Show and Tell

This week I’m showing my map of the USA one of only three things adorning the walls in my room (the other two are White Sox and Kane County Cougar pennants I picked up on my last trip). I always struggle to remember how different the scale is on a map of this ginormous country than a map of the UK, so when my head is looking at a distance between two places and saying “hmm about a twenty minute drive” in reality I’d be on the road for oh about 3 and a half hours. It’s hard for me to wrap my Scottish head around. I put the map up a couple of years ago now when I was learning more and more about the different states but I, in all honesty, had no clue how they fit together. I mean I used to think New Jersey was north of New York. Seriously. It’s so much worse when you think that I was living there at the time! I also thought New Mexico actually was a country all of its own (as you can tell, geography is my real forte hahaha). Maybe someone out there can explain to me: why Washington D.C. is nowhere near Washington state, why Michigan City is actually in Indiana, come to think of it… how come Michigan is split in such an awkward way with that upper peninsula thing when all the other states lines seem somewhat logical… and another thing… why oh why do you guys say “Kansas” but Arkansas becomes “ar-ken-saw”?  Drives me nuts, despite the fact that as a Brit I can’t really lecture people about writing things one way and saying them another without a really bad pot kettle black situation. (EDIT – Gadget Guy here… hello? There’s no “F” in “Lieutenant” as an example).

So far I’ve only been able to stick three “been there done that” pins in my map:

New York

Orlando

Chicago

I’d give you my wish list too, but really there isn’t anywhere that’s NOT on my wish list.

I can’t when exactly this was… perhaps when Craig Ferguson was trying to get Honorary Citizenship from as many places as possible OR when I was watching your election map turning red and blue all over the place, but for a while I used to have a recurrent dream when I started my own campaign to get a pen friend in every state so that I could pick and poke all thier American brains with my sometimes stoopid often irritating questions of how come… why… what about… the country is just so fascinating to me.

Ali xX

P.S. Don’t forget to check out what everyone else is sharing.

Spaceman.

What do you think of when you’re lying in bed at night trying to sleep? Counting sheep is the cliché but it’s just not my style. Instead I take a trip around the world. I have Wander Lust… it really troubles me how little travel I’ve been able to accomplish in the past few years. I grew up as an expat – a Brit living abroad – and oddly I actually feel more comfortable in that position than I do living back at “home” in the UK. The opportunities I had to be immersed in other cultures, even languages, is something I am so grateful to have expirenced in my childhood, but it has resulted in an endless curiosity about foreign places and people who think and live there lives differently than myself. I want to experience everything, to see and try to understand the world. I guess the downside is I find it hard to settle and stay someplace and nowhere really feels like my “home”.  I’d almost snatch your arm off if you were offering me a plane ticket. So, at night, I try to figure out the places I would refuse to go to if you offered me the chance right now. There’s not many of them.  I think of all the places on my travel wish list and what I would love to do when I got there.

Just tonight, Gadget Guy forced me through his sheer enthusiasm when recounting the history of the space program to add “space” on my list of possible travel destinations. Something I had never really done before…

Isn’t it cool listening to someone talk about something they really care about – the thing they have a real passion for – that place where they feel comfortable… where they realize that they know what they are talking about  and they know they have things to teach you  if you would only listen. Being in their element makes people come alive somehow. Perhaps it’s just confidence that has this effect. Space does this to my friend. He’s the one who had me reading from the Adult Space Camp website at stoopid o’clock in the morning… and actually wanting to go… you can wear heels with a flight suit right? LMAO.  He’s rolling his eyes at that comment for sure

Ali xX

Journey time

One of the things I’ve promised myself is that when I get back on my feet and actually have one of those job things I will NO longer travel by coach. I’ll pay the extra (even if this sometimes means the fare is doubled) and take the flipping train. This weekend I travelled back home to Scotland for an important occasion and due to the ever present budget issues that come with long term unemployment.  The only way I was going to get up there was buying the budget coach ticket and gritting my teeth for the journey. These are the kinds of things you do for really important people in your life and I don’t regret going one bit, but after this mammoth trip I swear I went to bed that night and I had a dream… a dream of a time when train travel once again became affordable and punctual,  a dream where I had a job and could afford to book a train ticket without agonizing over the cost vs. comfort question. Oh boy it was wonderful. Let me explain: the coach trip from Liverpool to my final Scottish destination takes just under 9 hours. Yes, NINE.  I could fly to from here to Chicago in that time – I know I’ve done it.  Do you know how much it winds me up that what should be a 4-5 hour drive ends up taking up as much of my time as a FLIGHT TO THE USA? Aherm… and I LOVE Scotland and all… I really do… but you know which trip I’d rather be making. Yeah, I love Scotland. NINE HOURS THOUGH!

My train trip fantasies also have the added advantage of more leg room – ability to get up and stretch my legs for even a few minutes because you legally have to be strapped in with a seatbelt the entire time.  The entire time… that is unless of course you need to relieve yourself and you find that you’re starting to wonder if they even have a bathroom on this bus. Push that thought out of your mind for God sakes. Cross your legs. Think of desserts and cream crackers and all things dry. Bite your tongue and hold it because, trust me, you do not want to discover the answer to that “do they have bathroom” question unless you REALLY REALLY have NO OTHER OPTION.  There’s only one thing worse than seeking out the bathroom and that’s being the poor bugger sat near to the thing because – trust me – the smell finds you in a huge waft every time the door is opened and you start to seriously hate those inconsiderate passengers who might need to pee during the course of nine hours… actually shuddering with fear and trying to brace your nose for the tidal wave type assault you know is coming as soon as that little flimsy door is opened.  *gag*

Of course we have to be grateful for small mercies:  the rest stop! A twenty minute break at a service station somewhere in the Lake District to grab some cold food (no hot food allowed on board) and a chance to join the stampede towards the Holy Grail: a proper toilet that flushes and everything!  On this particular occasion, my rest stop was anything but restful. Having left my bits and bobs including my jacket on board, I wandered over to the service station building and casually remarked to a fellow pilgrim… umm… passenger how glorious the sunshine was today. I mean actually short sleeve t-shirt hot.  Big mistake. HUGE MISTAKE. 10 minutes later there I am in the overpriced for a captive audience shop searching for a butter free sandwich (ok butter is a huge phobia of mine. My bad) when I become aware of this noise. It sounds like rain on the roof… but it can’t be. It was sunny not 10 minutes ago… and this is a loud noise deafening. That’s a lot of rain. Yep, I got to the door to discover we’d been lured inside unprotected because of the evil promise of a sunny afternoon and now EVERYONE is crammed into this tiny doorway staring in disbelief at the torrential downpour. I mean, the car park was covered and flooded in minutes.  It was a cruel cruel joke and as the clock ticked down towards the immoveable leaving time. I knew I was going to have to get VERY wet or get left behind… RUUUUUUUN !

I got drenched. Wet right through with 4 hours at least left to sit and stew in my sodden clothes, just to ram the point home. When in the Lake District, ALWAYS take your fu**ing jacket. The coach was back on the road and filled with a stream of 50 drying passengers and 5 minutes later the sun is back out shining bright in the sky and laughing at our naivety for presuming it might stick around for 20 minutes to allow us a “comfort” break. Lesson learned.

I’ve said it already: I love Scotland. I’m Scottish. I love Scotland in the unconditional way I love family. Even when the place pisses me off, I still care. Even if we don’t see each other for ages. Even if I have grown up and moved away. I’ll always go back, I have to visit and gawd help you NOBODY gets to dis my Scotland but me and of course the other members of the human race who can proudly claim they come from the land of such culinary icons as haggis, Iron Bru and the deep fried Mars Bar (yes they exist. In my experience only an Englishman  actually eats one!)  I always forget just how much I miss the place until I cross the border on a return journey. The mountains grow and (usually) the black clouds and the rain rolls in. Welcome to Scotland… oh how I miss thee.

I’d move back tomorrow, but sadly KM being as proudly English as I am Scots (uh huh we bicker a lot)  I don’t see it happening anytime soon..

I arrived safely in Perth at the appointed time and as if by magic through the sun and the showers a pretty pretty rainbow to welcome me and I may have just been hallucinating after NINE hours on a bus sat next to a lovely lady dressed head to foot in the brightest pink I have ever seen, but I swear I heard a soundtrack of the Hallelujah Chorus as we pulled in and that bus door opened… Freedom!

Laugh now, but I am determined to see the day when I can afford to take the train is coming… oh yes!

Ali xX

Oh Bother !

Soooo I owe everyone a big apology because I am stooopid and a little slow on the uptake. Let me explain: I absolutely love the idea behind IComLeaveWe. It totally rawks and I have discovered many a wonderful blog while making my monthly travels around the parts of the bloggy world that appear on Mel’s list, so of course I ran to sign up again for the month of July like an over eager teachers pet – Me me ooohh can I play please!?…  in the excitement, totally forgetting that I would be away most of the critical week in July with very little access to the internet. Ummm yeah. D’oh.  See I’m an ijit! I’m sooo sorry to all of you that did drop by and leave me a little note to let me know you were here. Please forgive me. I’ll be making my return visits over the next few days.

I say next few days because when I finally returned from my trip (that’s a story in itself ) I came home to find KM rolling around on the couch moaning “I’m sick .. I’m sick .. Ali I’m siiiiiiickkk I’m going to die!”  Uh huh, so I grant him that catching a cold in the middle of summer SUCKS, but I don’t think its gonna kill him. Unless of course it turns out to be the dreaded Swine Flu and then oh I’ll feel silly. Of course KM loves to share, so now I’m all squeaky voiced “cold in my ed an my dose”  and my sinuses are so stuffed up it feels like someone hit my face with a frying pan (nice !). Well at least now we can grumble together. Helpfully, the national news papers over here are carrying a daily reminder of the Swine Flu symptoms and by gawd we have the pandemic helpline number at the ready JUST IN CASE. Nothing like a bit of melodramatics to keep life interesting… uuggh!

Oh oh so I was a really organized person while I was away too and took notes about all the things I wanted to write about  and expand into posts, so I’ll also be filling those in as soon as… well, that motivation thing  shows up. I have to remind myself because notes are all fancy and make me feel like an over achiever but they ain’t worth nothing if I don’t actually WRITE THE POSTS!

Ali xX

Do me a favor: Give the man a seat!

I have a confession:  when I got home last night I could not be bothered to cook and as it was late/dark /cold and I had panic issues, I went to the closest take away and got myself a veggie pizza. Very bad of me. Now I realize that I will have days when I break my own rules regarding diet, but boy am I paying for it today. I feel guilty and bloated.

I may feel weak about the diet slip up, but I am not weak. I pulled myself together and went out to Liverpool today, just like I told you I would. I was shopping for hours and the place was busy. I’d like to be able to tell you that the day passed without incident but well that wouldn’t exactly be telling the truth.  You see, I made a fatal error. I asked Jon to come shopping with me after the panic I got myself into. I thought I would cope better. I should of course have realized that taking a guy like Jon clothes shopping with me would only end in disaster. I have to add here that in fairness, it’s not his fault. He was really really patient with me for several hours, which only proves that he was trying really REALLY hard. I had a list of things I needed to get ready for my trip this weekend and I wasn’t having much luck finding anything that actually looked ok on me rather than just fitting me. :S With hindsight I should have gone on my own. Things came to head when a very uncomfortable man being pushed to his limits by a girl with a shopping addiction just wanted to sit down, was relieved to find that the fitting room had a couch at the entrance. He was just launching into a rant for the benefit of anyone who would listen along the lines of “aaahhh… finally… a seat. These things should be mandatory in all these stores” as I dived into the cubicle to try on my items. As I heard the assistant tell him “I’m sorry you can’t sit there … there are some chairs over by the shoes” even I’m going WHAT the… it made no sense to me. I mean I guess, yeah, the couch was technically just sitting on the carpet that marked the fitting room as different to the shop floor but jebus, let the guy sit down. There are cubicles here, there are locks and what’s more there is NOBODY else in the place. Do you realize the trouble you have just caused me, woman? I mean I can practically hear the steam coming out of his ears from here.   You’re lucky that he’s only going to blow up at me later and not give you a piece of his mind right here.

I came out of the changing room knowing there would be trouble of some kind, and sure enough I couldn’t see Jon anywhere.  Cue panic. I was already stressing over how long this trip had been taking. Now I can’t see him ANYWHERE and the longer I’m looking the more and more aware I am that I’m still wearing the shops clothes. He must have left. I’m edging over to the door desperately trying to convey to the security guard my best “I’m not about to make a run for it honest ” face because by now he has totally noticed me. Eventually, I spied his reflection in the window of the shop next door and somehow was able to attract his attention and all ended well – but for a few minutes there I really thought I was going to have to spent my budget paying for clothes I had just thrown up on…

Anyways, onto the good news… I found everything I needed for my trip and a few extras. What can I say… it happens especially when these extras are adorable. Gosh I would feel sexy in those thigh high boots. I was right – I DO feel great in them. So much so that I’m not even sorry I caved-in to the shoe thing again!!

I’ve picked my book for this month. I’ll be reading:

Narrow Dog to Indian River (by English narrow boat through an America nobody knows) Written by Terry Darlington  

The blurb on the back starts like this:

“Nobody has ever sailed an English narrow boat in the USA before … for reasons that become clear during the nine month voyage of the Phyllis May – Including 30 mile sea crossings ,blasting heat, tornados, hurricanes ,starving alligators, killer fish ,insects from hell and the walking dead.”

I got this far and I’m already chuckling at the idea of anyone sailing a brightly colored narrow boat anywhere in the US. That takes guts, in my book. What a cool idea. I wish I’d thought of it… hehe… but when I read that this adventure takes place in the Deep South and that one third of the crew is a whippet named Jim, I have high hopes that this book will have me laughing out loud. How could I not read it! Hoping I’m not disappointed.

On a more boring but practical note: I’ll also be reading Polycystic Ovary Syndrome the facts by Mohgah Elsheikh & Caroline Murphy this month as part of my effort to become more informed. I hear this rumor that knowledge is power, ya see.

The book is recommended by Verity the PCOS patient support group over here in the UK. I’m thinking about joining when I can – just a small matter of the £25 a year membership fee, which to me seems very reasonable. I want access to all the information I can and hopefully I could connect to some other women in my situation that way too     
I’m awarding myself a pat on the back today because I actually got off my backside and went swimming this evening for the first time in years – part of that whole “find exercise I can enjoy” idea. I chose swimming because one of the things on my list of issues is the fact that my left knee is screwed. It’s prone to swelling and can be painful after activity. In the water the exercise has less impact on your joints. It’s a bonus that I’m a total water baby – so I actually find swimming fun and relaxing.  Oddly I’m only self conscious about the way I look in a bathing suit when I’m not in the water. I had to grit my teeth and ignore this feeling tonight, but I did it.  I was only in the pool for 40 minutes of the hour session but it’s a start.  At the end of the day I might look awful but at least I’m trying to do something about it.  That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. I’m happy to report that my knee is fine tonight. While I was in the pool I was very aware of the difference in muscle strength / tone between my left and right leg – a difference I hadn’t really felt before. Hopefully this will improve too if I keep making a splash in the pool.

I’m going away to Scotland for the weekend tomorrow and I haven’t even finished packing yet ! but I’ll be taking  good old fashioned pen and paper with me so I can write each day and post when I get back. I’m not sure whether I’m more nervous about the trip or more excited. Keep you fingers crossed for me it goes well think positive!

See you on Monday

Ali xX 

K.S.: I say it again … LOVE my new boots!