Recent Entries

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South America

So far, so good! A new part of the world for us - we have never been to South America, so we decided to start out slow. It was the end of a year of flight plans.

We spent two months in Lima and it was great to have so much time. We found a shared apartment that was inexpensive and in a good location and settled down to live a sort of normal life in a new city. Two months gave us lots of time to explore, while still having plenty of days that did not involve being a tourist. I found a local yoga group in a park and went three days a week. We went to grocery stores. It felt good to not be living out of a suitcase. Lima is a massive city - 11 million people! We found lots of really good food.

After our two months we signed up for Peru Hop, that takes you to lots of Peru landmarks on the way to Bolivia. We did it slowly and enjoyed places like Nazca, Arequipa, Cusco, and Machu Picchu.

Now we are in La Paz, Bolivia and still moving slowly - in an airbnb for two weeks, completely unpacked and having lots of days of doing nothing. Have found some good cafes and have been on the telferico one time. Will go on a couple of tours and then just hang out before heading towards Chile and visiting the Uyuni salt flats.

We are chatting with Airtreks again and making a years worth of flight plans that look basically like:
South America-North America-Eastern Europe-Central/South America.

Might get to Cuba, maybe Columbia and Costa Rica next year, Budapest, Bratislava, Sofia, Belgrade in the summer. Cleveland in March. Boston in April.

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travel2018 budapest spain

Spain-Hungary-Peru

It was a great choice to go to Spain after Morocco. We went to Cadiz, Arcos de la Frontera, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, then flew to Donostia aka San Sebastian/Bilbao, and then took a train to Madrid. The cities of Spain had lots of history and big churches, the food was exceptional and the transit between cities was easy and inexpensive. If you are picking one country in Europe, then pick Spain. I could have easily stayed another month.

From Spain we flew Ryanair to Budapest - super budget airline, but we paid to check our bags even though they are small enough to carry on and it made everything super easy. No seat back pocket to leave things in. Every seat was filled.

In Budapest we are looking to buy an apartment because we want to come back here every year for a few months. I love this city. Went swimming at Palatinus, and we are eating lots of great food. Today's big discovery - there is a HUGE market at Lehel Ter - all the fruits, vegetables, meat, bread - we would do all our shopping there. Like Vic market in Melbourne. Plus there is langos there.

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morocco,
travel2018

Still in Morocco!

We are still in Morocco and really enjoying the country. We went from Meknes to Fez to Merzouga to Ouarzazate to Marrakesh to Essaouira to El Jadida to Rabat and now we are in Chefchaouen. Next we go to Tatouen and then Tangier and then Spain. Morocco has been so relaxing. During the hottest part of the day everyone has a siesta. Dinners start late - about 8 pm. Breakfast is often late as well - 9 or 10 am, though some people get up as early as 5 am to pray.

We have been mostly taking buses from place to place and usually the price is between $10 and $15 each. Dinners are maybe about $10 each. Mostly our places have been between $50-$70/night, so overall, a much lower cost of living than just about anywhere else we have been. We haven't had much kitchen access, but Charles has tried several different cooking classes, so we get to eat some food he has cooked. My two favourite things are avocado milkshake and pastilla.

Tomorrow is a big holiday and people are taking home a sheep or a goat to sacrifice and cook and eat. The holiday is in honour of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son. For the last week we have seen charcoal and hay being sold and today I have seen men attempting to bring home the goat/sheep. The holiday is Eid Kbir. I will be curious if the kill the goat in the house or out on the laneways of the Medina. the whole week of aug 20-27 has a bunch of different holidays in it.

Morocco

I picked Iceland and knew I would like it, and Charles picked
Morocco and I was worried I would be too hot and it would be too
dusty/dirty for me - but so far I am super happy. The train to
Meknes was perfectly good (though the train station in Casablanca
had only 8 seats and only one small convenience store!) - and now we
are staying in this great riad in the medina. It stays cool inside,
the wifi works, the food is delicious and one of the owners is
english so communication is very easy.

I like staying in a riad and I like being in the medina - sort of
inside the old walls, not far from the souk, the market, but far
enough away that it is quiet. We get this huge breakfast that lasts
me all day and currently we are the only people here.

We talked to someone who couldnt believe we were spending a whole
week in Meknes, but it is perfect for us. It is very laid back. Next
we will try Fez (aka Fes). Yesterday I didn’t leave the riad, but
today we will wander around the medina. The gates into the medina
are these giant elaborate structures. I love all the different
patterns I see.

Iceland

When we planned this year of travel we each picked three countries and Iceland was one of mine, and it has been everything I wanted. Stunning volcanoes, amazing snow covered mountains - it is So scenic - it has fantastic waterfalls and beautiful fjords. It was great to have the first week planned by my sister and 5 of us stayed in airbnbs and saw lots of great things. One of my favorite was a closed herring factory. We had a private tour and the tour guide was great and the place was great to photograph. Now we are in a campervan and driving around and that is also great. You can no longer do any free camping though, like you can in NZ. You have to stay in designated campsite and it is $30-40/night, which seems pretty high to me, but then this is one very expensive country. At least we are making most of our own meals. And we happen to come while Iceland competed in the world cup, which was fun (last game was tonight).

So far we had one super rainy day, which is pretty darn lucky. It has been strange to get used to it being light all night long. I have to look at the time to figure out when to go to bed and when to wake up. We are meeting lots of other tourists.

Ok, off to dinner. Will post more later. Tonight we are staying in the place where the ferry goes to Faroe Islands and Denmark. Went to an art gallery and now we will have a sushi dinner (sometimes we do go out, the food in the restaurants is pretty good)

Epic travels

Just a quick update - we got rid of everything, packed a suitcase and left Australia. We spent 3 wks in NZ in a campervan, then visited 3 islands in Vanuatu, then travelled around Japan by train and then a brief stop in Qatar and now we are in Jordan. It has felt like nonstop movement, but in Jordan we are moving a little slower - we are staying in my friend’s apartment, which is a welcome relief after a lot of hotels, campervans and airbnbs. I need more friends with empty apartments in faraway countries. Tomorrow we will drive to the dead sea and then Petra, Aqaba, Wadi Rum and a few other places. I love staying in the apartment - lots of close by cafes and a very comfy bed and a real kitchen w everything you could want.

After Jordan we go to Budapest, then make our way to London via Paris, then off to Iceland, Lisbon, Morocco, Madrid and finally Lima.

I think after that we will look for places to stay for a month - two months and not move quite as much!

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travels in Australia

We are about to leave on another campervan adventure (driving from Melbourne to Adelaide and back), so I thought I might post a little more about Tasmania. Every two days or so we had to stay in a powered site to charge up the campervan and there were two very different types of places to stay. One was the sort of corporate caravan park, like Longford Caravan park, where the showers were coin operated and supposedly you get 3.5 minutes per coin, though more like 3 min, and you park on asphalt and it is very impersonal. The other type was the quirky offbeat caravan park - I much preferred these and the best was Quamby Corner - free showers, free laundry, beautiful scenery, cooking facilities like you were at home. There were people who had been there for some time. Several dogs. It was just a really great place.

It was at Quamby we met a woman driving around Tas for 6 months w her little dog and she told us about wikicamps which ended up being the best app ever for finding out about places to camp. The other non-corporate caravan park we stayed in was Left of Field, so named because it is just to the left of Mt Field, which is a National Park. It did not have showers of laundry, but it was very scenic and had nice bathrooms. Originally we were going to stay in a free space w no bathrooms, but we decided the small amount of money was well worth it and drove just a little further down the road.

From Left of Field, Charles and I hiked to Russell Falls which was stunning and an easy hike. At this point there were three of us in the campervan and I will say the campervan might be able to fit three, but it is designed for two. It was still good. Here is a photo of the falls:

There was a river close to the campground that had a platypus in it.

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Liffey Falls or How to Not get Locked out of Your Campervan

On our second day we drove to Liffey Falls. It turned out that a lot of the tracks and campgrounds were closed due to floods washing it out six months before. We did find a nice campsite at Lower Liffey Falls and had a nice day there - a few trails were still open, we had a creek nearby and we saw a snake. Our campsite had a picnic table and a firepit and there was also a bathroom w a flush toilet and running water! After we finshed our 3 km hike it started to pour down w rain, so we spent a lot of time inside the van. We did see some tent people pack up and drive away - I think the tent was starting to flood w water. It made me very happy to be in the campervan.

We cooked our dinner inside the campervan, reconfigured it for a bed, and then we used the key fob to lock the doors and went to sleep. About 230 am, I got up to go to the bathroom and Charles decided to come with me. We both thought opening the door would unlock the door - we opened the side sliding door, got out, closed it, went to the bathroom and then came back to find we were locked out! I was wearing long underwear and had a flashlight and Charles was wearing his unicorn onesie (looks like this if you need a picture: https://unicornonesies.com/). It was raining. So basically we went back to the bathroom and sat there until it got light out, which was pretty earlt - about 5am. We kept each other warm. We didn't see anyone else get up to use the bathroom. There were about five other campsites w vehicles. Also, this site was remote enough it did not even have any cellphone service.

The first people to show up at about 730 am were workers arriving to work on the washed out trail. We looked pretty funny! We needed someone to drive us out and lend us a phone to call the campervan people, and they couldn't really do that because they had to get to work, but they lent us jackets and let us sit inside the workshed/shipping container.

As we sat around waiting for people to wake up, we realized we had to ask for help, otherwise nobody would even know we needed help. It was hard! Charles felt silly as a unicorn, but some little kids were pretty excited to see a unicorn! Everyone pitched in to help us - someone else w the same sort of campervan tried their keys in our lock, but that didn't work. Someone else gave us rain ponchos, and finally a family w three kids to deal w offered us a ride out and lent us their phone and I called Britz, who then called a locksmith in Launceston. It took them 2 hrs to reach us, but once they did it only took 5 minutes and $220 and we were back in the campervan. Another family w two kids stayed w us and waited and gave us coffee and breakfast. They were so nice.

Really what I remember most from the whole thing was the kindness of strangers! Oh and from then on we didn't lock the campervan w us inside, only when we were outside w the keys. ANd even while it was happening, we said, this will be a great story.

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Tassie!

First big trip of 2017. We flew down to Hobart on Jan 1 and the plan was one week in a campervan with two of us, one week in a campervan with three of us, and one week in Hobart in an airbnb and it all went great!

The campervan wasn't ready until Jan 2, but there were only flights available on the first, so we flew down, and there was a concert on at Mona, so we went over to that (via taxi and uber - uber does not work consistently in Hobart). There was a bit of rain, but we still enjoyed the concert. One of the musicians from Mali that we like, Vieux Farka Touré, was playing. We stayed out near the airport at Travelodge. January is the peak of the summer travel season for Hobart and there was not a lot of hotel space in the city - that was one of the reasons I went for the campervan idea. Even the travelodge near the airport was expensive.

There was a chance that the campervan that could hold three people wouldn't be available, but we found out we could have it, so that was already a good start to our adventure. We picked up the campervan and drove to the closest big town and went to the grocery store and we lucked out that the market was happening and we found our favorite Tassie fruit - apricots and cherries - so we stocked up on everything and drove about two hours to our very first camp site, Dago Point (that could do w some renaming imo). At that point we were going by a book I brought from the library, Camping in Tasmania, and this was one of the five best in the area. It was on Lake Sorell. The lake itself is actually closed while they try to get rid of the invasive carp, this just meant that the lake was very very quiet and we could camp right next to the lake. There was hardly any other campers, it was free, quiet, beautiful and there were toilets. When we woke up the next morning it was very hard to leave, since I thought this might be the best place ever. In fact, one week later, after picking Sarah up at the airport, we brought her to this very spot, because it did end up being one of our very favorite place.

Here is my photo:

We managed to cook, wash up, make the bed and really enjoyed our first night in the campervan. It has everything you could want - small fridge, two burner gas stove, table, sink - and you get sheets, blanket, towels, dishes, pots/pans etc w the rental. Charles did lots of the work, like all the cooking and setting up the bed. It really was comfortable and it let us stay in remote empty quiet places.

The time we spent in the campervan really sold me on the idea. I could have spent 6 months in Tasmania in that campervan.

If you want to follow on a map here is the campervan journey - lots of backtracking!

where we slept:

Dago Pt - Sorell Lake
Liffey Falls (got locked out at 230 am)
Waratah - powered sites
Savage River near Corrina (no bathrooms!)
Derwent Bridge (no bathrooms!)
Triabunna (went to Maria Island for the day)-powered site
Mayfield Oceanside camping

Picked up Sarah at Hobart airport

Dago Pt again - saw wombat
Quamby Corner near Deloraine -powered sites and laundry!
Ben Lomond - mountain camping w lots of mozzies
Swimcart beach camping -swam in the ocean
Longford Caravan Park
Mt Field - Left of Field - quirky caravan park - walked to Russell Falls
Cockle Creek - as far south as you can get in Tas

more details in my next post.

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Travels

Had a great trip to the US - went to San Diego, Claremont, SLO, and SF - so pretty much covered CA! Saw lots of family and friends and enjoyed american retail and american food.

And now back in Melbourne and back to my regular routine - yoga 4xwk and water aerobics 2xwk, cheap movies on Monday, arthouse films on Weds night. Meditating every morning and the NYT crossword puzzle every day. Plus a bit of art - painting jizos and recently went to a watercolor class at the library.

We are doing some travelling within Australia - will go to Sydney for a week the end of Sept and also probably in Oct and Nov. In Dec and Jan hope to spend a month in Tasmania, maybe doing the 4 day walk on Maria Island and going to the music festival at Mona.

Just finished reading Lab Girl which I really enjoyed and now I am reading The Genius of Birds. I already have more books from the library than I can finish, which means the other books and magazines I have at home end up waiting a long time.

Our household is doing well - one housemate is on a art retreat in Spain! And staying in her room is an american from Austin TX, so that is fun. Our landlords replaced the stove that was falling apart. I roasted cauliflower today. Some of my movie friends are off on travels. Spring has arrived so I am out working in the garden for about an hour a day.

We have lived in the same place for almost a year, and have gotten very attached. It will be hard to get back to the 23 kgs moving weight! I love this house and garden and feel very grounded here. The yoga is close, great bakeries and butchers and greengrocers are close by. Libraries and art museums and arthouse cinema all just blocks away and the rent is cheap - really it has been so very good, but we also dream of driving around Australia and eventually, after we get passports, going on a round the world year long trip, hopefully including Barcelona, where my sister is living, well she is in the outskirts, but close enough for us!

I have watched some great series on SBS - Jordskott, Trapped and just now, Witnesses (Swedish, Icelandic and French, quite a world tour)

Ok time for Fat yoga!

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melbourne2016

time flies

Time is flying by.

We had a great week w my nephew in Sydney and in Melbourne. He enjoyed our go to the cafe in the morning life and we enjoyed being all sporty for a week. We went to an AFL game and learned the euro 2016 soccer scores every morning.

Soon we will go to the US.

There was a break-in at our house while we were in Sydney - quite shocking - but while our housemates lost a lot of things, somehow we didn't lose anything, well maybe the binoculars, but I am not even sure about that. I will note that hiding things in underwear drawers is not a very good idea, they went through that drawer. Also, I was lucky they didn't find my passports. There were obvious things that they did not take, and many less obvious things they did take, so it was all very puzzling and a bit unnerving, but Melbourne is having a rash of break-ins, so it happened here.

I have started adding more yoga to my schedule - and I like it! I tried it in SF and it didn't work at all for me, but now I look for certain types of yoga classes and that has worked much much better - there is still a lot I can't do - but it doesn't feel as upsetting.

Just finished reading In Gratitude by Jenny Diski - it was interesting. On Monday I saw a good documentary called Mr Gaga and on Tuesday I got to see the Houston ballet doing their morning warm up class. We have seen some excellent theatre lately - a series of three plays about sex/bodies and then another play called L'Amante Anglaise based on a book by Duras. Just two people interviewing each other - no props, no moving around. I thought it was fantastic. Melbourne Cinematheque is showing Mexican Noir films, which is fascinating.

I already booked tickets for Broad Museum (though really getting up at 5 am to do it was Not Necessary, since the website was not co-operating and the tix were still there at 8 am)

Where shall we eat in SF? Must also book our internal US flights.

Entry tags:

melbourne2016

melbourne life

Today I went to the NGV and they were offering a free tour, so I went on a little art tour. The tour focused on the art of Subodh Gupta, whom I had never heard of, but since he uses everyday Indian items in his art, it was very familiar. We were looking for art like this while we lived in India, and did not really find it. I was happy I could recognize the themes and the objects.

On Monday I saw a Japanese film called An and a british film, Eddie the Eagle, and tomorrow night the Herzog/Kinski series starts at Cinematheque.

Still walking, doing water aerobics and some yoga. The garden is a bit quiet, though some flowers are now blooming - the camelia, some irises in the front of the house and the jade plant has flowers. I am just going to go w the theory we can stay here as long as we want until I hear differently.

Next month my nephew is going to come stay w me for a week! We'll be doing all the touristy things in Sydney and Melbourne.

I finished Fever at Dawn (Gardos) and started The Bricks that Built the Houses by Kate Tempest - she will be talking in Melbourne on Thurs night, so we will go hear her. I have more books from the library than I can possibly finish.

I saw both plays that are close to our house - one was about Gaza, and the other was about Ireland.

It is getting cold and the sun sets about 5:15 pm. In the evenings it can be very easy to just stay home if you don't make other plans. I made oatmeal raisin cookies last weekend and was very happy w how they turned out. It was a recipe w melted butter so no mixer was required - currently we only have a stick blender, so I have been looking for recipes that don't involve mixers. I watched a couple episodes of Follow The Money - a Danish police show. It is good. Also watched an episode of Horace and Pete by Louis CK and liked it.

life is change

so the day after that post I came home to this:

Entry tags:

melbourne2016

oops I fell off the "post on Livejournal" wagon

I guess this is what happens when we don't move to a new house and barely even travel - I have a routine! My life feels busy - cheap movie Mondays, water aerobics MWF, arty retro film on Weds night and walking 5-7000 steps a day. I also started attending a large size yoga class that I am loving, some of it is yin yoga and some is restorative yoga, and it is the first time I have ever stuck with a yoga class.

In between: gardening, house cleaning, laundry, library, books and dvds, music events in Melbourne. It feels like a very full life. There is so much happening in Melbourne it is hard to keep up. I just finished reading Talking To My Country by Stan Grant, which is excellent. I watched season one of True Detective and now I am watching Hinterlands.

Yesterday I tried something new and went to LUMA - LaTrobe University Museum of Art - turns out to be one room, but since I went to see this particular artist, I was quite happy to be alone in a room with 20 of her watercolor paintings.

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/luma/exhibitions/current?mode=results&queries_display_query=Current

and an interview:
http://artguide.com.au/articles-page/show/fiona-mcmonagle/

I went to a bus stop 5 minutes from our house and then stayed on the bus for an hour. I enjoyed seeing where the bus goes. We have four bus lines and two tram lines within blocks of our house. I do love the public transit of Melbourne.

Most of the people I am getting to know are older and retired, so I visited one woman as she recovered from a hip replacement and now I am visiting another woman who is recovering from a hysterectomy. Both of them live alone, so having a regular visitor is important, and it is easy enough for me.

It is autumn here and almost winter, so the garden isn't growing as fast, but we still eat fresh spinach and green beans from the garden and every once in awhile a tomato. There is also still some wild arugula. The worm farm and the compost are doing well. We go to farmers markets twice a month and Charles has fermented some chilis and made a great hot sauce. We went out to the countryside to go to a big cookout at the farm of the people we buy beef from. We got to meet the cows.

in short, life is very good, I am content and happy.

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Tassie

We had a fantastic vacation in Tasmania. It is still my favorite state. We went down for two weeks - one week at the MONA music festival. The theme this year was percussion. We saw heard lots of music we like. It was a very comfortable festival - every day we went there by boat and then spent 10 hours outside and in the museum hearing music, looking at art, eating good food. It was very relaxed, great sound systems.

A partial list of the music we heard:
Mirel Wagner
Ensemble Offspring
Hailu Mergia and Tony Buck and Mike Majkowski
Kim Myhr
Evelyn Ida Morris
Yyan Ng
Oren Ambarchi and Will Guthrie
Kate Tempest
Arthur Russell's Instrumentals

We also ate at some great places in Hobart. My two favorite were Franklin and Little Missy Patisserie.

After our week in the city we had a week in three different wilderness spots -
Strathgordon http://www.pedderwildernesslodge.com.au/ and
Corrina http://corinna.com.au/overview/ and
Tarkine Wilderness lodge http://www.tarkinelodge.com/
They were all great. We got to spend a day going up the Pieman river to where it meets the ocean. We went on some great hikes through nature. We saw a 1000 year old myrtle tree.

I hope we go back to Tassie soon - next on my list is Maria Island - maybe this: http://www.mariaislandwalk.com.au/

Entry tags:

sharehouse

We got SO lucky with this sharehouse situation. First, I love the house and the location. Our bedroom has big built in closets, pergo floors, and 2 big windows. We are at the end of a dead end street, so nobody comes down here unless they live here. Our room is upstairs w a shared bathroom w the other room up there. The stairs up to the room are old and weathered wood. I think they are beautiful. Downstairs there is another bathroom, and open kitchen/dining room w a gas stove/broiler-grill thing and a dining room table - some of the houses we have stayed in do not have a dining room table, and I have found it to be something we really like. There is also a comfy living room w two big couches and a flat screen TV that we can watch netflix and dvds on. The whole house has pergo floors except for the old wooden steps, and when it is clean the house just feels beautiful. The kitchen gets lots of light, one whole wall is made up of two glass doors that slide open, and you look out on to the yard. I love lovelove the yard. It has a huge variety of plants and I love weeding, watering, nurturing.And I get to hang clothing outside on a line, which I also love. It has been ages really since we have been in a real house, and w furnishing that aren't cheap generic rental furnishings. It is a big relief to me that I don't have to buy every little thing. And we will leave lots behind when we move.

And then there are the housemates - the two that are normally here are Nick and Tori. Nick is a music producer and loves a lot of the music we do - from Mali, from India, prepared piano, Gillian Welch - a wide variety. The Necks. Last night he gave us free tickets to Maru Turang - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue5yPW5Y_18 and they were excellent. He is a vegetarian/hippie, happy to work in the garden, work on composting. He is good at fixing things, oh and he also great at finding treasures on large trash night and has a great eye for things made out of wood or steel. I find him very easy to live with. He does have a very nocturnal schedule, but that just means we are never wanting the bathroom at the same time. He is Australian, but sort of Byron Bay/Nimbin kinda guy. I'm guessing late 30s, maybe 40s? has a 19 yr old daughter and an ex-wife.

Tori, our other housemate is away at the moment and has sublet her room, but she will be back mid January. She is from NZ, and very easy to live with. What I love about Tori is that she notices all sorts of details and does little things like squeeze out the kitchen sponge. Actually everyone is good about doing their dishes right away, which I appreciate. We have lived in some really messy shared spaces and didn't like that. In general, this house is pretty uncluttered - nice empty surfaces - so it has a peaceful feeling to it. Tori grew up on a farm in NZ. When we moved in she had just broken up w her girlfriend, so she was sad, but now she has a new boyfriend and seems happy. Tori is also in her 30s, I think the older vibe contributes to people being more thoughtful.

The household is kind to each other, people share food when they have extra, or sometimes we all watch movies together. People don't hide in their rooms. And people are out and about too, so this morning Charles and I have the house to ourselves, which is also relaxing. We have the house to ourselves a lot actually. The funny thing is, I think we would not have chosen these housemates just reading a description, but it turns out this is a easy place to live.

Entry tags:

melbourne

Carlton

Things have been relatively calm and settled down even. We moved into a sharehouse to sublet a room and it turns out that one of the housemates was moving out just as our sublet ended, so we just moved across the hall into her room. Easiest move ever. I like the house a lot. Two bathrooms w showers, a garden and a yard, a nice open plan kitchen, gas stove, gas grill and even a dishwasher although it isn't working so well right now. We are living w two people right now, one of whom is out of town every other week and the other whom works two jobs and has a rather nocturnal schedule, so often times it is just us at home. I am really enjoying it. It is nice to use all the kitchen things we have. The location is great - close to a really good movie theatre and a nice library and all sorts of markets. I like how Australia still has butchers, fruit and veg stores, and bookstores.

My favorite thing is probably the garden. It is spring here and plants are growing. I planted tomatoes, basil and various lettuces. We do have a snail problem, but I have started figuring out what they don't like. It is very rewarding to plant things and have them grow. It is also nice to live in a house that already has everything we need like a vacuum cleaner, and every cooking pan/utensil you could want. I find the living room very comfy as well and we have apple tv and netflix set up.

We can stay here until at least January 10, and probably longer if we want. Current plan is Tasmania in January, Adelaide in March and the US in August. Our rent is relatively low, so I am probably going to lean towards keeping this place. We even have a comfy bed, not on the floor. We had a storage unit for the few months we were moving around the city, and now it is empty - it would've been way too easy to leave stuff in there forever.

I'm still going to water aerobics 3xwk and socializing w people afterwards on two of the days. I have a tentative art date with a woman I met at water aerobics on some Tuesdays, and Monday is cheap day at our local cinema. This week I saw The Lobster, which was some very funny and very dark humor. Still going to cinematheque every weds night and socializing w people before that starts each week. So, even though I don't feel like I have made lasting friends really, I do feel like there are people I chat w every week, so that is good. Plus now we live with people, so that is plenty of people in my life. I feel like I am starting to get a routine in place which is nice. On Saturdays we often go to farmers markets and out to our favorite local coffee place. Melbourne is an easy city once you sort out work and where to live. There are so many events and movies and festivals going on.

We are still going to work on getting rid of stuff even though it would be so easy to let it all pile up.

Entry tags:

too many books

I finished book 1 and 6 of The Iliad. I also read book 2. I was originally going to read the whole thing, now I am not so sure.

Meanwhile, I started book 1 of My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgard, many many details in everyday life with many many childhood details added in, but somehow compelling. Six books in the series.

And then because we moved and I had returned all my library books, I also started Elena Ferrante's first book, My Brilliant Friend. Four books in the series.

And then because we are living right across the street from ACMI - art house film central - I am going over there to see films Mon/Tues/Weds of this week and the only reason I am not going on Thursday is that we are seeing the play Betrayal (Pinter). So not enough time for reading.

On the movie front I have seen:

London Road - musical about murders of women in Ipswich
Far From Men- based on the Camus story, The Guest. excellent, but violent.
Pictures of the Old World (1972) - Czech documentary about very old people living in the country

We do have a new place to live until mid-October at least, and maybe longer than that, if we want. Up near Cinema Nova in Carlton. Great location. Nice house, we will see how we go w group living.

Entry tags:

books,
melbourne

movies, books, and the Iliad

I'm going to try something new - there is a free class being offered on the Iliad, which I have never read, so I signed up. Here is what we will be doing:

In this short course we will be reading and talking about four major books of the Iliad (Books 1, 6, 22, and 24 , with reference to other books of course). We will be focusing mostly on the heroic conduct of war as Homer sets it out in the Iliad with special reference to Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector and Paris. Their relationship to the gods will also be dealt with. It is strongly advised that participants read the text in advance (all of it if possible, but certainly the books under discussion each week).

Recommended text: Homer, Iliad, (translated by R Latimore), University of Chicago Press, 2011

Speaker biography

Professor Chris Mackie is Professor of Public Scholarship at La Trobe University. He studied Latin and Greek at the University of Newcastle (NSW), and then wrote his PhD at the University of Glasgow on Vergil's Aeneid. He has written widely on Roman and Greek topics, especially Vergil, Homer and Greek mythology. More recently he has developed interests in the Gallipoli/Dardenelles region through time, and in classical reception studies. After working at the University of New England (NSW) for two years, he was at the University of Melbourne for 24 years. He joined La Trobe University in 2010.

The info is here: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/events/all/homers-Iliad2 - so it isn't really in depth the full Iliad, but more like an Iliad overview, but still at least I will get to know the people involved.

I found a copy at the used bookstore (sadly not at the library), and I am just starting the intro part. Meanwhile I also picked up the book In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman. I read a review, or it won an award, and it was on the shelf at the library.

This Monday I hope to see Best of Enemies, Dope and Wolfpack at Cinema Nova. I also have a lot of dvds from the library AND I still don't know where we will live after Sept 12. Oh and we are going to Brisbane Sept 4-7. So I feel like I'll be pretty busy for the month of Sept. Also tickets to Betrayal and Antigone.

Entry tags:

Melbourne International Film Festival part2

I had forgotten just how all consuming the festival is - just getting the NYT xword puzzle done is a huge challenge
(don't want to break my 40 day streak!). I get to the end of a film and I have to decide which has priority - the bathroom, getting something to drink, getting something to eat, or getting to the next place to get in a queue to get a decent seat, ok, to get my favorite seat, which also happens to be the favorite seat of some other people. You get to know the people that like to sit in the same basic area. I have seen 46 films so far. Some of my current favorites- lots of documentaries

Snow Monkey - a documentary about making a film w the children of Jalalabad, I think George Gittoes
is amazing, must try to see more of his films, and learn more about what he is doing, he is
sort of an artist without borders.

The Pearl Button - about the coastline of Chile, the indigenous people of Chile, the water, the sea, also about modern
Chile history and how the sea was used to bury victims of state murders

Peggy Guggenheim - Art Addict - now I need to go to Venice to visit her museum. What a fascinating woman.
what a great eye she has for art. Married to Max Ernst! lovers w Samuel Beckett. And recognized the art of Jackson Pollack and many others

The Look of Silence - somehow I missed the first film in the theatre (Act of Killing) and this is a companion piece,
but also stands on its own. About the killings in Indonesia of a million "communists" in 1965, about how those men are still in power, about the US involvement in those killings.

Mavis - wow, Mavis Staples, what a woman, what a voice! it was good to have a lighter doc.

In the meantime, I was also looking for housing and we found another temp place, this time until Sept 12. So I can stop looking for a little bit. This time we are at Rathdowne and Park, basically North Carlton. There is a library nearby, though I don't have the right card for it, but I will still go there and read books and newspapers. Melbourne might be about to have a transit strike. We are also still freezing cold. There are a lot of cafes in this town, but it is somehow a challenge to find really warm cafes.