The Nutcracker

The boxes in the Coliseum

We've sort of made an annual tradition to go see the Nutcracker every year, luckily it seems that the British also have that tradition, so I don't think we are going to run out of different productions to see for awhile.  This year it was the English National Ballet version at the Coliseum.  This was a much more traditional version than last year's at Sadlers Wells.  I think I preferred the first act of this year's production.  The sets were amazing, and there were a lot of dancers on stage.  They had enlisted young students from ballet schools and performing arts schools.  They even had the kids sing the section in the first Act.  I think the orchestra was much better this year and since we were only 4 rows from the stage we could see right down into the pit.  I think the dancers were technically a lot better too, they are really amazing the things they can do with their bodies and yet still be so tiny.

But I think Matthew Bourne (from last year) is a much better choreographer than whoever the ENB had for this production.  I think whoever did the choreographer actually left in 2010 so I'm not sure why they are still using his old moves.  The second act seemed to degenerate into some weird So You Think You Can Dance (Ballet Edition).  The story completely disappeared, the mouse king was killed off in the first piece of the second act and then it felt like they had nowhere to go from there.  It felt like we were now watching some ballet school end of term recital, and whilst the dancers were obviously incredibly talented, I need a story, plus it felt like often the dancing didn't really go with the music.  Then to make matters worse at the end of each piece the orchestra stopped, and the dancers started bowing and the audience started clapping!! That's when it started to get really weird to me, you don't clap in the middle of a piece, the music is meant to still be going, you are meant to be in this world, built by the music and the dancing.  Not suddenly some live television audience applauding whenever the dancers did some especially high leap.

But the first act was great, having the children on the stage and then singing was really good, and you were really inside the world of the Nutcracker.  I just wish the choreographer had put as much effort into the second act.

Comedy Shows

We've been going a bit crazy with the comedy shows lately, it's such a treat to be able to see these big British comedy acts (they've all been British so far).  In Oz I was always out of the loop, so by the time I found out there was something good on, all the tickets were already sold.  But I've found myself on some good mailing lists so now I can get the inside word.

So far we've been to see Ross Noble and Bill Bailey.  I've always wanted to see Ross Noble, I've liked seeing him on every panel show he manages to find himself on.  And yet his stand up was strangely disappointing.  It felt like we never really got past the introduction, it seemed like he'd only just stopped heckling the latecomers and then suddenly it was all over.  I guess that's just his style, and so when he's on a TV show the structure keeps him in line.  

Now Bill Bailey was really good, I wasn't so keen on him, I thought it would be all very high-brow and kind of boring, maybe some insightful commentary, but not what I would call funny.  OK so it probably was still kind of high brow, he did start off with a 10 minute section on the three leaders of the main political parties after all.  But it was definitely funny.  I also didn't appreciate how musical he was, apparently he has perfect pitch, which must be such an awesome innate ability to have.  So there was a lot of instrumentation and singing and dancing around the stage.  Then he finished with a really cool bike horn musical medley, which I imagine must be a standard thing for him, but having never seen him before, I really liked it.  I got to say his film clip for the West Country death metal song "Ripped Apart By Badgers" was also up there.  

Next up is Alan Davies, I'm curious to see how he goes.  I like him on QI, but then I'm not sure how funny he'll be by himself.  Perhaps he'll have the most structured story-line out of them all.

Wildlife Photography Exhibit

Ironwork at the V&A museum

One very grey day recently we headed out to the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.  I went last year, and I really recommend this yearly exhibit if you happen to be in town when it's on (if you like animals and landscapes that is).  All the shots are really good, though having been twice now there are obviously certain shots which are classics.

There always seems to be a really long exposure of the night sky, so that the landscape has some colour but there are stars in the sky, really gives quite a creepy feeling.  You don't expect to see colours and stars at the same time.  There is also always a shot of the northern lights, that's just a given.  They are pretty cool.  I would love to see the northern lights, apparently this year is meant to be a real good one too.  Maybe next winter.

I always like the children's categories as well, they are pretty young kids, under 11, 11-14 and 14-17 are the categories I think.  They are all pretty talented, but what is funny about them is that they are pretty much all taken in the child's backyard.  I guess kids are quite restricted in their ability to get around, which means the city kids really have no chance in this award.  Unless the judges like shots of pigeons.

The glass sculpture in the entrance hall

Unfortunately no photos allowed, probably for the best though, it was absolutely seething inside.  Normally on a miserable day in Australia you would take the kids to a shopping centre, here in London they are much more cultured, they take them to a museum.  Turning up, the line for entry to the museum stretched all the way across the forecourt.  Luckily we had pre-booked tickets, no queue for us!

Since we were in the neighbourhood and had some time to kill before our planned outing to Skyfall, we thought we'd pop in to the Victoria and Albert Museum afterwards.  Another great building, across the road from the Natural History Museum.    I think officially it is a museum of art and design, basically it's a museum of stuff.  Or rather it is a bunch of separate museums all stuck under one roof.  You have, say, ironwork, and jewellery, tapestries, statues, architecture, glass work, and a lot more.  You could imagine that each section could really be it's own museum.  It makes it slightly strange to visit, because there's no real theme joining everything together, apart from the fact it's all stuff.  But if you were really into jewellery or iron gates or something, it would probably be really good to visit.

Scale model of a Japanese building

Tiny glass jar - made in 1400BC in Egypt

My favourite was the architecture section, they had all these little scale models of different buildings (built by the architects when planning the design) and went over the different aspects of the buildings, from all over the world.

Another section I quite liked was the cast section, there are these massive halls, and I am talking airport hanger high halls, full of replica statues.  So if you don't want to bother visiting Florence you can come here and see Michelangelo's David.  It was full of various statues and building parts.  It looked a bit like it was in the middle of renovations though, so we couldn't get down there amongst the statuary.

Arundel Castle

The Castle and the river Arun

Dave and I headed off to Arundel in the south east of England, it's actually really close to Brighton, but even better was that the last stop on the train line was Bognor Regis.  Now that's what I call a name! And for once it's even spelt exactly like it's written, as opposed to Leicester for example.  Apparently it's an Anglo-Saxon name, the town has been around since 680 AD, perhaps that explains the phonetic nature of it.

Dave with the castle

Anyway we got off the train before that stop, at Arundel, which is said so that you could almost imagine elves living here.  Kind of rhymes with Rivendell.  We were here to do a walk out over the South Downs, but then when we arrived we saw the castle and couldn't say no to a visit.

It was founded by one of William the Conqueror's counsellors, when he became the first Earl of Shrewsbury all the way back in 1067.  There is still the Motte and Bailey in the grounds, much more impressive than the one we saw in the forest in the peaks district.  Though perhaps that one was more atmospheric, being hidden away in a forest.

What I find strange though is that Shrewsbury is miles away from here.  Not only was the first Earl of Shrewsbury stationed here, but the current owners are always the Earl of Norfolk, which is on the other side of London from Arundel.  I don't really get how this whole English feudal system worked, if the landowners were miles away from their land how did they keep the peasants in line?

The view out to the South Downs from the castle

Apparently the Duke of Norfolk is one of the important lords of the land, he actually gets a role in royal ceremonies.  He is in charge of things like coronations and funerals and any other state occasions, as designated by the queen/king.

The garden outside the Fitzalan Chapel

The first owner died without any heirs, so it reverted to Henry I, who then gave it to his second wife, and it has been in their family ever since, which is kind of impressive.  Eventually ending up with the Howards, who perhaps are some of the more famous owners.  One of the Howards who owned this castle was the uncle to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both wives of Henry VIII.

It's a very well preserved castle, it's slightly strange visiting inside though, since the family must still spend some time there, so there are family photos around the place.  Also some of the apartments have been renovated, so it's kind of odd to see modern furniture amongst this ancient castle.  You also weren't allowed to take any photos, which I always dislike.  I think it's so you are more likely to buy their book.

Looking up to the Motte at Arundel

Some interesting points, Queen Victoria stayed here for 3 days, and a whole set of furniture was made for her stay.  Apparently Empress Matilda also stayed here (that's going back a bit), so not sure how much of the actual castle was around when she visited.  There are also Mary Queen of Scot's rosary beads on display here.  She gave these to a wife of one of the Dukes before she was beheaded.  A little gory.  Well that was the story they told you when you visited the castle, but all the other sources seem to say Mary actually carried the beads to the scaffold, so I'm not sure how the wife ended up with them, whether she prised them from Mary's death grip, or whether the executioner did it for her.

A couple of the rooms to look out for whilst you are here are the library, that is such a fantastic room, massively long, all carved mahogany and big armchairs, it really looks like a stereotypical library.  The other one I liked was the chapel inside the castle, it had great stained glass.  There is another chapel on the grounds, because you can never have too many churches I suppose. 

Ancient cork tree in Arundel gardens

I really like the old Motte and Bailey on the grounds, it's linked up with the main castle, you climb some steps to the top of the motte.  It's nice that they didn't destroy it to build more castle, since you would think that would have been quite easy to do.  At the time these were the pinnacle of defensive systems.  The motte is a big mound, upon which the castle was built, whilst the bailey was an enclosed courtyard below the mound.  These mounds have some serious height to them, so with a castle built on top, and a ditch around, they really must have looked intimidating.  These types of castles were still being built in the 13th century.   From the top of the castle on the motte you could see all the way out to the sea.

The castle gardens and the disappointing cathedral

The motte and castle, with goats grazing

As well as the motte (I think the bailey has had the new castle built on it, so that didn't really exist anymore) the gardens were great.  On the grounds there is another chapel, the Fitzalen chapel, which is actually two churches, one for the Dukes, and the other for the townspeople.  What is even stranger is that the chapel in the castle grounds is Catholic, but the one for the townspeople is Anglican.  I'm not sure how frequent that is.  The castle side was vastly more impressive than the half that the plebs in town used.  That seemed kind of falling down, and quite derelict.  Had a good graveyard though, where some of the gravestones looked like they were slowly being swallowed by the earth.

The grounds of the castle had a couple of impressive gardens, one just outside the chapel, still had some roses, though it was quite late in the season, regardless

The picture perfect Arundel castle

of Dave's shorts and t-shirt.  The other one was the Collector Earl's garden.  This is partially a formal garden and partially a kitchen garden, with some serious sunflowers!  There were a couple of weird little buildings dotted here and there, one with the strange crown water fountain.  It's a jet of water shooting straight up, and held aloft by the pressure of the water is a crown.  A bit strange, it seems a popular fountain of the time though.  I think one of Ludwig II's castles in Bavaria had the exact same fountain.  There was also a "living" room, in that it was covered in plants inside, or bits of plants, so not really living, in the sense that the plants had all died.  So it had a rather depressing dessicated, brown colour.

Strange "living" room - covered in dead moss

Also in the garden were ancient cork and ginkgo trees, I've never seen such an old cork tree.  There is a small cork plantation in Canberra (I'm not sure why or how), and it was about the only thing that survived the bush fires, all the pines were completely incinerated.  It is actually thought that the cork trees evolved their bark to help withstand forest fires, and I guess they showed that to be true.  Apparently these trees can grow to 500 years old, but not normally very high, about 20 metres maximum.  I'm sure this one was taller than 20m though.  I don't know if it has ever been stripped either, so had some serious bark on it.

Across the road from the main garden was a massively impressive looking church, it rivalled Notre Dame in Paris.  It looked about 3 storeys high, I thought we definitely have to go there before we leave.  There's no

Sunken tombstones in the Fitzalan cemetery

way that a church with such an impressive exterior couldn't have something pretty good inside, maybe some stained glass windows, at least a tomb of some famous person, perhaps even a minor princeling.  But you get inside and there's nothing there, it was built in the late 1800's, so doesn't even have history on it's side.  It's just a big empty building, only one stained glass window, and that's it, no tombs, hardly any statues, no mosaic floor, no quire, I've never been so disappointed in a church.  It was all facade and nothing meaty. 

We were thinking we have to plan another visit at some point, if only to do the South Downs walk which we were meant to do, but never got around to.  One other weird thing about Arundel was the number of tea houses, I've never seen so many tea rooms in one village.  It did make it easy to get refreshments after a hard day of castle viewing though.

The enormous sunflowers - I've never seen such big heads - no petals though

What is with Australia's internet?

Holy cow, how do Australians handle their useless internet?  I never appreciated it before (since living in Australia you don't realise how good other countries have it).  But being in the UK has accustomed me to being able to buy anything I want online, simply and quickly.

As it's coming into Christmas time I thought I would start getting the presents in order for people back in Australia.  I open up three electronics stores websites, two don't even load and the third refuses to actually let me put anything in my basket.  I had to give up in disgust.  And these are electronics stores, supposedly up on new technologies and things.

Australians, rise up in protest! You can't let this state of affairs continue.  It's embarrassing for one thing.  And secondly how am I ever going to send anyone presents back in Oz?

Yosemite Valley

Unbelievable views of half dome and the valley along the route

We did a walk in the valley, which is really the main tourist location in the Yosemite national park.  For those who have been following the news, Yosemite was featured quite a lot recently because of an outbreak of Hantavirus, which has a 30% mortality rate.  For a while authorities couldn't work out where it was coming from.  They managed to narrow it down to a few cabins in a particular campsite.  The carriers are deer mice, and they were living in the double walls of these cabins.  There sure were a lot of deer around, so I can only assume that there are an equally large number of deer mice hanging out too.

Some of the many deer in the park - they were pretty mangy too

Non-existent lower Yosemite falls - you have to use your imagination

It feels very much like a resort in Yosemite valley, you are encouraged not to drive around, but instead use the free shuttles.  There is a grocery store, and library, and post office there.  But no one really lives there, and the thousands of people you see are either camping in one of the designated campsites or in one of the hotels.  Walking around at dusk it felt almost like being in a resort in Thailand, it just had that same atmosphere, everyone there was obviously on holiday.

Ground squirrel - masquerading as a chipmunk - the cutest rodent ever, with a piece of Dave's apple core

No water here

At first we were planning just a walk along the valley floor, there are a lot of waterfalls and things to see, but then it quickly became clear that you could just drive (or catch the shuttle bus) between all these stops.  And it wasn't so fun just walking alongside the road.  So at the first opportunity we changed our plan to instead scale the cliffs and walk to Upper Yosemite falls instead.  It was well worth the plan change, even though we were seriously lacking in both food and water and both only wearing sneakers, which made for a sketchy descent in some parts.

It wasn't a very long walk, in terms of horizontal distance, but the vertical distance was a bit of a killer, more than 800m over only 6kms.  The last third is tough, endless switch-backs, with the sun blazing straight down on you, and no breeze since the trail is climbing a cleft between two ridges.  Let's just say it was nice to reach the top of the cliff at that point.  At the top of the falls you are at almost 2000m, which is again so incredible to me.  That sounds like it should be alpine, and yet it was incredibly hot and you were surrounded by pine trees and I was in shorts, desperate for a drink.

The dry, dry upper Yosemite Falls, you can kind of see where the water falls - this is halfway up the climb

Enjoying the view at the top

I wonder how many rescues have to be performed during the summer though.  The walks all seem incredibly tough, in that they all have some climb in the 100s of metres and yet it can be so hot.  And Yosemite has to be one of the more popular parks in the US.  When we were climbing up we certainly passed some people in distress, looked like some sort of heat exhaustion.  I don't know which is worse, heat or cold.  I mean with cold you can wear more clothes, but with heat it's hard to combat, especially with no water, and it was dry as a bone up there.  I was kind of hoping since we were walking to upper Yosemite falls that there would be somewhere to dip my hat along the way.  All there was were distant, dried up ponds, not a trickle coming over the falls.  You could see where the water would go if it was running, but not as impressive as after the winter snow melts.

Cannot get enough of that view - Dave at the top of the falls

Me with the sheer cliff faces, we climbed up the ridge to the left

This trail is apparently one of the oldest in the park, being built by 1877, which is quite impressive when you see the terrain it has to climb up.  The falls themselves are one of the largest in the world, coming in at number 7, and the highest in the US.  I'm not sure how this is measured though, since the falls actually consists of the Upper, Middle and Lower Yosemite falls, and the total drop is taken as the combined fall of all three of these.

Not only did we finish with an unbelievable view, but we also got some pretty cool fauna that day.  We saw the mangy deer (least impressive), chipmunk-type ground squirrel, stellar jay, they kind of look like a prettier jackdaw, with more iridescent feathers, but one of the best was a woodpecker.  We actually got to see it pecking at a tree, and because we had our binoculars with us (what self-respecting birder wouldn't) we got to see it fairly close up.  It had chosen a tree quite close to a hotel though, so people walking past probably thought we were spying on the hotel guests.  I wanted to point out the woodpecker to them, but they didn't have binoculars, loser non-birders.

What can I say - I can't get enough of that view!

Looking across to Glacier Point - where we had been the day before

The walk started at camp 4, which is one of the designated campsites in the valley, it was packed when we walked through.  It looked like a major mecca for rock climbers, they were all over the place.  The rangers were fairly insistent on anti-bear measures.  All food had to be in these massive bear-proof containers, they were like small shipping containers.  I wonder just how many bears they get in these campsites.  Even with those precautions there must be heaps of bears around, just looking at the numbers of squirrels feeding off the humans.  That would be a scary sight, walking up in the night to find a bear prowling around.  Apparently if the rangers see one in the campsites they let off fireworks to try and scare the thing to death, or at least to never returning.

Dave - savouring the top

The incredible cliff faces we walked alongside

One of the main people who really pushed for the creation of Yosemite National Park was John Muir, they have all these little monuments to him all over the park.  Dave and I were in Glasgow the other week, and while we were there we learned that this John Muir was actually a Scot, born near Edinburgh.  He lived in Yosemite for 3 years, eventually returning to civilisation and getting married.  Must have been a strange 3 years, I don't think there was a grocery store, or library when he was living here.

The surprising greenery at the top of the climb.  This was a welcome relief after the endless switchbacks

The view of Lower Yosemite falls - you can just see a smear of water - we walked to the very top of the cliffs

Half-Dome is fairly impressive

Dave in the hot, hot sun

The tiny pools at the top of the falls

Looking down to the valley floor

Walking from Dolgalleu

The estuary and the hills of Snowdonia beyond

We went for a walk/run from Dolgellau in northern Wales, we had been half hoping to do one in Snowdonia, but torrential rain and gale-force winds kind of put paid to that, I had packed for a wedding after all, not an ordeal!

Instead we did something much more sedate, a 15km run from Dolgellau out to Barmouth harbour. It was a great day for it, perfect temperatures.  But again, as we had packed for a wedding, we weren't really kitted out.  Which meant a few moments when I was thirstier than I would have liked. I know, who would have thought in an area as wet as north Wales.

Old bridge over the river

Dave in the Welsh bush

You follow the Mawddach Trail along the estuary to the coast at Barmouth, where you then cross the river mouth on a railway bridge.  This is a disused railway line, which closed in 1969, it used to take Victorian holiday makers to Barmouth as well as carrying slate from quarries in the nearby area.

Dolgellau is slightly famous for having had a large Quaker population following a visit by George Fox.  Though I don't think there are many Quakers living there now.  When we reached Barmouth we discovered a country and western festival going on in the middle of town, which really isn't something you would expect in a tiny Welsh village.  We didn't stay long, people were giving Dave funny looks in his running gear.  I have read in the free newspapers here that a surprisingly large number of people don't like running because they don't like being seen in shorts.  That's got to be one of the weakest reasons for not running I think I've heard.  But perhaps it explains the funny looks  Dave was getting, what with the shorts.

Very pretty estuary

I'll just leave you with some photos, it was a lovely excursion, and a nice change in the weather following the absolute bucketing we had the day before.

Old farmhouses across the water

The pretty trail - easy going really.  You can see the old railway posts on the right

Weird squirrel-like creature

Sheep with wet hooves

The sandy railway to Barmouth

Crossing the bridge next to the railway 

Pretty harbour of Barmouth

The main street in Barmouth

Would not have expected that in the middle of Barmouth

Really Bloomberg?

I have moved desks at work, so I now have a clear, uninterrupted view of Bloomberg playing constantly.  For those who may not know this is a financial news station on TV.  And what with the hurricane hitting New York they are going a little crazy (NYC being a massive financial hub and all).  The coverage of hurricane Sandy is literally on all day, but really there is not that much to cover, particularly not with a financial spin.  Seriously there was a ten minute piece today about the 45 minute wait for a coffee at a particular cafe, and the only footage they had was the CCTV camera from inside the store.  That's what I call hard-hitting journalism,

I mean I know it's caused massive amounts of damage and people have died (particularly in the Caribbean, not that you'd know since they only got like 10 minutes a couple of days ago).  The way Bloomberg was carrying on though you would think it was end of days or something.

Glacier Point

Half Dome and Yosemite National Park

After visiting Mariposa Grove we were kind of thinking, hey Yosemite is pretty good, the trees are pretty amazing, but we were wondering where the wow factor was.  I mean this place was like the second National Park in the world right, there's gotta be something pretty special for that to have happened right.  And I mean big trees are kind of cool, but second National Park in the world cool?  Hmmm I think not.

But then we went for a drive out to the end of Glacier Pt road and we got our answer.  This was one of the first touristy view points in the Valley, and standing there I can see why.  I don't really need to say much, I think the photos speak for themselves, outstanding!

Dave with half dome

Probably the most famous feature in the National Park is Half-Dome, to climb it you need to get a permit.  Apparently you can do it in a day, it's a 1400m elevation gain, and you have to climb the last 400m holding onto chains.  The whole time we were in the park we never saw anyone on the top  of the rock though, so I'm not sure if the top is actually a fair way back from the edge or what, or maybe our binoculars weren't as strong as we thought they were.

Looking down to Yosemite Valley, we climbed to the top of the escarpment the next day

Three arches at Yosemite Valley

Yet another wonderful view