And most remiss in not thanking the delicious Guest Hoyden’s for helping Lauredhel keep the blog ticking over in my absence until after I’d made two posts today.
Thank you, thank you bluemilk, Helen on the Cast Iron Balcony, sajbrfem and Kate for such wonderful posts.
I had a great holiday in soft, deep snow that didn’t stress the joints the way that icy Australian snowfields usually do (’tis the vibrrrration, Cap’n, she’s shaking aparrrrt!). The kids enjoyed themselves, especially the ritual school holiday interlodge snowfight, and mr tog had a quiet lodge to himself with his laptop bein used recreationally only for most of the days (except the serious blizzard when we all stayed in).
On the way back home I sampled various coffees and cake on various occasions with the delectable Ampersand Duck, Zoe Crazybrave (with little Jethro) and Bernice Balconey with her lad (unfortunately missed Cristy Nopod and her Third Pea through an unfortunate series of minor events).
Glad to be back and able to spend more Hoyden time again though.
Filed under: blogging, blogmeet, travel
Just for anyone else who learned to ski at Perisher Ski School in the 70s, the snow this week is so good that Pepe has turned up to ski for the first time in 15 years, and Hermie was out there yesterday as well.
Kristian, who so many of us had a crush on back around ‘75, is still teaching and now a grandfather. The march of time is kinder to some of us than others (I’m certainly not as streamlined as I once was).
I wrote in a recent comment what the attraction of skiiing is for me. It’s the intense physicality, the concentration on minute muscular and joint position changes that spell the difference between controlling the skis and not. It’s a great antidote to over-intellectualisation. The basic principles of skiing are quite simple, it’s whether you can effectively concentrate just on the landscape and your body alignment that determines how well you can master the sport.
Obviously, the stronger and more flexible your body the better you can control it as you hurtle down a mountain. Mine could improve in those departments, definitely. I’m just lucky I learnt good technique at an early age (thank you Pepe, Hermie and Kristian) so that I can keep myself out of trouble without being superfit. I also keep my flexibility training up, even though I don’t do formal yoga or anything. I just don’t go as fast as I used to 25 and 30 years ago.
Still, like nearly all the other fatties on the mountain, I do better than all but the superfit and permanent seasonal residents. It’s fun to see how much that surprises people.
I’ll try and take a nice sunlit shot of the lodge’s icicle connection and post it sometime over the next few days. It’s very impressive.
Filed under: sport, travel
Well, I try and kick arse, but I don’t really think I kick an Angela Davis level of arse. (Updated to Add: see, although Crikey! has just described Hoyden About Town as “dispens[ing] its femmobolsho views loudly, proudly and with plenty of bite”, in contrast The Stranger’s blog Slog last week called us a “charming feminist blog”. The perceived arsekicking capacity remains ambiguous.)
So, I wonder how much arse our Guest Hoydens for the next week or so can kick? (seekrit identities revealed after the cut). And what about our commentors?
Which Western feminist icon are you?
You are Angela Davis! You were the THIRD WOMYN IN HISTORY to appear on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. You are a communinist, black power-lovin’ lady who shook up the United States when you refused to lie down quietly to oppression. You WENT TO JAIL! Wow. You kick so much more ass than Foxxy Brown.
Take this quiz!
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Ignore the links in the code above – they take you to the Quiz site’s main page and it’s hard to find the quiz from there (because the author, belladonnalin, didn’t use any tags to direct searches). Click here for the quiz.
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Filed under: blogging, fun, travel
We are back from five days up in Jurien Bay. What did I miss?
Heading North for the winter is definitely a Good Thing. We went with two friends and their daughters. The kids got along just fine, and had a ball.
I’m in fairly serious spoon deficit, so I might not be doing much in the way of wordy, thoughtful blogging for a few days. But I do have – photos!
The Jurien Bay caravan park advertises a Giant Jumping Pillow, which was, indeed, as we found when we got there, a Giant Jumping Pillow. The small people loved it. In our debrief today, the Lad was unhesitating in his assessment of the Giant Jumping Pillow (or, as he put it, the “GIANT JUMPING PILLOW!!!!!”) as the highlight of his holiday.
More after the cut.
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Filed under: Life, fun, photoblog, travel
February 3, 2007 • 10:45 pm
From the second half of my holiday time in Norway, when we were touring through the fjords and mountains between Oslo and Bergen:
Originally uploaded to Flickr by tigitogs in the Norway set.
This was taken the day after the first big snowfall of winter (there was plenty of snow by Oz standards, but the Norwegians were complaining about not having had a really big dump yet – this fall ended up covering right to the seaside by Oslo according to my Norsk friend in Oslo).
I’ve got to hook up the laptop to my desktop to download then upload the rest of the Norway photos (plus London and Paris), and will get around to it shortly.
Filed under: photoblog, travel
January 16, 2007 • 2:45 am
Arrived 6:25 yesterday (Monday) am from Heathrow after spending a few days in the old haunts around Wales (one afternoon with our neighbours and I had the lilt back again).
Slept midmorning 1:30pm, out for lunch at the beach with kids falling asleep while sucking milkshakes, back home and back to sleep. Woke up for West Wing and Black Books and a bit of pottering around the house, but about to go back to bed now. May possibly feel human again by Wednesday.
Cat v. glad to see us and v. sooky. She left us a belated Giftmas present of mummified half a mouse in the laundry. So thoughtful.
Filed under: pets, travel
January 8, 2007 • 7:36 pm
Today is our last full day in the snowy North, as our plane leaves Oslo early tomorrow morning. We’d hoped to get back to Oslo yesterday, but our road was over high passes through the skifields from the Flåm railway, and it started snowing fairly heavily by 3pm as far as Aussies are concerned, so we decided with the daylight fast fading that the last 180km could wait for today. Staying in a fabulous hotel next to a lake and a mountain (I think it’s illegal to site a hotel not next to a lake and a mountain once outside Oslo).
Filed under: travel
January 1, 2007 • 11:14 pm
Here in Telemark we had fireworks and snow. It’s a bright sunny day bouncing off the fresh fall, and every now and then a clump of snow falls off a branch. It’s quiet, bright and glorious. Happy New Year, all.
Filed under: travel
December 24, 2006 • 6:07 pm
Not actually, but the cupboard of my kitchenette here near the rue Faubourg Saint-Antoine smells of glorious unpasteurised Camembert (the texture of Tasmanian/King Island brie/camembert is excellent, but pasteurisation kills the best part of the taste).
We have been buying our food fresh from the streetside shops just like proper Parisians. We walked home yesterday with piping hot baguettes and meat and veg to tide us over the Xmas break. The sprogs are grateful thus far that we haven’t bought anything grotesque, as the tigling describes bits of food that actually acknowledge their once living origins. Everything here tastes so good – even simple butter and strawberry jam on fresh bread. Last night we had pan-fried l’hampe de boeuf with mushrooms, jacket potatoes and soft lettuce, with the mushrooms just glazed with a little red wine. A very simple meal, cooked in our own room, with top ingredients. Gorgeous.
The presents are wrapped and we have a mini-poinsettia arrangment with pinecones etc for a tree, and we are making paper chains enhanced with glitter glue to brighten up the room. We are missing the rellos, but we will have a lovely day.
Filed under: family, food/drink, travel
December 21, 2006 • 4:52 pm
On Monday we landed at 5:30am local time, checked in to our hotel and went walking. We ended up at the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, which were about 1km away, and then came back to the hotel for a nap before meeting some friends for dinner (we slept through our projected meeting time and the kids fell asleep at the table – what great company the tigtogmob is!).
On Tuesday we took our bus tour and discovered that in winter the tickets last for 48 hours rather than the usual 24, so we’ve been taking full advantage (we’ve still got tomorrow morning left to play with, too). That’s made for footsore evenings and early snoring for us, but it’s still been good (although the kids aren’t quite as fascinated with the history as we are). Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: history, travel
