The Dubbo Chronicles ... 2nd Road Trip

Last week I was away again on another work trip, travelling round various new emergency departments and gathering feedback from them about their designs (what works well, what they wouldn't do again, and why). We start the schematic phase our plans for the new department next month, so it was important we concluded all our R&D this month. Which has meant that I have got to see more of the state on my 1400km round trip.

It was a sunny morning when we set off from Dubbo, north towards Tamworth.

As we headed north the miles and miles of arid land started to green up a little...

 Above: View just outside Coolah.

Below: View around about Premer.

When we arrived in Tamworth we discovered it happened to be the Tamworth Country Music Festival week. So after a few hours at the ED there, we headed into town to grab a bite to eat and look around...

The awards for the festival include the Golden Guitar Award, hence the large golden guitar. It is somewhat obligatory to have one's photo taken next to the big guitar, so we did...

After an early night we set off at 7am for our next destination, Port Macquarie, on the east coast...

The scenery started off fairly similar to that of most of the western NSW area, but then little by little gave way to greener pastures and forest...

 Above and Below: Views soon after leaving Tamworth.

Below: Views as we started to enter the Cottan-Bimbang National Park.

There was a steady climb up hill as we went through the forest, which was full of ferns and eucalypts, including some quite old ones...

There were signs along the way warning drivers to beware of Kangaroos, Koalas and even Wombats.

Through the forest we started out descent to the plains of the east coast...

It was a lot greener on this side of the mountain range...

After arriving in the early afternoon and spending a couple of hours at the ED there, we took a break and I managed to go to the beach for the first time in 3 years I've been here...

Although there were a couple of beaches with marauding children and loud families (being school holidays), there were also several which were strangely devoid of people, even though the adjacent bays were heaving. 

This is Rocky Beach, just above Flynn's beach...

I took a coastal walk along all of the beaches...

 

The walk took me past Sea Acres Rainforest National Park...

Which is where I came across this strange bird on a track, which I've since found out is an Australian Brush Turkey...

Eventually I made it past Miner's beach up to tacking point light house...

The lighthouse is Australias 3rd oldest.

Tacking point was named by Matthew Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia in 1802. 

Above: The original lighthouse plans.

I climbed down the hill on to the rocks to get closer to the crashing surf...

Having finished by coastal walk I headed inland and was surprised to find a field full of camels! Not what I was expecting, but evidently camel rides are quite popular.

The next morning we set of to Sydney to visit a further two EDs there.

It was a fine sunny morning, but the trip was long and the scenery unchanging. The road unfortunately does not follow the coast, due to the coves and peninsulas, and so it was the freeway all the way down to Hornsby.

Concluding our business for that day we checked into the hotel. What a view...

Above and below: The view from my bedroom window by day and by night.

The following day, after visiting our last ED we headed back west to Dubbo. It took us 6 hours, and as we drew closer to home it was clear a storm was setting in. We made it home before it started pelpting down with rain, and I managed to get some dramatic stormy pics as we drove...

Above and Below: Views near Lake Windamere.

 Above "Lone Tree 1"

Below: Stormy Hill

 Above: "Love Tree 2"

Above: "Rain on the horizon".

This coming week we are off on an overnight trip to Wagga Wagga, to see the new ED there, which has only been open for 2 weeks. It's great to learn from one's mistakes, but its even better to learn from those of others. Hopefully we can avoid many pitfalls in our new development by doing the rounds. 

Shopping for Chinoiserie...

The other day I went shopping in Dubbo for Chinoiserie for the Blenheim suite, and was surprised to come cross a fairly large stock of it at one shop, of varied shapes and quality...

I ended up buying only 4 little jars (which cost me $3 each) which I thought would make nice accents in the room:

When I get home at the start of next month I will be in full decorator mode. We have a professional photographer flying in to take photos for the website and promotional literature.

The main task I will have will be editing the rooms. Peter is currently cohorting all the themed items together for each room. I will then go through each room and arrange them, deciding what is going to stay and what is out. 

One of the things I have learnt from reading through many of my fellow bloggers' posts is that editing is the key in making sure a room looks tasteful. Anyone can find a conglomeration of themed items, be it cultural themes, colour themes, or temporal themes; but the real art to creating a tasteful vignette is to be incredibly selective in what goes into a room, and not just where it goes. 

One of the Hotel Inspector's biggest bugbears with interior design is people who offer boutique accommodation amongst the second hand detritus of their homes: idiosyncratic curios collecting dust, unedited surfaces decreasing both beauty and utility of spaces. 

Below is one such unedited vignette of the Blenheim suite. Peter and I have started to group the things we want to display in the room together, but as of yet there has been no editing...

For a start the temporary stained oak shelves are going in favour of a lighter brighter rococo gilt wood console with a Carrara marble top. The gold will help keep the room feeling light and bright and luxurious, whereas the dark timber starts to bring the room down.

We should have chosen to have the balloon chair water-gilded as well, but I don't think that the mahogany will have too much of a dampening effect with the large volume of teal silk comprising the bulk of the chair. 

We are pretty pleased with how the wallpaper turned out. It is a very strange colour to try to match, but we have chosen to try to match it to shades of blue always, and not shades of green, in an effort to bring out the most blue in the walls, carpet and fabric as possible. Then using gold accents, which will go with any colour, we will try to  create multiple vignettes, such as by using a range of sconces to display our oriental porcelain, Chinese Foo dogs, and cloisonne enamel vases on the walls...

I think a couple of sconces go a long way...

it may be a case where less is more...

We have a few very jolly Chinoiserie prints which we are having framed for the walls, and plan to create a seating arrangement at the foot of the bed with themed art books on oriental art and design, as well as books on the room's namesake, Blenheim palace. As you can see, there is enough room to carefully create a little sitting area at the foot of the bed...

Similar to the design of these other hotel rooms, which all seem to make use of the foot of the bed to create a separate area within a bedroom...

The black and gold lacquered Chinese cabinets have gold butterflies Japanned upon them. The little red and gold Chinese lamps on the bedside were the ones on either side of our bed at our last house. We have bought a pair of blue and white vase lamps to replace them, which are about twice the size, and will have a better scale within the space:

And of course we will have a few white phalaenopsis orchids. All our rooms have fresh flowers for guests whether they be cut china tea roses, or potted orchids...

A few of my favourite blogs which have many more examples of Chinoiserie design and offer items for sale are:

The Pink Pagoda

Chinoiserie Chic

The Enchanted Home