LAST DAY IN NEW YORK

We came to the NY Public Library to find a loo, so thought we may as well "do" a final report as well. We had a sunny day in Nashville and spent most of it at the Belle Meade Plantation (Christine ripping down the curtains and doing a Scarlett). We returned the hire car at the airport without any scratches (a miracle after 1000 miles of driving on the wrong side of the road), boarded the plane to Philadelphia (ndirect flight to NY), then had a two hour delay for the 30 minute connection to NY, which ended up being on a propellored plane! With a booking for a 7.00pm performance at Lincoln Centre, the prospects looked grim, but a WILD drive by a crazy mini-bus driver made it possible to throw our luggage in the hotel and be in our theatre seats by 6.55pm. It was worth it, as "War Horse" was a spectacular production.

Our final day has taken us to the Museum of Modern Art where we naievely thought we could walk in to a major exhibition of de Koonig(?), but the crowds were too great, so we're enjoying walking around before heading off to JFK at midday.

See you all soon.

FINE AMERICAN CUISINE

This was a case of taking a photo rather than a bite!

MEMORIES OF THE CATSKILLS

Here's Liz and Joe's mountain retreat at Roxbury

GOODBYE TO SEWANEE

Here is Barbara and Bill's lovely house to which we must say goodbye.

LAST WEEKEND

We're trying not to do a countdown, but just enjoy our last few days in Nashville and New York before boarding the plane on Wednesday afternoon. We'll have no Thursday and be home on Friday.

THERE'S A BEAR IN THERE

We're back from the Smokies and pleased to report we saw a bear at close quarters. We'd seen evidence of bears in the Catskills, but no sightings. We can return home contented. The physical beauty of the Smokies is in stark contrast to the infrastructure that has grown in the local area to house the tourists - lots of tacky motels, shops and "attractions" such as Dollywood (closed on Tuesdays, sorry Maryanne). The advantage, though, is that food and accommodation are cheap (our motel was $46 a night - big room, free breakfast)

A couple of hours from the Smokies is the Biltmore Estate, displaying in spectacular fashion the wealth and imagination of the Vanderbilts. Why not have a full pipe organ in your dining room? Luckily it was being played while we were there. We had a great day, roaming the estate, ending up with a wine tasting to size up what is being produced there.

We're back in Sewanee and, on Sunday, will move on to Nashville.

We invite anyone reading this to make a comment - ANY comment would be appreciated!

OFF TO NORTH CAROLINA

We're about to depart on a four day excursion, taking in the Smokey Mountains and the Vanderbilt chateau (plus 8,000 acres of gardens, vineyards and forest) in NC, the Biltmore On the way we plan to visit the gift shop of Dollywood (at Maryanne's insistence) to see what Ms Parton has to offer - could be an uplifting experience.

UP IN THEM THAR HILLS

The hills of Tennessee are SO beautiful. Sewanee is a small university town of lovely stone buildings in parklands, with deer wandering around (7 grazing in our backyard yesterday afternoon). The house are charming (and CHEAP - you wouldn't believe what you could buy for under $400,000).

The drive here from Nashville in our latest model VW was peppered with Christine reminding JB that he was too far to the right, but we arrived in one piece. It has been great to catch up with Barbara and Bill and meet their "new"children David and Jasmine, whom they have adopted. We went to their primary school yesterday and were helpful in a lesson about latitude and longitude (having crossed so many recently). Our archbishop Philip Freier was here last week and had dinner with the Staffords. Barbara showed him a picture from her scrapbook of Christine at Merton Hall in Year 12 (Barbara was an exchange scholar).

To celebrate JB's birthday we went to a local restaurant last night, Ivy Wild - with brilliant nouveau cuisine in a converted laundry, then home to a birthday cake for dessert

We are starting to make plans for the following days, but no rush. We trust everyone at home is fine, particularly Pippa, who has been keeping her parents from proper sleep with her cold.

RITZY RED ROOSTER

Red Rooster Harlem AIN'T Red Rooster Australia! President Obama chose this chef for his inaugural dinner at the White House. My Back Yard Bird (not Christine) was terrific as was C's Shrimp in Dirty Rice. We got a bit lost in Harlem, but folks were very helpful in setting us in the right direction. Last night the warehouse-based production of "Sleep No More"ased ever so loosely on Macbeth was considered pretentious by The Rev and pleb old me enjoyed it thoroughly. As the New York Times stated, it was as if Kubrick designed a haunted house for Disneyworld. ( Christine's comment is that an "over the top 100 room set" does not a drama make!) Jeremy and Zoe will be pleased to know we walked to the bus via Chelsea, which looked quite quaint at 11.00pm.

This morning saw us exploring Bleeker Street/Greenwich Village area. Neither of us had been there before and it was an absolute joy to sit quietly in Washington Square Gardens just watching the world go by. Harlem was feisty and wonderfully "in your face" by contrast!

Sorry to hear that Liz and Franc are having too many visits to the vet (with GG, not them). Hope GG is already home and O.K. Sorry not to hear from any of the boys, but trust we'll get some news in Tennesee (we leave tomorrow morning).

9/11 AND ALL THAT

We arrived safely in NYC after our train had been cancelled through floods. Our Greyhound got us into town sooner and we found our cute apartment in E35th Street, in the shadow of the Empire State Building. On Friday we went to Ground Zero, as a choral marathon was on at Trinity Wall Street and St Paul's Cahpel (right at Ground Zero). We heard some great music and placed a remembrance ribbon in the St Paul's historic graveyard then decided it was too busy to stay in that area for lunch, so popped over to Brooklyn and took pot luck at any old neighbourhood, ending up with the best falafel we've ever tasted! Forgot to say that, on the Thursday night, we went to the musical "Follies" and LOVED it. The ideal intro to Broadway. On Friday night we dined in the lush apartment of friends John and Vicky Wion, overlooking the Hudson. Was great to catch up(Vicky recreated Balanchine's ballets and even married an Australian flute player.) We have become expert on the buses and subway (so far) and had a very musical Sunday - wonderful cello and organ recitals while police cars whizzing here and there to keep the terrorist at bay provided background accompaniment. Tonight we see a version of Macbeth in a warehouse, where the audience follows the action around 100 rooms. Can't imagine how it's going to work!

We have had NO SUCCESS with accessing emails on our Kindles, so have no idea how things are going at home. Once we are in Tennessee we'll be more accesible. Great to hear from Richard among others. Hope all is going well with Jeremy , Zoe et al and Ben and of course Bea and Bonnie.

Lots of love to all

BACK FROM THE MOUNTAINS

We've had a great weekend in the Catskills, in spite of damage to the area by floods resulting from Hurricane Irene. Liz and Joe's house in the hills is in a little bit of paradise. The house has no electricity, so the lighting by kerosene lamps at night is atmospheric. We managed without a shower for three days. We're now back in Cortland and will go on to New York in two days.

WE HAVE ARRIVED!

Irene was unable to stop us. The only impediment between Melbourne and New York was having to wait hours in impossibly long queues, particularly for immigration in LA. We were glad to collapse in our hotel at JFK (after a bit of a run around, finding its shuttle service), hungry after no food on the 5 hour LA-NY flight. The hotel didn't have a restaurant and phone booked food delivery would be too long a wait. Why not a dinner of vending machine chips and nuts? Sorry, but the machine spat out our dollar bills. We went to bed hungry and fell on the generous hotel breakfast like wild beasts.

Next adventure back at the airport - after 90 minutes in another endless queue, we found that our flight to Syracuse had been cancelled and the next one was at 11.00pm. We were able to contact Joe and Liz in Cortland, who were JUST leaving the house to go and meet us (next time we will travel with a mobile phone, by the way!) Next, what to do? Answer: have an afternoon in Manhattan. After another hour, queuing to leave our luggage at the JFK baggage storage, we were told that they had run out of space (really!!!) SO .... were took all our stuff with us to Manhattan to store at Grand Central Station. Their storage facility was about 8 blocks away in a strange, suspicious-looking dive on W46the Street, run by a charming young woman, who made the mad experience a positive one. Anyhow, we headed off to see the Neue Gallery (recommended by a Melbourne friend) AND it was closed for renovations! SO we gave up completely and went to a lovely Italian restuarant for lunch then sat in Central Park in delightful weather, watching the joggers. We returned to JFK on the wildest bus ride in peak hour traffic you could possibly imagine, had dinner and eventually arrived in Syracuse near midnight, with the kind Joe and Liz waiting patiently for us,

Since then we have had a delightful time and will head off to Roxbury on Friday (where Irene has taken out the odd bridge and flooded the valleys), but we should get through. Our next report wil be on Tuesday, I should think.