Yesterday, we went up to the Trundle to see the Ladies hat day at Goodwood. We we sat in the free section and ate our lunch while watching a few races. Many punters present; but most of the hats were in the nob’s enclosure in the distance. There was one very large, extended table with a load of City blokes around it scoffing food and quaffing drink who didn’t even look up when the horses did their bit. A team of minions must have carried their tables, chairs and sustenance all the way up the hill from the car park earlier in the day in order to have it ready. Such was their lack of interest in the races, they could almost have done the same on a non racing day. That would have looked really weird.

Overall, a pleasant festive occasion on a warm if overcast day.

Liv

I’m free at the weekend as it stands. I think we need to score a 30 on Norfolk Gardens. Sasha is in Malaysia.

that ping-pong video is amazing! I had about 3 emails with the link as well as juls blog. must be spreading like wildfire on the net.

Got back from italy late last night (about 11ish), so we stayed another night at Nancy’s parents house.

The last couple of days in Rome were spent wandering around the various monuments some more and looking round loads of shops. On day 3 (in rome) we saw the coliseum, as indeed i predicted in my previous post. it was kinda big, but nowhere near as big as I thought it would be after seeing gladiator and such. To add to the slight disapointment, a lot of it had been restored with ordinary red brick. The overall impression was not good. Still, i guess most of it is still standing, which, after 2000 yrs is quite astounding. It cost 5euros to go inside, so we didn’t. We then wandered on through a load of old roman ruins. Stu and I found these quite interesting to look at tho it wasn’t to Nancy’s taste. Nance had an unhealthy obsession with religeous art. It all seemed to be the same to me. This led us to the pantheon. This looked like a typical roman building – complete with pillars and soforth. it even had some paintings inside, so everyone was happy. Good ice-creams were to be had near the pantheon. most tasty, esp pistachio flavour.

I set off early on the final day at about 8.30 to go shopping on my own and also to do my own thing and not feel presured by everyone elses needs. Picked up a bottle of oil for Nancy’s mum and some oregano in a street market for mama. Also a couple of things for tan’s birthday (many happy returns!). I guess you get to see them when you get back, and seeing as this isn’t til after xmas they’ll serve as handy christmas prezzies too! haha:-D

One thing i forgot to mention about the vatican city, was st. peters square (i think that’s what it was called). possible the most impressive thing in rome, huge and if you stand in the centre, you are surrounded by many hundreds of saints (in the form of statues).

Unfortunately, one of the abiding memories of italian cities, will be the smell of urine. the populace seemed to view any corner, or in fact anywhere as a personal pissing place. unpleasent.

hey ho my new bed has arrived.

hello!

this is sooo cool! www.astercity.net/~tobik/pingpong.html

yesterday we went to walk the 2kms(we were actuly going to take a bemo(bus) as we were feeling a bit weak) to the musium, when we came across a massive parade sort of thing in the center of town.hordes of balinese possibly 100/200 of them all dressed in finary. flowered dresses for the women and sarongs and the habitual balinese hat for the men. there were two bands one in the front and and one at the back both playing completly different music with gongs and odd instruments. in the middle of the convoy in the center od four people holding massive umrella devices, was a large “ronda” (a evil creture from balinese mythology) head suspended on a pole with thick hair flowing down from it. behind came the “barong”(a nice creture from balinese mythology) this is a bit like a pontomime horse, as it has a bloke holding up the front end complete with a goggle-eyed face and beard, and another bloke holding up the back end. and lo’ you have a suprisingly realistic fuor legged animal. as i watch it amble by i noticed that the “stomac” of the barong, the conecting bit twix the head and bottom, was more realistic than the one on the creture i saw at the dance with tan. more rounded and with a distinkt sag, sugesting heavyness. annika explaned that it contained a dead person and that this was a funerul procession! the seemed more interesting than the musium so we fell into step along side of the horde as it slithered snake like up the road and out of town. i don’t know how long we walked for but it passed quite quickly. we descoved later that it was 4km or so. eventully the procession ground to a halt at a temple in some random village. it had got progressivlysmaller as people peeled of and into the homes along the way. we wondeered around in the milling crowd outside the temple, not quite sure what to do. a chap(he was french and called allan) walked up to us and fixed us with a spectakled eye. i had seen him on and off as we walked the only one af the five or so tourist who had walked from ubud with us. he inquired how we planned to get back, sugesting a shared bemo. we were keen to wait around for the cremation we felt sure was going to accur at any momant. it seemed that he could speak a passible balinese and had descoved that there would be a dance/ceromony from 8 till 10 and possibly the cremation wouild be tomorrow sometime. as it was 4.00 we walked back slowly with him keeping our eyes peeled for some transport. this felt a little strange! were ever you walk in bali you will be continualy acosted by minions saying “hey! transport! yes!” then when you have declined they demand “tomorrow?! yes?!” after this they might ask if possible you want transport next week, or not as as the case may be. on the way we saw a flight of white cranse which was nice. we did get transport in the end and we were made glad as it trully was a long way.

right i will continure later as i have to pick up annika from the health and beauty spa as she is having a jolly milk bath. also i will tell you about the fire dance and the shadow puppets.

julio

People “calling out g’day left right and centre” who “are always smiling” must remind you of Barnham. No wonder you’re missing the homestead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!