and.. last but not least..

the last day. They day we have to leave the island, and go home to every day life, again. :|
We slept in, ate a huge breakfast (as usual), spent a couple of hours in the pool.. Maddie did NOT want to get up, she was running on the shallow end, back and forth, shouting 'row, ROW, bumblebutt!!'. No idea what a 'bumblebutt' is, but.. it was something immensly funny to her. :)
She made a friend in a little Indian girl, even got to borrow her floatie for a while, until we had to get up to leave. By the time we got back to the hotel room (being the time optimist that i am) it was a good thing i had already packed, because.. we were running mad late, as usual. The shuttle bus was supposed to leave at 11.35 for the airport, we walked out of the room at 11.20.. And still needed to return the towels to the pool area, give a heads up to the shuttle but ppl, and check out of the hotelroom.. :)
we were done with all that, just as the bus pulled up outside of the hotel. *phew*
Quick 5 minute ride to the airport, and of course there's a problem with my check-in.. it was the same thing when we left LA, just because i don't have a 'resident card'. So.. instead of using the self check in, we have to go to the counter. And present a bunch of passports, visas and what-not. While waiting for the lady to finish our check in, I eavesdrop on the conversation next to us, a man is trying to upgrade his tickets to business class on the same flight as us. The woman helping him tells him it's gonna be just over a grand to upgrade, and he declines. I receive my boarding passes, and don't really look at them, as i am more concerned abt getting to the line to the security check point.. that now reaches clear across the whole airport.
We get in line, but a woman working at the airport calls us out of the line and walks us up to the VIP side entrance, so we get to bypass the line all together (Maddie is still sleeping). She does however wake up when i have to lift her out of the stroller to walk thru the metal detector, but at that point she had already slept for a bit over an hour. Security check point cleared, as soon as we get upstairs we run into the newlyweds, so we get to spend a few more minutes with them before they have to wander off to their flight.

Me and Maddie have some pizza (that's her new favorite food - everything is Pizza, pizza, PIIIIIZZAAA now) and we walk over to our gate. I check out boarding passes for what group they've put us in this time, and it just says 'priority'.. i look at them again, confused. Then I check what seats we have, and we're in the 4th row.. So we just got upgraded - again!! Sweet!!! I quickly check the boarding passes for the second flight too, and they too state 'first class'. :) hahaha, the trip ends well, too..
Maddie and I was sitting in first class the whole way home, eating warm toasted peanuts, drinking wine (and apple juice) from real glasses, and eating food that actually tasted great.. Maddie fell asleep on the 2nd leg of the flight, and slept the whole way home.. It's kind of amusing to sit up there with a toddler.. Some people (not all) look at  you kind of funny. Oh well.. their problem. We enjoyed it immensely, the first and probably just about the only time this will ever happen. Definitely an awesome experience.

We arrived in LA just on schedule, the bags made it, and Cabber picked us up at the airport.. We had left a 28 degree weather in Montego Bay in the morning, only to land in a 16 degree weather in LA. Yuck.
But.. quite nice to be home, again.

Maddie being silly, with peanut in her hand

Like the old swedish saying goes: Borta bra, men hemma bast.

Day 1

Sooo.. since I suck at packing, my initial attempt at packing just resulted in waaay too much being brought.. I mean.. we're only supposed to be gone for 6 days, and I brought a full, heavy, large suitcase.. no bueno.

I packed on Sunday night, in order not to have to drive home after work on Monday, just loaded the car with suitcase, diaper bag, cat litter box, kittens, Maddie and me on Monday am, and spent the night at "uncle cabber's" monday night.
I re-packed on Monday night, pretty much left half of my luggage at Casper's, resulting in a much lighter suitcase.
The kittens.. we thought they would be the ones antagonizing Penny (caspers old, grouchy cat) but.. nooo. She hated the young one's with a vengeance, from the first second, attacking them pretty much straight out of the cage, so we had to keep them separated.. and the kittens managed to climb on top of a mattress, that was leaned up against the wall, on the short end.

I finished re-packing at 1am, and slept like craps all night, kept on waking up, thinking I had over slept, or that it was at least morning.. and the kittens woke up at 5, started chasing each others, chasing my toes and just causing a ruckus.. my alarm went off at 6, I think I finally managed to get up at a quarter past, to shower and get ready.

I had planned to make pancakes to bring on the flight (perfect snacks for Maddie) but.. my sleep deprived mind couldn't compute 2x 3/4 cups of water, so the batter got waaaay too diluted.. had to make "små plättar" instead.. but.. that worked just as well.

We got to the airport at 7.30am, the flight was scheduled for 9am. Took so long to make it thru the security checkpoint, that we got to board as soon as we got to the gate - quite nice.

Maddie was beyond fantastic the whole trip, she watched movies, played games, napped and woke up as the flight attendant announced the landing in Miami.
We had a couple of hours to kill in Miami, and the departure gate was only 2 gates down from the arrival gate. Maddie went into hyper drive, ran around, danced, sang, pushed the stroller around, and released some pent up energy from the previous flight.


We had to check in at the gate in MIA, to get our seats, but were told by the attendant that she was still working on our seats, that the flight was over booked, and she was looking for volunteers to fly a day later.. now.. if it would just have been me, it would have been pretty cool to spend a night in Miami, too, but.. not while travelling with Maddie.

We waited for closer to an hour, and then were handed our boarding passes by the attendant. I thanked her profusely, as I was just happy to have seats, but.. when I looked at the tickets, she had upgraded us to priority business class, too.. we had the first seats of the airplane, and got to board ahead of everybody else.. SWEET!!
I have never been upgraded before, so that was certainly a nice surprise..

We arrived on time, and leaving the airplane it was like walking into a wall of heat.. holy hell, it was hot here.. and humid.. something I am SO not used to!

Waiting in line in customs was like being in a sauna.. ugh. But, in the same breath, thank goodness for av on the shuttle bus that took us to the hotel.

We checked into the hotel just around 9pm, by which time Maddie was starting to have a minor meltdown, due to being way too tired.. fetched her some milk, then put her to bed, and of course fell asleep, too.. woke up at 7 on Wednesday am. And onto day 2..

/carina

tomorrow, tomorrow, tomooooorrooooww

is the d-day! FINALLY!! Flight leaves at 9am tomorrow morning, we get to Montego Bay around 7pm. I packed last night - probably waaaay too many things.. am thinking i should re-pack a little tonite, just for the heck of it.

Dropped off the kittens with uncle Cabber this morning.. Those 2 are probably gonna give his old, grouchy a cat a heart attack.. ;) moaaahahahah!!!!

things are starting to come together..

for the trip, and it's DEFINITELY about time.. we leave in 12 days, and i still need to pick up my passport from San Diego (doing that tomorrow am) and i need to APPLY for miss M's passport (doing that on Monday)
I am cutting it rather close to the departure date for her passport, not thanks to any of my doings, but.. other factors. Hopefully I'll have the missing document tomorrow midday, and HOPEFULLY the passport agency feels like cooperating with me.. :) fingers crossed. Just in case, I've got a full travel cancellation protection, that will repay the cost of the trip if we have to cancel for any reason.
I really, really, REALLY don't want to cancel the trip...
My own passport drama.. cost me a new job, and a very expensive trip across the country. I had gotten a job offer from a different studio, and I had actually accepted the offer, already found a new apartment closer to the new studio, found a new daycare for miss M, and I had even given a tentative notice here at my current studio that i was thinking about leaving... Then.. as the new studio was about to transfer my work visa (yes, i am still here on a visa...) we realized that they'd have to apply for a new visa, as the kind of visa i have isn't really transferable... That, in itself, is a process, but.. right as they were about to start that, my current passport expired, and they couldn't even submit the application w/o a valid passport.. I knew my passport was about to expire, but.. I was also working 6 days a week, 10-12 hrs a day, and I just didn't have a chance to travel to DC to get it taken care of. But, facing the risk of loosing my new job, i finally contacted the Swedish Embassy in DC, and made my appointment.. this was at the beginning of April.. Earliest appointment they had was May 7th. :(
I was supposed to start my new job on April 16th.

I contacted the new job, explained the situation, and apologized profusely.. they said the timing might not work out any more, but that they might have an opening for the end of May, if i was still interested. Unfortunately that didn't work out either, as it would take 2-3 weeks to get my passport shipped here from DC, taking us thru end of May, then another 3+ weeks to apply for a visa, once they immigration lawyer had all documents, so.. that would take us well into mid June.

argh.

but.. sometimes you get the reason to why things happen, sooner than later.. turns out that an old friend of mine just returned to LA to work for my current company, and her soon-to-be husband was looking for a job down here, and 'my' new job contacted him and offered him the position that opened in late May. AND.. second day on the job, he found out that they'd be expected to work 6 days a week, and 11'ish hour days until mid September, when the show delivers..
What in the world would i have done with miss M working those kinds of hours? She would have had to be at the daycare 6 days a week, a minimum of 11-12 hours a day.. She would have called her teachers 'mom' and not recognized me at the end of those months. ugh.

But.. fortunately my current company had been begging me to stay, and so I did. We're having a couple of months with a little bit less work at the moment, and that's quite wonderful. I get to catch up on things i should have taken care of a long time ago, and I get to further my knowledge about the pipeline here, and I am an integral part of setting up our new workflow on the current show. Quite nice.

I think that's it for today. Fingers crossed i get the required documents tomorrow!!!!

C

*phew*

alrighty.. part 2 of the April madness is done. :)
left work early last Thursday, dashed over to Gatwick airport (thank goodness for Gatwick express and for double checking departure airport the day before travel.. ;))
Arrived in Catania, Sicily right before 9pm, and was tossed into the driver seat immediately. No rest for the wicked, or something like that. If i thought the streets and roads of Crete were mad, that's nothing compared to Catania and the surrounding areas... Was hard to find our way to the base, even with the GPS and 2 ppl who had spent a week on the base already.
After a bit of a muck-up with the base access for me, we finally managed to stay the night on the base, and pretty much passed out around 11pm, dead tired. Got up early on friday, mrB had an appointment and then class until noon - and then we did some american shopping on the base.. quite nice, indeed. :) even after a small intermezzo with my UK bank stopping my ATM card, due to 'fradulent useage' in the US.. phahaha, not easy when we travel to Europe, but use an american ATM.. ;)

then, after loads of running back and forth like chickens without heads, in pouring rain and thunderstorms, we finally get on the road.. drive for about an hour north, along little mountain roads, absolutely in awe at the way their cities are built, like clusters on the mountaintops. :|
We arrive in Taormina, park the cars, walk some 100 steps, get lost in the city, end up on the right path, find some Gelato - YUM!! (insert slight pause here, with some angelic music, as our mouths were enjoying themselves..) ok, on towards the Greek theater. on the mountainside, with views over mount Etna and the sea, lays this amazing structure.. (read more abt it here: http://www.deliciousitaly.com/Siciliatour18.htm)

i think we walked around here for the better part of a couple of hours, until the sun started setting.. dragged our feet back to the city, found a little outdoors restaurant, where we indulged in pizza and pasta, and some not too exciting house wine. continued our trek thru a darkening city, found another bar/restaurant where we enjoyed some hot chocolate (that was so thick you could almost stand the spoon in it on it's own, but OHHH, so good), some more wine and some really nice Italian music in the background.

we found the cars, and started out trek home again.. by the time we were home, it was past 10pm, and everybody was dead beat.. we had rented a room across the street from the base (in a hotel NOT recommended for anyone ever in the area). yuuuck.. you know it's bad when you can see dirt pattern on a daaark red carpet.. blaaaah. but, it was close, and had to do for the night. :)

got up around 9am on saturday, did some quickie shopping and then drove just over 2 hours down to Arigento, and Valle dei Templi.. Oh, my god. i think my jaw pretty much hit the floor and didn't move for the 3 hours we were walking around there.. absolutely amazing.. pics to come, just haven't had a chance to upload them yet.. but.. imagine climbing around on 2500-2700 year old ruins.. seeing burial chambers, statues, caves, the temple of Hercules - all with a modern city ontop of the cliffs in the background.. absolutely amazing.

we walked, and walked, climbed, jumped, walked, peered, peeked, walked, walked and walked some more.. blaaazing hot, but none of us were really bothered by it. (they had a Gelato stand about half way down the road.. ;) )

and i think we took some 200 photos, just in one day. as i said, i'll post some of them later.

left this wonderful place, continued down the road down to the sea, tried to find an open place to eat, but.. were out of luck, as we tried to find dinner at 5pm, when everything is closed between 4 and 8.. so we had to settle for a place that was a little bit less than we were looking for, but.. whatever, it was food. spent a good 2 hours here, just sitting around, enjoying the sun, people watching, eating, drinking, resting our feet. ended dinner with more Gelato (and mrB dropping his after only a few bites.. aahaha, insta punishment!!) walked thru the market for a while, found nothing of interest, did some more people watching and slowly made our way back to the car.

our 2 friend pretty much passed out in the backseat of the car, 2 minutes after we started driving, and the drive back to the base was pretty uneventful.. unfortunately all our cameras were stone dead by the time we drove beneath mt Etna, it was absolutely surreal - the haze around the mountain, lit by all the lights.. very pretty, but very spooky.

came back to Catania, repacked, passed out, and got up early, early Sunday to make it back to the airport on time. :(

didn't want to leave. at all.

i am sure there's way more to tell, like the way the cities are clustered ontop of the mountains, and they've got tiny little villages with massive apartment buildings, the cool old men in velour track suits, and the cool little kids speaking italian.. the niceness of the ppl working on the base, the smell of the trees, the madness of the roads, the wonderful old aqueducts, the crappy roads, the great food, the people in general, the african street peddlers, the guy without an arm and leg, the car we rented, the GELATO, the language, the brusqueness of the people, the lushness of the whole island and the massive lack of sleep, but.. that's for later. :)

finally here...

a long and somewhat stressful trip later, we all made it here in one piece, the dogs completely exhausted, and so am i.. arrived at 6.30 am on thursday to Chania, on Crete, cabbed it to the hostel, got all checked in and setup, and passed out.. slept almost a good 23 hrs, but.. think i managed to get the correct time difference all straightened out. ;)

spent ALL day friday walking around in the old part of Chania, sightseeing, being overwhelmed, taking LOADS of pics - which i need to offload from my camera at some point, but.. initial impression: loads of diesel cars, loads of tourists in various shades of red, a suuper laid back pace, loads of shops, crazy drivers, diesel fumes all around (i even saw a yamaha R1 Diesel.. )
old town is really cozy, loads of little alleyways, with mom and pop shops and/or bars, loads of funky little houses, lots of stray dogs, and a completely incomprehendible language (is that even a word?) First plan of attack - to learn at least the most basic phrases in greek.
i am staying at a hostel until monday or tuesday, and then we're supposed to get the house.. that'll be a change, for sure, to go from a small, super crammed 1br apartment, to a 3br house.. can't wait.

the hostel i am staying at "hotel alexis" is super cozy, and run by Canadians, a couple from Vancouver (go figure), really clean and neat, and quiet. Scoobs and Tay are staying in the backyard, poor things, going from being couch potatoes to outdoors pups, but.. at least they're here. :)

oh, man, there's soo much i want to write, so much i've seen just today, but.. i just can't get it all out.

i was walking next to the wall that surrounds the old part of chania, just minding my own world (as usual) and inbetween 2 cars there was an old man, playing the clarinett, playing the theme song to 'the godfather'.. it was the most surreal moment, felt like i was transplanted back to old time italy, but.. it was nice.

what else.. oh, waling around in a massively crowded shopping area today, all of a sudden i stumble upon a fish market, where they sell fresh fish out in the open, right on the street corner.. fish of all kinds, and octopus, and all kinds of seafood.. quite neat, and quite unexpected.

but.. enough for now.
am gonna drag myself back to the hostel for some din-din and to walk the boys.

more to come.


C - sliiightly overwhelmed

off i go

cheerio!!


not sure when i'll be able to write again, not sure even when we'll get the house, not sure when i'll even see mr.B, but.. what the heck, i'll be in crete. :)

oh, the one thing i know.. i won't be in crete until very early on thursday am, i think we arrive in chania around 7am, on thursday.. that much i've confirmed. :)


.c

tomorrow...

i leave. have to be at the airport in some 15 hrs, leave in some 18 hrs.. and will be in crete late, late on wednesday night...

nuts.

nothing is really set in stone yet, unfortunately, but.. at least i'll have a place to stay to start off with, and i'll at least be in the same country as mr.B, so.. that's a start.

fingers and toes crossed, ladies and gents, for all to go well tomorrow...

.c - almost, almost ready to leave.

9 days left

whoa, it's under 10 days now..

and unless something very unexpected happens, i'll be unemployed for the first time in many, many years come tomorrow... unemployed, with no job lined up, with NO idea what to do with myself for a while.

can't wait.. sooo can't wait!
then i'll have a week to focus on getting ready to head out of here, a week to enjoy the beaches around here before i get a change of scenery, a week to say good bye to everybody we know.


i know, i know, updates have been sparse from the island so far, haven't really had a chance to get good updates from mr.B, but i promise to have more to report as soon as i get out there.. if we've got some kind of internet access. :)

keep your fingers crossed for the home hunt to go well tomorrow, btw. And, for everybody that celebrated cinco the mayo, raise a toast for mr.B, too, as it's his b-day. :)


SALUT!

.c

11 days left

alright.. where in the world did time go to??? holy h*ll. When did May sneak up on us? It was just the other day when B called early a Thursday morning to ask if I wanted to move to Crete, and gave me abt .2 seconds to make up my mind. It felt then like we had allll the time in the world left before we had to pack up and leave. It felt sooo remote that we were actually leaving.. but.. lo and behold, I close my eyes for .3 seconds, and now I am almost outta here. B has already been gone for almost 3 weeks - nuts. Feels like half an eternity, and no time at all. I am anxious to leave, I am anxious to get out of here, and try to get some kind of semblance of life back, because living out of a suitcase just isn't much fun.

i am anxious to get to the island, to get to know a new town, to get to explore and find 'our' favorite places and meet new ppl, get new impressions, take on a new culture and new challenges. I am sure some days will be better than others, but.. i think it'll be good. no, i KNOW it'll be good. I just want to get there and start living again. :)

.c

(oh.. it's B's birthday on Monday.)

16 days left..

and it's hotter than h*ll here in Cali... almost as warm as in Crete. :)

went down to the beach in Santa Monica for an hour earlier today, to try to shock my blue/white skin into acquiring some kind of color before I leave here, and now i am hiding infront of my computer monitor at work.

2 weeks left at work, 2 weeks and 2 days left. can't wait.

update:

alrighty..

so.. in the mess of things, at least i've got the paperworks for the dogs straightened out today. *phew*

stand by for more.. :)

10 days left

and i can't sleep for the life of me.
went to bed around 11pm, only to wake up from coughing around 2am, and it went from coughing to thoughts abt the move and how much there's left to do, in the coming 10 days. or rather - there isn't that much left to do, but it's all out of my hands - like waiting for the Vet papers for the dogs.. my Vet only works from sunday thru wednesday, what if they get the papers on thursday? oh well, hopefully there's someone else there who's able to take care of just stamping the papers and handing them to me.

won't bother y'all with everything else that's swirling around in the messy place called my head, i am sure i'll be back to my normal self tomorrow, pending some sleep tonight.

meanwhile, the dogs are snoring away, dreaming abt chasing squirrels and running in their sleep.

i'd like this move to be done, already. :)


.c

11 days left

B's safe and sound and miiiiighty tired in Crete, arrived around 1am local time on Thursday. Said from what he could tell so far the base seems really tiny but really nice and clean. Given that it was 2am before they even reached the base, it was kinda hard to tell anything abt the surroundings, but he'd had a chance to walk around the work area and what-not, and checked in to the temp housing where he'll be staying for a few days.

Updates from him may be kind of scarce, since - being the morons that we are - managed to pack his phone charger and the powercord to his laptop.. we're hoping they've got internet access at work, and he was gonna try to get ahold of a cell phone to use. :)

on this side of things all is calm. i work and sleep, and that's about it. just biding my time here for the coming 10 days. :)

and that's all for now.


c&b

on our way

so.. the time has finally come for our travels to begin. B left this am, and i am to follow in 13 days.

Craazy. I never thought this day would come, it's felt sooo distant, it's felt as if we've had all the time in the world left here in the States.. but.. the time is here.


we're going to try to update this little site as often as possible, with pics and stories and would love for you all to keep in touch. :)


.C & B