Travel: London and Jersey, UK

At the very end of March, I took a trip with my dad, my uncle, and his wife. Here is the photographic evidence.



I didn't take that many photos in London! I'm not sure why - I was SUPER tired and my family was taking lots, so I figured I would let them snap away and they could send them along to me. Most of the London photos were waaay too boring for me, so I just edited a few to share.

Huge pooch (Olde Tyme English Bulldog - never seen one before!)



I got sick my first night there. It was probably a combination of eating airplane food (vegan, but not raw - I relented on this trip so as to compromise with what my family was doing), a huge raw meal including eggplant, which I am not used to eating, and then I was so thirsty I drank tap water...I was up for hours, exhausted from jet lag, and every time I went back to bed I had to get back up to go to the bathroom. I was sharing a room with my dad, I felt so bad for keeping him awake. I ended up staying in the bathroom and lying on the floor on a towel so I wouldn't keep running back and forth. It seemed like lying down just made me need to go again so I cut out the middle man and I actually fell asleep on the floor at one point, reading my book.
And damn, that bathroom was small. Eventually, I was okay.



One really cool thing that I wish I had photos of is me reuniting with my ex-boyfriend, David! I hadn't seen him in 11 years (in Seattle at Convergence 6 - a yearly net-goth gathering) but we were together in 97/98. It had been a looong time, but hanging out was cool! He met me the first day, we walked through Hyde Park (beautiful!), played with MANY dogs, and walked and walked...all the way to Buckingham palace. I don't know why I didn't bring my camera! Silly me.


My family and I walked around, a LOT. The street performers were ace.

My purse matched this guy perfectly!



THIS guy was hilarious. It was Mother's Day in England, so he was saying, "It's Mother's Day today! My mother was a bitch!"



We went to the Tate Modern, the Churchill War Rooms (I thought I would be hella bored, but it was really awesome!), but nothing else really touristy, other than seeing a few sites. We met up with my cousin Joanna who I haven't seen since 1987 (she was 1 at the time!).


Jersey

Despite all my plans, I did not get my photo on the beach with my hair in a poof. I forgot bobby-pins, so my Jersey Shore spoof was a bust. Oh well.

Me and Adriana (my uncle's wife) arriving in Jersey:



Adriana at a lookout point:





Moi:



My family (Uncle, Dad, and Adriana):



The whole point of our trip was to scatter my Nana's ashes off the coast of Jersey, since that is where she is from. Me and my dad traveled together from Vancouver, and my Uncle and Adriana came up from Rio de Janeiro, where they live. The ashes of my Gramps were also scattered there, as he served in the Navy. There was also a bench there with a plaque in his memory, so we went to that spot and changed the plaque to have both of their names.



We stayed at an awesome bed and breakfast overlooking the harbour.




The tide would go in and out twice a day, but really FAR out, so the harbour would be completely devoid of water and all the boats would be in the mud.





There was a lovely dog named Charlie, and a cat named Bagpuss. Charlie was 13 years old.





We hired a boat to take us out past Elizabeth Castle to scatter Nana's ashes. My dad lived at this castle as a kid. My grandparents operated a cafe there when he was really small.







Obviously I didn't take photos of the ashes, but it was emotional and beautiful. It was a perfect day - really warm, bright, full sunshine, barely even a breeze. I felt very lucky to have been present for this. I hadn't been to Jersey since I was 10 years old, and it's not somewhere a lot of people go. It's a really gorgeous place, I recommend it highly if you're in the UK.

This is where we released the ashes:



There is something about boats and harbours that just screams to be photographed. Here's a couple of my favourites:





Lookout photos:



Isn't she so pretty?? She's super fun, too.



Me and my wonderful dad:



Me!:



Another lookout spot (we went to LOTS - there are many gorgeous views around the island):



My Uncle Jeff:





One of my FAVOURITE places in Jersey is Durrell Wildlife. I remember it fondly from childhood, especially having my hand licked by a lemur. Technically it is a zoo, but it is vast, open, and intrinsically a conservation and breeding place for endangered species. I have a major issue with zoos, but this one was not depressing in the slightest. There is a similar place in Greater Vancouver, called Mountainview Farms, though not nearly as famous.

Gerard Durrell is well known as a naturalist, but I think the main reason the place is world-famous is because of an incident many years ago with a gorilla named Jambo.

Check this out:





Jambo is no more, but there is a bronze statue in his honour.

The silverback gorilla at Durrell is now Ya Kwanza, and he is magnificent.



I LOVE this one:





Greens and fruit...and muscle.



This guy was really funny. A gibbon named George:





The orangutans were also amazing! They were given paper bags of their food, which they used as little tents - apparently they do this with leaves in the wild.





Beetroot lips!



They sure loved these bags:



I was also very lucky to see an Aye-aye being fed - a very rare treat as they are critically endangered and also nocturnal. Not many people would ever get to see this unless in a place like Durrell. I tried to take a photo but it was so dark it was just a huge blur.

Other than the zoo, my favourite spot was the west coast, where surprisingly to me, people surf!! I wish I'd known this - I don't even know why I didn't consider it, since it's an island. I saw a book in a shop all about it and then, with excitement, went about finding out where to go to watch some surfing.

Looks cold! But no worse than Canadian surf I'm sure. There is a surfer in this shot, in the center, but you can't really tell unless see the largest size.



Here's a few more shots around the island:



That little drake needs a ticket!



I guess this will have to do as my "Jersey Shore" photo. Picture me with huge hair, cleavage, and a tan, ok?:



Isn't this amazing??? It's all driftwood!



Me and some Jersey cow pals:



So that was that! Off to the airport!





At the airport in Birmingham:



And off to Paris!!




Looking at all of these is making me itch to travel again soon, and take more photos. Enjoy!

UP NEXT: Paris.

Keep it Fresh

Salutations,

I'll be overhauling this here blog, soon, as I want to focus on more specific things, and also, my previous decision involving 1 interest per year is not cutting it. I need more range and flow. After 2 months, I was already sick of reading books about writing, and it really had no effect on how much writing I got done.

Looking at my chart, which I HAVE kept up on, I barely write...at all. I do write daily in a journal, and have been working on some things here and there, but I was setting myself up to "fail." I was very focused on writing a book I've had in my head for a decade, yet other ideas kept creeping in for a series I want to write, and I have been developing the characters. I may have to bag the old idea - it's hard to let go (not that I can't do it later, if I feel inspired to).

My main interests have not changed, but I want to incorporate as many of them into my life all the time.

So eventually, and what I'll be working on, is a merging of personal/well-being/creativity for the focus of this blog.

I'm working out the details, but I'll be working on it :)

Lorra

The Biology of New Beginnings

(Pin found here)


I just quit my job a few days ago. It has been the longest job I've had, and it's the longest I've gone without a massive break. I can feel the break happening anyway, in my mind. It craves space.

If a human body represented my life, this job would be the flesh. Now the flesh is slowly sliding off. The structure underneath, the bones, is now my one-day-a-week raw restaurant job, the semblance of a "normal" lifestyle.

What's left? The HEART, the BLOOD. Now with no flesh to focus on, these pulsations can flow right to the brain, and feed myriad dreams, goals, and creative obsessions.

My summer is all free to me, to bathe in sunlight, oceans, and forests. I feel this year will be a pinnacle of discovery - of many beauties, and of myself.

Expect many more posts now, since I am finally feeling free again. The outpouring and spilling open will commence.

From an Eternal Girl to Others

(Me in Whistler, 1993, at 15)

Dear Girl,

I know you think we adults don't understand. And you're correct. However, there is a secret amongst us that you should know - not all of us DID grow up. Some of us still linger back in youthful times, realizing as we get older physically (and perhaps more wise) that there is no rule about "growing up."
There's a secret society of crazy, fun, ballistic adults out there who get you, but also have a lot of collective wisdom from living through all the shit you're currently dealing with. Don't lump us all together - find us, like gems in thrift stores. We exist.

There are things we can lead you to, truths you can conjure from us; the world is really just 2 things - wild, spastic nature, and the conjoined brains of billions of people. There are tribes you can find, societies you can form, caves you can crawl into, dreams you can inhabit. Infinite variety and unending awe.

When you get older it is inevitable that you will crave your youth again, so don't waste it. It sounds so cliche but I mean it in a different way. Teach yourself things, and ONLY the things that interest you - direct all your passion and time to the things that make your eyes widen and your breath catch. Leave school and enter life. Free yourself from everything holding you back. Anxiety is just an illusion - the "what ifs" are a waste of imagination. Just do. Go. See. Feel.

The fact that you are a teenage girl is an astounding privilege. Your passion and intensity could propel comets. This energy is often wasted on mundane things - the world wants to distract you with it's trivialities so your power is ignored. So it fades with time. Until you are a "grown up." Until you are a cog, a part of society, a proper adult. And either you accept it, or you wonder what happened to that excited, angsty part of yourself that got such wonderment over new things. Don't lose it. Stay gritty and be selfish. You have my permission. Just be kind.

Here's a secret that I discovered as I got older. There is a reason no one understands you when you're young (and it's the same reason people don't ever understand you, at any age) - absolutely NO one in the entire universe, or that has ever existed, has seen the world as you see it. No one has had your exact experience. You can be sitting beside someone, watching the same glorious spectacle, hearing the same bombastic music, and both will experience it differently. Pleasing everyone is impossible, world peace is impossible, and not following your heart is a travesty. We need your voice, and your brain, not your body. We want to see your view of the world, your violent moods on canvas, your verses of vehemence. We want to hear your ideas, watch your movements on stage, on snow, on grass. We want to taste your decadence, smell your tears, and feel your touch on our souls. It's all beautiful to someone.

Because this is what brings life to LIVING. The beautiful things people create and do are what make us alive. The force you have in you is unique. Harness it now , because the more you use it, the longer it will go - it keeps going, it does not ever run out. Some people just have a hard time getting it started again once they've been integrated into the societal machine. You have a non-stop resource of it, a deep well. Throw buckets of it into the world. Soak us. Make it honest. Nothing is meaningless. The world needs to be painted with your thoughts so it can keep living.

Girls are tremendously powerful. Don't fucking forget it. Now go. The Ones Who Never Grew Up will notice you. Your impact will be fierce. AIM HIGH.

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo


(I wrote this as an entry for a fledgling magazine looking for writers. I didn't get the gig, but I still love this anyway. I wrote it months ago and just rediscovered it, so here it is to share with everyone, magazine or not.)