Glad to be back home!

Getting on the plane in Mumbai the stewardess said "I live in Coledale and I know you... oh yes you're the music teacher". Was nice to be welcomed by a friendly face. As it happened she also had developed a stomach bug and so through the flight we compared our tummy stories.

Arrived back in Sydney on a beautiful day. Flew over the opera house and harbour bridge and I don't think I've ever been happier to be home.

Daniel, Val, Emile and Molly were waiting at the airport for me and it was soooooo lovely to see them again.

Daniel drove me home via Stanwell Tops where he'd organised a welcome home picnic. Sadly my fragile tummy meant I didn't go for the champagne Dan's sis Elle had given but it was a truly lovely thought. In the hamper was cointreau snowballs & fudge made by Dan's mum Helen, organic strawberries from Val, and organic figs, dates and chocolate from Daniel.

Two sea eagles circles us while we picnicked. Oh it's good to be home!

For those who've followed my blog thanks!!! I've loved sharing some of my stories with you!

Debasis playing Indian slide guitar

Was lucky enough to get a lesson with Debasis and got to try his Indian Classical Guitar played with a slide. I'm in love! I want one... I need one....

Debasis is coming to Melbourne and hopefully Sydney in September and doing some concerts so if anyone's reading this from these shores come along and support him. I've got to say he is one of the nicest and kindest people I've ever met!

The next morning I came down with gastro and a viral fever and had to put everything else on hold and just rest. Saw a little bit of India's Independence Celebrations but spent most of the time as close as I could be to the toilet...

Spent the next day lying on Lovely Sharma's couch. Met her husmand & oldest son who are also really lovely (pardon the pun). Debasis' son also came and visited and played some sitar for me. I was very thankful to be looked after by such caring people. Considered changing my flight but was pretty eager to get home and I think Daniel was pretty eager to get me home too. The next day decided I'd try and make it to Mombai so I could break up the trip to Australia by spending a night in Mombai at the Hari Krishna Ashram before flying home. The trip went fine and the ashram was fantastic. Very clean, quiet and air conditioned... and their room service sandwich came with french fries. It's funny how when you've been down with a stomach bug (or hang over) fried food is so tempting. The next morning went to the Hari Krishna ceremony which lasted three hours and was quite moving. It began with three robed monks playing concha shells in front of three wooden screens. These screens were then drawn back to show the most incredibly vibrant carvings. Brought tears to my eyes. The hall was filled with chains of crysanthenums and roses which released a beautiful fragrance along with the incence that was lit. I was glad I had to got experience at least a taste of India's rich spiritual life before heading back to Australia...

India- Agra Public School and the Taj Mahal

Day 2 in India...

Found Indian road rules quite amusing. If you want to overtake "Please blow horn". To indicate "Please blow horn". There were no traffic lights so at intersections it was all done throw blowing the horn. Somehow it all seems to work and I didn't see any accidents happen... only 999 near misses...

I got to do two presentations for year 9 and 11 students from Agra Public School who had hosted the symposium the day before. We got treated like royalty and the presentations went really well. At the beginning of the presentation I asked the students if anyone would like to become a music therapist and then again at the end I asked the same question. By the end quite a few hands were shooting up which was exciting!

In the afternoon we went to Lovely Sharma's uni and I got to sit in on a sitar lesson and have a go. Was very nice to have tabla accompaniment. Lovely kept working and I got a motorbike taxi to the Taj Mahal which is just as spectacular as everyone says it is! Got a fantastic nerdy guide wearing a pinstripe suit and he guided me through the amazing optical illusions built into the taj and explained how it had been built. Sad story really... the instigator of building the taj had been married twice but had not had any children. As he was extremely powerful and wealthy it was imperative that he did or his fortune and empire would be lost. Then he met the inspiration for the Taj Mahal, a beautiful woman from abroad who was in Agra for a jewellry fair. He fell madly in love, they got married and had 14 children but only 7 survived. At 39 this wife passed away and at her death bed she made him promise he wouldn't re-marry, he'd look after the children and he'd never forget her. He built the Taj Mahal in her memory. Took something like 30 years which I think is incredible considering everything was done by hand. When all was almost finished, he just wanted to build one black temple on the other side of the river to complete the effect... his son threw him in jail and usurped him from the Taj. Too much power always causes family strife! The guide who gave me all this fascinating info took me to the side of the taj where the workers who built the taj lived and now the 7th generation of those workers are still creating incredible intricate marble and precious jewel work using the same techniques they learnt from their forefathers. Got to see the amazing star of india gem stone that reflects a star of light from it. Quite amazing!

Got a bicycle taxi (the guy pushed rather than rode most of the way... not sure he was used to my western weight) back to the motor taxi driver who was sick of waiting and went back to Lovely Sharma's house.

India- Music Therapy symposium

Arrived at midnight and spent some time finding the driver that Lovely Sharma sent to pick me up. Drove all the way from Delhi to Agra manouvering through pot holes, police road bloacks and happy fat cows on the road. Arrived at the hotel Vikram Palace where I was to be staying but they'd managed to give my room away... butafter a bit of hustling on behalf on my taxi driver (a good one!) they managed to evacuate someone and I got a bed for a few hours.

Got picked up at 9am by lovely Sharma and two of the guest presenters, one with a doctorate in Indian Ayurvedic singing and the other in sitar. The symposium was a great success. People had flown from all over India to attend and there is great enthusiasm to build up music therapy in India particularly using the incredibly strong healing traditions of classical indian music and the ragas.

Met Debasis, my friend Sam's tabla teacher, who had helped Lovely organise the event. Went out to dinner with his family and Lovely Sharma and her son and a colleague and all were very impressed I coped with the spicey food... and even had two servings of pickle!

Heading to Finland, Finland, Finland...

Minna and Jan (my Norwegian fairy god parents) dropped me off at the train station to get the express train to the airport. Minna gave me two fantastic Norwegian cds. Kristen Asbjornsen is a husky voiced Regina Specter-ish gospel singer and the arrangements are fantastic. Odd Nordstoga has Norwegian folky songs with a bluegrass feel and fabulously quirky Norwegian texts.

On the flight to Helsinki was yet again amazed by how beautiful clouds are from a planes eye view... Got met by my high school friend Piia who had just been holidaying in Iceland with me. She still had some work to do so we went to her office and I got to prepare my keynote address for the music therapy symposium in India the next day.

Finally we both got our respective tasks accomplished and we went through the cobblestoned streets of Helsinki and home to Piia's husband Peppa who had prepared champagne and berries and culinary treats. Next day we went to my favourite shopping arcade on earth... a gorgeous collection of shops that sell hand made products from felt, paper, straw, wood and everything is magical. Went to our favourite, Cafe Engel, and enjoyed a lovely brunch before I got taken to the airport for my final destination.... India

Cam & Jan's hytta n Pia, Christian & Sverre

Flew from Bergan to Rygge, just out of Oslo, and the lovely Cameron was there to pick me up in a hire car. Cam and Jan spend the summer in Norway and the the rest of the year in oz. Sounds pretty idyllic to me. They've bought a little dilapidated hytta (hut) in a beautiful location and have spent the last few years doing it up. It's gorgeous! Jan baked bread horns for breakfast, Cam baked an apple cake, and we had fresh salmon & berries... Couldn't have eaten better at a 5 star hotel. Cam and I schemed away at our Scandinavian caberet we're going to put on later in the year and I baked in the sauna and composed a sauna waltz ditty....

Next day we drove to the beautiful town of Hvitsten where Pia, Christian and Sverre live. It's also the home of a ships prowhead sculpture park which Cam n Jan had wanted to see. It was a drizzling day and my green shoes got wet dying my feet green... made me look like a troll!

The sculptures were incredibly varied not just the cliched bare breasted maiden ones. I paticularly liked the fish.. everyone else thought it was ugly...

Later Pia, Sverre, Christian and I walked over to a organic farm and cafe which is run by the brother of the one who runs the sculpture park. He'd built incredible ecological buildings on the farm including a new swallow house that I wouldn't mind living in! Yup this is it to the left. It's straw bale with grass on the roof..

in Sogne fjord for 12 hours only...

Managed to meet up with Laila, an incredibly lovely Norwegian music therapist I met in Oz, who lives in probably the most photographed part of Norway, in a crazy 12 hour stop over on the way to Bergen. I arrived at 8pm (dusk) and we talked life and music therapy til 3am, slept a bit, then had breakfast and she dropped me off to the 8am bus for Bergen. Minna in Olso still things I must be confused with where I was... she thought I couldn't possibly have just popped in to Sognafjord on the way to Bergen...