Anzac day

I've had a fairly quiet week so far, no exciting travels to talk about. However i have managed to do a few things. I organised an Anzac day service to be held here in Leicester. The Royal British Legion and their associations were very happy to help and quite a few of them turned up for the service, as did some people from the Britain-Australia Society, so all up about 12 people attended the service. It was very nice, very simple but just something to help remember all those Australians who have died as a result of war.

I also have attended a museums conference this week. It ran over three days, but i could only afford one day of it. It was really interesting, I went to the day that discussed communities and identities in museums, so got to hear about museums in Iran, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, New Zealand and Australia. I managed to talk to some of the delegates from Australia and New Zealand and got a couple of invites to visit people at museums once i get back home, which is all good for possible jobs and careers.

Other than that I have just been working on the essay and thesis, catching up on reading and relaxing. This weekend I'm heading off with rellies, so I'll have some more photos next week.

easter

I've spent the last week visiting friends and relatives in the south east. I spent three days with my cousins in Guildford then went to Reading to spend easter with a uni friend and also see some relatives there.

The three days in Guidlford were great. Elizabeth took me to some museums and so i got to see a little more of the area. The first day we went to the Weald and Downland open air museum which is a collection of buildings from around the area that show the changes in style and technological development over the centuries. They had quite an interesting collection of buildings, but there was very little interpretation. You either had to buy the guidebook and stand around reading the dewscriptions of each building, or talk to the live interpreters. Not every building had live interpreters, and given that it was school holidays when we visited they were kept very busy trying to interest the children in some aspects of the different buildings. They had parts of the land set aside for farming, with rare breeds of sheep and pigs, some strip farming typical of the medieval period and then lots of grazing land for the horses. The sheep were Southdowns who have this very funny wooly face that looks almost like a teddy bear. It was an interesting museum and one that was obviously very popular with families, but some more info would have been helpful.


















On the way back from the museum we stopped at Petworth House. The house as it stands now is late 17th, early 18th Century. The house is fairly typical of that period - a large rectangle with lots of windows. However the collection of art within the house is stunning. There is one room full of Grinley Gibbons carvings which are incredibly detailed, there are also several Turners of the house and grounds as well as so many other paintings. The gardens are 'Capability' Brown and have wonderful paths leading to rotundas and summer houses, they are lovely to walk through and when we were there they were carpeted in daffodils. It was really lovely, and again gardens that I would love to go back to and see in the early summer when there is more out.




On Thursday we went into London to see the Banqueting House, Somerset House and also to try and catch up with William and Charles. I had been told by a friend on the course that Banqueting house was worth seeing, and was not very well known and she was right. We fought through the tourists around the London Eye and Westminster Abbey and then walked into the Banqueting Hall to find less than 20 people in there. The house is still used for functions and dinners, so the museum aspects of it are reduced to a very informative audio wand. However the two main draw points are the ceiling paintings and the fact that it was here that Charles I was exectuted. The ceiling paintings are done by Rubens and were commissioned by Charles I. They survived the dispertion of his collection after his exectution because they were too difficult to remove, but possibly also because Cromwell liked to hold his official functions in the Banqueting House. the history of the place is quite amazing, they have even identified the window that was most likely to be the one Charles stepped out of onto the scaffold to be executed. While it isn't a museum that i would go back to again and again I'm really glad i've been. It was really interesting and the audio guide was fantastic.




The afternoon was spent wandering around the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House and meeting William and Charles. The hermitage rooms have changing displays but they are always from the Hermitage, and seeing the display made me want to see the Hermitage even more. We didn't get into the Courtauld galleries at all, so I will have to go back and see them. All up it was a really nice day in London, and i got to see some places that I mightn't otherwise have seen.

Good Friday was a pretty quiet day, I went to church in the morning then after lunch caught the train to Reading to spend the rest of easter with a friend from Uni. Part of the reason for going to reading was the fact that there was a European Club Hockey championship being played there, but also because I wanted to catch up with Helen. We saw the hockey on the Saturday and Monday, and spent Sunday doing Easter family things. The hockey was brilliant, there were quite a few Australians either playing or coaching and I got to chat to Jamie Dwyer which was nice. His club won the tournament and I won a free meal from Helen as we decided to make the final more interesting by betting on it. Reading were never going to win, not against Jamie Dwyer and Luke Doerner - I'm not at all biased in that statement.





Tuesday I spent with some other relatives in Reading. It was great to catch up with them again. I can't believe that i have been here for over 6 months and this is the first time I've seen some of my relatives. However it was fabulous to catch up with them and I've had a wonderful week. I'm now back in Leicester for just over a week and have to get working on my essay. I've got a museums conference next week and I'm organising a small anzac day ceremony, so I'll post again after that.

bah humbug

Once again I'm in totally the wrong part of England. Yet more snow and not a single flake seen in Leicester. Yesterday was revolting, rain and hail but mostly sleet the entire day. Then this morning see on the BBC website all the photos of snow in various parts of England. My snow obession is definately not sated yet and I've decided that if i do stay on in England for another winter I'm either going to North Scotland or somewhere in the South East. That's where all the snow seems to be.

Anyway, heading off tomorrow to visit some rellies, then heading on to Reading for easter with friends and to watch a bit of hockey. Hope you all have a happy and safe easter - eat lots of Tim Tams and think of me suffering as I save up my last pack for some special occasion.

Theatre Visits

These holidays are not just for doing some travel throughout the UK but I've also planned a few trips to see shows. In the last 4 days I've seen two very different shows. The first was Stomp and then yesterday I saw Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands. Both were wonderful shows in very different ways.

Stomp blew me away for the sheer energy and creativity of it. There were some slightly tacky comedy bits in it, and the show would have been jsut as good without those - there was no need to try to create a storyline for a show that is essentially based around creating rythm and music from rubbish. There were 3 sequences that had me open mouthed, they were one using rubber hoses, another with zippo lighters and the third was using water containers. I know rubber hoses can be musical - hey I'm a brass player and i grew up in a country where didgeridoos are part of the indigenous culture - but the way the ensemble made the hoses sing, not by blowing down them but by bouncing them on the stage was something else.

The Zippo lighters were great, something so quiet and subdued in amongst a generally loud, OTT show was great. Look on the Stomp website (http://www.stomp.co.uk/02c_sketchbook.htm) for an idea of how they get the Zippos to play. But the water containers was the best. Again I know that those things can be used as drums, who hasn't enjoyed banging away at an empty container before, but they way they got them to almost sing was fabulous. By throwing them slightly and then tapping them, so they were really resonant, the ensemble managed to get some real music happening. I don't know if they tuned the containers (sounds silly, but i mean by putting some water in them) or if it was just the slightly different styles of each performer, but there were definate tones coming through, and the combinations really were marvelous.

Edward Scissorhands was just brilliant. i'm going to run out of superlatives and start repeating myself, there really is no way i can properly explain it. Although Matthew Bourne is better known for his reinterpretations of classical ballet (think all male swan lake) this wasn't so much a ballet as a story book told through dance. I can see why Tim Burton was happy for it to be produced, it was so far beyond what you might imagine. The dancing was fabulous, but the costuming, the sets, music and the amazing ability of the cast to convey emotions made the whole thing. There was one bit where Edward is first showing his feelings for Kim and they dance through a dream scape of topiary figures. The figures come to life and dance as well. The costumes! I can't imagine how the dancers saw through them, or got into them. there were no obvious joins, no thin looking place over the eyes - it just looked like solid plant matter, well the artificial plant matter, but a solid costume none the less. The show was just under 2 hours long, but it felt like i had been there for less than half that time. It really was entrancing. If i had the money, and time, i would see it again and again, I know there are things i missed and bits where i didn't properly pick up on the full meaning or emotion. I really am glad i decided to go. I thought about going when it was in london, and was too busy to see it when it was in birmingham. I thought i had missed it until i saw that they were doing it in Nottingham, it's nice being reasonably close to two fairly big cities.

I'll be seeing Miss Saigon later in the month, I'm looking forward to that as well. I know I'll be horribly poor at the end of these holidays, but right now I'm enjoying the experiences too much to worry about that.

Warning - long post

So I've now been on holidays properly for a bit over a week, and so far it's been great. I borrowed a friends car for 4 days while she was in Ireland, and a friend from the course and I went to the peak district for some walking. It was just fabulous. I couldn't believe the difference in the parts of the district. The national park is really small, yet it has about 4 really distinct areas.

We started the trip by seeing the millenium mammoth which is in a park just outside of leicester. Laurel is from the states, and so has also had many visits punctuated by seeing "the big ....". So we thought it appropriate that we start our road trip with a big mammoth. The mammoth though is life size for an ice age mammoth, situated looking out over Watermead park which has some lovely lakes and lots of birds.



The first day we went to the northern parts of the district to climb Mam Tor which is the start of the High Peaks area. Mam Tor was chosen because it has an Iron Age hill fort on the top of it. It also has a pretty spectacular face and there is a walk along the top of the ridge to Back Tor or Win Hill. We braved the wind and trekked along to Back Tor. It was stunning looking out over the valley either way.


Part of the face of Mam Tor


Looking towards Back Tor




As the weather looked to be holding we decided to go to Eyam, which is famous for being almost devastated by the Plague which raged in the village for over a year during 1665 and 1666. However the vicar of the village encouraged the villagers to stay within the village, not to flee, thereby containing the plague just to Eyam, rather than spreading it throughout the region. There is a list in the church of all the villagers who died, over 250 and many of the houses have signs on them saying which family lived there and if anyone survived. We wandered around to a few of the sites strongly associated with the plague. The most spectacular was the Cucklet Church. This is where the church services were held during the plague, the minister would stand in the delf and the villagers stand in family groups on the hill below the delf. Laurel and I were both blown away by the incredible beauty of the delf. You walk along a path and see a bit of a hill, but as you round a corner you see that the hill has a cave style hole through it which looks down the hill to the river. It was stunning and my photos do not do it justice, but maybe you can get a bit of an idea.


One of the Plague Cottages, from the church.


Cucklet Church


Looking through Cucklet Church


Looking down to the river from Cucklet Church


The Riley Graves - Mrs Hancock buried all 7 family members over 6 days.

The second day was a bit wet, so we decided to do a bit more indoors, although we still did a few walks. We saw a couple of stone circles in the morning, including the Nine Ladies which is a small stone circle high on the moors. However a lot of the day was spent at Haddon Hall, which is apparently the most complete non-fortified medieval house in england. Of more interest for us was that many of the interior scenes for The Princess Bride were shot here. Aside from that it is a lovely house, and not nearly as OTT as its neighbour, Chatsworth House. The chapel is the oldest part of the house with parts of it being dated to the late 11th Century. The interiors are fairly sparse, although for our visit there were extra things inside the rooms as the BBC has been filming a new mini series of Jane Eyre there. We managed to get out to the gardens in a rare patch of sunlight and I want to go back in June when the roses are out as the garden looks like it would be stunning. The long hall was the most impressive, made even better by the presence of a lute player at one end. It added a nice touch.


The Nine Ladies Stone Circle





We had afternoon tea in Bakewell and tried the famous bakewell tart, I wasn't a fan of it as it was loaded with almond essence and I'm not very fond of almonds. However Laurel really liked it. After getting warm and sort of dry again we headed to Chatsworth, not to go inside as we couldn't afford both houses in one day, but instead just to have a bit of a gawp at the house from a distance and to have a wander through the shops. The property is spectacular and I do want to see the house at a later stage, but given the size of the house and the gardens I will have to reserve a whole day for wandering, and to make sure i get my money's worth.

We finished the day by visiting the Arbor Low stone circle. We had been told by someone in Bakewell that it was more impressive than the nine ladies, and as it was on our way we decided to stop and have a look. It was pouring with rain, and the wind was so fierce that the rain blew straight into our faces, however we still kept to the plans and walked up to have a look at the circle. On the way to the circle you have to go through a farm, and although Laurel and I have both grown up in rural areas never have we smelt a barn that bad. We have no idea what the smell was, it was worse than pigs and we were both really glad to get past it as quickly as possible. The stone circle was very impressive, hidden within a ditch and mound earth ring, it was really big, much bigger than anything else we had seen. None of the stones were still standing, but you got an idea of how magnificent it must have been. Despite getting soaked we were pleased that we decided to see it. The good thing was that we had the place to ourselves as no-one else was silly enough to go out in that weather.


Chatsworth - through the rain.





The third day we spent clambering over the Roaches which are in the south of the National Park. There was almost no rain, other than a hail storm which went over as sat in the car having lunch, but the wind was pretty full on. There were times when we were blown off balance as we tried to negotiate our way through very muddy and rocky paths. Once again though the area was amazing and there was no chance of missing it just because the weather wasn't quite right. We did our longest walk today, walking along the ridge of the Roaches and then down into a forest to see Lud's Church, a cavern formed by a landslip. Depsite the walk only being about 10k the difference in each area was immense. The moors above the forest are the home of a wild wallaby population, and while we saw a few prints there were no animals which Laurel was a bit dissapointed about.

The Roaches






Lud's Church

The final day we left the peak district and wandered around Oxfordshire. Particularly the Uffington White Horse, Castle Mound, Dragon Hill and Weylands Smithy. Again a fabulous day, the long barrow (Weylands Smithy) was probably the most impressive, although the horse was pretty mind blowing, the size of it and the way that it had been created with llittle more than antler picks and shoulder blade shovels. To top the day off as we were walking back along the ridgeway walk from the Smithy we startled a herd of deer. My camera was in it's bag and by the time i got it out they were only specks, but it was wonderful seeing them.




I don't have any decent photos of the castle mound as it was huge, and just looks like a hill in the photos.

Finally - yes the trip is almost over - on the drive back to Leicester from the white horse we saw several signs to a Roman Villa, as we had time, and no set plans we decided to follow the signs and have a look at the villa. After scrambling about in a forest for a little while, we wandered across a field thinking that there was little chance of the villa being there, and then came across it. It was huge. Two sides of the villa are evident, and the mounds show where the other two sides were. It was a villa with a fully enclosed courtyard, looking on to a river. Just stunning. So we spent a while scrambling over it and looking at the areas identified as being baths, kitchens etc. It really was immense, by far the biggest remains I have seen so far. Once again it doesn't really work in photos because it was jsut too big. But if you are down near Banbury at all, look out for North Leigh Roman Villa. I can really recommend it.

I know there are already stacks of photos in this post, but here are a few more views from the peak district, just in case you didn't get the idea already.