Friday Fotos - Faded Signs

Traveling home Friday from work, I stopped in the little shopping village of Surrey Hills. Well, its not really a village as such but it does have that small town feel. For how long is anyone's guess.
Why? Well some buildings have been demolished in the quaint shopping village and I expect that something modern will go up on this now vacant plot. There is however a positive aspect to the demolition.
I would guess that this might be the third building on this plot with the first building being single story, where this last one was maybe two story because behind its walls are some partly very well preserved signs.
The signs have been hidden from the elements over many years - they tell a story within themselves.
Two of them were rival tea companies - Robur and Bushells.
Another faded sign is Orlando Wines of the Barossa Valley in South Australia, one of the biggest exporters of the Jacobs Creek label.

Orlando wines are some of the first wines that I enjoyed in my 20s. An Austrian immigrant, Johann Gramp planted vines on the banks of Jacob's Creek (1847) in the Barossa Valley. His first vintage was in 1850.
Today the wine that bears the name of that first planting is one of the biggest exported wines of Australia.

Signs bearing the remains of Nestles, Robur and Medallion.

Alfred Bushell opened his first Tea Shop in Brisbane 1883 and his brand became an Australian national tea.

Kodak - Did they wait too long too join the digital revolution.
Kodachrome - a faded memory of the past.

Goodbye Paris

Our time in Paris was drawing to a close - we'd been here for a week. It was a good way to unwind after exploring France for the last month. Our apartment was delightful with the intimate outdoor courtyard where each evening birds would come to get a free feed from us. We'd seen sights that we had missed from our previous times in Paris like Montmartre, the inside of Palais Garnier and Pere Lachaise. We revisited Galleries Lafayette for lunch and I took my bike this time and rode with other cyclists at Vincennes parklands and the Velodrome within the parklands.
We experienced marvellous food and wine of the various districts. Starting from Charles deGaulle airport, we picked up our lease car and drove to Senlis, Chantilly, down to the Loire and across to Burgundy over a five week period. It had been a trip of meeting people and forming friendships that still are very special to this day.

We walked the canals of Paris.

And the boulevards - our visit was coming to an end.

Bastille was familiar to us during our 2006 trip. This time we stayed close by, enjoyed the district  like locals.

Ashley, Our Son's girlfriend found time to visit in Paris - and have lunch at Galleries Lafayette.

Chocolate and Bicycles - where else but in Paris.

But don't leave your bike unattended otherwise you might end up with a unicycle.

The owl of Dijon and the Eiffel Tower.

France - for us is a home away from home.

The trip back home is never a pleasant one - almost a whole day sitting a metal fuselage with a heap of people you don't know or not really wanting to know. At least I have Sue beside me and for six weeks in France, sitting cramped in cattle class for over two days of coming and going is worth it.

This was the end of our third trip to France - back in 2006, we thought it would be our once in a life time trip with Sue's retirement. It wasn't and now we are planning our sixth trip back for 2014.

See you next Wednesday where will tell you of the next visit to France - Our fourth.

Dinner for Two - Home Alone

SATURDAY
Yep, home alone. Just Sue and I. Our son Mitchy was out doing Karaoke. Sue has this new oven, hot plate and exhaust extractor installed earlier in the weekend and she wanted to cook. We went shopping on Saturday arvo, she who must be obeyed "invited" me along. Le Mule, that's me - she shops, I carry.

The new oven and le Mule.

Now I'm not complaining (too much), I do reap the rewards. Oh! I must say I do select wine to match the meal. I selected a Taltarni Cabernet Sauvignon. It actually has a romantic significance. Not long after we met, Sue bought me a wonderful wine rack with a dozen bottles of wine in it. Six of them were Taltarni.

We separately bought the wine, Sue the bubbles, me the red. without knowing we had both bought wine from the same maker. Taltarni has always been our favourite.

That's a huge piece of Rib-Eye. 

Potatoes cooked in duck fat - all crispy and golden.

Cherry tomatoes with garnished garlic mushrooms - a meal on their own.

Good wine, great food, candle on the table and home alone.

SUNDAY and daylight saving. We did move our clocks forward and I did get up to go for a morning ride however winter returned this morning with wind and showers so it was back to bed for a sleep in.
We had been to join friends from the MG Car Club to join them to enjoy their company and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of what is now the Bathurst 1000 - a Supercar event run at Mount Panorama, Bathurst New South Wales. It originally started way back in the 60s at Phillip Island raceway in Victoria.

Mount Panorama was used as the venue for the 1937 Australian Grand Prix when Peter Whitehead from the UK came to Australia with his ERA racing car and won the event. The venue had been used again for the AGP and also for motorcycle racing. These days it is mostly a battle between Ford and Holden and the various devotees set up camp on the Mount in their specific groups to cheer on their favorite drivers.

We enjoyed the event in the comfort our friend's home with a spread of food and wine supplied by us all.

Bathurst in the 1960s.

Our friends from the MG Car Club together for the Bathurst 1000.

Our host Fritz in costume with the same MG TC he had as a young fella...
The helmet and the clothes he's had all these years and they still fit.

That was our weekend - hope yours was fun as well.

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (DST)

Melbourne Victoria along with most other states will start Daylight Saving Time  Sunday morning. Both Northern Territory and Queensland will stay on normal time. That will now put them one hour behind us southern states, ooops - almost forgot, add 5 years to that!!!!!!

Well most southerners that migrate north for warmer winter weather will tell you that they miss the culture and forward thinking of us southerners. We enjoy our culture - music, food, entertainment. Those northerners will tell you its because we have to spend more time indoors due to the inclement weather. They maybe right.

Back to the subject in mind - DST starts as I said. Initially Australia first had DST in 1917 during WWI but it was discontinued afterwards. It was brought back during WWII for three summers but it wasn't until 1967 that Tassie reintroduced it. 1971 saw South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales install DST permanently in summer.

Counties that enjoy DST in colour

Every year I get a little confused as to which way I should wind or rewind the hands on the clock. At each end of summer I could find myself either in front of my cycling bunch or chasing them up the road an hour behind.
They say "Spring forward" and "Fall back" to remind you - yeah maybe, we'll see if I'm up front or chasing the boys up the road this Sunday morning.
I do know this week we didn't need lights at 5.30 am training but DST will be stealing my morning daylight and the lights will be back on in the mornings.

The curtains will continue to fade and the cows will stop giving milk due to their confusion.
And finally - how come my computer knows to SPRING and FALL at the appropriate times.

Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges - as I write this, Sue calls from the next room, "my favourite place in Paris".

And I have to agree, but for me, it's one of the many. Why does Paris with its many wonderful sights make it a place to return?

Place des Vosges over the centuries has transformed from the home of the rich, to slums and later returned to its former glory. The scene of duels - the home of scholars, places of solitude to 60's pop idols, Place des Vosges  oozes with past history. I mentioned that the Doors lead singer, Jim Morrison was buried at Pere Lachaise - Place des Vosges was one of the places he went to unwind. Des Vosges was the home of Cardinal Richelieu and Victor Hugo.

Within the centre of the square is a statue of a proud horse with a rider's arm outstretched, the other holding a draped robe. The statue of Louis XIII is actually the second to be erected there, the first commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu was melted down during the revolution. The current statue was erected in 1825.

Coming off Rue de Rivoli in the Marais, you walk up a side street and there in front of you is this grand  four level building with and arched entrance to Place des Vosges. All of a sudden, the noises of Paris are replaced by a peacefulness. Birds, children and the filtered sunshine through the manicured trees command you to forget the pressures of the city.

From Rue de la Rivoli, we discovered Place des Vosges from this lane way.

Love the lamps.

After walking through the entrance, you escape the sounds of Paris to find a family community of  mothers  with children, kids coming home from school and the elderly feeding birds. That's what I remember of Place des Vosges.

Walk the the perimeter of Place des Vosges and experience the many arcade shops.

Some still need a little TLC though.

Don't you just love the avenue of manicured trees, especially in the mid summer.

King Louis XIII

Ashley and Sue at Place des Vosges.

On our 2009 visit, we were joined by our oldest son's girlfriend, Ashley. She just happened to be in Paris at the same time. How good is it too share the sights that you have experienced before with someone else. She was staying at a backpackers prior to us arriving but stayed with us in our apartment on our last nights in Paris. I had my bike on this trip and I remember one night, rather than letting her walk back alone, I sat her on the top bar of the bike and "dunk" her back. No lights, no helmets - how brave, but all Parisians do it that way.