The one with the Disney song

So I’m sitting down to write an email to Megan on her birthday. In the background I hear what sounds like an ice cream truck (which may have been that, or may have been an army transport vehicle...really) playing “It’s A Small World”.

When I pull up Megan’s contact info Google automatically shows me our communications history. Sure enough, last year, when she was about to run in the Walt Disney World marathon, I sent her an email suggesting that she sing “It’s A Small World” the whole time.

I’ll spare you a spiel about the probability of improbable events (with the implied Douglas Adams digression) or about correlations, coincidences, or any other co-s. Instead, I’ll just comment that it really is a small world.

My dad has maybe never gone anywhere without running into someone he knows. St Louis? Sure. Jerusalem? Why not. And it’s starting to happen to me.

My first night in Sydney we went to some bar. A guy said “hey, you played in Perth for Sub Zero, right? I did, and apparently I’d played against him. And last night, at pickup, Matt showed up. “You play for Sub Zero, right? I used to play for Union Crew, from Chicago.

Laura works in the home office of Paige’s organization. We both went to school in Northfield at about the same time. As we were driving to Ssembabule last week I was discussing my plans to possibly visit Madagascar. Said Laura: “A friend of mine just returned from several years in Madagascar.” Replied Seth: “Scott? I ran into him just before I left town.” And Laura went to grad school with some other friends of mine, and we were both at Nina’s party last year.

On Friday we went to the market. I bought an elephant, whom I named Alan, who will be my traveling companion for many of my onward journeys. That night we went to a party, and when we walked in the host introduced us to his father-in-law, Alan.

In early October John and I, on our way to Madison for the night, stopped in at a gallery in Hudson, WI to see an exhibition of stuff by my friend Brita. Turns out, Brita’s stuff was in one gallery, while stuff from Nick was next door in another. He and Brita didn’t really know each other, but I’d met Nick earlier last year at the Excelsior Art Fair--he and my friend Phil are friends through skiing and woodcutting and such, and his booth at Excelsior was on the same row as my friend Colleen’s. When we got to Madison we described the coincidence to Kate and her roommates. Said a roommate: “Nick? I know Nick...”

Oh, and I think Laura knows Nick, too.

The one with festooning

Apparently, my house was recently festooned with rose petals and candles. Congratulations, Bridget and George!

In other, less dramatic, news, the workshop is over now. I'm leaving tomorrow to visit Paige's field site in Ssembabule District for a couple of days, my first visit out of the city to a place where there's nothing touristy, just Ugandans living their lives.

When I come back to Kampala, I'll start making plans for the rest of my time in Africa. I''m not sure what comes next, but at some point I want to see (and climb) Kilimanjaro, I want to see animals, I want to see places. I might visit some of the people I met at the workshop, I might explore on my own, I just know I shouldn't treat these months as a Kampala retirement.

And on another note, the pictures are up for Fox Glacier, Copland Valley and Wanaka.

L8r,
sg

The one where I rafted and rafted again

I left Sydney a day earlier than I'd originally planned, intending to go rafting on the Nile with PABs and some friends. We wound up going to Lake Mburo instead that first weekend.

We went the next Saturday instead. Phil already wrote about it, and what he says is true, and he was there, so I don't need to repeat his stuff.

My experience: We start out with a Class V right away. And it was no problem--we hit it, we stayed in the boat, it was great. Mostly because of the guides--the Nile is one of the safest white-water experiences you can have, but the guides aren't shy about telling everyone to "GET DOWN...GET DOWN", so for some of the most turbulent stuff we're crouched down and holding on while the guide does all the work.

The second rapid was only a Class III, but we went in and flipped immediately. The raft landed on my head, but it wasn't too bad.

The third, "Total Gunga", another Class V, was the only time all day I was a bit nervous heading in--it looked rough. And it was. The first big wave threw me and two others out, and the raft landed on my head again. We were quickly swept down to the bigger wave, "the G Spot", where the raft jumped and threw someone else out. I'd just come up for air when the raft landed on my head again, this time with me getting stuck underneath and needing to find my way out. I was in a bit of a daze for a couple of minutes, but after that I wasn't scared and I attacked and enjoyed each wave.

For a long stretch just before lunch we didn't even raft--we just jumped in, body surfed a light rapid, then floated our way down the Nile while throwing water hyacinth at each other.

After lunch we started by going over a ~12 ft waterfall, which was underwhelming as the raft's longer than that. We didn't lose anyone at the biggest of the Class V's, "The Bad Place", which I think may be the biggest commercially run eddy in the world. (And, of course, that's the only place the videographer failed to capture our ride...)

It was fun, and I even entertained the thought that I might want to go back later on before I leave Africa. We spent the night at a camp across the river and came back to Kampala early the next morning to get to work.

< insert week at workshop >

The workshop participants have Sunday off. On Saturday, when people were trying to figure out what to do the following day, Paige tells some people about our rafting trip. Sarah and Martha want to go but are a bit scared. Martha came to me to find out what it's like and for reassurance, and while I maybe failed to convince her not to be scared I did offer to go again to keep them company.

Paige spent all night working her network, trying to find us a 4th. We found a couple people who were interested, each of whom wound up not being able to make it. I headed over to meet Sarah and Martha in the morning, trying to formulate a backup plan if it was just the three of us. Luckily, Amini, a friend of Sarah’s from D(emocratic)R(epublic of the)C(ongo) whose name I surely misspelled, was gonna come with us. He doesn't know how to swim, and doesn't speak much English so he couldn't understand the guide that well, but there are lifejackets and he was willing to try.

This time, we were the only raft going down. (Though still with the safety raft, the kayakers and photographer.) The start of our introductory training on the water was fine, but the practice flip, not so much. Martha and Sarah were definitely scared and Amini was terrified. (As I imagine I would be if I didn't swim...) Martha begged the guide, Jared, to do it just one more time for practice but he refused.

So we started out, with me kind of excited, Martha and Sarah really nervous, and Amini in the safety boat, which at least takes the least turbulent line, hanging on for dear life.

I still wound up enjoying the day. Amini calmed down after a while and joined us in the raft for some of the smaller rapids, and seemed okay in the end. Martha kinda wanted to join him in the safety raft by the end but knew she'd regret not trying if she did. We flipped I think three times, with the one in the Bad Place being the worst. I'm not sure if "fun" is the right word, and I don't think they'll do it again too soon, but I think overall they're glad they at least tried it and everyone was at least sorta smiling at the end.

I have a DVD of trip the first week, and we got photo CDs for the second trip. So many of the pictures are up, most of which, including the one above, were taken by the rafting company photographer, though this one was all me. Sorry if they’re a bit jumbled—I still can’t figure out how to make Flickr display in the order I want.

chao,
sg

The one where I wrote a lot

So here's one way to catch up on my blog entries: I've temporarily unretired to, last week and this, coordinate the Basics of Community-Based Family Planning and Program Design, Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop. Paige is one of the facilitators and the host; I am her errand boy.

I’m sitting in on some of it—especially the Design, Monitoring and Evaluation part. Otherwise, I work with the hotel to make sure lunch is on time, track down missing luggage at the airport, arrange cars and drivers for our site visit, find and remove the cricket that’s chirping in a box in the corner, provide general organizational and technical support (i.e., collate papers and plug in the lcd projector), and schmooze a bit with some of the participants. (Inside note: including Ophelia '07.) In other words, I spend most of my time sitting outside, reading. And, when I can borrow Paige's computer, playing solitaire, trying to fix a problem with her network card, and—and here’s where this is going—writing stuff to upload later.

(And, last week, I helped the hotel security team catch a suspected thief who tried to join the conference under false pretenses. This man is no longer welcome at the Hotel Africana.)

So, New Zealand! Yeah, I hope my notes were good, because this stuff happened two or three months ago. But I had a fantastic time in New Zealand, and feel kinda guilty about not telling you about it. I’m sure I won’t do it justice, but I know that all (six) of you reading this will forgive me. The New Zealand posts are as follows (in the order they happened):

Adventure day in Rotorua (posted earlier)
Tongariro Crossing (posted earlier)
Wellington-Picton Ferry
Abel Tasman National Park
Lake Matheson and Fox Glacier
Benjamin and Elianna
Queenstown (posted earlier)
The trip through the South

Also loaded today:

Lake Mburo
A contest
Driving in Kampala
Wreading and Writing

Sorry to dump this on you all at once, especially because some of them are really really long... Soon to come: Rafting on the Nile…Twice.

ia,
sg

The one where I rode and met

So I was talking to a cutie in the hostel in Wellington while we waited for a bus to the ferry over to the South Island—she’d recognized me from the Tongariro Crossing walk a couple of days earlier. Then she sat down near me up on the top deck, and again when it got windy and we both went inside. Then, (and here JohnJohn will be mad at me but I think it worked out for the best), I abandoned her to sit with a coupla nice forty-somethings.

Beth and Lourdes are profs in the States who were in NZ for a conference. Beth, especially, knows LOTS of people around the world, and especially in Greece (which is why I went to talk to her) and, it turns out, Uganda and Kenya! She gave me several people to contact when I got to East Africa, and at one point even took my journal, opened her address book, and started writing down people and places.

(Lourdes knows more people in Central/South America; Beth’s computer is named Leroy, not George. They’re also recruiting—they think I should teach when I get back to the States…)

Anyway, I left the ferry and caught a bus to Nelson. It’s a nice small town, lots of artists and galleries and cafes and such. And the Museum of Wearable Art and Classic Cars, which I really wanted to see (for the Art, not the Cars) but didn’t get a chance to.

Pictures from the ferry are here.

The one where I paddled and walked

[From The Joyous Journal]
12/8

I’m on a boat in a storm!

Yesterday was great. (Or at least good enough to miss Wellington for…) Went sea kayaking in Abel Tasman Park, up in the north of the South Island.



Group of 7. Holly, our guide, who kind of doesn’t like tourists but was pleasant enough. A nice family from Holland, mom + dad+ two sisters. My kayak was w/Caroline, from ~Paris. (27, in NZ for 1 year, used to work Paris/London@[her company], now working for a room at [her hostel] in Nelson)

My original tour was only me so I got ‘upgraded’ to the “seals + otters”, or something like that, tour. Started by catching a water taxi north to Onetahuti Beach/Big Tonga Bay in the Tonga Island Marine Reserve. Had breakfast (we’d all eaten, but it was part of the company’s ‘experience’), got instruction, then headed out to Tonga Island. Slow going at first—had trouble adjusting the steering to stay in a straight line, C + I weren’t in synch, whatever… But the island was amazing—seals just hanging out, catching some rays or cooling in the water. Some of the kids came over to play w/us + show off—I could have easily reached out to pet a couple of them. Hard to take pictures—unbind camera case, remove camera, wait to start up, find the mode, take picture, reverse, all while making sure not to splash at all.

Then continued down the coast, exploring lagoons, stopping for lunch (good sandwiches, hot coffee, muffins, juice, fruit…), eventually making our way to Anchorage to end the day.

Stayed on a boat.
Aquapackers is a floating hostel aboard a 22m. WW2 Navy patrol boat. Just 6 of us; me + C, Amy from San Fran, Adam/AJ from Wellington (by way of London and 26th + 6th), a German guy. And Chris, the innkeeper. We’re anchored 60 yards offshore (at low tide). Had a barbie—cole slaw (good w/ no topping!), a veggie casserole, sausages, steaks. Same meal for 9 mos. straight for Chris but I liked it. Beer + wine in the fridge.

Went to sleep about 10 and woke up to a storm. Surf’s not too bad (would kill a kayak, but the boat can handle it…we’ll see about the raft trip over a bit later…) but it looks yucky out there—sideways winds, pouring rain. (Okay, but you know what I mean). And yesterday was 25º, sunny, and really calm! But we only have a 3-4 hr walk through flat ground to do by 3:30pm today—even if I have to get soaked + be miserable for a coupla hours it’ll be fine.

We’ll see if I walk w/C, alone, or with the whole group…

(Oh, and…)
Swam over to the beach + took a walk last night (~6pm). Loads of cool shells, and the west end (we’re anchored on the east edge of this N facing bay) had this amazing area where the beach met the forest with lots of caves. And [a giant rock with a hole through it:]



I thought—wow, I’ll have to come back tomorrow (w/C) to explore + take pictures…lots of pictures…

Today, back to Marahau, then Nelson. Tomorrow, bus to Punakaiki. Need bus next day to Glaciers, and to hike one of them, then to Wanaka to relax for 1-3 days,…

[journal entry ends]

We all walked together to Cleopatra’s Pool, then Caroline and Amy and I went south while the others went north. C had to be sure to be back earlier and Amy and I turned out to have some common acquaintances and she’s in graduate program I was really interested in at one point so I stuck with her. She turned out to be just one of the awesome people I’ve met along the way, nearly all of whom I’ve had no further contact with since…but maybe I’ll send her a link to this entry… Pictures of Able Tasman are here, including the group from the Anchorage.

sg

The one with ice

[…]

Pictures are up of Lake Matheson, and will be soon for Fox Glacier.

The one with Benjamin and Elianna

At home, it’s usually pretty easy to identify others who play Ultimate. Even when meeting in a complete different context, you can often just tell. (Ultimatedar?). But backpacking through New Zealand made it tough—most backpackers look like typical Ultimate players. So at breakfast, when I saw this woman who really looked like one, I was still too shy to say hi. Even though she was wearing an REI sweatshirt, so I knew she was probably from the States. Even though she was wearing the same shorts I was—shorts that Patagonia gives to Sub Zero and other Ultimate teams. In some ways, I’m really quite lame.

I left to go on my day-long glacier hike. When I returned to the hostel that evening I walked in with Søren. Breakfast woman was sitting on the couch, talking to Ben. I know Ben from Minneapolis—he played for another local Ultimate team, one of his roommates is one of my teammates, and he was there when we made the Turducken. But I didn’t know he was even gonna be in New Zealand.

We hugged it out.

Ben introduced me to Ellie. They’d met at a tournament in Nelson, which I’d apparently missed by 2 days. (She’d played for a coed team in Perth.) They’d made plans to meet up at the hostel and hike for a bit together. They invited me along on their hike the next day, a planned overnighter on the Copland Track.

We pick up with my journal, with a few red clarifications:

“Ben had to work at the hostel, so Ellie and I planned to hike in to the Welcome Flat Hut and meet him there later, then we’d hike out the next day.

WOW

So the Track, or at least the one-day section we’d done, was AMAZING. Ellie’s guidebook described the walk as ‘superb forest, river and mountain scenery…includes the natural hot pools at Welcome Flat.”

As Danny Devito in Romancing The Stone once said, “understatement of the year, asshole.” The first hour or so, once we’d crossed the river (cold water + sandflies suck) was along a path through a forest. There was some mud. (I stepped in to my calf. Ellie laughed. For a while. She went the other way and…stepped into mud.) We scrambled over trees and around streams and through very narrow cut paths. Then we walked along the Copland River. Absolutely beautiful blues and greens and greys in the water. We stopped for a long time just after the dog rock, by a small little beach w/ thousands of unique stones—reds and silvers and blues and blacks and greens, quartz and metallic flecks, sometimes all in the same rock. Some had multiple layers, and on lots of them the layers weren’t parallel or even crossed each other.

Then, scrambling over boulders. Then, along a shelf above the river. Then, a hundred yards up for a while, meandering along, crossing lots of streams and creeks. It started raining.

[Note that the entire time, we’re in this valley between two absolutely gorgeous mountain ranges, walking along the brilliant blue Copland River.]

A couple of creeks we had to take the flood bridges—ridiculously unstable 1-person-at-a-time contraptions that were often basically a coupla two-by-fours bolted together w/ some underwires for support and some netting or fencing for safety—_had_ to hold on the whole way across.

We sat for a while under one of the giant rock bivvies discussing Halloween costumes and such.

Eventually, Ben caught up just before we crossed the last creek.

We went up a hill. There was a phone there to ring the warden for some help w/ your bags.

Get to the hut—a big old [well, new] house. We’re all alone. Pay the hut warden. Just one other person there.

Hot pools: WOW. The source spring is probably 70º (which means 160º) at least. Burnt our feet a bit, but got in + it was incredible. We’re sitting in hot pools, in the rain. At one point I looked up—HOLY SHIT. Apparently, we’d been sitting basically a coupla hundred yards from huge mountains with jagged peaks, glaciers, 7, 8, 9, maybe 10 waterfalls, all hidden by the cloud cover. I’m pretty sure it’s the coolest place I’ve ever been, w/ awesome people.

So we decide to stay for an extra night. We probably have –just- enough food.

Next day we dawdled. Went to the springs—apparently, you can walk all through the area without walking through the red streams…

Went for a day hike towards the next (Douglas) Hut. Got stopped by an impassable creek so we sat by the riverside. They each napped. I read. We snacked. Took some pictures. I went for a swim in the Copland. Ben took some pictures of my willie. [Note: you will not see these.]

Went back, through the meadows and over the bridge. Now lots of people (lots of Israelis) in the hut—maybe 20 overall; it holds 31 or something and it was hard to tell.

Some time in the pools. Some reading by the river. A late dinner (more instant mashed potatoes in the dark!).

Went back the next day. Left the hut about 9am. Ate _all_ the food. Finished, just as my camera battery died, at 3pm. Waited for the bus a while, back to Fox and the Ivory Towers. Dinner in town.

Kereru all about, hanging out + posing by the garbage cans.

And then they invited me to spend another day with them. I cancelled my Friday reservation in Queenstown, tomorrow Ellie and I will bus to Wanaka; Ben will try to hitch and meet us later.

[journal entry ends]

We woke Ben when we left. Bus stops at every scenic overlook. Stops for lunch. Ben’s hoping to get there, if not he’ll e-mail and maybe leave a message on my cell. We get in at 2:30. Ben sidles up—he’s been there an hour after getting a ride from an Aussie and his Slovakian private guide.

We hung around town, made an awesome curried vegetable stir fry. We drank some, and went to bars.

The next day, Ellie and I went to…Puzzling World!

First a giant maze, with 1.5km (a mile and a bit) of walkways, each of which I probably hit at least 2-3 times.

Object: stop in each tower on the corners, then find your way out.
The “hard way”: yellow tower first, then blue, then green, then red.
Me: B-->G-->R-->G-->Y-->G-->B-->G-->R-->Y-->B-->exit.

Ellie was looking for red by the time I got to yellow, but it took her 45 minutes to find the exit so we wound up finishing together.

Then there’s a hall of illusions, including

- Holography—some pretty good ones
- 3-D faces that follow you—hard to describe but eerie and way cool
- a room at an angle—an effect used in LOTR!
- an awesome slanted room where it was hard to stand, balls rolled uphill, and chairs slid the same.

Finally, we took some pictures at the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, then headed back to town so I could catch my bus to Queenstown.

Pictures of all of this will be up...sometime... In the meantime, Ellie provided the picture above, and Ben's blog entry is here. Traveling with them was definitely a highlight. Hopefully for them too—the South Island of New Zealand sure beats Schenectady!

sg

The one where I saw The Penguin

I took 10-day trip through the south part of the Southern Island.

With me:
Another American, an Aussie, three Swiss Germans, three German Germans, a Vanuatuan Dutch, an English, and André, our Kiwi guide. Ages ranged from 18-40. We were all attractive.

We rode in a 12-seater van, pulling a trailer that was specially customized with spaces for bag storing, food storing, preparation, and serving, boot drying, other stuff doing, ...

Day 1: We met on a Sunday morning in Queenstown and immediately took off for Fjordland National Park. One nice thing: I’d volunteered to be the group banker. Which was nice, because I got a pre-printed sheet with everyone’s name so I could keep track of who’d given me money and what we’d spent and such. By referring to the list as we drove, and taking advantage of the fact that our names were listed in the order we’d signed up so couples were listed next to each other, I learned everyone’s name that first morning. (Which is unusual for me—if you recall, I made it to Day 6 of my trip to the Outback without learning any of my fellow travelers’ names.)

Our walk the first morning was a “3 hour” return at the very beginning of the Routeburn Track. The walk wasn’t that exciting, and our pace is s..l..o..w, but we wound up in a beautiful place between 5 mountain ranges. Not overly challenging, but our guide was testing us to see what the group had.

We headed off to a Gunn’s Camp, an old (miners’?) site, for the night. We made dinner, ate, and introduced ourselves in one of the cabins.

Through the week we all had our chores--I held the money and kept the books, others made sure there was always soap and water available for washing, kept the water jug filled, the van clean, stuff like that.

Each meal, there were people responsible for cooking/prep and for clean up. Our menu (and associated shopping lists) was predetermined. Breakfast was usually cereal, fruit and yogurt. The lunch spread generally included bread, meat, cheese, veggies and condiments for sandwiches. Dinners included pastas (pesto & sun-dried tomatoes, marinara sauce), rice with chicken and vegetables, fish and chips and the like.

{anchor: Day 2}: We drive down into Milford Sound to kayak. We’ve got an odd number of people (and we’re in 2-person kayaks), so I join John from New York, who’s been traveling around for a coupla weeks with two co-workers. (Angie is cute, and she calls the boys Ace and Gary.) We all shared some potato chips.

Our weather: sunny and calm most of the morning, in one of the rainiest places on earth. At one point mid-morning, our guide said “At 11:20, a breeze will come in and it will get a bit choppy, but nothing too bad.” The breeze and chop didn’t actually get there until 11:25.

We didn’t see much animal life until the end—we saw 4 seals eventually, playing or napping. But our guide convinced the other group that we’d seen a shark.

My overall impression: it’s very pretty and the scale is impressive, but I don’t need to be there for days on end. It would be neat to see it from the air, and when it’s raining and the cliffs turn to waterfalls.

Then we drove (and I slept) to Monowai. We expected rain, so instead of camping we stayed in what I can only describe as a miniature village with shacks from the 1950s. They were $15/night, and I had my own.

Day 3: The weather report was bad, so we changed our plan a bit. We walked about 7 miles in to the Green Lake Hut and dropped our gear.

The hike alternated between beech forests and low plains called Tussock Basins. (The party walks through these in The Fellowship of the Ring.) I stepped in mud up to my knee a coupla times with each foot. There was one tough ascent (I was carrying about 30 lbs), but overall it was pretty easy and the weather held off.

We took the entire 12-person hut. After dropping our gear, most of us went out for an easy ~2 hour walk up to the ridge to eat some chocolate. It’s there that we saw something I described in a bunch of postcards—a rainbow, sitting over a verdant valley with a lake on one side, mountains and forests and plains on the other. By any reasonable standard it was gorgeous, buy my response was “unhh”. New Zealand is chock full of those places, and I’d seen the something better the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that…

On the way up, Mike (a chemical engineer from Chicago and my science buddy for the week) asked if I know what “triskadicadecaphobia” is. I’m confused, but it turns out that he’d just gotten the word “triskaidekaphobia” slightly wrong. This starts a discussion in which I try to remember the word “sesquipedalianism”. But I can’t think of it, and it bothered me for days until I finally got a chance to look it up.

Day 4: We hiked out and drove east, leaving Fjordland and heading along the southern coast.

There’s a town near the coast called Tuatapere, or something like that. Population about 15, probably all in their 70s, but they had a Beth Shalom.

We stayed in a backpackers on a working sheep farm, about 4 miles from the southern point of New Zealand mainland. Our host, Justine, made us muffins.

Day 5: We visited Porpoise Bay (Curio Bay?) looking for dolphins. We didn’t see any dolphins.
We went to Slope Point, the southern tip of the South Island.
We stopped at a petrified forest. Okay, but neater than the pre-historic relics were the giant sea kelp attached to the rocks
We visited a forest and walked along the beach
We camped near another beach where there were supposed to be sea lines.

Dinner was a hangi, a traditional New Zealand dish where we buried our food in a fire pit with hot rocks. While it cooked, we headed off to see a spot where the penguins come in at night. It was pretty awesome—we saw 6 or 7 come ashore and…wander off into the woods in the sheep farm, as if they had to run to the store to pick up some milk or something. Eventually, they appeared up on the hill, where the sheep and the penguins just ignored each other. I kept thinking about how the sheep had no idea that most sheep would live their entire lives without ever seeing a penguin. So sad.

After dinner we took an awfully long walk through an invented path to finally find a sea lion. By the time we got there, it was too dark to see him. The walk back, over a previously existing path, was much quicker.

There was no hiking, but doing 10 small things in a day was much more exhausting than doing 1 big hike.

Day 6: We drove. Ate lunch and packed. Drove. Sprinted up a hill. Drove. I dozed off, most of the time.

Eventually, we arrived at Lake Ohau, near the Southern Alps. We hiked up about 2-3 hours to the campsite, during which Mike and I discussed googols and plexes and I tried to explain Graham’s Number. I carried lunch for the next day, for a total of 33 pounds. André said he had a surprise waiting at the top—it turned out to be a pot with a view. They’d built a toilet back in the woods—no walls, but great views of the mountains.

Day 7: A really cool hike.

We hit the bush line just above camp. As Mike said, “[I think] every state in the US is in New Zealand, too. We’re in Utah now.” We walked through desert, scrambled up rock and gravel faces, avoided the avalanches, hit the top. The weather—perfect. We had lunch on the top with incredible views of Lake Ohau, the Southern Alps, Mt Cook, Mt Tasman, etc… Came back down, broke down camp and came back to the bottom. It took all day; could have been 4 hours quicker if we’d hurried but that’s fine.

My trip down was the lightest yet—I’d had to carry lunch to the top, while most people just needed water, but without the food I only packed out about 24 pounds.

We camped for the night on some dude’s lawn. The dude was Tony, the place (Buscot Station) was weird. It’s like this stately (-looking) mansion on another sheep farm, but one that seemed to ooze Southern nobility. We were in the yard. Inside were Tony, a guy named Sam from Santa Barbara, an Israeli, an Irish guy, a Welsh~ish, and some of unidentifiable accents. Sam gave me a lot of whisky. The Israeli led…wait for it…a Havdalah service! (The ceremony to end the Jewish Sabbath.) It was my first in, like, 17 years, since my last time in youth group. Tony explained Sukkoth (the harvest festival) and Hanukkah to the Irish guy. We just missed Laura Veirs’ parents, Leslie and Val by a couple of days. It felt like the Twilight Zone, and not just because I drank a lot of whiskey.

Day 8: We drove off to Mount Cook Village for some day hikes, though first we stopped for supplies, and coffee and a bakery, in Twizel.

There was a hard walk and an easy one. I took the hard, which wasn’t that bad—something like 1200 steps up to the Sealy Tarns. From the top, great views of the Mueller and Tasman glaciers. With 20 minutes at the top, it took about 3 hours return.

Then, off to Fairlie. We stayed in rooms at a mobile home site, the Fairlie Top 10 Holiday Park. I did laundry while others cooked Christmas Eve dinner—spicy beans and rice with overcooked green veggies—spinach, broccoli, zucchini, bean sprouts, celery. The beans were too spicy for some so I finished 3 people’s dinners. Anita and Johannes made glug wine and we had a Pavlova for dessert.

Day 9: Off for our final hike, an overnighter up Woolshed Creek (by Mt Somers) to the Woolshed Creek (or maybe Pinnacles or Mt Somers) Hut. We walked up through the creek valley—a fun couple of hours of crossing back and forth as we worked our way up the valley, walking through water that hit waist level or higher at some crossings. We could have gone much faster with a smaller group.

Then we walked up to the crest(?) of the valley—we could have gone much, much, much faster with a smaller group. I got pretty frustrated, which definitely detracted from the hike. It’s kind of the nature of going on a group trip—you can’t go any faster than the slowest person, and if some people cross creeks slowly and others walk up hills slowly, the group will be even slower.

Dinner was the worst food yet, a pretty awful tuna-and-black-(Spanish)-olive-pasta. But, we had
-appetizers! Seaweed Rice Crackers w/cheeses (Brie, Camemberts, Blue)
- wine! André carted up a box.
- dessert! A cheesecake with chocolate.

Day 10: An easy hike out. We spent time cleaning the van, drying the tents, repacking all of our own stuff. Then we made our way back to Christchurch for the end.

We stopped at a bar for a beer (and to complete a survey, and have André sell us some shirts…). Then we got back to town. André drove off, to see his dad or his girlfriend or just get away from us. The rest of us had dinner together. (Most of us stayed in the same place, Linda was only two blocks away.)

Day 11, that’s when we scattered. Linda and Mike flew north. Caroline caught a ride west with Anita and Johannes. Hannah made her way to Nelson to do another trip. (And she’s in Uganda now, but I’m not sure where.) And I spent one more day in town before flying off to Sydney the next day. I walked around town, bought some gifts (cds for André (Garden State soundtrack, Laura Veirs’ Year of Meteors, Lou Reed’s Transformer), fur warmers for the Ys (penis, nipple)), sat in the awesome Botanic Gardens and wrote postcards, and had dinner at a fancy restaurant with Sascha. (Who might still have your postcards, Julie and Susan and Kate and Sarah and Mike…sorry if you never got them…)

So, sorry that was so long. If _anyone_ is still reading this and is truly a glutton, my pictures from the trip are here.

(or just Milford Sound or just Lake Ohau)

Ta,
sg

The one where I don't get no respect

Which is a good thing. According to the East Africa edition of Watching Wildlife,

"territorial male [hippopotami] back up and shower each other with urine and faeces as a sign of respect...".

They also

"mark territories and grazing trails by spraying dung and waving their paddle-shaped tail at the same time, spraying it all over the place..."

The book goes into more details, which you, gentle reader, will thank me for skipping.

My first weekend here, Paige had Monday off for Presidents Day, so we went to visit the Lake Mburo National Park, a small park about 150 miles southwest of Kampala (and on the other side of the world--we're 20 miles north of the equator, the park is in the south!). It's a pretty area, but, as PABs (Phil Anderson Bowen; Paige Anderson Bowen) often say, "we live in a zoo." So we were basically there to see wildlife, and we did.

We hired an armed guide (mandatory) to take a walk in the woods. We saw African (obviously) buffaloes, zebras, and a whole bunch of antelope--waterbucks, bushbucks, impala, duikers, oribis. One impala had just lost an antler in a fight that day—he had one antler, and one bloody stump. Also mongeese, the aforementioned hippos (though just in the water), and warthogs, which look exactly like Pumba from The Lion King.

We didn't see any monkeys on our walk; those were hanging around the snack bar. There was an olive baboon, and there were lots of vervets--the males have very distinctive bright blue or turquoise scrota. (I guess this post can't be in a children's book anymore...)

And...birds. It's pretty hard to be around here and not be amazed and fascinated by the birds. The standard work is Stevenson & Fanshawe's _Birds of East Africa_, and the PABs and lots of others have copies and many guidebooks include references to the proper pages when discussing avian life. We took a boat trip on the lake Monday morning, along with some Dutch doctors who came to Uganda specifically to look at birds and a Japanese boy who never spoke and wore serious mountaineering boots. We saw African (obviously) fish eagles, pied and malachite kingfishers, green-backed herons, and a African (obviously) wattled lapwing.

The big find was the African (obviously) finfoot--it's apparently not easy to find, but we saw several, including a family with mom feeding her two kids while dad hovered (well, floated) nearby.

Most of my animal pictures aren't great, so here's a picture of me at the equator instead.




sg

The one with a prize

A gift from Uganda (eventually) for the best answer to the following question:

This statue is available for sale at the equator. What is it supposed to be?

The one where driving in Kampala is quirky

In Melbourne, at some intersections you can only turn right from the left lane. In Kampala, you can turn anywhere, from anywhere, at any time.

There’s at least one, maybe two stoplights in Kampala, a city with about a million people, but sometimes there’s just no power. There are no lane dividers, and, if there’s no median, no directional dividers. Passing is always legal, maybe even encouraged. So if you want to pass a car, and there’s no one within 20 yards coming towards you, feel free to just veer into oncoming traffic and you might wanna maybe hit the horn in case they don’t notice you. (You wouldn’t want to pass on the other side because that’s where the bikes and the pedestrians are—there are generally no sidewalks.) And if there’s someone passing _you_ at the moment, that’s fine—they’ll just move over further.

All the while, there are boda bodas (motorized scooters, many carrying a passenger or two, or three or four, along with bags, beds, whatever) passing in and out of all available spaces from who knows what direction.

Phil’s favourite phenomenon is the jailbreak—once someone gets through turning right, other cars will join in, following closely enough that cars trying to go straight can’t get through the line. This continues until someone isn’t aggressive enough, allowing the cars coming the other way to sneak in and break the line. When turning, Phil will never be the one to end the break.

Oh, also, when a cop pulls you over (by flagging you down) you give him a ride over to the police station so he can write you a ticket.

The one where I read good

In White Teeth, Zadie Smith quotes P.G. Wodehouse: "...Samad was like Jeeves: if not exactly disgruntled, then some way from being gruntled." Or paraphrased, actually--PGW said "far from being". I know because I wrote that line down in my journal when I came across it in January. (Of course, maybe _I_ got it wrong…)

I was quite mathy in high school (no, go on, really, I really was), and pretty much in college, too. But, probably through a combination of living with Rocket for a couple of years and my more recent cruciverbalisticism (I do crossword puzzles), I've been concentrating more on my word side. So this might seem familiar to many of you who had to muddle through my early entries about Ultimate—a long entry, chock full of stuff you could probably not care less about. Here's some stuff I've read and thought about this trip, with some random observations thrown in:

Other Wodehouse lines I liked:

"He did what is known as struggling for utterance."

"Bertram Wooster is a man who knows when and when not to be among those present."

I read some W Somerset Maugham, too. A couple of times he amazed me with his ability to paint an incredibly nuanced impression of a person, or describe a situation or feeling better than I ever could, with an economy of words. Obviously a skill I don't have, but here are some examples:

"She just missed being beautiful, and in missing it was not even pretty."

"It was the kind of party which makes you wonder why the hostess has troubled to bid her guests, and why the guests have troubled to come. There were ten people. They met with indifference, and would part with relief. It was, of course, a purely social function. The Stricklands 'owed' dinners to a number of persons, whom they took no interest in, and so had asked them; these person had accepted. Why? To avoid the tedium of dining tête-à-tête, to give their servants a rest, because there was no reason to refuse, because they were 'owed' a dinner."

Anyway, here’s what I've read, or at least most of it:
- A guide to grammar for English schoolchildren published in 1882
- Honor Among Thieves (Jeffrey Archer)
- Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader (Ed: John Morthland)
- The Rule of Four (Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason)
- The Final Solution (Michael Chabon)
- Summerland (Chabon)
- Red Rabbit (Tom Clancy)
- Red Storm Rising (Clancy)
- My Many Colored Days (Theodore Geisel)
- Neuromancer (William Gibson)
- Carter Beats the Devil (Glen David Gold)
- A Long Way Down (Nick Hornby)
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer)
- Freakonomics (Steven Levitt and William Dubner)
- On Human Bondage (W Somerset Maugham)
- The Moon and Sixpence (Maugham)
- The Razor's Edge (Maugham)
- The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)
- White Teeth (Zadie Smith)
- On Beauty (Smith)
- The Fellowship of the Ring (JRR Tolkien)
- The Two Towers (Tolkien)
- Return of the King (Tolkien)
- The Hobbit (Tolkien)
- Bluebeard (Kurt Vonnegut)
- The Code of the Woosters (PG Wodehouse)

What I tried to read but _despised_, and still shudder when I think about:
- The Unconsoled (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Other Notes:
- the grammar book included 'beeves' as an example!
- Number of times I'd heard (and noticed) the word 'impecunious' before this trip: One, from Rocket
- Number of times I've come across it in my reading: Three, two from Maugham (including 'impecuniosity'), one from Smith

Some Movies I've watched:
- Touching The Void
- The Godfather
- Scarface
- The 5th Element
- Thank You For Your Consideration
- The Valet
- Casino Royale
- The Karate Kid
- Good Will Hunting
- The Fellowship of the Ring

Some Movies I've watched on busses and planes:
- Thank You For Smoking
- Thank You For Smoking
- Thank You For Smoking
- You, Me and DuPree
- Thank You For Smoking (I saw it several times)
- Miracle on Ice
- The Queen
- The Devil Wears Prada
- The Departed
- My Superhero Ex-Girlfriend
- The Incredibles
- The Queen (I saw it twice)
- The Robin Williams One Where He Runs For President

Words I've coined:
- Misgerunding

Words TY's accidentally coined:
- Wasier

Words I Dislike:
- Monosyllabic ('cause it's not)
- Palindromic ('cause it's not)

Words I Like:
- Beeves
- Eleemosynary
- Googol
- Heteroscedasticity
- Polysyllabic
- Sesquipedalianism
- Wasier

Frequent Advertisement For My College Radio Show
- Fidda Fadda Fud Fud

Jeopardy Category I Should Submit: Musical Material
- This type of picture is sometimes called a "velvis". (What is a Velvet Elvis?)
- Mel Tormè. (Who is The Velvet Fog?)
- This Alannah Myles song about Elvis Presley hit #1 on the charts on March 24, 1990. (What is Black Velvet?)
- Isabella Rossellini performed this song in the David Lynch film of the same name. (What is Blue Velvet?)
- Originally, Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise. (What is The Velvet Underground?)

The one where I'm a millionaire

I went to the bank and took out some money--one million Ugandan Shillings (Ush). Which is worth about $550US.

There are bills for 1000, 5K, 10K, 20K and 50K, and coins for 500, 200, 100, 50, 10 and 5Ush. The 50,000Ush note is worth about $30, the 5Ush coin about 1/3¢. And for some tourist~y things, the standard is US dollars--I don't think you can even get a Visa to enter Uganda using Ugandan money.

Some prices are extremely cheap by US standards, and many people make very little money. You have to try to make sure you use big bills where possible so that you always keep little ones available. For example, I tried to buy a Coke for 1000Ush using a 20,000Ush note, and the guy looked at me like I was mad. "I am sorry, I do not have change for a bill that large," where "that large" is worth about $12.

In a sense, though, I'm living like a millionaire--other prices are similar to what I'm used to, meaning that most packaged goods and restaurant meals and such are largely reserved for foreigners. A sampling, using rough exchange rates:

Soda (pint): 60¢
Beer (pint): $1.20
Gasoline (gallon): $4.50
Loaf of bread: 50¢
Eggs (dozen): $1.30
Water (5 gallon jug): $3
Latte: $1.50
Spanish "Omullet" with potatoes: $1.50
Ride in a matatu (shared taxi minibus): 40¢
Ride on a boda (scooter): $1
Night at a hostel: $4
Night at a nice hotel: $104
Monthly wage for a gardener (city): $100
Monthly wage for a gardener (country): $40
Daily wage for a former coupon industry analyst working as a flunky at an international health conference: $60
Mandatory Mastercard joke: Priceless

_sg

The one where I flew safely

Ma and Pa,

I flew from Sydney to Bangkok to Dubai to Addis Ababa to Entebbe. I have arrived safely in Africa.

I didn't read much on the flight--the entertainment console at my seat for the first two legs offered more than 600 different options. Hundreds of films on demand, many in a host of different languages. I watched The Devil Wears Prada and The Departed and a coupla others (all in English). Hundreds of musical choices. Run DMC's Raising Hell? Had it. And hundreds more currents and classics. Prefer Mozart operas? There were three. Every Billboard #1 from the UK charts from 1952 til now? Yup. Audio books. Video games, some of which could be played against others on the plane. A flight status monitor. Cameras with live feeds looking forwards and down. You can make phone calls, including to passengers in other seats.

Okay, that may sound like an airline press release, but it was pretty impressive. And the food was edible, too.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I got here.

The Anderson Bowens say hi,
sg

The one with no lions or tigers

So I don't think I'm supposed to tell anyone yet, but I've never been good at keeping secrets and I'm really excited--Guinness is gonna list my record for Cleanest Windshield Ever in their next edition!

Turns out, the confusing part about driving on the other side of the street is driving on the other side of the car. I had no problem remembering to stay to the left, maybe because I've been over here for 3 months already, so I'm getting used to looking the right way when crossing the street and such. But shifting gears with the left hand while steering with the right took some getting used to. I washed that window every single time I changed lanes for two days...

As planned, I rented a car (it's cheaper with advertising!) and drove along the Great Ocean Road. Like the Pacific Coast Highway, except with the Southern Ocean and you drive on the other side of the street.

Much of my trip was spent scanning the radio stations, trying to find a channel. What I listened to:

- Cricket. And I even understood everything.
- Smack That--if I ever have a date, I hope to take her back to my place so we can kick it like Tae Bo.
- Maybe she'll be Fergalicious--D to the E.
- Some lady reading the newspaper. I think she was Christian.
- And once, a This American Life story on PRI.

I saw...koala bears, oh my! There were a bunch of people pulled over to the side of the road, so I pulled over to the side of the road. "Look, there's a bear in that tree!" And so there was. And another in the other tree, and two more in another. And another in another, and another, a total of twelve bears in all.

Also, many many kilometers of pretty coastline and curvy wooded roads.

Now, I'm back in Sydney, getting ready to leave Australia. Sorry about all the exclamation points in this post.

chao,
sg

The one where I'm still in Melbourne

I'm in Melbourne.

Still.

I originally came for the tennis. It was scheduled to end on the 28th, so I pretty much arbitrarily decided to stay until the 30th.

By happy coincidence, Laura Veirs had a show here while I was here. Laura lived down the hall from me my last (and her first) year at Carleton. I went on to count coupons and then retire, while she is now a somewhat famous (and really good) singer and songwriter. I just missed meeting her parents in central New Zealand.

So when I first got here I went down to the venue (the Corner Hotel, in Richmond) to buy my ticket to her show. Turns out, the Violent Femmes were gonna be playing the same venue on Feb 1. Heck, I've gotta stay for that--I'm not a huge music guy, but I've liked the Femmes since Mikey Bails introduced me in about, well, a really long time ago.

And now, probably a combination of enjoying Melbourne and not having any specific plans and being a bit tired of always being on the go in search of my next stop, I've just kinda stuck around. I'm not being overly touristy. I just spend most days...living. I walk around downtown. Maybe head to the botanic garden to read. (For a while, I was reading at a rate of almost a book a day.) See a movie. Sit in a cafe. That sorta thing. I'm not sure where all the time's gone, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

There's no overarching theme to my visit, or story to tell, so I'll just list some factoids, in somewhat random order.

Food: The Victoria Market is right across the street from where I'm staying now, with sections for meat/fish, deli foods and baked goods, fruit and veggies. And it's open on Wednesday nights with food stalls, music, artisans and such. Last night, for example, there was a row with stands where I could eat Chinese, Dutch, Ethiopian, German, Greek, Indian, Indonesian, Irani, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Malaysian, Mexican, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese... Or burgers, fish and chips, pizza,...

In heavy rotation for my normal days are
- sushi rolls, which you can buy every 100 yards or so for $2
- kabobs
- pho/ramen
- bread, cheese, hummus...

- Super Bowl: Watched in a bar on Lygon St with Scott from Melbourne (a 49ers fan), Manning from Melbourne (Bills), Ben from Chicago and Macalester (Bears), Lonnie from Vancouver (Canucks). It wasn't overly exciting, and now we're no longer the reigning champions.

- Melbourne is nice. There's lotsa art about, on the street and in parks along the river and such. There are lots of nice areas to wander about and streets full of cafes and the like. I've hung out in Richmond, Carlton, Fitzroy, Southbank, and the CBD, and been around several of the outlying areas at least once.

A lot of types of businesses are heavily concentrated, which I guess isn't that uncommon. There's a Chinatown and a Greektown, but also a block with all of the camera stores and a block with the car rental agencies and so on and so forth...

- I talked to my parents on my birthday, around 11pm my time. Dad asked how I secure my stuff in the hostels. I told him I didn't really need to. When I woke up the next morning, my camera was gone. So now I'm on to camera #3. I'd just loaded many of my Outback pictures, so all I'm missing are the less important Outback pictures and the first stretch of time in Melbourne, which unfortunately included the LV show and the tennis. Oh, and the camera. What I've taken on #3 have been loaded to the picture site.

- That day, I started talking to a guy in my hostel, a musician from Hobart, Tasmania. Brian Ritchie (of the VF) lives in Hobart now, so he invited Martin (the hostel guy) and a coupla other Hobart guys to play the Melbourne shows with the Horns of Dilemma, the revolving cast of "[s]upplemental musicians who appear on stage with VF." I got him (Marty, not Brian) to sign my journal. I was gonna call him when I got to Tasmania, but I don't think I'm going to Tasmania.

Other bands that I haven't seen while I've been here:
Music Versus Physics
The Walkmen
Beasts of Bourbon

- I have a new life goal: someday, the evening news somewhere will lead off with Exclusive Pictures! of me with someone.

- Starting tomorrow morning, I'm planning to rent a car and drive down the Great Ocean Road, the Australia equivalent of the Pacific Coast Highway. I'm a bit nervous about driving--I haven't driven on the left before, and there're some quirks about Melbourne driving. Note that I've planned to start this drive every day for the last week or so, but I think I'll actually do it tomorrow. I wasn't sleeping well for a while and was a bit sick, so I think I lost some time there. I can't name anything specific I've done in the last week or so, but I've felt pretty busy with I'm not sure what.

- This delay means that I probably won't be able to get to Tasmania. There are great swaths of Australia that I won't have seen during my trip, but I'm not going to second guess the choices I've made.

- When I get back from my road trip it'll be time to head to Sydney. I leave for Africa in less than a week. I mean, !

Okay, I'm off to eat a kabob. If you're interested and didn't notice, note that I also just loaded entries on tennis and driving. Soon, maybe, might come the ones on reading and words and such. And New Zealand...

Chao,
sg

The one where driving in Melbourne is quirky

So traffic in Melbourne can be a bit weird.

An example: I think I've only seen a couple of these, but I might easily be confused and it might be unique. But there's at least one intersection where the cars heading north/south have stop signs, while the cars heading east/west have a light. I've walked past this several times, and the drivers at the stop signs are uniformly confused about what the other cars are doing.

A better example: At some intersections in the city, cars can only turn right from the left lane. To turn right, you

- start in the left lane (like the blue truck here)
- pull forward and to the left, right next to the crosswalk
- wait until the light turns red, while everyone who's going straight passes you on the right
- when the light turns red (and the cross traffic gets a green...), make sure no one else is coming on your right and turn quick, across the entire intersection, hoping the cars coming straight the other way know that you're there

Anyway, I just thought that was weird.

The one where I watched tennis

If you like the game, tennis can be one of the greatest sports to see live. Now, the atmosphere is very different than that at, say, a Steelers game, where you're surrounded by tens of thousands of screaming fans. But the ability to get close to the action in an intimate setting, the breadth of the offerings, and the value for your money are all incredible.

Melbourne Park, the site of the Australian Open, includes
- the Rod Laver Arena, the primary show court with 15,000 seats
- the Vodafone Arena (10,000 seats), a secondary show court (and general arena venue the rest of the year)
- A couple of smaller show courts (Margaret Court Arena (6000), which should really be called the Court Court, and Show Court 2 and 3 (3000 each))
- about 20 more outlying courts, with seating for anywhere from 50 to maybe 500 people

To get into the Rod Laver Arena, you need a ticket for matches in the Rod Laver Arena. The Vodafone Arena has a reserved seating section, for which you can buy seats, and a general seating area, which is first-come, first-serve (no pun intended) for anyone with a grounds pass. All other courts are first-come, first-serve. And, especially at any of the smaller courts, you're right there with the players. If you speak in a conversational tone, they hear you. And what makes a tournament such a great spectator experience is that (especially in the first coupla days of the tournament) there are just way too many matches going on to play more than a small fraction in the primary courts, so you're guaranteed to have quality players playing on the smaller courts. Especially.

On day 4, for example, for a $29 all day pass (~$24US) you could have seen Martina Hingis (the 6 seed), Andy Murray (15), Maria Sharapova (1), and Nikolay Davydenko (3) play singles matches in the Vodafone Arena, or you could watch other top seeds like David Nalbandian (8) or Dinara Safina (9) from the first row on a smaller court. And you can go back and forth between these, popping in to see a coupla games on one court, a couple more somewhere else, then grab a beer and sit on the grass in the central courtyard and watch the featured match on a large screen.

And the $29 is negotiable...

sg (asking about a featured match): "What would that cost?"
ts: "Well, the student price would be $94."
sg: "I don't have my id with me."
ts: "That's alright, mate, I believe you."
sg: "I think I'll just go with the grounds pass."
ts: "That'll be $19."

I wound up buying grounds passes on 4 or 5 different days. I saw some singles early, and then lotsa doubles later on when there were fewer singles matches going on so most of them could be on the primary courts. For example, I watched the men's doubles semis with the Bryans vs Knowles and Nestor. If you watched it on tv the close-ups you saw is what I saw, as I was sitting next to the camera in the first row. I was rooting on the Bryans, not catcally or anything but enough that Bob turned and nodded to me as he left the court, and smiled at me when he came back a bit later for the mixed doubles quarters (in which he and Lisa Raymond were awful).

For most matches, I took notes. TY wants details, so here're some examples. If you're not a tennis fan, you probably don't need to read the rest of this post...:

from Richard Gasquet vs Gael Monfils (GM upset Baghdatis in rd 2--I saw the end on tv and he was beating his chest a lot, so I thought it would be fun):

"RG whooped him but good in the 1st, and I really started to like his game so I started rooting for him right away (though GM is the big crowd fave). He anticipates and moves pretty well, while GM hits a lot of lazy shots--if he's on his winners are great, but he has no patience and will never have a chance if he's not on
[...]
why does RG return from that far back?..."

from Ashley Harkleroad vs Daniela Hantuchova:

"15-40 at 5-6, AH wins out w/ some great down the line inside-out forehands. Up 5-2 in the tiebreaker, down 6-5, gets lucky on a return, then has 2 great points to win 8-6. But DH is moving her well around the court--she's not overly quick, and isn't getting the depth that DH is. Up a set, but needs to pick up her game...she did, up 4-0. But, serving at 5-3, she lost at love. And again at 5-5. 16 of the last 17 pts in the set..."

About Vince Spadea during his doubles match against the Bryans:

"looks like a chump in the park. shorts longer than everyone else's, shirt just kind of draped, trucker cap, black shoes, long, shaggy hair w/highlights. Maybe a touch of a belly, etc...
...Played like one, too. Bryans, 6-1, 6-2. 45 minutes. No sweating involved."

from women's doubles semis, Chan/Chuang vs Yan/Zheng:

"packed a good lunch, camera dude gave me an Evian.
The short one on the cute team w/ matching yellow/green outfits (YZ) looks like Lucy Liu, if LL had Boris Becker's quads and hamstrings
tennis: uninspired. At 4-1, I've seen maybe 2 good shots.
LZ game: lobs, like 10 yr olds. But CC always has, well, C back, so they just switch sides and wait for YZ to hand them an easy one or mess up. And C crosses at the net, opening the court, and YZ hit a lob so the other C can just walk over, instead of hitting it up the line for an easy point. CC, 6-3.
Next game--first time they hit a lob with C and C at the net, and first time they went up line w/ C crossing.
--taller YZ needs to be _much_ more active @ net.
Alas, 6-3, 6-4. CC in finals."

Some general comments:
- Roger Federer is a god.
- I like it when the doubles teams wear the same outfits
- Lisa Raymond is really short
- Victoria Azarenka is really tall
- the Adidas players, men and women, wore (really ugly) shirts that looked like either sports bras or the harnesses worn by kids on leashes
- If she ever gets some focus, Na Li will win a major
- I can't wait to go to the other majors

Anyway, seeing the Australian Open was an awesome experience. To see my tennis pictures, click here.

ta,
sg

The one where I Outbacked

I went to the Outback.

I signed up for another small group tour. I'd have preferred to not be with a group, but it was probably cheaper for me to take the tour than to rent and do it myself, and I didn't need to drive or be worried about being all alone in the middle of actual nowhere.

My group: the 23 yr old guide, me, a Polish woman and her German boyfriend, a German woman and her German mother, a German woman, and a Swiss woman who spoke German. All except the mother spoke English, but it was easier for them to just stick with German and I got to spend most of the travel time reading by myself.

On day 6 our guide had to leave us to move or something, so for the last 3 days of our trip we hooked up with a different group on a 3 day tour that happened to match the last 3 days of ours. Well, you know what I mean. So we switched guides and added an English guy, 2 Aussie girls and another German couple. Our new guide had us all introduce ourselves at dinner, so I finally had to learn the names of the people I'd been travelling with for almost a week.

While hiking in New Zealand (which I really will write about at some point...), a friend said "[I think] every state in the US is in New Zealand, too. We're in Utah now!" My overall impression of the Outback? It's like Arizona, if Arizona were really, really big.

As requested, here's some details, with apologies for inconsistent tenses and sentence fragments and stuff.

First day: Drove from Adelaide to the Wilpena Pound. We stopped at a winery in a monastery, and maybe somewhere else. Camping on a site in a resort area. Kangaroos start reminding me of the Quokkas from Rottnest Island--the first time we saw one in the wild was really cool. The novelty kinda wears off when there are five eating the grass by the pool.

Next day: Hiked up the trail to the peak to look out over the pound. Pretty, but not spectacular. But I took a nice walk back by myself--I wasn't "lost", I just wasn't on the trail. I saw oodles of roos in their natural habitat, some giant eagles, and, on the way back, a miserable looking group with 2 guides and about 25 people. We drive to Angorichina to spend the night in a motel of sorts on a sheep farm.

I buy some beers and head off to find the water hole, about 30 minutes away. I find water 10 minutes later. Not sure if that was what I was looking for, but it got me wet when I fell in. Saw sheep, goats, and accidentally killed a crab trying to move a rock to get a picture. I also came across the one area that reminded me most of my preconceived ideas of what the Outback looks like. Which come, of course, from Crocodile Dundee. I and II, thank you.

Dinner is steaks, chicken, kangaroo fillets, steamed vegetables...we're not exactly roughing it.

Next day: Rent a bike to check out the Parachilna Gorge. It's a very bumpy 45 minute ride, but no one else rented so I was able to be all by my lonesome. Gorge is pretty. And when it ends abruptly, there's a flat desert.

We drive. Stop in to visit Talc Alf, a nut and tourist attraction. He gives a spiel on the origin of words based on his ideas of what some letters mean. In explaining the origin of "Israel" he asked me rhetorically what "Is" means. I said "It's the present participle of 'are'". One of the Germans started laughing, then coughing, then choking (actual present participles...). Alf took a liking to me, and I had to change my shirt after he put his arm around me for some pictures.

We drive to William Creek, population 8, and sleep in a parking lot.

Next day: Drive to Coober Pedy. I've been trying not to duplicate on my blog what I've said in postcards, but I'm not sure how better to say it: CP is where they film bad movies that take place in desolate climates. We take an awful tour, then go learn about opals. In my free time I try to play golf, but the place to rent clubs is closed by the time I get there. We stay in a suite of rooms underground. It's really quiet, completely dark, nice and cool, and I have my own room as there's room for 42.

Next day: Drive almost 500 miles. We meet up with the new guide and new people. It's raining so we stay in some permatents near Kings Canyon.

Next day: Walk Kings Canyon Rim walk. There were some pretty cliffs. The Garden of Eden wasn't so delightful, and the pool is this stagnant water that's kind of nasty so I didn't go in. We drive to Yulara, the Uluru resort town. Stop by the Uluru Cultural Center, which is fascinating. Back in time to check out sunset at the rock. Which is gorgeous, though you're not exactly seeing a sight that few get to see...the tour buses are lined up, and many of the companies have tables set up for the "champagne at the rock" part of their itineraries. For dinner, I cook fried rice and a potato casserole and steaks on the barbie.

Next day: Get up early (4am?) to get breakfast and head to the sunrise viewing area. Also pretty. Also more buses lined up. We take a walk around the rock, which takes about 2 hours. I totally want to climb it, but the Aboriginal peoples who consider the rock sacred ask you not to. We spend some more time at the Cultural Center. We hang out all afternoon, going for a swim at the pool and walking around the town for a bit before heading to a different sunset viewing area.

Next day: We get up early again. Head to Kata Tjuta/The Olgas, a spectacular series of rock formations near Uluru, for the Valley of the Winds walk. This was an awesome walk and by far the prettiest thing we saw. Finish up and drive into Alice Springs to end our tour.

I only spent one day in Alice as I wanted to fly off to Melbourne to see some tennis. What I saw: the Todd River. The Todd River is usually dry. When I saw it: not so much. And there were great storms as I was leaving, so I'm sure the flooding got even worse.

So anyway, if you're still with me, selected Outback photos are up at my picture site. I'm taking lots of pictures but many are duplicitive or may be meaningful only to me so I decided to just load the highlights. As with the content of my entries, let me know if you want any changes to my picturedom--more, fewer, of different things, etc. All I know now is that the most viewed picture I have, by far, is this.

Now that that's off my chest, I'll write about Melbourne later.

ta,
sg