A day in the archives

J had the joyous job of photocopying for a day while I hunted for more useful pics. Sadly hers was the more productive of the tasks in the end, if boring, although there was an album of interesting aerial shots, some of which I hadn't seen before. I'll have plenty to work with when I get to Italy. J got some reward with a bit of shopping.

It was actually a nice day and they are now predicting 5 days of sunshine! Typical when we are heading off on Thursday... C tells us that the Leith has flooded, though sent no photos (you'll never be a journalist C). Strange that we get the same news at both ends off the world.

Thanks for those who comment. It's nice to know that people are actually reading the blogs! Unlike my parents who haven't contacted me in forever. 8-( (Phil, it was a StuG III. There don't seem to have been any StuG IVs at Cassino, and I've not seen any in pictures before Rome. This suggests there weren't any in theatre until later, if at all. ) Q, perhaps you can arrange a reading with Mother dear. It seems K hasn't quite worked it out yet.

Ciao!

Sunshine and theatre

We went for another sortee into the festival. For some reason the bridge was open today, so obviously people are lighter on Sundays. Fancy that. We popped across and watched various acrobatic groups performing in Millenium Square. One group we'd seen before on Friday night, so their jokes were familiar, but still clever and funny. Lots of inuendo that hopefully went over the heads of the many children in the audience. There were also balancing acts, jugglers, hoola-hoopers, and others, so plenty to keep the crowds happy.

We'd not been on a ferry boat since we got here so today was the day. It was a different view of the harbour as we went down to the locks and back up to the SS Great Britain. There were boats everywhere and it seemed anyone who could charge for a trip was doing so. Add to that rowing races, dog rescues, and people generally messing about in boats and you had a busy harbour.

We strolled back past bands, stalls, ice-cream trucks and all the other things that come with a festival, then I got on with touching up the three days of photos, and writing these blogs while J went for a walk again since the sun was out, but returned with ice-creams.

Tomorrow we're off to London to delve into the IWM archives (no charge there for turning up), and of course Thursday we're off to Italy. Yee ha!

Fireworks

If you like these fireworks, see the rest.

Bristol Harbour Festival

We woke to bright sunshine and a warm day. Amazing to think we have to mention this in the middle of summer, but there you go. Couldn't have been better for the festival either. We popped across to the stalls and picked up some fresh baking for brunch - croissants, pain au chocolat, etc, were all there so we got our fill of pastries.

C and M were coming in to have a few hours looking around with us. When we all headed over we discovered that all sorts of fair rides and booths had been installed, there were bands playing, dance groups dancing and so on. The footbridge to the other side of the harbour was closed just as we got there: apparently they were concerned it had too many people on it, the implication being it might collapse. I reckon if they had made it one way traffic only they would have been OK, but perhaps an engineer knew better. Anyway, there was plenty to do on this side without bothering to walk around to the other. M had a great time on the rides - another slide, the spinning tea-cups, face painting and so on. Then we sat down for lunch and watched Salsa dancers, and a (showing my ignorance of current musical terminology here) bloke who sang to the accompaniment of electronic samples and mixes. The latter, unusually named Kid Carpet, came complete with a swag of groupies, mostly under 17 I'd guess, and appeared to be well known to Bristolians of that age. C and M had to leave around 5, but J and I stayed on until the sun disappeared and it started raining again, around 5:30.

J whipped up a delicious dinner from fresh stall-bought bits and pieces, then after a bit of a rest we headed back in to town. We were off to see the highlight (for J) of the Festival -- the fireworks display. The rides were still up and were very colourful in the night, even if the rain kept most people at home. We could here a band playing across the harbour, butagain didn't bother to go over. The bridge was still closed even with fewer people about. Instead we found a good position to see the display, and stood there waiting for 20 minutes. Of course, as soon as it started some arse came and stood right in front of me, blocking much of my view.

Click here to see more of the Festival photographs. I've made a new post for the fireworks.

All Creatures Great and Small

J finished work on the Thursday, so on Friday we offered to take M to Bristol Zoo. It was a small zoo, so mostly small animals, but they pack a lot into the area and it was very nicely done on the whole. The only animal that concerned me was a cat that appeared to have very little space and was doing that pacing too and fro that often indicates boredom and mental illness in zoo animals. The most impressive for me were the gorillas. There was a family group of a big silverback, a female, a young male and a baby. Those apes are huge! Another nicely done display was an empty house with rats, mice and spiders all through it. J and M were less keen on this but it was a great set-up. Check your microwaves, folks. M had a good time looking at various animals and playing on the slides and whatnot. She even ran into a school friend so got to play with her for a while. There were almost tears when she got 'carpet burn' on the inflatable slide, but she was brave. (Click on the link above for more photos.)

The Harbour Festival was supposed to have started on the Saturday, but when we went for our walk we found it in full swing. There were French and Italian food stalls in the park across the harbour from us, street theatre nearby, and Toots and the Maytells were playing in the amphitheatre. Somehow the harbour had filled up with ships in between our walks and there were tall ships, narrowboats, wideboats, pleasure cruisers, motor launches and so on crammed up against every dock, pier and wharf. It was quite an impressive sight. We listened to Toots for a while then headed home through the very large crowds. It seemed like a Saturday. You know how it is when you have a long weekend? You seem to get a Saturday and two Sundays, especially if there is a hangover in there anywhere.

Unemployment

No more work and school finished for the last of them yesterday (Wednesday). On Tuesday I spent the day Interneting and going over some of the Cassino photos. There is film footage of a German Stug - a self-propelled gun for the uninitiated - that is shown in almost every document on Cassino, and stills used in nearly every book. It was supposed to have been sheltered in the Hotel Continental but I have proved it is in fact the neighbouring building. I'm sure the Nobel is in the post this minute! I met J after work at The Ostrich and we sat in the sunshine for a drink (Yes! Sunshine, if only for an afternoon.) We sat and read (look out for a book called Erindipity by David Kenny - most amusing) and after a pint of Kronenburg and a bottle of Bulmers cider I was quite merry.

Yesterday I had the same sort of day, but found out how to layer maps and aerial photographs on top of a Google Earth view. This means I can now fade them in and out to see where certain features are, and it is great for seeing what has changed since the war. I also had a play at using SketchUp to add 3-D buildings to the map, but I'm not very good at it. Perhaps someone used to CAD could whip up the monastery for me? 8-) As it stopped raining in the evening J dragged me out for a walk, this time way down to the end of the harbour and back up the other side. It was further this way than I'd been before on foot and it was interesting to see some of the old workings, including two drydocks, the locks, sluicing gates and so on. As it was 9:30 by the time we got back near home, we waited for the burglar alarm that has been annoying us to go off, as it does every night at that time, and made a note of the address. Sadly it may turn out to be unoccupied, but GVA Grimley will be getting a call!

Today I actually got pen on paper and wrote up the 28th Battalion's attack on the Railway Station for my battlefield guide, then started on the next section, the later attacks on the Railway Station by the 26th Bn and 19th Regt. I think J is writing this same section now too. He has been churning through the writing at a great rate from the sounds of things, so I need to keep up with him with the stuff from the archives over here and soon in Italy.

I hear that a Kiwi has been given a VC, the first since WW2. Excellent, and well done that man. The citation certainly shows he was a courageous man, and lucky.

Speaking of the Army, it is exactly 7 months since I first wrote to the Army about my experience at the Kippenberger Archives in Waiouru. For those of you not in the know, the first Director sat on my complaint for 5 months and then retired. I had to write to the CO to get a response after 6 months. They put it on to the new Director, who failed to see my point of view, 8-) but now tells me that the whole thing is not actually within their purvue anyway! After 7 months of back and forth he tells me he can't actually make a decision! I went into this with quite a high opinion of the Army, but now my opinion is that they are run by fools, and like all peacetime armies the biggest fools are in the highest positions. I now have to deal with Director number 3, but have engaged the CAB to help me. Small Claims Court here we come.

J has had her farewells and got a bloody good reference from the school. I'm continually impressed (not surprised of course) by her competence, and completely jealous. Mia sposa, mia eroina.

Weekends

The agency called with work on Friday, but as J had already left with the car I only had public transport so would be late getting to the school. (Broadoak - a train and a bus away.) They rang back to cancel me so I ended up with the day off. All rather strange then that they rang again today (Monday) and wanted me despite the delay. This time the trains were delayed due to the ongoing effects of the flooding so I didn't get on one until 8:55. Then when I arrived in Weston I asked a bus driver where I could catch a bus to the school. She said she went past it, but what she didn't mention was that she stopped at every stop in Weston, and some outside the town before she went past. It was 10:00 before I got to the school, and they'd already called the agency to find out where I was! I could have walked in 20 mins. The stupid thing is they knew the teacher wouldn't be in as she's been off sick for a week already and isn't likely to want to come in for the last three days of the school year, so they could have arranged cover a week ago.


Anyway, I missed P1, and by then they'd arranged some other cover P2. P3 the kids were shits and I had 4 next door with the HoD before the settled down. P5 was average and P6 I tried teaching the Haka to fill in the lesson. Of course I don't know the haka, so even with the help of a nice interactive website it was a bit of a cludge. Better than the worksheets they had though... L100 less tax.


J has written a little about the weekend. We got new cellphones so ring/text the old and we'll reply with the new number. Nice phones I guess, but J is more enthused than I at the moment. It filled in most of one day and some of the next though.


There was a bit of sunshine on the Sunday and rather than Bristolians going to the beach, the beach came to them. It seemed quite popular, but noone was jumping in the water - I wonder why?


I'm quite excited about finally getting back to Italy, and have also recently found some potentially good sources of photographs. One in particular has rarer photos that would be great for our book, but I have yet to hear back from them. I also found some that help me with my own article so I am looking forward to the job of tracking down the locations of, and matching photos for it.


We caught up with C for afternoon tea. It's always nice to shoot the breeze. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology M had managed to record the All Blacks - Wallabies game and save it to DVD. We watched it on my laptop that night. It was a good result of course, but not the best of games, I guess partly because of the lousy weather. BTW, who was the one player who wasn't confirmed in the squad of 30? The paper here said this had happened but didn't name the player.

We've just confirmed a house-sitting in Sicily in November. Should be interesting. See J's blog for more details.

That was the week that was

Well I hope you've all been reading J's blog because obviously nothing was happening here!

It was a relatively quiet week. We spent the weekend looking for a new mattress as the old one was pathetic. We ended up spending more than we wanted, but what price a decent night's sleep? Of course it was raining off and on, just like home we hear. In fact with continuous rain, and fatal floods you'd be forgiven for thinking we were in the Coromandel. And not much warmer either... Still, Italy has been in the thirties and is expected to remain so for August, so soon I hope to be writing complaining about the heat!

Our other trip to Sicily looks to almost be confirmed, and that'll be quite a contrast in weather conditions we expect.

I got another 3 days work this week at John Cabot which is quite a nice school. It's end of year for them on Friday, so the kids were a bit 'off the wall'. They are introducing an interest project next (school) year where they are giving one whole Y8 class PDAs as learning tools. They have camera (with video), audio recorder and so on, so the hope is that teachers will try to blend in aspects of multi-media to their teaching. Kids could record stuff as they go, and notes and homework, etc, could be given out this way also. They're all connected to the wireless network to enable this. My first question was "What happens if a kid forgets or loses his/her PDA?" I suspect that it won't be long before there is an awkward number of students sans equipment. Christ, a good quarter of them can't remember a pen!

The mattress was to be delivered today as I had no work booked. Of course they rang this morning to ask if I wanted to work and I had to say no. Honest I did. I lugged the new one up, disposed of the old one, posted a couple of parcels (One for L, A, T & K; the other for J but his by slow boat to China). The PO workers are on half-day strikes at the moment so the queues were a mile long by the time they got back. Then the busy-body next door pressured our concierge to have me shift the old one from where I'd put it pending J and the garage key. Still it ended up in a proper storage room so better than the garage anyway. Then I had to remake the bed, vacuum the floors, clean the lino. (Have I convinced anyone that I was busy?) The sun was out briefly during all this but has gone away again. Good thing I suppose, as J would begrudge my day off even more if it was sunny.

I might go and test the new mattress - it's been such a tiring day...

More mundane stuff

It's been back to reality this week. I got two day's work, each at the last minute in the morning. One was at John Cabot and that's OK because the kids don't do much work, but they are also reasonably well behaved. There's three more days there next week, but it all dries up soon when the holidays start. Still 5 days' supply is the equivalent of 15-20 days in an office when it comes to pay!

We'd been looking forward to going to the beach but as you can see from J's blog, the beach has come to us! Yay. Last one in's a... healthy person. The excitement from our window yesterday was a helicopter hovering over an area nearby. I reckon it was a jumper in the river, but there was nothing in the paper to confirm that.

J decided that we needed to do something about an alarm that goes off every night at 9:30. She wrote out a strongly worded note but when I was sent out to stick it to the culprit's door I found it was coming from across the river. We'll have to wait for a time when we're closer (and conveniently armed with pen, paper and sticky stuff.)

Tonight we hope to see some comedians at a local pub. We'll let you know if it was funny.

Dublin agin, and Bristol

Our flight left at 9:20 so we returned the car, caught the flight and were back in Bristol for lunch. Then it was unpacking, washing, grocery shopping, etc and catching up on these blogs.

J was back at work today (Tuesday) but there may not be any for me this week. I'll have to get back to the office temping agents soon.

Lorenzo wrote to say his own apartment wasn't ready for us to stay in so we are looking for one through an agent in Cassino. We think we have found one but we have to check those language differences - what do they call an apartment? Is it self-contained for instance? We fly to Pisa on the 2nd August and out again on the 28th August. We've rented a car for the 4 weeks too. We just realised we'll miss the Bristol Balloon Festival, but what can we do?

Meanwhile I continue to spar with the Army over last Christmas' visit to Waiouru. J thinks I should just give in, but why should I?

More Belfast

First thing in the morning we drove up to Belfast Castle. This is one of those manor houses that looks castle-like but was never meant to be defended I think. Its grounds were inviting and had we more time we would have walked up the hill behind it. The views over Belfast Harbour were great.

Given that we hadn't seen much on the bus, we drove around the famous Shankhill Rd and Falls Rd areas. Remember that the Boyne is commemorated on the 12th July? That put our visit right into the lead up for the marches. There were flags over all the Proddy areas and wood piled up ready for the bonfires. I suspect the building sites in the vicinity would have had very little of their boxing left if they didn't post guards. Many of the more inflamatory murals have been replaced by more peaceful messages, but there are still a fair few to make the feelings of the neighbourhood obvious. It was a little wierd joining bus loads of people photographing these murals as for the people who live there the conflict is still very recent and wounds still raw. They must feel they live in a zoo at times.

After checking these out we ventured south again. We passed through Armagh but it was closed.(Never listen to those in NZ who say we must open shops 24/7 to stay in line with the rest of the world - it's bullshit.) Armagh was 'bandit country' as it is close to the border and had a strong Catholic minority. There is a huge police station and there were several armoured police land-rovers driving around. They were close to the only vehicles we saw. It was really bizarre walking the streets with every door closed, every shop shut, and only perhaps a dozen people to be seen. They take their Sundays seriously here.

There was no choice but to move on and we stopped at a Cafe in Newry. There was quite a good musician singing for us, which I also thought unusual given the venue and time.

Last time I came through here we 'crashed' the border at 100kmh and expected a hail of bullets to follow us down the road. No such worries this time.

We stopped in Ashbourne, close enough to Dublin Airport that we wouldn't have to get up too early. What looked to be a small B&B/Hotel on the Internet turned out to be a large Hotel in reality, but the price was right and the room was good.

Belfast

We woke up to find we were in Millbay Inn and indeed there was a bay, and the ruins of a mill. We could see this because we had half an hour of sunshine.

Carrickfergus was the first stop - a magnificent Norman castle started in 11-something and still used during Victorian times. You could see the various layers of development quite clearly, right up to its modern use as a wedding venue. An inauspicious start for the one we saw... Last time I was here there were two milk bottles outside the gate. They seemed a little out of place, but I could picture a helmeted head popping around the gate to drop them, while all around the battle went on.



Then we hit Belfast. On my trip 16 years ago we drove through Belfast pretty quickly thinking that the Troubles weren't worth the trouble. Now that things have settled a little it was a very interesting stopover. Again we did the hop-on hop-off bus to get an overview of the city. In this case we would probably have been better advised to take the taxi tours, as we were after a little more in-depth commentary than we got. Still, there was lots to see and I found the sectarian areas the most interesting. Belfast was the home of the Titanic but there is very little left to see that connects with it except a couple of concrete slabs from the slipway buried amongst the rubble of the demolished ship-yards. There are some monster cranes in the what is left of the more recent ship-building yards, but they are not used any longer. We were told they have been considered as bungy-jumping platforms, or as a restaurant in the sky.

We found a B&B on the outskirts of town that had a huge room and friendly hostess (German, from East Berlin, and not happy with the way Germany has treated the Ossies). There was still time to go into Belfast for a beer and some traditional Irish music if we could find some. We did at Kelly's Cellar.

After the band finished we went to a famous pub, the Crown, for a short while. It was being refurbished by the National Trust so much of its ornate decoration couldn't be seen. The snugs were cosy though. It was still twilight until around 11:00 so it was pleasant wandering around the central city area looking for a taxi.

All our Ireland photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/Ireland

Derry and Giant's Causeway

We were a bit slow getting away and joined a walking tour at 11-ish. It was raining off and on of course but we didn't get too wet. It was well worth it anyway. The guide pointed out Bogside, the Catholic area; Newgate, a Protestant area; St Columb's Cathedral, which was a strongpoint in the siege, even having cannons on its tower. The story goes an earlier church here was used as a magazine and St Patrick sent a burning wolf to clear it out. The explosion levelled the church and all the fools who misused it. Lucky he wasn't around in 1689 or the siege may have been shorter; The British Army/Police Observation and Comms Point which was torn down just weeks ago; The plinth of a statue carefully blown up by the IRA; The Magazine; the Town Hall, target of many bombings; Free Derry Corner, the entrance to Bogside; the site of St Patrick's Monastery. The guide was amusing and well-informed so you can't ask for much more than that. It's strange how nearly anyone who did anything is in some way related to Derry though...

It was well into the afternoon before we headed off and around 4:00 before we got to the Bushmills Distillery. Just in time, in fact, for it to close. Ah well, I don't really like whiskey anyhow. We drove through to the Giant's Causeway and had a very late lunch/ early dinner. We were a little worried when we saw the carpark was closed, but thankfully we were still able to walk to the rocks. It's a curious piece of geology, formed by volcanic rock pushing up between sedimentary deposits and baking them hard. We have some similar areas in NZ, for example in the Catlins, and possibly even closer to Dunedin, but nothing to this extent. And nothing with the neat story that goes with it. Finn MacCool snuck across to Scotland to fight a giant over there, and this is the path he built to get there. (Read the story here.)

After a scramble over the rocks we set off toward Belfast, planning to find a B&B within striking distance. There were plenty on the north coast but they all dried up near Belfast itself and we didn't find one until 9:00, and even then he had to open up for us. This particular place was due for redevelopment and clearly hadn't had much effort put into it for some time. We had a drink in the bar then hit the sack.

All our Ireland photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/Ireland

Stone-age, The Boyne and Derry airs

We stopped at Newgrange which is a very impressive Stone-age burial ground complex. Actually there are three major areas: Dowth, Newgrange, and Knowth, with minor sites all around. Activity in the area covers around 5 millenia! There are many sites you could find out more, such as this one. Impressive it may have been, but so were the crowds, and we would have had to wait for 4 hours to get on a tour. We had a good look through the information centre then headed off.

Newgrange happens to lie in a bow in the Boyne river, and for some of you this name will ring a bell. The Battle of the Boyne was a significant event in the history of Ireland as it was in this battle in 1690, that Catholic James II was defeated by Protestant William III (William of Orange). William's army outnumbered James' and he was able to send out a threatening flanking force that James didn't have the numbers to cover. William's main force crossed the Boyne river and pushed the Jacobite defenders back but despite all this James managed to withdraw in good order. However, shortly after he ran away to France so the battle is celebrated by the Protestants of Ireland, and particularly Northern Ireland, as a resounding victory, and they march to celebrate it every July.

We drove on to Londonderry/Derry. Many Irish don't like the London part of the name so call it plain Derry. Of course the Loyalists keep the London part... Londonderry/Derry is a lovely walled town that has had some unfortunate history in the form of sectarian violence. It was the town that was the subject of Bloody Sunday, a movie that was in NZ recently. Bloody Sunday is the name for a British Paratroop shooting of many protesters in January 1972, 13 of whom died immediately and another later of injuries received. It was also the scene of a 105 day siege ending in July 1689, almost exactly a year before the battle mentioned above. The siege began when apprentice boys decided to lock the gates to keep a Jacobite garrison force from replacing the existing Williamite one, and there is a procession around the walls by apprentice boys every year and we missed this particular march by a few weeks.

Our room in the Travelodge was a very noisy one, not so much from the nightclubs below us and across the road, but from all the people spilling out of them. It was just as noisy from neighbouring rooms too, so we didn't get a good sleep.

All our Ireland photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/Ireland