jes6ica

Chilly, blue-skied morning...or nearly noon.

2009-02-09T02:30:00.001-08:00

Out on the island, and the hedge and the grass all have a few remnants of rime. Must have been downright chilly last night. And kitty, turning 11 years old this year, is more interested in watching the action from the windowsill with the heater under it than he is being out in it himself. He goes outside for 2-3 minutes at a time, but then his paws are cold and he'd rather come in now, thank you!

The house is on a hill, so from the windowsill, he has a good view of anything that moves in the yard. Well, I used to call it a yard. I may again, if I get a chance to mow it before it turns even more wild. I like mowing the lawn. It's a chore Grandpa assigned to me when I was about 12, and he was very picky about how it should be done; straight lines, overlap the last row just so so that there is no escaping line of unmowed grass, perfection was what was expected, and nothing less would do. Now that I have my own ~~lawn~~ savanna, I am less worried about mowing in exact straight lines. I follow the edges of the yard and work my way in, enjoying the random shapes that get ever narrower as I mow. I am still picky about those stripes of unmowed grass, though, I find, and those occur frequently when Lennart mows. So we have a deal. He cleans the kitchen, I mow the ~~lawn~~ veld. This works out nicely for him, since he's usually done in under an hour (for a really clean kitchen!) and I'm still mowing. Did I mention it's a huge ~~lawn~~ grassland wilderness? On a slope? And full of lumps!

In any case, I find mowing to be really cathartic. As I mow, I have time to think about all kinds of things, and I'm maneuvering this heavy lawnmower, and in the end, I get that nice satisfactory feeling of having accomplished something...even though it's a neverending struggle. (It's like laundry, another favorite task.) I must be yearning for spring, so I can get out there again!

It might not be popular or environmentally friendly to have lawns these days, and well, I probably wouldn't have landscaped like this had it been my choice in the first place, but it's here, and it looks a right mess when it's not mowed, so it MUST be done, and at least I get a little personal therapy now and then whilst I mow.

The cat, of course, hates it and hides in a cupboard the whole time.

Life goes on.

2008-10-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

The local bird population has apparently not missed us while we were gone.

When we moved to New York nearly three years ago, we almost packed up and left much as you'd expect people to do during, say, an alien invasion. We didn't leave dinner uneaten on the table or anything, but we'd had planter boxes of flowers on the balcony and the things we usually clean up every winter just stayed there. The chairs and table, the rug, whatever small planting implements I'd had out there, they were all just left to nature's devices. I think we both needed to run away from our life here a little bit at the time, and it was good that we did, because where we are now in life is much better in many ways.

But now we're very happy to have the chance to come home again, even if it's just off and on in our continuing transit life between London and Gothenburg.

And the past week, Lennart and I have been sitting, each with our respective laptops, working at the dining table, him facing toward the hall, and me facing the balcony. Several times now, we've been visited by magpies and little sparrows. At first I didn't see what they were up to. So I stood very slowly and moved to the window to better spy on them. There seems to be a plastic container that sticks out a bit from under the edge of the table. It has, not surprisingly, filled with water. And they would duck down under the table and splash splash splash! And then hop up and sit on the railing, shake their feathers, preen and fluff, and go down for another bath. And then the magpies seem to be eating something from the balcony planters as well. Not sure what, but there are certainly bits of weeds and grasses growing in there.

When I first saw the state of the balcony, I was pretty determined that I'd have to do something about it soon, but now I'm not so sure. The birds are clearly having such a good time, and they can splash around there without any fear of predators or annoying dogs, which they encounter over on Skansen Kronan, the wooded bit a short distance from here where I've seen them fly off to after their bath. And I really enjoy watching them. A big grin steals across my face as I see how much the water splashes! I think for now, I'll just leave things alone. :)

Über-geek indeed.

2008-09-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Today, I have to brag a bit about Lennart. He's currently at an ICFP (International Conference on Functional Programming) conference in Victoria, Canada, where he just now received this award:

For his paper on his language Cayenne. He was also cleverly wearing this t-shirt!

Yay for nerds!

(Btw, I help him come up with the weird names for his programming languages. Haskell (not one of Lennart's, but very used and influenced and reworked by him) was named after Haskell Curry. And somebody had written a language called Curry. So Lennart wanted something spicy. I suggested Cayenne. He has another language he's written that he said was a bit magical, but he didn't want to call it Wizard or Magician, so I said, "How about Djinn?" and Djinn it was! :) )

Eclipse 2008 - Mongolia

2008-08-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

The long journey.

After many many hours on an airplane, we arrived in Seoul, South Korea. First, we slept. Then, the next day, we went out and looked at the Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was a grey day, and it was the rainy season, but we got lucky. It didn't rain much, and the clouds protected our weakling skin from sunburn. It did seem a bit dreary, but the incredibly colorful palace made up for it!

The palace also had some unusual stone critters protecting the place:

We sat here awhile, and listened, astounded to the crazy cicadas.

Clicky for Cicadas!
(Turn your speakers up LOUD for lifelike effect!)

The pictures now jump to Mongolia, and I think Lennart must have a few in his phone that haven't been unloaded. Ahh well, here is Sükhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar:

A random skewered flying saucer:

And a little boy who decided we were utterly fascinating but still had to play it cool:

We later visited the Bogd Khan Palace Museum. More color!

These fellows on the doors were impressive:

Oooh, look, it's me!

After that, we toured the city and went way up on a hill near the city to see a very nice, old Communist monument (and a large, golden Buddha).

(Keep in mind, the housing seen in this area is REALLY expensive, even by our standards, and the only people who can afford to live there is foreign businessmen and politicians.)

View over the city:

There is this weird mix of old, decaying Soviet buildings and new, glass structures. The Mongolians themselves tend to refer to themselves as Asian in location, but Western in attitudes, and I would have to say it is true. They might look like their neighbors to the East and the South, but their behavior is much more Western. They have long been sending students to universities in Berlin and Moscow, and have, since the fall of the Soviet Union, been heavily influenced by Western Europe and the US, which they like, but also by China, which they don't like. In that respect, it seems many miss the Russians and their former ability to keep the Chinese out. And yet, when the Communists recently stacked an election, there was a demonstration in which the Mongolian police (never having dealt with such things before) blundered and the whole thing turned into a riot, burning down Communist Party headquarters and injured many (even could have killed a few...not quite sure). They're very independent, that's certain!

That night, we were supposed to fly from Ulaanbaatar to Ölgiy (the green marker) to then drive on to the eclipse site (the blue marker). But our travel organizers had underestimated what would happen when lots of people came to see an eclipse, we think, and the flight went away and we had to fly instead to Khovd (the turquoise marker). And drive from there.

View Larger Map

Our interesting little hotel in Khovd:

(Note the remote control. There was a tv, but it showed only a splotchy rainbow of colors on all channels. Lennart said it needed to be de-magnetized.)

The electrical outlet Lennart bravely used to charge his laptop:

Our lineup of good ole Russian vans, ready to take us on our trek:

These vans are each owned by their respective drivers who are not just "drivers" but also fabulous mechanics, and they have to be. They carry a number of spare parts (which you may later see lying along the "road" whenever you stop--and there will be frequent stops, for who knows what reason, really.) Being a driver in Mongolia is an occupation that mothers dream of for their sons. Seriously.

The...traffic in Khovd:

"It'll take about 6 hours to get to the eclipse site," they told us.

In most of Mongolia, there are no roads. Or rather, there are as many as you like:

The first breakdown:

A big bug:

The second breakdown:

The third breakdown:

Goats:

Not much to eat here:

Traffic:

The fourth breakdown:

The Altai mountains:

The fifth breakdown:

A slight...puddle:

Our driver made a pit stop to say hello to his sons, who are here helping to build the road:

Another big bug (these are relevant! One jumped down my bra later. Eek!):

The place with the two trees:

The sixth breakdown. Really:

The seventh breakdown:

Anyway...after more than 16 hours of driving, we got to the eclipse site at around midnight. Lennart and I crashed in our gers and the next morning, we and our van-mates (we had the coolest van of all, everyone agreed!) grabbed the beer we'd wisely bought the day before and went down to the river to drink and relax:

Our little ger camp. Ours is the littlest one at the furthest right of the picture:

Some riders put on a bit of a show:

Then it was time to go watch the eclipse:

Mostly it's a lot of waiting:

But then:

The next day we learn that we don't have to drive all the way back to Khovd, but only to Ölgiy, to fly back to Ulaanbaatar. Yay!

How do they find their way in the dark?

A pretty lake that we completely missed in the darkness when driving in:

Our driver...waiting for the radiator to cool down:

The airport in Ölgiy. No indoor plumbing, but there was a shed of 4 or 5 pit toilets where you crouched on very flimsy boards over a hole in the ground. Oh, and there was a little goat trapped in there. :(

Items you should not have in your carry-on:

And then, without further ado...once we got to Ulaanbaatar, our flights to the Gobi were rescheduled to that night. So we flew to Dalanzadgad (the red marker in the map above) The couple who went with us were two from our cool bus, so we four had a good time down there!

We walked into this canyon...

That once had ice up to where the black rock meets the beige:

Now, this is about all that's left:

It was hot...hence my looking...hot...wasn't unhappy, promise!

A family milking their goats:

Their sensible dog who stayed in the shade of the ger:

They were also making felt for the gers. You take the goat wool, get it wet, roll it up tight, and then drag the roll around on your horse for awhile. Repeat. Eventually, it gets compacted together enough to use for the walls of your ger.

Some stray camels:

The Flaming Cliffs. We decided we'd seen weirder in Utah. Lots of fossils and dinosaur eggs have been found here, though:

A saxaul tree...which our guide kept pronouncing as a "sexual" tree. :)

This day, we visited the camel herders. I'm pretty sure that somewhere in Lennart's phone is some pictures of the inside of their ger and all the fermenting and fermented camel and horse dairy products we were offered. Let me just say that I have now tasted them, and no longer need to. Ever.

Before we left, a village near us was having their Naadam festival. We saw the winning horses:

And the fancy party clothes:

And the archery:

And the wrestling:

The winner floats around his "coach":

And gets a prize of bread and camel cheese:

And we got more fermenting mystery milk:

Our ger in the Gobi:

The dining ger from the outside:

And the inside:

And finally back to Ulaanbaatar, where we visited the monastery:

Big Buddha!

(these are made of flour paste, and they do new ones regularly)

A throne fit for a lama:

Many arms:

The monastery school:

And finally, Ulaanbaatar on our last night:

Whole Lotta Seoul groans at own bad puns

2008-07-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Seoul is delicious! You pop into any food spot, such as even some little place in a shopping mall food court, and you get amazing, freshly-cooked-on-your-table meats and vegetables and tasty sauces and spicy kimchis, and it's been humid and hot, but overcast, which makes it almost bearable, but not quite. It's too easy to forget to drink enough water, which I didn't. But we made up for it with a sort of ground beef stew and soju? :) And lots of water, too! Went to see the palace yesterday (a collection of very colorful and lovely sheds! Pictures to follow soonish.) and wandered around the Insadong area... This morning, Lennart is snoring not-so-gently in the background since he didn't sleep well last night. Jet lag and too much heat can have a nasty effect on our sleep mechanisms. In any case, another couple of hours and we head to the airport again to make our way to Ulaan Bator, where we will arrive late late late.

But the hotel there is supposed to have internet, so there may be more updates...

Lazy weekend

2008-04-21T11:13:00.001-07:00

Saturday we went to Harrods just to wander around, and we managed to get there earlyish, before it got too crowded. And why, may I ask, do department stores everywhere make you walk through the perfume area first? What a way to give me asthma attacks to start off my shopping day right! Yeesh!

Anyway, we had a little lunch and went ALL the way up to the sporting goods area where it was almost completely empty and I saw the kind of bicycle I need. It looked a lot like those old Cruisers and had high handlebars and a low crossbar and was pink with flames! SO me! And so expensive! It was about 600 pounds! It looked a lot like this:

And that one seems to be only $289, so I'm guessing if I don't buy such a thing at Harrods... :)

Lennart wants a bike like this:

Which at Harrods was even more expensive than the pink one. Nope, not broken, just foldable.

And then right in the middle of the golf-wear (I think that's where it was, anyway. Could have been sailing gear.) was an Illy bar, so we plopped down (or rather climbed up onto the high stools) and had a cappuccino and learned from the bar menu that there are also coffee drinks such as Ristretto and Marocchino and another one that I can't remember the name of. We felt hopelessly unknowledgeable in the world of coffee and vowed to better ourselves. Then we continued on, gaped at the golf cart Hummer:

And then made our way down the Egyptian escalators:

to the third (I think) floor with the furniture and got some amazing ideas, such as a neato glass dining room table and some nifty tall planter pots, and I think we both fell in love with this Roche Bobois chair:

One day, IKEA will copy it and it'll be more in our price range. Heh. :)

Then we went home and made a creamy broccoli, potato, and gruyère soup. With fresh baguettes. Yummers.

Sunday we watched old CSI:NY episodes all day long and pined over our very-much-missed Manhattan!

2008-03-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

So I'll make an attempt to catch up! First, Valentine's Day and celebrations.

We didn't go out to dinner like many people do on Valentine's Day, but since it is the day we got engaged 12 years ago, we did want to do a little something special. So, we made a special dinner at home. Might not have looked quite as fancy as a restaurant, but it tasted darn good.

First, a little pink champagne (which Lennart and I have found we both prefer, as it's slightly sweeter) and fois gras with black truffles, peach preserves, and a simple toast:

Next, venison medallions in a port sauce made with onions, butter, beef and chicken broth, port (of course), and raspberries; freshly steamed fennel (I think there's some fennel bits in the sauce as well); and finally a sort of shredded potato rösti with gruyere cheese. The sharp cheese went really well with the strong venison flavour, and the meat was so tender and delicious!

Finally, we let Gü do most of the work with their chocolate tarts with molten center, and we made a nice raspberry sauce to go on top, served with a sweet desert wine:

But that wasn't the end of our Valentine celebrations. That weekend we rented a car and drove to Mont Saint Michel, a tidal island which holds a medieval walled city topped by the most stunning monastery. This is one of those places that really makes you believe that magic must be true. This little village is the epitome of medieval fantastical settings, and you could just imagine a dragon sitting atop a turret or fairies wisping through the gardens. This place will forever have a small piece of my heart.

If you begin by clicking on this one, and click the next arrow, it goes quicker as the pictures are pre-loaded:

(If you happen to wonder anything about any of the pictures, please ask. :)

Soon, Egypt!

Musical tastes

2008-01-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Neil Diamond is playing at the O2 in June. Am I a dork for reallllly reallllllllly wanting to see that concert?

(Btw, Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds was incredibly fun! Highly recommended. Mom would have died (er...had she not been dead already?) to know that I saw Justin Hayward in concert! And their little CGI Richard Burton was so funny! And the music was, of course, incredible!)

Shining stars?

2008-01-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

I'm still sick, so I am going to be whiny about something!

Was watching Swedish TV 1 (a state-owned channel) late last night and they had a reality series called "Stjärnorna på Slottet" (Stars at the Castle--catchier in Swedish) where 5 famous Swedes gather together for 5 days, and each star gets to be "in charge" of one day...so they organize the food, activities, and so on.

This seemed to be the first episode, so I watched half-interestedly as Peter Stormare (looking a bit hungover, as seems usual, though I think that's just his regular appearance), Magnus Härenstam (Funny guy, but someone I knew for the longest time only as Sweden's Alex Trebek), Jan Malmsjö (Swedish actor most famous (to me) for playing the bishop in Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander), Arja Saijonmaa (Finnish singer...don't know much about her), and Britt Ekland (Known by everyone, right?)

Britt Ekland arrived with 19 suitcases full of clothing and accessories for 5 days. Admittedly, one suitcase was shoes only, and one was full of toys and goodies for her little ~~rat-dog~~ chihuahua. The first day was her day to arrange, and it started out by her knocking on everyone's door bright and early, giving them all exercise clothing and a cup of coffee, and telling them to meet her outside in 15 minutes. Once there, the stars encountered a number of strange exercise machines set up on the lawn of the castle. It seemed that these machines' sole purpose was to vibrate people to health. Britt then led them in a number of yoga-like poses as they stood on these giant vibrators and any time Magnus H cracked a joke (he can't resist), she would become very irate. Near the end, Jan M, a quite old, portly gentleman, became very wobbly and fell over. And she had no patience for him either.

Later on, around the dining table, Arja S asked Britt many questions about her life: How was it meeting/marrying/living with/divorcing Peter Sellers? How was it kissing James Bond? What was it like to date Rod Stewart?

And undeniably, it was interesting and easy to see what a difficult time she'd had (particularly with Peter Sellers). However, whenever they did any activities, and the focus was not on her, she'd get almost tantrum-like. She'd name-drop at every chance (and it became clear that's what she was doing when she realized people weren't listening the first time, and she repeated, louder, how often she'd had tea in the garden with the English royal family, dahlings) and she was very bitter and intolerant of any of the others speaking to each other or giggling at anything other than something SHE had said herself.

So I was surprised and amazed that someone who had been as lovely as she had, who had survived life with a famed super manic-depressive perfectionist, led her life in front of the cameras, and still come out okay on the other side, is the kind of person she seems to be now. Instead of being the strong, quietly confident, admirable woman I would have imagined and half-expected, she's an attention-grabbing, name-dropping, unpleasant old hag. It made me a little sad, I guess. Maybe I expect too much of people.

Peter Stormare, however, and the other "stars" were great. Very down-to-earth, it seemed. Interesting.

Merry Christmas from Lennart and Jessica!

2007-12-16T03:48:00.001-08:00

Clicky!

Jet lag makes me stupid.

2007-11-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago today, Lennart and I got married in a quick and dirty town hall ceremony which I didn't fully understand but nevertheless took very seriously. Today, we've been through bumps, some serious, some less so, and come through to drive on the mostly paved, slightly cracked, a bit potholed road of married life. We'll have kids if and when it happens, and for now, we're mostly enjoying our everydays despite the typical human feelings of being a bit at loose ends now and then.

Today, I went to have lunch with Carolyn and realized I'd forgotten my wallet. Carolyn was so kind; she paid for lunch, and I took the DLR back to Canary Wharf thinking I'd pick up a little anniversary present for Lennart. I'd looked up the traditional gifts for anniversaries, and it seemed that tin is the old-fangled gift for ten years, and alumin(i)um is the new-fangled one. "Great!" thought I. "I'll just find something shiny/metallic-y to give him." I didn't really find anything I liked, so I decided to at least pick up a bottle of champagne from Waitrose when once again it dawned on me that I still DIDN'T HAVE MY WALLET! Duh!

Took DLR home...saw sleeeeeeepy kitty. Had an incredible sleepy feeling planted in the middle of my forehead, making my eyelids very heavy, and decided that sleep wasn't such a bad idea and kitty and I settled down for a small snooze. Juuuust drifted off when Lennart's mother called to wish me a happy anniversary and tell me how generally poor things were in her life (*sigh* I wish I knew what to do to make her feel happier.) and so I decided to check my email on my INCREDIBLE NEW IPHONE that Lennart got me for an early anniversary present. This thing is the coolest gadget I have ever had my hands on!

Anyway, now it's 5pm so I'll start getting ready for our anniversary dinner tonight at Foliage where they do a really fun, surprise tasting menu. :)

Lennart and Jessica visit Idaho.

2007-11-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

A long, strange trip.

2007-10-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Jerry Garcia certainly had some applicable insights now and then, didn't he?

I'm just getting over a major flareup, which is why it's been so quiet. I don't think I've had one that bad for a long time, and the constant pain is something I don't look forward to experiencing again. Man oh man! I mean, I've had, "It hurts when I do that," kind of pain, but this just didn't stop. It's ebbing now, though, which really makes me appreciate how incredibly wonderful days without pain are. I could play Boogedy with the cat. That makes me happy.

We got home from New York, and Lennart ~~tricked~~ enticed me into venturing out to Lewisham with him. There was an O2 store in the shopping center there, and he claimed that the new iPhone was out, and we would get one. (See, Lennart and I alternate new phones. Lennart just got one fairly recently, and mine is several years old now. But even if it's my turn, it's still a new gadget that he gets to play with.) But, alas, he read the date wrong, and all our hopes were dashed in one fell swoop when the shop-person said, "No, mate, those don't come out until November." Lennart felt foolish and I pouted at him. We ordered pizza and watched new episodes of Stargate Atlantis that had downloaded to iTunes in our absence. All better.

(Speaking of downloading episodes, Amazon unboxed won't allow foreign downloads. Pah! I say, if I'm happy to pay for them, why can't I watch them? Lennart's going to check if he can VPN-tunnel to someone in the US, because that's just dumb. No wonder people pirate stuff!)

Shopping for clothes in New York was fun again. I had to buy a size smaller pants! (No, not underpants...I know I'm not British in many of my phrasings, but just think how silly I'd sound if I started using "wee" to refer to small things. You just can't do that without the right accent. So I'll go on saying "bathroom" instead of "loo" (or "boggy boggy" (Sorry, Satnam)) and "sidewalks" instead of "pavements" and I'll still think that "Way Out" is showing the way towards the drug-soaked 60s.) I've not had a size smaller pants in "donkey's years"! (Okay, I used that one, but just because it's so ridiculous!)

I have some actual freelancing projects! Hooray! And so far, the clients seem happy. I really have hope for this. It would be so wonderful to have something that I love to do be a kind of income that can move around with me wherever Lennart needs to go. Living away from him just can't be an option for me anymore. Loneliness can drown out love, if left to fester for too long. So getting the copy editing thing going will be a truly wonderful thing for me, on so many levels. I am going to need someone to do my taxes though. Sheesh...complicated!

Saturday, off to Sweden to be a Greek goddess at a Halloween party at friends'. Lennart will have a humongous brown afro. I'll try to get pictures. :)

Another brush with celebrity...

2007-10-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

Walking back to the hotel from Les Halles (Anthony Bourdain's restaurant) on Park Avenue, there was suddenly a bunch of extremely loud firetrucks passing by, and Lennart had to gawk a little, because they were stopping at a building nearby. We saw no smoke, so Lennart speculated that it might be a jumper. And as he did this, a lost and confused-looking Robert Duvall rounded the corner, sucking his teeth, and was less than a foot away from me. I had to lean into Lennart's ear and say discreetly, "That's Robert Duvall standing behind me." And Lennart turned to look and said, "It sure is!"

He's looking a bit ragged around the edges these days, and Lennart says, "Whenever I see celebrities, they always look older." And, well, yes, I guess, since makeup and good lighting does wonders. Still, a bit of celebrity spotting can be slightly fun. :)

A Saturday Out

2007-06-26T04:50:00.001-07:00

Any cassette left in a car for more than a fortnight turns into Queen's Greatest Hits.*

Friday was Lennart's 51st birthday. Not a major birthday perhaps, but still. I got him a nice little hardback copy of Samuel Pepys's diary, and tickets to see We Will Rock You on Saturday afternoon. So, knowing the tricksiness that is the underground system on weekends, we left here more than an hour early and after much readjusting of travel methods and train selections, and walking, we made our way to the Dominion Theatre. (Warning, Google maps places this theatre somewhere between Warren Street and Goodge Street stations. Not so! It's smack dab on top of the Tottenham Court Station. Do not be fooled! (This is the first time (so far) that Google has led us so far astray.))

In any case, we proceeded inside to the nifty, old foyer and deeper into the darkness to find our seats (Row B, Seats 5-6). We were very close to the stage and VERY close to the speakers. We noticed that there were concessionists much like you'd find at a baseball game in the US, selling popcorn and drinks and things. Something which hasn't spread to theatre on Broadway, which still has a sense of the formal. You can get a glass of wine at intermission, but popcorn? Not so much. It was neat, but a bit odd. In any case, we'd stayed up late the night before, so suddenly I was very snoozy. While we were waiting, I actually nodded off...

...and was excitingly and loudly awoken by the intro to Innuendo. I got goosebumps, and tears welled up in my eyes. In fact, I could hardly stop smiling and crying throughout the whole thing. It was brilliant and brought back many memories and feelings. It had less story than Mamma Mia, but there was no lack of excellent music. One has to be impressed with Queen...one of the few bands where each member has produced not one or two, but several hit songs. (And lead guitarist Brian May, an astronomy/astrophysics geek, is also an eclipse chaser, and was also in Scotland some years ago for the annular eclipse. Whee! Geeky!) We were dynamited by the Killer Queen. We were Radio Ga Ga. We felt the pressure. We bit the dust. The singing was excellent, but did in fact make it clear what an excellent singer Freddie Mercury really was. As Roger Daltry of The Who said:

"When we lost Freddie, we not only lost a great personality, a man with a great sense of humor, a true showman, but we lost probably the best, the really, the best virtuoso rock 'n' roll singer of all time. He could sing anything in any style. He could change his style from line to line and, God, that's an art. And he was brilliant at it."

And, of course, they saved Bohemian Rhapsody for last. Which just made me cry and cry. I couldn't stop. It's very weird. But I leave you with it now:

*Paraphrased from Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Various and Sundry

2007-04-16T01:03:00.000-07:00

I had downloaded the pilot episode of Ugly Betty from iTunes, and saw that it was taking place in New York. "That's cool!" thought I. It was all well and good, and then I saw the last 15 seconds. Ugly Betty works in the MetLife building. Lennart worked in the MetLife building! Ugly Betty walked across the street into Madison Square Park. We walked there all the time! A later episode made a reference to a restaurant called "Madison Six" which, had it existed, would probably have been roughly where the Shake Shack is in the park. But it was clearly also a reference to Eleven Madison, a restaurant in the MetLife building. Both of those are owned by restaurateur Danny Meyer, who inspires good food and incredibly friendly wait staff. If you're in NYC, GO to one of his restaurants. Anyway, it was all within a block of where we lived, and it made me very homesick for New York. Who'd have thought that I'd ever be homesick for a place that I absolutely hated when I first visited about ten years ago. But I still say it's different visiting a place than it is living there.
We went to Sweden on Saturday, to visit Lennart's mother. Before we left, Lennart took some pictures of our apartment here so that she could see what it looked like. Then he wanted to print them quickly, but saw that there were a lot of old pictures on the camera, which would make loading take a lot of time, so without thinking he deleted all the old ones. Then, on the plane, he said, "Oh, shit! I erased all the Stonehenge pictures." Not only those, mind you, but all the ones from Cambridge, and the whole of Wiltshire. So I won't be showing you those after all. *sigh*
We went to Tjörn to check things out. I guess they'd had some horrible hurricane winds there, and one end of our greenhouse was lifted and moved off of its foundation by several feet. Cracking several panes of glass, and knocking all my stacked, empty flower pots to the floor and breaking them. :( That thing is heavy, and the only way to fix it is to remove ALL the panes of glass and start over. *double sigh*
I had Lennart cut my hair while we were in Sweden, and now I look like this again:
On the way home from Stansted yesterday, I saw lots of cute, white, fluffy lambs. I may have got a high-pitched voice when pointing them out to Lennart. I may have squealed "cute" just a little. :)
The kitty is now acting all crazy, and he wants to go outside...so more another day.

Regarding the wrong kind of window...

2007-03-08T06:57:00.001-08:00

The kitty has discovered and become displeased with the roof window panel in the attic. He tried to hop up onto its "window ledge" to no avail. I put a stool under it, and placed him on top of the stool, and he stood on hind legs with front paws on the window. This was not like anything he'd seen in the line of windows before. He batted at it slightly, in consternation. He said, "Meep!" and hopped down.

Now he washes his paws as if none of this had ever happened.

Some thingies I noticed...

2007-03-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

New Yorkers are excellent at sidewalk navigation, and pretty good at apologizing if they bump into you.
Swedes are mostly okay at sidewalk navigation, and lousy at apologizing if they bump into you.
Brits are lousy at sidewalk navigation, but excellent at apologizing if they bump into you.
My theory on the sidewalk navigation of the Brits contains hypotheses based on the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road. :)
No matter how many outlets in a house or apartment you may have, there are never enough.
Buying 5 plug strips and 5 adapters at Waitrose in Canary Wharf will get you looked at like you've just grown a third head.
Kem has now learned how to get down out of the attic by himself. It involves a leap of faith onto the bed in the room below.
The weather is just stunningly beautiful today, and too hot for my current jacket. Will have to remedy this. (With use of a new jacket, as opposed to new weather.)
From RumsJanne: Nora, the Piano Playing Cat

Once more unto the breach...

2007-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

Today, kitty has been to the vet again (poor thing) and had things shoved down his throat, and we leave tomorrow for France, to rent a car in Paris and drive to London through the tunnel, through which one IS permitted to transport animals, albeit in your own vehicle, not to be touching the train, thank you!

Please, wish us the best of luck. I have been having nightmares, dreading this for two weeks solid now.

What's Gnu with You?

2007-02-07T01:16:00.000-08:00

Today I miss the squirrels in Madison Square Park, and revolving doors. I miss the doorman's happy greeting, and being let off the elevator first. I miss the Sfizio sandwich at Mangia on 23rd Street, and the MetLife clock tower.

I only had three days in London before I had to come to Sweden to fetch the kitty and spend some time at work, catching up with friends and colleagues, so I don't know what I'm missing in London yet. :) We found an apartment in Greenwich, though, and our offer seems to have been accepted, and I think we may move in on the 16th of February, so it's nice to know what's coming. It's wonderful to see friends, but after nearly a week here in Gothenburg, I feel on some level that I'm not ready to be back here permanently yet. I've discussed with my new boss (The old one got a CEO-type job at another company back in Finland, where he's from, and would like to raise his kids there...completely understandable, but I'll miss him...he was a good boss, all in all.) the possibilities of what can happen if I happen to get a job in London, how flexible the company can be, and in fact, the desire to keep me on in a kind of freelance proofreader/copy editor capacity, which I think is pretty cool! It can never hurt to keep ties here, after all, and anyway, I want to be coming back to visit my wonderful Katja, RumsJanne and Miss Green, Steve, Tomper, Rosy, and oh-so-many other good friends I've made here. The best of friends!

But I'm looking forward to getting back to London with my husband and my cat, to finally get together with fellow-Idahoan Carolyn again, and to move into a new place that will be "ours" even if for a short time, and opening up some work horizons, which both scares and excites me. I've been at this company now for nearly 7 years. I'm ready to do something else. I'd much rather be doing some copy editing than writing instructions. Writing instructions for software is not my goal in life.

Ahh well, I shall go on missing revolving doors today, and ponder things that are new and exciting and scary! :)

2007-01-27T16:56:00.001-08:00

So here we sit at JFK airport, waiting for our flight to London (via Frankfurt, on Singapore airlines. Figure that one out. :).

A busy day...the movers came and packed stuff. It didn't seem like we had that much stuff to send to London, but in the end there were 25 boxes of stuff weighing nearly 900 pounds!! It's amazing what can be accumulated in a year's time. We decided that moving every year was a good thing, because of the amount of junk it forces you to throw away. And even when we left, we have a pile of things for the Salvation Army to come pick up on Monday.

It was kind of sad, leaving the apartment, nearly as empty as when we found it. Though better, in some repects. We had installed a light above the kitchen sink, some simple, space saving wine racks under the cupboard above the kitchen counter, and a towel rack in the bathroom. But Lennart and I stood for a moment, hand in hand, gazing one last time at our particular view of the Empire State Building. And then grabbed the suitcases, left the keys with the doorman, caught a cab, and headed to the airport, and here we are.

See you on the other side...

Thingies...

2007-01-20T05:26:00.000-08:00

The repairs in the apartment beneath sound like someone has a really big, really hard-boiled egg that they're trying to remove the shell from.

Jeremy Brett was the best Sherlock Holmes ever.

I don't see the attraction of sudoku. I can do them, but they all feel the same. You've done one, you've done 'em all. Give me a crossword any day!

Aruba was bliss. It's good to be home.

Speaking of home, London's starting to appear like a massive cruise ship, bearing down on us in our tiny little two-man (and one cat) sailboat. I feel unprepared, but excited too. Yikes, yoiks!

I'm sure there's more, but things are so hecticcrazymonsterbusy.

2007-01-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

I've broken my tailbone twice. Once on rollerskates and once on icy steps. Sat on a board for months after the second one. I think it healed a bit crooked as well, that second time, because every time I ride more than a couple hours on an airplane, I have to pop it into place. :| The airplane seats hit me exactly wrong. Anyway, just my luck, I fell on Christmas Eve whilst getting a tree, and though I don't think I rebroke it, it's a real pain!

Otherwise, a pretty good, quiet Christmas was had by all.

Atypical Year-in-Review. Or is it A Typical Year-in-Review? I dunno.

2006-12-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Lennart and I braved the crowds on Saturday to attempt a little Christmas shopping. HA! HA! It is to laugh!

It's no wonder that tourists think that New York is always packed and crowded and busy. Because if you hang around midtown on weekends, summers, and holidays, it IS that way. But trust me, this is one of those places I'd rather live than visit, because down on our local streets, the amount of people is normal, and the variety and atmosphere is fun, and not overly hectic.

I have, in this past year, learned how to tell the tourists from the locals (tourists stare up a lot, stop frequently in the middle of the sidewalk, wait at the curb to cross the street; locals stare ahead, gauge the crowd and navigate accordingly*, and stand a couple of feet into the street waiting for the lights to change before they cross.) I have become a local myself, though now and then, I can't resist a peek at some of the buildings.

I have learned how much New York lets you be your own person. In Idaho, and in Gbg, my turquoise leather jacket gets stares of disapproval (probably mostly in Gbg, though, since in Sweden, leather should be black...or sumpin'). Here, I get, "I LOVE your jacket, and "Cool jacket. Almost as cool as you!" (This last by our favorite doorman. I like how people don't negatively appraise you on the street as much as at home. But after living here, I will also know that it's not anything wrong with ME, and I'll be able to hold my head high, and not look away guiltily.

I have learned who to tip, and roughly how much. Though we just discovered that you should give your doormen a Christmas bonus, so Lennart is asking people at work for the protocols on such a thing. :)

I have learned again that I am pretty. Why do we forget these things? Why are bad things easier to believe?
(I also want to thank Lane Bryant for showing me how to be a girl again.)

I have learned that I love good fois gras, geese be damned!

I have learned that working part-time makes me a much saner, happier person. Is it the work, or the hours, I don't know. But I don't have ulcers anymore, at least.

I have enjoyed New York, and there are so many things I will miss (Fresh Direct, the Doorman, the package Valet, Delivery.com, Madison Square Park, SAPA's cosmojitos (though we've almost got the recipe down), the parades, protests, and street fairs, and more) but I really am looking forward to returning to Europe, where I feel like it's more home to me. And London will be another new adventure. But one that lets me visit my sweet friends more often! I have missed them dearly!

The Lennart, the cat, and I are heading home to Sweden for Christmas tomorrow. It will be nice.

*A sidenote to Sweden: You would think that with the greater number of people in New York, as compares with Gbg, people would be bumping shoulders and running into one another constantly. Not so. The whole time I've been here, I've been bumped into twice, and both times apologized to. So, you know that excuse that it's just a big city attitude, Sweden? Nuh-uh! You have bumped into me repeatedly, and HARD I might add, and have yet to turn a head and acknowledge my existence. Sweden, I love you dearly, but you need to learn that strangers DO exist, and they sometimes have painful shoulders because of you. A little, "Oh, sorry" now and then...would that hurt so much? It's just politeness, you know. Beware, those who bump into me in future. I'm going to SEE you, acknowledge you, and say, *gasp*, "Excuse me," politely! So there! :)

Disappointments in Coffee

2006-12-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

So I asked for a latte, but got a cup half full of milk foam. I'd call that a cappuccino, wouldn't you? So much for Lennart's theory that they can only make lattes. Now we know that you CAN get cappuccino from Starbucks. But only when you ask for something else.

2006-11-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

There's someone in the building next door threatening to throw themselves off. I don't begin to know what to think about that. Lennart had to tell the police at the police line that he lives in this building in order to get through. There's a big inflatable "mattress" prepared for if the person does jump, however, so I really think there's not going to be any deaths in this event, as obviously the person is getting the attention they need just now (and I would think some therapy offers after s/he comes down), and if they had actually wanted to kill themselves, it would have been very easy to just jump and have no one notice until it is done with. (I've been up on the roof of this building several times when no one else was in sight. Such a thing could be done.) But it is all a little surreal.

Chicken Teeth

2006-11-11T02:18:00.000-08:00

I was four, and it was the most beautiful building I'd ever remembered seeing. Grandpa was constructing a new chicken coop and only the framework was up. The bright sun was glaring off of the clean smelling, yellow wood which was standing behind the house like a strange geometric skeleton. The floor joists were slightly too far to jump between, but if I took long enough steps my toes would just reach. Back and forth, to and fro, I walked along the length of the building. From one two-by-four to the next, hanging on by one hand to the smooth, upright boards that Grandpa said would soon be covered by walls.

Once I got brave and decided to step across without holding on to anything. What a thrill. I felt like an olympic gymnast, or at least the world champion chicken coop walker with my own private practicing coop. Back and forth and back again, I stretched out, reaching from beam to beam. Then my foot slipped off the two-by-four. I don't know how, I only remember seeing a board come up to hit me in the face, or rather the mouth.

My front teeth were gone and steaming, salty blood was washing over the magnificent yellow board. I must have been screaming like a steam engine because Grandma was immediately there taking me back into the house, and I was gushing blood all the way. I can't remember if it hurt. I'm sure it did, but I have no recollection of that.

Later I went out to look for my teeth. I found two of them tangled in the matted green grass and weeds now crusted with blood under the chicken coop, but the third was embedded deep into the wood. I couldn't get it out. It's probably there now. Grandpa just laid the floor over it, so if the boards were pulled up I'd find it. A little, white tooth stuck in a board.

I still do stupid, dare-devil things like that, and I still get hurt doing them, but nothing stands out so vividly as the chicken coop. Even after I knocked my teeth out, I went back to walking the chicken coop beams.

Urgle.

2006-11-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

What I thought was a cold seems to have been the flu. I don't think I've been this sick in YEARS! Lots of fever dreams, aches, cold-like symptoms in the worst way. It's now more than a week later. I'm starting to get better, yes, but even today I had to crawl back into bed (taking the kitty cat as a good fuzzy pillow, of course) and zonked out for several hours! Much of the time now, I'm feeling that level of good that is just well enough to WISH I could go out of the wretched prison of an apartment and do something, ANYTHING, but as soon as any such attempt is made, I'm exhausted by the feat of, say, putting on my shoes. Much heavy sigh-heaving and whining then ensues, and I go lie down again.

I've heard of some new magical medicine called Airborne that will save me from catching the nasty germs when I ride an airplane. Does anyone out there know if this is true, or if it's just empty promises?

2006-10-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

There is a strange rattle-rustling in the vent above the kitchen cupboards that wasn't there a few days ago. Is it wind? Or a rat?

I shudder to think.

A curse...er...cold upon me.

2006-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning with a sore throat, and a slightly snuffy nose. A few hours later, just wanted to go lie down. Did so, started having horrible fever dreams about an old neighbor being the same person as a high school English teacher, and she (both as one) was taunting me as I ate an enchilada which kept dripping sauce down my cheek and neck so I was coated everywhere and it wouldn't wipe off. Woke up to not being able to breathe at all through my nose, my throat extremely sore, my ears completely plugged up, and drool all over my pillow. Guess I found the enchilada sauce at least.

Ugh. The disadvantages of working at home: You get sick every time you finally do interact with people. I think I caught something on the plane.

I had a good time in Arizona, though, with my sweet Connie.

Wow!

2006-10-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

I just printed out my boarding card for my trip tomorrow to visit Cousin Connie in Arizona.* How did I live before the internet?

*I have checked the weather and it is HOT there. Too hot. I shall die in my own little puddle. Connie, I hope your air conditioning works, cuz I am PITIFUL!

Besservisser? Maybe

2006-10-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not a know-it-all, though I am pretty certain some people perceive me as such. If there are things I don't know, I don't pretend I do. If there are things that I'm not sure about, but may have read something about, I'll say so, and if I'm proved wrong, I'll absolutely stand down. And ~~most~~ some of the time, if someone is just babbling about something they know nothing about, I'll let it go. I wish I could do that more often. Because sometimes I KNOW I'm right, and I just can't force myself to drop it. If I could, I would eliminate a lot of conflicts in my life. I mean...I'm Swedish enough that I really dislike conflict. But does that help me in that situation where someone is acting like they know all about a subject that is my major area of work and study? Sadly, no. Please, if I do that to any of you out there, don't take it personally, and don't think I'm trying to be a smarty-pants, because I'm not. Not much, anyway. ;) It's more a matter of living among really intelligent people who know A LOT and finally I have found something I know about too. Or, sometimes it's finally losing patience with someone who seems like they could be smart, but they let themselves be completely dense or unaware of life that goes on around them, like the idiot woman in Zambia who, among a group of eclipse-nerd astronomers, asked, "What's the Milky Way?" in her singsong-ditz voice. Luckily, Lennart stopped me from saying anything more than, "It's the galaxy we live in." in the are-you-stupid-or-what voice.

Lennart's good at keeping me from going too far, most of the time, which is useful at parties. See, being an introvert, I suck at small talk. So when it gets to a subject I know something about, I babble. I hear that I'm babbling, and yet, I can't stop it. And when it comes to someone else talking out their hat about a subject on which I actually know something, I REALLY can't stop it, and I start bringing up studies and articles that support my statements. And I know this does nothing to win friends and influence people. But recently, I read an article in the Smithsonian which shows me that I am not alone. And that's a bit of a relief:

Moonstruck

Whee!

2006-10-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hey!

2006-10-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot I had this. Niceness!

The Sniffles

2006-04-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a brief weekend delay while Lennart and I sniffled pitifully from the tour group cold that we both managed to get, and we played a bit of the latest(last) Myst game, and got a scratching post for Kem, who is beginning to settle in now. I think he's the most calm and patient cat I have ever owned or met; he didn't make a peep from the time we put him in his travel bag in the apartment in Gbg to the time he came out in the apartment here. He _was_ very worried, with shallow breathing and wide eyes and VERY hot ears, but he sat patiently in his bag. The scariest part was having to take him out of the bag at various security checks and carrying him through the metal detectors while his bag went through the x-ray machine. SO many people and noises and SUCH a scared kitty. But I held him securely while he tried to bury his face in my neck, and then the lady waved the wand over us both. He had many fans, though, telling him how cute he was. Kem wasn't interested in any of that, though, and was only too happy when he could get back in his bag and hide! Anyway, we're all here, safe and sound, and though he's not quite comfortable enough to get really good sleep anywhere but under the bedcovers, he's getting more relaxed each day, and getting back to his old tricks, like pushing things off nightstands and tables when he wants feeding in the night. So the outlook is positive. And as we suspected, he LOVES the really wide window ledges and sits there for hours. Will have to take a picture one of these days, so's you can see.

Meanwhile, Apollonia and Cyrene:

Our images from Apollonia...the Greek port built for the major Greek city of Cyrene.

Our images from Cyrene.

Cyrene was a stunning Greek city, and HUGE, spanning a very large area, with two theatres and many temples. Here there were many more mosaics and tessellated floors and feelings of guilt and joy while walking on them. There was no avoiding it, really, the other choice would have been walking on the walls. Or not seeing it at all, which I couldn't bear to do. But there was also a partially restored floor made of marble mosaic with the most beautiful patterns, and each square was different:

Here's one of the views that took my breath away. After spending a couple of hours seeing many astonishing ruins up on a hill, we trekked down a mountainside to have our lunch at the Temple of Apollo. Just as we were munching our sandwiches and basking in the great view of the temple, the call to prayer was sounded through a loudspeaker, and all was quiet but for an eerie musical Allahu Akbar chanting through the treetops. It was very surreal.

And finally, after a long, wonderful day exploring these ruins, we were bussed to Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, where we stayed the night in a government operated hotel which displayed translations of phrases from The Green Book for our edification:

(And though I haven't mentioned everything, and have certainly forgotten much, the one other thing I really have to point out from Cyrene is the Temple of Zeus. This is one of the most complete temples to Zeus remaining. Most columns still have their tops, and you can see clearly where the reflecting pool would have been. It was truly something to see!)

A Day at the Airport

2006-04-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

The evening after Leptis Magna, as we bussed back to the hotel, we were told to rise at the crack of dawn so we could get quickly to the airport. We had a domestic flight to Labraq (east of Benghazi) at 9am. So we all checked out early, retrieved our passports (The hotels always took our passports there.) piled on the busses and headed out. We drove straight past the domestic airport (the old US military base) and people were confused. We drove to the international airport, and people speculated as to whether we'd actually come to the right place. But one of our local guides, Nadir, seemed confident, and said, "Just bring your bags over here, and relax. I will check us all in."

There was no one there at the check-in counter, so I'm not sure how he intended to do this, but we all stood around and waited:

A bit more than an hour later, approaching 9am, the sign containing the scheduled flights changed the flight to Labraq to "Delayed" and we were told to just relax, and they'd know more in about an hour. We found the local Libyan newspaper that's translated into English once every other week or something, and found some better seating:

Another hour and a half later we're told that there was something wrong with the plane, and we need to wait for the other plane to return from Benghazi (that flight had left about 20 minutes before) and we'd take that one. This is Libyan Arab Airlines again. We decide they must have a fleet of two planes. We're getting desperate and have to use the bathrooms. A ceramic hole-in-the-floor squat toilet, not especially clean. No toilet paper, but Lennart was equipped with spare kleenexes. The upshot of that was that you don't actually have to touch anything. "That's the whole idea with those toilets," says Lennart smugly. We wait:

Another couple of hours go by. Meanwhile, the number of cigarettes we've passively smoked approaches ten thousand or so. (Smoking sections or the concept of non-smoking don't exist here, which led to one night-time asthma attack in one hotel room. I'm guessing smoking wasn't around during Muhammed's time, or he'd have banned that along with drinking alcohol. My lungs would have preferred it the other way around.) We continue to wait:

After a few more hours, our luggage is finally accepted and we are shuffled into another part of the airport. (We've had to use the bathrooms another time or two.) Another tour group arrives, seemingly preparing for the same flight. How did they know it would be delayed? After another hour, we're finally boarding the plane! Wait, what's this? We recognize this plane! Why it's the same one we flew on from Tunis. Yes...same crooked decal on the bulkhead row...same pipes and wires showing in the same overhead luggage compartments. Yep, same plane!

The flight to Labraq was fairly uneventful until I started feeling really nauseous. It felt like we were going back and forth, up and down a little. Not turbulence. It's a bit misty out the window, and dark. Lennart says he feels like something's wrong. Gear goes down...descending...rapid ascent...gear goes up. Fly above the cloud level...make some turns...fly below the cloud level...gear goes down. Descending...descending...about 100 feet off the groud, the plane makes a SHARP bank to the right and I about lose my lunch, everybody gasps, some oxygen masks in the back drop down, and we make a bumpy landing.

Before landing, a pilot in our tour group said to his girlfriend, "Don't be alarmed, but we're coming in at an angle to the airstrip, but I think we'll be able to correct."

He said that two approaches were made (the gear down twice thing) and the first was probably a visual approach (typical here). Labraq is a new, and very small airport, unprepared for nighttime landings, and with no real ground equipment to speak of. And the plane has no gps or other kind of equipment now required for landing in Europe, which is why this airline isn't permitted to fly there. But we made it, and when we landed, the Flight Crew Purser said something LONG in Arabic, and the locals on the flight clapped and cheered. Then in English he said, "It was very bad weather, but a good plane and a good pilot."

The pilot in our group said that he probably WAS a good pilot to have finally landed, but that had it been ANY other major airline, he would have been fired anyway since it is just too easy to scrape the wing doing a turn so low like that.

Lennart and I just breathed a sigh of relief to be alive (Lennart probably also breathed a sigh of relief that I'd let his knee loose from the vice-grip I'd had it in during the landing) and gratefully got on the busses to the next hotel. The ride to the hotel was uneventful for us, because we weren't in the bus that broke down. ;)

More tomorrow from Apollonia!

Libya, Day One and Two

2006-04-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm skipping over Tunisia for now, since it's SO normal (read: European) comparitively.

Maintenance and upkeep are not things that Libyans do. They're all good at putting up the new shiny things, but once something breaks down, that's pretty much it. The first glimpse we saw of that was on the Libyan Arab Airlines plane from Tunis to Tripoli. We didn't know it at the time, but this airline is not permitted to fly to Europe, because it is not up to the regulation standards. We weren't surprised to hear it though. We boarded a quite old Boeing 737 (thank goodness for Boeing's skill at building quality planes to start with) that had clearly never been cleaned once it had come into the hands of this airline. Nor repaired. Wiring and ventilation pipes were clearly visible in the open overhead luggage compartments. There were no seat assignments, this was a seat-yourself affair, which tended to fill up from front to back, foregoing all logic. (It bugged Lennart, I could tell. "So inefficient!" he was thinking.)

Otherwise, the flight was pretty uneventful, and we landed in Tripoli with our passports and bizarre visa documents (1, 2, and 3) in hand, prepared for the worst. Especially considering that they got Lennart's passport number wrong, and had written my date of birth the same as my passport issue date. We got in line, and got up to the booth (I think they like creating useless extra jobs here. In this booth, they had one person to look at the passports who then handed them off to another person to stamp the passports. Plus another person further toward the exit who checked the passports once again. They also consistently had anywhere from three to six people taking tickets/boarding cards...rechecking boarding cards...tearing the little stub off the end of the boarding cards...rechecking the boarding card stub...and so on. Keep this in mind for later updates.) where the first guy looked and us, and looked at our passports, and looked satisfied and handed them off to the second guy. He looked at our passports and looked at the visa papers...put one of the visa papers in a file...called over a third guy to check the visa papers...much discussion. He stamped my passport and handed it to me. More discussion. Pointed to Lennart's passport and how the number didn't match the paper. Lennart shrugged and shook his head, while the guy babbled in Arabic. The second guy babbled to the third guy. The second guy changed the passport number on the paper, stamped Lennart's passport, and handed both the paper and the passport back to Lennart. Why he bothered changing the number, we'll never know, as there were no other people interested in seeing that paper during the whole rest of our stay there.

Then we went through the metal detectors on our way OUT of customs...everyone beeped...no one cared. Some people went around the metal detectors instead of through them. No one cared. We were met by one of the local guides and taken to the restaurant for dinner with the rest of the tour group, had dinner and returned to the hotel for some nice sleep.

Next day we really got down to business. The original plan was to head to Sabratha, but plans were changed, and we went instead to Leptis Magna. It seems our group leaders had heard that many of the cruise ships carrying more eclipse chasers would be visiting Leptis Magna on the day we had originally planned to see it, so they thought it'd be better to avoid the bigger crowds. I am so glad we did.

Leptis Magna was a fairly major city of the Roman Empire during the time when Carthage was a major power. Read Wikipedia's snippet about Leptis Magna.

Just walking through these ruins was amazing. The baths still have great slabs of marble still covering the floors and some walls. Many many columns are still standing upright (though admittedly, many of these have been re-stood up by Italian archaeologists, just the fact that they're still intact is marvelous!) and you can clearly see many of the carvings and reliefs in the surfaces of the various facades.

The arch of Septimus Severus:

Marble steps down into one of the baths:

The communal marble toilets:

The forum:

The temple of Bacchus:

The marketplace:

Another incredible temple, though I forget to whom it's dedicated:

A nice shot of the theatre:

The amphitheatre...where the cirkus was...gladiators and whatnot:

Those are just highlights. More pics from Leptis Magna to be found here (though they're slow loading, cuz they're high quality). No peeking on other days, now. I'll be posting further updates! :)

Back!

2006-04-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

Back in Sweden (taking cat to NY tomorrow...wish kitty luck and easy travel!) and boy is it a relief to go to the bathroom with an actual toilet and with actual toilet paper!

Libya really was an adventure. The Lonely Planet guidebook we bought, though only 4 years old, is already noticeably obsolete in many areas because Libya has been changing so rapidly since various embargoes have been listed in the past years. Dress for female tourists is not so strict anymore (Meaning, if your shirt has short sleeves, or your pants are bitchpants, that's okay, but you still shouldn't expect to go into any mosques without proper attire...this isn't Saudi Arabia, but nor is it Tunisia.) and prices have increased considerably (1 dinar is roughly equal to 1 dollar, and things like, say, a can of Pringles (Yes, they had Pringles!) costs about the same, but gas is only around 1 SEK per liter!). But even though there has been more of an influx of tourists during the past couple of years, Libya is still amazingly unused to tourists, and the eclipse brought, for them, a startling number of pale people into their midst...numbers they'd never seen before, and probably will never see again in their lifetimes. To me, it was a bit of a disconcerting thing to be constantly stared at by every single person while walking down the sidewalk. While driving by in the buses, people would wave; adults...usually you only see kids doing that in most places I've been to. Another thing the guidebook mentioned was that people, being muslims, did not like their picture taken. This has taken a vast turn with the invention of cellphones with digital cameras. At the eclipse site, we were inundated with loads of young Libyan men, all asking if they could take pictures of us with them, and groups of them would come, each wanting a shot taken with his cellphone camera. We, the pale tourists, were as novel to them as the sights we saw were novel to us.

We passed wonderfully large billboard images of Colonel Qaddafi staring dreamily at his goal of a unified Africa, and visited some extremely stunning Roman and Greek ruins, remarkably intact. Beautiful mosaics, columns and baths covered in marble, huge temples and theatres, all of which we could go right into and almost feel the spirits of those who'd been there before.

Lennart's still fixing the image directories, and I'll put up the links to those when finished, as well as a few smaller tales of events and one moment of sheer terror. Meanwhile, I'll include a couple of pictures:

Part of the tent city in the middle of a very flat part of the Sahara. The nothingness you see in the distance was all there was to see, outside of our little temporary city:

The air conditioned internet tent from my previous post:

Locals watching us watch the skies. Note that they're all men. There were some women at the site, but they stayed well away from us strange people:

Me in my eclipse watching garb. It was SO hot from the sun...I had soaked my pareo in water and wore it on my head to cool off and avoid sunburn. I got several comments from fellow tourists as to how fashionable I looked, and LOTS of locals asked if I would let them take their picture with me. I guess I looked pretty silly. :)

One quick preview of some of the ruins, here's Lennart standing in the wonderfully preserved theatre of Leptis Magna:

Mar. 29th, 2006

2006-03-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

Just want to say a quick hello from about 90 km south of Jalu, in the middle of the desert in Libya:

The eclipse was great, and the internet, out here, is stunning considering that you can't access internet as easily in the hotels in Tripoli and Benghazi! Also, it's free! Libya is doing it's best to impress, and though there may be shortcomings in some areas, they have certainly done well in this! It's pretty hot, but not deadly, and when we get back to real life, I'll have some pictures for you. I miss you guys!

Some notes I made while in Tahiti...

2005-05-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

"It's always better on holiday. So much better on holiday. That's why we only work when we need the money." --Franz Ferdinand, Jacqueline

Tahiti! You can't get much farther away from Sweden than that. When the plane landed, we entered Tiare Faa'a airport to the sound of a ukelele/drum/flute orchestra and I was given a white Tiare blossom for my hair. At 2am! They stayed up this late for us! First impressions: it's like Hawaii but much moreso, if that makes sense.

"It's not the heat, it's the hummudiddy!" It's VERY humid here. Warm and humid. You go outside and are immediately carrying a sheen of perpiration on every inch of your body. The proverbial "sweat mustache" never goes away. Life is slow here. People walk slowly, move slowly, but speak a fast-paced French. English has become the bastard son, no...rather the red-headed step-child of French here now. It's not looked down upon here, though, the way it is in the lands of other French speakers. We know enough French, and they know enough English, for everyone to get by, and they're really friendly and helpful to boot. (None of the attacking souvenir sellers we ~~were accosted by~~ encountered in Peru.)

Yesterday, Lennart and I were scowling and grouching in the already baking heat of 7am, trying to find the car rental place, which had been placed wrongly on the crappy map we had. A local girl stopped and asked us if we were looking for something! I said yes, and she pointed the way.

-We've had a thing on our last two eclipse trips that we get there a couple of days before the organized group trip gets underway, and rent a car and do a little exploring. Granted, this is partly because we have to be flexible with the flight dates of the frequent-flyer-point-paid airline tickets, but it also gives us the opportunity to see stuff on our own terms, at our own speed. But here in Pape'ete, renting a car is around $100 per day! After some consideration, we decided to rent a care for one day only and drive around the island. The island is small, and aside from only one or two roads that venture inland, there is only the one road that goes around the perimeter of the island. We had the car for around seven hours. Didn't need it for more than that. Small island. :)

We saw many things: a high, cascading waterfall in a rainforest; a flow of lava, jutting out into the ocean that contains a lava tube filled with air, that when compressed by the right waves, explodes spectacularly with ocean spray into the air; small, black sand beaches; the "quietly decaying" Gaugin museum; a cave full of drips and drops; and fat, sleek, orangey cows. What this island notably lacks is any kind of monkeys or other tree-dwelling mammals. Walking through the rain-foresty areas, you notice this most. Looking up into the canopy, you almost expect to see or hear the scampering of some little animal or other. But on Tahiti, the only original animals were insects and birds. This means that there are also no snakes, which isn't so bad. There are a few non-native geckos. I spotted one on the wall of the hotel lobby when we first got here (at 2am!) and were about to be denied a room (at 2am!! after more than 24 hours since we'd left Sweden). I saw the little gecko wiggling his way across the wall up near the ceiling and pointed him out to Lennart. "They're supposed to be good luck," I said. "Good!" replied Lennart, "We need it!" Well, he was good luck indeed, because we got a room, with AC, which is a godsend for us pitiful northern Europeans. (I won't bother discussing the excellent 70 spf sunscreen I found except to say, "mmm...coconuts")

Today we're going back to the market to take more pictures of the colorful fish and fruits and vegetables, and to buy some Hawaiian, er...Tahitian shirts for Lennart, and I'll see about getting one for Katja as well, since she was so disappointed about not finding one in Hawaii.

Hole in the Sky

2005-05-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

"What made this eclipse so colorful (and so short) was the nearly perfect match in apparent size between the Sun and the Moon. The Moon just barely covered the Sun's visible face, revealing not only the vast corona but also the chromosphere, the thin lower layer of the solar atmosphere that glows with the characteristic red light of energized hydrogen atoms. In most total eclipses the chromosphere is visible only fleetingly at the beginning and end of totality, on opposite sides of the Sun. But this time it formed a nearly complete circle, accented by more than a half dozen flamelike prominences. A particularly large and bright prominence at the 12-o'clock position had detached from the Sun's limb and hung suspended in space."

-Richard Fienberg, Sky & Telescope Magazine

Makes you feel very small in the scheme of things. Eclipses are very cool.

Poto!

2005-04-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

When Lennart and I finished traipsing around Machu Picchu, we rode the bus back down to the village at the bottom of the mountain, and were walking back to the train station through the market. This was one of the only markets anywhere we'd been in Peru where people didn't accost you to buy things (yoiks, but that's another story). As Lennart was taking some pics, I saw these little girls, and one of them said plaintively, "Poto! Poto!" whilst looking up at Lennart's camera. I said, "Take their picture," which made them SO happy, and the oldest of the three started herding the other two into line to have their photo taken. They tried to get as close to the camera as possible, and Lennart had to hold his hand out to keep them back far enough that the camera would focus on them. Afterwards, they looked so expectant, so I said to Lennart, show them the image on the camera, so he did, and they gathered in CLOSE and the oldest girl pointed out to the other two where they were in the picture. Very cute. After many minutes of nearly bowling Lennart over backwards, he finally had to stand up and say, "Whew...okay" and he giggled. The girls seemed mostly satisfied then, and I said, "Adios"* and waved goodbye.

*My Sesame Street Spanish paid off, gosh durnit! :)

testing testing

2004-06-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

So, can I put a picture in?