European Trip
12 September 2007
We have been busy the last couple of months. In July we started looking to buy a place in Melbourne together. Unfortunately this also coincided with a boom in the local real estate market and the prices have been a little daunting for property close to the inner city. We gave house-hunting a rest while we went away and have just come back to it.
I was surprised to be asked by several people at work whether I had appeared on "The Footy Show" the previous evening. I don't watch this show which is a weekly review of the upcoming AFL football games for the weekend together with some "variety" entertainment. It rates very well in Melbourne, in the top ten television shows, but few people I know watch it.
I tracked down the relevant show online and was surprised to find that they had used a picture from a party in 1999 in the process of teasing one of the panellists. The photo was used without my permission as an archetypal "gay" image, so I was effectively outed on network television.
In mid-August we went on vacation. We visited London for a few days, seeing Andrea and Massimo and also David and Jamey from San Francisco who had just come from an RSVP cruise. We visited all the major tourist stops as Jay had not been to London before. The weather was surprisingly similar to Melbourne's Winter which we had left. We happened to arrive on the day of Soho Pride, so the streets in Soho were closed and full of gay people.
We stayed just off Trafalgar Square which was excellent for walking to most of the sights. Here Jay is enjoying the glorious English Summer on our way to the National Gallery. After this and the Tate Modern, the Maritime Museum and some other museums we were just about paintinged-out by the time we went to the Uffizi in Florence. In London we met Yoav from San Diego and spent an interesting afternoon at the Natural History Museum as well as seeing an iPhone for the first time. We also had dinner with two of my cousins, Elizabeth and Craig, who work in London.
From London we flew to Barcelona, discovering in the process why British Airways was voted "Worst Airline in Europe". Business on BA was less pleasant than coach on Emirates on the way from Australia. At least our luggage wasn't lost. In Barcelona we met up with Billy and visited the Gaudi buildings and walked around the city. We would both like to return to Barcelona and have more time there in the future.
The Atlantis cruise left from Barcelona. The crowd on it was a lot of fun, with a lot more non-Americans and a slightly greater mean age than the previous Atlantis cruise I had taken in the Caribbean. We made a few new friends during the cruise and enjoyed spending time with Billy.
We did shore excursions to Valencia, Ibiza, Florence, Rome and Santorini so together with a few nights of dancing it was a very busy cruise. Here we are climbing the volcano on Nea Kameni with the ship and Fira in the background. I have made a photo album from the trip online.
The cruise finished in Athens where we had a day to visit the Acropolis and other ancient ruins and also to walk around the old part of the city. It was hard coming home and back to work especially as it was 32C (90F) in Athens when we left and 3C (37F) in Melbourne when we landed.
Next month I will be attending the ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco so I will have the chance to see a few friends there and in Los Angeles. Meanwhile Jay is away for work this week. We have yet to make plans for the Christmas and New Year period. Perhaps for the first time Jay will get to see some of the Boxing Day Test.
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I was surprised to be asked by several people at work whether I had appeared on "The Footy Show" the previous evening. I don't watch this show which is a weekly review of the upcoming AFL football games for the weekend together with some "variety" entertainment. It rates very well in Melbourne, in the top ten television shows, but few people I know watch it.
I tracked down the relevant show online and was surprised to find that they had used a picture from a party in 1999 in the process of teasing one of the panellists. The photo was used without my permission as an archetypal "gay" image, so I was effectively outed on network television.
In mid-August we went on vacation. We visited London for a few days, seeing Andrea and Massimo and also David and Jamey from San Francisco who had just come from an RSVP cruise. We visited all the major tourist stops as Jay had not been to London before. The weather was surprisingly similar to Melbourne's Winter which we had left. We happened to arrive on the day of Soho Pride, so the streets in Soho were closed and full of gay people.
We stayed just off Trafalgar Square which was excellent for walking to most of the sights. Here Jay is enjoying the glorious English Summer on our way to the National Gallery. After this and the Tate Modern, the Maritime Museum and some other museums we were just about paintinged-out by the time we went to the Uffizi in Florence. In London we met Yoav from San Diego and spent an interesting afternoon at the Natural History Museum as well as seeing an iPhone for the first time. We also had dinner with two of my cousins, Elizabeth and Craig, who work in London.
From London we flew to Barcelona, discovering in the process why British Airways was voted "Worst Airline in Europe". Business on BA was less pleasant than coach on Emirates on the way from Australia. At least our luggage wasn't lost. In Barcelona we met up with Billy and visited the Gaudi buildings and walked around the city. We would both like to return to Barcelona and have more time there in the future.
The Atlantis cruise left from Barcelona. The crowd on it was a lot of fun, with a lot more non-Americans and a slightly greater mean age than the previous Atlantis cruise I had taken in the Caribbean. We made a few new friends during the cruise and enjoyed spending time with Billy.
We did shore excursions to Valencia, Ibiza, Florence, Rome and Santorini so together with a few nights of dancing it was a very busy cruise. Here we are climbing the volcano on Nea Kameni with the ship and Fira in the background. I have made a photo album from the trip online.
The cruise finished in Athens where we had a day to visit the Acropolis and other ancient ruins and also to walk around the old part of the city. It was hard coming home and back to work especially as it was 32C (90F) in Athens when we left and 3C (37F) in Melbourne when we landed.
Next month I will be attending the ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco so I will have the chance to see a few friends there and in Los Angeles. Meanwhile Jay is away for work this week. We have yet to make plans for the Christmas and New Year period. Perhaps for the first time Jay will get to see some of the Boxing Day Test.
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