One more cup of coffee for the road

Oh no, we’ve miscalculated! Mevrouw T and I have at least half an hour to kill between getting the Sydney house Dutch-quality spotless for the tenants and heading to the airport to spend four months away.

How to fill those unforgiving minutes? Drink one final cup of excellent Sydney coffee…and blog about it.

EVERYTRAIL–into Sydney by bike and iPhone app

My bike is okay, my legs need some work, my iPhone photos are at best average, the red line marking the route I took sometimes misses a bridge and lands in the water, but riding into Sydney and mapping my route with EveryTrail was fun.

THE TITANIC–my part in its sinking

The ship went down 100 years ago this week, on April 15th, 1912.

I’ve had a Titanic few months. I’ve been to the ship’s last port of call before the iceberg, seen Titanic artefacts in Singapore, met a descendant of a crew member and in a couple of weeks Mevrouw T and I will stay in a cabin in the Jane Hotel, New York, where survivors were put up while waiting for the inquiry into the disaster.

SIX DREAM DESTINATIONS – where’s yours?

The fewer the people, the more popular it becomes.

This week the Sun-Herald newspaper in Sydney asked six travel writers to choose their dream destinations.

I was flattered to be on the invitation list and had little difficulty picking my current favourite place on the planet. I was surprised to see most of my fellow writers, all of whom get around a bit, joining me in choosing ‘great escape’ locations.

AUSTRALIA’S LEAST WANTED CAUGHT – Grand Canyon, Blackheath

To get a soft water photo like this I had to carry round a tripod. No way could I get it over a locked gate, guv. Honest.

There’s a gate across one of my favourite Blue Mountains walks. With signs: DANGER. UNAUTHORISED PERSONS KEEP OUT. On the spot PENALTY $300!!!

The trouble is the warning only appears when we’re three quarters of the way along the route, in thick mist, with evening approaching. Do we go back the way we came, make a five hour detour…or climb the fence?

It was foggy, Your Excellency, so the sign wasn't quite clear.

‘Prisoner at the bar, do you have anything to say in your defence before I pass sentence?’

‘Well, you see, Your Honour, it was like this…

CONGRATULATIONS, GUUS KUIJER – Astrid Lindgren award

Guus Kuijer and the Dutch edition of The Book of Everything.

‘Guus is on TV!’ yelled Mevrouw T. She watches the Dutch language news on the multicultural SBS channel each morning at 8.04 a.m. Indeed, there was Guus Kuijer, shyly rising to his feet to acknowledge the announcement of the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for children’s literature.

I couldn’t be more delighted if I’d won it myself.