congratulations!

so it took some clever sleuthing but I can finally say

congratulations neena and chad!

send me a picture! i want to see this beautiful new addition to the world.

love
a

london love

ahhhh...i am so rejuvenated.
Shabnam (from the famous Spain road trip adventure) just happens to be in London right now so when I arrived I found an email inviting me to come and hang out and stay at her cousin's place. just fabulous, after 6 weeks or so of wandering around it was so great to see someone I know and eat a delicious and incredibly well presented home cooked meal with warm and wonderful and welcoming people. thanks nanaz and eric and raphaelle!
plus Shabby and I have been going through some of the same things lately and it was really good to be able to talk to someone I can relate to on this. I feel much better now.
so we hung out for a couple of days and just wandered the city, slept late, had long discussions over beers in pubs, and then I got on a train and came out to Stowmarket to spend the day with Jane and her family. Also wonderful and warm and welcoming (her dad printed me out a map of Iceland!).
There are some strange things swirling around like how I was magically presented with 10 pounds by an Underground ticket machine (I tried to yell for the guy whose change it was to come back but he didn't hear so I just gave it to an attendant), and then how I missed my train today and had to sneak onto the next train which technically I wasn't allowed to be on with my 'cheap' ticket, but the ticket guy didn't even say a word, like how I accidentally came away from the chocolate shop with two bonus bags of chocolates instead of one...

Iceland is going to be expensive and the conversion from ISK to $ is going to be a tough one to do in my head (63 to 1) so I guess what it means is that I should just not bother with conversions at all.

Tomorrow Jane will drive me to the airport and then I'm off to (one of) the ancestral homeland. Jessica whom I met in Inverness might be renting a car so our tentative plan is to drive around the country.

ouch (body and bank account)

Manchester is all a blur, as my night out with Joey involved several gin and tonics too many and the next day was spent on the hostel couch trying not to move. As a consequence I know nothing about Manchester other than where all the good gay bars are.
We were sitting in one place when we were approached by drunk Mancunian Martin.
"What's your name?"
"Maaaaaaa!"
"What?"
"Maaaaaaaa aaah!"
"What is he saying?"
"It's Maaarhaaan!"
It was sort of entertaining trying to figure out what he was saying all night. But not really.

Bizarrely I get hit on more (by men) at gay clubs than at ostensibly straight ones. I suppose it helps to be one of the only straight females in the place.

Then I came to Bath which I love, it's beautiful and loaded with things to do. Everything is very expensive. The Roman Baths are interesting and of course I had to have the traditional tea at the Pump Room, it's the aging bookish spinsterly thing to do. Pricey but tasty (clotted cream! Where have you been all my life!?!?), I couldn't eat again for the rest of the day. I also drank the water (the natural mineral hot spring water) which is served up by a strange man in period livery. He was impressed that I drank the whole glass, apparently nobody ever gets through it all. It is pretty vile but there are something like 43 minerals in that water. In retrospect it tasted a little like Leslie tap water.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend the Jane Austen Centre which doesn't have a lot going on other than an "exclusive" video featuring Amanda Root (from the movie version of Persuasion), which features Ms. Root wandering pensively around the Assembly Rooms. Because I'm a nerd I already knew everything they were talking about and at 6 quid to get in, it's too much.

Yesterday I did a tour of Stonehenge/Avebury/Silbury Hill/Lacock (where some Harry Potter and new Pride and Prejudice stuff was apparently filmed)/Castle Combe. I've never done a day tour like that before (a horror of those enormous coaches that pull up and disgorge a wave of tourists at the 'attractions') however this one was really good and I saw much more than I would have on my own in my limited time. It was a Mad Max tour if anyone is looking for something similar, only 16 people in the van too so you feel like less of a jerk.
At Avebury our guide Keith handed out a couple sets of dowsing rods, as Avebury seems to lie on a 'ley line' (invisible energy line). I was the recipient of the first set of rods, along with another man, and we were instructed to walk toward a large stone. Oh the pressure! We wandered around for a couple of minutes with nothing happening and then one of his rods swung off to the right. Nothing had happened with my rods yet and as I walked toward the other man a skeptical American woman jeered "You must have bad karma!" Oh shut up.
Anyway as soon as I passed over the same spot as the other man, sure enough my rods swung around. It was pretty cool, they just moved in my hands with no interference from me, and according to Keith there is no water or electricity line in that spot. We passed the rods on and it worked for most of the other people as well.

Somewhere between Manchester and Bath something happened to my left shoulder, something like a pinched nerve, I don't know, which means that when I breathe deeply or move in certain seemingly random ways or try to sleep I find myself in excruciating pain. This is very bad considering I live out of an enormous freaking backpack. I'm going to London this afternoon and hopefully will be able to find a doctor. Painkillers don't seem to be working (although I haven't tried the ones with codeine yet...).

random bits

on Lewis I took the bus one day out to see various sights like Callanish and the blackhouses at Garenin and the broch at Dun Carloway. Sitting with an hour to kill in a very rural bus stop - I wasn't even sure the bus was going to pass by there, just living off hope really - a woman and her little boy wandered by.
"Hello hello!!" the boy shouted at me...I had passed them earlier and he had given me a dried up seedy flower so we were now on quite intimate terms. He ran into the shelter and jumped on my lap while I chatted to his mum. Boring boring for little boys so to get our attention he ran around the sides of the shelter, licking the windows. I didn't find out till later that "windowlicker" is a really really rude thing to say to someone in Scotland, so it'a a good thing I didn't say "Your son is a real windowlicker!" to this poor woman.
He wanted me to come home with them but when I said I had to wait for the bus he settled for making piles of earthworms on my shoes. After a few minutes a car pulled up, it was a woman who knew the woman I was talking to. A few minutes more and I had somehow been offered a ride back into Stornoway with this new woman and her very amusing boy, Alex aged 4. Alex didn't have any worms but we got along just fine anyway.

After the Callanish debacle I went down to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris (which is actually connected to the Isle of Lewis...shh...don't tell anyone, I'm not sure they know). If Harris sounds familiar to you, think tweed...Harris Tweed. Given my unholy lust for all things tweed it's quite lucky I managed to get away from there without buying a whole new outfit. However the stylings on offer in the shops ran more toward the Stout Matron side of the spectrum, while I was looking for Naughty Librarian clothes. I do however have a small new tweed wallet which I fondle with great happiness.

From Harris to Skye, two days in Portree which seem to have been completely uneventful because I can't remember anything about them. Then a day in Kyleakin and Kyle of Lochalsh, where I spent the evening trapped in conversation (only one small lounge and an Italian couple getting it on in my dorm) with the lamest Australian I have ever met. A homophobic jackass who looked like Benny Hill, he put that idiot Said to shame (see Said's story here). Within 45 minutes: "have you ever kissed a girl?" "have you ever had sex in a hostel?".
I even told him the Said story laced with all of the sarcasm and irony I could muster but he wasn't getting it. Poor stupid fool.

Next morning a bus to Inverness with the intention of going out to Speyside to check out the distilleries, however by the time I got there it was really too late, and there was no accommodation east of Inverness anyway. Snap decision time - get on the next train south and get the hell out of Scotland.
It wasn't till a couple days later that I slapped myself on the forehead...dammit! I went to Scotland and forgot to eat Haggis!? Even after I've been told that vegetarian Haggis is really really good? Grrrr. Add the fact that I didn't eat a deep fried Mars bar either. I am ashamed of myself. At least I drank a little scotch.

So I ended up in Penrith at the edge of the Lake District, in the fleabaggiest hotel room above a bar. At least there was a tv. And the shower was hot.

Then to Windermere and Ambleside in the midst of the best weather I've seen in weeks, clear and sunny and actually HOT. The scenery is spectacular as well, or at least it would be if the place weren't lousy with tourists (yeah I know I am one of them). Tourists tourists every where, roads filled with cars, lakesides covered with shops and marinas. The hostel in Ambleside was great though, a huge old place with giant lounge and dining room, and the nicest Melmac plates I have ever seen.

Today I arrived in Manchester where I met up with Joey from Valencia who is working here now. Tonight is going to be good.

communing with the rain

I really went to the isle of Lewis to see this (photo borrowed from here:
)


The standing stones at Callanish / Calanais. I went out Thursday morning and was suitably impressed, wandered around...browsing some of the literature in the shop I learn that one of the theories as to its existence is that is was built to track various lunar phenomena, such as the 'lunar standstill' which occurs every 18.6 years.
Later that day I heard something about some 'lunar event' happening maybe next week at the stones, and resolved to find out what it was.

The tourist office gave me a number. On Saturday afternoon, as I was about to get on a bus to leave the area, I called the number. A sleepy sounding old man answered the phone...I had no idea what to ask for and he was not particularly forthcoming. "Is something happening at the stones with the moon next week? Is it the full moon?"

"Nothing happens with the full moon. "
long pause.
"But the standstill is tonight."

Okay! Getting more information was like pulling teeth however I was able to learn that
a) all B&Bs in the area were full for the weekend
b) there is no organized expedition from Stornoway to get there
c) the last bus on Saturday leaves around 6 p.m., and there are no more buses until Monday morning.

In that case the obvious solution is to buy a tent and camp out at the stones. I mean really, if I just happen to be in a place where something rare is happening it is my duty to go and check it out, right?

In retrospect this was a somewhat stupid idea though it seemed like a good one at the time.

On the bus on the way out there I had visions of a grand pagan gathering full of entertaining crystal people. What I found was one old gnarly guy in a tent, a couple of caravans, and a handful of people in rainproof clothes hanging about with cameras. Oh well.

I set up my tent and wandered over to the onlookers. It was about 6:45 and the sun was getting low. There were differing opinions on when the moonrise actually was. I started talking to Guy and Les from England who gave me chocolate and we shivered and stared off in a southerly direction. Pointless really as the horizon was completely obscured by clouds - the wind was blowing hard and although when I had arrived the weather had seemed promising it became pretty obvious that nobody was going to be seeing the moon. This was cemented with the arrival of rain, and I retreated to my tent to read a book and eat cake.

I tried to sleep after a while but rain (which sounded like hail) and wind and unbearable coldness of the ground make it all not so fun. I'm talking insane rain. Diluvian rain. This is the last time I go camping without a mat.

Everything became worthwhile however at around 4:30 a.m. when I crept outside to pee in the bushes - the rain had stopped, there was a big clear spot in the sky and every single star that there is was there to be looked at. The brightest sky I have seen in my life, with stars like chips of ice and close enough to touch.

The next night was a little more exciting...not as many people but Les and Guy came back, this time with a largeish bottle of Scotch! Clever boys. We stood around and drank (PURELY MEDICINAL) with a woman who had driven all the way from London the previous day. As the scotch took effect we sat at the base of one of the stones and willed the clouds to part. The weather was slightly better and we could actually see the glow of the moon behind the clouds. A couple of times a silvery edge was revealed and I must tell you, I have never seen people more excited about the moon in my life. It was like the dolphin sighting on the ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway - a cheer goes up, people scramble for cameras, grown men giggle and tear down the decks in order to see the school as it passes.

However those glimpses were brief and as fun as it was to stand around in the pitch dark drizzle staring at clouds, I went to bed.

Currently in Portree on the Isle of Skye, still trying to catch up on sleep (and having the weirdest dreams in the process) but happily I did not get a cold.

Other recent adventures involve falling in a bog, and a long philosophical discussion with a group of complete strangers in a hostel covering everything from serial killers to feminism to archaeology and the nature of the universe. I couldn't believe we weren't stoned.