Tie me kangaroo down, sport

As I was driving home after practice today, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport came on the radio.... This is one of those instances where I've learned/know a song completely out of its original context/version, and then hear the original.

Kangaroo was one of the songs on a tape of kid versions of songs my sister and I had growing up. Hearing the original today on the radio hearkened back to that tape, and my growing up. Ah, nostalgia is fun, sometime.

And in other news, the US swimming nationals started today (Casey went an 8:58 in her 800--speedy). Results from the meet are online here.

With that, I'll exit, maybe to read some more of my British translation of Crime & Punishment (I mention the nationality, as I've noticed some Britified-Russian habits: drinking tea, having "coppers" and "pences" in ones pocket...)

Mind me platypus duck, Bill,
Mind me platypus duck
Don't let him go running amuck, Bill,
Mind me platypus duck

Although we've come, to the end of the road

I have spent the past few days reading the seventh/last Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), and can report that I'm quite pleased with it and how J.K. Rowling has ended the series. My speed at reading it was also helped by some stormy weather that kept me from swimming on Friday night...

And as Mrs. Rowling's stated that she doesn't currently plan to write an eight book around Mr. Potter, there is now only the 2 remaining movies to wait for... next year and in 2010.

I do like the total artwork for the U.S. cover of the book as well...


Although we've come, to the end of the road
Still I can't let go

Oh the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear, and he shows them, pearly whites...

(just a pic today: still recovering from the trip, as well as trying to get through the new Harry Potter book.... the pic, btw, is from a kickboard I saw at the grocery store tonight.)

And someone's sneakin' round the corner
Could that be our boy Mack the Knife?

I was down at the New Amsterdam...

Today, I'm flying back to the States from Uganda. I left Kampala last night at 10:15 p.m. local time (3:15 p.m. Eastern on Sunday) and get back to Fort Lauderdale at 8:30 p.m. on Monday. In between, I've got a brief 2 hour stop in Washington D.C. (where I'll need to go through customs), and an 8-hour layover in Amsterdam (hence the windmill at right).


So, during my stay in the Netherlands, from 5:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., I decided to take a driving tour of Amsterdam--which was the stereotypical drive-by tour with a few stops all just long enough to snap some pictures (but quite enjoyable non-the-less). Pictures from the tour....

Above left is the Amstel River (the beer is actually named after it), as its flows into the city. One of the several rowers I ended up seeing on the river is in the shot (next to the boats). We even saw a trio being instructed...

After leaving the river--where the windmill above was--we headed into the city, proper, where we drove over several of its canals (not all fed by the Amstel). At left is one of the canals, with houseboats along both sides. Our city tour included stops in the museum district, the red-light district, and several other points of interest.

Along another canal, we stopped to see the Anne Frank house, pictured at left. It's the red building just left of center frame, with the two women standing in front of it. The right-end of the block is the museum associated with the house; with the line to get in out the door and down the side street (this was around 11 in the morning).


Also on the tour, we saw a bike garage--there's a lot of bike riding in the city. Apparently this public garage (on the far side of a canal, in front of the hotel; and running the width of the shot), and man are there a lot of bikes...



And just for fun, and because we saw a few of them while out and about: sheep! [below]


I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

That God blessed the broken road, that lead me straight to you

As part of my tour of Jinja and the River Nile yesterday, Moses and Peter (my hosts) took me to see a place called Amber Court [the main entrance is pictured at right]. The building was once part of the British Colonial compound, I believe where the barrack was housed.


They brought it to my attention as it was where Queen Elizabeth II stayed when she last visited the country in 1954 [view of from the front/road]. She had come to Jinja for the opening of the Owen Falls Dam, which is where Uganda gets its power.


The building was interesting to see: it's run down to the point that it looks distressing, even the 25 yard pool [at right]. But the structures are still sound, and probably still able to be returned to their former glory. They probably will not be, and the site will continue to degenerate... this, even though HRH might pay a visit to the area when she returns to Uganda in November for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting...


Some other pictures from yesterday:
Planted fields of sugar cane edge the remaining portion of a tropical rainforest which has yet to be cut down to allow for more planting.




Behind a road lined with vegetation, a hillside is cultivated with a tea.





Some of the local, large birds, hang out on a golf course overlooking the arm of Lake Victoria which leads to the Nile.

By the way, have I mentioned the strong prevalence of religion here? I also heard Bless the Broken Road yesterday while at lunch... and it got stuck in my head.

Anyways, I leave tonight for my journey back... 20 hours of flying: I can hardly wait.

I set out on a narrow way, many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushin' through

It's a small world, after all

Today, I inadvertently learned how to delete all the photos on my camera.... Also today, my Uganda hosts (Moses and Peter) took me about a 45-minute drive east of Kampala, to the town of Jinja (pronounced "Ginger"), and the source of the River Nile, where it emerges from Lake Victoria (although apparently under some argument, as the lake is fed by some other rivers). The switch from Victoria to Nile is shown in the picture at right: between the island on the right and the left-hand shore. Other pictures (all taken after the deletion, which luckily happened while at the source park):

Sign at the park, mentioning the history of the discovery of its connection the Nile.






[left]: Cross-river from the sign's location. On the hillside to left of the palm tree in center frame is a tall obelisk-like marker where Speke stood and proclaimed Lake Victoria the source.

[right]: A former bridge across the Nile, near the source, from before the nearby dam was built. The remains of the bridge now only span about half the river.






A view down the Nile...

(and yes, part of today's trip included touching the waters... so I've now been in de-Nile the Nile).




As for today's title, it has more to do with the last class day yesterday. Two of the participant coaches walked in wearing "Texas Swimming" shirts... (apparently, one of their swimmers recently attended Longhorn Swim Camp in Austin).

I'm now back in Kampala, and leave Uganda tomorrow... so I will leave you with the composite panorama of Kampala I took earlier this week and patched together. hasta


It's a small world, after all
It's a small, small, world...

Blue... oh so lonesome for you...

While there is not a U.S. fast food joint around, Harry Potter does exist [at right] and at the moment Beyoncé's singing, "to the left, to the left" on the radio. (The Pan Am Games are also on t.v., which is strange 'cause I don't think they're really on in the U.S....)

Strangely, there is apparently not a McDonald's in Uganda; nor Burger King, KFC, nor Taco Bell... but I've seen some Clear Channel billboards. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've been out of the country and not seen some American fast food places around (there was even a McDonald's in the Amsterdam airport).

Also interesting is the prevalence of US music here on the radio. It's even in restaurants, like the other night at dinner I managed to hear a slew of country songs including LeAnn Rimes's Blue and some song where the singer kept saying they were from "San Antone" (I think it was Clint Black, but am not positive).

Things continue to go well... had another driving tour yesterday, and saw the Ugandan Parliament building [at right]. Also saw the interesting turning walls [above left] at one of the hotels here....

Well, I will sign off here by mentioning that the city is Kampala after one of the hills here that the British named "Hill of Impala" due to the antelopes originally in the area. In Luganda, the language of the local Buganda population", the hill was called "Kasozi ka Empala" which got nicknamed "Ka'mpala"...


Three o'clock in the morning, here I am
Sitting here so lonely, so lonesome I could cry

I feel it, it's coming, rain...

Well, I have managed to take a few brief jaunts out-and-about here in Uganda and remembered to take my camera with me. And now that I've downsized the pictures enough so they should hopefully load, I bring you...
Scenes from in and around Kampala

I'll start with a picture of my hotel (behind the palms, at right), from outside. It's located within Kampala's banking district: a Standard-Charter bank is directly across from it, down the street is the headquarters of East Africa Development Bank, behind us is the Uganda high court, and the tall building on the left hand side of the picture is actually the (Federal) Bank of Uganda.


After today's class, I was driven around town and also visited the country's only 50m pool in nearby Munyoyo (a picture of the pool is available here). Part of today's tour included a trip up to the top of one of Kampala's 7 hills, where the Kibuli Mosque sits, along with it's giant mango tree [at left].


From the left minaret of the mosque, I snapped a sequential panorama shot of the city itself. The first of the 5 is at right, showing the part of town I'm staying in (I'm just to the right of the tall building with the blue middle section).

I visited the shores of Lake Victoria, as well [pictured at left]. The picture is from the Speke Resort--where the 50m pool is--currently undergoing a massive expansion in preparation for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which will be in Kampala in November.

And while out at the lake, I visited a more typical Uganda town on the lakeshore (Ggapa, if I've remembered correctly), and snapped a picture of its fish market [at right]. The partially cut-off sign to the left is a list of rules/recommendations about how to treat the fish population of the lake, part of which included not using explosives to kill them...

Well, I must jet, as net time here dwindles... hasta


I'm gonna stand out here on the mountain top...

Another suitcase in another hall

Scenes from airports...
FLL, IAD, AMS, EBB

As of 10 p.m. local Uganda time (about 2 p.m. in Florida, I think), I am checked into my hotel in Kampala. This is after 24 hours of travel...

FLL
My trip started around 11 a.m. at the Fort Lauderdale airport (FLL), where, after checking in for my first flight (FLL-->Washington Dulles) with United, I headed outside and over to Terminal 1 to attempt to check in with KLM (at the Northwest counter) for my second (DC-->Amsterdam) and third flights (Amsterdam-->Entebbe). I mention my trek between terminals because by the time I'd made my roundtrip, I was sweating massively (it was probably 90° with 90% humidity) and because I wasn't able to check-in for my second flight. (Polk Majestic, who made my reservation, had apparently purchased 2 separate roundtrip tickets: one domestic; one international. As they were separate, the one confirmation number I had check me in for the United flight, and didn't work for the KLM flights--and the ticket counter staff can't check people in on flights that don't originate there... they were nice enough to change my seats though.)


IAD
After cooling down, grabbing some lunch and attempting to check-in online (your flight doesn't originate here, please check-in with the flight origination...), I eventually caught my 1:40 p.m. flight to Dulles (IAD). Upon arrival in D.C., I was a little worried/frantic: I had an hour to find my next gate/flight, which I didn't think I was checked in for. My worry wasn't relieved by the fact that at Dulles I couldn't locate a departure screen with my flight on it; United flights--yes; flights arriving--yes; map of restaurants within the terminal--yes (3, I believe); information about where I should go--NO.

After blindly hopping one shuttle to change terminals, a brief chat with a fellow confused transient, and a chat with a knowledge shuttle driver on break; I was headed toward what turned out to be my gate (pictured above; the driver knew from where the flight left from memory--I was impressed). Upon visiting the gate counter, I had my remaining two boarding passes and about 20 minutes before boarding...

My trans-Atlantic flight didn't go ideally. While the seat next to me was empty (yes!), the one in front was not... which wouldn't have been such a bad thing if the person it it had not reclined fully a quarter into the flight. The angle the chair was at made it impossible for me to sit in the seat and be able to see "my viewing screen" that was on the back of it. I was, however, able to see that my reclined forward neighbor was watching Hercules. Added to this was I ended up not being able to fall asleep on the flight.

My eventual frustration drove me to a minor contortion act which allowed me to view the screen (and put one of my legs to sleep), so I watch Pan's Labyrinth for the last part of the flight.


AMS

After my sleepless (overnight) flight, I arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport (AMS) around 7 a.m., Sunday morning, surprisingly awake. It wasn't until the end of my 4 hour layover (where I saw the fish mobile above, as well as the interesting smoking warnings on the cigarettes in duty-free--at left), as I was waiting to board my last flight, that I started to get sleepy. I managed to stay awake long enough to find my seat, and then crashed and slept most of the flight 8.5 hour flight. I did manage to wake up about mid-way through the flight, as we flew over the north Africa coast and the Sahara, though.

EBB
Upon arrival at Entebbe airport (EBB) around 8:30 p.m., I waded through immigration and then managed to find my ride (Peter and Moses) in the throng of people waiting outside the terminal's gate. After a 45-minute drive, around Lake Victoria (not really close enough to see the lake, save at one point--but it was also dark), we arrived at my hotel here in Kampala, the Grand Imperial Hotel.

My clinic starts tomorrow morning... so I must go and make final preparations for that. Hasta...

So what happens now?
Where am I going to?

I bless the rains down in Africa, gonna take some time to do the things we never have...

So, as I'm leaving later today for a week-long trip to Uganda, I picked Toto's Africa as today's song.

In inspecting the lyrics, I was surprised by how I'd misheard part of the lyric: I have though that the song talked about "a leopardess" rising above the Serengenti, but the lyrics I found indicate that it should be "Olympus". I'm not sure if I like the shift or not...

I've still got the flipping between to "bless" and "miss" in the subject line to ponder as well ("I miss the rains...").



Back to the trip, I leave today just before 2, get to Amsterdam (in The Netherlands) tomorrow morning and arrive in Kampala late tomorrow. This fun (hopefully sleep-full) flight follows my surviving through both Friday the 13th yesterday, and a rather hectic work-week (I'm saying it was hectic because I'll be out of the office next week).

And as of last night, I'm all packed and ready to go. I just need to put the final touches on my presentation for while I'm there, and I'll be ready. And hopefully while there I'll be able to figure out the seeming paradox that a country on the Equator has temperatures in the 60s-80s... (I read online somewhere that there's a 0% chance for a "Hot" day (above 80°); that it's never been that warm there). But I will find out...

And hopefully, I'll be able to get online whilst there and do a post or two (or if only to hit my blog page so that I have a visit from Africa on it ;-). But I won't know this until I get there... so possibly hasta my return (on the 23rd).

Speaking of my return: the irksome part of this trip is that the last Harry Potter book comes out while I'm gone. That day-of-release delivery is going to waste! (That, and I need to be patient to wait and read it upon my return...)

I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like a leopardess Olympus above the Serengeti

I'm alright, nobody worry 'bout me

So I'm at this restaurant the other night that has piped-in music playing. As I'm leaving, Kenny Loggin's I'm Alright comes on, and I could not help but think of the dancing gopher...


In other news, I'm:

• dismayed that 'ginormous' is now in the dictionary,
• surprised that the Spice Girls are getting back together (but am happy about it), and
• way tired from staying up to 3 a.m. last night watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (and no, despite it being 3 a.m. I wasn't lonely). So I'm going to bed early.
  

hasta

(btw, my take on the movie: It is good, go see it. 2 key points for me: 1) I was tired/sleepy about an hour before the midnight start time for the movie, and it keep me awake the whole time. 2) I am a little disappointed with it, stemming from the fact that this movie remind me of more stuff from the book that was not included than any of the other movies have done individually--if you've not read the book, this probably isn't an issue ;-)

I'm alright, nobody worry 'bout me
You got to gimme a fight? Why don't you just let me be?

Fascinating rhythm, you've got me on the go

I do so love when I get to Target's Garden Center check-out line with to find a line full of people buying products from inside the store... particularly on instances like today when I'm holding something large and/or awkward (2 large bags of mulch), like one would purchase at the garden part: it makes my day.

Although, today, instead of holding the 2 bags, I went and got a nearby cart to set them in, and then waited (and, yes, while I was getting the cart, the woman in the green shirt in the picture above came out from inside and got into line--further delaying my check-out--cause it's about me, you know).

Anyways, despite the delay at check-out, I did manage to get home in time to put the mulch down [at right], and to realize that I should've bought at least one more bag, as the 2 covered about 90% of the center area pictured, and didn't even address another sidebar in need of re-mulchification. Of course, by the time I realized this, the garden part of Target was closed, and I could not get more today (I am heartbroken by this, particularly since one of my neighbors said months ago that they thought new mulch was needed and was going to get some but didn't. I just started thinking it needed last week/so, and remembered about it while at the store today.)

All this mulch business was post the July June meet this morning, which went alright. My free was a little off where I'd've liked (2 fr=2:09--sluggish; 8 fr=9:23--wanted around 9:00), but my other events were decent (4 im=5:01; 1 fly=1:00.9). Results here.

Today, I also managed to get a new SIM card for my cell phone, in an attempt to fix a reception issue I have--which only seems to have made things worse. And while at Target (actually prior to the mulch buying), I picked up a Kodak C743 digital camera [pic at left] on clearance as a birthday present. As it was the floor model (literally the last one in the store) and had been "manhandled", I got 30% off the discounted close-out price, so I got it for under $100 (I did a little dancing in the store at my luck).

Each morning I get up with the sun
Start a-hopping, never stopping
To find at night no work has been done

With an intellect and a savoir-faire, no one in the whole universe will ever compare

Today is 07/07/07... and I spent my Saturday doing... (wait for it)... laundry.
Ahh, the fun. Though I did get it mostly done and put away, as well as had two friends (Vanessa and Blake) assisting/hanging out. All-in-all, not a bad day. Oh, and after a week of off-and-on downloading, I now have season 5 of Alias on my computer to watch--in time to take to Uganda.

As for the rest of the weekend, I have the July June meet tomorrow: the second (July) half of the June Kraser masters meet. I think I'm swimming 4 events, but don't quite remember what I signed up for. And it hasn't helped that swimming this week has been kinda flaky: Monday thundered-out in 5 minutes, Tuesday stormed-out after 30 minutes, Wednesday was solid (2 hours; about 5,000m), Thursday out after 20 minutes (not feeling well), Friday affected by rain delay, and this morning... well, I wished I'd gotten there at 7 to swim.

Next week holds some bigger excitement: the fifth Harry Potter movie opens Wednesday, the local Sectional swim meet starts Thursday, and I leave for Uganda on Saturday. So, I'm trying to finalize my prep work for the trip. Luckily--helping--I found a rather cool live version of today's song (Prince's "7"--some good guitar work from his purpleness), as well as a video for another song I like: George Michael's Spinning the Wheel (he' s on tour in Europe at the moment, possibly coming to the States...). In the meantime, I'll just have to settle with knowing that Cyndi Lauper is playing this weekend here, and the Police are in Miami on Tuesday--following their playing today at the Live Earth concert.

(I also will admit that I've had today's song picked out for a few months now... it just fits.) Hasta


Words of compassion, words of peace
And in the distance, an army's marching feet
But behold... we will watch them fall

And I'll bet you a drink or two, that I can make you, put that lampshade on your head

Belated Happy 4th of July... my day went fairly well: swam, caught a movie, vegged some, and then... drove to Boca to hang out with Laura and her friend Tia.

Laura kept me out a little later than I liked, which made getting up for work this morning not terribly fun. But I survived... although I did forget to call her this morning on my way into work to wake her up let her know I got to work ok. Maybe tomorrow...

I am medicine and I am poison
I can help you up or make you fall
You had some of the best times
You'll never remember we me
Alcohol...

Sunny days, where have you gone?

Thunder BITES!

Last night's swim practice was stopped about 10 minutes before it actually began (6:04) due to thunder. I'd gotten a 400 in when we were booted out of the water by the safety-zealous lifeguard staff due to thunder in the area. It didn't even really rain for another 30 minutes or so: I was already home and attempting to go online when the rain came and screwed up my connection.

And then tonight... well, tonight was a wee bit stronger. Actually, a lot stronger. It came later (around 6:45) so, we'd gotten about half our practice in. The sky was just black: it reminded me of Ghostbusters--when the clouds come rolling in. Worse, the storm could easily be called a torrential downpour, and with it was a strong wind that started bending the metal poles holding up the temporary awnings on parts of the deck (and removing some of the straps holding their tarps down) and some nice, close lightning.

Which made me glad that when I did finally venture out in the less-heavy rain to get to my car, I hadn't parked on the side of the lot that turned into Lake Hall of Fame. This was semi-made up for by when I got in my car, and I couldn't really see out my front windshield as my front defrost is only semi-working due to lack of chilling by the air conditioning... ahhh, the fun.

But the post-practice FLAM (Ft Lauderdale Aquatics Masters) dinner was decently attended--despite 'Deth and Vane ditching out--and we had a good time. And it wasn't even raining up in POM-pa-no (Pompano Beach), where we went to Friday's. Strange, no? Given that it's only like 10 minutes away. And while on the topic of rain, I hope the flooding in Texas is slowing down: my rowing buds in Austin report they've been off the lake due to high water for a month/so...

Why does it always rain on me?
Even when the sun is shining
I can't avoid the lightning

Je vois la vie en rose

J'ai eu un week-end du film de français. Yep, a decidedly French-film weekend.

Yesterday in the early afternoon, I walked over to my neighborhood movie theater to catch La Vie en Rose--not really remembering why I wanted to see it, just that I wanted to. But I was not disappointed, as it is quite good. The movie is a bio-pic of the life of Edith Piaf, the original singer/writer of the song of the same name (you may not know it by name, but you've probably heard it).

Post movie, I returned home, arriving maybe 10 minutes before a heavy downpour started, complete with lightning over. This led me to stay in for the most of the afternoon. In the early evening, I made a brief excursion to Target where I got followed from the back of the store all the way out into the parking lot by a crying 4-year-old named Michael who was distraught about not getting a toy (and who decided to blindly run through the parking lot to get back into the store, and somehow managed to avoid any cars/traffic. He didn't make it back into the store, but did scare his mother half to death and earned a severe back-of-the-shirt grab to halt him in mid-street-cross dash).

As for today, I awoke at 12:30, which was rather surprising given that I didn't go to bed all that late (though which I'm actually kinda glad I did sleep that long). Upon waking up, a field trip to Boca occurred where some friends went to help me look for some light-weight clothes for Uganda and then we saw Ratatouille. All-in-all, a pleasant day.

Quand il me prend dans ses bras,
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose