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On the drive back from Rotorua, we were graced with the most brilliant rainbow any of us had ever seen: a full arc with colors so bright they almost seemed to glow. At one point, there was a second fainter rainbow hovering just above this one. I stared at it in awe for about 10 minutes, until it faded, then turned my attention to the red-orange sunset. Not a bad way to pass the hours riding bitch in the back seat of a tiny "sports" car. Road trips rule! Yay Rotorua!
I've been uploading my New Zealand photos in dribs and drabs. The latest are from yesterday's trip to Auckland Zoo, where they allow visitors to get impressively close to many of the caged animals. I think my favorites were the Galapagos tortoises, massive creatures who seemed to feast endlessly on very short cut grass.
Today we are off to sulphurous Rotorua, for some steaming hot geothermal action. Mud pools and geysers galore!
I've just been to a yummy Christmas bbq, with champaign and salad and fruit and pickles and lots of meat that I didn't eat but which everyone seemed to enjoy. After dinner, we and what seemed like everyone else in the "beach community" went for a walk on the waterfront. Now I'm trying to give my digestion a kick in the colon with green tea and "Delicia's Garlic Cloves" (my new favorite pickled thing).
A mosquito just landed on my arm. Yay summer Christmas!
I have writers block. Or rather, writer's insecurity. I've never been great at self expression, and today I seem to be fumbling more than usual. I keep trying to tell a story, then deleting it half way through.
Is it sincerity I struggle to find? I'm in New Zealand and people keep asking me what I think of the place and I feel like I'm supposed to exude wonder at its remarkable unearthly beauty. And though I do want to write tales of this natural wonderland, the stories don't seem to come. Maybe that's why all my words feel so forced to me.
This isn't to say I am without awe. Camping in the Northland was full of magic, such as the giant Kauri trees in the Whaipoua forest, and the massive sand dunes on Ninety Mile beach (if only I had my boogie board). But outside of the forest, far from sand and sea, words escape me.
The other day, Tim and I were on a walk in the Waitakere Ranges, a chain of hills 25 km west of central Auckland. While walking through a dense bit of forest, it struck me that the landscape seemed almost too perfect. The scenery reminded me of Brookfield Zoo's "Tropic World", a house designed to look like the prototypical rainforest, ideal but contrived. And yet, NZ isn't contrived at all, it's filled with natural beauty in a near idyllic state, and I'm so dumbfounded by it all that the best I can do is compare it to a zoo!
Long before I'd ever seen my first theorem, I wanted to be an astronomer. In fact, I even majored in astronomy during my first year at UIUC. There's probably an essay in me on my switch from astronomy to math, but who wants to read about the death of a childhood dream? And who said it had to die anyway?
I spent the early part of this week camping in the Northland (northernmost part of NZ's north island). On our first night in Matai Bay we were treated to a semi-clear night (and a lovely pasta dinner, thank you Tim!). In the darkness, the Milky Way reminded me how much I love looking at the stars.
Naturally, I couldn't resist taking a photo. A 30-second exposure wasn't long enough to blow anyone's mind, but it did pick up the southern cross and a slight hint of star trails. Star trails! The wheels are turning....
Yesterday I picked up two new toys for the camera: a wireless cable release and a tripod. Last night was too cloudy for star trails, but I did grab the above shot of Auckland's skyline from Mission Bay.
On my first day in Auckland I bought a pair of inline skates. They are K2's, just like my old pair, and fit like a glove. I made the mistake of googling their cost in US Dollars and was a little sickened by the difference. Yesterday I took them out for a ride along the waterfront. I put on my skates and drifted out onto the magnificently paved and uninterrupted path. That's all it took to convince me that my purchase was smart, if not frugal.
Skating rules... more on that after my blisters heal. For now, here's a picture of the waterfront. That foolish overdressed American blocking the view is me!
More specifically, I'm in Auckland. The reality of being on the other side of the world hasn't quite hit me yet. But then again, I only just arrived. Today's primary goal is to stay awake with the help of breakfast and maybe a little sight seeing. Ooh, and some amazing coffee I've heard so much about.
I'm going to New Zealand for a month! I leave in about 14 hours and have so much to do, including get a good night's sleep. But how can I sleep when I'm so excited to get on that plane? It's like Christmas. No wait, it IS Christmas.
I am lucky.
i'm tired tonight. long day i guess. woke up early and worked out the ol' legs. squats, presses, curls, raises. up. down. one. two. rinse. repeat. and me oh my, is that smell coming from me? my sweat glands: conduits of curry. but i can't say it wasn't worth it: last night's spiced chickpeas were divine! then into town to meet Tim at the Tate Modern. we tried to ride the slides but get this: tickets required. what is this conspiracy of queues? a queue for the ticket. a queue for the slide.
london: city of inefficiency.
so what was supposed to be a fun ride turned out to be a major pain in the ass and the wait was over an hour so eff it. we diverted to the gift shop and were inspired by all the books. how about we go to charing cross road and look at some more books? ok!
it was a bit of a hike to covent garden, but a marvelous walk. i was lost for the most part, so followed Tim's nose towards our destination. he led us through the offices were all of the lawyers and barristers work, somewhere between Fleet Street and Victoria Embankment. this is the London of my dreams: big beautiful OLD buildings surrounding picturesque courtyards with trees and fountains and benches, narrow passages leading to more courtyards and secret pubs, old men in suits, offices where people toiled over piles of papers and books and important looking documents, fascinating and surreal scenes that don't seem to exist in the "real" London of fish and chips and beer cans and Tesco.
we never made it to the book shops because we wanted coffee and snacks. and then it was time to go home. this led to another walk, and a bus ride, and another walk. it's so great to live in a city where i get to walk everywhere and go to museums but why does it tire me so? am i actually burning more calories while i'm in a museum? sometimes i wish the halls of museums were lined with water stations like the ones at running races, where volunteers hold out cups of cold refreshing water for passer-bys. a few words of encouragement wouldn't hurt: "keep it up! just one room to go!" "yes, all of the old broken pottery is supposed to look the same!" "mind the Rosetta Stone, it's a doozy!"
so my battery's dying but i really want to get something done tonight. create something. or learn something new. but i'm exhausted! but rather than give up and settle in with my book or a movie, i'm sitting in front of my computer like a boob. why this reluctance to throw in the towel of productivity and enjoy the rest of my evening doing something which requires only as much energy as i have available? aimlessly reading things on the internet will not re-energize me. this obsession with "getting things done" is making a mockery of my free time! and i'm not even working at the moment! all my time is free time. and everyone knows that girls just wanna have fun. so on with it! amen.
fyi: current reading is Ironfire by David Ball, an "epic novel of love and war". So far, so hard to put down. I wouldn't normally read a book set in the 16th century about religious wars and sea battles and sultans and knights and slaves, but I thank my mom for the recommendation: this story is addictive!
this morning, i noticed that the toenail of the little piggie who stayed home fell off. i don't know where or when, but it's gone, and i didn't even get to say goodbye. how could i have missed it? is it wedged in a sock? or down the drain? it's somewhere out there, where i don't know, but it kind of grosses me out.
i just had one of those london nights where the stars aligned just right to make everything perfect.
i went to see The Frames at ULU with Tim. I first saw/heard the Frames at ACL 2005 and was so enchanted with their soul, humor and charm that I bought their CD, "Burn The Maps", based on their live performance alone. their recorded stuff is more melancholy than their live set, which is accented by the witty antics of the lead singer (his improv Bruce Springstein could be a show in itself). they recently came out with a new album, "The Cost", which i bought the day of it's release (i'm rarely so on the ball with these things). i didn't get into it like i got into "Burn The Maps", but since I've seen The Frames perform some of the tracks live, I'm hooked.
And that's the thing about The Frames: their music really comes alive through their performance. the build-up. the deep drum rhythms. the melodic violin. did i mention the build-up? they are experts! and they're funny has hell. the songs are sentimental, but they don't take themselves too seriously. the band seems to know that people come out to their shows to have a good time, so they put on a proper rock show, and nobody leaves depressed or sad, even though they want their life to make more sense, or someone's left someone else in the rain again, or too many sad words make a sad sad song. the frames pull off melancholy with a sense of humor, and i dig it!
it was a great show, and we were lucky enough to find the balcony where i could actually see the band on-stage (a concert rarity for shorty like me).
after the concert, we walked to Soho and went to Bar Italia for coffee. if Bar Italia sold a mix CD, I would buy it - they were crankin' out the hits. i wrote some of them down on a napkin:
Easy Lover - Phil Collins
Part-Time Lover - Stevie Wonder
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell
Suspicious Minds - Elvis
Cracklin' Rose - Neil Diamond
Oh What a Night - who sings this??
Stuck In The Middle With You
Build Me Up Buttercup
Daydream Believer
We left the cafe just as The Frames' lead singer was coming in. (!!!) I mouthed the words "OH MY GOD" to Tim and felt full of that I'm-near-a-famous-person intoxicated feeling. This was uncalled for, because the lead singer whose name I don't even know is a regular dude with a regular life and a regular girlfriend who likes good coffee at good cafes. But at the same time, I really wanted to say to him, "Hey great show tonight, I really loved the part where you threw your guitar on the drum kit" but I was a chicken and he was there with his girlfriend and there's something to be said for playing it cool so I played it cool and didn't embarrass anyone, which is more than I can say for the insanely trashed fat lady and the might-be-cute-if-he-weren't-drunk gay man in a scarf who were booty dancing together to Band Aid's "Do They know It's Christmas?".
I got home late and stayed up even later and then slept until 10:30am. A good sleep. And awake in the morning without a hangover. Sleeping in and feeling good. Isn't that what time off is all about?
i want to be a social
but i want to be sober
why must a london social life revolve around the pub?
it's friday night and i'd like to be with people. but all the people i'd like to be with are at the pub. but if i go to the pub i'll drink and feel less good about life and the people i want to be with. catch 22!
I've got a passion for veggie burgers. But it's not always the burger that grabs me: it's the fixins.
Yesterday I was prepping my lunchtime veggie burger and lamenting that bottle of ketchup in the fridge. I mean, what the hell is that stuff anyway? It tastes nothing like tomatoes and is way too red to be an actual food. But my burger likes sweet nothings whispered between its buns. What to do?
Still stuck in the fridge, I spied a jar next to the bottle of Heinz: mango chutney! A lightbulb went off. I knew what I had to do. Are you ready? Here we go. Behold, the titllating layers of my badass veggie burger:
Slice of whole wheat bread from the Spence (the best bread in the world)
Sprouts
Tomato
Salt
Pepper
Avocado
Jalapeno
Mango chutney
Mustard
Tivall veggie burger
Another slice of scrumptious bread
