Last Day

I walked around the sky tower for over an hour and took a picture from every window. I was trying to get to the point where I could think about my impending departure without tears, but I never quite got there.

Tears are not really my thing. That's not entirely accurate. Tears happen as often to me as the next person, but I don't like for people to see me cry. Tears in public are not my thing. My ex used to affectionately call me crybaby because he was one of very few people I would allow to see me cry and I'd told him when we met that I don't cry. So, to be clear, I do cry just usually not in front of people. The occasional exception is usually at movies, in the dark where no one can really see me anyway at least that's what I tell myself [ Note: here is a complete list of movies that made me full on weep in theaters full of people - My Girl, With Honors, A League of Their Own, Armageddon, Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring).

But I am not the same person I was when I arrived in this country. Which is one of the reasons that leaving it is so difficult, way more difficult than I was expecting. What's worse, I can't even put my finger on what it is I will miss aside from maybe myself.

I mean, the country is beautiful, but so are a lot of places (many of them in my own backyard), and the people are super nice but truthfully (introvert that I am) I didn't actually talk to that many of them, and the cities...

Wellington was wonderful. I went to every possible market (the famous night market, the arts and crafts market down on the waterfront, and the Sunday farmers market), and I looked for penguins (but didn't find any), and of course went to Weta Workshop and took the tour (which had a cute tour guide whom I might have attempted to chat up if I weren't such an introvert). Napier was beautiful, but sad (maybe because it is winter, I don't know). Rotorua and Taupo both had a similar summer town in winter vibe to Napier.

Auckland was my favorite probably because it feels so much like home.  Of course everywhere you look you see mountains and water just like at home (but that's true of pretty much the whole country). I mistakenly believed Auckland to be a smaller city than Wellington when apparently it has a much larger population. Auckland seems less urban though and more laid back. The streets are wider and the pace seems slower. I love it here, in Auckland, but I love a lot of places that I never she'd tears about leaving.

My happy place is Granada, Spain. I almost dropped down and kissed the ground when I got of the plane in Granada because I could already feel how much I was going to love it there. London is another place I love. It's the only city outside of North America that I've visited more than once. Obviously I also love Austin, Texas. I mean that's a city I can't stop visiting. If I have any excuse to visit Austin I can't get on a plane fast enough. Let's not forget Canada. Everything's better in Canada, and my dream is to retire to a lake front apple orchard in Kelowna, BC, make cider, and swim naked in lake Okanagan every day.

I love all of those places but I never shed tears over leaving any of them. I don't know what it is about Auckland, but I'm having a real hard time letting it go.

A Bright Light

This trip has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for me so far for many reasons that I'll return to, but first I want to talk about Napier. I spent today walking all around the city of Napier. When I got here I couldn't stop smiling. Napier is called the Art Deco capital. It's an entire city almost entirely built in the art deco style. Honestly, I couldn't love it more. I was ecstatic. But as I walked around the city I noticed that it appears to be dying.

It's a beach town so maybe it's only dead for the winter. A number of businesses did have signs up saying that they were closed for the winter, but far more of them were just empty.  Every block has a minimum of two (and some up to five) empty store fronts, for sale or for lease. Many of them are mortgagee sales which I assume is like foreclosure. I'd like to think that come summertime all of those beautiful, art deco, empty buildings will have found new tenants and the town will be bustling and lively, but right now it makes me kind of sad.

Like I said, this trip has been kind of an emotional roller-coaster.

I spent my first day in Auckland mostly shopping and shopping on holiday is always bittersweet for me. One of my favorite things in life is buying gifts for people that I know they will love and then think of me with love every time they use/look at it. I had a good friend, one of my best friends, who had a huge collection of souvenir shot glasses. Every time I would travel I would buy her a shot glass and she would buy one for me every time she traveled (although I do not have a collection but for the ones she bought me). She died four years ago and now, every time I'm on holiday, every time I go into a souvenir shop I see the shot glasses and it makes me sad.

Anna was an amazing person and when she died it was truly like a light went out in my life. Not THE light because I am and always will be a generally happy and positive person, but a light went out. Anna suffered from severe anxiety and depression but despite that I think being generally happy and positive was a trait that we shared. She would have anxiety attacks, or go through bouts of depression, but at her core I think she was a happy and positive person. The things that could have killed her only made her stronger and the thing that did kill her turned out to be a river rafting accident. Of course, falling out of a boat on a river is most often not deadly but combined with abnormally warm winter weather, and abnormally wet and windy spring weather there were a lot of snags fairly close under the surface to get a foot caught on.

In truth there's really not a day that goes by still that I don't think of Anna and wonder what she'd be doing now if she had lived. Traveling just increases those thoughts. Another thing that increased them on this trip was the emotional Trjoan horse of a performance that Emmett Skilton gave the other night in Between Two Waves. Unlike the atom bombs of emotion he often dropped on The Almighty Johnsons that simply made me weep uncontrollably, this performance got in my head and continued to unleash the emotions days later.

The play had currents of anxiety and depression running through it. I mean, obviously there was also the climate change and flooding to bring back memories, but it's the anxiety and depression that I keep coming back to. The character of Daniel was a pessimist struggling with how to look forward to something. That seems natural for someone who's suffering from anxiety and depression. Ever since seeing the play I keep coming back to that and wondering how on earth my friend, who I know suffered with anxiety and depression as well, managed to be such a bright light. On top of anxiety and depression, Anna had been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis about a year or so before she died so she was in pretty constant physical pain as well. How did she remain so positive and happy? It's easy for me, I have never had an anxiety attack, I've been sad but I've never been depressed. It can't have been easy for her.

For the most part this trip has been filled with pure happiness, and joy, and peace. I saw this amazing play that I've been looking forward to for months and it was even better than I'd imagined. I met Emmett Skilton who's talent is only eclipsed by what a kind, and funny, and truly stellar human being he is. I did the zorb which brought me peace and joy I can't even begin to describe. I visited the Shire.  I spent an entire day wandering aimlessly around a whole city of art deco. Oh, and it's lambing season which makes large swaths of this country extra adorable. I have nothing but love for all of the things I've experienced here. Yet occasionally I find myself crying as I drive through the endless pine forests and sheep pastures thinking of Anna, missing her light, wondering how she managed to keep it so bright, wishing she was here to share all of this with.

The Other Side

I assume many of my friends and family, whom I imagine to be the only people reading this, are interested to hear how I've taken to driving on the other side of the road. In truth it's really not that different because the roads and the rules are very similar here. For the first day or so I had constant anxiety much like I did when I was first learning to drive back home.

I learned to drive in Ballard, a neighborhood of Seattle that has very narrow streets.  Actually, they aren't that narrow inherently but they always have cars parked on both sides which makes them extremely narrow. As a novice driver I was constantly nervous that I would side swipe the cars parked on the right because I didn't have a good sense of how far away that side of the car was.  Then I was afraid that I would overcompensate and hit the cars on my left.

Here, in New Zealand, that anxiety came back for the first day or so of driving (only reversed because now I'm sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the left side of the road).  I'm mostly used to it now and I'm extremely glad I decided to drive myself because on a bus or a train I might be too consumed by motion sickness to really enjoy the scenery.  Yesterday, I took a bus from Rotorua to Hobbiton because there was drinking involved in the Hobbiton tour and I wanted to be able to partake. The motion sickness was almost too much on the way there. Interestingly, on the return trip it was not as bad which seems to imply that the beer I had actually helped to decrease my nausea which seems counter-intuitive.

Today I made my way from Rotorua to Taupo (on my way eventually to Wellington and then back up to Auckland again). On the drive from Rotorua to Taupo I found that the roads and the road rules are not the only things similar to home. The scenery I drove through this morning was just like home (and beautiful, of course, like everything here).  Some of the trees and plants aren't the same as what we have but for the most part the similarities were uncanny.  This area has mostly dairy farming and timber as its industries so it was just like driving through the Snoqualmie river valley, or the Skagit valley, or over Highway 2, or along the Trans Canada Highway from Vancouver to Kelowna. I felt right at home.

I've been very focused on the similarities but there are some minor differences that I find very interesting as well. For example, I had a migraine the other day which put a damper on my travels...actually it mostly put a damper on my writing as that evening I was holed up in a hotel room in Rotorua finishing a script that's been tugging at my imagination for a while now. I was only able to see about half the computer screen though due to the aforementioned migraine.  I ventured to a pharmacy looking for something to take for it.  Actually, first I ventured to the supermarket (all of which have pharmacies in them back home), but that was fruitless so I then sought out a pharmacy.

At home I'd probably take Aleve Cold and Sinus for a migraine because it has 120 mg of time released pseudoephedrine in it and that is the best and strongest vaso-constrictor that I've ever encountered. Here, however, you can't get pseudoephedrine (even the 30 mg) without a prescription. I asked what else they would recommend for a migraine and they gave me something with codeine in it. I did have to give them my name and address to buy it, like I would back home if I wanted pseudoephedrine, but back home you can't get codeine without a prescription. It's odd little differences like this that I notice.

One of the other differences that struck me is that the electrical outlets all have on/off switches on them here. That seems extremely convenient for saving power, you can just turn off the entire outlet, but I definitely have trouble remembering that I need to turn them on (or off for that matter).

The on/off switches on the outlets also got me wondering where the electricity comes from over here. I very rarely think about my carbon footprint when using electricity at home because where I live almost all of the electricity comes from hydro. Since I'm here primarily to see a play about climate change though I've been thinking about energy sources and carbon footprints a lot since arriving. I wondered what sort of energy sources New Zealand is using. They certainly have a lot of geothermal activity so that could be an energy source, they could also use hydro (there are a lot of rivers).

I looked it up, of course, and according to the Google and Wikipedia about 75% of New Zealand's energy is generated through renewable sources (hydro, geothermal, and wind primarily). That's pretty comparable to Washington state (where I am from) so on that front I feel pretty okay about my energy consumption here.

The car I'm driving is another story. I miss my Prius C. Again, I feel compelled to say that I receive no compensation from Toyota, though I'd happily accept if they wanted to compensate me.  I love my Prius C, I couldn't love it more...unless it were a fully electric, like a Tesla S, or a Leaf, or if it were a plug in hybrid like a Prius Plug-In, but as I've got no where to plug in a car at home so I can't go the full electric or plug in route.  The Prius C is the next best thing, it gets 53 mpg (average).

I had to take whatever car they gave me at the rental agency here though and, in addition to missing small modern conveniences (like bluetooth syncing and decent suspension), this car is a gas guzzler.  Also, it has to warm up. It took some getting used to, when I first got my Prius, to look for the ready light rather than listening for the engine noise, but now that I am used to it when the car I'm driving roars to life and then has a little green light on until it warms up it's a little disconcerting. Also, I'm a very bad parallel parker, and trying to do it from the other side of the car, on the other side of the road, in a car that's significantly longer than my Prius C is no fun. Luckily, I've only had to parallel park a few times so far.

All in all, on the other side of the world, and the other side of the road, on the other side of the car, I feel remarkably at home.

Everything's Better

I have a saying, "Everything's better in Canada", but New Zealand is really giving Canada a run for its money.  I may return having revised my saying to, "Everything's better in New Zealand", or I may not return at all. Okay, I know, I have to return, but it's nice to think I could stay.  In an alternate universe there is a version of me that stays.

What makes New Zealand better? Well, there's the dairy products as previously mentioned, then there's the fact that apparently you can't walk ten meters without running into one of the locations from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. I visited Hobbiton today, which is the set of the Shire. Hobbiton is the only location to still have sets from the film built on it, but according to the Hobbiton bus driver both the North and South islands are littered with locations. Not surprising I suppose since all six of those films were at least 80% set outdoors. Hobbiton, by the way, was beautiful.

Everything in New Zealand is beautiful, or the small portion of it that I've seen so far anyway and I've stayed on the North island. I'm staying on the North island for my entire trip actually. On my second to last night in Auckland it was suggested to me (by an amazing photographer who has an excellent visual sensibility) that I should cancel my planned itinerary and go to the South island instead if natural beauty is what I am looking for. If that is true, and I've got no reason to doubt him (as I said he's a photographer who knows a thing or two about beautiful things), but if it is true I can only say New Zealand is likely the most beautiful country in the world.

I was tempted to take the advise, to cancel my itinerary and head for the South island instead, but as natural beauty was not my sole purpose this trip I decided to stick with my plan. I'll just have to come back soon and do the South island next time.

One of the main reasons I decided to stick to my plan was the Zorb.  Zorbing, for those unfamiliar, is an activity (some might call it extreme) wherein you get inside a giant plastic ball and roll down a hill.  It's more like a ball within a ball actually.  You can do it dry or wet the difference being either they put water inside with you or they don't. The dry track was down for maintenance when I went.  I sort of feel like the dry version would be kind of a waste anyway, but that's just me. In addition to the dry versus wet choice you can also chose a straight track or a twisted track, I chose the twisted one.

The thing about the Zorb is that it's incredibly freeing. You have to completely give up control. I mean, it's on a "track" so there is a level of control, but that control is certainly not yours if you are inside the Zorb. For a minute, or however long it takes it to get to the bottom, you are completely without control and you know it when you are about to get in so you have to consciously chose to give yourself up to it.  Then for that minute, not only do you have no control, but it's almost as though you have no thoughts. It's kind of the ultimate in meditation. You are completely in that moment while it's happening, you can't help it. I'm trying, but I really can't describe it. All I can really say is that I am not the same person I was before I got in the Zorb and doing it was perhaps the best decision I have ever made. So, when I say that everything is better in New Zealand, "everything" includes me.

Pancake Machines FTW

I'm staying at a Holiday Inn in Rotorua and I want to talk a little about my love of Holiday Inns...

Actually first let me say that I am not a professional, paid, travel blogger though wouldn't it be nice if I were.  I'd love to be paid for writing things I would (and do, and will) write for free. If the New Zealand tourism board wanted to pay me to travel their country writing about the beautiful sights, friendly people, and exciting adventures to be found there I would take that money and thank all the gods everyday for my amazing luck. The Holiday Inn has also not paid me for the glowing praise I am about to write. Though, again, if they wanted to offer me unlimited free nights in their hotels I would certainly accept that offer and not think twice about my integrity for I would praise them for free happily, and will now.

My love of the Holiday Inn began, as many of my loves do, in Austin, Texas.  I was there for the premier of the Veronica Mars movie and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express partly because it was relatively inexpensive and partly because they had a block of rooms saved for Kickstarter backers of the movie and finding hotel rooms on that short notice in Austin during SXSW would have been difficult at best.

At first my love of the Holiday Inn could be almost entirely traced to the pancake machine (which is specific to Holiday Inn Express hotels).  The pancake machine doesn't make the best, most fluffy pancakes you've ever had but it makes pretty darn good pancakes and they come out of a machine. You press a button and a few moments later out comes a pancake, off a conveyor belt. It's awesome.

Now, the Holiday Inn I'm staying at in Rotorua is not a Holiday Inn Express, and therefor doesn't have a pancake machine.  It has a breakfast buffet which does have pancakes, and though I didn't eat any of them they looked delicious.

Despite the lack of pancake machine, this Holiday Inn represents all of the things I have come to love about all Holiday Inns (Express or otherwise).  The thing about Holiday Inns is that they are clean, and comfortable, with extremely friendly and helpful staff, and generally good facilities (this one, I think, has a gym and a pool and, I know, has laundry which can either do yourself or they have a service). The other thing about the Holiday Inn, is that they are everywhere and every one I have ever stayed in, while not exactly alike in every respect, is the same in quality.

When I travel I like to stay at least one night in an expensive 4 or 5 star hotel and/or a hotel that is also a tourist attraction, this trip I'll be doing that my last night in Auckland (at Sky City which I believe is both of those things). While it's fun to do that and sometimes hotels like that have amenities you won't find in a Holiday Inn (the 5 star hotel on Wenceslas square that I stayed in had complimentary bohemian champagne...or sparkling wine if you want to be that way about it), often they are just more expensive, with fancier furniture, (expensive) mini bars, and more expensive shampoo. I bring my own shampoo anyway because I'm picky like.

The Holiday Inn though, with or without the pancake machine, is is a reliably wonderful hotel that has everything you need and you'll find at least one in every major city and in most minor cities as well.  This one in Rotorua even has power adapters that you can borrow for the duration of your stay.

The Human Condition

Don't stop me if you've heard this before. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating and it relates to my trip.

The human condition has at its core a terrible contradiction. We are constantly trying to distinguish ourselves from one another whilst also constantly trying to connect with each other. We are all the same and at the same time none of us are the same. One of the reasons that I love stories in any medium (books, movies, television, theater, music, etc.) so much is that they are at once unique little snowflakes and at the same time they are all the same.

When a story is told well it can make you feel connected to the entirety of the human experience by showing you a single moment of that terrible contradiction that is inherent in humanity. It takes a good writer to start with, regardless of the medium. If the medium is dramatic (film, TV, or theater) it also takes a great actor; someone who can bring to life that contradiction.

The reason I came here, to New Zealand, was to see a play. I know there are those of you who think I'm crazy. People look at me with some combination of confusion, awe, and fear when I tell them I flew halfway around the world to see a show. They gave me the same look when I flew to Boston for a weekend to see The Glass Menagerie (and that was only a 5 hour flight). I get it, I do, it's a long way to travel for one night of entertainment, and obviously I'm doing more than just seeing the show here in New Zealand (and did more in Boston as well), but I don't think there's any distance too far to travel to experience a moment of true connection to the human experience and I knew (from seeing him in The Almighty Johnsons) that Emmett Skilton has the talent to bring a moment like that to life. And I could guess, from reading the description of the play and the story of how it came to Auckland, that Between Two Waves likely contained a few of those moments.

Between Two Waves is amazing. It's a story that needs to be told as much as possible in as many venues as possible. It speaks eloquently and subtly about anxiety and depression, and less subtly about climate change and relationships. It speaks about the sometimes extremely complicated and sometimes very simple chain of causes and effects. It speculates about cures, about what can be cured and what cannot. It's a wonderful, beautifully written story (by Ian Meadows).

Both the producer (Leanne Frisbie) and director (Peter Feeney) took to the stage and played parts. They, and the leading lady Shara Connolly, were phenomenal. They are all obviously talented actors but I think a deeper connection to the story is also evident in their performances.

It was Emmett Skilton though who brought to life the terrible contradiction of the human condition. He was the one who showed that we're all in this together yet also completely alone.

Normally, those moments in great stories, the moments that make you feel connected to the entirety of the human experience, are fleeting, just a few seconds, but today, 18 hours after seeing Between Two Waves, as I sat on the beach, the feeling was still with me. That was the power of Emmett Skilton's performance. That is what a great actor can do. 

Home Away

Auckland is a lot like home (Seattle). In fact even the weather has been very reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest. Day one of my trip was sunny and with the palm trees all around it had me thinking of LA, but everyday since has been wet and overcast and has me thinking of home.

There are other similarities too. Auckland is a port city and an economic hub which means lots of tech and fish from what I can tell (just like home). It's also very hilly and there is coffee everywhere you turn. Also, the Pacific rim nations are all well represented in terms of food options. In short I feel like I never left home at all.

One of the problems with all these reminders of home is that I am suddenly struck by the strong urge to do nothing at all. Yesterday I spent mostly reading which is all well and good, it's my vacation and I'll spend it how I like, but I only have a short time here. It's not like it's the first time I've been vacation in a beautiful foreign city and spent most of a day reading, but at least when I spent most of a day reading in Granada I did in the gardens at the Alhambra, and in London at Trafalgar square. I can't let a little (or a lot of) rain stop me. So today is get in the car and drive day and see where it takes me.

Food of the Gods

I probably should have jumped right into exploring the art, and culture, and parks of this wonderful city, but I like to settle in to a place so instead, yesterday afternoon, I explored the supermarket.

New Zealand purportedly has the best dairy products in the world. Having been to Switzerland I am dubious but definitely excited to try so I went to the supermarket in search of yogurt and I found a wonderland of delicious and facinating items.

For starters there are unsurprisingly a number of similarities to British supermarkets. Most notably the Kiwis seem to share the Brits (and my) love of rhubarb. I don't think rhubarb yogurt was an option in Switzerland, but I'll try to be objective about the yogurt quality and not focus on the rhubarb.

The multitude of varieties of cheese definitely speaks to a national appreciation of dairy as well and, along with the inexpensive and plentiful paté options makes me want to spend my entire trip picnicking in parks and on beaches (both of which also abound around here).

My brother would certainly be pleased with the variety of smoked tiny fishes available (not just sardines and oysters for this lot), and with the variety of Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese foods available.

I suppose I'll have to bring home some smoked fishes for him. I'll also for sure be bringing back some Manuka honey which is another point of great culinary pride here.

One of my favorite things is the coffee bags. Like tea bags, they're individual serving bags of ground coffee that enable you to brew a single cup of coffee without need of any special equipment. Having been born in 1978 in the greater Seattle area, and having lived there my whole life, and having worked for an organic coffee company briefly, and being a huge Alton Brown fan, I'm aware of drop in quality that comes with not grinding your coffee beans immediately prior to brewing, but I love the convenience. And the quality of the coffee's doesn't suffer to badly.

The cream situation is a bit confusing I'll admit. There is double cream and single cream both of which seem thicker than the half and half I'd normally put in coffee (if I normally drank coffee). I went with single cream which is pretty good in the coffee but definitely too thick for tea. I suppose they must do milk in there teas here (like the Brits again), but it seems odd to me to need two separate things. Also, I couldn't find milk in a small enough bottle for only using it in my tea so I'm sticking with cream for both.

I definitely need to address the pickle situation. When I asked one of my hosts what I could bring from home she said, "dill pickles", because you can't get them here. When I came through customs and had to declare any food items I was carrying the customs agents all gave a nod as if to say, "of course" when I said I had pickles. It must be a common request.

The supermarket I went to had gherkins in a myriad of sizes, but no dill pickles.  I find it odd that they don't have them. My only guess would be that there's no dill here because they are so particular about not bringing in non-native plants. Maybe they just aren't allowed to grow dill. If that's true I'll be interested to see how they prepare salmon because that they have a lot of.

As I've been writing this I've been eating breakfast (I know, I don't usually do that,  but my internal clock is still 5 hours ahead...or 19 hours behind I guess). My breakfast included coffee with cream, bagel and cream cheese, and yogurt. I have to say New Zealand definitely gives Switzerland a run for its money in the dairy department. I suppose a side by side blind taste test is impossible, since the transporting of dairy products from New Zealand to Switzerland (or vice versa) would impact on their quality, but it's definitely too close to call without one.

My last stop at the supermarket was the bakery section and while I didn't buy anything there I was extremely tempted by the carrot cake. It didn't have raisins. None of it. Not a single raisin in any of the carrot cakes.

If it seems from the title (or the contents) of this post like I'm getting attached to New Zealand and might not want to return home...well, that would not be inaccurate. Although, if you didn't catch the Almighty Johnsons reference in the title you really should run, not walk, to your nearest Netflix streaming device and start watching immediately.

Travel tips (New Zealand and in general)

Tip #1 - You will forget things. Hopefully not the most important things, the most expensive things, or things that cannot be obtained at your destination.

Prescription medications, for example, you should try your best to remember as they can be difficult and/or expensive to obtain overseas. You may even need to pay for a doctors visit to get a new prescription. Luckily for me the worst thing that will happen if I go without my prescription is pregnancy or a ruptured ovarian cyst. I've had a ruptured cyst before though and while it would definitely put a damper on my holiday, I'd be fine fairly quickly (within about 4 hours if memory serves).

Feminine hygiene products are another thing you should try not to forget. Especially if you are picky about them as they likely won't have the same brands you are used to overseas. In fact, toiletries in general are likely to all be different than what your used to. Don't even get me started on floss. I'm very particular about my floss.

Tip #2 - the word "Universal" doesn't always mean what you think it will or would like it to. Double check your power adapter before you leave your home county.  Not a costly thing to have to purchase when you get there, but potentially time consuming to find. Unless you get lucky like I did and there are three shops selling them within a short walk from where you are staying.

Tip #3 - read the instructions carefully when paying for parking, or purchasing public transport cards, or anything that you are paying for through a machine rather than a person. You could end up with way more or way less parking time/bus rides/whatever than you need.

Tip #4 - people in New Zealand are extremely friendly. It's the easiest place in the world to go to without any itinerary and find things to do because everyone you meet will be more than willing to tell you all of their favorite places,  and ask you what kind of things you enjoy and tell you the good places for those things. Kiwis are perhaps the nicest people I've ever encountered.

Other than forgetting a few things and a tire blow out on my rental car within 5 minutes of picking it up (which has only served to heighten my anxiety about driving here)...day one of my adventure has been excellent. New Zealand is beautiful. While it is winter here still, I'm in Auckland right now which seems to be a bit like winter in Los Angeles. It's not hot, but it's definitely not what this PNW girl would call cold either. It's kind of perfect.

Airport fun

This is kind of an experiment. I'm stuck at the Auckland airport for 3 hours until I can pick up my rental car and I want to see what publishing via app is like.

I'm reopening this blog to document my two week adventure in New Zealand. I decided on a whim to come to New Zealand, mostly to see a play. I know it seems kind of crazy to some people, flying to the other side of the globe alone to see a play. I think it's in keeping with the theme of this blog though, for the thrill of it.

I'm excited to see Between Two Waves and to see some of this amazing country.  I mostly like traveling alone, though I am a little apprehensive about driving on the left side of the road for the first time. If this app publishing experiment works you can expect regular updates about theater, and zorbing, and glow worn caves, and Middle Earth. You know, for the thrill of it.

Live music, Live theater, Live musical theater

When I started this blog it was to chronicle my experiences doing all the things I'd always wanted to do but, for whatever reason, had not done as much as I'd have liked. The main things that fall into that category are live music, live theater and travelling.

It occurs to me right now that I was able to combine all three last April. I went to Dublin with a friend of mine and we went to see Sweeny Todd (live musical theater). It was a really fantastic show and it was the first time I'd ever seen it, and I got to see the first ever Irish professional production of it.

This past weekend I saw the latest film version of it too and it's an interesting comparison. I think ultimately I preferred the stage version. I've finally come to the realization that I don't much care for Tim Burton's directorial style. Not that I even think it's bad, I can see the good things about it, I just don't personally like them.

Tim Burton films are very stylized and the style is, as my friend likes to say, very animated. The translation of that politeness is that his films are like cartoons and the characters are really caricatures. Johnny Depp, who, in non Tim Burton films, often exhibits an amazing range as an actor plays a fairly one dimensional Sweeny Todd. As I've seen Johnny Depp in a lot of films and am often impressed by his nuanced acting I can only assume this one dimensional characterization is a result of direction more than anything.

However, Helena Bohnam Carter and Ed Sanders give surprisingly layered performances given the style of the film. The kid is one of the few clearly sympathetic characters in the source material regardless of the skill of the actor or the choices of the director. He's been rescued from the work house only to be indentured to an abusive boss who is then murdered at which point he's taken in by kind hearted woman who bakes human meat into her meat pies and, well, you get the idea, he's had a hard life.

The character of Mrs Lovett though, is not so clearly sympathetic. In fact, in the stage version I saw she seemed pure evil and any horrible thing that befell her I felt was deserved. In that stage production Sweeny Todd was the sympathetic character. No mater how many eveil deeds he did I still felt sorry for him, felt like he'd been driven to his madness. In this film version I felt exactly the opposite. Helena Bonham Carter takes the role of Mrs Lovett and makes her into someone of great feeling. She's really quite spectacular in this role.

Could be another directorial choice, to portray Mrs Lovett as more sympathetic than Sweeny Todd, but I wonder. I wonder if she just went her own way with it. Her performance seems so out of place in the picture. The hair, and makeup, and set design, etc, all combine to create a certain feel that her emotional and layered performance doesn't seem to fit. Johnny Depp's single layered portrayal of Sweeny Todd is much more in line with the tone set by Burton and indicative of what I've now decided I don't like about Tim Burton movies.

Incidentally, on my crusade to see more live theater, I also saw Jersey Boys this past weekend which was brilliant, though as largely expositional as you'd expect a play with the tag line "ask four guys, you get four different answers" to be, and I've also been enjoying the new season at the Seattle Rep. On the live music front, the Dropkick Murphys are coming to town next month. And as for the travelling, I'm planning a trip back to Europe in May this year. Perhaps I should call those things my New Year resolutions. I don't generally make New Year Resolutions but for trying to keep in touch with my friends and family better (and I'm generally not even successful at that one). At least these promises to myself are ones that I know I can keep.

Culture Shocks

Lest you think I've gone into hibernation since returning from Europe you should know that in the last week and a half I've been to two plays and a Pogues show. The latter was pretty much the highlight.

I'll admit that going to the Pogues show seemed like more of a novelty in the beginning. Not that I don't love the Pogues, I'm a big fan, and I wouldn't spend fifty bucks on a ticket to their show just for the opportunity to possibly get puked on by Shane MacGowan. I do love the Pogues, but with everything you hear about Shane MacGowan's...um...stage presence, I wouldn't expect a lot from a live Pogues show. I'd expect it to be amazing just because it's always amazing to see one of your favorite bands live even if they don't put on the best show anymore.

The show, and MacGowan in particular, exceeded my expectations. At first, MacGowan lived down to his reputation. He came out on stage and seemed pretty out of it, kind of incoherent. He would sing a couple songs and then leave the stage for a song or two. About half way through the show though, he got a hold on it and he sang the remainder of the show almost coherently.

They did two encores and ended the show with Fiesta which is, I think, my favorite Pogues' song, and by that point MacGowan really shined. I have to say he did pretty good with Dirty Old Town too which is another of my favorites, but Fiesta was the show stopper in more ways than one.

While the Pogues show was the clear highlight I've also been enjoying the new season at the Seattle Repertory Theater as well. Last year I bought season tickets as part of my renewed interest in...life. I'd decided to see more concerts and plays and to travel more and that's what this blog has been all about. It's about my doing things I love ("for the thrill of it").

So, Twelfe Night was the first show of the season this year and I went to see it last weekend. While I love Shakespear and this production was great, that was last weekend and this weekend I saw Murderers (also at the Rep). Murderers is one of the funniest plays I've seen (and I've seen a lot of plays).

Murderers is staged in the Rep's Leo K Theater which is a bit smaller than the Rep's "main" stage, the Bagley Wright Theater. I definitely prefer seeing shows in smaller theaters (except for musicals) because there's a better audience energy. There's more of a give and take between the actors and audience in a smaller theater and this show especially relies on that because it is all monologue so the only people the actors can play off of are the audience members.

The show is still playing through November 4th so, if you live in Seattle, or are planning to visit this week, you should see this play, you won't be sorry.

Delayed reaction

I don't know why it's taken me this long to write something about the Supersuckers show at the Tractor Tavern. It was almost two weeks ago. Maybe because I'd seen them, and written about it, less than a week prior, or maybe because my attentions have been diverted to other creative endeavors the past couple weeks and I've now hit a giant snag there in the form of writers block that I can't seem to shake. Whatever the reason I didn't write about it before, I'm ready to write about it now.

You might think it odd that I'd go see the same band twice in a week. Die hard fans won't. People who saw both Pearl Jam shows at the Gorge, or all three Dave Matthews shows, or Dead Heads, but other people might. The Supersuckers put on almost the exact same set at the Tractor that they'd done a week before. So, what's the big attraction? Well, there's the charisma I talked about before of course. Even when the set is almost identical, it's still brilliant, and funny, and it still rocks more than most shows. Also, seeing the Supersuckers at the Tractor is like seeing Death Cab for Cutie at the Showbox or, I imagine, like seeing the Cubs play at Wrigley (and with all the times I've been to Chicago, and my feelings about baseball, you'd think I'd know first hand about that, but I don't); It's the home stage advantage. At least that's the feeling you get watching them there, like they've come home and they're really enjoying it.

Finally, the Tractor Tavern is simply a great place. I'd only been there one other time. It's an odd place. You walk in there and you think there's no way you'll be able to see the stage unless you push your way to the front of the crowd. I'm am most certainly not a push my way to the front of the crowd kind of girl. I like to find a seat, somewhere where I can actually see the stage. I know, it's not very rock and roll of me to want to sit down while I watch live music, but I am the way I am. The initial impression though, that you won't be able to see from anywhere other than right next to the stage, couldn't be more wrong. You can see the stage from everywhere.

You can't beat a great band at a great venue (with the home stage advantage). Viel Spaß!

Cheese toast: The meaning of life.

I finally graduated from college yesterday. An event which, while thrilling, fills me with abject terror because it leaves me without a goal. So, instead of examining that I'm going to focus on the one thing I've really learned in the last 10 years.

Toaster ovens are far better than toasters. For some people it may seem obvious but others may be thinking, how big can the difference really be? It's just toast. Those people could not be more wrong.

Sure toast is just toast. That's all a regular toaster can make though. Your toaster oven, however, can make all sorts of things. Most things that you can bake in a regular oven you can also cook in a toaster oven, just in smaller quantities.

The two best things about the toaster over though are cheese toast and s'mores. I bet you didn't know that you could toast marshmallows in a toaster oven. All you need is parchment paper which will allow the marshmallows to toast on both sides while also keeping them from melting through the grate.

Cheese toast is self explanatory. I like to put mustard on mine. Sure, you can make toast in a regular toaster and put mustard and cheese on it after it's done, but the cheese won't get all melty and what's cheese toast that isn't melty.

Okay, maybe I've learned a few more things, both in college and in life, but the most important thing is the toaster oven principle.

I like it all man

I saw the Supersuckers last night. It was sort of culmination in some ways of the last 6 months of my life. Back in late December a friend of mine recommended the Supersuckers to me. Actually, it was someone I barely knew at the time, but I trusted his taste in music because I knew he was a Who fan. So, I checked out the Supersuckers and immediately loved them and made it my goal to see them live (also ensuring the status of said friend as the best person in the world to go to for music recommendations). I missed the chance to see them in Munich, but luckily they're a local band for me so another opportunity presented itself this weekend.

I went with one of my best friends and we couldn't help getting into a conversation afterwords about the importance of stage presence. Now, of course, I love the music on its own, but live it's just different. Some bands you love and then you see them live and it sort of falls flat. You still love the music but the band doesn't have any charisma. The Supersuckers are not one of those bands. Eddie Spaghetti has so much stage presence that it's like a joke at the expense of all other musicians...or at least the ones that have to play before him.

The stage presence conversation lead to discussion of musical genres. My friend asked what genre I'd put the Supersuckers in and I had trouble with that question. I said they're sort of punk, sort of country, sort of pop, sort of rockabilly. She called it "ironic rock" which is a great label, though I think their country is more ironic than their rock. They kind of defy genre, but not in the art housey incomprehensible way, in a different, yet equally specific way that I like a lot.

Regrettably, I forgot to bring my camera and consequently didn't get any pictures. So, you'll just have to trust me, it was a great show. They're playing another show this Friday. Hopefully I'll get some pictures at that one.

7 Wonders

There's a movement afoot to create a new 7 wonders of the world and apparently more than 45 million people have already voted. I like the idea of the New 7 Wonders and I even appreciate that anyone with an e-mail address can vote for them. The original 7 wonders had their titles conferred on them by academics in ancient times, only one is still standing, and there hasn't been much agreement on what should replace those wonders that have fallen, which means there hasn't really been a list of 7 wonders in well over a thousand years. It's about time there was a new list.

I do find it odd that one of the criteria for the new wonders is they have to have been built or discovered prior to 2000. That opens it up pretty wide, allowing for the inclusion of the Sydney Opera House (built in 1954) among the possible contenders. I'm not saying the Sydney Opera House isn't a fascinating piece of architecture, and I haven't seen it up close so maybe I shouldn't say anything, but it's not exactly awe inspiring. Also, included on the list of candidates are the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, which are, perhaps, slightly more awe inspiring than the Sydney Opera House, but not much.

I would think the candidates would be structures that are grand in scope and have been around for ages. For me the architecturally interesting factor is multiplied exponentially if it's old, perhaps ahead of it's time, perhaps spanning multiple architectural styles and time periods. Having an interesting, and long, history was the main criteria I used in deciding what to vote for. I see the appeal of the iconic, though less historically significant, but I don't think that's what the list is about.

The only two of these prospective new wonders that I've actually been to are Schloss Neuschwanstein and Alhambra. Neuschwanstein is beautiful and has a pretty interesting history, plus it's iconic (of course a lot of people aren't entirely sure Neuschwanstien isn't modeled after the Cinderella castle at Disneyland rather than the other way around), but it's not that old relative to a lot of the other monuments on the list of possible wonders. The day I went to Neuschwanstein was the highlight of my travels on a personal level but from a tourist perspective, Alhambra, was definitely the highlight of my 7 week sojourn in Europe. It's massive and has such a rich history, plus it's beautiful and has been around almost a millennium. So, all of this is designed to get you to go vote for the Alhambra and which ever 6 other wonders strike your fancy. Before you go though, check out some pictures of the incomparable Alhambra:

Free Will Astrology

"It's about time you got the chance to be knocked on your ass by a flood of positive surprises and good feelings. I hope you're trusting enough to go with the tidal flow, even if it does temporarily render you a bit woozy. Naturally you'd like to know if this giddy surrender will land you in trouble. Is there any chance that you'll have to endure some karmic adjustment at a later date because of the fun you're having now? Here's my prediction: absolutely not. If anything, your enthusiastic cooperation with the free-form dazzle will shield you from any negative repercussions."

That's my horoscope for the week from Free Will Astrology. I don't know if you're familiar with Free Will Astrology but it's the horoscope column from Seattle's alternative weekly, the Stranger, which is now syndicated and has it's own website (www.freewillastrology.com). I've been reading these horoscopes off and on since I was 16 years old. In fact when I was 16 I was a big believer in them, often clipping them out of the Stranger and saving them. I'm less of a believer in astrology now than I was then but these particular horoscopes are usually funny so I still read them from time to time. They are weekly and their weeks always start on Thursday (presumably because that's the day the Stranger comes out and that's where they began).

So, on Tuesday I locked myself out of my apartment, not such a big deal as I have a roommate who said he'd be around when I got home from work. Then I managed to also lock myself out of my car when I got to work. The first was my own absent mindedness, the second was because the car key fell out of my pocket onto the floor of the car. Yesterday, I was in a car accident which was not my fault but for which I was ticketed anyway. Today, Thursday, is my birthday.

Supposing this horoscope is right that I'm about to receive a tidal wave of positive surprises I think I've already had a pre-emptive karmic adjustment for it.

Perfect Moments

I went to Mexico last Friday, just for the weekend. It was an impulsive decision. A guy I met in Munich was getting married and he invited me to his wedding. It meant a lot to me that he asked so I decided to go, I decided I had to go.

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately, as you may have noticed, and, of course, it has been an incredible experience as a whole but what really sticks with me are isolated moments.

In Mexico, at my friend's wedding reception, things were beginning to wind down and I went outside to call a cab. It started raining really hard and I stepped just inside the doorway to get out of the rain. There was lightning and for the longest time I've been terrified of lightning but this time I wasn't. I sort of felt like stepping out and standing in the rain for a while, but I stayed in the doorway. I watched the rain and lightning for a few minutes.

Then I went back inside and back on the dance floor which by that time had thinned out a little and the rock band had been replaced by a mariachi band and everyone formed a circle and linked arms and sang (except I didn't because I didn't know any of the songs). It was a kind of a perfect moment.

I had a few perfect moments like that on my trip(s).

Watching the sunrise in Switzerland was pretty perfect.

In Munich I had a whole day that was sort of perfect. It was the day we went to Schloss Neuschwanstein. I woke up early that morning and walked to the Hauptbahnhof. I was early for the bus so I went into the train station and bought Nussschnecken for my classmates, had a super cute German boy chat me up, and then went to get on my bus. That was the day that I realized I had really found a brother there. After the Schloss we went to the Schrannenhalle and had a few beers and then to an Itallian restaurant in my building and had a few more. Someone grabbed my camera and took a picture of me and my new brother near the end of that night, right at the moment I was realizing that the day had been perfect and that the moment was perfect.


I had a lot of perfect moments in Granada.

The day I got back from Barcelona I walked around Granada, went shopping, saw the Cathedral and then met up with a friend and went in search of a bowl of gazpacho. When we found it I couldn't believe how perfect that moment was. I actually stopped with the spoon halfway to my mouth just to enjoy the moment. Which kind of freaked out the guy I was with, but I couldn't help it. It had turned into a really great day despite having started out as one of the worst of my trip (that morning in Barcelona my suitcase had broken). The Gazpacho turned out to be excellent, but it was the company that made that moment so perfect.

I had a few perfect moments alone (like the sunrise in Switzerland for example), but it was actually often the company that made the moments perfect.

In London I sat at a sushi bar in Paddington station and ate sushi and drank ten glasses of fizzy water and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, with the friend I'd been staying with there. That was another perfect moment that was certainly a result of the company more than anything.

Occasionally I have random impulses to become like a hermit. Lately I've also thought about divesting myself of possessions and moving to Europe (I've even looked at jobs in Dublin, London and Hamburg). The trip made me appreciate solitude a lot more, it increased these impulses to withdraw from human contact, but there are all these perfect moments and most of them are perfect because of the people. I guess it turns out I'm a people person.

Essen und Trinken

I've been back home for a few days now and have indulged myself in one of the things I missed most: mole poblano enchiladas. So, it's time to start talking about the food in Europe. I've mentioned it briefly before and the gist is that some of the food was good but a lot of it wasn't that great. I did have one food experience that was surprisingly good though and that was black pudding.



As you might imagine, black pudding is the black bit in this photo, which, by the way, is a proper English breakfast (bacon, sausage, eggs, bubble and squeak, mushrooms, and black pudding). You probably don't want to know what's in the black pudding, especially if you plan on ever eating it, but trust me it's actually kind of good (and must have loads of iron which is nice for me as I have an iron deficiency).

In Ireland they served a proper Irish breakfast which also had white pudding. I suspect that the terms black and white pudding were just coined to avoid saying that the breakfast comes with all the above plus sausage, sausage, and sausage.

I had a couple of other really great food experiences in Europe. The tapas were good. Of course the best tapas I had were in Germany (at a really great Spanish restaurant called Alhambra) and Ireland, not in Spain. The curry was good in London. And there was one really great restaurant in Munich, just up the street from where I was living, that served all sorts of food and it was all fantastic. The best was this salad with goat cheese and pumpkin seeds.

What was really great in Europe was the beverages. The juice and tea in Spain. The whiskey in Ireland. The Pimms in London. The Jagermeister and, of course, the beer in Munich. I also have to add the tequila in Mexico to this list. Normally I hate tequila, but that tequila was really good.

Fear of flying

Anyone who's taken a 7th grade science class knows the basic scientific method. First you formulate a theory and then you test it. Really test it. Not a test that's designed specifically to prove the theory but a really hard one. One that's practically designed to disprove the theory and if it doesn't disprove the theory, well, then it's a pretty solid theory.

Take my theory that 9 flights in a month and a half would cure my fear of flying by getting me so used to it that it would seem routine to me. The theory seemed pretty solid after 5 flights when I no longer needed to take Dramamine and by that 9th flight (all 10 hours of it) I was perfectly calm. The theory needed a test though and it got one.

What would you think would be the perfect, scientific method approved, test for this theory? Try putting me on the second smallest plane I've ever been on and flying me into a lightning storm.

You'll be happy to hear that the theory survived the test pretty well. I don't know that my fear is entirely conquered. My palms did get a little sweaty while flying through the lightning filled clouds over Puebla tonight; seeing the fires that I can only assume were started by the lightning. I didn't feel like I was going to puke though. So, I think I may finally be past the worst of my fear of flying.