Six weeks across the US: Three
Landed in SF just after six in the evening and discovered BART is amazingly efficient! Took the train to North Berkeley, where Teremia picked me up and took me home for a home-cooked meal - a vegetarian lasagne with fresh green salad - heavenly, after hotel food.
I had already met Teremia and her husband E,when they came to Melbourne five years ago for a conference at Melbourne University. We spent the day driving out to the Dandenong Ranges and getting lost, and Teremia ended up guiding me home with my street map on her lap and fighting motion sickness - what a trooper!
I enjoyed their company enormously but I admit I never expected to have the pleasure of seeing them again, unless they returned to Melbourne for another academic conference. Instead, I was privileged to stay in their home and meet their family - three terrific girls, aged approximately the same as my two. Their eldest is intelligent and thoughtful and open and engaging. The twins are very different from one another and also engaging and kind to the visiting Aussie. They are a terrific bunch and very impressive kids - extraordinarily well-behaved (though Teremia kept telling me they have their moments. I guess it's all relative, and relative to my kids, hers are incredibly civilised, lol!) There's even a pup - Szushka, a 7 month border collie who helped me feel at home without my Pixel doggie.
I'm not sure I can adequately describe their home. It is nestled in a winding, tree-lined street in the hills of Berkeley with a breath-taking view over the San Francisco Harbour. It has high ceilings and lots of warm timber, an open staircase and open plan living room that gives out onto a spacious sundeck over an idyllic garden. Light floods the house through floor to ceiling windows and sky-lights. And it feels so comfortable; homely and easy, with lots of books and musical instruments and little touches that speak of a living, used space. It's just beautiful. And I got to stay in the guest suite, with my very own sauna! LOL!
First morning I managed to drag my body out of bed at 7 am even though jetlag had kept me wakeful so I could accompany Teremia to Berkely Marina. It's Szuschka's regular walking locale, where she meets with the rest of her doggy pals and races over the grassy hillocks. It was a terrific introduction to the beauty around SF. The Marina is a wide expanse of green, not manicured but left comfortably wild, with panoramic views of the bay and the hills. I felt I could breathe out there. Just beautiful.
Got home just in time for Narya's arrival. We drove down to Fisherman's Wharf and set off on bicycles (I borrowed her daughter's) along the bay cycling route, over the Golden Gate Bridge, along the Marin coast to Sausalito, where we wandered through the galleries and ate a very late lunch. We barely made the ferry (were much taken up with the photographic exhibition of Rodney Lough). Back in SF, we bought some gourmet tidbits in the food hall at Pier 19 and drove back (in peak hour traffic) to Berkeley. Was a lovely day - perfect weather, peerless company.
Not sure I was entirely with it all day, though; my eyes keep closing of their own accord.
The next day I had plans to head into SF on my own first thing in the morning to explore and play and visit some galleries but jetlag caught up and I slept through my alarm. Teremia came down to knock on the door just after 11 am, otherwise I would have seen nothing of the day. I dressed while listening to her practice piano upstairs. :) What a wonderful way to start the day!
I ate a very late breakfast - Teremia had brought muffins - after which she gave me a ride to BART so I could get downtown. Time was short but I managed to see most of the exhibits at the Museum - even an audiovisual presentation on Celia Cruz, the mother of the salsa (apparently!) It inspired me to seek out some of her music - I love cuban salsa!
Took BART toward Richmond afterwards, to meet Frelga for dinner. There was some trepidation about meeting her - yes, meeting Laurie had also been preceded with a little anxiety, which evaporated on first seeing her smiling face with those fabulous cheekbones! One would have thought that the experience would have eased my nervousness about the next meeting but it did not.
I guess I am fundamentally shy and insecure (lol! Like that's a surprise to anyone who has read my entries here!) Frelga is urbane and intelligent and assured and sparkling and witty and exotic and...I wasn't sure she'd like me. What if I couldn't think of anything to say? What if she thought me a terrible bore? Ai!
Frelga saw me standing across the car park, smiled and waved and my nerves eased up; I saw the warmth in her face, the kindness and the inclination - the urge - to like and accept whatever I turned out to be.
We enjoyed a very good vietnamese meal in Vanessas's on Solano.(I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant, so Frelga had to remind me. I didn't note it down and my poor brain was over-taxed by a surfeit of the new.) I I do recall that their pear tart was delectable. The restaurant was a little noisy and both of us have accents so hearing each other clearly was challenging at times. By the end of the evening, though, our aural senses had adjusted to each other and the conversation flowed. We talked about our families and our backgrounds and our worries and our mutual friends and our writing. It was a very satisfying evening! Went home and attempted to sleep, but again, jetlag stymied my efforts. At least I had a good book!
Jetlag is odd; I was completely exhausted - eyes felt like they'd been sand-blasted, my body was tired, my brain running on back-up power - but sleep evaded me. The clock seems to have no meaning; I'm up until 3 am, finally fall asleep, drag my body out of bed at 7 am and have narcoleptic episodes throughout the day. It's playing havoc with my appetite, too; I just don't get hungry - only when I see the time do I realise that I should eat.
All the walking and flighty appetite may mean that my jeans will lose their muffin-top. :D
.
I had already met Teremia and her husband E,when they came to Melbourne five years ago for a conference at Melbourne University. We spent the day driving out to the Dandenong Ranges and getting lost, and Teremia ended up guiding me home with my street map on her lap and fighting motion sickness - what a trooper!
I enjoyed their company enormously but I admit I never expected to have the pleasure of seeing them again, unless they returned to Melbourne for another academic conference. Instead, I was privileged to stay in their home and meet their family - three terrific girls, aged approximately the same as my two. Their eldest is intelligent and thoughtful and open and engaging. The twins are very different from one another and also engaging and kind to the visiting Aussie. They are a terrific bunch and very impressive kids - extraordinarily well-behaved (though Teremia kept telling me they have their moments. I guess it's all relative, and relative to my kids, hers are incredibly civilised, lol!) There's even a pup - Szushka, a 7 month border collie who helped me feel at home without my Pixel doggie.
I'm not sure I can adequately describe their home. It is nestled in a winding, tree-lined street in the hills of Berkeley with a breath-taking view over the San Francisco Harbour. It has high ceilings and lots of warm timber, an open staircase and open plan living room that gives out onto a spacious sundeck over an idyllic garden. Light floods the house through floor to ceiling windows and sky-lights. And it feels so comfortable; homely and easy, with lots of books and musical instruments and little touches that speak of a living, used space. It's just beautiful. And I got to stay in the guest suite, with my very own sauna! LOL!
First morning I managed to drag my body out of bed at 7 am even though jetlag had kept me wakeful so I could accompany Teremia to Berkely Marina. It's Szuschka's regular walking locale, where she meets with the rest of her doggy pals and races over the grassy hillocks. It was a terrific introduction to the beauty around SF. The Marina is a wide expanse of green, not manicured but left comfortably wild, with panoramic views of the bay and the hills. I felt I could breathe out there. Just beautiful.
Got home just in time for Narya's arrival. We drove down to Fisherman's Wharf and set off on bicycles (I borrowed her daughter's) along the bay cycling route, over the Golden Gate Bridge, along the Marin coast to Sausalito, where we wandered through the galleries and ate a very late lunch. We barely made the ferry (were much taken up with the photographic exhibition of Rodney Lough). Back in SF, we bought some gourmet tidbits in the food hall at Pier 19 and drove back (in peak hour traffic) to Berkeley. Was a lovely day - perfect weather, peerless company.
Not sure I was entirely with it all day, though; my eyes keep closing of their own accord.
The next day I had plans to head into SF on my own first thing in the morning to explore and play and visit some galleries but jetlag caught up and I slept through my alarm. Teremia came down to knock on the door just after 11 am, otherwise I would have seen nothing of the day. I dressed while listening to her practice piano upstairs. :) What a wonderful way to start the day!
I ate a very late breakfast - Teremia had brought muffins - after which she gave me a ride to BART so I could get downtown. Time was short but I managed to see most of the exhibits at the Museum - even an audiovisual presentation on Celia Cruz, the mother of the salsa (apparently!) It inspired me to seek out some of her music - I love cuban salsa!
Took BART toward Richmond afterwards, to meet Frelga for dinner. There was some trepidation about meeting her - yes, meeting Laurie had also been preceded with a little anxiety, which evaporated on first seeing her smiling face with those fabulous cheekbones! One would have thought that the experience would have eased my nervousness about the next meeting but it did not.
I guess I am fundamentally shy and insecure (lol! Like that's a surprise to anyone who has read my entries here!) Frelga is urbane and intelligent and assured and sparkling and witty and exotic and...I wasn't sure she'd like me. What if I couldn't think of anything to say? What if she thought me a terrible bore? Ai!
Frelga saw me standing across the car park, smiled and waved and my nerves eased up; I saw the warmth in her face, the kindness and the inclination - the urge - to like and accept whatever I turned out to be.
We enjoyed a very good vietnamese meal in Vanessas's on Solano.(I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant, so Frelga had to remind me. I didn't note it down and my poor brain was over-taxed by a surfeit of the new.) I I do recall that their pear tart was delectable. The restaurant was a little noisy and both of us have accents so hearing each other clearly was challenging at times. By the end of the evening, though, our aural senses had adjusted to each other and the conversation flowed. We talked about our families and our backgrounds and our worries and our mutual friends and our writing. It was a very satisfying evening! Went home and attempted to sleep, but again, jetlag stymied my efforts. At least I had a good book!
Jetlag is odd; I was completely exhausted - eyes felt like they'd been sand-blasted, my body was tired, my brain running on back-up power - but sleep evaded me. The clock seems to have no meaning; I'm up until 3 am, finally fall asleep, drag my body out of bed at 7 am and have narcoleptic episodes throughout the day. It's playing havoc with my appetite, too; I just don't get hungry - only when I see the time do I realise that I should eat.
All the walking and flighty appetite may mean that my jeans will lose their muffin-top. :D
.