Guys this is gonna be tough, I really should be figuring out my next move instead of attempting to rewrite my last week's ones! But still, here's a list of activities so far completed, if I tried to detail all the beautiful details it would go on forever, so we'll see what happens...
Hong Kong. In one word... mental! Absolutely astonishingly large buildings that I cannot comprehend the engineering of. I mean, how on earth do you build a structure that has 80 floors AND overhanging sides? I was lucky to discover a building with an observation lift that went up to floor 56. Rising up the side of a building as the night skyline opens up around you is a very unique experience. And as much as I did enjoy the epicness of it all, I could not help but think how wrong it was that this all exists when there are people in the world without so much as fresh water to drink. So yeh, after a day and a half I was ready to leave the big city!
Stilll, the fireworks display that took place above the harbour on the night of my arrival to celebrate China's national day was probably the most epic I have ever seen. And I tasted real Chinese hot and sour Pork. As well as meeting a group of Philipinos and sharing a traditional meal with them. And taking the Star Ferry across the harbour, standing in amongst the flashing skyscrapers as they put on their nightly light show, taking the train and seeing some of the suburbs, wandering around endless streets and markets and....phew!!!!
Arriving in Auckland at 7am after an 11 hour flight to be greeted at Arrivals by the two friendly faces of Paul and Dan - for those of you that don't know, they are friends of my Bournemouth housemate Jon who has travelled in New Zealand in the past - I was happy to be wisked off to breakfast. Was rather dizzy all day due to the lack of sleep and excess of alcohol (it was free on the plane, what can I say?) and also the fact that I hadn't really had to have any proper conversations for days on end so my articulation skills had gone a bit skew whiff.
Anyhow the guys are lovely and I am staying in Paul's house in Auckland's North Shore and it's so beautiful here. I was taken out to party in Auckland with them on Saturday night which involved live bands, fire spinning performers, hula hoop hanging performers, a group of drummers, a drum'n'bass club, lots of booze, dancing, a little memory loss and a dreamy morning-after followed by a hazy day of laughter, amazing food and Belgian beer shared with Paul, Adam and Nancy at Mission Bay (this is where I tried the oysters)....
It took a while to sink in, well hey it hasn't realy sunk in completely but the fact that I am now here, I have complete control over what happens next, where I go, who I meet, what I do. The place is amazing, the people are so friendly, everything makes sense - the food, the landscape, the culture, the music, I am gushingly happy about being here!!
Yesterday I jumped off the Auckland Skytower. 192metres. It's a base jump by wire so there's some freefall followed by a controlled fall at 85kph and then you're brought to a gentle stop on the ground. I did it twice, forwards and backwards. The first time I laughed and laughed, the second time was also cool but you know I would've preferred to feel the freefall. It's quite surreal hovering over the streets below and just jumping, watching buildings around you as you fall. But I wouldn't say it was totally amazing. I guess I need bigger thrills! Hmm, I wonder how I will cope when it comes to the AJ Hackett Bunjee in Queenstown. We'll see if I eat my words eh? I think the point is that I need to be careful what extreme things I choose to spend my money on even though I clearly want to try everything!
There is so much that I haven't even mentioned in this blog about what I have done but it's so long already! It's just freeflow writing really. And I think it's time to stop now.
I hope all of you that are reading this are reallly well and taking care of yourselves and enjoying your lives. It doesn't matter where in the world any of us are, or what situation we are in, the power of our own minds can garner enjoyment from anything. Or change the situation if you can eh?!
love to all
x
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Oysters!
I ate two oysters today...and enjoyed them. I chewed them, quite a lot, a felt around with my tongue at the different textures contained within the oyster, the only thing they were garnished with was lemon juice and pepper. And the second one, which was quite big, I actually really enjoyed. It took a lot of psychological effort to overcome the 'oh my god this is an oyster it's going to be horrible' gene that is embedded in the psyche, so I wouldn't go ordering them loads. And they were fresh New Zealand oysters so I expect that has something to do with it. But yeh, it was a very amazing moment!
Yes I am in New Zealand now! I am ridiulously happy about it. It is beautiful.
I am also at that point of tiredness that dictates nothing else is possible other than musssssst.....get....to.....bed!!
Yes I am in New Zealand now! I am ridiulously happy about it. It is beautiful.
I am also at that point of tiredness that dictates nothing else is possible other than musssssst.....get....to.....bed!!
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Malaga
On the bus on the way back from the city of Malaga on the south coast of Spain yesterday I had this thought about how impossible it is going to be to accurately write about my adventures whilst travelling. SOO much happened in just one day and night in one city, I don't even know where to begin...
I visited the Picasso museum and the house he was born in, I climbed a huge hill to visit the castle, saw the absolutely insanely large cathedral, and in the night time found this wonderful little bar which had a live jazz jam session going on inside, people smoking, an amazing atmosphere and these 4 incredible young sax players jamming with the house band. After a day of feeling rather isolated at my lack of ability to have a proper conversation (seeing as I was determined to not be an ignorant English person) I managed to have two separate long conversations in this bar, almost completely in Spanish. Just a day of determination and then finding myself the right environment (a radiantly dingey live music bar with some wonderful live musicians) meant that I had more confidence and the language I once learnt but had all but forgotten was coming back to me, enough to end up feeling like I had actually got some of my personality across whilst speaking Spanish.
So it was a very fulfilling adventure and mostly because of the accomplishment I felt from speaking the native language ...it bodes well for potential future South America travel!
I visited the Picasso museum and the house he was born in, I climbed a huge hill to visit the castle, saw the absolutely insanely large cathedral, and in the night time found this wonderful little bar which had a live jazz jam session going on inside, people smoking, an amazing atmosphere and these 4 incredible young sax players jamming with the house band. After a day of feeling rather isolated at my lack of ability to have a proper conversation (seeing as I was determined to not be an ignorant English person) I managed to have two separate long conversations in this bar, almost completely in Spanish. Just a day of determination and then finding myself the right environment (a radiantly dingey live music bar with some wonderful live musicians) meant that I had more confidence and the language I once learnt but had all but forgotten was coming back to me, enough to end up feeling like I had actually got some of my personality across whilst speaking Spanish.
So it was a very fulfilling adventure and mostly because of the accomplishment I felt from speaking the native language ...it bodes well for potential future South America travel!
Friday, 19 September 2008
YES
After many attempts to select an address for my blog (which I've set up in order to write about my travelling experiences) I hit upon something easy for you all to remember whilst also being very fitting of what I am about to write right now.
Kat Says Yes! It's easy - whenever you find yourself wondering what I'm up to, just type in katsaysyes.blogspot.com
so, YES... I don't just mean the word, but the film of that title, independently written and directed by Sally Potter. It's a beautiful film who everybody should see and possibly my favourite of all time. I have just painstakingly written down one of the film's defining monologues as delivered by the wonderful Shirley Henderson, only to find one of the pages I had written it on decided to come away from my notebook! So I thought I would make it my first blog entry and share it with you all. I think I shall like it to be read at my funeral.
I think it's beautiful, enjoy...
"Dirt doesn't go. It just gets moved around. Some things get burnt or buried in the ground. But fire makes smoke and soot and greasy grime, and buried stuff crops up after a time. It travels slowly, one could say it creeps. It's all the water underneath, it seaps. God gave us eyes that do not see too much or we'd go mad. We'd never want to touch a bed again, a sofa or a chair, if we could see the things that live in there. There's millions of them, loads of things with legs. They fornicate and then they lay their eggs. They think our dirt is lovely. They survive by eating what we shed, they're alive 'cause bits of us are dead. Now smaller than the mites are the germs. Well, we do what we can, we scrub and scrub, but they fly when we sneeze, on drops of moisture, packed out with disease. Then all we have to do is take a breath and they're inside us, fighting to the death. Not just germs, seems they're not the worst. There's viruses. Some say they were the first things to exist, because they're so small they can't be cleaned away, not at all, not ever. That's why really in the end there's no such thing as spotless. Just send the dirt somewhere else, push it around. The work is endless, that is what I have found. Maybe this earth is just a ball of fluff, some great big cleaner out there said "Enough!" and that is how we all survived. Why not? We're just the parasites that God forgot. The point is this: we never disappear, despite it being what we all most fear. We're certainly not finished when we die, however hard the undertakers try. Every single creature feeds another, everyone is everybody's mother, or at the very least a kind of host. When we expire perhaps we change at most, but never vanish. No, we leave a stain, a fingerprint, some mess, perhaps some pain. Some fear or doubt in someone else's heart. We leave a mess in fact when we depart. When you look closer, nothing goes away. It changes, see, like night becomes a day, and day the night. But even that's not true. It's really all about your point of view depending where you're standing on the Earth. And in the end, it simply isn't worth your while to try and clean your life away. You can't, for everything you do or say is there. Forever. It leaves evidence. In fact it's really only common sense there's no such thing as nothing, not at all. It may be really very, very small but it's still there. In fact I think I guess that No does not exist. There's only Yes."
Kat Says Yes! It's easy - whenever you find yourself wondering what I'm up to, just type in katsaysyes.blogspot.com
so, YES... I don't just mean the word, but the film of that title, independently written and directed by Sally Potter. It's a beautiful film who everybody should see and possibly my favourite of all time. I have just painstakingly written down one of the film's defining monologues as delivered by the wonderful Shirley Henderson, only to find one of the pages I had written it on decided to come away from my notebook! So I thought I would make it my first blog entry and share it with you all. I think I shall like it to be read at my funeral.
I think it's beautiful, enjoy...
"Dirt doesn't go. It just gets moved around. Some things get burnt or buried in the ground. But fire makes smoke and soot and greasy grime, and buried stuff crops up after a time. It travels slowly, one could say it creeps. It's all the water underneath, it seaps. God gave us eyes that do not see too much or we'd go mad. We'd never want to touch a bed again, a sofa or a chair, if we could see the things that live in there. There's millions of them, loads of things with legs. They fornicate and then they lay their eggs. They think our dirt is lovely. They survive by eating what we shed, they're alive 'cause bits of us are dead. Now smaller than the mites are the germs. Well, we do what we can, we scrub and scrub, but they fly when we sneeze, on drops of moisture, packed out with disease. Then all we have to do is take a breath and they're inside us, fighting to the death. Not just germs, seems they're not the worst. There's viruses. Some say they were the first things to exist, because they're so small they can't be cleaned away, not at all, not ever. That's why really in the end there's no such thing as spotless. Just send the dirt somewhere else, push it around. The work is endless, that is what I have found. Maybe this earth is just a ball of fluff, some great big cleaner out there said "Enough!" and that is how we all survived. Why not? We're just the parasites that God forgot. The point is this: we never disappear, despite it being what we all most fear. We're certainly not finished when we die, however hard the undertakers try. Every single creature feeds another, everyone is everybody's mother, or at the very least a kind of host. When we expire perhaps we change at most, but never vanish. No, we leave a stain, a fingerprint, some mess, perhaps some pain. Some fear or doubt in someone else's heart. We leave a mess in fact when we depart. When you look closer, nothing goes away. It changes, see, like night becomes a day, and day the night. But even that's not true. It's really all about your point of view depending where you're standing on the Earth. And in the end, it simply isn't worth your while to try and clean your life away. You can't, for everything you do or say is there. Forever. It leaves evidence. In fact it's really only common sense there's no such thing as nothing, not at all. It may be really very, very small but it's still there. In fact I think I guess that No does not exist. There's only Yes."
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