We’ve just returned to Phuket from what is becoming our annual trip to Hong Kong and as always, we’ve had the most amazing twelve days. Hong Kong has an energy, efficiency and a buzz like no other place. OK, I’m biased – I lived and worked there for 28 years and returning feels more like going home than any other place in the world. The place hums with efficiency, from the airport and its associated transportation to the hotels, restaurants, coffee bars, parks; the list is long.
For this trip, we used the fairly new AirAsia service that runs daily non-stop to and from Phuket. It’s a flight of just over three hours, arriving in Hong Kong at just after 8 p.m. Despite the airport being huge, you will whisk through immigration, pick up your luggage and be on your way within around half-an-hour. The quickest way into town is on the Airport Express, a 24 minute high-speed rail link to Central on Hong Kong Island. However, being more conscious of costs than we were in the days of working there, we chose to try the airport buses that run every 10-15 minutes. The A11 took us to Admiralty on the Island for HK$65 (US$1=HK$7.8) return each, which is much cheaper than HK$180 return each on the train. The trip only takes about 20-30 minutes longer. (TIP: buy the return tickets at the airport ticket office or you’ll pay HK$40 each way)
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David General, Hong Kong
My good intentions expressed back in May of this year seemed to evaporate in the heat of the Italian summer. I can’t believe that the last time I posted anything here was over a month before granddaughter Mali was born, and she’s now nearly 5 months old!
Not that this lack of input should be equated with idleness – there have been many other projects on the boil, such as Gail’s book, which is coming on well, the garden, house maintenance – shutter re-varnishing and other such delights, as well as just enjoying a hot Tuscan summer. Now we’re back in Phuket in our Phuket Garden Home shoebox, which despite its size has a good familiar feel to it. More of Phuket in the next posting; first, what happened over the summer in Toscana?
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David Italy
May is poppy time in Italy. You don’t have to go far in our neck of the woods to find fields, hedgerows, embankments and olive groves with poppies bursting out of them. The contrast of the vivid red of these paper-delicate flowers with the wonderful green of the countryside is fabulous. This post is more a photo feature than an article, put up for you to enjoy a riot of colour!
I took these photos in the field immediately below our house, just in time as it turned out since the following day our neighbour, who owns the field, turned up with his strimmer and removed the lot! However, poppies are pretty tenacious as well as widespread – there are plenty more around here safe from strimmers!
I posted five of these shots on Red Bubble and they have been well-received with some of them featured in various groups. Always nice when that happens. If you’d like to buy any of them as greetings cards, pop over to Red Bubble…
Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger version and then use the arrows to scroll through the set. Click on any enlargement to return here. Enjoy!
David General, Italy
A great discovery yesterday! A superb, gastronomically speaking, little restaurant out in winelands north-west of Arezzo called the Osteria dell’Acquolina.
We were treated to lunch there by two American friends, Rino and Valerie, for whom I had tweaked their website last year. And a perfect long and lazy lunch it turned to be! The Osteria is off the road from Arezzo to Loro Cuiffenna, a few kilometres after Castiglion Fibocchi. Alternatively, coming from the the Valdarno exit on the A1 motorway, you pass through Terranuova Bracciolini and take the road to Casamona. The Osteria is signposted down a dusty ‘white road’ – just gravel – a few hundred metres down which there is what looks like a large private house – you have arrived!
Paolo, the owner and head chef greeted us and wheeled us into the conservatory-style dining room, set for a good number of people – it was Saturday and there were some large groups expected. Like all good country restaurants in Italy, there is no menu: Paolo or one of the other waiters explain the choices as the meal progresses…
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David Italy, Useful Stuff
Suddenly it’s 6th May and there has been nothing on this site for over a month! Whoops. I guess April was busy with leaving Phuket, sojourning in Dubai, a side trip to the UK and then getting back to the house in Tuscany where a jungle seemed to have been transplanted into the garden! Actually it wasn’t that bad but it all seems a little daunting when you’re confronted with it after many months away. Fortunately our trusty Franco, who had been left to keep an eye on things, had done some clearing in the woods, pruned a lot of trees and even cut some of the grass. Trouble is the stuff just keeps on growing!
Got up early this morning to catch up on computer stuff – Red Bubble is time-consuming, but fun – and sitting here in the kitchen tapping away at the keys I noticed some movement on the terrace outside. It was a young hare who lives in some bushes in the garden taking a morning hop and looking for something scrumptious for breakfast. Last week, we were treated to a couple of cavorting red squirrels eating their way through the blossom in the trees just beyond the terrace, so life back here in the Tuscany hills ain’t all bad!…
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David Italy
