We sold our van at THE LAST MINUTE to a guy in L.A., a great guy called Tim who we loved and were happy to pass the coach on to. He paid us in cash so we had this fat wad of “Franklins” to carry on the plane home. yikes.

We had put the ad on craigslist on Dec 1, 9 days before flying out. We got ONE response, from Tim, and he bought it, so that was a relief, because we would have been a bit screwed if we hadn’t sold it. We’d have put it into storage but it would have been a huge hassle.

Oh and p.s. we sold the van for $2500…. MORE THAN WE BOUGHT IT FOR! We bought it for 8000 and sold it for 10500. So that’s a bit thrilling. We put about 15,000 miles on it and made a damn profit. nice going, us.

Also we had a day in L.A. after we sold the van, our flight wasn’t until 8pm so we spent the afternoon riding bikes from the Inn we were staying at up to Venice beach and back and having one last mexican feast. It was a beautiful sunny day and so pleasant to spend it riding along the beach in L.A.

Very sad to say good bye to the Coach and our lifestyle… but…. NEW CHAPTER…

It’s weird and nice being back and sad too. Summer. Can’t complain. Beaches. swims. We are hanging around Newcastle (me) and Sydney (BJ and me a little) for summer.

I don’t know if I’ll keep this blog up or start a new one. If I don’t keep this one up I will definitely start a new one, I have some ideas, it will be a bit different. I’m thinking of doing a blog of movie reviews of films I haven’t seen. Just kidding, but I am thinking of an extreme opinions blog so watch out everyone.

THANKS for reading everyone, I love all of you for reading. I am grateful to have my peeps who read my blog. Thank you.

Oh and one more thing. I just want to do a quick corporate shout-out. We flew home on “V Australia” which is the Virgin pacific new airline from Sydney-L.A. and I just gotta say how much I love Virgin. I’ve never really loved a corporation before and I know it’s weird to love one so expressly but every experience I’ve had with Virgin has been so pleasant and I find their services good and all their staff very amiable.

So I left my new Nikon D40 camera on the plane. In the luggage compartment. (We had SO much baggage, 2 bikes and one gargantuan suitcase that we bought on the way to the airport, plus 3 big backpacks – a humiliating volume of luggage to be honest) anyway we had all this carry-on stuff too, including the $10500 in 100s in my bumbag… which I was guarding with my life, natch. So in my preoccupation with the bumbag when we were getting off, I forgot about my camera.

I called Virgin as soon as we got back to Newcastle when I realised I didn’t have it. They were SO NICE to me and said they would look for it and call me and gave me a reference number and a phone number and a name to call if they didn’t get back to me. When I called them the next morning the woman who answered the phone knew exactly who I was and told me she was about to call me and they had my camera. I was so relieved, but also they were just so nice and helpful to deal with and they had the camera couriered to BJ’s house in a matter of hours. It made me love them. They were super friendly.

Also the person at check-in was super friendly regarding us and our mountain of luggage. Plus all the flight attendants and the chatty pilot. Not to mention the amazing touch-screen entertainment and nice meals and our flights only cost about $500 each. I’ve flown Virgin a bunch of times and no joke, every time I do I leave the airport feeling happy about it. I really like the uniforms too. those darker-than-beige pants or skirts with red belts and flattering white shirts. I always think those uniforms look pretty hot. And I have heard that they treat their employees very well, I once was on a flight to Brisbane and one of the flight attendants was a guy I went to school with. he said he loved working for them and they treated him so well. Anyway that’s my little rant about Virgin airlines. Better than Qantas or Jetstar.

The Tucson Sonora Desert Museum

Today we went to the Desert Museum and saw this raptor display. The museum is right in the middle of the desert. They had some captive “harris hawks” which they let out and showed them off by having them fly around and then grab food out of their hands. It was pretty great to see but also that kind of stuff is only so great because you know the birds are captive and in my opinion no bird should be captive, no animal should be captive, unless it’s experience of life in captivity genuinely resembles it’s life “in the wild”. Because there were also wolves and coyotes and deer and mountain lions and bobcats in this “museum” and to me their cages were all waaay too small and I felt sorry for them and they looked depressed and unhappy with everyone staring at them in their small enclosures.

Anyway the coolest thing about the raptor display was that they were describing the raptors behaviour with the males and females, and it so happens that in the family group of these hawks the dominant one is the ALPHA FEMALE and she mates with the alpha male AND the beta male – if she wants. Basically she can mate with whoever she wants and can have more than one mate. Not too many animal structures where the female gets multiple partners. Respect to the Harris Hawk for thinking outside the box.

The White Sands

“The White Sands National Monument, New Mexico.” This is the place where the jumpsuit photos were taken, we went there on Monday and it’s a breath-taking phenomenon of vast white sand dunes in the middle of the New Mexico desert. It is STRIKINGLY beautiful, and we wandered around on those surreal dunes for a heavenly while… it was so other-worldly and astonishing, never seen anything like it before. We LOVED it. There are some more photos up that are not of me in the jumpsuit.

*I refuse to say “cacti”.

Okay, so this is a little self-indulgent, but it’s my birthday so I can take liberties… and it’s really all about showcasing the jumpsuit. Also, how amazing are these white sand dunes?

So we spent a couple of days in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico. Yes that’s right, the town with the greatest name in all this blessed land.

Truth Or Consequences, a “spa city”, used to be called Hot Springs, because it’s full of hot springs, hence spa city. But it changed it’s name in the 50’s in order to achieve radio fame. There was a radio show of that name and it offered to air the show from the town that changed it’s name to TorC and this town won the competition, or something like that. Read about it here. it’s a pretty cute story.

The town itself is kinda small and quite skiddy. But very cute. And seriously there’s a hot springs venue on nearly every corner. I spent a couple of amazing hours soaking in what was recommended to me as the best hot springs which consists of four small pools of differing temperatures sitting on the banks of the Rio Grande. um, Too nice for words.

“LAZY WIFE”

The Rio Grande is a big river that flows from Colorado down through New Mexico and then it forms a natural border between Texas and Mexico all the way to the Gulf of Mexico ocean. I know about the Rio Grande from songs and books. John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie is who I have to thank for my poetic awareness of the Rio Grande.

So yesterday we left T or C and today we are in Santa Fe. Apparently it is thanksgiving and all the shops are closed. We are in a cheap motel because we couldn’t find an RV park. We are not having any turkey. But anyway Santa Fe so far is beautiful and the surrounding area is also beautiful.

I am desperately excited about going to the museums here (which is something we don’t do much of) because this town is known for its “art and culture” and most particularly I am excited about the GEORGIA O’KEEFE MUSEUM. because I am crazy about her desert skulls and flowers and after reading a book about her a couple of years ago I feel that kind of close connection that you falsely have with someone who you’ve read a book about.

She was a big deal in New Mexico in the 30s and 40s, after being a big deal in New York.
I looove her

This is a bit off the track. Yesterday we spent half the day driving. We finally listened to the end of Jane Eyre. We had been off and on with it since August. We didn’t like it at first and then we loved it. By the end we were SO into it.

The end is so great. Mr Rochester and Jane have some really quite excellent repartee. I loved it so much I wrote some down. To share with you, dear reader.

The following are some quotes from the second last chapter where Jane and Mr Rochester are reunited after a fretful year apart during which time they don’t know if they’ll see each other again. When they find each other again, Jane has gone from being a destitute orphan to an “independent woman” (thanks to a tidy and unexpected inheritance). Mr Rochester has gone from being a proud, rather wealthy man to a blind, slightly crippled, less wealthy man, living in a shabby house in the woods with only two (!) servants.

Anyway I love these little exchanges. I can’t get enough of how Jane calls him “Master”. +++total erotic trouble.+++

“My dear master I am Jane Eyre, I am come back to you.”
“My living darling.”

“Jane, you are all together human being Jane? You are certain of that?”
“I conscientiously believe so, Mr Rochester.”

(in Jane’s head)
Delightful consciousness. It brought to life and light my whole nature, in his presence, I thoroughly lived, and he lived in mine.

“Am I hideous Jane?”
“Very, sir, you always were, you know.”

Mr Rochester: “You mocking changeling, fairy born and human bred. You make me feel as I have not felt these last twelve months.”

“Good morning sir…”

“Oh you are indeed there my skylark. Come to me. You are not gone, not vanished. I heard one of your kind an hour ago singing high over the wood, but its song had no music for me, anymore than the rising sun had rays. All the melody on earth is concentrated on my Jane’s tongue, to my ear. I am glad it is not naturally a silent one. All the sunshine I can feel is in her presence.”

(Jane)
The water stood in my eyes to hear this avowal of his dependence. Just as if a royal eagle chained to a perch should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor.

that’s all

We had been staying in Bisbee, which is a very cute little weirdo-hippie-skiddy-gay friendly-ex mining town in southern Arizona. A “colourful” place full of “characters”. Very pretty too, up in the hills with lots of old buildings and small windy streets. and colossal holes in the hillsides where the mining happened.

One of the Bisbee highlights was that Bj found a bike shop full of beautiful vintage bike frames, where the owner talked his ear off for a half hour about all the famous people he’d met and how weird Bisbee is plus every detail about every bike that Bj happened to glance at. Unfortunate was the fact that he knew all too well the value of the bikes.

So then we drove to New Mexico and the road we came on goes right down to the Mexican border, we didn’t cross it because too much hassle, but we saw the big fence and the swarm of border patrol cars. We stopped in the border town there called ‘Douglas’ and it was at the Vinnie’s in Douglas that I found and bought for two dollars the single-most amazing outfit I have ever seen, let alone owned, let alone fits me perfectly. PHOTO-SHOOT TO COME MY FRIENDS, photo-shoot to come.

The drive here was extremely nice, all desert but with mountains in the distance. Slowly escalating. We have each now seen one roadrunner from the car. on the roadside. exciting. Surprisingly they look nothing like warner bros would have us believe, amazing, they’re not blue, they’re desert coloured, who knew.

The first New Mexico town we stayed in was Lordsburg, total skidsville. on the train tracks which means freight trains howling all night long which was good news for me. I wandered around taking photos because there was nothing else to do while Bj was working.

One of the best things about these parts is all the Mexican food. But also it’s blue skies every day and a lot of beautiful desert buildings with designs on them and lots of art. The thing you notice about New Mexico is that people who live here seem to love it. state pride. not undue.

Now we are in Silver City. It’s beautiful and the people are extremely friendly.

Another movie I watched is “Funny People” starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan. I thought this was mostly stupid. I was expecting more for some reason.

I really hate it when comedies want to be comedies but then also want to tell this corny story that is supposed to be all touching and heartfelt. This does not work in the realm of a comedy. Not for me anyway. Or at least not most of the time. Unless it’s an exceptional film. But I don’t think comedies should get too emotional because it gets boring very quickly. Keep it light, roll with the gags, don’t get bogged down in an emo love story with some one-dimensional giggling babe. That’s my rule for anyone thinking of making a comedy. Anyway I mostly didn’t think this movie was very funny anyway…

>>>EXCEPT<<<

for the appearance of Eric Bana as the love interest’s crass, Australian husband. He is SO, SO FUNNY in this role. He really kinda OWNS this movie. I’m pretty sure a lot of it was improvised, and he is so much funnier than Sandler or Rogan. He lights up the screen. Seriously. The man has an incredible sense of the comedic. Maybe it’s an Aussie thing… he plays “Australian” with a wit and insight similar to Chris Lilley. Think Chopper. The man’s a genius.

I actually think it might be worth watching this film to see Eric Bana, particularly when he is very excitably watching Aussie Rules football and explaining it to Adam and Seth’s characters. So HILARIOUS. (Even Bj thought so.)

I don’t usually watch war movies because I find them traumatising and/or too annoying for words (big drama, big soundtrack, big formulaic emotions etc), but this film, with it’s minimal plot, was an effective character/situation study. It didn’t feel overblown and we were quite riveted. As I said, “real life”, but made with a certain subtlety. (If there’s one damn thing I go for in a film, it’s subtlety.) A real window into another world. Eye-opening. Crazy times for these men.

One thing it highlights is how different the war in Iraq is from other wars we know from films, such as WW1 or 2. Those wars were all about the combat in the trenches, gunfire, grenades, man to man, etc. This film gives you some idea of what it’s like fighting in Iraq, dealing with bombs that are about to explode and kill lots of civilians, for example, and hiding from snipers in the desert.

I would highly recommend this film. It was directed by a WOMAN, which I find thrilling, because I actually doubt that a woman has ever directed a war movie before. Maybe I liked it because it had the sensitive, feminine touch of the x chromosome. For example, the soldiers’ fatigues were of a floral design. Plus they talked, really talked, about their feelings at every opportunity, as well as gossiped non-stop about their comrades (and enemies!) I’m kidding about that, but I do think it’s cool that it was made by a lady.

Right now we are watching Bj’s all time favourite family sitcom, Roseanne. He wants me to write here that he thinks its one of the best all time American comedies ever because the characters are not caricatures nor do they have to be good looking like in most comedies.

Grand Casa is in the southern part of Arizona, between Phoenix and Tucson. We spent the last two nights in the desert outside of Phoenix. The desert there is full of saguaro cacti, the iconic cactus that you see in the movies etc. it was pretty cool to see lots of those cactus all over the place.

Also, yesterday we went wandering in the desert and saw a troop of horses materialise over yonder. When I approached to photograph them they all began to move spookily towards us and then move beyond us towards some unnamed but mutually understood destination. It was quite a grand experience to witness. They were so beautiful. The sight of them was truly “arresting”.