#holibagging

[amuseoffyre]

The Art Gallery of Ontario caught me coming and going with two of their special exhibits today.

First there was the 'Making her Mark' exhibit, featuring 240 pieces of art by female artists between 1400-1860. It included all kinds of media including lacework, illuminated gospels, painting, silver smithing, porcelain, scientific illustrations for text books, engravings, sewing and even music by female composers from the period playing throughout. It's fantastically presented and I highly recommend it.

And then I stumbled on the second and almost burst into tears. It was a beautiful collection of the photographs from Casa Susanna and all the joyful gender nonconformity that the place allowed for trans women and gender nonconforming people in the 60s. I'm having such regrets that I didn't grab the huge hardback book that is available in the museum shop. It made my little queer heart sing, especially in the current climate. Huge beautiful portraits of Susanna and her friends having lovely times together, proudly and defiantly themselves. I think I need to order that book.

[amuseoffyre]

Going to be offline much of the weekend! Doing a social in another place :) See you on the other side.

[amuseoffyre]

My first five days in Aotearoa New Zealand as recorded in ridiculously scenic panoramas

Top to bottom: Frankton beach, Milford Sound, Queenstown lakeside, the view over Arrowtown, Mount Aoraki national park

[amuseoffyre]

Off on my holidays tomorrow. Will report in when I'm able :)

[amuseoffyre]

Khiva, Uzbekistan

[amuseoffyre]

I am being personally attacked by how photogenic this ridiculous country is.

[amuseoffyre]

I don’t think I did a summary of the weird run of bad luck I had on my trip:

every outbound flight was delayed, some by short increments, some by hours, and of course didn’t get confirmation of the next flight also being delayed which led to much panicking when I was landing just before my next flight was due to leave

my luggage only got part of the way to NZ because of some staff/system error that said my journey ended in Australia. It took 4.5 days to get to me

one of my outbound flight tickets was invalid

a massive storm front crossed the whole country when I was in the mountains, trapping me in my hotel for 3 days

said hotel was also struck by lightning which took out all communications for nearly 24 hours. while I was stuck there. with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

one of my buses was cancelled with no notification leading to having the pay an extra night’s accommodation in the town I was in, while my accommodation in the next location was also being paid for

when I finally got to that town there was a 5.6 earthquake under the lake 500m from where I was staying with aftershocks continuing for the next few days

my bad knee got wonked by one of the bush walks and is still twitchy

on my way home, I was denied boarding to my second flight (because of something wrong with my third flight? IDEK) and was chucked in a hotel overnight, then abandoned in Australia by the airline who wouldn’t admit culpability

had to buy an entire new ticket (so forking expensive😱) and ended up circumnavigating the globe entirely. I’d never been to San Francisco before. Seems such a waste I only got to pass through for 5 hours.

Needless to say that while I enjoyed the majority of the trip, either end and random moments in the middle were very Not Fun. Homecoming especially was a nightmare and a half and I’m dealing with BS bureaucracy now to try and get refunds for the mess.

[amuseoffyre]

Homeward bound. Will be back on home turf in about 35 hours, all being well.