The Halifax Lobsters

The Halifax Lobsters

It seems a requirement that tourist locations have a renown synonymous sculpture. New York has the Statue of Liberty; Copenhagen has the Little Mermaid; Rio has Christ the Redeemer.

And Halifax has the Lobsters. The lobsters, situated all over town, decorated with various themes, seemed to have one purpose only, amusement, and they met their purpose well.



So for fun one day, I ran out with my camera and took pictures of me, with the lobsters. (see below)

It was a fun attraction, much like an Easter egg hunt, but for six foot tall lobsters, in the city with all sorts of interesting themes.

I had a good time.

Halifax otherwise, is completely morbid. Its biggest claim to fame is its cemeteries, as the resting places of two remarkable disasters.

Three cemeteries are the final resting places for the recovered unclaimed dead from the Titanic, 150 in all. There are several exhibits in town dedicated to this tragedy complete with recovered artifacts.

The other morbid Halifax legacy is the Mont Blanc ship explosion of 1917. Mont Blanc, a munitions ship caught fire after a collision with another ship. It continued to drift into the harbor after the collision, bringing it to the center of town blazing. The local population was drawn to the shores by the spectacle of the burning ship. The ship, laden with 400,000lbs of TNT amongst other explosives, having burned for several minutes, exploded, killing 1,900 people instantly. The explosion potentially the largest man-made explosion prior to the nuclear era shattered glass fifty miles away. The ship's anchor, 1,140lbs., was found 2.3 miles away after the explosion.

But if you like life sized lobster sculptures, I recommend Halifax.

Bag Pipe Lobster


Ocean Lobster


Bob Marley Lobster

For What I Am Vastly Thankful...

I try to keep my personal life out of this blog. It is really meant to be an impersonal funny column like that you find in life section of the paper.

Thanksgiving, though, yields personal reflection.

As I drove to over to my parents house, where I now sit in the California sun, enjoying the 70 degree weather and the sounds of the waterfall, I thought about Thanksgiving.

I knew at the coming dinner I would be asked what I am thankful for.

And the answer is so immense it is hard to begin.

2004 began with the aftermath of having been beaten up by my boss and best friend. I was subsequently (and illegally) fired. Thereafter loosing my house became a real possibility. This was followed by a car accident and several months in the hospital where no one was really sure what would become of me.

Last Thanksgiving, recently out of the hospital, having just had several staples removed from my leg, with no job, I felt generally beaten. I still had my house, through the generosity of my father, which I was grateful for last year as I am this year.

But I was a soul in purgatory. I had lost my career and most of my friends. I had lost direction and interest in finding it.

In the early part of this year, I cycled through a few jobs which barely paid the bills and one which made me miserable.

This changed with a phone call in April, asking me to interview for a cruise line position. I was offered (or given like a gift from god) the job, with eight days notice before flying to Rome.

It was a new start, with new people, with new experiences, new opportunities and new hopes.

It changed me for ever. Pulled from lost despair and thrust into the unknown. As with any new endeavor, I spent the night in Rome terrified that I had made the wrong choice. In eight days I packed up my life with just a hope.

I made a catastrophic mistake in the first few weeks aboard. I was griped by the fear I would be sent home, leaving great hopes in Europe and returning home fired and lost again.

Here I sit in the warm California fall sun. I have an amazing home. I have an amazing job which has transformed my soul. I have learned who my true friends are and I have there friendship. I have a family, all happy and in good health.

Ridiculously, I still miss some of the things I lost, my old job which I loved, the friends I had there, and their respect.

But missing things lost is normal. As awful as things have been, I would not change a thing. They brought me to where I am today, and I am vastly thankful for everything my life is today.

I hope the same for you.

Thanksgiving Greetings

I generally associate Thanksgiving with warm weather, and this year will be no exception. It was 85F yesterday.

Eighty-five and beautiful. This picture was taken yesterday from my local beach, Hendry’s.



I hope you enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving.

Stay tuned for information about pirates… in a future entry.

Time To Buy A Lottery Ticket

Every now and then something happens in my life which makes me think I have hit such a stroke of luck, it is time to buy a lottery ticket since everything is going my way.

If you did not already think I had the best job in the world, working on a cruise ship, now you will.

I got an ominous email from my boss yesterday saying we had to talk. (not stupid, intimidating)

Today he informed me that due to a rescheduling necessity, my paid vacation has been extended by one month. (cool, amazing, awesome)

Unreal.

(I was actually looking forward to going back, because the ship is in the Caribbean, oh well.)

Being on vacation is sooooo hard.

(I hope you all still love me, despite my miraculous fortune.)

Tallinn, Estonia and My Mom's Been Watching Sex in the City

As I said before, I am going to try to include a picture in every post. This post's picture is my amazing ship, right, in Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn had one of the most beautiful docks, just a ship or two on a long, clean, new, cement dock with blue Baltic sea and sky beyond. In the other direction is a view of the steeples and castle walls of the medieval city. (I didn't take a picture of the other direction unfortunately.)



I wrote a long entry about Tallinn in July. Tallinn was definitely an enchanting surprise in the Baltic. (Cool)

(End of Tallinn conversation, beginning of Mom conversation)

So I have decided my mother has been watching too much Sex in the City.

This was our conversation on instant messenger this morning:

me: I have nothing to say
me: how was your weekend?
mom: here too! what boring people!
me: well I had an exciting weekend... but you are my mom
mom: oh was he nice/good/fun/whatever??
mom: I didn't say that, something evil and non-maternal took over my body
me: lol
mom: okay, enough of the weird stuff, what is his name
mom: ...if you know
me: JESUS MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At that point someone showed up at her desk and I think I was thankfully spared further conversation with my mom on this particular subject. (Neither stupid, nor cool, just scary.)

:)

Greenland

Every Thursday should start with Greenland.

This Thursday certainly is starting with Greenland. Not that Thursday has a g in it or anything. In fact, no day of the week has a g in it.

But I won't let that stop me from starting this Thursday with Greenland.

So at this point, you are probably bored of the funny little banter and wondering when I am actually going to get to anything regarding Greenland instead of just talking about Greenland and its non-affiliation with any day of the week except Thursday, cause namely, I said so.

So, Greenland.

I was at dinner the other night, not in Greenland, but the reference is coming, and someone asked me where was the strangest place I had visited in my summer aboard the ship. I hmmm and haaaaed and basically came up with nothing.

(Greenland reference still coming.)

Later that night, I was talking about Greenland (see, a Greenland reference). And the person who had asked me, Dani, about the strangest place I had been to said it sounded like Greenland was the strangest place I had been to.

So, Greenland.

I visited Greenland for crisp, i.e. cold, clear, beautiful, Sunday afternoon, in September, for four hours. (Note as promised, no g in Sunday.)

We visited the capital, Nuuk, which proudly sells sweatshirts embossed with "NUUK, The Capital." I thought that was hysterical! Nuuk at, 14,500 is hardly a thriving metropolis. (Though with the ship there, the population swelled to over 15,500.) I suspect the thriving metropolis is limited a lot by the icebergs in the harbor which we managed to navigate around, unlike earlier in the morning, which is a different story all together, also involving Greenland, so it too will be told on a Thursday.

See icebergs in harbor:



Harbor is a bit of a misnomer. It is a natural harbor, with a ten foot by thirty foot wood plank extension into the water. The ship didn't pull into this remarkable feat of Saturday afternoon engineering (note Saturdays lack of g also). We had to board little tender boats to get to the "harbor" which was really more like a lake dock.

Greenland is such a stir of cultures it is amazing. The homes on the harbor are bright, brilliant burgundy reds, bright yellows, bright whites, bright blues and bright forest greens. They are adored with ornate white, green and yellow shutters. Some have perfect picket fences. All have somewhat steep roofs, many with dormer windows. A few also had tree house like structures in their backyards with hanging skins drying, mostly reindeer. (I regret not having pictures of the drying racks.)




Click for larger image.

Greenland is part of and loosely governed by Denmark. (Personally I think the English, French, Spanish and Portuguese managed to get the better new world real estate.)

The governorship means Greenland speaks Danish and uses the Danish Kroner (currency).

This is a very strange juxtaposition to the people who are Inuit, some in traditional Inuit garb. You just don't think of an Eskimo, speaking Danish and living in a Danish style house with pretty little shutters and a white picket fence.

I suppose this is not much different from an Inuit speaking English driving a Ford in Alaska.

This breeds a long conversation on expectations of appearance, culture and language. Namely, the expectation a person of a certain features will be of a certain culture and language. I will talk about this in a different entry.

In Greenland, the tourist trinkets were whale-bone whittles and reindeer-skin hats, gloves, etc.




I have no idea what the deal was with these whittles, but they were so unusual I had to take pictures.

Greenland also has huge numbers of whales. I never got a chance glimpse but many people did.

The dark underside of Greenland was the slums, packed cement apartment complexes, clearly over crowded, with suspicious rabid-looking dogs wandering outside, and men sitting beside the road so inebriated I found it shocking they had not passed out.

Despite having wandered into the bad neighborhood of Greenland (I guess there is a bad neighborhood everywhere), it was very interesting, the combination of Danish and Inuit traditions and cultures. (I doubt many Danish people dry reindeer skins within their picket fences.)

I would not recommend Greenland as a destination resort. I had four hours there and had trouble filling the time. It was fascinating and a place I feel very fortunate to have visited, but I would not go out of my way to return, and its Greenland, so it is always out of the way. (But there is always Air Greenland, yes, really, it exists. I am sure they have at least one plane.)

And that is Greenland, this Thursday, which still does not have a g in it, and probably won't anytime soon.

Ship Life vs. Real Life

On the ship, in theory, you work ten hours a day seven days a week. It sounds like a lot.

I am finding it is not.

Do you have any idea how much laundry you produce a week, sheets and towels and seven sets of clothes! (more than seven sets if you have a drinking problem… you know the type, the type where you occasionally miss your mouth.)

Then there are the other things, like going to the supermarket and cooking and cleaning.

Figure in that the rest of the world commutes more than the three minutes it takes from cabin, up one deck, to office.

I don’t think I actually work that much more than most people. I think it is just more in the office than the supermarket, the laundry room, and the car.

In case you don’t know, I have a steward. This person changes my sheets and towels, cleans my room, takes my laundry and returns it the next day. (cool) This saves me a lot of time.

Then there is the o’mess, or Officer’s Mess. It always has food, and none of which I had to go to the market for or prepare. (cool)

These perks make life much easier. So all things accounted for, I don’t really think I work that much more than most people.

I mention all this because I am amazed at how much laundry a girl can produce!

Anyway, my last entry was on spiders… so here is the spider renting my front yard.



As long as they are not on me, spiders are cool.

Vacationing, At Home

Given that I work on a cruise ship, I spend eight months a year traveling. Nonetheless, when I chose to spend my vacation at home, my co-workers baulked. “Why aren’t you traveling?” they asked.

This seemed a ridiculous question to me. I travel most of the year. But the industry attracts people with something in common, the love to travel. Many of them don’t stop for vacation.

The consistently incredulous response to my vacation plans made me quite feel awkward and a bit embarrassed every time someone asked what I was doing on vacation.

Yesterday, November first, on vacation, I woke up, grabbed my Nano Ipod, a bottle of water and walked the three blocks from my house to the Coronado Butterfly Preserve, where the Mexican Monarchs winter. The butterflies, bright orange, and nearly the size of my hands (which are admittedly small), fluttered around like confetti in a breeze. Their wings are a brilliant contrast to the gray-green eucalyptus leaves.

From there I walked the short distance to the beach, where I walked on an entirely empty beach, my footprints the only human disturbance on the sandy canvass waterline. The sun was high and bright. The islands some thirty miles off the coast looked like a mirage.

In my several mile walk, I stop occasionally to admire the glass-flat Pacific. The 85 degree heat was offset by an ocean breeze cooling my skin and my water was satiating.

Toward the end of my walk, I stood at the top of the ocean cliffs and realized something my coworkers didn’t. I don’t need to travel on vacation. I live in one of the best travel destinations in the world. (Cool)

I could not imagine anything I would prefer to do on vacation than spend a hot day at a beautiful beach I had all to myself.

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I have lots of left over pictures from my trip that I have not posted yet. So I decided I would try to post one with every post. This is me with a troll in Norway. There are lots of Viking trolls in Norway. I loved them, the ugly, full-sized child-like, figurines with viking hats and huge happy smiles.