Off very late today, arrived in St Peter Port for lunch. Had an excellent and large club sandwich in a pub.
Walked to St Sampson, rather deary place. St Peter Port is definitely going up market, while St Sampson is going down.
Tonight we have booked a table at Crabby Jacks for a final meal and drink. Hopefully there will be some dancing. Tomorrow up early to bus over to the airport for the flight back to Southampton.
Diverted by puss wanting a saucer of milk. Walked from our hotel to St Pierre Park Hotel in the centre of the island for their three courses Tennerfest meal at £10. Very good value, and very well presented, but spoilt by somewhat erratic service and waitresses whose first language obviously wasn’t English, Patois or French. Coffee being served 10 minutes before the desert course was one example.
After lunch walked back to Vazon Bay via Cobo. En route we passed by the Guernsey telephone museum. As usual it was closed at this time or year. As we were leaning over the gate, admiring a submarine cable with repeater, one of the volunteers who works there was entering and invited us in to view the exhibits. We had visited before in 1993, and were very pleased and impressed by the amount of work which had been done to enhance the displays in the interim period. We must of spent a good hour there, and had a very good explanation of the workings of the museum by the volunteer. Ex-BT, he had worked in the Guernsey Telecoms industry since the 1960s.
Walked about 8 miles.
Today was another late start; we were off to catch the 12.15 ferry to Herm. Unluckily for Rosemary, who had vetoed my recommended bus as far too late to catch the ferry; we arrived in St Peter Port with ample shopping time. A quick walk up the steps to Pollet Street, a few minutes in Jessops, and Steve was away with a 10-20mm Sigma lens. Back to quay and a cappuccino coffee for Rosemary. The day was sunny with some nice photogenic cumulus clouds, though a little chilly with the Northerly wind. Ferry to Herm, walk to shell beach for a fairly mediocre shell collection (but with a partial ormer), tide was high. We ate a picnic on the beach, provided by Messers Marks and Spencers, and a gentle walk back around the South end of the island. We were entertained by the antics of one of Her Majesty’s destroyers who seemed to be practicing turns and manoeuvres in the sea between Herm and Sark. Good view of the Barclay brothers castle. They apparently ship their staff in from Guernsey by helicopter, and send it out for bottles of olives when their supply falls short. Back at the harbour we caught the 4.35 ferry back to the Guernsey as the sun was setting. Some opportunities to use the new lens for some cloudscapes. Back in the flat a couple of G&Ts, and then supper of Cajun-ed left over chicken with salad.
Late start, caught the bus into town with the intention of catching the ferry to Herm. Alas, the winter timetable had kicked in a day early and the ferry we wanted did not exist. The recommended day to visit is Wednesday, so we will attempt again tomorrow.
The Victoria Tower was open to visitors again, so picked up the key from the Guernsey museum. Climbed the spiral stone steps and wooden stairs to the balcony and looked out over the island. Good views to the north and east.
After returning the key to the museum, we ate our sandwich and smoothie lunch in Candie Gardens, pretending it was warm & sunny.
Took a bus over to the Coach House Galleries where we viewed the paintings and ceramics and bought one piece for a Christmas present. Walked down to the coast road for a bus back to the flat.
Tonight supper in the hotel, and a quiet and most boring set of people I have seen. I saw one and a half bottles of wine served between 4 tables; we had the one bottle. Didn’t start of well when I ordered a dry sherry for Rosemary, and was presented with a Harvey’s Bristol Cream.
The food we were served was all from the Tennerfest menu, but was by no means anywhere as good as the food from the Auberge. All in all was rather a disappointment.
Not very promising weather today, low cloud and very poor visibility, though some aircraft were landing and taking off. We caught the bus to the top of the road which leads down to Petit Bot Bay. When we reached the bay, we found a group of women were congregating for their Monday walk, dressed in shorts and tee shirts and talking of stripping off when the heat burnt through. They invited Steve to join tem, but he chickened out.
We set off in the opposite direction to the walking party and we went towards St Peter’s Port. We walked along the cliff path in the cloud, the warm mists constantly swirling up the cliffs from the sea made the walk into a stroll through a Turkish bath.
Eventually made it to The Auberge restaurant on the Jerbourg road for luncheon. Normally, there’s a fabulous view, but not today – even Castle Cornet eventually succumbs to the fog. But we were undaunted and started with a quick refreshing pint of lager while we ordered our meals. I am afraid we went the whole hog and went for three courses with wine and coffee, though to keep costs down we chose from the tennerfest menu. As we waited at our table, we sampled a snackrell of bread dipped into olive oil with tomato pesto, served cutely in a quirky plate.
Rosemary started with Crispy Aromatic Duck with a salad of salted cucumber plus honey roasted figs, baby spinach and spice plum and vanilla dressing, followed by fresh linguini with sautéed mushrooms, braised fennel, parsley and toasted pinenuts. Steve chose the slow roasted cherry tomatoes in balsamic with basil, feta and olives, crispy parmesan, followed by grilled black bream, chorizo and coriander couscous salad, marinated carrot and courgette in lemon oil and tomato pesto. Yummy.
The red wine we had to accompany the meal was, amazingly, from Telavi in Georgia. It is not often we see wines from Georgia. Actually it was a good wine, and a lot better than what we had drunk when we visited that country.
The sweet course dishes were absolute works of art. I took a picture of our sweets, and will publish them with this blog entry. I ate, at the recommendation of the Latvian waitress, small, deep-fried doughnuts with a cappuccino flavoured mousse (served in an espresso cup), and a raspberry coulis dip (in shot glass). Rosemary ate a spiced apple and pear crumble with special custard. They sound over-ingrediented, but were again excellent.
After coffees and sweeties we caught the bus back to the flat, and vegged out for the rest of the day.
The clocks have changed, so the miserable dark winter days have started. I think this is the worst day of the whole year. Out for a local walk, and paper buying. Surprised to find no papers in the shops. Appears to be fog on the island, so no flights in and out. Walked around the Bay, admiring the sea and birds. Flat cooked tarragon chicken for supper.
Off to Guernsey on holiday. Left home at 6.00 am to catch the 8.20 from Southampton. Uneventful flight, arrived, picked up our luggage and saw the number 7 bus we wanted leave promptly at its allotted 9.02 time. So instead, we caught the 7A into town, and caught another 7A to Vazon Bay.
After dumping the luggage at La Grande Mare (our time-share since 1985!!), back into St Peter Port for a Tennerfest menu meal at one of our favourite’s, Da Nello’s. R started with the bruschetta of grilled vegetables while I had raw tuna marinated in tomatoes, herbs and chilli flakes. Good choices. However, there were serious problems with ordering the main course. I wanted the pork steak, and I believe R wanted the risotto. R knew I was going to order the pork, so ordered the pork for herself; my rule is never to have the same as others on the table, so ordered the risotto. We ended up eating what the other wanted. R’s pork steak was lovely and juicy, the pork retaining a very slight pink colour. The risotto was so very superior to any risotto I had in Italy on my last holiday. We finished off with coffee and sweets.
Did a bit of shopping while we were in town, the market place is still being modernised and will be a long time before it is completely open. The road on the north side had been pedestrianized, some old shops have re-opened. Shockingly, a New Look and HMV have taken residence in the market hall. Looked through HMV, but decided to support local trade and bought some DVDs, and CDs from No 19 – a The Who compilation, Artic Monkies and a White Stripes album. The DVDs were Oceans 12, Trainspotting and Outland. The sales assistant said she couldn’t sell me the DVDs unless I could prove I was over 18. Ho, ho, ho.
To Safeways where R disgusted over lack of local produce and standard of vegetables and then back to the hotel to check in. R sought out the local feline resident who has greeted us the past two years; he dutifully appeared but regarded our lack of milk as indecent and left. Chilled out for the rest of the evening watching Oceans 12 on the laptop a good plot.
My second week in Brighton is over. I have been down at a utility company installing a new version of e5, and migrating a test system to the new release. The first week I was working with Ian Thomas, and stayed in the Preston Park hotel. Preston Park is a small hotel on the A23, half way between Brighton centre and the A27. The location is slightly inconvenient for the highlights of Brighton, car or taxi mandatory, but at least you could park at the hotel.
The second week I was on my own doing the upgrade. Stayed in the Ramada Jarvis on the sea front. Near the centre, but not a very nice hotel room, very small and no large king size bed to spread on, but the shower was new and good. Parking, what a rip off, 10 pounds a night! If I parked on the sea front, it was a long walk back to the hotel.
First night I had a tandori mixed grill at an Indian restaurant (Nooris Limited) adjoining the Ship Inn. Rosemary had recommended the restaurant; she had eaten there last summer when she accompanied me to a Cedar PSD event. Alas, the quality must have gone down. I was rather disappointed; probably I should have stuck with my old favourite of vindaloo.
Tuesday, was feeling a little unwell, man flu, so went for a small meal at a Greek taverna (Steki’s) on the sea front. Started off with baked feta with tomato slices, which alas had not been cooked long enough in the oven. This was followed by pork souvlaki on pitta bread.
Wednesday I visited the Regency fish restaurant on the front, started off with six oysters. I bit worried about these, three seemed fresh and tasted of the essence of the sea, the other three were not so nice, and one tasted of salt water, so rather worried that those might be dead, and I would be puking in the morning. This was followed by a Dover sole and chips, again not sure of the freshness of the fish.
Thursday, my final night, I went to Preston Street, which runs north from the sea-front, and is full of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan and English restaurants. Chose the Morocann, Cous Cous restaurant. Nice atmosphere, you could eat at standard tables, or eat in another section where you sat on couches in a pseudo tent around round tables. Here I ate lamb Cous Cous washed down with a few glasses of red. Very relaxing, and I enjoyed listening to the young women chatting. When the slimmest one left, the comments that the others made!! One said how her own body had a nicer figure, a better bottom.
Just back from holiday, visited Etna, Stromboli and Vulcano. Back a day late due to thunderstorms and Alitalia. Will never fly with them again. A full report of the trip is available here.
Continuing theme of Alitalia, Chris Dabrowski came up with the following meanings for Alitalia
Always Late In Transit, Always Late In Arrival
Airplane Landed In Tokyo And luggage In Alaska
A Little Italian Tit And Lotsa Italian Ass
A Little Italian Tradition And Lotsa Italian Attitude
Its Thursday, and I am about to fly back home. Short week as Rosemary and I are off to Cambridge next weekend. Spent the four days here in Edinburgh, staying at my favourite hotel the Radisson. They gave me a bottle of malt, and a glass to go with it. Well miniature.
The week was a mixture of rain, and wind, followed by unseasonable hot weather today. Not particularly sunny, but very very warm.
Been keeping a low profile this week. Ate at the Ichycoo bar a couple of times, had scallops one night and salmon on Thursday. One small outing down to the Mai Thai where I had an excellent meal of Thai fish curry and some vegetables. White there I picked up a card of the artist who who paints their pictures which decorate the bar. Rosemary was impressed by them. Well I thought I had the card, seem to have mislaid it. Will have to email the restaurant.
Today I left early for the airport, wanted a stress free boarding. Of course today there were no traffic holdups, check in was fast. No queues at the security, and the plane is 45 minutes late. Oh well.