Well, this week has been a blur of activity, but I shall valiantly attempt to recall our various shenanigans over the last seven days.
Monday saw us visiting The Embassy, Wellington’s fully restored ‘heritage’ cinema, to see ‘Kung Fu Hustle’. Nice big seats, leg room a-go-go and a blasty loud sound system created a viewing experience far superior to our previous screening of this film on a very teeny tiny monitor on a bus in South America with Spanish subtitles. ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ was good then and it’s even better when you can see what’s happening and understand the dialogue. We got home to find what I thought was a random piece of fluff outside the bathroom door – it was in fact a very large, but luckily also very dead, spider. Even the sight of it inanimate on a piece of paper made me flinch and wonder whether I should go on one of those conquer your fear type courses so I don’t have to go all girly every time something eight-legged & hairy comes near me. Jo told me it had big pincer-y things too. Great…
Tuesday we headed over to Jo’s sister’s place (in our soon to be back garden) to join her weekly ‘Survivor Night’. This is when Amy & her pal Sal engage in the intensive concentration and tension that is watching ‘Survivor’, an American reality TV thing. After a quick trip to the Indian takeaway, we settled down to observe varying Americans – both in size & accent – get very competitive and backstabbing. Quite fun actually. When we arrived home I proceeded to freak out Jan Phipps by remembering to phone her to wish her “Happy Birthday!” lovely as it was to speak to her it did make me quite homesick.
Wednesday we arranged to meet with Jo’s friends Ingrid and Gerard at Chow, a fancy Asian-ish restaurant to scoff food, make chit-chat and listen to Jo’s mum do her cabaret thang. When we arrived at 7.45pm we were the only people there, but it slowly filled up and Ann ended up playing to an almost full house. There was also a slight worry that her accompanying guitarist wasn’t going to make it, but he arrived only 15 minutes or so late (artists, eh?) and I was saved the indignity of having to provide acapella backing vocals (not that I offered or was asked, but I know its what Ann was hoping for). The food was okay, but to be honest not much more exciting than Wagamama and a bloody sight more expensive ($6 for a small bowl of Asian greens!!!) so I predict they may not still be here when any of you come to visit. You’d be better off going to the Asian place we went to in Warsaw. Of course you’d have to be in Poland and not New Zealand, but that’s a minor issue. On the plus side Wednesday was 2 for 1 cocktail night – hurrah!
Thursday saw an evening of quiet contemplation in front of the TV.
Friday night it was off into town again to meet up with Jo’s mate Radhika who is down in Wellington from Auckland for a week. We started off in Matterhorn, described on one website as ‘the heart of Wellington’ (crikey). It is a very nice bar & restaurant though, with a rather lovely outdoor fireplace, although there was quite a strong smell of fish & chips at the entrance. After a couple of beers, some sparkling conversation with Radhika, her boyfriend Ron and her friend Colleen (if you ever meet her ask her about her trip to the Temple of Hapshetsut in Egypt, its worth the wait) and a trip to their incredibly teeny tiny loo (obviously their own special form of body fascism – if you can’t squeeze through the door to get into the loo you’re too fat for them), we heeded our rumbling tums and, guess what? Surely it can’t be? Yes, we – minus Colleen - headed to a restaurant. This time it was the turn of Floridita, where we stuffed ourselves with antipasti and various Italian delights, along with a lovely bottle of wine (but of course!). After such strenuous activity, and much more chitchat, Jo & I headed home.
Saturday saw a flurry of activity as Jo & I went all domestic and started some serious furniture hunting. Off we zoomed in our little silver car (which, Patti, now sports a rather fetching “Keep Portland Weird” bumper sticker) to Thorndon Quay where many a furniture shop lives and managed, after some debate, to choose a bed and a couple of sofas. We haven’t actually bought them yet, thought that had better wait until we moved into our place and could check that they would fit, but I’m quietly confident that they’ll be fine. After this we realised we needed to kick off or Sunday shoes and headed, on Amy’s recommendation, to ‘Real Hot Bitches’, a truly stupendous dance troupe/class led by Ange (Wellington’s Susie Robinson in gold shoes and knee pads) and Rosie (owner of a mighty fine powder blue visor). The basic philosophy of this group is to relive your youth by learning group formation dance routines to super-duper 80s/90s pop classics. Having ‘felt the fear and done it anyway’ we lurked at the back of the hall slowly working our way through a rather fine routine accompanying ‘Push It’ by Salt ‘n Pepa (any troupe member can volunteer to choreograph – for that is how they spell it – each week) that included kung fu kicks and ‘attitude’. Luckily my confidence was bolstered by the arrival of Amy & Sal and the provision of legwarmers (they really do keep your legs surprisingly toasty!), although Jo’s insistence on pulling faces at me during the robotic segment challenged my professionalism. By the end of the session I was pelvic thrusting with the best of them, but I really do need to work on my running man. Feel free to check out their website www.real-hot-bitches.co.nz for more info! Exhausted though we were, we headed home and had a quick dip in the spa pool before heading back out to eat more food.
This time we visited The Last Supper Club under the guidance of Amy and her friend Ange (different from the aforementioned Ange, but she did join us at RHB and came up with our rather fine ‘attitude move’ which included a butt-slap inspired by Caleb Clarke). I was rather hoping the waiting staff would dress like Jesus and the Apostles, but sadly they kept the biblical theme to a minimum. Or perhaps this theme was more active behind the scenes, which could go some way to explaining why it took so bloody long for our wine to arrive. So far, this is my favoured feeding place; their antipasto was bigger & better than Floridita and I had a fabulous warm rabbit salad. Amy’s lamb was good too as, out of sheer politeness because she couldn’t finish it all, I scoffed some of that as well. A quick hop and a step over the street saw us enjoying more wine at the Ponderosa bar (quite swish actually, despite the Western theme), some discussion of potential RHB tunes (I’m favouring “If I could turn back time” by Cher, Sal has some great ideas for the cannon bit) and then back home to rest our tired dancing feet.
Aside from these goings on we’ve been busy doing exciting things like bumping into old pals of Jo’s, getting massages (lovely), window shopping, visiting the fruit & veg market, looking for jobs (Jo is working her way around many recruitment agencies), reading books and contemplating how to decorate our house. Oh and I got a new sim card for my mobile phone…I’ll text the number to relevant folk. All fun and games eh?
Hope all is well with you all…happy dancing!!!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Busting out all over....
Those of you I have emailed will know that this refers to my burgeoning waistline, which has miraculously expanded over the last couple of months. In fact I am pretty sure it did most of its expansion over the last couple of weeks. Perhaps I could try to blame it on cabin pressure? Or perhaps not…so the healthy eating regime has begun and I have taken to walking to & from town. Distance-wise this is not too far and only takes about 20-30 minutes, but the return leg involves trudging up one almighty hill. I’m hoping that a couple of weeks of this will at least go someway to reducing the wobbly load. Stranger things have happened.
Due to limited internet access I have also made the executive decision to make blog entries once a week. We have kindly been loaned Jo’s parent’s laptop, so I can lurk in our basement boudoir and concoct entries in Word that will then be transferred to the blog. It kind of makes sense, you know it does.
So…Wellington in winter. Having been used to dealing with the seasonal & time difference from the UK to NZ angle, I am really struggling with switching it around. My brain just can’t quite compute that the weather will get warmer as we head towards the end of the year, and that I am now ahead of the UK. This hasn’t been helped by the weather here being unseasonably fine for the last week (I have still insisted on wearing my woolly hat, which is slightly greying from Inca Trail filth), although today the southerly chilly breeze appeared and I was required to wear my flouncy denim rock star coat to keep my bum from freezing. It gained lots of what I can only assume were admiring looks from passers by. Either that I had achieved the dreaded ‘geography teacher’ look. If I carry on wearing it I suspect I will become known as ‘the woman in the bloody awful coat’…hooray! Have spent most of the last week acquainting myself with Wellington, demonstrating my natural coolness I accidentally ventured into one of the city’s most fashionable cafés, although this was somewhat negated earlier in the day by getting myself eaten by a lift door (of course the lift was full of people) and then having to athletically leap back out when Jo pointed out it was the wrong lift. I think Jo was actually more humiliated than I was, for I know I am a spaz.
On the plus side (as I am now), I have found a job to apply for. Fingers crossed I’ll have some money heading my way, assuming they actually even want to interview me. Today was spent writing my CV, and desperately trying to remember what I used to do for a living and how I could make it sound impressive. The post requires some knowledge of or desire to learn about Maori issues, language etc, so I have been off to the library and am desperately boning up on subjects like the Treaty of Waitangi. Unfortunately my pronunciation is ludicrous, so I should look and sound fully fresh off the boat. Oh how I look forward to that. I have also been scouring the volunteering positions that are open. So far my eye has been caught by the SPCA, which is quite near where we will be living, and a couple of environmental groups. So you can look forward to tales of my being attacked by dogs and falling onto kiwis. I also considered the Samaritans, but thought that this might not be my best introduction to a new country. I thought a youth group might be fun and get me off my butt and doing something entertaining. Who knows? But I think that will be my task next week – to get out there and meet some people.
Tonight we are off to the cinema to endure the delights of Tom Cruise in “War of the Worlds”. I’ll let you know if he manages to save us all from impending doom. I’m guessing he will, and I’m also guessing that they won’t stick to the original ending. Let’s hope it’s a better conclusion than “Independence Day” where I seem to recall the aliens were defeated by a lack of Norton Anti-virus. I’m also keen to start checking out some of Wellington’s 400 or so nosheries, although may have to start at the cheaper end of the market.
So, Wellington doesn’t seem so bad so far. I’ll keep you updated.
Lots of love
S
xxxx
Sunday 21st August update…
Seeing as I seem to be getting rather rudely heckled by some of you for my tardiness in blogging I thought I’d better add a quick update here, but be warned I will become immune to your abuse!
The redneck hat is being ‘rested’ right now thanks to a combination of it being winter here and it being very windy here, although it does have a rather dashing cord that can be used to stop it flying off your head (presumably whilst sitting in the back of a pick-up truck). It shall be whisked out with a flourish come springtime. But my woolly hat is doing a fine job in its place.
The big news is that Jo & I are now the proud owners of a car! Despite our hopes of being very new age-y and buying a hybrid car we ended up getting a Holden Barina, which as far as I can tell is a Vauxhall Corsa with a different name. The important thing is that I can now start driving lessons, and that it has a CD player. Gotta have priorities. So we whizzed up to the beach house to dig out our insurance documents from the garage, along with some DVDs and some car music CDs drank all of Jo’s parents’ red wine, crashed out then headed back to Wellington earlier today. We stopped on the way for ice cream, but I had manuka honey & fig and manuka honey is meant to be very good for you & figs are v. healthy so I am considering it a part of my healthy eating plan. I then, in a fit of enthusiasm, began to dig what I hope will become a vegetable patch in the garden, but I think I may have chosen a really crappy shaded spot. We shall see.
What else has been going on? Erm, ‘War of the Worlds’ was actually much better than I thought it would be, and they have stuck to the original ending, Amy took us to a very nice Malaysian place afterwards where I proceeded to pig out on a vast plate of stir fry & rice, but the healthy eating plan is still a plan. I managed to finally write my CV and send off my job application, so should hear next week if I’m going to get an interview and I’ve been trying to think of things to do to keep myself occupied. I went to the SPCA to find out about volunteering but it seemed to be mainly staffed by unusual volunteers of the type that ‘prefer animals to people’ and it was all a bit whiffy, so I mumbled some weak excuse about having to check the validity of my tetanus jab and swished out in my rock star denim coat. Then I was going to help with the replanting of natural plants at a local stream, but I should’ve been there at 9.30am on Saturday and I didn’t wake up until 10am. Oops. So, no joy there. Not sure what else I have on my hectic social agenda. I quite fancy going 10 pin bowling to relive some of my Streatham days/nights, but that would involve persuading some other people to go with me, maybe I’ll try my powers of persuasion tonight and lure folk with tales of sweaty miscoloured shoes?
Will endeavour to keep it regular from now on – wouldn’t like to disappoint my fans….
S
Due to limited internet access I have also made the executive decision to make blog entries once a week. We have kindly been loaned Jo’s parent’s laptop, so I can lurk in our basement boudoir and concoct entries in Word that will then be transferred to the blog. It kind of makes sense, you know it does.
So…Wellington in winter. Having been used to dealing with the seasonal & time difference from the UK to NZ angle, I am really struggling with switching it around. My brain just can’t quite compute that the weather will get warmer as we head towards the end of the year, and that I am now ahead of the UK. This hasn’t been helped by the weather here being unseasonably fine for the last week (I have still insisted on wearing my woolly hat, which is slightly greying from Inca Trail filth), although today the southerly chilly breeze appeared and I was required to wear my flouncy denim rock star coat to keep my bum from freezing. It gained lots of what I can only assume were admiring looks from passers by. Either that I had achieved the dreaded ‘geography teacher’ look. If I carry on wearing it I suspect I will become known as ‘the woman in the bloody awful coat’…hooray! Have spent most of the last week acquainting myself with Wellington, demonstrating my natural coolness I accidentally ventured into one of the city’s most fashionable cafés, although this was somewhat negated earlier in the day by getting myself eaten by a lift door (of course the lift was full of people) and then having to athletically leap back out when Jo pointed out it was the wrong lift. I think Jo was actually more humiliated than I was, for I know I am a spaz.
On the plus side (as I am now), I have found a job to apply for. Fingers crossed I’ll have some money heading my way, assuming they actually even want to interview me. Today was spent writing my CV, and desperately trying to remember what I used to do for a living and how I could make it sound impressive. The post requires some knowledge of or desire to learn about Maori issues, language etc, so I have been off to the library and am desperately boning up on subjects like the Treaty of Waitangi. Unfortunately my pronunciation is ludicrous, so I should look and sound fully fresh off the boat. Oh how I look forward to that. I have also been scouring the volunteering positions that are open. So far my eye has been caught by the SPCA, which is quite near where we will be living, and a couple of environmental groups. So you can look forward to tales of my being attacked by dogs and falling onto kiwis. I also considered the Samaritans, but thought that this might not be my best introduction to a new country. I thought a youth group might be fun and get me off my butt and doing something entertaining. Who knows? But I think that will be my task next week – to get out there and meet some people.
Tonight we are off to the cinema to endure the delights of Tom Cruise in “War of the Worlds”. I’ll let you know if he manages to save us all from impending doom. I’m guessing he will, and I’m also guessing that they won’t stick to the original ending. Let’s hope it’s a better conclusion than “Independence Day” where I seem to recall the aliens were defeated by a lack of Norton Anti-virus. I’m also keen to start checking out some of Wellington’s 400 or so nosheries, although may have to start at the cheaper end of the market.
So, Wellington doesn’t seem so bad so far. I’ll keep you updated.
Lots of love
S
xxxx
Sunday 21st August update…
Seeing as I seem to be getting rather rudely heckled by some of you for my tardiness in blogging I thought I’d better add a quick update here, but be warned I will become immune to your abuse!
The redneck hat is being ‘rested’ right now thanks to a combination of it being winter here and it being very windy here, although it does have a rather dashing cord that can be used to stop it flying off your head (presumably whilst sitting in the back of a pick-up truck). It shall be whisked out with a flourish come springtime. But my woolly hat is doing a fine job in its place.
The big news is that Jo & I are now the proud owners of a car! Despite our hopes of being very new age-y and buying a hybrid car we ended up getting a Holden Barina, which as far as I can tell is a Vauxhall Corsa with a different name. The important thing is that I can now start driving lessons, and that it has a CD player. Gotta have priorities. So we whizzed up to the beach house to dig out our insurance documents from the garage, along with some DVDs and some car music CDs drank all of Jo’s parents’ red wine, crashed out then headed back to Wellington earlier today. We stopped on the way for ice cream, but I had manuka honey & fig and manuka honey is meant to be very good for you & figs are v. healthy so I am considering it a part of my healthy eating plan. I then, in a fit of enthusiasm, began to dig what I hope will become a vegetable patch in the garden, but I think I may have chosen a really crappy shaded spot. We shall see.
What else has been going on? Erm, ‘War of the Worlds’ was actually much better than I thought it would be, and they have stuck to the original ending, Amy took us to a very nice Malaysian place afterwards where I proceeded to pig out on a vast plate of stir fry & rice, but the healthy eating plan is still a plan. I managed to finally write my CV and send off my job application, so should hear next week if I’m going to get an interview and I’ve been trying to think of things to do to keep myself occupied. I went to the SPCA to find out about volunteering but it seemed to be mainly staffed by unusual volunteers of the type that ‘prefer animals to people’ and it was all a bit whiffy, so I mumbled some weak excuse about having to check the validity of my tetanus jab and swished out in my rock star denim coat. Then I was going to help with the replanting of natural plants at a local stream, but I should’ve been there at 9.30am on Saturday and I didn’t wake up until 10am. Oops. So, no joy there. Not sure what else I have on my hectic social agenda. I quite fancy going 10 pin bowling to relive some of my Streatham days/nights, but that would involve persuading some other people to go with me, maybe I’ll try my powers of persuasion tonight and lure folk with tales of sweaty miscoloured shoes?
Will endeavour to keep it regular from now on – wouldn’t like to disappoint my fans….
S
Sunday, August 07, 2005
'Ere we go
I warn you now, we have consumed a couple of bottles of red wine and I am just doing a quick blog entry before we start our 26 hour trip to NZ.
Canada is still sunny. In fact I think I have gained some sunburn in readiness for the extremely convoluted plane trip ahead of us. Huzzah! Yesterday we spent the afternoon in town, bought some more dvds, and another book, and then headed to the Commodore Ballroom to see Aimee Mann. The Commodore Ballroom is very cool - lots of tables & seating - we found some fine seating and, being 30somethings, bought a bottle of red wine. The support act was crap, presumably a ploy by the main act to make them look good, but Aimee came on and was v. v. good. I won't go into too much detail in case Mrs Clarke gets annoyed, but she rocked. I even caught Jo listen to an Aimee Mann album earlier today (a first).
Today has been spent doing bugger all. I have read 3/4 of a book, we've packed our bags, had dinner, drunk a couple of bottles of Wolf Blass and talked rubbish. Might go and watch some fireworks later. Then its a 4.30am to get to the airport for our delightful trip to NZ via Dallas & LA. Luckily Jo & I have managed to budget well enough to allow money for a slap up meal in LA airport (we have a 5 hour transfer delay), and I have already checked our entertainment/movie options on our flight to Auckland (some half decent movies are promised).
Due in NZ on 9th August and, once I have recovered from our trip, I will blog from there.
Adios amigos!!!
love
S&J
xxxxxx
Canada is still sunny. In fact I think I have gained some sunburn in readiness for the extremely convoluted plane trip ahead of us. Huzzah! Yesterday we spent the afternoon in town, bought some more dvds, and another book, and then headed to the Commodore Ballroom to see Aimee Mann. The Commodore Ballroom is very cool - lots of tables & seating - we found some fine seating and, being 30somethings, bought a bottle of red wine. The support act was crap, presumably a ploy by the main act to make them look good, but Aimee came on and was v. v. good. I won't go into too much detail in case Mrs Clarke gets annoyed, but she rocked. I even caught Jo listen to an Aimee Mann album earlier today (a first).
Today has been spent doing bugger all. I have read 3/4 of a book, we've packed our bags, had dinner, drunk a couple of bottles of Wolf Blass and talked rubbish. Might go and watch some fireworks later. Then its a 4.30am to get to the airport for our delightful trip to NZ via Dallas & LA. Luckily Jo & I have managed to budget well enough to allow money for a slap up meal in LA airport (we have a 5 hour transfer delay), and I have already checked our entertainment/movie options on our flight to Auckland (some half decent movies are promised).
Due in NZ on 9th August and, once I have recovered from our trip, I will blog from there.
Adios amigos!!!
love
S&J
xxxxxx
Friday, August 05, 2005
Canada, Oh Canada
Whey hey! The sun is still shining! It's been fantastically sunny and warm here, and looks like its going to stay that way until the weekend. Now this may not seem like particularly important information, but it means that we'll be able to arrive in NZ with corking suntans...ho ho ho...Jo & I have both developed a glorious arrangement of strap marks on our shoulders & I still have the whitest legs in Christendom (I have had to stick to long trousers since I foolishly shaved my legs in Mexico and apparently in doing so removed some vital UV protection layer causing immmediate uber-sunburn - foxy). Or it could be that my face is rosy from the gallons of red wine I have consumed whilst travelling. Who knows?
So. Canada. After our compulsory day of mooching about on Tuesday we were whisked off to visit cousin Nick's mum, lured by the promise of fish & chips by the seaside. Familial duty completed we duly headed off to the beach, parked the car and began scanning the menu of each & every fish & chip shop in the area. Eventually we chose one and proceeded to royally piss off the small & brusque Chinese lady who worked there by umming & aahing and then ordering an extremely measley meal between 5 of us. After a brief wait and her barking at us that our order was ready, we headed to the beach only to discover that the tide was in and there was no beach. Oh well. There was a nice sunset though. On the way home Cindy (Nick's wife) insisted we visit a local ice-cream shop where we were faced with the mind-boggling choice between 208 different flavours. Jo gamely tried the chocolate & chili (quite a strong afterburn), whilst I sampled balsamic vinegar (okay, but I couldn't handle a whole scoop full), avocado (suprisingly nice) & tequila & lime (yum). We also tried the durian ice cream. For those of you none the wiser, durian is a legendary Asian fruit that is supposed to taste delicious, but smells so bad (like a rotting corpse) it is banned from public transport. This is backed up by the fact that it is the only ice cream that they keep firmly lidded. Now I can tell you that it is an acquired taste. It is yatch.
Finally I chose peach, plum & jasmine (v. v. nice) & Jo opted for purple yam (v. nice).
The next morning we were awoken by Cindy pummeling on our bedroom door and asking if we wanted to do the Grouse Grind. You may think this sounds like some 60s-esque dance fashion, but it is in fact the trail that runs up the side of Grouse Mountain (approx 1000m), and is similar to day 2 of the Inca Trail but significantly shorter. Of course we said "yes!" and after a hearty breakfast we headed off. 1 hour & 45 minutes later, and extremely sweaty, we reached the top. Once there we rewarded ourselves with burgers, beer & a quick look at some grizzly bears (they are quite big) and caught the cable car back down. The afternoon mainly consisted of lazing about, followed by bbq-ing and then off up the hill with a bottle of home-made seabreeze to watch the fireworks (which were made more entertaining by the teenage boys whose drive we were watching the fireworks from being shoved out of the door in drag - by their babysitter - and then having to beg to be allowed back in).
Today was more lazing about in the back garden (it was way too hot to do much else), interrupted by a quick trip to buy on sale shampoo at a local salon, and then off to Costco to search for bargains. This time we only spent $140 (Jo bought some cheap ski gear), which is quite restrained. Tomorrow we're heading into town with Becky (14 year old cousing kid) to check out the Virgin Megastore, followed by pizza, putting Becky on the bus home & Jo & I going to see Aimee Mann. Great!
Then only Saturday to go before we have to get on the plane to NZ...but you'll be glad to know I have already made the executive decision to carry on blogging from there (presumably I'll have to be nice about the in-laws...or change names to protect the innocent). Bet that cheered you up!
laters gators!
S
xxxxxxx
So. Canada. After our compulsory day of mooching about on Tuesday we were whisked off to visit cousin Nick's mum, lured by the promise of fish & chips by the seaside. Familial duty completed we duly headed off to the beach, parked the car and began scanning the menu of each & every fish & chip shop in the area. Eventually we chose one and proceeded to royally piss off the small & brusque Chinese lady who worked there by umming & aahing and then ordering an extremely measley meal between 5 of us. After a brief wait and her barking at us that our order was ready, we headed to the beach only to discover that the tide was in and there was no beach. Oh well. There was a nice sunset though. On the way home Cindy (Nick's wife) insisted we visit a local ice-cream shop where we were faced with the mind-boggling choice between 208 different flavours. Jo gamely tried the chocolate & chili (quite a strong afterburn), whilst I sampled balsamic vinegar (okay, but I couldn't handle a whole scoop full), avocado (suprisingly nice) & tequila & lime (yum). We also tried the durian ice cream. For those of you none the wiser, durian is a legendary Asian fruit that is supposed to taste delicious, but smells so bad (like a rotting corpse) it is banned from public transport. This is backed up by the fact that it is the only ice cream that they keep firmly lidded. Now I can tell you that it is an acquired taste. It is yatch.
Finally I chose peach, plum & jasmine (v. v. nice) & Jo opted for purple yam (v. nice).
The next morning we were awoken by Cindy pummeling on our bedroom door and asking if we wanted to do the Grouse Grind. You may think this sounds like some 60s-esque dance fashion, but it is in fact the trail that runs up the side of Grouse Mountain (approx 1000m), and is similar to day 2 of the Inca Trail but significantly shorter. Of course we said "yes!" and after a hearty breakfast we headed off. 1 hour & 45 minutes later, and extremely sweaty, we reached the top. Once there we rewarded ourselves with burgers, beer & a quick look at some grizzly bears (they are quite big) and caught the cable car back down. The afternoon mainly consisted of lazing about, followed by bbq-ing and then off up the hill with a bottle of home-made seabreeze to watch the fireworks (which were made more entertaining by the teenage boys whose drive we were watching the fireworks from being shoved out of the door in drag - by their babysitter - and then having to beg to be allowed back in).
Today was more lazing about in the back garden (it was way too hot to do much else), interrupted by a quick trip to buy on sale shampoo at a local salon, and then off to Costco to search for bargains. This time we only spent $140 (Jo bought some cheap ski gear), which is quite restrained. Tomorrow we're heading into town with Becky (14 year old cousing kid) to check out the Virgin Megastore, followed by pizza, putting Becky on the bus home & Jo & I going to see Aimee Mann. Great!
Then only Saturday to go before we have to get on the plane to NZ...but you'll be glad to know I have already made the executive decision to carry on blogging from there (presumably I'll have to be nice about the in-laws...or change names to protect the innocent). Bet that cheered you up!
laters gators!
S
xxxxxxx
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
6 days til NZ
I forgot to mention that my redneck hat wearing in SF was proven to be fabulous by my being leered at by a gang of lesbians in a pick up truck - you can imagine the joy I expressed.
So, Portland. Another overnight bus trip and insight into quite how grumpy old people are in the USA (they seem to think that everyone should pander to their every whim, regardless how insane, and get very shouty if you don't - we encountered 3 on the bus to the Greyhound depot and another 2 in the depot itself), we thought we'd got lucky because there was enough room for Jo & I to get a pair of seats each. Well I was lucky, but at 3am Jo was awoken by being sat on by a gentleman she described as "stinky" and then had to spend the remainder of the trip reminding him to stay in his own seat rather than spreading his legs to a ridiculous degree. But we made it to Portland and were greeted by Patti at the bus station, who promptly whisked us off to her apartment. Portland is lovely and Patti has an apartment that is almost perfectly positioned - right opposite Trader Joe's (my new favourite supermarket), just around the corner from many a funky store, lots of groovy wee bars and restaurants etc etc. And Portland has one of the biggest bookstores in the USA, in fact it may actually be the biggest independent bookstore in the world. Nice.
Tuesday Patti had to work, so Jo & I went and did sensible things like getting haircuts, and then went to watch her play bocce ball (kind of a cross between petanque & lawn bowls) followed by pizza & wine - we even got free bocce ball t-shirts, which are very cool & exclusive. Wednesday we hired a car and headed off into the mountains to visit the Breitenbush spa, taking the scenic route which was beautiful except for the fact that it was ridiculously hot. We got there just in time to dump our stuff in our tent and head into dinner, followed by a soak in the natural hotsprings (great, but a little sulphurous in its aroma) and into the sauna for a very very roasty session. Afterwards we relaxed with complimentary herbal tea and watched shooting stars before crashing out. Jo had decided that she didn't need a sleeping bag as it was so warm, but during the night (as the temperature descended) she proceeded to wrap herself in jumpers, blankets, socks etc until I finally woke up and unzipped my sleeping bag to share with her. The next morning we headed back to the hotsprings only to be informed by a Jennifer Saunders lookeelikee that one of the springs was busy with a 'powerwash'. Being obtuse I assumed that this was some kind of yogic exercise - after all there was some guy playing his crystal bowls outside the dining hall - or perhaps even involved being washed down with a strong jet of water. Of course it actually meant that they were cleaning the spring with a steam cleaner. How dull. The sauna was also being cleaned, so after a soak in the springs we grabbed our packed lunches and went for a short trek in the woods for lunch, then headed back to the car and back to Portland.
Once back in town we showered & changed and headed out to meet Patti's friend Mike at a local martini bar, The Brazen Bean. Nice bar & great for people watching, but they seem to think that lychees are kiwi fruit...and they pronounce lychee as "leechee", which sounds very unappetising. A quick observation before I forget - almost everyone in the USA under the age of 40 has at least one large & complex tattoo, thus making having a large & complex tattoo about as rebellious as having your ears pierced. I know think my small & simplistic tattoo - a moment of 18 year old non-thinking - is quite funky and stylish in comparison. It also proves Ozzy Osbourne's theory that not having a tattoo is more individualistic. After the Brazen Bean we went to Last Thursday, a kind of funky artsy street sale, followed by a trip to Shannon's (Patti bocce ball pal) house for crepes & wine. They were very lovely. Friday was spent mooching about, visiting the park and then stuffiing ourselves with food & wine in readiness for a night at The Egyptian Hall - a local lesbian bar reknowned for its karaoke. I had told Jo I would in fact karaoke, but once I'd heard a couple of the singers (who were stupidly good) I renounced this plan and restricted my activity to being very English when ordering drinks at the bar (I am starting to sound like Emma Thompson) and choosing songs for other people to sing. Alas, we took so long making a decision that by the time Patti, Jo & Jen's request to sing "Take A Chance On Me" came up it was time to leave.
Then it was Saturday & time to leave for Seattle. Portland was fab and seeing Patti was a blast - I'd recommend it to anyone.
The bus trip to Seattle was uneventful. We arrived at our hotel at 2pm to be told our room wasn't ready and could we come back at 3pm (leaving our luggage in their storeroom). So we did...checked in, went to our room and discovered it wasn't clean. Eventually, at about 5pm, we had a clean room and crashed out to watch to crappy tv. Seattle was holding its 'Torchlight Parade' a couple of blocks across, so we went to explore that but after a couple of impressive Chinese & Korean groups it seemed to be mainly marching bands, shoddy majorettes, and pseudo-military marching groups, so I voted for food at a nearby Mexican place, "Mama's". It was pretty good, although the margarita's were not too clever, and we were referred to as 'girls' by our Elvis wannabe waitress (I have got quite used to being a 'lady' and found this a little cheeky). Sunday in Seattle was spent mainly exploring the area around the Space Needle, and mooching about. Plus our first trip to the movies to see "Batman Begins" - quite entertaining. Not really a great deal else to report from Seattle - a nice enough place, but Portland seems to have as much to offer with a lot less pretension.
Monday saw our final bus trip, Seattle to Vancouver. Fairly uneventful despite the man who had a recurrent cough that sounded like a cat hawking up a furball, which I managed to block out with my mp3 player. I discovered that Aimee Mann is playing in Vancouver this Friday night, so Jo & I are off to our first gig in a year. We are staying with Jo's cousin and his family, who are ludricrously nice & fun, so it should be a great way to end our trip...only 6 days to go...
lots of love
S & J
xxxxxx
So, Portland. Another overnight bus trip and insight into quite how grumpy old people are in the USA (they seem to think that everyone should pander to their every whim, regardless how insane, and get very shouty if you don't - we encountered 3 on the bus to the Greyhound depot and another 2 in the depot itself), we thought we'd got lucky because there was enough room for Jo & I to get a pair of seats each. Well I was lucky, but at 3am Jo was awoken by being sat on by a gentleman she described as "stinky" and then had to spend the remainder of the trip reminding him to stay in his own seat rather than spreading his legs to a ridiculous degree. But we made it to Portland and were greeted by Patti at the bus station, who promptly whisked us off to her apartment. Portland is lovely and Patti has an apartment that is almost perfectly positioned - right opposite Trader Joe's (my new favourite supermarket), just around the corner from many a funky store, lots of groovy wee bars and restaurants etc etc. And Portland has one of the biggest bookstores in the USA, in fact it may actually be the biggest independent bookstore in the world. Nice.
Tuesday Patti had to work, so Jo & I went and did sensible things like getting haircuts, and then went to watch her play bocce ball (kind of a cross between petanque & lawn bowls) followed by pizza & wine - we even got free bocce ball t-shirts, which are very cool & exclusive. Wednesday we hired a car and headed off into the mountains to visit the Breitenbush spa, taking the scenic route which was beautiful except for the fact that it was ridiculously hot. We got there just in time to dump our stuff in our tent and head into dinner, followed by a soak in the natural hotsprings (great, but a little sulphurous in its aroma) and into the sauna for a very very roasty session. Afterwards we relaxed with complimentary herbal tea and watched shooting stars before crashing out. Jo had decided that she didn't need a sleeping bag as it was so warm, but during the night (as the temperature descended) she proceeded to wrap herself in jumpers, blankets, socks etc until I finally woke up and unzipped my sleeping bag to share with her. The next morning we headed back to the hotsprings only to be informed by a Jennifer Saunders lookeelikee that one of the springs was busy with a 'powerwash'. Being obtuse I assumed that this was some kind of yogic exercise - after all there was some guy playing his crystal bowls outside the dining hall - or perhaps even involved being washed down with a strong jet of water. Of course it actually meant that they were cleaning the spring with a steam cleaner. How dull. The sauna was also being cleaned, so after a soak in the springs we grabbed our packed lunches and went for a short trek in the woods for lunch, then headed back to the car and back to Portland.
Once back in town we showered & changed and headed out to meet Patti's friend Mike at a local martini bar, The Brazen Bean. Nice bar & great for people watching, but they seem to think that lychees are kiwi fruit...and they pronounce lychee as "leechee", which sounds very unappetising. A quick observation before I forget - almost everyone in the USA under the age of 40 has at least one large & complex tattoo, thus making having a large & complex tattoo about as rebellious as having your ears pierced. I know think my small & simplistic tattoo - a moment of 18 year old non-thinking - is quite funky and stylish in comparison. It also proves Ozzy Osbourne's theory that not having a tattoo is more individualistic. After the Brazen Bean we went to Last Thursday, a kind of funky artsy street sale, followed by a trip to Shannon's (Patti bocce ball pal) house for crepes & wine. They were very lovely. Friday was spent mooching about, visiting the park and then stuffiing ourselves with food & wine in readiness for a night at The Egyptian Hall - a local lesbian bar reknowned for its karaoke. I had told Jo I would in fact karaoke, but once I'd heard a couple of the singers (who were stupidly good) I renounced this plan and restricted my activity to being very English when ordering drinks at the bar (I am starting to sound like Emma Thompson) and choosing songs for other people to sing. Alas, we took so long making a decision that by the time Patti, Jo & Jen's request to sing "Take A Chance On Me" came up it was time to leave.
Then it was Saturday & time to leave for Seattle. Portland was fab and seeing Patti was a blast - I'd recommend it to anyone.
The bus trip to Seattle was uneventful. We arrived at our hotel at 2pm to be told our room wasn't ready and could we come back at 3pm (leaving our luggage in their storeroom). So we did...checked in, went to our room and discovered it wasn't clean. Eventually, at about 5pm, we had a clean room and crashed out to watch to crappy tv. Seattle was holding its 'Torchlight Parade' a couple of blocks across, so we went to explore that but after a couple of impressive Chinese & Korean groups it seemed to be mainly marching bands, shoddy majorettes, and pseudo-military marching groups, so I voted for food at a nearby Mexican place, "Mama's". It was pretty good, although the margarita's were not too clever, and we were referred to as 'girls' by our Elvis wannabe waitress (I have got quite used to being a 'lady' and found this a little cheeky). Sunday in Seattle was spent mainly exploring the area around the Space Needle, and mooching about. Plus our first trip to the movies to see "Batman Begins" - quite entertaining. Not really a great deal else to report from Seattle - a nice enough place, but Portland seems to have as much to offer with a lot less pretension.
Monday saw our final bus trip, Seattle to Vancouver. Fairly uneventful despite the man who had a recurrent cough that sounded like a cat hawking up a furball, which I managed to block out with my mp3 player. I discovered that Aimee Mann is playing in Vancouver this Friday night, so Jo & I are off to our first gig in a year. We are staying with Jo's cousin and his family, who are ludricrously nice & fun, so it should be a great way to end our trip...only 6 days to go...
lots of love
S & J
xxxxxx
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