Well, the holiday is pretty well over now. We had a really great break and we’re excited about 2008. We’ve been making all kinds of plans for this year and we’re definitely off to a good start.
If this holiday has taught me anything, it’s that life is too short to waste - which includes wasting too much time trying to chronicle everything on a website. It used to upset me to not have fresh content all the time and lots of hits but now I realise that it just means I’ve been living my life and enjoying it so much that I haven’t noticed I’m not sitting in front of the computer all night.
So , Happy 2008! Here’s to less in here and more out there!
I have one minute left at this internet kiosk in Vancouver airport to say goodbye to Canada. Thanks to all the family and friends who made it great. I’ll post photos and more of Canada when I get back to Australia. Lots of love.
Returning to my home and native land for the first time in three years was strange and wonderful. Like Neil Armstrong I took one, big, momentous step from the stairs down off the Dash 8 at Edmonton International Airport and planted my foot firmly on Canadian soil (well, tarmac anyway…) as big flakes of the fluffy white stuff swirled gently around us.
Suddenly, it felt like Christmas. Colder, quieter and slower than the three Christmases I’d recently experienced in Australia. After meeting the family and collecting our bags we started our drive back into town and a strange feeling crept over me. I was still on vacation but arriving in Edmonton didn’t feel like arriving in Singapore, Rome, or New York. It felt… normal. I wasn’t conscious of the humidity like Singapore, of the history of Rome, or of the business and sheer heights of the Big Apple. I was on holidays overseas in my home town. Strange.
We tried to catch up with as many friends and family as time would allow and we were happy to be able to do so.
We spent some time skiing in the Rocky Mountains at Banff (Sunshine Village and Lake Louise) and visited southern Alberta too.
I was expecting a lot to be different and wondered if I’d even recognise the place but aside from a new train station, things were pretty much as they were when I left.
The time went by quickly though and it was soon time to get on another plane and leave. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone again but I’ll be back someday and hopefully people will come and visit us again soon.
The truth of it is, it’s never the place… it’s always the people.
New York, New York… you know the rest. From Rome to New York is like stepping out of a history book and onto a movie set.
We met up with my exchange mate, Stacy, and her boyfriend, Steven, who gave us the locals tour of Central Park at night where we spotted a racoon and some guy stumbled out of the bushes towards us. They also took us to a great barbecue place for lunch and a nice steakhouse for dinner. Thanks guys!
Of course, local New Yorkers can recognise a tourist anywhere on Manhattan by the two distinctive nasal markings they display prominently in the middle of their face by walking around with their heads craned back at the furthest physically possible angle. I suppose it was this pose that attracted the straggly-haired, brown-toothed man to approach us as we wandered thus about Times Square to ask us if we “like to laugh.” Unfortunately for Fran, this triggered the same part of my brain that leads me into hour-long conversations with telemarketers at home. I admitted that, despite outward appearances, I do enjoy a chuckle. He proceeded to offer us some heavily discounted tickets to the Broadway Comedy Club, which he assured us was recently visited by the likes of Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock. My suspicions were raised at being approached thus, but he sufficiently addressed my concerns so we picked up two tickets from him.
Anyway, after two days of worrying that I had been scammed we went to the club and saw a hilarious show of four great up-and-coming comics.
The fabulous times are coming too fast to sit here and type about it. We’re in Edmonton now so I will update this post with more New York-iness when I have more time to tell you about all the things we saw. See the sidebar for photos in the meantime.
In the modern world I can think of hardly anything more Italian than soccer. We enjoyed the spectacle of a top notch (if one-sided) match between Fiorentina and Cagliari last night and it was an exciting, high scoring game. I managed to catch one of the best goals on my little Olympus camera from the stands…
Our “Roman Holiday” was fantastic but far too short to absorb much of the thousands of years of history. In our first day we saw the Colosseum, the Forum, Capitoline, the unification memorial called “the Wedding Cake” by locals, ate some chestnuts, saw the Pantheon, three different Egyptian obelisks taken as souvenirs by the conquering Romans, the gothic church Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, walked down the Tiber, went to Castel Sant Angelo and walked onto the foreign soil of the Holy See, seeing inside Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican, had lunch (Italian, of course!) in the Piazza Borghese, went to stick our hands in the Bocca della Verita just like the film “Roman Holiday”. Once again, I’m off to enjoy the rest of Italy now that we are in Lucca and will update with new pictures and another little catch up then.
Our friends, Johnny and Maree, have been living and working in Singapore for about eight months and were kind enough to show us around their newly adopted city. The very first place they took us was one of their favourite local eateries where their friend, Mr. Wong, freshly makes Singapore noodles by hand when you order. The meal was delicious and Mr. Wong was fantastic, inviting us into his kitchen for a photo as he made our noodles.
Mr. Wong told us how the method he was using could be used to make a group of 16,000 noodles by hand, each one small enough to fit through the eye of a needle. He has an apprentice with him who will study the craft for four years - the same as an electrician in Australia - before he is able to do the same.
We took up our friend, Maree’s suggestion to check out the night safari at the Singapore Zoo and weren’t disappointed. Aside from all the standard zoo fare, there is a great Creatures of the Night show and a the evening started off with the fire-breathing performance in the video. Great stuff! I’m off to enjoy more of Singapore on our last day here so I’ll have to show more photos and share more stories later!
“Nope. First day of my vacation,” I replied, “I’m going overseas.”
Funny, it didn’t occur to me that only a few years ago I was a new arrival in Australia and everything was a constant reminder that this is overseas.
Things like the meat pie that I devoured this morning which I once again stared at in foreign reverence as a cultural icon before methodically enjoying each handheld bite. The advent of our exodus having restored my mindset to that of a citizen of the broader world, I was able to once again see this delicacy as embodying that eternal quality so much desired the world over - exoticism.
Which brings me to my point, that wherever you are when you read this post is also exotic. So get out and explore it with new eyes!
Look out, world. Here I come. I’ve got a ’round the world ticket and I’m taking off on Singapore Airlines new A380 for the first leg - Sydney to Singapore on Thursday. Have a look after the jump at the new King Queen of the Sky.
