On Sunday my blog went over 2000 hits (total, not per day)!! This may not seem much to seasoned bloggers but I'm a very proud infant blog mama! What I'm super excited about is how international the blogkingdom is. Champagne in One Hand... has had visitors from 36 countries (that I've seen, I think I may have missed a couple)!! Some of the people definitely got here by accident (you wouldn't believe some of the nasty Google searches that led to my site - let's just say, Dolly, my headless, limbless manniquin, is disgusted about what people thought they were going to see when they saw her instead ;-). Interestingly, many of the dirty Google searches come from India, but the prize for nastiest goes to someone in Jamaica!! I'm watching you!
So here's a fun test for you. Below are the flags of those countries. How many can you identify (I was super bad at this!!)?
Scroll down to see the answers........
Australia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Belgium, Belarus, China, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, Egypt, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Ireland, India, Jamaica, Lebanon, Oman, Phillipines, Russian Federation, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Swaziland, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela.
How did you do? Need to brush up on geography?!! Perhaps you could use this to pick your next travel destination ;-)
A week has flown by since I returned from Iceland! Sadly, this adventure was the "last huraah" for my faithful, world-traveling netbook....it must have been jiggled around in one too many timezones :-( "Death due to fried motherboard" (ouch!) recorded last week. RIP dear friend, you will be missed...
So, after my previous photographic teaser, time for some more Iceland photos. The theme of this post is "Icelandic Horses" and is dedicated to my friend Mette who asked me to bring her a photo of me riding an Icelandic horse. I'm sad to say I didn't get a chance to ride any, but I certainly saw 100s and met quite a few personally! The Icelandic horse (yes I know it's quite small but for heaven's sake don't call it a pony when you are in Iceland!!) is very famous for being hardy and for having two extra gaits in addition to walk, trot, canter and gallop. They have an ambling gait called the tölt and another called a skeið, flugskeið or "flying pace". It must be pretty hard for them to get much sleep in the summer when they are outside in 24 hour daylight. But just imagine lying back in your field and watching the Aurora Borealis in winter - magical! I may have got a little carried away taking photos. They are so gentle and pretty-looking! Here is a (greatly) condensed album for you!
It's called the windswept look Did you hear what they're saying about that new blonde mare? gossip, gossip, gossip Welcome to my beautiful country yeah, I know i'm cute! Before my current owners I wasn't treated very well. So I'm super shy and don't trust anyone, even the other horses :-( But I'm still beautiful.
Amazing! We all share the same hairdresser! (no offence Michael!). At Inna and Gunnar's farm in Northeast Iceland. Little Tinna is in the foreground.
Here's looking at you kid!
I'm still keeping my eye on you!
Can I have a side of grass with that grass you have in your hand?
and more grass for dessert?
In Moonlighting from my job as a unicorn. In Höfn (pronounced 'hup' - no I don't get it either!) with a backdrop of one of Vatnajökull's glacial tongues.
This weekend I entered 3 of the 1000s of photos taken during my 13 months of travel around New Zealand, South America and India to the Photography competition at Ventura County Fair. I naively presumed that it would be a low key, small scale affair; me and approximately 8 other people....
I entered online and had to deliver the photos to the Fairgrounds by 5pm last Sunday. So obviously on Sunday, pressure-prompted me printed them out at Target and headed to Aaron Brothers to get them matted. A very helpful employee (James) told me they had stopped accepting matting orders for the Ventura County Fair the day before! "Really? Were there that many?" I asked in amazement. Yes, huge numbers apparently!! I really had no idea! He helped me find some precut mats/mounting board/double sided tape etc to prepare my pics to the complex standards required by the VCF. He also let me to use a bench in the shop to put them all together. I carefully labeled them as per hyper-detailed instructions and added the 3/4 inch velcro squares to the top 2 corners (duh! later at the fairgrounds I was told that I had fallen at the last photo prep hurdle but sticking the fluffy, not the pointy side of the Velcro to the back!). James told me that mine were the nicest photos he'd seen! I asked him if he said that to all the girls, but he promised not! Buoyed with (false) confidence, I headed to the county fairgrounds.
The place was buzzing! There were throngs of people there! All ages, proudly carrying photos, paintings and all manner of crafted items. I thought that was really cool, because certainly none of us were doing it for the prize money (in my photo division, top prize is a whopping $20, for most other craft classes it's $7). I loved that we were all doing it to share our creations with others (and of course secretly hoping for a blue ribbon!!). I entered the photo drop off building and saw 100s of photos stacked in boxes!! Ha ha! What was I thinking? Me and 8 others?! People really took this seriously! Anyway, 2 very nice volunteers wearing protective gloves accepted my entries and presented me with a neon green 'Participant' ribbon!!! Am I very sad to be excited about that?
I'm a winn..PARTICIPANT!! I got a ribbon, I got a ribbon!!
The lady next to me was proudly entering a photo showing two hands cupping a butterfly. Her volunteer asked her "What is that anyway? Is it a bat or something?"!! Poor lady! Her face dropped as she described her piece! I wanted to shout over "it's so obviously a butterfly" but thought on this occasion I'd let the embarrassing moment pass!
Here are my 3 entries. My fave is the first one. I hope she does well, she deserves to. The others, I think are entertaining to the eye and I entered them as a bit of fun. Of course, since then I've remembered another pic that I should have entered. It's easy to get sucked in!
"Primary Caregiver". The beautiful Shabbu. I love this little girl (6 years old in the picture) to pieces and really miss her. She was such a selfless and caring "mum" to her little brother Salim Akash. She lived in one of the slums in which I volunteered and often her alcoholic and physically abusive parents would pull her out of morning school so she could look after him. He was too heavy for her tiny, growing body and she would sit him on her hip and limp around awkwardly. She cleaned up after him wordlessly and tended to his needs. She was often the only person who could stop him crying. This unposed shot captures the enormous weight of responsibility she had in her young life.
"Ouch". There's no two ways about it, this rodeo cowboy in Nabon, Ecuador, was going to hurt the next day! Taken during a festival day in the town of Nabon, about 1 hour outside of Cuenca. This was a lucky shot, taken from the stands.Not long after this photo, 10 Brahma bulls escaped from the rodeo stadium and headed for the hills!!
"Looking for Love". A handsome male frigate bird in the Galapagos Isles, Ecuador displays his ballooned red chest proudly for the ladies.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and if you are at the Fair, go and check out the photography and crafts exhibits. We have a lot of über-talented people in Ventura County!
Yeah, so I got itchy travel feet….. I blame the fact that I was hungry when my friend Lorelle suggested an adventure to Iceland (we were at brunch) and I nearly snatched her passport-holding hand off! Iceland - somewhere between Greenland and Great Britain
She preyed on my weakened state; it really was no contest! Particularly when she mentioned that she had an old German exchange student friend who had fallen in love with an Icelandic sheep farmer and was living in the north east of nowhere – and that we could visit!
Gunnar and Ina's sheep farm in North East Iceland. Grima (Mask) their beautiful sheepdog keeps check.
Me (getting a hug from Grima) with Ina & Gunnar and their children Tinna and Kjartan (pronounced Caretan)
Using my very best justification skills, it was an unmissable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (eek, I keep having those!).
So, we're finally home after a 17 hour, 4-part epic flight hop back to Cali yesterday (thanks to the lovely Amy for picking us up from LAX).
Iceland is an incredibly environmentally diverse and stunningly beautiful country with 1000s of waterfalls, sheep, glaciers, glacier-melting/bridge-knocking-out volcanoes, good coffee, ice caves, churches, geysers, “Black Death” (Brennivin), puffins, sagas, 24 hour daylight, Icelandic horses and a couple (300,000) of people too.
Lorelle and I hired a car and drove a loop around the island. It was a fantastic trip! While I’m dealing with jetlag, here are a few teaser photos that I think do a pretty good job of capturing the essence of Iceland and its inhabitants. More soon…
Have a happy weekend and "bless" (Icelandic for "bye") for now!
You think that's funny do you?!! An Icelandic horse
A rather more majestic Icelandic horse
A viking longboat sculpture along the Rekjavik waterfront
Turquoise Steaming Geysers at Geysir
There was LOTS of yarn love in Iceland (you just wait!!)!! A traditional sweater pattern
Trolls form a huge part of Icelandic folklore
Midnight in a land where the sun never goes down (in summer)
Planted to secure the terrain, lupins form a beautiful blanket over Iceland (they are not appreciated by some who think they destroy native plants)
The Black Death!! yummy Icelandic schnapps (we skipped the fermented shark that usually accompanies it!)
Illuminated giant icicles in Lofthellir cave
The country is littered with lava fields. Super spacey terrain near Myvatn
Lundi (puffins) in the North East of Iceland
An eye-catching church in gorgeous Seydisfjordur in East Iceland
the early evening light was glorious and allowed me to take pics like this
Kid Love! This adorable baby goat fell asleep instantly in Lorelle's arms (I think she may have smuggled him into her hand luggage)
Stunning blue icebergs in Jokulsarlon lagoon (the black is volcanic ash)
After passing 100s of waterfalls we began to suffer from a phenomenon technically termed "waterfalled out"! But 62 meter tall Skogafoss still couldn't fail to impress.
Naughty Eyjafjallajokull volcano got more than it's fair newstime last year when it smoked out European air space
and relax! Taking some time out at the "Blue Lagoon" geothermal pool, near Rekjavik
This is the third part of my series of F(Ph)enomenal Friday posts about the people of Children Walking Tall kids charity in Goa. Click on Part I and Part II for the previous articles.
If good things come in small packages, today’s F(Ph)enomenal person is, um, phenomenally good! Meet beautiful Sana Mulla, 21, 85 pounds (5 stone) of concentrated feisty!
Sana (ACTUAL SIZE!!!) with Maggy (volunteer) and her brother William
Sana was one of two Children Walking Tall teachers when I volunteered there last year. The kids adored Sana and she gave all that love and more back to them. This young, independent, self-assured, multi-lingual 21 year old female was a fabulous role model for the children, but for the girls especially.
Sana with some of the Morning School Kids
Possibly the cutest video in the world! Days of the week practice in Morning School.
Sana taught English, Gujurati and basic math to the 3-6 year olds (and occasional 1 and 2 year olds who tottered in for nursery rhymes!) at morning school in the Karaswada slum.
Too young for school. Definitely not too young for a cuddle!!
In the afternoons, she helped the older kids with their homework and mucked in on the crazy, messy, sticky, glittery craft projects the volunteers organized.
While us volunteers unattractively melted in the heat and humidity of the slums, Sana floated around, cool and elegant in a rainbow cloud of sari silk! She retained that composure, whether teaching ABCs to squirming kids, or breaking up an argument or episode of domestic violence that frequently broke out just outside the Morning School classroom. It was incredible to watch this waif-like girl fearlessly mediating fights by people literally twice her size! She would do anything to protect those kids.
Fruit time! Sana handing out sweet limes (the children are given fresh fruit every day)
Sana was born in Goa, but her family now live in Khanapur, a small village in the neighboring state of Karnataka. Her studies began at a government primary school in Urdu medium (classes were taught in Urdu) but she moved to an English medium school (Lady of Lourdes high school) from 5th grade. She studied for her B.A. and went on to gain her B.Ed, then taught at a Goa high school. Some of the girls at that high school attended Children Walking Tall and pleaded with Rob to recruit her. She started at CWT in Feb 2010.
Watching her dedication to the kids, I already recognized that Sana was a phenomenal person. As I learnt more about her and her background, my admiration for her grew immensely. Despite being old enough to be her mother (yikes, her mum is 2 years younger than me!!), Sana and I became great friends and she invited me to visit her family. I am unable to adequately express to you what an extraordinary honor that was. Some of my most incredible travel experiences and insights into foreign culture have been when I have been privileged to stay with locals. My memories from that trip and the feelings of warmth and love will stay with me always.
It took 5 hours and a couple of very jerky buses through the mountains to get to Khanapur. I dressed modestly as Sana’s family are devout Muslims, but I received a red carpet welcome by what seemed like the entire village!
Looking at me, looking at you. Checking out the stranger in the village!
Some had never seen a ‘foreigner’ (white girl!) in the flesh before! They were fascinated!! I was proudly paraded around the village and visited many families who rushed to bring me sweet, sticky, heavenly chai tea and Indian snacks (seriously, I was floating in that sugary, spicy goodness!). It was obvious that the villagers were of very modest means, but they showered me with generous hospitality and warmth.
Our house, in the middle of the street
Most of the villagers spoke little or no English. However, language provided little barrier for our communication – human kind in the truest sense of the word, is displayed by touch, gesture, smile and laughter.
Whilst on a walking tour of the village Sana’s friends drove by and insisted on driving us to some local beauty spots. On the way, they suddenly stopped and one of the boys mysteriously hopped out and disappeared into a shop. He came back with chocolate for all of us!
A local beauty spot
Khanapur's local market
How spicy would you like that curry?
Name that vegetable!!!
A local street scene (check out the camera-shy chicken!)
The food I ate over the weekend was wonderful! Sana’s mum made endless flavorsome curries and chapatis, and worried that I hadn’t had enough to eat! Her uncle and aunt begged that we return to their house on Sunday night and made a huge beef biryani feast! We all sat on the floor together to eat. It was fabulous!
Not good for the ego - I really was twice the size of everyone!
In a quiet moment, Sana showed me some of the dry food that her mum prepared during good times so that if ever food was in short supply, she could still feed her sons. Despite this, the night before I left, Sana’s mum shyly presented me with a sari. I was so moved by the generous gesture.
Me and Sana's lovely mum. Do I look big in this??? (I felt like Gulliver in Lilliput!)
Sana’s dad is around my age (40 – although when Sana’s family guessed that I was 18, I almost picked up sticks and moved to Khanapur and married her brother;-) ). Sana’s dad is a highly intelligent man with a kind face and dancing eyes. His English is excellent. He adored learning and was immensely proud of his daughter. The loving bond between them was obvious. Sana told me that he had to leave school when he was very young in order to earn money for the wedding dowries of his 3 sisters. Can you imagine being in a similar situation? Her dad ran a wedding lighting and decoration company (Christmas lights in California have nothing on the lights at Indian weddings!!!) but he suffers from very ill health (from dry gangrene) and so relies on his son to do this now.
Sana and her amazing dad. I so hope I get back to chat to him again.
The family house was multigenerational. Grandparents, sons, daughters, wives, nephews, nieces, cousins and grandchildren lived together. Infants to elderly slept side-by-side on the floor in the front room – the family bond was like nothing I have ever seen. I felt so privileged to witness it.
Sana's highly respected Grandparents
One of the youngest. The gorgeous Mohan.....I soooooooooooo nearly nicked him!!
I watched the women prepare food together. They chatted, laughed and sang together.
Sana’s grandmother was a skillful chapati-maker!
Singing was something that brought me closer to the local girls. Dressed in modest Muslim clothing (generally salwar kameez with headscarves), the little girls, at first shyly, moved closer to me, to take a look at this strange intruder to their village. Sana and I decided to teach them a few of the English nursery rhymes we taught the 3-6 year olds in morning school. We attracted quite the multi-generational audience as we worked our way through the classics (Kumar the camel, 5 little ducks, walking through the jungle, 5 little monkeys, twinkle twinkle little star, down in the forest, London bridge is falling down) all with ACTIONS!! Never blessed with a great voice, my 4 months in India with kids made me belt out the songs with little self-conscience anyway!! The girls lapped it up. We had a rollicking sing-song (they learnt the English words so fast!!) and the fun and laughter just filled me with joy and made me realize how incredibly fortunate I was to be able to have this experience.
Going to the bathroom was quite the adventure. Having spent most of the year hovering over holes in the ground, this did not phase me. However, I have to say that the time I was asked, in front of the entire family if I wanted ‘a number 1 or number 2?’ and then was earnestly paraded down the street accompanied by Sana and her cousins to a house with an interior toilet, was one of the more cringeworthy/giggleworthy moments of that trip!!
The memories of the weekend trip to Khanapur will stay with me always. To see the modest background from which Sana comes, makes it even more F(Ph)enomenal to me that she has achieved so much in her short life. She constantly worries about being able to support her family (she is the major breadwinner in the family), particularly with her dad’s ill health. I know how much she adores her family and hates being even 5 hours away from them, but she would do anything (including changing career) if she thought it would help her family. Sana may be little, but she makes a colossal impact on a lot of lives, including mine. I hope she gets all the opportunities she deserves.
Does anyone remember, years ago, this Virgin Atlantic advert (commercial, shown in England)?
A young guy sat on a bench is about to be killed by a falling statue, but when his life flashes before his eyes, the images of all his amazing experiences and adventures (obviously all occurring after Virgin flights!) take so long to whirl by, that the poor Grim Reaper, scythe in hand, gets exhausted waiting and falls asleep. I still think that ad is one of the most imaginative I’ve ever seen. What does that have to do with me? and crochet?!! Well, that ad is a brilliant illustration of a quote I try to live by and the quote that inspired both my blog and Etsy name ‘Champagne in One hand…’:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand, strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, screaming: "WOOHOO!!! What a RIDE!!" – Anonymous
What a great way that would be to enter heaven!
When I announced in October 2009 that I was going to leave a stable and very well paid job (with generous benefits!) to travel and volunteer in New Zealand, South America and India for a year, I was amazed how supportive everyone was. Not just supportive, really, really excited!!! So many people said they would love to do what I was doing if it wasn’t for the 1) mortgage 2) kids 3) dogs 4) wife (some in that order!). Many told me that they planned to live vicariously through me (and have told me since that they looked forward to me posting new photos on Facebook). Only one, mean-spirited, would-be buzz-killer (unsuccessful) loudly announced, in front of others: ‘I hear that you plan to single-handedly save the world”. I am still proud of my rapid-fire response: ‘oh!...well I was planning on using both hands’. What a year, what an incredible, endless series of life-changing experiences that set me well on my way to ‘sliding in sideways’. In April, when I’d been back for a 3 months and the memories were just beginning to dull a tiny bit, Mum created this birthday card to remind me of my adventures from that trip and some from before:
Isn’t that incredible? Mum is so artistic and really should have her own Etsy site (mum? I know you are reading?!!) I love it and will keep it in view always!
When I returned from my adventure, I didn’t want to return to what I’d been doing before….that’s why I left, right? I thought I’d have an epiphany about my new career while I was away but that didn’t happen. Well, the obvious 9-5 office job epiphany didn’t happen. What did happen is that I found a new love! Crochet! Who’da thought? Was my next move to buy 96 cats? Invest in polyester clothing? Join a ‘Days of Our Lives’ fan club? It all seemed so uncool! I’d had a brief, obsessive love affair with knitting, but it took so darn long! Crochet offered a faster fix! On my first day of crochet, I sat in my friend’s back garden, "The Happy Hooker" in my lap, H hook and some cotton in my hands… and struggled. I contemplated returning the book and hook to the store. But I stuck with it and like snowboarding (an obvious comparison!) the learning curve was steep…but short! I got that much maligned granny square thing down after a few attempts. Mastery of the stitches came quickly. Crochet was fast. Instant gratification – perfect! And there were patterns to make stuff I’d actually wear! During 4 months in India I spent many hours using the cheap but dreadful, thin acrylic they had available and my boyfriend scored sooooo many points when he went on a California yarn shop mission for me and shipped it out! (My boyfriend does not look like he would hang out in a yarn store!). I paged through the Happy Hooker like the hungry addict I was, making a shawl: a micro-sized bolero - thereby learning an important lesson in the importance of gauge.... a lesson that would be repeated later with a HUGE, wool-eating monster of a scarf!):
a bag (still almost finished!), hats etc. I also made the heavenly discovery that is Ravelry and spent hours trawling through their pattern database. I also sucked a couple more people into my obsession and even taught some of the kiddies at Children Walking Tall in Goa! I had as many boys as girls desperate to learn!
The entire time (and still now) I struggled a bit with the perceived unhipness of it all. But unless you’ve had your head in a trashcan this season, shops and magazines are stuffed with crochet bikinis, bags, dresses, shoes etc. I was ahead of my cool time (kind of!). Just look at this "C is for Crochet" photo spread from the March 2011 Marie Claire.
and these fantastic dresses from the same issue:
A fellow volunteer and friend at Children Walking Tall read about Etsy (a fabulous online craft marketplace) in an article and suggested it would be perfect for me to sell some of the increasing volume of ‘stuff’ I was prolifically creating (there’s only so much crochet one girl can own!!). I did some research, learnt about policies, and shipping and pricing and the importance of good photography, and Champagne in One Hand... was born. On 1st April actually – yeah, I recognize the irony! This time, my new path came as a bit of a shock to some of those around me. I guess people just expected me to come back from my travel and slot back into my previous 9-5 (more like 7.30-6/7/midnight) work life. This time,there was a marked split in reactions and I certainly had to grow a thicker skin to deal with some of them. Mum wisely advised me: “Don't let negative people get you down - they will always lead mundane lives, enduring rather than enjoying.” I’ve given myself 6 months to see where this crochet adventure goes. I don’t think I’m hurting anyone by doing this. I don’t think I’m costing anyone anything doing this. I know I’m loving and relishing having the opportunity to see if I can make this work. Even if the business side of things goes nowhere (and there is a very big chance that it won’t be economically viable long-term), I’m doing what I adore at the moment and I’m learning many different skills. Not just about crochet, but about setting up an online shop, about marketing, customer relations, photography and creating and running a blog. What a joy – my favorite thing – to be learning and improving. How lucky I am to have this opportunity and who knows where it may lead? Every time I get an order (and I’ve had 5 now including one custom one!), I get a huge rush of excitement and the determination to keep going. Mum (yeah, she's pretty amazing!) sent me the following quote at the weekend and it instantly became my second quote by which to live. It’s by Ralph Waldo Emerson and I hope you love it as much as I do:
Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Whatever path you choose to take, or even if you create your own, don’t let the naysayers and no-sayers deter you. Follow your gut, your heart, whatever organ you want! Give it a go – what’s the worst that can happen? You learn a few things then decide it’s not for you? Not so bad. And support other trail-makers (blazers!). Recognize that they are living an adventure and appreciate the courage it takes to do that. I’m certainly enjoying making my trail and sharing some of my achievements (and failures!) here. And remember, when your life flashes before your eyes, make sure you’ve got plenty to watch.
