Slightly juicier

After such a short post I have returned to the place of reflection. It's super hot here in Rome. Like walking from Melbourne's winter into January Aussie heat, it's stinking, tar-melting weather. I've been averaging about 3 showers a day and the humidity is doing fantastic things for my curly hair.
The last couple of days have been filled with a sense of relax, settledness, tiredness and heat. I was wrapped to find Tanya at Termini Stazione in Rome, where I was finishing off my second novel since I have been away. In fact for me, I have been chewing through novels. Although this one that I have just finished was a memoir, by melbourne writer Kate Holden called 'In Her Skin'. It's a fantastically written story of addiction and redemption, and my eyes devoured it in 24 hours. Goodness I have been inspired by language - perhaps more so since I have been in countries where English is not primarily spoken or written.

In Rome I have seen some of the main sights. The Colosseum, St Peter's Basillica, the ruins of Ancient Rome, the Trevi Fountain and other bits and pieces. We have spent some great many hours perusing the cobbled streets, which do look rather like Melbourne's tiny Carlton alleys. I have finally enjoyed some amazing coffee - German kaffe is not much chop, but Italian esspresso, is as you would expect: smooth and strong. The Roman architecture is phenomenal, but as a city I am struck by the crazy crazy drivers (no such thing as road rules or pedestrian rights here!), and the grime. There is so much rubbish in the streets and it's really polluted. I am so glad I have come to Rome, but equally glad that we decided that we wouldn't spend all our time in Italy here in the capital city.

Tomorrow morning we're headed for Siena. It's a small town north of Rome. We will get to the Palio there... a medieval horse race that is a festival for the town and entire region. It sounds full of colour and culture, and I am really excited about it! We will get there for one or two nights (hmm I know I'm in holiday mode when I can't remember the day of the week or where I will be when!).

It's fantastic to finally be on this European adventure. The more I am here, the more things I want to see and the more I feel I am learning about people and the world. It can be such an isolating experience in Australia where you get so many snippets of different culture that you feel it is familiar. Although there is so much about Rome that feels familiar (Megalo, Megalo, Megalo... thank you Franco Cozzo), the culture and place is so multifaceted. There is still so much about the world I want to see and experience.

Love to all,
thanks for your comments... I love love love them!!!
xoxoxo
Hi Mum... I hope the non smoking is going well!! Fingers crossed. And the job! Special kisses and cuddles for you...
xxx

PS. I hope your non smoking is going excellently too Dad. ...
Wouldn't it be amazing to come home to find my family are ALL non-smokers? ;)
************************************************************************************


This was taken at the East Side Gallery in Berlin. The remaining side of the wall from the West. This was my favourite piece of art from the most phenomenally long section of gallery. Its such a shame people have graffiti'd over them.


This was the bike I hired... and Buttercup. There'll be no bike hire in Roma. Not amongst this crazy traffic!

The section of the Jewish Museum in Berlin that was designed by Daniel Leibskind. It was fantastic. The most amazing symbolic architecture ever. All about mechanisation and industrialised death. Also about the eradication of evidence of a culture. All we know about pre-WWII Jewish European culture is through the gaps. All we have are small snippets. He captures something so profound in this museum.
This is my innaugral and promised 'Silly Dance' photo. You should have seen the boy's face when he took this. Didnt quite know what to make of me I think!

In Roma in front of the Trevi Fountain. Something that is so cool is that all the water in fountains and from random ancient spouts in the city is entirely drinkable and cold. It comes from the aqua ducts below Rome. I have drank from fountains and it is so good!!

Roma by quickie

It's official... this is the quickest blog post ever. I'm in Rome, I'm safe, happy and hot, but short of time. So I'm here to say, I'm alive and loving you all... and will try to blog properly in the next day or two. For a fuller update on my day yesterday,... check out T's blog http://www.howwillyougo.blogspot.com She got up in the night to write...

Love you

xx

Goodbye Berlin, Hello Roma!

So it has been a couple of days since I've updated. What have I been up to, I hear you ponder?? Quite a lot actually, and I can definitely tell that this travel bizzo is super-tiring!
Not long after I put up my last post, the Aussie guys I had been hanging out with sent me a text to say they were at a bar if I wanted to join them. Given we're all on roaming with our phones I definitelzy appreciated the message. So I finished with my bike (sticking to the footpaths, Dan) and headed back to the hostel for a shower. The place I was to meet them was the artist squat that we had gone to a couple of days before on our tour - called Teschel. This was the old blown out apartment buildings now used as galleries/studios & bars. In Germany it has been football (soccer) mania with the Euro cup coming to a climax and everyone in the city was out on that balmy night to watch the game. For 2 days previously the city centre (right behind the Brandenberg Gate had been cordoned off in preparation for the concerts and stuff for this night... I wanted to steer clear of this area for fear of rioting. So I met Kev & Lisa and they were enjoying some beers on the top of a sculptural platform made of bits of welded together scrap metal. I climbed up full of bravado, but as the 6 meter high structure swayed with the breeze I felt increasingly unsafe and was brave enough to say so... I was relieved to sit in the beer garden and enjoy ground level! Thankfully Germany won, and I had a great night ending in fantastic pizza and revelry.

With tired bones I decided a sleep in was required. It's been so strange cause it gets dark in Berlin at 10-10.30 and is daylight by 4-4.30am, so it has been quite hard to convince my body that it needs more sleep. I slept yesterday til 11.30 (hurrah!) and enjoyed a relatively lazy day. The one thing I hadn't done that was still on my 'essential' list was to see the world's only gay museum. I expected good things... and while I enjoyed, it was such a gay men's history. It featured only a couple of gay women, even though my researched proved German history has a fantastically rich documented history of lesbianism. It felt more likea gallery than museum, and many of the images and names were familar, rather like old friends I hadn't seen for a while. I was struck by severe nostalgia for my studies and was drew to wonder (not for the first time during this trip) whether I will continue, and if so, in what particular specialist area?? It solidified my need to learn German to research in the area though. It has been pretty frustrating to be on the tip of understanding an exhibit if only the labels were in English!

I spent an hour or 2 there, and mozied back to the hostel via Alexanderplatz. I had my infamous and much promised 'Silly Dance' picture taken by some wowser fellow, but I enjoyed and had a good laugh...I will upload that pic in the next batch when it's off my camera. I sat last night in the hostel and chatted to some new recruits. I was so excited to meet a couple of women who were easily in their mid to late 60s travelling for 3 months from Adelaide. I think they could have been gay, but I wouldn't presume. They were so lovely and witty. And they are travelling almost a similar trip to me but via Eurail. Such an inspiration.

Today was an early start - on the train at 6.30 to the airport to Rome via Prague. Thankfully everything went to plan and now I'm all checked in and comfy at the hostel. Tanya arrives tomorrow... yay!! and we will be staying in the same hostel but in a private room. That will definitely be welcome relief. Even just to be able to have a bit of quiet at nighttime... although I've been sharing the dorms with lovely people. I do like this life. It could be very addictive I could see!

For now, much love and kisses.
Signing off from Roma in hot hot hot weather ... 30 and dry sweaty heat..
Always,
A
xoxo


This is what was affectionately referred to as the German Disneyland on our tour - Checkpoint Charlie. On the original site but everything else here is fake, and some things are hugely historically inaccurate! But still a must see.

The Hotel ... hmm can't remember the name... anyway, it's directly in front of the Brandenberg Gate and was the site of Michael Jackson's infamous dangling out the window of his son. People like JFK and Mandela have stayed here. And judging by the security on the day I took this, I think someone else pretty special must have been in town. Polizei everywhere!!

This was Hitlers Globe that I spoke of in the last entry... complete with a bullethole through Europe.

And this was his desk. It was specially designed to be huge and imposing. It doesn't seem it here, but i think it would have been about 3m x 2m.

This was the bed that I spent the last 3 nights in. Very comfy with crisp linen.

The Kathy Kurche memorial to the German people affected by war. It's inside, but has a hole directly above it that means that when it rains or snows, the sculpture gets wet. It's very moving and shows a mother cradling her dead son home from battle. The tiles on the floor felt smooth like they'd been washed over and over again in a river

Buttercup and the Reichstag. She begged to be in this one. I took it in front of at least 200 people waiting in the queue!

And when we got to the top, she wanted a picture with the Berlin skyline. She nearly slid right off the top too... the wind picked her up and I had a mild stroke.

The Reichstag proper.

Berlin Gallery

A huge selection of shots here

Buttercup at Wombat's hostel after her first night in Berlin. She was pretty chirpy!


Self explanatory!


I took this on Sunday (Sonntag) when i went back to the gay festival. It was a generic dyke with guitar act, and all the girls were really getting into it. She was funny, sang half German & half English, but the English was so accented i couldnt understand any of her lyrics and the one's where I could, the lyrics were appalling. But I really enjoyed and it proved to me the universality of lots of gay culture. In particular, the way the girls watching behaved. Could have been in any Midsumma event really. It made me laugh.


Another one taken the same day at the fest. Some people get off on strange things!


A stall of gingerbread at the festival. So delectable and finely decorated.


I like this shot. In Eastern Germany, the Communist Party built huge amounts of the lego style standard brown apartment blocks. Part of their rule meant that all people had a state house, a job and food. All over Berlin (in the old East) there are still these brown blocks as far as the eye can see. Looks a bit like Carlton commission places, but these particular ones are the type that have been 'capitalised' and renovated... or at least given some colour!!


This is the New Jewish synagogue (which is actually really old). In the Kristallnacht when the Nazis reigned terror on the Jews one night smashing everything in sight (giving it the name Night of Broken Glass), the Nazis came to pillage this one and a German police man stood on the steps and forbade them. Most of them backed away except for a couple of rogue Blackshirts who went round the back and started a fire. There are still traces of this fire at the top of the dome but for the most part the Synagogue survived war bombing. Its such a majestic building.


The Star of David at the top.


Inside the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Its huge and unnerving. All the concrete slabs put in at odd angles on undulating earth. Too narrow to walk two abreast, and easy to get lost. The earth shape reminded me of the gasses in the mass graves that made the earth move for years afterward. Such a great memorial, but interestingly the American Jewish artist has been accused of stealing the concept from Daniel Leibeskind who designed the Jewish Museum here. Both opened around the same time and Leibeskind's features a similar memorial (supposedly - I'm yet to go there).


This was taken outside the Berliner Dom, which is a cathedral in one of the central squares. It was taken right at the end of the walking tour. The next day (yesterday) I went back and was amazed by the insides. Again, hugely damaged in the war and only recently restored having rotted away in the East for 40 years.


The Museum (now creatively called the Old Museum). It is to the direct left of the Berliner Dom, around the same square. Was the site for many of Hitlers huge torchlight rallies, and I recognise the insignia on the top from so many of his speeches. Was a spine tingling moment to stand there.


Even more spine chilling was taking this photo. This is the site of Hitlers Bunker. Below this spot was where he suicided and where he stayed for the remaining 3 months of the war. He and Eva Braun married in the bunker on the day before their death and Goebells brought their bodies to between these 3 trees and burned them. Later the skull, teeth and more recently DNA has been matched to prove it was actually Hitler that was found here. Such a nondescript place. People spat on the ground.


This is my reflection in the soil on the spot where Hitler's body burned.


A random sign on a light pole that is near my hostel.


The site of the Nazi Book Burning looking across to Humbolt University's front entrance. Notice the rainbow flag!


Random Berliner graffiti. There is some phenomenal art here. Amazing. And absolutely everywhere.


Generic house... but look at all those genuine war residual bullet holes!!


This was the SS Luftwaffe high command centre. One of the only Nazi buildings to survive the war. Still used as a government building too!


The Brandenberg Gate. Site of every political victory with a march through. The Nazis marched through here, so did Napoleon... which is why it is still on Parisier Place. At the minute it has Coke signage all down the bottom and through the other side is a huge stage in preparations for tonight's big soccer match here in Berlin.

they say that life is a circus...

It's Anita from Berlin. Again.

I have today and tomorrow in this rich and colourful city before departing super dooper early on Friday for Roma (via Czech Rep for plane change). I'm a little nervous about the changing of planes there... I hope I can navigate the airport with time to spare. But I think I have managed to fit in a massive amount to my Berlin time so far. It has been more thrilling than I imagined, and I feel like I've finally got itchy feet. Hurrah!

So after I wrote here the day before yesterday I've had some great times. Monday (the day of the tour) was filled with lots of exciting discoveries and seriously worn out hot feet. It has been pretty warm here, and unless your in the shade or it's late at night, I have barely needed a jumper or long sleeved top. That night I hung out with my new melbourne friends Kev and Lisa and we had intentions of going to a place recommended by the tour guide. Apparently table tennis is huge here, and there are bars devoted to a round robin ping pong -- you hit the ball once and then go to the end of the other side's line, and if you miss you are eliminated. All accompanied by beer. Oh the beer in Germany is lovely. Very cheap too. 1.50 euro for a stubby (pint). Because it gets dark here at the minute at about 10.30, the night ran away from us. We sat chatting in the hostel lounge over a couple of beers, and by the time we went to make a move it was 2am. So instead of hitting the town then, when we'd already had such a big day, we thought better of it and hit the hay. They are lovely people, a little younger than me, but very much Northcote people who are interested in music and food and creativity and politics. I have really enjoyed their company.

Yesterday was spent on a self-devised tour of the city. I almost did a retracing of the previous day's tour, and instead went into the things I wanted. I went into the Reichstag and waited for an hour in the queue to go up the lift to the observation deck. It's such an amazing building and like so many Berlin buildings, still wears the bullet holes and blackening from the bombs of the war. In the case of the Reichstag it was almost entirely destroyed. It was a fantastic panoramic view.

I also bought some new Birkenstock sandals. I came away without summer shoes and found I've really needed them and Birkis are so cheap here. I got the pair i wanted and then wore them all day long.

I walked through the Mitte region and along the Unter Den Linden and back towards the German History Museum. On the way I got to pass the Babelplatz (a sqare surrounded by the opera house and library and Humbolt Uni where the book burnings happened), and I stopped at lots of shops and monuments along the way. It's quite a walk. At the German History museum I was impressed by the way most explanatory notes were in Deutsch and English. It made it easy to navigate! Things of note that I saw included: real knight's armour and 4th century stuff, a really gruesome crucified jesus with intestines and ... so so much Weimar Republic and Third Reich stuff. It was 1/2 the museum. They had Hitler's desk designed by Albert Speer and they had his globe of the world that even had a bullet hole through it. It was a great museum, and I was glad to be doing the circuit with other young people (by chance... just for more bodies in the museum). I find museums really eerie if they have no one in them, and over here with more than 150 museums in Berlin alone, there are few people in them.

I went and had a wander around the Berliner Dom (cathedral) and it was spectacular.

Finally wandered back to the hostel where I sat with Kev and Lisa and some others and we chatted before finally at about 11 going off and trying to find the PingPong bar (without success) before settling at a turkish bar. It was another late one but I really really enjoyed.

I hired a bike today and so decided to ride across town (hmmm... on the other side of the road navigating stupid drivers) and ended up at the East Side Gallery, which is the remaining part of the Wall where all the graffitti is. It was sensational but chilling.

Im having a great time, but am feeling pretty spent today. Thinking about an afternoon nap, but also wanted to go to the Jewish Museum. I wish I had a month here!
*sigh*

Love to everyone, and great big cuddles. Thanks for your comments, I'm loving them.
xoxoxo

Around Berlin in 7 hours

What a mammoth, exhilarating and fabulous day it's been! Having discovered I had to change dorm rooms, I got up reasonably early - 8ish and packed up my stuff and headed on downstairs to await my tour. I decided to go on a Brewer's Walking Tour today to take in all the sights, be social and generally get a feel for Berlin. I'm so glad I did. This tour company (there's at least 10 similar companies offering spookily similar tours) picks up from the hostel, and as such there were at least 8 people from my hostel on this tour. 2 Aussie couples - one from Melb, and one couple from Adelaide. There were 3 other random people from Canada.

The tour guide was a lanky fella from Wales and it was clear that his style was relaxed, studenty but seriously knowldegeable! We walked the length and breadth of predominantly what was East Berlin, which is the district I am staying in, and we took in sites including:

Old Jewish Quarter including plaques of murdered Jews in front of their old houses

Neue Judisch Synagogue - absolutely amazing! On Oranienberger Strasse where the Night of Broken Glass (Kristalnacht) was. I remembered the famous story where a German police officer saved this Synagogue from being pillaged on that night.

Alexanderplatz TV tower, a symbol of East Berlin... tall like a giant floating discoball amongst a sea of communist brown

Parisier Platz where the Brandenberg Gate stands watch. It is currently covered in Coke adverts - so inappropriate! Also interesting for it's resemblance to the Champs Elysee (like I know what that actually looks like!... yet) It was also interesting for its new American Embassy Development and the DB bank wacky building.

The Reichstag. For me more than any other this was THE German landmark I wanted to see. It was the Weimar Republic parliament building that got burned down and Hitler used it as an excuse to pass his Emergency Decree, thus enabling him full dictatorial power to pass whatever the hell crazy rules he liked. I had seen this building in so many photos, that for me this was more Germany than the Brandenberger Gate. I wasn't prepared for how big it is. I will go back in the next day or two to check out the inside and definitely go to the top to get the high view of Berlin.

We got to see the current (but ridiculously secured) US embassy, the old Soviet current Russian embassy(complete with embossed hammer and sickle insignia) and the strange looking titanic-like UK embassy. Also the tree lined (with numbered trees) Unter Den Linden (Boulevarde of Lime Trees).

We stood on the top of Hitlers Bunker - worth a whole entry in its own right - now a carpark, and I learned SO much about particularly post WWII german history. I realised how little i knew about the DDR and the GDR. We saw the almost entirely fake 'disney style' Checkpoint Charlie, and saw what remains of the outer west wall of the Berlin Wall.

Also the Museum (The old Museum) where Hitler did so many rallies, the plaza where most bookburning happened, Humbolt Uni (with proud rainbow flag prevailing) and again I went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.

It was an amazing day. Ive chatted lots to the Melbourne couple and found we have much in common. The fella, Kev and I even lived 10 houses away on Beaconsfield Pde at the same time!! Freaky.
They are lovely. May go out with them tonight.

So much to write. I took a bucketload of pics and am feeling sore footed, but happy. Content in fact. And totally sun burned. What did mum teach me about sunscreen!! Anita needs to listen to that advice cause now I look like a lobster!

Hope everyone is well. I love getting the comments on here... it makes the space between us not seem so vast. Hope you're enjoying the updates.
xxxx

Just a couple of pics

This was my bed (with Buttercup) at Wombat's City Hostel

This is my bed now - although I was told today I am changing rooms!


A typical East German apartment building.


The entrance to the gay festival opposite Nollendorfplatz UBahn Station. There is Underground trains and above ground trains (UBahn and SBahn) and also a comprehensive network of trams. Its been named over and over again as the best public transport in the world.


This is the holocaust memorial. Chilling.

The north star's in the sky tonight, the air is thick and clear...

I think I turned a corner today. It has been a few days since I landed in Berlin, and although it's been mostly a joy, my heart has also been bridled with some sadness. Perhaps it's the pressure of reaching a dream; God knows it has been a dream to finally get here, but with it comes a certain pressure to enjoy it in a major way. And I know that on the back of the last couple of weeks, its actually hard to enjoy anything let alone in such an isolated state. But today I enjoyed. And I feel freer for it.

The day began later than usual - 11ish. And I woke with a happy suprise at having received some lovely texts :) I had a very late night last night after going to the Lesbich Schwul Stadtfest (City Lesbian & Gay Festival. The festival was filled with colour and vibrancy and a lot of familiar things. It was strange to be so far from home in a culture that is just so different, with scarce English spoken around/to you and yet some things just be so familiar! Gay boys act the same, use the same mincing spoken tone en masse, there is still a huge diversity in styles and subcultures, and marketing for gay events and clubs looks the same no matter what language it is published in! I must confess to the German girls being per capita hugely more attractive than their Aussie counterparts, although its strange here because standard German women look like dykes to me with comfortable shoes and short hair. Although the women at this festival were just gorgeous. mmm. It was definitely a good perve fest.

A few things shocked me: lots of full on bondage stuff, lots of guys walking around with a 'slave' on a leash and often clad head to toe in leather. Most interestingly though - and this is what i was so interested to observe - there is definitely an S&M subculture where nazi-styled clothing and behaviour is lauded. This is fascinating to me, and was the underlying thread of my honours thesis. Oh how I'd love to explore this idea more... I really didnt think I'd see it so obviously demonstrated. Anyway... just musing.

Hmm... so back to yesterday. I also had a chance to get to the Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's a plethora of 2000+ concrete slabs that you can walk through. And it has an attached museum (which requires full security checks to enter... but is free!). It was a basic timeline with interesting photos and a couple of rooms. One had a range of testimony displayed from letters where people had written to loved ones as they were on the way to a concentration camp (KL) and thrown them out the window. Some were heart wrenching, but I loved the way they only included snippets from people they had further information on, so all were contextualised into a broader picture. That gallery was moving, but also palatable because it didn't feel like a barrage of death and figures and faceless victims. Another room was dedicated to information about entire families who had been affected by the Final Solution, and these were interesting mosaics of survivors and decendants and some families who had been entirely obliterated. This gallery was the hardest for me to digest even though I understand the curator's motive. The remaining galleries were dedicated to individual victims: one had a scrolling projected image of a victims name and dates of birth and death, and if more was known about them the voiceover filled in the gaps. Apparently every known victim who died is included in that gallery's display and if it was shown continuously during the 6 days of opening a week, it would take over 6 years to show them all.

It was an amazing museum and I'm glad I went. I'm also glad I made sure I had something fun to follow it. It hasn't played on my mind. There was nothing 'real' there. I'm in two minds about going on a trip to Saschenhausen KL in the next couple of days. Lots of people go, and it could be my only chance to go and see a real concentration camp. I'll think about it.

I also got to chatting yesterday to a Melbourne girl who was staying in my hostel. She is sweet and we chatted about all sorts of things. She actually works for Optus in the same dept as I used to! Such a small world. She took me later in the evening to a music festival where there was a bar set up. Lots of electronica music and outdoor drinking and games of bat tennis and frisbee. We stayed there til about 11 when I insisted we head back to the gay quarter and we went to the official afterparty of the festival. It was huge and in an old renovated theatre and there were a couple of thousand people (mainly Muscle Mary boys) dancing to the decent music. It has amazed me how much bad english language pop music gets played here - Steps and Gloria Estefan!! Not even good stuff like ABBA!! ;) All in all it was a late night, and we made full use of the 24 hour weekend UBahn trains which are fast, clean, direct and easy to use. A good day with some fun time definitely helps. I really really like Berlin.

Given that it's nearly midnight, I wont stay here for too much longer. A quick run down on today then:

* Woke late
* Came to the net cafe for lazy time and had great chats with Tanya Mum Dan & Dad!! and caught up on all the goss!#
* Sat for a couple of hours in the garden out the back of the hostel - its lovely and shadey and leafy. Enjoyed the 30 deg weather and updated my travel journal while sipping hot choc.
* Went back to Nollendorfplatz to the festival to be suprised by triple swell in numbers. It was twice the size of St Kilda Fest. Easy! Enjoyed some live music and learned that dykes with guitars are universal... and attract the same over 40s crowd... and Me! Ate some fabulous Nutella crepe. And drank non-Bier. Chatted to some lovely people and got some recommendations on places to go. Then came back to the hostel
* Wandered around place near hostel kinda like Brunswick St. It was quiet - a lot shuts here on Sundays
* Chatted to folk at hostel

That's pretty much it. Im pretty weary but enjoying the Summer Rain and the feeling of being clean. It gets so humid here I have to peel my clothes of at the beginning and end of each day!

xoxo
Love from Berlin

Once bitten, twice un-shy

After umpteen years of deliberation, dreaming and planning, I am finally in Berlin. I'm in a backpackers, and I've got sufficient days here to see the sights I've had on my list for a long long time.

The flight from melbourne was 29 hours, and many portion controlled breakfasts, and I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to a nice australian woman and her boss. They are the 2 managing directors of Guide Dog's Victoria, so possibly good people for me to know!! I was wrapped to have got the window seat, and I relished looking out over Melbourne's skyline. I also managed to do a fair bit of sleeping on my trip.

Getting to the hostel was ok, and I enlisted the help of some other tourists to help me navigate the UBahn - underground train stations. I'm about to leave this hostel now, cause mine was only a one night stay, but I think I will be able to feel a bit more settled this afternoon ónce I'm in my next place for the following 6 nights. At least then I know I wont have to lug my bag.

Despite the horrendous circumstances of this trip, I am still managing to feel a bit excited, and not too overwhelmed. I don't want to jinx myself, but so far I've shed not a single tear. And although I'm pretty tired, I am so excited that this is just a short stint alone. It feels much more managable. I think I've bit off a chewable amount this time, and I think in a few days time I will have found some rhythm.

Love to all at home. You can leave messages here (they are public tho), and if you've read the post, it'd be so nice to get a hello.
xx