November 2024 – Mick and Liesel's Antics

Big Things

We returned to the Bear Tooth for an evening meal with Liesel’s brother Aaron and his family. On this occasion, I chose a pizza but it was too big for my dainty stomach and I couldn’t finish it. By various logistical manoeuvres, we eventually returned to Cath and Hans’s place for one final night. Alas, not a full night’s sleep for Liesel: she got up at 4am in order to drive back across the big city and take Buzz to the airport for her return trip home to Albuquerque. During the night, the temperature had dropped to -15°C so I was quite happy to stay under the covers for a few more hours.

Meanwhile, newlyweds Helen and Brent were slurping their way through the newly released film Wicked. Liesel, her Mom and I saw the stage version in London, with the original Broadway cast, a mere 19 years ago. Feeling old.

After the airport run, Liesel and her Mom collected me and we enjoyed a big breakfast at Southside Grill. Liesel’s choice was reindeer and cheese skillet with eggs. I meant to go and check up on our near neighbour, Star, later on, but I forgot. We did learn something new about American cuisine, though. Eggs ‘over easy’ means you get runny egg white. If you want solid whites with slightly runny yolk, you ask for ‘over medium’. My meal kept me going for the rest of the day: no need for lunch nor dinner.

After watching our first TV rubbish in a week, Liesel went to work in the office, taking Mom with her. And while I didn’t go and visit Star, I did go for a long walk to visit some more wildlife, even though I really, really, really craved a nap. It was -9° with no wind. Footwear is so much better nowadays: even though it was cold out, my feet didn’t turn into blocks of ice like they used to when I was a child. My exposed face was the most uncomfortably chilly.

I had crampons on my shoes too, and the noise they made as I walked on ice was very strange. Crunch, crunch, crunch as usual, but in places, a squeak or a slight echo gave the impression that the ice was hollow underneath. At the right pace, there was occasionally an almost continuous roar coming from my footsteps. Great sound effects. Where the pavement was ice-free, my crampons sounded like I was wearing several pairs of high-heels.

My destination was a dead, beached whale that had made the news a few days ago. I know, sad that it had died, but still an interesting thing to see as a visitor: we don’t get much washed up sealife in the Mersey.

I walked by Jupiter, the biggest planet, another stop on the citywide Planet Walk, and I smiled at the uncharacteristic snow-covered Jovian north pole.

I didn’t know how close I’d get to the object of interest, so I started taking photos as soon as I saw the crowd on the frozen mud flats.

Mud flats and, way over there, whale watchers

I was in two minds about whether to walk on the mud flats. I wouldn’t in Summer, too risky with quicksands and, I suppose, quickmuds.

But, ‘do something scary every day’, as a friend once said. I figured that if I were to fall through the ice, someone from the fairly large crowd would come to my rescue once they’d stopped laughing.

It was icy, and bumpy, and I felt better prepared for the adventure than many others whose shoes and boots appeared to have no grip at all.

As I approached the whale, its odour became more obvious. Being this cold, the body wasn’t decomposing very fast. I’m sure it will smell stronger before the next really high tide takes the corpse away.

The deceased juvenile fin whale is 47 feet in length. Fin whales are the second largest cetacean after the blue whale. Their name comes from the relatively small dorsal fin.

A lady with zero grip on her sheepskin boots asked me to help her across the ice. In the end, I helped Valerie walk all the way back to her car.

The biologists have taken some large samples away to determine the cause of death. There are no signs of a collision with a boat, so it’s probably natural.

Much of the baleen seems to have disappeared: I suspect people other than native Alaskans have, illegally, taken it as a souvenir.

You can tell by how dark my glasses are that the Sun was very bright, and very low down, so it was hard to avoid looking towards it.

After dropping Valerie off at her vehicle, I quickly debated with myself whether or not to walk across the ice-covered lagoon. I decided not to on the grounds that I’ve already done something scary today, but also, at the edge of the lagoon, there was water, actual liquid water, running out from underneath the ice, and I thought that maybe it’s not as solid as it looks, even if there are plenty of other people out there skating and even practicing their ice hockey skills.

I did like the machine out on the ice, a caterpillar tracked snow plough and I thought, I should get something like that to better negotiate the potholes of Northenden and Gatley.

Over in the old country, we’re sorry to have missed William’s 7th birthday, but we did have a quick video chat with him as we were just going to bed and he’d just got up for school.

Happy birthday William. And what did we do to celebrate the occasion? Well, we binge-watched a TV series Dark Winds, which takes place in the Navajo nation. I think we can all recommend it, although I’m not likely to read the 27 books on which the series is based. The only exercise today was a quick walk over the road to do some shopping.

Liesel’s doing a lot of work right now in the office: I wish I could help in some way, but my legal experience is limited to watching one session of a Superior Court case recently..

After another breakfast out, this time at Jackie’s Place, where, by the way, I only got two eggs ‘over medium’, remember, instead of the three I’d had at Southside, Liesel took me next door to Play It Again Sports. I don’t know who Bob is but I had a feeling that he deserved a damn good whacking, as the song says.

But, apparently we’re not allowed to thump him. What a great sports shop though. If only I were interested in skiing, skating, playing ice hockey, football, soccer, working out, weight-lifting or lacrosse. I could have bought specialised gloves for many different sports, even for different positions in some sports. And then there are so many different socks available. I might have had a go at the unicycle I spied in the corner but (a) it was chained to the fire extinguisher and (b) I still can’t ride a unicycle.

Another day, another dollar. While Liesel was in the office, Jyoti took me on a tour of Anchorage. Well, kinda. First stop was Chugach Mountain Roasters, the coffee shop where Suvan, Jyoti’s son, works. The coffee was so nice, I had a second cup, thanks very much, Suvan.

Next, we visited Natural Pantry for some natural food items. What a strange place. At home, we buy aloe vera gel in nice plastic bottles. Here, it’s all natural. And what big leaves they are.

I was very happy to see this sign though, an employer actually looking after their staff. So Jyoti and I returned all our cannabis and hemp based products to the relevant shelves.

We paid a quick visit to SK, Jyoti’s boyfriend’s daughter, on the occasion of her birthday, after which, I was dropped off at the office.

In the evening, Liesel, Leslie and I went round to Monica’s house for a lovely meal. A huge pork joint was the main attraction, while my falafels were a close second. Jyoti, Una and Phil joined us too and it was good to see Gregg again and especially Neha, back home from Washington DC where she is studying.

For whatver reason, we’d decided previously that we wouldn’t make a trip to Talkeetna on this occasion. For which I am very grateful. This is how cold it was there.

So, as you might have anticipated, I ended this post with another whinge about the climate here.

Sunrise, Sunset

By the time I woke up, Liesel had already gone back to check up on Mom and Buzz and to take them shopping. I had a very peaceful day in Cath and Hans’s house, looking out over the city and Turnagain Arm, admiring the mountains, reading and writing.

Later in the afternoon, I watched the fog ‘rolling in from the sea’, and the catchy lyric took me by surprise by continuing, ‘My desire is always to be here’, and I thought, no, it really isn’t. I know, fresh snow is great, the mountains are beautiful, but no, I really couldn’t live here.

We had a very nice, colourful dinner, thank you Cath and Hans, but again, the vegetarian sausages here just aren’t very nice. Always worth trying something new, I know, but always so disappointing.

The atmosphere here is so dry. I’ve not suffered from cracked lips like some people have, and my nose no longer bleeds as much when I sneeze but we have experienced a new phenomenon here in this house: static electric shocks whenever we turn a light on or off, or just touch some surfaces.

The temperature difference between indoors and outside is huge. It takes a while to pile on the extra layers for the outdoors world. But on this day, I was glad that I had also put on my kevlar vest because on our return visit to The Dome, we witnessed some athletes throwing javelins.

We again walked several laps of the track and then Jyoti was kind enough to drive me, Leslie and Buzz to the Anchorage Museum while Liesel went to work.

The paintings by native artists really do show the beauty of the place, and they sometimes go to great lengths to produce their work.

Mountain views, 1947, by George Browne (1914-1958, American)

George Browne created over twenty-three oil paintings on location while climbing Denali in 1947, He summited the 20,320-feet peak as a member of the Bradford Washburn-led scientific expedition.

In addition to his climbing gear and food, Browne carried canvases, brushes, paint and an easel. He packed the wet paintings in a plywood box designed to separate the boards in order to avoid damage in transit. At 11,000 feet, temperatures reached 20-below zero Fahrenheit, and the paint froze. Some of the paintings have patches missing while others remain unfinished – a testament to snowstorms that had obscured his view.

I wonder if he was as tired as I felt after walking up all those stairs in the Museum just to see these paintings?

On the way back home, we stopped off at Fire Island again, as Jyoti needed some bread. I went into the neighbouring beer shop and took a while deciding on which can of beer to buy. I selected a bar of chocolate too. The assistant rang everything up. Then he asked me for my Id. Well, of course I didn’t have any Id on me, just on my phone, but that wasn’t good enough. ‘Without Id, I’m sorry, I can’t complete this transaction.’ Oh well. So I went home, beerless, dejected and pleased that I look young enough to pass as a 25-year old.

In the evening, we were talking about how you can’t really get lost in Anchorage. And I was thinking, I’ve managed to get lost in this one single house of yours, it’s so big!

Yes, I have played a couple of Christmas songs on my show during the Summer, because they matched that week’s theme. I did not expect to hear Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You on the radio as early as November 15th. But I did. In fact, there is a radio station that plays nothing but Christmas music at the moment. I gave it a song and a half in the car, then we reverted to NPR.

Do something scary every day, somebody said to me once. Today’s scary thing was sitting in the car while Liesel drove us down the hill and into the city, over fresh snow that had been falling most of the night, so deep, you couldn’t see the road markings. In fact, at times, you couldn’t see where the road was. More folks were on the roads as we approached the city centre.

First we stopped to pick up Buzz and Leslie. Then to Jyoti’s house where Liesel’s Dad’s old Mitsubishi Eclipse from 1995 has been parked up for several months. Its battery was successfully charged overnight and Liesel drove the vehicle to its next resting place, Una’s garage. Jyoti drove the three of us up to Una’s too.

We were here for brunch to celebrate Pam’s birthday, and this was the first time on this visit that I’d seen Pam and Owen. Also, Gregg was here, without Monica who’s in Washington DC visiting their daughter Neha whose birthday was this week too. Like a huge game of chess isn’t it?

Brunch was fun, and loud at times! Then we took Jyoti home. Then we took Buzz and Leslie home. Then Liesel took us two for a coffee and to buy some house shoes from the very emporium where I bought mine a couple of weeks ago. Then we returned to Cath and Hans’s house. I’d just been ferried around in a car all day, sat, ate, chatted, nothing too onerous, but I was absolutely shattered.

After a gorgeous dinner, thanks again Cath, someone mentioned the C-word. And lo, in four corners of the room did appear a host of shiny Christmas trees.

And, of course, they are American-sized trees.

I slept, on and off, for nearly twelve hours, before getting up for breakfast. Liesel had gone out for her regular massage and then to work.

Sunset.

The mountain to the left is the volcanic Mt Saint Augustine, 200 miles away to the south east. It marks the start of the peninsula that leads to the Aleutian chain of islands.

The sunsets are long and pretty. Sunrise is also very pretty: I was dragged out of bed to see the early morning alpenglow on the mountains, and to see Denali, 200 miles to the north. It is the highest mountain in north America, and to think, in theory, from its summit, you could see into this house. If you could be bothered lugging up a powerful enough telecope. But folks have done dafter things than that, as we saw yeserday at the Museum.

It blows my mind that from this house, we can see the Alaskan mountain range, spanning a total length of 400 miles. And if that doesn’t prove the Earth is flat, I don’t know what will.

On the way to pick up Leslie and Buzz, I saw my first wild moose of this trip, running along with us, on the other side of the crash barrier.

A return visit to The Dome for more circuits of the athletics track and a quick go on the exercise bike. One which, I think, has the most uncomfortable saddle in the world.

Next stop: the pedicurist where Liesel, her Mom and I had our feet gently serviced by the grandparents of two delightful little children who were playing in the shop. We all complained, just a little, when we walked outside into air so cold, it had very nearly solidified. -13°C, apparently, but with wind chill, it felt like -23°C.

After this assault on the senses, we had a huge lunch at the Bear Tooth Theaterpub. Huge. I even had a pint of beer and a dessert. Well, because the portions were so big, both Liesel and I took half of our desserts home to enjoy later. An afternoon nap crept up on me while I was listening to a podcast.

Sunset, and the house next door revelled in its own alpenglow.

After the next prolonged sunrise, I watched the Moon as it crossed the sky, on a higher trajectory than the Sun currently follows, so I knew there was no danger of an eclipse this month. And, sadly, looking at forecasts for the Aurora, we might be unlucky in that department too.

Helen and Brent’s Antics

Top billing this time goes to my lovely daughter Helen and her new husband Brent. Yes, Helen and Brent were married on Monday 11th in a Registry Office in Sydney. Congratulations and lots of love to you both.

It was still Sunday here in Anchorage as we could only imagine what was happening down under. It was a rainy day as they took the water taxi over Sydney Harbour to the big city.

The happy couple here are dancing to Wannabe, The ceremony was a small affair, just the celebrant and a couple of witnesses. H&B did kidnap an elderly couple though, one of whom used to be a wedding photographer. So there are plenty of photos to look through.

Meanwhile, back here in Anchorage, the vacuum cleaner battery gave up the ghost after half the apartment had been given a good seeing to. Liesel enjoyed her now weekly massage and brought us back some very nice coffee from Kaladi. Asa and Gideon came over and took their Oma away for a while, so Liesel and I went for walk down to the lagoon. The Sun was low. Hmm, actually, from here, the Sun is always low in the sky, but we did go out late, and it was approaching sunset.

There were a few people skating out on the ice, but I had no intention of testing out the thickness of the ice. Especially as, just a couple of hundred yards away, the water was flowing quite hard and fast.

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is 11 miles long and we walked a very small section of it. Being Sunday, there were plenty of cyclists too. There’s a machine that counts cyclists as they go by. At the time we passed by, it claimed there had been 39 cyclists today, and 311 so far this month, which doesn’t seem every many, compared with the number of cyclists we witnessed on our relatively short visit. This compares with 5732 cyclists last month and a total of about 125,000 this year.

A passer-by commented on how glorious the alpenglow was, as the sun disappeared behind some clouds, and yes, the mountains did look pinkly beuatiful.

Walking around outside with cleats on my shoes was safer than sliding around on the ice, but it’s very loud, you couldn’t creep up on anybody. Plus, the noise kept the bears away, we didn’t see a single one. Crunch, crunch, crunch.

As requested, I put up some spice racks on the wall in the pantry, and organised the jars of spices alphabetically. Who knew there were so many Cs: cumin, chives, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, chili, chocolate, cheese, chalk, cats, confetti and so many more.

And now for some SRN. I noticed the Alaska’s News Source report on the opening of the Equity Center in downtown Anchorage featured a very special guest: me.

That’s another small contribution to my fifteen minutes of fame

When we first arrived here in Anchorage, Liesel suggested I grow a beard, so that I’d look more Alaskan, and fit in. Well, I’ve given it three weeks and I decided, nah, it’s not for me. My beardy days are long gone. And after seeing it on TV, albeit fairly local TV, that decision was confirmed, so I was, this week, briefly, clean-shaven.

I spent one whole day on my own as Liesel took Leslie into the office again. I entertained myself with loadsa puzzles, loadsa podcasts and radio shows. I did venture out for a fairly short walk, crunch, crunch, crunch up the road to Fire Island, our favourite bakery here, in what I think was the coldest day here so far, -8°C, brrr. I watched an episode of Planet Earth II on TV, something that Liesel can’t enjoy because the animals keep chasing, catching and eating each other. But it’s interesting, and sometimes, I wish I had the job of writing the subtitles.

Liesel took her Mom back to the Sleep Center for the results of her monitored overnight stay last weekend. Leslie’s sleep isn’t great, but now we know there’s a specific problem that can be addressed.

And 24 hours later, down to -10°C, a mere 14°F. Time for a change of venue. After a rotten night’s lack of sleep, I rose early to wash and change the bed clothes.

More exciting and interesting than the domestic chores was a visit to The Dome, an oasis in a Winter city, providing an all-weather training and fitness facility for everybody from serious competitive athletes to casual walkers. With a world-class turf and a 411-meter track, The Dome has room for all kinds of sports. Liesel, Leslie and I met Jyoti there, and we had a nice, long walk, inside, in relative warmth, round and round the athletics track.

There were some other, younger people, jogging or running fast. I’m proud to say that even though we weren’t walking especially fast, we did manage to overtake a few people. Sadly, these folks were all in charge of a walking frame or walking sticks. I am more proud of the nearly 200-metre long run (jog?) which left me nicely out of breath, not the horrible being short-of-breath for no real reason.

Outside, back in the cold, the sky was clear and we noticed glints of ice in the air, very pretty but hard to photograph. I had more success with the halo around the Sun, even if it was only partial from our perspective.

In the afternoon, Leslie’s sister Buzz arrived from her nice, warm home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was in for a shock! Liesel and I therefore moved out for a week so that she can use our bed, and there won’t be four of us adults fighting over the one bathroom.

Catherine and Hans live on the other side of the city, up the hill, and the view from their house is gorgeous.

The view from Cath and Hans’s house at night

We chatted for a long time before going to bed. In the middle of the night, the very bright full Moon illuminated our room, almost bright enough to read by.

While I was writing this post I looked something up on the internet and this message was splatted on my screen.

Of course, I clicked on the link to fix it and hkh afew fkehhcn rkjshfh
                    kiurnv,fvlk
                             klgjsl sdlkjs ..
                     ?<<,//.gd/g…… unghh..%(&%£..
                 jh&%&98.
                               …
                                  ..

Scissors

It was fun to chat with William and Martha briefly before their bedtime. Another opportunity for me to mess up my mental timezone calculations and get it wrong! I showed them the snow, and William set me a challenge of building a snowman before his birthday. Something else to add to the to-do list.

We visited a pharmacy to get our flu and covid jabs. I’ve had my flu one at home already, so I just need covid. I know how to have a good time. After waiting for a few minutes, the pharmacist said we couldn’t be processed right now because we hadn’t booked ahead of time. Oh well. So much for the sign saying ‘Walk-ins welcome’. Liesel took her Mom into the office and they obtained their inoculations later on, straight in, done. I’m still a covid shot down.

But while they were in the office, Liesel working and Leslie reading, I was having more fun walking by the lagoon, which is frozen. It looks fairly solid but I wasn’t about to walk out over the frozen water.

While walking on the path, I was overtaken by a few cyclists whose bikes had very fat tyres, and by one guy on skis.

No, I was not tempted to ask him if I could have a go. I tried skiing once, way back in ’06, and that activity is not for me. My backside doesn’t have enough padding.

The Lanie Fleischer Chester Creek Trail is about four miles long altogether, and I probably saw about one mile on this occasion. I then had to walk home up some very slight inclines, and the old shortness-of-breath issue came back. Not helped, I’m sure, by the fact that I was wearing more than twice as much clothing as I usually do: all that extra weight!

You can come across some random items anywhere, but I thought this beacon was a bit out of place. It’s at sea level, and when lit, you wouldn’t see the flames from very far away.

No, of course it’s not a bonfire beacon, it’s a frisbee golf basket, so, Liam, if you’re reading this, feel free to polish up your disc and come on over!

Podcasts and radio shows kept me company for the rest of the afternoon, until Liesel and Leslie returned home.

The Alaska Black Caucus (ABC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organisation dedicated to championing the lives of Black people and other marginalised groups. For five years they’ve been campaigning and raising funds for a new HQ in Anchorage. Today was the day the Equity Center opened with a Ribbon Cutting ceremony.

While Liesel was back at work in the office, Jyoti came over and she, Leslie and I walked into town to witness the event. I asked someone where the bathroom was. Down there, she said, but it’s not finished yet. There is still quite a lot of work to do in the building which, from the outside, is pretty nondescript.

Celeste with her big ribbon-cutting scissors

We listened to a few speeches but left before Senator Lisa Murkowski spoke. Nothing personal, we just had other things to do. She did smile at me though, so that’s nice.

Yes, I wasn’t quick enough to capture her face-on. Next time.

Because their bathroom was not yet functional, on the way home, we visited the 5th Avenue Mall. We had a coffee in the shop called Cake, styled as cAKe, since we’re in Alaska. I went for a wander to address my biological needs which were eventually satisfied.

I tried to find a pair of scissors and that mission was a total failure. I concluded that it’s easier to buy weapons in Anchorage than it is scissors. So I bought a gun and shot my toenails off instead.

I walked home carrying a newly-bought carrot cake for Jyoti, and, no, I didn’t drop it, but as we turned one corner, a gust of wind blew the lid open and that could have been a disaster.

In the evening, we went over to Jyoti’s for dinner. We celebrated her son Suvan’s birthday with cakes and we celebrated Diwali with fireworks.

And so we come to November 10th, or as it is known in Australia, November 11th, they’re always a day ahead. A very auspicious moment…

The American Dream

What an eventful week this has been in this here United States of America. Or, as some commentators are saying, the Divided States of America. More on that later.

At home, still in a Halloween frame of mind, Martha and William dressed up appropriately for Saturday morning kick boxing.

They also go swimming on a Saturday morning. I just hope they washed the make-up off before diving in the pool.

Here’s a very Alaskan thing we don’t see very often. Icicles on a car. Not to be confused with the 1980s band of the same name.

Here’s a very Alaskan thing we don’t see very often. A trumper driving around with a trailer carrying nothing but Trumpy, MAGA flags, Take America Back flags and nothing else.

This was the day we visited REI and I bought some new, snowproof, boots. While I went for a walk to test them out, Liesel was working in the office with Amrit. And, I’m sure, not at all looking at the view of the mountains.

As usual, my feet really don’t like boots, there’s always one seam that rubs, in this case on my ankle bones where the skin is really thin. Still, I hiked to the library and on to the midtown branch of New Sagaya where I rewarded myself with a coffee. Despite the snow, it was good to see families with children in the playground. It was cold, about freezing, but nobody was bothered and I was wearing an extra layer plus a scarf and a hat that covered my ears. I picked out the ideal Christmas tree for our apartment at home.

But I must admit, I did enjoy plodding through deep virgin snow with my new footwear, a true test of their waterproof properties.

I walked back to the office and once Liesel finished working, she drove me home. I spontaneously started singing the old Johnny Cash song, Ring of Fire, and then I realised Liesel had turned on my heated seat. Very nice having a warm derriere, even though I hadn’t realised it was all that cold.

We drove home via the Post Office at the airport, where Liesel posted some communications from work. The level crossing lights were flashin, so we stopped and I expeceted to see a train to pass by in front of us. Oh no, this is Alaska.

Leslie returned home from visiting Aaron where she’d enjoyed a football game featuring her team, the Oregon Ducks.

And in the evening we had visitors. Una came over bearing goodies and so did Gita and their close friend Sam, who I’d not met before. Gita provided the hot toddies, making for a very pleasant evening. They prepared a chicken dish for the carnivores while I had Quorn roast and roast potatoes. My broccoli was mistakenly subsumed into the chicken dish, oops!

Una brought chocolates modelled into a small graveyard: very artistic and very tasty.

It’s General Election year here in USA and early voting is a big thing. Liesel, Leslie and I walked up to the City Hall where they queued for over three hours to cast their vote.

By the end of the day, one of the other voters was calling Leslie ‘Granny’, someone was told to remove their MAGA cap, there were three dogs, and someone phoned their grandchild to say they were in line at Disneyland. Mean. The queue wound its way through the building, emerging to the outside world for a bit, before going back indoors.

I went for a quick walk to buy something and then I walked home. It was nice to see The Sun in Anchorage. Not just the real Sun up in the sky, but this one:

The Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk starts here. It’s a scale model of our solar system. Taking the walk, you experience the relative size of the planets and their distance from the Sun. The scale was chosen so that a leisurely walking pace mimics the speed of light. On this scale, each step equals the distance light travels in one second (300,000 kilometers or 186,000 miles). It should take about 8 minutes to walk from the Sun station at 5th and G to the Earth station at 5th and K, just as it takes 8 minutes for a light beam to travel from the real Sun to the real Earth. It would take 5½ hours to walk all the way to Pluto, located in Kincaid Park. Yes, poor old Pluto is still considered a planet here. Cycling, skate-boarding or skiing would of course mean you’re travelling faster than the speed of light.

I received Liesel’s message at home I walked back into the city where we all met up and had dinner in Humpy’s, next door to the City Hall. I’d not been before, but neither had Liesel, despite having lived in Anchorage for many years. I didn’t expect to eat all of my meal: American portions are just too big. This time, I did manage: veggie burger and chips, since you ask. We were again joined by Una. It was MNF. Monday Night Football on TV and, while the adverts were on, we listened out as someone behind the bar called out raffle prize numbers. Not ours though. Una was kind enough to drive us home afterwards, so we didn’t have to walk in the dark.:

Election Day and while the rest of the country was voting for a President who will work for foreign dictators, fossil fuel advocates and billionaires but not for ordinary Americans, women, journalists, the LGBT+ community, public service workers, immigrants, environmental advocates, scientists etc, guess where I was? In court.

Yes, Una invited me to watch a trial this week, and who could refuse an opportunity to watch a real life Judge Judy in action? From the observers’ seat at the back, I admired the artwork in Una’s courtroom. Two lawyers sat in front of me, standing to question the witnesses. I’ve probably watched too many US TV dramas, so I just assumed the attorney wearing the black suit was the baddie, the one with the light coloured attire was the good guy.

Whenever they approached the bench to consult the judge, it was very hard to hear what they were saying while the courtroom was filled with white noise. I noticed that the jurors didn’t take notes, but a lot of information was elicited from the witnesses. I was here as an interested bystander, so it didn’t matter if my mind wandered from time to time, but Una has to concentrate fully at all times. Although she was sitting higher than everyone else, she still looked small behind the XXL bench, but that didn’t affect the authority she displayed.

I found a couple of moments of real confrontation hard to cope with, but that’s why I’m not a lawyer. And the other awkward moments were when the judge came in and left: as an observer, was I supposed to stand like everyone else did?

The session ended at about 1.30 after which I walked home, passing by a couple of cranes on the way.

Late in the afternoon, we drove back to the airport, this time to collect Jyoti who’d flown in from North Carolina. Back at her place, she prepared our evening meal, dahl and rice, and we were joined by Gita and their friend Sophia. Una and Phil were persuaded to join us too, and we had a good time, not merely because Gita again plied us with hot toddies!

Things are changing in America, and not just politically. In the olden days, maybe even last year, if you said ‘Thank you’, the response would be, ‘You’re welcome.’ Nowadays, the response is more likely to be, ‘Of course.’ And no, it doesn’t sem to be only young people either.

The day after Election Day, we walked back to City Hall to register our disgruntlement at the result. No, actually, we returned so that Leslie could retrieve the walking stick she’d mistakenly left in the polling booth a couple of days ago. It was warmer today, a scorching 4°C so the ice on the sidewalks was more slick than it had been yesterday. I acquired some grips for my shoes, and they are so much better than the cheapo cleats supplied by Royal Mail all those years ago. They actually stay on my trainers.

It was nice of Star the reindeer to come out and see us today: he’s usually in the backroom watching reruns of Friends, or something.

I stayed at home with Leslie while Liesel went out for coffee with Diane, visiting from Talkeetna, and a few more hours hard labour in the office with Amrit.

I think I know who my Dad would have voted for on what would have been his 99th birthday, if he were still alive and if he were American.

It snow joke

It took us an hour to wind our way along the queue to the check-in desk. Behind us were just as many more people. Going through Security was no problem, even if we were sent to Security A rather than Security B to start with. The Security A man maintained his patience as he sent us and every other misdirected passenger to Security B.

Before embarking on our first flight to Keflavik, Iceland, we dined on a sandwich from, er, Pret. Kevlavik provided us with a slice of pizza and we made use of the single toilet, which doesn’t seem enough for so many thousands of passengers passing through each day.

I read my book on the flight and I was delighted to see a place mentioned that I was familar with. My Dad’s Uncle Charlie, who I visited a few times, passed away in St Joseph’s Hospice on Mare Street in Hackney in 1978. The character in the book was in this hospice at about the same time. And, by the way, I can thoroughly recommend Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo. I look forward to watching the TV adaptation when we return to the UK.

The second, longer flight took us to Seattle. We were separated again and I had a window seat, boxed in by two inhabitants of Seattle. The guy next to me said that his mother had called to tell him that the Northern Lights would be visible tonight. Well, from the bowels of Seattle-Tacoma Airport, we saw nothing.

I don’t think we expected to find someone’s laundry drying in the airport, but it was very colourful.

And finally, Seattle to Anchorage. The three of us ended up in the exit row, with more leg room. So that’s a bonus. But glad we didn’t have to do anything in an emergency.

From the airport, we took a taxi home, to Leslie’s apartment. After being empty since April, of course it required a spot of airing. And boy, was it good to be horizontal for the first time in well over 24 hours.

I was expecting see the streets of Anchorage paved with snow, but no, they were clear. It was cold though, just above freezing, as we walked to the bank and to Fire Island for a sandwich and a coffee. Nor were the mountains completely covered in snow, as I expected.

Delaney Park was a bit soggy underfoot. but so far, no signs of frost or frozen puddles. Yes, I’ve been anticipating the most unpleasant of weather conditions here but after 18 hours in Anchorage, I can confirm, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. The forecast though, that’s a different kettle of salmon.

Aaron and his family came over in the evening. I was unable to stay awake, so I went to bed really early. I heard the visitors arrive but I was soon in the land of nod.

Leslie’s car hasn’t been used for 6 months, since she left to join us in Australia, so of course the battery was dead. After one failed attempt, we managed to charge the battery and we went for a drive to Leslie’s hairdresser.

More exciting though was a visit to Carrs supermarket. We nearly fell over the pile of pumpkins inside the door. Yes, Halloween’s not far away.

Our nephew Gideon has been playing American football recently, and tonight was the final of the Alaska High School Division 1 championship. None of us were that keen on driving out to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley to watch the game: instead we watched it from the comfort of the apartment. It took a while, but I downloaded the relevant app to the much larger than ours TV, subscribed, and tuned in at the right time for kick-off. Or whatever it’s called in this sport. A funny old staccato game is American football so that what starts off as four 12-minute quarters ends up taking nearly three hours to play. Gideon took three punts, kicks during the game, without which his team, West High, would have had a much worse defeat against Dimond High. This was the first American football game I’ve watched from start to finish. The commentary was good but what a shame there was only one camera. Also, we couldn’t hear the half-time entertainment, which was very disappointing. But what did come across was how windy it was there. The referee would place the ball on the ground and, before one of the players could kick it, it would be blown away.

At least on this TV channel, we weren’t bombarded with innumberable, shouty, negative election adverts.

One of my favourite DJs announced his retirement a few weeks ago. I was determined to listen to the final edition of Johnnie Walker’s Sound of the Seventies, which is broadcast at 3pm on a Sunday. Nine hours difference between Anchorage and home so that makes it, er… And this was the weekend that British Summer TIme ended, the clocks went back an hour, adding even more complexity to the calculation.

Anyway, at 7am on Sunday, I tuned in and enjoyed the very moving show. Johnnie’s final link was heartfelt and the last song was Judy Collins’ version of Amazing Grace. Lovely way to go. But then some crass jingle crashed in and ruined the moment.

We drove over to Point Woronzof Park where we’d arranged to meet Catherine and Hans. We’ve all walked on this path before. The car told us it was 27°F outside, below freezing. On this occasion, there were patches of ice in places.

The trail begins right near the airport and as the planes take off, you feel you could reach up and caress them.

Looking over the water, another picture postcard, snow-covered mountain range.

You can see how crisp and clear it was today, but, because I’d put on so many more layers of clothing than I’m used to, by the time we returned to our vehicles, I was sweating. But it was good to catch up with Catherine and Hans again after all this time.

After studying this picture with or without a magnifying glass, you may be wondering why Leslie’s chin is bruised. Well, f’narr, f’narr, you should see the other chap… But actually, a few days ago, after our very first walk, just before we arrived home, she face-planted on the sidewalk. Sandwich went one way, coffee the other and slam, straight down. It took a while to work out where the blood was coming from, nose and/or mouth, but mostly, she was just glad that no teeth were broken. Nor glasses. I can only imagine how much more lethal Anchorage becomes when the snow arrives.

Which it did the very next day. I looked out all of the windows, and there was no escaping it.

Knowing the snow was imminent, we’d been over to Amrit’s office the previous afternoon to pick up a pile of folders so that Liesel can work at home. So, there was no real need to venture out today, apart from a very short walk, over the road to the New Sagaya City Market. I like the crunch of new snow, but I feel I’ve had enough for now. It continued snowing most of the day and overnight and it was several inches deep the next morning.

Next day, I watched a guy over the road with his (by American standards) small truck and his DIY snow plough. He was clearing the snow from the road in front of his house. I say ‘clearing’, but what he was doing was pushing snow into piles in the middle of the road, and then parking his truck on the relatively clear space. I know, I know: who’s the real weirdo, him for doing that pointless task, or me for watching for so long?

Having avoided going out in the car for a couple of days, we’d waited for the main roads at least to be ploughed, oops, plowed, and we again drove to Carrs for the big shop of the week.

Already there are big piles of snow at the side of some roads. Gravel has been spread around the supermarket car park, so the ground isn’t as slippery as it looks. I still find it a bit disconcerting that from a fairly normal place like this, you can see the beauty of the mountains way over there in the distance.

But the most surprising thing is that we haven’t yet seen a single snowman. I thought there’d be a few around now, at the start of Winter. The novelty of all this snow might wear off eventually, I know, but how disappointing. If you’re wondering why I don’t go out and build one myself, I’ll just say: In these shoes? I need a new pair of boots that can protect my feet from snow that is too deep for my trainers.

And so to Halloween. We bought some treats in case we were visited by Trick or Treaters, but nobody came by. So we’ll just have to eat those peanut M&Ms ourselves. Oh well. It didn’t stop snowing all day, but in the afternoon, we did wander over the road and you should have seen the witch that served our coffee.

So what have we been up to while stuck indoors? Liesel’s been working hard. I’ve been reading a lot and doing (attempting) plenty of puzzles. I did complete the New York Times crossword one day and I was looking forward to the following day’s, but thanks to some administrative anomaly, Leslie’s subscription to the Anchorage Daily News was limited to Wednesday and Sunday. D’oh! Leslie’s been reading books and is as despairing about the weather as I am. She does have a Netflix account though, and I’ve been watching 3 Body Problem, a science fiction series released in March. I’d enjoyed reading the trilogy a few years ago and at that point, I think it was the best SF story I’d read for a long, long time. The TV series is pretty good too. So far. We also have Apple+ TV here, so I’ve managed to catch up with and finish watching Ted Lasso, as recommended by Liesel and many other folks.

It was good to see Aaron who came over, and Asa who visited twice, once bearing coffee and shortbread and once bearing chai which he brewed up for us.

And so to November. The snow finally stopped. We knew we were being treated to something special: this turned out to be the snowiest Halloween on record for Anchorage.

Not sure if this link will work outside the USA, apologies if not.

Of course, pristine, white snow doesn’t last long. Just the next day, I had to walk through slush to get to the shop over the road.

Meanwhile, back in relatively tropical England, Martha marked the day as a Times Table Rock Star.

Well done Martha!