casbot.com.au

Hello from Gatwick Airport

Jan 112011

(copied from an email)

I haven’t sent a proper email before now because it’s just not *fun* typing on the iPad, and I know none of you would want me to feel like writing to you was a chore. So, of course I will try to make up for my lack of contact now by writing an email that is neither too short or too long, and is filled to the brim with exciting tales of adventures through the rugged Scottish highlands…

However, I only have 43 minutes of internet time remaining, so I’ll just do what I can. Internet here at Gatwick is a bit ridiculous, because, despite the fact that you have to pay £5 for an hour of internet time, you still get a proliferance of advertisements adorning your screen. Greedy much, Gatwick? It’s just like when you go to the movies and they show ads, even though you’ve paid close to $20 for the ticket! It’s enough to make a person waste their first email home on righteous indignation.

As I said above, I’m now at Gatwick airport. That means that the first part of my trip is over and done with (Scotland and England), and the next part is about to begin (Europe). First stop in Europe – Vienna. I’m looking forward to seeing Max and Theresa, who I’ll be staying with. Some of you may know them as the Germans who were staying with Tim and I in Brisbane; couchsurfers who turned into dear friends. After that, a train trip to Prague to meet up with my wonderful pal Ben, and then back to his current home in Rome. I fly home to Sydney from Rome on 18 January.

Mum left Anna’s place (where we’ve been staying) in Brighton yesterday at lunchtime to stay at Heathrow, or near Heathrow, as her flight left early this morning. She’ll be landing in Sydney and staying with Tim for a night before heading back to Brisbane.

Scotland:
Mum met me at Heathrow on 29 December London time, late in the afternoon. My flight had been uneventful, fortunately, and the seven-hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur wasn’t too taxing. The immigration line at Heathrow was much more frustrating than the stopover, in fact, and I’m glad I won’t be flying out of there again. Gatwick is a much nicer airport – employing more staff and with lots of helpers around the place. People are quite surly at Heathrow (mind you, I would be, too, if I had to work there).

Mum and I picked up the car from Budget, and commenced our journey to the North. We stopped at Leicester for the night, and continued on the next morning to Inverness. The scenery along the drive was amazing, and as we drove past Perth, the sun appeared and lit up trees and fields covered with pristine snow. The roads were clear, and apart from some fog, everything was fine apart from a stressful spot just outside Inverness, where it got very cold and our windscreen wipers ran out of water. We managed to get going again though.

When we finally arrived at Inverness, we were greeted by Karena and Neil and their babies, Katie and Kieran. They are amazing hosts, so friendly, helpful and generous. It was like having a home away from home, and very comforting after the last part of the drive being so stressful. While in Inverness we visited Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle (pronounced Ack-hurt). I slipped and fell on the castle, and hurt my knee, but I figured I`d gotten the bad fall out of the way early in the holiday. We also went for a walk into the city centre with Karena, Neil, Katie & Kieran, on New Year’s Day, when the streets were quiet. Inverness is beautiful, and looks very old. You can almost imagine people in the middle ages going about their business on the paved streets and alleys. The view from the Castle down the river, both directions, is amazing. I uploaded some photos to facebook of the trip, and might put more up later.

After Inverness, we went on to Edinburgh, with a stop in Stirling along the way to visit the castle there. It was incredibly cold up on the battlements, and I almost wanted to go back to the car and huddle inside! I think that’s probably the only time you’ll read those words from me, as every other time has been fine. I love the cold It was quite interesting to hear the stories of the castle, and then we also went to hear a talk about people who are making replicas of the Unicorn Tapestries. I’m still not sure of the significance of the unicorn, but it seems to be everywhere in Scotland.

We stayed in an amazing little apartment in Edinburgh, where we had our own little kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom, and even a washing machine, which we made use of. Mum had bought a DVD set of ‘Getting on’, a series about a British hospital, that we watched each evening and finished the entire series. We went walking through Edinburgh in the daytime, and would then go home and rest, having dinner in the apartment. We also got to meet up with Andy, who hosted Noelle and I on our first visit to Edinburgh in 2008, and his fiancee, Gayle. They took us on an outing to Cramond, which is by the sea, and where the footpaths were slippery with half-melted snow and ice. THere is also a path that you can walk on there when the tide is low that takes you out to a little island, but it was high tide when we were there. We went for a walk down a little pathway to a cafe in a lady’s house, where you walk through her house to get to the tables and chairs. It was lovely sitting inside, eating homemade soup and watching people slip and slide across the snow outside.

We also visited Edinburgh Castle, and Mary King’s Close, which is one of the streets that the current city is built on top of. The history of Edinburgh is fascinating.

As I’ve only got 9 minutes left here, I will finish this chapter. I hope you are all well, that it’s not too hot (for those in Australia), not too cold (for those in the northern hemisphere) and that 2011 has started out positively for everyone.

Leaving for New York

Travel No Responses »

Feb 122010

I am at the Sydney international airport, waiting to be let through to the gate so I can sit and wait another 2 hours before our flight starts boarding.

I’m psyched because I get to fly on the A380 airbus, and I’m hoping it will be a little better than the usual economy conditions on other types of planes.

Anyway, I guess I will talk to you all later! This is an adventure, because I have never flown internationally by myself, and I’ve also never taken a trip to the airport by myself, and not had anyone to see me off.

I will be bored because I was looking for a newsagency, you know the ones they have at airports, that sell books as well, but I didnt’ find one. So I don’t have anything to read.

I’ll let you know when I get to NYC! I’ve got to transfer to a Virgin AMerica flight when I get to LA, which will also be an adventure.

No scribbles!

Japan, Travel No Responses »

Nov 292009

This is just a quick note to say hi, and let you know that I’m still alive and well, exploring Japan and making friends with random animals here

As those of you who I’m connected with on facebook will know, I have uploaded some photos to facebook. My internet connection here is patchy at best, so once I upload the photos, I don’t email them or anything because it could take an entire day for the thing to send. I might send some pics to Picasa once I get back to Tokyo, but for now, add me on facebook (if you haven’t already) if you feel like looking at some pics of Japan. I think it won’t come up with a photo at first, but it will be me if it’s Cass Brisbane.

Anyways, right now Tim and I are in Himeji. It’s almost four hours by train from Tokyo, and about an hour from Kyoto. Yesterday we visited Himeji Castle, and it was amazing. Today we had a tour of Kyoto Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle, and that was really cool also. Tomorrow we’re going to Hiroshima to visit the peace museum, the A-bomb Dome, and Hiroshima Castle. We’re also going to visit Miyajima, which is an island with floating torii (those red shrine gates – wiki it if you’re interested and we’re also going to visit Kyoto again, and Nara, which is where some deer live, plus a giant buddha.

On 1 December we head back up to Tokyo, back into the bright lights and crowds of the big city. We’ve got a few more things to explore in Tokyo yet (we haven’t even been to Shibuya Scramble!) and we also want to visit Tokyo Disney Sea.

I’m doing well in choosing the destinations and sights to visit, and Tim is doing an excellent job of sorting out the logistics of that, such as which train line we should catch, which side of the platform we should be standing on, which station we should get off at and which direction we should be walking when we exit the station. He’s a natural at all that kind of stuff, whereas I’m mostly distracted by all the shiny, pretty things (of which there are many here in Japan). All in all, I think we make a good team. I take all the photos, and Tim sometimes cooperates by posing (even when I don’t ask him to).

So far I have found Japan to be convenient, innovative, friendly, polite, navigable (if you have a Tim), beautiful, ancient and modern, and not really that expensive at all. I don’t know what everyone goes on about, I’ve found Japan to be less expensive than any other overseas country I’ve visited. Everything seems to be very reasonably priced, some things are downright cheap, and the 100 yen shop is the cherry on top of an already deliciously affordable cake.

Japan is awesome. I thoroughly recommend it.

I hope you’re all well and happy, and coping with the heat (for those of you in Aus, that is )!

In Japan!!!1

Japan, Travel No Responses »

Nov 232009

Tim and I are in Japan, safe and sound. I’m writing this from the little desk in our hotel room, with the free cable internet. We almost had to call off the trip when we got to Coolangatta airport, as my passport wouldn’t scan. They eventually discovered there was an ‘m’ missing from the corner of the photo page (Tim created a conspiracy theory involving Po snacking on my passport, but that would never hold up in any kind of court). In the end, the customs guy said that it was fine from their end, my passport is still valid despite the small damage on the corner of the page, and that the thing I would need to worry about now was getting into Japan.

I stressed a little bit on the plane, then when we got to Japan, the guy who scanned my passport ended up just using the chip reader and it was all fine. Japan’s customs and immigration thingy is so much less hassle than Australia’s.

Anyway, after some standing around looking at signs, we eventually made our way to Ikebukuro (where our hotel is). We caught the train from the airport, and it was nice and comfy. A girl with a trolley of exciting foods came around, and Tim got yellow pringles (they were salt flavour). I got an orange juice, being that they stuffed us on the plane. The food was quite good.

On the plane, we had the very first seats in starclass. The seats were roomy, they reclined and had foot rests. They kept feeding us, and it was yum.

So far everything has been fairly straightforward. Signs are in English and Japanese, and we had no trouble following the map to get to our hotel (a 5 minute walk straight up the road from the station). We’re pretty much set here, with a decent room close to the station, easy to get to, with lots of little food places and alleys full of things to explore. Everything is still bustling at 10:00pm on a Sunday night, and I’m not just talking about clubs. There are electronics shops with guys standing out the front with megaphones, thrusting flyers at you as you walk past.

Also, it’s freezing. But not inside. Inside is stuffy.

Tomorrow we are going to the Ghibli Museum. I’m psyched.

Btw, I found out that my phone does work here on roaming, so if you send me a text or something chances are that I’ll get it. I’ll send updates through when I can.

i’m going to head off to bed now. Our hotel gave us pyjamas and slippers. We get to keep the slippers. Plus, our bathroom has a toilet with buttons on the wall. I’m going to have to figure that one out.

That’s what you get…

Anime, Japan, Pictures, Travel No Responses »

Oct 122009

The planning for Japan is coming along nicely. Today I received confirmation that we were able to book in on our preferred date for the Ghibli museum. I’m so psyched – lifesize catbus!!!! Also, I saw a picture on the Ghibli museum website of Hayao Miyazaki sitting in front of one of the robots from ‘Laputa Castle in the Sky’. Here he is:

The resolution isn’t high enough for me to tell what his expression actually is, but I’d like to think he’s delighted.

And why wouldn’t he be? Living in a country where things like what’s pictured below are just an everyday occurrence…

Some friends of mine

We do what we must

Japan, Movies, Pictures, Travel No Responses »

Oct 102009

I just finished watching Sakuran. It was visually sumptuous – the colours, the designs, the clothes… And tomorrow, Tim and I are going to see Trina to sort the details of our Japan trip. I am so excited. It might be because this has been something I’ve dreamed of for around 15 years now.

Watching the Amazing Race the other night, and seeing the teams in Japan, in Tokyo, rushing through Shibuya… all these things that Tim and I will be doing in just over a month’s time…

Well. I can’t get ahead of myself. There’s still a few weeks to go yet, and Tim and I also have to concentrate on selling the house.

Still, it’s exciting!!!!

Back to square one

Uncategorized No Responses »

Sep 132009

These are some things happening right now:

Tim and I are trying to sell our house
We leave for a two week holiday in Japan on 22 November
I start my new job on 23 September
Tim and I are supposed to be getting married on 3 July 2010
I should be asleep

I will readily admit that I have severely neglected this blog, but what else is new? I don’t know why I have such trouble getting motivated to write here.

I want to write so much, but after the Dey Alexander course on Friday, I sort of feel bad about waffling on and on, and making strange run-on sentences and non-existent words.

Anyway, I’m literally falling asleep here. I guess more on this at a later date.

Life in summer

Cynicism, Weather, Work No Responses »

Feb 082009

I know I was resisting it to begin with, but I’m really liking the new wordpress update. It’s quite a bit different to the previous updates, so I can accept that they were justified in offering it so soon after the last one. However, i still maintain that fewer updates with increased functionality and useability in each one is better than hundreds of small updates with small changes that you might hardly notice.

Tonight I spent a while cleaning out our pantry. There were a fair few things that needed to be thrown out, and there was a sticky layer of soy sauce on one of the shelves (I’m still wondering how that happened. The bottle is thick glass, no cracks, not knocked over…) that had to be scrubbed at for a few minutes before it finally admitted defeat and released its hold on the laminate. I felt a sense of satisfaction once the job was done, and the shelves do look much more orderly, but I’ve got a headache throbbing behind my temples now and a queasy feeling in my stomach. I’m pretty sure it is all to do with the heat plaguing us at the moment.

Annoyingly, the airconditioner in our living area decided that it would choose today to stop de-humidifying the air. The result of this is somewhat slightly cooler, though still humid air being recylced back out through the airconditioning unit. The thing that really affects me in summer here is not so much the heat, though that is bad enough in itself, but the humidity. It’s the humidity that makes the air soupy and thick. It causes bread to mould up the day after you buy it, unless you put it in the fridge. Actually, it causes a whole lot of things to mould up in a couple of days, even a bag of lemons we had sitting on the bench. They weren’t old by any stretch of the imagination! I, for some reason, thought it might be okay to keep lemons out of the fridge.

Living in Australia in summer makes everything feel ridiculous. What I mean is, everyday things that you do every day. Things like going to work, wearing closed-in shoes, drinking coffee when it’s warm/hot, wearing business clothes… I guess the main thing that’s frustrating is the clothing thing. I feel like wearing a summer dress and haviainas, when instead I have to wear something that won’t look too out-of-place in the office. I live in fear of the airconditioner at work breaking down. When I worked at Suncorp, the airconditioner broke on one of the hottest days that year. Of course, being in a new multi-storey building meant that there was no other way to get fresh air flowing through the floor. The temperature went up to over 40 degrees celsius and still management wouldn’t let people leave. I left anyway. I don’t cope with the heat.

Australia is hot and humid. A vast majority of the country is tropical or subtropical, and even the parts of the country that are classed as having a mediterranean climate (are you KIDDING? ) can still look forward to a few days of 40+ degrees celsius each summer. I know that we were colonised by people from a colder climate, but you would think that after a few generations we’d have learnt to adapt our lifestyles accordingly. I admit that we do live differently to people in the UK, but we seem just to have chosen to do so in the dumbest possible ways. For example: spending hours and hours of our spare time in the sun.

People from other countries seem to see us as fairly easy-going, laidback, lackadaisical characters. I’m not disputing that this is likely true, in relative terms. I think the reason for this stereotype is more because most of the time it’s too frickin hot to really have the energry to be anything but laidback. Taking an interest and caring about things uses energy, and that generates heat, and oh god if I add any more to the heat that’s currently pressing in around me I will spontaneously combust.

Is it still spontaneous if you expect it to happen?

So anyway, hopefully we will get our other airconditioner fixed tomorrow. Right now, I am cocooned in the comfortable and cool embrace of artificially chilled and de-humidified air (our airconditioner in the bedroom works, thankfully). When I step out of this room, it feels like stepping into a bathroom where someone has left the hot water running without the exhaust fan on.

Yuck.