Dowd adventures in Bologna: 2013

martedì 17 dicembre 2013

Winter 2013

So winter has come to Bologna, well it has in the date but not the weather. Two years ago it was snowing heavily in late November, and Bologna was white and beautiful, it is now the middle of December, and the last two weeks have been sunny blue skies , and though cold not unpleasant.
Our road is still blocked off, from the fire that burnt the building next to ours in summer, they said it would be clear late November, now today they say it will be on the 22nd of December, we shall see. It has been rather annoying as you have to do a large walk around to get to the shops, and drive through very very tight streets to get around the back way, so we will be rather happy when and if they ever open the street.
The boys have had a busy and challenging term so far with much more homework and tests than they have had in their whole school life, but l must say Hunter has done very well, and as had Ewan in class, though his homework is a struggle. Ewan l think is going through a "stage" and can be rude and nasty which is not him, and he is not the happiest kid in class. We have had an issue with some bulling, which the school has gotten onto, but it seems to continue even in a small way, and this l think has added to his irregular manner.
So a few days to go and the term is over, and the boys will l feel be back to joyous beings, as their cousins arrive for xmas, and they are pretty sure they are getting a play station, which seems to be the centre of the earth to them, along with Minecraft.
We went to Cortina for the weekend, as we have a small apartment for the winter season, in a great position. We got our ski pass's and ski gear, and got in a days skiing before we came home. Jayne and l decided to purchase new ski boots, as we will be doing this again next year, and it can make a big difference with comfortable boots. The boys hire gear was all brand new, which made them happy, Ewan has black (cool) Head skis and new boots, and Hunter Volkle red skis with new boots. Thankfully the ski jacket and pants we bought them 3 seasons ago still fit, which shows how big they were then!
So we have the entire family ( Jason's, Lisa's and mum and dad) coming to Bologna for xmas, and then on to Cortina for 10 -14 days. 16 all together, which will make it challenging getting a dinner booking, but will be so much fun. The weather on the weekend was perfect, so hopefully it will continue.
On the way home on sunday, about 1 hour in on a 3 hour trip the traffic came to a slow slow crawl for about 30 minutes, finally we came to a point where it began to move, but all l could see was a single car at a time as if a traffic signal was setting them off every 10 seconds, when l got to this point it was 3 men in reflector jackets handing out pamphlets on a union march in Rome that week protesting about the government, and no one seemed too annoyed, l could not believe it. Then 1/2 hour later we have the signs on the autostrade telling us to watch for fog with only 70 mt sight, and to slow down to 50 km. So the traffic that was doing 130 - 150 km hits the heavy fog and slows to 110 - 130 km ! (thats Italy) And to be fair, it made sense, as l said to Jayne who was yelling at me to slow down, if l slow down we will be hit by someone doing 110 km. So l stuck to the car in front rear lights and drove at 130 km in heavy heavy fog, trusting him, as he was trusting the car in front. We made it home!

martedì 12 novembre 2013

Paris

Finally after two years we have got to Paris, and it was worth it. We stayed at Melanie's house, who is Stephanes partner, who's place we stayed at in Alicante. Melanie has two beautiful twin girls, and was away in Alicante, so we were able to stay at her apartment near Bastille. It was a perfect area, great shops, local fresh markets and patisserie's that are just too good, and you realize how bad the bread in Italy is.
And this is something that amazes me, that two countries so close to each other can be so different, one has wonderful bread, pastries and artisan stores, breathtaking museums that are full of tourists, the other has the best coffee in the world ( Paris has possibly the worst) terrible bread, history on every corner, reasonably good service, and great food ( the French service was generally average, and the food ok, but alcohol so expensive.
But at the end of the day, you can't resist that French accent, and they have the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel tower, and a brilliant metro system.
Now what we learnt was always buy a travel pass, 3,5,6 day well worth the cost as you use the metro alot, as well as bus's. The next and most important is the museum pass, which gets you into museums, nearly all for free, and in the fast line to get in, which saves hours.
Typically we hit the museums with fury, first stop was a look at the Eiffel tower, as we were a bit late ordering tickets to go up it, and it was the holidays. But it looks as good as in the post cards, even better!!! Then we did d'Orsay museum, and saw some of the greatest works , especially for me Andre Derain, Vuillard (Public Gardens, one of the greatest paintings), Maurice Denis, Gauguins sculptures and van Gogh (the church of Auvers) and especially Pierre Bonnard. And then there was Manet, who we saw a great show in Venice, but always good to see them again.
Then we visited l'Orangerie, to see Monet's water lillies, and downstairs was a Frida Kahlo show. Acroos to the Louvre, the next day to see the Mona Lisa ( boys choice) and some of the Bolognese artists, along with Egyptian works, we need of course several days to see it all there, but did not want to burn the boys out. Later to Pompidou , which had a Roy Lichtenstein show, which we all loved, l especially like the brushstroke series, and his screen, wood cut prints, and sculptures. The boys also liked watching the library of films. Great place for kids, and the area around there is good for dinner and drinks.
We visited the Grand Arch, Arc de Triumph, and had a view from the top over Paris, which along with the Pompidou are terrific, especially when you dont get up the Eiffel. We went to the shop where Ewans "ducky " came from, and ended up getting an elephant for him and a huge bear for Hunter, they are still kids!!
Some great shops were Bonpoint , superb layout store, for women and kids, Ewan ended up with a english school jacket, a concept store called Merci, with homeware, clothing, food and cafe, very impressive, and a small shop called Brutals, in the 11th district, does great shirts.
So we had a great time, the weather was parisian, it was wet, cold, sunny, and windy, just like Melbourne. We had a great flight with Air France, direct from Bologna, and Melanie was so kind to let us stay at her apartment.

sabato 19 ottobre 2013

Australia

Back again, it was last September we went back for 3-4 weeks. This time Jayne and the boys came back with me for a week, a surprise party for mums 75th, and it was a surprise. But they only stayed a week, as they had just started middle school, and we did not want them to miss school. But it was enough time to get to Teneriffe, which we drove to from the airport straight away, arriving at 8am, and seeing the sun rise, it was most wonderful. The house was cold, and it took awhile to get it warm, but that kept us busy and out of jet-lag for awhile. The boys later went for a hike through the bush with their new school packs, water bottles, knife, torch etc and Gus, they really miss that part of Australia. Jayne spent a day or too in the garden cleaning up the place, though it was not in too bad condition. Jason Amos has been staying there still and has been quite good on the lawns and basic maintenance. But it is the garden and plants that needed some attention. We finally all collapsed in the early afternoon, waking up at 7 p.m., just in time to go into Avenel to the new pizza place, and have pizza, which ain't Italian, but not bad, though a bit pricy to what we are used too.
That first week, was rather busy of course, driving back and forth from Teneriffe, visiting the doctor, dentist for our yearly check ups. Mums party which dad organized was perfect, and had Roland's catering, and all the family were there, so it again was good for the boys to catch up with their cousins.
They left a week later, and l went to Sydney for the night to go to the art fair, which Rex Irwin kindly gave me a pass too, it was a good opportunity to see what the art world was like in Australia, and l got to catch up with a few people.
The next 2-3 weeks l spent busily preparing for an exhibition l had at the Wangaratta gallery. Mostly woodcut prints which l had printed in Venice a couple of months earlier, but also wooden sculptures which l had made in Bologna, but had to remake back in Australia. This time though l sent plans and specs to Jon Day, and Clive Bullen who are friends, one a guitar maker , the other a furniture maker. And they made a few pieces each of my sculptures in their own manner. I also made a few, and so in the show there was about 12 sculptures ( 3 versions of 4 works), l think it worked very well.
Wangaratta gallery was a delight to work with , Di Managan the director stayed with us last year for a few days , and that gave us a chance to decide on the works for the show. Her staff were brilliant in helping hang and display the works, it was heaven working with them, they made you feel important.
The opening went well, with Sheridan Palmer opening the show, and Sheridan was with us also for a few days only weeks earlier, she also wrote the essay in the catalogue, had maybe 50 people on the opening day which was good, and a chance to see Watto and Stocky who made the big drive up, along with the Edwards family ( perfect family). Stocky stayed the night at Teneriffe, and it was a great chance to sit down and have a good chat, l miss those guys.
Also had Nedra and Tony come up from Nagambie, luckily l had been able to see them a couple of times, along with Kym and Simon.
One of the highlights was the grand final, which l fortunately was able to go and see, though having a international membership to the MCC did cost me another $180 to get a ticket, and West Coast was not even playing. But l lined up at 6am with Tim Edwards and his brother in law, and got in just after 8, got some good seats, and was able to sneak back around and got another seat for Mike Frayne who was arriving in at 7.30 that morning from Singapore, so we all ended up at the Hilton hotel for a hugh breakfast, and caught up later at 1pm for a pre match beer in the bull ring, before unfortunately seeing the Dockers get beaten by Hawthorn. After the match l stuck with Mike and ended up having Japanese for dinner, and then a bar with some friends of his from Freo, then l snuck off as it was rather a long day for me.
So the show opened on a Saturday, and l flew out on the Monday afternoon, so it was a small rush to clean and lock the house up, and get back to Melbourne say good bye and get back on the plane.
I arrived back after getting 4 seats to myself to Dubai, and 2 from there to Milan, so had some sleep, and the usual shower at the Emirates lounge. Arriving back at lunchtime in Bologna just in time to go to my favorite restaurant Merlot for a tagliatelle ragu, Sangiovese wine and a caffe, ahh to be back home amongst such fine food and wine that you can afford!!!

The artist

Ravenna, Parma etc

Just a quick note, that we travelled again to Ravenna when Sheridan was staying with us, and it is truly a incredible town, with such history, and should never be missed on a travel. Sadly when we went l was rather unwell, as l had been to emergency the evening before with severe gastro, pleading with them to give me a drip. They concluded on an early examination that l was code green, which is low risk, l was without doubt the sickest in the room, but somehow they did not think so. Finally after 2 hours on drips and rest, they let me go with instructions to eat banana, rice, carrot and parmesan cheese, only in Italy, no drugs, maybe some potassium and magnesium in a few days. I had got to know the male nurse there, and when leaving, he asked me to come to another room with a computer, which he then busily typed on, then took my bill from me and ripped it up, and said it has been taken care of, got to love a health system like that, of course, thats why l was code green in a waiting room for 2 hours.
We also last weekend went to Parma about 2 hours away, lovely town, also a university town, and were Verdi was born, or near by anyway, it was his 200th birthday that weekend. What we found out was how many castles and villas etc are in the area, and you can visit or stay at, so Jayne and l will come back here soon, as l think the boys are just a bit tired of museums and castles.
At the moment l have a terrible head cold, and only a few days ago had a shocking chest infection, but like my visit to the emergency room, they don't treat you much with drugs here, we have a machine we bought a year or so ago, that pus out a vapour and you add a solution that you breath in and out of from a face piece and it helps clear the chest, everyone uses them !!!
Anyway it works, though you do look odd sitting down with it on your face, it reminds me of addicted gamblers at Vegas with their oxygen bottles.
The boys today are visiting a sort of lost dogs home to do community work, as part of the school program. Some kids are working as alter boys, which l find hard to see the community benefit, only benefit may be to the priest! Another child is offering to help other kids with their homework, which is weirder. Anyway hopefully the boys will enjoy it, and it might help them with Gus our dog not being here, as well as their Italian, not that l expect the animals to speak in Italian, especially the German shepherd!

Alicante

Well it is now well into October and much has happened in the last 2 months. Since returning from Copenhagen, we left a few days later with Jayne, who had just returned from a three week trip to Australia to see her family, to go to Alicante, Spain.
The reason for this place was mainly because my old and dear friend Stephane, who lived in Australia for 17 years, and now lives back in Paris, but recently bought a great holiday place in Alicante. The other reason we have heard about it from our Spanish friends Begonia and Angel, who also have a place there.
The great thing about Alicante is it is a direct flight from Bologna, about 2 hours with Ryan air, and as usual we got on the plane last and were seated in rows 1/2. Alicante is a seaside city, the center is quite pretty and old, but unfortunately since Franco the Spanish build hideous apartment buildings everywhere without any council control it appears. It is also a favorite destination to many europeans, and so is very crowded. Luckily Stephane bought a house in a housing development that collapsed about 30 years ago, and so it is very quite and it situated not far from the airport, but the planes dont fly near by, so it is quite. The beach is about 15, 20 minutes away, and is a surf beach which was great fun after the Adriatic beaches.
So we stayed there with Stephane, his girlfriend Melanie, and her kids Zeli and Nina for 8 days, doing trips to the beach(s) and local towns and markets, visiting all the local people and stores, it was very much like being in a small town. One day we had lunch with Begona at their place which is wonderfully set on the beach, with a superb view, but is on the other-side of Alicante center. We also had a terrific meal at a very good restaurant which served sushi, the kids ate between the four of them over 50 pieces!!
Staying at Stephane's house was very relaxing, the day starting with a french style breakfast outside on the porch, then the kids would either get into his pool, or we would go to the beach. His place has a huge garden and so occasionally we found ourselves weeding, digging trenches, mowing lawns, planting plants, it was like being back at Teneriffe.
The two girls are most beautiful, just like you would imagine French girls to be, and they adored the boys, often following and hanging onto them. They are gifted artists, always drawing, which was great as the boys got back into that as well, having no TV helped of course!
I cant express how much fun we had, it was a simple place, with a lovely simple way of living, we met some lovely and strange people, and look forward to returning soon.

venerdì 16 agosto 2013

Copenhagen, and thoughts by the kids

Forgot to mention we went to The Blue Planet, which l first thought when Gitte mentioned it, that it was some sort of night club, but in fact it is the recently opened aquarium in Copenhagen. A brand new architectural "look at me building" that did not work. The aquarium is settled alongside the sea in a semi industrial area, and only opened two months ago. there are some teasing problems, some of the animals have not arrived, and the seal enclosure is closed, its hard to get your way around, and there don't seem to be any staff. Compared to the one Hunter and l went to in Lisbon, it is nothing, but that one to me would be a world class one. Still the boys enjoyed looking at the stingrays and sharks, and the odd groper. One interesting site was a man in a wetsuit walking up to the dining area from outside with a speargun and a large fish on it. At first l thought , ohh how clever and interesting way to show the customers the fish is fresh. But no he just went in to get a carton of milk, and then slowly walked through the museum, stopping to ask questions every 5 meters, thankfully it was a large carton of milk. I then thought ohh no this is a clever thing the museum does to create interest in the museum, but no l think it was a solo show, and the fish is for feeding to the sharks!
Hunter commented when we were training through Sweden that all the houses looked like pictures kids do! Which l thought was right on the money. He then later said while in Copenhagen that a-lot of the people looked weird, as we saw lots of punks, drunks, Goth's and modern day creatures.
A trip to Christiania , an area that was once a military base, and was evacuated in the seventies. Soon after people began moving in to some of the buildings and living there, and for many many years the water and electricity was supplied for free. After awhile people then began building their own original style of housing, obviously without building codes. And there is a famous alley, known as hash alley, that vendors set up small tables with hash, dope etc, under umbrellas, and sell it , in full view of passing police meter's away. But there l believe was a sensible decision to leave them alone, better to know where they are! And so anyone can go in, and buy hash etc, but there are no hard drugs, it is something even the people of Christiania want to stop. There is a sort of community council that runs the place, and you cant just go in and build now, you need to get permission, and you also pay rent and utilities. The area has a central park and walk area, and anybody can enter, though it is forbidden to take photos in hash alley. They have their own used hardware store, supermarket, more bio and natural than most, bars, cafes, etc. There is a famous Christiania bike that is higher than most and is very expensive, which is interesting as everyone seems to have one there. Apparently there are people who have been living there for 20,30 years who work in the city in offices, but just like the lifestyle of Christiania.
When we took the boys there, especially down hash alley, they became very anxious about the shady characters. Ewan was very upset, as he said , but dad they are breaking the law, and drugs are bad why don't they get arrested and go to jail? Hard to answer that, but l explained it was better to keep them in one place, and these drugs where not the worst kind.
Thankfully we found a playground with a flying fox, and all was forgotten.
This place is a large tourist attraction, more for the student groups, but still it is important, and though many governments say they are going to clean it up, they all in the end realize its best to leave it, and let it grow the way it has. It is an interesting experiment in how governments have let people do what they want , and they have set up a village style community that works, and makes money. Of course the land they live on is nearly in the center of Copenhagen, and so is very valuable, especially when you see some houses looking out over the lake.
Now we did not visit the little mermaid, or walk along the canals, visit Mary in the castle, or climb the round tower, but the boys loved it so much and are desperate to return it is good we have left something else besides a revisit to Tivoli for next time. And though their transport system is very good, they have just started building a metro line around the center that will be finished in 8 years, which will dramatically improve the transport. That said you could imagine it becoming a car-less city then, as most Danes ride bikes, it is a great site, helmets are not compulsory, and there is racks everywhere. They have great bike locks on the back wheel, that should be on every bike all over the world, though in Italy they just steal the whole bike. You can hire bikes, as in Melbourne, but no helmet is required, which makes sense as most people are tourists, and it seems to me that tourists don't carry bike helmets. The other positive thing is all the Danes look great, long legs, blond hair, olive skin, it has to have something to do with riding a bike. You can see the viking in them, nothing better than a six foot stunning blonde girl riding by on a bike and smiling at you. I love the place!!!