Monday 18 May 2015

A year of travel: Last thoughts before moving on



Two months ago we arrived back in Edmonton after almost a full year travelling.  It seems a good time to organize some last thoughts before moving on to the next adventure.

After a year, it was interesting what things were easy to remember and what things had been forgotten.  My body took almost two weeks to get over the jet lag of flying from Hong Kong – not quite far enough to gain a whole day, but enough time zones that my brain wanted to be wide awake and doing something in the middle of the night.  Driving was no problem, as a passenger for a year in countries that drove on the left side of the road, my muscle memory still knew the “right” way to drive.  But stopping for gas the first time was a scramble to figure out how to open the gas cap. Mother Nature also gave us snow to drive home in, just to remind us of what we had missed. Getting back into the habit of cooking, with a full kitchen of food and appliances, took a bit of getting used to.  Kati’s planning to get everybody together for Easter caused initial panic (what will the menu be and can I remember how to organize so everything is ready at once) but after a deep breath we all just went with the flow.  After all, do you really need to impress family?

First week home was almost like setting up a house for the first time. We had packed away most of our belongings so that our friends who were house sitting could have room for their things.  Opening up boxes (and remembering where the boxes were) was a bit like Christmas – gifts to be admired and places to be found for things that hadn’t been used for a year. Restocking the kitchen after getting used to shopping on a day to day basis.  Actually, I believe I was in the grocery store daily for two weeks getting one or two essential things that I had assumed were in the cupboard or fridge. Gradually unpacking boxes we had sent home from our travels and deciding where to put things, then working to organize piles of things, then integrating items into our life.

At work, it has also been interesting getting back into a routine.  In some ways, it felt like I had never left, but the reality is that things have changed (more or less) and I have needed to ask a lot of questions and watch carefully to make sure I don’t miss anything.  “So what’s changed” didn’t get a lot of answers from my coworkers.  “Tell me about the new babies” or “Who’s died” worked better.  I’ve needed to attach names to new faces and get used to the fact that things are different.  Funnily, we have had a major change in our electronic documentation software, which has put us all on a level playing field.

People have greeted me with one of two types of questions – “Did you have a good time?  What country did you like best?”  This from people, I suspect, who wonder if they would like to travel as we did.  “Are you glad to be home”, from those who can’t imagine pulling up roots for a year to wander in strange places.  Did I have a good time?  Absolutely, even when I was too cold or too hot or uncomfortable because I was seeing and doing things that I would not be doing at home.  Rather than saying which was my favorite country (they all were for different reasons), I would say that I want to return to southeast Asia because we traveled too quickly through those countries.  I don’t feel a need to return to Australia or New Zealand because they are so similar to Canada where there are many places I have not yet visited.  I also would not return to India because I felt unsafe. Am I glad to be back home?  Absolutely, but that doesn't mean I won't wander off again to explore.

On reflection, I think more helpful questions would be “What did you learn?”  or “How do you think you are different now?”

I learned to live in close quarters with strangers who quickly became fellow travelers, to share skills and knowledge so our time together was enjoyable (even when we were hot and sweaty, tired, sore, craving western food and a shower...).  I met fascinating people who shared the love of their country and I seldom felt afraid for my safety.  I have come to appreciate how special my home is – where I do not have to worry about too much water or not enough, or earthquakes or volcanoes, where it is safe to express an opinion and I can travel if I wish.  Where I was able to feed, clothe and educate my children. At my annual medical, where I was expressing concern about a series of nasty respiratory infections, my family doctor clearly put things into perspective – chest xray to rule out the possibility of tuberculosis because of where I had been travelling (and I am carefully watching for fever and the possibility of malaria).

A year of travel has changed how I see home.  My initial thought on unpacking was that I had way to much stuff – what was I thinking when I thought I needed so many pairs of socks and underwear, and surely one pair of long black pants was sufficient?  On a positive note, I find myself more aware of the beauty around me.  My urge is to pull to the side of the road to take that photo of the sunlight on the puddles in the ditch or the field of swans and then geese as they return north for the summer.  But, my camera is not beside me.  Watching the coming of the green which signals spring in Northern Alberta was a joy – and I did stop part way down the Dunvegan hill to take a photo the day the hills had gone from black and white to new fresh green. I did take photos of our back yard with its last (I hope) spring snow and the tiny leaves of rhubarb breaking the surface of the dirt.




Listening to the news is different as well.  Armenia and Nepal are real places with real people that I have met.  As I have been rereading travel books about the places I visited, it has been fascinating to realize how things change in a few short years.  The (Lonely Planet) Wheelers, travelling from London to Australia in 1973 chose the southern route through Asia (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan) because it was safer and travel was basically impossible through Russian controlled Asia (Georgia to Kyrgyzstan then into China as we did).  Southeast Asia was still in the midst of a decades long war.  People younger than me who were welcoming me into their country had lived through these troubled times. More recently, the earthquakes in Nepal likely mean that our travel from China through Nepal and into India may have been the last overland trip for some time.

I chanced upon this blog post while we were travelling. Not that we were living abroad, but there are a lot of similarities to what we experienced.

Just to finish off with one last set of quotes about travel.  This had much more meaning to me when I reread this book after returning home than it had the first time I saw it more than a year ago.

“I love travel because you may be uncomfortable, hungry, hot and sweaty, cold and shivering...but damn it all, you will never be bored...the buzz of arriving somewhere new and the thrill of returning to a favourite place.”
Tony Wheeler (Lonely Planet) quoted in the book “Tell them to get Lost”



Sunday 17 May 2015

Journal Quilt: The Final Chapter. Backing, Batting and Bling

After a year of going with the flow and creating weekly quilt squares as seemed best at the time, the finishing touches took some thinking about how to make it all work together.

I had painted the backing in Perth and then sent it home along with the fabric paint and some other goodies.  Coming by land rather than mail, it arrived home just before we did.  I did a quick measure (I was pretty sure that it was a bit bigger than the front of the quilt so it could be trimmed to size) and then had great fun adding a few photos as well as a selection of quotes about travel that I had been collecting along the way – most particularly off the walls at the Mt. Cook Hostel in New Zealand. Big thanks to Nico Brink and Alicia Fuller for taking great photos and sharing them.  Also thanks to Louise Mann for some great quotes that she found and used in a game on the truck.
Here's the backing waiting to be cut down to fit the front.
(Before I realized it was 1 1/2 inches too small in both
directions)


Cal and I leaving Vermilion with 60 kg checked luggage
for a year of travel.
Nico took this photo one early morning in
Kyrgyzstan.
This one by Alicia was on our boat trip in Chitwan National
Park in Nepal.

Sonya took this on the Franklin River (Tasmania)

Everest Base Camp (Tibet side). 

And us returning home with 35 kg checked luggage



Here's the backing on the patio at our hostel in Perth

To my dismay, the backing that I had designed to be cut down as it would be too big actually turned out to be too small... and with autographs right to the edge on the front of this quilt, I had to come up with a creative solution.  The quilt police are no doubt shaking their heads, but if you think about finishing a quilt without the front on it and then appliquéing the front to the batting and backing you have the idea.

Simple machine quilting along the original square lines attached everything together.  It was slow going which allowed me time to enjoy each square, notice some things I had forgotten, and think about which bits of stuff (a highly technical quilting term meaning anything you can figure out how to attach to a quilt) I had and where they were stored.  Another couple of nights were spent hand sewing the silk sari yarn along the journey we had taken.


This journal quilt started in June 2013 and you can read about it here.  I also mentioned it again just before leaving home in April 2014 when I talked about a “snivel kit”  The front traveled with me for the year in a small dry bag and gradually gained squares.

I wrote about the first row (home and then our time in Turkey) in May while travelling in Georgia. Then a quick post about a square for Armenia before two posts on the adventures of my wine dyed square for Georgia (here and here).  Definitely some creative sourcing of materials.

First fifteen squares.  Follow the dark green sari silk yarn from
Grimshaw to the market in Kashgar (China)
Plastic Kyrgyzstan money.  One of those countries
where the currency had very big numbers
Armenia's square - the felted flower was covered with tissue to protect
it from rubbing against the other squares while travelling.

Next post about the quilt was in late July and I had completed eighteen squares to remember Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Tibet.  It was a combination of being busy and of using my iphone to access the internet which was poor to non-existent.

Next fifteen squares.  From China through Tibet
then Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia
Malaysia and on to Australia.
The bits of glass were found on the south shore of Lake Issykul
where we stopped for lunch.  Begaim said it was probably
from champagne bottles.  Memories of Cal's birthday.
It is amazing how much longer and thoughtful the blog posts got once I got a small notebook computer in Kolkata and could use two handed typing on a keyboard, save to the computer and then upload when internet was available.  I blogged about the squares I had completed for India to Singapore in November during our time in Perth.  I was already working on squares for Australia, so clearly my mind felt that having created the squares I must have also written about them!  Here’s photos, as well, of some of the squares with their final embellishments.

Quite delighted with how the square for Cambodia turned out.
Hand embroidered names of some of the important places we visited.
I used light coloured thread and Far East font so it is just a
subtle memory.  The brass dove is one that was given to me
by Kati from Ten Thousand Villages.  It is hand cut from
shell casings that litter the countryside and the word "Peace"
is in English and Khmer.  It traveled in my sewing
kit for the entire year.
The shell at the top right corner was found during our week
on Koh Tao.  Cal says that is is in the process of becoming an
agate.  So, it is a young fossil (or an old seashell)

We were 11 weeks in Australia and I created 7 squares.  I blogged about them in January from New Zealand.  Many of those squares have had shells and other found items attached.  I’ve mentioned a number of times that as a “land locked Alberta girl”, putting me on a beach is a source of endless enjoyment.

Squares 26 to 40.  From Cambodia through Australia
and into New Zealand
From Perth to Melbourne.  Seashells and a bit of wood.
Beachcombing along the Nullabor
My outback square with Emu feather (from Thread
Studio) and a shell from Rottnest Island

Perth square has had some shells added as well

Darwin to Perth.  All these shells came from eighty mile
beach which is just on the edge of Ningaloo National Park.
By early February I had added 8 more squares for New Zealand for a total of 43 completed (or with ideas of what I would do when getting home).  Here’s some of the squares with creative additions. Sadly, my square for Stewart Island has become “memories of muttonbird scrub” as the leaf which will remain soft and supple for years started to dry out and crumble as soon as it was pierced with a needle.
Last fifteen squares.  From Christmas in
Christchurch to home.
The Kiwi is sitting on a bit of greenstone Cal prospected along the lake
while hiking in Mt Cook National Park.

Memories of muttonbird scrub. The photo I took before
sending the leaves home has been printed to TAP, ironed to
fabric and then backed with wool batting (to give it
dimension) and then outline stitched.  Shells from
the beach at Mason Hut.

Wellington beachcombing. 

Paihia (Bay of Islands)  Shells (and a bit of weathered glass)
 came from the shore at Russell.
Auckland -  no simple picks to keep things together.  A
knotted bit of bamboo.

Five weeks in Bali and Lombok (Indonesia) and Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) were the last four squares completed on the road.  This left three squares (Hong Kong and then home) to be completed at home.
Lombok shells from our lunch spot the last day.
Surprisingly, we found no shells on the beaches
of the Gili islands.
My fortune:
"You are about to take part in an exciting adventure"
If you look carefully, you'll see an emphatic
Canadian eh!
A few of the shells that are not on the quilt.
I’ve been thinking about how this process is going to influence what I will do in the future. Journaling with fabric worked surprisingly well and will definitely be something to do on future travels.  I learned to identify what I wanted to remember each week and how to use minimal or non-traditional resources to create a “journal entry”. Hand sewing/slow stitching allowed me to think and remember the events of the week, including the adventures of finding items and accepting gifts from fellow travelers.  It humbled me how honoured people felt when I asked them to autograph my quilt; to be part of my memory of this year of travel.  I want to work harder at adding thoughtful notes when signing cards (or perhaps memory quilts) for others.  I also want to keep the sense of playfulness and relaxation about creating fabric memories.  I had to really think about the first “gift” for my quilt (the wine bag from Turkey), was delighted about the offer from my fellow travelers to make a square for my birthday (by which time there were no “rules” about what a square was made of, or even its exact size or shape), and jumped at the chance to have Bob the Banana and his monkey finally attach to the almost last square.

Next project(s)?  Probably a few smaller items.  My sewing machine is feeling lonely...  And I did bring home a lovely selection of fabrics.