Phenomenal Woman

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

So close, yet so far

Possibly my favourite journalist, Jane Hutcheon, has presented a brief story on Australian tv about the Kosovo situation and the Serbian elections from this here little town.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200801/r218072_852290.asx

Quite a good, succinct little piece worth your watching if you want to know a bit about what's going on at the moment and to see a glimpse of where I'm living....

But I can't believe I missed the chance to meet her, here of all places!

Pining for the Pacific

I've just watched a very sweet kid's movie called The Legend of Johnny Lingo.

Its almost like a travelogue for the pacific islands, showing many aspects of traditional culture, landscapes and livelihoods at the turn of the century mixed up in a sort of fable of family, tradition and lost love.
I loved to see them harvesting noni fruit and squeezing the juice for a health tonic (and knowing how awful it is to drink!), swim under waterfalls, or open a young coconut to drink. If you wanted to learn a lot about life in the pacific, and can stand some rather cheesy scenes, check it out.

While certainly never in danger of winning an Oscar, (and with some sketchy links to the Mormons of Utah and some serious 'product placement' for noni juice) this film now has me pining even more for the South Pacific, and more specifically my home for a year (2005-6), Samoa - tropical paradise.

Something tells me I'm unlikely to pine in the same way (or at all) for my current home once I leave it...

Food in Kosovo part 1

It's the Balkans, so you have to expect pastry, meat, cheese, oil and pickled (or relish) vegetables...
But its also Kosovo, where very large numbers of cashed up internationals have been living over the past 8 years therefore bringing (or demanding) a range of cuisines, at least in the capital, Pristina. This extends from passable Japanese and Thai to very good 'international' fare.

Mitrovica and surrounds finds its niche cuisine mostly hidden within the compounds of the KFOR camps - particularly the Danish Sunday Brunch (think of the best hotel buffet spread you've seen and its better!) and the French camp's restaurant (see part 2).

Lets begin with some photos of more traditional food, from restaurants in north and south Mitrovica:

Stuffed peppers can be hit and miss, but when they are good, they are very good! Usually stuffed with a mix of minced meat, rice and some herbs and spices and served with the obligatory dousing of oil.

When too much meat is not enough... the mixed grill at No. 1 restaurant.

'Leskovačka' mućkalica - pork with tomato and onion, my pick at No. 1.

The classic 'Shop /Shopska' salad with all that grated Sirene cheese on the right, the left shows a 'tave' or baked dish, this one is veges and the ever present cheese I think.

'Veal' Skewer. A lot of meat is advertised as 'veal', I'm rarely convinced however... but tasty all the same.


A delicious steak or 'Biftek' at Liburnia restaurant. Be sure to get Biftek or Bifsteak instead of Ramsteak...


In case of (rather desperate) homesickness one could order a 'Skenderbeg' as it is sometimes known. A fairly wrong combination of meat, cabbage and thick batter not unlike the Classic Chiko Roll in Australia.

Desperate times...

... call for desperate measures.

I ran out of Vegemite. I forgot to pick some up on my recent trip home.
How I could do this, I'm not sure - I even had the bubble wrap ready for the journey!

Yesterday, needing my yeast extract fix, I resorted to eating Marmite.

The gooier, runnier, British version of the yeast extract spread. It hits a spot, but could never replace the superior Aussie version for me. It's too hard to get out of the jar for a start, it spills over the edge unless you twirl your knife a few hundred times and it just doesn't blend with the butter at all, just sits on top like a gelatinous gloop.

It does, however, seem fitting to be eating Marmite while I am in Kosovo:

During World War II, Marmite became a dietary supplement in prisoner-of-war camps, and in 1999, it was sent to British peacekeeping forces in Kosovo after we received morale boosting requests from the field.

I await my boost in morale with baited (or yeasty) breath.

YAY

I stumbled across this little tid-bit on The Age website:

One of Melbourne's most loved roots venues, Fitzroy's Rainbow Hotel, is set to re-open this month — with live bands — after the lease of former publican Chick Ratten expired last month. Incoming publican brothers Chris and Cameron Strachan say they intend to restore the venue to its former glory.

YAY!
It shouldn't take too much to restore to its 'former glory' given it only shut down in December... hope they have better luck with the authorities and whinging newby residents.

Should we start the campaign to restore the Paul Williamson Hammond Combo residency?

Hottest 100

'Tis voting time in the Hottest 100 for Australian ' yoof' radio station, triplej....

I like to take the chance to support Australian acts, but couldn't help picking some faves from the wider world too...perhaps partly due to my distance from Aus the past year?
While I don't usually listen to the station (given the general brilliance of public radio in Melbourne), the chance to win a double pass to every event supported by the j's for a year is hard to pass up - it would certainly ease the return to Aus....
Anyway, here be my votes whittled down from the large shortlist and I'm sure there some I've forgotten....

Art Of Fighting - Free You
Biffy Clyro - Saturday Superhouse
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set - You Looked So Good
CSS - Let's Make Love & Listen To Death From Above
Love Of Diagrams - Form & Function
Regina Spektor - Better
White Stripes - Icky Thump
Yelle - A Cause Des Garcons
Young And Restless - Police Police
Queens Of The Stone Age - 3's & 7's

What did/will/would you vote for?

Hottie vs Love of your life

What is the blog etiquette about copy/pasting a particularly excellent comment left on someone else's blog?
Well, this was too ace to leave languishing in RYMHM's comment section, so I hope 'ruby' and Ms Fits don't mind:

ruby said...

sydney's the hottie who blows your mind a few nights, making shiny memories, but you have nothing to talk about with her at 3am. fit, fun, energetic and ultimately forgettable. low cal, light, fluffy and bright.

melbourne's the love of your life. melbourne writes sweet dedications on the flyleaf of your books, and graffiti about you out the front of your house after she crawls out the bedroom window, hair tousled. rough around the edges, but full of strong flavour and calories. the one.

A further walk in Mitrovica south

The groovy old Lux building, now houses a library and business support centre...

On the Lux theme, this is inside the Majestic restaurant... rather swish! Quite a good restaurant (great steaks) but each time we go, we have been the only ones eating there (others just have coffee). In fact, I am fairly certain that once we make our order, someone then runs out to get ingredients!


This is a view of the City Park along the river. The buildings in the background are on the north side of the river and known as the 'three towers' housing mostly Kosovar-Albanians, who utilise a special footbridge erected for them to walk to the south to carry out their day to day life.


A side street mural - one of the most photographed parts of Mitrovica. After the famous bridge of course!

A Frosty Welcome Back to WTK

"Oh this is not cold, it was -15 degrees last week!" a colleague insists as my teeth chatter and fingers numb in the -5 degree morning...

A picture on my walk home from work and the view from the front door of our building...

What happened to my transport zen?

Sometime back in June of last year, I had a shock end to what had been, at least in recent times, a pretty smooth and organised travel and transportation experience in Europe. My London trip ended a touch disastrously as outlined below... (in case you are wondering - I drafted this at the time and never got around to finishing it. After my recently horrific long haul travel, soon to be blogged about, I was inspired to revisit this).

So I get up at a fairly evil time of the morning, after some stuffing around and final packing, manage to catch a bus, a tube train and an airport train all in good time, with little or no waiting around. So far so good.
I get to airport, walk to check-in machines, smoothly check-in, wait in line for the bag-drop and head to the departure area.
I had no problems with the security check, even getting chosen for a special new security check (where you have to stand like a mongoloid and put your hands in the air while a low level x-ray is beamed at you in four positions) was actually a bonus as I was moved to the head of the queue for the bag x-ray.
I check the screens for my gate, but of course it is too early for them to tell us, so I look around the shops, get something to eat etc.
I keep checking the screens every 5 or 10 minutes for my gate.
Eventually I check the screen and it tells me the gate and says 'now boarding'.
I walk towards my gate.
I get there, but there is no line of people, no staff at the desk. One staff member off to the side doodling about. Lots of people sitting on the chairs at the gate. So I check the screen again - yes it is the right gate. So I go to the loo.
Come back from the loo, check the screens, it says 'last call', but there is still no-one lining up at the gate, nor any staff at the desk. I have heard no announcements, so I assume there has been some delay and I sit at a chair close to the gate to wait.
The screens still say 'last call' when it is about 5 minutes before the plane is due to leave. Panic begins to rise as I look around for anyone who could possibly be considered a staff member... no one.
I walk for what seems like an age, past about 8 other gates, until I finally track down a BA staff member, and enquire about my flight. He types it in and says, "oh it was on time, it has left already".... WHAT?! But I was there, I was at the gate! Panic sets in and I get a feeling I have never felt before, a mixture of stress, confusion, dumbfoundedness (is that a feeling?), dread, loss and hopelessness.
Next saw me begin a series of discussions with various BA and airport staff, mostly of the unhelpful variety and eventually I had to buy a new ticket on another airline (the salubrious JAT) at my own expense, after collecting my rejected baggage of course. But it was the series of inconsistencies in these discussions that really got my goat. Each person had a different story about the flight, particularly regarding the time it actually left.

A while later, after walking through several different terminals at Heathrow, I spoke with a customer service officer of BA, who informed me that the fight actually left several hours late. In fact it left AFTER I had been told to buy a new ticket!
They suggested I should therefore be compensated for the cost of my new ticket and sent to me another desk to arrange such. Of course nothing is that easy, and I was then told to write a letter to a certain adress with copies of the tickets and the story.... needless to say after a courtesy reply letter, I have yet to hear any more about this compensation.

Lesson learnt: Never assume anything at airports and departure gates, ask and confirm if in any doubt! Oh - and avoid Heathrow at all costs!

The disastrous travel day didn't end there - with a dodgy JAT flight, followed by a ridiculously and unnecessarily long bus ride of around 8 hours through deepest back country Serbia, I arrived 'home' at around 2am absolutely shattered...