NORWAY: MARCH 2013

So, soon after our last post, we went to Norway for a bit over a week. It was pretty great! Visiting our friends, and the hospitality of their family made it an extra special holiday. Here are most of our photos.

We landed in Oslo and stayed overnight with our friends. The next morning we went for a walk up the hill into the park, posed like 'The Scream' and almost had to call the emergency services to get us off a very icy hillside! But eventually we made it down and had some tasty coffee (J) and tea (D).













Then we hopped on a bus to Høydalsmo (Telemark region), where we stayed for a few days in our friend's parents' cabin. We went to a number of museums, drove around and saw the sights (mountains! fjords! old towns! ski slopes! elk! norwegian waffles!) and attempted to ski for an afternoon. We also went for some nice walks over the frozen lake and around the cross country ski track.























After a lovely relaxing stay, we jumped on a bus back to Oslo. We went to an interesting gig, saw a totally bizarre panel discussion with Camille Paglia and visited some fab museums on Bygdøy. I was particularly taken by the Viking Ships Museum and took a lot of photos of the building.











All in all - yay! A nice holiday. We hope to go back sometime in summer, when all the waterways won't be frozen over. It must be a very different experience. Thank you so much to our friends J and H, and J's family for their hospitality.

A WEEKEND IN BRIGHTON

After our last day of planting, D and M dropped us off in Brighton, where we went to the cinema to see Tintin (really just to fill in a couple of hours without dragging our packs around) then headed up to our next accommodation: our friend G's place. G and her partner A showed us around, taking us to a number of good eateries and purveyors of coffee, pointing out some of the tucked-away shops, waiting while we rummaged through the stalls lining the lanes and letting us tag along with them as they did some of their real-life errands.







As well as to see friends, we were in Brighton on a bit of a reconnaissance to see if we still liked the place (we'd been there once before) and if we still thought we could live there (DB is applying for a Masters at the University of Brighton). One of the things we hoped was that we'd be able to find some nice food and (for me) good coffee. We found some delicious food and the best coffee I've had in England on this trip, so we'll count that as a win!







By the end of the weekend, we'd been WWOOFing and travelling for 15 days, and we were looking forward to getting back to home base, washing our clothes and minding our own business for a bit! It was lovely to see how the leaves had turned in the time we'd been away. Even in the week since we'd first taken the train down to Brighton, the countryside had taken on a kind of misty, autumnal feeling and most of the trees had at least some yellow, orange, red or brown leaves.



Goodbye, Brighton! We'll be back!

UK09: RICHMOND PARK WITH E

here is a map of (approximately) the route we took. we probably meandered rather more than this map suggests. the map also doesn't tell you that the ultimate aim of our walk was to reach SPANKERS HILL WOOD. because it has an hilarious name!



d & i hopped on the train early, going from the second last station on the northern line to the last station on district line. i feel like i've just joined some kind of london club. e was waiting for us at the station, and it was SO LOVELY to see her after not being able to give her squishes since last december! another lovely aspect of seeing her was that she took us to the cafe right near the station (a taylors st coffee place) that makes PROPER, GOOD COFFEE. omg. you have no idea how good it is to find these places in england!



anyway, we walked up to richmond park where there was a duathalon going on, so the main paths were teeming with lycra-clad specimens sporting padded buttocks. charmed. we managed to avoid them for the most part, thankfully, and instead went and hung out with the deer! DEER! EEE!





the grass was very dry for england - it almost looked like home! but in the woods it was that lovely glowy green. nom nom nom. it's amazing that such an enormous open space exists in london, completely surrounded by residential etc suburbs. i guess that's one of the legacies of having royalty own vast amounts of land and not letting plebs on it.





we had a super walk, and were definitely ready to head back to the cafe for lunch and more coffee. but first we had to stop in on the cheese shop (teddington cheese) we'd seen on our way up. it's not a proper holiday until you've bought cheese! we got a delicious, stinky cheese called (i think) epoisses, which was so runny that by the time we got it home we had to eat it with a spoon. we also sampled the oxford blue (quite mild, i thought) and a cornish yarg. i'd never had yarg before, and it had a nice tartness to it.



the cheese was so stinky that on the way home on the train, i overheard someone in the seats nearby ask, "is it just me, or is this carriage really smelly?" heheheheh.

after buying the cheese and having some lunch, we were too lazy to do anything except keep sitting in the cafe and drinking delicious tea. i hightly recommend the place, because they even put a timer on for our green/white tea so we didn't over-brew it. yay! cheese + tea + walking + friends = genius day!



we were going to go out with e&l in the evening, but instead we ate cheese, did some washing, and watched the fog, a rather slow-moving horror film directed by john carpenter of THEY LIVE fame. it was not as funny as they live, unfortunately. but then, what is?

AMSTERDAM AND LONDON

TUESDAY 6TH JANUARY: AMSTERDAM TO LONDON



We had breakfast at the hotel after a lie-in, then went back to Haarlemmerdijk for more of a look around and a cup of tea at teabar. I had green tea with nuts, vanilla, and spices, and OMG IT WAS SO YUM – I bought some to take away with me.



We saw two sets of cousins along the way, too! On the way back to the hotel, we got slightly lost and somehow ended up walking the wrong way! Luckily we realised pretty quickly and eventually hopped onto the tram back and to the hotel with time to spare.



We sat down for lunch in a lovely café, but ended up having to get the food takeaway so we could catch our bus.





We ate the food in the airport, and it was DELICIOUS. Oh my word, the Brussels sprouts and beans cooked with garlic and onion were superb, and the roast pumpkin was delicious. The risotto was good, with whole cloves of garlic and tender but not overcooked pieces of broccoli, topped with slices of pecorino (I think).

At check-in, the assistant called over another staff member and asked her about the discrepancy between the F on my passport and the Mr on my ticket. I told her it was because I’m trans, and she was very accepting of that. “Don’t they change the passports in Australia?” she asked, and when we told her it wasn’t easy she shook her head and said, “It’s your life, I think.” She was awesome and I loved her. The end.

The flight was half-full and very short – we arrived about 20 minutes early. Despite my worries about my cold and the lack of PROPER decongestant, my ears didn’t get too painful. They popped when they were meant to, and so I counted that as a victory to the nasal spray. We got to watch the sun set from the runway in Amsterdam, and then again just as we were coming in over London. It’s the first time I’ve flown that way – we saw the Channel, and it’s true that England and France are very close together! We flew in to London on the north side of the Thames, so we saw the bridges, the Millennium Dome, and various other landmarks. By that stage it was getting a little dark, though, so we couldn’t make out much detail. However, we could see heaps of ice and white patches in a lot of the parks – it was exciting!



M picked us up from the airport in the pitch black of 5pm and drove us home via the chemist, where I picked up some blessed, blessed sinus tablets with pseudoephedrine! My ears started feeling better within half an hour of taking them. Back at the family K residence, A had heated up some delicious soup, and we sat around and had a chat for a while before D and I fell into bed at some ridiculously early hour and slept and slept and slept.


WEDNESDAY 7TH JANUARY: LONDON

Wednesday was a family day – I hardly have any time in London, I’ve just realised, so it was good to see heaps of people. We have one day in London, then to the Cotswolds from Thursday to Monday, Tuesday in London, Bologna from Wednesday to Friday, the weekend in London, then flying home on Monday.



In the morning D’s sister in law came over with her son T and our newest and snuffliest nephew Y. S, D’s cousin, also dropped in to spend the day – she is here from South Africa. The family is in the process of making a video for E and L’s wedding, so a friend came over with a mini-setup (2 lights, camera and mic, etc) to do some filming. Adam arrived for that, so combined with E (the cleaner) and L (the office assistant), the house was pretty full! I escaped at one point to have a nice long bath, and consequently missed H (D’s grandfather) popping in for a visit. L (D’s grandmother) was quite ill recently and had to go to hospital a couple of days ago. She is feeling much better now, but she and H weren’t able to make it to the Cotswolds after all.

I spent a bit of time fiddling with some chords on the piano, to get a small song out (it’s been simmering in the back of my mind since Ameland, but I needed a piano to write it), and D did some admin stuff. However, D wasn’t feeling very good, so he also had a bit of a nap, and I looked after him before we all piled in the car to go to R & B’s house for dinner. I hadn’t been there before, so that was nice. D’s cousins B & A were also there, and it’s always good to talk to them.

B was telling me about the time he spent on a small island in the middle of a huge lake in Germany one winter – it sounded amazing. There are two islands, one with a monastery and one with a nunnery, and the one he was staying on could be walked around in 15 minutes (I don’t know if that’s an exaggeration). When he was there, a heavy mist surrounded the island for the whole week, so he could only see a few metres in front of him at any time. He was there for an osteopathy conference, and really the only other people on the island were nuns and people visiting the nunnery on a silent retreat. It sounded like an incredible (and slightly eerie) experience!

Dinner was very tasty, and I got to meet the ancient cat, who is 20 years old and quite . . . well, I’d say scrawny, but she is so beautiful despite being decrepit that it hardly seems a suitable word. Aww. I do like cats. There were a few in shop windows in Amsterdam, and I took photos of a couple, but most of the pictures didn’t turn out so well!

I BOUGHT SOME REALLY NICE TROUSERS DOWN IN CAMDEN

ok, not really, but we had a lovely day involving camden today. first up we did a bit of admin stuff (spent most of yesterday doing same, actually) and went shopping for food to make veg and gluten free dishes for rosh hashanah on monday. when we got back, es and sajee were waiting for us! yay! they were dropping off/picking up stuff on their way to paris for a few days, and it was so good to see them. hung out for an hour or two before they drove off to the airport, and then db's grandmother (who is awesome!) drove us to the tube, which conveyed us to warwick avenue to meet ROSS! YAY ROSS! HE IS MY FAVOURITE ROSS! it was so good chatting to him and catching up. we had a look around the ambitiously named and predictably disappointing 'little venice', had a shit cup of coffee on a canal boat cafe (but it was on a boat, therefore awesome), then walked along regent's canal past london zoo to camden. at camden we looked hard for rude and/or tacky and/or dullest possible postcards, had some lunch, then walked down the street to have better coffee in my old fave cafe. on the way there i tried on one of those... short top hats (what are they called again?). it quite suited me. when i say that, i mean that i looked in the mirror and thought i was being pickpocketed by the artful dodger. fun times. this evening we went to el and leah's place for a lovely relaxing dinner (we also had a good evening at em and rich's place last night, and saw MIKE! YAY MIKE! HE IS MY FAVOURITE MIKE! and uly. YAY ULY! etc.)

in conclusion, i didn't get some nice trousers but i did go to camden, people are fun and food is good. tomorrow we go and pick up our hire car then drive to bristol for lunch and a stroll with i and j, head to hay-on-wye for a couple of nights, drive up to chester to stay with the lovely f and co., then back to london on monday via warrington (to see ddd) and birmingham (ww), arriving in time for rosh hashanah dinner. phew!

meanwhile, i've uploaded all the day 3 pics and will blog about it soon.

LA LA LAND: 2

Imagine if you can, Melbournians (or Melburnians, as it were), what Ringwood would be like if all the roads were forced into a grid, and if the suburb stretched out to the horizon in a sea of car dealerships and lacklustre architecture. Throw in an occasional ostentatious place of worship that somewhat resembles a toilet block, and there you have the vast part of LA. It is big, and grey, and concrete.

There are, however, some places that, if not hugely different, are at least less the same as other parts. Venice Beach is pumping in a touristy way on weekends (unless you’re up and walking at 8:30am, as we were, on a mission to find and photograph a large wall-painting of topless Jim Morrison), but two blocks in you’ve hit a suburb which is not dissimilar to, say, Merimbula. Rohan has compared the area to a cross between St Kilda and a seaside town such as Port Campbell. I think these descriptions are fairly compatible. [ETA: On my walk up the beach this morning, I felt almost at home - the sea doesn't actually smell like sea, which is odd, but it was warm and HUMID (so humid here) and relaxing.] The canals and canal-side houses are quite lovely in Venice, and I can understand why the rich people who also have taste/a brain would choose to live there rather than Hollywood.

Speaking of Hollywood, we hiked up the hill at Runyan Canyon today. In fact, we hiked almost everywhere today, walking somewhere upwards of 15km. But Runyan Canyon was one of the highlights, despite my whining – “I forgot sunscreen, I’m thirsty, can we walk slower, I’m jetlagged, it’s so hot, this is so steep, I’m going to die here, I’m scared of heights”, and from the top of the hill we got some shots of the Hollywood sign, and saw Uber-Ringwood in its full haze of glory. We also did the walk of fame, and I took photos of the following footpath stars. I do not see any logic or order to this list.

Judge Judy Sheindlin
David Bowie
Nicolas Cage
Liberace
John Howard
Johnny Cash

I also had a proper coffee this morning, for the first time since leaving Australia (the aeroplane coffee looked fairly dodgy, and Az confirmed this). I found an Australian to make my soy flat white for me (one of Rohan’s friends). [ETA: Went there again this morning, I'll post pics eventually.] I felt so much better afterwards, apart from that bit where I tried to pay with a $1 note – all the notes looks the same! The coffee love was somewhat diminished when I later had an iced coffee at Borders (embrace chain stores and the native way of life, I say), which was dishwater coffee and, er, ice cubes. But I certainly got enough caffeine at the diner where we met the AWESOME queergeektheorist herself and consumed burgers and fries and BOTTOMLESS GLASSES OF CHERRY COKE OMG I CANNOT SIT STILL HOURS LATER.

Speeking of speed, many Americans seem to speak quickly (I now understand how people might think Australians talk slowly), and most residents of the city like to complain loudly to their mobile phones and dogwalking partners about gridlocked traffic and he said/she said affairs. I just wonder why they don’t move to Ringwood, really. At least they have supermarkets in Ringwood. Admittedly, one thing Ringwood doesn’t have to my knowledge is THREE people dressed as Cpt Jack Sparrow along the street for you to have your photo taken with. Wow, that sentence kind of sucked.

The long and the short of the day is – big, sore feet, good views, excellent company, tired now. Rohan has gone to his beau’s place for the night, which is AOK by me, because I can sleep across the whole bed and not worry about snoring (I think I am allergic to L.A., and if my nose had run any more today it would be back in Australia by now). However, it’s the first time I’ve been by myself since I’ve left, so now the missing of people is really starting to sink in. I have found a few tacky postcards to send (though not as many as I expected), and I’ve written a couple, but it’s no substitute for having a chat or reading all your blogs or something. It’s been hectic – too hectic to do internetty things. Hopefully I will be able to take this on a USB to an internet café (maybe the good coffee place?!) and post it then. Photos can wait for another time.


Me after a long day in the sun with a runny nose!

Despite predictions, I'm kind of liking L.A. Possibly because unlike every other city I've ever visited, every second person isn't a bloody Australian!