Now where was I??

Yes, I've returned from the U.S. and I am 110% OK. Sincere thanks to all for sending greetings via comments and email, despite my shameful neglect of you all. It is indeed wonderful to be missed.

After a fabulous 6 weeks away I have found it difficult to get back into blogging. I have been lurking in blogs occasionally and leaving comments only rarely. I am not yet ready to resume blogging but thought it was high time that I let people know I'm still around and that I haven't forgotten you. I have replied to individual commenters if I had their email addresses. In one of those emails I wrote:

I have got my bookbinding-related purchases sorted out and put away. I bought some nice papers, a number of stamps and stickers, etc. Have made my own diary for next year, small enough to put in my bag, unlike the official A4 size I needed to buy every year with a timeslot for each half hour to schedule all my appointments. Ha! Don’t need that any more. Exult! Exult!

So that might tell you something about my current emotional state: even 4 months after retiring I am still appreciating my new freedom.

I will try to post again soon.

Disaster narrowly averted!

Yesterday I rang Qantas to check on my baggage allowance, and prefaced my question with "I'm flying on Qantas flight 4 tomorrow night..." at which the passenger agent said "But QF4 leaves in the morning! That flight always used to leave around that time at night but it was changed a few years ago." Gulp! Imagine turning up in the evening, only to find that the flight left 12 hours before.

I'm now packed, ready to go out for my breakfast, and will be picked up by the shuttle at 7.45. All's well, but it could have gone so horribly wrong!

Tip to self: read tickets carefully, remember 24 hour clock and don't jump to conclusions!

Aloha!

This holiday just keeps keeping on! Things were looking grim for standby to Australia tomorrow, so I started to think about Plan B. What about flying to Oz from Hawaii?? What about it indeed? So now Dad and I are flying to Hawaii tomorrow (standby, but the prospects are better), and I have a frequent flyer ticket on Qantas to Melbourne on Tuesday the 14th (***).

BTW, when searching for alternatives, I searched Hawaiian Airlines, which fairly recently started flights from Hawaii to Sydney. Next week on Tuesday and Thursday the tickets (one way) are going for only $316, when normally they are listed as $1200 (for one way?). Go figure! There really does seem to be some bargains out there if you're flexible. But if I hadn't had frequent flyer points to fall back on, I certainly would have gone with that.

So all up I will have been away for just over 6 weeks. Not bad! And the weather throughout that time has been so absolutely beautiful (mentioned in Sue's comment yesterday). It's been unbelievably warm and clear. Yesterday my brother and I went into San Francisco to see the Titanic artifacts exhibition, and it was so warm that we were able to sit outside when having lunch.

The exhibition btw was really interesting, if a bit pricey. I'd forget paying extra for the audio set, if you're thinking of going, there's enough information on the signs throughout the exhibition.

***This is a big birthday for the Man Who Cooks, which I will miss.

Time marches on

I have been here for 5 weeks now, and am due to start back home on Wednesday. It has been a wonderful trip. I have kept a travel diary and will gradually post snippets and of course photos when I get home and over the jet lag. The last time I looked at the stats on my digital camera I had 233 photos but I will be very selective about what I upload.

One of the main highlights of my trip was the chance to catch up with people I have known from decades ago. In addition to my wonderful friend Connie from university days, who I see on every trip, this time I managed to see a high school friend, and students from the high school where I taught in the early 70s in California. Through Robert, I re-established contact with Annette and John, who were unaware that they were living within a half hour of each other. I flew up to Portland, Oregon to see them, and spent wonderful days together. Annette has given me the address of another former student who is living up in Alaska, and on my next trip we hope to all get together. That will be fun!

Portland and Vancouver (just over the Columbia River in Washington) are lovely places to visit, and there's much more to see than I could manage in 5 days. Annette drove me to see the spectacular Mt St. Helens, which blew its top in 1980. On the day we went it was very clear, and we could see a thin plume of steam coming from the volcano. John took me to the famous Japanese Garden in Portland, as well as the Classical Chinese Garden, both different from each other and beautiful in their own ways.

Instead of flying back I took the overnight train, about 16 hours, had my own roomette, and at night I was lulled to sleep by the sound of the train whistle up ahead and the gentle clickety clack of the wheels on the tracks. I have always wanted to do a train trip like that - it was a dream come true. Such a civilised way of traveling, much different from the chaos of airports these days. I plan to do more train trips on my next visit here.

In addition to visits with people from the past, including Pat, another student who happened to be in the area last weekend, I also caught up with some blogger buddies by phone: Sue, Kerri and Ann. I am thinking it might be a good idea to post a sound file of our voices just to let people know what we sound like. What do you think?

But first I will have a big job of catching up with all your blogs. I appreciate the comments that have come in despite my meagre postings over the last month, and hope to re-establish contact with you in the not too distant future! Hope you've all been well!!

A question of time...

I've just noticed the date of my post yesterday. I posted that on Friday, California time, yet Blogger "remembers" that I live in Australia and has used the date and time there. I'll go back and change that and will have to remember to change the date and time each time I post while I'm here. Or I could change the settings to West Coast time, but that might change all of my previous posts too. Hmm, better not to fool around with that.

I am not spending much time on blogging (as if you couldn't tell!) as although now I have access to Dad's computer, he has one of those ergonomic keyboards that causes pain in my arm and shoulder! So I'm keeping my time at the computer to a minimum and haven't been visiting many of your blogs. I'm sure you understand, but expect me to be back in full swing sometime in November. I don't have a set date for my return because I.................







am............












retired!!! Yippee! Still exulting!

Friends across distance and time

Yesterday and today were important milestones in communicating with old and new friends.

Yesterday I met up with a woman I had been friends with in high school and had not seen since graduating in 1963. I had tried to find her on the internet a couple of times over the years, but only found her last year through a web page associated with her place of employment. We started corresponding, and when my plans for a visit to the U.S. were firming up, we made plans to meet. Laurie drove 4 hours to meet me and yesterday was the day! We had a long lunch, with lots of talking, with more emphasis on what we'd been doing since graduation than reminiscing about our high school years. I took that as a healthy sign of where we're at, and it was a thoroughly relaxed and enjoyable time together.

Today I had my first blogger buddy phone call. Sue lives 15 hours' flight time from where I live, but when we started talking it was like (warning: cliche coming up) we had known each other for years. I am not one for long phone calls usually but we would have talked for about 40 minutes. I could picture her face when talking to her, was happy to hear that her hubby has recovered so well from his op, and knew that when we had to end the call and I looked at my watch that, yep, she needed to pick up the grandkids. Our blogs let us share the little things in life and feel, as Sue put it, the "connection".

Long live the internet!

A MIL story

It was such a wrench seeing the MWC and MIL drive off yesterday (in addition to worrying about them finding their way across the Bay Bridge and to the airport - the MWC does NOT have a sense of direction!). They are both such good companions and I think we made a jolly threesome.

MIL is really amazing for her 84 years, she is very outward-looking, interested in other people and places, and is especially interested in history. It's so easy to have conversations with her as she's always interested in what other people have to say as well as being able to tell a good story herself.

I have to tell one MIL story now, it became our theme for the rest of our trip together. Last Friday night we decided to go to Nob Hill to a couple of the fancy hotels for drinks and then dinner. Started at the Mark Hopkins Hotel and went to their bar "Top of the Mark" which has the most superb views of the city. MIL wanted to try a different cocktail from her usual gin and tonic, and she rather fancied the one with gin AND vodka, garnished with berries. But it was the name that was the decider: it was called The Hanky Panky. We had a bit of a giggle about this, especially when ordering it from the waiter. It turned out to be delicious, according to MIL, and had rather an impact on her. So when we started talking about where we were going to go for dinner, we were considering a few places at the Fairmont Hotel, just across the street. At this point, the MWC came up with a statement that was rather ordinary ("Well they're sure to have at least a very nice coffee shop"), at which MIL and I looked aghast. But MIL indignantly said "After having a hanky panky I'm NOT going to any bloody coffee shop!!" This tickled us no end, and of course we did not eat in a coffee shop but in a very nice restaurant in the sumptuously restored Fairmont Hotel. I may go back to try a hanky panky myself, but it just wouldn't be the same without MIL and the MWC.

The two weeks away together were such a success that we've planning another trip soon, but not traveling so far! We're thinking about Tasmania or New Zealand when it gets warmer.

Hubby and MIL are on their way back to OZ...

...sniff! I'm feeling a bit lost. It was so much fun, and I will eventually get around to posting about it, as well as making a slideshow. We had the most wonderful weather, saw so many things, ATE SO MUCH! In fact, I'm now off to do a walk with my brother to work off some of the calories.

Thanks to everyone who has looked in at my blog and commented. I was feeling quite cut off from my blogger buddies but will now have better access to the internet, now that I'm staying at my parents' place. I'll catch up eventually!

San Francisco update

Hi everyone! I'm using an internet cafe for the first time, and it's a nice walk from where we're staying. We are having a wonderful time, the weather has been beautiful, and the accommodation... well, have a look at that photo from the previous post, and it doesn't do it justice. It is so comfy and convenient and beautiful. I've been keeping a diary of what we've been doing every day, but I think if I do put it online I'll have a separate blog for it, with numerous photos, or maybe do one of those slideshows. But that'll have to wait until I get back, I think.

I hope you are all well!

Going offline for a while

Tomorrow my husband, MIL and I are off to San Francisco for a holiday. Tuesday, October 3rd is our 35th wedding anniversary, and we plan to go to the spot in the hills above Berkeley where we were married.

We are renting the bottom floor of one of those gorgeous Victorian houses (click on this link to see more photos and info) on a hill in San Francisco for two weeks. Hubby and MIL will return to Melbourne then but I will stay on for another 2 or 3 weeks. It will be a new experience, not having to be back by a certain date to go back to work. Oh, how I am enjoying being retired!

I don't know when I'll be posting again as I won't have much access to the internet, especially during the first two weeks of October, but do please visit my blog again in November. Hopefully though I'll be able to get in a post in the second half of October - we'll see.

Take care, everyone!