Non Fin

I’ve been struggling over the last few days on how to begin this entry. As the year comes to a close this evening, I am slowly emerging from the darkness that has been my existence for the past few months.

I’ve made many attempts to write but have felt helpless at having absolutely nothing to offer. My obsession with inspiration has left me pretty dry this last little while. Hence the reason why there haven’t been any entries for the past few months. It’s odd, I guess. This intrigue I have with what fuels or ignites the creative. This intrigue, or some would say obsession has left me void of any of my own. Although, I’ve been told that there are other atmospheric factors that have aided in shrouding me with some of this darkness.

But! I’ve been working on getting myself back on track. It’s not over yet ’cause the fat lady ain’t sung her final aria just yet. (That’s my way of poking a little fun at myself.) Feeling lost in life is quite the experience. It’s not like being lost in a strange city because there are always resources you can rely on, like signs, other people, buildings and landmarks etc. When you feel lost in life, there are no helpful signs to guide you. There are no other people who can steer you in the exact direction you need to be going. It’s all on you to try to find your way out. It’s like trying to climb through a cloud…

So here we are on the crest of the final wave and I am feeling the light slowly flicker again. We had a show a few weeks back and it was good to get back on the stage and to feel that support from friends and a few new fans.  Fans. I’m so uncomfortable with that term. I don’t believe that we have fans. I believe that we have new-found friends, who enjoy what we are doing. It was nice.

We’ve released our EP – THIS IS NOT HERE digitally. Come hell or high water, we just couldn’t tweak it anymore to our liking so we hope that you like what’s out so far. The boys and I have started making plans for our next song set to record. We are pretty pumped and looking froward to sharing these new tunes with everyone. We’re just working out the kinks with schedules etc and hope that it won’t drag out for a year like the last one did.

All in all, I leave 2011 with a weak smile. Although there was much struggle between dark and light, I am so thankful I could experience it because this battle has taught me that I still have strength and I’ve still got the embers of passion burning on the coals, ready to explode into life again. So this is not the end.

Let a new chapter begin……

xoxox

Nowhere Girl

PS You can listen, buy or download our EP here:

Nowhere Girl – THIS IS NOT HERE

http://nowheregirl.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-girl

Road to Revelation

In his latter life, Elvis pondered intently the reason why he was who he was. Why was he who he was? He really wanted to know, “Why me?”  Why was he born with such talent, such charisma, such gifts… such luck.

And there are so many who wonder, “Why not me?”

NG

This Ain’t No 3-Hour Tour

Friday, June 24th – 2:56am

Flight home had two connections. First two legs were fairly smooth. Flew through the night from San Francisco to Newark where we were to jump on a flight home. Sounds easy. The third leg of the trip was a little over an hour and we’d be home by 9:30am yesterday. NOT!

When we arrived they told us our flight was delayed by an hour. We think this actually works out great because now we have a chance to catch our breath. So instead of getting on at 6:45am we will be catching our flight at 7:45am. Not too bad. Flights get delayed another hour. Then forty-five minutes later it’s cancelled altogether. Rebooked for 3:10pm. Cancelled again. Rebooked for 8:20pm. 8:20pm is delayed to 10:30pm.

We finally board the last flight leaving Newark for the day at 11:05pm. 18 hours we’ve been in Newark airport. Haven’t properly slept in 38 hours. A trip that should be about ten to twelve hours had taken us 36 hours in total. Completely exhausted but happy to be home…. Do miss the beach, though.

Mahalo Hawaii

Nowhere Girl

PS Don’t ever fly Continental

Aloha – Day #10

Tuesday, June 21

The meaning of Aloha is both hello and good-bye – among many other things like love etc. And after tonight we will be saying “Aloha” to paradise and hello to the real world. Although, I must admit I won’t miss hearing what sounds like Times Square outside my window, I will miss the most perfect weather. Heat from the sun mixed with a cool breeze.

Tonight is Luau night – our last night in O’Ahu. We’ll be wearing fresh flower leis and will be bedazzled by the Vegas-style Hula show the hotel puts on with tonnes of food. Looking froward to it.

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To recap, yesterday was hangover day. Not for me but for my travel buddy. On the previous night, we decided to take it easy and go down to the Tapas bar where they have live music every night. And it all started with ordering a Blue Hawaii drink. (Mine was a virgin, of course. Learned my lesson.) From there we ended up at an Irish bar called Kelly’s just off the main strip. And that’s where the drinks kept flowing – for her. I was busy checking out the kick-ass cover band playing come of the greatest Old School Rock. I don’t even know what they called themselves but I loved the fact that they had a girl on bass. The place was rockin’.

One thing I found funny is that there was no smoking indoors anywhere on the island – as is the case with most places in North America. But the locals all warn you that if you can’t handle a smokey bar that you shouldn’t go to Kelly’s. There’s even a “No Smoking” sign right on the front door. But smoke they do there. And guess what the fine is? Fifty dollars! Fifty bucks! Back home it’s $5000! They are funny, the Hawaiians. It’s all about “Hangin’ Loose”. Taking it easy.

So I plan on hangin’ loose for the rest of today before the Luau. It’s been lightly raining on and off all morning so I’m keeping my charred skin out of the sun today. It’s my friend’s birthday today so we’ll be going for some fabulous sushi at Todai’s across the street!

Aloha

Nowhere Girl

Aloha – Day #8

Hanauma Bay

Sunday, June 19th

Today is Father’s Day. Spent it in Hanauma Bay where the water is so clear you can see the fish without even needing to snorkel. Although we got some gear, I was too chicken to keep my face in the water for very long. I made a few attempts and actually saw a blue fish. That was cool but mentally it psyched me out too much to keep putting my head under. Maybe one day. But at least I tried. The Bay is a beautiful teal colour and has been kept as a fish preserve. It’s a beautiful beach but was too windy to really enjoy a beach day.

When we got back to Waikiki at 5:30pm, I called my dad but just got the machine. Figured as it’s actually 11:30pm back home. So, that half-second call cost me $15. Crazy.

Yesterday was another full beach day where I proceeded to toast myself like a lobster so I didn’t spend too much time in the sun today. I don;t want to over do it. My pink toe nails seem to glow against my darkened skin. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow we are going on an excursion back up to the North Shore on The Surf Bus. It’s a full day trip up to the North side of the island where we are top frolic in the sun some more and see a few local sights. It’s a bit more laid back than some of the snapshot spots of previous excursions. And it includes lunch!

So two things I’ve grown to love in Hawaii is the food and the weather. By far, the best:)

Full-on snorkelling in Hanauma Bay. That's NOT me!

Aloha

Nowhere Girl

Aloha – Day #6

Friday, June 17th

8pm. We’ve just experienced the most beautiful fireworks right from our balcony. On our resort, every Friday, they put on a fabulous hula show with a firework spectacular on the beach. A-mazing! Gorgeous sight! Hawaii is getting better and better with each day.

Today was a full day of exploring the island. We hopped on a tour that took us just about full circle around the island of O’Ahu. We drove by Pearl Harbour where we were given a brief recount of the December 7th, 1941 attack. “A day that would live in infamy.”

On our way to the North Shore, we stopped at the Dole plantation where we saw real pineapple bushes and had Dole, which is non-dairy pineapple ice cream. So good. Oh, and I should preface this adventure by saying that we (I, by association) were the delinquents on this leg as my travel partner was always doing some last minute  second shopping, while the rest of the bus passengers, along with our guide waited. Every time I would ditch her to get back to the bus on time, I’d feel a flash of red as I inched closer to the vehicle, seeing that all those eyes were pressed against the windows as if willing me to move faster. This is where we learned the term “wiki, wiki” which means “hurry up!” I found myself sinking into my seat as questioning eyes were probing the back of my head wondering where the last straggler was. Yep. So fun. (Insert sarcasm here)

Next, we near the Northern tip of the island at Sunset Beach where the view was

Sunset Beach

spectacular and we could see many of the locals sunbathing, fishing and a small few trying to surf. No real waves out today, though.

After a few photos, we rounded the northern tip of the island to stop in at the Polynesian Cultural Centre. Here, we had a fabulous lunch buffet and were treated to some fabulous shows from natives of Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga and Hawaii. Some of the locals find the Centre not to be authentic and too commercial but for someone like myself who knew nothing, I felt that at least I learned something.

We learned how to make smoke from two sticks and fire from a coconut, along with its milk. Sounds strange but they did it. Next we had a percussion lesson with bamboo sticks. THAT was really cool. We were taught different rhythms to bang out as they sang and a guitar player strummed along. We were a band! Loved that!

 

Continuing south, we stopped at Waikane where we took a peek at the Macadamian plantation. Here they served free Macadamian-flavouredcoffee and free nut samples while selling you over-priced tourist baubles in the gift shop.

Byodo-In Temple, O'Ahu - Hawaii

Second last stop was the Byodo-In Temple, a magnificent structure which is a replica of a Kyoto  temple in China. We even got to ring the gong. Here I found a beautiful book on the teaching of Buddha – at the gift shop, of course.

Final stop was the Pali Lookout, where we drove up into the rainforest to see the most magnificent view. They say it was here that the last battle was ever fought before all the Hawaiian islands were united. So much culture. So much history.

Pali Lookout

Once back in Waikiki, we bee-lined it across the street from our hotel to have THE best sushi on the planet. $30. All you can eat. Stupendous! So fresh and flavourful and so much variety. Weary from our full-day adventure, we stumbled over there and proceeded to stuff ourselves silly only to roll ourselves out of there about an hour later. Almost perfect ending to our day. I say almost because within half hour of arriving back to our room we were racing each other to the only bathroom we had. It was something directly out of the food-poisoning scene in the movie, BRIDESMAIDS when the girls are all blasting from all orifices. Good times…….

Let me clarify that we were not sick. We just ate too much. The sushi was still amazing and if you are ever in Waikiki, goes to Todai’s. Simply the best – but stay close to the rest room in case you over do it.

As for yesterday, it was a full beach day with a paddle surf lesson. My travel buddy doing the lesson and me standing in as photographer. We befriended the instructor, Kau (pronounced Kuh-oo) who is a local and we were lucky enough to have him guide us to some neat places like Ono for some traditional Hawaiian lunch. Then at night we went to a place called Tikki’s where a few of his friends were playing gig. Right up my alley. What’s popular here is Hawaiian Reggae. Got to chatting with one of Kau’sfriends, Matt who is also a songwriter and quite the comedian, I might add. It was a great night. We all hung out in a big group like a family.

Typical Hawaiian Plate Lunch

That’s the thing about Hawaiian’s. They treat you like family. It’s all about sharing good times, good food and good health. Beautiful.

Tomorrow? Another beach day. After our Time-Share meeting at 8am that is. Here is where we will collect our free Luau tickets for Tuesday. Looking forward to it.

Sun, sun, sun tomorrow.

Aloha

Nowhere Girl

 

Aloha – Day #4

Wednesday, June 15th

So after a $20 omelette at IHOP,  a whole day baking on the beach and a quick jaunt to the downtown area, we decide to have a shower and quick nap before heading out for some night time fun. That was at 8pm. We awoke from our “nap” at 5:44am. We crashed from our sun baked day.

So at 7am, after several attempts to get ourselves back to sleep, we decided to arrange our tour of the infamous Diamond Head Crater where we climbed over 250 stairs and crawled through a very narrow tunnel to get to the top at 800 metres above sea level. I thought my heart would explode right out of my chest. The whole climb probably took about 40 minutes but we had Ron and Judy from Arizona on our tour bus who lagged behind a mile from the rest of us. And everytime our guide would explain something about volcanoes and craters, Judy, who looked to be in her late 50′s, kept interrupting him by speaking loudly to Ron, who must have been def. Poor Mike, our guide, was very good about giving them time to catch up or allowing Ron to finish a telephone conversation about what he was going to eat tonight. Who does that?! Who just about has cardiac arrest getting up to the top and then gets on their cell phone and makes a call? I guess, it is kind of neat to be able to do that at such an elevation but come on! We don’t all need to hear what your menu preferrences are, Ron from Arizona!

We also met Justin and Alicia, fellow Canadians from Saskatchewan. They were blissfully quiet. Honeymooners, we think.

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel

At the end of our day long tour, Mike, our guide was nice enough to drop us off at a fabulous sushi restaurant called The Fish Market. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and then wandered over to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel also known as the “pink” hotel and had a drink on their beach patio. Mine was a virgin, of course! No more alcohol for me! Now we’re taking it easy so we’ll have energy to explore some night life tonight. Hopefully, find some live  music.

One funny side note: We’ve booked a 2-hour timeshare info session just to receive two free tickets to the nightly Luau the hotel offers. Sounds pretty lame but this Luau is $120 per person and is known to be the best on the island so hey. It’s free.

Tomorrow is another beach day. We have a stand-up paddle boarding lesson booked and then a bus ride to Hanauma Bay, which is supposed to have the prettiest beach on the island with the shallowest waters. Great for learning to snorkel. Although I may be more of an appreciative spectator than participant.

Until tomorrow! Aloha.

Nowhere Girl