The personal authentic travels of a world-wide drifter, you'll always see pics of me at the locations being described (if the other blogs you're reading don't do that, odds are they were NEVER there, just saying…)
Let’s face it, knowing where the clean toilets are is a THING, and it’s especially difficult while traveling. In this regard Sydney public toilets are quite impressive…. and I’m talking STREET side toilets!!!
Now public toilets in malls, stores, or public buildings are usually pretty good, but let’s face it, street side public toilets can get pretty well… yucky/smelly/ nasty, etc., and are as a rule to be avoided
I am thrilled to say that so far, I’m finding that Sydney has VERY clean street side public toilets… McDonald’s clean, or better yet, Costco clean, which is an even higher standard (there’s a reason why while driving around the North American continent my pit stop of choice for both gas and bathrooms is Costco).
The bathroom above was the 3rd public one I have used since coming here … and I’m finding the public toilets are cleaner than some of the restaurants toilets I’ve encountered while here. As I was in the toilet shown above, a British woman (with a thick country brogue) and I were talking about it — and she noted how the Sydney were much cleaner than the British public toilets, in spite of the fact that they were all free, while in the UK toilets aren’t.
Patonga is a sleepy sea-side town without a train station, that’s located about an hour north of downtown Sydney. It is a nice place for a quiet relaxed stay (and to escape the heat of the city). It’s basically a beach, beach sides homes, one seemingly nice hotel (I never entered beyond the restaurant areas) with a bar/restaurant and cafe (with free WIFI!!!), a few art galleries representing the art of local artists, and a post box. Be warned, the place doesn’t even have a proper convenience store, and I’m not even sure there’s regular bus. And NOT all Australian cell phone companies service the place… lord knows ours didn’t — hence our excitement of it being freely available at the hotel about a block away from our beach house.
This last weekend my travel-buddy Mik took to me visit an ex-girlfriend of his, someone who is now “family” for him. She has friends who have a beach house in this small town north of Sydney and had lent it to her.
Because there was construction on the train line we needed to take there, we had to take a bus from the central train station (the main hub station for Sydney)…
which I thought was a good thing because you see more from buses than from trains
Ultimately we ended up taking the bus none stop all the way from Sydney’s central station to an external suburb called Berowra — for what seemed like good one hour ride, possibly more, at which point the we were transferred to a waiting train. Now from my perspective this was pretty unusual. In the States, they’ll usually work on one or two station’s (or bits of line) at a time and at most this sort of filler bus will takes the place of that, here they seem to prefer to do the whole line all at once.
Note how rural this area is
From there, we connected to the train (which should have started at Central Station, but for the construction)
…. and took that to Woy Woy Station. Then we walked the distance from the station to the local mall which held the grocery store (ALL major brand groceries in Australia seem to be located in malls)
where we got some food, and met his friend who drove us the rest of the way.
In part I think this was because a) there was no connecting bus to the place, and b) as I mentioned before, there are no grocery stores in Patonga (not even a small one for basics like milk and eggs).
Patonga while very small is a VERY nice place…. it’s a tiny peninsula surrounded by a river which empties into the sea, and slightly protected bay
When we arrived I was amazed by how close to the beach we were
A panorama shot with our house (with it’s back porch) to the right and the beach to the left, just past the sand dunes, the panorama distorts the distances a bit, but it was very close
The path from our back-porch from our porch, sans the panorama view
Path through the dunes to the beach
As the pictures show Patonga is really nice, and the placement of the home we were staying at couldn’t have been better.
We swam in the ocean… which was great escape because the house didn’t have any air conditioning and the temps hit 110 F that week… i.e., HOT!
Just above the spot where the river meets the ocean and there is a really strong current that will carry you down towards the sea, but that runs right into a sandbank which will catch you … we road it multiple times, really relaxing
And had a few meals at the local restaurant, which we were really excited to discover had free wifi, because the house we were staying at didn’t….
the cell phone company my friend and I had signed up for wasn’t offering up ANY bars, let alone data. (His girlfriend’s phone WAS getting signal, but she was on a much more expensive provider.)
First time there, my friend ordered an iced mocha and got this — what best can be described as a deconstructed Iced mocha
we were impressed… I on the other hand ordered an iced coffee and an avocado toast
Like I mentioned before, the temps near us had reached 110F, and as a result I was getting very dehydrated… I don’t handle heat well
I bought us drinking coconuts and 2 cold pressed watermelon juices JUST for me… cause I dehydrate faster than most people
After, my friend suggested we take the coconuts with us, and when we got back to the house he opened them up using a saw he found in the garage, and we ate the meat…
That same day I had a one on one with a praying mantis — I honestly don’t remember EVER seeing one that wasn’t in a cage before
One of the things that I learned while in Patonga is that the silk of Aussie spiders is impressively strong… like seriously….way stronger than at home. That, and apparently the ones with webs are as a rule not the poisonous ones… my travel partner threw a small stress fit when he heard I wanted to find small rocks to bring back to the states and put on my Dad’s tombstone. Under rocks is where you find the most poisonous ones. He said that I should absolutely not pick them up without gloves.
… Also, because there was no air-con where we were staying I slept with the sliding glass doors open, protected from intruders by metal gates that doubled as bug screens. As such, out-door sounds were NOT blocked, and except for no calls from Mammal predators this place sounds like the jungle. This includes magpies (which sing pretty)
and, in the place of hyenas and or monkeys, kookaburra birds which sound like an insane man laughing his head off in an insane asylum (and LOUD)…
my traveling companion, who is Australian, likes the sound — I learned later there is a popular Australian children’s song about the bird — Personally, I think the bird sounds a bit creepy, but my friend loves it …. anyway, one of those was in the back garden and between it and the heat, I woke up at 5am. I later learned another name for it is “the Bushman’s Alarm Clock” because they tend to go NUTS, and loudly, at 5am.
My first trip ever to Australia! Deciding to go “down under” was rather last minute, for me. I flew one way on New years Eve on a relatively cheap $724 (with tax and fees) ticket on United that I found using Google’s Flight search engine ). Travel hints: 1) it’s cheaper to fly on major holidays when other people don’t want to; 2) try using goggle’s search engine. I find it is among the best for finding the cheapest flights available as priced directly from the airlines themselves — so while not always THE cheapest flight out there, it provides bookings that are a LOT less likely to get you bumped, or to discover upon showing up at the airport that the airline knows nothing about your reservation. And, 3) while Americans can stay in Australia for 3 months without going to the consulate to get a visa the old fashioned way, you still NEED TO GET AN ELECTRONIC VISA! They won’t let you on your flight without it, and it’s much more expensive to get it at the last minute (and can take up to 20 minutes, even in that case). And remember to PEE before landing… just saying.
[Breaking with tradition, I’m writing this from Korea (as per usual) I never got around to writing it on shortly after arrival… and I’m really looking at this in retrospect I’m posting it with a date that is three months after the fact.]
My friend (the one who had expressed interest in our becoming travel buddies) had gone home to Sydney for a few months over Xmas; while I, at this time, was doing my THIRD extended trip in a row at Disney World. Between 2015 and 2018 I’d spend 18 MONTHS in the Orlando area, doing little else than go to Disney, either daily or weekly …. depending on my mood, health and the weather. All in all, I was kind of Disney’d out (or at least Orlando’d out).
“HOW can that BE?!” you ask… (somewhat facetiously, I assume)
Well, it was mid November, right after the thanksgiving school holiday, and I was once again at Disney World, using up the remainder of the on- year-pass I had purchased in December 2016 (at the time they were offering a deal of 13 months for the price of 12) out of a sense of Jewish guilt (in this particular case, based on the laws of economy taught to me in my childhood, i.e., never wast a dollar), because the pass wasn’t due to expire till late January. I knew I was bored with it before I had even arrived, but I was saying to myself, “this will be my visit for 2018, one month and then I’ll do something else,” not yet having ANY idea of what that something else might be.
Warning: slightly depressing side bar [Initially the plan had been to then go to New Orleans and spend a few months there; but my beloved friend (in fact the guy I lost my virginity to) who I was going to see while there (he was single, I was single… neither of us had been involved with anyone for a while and we’d maintained our friendship for 30 years, so…), had up and died on me. He had dropped dead in early June while at work… IN A HOSPITAL of all places; he was a doctor, had sat down on a bench (suddenly not feeling well), and died, sitting up. Apparently he hadn’t even collapsed to the ground when they’d found him. Luckily for me, we had spoken only days before he died, talking in part about my plans to go to NOLA the following winter, and talking about me finding an Airbnb in his neighborhood, at least initially. I’d been driving towards Montreal, and the cellphone connection kept dropping while in New York State’s mountains, so we agreed I should call him back once I was settled in (so my last memories of him were recent, and very positive). The day I called him back, I loaded up my computer where Facebook is my default web page, and at the very top was a posting on his wall saying “RIP Peter” with the details of his death. So, while it was now about six months later, I still couldn’t bare the thought of going to New Orleans without him being there… which left me rather adrift.]
So here I was, back in my safe zone, Disney World (a place I now knew like the back of my hand), NOT what I had wanted for myself for this year, and simultaneously being seriously annoyed by the fact that while only a few years previously I could trust that between thanksgiving and Xmas the parks would be half empty, so that I could just jump on rides like the Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion ride with only a 10 minute wait, those days were now GONE. The citizen of Brazil (who had yearly been discovering the joys of a Disney vacation in increasing numbers as their economy became robust enough to allow them to afford to travel) were now there en masse, or at leasts that’s the way it felt, and as their “summer” vacation months encompassed the whole of our Winter months the lull in attendance between American School Holiday was now a thing of the past. As a result, most of my favorite rides (the low key, non roller coaster ones) were no longer rideable unless I were willing to stand in line for 20 minutes, which I was not… and a bit of the joy had gone out of the Happiest Place on Earth for me. (Disney REALLY needs to think about opening up a South American location.)
So I realized that I was not only getting a bit bored of Disney World, but that I felt like I was stuck in something of a semi depressed rut. I was doing things I no longer enjoyed because they were safe and known (never a good thing). So, I decided it was time to make a change.
I fairly spontaneously (for me) decided to, first: check if my friend in Australia was amenable to my suddenly showing up (he was), and then I canceled my reservations with Airbnb for January (ladies and gentleman, here’s an Airbnb user tip… NEVER book an airbnb that has a strict cancellation policy — flexible and moderate are your friends) and I decided to book a ticket to Australia for mid-January (again, Jewish guilt about not wasting the Disney ticket). …
HOWEVER, I discovered (using googles flight search engine) that if I flew on New Years Eve rather than mid January as originally intended, I would save about $400 (Jewish guilt issues resolved!) … explained this to my Australian friend, who a bit less enthusiastically (just being honest here) agreed that it was only reasonable that I should fly in earlier than initially planned (although he started hinting I should explore other parts of Australia without him — hence my trip to Katoomba)… so with the agreement of my friends in Georgia (where I needed to stay for about a week or so in order to reorganize my suitcase, and store what I wasn’t taking) and the ones in Orlando (who would be baby sitting my car) … I was off
[Just a bit ironically, I was initially intending to go Australia, then Shanghai (to see friends and the new Disney park), then Tokyo with my best Korean friend (where I’d again go to Disney)… then home — but I wasn’t booking the return flights till I solidified things with them. And then, before even taking off a distant female friend, so much so that FB wasn’t bothering to show her my posts, who it turned out is working in Shanghai and was intending to go to Australia for travel, was told by a closer mutual friend that I was going to be in Australia TOO and we should hook up. For a while we tried to organize our dates but she was unwilling to commit to anything in advance (in effect because there were other people she wanted to travel with more who weren’t getting back to her) and I’m unwilling to be left hanging on the beck and call of someone who can’t make up her mind because she dangle’s person on hold while hoping for “something better” because she’s too afraid to just travel alone …. so that didn’t happen, and she’s now on the “don’t even think about” list of travel partners.]
So, as you probably could guess from the tips I listed at the start of this… guess who forgot to sign up for her electronic visa? So ya, that was a glitch— but since I always like getting to the airport super early (more than two hours before the flight) I was, with the help of United’s staff, able to do it from my iPhone — and the visa came through in about 15 min after we figured out how to sign up for it — thank the powers that be for smart phones and web pages that work as intended.
Once I was checked in, I discovered that Orlando airport now has this place is near gates 30-50. It newish (I verified that wasn’t there the last time I passed through) — they have Cuban coffee as well as American — I had one called Cuban roast which was very good… it had chocolate undertones you could actually taste … They also have very tasty and BIG cubano sandwiches ready at almost an instant (which is great if your running for a plane). I ate 1/2 at the restaurant and saved half for shortly before takeoff (I remember that on the TV news once they said that medical studies have found that having freshly swallowed food in your belly at takeoff can decrease the risk of strokes during, but haven’t been able to find a link to add here).
When I got to SF I hadn’t remembered to make a bathroom run before landing, and I ended up NOT quite making to the bathroom after disembarking… in SF!!! Right when we were starting to land, but not allowed to get up, I realized to late that I really REALLY needed to go… and by the time we unloaded my sphincter, upon just seeing the bathroom sign a few feet away, couldn’t do the job anymore… fech!!
That said, I was very amused to discover that United had me set to depart one gate away from the gate I arrived at!!! Totally saved me from the not quite enough time to make the transfer worries, so I grabbed some Japanese food from the directly adjacent eatery. Upon loading the stewardess’s were wearing these crowns… I asked if we were all going to get one, and she gave me hers…
And, I was SUPER thrilled to discover I alone in my row, so that I actually managed to get some sleep on the way from SF to Australia.
While flying somewhere between Port Vila and Brisbane
I met and got friendly with a former Harlem globetrotter by the name of Tracy Williams who is 6’7″ so he was having to stoop a bit to make the photo happen.
…we did the photo and he gave me a signed-photo that says, “To Rebecca, Happy New Year, 2018”
… he was really hungry and they had no food so I gave him my pack of bison jerky and other high protein/low carb snacks I brought with me was but not hungry enough to eat — and all of it was verboten to bring it into Australia anyway so better it shouldn’t go to waste… I was doubly glad I’d given him the food when some very cute dogs sniffed me all over before allowing me to enter the airport. Australia is the fist country I’ve been to where they large numbers of sniffing dogs on staff and EVERY SINGLE PERSON and their bags gets a full sniff-over before being allowed to enter.
My friend picked me up at the apart and we went to a cafe near where we were going to be staying, and I had Israeli food (Sydney is FULL of Israeli restaurants — who knew?) … not the best shakshuka I’ve ever had, but no bad.
I have now been traveling around the US by myself for 2.5 years, and while I have been enjoying it a lot, and don’t want to stop, I HAVE found being a solo travel for THAT long was proving to be a bit too lonely. Back in late September I was in Stratford Ontario Canada for a 2nd season of the Shakespeare festival. While there, My buddy Mik passed through, on his way to visit relatives in Toronto, to visit me.
At that time we discussed the fact that his current job allows him to travel at will, he’s a computer coder, and would I be interested in us traveling together?
In early November we gave it a rather successful four day test run in Tennessee, after which we agreed “this might work”. He headed back to the west coast and I headed to yet another winter in DisneyWorld (my Disney pass from the previous year was good until the end of January so I figured I should make use of it).
After I had been Disney for over a month, I started to get a bit bored with it. Mik had already told me his intent was to head home to visit his mother in Australia in early December and would be there till early March… so I asked him how he felt about me joining up with him. I spent the next few weeks trying to figure out what things I absolutely would need within the limits of one 45 lb suitcase, 1 carry on bag and a small backpack, and then what to do with everything I couldn’t take. The excess clothing is now stored at my friends in Dalton, GA… and I left my car with friends in Orlando not to far from the airport. New years eve I flew (for the first time in my life to Australia), and as of yet don’t have a return ticket or any real idea of when I’m returning… other than I have to back for doctor’s appointments, and possibly jury duty.
Only an hour after having seen the eclipse it was like trying to remember a distant dream.
I have always wanted to see a total eclipse of the sun, in fact it has always been a “bucket list item” — things to do or see before you die (i.e., kick the bucket). And now that I have, I can honestly say that it was a far more amazing experience than I thought it would be…
I now understand why it totally freaked-out folks back before they understood what was happening. We of course now know it’s coming WELL in advance… to the extent that people will book rooms along the path of totality as early as two years before the event…
And, with our trusty NASA approved special eyewear we can watch the whole process as it progresses from partial, where the sun looks not unlike the phases of the moon but over the course of about an hour… through to the total eclipse which looks unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
That said, I thought I knew what to expect. There are no shortage of pictures of the total eclipse, from those taken by folks who went out and purchased thousands of dollars worth of special equipment (which some of my friends have done) to what can be achieved by just putting your safety glasses in front of your cell phone’s camera lens (possibly not the best of ideas) … but no matter how good they are, (and this site has some of the best I’ve seen so far 10+ Of The Best Shots Of The 2017 Solar Eclipse) the fact remains that NONE of the pictures I’ve seen to date manage to catch the glorious even that my eyes saw. The “closest” if it’s not photoshopped is one that I spotted on facebook:
“My uncle, Terry, took the best picture I’ve seen of an eclipse. Just wow!!!” was posted to Facebook by someone named James Richards (not a personal friend)
But even the photo above isn’t ‘right’ … although it does approach the beauty of the thing.
To quote my friend Brad Templeton, whose blog comment I’ve been paraphrasing since I first read it, “Totality is everything: The difference between a total solar eclipse and a partial one — even a 98% partial one — is literally night and day. It’s like the difference between sex and holding hands [only I now think that what he really meant was it’s the difference between an orgasm and holding hands] the total eclipse is by far the most spectacular natural phenomenon visible on this planet. Beyond the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Norway, etc. So if you can get to totality, get there. Do not think you are seeing the eclipse if you don’t get into the zone of totality.”
This is not to say partial isn’t worth taking the time to look at, it is… it’s exciting. And as the partial extends towards totality some cool things begin to occur. Even if it’s the middle of a sunny day, bugs and birds will start to get confused, and think it’s either overcast (for the bugs) or moving towards sunset, for the birds… and they’ll begin making the sorts of noises you don’t expect to be hearing at 1:00 in the afternoon. And then when the partial begins to approach totality the spaces between the leaves on the trees will act like pin hole cameras, projecting some cool looking shadows on to the ground.
But then totality occurs and even if you aren’t looking up at the sun, it’s obvious that something completely different is happening. Firstly, if you’re at all color sensitive — anyone trained in the arts as I was, will be… and this is doubly true for trained photographers (I think) …. The quality of the light all around you is just… well DIFFERENT; it was like sunset but with a lot of blue instead of reds and yellows. It was like what I imagine standing on a different with a blue sun rather than a yellow one must be like….
And then the colors directly around sun during full eclipse, no photo I’ve seen managed to get it … What I do remember seeing was a black circle surrounded by a sort of radiant blue light that moved from darker blue near the circle to lighter and then to yellow rays… It was unlike anything I’d ever seen, so I’m not sure my brain in the 2+ minutes it lasted was able to really grasp it, but that said, it was radically different from the experience of the partial eclipse.
Also now I understand why folks plan their travels around seeing it over and over (something that to be honest I always thought was a bit — well if you’ve already seen it three times why are you putting in all this time and effort, let alone expense, to see it again? NOW I get it) Those 2+ minutes of full eclipse are a radically different experience than the partials leading to and from… and I’m already talking with friends about maybe heading down to south American in 2019 for the next one which is supposed to cross Chile and Argentina.
Back on June 14th I wrote about my love for my new AppleWatch; today, slightly over two months later, I have some additional thoughts.
Firstly, as much as it was one of the features that made me think the watch would offer me some of it’s $600 value, the fact is that over the course of the three+ months I’ve had the thing, the ONLY time I have used the ‘remote camera triggering feature‘ has been when I was testing it out. I’m sure a point will arrive where I’ll make use of it, it’s just not something I appear to use often enough to be worth $600.
ApplePay on the watch, however, is proving to not only have a massive “cool” factor… so much so that even employees at the Apple Store — the LAST folks you’d expect this from — look marginally surprised and slightly awed when I use it there, while ladies at the grocery store are floored by it… it is also proving to be insanely practical.
I was just in Canada, where almost every store that accepts credit cards (a lot don’t, and demand either cash or Canadian debit cards, NOT U.S. or other) will have the “tap” technology (where simply you ‘tap’ the card’s chip to a sensor instead of swiping it, or sliding the chip into a device) built into their point of payment device. This includes gas stations, coffee houses, grocery stores, etc., pretty much ever chain store… and the ‘tap’ process operates WAY faster than the other two options. With both of the other two systems you have to provide a written signature or a pin number… with the apple pay they payment just goes through sans that extra step … so that it’s ‘tap and go.’ I have found that even if the card scanner does not explicitly STATE that it takes apple pay, IF it accepts ‘tap’ 9 times out of 10, at least in Canada, it WILL. This means I can payed for almost everything WITHOUT having to bring out my wallet, or my iPhone. Instead I just used the watch, which is already out and firmly strapped to my wrist… so that the wallet and iPhone (which I might mindlessly lay down and forget, something I’ve done before, or forget to take back the credit card, which I’ve done to often to count) remains safely located down in the depths of my pockets (I tend to wear military surplus camouflage pants these days, which have infinitely large pockets) or at the bottom of my purse (so no pick pocket is sure where said items are located) … and even IF someone should hold me up and manage to steal my watch, they’ll need the unlock code to be able to use it.
THAT, and according to my friends who know about this stuff, apple pay is more secure than using the card itself, as it generates a unique code for each transaction.
The fitness apps.
Just last week I was at Pennsic (blog post is in the works, groan, I’m so behind) and there was a woman with an “animal assistance” dog… tiny little terrier. Now SO many people had shown up with their pet dog dressed up in a “working dog outfit” which is easily available from Amazon, that it was getting ridiculous. Not to mention it was dead obvious from the behavior of said animals that they were NOT in fact trained for said task (one such german Shepard tried to eat so many of the other helping animals that they had to put a muzzle on him). A woman next to me asked said woman which kind of assistance animal the tiny terrier was, and the woman ‘barked’ back (irritated) “he’s a mobility animal.”
Point being, your apple watch is JUST as effective as that tiny terrier at getting you to walk and most definitely costs less (although it won’t lick your face). This is particularly true if you share your information with all your friends who also own apple watches… as an element of competition and not wanting to be seen as lazy kicks in — granted not as strong a motivation as the dog peeing on your couch or chewing up the house in boredom and frustration…. but effective. Except for days when I was sick or injured (my knee for instance is currently bunged up and in a brace) or driving cross country… I have managed to meet all my exercise goals since buying the watch…
On April 24th, 2017 I finally gave in to peer pressure and bought myself an Apple watch series 2… and I am LOVING IT! Read on to see why I finally decided it was worth the cost (after MUCH resistance), and why I am loving it now.
For the LONGEST time I just didn’t see the point. “You want me to pay HOW MUCH for watch?”
Now granted, it also keeps track of steps and heart beats per minute… but so does a Fitbit for about 1/2 the price.
So — while I’ve mostly only ever used Macs (my first computer back in like 1989 was a Macintosh Plus)…. and while most of my best friends are all Apple users, or at least the ones who know enough about computers to know better — to the extent that I have any number of friends who are or used to be high level engineers at the company… and I am friends with, heck for a short time I was even housemates with, Danial Kottke — employee #3 at apple back when they were still working in the garage (this would be the guy who Steve Jobs used to get stoned with but who he ultimately refused to give stock options … if you know your apple history)
ALL that said, I have …. since it’s the pre-official release order period began on April 10, 2015 … been resisting buying an Apple watch. Till quite recently I had not been convinced that the watch was going to be worth the around $600 it ultimately cost me… I mean “hey, really, what does it do that my iPhone doesn’t?”
Ultimately a few attributes finally sold me on the watch…
Firstly… I REALLY did want an item that would keep track of my exercise for me (just good food choices was hitting the bottom end of it’s effectiveness in terms of getting back to good health). And, while the iPhone DOES track your steps (most folks don’t realize it, but if you go to the phone’s health app, even WITHOUT owning an apple watch, the phone will do this: just click on activity — the image of the bicycle — and be amazed) it does NOT keep track of ALL your movement, so it can’t give you accurate idea of how much you burn on a daily basis.
A Fitbit would keep track of complete energy burn (within a margin of error of course), but the one I decided I would ultimately want, only cost around $250 less than the apple watch. So, the question then became, what did the apple watch have to offer that was worth and extra $250 to me?
The first thing I found was, the apple watch comes with an app that will connect to the iPhone camera and act as remote control for taking pictures… as in you can set up the camera some place, SEE the same image it does while … but while looking at the watch’s face, and then take a picture. As someone who is always wandering around by myself taking photos… that has a value to me… maybe worth $25 to 50 to me…. so not $250
A photo of me using my brand new watch to try to take a photo of myself with my iphone, which was propped up across the room
Then after much humming and hawing I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new computer (the mid 2015 macbook that still had the magsafe power cord). MY computer had been an 2011 macbook pro, which had served me well while teaching in S. Korea, but that had ultimately started to slow down and began to have ‘issues.’ After Dad died I took possession of dad’s 2013 macbook pro, and gave my brother EVERY OTHER piece of mac equipment dad had (none of it portable to drag around the country with me). I then made my old 2011 the backup computer and relied on dads for daily use. Then Dad’s computer bit the big one, and a very good friend who (for a living) writes the training manuals that professional apple support staff read in order to learn how to do their jobs… yah, he’s a HIGH level apple geek… was kind enough to move the hard drive from dad’s computer into an EVEN OLDER than my 2011 one, that he had lying around the house…. so the 2011 once again became my main, and this newer drive in a much older computer became the spare.
So clearly, time for a new computer. After I bought it I discovered that with these new computers, if you’re wearing your apple watch you don’t have to type in the security code every time you wake up the computer… the watch will unlock it for you. NIFTY! But let’s face it, that’s worth may another $20 to me… I can always type the code in myself, it’s a pain, but it’s sort of like buying a remote control to save yourself from getting up off your ass to change the channel. Kind of counter productive to the whole trying to force myself to be more active thing.
And then on April 22, 2017 I finally read THE ARTICLE that finally cinched it for me… an apple watch attribute that was most definitely worth $250 to me… so much so that while reading through it I said to myself, “OH, ok, WILL be buying the apple watch THIS week!”
The apple watch has a “HELP!!! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” feature. The article, titled, “How Apple Watch can now literally save your life” explained how on the side of the watch is a button… it is the same button you are supposed to press in order to power down the watch… if you double touch on that button it pulls up apple pay…
however … and not one friend had mentioned this to me…
starting in June 2016 they added a feature where if you hold that button down and KEEP holding it down, the watch (assuming your phone is near it) will call 911, and you can talk right into the watch to tell them what’s wrong… no struggling with the iPhone, unlocking it, finding the phone app, finding dial window… and hoping your not unconscious before you actually dial 911… here all you have to do is press the button and hold…
And WAIT, that’s not all! The watch will send your GPS coordinates to emergency services automatically, AND it will forward to them all your medical information (allergies, etc).
It will do this NO MATTER which country you are in (keep in mind that while a few countries use 911, not all of them do — here’s the list) … so if you’re in Japan, and you don’t know WHAT the number is for their emergency services (it’s 119) … it does not matter.
AND on top of that, the watch will immediately contact all the people you’ve chosen as emergency contacts and tell them something is up, and where you are (allowing them to figure out which are the nearest hospitals you might get taken to, etc).
As a single woman traveling alone… this was INVALUABLE!!! $250?! SURE, it’s a STEAL at that price… hell as far as I’m concerned it’s worth the whole $600 and every other feature is icing on the cake. The only downside is you DO have to have the iPhone near you… even if it’s down at the bottom of your purse or deep down in a pocket… if they make one that will call 911 sans the cell phone, I’ll buy that one too.
So the next day, I kid you not, I was at the local apple store trying to decide between the two sizes of Apple Watch screen 38mm designed for women, or the bigger 42″, since I was going to be using it with my camera I figured bigger might be better even if it looked funky on my wrist. The previous night I had also read something about women who had the 38mm (and trying to use it for MORE than just time) complaining that the screen was just too small and that those 4mm of difference from the men’s size were actually important in terms of it being useful as more than just a watch.
So the Apple sales person assisting me in making my decision, and was trying to find a iPhone camera in the store that we could try with one of the in-store Apple Watchs, so I could decide if those few more inches of screen were worth the awkward sizing (I have TINY wrists, even for a girl). On that note, He was and extremely cute and completely deaf guy, and working with him was highly amusing. I think I sort of impressed him by how I barely batted an eye at the fact that he was deaf, and we had a lot of fun as we type back-and-forth to each other on his iPad, while using pantomime where possible.
Other than that I had decided which watch I wanted, based on weight, color, water resistance, and which crystal face I wanted (ever style watch uses different materials, so there are pros and cons for each). I wanted the LIGHTEST one possible, with a scratch resistant watch face that didn’t have a lot of reflection to it (making it easier to see in daylight)…. which happily enough also happens to be one of the cheapest ones to buy. With it I opted for the white sports band.
From the outset I intended to buy leather bands from eBay, but started to read about how some of these much cheaper bands ($12 to $40+ for the apple ones) don’t always hold the watch securely and if the watch drops to the floor and crashes from one of these, your apple warranty won’t cover it… so apple bands it was. But I’ve started to buy them in multiple colors and mixing and matching (sometimes I do one half white the other half black, etc). The other day one of my old TA’s turned me on to the fact that for this month only (because it’s pride month) apple was offering a pride watch band on their website, so I bought one. I have SO many gay friends…
As to why I’m loving it… I started out using the Mickey Mouse watch face because… well me… you know, lover of all things Disney, has held a Disney pass for two years now… etc.
But once I got more used to watch and learned how to use the settings and stuff, I actually now only use that watch face when entertaining little kids. Instead I use the one that help track your movement… A constant visual reminder that I haven’t done my 30 minutes of aerobic exercise yet…
I also love the sharing function… I currently share my exercise stats with six friends… know what they have done vs what I have done keeps me moving… and that there’s a potential boyfriend on the list doesn’t hurt either. I find myself checking my movement stats like some people check sports stats… and watching my daily moment numbers go up is gratifying, as is the ease with which I seem to be able to do it as long as I keep at it…
Happily I’ve not had cause to use the 911 function… other than to show it to other people. Knock on wood, no evil eye… hopefully I’ll never actually need it, but having it there gives me some peace of mind.
How to spend 2 months in Disney-world, without breaking your diet, and even LOOSING weight. It can be done, but it will cost you — literally.
That said, I honestly don’t think it’s possible to do it without straining your pocket book (unless you make all your own meals), and even if you try, you’re going to be eating grilled salmon or a salad for pretty much every meal — and there’s only so much salmon a girl can eat.
Most of what’s available at Disney “fast food” places isn’t all that healthy … excepting the obligatory grilled salmon, salads, and small bags of snacking tomatoes and/or apple slices the menus are geared far more towards the palates of children than the concerns of parents. A lot of self control WILL be required on your part, and you’ll have to INSIST on sit down restaurants, and speaking with the chef when ordering. No really, ask to see the chef. One of the fabulous things about Disney is that if you start off the conversation with your waiter with THESE words… “I have health issues that restrict my diet” they have been TRAINED to not pass go, to not collect $200, and just go get the chef.
So for instance, a few days ago I went to eat at Tiffen’s, one of the two sit down restaurants at Animal Kingdom:
Waitress: “I’ll give you a few minutes to make up your mind”
me: “let me preface this with I have health issues….” and before I could finish my sentence she said:
“Would you like me to send out the chef?”
Me: “Yes please “– happy smile…
He came out and we talked, he has decided to grill the red snapper that they usually deep fry, and is making all sorts of other alterations to the accompanying items, 100% Forbidden/black Rice instead of the Jade blend they would normally use — no oil or carrots added to the (cole)slawed green papaya (carrots are a very HIGH sugar veggie), and no black bean sauce (cause he said that had oil in it too), etc.
Animal Kingdom/Tiffen’s: Intended for two people, I had enough left over for a 2nd meal.
Normally: This dish would be Crispy Sustainable Fish served with Som Tam (green papaya salad) and Black Bean Sauce served with Jade Blend Rice — and I was expecting to pay about $43, based on the price of a similar entree (this dish was from the prix fixe menu), but after a 20% discount they’re giving to all yearly pass holders at certain restaurants, it only cost me $36.64 including tip… so about $18.32 per meal.. not bad.
Where rice in general is a VERY bad idea, and should be avoided… seriously… ONE rice bowl of white rice has as much sugar in it as FOUR crispy cream doughnuts!!!!! Me, I would MUCH rather have the doughnuts.
Black rice, sometimes known as ‘forbidden rice’, while still carbohydrate heavy, is at least a better option — even though it too should be eaten sparingly, as it it contains protein and other nutritional goodies. For those not familiar with it, a one-half cup serving of cooked black rice, contains about:
160 calories
1.5 grams of fat
34 grams of carbohydrates (which is my per meal maximum)
2 grams of fiber (double the fiber of brown rice)
5 grams of protein (the highest amount of protein of all the rices)
4% DV for iron
P.S., Black rice is LOADED with antioxidants… more than blueberries
Initially I had come in to the restaurant thinking I would get the grilled octopus appetizer, but he immediately vetoed that, informing me that they pouch it in olive oil before grilling it — which makes now think I should be asking about that cooking technique from now on before ever ordering it again.
———————
So, while there are certain fast food dishes that Disney does pretty well, and going that way will save you money… for the most part they’re not really healthy options from the standpoint of an adult whose only growing in the wrong direction. Their mac and cheese is really tasty, and you can find it topped with lobster, shrimp, and even beef brisket (@Magic Kingdom next to the Carousel, limited hours, usually closed by 8pm even if the park is open till 1am) … And while there’s chicken pretty much everywhere, it’s pretty much either rotisserie or fried; and for those who don’t know… fried is actually the healthier option, assuming you remove the skin. Rotisserie chicken is cooked in such a way that the fat saturates the meat rather than dropping down off the chicken, making the chicken moister but also MUCH fattier. Disney also does REALLY good tomato soup, in any variation of the sort, but again it’s NOT low fat… and last year I gained a good 20 pounds in two months eating all of it…
As many of you know, about this time last year, Jan/Feb of 2016 (after many months expanding sizes but of just not wanting to know the truth), I weighed myself on one of those massive scales outside of a Publix Supermarket (the dominant chain in Florida), and clocked in at 200lb… SHOCK!!! The cause was simple, I tend to eat my feelings and the death of my father, who was also my best friend, shook me hard; and then, the process of going through probate was so emotionally stressful that, as I like to put it, I developed a deep and intimate relationship with both Ben AND Jerry. (Insert laugh) However, after seeing that my weight was almost DOUBLE what it had been in my 20’s was enough to motivate me to start making better food choices. Then at my checkup in May of 2016, I weighed in at 187 lb (better), but I learned that, rather like a goose being prepared for Foie Gras, I’d managed to eat myself into Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. I discussed this at length, previously, in my blog post called: A matter of health (feel free to follow the link).
For those who would rather not: brief review, my doctor informed me that my liver numbers were HORRIBLE, and that if I didn’t seriously make some changes they’d have to find me a new one. *GASP* … suffice it to say I was scared, and fear of death is a much stronger motivator than mere vanity. The doctor put me on a LOW fat and low carb diet (the latter being something I’d been mostly doing anyway, because I have been pre-diebetic for maybe 15 or more YEARS), and suggested I give up red meat entirely, and focus on just eating fish. Three months later (after traveling through Canada) I came back for more extensive testing, where I weighed in at 149lb, and the doctors were SO happy with me (and my liver numbers were so improved) that they just said, “you don’t NEED to loose more weight at this point, your BMI is healthy, but keep doing what you’re doing and we won’t need to put you on any medication.” (Normal weight for a woman my age (not considering frame) is 107.8 – 145.6 lbs
BUT, my weight in my 20’s had been about 110 to 115, and everything I’ve read the ideal weight range a woman in her 50’s with my height AND frame is 114-127, so I might not NEED to loose more weight, but as long as I’m not feeling like I’ve been denying myself, and I don’t… I want to lose that last 10. So, after that I returned back to Orlando, where I continued to drop weight until today, albeit at a slower rate (of maybe half a pound a week); at least until about a week ago when I made the mistake of buying my own digital scale, rather than relying on that of whatever Airbnb I happened to be staying with at to time, Murphy’s law. However, that too was good, since having realized I was not only no longer dropping, but actually starting to gain, I did a review of my eating habits and realized I’d been slowly adding a lot of fruit to my diet. I removed that, and quickly went back to loosing weight again.
Currently, I’m at 133.8 lb. I figure I have 10 more lbs to lose to get back to my happy weight — and hopefully ALL my old clothes will then fit again. I’m 5’4″ and have a very slender frame — tiny wrists, and should have a 28″ circumference to my rib cage, but am currently still at 30 inches, so that essentially, right now, I’m still two inches too big in all my measurements. (And as you can tell from the pictures below, there is such a thing as having breasts that are too big.)
So, that said, here are before and after shots of me a year ago, and me a few weeks ago (I have since gotten rid of the oil-slick hair, and am now sporting a pixy short haircut)
Before and after shots; I tried to find similar angles, and used the size of my head as a point of reference for sizing the photos
(They might not be the most flattering pants, but tourism I prefer cargo pants where I can load up my pockets rather than lug around a backpack or purse. In those pockets are a full set of keys, an iPhone, a man’s wallet, a backup iPhone battery with all the obligatory cables, and ear phones, and hanging from my belt look one of those microfiber clothes for cleaning my glasses.
So, as to my qualifications to speak about loosing weight while at the parks, the proof is in the pudding and I know of what I speak….
The first rule, while the most obvious, is the hardest to obey… USE SELF CONTROL!
If you’re at epcot for the Arts and food festival and you see options like this, SAY NO!
It doesn’t matter that you can rationalize that the serving size is small, the answer is NO! ‘Cause I promise you, at these events you’ll not eat just one… and there’s always the next booth selling something delectable, and the next… and you’ll walk out of there having gorged yourself on a lot of small servings … I know this from experience.
And of course, the corollary to this rule is that when you see things like, that slice of chocolate cake at Hollywood Studios that’s almost as big as your head, or that cinnamon bun in the Belle Section of Magic Kingdom, which is about the same size… for those items as well the answer is still a resounding NO!
— and honestly, having had the pleasure of eating both items, I can honestly testify that they’re OK, but really NOT worth the calories… I think that cinnabon at 880 calories actually IS a tastier cinnamon bun.
BUT, and this is a big one, DO NOT DENY YOURSELF EITHER!!!
As a general rule, from day one on this diet I have not denied myself. While it’s pricey, it’s hard to feel your sacrificing your pleasure of food to your diet when you are eating things like Lobster, fresh oysters, shrimp, salmon, crab, etc.
So while I’m saying DON’T buy those deserts, I am not saying don’t have desert. My suggestion is to hold out till you pass a Starbucks on your way OUT of the park (there’s one in EVERY park, usually near the entrance — Animal kingdom being the exception) and buy yourself a cup of plain coffee or tea (decaf) and ONE (and JUST one) of their cake pops — I LOVE the chocolate one with pink sprinkles, as it is by far the chocolatiest of the bunch.
While for some reason the Starbucks in the parks do NOT include any dietary information, here is a pic of the comparable item sold outside of the parks (and remember to eat it slowly, nibble at it.. savor it). Now think about it, if that TINY (but oh so tasty) pop of gooey fudgey chocolate cake is around 200 calories at $2.25, what would that massive slice of cake have run you?
Now granted, if you have a group of about 6 people you could buy that slice of cake and cut it up into portions for about the same calories… but I travel alone….
I’ll be honest, Last year when I was at Disney, and posting all my food choices to the internet, my friends were making comments like, “do they even HAVE vegetables at Disney?” and “would it kill you to eat a vegetable?
So it’s ultimately about choices… that and asking to talk to the chef.
Epcot’s Restaurants:
Last year I went to Le Cellier Steakhouse in Epcot’s Canada, and I ordered their Filet Mignon a AAA Canadian Beef Tenderloin, with mushroom risotto, asparagus-tomato relish, sitting on a truffle-butter sauce, with a side of their signature Poutin (french fries, Gruyere, caramelized onions, french onion gravy), and the Crème brûléefor desert.
Quite tasty, but probably not the healthiest of choices.
This year I did it differently… I ordered the Venison.
Ladies and Gents, if you have a choice between game meats or normal things like beef or chicken, go for the game! Seriously.. Three ounces of venison has 140 calories and less than 1 gram of fat, while the same sized serving of beef tenderloin (offering the same amount of protein), has 179 calories and 7.6 grams of fat, three of which are saturated!!!
Bison steaks are actually a healthier bet even then Venison and I argue tastier than beef steak– but so far I have yet to find it offered in any of the in park restaurants (one of the on site hotels apparently has it); Do NOT however be fooled, the same can not really be said of Bison burgers. Those should be avoided. While they ARE better than beef burgers, they are NOT lower in fat than chicken, which the bison steak is pound per pound. Burgers NEED the fat to bind the bits of meat into the patty shape, so manufacturers will throw in EXTRA fat from the bison, or add in ground beef, into the mix.
Epcot: Canada: Le Cellier Steakhouse
Also, per normal I SPOKE WITH THE CHEF, and was told that the Venison was supposed to be sitting on this creamy pasta thing; so I asked him if they could switch out that fatty carb for something in the way of green vegetables, and was given a massive plate full of grilled asparagus, mushrooms and Brussels sprouts instead.
Also, as a rule, start off eating the veggies, filled up on them and then get started in on the meat after you’ve taken the edge off your hunger. Again, having filled up on high fiber veggies, I was only able to eat half of the meat portion (and had enough veggies left over) that I was able to get two meals out of it.
Sadly, Canada is one of the few places that has game meat… at pretty much every other restaurant you’re going to have to turn your eyes to either an appetizer (again, talk to the chefs about how they’re prepared)
Epcot: Italy, Tutto Italia Ristorante: Pasta Fagoli (Pasta and bean soup), a filling nutritious snack to sip slowly while your group is snarfing down pasta
Or, most likely, you’ll have to settle on nice piece of fish with side of green vegetables
Epcot China: Nine Dragon’s Restaurant, sustainable fish of the day was Orange Roughy
This fish was pan fried and hence probably a little more oil then I prefer. I warned them ahead of time about my issues, and they replaced the rice with broccoli …. Apparently they do NOT have Chinese cabbage here (very sad)
Epcot France: Monsieur Paul, Black cod (my favorite fish) sauce on the side, refused the bread and the rice
There are a few places around the park where I found Black Cod being served (TRY the on at Morimoto Asia in Disney Springs)… if you have not tried it (otherwise known as Sablefish in the USA, but has different names world wide) it’s light and flaky with a very high Omega 3 fat content. My favorite preparation is the Asian way, marinated in miso for 24 hours or more… but the way Chef Paul did it was also tasty.
And even if you are Epcot for one of the various tasting festivals that draw locals in during the off season, there are “better choices.” Again, ALWAYS look to the fish option, but pay attention to the details…
Believe it or not even at these food booths you CAN ask them to please NOT add the Lemon-Thyme Beurre Blanc — otherwise known as butter — but make sure you make the request to the person who calls out the orders when you hand them your receipt, and then make sure to repeat it AFTER they say it, LOUD … the chefs are so remote controlled back there that you sort of have to wake them up.
I’m not going to bother going through EVERY park and talking about food options at each, because basically the same rules hold true.
Opt for a sit down restaurant unless you want to be eating nothing but grilled salmon and salads for your whole stay, and ask to speak to the chef and choose a seafood or game meat (if available), and work with the chef on how they can modify what’s available to meet your dietary needs.
For snacks, there are apple slices and bags of cherry tomatoes at every park sold either at stands or behind fast food counters.
Remember to have ONE serving of FULL FAT dairy a day… while this may sound counter intuitive, there’s a slew of studies that have found that folks who maintain dairy fat in their blood stream actually loose weight faster — I guess our metabolisms have evolved to figure if there’s milk, we can’t be starving, and there’s no need to slow the metabolism even though calorie intake has decreased. Also, studies are finding that from a cholesterol standpoint our bodies process that sort of fat differently, and if you too are a woman you need the dairy for bone health. I STRONGLY suggest ONE full fat cheese stick a day as a late night snack after returning from the parks … I opt for a nice sharp cheddar.
Oh, and least I forget!!!!
DO NOT DRINK YOUR CALORIES!!!! And for G-d’s sake, stay away from artificial sweeteners (no really, if you don’t know about WHY you should NEVER consume these things, read this!)!!! Get used to drinking unsweetened teas and coffee — its difficult at first, but I promise you after a few weeks your palates will adjust and you’ll grow to prefer it, or of course water is always the best option.
Please do me a favor, click “like” occationally or maybe leave a comment. Especially distant and or long lost friends who are keeping up with me by reading my blog… I’d like to know who is doing the reading. I keep seeing stats of folks coming from as far afield as Tanzania, and would like to know who you are.
This is a REALLY well written book. First time I read it was for a course on the history of Modern China at my alma mater, Northwestern University. I think I took the course in 2010(??). And by modern they mean, post 1500 in the common era, i.e., ONLY in China is the ‘Modern’ era dated back to after the Fall of Constantinople. I wish more history books were this well written.
That said, I’m currently “refreshing” my knowledge: i.e., am listening to the audio file via my iPhone, while getting stuff done, and I have to say the narrator is HORRIBLE (SOOOOOO glad I digitally borrowed this from the library instead of buying it from amazon). He is this really hoity toity sounding Brit who is so annoying I just want to smack him.
Something I think I’ve noticed (limited data as of yet) … the books that were read to a CD back in the day — like this one, aren’t as “well read” as the newer ones that go to Audible at initial release. I think the market has grown and matured enough, that customers are far more demanding, and hence the producers of these files have gotten better about who they hire to do the job. I think it’s doubtful that a history book will get re-recorded, so I’m suffering through…
On the topic of, things to get done during this current stay in my home town:
Catching up on blog posts I had neglected to write. I want this blog to start at least with my travels down to Florida last June, although I’m tempted to once I’ve done that also add in stuff from Asia from before dad died… not sure yet.
Having recently lost 40+ lb (it’s amazing how easily weight falls off when your eating a liver-healthy diet that is both low carb and very low fat). I’m having to almost completely repack the clothes I carry with me in the car (socks still fit) — not only can I easily remove the pants I was wearing last December without having to even open them up, but I’ve even gone down two bra sizes, and am rapidly approaching needing to go down a third (and I’m talking circumference/back fat, not cup size). Heck… I’ve even changed coat sizes.However, before I could do that, I needed to move all my stuff from the attic of a friend in Orlando, Florida — who had kindly offered the space to me a year ago, back up to Chicago (where I currently am). There were two reasons for this, firstly: I realized over the course of the last year that Florida is the sort of place you really only want to go to in Winter (one season), while Chicago has two really nice seasons (Spring and Fall), and geographically is far more “centrally located”if your intent is to explore ALL of the North American Continent. The second reason is, my friend Gina (the one who flies out to meet me from time to time as I travel), had recently finished some major renovations to her home, which included fixing up her attic. While she was visiting me down in Florida last Thanksgiving, she kept saying to me, “really you need to think about my attic, we fixed it up and there’s nothing up there.” So last time I was in Chicago (in May) I took a look; and well, Let me put it this way: the attic in Florida is dehumidified and insulated so that it stays dry in the steamy Florida summers, and my friend there has lain down a handful of wooden boards across the cross beams for me to put my boxes on and have a place to stand, and there’s a terrifyingly rickety wooden ladder you have to climb to get up there … but otherwise it’s a small, cramped and mostly unfinished attic where you sort of have to negotiate where you put your feet so that you don’t go crashing through the ceiling; Gina’s attic, on the other hand, (and keep in mind that we’re both Jewish so I can say this with impunity) … when I saw it the first time I joked with her, “you could easily happily hide three or four Jewish families up here.” Not only does it have a proper floor, it is bright with windows (that you can open) and skylights, is larger than my old apartment in S. Korea, has a solid aluminum ladder, and they’ve even installed a pulley at the top for pulling things up (and or down) rather than having lug them up the stairs. So… no contest.That said, I had to now move my stuff back to Chicago. Keep in mine I had spent around $1,800 to hire a pod to schlep it all down to Florida only year ago, and now I was going to need to spend another $1,400 (same company, they price based on seasonal supply and demand) to bring it back up. Not happy about that, but I like most of my old clothes. I don’t really enjoy shopping for clothes all that much, and most of what I have not already given away (there is arguably still some excess), are what I refer to as “signature items” … or at least “office clothes” — stuff that isn’t me but dictated by social norms. I had, initially (a year ago), considered renting a truck from U-Haul, but did the math and realized the price was about the same if I drove it myself, or if I had them drive it for me (via a loaded pod). Then I searched around for the various pod companies and opted to go with U-Pack (a consumer subsidy of ABF Freight Systems).The reason came down to “core competencies” which is business jargon for what your company is so good at that other companies can try to copy you, but won’t do it as well or as cheaply. U-Haul started as a customer service company that rented cheap trucks to people who were trying to save money by moving their stuff themselves, and had only recently — in order to remain competitive — added on wooden pods (which they would move for you) to their product options. For their customer base it was all about price, and U-Haul as a result has a bit of a shoddy reputation when it comes to the quality of their trucks, etc. By Comparison, U-Pack had started out as a corporate logistics company (moving ‘less than full truck loads’ of valuable product for businesses — who as customers were demanding about tracking, on-time delivery and security while in transit), and they had only recently branched-out by adding a consumer service subdivision to compete with U-haul’s pods; but essentially, the only thing that had changed for them was the customer base, rather than what they themselves were doing. Their pods are metal and waterproof, so that even if there were a massive car accident during transit and the transit truck got (worst case scenario) turned over, your stuff would still be securely locked into the pod, rather than scattered around the highway. And the truck drivers are not allowed to stop anywhere other than at one of their strategically located and highly protected distribution centers, not even for bathroom breaks.However, that meant unloading my friend’s attic and loading up the pod. This was achieved with the help of my friend down in Florida (we hired a local handyman to do the actual lifting, way cheaper than flying down myself) … only he didn’t pack the Pod correctly the first time (I insisted that my friend send me photos before it was locked up) — and there is in fact a “correct” way to do it, if you stop to think about it (and the guys who work for U-Pack know this, but don’t tell you).
This is the wrong way to pack a pod
As a general rule, when you’re packing a pod you want the contents to be LEVEL… very important!!! That said, along the interior of these pods are metal strips with holes in them, intended for bungee cords… which you can cheaply in bulk from Amazon (way cheaper than from a hardware store). And you when installed want the bungees to be as tight as possible, which means they should wrap behind the times, not just sit in front of them… So I said, “sorry, he’s going to have to repack it.” and I sent him a picture of how it had looked when I initially sent it down to Florida (see the difference?)
This is the right way, same contents as in the image above
So I had to pay him (I was paying by the hour rather than the job), to repack it — both he and my friend thought I was being nit-picky and high maintenance, but it was my money… so he did.
Six hours of work total at $15/hour = $90, but I gave him $100.
Pod repackedPod being delivered to Chicago
And this is what the contents looked like when I unpacked opened the doors in Chicago… Jostled to be sure, but the only item that fell out when I opened the doors was one lidded plastic bin that had been sitting on top of the blue VCR box — and it’s lid was still attached, so no problem.
I then hired the same highly affordable local (Glenview) movers who had moved my furniture and household stuff from my father’s house into a storage locker to carry all the boxes up the ladder into the attic, these guys charged almost double what the handyman charged me (but still reasonable considering they are licensed, insured, and have a premesis to maintain).
$192.50, for 3 men @ $154 per hour: 1.25 hours, including the time it took them to drive to and from the job.
So Now I’m having to go over to my friends house every few days to organize the boxes so I can easily find things (they got put up there randomly) and then pull out the things I want to keep with me, as well as (in an methodical and organized manner) returning to the boxes the stuff I have been wearing the last few months, so that I can easily find them again later.
An ‘traditional yet modern’ Korean Top I had purchased when first arriving there
And rejoicing (which of course means sharing with my friends on FB) in the fact that stuff I had “out-grown” fits again
A chain-mail belt that a friend had knit for me by hand
Selling dad’s (our) house: The home I grew up in has been on the market now since May, and we’ve reduced the price three times so that it’s now going for only 500K, and still no reasonable offers (a few years back a developer came in off the street and offered dad an even million for it, and dad had refused to sell thinking he could get more). And of course, even an empty house needs upkeep. While I was in Canada the whole neighborhood got flooded, with our basement filling up almost mid calf deep. So I’ve been dealing with maid services and gardeners, and just last week we discovered that the flood had KILLED our boiler & our water heater. The house was built in 1910, and the boiler had originally burned coal (there’s an actual coal room in our basement). In the 1930’s it had been converted to burning gas. Apparently during the last flood water got into the electronics of the system, so that it no longer opens the door to allow in gas. So I’m now bringing in heater specialists to see if anyone is willing to fix it, and best prices for replacing it (so far the one company that has seen it has refused the job because the parts are no longer made, meaning they would have to Jerry-rigged something, and that would make them liable if anything went wrong). My brother however wants to just drain all the water from the house, rather than replace it (like I said, the house is on the market)… but that would make it harder to sell since, not only would it be very cold, but visitors would not be able to use the bathroom or turn on a faucet.
Meeting with my financial planners: My brother used to be my stock broker, but he contacted me a few weeks back and said he’d decided to give up his license in Illinois (he lives in Indiana), since he had almost no customers here anymore and it costs him a lot of money to renew, and as such, I needed to find a new broker. Ah paperwork… also, apparently, there are new federal laws about money market accounts that basically mean we can now LOOSE money in them even if they go up (they used to be just like bank accounts but better) so I have to go to my various banks and change that.
Am contemplating getting a 10 year multi entry visa for China, just so I can pop over there impulsively. These things only became available in 2014 (the year dad died), before then they were only good for six months to three years. Apparently you HAVE to do it at the consulate that services the state where you live… which is not true for other countries.
From there, we connected to the train (which should have started at Central Station, but for the construction)
Rebecca Radnor's Personal Blog: Consider yourselves warned! 