The filet of the neighborhood

facedown mt sefton by lynnith

Facedowns, the travel photo project I’ve been working on with my brother and my friend Amy for the last 4 years, has been getting some love on the internest recently.  We’ve been spotted by some neat blogs, internet TV in Germany, radio in Salt Lake City and Bremen, news in Greece, the Korean equivalent of Yahoo, and a few other sites around the world in the past few weeks.  And today we were profiled in the Seattle PI!  I wish I could say this now means I am rich and famous and never have to work again, but as far as I can tell I still have to go to my temp accounts-payable job on Monday.  Shame.

At any rate, it’s been pretty awesome to watch our work fly around the virtual world!  Now if somebody would only pay us to do the same in the real world…

In the southern hemisphere, no one can hear you blog

the gang at the acdc show, originally uploaded by lynnith.

Yeah, so I’ve been neglecting this blog thing for a while, but you know, blogging and traveling is hard, whine whine whine whine.  But you two readers (hi mom! hi dad!) are in luck, because tonight I am taking a break from being utterly trashy (see above photograph) to recap my last few months in the middle of nowhere.

Avid readers will note that this blog last left off as I was packing to leave my home in Melbourne, whining about the 90 degree heat.  As of late I have become a professional flee-er of summer, so should not surprise anybody that I landed in Auckland just in time to experience its famed 60s-and-raining weather.  After a couple days in NZ sprawl, I caught a Stray bus north to Paihia in the Bay of Islands.  I spent a week up there, hiking, sand-boarding, boating, eating pies, and brushing up on my beer pong skills.   I saw whales, waterfalls, cows, and best of all, an east coast sorority girl try to explain the concept of rush week to the English.  It was great.

The weather started getting too warm (UPPER 60s!), so after my week in Paihia I packed my bags and headed for Seoul, S. Korea to visit Our Lady of Catface for Thanksgiving.  My friend Amy, who some of you may know as 1/3 of Facedowns, has been teaching English out there for the last year.  This was our second expat Thanksgiving – previously, we taught the Irish about green bean casserole and garlic mashed potatoes and gluttony despite the Great Chip Pan Fire Incident of ’06.  Fortunately, this time we didn’t lose our intended kitchen three days before the feast.  And we’re quite proud of our massive achievement – the upstairs neighbor called the cops on our party at 7pm on a Saturday!  Result!

Disinterested in any further run-ins with the law, I fled back to New Zealand and commenced a bus tour of the North Island’s tourist hotspots.  Highlights included boogie boarding and flying fox-ing in Raglan, blackwater rafting in the caves of Waitomo, rafting down a 7m waterfall in Rotorua, walking around White Island (an active marine volcano) in a gas mask and hard hat, and the ultimate NZ tourist activity, skydiving at Lake Taupo.  I had a fantastic time, and met some great people, but NZ is hard on the pocketbook, so a week before Christmas I headed down to Wellington to resume working.  And in typical me fashion I’ve been funemployed ever since!  Actually, that’s not true – I’ve been doing a bit of temping, but (don’t tell my agencies) I don’t consider that real work (or fun!).

The upshot to being underemployed is that I have been doing a bunch of cooking.  In the last few months I’ve successfully made fresh pasta & ravioli, peanut butter, jam, dill pickles, pulled pork, barbecue sauce, scones, muffins, applesauce, roasted chicken & stock, tomato sauce, and all kinds of other delicious things.  I am going to try to blog a bit more often, and hopefully share some recipes as I try them.

More updates soon (so I promise) about what I’ve been up to in Wellington and etc…

Unorthodox air conditioning

KOALA GLAMOUR SHOT!, originally uploaded by lynnith.

It’s getting warm here in Melbourne.  Today it hit 90, which was a bit high for my weak winter constitution.  Our little backpacker hovel doesn’t have air conditioning, so I’m doing the next best thing and moving to New Zealand tomorrow!

My work contract ended last Friday, and in the past week I’ve wasted no time getting into vacation mode.  I spent the weekend in Sydney, and was surprised to discover that I actually like it up there.  Melbourne & Sydney have a fierce rivalry and usually folks like one or the other, but despite my love for Melbs I think I could really enjoy living in Sydney.  I managed to pack quite a bit into the weekend – everything from a 10k coastal walk to some Prokofiev at the Opera House.  And I even got to ride a ferry!

Back in Melbs, I spent a couple free days doing classy things like watching ethnographic films at ACMI and eating delicious meals.  Then it was off to the Great Ocean Road for 2 days, where I took the above photo.  Also, in what is beginning to be a trend, I took to the skies over the 12 Apostles, in a helicopter this time.  Don’t worry, though – despite all this height-related tourism, I’m not jumping on (off?) the skydiving bandwagon just yet.

It’s kind of funny to be excited to leave a city I really like, but I think New Zealand is going to be great fun.  And it certainly helps that I’m planning to come back here in a couple years.  I’d write about my thoughts on moving around at more length, but I think the heat has completely fried my brain.  Time to pack the carryon, I think, and drink some wine!

Time flies, but we fly better

It’s a funny thing to think about, but I’m in the same position right now as I was on my last day at Amazon in May.  In a month and a half, I will be leaving Melbourne for New Zealand.  Astute stalkers will note that I haven’t done a lot of travel so far – I haven’t even left Victoria.  I’m finding that Australia is just too big for ambitious weekend trips, and as a contract worker, I don’t have any holiday time that I can use for three-day weekends.  Instead I’ve been setting my sights on November & December as the big travel months.  In some ways, my real “quit my job and took off traveling” adventure starts then, as my time in Melbourne has been pretty normal.

My work contract ends 30th October, after which I have a week left in Australia.  I figure I can’t really justify four months here without at least visiting Sydney, so I’ve got a 3 day trip planned up there.  I’m also taking advantage of free midweek days by taking a 2 day trip to the Great Ocean Road, which everybody says is spectacular.  And then, on 8th November, it’s off to New Zealand.  From the 8th – 19th, I’ll be basing my travels out of Auckland.  I’m planning on spending a decent chunk of time exploring the northern tip of the island; according to my Kiwi housemates, the Bay of Islands is a must.  Then on the 19th, it’s off to Korea for 2 weeks of ridiculous expat Thanksgiving shenanigans, courtesy my friend Amy, who’s an English teacher out there.  She is quite resourceful and has discovered that we can pre-order a turkey through the US Army base in Seoul.  And we have lots of practice with overseas Thanksgivings – three years ago we successfully introduced a handful of Irish to our proud American tradition of gluttony.  If I still meet airline weight restrictions after our feast, I’ll be getting back to NZ on 2nd December.  The next day, I’m heading off to my new home for the next year, Wellington, by way of tourism.  I am planning for this journey to take about 2 weeks but am not committing to anything; travel with deadlines is no fun at all!  I’m using a backpacker’s hop-on hop-off bus called the Stray Bus to do the North Island circuit.  Here’s a map of it all:

The idea is that I get to Wellington somewhere around mid-December, and spend a while hanging out and enjoying the summer until January, when I’ll get back out into the job market.  I haven’t fully sorted this out yet, but I am hoping to spend New Year’s Eve at the Rhythm & Vines festival and Christmas in the cinema watching In the Loop with a hip flask.  Ambitious plans, I know.

So what else have I been doing in Melbourne, apart from planning my escape?  Here are some things:

Kiwi parties.  Winning trivia nights.  Hanging out at my new favorite place in Melbourne – the ACMI Mediatheque.  Cooking enormous meals.  Steffi, I have baked 3 things – be proud!  Playing squash and soon netball during the basketball break.  Watching the Huskies win, and win, and then lose horribly.  Avoiding AFL (this is difficult).  Eating kangaroo, drinking Cooper’s.  Battling with my employer, who have not been taking tax out of my paychecks.  They deserve every bit of their bankruptcy proceedings.  Meeting up with a college friend who happened to be in town.  $4 pizzas at Bimbos.  Telling myself I’ll meet the YHA folks in the city at 8:45 on Sundays for hikes, and then deciding to sleep in.  Drinking from goon bags.  White wine that tastes like red wine (and not in a good way).

Consider yourselves informed!

Excuse me, is this seat saved?

This weekend, I headed out to LA proper to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ declaration of American independence.  Saturday was spent with my friend Leah, who moved to Burbank from Seattle in February.  She took me to a bbq/pool party in a place hilariously named “Valley Village” (really?), put on by an old childhood friend of hers she hadn’t seen since she was 5 or 6.  It was good fun – until someone put their foot through a skylight…  After that, we headed over to Santa Monica to roam the beach and watch folks set off fireworks.  It was pretty:

santa monica beach on the 4th, originally uploaded by lynnith.

On Sunday, I met up with my friend Joyce, who I worked with back in the day at Cannes Lions in London.  I can always count on her for an interesting collection of LA sights & food, and Sunday was no exception.  We started the day with brunch, and then headed over to the Museum of Jurassic Technology.  I heartily recommend the museum for anybody who enjoys the extremely weird – it’s devoted to the fringe and features such exhibits as Garden of Eden on Wheels: Collections from Los Angeles mobile home and trailer parks.  We also learned that eating two mice on toast, fur and all, will cure incontinence.  After we conquered the museum, we walked up one of LA’s foothills for a view of the city and lots of off-leash dogs.  None of them were in the same class as Seattle dogs though!  Shameful.  We finished off the day with shaved ices from Milk & some excellent Thai food.

Then it was Monday, and time for Steffi and I to take our classiest roadtrip ever – a pilgrimmage to the Salton Sea and more importantly, Salvation Mountain.  The mountain is built around a hill about 3 miles outside of Niland, a dusty little town with delicious Mexican food.  It’s actually still a work in progress – Leonard Knight, its creator, works and lives there and has done so for the past 25+ years.  Here he is at the mountain:

the man & his mountain, originally uploaded by lynnith.

The whole thing was pretty surreal, and after our little tour we both decided we’d been saved.  And what better way to celebrate being saved than to head up to Palm Springs and gamble for Jesus?  Turns out, Steffi’s in much better spiritual shape than me – she netted out $150 while I only won $25…

Later today I’m headed to the airport – hopefully my pilot isn’t one of the Michael Jackson funeral lottery winners and I’ll be Australia-bound at 9:30 tonight.  I land at 9:30 in the AM on Thursday; the next time I blog, I shall be in the FUTURE!

In the words of General MacArthur said, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”

I’m writing this from Diamond Bar, CA, a burb to the far east of Los Angeles, out among the foothills and the valley of the dirt people and million-dollar homes with H3s out front.  It’s warm, and primarily beige-colored, which I suppose makes it a good place to clear my head of all the packing & moving & goodbyes before I head off into the Australian winter.  Most importantly, it’s home to Steffi & Wes, who’re letting me stay for the week against their better judgement.  I think I’ve just about managed to conquer their entire living room with my couch-surfing self and all my worldly possessions.

My final couple weeks in Seattle were pretty fun – had lots of great food, met up with tons of folks, and got my party on.  I did time my departure so as to be present for our house’s annual birthday/pride/etc extravaganza, and this year’s was certainly quite excellent.  Pre-party, a bunch of my friends came over & we held a powerpoint competition; everybody had 5 minutes and an assigned topic.  It sounds really nerdy (& probably is) but it was actually quite entertaining.  Enough alcohol was eventually consumed that the morning after the party, my brother woke up to find his stationery out and a stamp missing…

I also managed to see David Byrne again, this time at the Paramount – he clearly was informed about my trip and scheduled his latest Seattle tour stop for June 26th!  The show was great, and he even brought the Extra Action Marching Band up with him, which almost made up for the lack of encore-tutus.

DB and the Extra Action Marching Band, originally uploaded by lynnith.

I didn’t much enjoy packing & saying goodbye to everyone, not that those things are ever fun.  Goodbyes are not my strong suit – though I’m great at leaving!  It was particularly sad saying goodbye to Devo, who had been my unwitting funemployment BFF all month.  I have to say, though, it is an amazing feeling to look down and see all of your belongings for the next three years packed neatly into one rolling luggage, one backpack (not even half full), and one daypack.  It makes me never want to buy anything again – a feeling which will last as long as it takes me to find a camera shop and pick up a new circular polarizer!

Things I have done so far in LA: ordered food at a restaurant from a touch-screen, seen Public Enemies at a tiki-themed drive-in, gone swimming, shot hoops with a bouncy kickball, shopped at an American Tesco

This weekend it’s off to LA proper, where Leah is taking me to a stranger’s BBQ for the 4th, and then being awesome and letting me crash on her floor.  Sunday I’m gonna tool around the city with Joyce, where we will relive our London glory days and probably eat some awesome food in the process.  Monday, Steffi and I are taking an epic all-American roadtrip to celebrate my last day in the country.  We’re heading east, stopping in Palm Springs and at the Salton Sea but most importantly ending up at Salvation Mountain, a crazy technicolor man-made Jesus mountain in the middle of the desert.  I will report back on all that – certainly can’t imagine a better way to spend my last few days in the US!!

Before I sign off for the evening, I’d just like to point out that this post is about 1/5 the length of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech also.  Wink!

It’s impossible for demon on phone to say “Jesus Christ came in the flesh”

Seattle had a “heat wave” this week, which means I picked the best week ever to be unemployed (or funemployed as the SF Weekly would have it).  I decided against a list of things to do before I leave – instead, I’m just taking a bunch of walks.  So far, I’ve walked to the International District, Madison Park, Sculpture Park (via a pint at Kells), Eastlake, and Pike Place.  On the list: U Village (today!), the waterfront/West Seattle water taxi, and most ambitiously, Green Lake.  And I’m not just getting some nice walks in – I’m also learning important Life Lessons!

bible test works!!, originally uploaded by lynnith.

In other news, my 4 month Australia visa finally came thru yesterday.  It’s amazing how much easier it is to get all the admin stuff done this time around – I’ve already applied for my tax number online, and in the next couple weeks I’ll have my local bank account and mobile phone all squared away too.  Not much left to do!

This is what happens when Michael & I are allowed out of the country

FACEDOWN TO THE GLUE FACTORY!!!, originally uploaded by lynnith.

Those horses never knew what hit ‘em.

The sound of business

Hi!  I think I’m blogging again – theoretically about the crazy turmoil I’m introducing into my life after two years of relative stability.  Here is the plan thus far:

June 30-ish: Roadtrip down to LA
July 7th: Fly from LAX to Melbourne, Australia
July 9th: Arrive in Melbourne, find a job, perhaps as a professional dog glamour photographer
November 8th: Leave Melbourne for Wellington, New Zealand & a 1-year work visa

Last year in November, I wound up in Chile & Bolivia for 2 weeks; it was my first proper international trip since coming back to Seattle in early 2007.  I realized that while my job had the potential to be professionally rewarding, it wasn’t personally rewarding enough.  And if the trip was the highlight of my year, maybe it was time to refocus.  I don’t see much point in spending most of my life waiting until I have enough vacation time to take a break and live…

So, I gave notice at work on Friday.  I’m sending off the final stack of paperwork for my Australia visa tomorrow.  And I have already figured out who gets all my furniture!  Not bad for 2 months out.