Ohhhh, we’ve been eating well in Argentina, we have. Patagonia is a haven for carnivores and we’ve had our fill of the beef, lamb and pork available in the many good restaurants of Bariloche and El Bolson. Parillla y asadors are very popular here. Parilla means ‘grill’ and asador means ‘roast’. Some restaurants have whole roast lamb on display in the window. They cook over hot coals for half a day before they are put on a plate at dinner time. Menu’s are quite simple. There are only about 6 different meat dishes and perhaps only three sides to choose from. We’ve learnt that we don’t need to order one each. Servings are huge and can easily be shared. As well as dinners, we’ve enjoyed the many chocolate shops in the area. I’m not sure why ... read more

Independent travel isn’t always easy and we were reminded of that in the first 24 hours of our trip. Firstly, Qantas decided to schedule maintenance on one of their airplanes and it took longer than expected, so we got to spend an extra 4 hours wandering around Sydney Airport. Isn’t the airline industry doing well post-pandemic? Oh well, at least they remembered to put our bags on the plane with us. This brings me to our second issue. Because the plane was late, before leaving Sydney, I did the right thing and notified the owner of our accommodation that we would arrive at a later time. And when we got there, at the new time, we found that the apartment had been given to someone else because we didn’t arrive on time! I showed him my ... read more

Lipari was one of our favourite places when we visited in 2005. I am glad to say that we still love it as much as we did back then. We booked a place with a nice pool, so we could relax in between sight seeing activities. We also did a lot of the things that we did back in 2005, but this time we showed Nathan and Craig what we loved about the Aeolian Islands so much. Lipari is in the middle of the chain of islands, which Craig noted looked like the Hawaiian Islands on a map. That is because they are also volcanic in origin. Two of the islands have active volcanoes on them too. Stromboli is the most active and in 2005 we were able to climb to the top to see the ... read more

If you’re planning a health retreat, Italy shouldn’t be at the top of your list. They just live far too well here. That is what we have found on the first few days of our Sicilian escape. There is the food and wine … and well … I guess it’s mainly the food and wine. But who cares about waist lines when there is gelati, pizza and vino? From Malta we caught a flight to Catania. Just 40 minutes they said. I’ve never caught such a short flight. It left on time and I was confident that I’d be swimming in our pool that evening. Well, no, the hire car company put an end to that. Two hours of delay because we had to wait in line and negotiate about insurance and excesses because they wanted ... read more

It was great to spend a day with Richie and Ness on my way from North to South. Even better, I had a home cooked meal. Thanks Ness. I’ll be sure to try and replicate your pork and noodle stir fry when I get home. We shared a scrumptious lunch together in Grantham, they made sure I got to the station on time and I arrived in London on the eve of the 5th and final test of the Ashes. “Fair play to your lads. They certainly deserve to win the Ashes. They’ve been the better team all series.” This is how many conversations with strangers start. They see us in our Aussie hats and shirts and want to start talking about the cricket, which until now has been great viewing for all Australians. Things continued ... read more