We arrived yesterday and got a cab from the airport to the Alfama district. We'll be staying here for the next two weeks. Our very friendly airbnb host greeted us at the door. The apartment is lovely and airy with a view of the Tejo river, a welcome site as our place in Istanbul looked out on a wall several stories high. It did become the scene of a gripping small world drama but more about that later.
Cat on the ledge
a view of the Alfama from our apartment
The Alfama district is the oldest district in Lisbon and a labyrinth of narrow, winding stone streets. During Moorish rule it was home to fishermen and
the poor. The Alfama was also the only part of the city to survive the earthquake and tsunami
of 1775 which almost completely destroyed the rest of Lisbon. I can't imagine how horrifying it must
have been watching the tsunami pull the water back revealing, according to records from the time, "a sea floor littered with lost cargo and shipwrecks".
Ok. Gotta go. It's time for a customary first day in a new country, make-do, shitty sandwich then a walk. If you want to read more about Lisbon, I recommend reading the Never Ending Voyage. They do a fine post on Lisbon. Though I travel a lo t these days, this isn't really a travel blog. And there's always my go-to site, Wikipedia, if you want to read more about Lisbon. Cheers.
This is where the post about Flat Thea was supposed to be. But no. By whatever twist of fate, whatever ill wind, bad karma, goddamn computer glitch, blogger fuck up, some Sultan's cranky ghost or, nearly impossible to consider, but perhaps because of something I did, I don't know, but when I was nearly done I undid something, a totally ordinary action, and the post vanished. After that, try though I did, there was no way to retrieve it. Gone.
Flat Thea at the Topkapi Palace
(Top-cop-ie)
Thea, our six-year old granddaughter, made Flat Thea in kindergarten as part of a geography project and we got to participate. Photograph Flat Thea wherever we go and send Thea the photos. Then she takes them to school and adds them to a map along with all the other kid's photos of their Flat "whoevers" wherever they've been over the past few weeks. This post started as a few outtakes but, as is often the case with me, it got complicated.
Flat Thea at Hagia Sophia
(Eye-ya Sophia)
First I included a description of Topkapi Palace, then the briefest mention of the city, cities, that have flourished on the banks of the Bosphorus for the last two thousand years. No surprise given that the Bosphorus Strait is a very important waterway connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranian and North Atlantic as well as being part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. Once I did that, of course, I had to include some mention of the Sultans, harems, eunuchs and how young princes were strangled with a silken cord to reduce challenges to the crown prince yet avoid the spilling of royal blood. And just as I was done, and adding the photos, poof! A flick and everything vanished and I could not get it back. Now you will have to imagine all that for yourself, or read Wikipedia like I did. I have no heart to go on.
Flat Thea in Istanbul
Since arriving nine days ago, we have visited all but one of the "must see" sites and otherwise wandered around Istanbul straining to catch glimpses of ancient Byzantium, great lost Constantinople and Istanbul of today. Today we will take a ferry up the Bosphorus strait to the Yoros Castle from which we will be able to at least get a glimpse of something that has fascinated me since childhood, the Black Sea. And today, Swami, Minerva and Flat Thea will join us. They all want to see for themselves if the Black Sea is really black. I've told them all it's not but they refuse to believe me.
It's great traveling with yellow Swami again. We've been in Istanbul for three days now. It's an amazing place but it's too late to go into it tonight, especially as the next few days we're aiming for an early start. Just wanted to check in. That is all.
Crap. Yesterday was Mother's Day. That means today is Bad Mother's Dayagain! Our day, ladies. So I forgot for a few years. Ok! OKKKK! Five. Come on. Five little years and you're all weepy? Geeze! Whatdoyawantfromme? Flowers? Not gonna happen. When did any of you ever send me flowers? That's right. NEVER. Fergetaboutit. Get yer own.
On the other hand, if you are the child of a bad mother and yet, in spite of that, are still such a generous and thoughtful person that even now you want to send your bad mother a gift, I am here to help. Here a few sure fire gift suggestions for you:
1) Buy something on sale at the dollar store or thrift shop. It will make yer mama proud seein how frugal you are. After all, it was she who taught you that a penny saved (by not spending it on you) was a penny earned (that she could spend on herself).
2) Can't take her out to dinner on The Big Day? Send her a box of instant mac n cheese. She'll be feasting in a matter of minutes. Plus you'll get credit for being thrifty. (see #1)
3) Send her a bouquet of dandelions. She never seemed to notice when you picked them for her when you were a kid. They're so beautiful and will go nicely with dinner. (see #2) And if you don't send her the mac n cheese (see #2 again), she can eat them.
Nothing says it better than dandelions source: http://sparkingsynapse.com
While, officially, we "launched" a couple of weeks ago, LA really marks the beginning of the trip. Oregon is family. The airbnb place we're renting belongs to a woman in the movie business .... set design etc.. The decor here is a cross between 1930's thrift store chic and its dumpster out back. M. Lee, who is more kindly disposed to the display, describes it a prop warehouse. I'm sure he's right. Why else stuff some twenty dilapidated plaid suitcases of various bright colors under the bed? And the rooms are stuffed with everything from ancient phones, croquet sets, movie posters, animal skins, dishes, neon hotel signs, typewriters, cameras, antiquish bathroom scales, tennis racquets, spent bullets, rusty old coffee cans and lanterns to a wall of framed paint-by-numbers landscapes. In a word, crammed. Drives me not so quietly crazy which drives him crazy.
Our first day here, right off the plane, we took his mom to her favorite thrift store, a chain called Council Thrift. She found a white jacket she really liked and put it on to get M.'s opinion before buying it then went off to the cashier, still wearing it, and purchased her own coat, still in hand, for the grand price of five bucks. Later, realizing what she'd done, she was mortified. Luckily, she's a good sport because we're getting a lot of mileage out of it.
Off to Disney Land
And tomorrow we "do lunch" with Thea Bella, her gorgeous, green-haired, 15 year-old sister, mom and dad. They are, at this moment, en-route to Disney Land. Lucky for us, our paths just happen to cross because the next day we leave for Istanbul.
We're launched and, sadly, that means the Bird Park is closed. Of course, the house sitter keeps one seed tube filled for the little birds but it's too much to ask anyone to do what I do. Damn. Just when it was getting interesting. Maggie Magpie had become comfortable with me being out in the yard with her and Charlie the crow was dropping by mid-morning for his own, private snack. He selected a spot as far away from the main area in the Bird Park as possible, a section of fence under the trees right outside the kitchen window, and from there called until I came out and gave him his peanuts. If we were around more, no telling how this might develop. In summers past he'd perch on the fence opposite my office window, where the main area in Bird Park is located, and pitch his case. That bird can sweet talk. But now we're gone. I'm sure Maggie will keep an eye on things. She always shows up within a day of our return.
Pizza night
But now we're on the road. Of course, as usual, we're starting our adventure in Portland. Gotta see the gkids. The other day four-year old Leo took us to Reed Canyon, a lovely little ravine on the campus of Reed College which is, to Reed's credit, still quiet enough to support nesting ducks and geese. As for Thea, she is currently learning about the universe in kindergarten science class and has "definitely decided, no doubt about it," that I am an alien.
The crows are dining at the Bird Park this morning. Minerva and I are delighted. They are our honored guests, well not guests, members, honored members. We've been home since January and only recently have they've decided to trust us. They stop by briefly almost every morning now. The fellow munching kibble on the little plastic table is actually much bigger and cooler then he appears here. I took this photo with my cellphone. I don't have a "real" camera at the moment. As I mentioned in the previous post, M. Lee has taken over the Sony. I will have a camera for the trip, a Panasonic Lumix, but it's currently en route to his mom's place in Oregon as we are now in the final countdown and will be going there first. How do they say it when they're launching a space shuttle? T-minus? Around here it is now T-minus 9. I'm already missing my birds.
My old camera is haunted. Playback shows videos that aren't there. Today I turned the camera over to M. but he found nothing. Then okay. I must have downloaded them and then forgot I did. I'll go with his diagnosis ... remnant thumbnails, phantoms. So it goes. Like dreams that return to haunt you during the day. Strange memories connected to nothing. I've never gotten along with this particular camera anyway, a Sony Cyber-shot. It takes ok photos but I don't like the way it interacts with my computer and I hate the Sony PlayMemories Home software. Now, M. is taking it and I am getting a Lumix. I liked the Lumix I had before, the one I wore out. The Sony and I were just enemies from the start. Sometimes it's like that.
Currently M. Lee is putting together our next trip. We'll be gone at least five months so it's a rather complicated itinerary. Besides juggling travel times and ticket prices, he has to find and rent airbnb apartments in nine different cities in seven different countries. He begins each city by researching neighborhoods and setting some basic parameters like price range, dates, keywords etc. Then he enters the labyrinth.
He studies the photos, reads the reviews, google-walks the streets, checks access to public transportation, finds the supermarkets, farmer's markets, parks, museums etc. etc. We stay at least a month in some of these places so these things matter. It's hard on him but I will say this. He comes up with some kick ass plans. He began researching for this trip in January, right after we got home from Thailand. Thus far he claims to have studied over 3000 apartments. Once he does narrow it down to his top picks, he corresponds with the owners because, of course, we always have questions .... bed size, they never mention bed size, internet speeds, noise factor, kitchen, laundry and so on. What they do say is cozy. They all say cozy as though cozy says it all and is all anyone needs to know about anything. That word is now blacklisted around here. And don't sneak it into the conversation as acogedor, douillet or gemütlich. In any language, cozy is still very annoying.
And finally, after all that, we go over the best of picks together and settle on our favorites. Then, and only then, he makes an offer. Sometimes it's accepted, sometimes not. There may be more negotiation, if not, it's back to the list. Only Paris remains on the table but we won't be there until September so it can wait. I want to write, "Paris can wait". It's satisfying to be dismissive of Paris as Paris is so full of itself, but that would mean using the word Paris twice in the same sentence which, to my way of thinking, is somewhat clumsy and a bit obvious so I went with the word it which, perhaps, is even a bit more dismissive of Paris and, even though I like Paris (M. hates it), I like that because, like I said, Paris is full of itself. That sentence, you might notice, is an homage to my new favorite comedian Stewart Lee. But I digress. We leave in a month. The house sitter would be happy if we left tomorrow, but there is so very much to do between now and then.
In mathematics you don't understand things, you just get used to them." - John von Neumann
She ambles out on stage to a dark house and stands a moment gazing into the gloom. It is the night sky. It is the bottom of the sea. It is where lost dreams gather and discuss amongst themselves what could have been. She listens then turns and walks off stage. One light slowly comes up on the curtain. It parts.
"I want medical experiments on animals stopped.
They don't do anything, and they don't work," ~ Sam Simon
Sad day. Sam Simon, co-creator and producer of "The Simpsons", died today at the age of 59. Of course, I love the Simpsons and thank him and cartoonist Matt Groening for that, but even more I love that Sam, who earned tens of millions annually from the show, donated his entire fortune to charity, including many foundations working to secure animal rights and welfare. Thank you, Sam. You will be missed.
"Veganism is an answer for almost every problem
facing the world in terms of hunger and climate change. ~ Sam Simon
There are many names for it among Native Americans, Sap Moon, Little Spring Moon, Snow Crust Moon. Earthsky.org calls it micro-moon and mini-moon. In any case, tonight's full moon (exact at 4:05 p.m. PST /18:05 UTC) is the smallest full moon of the year because today is also the lunar apogee – which means the moon is at it's farthest point from earth. Today it is 30,000 miles (48280 km)farther away from Earth than the full supermoon and the Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon which both happen later this year.
So, enjoy the Sap Moon. The bees are. Today, finally, they showed up. I was very concerned that spring had come too early because the pussy willow tree are blooming and, unlike years past, no bees have come to harvest its abundant pollen and enjoy its delicious, rich sap. But today, on Sap Moon, they arrived and the tree is filled with their buzzing.
Ok. Time to crank the wheel and roll this page down. The world has given Mr. Spock a loving, sad farewell and now it's time to move on.
So.... as for today.... not a lot going on here in Nevada, at least outside my window. A grackle is currently strolling through the Bird Park. A covey of quail are out nibbling seed, along with the new resident doves. A few red wing black birds are on the feeders. The lovely flicker pair are gobbling the apples along with several starlings. And, as always, finches are hopping around. They are the first to arrive and the last to go.
And, of course, Maggie Magpie is keeping an eye on things. At the moment she is perched in the now dead aspen tree I planted several a few years ago. Big mistake. Runners started popping up everywhere. I've since read that the aspen holds the world's record for largest living organism on earth. Yes. That lovely, whispering forest, which in autumn turns the mountain side brilliant gold, is one tree. One. Learn from my mistake. Don't plant one in your front yard. You will be mowing it forever.
But my little grove of three, that's right, I planted three, my little grove of three died. Guess I got lucky. It's kind of ugly but I had them topped and left their trunks standing so the birds could perch in them. Sooner or later I will remove them because it looks stupid but, for now, they stand and Maggie is sitting in one.
If you love happy endings, you're going to love this one.
If you were one of the thousands of people who signed the petitions and/or donated to Sunder's legal expenses.... thank you, thank you. He is now free and lives in India's first ever free-roaming, forested, elephant sanctuary established by PETA India, Bannerghata Biological Park. Petitions work. Keep caring. Keep signing!
I really like the Google sky map app. I use others as well but, for a quick look at the heavens, sky map works just fine. This image is from last night about 6:30, but what the hell? As you can see, the sun, moon and Neptune are conjunct in Aquarius and have just disappeared below the Western horizon. Happy dreamy New Age Lunar New Year!
I just added a poem to my poetry archive, AnnaSadhorse. It's one I wrote in 2004 and published here at Language Barrier on August 30, 2005, the day after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Anyway, I just got around to adding it to AnnaSadhorse. The imagery is violent, but necessarily so, as it describes a time when light must find us because we cannot find it. It's called Spirit Barrier.
Friday's wild storm had gusts up to 90 miles an hour and, between the valley and Lake Tahoe, left 21,000 people without power, some until Sunday. And that night, after the wind knocked down sections of the fence between our houses, it also brought Roxie crying to our door. She's my neighbor's so-called "outside" dog. I realize she's a hardy mix but he left after the storm began and left her out in it, as usual. Don't get me started on "outside" dogs. I will never agree with people who think dogs should live outside, whatever the weather. Fine. Wolves do it but they live in packs and have dens. Dogs are domesticated creatures who also need a pack and a den. Anyone sitting warm and cozy in their fat while their dog huddles alone outside in the rain and cold is an asshole. So, even though her paws were caked with mud, we let her in.
Uninvited guest and the magpies are pissed
And about 2 am we let her back back out again. We had to. She was pacing and whining and beginning to howl. Her "owner" barely interacts with her, so she's basically feral. She doesn't even wag. We felt bad but didn't lose any sleep over it. It's just the way it had to be.
Morning guest. Roxie at the door
Five sections of fence are down and Roxie is still wandering around the three yards that are now open to each other. Fine by me but the birds don't like it. Yesterday morning, she ate most of their kibble and was back at the sliding door begging to come in, even throwing herself at the glass, I handed her some dog treats through the door then closed it again. Sometimes, life's a bitch.
Nobody's at the Bird Park at the moment. A hawk scared everybody off so it's just an empty gray day here in Nevada, this after Tuesday's lovely, though unseasonable, spring day. I was immediately out in the yard preparing a new flower bed. After my neighbor Dwayne and his wife were rousted out of their house last year by their son Tom, there have been a lot of changes next door and, in my opinion, some for the better. For one thing, Tom cut down the poorly aspens along the property line and pulled out the rangy juniper that hogged all the morning light leaving me with a new, thin strip of space to plant. I feel rich. It not only gets morning light but all day light.
Invisible Theatre conference
Yellow Swami is back after a grueling year
in Cambodia and here at Invisible Theater
we couldn't be happier.
Don't get me wrong, we all miss Dwayne. He was a great guy, a true bon vivant. The first year we moved here he was trying out sobriety. It was his finest hour. After he went back to drinking we watched his light slowly go out. There were still a few good years when he and Clarence the cat continued to hold their garage court. When the door was up, we'd stroll over. Clarence would meow a cheery hello and Dwayne held forth. It was always fun to visit them. When he went back to drinking the bitterness set in like a final night, then came the cancer, then the horrible years of chemo and booze before his son Tom finally forced the two of them out of the house and into senior care, where they belonged. It got tricky. When Tom mentioned moving, Dwayne threatened to shoot him. They had always had a horrible relationship. That's when Tom came over and asked me to help distract his dad while he removed all the weapons from the house, which I did. When Dwayne saw his guns go out the door, he turned to me like a growling wolf and said, "Traitor. Get out of my house". Those are the last words he ever spoke to me. Within the year he was dead.
Chiang Mai at night Andre Govia, one of my favorite photographers "liked" this on my flickr account so I am stoked.
The birds just returned to the Bird Park so I guess the coast is clear. Maggie Magpie is out there too. She and her mate basically hang around all day. The rest of the tiding leave right after gobbling breakfast. And to our delight, the quail, finch, sparrows, a few mourning doves, some blackbirds and even a few crows (probably Minerva and friends) showed up about a day after we returned. I suspect that at least the quail stayed even after we left in October. Seems Suki, Dwayne's cat after Clarence died, disappeared sometime in the fall. I like to think some kindly person, sick of seeing her huddling all winter in the cold and snow, gave her a home. Other than Tom, those of us in Suki's little support group, miss her but the upshot is that the Bird Park has returned to sanctuary status. Other than the occasional passing hawk but, of course, they don't stay long.
We got back to Nevada this afternoon, we meaning yellow Swami, coral Swami, Andy, Minerva, M. Lee and I. We're all back. It's been five months. Everyone here at the Invisible Theatre is ecstatic that Swami is home! Who would have guessed he'd be returning with us? He's a little battered and rumpled. The way he says, "Cambodia! Woo!" gives me the shivers. Who wouldn't be a little rumpled after that? But still, wonders really do never cease.
We are now about 33 hours into our return trip home. We are all as rummy rheumy as hell. I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but Lee's 84 year-old mom joined us for our last two weeks Thailand. She came to Bangkok on her own, which I think is kind of amazing. How many 84 year-olds are up for that? But she loves to travel. And actually, if it wasn't for her, we would never have seen the puppet theatre. It was part of a boat tour that we wouldn't have done on our own. More about the puppets later.
Bangkok night
Anyway, we are all as rummy rheumy as hell. Did I mention that already? But right now, it's morning in Thailand and I am feeling oddly awake, although it also feels like a long time since that 3 AM when we started out. At the moment, we are enjoying a 12 hour layover at the Los Angeles airport. There is only one direct flight a day to Oregon, a little little propjet. And, since early afternoon we've been sitting in a really dreary wing of the airport. Half the room is casually draped with cloth that looks like gigantic white bed sheets and partially walled with bare drywall. Either we are dead and in some nether world, transitioning to the next dimension or LAX is doing some remodeling.
We're seven hours into a 36 hour trip. We left this morning at 4 AM and are currently sitting in the Hong Kong airport waiting for our connecting flight to LA.
As we are flying back in time, we will arrive in Oregon two hours after we left. At this point, I don't have time for anything more than a quick update.
Hanuman grabbing Swami
Yesterday Swami almost ran off with Hanuman and the Thai Puppet Theatre.
You could say Hanuman kidnapped him but I'm guessing it was a collusion between the two.
Either way, Swami took off with him and, for a moment, I thought I might never see him again... again. But Haunman brought him back.
He is a gentleman, after all.
It was a strange and perfect reenactment of Swami's disappearance in Cambodia last year and s his return this year. He's waiting for us in Portland. We should be there by the weekend. Can't wait to see him and those grandkids. They are all growing up way too fast
Here are a couple of thoughtful articles reflecting on some of the more obscure, but extremely important issues, related to the horrific massacre at Charlie Hebdo last week. They are right on and well worth a read.
It's 2558 here in Thailand, at least according to the Thai (Buddhist) calendar. That's okay with me. I love that different cultures have totally different systems for measuring the passing of time. The Gregorian calendar (as in Pope Gregory XIII) used in 'merica, is not the one and only system. In Nepal this is the 2071st century. The Persian, Kurdish and Afghan calendars all agree that this is 1393. Of course, everyone knows it's the 13th baktun and the Islamic calendar calls this 1436 and leap year so watch you don't go down that rabbit hole.
Then there's Unix time. Wisely, implementations defining the result of the time() function as type time_twere added which will keep the whole system from going negative on January 19, 2038 (in the Gregorian calendar) thus saving us all from the dreaded doomsday second. Thanks guys. And, no. Don't ask me to explain that.
So, what's my point? Ten Eleven years ago I was waiting out a snow storm and in geological time none of this amounts to the twinkling of an eye so I don't know. Do I need one? Ok. Like the Buddha said, "When you meet a monkey on the road, give 'em a tasty treat".
The crows are dining at the Bird Park this morning. Minerva and I are delighted. They are our honored guests, well not guests, members, honored members. We've been home since January and only recently have they've decided to trust us. They stop by briefly almost every morning now. The fellow munching kibble on the little plastic table is actually much bigger and cooler then he appears here. I took this photo with my cellphone. I don't have a "real" camera at the moment. As I mentioned in the previous post, M. Lee has taken over the Sony. I will have a camera for the trip, a Panasonic Lumix, but it's currently en route to his mom's place in Oregon as we are now in the final countdown and will be going there first. How do they say it when they're launching a space shuttle? T-minus? Around here it is now T-minus 9. I'm already missing my birds.
