Country Victoria

Caroline and I drove out of Melbourne yesterday up the Hume Freeway to Wangaratta, where we are basing ourselves for a couple of days. First thing this morning we headed up the Great Alpine Road without a clear idea of where we were going to end up. We decided to go to Beechworth first, where we had breakfast at the famous Beechworth Bakery. A short stroll around this historic country Victorian town followed, and then a drive to the gorge around which Beechworth is built.

At the tourist information we were told we wouldn’t need to be carrying wheel chains to go up Mt. Beauty or Mt. Buffalo, so we drove towards Bright with the intention of going up Mt. Buffalo first. However, the information we were given was wrong, and we did need chains, so in Bright we hired some. They looked easy enough to attach when the mechanic was showing us, but thankfully we haven’t had to use them yet! Anyway, with this new level of security we decided that we might as well go very high, so we headed off to Mt. Hotham. A 3 hour pass was more than enough time to experience snow for the first time in 5 years, and Mt. Hotham was full of people snowing, snowboarding or tobogganing. I have to admit to feeling somewhat of an alien at Mt. Hotham, as everyone in snow boots walks in a distinctive manner placing the heel down first whereas I was wearing normal shoes and was obviously different!

After a brief but pleasant time at Mt. Hotham we headed back down to Bright and then on to Wangaratta. We arrived back fairly famished and found a place in the main street of Wangaratta called Café Martini. It’s basically a wood fired pizza restaurant, but luckily for us that was not all. The menu had something for everyone and I had Tarragon Chicken wrapped in prosciutto and served with sweet potato mash, a honey mustard sauce, and vegetables. Caroline had pork belly with home made apple sauce, potato gratin and vegetables. Both the meats were cooked excellently and the flavours of the meals were mouth watering. I also had a coffee which lacked the sophistication of Melbourne barista’s, but actually reminded me of the filter coffee served in diners in the USA, strong and thick. I actually quite enjoyed it, though it was better drunk a little cooler. If you find yourself in Wangaratta, then I can definitely recommend this rustic feeling restaurant.

A friendly Kookaburra in Bright.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to the alps, but probably to Mt. Beauty.

Caroline is the real photographer in the family.

A few days away

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to the country with Caroline for a few days. Holidays come in all forms, but ours usually involve walking or driving long distances to see things that other people might not find very interesting. Like we once went to the North East of the USA and ended up driving about 2000 miles in 3 weeks, but we saw some amazing things like the fall colours in the White Mountains. This week we’re heading to Bright in the Alpine region of Victoria to see some snow. There’ll be plenty of walking, quite a bit of driving, lots of photography and some time to clear the head ready for the challenges which will come up over the next 3 months.

When I get back, I’ll be playing some chess in the Victorian Championship. And of course I’ll be back to coaching chess and I need to start thinking about some programs. And I’m even playing a couple of games against Paul Cavezza that I’ll be thinking about.

I’d love to write a chess book, or any book for that matter, though I know my biggest problem is seeing something through to the end. So perhaps I’ll finally get round to writing that book inspired by the Melbourne Chess Club Endgame Group that I run. For inspiration I have been looking at the Bulwer-Lytton contest results for 2010. The Bulwer-Lytton contest is an annual competition for the worst opening line of a novel inspired by the opening line of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton’s novel “Clifford”:

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

From all the entries, in various genres, a grand winner is announced, and this year Molly Ringle of Seattle won with the inspirational:

“For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss–a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.”

You can check out all the winners since the competition began in 1983. My particular favourite is from 1986, but they are all great.

“The bone-chilling scream split the warm summer night in two, the first half being before the scream when it was fairly balmy and calm and pleasant for those who hadn’t heard the scream at all, but not calm or balmy or even very nice for those who did hear the scream, discounting the little period of time during the actual scream itself when your ears might have been hearing it but your brain wasn’t reacting yet to let you know.” – Patricia Presutti’s 1986