andy and millay - snapshots

london life

2010-10-07T21:01:00.003+01:00

As ever, it has been some time since the last post. I always get really narked when someone whose blog I enjoy reading regularly leaves enormous gaps of time between posts...not that I'm assuming I exactly have a dedicated readership, but nonetheless I rue the hypocrisy.

Here's what happened since the last post in July. Briefly.

- I finished my Masters, finished work at Medical Foundation, handed over the flat, said goodbyes to our incredibly dear and wonderful friends in Manchester (all of this in the space of about three days) and headed south to join Andy.

- A few days later I started my job at an NHS-based refugee support service, and am loving it so far. Intensive practical and psychological support for survivors of trauma with Post Traumatic Stress. The contract is over in December, so watch this space...

- Andy has been sinking his teeth into his new job at Imagination, having just returned from a three-week beast of a photography event in Cologne. By the sounds of it, it was a bit of a trial by fire but he came through unsinged. Today he went to Amsterdam for the day, and I'm a little jealous of his jet-set life!

- We really and truly live in London now. In a small but utterly lovely flat near the Kennington Oval cricket ground, complete with creaky floorboards, high ceilings and somewhat volatile alcoholics living in the basement beneath us. Oh, and we have a really comfy sofa bed, so come stay with us. (we're pretty sure the aforementioned neighbours don't bite)

- We've been exploring what London has to offer, which is....well, a ton. Highlights so far include knitting squids a late opening at the Natural History Museum, an outdoor 'silent-cinema' event, complete with audience participation, catching up with southern-based friends and family, rooftop housewarming parties, digging up all manner of lovely little coffee shops and pubs, aerial acrobatic theatre on our anniversary...good times. Oh, and they have frozen yogurt here! Bliss.

My personal highlight as far as the city goes has to be exploring it on bike. I'm riding in earnest again now, commuting to work and exploring the outer reaches of the city on my days off. Above are two vistas of my daily commute, which takes me through three parks, over the Thames, past some palaces. I LOVE it. It took me a little while to get comfortable with the sheer mass of traffic (including cyclists - this is very much a biking town) but now that I'm used to it - and fluorescent - I'm in my element. Andy's just joined the bike hire scheme here too so we can explore together now too (albeit at the much slower pace of the hire-scheme bikes, which move about as fast as an arthritic cow).

Of course this is the rosy angle on the last few months. It's very easy to draw attention to the enormously fun stuff, but make no mistake -moving here IS a big change, and living in London is tough for the same reasons that big-city living anywhere is tough. It is very noisy, very crowded, very expensive, very far away from our dear northern friends. Thankfully, I feel like the sheer volume of creative, interesting and unique places and events that London has to offer goes a long way to ameliorate the less fun aspects of life in the big smoke.

Um, did I say this would be a brief update? Sorry. Expect many future posts to be about either a) biking or b) fun stuff in London or c) a combination of both. We're both in a honeymoon phase with the city and we really are loving getting to know its nooks and crannies as we venture into this next chapter of life.

London calling

2010-07-29T21:39:00.004+01:00

Things are starting to feel a bit more real now. For the past few weeks the only real reminder that I'm on the precipice of change has been when I've found myself wondering why Andy isn't around; I then remember that he in fact lives and works in London now...

Still, none of it has felt tangible until recently. Firstly, we just found a flat and promptly secured a large enough loan to actually start renting it (painful memories of the rental market in NYC come flooding back). I've not seen it yet, but I trust in Andy's abilities to find us a little nook that will work for us. Last weekend I went down and we explored the area - around Oval - and for the first time I had a picture of what our new life would be like. Though close to the city, the area feels mellow with lots of cyclists, pubs, little parks and tucked away galleries, all of which bodes well.

We spent the day taking in the surrounding areas and I kept experiencing little waves of familiarity as I recognised a certain commonality of pace, eclecticism and energy of London with New York, and my oh my...it felt good. We found farmer's markets in Oval, hidden art galleries in Vauxhall, an incredible sandwich bar in Brixton, bona fide Cuban food in North Lambeth and an impressive free Brazilian festival at the Southbank Centre. We hung out by the Thames, watching tourists, musicians, performers, suits and hipsters going about their evening and I thought....yeah. I can do this. This can be my city.

I also now have a job to go to when I move! I interviewed yesterday for a role with a Refugee Trauma Service at the NHS providing therapeutic casework to refugees and asylum seekers, and got the job. It's part time, and only a short contract but it's a great first step and I'm THRILLED to have landed a role with the rather niche client group that I was really hoping to continue working with.

It feels like time is slipping through my fingers and this whole new life will start before I know it - a few more weeks of work, dissertation, and precious time with dear northern friends and then we take on a new chapter together in a new city. It's a bit bewildering, but exhilarating too and I can't wait to see what it brings...

sand prophets

2010-07-08T22:03:00.005+01:00

On New Year's day 2010, Andy and I were strolling along a sunny beach in North Devon, trying to make sense of the year we were leaving behind and dreaming dreams of the year ahead. As well as feeling the importance of a certain 'carpe diem' factor in the year ahead, we found ourselves talking more and more about the idea of moving to London. This was in part because we've always known that's where the jobs are for Andy, and in part because both of us tend to get an itch to move on to new things every 2-3 years, and we had both begin to feel the biennial of winds change.

In what was probably a mixture of hubris and hope, we scrawled '2010 LONDON' in the sand. I think at the time the idea was more representative of our hope for change - to shake off 2009 and a certain feeling of inertia it had engendered, but now the action feels oddly prophetic of a new chapter for us both.

About a month ago, an incredible new job opportunity dropped out of the sky for Andy. Imagination called him up and offered him a job (it actually was almost that strange and simple) and it was just too good to pass up. Given that we have grown really fond of Manchester and especially its residents, we'd always said we would only make a move if there was a compelling reason, and this opportunity most definitely falls into that category. Challenge, creativity, travel, variety...the job itself holds a lot of good things for Andy, and a new adventure in London presses both of our buttons.

I've become convinced over the years that the heart is often prepped for the things that life will next bring it, so now it seems no coincidence that we both have been feeling the itch for a new chapter, and that I have - in the space of a few months - gone from loathing the very idea of London to chomping at the bit to see what a new life there holds for us.

I'm not unaware that the move will be bittersweet - we'll be leaving behind some incredibly dear and inspiring people in Manchester, and I know from New York that big-city living is taxing in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Nonetheless, a move to London feels timely and exciting; a new door which we'll step through together to see what happens!

Andy started his new job this week while I'm holding the fort up north for the summer, continuing my work at the Medical Foundation and on my dissertation to see out my Masters. It's funny, somehow just writing this blog post makes it all feel more real - so far I've had a vague sense that there should be someone else in my bed at night and the enormity of the change ahead hasn't sunk in. We've handed in our notice on our tenancy so by the end of August we'll be moving to southern climes...in the meantime, I'm grateful that my head still feels very much rooted in Manchester for now. I intend on soaking up all the great things about life up here while it continues! I kicked the summer off with a skydive and this weekend sees the wedding of a dear friend and a mini-festival to keep the good times rolling...

Vann-tastic

2010-05-10T16:48:00.004+01:00

The Vann Clan has just expanded in a spectacularly wonderful and amazing way: world, meet Josiah Daniel, new member of the human race. 30 hours after hearing my sister-in-law had gone into labour we still had no news and so my folks and I decided to drive down south to the hospital to counter our feeling of inertia...we arrived just in time to see my brother walking out of the delivery ward, dazed and beaming at his newly-acquired status of 'dad'.

I am so, so grateful for the timing and the privilege of being the first to congratulate my brother, and to meet Josiah in his first hours in the world. Now I have to tell you, a bunch of friends and acquaintances have had babies and I find all of it very cute and heartwarming - I also have 2 awesome nephews who are older, but living overseas means I have sadly only met them a handful of times and didn't get to see them brand new. It's been fun watching people in my life grow their families, but something seriously hit home when I met Josiah. I felt something warm and deep shifting in my heart and even now I find myself regularly overcome with emotion about this new little person in the world.

Now I know what you're thinking - most people will put that down to broodiness, but I don't think it's quite that. I still have not reached the point in my practical or emotional life where I want to push one of these bad boys out myself, but this is the first time I've felt such a visceral connection to the whole process of creating new life. I've never seen a newborn, and I was floored at how perfect he is! A little perfectly formed person, ready to roll. I've never understood new life as a miracle more clearly than I did meeting him.

I think mostly I feel connected to the experience in part because Dave and Laura have been on a very long and and emotionally draining journey in trying to have a baby, and in part because Josiah is family - he's one of us, I'm connected to him and by extension feel responsible for him. As such, I'm determined to be his best aunt ever - I'm already hatching plans to teach him practical jokes to play on his mum and dad and take him rock climbing...

Blog-readers and facebook followers, prepare yourselves. I am seriously in love with this little dude and you can expect much gushing, picture-taking and sighing about him for many, many months to come. :)

Diving for Dosh

2010-05-03T20:04:00.003+01:00

I've mentioned a few times in previous posts how much I'm enjoying my final MA placement with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, so I'll make this post snappy. They are a national charity that provide counseling and medico-legal reports for survivors of torture and my time there so far has been eye-opening and challenging in many ways. The counsellors are extremely dedicated - most of them volunteers - and they work with clients often for years to help heal broken minds, broken bodies and broken spirits that have resulted from experiences of torture. I really believe in my colleagues and in the work that MF does and as such I'm taking part in a skydive on June 19th to help raise awareness of and money for the Medical Foundation to continue their amazing work.

Now that your awareness has been raised by reading this blog post, all I need is your money! Even £1 will help toward our goal and will be extremely gratefully appreciated by the whole team. And I promise I won't think you're stingy. Just click and donate!

www.justgiving.com/divefordosh

Being a participator

2010-05-03T16:49:00.009+01:00

I love how when you get to know someone really well, you not only get to understand what makes them tick and what gets them fired up, but it rubs off on you and you start to get a taste for those things too. One thing I've been learning from Andy is how amazing, inspiring and often moving collective experiences can be. Andy gets such as buzz from creative, well-executed group experiences and the unique atmosphere that is generated in bringing people together on a big scale for a common purpose. He loves live shows, theatre, festivals, interactive public art, etc.

In the past month I've been having a LOT of fun participating in some collective experiences; each time it has been at a friend's suggestion and while I might not have (let's be honest) been proactive enough to bother getting involved off my own back, I am really not regretting saying yes to stuff that comes my way. Some highlights:

1. Games night at Tate Britain. That's right. My good pal Liz clocked the event and so we went down and stumbled into a crazy world of interactive fun for the evening! The gallery was open super late and the entire place was filled with group games: treasure hunts, parlour games, virtual reality sets, and the world's biggest pass-the-parcel, you name it. People of all ages were running around with balloons, fake moustaches, instruments...awesome.

2. Tweed Run. Less of a run, more of a cycle ride. Around London. In tweed. This was without a doubt one of the most fun days I have ever spent and it still brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. My friend Keith gave the heads up this time and we joined 400 others all dressed in tweed with flat caps, pipes, amazing facial hair, vintage bikes, etc for a 12 mile cycle around the best bits of central London. The sun was shining, and the atmosphere was simply wonderful - there was such a feeling of good will and jolly good fun about the whole thing. Strangers bonded over tips on moustache trimming, tea and sandwiches were served in the park, and the whole event ended with a good old knees-up with (free!) gin and tonic and a swing band. As if the day couldn't get any better, I even won an award for my moustache!

3. Spencer Tunick's 'Everyday People', Manchester. The artist known for his photographs of large groups of nude people was in Manchester this weekend and yours truly went along with some good pals and 500 others to get naked for the sake of public art. Organised by the Lowry and with the concept of recreating the themes of some of Lowry's paintings, we spent the (very early hours of the) morning in several locations in Manchester posing for Tunick. It was certainly a surreal (and sometimes chilly) experience, but totally magical and fun. Highlights included being serenaded by a drunk homeless man who must have thought he was hallucinating at coming around the corner to 500 naked people! Unperturbed, he approached one man and asked, "have you got any change?" :)

Hopefully 2010 will see me continuing to be more of a participator.

Long over-due updates!

2010-05-03T16:27:00.003+01:00

I've been so slack at updating this thing...not for lack of things going on, probably more because there's been a lot happening! Stand by for a flurry of postings to bring you up to speed.

Let's start with a quick update: It's May. MAY!! How did that happen? Into month 5 of 2010 I can safely say that year is already shaping up to be so much better than the last. Andy and I are both working hard but also devoting as much time as possible to playing and dreaming and I'm loving that. I'm coming into my last weeks at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and still loving it. Working here has stretched my mind and heart and I'm really hoping to find work with asylum seekers and refugees once I finish my MA; I might save ruminations on this topic for another post. I'll talk your ear off if you're interested :)

We're both now job-hunting; while my MA doesn't finish until I hand in my dissertation in September, I'm looking for work once my placement is done and Andy is looking to use the financial freedom that might bring to leave Liverpool (hoorah!) and find more creative, fulfilling work - ideally in the city in which he lives for a change. Exciting times!

Come summer our lives are a blank canvas - it's kind of surreal but kind of exciting. We're open to moving to the bright lights and faster pace of London if there's interesting work there, but likewise open to getting jobs here in Manchester and rooting ourselves here for a while longer. Over the past few months we've simultaneously talked ourselves into a state of excitement about the idea of moving to London for a few fun and crazy years, and at the same come to understand what an awesome set of friends we have here in Manchester, not something we want to leave lightly.

All in all, it feels like we're in a good place. We're both working really hard but with an energy and an excitement about what is around the corner, most of it as yet unknown. So far I'm honouring my intentions to have 2010 be a year for living - I've been having some extremely fun adventures involving tweed, bicycles, fake moustaches and nude public art and have a skydive coming up next month...more on all that in following posts.

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2010-04-25T16:12:00.001+01:00

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new things for a new year

2010-01-05T19:46:00.003Z

We've spent the past 2 weeks driving up and down the country seeing family and friends over Christmas and New Year... It's been good, and now we're both somewhat spent and looking forward to playing hermit for the rest of the month. (Apart from the Vann family Christmas next weekend...it never stops!) Despite being extremely grateful to see our own bed again, being able to simply get in a car and drive a few hours to see loved ones is still immensely satisfying and still feels somewhat novel.

Here's a few fun things that our trip included, aside from good time catching up with folk:
1. We took a day trip to London, as a Christmas gift from my parents, and spent the day bumbling around art galleries, coffee shops and cobbled streets and soaking up the vibe (and the rain) of London. As part of the day out we made a point to find Seizure, an art installation in a dilapidated council flat in Elephant & Castle into which the artist poured 70,000 litres of copper sulphate solution, creating an incredibly beautiful crystallized cave. Very blue. Very amazing. Very London.

2. We drove to a small village in North Devon and watched my very dear friend Josie get married to her life's love. The day was sunny and crisp and blue, and the bride didn't stop smiling once :)

3. On our way back, we went for an extremely bracing but beautiful walk along the beach at Woolacoombe, where Andy spent his childhood holidays. We shimmied down sand dunes, took pictures of our shadows and wrote dreams for a new year in the sand.

Here's to a year of new adventures...

Thanksgiving II

2009-12-12T12:07:00.005Z

Last weekend we threw our second Thanksgiving feast for our northern friends, bringing some stateside tradition that we got love over to the UK. Thanksgiving is one holiday that I feel like I can really go in for - its all about sharing good food with family and friends, which in my books sounds like a pretty great combination. It feels weird and really good to be able to officially call something "our annual...(event)"; there's something about establishing traditions that makes you feel connected and rooted to a place and its people, which is something that I am slowly beginning to feel here.

It felt like an appropriate and timely celebration as well - near the end of what has been an often tough and bumpy year, I do feel so incredibly thankful for our lives here and the people in them. It was awesome to share a feast with the people that have seen us through our first year of transition to Manchester and in a small way return the favour!

We chowed our way through an enormous turkey (that had a very happy life!), homemade stuffing, candied yams, bacon-beans, mash, creamed corn, apple cabbage...and after a break which included a quiz (do you know how fast a wild turkey can fly?), we went on to a dessert of mostly pies: pecan, apple, cherry and of course the star - pumpkin pie! (Thanks to Sarah who smuggled a can through from the US last summer!).

It was a great day, and are still working our way through the leftovers...We're looking forward to carrying on the tradition every year, connecting past traditions with friends we meet and walk with on our journey...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pass It On

2009-12-01T16:01:00.002Z

A brief blog entry for World Aids Day. Having spent over 3 years working with persons living with HIV in New York, it's great seeing my bro Dave doing HIV awareness work in a totally different context with Samaritan's Purse. Check out what they do, and if you are based in the UK, it is SO SO easy to make a huge difference in helping to raise a) awareness and b) funds for those living with HIV in the 3rd world. Seriously, watch how easy:

Step 1: Get out your mobile phone/iphone/crackberry/etc

Step 2: Text the word 'EPIDEMIC' to 60999.

Step 3: Hit 'send'.

That's it! The whole pound goes to AIDS work done in collaboration between Samaritan's Purse and local groups. I bet you anything you'll never even notice it on your bill this month. Heck, why not hit send a few more times? What are you waiting for?

Today reminds me of how much I learned during my time in NYC working with people whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS. For one, the enormous slap in the face it was to realise that this is NOT something that is solely a third/developing world issue. And secondly, just how much misinformation there is about HIV and AIDS, even in our ostensibly well-educated, well-developed society. I know at times I felt that there were never-ending mountains to climb in responding appropriately to the issue on a personal, local and global scale. We have a long way to go with education and justice around this issue...

Pass it on!

lull and laud

2009-11-12T19:32:00.004Z

Both of us have been very much immersed in our work this past month; time feels like it is free-flowing and already Christmas seems but an arm's length away. I hate it when someone, as they did today, asks what we've been up to, and I end up scratching my head in wonder and with total lack of recall. Um...went to some lectures? Read books? Ate, slept?

That's okay I guess, some weeks are just like that. Andy's been buried in work and I've been buried in ploughing my way through the final year (eek!). There have been some fun different things to break up the routine, such as a Halloween reunion with some dear friends from university (above), where I went all-out as a lego person. I rocked second prize! I'm also still loving my weekly life drawing classes (above), relishing the total contrast to the rest of my social-work-theory- laden week.

Because I haven't been up to much excitement, I thought I'd take the opportunity to give a shout out about some people in my life who have been doing some more amazing things! Firstly, my friend Kenneth is officially my hero for running the New York marathon, in an incredible time. He trained for what seemed like forever, including during when we met up in Spain this summer, where he would get up early and run up the Sierra Nevadas in ungodly heat. Now that's dedication. Way to go, KP.

Secondly, my sweet friend Cory passed the bar and can now practice law in New York City! I met her at the beginning of her journey and let me tell you, the law degree is no picnic. I think she probably had some of her toughest times doing it it, but she did it and I'm totally proud of her and in awe. Finally, in the next 8 weeks, three separate friends: Bekah, Joanna and Josie will tie the knot and start the adventure of doing life with someone else - this too I believe deserves applause as one of the most crazy, brave, challenging and worthwhile things someone can choose to do in life.

Here's to knowing some incredible people...

cotton couple

2009-10-04T21:40:00.004+01:00

On October 1st Andy and I celebrated out 2 year anniversary (by collapsing in a tired heap on the couch, clutching a whiskey glass each) and on reflection, it seems that some standard cliches hold true - on the one hand it feels as if we've always been doing life together, while on the other hand I can't believe two years has flown by so quickly.

Apparently year two of marriage is for cotton, and for anyone who knows me and my cold-natured self, I officially got THE BEST cotton gift I could possibly have wished for - an electric blanket!! I love love love it. Andy found it on ebay and knew a good thing when he saw it...No more climbing into a cold bed with ice cubes for toes, and getting up in the middle of the night to add towels and dressing gowns to the pile of blankets already on top of the 15 tog duvet on my bed (no word of a lie - that's how I roll). Two years in and my husband knows me :)

I won't get too deep and soppy cos I still haven't figured out how to prevent this from streaming into facebook (just come read the blog, KP!), but suffice to say that this year has given each of us some challenges and the more time that goes by, the more I come to understand the magic, mayhem and mystery that is involved with walking through life with another person. I was trying to think if marriage was meeting my expectations/assumptions so far and I have to say it really does exceed anything I imagined - for one, in some ways it's easier than I thought - I don't mean to say it's always smooth sailing, and I know we're only 2 years in, but I just love doing life with my best bud. I love knowing and being known, and realising how much more of that there is to come as we navigate life together.

Plus, if the electric blanket breaks, I can always clamp my cold feet on his for warmth. :) Here's to more adventures to come...

the final countdown

2009-09-30T20:10:00.003+01:00

My second and final year of my Masters started this week - if last year flew by, I sense that this one will go just as quick, and I'm determined to savour it this time around. Looking back, the first year seemed like a blurry dream and I really want to feel like I've sunk my teeth into everything possible while I have the privileged (and globally, relatively rare) experience of higher education. I love learning and am looking forward to learning more about my chosen elective in mental health. We'll see how my 'takes one to know one' philosophy works out... :)

Also, today I met with an agency who have agreed to take me on for my second year practice placement, to start in January; they're called the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and they work with asylum seekers who have experienced torture, assisting with everything from clinical and legal documents needed for their asylum claim through to case work and long term counseling to help them deal with their torture experience. I'm REALLY excited about this placement - they do such vital work with a client group that the government offers virtually no assistance to. If you get a chance, have a look at their website. I'm really impressed with their ethos and holistic approach to helping people who have come through such horrors to navigate their way to healing and a new life.

In other news: the life drawing is going well - I'm still churning out fairly bizarre interpretations of limbs, but am enjoying every last scribbly minute of it. It also gives me a funny new way of seeing bodies - suddenly I'm grateful for that sagging boob or find myself longing that the model would only have a few more rolls of chub to work with!

Tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary! Perhaps I'll do a separate post on that..I also realised/remembered after my last post that this blog is somehow linked with facebook (no doubt something to do with Andy's clever computer hijinks), but I think I'll try to take it off if I can - that way hopefully only the people who really know me and want to hear about the random ins and out of life will read it and I won't clog up people's feed with my ramblings. So, in future if you want to read this find it at www.andyandmillay.com !

seasonal advice

2009-09-16T20:04:00.004+01:00

I can't believe the summer is drawing to a close; I was so sure this one would stretch on forever...Regardless, I'm actually really looking forward to the challenge that this coming year will bring. I'll be diving into the final year of my Masters in Social Work, focusing on mental health and potentially getting my second placement with refugees and asylum seekers (watch this space).

Speaking of mental health, I'm currently trying to lay down some groundwork for my own mental health survival for the coming months. Last winter was long, and cold, and (deep breath) hard. There, I said it. I spent a lot of time over last winter and beyond feeling really rather cold a lot of the time (thanks Manchester), pretty tired and generally not on my A game. None of which is great for maintaining sanity during the final year of my MA, so I'm trying to put some things in place to keep my cool over the next year!

Here's my plan so far:
1. Actually get out of bed/off the couch and go to the gym. Exercising gives you energy. And endorphins. And better circulation, which will in turn hopefully help me combat the cold. Please feel free to pester me about this.
2. Keep going to the life drawing class I started last week. Two blissful hours of focusing intently on putting pencil to paper and forgetting absolutely everything else that happened that day/week/year. Nevermind that I end up with something resembling a missing evolutionary stage...it's escapism and that's what counts.
3. Good music, good books. I have some recommendations for you on both counts: Go take a listen to Susan Enan's brand spanking new album 'Plainsong'; I promise that you will not regret it. Beautiful, haunting, poetic, uplifting. Once you've done that, go read Ali Shaw's debut novel 'The Girl With Glass Feet'; he is an incredibly talented story-teller and this story is deeply creative and does a fantastic job of transporting you to another world - more great escapism.
4. Even if it means playing truant, take every available sunny day, cold or not, and get out into some scenery. Sun on face+green things= happy heart.
5. Drink good coffee, take deep breaths and hot baths, and never underestimate the power of a good nap.

Here's to a new season...

cold tents, warm hearts

2009-09-02T10:06:00.004+01:00

We just got back from the Greenbelt Festival and have the feeling of well-earned exhaustion. It was my first Greenbelt experience and I wasn't disappointed - much, much mellower than my last big festival experience at Glastonbury, Greenbelt had a huge variety of stuff going on that really catered for any age and any walk of life. I drank lots of tea in hippified tea tents, saw some great comedy, music, engaging speakers, and ran into a great deal of old friends.

Particular highlights were sneakily getting the best seats in the house (up on the sound desk with Andy's mate) for Ockham's Razor, an 'aerial theatre' group who put on a heart-stopping and beautiful performance (pictured above). Other memorable shows were Foy Vance, Susan Enan, (buy her new album, you won't be disappointed) and an incredible performance by Duke Special, complete with 7-piece band, costumes, lights, wine, the works. Stunning.

I also got to meet several of Andy's old friend who I'd not yet crossed paths with - it's cool to continue to piece together the past of the person who you're sharing your present and future with. During one of these encounters I was alerted to the fact that some people actually read this blog (!), which I have to say I was vaguely surprised about...as a response to a direct request I shall endeavour to be little better at updating it. You better be reading this, John! :) Incidentally, even though this page has really just turned into my sporadic injections of events and tidbits, if you want to get a feel for some of the stuff that Andy has going on, check out his microcosm at indielab .

sun for the soul

2009-07-30T13:13:00.005+01:00

We've recently returned from a much-needed break in Spain. At one point in the chaos that preceded the holiday I though it wasn't actually going to happen, but we made it off the island, Andy lagging half a week behind me, and enjoyed doing some serious relaxing in a remote mountain valley in the Sierra Nevadas. The region is called Las Alpujarras and was just so tranquil and beautiful - our little rustic cottage was in one of the tiny whitewash villages dotted throughout the mountains. With a balcony and rooftop with an incredible view, we spent our days reading, sleeping, hiking, and sampling our fair share of the local chorizo. I had the first three or four days as a solo retreat (long story) and to my surprise I lapped up every last peaceful, inert, sleepy minute of it.

Our good friends Sarah and KP happened to be staying a few hours away and so the following week, we invited them for a night in the mountains with us where we found the most incredible vegetarian restaurant in this teensy village, run by the immensely talented Frenchman Jean-Claude, who treated us single handedly to a gastronomically divine evening. The following day we all drove to Granada and stumbled around the breathtaking Alhambra palaces, slack-jawed, taking in the incredible Moorish designs and architecture.

The final few days we spent in Atequera, mainly sitting in the sunny town square reading papers and eating tapas, with the occasional random element thrown in like a blues festival and food poisoning. What holiday is complete without it? Though it feels like it was over all too soon, the sunshine and nature did some serious good for my soul and helped both of us let the dust settle on what's been a somewhat tough and draining few months. I tried to store up as much sunshine in my bones and in my soul to make in through the rest of this grayer Mancunian summer!

buddies, baldies and bagpipes

2009-07-11T20:08:00.003+01:00

The past week our very good buds Sarah and KP were in town visiting us from Missouri as part of their European summer tour. We had loads of fun showing them around a few particularly 'English' sights, including small Yorkshire villages, the cobbled streets of Oxford, curry on the Manchester curry mile, and of course lots of real ale in some fine pubs.

By far the highlight was an impromptu meeting with an eclectic acoustic music group as we were enjoying a pint in the Peveril of the Peak in Manchester. Halfway through our first pint in strolled a bald, totally tattooed, fishnet-clad northerner brandishing a set of tartan bagpipes and with an equally random mix of musicians in tow. You really can't make this stuff up. Needless to say we hung around for a few more beers to enjoy the Irish music and generally soak in the randomness of it all. What this man does as a day job is anyone's guess...

button love

2009-06-21T14:51:00.004+01:00

I love buttons. I can't really explain why...I just do. I love them on my clothes - generally, the bigger the better. I've also recently discovered the joys of marrying a glue gun with buttons...this one was sent to my friend Iona for her birthday...so some of you might start finding buttons turning up in your mailboxes more and more these days... :)

Monkeying around

2009-06-05T17:07:00.008+01:00

Last Friday we took a few of the Mustard Tree's Freedom Project participants to a woodland high-ropes course called Go Ape. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we had a great time swinging around in the trees, going on ziplines, and spending time getting to know each other as a team somewhat outside of their comfot zones!

I am still floored by the guys and gals we have coming through the project - I feel incredibly lucky to work alongside such inspiring human beings, who are so full of perseverance and hope despite the journeys their lives have taken. Many of them are homeless and/or in different stages of recovery and face daily struggles on all fronts. I love getting to know them all better and walking a small section of their journey with them. Each week we see incredible changes in their lives - finding homes, jobs, getting off drugs or alcohol, rebuilding relationships, etc. Its definitely not all highs but it's a powerful thing to be part of a community that is willing to walk through the lows with each other too. I'm honoured to be along for the ride.

Day O' Sun

2009-05-24T18:49:00.005+01:00

Today was warm and sunny, which is pretty much all I need to have a good day. After a city day yesterday at the Hungry Pigeon festival in Manchester, we wanted country this time. Went to Heaton Park for the first time and was impressed by its size! Rolling fields, lakes, historic buildings, farm animals...we strolled and then napped in a sunny spot by a horse meadow. Here's pics of the topiary, a (noisy) peacock and me just woken from a nap. Sadly, Andy couldn't find his beloved highland cows but he promises me they are cool :)

Adventures in Love

2009-05-10T17:29:00.003+01:00

Yesterday Andy and I had the pleasure of attending our dear friends Sam and Lisa's wedding. The day was packed full of smiles, laughter, good music, good food, and really excellent company. I looked around and was acutely aware of what a phenomenal pool of people surrounded these two; its so true that like attracts like - they are two of the most solid, excellent people I know and it showed by how well loved and supported they were as they embarked on their new adventure together. When they kissed and were announced as man and wife in the church, it took several long minutes for the whooping, clapping and cheering to subside and I felt privileged to be cheering for now and into the future....

Social take 2

2009-05-10T17:16:00.004+01:00

Last week saw another "Social" event, quarterly artistic/musical collaborations that seek to promote awareness of and raise money towards particular social causes. This time round the topic was corporate responsibility, focusing on large Western profit-making companies being held more accountable for fair trade and decent standards for the workers in their production countries. I contributed an installation that involved forged receipts and golden objects and highlighted the human stories behind common items we buy at the supermarket - tea, fruit, flowers, cheap clothes...The night was full of a variety of art and great music. Money raised went to the fantastic campaign work done by Speak. For more on them, go to www.speak.org.uk. I'm constantly inspired by the energy, enthusiasm and sheer talent of the people who pour themselves into these events...good people to know!(Photos c/o Hannah Raeside)

Blast from the Past

2009-04-12T22:26:00.003+01:00

On Friday Andy and I drove to a pub in Alderley Edge and met up with the Trevelyans: Andy, Sophie, Sam and Susanna, who are the family that I lived with and worked for in my very first year of living in New York, all those years ago. Needless to say, Sam and Su have grown so much since they were the 3 and 5 year-olds that I began working with; they both definitely retain their character in the way I remember it though.

Andy and I knew each other from the climbing wall in Oxford when I was at uni and they offered me a job as a nanny to Sam and Su for a year, while he and Sophie worked on research in their respective areas of science at Columbia. What a year it was! They provided me with my 'in' to New York and gave me not only a roof over my head and a job, but the extreme privilege of looking after two of the most fun, clever and engaging kids I have ever met. Seriously, these kids are incredible and I had so much fun learning about children, New York, and about myself in that first year living with them.

I don't think I ever told them this, but being part of their family was the thing that secured for me the decision that I did in fact want to have a family of my own, one day. There's nothing quite like good role models and adorable, adventurous kids to convince you that raising a family is extremely hard work, but completely worth every sacrifice.

Reunion Tale

2009-03-14T21:20:00.004Z

Last week, my friend Sarah and I orchestrated a grand surprise visit to our old home of New York. Specifically, we wanted to surprise our great friend and my old flatmate Jes and catch up with her and with the city. We met up at the airport having flown in from our respective homes in Manchester and Missouri, squealed like valley girls when we found each other, and waited for Jes on her stoop when she got back from work! The look on her face was worth all the plotting and planning and I had an AMAZING week catching up with familiar faces and places.

New York retains a certain hold over me. I assumed I would feel more like a visitor, this being my first return after leaving 9 months ago, but as soon as I arrived it really just felt like being home. Everything was so familiar, and it just made sense to me that I was part of the city again. I guess this is partly because the people I left behind really are like family to me, and partly because 4 years is long enough for a place to really get under your skin and never leave. I know it's New York, and this is all so cliched, but going back made me realise that this city just makes sense to me - I get how it ticks and find is easy to tick along in time.

And so the 6 day trip passed in a wonderful swirl of smiles and hugs, of sipping great coffee and catching up on eating bagels, frozen yogurt, sushi, cupcakes...you get the idea. I went with my gorgeous god-daughter to the zoo, I ate brunch (along with Chelsea Clinton!) in the sunshine in Brooklyn, spent an afternoon with dear friends in New Jersey at their amazing house and generally reveled in the city and her people. I felt more buoyant of soul than I have done in a while, but at the same time feel like I made my peace with the new life we're forging in Manchester. New York will always be there. I miss my friends terribly, but they will always be woven into my life, if from slightly further away. And who knows, maybe we'll boomerang back there one day for a more long-term reunion...

Wet n' Wild at Work

2009-02-27T21:21:00.004Z

It's been a busy and somewhat flat-feeling month or two for Andy and me, but I figured it was time for an update! Some things that have been going on:
- my button tree is still alive (!)
- Andy's latest clients at his arena decided to do a New York-themed event, complete with taxi cabs and massive backdrop of the skyline. We both miss New York, a LOT.
- My placement for my Social Work Masters is going great - I feel really engaged with the clients and the team, and it's really challenging my ideas about care/control of mental health...how society decides to label and respond to things. Hmm. I'm learning a lot.
- We went to see the Miserable Rich the other night at a great little venue called The Deaf Institute. They're really great. Check them out.
- My part time work at The Mustard Tree is going really well - our programme (The Freedom Project - cheesy I know, I didn't name it) helps those with significant barriers to employment (ex-offenders, homeless, long term unemployed, mentally ill) gain work practice, life sills training and mentoring to help them make steps back to work. Its a really steep learning curve for me and for Jez (who really runs it now that I'm down to one day a week!), but we're excited about what's been happening in the lives of our participants.
Part of what we like to do once a month is do team-building days where we give the guys on the project experiences that will be new and fun and help improve confidence and team-building. Today, we took them for a day out in the hills for hiking and abseiling (see pics above) Everyone had such a blast - one guy who was with us came to the UK as a refugee over 5 years ago and today was his FIRST time EVER in the countryside. He was grinning all day long an took pics with his camera phone of everything; it was so much fun to watch him love nature!

Button Tree

2009-02-13T20:28:00.003Z

Meet my new favourite possession: my button tree! A Valentine's gift from Andy, who felt bad for being out of town on V-day. Isn't it amazing?! It's made of red buttons of all sizes and as you might know, buttons have a special place in my heart :) Who needs flowers and chocolates when you have buttons, I ask you?

oh, deer

2009-02-02T18:37:00.004Z

Andy and I had a great relaxing weekend. I pretended I didn't have an imminent essay deadline, and so we packed our sandwiches and hung out at Tatton Park for the afternoon, gaping at the beautiful deer and even getting some sun on our faces! I think we're both getting a little affected by the grey skies these days...
Afterwards, we mooched through antique shops in Knutsford and drank tea in a great little tea house that had ancient penny-farthing bicycles hanging from the ceiling. Then dinner at Liz's, which was as always a decadent gastronomic wonder. After a Sunday spent reading the papers and vegging out, we feel ready to take on whatever the next week throws at us!

birthday babies and the cupcake corner

2009-01-27T20:37:00.002Z

On saturday, my friend Liz and I threw ourselves a belated birthday bash at a bar in Manchester. We spent the afternoon leading up to it baking our little hearts out, thus providing a 'cupcake corner' for people to decorate their own. (Ours were special due to us being the birthday girls, we had sparklers!). A fun night that ended all too quickly and saw me enter a near sugar-coma by the end :) Highlights included: Chris and a very pregnant Jen turning up all the way from Liverpool, 2 of the 4 yellow house girls making an appearance, and an amazing gift from Hunter and Wilson of a hot water bottle cover knitted in the shape of a little cottage! Amazing!

birthday break in the big city

2009-01-19T22:50:00.004Z

For my birthday, Andy and I took off to London for a long weekend. It was fantastic and exhausting. I forgot how, like in New York, much walking is required! (Maybe now that my legs have turned 27 they simply wear out more easily...?)

We visited the gorgeous British Museum at night, walked around Soho and ate in Chinatown, visited the Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery and Photographer's Gallery. We walked along the Thames, watched street performers in Covent Garden, ate Brazilian food and saw Andy's dad sing in a huge (and kind of zany) production of the opera Carmina Burana, in a 20,000 person-filled O2 arena. Afterward, I treated myself to a very tasty cosmopolitan cocktail. (Now, we're eating beans for a month but it was worth every penny!)

I feel good about 27. Life has been a pretty great adventure so far, and I hope the adventure keeps flowing thick and fast in the years to come.

Brighton Beach

2009-01-07T23:13:00.002Z

A winter walk on the beach.

NYE

2009-01-04T16:01:00.003Z

I spent New Year's Eve with friends from Manchester in a tiny village in the south of England. We took a woodland walk at dusk with a dog and torches, we lit a fire and sat around it all night eating, drinking, singing, laughing and dreaming of what the new year might bring. At midnight we linked arms and sang Auld Lang Syne and walked up a hill with our glasses of champagne to better see the fireworks. I feel happy and hopeful about the year ahead...

Recent Pictures...

2008-12-31T18:01:00.003Z

Haven't blogged in a while due to being super busy with the crazy new job, so busy in fact that I've only managed to shoot one roll of film in the last 6 months which has just been delivered back from the processors... Will promise to do better in the new year!

Manchester Shots

Shots of La Machine in Liverpool Click here for more info on the project

New Things for a New Year

2008-12-30T21:27:00.004Z

1. My good friend Ian is starting the new year as a husband. On Sunday, he married the love of his life Izzie and we all danced the night away in a medieval hall (above) to the music of a Ceilidh band in celebration of their marriage.

2. Next week myself and my colleague Jez officially launch The Freedom Project, a work readiness programme for ex-offenders/long term unemployed to help support them in returning to work. I'm keeping this part time job alongside my social work placement and university coursework so it promises to be a busy year!

3. The week after next I start my first social work placement as part of my Masters course. It will last 6 months and I will be working at a supported tenancy for African Caribbean men with mental health issues, helping them integrate into the community and work toward independent living.

4. The world will start the new year, as of January 20th, with a new leader of the United States. My hope is that this new thing will be felt throughout the world, and that the change it brings will be good.

5. This year will begin with 4 of the 5 original Vann Clan members living in the same country once more. Who knows where we will all be by the end of the year, but it's a great way to start!

6. The new year will dawn on this same magical and broken world, full of staggering beauty and terrible injustice. We will wake to this new year as a people still broken but hopeful, with fresh courage and resolve to make a difference, to go the extra mile, to speak out for change and to live humbly in awe of our smallness and our potential to usher in great things.

Christmas Cheer

2008-12-11T15:44:00.004Z

My extremely talented friend Iona, who gets VERY excited about Christmas starting in about July each year, sent me this beautiful hand-painted advent calendar. It gives me great joy every day to open up a little port-hole and see what clever thing she has drawn that lies underneath. The month started with a robin, and I'm excited to see what Christmas day will bring!

Andy and I are working flat out til Christmas week and looking forward to the break. This year is the first time in a LONG time that we have been in the UK with family for Christmas so its extra special, though now that Dave is back from Cambodia as well there's plenty of tug-o-war to be played between families!

Some of my very favourite Christmas things:

1. The German stuff. Having grown up on the traditional German Christmas experience, I just can't get enough of the lebkuchen, linzertorte, stollen, wooden ornaments and St Nikolaus tag where you leave a boot out at night and on the 6th December, wake to find it filled with sweets! Random tradition but one that carried on well into out teens... :) Our family also incorporates the german tradition of opening present on Christmas Eve by always opening one present the night before Christmas day.

2. Mulled wine. I never really got into the whole English minced pie thing (probably because for years, I didn't understand that they use the same word as for mulched beef), but mulled wine is always a winner.

3. The covered market in Oxford at Christmastime. You kind of have to go there to understand...trees and turkeys and hot chocolate...it has it all. It has a special magic at Christmastime.

4. Going from the pub to the midnight church service on Christmas eve with all the old gang from the village and at midnight, whispering and pinching each other in the middle of the sermon 'cause its officially Christmas!

5. Helping dad put together our archaic fake tree from the 80's (maybe even 70's!?), that inevitably seems to get smaller every year. Truth be told, its actually a horribly ugly tree but so strong are our fond associations with it we wouldn't dream of having anything else!

6. FAMILY. Yes, this holiday has become trivialized, commercialized, and cannibalized of any relevant cultural meaning (we had "Winterval" one year in Birmingham instead of Christmas), but one thing that Christmas has always been a celebration of for me is family. We try to make a point of getting together, be it on actual Christmas Day or not, be it through a phone or Skype or in some random country, to touch base. A tradition we started a while back is to say what our highlight and lowlight of the year has been, and our hopes for the year ahead. I'll mull that one over and let you know.

Lisa

2008-12-02T22:16:00.005Z

Even though her real name is Lara, our whole family has always called her Lisa. Like a nickname that's not actually a shortening of anything. To be honest it weirds me out when Matt, my brother-in-law, calls her Lara, because I forget that's her real name and somehow it doesn't sound right.

Lisa's my sister and, as the years have passed, more and more of a great friend. When I was little there was such an age gap that we didn't really relate as friends or share clothes or any of that stuff. Part of growing up and then living in New York for the last 4 years has meant that we've become friends, equals - i love that. I feel like if we were ever flatmates we would have the time of our lives.

This post is to tell you a little about why Lisa is an amazing sister and an amazing (and as you can see gorgeous!) person:
- She is incredibly kind-hearted and wonderfully gifted with people. She would be the one you would want baby-sitting your kid, answering the phone on the customer service line, looking after your grandma in the old folks home, organising your wedding decorations (thanks!).
- She is an AMAZING mother. Really, I'm blown away by how patient and loving she is with raising two adorable but seriously hyperactive boys. She totally inspires me that parenting is doable and worthwhile.
- She knows how to have a good time. There' something kind of Irish about her outgoing impulses, her humour, her social ease. Oh, you also really want her on your team for games. Especially card games. If she's playing against you, prepare to die.
- She is the only person in the world that can get me into absolute and irrevocable fits of giggles. I don't even know how she does this, but ever since I was tiny she could bring this hysteria out in me in a way that no one else has been able to replicate.
- She's tender-hearted. She cries at commericals.
- She's fiercely loyal and can be tough-minded, steely and protective when someone she loves is threatened.
- She's an eternal optimist. She's had a really winding and often tough road through life, but in every situation she finds a way to see the positive side and to put a smile on her face.

I know they say you can't choose your family, but Lisa would be my first pick every time :)

Alive and kicking

2008-11-27T22:04:00.004Z

This picture kind of sums it up: even though Andy's been quiet on the blog front, he's always there in the background, working hard and giving me hugs. He rocks my world. He's kicking toosh at his job in Liverpool rather than letting it kick his, and still has energy to be my best whinge-wine-and-West-Wing buddy ever. Thanks hus!

Thanksgiving Day comes to Manchester

2008-11-24T16:20:00.004Z

Having spent the past 4 years experiencing a truly American annual Thanksgiving with my extended family in Boston, Andy and I decided to bring the tradition to Manchester on our first year back. We invited a bunch of our (mostly) northern friends and cooked and baked our hearts out!

It turned out to be such a fun day and with a hugely successful Thanksgiving spread despite the size of our tiny kitchen! We laid on turkey, homemade apple pecan stuffing, candied yams, mashed potato, sweet apple cabbage, veg and a selection of dessert which included brownies, a sinfully moorish chocolate pecan pie and Chris and Lucy's killer apple pie. We downloaded a bunch of NFL games and played them in the background and even strung up bunting made up of pilgrims, turkeys, US flag and Barack Obama for good measure! :)

We kicked things off by Andy reciting Abraham Lincoln's declaration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday and then ate til our jeans got too tight...a good day was had by all and we're fairly certain yesterday signaled a new tradition for us for years to come. Despite the dubious nature of the 'real' Thanksgiving story, the whole day did really make me reflect on how much we have to be thankful for; I'm overwhelmed at the blessings that are continually heaped on us - may there be many more years of thankfulness and feasting to come!

Family frolics

2008-11-20T17:41:00.003Z

Last weekend we played host in our Manchester flat to Andy's dad, mum and brother and my brother and sister in-law. Wow! A busy but really fun weekend. Andy's dad is in a professional choir and we watched him sing (in Russian!) at the beautiful Bridgewater Hall on Saturday, after a day out exploring Manchester city centre (including a ride on the Manchester wheel - the view and Simon, Andy's bro, pictured above). Sunday we pottered around Liverpool and nosed around the Tate for a bit. Sunday night I stayed up til 2 am gabbing with my brother. The two of us are a deadly combination for all night talking!

The weekend made us realise what an incredible bonus it is to be near family again. Well, the same country at least! Though our pangs for New York are still very much with us, for me nothing can compare to being able to sit up with your brother putting the world to rights late into the night.

This weekend we're bringing some of America to Manchester by throwing our northern friends a Thanksgiving day! Watch this space to see how many people we can cram into our living room...

The Project

2008-10-21T18:24:00.006+01:00

Once a month, a group of creatives in Manchester that call themselves The Project host an evening at The Mustard Tree (where I work pt) for the clients that frequent us. They lay on an amazing hot meal and drinks, art and craft tables, and provide a chilled cafe-style evening of music performance from their own talent. The clients that come to these evening (called 'The Sanctuary') are mostly homeless, and a great sense of community has grown as a result of these nights. It's really col to see these placeless people find a place among The Project and each other.

Off the back of these evenings, I started a photography workshop for a few of the clients that were interested and sent them off with their own cameras to capture their world. I was inspired and intrigued by their photos and I chose a selection of them to be exhibited at a fundraising evening that was held for The Project in a venue in Manchester last week. We decided to display them as you might find in a "home". I'm hoping to get something regular going at The Mustard Tree off the back of it; it was fun watching the guys really take ownership and confidence in the whole thing. Watch this space!

Paper Celebrations

2008-10-04T14:24:00.004+01:00

A few days ago we celebrated our ONE YEAR anniversary! We were both staggered at not only how the year has flown, but at how much change and adventure has been crammed into our first year of married life. A year ago on October 1st we were on a boat with a gang of our amazing friends and family, puttering around breathtaking New York City at sunset, vowing to do life side by side no-matter what life brings.
Well, our first year of doing life together saw us: Moving to a studio in Brooklyn, quitting our jobs, adventuring in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina, moving across an ocean with all our worldly possessions to England, finding an apartment, finding jobs, and going back to university for a Master's degree, as well as all the smaller adventures in between.

I would say that's a pretty big year for our first year! It's been incredible. We love doing life together and tackling the things that come our way as a team. I know its sounds cheesy, but it's so true. Apparently year one is the "paper" anniversary, so above is an origami piece I made for Andy as an anniversary gift. Goodness knows what I could come up with as we hit the tin, copper and leather years...

Masters, MTV and Mustard Trees

2008-09-15T22:06:00.005+01:00

Its been a while since we've posted, but it ain't cos nothing's been happening! Quite the opposite, in fact. Things are getting busy, but are good.

Andy has of course dived in headfirst to his new job as project manager at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, taking on a huge variety of clients ranging from Firefighters from around the world, horse veterinarians, and the MTV music awards! Never a dull day, eh. He also found himself dangling from a zip-wire on a high ropes course when the arena took all the employees for a day of bonding and team-building...

As for me, as I was still waiting for my Masters course to begin I picked up some weekend bar work at a comedy club and substituted it with full-time volunteering at a charity for the homeless/ destitute called The Mustard Tree. (Its a somewhat chaotic, underfunded, understaffed agency where everyone is a little bit crazy but all heart, so of course I fit right in.)

Crazily, within a week of volunteering there I was offered the chance to apply for a new paid position coming up, co-directing a new program that has just received funding. I applied for it as a part-time job-share position, and got the job!!! I'm not quite sure what makes me think that I am capable of a) setting up and running a whole new program or b) doing it while doing a full-time Masters course, but either way it promises to be a busy year. The project I'll be coordinating will be there to help those with limited employment prospects reenter the workforce, through an in-house training program, followed by an external placement, with ongoing mentoring throughout. Pretty exciting stuff!

If you want to know more about the work the Mustard Tree does and meet my new boss Paul, there's a (rather lengthy) video kicking around on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ParachuteMediaLtd

Oh, I also started a photography club for some of the clients there, with a view to exhibit some of their pic at a fund/awareness raising event in October, hosted by an artist collective in Manchester. Watch this space for your invite! :)

Next week I start my Masters in Social Work and my new job at The Mustard Tree. Should I survive on either count, I will report back...

Yellow House Reunion

2008-08-22T12:23:00.003+01:00

Last weekend The Yellow House girls reunited for the first time in years - it's times like this that make me so happy I'm living in the UK again. Each and every one of these ladies are absolutely beautiful inside and out. We all lived together for 2 years at university in, you guessed it, a yellow house of madness and mayhem. We have seen each other through so many changes and it was amazing to meet up and see how each of our lives have developed!

Left to right: Alex aka Algernon, Tara aka Tara-Wara, Vanessa aka VeeGee,Kate aka KatieB, and me aka Milky.

Home Sweet Home

2008-08-19T14:29:00.001+01:00

Something Old, Something New

2008-08-14T12:22:00.003+01:00

Something old: excuses about not writing on the blog more often :)

Something new: After about a month of Andy working away on a freelance job and me running up and down the country for various reasons, we are now finally establishing a routine in our new home in Manchester. Andy: commuting to Liverpool daily for his new job and me: job hunting and - wait for it - having dinner on the table every night! Who'd have thought?

Something old: My very dear friend Chris, who I basically grew up with and whose friendship is a constant thread in my life.

Something new: He got married to his best friend and all round amazing girl, Lucy, last weekend. It was a proper village wedding and we all had a great time catching up and marveling at how Chris managed to snag such a hot chick!

Something old: My knackered old film camera, scratched and paint splattered from college days but which I resurrected to play photographer at Chris and Lucy's wedding. (See above)

Something new: my rekindled love of film! I had forgotten how great film is and sadly, how few places will now even develop it for you. How times have changed.

Pies and Prejudice

2008-07-28T14:11:00.004+01:00

Hi there, its Millay this time - haven't posted in a while since Andy ran off with the computer to corral bishops, but just thought I would write a few sentences about the past few weeks. After running up and down the country seeing family and attending weddings and suchlike, this has been my first full week in Manchester, being a homebody while searching for work. (I've been much more successful at the former than the latter.)
I'm starting to get a feel for Manchester and so far, it feels good. The past few days have been amazingly hot and sunny and the whole city has spilled outside; all the parks, pub gardens and cafes are littered with locals soaking up the sun while it's here (which I gather is not often). Regardless, this place always seems to be buzzing with something, be it small music and art festivals, a dance performance in Piccadilly gardens, or group after group of bare-thighed ladies out for a hen night on the town.
I'm learning about living in 'The North', a powerful cultural state of mind that is a new and exotic reality for me. Even though I grew up in the Midlands, up here I would definitely be classed as a southern jessie. I'm reading a funny and very enlightening book called 'Pies and Prejudice', written by Stuart Maconie about what makes The North so set apart from the rest of the country.

"Like unicorns or spontaneous combustion, there is no south of England, if we're honest. There's the bottom half of England, naturally, otherwise the country would get all unravelled and damp around Nuneaton. Good or bad, 'the north' means something to all English people wherever they hail from. To northerners it means home, truth, beauty, valour, warm and characterful people and real beer. Square metres of it are crowded, square miles of it are almost deserted. For an area so well covered by cctv, it still says 'Here Be Dragons' on the Daily Telegraph's map of Britain."

Its true that the people are warm. In my short time here I've been addressed as darling, love, luvvie, petal, lass, lassie and duck. How can you not love that?

30 St Mary Axe AKA The Gherkin

2008-07-22T07:51:00.005+01:00

A week or so ago I did a freelance gig in possible one of the most beautiful venues I've ever been in. It was at the building fondly nick named 'The London Gherkin' The venue was at the very top in the tip of the building in a 2 level bar/restaurant with 360 degree views of London. Unlike New York, there really aren't many other tall buildings around so the views are uninterrupted and incredible. What London lacks in height, it makes up for in history as historic building and landmarks blend in seamlessly with the modern London landscape. I love the fact that as you stare down at the higeldy pigeldy streets whose layout sometimes hasn't changed for hundreds of years; your looking down at the veins of a constantly changing city. When construction of The Tower of London was started 930 years ago by William The Conquerer (side note - also remembered in history by the affectionate name 'William The Bastard' - seriously, google it!) the surrounding areas would have been filled with cottages and wooden houses. Countless wars, kings, queens, celebrations, protests, victories, defeats, fire and growth later and I'm staring down at it from London's newest landmark 590 ft in the sky. What old Will the Conquerer would have thought about it (or if he would have enjoyed The Cavern Beatles) God only knows! - Andy

Quick Update

2008-07-17T14:13:00.002+01:00

Just a quick one to say that the reason we aren’t blogging much at the moment is that I am at the Lambeth conference for the next 3 weeks and Millay is dashing around the country a bit and doesn’t have a computer. The Lambeth conference is a turning out to be a really easy and culturally fascinating job. The Anglican church is in so many ways the polar opposite stylistically from the American Pentecostal church I’ve been working at for the last few years in New York. Working with the media side of things here I have a front row seat at what could be quite an historic occasion as the worldwide church tries to decide if it can live with the different views within it or if it will continue to tear it’s self apart. The Guardian had a great article on the difficult position the archbishop finds himself in, here’s the link.

Because of the professional position I’m working in I’m not going to be blogging about the conference much but I might throw some thoughts up once it’s all done and dusted in a couple of weeks. Until then the only other news is that as soon as I finish this freelance position I start my new job as project technician at the ACC Arena and Conference center in Liverpool! The job is going to be challenging and I hope will keep me busy, more importantly probably than both of those things is that it’s a good salary that will hopefully get me and Millay through the next couple of years while she’s at uni. We both feel very blessed that everything is falling into place so quickly and smoothly!

The mystery of Ikea

2008-07-09T11:45:00.001+01:00

We needed cool functional furniture, we have little money, we have exhausted all our local charity furniture stores so Ikea seemed like a good idea.

I don’t know what it is about Ikea but it there seems to be some weird sort of magical pull about the place, ever since we got our new empty apartment we have both felt this strange certainty that it was only a matter of time before we gave in and just furnished it with Ikea products. Yesterday the magic took hold and we made the trip to the hallowed place with the Swedish aura of style and cheapness. So much has already been written about the stupid names all the products have and the never ending gauntlet of showrooms you have to walk through just to get the one thing you want that I feel I don’t need to add to it. The overwhelming feeling I think I had when I left was that slightly dirty feeling of knowing that I’d been manipulated like a child by the clever marketing and the finely physiologically tuned product placement. There was at least 1 thing in our basket that by the time I got them home I was wondering “what even IS this” and the feeling that we really shouldn’t have just spend £12 on a bunch of branches when we could have easily grabbed them of the nearest tree. The wonder of Ikea though is that everything seems like a good idea at the time and by the time you’ve arrived at the checkout and your bill is £200 higher than you thought it would be (all those little ‘cheap’ items add up!) it’s too late to back out and run away – your sucked into the Ikea vortex and the only way out is with your credit card.

In reflection though I think we’re happy, we resisted many strange funky twirly plasticy things and didn’t get tricked into the expensive cookware (though we did mysteriously end up with 12 glasses for the two of us!). All the flat pack stuff went together without to many dramas though we did of course not pick up a separately boxed door to the bookcase we wanted and we’re now both too scared of the Ikea magic to go back and buy it in case before we know it we are hypnotized by the magic again and walk out with a completely new bathroom or something.

The update

2008-07-09T11:27:00.001+01:00

Over the next few weeks I’ll try and post a bit more stuff about the huge shift in what’s been going on in our lives over the last couple of months. The reason I haven’t done so already is that there simply hasn’t been time! Every single day since we landed back in South America has been a whirlwind of things to do, people to see and places to be. Finally this week we’ve managed to settle down a bit and catch our breath, we have an apartment now that we are nested into nicely and my job search has been nicely helped by a friend of mine who offered me 3 weeks very well paid work at the Lambeth Conference. which is being held in Canterbury next week.

It does feel a little bit like I’ve been thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire with it, almost 3 years working in a large non-denominational church only to come home to work at the Anglican church world conference feels like an overdose of church politics. For those of you who need bringing up to speed, the Anglican church encompasses a huge number of all the Christian churches around the world and it isn’t happy! A powder keg has been waiting to explode for the last few years about the issues of gay ordination and women bishops with the liberal western (and in particular American) interpretation of theology a direct contrast to more conservative interpretation and culture that the church has historically adhered to and many churches in Africa especially want to remain faithful to. This meeting of all the worldwide leaders happens only once a decade so this could well be a defining moment for the worldwide church with a complete split by no means out of the question. I’ll let you know how things go and if I get some down time bring you all up to speed on the last few weeks as well.

Laters - A

The Manchizzle

2008-07-06T11:59:00.004+01:00

Its official: we are now Manchunians. Well, adoptive ones anyway as of yesterday when we moved into our own pad in that great northern city of Manchester. Even though the sofa we found at a charity shop didn't fit through the door and everything lies scattered at our feet in boxes, we already love our new place. Maybe its just because it has been a while since we have had keys to, well, anything in our pockets, but at any rate we're loving how the word trips off our tongues: 'home'.

We celebrated our first night here by drinking wine out of an 'I heart NY' mug which I bought at JFK airport and we marveled at how so much change can happen in such a short time. Life is taking shape: screwing together Ikea furniture frames, reconnecting with family and friends and Andy has been offered some great work opportunities while I fill out temp application forms as as I wait for my Masters to start in the autumn. In a fit of generosity, Andy's dad gave us his old car so we even have wheels and are doing a good job so far at remembering to drive on the LEFT side of the road :)

Life from Scratch

2008-06-24T09:39:00.004+01:00

It's been 4 years since I have lived in England. In fact, I am returning in the very same week that I left in the summer of '04. Even though of course I've been visiting sporadically in the meantime, returning now takes on a strange mixture of familiarity and feeling like a tourist all over again.

I found myself standing dumbstruck before a bemused shop assistant at London Paddington station last week as I turned over the heavy and unfamiliar coins in my hand, eventually handing over what I thought was the right coin for the occasion, a huge £2 coin that hadn't crossed my hand in ages. More than once I have come close to being completely flattened due to looking the wrong way before crossing the road and now that we're in the north, it takes me an extra effort just to follow what people are saying. If you've never heard a Liverpudlian accent, its a special kind of adjustment :)

Its strange how we are suddenly having to build up life all over again from scratch. From the simplest things like crossing the road properly to finding jobs and apartments, it makes me understand how settled my life was in New York and it somewhat throws me off balance to understand that I have stopped traveling - that this isn't another stop on our journey, but rather the destination for now. We're staying with good friends in Liverpool while we get our act together which definitely softens the blow, but after well over 3 months of living out of a backpack, I'm more ready than ever for a place to call home.

Belated goodbye to South America

2008-06-21T13:23:00.003+01:00

Our lives are moving and changing so fast that we've somewhat fallen behind with the blog. We're planning on continuing with it as we transition to life back in England. Needless to say, we have left South America and take with us a million pictures, amazing memories and a slightly swollen toe left over from the "fish incident" in the Amazon :)

During our South American adventures we covered:

3 countries, spent

101 hours on

14 long-distance buses,

1 boat,

1 bicycle,

2 rafts,

a 4 day jeep trip,

and numerous crammed colectivos.

We hiked up the ruins of Machu Picchu, boated in the Amazon basin, swam in fish-infested waterfall pools, biked along the world's highest navigable lake, crawled down working mines, drank delicious wine straight from the vineyards, hiked through cactus-studded canyons, were left slack jawed by the drama of a tango show and watched the sun rise over the surreal landscape of the world's largest salt flat.

Its hard to sum up feelings about our time in South America. While it quenched our thirst for adventure and created a much-needed pause between our lives on each side of the Atlantic, it was also a really great mental break where we could let our minds wander and reflect on the life we're leaving behind in New York. As always with travel in developing countries, it was also a challenge to the comfort of our situation and the assumptions and expectations we carry with us about our future.

While on our travels we read a quote, I believe by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, about South America. I've been unable to find it since so I'll do my best to remember it as it sums up our feelings well:

"When one spends long enough traveling in South America, he will learn that anything is possible, anything at all."

Sorry for the delay...

2008-06-15T22:27:00.003+01:00

Deep apologies for the absence of any blog posting in the last week. We've been in New York for a couple of days on a stop over before heading back into the deep blue yonder of our new lives in the UK. We'll reflect on everything properly once we arrive back and have some time to write - and sleep!

We always swore that we'd never leave New York in the summer time because it'd just be too hard. After a few days in beautiful sunny 30 to 35 degree C weather it's gonna be hard but Manchester can't be grey and rainy ALL year, can it?

Lima and a cabbie conundrum

2008-06-10T00:28:00.001+01:00

We´ve been chilling out in Lima for the past few days, about 4 blocks from the coast in Miraflores, waiting for a flight that will signal the end of our South American adventures (for now, anyway).

We´ll post more "leaving thoughts" later, but I wanted to note down what was possibly the most memorable taxi ride I have taken to date. Its a bit of a you-had-to-be-there thing, but apart from the usual white knuckle ride so common of cab rides here, the very chatty cabbie really had a curious streak which became gradually more and more awkward as the 30-minute trip went on. (Curse you, Lima traffic). He started on benign topics such as my job, age, marital status... but by the end of the trip he had moved on to asking if I would like to take over to drive the taxi, would I like to be his mistress and what kind of birth control do I use!!! I mean, really. Needless to say by the end of the trip I mysteriously ceased to be able to communicate with him in Spanish and repeated the mantra "no comprendo" until I could make a dash to my hostel. Never let it be said that Peruvians don´t make you feel welcomed :)

Bits n Bobs in BA

2008-06-08T22:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we came to the end of our fun and indulgent week in the massive and lively Buenos Aires.

A snapshot of our week:

Much like New York, BA has many (48!) different neighbourhoods and we spent some time exploring some of them. We walked the cobbled streets of San Telmo, nosing around the numerous antique markets and visited the impressive graves of the rich dead at the Recoleta Cemetery, including the tomb of Evita Peron (though urban legend has it the body has been secretly moved). We spent a day soaking up classic and contemporary art, sipped espressos in the cafes of Palermo, admired the bright colours of the working-class La Boca neighbourhood (where we were greeted by a Maradona lookalike!) and watched the numerous ubiquitous protests and parades in the central Plaza de Mayo.

We watched a great jazz band over equally good wine and hung out at late night (for us, not them!) Milonga dances at one of the city's oldest Milonga institutions, the Confiteria Ideal. Its arched ceiling and columns give off the air of grandeur of days of old. A real highlight was going to see a Tango show in San Telmo; it was an incredibly impressive variety of tango, singing and live tango orchestra music in one of the oldest and most intimate tango venues, the Viejo Almacen.

After the meat-fest that Andy previously described, we detoxed with our gracious and gregarious host David at a superb vegetarian joint in our neighbourhood, after which David guided us through the intoxicating world of Persicco, one of the best ice cream parlous in BA. (They even had incredible sorbet for little old me). Thanks Dave!

We decided that a 5 hour flight, not a 5 day bus extravaganza would be in order to get to our final port of call: Lima. I think that decision has possibly been our best of the whole trip...

"I think I just ate it's brain" - Millay

2008-06-06T16:39:00.000+01:00

One of the Argentine specialities is their traditional Parrilla or steakhouse. The meat here is incredible, widely believed to be because of the grass fed free range cattle that Argentina produces, on average apparently Argentinians consume about 60KG of beef a year each! The meat is usually cooked over a huge barbecue in the corner of the restaurant leading to amazing smells and what looks like an entire herd smoking and sizzling away. Strangely there are no vegetables served with the meat apart from a bowl of french fries, this is for the meat purists only!

The traditional dish is to have a little bit of everything off the menu in what's called a parrillanda, we went out last night to sample one and poor little semi-vegetarian Millay ordered us the house special for two, mainly because it mentioned 'sweetbreads' which she thought sounded like bread dipped in sugar. Sadly here 'a little bit of everything' means exactly that in a country that considers every part of the animal fair game when it comes to eating. 'Sweetbreads' here is basically a nice way of saying pig's thymus gland. Along with these we were served Vacio (flank steak), tira de asado (narrow strip of rib roast), chorizo (spicy sausage), pollo (chicken), chinchulines (pig's small intestine), rinones (kidneys) and morcilla (blood sausage). As nice as some bits were, needless to say that we are now both sworn vegetarians for the rest of the week and are looking forward to the time when a barbecue just means some burnt hamburgers underneath a British raincloud!

Buenos Aires

2008-06-04T02:22:00.001+01:00

A few first impressions of 'BsAs' this enormous, bustling, chic city. Its very big and immediately reminds me of New York, but with a European bent. Commuters in designer suits dash in and out of the subways, the cafe culture reigns and I have witnessed more than one dog-walker with upwards of 10 dogs on his leash being dragged through the streets and parks.

We are staying at my good friend Chloe's brother's apartment while he is on vacation, which is very cute and in a very "it" area of the city, Palermo. It is SUCH a huge favour he is doing us to give us a place to stay in Buenos Aires! Very like Soho in New York, its cobblestone streets and trendy bars ooze sophistication and class (and pricey products!). Last night we had the fortune to stumble upon the annual art expo "BA08", housed in an enormous hanger and filled with really top class art work. Today we rode the subway with commuters, ambled among the tranquil parks and sipped cortados in the cafes, passing spontaneous tango on the streets and feeling that familiar ache in our legs that reminds one of spending time in New York.

Having recovered from the night spent sleepless on the night bus to get here, we celebrated our 7 month anniversary (2 of them in South America!) a few days late with a home cooked meal and a bottle of wine purchased at a vineyard we visited in the north. We are turning more into our parents every day!

Cafayette-Argentina

2008-06-01T19:02:00.001+01:00

On our way down to Cordoba we stopped at Cafayate for a couple of days, a pretty little town in the heart of the northern vineyards of Argentina. We ended up going wine tasting in the morning (very decadent before 12pm!) and then in the afternoon went trekking in the surrounding countryside where the rocks have incredible layers of color in them due to some quirk of nature that our guide explained in detail but our

Spanish really wasn´t up to. We've seen so many natural beautiful things in our travels so far, ranging from the huge crumpled mountainous Andes to the smallest details in the tones and hues of the rocks and plants surrounding us that it makes you wonder at the artist who created them; or at least appreciate the gift of being able to enjoy beauty. Without it, life would indeed be extraordinarily grey....

Womens Liberation in Boliva

2008-05-31T19:01:00.001+01:00

Just found this on the BBC website - it's awesome! We did find some people who had been to see this in La Paz, they described it as one of the most bizarre experiences of their life. Surely the Americans can be proud that whilst the Spanish brought their dancing and their language to South America and the Italian Jesuits their education and philosophy, they and the WWE wrestling network have managed to inspire some good old fashioned violent entertainment!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7429029.stm

Córdoba

2008-05-31T18:47:00.001+01:00

We´ve been in Córdoba for the last few days, adjusting to the shock of being in the second largest city in Argentina. It has a bunch of Universities and is very cosmopolitan and is still an adjustment after Peru and Bolivia. The city is bustling and attractive, with lost of amazing structures left from the Jesuits, including a cool crypt that was only uncovered when Telecom were digging under the city a few years back.

The thing that has made the largest impression so far (apart from the ever-amazing wine) is a memorial building to "The Disappeared", right in the center of the city. Now run by an energetic non-profit, the building has been kept in the state that it was used when it was a detention center ("D2") during the years of military dictatorship in Argentina. 30,000 people were "disappeared" (arrested and secretly executed without trial) between 1976-83 and we spoke to a man at the memorial center who had spent 11 years in various prisons for speaking out against the regime. It was so moving to hear of the dark history from his own mouth and see how passionate he was about not letting the country forget its past.

We also finally started getting our body clocks adjusted to Argentinian time and went out after a late dinner to catch a Milonga, a tango venue where anyone can come and take to the floor to tango. Of course, we watched from behind our wine glasses and marveled at the beautiful dancing. We´re looking forward to catching some more tango as we head toward Buenos Aires tomorrow night.

Lost in Translation 3

2008-05-31T18:42:00.002+01:00

The picture says it all, really. Apparently they use a different grading system for men´s clipper cuts in South America and as a result, Andy has the shortest hair he´s ever had! (Apart from that time I accidently carved him a bald patch.) The pic doesn´t really do it justice...good thing it´s hat weather here in Cordoba :)

Salta - Argentina

2008-05-26T19:54:00.002+01:00

We arrived into Argentina from Bolivia on one of the biggest shiniest buses we've ever been on, ever! The quality of the transport though was only the start of it, as when we pulled into the bus station we were greeted with not only a large clean modern building but also actual cafes and a taxi rank full of official taxis with proper signs, meters n everything! The city center streets here are full of shops fulls of luxury goods and teenagers with their noses pressed against the windows eagerly coveting the latest designer clothes. New modern cars made by Renault, Ford and other major manufactures buzz around the streets as people go around their business in smart business suits and fashionable clothes. In the restaurants and cafes we are now just another customer amongst the Argentinian middle classes who fill them for weekend brunches and cups of amazingly good coffee. The contrast to the dirty city streets of Bolivia with it´s street black markets, rusting cars and gringo (foreigner) filled restaurants is vivid. We have moved from one of the poorest South American countries to one of the most developed and while both have had political and social problems throughout their history it's hard to put a finger on one reason why Argentina has thrived whilst Bolivia still finds it's self in political turmoil and poverty despite it's huge wealth of valuable natural resources.

One thing is certain though, Argentina certainly has thrived and Salta looks and feels just like any large European provincial city. Yesterday the whole country celebrated Argentina's Independence and formation of their first government in 1810. The president herself (the 2nd female president in Argentina's history) visited Salta to lead the celebrations and a thoroughly patriotic time was had by all! Speaking of partying we are currently trying to get used to the Argentinian way of doing things. Over here it seems no one goes out to eat dinner (and no where is open) until at least 10pm and the hip young party people don't venture out to the bars and nightspots until at least midnight. However everybody seems to be at work the next day at 8:30am only to then close up the ENTIRE town from 1pm-4:30pm for an afternoon siesta. Our body clocks are currently trying to adjust so that we're not too tired to go out at night or too awake during the day when everyone else is asleep. Is it just me, or am I really getting old?

Leaving Bolivia

2008-05-25T17:53:00.005+01:00

Who knew how time flies. Yesterday morning we arrived on a night bus at our final destination on this trip: Argentina. We are now in the northern city of Salta, our heads somewhat spinning from the enormous difference already apparent between here and Bolivia, where we spent the whole of the past month.

On our last day in Bolivia, we took a gorgeous hike in the cactus-studded canyons around Tupiza after our hardcore week of jeep adventuring and got to reflect on the country we were leaving behind. I feel like we experienced a great cross-section of Bolivia; we navigated the teeming streets of La Paz during a political referendum, camped on the riverbed in the Amazon basin, crawled into the mines of Potosí, witnessed the extreme simplicity of rural life, and watched the sun rise over the world´s largest salt flat.

The country is at once breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreakingly unfortunate. Consistently poor political management after years of greedy colonization means that the country, so rich in natural resources, has not been able to reap the benefits of its situation and as a result the day to day life of the vast majority of its inhabitants consists of little more than getting by.

The people of Bolivia are warm but also very direct, and I have never witnessed such hard workers as the people of this country, always without complaint. There is hardly ever a superfluous ingredient to life in Bolivia - rarely did we come across any level of luxury or frivolity (outside of the major cities). The only paint on the mud-brick houses consists of political opinion, and I left Bolivia extremely humbled at the stark contrast between the quality of life of the Bolivian compared with my own expectations and hopes of what my future will consist of. It´s great when your surroundings cause you to step outside of your own skin, and I think I´ll be thinking on these things for a while to come. Bye for now, Bolivia.

Southern Boliva

2008-05-25T01:17:00.001+01:00

Rather than tell you in detail about our last week in Southern Boliva, bouncing around in a jeep visiting the various mineral lakes and salt flats of the region, we thought that we´d just stick up a bunch of photos. Don´t worry, we´ll be boring you with LOTS more when we get back :-)

Top 5 (part 1)

2008-05-22T00:06:00.000+01:00

As a homage to the most excellent "High Fidelity" which we both recently read, we thought we would start our own "Top 5" lists on our blog. To kick things off, here is the

TOP 5 LIES THAT WE ARE TOLD AS TRAVELERS:

1. The shower water is hot.

2. The water we put in your juice/ice is purified.

3. The bus has a toilet.

4. We like Americans, really. (Bolivian border police)

5. The dog can sing. (Sorry Eddie, but that did not count as singing...)

Number 2 has had particularly unpleasant consequences for us, resulting in problems with number 3, as you can imagine. More top 5´s to follow...

Interruption in service

2008-05-18T02:00:00.001+01:00

JUST ARRIVED IN SOUTH BOLIVIA STOP INTERNET HERE CRAP STOP CAFES PCS CRASH CRASH CRASH STOP WISH I HAD MY MAC!! STOP WILL BLOG AND EMAIL AGAIN FROM ARGENTINA IN ABOUT A WEEK STOP FAILING THAT STOP CARRIER PIGEONS. STOP

Notes from Underground

2008-05-17T23:40:00.003+01:00

Potosí is a chilly, pretty city in the central highlands of Bolivia and one which has infomed the history and development of pretty much the entire rest of the country since its foundation in 1545 when silver was found in Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), which looms over the city and still provides jobs for the locals.

The history of Cerro Rico is at once mind boggling and tragic. The mountain´s ore funded the growth and development of the entire country, not to mention the Spanish empire who enslaved not only millions of locals but imported millions of African slaves to help extract the silver. Many of the major cities in Bolivia, including the capital Sucre and de facto capital La Paz were either planted or grew largely as a response to the Potosí boom. Now most of the silver has dried up but miners still work, beginning as young as 8 years old, pulling 12-24 hour shifts deep in the mountain and extracting barely enough silver, zinc, copper or bronze to live.

We decided to take a trip down into the mines to see the history and secret life of this city up-close and personal. About half way through our adventure as we were crawling on our bellies, breathing in toxic sulphuric gases we did question the sanity of our idea, but it was nonetheless one of the most memorable and moving experiences of our trip so far.

Our guide was an ex-miner and told us that for the majority of the illiterate, non Spanish-speaking locals in the area mining is the only option for work, despite the certainty of a very premature and painful death from lung cancer and other poisonings. When I asked if our guide too suffered from lung cancer as a result of his time in the mines, he shrugged and replied "of course." As we descended into the mines we passed even teenagers making their living and were able to offer them gifts of drinks, coca leaves and dynamite (which they have to purchase themselves for their work). The miners work in truly unbelievable conditions; toxic air, extreme heat, and they eat no food during their shift - they only chew coca leaves (and lots of them!) which boosts energy and keeps pain and fatigue at bay.

It was a sometimes scary and ultimately sobering experience to see the working mines and to realise that for many, this is their only choice in life. It is estimated that to date, 8 million people have died on Cerro Rico.

The Travelling Heirarchy

2008-05-17T01:41:00.004+01:00

One thing you quickly recognise when travelling are the different types travellers accompanying you around the standard South American ports of tourist call. At one end of the scale you have your wannabe hippies - generally drop-outs of life and clothed in the baggy stripy trousers known locally as 'happy pants'. They seem to have 'settled' in a peaceful town making a living out of selling homemade jewelry, keep the local pot dealers in business and for some reason like to own puppies.

Next along you have the 'restless mid life crisis' traveller who, in the absence of a family or any more unrealised ambitions, packs it all in and disappears around the world for a year or so. These travellers are harmless and generally quite interesting though the 'been there done that' arguments you get when you put two of them in close proximity can be tiring.

The category that I think we place ourselves in is the 'we just want to be at one with you' category, eager to interact with the natives and be absorbed in the culture. We have met many wonderful people along the way who have embraced this philosophy including for some reason a lot of med students burnt out by school and taking time out to explore a use for their skills. We are of course the best and look down upon all the other travelling species.

Then there are the tour buses, large groups of middle aged people doing the tours in style and comfort. The buses tend to pick them up at their nice and sanitary 3 star hotel and drop them at the gates of the tourist traps with the minimal amount of interaction with anything in between. Both me and Millay agree that our biggest fear about getting old is not that we'll end up in a wheelchair or incontinent...... but in a tour bus.

Finally you have the bane of our lives which is the 'rich kids on tour' genus. Generally speaking these are gap year students just turned 18 with a mental age half of that on their passport. Usually named Alfred, Rupert or Lottie, South America for them is one big cheap beery night out with even cheaper drugs, you find them bouncing between the ex-pat western bars in the various major cities proclaiming various thinly veiled racist views about the locals and working out how to get more money off Daddy. Sad thing is that these are the people who will probably be running the country in 10 years time - you have been warned!

Busy busy busy

2008-05-13T20:15:00.001+01:00

Sorry I haven´t blogged for a while, a few job adverts came through on my email so I´ve been busy like a beaver filling in job applications and explaining to people that the postal system from Bolivia really isn´t going to get the form to them before 2013 and so could I please email it instead. Luckily (I say that with a fixed smile on my face) Millay has been here to help me with my application forms, the only problem being married to a self confessed (and I quote) "linguistic genius" with a fetish for grammar and punctuation is that my slack prose gets a proper beating. My first (2hr!) attempt at ´describe your experience relevant to this position' got rounded rejected as being too long and autobiographical and so I was sent out to do it again. The second draft ended up with more red lines on than a New York subway map but after some careful negotiation final killer versions were approved and sent off to 3 different jobs in the Merseyside area.

In all honesty it is a mercy from God that I´ve got her here at all to save me from myself when it comes to those things, I get bored far to easily and while I´ve never seen the importance of a complete understanding of the apostrophe and semi-colon whilst she gets an unhealthy delight in ensuring such things are correct. I think she´s great and deserves all the chocolate I'm about to buy her!

Now, back to travelling!

Dance-off, Bolivian style

2008-05-11T22:52:00.004+01:00

Sometimes the best experiences come from following random leads. I found an obscure flyer for a cultural dance show while in an internet cafe a few nights ago and ended up meeting one of the dancers a little later; he was passing by and spotted me clutching the flyer and emplored me to come. Never one to resist a personal invite, we hopped in a cab WAY uptown last night to see what Boris and his companions had for us in the promised evening of Malamba and Chaqueño.

Naively, we turned up a little earlier than the stated start time, sweetly forgetting that we were in fact in Boliva which runs entirely on its own schedule. Still, after a few hours of waiting and sipping the strong local brew, the small but nice cultural center we had arrived at burst into life, buzzing entirely with locals. Boris seemed dutifully amazed that we had actually come and we realized that we were in for a gem of an evening, Bolivian style.

We lost ourselves in the evening as group after group of dancers and musicians, clad in beautiful and varied costume, amazed us with their skills. I´m told the Chaqueño dances were a Argentinian-Bolivian fusion and almost all of them were centered around the theme of wooing and attraction. Conceived from the idea of a rooster courting a hen, the dances included the men displaying machismo through stamping and very fancy and expressive footwork while the women were more demure and coy about the advances of their suitors. The audience were pretty vocal about their preferred groups and took to the floor for their own dancing during the breaks.

It was so much fun being so very submerged in this beautiful culture for an evening , with only our white faces glowing back at each other :) The waitress was horrified at the thought of us gringos going out and finding our own cab at 1 am so she got the doorman to find us a ´real´one. Definitely one of my favourite evenings on the trip so far.

Road Readings Rated

2008-05-11T20:06:00.002+01:00

We thought it would be fun (er, for us I guess more than anything) to keep record of what we´ve been reading while on the road. Below is the list so far, read by either myself or Andy or often both of us, with a star rating out of 5. In no particular order:

Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini ***1/2 (Beautifully written, tragic)

Midnight Cactus - Bella Pollen **1/2 (Good, but not great)

The Motorcycle Diaries - Ernesto "Che" Guevara *** (Thanks Ben!Was a thrill reading this while traveling SA, as Che did)

What is the What - Dave Eggers ***** (Amazing tragic story and incredible writing - not for the faint hearted)

High Fidelity - Nick Hornby ***1/2 (Superb. Easily my fave Hornby book. Not usually a fan)

Blink - Malcolm Gladwell ***1/2 (Once again a really interesting readable book with great ideas and case studies)

Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules - David Sedaris ***1/2 ( A book of short stories whose authors span the centuries. Some great, some average.)

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri ** (Good for passing time at airports or on buses.)

Science at the Edge - John Brockman * (First two essays were great, the rest were way over my head!)

Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller *** 1/2 (By now a classic but still a great read)

The Spy that Came in from the Cold - John le Carré *** (Simply a classic!)

Brooklyn Follies- Paul Auster ** (Good for passing time in airports. Sorry Micah!)

Harry Potter 5 - JK Rowling ****1/2 (Of course, awesome at every reading of it)

Jeremy Clarkson - I Know You Got Soul ** (Disposable but readable)

Lost in Translation 2

2008-05-09T21:40:00.001+01:00

Indeed, what would be a chicken´s fantasy?

Jungle Pictures

2008-05-09T21:36:00.002+01:00

Piranas, trees, rivers, and sore feet!!

La Paz take 2

2008-05-09T18:55:00.002+01:00

Well we made it back to La Paz early this morning on what ended up being a 19-hour, bumpy, slightly perilous bus journey that rose a full 3,500 m from start to finish. Needless to say we were a teensy bit chilly when we arrived...

Having left the humid jungle behind us we are back at our crash pad, the ever-bustling Cactus Hostel, to see some more of La Paz. Though the offical capital is still Sucre, La Paz very much is the de facto capital of Bolivia and definitely behaves as such. Its like New York with much less structure. Few discernable road rules, throngs of markets, museums, etc. Gear shift from the jungle life!

We are staying in the witches market area (above). Its not so much cauldrons as every imaginable herb, tea, talisman and even dried up baby llama fetuses (spot them?) - all to bring you some sort of luck or health. Fortune tellers read coca tea leaves or tarot cards on the streets to passers by. We are also right in the middle of the main artesan area; no doubt I won´t escape without some knitted somethingorother by the end of the weekend!

Today I discovered the heavenly properties of Bolivian salteñas, small empanadas sold in stalls on the street filled with meaty/chickeny/vegetably goodness. I´m hooked, while Andy laments my fate for eating food from the street :)

Sometimes when you're travelling...

2008-05-07T16:18:00.002+01:00

You miss out on important news events - but Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. REALLY???????!!!!!!

Does no one in London watch Have I Got News For You´?

Jungle Extravaganza

2008-05-07T15:51:00.005+01:00

Here we are in warm and sleepy little Rurrenabaque, a little town in the Amazon basin. We survived our three day jungle trip to get here which included boating along the rivers, hiking parts of the jungle and sleeping on the riverbed each night under millions of stars.

As ever on such trips, it was somewhat of a motley crew but with a few momorable characters and our very enthusiastic guides, Miguel and Ivon. Once I saw the boat I felt incredibly stupid for having asked after a bathroom, seeing as it really was more of a raft! (Each morning I saw the driver surrepticiously bailing water out of the boat...)

Turns out that the company we booked with is the only one of its kind that does this trip so it really felt like a unique experience. On the way we picked up Pedro, a local who lives in a small community along the river. Pedro was our guide for the jungle hikes and showed us the medicinal and poisonous flora and fauna in the jungle. We even had the priviledge of hiking through Madidi National Park, one of the most protected and biodiverse areas of jungle in the Amazon basin.

No jungle extravaganza is complete without getting up close and personal with nature! As well as seeing monkeys, stalking wild boar and of course receiving a plethora of mosquito bites, we had a few other memorable encounters...one one hike we stopped at a swamp to fish for piranas and yours truly caught the first one! Then on our last day as we boated toward Rurrenabaque, we stopped at a beautiful natural swimming hole with waterfall. Of course, I jumped in headfirst along with a few others before realising that there was some badass fish living in there with nasty stingers. OUCH! Three of us received several nasty swollen stings that left us in quite real amounts of pain for about 5 or 6 hours. Yikes. Not to be left out, Andy managed to pick up a couple of hardcore tick-like insects that well and truly attached themselves to him. Nice.

(I would also like to take this moment to share my personal pride and joy moment: needless to say, changing clothes was not something that really happened - at all - for most of us during the trip. So when I did get changed into my swimsuit to dive into the aforementioned pool, what did I find curled up in belly button but a little dead bug! Nice. )

We´re taking a day or two here in Rurre to soak up the sun and sample the numerous hammocks in town. Then back to La Paz for some more altitude and to continue our Bolivian adventures. Jungle pics to follow...

La Paz and beyond...

2008-05-03T02:13:00.003+01:00

As our bus wound its way into La Paz from Lake Titicaca Millay worked out that when she did her parachute jump in New Zealand a few years ago it was from a LOWER altitude than the one at which we currently stand. We´re currently 3,800m (that´s 12,500ft) above sea level and trekking around this steep hilly city is a constantly breathless experience.

As it turns out though this time we´re just passing through, we´ve managed to find a jungle trip that is going to take us tomorrow by boat deep into the Amazon Basin. We signed up eager for the adventure that will take 3 days and involve camping in the jungle for 2 nights. It was only after we´d handed over our money that the reality began to sink in and we started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves in for. In this part of the world ´boat´ could mean anything from a pre-war rust bucket to a raft; my Spanish wasn't good enough to enquire about the existence of a motor. The one thing Millay did discover was that it definitely doesn't have a toilet, I don´t think we've ever prayed so hard for ´good health´ if you know what I mean.

Still if we survive the trip down there the town we´ll stay in for a couple of days, Rurrenabaque, should be gorgeous and chilled. The other slight adventure is that is that the only way back to La Paz USED to be (our mothers - notice the USED) via what was officially recognised as the "world´s most dangerous road". Apparently drunk driving, a 3.2m wide mountain road and 600m drops wasn't conducive to a happy driving experience. Luckily, thanks to a huge international development grant, a new road has now been built that is apparently a lot safer and the old road is now restricted solely to hiking and mountain bike tours that are advertised everywhere as ´ride the road of death´. Don´t worry Donna, I've got Millay on a short leash on this one!

Copacabana

2008-05-02T19:43:00.005+01:00

We spent a few nights in cute little Copacabana, on the shore of the huge Lake Titicaca, which at 3,820 m is the world´s highest navigable lake. On it are several islands, including some made entirely of reeds on which the Aymara tribe still live. The Aymara and Quechua peoples of Peru and Bolivia accept as their creation story that their sun-god, Viracocha and the first Incan appeared on the Isla del Sol (island of the sun) under direct orders from the sun. The lake is beautiful and serene, and its hard to remember you´re so high up, until you try to walk anywhere that is!

Of course day 2, I got itchy feet and decided to prop Andy up in a bar with the Liverpool v Chelsea match on while I ventured off on a rented bike along the lake. SO tiring! At almost 4,000 metres (what´s that, like 13,000 feet?) my lungs were the size of a peanut!

Still, I managed to bike to the Bolivian version of the floating islands (Islas Flotante) and along the way befriended a local boy, also on bike, who happened to live there. He very kindly gave me a tour in his fishing boat of the small but very well made reed islands and he even caught a trout for his dinner on the way home!

For some reason I thought it would be a GREAT idea to get back to Copacabana and right away climb the steep hill that overlooks the bay and the lake, Cerro Calvario, to watch the sunset. By this point my lungs were the size of a pea and it was all I could do to stumble down and pour myself into a restaurant to sample some of the lake´s famous trout. I have never slept so well. Tomorrow, off to the big smoke of La Paz.

Bolivian Border Blues

2008-05-02T19:29:00.005+01:00

There have been many occasions I have lamented the colour of my passport - blue, for American - and on no occasion more so than the day spent leading up to and including crossing from Peru into Bolivia. Lets just run through the differences between my checklist and Andy´s checklist for getting into Bolivia:

Millay:

1. Get up early. Go to Bolivian embassy in Puno, Peru. Get told I need a form which he can´t possibly give me himself, but I have to find online. Get appropriate website addresses.

2. Find that none of the web addresses work. Of course.

3. Nevertheless, go ahead with collecting all the things I need for the crossing, including:

4. Passport

5. Photocopy of passport

6. Yellow fever vaccination card (Karaoke Eddie very kindly took us to a clean clinic in Cusco to get our shots, don´t worry mum!)

7. Photocopy of yellow fever vaccination card

8. Credit card

9. Photocopy of credit card

10. 4x passport photos

11. Letter proving hostel reservations in Bolivia...and last but most certainly not least,

12. $100 US dollars in cold hard ca$h. !!!!

Andy

1. Get the bus to the border.

2. Show passport. Get it stamped.

3. Walk onto Bolivian soil.

Where is fairness in that!!! *sigh*. At least all went well and I´m not in a Bolivian jail cell. We arrived at nightfall to the chilled little town of Copacabana (yes that´s right, the original) where we intend to plant ourselves, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, for a few nights before hitting the big smoke of La Paz.

If Batman was Peruvian - this would be his Batmobile

2008-05-02T19:21:00.005+01:00

Goodbye Peru! We´re leaving for the sunny mountains of Boliva. You have left us with many memories :-)

Despite our best efforts ( last week I ate Alpaca - only learning afterwards that this is a type of llama) we are both well. Millay is speaking Spanish like a local, and I am speaking Spanish like a stupid white gringo.

All in all, life is good....

Does a baby trump a llama?

2008-04-29T17:12:00.001+01:00

For reasons too boring to go into I've been reading a lot about marketing recently and one thing that's been impressed upon me is the importance of a unique selling point (or USP) for your product. What essentially makes your product better than everybody else's?

Nowhere is this clearer than on the streets of Cusco, Peru, a town whose main industry is tourism with flocks of tourists from all over the world using it as their jumping off point to Machu Picchu and beyond.

Amongst the locals there is a large indigenous population that sticks close to their traditions including wearing traditional dress, mainly involving brightly colored woven shawls and materials. Tourists of course love this and at some point in time the locals realised that they could ask for 1 sol (35cent) donation for each picture. But then you see market forces start to have an effect and before long there must have been many brightly dressed locals clamoring for the same tourist pictures. Enter the USP! I guess the first innovation was when someone brought a llama to 'work' and realised that the tourists loved this authentic taste of Peru in their photographs. Not wanting to be outdone, other photogenic locals then started to carry round their small cute kids. Does a cute kid beat a fully grown llama? Before long the capitalist culture is rife and Cusco is now filled with locals carrying kids, llamas, baby llamas, cute puppies or combinations of all 4. The trump card so far has been a tiny cute 2 year old girl, dressed authentically with a baby llama in one hand a green parrot on her head - needless to say she got all the tourist dollars that day!

I am a little divided about how I feel about this. On the one hand I feel that it's a little exploitative of the local population and does not treat them with the respect they deserve. On the other hand it's easy money, and if the tourists want to pay them more for wearing nice clothes and carrying a kids around than they would get from doing a much harder cleaning or cooking job then good luck to them. They've just got to work out how to stay ahead of the game....

Central Market Smoothielicious

2008-04-27T18:29:00.002+01:00

We´re killing some time in Cusco until we can get our yellow fever jabs tomorrow and head onward to Bolivia. Yesterday we found the central market, which has just about anything you can imagine under one roof including rows of smoothie ladies! Heaven. We sidled up to a jolly fruit lady and watched as the threw a bunch of weird and wonderful fruits into a blender for us. We played it pretty safe, but really, they will throw anything in those machines. Delicious!

Lost in Translation?

2008-04-27T18:25:00.002+01:00

We hope that is the case....

Machu Picchu

2008-04-25T21:19:00.004+01:00

We're back in Cusco now after a great few days in the Sacred Valley and of course, at the holy grail itself, Machu Picchu. My stomach got its act together, we wound our way to the very picturesque Ollantaytambo and lodged there, catching the "backpacker" train to the town at the base of the Machu Picchu site, Aguas Calientes. Apart from some slightly chavvy thermal springs, the town boasts very little save for being the gateway to the site known (erroneously) as 'The Lost City of the Incas'.

We rose at 5 am and caught the bus up, up, up into the clouds, only for them to part for us as if on cue as we entered the site and feasted our eyes on this incredible wonder of the world. It really is true that no amount of pictures can do justice to this incredible Incan site: sweeping views of the surrounding valleys, the mountains plunging steeply into the Urubamba river on each side and, shrouded cloud and nestled in the middle of it all, an ancient city that mesmerisingly catches the sun as it rises over the mountains. I won't lie, it brought a tear to my eye. We stood in silence with a handful of other travellers and watched the sun rise and bathe us and the ruins in its golden light.

Machu Picchu, or 'Old Peak' was rediscovered in 1911 by Yale explorer Hiram Bingham and I like to imagine that we caught a glimpse of what he must have felt when he first layed eyes on it. (I wore my "East Village" tshirt, care of Jes, to represent NYC...) Not content with the usual postcard view of the site, we trundled off to climb the high, steep peak you see behind the site in all the classic postcards: Wayna Picchu, or 'Young Peak'. Looks steep doesn't it? Well we can testify that it certainly is! We huffed and puffed our way up and were rewarded as the sun slowly burned off the morning cloud and we got to see an incredible panoramic view of Machu Picchu and the surrounding valleys. We kept pinching ourselves, not only because we had been awake since 5 am, but because we could not believe we were actually there taking it all in. Its cliched, but Machu Picchu really was everything I would thought it be and more.

In a day or so we'll head down toward Bolivia to continue the next stage of our explorations. Word on the street is that these days they're charging Americans $100 at the border! Stupid politics. My stupid blue passport!! Bu for now we're back with "karaoke Eddie", mentioned in a previous post. It's all good.

Come along for the ride. We wish you were here...

Best travel buddy EVER!

2008-04-22T17:53:00.003+01:00

Just wanted to give a shout out to Andy who not only is an awesome travel buddy because we both crave adventure and are just really in sync when we travel, but also because he´s my best buddy and he´s been doing a wonderful Florence Nightingale routine for the last 24 hours while I´ve been suffering with a nasty stomach bug. Total star. Thanks mate! So today, a day later than planned, we´re setting off for Ollantaytambo now that I have a slightly stronger stomach for the trip!

Cusco

2008-04-20T22:57:00.002+01:00

High up here in the Andes mountains it seems like life back in New York never even existed. The stresses of running around on the subway seem to pale in comparison to the taxis and buses here that fly down Peruvian hillsides favoring their horns over their brakes. The huge wide expanses of Broadway and the Avenues with their 6 lanes of traffic seem a distant memory compared to the tiny streets and alleys of colonial Cusco where mini Japanese cars the size of the average American hot dog stand squeeze through while locals and tourists hug the walls either side to avoid being squashed. Incidentally the only car here apart from the mini Japanese ones are Volkswagon Beatles that apparently got shipped over here when they were too trashed for European use to act as the official taxis. Who knew?!

Cusco is set in the stunning surroundings of the Andes mountains, where ever you look there are huge green peaks towering in the distance tethering puffy clouds like large white zeppelins. This is one of the main Peru tourist hotspots where nearly everyone stops off on the way to Machu Picchu and therefore the population is a funny mix of locals in traditional dress selling wares and photos of them clutching Llamas and the ubiquitous white tourists clutching cameras, spending dollars and keeping the city ticking over. The city has embraced tourism wholeheartedly and while the buildings and architecture still looks authentically Peruvian behind most of the doors in the city center now are small bars and restaurants of every shape and taste. It's almost like having NY´s West Village with it´s buzz and variety transported directly into the Peruvian mountains.

There are still moments of genuine local culture though that remind you that you are indeed somewhere very special and different to our western homes. For the last two days the local police force has been holding marching competitions for all the local schools in the main square. As the chiefs of police all sit underneath the shadow of the Cathedral and the local army band plays rousing tunes, about 30 strong teams from the local schools march past in military formation holding white sticks symbolising swords and flags. Unfortunately the national ´march´involves kicking your feet up high in a way not too dissimilar to the German goose step leading to the odd sight of kids ranging from about 7 through to 14 seeming to be doing a shambolic reenactment of the Nuremberg rally. While the historical echos may be unfortunate it was though thoroughly heartwarming to see a community get so much joy and pride out of such a simple thing. To see the concentration on the kids faces and their desperate efforts not to let their school or friends down by losing time or rhythm was an awesome reminder how distant our home communities and kids have come from these Innocent times where personal image or fashion is´nt as important as the local community traditions.

Ready, set: ruins!

2008-04-20T21:59:00.004+01:00

I finished my classes on Friday and am now truly feeling the freedom from my job and school, and I love it! Its great having Andy here to have adventures with (and translate for)...We feel very much in the swing of things here in Cusco so this weekend we set out to explore slightly further afield and see some of the impressive Incan ruins in the area.

Saturday we ventured to the ruins at Saqsawayman, which the gingos remember for the mnenomic "sexy woman" and which overlooks Cusco. Envisioned in the shape of a puma, the ruins include three rows of huge zigzag"teeth". Opposite are weird smooth rock formations that are not ony interesting for their historical significance,but make really incredible slides too! (Yes, that´s me above, about to smash my ankles because I have adrenaline issues.) The views of Cusco were amazing. We both keep pinching ourselves that we are really here, and I keep patting myself on the back that I can even remotely hold conversations with the locals.

Sunday started in a surreal fashion. As we sat bleary-eyed at breakfast, our extremely gregarious host, Eddie, started telling us about how the hostel dog, Fritz, can sing. Before we knew it, out of nowhere Eddie had switched on a karaoke machine in the corner of the room and began crooning away....and sure enough, Fritz joined in. I mean you really can´t make this stuff up. All we could do was stare at each other across the table in sheer wonder, thinking of our friend Kenenth :)

Later we hopped a local bus to Pisac to peruse the Sunday markets and see the VERY huge and amazing Incan ruins that cling precariously to the mountainsides that tower over the village. The hike through the ruins and back to town was truly spectacular, it felt like being in a Lord of the Rings film or something. The path takes you through various ruins, along precarious stairways dug out of the cliff faces, through tunnels and finally down into the valley. I´m not sure my hamstrings will be the same tomorrow, but it was worth it!

If we survive tomorrow morning´s karaoke session with Eddie, we are planning to head into the Valle Sagrada (Sacred Valley) to make our way to the holy grail of Peru. Stay tuned.

Travelling karma

2008-04-17T19:39:00.003+01:00

Obviously I was owed some good travelling karma after all my exertions over the last week getting everything packed and cleaned while Millay lived it up in Peru. I whizzed through all my connections and flights without even a queue at security let alone a delay. Flying in to Cusco just after dawn over the Andes mountains was a spectacular reward for the previous 24 hours worth of travelling. The clouds we were flying above thinned to reveal the crinkled dramatic landscape of the Peruvian peaks below. Lower flying clouds clung to mountain peaks like lost cotton wool whilst the valleys looked like they were filled with the effects of discard dry ice. I´d forgotten how spectacular the Andes mountains are and how flat the rest of the world seems compared to them.

In typically odd South American style we were welcomed at the baggage collection at Cusco airport at 6.20am by a 5 piece traditional band standing next to the baggage belt playing through a loud PA system. Most people had been travelling for at least a day and many had been staying awake with me overnight at Lima airport and so unsurprisingly sales of their cd were low! After meeting a tired Millay outside we made our way through the streets of cusco in a typical taxi eg. small, falling apart and smelling like the exhaust pipe empties into the back seat. After living in Ecuador for 3 months when I was 18 it´s amazing how familiar all the streets, sights and smells all feel. I´ve even got some Spanish coming back to me and even though many of the locals in this tourist filled town speak English I appreciate their looks of pity as I try and order lunch whilst Millay hides her head in shame beside me. Luckily her Spanish is sounding awesome so all I´ve got to do now and avoid losing her and keep her healthy and we´ll be fine!

My turn....

2008-04-15T12:17:00.001+01:00

The long goodbye is over and it’s finally time to strap on the backpack and head out to South America. There have been many times I’ve wondered over the last week whist I’ve been frantically packing, struggling with huge boxes up and down stairs and cleaning our apartment with the fervour of a medieval serving wench - where is my newly minted wife? Luckily I’ve been able to keep up to date with her fun and frolics in the beautiful city of Cusco and surrounding adventure sport spots via this blog as I on the other hand, in contrast, clean up our now desolate apartment and eat bad takeaway food because we don’t have any plates left. I forget now why this arrangement seemed like such a good idea at the time we agreed to it but needless to say it’s now definitely feeling good to be done with all the ‘things to do’ and head out for some fun and frolics of my own.

I’ve just received an email from the Peruvian airline that I’m taking for the last leg of my trip that is entirely in Spanish which of course is complete gibberish to me (maybe that was why sending Millay to language school early seemed like such a good idea) I’m assuming it says “we’re looking forward to spiriting you away on our airline, we like you so much maybe you would like to fly first class?” and not “ha ha, now you are ours, we cancel all flights until February!”. We shall see….

Wet n Wild Weekend o´Fun

2008-04-14T21:32:00.006+01:00

This weekend was a blast. A group of us from the house decided to go rafting on a section of the Urubamba river, set in a beautiful valley. After some strife from a random local police station on the way, we set off on our paddle adventure through beautiful scenery and a max of grade 4 rapids. So much fun! Afterward we soaked up the sun on the riverbank. And yes, we all ended up in the river by the end of the journey! (Yes i know those sunglasses are awful.)

Somehow i found the energy to join the rest of the house in a big night out on the town in Cusco after we returned from rafting. It kind of felt like I was back at uni or something, and I definitely haven´t danced that hard since the days of 638 East 14th Street! We started at a Peruvian club which featured a great live local band. We were basically the only gringos there and much to the amusement of the locals, who seemed to know to wear darker colours, we all literally glowed white under the uv lights! Or maybe it was our dancing they were laughing at....either way, a good time was had by all and it was a few clubs later that I finally crawled into bed.

Sunday I went with a girl from the house to visit the market at Pisac (above) , a town up in the sacred valley. The view from our collectivo bus was stunning and we passed a bunch of Incan ruins on the way. The market was huge and full of amazing weavings and stuff. We strolled through the stalls in the sun and had fun haggling with the locals for shiny things :)
(Does anyone think my writing style is going weird? I feel like I´m now forming my English sentences in the same stunted way I form my Spanish ones....hm.)

Week 2 of classes has started and Andy arrives on Wednesday! I can´t wait. Some of us were having a conversation about homesickness and I realized that I´ve been experiencing this weird nebulous kind of homesickness, the kind that comes with the realization that I don´t really have a home right now to be sick for...its kind of strange. I´m a little people-sick though, I miss you guys!

Hasta luego,

Cosas raros...

2008-04-11T21:21:00.003+01:00

Some things here and strangely and delectably upside down.

- Yesterday as I was passing the intersection of where a road crosses the train tracks (there´s no safety barrier) , I saw that a train had arrived at the crossing at the same time as a line of cars. Guess who reversed: not the cars, no no. The whole TRAIN reversed back to allow the cars to pass.

- Today my lesson was interrupted by about 7 traditional parades all passing by our classroom window one after the other. Among the parades was a protest of a group demanding justice for the families of Peruvian terrorists. Not the victim´s families, no no: the actual families of the terrorists themselves. Apparently no group exists that lobbies for the victims...

- Pretty much every car here thinks its a taxi. We´re told to try to avoid fake taxis, which can be identified by their large "Taxi" stickers in the window....?!

- Yesterday while walking home from town I noticed a man dressed as a giant wedge of cheese standing on the median of the carriageway. He waved. As if that wasn´t amusing enough, I then passed an employee (presumably of the restaurant cheese-man was advertising) AND the restaurant security guard throwing handfuls of cold spaghetti over the cars and at the cheese-man. You really can´t make this stuff up...

Lay of the land

2008-04-09T22:01:00.003+01:00

I´m starting to adjust to the rhythm of life here in Cusco. On the suface, this bustling city has a busyness and pace to it, when in reality everything still runs very much on Peruvian time and you can just as easily find yourself whiling away hours chatting to locals and travelers as zipping around on a whiteknuckle ride in one of the teensy taxis that think they are in a game of bumper cars.

My brain is saturated by so much new information and I feel like I´m getting a lot out of my lessons here at Maximo. Yesterday my private tutor and I had a great, hour-long conversation about poverty and public health and the differences that exist between our two countries. (Don´t get me wrong, I stumbled through but had the gist!) For all the education, medicine and government assistance that we have in the states, she was telling me that certain problems just don´t manifest themselves in the same way in Peru due to the strong sense of community that Peruvians have. When that gets lost, as it frequently can in our "developed" world, it creates so many avoidable evils. The conversation also made me reflect how much of my identity is woven into my choice of career, as well of course my passions, and how that affects the way in which I see myself and my role in the world.

On a more disgusting note, literally half of the people I´m staying with are deathly ill with something or another. Fingers crossed my bod will choose the high road! Besides, I´m whitewater rafting in the Urubamba this weekend and being ill just would not do :) I got up muy temprano this morning and booked me and Andy some tickets to go to Machu Picchu in a few weeks! Bring it on!

Faithfully and thus far healthily yours,
Millay

Cusco, Peru

2008-04-08T17:32:00.003+01:00

Hola!

All I have to say about the previous post is you really had to be there. (Chloe you´re totally on my blacklist!)

Greetings from Cusco (above)! A you may have gathered, my travels went less than smoothly and involved among other things getting to know airports intimately and holeing up in a hooker-filled motel in Atlanta...

It was all worth it to see the incredibly stunning sight as we flew through the mountains and down into incredible Cusco. I´m in love with this city already; it is breathtaking in boths senses of the word! Steep cobbled streets give way to sweeping mountainsides, set against the brilliant blue sky. Everyone is very friendly and I feel more confident already with my Spanish.

I´m staying at the student and volunteer digs of my language school and it´s great; they make us incredible Peruvian-inspired food every day and everyone´s pretty chilled out. I´ve been adjusting to the crazy altitude by drinking my weight in Mate de Coca tea and in the meantime feeling like a lardass cos i get so tired so easily! I´ve had a few classes already and they make my brain hurt in the best possible way.

Tomorrow we´re gonna go get tickets to see Brazil vs Peru in soccer!! Can´t wait to see what craziness that brings. Hope all´s well on all sides of the ocean. I cant load up pics on this computer but I wish you all could see what I am seeing!

Abrazos,
Millay

Millay's Swan Song

2008-04-07T17:43:00.003+01:00

So when Millay left Partnership for the Homeless she decided the best way to bid farewell to her co-workers was to choreograph an interpretive dance (inspired by the attached logo of a fellow homeless charity) that spelled out how much she'd miss them and all the paperwork she was leaving behind. Big thanks to Chloe for capturing the moment....

Now where is that darn jet plane?

2008-04-06T14:36:00.002+01:00

So (in classic Vann family fashion) Millay's flight out to Peru isn't going exactly as planned. I'm sure she will fill you in on the details but the highlight so far was a game of Marco Polo with a non-existent guy named Doug for 3 hours at Atlanta Airport. Handily she managed to get everyone in the airport to join in with her which at least generated some community spirit, even if it was all in vain. Sure she'll blog about later this week :-)

Anyway, the latest seems to be that in all probability she's now probably made it through (with her baggage - a minor miracle!) leaving me to spend my last Sunday EVER at work. This is officially my last Sunday getting up at the crack of dawn in the cold whilst everybody else enjoys their well earned second day off of the week. While I'm going to really miss working for TSC, I'd be lying if I said the idea of having a 2 day weekend again wasn't exciting! Hmmm, and then there's the prospect of a proper english Sunday Lunch - thank God we'll be seeing my Grandma soon!!!

So 1 week left of bachelorhood (bad TV, baseball games & curries all planned) before meeting up with Spanish speaking Millay in Peru. If my jet plane turns up that is.....

Leaving on a jet plane

2008-04-04T04:10:00.002+01:00

Well, its late and my bags are almost packed. By tomorrow night I'll be in Peru, which is kind of hard to wrap my head around especially in my frayed, sleep-deprived state. I've said so many bittersweet goodbyes over the last few weeks that now I feel spent and ready to make this happen. Today New York was chaotic and unforgiving and I'm looking forward to seeing it at what I think is its most beautiful: from a distance, receding as a big metal bird takes me toward new adventures. To use a phrase I picked up here: peace out.

Books...

2008-03-31T16:24:00.003+01:00

Can anybody recommend us some good books? We're just realizing that we have 2 months with only each other as company and no TV, radio or DVDs to distract us when we start to wind each other up. Can anyone recommend any good reading material for us to take with us because we're clueless. My last book buying experience didn't turn out well and I'd prefer not to end up in South America with nothing to read apart from the Spanish version of Hello magazine. Should we just buy up the current NY Times best seller list? Your suggestions are much appreciated!!

Time ticking away..

2008-03-27T00:24:00.001Z

So time is ticking away, I did my last Wednesday morning at the Beggars group record label this morning and therefore had my last experience of being woken up by the guy in retail (who is self appointed office DJ) playing a string of obscure 90’s noise rock records. Following this morning of crazed indie retro punk I wandered fuzzy eared back to my real job at Times Square Church where the rest of the day was spent mixing Christian Gospel Music while the guy upstairs chants Hebrew prayers. It really can be as weird as it sounds sometimes but I will miss the blizzard of experiences that New York has to offer. For now though it’s all about getting ready for the big trip which includes learning important life lessons like it’s VERY illegal to order cheap malaria medication from Canada - I mean really - who knew!

The countdown begins

2008-03-24T19:28:00.005Z

Welcome to our blog! Having only just ventured into the blogging world, this is somewhat foreign to us but hopefully will serve the purpose that we want it to, which is to keep our friends and family updated as we leave New York, bounce around a few countries and start a new life in England.

The countdown has begun for both of us for leaving this magical city, and it's hard to fit into a few corny paragraphs my feelings about our time here and it coming to an end. For me, New York City has been the singular most pivotal chapter in my life and its not one I'm moving on from easily. I've gained a community of friends that have become closer than family, I've set upon a career path as a social worker (glutton for punishment, I know) and I'm taking with me my buddy for life, Andy. I have to say, up and leaving a country and starting a new life (again!) is infinitely less frightening with someone at your side :)

We've been trying to live it up as much as possible over the past few weeks, and have had great times seeing bands, shows, museums and eating and drinking in our fave spots with our fave people. Yesterday we spent the day with about 13 or so of our friends cooking, eating, playing Taboo and taking an unexpected tour of downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan in what has officially been dubbed the "Eastermobile". Good times.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up work this week and trying to pack up life and get it together for leaving for Peru! I'm realizing how much I'm gonna miss my clients at my job. Crazy, high-maintenance and crack-addicted though they may be, I've been very shaped by working with this population and I am supremely inspired and impressed by their perseverance and hope despite even the most incredible obstacles they face.

Okay, turns out I'm that annoying blogger who doesn't know when to shut up. Who knew ;) We'll both be posting on our travels but this is just sort of an intro. If you like, you can follow our thoughts and pictures here as we leave New York and head to Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and perhaps elsewhere en route to England.

Enjoy the ride; I know we will :)