Malvern

Here we are outside our Wayfarers Cottage in West Malvern. It's a wonderful place to be, even though we're still busy trying to set things up - especially Internet access! I found an Internet Cafe at Ledbury where I can take my laptop to connect wirelessly (if that's not oxymoronic). So I can finally provide a sample of photos from the last week. (These pictures have been compressed for email/blog. You could try making prints of them, but if it may be better waiting until I can send you the originals.)




Speaking of Ledbury, here's a picture of most of us in a little cobbled lane just in front of the church.












Cars are now locked in (Zafira and Matiz) although insurance isn't, phones are done. Main problem now is a house. Although lots of people who aren't in real estate tell us that there's a glut of property available (lots of people have been buying investment properties), we're not seeing much evidence of it. We've found 3 feasible properties, but none particularly strike a chord. I'm going to try to ask the owners of this place (Wayfarer's Cottage) if they'd be interested in letting it to us for a year - although it would have to be at a lower rate than they normally attract.

The picture shows Joanna and Christopher in the kitchen where we eat our meals - we haven't made proper use of the dining room yet. The extremely friendly landlord is trying to arrange Internet connectivity here for us, which would be marvellous. Things just work so much slower when we can't do all the research on insurance companies, estate agents, etc after hours, to say nothing of how out-of-date the blog is getting...

We had some sun today, which was nice - almost needed sunglasses - but I get the impression there's going to be rain soon. I think that's the second time in a week that we've seen shadows. But still, whenever we look into the distance, the horizon is quite a vague concept. Hills or fields seem to disappear into cloud or fog - or is it smoke from fireplaces? - rather than meeting the sky. Yesterday afternoon, we walked from our house up the Worcestershire Beacon - the highest of the Malvern Hills, at 1300 feet. It wasn't very hard, and took about 30 minutes, but the view was very worthwhile. A few steps from the top, we saw an amazing race, where people had all sorts of go-carts and kids toys that they were going to ride downhill. The rules prohibited any sort of pneumatic tires, so bikes were out, and people had to ensure that the wheels remained in contact with the ground (no picking it up and running!). Can't tell you who won, but it was quite amusing. I think that the bigger buildings in the race picture might be DSTL, where I will soon be working.

I should mention that I tried my first French wine while in London. It was a Bordeaux (from memory, the last half-bottle was left in the apartment in the car-rental-packing-kerfuffle!) "M" de Plain. All fruit, with no tannin substance.

In Malvern, I bought a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Les Gemarelles, Excellence, 2005 (GSM) Jerome Quiot. Allegedly "majestic ruby colour with red fruits and spice on the nose and palate, rich and full-bodied, with great complexity and subtlety." Probably some complexity, but no body compared with big Barossa shiraz. Still planning to understand more about French wines soon.

We've visited the Brewer's Arms pub a few times, including a meal on the first night in Malvern. We discovered there's a back gate from our place that takes us directly there! The girls seem to enjoy it, although maybe it's because I buy them soft drinks. The pub also has a community newsletter, and they have inter-pub cricket, debating, explosives parties for the kids for Guy Fawkes, Halloween parties, and a Gardening club. In an effort to convince people that I really am an Australian, and to get out of my comfort zone, I decided that it was necessary to get into the English spirit and taste some beer. This weekend they've had a beer festival, with about 20 beers from regional micro-breweries and some bigger ones. I tried the Ludlow Gold. Although I wouldn't say I liked the overall experience, I could taste the interesting hops flavours. Maybe I need to taste more.

Wayfarers Cottage has an enormous collection of books - there must be something like 100m of book shelving. The major topics are history and boating, with minors in poetry and geophysics. I've managed to select the following for varying levels of study:

• Admiralty weather manual
• Beers of the World
• The Malvern Hills - a hundred years of conservation
• The Stripping of the Altars - Traditional religion in England 1400-1580
• World of Wines
• An Engineer in Wonderland
• What do you care what other people think (Feynman)
• Mr Tomkins in Paperback
• Assumption and Myth in Physical Theory
• Extracts from Popper (on philosophy of science)
  
  Here are some random photos from the last week or so.