What sort of cheapskate uses blog for xmas card?

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MERRY XMAS ETC.

The BIT (back in town) sessions.

I had to get a new mobile number 0432 425 842 (don’t ask, it was another unfortunate Optus moment)

THE LAMB THAT THYME FORGOT.

Having suffered severe lamb withdrawal over the past 6 months I have been absolutely going the pig. Check the first meal back pic.

Backing up a bit…..and it is making me shiver to recall just how cold it was but here we go….

THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA(?) well, Chicago

A WINTER WONDERLAND….I’M WONDERING HOW LONG IS WINTER IN THIS LAND

Cincinnati railroad, Grand Union Station, a majestic, fabulous, art-deco structure celebrating 75 years. You can see it for miles, a giant arch dominating the skyline, out where it is, looks like it was the centre of town, about 100 years ago. The magnificence of the architecture and the grandeur of the finish belies the quality of the Amtrak service (office hours: 11pm - 6am!) but for me it is perfect. Inside the building you can hold a normal volume conversation across the huge, crowded hall if you stand against the perfectly formed arch.
Right now it’s deserted…..but the Amtrak office is open. The waiting room crowd look like tryouts for the Jim Rose circus.
It’s 1am, dark, feels like fitty below, snow swirling. I’m waiting at one end of the platform where the sleeper car stops. 20 yards down the other end, 10 or 12 bundled shapes, the casting hopefuls for an episode of Les Miserables, queue for cattle class. They’re looking at me, well, towards me. Bloodshot, half-closed, monocular. Regret, Lust, Envy, Sympathy? Mostly blankness.
I’d forgotten just how fantastic train travel is.,,,at the sharp end!

Morning and I’m sitting in my little cocoon, small, compact but not claustro, the little guy has slipped in and folded away the bed while I was breakfasting, sleety snowy slushy stuff is dribbling down the window, (outside) we’re cruising across dead flat dead corn fields.
Uniform furrows for endless miles, and dusted with snow, more desolate than pretty, odd banks of trees left by reluctant farmers, looking totally dead but apparently just in winter mode.
Then a bunch of huge silos and great cone shaped piles of, corn(?) and a couple of factories, then back to endless corn fields.
Warm and safe in my little womb, everything you could want from soothing music, ice water, dunny and hand basin, every type of lighting, great views, wait staff and the constantly reassuringly soft clickety clackety, rocky rolly train-ness.

A 4 hour layover in Chicago. They call it the windy city but when I was here for a week last month, and again now, it’s remarkably still. And in an Obama moment.

Outside the terminal (another fabulous deco-era architectural marvel) snow is gently falling. I slither-skate precariously across the walkway, my sartorially suicidal sock-and-sandal footwear is just holding up (until the water gets more than 1.5 inches deep)
Over the edge of the ancient stone parapet is the river. Dark and cold. Is it really that black? Great chunks of ice slide by. (gotta be) numb ducks seem immune and paddle about.

I’m getting a picture of just how much energy this country consumes: the huge malls, office buildings, houses, everywhere is heated to stifling temperatures, And vehicles,,,ah, vehicles, after briefly flirting with smaller, more efficient vehicles, now the price of gasoline has dropped it’s back to giant trucks again although the current economic tanking may have it’s effect. Along the highway car lots are shutting down. But that’s all for another issue.

From Chicago - Kansas City, Topeka, Dodge City, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, unbelievable. Across the original trail. 43 hours, fabulous meals, interesting people, a bottle of rum and smoke breaks every 10 hours or so.
Gradually it got warmer. Snow disappeared. Fascinating travel. And then LA in the morning and a 10pm flight. J wept.

In Los Angeles airport, in fact almost everywhere, espanol gets you further than English. I’m eavesdropping on the chats.

I’m wondering what happens to all those ‘final call’ people. Is it just a code device for the security paranoics? For almost every flight, the tannoy asks for 2 or 3 passengers to turn up. They are always at take-off time and they threaten to unload their bags if they don’t show up. The announcements go on right up to the knock. And then what? Did they make it?

Then coming full circle with a stopover in Nadi, Fiji, from whence I’d flown 7 months earlier.
And after so many trips in so many dodgey airlines, countries and airports, Qantas lost my bag between Sydney and Melbourne. I couldn’t believe it.

BIT back in town. Spinally it’s come to this. Doctor, Dentist, Optimist, Acupuncturist, Accountant, Medibank, Fcuking Commonwealth bank, Optus (don’t get me started) I’ve been poked, prodded, checked, x-rayed, cat scanned, tested, sampled, bled, screened, shocked, stylised, organ functions, organ grinders, cancer screenings…I feel like a NASA lab-rat returning from a month in the space station.
The Blood Bank called, I always wondered when giving blood what sort of psycho weirdo freakoid would be there ticking all those boxes! This time I bingo-ed almost all!
They want me to call in 12 months. And then only because I’m O negative or whatever. Jajaja. Next week I get to find out what I’ve got.

So, a short one. I’m going away for a while but I’ll be back around mid Feb to catch up.

And a bit more info than the normal xmas card.

Chau

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Photos

the lamb that thyme forgot
1st meal back - lambathon

sleety, snowy, slushy stuff
outside my window

the stadium
Chicago?

snowy 'burbs
Chicago