Sailing weekend in Solent

As a birthday surprise Ian took me out for a sailing weekend. He had arranged for us to hook up with Geert (ex-colleague to Ian) who just happens to be about to start his own skipper business. As Geert haven't got his own boat just yet he had rented a nice 12 meter racing yacht called Blue Juice. The rest of the crew was made up by Geert's wife Jane, Jelte, Lorin, Alex and Shaun.

I was completely unaware of Ian's plans and was told first on Friday at 15:30 that I was to go on my first proper sailing trip ever. All very exciting and very unexpected! There I had been packing my passport and the hiking shoes. Was I disappointed you may ask. Not at all! The whole experience turned out to be very pleasant indeed. So good I could easily be tempted to go again. (As long as I can go with Geert and First reef.)

Our first outing was to take us from Southampton and up the river Beaulieu to find us a nice spot to moor for the night. It all took us a little bit longer then planned (mainly due to shopping) so we missed our pub dinner. Oops!

Luckily we had food for cooking, thanks to the shopping team. This was when we realised a few things were as they were supposed to be. Trivial things like a working fridge, temperamental gas stove (kept switching itself off), lack of sauce pans and other vital kitchen supplies. Makes cooking so much more interesting. Well, well, Alex and Jane managed to cook us a feast anyway, in batches! But it did mean we were gunning for the pubs for the rest of the weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday turned out to be beautiful days. Sunny and blue sky! Water lapping! All very chilled and relax. Plenty of opportunities for water photographing. I was definitely liking it. The guys were however mumbling a bit that there wasn't an awful lot of wind. Good enough for me though.

As Geert is planning to teach sailing in his new business adventure he rather quickly got me involved with the whole steering business. Properly called being at the helm I think.

First time around was under motor so it wasn't that hard. Just needed to calm down and accept that your turning will happen 5 minutes after you turned the wheel.

Second time around was under sail. At this point I was still a bit confused as to what was going on so I spent most of the time photographing the water instead. But you can only do that for so long so Geert spotted me idle after awhile.
I had just got the whole groove thing explained when it was time for tacking. Oh my God! I could barely see the difference my steering did to the sails.Anyway I did a very nice and controlled tack (according to the experts), straight back into the groove again.

I was happy cruising along starting to get a tiny bit of feel for it. Geert was debating if now was a good time for man-over-board drill when our navigator of the day came up on deck. Very calmly he said that now wasn't a good time as we are about to run into a sandbank and we should tack instead. Me struggling with the terminology managed the first part "ready?" and failed to remember the second part. All that sprang to mind was "lederhosen", don't ask me why. Anyway, managed another controlled tack and just as we came out of it the backend hit the sandbank and all of a sudden we were very still.

Not to worry, we managed to get off the bank in just a few minutes. However, I thought that probably was about as much damage I was willing
to inflict on the others. I stayed well clear of the "making the boat go forward" business and reported for kitchen duty instead.

In the end we managed to sail to Lymington for our second night. Third night was spent in Cowes on Isle of Wight. And in between we saw the Needles, some very big container ships and a huge cruise ship. I managed to take loads of photographs, I'll know what I'll be doing this week. On our last day we sailed to Portsmouth. We had some lunch and spent some time seriously tacking our way out of the harbour.

Culture in Cardiff

The Plants invited us to join them for their annual cultural weekend in Cardiff, Wales. Having attended it last year it was an easy choice to tag along. In splendid Plants fashion the weekend was spent with much laughter, sillyness and good wine & food.

We had left the logistics to Rob which ended up with us taking the train. Believe it or not but he was so organised that we travelled back in first class. Obviously we had to keep up the appearance and when the white wine ran out we naturally had to continue with the champagne. Credit crunch, what do you mean? ;-)

The actual "excuse"g for the gathering was to go to
the opera. This year the Welsh opera house was giving a brilliant production of Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. Not sure it had anything to do with the Mojitos and Caipirinhas we had before though...

Sunday was saint David's day so the Welsh were all out. Leeks, daffodils and red dragons where ever you turned. Some off us piled onto the tourist boat and went for a turn around Cardiff bay. Ian spent most of the time chatting up old ladies while Laurie and Andrea enjoyed the diesel fume at the back of the boat.

After some milling around the Docks, trying to get a coffee, it was time to leave Cardiff. Once back home we went to R&I to have pizza and to admire their blue-ray player. Unfortunately the only film they had to demonstrate with was National treasure II. When R started to rewind because he missed a scene we couldn't stand the badness anymore and went home.

More photos can be found on my flickr...

Great granddads house

And here is a photo of the house Dad's granddad built. My Dad lived
here in the groundfloor flat between 1948 and 1956.

Winter in Sweden

Back home again after spending a week in Holmsund with my Dad. Luckily the snow arrived about three days before me, so I'm happy I've got the chance to see proper snow this year!

The temperature was -16 C when I arrived to Umeå. Nice and cold! When I left it was only 0 C. The snow was slowly turning into slush... :-(

Dad showed me around Holmsund which is his birth place. I've now seen all the houses he ever lived in, including the one my great Granddad built (the building goes in the family). We also got the opportunities to meet some of Dad's cousins. It was good to see Maine and Hans again. We used to spend our summers together in Sövall, Grebbestad, Bohuslän. I think I was about 15 last time I saw them.

On Wednesday Dad and I went for a walk along the coast outside Holmsund. The wind was ice-cold and it probably took 30 min before I could feel my cheeks again.

Anyway, when walking along the waterfront we discovered the most amazing ice formations on the water. The ice along this particular stretch was a bit broken up since the ice breakers and pilot ships use this stretch to reach the harbour. But just along the shoreline the ice had been folded, just like if it was a sheet of fabric. Neither Dad nor I have ever seen anything like that before. Of course I had to borrow Dad's camera and take lots of photographs.

Up a mountain and down again

We have had a couple of days now without access to Internet. We have been up Koya-san, a very nice mountain filled with temples and monasteries. After two days we came down again and have now spent two days exploring Kyoto. I'm a bit too tired to write a long posting, so here are some nice photos I've taken in the last couple of days instead.



Tori gate in Miyajima







Christmas tree in Kyoto train station









Ian and Teruko, our fabulous guide in Koya-san











Two dragons in a Zen garden in Koya-san







Temple in Kyoto

We're back in our hostel bar!

Got up early this morning to take the 2h train to Hiroshima. I slept most of the way...

We went straight to the peace memorial park and the museum. It was a rather tough morning. Very sad to see the effects of the atom bomb. Had a nice chat with a Japanese man and his two kids though. They wanted to know where I came from and why I was there. We chatted for a good 15 minutes. When he lost his words, he found them using his mobile phone. That is technology for you.

Feeling very down towards lunch-time we decided to cheer us up by going to Miyajima, a pretty little island in Hiroshima bay. Watched the sunset there and headed back to Kyoto. We are now starting to get very good in using the train system and local transport :-)

Tomorrow we are off to Koya-san, a monastery up in the mountains. I picked the ryokan without internet connection, but it has an onsen (hot spring spa), so probably no postings until we are back in Kyoto on Friday.

Until then...

TV star!!!

Well, that is me!!! Before going to Obuse on Saturday we got up at 04:30! to see the fish market. It was the penultimate morning it was open to tourists. Must say, it wasn't very tourist-friendly and I can totally understand that they want to close it for one of their busiest months.

After wandering around in utter confusion for half-an-hour we finally found where the tuna auctions were held. The tourists were ushered into one corner to view the spectacle with several TV-crews filming them. One of them decided to interview me! Gosh! What could I say, it was 5:30 in the morning and I was barely awake enough to make sure I didn't get run over by any of the trucks, bicycles or men with big carts. Yet alone I had to attempt to sound vaguely intelligent. Ian happily photographed...

Once we safely got out of the fish market we had a well deserved breakfast and then headed off to the train station to get the bullet train to Nagano.

We are now coming out to the country-side and all of a sudden realise that there are no longer any signage in English. Ooops! Well, we did find our local train to Obuse and after very carefully listening heard them announce Obuse just in time to get off the train.

After checking in we went back to take the train to Yudanaka continued on a local bus and got off somewhere out of town. And after a half-an-hour walk we finally reached our destination, the onsen (hot water spa) for the snow monkeys!

There were unbelievable many monkeys around the onsen and all very photo-friendly. Obviously we got lots of photos. They just were so adorable. And they really do go swimming in the onsen.


Back to Obuse we had a fab dinner at the local Sake-brewery. And yes, we bought plenty of sake with us after some proper tasting. Unfortunately the best one needs to be kept in a fridge. I think we might struggle a bit with that one. Might have to drink it before we go home, what a shame...:-)

Spent an extra day chilling in Obuse. Tried the Japanese take on Italian cuisine. Brilliant! Had a fantastic pasta bolognaise with beef and miso sauce.

This leads us to today which we have spent travelling. Trough Nagano and Tokyo we have now reached Kyoto. Found a nice backpacker's hostel. Being a bit posh we did choose the en-suite room rather than the dorm room. Best thing about the hostel is that it has wireless internet and we are now sitting in the bar, drinking beer and writing these posts.

Tomorrow we are making a day-trip to Hiroshima. Can't decide whether I'm looking forward to it or not. It will be so sad to go and see the peace memorial. I'm nearly crying just reading about it. Well, well, I'm pretty well stocked up on tissues.

Sightseeing!!!

Hurray! I'm finally out doing sightseeing. Yesterday I spent the day in Ginza, the shopping heartland of Tokyo. Very posh shops, so I had to stick to window shopping. All to Ian's delight. (He did get a bit worried when he heard I went to Ginza.)

Got lots of photos as each shop has remarkable architecture or window display. Or both.

In the evening I meet up with Ian and his colleague Alberto for drinks in The Bar. Well, that is the name of the place. And it was on the 45th floor. Great views as expected. On our way down we experienced a slice of Japanese life. Two older gentlemen out with their daughters!? Wouldn't think so. But they sure could have been. They were very happy and chatty. One of the men quite pleased he could show off his English, all to the girls delight...:-)

After drinks we went for some Japanese pizza. Very strange! Think buckwheat pancake with grated potatoes, leek and carrots and mix in octopus and shrimps. On top of that a thick sweet teriyaki like sauce and a raw egg. Very filling indeed. I could only eat half...

Today was Ian's first proper holiday. Yippie! Celebrated by going to Harajuku. There we started off by browsing the trendy (and strange) shops, followed by the very nice designer shops. Got ourselves two nice hats.

After lunch we went to the pretty shinto shrine Meiji-jingu. And ended up in Shinjuku where we had dinner.

Tonight's dinner took place in a tiny basement. And it had an English menu!!!! (When they don't have English menus, you can usually resort to the plastic mock-ups in the window.) Tonight we had some nice barbecued meat.

Tomorrow we are leaving Tokyo to go to Obuse, where we hopefully be able to see the snow monkeys.

Getting better

Yippie, I'm getting better! Felt rather miserable this morning so decided to stay in bed. Woke up again at 12 o'clock, just in time for the housekeeper to come and fill up the tissue boxes. The poor guy was so apologetic for coming in whilst I was there, even though I had put the green sign on the door. Anyway, the tissue box got stocked up :-)

Had some breakfast. Ian had bought me some bready thing from the Family mart in the basement. Interestingly the top half had butter spread in a thin layer and the bottom half had about 1/2 cm thick ribbon of butter. Luckily, it was easily removable.

So the day was more or less spent in the hotel room. More Japanese tv with bad American movies. Read half my book The children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien. I hope I will be able to find a book shop selling English books since that is the only book I brought...

Another amusement I had was to take photographs from our window. As our room is on the 32nd floor, we have pretty good views. And at one point the sun rays was very visible.

Feeling rather desperate this morning, I asked Ian to get me some cough medicines. After some looking he found a pharmacist. Obviously they didn't speak English so he had to mime what he was after. So now I've got a jar of some pills. I find it a bit suspicious that cough medicines come in tablet form. I think I will save them until I get really desperate. Until then, I'll just stick to my honey and coca cola.

I know, coca cola isn't the best of things. But it certainly helps sooth a tortured throat.

Anyway, as I said in the beginning, I'm now feeling better. So good that I went out with Ian for some dinner. Found a nice Thai place and had some lovely chicken with cashew nuts and beef with oyster sauce.

Time to try and get some sleep again. Hopefully I'll be feeling good enough for some sightseeing tomorrow!!!

First days in Tokyo

So we made it to Tokyo. Three hours later then scheduled. Which in a way was good, fewer hours to try to stay awake. The jet lag is definitely noticeable. By some strange will power we forced our selves to go out for dinner. Found a nice Japanese izakaya (bar/dining) on the 46th floor of the Caretta Shiodome. Fabulous views over Tokyo bay and its pretty rainbow bridge. Yes, it is lit in all the rainbow's colours.

Next day Ian had the morning off. So we took the boat up to Asakusa, the old part of Tokyo. Ian had to go in to work so I explored Asakusa on my own. The area is most famous for its old temple Senso-ji and gigantic lanterns. The area is popular with tourist so lots of souvenir shops could be found.

As always ordering food in a language you don't understand is always fun. You never really know what you are going to get. Luckily lots of restaurant have either pictures of the food or plastic versions... I played it safe for lunch and stopped at a self-service cafe. I was a bit impressed that most of the stuff there had a sampling tray next to it, so you try it before you bought it.

Waiting for Ian I wandered around the shopping area around our hotel. It is a rather interesting concept. You don't really find anything at street level here. You walk one level up on gangways, and the shopping is one level down. There are lots of tunnels opening up to big open-air piazzas surrounded by the skyscrapers.

Surprisingly enough they all have lots of Christmas decoration. Masses of Christmas lights can be seen everywhere and in the most fantastic constellations.

I even found a little stall selling pictures with pressed flowers and saying God Jul next to a Danish flag. The stall was called Ayakos Blomster (another Swedish word).

We, (Ian had by now caught up on me) also stumbled upon a interesting artist. He was wearing a DJ mixer table around his neck, dancing to some funky music and painting at the same time. It is hard to describe, but most enjoyable to watch. The guy was using brush, charcoal and spray cans. I was most impressed with him drawing a man in three seconds.

All in all it was a very nice day with lots of exploring. Unfortunately towards the end of the day I felt a nasty cold coming on :-(

Today I felt even worst. Hardly slept at all during the night. Kept waking myself and Ian up by coughing. So, nothing much to do but to stay in bed. Managed to get some sleep and have had fun watching Japanese TV. The commercials are hilarious. Feeling much better now. Hoping for a full nights sleep and some exploring tomorrow. Keep you posted!