patamateria.com
Canada |
http://patamateria.com/tag/canada
Footloose and fancy free. At last – Dave and Lilli! There is something a little surreal about a group of people pouring out of a bus into the washrooms of a visitors’ centre in the cool and drizzle of the morning. So there I stood, with a small audience, having a standup wash and changing bra and T-shirt in a public toilet somewhere near Mount Robson on the way to Jasper. I got to meet Lilli at last, and she’s lovely! Reservations – and not Indian ones. A few of us walked over to the town of Hazelton in ...
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September 2013 – New Zealand: land of the long white cloud! |
http://patamateria.com/2013/09/15/new-zealand-land-of-the-long-white-cloud
Footloose and fancy free. September 2013 – New Zealand: land of the long white cloud! I have these wonderful relatives in New Zealand who don’t mind getting up before dawn, driving to Auckland airport and fetching me into a warm, welcoming family. After Rob went to work and we dropped the girls off at school, Carley and I talked for hours and hours – almost till it was time to pick them up again! So the next time I go the. Re, I must visit…. That evening, Saturday, Carley’s brother Matt and his wif...
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New York! New York! |
http://patamateria.com/2011/06/24/new-york-new-york
Footloose and fancy free. Well, the epic journey may be over, but we’re all now kicking around in New York. After the sort of anticlimax of parting at the bus, most of us met up again in Greenwich Village, in a pub. Unfortunately we couldn’t all sit together and celebrate the end of the Ozbus trip as a group, which was a great shame. And now, the hostel, which has to be described fully to understand the beauty of this Urban Oasis (yes! That’s its name! The hostel is owned by a Hungarian/Egyptian/’o...
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Travel |
http://patamateria.com/category/travel
Footloose and fancy free. Sept/Oct 2013 – Australia: I’m back! How many times have I been to Australia? There is nothing better than a shower, a change of clothes and a bowl of soup when you’ve been travelling – and that’s exactly what I got. On a second trip to Melbourne I spent hours at the Melbourne Museum which is home to the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre. They have just opened a groundbreaking new, permanent exhibition: ‘First Peoples’. This is a true co-operative venture co-curated by the Vi...
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British Columbia |
http://patamateria.com/tag/british-columbia
Footloose and fancy free. Farewell to Canada…. This last stretch to Vancouver is manic. As I write I am sitting in the bus, hours late for our rendez-vous with Vancouver. We’ll be lucky if we get there by midday, when we were due there at about 9am, after another fun-filled overnight drive. Boys and their toys…. girls and their primpery! Must have been about a mile long…. Revelstoke, where we arrived mid afternoon, was a pretty little town with a railroad history. We’re all looking forward to a nig...
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Sept/Oct 2013 – Australia: I’m back! |
http://patamateria.com/2013/10/18/septoct-2013-australia-im-back
Footloose and fancy free. Sept/Oct 2013 – Australia: I’m back! How many times have I been to Australia? There is nothing better than a shower, a change of clothes and a bowl of soup when you’ve been travelling – and that’s exactly what I got. On a second trip to Melbourne I spent hours at the Melbourne Museum which is home to the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre. They have just opened a groundbreaking new, permanent exhibition: ‘First Peoples’. This is a true co-operative venture co-curated by the Vi...
patamateria.com
China |
http://patamateria.com/tag/china
Footloose and fancy free. Beijing again – and bye-bye! Well, what’s left to do in Beijing? There are still reminders of its less peaceful past in the rail lines, engines, huge pipes and boilers which used to service the huge munitions factory. Funnily enough, these provide favourite backdrops for wedding photos! I saw a girl being heavily made up in the back of a car before such a photo shoot, as well as several bridal couples in flouncy finery being snapped against a backdrop of rusty boilers. Only thre...
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Badlands |
http://patamateria.com/tag/badlands
Footloose and fancy free. A short Indian history…. Cuny Table – in the Badlands. Up with the lark, such a beautiful day after the wild storm and rain of the night before, breakfasted on delicious blueberry pancakes made by Charles, our Masterchef, and off to a nearby Visitors’ Centre to use toilets and brush teeth. After leaving the visitors’ centre, we headed off east and north… stopping at a strange little ghost town on the way. Defeated Custer and his company at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876...
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September 2013 – My brother’s Wedding |
http://patamateria.com/2013/09/08/september-2013-my-brothers-wedding
Footloose and fancy free. September 2013 – My brother’s Wedding. The following day we took some supplies out to Camp Chief Hector in Kananaskis country at the foot of the Canadian Rockies where the wedding would take place two days later. That night when we left Bowfort it was pitch dark, plenty of cloud cover, so no stars, so dark you couldn’t see the person in front of you. We had been told that there was a cougar around, so hurried to where we thought the car was. Apparently cougars atta...Well, if yo...