Rawalpindi, Pakistan

We've been in Rawalpindi, Pakistan for a few days now. It's hot and dusty, but not unpleasant. At least we have air-conditioning in our room!

The big news here is tht NATO forces 'invaded' Pakistan for the third time in a week. There is a lot of tub-thumping in the electronic media, but it doesn't seem to have affected day-to-day life in the slightest.

I've eaten some good Chicken Jalfrezis but Elwyn is a bit more conservative in her eating. Possibly a wise move in this climate!

Abu Dhabi

We arrived in Abu Dhabi after flying for 17 hours. It was midnight and still 30 degrees Celsius. We were exhausted but everything went smoothly - picked up our bags, got a cab to the hotel and checked in quickly and efficiently. We are staying at a 5-star hotel next to the Formula One racetrack, which offers great deals when there is not much else happening in Abu Dhabi. So it's been brilliant to enjoy a bit of luxury, sleep in fabulous beds and refresh ourselves before the next phase of our journey: Islamabad.

Brisbane and a Three-Minute Thesis

After 26 hours of flying, including very brief stops in Abu Dhabi and Singapore, Ellie and I arrived in Brisbane on Thursday 16th September. We were met at the airport by Geoff's sister Jenny, who graciously hosted us for the next 10 days.

So why travel from Paris to Islamabad via Brisbane? The answer is that I was competing in the Inaugral Australia and New Zealand (and South Pacific, as they hastily amended the competition name) Three-Minute Thesis Competition. I had won the ANU's Three-Minute Thesis Competition back in April and you can see a video of that performance. The object of the competition is to encourage communication skills amongst researchers, by having us summarise our thesis topics in under three minutes in a form that is intelligible to an educated lay audience. Each of the 33 universities competing in the national (well, international I guess) event had hosted their own competitions, attracting up to 200 entrants per university. As the winner of the ANU's competiion I repeated my April performance, but against a much higher standard of competitors. I was thrilled to get into the Grand Final, after winning my semi-final, but sadly I did not win the overall competition. Click here to see how the ANU reported it.

Nevertheless, it was amongst the most entertaining and stimulating days I had ever spent in a university. The range of research was fascinatng. One researcher has shown how concentrated chilli solution will kill protrate cancer cells whilst leaving healthy cells alone, but the current dosage is so high that it cannot possibly be used therapeutically (yet). She does not recommend rubbing chilli on your prostrate, if you have one. :-)

Another researcher investigated the lifetime costs of male reproductive effort in guppies and found that 'married' guppies had better outcomes than 'Tiger Woods' guppies. He said that the latter 'ended up hungry, skinny and dead'. There's a lesson for us all there.

Getting to and from the competition venue at the St Lucia campus of University of Queensland involved another ferry ride. Leaving the venue and heading back up the Brisbane River into the setting sun was a fantastic experience. I stood at the bow of the ferry, with the wind in my face, as the beautiful Brisbane riverbanks swept by. I think I'm going to be a ferry-boat captain when I grow up.

The rest of the time in Brisbane was taken up with various 'make-and-mend' activities. After Ellie had broken her Mexican retainer in half, we went to an Australian orthodontist and had a permanent wire one glued in place. This will last her until she returns to Australia permanently, then she will need braces again. Sigh.

Michaela came up to visit us briefly, bringing extra items that we had laid aside (like malaria tablets - not much need for them in England or Iceland) and we sent her back with loads of extra stuff we had been lugging around the world. Jenny took us all to the annual Redcliffe fair, which included a re-enactment of the landing of the first settlers and an Aboriginal 'welcome party'. I make no comment on the historical likelihood of this, or the fact that the Aboriginals were wearing their traditional bike shorts and yellow T-shirts. Sigh.

The fair was interesting and Ellie, Michaela and I now have matching bracelets made out of old forks. Very fetching.

Finally, Ellie and I headed off to Coolangatta to attend the 18th birthday party of Josh, a friend from Tuggeranong. It was great to catch up with Josh's parents David and Michele. On Sunday we drive back to Bris Vegas then on Monday it's off to Islamabad for Part Two of our adventure.

Ferries in France and England

We spent the rest of our day in Arras doing touristy things. We explored the underground caves which were quarried under Arras in the 10th century and have been put to many uses since then. These include storage for the shops in the square above and shelter for civilians during two World Wars.


On Sunday 12th September we took a ferry from Calais to Dover. This was magnificent. To be honest, I thought it was going to be something like the New York harbour ferries that we had been on. To our surprise and delight it was much more like a mini-ocean liner. We were on the P&O 'Pride of Canterbury', which has 8 decks, a multitude of restaurants and cafes, games rooms, outdoor areas and more. Ellie and I went to a very plush restaurant where we sat next to a floor-to-ceiling window and dined on fabulous food. We spent almost the entire trip of 90 minutes in the restaurant, before ducking upstairs to take a few photos just before we landed in Dover.

There were a few buses and trains before we arrived at the delightful home of my cousins and friends, Janice and John in Privett, Hampshire. On Monday, the day before our flight, Ellie and I wandered about the fields of Privett, which meant that the next day I spent nearly an hour cleaning mud from our shoes so that we would pass Australian quarantine inspection. On Monday evening Janice and John took us to Portsmouth, for more boats and ferries.


John has a boat which he sails around the Solent and we visited it while he loaded up supplies for a trip. It was brilliant - amazingly compact and very carefully designed to maximise space. It had 4 berths, a miniscule kitchen and lots of creative ways to store things.

We then took the Portsmouth ferry across the harbour to a beaut pub with brilliant seafood. After a walking tour of old Portsmouth, guided by John, we sat down to a terrific meal, again seated next to huge windows. We watched massive cross-channel ferries, even bigger than our Calais-Dover one, on their way to Brittany and elsewhere. It was a real sight. We then took the little Portsmouth harbour ferry back to the other side, and toddled back to Privett.

On Tuesday 12th September we boarded an Etihad flight bound for Brisbane, which marked the halfway point of our round-the-world travels.

A grave near Arras

After the delights of Paris, Ellie and I had a more solemn visit in northern France. We travelled to Arras, and from there to the British War Cemetery at Cabaret Rouge, about 5km away . We were stunned by the sheer number of war cemeteries in those 5km. We passed a German cemetery with 30,000 graves, a French one with 34,000 graves, a huge Canadian cemetery, several British cemeteries as well as smaller Czech and Polish cemeteries. The cemetery at Cabaret Rouge had almost 7,000 graves, including those of 116 Australians. The combined sight of all these grave markers really brought home the scale of death on the Western Front in World War One. And we were only in one tiny part of the battlefields.

The purpose of our trip was to visit the grave of my grandmother’s cousin, Percy Davidson. He had enlisted in Bendigo, Victoria at the age of 22 years, and after two weeks of military training he embarked for Egypt. After stopping in Egypt for a week, the 29th Battalion sailed to Marseilles from where they were sent straight to the Western Front. Three weeks later, on 19th July 1916, Percy was shot in the stomach during battle, and was then captured by the Germans. He died as a prisoner of war the following day. He was listed as Missing in Action for almost a year, before the Red Cross confirmed that he had died as a prisoner. Percy’s father Jeremiah Davidson was informed and he then died only a few weeks later. Percy’s mother Sarah, the older sister of my great-grandmother Jessie, had died not long after Percy’s birth. Percy’s military file contains pages and pages of letters as the Australian War Office attempted to find a next of kin to whom they could send his medals.


Our visit to Percy’s grave was very moving. What was particularly poignant was that over half of the 7,000 bodies interred in that cemetery were unidentified. The photo on the left shows a row of graves of unknown soldiers. Thousands of families would never know for sure what happened to their young men. Ellie and I placed a small tub of flowers on Percy’s grave, and a little Australian flag. Ellie then let me sing Eric Bogle’s “Willie McBride” – a tale of a visit to a graveyard just like Cabaret Rouge, in which the singer asks if those who lie here “know why they died”. The song finishes by asking if they “really believed that this war would end wars”.

"But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain
For Willie McBride it all happened again
And again
And again
And again
And again"

From a hospital in Paris

Our brief trip to Paris did not begin well, with a transport strike on 7th September. The air traffic controllers were out, so many flights into France, or over French airspace, were cancelled or delayed. We were the lucky ones, I guess - our flight was delayed by four hours but at least we made it into France. The strike involved trains as well, which meant that we had to alight at Gare du Nord (North Station) and figure out what to do next. We were pleasantly surprised by the very helpful, and very fluent, English-speaking Information staff. We were quickly told how to change to the Metro, which line, which platform and so on. Very efficient.

All these delays meant that we didn't actually make it to our hotel until 10:30pm. Now in an ordinary hotel this wouldn't be a problem, except that Elwyn and I had booked into a hospital. No, not a mistake in translation. The Hospitel Hotel Dieu is the 6th floor of a public hospital smack-bang in the geographic centre of Paris. It is right next door to the Notre Dame Cathedral, on a little island in the middle of the Seine.
The photo shows the view from our window. The rooms are rented to tourists to help fund the hospital. When you are inside your room it looks just like any small European hotel, but to get to your room you have to walk through the opthalmic surgery area, past the empty gurneys and portable xray machines. Very bizarre but in some odd way, really cool.

Well anyway we arrived after the hotel reception was closed, so not knowing what to do, we went to the Emergency department, which seemed to be the only thing open. So there we are, standing in Accident & Emergency, with our enormous suitcases, surrounding by some very sorry-looking people with various injuries and mailaises. In my very best schoolgirl French I announced to the receptionist that I was Australian (so they didn't think I was British and chuck me out), that I couldn't speak French and did he speak English. 'No', he said (in French), 'but I understand your French very well'. I then proceeded to stumble through a pantomime of waving my reservation notice about, pointing to all the important words and babbling every French word I could remember (I think I ordered two cafe au laits and a sticky bun for my elephant, but I'm not sure). After a few minutes of this charade the receptionist just smiled and said in immaculate English, 'You can reach the entrance to the hotel by going to the large doors in the next street. Press the button next to the blue double doors'. Ah, he was just playing with me!




After eventually finding our way to our room, we realised that our first day in Paris was about to end, and we hadn't seen anything. But Paris being Paris, we went out at 11pm, found crowds of people swarming around the Notre Dame Cathedral and rapidly found a brasserie with great food and cheerful waiters. We were starting to have fun in Paris. The photo on the left shows the garden in the centre of the hospital.


The next day, we started by visiting the cathedral. Large and dark - it is easy to imagine a hunchback bellringer scampering about its recesses. The Treasury was interesting, where they displayed the wealth of the church, as well as the usual relics of dead saints and visiting Popes.


After lunch, we went to the Catacombs (we were advised to eat first, in case we didn't feel like eating afterwards!). This is the place where the bones of 6 million Parisiens are stored and, quite frankly, arranged into some peculiar geometric shapes. Flash photography was not permitted, so we only have a few shots that worked out, but they give you sense of what it was like. There was about 1.5km of tunnels, which had formally been quarries, in which the bones of people were placed between about 1790 and 1850. They had been moved from their original graves in central Paris due to outbreaks of disease from the rotting corpses in the overcrowded cemeteries. All this is good, but as a biological anthropologist I have one question: where are all the skulls? For that matter, where are all the other bones? You'll see in the pictures above that almost all of the bones are femurs and tibias (leg bones) with the occasional skulls thrown in for decoration. There were no visible arm bones, vertebrae, ribs or anything else to be seen and unless ancient Parisiens had 40 pairs of legs for every head, there was a dearth of skulls too. If anyone knows the answer to this mystery, please let me know. I tried to ask the attendant at the Catacombs, who spoke no English, but I think I ordered Crepes Suzette instead- well done, to be served on the patio - he certainly gave me an odd look.

Day Three in Paris did not involve dark churches or tunnels full of dead people, but light, airy galleries and lots of shopping.Oh, except for all the human blood on the floor, but I'll come to that in a moment. We started the day at the Louvre. As you know from earlier posts to this blog, I plan to see every Vermeer before I die. The Louvre had two of them. The photo on the left is of the apartments of Napolean III and the one on the right is of one of the Vermeers - The Lacemaker. There was also The Astronomer, but again, since flash photograhy was forbidden, the photos disn't quite work out.

We also saw the Mona Lisa, well we saw the backs of people's heads who saw the Mona Lisa, which I guess is the same thing. It was very crowded. There was a fabulous collection of statues of various eras and Elwyn really enjoyed looking at 3,000 year old jewellry. We then dined in the Louvre restaurant, before heading off to do the other thing that Paris is famous for: clothes shopping.

This is Elwyn in her Parisien outfit - even the French turned their heads as she walked by. She certainly made an impression, but I don't think that I'll be letting her out after dark.

So after a hectic day of art galleries, shopping and eating, we decided that we would see a movie. We walked to the cinema and were studying the electronic boards above the ticket windows, displaying information on each movie, times, classifications, and so on. Since we were looking up and concentrating on what was above our heads, we completely failed to notice the pools of blood at our feet. Finally, something caught my eye (it was probably the ambulance officer kneeling on the floor trying to help the chap whose blood was all over the place) and we realised that we had stumbled into a medical emergency. As there was nothing we could do (there were already enough people who had the jobs of staring, pointing and whispering darkly to each other), we thought that it was best if we just tiptoed through the blood and left. There's never a dull moment in Paris.

Bristol

On this visit, Ellie and I have made it to Bristol twice. It is Ellie's favourite city in the UK. The first time was the single weekend we had off during Greenbelt, on 21-22 August. We had a great time. We spent many hours in Explore@Bristol. This is an interactive science museum. We learnt a great deal about our bodies and the science of exercise, plus loads about the demi-god of Bristol, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We made our own little stop-motion film, which you should be able to view by clicking here. Although it was fun making the film, I don't think that there is a future in film-making for either of us! :-)


After lunch we wandered up Corn Lane, where the annual Bristol Motorbike Show was in full swing. I had never seen so much leather and chains in one place in my life. We then went over to the City Park where the annual Bristol Gay Pride Festival was happening. Yet again, more leather and chains, but this time interspersed with feathers and frocks, but only on the men.

Our next stop was Cabot Circus which is an enormous, and brilliantly designed, shopping and entertainment area. We ate loads of sushi, bought heaps of clothes for Ellie, saw two 3D movies and watched the people go by. For reasons that are not entirely clear, there seemed to be dozens of young women on their way to somewhere important, all dressed as French maids. I'm not sure if they were part of the motorbike show, or the gay pride festival, or whether Bristol people just dress that way for a Saturday night out.


The next day we went to see Brunel's masterpiece of shipbuilding, the SS Great Britain. Not many French maids, bikers or drag queens there, but lots of people dressed as soldiers and sailors from the 19th century. Clearly Bristol folk like dressing up. The ship itself is fascinating and the displays and explanations are great. It truly is a 'something for everyone' place, with a wide variety of things to read, do, see and play with.

We caught ferries around Bristol when we weren't walking and this adds to the fun of exploring. On our second visit to Bristol, on Sunday 5th September, we encountered thousands of peopel neither walking nor going by ferry, but running. It was the Bristol half-marathon and the streets were full of people huffing and puffing their way to personal glory. Ellie and I did our bit by staying out of their way and went to the Blue Reef Aquarium. This was really well-designed and interesting. Ellie and I became fans of the jellyfish, which were quite spectacular with coloured lights shining through their translucent bodies.


We had a great time in Bristol, and would recommend it to anyone visiting the UK. Even if science and engineering don't turn you on, there are loads of great places to eat plus art galleries, museums and a zoo to entertain you.

The next time we will be in Bristol will be tomorrow, 7th September, when we fly to Paris. I'll blog again from there.

Greenbelt

There has been a long delay between blogs. I worked for three weeks at the Greenbelt Festival at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. Some of the days were extraordinarily long, but they were enjoyable and there were no insurmountable problems. I had the impressive-sounding title of Festival Reception Manager, but on many occasions this was little more than a glorified security guard. The work wasn't difficult: checking and issuing vehicle passes, taking deliveries, answering random questions from random passers-by. The long hours prior to the festival were more than compensated for by the short hours during the festival itself. I got to see lots of interesting musical and drama acts, heard fascinating talks on diverse subjects, experienced different forms of worship (including communion for 20,000 people at once) and even got to eat a wide variety of food, ranging from a chocolate fountain to quesadillas.

Ellie spent most of the time just sitting quietly in Festival Reception in her orange-fluoro high-visibility jacket, playing her Nintendo, messaging friends in Australia, goofing off on the Internet and even occasionally doing some maths homework. When the actual festival started, Ellie was able to wander around and do and see the things that she found most interesting. For her, that was mainly the pancake stall! :-)

We lived on the construction site in tiny portable bedrooms called bunkabins (as in bunk cabins). These were surprisingly comfortable and we each had our own tiny en suite bathroom. We were supposedly self-catering, which meant that we prepared our own meals when the festival wasn't actually on, but with no refrigeration for the first week and two hot plates and one saucepan for the entire site crew, there were no gourmet meals. On our second-last day on the site, Ellie and I actually had no food to cook, and no way to leave the site to purchase any. Luckily, some festival caterers had left 60 eggs, 10 loaves of bread and gallons of milk in the communal crew cabin, so we dined on scrambled eggs on toast washed down with drinking chocolate. At least our tumnmies were full.

When Ellie and I eventually arrived in Staverton near Trowbridge, to stay with my good friends and former neighbours, the Fry family, we were asked what we would like for the first evening meal. We just wanted fresh vegetables! :-) We have enjoyed good food and pleasant company ever since.