & pain chocolat (chocolate croissants) from a bakery, & then

caught a Metro to the big Arc. This Arc is about as big as the base of the Eiffel Tower (Morven disagrees & is probably right but they’re both big enough that you need to walk back a long distance if you don’t want to risk a stiff neck). We didn’t climb to the top of it because having just done the Eiffel Tower we didn’t really see the point, & wanted to walk down the

Champs Elysee & Avenue Montaigne (two of the poshest shopping streets). We spent a long time in Lacoste, Chanel, & Peugot, but neither of us could afford anything. Even buying an ice cream was ridiculously expensive with our Aussie dollars, but I guess you get that when in Paris. Proving to be a very expensive holiday!! :S

We then went back to the hotel for a rest, before going out again to go to an art exhibition building called the Centre George Pompidou. Unfortunately the one day of the week that it’s closed on had changed since Morv’s guide book was written, so we couldn’t actually go in, but that was okay because she was just really happy to see it from the outside, all lit up. The whole idea of this building is it’s designed to be “inside out” anyway.

After admiring its unique architecture, we went to the pancake restaurant (the one we saw on the way home from the vegetarian restaurant) and had savoury pancakes. They were reasonably tasty, although my spinach & goats cheese (feta) would have been tastier if it was mozarella. I don’t think I had ever eaten feta cheese melted before. Morven decided we required a sweet blackforest pancake to share, which was an absolute chocolate taste sensation. I enjoyed drinking a delicious French beer over the main course. We then retired for the night, & planned our next day’s journey to the Versailles palace, & our Valentines Day dinner at Hédiard restaurant (attached to a gourmet food shop), bus night tour of Paris illuminated, and river cruise of the bridges over the Seine all lit up in the night. I am very concerned about the fact that Thursday in itself will cost me an entire weeks pay, but that’s all part of going to Paris for Valentines Day, right? Right???!!

Now I’m writing from Versailles palace waiting for Morven to progress through the queue for the female facilities. We’ve just finished about five hours of walking around the palace and gardens. I can’t believe how massive the place is. When we got to Versailles, there was a several hour queue to buy tickets, so we just went for a few minute walk to the tourist information centre and back to buy the tickets, and saved loads of time. We wouldn’t have worked it out if Morven couldn’t speak French, so I am very grateful for that! I’ve taken many photos, and look forward to uploading them, but bandwidth is costing hundreds more than normal when overseas, hence no photos on blog yet! The highlight of Versailles for me was the sheer scale of construction of the buildings, as I can’t imagine how long, difficult, and expensive it would have been. The highlight of Versailles for Morven was the amazing gardens. She asked me if I would buy her a palace - I said no. We’re both fairly exhausted from being on our feet all day, and are on our way back to the hotel.

That’s all for todays blogging, will perhaps update after we’ve been to the underground Catacombs tomorrow.

We’ve now had almost 24 hours in Paris. I’m so glad we decided to travel here because it really is much lovelier than London. The underground Metro is newer, cleaner, faster, and easier to use than in London, although unfortunately the M14 line smells like crap. This is the main line we will generally be catching, from our closest stop ‘Madeleine’. Yesterday we walked down to le Jardin de Tuilleries and ate takeaway baguette (mozarella & tomato) on our way past the Musee du Louvre to a vegetarian restaurant that we wanted to go check out for dinner. We got breakfast supplies for our room from the supermarket, dropped them in the fridge & went back out to the vegetarian restaurant for dinner.

Morven had a lot of fun conversing with the waiter, & she did really well. Unfortunately she was better at talking about the weather than understanding how to say we weren’t ready to order, so I just pointed out some random entree & mains for myself, not knowing what it was! Both our entre’s were delicious, but the mains were very plain. We saw a nice restaurant on our walk home which has some vegetarian options, which actually look very tasty, so will probably go back there tonight.

The weather is being very kind to us, other than being cold it’s only slightly windy and not at all wet so it’s easy to stay warm. Right now we are planning to go to Eiffel Tower so better go! We’re planning on making a day of the Versailles palace tomorrow.

Writing this whilst on the train with Morven waiting to leave St Pancras Int. station in London to go to Paris.

It was awesome to finally meet up with Morven at the Marble Arch hotel. Unfortunately I told her the wrong arrival time so she wasn’t expecting me so early, & so the plans to meet at the airport were foiled. As soon as I got into the hotel I was excited to finally stop travelling, and jumped onto the bed. BAD MOVE!!! It was a water bed, … but… more like a “slate of granite rock with a film of water” bed.

We went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Eat Roman near Leicester Square, and both ate baked pasta meals which were possibly the best pasta dishes we’ve ever had. We drank an Italian Pinot Grigio Blush Rosé, and had an enormous Triple Chocolate Glory for desert. Mmmmm yummy. We then walked around Leicester Square looking for a good night club. We asked around and someone recommended Storm Nightclub for our taste of music, so we paid £12 each to get in and found it was crap music, and hardly anyone in there anyway. So we decided to go to Fabric Nightclub which involved the tube. It was even more expensive, £16 each, but a lot more exciting. I was really glad we had our ‘Hearoes’ ear protector plugs with us, because it was so loud you could feel your internal organs swooshing around. Definitely going to be a generation of deaf people, but Not us! We didn’t stay for long though because Morven was feeling a bit sick. I like to think she was love sick but in reality I think she had too much wine.
The next morning we went to the London Dungeon, and on the way got breakfast from Prêt à Manger and were very glad which we ate sitting next to the Marble Arch monument in the corner of Hyde Park. Yummy melted cheese on pastry thingys, and chocolate croissants with fresh orange juice - yummy!

We were glad to have our fast-track tickets for the London Dungeon otherwise would not have got in! It was good fun, but hardly as educational as we thought it could have been. It was more aimed at scaring people. We still had a lot of fun, but I think Morven was a bit too hungover for seeing dummy models having their intestines being ripped out, or watching a demonstration of how to remove a tongue. also at the last minute she wussed out of going on the extremis 7m death drop ride!

We then went to Hays Galleria between London Bridge & Tower Bridge for lunch, which we ate overlooking the River Thames. Then we went to the London Eye, and again were very glad to have fast-track tickets because there was an enormous queue, but we didn’t have any queue at all so saved heaps of time. Morven really enjoyed it, and we got some nice photos.

That night we had a nap before going out for dinner, which we had just off of Oxford St near the hotel, at Pizza Express which is coincidentally the same chain as Eat Roman. We had some very delicious pizza, and were very tired. On the way to dinner I saw the perfect sleeveless hoodie top, from a shop called The Officers Club, but unfortunately couldn’t buy it because it was closed. It made me very sad I also found a very nice t-shirt in a store in Knightsbridge (which we went to in the afternoon to take a photo for my parents) called Harvey Nichols, but it cost £535. I really can’t ubderstand this, because even if the cotton was hand woven it still shouldn’t cost so much. I know designer labels are meant to be expensive, but this is ridiculous!

Morven packed all her stuff that night, which was a huge ordeal as her case was overweight before we left, & she has done loads of shopping. Thankfully we’ll be offloading gifts in Scotland so it should sort itself out.

So now we’re on the EuroStar train which will take us under the sea to Paris. I’m quite excited about this tunnel engineering wise, but am afraid all I’m likely to see is blackness! Morven is happy eating Lindt chocolate (nothing but the best, for the best) & reading her book.

I’ve taken so long to write this on my PDA that we’re now above ground in France!

Whilst I’m waiting to board, I might as well take the time to blog to the world how impressed I am with the Spamato Ad-on for Thunderbird. I have not had any much success with the Thunderbird adaptive junk email filter system, nor with the uncustomisable Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2008 anti-spam solution. So I sought greener pastures and tried Spamato. It doesn’t take much effort to setup, but you do have to manually specify your Java binaries directory. Once setup, you’re laughing! It uses seven types of anti-spam filters which means you can use them all with low thresholds, and set it to require two filters to classify as spam (i.e. default settings) which means chances of false detection are slim to none.

If I didn’t use the gmail web interfaces (for mobile browser as well as normal browser) and still used Thunderbird, I would defintely go the Spamato solution.

I do find Gmail to have an outstanding spam filter built in anyway, which has never falsely detected any spam, and only let less than 0.1% of spam get to my inbox.

Waiting to board flight to Heathrow, where Morven is going to meet me. Very impressed with the new Terminal 3 at Changi Airport. It’s so easy, intuitive, and logical to find your way around. Whoever designed it definitely gets my seal of approval.

I just got through security and realised that I forgot to put my Swiss Army credit card shaped butter knife / manicure set in my suitcase that Ben P. brought back for me from his travels. Lucky that it is deemed plane friendly as I really like the thing, it keeps coming in handy. I guess the plastic knives and metal forks on the plane are much more hardcore than a nail file, mini-tweezers, micro scissors, and nano-knife which is less deadly than my belt buckle.

I guess there’s only about 16 hours to go until I see Morvie - woot!!

Just about to get out of bed to go catch the plane to London. I spent last night walking around Circular Quay, a place full of restaurants, bars, clubs, & riverside cruises.

Well I’ve arrived in Singapore, & en route to the cheap and nasty hotel. Looking forward to waing around, eating & drinkIng, & taking in some Singapore night life. (But not too late, have to be ready by 6:30am local time tomorrow to get back to the airport.)