Back giving me grief. I do have comprehensive travel insurance but the pain isn't really an emergency. Navigating the health system here is confusing. People don't seem to be interested if you don't have insurance. After resting today it is feeling better. So I am going to see how I go.

So while resting I made a hat for a friends new baby.

For lunch today we went to Memphis Minnies BBQ. It was awesome.

Friday was our last day in NYC. I must say it has been totally awesome.

We packed so much into our stay. On our final day we visited Strawberry Fields (central park) a memorial to John Lennon. John Lennon was the first celebrity death that had an impact on me emotionally. I had just discovered The Beatles when he was murdered.

It was a misty day and the fields were covered in a light dew. I took a few shots of the Dakota Building too. It is stunning and features in the Ghostbusters.

We found our way to Tom's Restaurant the store front used in the Seinfeld opening credits.

NYC is wonderful and I can't wait to visit again. My favorite places to visit are: Greenwich Villlage, Brooklyn, Soho and Union Square. It is intoxicating. My aim is the run the NY Marathon. When we get in we will be back.

We arrived in SF yesterday. Looking forward to discovering this city. It is much cooler over here on the west coast.

Peace

blast off to the moon/ monkey copilot watching/ the earth disappear

Last night it rained. Walking to work today along the Capital City Trail the Yarra River was flooding over the banks in some places. These coconuts were lined up along the river. Were they washed up or carefully placed there?

The photos have been resized using an app for instagramers called squaready!

Peace out

A detour down Degraves street led me to a new paste-up. Called work robot it features a woman sitting under a tree with her crochet.

This image was created using the Wordfoto app on my smartphone. I am a wordle (word cloud) fan and Wordfoto makes it easy to turn photos into words. The photo was taken at the Hawthorn Campus of Swinburne University Library. I have included the original photo which has a filter from Qbro applied to it. 

In other news my eldest daughter Lucy(23) has told me that she is planning to move to the UK in October. I am very happy that she has been bitten by the travel bug but as a mother devistated that she will be so far away. It makes me a bit teary just thinking about it. But it is a good excuse to go to the UK next year.

I will just have to make the most of every moment she is still in Melbourne. I have always thought I was fortunate to have both my daughters in living in the same city and that the time would come when one or both would move away. But I am not quite ready. I left home at 17 or rather my mother moved to Australia and I know how difficult it was being away from family. It was a struggle to find my feet. I am sure that Lucy will be fine but I wish she wasn't going to the other side of the world. 

*Sniff*

We are madly catching up with people before we head overseas for a month. Last night we spent a lovely evening in Greensborough with Ben's parents.

Judy gave me a wonderful travelog from Smiggle and a lovely bracelet with a stone made from heather picked up in her recent trip to Scotland.

I was able to finish a pair of handwarmers for Judy in her favourite colours. the yarn was made by @madradish (Molly) in exchange for a set of angry birds. It was lovely to crochet with.

In the morning I ran along the Plenty River and up some very steep hills.

I love weekends. Only 6 days to go and I am off to the States.

Today I decided not to change to my second train and instead chose to walk to work from the city. I am fortunate that I can walk along Melbourne's Yarra River. In the morning the path is filled with joggers, runners, cyclists and walkers like me. There are rowers on the river and I love watching them glide along the water, their oars hardly making a splash.

I often cycle along this same track but walking is a different experience. I wrote the following haiku as I walked: 

On the river bank / warriors stand tall - mist rolls over the water

The flax growing on the banks reminded me of tall warriors and the rowers, of canoe that my brother rows on the mighty Waikato River in New Zealand. My brother was sent to live with my grandparents when he was 13. He has a much closer ties to the Maori side of my family than I do. My other siblings and I were raised by our pakeha (white) mother in the deep south of New Zealand. 

Since Robert went back to NZ ten years ago he has reconnected with his Maoritanga (Maori culture) and I admire him for that. It has made him a better person.

I don't get home-sick for NZ much now. I experience home-sickness more when I visit. My home is here but some times I hear it call me.... today was one of those days.