Closing Down

This blog was intended as a chronicle of my London experiences, and it has served it's function very well. I'm going to keep blogging, but not here. Since I'm going to just be ranting about whatever, rather than telling incredible foreign stories, I'm shifting over to my Friendster blog. It can be found at http://brettaa.blogs.friendster.com/this_space_for_rent/.

I have a lot of friends from college on Friendster, and they are now my target audience. Everyone here is more than encouraged to read that one, but be warned. More swearing and the possibility of references to activities that are less than straight-laced.

Right then. If you're still with me, click here , and we'll continue.

I'm out. PEACE!

Still Alive

Hello, to anyone still checking this space.

I do intend on keeping this blog up and running. I haven't really been on the Intra-Web all that much lately, so there have been a lack of posts. But I shall resume, because I know you all care so terribly much about the mundane things in my life. Or at least I like to pretend that's the case.

Currently I'm in Bonners, letting my heels cool to a dangerously low temperature. I was all set to throw Seattle to the winds (just didn't really call to me) and head to Portland, but now an interview with the Seattle Center on the 29th has put that all back up in the air.

I also have a potential job is the IJC in Moscow for the month of February. So on one hand, if I haven't found anything permanent by then, I have something to return to for a solid month and then a chance to start over again. I also would love to work with the IJC for Jazzfest again, and am slightly tempted to keep my options open so I can take the job. GAH! Too many options, sometimes. I think I'll call it "curseblessed." I have been cursed with blessings, or possibly the other way around.

Right then. Not much else to report. I'll try to think of something interesting for next time.

Later!

I NEED A RIDE

My ride to Moscow from Seattle cannot. Is there anyone out there who would fancy a road trip? I get in Tuesday, and was hoping to be in Moscow for the weekend.

If you can help, drop a post or send me an email. Thanks!

Vienna

Just realized I haven't posted about Vienna yet. And I've basically got nothing to do at work today, so here we go.

I got into Vienna proper around 4:30 and met Rayco in the train station. We took a short metro ride to his house, which he shares with his girlfriend Annika. Rayco, if you will remember, is Cassie's son from the Canary Islands. Annika is German. Both of thier English was excellent, although they don't think so.

Their apartment is apparently not in a good part of town, but you could have fooled me. The building isn't impressive, but the apartment itself was awesome. It's pre-WWII, so the doors are almost as high as most ceilings in London. The doors must be 8 feet tall, and the ceilings 10. Big rooms, hardwood floors, decent kitchen.

I'll have pictures soon, by the way. I'm at work, and they are all at home.

Rayco, Annika, and I got along famously, almost from the get-go. They're both very easy going and laid back, and we really hit it off. I think I connected with Rayco best out of all the family I've met. He's extremely good natured and quick with a laugh and a smile. Apparently it's a Spanish thing that he doens't like to let silences sit, so he's always ready with a word or a funny story.

Annkia was shy about her "bad English" at first, but once she relaxed a little and warmed up, she didn't have any problems. She had me edit a technical paper she had written for proper grammar and English usage, which was fun. Took me back to editing articles for The Badger, my high school newspaper.

We had dinner there, drank a couple of bottles of wine, and then went out to a little club that was near their house. Drank some more and danced to good Drum and Bass music. Came home, slept until noon the next day.

When I got up I assumed they would already be up and about, but my moving around was what got them out of bed. Sleepers after my own heart.

We went out in the early afternoon, and spent a good chunk of the day just walking around. We had done some walking the night before, seeing the big cathedral and some of the Royal-type buildings at night. This time we went during the day, viewing the incredible Austrian archetecture. They had a number of monarchs who loved to build opulent, enourmous buildings, so the cityscape is great.

We went to the big city market, which is half flea market and half permanent booths with people selling food and foodstuffs. From there we toured more and had dinner in a Chinese place.

At this point I have a little trouble remember what happend on which day, so I'm going to drop the chronological order for a bit.

We went to the oldest coffee shop Vienna, which had excellent coffee. We smoked sheesa, a flavored tobacco, out of thier hookah. We went out and played pool at a trendy bar, then went to another bar that Annika had been to once many years ago (it was ok).

The best part of the trip was on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, unseasonably warm. Vienna has a marvelous system called City Bikes, whereby you can rent a bike for about one Euro an hour. It's totally automated, and there are pick up/drop off spots for the bikes all over the city. Rayco and Annika both own their own bikes, so I rented one and we rode to the Royal Palace. It was clear on the other side of the city, so I got to see quite a lot of it. It was a perfect day for riding, and I couldn't have been better pleased.

The Palace was what you would expect, huge and opulent. It was expensive to go inside, so we just walked the gardens instead. I've found that most palaces are more or less the same inside, anyway. Four poster beds, gold filligrie, etc.

Behind the Palace is the gardens, and we hiked up to the top of the hill. There is another large structure at the top of the hill, which apparently was the princess' playhouse or something. From the top of the hill, you could see an incredible vista of Vienna.

We had sushi that night, and a quiet evening in trading music and watching Goodfellas. Then I had to get up at 5 the next day to catch my flight back to London.

Vienna, while a beautiful city, was just that: another Euorpean city. They tend to blend together after a while. Rayco and Annika I am going to miss. We really hit it off, and I felt like family from the beginning. I hope they can come to the States some time, or I get the chance to visit them again.

Right. Pictures soon. Hopefully tonight.

The Quest for Affleck Castle

As promised, here is the full story.

I got into Edinburgh about noon, and hung out with Eddie for a little while. We drove about an hour up to Monikie, Scotland. The land there is very similar to North Idaho, and I absolutely loved it. I could see myself being very happy in Scotland. The air is clean and fortifying, expecially after London.

We knew about where the Castle was supposed to be, and knew we were in the right town. We drove around a little looking for it, as it is supposed to be visible from the road. We weren't having much success, so we stopped so Eddie could call his son for the directions from Google. I stepped to a high rock wall to answer the call of nature, and saw this:


Apparently we were on the right track. We couldn't see any castle from there, but we could see a house and some deer. If you look closely at the picture, you can almost make out the deer in the background. One of them was a White Hart, which I found very exciting. Then I noticed several other white deer, and realized they weren't quite as special as I thought. Still cool, though.

We drove around for a while looking for another vantage point, and even hiked around a bit. We couldn't see anything else, although we did find this right down the road. Hell of a street sign to run into.


After some very pleasant hiking around wonderful Socttish countryside, we finally asked for directions and learned that the Castle was indeed behind the high rock wall that held the first sign. We found another gate, and lo and behold there was something large and castley looming in the trees. There were more "STRICTLY PRIVATE" signs around, so I debated hopping the fence for a while. According to Eddie, Scottish trespassing law says that as long as you don't touch or damange anything on private property, they can't presecute you.

I screwed my courage to the sticking place and hopped the gate. Besides the deer, there was a large number of peacocks wandering around. I found a woman nearby and hailed her. She turned out to be some kind of gardener or groundskeeper, and she made it very clear that Mrs Fife (the owner of the land and Castle) does not want visitors on the property. I explained myself and begged leave to take a picture, which is the one in the previous post. She allowed this, but I could see I was making her very uncomfortable. She tried to find Mrs Fife, but the Lady of the house was absent. I got the gardener to take a picture of me in front of the Castle, and then left them alone.


I admit I was hoping for a nice old lady who would invite me in for tea and give me a tour, but I'm satisfied with what I got. I have no idea what Mrs Fife does with the Castle, but I hope she is treating my heritage well. I'll have to keep my eye on Scottish newpapers for "Castle for Sale" ads and convince Ben to buy it for the family.

Afterward Eddie and I had a good meal in a pub, and took a long route home. We stopped by some other ruins he knew as a boy, but didn't know anything about.



Here's a shot of Eddie in front of the ruins. He's my kind of cool old guy, and I suspect he would fit in with my folks quite well.



We visited a friend of his, another really cool older dude, and then returned to Edinburgh and hung out at Eddie's place with his 19-ish son, Martin (I think). I was quite tuckered out, as I had been up since the wee hours of the morning riding a train. We partook of some fine libations, and watched Grand Prix. Eddie is a gearhead, so I got the full indoctronation. He drives like a gearhead, too. Not unsafely, just very aggresively.

The next day I returned to London, full of conquest and family pride.

Tomorrow I fly to Vienna to meet my cousin Rayco for the first time, and I'll return on Monday. Then the final countdown begins.

w00t

Affleck Castle

Stay tuned for a full account of the Quest.

As the door on this Age swings shut behind me, the door to the next begins to crack...

ATTENTION FUTURE BRETT: I know you'll read this blog after the point now and then, occationaly through the years. Probably has been a long time since, and it probably will be a long time again. I want to you to stop, now, and look around yourself. Where are you? WHO are you? What is new or changed. Beyond that, what is in the NOW? Are you sitting, standing? Smiling, weeping? Stop and look at the NOW, apart from everything that has gone, and cherish it. Try to grok it, and in the attempt come closer to the Universe.

Whew. I should write Graduation speeches.

I do feel like I'm coming to the end of an era. I am grown and out in the world. I have completed my basic schooling, and I am ready to join the adult community. I have partied like a fucking rock start, and I have enough street cred to kick it with the old dogs. I am approaching a place where it will be time to take a breath, evaluate, and start to refine these powers I have developed. Boot camp is about over, and it's time for Officer's Academy.

Thought of settling in Seattle is a very pleasant one. I look forward to being somewhere with no plans to leave in the foreseeable future. Not that I want to be tied down, but I would like to be able to relax into a place. I did that some in Moscow, but there was always the prospect of graduation and the Real World looming. Coming the London was an artful way to put that off. Here I was able to settle into a work schedule, pretend to be a boring adult for a few weeks at a time, but then it was off to the next country and the world was a whirl again. I look forward to not having anything to do. Not being in a rush to go anywhere, do anything, rush off again. I don't want any more Deadlines,

To do Theatre for a real living would be bliss, but I'm not too keen on the thought of a job that is guaranteed to only last 3 or 4 months. I've sent applications to a number of shows on backstagejobs.com, but they're mostly in DC and New Your state and probably wouldn't pay the cost of the plane ticket for the whole run. A steady place in a house would be heaven, but I'm wouldn't dare hope (not that that will stop me from handing them my resume).

Besides, I still don't feel like I'm ready to pursue a Career, in any field. I still have honing and polishing to do before I'm ready to seriously focus my energies on something external. In The Celestine Prophesy, one of the revelations (six? seven?) is about love. It says that each person is a partially completed circle. Every now and then we meet another partially completed circle who fits perfectly to make the whole. The two people are as one, and they become necessary to each other. The revelation is that if you complete your own circle and find another completed circle, you can both enjoy all the benefits of being completed together without the need, without the addiction.

I read this when I was about 20, living in a dark little basement apartment and ignoring school in favor of being a rebellious hippie kid. It stuck me very deeply. Of course. I need to compete my own circle before I can truly be able to give to another. Otherwise I'll be using them as a crutch, and they'll be doing the same.

This applies to my relationship with Life as well. I'm not done with enough of my circle. But I'm getting closer. I'm about to Level Up again. This time I want to spend most of my Experience Points on Wisdom. As always, I'll got where the tide of the Universe takes me. I think I feel it beginning to pull in a new direction, and it's exciting.


I'm out of metaphors.


Right. So it looks like this weekend I'm going back up to Scotland to hunt down Affleck Castle. Eddie, the wonderful man Brooke and I stayed with in Edinburgh, has agreed to put me up for another night and drive me the 60-odd miles out of Edinburgh to where the Castle is. Apparently it's visible from the road. It's not open to the public, but Eddie is confident we won't have any problems just hiking out to it. I have yet to purchase the train tickets, because the stupid website isn't working well. The price went up due to availability of times and seats about £25 from this afternoon to now, and I really hope I can get the good tickets before I got to bed. It could be up anther fifty quid when I wake up.

I also need to get my plane tickets for Vienna for next weekend. I'm going to visit my cousin Ryco, the son of Cassie whom I visited in the Carnies.

So I'll try that now.

Cheers!