I have been to visit England again, a year since my last visit.  This time, for amusement, I went purely as an Australian – I did not use a British passport at any time.  Actually this was a spur-of-the-minute decision taken at Manchester airport when I arrived.  The queue for EU and British entrants was about half-an-hour long, whereas as an Australian I only had three people in front of me!

I went straight up to Cark with Mark and John.  It really is a lovely place which they have there, as a retreat from Manchester and the South.

I did some fellwalking whilst I was there (walking up to Burnmoor Tarn, in between Eskdale and Wasdale), and took some friends to l’Enclume again (see my entry from 24th August last year).  L’Enclume was declared the Best Restaurant in the UK recently by the Good Food Guide.  Perhaps as a consequence the price had gone up by a third since last year!

Valley venison, charcoal, oil and mustard

White turnip, maran egg and nasturtium leaves

Three Pea and Crab Sacks (the sacks are ceramic)

Iced blueberries, sheeps’ milk ice-cream and apple marigold

It was very good, again.

We had some lovely English sparkling wine: Nyetimber and Ridgeview, particularly the former. I even searched out these two afterwards.  Nyetimber is even sold in supermarkets.  Mark accompanied me to Ridgeview winery (they are both near to Mark’s house in Oxted).  They are expensive, however: even the very best sparkling wine in Australia (Arras Grand Vintage) cost significantly less.

I have to say that the event at l’Enclume was not quite the same, though. I guess it’s just that I had done it before and the surpirise and delight of the twenty courses was less.  £120 per head is also very expensive, even for 20 courses at the best restaurant in England.

I didn’t see several of the friends whom I would like to have visited: David and Amaryllis (on holiday in Italy), Steve and Christine (on duty and too busy), the Robinson family (just too little time).  I did get to see Tim Elsworth, who is living in London, and we had a very good day together.

It ended with an excellent indian meal and a pint of Samuel Smiths Old Brewery Bitter, in the Cheshire Cheese, a pub. on Fleet Street.

Mark and I then caught the Eurostar to Paris, followed by the TGV down to Barcelona (where I went to the European Cardiology Congress).

Barcelona was wonderful, again.  I think the combination of beautiful seafood, amazing buildings, vibrant culture, is hard to beat.  Mark, John and I stayed in an apartment hired for me to stay in during the conference, in the Old City part of Barcelona.  Mark and John went exploring whilst I went to the conference (which was very useful, and good).  We ate out in the evenings together.

John and Mark in Blue Mountains National Park (near Glenbrook, NSW)

Mark and John have recently been with us in NSW, having spent the previous three weeks in New Zealand.

The first couple of pictures were taken on the day when we visited the Blue Mountains National Park, which is less than 10km from our house in Mount Riverview.  We went to Euroka Clearing, hoping to see kangaroos in the wild, but they weren’t there (apparently this clearing is becoming too busy with tourists camping overnight there, and they are not as commonly seen as they once were).

Mind you, M&J had seen the wallaby which comes to visit our garden sometimes in the early morning, so at least they saw some native fauna in the wild.

This picture, taken by John, is in our front courtyard.  Mark is the shortest Coulshed,  Nick (188cm) is the tallest.

John and Mark had to go to some StPaul’s activities.  This is Andrew playing the trumpet for the school group at a local shopping centre.

This is Nick, receiving the award for the top academic pupil in his (final) year at the school.

The fully-restored NSW Garratt at Canberra Railway Station

We also visited Canberra – Mark, John and myself.  Being train enthusiasts, we went to the  NSW train museum on the way down (at Thirlmere) and then visited the Canberra Railway station, where they have restored to working order a standard-gauge 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt.  A truly gigantic angine, which will be such a magnificent sight when pulling trains once more.  Actually it is magnificent just standing there ….

After the excitement of the meal at l’Enclume, all the rest of the journey through England Wales and the Netherlands was routine, I suppose.

However it was really nice to see lots of old UK friends.  Here are a couple of pictures of those who came to Cark.

This picture was taken in Cartmel village, outside the suberb cheese shop/delicatessen that is there.

From there I travelled by train to Shropshire, to visit Mark, Karen and their two children.

Lovely countriside there, and I went on an excellent bike ride with Jamie, using Laura’s bike, a lovely pink-and-purple number ….

From there it was on to Cardiff, there to visit Joe and Alan, in their lovely Art Deco house, then via Kingham (the Wilkie family) and back to London, to catch up with Tim, who took this photograph:

From there it was on to Amsterdam, and the ostensible reason for the journey to Europe, the European Cardiac Society Meeting.

Actually, despite the appearance of these photographs, I did spend a very useful few days at the conference, which will significantly change several aspects of cardiac care in Penrith, NSW!

This was a much-anticipated event which actually lived up to my expectations.

Cream cheese wafer

The ambience at l’Enclume was good and the organisation superb.  They coped amazingly well with our party: the seven guests included a highly-allergic coeliac disease sufferer, someone highly allergic to fish and nuts, two vegetarians/pisctatorians (I think that’s what the head waiter described us as – people who don’t eat meat, but do eat everything else).

Oyster pebbles

There were over twenty courses.  The first one (I had to put the third one at the top because it was so spectacular) was oyster pebbles! The oyster pebbles were fish-flavoured marange, which was a light grey colour, with creamed oysters within.

Icicles with shiso vinegar

The “icicles” were little radishes with special sweet vinegar

Dock pudding with nettle, Smoked eel with lovage

These were an example of how they coped with vegetarians, non-fish eaters, etc.

Ragstone cheese, malt and artichoke

Wafers with calamint and dill

Ragstone cheese is a goats cheese.  The ingredients are mostly local, or obtained locally.

Pea and calamint crab sack

I asked the waiter what these were, and had to be told that the “sacks” were ceramic, and it would be better if I didn’t try to eat them.  I’m not sure what “calamint” is, but the overall taste sensation was, well, sensational.

Cod “yolk” with watercress runner beans, salt and vinegar

Atlas carrots, chicken of the woods truffle and nasturtium

Atlas carrots are a local variety.  “Chicken of the woods” is a type of mushroom.

Valley venison, charcoal oil, mustard and fennel

This was one of the dishes that I did not taste, but John told me it was one of the highlights for him.

This was the vegetarian version, with beetroot. It was an excellent substitute.

Grilled scallop and cauliflower

Scallop and grilled cauliflower – who would think of putting these together? It worked well.

Valley offerings

A selection of edible flowers from the area around Cartmel!

Wild bass, sandwort and thyme, grilled courgette with cockle

Blueberry gooseberry and honey wine

Plum, malt and caramel.

Anise hyssop, raspberry, milk skin

Sweet clover, cherries, cider and hazelnut

Sea buckthorn, sweet cheese, woodruff

One of the few things which didn’t work: most of these tiny “ice creams” were fine, but sea buckthorn was not particularly nice.  I don’t know what it is.  The ice creams were about 3cm long, and mounted in a large pebble with six holes bored in it.

I’m staying in Cark with Mark and John, in their very nice house.  See pictures:

We went out yesterday to visit Gleason Mill, an old water mill on the Furness Peninsula.  Very interesting.

We also went to Furness Abbey.  Torn down in Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the monasteries.

Unfortunately it is cracking, and there are huge constructions to hold it up.

Nevertheless an impressive sight, and site.

I (David) am in England at the moment, though the rest of the family are at home.  I am visiting my brothers prior to the European Cardiac Society conference in Amsterdam.

We are in the Lake District, and had an excellent walk yesterday.  John came with me as I climbed Harter Fell from Seathwaite.

It was a hot (!) day for England.

We had an excellent walk over to the Esk Valley, where we met Mark, who had driven around.

Beautiful views over the English lakes from the summit of Harter Fell.

Monday, Sep 03, 2012

Europe

I (David) have just (Thursday midnight!) returned from Europe.  I went there to visit friends and brothers in England (plus Scotland) and to go to the European Cardiac Society meeting in Munich.

No visit to John and Mark’s house in Cark this time, which was a pity.  I travelled by rail this visit to the UK, which turned out to be a great idea.  We booked a little bit in advance: Mark did most of this for me, for which I am very grateful – he can find his way around the timetable and special prices very much better than I could have done.  By doing so I could travel about 3/4 of the way in First Class.  Many people seem to do this now, and the railways are very much better-used than I remember from my time living in England.  In making the decision to travel this way I could undertake the journey up to Glasgow, not really possible by road.

After a few days in Oxted with Mark, I went to visit Steve and Christine in Sheffield.  It is always a joy to go there: good food, good wine, good beer, good walks in the Peak District.  I took along a bottle of Arras Grand Vintage from Tasmania as my contribution – the best sparkling wine from Aussie at the moment!

Front of Charlotte’s and Andrew’s House

Charlotte’s and Andrew’s Dowstairs Room

I then travelled up to Glasgow to visit Charlotte and Andrew.  They have taken on an old house designed by and built for a Scottish architect, “Greek” Thompson.  It is clearly a labour of love for Andrew.  The house is huge.

There are two living rooms each of which is about 15 square metres, another one about 2/3 the size, about half a dozen bedrooms, three toilets.  It’s hard to say at present how cold it would be, but my guess is VERY cold in a Scottish winter.  Several of the rooms had had false ceilings put in (which are now being removed of course) which are usually installed to make rooms easier to heat.

The house is seriously messy.  It really was like going back and visiting a house from our student days.  Paint peeling off the walls and ceilings, rugs covering the polished floorboards, etc.  It will be magnificent when finished.From Glasgow I went down to Telford to stay with Mark and Karen.  As ever it was great to see them and stay with a family much like my own.

From there it was back to Oxted, but on the way I was lucky enough to contact David and Amaryllis and discover that together with Isobel they were in London for the day (seeing the Munch exhibition at the Tate), so we were able to gave an excellent evening eating at a South Bank Turkish restaurant.  Isobel is (as you might anticipate) a striking, tall, thin, articulate, woman now.

From London I took the train to Munich (!).  First the Eurostar to Paris, then a 400m walk between Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est followed by the TGV to Munich.  A very civilized way to travel.

Munich is a lovely place to visit: the trams, the food, the general ambience.  The conference?  Oh, yes, the conference ….

I had a good trip home.

Having arrived back just in time for the hockey Grand Final, and jet-lagged, I wasn’t really in a fit state for the excitement.  Andrew and Nick’s team had come top of the league, undefeated, but were 0-2 down within five minutes of the start.  They clawed one back, but until 3 minutes from the end things looked increasingly grim.  However at the death there was the equalizing goal.  Then came extra time.  They were scheduled for 5 minutes each way, down to nine players, then a further five minutes with seven players (no goalkeeper), then penalties.

Fortunately it did not come to that.  A few seconds before the end of the first period Nick received the ball, mid-field.  He saw one of their strikers in the goal area, and sent the ball straight through.  Tim just had to tap it past the goalkeeper, and the “Golden Goal” rule meant that Andrew and Nick’s team had won after all!

The two hockey Captains shake hands

The celebrations were long and loud.