Thursday, February 27, 2003
Lying on a beach in Sri LankaHaving a ball in Sri Lanka, found the girls easily and have been very lazy for the last five days - lying in the sun, swimming, eating and drinking lots of shandies. Last night was quite big, ending with skinny dipping and lone dancing to Kylie. Off to Kandy tomorrow - the 'hill country' so looking forward to doing a little adventuring. About six days around there, including a climb up Adams Peak, and then I'll spend two days at a beach outside of Colombo before heading home.
Sri Lanka is much easier to travel in than India, it's more relaxed and less hassle. When I arrived at the airport I waited until 4.30am and took a local bus into Colombo, then jumped on another crowded bus down to Galle, then a three wheeler into Unawatuna. It was really easy and so now I feel fine about the lone travel ahead.
Will try and update in a few days, nothing really to report from here cause we've just been on the beach mostly. Slowing losing by Sweden skin colour and getting a nice tan.
Yvette
xx
Posted at 11:42 PM
Sunday, February 23, 2003
HonkersHere I am in Hong Kong waiting for my flight. It's been delayed a little and I've found a free computer to make a quick update. I could get a seat on the flight out of Sydney this morning so made a snap decision to leave early. Have no idea where the girls are but I figure I'll just head in their general direction - George is emailing their details sometime today so it shouldn't be too hard to find an internet cafe in Sri Lanka.
Went to Brad and Gayles wedding yesterday at Fitzroy Falls, it was beautiful. very casual and relaxed and the ceremony had some really sweet parts to it, like when they thanked their parents and gave them a big hug, and their own vows.
Have had a shower and a bowl of soup - with no noodles, very hard to explain, but finally got it. Honkers looks fantastic, never seen the city before and although I could only see it on the way in, and a bit from teh airport it looks great - huge buildings surrounded by mountains and a harbour. Will have to get back here one day and stay for a little while.
Also just found out my flight to Colombo is actually via Bangkok which is a bit of a pain considering I'm not a fan of the takeoff and landing, but it's only a six hour flight so shouldn't be too bad.
Anyhoo, going to go sit at the gate cause I can't understand te announcements and I don't want to miss te flight and be stuck at the airport for another two days.
Running off now, will try to update from Silly Lanks.
Yvette
xx
Posted at 1:41 AM
Thursday, February 20, 2003
Off to Sri LankaHello!
This will be my last post for a few weeks as I'm off to Silly Lanka on Tuesday. Meeting up with Kaz and girl George in Ulawatuna for three days, then I'll be on my own for the next 10. Very exciting to be putting backpack on again. It will be good to have some quiet time as well cause I've been going out too much and enjoying being flavour of the month with my return to Sydney.
Back on 11 March.
Love
Yvette
Posted at 6:17 PM
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Last day in the nature...The following morning we woke up early and it was beautiful...
We went for a walk down to the river - mostly frozen but still had some rapids running through it. Strange cause in the middle of the night it sounded like there was traffic right next to us, but it was only the noise of the water...
I got Renay back for my pain the night before by pushing her into some huge snow drifts and felt much better for it!
Then we took a sled type thing and pushed ourselves down the hill by the sauna. Lots of fun, though I had to abort my run when I realised I was heading straight towards a tree...
Then we were picked up by John and the snowmobile and headed back to Kiruna airport...here's us looking beautiful in our thermals the night before...
Off for more drinks tonight, then last day in the office tomorrow before I head off to Sri Lanka...
Yvette
xxx
Posted at 9:35 PM
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Arctic Circle...in the natureHad a brilliant night with Jacqui at the Sydney opening night of Tivoli, Graeme Murphy's dance musical. It was fabulous! I am going to tell everyone to go see it. We were also invited to the opening night party so spent a few hours sipping champagne and eating yummy food. PR does have it's perks...ended up at the Courthouse at 1.00am for a cleansing ale, before walking home down Bourke St singing Especially For You at the top of our lungs and tap dancing Tivoli style down the road. I can't download the photos as I still haven't received my stuff from Stockholm, so they'll have to wait.
So back to our adventures in the Arctic Circle...We were collected from the Ice Hotel by John, a guy who works with Henrik Taub. I'd booked an overnight stay in a lappish hut with Henrik, and John took us out to the hut on a snowmobile. It was sooo much fun, although we couldn't fit everything on the snowmobile so Ren and I took turns sitting in the tray attached at the back, while the other rode with John.
While John whipped up some reindeer pasta Ren and I had the task of chopping wood to build fires to keep us warm overnight - cause just the two of us were staying out there. Ren was the best at sawing the wood and I was better with the axe, so between the two of us we did quite well.
So between chopping and sawing wood, chowing down on some reindeer and drinking lots of cups of tea, time passed and John left on the snowmobile. We chopped some more wood, and explored our lappish hut. It had a small sitting room and two bedrooms with bunks and the good old reindeer skin. Henrik built it himself from trees and wood and it's filled with lots of Daniel Boone type stuff. 
This is the other cottage which is used as a kitchen although there are other bunks in there as sometimes Henrik can have up to 20 people out with him. 
At around 8pm, after we'd been running outside every five minutes looking for the Northern Lights, we heard dogs barking and knew it was Henrik himself and the dogsled. That's a photo of Henrik on the left, but it's not a very good one to be honest, he doesn't really look that wild, although he is a mountain man. We asked him about the chance of seeing Northern Lights that evening - it had been snowing all day but had cleared around 6pm - and he said the only chance we had of seeing them was if we banged our head against a pine tree. But we were still optimistic, and when we left the cabin after a few cups of tea, and after Henrik and his daughter Marlin had prepared us a salmon stew, the sky was covered with swirling green lights. Our wish had come true...again!
It was such an amazing expereince. We had 15 dogs pulling the sled, it was silent, the only light was from Henrik's headlamp, the snow was bright white where the light hit it, we were lying back in the sled and all above us in the black sky were green swirling lights. I didn't even want to try to take photos, I wanted to sit there and enjoy such an amazing experience.
We returned to our hut on the snowmobile which was great fun cause Henrik fanged it all over bumps and hills. Then Ren and I went to have sauna which ended in tears after Renay ambushed me when I went to roll in the snow, and after pushing me out the door, and I was naked in -30 degrees, covered me with snow and wouldn't stop. It was agony and I was not happy. So that ended the sauna experience! It's very groovy though, a traditional Swedish wood sauna that Henrik made himself.So we then ate our salmon stew and went to bed, in a warm warm Lappish hut with wood fire going..
Posted at 9:34 PM
Monday, February 17, 2003
Growing old...30 today!
I have had such a great day, I feel very special...sat up til midnight last night with mum and had enough red and white to make us a little seedy today. This morning we has some coffee on the way to work and took it very easy. Dad is back tomorrow and we're all going to grandma and grandpas for a belated birthday dinner. Had chocolate cake at work and made everyone sing Happy Birthday to me.
I have been thoroughly spoiled and I am loving it!
Happy Birthday to me...30 will be a good year, I am sure. In a rush to get back to Jax at Mosman cause we're off to the Tivoli opening tonight and I have 15 minutes to get to the ferry at the Quay....love the old woman
Posted at 9:43 PM
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Ice Hotel Day 2
After dinner with the Australian couple we wandered down behind the Hotel in search of the Northern Lights. We're pretty sure we saw them although they were white, and not as spectacular as the lights Ren and I saw the following night. We watched a white band form across the sky, and it moved and formed different shapes and rolling waves. It was great to see it, although we were a little disappointed that it wasn't what we'd anticipated.
We then went back to the Ice Bar for a couple more drinks, sneakily topped up from the bottle of Vodka hidden in Ren's bag, and then decided it was time for bed (of course I had to convince Ren to leave the bar). We had to walk back out of the hotel to the locker room to change out of our layers as we were advised that we should only sleep in our thermals - cause you could get too hot, and sweat and then freeze. On the way we stumbled acoss an ice toilet and were in stitches amusing ourselves with the toilet for a while, and trying to do the best toilet photo action...
We tore ourselves away from the toilet, made it back to the locker room, took off all our layers, then put our Ice hotel suits over our thermals, picked up our sleeping bags and raced to our suite where we quickly took off our suits - it was freezing - laid them under our sleeping bags to keep warm, and jumped into our sleeping bags. It was soooo cold, we could only keep a small hole for our noses in the sleeping bag. But once we went to sleep it was okay, although we both woke up with sore hips a few times during the night.
The following morning we did the above in reverse after being woken at 7.30am with a cup of lingenberry tea. Since the Ice Hotel is open to tourists from 10.00am we had to be out of the suites by 9am. So we got dressed, went and had some brekkie, and then a sauna and a shower, before looking a few other parts of the hotel that we'd missed...Such as the Ice Chapel - where people actually get married, and a popular Christmas Mass is held....
And the front doors of the Hotel...
And then it was midday and time to be collected for our trip out into the nature and an overnight stay in a Lappish hut...will write about that next time,
Yvette
Posted at 8:36 PM
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Ice Bar & Getting Around
This is the Ice Bar where we spent quite a bit of time although at $20 for a small Absolute Vodka - which was very very yummy and mixed with rather groovy juices - we were glad Ren had bought her own Vodka at the System Bologet to add. 
The Bar entrance is an Absolute bottle (obviously an Ice Hotel sponsor) and all you can buy there is, of course, Absolute vodka. Luckily the bar is inside the hotel so you don't have to walk outside to get back to your room. Although we did hear a couple of stories about people who spent too long at the bar and either couldn't find their room, or broke the sleeping bag zipper, and had to go up to the warm luggage area and spend the night on a bench instead of on ice.
The drinks come in ice glasses so you can end up having a little water as a pacer if you suck the glass long enough. And as per the ice hotel experience, everything else - the bar and seats and tables - is also made of ice. But at least more dead reindeers are on top of the ice seats so you don't freeze too much. 
Before we went to the bar we collected our Ice Hotel gear, and on top the four layers we already had on, we added overalls, extra gloves and fur lined hats. We were also given special boots. It's was still bloody cold though so Renay and I put an extra jacket on top. We did not feel very glamorous I tell you, but since everyone is in the same ugly boat you don't really care, although we felt like the ultimate stupid tourists when we met this Lappish family - Renay contributed of course by asking for a photo with them...
And last for today is a some pics of us getting around the Ice Hotel. There are heaps of sleds to use so you don't have to actually walk anywhere (because the restaurant, showers and activity club are all located away from the Hotel. Which was a bit annoying in terms of the restaurant as it is advertised as the 'Ice Hotel Restaurant' implying it is inside the Ice Hotel, when actually it is an expensive restauarnt across the road.) But anyhoo, we had lots of fun sledding around with no major problems, except for after dinner and a couple of bottles of winethat night, we raced back against an Aussie couple and had a bit of a stack on the way down the hill to the hotel, thankfully there were no injuries...but more tomorrow, back to work now.Love
Yvette
Posted at 6:12 PM
Monday, February 10, 2003
Ice Hotel
Finally, I have the pics from Renay and my trip to the Ice Hotel a few weeks ago, so here's the first installment. We flew up there on the Saturday morning, it was a nice smooth flight and we landed on an ice runway at Kiruna, which is around 250kms north of the Arctic Circle. Of course, it was very cold when we got off the plane, and everyone was sooo excited, taking photographs of the plane and just loving the snow. 
On our flight was a couple from the Shire who Ren had met on the plane the day before, and a few other Aussies. Just about everyone was heading to the Ice Hotel, but they had all thought to book on the transfer bus. Ren and I had to wait in the cold until one of the few Kiruna taxis could pick us up, and entertained ourselves and a few others, by having a bit of a rumble, which I am proud to say I won. 
Got to the Ice Hotel and checked in, and dumped our bags in the luggage area. The hotel rooms are all open until 7pm each day so we took a quick tour of the main hall and bar and then wandered around searching for our suite and looking at the rooms.
We reckon our room was the best, it had about four ice sculptures in it and was huge. Although we had two beds we slept together cause I was afraid we might die of hypothermia. 
There are around 20 suites that are huge and are filled with ice sculptures. The beds are boards on blocks of ice, with reindeer skins on top. You are allocated one sleeping bag and do it right up so there's only a small opening around your nose. It's bloody cold inside, from around -4 to -10 degrees, but nowhere near as cold as outside. In the room in the pic on the left, the bed was in the sled being pulled by ice lions, and the robot was in another room.
The picture on the left is of the main hallway, which was very pretty, the rest are of us being silly, and climbing ice sculptures.
Must rush now, have a meeting, but will write more about Ice Hotel tomorrow. Love Yvette
xxx
Posted at 6:50 PM
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Living out of suitcases
Because I am living out of suitcases on the floor of a room at mum and dads I can't find the CD that has the digital camera software on it so I can't post any photos of the Ice Hotel. It is somewhere in the mess of suitcases on the floor. Only a month til I can move back into my apartment thank goodness - it's great with mum and dad but I want to be back in my own place. 
But, what I can do is put up some photos from my farewell at the Plank Place in Stockholm on my second last day in the office. I sent a mail around telling everyone that I would be down there having a few quiet shandys and around 30 colleagues turned up at what became a rather huge night.
We had lots of nibbles, cheap beer and wine and I even received fabulous farewell gifts including Swedish liquor, a book about Sweden, and a lighter on a necklace (from Karin as I was always borrowing, and not returning, hers) - my favourite being a toy moose from Monya and Sandra, and a fantastic card handmade card also. Earlier that afternoon I had coffee with my department and they gave me some moose earrings and a fabulous blue glass vase. So I was very spoilt and had a wonderful time until Ute very responsibly decided it was time to go home!
Many hangovers in the office the following day...I had to lie on the floor a few times from the pain.
And last but not least, we held an ugly photo contest...I think I took it a bit too seriously...although I think it could fairly be called a tie!
Posted at 8:49 PM
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
Home! & 'Sign my guest map'It's my first day at work after being back in fabulous Sydney for almost a week. After experiencing -30 degrees while in 'the nature' after a night at the Ice Hotel in the Arctic Circle, I arrived in Sydney to 40+ heat...I'm loving it but sometimes feel like I'm melting, I think I have never sweated this much ever - and the beer and wine consumption has of course increased in the last six days.
She's been to cities that never close down
Like Oslo and Malmo and old Stockholm Town
But no matter how far, or how wide she roams
She still calls Australia home.
She's always travellin'
She loves being free
She also likes drinking (between you and me).
Til her voice cries loudly over the phone,
I call Karaoke Bars home.
Both the Farrell daughters
Spinning 'round the world
Away from their family and friends
But Stockholm got colder, and colder
And that's where her journey ends.
One day they'll all be together once more
When all of the ships don't sink any more.
When all on the Tampa are safely home.
She calls Karaoke Bars home.
But no matter how far, or how wide she roams.
She calls Karaoke Bars. She calls Karaoke Bars
She calls Karaoke Bars home.
On my first day home I woke up very early and headed down to Cronulla, walked along the Esplanade and had a swim at North Cronulla beach. It was soooooo fabulous, I felt like a totally different person - I started getting my mentality back after my time in cold, dark Sweden. So I'm feeling great right now! Will update tomorrow with some of the thousands of photos from Ren and my trip to the Ice Hotel, and what I've been up to since I got back. Now back to answer the thousands of emails I have waiting in my inbox.
One more thing...on the left hand side of this page is a View my guest map' link which you can sign...make sure you sign it cause I want to know who has been reading this!
Yvette
xx
Posted at 4:33 PM