Hi!
Well. Here we are. Last weekend when I was attempting to check in was a hot, very muggy (83% humidity!), showery Sunday afternoon when I had to hang it up for the weekend due to two massive thunder storms that blew in and dropped lightning all around the house! And since I've already lost one hard drive I didn't want to take my chances again so I shut it all off and now here we are again, thankfully under much nicer and calmer conditions than last weekend. Today is beautiful, warm but not painfully so, and not too muggy. Ahhhhhhhh yes, summer in Queensland! The kittehs are doing their best to help protect the house from anything that might be brave enough to try to get past them......... But the chores are mostly done, finally,
finally finished unpacking (well, more or less - what do you do with those local city maps and museum entry tickets??), got some hip n' waaaaay groovy baby disco tunes, which reminds me - I recently checked out the old SkyFM/RadioTunes and you know what they're doing now, as if a thousand ads and station IDs weren't enough, they stop the stream after just a couple of songs and demand that you buy "... a membership in order to enjoy continuous, uninterrupted streaming music." - GASP! As if! That's one of the only streaming radio stations on the webs that I can think of that demands a $$$ membership - and they're not cheap! It's the Internet people - freeeeeeeeeeee! The nerve. So, needless to say, they're off my Xmas card list. Naughty money-grubbing internet radio station. So yes, we still quite happily have the other, better streaming tunes - in yer face RadioTunes! But yes, got the fun tunes, the house is clean more or less, got a nice cool glass of Sauv Blanc (thank you, Jamie and Ron), yes, life is good!
finally finished unpacking (well, more or less - what do you do with those local city maps and museum entry tickets??), got some hip n' waaaaay groovy baby disco tunes, which reminds me - I recently checked out the old SkyFM/RadioTunes and you know what they're doing now, as if a thousand ads and station IDs weren't enough, they stop the stream after just a couple of songs and demand that you buy "... a membership in order to enjoy continuous, uninterrupted streaming music." - GASP! As if! That's one of the only streaming radio stations on the webs that I can think of that demands a $$$ membership - and they're not cheap! It's the Internet people - freeeeeeeeeeee! The nerve. So, needless to say, they're off my Xmas card list. Naughty money-grubbing internet radio station. So yes, we still quite happily have the other, better streaming tunes - in yer face RadioTunes! But yes, got the fun tunes, the house is clean more or less, got a nice cool glass of Sauv Blanc (thank you, Jamie and Ron), yes, life is good!
So, work. Yep. Is good. Building didn't burn to the ground while I was away, which was slightly disappointing. But my bank is happy it hasn't burned down. Hell, my bank is happy I have a job to come back to (and so am I)! But yes, work, not a lot has changed, more of the same. Oh well. It keeps me and the kittehs living the life we've become accustomed to....... Note to self - pay off credit cards ASAP for to plan the next Adventure, whatever that may be (suggestions accepted!)!!!
And then there were a few weekends in there.......! The Big Nordic Adventure absolutely lived up to
its name, for sure! It was FANTASTIC! Can't recommend Scandinavia enough, even in dark, gray, rainy/snowy winter. Every country and city had its own thing going on but my favorite spots were Iceland and Norway (especially the north), with my absolute favorite city being Stockholm. I loved it. Lovely people, excellent, excellent food (am now a ginormous fan of Cod....) - I know for a fact I wasn't in danger of starving to death at all anywhere along the trip, my bathroom scale tells me so! Everywhere was so clean compared to my memories of New York City during the winter. 
And when I got waaaay up north to the very top of Norway, Kirkenes, the snow and the fjords, the strange not quite risen sun and super quick sunset (1.30pm!), it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I don't know how folks can live up there and not just stop and stare at the landscape for hours at a time. It's beautiful. Like living in a postcard. Then when I got to northern Sweden it was like living inside a snow globe and/or a Xmas card. I have to admit a couple times I got a bit teary at how beautiful it all was. That or it was the snowflakes in my eyes. Yeah, that was it, snowflakes.
its name, for sure! It was FANTASTIC! Can't recommend Scandinavia enough, even in dark, gray, rainy/snowy winter. Every country and city had its own thing going on but my favorite spots were Iceland and Norway (especially the north), with my absolute favorite city being Stockholm. I loved it. Lovely people, excellent, excellent food (am now a ginormous fan of Cod....) - I know for a fact I wasn't in danger of starving to death at all anywhere along the trip, my bathroom scale tells me so! Everywhere was so clean compared to my memories of New York City during the winter. 
And when I got waaaay up north to the very top of Norway, Kirkenes, the snow and the fjords, the strange not quite risen sun and super quick sunset (1.30pm!), it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I don't know how folks can live up there and not just stop and stare at the landscape for hours at a time. It's beautiful. Like living in a postcard. Then when I got to northern Sweden it was like living inside a snow globe and/or a Xmas card. I have to admit a couple times I got a bit teary at how beautiful it all was. That or it was the snowflakes in my eyes. Yeah, that was it, snowflakes.
Speaking of snowflakes in my eyes, I'll just get this little sad news out of the way first off - about two
weeks into the trip, so, at the end of eight days in Copenhagen and six days in Iceland, long, long story short, but my brand-new, super expensive cell phone, Google Pixel, had serious technical malfunctions (no audio or video) and even after backing
everything up to the infernal "Cloud", with step by step live help from Google themselves, checked, double-checked and
triple-checked that the photos were really there before hitting "Factory Reset" to see if that would resolve the technical issues; hit reset, fired the phone back up, tested if the reset fixed the audio/video problem (no), loaded stuff back onto it, and no Denmark or Iceland photos. None. Gone. Google guy had no answers (and couldn't get off the phone quick enough).
weeks into the trip, so, at the end of eight days in Copenhagen and six days in Iceland, long, long story short, but my brand-new, super expensive cell phone, Google Pixel, had serious technical malfunctions (no audio or video) and even after backing
everything up to the infernal "Cloud", with step by step live help from Google themselves, checked, double-checked and
triple-checked that the photos were really there before hitting "Factory Reset" to see if that would resolve the technical issues; hit reset, fired the phone back up, tested if the reset fixed the audio/video problem (no), loaded stuff back onto it, and no Denmark or Iceland photos. None. Gone. Google guy had no answers (and couldn't get off the phone quick enough).
I did bring my real camera with me, and I took quite a few photos of 
Copenhagen, but curiously didn't use it during my day trips and didn't get it out once in Iceland because the new phone's camera was so good. Odd thing is, the Cloud saved some photos just before arriving in Copenhagen (planes on the runway in Dubai, big whoop) but deleted all the Denmark and Iceland ones. But having said that (and I will get back to those places one day), I did
manage to post a few photos to social media before they were lost, not
all of them but what I suppose must have been the ones good or
interesting enough to share. Bummer is, I was going to wait until I was
done with my trip to Iceland to post a bunch but lost them all before I
could. Thankfully, my friend Kerry took the same ton of photos I did, so
once she sends me what she's got, will post them then. Stoopid
technology, but then, hooray for social media!!!
Copenhagen, but curiously didn't use it during my day trips and didn't get it out once in Iceland because the new phone's camera was so good. Odd thing is, the Cloud saved some photos just before arriving in Copenhagen (planes on the runway in Dubai, big whoop) but deleted all the Denmark and Iceland ones. But having said that (and I will get back to those places one day), I did
manage to post a few photos to social media before they were lost, not
all of them but what I suppose must have been the ones good or
interesting enough to share. Bummer is, I was going to wait until I was
done with my trip to Iceland to post a bunch but lost them all before I
could. Thankfully, my friend Kerry took the same ton of photos I did, so
once she sends me what she's got, will post them then. Stoopid
technology, but then, hooray for social media!!!
I was/am very sad but nothing to be done about it. I called Google on seven different occasions along
the way, spent a good three hours on the phone with them in one hit and they couldn't find them, which I kinda fail to believe..... So, before returning the phone when I got back here, I called a data recovery guy that came highly recommended to get his take and if he'd get in there and have a look. Basically he said phones these days, and especially the Google one with all it's whiz-bang flashy modern software, that when you do a factory reset on them, they mean Factory Reset, all the way down through all the files and their codes. He agreed there was once a time you could go digging around and recover stuff but those days are gone. Damn. Still, he saved me a couple hundred so for that I thanked him.
the way, spent a good three hours on the phone with them in one hit and they couldn't find them, which I kinda fail to believe..... So, before returning the phone when I got back here, I called a data recovery guy that came highly recommended to get his take and if he'd get in there and have a look. Basically he said phones these days, and especially the Google one with all it's whiz-bang flashy modern software, that when you do a factory reset on them, they mean Factory Reset, all the way down through all the files and their codes. He agreed there was once a time you could go digging around and recover stuff but those days are gone. Damn. Still, he saved me a couple hundred so for that I thanked him. 
So, I handed the phone in and got a new one. But not before checking, double checking, triple checking and downloading and saving all the other photos to any place I could. What a pain but there it is. Will just have to go back to Iceland and do my cool Copenhagen day trips again!!!!!
So, the first stop of the Big Nordic Adventure was Copenhagen for eight days. Copenhagen is cool, very cosmopolitan, cobblestone streets, many
boats, and a gazillion bicycles (look both ways!). Good food, nice people but city people, very busy with important places to be ten minutes ago. I'd say it was four days too many and wish I'd gone to check out the towns and villages further north, but now I know. I did get 
out to Helsingør to Kronborg Castle (Hamlet's castle, where Shakespeare was inspired to set his play). It was really pretty cool.
Even did the In Hamlet's Footsteps guided your, which was really, really interesting, good storyteller our guide was and got to go to a couple spots around the castle regular folks don't get to go, which was way cool. He told the story of Hamlet from the viewpoint of his best friend Horatio (complete with costume and "character" persona), and took us through the castle as the story progressed. At the end our guide introduced himself as Claus, castle guard and part-time guide. He was cool. I thought it was quite well done, creative, and a plus for Shakespeare fans.
boats, and a gazillion bicycles (look both ways!). Good food, nice people but city people, very busy with important places to be ten minutes ago. I'd say it was four days too many and wish I'd gone to check out the towns and villages further north, but now I know. I did get 
out to Helsingør to Kronborg Castle (Hamlet's castle, where Shakespeare was inspired to set his play). It was really pretty cool.
Even did the In Hamlet's Footsteps guided your, which was really, really interesting, good storyteller our guide was and got to go to a couple spots around the castle regular folks don't get to go, which was way cool. He told the story of Hamlet from the viewpoint of his best friend Horatio (complete with costume and "character" persona), and took us through the castle as the story progressed. At the end our guide introduced himself as Claus, castle guard and part-time guide. He was cool. I thought it was quite well done, creative, and a plus for Shakespeare fans.
Another adventure on my list was to Rosklide and the Viking Ship Museum! Now this was pretty cool. One good thing about going to
these places in the dead of winter, which was part of my master plan, is that they're generally dead as far as masses of tourists go, and this was no exception. I was there for when they first opened and thus had the place to myself for about the first hour or two - it as great. Because if you have a bit of
these places in the dead of winter, which was part of my master plan, is that they're generally dead as far as masses of tourists go, and this was no exception. I was there for when they first opened and thus had the place to myself for about the first hour or two - it as great. Because if you have a bit of 
space and peace and quiet you can absorb the magnitude of what you're looking at, and in this case it was a few original Viking ships
used to run local errands, explore further afield and of course pillage. The biggest ship they had, they think, made it's way to Ireland. It was incredible and such amazing craftsmanship, especially for the time. What I think got me the most was the thought that did the folks who built these ever think in their wildest dreams that folks would be standing in front of them over 1,000 years later wondering about them?? Who was the person that carved and hammered in 
that last wooden nail? Amazing. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend a visit. Afterwards, I headed over to the cafe
and had a wonderful sandwich of smoked Halibut, the holiday beer and an
amazing apple glog for "dessert" that tasted exactly like my apple pie.
Sooooo, so good. 
And finally I took myself out to Odense and Hans Christian Anderson's childhood home (it was teeny tiny with five families living under the same teeny tiny roof!) and museum. Odense was.......... under a lot of road
construction, and it's not a very big town/village to begin with. But I found my way around without too much trouble (thank you Google Maps) and had a good wander through the very comprehensive and interesting museum. Usually museums like that inevitably have to skate over some period of the person's life due to there not being much preserved from the time - not the case here! Whoever it was along the way saved positively everything, from his 
top hat, boots and suits, to the long bit of rope he brought with him
everywhere he traveled in case he had to jump out of the hotel window because of fire, to the bits of stuff on his writing desk, to a lock of hair snipped just minutes after his death, and pressed flowers from his funeral. It was a very comprehensive collection indeed, and most interesting. Afterwards, now happily well-informed about one of my more favorite writers (The Steadfast Tim Soldier is my absolute favorite of his), I had a good wander around the town (predates Viking times!), up and down side streets and down little alleys where the old buildings lean against each other to stay upright. It was a really interesting and excellent day out.
construction, and it's not a very big town/village to begin with. But I found my way around without too much trouble (thank you Google Maps) and had a good wander through the very comprehensive and interesting museum. Usually museums like that inevitably have to skate over some period of the person's life due to there not being much preserved from the time - not the case here! Whoever it was along the way saved positively everything, from his 
top hat, boots and suits, to the long bit of rope he brought with him
everywhere he traveled in case he had to jump out of the hotel window because of fire, to the bits of stuff on his writing desk, to a lock of hair snipped just minutes after his death, and pressed flowers from his funeral. It was a very comprehensive collection indeed, and most interesting. Afterwards, now happily well-informed about one of my more favorite writers (The Steadfast Tim Soldier is my absolute favorite of his), I had a good wander around the town (predates Viking times!), up and down side streets and down little alleys where the old buildings lean against each other to stay upright. It was a really interesting and excellent day out.
And then I was off to Iceland and a six-day tour with my friend Kerry from London, whom I hadn't seen in about 15 years! Tune in next week (or, errrr, two or three, hopefully not that long)! Otherwise, I'll be here for days writing about allllllll of the Adventures!
But for now, I hope you're all well up there. I had a great time away
but I have to say am happy to be home. Oh, and I just have to thank Jamie and Ron, and Alex, for taking such great care of the kittehs, the apartment and the car while I was away. It was a great relief knowing everything was looked after and folks had everything they needed for a nice, comfortable stay. Thank you guys, it was a huge help for me and the kittehs (even if they think they didn't like house guests)!!!!! So there you go - feel free to c'mon down any time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but I have to say am happy to be home. Oh, and I just have to thank Jamie and Ron, and Alex, for taking such great care of the kittehs, the apartment and the car while I was away. It was a great relief knowing everything was looked after and folks had everything they needed for a nice, comfortable stay. Thank you guys, it was a huge help for me and the kittehs (even if they think they didn't like house guests)!!!!! So there you go - feel free to c'mon down any time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BYE!
~ J!
~ J!
