Corrie and I are back in Sydney. We are back at work doing our couple counselling and it is great to be in touch with the lives of young people seeing them working together on forming the best relationship possible in this eve changing world In the mean time, I have been working on my little book and am doing the final rewrite at this moment In between we continue walking and last week walked [...]

We are at Seoul airport and will be here 11 hours before our 10 hour trip to Sydney Hard to find a couch amongst all the families here but 2 couches may be available soon, would be nice to lie down after our 12 hour flight But a chance to write a small post and was to be a photo but the lead is in transit I have a good book and yes now a [...]

We left this morning in a new direction a part of the old city away from the central very busy part and discovered a quieter part of Madrid and while it's not the Prado, there were some lovely paintings on tiles so thought we'd post some that may be of interest. It's below 20, a slight cool breeze, perfect for walking. Each day we head off about 9 for breakfast and then a long slow [...]

We sauntered down to the river on a crisp summer’s morning; it doesn’t get to its hottest until about 6pm and then not too bad at 29. Madrid will start to scare the 40’s next week so we’ve been blessed. The Manzanares river (the part we saw is not all that attractive and therefore not much part of daily life). A lot of concrete and at the bottom of a long slope from Madrid proper [...]

Debod We went for our morning walk down to the Temple of Debod, In 1968 the Egyptian government gave the Temple of Debod to Spain in gratitude for helping to save the Abu Simbel Temple from flooding by the Aswan Dam. This small temple was rebuilt in the Rosales Park, in the center of Madrid near the Plaza de España. A lovely walk with a proliferation of trees took us through parks, beside palaces and [...]

Cervantes - Velazquez - Asisi.  A walk around town took us past Cervantes’ home and a door or so away there were 4 small cushioned chairs with a small sign saying "you can sit and put your feet up on stool provided buy a drink and eat your own food, we’ll heat it up if you require". We’ve seen no-one but us take up the offer. I love those little touches but must take a [...]

Instead of looking for a Spanish painter, we went looking for Corrie’s Spanish home not far from the city centre. On the way we came across a block of traditional wrought iron balcony apartments with these striking cartoons above every balcony. We walked up some stairs to a gorgeous park and a resident just leaving. She told us that he was a Marquess and a cartoonist, writer and journalist in Madrid, Antonio Mingote who was [...]

Another walk around the stunning Jardines. I’m not usually a fan of manicured trees but these were done branch by branch and I thought they looked great. It’s also lovely to look at the city through the eyes of a park. More hideaways than I have seen anywhere and even a shed, food and water in one of these spots, to keep the cats content and little chicks aren’t heaven sent. We later went in [...]

A young woman stood at the door smoking an already smoked cigarette. There was a near laughter smile when I asked for two tickets, she thought I might make some enquiry first. We entered a dark bar in a cave like atmosphere with two drinkers and a well built gentle looking man strumming his guitar quietly. We were given a sangria with our tickets as a young man, then an older one started gently tap [...]

Well, I was wrong. On further exploration there are bitumen roads, wider and straighter than New York, lots of bikes, runners and walkers, exercise group in one section, yoga in another, little hide-away areas with play areas, buskers, a woman playing the guitar to mothers with prams, a dog and anyone who wanted to just listen. There was a musical temple, a huge pond in front of a huge hothouse that looked like a 5 [...]