Up and down

Up your's!

Many years ago I lived in Bristol (or Brizzle as the locals put it). I quite enjoyed this friendly city and have fond memories. My hill running improved a lot as one of my training routes involved climbing up out of the gorge to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. One of the suburbs fairly close to the centre of Bristol is Totterdown - quite appropriate given the steepness of some of its streets, particularly Vale Street which is supposed to be the steepest street in Britain.

So it was with delight that we spotted the world's steepest street In Dunedin, New Zealand, this being Baldwin Street on the north side of town. I had no desire to climb it since I'd just finished the local running club Leith Harriers' annual mountain race. Generally the mountain runs I've done in the US, Australia and New Zealand have been interesting but short on vista as they mostly follow forest trails, so a lot of the time all you see are trees and more trees. This was a refreshing change as, halfway up the first climb, we emerged from the track through bushland onto an open mountain where the views were stunning. I decided not to go for the full 26 K and was happy to do just two of the three peaks going home in 10thin a bit under an hour and a half. Watching the final 26 K runners staggering over the line at four and a half hours I felt a bit of a fraud but at the same time managed to justify my choice of event to myself.

And having had Cyclone Debbie affect us in Australia we're now hit with the remnants of Cyclone Cook. It passed overhead in the middle of the night here in Wellington - not too windy now as it's been downgraded to a storm but it's dumped lots of rain. So we're off for a breezy walk this morning but don't expect us to be getting a fast time in the Parkrun tomorrow - unless the wind changes direction at the halfway turnaround. (Cyclones are the southern hemisphere version of hurricanes and they are also named in alphabetical order - so why is Cook after Debbie? It's because Cyclone Cook came from Fiji whereas Debbie came from north of Australia - two different naming regions altogether!)

A Bit of History for a Change - ANZAC!

Later this month it's Anzac Day - this is the equivalent for Australia and New Zealand of Remembrance Sunday. We visited the crypt of the Shrine of Remembrance in Brisbane where the dawn ceremony will take place on 25th April and were entertained by the curator, an ex-Army chappie who originally hailed from Hereford. One of the curiosities that we discussed related to the yellow crest (seen on this street signpost) which recognises the fact that the person named (in this case William Birdwood) was a war hero. We are staying just round the corner from Gellibrand Street - and I spotted that this also has a yellow crest on it.

A young Gellibrand.

John Gellibrand was from a prominent Tasmanian family, he was sent to Sandhurst and passed out top of the class. Joining the South Lancashire Regiment he served in the Boer War moving on to be a captain in the Manchester Regiment. He left the army to be a farmer back in Tasmania but at the outbreak of WW1 he offered his services, served gallantly in lots of battles and towards the end of the war ended up as a Major General, one of the four senior commanders of the Australian forces in Europe. Some of the first world war generals faced criticism after the war for poor decision making which led to unnecessary loss of life, however Gellibrand seems to have come out of things quite well and was clearly a sensible  clever chap - he went back to Tassie and grew apples for the rest of his life.

An older Monash.

More first world war history! And this is the biography that I find most fascinating. Sir John Monash, according to that impeccable source of information Wikipedia (!), is considered one of the best Allied generals of the First World War and the most famous commander in Australian military history. He led battalions and brigades at Gallipoli, Amiens, etc., etc. and, despite not being a professionally trained officer, reached the heights in terms of the chains of command. His influence was widely recognised and he has given his name to four towns, a hospital, a university and a motorway. He was awarded the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre,  the British KCOB and KCMG, the US DSM and countless other medals but he didn't receive an Australian award. The fact that he came from Germany and was Jewish seems to have had something to do with this. Nevertheless he is still a highly respected historical figure and there are ongoing moves to have his contribution respectively recognised by the Australian Government.

Going back to the picture at the top of the page - William Birdwood was yet another distinguished army officer who led the Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli. It was the best street sign picture I could find so he got the nod!

Soggy Pies!

Wet pies.

Here's the world famous Yatala Pie Shop - under water! The Cyclone that affected Northern Queensland turned into a major storm in Southern Queensland and dumped a metre or two of rain resulting in widespread flooding - this is one of the casualties. We drove past but weren't able to go through the drive in section of the pie shop - was hoping the try the Traddie Pie (steak, bacon, cheese, tomato and egg).

All roads lead to the river.

This is the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland's map of the traffic problems near Brisbane on Saturday morning. Flooded roads are represented by the blue symbols, the red symbols are closed roads that have been affected by the floods, yellow signs indicate hazards such as debris or fallen trees on the road. We thought we were marooned at Mount Tamborine but somehow managed to find a way through back to Brisbane!

And we're still managing to find nice beer - these are some of our favourites at the Embassy Bar in the city.

I'll have some of what Roger's having...........

...............and I'll have a jug of kippers.

Talking of pie shops reminds me of Colm O'Rourke who was a contemporary of Tim Martin the Wetherspoons man. In the 1980's Colm had a similar idea for a chain of traditional pubs serving good beer but his USP was somewhat wacky. His twenty or so ale houses were in the midlands and the flagship pub was called Mad O'Rourke's Pie Factory at Tipton, dish of the day was always the Desperate Dan Cow Pie! Other outlets included The Little Tumbling Sailors in the back streets of Kidderminster which featured Britain's only inland lighthouse and The Little Sauce Factory in Worcester (where else!) The only one in the chain that I visited was at Willenhall, this being Mad O'Rourke's Kipper House which was a refuelling stop to break a long car journey back from Devon to Manchester. Sadly in 1999 Colm made the mistake of selling his chain to Usher's of Trowbridge who, according to a contemporary reporter,  "spectacularly ruined the company."

Are you desperate, Dan?