EXCHANGE INTERFACE

Am using a more uplifting moment to get past it.

Neighbour down the road (friendly-ish, but we're not hugely close, we just have similar thoughts on a bunch of topics) heard about my trip and was all "if I can get time free during school holidays, would you be interested in travelling around Iceland with me?"

Now I don't think it was a serious offer - you know how people say things but don't actually follow through? That said, she's messaged me before about doing a road trip out of the area for an evening so we could see some astronomical event that wasn't visible from Sydney. I kind of wish I hadn't had to be realistic about it. It would have been fun!

Anyway, it was lovely to have her make that offer, as though she didn't mind spending time with me. After some of the anxiety/depression/negative thoughts that I've been having, it's...so nice to know that someone thinks I'm someone they'd like to spend a week with, maybe even two.

I have to hold onto that when the brainweasels have the conn.

It's been rough lately, what with politics throughout the world and, well, some saddening/oblivious comments from friends. I love them, and I recognise that they don't have the emotional wherewithal for a broader perspective, but...

I took Thursday off, because tired and digestive system. Still not convinced that everything is hunky-dory in there, but with a lack of actual evidence, one is left to just deal with it. Some twinges, odd pain, weird sensation at my belly button (might be the yeeterus scar), and lots of gurgling.

Goodbye my love of food!

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I'm trying to clear up space on my phone, and it's not the easiest thing. I'm having to transfer videos over to my laptop (which will rapidly run out of space) and sort through which ones are worth keeping and which ones I'm not going to use.

I did take a lot of videos for the purposes of setting up a gardening channel, but I'm very bad at videography, and probably not a particularly nice voice to listen to when it comes down to it. Which is a problem when you're trying to make videos!

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Still trying to decide on whether I'm going into the USA later this year. Disneyland with friends! Actually, this time it's the prospect of visiting LA that's more interesting: food trucks, local colour, spaces and places and people! Things which I wish I'd known to go check out the last couple of times I was in LA...

And on the other hand...there's always the risk. I'm just setting up my travel insurance now, and although I'm listing the US on it (and I'll be visiting California) there's always the uncertainty. One can keep one's head down, sure, but if things go bad...

It's the "if things go bad" that's the roulette wheel, isn't it?

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Trying to work out how to edit/rewrite/redraft a novel without hating past!self for not getting it right first time.

Anyone have any advice on that front?

How do you pick the places you go when you travel around the world and have you ever been disappointed when you went to certain places? asked by timespirt

Mostly? I choose by the people I know. I've chosen cities that I wanted to see before, and while it turned out okay, it was pretty lonely because I travelled by myself. These days, I try to go somewhere that I know people, so I can catch up with them. And when they're busy, I take tours to see the city sights (and sites) and get a feel for travelling around the place by public transport as much as I can. (Or as much as the city allows.)

Previously, I would stay with friends wherever I landed, particularly in the US. One of the difficulties was that, in a lot of smaller cities (or even the large ones) you have to go by car, full public transport isn't an option. That's okay when you have friends who have the time to take you out and about. It doesn't always work that way, and so when I visited people in my late 20s and 30s, I would spend the day at their house (usually writing) and then we'd go out and do things in the evening. Or I'd stay with someone who could take the time off work that week.

Perhaps the biggest 'disappointment' has been New York City. Maybe that's an odd one to pick, but if I think about how I felt while visiting there (twice) then it's been interesting but...just another city, if you understand my meaning? I had no connection to it but a general touristy connection, and that wasn't sufficient for me to really feel like I had a "great time" in the city. So if I was going to recommend NYC, it would be as somewhere that you need to go with at least one person that you know, or as part of a group. I knew a few people who lived in and around NYC, but I stayed by myself, went sightseeing by myself, and only met up with the friends for a meal. If I'd had a travel companion, then I'd have gone to museums and the sightseeing places, and maybe had more emotionally connected memories of NY than I do.

You know that saying about "people don't remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel"? Well, the same thing holds for cities. If i don't have an emotional connection with cities - friends, memories with friends - then it's...just a city.

Okay, I am absolutely going to post this today with pictures, DAMMIT.

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In Rotterdam the matter of how history, town planning, and architecture interlock is really visible.

A great deal of Western Europe was destroyed in the war. Bombed, blitzed, burned, pulverised, flattened. During the rebuild of Europe in the 50s and 60s, a large number of cities chose to rebuild in the same style - the 'traditional' style.

Rotterdam did not.

Instead, the city elders/council/planners of the time opted to go what I'm going to term "full modern". As a result, their architecture is extremely eclectic and varied, and very very modern. Oh, there are some old buildings, of course - churches and town halls and the like - but rather than an entire 'old city' zone that looks like it's a holdover from the 1400s, there are older buildings tucked in amidst the far more modern ones.

( Rotterdam: eclectic and modern )

Right, so as I mentioned in my last travel post (written out several days ago, only just posted) I've gotten home.

6 weeks. SIX WEEKS. It was heaps of fun and so lovely to meet people and catch up with friends and see the world and explore cities, but I am SO GLAD TO BE HOME.

*plays 'I Still Call Australia Home' and tears up*

That said...coming home has its downsides: the grass is uncut, everything is overgrown and unkempt. The bits of tidying inside the house that B1 promised have not been tidied. The roof still needs fixing. Bills are coming due. The nice neighbour is moving out.

And I'm really really zonked right now. It's not even 5pm and I've got the 'spinny brain' that happens when I'm jetlagged or haven't had enough sleep.

I'm not sure I really got a full night's sleep while on the cruise. It wasn't the motion so much as the bed. Couldn't get comfy, couldn't quite sleep through the night. Luckily, the sea days didn't ask much of me, but I kind of figure I'm in a sleep deficit right now. Might have to catch up some today/tonight.

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One upside: I got my tax return for last year and it will cover the last of my spending while on the trip. Now I just have to work out what's happening after the next 12 days of work...

Another upside: HOLY COW THE TOMATOES.

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More travel updates coming, I promise.

Right, a bit of catchup here and there while I'm on the train.

Tour of the Red Light District in Amsterdam the night before leaving for the UK:


( the interesting tales you get from travelling )

Next post: the rest of London, including a day with rmc28!

Where, you might ask, is Nijmegen?

In the middle of The Netherlands!

Managed to acquire and pay for an upgrade between HK and Dubai. All I wanted was the flatbed to be able to get some sleep. And I did get the flatbed. But I missed out on the meals and the actual 'bar space' where you can sit and drink alcohol and eat chocolate.

Got a coffee in Dubai. Asked for it in a keep cup. Got given a takeaway cup and told "you can put it in the keep cup". Now I know this is a 'we're terrified we might give someone too much of something they've paid for and our bosses will rake us over the coals' thing for employees, but I'm just "..." because the point of a keep cup is to reduce the amount of takeaway cups used...

Anyway, when going through Dubai, B2 and I always get B1 a camel, because, IDK, B1 likes camels!

She's not getting this one, though. For starters: shipping to Australia would be awful! Although one could imagine it sitting in the middle of the lawn, just taking up space for the heck of it...



I didn't get her the peacocks either. I ended up with a little gold camel with a faceted gem in each side. It matches some pretty knick-knacks that we already have.

Left Dubai around 8am local time. Flight to Amsterdam was economy, but not full. Amsterdam immigration was about 45 minutes, so not dire (the US can take up to 2 hours) but also not fantastic.

That said, it felt like everyone and their neighbour on this flight had a cough. UGH. And no masking. More of that in Europe, although at least in Europe, very few people are going to be an asshole about masking up. America? I'm not so sure. We'll see when we get there.

( Amsterdam, Nijmegen )

( It's a week later and I haven't posted about Macau )

I was going to post about the last day in HK, my stopover in Dubai, meeting an old Stargate friend in Nijmegen, and the Red Light District in Amsterdam, but I'm in London for one more day and I'm contemplating doing a Monopoly Board scavenger hunt. Obvs the UK one, not the US one. But it will take a bit of time and I need to fix up a pair of newly-bought 2ndhand trousers so they won't fall off my hips. That would be disastrous anywhere.

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I managed my YT assignment. It's okay? But I think it warrants a rewrite because there are things that I am Not Satisfied with.

My Sedoretu Exchange assignment is still being worked on. They're just not co-operating. GRARGH. (I'll be honest; I might be more enthused about the Sedoretu exchange if I thought that the person I was writing for was real and not a sock.)

Got to HK fine.

( my sleep patterns were never good to start with )

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ETA: 4pm HK time.

Spent the day roaming about HK. Much to say, no time to say it. Had lunch with S, but going back to G&S's shortly to spend some time with niecelet.

ETA2: Doing dinner with G&S and niecelet tomorrow. Tonight I get a bit of peace. Dad asked if I wanted to grab dinner with him, but I don't. There's only so much time together with him I can manage and I think I've about exhausted it at this point.

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So, I was given an assignment and have struggled to get anywhere past the second chapter (there's four planned) over the course of the last six weeks.

I took a pinch-hit, and completed it in the last two days.

Guess I should ask for an extension on the assignment...

re: updating DW

I know they don't have control over world events, but this really doesn't feel like a good time to change things up.

Then again, one supposes it will never be a good time to change things up.

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Trip is settling into spaces. I'm meeting my dad in HK, but his financial woes mean he's pushing for us to share a room which...no. I'm going to need some space away - a room separate. I'd booked somewhere - a room in a kind of boarding house, good area, it seems reputable. It's hard to tell - some places are very deceptive on AirBnB. But, yeah. He's asking how much it would cost for me to cancel my room and book one with him, and it's not worth the cost anyway - especially not when he's looking at the price in USD and I'm looking at it in AUD. (AUD is crappy right now. The US is going to be kinda exxy.)

Have arranged to meet peeps in almost all the spaces where I'm going, and looking forward to catching up. A little nervous and slightly stressed because of the job. I get back, have two weeks of pay (13 days of work) and then my income flatlines.

Debating whether I want to navigate Centrelink or not. I mean, I don't want to, but if I must, better to do it sooner than later? Or possibly see if somewhere local needs waitstaff? I've never worked tables before; could get interesting.

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( travel TO DO )