A WEEK IN THE SLOW LANE

Tucked away in the bush in the mountains above Melbourne is the little piece of paradise known as Dunmoochin. The Dunmoochin Foundation supplies artists with studio and residential studios in the Australian bush and artists come from all art forms and countries, for residential periods of six months to a year and this is where we would spend the week running up to Christmas with Alison and Simon, artists and colleagues of Marc's from the University in Aberystwyth and their lovely daughter Sally, who is 8. Ali and Simon have been living and painting at Dunmoochin for the last six months, culminating in an exhibition from 5th to 10th January where Sally is also exhibiting some of her excellent ceramic work.


We brought absolutely awful weather with us, the most torrential downpours with very rumbly thunder and lightning but this had its advantages as the water supply at Dunmoochin is rainwater only and with the severe drought out here, our daily showers which were limited to 2 minutes at the start of the week, were promoted to 4 minutes by the end, as the water-tanks were full. But this was Christmas and nothing was going to dampen our spirits!

Inbetween the downpours, we went for walks in the bush and saw huge mobs of kangaroos, sometimes up to 50 of them in a clearing. They would be grazing at first, then after spotting us, they would stand on their hind legs and check us out for a while before bouncing off gracefully, as if in slowmotion. They are truly beautiful creatures. We went possum spotting in the trees at night, then in the day we would hand-feed the Laughing Kookaburra birds that would congregate outside the house, screeching for bits of cheese which they would swoop down and take from our hands.

I got to play my first ever game of croquet at Dunmoochin, on a lawn without a blade of grass - just leaves and twigs. There was also a bit of sprinting involved as if a ball was seen to be heading for the boundary it had to be chased as it would only roll miles down the hill or even worse, into a rabbit hole. We also played boules in a pit of leaves and twigs where I managed to retain my international title, won in Spain two years ago. There is also a great swimming pool at Dunmoochin that has the bottom half of a huge slide. A few years ago, when one of the founding artists, Clifford Pugh lived here, the slide started at his bedroom window and he'd shoot down into the water first thing every day. Unfortunately his house burnt down a few years ago taking the top half of the slide with it, but it's still good to climb up, pour a bucket of water over your head and plunge into the refreshing water.

We visited the St Andrews Twilight Market up in the hills one evening which was a surreal experience - all lanterns, didgeridoo's and flowers-in-your-hair with delicious hot chocolate which we enjoyed whilst sitting on cushions in a tent. We also went rollerblading - well Sally, Ali and Marc did. A merciful assistant saw my plight in just getting up from my chair and took me off to tighten the nuts on the skates to increase the resistance so that they would not 'run-off' so easily. He suggested that I try five minutes practice on the carpet to start before getting on the rink which I did, very gingerly (Marc thought I was heading for the door) before I joined the other skaters that were whizzing round with big smiles on their faces. I managed one circuit of the rink, clinging to the side like a limpet before I decided that I didn't want a broken leg for Christmas and gave it up while I was still in one piece.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon wine-tasting at the RedBox winery just a couple of miles from home. We enjoyed a variety of fine red wine and champagne (with none of this spitting-out into a bucket business) with a platter of fruit and fine cheeses and somehow it just seemed to get more relaxed as the afternoon wore on. It was in the loo at RedBox that we met Albert. Albert was a great big hairy Huntsman spider - about 4 inches in diameter and he had taken residence on the wall right behind the loo a few weeks ago. It was a very hasty visit, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the wall behind me throughout the proceedings.

Back in the city, and in keeping with true Melburnian tradition, we pressed our noses up against the Christmas windows of Myers Department Store one evening along with dozens of other excited children to see this years' animated story and on our last night with our friends, we went to the outdoor music bowl to sing along to Carols by Candlelight which is broadcast all over Australia on TV. The show started at 9.00pm and we arrived at 6, got the last visible patch of grass and sat down amongst a sea of santa hats and candles to a fantastic picnic that Ali had packed. We sang all the traditional favourites and bopped along to All I Want for Christmas is You and Sally gave us Christmas gifts and stockings filled with Aussie chocolate coins! It was a great night which ended at midnight with spectacular fireworks when we left Sally, Ali and Simon at Flinders Street station and caught a train to meet Eifion, Marc's first cousin (once removed!) for the first time who took us home for tea and mince pies before we telephoned home to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.