Belgium & Groezrock - April 2012

Free beer in Leuven's Old Market

Scroll to the bottom of this post or click here to listen to my Groezrock highlights Spotify playlist.

So the time had come again for us to say our goodbyes, and even after a 6 week extension of our original plans, in the end it felt like it'd gone in a flash. It was sad to say our goodbyes, and this time it felt a little like we were jumping into the void, as we wouldn't be doing any travelling along the way and would need to hit the ground running in New Zealand with paid work, or at the very least free accommodation.

We were due to fly from Amsterdam, and had decided to head back to our adopted homeland of Belgium (the second visit of the year so far) for a few days of punk rock and beer before we flew. We were headed for Groezrock Festival, our fourth visit to this punk rock mecca.

First, we spent the night in Brussels after taking the Eurostar. We ended up delayed by over an hour while leaving Euston due to an electrical fault, no big deal but we would much rather have spent the time in the Euston Tap! Eurostar hold themselves to very high standards, and a few days later we received an email offering us a free journey each in compensation for the delay. Very impressive and we will in all likelihood be using it to make our way to Groezrock next year! We arrived after dark in Brussels so all we ended up doing was grabbing some tasty Morrocan food at a nearby cafe and a few beers in the hostel to celebrate the beginning of this new chapter.

The following day, we took in some of the sights of Brussels which we hadn't seen previously. The highlight was definitely the Atomium, an amazing building based on the molecular structure of an atom, built for the 1958 World's Fair. Nine steel speres are connecting by lifts and escalators, and it was an interesting insight into a world on the bring of so many technical discoveries we now take for granted. High up on the to-do list was obviously something beer related, a visit to Cantillon Brewery. Read all about it on Liam's spin-off blog here!

After the brewery tour we dived into a particularly dodgy kebab shop to avoid a sudden heavy downpour, and it appeared to be the only place in Brussels that they didn't sell chips. Charlotte braved a kebab and we sat watching Turkish gameshows on the TV until the rain died down, trying to ignore the staring locals giving us funny looks.

All the while the two Marks and Joe had been flying over to join us, and we headed to the train station to meet them before getting on the heading straight for Leuven. We rued the fact that we had all forgotten to bring some 'train beers' but on arrival in Leuven it became apparently that there would be no shortage of the stuff.

Leuven is a student city and also the home to Stella Artois, now owned by AB InBev. They have 25% of the global beer market share and their worldwide headquarters are based here, as is the main Stella plant. The combination of these two factors make it a very beery place indeed. The market square is dubbed 'the longest bar in Europe' as it is a rectangular shape and is home to almost 50 bars and restaurants. We checked out a few places, had some awesome pasta and of course some tasty Belgian beers. We also drank Stella (zing!). Fuller hilariously ended up receiving a tonic instead of a De Koninck... I guess you had to be there. The night ended in a rock club which seemingly served as a pre-Groezrock party, and we skanked the night away to Rancid and what was to become the soundtrack of the weekend, Timebomb.

We stayed the night in the very pleasant, modern yet small Leuven City Hostel. Unfortunately the following day was the start of the Zythos Beer Festival, but alas Groezrock beckoned. But not before a few hangover-curing beers on the square while waiting for the rest of the gang to show up; Nik, Jimmy, Twibs and Kiera. The combination of lovely weather and free beer from a promotional horse and cart meant we set off to Groezrock a few hours later than intended, and got a few funny looks from commuters while passing around our wholly impractical train beer; 75cl champagne bottles of La Chouffe, giving us the air of high-class hobos along with our camping gear. One day we'll get the hang of train beers guys!

The next few hours were hell, and it was probably a good job we'd had a few beers to subdue the rising frustration. The train and bus trip were straight-forward enough, not too crowded, and gave us a false impression that the festival was well organised and that getting in wouldn't be too painful. To get into the campsite we first had to exchange our camping tickets for wristbands. There were two kiosks doling out these wristbands, and when you bear in mind that the festival welcomes 30,000 people at least half of whom are camping, it doesn't take a genius to realise that this was going to be a long evening. After eventually getting the coveted wristbands, and despairing over the continental European method of queuing (i.e. a complete free-for-all) we finally got to the campsite and had to deal with 'The Rope'. For the uninitiated The Rope is a uniquely Beligan way of organising festival campsites, which to be fair is efficient in ensuring every last patch of ground is filled up but makes pitching a tent, especially a whole bunch of tents together, rather stressful. Basically there is a long line of people manning The Rope and every few minutes they take a step back to reveal a new patch of ground for people to scramble over. By this point it was also pitch-black and we'd been drinking for most of the day so to say it was a shambolic affair would be an understatement! But we eventually got settled in, cracked a few celebratory beers, briefly checked out the party marquee before crashing out early to rest up for the first day of the festival.

Day 1 came around and after rounding up Fuller we headed to see Mikey Erg on the Acoustic stage and bumped into some old friends we met the first year at Groezrock, Suzy and Sim. We then caught a couple of songs by the Copyrights before heading to what was one of the most anticipated sets of the day for a few of us, The Menzingers. They had a massive crowd for a lunchtime slot, they didn't disappoint and totally blew us away. A mix of shouty, fast songs and well-crafted slower songs with haunting vocals, On The Impossible Past has to be one of my favourite albums of the year. Ava House was definitely the highlight of their set for me, a slow-burning drum-heavy song. In the afternoon we watched Belvedere (reunion of the day, never thought I'd get to see Fast Forward Eats The Tape live) and Off With Their Heads (packed out third stage, never seen so many crowdsurfers!). After this it gets a little hazy but looking back at the line-up I shall assume that we saw Bouncing Souls, Yellowcard and possibly Face to Face, before getting down the pit for Lagwagon. I feel it would have been rude not to as they played the opening riff of May 16! Rancid headlined the night, a great end to the day and so many sing-a-longs. But honestly by that point it was past 1am and I was showing my age and was almost alseep on feet, maybe I can no longer hack all day festival shenanigans!

After such an epic first day, the second day's line-up was surprisingly even better. Make Do and Mend blew away the cobwebs at midday, another band I had been excited to see for the first time. MXPX was a blast from the past, and there was a bit of a 'passing of the torch' moment to the next generation as they got the singer from The Swellers up on stage to play bass. Motion City Soundtrack pulled out all the stops and were a lot more high-energy than the show we had seen them at recently, maybe on account of quite a different crowd (Manchester: mostly teenage girls, Groezrock: rowdy punkers) and they fired through a greatest hits set which we sadly had to leave early from to catch Cobra Skulls. A short, sharp set from them (when they left the stage they still had 10 minutes left!) saw them play songs from all 3 albums, despite the fact that only one original band member remains (admittedly they are only a 3-piece band). This gave us all the more time to get a good spot for Hot Water Music, it was happy moment to see them back playing together again, seamlessly moving between new and old material. Alkaline Trio were enjoyable as always and The Bronx brought the house down as only they know how. Next up something a bit more mellow, Dave Haus on the acoustic stage. Part of the recent wave of former punk band singers turned folky acoustic, he brought a bucket-load of passion and good cheer to the evening. The sun was shining and we enjoyed a few beers out in the sun before catching The Swellers on the tiny Macbeth stage. This was a perfect moment; sun shining, Swellers rocking and Jagermeister stall next to the stage. Then back to Acoustic stage for Chuck Ragan, playing his heart out as only he can. Refused were the headliners for the night, and much anticipated ones at that. They broke up after releasing arguably the most influential hardcore album of a generation 14 years ago, and every year there are always rumours/wishful thinking that they would get back together and play Groezrock. It was almost as if time had stood still, and they blazed through the set as if the last decade hadn't happened. New Noise brought the house down and the whole set was a brilliant end to the weekend. A dream come true for the entire crowd.

And with that the weekend was over, the usual depressing trudge out of a festival began and we made our way to Antwerp for one final night, before the rest went home and we headed to New Zealand. Needless to say we were all feeling rather delicate and sleep-deprived, so we didn't get up to much. Moules Frites were a must in the evening so we headed to a restaurant, proceeded to wait too long for a table, but eventually the food came and was good, although I'm not sure many of us felt much like eating! We had another morning together and wandered down by the river and around the old town. Antwerp is still one of my favourite cities, it's a perfect mix of historical and modern, accessible, by the river, multi-cultural and of course the icing on the cake: great beer. After waving the guys off Charlotte and I had a rather nice lunch in De Foyer, above a theatre in a beautiful dome-roofed room. We had some lovely roast vegetable tarts, and I took the opportunity to have one last European beer, I can't resist Pilsner Urquell on draft. Beats Jupiler any day!

After that we were back at the hostel, printing off our boarding tickets and heading to the station to catch the train to Amsterdam. We spent a night in a hotel there, but as we arrived late in the afternoon we didn't get chance to do any exploring (other than getting lost in a distinctly dodgy suburb looking for the hotel). So all we can really confirm is that it is very easy to procure drugs in Amsterdam (not that we were looking!), despite it being broad daylight we were offered some within minutes of getting off the train!

The following morning we had an epic hotel breakfast and then headed to the airport, bound for Singapore!

Belgium & Groezrock

Back in Blighty - March & April 2012

Lovely weekend walking and cycling in the Lakes

After a while of our plans being up in the air, we finally got a few things organised. Air Asia refunded our flight back to Perth so we were free to consider our options.

In the meantime, we still had the Eurostar booked to Paris (where we were originally intended to fly from) and had already organised to go away for a few days with my parents. On our way down we stopped for a couple of days in London to catch up with some friends.

The first night we spent with Kirsty and Gavin in Acton. Kirsty and Charlotte lived together in first and second year at university. We had an awesome meal at a local Japanese restaurant, and it was the first time we had eaten proper sushi and sashimi. Who knew raw fish could taste so good! Also had some rather excellent deep fried pork and tempura prawns and vegetables; from what I can gather the Japanese only entertain two methods of cooking; deep fried or not at all! Back at the flat we played with their super cute rag doll kittens and were introduced to the delights of Take Me Out on the TV. This is starting to sound sarcastic, but we genuinely had a great night! The next day we visited the Lucien Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Whatever your opinion on his style, it's incredible to be able to to see an artist's lifework spanning over seventy years. It was a hugely enjoyable exhibition, despite the crowds. Next stop, the Fowles! We hadn't seen Beckah and Mark since Isaac was born, awesome to see them again and of course the little man himself. We were treated to a delicious home cooked meal and it was fab to have a proper catch up with them. And Isaac was a delight! It feels very strange that when we left he wasn't even born, and now he's a proper little boy. After wandering around Highgate Cemetery and paying tribute to Karl Marx's grave (!) we met up with my parents. Pints of ale all round at The Tap before heading to St Pancras for the Eurostar. After a slightly raucous journey (England were playing France the next day), Mum and Dad headed to their hotel and we were very kindly picked up by Marina, where we stayed again with her and parents.

The first day we spent at the Musee D'Orsee, a beautifully designed museum in an old railway station. A complete assortment of bits and pieces, from sculpture to paintings to puppet theatres, and featuring a fabulous clock (the original station clock) that you can look through and out over the city. We stopped for a cheeky vino and wandered the backstreets a little more, before eating some traditional french grub at a bistro that evening. The next day we decided to head up the Eifel Tower. We walked up so avoided the queue, and enjoyed the spectacular views. Later that afternoon we took a boat trip down the river, nice to get a different perspective on things and always lovely to take to the water on a sunny day. That evening we went with Marina and her mum to Marina's favourite creperie in St Germaine, which we can safely testify is also our favourite creperie. Yum! After spending a lovely few days together, we bid Mum and Dad farewell as they were back off on the Eurostar the next day.

We had another couple of days before we flew back. After a quick stop at Le Visenet market, we headed into the city to check out the Ay Wei Wei photography exhibition at the Jeu de Paume. The photographs were a good mixture of documenting where he'd been and what he'd done, as well as the progress of various art works he had been doing. There was a photograph of a building which he'd been asked by the Chinese authorities to design, basically as a rouse to keep an eye on him for a while. As soon as the building was completed it was bulldozed, completely, in one day. Ridiculous, and such a waste of time, but clearly the Chinese authorities way of asserting their power. We then grabbed a possibly the best sandwich ever (basically a gourmet cheese and ham baguette!) and enjoyed wandering down the canal. Hard to pinpoint, but just seemed to have a really good vibe about it, even if it is a seedy area in places. We were hoping to have a nosey around the cemetery but it was closed by the time we got there, so we settled for (surprise surprise) a beer instead. It had been awesome as always to see Marina and were very grateful for her superb hospitality.

On our last day in Paris before catching a flight back we visited the Catacombs. Created at the end of the 18th century as various cemeteries were closed, it is a network of tunnels and caves that runs for over 300 km under the streets of Paris. It's so huge that in the past illegal raves have been held down there with the authorities being none the wiser until after the event. It houses over 6 million skeletons, only a small section of it is open to members of the public. The walls of the corridors are created from stacks upon stacks of bones, all laid in different patterns. It was absolutely fascinating and very eerie, possibly making it one of our top tips of things to do in Paris. For the second day in a row time got away for us, and we didn't make it to the cemetery to see Jim Morrison's grave as intended!

While we were home we caught some great local bands. First up was Matt (singer in my old band, the 'Commies) doing a solo gig at none other than the Top Lock in Wheelton, a short stroll from my parents house. Great to see Matt again and he played a very impressive and accomplished set, he's got a great set of lungs on him and even my parents enjoyed it. His cover of a Chuck Ragan song was a special bonus. Matt couldn't keep himself away from Wheelton and played in the Red Lion a few weeks later (although technically he was in the Heapey half of the pub, the parish boundary splits the pub in two!), along with Seamus who we had got to know a little over the weeks we were home. Playing to a packed pub on a Saturday night, there was a great atmosphere and great sets from both of them. We drank until the small hours with Seamus and the Top Lock's managers, a great night all in all. We also got to check out Failsafe, Matt's band, at their hometown album release show in Preston, a great set in a great little venue (Mad Ferret, I have great memories of playing upstairs in Strettles) with a great atmosphere, couldn't have asked for better!

Whilst we were home Motion City Soundtrack decided they had one free date left in their European tour schedule, and got their fans to vote for which city outside of London to play a show. Manchester won by a mile and we made the trip from Sheffield with Emily and Alex to meet up with Adam and Suze for some dinner before checking out the show. Adam and Suze hadn't been able to get tickets and we'd been told there wouldn't be many on the door but in the end they managed to get some. Motion City were awesome as usual, although have upped their game a lot since their earlier, more raucous days.

I had the pleasure of staying with Mr Mark Fell in the Lake District a couple of times while we were back home. He's working at YHA Ambleside, and as such he's been a great excuse to get out to the Lakes, without the high accommodation costs this would normally involve!

The first time I visited on my own in March, as Charlotte was hard at it writing up a piece of research for a psychologist she worked with in Perth. I decided to challenge myself and take my bike, as it was about time I started doing some proper cycling, rather than just commuting or occasional day trips. To be fair the trip only ended up being 3 hours from Oxenholme to Ambleside, including a refreshing pint at Hawkshead Brewery! I took a detour out of Kendal up a very long and steep hill, only to realise I was going the wrong way, all the while the weather was really hotting up (this was the start of the March heatwave). Eventually I got on the right track and had an enjoyable ride down country roads through picturesque villages, and a nice easy descent through Windemere into Ambleside. The YHA there is in a fantastic setting, right on Lake Windermere, so we spent the late afternoon enjoying the sun by the lake, pint in hand.

We had planned to go back to the Hawkshead Brewery as there was a beer festival on, so after a 3 mile walk to Windermere and a missed train, we finally arrived around 8pm. We devoured excellent gourmet hot dogs for sustenance and got our taste buds fired up for some excellent beer from Hawkshead and other notable breweries including Fyne Ales, Summer Wine, Marble and Magic Rock. The cask strength offerings from Hawkshead knocked us for six (in both taste and strength, being 6% strength), and a good time was had by all. Some colleagues of Mark's were driving, so thankfully we were driven straight back to the hostel and into bed before our big walk the next day.

We stirred around mid-morning, rather more hungover than we had intended, fuelled up on bacon and egg butties and mint cake for the walk before heading off in the wrong direction. This meant a detour up a fairly steep hill, in the midday sun, hungover and moments after eating a greasy sandwich. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling tip-top by this point and had a momentary crisis of confidence in whether I could actually complete the walk. I decided to go for it and push on, and despite a water shortage we eventually made it to Patterdale, dehydrated and sunburnt. After a litre of water or two we headed out for nourishment at a local pub, before checking out a couple more pubs (there's a theme developing here) and hitting the hay ready to do it all over again.

This time well-rested and feeling much more bright and breezy than the previous morning, we got an early start so we didn't suffer the sun too much. We walked back to Ambleside before I cycled back to Oxenholme to catch the train. The sun was blazing and the 4 mile hill out of Ambleside was testing, but it was enjoyable nonetheless and I had well and truly got a taste for long(ish - well not really) distance cycling. Sunburnt but happy I met Charlotte in the Top Lock on the way home and we even ate our dinner outside at my folks, not bad for the end of winter! A few more unseasonably warm days came our way and we enjoyed walks on the canal and the novelty of sitting outside pubs before the more seasonal British weather returned.

The second time in Ambleside Charlotte came along too, and we again cycled from Oxenholme to Ambleside. Our venture from Ambleside this time was to Elterwater, with a detour up a couple of hills near Elterwater. It was a great walk and we were very lucky to have such good weather again. We cracked a bottle of McChouffe at the top of the hill, played the La Chouffe theme tune on our phones and had a little dance. Always nice to have a bit of Mr Fell in our lives! The walk was rather longer than we had intended, so after 8 hours of solid walking we were truly knackered, but enjoyed a pub meal with a satisfied feeling that we had earned it.

We spent a lovely Mothers Day between both families. First up was the Parkers and Gran Woodhams and a belly-busting carvery at The Boatyard. After lashings of roast meats, veg and gravy washed down with a pint of ale it was time to be whisked away to Gran Mitchell's in Brighouse with my family. We spent the afternoon at Shibden Park and I finally got to see my Grandad's memorial bench in its lovely new spot down by the lake. More food was on offer on our return to the house and we enjoyed some cake while saying our goodbyes.

We had an action-packed Easter weekend, first up a trip to Go Ape for Alex (my sister's fiancee)'s birthday. We balanced ourselves high in the trees with surprisingly little supervision, tackling obstacle courses, whizzing down zip wires and taking a leap of faith on the tarzan swing. We had never done this kind of thing before, and despite being a bit of a wuss with heights I made it through. Time for a well earned pint before some good old March evening grilling. After a long wait the char-grilled chicken legs were eventually served up, and delicious they were too if I say so myself. That evening we zig-zagged between drinks for Alex's birthday and a gig at Chorley Little Theatre. Having not been to many seated gigs in our time, it actually really suited the style of music of Then Thickens (check them out!) and it was fantastic to catch up with old Chorley friends. Easter Sunday was spent near Cartmel at Charlotte's aunties, for a beautiful meal and a catch up with the aunties.

We managed to find time to check out the Black Bull near Feniscowles with Sophie and Ste, and had a fun evening sampling the brews and catching up with them for the first time since the wedding. Always nice to find a new pub to go to, and with some pretty impressive views over Blackburn and a good crowd in despite not serving food, the Black Bull seems to be doing very well for itself. It's part of the Three Bees Brewery, who do a good range of tasty real ales, something we'd missed being over in Oz! We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Charlotte's uncle, aunt and cousins, and caught up with them over a cuppa.

Next up we headed over to Sheffield for another few nights stay at Chez Emily. Mum and Dad kindly drove us over and we checked out the new (ish) Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield on the way. It's a fantastic little gallery and hopefully will put Wakefield on the map and revive the place a little. It's an interesting building (prison-like from the outside, but very open from the inside) housing some pretty cool art. Still feeling arty we also again checked out the Sheffield Graves Art Gallery. In the past it's been a little hit or miss, but this time was a hit, and there were some funky Andy Warhol photographs. We also enjoyed a curry in Commonside with some of Emily and Alex's friends and out friend Mark Williams, followed by some top Thornbirdge beers in the newly done up Hallamshire House. Having always been a bit of an old man's pub, it's great to see that Thornbridge have breathed a bit of fresh air in there, and as always a pleasure to hang out with our friends and drink some tasty local beer.

While we were in Sheffield, Charlotte visited her friend Collette in Mansfield. Collette and her husband Ian had recently had a baby and it was lovely to meet baby Buddy and have a good catch up with them over tea and cake. Buddy is pretty damn cute and looked the bees knees in his bear outfit that he wore to drop Charlotte off at the bus station. Charlotte and her mum had embarked on a knitting project beforehand (in an attempt to get Charlotte to move past scarves!) and had created a hat, mittens and booties for him which were very well received!

A beer-fuelled evening was spent in Nottingham with Joe, where we test-drove the new Brewdog bar (with 10% shareholders discount of course, although this wasn't much consolation when I realised I had put 15 quid worth of Scotch eggs on the credit card!). We had intended to at least do one cultural thing while in Nottingham but the gallery we were aiming for was closed. We had no option but to head for the pub; first off Lock & Quays for some refreshing cask ales before heading to the main event, Brewdog Nottingham. Enthusiastic staff poured us some of the good stuff, and we had a great time sampling the different brews and playing pop-up-pirate. If that isn't a recipe for a good night out I don't know what is. The beer was soaked up with some tasty Italian fare across the road before we had to call it a night and catch our trains (not before Joe had got us lost even with directions on his iPhone and we had to get a taxi to make sure we didn't miss our train!).

On our final weekend at home was spent in Stockport watching the mighty County play and seeing my auntie and cousin for a pub lunch. It was a pretty uneventful match but still enjoyable and I resolved to go to more games once we're back in UK for good. It was great to see Jane and Lisa and catch up with them after far too long!

By this time we had decided that New Zealand had our names written on it, flights had been booked, and our time at home was quickly coming to an end. We spent a very lovely evening out with Charlotte's parents at the Clog and Billycock eating excellent high-class pub grub and toasting the future. Our last evening was spent hiking up Great Hill with my mum, dad and sister on a nice afternoon, before a fish and chip supper and some last minute packing.

After almost three months cocooned in an easy life looked after by our parents and friends, with no responsibilities or worries, the prospect of flying to the other side of the world was a daunting one. We would need to hit the ground running and find work pretty quick given that we had effectively spent 3 months travelling in the UK, and that doesn't come cheap. To take the edge off this notion we had a trip planned to Groezrock festival in Belgium, this time a music festival but of course beer would still play a starring role. Stay tuned!

Back in Blighty!

Paris with Janet, Dave & Marina

Good Morning Europe - February 2012

Liam wearing all his clothes after touching down to -9 in Paris.

After a hectic 48 hours in which we finished work, sold the van, packed up our belongings and donated the contents of our flat to the local charity shop, we spent a sweaty and unusually humid night on the couch at Bruno's.  At 4am we awoke to the headlights of our taxi shining through the window and bleary-eyed we waved goodbye to our home town of the last 7 months and headed to Perth airport.

The first flight was relatively short, about 6 hours, but with an arduous 12 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur before our next flight. After fuelling up on coffee at KLIA we decided to head into the city for the day. After a bumpy bus journey of almost two hours we were regretting this decision, and apart from some dazed wandering around we spent most of the time in cafes. Better than hanging around the airport, but only just. So, very tired and already a day and a half since we graced the presence of a bed or shower, we boarded our flight, homeward bound. Air Asia do a reasonable line in airline food despite being a budget airline, so we were well fed with tasty curry, but there was no TV in the back of the seat or free booze to take the edge off what is undoubtedly the worse mode of travel in terms of actually enjoying the journey. All that was left to do was sleep, and thankfully we did most of the way.

Bright-eyed and excited to be back on European soil, we stepped off the plane into the depths of a Paris winter (Pilot: "On arrival in Paris the temperature will be nine, sorry negative nine degrees") and promptly put on all the jumpers we owned. Charlotte even resorted to socks in place of gloves, but she had handily knitted me a scarf for my birthday. It didn't feel particularly useful at the time during a 40-odd degree Australian summer, but after the 50 degree temperature plunge it was most welcome. Our journey home wasn't quite over, as we were meeting up with friends to go to a beer festival in Bruges (but of course!). One airport shuttle, the Paris suburban metro, a train to Lille (which handily stopped in a different station to our connection only ten minutes later, cue running around in a panic with my 23kg backpack) and one final train to Bruges, we staggered out of the station almost 48 hours after leaving our flat in Mosman Park. But things were looking up; cheese, bread and beer were procured at bargain prices (well, standard European prices, but a bargain compared to WA) from a shop at the station, and a reasonably priced taxi spirited us to the door of our home for the next three nights; a lovely old Belgian terrace near the centre of Bruges. As if on cue for our arrival, snow was falling and by the time we had showered and brought ourselves back to life with aforementioned foodstuffs, there was a substantial covering. A wander around Bruges at dusk was like being in a fairytale but the best part of the story was yet to come; meeting up with Marina whilst wandering the streets plus the imminent arrival of my sister Emily and her fiancé Alex, and of course Mark. It was most excellent to see them all again, and they were the first in a long line of people we had missed while away. That evening we met up with the rest of our friends who had come out for the occasion; Thomas, Sian, Craig and Stiffy. We had a great evening eating out and sampling some local brews. The night was rounded off in a cute little bar seemingly in some guys back room, although the strange choice of Norah Jones on a Friday night sent Charlotte to sleep so we decided to call it a night. We conquered the jetlag pretty easily, although west to east is always easier so they say.

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring picturesque Bruges with a dusting of snow, and of course sampling a delights of Bruges Beer Festival. The event was held in the town hall, in a drafty room with hundreds of beers to try. The Saturday seemed to be largely dominated by English CAMRA members and American beer geeks, the Sunday quietened off and had a more subdued, local feel. We also managed to fit in lots of frites eating, and an excellent BYO buffet at the festival. We spent the evenings in our cosy apartment, drinking and playing games until the small hours. We had a brilliant time catching up with everyone, and it was very quickly as if we had never left!

Our final leg home was fraught with probably the most drama and bad luck we had had in all of our travels! We had to vacate the apartment by 12, and we got to work cleaning the place up, although of course it being Belgium we had to do our bottle recycling and returning (that's not a dig at recycling by the way, I dig recycling!). The bottle bank was up the road and Mark heroically disposed of the remnants of 9 people drinking into the early hours. A returnable case of beer was also in our possession so rather than leave it for the cleaner I decided to take it upon myself to do the right thing and return it to the nearest off license. The flaw in this plan was that not many bottle shops are open on a Monday morning, so my quest for somewhere to get rid of the damn thing led me into the old town centre. By this point the taxi had arrived back at the apartment but I figured they would drive past and pick me up on the way, not taking into account the one-way streets of Bruges. Things were complicated by having only an Australian phone with me that had no credit, and so I couldn't send any texts or make or receive calls. It turned out phone boxes in Bruges didn't take coins so I was completely off the grid! After a while of hanging around the only option I had was to head to the train station myself and pray they would be there, rather than taking the taxi on a very expensive search and rescue mission around Bruges. Thankfully they were and an hour or so later we were reunited. We missed the train we had intended to catch but another one was due, and we were on our way to the airport on the last train that would get us there in time. Craig and Stiffy were nowhere to be seen, and eventually it transpired that they had been even further delayed than we had and ended up taking a taxi from Brussels to the airport to make up for lost time. They needn't have bothered, as no sooner had we gone through the point of no return at security our plane was announced to be delayed by 5 hours. So, stuck in what is arguably the world's crappiest airport, we tried to keep our spirits up and keep ourselves entertained, all the while watching countless other Ryanair flights arrive and depart. Charleroi is basically a Ryanair hub, and we speculated that one way they manage to achieve the highest rate of on-time departures of any European airline is that when there is a delay, rather than shuffling around flights so that maybe a few flights have a tolerable delay, they just leave the customers of one flight to rot. A measly 5 Euro token was eventually dispensed, which didn't even buy a portion of chips at the overpriced restaurant (probably the only time we have ever wished for the presence of a reasonably priced American fast food chain). No reason given for the delay, no actual staff anywhere to explain, just a robotic voice over the tannoy. I suppose it is the price you pay for spending pocket change on a flight, but that doesn't mean I can't moan about it! Months later we got another 5 Euro refund, so in the end the flight cost virtually nothing. 5 hours turned into 6, and eventually we boarded the flight and (finally) received an explanation of why we were delayed - the plane had been grounded in Manchester, so a standby crew and plane had to be flown out of Dublin. Thankfully it was only a short flight and in no time we were in Manchester, greeted by my parents. Bleary-eyed we reacquainted ourselves after the year away, and tried not to fall asleep in the car on the way home!

Despite thinking we'd got over the jetlag, the first week at home was spent recovering. Maybe a weekend of heavy drinking isn't the cure to two days in-transit and trying to shift one's body clock by eight hours. The week was a blur, but we had a lovely time catching up with our families. My parents even laid on a belated birthday dinner for me. We were very spoilt, the Parker's even treated us to a Christmas dinner!

Sophie and Ste's wedding was almost upon us, so we caught up with them in the Top Lock and Charlotte spent a day or two helping out with some last minute preparations. The day itself was fantastic, held in a lovely pub in Laneshaw Bridge near Colne. Charlotte, Sophie and Sophie's sister Lucy arrived the night before and enjoyed a spa treatment and dinner, before an early morning hike on the morning of the big day. The service was beautiful and it was so lovely to see two of the St Michael's gang getting hitched.  Sophie's ludicrously talented family provided the music including an epic version of Elbow's 'One Day Like This' to conclude the service.  The food was great, tasty homemade pie and chips, and the evening do was a raucous barn dance. There's nothing like a good old knees up to get people into things and provide lots of laughs!  Lots of fun was had by all, and the beauty of it was that at the end of the night we could just crash out upstairs in our hotel room.


The rest of the month was spent catching up with friends, first heading up to Dundee to see Katie and Matt. We were treated to 'Matt Chicken' and had a lovely walk followed by Haggis pizza. Scottish food at it's best! Marina came to stay in t'Fold and we showed her the sights and sounds of Wheelton and Chorley, lucky girl! We had a great night away with Mark and Thomas to go to a gig (Dead To Me) in York, and it was cool to play tourist in our own country for once. I especially enjoyed the National Railway Museum, with it's countless old British trains and a Japanese Bullet train. Quality beer was supped in the York Tap, completing a hat-trick of Taps around the country (Sheffield and London being the other two - railway stations and good beer, a winning combination. Who knew?), and we of course enjoyed walking around the walls and old city. Our Dead To Me lust not quite satiated, Mark and I headed to Manchester the next night for round two, the highlight being asked on stage to sing a refrain before the rest of the band kicked the song back in (under quite a bit of pressure after seeing a girl the night before failing badly and singing the wrong words!). A late start for the band meant a missed train and a night spent in Piccadilly station, not the best way to recuperate before Mike's big 60th birthday bash. But I managed to power on through (or should that be hobble on through due to a sprained ankle sustained the previous night!) and had a lovely day, riding an old bus up to a the Parkers Arms, Charlotte taking on the role of conductor, before heading back for a buffet tea back in the Fold. Great to catch up with Charlotte's brother Joe again too.

The end of the month and into March was spent yo-yo-ing between Sheffield and Manchester, staying with Emily and practising for my reunion gig with Sofa Crisis. The first practise was amazing, we played better than we ever had, despite not seeing each other for over a year and me not even having had the chance to pick up my drumsticks! The gig went really well, and we had a good crowd in considering it was a weeknight. Nobody booed us off so we considered it a success! As always a pleasure to playing with Nik and Jimmy, especially at the cornerstone of my Sheffield music 'career', West St Live! We enjoyed reconnecting with Sheffield, even after so long away it still feels like home! And even more good pubs have popped up so that was an added bonus alongside meeting up with our friends. Awesome to see our Sheffield-based friends Fuller, Twibs, Jimmy, Rich and Jess again.  An honourable mention goes to Thomas and Sian again for treating us to a lovely dinner at their house.

In Manchester we caught up with Adam and Suze, they took us to an awesome Thai restaurant and we hung out at the new Port Street Beer House. We also stayed with Laura and John and had a fun evening of Tricksters Scramble, and a scrumptious lunch and catchup with Jess and Emma. Back home we had a night out in Brinscall (there's a first time for everything!) at Mum and Dad's sea shanty singing session in the Oak Tree pub. Enjoyed getting into the maritime spirit and even learnt the real words to Rule Britannia. Good times.

At this point (early March) the original plan was to head back to Australia on flights we had booked months previously, however a change of heart not long before we left Fremantle meant our plans were in disarray. Thankfully we had managed to get a refund on the flights which gave us some time to contemplate our next step. Where will we go? Will the Paris trip originally planned with my parents still go ahead despite no longer catching a flight out of Paris? Will we visit France and Spain, visiting relatives and snowboarding at our leisure, on the assumption that we are due a lottery win? Will our planned trip to Groezrock and Belgium still be feasible? Find out in the next instalment. Stay tuned!

Farewell WA - January 2012

We got a bit behind on the blog as you can see, but since it was mostly written in draft form we figured it might as well be published. This post is from our last month in Australia, since then we have been back in Europe for three months and have been in New Zealand for the last three weeks! So this feels like a lifetime ago but here goes...

HMAS Ovens with Liam's workplace in the background

I guess January has on the whole, just like for everyone else, been a month of staying home and trying to save some money. The weather has been between 32 and 42 degrees, in fact one of the hottest January's in decades. It is very welcome, as so far the summer has been worse than usual (quite a few wet and wild, stormy nights), although to be fair as Brits we have been spoilt with the weather from September onwards! But in this month we were both very grateful for the buildings that we work in having air conditioning, although not in our flat. Some nights the air temperature didn't dip below the mid-thirties, so combined with being on the third floor of an apartment building made it pretty hard to sleep some nights. But generally our flat is very airy and when the infamous 'Freo Doctor' (daily breeze) starts up around late morning most days, the wind whistles through the flat, refreshing the air and sending lightweight items flying. At least it keeps us cool!

Whilst Charlotte worked most of the Saturday's in January, Liam took to his bike to explore the local area a little more. One trip was a 50km-ish ride to Perth up the Swan River, before crossing over and coming all the way back down to Fremantle. The trip was just before the heat kicked in, and generally flat so made for a pleasant ride. It was a great way to get a sense of perspective of the whole local area, and to see different suburbs - and surprising lack of amenities, the worse thing about Perth's suburban sprawl. Away from the city refreshment only came from a roadside petrol station bought iced coffee, which wasn't quite what I had in mind when I set out, imagining that surely there would be a nice cafe to refuel at along the way! But it was on the whole scenic and interesting, and I always love walking or cycling by a body of water. The distance was quite deceptive, as the river winds it's way back to Fremantle. Cycling back home along the coast and diving into the sea to wash the dust and sweat away was definitely a highlight, and an activity we are already taking for granted here.

We had a final trip to Fremantle Arts Centre one Sunday morning, which was a bit of a disappointment as the art doesn't seem to have been as varied or interesting since our first visit there. However, it is free and housed in a beautiful building with a nice cafe, so always worth a wander around. We were going to go onto the Maritime museum but as it was such a lovely day decided to stop of for a 'quick pint' at Clancy's, bumped into a friend and before we knew it we were hanging out in various other beer gardens, and were treated to some Irish dancing in Rosie O'Gradys pub before rounding the evening of at the bowling green. Contrary to how that sounds, we hadn't drunkenly scaled the fence for a bit of night-time bowling, there was a band night on at the bar there. Crown Green Bowling seems to have had a bit of a renaissance here, Liam had even already had some practise at his work's Christmas do, and the club was packed with people substantially younger than your typical bowler. We enjoyed a game or two of Crown Green Bowling which was actually really fun, although a little difficult not in daylight. There were lots of little ones running about and certainly that is one thing that is great about Australian culture - the inclusion of kids and young parents at events (or it could be more to do with the fact that Australians seldom turn down an opportunity to drink beer!). Little Creatures brewery bar has a huge sandpit out the back for kids to play in and the guy at the bar even has a clown horn to squeeze if any of the kids start climbing the fence to make a break for it! So young parents still go out with their friends for some after work drinks, and the kids have a whale of a time. It's not to say this kind of thing doesn't happen elsewhere, but it just felt a whole lot more inclusive here, and the parents and kids were welcome in the day at some of the more hip establishments in the centre.

January was a breakthrough month for Charlotte and some research she'd been doing. She has been working with a psychologist since October devising a piece of research to evaluate his work. After months of tweaking, pilot study, tweaking, focus group, tweaking, tweaking and more tweaking (!) the questionnaire is finally up and running, and - more importantly - people are starting to fill it in! Although there is still a way to go in terms of data collation, analysis and write up this now means that Charlotte can work at her own pace rather than at the pace of a rather nit-picking psychologist, hurrah! To show his gratitude he also took her out for a swanky lunch overlooking a white sands and turquoise water at Cottesloe, which made it seem so much more worthwhile.

Our plan had always been to return to the UK for Sophie and Ste's wedding in February. The plan after that had been to return to Oz, pack up Eric and hit the road for a while. About 10 days before leaving Perth, we had a sudden crisis of wondering whether we actually did want to return to Australia or not. After umming and ahhing and ARGHing we eventually decided not to come back (sob!). We had greatly enjoyed living in Fremantle and experiencing WA life, but ultimately wanted to try somewhere new/different/cheaper. So unfortunately our final week in Australia was spent frantically selling the van, getting rid of possessions and saying final goodbyes. The van proved to be the most stressful aspect of this, and we finally waved farewell to it a mere 48 hours before boarding the plane. A lovely Italian couple took him under their wing and, from what we can see from Facebook, they haven't been left stranded in the middle of the outback... yet!

And so we bid Australia a fond farewell! We have had an amazing time and the general highlights for us have undoubtedly been driving about in Eric the Econovan, hitting the beach after work, Fremantle's lively cafe and bar scene, beautiful camping weekends away, stunning sunsets and skies, and soaking up the relaxed Aussie barbecue and beer lifestyle. The downsides to Western Australian life have been a somewhat backwards culture at times, occasionally unbearable heat, some fly-ridden days, isolation from the rest of the Australia (Perth is closer to Singapore than Sydney and the state of Western Australia itself is almost four times as big as France) as well as from the rest of the planet, and expensive food and drink (so long, £6.50 pints, you won't be missed!).

So, to sum up, our perfect Fremantle weekend would be as follows: evening out at Little Creatures on Friday night with a few pints of Little Creatures Pale Ale soaked up by Seafood Laksa at Old Shanghai, an early morning swim at Cottesloe beach on Saturday morning followed by coffee and Eggs Florentine at Fidels, hopping into the van to head to a National Park Campsite, walk in the bush checking out cool trees and spiders, barbecue and beer back at the campsite, drinking wine under the stars before heading back to Freo in the morning via a dusty little town, imagining a weird Western being filmed there and finishing the weekend at the beach with takeway fish and chips from Amberjacks at Cottesloe beach watching the sun set over the water and wriggling our toes in the sand. And really no matter whatever negatives one can come up with, that is hard to beat!

What we've been watching:

Archangel
The BBC adaptation (aired years ago) of Robert Harris's book about a search for an heir of Stalin's, in 3 parts. It stayed very true to the original story, although needed to be cut down greatly which meant reducing a lot of the suspense and intrigue. A good watch, with some beautiful shots of Russia (presumably!) to make us feel very nostalgic for the time we spent there, but definitely a better read.

Black Mirror
Charlie Brooker's look at modern technology and how it can impact us in the future. It focused on three separate themes; the ability of news to go viral and it being very difficult to keep things under wraps once the cat is out of the bag, shows like X Factor and the adverts that run alongside it taking over our daily lives and rewarding / punishing us for what we do and don't watch, and the ability to look back on all of our memories in the future. A really interesting and thought provoking mini series, well written and produced.


What Charlotte's been reading:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Basically a murder mystery thriller with a bit of romance and weirdness thrown in. A gripping novel that I'm not entirely sure deserves it's hype, albeit being quite a good read. Very much written with further books in mind. It would make a cracking film.

Mad Men and Philosophy: Nothing is as it Seems - Rod Carveth & James B South
Exploring philosophical concepts using the medium of the Mad Men series. It includes some good bits about the philosophy of advertising; and keeps your attention as the authors aren't afraid to let you know their personal opinions, including some critique of the series.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written By Herself - Harriet Ann Jacobs. As the title says, an account of being a slave in America. Eloquently written account of being a true survivor.

Last Man in Tower - Aravind Adiga
Liam and I had greatly enjoyed 'White Tiger' by the same author so were excited when this came up as the Kindle Daily Deal. Although not quite as good, the book starts off slowly and then picks up half way through. A tale of greed and community betrayal.

  

The Book of Nonsense - Edward Lear
I have been delving into poetry now and then to try and bring myself to enjoy reading it. My favourite from this book I shall share with you: 'There was an old man whose habits, induced him to feed upon Rabbits, when he'd eaten eighteen, he turned perfectly green, upon which he relinquished those habits.' Not the most sophisticated poetry but amusing nonetheless!

Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunactic Asylum - Mark Stevens
Mark Stevens has looked after the Broadmoor Hospital archives since 2004 and has compiled this book about the early inhabitants. A compelling read!

The Case for Working with your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things is Good - Matthew Crawford
I like the principle of this book very much indeed, written by a guy who has a Phd in Political Philosophy, has worked in a US Government thinktank, and is now a motorcycle mechanic. However, I do feel he is quick to judge 'intellectual' jobs (he only spent 5 months working in the think-tank) and he can rather laboriously litter his musings with examples from motorcycle repair methods; complete with different lines of enquiry as well as diagrams! An interesting read though.

Fatherland - Robert Harris
Inspired to read this after watching Archangel. A story set in Berlin, with the premise being that Germany actually won WWII. We both read this and agreed that it is a slow burner, but is very hard to put down from about halfway. As usual with Harris, it features some real people and events from that era and references to genuine documents from WWII, making it educational as well as entertaining.

Breakfast with Socrates - Robert Rowland Smith
A pretty cool introduction to philosophical concepts, working through an average day to illustrate the ideas.

Fremantle & Perth, Australia

Christmas in SW Australia (25th - 31st December 2011)

Liam enjoying a burger and a pint at Bootleg Brewery

Our Christmas day began with us loading up the van for the week before heading down to our local beach, Cottesloe, for a morning swim. There were lots of people in bikinis and Santa hats which was a sight to behold, and the outdoor gyms were heaving and lots of people embarking in their usual exercise routine (I know, exercise on CHRISTMAS DAY!). It was a hot, sunny day and the water was clear and inviting (still 'refreshing' as always!), the perfect way to start our first antipodean Christmas.  We then embarked on our journey down south. We make a most excellent driving couple. Liam gets car sick as a passenger so prefers to drive, Charlotte doesn't so was able to read for the whole 6 hours the journey took. Excellent! We stopped for a quick Christmas lunch of avocado salad sandwich in Bridgetown, and arrived at Peaceful Bay soon after 4pm. We cracked a couple of beers and opened our pressies, (a good haul, thanks everyone!) before driving around looking for phone signal so we could make a Christmas phone call home. Despite having two different sim cards (having spent $30 on a telstra sim card that said it covered this area) we could barely even get emergency signal and so screeched to a halt next to a phone box and made the call from there (before realising that there was a pay phone at the campsite, d'oh!).  Back at the campsite we got the stove fired up and enjoyed our Christmas dinner of marinated prawns followed by Porterhouse steak, tabbouleh, potato salad and a green salad, yum!  We walked to the beach and gazed at the amazing stars (no light pollution), and conceded that although it was strange not to be amongst family on Christmas day, we'd definitely made the best of it, and the weather had conspired to make it a very enjoyable day.

On Boxing day we just chilled out at Peaceful Bay at the campsite and the beach.  We had a lovely morning of snorkelling, swimming and making a sandman(!).  Late afternoon we headed out to the nearby Valley of The Giants National Park, to do the Treetop Walk.  It is a walkway amongst the forest suspended 40m in the air, enabling you to get up close with the huge 400 year old Tingle trees which give the National Park it's name. The walkway sways quite a lot in the breeze and really is quite an engineering feat. We also did a separate walk on terra firma where we could get a look at the bases of the trees close up, and walk through some trees which had a hollow bottom due to funhgi, parasites and fire. Pretty interesting stuff!

The 27th was Liam's birthday, so we had a fun-packed day. After the obligatory morning swim Liam opened his pressies and we packed up the van (not before a bacon butty feast). First stop was Bartholomew Meadery where we sample various types of traditional and fruity meads.  We bought a bottle of a sweet-yet-dry mead, with some beer-like qualities as it had been re-fermented in the bottle.  The bee hive was in the shop with a glass wall, so we got to see first hand the bees and thank them for their hard work!  The shop also made ice-cream, so it would be remiss of us not to try some lovely ginger ice-cream on a hot day like this. Liam chatted to the guy working there who was wearing a Rolo Tomassi t shirt, who are a band from Sheffield, small world!  We then moved on before hastily doing a u-turn after seeing a sign for a brewery, it was Liam's birthday after all!  Entering the Denmark Brew and Ales building from the front didn't really build up much expectation as it looked like a caravan park, but in fact it boasted a gorgeous veranda overlooking beautiful countryside, where we enjoyed a tasting paddle.  The beer was drinkable yet unremarkable, but the view on a hillside looking over the coastline was what this place was all about.  The day was hotting up and the locals remarked to us how it isn't often this hot down here (being on the south coast it is a lot cooler and wetter than where we live).  We moved onto Denmark for a quick pit-stop (or should that be pie-stop?) for a lunch of proper Aussie pies at an award winning bakery.  We decided that when people recommend Denmark as somewhere to visit, they mean the surrounding countryside (which admittedly is utterly, utterly stunning) rather than the town itself (nothing wrong with it but it is just a single street with a mixture of tourist shops and cafes).  We visited windswept Ocean Beach but retreated to the car to head to the next campsite at Emu Point in Albany. After a longer than intended walk around the point we wined and dined and stuck some birthday candles in some pieces of homemade peanut butter fudge, and drunk some tasty vintage barley wine we had bought a few months previously from Bootleg Brewery. Splendid!

We then treated ourselves to a lazy day where we sat reading the paper in the front of the van overlooking the ocean, and eating delicious salt and pepper squid from the Squid Shack (an Albany institution). Once it had cooled down a little we explored Albany Town Centre and enjoyed it's high street with many old buildings, as Albany was the first settlement in Western Australia.  It was quite an interesting and vibrant little town and possibly the first town we've genuinely liked (bar Freo, obviously!) in WA.  On the way back we drove up Mount Clarence to the war memorial and fantastic views over the unique landscape of various inlets and sounds.

Early next morning we packed up ready to head back to Peaceful Bay and had a glorious breakfast at Emu Point Cafe. Before getting back on the road west, we drove down a very long peninsular and to the inappropriately named Misery Beach. Oddly named, as after a long drive, followed by a hike down from the car park, the reaction stepping onto the beach is 'Oh, WOW'.  A truly beautiful beach and beautiful azure water, of course the photos just don't do it justice.  There was a huge cliff face at one end, making the scene even more impressive, and lots of huge waves crashing in making it a lot of fun to swim in!  Later in the afternoon the horse-flies came out, so we made a run for it and visited 'The Gap' and 'Natural Bridge', aptly named rock formations which date back to the last ice-age when Australia and Antartica were joined together.  Our last stop of the day was at Greens Pool, a shallow and sheltered, very pretty bay which attracts lots of families due to it being so much safer than many of the other beaches. We played with a new ball (a Waboba) we'd got for Christmas which at times was more like playing fetch, as Liam bounced the ball off the water so effectively it went for bloody miles. Thanks Mark! It was a fantastic day to mark a year to the day since we set off from home.  Thinking back to that chilly December morning when we waved our families goodbye at Chorley Railway station was strange because, in some ways, it feels like an incredibly long time ago, and in other ways it feels like time has just flown by.  We cracked opened a beer at 6.17pm to mark the occasion of our train leaving Chorley station at 10:17am British time exactly a year ago!

The following day, we awoke to damp and wet morning and tentatively tried to coax Eric into life to no avail. A German guy who was camping nearby came over, asked where we were heading, and said 'if I get your car started, can you give me a lift to Walpole?'.  All it needed was a little meths on the carburetter and we were away, and enjoyed chatting to Heigl before continuing on from Walpole to Pemberton.  Heigl had told us about some good climbing trees in Pemberton, and as it was on our way we checked one of them out, the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree in the Warren National Park . We'd read about it and had in our heads an idea of a huge tree with basically a rudimentary staircase leading up it.  Charlotte was indignant when Liam asked if she was going to climb it, and retorted that of course she was going to climb it, "I'm not a wuss". Well, it turned out to be an ENORMOUS tree with metal spokes sticking out of it to climb up and around it. Turns out Charlotte is a wuss, although Liam did make it to the halfway point about 40m up.  Scary stuff! We also enjoyed a refreshing walk through the National Park in the mentholly eucalyptus air.  We then carried on to our final destination, to campsite in Margaret River that we'd visited with Charlotte's family earlier in the year.  We visited Colonial Brewery in the afternoon for a scrumptious tasting paddle - more info on this to come in the next post - 'The 12 Beers of Christmas'!

For the final day of our holiday we walked along the river from the campsite into the town of Margaret River, and had coffee at a local cafe. We then headed to Cowramup Brewery for a tasting paddle, nothing like the taste of beer in morning!  We also visited Tassle Park Wines for a tasting (as Liam felt he couldn't visit the Margaret River region twice without visiting a single winery) before heading to the Bootleg Brewery for lunch.  It being New Year's Eve, Bootleg was heaving and we were almost turned away at the gate, but conceded we were only going in for a drink, but thankfully the floor staff found us a table so we could eat.  Liam had an awesome steak sandwich and Charlotte had a scrumptious Turkish platter.  Gorgeous lunch, gorgeous beers, gorgeous setting for a brewery, amongst the farmland and forest.  It had been a great holiday, with perfect weather, and the stunning scenery of the South West coast.

We then drove home, after a long drive for Charlotte and a hard day's beer and wine sampling for Liam, we were exhausted. By the time we had unpacked it was 9pm and we thought better of our idea to go into Fremantle or to the beach for midnight (Charlotte also had to be up for work before 6am).  We watched Four Lions and went to bed at 11.15pm as we were absolutely knackered.  We were woken up by fireworks at midnight and lay in bed watching a pretty elaborate display towards Perth from the window.

So, 2011, we bid you a fond farewell.  I guess all our blog posts will attest that 2011 has been pretty swell. Yep, swell :)

Christmas '11 - South Coast WA

Monthly round-up - December 2011

Charlotte and Eric in Yalgorup National Park

December was a great month for us and summer has finally arrived, lots of beach days, bbqs and swimming; as well as, of course, working and usual home life.

We were lucky enough to receive some STA Travel Vouchers for our wedding and decided to use them to pay for an experience which we might otherwise be reluctant to fork out for. After exploring lots of options we decided that swimming with dolphins would be a rather fun thing to do! So one Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and drove down to Rockingham to meet the boat. We were then given a briefing along the lines of  "these dolphins are wild, we don't feed them to attract them, so there's no guarantee that we'll find them but we're determined to spend hours looking if necessary!", zipped into our wetsuits and headed out to sea. Thankfully we found the first dolphins within about twenty minutes and jumped in. Basically we snorkelled while the dolphins swam and played around underneath us. One of the guides (Dolphin Girl as she was known) would zoom about under water using a diving scooter, mimicking the dolphins actions and playing around with them to keep them interested. We then watched them swimming about and dashing at each other playfully, before they got shy and swam off. Throughout the morning we swam with a few different groups of dolphins, but they were gradually becoming less interested. Instead we were treated to the spectacle of them catching a lift in the wake of the boat, jumping right out of the water and belly flopping back in. It was a pretty incredible experience – thank you to people who got us the vouchers!

We had decided to make a weekend of it, so once we were back on dry land we explored Rockingham (pleasant enough but not much to it apart from a beach and some nice restaurants and coffee shops) before heading down to Yalgorup National Park. We spent a little time on Preston Beach within the National Park before heading to our campsite for the night, Martin's Tank. National Park campsites are basic (long drop toilets and no running water) but very convenient to those on a budget wanting to get away from the confines of the cramped family campsites. It took about half an hour down an incredibly bumpy sand track to get there (doing wonders to Eric's suspension, I'm sure).  The National Park was fairly dense forest and bushland, and we saw quite a few spiders in the shrubs behind the van, including a beautiful Jewel spider with lots of colourful spikes on it's back. They aren't poisonous thankfully.  The next day we went down to Bunbury for a picnic on the beach, and a "gosh, I wonder why people have recommended this place" moment (no offence intended, the kind of place which would be fine if you lived there but not much point making a special trip), before making our way home via some thrombolites at Lake Clifton, in Yalgorup National Park. Thrombolites, 'living rocks', are the most common form of microbialites, which are rock-like structures built by micro-organisms. Thrombolites and stromatolites were the only known form of life on Earth some 3500 to 6500 million years ago. Microbes found in both thrombolite and stromatolite formations are believed to be responsible for oxygen production which allowed life to exist on the planet. So they're pretty important things – although it's hard to truly appreciate that as you gaze down at the grey blobs in front of you. As Bill Bryson so eloquently puts it; 'They are lusterless and grey and look ... like very large cow pats. But it is a curiously giddying moment to find yourself staring at living remnants of the Earth as it was 3.5 billion years ago.'

December also marked the seasonal opening of our local outdoor cinema. We went to see We Need to Talk About Kevin, which we thoroughly enjoyed, although Charlotte found it harder going than the book, and was slightly disturbed by Kevin being far too pretty. The cinema itself is very cute, and being set in a leafy walled garden, with a bar selling local beers and a wood-fired pizza oven, plus some live music on before the film. A lovely way to spend an evening.

Quick beer reference: we finally opened the bottle of Brewdog AB:04 that Liam bought Charlotte for her birthday. The AB range is a specialist and limited line of experimental beers from Brewdog, and this one an Imperial Stout brewed with cacao, coffee and chilli. Interesting to say the least! Charlotte noted that as it was dark and very rich it might be more suited to the climate of Perth, Scotland than Perth, Australia.

It was strange in the run up to Christmas as it isn't as much of a big deal over here, but we were baffled that everyone we asked seemed to be spending the day itself inside with the air con on roasting a turkey.  A few people had Christmas lights up, but we didn't see a single Christmas tree.  We enjoyed the usual December festivities – namely pub going with friends and colleagues. Liam had two (TWO!) Christmas work do's to attend, one where he had to sit on Father Christmas's knee to receive a gift of a kangaroo scrotum! Not in its original state obviously, but made into a little leather-style pouch.

We had an interesting experience one Sunday evening as we attended the Town of Cottesloe Christmas Carol Service. It was outdoors, of course, and we arrived to the service already having started and to pretty much nobody joining in with the carols, more interested in chatting and drinking wine, while the kids ran amok. We soon realised what kind of a carol service it was going to be after Charlotte commented "I've not even heard of some of these carols – listen to the lyrics to this one from 1973, 'So here's to you Merry Christmas, Everybody's having fun, look to the...' oh right, yeah now I know it". Determined to join in with the carols despite lack of effort from the rest of the crowd, we cracked open a bottle of wine and were soon joining in with a hip hop We Three Kings and other twists on traditional carols, and frantically waving our LED candle. The evening was interspersed with sketches to celebrate the Christmas service's hundredth anniversary. One of the sketches seemed to be heavily advertising the local tea house and included a young woman putting on a faux Indian accent in a questionably distasteful way. We ended the evening by getting trapped at the end of a car park trying to avoid the masses, and made our escape shimmying down from the car park via a tree, to the bemusement of the people throwing a cocktail party from their very swish apartment looking down on us. It wasn't quite Carols round the Clock Tower in Wheelton, but it sure was a great evening!

Stayed tuned for the the next post about our Christmas week holiday. In the meantime, here's a breakdown of Charlotte's reading:

The Whispers of Nemesis – Anne Zouroudi

An Amazon Kindle Daily Deal, purchased on the basis of good reviews from The Guardian and Alexander McCall Smith. Pretty crappy tale of a poet's body being exhumed in Greece and turning out to now have a pigs skull. The following investigation is rather boring and predictable, and none of the characters are remotely likeable.

The Lieutenant – Kate Grenville

Based on a true story, Kate Grenville writes another excellent book about life in Australia for early Western settlers, in this case about a lieutenant who befriends an Aboriginal girl. Sensitive and informative, an interesting read.

Breakfast at the Hotel Deja vu – Paul Torday

A novella based around the MP expenses scandal. If you like Paul Torday's other books, you'll like this. An intricately woven plot, narrated by someone in a coma with memory problems. There are some genius moments of genuine deja vu on the part of the reader, and the subject of the expenses scandal is very interesting as it explores the rationalisation of those who thought it was perfectly acceptable to rip off the tax-payer. Liam also read and enjoyed this book.

Do you Think You're Clever? - John Farndon

John Farndon answers questions which have been asked in Oxbridge entrance interviews, such as 'Do you think you're clever?',  'What is fate?', 'Does a Girl Scout have a political agenda?', 'How would you measure the weight of your own head?' etc. Fascinating insight into all sorts of topics, and really gets you thinking outside of the box. Brilliant book.

You Can't Say That: Memoirs – Ken Livingstone

I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing read about Ken Livingstone's career, so much so that I can forgive him for barely mentioning his home life and being terribly flippant about his decision to co-parent with someone who wasn't his partner.  He seems like a very intelligent, rational and caring bloke, one can only hope he will unseat Boris in the upcoming mayoral election.

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Read because, well,  it was Christmas!  The first of a Dicken's book for me to read to the end, more of a reflection of it's short length than it's enjoyability.  Despite me not being a Dickens fan, it was good to finally read what is such a well known tale from the countless televised, film and theatre versions. 

Van Adventures

Fremantle & Perth, Australia

(New photos have been added to the end of these albums)