Munchin around Munchen

Christmas in munich is great. Not only do we have free accomodation care of my aunt linda, but also a steady supply of beer, bratwurst, and many other local delicacies to sample at the christmas markets -YUM!



oh yeh and its a beautiful city too, of course. my only complaint is that it hasnt snowed yet, well only for about 5 minutes but i want to make a snowman dammit!
and its been nice to be with family, its almost like being at home: linda giving me mom looks, george telling long-winded stories, dimitri being sarcastic and maureen being argumentative! but all of them lovely and generous too of course!
Merry Christmas!

I am unco

In the past 10 days I have:

1) dropped my phone in the toilet

2) on an entirely separate occasion, dropped my wallet in the toilet and

3) tripped over myself, landing in the mud.

Sadly I cannot claim drunkenness as an excuse in any of these cases. In fact there are probably more unco things I have done this week, but being unco is such a part of my everyday life that they have not even registered as memorable.

I tried to rescue my phone but in doing so inadvertently killed it. According to the web page "How to Save a Wet Phone", which I only accessed after my mistake, turning a phone on before it's fully dry results in short circuiting of the electronics.

I threw my wallet out. I did however remember to remove (and clean) my money and cards. I am unco not stupid.

And when I fell in the mud, well, I laughed out loud. So did Zoe, one of my team mates who witnessed my graceful excursion to the soggy, muddy ground. For good measure she laughed again half an hour later when she remembered my trip: "you really just tripped over nothing ha ha ha"

stop press: erin loves australia

i know i know, i am a citizen of the world, the working class has no nation, yadda yadda. i have not renounced my views on the fundamental equality between human beings irrespective of borders. However, i did "aussie-it-up" the other night when the socceroos played ghana in shepherds bush, and i dont regret a thing. i havent been one of those typical australians that come over to london and proceed to only hang out with fellow aussies, which made the experience all the more enjoyable.
after a cruisy day of work at the pain clinic at st. mary's hospital, i donned my brightest green top (one has to draw the line somewhere - i dont do 'gold') and set out for 'little sydney' aka shepherd's bush. my excitement grew as i ordered a bite to eat at subway, not a well known australian establishment granted, but the others in the line were also ordering their sandwiches with 'capsicums'. i went to meet troy and craig at the aussie mecca, the walkabout bar, but having nowhere to sit we quickly moved on to some other typical english pub with a few grumpy old locals looking miffed at the entrance of some youngens into their territory. craig asked how my job was going, and before i could really answer began a big story about the last time he was in hospital, involving pus, blood and a finger up the bum. i didnt bat an eyelid of course, but poor troy looked rather pale throughout. anyway, next thing we knew we were surrounded by a sea of gold jerseys, a lot of 'yeh mate' and some chick who spilled her beer on craig. oh wait that was troy.
kickoff was at 7.45 so we joined the procession of thousands of loyal aussies, to cheer the socceroos. we sat right behind the goals and got a lovely view of the mighty schwartzer in the first half, luckily he wasnt perturbed by the drunken louts in the first row who kept trying to start up a chorus of 'my dad picks the fruit... that goes to cottees..' we dominated the first half and scored from a penalty making it 1-0 at half time.
they dont let you drink in the stands here (damn football hooligans ruining it for everyone) so we raced down to the bar and troy was about to be served, until somehow he managed to move backwards in the queue. luckily i stepped in with a wink to the barmaid and got us some beer, before we headed back up to the stands. the second half was more of an equal contest, especially after bresciano was replaced with some freckly neville nobody. ghana scored after a goal mouth scramble, and didnt the ghanians fans celebrate! the whole other end of the stadium was jumping around, they had somehow snuck in a band complete with trumpet, bongos and various other exotic instruments and made so much noise they put us to shame. our crowds rendition of 'happy little vegemites' just did not compare.
anyway before we knew it the game was over without even a second of extra time played, so the end was a little anti-climactic. but its was a great night out and now i'm not only hooked on the socceroos but also watching live football, its so fun to watch! i've agreed to go with troy to any westham game he wants, though i dunno if i'll join in his aspiration to become head hooligan. but you never know, i did surprise myself by singing the australian anthem for the first time in probably a decade, so who knows what strange turn erin will take next?

climate change day of action

I went along to a climate change rally last week it was great, theres a bunch of groups here but the best one politically is the Campaign Against Climate Change, which organsied a rally at the American Embassy.
The speakers were great, and gave the crowd a heavy dose of politics to ponder, including some quite good explanations of Contraction & Convergence, widely seen as the fairest model of resitricting Co2 emissions where countries have targets based on their population rather than their historical privelege/industries or bullying power. Other speakers tore apart the myth that Tony Blair is doing any more than waffling a lot of hot air (though he's still streaks ahead of Howard of course), and the need for people to take matters into their own hands and use mass action. To quote George Monbiot, president of Campaign Against Climate Change what is needed is "MOBILISATION, MOBILISATION, MOBILISATION"
After the speeches a march set off to meet the I Count rally in Trafalgar Square. Having no contingent to be a part of I let loose my inner hippy and danced along with this great drum section - not your typical rally drumming, but really tight with a conductor like an orchestra. They were fantastic! I stopped to take photos thinking I'd eventually see the end of the march but it stretched oin for blocks so i gave up. A bit of the energy was lost when it joined up with the comparatively dull, peak-body-stage-managed (ala ACTU) I Count rally. There were some popular bands and a weird mutimedia montage on a big screen involving the reversal of melting ice sheets. There was one speaker near the end (trying to find out who) who spoke about the role of british corporations in climate change and got a rousing response when he suggested re-nationalising Shell. But unfortunately the overwhelming message was "go home and write to your MP"
All in all though, more and more people are getting interested and mobilising around the issue, which I find reassuring. And you got 100,000 in australia - woohoo!

Mesmerizin, tantalizin, captivatin, we're devastatin

last week was a bad one for LNER womens football club. lost 6 nil in the pouring rain to alexandra park, a very sad state of affairs. but today was gonna be different. it was a lovely sunday morn when LNER took to the pitch. but then our goalie rang in sick. who was going to step up? none other than yours truly, killion.
after freakin out for the first 10 mins, letting in 2 goals, she made a quick recovery and two good saves in the first half. our strikers worked their magic and at half time we were down 2-1. after some dodgy defense the opposition scored again we were down 3-1, then something wonderful happened. LNER took charge, got aggressive and ran circles around fulham. we came back with one, two, three more goals. we very nearly lost the plot and let them score again, but keeper killion was on the case. after a bit of messy play we clinched it, another beautiful goal from a penalty kick, straight into the far top corner.
all credit to em, fulham, tried their best to take us out, 'attacking' dear jen and sinking their nails into our sally, but they didnt know who they were messing with. they gave us a good run but got too frustrated, poor little dears, crying to the ref. wah.
WE WON DAMMIT! YEAH! GO TEAM!

old people

i've run out of cash, and since the uk nurses & midwives council are taking forever to register me, i've been working as a health care assistant. my day consists of chasing demented old people around the ward and making them have a bath/meal and cleaning up poo.
after my first week of HATING it with a passion, i've settled into a defeated state of acceptance. i'm starting to warm to the old dears. theres this one tiny old lady millie, 90*, known to spontaneously deliver a musical version of 'jack and jill'. yesterday she told us several times that her lunch money was stolen, and she really must go home because her mum is expecting her home from school. we explained that she's staying with us for a while but she sporadically cries help! (in a non-distressed way actually) to which one of the other nurses replies in song "i need sombody"...help! "not just anybody" and everyone has a laugh.
they can be quite naughty, these elderly women. theres another, more mobile old lady, aggie*, who every morning sweetly insists "oh no i had a lovely bath last night thankyou, they were ever so helpful" which is never true. you have to catch her off guard when shes wandering around the ward with her zimmer frame, lead her innocently into the shower and tell her to take a seat, but that only works every now and then.
on the odd day when i imagine getting old (rather than dying glamourously for some noble cause at some pre-senile age) i think i wouldn't mind being a "pleasantly confused" but feisty little old lady.


*names changed and artistic liberties taken with 'the facts', so relax you confidentiality freaks :)

back in the uk

didnt say much about scotland did i? oooh boy there were a lot of bagpipe buskers, yes indeedy. troy ate haggis it was boring. i ate a deep fried mars bar and it was delicious. loch ness was also boring, no monster - who would have guessed? went to glasgow and hung out with an old comrade sarah, saw the grates (again!) and got very drunk with her and her partner matt, laughed and cried about tommy sheridan, australian politics and life.
now we're back in london and have settled down to work finally. its kind of a bummer. maybe i should find some rich benefactor so i can just travel constantly.
we've found a place to live in sudbury hill, its out in the suburbs but at least its got 2 tube stations. its a multicultural little share house with john, yoshiko, graham and andy. john and yoshiko are quite a funny couple, kinda stereotypical - he's a larrikanish irish guy who tells stories of various misadventures from his drinking days, and shes a very organised japanese woman who cops a bit of flak for being the 'dishes-nazi' but shrugs it off, somehow it works. she works for sega and brings home the latest games whenever they finish one, which graham (the south african) plays in the lounge room a lot, swearing at the tv. i'm a bit worried about coming out as a commie given grahams history as a recruit in the war in angola (where various pro-american south africans fought the pro-soviet cubans) dont want to trigger any bad memories! i still havent seen much of andy the korean guy, he works two jobs and keeps to himself a lot (not in a creepy way, i think he's just shy!)
troys joined the epsom extra b's rugby side, i've watched one game, nothing like a bunch of blokes jumping all over each other. i dont really understand the game so when troy talks tactics with me i just smile and nod. i joined a soccer team, and went to training last week. there were about 20 people there! so i hope i get to play a whole game at least once this season but probably not if i perform the way i did at training. i am not cut out for midfield! but we went and had a curry after training and the team are all pretty nice so it'll be a laugh anyway.

bring her back

while im moaning about the loss of sleater-kinney i thought i'd moan about how i miss willow.
i watched date movie the other day, it was a real low point let me tell ya. i felt dirty afterwards but i just miss her. ok ive also been watching 'how i met your mother' which is one of those lame american sitcoms with ally in it , but alas it is not the same. this is probably the longest time i've gone without watching buffy for a good six years, and i'm really feeling it. tv in the uk is crap.

why do good things never wanna stay

indefinite hiatuses suck :(

the great outdoors

ah camping. great for fresh air, simple living, and being at one with nature.
we were on the isle of skye in a lovely place called sligachan, with some dramatic mountain scenery, and a lovely little loch nearby. it was a fairly quiet little campsite, just us and a few other tents, a couple, a family and one woman with a fly net on. we chuckled at her extreme attire, wondering why some people camp with so much paraphernalia.
we had a nice meal in the local pub and i trotted off to the shower to be nice and fresh for the next days adventures.
and then they ambushed me. i was set upon by swarm of angry insects, known as 'midges'. i ran quickly back to the tent, undid the zip and jumped in, frantically trying to close the door behind me. troy asked ' didnt you even try to lose them?' pointing to the swarm which had accompanied me, now buzzing all around inside the tent ceiling. 'you're supposed to run around in circles, and then get in' he said, as if this was common knowledge.
we spent the next hour of fading light hunting them down one by one and squishing them between our fingers. they're small little bastards, about the size of those little fruit flies, but far more vicious. troy got badly bitten:

and spent the next several days complaining about it. i recommended we stop at a chemist and get some anti-itch cream but he's a man of course, so wouldnt hear of such a thing. instead he plotted elaborate schemes to avoid them, took all of his meals sitting in the car, and insisted i set up and take down the tent because they didnt seem to like me as much. i eventually got him some repellant, what works best isn't your normal aerogard type thing but this avon moisturiser called skin-so-soft, which i picked up at a local service station.
troy smothered himself nightly and his face and hands in particular became luxuriously soft and supple. nothing like a camping trip for that extra bit of pampering every man needs.

i confess

i've done something i'm not proud of, and have learned my lesson.
i went and saw puppetry of the penis.
one of troys mates saw it and said it was hilarious (why oh why didn't the alarm bells ring in my head?) troy kept talking about it saying 'aren't you curious about what it is?' he wore away at me during the edinburgh festival and finally i agreed.
when i suggested it as a fun night out to olly, she kept laughing nervously 'really, you really are serious about going to this'. and i had the rebellious face of someone suggesting something a little naughty like whats-your-problem-man, dont-be-a-prude. so a combination of bullying and curiousity got to her, and when i asked if i should get tickets for her and doug she laughed and said 'yeah...okay.'
so we got ready and went out, had a few drinks and i was getting merry and thinking 'cool, this is cool' when it hit me. we were lining up and i thought 'wha...? what am i doing here?' but by then it was too late.
it wasnt that it was totally devoid of humour. there is a sick and shocking element to it all that makes you laugh. but none of the 'installations' really looked like what they were supposed to. except maybe the brain, at a stretch. at one point they asked ' is it anyones birthday /hens night?' - and this poor girl who was celebrating her 18th birthday was dragged onto stage to hold this guys leg as... lets just say it was disturbing and i dont think she was drunk enough to enjoy it. but after the 5 minutes of actual material, you were suddenly staring down the remaining 55 minutes of lame wooden dialogue, and a couple of dudes playing with their doodles. and the knowledge that you paid for it. according to troy i had this horrfied look on my face the whole time.
as we walked out of the theatre feeling a little ill, our innocence a little shattered, it was awkwardly quiet. we all knew what we thought of the 'performance'.
so doug said 'thanks erin.'
you're welcome...

pretty ireland

ballingheama pass


a mountain in kerry


somewhere in dingle


musical pub crawl, dublin


galway


skellig michel


ballinskellig



giants causeway

belfast


cahersiveen

Edinburgh

At the moment we're staying with an old friend from school, Olly. Its good.
Amateur travelers that we are, we were worn out from too much sightseeing and moving around after three short weeks in Ireland, so its been good to have a real bed and stay put for a while. And it helps that the place we're in is huge and gorgeous. Olly and Doug get to 'housesit' this place. They've been doing it for 5 years apparently cos the dude, a family friend of Dougs, lives in London and just comes up here a few times a year. He must be loaded cos its a gorgeous high ceilinged poshly decorated apartment in the city center.
So we've been drinking wine and taking in a few shows at the Edinburgh festival. Oh so civilized.
Edinburgh is grand, to use the local vernacular. I can see how all my old school buds have been drawn to it, its got castles and mountains and beautiful architecture, all in a fairly compact city. But at the risk of sounding repetitive, its friggin freezing here! Its 'summer' and I wish I had my big thick coat cos there's this icy wind. For that reason I think Edinburgh will just remain a place I will enjoy visiting. And the festival is quite overwhelming but once you take the plunge and start going to stuff, its hard to stop. Troy and I did a day of sampling free comedy, which was , eh, worth it. There were a few laughs to be had, but the same lame comedian appeared in the 3 shows we saw, doing the same routine word for word. We've taken to paying for shows now and its been good. Saw a guy called Stephen Grant do some comedy about being pedantic, which I appreciated. And Troy and I went to this play yesterday, clean alternatives, which was just brilliant, and another one, less brilliant but also good, by Jane Bussman. And we're going to 2 more tomorrow and to see Michael Franti on Wednesday before we head off to explore the rest of Scotland. Yay!

its a long way to tipperary

yo.
well when do erin and troy decide to rock up to galway? in bloody galway race week. outside the doors of this internet cafe thousands of women in frocks and hats are stmbling down the cobblestone street in their high heels, and the main street is one big beer garden. its kinda fun with all the atmosphere but i feel so damn underdressed. me and all the other backpackers who just happen to be here now and are walking around going - what the? we stumbled out of our tent out in salthill this morning, as other campers stumbled out of theirs - only they were wearing suits.
dublin was...interesting. after being spoiled with our privacy and independence when we had the hire car, we had a rude introduction to hostel life. the first night we were there some tragic australian girl stumbled in with some french dude, and she proceeded to vomit on the hostel room floor. and left it there. i demanded, then coaxed her into cleaning it up so the rest of the dorm guests wouldnt step in it as they came home. so she sorted it. then about an hour after passing out, her and the frenchie decide to go at it on the bunk underneath me. FUN. i escaped to troys bed then returned to mine when the shenanigans were over. took a while, damn frenchie had too much stamina. meanwhile some english girls in the dorm were just swapping between being horrified and giggling, and the drunk aussie's friend hid in the corner of the room. so it ended and i returned to my bed, only to have them start up again, to which i, getting narky at this stage said if you two start up again i will strangle you both. i would like to SLEEP! unfortunatley they took no notice so i just put the earplugs in and swapped to a different bunk.
fucken australians i tell you what.
but otherwise dublin was cool, and i'm getting a real sense of irish history, its bloody fascinating and i have a real urge to rediscover my roots. troy and i saw a new ken loach film about ireland post the 1916 uprising and the war with the british, then the brief civil war over the treaty. the wind in the barley. typical ken loach - fascinating and awesome film but depressing as all hell. but i recommend it. has one of those land and freedom-esqe scenes with a debate about the future of the struggle etc. etc.

yay-eireann

some dude bailed us up in the pub the other night, mikey he was called. we were in the west of kerry in cahersiveen where the english almost melds into gaelic so we could barely understand the guy. in short, his sister in law is not a nice person, we should get married, and those immigrants are alright as long as they show some manners. he was entertaining none the less, as drunk farmers go. good chap to have a pint with.
in other adventure news, we took a boat out to the skellig islands. we were hosted on dan's fishing boat with 12 other bemused foreigners as it putted and bounced and swayed back and forth towards the islands. little skellig looked rocky from a distance, a kind of grey/white colour. as we approached we saw that the colours were from the 40,000 cormorants nesting on it, it was chock a block with them clinging to every craggy peak, with seals laying about on the rocks at the shore. after circling little skellig we went to skellig michal, a slightly larger island where a bunch of monks used to live from the 6th to 12th centuries. the climb up the mountain was somewhat terror inspiring, 50 degree angled steps with no rails and just the sea below you. at the top was what remains of the monastery, a bunch of beehive shaped huts made of stones piled up on top of each other, no mortar just balanced carefully in a way that kept the water out. not much is known about the monks cos they kept no records but they chose to hide themselves away in a remote inhospitable area, to pray and that. pretty weird. and then it pissed down raining and we got soaked the boat trip back was no fun at all. according to one of the americans on board, the two of us won the wettest people on board award.
we also went to some tomb from 4000 BC or troy reckons way earlier, older than the pyramids, anyway we speculated whether we'd have anything to say to each other if we came across those new stone age people. same general physiology and presumably intelligence, but such a vastly different life... ireland's heaps old! its cool.

to be sure x 2

i love ireland! troy and have rented a car and are camping all up and down the west coast and it is just lovely. the south side of the ring of kerry in particular but its all just gorgeous and peaceful and green. we've been camping in the hills and by the bays and in some official campsites, too. theres also been just great music and, as predicted, i wish i'd brought my bloody fiddle. if only to impress the other backpackers. but we went to a pub in doolin last night and the dude in the session was playing a bit mechanically and i reckoned i might have some more spirit. turns out he wasnt irish at all but south african! so i reckon i could lob down here next summer, play music, get tourists to buy me drinks and be a star (i've at least got some irish blood!) anyone wanna come?

ps. if anyone from the lovely old 5g happens to be reading this, i need another reference for the agency i'm gonna work for, so if any CNSs are prepared to vouch for me, i'd love their email address so i can ask/give the lowdown/etc. i'm lame and lost everyones emails.

Hampstead and art

the other day troy and i went to hampstead heath. its a nature reserve in the north of london, take the tube for 20 minutes and a little walk and your in the middle of the woods! i was half expecting to see robin hood darting through it in pursuit of some dastardly wealthy bad guy. there are hundreds of little paths through it and at one edge is the hill gardens.
it was like a secret garden, very quiet and serene, hardly anyone there. there were long walkways and columns either side with wisteria and wild roses growing up them and overhead, it was gorgeous. i kept thinking it would be a great place for a wedding - if i believed in marraige...
further down near the lawns there was a pond and some nice benches to sit on. we sat and watched a squirrel clamber up a tree. tried to get a picture but it was a private squirrel, elusive.
we made our way back around and through the heath again. at first it was just pretty and enjoyable but then every direction looked the same. its quite a big area and people do get lost in there but we had started out near the road so i didnt think we could be that far. troy started to get that desperate look in his eye and a panicky tone, he never trusts my sense of direction but i'm happy to say i remained calm. the combination of a vague sense of which way to go and the distant sound of traffic got us out of there. we stumbled out of the woods into hampstead and cried 'civilisation at last!' we survived hampstead heath!
after that we went back into london, sat in a park for lunch where some brass band was playing, then went to go see some art at the national gallery. i like the van gogh and the cezanne, and dammit the other impressionist room was closed. but the rest of it didnt really move me. i remember really liking the turner exhibition that came to canberra, but the paintings they had here were a bit blah. call me uncultured but everything alse was a guzillion paintings of jesus and portraits of some dead old rich dudes which i found rather boring. there were a few greek and roman myth paintings i liked, especially venus and mars, but the rest i could have done without. i do want to go to the dali exhibit though, but troys not so keen so i might wait until cass comes over and see it with her ;)

why does it always rain on me?

london. home of the black umbrella.
on our first two outings into london town the heavens decided to open to give us a truly british welcome. we were not deterred, however! the first day craig took us around...


piccadilly circus


buckingham palace


trafalgar square and more.

the second day troy and i joined the hoardes of tourists aboard the 'big bus' tours around the city. we sat up top in the open air and once again felt the rain come down. it was good for orientation and quite interesting, despite the bad jokes about the beatles and jack the ripper. we stopped at london tower, a big castle in the middle of the city, site of many a royal intrigue. we had lunch in a park where apparantly henry the eighth had some of his wives executed. it was so romantic.

we had coffee in st katherines docks where these old-school sailing ships were docked in these enclosed little inlets. we climbed the tower bridge (or rather took an elevator but climbing sounds so much more adventurous) and took a river tour of the thames where we were again rained upon. but it was FUN goddammit!





afterwards we caught the tail end of the swp marxism 2006 conference, a panel on radical filmaking with ken loach. it was great to hearing him talk about his films (and discovering the origin of the iso's brit accent). watched land and freedom again afterwards, a damn fine film that no matter how many times i watch leaves me with new questions about the spanish civil war to ponder...

i heart the countryside

settling in here alright, have seen some sites. havent done much of london yet but went to coventry gardens, piccadilly circus, leicester square, buckingham palace and big ben the other day and got all our tourist photos. it rained of course. i wasnt massively impressed with what i've seen of london so far. just buildings and streets in a city. it feels like sydney but with better architecture and double deckers.
i did have one nice moment in coventry gardens. while the boys were in some tragic aussie pub watching the state of origin i wandered around, and there was a string quartet busking in a courtyard. so i sat and had a coffee and enjoyed the music. i really admire good violinists. they played pachelbels cannon which i always like, it really made me wish i'd brought my fiddle. but then i always get nostalgic when i see anyone playing violin live, its the practising i dont like.
anyway while i wasnt too impressed by the city i looooved the countryside. craig took us out for a little drive yesterday. its great, 10 minutes out of epsom and we're driving the narrow country roads, alongside the green fields and ponds, with the weather all cloudy and misty. so wind and the willows.
we stopped at a little town called shere, walked all around through the churchyard with its headstones from the twelfth century, across little bridges over brooks and watched the ducklings. saw some cute cottages, wandered under the trees through a little garden with sweet peas and pumpkins and a scarecrow. it was all so nice and quaint and as everyone knows i'm a sucker for a tree. i love the outdoors. plus we had a delightful meal at the white horse pub, all in all a lovely little day.

'allo gov'na

england. the home of the monarchy, the soccer hooligan and of course, the pub. and here's the one we're staying at. its a quaint estab-lishment in epsom, outside of london. we'll be staying here for an unknown length of time as it appears our delightful host craig is open to longer than the agreed week. and i for one am happy. its a peacful little corner with all the modern conveniences, the most convenient of course being that its free. sure troy might have to pull a beer or perhaps entertain the punters with his unique rendition of moon river but thats a small price to pay really. todays our first real day in england and jet lag being what it is we've settled for a little wander around the neighbourhood. its quite english with all the little houses and lanes, who would have thought? anyway must dash, have my first pint of warm english beer waiting for me downstairs. cheerio!

wahh!!

i dont wanna leave hawaii!!
its been so much fun and i've been in great company, i love my family! troy reckons its weird how close we all are, that we can just rock up 14 years later and its like we've never been gone. what can i say, my grandmother left us a legacy of a lot of love. dont get me wrong, we've had some narkiness and arguing too but it doesnt seem to get blown out of proportion.
my cousins kayley and steph rock! they're very cool and its been great hanging out. they've been very tolerant of us invading their home, and of troys non-stop swearing while we watched australia play the world cup. there have been a lot of laughs.
steph is just nice and friendly and has this air of peace its lovely to be around. and kayley just cracks me up with sarcasm and her eye rolls, but shes also just really sweet playing her ukelele. hawaii in general has been great to be back in. its just pretty with the mountains and the forest and the ocean and the way relaxed island attitude it really is like being home.
and my own family, too, my mom and nick and katie and j.a. and mikalea...its been quite nice spending time with everyone before heading out into the big world.
so i'm sad dammit! again!
but also excited about the next level of the journey...

waterfall and rainforest hike

when we got back from the big island me, troy, j.a. and mikaela went on this nice little hike up in the mountains. it was just what i wanted, i love trees! once we got up to the waterfall we were pretty hot and puffed so me n mikaela jumped into this pool and it was just lovely...

its a tough job...

volcano pictures

the volcano crater
the vents

more lava

volcano adventures

ahh the REAL hawaii...the Big Island.
spent a couple of days there last week and it was even more relaxed than oahu. its the newest island in the chain, and has a active volcano with constantly flowing lava. we stayed in this great house that was built on the lava flows from the 80s, right on a cliff near the ocean. when we first walked out to the cliff we saw turtles in the ocean below us.
lava is cool. it makes all these funny patterns it looks like black cookie dough thats just got caught in a solid state. they've closed the roads to the flowing lava so we didnt get to see any of the red stuff, but one day we drove out to a black sand beach and we could see steam on the horizon from where the lava was meeting the sea.
my unlce chris lives out on the big island , and we met his partner nalani, who is an indigenous hawaiian, and whose family have been playing an role in preserving hawaiian culture and language. we went to the volcanoes national park with them and her kids. they were really sweet and during the drive they sang along to the hawaiian radio station in their langauge. as we got higher up towards the volcanoes nalani told us the legend of the goddess pele, a woman from tahiti who became goddess of volcanoes when her sister killed her. as we walked around the crater and the vents nalani told a few stories of people who had insulted pele and had bad luck befall them. inlcuding a friend of hers who had visited the volcanoes and had whinged the whole time about the heat, and when they went ot get back in the car and leave the car woulnt start (she apologised to pele and they continued on their way). anyway we walked around and there were these vents all around the place where steam rose up from under the rocks, and we walked right out to the crater edge. throughout the park there are lava tubes where a stream of lava flows and as it cools the outside becomes solid. when the lava has finished flowing these tube/tunnel/cave things are left empty and we walked through one.

i really enjoyed that little tour it was just amazing, and so nice to spend it with such sweet people as well. nalani was so friendly, and funny too. her and my uncle chris were just taking the piss out of each other the whole time laughing away.

fun in the sun

well this week has been nice but beleive it or not i'm getting a bit worn out. is it possible to have too much fun and sunshine?
a couple days ago we went to bellows beach. i used to go there a lot as a kid with my grandma nammy and various other family members - my mum has six brothers and sisters and there were many family gatherings with little erin. its not at all toursity at bellows, sometimes we'd be the only ones on the beach. its part of a US air force station and you need someone from the military to get in. it was no problem in the past considering dad, mom, granddad, and my uncles chris and bill were all in the air force/ army or coast guard. i remember the basic cabins that we'd all stay in three metres from the beach, it was windswept and peaceful. my uncle chris got married under the casuarinas and my grandmas ashes were scattered in the waves.
uncle bill's the only one still serving, so he let us all in. we went boogie boarding and while we were out in the waves my cousins steph and kayley told a cute story about when they were last boogie boarding there. they had floated around complaining about the lack of waves when they suddenly smelled nammys perfume, and a whole set of awesome waves came in. there were some great ones for us that day, too, it was cool fun.
so we swam and walked along the beach, which is surrounded by those beautiful and majestic hawaiian mountains, all volcanic and striking and green. we lay around in the sun, and played some beach soccer (i defended with my usual vigour, but had to leave the field injured after a devastating slide tackle to my sister, and my knee came off for the worse)
and we've been to waikiki twice - thats way touristy but still ok, the waters been really nice. katie went and had a surfing lesson and did really well, it was fun watching. i didnt bother i knew i'd suck.
we went to pearl harbour and saw the arizona memorial. they had quite a decent documentary about the whole pearl harbour attack, i thought it would be over the top yay-america but it was balanced, and moving. i expected to cry cos i always do with these type of things but i was fine.
and today we went back out to shark cove and this time we saw eight turtles! i've been really, really spoiled. the family are feeding me every night theres a different delight. its funny it's like being a kid again. mum and nick and my uncles etc (aka the old fogies) sit at one table and drink wine while my me and my siblings and cousins etc ( aka the kids) sit at another, just like old times, when our average age was 12, not 22. but hey, i'm not gonna complain its heaps of fun and soooo cruisy.

just lovely

I.Love.Snorkelling.
yesterday we took a convoy of killions (theres about 13 of us here at the moment) through the pineapple fields, past the lovely mountains to the north shore of oahu. shark bay was this nice little lagoon with water that was really sparkley. like you know how when you go to the beach and its late afternoon and the sun catches the water and it sparkles? well it had that sparkle all day. and coral and fish fish fish. bright orange and blue ones, ones that looked like rosellas only they were fish (think about it), polka dotted ones, big massive ones and nemo fish, and much to troys enjoyment we saw what is known in hawaii as a humuhumunukunukuapua'a. its a real fish google it. and there was this lovely school of little yellow ones with black stripes that we got to swim over. it was all so pretty i looked down and went oh! then went oh! at the next fish and oh! again it was very exciting. but thats not the best bit.
i saw three turtles! the first one was out on the other side of the bunch of rocks sheltering the bay. i am normally a bit of a woos when it comes to swimming out far and deep but i was so excited and followed my brother out there and in a minute there was this massive turtle. john-ashleigh touched it, so of course i had to. it was all slippery like it had moss growing on it. j.a. said it turned around and looked annoyed like it was gonna bite me, but it didnt. then we went around another corner and there were two more, one the same size and a smaller one. and i was so excited that i had to share, and made troy come out again (he'd just gotten dry) and he proceeded to chase the little one around this rock. the wildlife probably hate us now. but anyway it was sooo nice and fun and relaxing.

and today we went to waikiki and hung out at the beach. the waters really clear blue and next week we're gonna go back and sail. even doing the dishes is fun, we had the accompaniment of my cousin kayley on ukelele while we cleaned. ahh this is so good and i just walk around thinking yay! all the time.

aloha

here in honolulu, after a hellish flight. guess who came down with a cold the day before we left? moi. stuffy head and sore throat and yuck - so all that dry airplane air and the descent into honolulu was just GREAT it felt like someone was stabbing me in the ears.

but i'm not a whinger cos we walked outside and the warm humid hawaiian air filled my little lungs and i was happy! i'm home! my uncles bill and mike placed some beautiful fragrant leis around our necks as we walked out of the airport, it made me smile. ah the deep green volcanic mountains and sun its just lovely. but havent done much as yet, just slept at my uncle mike/aunt susan/cousin steph and kayley's house.
mom and the rest of my fam arrived this morning and we went to our condo - AKA the party house - where me, troy, my brother john-ashleigh, his girlfriend mikaela and my sis katie are staying, while the folks bed down with the relos. now we're all arguing about what we're gonna do for the next two weeks. but seriously its great to be amongst family, i love them all to bits. my uncles etc are so friendly even though i havent seen half of them for a decade, and its good to spend some quality time with the siblings before i leave them for a year or two.
the fun starts tomorrow we're rising early for the australia-brazil game then its markets and beach and snorkelling woohoo!

George Bush vs the Ents

George Bush vs the Ents
It was a rainy Monday morning last week, one of my first days after finishing work. My train-driving friend Bea came up to Newy to visit me, have lunch and say bon voyage. I dragged her out to the dog beach for a demo for World Environment Day.
Newcastle harbour - AKA the worlds biggest coal port- was the target for this action. The coal industry wants to expand coal exports from the Hunter, and are getting a truckload of money from the state and federal governments to build new rail lines for their coal, and dredge Newcastle harbour to make it deeper for more coal ships. Despite local communities like Anvil Hill opposing any increase in mining due to its effects on the environment and peoples health- residents in the mining areas have sky high rates of asthma, COPD, and other nasties and theyre over it.
Anyhoo, Rising Tide, a climate change group in Newy, put on the action for World Environment Day, and it captured my imagination. People were gonna go out in boats and have a symbolic blockade of the coal ships to make the point we need to reduce coal exports, not increase them, if we all want a future for humanity.
A noble cause. But lets remember its been organised by hippies so theres the inevitable comedy about it. There were many in wetsuits and kayaks, brave given the cold. I wanted a staying-dry boat option, and we were shown our canoe. Driver Bea ran the other way screaming. Yet strangely it was not the least seaworthy vessel there. There were the two guys who no doubt were trying to make some point about recycling, who strung together some of those big plastic water containers, a couple bread crates, some piping and god knows what else, and set sail. They got about 2 metres off shore before the thing collapsed, much to the amusement of the on-shore wooses such as myself.
Yes we opted for the on shore, holding placards, listening to speeches course of action. But there were some touching moments, too, like when someone made a space for a tree in their canoe, and took it to the front lines on the harbour, its leaves glistening in the rain, where it stood up for all flora facing extinction. It reminded me of the Ents of the Lord of the Rings. We sure could use some of them in this movement; some pissed off trees kicked George Bush's lily-white Texan-oil arse.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a morning, especially when we followed it up with some coffee and yummy lunch. Thanks for coming Bea, it was memorable.

haiku for cass

how lucky we are

the universe brought you forth

to make us all smile


how emo is blogging making me!

fun

well well what a night! had an absolute ball with the beautiful nurses of 5g last night. it had it all - great food, too much alcohol, drunken conversations about sex, uncontrollable laughter and about seventy billion hugs. and dancing! and presents! and a lift home at the end! these people are the sweetest and most fun ever! why am i leaving?
oh yeah, cos i'm going on an ADVENTURE! YAY! the countdown is on! 8 more sleeps and troy and i will be zooming off to hawaii and beyond.
i must say this is the happiest i've been in a bloody long time and i've got a feeling its gonna last. so stay tuned cos soon i'll be let loose on the planet. who knows what will happen?

me

this is what i like to wear when i'm going out on a hot date ;) nah, its me dressed up for mikaela's alice in wonderland party. i was hot though, literally. wearing a sleeping bag isnt as comfortable as it sounds.

woohoo

well looky here erins got a blog.
how techno cool is that!