A day on a long boat

On Saturday we (me, michelle and simon) went driving to oxfordshire to hop on a long boat for the day...glorious weather and murky water...i didn't get into the testosterone stakes and just let the other boys drive the boat...we bobbed along the Oxford Canal for around 5 hours, broken up by a picnic in a paddock surrounded by nettles...it was very pleasant indeed...we also hopped off and went to a rather dodgy pub where orders for coke were greeted with pepsi poured straight from the bottle...masculinity was sorely challenged by having to negotiate the so-called locks which involved getting water levels right before being able to enter and exit the lock...the scenery was very characteristic...we amateurs felt a slight snorting-of-nose derision from the serious long-boaters who adorn their boats with all manner of potplants, decorative shutters and colour schemes...a couple of boats had satellite dishes for tv and dishwashers too...Michelle coined the phrase the "lock protector" when we came upon a lock with a house built next to it...

Undone london

We had a picnic in St James' Park yesterday with Jenny and Mark and their baby Ben. It was sunny. Very sunny. And warm. Very warm. And still. Very still...so what did some men in this large, public park do? They stripped down to their undies and lay around soaking up the rays... Simon said that there is another park where business people go during lunch break and do the same thing... I don't know what to think about this... I don't care really (as long as they are in their good undies - unfortunately, one guy was ballarama as he was wearing some undies with very lax elastic...)... Would you get arrested in Australia for shameless sun stripping? Would people stare? Or just hurry on? Or join in? Interesting. Very interesting...

Desperately seeking something

Well not desperately...but Simon and I drove up to Newmarket to see our great Aunty Eileen...she was again like a carbon copy of our nanna but a littler version...after driving 30 miles to get the 6 miles from Newmarket to Lidgate, we spent a lovely day with her shooting the breeze, walking in the sunshine and exploring our maternal family past...she had only one photo of nanna, pop and mum (looking very cute and like all her children and grandchildren at once) which techoboy scanned into his laptop. We visited All Saints Church in Kirtling which we suspect is the site of nanna and pop's marriage...more soon...

Spanish language

The weirdest thing about the whole trip to Spain was being back in that moment when you are horrified about speaking: it's been ages since I've gone somewhere where I only have a tenuous linguistic grip but there I was getting all embarassed and overwhelmed even when i knew exactly what to say and how to say it! It was compounded by having someone else around who I could just say to "oh, can you tell them blah blah blah"...I did crack out a bit of spanish here and there and realised that my native linguistic creativity (or tomfoolery) could have buoyed me along to where I wanted to go...it was the lulling calm of the place that made me lazy...or was it fear? It's always good to be rocketed back to this place from time to time coz it helps you, as a teacher of languages, revisit that monumental horror that many students face in trying to get on in a language...
Here are my favourite new expressions in Spanish:

• Jesus! which you say when someone sneezes
• Flacco, meaning a stick thin bean pole (mmm, guess who that referred to)

Some interesting linguisticky things:

• the shortened form of the greetings where Bueno for Buenos dias and Buena for Buenas tardes which is not the expected linguistic beheading...unusual, as the content word is chopped off while the arguably empty word remains...it's still showing gender so the greetings are distinct....
• The rhythmic timing of Spanish is very different from Italian and I feel for me it's insurmountable
• Spanish is very nasal which suits an Aussie

EuroCALL me

My first EuroCALL was a very pleasant experience...a good range of papers, some nice new connections, great setting...what did I get out of it?

1. That the work I've been doing is reasonably valid
2. That there are some good people in Australia to connect with
3. That there are opportunities to further this field both theoretically and practically
4. That you can be pretty fluffy about what you do in this area
5. That I like presenting to a room full of people
6. That I should knuckle down and go for it in this area

So...nothing new really but good to reinforce things...

reflections on spain

ok, so i've only been there for 3/4 days...and only to one city in the south...not very qualified to comment?? How do you get qualified to comment??? Here's what i've got to say:

• Granada looks a lot like towns in Italy with its mix of old and new; hazy heat and lazy progress; history which reaches back thunderously while time creeps forward with a juicy lethargy which bewitches and transports you
• The Spanish are an attractive people: classic southern European looks of dark hair and skin and lean men and women...but i noticed some natural blondes and light eyes
• While Granada may be famous for its tapas, food in general is not as central, it would seem, as in Italy
• Being a vegetarian in Spain leaves you with the following options: cerveza, queso, ensalada...
• Breakfast was my favourite thing: the tostada (a long roll, cut lengthwise and then toasted over which you drizzle olive oil or tomato pulp and salt) was a new addition and truly divine...so simple yet so satisfying
• Along with the shift in emphasis away from food, coffee is not a focus...often too long and weak, reminded me of home!

Spain has something magnetic about it...or is it just that i want to be somewhere else, somewhere exotic, somewhere different...or that I want to be something else, something exotic, something different...

Papers all done

Woo hoo! Papers done and dusted this morning...to much acclaim...have a look at EuroCALL 2006 blog where our papers got blogged...off for a drink now...39 degrees today...agua por favor...cerveza...vino...

Granada

After two short flights (that took up most of the day!), I arrived at Granada to 43 degree heat...YAY!!!! I met up with Andrea in Madrid airport (which is a copy of some other European airport...reminiscent of the new Southern Cross station in Melbourne with undulating roof and cavernous space but in yellows!)...we got a taxi to our hotel and the main road in front is all ripped up. Taxi driver said it has been that way for 3 years because when they were redoing it they found some architectural treasure underneath so haven´t been able to finish!
Hotel is pretty normal...smallish room...two single beds...but the view is ok...we went out and walked for hours, found some beer and tapas...Granada is unusual coz it has been developed sort of by chance...lots of mixed architectural styles yet it´s been inhabited for thousands of years...I´ve been looking up a lot!

Look up

I've been looking up a bit as I walk along lately...i'd started doing it in Melbourne had begun to notice things I'd never seen before...like interesting facades on buildings and plants hanging over and city views like no other...so, i've been doing that here in London too...i think we spend too much time looking straight ahead or down when we are out and about...look up!

ola ole'!

It's off to Spain today...it rained in London yesterday but it was humid as well...one shop person said to me 'yes, it's very close today' when describing the conditions...as always, i walk around London and think everyone is speaking another language but often it is English...it must be their mannerisms of speech which confuse me, all the little subconcious things which make an Australian easy to recognise even before you know they're Australian must be different in other speakers of English...saw Harrod's all lit up by night which is cliched but cute...right, gotta finish packing (it's only 4 days...why all this stuff???)

Comfort like no other

I'm in London now at Simon and Michelle's...had to go out though...so where'd I go after a gruelling 26-hour ordeal on a plane (had to eat the pineapple rice coz I had "asian vegetarian"!)??? Why to a large supermarket: Tesco's in fact...and i just felt good...here's what was funny though. There's a whole section in the freezer part labelled "yorkshire pudding"...Despite being huge, their range of dry biscuits included about 6-8 types...does this mean the Londeners don't eat crackers? I bought bananas thought and they cost me close to nothing...so there Australia, in Britain even lecturers can eat bananas...

Complete lack of progress

Ally and I have been talking about how all the car ads go "oh the new holden facra..." and then all that's new is some stupid addition to the dashboard...why is it that in 100 years of automobiles we've hardly progressed past 4 or 5 doors, 4 wheels and a motor (oh, whoah, there's a computer under the bonnet now...big whoop!)...we still have to drive it, what about voice-controlled driving?...we still sit in the front and back...what about all in a circle, having drinks and nibblies as you go on your way?...they still use up our fossil fuels which are costing more and more (good, that might get people considering the ethics of skidding our natural resources away while they get fat but not happy...)...and, while we're on progress, how come air travel is exactly the same as it was when it began? Actually, it's worsened: there's no mistique or chic about flying...and i don't find the good folks in business and first class very alluring, i have to say...where's the super-fast-get-there-today-yesterday-tomorrow planes? And what about space travel...now there's THE biggest let down...you know I thought in my tender years that by the time I was 29 (as I am today) there would be regular space travel, an inhabited space station and maybe even teleporting. Instead, we've had nothing since the late 60s moon walks which are looking more and more fabricated...why is it that the old stuff hasn't moved on? Or worse, the old stuff was better! Case in point, television: I'm beginning to think that at its outset Australian television was at the cutting edge...now it's all trite pomp or sleazy crap...is this a reflection of where we're going as a society? Or of how much effort we make in our public lives? (Watch V for Vendetta and think of little johnny...)

airline food

I noticed while I was having my "asian vegetarian meal" that vegetarians tend to consistently get ripped off in terms of quantity when you compare with the carnivores' trays...not only do I like cheese and chocolate (and real butter not soy butter yukky whatever margarine stuff) but I also WANT IT...HELLO! Vegetarian, to me anyway, means you just don't eat meat but you do eat dairy and eggs...I feel better during my flights though on my rabbit-food diet...I had lentils and curry with roti as my breakfast while others had boring old omelette...Anyway, back to the quantity issue, *they* got everything i got but meaterised versions PLUS cakes, biscuit and cheese and chocolates...the flight attendant even attempted *not* to give me a croissant...last time i checked there was no mince in crossaints...

Away, away

It's t minus 60 mins until I brave the train on the beginning of my trip...train to Spencer Street (currently known as Southern Cross station - YUK) then Skybus to Tullamarine...online check-in and away...

Will this trip change me? Does travel change you/one/us? How can I measure it? I guess my ideas about spain will change since it'll be the first time i've been there...

And thinking about change...can/does writing change you/one/us? can we change each other with writing or words?

Some words that changed me:

• "placate" - my only good high school teacher Mrs Hollensen used to say to me when I'd try and have my linguistic way with her: "Don't try to placate me with your words"...


• "simon" - this word marked the end of my only child status and opened up a whole new universe of possibilities...good and bad (for both of us...)


• "alison" - a word that i say every day both inside and outside myself...aww, shucks...


• "dad" - very nice to hear and a work in progress to say


• "rosebud" - another cataclysmic shift


• "matthew" - the way special people (mostly women) have said it and do no more since they've disappeared (in Italian you say that people have "disappeared" when they die) - my two nans and my mother-in-law...


• "ava" - this means bird and it also means that you can get it right twice


• "make me young" - Kurt Vonnegut's eternal mantra which stabs me in my gemini heart

Right, next post from foreign lands...gotta buy batteries for my toothbrush (white teeth = youth)