Shopping spin

I tire of the drivel that passes for genuine comment by those who constantly bemoan that Adelaide shuts down for public holidays. The usual comment is that "Travellers think we are a backwater".

With two daughters having traversed three continents in the last 3 - 6 months, and they have just spent Christmas in London I make the following observations:

You cannot surely call Rome, Turin, Florence, Paris, or London "backwaters". Yet in all of those places there have been times when touristy stuff and/or shops have been closed. Indeed the transport system in London seems to almost shut down for 48 hours over Christmas. My prospective son-in-law traipsed all the way out to Greenwich to find it closed, and Regents Park Zoo closed early on the particular day he wanted to go. In Italy, and often in France, the great museums and galleries are almost always closed on Mondays. The department stores are not open 24 hours a day.

I observe, too, that though the supermarkets were open on Sunday, at Blackwood it was almost dead

I always think when these chamber of retailers whiners (or who ever they are) go on about this it is clear that they are not going to be the ones who are going to have their festive season broken into by having to staff endless unregulated shopping. It will be people like my niece E who works for Myers and who has a young son who delights to have his mother round. She's not complaining, but sometimes we all seem a bit tired from too much opening.!

eating..praying... and... loving

I read the populist book by Elizabeth Gilbert.."Eat Pray Love" recently and preached about it at Christmas (here)

Because Christmas is about God in the ordinary stuff of life we do well to remember that it is the ordinary eating together that is so important. One of the sad things about the breakdown of the relationship between S & I is the loss of the daily opportunity to sit down with other people at least once a day. Turn the TV off and, however briefly, often ungratefully, maybe testily to actually have to try and converse.

Christmas Day we try to do this. I was interested that the three travellers spent their day together feasting in London. (They walked to Buckingham Palace in the afternoon...good thing to do!) and cooking for each other. The fruits of their travels. Belgian Chocolates, little French things. Lvely roasts. They also made our favourite dessert Apple Crumble...and they were having trifle and Glühwein. There is a lot of stuff going on here. Recreating childhood Christmas, but sharing time with the blood relatives (even though they drive each other wild... how will K and I go for two weeks in Asia) Making some of their own traditions. Reminiscences of stuff passed down through the generations. Seems quite important.

Decisions, decisions.... I want it all

Necessary preparation for our forthcoming trip is the reading of books and magazines, and the endless delightful conversations with people about things to do.
It is now over twenty years ....well thirty actually...since I was in Europe, and I don't really remember a thing...or the things I do remember are very partial. The Pompidou Pyramid, for example, the London Eye didn't even exist.
And perhaps I am a little more expansive as a person and aware of all sorts of things that I didn't realise I could be aware of when I was in my 20s. Although, par exemple, I saw lots of visiual art my definitive art experience had not yet happened...which happened at a Monet exhbition in Melbourne probably 15 -20 years ago.So I know that one of the things I wan to do is try and see a few more water lilies, whether we get to Giverny remains to be seen.
But S and I also talked about whether or we should walk Scafell Pike...it would be unusual for us to do such a thing, can I still do it? (I have done it a number of times in my teens ...but these days I ache).
Every time we think about England we think of another thing to do. Althorp, Blenheim, The Old Vic. I even told my cousin the other day that we probably weren't going to stay with him..I feel guilty and I have thought of a way that we possibly can.
But we can go no further north than Edinburgh, but I would desperately love to go to Iona and the Hebrides
Then there is "The Unofficial Guide to Paris", and excellent book which we stumbled across which will keep us amused; nibbling cheese and croissants, walking the Left bank, doing little side trips, hunting out those Monets.
The truth is that I want it all, and there is too little: time, money, energy.
Thank goodness I have temporaily lost the Rome book!