Sun. 24th July. Brady's 25th Birthday.

Another great day's climbing - some signs of improvement from everyone.

As it was Brady's birthday we had the Moet out of plastic mugs back in the hut.
It looks cosy but was well below zero.
He even got birthday candles stuck in his dessert.

Sat.23rd July. Flew up to Black Peak.

From Queenstown to Wanaka the previous day then a morning flight up to Black Peak Hut.

The other members of the party - Nicolette, Brady and our Instructor, Tim.
Climbing began right away and it was very cold but hugely exhiliarating.
First, just choose some frozen waterfalls.

ICE CLIMBING

Off to Queenstown in New Zealand first thing in the morning then on to Wanaka.

Going with Brady, Nicola's boyfriend. We are staying in a hut at Black Peak and doing a 4 day course learning how to climb frozen waterfalls.

We then have a couple of days back in Queenstown so hope to get in a full day's skiing at Coronet Peak.

Photos to follow. Toodle-pip!

Sat. 2nd July AUSTRALIA ZOO

Sophie Goodall staying with us on her way back to the UK.

Popped up to Australia Zoo and Maleny for the day with Madeleine.

You get really close to the crocs!

Lots of little roos in pouches.
Bindi Irwin turned 13 and is now allowed to feed the crocs - her mum, Terri, standing well back.
There's a bronze of the family as a memorial to Steve.

The CLOUD is up there.

Just spotted that the Apple Cloud is now up and running.

It means that my Mac desktop, Powerbook laptop, iPad and iPhone can all access my documents, photos and music from anywhere in the world.

This could be quite useful!

Urbanclimbing Brisbane.

Jake and myself have been doing some indoor climbing over the last few weeks - we are definitely getting better.

It's all preparation for the Ice-climbing course in New Zealand in less than 3 weeks.

I've also been out most days walking with weights or the early morning 5 km. jog.

Winter at last!

It's now much cooler in Brisbane - single digit temps. overnight (like 9°C).

So it's now pleasant exercising. I'm getting in some early morning runs and longer walks if I have the time - New Zealand only 6 weeks away.

Then it's Bhutan in October.

Spotted today that the 31 year old, Oxford educated, King is getting married to 20 year old Jetsun Pema in October. Could be quite a party.

Brilliant Speakers for travelling

I was at work the other day and a friend had these tiny speakers connected to the iPod.

Brilliant noise. The speakers are quite heavy and pump out a bit of bass.

Ideal for travelling or connected to my computer.

They're called FoxL and I got mine on-line.

22nd May - Birthday Today

Another Birthday today - they seem to come round regularly.

I was given a 'Mr. Grumpy' mug! Someone else's surely?

Horses?

After a conversation with a surgical colleague of mine, I wake this morning to find myself with a 10% stake in a racehorse!

Details and hot tips to follow.

ICE CLIMBING

All booked in for a week in New Zealand in July climbing frozen waterfalls.

Someone has to do it !

Slap up meal in Rome with the Latters

Capt. Jon, who was on the Annapurna trip last year, flew to Rome with wife Liz simply to join us for dinner.

We massively overindulged at the rooftop restaurant of a hotel with an incredible view of Rome at night.

Says it all really!

Back to Rome for 3 nights

Another lovely hotel - this was the Inn at the Forum. Literally overlooking the old Roman Forum.

This is the print shop near the Pantheon where I got my souvenirs for framing on our return.
We tracked down more famous stuff. This was Michaelangelo's statue of Moses. (He could paint ceilings too).
And this is the Bocca della Verita as featured in Audrey's movie 'Roman Holiday'.

Venice for 4 nights.

It was great arriving in Venice by train.

Our hotel was just off a side canal of the Grand Canal and we just walked everywhere - it wasn't necessary to swim.
Every time I saw one of these reminded me of John Cleese's travelogue where he ends up ranting about "more fucking gondolas"
An early stop was Harry's bar where such luminaries as Ernest Hemingway and Charlie Chaplin would hang out - a bit of a special place this.

We loved the Doges Palace with it's Bridge of Sighs and also enjoyed the Accademia but just walking around was the best bit of Venice - just being there.

Florence for 6 nights

And so to Florence. This was the view from our hotel window.

Plenty of time for wandering around and seeing the sights. We were a few minutes away from the Duomo, the Uffizi gallery and the Ponte Vecchio.

The weather was perfect, the tourist numbers small, the food and wine superb and the occasional ice cream brilliant.
The Duomo was encased in marble and quite stunning. The view from the top of the dome was worth the climb up.
David was impressive in the Piazza della Signiorinha - this was the copy but we saw the original in the Accademia.
The Uffizi gallery was so good we went twice. Paula came across this handsome fellow in the Palazzo Vecchio.
We had a 5 hour lunch with Mary, one of my colleagues from Wesley hospital, and her husband Steve. This is what holidays are all about!
We also managed a day trip to Siena and San Gimignano. Worth seeing but being pert of a guided tour is no picnic.

Naples for 3 nights.

The train to Naples took only an hour and a half.

I wanted to go here because during the war my father spent some time in the area and helped with the evacuation when Vesuvius erupted in 1944.

We were in another nice hotel, but Naples was a bit scruffy with rubbish piled up in the street and a lot of grafitti.

We had a trip out to Pompeii - here with Vesuvius behind - and it was most impressive. It was much bigger and better preserved than I expected. Most of the statues and mosaics were now in Naples and we saw them the next day,
We climbed up to the edge of the crater of Vesuvius - but it was only a half hour from a car park almost at the top. Good views over Naples and out to Capri.
This was the mosaic of Alexander the Great found in Pompeii. All the treasures were the more special for being well displayed, incredibly bright & ornate AND 2000 years old.

Rome for 4 days.

We stayed at a very nice hotel - the Hotel Sole al Pantheon - directly opposite the Pantheon itself.

It was a superb base for on-foot exploring.

We managed to take in all the major sites easily in 3 days so it was off to the Colosseum, the Forum, the Capitoline Hill & museums, The Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain.

Here's Paula with the 2,500 year old bronze Etruscan wolf.

The Colosseum was one of those places which turns out to be better than anticipated.
This was the view from near our hotel - not too shabby.

ITALY 2011

To celebrate Paula turning 50 I whisked her off to Italy for 3 weeks.

Here are a few of the 1750 photographs that I took.