(no subject)
It is 20:30 on Tuesday night and I am writing from the most beautiful, serene and amazing nightstop in West Stowford, South Moulton, near Chittlehampton North of Torquay.
The first night we arrived and spent 2 days driving around Brighton which I have just about fallen in love with. Monday we picked up our hire car and have driven West to Torquay via Southampton which was a little disappointment, but Dorchester was amazing.
Today we've driven around the Torquay area and gone through Brixham which was also utterly beautiful. So far, I don't know who has been where, but of the places we've been, I don't think anyone else has, and if they haven't, then it's really something special to have been to the places that I have. None of the tours I can imagine will ever take anyone to any of these places. Torquay I can say reminds me a lot of the impressions I have of the Rivieras of Monaco in Monto Carlo.
Tonight we are staying with old travelling friends of my folks' who they apparently met in Cairo 30 years ago. Where I am now it's quintessentially the picturesque farmstay image you have in your mind of rolling hills of green patches with little farmhouses spotted around the place. In getting directions to our nightstop, we stopped at a farmstay and as navigator, I had to ask a local for directions. Said local was tending to a typical...English horse that stood probably 1-2 feet taller than me and was getting its hoofs clipped and the horseshoe changed. I wasn't really expecting that at all. Outside are 7 acres of government-reserved natural greenery that includes a little lake with its own mother goose. All I can say is, it's unbelievable. Every image I've had over 25yrs of an English forest area surrounds me and I haven't believed it until now that it truly exists anywhere but in my mind and the books I've read. This is the kind of place that tourists pay $100s per head to spend a few nights to play with farm animals and shed their city slicker image. We took a walk earlier before dinner and all I can see are green, green, and more green. A farcry from Aus and M'sia. Now, I'm sitting in a centuries-old typical English cottage facing a traditional fireplace sipping from a glass of Old Pulteney single malt. God it's smooth going down...next in line will be the Talisker, probably followed by Glenfiddich. Yes. I swallow. Dad and I are supposedly under orders to sample all the house Whiskeys and compare them. So I have now also sampled the local Strongbow, Devon mead (14% alc/vol at 2.75/175mL), can-pints of Carling (8 cans for 7 pounds) and Bulmers and have had 2 homecooked meals of tradional curry, a 5 pound (currency, not weight) steak & chips and a 4.95 bangers & mash.
My observations/findings so far? Frankly, it's getting very difficult not to criticise Australia. The food, the cost, the people, the driving, the facilities...I understand perfectly well now why everyone is falling in love with this country and running from that cuntry. I felt the same for Eastern Europe in 2005 when we drove between Austria, Budapest, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, nearly Italy and did Oktoberfest. The standard of living here is unbelievable compared to Australia. For the kinds of meals I can get here, dollar-to-dollar, Australia would cost the equivalent of serving 3 heads here. In terms of converting what it's actually costing me, it's even cheaper than Aus for better quality. A Cornish pastie here puts a Brumby's pastie to shame. But I will not spend my evening criticising Australia. I will spend my evening soaking up this dream atmosphere that I have been promised exists and will fall in love with the country and its people. The promised land indeed.
Oh...and what is it with English girls...or at least locals...something special.
I'll stop making you jealous now ;)
Talisker now I think...
The first night we arrived and spent 2 days driving around Brighton which I have just about fallen in love with. Monday we picked up our hire car and have driven West to Torquay via Southampton which was a little disappointment, but Dorchester was amazing.
Today we've driven around the Torquay area and gone through Brixham which was also utterly beautiful. So far, I don't know who has been where, but of the places we've been, I don't think anyone else has, and if they haven't, then it's really something special to have been to the places that I have. None of the tours I can imagine will ever take anyone to any of these places. Torquay I can say reminds me a lot of the impressions I have of the Rivieras of Monaco in Monto Carlo.
Tonight we are staying with old travelling friends of my folks' who they apparently met in Cairo 30 years ago. Where I am now it's quintessentially the picturesque farmstay image you have in your mind of rolling hills of green patches with little farmhouses spotted around the place. In getting directions to our nightstop, we stopped at a farmstay and as navigator, I had to ask a local for directions. Said local was tending to a typical...English horse that stood probably 1-2 feet taller than me and was getting its hoofs clipped and the horseshoe changed. I wasn't really expecting that at all. Outside are 7 acres of government-reserved natural greenery that includes a little lake with its own mother goose. All I can say is, it's unbelievable. Every image I've had over 25yrs of an English forest area surrounds me and I haven't believed it until now that it truly exists anywhere but in my mind and the books I've read. This is the kind of place that tourists pay $100s per head to spend a few nights to play with farm animals and shed their city slicker image. We took a walk earlier before dinner and all I can see are green, green, and more green. A farcry from Aus and M'sia. Now, I'm sitting in a centuries-old typical English cottage facing a traditional fireplace sipping from a glass of Old Pulteney single malt. God it's smooth going down...next in line will be the Talisker, probably followed by Glenfiddich. Yes. I swallow. Dad and I are supposedly under orders to sample all the house Whiskeys and compare them. So I have now also sampled the local Strongbow, Devon mead (14% alc/vol at 2.75/175mL), can-pints of Carling (8 cans for 7 pounds) and Bulmers and have had 2 homecooked meals of tradional curry, a 5 pound (currency, not weight) steak & chips and a 4.95 bangers & mash.
My observations/findings so far? Frankly, it's getting very difficult not to criticise Australia. The food, the cost, the people, the driving, the facilities...I understand perfectly well now why everyone is falling in love with this country and running from that cuntry. I felt the same for Eastern Europe in 2005 when we drove between Austria, Budapest, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, nearly Italy and did Oktoberfest. The standard of living here is unbelievable compared to Australia. For the kinds of meals I can get here, dollar-to-dollar, Australia would cost the equivalent of serving 3 heads here. In terms of converting what it's actually costing me, it's even cheaper than Aus for better quality. A Cornish pastie here puts a Brumby's pastie to shame. But I will not spend my evening criticising Australia. I will spend my evening soaking up this dream atmosphere that I have been promised exists and will fall in love with the country and its people. The promised land indeed.
Oh...and what is it with English girls...or at least locals...something special.
I'll stop making you jealous now ;)
Talisker now I think...