It would be difficult to calculate the number of meat pies eaten at sporting events in Australia….especially at AFL matches.. There is an eatery in my Blue Mountains village of Blackheath regarded as a bit of an institution when it comes to a meal in a pastry
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WHY BLACKHEATH? It was primarily my passion for birds and gardens that prompted my move from Sydney to the beautiful Blue Mountains. As a writer, I also wanted a place of peace and inspiration. The birds here are truly amazing. I don’t mind sharing my flowers with
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During an extended stay at our holiday home near Marlow, my partner Rob and I were joined by Brisbane friends Margie and Lance, who were making their first visit to the UK. The prospect of this extremely laid-back couple spending six weeks with a manic history
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Daisy Spedden of Orange County, New York State survived the sinking of the great liner with her husband Frederic and their only child Douglas, then six years old. In 1913 Mrs Spedden wrote the story of their escape as a Christmas gift for Douglas, told through the
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I don’t agree with William about tea, because that comes before coffee for me. However, the rest is true. Porridge was on the 3rd class breakfast menu aboard the Titanic……among much else. Good grief, I wonder what those in 1st class were offered? Probably quails’ eggs and
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On our very first visit to France as a couple, Rob and I collected our hire car at the back of the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. It was an appropriate spot considering how sick I felt at the thought of careering around the city on the
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STEAM AND SPEED The brilliant British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born at Portsmouth in 1806, the son of a highly regarded French engineer. Many thousands of Australians have a connection with Brunel as their ancestors emigrated on his innovative steamship, the SS Great Britain. At the
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In 1910 Henry Lawson wrote the following lines celebrating Sydney’s restorative Southerly Buster; ‘Tis a glorious mission , Old Sydney’s Physician Broom, Bucket and Cloth of the East, ‘Tis a breeze and a sprayer that answers our prayer, And it’s free to the greatest and least.
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ROUTE DU VIN It was thanks to our holiday host across the border in Germany that my partner and I toured the scenic Route du Vin below Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France. Christine mentioned several ‘not to be missed’ medieval villages nestled into the vine covered
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ARCHITECTURE & AFTERNOON TEA The architecture of 19th century Glasgow prompted English poet and historian John Betjeman to describe it as; ‘The greatest Victorian city in the world’. However, if this conjures an image of florid stone ‘wedding cakes’, nothing could be further from the truth. The
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