Now, I saw the new version (well, new to me) of Alice in Wonderland on the flight to Singapore and adored it. Come to find out – Tim Burton! AMCI (Australian Center for the Moving Image) was hosting a Tim Burton exhibit.

Materials ranged from original drawings, story lines, mock ups and costumes from all of his various productions. Besides the Batmobile, both Maus and I appreciated the three costumes from Alice (Colleen Atwood was the costume designer).

We spent most of the day at Con doing what we normally do – working registration, stuffing tote bags and attending the occasional Kaffee Klatsch (in this case Seanan McGuire).

On Friday we were off to Adelaide, inflicting ourselves on another long standing Internet friend name of Kath. Actually, since space at her house was limited, she arranged to have us lodged with her sister Helen.

We all got along like gangbusters. Over the course of the weekend, we went to scenic locations, and. museums.

There had been damage here too from various brush fires. The day we went to the port, the lighthouse was closed but we managed to find a lovely woodworkers exhibit of turned pieces mostly made from native woods. The ship is now a restaurant.

Cleland Nature reserve on Monday was a lot of fun, both Maus and I took a lot of photos. Tasmanian Devils, Koalas, birds and roos in abundance.

I “met” Jenny a significant number of years ago. I can remember trading emails back in the days of the original Knitlist; discussing the challenges of study, profession and craft combined with the raising of small critters. She was in Ft Collins while I was in Heidelberg.

We first physically met in 2006 while she was house sitting in France for one of her colleagues, youngest child in tow. I took Ms Maus and the Mole on the drive along the French/German border and into the countryside of the Alscaes. We spent a lovely weekend taking walks with dogs and looking around the village in which they were living.

Fast forward to today – Jenny and her family have long since returned to home in Australia and relocated from Perth to Canberra a number of years ago. She bailed us out of the airport and we spent a lovely few days with her and her family. James took us to Tidbinbilla, to the War Memorial, The Australian National Musuem (fantastic exhibition of one of the Canning Stock Road) and up to the top of the Telstra Tower. On Wednesday, Jenny took off work to drive us to Bowral, stopping to see both the Big Merino and the Alpaca Centre on our way to the required yarn shop. We stopped at Lake George on the way home.

The last night, we (Maus and I) spent with my cousin Margo. A second cousin (I believe) she landed in Australia almost 20 years ago after a number of years in the UK. I had met her parents in St Louis back in about 1972 and her younger sister in DC prior to 1993. We trucked around, seeing the National Gallery and the National Portrait Musuem.

The pictures come from various points along the way – they will be labelled when I have longer access to the Internet than the 30 minutes that come free on a daily basis.

Maus and I are going to Australia – Lufthansa through Singapore and Quantas from there to Melbourne.

We are going to visit wonderful people – relatives, new friends, old friends, internet friends and finish up at World Con in Melbourne.

Taking only a little knitting, a book and lots of electronics. It is a long, long, long flight once you add in the time zones.

I promise pictures this time!

Made a new list before the drive yesterday, but lost it. So, made another list today on my iPad. It got up to 19 items, but I have managed to finish a few. A couple more will be taken care of in the morning. It still leaves me with a couple of the biggies – like someone has to own up to cutting orders so that I can make reservations to get to Ft Benning.

I have iPad, I have iPod, I have books.

What I really should do is unpack stuff, but I will probably knit!

And then there is now – running in place as fast as I can and knowing that the towering mass just behind will smash down, flattening me just like Coyote looses to Roadrunner.

There are significant differences to the two scenarios. In the first case, I had huge tasks stacked on me with some resources but mostly my complete attention with minimal other distractions (can you spell deployed?), clear goals and some definite endpoints. In the current situation, there is just a lot to do, and I am the one who is going to suffer if it is not completed.

Shall we add that I really don’t like spending time in self promotion?

Anyway, I have whittled my task list down steadily while completing a number of other jobs that only were added onto the end of the list as they were finished so that I would feel better. Like helping the Mole with some applications and writing a supporting letter explaining his educational history (gee – what if you don’t have a high school guidance counselor? Who does fill out those fun forms?)

Tomorrow it is London, Thursday on to Andover. Friday it may be a run out to who knows where to bail a car out of the VPC (vehicle processing center, don’t you just love that the military can come up with an abbreviation for anything?). Sat we pack the car. Sunday we repack the car after I get done finding all the things that are still in my office…..

Monday I go home.

My friend Anita came to the rescue. Not only did she volunteer use of her washer/dryer do-all combination thing but she fed me a lovely veggie bake as well. Arriving home late in the evening, I hung damp clothes all over the house as I had run out of the ability to stay long enough to see two loads dried.

This morning, it was off to the airport early in order to bail out my replacement and then spend the rest of the day trying to brief him and sort out what we are doing which day.

And avoid those last two bits of paperwork that I absolutely must complete prior to departing here. Or is it three? Four?

Clueless here, driving on the 16th and can’t find where I tucked the ball of grey yarn that I need to finish a vest (waistcoat). Argh!

I am cranking steadily down my to-do list. And, when sanity hits, I am even taking a few moments for reading and knitting.

What I have to really do in the next 24 hours is figure out why it seems that everything has expanded all over the house like an explosion of books and cds. And how, of course, I am going to manage to pack it all in the car since it really looks like I might have the Mole as a passenger going back to Germany.

His ship is still out there – not the first of the Tall Ships by any means, but certainly not the last.

Ok, I might just need to back up a moment. Mentioned, didn’t I, that I am living in temp quarters that belong to the Mess?

It seems that staying here has the same support as the Mess – they are responsible for maintenance, That includes cleaning services. Really! The nice lady comes into scrub, polish and hoover a couple of times a week.

Perhaps she closes the doors as she finishes an area as a visual reminder a room is finished? I don’t have a clue.

But coming in last night to the front entry and being confronted by emptiness and closed doors was a bit upsetting. Not the way I left, making it obvious that someone had been there.

It also make the small place feel unfriendly & uninhabited. Just an empty location punctuated by white, shiny, closed doors.

Everything was quiet. I had to take a deep breath before cracking open a door and peering into the lounge.

After all – you shut doors to keep monsters in.

I started today with an initial to-do list composed equally of long and short term deadlines and problems.

Say – 23 things off the top of my head.

By noon I had managed to complete seven. The short, easy to do seven – top off mobile so I can use it again, pick up Hanne Falkenberg kits from the regional post station, get a J5 cable long enough to move the computer from wall drop to the top of my desk.

Those sort of things, with happily adding only two items on the list – both of which are legitimate current job.

The afternoon – well, I did find a scanner and have been busy turning certificates and other stuff into PDFs which will reside out there “in the cloud.” Till I am done with the army.

It has been a long day, I might just go home and spend the evening ripping more cds…

I have a couple of rooms and bathroom and sitting area. I don’t have any of the following: phone, telly (nothing new there), Internet, cooker, refrigerator or curtains that actually provide privacy.

Since I turned off BT, that also meant loss of my mobile. Found out the hard way that Vodophone on the pay-as-you-go does charge for certain inbound calls (like mobile international).

I have all the photos from the trip downloaded and am backing them up. Promise I will get them posted along with a catch up on the knitting.

In prep for deployment, I am ripping a lot of movies, some TV series and a ton of audio books onto a portable hard drive. I also have prepacked some small knitting projects and patterns so that the family can drop them in MPS every couple of weeks. That is, of course, unless I decide to take just one major project (Shetland shawl?).

I promise to do the catch ups, go visit your blogs and generally keep better in contact. An evening at the office? Feels like …Bosnia, Kuwait, Qatar…..

Off to to just relax some more inspite of the first bit of rain we have seen.

pictures tomorrow when I have a bettter connection than my iPad

-H

This year is another of those 1/3 where deployment plus the HH will challenge us.

As a result, we are celebrating them all now by going sailing from Athens to Venice

Sat 10 Jul 2010 to Sat 17 Jul 2010 on the Windspirit

Athens,

Monemvasia Greece

Pylos Greece

Kotor Montenegro

Dubrovnik, Croatia

and Venice, Italy

Cruise Terminal; Akti Xaveriou; Piraeus, Greece Check in time begins at 1:00 PM All Aboard is 4:00 PM

I don’t think I am going to stress about posting for the next few days but do a summary plus a picture page or so when I get back.

(I have packed sun block, minimal knitting, iPad and camera)

Last night I gave up around 0100 and attempted to sleep. My back was killing me from standing at the ironing board. My feet were swollen and my mood was black.  I don’t think I have ironed anything in the 31 months I have lived here.

An hour later I was back at it. There were nine panels left and I just could not sleep. Listening to Dogs and Goddess by Jennifer Crusie (purchases on sale) I wielded that iron till there were no more curtains languishing on the counter.

I was wired and not sleepy, hauling out some rumpled shirts and making them appear presentable. When I started looking at the towels and underwear, I knew it was time to get a life. Failing that, some sleep since all my good sense had long departed.

Everything I have left in country is packed into the station wagon. I have only to clean up tonight, place my bed linens and computer in the car and I am off. Perhaps it is because I am returning to post in about a week. But I have no feel of loss or closure at at this time.

Perhaps I should just view this move as returning home from a long deployment? But then, this is a huge house to clean out, not a trailer half. Not three duffles and a couple of back-packs of gear but a couple of containers on the moving truck plus a station wagon full of stuff. Neveer mind that a lot of it is craft things of mine that were never used and that I return to Germany with more stash that what I left inspite of all the knitting of the past 2 1/2 years.

It has been a long day. I have washed all the curtains in the house (eight rooms with two windows, 8x2x2=32, 7 windows here and there = 14) which makes for a total of 46 curtain panels. There are two windows that I simply can’t reach on the stairs and another couple in the back hall that I am going to ignore, lets say about 10 more panels, give or take.

Did I mention that all of them have to be ironed as well?

That leaves only the cupboards in the kitchen to empty. Something about locking up everything that I am passing along so that it doesn’t walk while there are various workmen in the house.

The car is almost completely loaded. Just have a few things (computers) on the floor in the bedroom and a couple of small boxes in the living room. I even have all the posters down and rolled up.

I even packed up my knitting.

For a break today, I visited the various water fowl -

Maybe two hours in the morning and I am contemplating getting to the office!

like an open farmer's field

Not that I did not have enough entertainment as it is, but I had my pre-move out inspection yesterday afternoon. They are insane. I have no quarrel with wanting a clean house, nor a tidy bit of ground. But scraping off all the moss? Getting rid of all the leaves? And getting the grass down to normal level?

Now, I am one of those weird foreign officers who believed them when they said that a mower would be provided. When it is in for service, like for the last 10 weeks, I do have a slight problem.

No way can I mow with a hand push mower.

Meet Husquey, my hero.

small but mighty

(must be my age showing. Cars and boats may be “she” but this little tractor mower can only be a guy. Strong, loud and needs frequent infusions of beverage.)

He took it on. Once the driver figured out that you get more success when the blade is engaged.

the position on that lever to the left of the key makes all the difference in the world

circles in the grass... not aliens

90 minutes and under two gallons of gas. And! I don’t have to pay someone else to do the job.

major difference.

Since it was now after 0700, I called the local VW dealership. Yes, they can get keys, but I need to bring in several forms of ID and the vehicle registration information (did I mention that the car was locked?).

I drove the car yesterday when dropping off somethings. So obviously I had the keys. Thinking about it, I distinctly remember having them in my hand and tossing them some place obvious. Not where they belonged or anywhere sensible as I have found to my sorrow.

No help for it, I realized either they were packed into something or they had landed in the trash. Once again I went through the suitcases, backpacks and yarn bags. No joy. Time to start on the trash. At least yesterday’s bags were separate from those filled on Saturday. 30 more minutes, filthy hands and nothing in all of the outside bags.

Desperate, I looked in the kitchen trash and the last couple of bags next to the door. You already know the punch line. In the very last bag (and not because it was the last one in which I looked but because it was the last bag) full of scraps of this and that which I had shoveled off my bed in disgust was a hard lump. One each folded up VW key.

Just as I finished moving the car from the drive, the moving van showed up with a couple of charming young men ready to go to work.

As I write this, it is barely two hours later, the packing is done and they are loading the van.

ready to go

The keys? Clipped to my belt.

After all, it is not exactly a day to celebrate in the UK. One more colony gone off on its own.

Perhaps it is fitting that I am preparing to leave on Independence Day. At least I kept singing that song in my head while I am sorting, tossing and finding homes for various things. The freezer contents, baking supplies and misc condiments went to an American friend. Anita had taken a number of things with her yesterday. One of the officers down the road cheerfully accepted the six bottles of wine left in the house.

Over the course of the day, I managed to finish my bedroom, the living room and the rest of the dining room. Hauling loads of trash and recyclables out, the cans are full.

Wild Life

My back garden has turned into a veritable jungle with partridge snacking on the grain.

but not holding still long enough for me to get the camera

followed by Master Fox making a visit

I almost missed him drifting across the yard

contemplating if there is anything worth stealing

and hiking off in disgust at my failure to provide some kind of tasty treat

I met Anita in my first few months here. She was an instructor in the Communications department over at Sandhurst wanting to know about the role of women in the US military. Since then, she has transferred to an educational department within MOD and teaches leadership, management and skills courses.

We have become solid friends over the last couple of years; making the occasional castle excursion, trading audio books and meeting for supper on the spur of the moment. I hauled her to Germany with me last week since she had never been. The Mole took her on a Heidelberg tour while I did those pesky information courses.

This morning she showed up at my door ready to help me clean, sort and pack. You can’t beat a friend like that. It is not that I could not have managed, but it was just so much easier with someone else to give me encouragement, to haul away the charity shop donations, and fill the garbage cans with refuse.

Even with a supper break, by 10 pm when she left, I could see the end in sight. The top floor is done, Ms Soprano’s room cleaned out, and the kitchen organized. I might just be able to manage the rest!

Yes, they could email me the invoice and would provide the service without the VAT should I be able to give them the correct paperwork.

Since this was saving well more than ₤100, even with the drive to Croughton I would come out ahead.

1100 – leave Camberley
12xx – arrive at Croughton. stop at Post Office. Go to bank to get money.
12xx – go to VAT office.

Today is a post “Family Afternoon” in honor of 4th of July. All the official offices closed at noon. The park is open and the grills are hot. I am standing there with invoice, money, and no where to go.

After stopping at the library to drop off more DvDs and audio books, I decided I had nothing to lose. Trying the VAT office door. It opened and Someone was in the back.

Lovely woman, she listened to my tale of woe (getting the invoice two hours ago, driving 120km, movers coming on Monday, not having TCS orders yet so that I could not get official transportation to pick it up and put it my stuff into temp storage, etc).

She said she would see what she could do. Heading out the door, she found the other two people from the office and got them to come back. Within 20 minutes, they did the paperwork, called Texas to get authorization, cut the check and wished me well.

Kudo’s to the Air Force, I have never been on an Army post that offered that kind of service. I dropped a thank you email to the commander, he needs to know his people go above and beyond.

So, there I was at the end of the day, facing a house full of stuff that needed to be sorted and organized. And exhausted before I even began.

Instead I have been doing a bit of knitting and a lot of organizing for my upcoming relocation and other disasters.

To recap the month of June
Trip with the Mole to the Arctic Circle – 2 weeks
four days at work
Trip to Montreaux for the DH’s office’s annual trip.
Back to the UK (I think that takes me up to the 18th).
Mon and Tues in the UK
Wed – drive to Germany
Thurs-Friday – attend pre-retirement courses
Sat – shovel out the house and go the Heidelberg Striktreff
Sunday (o-dark-thirty) drive back to the UK.
that leaves me at this past Monday and exhausted.

Did I mention that I had to make a Croughton run on Tues and Wednesday met the moving guy (they call them relocaters here in the UK) for an estimate (not doing this one, thank you very much).

I am tired. More than tired, completely and totally wiped out. I am not sure when I am going to get some sleep, soon I hope.

….. (since today is another day at sea…)

While there were clouds covering most of the sky, a number of us were still determined to get pictures of the midnight sun. Tonight was our last opportunity as we are headed back down the coast toward Tromso. Sitting in the Horizon Lounge at the top of the ship, I chatted with a couple from the Falklands. The jazz quartet providing the music maintained their sense of humor as their audience kept abandoning them for reported sightings of whales.

I can’t shoot at a faster speed than ISO 100, which might give you an idea of the available amount of light around midnight.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get up before 0600 and missed the most spectacular portion of the trip. The mountains and glaciers were receding into the background when I headed upstairs looking for a cup of coffee. Beverage forgotten, I stood in the bright sunshine just stunned by the land.

Unfortunately in my eyes, except for the wood, it bears an uncanny resemblance to much of the former east. Extremely plain lines without embellishment or decoration, the town is saved from complete ugliness only by the use of bright color on most of the houses.

Hammerfest is also home to the Polar Bear Club which has a small museum, fishing, and reindeer which wander free. In spite of hiking all over town twice, I must have been one of the only people to miss them completely!

Yarn – ah! Even such a small town offered choices. D Wulff on the main street offered a variety of yarns, fabrics and embroidery supplies. Unluckily for her, apparently her credit card machine was not working so that she could accept only cash. Not wanting to pay the high price of the exchange I turned instead to a lovely small shop on the second floor of Nissen. The proprietress was welcoming, helpful and was more than glad to sell her stock. She also had a wonderful line of baby clothes and other nice things for the home. On the shelf to her right you can also see stacks of mittens, hats and stockings she has for sale, being what she does while waiting for customers. (She had not heard of Ravelry. I hope I did not do her a diservice!)

It is 12ºC today. Better I guess than the 4-5 of yesterday. The one shop keeper mentioned that is was 22º in the shade on Norwegian Independence Day. 17 May (just in case you did not remember).

Once again, I am just posting the pictures at the end.

It really is too bad, there is a wonderful looking yarn store here which I would have loved to visit.

No free internet cafes either, but the Artic Suvenier Shop has wifi for a price much much less than that of the ship.

I have finished the back of my sweater and now am on the left front. I need a break from blue, so will switch to the vest again for a day.

Did I mention the town is small and the streets rolled up. Or that the lovely woman in the Information location was wonder and loves it here in the north saying it is a good and safe place to raise a family?

Off to face a tender full of white faced elderly cruise commrades….

(photos added 8 June 2010)

This is a very British Cruise. There are perhaps 10 of us aboard who are not UK passport holders. The meals are very English. The dining rooms offers High Tea service in the afternoon. The crew is lovely, friendly. The entertainment, as far as singers, dancers and acts unrelated to their “Music at Sea” program are strictly second string. (or third, or fourth).

There are games and quizzes related to the age and interests of the passengers. I have no clue as to what was on British TV in the 50s and 60s, if that gives you some idea. I think I am the only one in the morning exercise class who can touch their toes…..

It is easy to tell that we have traveled north. Sunset last night was 2238 and tonight will be 2318. Sunrise this morning was 0351 and tomorrow we steam north without pause.

Ålesund is todays stop. Spread across three islands, it is known as an Art Deco city. Completely rebuilt starting in 1906 after a fire leveled the town, the older buildings have interesting and fanciful decorations and details. Unfortunately, there are some new buildings of the cement and ugliness variety.

Above the city, up 419 steps (not counting the ramped portions) is a lovely cafe and look out point. If I had known about it prior to landing, I would not have spent an hour on the treadmill this morning + an exercise class. It was a bit of a hike with legs that started to feel rubbery, but well worth it.

The main yarn store turns out to be a bus ride down the coast so I settled for the Husfliden in town. Found a nice dark red for contrast on my jacket.

Ship sails in 20 minutes so I need to head back on board. More when we hit Hammerfest.

Stavanger, you see, is the base port for the Norwegian North Sea Oil Industry.  In fact, there is a Petroleum Museum which I visited. Also of note is a Maritime Museum and a Canning Museum. Herring today are flash frozen and shipped to Poland for canning. Carbon foot print a bit bigger, but apparently this is a lot cheaper. Poland, as you remember, has ports on the Baltic and a population that works. The highest tower in town is the old fire watch tower which is now a museum.

This was a short day in port – arriving at 1100 and leaving again about 1530. An engine problem has the Artemis traveling a bit slower than usual. End result is few hours in port.

Yarn shopping did not happen – the main store in town closed early May for renovations and does not open again till 1 July. The other store turned out to be almost 6km out of the city center. Just a bit farther than I wanted to walk in the limited time on hand.

Rather than tons of large pictures, today you get gallery style – click on any to get a slightly larger version.

Akke Brykken

glass and steel

and condos, probably with their own docks

I hiked around the city for an hour before returning to the downtown area and a coffee shop, falling in love again with interesting buildings and quiet neighborhoods.

from the 1800s

windows and trim

turrets

contrasting paint and trim

some being wooden

and old, tucked back off the street

and others just bursting with frescos

doors

entrance to the Museum

official buildings

official buildings

rotundas

and the opera house

My new favorite place to have Chai is Wayne’s Coffee which offers free Wifi along with barristas smart enough to ask about syrup vs tea.

Knitting Shops

Long one of my favorite places to buy yarn and toys in Oslo, Husfliden is undergoing renovation. As a result, they are temporarily located on the bottom floor of Glasmagasinet. I spent a long time drooling over yarn and some of the older Rauma patterns, but restrained myself.

Wandering by my other favorite place -

Strikkedilla

which is located in Oslo City (1).  Very nice people and collection of yarns, patterns and fastenings. It was here that I bought the makings for my Viking Ship Sweater in 1998/99.

Festung

What would a port town be without a castle/defensive fort on the hillside. Unlike the UK, there are a few signs up mentioning that the sides are steep. But there are no guard rails, handrails or other methods of preventing you from being really stupid. Guess the Norwegian concept is that you are responsible for yourself and those with you. I like that. I just missed the hours on the Armed Forces Museum…

barely readable layout.

and you need to go....

entry tower

multiple protecting walls

older buildings undergoing rehab

exiting the upper area

Stave Churches

As you know, I am not much of a person for wandering into churches. These doors and lintels are the surviving pieces of several old churches and are on display at the main museum. I am going to put the rest on an Oslo page when I am back home and have time.

old door

side piece detail

lintel detail

Heading into port

lighthouses

tiny islands

and houses clinging to the hill sides

The first landfall on this cruise, tours offered varied from walking tours around the town to bus trips out to steam railways. Now, I would be up for a steam railway, but not at the expense of a good hike around town.

I will walk you through the day. Please be patient, there are a lot of photos…:

there is a new shopping and restaurant area on the wharf

some lovely old architecture in the town

while those who do not walk can travel by "train"

in case you are not familiar with Norwegian History - Kristian IV

interesting building details

and lovely trims

A most fabulous yarn store, Karmin has all the Scandinavian yarns. From Drops to Dale, Gjestal through Sandnes and PT, you name it, they have it. And, in every color available. Three large rooms with floor to ceiling displays of yarn choices.

Karmin

looking toward the front

yarn room three

The Tall Ship Races are coming here at the end of July

a local competitor

On the way back to the ship I passed the customs house

located obviously on the waterfront

before walking over a small bridge

boats are integral to life here

and arriving back at the ship

the Artemis

Sunset was late – almost 2230.

1 June 2010

while sailing toward Oslo

Knitting

Amazing, you made it down to the bottom of the page! The pattern is Hanne Falkenberg’s Blues. Knit in an alternate yarn combination (the grey is KnitPicks Palette as is the Raspberry Heather. The Multicolor is alpaca sox from the same source and the green is Gjestal Spire picked up today at Karmin.)

Knit in two pieces prior to joining at center back, I have the first front completed -

left front

and the second started.

While I am at it – this is the front on Donna -

as of the 29th

with a navy blue Harrisville Shetland substituted for the cream.