Month: July 2024

Two days in the countryside was exactly what I needed after all the cities and crowds – some fresh air, a stroll down a country lane and a walk around the garden to get ready for those long flights home.

A brief visit to see Gillian at The Mount Camphill Community in East Sussex was my last stop and was so worthwhile. I caught up with some people there who I have not seen for years and was shown around the woodwork shed by Chris. They design and make, as part of craft skills development for the students, some beautiful stools.
 
Chris is a real hands-on crafts person who described how he recently has taken up arc-welding. He has re-purposed gas cylinders into wood-burning stoves. They cut off the base, add a hot plate, an internal heat-diversion plate, a door and a vent. It’s so clever.
These ovens are all donated to Ukraine where they are used in places where electricity supply and domestic gas supply have been destroyed by the bombing. A wood-fired oven means people can cook food, boil water and heat outdoor areas. They could mean the very survival of those who have lost their homes and need to feed their families in the harsh winters. These ovens are so innovative and yet so simple – and all you need is some 9kg  gas cylinders and an arc-welder. (Well, you actually need a bit more than that, probably a design, some steel plate, hinges, and a lot of patience).

The Mount is such a busy place, there’s the bakery, the laundry going non-stop, the community kitchen, and a big organic garden with an orchard and glass houses. All based on the core-principles of the Rudolf Steiner holistic philosophy – it’s a school for special-needs teenagers.

  

Baby on-board!

I think international airlines should strongly advise parents not to take their babies on long-haul flights. With the constant drone, the air pressure changes, the sudden effects of turbulence and the lack of space, it must be hugely stressful for these small babies. At one point we had eight babies all shrieking and howling at once, yes, in unison, all at once on the 11 hour flight from Kuala Lumpar to Auckland.
I’m not sure if it’s a cultural thing but none of the mothers would offer their babies mouth-dumbies (pacifiers?), or their breast to give them some comfort. All they did was jiggle them on their knee and constantly talk to them.
When booking long-haul flights these days I always pay a little extra for seat allocation and if possible I go for a seat on the aisle in the middle section of seats, at the top of the column by the wall. More leg room and no one climbing over you to get out.
I cannot understand the point of Premium Economy, there is practically no difference, the seat and the space allocated is the same as far as I could see. There’s slightly more room in Business, perhaps a couple of inches, but definitely not worth the thousands extra they charge.
Sam Stubbs from Simplicity KiwiSaver says he always flys Economy but is careful about his seat selection – I think I have figured out his secret, but the down-side is that you can end up in the baby zone. I just smile politely as they look at me with their apologetic faces while their baby screams their head off for hours on end. I also wear Bose noise-cancelling headphones.
I nearly thought of suggesting they breast feed their baby – but thought better of it.

Sorry, but I can’t recommend Malaysia Airlines, the Airbus A330 I come home in was old and shabby with dated technology. The screens where like something from the 90’s and the food was awful – coconut rice and spicy chicken for breakfast – really? And why do they give you yet another tiny plastic bottle of water for every meal – all that plastic!
Fortunately, the wine was free, ‘red or white’, no option of Pinot Noir or Sauvignon Blanc like on Air NZ, but at least the top-ups were generously offered. Maybe those babies would settle down a little better with a tipple . . ha ha.

 

Hotel pillows are the worst, sometimes they’re just foam and usually they are far too big, that’s why I always take my own pillow when travelling. I know it’s an extravagance and it takes up a bit of bag space but it’s so worth it.

I’m going to do just a couple more blog posts to finish off my travel story and this one talks about hotel rooms. I travelled for 4 weeks and 2 days, or 30 days, which seemed like a long time when I was there but now is all just a memory. Usually, I like to stay in each place a week but this time it was a different place every 3 days; this allows for two full days at each place and a day either side for travelling. As a result, I stayed in 9 different beds which is quite a bit of packing-in-and-out. Some places had a fridge in the room, most had air-con, and one had a free breakfast.
Maybe it was because I booking at the cheaper end of the market; 2 star and 3 star, but everything was key entry.  I was always given traditional metal keys, no swipe cards in these places. It was a fob of three keys, one for the gate on the street, one for the hotel and one for the room.
Many of the hotels did not have people living on site or anyone at reception, just someone who turns up when you arrive. All the places were always very clean and tidy even though some of them were getting a bit old. I struggled to get lower cost accomodation in Milan so opted for a hostel and got a two bed dorm, but I only had a room-mate for one of those three nights.

Via Appia Nuova – Rome

Via Nordones – Naples

Via della Mattonaia – Florence
Via Irnerio – Bologna

La Marais – Paris

People ask me what place I enjoyed the most and I would say Naples for it’s earthy charm, and Bologna for it’s sophisticated style. Certainly, I enjoy visiting the magnificent basilicas and cathedrals but sometimes I prefer to just hang out at a restaurant in a beautiful open-setting with fantastic food, and Bologna had plenty of those tucked away. The streets all bit of a maze so I would take a photo of places I came across as a way to save the location for later.
I was told the pizza’s in Naples are the best but I found them a bit hit and miss – but here’s a nice one. But to be honest, the pizza’s that we make here at home when Theo makes the dough using OO flour, are better, in my opinion.

A local person suggested one Osteria that was down a back street of Naples, the Osteria della Mattonella with just 8 tables – and later I noticed it was also mentioned in the Lonely Planet guidebook. I had the Braciola, it was delicious but it was so small I had to order more dishes, which of course is the what you’re meant to do anyway.

I’m reluctant to tell this story because it’s a bit embarrassing. I always thought I was too careful and too street-wise to be pickpocketed, but I was marked and was a fleeced of my wallet by a little gypsy woman.

In the Rome Metro there are regular reminders on the intercom to beware of pickpockets. I only had 3 stops from S. Giovanni to Termini. As I bought a ticket from the machine I noticed a couple standing beside me. I put my wallet in the right hand side of my cargo pants and domed it up. For some reason my ticket didn’t work in the turnstile but I managed to push through the barriers. The couple who where standing at the ticket machine had gone through the turnstiles had stopped, and they looked back at me, why? On the way down the escalator a guy asked me if I was going to the Termini, why?
I waited for the train to arrive, the doors opened and I entered on the right hand side but a woman squeezed in beside me, on the right hand side. I thought it was odd, why didn’t she enter the train to my left where there was more room. I turned to pull my trolley pack onto the train and she moved around me, I assumed she wanted to move on down the carriage somewhere. She was fussing around, it’s all so obvious to me now.
It’s always a bustle getting on a crowded metro. The doors were about to close and she suddenly ducked off the train, she turned and looked me in the eyes, a look I will never forget. The doors closed, I felt down on the pocket of my cargo pants and my wallet was gone.
She was good and I think she was part of a team who had marked me when I bought my ticket at the machine.
I lost some Euros, a debit card and my driver’s license, luckily my credit card and the bulk of my cash was safely in my pack.
Ever since then I have been so careful, always vigilant, slightly paranoid really and I don’t put my wallet in my cargo pants any more.

 

The new Gibson Garage in London has every Gibson in every flavour with friendly staff who are keen to hand you another guitar and another guitar, to strum and plug in. This is more fun that visiting another old church or art gallery – any time!

There are two conveyer belts suspended from the ceiling slowly moving beautiful guitars around the room, it’s quite impressive.
I found my absolute favourite, a 1959 Les Paul Re-issue, a relic guitar made to look worn, scratched, chipped and tattered even though they’re brand new. Only £8,700 (NZ$18,600), and it was just so easy t0 play. I played it though a MesaBoogie amp which is routed through headphones. It was a big, rich, well-rounded tone that makes everything you play just sound so good – and the neck is the perfect shape for my hand. I always thought Les Paul’s were too heavy, weight-wise, but this one was very comfortable to play.
The shop has a display of plain wood blocks, just pieces of wood were you can select the type of ‘tiger texture’ wood grain if you were wanting a new-build. Every option is available from the neck shape, frets and hardware. And then you can choose from a selection of cases; heavy duty road touring to basic gig bags.

Next, the Gibsons acoustics room. I’ve always wanted a Hummingbird and they had a beautiful one that is technically new, but it’s artificially aged  even the top varnish is. They have a facility in Bozeman, Montana where all the Gibson acoustics are made, called the Murphy Lab. It’s a department where they slowly heat the guitar to rapidly dry the woods and then treat the varnish to have that aged look, you know, where the varnish has those thin surface cracks. But there’s more to it than that and the methods are all secret.
Gibson Murphy Lab Acoustic Guitars have taken the world by storm because they have all the qualities of an old guitar without having to pay collector’s prices.
My favourite was the 1952  J-185 re-issue, which is the same shape as the big jumbo J-200 (that Pete Townsend plays), but smaller. It still had a big bright sound, and it looks amazing. £5,000 (NZ$10,700), which sound like a lot of money, but that’s nearly what Auckland Council will charge me for consent to put on a bathroom in the garage, ridiculous – the world is all out of whack. No wonder people are screaming out to streamline the consent process.
Anyway, another guitar that I didn’t like the look of because it was too shiny and new was called The Songwriter Standard, but it actually sounded incredible.

There was plenty of merch to buy and not just T-shirts, but I thought about it, and really, I don’t need another T-shirt as tempted as I was.

Here’s some more about my last wonderful days here in Brixton and the Portobello Rd.

My old flat, 12 Colville Terrace, now painted green. I was so lucky.

 
Tonight we went to East Dulwich to a pub to see Pat & Jane. Such a wonderful night with Pat, the author, who signed his book, The Redemption Cut, a fiction based on the Irish ‘troubles’, with Jane, his wife, who I know from our days back to that Villa Rd squat in Brixton we shared back in the 80’s. Back in those pre-internet days I lived there for a few months  because I soon found a flat in Notting Hill, and thank heavens, living in West London was a much better place than South London, in my opinion.

London is a seething mass of humanity and I wonder if I could live here again – because compared to when I lived here 30 years it  seems to be more intense – but it’s interesting how I slip back into it, as if I never left.

Why do Londoners close their eyes when on the Tube, here’s Leo and Saul in local’s mode on the way to Green Park. We walked from there along Hyde Park to the Serpentine Gallery to see the works of  Yinka Shonibare CBE, a Nigerian/Englishman who wraps statues in colourful African fabrics in a challenge to colonialism. He has created a whole library of books covering every war that humankind has ever been engaged, again with the theme of colonialism. On the way we saw a fox chasing a squirrel – cool.

Last night I went to see a band at The Camden Club, The Kendall Connection, and today I went to Portobello Market, my old stomping ground. It as changed in many ways but it’s still the same  at least, for me familiar feelings from 30 years ago come back – and Rough Trade records is still there.
It’s the evenings that I find strange, especially in Brixton and Camden – they’re seething with people, so many more people than I remember, or perhaps it’s me coming from France and Italy where there are crowds of locals and obviously all the tourists. Here in London it seems to be all locals and there seem to be so many more drunks; people with mental health issues shouting out, others talking to gibberish to themselves, some passed out on the ground, and groups of young guys busily mooching about. All the bars are full, the shops are busy trading, the restaurants have tables with plenty of customers, and everyone is out on the streets.
I think London is the most vibrant city I have been in on this trip so far – and to be honest, it’s all a bit exhausting.

Yup, as a guitar nerd I had to get a shot of the pedalboard – it’s a research trip after all!

I’ve visited seven cities over the last four weeks but if I could pick one place to live for a few months it would have to be La Marais in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris.

       

So many wonderful little boutiques de vêtements, boucheries, boulangeries, an outdoor food bazaar called Marche De Enfants Rouges, a low cost fresh salad bar at FranPrix supermarket, and of course, the numerous cafe’s on the sidewalk. But it’s more than that, people are nice and respectful of one another, there’s a sense of shared community. I get the feeling waiters, shop owners and residents are all keeping a casual eye on things, I felt safe.
I had many short conversations with locals, they all have time for a chat. I was tempted to buy all sorts of things because the standard of clothing worn by local people is quite high, but I’m already carrying quite a bit of weight, so I resisted, although I did go to the local Uniclo.
I avoided the big galleries and went to see the Monet’s at L’Orangerie, and the Picasso Musee, which conveniently, is in La Marais.
It’s becoming difficult to get around the city pre-Olympics, there’s masses of fencing everywhere blocking much of the Champ de Mars, and they have reduced traffic lanes for the runners and cyclists competing soon. I would not want to be there during the Olympics  – too conjested, too crazy!
Elo suggested I take a Lime bike with my pack and backpack to Gare du Nord, only 20 minutes, a bit wobbly and top heavy, but . . , I made it.

 

Eurostar from Gare du Nord to St Pancras in 2 hours.

My first day in London was so much fun, a social time catching up with Leo, Saul, Bill, and bro Guy. London has such a different atmosphere, especially coming directly into Brixton. More crazy people shouting out, more shabby, more earthy, it’s London, the whole world is here.
We bought wine and snacks and watched England beat The Netherlands on the telly, the final is on Saturday, tomorrow, and it’s going to be madness!
The best pub lunch I’ve had for a while, in Islington; steak pie, mash, cabbage and gravy!  Such a pretty area, and again, another side of London. Guy and I did a guided tour of The Barbican, a part of London I never really explored although I did play with an Australian bass player who was at Guildhall School of Music where I put a notice up way back in the 80’s, and we did a few café gigs together.
The tour was so interesting, a residential complex that’s been so well designed, would I live there? – sure, why not.

 

 

Here’s a great idea for a restaurant, how about just having one dish, there’s no menu because there’s no choice, there’s no vegan option, no gluten free, it’s perfect, it’s brilliant, it’s steak and chips with an amazing sauce!

And people line up every night there and the place is always packed. For decades the Relais de l’Entrecôte formula has ensured it’s success; a green salad with walnuts, tender sirloin accompanied by its famous secret sauce and its matchstick fries.
The line was long and took me an hour, fortunately, I arrived early and was able to get a place in line so that when Elo arrived we would be ready. A waiter came out to the line and said, how many are you? I said ‘deux personnes s’il vous plaît’, and followed her in, briskly manoeuvring between the tables crammed closely together. We arrived at the table and I explained in basic french that my friend was arriving soon. Not good enough – and she indicated that I should follow her back out.
So, there I was back in the line again, but at least I was at the front. Elo arrived a few moments later and we got a table, actually in a much better spot, with a view outside.
They have been serving this single meal since 1959 and I guess it’s now in every guidebook – there were many Americans in the line moaning about having to wait, but never-the-less, they stayed there in line.
Elo explained to me there are only women waiters. They all wear their smart matching outfits and many work there their whole lives and are paid very well, and apparently, many of them live together in the same houses. To get a job there you need to be in the network . They are all super efficient serving up the steak, it’s on your plate within a few minutes of sitting down, it’s a well-oiled machine.
It was a nice surprise to see they do a double serving. Once you finish your steak, and wow, that sauce!, they put another steak on your plate and a heap more fries.
When it comes to desserts there is some choice, and what desserts they are.

Just a few thoughts before leaving Milan, and Italy.

That Negroni was huge! And the free bar snacks, olives, pretzels, crisps, and only €10, then I was off to the rooftop of the Duomo, will load those pics later ‘coz I’m tight on time, train to Paris this afternoon and want to visit the famous Peck deli this morning.
Firstly, must mention I am so grateful to orthopedic surgeon Simon Mills who did my ankle fusion operation 4 years ago. Without it I would not be able to walk around for hours in these cities. My left ankle used to ache after half an hour but now I barely have a limp, even in regular shoes, and in trainers I’m 100% good, and there’s never any pain.
Secondly, I have been in close proximity to thousands of people everywhere and have not not any covid or flu symptoms that have hit me in previous visits to Europe. I will never know for sure but I believe it is not insignificant that I have been fully vaccinated and had the latest flu shot. Yay to modern medicine!
Thirdly, despite what many say, cash is not dead. I have been travelling nearly exclusively using Euros, I keep most of it in my pack and pull out €100 every couple of days. The credit card is used only when there’s no other option. I’m thinking of getting rid of the CC when I get home and just using a Debit card in the future.

Finally, it’s so great to be in places with so many people out strolling, chatting, enjoying the company of others at outdoor trattorias in the warmth of the evenings; where they don’t mind if you just hang out, there’s no waiters coming up every 2 minutes to ask stupid questions like, ‘Is there anything else you need?, Are you enjoying your meal?, etc.
Here, if you need service you put your hand up, simple. And they leave the plates at the table, there is no pressure.
It is good to be away from NZ where so many people seem to want to talk about retirement home options and aged-care, crikey! Sometimes I think NZ is turning into one big retirement home, and when I hear about 56,000 people net migration a year (that’s minus the number arriving), so that’s 1,000 people leaving ever week,  why?

All sold out: Teatro alla Scala with Puccini’s Turandot tonight and seeing da Vinci’s Last Supper at Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie – well, they would be, the place is packed with tourists . . like me.

But I did manage to visit alla Scala and watch a ballet being rehearsed. No Nessun Dorma for me tonight, there was an option to line up for an hour to ‘register’ for a ticket at 1pm, return at 5.30pm to re-confirm, and then wait until 6pm to see if there are any seats left in the gods. That seemed a bit much for me. So I whizzed off to the Last Supper, but sold out.
Managed to book a slot to enter the Duomo, in 5 hours time at 6pm. They charge €18, and that’s the cheaper option.
So, here is the plan for tonight, my last full day in Milan; return to the hostel, (I’m in a two-bed dorm room but the room to myself, nice), have a snooze, go to the famous Bar Basso where the Negroni was invented (well, that’s their claim to fame), then the Duomo with my ticket for 6pm.

As an aside, there’s no ticket office for the Duomo, you use a QR code to buy it all online, even if you’re standing there right outside, so modern, and yet, so stuck in the past, to enter the Duom0 women must cover their bare shoulders and bare legs with a piece of (plastic) cloth, which is not re-usable, just trashed, so much waste.
Anyway, after the Duome I’m going to have a pizza at a guidebook suggestion; DryMilano , I’m in Milan, I will probably never come to this city again, so I’ll put on my best T-shirt and get amongst it.

Tomorrow afternoon I train to Paris.

A 33 string geetar!

The dress designed by Giorgio Armani for Maria Callas – incredible!

Yup, there are fashionable people everywhere, and those shops!
I saw a nice shirt in a Gucci window-display,  hmmm.

More organised and smaller than Florence, Bologna might not have the big cathedrals or the artistic history but it has real class and sophistication, and it’s safe – so easy to walk around within those wonderful porticos.

 

It’s a big academic city with the first university in the world and the streets are full of young people of all nationalities. The footpaths are all under the porticos which makes strolling about very pleasant.
 

I stumbled into Piazza Maggiore which had a massive outdoor cinema screen; they say it’s one of the most famous outdoor cinema settings in the world and a perfect spot with buildings on all four sides and cafes. Outdoor hanging about and strolling la passeggiata. I checked the free show for the night, Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, I’d never seen it but knew it was Scorsese’s big debut and where we first see Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel – young punks on the edge of the mafia world. There’s some brief nudity in it so I guess that would have made it R18 back in 1973. Has a cracking opening sequence with Jumping Jack Flash by the Stones. I took a bottle of Chianti bought in the Conad Supermarket on special for €4 and a €8 takeaway Pizza Diavola (that’s the one with the pepperoni!), and had a thoroughly good night in that lovely warm evening air.

The train from Florence to Milan goes super fast, my guess, as we went alongside the motorway, going twice as fast as the cars, about 180km, and the journey only takes an hour, for €20 – amazing.
But not so impressed with Milan, it’s like any city, you could be in Melbourne, maybe that’s just the high-rise part, but immediately I missed the charm of the once walled medieval city of Bologna.

Some people want to help and some people just don’t want to know, and I ask myself if I am one of those people, as a local, who would go out of my way to help strangers who are obviously foreigners.

The Italian people I have encountered are generally helpful and ready to offer some time to an older geezer who muddles his way through a few Italian phrases and is ‘mi sono molto grato’. Some other nationalities just can’t be bothered or they regard you with suspicion. The worst are other travelling Kiwi’s – they all seem a bit closed off and self-contained and taking this travelling thing a little too seriously, ‘best not talk to strangers . .’
Hotel staff might seem to be helpful but they have often given me urban transport advice that is plain wrong.  ‘Just take any bus from the corner, they all go to the Stazione’. But not mine.
Luckily, an older Italian women who had no English managed to communicate to me that I should get off this bus at a certain stop and take a tram to the Stazione, using the same ticket. I was catching my train from Florence to Bologna but who knows, without her help I’d probably still be sitting on that bus touring the distant outer suburbs of Florence.
I always leave an hour up my sleeve for situations like this because all the train stations have good cafes and a place to sit down and hang out.
The Metros are easy but buses are so hard to figure out, for example, I might get on the right one with the right number but if I was on the wrong side of the road if takes me in the opposite direction. I must get a good bus app for my phone.

   

I was going to write about the fascinating time I had at the dBTechnologies HQ hear Bologna. Marco, their Senior Application Engineer, spent about 6 hours showing me all the gear, we had lunch and he dropped me back at my hotel with VIP tickets to the concert that evening in the Parco delle Caserme Rosse where they are using two of the  big dBTech VIO line array systems, of course.

Marco travels the world giving technical support for the dBTech systems and I learned so much about the world of live music and technology today – and we had some great laughs. He talked about how so many of the mayor artists these days like Dua Lipa and Justin Timberlake just use backing tracks now. They might have musicians on stage bouncing about but they’re just there as props, all the real work is being done by an operator sitting in a soundproof truck back stage, running all the music cues. The front-of-house engineer just has one fader for the vocals and all the rest of the music is managed from the back stage truck. Marco shared this pic of the technician handling the Justin Timberlake. Tragic really.

Although, there’s still plenty of guitar bands that are authentically live and since covid people are keen to get to concerts again. The fact that Spotify and Apple Music are dominant means there’s no money in recorded music anymore. Sure, CDs and Vinyl sales are there but not in the sheer quantities they were, the major money is  now in the live scene, everyone knows that – and it’s booming all throughout Europe.
If you’re interested in all this, there’s a very recent Rick Beato podcast about music making  and music consumption on YouTube, linked here.

 

Florence deserves more that two nights and I can see why people love it, there’s an easier pace and it’s so pretty and easy to get around.

 

Just two nights in Firenze and a lot of walking (and I got a blister on my foot, damn!), there’s less vehicle traffic and it’s very pedestrian-ised, well, at least in the central areas.  I found the Central Food Hall with a mad number of sizzling Bistecca. It’s by the outdoor market with Indian guys hustling, I hate being hustled and pressured when I’m simply ask the price. And they’re all selling exactly the same leather goods, hundreds of stalls with the same stuff, so I decided to go to an actual shop and I met an Italian guy who’s family have had the same business for 50 years. He said tourist numbers are down! Really?,  – the streets are heaving with people, he said the French and Germans don’t buy anything, only the Chinese and Americans spend money and there’s less of them.  He said it was because political and financial instability in those countries, and the wars.

What’s happening at home? I just read on RNZ that the number of businesses filing for bankruptcy has doubled in the last year compared to the year previous – wtf!

After having endless pasta and pizza I finally sat down to a square meal with meat, potatoes and dessert, and it was the best meal in the nicest piazza yet.

     

Florence is so different from Rome, it seems more ordered, it’s flat for a start, the distances between things don’t seem so far, and the buildings and streets a lot tidier. Rome’s streets are covered in graffiti and the pavings are random and broken; in Florence it’s all a bit smarter.
Luca texted me to say I should go to his favourite restaurant south of the river; Trattoria Gustapanino in Piazza San Spirito, and linked me to the owner, Pasquale, who greeted me like an old friend, he remembered Luca because, apparently, ‘he came here many times. . . .’.
I was told to order off menu, the bistecca, it was probably the best steak I have ever enjoyed; large, super tender, rare and covered in a kind of creamy buttery, mustard, sauce with capers – served with patate (roast potatoes). An Apperol Spritz to start, the recommended Montepulciano and tiramisu to end  – all in a big piazza with no cars or scooters, and none of those annoying street-vendors bothering you with their trinkets – and the place was packed.
I crossed the bridge at dust on my way back to the hotel and it’s impossible to not pause here and just soak up the light the openness and sheer beauty of this place. The busker was playing classical-style folk music on a classical guitar amplified with a piano backing tracks, just right, no Moondance, Brown Eyed Girl or Hallelujah, here.

This 3 star hotel has a charming open-air breakfast area and a free breakfast! Today is my only full day in Firenze so it’s going to be the Uffizi, and apparently I need to get a biglietti from the man square. No Lime scooters here, it’s bus or walking. Ciao.