I said WHAT?????

current blog at https://neuage.me/varanasi

Walking from India into Pakistan 2024

Narda italics – me not

This trip has been planned for a long time – a long time in our world, a few months. We are continuing our plan with three months home (Adelaide) three months anywhere but home. 2023 those months included: Kuala Lumpur – February, Pakistan – March, England – April, Wales – May, awhile home, New York/Michigan for my 76^th birthday in August, Chicago for September, and Spain for October. We enjoyed a few months at home and here we are back in Pakistan with two months in India next. These notes and images are of our first month (February 2024) and our next scribble and images will be the next two months in India.

As in most of our long-term trips there was the possibility that this trip would not eventuate due to medical stuff on my part. This time I was in hospital on January 19^th getting a new /defibrillator shoved in. Seems the old one (seven years old) was breaking up inside of my body. It was also too close to the surface and me being a bit skinny was close to popping out of my chest, plus the battery was at its end. All wonderful stuff. Firstly, I was told that I many have an infection from the old device which would mean me in a hospital for a week or so with antibodies being pumped in. Then I was told I may have gotten an infection from the new surgery. However, both tests over the next week proved cool and groovy so I didn’t need to get the antibiotic treatment. So, they shoved the new one further in, behind muscle making it all quite painful and I was told not to do much for a month. Three weeks later we were flying to India. So here we are. We are travelling light this time so not much weight to carry and Narda won’t let me lift anything over my shoulder which is OK as she is a big strong Dutch woman and can deal with it. I wasn’t the only one. Narda had cataract surgery over the two earlier months which we were worried about would impact our trip as it could have been postponed by a couple of weeks making us stranded in Australia.

Ay the same time two years ago we had to take a covid test at Melbourne airport before getting on a flight to Dubai then over to Lahore. Come to think of it most of our trips into the world have been “almost not happening”.

Then there was the time a few years ago when we had to test the day before a flight in Lahore going to DC. Luckily, all of us tested negative: Chris (visiting from DC for Brendan’s wedding, and Narda and I) Chris got back to DC a day later, we got there two days later, Christmas night. The next day Chris told us he had just tested positive for covid. Narda and I took tests and low and behold we both were positive. I was positive for 15-days delaying our flight to the UK where we were going for a few months. At least Narda got to stay with her son Chris and family for an extra week in DC. Because we have had so many injections (six now) and three then we were not very sick but still we could not fly back in those days.

There was even one time when my liver doctor thought I could have something sinister going on and had me get a scan a week before going overseas awhile back. But between medical, possible wars, covid and so many other things we manage to keep on going.

Not to worry – our daytime flight to Kuala Lumpur was fine with a bit of wait then onto Delhi. From the quiet of our neighbourhood in Adelaide to the full on of PaharGanj, Delhi.

PaharGanj, Delhi  Feb 9-13, 2024

Sitting on the balcony of the hotel in the crazy market of PaharGanj, sipping a sweet lassie is not a bad way to enjoy this chaos. Tuk tuks constantly reminding us of their usefulness by honking their horns, and then there are the hawkers insisting that you would look “very good Madam” with that bag around your middle.

Two cops on a motor bike have just tidied things up a bit by moving the selling sprawl back off the road using wailing sirens, the guy on the back wielding a long wooden stick.

Then there was the Austrian we met over dinner in the Krishna rooftop cafe. A real traveller. Told us interesting stories of the 70s when it was possible to trek from Istanbul to India, stopping in Iran, Afghanistan …..Kabul was the hip place…and Pakistan. His Indian friend later joined us too. A gemmologist…is that a thing? His favourite stone was the black opal from Australia.

The Austrian also told us that his room was robbed while he was staying in our hotel some  years back. He said it could only have been a staff member. He asked to see the security footage only to be told that the manager was not available…when he did become available the security footage had been deleted as per protocol …every 48 hours!!!

Note to self…no more stays at Hotel Hari Piorko.

The food here is great. No salads, fruit only with a removable skin. The Indian food is amazing, complete with a sweet lassi. 

Yesterday we took the Metro. The first ride, for 40 rupees was crazy. Pushing and shoving, no kind offers of a seat for an old tart…but we found our way to the cinema, only to be told there were no movies with English subtitles. We had hoped for a nice long Bollywood flick.

https://youtu.be/zihvE_Dt4Lw?si=9ZXeuML3_oL5zwjA our tuk tuk ride

I have a new grandchild!! 

A beautiful little boy who I can’t wait to meet.

The expression says it all. 

“What? There’s another grandma? Do I HAVE to call her Oma?”

I found it interesting to watch the Super Bowl on the balcony of a local restaurant – enjoying breakfast. Enjoying that the team with the dude that hangs out with that Swift girl who likes Biden, won even though I was never a fan of the team previously. A slightly interesting thing, to me, is that I have only one sports team jumper and that is KC. It was Leigh’s and I had used it to paint our house – Clare who is going to a Swift concert in Melbourne asked if she could borrow it and I left it with her. Doubt she would have worn it there.

We took tuk tuks – got ourselves lost heaps – walked in crowded surroundings and had a wonderful time. See our short clip for this time in Delhi. https://youtu.be/uNBZzQ1m9QA?si=hT8OYAP1fXVYj76S  One of the reasons we like to keep blogs is because we can look back at previous trips and see, if anything, what we learnt then for now, but we usually forget to look until after we have been someplace. However, we have done Delhi before – even the same hotel – it was better then. Including a rooftop restaurant. We were told due to a fire where a bunch of folks got were injured, rooftop restaurants were no longer in vogue, or in fact legal. The rooms were worse now so overall the hotel has gone downhill since we were there before covid. 2018 https://neuage.me/2018/01/18/india2018/ that is quite a good blog if I do say so myself. We even had a fish tank in our room.

2. Agra Feb 13-18, 2024

Our train guy (Raj from trainticketplease…google it.) organised a driver for us. The driver was slow and cautious, all good , but next time we’ll take the Gatimaan Express which, by all accounts takes 90 minutes ……about a quarter of the time the driver took….though we did stop for a fast food lunch.

The homestay is really nice.

A loud wedding down the road. 

Iced coffee, drumstick icecreams, and nuts. It’s all there in the Daily Need Store 

Yesterday we caught up with our friend and TukTuk driver Shambhu. 

This is the Baby Taj

[Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah (I’timād-ud-Daulah Maqbara) is a Mughal mausoleum in the city of Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Often described as a “jewel box”, sometimes called the “Bachcha Taj” or the “Baby Taj“, the tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah is often regarded as a draft of the Taj Mahal. (the internet)]

And the big Taj Mahal from the park at the back. 

Where’s Wally’s hat?????

We had lunch at Shambhu’s wife’s house. His wife spent hours making our meal; curried chicken for me and a veggie version for Terrell. 

All very pleasant. They sat watching us eat which we now realise is the way things are done.

We invited Shambhu and his wife for dinner at our nearby restaurant. Shambhu was our tuk tuk driver and has maintained nice contact with us for some years.

@ 9.30 am we got a driver to Agar – got there at 1.30 PM, slow driver doing 80 and below on 100 kph freeway.  People passed on both sides, three-lane highway. In contrast last year to Kuala Lumpur, we got a driver from Johor Bahru (JB) next to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur who drove the 333 kilometres very quickly, like going more than 130 KMPH, with Narda every once in a while, asking him if he could slow down. On this trip to Agra, we stopped at a roadside place (J Mart food court) with basically a KFC being the only recognizable food place and lucky for me they had a really good veggie burger. Narda grabbed some chicken pieces. The only good thing about having a driver was that he drove us straight to the homestay which we had booked for the week. Soon after arriving we had a nap then had dinner at Udupi Brindavan over on Shamshabad Road. A good feed indeed. As usual, about six waiters and whatevers stood around watching us eat. There was only one other couple in the place the whole time there so I suppose we were the evening entertainment.

The homestay was a large house with several rooms rented out to various critters. There were people from Poland, Italy, Ukraine (though we did not get to meet them), France and Czech Republic. We got to meet them at breakfast sometimes though conversations were limited as no one spoke much English, except us and we talk nonstop.

In the evening there was a typical Indian wedding with lots of noise, a horse or two and lots of dancing in the street. It is in our video below.

Another day we took a tuk tuk to Ashok Cosmos Mall shopping centre which turned out to be a long ride and it was a crap place. Not really a shopping centre though it looked as if it wanted to be, a want-to-be shopping centre. When we get a bit too much of a third world lack of integration, we start looking for something familiar – a western shopping centre. We went to the largest one in Delhi, Select City Walk Mall, it was clean and big but exactly like any western shopping centre anywhere in the world, meaning expensive and boring. We did find a good place to eat nearby at 3C’s Café with a great cheesy noodle dish. Address: Sanjay Palace, Sanjay 114/23 Deepshikha Building, Wazirpura Road, Agra, Uttar Pradesh 282002.

I have to say, shopping malls in Lahore are MUCH better. For example Packages Mall………

We caught up with our friend, Shambu, who was our tuk tuk driver back in 2018 and whom Narda had connections with through her school in Adelaide years earlier. He drove us around for a day taking us to the baby Taj (Itmad-ud-Daula), past the big Taj (we went there last time in India, see our blog – ).

Below is a short clip of our short week in Agra with the wedding parade, the Taj and its sibling and some street scenes.

previous, 2018, blog of Agra https://neuage.me/2018/02/12/india2018-agra

I kept a watch on the local monkey population. Someone at breakfast at our homestay had his smart phone ripped from his hand the day before – a monkey chewed on it and the man was able to get it back by giving a piece of fruit to the critter. another person said her glasses had been stolen – apparently, monkeys will steal glasses off of one’s face as they see their reflection. There are a lot of monkeys in our area, probably all over Agra. They will climb onto your porch and take things.

Some other street scenes of Agra 2024…

We had a good feed at Shambu’s and lots of neighbourhood children came to visit. We sat up on his rooftop to have tea and others on their roofs waved and took photos of us and we of them.

We had the usual amount of people wanting to take selfies with us, and in turn, us with them…

3. Amritsar and Wagah Border. We start off with a derailment! No not for us.  It was the train ahead, fortunately a goods train so no injuries. But now we are 5 hours later than we should be, though that has no relevance in our life. More sleep for me and some time and day to gaze out of windows. This morning, in our search for food, we had to walk through half a dozen carriages of 3 AC….we are in 2 AC…..we have made the unanimous decision not to ride 3 AC. But it was a very interesting walk.

We got a taxi to the train station in Agra. Our train did not arrive on the track it was supposed to, the digital sign made no sense, and we got a bit unsure. As we were the only westerns at the station there seemed to be a lot of interest in us, especially to help us. We blocked everyone until it became obvious, we were two lost souls without a clue and the train could not arrive on the track listed as there was a goods train sitting there with no intentions of moving. We finally let a person take us to a place in the station where he indicated our coach would arrive. We were very unsure as our app showed our coach was car number 19 which showed it to be at the end of the train and the person insisted that it was at the front after the engine. The person was correct, got us right to our seat. I had very little money and he was not pleased with what I gave him. I suppose people just figure western people are rich and probably we are in comparison. Of course, compared to rich people we are not rich…something lost there. We had wanted to get only first-class seats on our train rides but there was not one available, so we were in 2A which is Ok just not quite as private. We got the lower bunk which is all I can manage with my newly implanted pacemaker and of course, just generally being too old to climb up and down stairs. Somewhat comfortable. Compared to our 24-hour Amtrack last year from Chicago to DC it was better in some ways and not others. On Amtrack we had only our bunk, the downside was it sounded its horn every few minutes and it was a rocky ride, so I got basically did not sleep. On this train Narda thinks she slept about 12-hours which is good for her as she is not a very good sleeper normally. I got very little sleep. The bed was a bit hard, my sheets and blankets kept going onto the floor and people were coming and going all night. It was supposed to be a fourteen-hour train ride but due to a freight derailment earlier in the day there was an additional five or six hours added as we waited at one station for them to clear some twisted metal stuff for five hours. The upside is that instead of arriving at six am and having most of the ride in the dark we arrived in Amristar a bit after noon, so I got a bunch of photos and a bit of video – see below, along the way. I thought a lot of the way looked much like outback Australia.

We, or me, had a bit of a meal from their dining car. I had a couple of vegetarian samosas which were almost good. We had lots of chai tea as there are people who go through the train hawking the stuff. I tried to say no sugar but that got ignored or misunderstood.

See our video, ‘Crossing Wagah Border’ below to see the train ride

The Wagah border is a wonderful thing. An example to the world on how two countries with incredible conflict in the past can settle their differences and embrace one another. We had several conversations with locals about this in Amritsar, and they said there is no conflict here at all. It’s the politicians who need to come on board. Narda

19 February Monday
Arriving in Amritsar @ noon. As always is the situation, people line up wanting to drive us somewhere/anywhere. One chap seemed to look reasonable, and we showed him the name of our hotel and off we went. We would use him again in a few days to get to the border and again in three weeks to get back to Amritsar – but that is for a later narrative. The car to the hotel was 250 rupees, setting us back a whomping three dollars USD.  After our customary nap we wandered out into the streets of Amritsar exploring this groovy town. Our mission was to get a hair wash and head massage which we did for about $24 USD including tips (800 rupees each), which in this part of the world is quite expensive. Narda went upstairs with a girl, and I was left downstairs with five or six people watching, seemingly laughing at me, but the dude that did the wash and massage was really good even though he seemed to have a case of the giggles most of the time he was engaged with me. I am unable to get anything done to my back or my left arm due to various wires that hold my heart together or is it my pacemaker? Nevertheless no one can thump me on the back.

We didn’t go the Golden Temple this time as we have already done that, and we are not good with standing in lines as is the case with the GT. The hotel was OK and I would recommend it. As we always seem to be on a quest for something, Narda wanted to get a sink plug as most places we stay at do not seem to have one. Narda seems to enjoy trying to describe and get a hold of something that is beyond words. For example, when we lived in China she wanted a fly swatter and after giving a pretty good description in sign language a guy came out with a hammer. She then did the same performance only adding buzz buzz buzz which promptly produced a fly swatter along with laughs from our acquired audience. We found a few plumbing/bathroom type of places but with little luck. A friendly chap who thought he knew what we wanted took us to several places and eventually we emerged with a plug that looked rather standard in hand and unfortunately for the dude who took us around we did not have any money to give him for his service. Narda’s next quest was to find a bookstore selling books in English which we did after a harrowing tuk tuk ride through narrow streets full of traffic that did not easily fit on the same street and which had not idea of which side of the street a vehicle should be on. Again, Narda was successful and proudly trotted down the street with a bag of books and me wondering how we could possible fit them into our already too full suitcases.

So that was our stay in Amritsar. The dude to drive us to the border was in front of our hotel at nine am and off we went to one of the main events of this trip. To walk across the border between India and Pakistan.

The border experience was surprisingly simple and quick. Folks are friendly. 

Brendan’s driver, Imran, collected us from the Pakistani side. We had to wait for awhile as some singer from India was coming to Lahore to perform, making security extra tight. Obviously, we did not look like we were part of the band.

The other times we were at the border was to see the ceremony when 50,000 people on the India side and 20,000 on the Pakistan side, nightly, cheer and celebrate while the flag is taken down. When we arrived at 10 am the flag was up for the day and the stadiums were empty. This is the India stadium.

This is what it was like the last time we were there…

In the previous three times to Lahore we flew. Always a long way either through Dubai or KL. Having gone to the big nightly celebrations, one on the India side twice on the Pakistan side to see the place empty was a goal. The border opens at ten am and we were there in line. We would have been first, but I wanted a cup of coffee which put us behind a couple of other people. Going through was easy as. They checked our passports, put our bags through a scanner – I showed them my pacemaker saying I could not go through their bloody scanning device, though not exactly in those words and as usual no one wants to go near me after that. We got to their big mean looking fence and gate, they opened it, we took some photos, though I didn’t think in the moment to have a picture of Narda with one foot in India and one foot in Pakistan. We will do that on the way back which will be the next blog. They let us take photos of the gate and the guards and everyone seemed pleased with their lot in life, considering these two nuclear armed countries have a terrible past of killing each other – reading a book about that now, “Train to Pakistan” by Khushwant Singh. So many thousands killed one another in 1947 on both sides.

Pakistan achieved independence from British rule as a dominion within the Commonwealth on August 14-15, 1947, the former day celebrated annually as the country’s Independence Day. The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act on July 18, 1947, which created two dominions, Indian Union and Pakistan. It also provided for the complete end of British control over Indian affairs from August 15, 1947.

Sidenote: Terrell Neuage was born on August 10, 1947. Wow, it is like Pakistan is my younger brother. Though I believe if they had become a nation on August 10 instead of the fourteenth, they would have been better off. I was born in Battle Creek (Michigan), sounds peaceful to me. Of course, if they had my birth chart with five planets in Leo (Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Pluto, Sun, MH) instead of waiting until there were six planets in Leo (when the moon moved over into Leo) they may have had a better outcome. I have my five Leo planets in Pakistan’s birth chart’s fourth house which is why I am so comfortable here. Of course, the fourth house can be considered the end of the matter too which is not my cup of tea as I want to keep going. And my Taurus moon rising in their first house. A match made in whatifs. And of course, Pakistan has six planets in my 10^th house – we were made to be together. This could also partially explain why I like it in India and Pakistan because I get to honour all my planets in Leo and their need for recognition and overall general attention as everywhere we go folks stop and stare at us and often want to take selfies with us as if we were celebrities – which momentarily we are, at least in our own minds. We both also have in Chinese stuff the year of the pig and both of us have a life path of #7 whatever the hell that could mean. Also, probably of absolutely of no interest to anyone Horoscopes having the same aspect Venus square Ascendant (orb 1°33′) as Pakistan: Cristiano Ronaldo, Uma Thurman, Mila Kunis, Mick Jagger, Tom Hanks, Richard Gere, Nicolas Hulot, Emma Roberts, Pharrell Williams, Michael Schumacher. And that is all we will say about this nonsense.

Bing Copilot AI thingy

According to some sources, the name Terrell may have an Old German origin meaning “following Thor” ¹². Thor was the Norse god of thunder, lightning, and war ³. However, other sources suggest that Terrell is derived from an Old French nickname for a stubborn person ¹⁴, or a Teutonic name meaning “martial ruler” . Therefore, the meaning of Terrell is not very clear and may depend on the cultural and historical context of the name.

Anyway, you cut it Terrell, AKA Thor the god of war, from Battle Creek sounds safe (this last line is not from AI but has been influenced by my own insights).

Bing Copilot AI thingy

The name Neuage is not very common and has no clear origin or meaning. However, some sources suggest that it may represent ambition, independence, strength, reliability, determination and professionalism ¹. It could also be a variant of the French word “nuage” meaning “cloud”.

Full disclosure… I changed my name to Neuage in 1980 in Hawaii. Probably means, ‘he who rambles…’ Also, I have no middle name, and could possibly be open to suggestions. Or not.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Lahore. We have done it three times before so read those times. This time we are just hanging out locally, walking to shops, parks, waving to the world.

We went to the Lahore Literary Festival again https://lahorelitfest.com/ – we went last year also. Narda was especially interested in Sirbaz Khan who is the youngest Pakistani to climb Mt. Everest and who has made it to the top of 13 of the 14 highest peaks. Unfortunately, he did not speak English, but the video of his efforts was good. We listened to the panel discussion how Pakistan is at the forefront to sort out climate change, however, with the highest pollution in the air anywhere in the world I am not sure how much is being done.

• 2023 Lahore https://neuage.me/2023/03/18/pakistan2023/
• 2022 Lahore https://neuage.me/2022/02/03/covid-world-tour-2021/  (Brendan and Sofie’s wedding)
• 2019 Lahore https://neuage.me/2019/11/29/lahore/

See four years of our video clips at bit.ly/3uIBrjK

A couple of notes: we like getting our hair washed in Asia and of course, massages. We have been gone from home for three weeks and have had three hair washes and four massages. Here in Lahore for two plus weeks we had hair wash and massage in Main Market and our go to place from last few times, Arammish Spa and Salon for excellent foot massages and hair washing. Narda had her first pedicure saying that since she is turning 70 this year it will be a year of firsts.

The other thing we do as done before is going to the International Club. This time Narda got to sing with Brendan’s band, ‘The Buffs’, which we thought was named after him going to the gym and getting buffed but is really named after their school sports team the buffalo.

Our other usual was breakfast @ Bundu Khan Restaurant – Liberty Market where we ate Desi Nashta Served with 2 puri, chanay, aloo bhujia, yogurt & halwa – yumm.

4. Lahore Feb 21 to Feb 24, 2024

And the highlight of our trip, meeting Arhan. What a little snoepie.

One of these baby pictures is not Arhan! See if you can find it. It’s another member of the family.

This is grandchild number five. I am a very happy grandma.

We managed to find a nice brekkie complete with sweet lassi. There were about 6 waiters standing around smiling. I have no idea what they were saying, but the food was good, basically a piece of paratha with a bowl of yogurt for dipping. This has become my favourite brekkie, discovered in India. Easy and nice.

Yesterday we had brekkie with Brendan at the Tea House, fancy Eggs Benedict with salmon for $6. Enough reason for the trip right there! And the most important news is that we accompanied Bren to the International Club where he works out every day. Terrell and I played the pool table and I won!! Though in the interests of full disclosure, he did pocket 3 of my balls.

Yesterday we went to our favourite restaurant:  Pakistani style, puri, halwa, some other spicy stuff, yogurt and of course sweet lassis. It’s very crowded on Sunday mornings. Great food. For the 3 of us, $13. 

The drive home was blacked by a woman’s march. Bren has no problem driving up the wrong side of the road to avoid it. He drives like a Pakistani local. Scary!

Sofie joined us with Arhan for the afternoon, lots of time for nice conversation and getting to know the tiny one. We nipped out to buy some afternoon tea, which included yummy chocolate eclairs. We are not doing it too tough!

The weather has been blue skies, relatively low pollution count: 120. Today the blue is gone but still reasonable at 179, which for this city is still pretty OK. We’re sleeping well and are still doing our core exercises, so we are feeling virtuous.

Taking photos for official paperwork. Eyes to the front, white background. Hello. The applicant is one month old! Good job Bren.

And he turned one-month old

Just another day walking down the street.

Our chai wallah, who remembered us from last year. “2 cups, one without sugar”. Nice. 

This is the approach to nearby Main Market. It has a great little stationery shop which I love to visit. They are selling chai on that corner too. 

Last night we had dinner at Imran’s place. He lives in a Christian enclave which could have been in Biblical times with it’s narrow streets. 

Taken by Angel, Imran’s youngest daughter and an up-and-coming “influencer”. Her stated ambition. For that she is excelling in physics,  math’s and chemistry at high school…..:). A clever girl.

The scariest thing in this place is crossing the road. Yesterday we took the red bus, boys in the back girls in the front, to Liberty Market. 

We bought some bits and pieces, had a donut at Dunkin Donuts as you do an then attempted to take the bus back. 

This involved crossing a very busy road. We stood on the side looking terrified. A kindly local said “come with me, I will take you across” He ignored the cars, the motor bikes and tuks and ploughed ahead. We had 2 choices. Either hold hands with him or simply keep going with our eyes almost shut. I made a vow. If I survive, I will not do this again. And here we are.

Getting ready for tonight’s gig in Brendan and Sofie’s lounge…

Bren’s band, “The Buffs”  played for a special event at the International Club. It was a really nice night. I heard quite a few compliments on Bren’s bass playing, but I hesitate to pass them on….don’t want to swell his head!! Haha. I did get to sing a song with them. It was fun. We are starting to get to know a few folks there, Bren and Sof’s friends. Lulu, Kash, Dave and neighour Luke….nice. 

We are also getting more familiar with the city, despite no sim cards. Google gives you a map off-line which is great. Don’t really need a phone. WhatsApp is great when there is wifi. Yesterday we had a nice spa experience at Sofie’s salon. I had my very first manicure in my life, hands and toes, and a foot massage, Terrell also had a hair wash. All good. Now you see why we really come here!! 🙂

This is the view of Bren’ front yard viewed from the lounge. Not too shabby.

Right now I’m plowing through books about the Partition. Just finished one called The Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh, an Indian author. It’s really impartial, describing the atrocities from both sides.

And we were stopped and asked if wanted to purchase a newspaper – but it was not in English. A few moments later the man came back with a local newspaper in English – our first one since leaving home.

It rained only once in our three weeks here – they day of Brendan’s gig at the international club – so it was held inside. In the afternoon it hailed quite large hail things…

Some images and clips from this time…next blog will be re. crossing the border into India then two months in far-out and groovy places in India which we may do as individual places or at the end and toss up when we get back home in May or perhaps June – the world is our oyster and we love sharing it.

Then we left home…see you next blog – thanks for sharing.

Our latest blog is DC and Spain @ https://neuage.me/spain2023 (December 20, 2023)

Our previous blog is Chicago. For some reason I can not sort out why, it is not on top. This Battle Creek one comes on top on mobile devices. Chicago is on top on desktops. Until I find the fix click on the Chicago blog here https://neuage.me/2023/09/16/chicago/ Battle Creek is our previous blog. Cheers

This is the first segment of our trip from Australia to the States to Spain.
Firstly, BLOG #1 is our road trip from Albany, New York to Battle Creek, Michigan with the whys and wherefores and whatifs that is so popular in a rambling three-part blog of particular moments in several spaces. BLOG #2 is Chicago with the train trip Chicago to DC and a bit of a time in DC tossed in. BLOG #3 will be, or when we are back in Adelaide, is, Spain with a stop over in Kuala Lumpur. Overall, just a three-month trip. Our second three-month trip for 2023. As you would expect, the first three-month trip is already up. That was the Pakistan, Kuala Lumpur, Wales, Holland, England, and Phuket trip.
Before we start, I want to point out one of the main differences of this trip, visiting friends and family more than usual. I do not recall any trip of the past twenty-years during which time we visited with so many from our past. Of course, most of those we visited from our past were people who we have met in the past twenty years.
As always, italics are Narda’s notes, and non-italics are my wanderings.
AUGUST 6
We took a bus from front of our house to see the world once again. Knowing we can walk to the end of our driveway, get on a bus and be in Lahore, London, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City, or standing at your door wondering why you have aged so much makes living in a place as remote as Adelaide so close to anywhere else.
We have been staying in a hotel in Adelaide the night before leaving if we have a morning flight. Not only do we leave a clean house for whomever is staying there but we do not have the stress of getting to the airport, almost an hour’s drive, in morning traffic.

Met with sisters and their hubbies at Marcellinas. Leon recommended the Sicilian pizza which I ate…anchovies and all. Yum. Carolin and Michael are also on their way. First Michael celebrates his 60th then off to Bali. Very civilised.

We slept well at the Grosvenor. Its name is fancier than it is, but we slept well. Up at 5.45am. walked all the way to the J1 stop. The bus sped past us. Oh no. Then he pulled into the next stop and waited for us!!! Bless him. What a kind driver. A good start to a long trip.

Then there is a piece of good news. We spotted Batik Air, our new current favourite budget carrier…..we even are the proud owners of their pillows, legitimately purchased on a previous flight for $1 each. Thats USD in case you thought I was a cheapskate.

Batik plane landing in Adelaide.

Sitting in a west bound local Sydney train now. Summerhill.
We are heading to Olympic Stadium to pay tribute to Leigh. If we had tickets, we would also stay for the FIFA soccer match between Australia and Denmark…how cool is that!!
PS. Australia won!

We used to go to Sydney each year in August since my son died there in 2003. We had not been there for a few years, and I had wanted to be there on the twentieth-year of his death, and when he would have turned 40. We left Sydney on the sixth of August and Leigh died on the 16th. He had turned twenty the month before. Leigh’s last breath was overlooking Olympic Stadium. Twenty years ago, I put up a newspaper story about him and his Dodger’s Baseball Card on a light pole where he died. Twenty years later the tape is still visible on the pole. https://neuage.org/leigh.html

See our ‘Sydney for a day’ one minute clip @ https://youtu.be/tcbV3OAqT4Y

Wolli Creek…
After our afternoon in Olympic Park – always a place of peace and reflections for me

we took the train to our hotel, CKS Airport Hotel. A most basic hotel though priced as if they were some hotsy totsy resort on the Mediterranean. Being the forever cheapskates, we decided to walk from the train station to the hotel, apparently my initiative – the other party wanted to take an Uber. Dragging our suitcases and bundles of joy for the next three-months with us became more of a challenge after 20 minutes, some uphill, as we passed our hotel and kept on going blindly following our GPS that was laughing at us. Eventually we got to where we were going – obviously, as I am writing this weeks later, and went tromping off in search of nourishment as we were starving, almost. We found Rowers On Cooks River a few blocks away. And yes that is Wolli Creek. A membership only place but a cheerful young lad signed us up for free and led us to the porch overlooking the river. The food was fantastic, I had fish tacos – never had that before, and Narda a Caesar salad. We even got a 25% discount as we were now members. Wonderful views of the river and airport and nighttime lights and stuff.

Early next morning we were up and off to the airport. The good folks offered us a great deal on a shuttle service to the airport that we easily dismissed. They wanted $17/person for the five-minute drive. We rang a taxi service and got there for $13 for the two of us. The flight was OK – 13+ hours to LA. I think I got a good two hours sleep and arrived muddled and dazed,

more than my usual state. Narda slept a bit more. I watched a Jimi special –

A few yucky hours in LA, wait…not that bad actually. As we use a United Credit Card, we get one free United business class lounge access a year. The United lounge at LAX is very good. A great buffet breakfast. We ate like the starving hobos we were. Narda managed to fall asleep in a chair and she had set her clock to get us up in time to board – of course we didn’t hear the alarm, but luckily, I stayed awake, not trusting these alarms. The flight to Chicago was ordinary, a few hours in Chicago, then on to Albany, New York. Arriving ten pm there were no shuttle service to our hotel. A friendly airport helping lady got us a taxi with her friend for too much money, but we were happy to collapse in our hotel in whatever time zone our body thought it was.
It was a long but uneventful flight, first to LAX, where we had time to use our United Chase card member ship for a nice buffet brekkie in the United lounge. It’s a bugger of an airport. We had to take the shuttle bus to terminal 7, not close enough for walking.
Then 2 nights at the Baymont by Wyndham Latham Albany Airport in Albany and a car rental. On the second night we drove to Sean and Jean’s place in Troy. They were great friends from our DAIS days. So much to talk about and catch up on. They are now planning to stay with us for a bit in Adelaide in January.

Our drive home was a bit “sketchy”. No working GPS and complete darkness which is not my favourite driving condition. I’m looking forward to getting my cataracts dealt with back in Adelaide in November. Still we made it.

The original before we left home sketch of our road trip Albany to Battle Creek is here
https://youtu.be/u7j_jRcGf30?si=Mi3oAAsqLenEBl75

This is the part of the trip that I had been looking most for. Of course, a road trip across the States in a camper van would have been our first but impossible choice. Back in Adelaide I pushed a lot to rent a car in Albany and drive to Battle Creek. The rental for five days was $650 USD (almost a thousand dollars Australian). We got a car with state of Washington plates so I suppose we will appear as out of towners.

I didn’t drive the first few days as I was not feeling too flash. Not that Narda was feeling much better, but she was in the driver’s seat. We spent our first day with the car driving around some of the places we used to live twenty-years earlier. Clifton Park, where I attempted to grow up, from being adopted in 1950 to doing a runner in 1965 – to do the sixties, was our main stop,

Walmart – wasn’t there in my growing up attempt but we popped in to get a sim card and various items on Narda’s shopping list since Adelaide. We went to the Clifton Park Cemetery where my parents and brother are buried, left our laundry at a Asian laundry place then went back to the hotel to sleep. The next day we were out about nine heading to my sister’s. My blood sister who I managed to find in 1987 and first met with my two boys in 1992. I met my real grandmother then to, she who made my fifteen-year-old mother put me up for adoption. Not telling that story here – though it is in my well-researched ultimate about the 1960s book, ‘Leaving Australia, Before the After’ available through Amazon in Hardback, paperback, and for Kindle. Of course, if you stop into our house in Adelaide, you can borrow it from our bookshelves packed with my many other books.

Strangely I am not having too much trouble with jet-lag. I slept quite a bit on the plane, using my new formula….soft pillows, neck ring, a window seat and half a “sleep assist”. Seems to do the trick. Then I use a bit more sleep assist for the nights, and I’m good. First half, then a quarter, then an eighth, then I’m done. Hmm.

AUGUST 10 Terrells 76th birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈
Then into the car and heading west….for the next 4 days.

Stopping overnight in Norwich, visiting Terrell’s sister Susan and niece Nikki and her partner, Lucas, who have recently moved into a gorgeous house in the small town of Gilbertsville.

Susan and Nikki took us for a walk around town, highlighting the sculpture park. They are both incredible artists. Susan gave Terrell a lovely paining for his birthday. Nikki has a business creating both graphic novels and dolls made to order all in “anime” style

The hotel Fred’s Inn was really nice. We had a lounge area, old style. They set up a gazebo for us to have a dinner to celebrate Terrell’s birthday. Great food, huge helpings and a very pleasant evening.

The next day we checked out, dropped by Susan and Nikki again for some morning tea and then started our drive west.
The first one was the most difficult aspect had booked a hotel in Olean, and the drive was a bit of a slog, Terrell not feeling too well.

On the second day we ran into some “weather”. Oh boy. Weird clouds, a tornado warning and full on rain with poor visibility. A bit of a challenge, though suddenly it was over and sky was blue again. I have to say, I did have my moments……

The next day we made it to a southern suburb of Toledo and headed out for some Chipotle takeaway. Nice hotel.

I am writing now in the breakfast room of our Battle Creek hotel. Just had an afternoon nap. A couple of weirdos and bikers hanging around the front, but the office guy was very friendly and gave us early access to our room.

I have only seen my sister a few times, the first with my boys in 1992, then again, a couple of times with Narda between 2002 – 2010 then twice since. Narda says we look alike though she is about a decade younger than me and much better looking. I have a brother in Hawaii, and we visited him in 2002, the only time we have been together. I met my grandmother in 2002 and we tried to get her to tell me who my father was but to no avail. We attended her funeral, she was about a hundred-years old, soon before going to China in 2010.

My sister had just moved to Gilbertsville from Oneonta two weeks earlier, so we arrived when she was getting settled. She has bought a two hundred plus year old house and has made it beautiful and homey. Her daughter, Nikki and her boyfriend, Lucas, live with her alongside their cat, Murray.
Nikki, like her mother is a very good artist. She writes graphic novels, one of which she sent me, ‘Vitalism’. It is definitely for over 17. See her wonderful work @ https://vitalism.the-comic.org/

We arrived on my birthday, walked around the village of Gilbertsville and had dinner in the gazebo of our hotel, Fred’s Inn, https://www.fredsinn.com/index.php, in nearby Norwich, which by the way is a good place to stay.

Gilbertsville is a historic village in Otsego County, New York. The only community in New York State to be wholly listed as a National Register Historic Site. Less than 400 people live there.

One of the highlights, aside of visiting my family was walking through the Gilbertsville Expressive Movement – https://www.g-e-m.org/ Sculpture Park – 14 acres of park land property. Check out their sculptures @ https://www.g-e-m.org/g-e-m-sculpture-park the photos are better than what we took but here are some of ours in case you don’t want to click the link.
https://neuage.org/Birthday.mp4

The next day we caught up with Sidhee from DAIS (Dalian American International School – China) and Pune (India) who took us out for lunch. She’s a lovely, talented girl, already on her first job as a computer engineer. She showed us around Cornell University where she had just finished her masters degree.

We spent the next morning, August 11, with my sister and her daughter, Nikki. We left for Ithaca, a couple of hours away (our driving time). Halfway there I realized I had left my hat at Susan’s. She’ll mail it to Chicago so a few days without my hat. Will I survive?
A year ago, I saw that an ex-student from China, Sidhee, was going to Cornell University in Ithica. Ithica is about an hour from where my sister was living and I thought they should meet. It never happened but I said when we go to upstate New York, if she was still in Ithica we would pop in. Sidhee was my year 8 student from India in Dalian, China. Five years ago, after she had graduated from high school in India, she was attending university in Pune, and we happened to be going there so we visited her and her family there. See https://neuage.me/2018/03/04/pune/ Now Sidhee had completed her master’s degree and had been hired by an AI company in Ithica so she had stayed.

We spent an afternoon with Sidhee, she showed us around Cornell Campus and told us about here work in the field of AI. She is working in the legal side of it. Having had a wonderful time using AI in Photoshop the past few months I found talking with her about this educational. My sister and her daughter, two great artists, are concerned about artist having their work taken without giving the artists credit. Sidhee says that the art AI is using is taken from artwork already on the internet and is considered public domain. Of course, that is the simplest way of looking at this and does not answer many questions about artist’s ownership.
Here is Sacha’s AI rendition of me using Journey’s AI stuff, and a few drawings of Narda and me – at an Elton John concert earlier this year in Liverpool (https://neuage.me/2023/04/22/liverpool/)

We drove the four hours to Olean, getting there after nine pm and by now both of us were feeling exhausted and were on our way to Toledo early the next morning. Don’t recall much about Olean, western New York except I had read it was settled in 1765 by Europeans who chased the natives out. We just saw the freeway part of it.
We had planned to tour Toledo. Forget why. We didn’t and headed toward Michigan. On the way we got stuck in a nasty storm with radio broadcasts of an approaching tornado where we were. I had my camera ready, Narda was unsettled. We figured we should just park under an overpass (bridge) if we saw it coming toward us. Seemed like a great protection – but… we looked up what to do if a tornado is coming at you and the first thing it said was do not park under an overpass. The worst choice of all.
See our little clip… https://youtu.be/z1lKafBLbQk?si=DOq1H_idG6Qhye6L

13th Sunday to Battle Creek
This was, to me, the main part of our USA trip. I was born in Battle Creek and soon after my mum took me back to her home in Troy New York. Three-years later I was adopted so I never got to know my mum or see where I was born, until now, seventy-six years later. I have been reading about it and identifying with Battle Creek most of my life

Battle Creek, a mixture of poverty, empty spaces and speccie building with impressive height and massive columns. Then there is the ex sanitorium hospital, probably the most imposing building in town, now a federal building where we are not allowed entry.

But the main thing is it’s Terrell’s birthplace, and he has never seen it. He was born there to a 15-year-old girl, who was not allowed to keep him, despite many attempts to rescue him from the orphanage. Such a horrifying story full of pain. Susan was able to help him understand some of this.

Our hotel was nice, good location, had a swimming pool and plenty of sugary breakfast options, though they did also manage some strange ribbons of eggs and sausages. The room was good. The staff very friendly.

We made a nice connection with some ladies managing the Seventh Day Adventist village. A small museum, extolling the virtues of healthy living, vegetarianism, and Saturday worship. This was the church that spawned the Kellogg cornflakes phenomena. A great deal of money was made and spent on the hospital. I think they were quite ahead of their time. For example, back in the day, eating raw vegetables was considered to be dangerous.

The Battle Creek Sanatorium is where it all began (me too)…founded by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It combined aspects of a European spa, a hydrotherapy institution, a hospital, and high-class hotel. A vegetarian trip – I have been a vegetarian since the 1960s. Also, in Hong Kong in 2014 I had a pacemaker/defibrillator installed at a Seventh-day Adventist Hospital…go figure. If it wasn’t for their screwy religious beliefs I would be one of them.
I have written extensively about it in my book, “Leaving Australia”.
A bit about my start in BC from my book…”Leaving Australia“

“I was born 10th August 1947 Battle Creek Michigan in a military hospital and delivered by Hugh Robins, M.ED. and left with the name Terry Miller which was changed upon adoption to Terrell Adsit which was changed when I joined a cult order to Arthur Adsit and upon marriage to Terrell Neuage.
‘The Battle Creek Sanitarium opened in 1866 as the Western Health Reform Institute. The institute was founded on the health principles advocated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In the 1980s, I was making tofu in South Australia and I was working with a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church who was going to help me get involved with selling soy products to the Seventh-Day Adventist company, Sanitarium. The U. S. Army purchased the buildings and established the Percy Jones General Hospital in 1942, obviously to get it set up for my birth. The hospital closed in 1953. When I believed in astrology (for about 40-years) I studied the influence of midpoints. The midpoints between two planets, signs, houses, charts, etc were a fulcrum of power. I was born at the exact midpoint between the start and the end of the Percy Jones General Hospital; 1942/1953 = 1947. Means nothing. The Kellogg brothers worked at the sanitarium for twenty-six years before leaving to establish the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company. Some of this information I collected from http://www.michmarkers.com. Viewed 1/11/2006.’
To keep it all fun, there is a TV show called ‘Battle Creek’ from the writer of ‘Breaking Bad’. OK my birthplace is a joke. Even sillier is that the series is not filmed in Battle Creek though I have read the actors visited Battle Creek to get a feel for the place. Hey, I was born there, and I have no feeling for it as I was whisked away before having an opportunity to have a poo there.

"The place of birth, Battle Creek is the best metaphor I can think of for my life. Even my name has a battle element to it; Terrell was a name for the Norwegian war god, Thor, and Arthur was his fighting bird and there is King Arthur too. Neuage is close enough to the French word cloud to translate my name as ‘war cloud’. I grew up not identifying with any group, as I did not know who my birth family was until I was in my forties. I am an Australian and United States citizen..." 

There is much more – read the book. Back to now. We spent two days in BC then took an Amtrak train to Chicago which is our next blog. We got to see the Kellogg’s trip, which is basically the whole town. Visited the outside of the hospital I was born in and that is it. All my myths of my magical birth place incorporated into a box of cereal.
Oh, and the current Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center used to be Percy Hospital. They won’t let us inside as it is a government property. People at the Dr. John Harvey Kellogg Discovery Center/Historic Adventist Village- Historic Adventist Village, 411 Champion St, said we needed a ten-day advanced notice, and they would take us inside. Well, that is not going to happen is it.

To be short and mean about my birthplace it is a bit of a dead-shit dump of a city. I read somewhere that it was one of the most dangerous cities in the USA. We didn’t see anything dangerous, but it looked like a place that once was OK and now is a bit of close to a ghost town.

Here is where I was born, Percy Hospital.

Train to Chicago
The train was full. We were early. The ticket guy asked us if we would like to take the earlier train which was significantly delayed. Bless him, he even processed a $20 refund for us as the earlier one was cheaper.