Our house, at last completed; You Will Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties; Get the Party Started; Our House; Build Me Up, Buttercup; Roy’s baby; Art Deco upstairs; man cave moments; The Lift Girl’s Lament; Bed(s) of Roses; sounding the retreat; more stuff; as the stomach churns
Let me start on a celebratory note with some party pics, including my birthday and our housewarming party on 8 March. Otherwise, we may all glaze over at the seventh picture of tiling/paving, switch off and never get to see Roy and me thoroughly enjoying our long-awaited new home.
You Will Always Find me in the Kitchen at Parties – Jona Lewie (1980)
Christmas Day 2024 at 543 Burns Beach Road, our first tree in 10 years: Roy, Verne, Holly, Carrie, Mia and Carl
Moving In Day was 16 December 2024. By then, the house was completely liveable, even comfortable. There was still plenty to be done: gates, landscaping and the commissioning of the lift, for example. We were able to have family over on Christmas Day, basking in the twinkle of our first Christmas tree since we left Singapore in 2016.
The Grateful Alive; going down south, or even way down south; my semi-apology for gabbiness; Grand Design shed; alien kookaburras… really?; couples of a certain age at Bunbury Farmers Market, Vasse Village; rump cap report-back; friends and neighbours in Marron Rise; Lamont Smith’s Beach for Sunday dinner; lunch at Wise Wine, Eagle Bay; Aravina Wine Estate; curvy Botero with understated genitalia; WA Surf Gallery museum
Talking about gratitude with Roz on Burns Beach last week, she and I agreed that it’s impossible to be grateful and depressed/anxious at the same time. And that we’re very lucky to be living in a wonderful place.
Burns Beach, Iluka – 300m from home
A health podcaster I heard the other day described how she consciously started each day with a gratitude practice, so as to flood her body with the feel-good love hormone, oxytocin. The minute she wakes up, she gives thanks for her pillow, for her comfy mattress, for her Egyptian cotton sheets – and especially for the lusty young man next to her that she brought home from the club last night. (Obviously, I made that last bit up. The rest is a true story.)
Studies also show that our bodies flood with oxytocin when we experience the sensation of awe – as happens when beholding glorious natural scenes like a sunset sky, the sea or a pristine forest. This may be part of why being outdoors is so good for us.
Verne and Roy in the bush at Yallingup, Margaret River
Prince Albert’s marvellous mayor and cultural characters; getting to Prince Albert; staying with Linda and André; the Swartberg Hotel and bobotie; charming townscape and dream houses; bin art; local produce: unrivalled EVOO, unpasteurised dairy and unmissable lamb; Striking Metal and Karoo Looms, plus samoosas to die for; you can check out any time you like…
Before I go on, the Prince Albert restaurant featured above is called The Rude Chef, and we hear that the owner can be blunt at times. But she was as sweet as pie when we had dinner there with Linda and André on our first night… and that was despite the electrical blackout that mostly came and sometimes went.
I’ve blogged about Prince Albert before: click here for my 2018 story, if you like. But here are my current Top 10 reasons to visit this Great Karoo dorp.
#1 Its Marvellous Mayor
Apart from its being so exceptionally karaktervol (full of character, or even characters), what takes Roy and me back there is that our friends Linda and André retired to the town more than 20 years ago after their long careers in the South African diplomatic corps. And now, after two decades of service to the community, Linda is the hard-working Mayorof Prince Albert.
With Linda Jaquet, long-time marvellous human being and current mayor of Prince Albert, in the front garden of Fransie Pienaar Museum, November 2018
For her sins, she might say, having fortitudinously steered the town through the vicissitudes of central governmental ineptitude in general and its woeful handling of the dreadful COVID-crisis in particular. (My words, not hers. And though as an old friend I’m naturally biased, it has to be said that she’s a bloody marvellous human being.)
Apart from serving the working farming community around it, Prince Albert is a thriving tourism magnet. Its population includes a lot of sometimes-retired “professors and experts in botany, anthropology, astronomy, gastronomy, art, film-making and photography”, according to getaway.co.za. Many of them contribute to the town’s impressive list of cultural events: apart from the annual Prince Albert Town Festival in April, there are festivals of olives, books, films and art, plus winter schools for artists, jewellers, writers and chefs. This is a busy little place!
Culinary capital of the world: Cape Town; top ten foodie cities; four nights in Cape Town; getting there: turn left at Bloemfontein, plus some 1980s nostalgia; oysters at Mount Nellie; three great restaurants: one pan-Asian, one Italian and one uber-fancy; the bottom line – exciting food that’s still exceptionally good value
I’m itching to post the fourth and final instalment of This is the House that Roy and Verne Built – especially as we’ve finally moved in: O frabjous day, Calloo! Callay! (Here’s a link to number three.) But Roy and I had four such enjoyable weeks in South Africa a couple of months ago that it would be a pity not to get them on the record.
Cape Town, Culinary Capital of the World
Cape Town was recently crowned the best city in the world for food – can you believe it? That’s according to Condé Nast Traveller’s 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards. And the announcement was coincidentally made on 23 October, just as Roy and I were boarding a Singapore Airways flight from Perth WA to South Africa’s Mother City.
Top Ten Foodie Cities
Here’s the world’s top ten foodie cities, as voted by Condé Nast readers: (If this was one of those moronic Facebook posts, I’d have to divulge to all and sundry that Milan is the only one I haven’t yet been to.)
Historic South of France; day trip from Marseillan to historic Béziers and those murderous Crusaders; one night in Arles; Arles Arena, the ancient Roman amphitheatre; Hotel de L’Amphitheatre; Van Gogh exhibition; currently kaput Van Gogh Café; two Arles restaurants – Gaudina and La Gueule du Loup; downtown Arles and the Rhône riverside
A. Day Trip to Béziers
With so many day-tripping possibilities available from Marseillan (for examples, see Part 2 of this trilogy), we almost didn’t get to Béziers. I’m so glad we did!
Béziers City Centre
Parking is free at the open-air Parking du Vieux Pont. From there, you can walk over the old bridge and up the hill into the historic town centre, ascending either by several long flights of stairs, or three lifts.
Or a combination; I think we did two lifts and one set of stairs.
Béziers view: Roy with the triumphant look of a man who has climbed a lot of stairs and can now stop for coffee
Marseillan port highlights: oysters and Noilly Prat; flashback to 2017… and 2023; aerial views of the Camargue; les huitres… shucking marvellous; meaning of concylicole; Le port concylicole des Mazet; les coquillages, especially Coqui Thau; cruise on L’Étang de Thau; Oyster Farming #101; Maison Noilly Prat; three more Marseillan restaurants; Father’s Day at home with Wendy
Oysters are synonymous with the Étang de Thau – a 22km-long lagoon fed by the Mediterranean Sea. You can enter it by boat from Le Canal du Rhône à Séte, which is how Roy and I got to Marseillan in July/August 2017 on our boat Karanja, while en route to the start of Le Canal du Midi. (For that story, plus scads of Boaty-McBoatface photos, click here.)
Flashback to August 2017…
Crossing LÉtang de Thau from Séte to Marseillan on Karanja, on a hazy day.
A month in Marseillan port, a gorgeous spot in the South of France; avoiding confusion; cassoulet at Marseillan Plage; Here Come the Campbells… the Baragwanaths and Wendy; out and about in Marseillan; running around L’Étang de Thau; two fêtes worse than death (not really); Marseillan Cheat Sheet; our favourite restaurants; best day-trips from Marseillan
A full year ago, Roy booked us a two-bedroom apartment in Résidence Farenc in the port town of Marseillan, right on the water, for almost the entire month of June. Four weeks might sound like a long time to be in the same place. But when the time came to leave, I felt I could have stayed another month. Roy said he felt the same way.
One month later, and 4kg heavier: Our last oyster feast at Coqui Thau before leaving Marseillan at the end of June
Two weeks in England: Detour to Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex; beating the bank holiday traffic; De La Warr Pavilion; Laetitia Yhap art exhibition; Relais Cooden Beach; via Lewes to London; Docklands and Canary Wharf; shopping disappointment; two London shows; Blackheath pub grub; Gatwick Sofitel and EasyJet to Montpellier
It’s over 300 miles (480km) from Liverpool to the Sussex east coast, where I’d managed to convince Roy to take us to spend the night at the Relais Cooden Beach, at Bexhill-on-Sea. (As mentioned before, I do freelance writing and editing work for the Relais Group, which also took us to The Relais Henley the previous week: see Part 1 of Two Weeks in England, here). On the other hand, it would be just a two-hour drive the next day from Bexhill-on-Sea to London, the last stop before France.
We expected a good 5.5 hour drive from Liverpool, plus the frequent pit-stops that this flesh of mine is hostage to; so leaving early was a good idea. Like most Brits, Roy vehemently dislikes being wrested untimely from his bed; but we were surprisingly up, out, and on the road by 7.15am… and that was how we beat the Monday bank holiday traffic.
From Merseyside in NW England to Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex
Bexhill-on-Sea
Relais Cooden Beach is located in the southern part of Bexhill-on-Sea.
Two weeks in England: Merseyside is not Liverpool: Crosby and The Wirral; three nights in Wallasey; family matters; Roy and 100 other iron men at Crosby; topless in Liverpool
So, from the birthplace of the Bard to the birthplace of Roy. Well, not actually Liverpool – he was born in Crosby, north of Liverpool. The Wirral, a wide peninsula on the other side of the Mersey River, where several family members live, is similarly not Liverpool.
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.
John Lennon
New Brighton Promenade, on The Wirral – Crosby Beach is on the other side of the water
Two weeks in England: The Plan; Singapore stopover; nothing to wear; cream tea at The Relais Henley; not visiting Blenheim Palace, Woodstock; not visiting Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford Upon Avon; Roy’s family birthday
It wasn’t easy for Roy to leave the house we’re having built in Perth WA, especially at rather a critical point – our cursed builder went into liquidation, remember? – but this trip had been booked a year earlier. Two weeks in England, then the full month of June in the South of France – bookended by three days in Singapore.
He had planned this first post-COVID trip to England mainly with extended family in mind. It felt well due. His sister Lyndsay and John live near Stratford Upon Avon, so it made sense to kick off with a week there. Then, not having seen Aunty Marjorie, cousin Richard and cousin Kate for far too many years, we would head up to the Wirrall and Liverpool for a few days. Finally, we’d spend four nights in London.
Getting there
We took an SIA flight from Perth to Singapore, arriving on the evening of Sunday 12 May for three days with the ever-hospitable Paul and Salinah. Thanks, guys!
Singapore, all about food and friends… and foodie friends
You Will Always Find me in the Kitchen at Parties – Jona Lewie (1980)
