| November 18 2007 |
| Looking for me?
I'm just about ready to make the final move over to the new home at my wordpress blog http://tanaudel.wordpress.com. I can't import the old Upsaid posts, so I'm going to keep this journal up for a while but am turning the comments off. Upsaid has been good, and I'll miss it, but it is easier to manage pictures and etc on Wordpress and to link in with other programs, and it supports tags and multiple categories. I will be putting the sidebar links up on the new site shortly. Posted by Kathleen at 9 : 56 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| November 12 2007 |
| Five Hotels
The Eddison, New York – Slightly decaying art deco hotel in the Times Square District. Comfortable, well-appointed and beautiful, and the things that might have been shabby instead were attractive – the worn carpets had lovely old designs, and the grilles and pipes in the bathrooms were covered with punched tin lace and the lift doors were etched with patterns. Even the door knobs in the old wooden doors were impressive and moulded with the hotel initials. We sat in bed and drank hot chocolate and ate Madeleines. Also, when Genevieve and I were back in NY and trying to find a bathroom near Times Square one night, they let us use theirs. Country Comfort, Erie – An airport motel, and being a motel and in Erie, cheap. Also spacious, comfortable and with a very large bathroom. No kettle of course, so I could not use the tea bags I had liberated from the At Home the night before. I had to get up early the next morning to catch the airport shuttle which was to leave at the same time breakfast started. But the breakfast buffet was already out (everything from omelettes to doughnuts) and a flight crew and the bus driver were eating and watching the fires in LA. The Embassy Suites, Conference Centre, Washington – Washington hotels aren’t cheap. And because I did not book this until the day before and didn’t know my way around Washington and it was only one night, I went for the really expensive one. And it showed – a room with an enormous double bed and a bathroom and a sitting room with sofas and table and chairs. The sort of luxury that makes it a shame to not be spending much time there, so definitely a business hotel more than a tourist one (at least for tourists who are trying to see the whole city in a day and a half) .The concierge booked my night tour for me and they had glass urns of water with lemon and of fresh lemonade in the foyer (a highlight). Breakfast was alright as hotel breakfasts go, though they had Tazo tea (which brings me pleasant memories of packages of crafts from America). Room service stopped at 11, which would not be a plus because I really wanted hotel room service, just once and this seemed the hotel to do it at, and because it was late and cold and I’d been out on the night tour in the rain and my stockings were soggy. The vending machine on our floor only had soft drinks and all the cafes nearby were closed. I called reception to ask where I could get food, and they said the vending machines on level 3 had snacks. I put on my coat and shoes over my pajamas and descended, but the machine was full and wouldn’t take any money and I was tired and cold and hungry and called reception again to ask if there was anywhere at all I could get food, and the night manager brought me up a whole box of Pepperridge biscuits (like an Arnotts selection, but thin and buttery and fancy). Hotel 31, NY – Small. Clean. Not for people with large suitcases, because when I say small, I do mean that. The street frontage is small (although conveniently located across from a non-self-service laundry), though attractive, with carved stone and eagles and so forth. The foyer is small – it gets crowded with three guests. The elevator was the kind where you swing the door open towards you and pull the brass grille aside and can see (and if you wanted, touch) the hotel as it moves past the diamonds of the grille. One person and luggage was about the limit – we took the stairs a lot, but never had any actual trouble with the lift. It was just disconcerting. The room had two single beds, a basin, a hanging rack over the radiator and a desk which was mostly occupied by a television set. It had basically no room for luggage or anything except sleeping, and although it was cleaned everyday we only ever received one set of towel, handtowel and washer between the two of us and had to ring down every night for someone to bring us up another set, at which point they (after a time) would usually bring us three. All the rooms had different wallpaper. Ours had two sorts – one pale cream floral brocade and the other cream and pastel stripes. Another down the hall had a large, dark tartan. There were two bathrooms on the floor, and sometimes there was a queue, but not a very long one. Not a business hotel – but an excellent base of operations when you don’t plan to spend much time in your hotel room. Sort of a luggage locker with benefits. So no complaints, but it was character building and had actual ceiling lights, which was novel. The New York Helmsley – my mother didn’t want to share a bathroom with other guests once she joined us, so we changed hotels on the last night. Genevieve thought it was very luxurious and I agreed at first, but mostly because we’d just left Hotel 31 which would, frankly, would have fit in the foyer. It was more modern than the Eddison, but the beds were doubles instead of queens (and this mattered because I was sharing with my mother) and the lighting was dim (no ceiling lights) and the view, though respectable, was not as spectacular as Hotel 31’s vista of roof-gardens, chimneys, fire-escapes and the Empire State Building. They did, however, have friendly staff and check us in very early when we showed up on their doorstep and store our bags while we wandered on our last day, something I doubt Hotel 31 would have had the capacity for. They even had a port cochere. Posted by Kathleen at 4 : 29 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| November 07 2007 |
| Na Nooooo Wri Mo
So I hadn't decided whether to do NaNoWriMo. I certainly hadn't planned it (that was lesson no. 2 from last year: plan!). I started writing on the offchance last night. Tonight, I walked from work to the Gabba and went to my first NaNoWriMo write-in. Only it was really more of a [NaNoWriMo and one SketchMonth procrastination and compare computers and alphasmarts and eat pizza update facebook make terrible puns show off moo-cards and tell off colour jokes]-in. I did manage to write almost as much as last night and make an impact by stitching my fingers together and meet up with an old uni classmate and laugh so hard it hurt and discover a great cafe with free wireless. And a photo which makes me feel horrible for laughing at it but I can't stop and now it is my desktop picture: Noooooo. Posted by Kathleen at 10 : 03 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| Okay, I'm back
There are photos and USA posts to come (as I did not come very close to the internet in NY), including such topics as "5 hotels I stayed at", "5 forms of transport I used," and "5 most traumatic experiences" and others as suggested here or on facebook. Meantimes, here are 5 places I have been rained on recently: Ripley, Pittsburgh, Washington, New York, Brisbane. And here things that are different since I left: 1. There is a new Venz. 2. There are more fountains which have ceased functioning as flowerbeds and reentered service as, well, fountains. 3. There are actual explanatory notes about the Smart Card machines on the buses. The machines are still not functional. At least, on my bus. 4. The dates on which housemates will/will not be leaving/entering the house have taken on a new configuration. 5. There is a new paralegal just down from my office who turns out to have been the clerk at the convenience store at the end of my street and has offered to lend me Stephen King's Dark Tower books. Posted by Kathleen at 9 : 51 pm | Leave a note {1} |
| October 25 2007 |
| Washington
I arrived at my hotel in Washington at 3pm today after leaving my motel in Erie at 6am. Spent some time entertaining the daughter of a Somalian woman while we waited for our luggage. After checking in I walked through town, past the Washington monument and the White House and through a small art gallery and had dinner at a small German delicatessen/konditorei (cake shop)/bar/restaurant. Then I took a night tour of Washington, past all the major buildings and stopping at the Roosevelt memorial, the Marine memorial (at Arlington - based on the photo of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima) and at the Lincoln/Korean war/Vietnam memorials. The Korean war memorial was one of the eeriest things I have seen - faintly ghost-lit white statues of soldiers stalking through a jungle/garden. In the dark and the wind and the rain, their clothes almost seemed to move in the breeze. The wall behind is etched with faces. It is strange being on my own now. All the other travelers are in groups. Posted by Kathleen at 12 : 41 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| October 24 2007 |
| By the shores of Lake Erie
I was hoping to walk along the lonely lake shore again today, with its high slate cliffs and smooth lake stones, but it is raining. The lake is grey and the grapevines are tossing in the rain and I can't smell the grapes. Yesterday was a windy day and standing by the veranda door I could smell concord grapes on the breeze - a sweet strange smell, the smell of grape candy (which I always thought was fake). When we drove to North East, I walked to the railway museum (it was closed) and on that side of town the smell of grapes from the Welches factory was unmistakeable. Concords are fat, black, sweet grapes that split when you pick them. You eat them by sucking the flesh out and swallowing it and then spitting the thick, tough skin back into the grass. Aunt Kathy made grape cobbler on the weekend. It was very good, but I ate a great deal and my teeth turned blue. Posted by Kathleen at 5 : 08 am | Leave a note {0} |
| October 18 2007 |
| Tea and sympathy
We have been talking a lot. In Australia, this would normally be accompanied by much tea. In America, it is accompanied by food. My mother lost her voice for several days, so she would say “…” and I would have to interpret. This was an excellent system until she started expecting me to interpret while she was in the front seat of the car and I was behind her with a mouth full of chocolate chip cookie. Things I have learned run in my family:
Things I have learned about my family:
Things about Americans and tea (I try to do as the romans do but I do like some tea when I can get it - it aids the digestive process and as when we are not talking we are eating, I like this):
Posted by Kathleen at 1 : 21 pm | Leave a note {2} |
| October 14 2007 |
| Alert
I'm test driving a Wordpress account over here: http://tanaudel.wordpress.com. I will be cross-posting for a while until I am certain, but Wordpress comes with more pictures. Posted by Kathleen at 1 : 41 pm | Leave a note {1} |
| They really are...
In America. And may I just say that 2 hours sleep the night before you fly is an excellent preemptive treatment for jet lag. After that little sleep and that long a flight, you will believe any time anyone tells you it is. My mother, Genevieve and I flew Brisbane - Sydney - LA - NY with very little delay at any point. We felt processed. We spent Thursday night in New York City, and on Friday afternoon my mother and I took the train to Connecticut. Things we have learned: American airlines staff treat passengers as if they make their job more difficult. 1. There are bellhops in real life! 2. Times Square actually looks like that. 3. New York really does have background music. 4. The serving sizes really are that large. 5. We really should have worn coats. 6. All the songs are true. 7. The World Trade Centre went a long way down. 8. Everyone tells you how to calculate tips, no-one tells you how to actually pay them. 9. Everyone is friendly except the taxi drivers (the ones we had, at least). 10. New England houses really do look like Victorian Dolls Houses. 11. They have storm cellars! 12. The fall really looks like that. 13. So do the pumpkins. 14. They also have candy pumpkins. 15. Yale is gorgeous. 16. We know the names of most of the stores. 17. We do not know the names of any of the trees. Posted by Kathleen at 1 : 38 pm | Leave a note {5} |
| October 08 2007 |
| Moths and Lightning
It has been weather for moths and lightning. Oppressive spring days burn scarlet with bougainvillea, gold with silky-oak, and rise in a haze of blue and purple smoke as the jacarandas put out their pale, leafless canopies. The nights are still and humid, or restless with a wind that is warm as blood and carries no relief, only a note of rising panic. The house, a cage of wooden openwork, fills with moths - sober desert camouflage moths, moths like lace, like cigarette dust, horned gothic fantasies, dusky rose plush - fluttering and clinging and blowing across the floor. Storms come swiftly and inevitably. First the heavy, slow, warm rain, then pure white lightening which lights the night pale blue, then the insistent hail. MOTH moth is consummate couturier pays all attention to detail such subtelty such understatement moth makes an entrance effortless is past punctuality travels by day to arrive prompt as thought to evening moth is civil no noise no sudden movement panic itself is velvet edged and if asked politely will move aside moth is old fashioned brown printed corduroy pink velour the sensibility of shag pile muted hooked rugs and macrame owls moth is self effacing yet glamorous will gamble all on the glint of gold leave at the last a trail of silver dust upon a sleeve Posted by Kathleen at 7 : 47 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| October 03 2007 |
| Symptoms of regularly working late
Blurred vision Slurred speech Burning back Multiple used teabags Estranged housemates Muesli for dinner Matchmaking taxi drivers ...and, sometimes, screaming at security guards. Posted by Kathleen at 10 : 46 pm | Leave a note {0} |
| October 01 2007 |
| Conflux 4: Escape from the ACT
Conflux 4 is over. I have abandoned Aimee to Emma and Gillian and a tour of the culinary oddities of the Canberra Centre, and am back in Brisbane. My throat very decently held off becoming sore until after the closing ceremony. Five highlights of Conflux 4: 1. Eating Drunken Dalek Cake with our hands out of a tupperware container in the dealer's room. 2. Dancing at the Masquerade to 99 Luftballons, Neverending Story and a mashup of Green Day's Graduation Day and the Dr Who song. 3. Discussing full-face casts, moo cards and Victorian women's literature while sitting on the floor of the hotel conference level. 4. Conversations with random (non-con) hotel guests in the erratic lifts about Pan's Labyrinth. 5. Subversive cartography. Five highlights of Canberra: 1. The painting my brother-in-law made for their remodelled lounge room, and my sister showing off my nephews in their sleep. 2. Sharing a Belgian Spoil with my sister at Coco Black. 3. Live Leunig theatre in the tulip fields of Floriade. 4. Reading the first 6 chapters of Ibbotson's The Secret Countess at Borders. 5. Maximum temperatures several degrees below Brisbane's minimum. Five slightly odd things: 1. The lifts at Rydges, which operate (traditionally) on a principle similar to Russian roulette. 2. The bar staff, who may or may not have been burglars who tied up the actual bar staff and were themselves trapped when customers began arriving. 3. Both of us being complimented and pursued. 4. Not eating dessert. (More particularly, being physically unable to confront dessert after the first two courses of the Regency Banquet). 5. The products the self-confessed mystic (consultant and singer-songwriter) who feels I will meet my husband in New York advised me to obtain there. Five books I bought: 1. Lucy Sussex - A Tour Guide in Utopia 2. Daikaiju 3. Kelly Link - Magic for Beginners 4. Stephen Dedman - Never Seen by Waking Eyes 5. Mike Resnick - The Dark Lady Five disappointments: 1. Not being able to meet up with Deb. 2. Not returning to Floriade to buy chai. 3. Unrequited love. 4. Not trying out room service. 5. Being invited to join the Australian SFF writers at a function at the Australian Consulate in New York and then finding out it is on the same night as the night for which we have bought Broadway theatre tickets. Oh, how annoyed I am about that last. Posted by Kathleen at 10 : 23 pm | Leave a note {3} |
