Context..

Today we had A Day Off.

We slept more, ate poached eggs for lunch, watched a dvd all arvo, held hands and ignored all business matters.  The list of missed calls/texts on my phone was ridiculous. Who is BLOCKED and why won't he/she leave a message?

It can wait.  If whatever 'it' is doesn't require more calls or at least a message, I don't care (today).

I had a LAVISH shower very late (lavish = more than 3 mins and more than a basic soap sluice.  Unguents were carefully chosen and applied with abandon. Slathering and lathering is excellent physio btw.  Choosing which pretty tube to try next was adolescently exciting!!).  Felt great.  Smelt great.  I roold for a bit after that!

Went to pick up Persian casserole from me ma (chicken with prunes, pomegranate seeds and much pilaf-y goodness).  Collected Custard Cremes on special and some weird fig/chocolate/lemon icecream to try.

We had a nice time watching the Svensk police show, set in Ystad (southern Sweden) where we've been. Some of the town scenes show streets and the central city square we remember very clearly.  Nice.  One part of the episode had some mild swearing in it but we can't quite catch the word for 'shit'.  I like using such words from other languages but don't know nearly enough of them...

[M refused to teach me any bad words in Mandarin, when we lived in China.  I think he felt my command of anglo-saxon creative cursing would keep me going.. one day we were wobbling along on Beijing bikes (old, rickety and we didn't know the road rules) and M hit a bump.  He let fly with an 'Oh f@%k!!". A group of young men watching us pass laughed and called after us 'Oh ffaaaar!! oh ffaaarr!' until we got out of range.  I giggled a lot.  M was not impressed.  He still wouldn't tell me how to respond in kind.  Later that day *I* was given a sheet of printed info but not him, as we drove around the district.  He translated THAT for me, it was a natural cure for impotence.  I'm still laughing at that one!]

Later a check of FBook shows that some people have had a very different kind of day.  One dear friend has a kitty very short of life chances.  The great purple kitty cushion next to the great kitty bowl of sardines and cream is looming.. poor baby.  I want to visit him soon so he can play in my car and give me a good old fat-faced purry rub before he floats off to his ultimate kitty-cloud.

Another friend saw her child hit (no, not serious in physical damage) by a car and is naturally dreadfully shaken.  The child has a bruised nose and seems fine.  Poor mama (and no doubt papa and many close family and friends) have all had a mortality check today.  These things just happen in a split second in time, and the 'nearly but not quite' situations we've all been in will be very stirred up for a while.  This friend hesitated to fulfill her desire to go back to skul to hug her elflet: the need for reassurance and connection is so strong.  Just as with the msgs of sadness for dear sick kitty, the shock and sympathy for a possibly very nasty outcome for the elflet is our own need to integrate compassion and a sense of 'you are not alone' into our words of comfort.

A newly-found skul-mate is struggling with periods of loss of sense of humour, as (I assume) various irks and anxieties loom at her.  She's living alone and that can be a challenge at times when you have to try to comfort/encourage/support yourself.  I just hope she's got a 6 pack of her favourite tipple and a reeeaallly big glass and will read the silly message I sent earlier.

It's very very interesting to be meeting old skul mates after 35 years of no contact.  I remember many things with crystal clarity; the downside is the rest I seem to have totally forgotten. But since I've grown up in the meantime (in age if nothing else) I can follow where people are at, a bit better.  This pal seems to be living a similar life to mine (in the ten years 'between husbands' period).  During this time I achieved a huge amount of personal insight, experience, confidence and achievement, and also learnt a bit about being alone and trying to find motivation from within, when having a partner or parent or someone loving to hand wasn't possible.  I think this pal is such a honey and I wish we could find more time to fill in all those years of life that passed by..

I hope tonight all familys concerned (and all of you out there who may need a psychic bandaid of some kind, or may be fragile for any number of reasons) will accept a big cyber-squish from me. One of those hugs where you nuzzle hair, squish boobs/feel all the stuff in a bloke's shirt pocket, and stand on tip-toe to make the most of the close contact to send your message of love and caring.  I'm imagining a circle of dear ones surrounding the kitty/kiddy families, and sort of dancing gently around them all until the affection overcomes the sadness and the shock.

And there should be a bunch of old skul farts mooching around at my pal's place, feeling awkward about PDAs but meaning well.  Someone just put on a Peter Framptom record for us and soon we'll all be holding onto someone and dancing around.  Laughing at our funny out-of-date music. We'll (c)rock-on to Living In The 70s and feel our ancient oats one more time.

Tomorrow is Facing Up To Business Day.  I am fortifying myself with red socks, the daggy hairband hairdo, and the promise of Saturday to come within 24 hours.  Big Brekky day!

I'm rambling a bit.  Never mind.  Better than doing housework, wrangling lists or gargling pain tabs as I often do at this time of day.  In fact.. what was that about icecream?  Maybe I should try it with a sleepy-time nip of bourbon on top.  Purely medicinal I assure you.

You never told me THAT

.. this new life means talking, talking talking.. and not for fun. Double-checking, fixing, arguing, explaining, misunderstanding, understanding only too well ... advocating, shouting, speechlessly-goldfish-mouthing, trying, failing and sometimes getting the point across..

.. M would need me so badly or leave me so easily!

.. I'd be moving out of my house against my will, fixing up a teeny flat against my will, and LOVING the reason why .. and discovering that you can replicate many things in your temporary second home, but not your favourite mug, your pillow or your cat..

.. I could manage with only two perfumes in the stash (today) ..

.. I'd dream of being bored..

.. I could travel so far without moving; learn so much without trying, or do so many things I can't do ..

.. having friends is one of the most undervalued, underestimated, crucial and crazy blessings to not even know you deserve..

.. catching up with schoolmates I barely remember, 35 years on, could be so much fun..

.. I'd write like this without blushing.

[Day four and except for bits dropping off the wheelchair; moments of terror and FAR too many towels to wash, all is well.]

Faint but purrsuing...

I got better.

I got some energy.

I spent last week dashing about using it and doing great things with friends and the odd bit of business just to keep the desk tidy.

One of my favourite things was going to Clark Rubber with the Good Wimmin. I was researching outdoor mats (the sort for catching the crud off your shoes before you go inside onto the purrfectly clean and gorgeous yellow tiles...). The dude at Clark Rubber had a sniffle.

Yeah, right. I spent Friday getting sick, and all weekend in bed. Today I was having a bit of a catch-up sleep (for, alas, spending hours in bed doesn't necessarily mean sleeping), while the cleaners did magic inside and Alice the Garden and her helper son did even more miracles outside... when, lo, the phone ringeth. It was the Good Wimmin, invited by me, arrived at THREE THIRTY IN THE AFTERNOON, and finding me still asleep. Ahem.

They were purrsistent enough to knock on several doors, and, failing to rouse me, then ring up. And, once they got me blearily saying '...lo?'... offered to go away again if it was all too hard. What great friends. I don't think they actually made their own coffee, but it was a near thing.

So.. I'm on the 'getting better' trail, again. Maybe one someone will explain the actual purrpose of viruses to me, specifically the USEFUL purrpose. Cos I don't gets it.

Today brought to you by four cakes of the MOST fabulous Strawberry Eucalyptus soap, courtesy of St. Cath of the Stove.

Gone and come back..

I went away for 10 days.

I did this:

1. Wrangled four wonderful friends and one wonderful husband. Not at the same time.
2. Cooked an amazing cake, an amazing risotto, and some amazing marmalade. Yes, I DO have a strong ego about cooking, don't I?
3. Slept, and slept, and slept. Lots.
4. Didn't get a horrible chest infection in spite of leaving with a toxic sore throat *boggles*.
5. Did excellent texting with my darling dorter.
6. Enjoyed lots of sea and forest views, and scents, and rain thereon, and wind above. It was grand.
7. Watched a small boy happily eat sand. Nom nom!
8. Learned two new knitting/crochet skills. Yeah!
9. Didn't really miss email, computer games or Facebook. Sacrilege, but true.
10. Dreaded coming home to no Maccy, but did it anyway. Came home to Wendy, who was delightful. Never underestimate the velvety purrfection of a small black whirlwind.
11. Made the house instantly cosy with the first fire of the season.

I did a whole lot of other stuff, like walks, and singing, and fixing furnitures in the old house, and measuring windows, and thinking I should get on with the painting but not do it. And dusting up to parent standard. Except I stopped halfway cos my back hurt. They coped (they came down to take over the house when we left). Hi dad!

Do you notice a major omission from that list?

Go on, look harder....

Yeah!!!! No doctors, chemists, physios, snake oil merchants or allied health care of any type, kind, sort or quantity. WHAT A RELIEF.

Note to self: do this more. And more...

Today brought to you by lingering eau-de-coast. a touch of coffee, and the smell of apple gum burning.

Au revoir old friend..

Maccy developed breathing problems during Thursday, and an x-ray confirmed he had significant amounts of fluid in his lungs. At 6.30pm we (M, dorter and me) gathered at the vet's and said our farewells. Maccy was very very tired. He allowed me to hold him, oh so gently. He laid his head on his paws, on my arm, and after we kissed and cuddled him, and surrounded him with warm arms, he sighed softly and left us.

Tomorrow a few members of family and close friends are gathering for a small burial ceremony, and a drink to celebrate a remarkable, loving life. If there was ever a role model for peaceful optimism and purrfect, uncritical love, that was Maccy.

Our other puss has big paws to fill. She's begun by ripping the fly screen off my study window, so she can get in and out without having to use that pesky cat door. It's so far away at the other end of the house!

Today brought to you by ... many messages of love and comfort. A HUGE bouquet of lilies from the vet. Two rather fuddled people, pottering around the house finding it hard to think straight. We can hear him squikking, and see him lying on chairs and sitting near his food bowls. I'm just waiting to find him squeaking at the back door, back from an adventure and starving for cuddles and a big dinner. Waiting til I get mine, and coming to sit helpfully on my lap in case I can't finish my chicken.

My lovely boy.

:-(

I am not a happy camper.

This makes it harder to write, unless you care for more comparative lists of my attempts to first vent and then attempt counting blessings.

This week? - I'm only putting blessings in, cos I'm sick of feeling whingy.

So...

There's been a LOT of culture - saw 'The Reader' on Saturday, a most compelling and somewhat upsetting film. Saw Teddy Tahu Rhodes and David Hobson perform on Tuesday night, a very most wonderful concert. Quite the thing for making all of us wiggle a little in out seats! Bought the CD, got it signed by both of them, very fabbo. Tonight went to see a satirical performance of '39 Steps'. Very clever, lots of slapstick, very funny. Noisy. We will all be speaking in fake-o German, British, RRRRussian and Scorts accents for weeks.

In between, M took me to Manuka to help me get over a fit of the blues. He achieved this most adeptly by first plonking me in Ironbark, a cafe which specialises in Aussie tucker (and very good coffee); and joining in a visit to Paperchain bookshop before AND after the meal. I gots lovely bookies. I shall list them in a minute. He didn't hold back either. It was good. Easy, shameless spending. We rounded out the day by stopping at the Electric Shadows Bookshop where I found several dvds and a really wonderful card which shows a woman breaking through a barrier labelled 'Self-Doubt'. It says

SHE LET GO,
FORGING A HOLE THROUGH THE AIR,
AS SHE SCREAMED PAST HER LIMITATIONS.

Yeah.

I've had the deep pleasure of walking back and forth on my new circle path. I've noticed the carnations are STILL flowering, and that I can now enjoy their scent.

I spent a most wonderful two hours with Ness, who inspired (ordered, bossed and bullied) me into digging out bits of upholstery fabric to make two big boofy cushions. AND she fed me home-made bread with good cheese. She is A Goodie.

Today lunch with sis involved the bacon-iest BLT yet, and a gentle garden-viewing (of my place). She's an excellent gardener, and has helped me sort out a lot of garden puzzles with her wisdom and encouragement. She was very impressed with my quince crop - ONE purrfect fruit! Then St Beth arrived for a 'crafty', wherein she sat on the new couch, admiring Maccy as he slept, snored, rolled, squikked and wuffled next to her. She knitted very neat white baby things while I excavated every box, bag, drawer, pile, drawer and bundle of textiles in the room. We threw things onto the floor for inspiration. We stroked silks and unrolled braids and bindings and rattled little tubes of glass beads. We averted our gaze as I 'accidentally' dropped an unwanted knit square firmly in the bin. I enjoyed removing lots of little bits of dead daddy-long-leg legs. Wendy slept on the mat outside the deck door, keeping close to marmy as she does. I felt a mixture of embarressment at the amount of stuff I have, and some energy about how to get started again. We ate dates and apricots and it was GOOD.

Now my M says "if we sleep now we'll get 9 hours before we have to wake up" and that is another thing to be pleased about. So I shall stop packing my fukken pill containers, hunting for scripts to get re-filled, heat up the milk I want to put my bourbon into, and find a cat to squish me into one corner of the bed.

Tomorrow, you know, I might just go nuts. It could be MUCH easier. Today brought to you by fairly large amounts of Jo Malone "Parma Violet" Linen Spray, and also her "Dark Amber and Wild Ginger" Cologne. Both of them luscious. Next? I needs a dorter. Dorter???? I'm-a comin!

Press HEAT button off, please.

Nine days at the coast, except for one day it was a mere 28 degrees. Watching the rest of east/south Australia, I dare not mention the evening humidity which made my hair run with sweat, dare I. No.

The Good Wimmin joined me on Thursday for 4 days of shared food, bubbles, venturing, swimming, reading, chat and deep appreciation of the surroundings. Major shopping took place at Mogo, where shirts were found for all of us. I topped up with some 'anti-stress' incense - as always this recipe is lavender and rose geranium. Very nice tho.

On Saturday, swimming in the shallow lagoon, I saw two stingrays! One large black ray, about a metre across; and a baby ray only about a foot wide, still a pale sandy colour. I've never seen them before. This year there are no small fat green starfish in the rockpools, or crabs, that I can see. The beach is pebblier than ever, but that I think is a good thing as it prevents too many ppl from driving in to spend the day. I am selfish. I want to keep this place as unpopular as possible!

It's good to be home with my pusscats, my purrfume collection, my M and proper phone reception. We have only a few days before leaving for Adelaide for a week, so I can visit the uberdoc again, and spend some time with fambly. We're hoping to stay somewhere on or near the beach, but accommodation is proving tricky to pin down. It must have aircon, aircon, a queen bed and aircon. How hard could it be??

Today brought to you by eau de Mr Sheen (used by the cleaners on the kitchen cupboards); a cool breeze, and a suspicion that my sense of smell has gorn again. Sigh....

Gee we've had a long run of hot weather. And yeah, I know it's been 10 degrees hotter in other places, like Adelaide and Melbum... doesn't make it any easier here tho. We have lovely dusty smoke haze over the city from the Budawangs fires (south coast); nasty warm winds and a lot of gum tree branch-drop. Not to mention foot-expansion, face-melting, clothes-too-damn-hotting, and general yerk. A lot of ppl say it's not worth getting aircon in the house here, for the '4 days it's hot each summer', but by my count we're up to about 16 days now, that makes 1/24 of a year. That sounds MUCH longer!

We are seriously considering evaporative cooling thru the house. Other people I know here use it to great, fresh effect. Even in the humid days we had two weeks ago, Cath's (hi) evap cooling was still far more pleasant than outside. Not to mention being wonderfully soothing for hardass sinuses which never stop complaining about something; anything...

So ... we're abandoning this vale of sweat and tears and taking ourselfs down to the coast for a week. M will return in 4 days, but I have a whole, blissful nearly 9 days. I expect this time I'll actually go for a swim. Unfortunately I can't convince M we have room in the car for the portable cooler - I mean, all we'd have to leave behind is clothes, linen, food and supplies. Meh.

Today brought to you by a very very good and happy lunch with the Good Wimmin (now all three of us are non-workplace-enabled); a splat cat; several items crossed off the list; and a determination to try to do what the counsellor says, and ... just ... STOP. No purrfume, it's not worth it in the heat. But I will give a special mention to the delicious aroma of the eucalypt forest in the Fog/Sculpture Garden at the NGA. Very Very Delicious. They could have charged a gold coin donation for ppl to walk in and out of the fog, today.

Speechlessness antidotes..

Three cupcakes, two good wimmin and a sunny afternoon.

Maccy purring all over my lap.

Rain!

Finding the right pair of shoes for the right person today (no, not me!).

Spending time with me ma.

Lying back on the heat pad, feet up, talking to my darling dorter while my darling husband gets fish'n'chips for dinner.

Having my feet massaged while I lay cuddled under a doona and was allowed to cry for a bit.

Laughing at the 5-minute chocolate cake photo in The Canberra Cook's blog.

Purrfume. Always. Even tho Shirley is boasting about new Jo Malone Amber and Fabuloso cologne, I am content with my Gucci, my Chanel No. 5 Elixir (not Huille, sorry) Sensual, and my bevy of bottles. Little pink pills, well-timed, are pretty good too.

Re-entry, Mark 2

Hmm...I am Officially Not Well.

Again.

Sighhhhhhhh...

My respiratory system was, as you regular readers well know, a troublesome travelling companion. Oh well, I thoughts to myself, once I get home things will settle down.

I was wrong. You don't need the details. Roids rool, n all that... re-entry is being prolonged by continuing shit health. I don't know if that is a Medicare item, but it should be!

Meantime, however, between meds, puffers, rests, abandoned plans, and quite a lot of takeaway food, some things HAVE been achieved:

-I have found my socks but not my mobile.
-I have cut some but by no means all of the matted fur lumps off the divine but arthritic Maccy.
-I have enjoyed listening to Alice the Garden singing as she watered the new babies, and talked to Little Miss Wendy, my local buffalo-huntress.
-I have cooked a very good roast lamb, the only change to my usual recipe being to cook it very slowly on a low heat (so I could sleep off something or other). It was moist, tender and YUM.
-I have moved the furniture back to its normal configuration in the lounge, and removed sundry junks, so it looks more homey. But the Great (and bloody endless) New Sofa Hunt will have to resume very soon!
-I have bought two new 'pattern-matching' (anti-Alzheimers!) games for free!!! for my trusty home laptop. And spent a lot of ventolin-fuelled midnight hours playing them while I metabolised said drug enough to stop shaking and go to sleep..
-my Good Wimmin turned up yesterday bearing amazing goodies for me: two bunches of flars (burgundy and cream, oh gorjuss), shortbread freckles, soothing Organic Serenity (TM) tea from Toby's Estate. Their intent was to cheer. It worked!
and
-I have been able to do a small but oh so wonderful bit of socialising - from the purrfect delight of young Aidan (hi baby!) to the extremely violent but perfectly balanced Bell Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus' last night. Literally buckets of blood. My play companions and I had to repair for a drinkie afterwards to wash away the images... which were NOT gratuitous. John Bell can use the most minimal set, props, costume, and with the power of words and interpretation, knock you backwards in your seat and peel the everyday glaze from your eyeballs, with a single gesture. Fabulous.

Had some straaaaaange dreams afterwards, but..

Today? There is the possibility of crullers with Cath, I want to sit on my deck, and I'd like to cook again. There is a fridge full of lovely farmer's market veggies to consider. But, sadly, no purrfume, because a) I can't smell a thing, and haven't been able to for about a week, SAD FACE; and b) anyway it might make me wheeze or koff, and THAT is something I can manage to frustrating purrfection all on my own....

From Helsinki to St. Petersburg, Sunday August 17th

!!!!!! Acatcan is in Russia!!!!!! ... which looks rather like Finnland, but the difference between the tidiness and upkeep of the buildings and land is quite marked. Finnland, as all of the countryside we’ve seen in Scandinavia, is incredibly orderly, the houses very well-maintained, fresh paint and gardens all clipped and square. Here, the same architecture is peeling and faded, there is junk lying around the edges of the yards, and all the way along the railway line. There is more mud here; more anonymous railway stops (no names that we can see), a lot of logging trains, and also a lot of people moving through the forest foraging for something - perhaps berries, because they are carrying smallish baskets.

The train is Finnish, so it’s a marvel of design, cleanliness and modernity. We’ve been to the dining car twice, through the mobs in 2nd class (which is purrfectly comfortable, we don’t need to be in 1st class really). This trip only takes 5 hours, of which at least one hour has been taken up with two stops at the border - a leaving Finnland border check, a short ‘demarcation’ zone, and then a longer stop at the Russian border where our passports were taken away for a while. That’s a slightly unnerving feeling.. but the guards were purrfectly polite and we have all been successfully stamped, clocked, noted, checked, spotted, listed and given purrmission to proceed. We’ll be in St Petersburg in about half an hour. Travelling companions (Aussies from Perth) have given us some very useful info about taxis - we have a price which is reasonable for the travel from railway station to hotel, and we also know we have to agree it with the driver before we set off. No meters.

The weather is slowly getting warmer, it may be nearly 30 degrees, altho I hope my extremely vague interpretation of the Finnish tv weather last night is wrong and that WAS the weather, and today it’s going to be a nice fresh 18 or something. It’s been rainy and cool in Helsinki, a steady 15 degrees from dawn to dusk.

~~~~~~

Helsinki has been a busy time; M had a contact at the University from his linguistics professor at the ANU. On our first full day in Helsinki (Tuesday) was spent with Terttu ?, the Department Head of a Linguistics Centre of Excellence. She met us at the hotel, took us for a delightful walk through the Botanic Gardens to the cafe for lunch, and then we had the whole afternoon with her colleagues at the centre. We met people specialising in all manner of research and analysis - a very interesting team of three young men, all working on their PhDs, who are interpreting mediaevel texts of cuisine, medicines and ‘spy’ letters (reports from travellers). These blokes are working closely with a team at Oxford University, so their English was very beautifully accented. Nice to hear people speaking ESL that ISN’T American-accented. I get narked by that..

After four hours of high-speed, high-level linguistics, corpora, diachronics [and a sideways leap into pure research (we met Matti ?, who has examined the 12,000 !!!! examples of the word ‘to have’ in the Helsinki corpora and written a dissertation on it. Just before retirement... he is a charming, charming man, a 70 year old bear of a man wearing a t-shirt saying ‘ROCK AND ROLL FOREVER’. How inspiring! He sat us down, picked M’s brains, threw me a few curly questions about language acquisition, and then settled back to discuss Australian and Kiwi wines. Heh. A universal language!] ... we needed to rest our brains. We found a bar/cafe to meet our needs, and then staggered back to the hotel, feeling very welcome and most comfortable to be thrust back into the academic environment.

We found a good Italian restaurant for dinner, where the waitress listened closely to our questions about the wine list, and then proudly listed the three varieties of Freixenet piccolos - dry, sweet or rose. Rose! I love sparkling pink champagne wine grog. We returned to the university on Thursday afternoon, to join the group for their regular fortnightly afternoon tea. Once again we were warmly welcomed, given Finnish delicacies (a mild cheese, lightly grilled - looks a lot like fried havarti - which one eats spread with a dob of cloudberry jam, very nom; and a blueberry and almond tart, ditto). Matti came and practically sat on my lap, he was so keen to talk. We had a rousing discussion about Scandinavian music, during which he admitted to being a singer, and then told me he used to sing with the Finnish National Radio Chorus (I think that’s what it’s called). He must be quite a singer. Made me feel very nostalgic for Cantorion - hi guys!

Our stay in Helsinki wasn’t as cultural as we hoped for - my poor health slowed things down a bit, not to mention a patch of marital crunchiness. M went out one evening to see a concert of organ and bass singer, at a local church. He enjoyed the music very much, and compared the bass’ voice to the famous Finnish singer ‘Martti Talvela’. We heard bits of Sibelius at the Rock Church and I think in the background at an exhibition we saw yesterday - which was a strange but successful day. Finally we have bought mobiles! But still no connection - Finnsk mobile networks don’t extend anywhere else, so we bought the hand sets and will have to investigate SIM cards and prepaid cards here, and in the Baltic states. Then we bought a suitcase, on the less small side, so we could leave our customs-claimable goods and the cold-weather clothing at the hotel. When we return, only for a day, on the way home, we’re staying at a different hotel, so we went up there to check the booking and leave the bag. No worries.


~~~~~~~~

THANK YOU AND WELCOME AGAIN!

ST PETERSBURG!!!!

... sorry for all the cor wow gob-smacking, but, you know, cor, wow!!! I’m in St Petersburg! I’ve been a bit uneasy about coming here, especially since that nice Mr Putin dropped eleventy thousand Russian troops onto Georgia and destabilised things... and I have my reservations about communist regimes, having lived in one before. As we cross the border, which takes about an hour and a half - we stop at the Finnish border for a passport check, then creep through a demarcation zone, then the official uniforms change and the very stern Russian border check mens come aboard. They collect our passports and take them away. None of us like this very much, but one doesn’t argue with Russian officialdom. They are returned in about an hour, happily stamped with entry dates on our visas. We have only about an hour to go now, to get to the city.

The change in environment is immediate - from the very clean, orderly train trackside, and the houses and gardens in Finnland, which are toy-town tidy and even the felled logs are left in neat little piles, the rubbish and decay and junk on the Russian side are like the dark observe of the Finnish picture - the landscape is the same, the building style and cars and so on are the same, but house need painting, there is a lot of junk in people’s yards (old car parts, broken toys, bits of wood, fallen-down washing lines and old plastic garden furniture). The sense of grace and pride is gone. How glad I am that we are in the nice clean Finnish train, and not the old-style Edwardian Russian carriages!

It’s easy getting into St Petersburg - even though it’s a city of over 4 million people, the train runs straight into one side of the city, with very few suburban stations between the end of the countryside and the terminus. We roll off easily, and are down a side exit and into a taxi in minutes. It’s hot, humid, smoggy and M can’t find his hat. We were told, most timely information, by R and S that one negotiates the taxi fare before getting into the car. They even had information about what a reasonable charge would be from the station to their hotel, and he and M looked up ours on the map and we decided the same amount (700 roubles) would be quite fair. And the taxi driver quoted that to us, so no problems.

He carefully laid all our cases into the boot and the front seat, bowed us into the back seats, and leapt in and put the airconditioning onto UBER. LOVELY. It’s only 10 minutes or so and we’re at the hotel. It’s a boutique hotel, perhaps only about rooms, in what is probably an old apartment block of one large apartment per floor. Our room is about twice the size of the Helsinki room, with high ceilings, parquet floor, and a bathroom big enough for two people very comfortably, bigger than our small Aussie bathroom in fact. The decor is post-bloc dinge, but not dirty. Policestation green walls, tan curtains and bedspreads, a rather grotty marked brown rug, and a sofa in dingy brown with darker dingy brown blobs, which wouldn’t be out of place in an old country motel in Queensland.

The plumbing is somewhat eccentric - every time you turn on the tap, the dunny gurgles. But M says the shower is good, and I am about to test his opinion. Lonely Planet says ‘DO NO ON ANY ACCOUNT DRINK THE TAP WATER’ so we are back to bottled water for everything. I’m glad I’ve done this before, too. It takes a certain discipline to remember to clean yer teeth in a glass of bottled water, rinsing the toothbrush ditto. And I have a special challenge to master - I remember what one does about food (NO salad, fruit or street food, unless it’s a banana; no ice or water from the back room)... but I have (sadly) taken to biting my fingernails again in the last year, and this might be a problem. I have a bottle of Aqium with me, and I will get more, so with luck I’ll be able to keep those tasty little fingers out of my gob and not give myself double-dystentery. Yikes!

We’ll also need mozzie spray, suncream and a bit of fortitude. This is the first smog we’ve encountered, and here’s me at the end of a month-long sinus battle which I thought (and I shall say this VERY quietly) I was getting on top of. So cross your nostrils for me please, that with my armoury of fixatives, squirties, drips, drops and tablets, I can fend off any challenges.

Today brought to you by train coffee, eau de electric trainline, a small blast of Gucci, and borscht for dinner!

The Week That Was...

... was busy.  An understatement.

... was full of many small but important achievements - fittings for walking shoes; anti-blister socks; after 3 tries, managing to get to the tailor with the right fabrics AND the right trousers to be copied (and suffer the brutal honesty of measurements); further consultations with the travel agent; a loooooooong consultation with the doc to get a three-month supply of the eleventy meds I need to keep body and soul together on a daily basis; physio; M to the dentist (it's my turn for that tomorrow); cleaners; path-making/paving person initial consultation (doesn't EVERYone decide to re-pave and beautify their entire garden 13 days before leaving on a three-month trip??); some craft-work; some cooking; cat-walking; two visits to the gym, and more.... (creak, pant, whimper..) ... lunch with sainted parents (and yes I managed to forget to bring their present.  Mum, otoh, presented me with some amazingly dubious summer pedal-pushers, white with large hot pink blobs, I think I'll frighten the horses in those - what on earth was she channelling when she bought them I wonder??? ... purrhaps best not to know, if my mother has suddenly developed a penchant for disco-daks I think I'd rather not know).

... was icy cold after the beauty of a week in Cairns.

... was strangely bereft of purrfume, especially over the last two days.  But I have a cold or purrhaps a small throat lurgy, so my sense of smell is gone again.  It's ephemeral at best, dammit.  I do recall trying Dolce and Gabbana "Ice Blue" on Friday and wondering if in fact it has any smell.  Didn't put two and two together and get' dodgy nose attack imminent'.  All these years and I am still naive about it.  That is either wonderful, or kinda sad...

... required me to fall into a large heap as of last night and have an uber-sleep followed by a Sunday afternoon of lolling about with newspapers, cups of coffee, phone calls to friends, a spot of Netting (check my blog list for a wonderfully-named new craft site), and a firm decision to stay inside.  Checking the breeze at the front door was enough to make that decision very easy. M got to be the Mr. Goody-FourPaws and take Maccy for his walk.  Maccy wasn't very obliging, he sauntered over to say howdy to the neighbours, did a bit of desultory tree-scratching, and then firmly sat down on the job and had to be carried home.  Hopeless.  Otoh on Saturday we managed to go all around the block, with him purring (and dwibbling) all the way, awwwww.. 

I have applied some 'Enjoy' to get me through the night.  This, combined with a nearly maximum quantity of pain-relievers, should do the trick.  Any kind of stress on my respiratory system, especially a virus, means almost instant umpty-fold pain in the left sinus.  That poxy left sinus which demands so much attention and which refuses to lie down and be quiet, even thougt the professorial uber-doc has pronounced it 'patent and healthy'.  Hear that, oh troublesome one??

Nup.

Am wafting off to the bedroom raspberry wall leaning against which are the purple, sage green and cerise pillows.  Pillows lying about on the sage and maroon covers keeping a slumbering M warm, and providing colour-contrast for one fuzz-buzz black scruff-bucket.  Enjoy, I say.  Enjoy, I smell.  

Sort of.

The Numba Wun post!

It has often been said of me that I am never short of an opinion.  So here is an official blog for me to share this frightening talent and allow the rest of you to have your say.

Thoughts and Snorts is an outlet for brain downloads, deep and shallow observations, complex remarks on the perils of living with cats, and raves about gardens, friends, food, and the stuff that is generally known as 'what the @**! is the universe doing to me NOW!'

And perfume.