Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!

Selling up to go traveling...

I chose this image because (as you know) it's just 37 sleeps to the USA, but also because this is my car - well it's the same version as my car - a 40th anniversary edition to commemorate when the Mini won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964.

Mine doesn't have the checkered roof or details, but it has a number 37 on the side (the number of the car that won the race).

I love it, though recently I have been considering selling it and going traveling for a year. What do you think?

Any buyers?

* I just wanted to say a very big thank you to everyone for your comments and suggestions re travel to the USA and apologise for not getting around to many blogs lately (and those I do visit I haven't been leaving many comments). Planning for the big trip has been keeping me busy, but I am still here and lurking about. And I will return!

Easter break...

Wishing you all an eggs-ceptional Easter break. Hope it's eggs-citing and above all your eggs-spectations. Maybe even a little eggs-cessive!

May you be surrounded by eggs-traordinary and eggs-travagant friends and family.

Please eggs-cuse my terrible attempt at humour. It's been an eggs-hausting week (no eggs-aggeration) and my brain is feeling quite scrambled!

Could it be me in National Geographic?

Last weekend I was at my parents home in Point Lonsdale (small seaside town in Victoria, Australia) helping with a major spring clean of their home that has been ongoing for the last few months. It is an overwhelming task, mostly as the belongings of my parents have been accumulated over the course of many years and my father in particular is an incredible hoarder. This past weekend was set to be another negotiation of what was to be discarded and what to be saved as we tackled the linen press where things had been hidden away for years.

Amongst the bedding, beach towels and childhood games there was an extensive collection of National Geographic magazines, some from as long ago as 1967, the year that I was born. My father (true to form and totally expected) did not want to get rid of the magazines and so it was decided to dust them all off and return them to the shelves. As we flicked through them and placed them back, I collected a few of interest, including an edition that included an article about Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas from 1970 and another with an article about Jane Goodall. As I continued to stack the magazines back onto the shelves, another one caught my eye as I glimpsed the words Zaire River on the spine.

I opened it up, flicked to the article and exclaimed to my mother that here was the river I had once travelled, and on this very barge that was pictured in the article. It was a part of my travels in Africa that I had never been able to describe accurately as words could not do justice to the experience and I did not have any pictures of this journey. We were advised before boarding that security was a problem and it would be best to avoid carrying anything of any value with us. As we would be sleeping on the roof of one of the barges, with no real protection, most of us decided it was good advice and so most cameras were left with friends who would not be making the trip.

And so, as you may imagine, to find the article was an absolute treat for me and I was quite thrilled with the images in particular, as they bought to life a journey I had taken nearly 21 years ago.

The crocodile under the stairs, the chimpanzee that was for sale in the bar and the barge-side sales were all as I had remembered, not to mention the incredible conditions and the number of people on board. No-one could really have imagined the reality of that barge without being there or without seeing these images. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, nor seen since.

The article was published in 1991, less than two years after I was there and it didn't occur to me at first that it could have been our trip... and yet, as I looked closer, I noticed there were a number of white people in a small group on the roof of one of the boats and in fact 3 of them looked remarkably like 3 of the people in my group. Their stance and their heights and their features were certainly familiar. Seriously. I was stunned.

Could this photo have been taken at the same time we were there and could they really be people I knew? It wasn't until the following day during closer examination that I noticed another 3 people sitting further along on the highest point of the 5 boats and I think one of them might be me!

Now, this may not be of particular interest to you, but to me, to have this article bring my memories to life and that it is POSSIBLE that it is actually me there in this amazing photo in National Geographic... well that to me is so so exciting. The photographer Robert Caputo has captured the essence of what that trip was to me.

I read the article with interest and according to the magazine there was a film made of the journey and I am of course, eager to watch it and will have try to contact National Geographic to find out if it is available.

In the meantime, through the magic of the internet and Google, I visited Robert Caputo's website and here is a link to the amazing photo. His photos are available for sale via Aurora Photos and I have emailed them in an attempt to contact him and find out the dates the photos were taken.

I travelled in Africa for the first 4 months of 1989 and according to my diary we boarded the barge on Feb 19th in Kisangani and disembarked at Lisala just 3 days (and a huge adventure) later. How incredible if these photos were taken on the very same journey. And how amazing that nearly 21 years later, I should happen upon the article in a pile of magazines that had not been touched for years.

I hope to hear from Robert sometime soon and will let you know what he says.

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At 12:34 (and 56 seconds) today, the time was 12:34:56 7.8.9.
I captured it for you - just in case you missed the moment.It's not a great visual representation of this momentous occassion, but you get the idea. If you are in any of the next time zones, you may still have time to capture it too! Get excited people, this is a once in a lifetime treat.

Go crazy I say!

Confessions of a word verification nerd...

OK. I haven't admitted this to anyone, but I collect word verifications from the comment sections of blogs. I know. Crazy huh? As I said to someone just the other day, I really do need to get out more!

But seriously. For a long time, they caused me a great deal of concern. I even posted about this last October.For whatever reason I was continually getting them wrong. It may have been my reading, or more likely my dyslexic typing. Often I lost comments along the way, knowing full well the original was more witty or thoughtful. It even got the point that I would copy the comment before I hit publish, just in case I got the word verification wrong and all was lost!

And then something happened.

They started getting easier. I truly believe the words actually got simpler. In fact, some words became almost recognisable. In some cases quite amusing. And so, I started to collect them. I would see words that appealed for whatever reason and give them definitions in my head.

"goodea" (obviously) is a good idea.

menetti? the term used for Italian men who like to cook.

palmwee? Well I'm not really sure of the botanical definitions, but it's does make me think twice about standing in the shade of any palm tree anytime soon!

I know, silly really, but all in all I often find amusement in small things and i'm ok with that. So right now, on a windy Thursday evening, as I wait for pizza to be delivered to my door, because it's just too damn cold to head out and I'm too damn lazy to cook, I thought I would share some word verification goodness with you from my 'collection'.

You know I even think I might have a bit of fun and invite you to play along. Post an amusing (or meaningful) word on your blog and give it a definition! Leave a comment so I can come and visit. Alternatively, add a definition to one from my post. Go on... go crazy!

No sugar for a month? Who's bright diea was THAT?

Call me crazy, but I decided to have no sugar for a
month. No sweets, no lollies, no cakes, desserts, biscuits, cookies, no
fizzy drinks. Of course I knew I couldn't avoid all sugars, but I have
declined any offers on theafore mentioned goodies.

It sounded
like a great idea at the time. Of course, these things always do sound
better in ones own heads. I have no-one but myself to blame.

And
it has not been easy. I am a person who includes chocolate in the major
food groups. And here at day 25, it seems harder than days 1, 2 and 3.
Right now, all I want is chocolate. Forget the cakes etc, I'm not
really bothered. But chocolate is infiltrating all my thoughts.

Last
night I even dreamed I ate chocolate. And as I was half way through I
realised what I had done. I even felt guilty! And this morning I woke
up wanting it even more.

Roll on next Wednesday... July 1st is chocolate day!