Nordic Adventures with Soldiers, a Sad Mermaid, Hamlet and Vikings!

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!

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.

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). 

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!!!

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. 

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.

                                                   

 

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

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.

                                                                                                

           

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYE!
~ J!

New Birds with Fantastic Haircuts Learn New Things Over Pizza!

Hi!

Well. Here we are. Another gorgeous, sunny, breezy, Sunday afternoon. The chores are pretty much done... Laundry is even all put away, tho I have yet to drag out the iron....... The birds are all happy and busy out there teaching their kids how to do bird stuff, like eat, which they don't seem to have the hang of yet... But I think they're just too scared to go out there and adult, errrr, bird for themselves just yet. They're just being big chickens instead of birds. Everyone out there has kids it seems - the Rainbow Lorikeets are dragging theirs all over the place teaching them Lorikeet stuff, the Magpies are busy with theirs (mainly feeding and squawking), even the Noisy Miners have little ones to teach stuff to, tho I have yet to see any Kookaburras out there parenting...... Glad I'm not a bird and I just have chores to do! So yes. The weekend stuff is about done just in time for the weekend to be over. Oh well, never mind. So, this afternoon, we have the hip n' groovy Jazz tunes, there's a nice cool glass of the standby Sauv Blanc chilling for when am finished checking in......... yes, life is good!

So. Work. Yep. Glad to have it as it pays the bills (and have I got bills now). But lordy, some days are more testing, or should I say amusing, than others.

Honestly, this group am helping with their editing, everyday they do something to surprise me, tho it shouldn't. Well, anyways, if I've learned anything from my view on the platform watching that train crash in slow motion, it's how not to run a technical publications team and schedule! Thankfully, ever so thankfully, I have real work that needs my attention so I have that to focus on. I'm kinda curious to see what the circus brings to town this week as it's my last week before I go away on mah Big Nordic Adventure, and tho those people have all been told a couple times am away for the next five weeks, we're not too sure the fact has sunk in.... Oh well! 

Otherwise, work has been good. Had my third review of the year on Friday, because why stop at just one or two. Came through with flying colors and no silly, petty things to contest like usual. Whew! So it looks like I'll have a job for the foreseeable future - yay! Because y'know, those days of being strapped to a contract with a real-life end date, never sure if it would be extended, those stressful, dicey times are never far from my mind, even tho I've been at this job, get this, six whole years now. Six. I haven't done anything for six years straight except maybe just live. So, yes, three cheers for gainful if frustrating and amusing employment!

And then there were a few weekends in there. Sorry for not checking in...... Well, the last couple of weekends were really hot and humid stinkers, and they never even cracked 90° yet it was stifling and gross. I tried to do some stuff but by the time the heat and humidity had sunk in, nope, no hope to do anything but sit in front of the fan and debate turning on the A/C or not...... Not. Lordy it's expensive here and I'm trying to be tough like my forefathers....... or, something like that. Oooh, I know, last Sunday we had a bit of sprinkles with mainly sun breeze through and magically, we lost power for five hours - happened around 4pm and didn't come on until after 9pm! Earlier in the week we had a monster blow through and we had power the whole time..... Hmmmmmm. All was well tho - hooray for Ikealand's 100 pack tea lights! 

Otherwise, haven't really been up to much - tidying, trying to make the house clean and easy for Jamie and Ron when they arrive this coming Saturday morning! I know it's an apartment so how hard can it be? It's not hard. But when the weather gets gross everything becomes harder to do! So, I think the place looks presentable enough... Hooray - house guests! See??! Folks DO come down to visit! Told you, a free place to stay in God's Country Down Under is hard to resist! Reservations are open after the middle of January....................! And hey, bonus, I'll be around to be your personal tour guide as after this trip, I'll be too broke to do anything outside of the city's borders for a while (both moneywise and vacation timewise)!

So, yes, haven't been up to much. Got mah hair cut, a good couple of inches taken off too - whew! Even had the boys add a couple of highlights just for something different, pretty it up a little. I love it, another job well done! And oh yeah, my friend Glen came down from Cairns for work last week so we caught up and had dinner at this fantastic Italian place over in the riverside 'hood of Teneriffe (a 'hood no one can afford to live in, by the way, tho man, I'd sure love to) called Beccofino. So. Good. It's become our mission every time he (and Alison) come to town to check out all the Italian places with good reviews and see for ourselves. Another winner! And, I found out a couple days later when I saw my hair boys, that it's the brother to the place Glen and I had checked out a few weeks earlier called Julius Pizzeria (also really, really freakin' good), same owners and everything. Well no wonder. Soooo good! So there you go, not only will you have have super central free digs and a personal tour guide, but you're surround by amazing food and scenery!

And that's about that. Finally got all my paperwork from the Useless Travel Agent and the tour company (not so useless), so today I've compiled it all and triple and quadruple checked it and all appears to be in order - only one way to find out (note to self: better not leave the credit at home.....). So that's a bit of a worry off mah mind. Next task to conquer is packing all that winter stuff into that fantastic-looking Rick Steve's convertible carry on (which I see is now on sale)!!!!! Oh, and the Cadillac of winter coats, and boots (also now on sale - gah!), arrived just in time - whew, tho I have an awful feeling am going to have to wear them on the plane because there is no room in the bag at all...... Oh, well, at least I'll be warm, you know how planes can get chilly sometimes....... So yes, think about packing, think about how to entertain mahself when am not on one of the tours, and that's about it! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It's down to a handful of days now, better start getting serious!!!!

So there you are. Hope you're all well and happy up there - has the weather cooled off out West there that it's starting to feel like Autumn yet??? Well, if not, don't come down here looking for relief... Yet. That nice weather doesn't show up here until around April or so..... But hey, it'd just be good to see you, so c'mon down whenever the mood strikes! Oh, and so I guess I'll be too busy to check in next weekend and I leave Tues the 29th - guess the next time I'll be able to check in will be from the road along mah Big Nordic Adventure! Eeeeeeeeeeeee exciting! See you all later then, dudes!

BYE!
~ J!

Cubs with Beer and Plates......!

Hi!

Well. Here we are on another gorgeous spring Sunday. There's been a pretty good breeze every afternoon over the last few weeks, not sure what that's been about (normally we get these winds in August, September) but it's been windy. Weather's been pretty good tho, kinda warm for a couple of days but nothing like what summer really has in store later down the road. We've had some good-looking clouds and a few semi-hysterical warnings from the weather bureau about storms, but not even so much as a drop here in town...... Huh. Thankfully, the humidity has been low too, so far. All-in-all it just makes it a nicer weekend(s) when we don't have to contend with 95° and 75% humidity! But yes, we're here, now - made sure to get allllll the chores done, and a little extra, to be ready in time to catch the fourth game of the World Series! Go Cubs! Sadly, they didn't go so well. Yesterday's game was really, really good, all the way to the end, excellent pitching and defense from both sides, but still they lost. That's two now, they have to win tomorrow to stay in it.....! Go Cubs! And it's amazing how much filing one can get donejazz tunes, will very shortly have a nice glass of the standby red, yes, life is good!

while watching a baseball game - I got about ten month's worth all sorted! In fact, my "to be shredded" pile has got to be bigger than what's in my little file box - hooray for everything being online now! It's great being productive while watching TV. So, yes, chores are all done, what's left of the laundry is cheerfully flapping away in the breeze, all the vacuuming is done (the one chore I hate, and it's even worse having two cats and dark carpet - good for cat barf and the odd wine spill, but bad for fur), even the plants are all watered and happy (minus the two about to be re-potted into their much bigger homes, they'll be happy soon), got the hip n' happenin'

So work. Yep. Is good. I've been mad crazy busy helping another project with their editing, a project that really, really needs my help, but to the twelve-plus "writers" they hired (they're not actually technical writers or any kind of writer, but good golly gosh they were maintainers so they know about the books - why then, you're hired!), they don't think they need my help. Thankfully, I have other work that takes priority and will get to their stuff just as soon as I can.......... It's a long story, but this project is kinda like watching a train crash in slow-motion. Basically, they've had almost two years to get two books ready for delivery to the customer in Feb - they've only just now started really writing and asking for editing help. I'm going away for five weeks fairly soon (a fact they've been reminded of on multiple occasions to no discernible effect), I won't be back to even maybe look at their stuff until the middle, end of Jan. I wish them all the luck they deserve in meeting their deadline! Otherwise, as far as real work goes we're still pretty quiet, which is how I can be free to help those people. But thankfully, this week has got me rather busy not helping them - whew! So yes, all is well, with a bit of humor on the side. But really tho, am always happy to just have a good job that pays the bills!

And then there were a few weekends in there....... Am sorry, again, about not checking in. Honestly, this year I really did mean to turn a new leaf and check in all the time, at least more often than once a month, but I really haven't been up to much that's worth writing about with saving for this trip and all. Really, most weekends are just chores and checking on emails, planning stuff for mah Big Nordic Adventure and researching what to do with my life after I get back from this trip, because it could be time for a change........ We'll see. Am thinking of going back to school for another Bachelor's degree, this time in Interior Architecture. The bummer is I'd have to do the course part-time (online, with another school) and in order to keep myself living in the palatial splendor to which I have become accustomed, working full-time will still have to be a thing if I want to pay cash for the courses as I go and not take out a loan like the government really, really wants you to do....... Although, it's kind of tempting to move to a smaller, cheaper apartment, go part-time at work and apply for whatever help there is, if I qualify, including putting the course on a loan, to get through it quicker but the debt-chicken I am I've decided I like my own space where I am. Anyways, it's just an idea.............! Watch this space!

But I did actually get out a couple weekends ago with my friend Julian to go to the premiere of his competition-winning beer! He's not only a newly-qualified international beer judge, one of only a handful around the world, but he's a dab hand at amateur brewing through the Brisbane Amateur Beer Brewers. A couple months ago their club had a competition to brew a historical recipe and he placed third out of the state! So, the sponsor of the competition, the Scratch Bar (just down the road from my place actually - it's a good, basic, little spot that supports craft brews) provided a tap to each of the winners (a keg each) and a chance for the public to try them out and support the local independents. It was great! Good beers, really different from each other. It was a great, interesting, evening - those boys sure know their stuff. Not too many girls tho, I did ask if they had any in their little club and the guy said they did, and getting more. So there's that. I suppose I could try my hand at it but I'm not really a joiner at the best of times and I don't really drink that much beer to make that kind of effort. But am always more than happy to get out and support the locals!

Other than that, that's about it. Told ya! I haven't even been to any movies for a while now, either. Probably because there's not really been anything worth seeing....? Shame. So yes, that's all the news from here, really. Oh yeah, I got all my voting materials mailed to me direct from AZ - shoulda registered as an overseas voter years ago because the materials came with plenty of time to read up and get my ballots in (by email no less). Cooooool! So, I've voted - have you?! Get out and vote, dammit! Y'can't bitch about the state of the world if you don't at least try to swing things your way!

And that's that. Hope you're all well up there. No crazy weather events come immediately to mind other than the Big One that's meant to hit California any day now. Otherwise, you all just remember your training and stop, drop and roll! No, that's if you're on fire..... And whatever you do don't duck for cover under a desk or a table - you'll be squished! Or you could just come down here and hang out for a while, we rarely get earthquakes 'cos we're pretty much in the middle of our plate, the Indo-Australian plate (in fact, we share the same plate as India!), so when we do get them they're generally pretty tame and tend to be centered in the sticks. Ye have been warned, aaaarrrgghh! C'mon down!

~ J!