Beau Peep Notice Board
Beau Peep Notice Board => Outpourings => Topic started by: Roger Kettle on February 22, 2010, 09:35:00 PM
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It will come as no surprise to most of you when I say that the best place I've ever been to is Montana. I should add brackets here and throw in Wyoming and South Dakota but you get the idea---it's what's described as "The Old West". I can't describe how I feel, driving around places like the Little Bighorn, Yellowstone Park, Mount Rushmore and Deadwood, but let's just say I'm as happy as a pig in....short supply. A cold Budweiser in a friendly Montanan bar is about as good as it gets for me...
....until you mention the Algarve in Portugal. This is an area I discovered about eight years ago and have grown to love. It has become the focus of my one-week annual holiday and is a family thing. My wife, my sister (Diamond Lil) and I, plus any offspring that aren't too ashamed to be seen with us, head off to Portugal every year. It really is a wonderfully relaxing place that keeps me sane for the rest of the year.
Boston. That was the first place I took my kids overseas and the first time they'd been on a plane. Loved it.
Denmark. Loved the people and loved the Carlsberg.
The Scottish Highlands. Well, I come from there. There is nowhere more beautiful in Britain.
Over to you lot...
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Hokey dokey, and in no particular order...
Cyprus. I've only been there once, but knew my way around Paphos as soon as I arrived there. Loved the island. Loved the history.
Israel. Amazing place, and again with the history. Floating on the Dead Sea is one of the strangest experiences ever!
Mystic, Connecticut. Wonderful working town. I've got a thing for history!
Niagara-on-the-Lake - a quaint town just up the road from Niagara. Loved it!
Cornwall. Love the county, can see pirates in my mind's eye looking into the bays.
Trearddur Bay, Anglesey. Very calming place.
Windermere and the Lake District. Just the nature!
Must admit I have never been to Scotland, but would love to go. There, and Iceland. And Peru.
I can't say that any of the places I have been to is the best, but each is equally the best!
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My imagination.
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The Scilly Isles for me as a destination in the UK.
Also had a great break on the Isle of Mull, up here in Scotland, before deciding to move up here.
I also enjoyed the Algarve, but that was a few years ago.
Of course, the last 3 years I've been out to the Far East, and my favourite places have been Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Puerto Galera (http://www.philippinetrails.com/puertogalera.html) and Boracay (http://www.holidayboracay.co.uk/), both in the Philippines.
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Since I was young I always loved the more rugged places and the animals that inhabited them. Northumberland's border and wall country and the Lake District were perennial favourites.
After coming to Canada I found the closest thing to my ideal up in Northern Ontario.
The sun creeping over the tree-tops onto the mist rising from a dead still lake with a Loon (Northern Diver) calling in the distance gives me goosebumps. Canoeing round a point to find a moose standing in the shallows (those things are huge),or a black bear rumbling out of the thicket to the water's edge and staring right at you. Ice cold Budweiser on the cabin deck after a day's fishing, with a sky so full of stars without light pollution as well as a display from the Northern Lights if you're fortunate. Just then, a wolf calls and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It just doesn't get any better than that, for me.
A little flowery, but a subject and a place close to my heart.
One place I would love to visit in the future is Machu Picchu.
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Since I was young I always loved the more rugged places and the animals that inhabited them. Northumberland's border and wall country and the Lake District were perennial favourites.
After coming to Canada I found the closest thing to my ideal up in Northern Ontario.
The sun creeping over the tree-tops onto the mist rising from a dead still lake with a Loon (Northern Diver) calling in the distance gives me goosebumps. Canoeing round a point to find a moose standing in the shallows (those things are huge),or a black bear rumbling out of the thicket to the water's edge and staring right at you. Ice cold Budweiser on the cabin deck after a day's fishing, with a sky so full of stars without light pollution as well as a display from the Northern Lights if you're fortunate. Just then, a wolf calls and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It just doesn't get any better than that, for me.
A little flowery, but a subject and a place close to my heart.
One place I would love to visit in the future is Machu Picchu.
That's a stunning description, Calvin.
I might be able to help you with Machu Picchu. I'm frantically putting two new websites together, one of which features South American Tours.
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Boy, I can't compete with that, Calvin, or indeed any of what came before it. But it does my dodgy ticker no end of good to read such heartfelt appreciation of... of... well basically, what just is.
I'm not that well travelled alas, and have only been on two return flights in my life. The first to Eire, which was beautiful, and like stepping back in time by a several decades. The second was to Austria, and that was truly stunning. Perfectly sculpted mountains, manicured fields and crystal clear lakes, it was like stepping into a land designed by Disney. Almost too perfect.
But the best place I've ever been lay practically on my doorstep in global terms, and yet I was in my forties before I ever saw it. I make a pilgrimage up to Aviemore, just north of Kettle Country, every year, and I never tire of the beauty of the Cairngorm area, and Speyside. But it was only a few years back that I actually ventured further north than Inverness, and drove up to John O'Groats, then along the north coast and back down through the middle of the northern Highlands. I was quite stunned by the beaches up there - beautifully golden sands, palm trees and the most turquoise of waters where I expected cold, harsh desolation. It was like a mirage.
Then the drive down, through layers of peaks, hundreds of them as far as the eye could see. And splendid desolation, the mostly single-track road (in perfect condition - barely used) being the only sign of man's interference for miles and miles. Then you'd come across a cottage in the middle of nowhere, and an elderly woman would wave to you from the porch. Then nothing for another thirty miles, until you see another cottage. And another little woman waving from her porch. And you just know that the last little woman had tipped this one off with an excited phone call, declaring "There's a car coming, Morag!".
The lakes and mountains of Austria are truly awesome, but they were made by Walt Disney. If you ever get the chance to drive through the lochs and mountains of the far north of Scotland, all the way up to the top, that is the real deal!
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I went to Cleethorpes once.
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The most interesting journey for me was travelling down to the Falklands in 1983 in a Hercules transport aircraft. 30 hour journey, stopping off at ***** for 1 hour then a 2 hour stopover at Ascension. The in-flight air-to-air refuelling was interesting. We thought it was bad enough, having spent 13 hours getting from the UK to Ascension, only to meet passengers disembarking from another Herc having made a 25 hour round trip to the Falklands, with 3 in-flight refuellings and not being able to land at the Falklands. They then had to do the trip again the next day.
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F****** Thatcher! >:(
Sorry! :-[
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F****** Thatcher! >:(
Sorry! :-[
Why
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How many reasons do you want, Bill? Going to war over the Falklands will do for starters though, never mind the follow up costs.
Or did you mean why the "Sorry!"? That'd be for ruining this lovely thread with bitter politics. Sorry again!
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Thanks. I cannot possibly comment, but it was classes as a 'conflict' as we did not declare war on Argentina (or vice-versa0 -- but that's irrelevant. Admittedly, loss of life is sometimes pointless, but then that's the cost of having politicians who have not served.
I must also stop politicising this thread.
It was a fascinating journey, bt not one I would wish to repeat in the back of a Herc. The alternative at the time would have been to travel in a flat-bottom boat (Landing Ship Logistic) for 2 weeks from Ascension to FI - not a good idea in the South Atlantic. The SS Uganda had been the transport ship at the time but was withdrawn for a refit. This was a pity as I had been on that ship in '73 during an educational cruise in the Med, and my mum had sailed out to Singapore from the UK on the same ship in 195* to join my dad - otherwise I would not be writing this now!
The Falklands are fascinating, but much like Dartmoor, with few trees and incessant wind (not due to beans). The wildlife (not the Bennies) are worth visiting the Islands for.
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I have a photo of me standing next to a cannon in Mtalfa (Malta, where my dad was stationed) when I was three.
When I married Mel, we honeymooned on Malta, and without any maps or prior knowledge, and after 30 years I found that location again (the cannon still outside the cathedral in Mtalfa) and took another photo. The cannon was actually tiny.
In that sense Malta has a fascination for me, as has Wilhelmshaven in Germany, where I went to school. Wilhelmshaven was a U Boat base during WWII and I went back for a school reunion in 1997. Very, very emotional.
Neither of those places are geographically spectacular, but Wilelmshaven was so cold in winter that the sea froze, it was a very lonely place for us kids separated from our parents and the bond forged between ex pupils (one of whom commanded the Falkland Islands after the 'conflict', and another of whom is Ridley Scott) is an extremely strong one.
I love the highlands and the lake district, I loved Bute (which I had lived near for many years but never visited until I popped over to see Nige) I love Paris, I have been many times, and I have a strong affection for Port Meirion in Wales.
Sydney Harbour Bridge is beautiful at night -VERY impressive sight, much more than the Opera House, and I also was enormously impressed by the two bridges going over the Forth on my way to visit Roger. I described them on the way back as looking like two giant Stegosaurs wading in the water, that's how they looked in the glare, coming over a hill driving south to Edinburgh.
I love the soft Postman Pat feel to Dorset, and I wish I had the money to buy a holiday home near Lulworth and stay part of the year.
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http://www.westhamhouse.co.uk/
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and Stratford spitting distance away.
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Thanks. I cannot possibly comment, but it was classes as a 'conflict' as we did not declare war on Argentina (or vice-versa0 -- but that's irrelevant. Admittedly, loss of life is sometimes pointless, but then that's the cost of having politicians who have not served.
I must also stop politicising this thread.
It was a fascinating journey, bt not one I would wish to repeat in the back of a Herc. The alternative at the time would have been to travel in a flat-bottom boat (Landing Ship Logistic) for 2 weeks from Ascension to FI - not a good idea in the South Atlantic. The SS Uganda had been the transport ship at the time but was withdrawn for a refit. This was a pity as I had been on that ship in '73 during an educational cruise in the Med, and my mum had sailed out to Singapore from the UK on the same ship in 195* to join my dad - otherwise I would not be writing this now!
The Falklands are fascinating, but much like Dartmoor, with few trees and incessant wind (not due to beans). The wildlife (not the Bennies) are worth visiting the Islands for.
I have also been on the SS Uganda on a cruise to Norway and Sweden when I was 9.
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Roger:
The Scottish Highlands – loved them – we used to go camping up there every summer when I was a kid.
Tom:
Cornwall – we only went camping down there once as Dad didn’t like the crowds but it was a magical place – Tintagel castle and the great cliffs.
Anglesey – we went here often for weekends as it wasn’t far from Buckley – Dad was part of a camping club with Hawker Sidley. I was older than a lot of the kids, the people who owned the campsite let me do what I liked with their donkeys so I would take the little kids for rides on them. To this day I still adore donkeys.
Mince:
My imagination – I hear ya. I have fantastic action-packed dreams.
Calvin:
Canada – I haven’t been much out of Alberta – but Alberta has every type of landscape you could imagine from dessert and badlands in the south east to Rocky Mountains, plains, prairies, forests and lakes. Yesterday I had to drive to Slave Lake and followed a road that passed by 75 miles of the southern side of the lake – it is such a big lake there are even small waves . Although this place is beautiful and clean I do not have as much freedom here as I had as a child in Wales. The cold and snow stop me in the winter and the mosquitoes stop me in the summer. Without a vehicle a person would be a prisoner in Alberta.
TTIII:
John O'Groats, then along the north coast and back down through the middle of the northern Highlands. – we did that a couple of times when I was a kid and I thought it was fantastic. The road was only one vehicle wide at the time and you would have to pull over or back up if you saw another vehicle. I still remember the beaches that were accessible by steep stony pathways.
Jack:
Cleethorpes – I wish I had been when I had the chance after hearing your description of it.
Malc:
Port Meirion in Wales – I loved that place as a child, another similar place was Trentham Gardens with its Italian gardens and lake that you could walk around with your dog – quiet, almost silent. There were daffodils planted under the canopy of old trees and you felt like you had walked back into history and were all alone in the world. (I visited it online about a year ago and they have turned it into a real little Disney World – no more fields to camp in but posh shops and cabins – shame).
Others: I could see Moel Famau from my bedroom window in Buckley and would love climbing to the top with my dog – I loved just walking down the lane from our house and seeing the cows in the fields and picking blackberries in the hedgerow. I imagine everyone feels that the place they grew up is special – I had so much more freedom to roam than my children had in the northern bush of Alberta where there are bears and wolves to worry about.
I like to make an annual trip to the Calgary Zoo – while I like the animals there, I love the walks and the landscaping surprises around every curved path. The cities spray for mosquitoes so you can get about more freely.
I like to be home. When we have relatives from England they like to sit in the kitchen and look out the window – it is such a pretty place right here.
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but Alberta has every type of landscape you could imagine from dessert and badlands in the south east to Rocky Mountains, plains, prairies, forests and lakes.
In my guise as 'Mince', what kind of dessert? Mousse?
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Diane,
The Rockies would be another place to make my to do list. I have friends originally from Edmonton who moved back West to Vernon B.C, I think it looks much like parts of Alberta that I've seen in pictures. I will be visiting within the next year or two.
To add to my earlier glowing review of Northern Ontario, I must stress that the time of year is usually mid to late September or March. In late spring and early summer that same piece of real estate can be the most miserable and annoying place on God's green earth due to the mozzies and blackflies.
Maybe it's because I never experienced them growing up, so never developed any "immunity" or resistance to them, I break out in huge welts when bitten that last for days and itch for days more, my discomfort keeps my Canadian born friends amused at least. If I could change one thing about this country, I think that would be it. Damn blood guzzling, West Nile Virus spreading little pieces of.....@#*#!!@#
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Tom:
Cornwall – we only went camping down there once as Dad didn’t like the crowds but it was a magical place – Tintagel castle and the great cliffs. - ditto - went camping with husband and three kids; the experience added to my resolve that divorce was the lesser evil!
Calvin:
Canada – Ontario – beautiful sights, fabulous sunsets, loved the snow, hated the heat in summer; contemplated moving out there but common sense (and the fact that I'm damned sure I'll never get the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road) prevailed.
Others: As a child, I spent some time in a boarding school near Mold. From my memory, the place was fantastic but I was not of the age to appreciate it!
Being a old stick-in-the-mud, sod the fantastic views, Edgware will do me fine!
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Diane,
The Rockies would be another place to make my to do list. I have friends originally from Edmonton who moved back West to Vernon B.C, I think it looks much like parts of Alberta that I've seen in pictures. I will be visiting within the next year or two.
To add to my earlier glowing review of Northern Ontario, I must stress that the time of year is usually mid to late September or March. In late spring and early summer that same piece of real estate can be the most miserable and annoying place on God's green earth due to the mozzies and blackflies.
Maybe it's because I never experienced them growing up, so never developed any "immunity" or resistance to them, I break out in huge welts when bitten that last for days and itch for days more, my discomfort keeps my Canadian born friends amused at least. If I could change one thing about this country, I think that would be it. Damn blood guzzling, West Nile Virus spreading little pieces of.....@#*#!!@#
Me too - I used to react worse to them than I do now, but not much - they have always been bad for me - and if I get a lot of bites (30+) I can get flu like symtoms. My friend is moving to BC (Creston) it has apple growing weather and about three months less winter than we do. Looks like a great place to retire.
I bought a mosquito magnet machine about 3 years ago - it helps - now I can run out and put some clothes on the line (or other 5 minute jobs) without having to spray myself with Off.
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and wolves to worry about.
It's the same with me, Diane...
I've been to Cleethorpes several times. It's the home of a league football club that bears the name of another town. Hardly fair I feel.
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Diane are you from Edmonton? I got family there, aunts and uncles and there children. They always going about me not visiting, I been planning to see the Rockies, hopefully in the near future with peeps.
I love traveling, first country I ever visited is Hongkong, still my favorite. The view of the city and harbor at Victoria Peak is simply amazing! Night market at Kowloon is a must to experience, not just for shopping but also for authentic chinese cuisine.Roast Duck on display at restaurant windows, for those with exotic taste snake soup , fried cricket etc .yuk!
Dubai during the early 90's is not bad either, I'm lucky enough to have live and work there before it became so artificial and commercialize.
Carcasonne, France , french La Cite, fortified town, you can walk along the cobblestone street and browse to shop selling medieval items, so romantic in the evening!
Finally Tignabruaich, small village in Scotland, ideal if you like peace and quiet.
So many places, country I visited... to end up living in Bute is quite a change.
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Mince will be getting out his red pen...
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Kauai - so beautiful and relaxing. The sunsets were fantastic. I want to go there again. Oahu is okay but so commercialized. I did enjoy visiting the North Shore and watching the huge waves roll in.
San Francisco/Carmel - The best of everything: restaurants and scenery.
Yucatan - fun in the jungle.
New Orleans - unique, fun and always a hint of danger.
I'd add Cornwall had I been able to see and do more there, but it was unseasonably cold, rainy and very windy, as well as being extremely crowded and so there was no place to stay on the coast. I would have loved the opportunity to have been able to hike along the cliffs and been able to wander around some of the quaint little towns. The Eden Project looked interesting. What I did see was beautiful, and I enjoyed Tintagel.
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Hi Lucy - Edmonton is our nearest major city and where my son will be going this next fall for Uni. But is is about a five hour drive from where we live. I like to get down there once a year for the opera with the kids.
It would be cool if you and Nige could come visit we could sit in the garden and swat mosquitoes together and roast marshmallows and sing cowboy songs. ;D
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Forgot to mention North of Ireland, we stayed at Glengad near Mallen Head on the Inishowen Peninsula a couple of years ago, very rugged but gorgeous and quiet. Our friends loaned us their house (a holiday home they had free at the time) for ten days, and I would love to go there again to write and draw. The atmosphere was very conducive to work.
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Would you believe it, my wife just posted some photos of the Glengad holiday on Facebook. This is the view from the cottage door
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs398.snc3/24202_327003748698_560758698_3405135_2226792_n.jpg)
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When I was a teenager I took a Greyhound bus in the States and went coast-to-coast. We arrived in St Louis as the sun was going down and I'll remember forever the light on that 'Arch to the West'
In Turkey, spent a day in 100 degree heat in Ephesus...walking along marble streets leading down to the sea, it was easy to imagine the scene thousands of years ago.
The view from the terrace of a certain villa in the Algarve.
The gardens at Poolewe on the west coast of Scotland.
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The fabulous interior of the Oran Mor bar in the West End of Glasgow. Also the historic, Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow city centre - with the longest bar in the UK. The Golfers Bar in Rothesy with its great art-deco counter and artifacts. The Neptune pub in Broadstairs with its Victorian inside that is now listed...
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The fabulous interior of the Oran Mor bar in the West End of Glasgow. Also the historic, Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow city centre - with the longest bar in the UK. The Golfers Bar in Rothesy with its great art-deco counter and artifacts. The Neptune pub in Broadstairs with its Victorian inside that is now listed...
The topic is the best places you've ever been, not "Where have you lived?".
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The fabulous interior of the Oran Mor bar in the West End of Glasgow.
Surely not so much the bar as the incredible ceiling painted by Alasdair Gray, Peeps? How can someone who has written what is acknowledged as being one of the greatest books ever (Lanark) also be a gifted artist? I strongly feel artistic talents should be shared around (and ditto for the sharing out in my family too - speaking as someone who can't draw a cat when my brother announces we should all have a post-dinner /Drambuie game of Pictionary on the aforementioned Algarve terrace 8))
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The fabulous interior of the Oran Mor bar in the West End of Glasgow. Also the historic, Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow city centre - with the longest bar in the UK. The Golfers Bar in Rothesy with its great art-deco counter and artifacts. The Neptune pub in Broadstairs with its Victorian inside that is now listed...
The topic is the best places you've ever been, not "Where have you lived?".
....and? Are you now the topic police? Why can't the best place you've ever been be the same place you've lived!
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It was meant to be a joke, Vult. Right, that's it - I'm off to become a plumber...
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It was meant to be a joke, Vult. Right, that's it - I'm off to become a plumber...
And you think that I wrote was serious? I think you need to be a plumber's mate first! :D
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I could never be that familiar.
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I met Alasdair Gray a few times back in the late 70s, he was great buddies with Archie Hind, another writer whose daughter Sheila was married to my brother Dave.
I tried to get into his art and writing but couldn't, mostly because I had met him, I think, and the clique of writers he and Archie knocked about with sort of grated on me (I was in my early twenties).
They were all fervent Scottish Nationalists and quite honestly believed the Scots to be a superior people. I remember one soiree where the English received short shrift, as though they were racists to a man, and the source of all Scotland's problems.
I think around that time I had been turned down by the Glasgow School of Art after sending in some awful portfolio, so I was very anti any writer/artists whose work looked like Gray's or John Byrne's. I saw them as unoriginal, their art looked like a lot of stuff that appeared after the war, I couldn't see what the fuss was about, and anyway why were they trying to be artists AND writers? What an exercise in clever-dickery...
So I was pretty down on the whole Glasgow art scene at the time as you can see. I'm not so down on Byrne these days (did you know he lives in the highlands with Tilda Swinton?) but Gray...? Nah, even as I get older I'm not drawn to him.
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Oh thanks for that, Malc...and here was me thinking he was a clever dick
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Thing was, as a young and aspiring cartoonist I was trying to be a writer/artist clever dick too.
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That guy with no arms and legs, who swam the English Channel - now he was a clever-dick!
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no I think his name was Robert
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Malc, John Byrne used to live in my village here before he headed North. This was around the time his hugely successful Tutti Frutti was on television so he was quite a celebrity. Never did meet him so I've no idea if he was also a clever dick.
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I'm very fortunate that my work will allow me to travel all over the World -- I've visited such places as Seoul, Bangkok and Rio, and seen some great places inbetween. Roger is quite correct about the Algarve , but I have to say that one of the most memorable places I went to was a few years ago on a mini-tour of Scotland -- Glasgow.
Peepsy named a few great bars, but the whole city, in my view, was brilliant. Some of the architecture in the centre is stunning (if you like that sort of thing). After Glasgow we stayed a couple of days in Edinborough , which, in my opinion was a bit of a let down - Glasgow is miles better.
Don't even bother with Bath or London. I urge everyone to put away their preconceptions and go up there and visit (but it might pay to take a phrase book ;) ).
That was a Public Service Announcement on behalf of Glasgow City Council. And now, the weather.....
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Roger, I hated Tutti Frutti. That WAS an exercise in clever-dickery - unbelievable dialogue, and I don't say that because I want kitchen sink drama, it was a total exercise in verbal masturbation.
Away from Scotland, you tend to forget the things that riled when you lived there, but every time that bloody series comes up I get all agitated and come out in hives. Emma Thomson gives me the heebie jeebies, and though I'm the mildest mannered of chaps, I would never tire kicking her.
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Just in case Emma Thompson is reading: I loved you in Last Chance Harvey :)
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Emma, je t'adore.
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Emma, je t'adore.
I'm guessing that's somewhere near Côtes D'Azur? ???
[KennethWilliamsVoice] That is yer actual Français. [/KennethWilliamsVoice]
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Just to further disassociate from the outrageous remarks of Mr McGookin, I too adore Emma Thompson, and have done for many years, beginning with Tutti Frutti. The fact her father introduced the Magic Roundabout to these shores was merely the icing on the cake.
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I would like to add that I loved Tutti Frutti - Emma Thompson's debut as Suzy Kettles and Richard Wilson's accent as Mr Cloherty still makes me smile at the memory
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I must admit I don't know what Tutti Frutti is...
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It tastes nice.
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"Je t'adore"....wasn't that Larry Grayson?
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Emma Thompson is a bighead. Remember that one-woman series she had where she was supposed to be everything from a stand-up comic to an opera singer, or whatever? She wrote gags, wrote the feem toon, sang the feem toon... She has a big fat stupid face, I hate her and she is totally rubbish.
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She speaks very highly of you, Malc. Those fence splinters in your arse giving you gip, huh?
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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I like her in Nanny McPhee.
I enjoyed Plymouth quite a bit when I was there.
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Malc woke up in the wrong side of bed, a bit grumpy today eh! TT winding him up not helping. Never mind Malc, your pix still look like my fav hunk, kinda George Cloneyish in the movie The Men who Stare at Goats.
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I don't believe in goats.
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Roger, I hated Tutti Frutti. That WAS an exercise in clever-dickery - unbelievable dialogue, and I don't say that because I want kitchen sink drama, it was a total exercise in verbal masturbation.
Away from Scotland, you tend to forget the things that riled when you lived there, but every time that bloody series comes up I get all agitated and come out in hives. Emma Thomson gives me the heebie jeebies, and though I'm the mildest mannered of chaps, I would never tire kicking her.
Note to self : Do NOT get this person pissed at you.
*Grinning*
I love it when people go off on rants.
C'mon now, we've all got our "hot button isuues" apparently Emma Thompson and the Glasgow School of Art are two of Malc's.
I've started reading your posts in this thread with Steve Wright's Mr Angry voice, Malc. It fits in well with the avatar.
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I've started reading your posts in this thread with Steve Wright's Mr Angry voice, Malc. It fits in well with the avatar.
??? Don't see the connection between Mr Angry and Mr Ugly, myself...
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Emma Thompson is a bighead. Remember that one-woman series she had where she was supposed to be everything from a stand-up comic to an opera singer, or whatever? She wrote gags, wrote the feem toon, sang the feem toon... She has a big fat stupid face, I hate her and she is totally rubbish.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
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Good god! Fyodor can only speak in two word sentences since the heart op.
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...and in yellow.
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Having just come back from an overnight stay in Fort William, I have to say some of the most outstanding scenery I've seen in the UK is Glencoe, in the snow and sunshine.
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Great topic, Roger, loved reading all the posts, at least the ones about best places. ;) Note to self: try very hard not to get on the wrong side of Malc. I've never seen Tutti Frutti and am ambivalent about Emma Thomson - like some of her films and loved The Magic Roundabout. Peeps, you're just jealous because Lucy thinks Malc's pic bears a resemblance to George Clooney - if you say George is ugly, you're simply telling an untruth. You should go further up the West coast to see some really spectacular scenery. Glencoe gives me the willies - purely psychological: my Mum was a Campbell.
My first overseas trip was to Lebanon in 1968 before the troubles started. I was only 14, but it made a big impression on me – a beautiful country, full of history. Stand out memories are having “mezze” on the terrace of a restaurant looking out over the Mediterranean in the ancient village of Byblos, visiting the Cedar mountains and seeing the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” performed in the Roman ruins of Baalbek.
With working on the camping tours in Europe and having an interest in architecture, I’ve been in a lot of churches and cathedrals around the world and they tend to blend into collections of types of architecture and historical significance. When I walked in to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, though, it was almost a spiritual experience – nothing to do with the religious aspect for me, purely the building. The huge dome seems to float above. It was awe inspiring for me.
Bearing in mind that I haven’t been to Europe since 1984, my favourite places were Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva, Dubrovnik, northern Italy, especially Venice, Florence and Sorrento, Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland and the Spanish Pyrenees. I’ve skied there and Trevor and I stayed in a beautiful Parador (Paradors are state run hotels in historical buildings) in the western Pyrenees on our way to France.
New Zealand would have to be right at the top of best places I’ve been to. My first big trip was a 7 month working holiday there. Started my camping tour career there, so saw lots of it four times. The whole of it, although the South Island has the most impressive scenery.
Tasmania – haven’t seen all of it, but what I have, I loved. Australia’s Red Centre – standing on top of Ayer’s Rock looking out over the red earth towards the horizon – first time I’d really seen the curvature of the earth; the Olgas, Stanley Chasm, Katherine Gorge, which is a bit further north.
The island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides - spent four summer holidays in Port Askaig from when I was about 7. Fishing off the pier, riding on the back of the little luggage "train" when the ferry came in - this was in the days when everything was taken on and off the ferry by crane in nets, including the cars – eating chips and coke iceblocks made by the cook on the "Loch Fyne", a cargo ship which came in regularly, going in the boat with the lighthouse keepers when they were taken to the lighthouses at either end of the Sound of Islay, spending hours in the surf on the west coast (can’t remember the name of the beach) on our li-los (lucky we didn’t end up in America) and one memorable trip to Colonsay in the lifeboat with the shepherds and sheepdogs going to the Sheepdog Trials. Much as I loved those holidays, I was still madly jealous of my best friend who got to go to Butlins every summer.
Agree with everything said about the far north of Scotland – just beautiful – and I remember spending a weekend in a hotel just outside Aviemore with a couple who were friends (I went for the skiing), going for a walk by myself and thinking “I could live here."
Love the two places I've lived the longest: Galloway in South West Scotland, family lived just outside Castle Douglas and of course, Sydney and where we live right now, on the edge of a national park, with the beaches and ocean ten minutes away by car.
Canada is definitely on my list of want to sees, been to Vancouver for three days, but that wasn’t enough. Also Alaska, various parts of the USA, South America and possibly even Antartica, Vietnam, in the UK, the western counties of England, Wales and Yorkshire. So much world and so little time (and money!).
I forgot Ireland – spent another great family holiday in Donegal and stayed with my aunt in County Wicklow. Also Fiji is lovely – been there 3 times.
Good God! No wonder that took me so long to write! :o
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You got around, girl! Nicw memories for you, Joan, and a great read for us.
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I have a great, great uncle who was a McDonald, Joan, but let's put aside our differences...
I'm very envious, despite not having ever suffered greatly from the wanderlust, and I'd love to have been to a quarter of the places you've travelled to in your lifetime (I can match County Wicklow, but that's about it).
I can, however, make one recommendation that is well worth the effort if you've not seen it before, and although I am generally far more impressed with Mother Nature's creations than man's, Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria has to be one of the most awesome man-made structures on the planet, both from the outside and the inside. Designed by barking mad King Ludwig, who met his end under very suspicious circumstances (drowned in shallow waters alongside the psychiatrist who had declared him mad a few days beforehand), probably bumped off to prevent him bankrupting the country further through building ridiculously OTT castles, Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, and the building itself was used as a location in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. You may well have seen it on jigsaw puzzles, but it's far more impressive in the flesh...
(http://www.wg3too.net/Scenic/Smaller/neuschwanstein_castle_germany.jpg)
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Great post, Joan... you've given me some thoughts as to where I want to visit! :)
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Sorry, TT, been to Neuschwanstein twice - forgot about that. First time was on my last tour with Contiki in Europe. Visiting the castle wasn't normally part of the tour, but it was the last tour of the season and some of the campsites were closed, so we varied the itinerary a bit. There was no English speaking guide the day we arrived at Neuschwanstein, so I ended up translating for the German guide, not well, I'm sure, but as you say, it's a fascinating place and well worth a visit, even just to see the outside and the view. The second time was with Trevor when we "did" Europe and I discovered just how much I'd slept on the Contiki buses. ;)
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Mold! Bet you've never been to Mold...
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Mold! Bet you've never been to Mold...
I have..... I have..... !
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I've been to Mold but not to Bavaria. There was a great red, round cast iron post box in Mold. Pitty you missed it Joan.
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I went to Cleethorpes once.
In all the excitement, I forgot to mention Skegness.
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That Neuschwanstein castle looks very familiar to me (not from Disney or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - which I don't think I've seen) I'm sure I've had dreams about it - that or something very similar.
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You've got me there, TT - never been to Wales, although I did try to make a detour off the M6 round Birmingham once and turned back when the signs started appearing in Welsh, so maybe I have briefly. Definitely never been to Mold, but I do know two people who live near there.
Darn, Diane! Another addition to my must sees. ;D
I lived 30 miles from the border between Scotland and England for the first 18 or so years of my life and had never ventured into England. I don't count Heathrow in transit. Never been to Carlisle and my first (and only so far) visit to the Lake District was in 2003.
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Great post Joan, thanks for sharing your adventure, very inspiring xx