January 14th 2007
Bolton Street Cemetary
Sarah: Baby? let's go to Paris for our next anniversary.
Craig: Okay.
Sarah: no, I'm serious! I mean, we'll be close enough.
Craig: ... oh, okay.
In my mind we walk the streets of Paris wearing long coats, scarves and a beret non-ironically. At least, I will. Craig is eerily immune to the cold. And the heat. I think he's a robot.
Strolling arm in arm down the Champs-Élysées, looking our over the softened grey snow-clad city from La Tour Eiffel, curling red hands around cups of chocolat chaud in Montmatre, cracking the top of créme brulée while La Vie en Rose plays in the background ...
It's like a romance novel.
Then we had to plan a trip home.
We're attending a wedding (I love weddings! Drinks all around!) in very early January (the 3rd) and so decided we may as well spend the holiday season with the OhDarling families.
But boy, is it pricey to fly around Christmas. Seems a lot of people have that idea. In order to fool the system we have to fly before & after certain dates. Namely the 9th of December and the 9th of January.
And wouldn't you know it? that's not a unique idea either. I know! I'm shocked too.
Our travel agent did the best she could ...
6th -> 7th December : London -> Hong Kong
11th -> 12th December : Hong Kong -> Auckland
(We don't have our New Zealand domestic flights organised as yet)
11th January : Auckland -> San Fransisco
(We arrive before we leave!)
14th -> 15th January : San Fransisco -> Los Angeles -> London
Did you notice that? The 14th January. Go check again, I'll wait, I don't mind. Really.
The 14th January 2008 will be spent at two different airports & on two different planes. Overpriced fast food & aeroplane meals. Tiny cans of coke & trying to sleep through the roar of the plane. (Yes, Craig can do that too).
My Darling Robot Husband and I will spend most of our second wedding anniversary at Los Angeles International Airport. It's like a romance novel.
(seriously though, I am so so excited! Hong Kong! family! San Fransisco!)
Friday, July 13, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
My tube was delayed ...
They don't exactly mince words around here.
P.s.
(you may need to click and enlarge it, but that's Nelson's Column with a helicopter and a plane!)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Falling in Love, One Cobblestone Street at a time.
Today I got charmed into buying a watch. Charmed by London.
I was passing an old victorian shop with antique rings in the window and a "& Sons" name when I saw my tiny slip of a thing watch.
It cost enough for me to say "Oo I better start earning pounds" (which was not that much, seriously. Only when you convert it. Then it's almost $300.) but it is perfect. And powered by the light!
I have a magical watch.
Today I made sure I could find where my job interview is going to be on Wednesday.
I had been told to go to Whitehall and halfway down look for the entrance with the Soldiers on Horseback outside.
Statues, I thought to myself, of Soldiers on Horseback. Right, must look for the statues.
Not so much statues!
Real soldiers on real horses standing on the side of the street.
I love London.
I also inadvertantly saw the changing of the guards, found a museum by just wandering the streets and felt chic in my black-rim glasses, bright red pashmina and black umbrella, looking through the rain spattered windows of Mont Blanc and Gucci.
p.s. I think I might need to start a thing. Monuments and Planes.
I was passing an old victorian shop with antique rings in the window and a "& Sons" name when I saw my tiny slip of a thing watch.
It cost enough for me to say "Oo I better start earning pounds" (which was not that much, seriously. Only when you convert it. Then it's almost $300.) but it is perfect. And powered by the light!
I have a magical watch.
Today I made sure I could find where my job interview is going to be on Wednesday.
I had been told to go to Whitehall and halfway down look for the entrance with the Soldiers on Horseback outside.
Statues, I thought to myself, of Soldiers on Horseback. Right, must look for the statues.
Not so much statues!
Real soldiers on real horses standing on the side of the street.
I love London.
I also inadvertantly saw the changing of the guards, found a museum by just wandering the streets and felt chic in my black-rim glasses, bright red pashmina and black umbrella, looking through the rain spattered windows of Mont Blanc and Gucci.
p.s. I think I might need to start a thing. Monuments and Planes.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Believe me when I say: I took more than 1000 photos!
Craig and I have now been safe and sound in London for one week, two days and seven hours.
I have tried and tried to get the photos edited and online but seriously ... I took over a THOUSAND. I've only just finished uploading the Australian photos and there are three hundred and eighty of them!
And I'm in LONDON. I don't want to coop myself up just to get them all done. You're lucky enough that the rain has delayed me today enough to say screw uploading them all in order and just threw some of my favourites online which I will share with you now.
(Sadly the street is named after a politician, not the superhero)
The Royal Exhibition Hall reflected in the modern façade of the Melbourne Museum.
Can you spot Craig?
Colourful huts along Brighton Beach, Melbourne.
Riding the Quadbike behind Craig in Thuddungra
He always drove at a very sensible speed.
Kaz, who enjoyed covering me with mud.
Sections of a Sphere. And me.
In Bangkok we walked until we thought we would drown. It was always over 30 (even when we arrived at 11pm) and the humidity was intense.
We were almost scammed and got lost once. We also found our way around and took boats and tuktuks and the skytrain.
We almost sold our souls for airconditioning.
It was beautiful and awe inspiring. Spiritual and friendly. It was dirty and smelly and full of people selling things.
We didn't get anything stolen from us and a stranger helped us cross the road.
I loved it and I hated it.
The Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) brought tears to my eyes. He is beautiful and bigger than you could ever imagine.
He is 46m long and 15m high. But you really can't imagine just how tiny you feel staring up at his beatific face with gold just ... everywhere.
We didn't ride elephants but we fed monkeys and snorkelled with tropical fish.
The monkeys are eerily like tiny humans. You feed them bananas but you can hold out a banana skin in the shape of a full banana and they will just look at you like "Uh yea? That's just the skin. We don't Eat that. Crazy humans"
Turns out, fish BITE. See the little yellow and black ones? they're called Tiger Fish. And I got bitten twice. Little fuckers hurt too, but they don't leave a mark.
We were snorkelling and the people who stayed on the boat would throw in piece of bread and the fish would just swarm. And apparently I look like bread.
Craig and I both got stung by jellyfish. We'd only been in the water about 10 minutes when it happened! definitely unfair.
Craig got stung on his knee, I got stung on my left ankle, the back of my left thigh and the one pictured, by far the biggest, it wraps three quarters of the way around my thigh. And it hurt. A lot. But now I can say I've been stung by a jellyfish!
We went to an Insect and Butterfly farm in the Cameron Highlands.
I don't exactly know why they had a turtle there. But I held the angry squirmy thing.
In Kuala Lumpur we went to see the Petronas Towers at night.
We'd never seen them before and we walked out to the viewpoint with our eyes firmly fixed on the ground just in front of our feet then turned and they were amazing!
They are so much brighter and whiter than the photo allows. It was raining too hard to attempt a no-flash picture.
Proof that I carried my bag(s). Proof they were really huge (17.4kg on my back alone) and an indication that they were rather cumbersome. With them on I am filling the doorway.
I think I'm shorter now.
A plane above St. Paul's Cathedral. I love this shot as it gives some indication of just how immense the Cathedral really is.
One day we will walk up to the dome. One day.
Look Mum! A Squirrel! in Hyde Park!
I'm sorry, it may be hot and crowded, and you miss out on seeing a lot of London but I still Love the underground. I love my oyster card, I love being able to get a seat and I love emerging from the stations to have say, Big Ben smack me in the face.
Dali Universe! I am so excited!
Big Ben - seen through the gate to the Houses of Parliament.
The Great Court inside the British Museum.
Britannia on her fountain outside Buckingham Palace.
p.s. the trip was amazing. More difficult and rewarding than I ever thought it would be. We got lost and found again, stung and bitten, sweltered and froze. And at the end of it all? we get to be in London.
And planning a trip home to share stories in person.
p.p.s. remind me to tell you the story about how I almost saw the Queen.
I have tried and tried to get the photos edited and online but seriously ... I took over a THOUSAND. I've only just finished uploading the Australian photos and there are three hundred and eighty of them!
And I'm in LONDON. I don't want to coop myself up just to get them all done. You're lucky enough that the rain has delayed me today enough to say screw uploading them all in order and just threw some of my favourites online which I will share with you now.
(Sadly the street is named after a politician, not the superhero)
The Royal Exhibition Hall reflected in the modern façade of the Melbourne Museum.
Can you spot Craig?
Colourful huts along Brighton Beach, Melbourne.
Riding the Quadbike behind Craig in Thuddungra
He always drove at a very sensible speed.
Kaz, who enjoyed covering me with mud.
Sections of a Sphere. And me.
In Bangkok we walked until we thought we would drown. It was always over 30 (even when we arrived at 11pm) and the humidity was intense.
We were almost scammed and got lost once. We also found our way around and took boats and tuktuks and the skytrain.
We almost sold our souls for airconditioning.
It was beautiful and awe inspiring. Spiritual and friendly. It was dirty and smelly and full of people selling things.
We didn't get anything stolen from us and a stranger helped us cross the road.
I loved it and I hated it.
The Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) brought tears to my eyes. He is beautiful and bigger than you could ever imagine.
He is 46m long and 15m high. But you really can't imagine just how tiny you feel staring up at his beatific face with gold just ... everywhere.
We didn't ride elephants but we fed monkeys and snorkelled with tropical fish.
The monkeys are eerily like tiny humans. You feed them bananas but you can hold out a banana skin in the shape of a full banana and they will just look at you like "Uh yea? That's just the skin. We don't Eat that. Crazy humans"
Turns out, fish BITE. See the little yellow and black ones? they're called Tiger Fish. And I got bitten twice. Little fuckers hurt too, but they don't leave a mark.
We were snorkelling and the people who stayed on the boat would throw in piece of bread and the fish would just swarm. And apparently I look like bread.
Craig and I both got stung by jellyfish. We'd only been in the water about 10 minutes when it happened! definitely unfair.
Craig got stung on his knee, I got stung on my left ankle, the back of my left thigh and the one pictured, by far the biggest, it wraps three quarters of the way around my thigh. And it hurt. A lot. But now I can say I've been stung by a jellyfish!
We went to an Insect and Butterfly farm in the Cameron Highlands.
I don't exactly know why they had a turtle there. But I held the angry squirmy thing.
In Kuala Lumpur we went to see the Petronas Towers at night.
We'd never seen them before and we walked out to the viewpoint with our eyes firmly fixed on the ground just in front of our feet then turned and they were amazing!
They are so much brighter and whiter than the photo allows. It was raining too hard to attempt a no-flash picture.
Proof that I carried my bag(s). Proof they were really huge (17.4kg on my back alone) and an indication that they were rather cumbersome. With them on I am filling the doorway.
I think I'm shorter now.
A plane above St. Paul's Cathedral. I love this shot as it gives some indication of just how immense the Cathedral really is.
One day we will walk up to the dome. One day.
Look Mum! A Squirrel! in Hyde Park!
I'm sorry, it may be hot and crowded, and you miss out on seeing a lot of London but I still Love the underground. I love my oyster card, I love being able to get a seat and I love emerging from the stations to have say, Big Ben smack me in the face.
Dali Universe! I am so excited!
Big Ben - seen through the gate to the Houses of Parliament.
The Great Court inside the British Museum.
Britannia on her fountain outside Buckingham Palace.
p.s. the trip was amazing. More difficult and rewarding than I ever thought it would be. We got lost and found again, stung and bitten, sweltered and froze. And at the end of it all? we get to be in London.
And planning a trip home to share stories in person.
p.p.s. remind me to tell you the story about how I almost saw the Queen.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
More clichés ... like sitting on a suitcase to close it.
Craig and I have spent today packing.
Our bags are heavy as all hell and teetering on the brink of pay-extra heavy.
Over the next two weeks I will probably have pretty easy access to the internet but the two weeks after that? I really don't know.
What I will be doing is using my darling-heart twitter.
This is it!
Our bags are heavy as all hell and teetering on the brink of pay-extra heavy.
Over the next two weeks I will probably have pretty easy access to the internet but the two weeks after that? I really don't know.
What I will be doing is using my darling-heart twitter.
This is it!
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Sometimes? Somethings are Clichés for a reason.
I really really wish I had another way to phrase my outlook on life at the moment. But the annoying, vapid cliché keeps coming back and tapping me on the shoulder (Hi! I may be annoying but I make an irritating amount of sense ... c'mon ...) and I end up saying that at the moment I am very much in the mindset of :
Feel the fear ...
And do it anyway
(Please note that I am not aiming wildly into the air. It's called recoil damnit!)
It is annoying and clingy and I cannot get rid of it.
But while I am very scared about moving away (did you know? when I moved out home I moved just a 10 minute walk away?) for an extended holiday, that I need to pretend that I am not scared and just DO IT ANYWAY. Because it will be so enormously worth it.
(It already kind of is.)
Thankfully I am going away with a man who looks like a puppy:
I get to shoot a gun! A gun, baby! A Gun!
And who has little fear.
Pop! pop pop pop pop pop pop p- Oo I'm out.
But who gives me the courange to shoot a gun.
I really hope the gunshot residue (smells like fireworks!) is gone by Monday. Otherwise travelling might become very interesting ...
And do it anyway
(Please note that I am not aiming wildly into the air. It's called recoil damnit!)
It is annoying and clingy and I cannot get rid of it.
But while I am very scared about moving away (did you know? when I moved out home I moved just a 10 minute walk away?) for an extended holiday, that I need to pretend that I am not scared and just DO IT ANYWAY. Because it will be so enormously worth it.
(It already kind of is.)
Thankfully I am going away with a man who looks like a puppy:
I get to shoot a gun! A gun, baby! A Gun!
And who has little fear.
Pop! pop pop pop pop pop pop p- Oo I'm out.
But who gives me the courange to shoot a gun.
I really hope the gunshot residue (smells like fireworks!) is gone by Monday. Otherwise travelling might become very interesting ...
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
And I watch another white dash, another white dash, another white dash fly beside us ...
We pulled out of my parents' driveway and I had my hand pressed against my face. The radio was playing (seriously) an R.E.M. song:
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
(seriously!)
Craig just looked at me and changed the station.
I had hoped that living with my family for a month would have made it easier to leave them, but it really didn't. Driving away I took stock and realised that I'm wearing a bracelet that one sister made, another shares my stretched earrings, we all wear our mother's face and our father's sense of humour. They're with me.
(We left Wellington at just after 10am and arrived in Auckland with a wheeze of tyres just after 9pm. I had a lot of time to think).
It's unfortunate. Driving up the North Island under mary-blue skies and animal clounds, between Colin McCahon hills all I can think is how beautiful this country is. And we're leaving it!
(poor little car)
(There were many many hours spent in the car with not much to do.)
As we were leaving Taupo I started crying (I was on edge most of the day) and it started to rain. Even though we could see blue sky out the windows the rain was beating down.
Craig looked over at me and joked "Maybe it's you" & I laughed. Just then the rain stopped.
It was a day of strange coincidences, the start of a new month and the end of the world as we knew it.
Besides the tender aubergine bruise of missing family I am getting hugely excited. This is actually happening!
If you plan something for more than a year and a half it starts to take on mythic proportions.
Oh and can I just tell you that Twitter is a lifesaver? I've managed to get all of my family set up (and I'm about to bully Craig into it as well) which meant that yesterday, as I was travelling up the country I was able to update many people at once about what I was doing.
I've always felt that I'm closer to the people I don't have to "recap" my life for. I lovelovelove being able to let people know about the cute shoes I saw in a little boutique, or that a great hair day was wasted on a car journey (What? it was Really annoying) without having to dredge my recent history in order to fill an email with a mainly-boring-&-formulaic recap email.
Anyway. Twitter is adorable and I love it! I tweet! (this can also be seen in the little grey box on the left hand side of my website)
http://www.twitter.com/ohdarling
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
(seriously!)
Craig just looked at me and changed the station.
I had hoped that living with my family for a month would have made it easier to leave them, but it really didn't. Driving away I took stock and realised that I'm wearing a bracelet that one sister made, another shares my stretched earrings, we all wear our mother's face and our father's sense of humour. They're with me.
(We left Wellington at just after 10am and arrived in Auckland with a wheeze of tyres just after 9pm. I had a lot of time to think).
It's unfortunate. Driving up the North Island under mary-blue skies and animal clounds, between Colin McCahon hills all I can think is how beautiful this country is. And we're leaving it!
(poor little car)
(There were many many hours spent in the car with not much to do.)
As we were leaving Taupo I started crying (I was on edge most of the day) and it started to rain. Even though we could see blue sky out the windows the rain was beating down.
Craig looked over at me and joked "Maybe it's you" & I laughed. Just then the rain stopped.
It was a day of strange coincidences, the start of a new month and the end of the world as we knew it.
Besides the tender aubergine bruise of missing family I am getting hugely excited. This is actually happening!
If you plan something for more than a year and a half it starts to take on mythic proportions.
Oh and can I just tell you that Twitter is a lifesaver? I've managed to get all of my family set up (and I'm about to bully Craig into it as well) which meant that yesterday, as I was travelling up the country I was able to update many people at once about what I was doing.
I've always felt that I'm closer to the people I don't have to "recap" my life for. I lovelovelove being able to let people know about the cute shoes I saw in a little boutique, or that a great hair day was wasted on a car journey (What? it was Really annoying) without having to dredge my recent history in order to fill an email with a mainly-boring-&-formulaic recap email.
Anyway. Twitter is adorable and I love it! I tweet! (this can also be seen in the little grey box on the left hand side of my website)
http://www.twitter.com/ohdarling
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