Sweet, sweet Singapore

After the tumultuous events of Madrid and Ireland it was great to arrive in Singapore again. We cleared customs in no time and nimbly grabbed a cab to Lakeview estate. Jen was waiting for us and interested in all our news. After no sleep for about 20 hours I feel we probably made little sense but a visit to the long house for copi and a lazy day, visiting the supermarket with Tim while Jim had a lie down and then a wonderful home cooked dinner and we were almost right again. Sunday we had a really relaxing barbeque picnic by the water with Lee and Chris, two Tim and Jen’s friends. We went for a swim in the salty Singaporean sea.

Monday we stooged around and had brunch at our favourite Indian restaurant, packed and got ready for the overnight trip home to Sydney and Keda and Sanjay’s home for a few days before returning to Crowdy Head. Time to say good bye to Tim and Jen.

 

dreamy, damp Dublin

Dublin August 2012

After waiting in the passport check for an hour we were so excited to get into the airport to see Clare and our brother in law Connor waiting for us. He is a wise and gentle man and it was great to be made to feel so ‘at home’.  We went straight to Connor’s house to catch up with the family and say hello to Jim’s other sister Miriam who was visiting from America Amazing hospitality as Jim’s sister effortlessly effects miracles in her tiny kitchen feeding recurrent waves of blow ins all welcomed with her calm god humour.  A cup of tea turned into lunch and we finally got up from lunch at 7pm so that Connor could take us to our hotel to check in.

 

 

It was the first time I had visited Dublin in summer. Most days we saw patches of sunlight when the clouds cleared but at any time Dublin is a great city. It is full of people from all countries, walking through Dublin is like being at the league of nations.

Meeting with Jim’s eldest brother in a genteel establishment, pitching emotions as we hear the news that can’t be told in letters and even talking makes little sense. Days and nights swirl into meeting with loved ones.

Breakfast at the Castle hotel, a cacophony of European languages surrounding belly’s full of a traditional Irish breakfast. People cheering themselves on despite the pervading grey. Summer temperature hovering around the teens interspersed with light then heavy rain. Quite a change after the 40’s in Spain.

Time out of mind at Clara Cottage in the Wicklow Mountains, shared meals and love surrounded by the beauty of the amazing country.

 

Too soon it is time to go with promises of a quick return.

 

 

Santa Maria de El Paular-Rascarfria

 Rascafria

Course 353 staring 29^th July till August 3^rd 2012.

Rascafría is a beautiful, peaceful town in the northwestern area of the Madrid region. It is set in the amazing Lozoya valley. The area has been settled for a long time.

In the town there is a church of San Andres the Apostle which was built in the 15^th century. It’s central nave has Gothic vaults and coffered ceilings. In the bell tower we saw three stork’s nests. Awesome builders

The monastery at Rascafria El Paular was founded in the 14^th century. It is two kilometres from town. The church is magnificent. The stone façade was worked from stone by Gil de Hontanon.The area we were staying in is run by the Sheraton Hotel and it was originally  part of the monastery. It has fabulous gardens, a great swimming pool and many courtyards and passages and libraries. It was a little like something out of Harry Potter.

The monastery was built in the 14^th Century and is amazing. There is a huge corridor that runs around the church and the 56 huge paintings that Vicente Carducho painted between 1626 and 1632 of the life of St Bruno, Founder of the Benedictine monastery are hung here. They have been collected and restored by the Prad museum and returned to the monastery and were wonderful to see. We went for a tour of the monastery guided by a sprightly monk who had been at the monastery for 53 years and was a friend of the Pope. I think he was amazed by my purple hair as he kept taking me by the arm and propelling me around the cloisters and the refectory. He spoke no English but when he asked one of our Spanish friends where I was from and he answered Australia, he said that he had had a friend who went to Australia to bring God to the people but they weren’t very attentive. Despite the weird interaction it was a great visit and an amazing monastery.

 

Our group consisted of 7 Spaniards and 13 English with our facilitator Merissa, an Australian woman who had lived in Spain for 20 years and Pete, the Master of Ceremonies from the UK also living in Spain. We had English, USA, Canadians, Croatians, Singaporeans and us and of course 7 awesome Spaniards. Like the previous group they amazed and inspired us. The program was roughly similar to the previous program, with lots of theatre sports, walks and laughter. The countryside was stunning and we took every opportunity to go for walks or sit in the peaceful gardens of the monastery surrounded by ancient trees who were wise with the observations of the centuries.

 

 

 

Our Spanish hosts are

Miquel A

Miquel M

Isobel

Laura

Alvaro Loring

Francisco

Estabelth

They are such fun and fabulous people and told us about the Via de la Platz (the silk road) and the amazing fire festival in Valencia in 15^th -19^th March. I would love to go there.

The Anglos were Sally (IK) Hanbin Zen (Singapore via Paris) Nick and Debbie (UK) John (USA) Jenna and Sandy (Canada) Jan (Isle of Wight) Clare and Veronica (Croatia)

On Thursday evening we walked into the town of Rascarfia. There is an amazing natural chocolate shop there where we sampled a number of chocolates (delicious) and also enjoyed beer and tapas by the little river that runs through the town.

Each night brings its own entertainment, We have had a celebration and salutation to the Gods with the creation of some liquor steeped in herbs and orange skins and set alight that is performed in the Basque country where they speak a form of Spanish that no one else understands! An Interesting night held in the courtyard cloisters of the old monastery.
 

 

 

Another fantastic week.