Life's Cruel Blessings!

Life is governed by cycles. The cycles of the moon around the earth, the cycles of seasons, the cycles of man-made schedules that govern our days. There are beginnings and inevitably there are endings.

I have never been good at the endings part. The cycle of yet another academic school year has ended and some of the people I have had the incredible joy of meeting and becoming friends with are now moving on. It hurts! I have never been okay with idea of not seeing someone again, especially someone that I have become close with. I get it that feeling the sadness and the emptiness of that person’s departure indicates that the relationship was real and sincere, but it doesn’t make it easier.

An ending means that a new beginning is about to happen though. The cycle of life continues. The sadness will become bearable, and eventually fade, and the excitement of the adventure will arise, phoenix-like, from the ashes.

I once heard a saying;

“People come into our lives in three different ways,
Some, for a reason,
Some for a season,
And some for a lifetime!

To the wonderful people who have come into my life for a reason, or for this season, I salute you and thank you. Know that your departure is not taken lightly. Those that have come into it for a lifetime, I’ll see you soon!

61º N 150º W and then some…

I have been back from Alaska for almost ten days now and I haven’t been able come up with some smart angle to describe my trip into the Arctic Circle. But then that is perhaps the exact effect that Alaska has on you. Not the proverbial ‘speechless’ description, but simply that Alaska is not fancy, it doesn’t try to be clever, and it doesn’t have illusions of grandeur. Alaska simply is. It is real, it doesn’t make excuses, it is raw and it is unforgiving. At the same time its pure beauty reaches in and touches you in a way that you can never forget.

I spent a week in various places, and in that time I came across very few people who were born and bred Alaskans. Every one of these Alaskan immigrants that I spoke to made an almost identical comment. The comment was one that I too uttered on more than one occasion in that week. The comment being, “Alaska is a place I always wanted to see!” They had all heeded the call and found some way to make a stay of varying lengths in America’s 49th state. Many of the guide books and biographies set in Alaska make a similar statement intimating that a little piece of Alaska stays with you when you leave. That little piece that stays with you, in my opinion, is a simple unadorned realism that transcends the superfluous nature of living in modern times.

But before I get ahead of myself and come across as a Zen touting tree hugger, let me explain my reason for heading north into the Arctic over Spring break, while all my colleagues headed south to the equator. As a young kid I saw an advert for J&B whiskey on television featuring the Aurora Borealis and a Polar Bear. I don’t recall the connection between the scenery and the whiskey, but I do know that those swirling, dancing lights left an impression on me. Witnessing the Northern Lights became one of the things that I had to do in my lifetime. And let me tell you it is so worth the time and money spent to get to Alaska. Nobody can actually describe what it is like actually witnessing the Aurora Borealis first hand, and I am not even going to try, save to say that for about two hours around midnight of March 17, 2008, I was oblivious to the -30 degree temperatures and was completely in awe of one of natures most incredible phenomenon. I have included some photos below that give you an idea of what I witnessed, but again they don’t even come close.

After that the rest of my trip was spent dog sledding, snowmobiling, flight-seeing and just simply ‘being’ in the raw beauty of Alaska. I toured around Fairbanks, popped in to see Father Christmas in North Pole (yes, it is an actual place, and no, he wasn’t home), strolled around downtown Anchorage and just for fun went snowmobiling again.

In Transit.

I am busy sorting through my digital mountain of photos from Alaska. As soon as I have cropped, lightened, darkened and generally edited to my liking I will post a report on my completely phantasmagorical trip. In the meantime I want to share some of the observations I made while in transit between the East and West coasts of this country.

1. Why is there Braille lettering on the overhead reading light button? Did they think this through completely?
2. Why is there a disposal specifically designed and marked for hypodermic needles in the lavatory of the airplane. I don’t even want to know who is using so many needles that they deemed it necessary to have a specific disposal.
3. The little Asian woman in the seat across the aisle from me is tapping her foot in time to my music. The interesting thing about this is that the music is in my head!! Freaky!
4. In the 60 minutes I have been sitting in the waiting area of the Minneapolis airport, there have been at least 8 public announcements for people to retrieve lost items from security. I can understand misplacing your keys. I can understand leaving a book somewhere. I can even see how you might forget your coat. But I am having trouble understanding how you can misplace your fishing rod.
5. Some completely useless facts from the pilot. The airplane weighs about 115 000 kg. 15 000 kg is accounted for by passengers. The flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage used 24 000 liters of fuel.
6. The 10 year old kid in the seat next to me convinced me that the chewing gum he offered me just before landing had edible paper around it. It didn’t. His response; “If the worst thing that happens to us today is that we eat a bit of paper, I think we’re in good shape!”

In honour of peanut butter.

I like peanut butter. Many people my age, and many younger and older than I, graduated from school with the help of the energy and the nutritious ingredients on a good old fashioned peanut butter sandwich. Not only were they a good breaktime snack, but peanut butter sandwiches were also a good form of hard currency. I occasionally traded them for cheese sandwiches with the boy at the desk next to me and I swapped out with the boy at the desk behind me for his strawberry jam sandwiches. Peanut butter sandwiches are also the food fight weapon of choice. Nothing sticks quite like peanut butter when hurled at the right velocity! Peanut butter sandwiches are also the ultimate fast food. What is quicker to prepare than a layer of creamy (or crunchy) peanut butter on a slice of bread. Peanut butter can also be accessorised. It is easy to add a smattering of jam (or jelly if you're American), syrup or even honey. Peanut butter is ageless, which doesn't mean it keeps forever, but rather that I still enjoy a peanut butter sandwich 16 years after completing high school.

However, yesterday, my world was thrown into temporary turmoil. While choosing my next jar of peanut butter, I came across two new somewhat disturbing options. Cashew butter and almond butter! When did peanuts' snooty cousins, cashew and almond become a spread? Why would you even want to mess with the legacy that is peanut butter? Now while I will try anything at least once, and I am aware of the health benefits of both cashews and almonds, I am proud to say that I placed a jar of organic peanut butter into my shopping trolley and brought it home with me.

Long live peanut butter!

Environmentally Friendly!

I have been meaning to post this picture for a while now. Don't you love how in their efforts to keep the gardens and greenways of our neighbourhood neat, tidy, and presentable, the local government has provided these posts with a supply of plastic, non-biodegradable bags for you to put your dogs biodegradable doodoo in when you take them out for a walk! And should you be caught allowing your dog to head the call of nature and not pick the biodegradable deposit up, not put it into one of the non-biodegradable bags and not throw the non-biodegradable bag into the convenient receptacle, in order that it be taken to a landfill somewhere with kilotons of other non-biodegradable waste, they will fine you up to $200. Does anyone else see the irony in this?

Rocket Scientists?

On my little sojourn into Houston, Texas we stopped by and visited the Johnson Space Centre. This is where all NASA's expeditions out of our atmosphere are controlled from. From the early days of the Apollo missions to the current Space Shuttle Atlantis expedition to the International Space Station. It is all watched over from there.

Part of the tour took us to the training facility where they have mock ups of the shuttle and the space station for the astronauts, engineers and scientists to muck about with. The funniest thing though was the warning sticker placed on a table in the training facility. I apologise for the poor picture quality but the table was reasonably far away.

I think the sticker speaks or itself. Apparently the more obvious dangers in life are not always that obvious if you are a rocket scientist.

Priorities?

So I went out this morning to shop for a few items of clothing. The items in question were a suit, which I had heard was on sale, a new pair of running shorts and some seriously thick socks for my coming trip to Alaska. What did I come home with? A case of beer and some toilet paper! Men! Go figure!

I would like to present the following explanation though, before you throw your head back in dismay, or disbelief, or complete amusement, whichever comes first. On my trip to Houston, Texas this weekend, fortune served me a Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale at dinner. It is an auburn coloured seasonal ale that has been brewed with dark roasted caramel malts and then aged on bourbon oak casks and whole Madagascar vanilla beans. Needles to say you have to taste it to appreciate it. It is quite possible one of the finest beers I have tasted on my travels. Hence my reason for buying some when I happened to see it in the local wine and beer store. Ok, so I went looking for it.

PS. The toilet paper purchase has no reflection on the ale. We simply needed toilet paper in our apartment!