For all you Kucom-ites, you may know, or know of via numerous conversations with our longer standing members, of a genltleman named John Taylor. John is originally from Mackay, and has visited for longish stints since moving to London in the late 60’s. Heather had mentioned that she was still in fairly regular contact with him, so, me being me, decided if there was ANYONE who might like to direct me to a worthwhile theatre production, (amongst the thousands that are on in London at any one time) it would have to be John. I managed to get in touch with him and we arranged to meet up at the National Theatre on the Wednesday evening.
John is very lovely and it was a joy to have a good old gossip about all things Kucom! He’s actually written quite a few plays himself – might have to look into them… We saw The Habit of Art, a new Alan Bennett play starring Richard Griffiths and Alex Jennings, among numerous others. ’Destined to be a blockbuster’ according to the critics. I’d have to agree, but John was a little less taken with it, although he didn’t regret coming to see it at all. It’s quite complicated being a play within a play, very wordy and one must concentrate or the text can lead you astray as to whose story is 
actually being told at any given piece of dialogue. As oppsed to the Farndales however, it was very realistic in its portrayal of a rehearsal session when the director is missing… Had to smile at that! Afterwards we had a stroll around the South Bank, but I couldn’t linger long as it was quite late & I had an hour commute back to Bedford, and a 6am start to get to work by 9! (Much prefer living in Leeds). So thank you Heather (& Maureen for passing on the messages) for helping me get in touch with John. He is, as you say, a gorgeous man and a most gracious London date!
By Friday the DWP Archive was looking somewhat different to what it had a couple of weeks previous. Angie will either love me , or despise me, but she will undoubtedly know I was there! I was treated to a lovely lunch at La Tasca, a Spanish Tappas restaurant in London with Helen S, (our FoI guru) Elaine from the staff directory and Paul from the Legal Library. Paul had actually given me some of his valuable time earlier in the week to give me a run through of the legal library. Yeah – Wow! Full on to say the least…
I was suppose to go to the National Archives at Kew on the Saturday, but the universe conspired against me. I arrived in London shortly after 10am, expecting to be able to catch the tube to Kew Gardens, as it said on the tube map. But no, the London railways often close, or partially close tube and rail lines on a weekend for maintenance. There were 3 disruptions to the District line, so the 40min trip would have been closer to 2 hours. While I can appreciate that maintenance must be carried out, and weekends are better for London workers, I WANTED TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!!! So, no problem, I’ll get the bus. A longer ride but still possible. But no – the skys are going to throw down bucket loads of rain and whip up gale force winds causing road closures in precisely the direction I WANT TO GO!!! GGGrrrraaaahhhhh!!! How bloody frustrating. So, family research and general admiration of the archives will just have to wait until… oh – who knows?
Not being able to bear the thought of returning to Bedford without doing something, I decided to have a look at the Museum of London and that end of town in general as I’d not made it there as yet. Took a while to get there as many of the other tube lines were down as well, but I eventually found the right bus and managed to not
miss my stop. The Museum is right next to the London Wall. Quite thought provoking to see this thousand+ year old structure, once the defense line of an entire city, towered over by concrete & steel. I like that they’ve kept though, and as the museum looks out over the wall, some of their exhibitions actually incorporate the view which is very cool. As I left the museum, I encountered this marvellous parade heading down the main road, aptly 
named the London Wall. It was for the Variety Club Children in Need fundraiser and, despite the bloody awful weather, they were having a ball. Lots of scrummy looking pirates on this float! But I think that by far the BEST float of the day had to be the one from the plastering company…
So, after a busy couple of weeks I headed home to Leeds and Gothling on Sunday. Enjoyed working at the Adelphi a great deal, but will NOT miss that commute. Quite happy to return to my 30 min brisk walk to Quarry House and having only to contend with the occassional bout of pedestrian rage 
It was SOO fantastic to have her with us, if only for a few weeks. We didn’t get to do all that we wanted, but then, we were never bored either and I only hope she enoyed sharing our experience as much as we enjoyed the opportunity to share it with her. It did Gothling the world of good having someone from home, and her own age, to cut loose with. The British were NEVER in doubt as to who they were when they were around!!
childrens entertinment, this is no easy performance! So – when the cast and crew of the upcoming Leeds City College production of A Christmas Carol were told they need to perform something for their fund raiser, Harry Black emerged once again – from his Sack… and the crowd loved it. Performances were preceeded by a fantasy fashion parade, hence Gothling’s exotic make-up. You’ll have to wait for Susan Stormcloud to post a picture of the full get up. If anyone wants to give it a try, you’ll find Harry Black and his freinds in Andy Griffiths book ‘The Cat on the Mat is Flat’. I’d personally love to have a go at ‘Buck the Duck and his Ice Cream Truck’ – but I don’t think I trust myself…
I grew up on Lake MacQuarie I’ve never experienced autumn colours and the effect it has on the landscape, or city scape for that matter. As much as it heralds the coming of short grey days, and stiff 
breezes that would cut the what-a-names completely off that poor little brass monkey, it is nonetheless very pretty. Doesn’t last that long though. Within a few days of takings these pictures, the leaves were all off and the city is now covered in the skeleton trees that greeted us in January, barely rising above the thick carpet of leaves now on the ground. Gives you something to kick while walking along…
Parts of the country side were surprisingly dry, but this only added to the magnificent colours. Autumn is the favourite season for many Brits, and I can understand why. If the sky is clear and the air crisp, the array of reds, oranges and browns would inspire the most entrenched city dweller to wonder 
at the beauty of nature. The Elan Valley has a series of dams running through it, with lovely old walls and spillways built in the late 19th century. As it was a clear calm day, the waters were reflecting the scenery around them in perfect mirror images. The sort of stuff 2000 piece jigsaws are made of! So while I was driving along marvelling at all the panorama, Susan Stormcloud was snoozing & Gothling was learning her lines for A Christmas Carol. 
I made them get out of the car when we came across this though (it was only 6° so it took some encouraging). A ruin of a small settlement with a couple of buildings and lots of rocks and slate. There was a sign stating that it was an excavation and research site. Have to give the original dwellers credit. Firstly how they built these houses with no mortar, and secondly how they lived in what appears to have been a very harsh country side. Makes you feel all soft and spoilt by comparison. So we have a couple of little bits of Welsh slate to bring home as well.
We finally made it to Conwy (local pronunciation is Conwee) by late afternoon, found a reasonable room, ate a lovely pub meal, and were all asleep by 8.30! Amazing how a late night fuelled by Welsh ghost stories can take it out of you…
enclosed feel. It was built by Edward I (Longshanks), along with a series of other forts along the welsh coast. After a lovely nights slumber we hit the castle proper. There are very few roofs left of the original structure so it has a rather spooky abandoned feel, but we were soon trotting up and down the numerous turrets (trying to warm up largely). 
Some of those narrow spiral stone stairs are nothing short of treacherous! I don’t know how people would have lived with them going up and down all day without breaking a neck or two. But then, maybe they did? These days there are usually hand rails to help us shaky knee people keep their balance, but there only bare walls back in the day. Gothling seemed to scamper up and down with ease, while Susan and I were much more sedate… 
We soon dealt with this show of exhuberance though!
So it was closer to 4 hours by the time we were hunting for our accommodation for the night at the ‘Queens Head Hotel’. Was all good though as our main reason for visiting Monmouth, a certain young Partridge by the name of Rob, had just finished torturing some young rugby players out in the cold and rain, and was ready for a beer or three! We had a lovely couple of hours learning some local knowledge about Aussies working in Wales (we promised we wouldn’t divulge too much…) and getting a feel for the place. Our rooms at the Queens Head were lovely. Low ceilings and I think I’ve been on oceans with less movement in the floors, but very clean, warm and comfy. Plus the owner gave us a bit of a deal and beakfast was yummy! Next morning we had a bit of a stroll around Monmouth before heading north. We were’n't really sure where at this stage, just knew we wanted to get towards Snowdonia and eventually to Conway. While passing through the village of Wigmore, we saw a sign pointing towards a castle. As it was time for a stretch anyway,
we pulled over and went for a stroll. Initially we thought our efforts might be to no avail as the entry to the church yard and castle (at the end of a gorgeous little lane) were closed off with construction site tape. But a helpful (and rather attractive) local soon came to the rescue and pointed to where we could approach via another gate. Apparently it’s a bit less than safe around the ruins of the 
castle these days. Well – it is nearly 1000 years old! But you can get some pics from the perimeters. St James church at Wigmore is also from the 11th century, and you can certainly tell where the ‘new’ bits were added - in the 1300’s!
So we arrived in Rhayader mid afternoon, and soon found a lovely little pub with rooms in a cottage (converted and haunted barn actually!) out the back for a very reasonable price. Within a few short hours we had done a brief pub crawl, including one that dated back to the 15th century, met some entertaining locals and ‘bonded’ with the publican. Allen fed us his own home cooked curry, invited us to make ourselves at home in his kitchen/living room, gave Susan smokes when she ran out, and made sure we were comfortable and had drinks in front of the fire. All the while chatting with locals, changing kegs and generally being frantic. As we would, we also spent some time out the back court yard where the locals, much to Allens chagrin, were determined we would NOT get a wink of sleep thanks to all the lovely ghost stories!! Apparently, an unhappy man did away with himself in the cottage, when it was still a barn, in about 1787, and obviously hasn’t found his way out as yet… Now I’ve had some ‘hair standing up’ moments before, and don’t think I’m too much of a wus generally, but there were DEFINITELY footsteps in the wee small hours that DID NOT belong to any one of the breathing variety! And I’m SURE there was a whispery shadow pass across the main area in the pub when just Allen were chatting by the fire. He smiled knowingly. “She visits sometimes he said” SO – if you want an entertaining and somewhat ‘creepy’ night in Wales, visit the Cornhill Hotel in Rhayader. You won’t be disappointed!
As often happens at Sarah’s, Gothling ended up giving a mini-concert of some of her songs (before the wine began to interfere with the lyrics). But she also turned teacher for a while, sharing some tricks with Sarah. 
It really is the perfect venue for a modern art gallery. It’s not all huge spaces though. There’s also quite a few small rooms, originally the offices of the warehouse I would assume, housing various themed collections from Picasso to Pollack to Warhol, bracketed by some amazing and curios pieces of artwork from the lesser known. The collections starts in 1900 with ‘Fauvism’ and ends with pieces from as recent as last year. We were both particularly taken with a multi media piece about an anime character who had been ’shelved’. She tells her story of rejection by the ‘corporation’ in numerous video clips and caricatures. An interesting take on Gothlings favourite genre. 
This would have to be my favourite though, ‘30 pieces of silver’ by Cornelia Parker. She took hundreds, maybe thousands, of pieces of silver, including cutllery, plates, teapots and even musical instruments, had a steam roller go over the lot, then suspended them by about six inches, all in circular formations by transparent wire, five across and six down. 
As per usual the photo won’t do it justice, but I can tell you the effect, especially s they’re in their own room, is quite stunning.
A market town about 20 min on the train from Leeds. The first night was free (cool!) and we were joined by Kelly & her mum Jean. Well actually they invited us! And you’ll never guess who showed up for an impromptu gig? Recognise that face? We got to bop along on the hill (was rather muddy down in the ‘pit’) to one of the 
biggest bands of the century – for FREE!! How cool was that?
A pair of gorgeous wild ducks took up residence in the Quarry House courtyard (smokers area) in early Spring, and soon after we were blessed with 5 little ducklings. We’ve watched their progress from little waddlers to proud flyers, and all donated to the ‘duck food fund’. But now they seem to have headed off to warmer lands until till next March. I wonder if the same pair will come back?
Viking museum and ridy sort of thing with actors and moving mannequins and voice overs. Excellent for the younger ones, and quite good for bigguns. The medievil buildings and cobbled streets are realy charming, although I imagine they weren’t so much a few hundred years ago. Here’s a picture of Matt, our IT guy/pack horse, carting all the paraphernalia back to the car at the end of the day. I think the best part was meeting a heap more people from various areas and locations of the DWP. More new friends!
I also did a trek a couple of weeks ago through a huge woodland around the old saxon village of Tong. There were some quite high hills so had some glorious views. The walk goes throuh another village calle Fulneck, founded by the descendants of the Unity of Brethren Sect who fled the Czech lands in the early 1700’s. You can certainly see the influence of other areas in their architecture, but I’m afraid my batteries had died by then 
We just received the our birthday cards today – what a joy! Thank you all SO much. It was nearly as good as a ’surprise’ morning tea 
Dawn and us, but Sarah had been invited to another party near where Dawn lives, so, we ALL went to the other party and met some more people and had a blast! I even met a bloke from Newcastle who not only knew where Mackay was, but had spent some time there just last year, soon after the flood – go figure! He really likes us as well and reckons Mackay is one of the best spots he’s stayed in while touring for quite a while. Great to hear a good report about your home town. So I don’t know if you can be nominated for the ‘golden bucket’ award by proxy, but I can
promise you, Gothling made a good effort before we finally headed home about 3.30am. Next morning we were treated to a resounding chorus of ‘happy birthday’ via Skype from Kath, Julia and Graham (I’m sure the windows were rattling!) just to give the headache that added boost…
Karen & I made contact via ‘genes reunited’, and found that if you up go our family tree five generations, across to a sibling, then back down another four generations, (we were more prolific breeders over our way apparently) we’re cousins! About seven times removed, but cousins just the same. Karen & her husband Dan live in Thirsk, about 50 minutes drive from Leeds. They invited us up to share a meal, and were joined by Karen’s dad Dennis who came down from Sunderland. Dennis was a fountain of interesting information about some curios skeletons lurking (to add to the many rattling bones in my family…) in various closets. After a superb meal we all strolled into Thirsk for a couple at the local where gothling & I were staying the night. Dennis has offered to give us a more detailed tour of the areas of Newcastle where our family once lived, (15 of them in a small 3 bedroom terrace!). Hoping to take him up on that in the next couple of weeks. 
Not the cheapest of accomodation… Like all castles Bamburgh has a long and interesting history. More recently it played a significant part in the northern defenses during WWII, and much of the military equipment is still on hand. There is currently an archeological project on the grounds and tenderly making its way under some of the buildings, finding all sorts of interesting things and rewriting some of the known history of the 
area. Should have been an archeologist – wonder if they need a librarian? Nah – too cold in winter. The wind was howling around the Keep while we were in there, sparking our imaginations to long haired maidens and armoured Knights. Sigh… Fortunately the wind wasn’t cold though, so we experienced a lovely northern sea side day. 
long. But what we saw was very impressive and we walked in the steps of Kings, Queens and broom wielding movie stars ( I could have done with my swish looking straw broom here Mr G!)
So this is where I want to live – ok – maybe not in Alnwick, as pretty as it is. But I do want this house, in Eungella! Then Kath can call me a Hippee and MEAN IT!! D 
We arrived early on the Wednesday morning and found our hostel in Clichy, a bit outside of the city centre, quite easily. I must say that I was initially a bit concerned about only knowing 6 or so words of french as so many people had told us how stern the French can be, and unwilling to speak any other language. Well – our first taxi driver was an absolute delight, fluent at english and happy to speak it! Full of helpful information and some tuition on some extra french words. To top it off, his daughter is the same age as gothling AND another anime/manga freak! What are the odds?
the time we left Paris, gothling could navigate the whole system at a glance, and had half the lines memorised. We headed directly for the tower, just for a squiz. We were blessd with some lovely weather. Not quite as warm as Rome but clear and very pleasant. Bit like a nice winters day in Mackay. So the Eiffel Tower is tall, and metal. Bit like the Habour Bridge only all in one direction. I was actually a bit surprised by the colour. As opposed to the old gun metal grey, it’s actually a nice pale coppery colour. Ha – who knew? AND we saw an idea that they should no doubt import to Australia in many places. As it was a little warm if standing in the sun for a while, they had these huge industrial fans spraying water mist over the crowds who were queueing for a good mile and a half to climb the tower. Great idea. The mist that is – not the climbing. Yeah it’s high and I’m sure it’s a great view. But it would have taken hours and we were more interested in getting up close and personal with all the sites rather than seeing them from afar.
got chatting to a group of lovely people from Spain on their last night in Paris after a 10 day holiday. They were some sort of ‘group’, still not sure on all the details. One girl, Alba, was quite good at english and loved the opportunity to practise, but with the rest we pretty much resorted to pictograms on the serviettes – surprisingly effective. We did understand however when the group leader invited us to jump on the bus in the morning and join them all in Spain!!?? Yeah well – very kind and all but uummm – afraid not… More of Paris to see and I think I might be in the poo if I phone the DWP from Spain next Monday saying “Sorry, could be a bit late…”
The Louvre – another heady, exhausting, stunning collection of some of the most wonderful pieces of art on the planet. Venus de Milo is so much more graceful and refined in real life than any image will ever do justice to. Mona Lisa is nothing short of cheeky, and my eyes were delightfully weary from the classical, ancient, medievil and renaissance art contained in The Louvre. The building itself is 
glorious and packed with history covering a good 400+ years. I loved the glass pyramid as an entrance. It says to me “Don’t assume you know what’s in here – we WILL surprise you.” 
One really interesting bit was the excavations a couple of stories below ground level. Before The Louvre became the building it is now, there was a sizeable norman castle with an enormous mote. They’ve excavated part of what remains of the foundations and made a model of what they believe the castle looked like – very Walt Disney-ish. We emerged about 6 hours after we had entered. Tired but happy, and in need of sustenance.
around Notre Dame a bit. I think the meals were a little more expensive in Paris than in Rome, but with a little investigating of menu’s on display we usually found something reasonable without compromising on taste. Usually it just meant the loo’s were a little less ’swish’, (but still had soap, water and paper!) We didn’t get to go inside Notre Dame. The church was gearing up for the Feast of the Assumtion the following day so access was less than usual. To be honest, considering the crowds we saw cramming into the place when it was open, I’m really not that sorry. 
The outside is a wonder in itself, and we had a glorious twilight view as we gently steamed past on a Seine River cruise. 
The Bishop and about 20 priests, followed by dozens of alter boys, nuns, a choir and hundreds of candle carrying followers, lead the way down the river bank to a waiting flotilla of about 5 large river barges. We past them going one way, then saw them again as they went under the bridge we were standing on after the cruise. I’m not a fan of organised religion at all, but it was nonetheless a lovely and moving spectacle.
dawned and we had a clear intention – Montemartre. I’d not heard of this area of Paris before, but in retrospect, we’ve all probably seen snippets of it on the telly and in movies. It’s where many of the great artists and writers of the 19th and 20th century, and now perhaps the 21st, lived and worked and ate and loved and cried and laughed and drank and some even died. Salvadore Dali spent the majority of his working adult life here and there’s a fantastic gallery with all his better, and much of his lesser known work. I’ve always been a Dali fan. When I get home I’m looking for some good prints of his work. (Can’t see an original coming any time soon…) 
So Montmartre is a mesh of lovely old cobbled streets, charming old shops, cafe’s, restaurants and galleries. It waves it’s way up one side of quite a substantial hill, culminating at the top with yet another lovely cathedral, Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre (Sacre-Coeur). This is apparently the highest point of Paris and the view would definately suggest just that. It goes forever and one gets a bit of an idea of the size 
of Paris, and some of the buildings therein, while sitting up there. We had a really lovely lunch, including escargo, at a little restaurant among the windy streets with a great people watching vantage, and were treated to some excellent ‘tiffs’ between the artists vying for the tourists attention to sell them personal 10 minute portraits. Once again – couldn’t understand the actual words – but that might have been a good thing! The steps, street and grass area in front of the church is another great spot for street performers with everything from painted and/or robed human statues to clever footballers and an Italian
musician who had a crowd of about 300 people bellowing various internationally well known songs across the whole of Paris from the hill top – lots of fun!! By now it was early evening, so we headed back to Clichy for a snack, a wine and bed. Having a fantastic day is so exhausting!
sites including the Arch de Triumphe, the Obelisk from Egypt, etc. I’ll have to review the video get the rest. By mid afternoon we wanted to check out an area called St Martin where there’s some vintage shops, which we eventually found. I was really hoping to bring home a dress from ‘Paris’, even if it was 2nd hand. Unfortunately, once you put the word ‘vintage’ on anything, as opposed to ‘pre-loved’ it seems you can charge the earth for it and not particularly care if its still dirty… There was some lovely things and we did pick up a couple of bargains from the 5euro rack, but had to balk at the beaded dress for 80 – next time… There is another really pretty area close to Notre Dame called St Michelle. More windy streets and interesting shops. A bit touristy, but fun nonetheless. Near here is a lovely 
old book shop called “Shakespeare and Company”. Judging from the old photo’s I’d say it’s been operating since the 1930’s or earlier. They sell a few new release titles, but the interesting stuff is the lovely old books and knick-knacks that line walls. Upstairs is another couple of rooms where the books are not for sale, but visitors are welcome to take a book from the shelves, (some of which are made from the original beams by simply removing the plaster in between) relax on the soft old lounges and read till their hearts content. Poke your head outside the bay window and one can see the western side and spires of Notre Dame, people enjoying a meal in the restaurant next door and street musicians filling the air with glorious sounds. How much more Pari can one get??
of Moulin Rouge by night. Which we did and have some great footage of what I’m sure are the two most expensive glasses of ‘house wine’ in the world! But hey – we were there. Was all worth it 
to two of the most revered capital cities was a resounding success. Wouldn’t change a thing, and ever so grateful for being able to share it with my gothling.