Terrelli activities

We have just started this blog and will be posting various activities over the next few months.

Currently the wet weather has made the place green and the garden very vigorous.

The wild flowers are the best they have been for 10 years.

The Donkey Orchids are fantastic.

This is an update to this blog two years after it was started.

T broke his leg 8 weeks ago by tripping over a post hole at Bungonia and now has leg out of its cast. We were up at Underhill helping Betty.

We were using our Avan and were planning to take a 5 week trip to WA. Needless to say the WA trip was cancelled and the Avan has not been any where since T broke his leg.

Went up to Bungonia last Wednesday to clear trees from track into Underhill and was successful and collected a trailer load of fire wood.

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September and October 2014 - Ellie's trip to Scotland

Ellie in Singapore

Singapore - so hot, so humid, so tired.

Arrived at about midnight on 30th of September .  Caught a taxi as I was so tired that I could hardly speak. Woke up with "woofy" sinuses, a headache and red eyes.  My eyesight was really blurry. Ate my gluten free Weetbix. Went out and walked up the street, map clutched in my hand. Went to the Suntec City Mall in the hope that I would find some food. There wasn't any, just a bakery. Had a cup of coffee - pretty awful compared to T's coffee.

Had walked past a tour bus group - Hippo Duck or Hip Ducko as I started to call it.  They had several bus routes and you could hop on and off as many times as you liked. The busses were double decker with the top open and the lower section A/C.  I got off at the Orchid Gardens in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. - exquisite - still very hot and humid. There was an orchid there dedicated to Quentin Bryce. So much to see. I spent about an hour there and still didn't see it all. Cost $1.00. An older fellow (very cheeky) told me that if I was over 60 it would cost $1.00 otherwise it would cost $5. I said I should pay $5. He said, Ok if you think they'll think you are 35yo because you pay $5, go ahead! Funny man.  Ran into him again at the Ducko base at the Suntec Mall. He suggested that I visit the Asian Civilisations museum. I did and it was terrific.  Beautiful ceramics, very nicely displayed. Big old building. Worth another visit.

Also ran into an American woman - 50ish who was in Singapore for work. She is based in Washington DC and grew up in upstate New York. She had an acclimatisation day and was using the Hiipo Duck bus to see Singapore. We started chatting because an Indian man asked to take our photographs with his wife. I said I didn't know why and the U.S. Lady said it was because we were fair. Anyway, we chatted. Turns out that she can also be a member of the D.A.R. She chatted in that sort of reserved way. Sort of cooly friendly.

The Singapore people are very friendly and polite. They don't seem to have that sort of passive/aggressive anger Towards foreigners that I've found in some Asian countries. The place is very clean, smells slightly like Asia but in a nice way. There appear to be no homeless people or beggars.  85% of the pop. lives in public housing. Some own their own places, some rent.

Everyone speaks English and there are lots of Australians around. I ate an omelette and a smoked salmon salad.There are masses of apartments. The posh ones have swimming pools.  Some bungalows near the botanic gardens are worth over $5million US. They are older ones.Palm trees and bougainvillaea everywhere.  Orchids and beautiful plants in the airport terminal.

Taxi driver reckoned that the Ibis hotel was pretty good - not too expensive and very central.  He was a very switched on chap. Raffles Hotel is about $600+ per night. Amazing modern buildings- all sorts of amazing shapes. One looks like a ship on top of three tall buildings - covered with Palm trees. Heaps of shops - Armani, Hugo boss, Dior - everybody who is anyone.

Very lush vegetation - not sure when it rains. Concrete supports holding up a group of high level roads.  The concrete supports were covered with vines, green and growing vines - looked like ivy. Not sure how good that is for the concrete.

Got Back  on and rode The Hippo Duck bus to the end of the line. Walked around and around the Changi Airport. Up and down, round and round for about 3 hours. The plane left at about 1am our time, 11 am Singapore time. As usual I was selected for swabbing for explosives  and unusually I was patted down and had my ankles inspected by a female.  How strange. Why would you hide anything on your ankles? There was an 11 month old Tasmanian and his mom and his grandmother sitting beside me at the front bit of a section - plenty of leg room.  Cute young fellow - keen to make eye contact and engage with people, little arms and hangs swinging and grabbing. The gf dinner was OK, but there was no breakfast for me. I almost wept. I was so hungry. They gave me two rice disks and some butter and an omelette that tasted like it was full of msg.

A lady sitting across the aisle from me had a seizure. Everyone was asleep. She had her eyes wide open, Had her teeth clenched, was drooling and her chest was going up and down really fast. She did not respond when people talked to her or touched her. A doctor came by. They looked through her bags and found diuretics and the Dr. thought that she had gotten confused and taken too many diuretics. She gradually came around and they encouraged her to keep sipping fluids. In a couple of hours you'd never know it was the same person.  Paramedics met her at Heathrow to check her out. The first paramedic arrived on a bicycle!!!! I suppose it is a fast way to get around a big airport.

Getting through immigration was a trial. I got moved from this queue to another queue to another queue.  There seemed to be a lot of officious Indian people. I like Indian people but it was very noticeable. I told one Indian lady, who had just moved me from one queue to the back of another queue that my plane was leaving in 20 minutes and I was too old to run for a plane. It didn't help that I was hungry and tired. I did make the plane to Newcastle.

Lizard in Singapore Botanic Gardens

Ellie in Newcastle on Tyne

Newcastle is an ancient city. The streets don't lie in straight lines and right angles, they fling out in curves, little joining lines and graceful arcs. The buildings are beautiful, many built of sandstone and many old ones still remain.

Arriving at Newcastle airport, I was surprised to see green grass on either side of the runways.  It reminds me of Patricia Bay airport, Sidney,  in the old days. I think there was more grass than at Canberra airport.The taxi driver told me that he went to Walker Primary School. I said that my Dad had probably gone there and that I had a photo. He said it was an old school. I haven't found it yet. I told him that I was staying at the Royal Station Hotel, and asked what it was like.  He said hmmm. He said the Hilton was nice. I was surprised. I didn't think that I looked that wealthy.

I arrived at the hotel. It is very central, right next to the main trains that connect with the rest of the UK. Central Station is what it is called.  Huge old sandstone building. Beautiful. A bit worn but it must have been the best hotel in town in its day. It was opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1858. It has WiFi. My room shakes when one train goes by at 8.15pm, which is curious as I am on the 4th floor. I imagine Dad and his family would have left from this station, Central Station, when they went to Greenock on their way to Canada in 1909. 

On the first day I showered, changed my clothes and set out to get my phone and iPad connected. It was a sunny day, about 17 degrees. People are so friendly Even the young ones with coloured hair and tats would stop and tell me which was the right street. I felt quite jet lagged but I managed to keep awake until a reasonable hour for bed.

I was walking down Northumberland Street (a Main Street) looked down a side street and there was the Laing Art Gallery. It was heavenly. Pre raphaelites , belemnites marble floors, interesting  exhibition on people who worked in old industries, including their photos and sound recordings on 45s of songs and sounds of their work. I selected the sound of a foundry. I also saw a silver cup in a display case that looked like George Spence's cup, only George's was larger.  Also the cup on display was made in the 1700s and George's was made in the 1800's. (Little did I know what Adam Bell would discover)

Searched for Gluten Free (GF) food. There isn't very much. I found Marks and Spencer's Food Hall where I got GF bread and big prepackaged salads for a reasonable price. There is hardly anything to eat in the cafes. I have been having lunches of jacket potatoes and butter for about £2.  They are the biggest potatoes I have ever been served and are delicious. 

I rang Cousin Shirley and we arranged to meet the next day.


Presentation of (1794) silver Northumberland Rifles shooting cup to Museum