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Venezia all’Inverno (Venice in winter)
Destination Venice, for a week of painting at Julian Hyzler's art retreat. The first day of Summer in Melbourne (December 1) started as...
Andrea P
Sep 4, 20235 min read
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Cusco and Machu Picchu
I arrived in Auckland on 5AM flight from Melbourne, only to find LAN flight to Santiago was delayed by about an hour, which made for a...
Andrea P
Aug 22, 202311 min read
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Food and wine in Nice, Alba and Modena
It would have been nice, arriving in Nice, if my lease car had been what I’d ordered, but Renault Europe knew better and ‘upgraded’ me to...
Andrea P
Aug 22, 20237 min read
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Painterly Art (and tricks)
A couple of COVID years has meant I've spent many productive leisure hours in the studio, and have continued experimenting and refining...
Andrea P
Apr 8, 20223 min read
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The Black Swan & Tommy Banks
It’s an hour’s drive from Everingham to Oldstead in Yorkshire, and Jerry, having spent his whole life in various spots along the way,...
Andrea P
Jul 9, 20212 min read
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Views from the Vaucluse
I first visited the Vaucluse (department #84) in 1984, when my Parisian friends, Patrick and Edmee, had purchased a former Ashram,...
Andrea P
Jul 9, 20212 min read
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Monumental Madrid (September 2013)
We caught the fast train (cruising speed 300kph) from Barcelona to Madrid - 2:45hrs to cover 500km. It was a smooth and comfortable way...
Andrea P
Jun 3, 20218 min read
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Painting in Tuscany (September 2019)
An early start out of Lucca saw us in Certaldo by 8:45am at the dealership responsible for delivering Karen’s hire car for use during her...
Andrea P
Feb 9, 202110 min read
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Syria - the Arab Spring (March 2011)
Now here's a funny thing - Syrians love soap operas! Especially during Ramadan when everyone's in abstinence mode. Sitting around the...
Andrea P
Oct 3, 20206 min read
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The Great White Continent (2005)
So this time it’s off to Planet Penguin. Having committed to this in a moment of weakness, by the time we’d stopped off at Auckland via...
Andrea P
Sep 26, 202027 min read
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COVID Art - Venice
March 23, 2020. The first lockdown kicked in - just for six weeks. By this stage the pandemic had arrived in Europe, starting with...
Andrea P
Sep 6, 20202 min read
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A weekend in Paris (April 2009)
Well, Etihad, despite any misgivings about Middle Eastern airlines after Ruth had her arm slashed by Emirates several years, ago, the...
Andrea P
Jul 16, 20206 min read
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Tippling around the world (vicariously) in lockdown!
My first task in lockdown (March 23, but who's counting) was to clean out the bar. And, given that my May and September travel plans were...
Andrea P
May 25, 20204 min read
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The French Laundry
The French Laundry is on most foodies’ A-list of destinations, Rich had managed to get us a reservation for Sunday lunch, and we worked...
Andrea P
May 1, 20204 min read
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Chitwa Chitwa safari (March 2019)
A quick flight to Hordspruit, then a 90-minute transfer across country found us entering Sabi Sands - the 65,000 hectare park adjoining...
Andrea P
Apr 12, 20208 min read
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Andalusia aboard Al Andalus
Hopefully, we were saving the best until last - a week-long train trip around Andalusia. So Bill and I headed off to the Alfonso XIII...
Andrea P
Apr 1, 202013 min read
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The Canadian
Union Station in Toronto is happily just a snowy stroll across the street from the Fairmont Royal York Hotel (where QEII and Phil the...
Andrea P
Apr 1, 20205 min read
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Barcelona!
The next stage of Bill's holiday was a high-end rail/river tour of the highlights of Northern Spain and Portugal, so he was booked into...
Andrea P
Apr 1, 20207 min read
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Costa Rica-Panama Canal-Ecuador
From Havana, it was an overnight sail around the north-west tip of Cuba and south headed for the Panama Canal. We stopped off at Cayman...
Andrea P
Feb 5, 202017 min read
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41 Degrees Experience
‘To call 41’ Experience a restaurant is to call Frank Gehry a draughtsman. The Adria creation is superlative sensory theatre, with every...
Andrea P
Oct 20, 20192 min read
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