Family

Splendid Lake Tahoe Weekend: Boating & Partying – May 2025

Splendid Lake Tahoe weekend: boating & partying; getting there: JSX flight to Reno, like catching a bus; liver punishment briefly postponed; Tahoe Beach Club; oysters and filé gumbo at Oyster Bar, Stateline Nevada; living it up on the lake with Eric and Renée; Steve, the Cold Plunge Hero of Emerald Bay; exactly why Fun Ain’t Easy; Vesper martinis to die for (or from); The Lucky Beaver and The Naked Fish; Lest we Forget add-on: Solo in Durban: my solo trip for Julie’s 60th Birthday; Up Next: Singapore and Bawah Reserve, Indonesia, yay!

Lake Tahoe Weekend

Our friends Ellie and Steve have a fabulous holiday home at Tahoe Beach Club on Lake Tahoe, Nevada. To surprise us while we were spending a week with them in California, they had booked JSX flights from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport – a small airport conveniently close to their Newport beach condo – to Reno, Nevada.

Boarding a JSX semi-private jet flight to Reno

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Newport Beach, California, May 2025

Getting to Newport Beach, Orange County; Malibu still a no-go after 2025 fires; LA still a great big freeway; Roy’s Death Row birthday menu; ferry to Balboa Island; swilling Chablis at Circle Hook, sublime soft serve at Somi Somi, unphotogenic raclette at Basilic; palm tree trivia: feeble fronds and a dearly departed arborist; sublime casual dining at JOEY’s; lunch “on the beach” at Montage Resort, Laguna Beach; purveyors of boots and artichokes at San Juan Capistrano; huge thanks to our amazing hosts – next up, Lake Tahoe!

Steve, Ellie, Roy and a trio of Vesper martinis

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Vancouver, May 2025 – Part 3: Vancouver City

Vancouver False Creek townhouse and marina; snot quotient obstacle; famously fit Vancouverites; downtown and the skytrain; no dogs allowed, but bring on the coyotes; inukshuk welcome; marathon supporters; A-maze-ing Laughter by Yue Minjin; uber-glam quintet in Morton Park; the club of clubs; the Sandbar never disappoints; Whistler day trip; most scenically situated Lululemon in the world; not just family, but new-found friends – thank you, Brad and Ingrid, for your amazing hospitality!

Sandbar, Granville Island, Vancouver City

My cousin Bradley and his lovely wife, Ingrid (scroll down for a great picture of them), have a beautiful townhouse that’s ideally located in Yaletown, right on the False Creek marina where he keeps his boat. They are the same my-cousin-and-his-wife who met us off the HAL Westerdam a few days ago and took us to their home on Gabriola Island. (Click here for that post, Part Two of three on Vancouver.)

Marinaside, Yaletown, Vancouver

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Vancouver, May 2025 – Part 2: Gabriola Island

Where is Gabriola Island?; coffee, hiccups and kindness; Route of the Totems; dream home; Elder Cedar forest where Hobbits tread; Folklife Village, island artists and chi chi shops

Not everyone has heard of Gabriola Island, and I suspect that many of the locals would like to keep it that way. It’s about 14.5km long and 4.5km wide, located in the Strait of Georgia, between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. We will be spending three nights here with my cousin Brad and his wife, Ingrid, who have their main home on the island … and what a home it is.

Bradley and Roy, Gabriola Island

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Vancouver, May 2025 – Part 1: Victoria B.C.

Fresh off the boat in Victoria B.C.; an excess of polite wondering; extreme salubriousness at The Empress Fairmont; tiptoeing through tulips, around flower baskets and past the homeless and abject; marijuana debate; dinner at Il Terrazzo

After five days at sea, Roy and I were ready to disembark from HAL Westerdam and face the immigration process in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We’d been extensively coddled during our 28-day cruise from Sydney; now we were going to be looked after by my cousin, Bradley, and his wife Ingrid, South Africans who emigrated to Canada over 30 years ago.

(Click here for the first of my five posts on that Westerdam cruise… but please remember to come back.)

There’s nothing better than having family or friends living abroad, and it’s clear we’re going to have a fabulous time being shown their neck of the woods, as Brad put it.

Brad and Ingrid had to wait outside – in glorious sunshine, fortunately – while we gnashed our teeth in the long immigration queue. A single official was on duty. This is Canada, famous for niceness and courtesy, so there was a lot of polite wondering going on ahead of and behind us. After about half an hour of little movement, a second and more energetic young man clocked in, and things started to happen.

One night in Victoria B.C.

To my delight, my cousins had booked rooms for the night at the Fairmont Empress – their favourite – to give us a chance to see a bit of Victoria.

Horse-drawn carriage in Victoria, B.C.

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The House that Roy & Verne Built, Part 4 – Our House

Our house, at last completed; You Will Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties; Get the Party Started; Our House; Build Me Up, Buttercup; Roy’s baby; Art Deco upstairs; man cave moments; The Lift Girl’s Lament; Bed(s) of Roses; sounding the retreat; more stuff; as the stomach churns

Let me start on a celebratory note with some party pics, including my birthday and our housewarming party on 8 March. Otherwise, we may all glaze over at the seventh picture of tiling/paving, switch off and never get to see Roy and me thoroughly enjoying our long-awaited new home.

You Will Always Find me in the Kitchen at Parties – Jona Lewie (1980)

 

Christmas Day 2024 at 543 Burns Beach Road, our first tree in 10 years: Roy, Verne, Holly, Carrie, Mia and Carl

Moving In Day was 16 December 2024. By then, the house was completely liveable, even comfortable. There was still plenty to be done: gates, landscaping and the commissioning of the lift, for example. We were able to have family over on Christmas Day, basking in the twinkle of our first Christmas tree since we left Singapore in 2016.

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Marseillan Port, 2-29 June 2024, Part 1

A month in Marseillan port, a gorgeous spot in the South of France; avoiding confusion;  cassoulet at Marseillan Plage; Here Come the Campbells… the Baragwanaths and Wendy; out and about in Marseillan; running around L’Étang de Thau; two fêtes worse than death (not really); Marseillan Cheat Sheet; our favourite restaurants; best day-trips from Marseillan

A full year ago, Roy booked us a two-bedroom apartment in Résidence Farenc in the port town of Marseillan, right on the water, for almost the entire month of June. Four weeks might sound like a long time to be in the same place. But when the time came to leave, I felt I could have stayed another month. Roy said he felt the same way.

Marseillan port
One month later, and 4kg heavier: Our last oyster feast at Coqui Thau before leaving Marseillan at the end of June

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Two Weeks in England, 15-30 May 2024, Part 1

Two weeks in England: The Plan; Singapore stopover; nothing to wear; cream tea at The Relais Henley; not visiting Blenheim Palace, Woodstock; not visiting Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford Upon Avon; Roy’s family birthday

It wasn’t easy for Roy to leave the house we’re having built in Perth WA, especially at rather a critical point – our cursed builder went into liquidation, remember? – but this trip had been booked a year earlier. Two weeks in England, then the full month of June in the South of France – bookended by three days in Singapore.

He had planned this first post-COVID trip to England mainly with extended family in mind. It felt well due. His sister Lyndsay and John live near Stratford Upon Avon, so it made sense to kick off with a week there. Then, not having seen Aunty Marjorie, cousin Richard and cousin Kate for far too many years, we would head up to the Wirrall and Liverpool for a few days. Finally, we’d spend four nights in London.

Getting there

We took an SIA flight from Perth to Singapore, arriving on the evening of Sunday 12 May for three days with the ever-hospitable Paul and Salinah. Thanks, guys!

Singapore, all about food and friends… and foodie friends

They do not love that do not show their love.”

Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

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Peckish in Perth: Eating out in the CBD, June 2023

Eating out in Perth WA often means heading into the city. Our northern coastal suburbs offer wonderful beaches, lots of fresh air and a healthy lifestyle, but not much in the way of good restaurants. 

Sometimes, we’ll even pack our bags and do a dirty stop-out for a night or two – like we did on the first weekend of June. It just so happened that our great friends Lynn and Kim (based between Yallingup WA and Singapore), were enjoying a touristy stay-cay in the city, complete with a walking tour and a cruise to Fremantle.

A touristy weekend – but mercifully stopping short of boarding this topless bus

They would be at The Citadines. So Roy went online and booked us a studio apartment there too. It’s conveniently located at 185 St Georges Terrace. (Is it just me*, or are you wondering about the road name? I’d be surprised to learn that there were multiple saints with the same moniker. Ah… seems the Terrace was named after St George’s Cathedral, but the apostrophe simply became too hard.)

[*Roy: Yes, dear. It’s just you.]

Roy: Yes, dear. It’s just you.

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French Triangle Part 3: Dordogne, Carcassonne and Provence

Travel in France: Post-Plague family reunion in Saint-Geniès; dining in the Dordogne; Death Row dinner; tricked into being side-tracked to Montech for lunch, poor Roy!; canal-side in Carcassonne, and why we seldom eat steak in France; Hotel Renaissance at Aix-en-Provence; murals and Ricard at La-Seyne-sur-Mer; cliffs and calanques at Cassis; flagrant disregard of cycle-path etiquette in La Ciotat; homeward bound, with a lot of excess baggage!

Three nights in the Dordogne

As a reminder, this is the first leg of our French triangle: from St Jean-de-Losne in Burgundy to the Dordogne. (NB: There will be a test.)

The heavier line, heading southwest from SJDL to the Dordogne

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