Sabrage

We went to a demonstration of "sabrage" - opening a champagne bottle with a sabre - at a famous wine farm in Franschoek, in the S.A Cape.
I only had an underwater camera with me to take these snaps....and they were scanned later.






Two friends and myself had put Jeannie in as a leftie "volunteer".
Jeannie was up for anything!




The owner of Haut Cabriere, Akim von Arnem, towers his 2m above little Jeannie... and shows her how to quickly slide the sabre up the back-seam of the bottle.

This is the "coup" .... you can just see the cork and top of the bottle neck against the white wall, flying off the chopped bottle.

Voila !




A bottle of "Pierre Jourdan" bubbly fizzes onto the ground, and we all have another drink.





A Sabre eh?
Nice !


We must get one of these for the flat in Gozo.

Pete's champagne collection will fall readily to it's ministrations

.... ..... ...... maybe not!?!

We'll always have Paris.......

We'll always have Paris..... We love the little side streets in the "Quatier Latin"....for our last few visits we have always stayed within stiking distance of Rue Mouffetard, with it's cobbled road of bars and restaurants - surrounded by the Sorbonne.
The gardens and shops - creperies & gelaterias - champagne bars, street-performers, and the hubbub of the left bank.



This is what we do well -- sit in restaurants, eat, drink and laugh about it all.





We wandered around the gardens, and river banks of Paris. Trying to walk off the restaurants that punctuated our lives. Having both lived in Paris at different times of our lives, we loved the city - and tolerated the people. Jean was lacking energy since coming back coming back from a Malaga holiday with her sister a week before. She had consulted doctors in the UK, but ECG's and various other tests had found nothing wrong.


One of the reasons we met up in Paris again at the end of May 08, was for Jean to see the family of Francoise, the doctor for whom she worked as an au-pair many, many years ago.
We visited them in the XVI arrondissement when the French Tennis Open was on.

These are the two "babies" she wheeled around the Luxemburg Gardens



Jean loves walking - and she can out-walk me.


Staying opposite the "Jardin de Plantes" in Paris, we did our usual wanderings - but she was tiring easily - and she resolved to see our doctor, on return to Gozo.
Ten days later, Jean saw our doctor, Robert Sciberras, on Friday 13th June 2008, and he realised that there was a lot of fluid on her left lung.
This one and a half litres of fluid was drained the next day.

Here is Jeannie, on her way to Malta for her first MRI - to try and find out what was happening to her - and why she was overtaken by this new listlessness.

We met up with our best friends on Gozo - Frank and Betty Plunkett - who'd we've known for 25 years.






Frank & myself on the ferry with our ladies - happy as sand-boys as usual - little did we know.










This is Jeannie, waiting for her first MRI at St. James' Hospital Malta, where a tumour with plural diffusions was diagnosed on Monday 15th. Many drainages, chemo- and irradiation treatments followed at the Boffa Hospital in Malta. It was a hot, tiring summer for her, and the tumour was receding.


She received permission to travel to the UK - to the wedding of Sade and John in December - and then again for Christmas and New Year with family and friends.


Unfortunately she collapsed on January 2nd, at her sister Betty's house in Felixstowe.
At Ipswich hospital she was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism on her GOOD lung!
I made it back to see her at 12 am on Friday the 9th - she recognised me and smiled - as she fought for oxygen. Unfortunately she passed away that afternoon at 18:00 hrs - just 210 days after Robert's first diagnosis.


Her lovely best-friend Betty passed away quietly, five days later.
Frank and myself were devastated.

Happy New Year

I drag my new microscope back to Gozo, and then I have to go back to work.

The thing that I'll really "miss" in San Francisco, will be the crab!
The "Crab restaurant" at Pier 40 has photos of Tony Bennett, Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra etc - a whole host of 40-60's Hollywood stars.
But it also had about twenty ways of serving these giant crabs!

We'll be back again in August '09

This is my new microscope that I had sent to the Radisson at Fisherman's wharf in SFO all the way from Amscope in Los Angeles. It has an outlet for the camera-computer linkage, and is 2-180X with all kinds of accessories for looking at my gems, fossils and coins.

I dragged it back to Gozo in a massive aluminium 'brief' case.
Kids and visitors love it.



You are really back in Gozo when you are back in the Gleneagles - fisherman's bar - bastardos & mafiosi. George & mate feature here.











Andrew - keeping his own peace.



We've been through a lot of wine & food together - my mate Revel with one of his fancy Fleet Street waistcoats!

Denise discovered some of the leather gear from Castro, and was taken with it.

Yes, she has a bikini on as she has come to my place to try out the new spa!

Honest!

Denise came out with Jean and myself to meet Julian at one of many dinner parties. His wife, Robin, plus Revel and Paula are out of picture.

The "Demi-Monde" are always around in Gozo : here's Revel affecting boredom, ennui, etc or is it just Chardonnay?

One of the rare occasions went out with my brother Chris and his wife Sue, at a jolly function at the Grand in Gozo.

Old men - young women! I should be arrested! Ah the lovely Natasha loves to dance!

The good life draws to a close - we'll be packing soon.

Unhand me sir - and go to work!

Only one day back in Chad, and I encountered this fellow : I was naked in my bathroom and he was wizzing around at 30mph. I gassed it - and when we reconstituted the golf-ball like corpse it came out to be about 4" long - a baby camel spider - and we don't know where mum is!
This is Regis squinting at me - as usual. He is the French Ops Geologist - and my boss & mate. A good but strange fellow, who loves wine like me!

Holger is heading for a 10 minute smoke break. When he shakes your hand - that's what you think it is - a break. What a grip!!

Jake was being transferred back to Houston afetr about 4 years here. And somebody gave him an African night-dress and told him it suited him. Shoukat is admiring the whole get-up.

Regis is having a Frenchman's afternoon mango-break with Christian.

Sam Sutin went off to work on another project in XOM - which was a relief as he was always breaking things and stealing sweets form my office. Then he ended up back on the Chad project - but from a Houston armchair + married. How some people do it?!?

Jake's still in his payjamas. Here also is Andy Zitterkopf - coin+note collector, gambler and investment guru. Now he's left XOM for Hess - I wish him luck - he was a pretty good for a drilling engineer.

Here's my good buddy & boss Sonny - erudite and lucid - well that's what he tells me!

But there are some very suspicious characters about. Possibly some hedge-fund managers or Wall St evacuees are hiding in Kome? Good free food - plenty of entertainment etc!?

California Dreaming : The Pacific coast to the North and South of San Fransisco

OK - this is what we do best.
Booze and cruise.
And sometimes eat & photograph.

We took a few guided tours out of San Fransisco City - and loved it.
We went to the Redwoods in the North, to the Aquarium in the south - showing our "Green" credentials !!


One sunny morning we visited the Redwoods at nearby Muir woods, about 40 miles north of the city. They were pretty tall - and smelled good.

It really is quiet 'jungley' in the dark damp shade of these redwoods. Jean is to scale - they are up to 300'.

On the way back from Muir woods we stopped in Sausalito - Marin county, just over the Golden Gate from the city. Yachts, water, and good views from great restaurants. This is where the hippies lived on barges in the '60's - and still do, I'm sure.

And we'll be back here again ourselves!

Tiburon - the island just over the water from Sausalito and the city - where all the billionaires live in their grand mansions.

Can you believe that lemon trees are full of fruit in Sausalito - just over the bay from San Francisco city - in balmy December?

This is the Club House overlooking the 18th hole at the famous Pebble Beach Golf Club. What a view!

I don't know how they let riff-raff like me and Jean in .... maybe we should have had some putting lessons while we were there. All the coaches look like film-stars!!

Go to the rest-room and get cleaned up after the game.

Magnificent Gold-plated pissoir in the club-house at Pebble beach - who would expect less?

The California life - just need the beach-house now.

A mansion with coastal views shows that you are entering the "17 mile drive" from Spanish Beach to Carmel - homes of the stars ...

The coastline from Spanish Beach to Carmel is picturesque; but the Pacific looks rough.

This Maltese dog took a fancy to my leg in Carmel's pet shop : "Hot Diggadee".

Maybe he/she new I lived in Malta?

Rich bitch, probably.

A Carmel house - all very posh & 'Old English'.

This is Clint Eastwood's bar "The Hog's Breath" - where you can order a 'Dirty Harry' or 'Misty' etc.

In our last few minutes here we bumped in to Ridley Scott.....just back from a Spanish Beach golf game!

Monterey - the furthest south we've been in California - up to now.

Right at the end of Cannery Row in Monterey is the world-famous aquarium, which is well worth a few hours of your time.

Some creatures you can interact with - some you'd better keep your distance.

(Note Bruno cowering away from the Leopard shark that Jean is petting).


The lighting in the aquarium is very well done - and sometimes quite breathtaking.

Monterey Aquarium is stunning. We wandered for a couple of hours - had lunch and took a hundred photos.