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Stuart Edser
Stuart Edser

Stuart Edser

Retired Psychologist | Author | Academic | Musician | Gay | Silver Fox | Studente di Italiano Baca selengkapnya🇦🇺Newcastle
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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong
    The mound with flowers in Caesar's AltarLunch, air con, cold beerEvening by the Tiber

    Ancient Rome

    31 Jul–2 Agu 2025, Italia ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Today was our tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. Rome reached a very balmy 31° today, with humidity high. Humidity is still at 51% at 9pm as I write this post.

    The tour was by the same firm as that which took as through the Vatican debacle. However, despite overwhelming numbers in Rome due to the Jubilee youth stuff going on, our tour guide Yuri, who was educated, articulate and friendly, managed to take us through the Colosseum check points, and there are more checkpoints where ticket and passport must be shown than entering Fort Knox, and through the history of the place very skilfully. The start of the tour was the only real human crush on the whole thing, and it was hardly a human crush, more like a whole bunch of people all going through the same metal detectors and stair cases at the one time. So, busy, but not overwhelming.

    If I’m honest, I did not know what to expect from the Colosseum. Would it be grand? Would it be a let-down? Would it have CGI? Would it have cardboard cutout Roman Emperors? Happily for me, I found the thing totally arresting in its size, its scope, in terms of what kind of games they laid on for the masses back then, and how it all fitted together culturally. For example, four tiers of seats. The Emperor gets the best seat in the house down low near the stage. Next tier were the Senators and patricians, next were mercantile and the general populace. The lower your social status, the higher in the Colosseum away from the stage you had to sit. And it really is a long way up there.

    Did you know the Colosseum’s real name is the Flavian Theatre and that Colosseum is just a nickname. During the reign of Nero, he had a giant palace built called the Domus Aurea, the golden house, out the front of which he erected a giant statue of himself in gold about 30 metres high, presented as the sun god Sol Invictus. The statue was a colossus, a giant statue, much like the famous ancient wonder of the world, the Colossus of Rhodes, which was said to straddle the harbour of Rhodes. However, after Nero’s death by suicide after he lost the support of just about everybody, the colossus was torn down and in its place, a giant theatre made up of two giant amphitheatres joined together was started in the reign of Emperor Flavius, who never lived long enough to see it complete. This theatre was built on the site of Nero’s colossus and the Flavian Theatre gradually became known as the Colosseum.

    We had only half an hour to walk through the Forum. Not ideal. But certainly, time enough to give us a taste of the thing. I felt quite moved standing in the middle of it, looking at this building or that, the Senate House here, the altar to Julius Caesar there. Did you know that, to this day, people still put flowers on the mound in Caesar’s altar? The columns, the triumphal arches, the courts, the rostrum of the Tribunes of the Plebs, the palazzos are all incredible and when you look at them as they were then, as we did in Yuri’s coloured picture book, and then look at them now, you can see how Rome paraded itself in glory. It must have been magnificent. The sun was beating down on us by the time the tour ended, and despite being able to stay on and poke around ourselves, we were tired on our feet, hot, sweaty, and felt the need to get out of the day and into some cool comfort, so bade the Forum Romanum farewell and headed for the tram stop.

    A tram home. Some lunch at a local ristorante, a prosciutto and mozzarella toastie with a cold beer, then home to rest and nap. At aperitivo time, we emerged from our burrow, went for a short stroll around the vicolos, then returned to Mimi e Coco for drinks and nibbles, their lovely bruschetta again. We strolled down to the edge of the Tiber and sat on its banks looking at the evening sunlight on the water and then strolled home, but not before stopping at Caramelle for another cold beer. They knew us and the guy remembered our beer order. Very nice.

    A good day today. The last of our tours in Rome completed. I am enjoying this kind of culture, so different to my own Anglo culture, very much indeed. It’s no wonder they call this La Dolce Vita.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong
    Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, now the resting place of Pope FrancisAt Mimi e Coco at the end of our vicolo

    A Restoration Day

    30 Juli 2025, Italia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Today has been a good day. Still hot, still humid, but that’s Italy in summer, and probably ramped up even more due to climate change.

    Today was our day to tour the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We rose early, walked over to the tram and bus stop for a significant tram journey and then made our way on foot to the tour guide offices, effectively next to the Colosseum. We collected our white stickers to identify our particular tour and waited to receive our paperwork like all the other participants. Only, we didn’t get any. I went to the guide and told her that she had missed us. She looked at my voucher and took it into the office and returned red-faced and apologetically said, “you guys are on this tour tomorrow”. Apologies all round.

    I’m quite sure that our brains melted in the Vatican sun yesterday. It is the only explanation I can come up with. With a hearty, ‘see you tomorrow’ we left the area and snapped a few pics of the outside of the Colosseum as went. This thing is huge. I really didn’t appreciate just how big it was. I am looking forward to the tour tomorrow.

    We had a lovely brekky at a local restaurant, just a croissant and coffee, and headed off for a long walk to find a particular ‘profumeria’ where Chris was intent on buying a cologne. We found it after a fairly long hot walk only to find it ‘chiuso’ closed. “Ah well,” we said, “let’s catch the bus back to Travestere and pick up our clothes from the local ‘lavandaria’ laundrette. I was somewhat embarrassed as I had lost the ticket showing I had paid and which bag was ours, so I walked in a little sheepishly.

    The old lady who was not there the day before and didn’t know me at all, was quite rightly suspicious of this off-the-street tourist fellow claiming he wanted a bag of washing. I did my best in Italian to demonstrate to her that I was the real thing. She understood me, very gratifying, and finally relented after I showed her the transaction on my digital wallet, a process that I am not at all sure she understood. Anyway, she handed over our washing and we stepped out onto the street. Chris pulled out his wallet and suggested we go back in and give her a tip for believing us. He waited while I went in and said “grazie per la tua fiducia” thank you for your trust in us, handing her the tip. She received it thankfully and asked where we were from. After telling her Australia, she responded with e the one English word she knew, “Albanese”. “SÌ,” I said, “Albanese”. I gave her the hand gesture of ‘he’s okay’ rocking my hand from side to side, the French ‘comme ci, comme ça’, the Italian ‘così così’, and she screwed up her mouth a little and gave me a knowing nod that suggested she knew all about politicians. And with that, we parted on good terms. Stay tuned for more exciting Italian adventures just like our collecting of washing!

    This afternoon, we slept a little. I studied some Italian and Chris worked on his laptop. In the late afternoon, we stepped out for aperitivo as is now our custom. O goodness, I am going to miss this when I return to Australia. Today we chose Mimi e Coco at the end of our vicolo. We had passed it many times, but never went in. Tonight, we did. We enjoyed a couple of spritzes each and ordered a trio of bruschetta and chicken skewers with roast potatoes and rosemary to die for. After, we had gelato again sitting on the steps of the fountain at the Piazza Santa Maria just around the corner, a place we have now come to think of as our home piazza. Tonight, it was full of pilgrims for the Jubilee year. Mostly young people. And finally, a visit to a ‘libreria’ bookshop in the piazza where we could not help ourselves. We came out with three new books and a print of the Piazza. I got a new Penguin parallel text of short stories where each story is printed in both Italian and English, a great way to extend vocabulary, and a book by Roman stoic philosopher Seneca (4BC – 64AD) called On the Shortness of Life.

    Tomorrow morning, we do a Take 2 on the Colosseum and Forum tour. We are both in good spirits. Still loving Rome. Still loving Italy.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong

    The Vatican

    29 Juli 2025, Italia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Today was a mixed bag, I must say. It was meant to hold great promise. A tour of the Vatican Museums, a look at the Sistine Chapel, and then a tour of Saint Peters Basilica, all wrapped up in three hour guided tour booked online months in advance. The tour was well organised, easy to follow instructions, and our tour guide Gina, originally hailing from Barcelona but a fluent Italian speaker, was friendly, charming, knowledgeable and fun.

    However, that’s where the positives end.

    Let’s do this systematically.

    The Crowds were horrendous. Good on them for being here, but wow, honestly, what with the death of Pope Francis, the calling of a Year of Jubilee (only happens once every 25 years), a conclave, the election of Pope Leo, the Vatican was packed to overflowing with both tourists (us included) and pilgrims. Today, around 2pm Pope Leo was going to say a Mass for youth in the open air of St Peters Square. A lot of these folk wanted to see the museums and the Basilica too.

    The Museums are vast and like the National British Museum in London, you need a few hours to wander around to try to pick three or four rooms that you’d like to concentrate on and leave the rest for another time. If we’d had normal tickets, we could have done that. However, with tour tickets, we were on a forced march through various rooms but mostly through corridors lined with extraordinary antiquities from the ancient world that we did not have time to stop and see. With a hundred people in front of you and maybe two to three hundred people behind you, all walking through the long corridors of the museums in the same direction, you just could not stop. This meant that the tour was slow. With so many people, there were long waits and the whole things happened in slow motion.

    The Sistine Chapel, I don’t care what anybody says, is extraordinary. It is absolutely not over-rated. There were hundreds of us let in at our time, so we stood in the middle of the chapel looking up at the various panels, surrounded by a throng of other folk also all looking up. This was the only place in the tour where I was able to forget the numbers of people surrounding my personal space. Looking up at Michelangelo’s ceiling and his Last Judgement above the altar, I was quite transfixed by what he had achieved and disappointed when it was time to leave. By this point already, we were three hours into a three hour tour and still had St Peters to go, for me the highlight, a church I had always wanted to see. But we were on the clock due to the Papal Mass where the Basilica would be closed an hour or so before the Mass started.

    The Heat Rome today reached 31°. We were ushed out into St Peters Square, an incredible sight, but immediately pummelled by the unrelenting sun high in the sky, and bouncing off Vatican walls and bitumen, it must have reached the late thirties as we stood among a multitude of other people likewise melting away. The crowd would have been twenty across at least, hundreds in front and thousands behind. We were all cheek by jowl, which is very stressful. I am sure it was the largest crowd I have ever been in. My body was pressed in on all four sides by strangers. And the sun beat down.

    It was not long before heat stress started to overtake some. We inched our way up to the side steps at the front of the Basilica and just stopped. No-one knew what was going on. No-one could see why we had stopped. Pilgrims were moving up to the doors, but the rest of us were just left there to bake. And bake we did. Chris was struggling. I was struggling. In the end, I pulled the plug. There was no way we could stand there with no sense of when there would be movement because no-one was telling us anything. I was feeling weak at the knees and didn’t want to buckle. Chris looked exactly the same and so was with me all the way.

    We headed all the way back down to where we joined the crowd when we left the Museums, where a young Vatican official refused to let us out. I begged, cajoled and got very assertive with him, but to no avail. He told us that we had to follow the line we just left, go up those steps and head out on the other side of the Basilica.

    This is what we did. Of course, we had lost our place, but we pushed our way through to close enough to where we stood before and then miraculously, there was movement. It took about ten minutes to climb those few stairs with the amount of people. But it was all too late. The sun and the Vatical crowds had defeated us. We were over it and just wanted out. We passed open doors into the Basilica and headed for the exit on the other side feeling completely overwhelmed.

    I think the Vatican authorities should have had better crowd control, some public service announcements and should even have sprayed the crowd with cold water as you see in some crowd situations. I am disappointed I never got to see inside the Basilica. The front façade of this immense church was built in the early 1500s to show the power of the church and the power of the papacy in the world as it was then. It still does, even though the institution doesn’t hold the same sway. As a building, it is very impressive as it is meant to be. The Square likewise with its colonnades topped by saints and apostles is very impressive. There is no other word for it.

    But having survived the turmoil and sheer effort of having to get through something extremely uncomfortable, I would not recommend a tour of the Vatican Museums. I would rather buy a normal ticket and take myself through. But so popular are the Museums that finding a low crowd time might be difficult. I also would not attend the Basilica on a special event day. And in the future, if there is another future, I would not come to Rome in the dead of sweltering summer.

    Tonight, dinner (pizza), drinks, a stroll, gelato, a sit on the fountain steps, another stroll by the river and home. My back aches from all the standing and my feet are still on fire. It is what it is.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong
    Basilica St John Crisogono, sheltering from downpour
    Basilica St John Crisogono, sheltering from downpour1The Trevi FountainA column with Virgin Mary atopThe Spanish Steps1The Keats Shelley house1Mum and little sparrow joined us for Aperitivo2Vicolo Cinque, our streetDoorway in Piazza Santa Maria

    A Rainstorm Cools Rome

    28–31 Jul 2025, Italia ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Last night, we ate out in Trastevere. La Canonica is just around a few corners in a different vicolo or alley. I was quite determined to do all the greetings and ordering in Italian. Thank goodness for Manolo. Other establishments seem to quickly switch to English once they’ve pegged you as a non-Italian, a process called being ‘Englished’, but not Manolo. Manolo was a young friendly man who showed grace and patience with my Italian. He answered me In Italian each time and he asked me for further clarifications in Italian. I was just thrilled at this as it was the first time someone in the hospitality industry has been patient with me. It’s not that I was getting things wrong, I’m just not as fast as a native speaker. Dinner was wonderful. I enjoyed a beautiful pasta and had a limoncello, a drink I had not had before. It was delightful. Refreshing but tart.

    Today was day of doing a few quite famous touristy things. We saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, as well as the Keats Shelley Museum beside the steps. The Fountain really is spectacular. I have so so many pictures and vids and reels of Trevi that I anticipated not being particularly thrilled when I saw it. But good reader, I was wrong. I was not expecting the colour palette of the fountain, its creams and its minty green water were stunningly beautiful. The augustness of the thing took my breath, its size, the statuary, the winged horses, the pontifical triple crown atop, and the feel of it was an enjoyable surprise. While we were there, they had turned the water off in order to do a bit of cleaning, but it was nonetheless well worth the visit. When returning later from the Spanish Steps, the water was flowing, but the crowds had increased by then, so only one or two pics of that time.

    What can I say about the Spanish Steps. They are amazing. They climb a long and steep slope up to the Trinità dei Monti church at the summit. The steps are symmetrical and are surprisingly beautiful to look at. I understand that the land back in Newcastle NSW under Christchurch Cathedral was said to be earmarked for a long grand piazza down through Cathedral Park across King Street and down into Hunter Street, along the lines of Rome’s Spanish Steps. I would love it if they followed through on it. At the top, a grifter tried to get something out of me, but I left him behind, then he tried Chris who was being polite. I strode over and just told him to stop, resurrecting my erstwhile teacher’s voice. He buggered off and didn’t bother us again.

    As you look up the steps from the bottom, the house directly next to them on the right was the house of English Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. We paid our money and took a look through the museum and I had a good chat with one of the women who worked there. She was English but spoke fluent Italian. Having an Italian husband and having spent three years at university living with three Italian girls in her twenties clearly went to facilitating her prowess at the language. Keats died in the bedroom in this house at the appalling age of 23 from tuberculosis. The bedroom has been kept as he had it.

    A shared pizza for lunch at a local restaurant saw us satisfied for main meals for the day. We rested this afternoon, tried to have a nap, but after a rain storm this morning, the humidity climbed very high, so napping was a bit difficult. Later this evening, we strolled down to a local bar in our vicolo and had two beers each and a bruschetta. It really was lovely to just sit there and drink cold beer, eat small bowl of crisps, which comes with the beer (I love that) and watch the passing parade of locals and tourists. We felt very relaxed and noted that this kind small snack with a drink in the afternoon, they call it Aperitivo, is not something we enjoy in Australia.

    Then followed a gentle passiaggiata (a stroll) through the various vias and vicolos of our neighbourhood. We ended back at the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere where the basilica of the same name sits open to the crowds of people lolling about in the piazza and around the central fountain. Gelato followed and the guy remembered us and greeted us warmly. How lovely.

    Then a few odds n ends in a souvenir shop where we purchased some bits n bobs. A relaxing evening at home tonight and readying ourselves for our first official tour tomorrow at 8.30am consisting of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peters Basilica.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong
    3Travestere Fountain
    3Travestere FountainSanta Maria in Travestere2St Peter's dome dominates that part of RomeA little bridge to Tiber Island.Il Teatro di MarcelloVictor Emmanuel II on his horse

    Old Rome and New

    27–30 Jul 2025, Italia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    In a sense, today really started yesterday afternoon. With no guided tours booked for a few days, we strolled around Trastevere discovering new nooks and crannies on every street and street corner. Trastevere’s streets are cobble-stoned labyrinthine. There are right turns and left turns and Y shaped turns wherever you look and each one is lined with restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, as well as a bit of retail sprinkled through. I’m still trying to find my way home half the time as they all look alike. But even with the abundant graffiti trying to equate itself with street art, Travestere is pretty. The architecture is old and gorgeous, the doorways, the terracotta gradients of colour, the piazzas and fountains and churches everywhere, are a delight to experience. Unlike the USA, where we travelled in February this year, everyone here seems happy and energetic. People in the US just looked depressed. This is a massive difference.

    After coffee at a local bakery where we introduced ourselves to the main man behind the counter as Austalians, we checked out our first church, a basilica no less in our own neighbourhood. This is Santa Maria in Travestere, one of the oldest churches in Rome, built in 1138-43 on a site of a much older church built in 217-222. It has three naves with columns and a highly decorated wooden ceiling. Along with some incredible artworks in the side chapels, this basilica is much admired and has the bling factor.

    The fountain in the piazza at the front of the basilica is large and cooling. We had a beer and some light food in the afternoon before returning home around 3.30pm. I decided I would take a short nap around 4pm and Chris came and woke me at 10pm to have a morsel of food before showering and off to bed again. Clearly, my body still needed the sleep catch up. I took some pics of our neighbourhood at night from our balcony and with the sounds of life wafting up from the streets below, glasses clinking, laughter, chatter, shouts, far-off sirens, I couldn’t help but think of Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Thankfully, no murders just over yonder. We both slept reasonably well last night and woke early to the gulls honking and the church bells ringing the hour.

    Brekky again at Griselda where the owner recognised us at once, giving us a hearty Buongiorno Australians and shaking my hand. We planned out our trip for the day over cappuccinos and croissants, thanked everyone, and headed out to walk over the Ponte Garibaldi, the next bridge along from our local bridge. We stopped half-way to photograph the island in the Tiber, Isola Tiberina, and then made our way to my first taste of Roman ruins; the Teatro di Marcello. This theatre was started at the end of the Roman Republic, in fact Julius Caesar himself had the land cleared for it, but alas for him, he was murdered before construction could be started. I did feel a little awe-struck and noted to Chris how chunky the thing was and that it was no wonder that these things have stayed up for two thousand years. Yes, do marvel at my architectural descriptions. Next stop, the Egyptian pyramids. Pointy.

    After the theatre we walked to maybe the grandest, most imposing monument in the city, outside the Colosseum, the Victor Emanuel II monument, bult in 1885-1935, and dedicated to the first King of a unified Italy. It is full of steps, colonnades, porticos, columns, marble, fountains, equestrian sculpture and two statues of the goddess Victory. It is huge in size, and we splurged on tickets to ride the lift to the top of the thing which gives unparalleled 360° views of Rome. We strolled quietly through the military museum part and stopped for a cool drink at the monument’s café, located somewhere in the heights of the structure, and which had in Italian and In English, a sign that read, ‘how to order’. From the cafe, you could look down over the Roman Forum and over to the Colosseum, and in the other direction, across to the Vatican and St Peter’s. Not a bad view for a café.

    Our first tram home. Easy. Some lunch at a local bar, un panino per me, and some bruschetta for Chris. Neither of us could resist a cold beer. Resting at home this afternoon. Using Italian is going relatively well, although I could probably raise the bar a level or two. Chris is using it in small ways too which is great. A lovely day out, but wow, the heat and humidity do take it out of you. Italy, so far, I love you.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong
    The show of our plane on the water
    The show of our plane on the waterThe view from our balconeOur glorious streetA cold beer at last, at Bar CaramelleOur local fountain, Fontana dell'Acqua Paola in Piazza TrilussaThe Ponte SistoThe Ponte Sisto showing off her arches

    Getting There is Half the Battle

    26–28 Jul 2025, Italia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    I know I’ve sad it before in Find Penguins, but for Australians who are travelling, getting there truly is half the battle. We live in a world half a world away from anything happening in the Northern Hemisphere, so arriving at a destination up that way is an endurance for Aussies, let no-one tell you otherwise.

    Chris and I had a 6am flight out of Sydney. We stayed at the airport hotel to make things easier. Still, we had to be inside the airport, checking in and going through security at least three hours before that, ie., 3am, which meant getting up and showering and doing the final pack an hour before that. We rose at 2am. The airport stuff went mercifully smoothly. Security was no problem.

    The combined flight however, Sydney to Dubai, Dubai to Rome, took twenty two hours. I used the word endurance earlier. It is an understatement. Arriving at Rome around 8pm, we had been travelling non-stop for around twenty-eight hours. And for me, this was one of our better flights. I did not hurt so much, although I did take paracetamol to help me get through it. When turbulence permitted, I got up and stood around the cabin, loitering around the toilets as there isn’t much else place to go, as often as I could, just to move and to put my body into a different pose than that of sitting cramped. It can get excruciating.

    I could not concentrate on watching a movie, so I watched documentaries instead, two on Great British Cathedrals (three of the six chosen I had been to so there were some nice memories to enjoy), and a ridiculous Mysteries Decoded series on the aliens at Roswell. I am convinced there were aliens. They would not have passed their space ship test though as they crashed it on their first go. I also read a novel that I started before the trip and got through half of it.

    Rome’s airport was likewise nice to us, as were the Customs officers who waved us both through no doubt thinking, ‘how charming these two Australians are’, or, ‘look at these poor bastards, they’ve just flown from Australia’.

    We had intended to catch the Leonardo train into the city and take an Uber or taxi to the apartment but honestly, we were so overwhelmed with the length of time being both awake and uncomfortable and then getting out into a balmy Roman night of 35̊, we decided to just pay the taxi fee from the airport. It is supposed to be a flat flee of 55€, but when we alighted, the driver charged me seventy and I could not be asked to argue with him, so overwhelmed by this point were we. I made my first mistake of the trip when I left my glasses behind in the taxi on the back seat. I am making enquiries as we speak, but I do not hold out much prospect.

    We slept well. We have air con in our room and our fourth storey apartment, despite the challenge of the 59 stairs (yes, I counted them), is a lovely, safe, comfortable and welcoming little place. We can be happy here for a week or so. Outside our door is a bustling restaurant and bar strip, one of many labyrinthine dedicated to endeavours gustatory and drinking. It’s a fun spot.

    This morning, we did a supermarket shop and had out first Italian brekky, a coffee and a cornetto (croissant). When paying, I began in Italian, but the cashier asked me to speak in “English please” so I complied. My Italian teacher told me to insist on using Italian otherwise they will ‘English’ you wherever you go. I don’t quite have the confidence yet to insist. But I’m working on it.

    Today is a rest day, as is tomorrow. We will need another really good sleep tonight like we had last night to return to some semblance of human normalcy and psychological equilibrium. Una passeggiata (a stroll around) this afternoon probably, and dinner out tonight somewhere is almost certainly on the cards. We are spoiled for choice.

    Despite the feat of physical and psychological endurance of the trip here, I am happy to be seeing this amazing city and getting a feel for its people.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserPrimo Assaggio d’ItaliaPelancong

    The Day Before

    24 Juli 2025, Australia ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    There is a day before. It always comes, just the day before.

    The end of July sees us heading off to Europe for two months. One month in Italy, and one month in the UK. I am excited about both, and a little nervous about the first. It will be our, and my, first trip to continental Europe where English is not the lingua franca.

    However, I feel I am well-prepared, having studied Italian for ten months straight every day and am now conversing relatively freely with my Italian teacher, a charming and clever man who teaches at the University of Salerno. At this point, I am probably at the top end of B2 level for European languages, out of a Beginners A1 through to Advanced C2.

    Learning a new language was one of my target behaviours for when I retired. From a neuroscientific point of view, keeping your brain healthy and maybe even keeping dementia at bay, is best served by learning something brand new. Something you did not know before.

    I already had University level French under my belt, and it was tempting to just pick that up again, but it does not really fulfil the ‘brand new’ criterion for neurogenesis (creating new brain cells and making new connections with existing ones). I have always wanted to travel to Italy, so I thought, why not. I’ll start learning Italian, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to go.

    And it has become a joy for me. I’ve always had a penchant for language and language play, so learning Italian has thoroughly seduced me into its delights.

    Regardless of my language training, I am very enthusiastic to see and experience Italy for it has many things to offer that I love, to wit, the ancient world, antiquities, the Renaissance, architecture, art, sculpture and music, the Vatican and the Church, glorious food and wine, and more than its fair share of nature in all its beauty.

    Our itinerary covers Rome, Sorrento (Pompei, Amalfi coast, Salerno), Florence, Ravenna and Bologna. We will be staying put in each place sometimes up to seven and eight days as we want to get a feel for the place and enjoy newly discovered streets and people. I am very hopeful for this trip.

    Today is the day before. We are now ensconced in our hotel room at Sydney airport all ready to get up at 2am to fulfil all the requirements that a 6am fight demands. It’s been a big two days just getting here and we are both tired. And I daresay we’ll be tired when we get there, but we’ve pencilled in two free days before we start doing tours and the whole tourist thing in order to give us time to catch ourselves.

    Chris’ folks generously gave us a lift to the airport and had a late lunch with us at Smithy’s bar and bistro before driving home again. We’ve settled in and had a cocktail up in Cloud Nine on the 9th floor overlooking the airport as the sun set and just watched the planes take off and land as we chatted about life. It is very peaceful, and I personally feel very positive about our trip.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserUSA First Trip of RetirementPelancong
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    Another Trip Comes To An End

    6 Maret 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    This is the final post for my San Francisco Seattle trip to the USA. I woke this morning in our Seattle apartment, had a leisurely brekky and we packed our suitcases which of course now have to carry the extras that we've purchased while here. Sensibly, and as somewhat seasoned travellers, we spread them over our two bags to even out the weight and not violate the restrictions that would incur a fee.

    We had a very smooth ride out to the airport and sat in one of those fancy eateries that charge like wounded bulls to eat some chips and drink a beer. It was nice, and I must say, the view out over the tarmac through the curved windows was spectacular.

    ``Our flight was uneventful, which is the way you want them. I read another chapter of my novel, Migrations by Charlotte Conaghy, while Chris listened to music. I took some pics of Puget Sound from the air which just looked like a postcard. Stunningly beautiful. And a few pics too of Mt Rainier in its snow-covered glory. A shame we never got out there to see it in the flesh. But them's the breaks with holiday sickness. You have go with the flow, adjust, and make the best.

    Coming into San Fran was special. You get a great view of the city surrounded by the mountains. We have a six hour hour lay over here and fly out tonight at 11pm, having arrived 4.20pm. It's all good though. We've had dinner, I have done some more DuoLingo and we've just now come for a walk and are sitting back with a beer and a wine while I write this 'last post'.

    Despite the interposition of illness, which I'm still not fully recovered from, I have enjoyed this holiday. Both cities have their own magic, their own sensibility, their own way of getting in. San Fran is adorable in so many ways, but it was my third visit to the city by the bay, and I feel a certain familiarity with it. Seeing it with Chris for our second go has been special. It can bring delight so quickly.

    Seattle has been an eye-opener. It's like there are two Seattles, one by day, and one by night. The one by day seems deserted except for tourists like us and the odd local going about their business. But by night, the neon signs are illuminated, the cafes and restaurants fill up and there is life and energy here. It's quite lovely and has a great feel.

    Our visit to the US has coincided with the beginning weeks of the Trump presidency. There is no getting away from it. I am still processing it all, like so many others. I have always felt the man was fake, that the little show he put on at his rallies with all the usual greatest hits is performative. I think he prefers rallies to governing. They stroke his ego more.

    I don't really think Trump stands for much at all other than fueling his planet-sized ego. I suspect he's quite malleable. His treatment of friends and allies has been appalling. I watched in dismay his treatment of President Zelensky in the Oval Office with he and his little attack terrier Vance set upon him to humiliate him in front of the world. I think that backfired. As one of my brothers might say, "he shit in his own nest".

    Having read The Forever War by Nick Bryant, and bought another similar tome here to read when I get back home, I am convinced that America is broken, broken to its DNA, its origin story no less traumatic and obscene than our own. The US has a long way to go to heal the wounds of its inherent racism, its greed, its capitalistic democracy, and its acceptance of the poverty/wealth divide as being normal. I see such beauty here as you will see in some of the pics, such incredible potential in the brains trust America has been given, yet their politics is broken, they do not know how to govern themselves nor how to foster a just and equitable society.

    I have a renewed appreciation for my own country Australia. I said it before in an earlier post, but I am convinced along with Paul Keating that we have created a better society than America's. And ours needs work! America's is on life support. Life and values are similar but different in Australia. I would say now after three weeks back here, better. I can't not think it.

    Chris and I have a big year before us. We are both optimistic and come what may, we'll continue to face life together just as we have for the last twenty-five years, holding each other up, being there for each other. So to the United States, it's good night, good bye and good luck.    Baca selengkapnya

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    SAM I AM

    3 Maret 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Well, I'm not sure about green eggs and ham, but I do like Sam, yes Sam I am up for it. Yesterday, we did a tour of the Seattle Art Museum, or SAM. It is big and feels capacious with lowith lofty ceilings and has a lovely heterogenereity to it. Not specialising in antiquities, or renaissance art, or glassware or impressionists. But it has all those things.

    A gentle stroll though the galleries with no-one looking over your shoulder while you read the legend about each piece. People about, but not too many. I was taken by a painting called Blessing Christ by Andrea Previtali 1517 which for all its centuries-old age has a modern looking guy who's about to say "dude". I think Christ would have been cool with that 😃

    Home in the afternoon for some downtime. We ate in last night and watched a movie and read our stuff on our phones before an early night around ten. My symptoms have now morphed essentially into a cough, a productive one at that. It is unpleasant and tiring but I remain of good cheer. But somehow, I know not the mechanism, I have managed to sleep both the last two nights without keeping us both awake all night. It does make a difference.

    Today, we went shopping. We bought some nice reasonably priced up-market gear in Zara and both felt happy with our purchases. Home again this afternoon for more downtime. Trying to give my body the rest it requires to get on top of this bug.

    I have been following assiduously world affairs, reading everything I can to stay abreast of what is happening here in America, the world, and at home. The streets of the two American cities which we've visited this time display the obvious chasm between great wealth and great poverty. You only have to walk out your front door. For such a smart and wealthy nation, America has gone wrong somewhere. Its historic exceptionalism has now devolved into being exceptionally broken. I suspect that it was from the beginning and the inequity and the inequality has just grown exponentially.

    Under the econd Trump administration, the US seems to have gone into some kind of existential spasm where the foundations of its democracy are being undermined daily and it doesn't know whether to try to ride it it out or intubate itself lest it become fatal.

    It's a concern and at this point, I have to say I will happy to leave this strange place and return home, which, with all its problems, is a better life by far.

    Tonight, cocktails at Hatch Cantina and dinner at La Via è Bella. Yum, home- cooked Italian in a cool place. Downstairs in fact and next door 😃    Baca selengkapnya

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    Of Fogs and Ferries and Fries

    1 Maret 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Today, after a good night's sleep for a change, we woke with a little more energy. Our plan was to walk down to the ferry terminal and take one of the Washington State ferries across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. We did do this, but we woke to the city thickly shrouded in a heavy fog, the clouds deciding that that they didn't want to be up there, they wanted to be down with us.

    The ferry terminal is large and purpose built. We waited inside with a couple of hundred others to board once the passengers, bikes and cars had disembarked from the previous vogage back over from the Island.

    We boarded the MV Puyallup, a 460 feet Jumbo Class vessel built right here in Seattle. It has multiple decks and can carry 2500 passengers and 202 cars, so it's not little in any way.

    The entire ship was covered in fog as was the terminal as was Puget Sound. As we set off, we headed outside to stand against the bracing winds. And bracing they were. It was fffffreeezing standing directly in the wind so we didn't do that for too long understandably. The crossing was as smooth as silk, punctuated only by the vessel's stupendoulsy loud foghorn which was sounded at regular intervals over the whole crossing. As we neared the destination, we could hear the horn echo back to us.

    It was other-worldly and felt surreal for both of us. Visibility on the way over was mere metres. And there were other eqaully large ferries and almost as large crusie vessels, not to mention any cargo ships that might happen to be entering the port; not that you'd see them.

    I was reminded of the extraordinary feats of nautical derring-do that I read about in David Grann's book The Wager which gave me fresh admiration for sailing skills of yesteryear in challenging waters. I assumed today's radar was up to the task. I won't forget today's crosssing. It was very special.

    The little island of Bainbridge hosts tourists coming off the ferries all day long. There was plenty of accommodation there, but most of the folk I think were day-trippers like us. We found a nice cafe and actually enjoyed a decent latte for a change.

    We then took a comfortable stroll around the waterfront on timber walkways in and around and through the various marinas. That was nice. The marinas at home are all locked up and the public can't really walk them. Not so here. It was a lovely feeling to be out and about on the water on a freezing day looking at the mountains, the hills, the island architecture, the boats, and occasionally tinly little glimpses of the tops of skyscrapers poking out of the fog back in Seattle across the water.

    All this wandering left us thirsty so we found a nice little diner/bar/pub perched on the side of a hill overlooking the whole wonderful vista where we had a beer and a plate of fries served in a rectangular metal 'bowl'. Cute huh. A bit of check-in with each other here too was a good thing.

    Back to the ferry terminal just in time to catch a departing ferry, the same one we came over on. Only this time, there was some blue sky and we got to see the majesty of Mt Rainier overlooking the city as well as the city scape itself, which looked pretty amazing. A nice day indeed.    Baca selengkapnya

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    Museum of Popular Culture and Last Day

    1 Maret 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Yesterday 4 March, Chris and I took a trip to MoPOP, the Seattle Museum of Popular Culture. To our surprise, we discovered it was a Frank Gehry building with lots of twists and turns and curves just like the Bilbao Guggenheim. A lovely thing to behold form the outside, and the inside, varied and interesting.

    The tours were all fun and I found them nostalgic too. I especailly liked the Fantasy and Sci Fi exhibitions and seeing costumes and props from famous shows that I grew up with.

    After so long standing looking at the exhibitions, we were ready to sit down in the bar for a bite and a prosecco for him, a cherry cider for me and charcuterie board of meats and cheeses with a warmed yummy pretzel. That's a bread stick drawn into various shapes, not one of those Aussie cracker things we call pretzels. Delish!!

    Some rain after we left and had a coffee in a nearby garage/cafe and a walk home since we had our umbrellas and it wasn't too heavy. Relaxation followed at home with leftover pasta from our night out before, and we finished a movie.

    Today, 5 March is our last day in the States if you don't count tomorrow's travelling day. We walked back down in the warm sunshine to the Seattle ferries and caught one back out to Bainbridge Island, this time on a nice sunny crossing, the water as smooth as glass. A trot around the main street, some touristy purchases in one of the gift shops, and a leisurely ride back over the Sound to home and a relax. We'll head for a drink before dinner, and then we'll kickk back for the evening.    Baca selengkapnya

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    Seattle Aquarium

    28 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    It's been along time since I have been to an aquarium. There was one in San Fran which we hesitated over, but this one on the Sound at Seattle is refurbished and has been added onto with a shiny new building hosting extraordinary architecture that complements the curves and sinews of the ocean and all things marine. We had to go.

    Despite my health, we plunged into the marine world of the aquarium with vigour and interest. We spend a lot of time at the ocean so we have an affinity for this type of thing.

    Lovely exhibits, the pics of which did not really come out all that well, what with moving fields of vision, it ain't easy. Your seal is just there one second and the next he's gone. There's that cute otter looking right at you adorably, you prepare the shot, and he's gone.

    The staff were all busy looking after thier charges. I enjoyed the tactile experience upon entry where you wash your hands and you get to touch with one finger all the anemones and spiky sea urchins. The former were so soft, softer than velvet. And the latter's spines gather around your finger to encircle it.

    On one of the outdoor walkways between buildings I took some pics of a giant carrier ship emerging from the clouds that had descended in front of the Cascade mountains across the Sound. It looked like a ghost ship.

    After almost two hours, I was done. Today was my first day after a straight seven of mbeing medicated, without pseudoephedrine to keep me dry. So, I was couging a lot as my body turned back to do what it normally does when you are viral: have nasal congestion, a runny nose and you cough a lot. Still, I had to go through today to give everything a break from the drugs and can re-start the pseudoephedrine again tomorrow.

    We had another quick walk though PIke Markets on the way home and stopped at a cafe for a coffee. I say coffee, but honest to God, getting a decent coffee in this country is well nigh impossible. I sipped four times and threw it in the bin.

    We relaxed this afternooon, took a nap and went out for dinner tonight to The Black Bottle where we feasted on some share plates and some beer, looked after by a cute and very frriendly waiter from Venezuela.

    I didn't want to talk about the orange one in these posts, but today, Trump and that creep Vance ganged up on President Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of the cameras, mocked him and shouted him down before ensuring he left the White House. Americans are in shock and declaring embarrassment. Trump only ever wants a winning hand and he doesn't like to play unless he's got one. But I feel sure, if he hasn't already, he will overplay his hand one day and be done over. Can't come soon enough. Today was another disgrace from this soulless narcissist.

    But I did like the otters and the puffins.    Baca selengkapnya

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    Sleepless in Seattle

    27 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    It's been a few days since I posted a FP. That's because I have been very unwell. The lurgy that Chris had, I caught, and it has knocked me for six. I don't know if it is COVID 19 or not, but it certainly is a breathing type virus. I have struggled, as did Chris, in this regard, each breath an effort. Fevers, a chest cough, post nasal drip, muscle aches, tiredness and sleeplessness due to constant overheating and sweats. Hence the title of my piece. And a new understanding that illness, if it is significant enough, can interrupt the flow of an exciting voyage substantially.

    We flew here on Monday just as my version of the virus was really taking hold. It's never fun to fly when sick. Thank goodness it was only a two hour flight.

    Our apartment here is beautiful. It could not be more different than our little dog box of a thing in San Fran and it was just what we needed; some space to move around, space to be in different rooms, more than one chair to sit in, a table to eat at. I could go on.

    We are situated not far from the water, Puget Sound, a working port, just like our own back home, and thus having all the attendant infrastructure that goes with a working port. The Sound is very pretty. It has islands and on its far coast, is a mountain range called the Cascades.

    The city has been doing up the port this side for better public access and have spent a mozza on walkways, viewing platforms and grand architectural staircases. It's not finished, but it's a work in progress and shows what can be done around such ports and harbours.

    We took a walk around the famous Pike Place Market which I expected to be outdoors but which was indoors in long rambling halls. Not many people there. Not many people in the streets either, we've both noticed. Neither of us bought anything.

    We watched an episode, a first for Chris, of Columbo on tv last night. It really was very good and it brought back memories of Peter Falk's famous role. We've been eating in thus far.

    Today, we walked down to the Space Needle, Seattle's most famous landmark, and had a lovely time up top. Coffee, some wandering, and I even braved standing on the see-through glass revolving floor without too much consternation, although I held on to Chris grimly.

    We bought a few odds and ends in the gift shop at the bottom and headed into the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. I honestly did not know what to expect but I found myself enchanted by the colour, the shapes, the twists, the sheer imagination of this artist. It was stunning and I am so glad we bought a ticket. I have never seen glass like this before!

    We'll stay in again tonight to conserve energy and to help with healing. Chris is still not 100% and I am far from it. Sadly, we have been forced to miss our two organised and pre-paid events here: last night's performance of The Magic Flute by the Seattle Opera Company, and tomorrow's day trip to the snow-covered slopes of Mt Rainier which you can see in the pics. I am disappointed but even-minded about this turn of events. We still love each other and Chris is looking after me thoughfully. Life is good.    Baca selengkapnya

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    Last Day in San Francisco

    24 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Well, I never thought I would be saying this, but I can't wait to get the hell out of this town. It's not San Fran itself, it's more the co-incidents that have befallen us while here.

    We were somewhat stresed out before we came. But we thought the trip away would do us good. Trouble is the fourteen hour flight really took it out of us, and I am convinced that a man one row back from us and across the aisle, who sneezed big footballer sneezes several times without covering his mouth, without directing his projections into the crook of his elbow, was the culprit who gave us both the lurgy.

    First Chris. Five days to get through the worst of it. Poor man. Then me. I am on day 2 with my symptoms still getting worse before they get better. This is not a woe is me or a woe is us, it's just that it has sapped us of our energy and at times, our will to live.

    Added to that, I have to admit that the little shitbox of an apartment we stayed in was altogether unsuitable. There was no-where to sit. There was no table, one chair, the shower drained slowly, the toilet was next to the bedhead, so zero privacy. There was nothing homely about it, nothing comfortable, nothing at all that would sell it to a potential renter. I have learned my lesson.

    So, it was with an enervated heart that we set out on our last day. We dropped some washing off to Lily's. We love Lily. We then had a coffee at a doughnut shop. Good coffee for a change. The coffee here is generally shit. Clearly, I am past pulling my punches or feeling bad about indelicacy.

    We headed down into town, browsed a bookshop and ate a fancy fountain of fries and some meatballs at Old Joes. It was a lovely establishment. After that, given we were in the vicinity, we sauntered through the Palace of Fine Arts which was indeed relaxing.

    We went for a little passeggiata as the Italians would call it though LaFayette Park one more time, and on the night before we left, Chris discovered the decaf coffee I had been drinking all week was not in in fact instant, but filter coffee, which completely explained the large puddle of sludge at the bottom of my cup each evening. You live you learn. We've learned a thing or two about accommodation when travelling, lessons that will not be forgotten in a hurry.

    We head off to Seattle tomorrow with me getting sicker and both of us feeling challenged. San Fran is a beautiful city but sometimes you just gotta have all or some of the other bits go right too.    Baca selengkapnya

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    A Slow Day to the Mission District

    23 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Job said, "that which I feared came upon me" and sure enough, right on time, I have come down with almost certainly the same virus that Chris has been battling for a week. It's early days, but I have seen his symptoms and know what's ahead of me.

    Despite this setback, we decided to do one thing and not push ourselves. We set out with a view to looking at the Spanish church, Mission Dolores Basilica in the Mission District. The adobe chapel next to it was built in 1776 and is reputed to be the oldest building in San Francisco. The basilica was built in 1918 and designated a basilica in 1952. It has a grand exterior, one which I admired the last time I was in San Fran, but I didn't never venture inside on that occasion. Today was the day.

    The lighting is the first thing that strikes you. The lights are turned down low and dim. There is darker general feel to the church which is punctuated by bright orange and yellow stained glass windows. And turquoise ceilings down the side aisles. There is a cupola in the centre, also turquoise, and the sanctuary was not all rococo as I expected from Spanish architecture, but simple and restrained. The whole thing gave a sense of quiet and reflection. I liked it, a lot. The stained glass gave a warm feel to the interior despite the low lighting.

    We had a coffee in the Morning Dew cafe which was just lovely. The young girl did some lovely coffee art on my latte, but as she was passing it to me, she dropped a spoon in it, so there was laughter all round.

    After, we headed up to the park and sat briefly on damp grass to look at the young people just hanging and listen to a group of musos do thier thing. We caught the underground to the Embarcaderro with a view to sitting down with a beer, but on Sunday afternoon, beer there was none, so we hightailed it to the grocery store near our digs and went home, happy tp stop.

    My symptoms had come on stronger by bedtime, so not a great night for us. Tomorrow, we will relax.    Baca selengkapnya

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    Art Galleries and Towers

    22 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    This post will cover two days, yesterday 21 February and today, 22 February.

    Yesterday, Chris and I did a pilgrimage back to SF's justly famous Legion of Honor, its world-class art gallery, perched up on a hill with lovely views.

    We have been here before, back in 2018, and were greatly taken by its simplicity, its openness, its collection, and the special exhibition it was showing at the time, the Pre-Raphaelites.

    This time, we slowly made our way through all the galleries, about nineten of them, lingering here and there, enjoying the various periods and seeing the artwork of a particular time. The building itself is impressive. Its outer courtyard, which has Rodin's Le Penseur in pride of place, is surrounded by beautiful columns with a portico running around the perimeter. They are a light stone and are stunning to look at.

    Inside, I was taken with Arundel Mill by John Constable ca 1835 where you can see part of Arundel Castle in the background, a castle that Chris and I have visited back in 2022. The other artwork that impressed me was Monet's The Grand Canal Venice 1908. Hazy, faint, hot, beautiful. We'll get to visit it later this year. Banks of the Loing 1891 by Alfred Sisley also took my eye for its reflections of the trees in the water.

    A more expensive dinner last night than what we would ususally do, but we're on holiday and we felt like eating out. SPQR is a Michellin rated Italian restaurant. The food was mouth-wateringly delicious and the atmosphere sitting up at the bar in the dim lighting was a bit magical.

    Today, we visited Coit Tower. I have often lamented the fact that Newcastle doesn't have something to look at with a soupcon of awe and wonder. Alas. Coit Tower is a monument built specifically as a gift to the city by Lilly Hitchcock Coit after her death. Its in its nineties now and will be one hundred years old in 2033.

    There are beautiful murals painted on its walls on the ground, first and second floors showing life in California during the Depression. The tower itself is a thing of beauty. Despite its concrete manufacture, it is not brutalist in any way and its top has ornamentation and an open to the sky viewing platform that offers spectular 360 degree views of the city, bay and mountains. I'm so glad we took the time to visit.

    Macy's followed and we were frankly underwhelmed and bought nothing. Mason's Cafe offered us lunch in a diner atmosphere, and then, groceries and home to relax. It's been a good day, although Chris is still getting through his cold/virus affliction and has had to work harder than me to have these experiences. I am hopeful now that his symptoms have peaked and that he's on the mend. The weather has been glorious since we got here, apart from one rainy morning. San Fran is still feeling like it likes us.    Baca selengkapnya

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    A Day at the Castro

    20 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    We had always intended to come back to the Castro. It feels like coming home if you're a LGBTQ person. You can come from anywhere, and if you're gay, as Chris and I are, you feel like the Castro is a welcoming and safe place. There are plenty of gay people around. You're not the only one. And, coming from Newcastle as we do, that feels very different but very nice.

    We had pre-booked a tour of the GLBT Historical Society musem. 11am, wear a mask. We were there at a minute to 11am, and having donned our gay apparel, our masks, we were duly let in and very warmly welcomed by an older gentleman who processed our tickets and gave us the rundown of the museum.

    The space isn't large, but it has a wonderful collection, not all of it on display, that we could just saunter around and take our time.

    I was particularly taken with the obvious courage of Jose Sarria who not only performed drag shows based on operas, but who was also the very first openly gay individual to run for public office in the US, albeit unsuccessfully, in 1961. Such a homophobic culture. So brave. As a young man, he was a serviceman, a strikingly handsome one too I might add, then settled in SF and started his shows. Much of the museum is his collection bequeathed to them.

    There was a segment of the original pride flag in front of which Chris and I proudly posed for a pic. The flag originated in 1978 and was designed by Gilbert Baker who said, "This was our new revolution: a tribal, individualistic, and collective vision. It deserved a new symbol". Baker desgined the flag with colour as its main feature: pink-sex, red-life, orange-healing, yellow-the sun, green-nature, turquoise-art and magic, blue-serenity, purple-the spirit.

    The best part of the collection for me was the Harvey Milk section. They had the suit he was wearing when he was killed. They had a recording of his voice, an extract saying that if you are hearing this, I am dead. He knew he was in danger from the conservative forces who hated what he stood for. There were some lovely pics of him and his boyfriend at home, some campaign flyers and a copy of the odious Proposition 6. The whole thing was very moving.

    Chris and wrote on postcards and put them on a wall for the next generation, along with others. I felt good doing that too.

    Next, was a walk around the Castro, in and out of various shops, some baklava for me in one of them, some Turkish deight for Chris, and a fabulous chat with one of the women working there. Into the bookshop, where Chris did buy a few pieces.

    And then finally on to Copper Bar where we had lunch and a beer and chatted to the handsome barman. Queer people around us just doing their thing; eating lunch, reading the paper, some girls talking about a new whisky to the barman, some guys who took their lunch out onto the pavement tables in the sunshine and ordered Old Fashions to wash it all down. Again, it was so nice to have gay people around us.

    We caught the bus home, had a small nap each and took a stroll through Lafeyette Park just before dusk. That was a lovely way to end the day. A microwave vegetarian lasagne for dinner and time writing this little post with some Johann Christian Bach playing softly in the background.

    Another good day in the City by the Bay.    Baca selengkapnya

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    Giant Redwoods

    19 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Today was a special day. It was the first of a number of planned and pre-paid events that we had organised. Today's was a bus trip to the Muir Woods National Monument followed by a drop off in Suasalito, lunch and a ferry back to SF.

    Our bus driver and tour operator, George, was a big man. He looked and sounded like Topol of Fiddler on the Roof fame. I thought at one point George was going to bust out 'Tradition' over the bus PA.

    He had a deep resonant warm voice and was as we describe people like this, a character. He had a lovely sense of humour which he used liberally in his commentary, he loved the performance of the whole thing (plenty of rhetorical questions which he would then answer and repetitons of words already spoken), and was genuinely extremely well-informed of the city, the journey throughout and the woods. George made me laugh and was absolutely worth the tip we gave him at the end.

    Muir Woods is the home of the giant redwoods. There is a beautifully laid out looped path that you can take either side of a running stream that has four distanced bridges across it. You can terminate your trip and turn around and return at any of the bridges, this giving ease of the experience to seasoned and not so seasoned walkers.

    It was raining today. We got a little wet on our way to the pick up point before George picked us up in SF. So, we bought identical umbrellas; yes, that's what she gave us, and once again Stu and Chris looked like the Bobsey twins. By the time we reached the forest, it was still raining lightly, not bucketing down, but lightly enough to get quite wet if you stayed out in it for five minutes. And we were going to be out in it for around an hour, so our matching umbrellas were a godsend.

    The water had soaked everything so there was a wet shiny look to the woods. The sequoias were astonishing. My camera was unable to fit an entire tree in without standing way back and the picture missing the grandeur. No matter, I snapped away at various vistas of these beautful giants, bottom halves, top halves, middle bits. They felt like gentle giants to me. There was a softness about them, but a strength nonetheless.

    So many views, so many pics, not enough space for it all here. But looking at something so old, centuries in fact, and so large, and so alive was cause for reflection. I suspect most thinking people on our tour experienced the same thing. Majesty without pomposity. Grandeur without narcissism. Maybe even something of the numenous.

    Chris and I have never seen a gift shop on a tour that we didn't love, so in we went and bought a few little odds and ends.

    George took us back to Sausolito where we dined in a restuarant called The Trident built out over the water, taking a panoramic view of SF city and drinking Mexican beer. And even a lovely sea lion swimming up close to our window for us to say hello. A relaxing trip back over the Bay in the ferry on the top deck saw us weary and ready to get an Uber to the grocery store near our digs and then home to relax.

    Another lovely day, I think the best so far. I will never forget seeing those redwoods.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserUSA First Trip of RetirementPelancong
    11

    Coffee and Sea Lions

    18 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Our day today was a relatively relaxed affair. We made our way down to the Embarcadero, where ferries and boats all depart San Francisco, and headed into the ferry terminal which is full of artisanal food and coffee and chocolate, and artisinal art.

    A fun jaunt through one of the latter saw us buy a few little arty trinkets, then head into a bookshop on the Bay where, against type, we did not purchase anything at all. This was followed by a decent coffee and a giant sugary scroll, far too big for me, but I'm on holidays and not thinking straight, so I ate it all.

    From there we walked down to Pier 39 to see the sea lions which were plenteous and fun to watch. Lolling about, swimming and eating, they have a glorious but noisy life.

    A walk through the theme park where I bought a hideous coffee and then out onto the street where we headed for the ferris wheel, the perhaps too generously named, SkyStar. Chris and I had a cabin to ourselves and had three and a half revolutions or thereabouts. It was whisper qiuet and ice-skatingly smooth, so a very comfortable and enjoyable ride we had while gaping at the extraordianry view of the city that such heights offer. My hitherto acrophobia thing didn't even make its presence felt.

    A lovely day was topped off by a microwave meal and an episode of Miss Fisher's Mysteries (nice to hear an Australian accent again) and an episode of Hope Street, a police procedural set in a little town in Northern Ireland. It felt a little like Doc Martin, only police. A lovely day.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserUSA First Trip of RetirementPelancong
    1

    Getting There is Half the Problem

    17 Februari 2025, Amerika Serikat ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    We Australians know a thing or two about travel. That's because of where we live. It was Paul Keating who once described Darwin as the arse end of the world (compared to other world cities) and most Australians and lots of Darwinians took it on the chin, broadly agreeing with his description.

    However, it strikes me that maybe Paul had it only half right, that in fact Australia itself is at the arse end of the world and for us to get anywhere, we have to travel a hell of a long way. In deed the northern hemisphere is where a lot of the action happens. It's not the only place of course, but it would it be a brave tourist who decried Europe, the UK, Canada, and the US as boring, nothing much happening and nothing to see here. Trouble is, they're such a bloody long way from we live.

    This means that a trip to Europe from Australia is a good twenty hours away, the UK, twenty two hours and to the US, it's a fourteen hour flight. Now I write this little piece sitting in a relatively pokey but comfortable apartment in San Francisco having just completed the said fourteen hours of economy class to get here.

    Now it was an uneventful flight, I must say. That's how you want them. A passenger jet this very day landed in Toronto and flipped over onto its back on the runway with all souls, crew and passengers escaping with their lives. No, our flight had a head wind which made us late by half an hour. I can live with that.

    But by God, I am buggered. I did not sleep at all, which means I have been awake for twenty four hours. Seating was as comfortable that cattle class can be, an aisle seat and a middle seat. Chris and I got up four or fives times to go to the toilet for non-existent wees just to get up, stretch and go for a wander to move our bodies. The first eight hours was okay, but the second six hours was a challenge.

    Of course, we had our Cabot neck pillows, novels to read, downloaded music to listen to and movies and television to watch. But by hour eleven, I just wanted to rip every piece of clothing I was wearing off and set fire to my shoes.

    However, I did watch two movies. Juror No 2 with Nicholas Hault, and Caddo Lake with Dylan O'Brien. Both three stars, the first, a modern take on Twelve Angry Men, this time with a twist that the original did not possess, and the second, a mystery thriller with a touch of the supernatural about it. Both fun, and some great acting in both. I also watched two episodes of Veep. I tried to read my new novel but could not start it due to the aches and pains in my body. The concentration was just not there.

    Anyway, we made it in one piece and are happy to be here though sore, stiff and extremely tired. We've been out for a beer and had a walk marvelling once again at SF's architecture. And of course, the WAYMOs, San Francisco's driverless cars. They are ubiquitous now. Who knows, we might try one.

    We won't push too hard tomorrow.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserUSA First Trip of RetirementPelancong

    Preparation and Promises

    16 Februari 2025, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    I retired from all clinical work on 17 December 2024. This new year starts a brand new and exciting phase in my life. I have lots of things planned and some already begun. This little trip to the US was planned before DT became President, but we're going anyway. This time, just two wonderful cities and surrounding areas: San Francisco and Seattle. We're off to Sydney today and will fly out tomorrow 17 February. I'm feeling good and looking forward to spending this time with Chris doing our occasional overseas thing. A few little pics to remind me where home is 😊Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserStu & Chris America 2018Pelancong

    Planes Trains and Automobiles

    1 Oktober 2018, Australia ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Hawai'i is amazing. But even the amazing eventually must come to an end. Ah the impermanence of everything. The Buddhists would be proud. All packed up, Chris and I took the hotel shuttle to the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport for a 10.30 flight to Sydney. It's about ten hours in the air, so you know before you start that by the time you get to your destination, you are going to be a bit stiff and sore and probably somewhat dehydrated and generally not feeling your absolute best. The flight was unremarkable, as you want them to be. The food was good. I actually enjoyed the stir fried pork in rice and vegetables and the chardonnay I eased them down with.

    I watched a movie. I was too tired for anything cerebral, so I settled for a sci fi I had seen before, the Pacific Rim sequel, Pacific Rim Uprising. It was fun and the guy is hot and the monsters get defeated in the end, which is what you want and all about I could cope with after a month travelling. I listened to the Grieg and Schumann Piano Concertos, both in A Minor and tried to fall asleep whilst doing so. 'Tried' being the oeprative word there. Sleep alas eluded both of us for most of the flight. Finally, I also read. I had downloaded the Ursula LeGuin translation and commentary of the 6th century Chinese classic, The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. This is a truly amazing work and one that is very challenging to those of us brought up in the West with our Western ideas of success and effort and money and power. I like these small poems, gobbets of profound wisdom that you have to suck like a lolly to start to unravel the layers inside.

    Travelling west is easier than travelling east. You follow the sun and even though you may be in the air for ten or more hours, you would still probably be up and doing things at your point of departure had you not left. Yes, it's all very confusing.

    We left at 10.30am Saturday, flew ten hours, crossed the date line, and landed at 4.30pm the following day. We had already decided that upon arriving in Sydney after such a long flight, we simply could not face a three hour train journey back to Newcastle in the world's slowest train. So we would stay in Sydney for the night and catch a morning train today back to Newcastle. Which we did. An excellent decision.

    We showered and headed back to Ruby's pub, the pub in Surry Hills we dined at the night before we left for the US, and had their 'jerk fries' again which are to die for. A nice bookend. Today, the train trip was slow as expected, but somewhat painful too in that although we chose the quiet carriage, a middle aged man and his friend talked conversationally the entire trip. In a carriage full of silent people, they sounded like they had megaphones. I listened to music, just my Daily Feed (Classical) on Spotify, and read, and eventually when their incessant chattering got to me, I tweeted about them and even wrote a twitter poem to help pass the time.

    We are home now. We were met by Chris' parents at the station who welcomed us in loving arms and took us home to barbecued chicken, fresh bread rolls, some beer and some tiny doughnuts. A king's feast, truly. We have unpacked, gotten the washing ready for tomorrow, and done some grocery shopping. We have even gone for a walk along Throsby Creek, our favourite walking track. It was nice to be back.

    I am missing my mother. Normally, I would have gone up to see her this afternoon. I would have looked forward to holding her and feeling her lovely embrace. I would have been looking forward to sharing with her the pics and stories of our time away. It is not maudlin, just the truth of one part of me this afternoon. Chris feels it too.

    It will take a few weeks to process our trip. We have started already, but there was so much to see and do. We travelled in six states and crossed so many time zones, our body clocks don't know whether they are Arthur or Martha. Some quick observations:

    1. America's poverty in the cities is much more on show than it is here. The down and outs are greater in number. They do not have the safety net that Australia has.
    2. The politics on TV every night is both a blessing and a curse. They are the most politicised nation on earth. Trump only has to scratch his arse and they talk about it in panels and discussions for hour after after hour after hour. Each show dissecting the scratch from every angle and what it means he's not scratching. I follow politics, but boy, this gets a bit much.
    3. American coffee. What can I say? It's shit! Australia is blessed with a wonderful European coffee culture and you really notice its lack when you're in the States. To be fair, there were one or two dedicated cafés, but realistically, you could walk ten blocks and not find an outlet that does espresso. And don't get me started on creamer and non-dairy creamer!
    4. American food, oh sorry American friends, is not as good as Australian food. We are so spoiled for choice here. American food is not as adventurous, neither their everyday food or their fancy schmancy food in restaurants. When you're on the road, you like to eat simple nutritious food that sits well and not always some gargantuan serving of whatever it is would you like fries with that? I look forward to my American buddies coming to Australia so I can show them some great places to eat.
    5. Trump and the Republicans. We were very discreet in our opinions about their President and his Party. Of course, we felt we had to. But when there were like-minded people around us, we did let them know what the rest of the world thinks about the man they voted in. There is actually a lot of shame and embarrassment about this. I hope this blip in time teaches them that in a system where there is non-compuslory voting, they simply have to get out and vote, for the good of the whole damn world.
    6. The endless, relentless pharmaceutical commercials on TV aimed, not at the medical profession, but at us, the consumer. Just wow! Like I said with the politics shows, I am so glad we do not have these types of commerical on tv in Australia.

    Highlights: Too many. I loved San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Salt Lake City, Cedar City, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Dallas and Honolulu. I loved the opera on opening night of the San Fran season. I loved the California Zephyr as a great train experience. It was exciting getting into SLC at 3 in the morning before the city woke up. The galleries, the museums, the swims, our hotel rooms, epsecially the Presidential Suite in the Sheraton Dallas. We bought some clothes and some souvenirs. I have a few more owls - as if the house needed more owls. What fun!

    Of course, we had our moments too. Fortunately, they were rare. Chris and I have an understanding that if either of us needs some 'me time', it's ours. Generally, we can get along very well even when we spend vast amounts of time in each other's company. The most surreal and maybe difficult time we had was the evacuation at 3am from the 31st floor of the Sheraton in Dallas. It took our calf muscles three full days to settle down after running down 62 flights of stairs in fear with adrenalin pumping through us. Surely, a night to remember. Oh, how we laughed.

    Stu's and Chris' America Trip is over. we had a blast.

    But of course the human element was the best. For Chris (and me) to be able to meet Micah and his partner Jason in SLC was so wonderful. And for me (and Chris) to meet up with Ben and his partner Tino in Dallas was amazing.

    Chris and I have already begun the conversation about whether this trip will change us, whether we will grow, or whether we will just settle back into what was before. Both of us want some change in our lives. Chris has hit his early forties and is keen to move. I turn 60 next year and that brings a whole lot of existential ponderiing to me. I think our America trip will be influential for us both in trying to engage wisely what comes next and how it comes next.

    I read yesterday Lao tzu's thoughts on travelling in the Tao in Poem 47 - Looking Far.

    You don't have to go out the door
    to know what goes on in the world.
    You don't have to look out the window
    to see the way of heaven.

    The farther you go,
    The less you know

    So the wise soul
    doesn't go, but knows;
    doesn't look, but sees;
    doesn't do, but gets it done.

    Ursula Le Guin makes the point that a Roman poet once said that travellers change their sky, but not their souls. I hope Chris and I take from our journeying what we need in this part of our life together.

    And thank you for sharing it with us.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserStu & Chris America 2018Pelancong

    Hawaii Honolulu Waikiki

    28 September 2018, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We arrived in Hawaii a few days ago, ready to slow down, stop going to galleries and museums, and just enjoy a nice hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean surrounded by palm trees and heavily forested craters of volcanoes. And this, pretty much, is what we've done since arriving.

    Honolulu is hot. Yes, lots of hot gorgeous people, but it's really just hot. It is incredibly humid. Our first night out, we walked along the beach promenade at Waikiki and happened upon a little eatery that had outdoor dining as well as inside. But the humidity was such that it continuously morphed into rain. Heavy rain. And then it would stop. We moved inside on our third table move. The evenings are particularly challenging. Eating out is a big deal just to get there and back again dry. Seated at a table with just the effort of using utensils, your brow breaks into a sweat, your neck too, your sleeves stick to your arms, your shorts stick to your legs. In truth, I have always imagined hell not so much as a fiery furnace as a sauna. Honolulu is outrageously beautiful, but I could not live here.

    We have swum in the ocean multiple times a day. It is a pale blue crystal colour, the colour of a larimar to be precise. It is warm, over 20 degrees C, but refreshing. Gentle waves that do not break until the shoreline just keep rolling through. You can swim or bob around in them for ages without getting cold. A volcanic crater up one end of the beach marks a particularly splendid view as you relax on the beach or in the water. Surfers on long boards paddle way way way out where there is a break. Some use wooden paddles. Duke Kahanamoku's name or image is everywhere. With these waves, I can see why he is the father of modern surfing.

    I tried to write here, but I couldn't concentrate, so abandoned the effort. Not sure if it was Waikiki or the nature of a piece of truly awkward penmanship that I needed to fix that caused my inability to write. That still awaits me.

    We have bought some clothes here and slept a lot. Our body clocks are all over the shop having been in so many different time zones. Eating out is a wonder here. They marry the inside with the outside so well. A roof, then no roof, then a roof again. Gas lit fire sticks everywhere, fairylights through the trees, and trees themselves allowed to grow through where a roof should have been. Great trees. Ancient trees. Ponds, waterfalls, comfy seats to just sit back and watch the water. Shops all round. It really leaves our indoor gargantuan shopping malls for dead.

    If we ever get back here there is much more of Hawaii to see. I think you would need some time. The people are super friendly, "aloha" as a matter of course wherever you go.

    Today is our last day here in Hawaii and also of our grand United States adventure. It will take some time to process. It seems forever ago that we landed in San Francisco and got a ride share from the airport.

    A long flight to Sydney awaits us in the morning and it really then will be all over. Maybe one more footprint. Till next.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Stuart EdserStu & Chris America 2018Pelancong
    Sixth Floor Museum former Book Depository
    Sixth Floor Museum former Book DepositoryThe Grassy KnollAwaiting movie in style in CinepolisThe Sheraton our hotelBen Strube and meThe Plaza of the AmericasBen and meMe, Ben, Tino, Chris pizza night last night in Dallas

    Dallas

    25 September 2018, Amerika Serikat ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Dallas has given us the chance to slow things down. It has been lovely. Our Presidential Suite, huge as it is, has become home and we have settled in comfortably.

    We saw the Sixth Floor Museum, which used to be the Book Depository from where JFK was assassinated. The museum is dedicated to preserving one of the most famous crime scenes from the twentieth century and to the whole complex story of Kennedy's assassination and its aftermath. It did a great job, attempted balance, but fell into hagiography once or twice, which in Dallas, I think is forgivable.

    Dallas itself is lovely. It's modern and clean, not a great deal of homelessness, some overt poverty, but not as much as San Francisco. There are many interesting looking buildings here, but most are modern architecture, ar least in the part of Dallas we are staying.

    We took in a movie, The House with a Clock in its Walls, starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett. It is set in down-home post-war America and has that wonderful colour palette of the time. You would have seen it in both The Shape of Water and Carol. Really lovely. The House etc was fun and extremely well done. A bit schmaltzy at times, but that goes with the fantasy genre it was aiming for. Happy to sit through it again one day.

    Finally today, my friend Ben and I caught up and spent some time together. It was great to sit and talk and walk and talk without hurry. We caught up on each other's lives and talked some politics, philosophy and theology. He and partner Tino joined us for pizza in the Presidential Suite this evening which was just wonderful. Such a great time. These boys too, just like our Salt Lake City friends, have an open invitation to visit us in Australia anytime.

    We leave Dallas having discovered two new friends and a fabulous new city. Our time on mainland US soil is over and we're heading home, but not before a couple of days to break our trip in Hawaii. Till next.    Baca selengkapnya

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