Some Of My Favourite Things
These are just some of the things that I have liked about some of the ordinary and some of the extra-ordinary places I have been to. I mean anything that has impressed me whilst I've been travelling, living or working abroad or here at home in the UK, or just when meeting new people.
I used to think that travel was good for the soul. Speaking to a friend recently he suggested that a great deal of exposure to far flung places, ultimately breeds deep discontent. He may have a point. But that does not mean we shouldn't do it.
I find cultural differences fascinating. Not because I think they're worth preserving, but precisely because they are not. You can't preserve something that is on the move, you can only take a snapshot for posterity. Here are some of mine.
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I Love The Sicilian Attitude to Food
Food In Sicily
When I spent some time living in Sicily the one thing that struck me as being very different from life in the UK was the general observance of Holy Days, festivals and various age independent social rituals. Amongst and in between all of this was the delightful importance of food.Now that's not to say people in the UK don't enjoy food, of course we do. And many of us are so called foodies - like myself, who revel in the technical and the intellectual notions of taste and the ever new and shifting horizons of eating trends, and social eating.
But that's not what I am talking about when I think of food and the people of Sicily. In Sicily, it seems all people, from all walks of life demand high quality food. And that is just not true in England.
The appreciation and desire for quality food is definitely class and/or education related in our country. It makes me wonder. Why is that? We all know it's true, but seem to accept it without question.
Without a doubt, and seemingly without exception, fresh, classical, flavoursome food was the norm amongst everyone I knew in Sicily.From the workman's roadside cafeteria, to the most sophisticated Mediterranean lapped restaurant, from the industrial works canteen, to the sun-scorched, rural trattoria, the standard was uniformly incomparable. And what was even more fascinating, was that everyone, in all of these places ate fabulously prepared food as if it were completely normal and happened every day. And that was because it did.
The photo shows a prickly pear plant known as the Figo d'India in Italy. It is delicious and the cause of great excitement amongst some of my Sicilian friends.
I Love Fairy Lights
You Can Take The Girl Out of Essex . . .
I like to think that my absolute love and passion for fairy lights is due to having been brought up in Essex. Some people might think fairy lights are tacky, childish rubbish, but clearly those people are mistaken. They simply have yet to experience the life changing pleasures of a great fairy light extravaganza.I had my first fairy light encounter when I was a child. Because I grew up in an area close to the sea, in a town with a history of Kiss-Me-Quick, Squeeze-Me-Slowly hats, candy-floss, amusement parks, and sleazy gambling joints, nights out with my parents in town became a baptism of colour on a black night sky, crowned by the twinkling, beckoning and hypnotic charm of a thousand glamour-laden fairy lights.
It may also have had something to do with the type of parents I had and the era I grew up in. It was a time when being a child could be a risqué, hair raising experience but still, at the time, be considered legal.
My parents didn't believe in putting me to bed at 7:00pm so I would accompany them to clubs and restaurants and parties until the early hours of the morning. I can only imagine there must have been a lot of fairy lights at these events. Because they are what I remember.
I live in a rural location now, in a place where being a little different still turns heads, and where all our thatched and ancient houses are the colour of clotted cream.
One day, not far from now, I shall take my house in all its medieval splendour and excite its ghosts with ten thousand points of light.
I Love My Godin Stove
Some French Flair in Ancient England
I like to mix and match. Why not? Most farmhouses have wood burning stoves and my house is the same in that respect.But I didn't want a traditional wood burning stove - they are for the most part quite boring. In winter when they are lit, yes that's fine, but all summer long they stand there, dull, utilitarian and lifeless.
So to introduce a bit of variety, I got a French one. Actually I got two French ones and put one in the fireplace in the living room and the other in the fireplace in the drawing room.
One is the Parisienne from Franco-Belge, and the other a Godin. The Godin is pictured here and looks very cool, winter and summer, in its splendid under-stated blue.
I Love Dunn's River Falls
Simply the Best Tourist Attraction in the World
OK - it might not be the absolute best tourist attraction in the world, but it is one of them.No actually - I have to tell the truth here. It is the best. Oh no - what have I said? Now I'm thinking - is it a more awe inspiring experience to absorb the Pyramids at Giza in the moonlight? No, in my opinion, Dunn's River Falls knocks spots off that for sheer pleasure and sensual experience. I guess that just proves it takes all sorts to make a world.
It is not an adrenaline rush, but it is simply one of the most stunningly beautiful spots in the world. Add up the scents, the loud rush of water, the temperature, the aroma of Jamaican cuisine, the huge fat leaves, the smooth rocks, the tropical island lifestyle colour of it, the wooden bridges, the rope handles, the camaraderie that the walk up the falls demands, the sheer size of it, the romance that is Jamaica, that the falls open onto a pure white sand beach, and from there flow into open turquoise ocean.
Here is a Dunn's River Falls You Tube Video - a bit grainy, a bit long, but well, the closest I can get you to it right now.
I Love A Still White Snowy Night in France
Diamonds in the Alps
In particular I want to describe the French Alps and further still I want to highlight a still night last winter in the area around Morzine, a fabulous ski town not too far from the Swiss border.On one particular night we were driving up the mountain. It had been snowing heavily and everywhere the snow lay pristine and untouched except for hundreds of thousands of enormous, dark green alpine fir trees that coated the mountains in brushes.
Every now and again on our way up the mountain which twisted in hairpins up and up, there were wooden chalet homes with lighted windows. But in between the chalets was pitch blackness and our car headlights illuminated the snow revealing a billion eye-popping, diamonds that twinkled and sparkled in the snow.
It was very cold, and very still and the weather conditions must have formed extra ice crystals because it was truly a spectacle that none of us have ever forgotten.
I Love Eleuthera
Long, Thin and Mental
When I went to Eleuthera, I was frightened. Eleuthera is a very very long thin island in the Bahamas, and I went there originally to view a house that I'd been coveting for some time, on the internet.It was a tumble-down old house that needed a lot of fixing up, but it was in a totally wonderful location, looking straight out over the Caribbean from a cliff top. And if you were agile, you could climb 6 metres down the cliff face to swim.
It had a well for its water supply, and I remember clearly that little amphibians were swimming in it. Oh yuk. And the garden, was wild and overgrown and stunning and full of potential.
The only thing that made me sad was that it's impossible to live in all the wonderful places that you love. I didn't buy the house, and actually look back and regret it. And that's from someone, who tries not to have regrets.
Coming down from the house, the sandy lane wound down to the single main road that forms the spine of Eleuthera, and just keeps on going.
Eleuthera is 110 miles long, and some points only a 30 or so metres wide. Drive along its backbone, and you'll will eventually reach the narrowest point on this slither of an island. Here you will watch the Atlantic as it crashes into the rocks on one side then turn your head to eye the glassy, welcoming and warm Caribbean on the other.
As I stood there I realised that life here on this thin strip of land between these two vast, sometimes threatening, always brooding bodies of water could never be boring. It's a dangerous and enlivening spot. The proximity to your maker was so terribly obvious.
I came across this blog post about Eleuthera by a current Bahamian - not a sadly lapsed one like myself. She writes so angrily and so well.
I Love Rocco
Rocco is My Dog
I have three dogs, and I love them all. In this Lens I am going to talk about Rocco. That's a photo of Rocco sleeping on a warm rock in the sun, the week he arrived to live with us. His pedigree name is Bretam Touch of Gold, and he does have gold running in his veins, I am sure.
Rocco is almost three years old now. He is a Ruby King Charles Cavalier and he talks. Not words exactly but he tries to make sounds with his mouth whenever he wants to communicate something. He asks when he wants to go out, when he wants a cuddle, when he wants to go to sleep and I'm still up working. . . like now.He has become a stunningly beautiful and elegant little dog who seems to know instinctively, how to strike a pose.
At night, he climbs onto my bed and sleeps with his head on the pillow next to mine. I wake up, and he is awake looking at me from 5 cm away. You can't help wondering if, like the dolphins and the mice in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, whether dogs are really higher beings sent to observe us and take copious notes.
There is an update today on Rocco. He has developed a limp in his front right foot, and so I am taking him to see the vet. He has an appointment today (15th February) at 2:20pm GMT.
At the vets, Rocco cried in the waiting room. And when he had to stand on the examination table his whole body was shaking. Our vet Charlie manipulated his legs, neck and back but could fine nothing wrong. He has advised complete rest. Right.
I Love Champagne
And Cava, and Sparkling Wine in General
I've got some friends who don't drink alcohol at all. That's not a problem, until they frown upon other people who do, like me. It's not that they aren't fun. They really are.I love Champagne and Cava. In fact when I drink water, I only drink sparkling water as this reminds me of my favourite drink.
There is a problem, of course. In the UK, we women are advised to only drink 14 units of alcohol per week. I calculated that each bottle of my favourite bubbly contains 5.6 units of alcohol. The bottom line is that need to make sure I don't drink more than 2 bottles per week. There - I've admitted it.
For variety, I sometimes make Champagne into a Kir Royale, by adding Crème de Cassis perhaps. (Creme de Cassis is a concentrated syrup or liqueur made from blackcurrants. It is associated with the town of Dijon, in Burgundy in France).
I Love The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Actually, I Love Douglas Adams
I couldn't believe it when Douglas Adams died in 2001, that much more wasn't made of it. Why didn't we have a tribute evening on the TV and the radio? Why wasn't THGTTG put on the reading list for every school child in the country, immediately.I attended a writing course a couple of years ago and was amazed to find that the writers on the course had either never heard of Douglas Adams, or didn't rate his work. Oh, the curse of science fiction.
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a work of sheer English brilliance. It contains my favourite quote - you know, the one about deadlines.
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by.
And that thinly veiled threat that Slartibartfast gives to Arthur :
"Come now or you will be late." said Slartibartfast
"Late", said Arthur, "what for?"
"What is you name, human?"
"Well, Dent, Arthur Dent."
"Late, as in the late Dent, Arthur Dent", said the old man sternly. "It's a sort of threat, you see. I've never been very good at them myself but I'm told they can be very effective."
When Arthur and Ford Prefect escape from Earth, just before it gets blown up, they hitch hike onto a Vogon ship (that just destructed the Earth). Vogons are not very nice, and are obsessed with bureaucracy. They also write the third worst poetry in the Universe. When they discover Ford and Arthur in hiding on their ship, the Vogon Captain decides to read them some of his poetry before killing them.
Watch this video short from the film which addresses the Vogon Poetry phenonenon.
I Love The Colour Blue
And Anything That Goes With It
If I had a choice, and I suppose I do, I would make a garden with flowers that were exclusively flowering shades of blue.My school uniform was navy blue, and my father's eyes were blue, and on a summer day the river near my childhood home was blue. My mother's eyes are brown, but her gaze is often blue.
Do you know when it is a hot summer in England, and the time of year when it does not get dark until almost 10:00pm? Do you recall the colour of the sky at that time, when near the horizon it is the purest, mauvest blue and scans gradually darker until it just resists the change to a deep sea blue?
Do you know the colour of the sea around a tropical island, where the depths change suddenly from shallow to abyss deep, and have you remembered the beauty of those blues that range from an irradiated turquoise to an ocean swell blue via a sea-watery sapphire, all in the space of a few metres.
Heaven is blue.
I Love Laughing
UK Comedians
Reader Feedback
Add your comments on this lens, please
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dtbs
fun lens! thanks for sharing this info! please check mine out at----------------> Kava Kava. Posted June 18, 2008 |
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BentleyB
Now that I've seen Rocco, I know why you love Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Why don't you make a video of Rocco "talking"? That'd be great! Posted March 16, 2008 |
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700islands
Thanks PolkaDotsAndPaisley. The Bahamas calls to me frequently. I was actually born there but left at the age of 4 months, so to me, it is like a foreign country. But it echoes something. Or maybe it just does that for everyone! Posted February 24, 2008 |
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PolkaDotsAndPaisley
Very interesting lens. I found it by searching for Eleuthera. What a beautiful island! Been there twice on vacation and cannot wait to go back. The Glass window (the thinnest part of the island) is amazing! Posted February 24, 2008 |
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Mwnet
I really like your lens Elizabeth. Traveling, good food and basically living, not existing. These are the things that are close to my heart! Posted February 17, 2008 |
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jenty
I love the variety in the lens - so that it does say so much about you but also widens the horizons of the reader. new places are especially welcome as I only get to go to France! But it's great to read - in beautifully vivid prose - of some shared passions: our dogs and champagne to name but a few! Thank you for inviting me to read it. Posted February 12, 2008 |
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CraigDewe
Great lens Elizabeth, Posted February 12, 2008 |
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jsz
I love fairy lights, too - but I'm from Croydon. Hm. Maybe that's not too different. Posted February 11, 2008 |
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abouttravel
What a wonderfully creative piece of writing - from the heart! You have taken me to places I haven't visited before and opened up the window on our fantastic world. Posted February 11, 2008 |
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christmascal
Very creative and interesting Squidoo lens. I love HGTTG too, thought the original radio series was brilliant (I've got that on tape so I can listen when driving around) and hte film wasn't too bad. The TV series was brill - I loved the way they went off into descriptions from the guide every now and again! Actually one of those babel fish would be great fro traveling abroad! Posted February 10, 2008 |
