Privyet....

Long time... no blog! But for once I do have excuses that I can give you all. About three weeks ago I had a work conference in Houston for 6 days. I can tell you, in my opinion, Houston has little to recommend itself. Unless of course you are a fan of sweltering heat. Foolishly, I did a fun run at the conference, which started at around 6:30am. Yes, AM. But by 7am, the steam in the air was somewhat like a well functioning sauna. My run was less than stellar, but getting up at sparrow fart and running in heat, deserves some sort of allowances. As a geek, at a Physics conference, in Houston, of course I went out to NASA. Bite me. But if it helps, I followed it up with some more shopping. True to form, I came home with twice as many shoes as I left with. In my defence, one pair is for Subtle....

I was home for a few days. Just enough time to "catch up" with Subtle (is that a covert way of saying, shagged like minks??) and wash my clothes before I left off another trip. But this time it is to Russia. I have been planning this trip since December last year. Well before Subtle was even a blip on my radar. But true to form, plan a holiday... get a boyfriend. Handy thing is, it is something to annoy my travel partner with for the next seven weeks. Yes, SEVEN weeks. About the same length of time that Subtle and I have been together. *sigh*

So, my trip to Russia started a week or so ago, with flying into Vladivostok, and then getting on the Trans-Siberian Railway. For those of you who have visions that this is some sort of luxury rail line... please let me dispel those myths now. Like most Eastern European trains, the quality and hygiene is questionable, and conditions are spartan. But, go me for my ability to slum with the best. Same clothes for days, no makeup, heavy drinking every night and lots of local foods to punctuate my day.

We stopped in Irkutsk, with a side trip to Listvyanka which is on the shore of Lake Baikal. The Lake is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world and has about 20% of the world's freshwater. Unfortunately, statistics like this do not extend to the state of the town. No matter, lucky we don't complain. Except when we returned to Irkutsk where we were booked into a hotel with a double bed. For two single straight women. Bozhe Moi! Especially when we made it clear to our (useless) Travel Agent that we wanted twin beds everywhere. And then, the hotel gave me food poisoning from my dinner.

So here I sit in their "Business Centre" using the internet, trying to suppress further urges to vomit, like I had been all night, before I am about to get on the train again for three nights and four days. I am not sure if I need to drink more Vodka to cure this or just keep avoiding it?

It goes without saying that I miss Isabella and Subtle - although it is amazing how much phone coverage one can get in Siberia.....

Next stop Moscow!

Oh so happy to be home

Just in case you were wondering, I am fine and back in the country. My time in San Francisco was most enjoyable. I spent the days shopping and being a tourist and the nights eating at either fancy or highly recommended restaurants. At last I can say that there is good food to be found in the USA, but I just have to pay handsomely for it.

I purchased what I think amounts to nearly a new wardrobe. But who wouldn't when one has lost weight, and then throw into it the wacky US sizing system, which plunged my size down even further. Trust me, the ego got a good rub out of it.

The funniest things that I heard in San Francisco were from a tour bus operator and a homeless person. First example, when doing the "tourist thing" above a double decker open top bus, the guide was trying to engage the patrons by asking them where they were from. As is the case with people in these situations, everyone fell deathly quiet. To prompt everyone into action, our tour guide declared, "This isn't an existential bus trip. Everyone is from somewhere!"

Now I don't care if he uses that line every day for the next 10 years. It is piss-funny.

The second thing I heard that made me chortle was from a begging homeless man. There are an awful lot of beggars in San Francisco. More than I expected. And to stand out from the crowd, people have come up with their own spin on the begging game. Call me heartless if you will, but I don't give money to beggars. I would rather channel money into organisations that help people back on their feet, instead of giving them money directly. But I was so tempted to give one man money. He stood on the footpath proclaiming, "I am in need of some help here people. I need to get inebriated. They say honesty is the best policy, so I thought I would see how it works for me."

Champagne begging I tell you.

Otherwise, I was VERY happy to be coming home. No, I did not see Bond. We spoke on the phone a lot, but of course, true to form, he made allusions to seeing me, but it didn't happen. On landing back in Oz, we had a charming fight via phone where he called me a "psycho nut-bag".

I laughed. He hasn't seen psycho. Yet. *insert maniacal laughter here, and rubbing of hands*

'Tis been a long time...

Having not been overseas since the dramas of Bond from nearly two years ago, I am currently overseas, for my first of three trips this year. Unfortunately, I am in San Francisco, which is about 1 hour away from where fuckhead will be in a day's time. The therapist and I have discussed at length the issues of me "catching up with him". Yes, I know. You can all berate me, if we do catch up. But, I know that I need to see him, to maybe prove myself that I don't desire him anymore.

Fuck knows. Of course, I am horny as all get out and that certainly doesn't help.

Watch this space.



P.S. Otherwise - suggestions of things to do/places to go in the next few days...? (Yes, Alcatraz is on the list already.)