Monday 30th April 2007. The Board for Geologists and Geophysicists of the State of California.

Today I am working out of the Board offices here in Sacramento.

The mission of the Board is to...

To promote and maintain high professional standards through rigorous licensing of qualified geologists and geophysicists and effective enforcement of professional standards that are commensurate with the potential health and safety, environmental, societal and economic impacts of less-than-well-informed decisions where geology intersects critical infrastructure e.g. schools, hospitals, transportation, affordable housing, safe and sustainable water supply, brownfields re-development, waste disposal, basin planning, emergency proceedures and private property.

I love it...I know I am sitting at a desk in an American office when over comes the polite announcement...

Morning everybody, the muffin cart is here.

Talking of food George and I popped out of the office this afternoon to lunch at Armadillo Willy's Flying Pig and I got to have my first Moxie Elixir.

Sunday 29th April 2007. Sacramento, California to Nevada

Here I am on Main Street Hangtown, the real and original Wild West. Gold Rush fever hit this area and put California firmly on the map in the mid-1800's.

Placerville with its street names like Stage Coach Alley and its historic Bell Tower was known for its swift despatch of justice in this lawless land, the original hangman's tree was a large oak.

Originally known as Hangtown, Placerville was incorportaed on May 13th 1854 after being established here on the banks of Hangtown Creek as a rich mining camp in the Spring of 1848. Millions in gold was taken from its ravines and hills and it was a supply centre for surrounding mining camps as well as a transport terminus for the famous Comstock Lode Gold Mine.

John M. Studebaker and Leland Stanford are amongst its sons who contributed to the early history.

However the most revered is arguably John A. Thompson or Snowshoe who carried 60 to 80 pounds of mail on skis from Placerville over The Sierra to Carson Valley during the winter months...the origins of the mail will always get through?

A must-see here is Placerville Hardware with its old store interior, this is the oldest continuously operating hardware store west of the Mississippi River.

Now part of this building are the former offices of the Mountain Democrat which is the oldest business in El Dorado County in contiuous operation; the second oldest continuously published newspaper in California and the oldest continuously published weekly in the state.

The paper began in the early summer of 1851 as the El Dorado Republican before a change of ownership brought a change of name. The Weekly Observer that was located here in the 443 Main Street section of the hardware store was consolidated with the Democrat in 1889.

After a disasterous fire in July 1856, the merchants on Main Street decided to rebuild with fireproof materials meaning that many of the Main Street buildings were now constructed of brick and stone (with a layer of sand between the ceiling and the roof) and iron doors and shutters.

The El Dorado County Historical Society's Fountain Tallman Museum (The Biggest Little Museum in the West)in Placerville was a real find.

Housed in the oldest building in Placerville (the building is a construction of rock rubble and hydraulic cement) this was the site of the town's first soda works where water was bottled and sold to the miners of the Gold Rush. The Fountain Tallman building dates from 1852 and today it houses Placerville's early history as a mining town where prospectors could purchase their supplies, get a hot meal and relax.

Marilyn Ferguson the guide took us outside to look at the rock formations and you know it is real handy having your own geologist on call.

After investigating the mylonite we headed for lunch at Z-pie...beef fajita pie and veggie chilli soup, how Californian?

From here we are off to Lake Tahoe via Bridal Veil Falls. The scenery is simply breathtaking amongst the digger and the ponderosa pines.

Da ow a ga…Lake Tahoe

For many generations the Washoe people spent summers here, living near the shores of Lake Tahoe. Known as da ow a ga by the Washoe, the lake provided a sacred meeting place where summer gatherings were a focus of Washoe life for thousands of years. The Washoe often returned to the same campsites (building homes of interlocking poles covered with bark) each year; where familiar fishing and hunting grounds waited and where as the fishing season slowed they would gather seeds, nuts and other foods.


So we headed up to Lake Tahoe and then crossed the border into Nevada just to allow me another state on my list of states visited.

After our visit to Tahoe Keys we had tea by the lake at The Beacon Restaurant at Camp Richardson where I dipped my feet into the crystal clear waters of Lake Tahoe.

The colour of the waters here are spectacular and after leaving the lake we headed to the emerald waters of Emerald Bay and off on a hike to Eagle Falls.

The Hermit of Emerald Bay.

Captain Richard “Dick” Barter found his way to Lake Tahoe in the 1860’s. He spent long winters in Emerald Bay as the sole caretaker of a summer villa owned by Ben Holladay Jr.

Originally an English sailor, Barter was known to row all the way to Tahoe City to visit the saloons. On one such trip in 1870 he was nearly killed. While rowing home his small dinghy capsized in a sudden winter storm. The 65 year-old sailor tied himself to the dinghy and he rode out the storm. Afterwards he is said to have amputated two of his frost-bitten toes with his carving knife; he saved the toes to show visitors.

This near death experience prompted Barter to select Fannette Island as his final resting place. He excavated a tomb on the island’s summit and erected a small chapel over it. Despite these preparations Barter never made it to the tomb.

Whilst rowing home one night in 1873 his dinghy was caught in a wild storm. This time the dinghy flipped over and his body was never recovered.

Emerald Bay by the way is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide and the area was shaped ten thousand years ago by glaciers which slid down the mountains and brought the boulders, rocks and soil that had accumulated in front and on the sides of the glaciers with them. After glacial retreat the rocks and soil (known as moraines) were left behind.

And I have to note that I saw beautiful Blue Jays and Sugar Pines on my walk today.

Tonight I dined at a real family diner and a Sacramento institution, Leatherby’s Family Creamery.

Saturday 28th April 2007. Sacramento, California.

American Freeway's...Beginning in the 1910's and carrying on to the 1930's US car companies bought out many of the great trolley/cable car systems and began systematically dismantling the infra-structure thus creating a need for a car in the world's leading economy. This is one reason why so many street cars could be found around the USA in the 1950's as diners and one reason why Los Angeles, the great City of the Freeway and modern transportation, is notoriously difficult to negotiate on foot.


I find this morning that my shoulder is also rather painful from the fall but I am up and off and George and I are heading back into the Bay area to picnic.

San Francisco Bay and its portal the Golden Gate were accidently discovered by Spanish explorers and it was only because of this discovery that a city was founded here.

Our destination is the Marin Headlands, but not before a lovely drive through the grasslands that lie between Sacramento and San Francisco.

Here at the Headlands you get spectacular views of the bay and the sailboats and Alcatraz...and of course the city and its bridges.

Towering almost 1,000ft above sea level this is an area of coastal bluffs, coves, wind-swept ridges, lagoons and beaches. It is home to back-country trails and historic fortifications.

It is up here that I catch my first sight of the state flower, the California Poppy, just growing wild.

We are actually picnicing at Battery Spencer which remained in active service until 1943. Completed in 1897 and named after Joseph Spencer, a Major-General in the army during the American Revolution this battery is part of defensive fortifications that in the past military strategists believed were vital.

The idea being that if enemy ships could be kept out of the Strait of San Francisco then the city would remain safe. The headlands thus became host to a variety of fortifications beginning with the earthwork emplacements of the 1870's on this strategic high ground, a key point for coastal defence.

For around 100 years the US military considered San Francisco Bay to be the most strategically important harbour on the West Coast. Early fortifications such as Alcatraz and Fort Point focused their short-range firepower on the inner harbour. Gun Batteries were built further afield as range and accuracy increased. These batteries had rifled guns, some with ranges of more than 10 miles, aimed offshore to sink enemy ships before they could reach the Golden Gate.

As a later fortification, Battery Spencer was constructed of concrete and partially buried behind a wide parapet of earth with the approach road below ground level to protect it from enemy view.

Immediately after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 the US Army temporarily placed anti-aircraft guns near the toll plaza at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge and posted sentries on the bridge. The aim was to prevent the air attacks that would imperil San Francisco and its dazzling new bridge.

The Bridge which I picnic above today...

The Golden Gate Bridge was designed by chief engineer Joseph Strauss and was constructed between 1933 and 1937. The concrete piers at the base of the towers went in first, in cold deep water with a strong tidal current. The art-deco towers were then erected on the piers and the suspension cables were emplaced to allow the road deck to be installed in sections from each end.

Opened to vehicles in May of 1937, ahead of schedule and under of budget, here are a few facts about the Golden Gate:

220ft is the clearance under the bridge for shipping;
746ft is the height of the towers;
4,200ft is the length of the main span (i.e. between the towers), making the bridge the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1964;
7,650ft is the length of each cable, which are 36 and a half inches in diameter;
80,000 miles is the total length of wire in the two cables...that's more than 3 times the distance around the earth at the equator;
the roadbed can drop as much as 10ft under extreme load and temperature with the centre span able to swing 27ft in either direction;
43 million pounds is the weight of the steel used to construct the bridge;
600,000 is the total number of field-driven rivets holding the bridge together...

and yes, it took 27 years to re-paint and thus this has only been done once since 1937, but continual spot-painting occurs to retard corrosion.

We took a late afternoon view of the city from Golden Gate Parks' de Young Fine Arts Museum tower. From the observation floor you get a 360-degree view of the west end of the city taking in landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge.

This beautiful building was designed by the Pritzker Prize winning architects Herzog & de Meuron to integrate art, architecture and nature and it works!!

I was intreged by Andy Goldsworthy's Drawn Stone (2005) installation. Goldsworthy is known to use natural material to create forms that lie just beyond the realm of the possible in nature thus heightening the viewers awareness of the fine line between nature and culture.

This particular installation was inspired by California's tectonic topography where he has made a continuous seemingly random crack running from the edge of the road to the museum entrance. The stones used were originally from Goldsworthy's native Yorkshire.

We then head out to explore Golden Gate Park which is one of the largest urban parks in the world with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area encompassing more than 72,000 acres with 28 miles of coastline.

The Golden Gate Pavilion was dedicated in 1981 as a symbol of the friendship between San Francisco and its sister city of Taipei...but I do wonder...If you really believed in peace and love why would you need to vandalise the Pavilion by carving this into its marble?

We park along the Pacific Ocean here on Highway 1 (the Great Highway) to explore the 5 mile long Ocean Beach and naturally the Cliff House (of which there have been 3 in total, the first two being destroyed by fire with the current building being erected in 1909). This is also where you will find the Camera Obscura which was sadly closed, and the site of the Sutro Ocean Baths.

The first Cliff House was built by the real estate developer Charles Butler in 1863 and was a frame and clapboard edifice extremely popular with the well-healed who could afford to pay the toll roads, horses and menu prices; thus it was expanded in 1868.

By the early 1880's transportation had improved such that 'ordinary' folks could make the trip and the Cliff House was abandoned by high society. Captain Julius Foster who ran the operation for Butler then turned to a more sporting clientele.

In 1881 Adolph Sutro bought the Cliff House and 1,000 surrounding acres, moved into the cottage on the promontory and hired James Wilkins to make it a "respectable resort".

Adolph Sutro had been born in Aachen, Germany the son of a successful apparel manufacturer. He was well educated in engineering and science. After the death of his father, the revolutions in Europe changed his direction, and the young Sutro took his family to America arriving in San Francisco aboard the California in 1851 where he went into the sundries business.

Sutro visited Comstock Mine and saw the need for an engineering background so he secured the rights, sought venture capital and oversaw the completion of venting and drainage tunnels. He sold his shares for $5,000,000 and came back to San Francisco a very rich man.

This shore land he had bought was deemed worthless; yet men were employed, wells drilled, infrastructure installed and thousands of trees planted and the Land's End Scenic Railroad was born. However in 1894 the first Cliff House burned down, but only two years later he re-opened the site with a French Chateau style building along with the Sutro Baths.

The Sutro Baths officially opened to a dazzled public in 1896. Through their elaborate system of pools, tunnels and pumps the six swimming tanks were filled by ocean tides. Two acres of glass arched over the steam-heated pools, three restaurants, theatre and a museum with rare plants, animals and (as was popular at the time) Egyptian artefacts. This complex could service up to 25,000 people for a dime.

Classic Greek decor opened onto a massive glass enclosure with five tanks holding 1,685,000 gallons of water at various temperatures and the baths could accommodate 1,600 bathers. The water in te tanks could be changed in an hour with the tides.

A major San Francisco figure, Sutro was elected Mayor in 1895. A man of both art and intellect he amassed a large art collection in his lifetime and he is considered to have had the finest library in the United States at the time.

The baths were the last major recreation project of the millionaire Adolph Sutro (he died in 1898) and by 1937 they were losing money and the main tank had to be converted to an ice-skating rink. The baths were sadly demolished in 1966 when a fire levelled the structures.

In 1907 the Cliff House burned to the ground again and Sutro's daughter Emma rebuilt with the new Cliff House opening in 1909 upholding the tradition of fine-dining.

Two world wars and a depression though were to take their toll and the Cliff House was sold to George Whitney in 1952 being re-modelled several times before in 1977 the Headlands and the Cliff House were purchased by the National Park Service for use as a visitor centre. The Cliff House continues to be run by Dan and Mary Hountalas, as it has since 1972, and in 2004 it was restored to the elegance of its history.


The story of the schooner Parallel that was 'blown to atoms' in 1887...

The two-masted 148 ton Parallel left San Francisco for Astoria, Oregon with a mixed cargo and 42 tons of black powder and dynamite. Capt W. C. Miller fought against difficult winds for two days and finally gave the abandon-ship order putting the seven man crew into a lifeboat before the ship went on to the rocks off Point Lobos and the Cliff House.

The crew rowed to Sausalito but told no one of the dangerous cargo. Miller was later criticised for his actions.

A crew from the life-saving station (later the U.S. Coast Guard) at Golden Gate Park went to the wreck finding no crew onboard, but they did save a forgotten dog. At around 1.30 am on January 16th 1887 the ship exploded badly damaging The Cliff House and Cottage and Adolph Sutro's residence on The Heights as well as injurying three of the life savers. Debris was blown for a mile and the blast was felt 15 miles away at sea.

Friday 27th April 2007. San Francisco, California.

The term Bay Area refers to the nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay. A total of seven bridges cross the bay with the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco to Oakland and Berkeley and the Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco to Marin County.


Apologies to all those people who have e-mailed to remind me that the blog is behind. I have had difficulty getting internet access and then this morning I put out my hand to save myself as I fell down the stairs and it has swollen up and thus it is very difficult to write or type.

I will update things just as soon as I can.

Anyway, today I am off to stay with Cousin George. This will be the first time I have seen him since Christmas 2005 in New York so we will have a lot to catch up on...

I did actually head out though in the late afternoon to Samovar on Sanchez Street. Since a tea tradition is common to nearly every culture from the exotic to the simple and from London to Marrakech, then I thought that I would drift off to a foreign land and have a Moorish Tea which consisted of Moorish mint green tea, grilled halloumi kebab and mini mint salad along with dolmas and olives, and medjool dates stuffed with chevre.

This is a tea service that has evolved from the ancient nomadic Berber tribes of Africa.

Tonight I got the chance to drive down the zig-zag of Lombard Street on our way to Little Italy. Enroute out of the city we headed to Fort Point to view the Golden Gate Bridge by night.

When the Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27th 1937 100,000 people celebrated the engineering and architectural triumph over the waters that had been deemed unbridgeable. Yet engineer Joseph B. Strauss had linked San Francisco and Marin County with a record breaking span that swung 27ft in a stiff wind.

Off over the bridge and we stop in Mill Valley to eat at an In-n-Out, a Californian tradition in burger joints before heading home to Sacramento.

Thursday 26th April 2007. Dine Out For Life day, San Francisco.

How many people are there in San Francisco, or indeed in any city around the world, that don't know where they are walking?

I would argue many as I head back today along The Embarcadero that the answer is very few. Do you know what is under your feet?

The buried ships of San Francisco...Along the Embarcadero once stood a series of floating warehouses that acted as storeships during the gold-rush.

In the early 1850's with buildings in short supply, the ability to store incoming cargo until prices rose made warehouses immensely profitable. Some of those permanently moored vessels remained in place simply being covered by the in-fill as the area was reclaimed.

Vessels such as the Rhone, LeBaron and the William Gray which lies buried 18ft beneath the sidewalk along Battery Street between Filbert and the Italian Swiss Colony Building. There are infact an estimated 40 such gold-rush vessels entombed under the streets of San Francisco.

My first stop today is to be Levi's Plaza a pleasant spot to sit and write before I head off up Telegraph Hill.

The White Angel of San Francisco...

While I turned my head that traveler I'd just passed melted into mist...maybe we all see too little??

"It was Westering and Westering. And when the old men came to the edge of the continent and saw they could go no further, they broke down and wept. Down and out in the waterfront in Frisco. The end of the line. Out of work. Out of Food. And out of hope. San Francisco - at the end of the line - had always had more than its share of transient men, on the move, looking for work. During the Great Depression of the 1930's the number of people without homes and without food overwhelmed the city's many charities, as bread lines wound around city blocks, and each day, soup kitchens fed one hot meal to thousands who otherwise would not survive. Here at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from June 1931 through September of 1933, one woman carried out her own plan to help. Her name was Lois Jordan, the soup kitchen she set up on Abe Reuff's junk-filled lot, bounded by the Embarcadero and Battery, between Filbert and Greenwich, became known as the White Angel Jungle. "Seamen without ships, longshoremen with no cargo to load, railroadmen out of jobs, carpenters with nothing to build...penniless and friendless in a big city, they have been fed, clothed and mothered by Mother Jordan"".

It was certainly symbolic that the waterfront office-kitchen her men built for her was in the shape of a land-locked ship...symbolic for me of the fact that she was the one ray of hope in an otherwise desperate situation, the one passage out of despair and also interesting in the fact that under her soup-kitchen in the subterranean world lay all those buried warehouse ships that few, if any, of the men would have known about.

In 1876 a group of San Francisco citizens purchased four lots at the crest of Telegraph Hill and bequeathed the land to the city as a public park in memory of California's pioneers...and trust me don't drive up here, walk the steps, it's a great climb!

The view from atop Telegraph Hill only serves to confirm for me that the Bay Bridge is the more beautiful.

From White Angel Jungle at the foot of the hill to Coit Tower at its crest the Great Depression is played out in very different ways.

The tower was built in the depression era and dedicated in 1933 as a memorial to a true city character, Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who had died in 1929 leaving one third of her estate for the purpose of adding beauty to the city she loved.

Aged seven she had come to San Francisco with her wealthy Kentucky parents. She was destined though to be saved from a terrible fire by the volunteers of the Knickerbocker Engine Co. #5. Later seeing firemen struggling up Telegraph Hill she dropped her school books and joined them becoming in the process the #5 mascot, rarely was she to miss a blaze.

And her life was one of colour. She married Howard Coit of Telegraph Hill against her parents wishes, she smoked cigars and often dressed as a man to enable her to gamble in the saloons of North Beach. Indeed when an envious relative tried to shoot her and a friend who ran to her aid was killed she fled to Paris. In 1923 after years in Europe where she was a favourite at the Court of Napoleon III she returned to San Francisco where she died aged 88.

So as for her tower...It is a 210ft tall tower of fluted reinforced concrete by Henry Howard with interior fresco's by local artists. These murals were part of a 1934 Public Works of Art Project and fascinatingly for a tower built at the height of the Great Depression the murals contain a strong political message about American exploratory characteristics. These are scenes of bustling industry, inventiveness and commercial strength...This is the land of plenty, of the great American Dream...yet all this was painted against a backdrop of unprecedented poverty?

And a nice aside...the tower is designed as a fire hose nozzle reflective of Coit's admiration for the city's firemen.

And a little history...During the gold rush days a lookout station stood on Telegraph Hill to observe and signal the arrival of incoming vessels.

Now I am off to Lombard Street, the world's crookedest street with eight sharp turns on its forty degree slope which were constructed in the 1920's to allow traffic to safely descend the steep incline...but these switchbacks are world famous to every child because of Herbie, the Lovebug!! Here I get chatting to the mailman...now that's quite a job in these parts!

I really love the way this city flows with the topography of the land as I wander the streets of Russian Hill and Nob Hill...And I get to meet the coolest Big Issue seeler...I think its called Streetwise here, but anyway; he was an older African-American gent who had been well-travelled, though he kept insisting I was Irish.

Off through the Chinatown Gate to eat at Cathay House joining an illustrious list of diners that includes my fellow Chautauquan President William Jefferson Clinton and the likes of Chairman Jiang Zhen Min, Nancy Polosi and President and Mrs Bush Snr; but then again this has been the place to dine in San Francisco's Chinatown since the days of FDR and Eleanor.

Appropriately I am a rat having been born in 1972, but apparently that means I have been blessed with great personal charm, a taste for the finer things in life (well that is certainly true) and considerable self-control...the world will be the judge?

Tucked down Maiden Lane (no:140) just off Union Square sits an unimposing building that remains for the most part unknown to most San Franciscans and visitors alike and yet it is arguably this city's greatest architectural treasure. The Xanadu Gallery is a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. As you descend from its bubble lights around the body of the building you really do feel that you are inside a champagne glass.

Designed as the V.C. Morris Giftshop this now gallery space specialises in art and antiquities from around the world and what a place for these treasures inside a champagne glass as it pours.

Today it is San Francisco's day to host Dining Out For Life supporting the fight against HIV and Aids and here it is a full 25% of your dinner bill that will be donated by participating restaurants to the fund.

I dine tonight at the ultra-trendy 2223 on Market, but even here in liberal educated San Francisco these people talk s*** politics. The conversations I listen too are so small minded and localised and ignore the great big world out there beyond America's shores.

Also I have to deal with stereotypes...sorry, but I first tried a restaurant called Mecca which I could not stand for more than a few minutes. It was wall to wall stud muffin, all waxed and buffed chests and identical. Why can't people think for themselves and be individual?..but then again, the conversation in this place is so boring and stereotypical!

Human beings can be so superficial and that saddens me. I wish more people would say what they actually want and act on their dreams and then maybe the world would be a better place?

Anyway, being loyal to the project themes I stuck to local produce...let's hope California's finest red will drown out the ignorance around me? By the way this is a fantastic spot. Great service from James Orona, my waiter and great food. It is buzzing here with a lovely cocktail bar for pre-dinner drinks...I didn't try it after all you look such a sad-o drinking alone...that's not my bag!

And thanks to the manager, Kyra Rice-Leary for a lovely evening!

Wednesday 25th April 2007. San Francisco, The Republic of California.

San Francisco Bay formed at the end of the last ice age when a river valley flooded and Alcatraz is actually the rocky summit of a submerged hill...think of the topography of this area.

In more recent times California became the 31st State of the Union in November 1850. The immediate background to this being that American settlers on the northern frontier of what was then Mexico had declared themselves an independent republic in 1846 raising the Bear Flag on June 14th.

The Presidio of San Francisco had infact been the northern bastion of the Spanish Empire from 1776 until the Mexican Revolution in 1822.

Today Alcatraz is an isolated island that presents a unique ecosystem of flora and fauna brought to the island throughout its history. The island is now a haven for birds who can live here predator free and so it offers a protected home today for garden archeology. In many ways the island with its layers of history tells the tale of a developing nation.


Behind the pier building here on the Embarcadero stands Robert Arneson's Yin and Yang sculpture. Arneson was a founding father of the contemporary ceramic sculpture movement using humour and satire to confront and explore moral and ethical concerns in clay, bronze and other media with yin and yang being part of his 'Egghead Series'.

The first bridge I catch sight of in San Francisco is the one I come to view as the more attractive. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge or simply Bay Bridge was opened in 1936 (it is older than the Golden Gate) to link the city with Contra Costa and Alameda counties. At 8.5 miles the bridge is a suspension/cantilever structure with the divide from cantilever to suspension being a tunnel through Yerba Buena Island.

I head out along the piers today for Pier 33 and a journey to Alcatraz. The first thing I notice when stepping onto the island is the smell of fish?

Anyway, Alcatraz became a national park in 1972 ostensibly because of its military history, being the first permanent fort on the West Coast...

However, there is a little more to this...

In 1969 Indians (as Native Americans were then called) occupied the island to prevent it being sold to a private developer...

Were they here because this was the home of the first lighthouse on America's West Coast?
Were they here because of the Military era (1853-1933) with Fortress Alcatraz built to protect San Francisco from foreign invaders?
Were they here because the army later constructed a military prison for convicted soldiers and prisoners of war?
Were they here because this was the site of arguably the most famous federal penitentiary and maximum security prison (1934-1963) in American history?...
Or were they here from 1969-1971 as Native American political activists who for nineteen months called national and international attention to native American civil rights?

Most tourists are certainly here because of the federal penitentiary era, even though the majority of prisoners on Alcatraz were infact in the US military period and thus not civilians.

Tuesday 24th April 2007. The City by the Bay...

San Francisco's Famous FOG...During the summer, hot air in California's Central Valley rises, drawing cool ocean-drenched air through the Golden Gate. A sea of fog creeps through the gap and spills over the coastal hills. Stiff wind usually accompanies this fog creating the city's natural air conditioning.


I begin my day with breakfast at my hotel where I meet again the two Scottish guys I met last night.

Downtown San Francisco is a really beautiful city with many elegant skyscrapers, a great deal of which date from the boom days of the early twentieth century, and thus are built in that ornate oppulence of the newly developing commercial empires...like the Hearst Building.

William Randolph Hearst 1863-1951, the founder of Hearst newspapers began his publishing career with the San Francisco Examiner on March 4th 1887 by announcing...

"The Examiner with this issue, has become the exclusive property of William R. Hearst, the son of its former proprietor. It will be conducted in the future on the same lines and policies which characterized its career under the control of Senator Hearst".

Many of these wonderful buildings are Gotham Cityesque in that pseudo-Gothic style that chracterised this period of American office building. The majesty of this architecture is a reflection of America's growing cultural and economic imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century along with its new found confidence as one nation with a national identity (post the Civil War).

But then again this was a nation that on gaining independence from Britain established itself with Senators and Congressmen evoking the glory days of ancient Rome and although the USA has not been an imperial power in the traditional sense of colonising lands (although the Philippines, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, West Germany, present day Iraq etc etc??)...anyway, American imperialism has come in the form of economic expansion in the traditions of western European territorial expansion.

The growth model that dominates Wall Street as opposed to a consolidation model, may well be the very reason why corporate America is losing its stranglehold. After all the markets of the world are becoming saturated in a similar way to the political playing fields that have been so irrigated by the world's self-appointed policeman that we now find ourselves in flood season; but all this is another conversation for another time!!

I am really starting to fall for this city which is extremely walkable and with a great vibe.

After my explorations I stop for coffee at Caffe Museo at my day's destination. I am visiting one of the great icons of San Francisco, the Museum of Modern Art where I am attending the Picasso and American Art exhibition amongst other treasures.

Well let me begin by telling you that this is a beautiful building...and now to Picasso and his influence on American Art.

The artist Max Weber (1881-1961) is credited with having brought the first Picasso to the USA in 1909 on his return from Paris where he had lived with and studied under Henri Matisse from 1905-1908. That painting Still Life (1908) is exhibited for the first time as part of this show.

Weber persuaded the art dealer Alfred Stieglitz to present the first exhibition of Picasso's work at his Gallery 291 on New York's Fifth Avenue in the spring of 1911; the Cubist influence on American art had begun.

Picasso never actually set foot in the United States during his long life but as one of the most recognised and prolific artists of the twentieth century he brought cubism to international acclaim whilst working in a myriad of stylistic techniques and diverse media. From Weber to Gorky, Pollock to Lichtenstein (a personal favourite of mine) and Johns his influence was extensive.

Weber not only brought Picasso to America he was the first American artist to emulate his work. The small size of Still Life is in part one reason why Picasso's work came to America so early as the painting could be, and was, carried in Weber's luggage.

When developing his cubist ideas Picasso was heavily influenced by African Art and like Weber many of the most influencial American artists to become devotees were immigrants. These artists saw themselves not only as Americans but as international citizens and so American art was to become so influential in part due to this global perspective.

I really liked Weber's Trees (1911) which reflects this world-citizen idea with its foliage looking from a distance like a collection of American flags.

One of the highlights of this exhibit has to be Woman with Mustard Pot which was first seen in the States at the Armory Show in New York in 1913, the first major exhibition of modern art to be held in America. Another favourite in this show was Picasso's Female Torso (1908) and I loved the naturalistic The Bather (1913) by Weber.

By the mid 1910's synthetic cubism was emerging where works were made up of large areas of colour and pattern development such as in Picasso's Untitled (1915) with the built up image of a man with a pipe and Weber's Chinese Restaurant (1915) which for me was a reflection of the layering of modern life and its increasing rapidity.

It could be argued that cubism gave American art an identity helping it to move away from post-impressionism and thus allowed it to develop a different stylistic approach that utilised fully painted, schematic outlining and dot pattern forms (a major element of Lichtenstein's work). Works like Lucky Strike (1924) are the basis of American Modernism with people like Davis applying cubist principles to American cultural icons such as Lucky Strike cigarettes.

And so Picasso's influence on American art goes on...

The Studio (1927-8) drove Gorky to both explore and communicate surrealism in a way that subsequently impacted on others like David Smith the sculptor, who when working as a painter enjoyed the ability surrealism gave to explore both drawing and space.

It was from cubism and surrealism that the uniquely American Abstract Expressionism Movement (characterised by gestural brushwork and flattened abstract forms) emerges aided greatly by the second major exhibition of Picasso's work in America with the 1939 Museum of Modern Art, New York's Fall Retrospective of 400 works that go well beyond Picasso's cubist paintings.

Pollock's Galaxy (1947) was one of his first works in the drip-style of abstract realism for which he became famous and which we can link directly to Picasso's disturbing angular masks.

...and, of course, Warhol. Andy didn't really wish to emulate Picasso's style, rather he wanted to examine Picasso's fame...after all Warhol was the father of the cult of celebrity.

From this exhibition where another work that stood out for me was Davis's Early American Landscape (1925) I head to the Brice Marden retrospective of paintings and drawings.

I liked the earthy tones of his Red Rock group that for me were evocative of my time in Australia's Northern Territory. His linear painting style does manage to create a sense of his inspiration and I enjoy his blending of ancient Mediterranean and Asian cultures.

At the Matisse and Beyond: The Painting and Sculpture Collection works like Picasso's Scène de rue (1900) reflect his genuis as an artist in the traditional form. This show with works by the likes of Georgia O'Keeffe, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Mark Rothko, Max Beckmann and Marcel Duchamp was a treasure.

You can see the geometry of Picasso's influence in Sheeler's Aerial Gyrations (1953)and I loved seeing Jasper Johns Flag (1958) a real icon of Americana.

Whilst Matisse's Femme au chapeau (1905) intinced me it was Paul Klee's Der Tod für die Idee (1915) that really grabbed my attention...

dying for a cause, this lithograph really spoke to me about war and protection of empires and cultures when maybe man needs to move on beyond preserving the known and comfortable and just let go and allow life to take us to the next phase of human development? So the world has become a globalised Americana culture. It happened because people allowed and wanted it? Why then waste time trying to maintain national identities that are the base of so much feuding and war? Homogenisation has its benefits, right?

Does modern art indeed speak to us or is it all intellectual crap? This is a question both with regard to my ramblings and a question faced when you encounter Mutt's (1917) Urinial.

As you may be able to tell I never got beyond the museum today...it was a real joy. And I must just mention one other work that caught my eye today and that was Le guéridon (1935) The Pedestal Table by Georges Braque.

Tonight I end my day with supper at Tangerine accompanied by David a New Yorker from my hotel who is a typical all-rounder being Presbyterian Deacon, IT Consultant, singer and successful professional actor all in one...and on my short walk home I saw at least seven VW Beetles; how appropriate...I guess it is true Herbie Does Ride Again!!

Monday 23rd April 2007. LA to San Francisco, California.

Back to the airport via bus and subway enroute for San Francisco. After seeing the traffic here on LA's freeways I am sure the M25 has a contender for the title of world's largest car park.

At the airport the security checks are enhanced even from my last visit to the USA at Christmas 2005. You now have to leave your bags unlocked or go through extra security...I chosse to go through the extra security as I don't want my luggage riding around unlocked.

Anyways at the departure gates it is shoes off for the enhanced screening. I am not sure though that all of this works or whether this is simply typical American over-reaction to the terrorist threat?

Landed at San Francisco International Airport and this place takes the prize for greatest level of customer dissatisfaction. There is a very helpful information desk, just no staff to man it? Courtesy phones for information that don't work? and a meaningless collection of posters?...

I have had enough of this and so I march back through security...now that gets some attention and WOW some service.

So I get on the transit as instructed and encounter ignorant elderly American couple all baseball caps, bad taste lipstick/eye make-up and Gee Hank!...
Please don't worry about me or any of the other passengers trying to exit the transit, just you and Delores keep that door blocked now!...
And to crown it all the helpful staff in the train station send me off in the wrong direction...but this is America so...Y'all have a nice day now!!!

Finally I take the BART and the Muni which when it comes out to ground level becomes a trolley with the floor descending at the steps to meet the street rather than the platform. It is a great system once you figure out how it works and this place can't be bad after all they have a Dublin and a Dumbarton Bridge so it has some class!!

I arrive at the stunning Parker Guest House a compound of two Victorians on Church Street surrounded by stunning gardens and outdoor terraces.

Nearly 514 blocks of San Francisco, including much of Nob Hill and Van Ness Avenue, were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire with many of the fine examples of Victorian architecture lost. Yet there are still some 14,000 Victorians preserved in the city today and that is a treasure.

It is lovely here with my big bed, power shower, fancy freebie soaps and gels...its an establishment that gives you robes and it is clean and pleasant and not at all like the half star I stayed in in Los Angeles...and it is cheaper!! I am so happy to be civilised again and as I set off to explore these bay area neighbourhoods my first day in San Francisco shows me that it really is like the Herbie movies!

Tonight there is a wine social at the B&B and I meet up with two Scottish guys who are here on holiday. I then head out to explore the immediate neighbourhood and dine at Luna on Castro.

Sunday 22nd April 2007. Earth Day. Los Angeles.

Ronald Reagan earned his place on the Walk of Fame as an actor and its good to see Lassie here too.

I am off to celebrate Earth Day at the Farmer's Market which I find filled with people with dark sunglasses detoxing after the excesses of last night. There is excellent organic produce and good street performers add to the atmosphere.

My next stop is urban obscura a site specific installation by Paul H Groh. Using the principle of a Camera Obscura the installation projects a series of overlapping images, reflections and light into the space creating an abstract moving collage of people, cars, lights and time of day.

I am very lucky to stumble upon the installation at the Woodbury University School of Architecture Center for Community Research and Design site at 6518 Hollywood Boulevard where Professor Paul is open for a private viewing today...I naturally join in and spend the next three hours enjoying the views and putting the world to rights with Paul.

Here I am inside 'the camera' and the white walls are painted with a semi-gloss and the black floor is gloss to add to the reflectivity. This is a piece of installation art that grew out of its context as the idea behind it was to bring the outside in by revealing the motion that happens outside rather than simply presenting a realistic video interpretation of the outside. Here the idea was to use the Camera Obscura to reflect the rapidity of motion in modern life. This is enhanced by having the sounds of outside miced in to accompany the motions.

I then head off to eat at the Pig'n Whistle...to engage again with history.

Hollywood was after all originally just a sleepy suburb of Los Angeles before it became the world-wide centre of the movie industry with producers attracted here because of the availability of vast tracts of land at low cost.

As Hollywood boomed in the Roaring Twenties its main road Prospect Avenue (a throw back to the days of the California Gold Rush) became Hollywood Boulevard and it became the place to see and be seen. You could catch a glimpse of stars like the cowboy Tom Mix in his sports car but the highlight for many were the Palaces built to the movies such as Sid Grauman's Egyptian and Chinese Theaters or The Pantages.

The Pig'n Whistle opened its doors next to the Egyptian Theater on July 22nd 1927. A fanciful hand-carved interior welcomed stars like Shirley Temple, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. It also housed many gatherings after movie premieres at The Egyptian and many industry cocktails. Here you could spot Cary Grant, Jane Wyman or Walter Pidgeon. Although part of a chain, the Hollywood restaurant was more elegant and the work of the architects Morgan, Walls and Clements.

The days of the ornate organ, the balcony and the baronial banquet room fell out of favour by the early 1950's; but in 2001 it was restored from a clothing store to its Italian Renaissance splendour.

From here I head to the point on Christopher Street West where on June 28th 1970 the first ever Pride March in the USA set off. Interestingly two of the key leaders of this march were clergymen (this sets an interesting context for the current debate in the Anglican Communion).

I must point out that the Walk of Fame is a death walk in the rain, I slipped and slided everywhere on my way home!

Saturday 21st April 2007. LA, California.

Saturday in LA and I try finally to get some sleep this morning. The party room directly above me has seen some action each and every night and it seemed last night like the ceiling would come in on me. Anyway, its now 10am and they have started partying again.

This morning I spend time locating a San Francisco hotel and I have gone for a quality B&B on a US friends recommendation...after this dump I need to improve!

experiences and this city has so much more to offer than trashy tourism. I can do that when I am on holiday.

Well today I am at the iconic symbol of this City of the Angels, the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of the Angels and your first sight is not of a cathedral but of an ultra-modern complex that looks more like a university lecture hall or a modern art museum.

With its multi-storey car park, its shops and cafe and even its Parishioners Federal Credit Union Bank, this is catholicism for the twenty-first century...how refreshing!

The only real sign this is a church is the elegantly set carillion above the entrance gate.

I bought a book and headed off on a self-guided tour.

The plaza with its patio tables is very welcoming and as for the cathedral it is more like a concert hall and that I really like. This is very much a Californian church with its murals telling the early history of the church in the Republic.

The past though is not forgotten and the installation of a historic Spanish reredos (the traditional decorative screen that sits behind the altar of a church) owes much to Getty funding.

The tapestries that illuminate the walls run from St Margaret of Scotland and bring me again into contact with Rose of Lima all the way to Mother Teresa.

Symbolism though is all around and the baptismal font is not only a stunning piece of sculpture but as a plunge pool it evokes the Jordan beautifully.

See God's dwelling is among mortals. God will dwell with them. They will be God's people and God will be with them.

One failing though in this architectural gem are the confessionals that look remarkably like dungeons.

Down in the St V chapel you get the feeling of how traditional and hispanic the old cathedral must have been from the Stations of The Cross. There can though be no doubting that this remains a Hispanic community testified to by the handwritten intercessions I see.

The Mausoleum was creepy and yet beautiful, just as I felt at Recoleta in Buenos Aires...and likewise this is a spot for the wealthy I think.

I found Gregory Peck...does anyone know if this is "the" 'Gregory Peck', the dates seem to fit?

Many people have already bought their plots with names engraved and just the departure dates to be filled in. Modern as this cathedral is they thus have both full burial plots and cremation spaces...but I did not enjoy seeing the new resident moving in to one curtained off section...ugh! time to go and pronto!!

It was also very interesting to see the corporations who gave money to this building...and there was Bob Hope too, but it is Hollywood after all.

In the late afternoon I explored Grand Central Market a genuine locals market and not a tourist spot. Downtown LA has a deserted feel on the weekends with the offices closed and only the locals around.

Many of the people I encounter here live on life's periphery...the poor, the elderly, the drunks, the addicts, the poorly educated...the displaced.

The quality of downtown housing I explore is dreadful and thank God for my smattering of Spanish...it's the locals lingo.

Anyway its not really safe down here and I wouldn't want to be this far off the beaten track at night so its back to the subway and into Hollywood where I will dine with the other tourists.

You may think I am nuts heading so far off the beaten track but then I have to admit the only times I have been robbed or attacked have been in the "safe" tourist areas and my theory is that this is because these are the areas attackers know they will find booty...

I am not advocating it, but I generally feel safer in the downbeat neighbourhoods.

Saturday night is a beautiful moonlit night over LA with a clear sky and a crescent moon this city certainly has its beauty.

Note to students…In response to the questions about why I did not visit Rodeo drive I ask you why would I spend time touring a street full of shops and restaurants filled with the expensive bobbles and trinkets of materialism which few of us will ever afford and shops that are staffed by personnel who seem to think God has ordained them better than you. We have been such places on this trip and found positive and negative

Friday 20th April 2007. The City of Angels, California.

Terribly wet weather today which only seems to make the drivers here go faster. Anyway, I had breakfast at a lovely little spot I had passed yesterday, the Café Europe back down on Santa Monica Boulevard. The absolutely delightful Danielle not only makes a mean breakfast, but she even went to all the bother of finding exact and easy routes for me to get both to the Getty Center and to the cathedral…she was one cool Aussie.

LA has a reasonably good public transport system, but it is fair to say that this is a city designed for the car.

So as I head out today along Sunset towards UCLA the area and the homes begin to get very upscale. The Beverley Hills Hotel looked very nice as I passed and you soon realise you are in fantasy land when waiting on the bus you see the students coming from the university campus and leaving in Bentley’s and a stream of vehicles most of us will only ever dream of.

But I am happy on the bus, where I can watch the world go by. I really enjoy traveling as everything is an experience, the people you meet and particularly those you see but never encounter as you move from A to B.

Today I will get my first and only view of the LA beaches and it will be from the balcony of the Getty Center; a truly stunning complex that is a work of art in itself…and the views of LA from this vantage point are unsurpassed.

A memorial to J. Paul Getty (1892-1976), the Getty Center was opened in 1997 and builds upon the already world-renowned reputation of the Getty Villa which opened in 1954 in Malibu.

The Getty Center is a stunning complex and climbing up on the tram is an added bonus with the fantastic views you are afforded of LA and its luxury homes. There is so much going on here that you need to limit yourself if you are to truly appreciate the art. I have chosen to attend the Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden exhibition that presents eighteen works from the two best known Dresden painters: Friedrich, the voice of German romanticism and Richter, the most significant German artist working today.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Friedrich revolutionised European painting. By choosing to work not in the figural mode and by focusing his painting on the German lands he made landscape his primary subject. He moved from the recording and idealised classical vision of the land to a subjective, even romantic response to nature’s glory.

I certainly enjoyed Cross in the Mountains and Evening on the Baltic Shore, but generally his work was too moody for me. That said, he did forge the Romantic Movement with all its nocturnal, moonlit scenes as opposed to the clarity one gets with daylight.

In this exhibition we get two interesting views of landscape: Friedrich holding landscape as the cornerstone of his practice to reflect emotion and spirituality and Richter the contemplative skeptic. Both men commonly exhibit evocative characteristics rather than offering “records” and what they offer the viewer instead is an ambiguous and contemplative experience.

For me coming somewhere like the Getty is a huge challenge. I need to come with a specific plan of what I want to see and even then it takes me the best part of the day just to examine and interpret a limited expose. I have never been able to understand those people who have 'done the Louvre' in an afternoon.

I hadn’t intended on it, but as I passed Fatburger (which claims to be the ‘last great hamburger stand’ and where I saw the saucy burger advertised with A1 steak sauce) I had to try it. This American chain certainly produces fresh and ‘real’ burgers, the type you get from the hamburger stand at a funfair. But this is America after all and along with the 50's feel and the dukebox, there is an ultra-modern touch with a special area for those who have ordered online.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old git, although some of my kids would tell you I have always been so, there is something wrong with a culture where so many youngsters drive ridiculously expensive and powerful cars at equally excessive speeds with no thought of the costs, in all their attendant forms, that are involved.

Oh, and whilst I am on a roll and just having returned to my hotel to use the loo, why is it that hotels insist on so much waste? Take my soap for example. Clean the room, great, but if you know the same person is staying on then why take away the soap? A new bar with its wasteful paper covering every day is excessive.



Well tonight I set off with the manbag, to find the NOHO Arts Center in North Hollywood. I am heading out by public transport and on foot, and as I get lost I ask for directions from what turns out to be a very unhelpful sheriff, but at least the nearby fireman helped me out.

The NOHO arts area calls itself an arts district and there are certainly overtures in that direction, but the sense of community is certainly not aided by the areas soulless buildings.

As for the NOHO Arts Center itself we get off to a bad start. Almost double the price of Celebration and no press pack, lets hope things improve.

Well, at least the toilets were lovely and one thing American theatre is not going to do is rip you off with overpriced programmes, these come as part of the package.

Bush is Bad…It is easy to knock Bush, much harder to defend him and maybe that is why it is like looking for a needle in a haystack to find an American who will admit voting for him. Yet, 59,054,087 of them did.

But when I hear my fellow theatre-goers talking about “I”raq as we wait for the house to open I am reminded of just how ignorant and politically illiterate many Americans are.

We enter the auditorium to strains of patriotic Americana and the first thing of note is how the symbolism of the democratic donkey outweighs the elephant of the G.O.P. in this thetare design. Oh and the audience…

Well many of them flaunt their wealth in both dress and speech and I get to wondering again about the equality of wealth concentration in our world. What frightens me is that such a great concentration of wealth is in the hands of what appear to be such judgmental and narrow people.

The poor start to this play begins with a very late commencement and continues when the first performer appears and the tech guy was so out of it, the lady stood there for sometime before we got going. My sixth form students could have done a better tech job.

For a musical, it would have helped if the performers could have held a note and even better if these actors could act. They were totally unconvincing and that’s why they are still in fringe theatre with careers that are going no where fast.

Now as for the play…

The problem with Bush bashing is that we may yet find that Bush, Blair and Howard are judged very differently by history long-term. After all Winston Churchill, arguably one of the world’s greatest ever leaders, was considered no more than a maverick in his wilderness years when he stood against the tide of contemporary opinion warning against the threat of Nazi Germany and the failings of the policy of appeasement. World history now focuses, not on his isolation, but on his greatness, standing alone in Britain’s darkest hour on his march to victory.

Whilst these three world leaders are lambasted and whilst there is no doubt they have made mistakes, the bigger picture may yet show them to be the great defenders of Western civilization against extremism. Or it may show them to have failed in recognising the closing days of Western culture and as such no more than futile bigots? Time and history will tell, but we must all think rather than just bash, or we are no more than bigots ourselves.

This was anything but a balanced play and as for the acting it killed an already mortally wounded duck!

It would have helped if the writer had gotten his facts correct…all that garbage about the ruling dynasties of Europe and only the Americans truly electing their leaders…

Please, modern America is one of the most undemocratic countries in the world. That said, the writer did recognize that to be in elected office here requires money.

If Bush is Bad, then trust me this piece of musical theatre is 100 times worse.

Well, its now late Friday nite in LA and the brothers are out in force. Lowered suspensions, tinted windows; this is boggin heaven, yet there is no doubt that these boggins have money.

As for me, I met Luke Skywalker on the way home and ended up feeling guilty all my walk back to my neighbourhood. You see, he said hello and I felt guilty as I sharply answered him and walked on without engaging him in conversation…but then I wasn’t sure about talking to strangers at night in LA.

When I get home I enjoy an interesting Napa Valley wine. Interesting, not just because it was local cabernet sauvignon called Screw Kappa Napa, but because it is designed to encourage Californians into a ‘life after cork’ and the joys of the screwcap.

Thursday 19th April 2007. LA, USA.

Today I explore Santa Monica Boulevard where there seem to be a somewhat endless stream of memorials to the dead of this community, brought about by the impact of the ‘gay cancer’; HIV/Aids. I literally walked for miles and miles and miles today finding that I am one of the few who walks in this city.

Finally I found the AMEX office and now I have cash (limited, but at least its cash). My bank card seems to have given up on me and now I am relying on the travellers’ cheques I have. I negotiated freeways to get here and at times it felt like I was playing “chicken” with the automotive world.

The first thing I did, on having cash, was to go and feed the distinguished looking elderly African/American gentleman who had asked me as I passed earlier if I could spare any change. You really would have had to have a heart of stone to ignore him.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

One of the great things about walking is discovering that which drivers never see. Today I discovered the Children’s Clock by Lynn Goodpasture (2003) on the corner of Melrose and La Cienega, which is part of the West Hollywood Urban Art Program.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Anyway…time has moved on and I am sitting writing notes here in Holloway Park and Veteran’s Memorial on Santa Monica Boulevard and despite all the traffic going everywhere I am transported back (don’t know why) to when I was sitting and contemplating life in the botanic gardens in Buenos Aires. I think it must be all the poetry here, and it makes for a most interesting memorial to our war dead.

Amongst my favourites are:


Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart
O when will it suffice?
William Butler Yeats, ‘Easter 1916’.

There in the heat of the battle,
There in the heat of the fight,
Loomed he, an ebony giant
Black as the prisons of the night.
Swinging his scythe like a mower
Over a field of grain.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, ‘Black Samson of Brandywine’.

How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country’s wishes blest!
William Collins, ‘Ode Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746’.

They fill freezers with food.
Neon signs flash their intentions
into the years ahead.
And at their ears the sound
of the war.
They are Not listening, Not listening.
Denise Levertov, ‘Tenebrae’ (fall of 1967).


Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You’d treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown
Thomas Hardy, ‘The Man He Killed’.

I loved seeing Hardy’s work here as it transported me back to my early Twenties in the beautiful county of Dorset.

This particular memorial has a dedication to all the people of West Hollywood and the members of diverse communities who have sacrificed much – all sharing a common ground allied in struggles against oppression and intolerance.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

After a morning of contemplation I dined at Hugo’s on Santa Monica where today as part of ‘Dine Out, Los Angeles 2007’ (happening all across the city) a minimum of 20% of my bill will be donated to Aid For AIDS to help prevent homelessness and hunger for families and individuals impoverished and disabled by HIV/Aids. I am really glad the money went to the charity, but the food was bland and the service very poor.

As I continue exploring the area you get a real sense of just how liberal politics is in Hollywood. I see banners proclaiming ‘Obama 2008’ and 'Peace is Patriotic' as I walk the streets. This is a democratic heartland and there is something to be said for that.

My other observation today is the obsession with the body beautiful. I have never been anywhere in the world that is so materially and aesthetically obsessed. People don’t even take off their sunglasses inside the restaurants. Maybe its fashion, or maybe they just want to look important…I naturally fit right in, NOT!

With my old clothes (that I am now traveling with in case of another robbery) and my backpacker look…

BUT, then again this down-beat look helps on my walk to the Celebration Theatre tonight.

I wanted to see theatre in Hollywood and I refuse to go again to see Wicked the campest, daftest show I have ever seen; (it is the Wizard of OZ before the wicked witch went bad and I endured this high camp, kitsch extravaganza with no substance two years ago in Chicago and I simply won’t endure it again)…

Anyway, I am off to see Beautiful Thing, a play that I don’t know except that I have seen the book in the library at school.

So I set out for my night at the theatre and after a bit of a poking around I found Kinasee Thai Bistro on the corner of Fountain and La Brea which saved me from having to eat the industrial produce of some chain. And what a find it is, the food in this unassuming little place is great.

The area surrounding the theatre is definitely the less salubrious end of Santa Monica Boulevard and when any weirdo approaches me I simply talk loudly and violently to myself and shake a little…it works, they seem to think that I am nuttier than they are and this is a tactic I use when walking home through the mean streets of LA tonight.

Having located the theatre I head inside to see a play that is billed as an urban fairytale set in the unloveable surroundings of Thamesmead…before the performance begins it makes me want to be back in dear old Blighty. I loved the fact that on the way into the theatre there was a full glossary of East End patter and a history of 90’s Brit Pop culture to help set the scene.

As a back-drop, Thamesmead was a centre of 60’s urban utopian idealism where slum clearance was hailed as creating the new-Jerusalem of high rise living. The reality, as the world came to observe, was social depravation and crime-ridden hopelessness.

This theatre is very well run and keen to make its mark. On arrival they had a press pack ready for me in my role as a roving educational reporter.

Wednesday 18th April 2007. Los Angeles, California. United States of America.

Well here I am in LA and what is on my to do list...the Hollywood Sign, a visit to the Grand Canyon, Sunset Strip, Disneyland, a tour of the star homes? Some of these may well be included the itinerary but I am here to investigate the real Hollywood.

As I was passing I decided to drop into the gothic revival Hollywood United Methodist Church, which was sadly closed. However, I explored a little further and Laura from the church office came and opened the building for me. It was quite beautiful in all its darkness and the limited lighting really helped me get a sense of the majesty of the stained glass. Sitting here alone with the whole church lit just for me, I get a true sense of peace in the hussle that is LA.

This congregation plays a leading role in integration here in Hollywood. As a reconciled congregation the community welcomes diversity and opens its doors to all whilst lobbying for greater acceptance of same gender unions within the wider Methodist community.

A thought for the moment…I really believe that if Our Lord was alive today he would be throwing us all out of the temple for our hatred, our bigotry and the prejudices that we allow to exist in our world.



I dined tonight at a Hollywood icon where the great and the good have been dining since Hollywood made its mark. The Musso & Frank Grill so reminded me of dining with my dear friends Carol and Dick Duhme; indeed it was the Town Club in dear old Jamestown transported to California. It had that elegant charm of a 1950’s dinner club.

The Egyptian Theater, my venue for tonight, proves to be very arthouse. The Egyptian is actually the older of the two famous Hollywood theatres and it has a very deep stage. Pre-dating the more famous Chinese Theater, the Egyptian was built in the early days of cinema when movie theatres had to offer a stage show in addition to the movie if they were to attract customers to the new medium that was the movies. In the side aisles here you can still see the hidden boxes where singers once stood, hidden from public view, to accompany the silent movies.

I couldn’t come to Hollywood and not see a movie and this was definitely the theatre in which to see it. Less famous than its sister, but far more historic.

Tonight’s offering is Small Town Gay Bar an insightful and award-winning documentary that is a courageous examination of small town life in general.

Taking the gay community as its focus this documentary takes us into communities where even meeting your friends for a drink in a local bar could mean risking your life. It is a tribute to the brave, courageous, creative and passionate owners and patrons of gay establishments, but in highlighting one type of bigotry it is a deeper reflection on the moral compass of America.

The film was enlightening but the after show question and answer debate was fascinating.

Described as noble in its mission, cute but not hot, this was true of this piece of film-making. I was as fascinated by the portrayal of life in bible-belt Mississippi with all the bigotry and hatred of “niggers” and “fags” etc as I was by the life of the main characters.

The Redneck attitudes of ignorance make you wish that such hatred could not breed, with the preaching of the ‘God hates’ message destroying our environment in its very broadest sense. This was a powerful film reflective of mans continuing inhumanity to his fellow man…and yet, all we have is each other!

Tuesday 17th April 2007. New Zealand to Los Angeles, USA.

I start my day with breakfast at Gabe's. My mate is coming back from work to take me to the airport, these Scottish Kiwis are so very generous!

The trying ticket agent at Christchurch simply did not understand the ticketing situation. She was going on about me being a visitor to the United States...I mean me, a visitor? I was going HOME, but then she doesn't know my history so just go with the flow and her procedures.

My flight from Christchurch takes me back to New Zealand's main city, Auckland.


In summary a last New Zealand lesson...

The isthmus on which Auckland sits is so narrow you can walk from one coast to the other - but then again wherever you are in New Zealand you are never far from the sea. This striking similarity with Scotland may be one of the many reasons I have enjoyed this country so!

Inland are the mountains, lakes, valleys, plains and plateaux that give this country its beauty. The North Island is dotted with volcanic cones and the South Island has its long spine of mountains.

The Polynesian people came here in canoes during mass migrations after their ancestor Kupe found the country and named it 'Land of the Long White Cloud'.

The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman dubbed it 'Nieuw Zeeland' when he arrived in 1642 but it was the British navigator Captain James Cook who came in 1769 and hoisted the Union Jack changing life here forever.

Apart from the missionaries though European settlement was not to begin in earnest until 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed confirming New Zealand as a British Colony and placing the Maori under the protection of the Crown with continued rights to their tribal lands. In 1947 New Zealand grew to maturity as an independent nation and today she remains a member of the British Commonwealth family.

My flight to LA was less than excellent service. It was two hours before we were served anything...not even as much as a drink of water.

Anyway I settle in and begin my movie marathon with Bobby set against the melting pot of hopes, dreams and tragedy that characterised America in the 60's.

June 4th 1968 was a night when a cross-section of America had gathered for the arrival of Bobby Kennedy at an election night party. It was a night when the Kennedy dream was to die. Bobby was shot dead and the countries life would take a dramatic turn just at a time when the nation was coming to terms with struggles related to race, sexual equality, class and the Vietnam War.

In a nation in crisis one man had seemed to have the ability to unify the races...what a story and what a major league cast dealing with major issues...and what a disappointment.

Next stop is The History Boys (a production I saw at least five times at The National)...The film is the same cast as The National production and I am getting very Arthouse at 30,000ft.

In a strange way this film took my mind to the real world that I've have seen this past year in all its manifestations. Not simply a world outside the ivory towers of academia, but a world outside of Western civilisation. The film served to remind me how much I don't interact well with that world and how much I enjoy the cloistered world of the classroom.

The History Boys took me back to those wonderful Grammar School days I spent in Bournemouth with the cream of young academics from the non-public school elite where I could exercise the socialist ideal of academic and socio-economic advance irrespective of one's socio-economic status...although I must confess the reality was very middle class, the film serves to remind just how sad the passing of the grammar school system was.

In a world of mis-informed ignorance I often hear myself scream, for God's sake someone pass on some genuine knowledge. That is why I have always loved The History Boys as it reminds me of sun-kissed S'level English lessons and June Head's Drama. It takes me back to the Gentleman's Club quiz team on a Tuesday night at the Iford Bridge under the tutelage of Dr Cruttenden.

And I have been lucky enough in my career to work with them all...Hector, Irwin, Dorothy and the Headmasteresque types (whom if you don't watch out they are how you metamorphosise into) with their academic snobbery based on no academic foundation and their hatred of the true intellectuals of the world of which they can never be one.

It does get very bumpy mid-Pacific...and so it is time for a fabulously depressing movie, Notes on a Scandal.

My last attempt at movie going was Marie Antoinette. After my Singapore experience with her mother I meet the French Queen at 36,000ft and she sends me to sleep...Sandra Marsh would be proud!

...Oh yes and this is the second Qantas flight where I have broken the soap dish in the bathroom.


TUESDAY AGAIN....

Descending into this vast metropolis through a thick blanket of smog, I arrive in LA before I have left New Zealand because of the time difference and so I am having Tuesday again.

It was on the airport bus into Union Station that I got to learn that my flight companion and I had more than the Birmingham University connection we had identified some fourteen hours before in common...we also had Bournemouth School (it is such a small world!).

It took some effort but I negotiated the subway and the bus out to my hotel. I have been spoilt in New Zealand which really does have excellent tourist facilities, not so here and the locals ain't proving that friendly either.

I've never seen so many hoodies in all my life as I do on the LA Metro, and here I am looking like the tourist with the coffin and its lime green cousin, the man bag and my back pack.

Well Gabe and Alex tried to warn me; let's just say that a half star would be the limit of this hotel...but when you are on a budget, then budget you must.

What is interesting is the way people treat you. On a public bus with all that luggage and me with my poly bags in toe. Because I am staying in a scuzzy neighbourhood people look down on you; very different to some of the treatment I have had this year as a Glasgow University academic, or indeed the sort of attention I get in my pin-stripe suit with my briefcase.

It is just as well I ran out of cash and it took a few days to update this blog, because I was out of here before my Mum could worry...It was the sort of motel where you expected the murder squad to turn up at any point to take away a dead prostitute from one of the rooms; trust me, never stay in a half-star...before this I didn't even know they existed!

Monday 16th April 2007. Christchurch, New Zealand.

Today is my last full day in New Zealand and I am spending it packing and getting lots of administrative work (particularly the blog) up-to-date.

I am moving out of the house share today and will spend the night at my mate Gabe's after the dinner party we are having for my departure.

The greatest compliment I could pay New Zealand is that wherever I have gone I have found that this absolutely delightful country has a neighbourliness that Britain lost forty years ago.

Dinner was exquisite. Gabe is quite the cook and he and his mates Steve and Per and I dined as well as I have in many of the top restaurants I have visited this trip...it was a great night with great company, thanks lads!

Sunday 15th April 2007. Christchurch, New Zealand.

I must be looking like such an old man these days. The young teenage group also waiting for the bus stood back politely to let me board first. Thank-you I said and 'sweet as' came the standard kiwi reply.

Today I meet up with my friend Lee Harris from the Canterbury Museum for brunch. She and I dine at the Swiss Cafe on New Regent Street and watch the tram going by with live jazz playing onboard as part of the city's International Jazz and Blues Festival.

It was funny that when the tram stopped outside they were playing and singing...You are My Sunshine (memories for me of the Marae).

Lee and I head off to explore Edmonds Rotunda which was presented on September 26th 1929 as a bandstand for the city by T.J. Edmonds of the Edmonds Cookbook family fame as a celebration of fifty years of residence in Christchurch.

Appropriately this is now a very nice restaurant and a great use of this former bandstand. It is only open Tuesday to Saturday but we did manage to get a look in the kitchens where they were preparing for a wedding function tonight.

Off via the central library for afternoon drinks at Viaduct on Oxford Terrace. Having a holiday home in Arrowtown, Lee insisted that we have a Central Otago pinot noir from Mt Difficulty and it was lovely.

In the late afternoon I am off to see Cats at the Isaac Theatre Royal where my mate Michael Lee Porter, one of New Zealand's top actors, is starring as Old Deuteronomy. After Cats mikie has one more production (directing his students at the university this time) before he heads off to Melbourne to begin a two year run in Australia touring with Phantom of the Opera.

Cats was a simply stunning production. The West End and Broadway could not have done better. This is arguably the best production of Cats I have ever seen. Even when the cloth got caught in the trap door they dealt with its removal very professionally.

I round off another perfect day with dinner at The Brickworks in Cashmere with Gabe and Steve.

Saturday 14th April 2007. Christchurch, New Zealand.

I began my day with a haircut from my good friend Gabe McCobb. He only does exclusive clients now and whats more I got my haircut as a gift...what a guy and what a hairdo. Christchurch's top hairdresser has given me the best haircut I have ever had, he made such a good job you could even argue that it would be worth flying to New Zealand for a haircut if that wasn't so extreme. That said if you are going to be in town I'll put you in touch.

I then spent a great morning with Gabe and Alex (his German mate)before we headed off into town to explore Lichfield Lanes where Christchurch's once dingy back alleys are getting a makeover and are becoming gentrified. I must say it is all being done very well and very arthouse.

After drinks at The Excelsior I had my first bulls eye from the British candy shop along with some toffee bon-bons.

Later in the day we met Steve for drinks at The Bohemian on Cambridge Terrace before Gabe and I dined at Nancy Ave Fish and Chip shop in St Albans.

Tonight I am attending Christchurch Symphony and Falling in Love Again. For a horrible 70's building it is an amazing auditorium and what a performance. The symphony was outstanding and as for Marlene Dietrich well
...Jennifer Ward-Lealand at times approached one of the twentieth century's great entertainment legends...but she didn't have the husky voice, her stage presence (though nice) was not seductive...really she was more Grace Kelly than Dietrich - that said it was a very enjoyable evening.

I am truly starting to feel that I am back where I belong. Its a Saturday night and I am at the symphony, my old school chum Stephen would be proud.

For a modern venue the Town Hall organ looks superb (I wish I could have gotten to hear it though), but I did get to sit with two lovely old ladies (one of whoms father is an old boy of Dulwich College, a school I know very well).

I am pleased also to see that people still dress for the symphony here in Christchurch.

Waiting again for the bus I take Gabe's advice and have myself my first ever Moro bar. It is New Zealand's equivalent of the Mars Bar and it was excellent.

Friday 13th April 2007. Christchurch, New Zealand.

Today I am off to the International Antarctic Centre where I can get to see New Zealand's famous Little Blue Penguin (a link back to our time in the Galapagos Islands).

Antarctica...what is it? Where is it? Why is it of such growing global significance today, and what important role does New Zealand play in Antarctica today?

Before we get started lets sort out that common mistake...Antarctica is a frozen continent surrounded by water whereas the Arctic is a frozen sea surrounded by land.

Did you know that Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, driest and highest continent on earth? A cold desert twice the size of Australia, sixty times bigger than New Zealand; or the size of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea...but this is only in summer however.

When the tilt of the earth brings dusk to Antarctica in April the sea begins to freeze spreading out around the continent during the cold months of winter. In fact the sun disappears for four months at Scott Base rising at the end of August, while at the South Pole it disappears for nearly six months. By the end of September/early October 17 million square kilometres of frozen ocean has formed around the coast more than doubling its size.

Antarctica is the world's 5th largest continent and yet rain has never been recorded down there. The snow that does fall has no moisture content and so humans dehydrate very quickly.

In July 1983 the lowest temperature of -89.2 degrees celsius was recorded at Vostok a Russian base high up on the polar plateau. Add the windchill factor to that and temperatures can plummet below -100 degrees celsius.

It is difficult for us to comprehend how cold that is, but walking out into that temperature would kill us within a minute. If the air temperature falls below that of the body then body heat will be taken away by the moving air. The faster the air moves the more heat it drags away.

The moisture in our lungs would instantly freeze and our blood would set like jelly. Our hearts would not cope. Fortunately Scott Base and other research stations on the periphery of the continent don't get that cold. Temperatures haven't been recorded below -57 degrees celsius at Scott Base. This is one of the reasons why almost all bases are on the coast. Only Vostok and South Pole Station are located inland on the Polar Plateau. The average mean temperature in Antarctica is -35 degrees celsius and at Scott Base -22 degrees celsius.

Katabatic Winds flow down the coastal slopes from the Polar Plateau under the influence of gravity. These wind gusts can exceed speeds of 180 miles per hour. The highest wind recorded on the continent peaked at 320 km/h. Antarctica is a large white dome shape because there are no valleys, forests, rivers, trenches and very few mountains. Nothing can slow the winds down from building up speed as they rush across the continent towards the coast.

Antarctica is the driest continent on earth. The amount of precipitation that falls is comparable to that of rain falling in the Sahara Desert. Only an average of two inches of snow per annum falls at the South Pole; Christchurch gets around twenty six inches of rainfall per year.

Because of the dry atmosphere where humidity is around 0%, and the strong winds, and the lack of water fire is the greatest danger for people working on the ice. This is one of the reasons why they hate smokers there.

It is also vital to keep up your water intake. Approximately one litre of water every three to five hours is required to prevent dehydration. When camping out in the field your fluid intake comes in the form of ice. This ice is very dry with little moisture unlike the wet ice in New Zealand. A lot of melted ice is required for daily requirements. Field workers can spend many hours just melting enough ice for their drinking and cooking needs. A small kerosene primus is used to heat ice for water and to cook dehydrated food while out camping.

The ice is like grains of sand from a beach or icing sugar. It doesn't melt easily in your hand and squeaks when walking on it. Survival clothing does not need to be waterproof, as it does not get wet! You can lie on the clear blue ice of Lake Vanda (in the Dry Valleys) for as long as you like and you won't get wet. The ice is dry!

Mount Everest may be the highest point on earth but Antarctica can proudly claim to be the highest continent. The average elevation of landmass is 7500 feet. The highest point on the continent is Mt Vinson Massif at 14,691ft in the Sentinel Range south of the Antarctic Peninsular.

On top of the already high landmass is an ice cap covering 98% of it. This ice block equates to 90% of all the world's ice and 70% of the world's reserves of fresh water. The thickness of the ice cap away from the coast is between 1.5 - 3 miles. If it was to melt today the world's oceans would rise by 150 - 180ft and the weight of the ice is so immense that if removed it is estimated that the underlying bedrock would rise approximately 1500ft.

The 2% of the continent that is ice-free allowed scientists to discover that Antarctica yields some of the most ancient of rocks at over 400 million years old. They have been formed under very high pressure and in high temperature conditions at great depths. In these dry valleys of rock the ground is permanently frozen half a kilometre deep. It hasn't rained or snowed in these valleys for over two million years and organic material is preserved for centuries. Despite the severe climate some plant life survives there.

Over 500 species of algae have been found in Antarctica along with some 125 different lichens and 30 moss species. The growth rate of lichen can be as little as a millimetre every 100 years or more.

Wildlife in Antarctica is abundant and is not endangered in any way. All wildlife are marine animals. There are four types of penguins, five species of seals, baleen and toothed whales, birds, around 125 species of fish, plankton and zooplankton...and that is it! No polar bears, no Eskimos and no Santa Claus!

Polar bears and penguins have never actually met. All wildlife rely directly or indirectly on Antarctic Krill (a small red six centimetre shrimp-like crustacean). The biomass of Krill is estimated to be as high as 500 million tonnes or 36 million square kilometres i.e. four and a half times the area of Australia. The Blue Whale alone eats up to 4400 kilograms of it a day! No wonder - it is some 40 metres long, has a tongue the size of a baby elephant, and the heart the size of a small car - hence it is the biggest animal to ever live on earth!

Antarctica has no peer as a wilderness. This vast land and its surrounding seas are dominated by nature, by cold, wind, ice and snow. The continent itself is barren. Antarctic wildlife depends on food from the ocean for its survival. Humans can only exist there with support from the outside world, survival is dependent on technology.

Antarctica does strange things to the human body. In the long dark winter you must survive months without sunlight. Body hair grows twice as fast and the body lays down more fat with the skin losing pigmentation during winter.

There are over 40 permanent scientific research stations in Antarctica most crowded onto the Antarctic Peninsula south of South America. New Zealand's research activity is concentrated on the opposite side of the continent on Ross Island, 3,832km due south from Christchurch.

Countries have established bases in Antarctica with the predominant desire to understand more about this great continent and its global significance:

Politically - by living within the stipulation's of the Antarctic Treaty (being there for peaceful purposes and guaranteed freedom of scientific research). This treaty is fifty years old this year and governs the continent.

There is no need for a passport in Antarctica as the continent belongs to no-one...several countries just occupy it! The Antarctic Treaty is a unique legal agreement that ensures the use of Antarctica for peaceful and scientific purposes through international cooperation. It bans all military activities and promotes freedom of scientific research on the continent.

Scientific work is principally based around three main themes: Antarctic Physical Environments Research, Southern Ocean Research and Antarctic Ecosystems Research; giving an insight into the importance of Antarctica as a global indicator of the earth's health. This region after all contains some of the most undisturbed ecosystems in the world with global environmental pressures such as climate change and ozone depletion having the greatest potential to impact on the very fragile ecosystem that exists.

The Antarctic is a great cooling tower for the planet and what happens to it WILL determine global weather patterns.

Environmentally - by encouraging on-going awareness and education of people to keep this land unspoilt and as pristine as it is now.

The geology of much of Antarctica is a pre-Cambrian shield similar to those of Western Australia and South Africa which are rich in minerals. Whilst mining is possible the Protocol on Environmental Protection now bans mining and mineral exploration for fifty years.

Antarctica could be mined just like Alaska if we don't fight to protect the last great 'and fragile' wilderness on earth.

New Zealand has carried out an annual science program from Scott Base since 1957. The current emphasis is given to the impact of human activities, ecosystems, climate research and terrestrial evolutions.

Antarctic science is exciting and covers a wide range of activities such as biological sciences, atmospheric and space physics, glaciology and medical research.

Antarctica New Zealand operates from the International Antarctic Centre. It also houses the United States Antarctic Programme operations, the National Science Foundation and the Italian Antarctic Programme. 70% of all personnel going to the ice each year leave from Christchurch.

Therefore Christchurch can proudly claim to be the Gateway to Antarctica, the Great White South. It has been this way since the early discovery expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott from Lyttelton at the turn of the century.

New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance in the early 1980's placed the programme under threat as it meant US warships were no longer welcome in New Zealand's ports. Until the late 1970's everything went down to Antarctica by sea but fortunately for the Antarctic Programme technology had improved such that aeroplanes and thus the US Airforce could take over the transport in the early 1980's and the naval role could be removed...avoiding any difficult diplomatic situations.

New Zealand continues to set firsts in the Antarctic and one of its greatest sons, Sir Edmund Hillary was actually the first man to reach the South Pole by land mechanized means when he became the leader of the New Zealand contingent of the British Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1957/8 and pioneered along with his team a new route to the South Pole.

Antarctica is a unique ecosystem...The Antarctic ice and the air trapped in it can tell us a great deal about the past as the ice formed from snow that fell over thousand's of years. It allows scientists to tell when major volcanoes erupted, you can even tell that the industrial revolution has started.

This is an excellent attraction educational, fun and informative...and as you are reminded here "if Antarctica is well, the rest of the world will be healthy!"...We all need to look after it!!

I had great fun. One of the first things you learn here is that coloured flags are used to designate safe routes for vehicle and foot travel in the Ross Region with black flags indicating areas of danger or places of caution such as crevasses, sea ice cracks, fuel lines or communications cabling.

Practical planning means that all vehicles are attached to an electric plug at the hitching rail when not in use. The plug connects to the vehicle and keeps the engine, battery and coolant warm to make starting the vehicle easier. It also runs a heater in the cabs of the vehicles keeping engines warm reduces wear on the vehicle increasing its useful life.

I had to have a ride on one of those vital Antarctic vehicles, the Hagglund. It was better than a funfair and it was here that I began my staring role in a Thai family's holiday video. This continued when I took in the simulated Antarctic Storm and met the family again.

It was cold enough in the simulator at -5 degrees celsius before the temperature fell and the wind hit 60 knots...it was freezing!

The highlight though were the Little Blue Penguins (45cm). I have gone from the world's rarest penguins in the Galapagos to the world's smallest here in New Zealand.

The oldest penguin remains in the world have been found here in New Zealand at Waipara near Christchurch. The fossil has been named 'Waimanu' the Maori word for waterbird. It is believed the species inhabited the east coast of New Zealand some 60 - 62 million years ago.

Little Blue Penguins are nocturnal. Before the arrival of man marine mammals and sharks were the only predators of the penguin in New Zealand. Today sadly land based threats come from dogs, cats, stoats and ferrets. Further threats come from marine pollution like plastic wrapping and oil spills, and from threats such as urban sprawl into nesting sites and motor vehicles on beaches and coastal roads.

Unlike fish whose eyes work really well under water and most other birds who can only see properly on land, penguins eyes work really well on both land and under the water.

On these Little Blue Penguins there are approximately 10,000 feathers packed densely to provide a multi-layered plumage that is both waterproof and supple assisting in streamlining in water. The downy under-feathers trapping a layer of warm air close to the skin whilst the dense outer feathers offer a watertight barrier against the cold sea water.

Oh yes...and as they are birds and not fish the penguin needs air to survive and thus they dive only for about one minute at a time.

The Maori Legend... Taroa the albatross and Tawaki the penguin were constantly arguing about which of them was better at flying and fishing. Eventually Tane Mahuta the Lord of the Forest got fed up with their bickering and decided to settle the matter by offering each a gift.

To Taroa he gave the longest wing of any seabird so that he could sail the ocean winds far from land in search of food and to Tawaki he gave narrow flipper wings so that he could fly beneath the ocean waves to catch all the fish he needed.

Our time on this planet is short and we are only caretakers of the environment in which we live.

Got the bus back from the airport only to discover that it was a $7 fare and not the usual $2.50...tourist rates you see!...but if I walked one stop down it would only be $2.50. Anyway the lady driver was cool and as I am currently a local resident and she's seen me on the bus before I got a locals fare!

I dined at the oh so trendy Dux de Lux (...so cool it has one other branch only and that's in Queenstown) where few patrons are aware at first that this is not a meat restaurant, veggie and seafood only. Trendy it may be, lovely it wasn't!

Tonight I am off to the art house cinema where I see Miss Potter at the Cloisters Cinema. This movie theatre still feels like the small lecture theatre it once was.

I tried tonight to attend the late evening ghost walk. My friend, the Christchurch actor Michael Lee Porter had advised me that this show was not up to Edinburgh or even London's Jack the Ripper walk, but I thought I would give it a go anyway. Turns out that all the other tourists thought the same and there are no spaces available.

I had a drink at the Bard on Avon (just for a heat...it is a freezing cold night) whilst waiting for the bus that was forty minutes late. The one thing Christchurch needs to do is review its public transport system. The routes are not bad, if only you could rely on the buses turning up on time, or indeed turning up!