Archive for the ‘Travels’ Category
Don’t Dream It’s Over
November 27th, 2009 | 
Author: This week’s announcements that Dubai is suffering financial hardship probably generated more than a little schadenfreude in the struggling economies of the west.
A couple of years ago we visited Dubai, (some pictures here) staying at the wonderful Madinat Jumeirah complex. We were so impressed with the atmosphere and service that we returned within the year to celebrate my 50th birthday – the original intent was to go to Las Vegas, but we found Dubai to be nearer and nicer.
Okay so the whole place was superficial and built on rampant, unsustainable optimism, but it had a ‘can do’ attitude and a buzz about it that I’ve only experienced elsewhere in New York in the eighties and Shanghai a few years ago.
I personally hope that Dubai weathers the storm, albeit slightly chastened, it was a fun place to visit and, when my personal circumstances permit, I would love to go back.
One step beyond
Another one of those “where were you when” days occurred forty years ago this week, and yes I can remember where I was. During the Apollo 11 mission my family and I were on holiday in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight , throughout the week my tiny transistor radio was never far from my side.
As a twelve year old schoolboy I was transfixed by the whole Apollo programme, I had the ‘Airfix’ models, the wall charts, the ‘Magpie book of space exploration’, the lot.
At that time I think I could recite all the Apollo astronauts as my schoolfriends could recite the members of various football teams.
Theres a great article about Apollo 11 here.
During that holiday I also bought my first Arthur C Clarke book, and devoured it on the long drive home. From that slim volume of short stories (which is still on my shelf somewhere) I became a lifelong fan of Clarke’s work, reading all his fiction and non-fiction, but drawing the line at the dubious Mysterious World junk he put his name to in the eighties.
Many years later, in 1999, on our first visit to Sri Lanka I happened to look in the local phone book, and saw that Arthur C Clarke’s number was listed, athough we were never close enough to Negombo to actually go and visit.
I confess didnt have the courage to phone my boyhood hero.
I bottled it, and to this day I regret that, but as the song would have it “regrets, I have a few, but then again, too few to mention” – that’s one of them.
Saturday Gigs
While visiting Sri Lanka I managed to hook up with Phill Morton and his wife Anne.
Phill and I were best mates back in the late seventies and early eighties in Sheffield.
They were great times to be young guys around town in Sheffield; the music scene was booming, with bands like the Human League, ABC and Thomson Twins (although I concede the latter two bands hailed from nearby Chesterfield) and the city had numerous thriving night clubs and music venues.
We saw John Mellencamp at The Limit for the princely sum of £1.50 each – although he was called Johnny Cougar at that time. A tour that I suspect wont feature in his autobiography.
Back in the day we would hang out at Uncle Sam’s Chuck Wagon on Eccleshall Road, ‘Mister Kites’ wine bar on Division Street and, of course, Saturday lunchtimes at ‘The Crazy Daisy’ on the High Street. It was at the Crazy Daisy that Phil Oakey from the Human League actually met Jo Catherall and Susan Sully as there were no cocktail bars in Sheffield at that time for them to have been working as a waitresses in.
I digress, Phill and his wife moved to Sri Lanka about seven years ago and were here at the time of the tsunami and have been involved in the post tsunami effort, including working at a boys orphanage.
They now live in a comfortable house in Hikkaduwa, near Galle and we spent a very pleasant day with them.
As with all good friends, it took a matter of minutes to erase the nearly twenty years since we last met, and the afternoon was spent regaling tales of two single lads on the town. As the line from Mott the Hoople’s farewell single would have it “We were the dudes and the dudes were we”.
It’s my fervent hope that we won’t leave it as long to see them again. For all the nostalgia we both realise that we’re not the young Turks we once were.
This is Tomorrow Calling
This has only happened to me on a couple of occasions, once in ‘Wasabi’ – the noodle and sushi ‘restaurant’ in Victoria, and more recently at Dubai international airport.
Having seen the tower of the Burj Dubai shining above us as we landed in Dubai we spent a couple of hours in Emirates new Terminal 3. We were enjoying a coffee and croissant, looking out across a beautifully laid out ‘Zen’ garden. It was 2am local time and a computerised voice announced the departing flights in synthesized Arabic.
I guess it was a combination of the travel, the time and the exotic Dubai architecture but it occurred to me “we’re in the future”.
Okay so we’re not wearing white jumpsuits, and we don’t have hover cars, but the scene just struck me as reminiscent of the future visions we were presented with in the sixties, seventies and eighties – everything from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ through to ‘Blade Runner’.
Despite the global recession and the credit crunch, this is the twenty first century, and the future is now.
When did that happen?
I filmed the bizarre scene on my hard disc camcorder (onto a memory card), edited on my wafer thin Macintosh laptop and uploaded it wirelessly to You Tube.
What do you think?
Ca Plane Pour Moi
I had never visited Belgium, Ive driven through it a few times en route to Germany, but Belgium doesnt exactly conjure up inspiratational thoughts. As the old joke goes, “can you name five famous Belgians?”
Unless youre a beer lover.
Belgium, as any beer afficianado will tell you, is home to Trappist and Lambic Ales, some of the most complex and challenging flavours ever atributed to a mixture of Barley, Hops, Yeast and Water. So while the conference subject might have been dry, I was confident my evenings wouldnt be.
A little online research directed me to a couple of bars, A La Mort Subite and Cafe Delirium, both affiliated to brews I have enjoyed of old. Cafe Delirium is mentioned in the Guinness Book of World records for having the largest selection of beers (over 2000) while its located opposite the Floris bar which stocks more than 300 varieties of Absinthe!
Our first evening in Brussels was spent exploring. My first beer was a large (500ml) Leffe Dark at about 6%, at a pavement café in the gras market. From there we located “A la Mort Subite” – a veritable temple to beer. While their range of beers is not vast, there were some interesting Lambic beers on draught. Lambic beers are brewed with wild yeasts and have a distinctive, slightly sour flavour. Later in the evening we found “Café Delirium” which is also named after a beer – in this case Delirium Tremens which comes in at a very respectable 9% abv. To be honest DT is a brewed for strength rather than flavour, but the cafe, which stocks over 2,000 beers is a must visit for any afficianado of beer. (Although maybe just for one or two beers.
The bar attached to my hotel, most hotels in fact, stocks Leffe as its house beer, so it was a pleasant stop for a nightcap. While its nice to have a local like The Curlew that serves Shepherd Neame beers, a local that serves Leffe on draught takes it to a whole new level.
We returned to Cafe Delirium a few evenings later and explored their extensive list of bottled beers. I had spotted Duchess du Burgogne in one of the many beer shops and decided it was time to revisit that particular duchess. I wasnt disappointed, and resolved to take a bottle home for a more disciplined tasting for The Brew Club an American website Ive started writing for.
The Belgians are well known for adding exotic flavours to their beers and when I spotted someone drinking a beer from a coconut shell I thought “Ill have some of that!” and yes, the beer “Mongozo” was light, refreshing and had a full coconut nose – imagine a Pina Colada shandy! And it was a fairtrade beer from Kenya so everybody wins.
The conference itself was really interesting, and Val amused herself during the days by exploring the Belgian chocolate shops, all in all we had a very pleasant break.
And as for five famous Belgians – umm – well how about Audrey Hepburn, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jacques Brel, Tin Tin and Hercule Poirot (and two of those were fictional!)