tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390Sun, 13 May 2012 15:03:34 +0000[Or, The Foreign Nature Of Full Disclosure]http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/noreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)Blogger323125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-8084699927970569365Sat, 12 May 2012 08:19:00 +00002012-05-12T01:45:49.405-07:00 It was much, much easier than I thought it would be to climb over the railing of this bridge. I had assumed I'd whinge and hesitate, leaning over and looking and leaning over and looking again and flitting around for an excuse to wait -- just one more moment, just to catch my breath -- and just one more pin check -- and just until this last group of cars has roared behind me, traffic wind http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/05/base.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-1028759107308794002Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:45:00 +00002012-04-07T09:46:51.352-07:00Rain, rain, rain. We were stuck indoors, which is a novelty in and of itself. Not every day is a red-letter day out here, but sometimes it's good to remember just how delightful every. Single. Day. Always. Is. Today, I: Slept in like I meant it Listened to buckets of rain pounding symphonically on the roof, in the marshland reeds and on the surface of the lagoon, accompanied by the howling http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/04/lazy-sunday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-3122368867415658228Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:27:00 +00002012-04-02T08:27:34.540-07:00Brett figured out the meaning of life today. As we ambled down Noordhoek Beach this morning, slowly zippering in and out of the liquid-glass sea, he recounted his half-dreaming realization that each of us is one iteration of the universe at large, learning about itself through the one tiny window we each represent, and that our greatest responsibility is to live deeply, widely and well in orderhttp://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/04/encounter-at-farpoint.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-4337793191750340642Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:42:00 +00002012-03-23T11:42:54.082-07:00 The clouds have been gathering for hours before we careen up the dirt road to the Sedgefield launch. Looking out onto the ocean from the ridge, the multitude of clouds casts a shifting reflection on the silver sea, the late-afternoon sun warming the whites to a pale buttercream. The sock, steadfast and orange, snaps to oscillating attention, pointing insistently across the grass. No one else http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/03/sedgefield-revisited.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-2168807717972143082Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:13:00 +00002012-03-15T07:20:07.412-07:00It's thickly overcast, perfectly silvery, as though the African coast were a secret Narnia buried under a snowdrift. The filtered sun casts a cottony shroud over the ocean, drawing birdsong into silence, muffling the syncopated slap of waves. It's been a long time since I last submerged myself in saltwater. You smelled like the sea. There's a boogie board strapped to my wrist. It was the only http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/03/siren-its-thickly-overcast-perfectly.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-5267942293060783858Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:40:00 +00002012-03-15T07:17:13.459-07:00 Today, I noticed that the first flight we booked leaves in a couple of weeks. Heh. Hilarious that we ever thought we'd be on it. Heck, I don't believe we ever truly did.http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/03/grandest-project-today-i-noticed-that.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-2812210816042935927Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:39:00 +00002012-03-04T05:39:18.086-08:00 I. Today is the day I start a travelogue. I should have begun it in the airport lounge, as I sat restlessly in the pregnant pause just before we piled into the good ol' jumbo jet. Or in Frankfurt, wired and tired and rubbing at my underdressed arms. Or upon arrival in Kommetjie, from my perch at a wide-plank table, watching the ocean breeze poke at the enormous chandelier overhead. Or http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/03/i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-2261746815591209658Sun, 26 Feb 2012 06:46:00 +00002012-03-15T07:17:50.754-07:00I fought the battle of Sedgefield, and Sedgefield won. Punchy, capricious conditions make me hopelessly awkward on launch; it takes me six or seven tries to get the glider over my head and, when I do, it feels so miraculous that I'm dumbstruck for the first few moments of flight. As soon as I begin to slide along the forested ridge, I'm cutting through thermals so sharp they feel like air-gun http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/02/rough-seas-i-fought-battle-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-5513135740502280740Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:21:00 +00002012-02-23T00:21:39.255-08:00I'm back. The sensation is so raw that it makes my blood sting the hollows of my veins. I'm watching my face reflected in the enormous panel of glass that separates this living room from the coastal forest spread out below. The early-morning sea throws handfuls of foam at the shore. My paraglider is waiting expectantly for the day to begin. The last time I was on this continent, I never budged http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/02/im-back.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-3558974092793786485Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:38:00 +00002012-01-19T21:43:30.473-08:00drift My leaden skis carve laboriously through the mess of wet powder lashing the slope before me. Each new track wrestles me down into the orbit of a conflicting trajectory, and my muscles shiver with the effort of staying upright. The heavens are murky with a roiling morass, dragging a grey crayon sideways across the valley landscape, shading the gaps a dull flannel, daubing out the sun. http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2012/01/drift-my-leaden-skis-carve-laboriously.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-6677191734287817565Mon, 05 Sep 2011 03:54:00 +00002011-09-04T20:58:49.640-07:00ancient art We've spent the past couple of hours making our way up the channels etched in these ancient cliff faces, wedging arms and legs and backs in the long striations chiseled by centuries of desert rainfall. The reward of the challenging climb is a perch that's eye-to-eye with the thousand stone spirits of the Moab mesas, all standing silent and tall against the blanched blue sky, all http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2011/09/ancient-art-weve-spent-past-couple-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-4380087403413622946Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:43:00 +00002011-08-16T18:44:09.329-07:00the valley of fire We've driven hours to arrive here -- a barren nocturnal wilderness formed from time-worn heaps of jagged rock and the occasional struggling shrub. As we emerge from the car, the night air is startlingly warm. The moon is ripe and full, sketching unnerving shadows between the boulders and clefts. From the approaching road, the tower appeared as a pinprick-thick line drawn from http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2011/08/valley-of-fire-im-hanging-almost-nine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-8250163796510296698Fri, 06 May 2011 00:39:00 +00002011-05-05T18:06:58.382-07:00nine monthsLast week, I had every reason to be stoked: the skies were promising to be warm and blue, I'd just had a slider pocket installed to soften my rig's crackin' openings and I knew I had several jumps left on my account at Elsi.These things, of course, meant that I spent much of the past seven days in a state of white-faced, sweaty-palmed terror.Why?Two words: recurrency jump.We've been http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2011/05/nine-months-last-week-i-had-every.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-2165509840132847335Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:13:00 +00002011-04-26T20:30:07.724-07:00quietudeToday, as we ambled along the trail that rims the high ridges at the extreme south of the Salt Lake valley, I felt a profound sense of peace settle over me.Don't get me wrong; I'm overstimulated and bone-tired from the past several months. We've handled near-constant movement, production overdrive, the training of a stable of new vendors and, now, the prospect of closing the sale on our http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2011/04/quietude-today-as-we-ambled-along-trail.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-4369493161054197471Sat, 19 Feb 2011 07:58:00 +00002011-02-19T00:27:28.717-08:00sailingI.Like a politician and his decoy, no one has ever seen my two halves standing in the same room. You'll either meet the expressor or the muse - the dreamer or the actuator - the poet or the sharpener of pencils. I've been in a firmly pragmatic mode for a handful of months, manhandling my way through a morass of short-term goals. Suddenly, I have the sense that I can relax that iron grip http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2011/02/sailing-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-878942195009484144Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:52:00 +00002010-12-28T02:05:37.867-08:00KPHI've noticed an unsettling thing about the world. No matter where you go, everyone ignores the speed limits.I guess they aren't ignored, strictly speaking. After all, one must know how fast they're allowed to go in order to go faster than that particular figure. Buzzing around on the back roads through the rolling, curving hinterlands of rural New Zealand, it occurred to me to wonder why the http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/12/kph-ive-noticed-unsettling-thing-about.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-583571891568150421Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:39:00 +00002010-12-13T00:00:49.922-08:00kitchen witch While the powdery New Zealand rain dusts the lawn outside, I'm learning to cream butter and sugar with my hands. You laugh when I call it "percussive dairy massage," pulling and twisting and feeling the cat's-tongue roughness of the mixture as it enters and leaves my fists. I've always loved to bake, but I'd always been sensually subtracted from this part of the process, letting my http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/12/kitchen-witch-while-powdery-new-zealand.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-6457950447898165068Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:04:00 +00002010-12-08T01:53:21.546-08:00manaIn the Maori language, "Mana" means power.There's something in the earth at the Mana Retreat Centre in Coromandel -- something that makes you not want to wear shoes; to feel every root as it passes underfoot.The young chef, brought in to pinch-hit for the Druid goddess that usually mans Mana's beautiful old kitchen, hitchhiked from town to get here for her first shift. As we chopped a http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/12/mana-in-maori-language-mana-means-power.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-4176235726768960196Sat, 20 Nov 2010 04:11:00 +00002010-11-19T20:13:31.656-08:00wavesThe bay spreads wide in front of us, its surface reflecting the mercurial silver of the clouds. A row of toothy cliffs hem the bay, each stretching volcanic claws out into the open water. Our safety-orange kayaks skirt the frothy border of their domain. The seabirds watch us dolefully as they circle overhead, occasionally punctuating the surface with a perfect spearhead dive.As soft as I'm http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/11/waves-bay-spreads-wide-in-front-of-us.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-7153016801016999262Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:20:00 +00002010-12-12T01:07:27.935-08:00we will be victoriousI'm wedged between a bulkhead and a pile of backpacks. Under us, the makeshift bed in the back of this sketchy van conversion rattles between plastic panels. We're careening through the mountains around the turns of a forest road. I'm alternately holding myself up with a seatbelt mooring and balancing my weight against your knee, depending on which side of the van we're beinghttp://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/11/we-will-be-victorious-im-wedged-between.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-6277864111954528489Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:13:00 +00002010-09-13T12:12:49.420-07:00up the coastI.Lima.It's San-Francisco cold here, and an impenetrable shroud of cloudcover dampens the city's voice. The brilliant paint jobs on the surrounding skyscrapers have to fight through the silky, diffuse sunlight.This is a classy, classy city. It's as fashionable as New York, with the insouciant sex appeal of Barcelona. It's crowded with beauty salons and art galleries and cafes, and thehttp://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/09/up-coast-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-1549838559995060922Mon, 07 Jun 2010 04:25:00 +00002010-06-06T22:04:20.497-07:00stormI.The jagged mountains gnaw the bottoms of the galloping clouds, ripping them into tufts as they pour, panting and spent, into the valley. The wind comes in most nights like a howling drunk, throwing things down the street and beating the windsocks senseless. The sky burns and weeps and stews, and the pilots below send fervent prayers that she will never be too peaceful.II.This place is as http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/06/storm-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-6641881555199867024Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:56:00 +00002010-04-11T11:26:01.154-07:00holds and exitsI.I just set down Steph Davis's book - 'High Infatuation' - after devouring it in just two sessions. Steph is a full-time, sponsored, professional rock climber. A friend lent me the book on spec, so I read it without knowing much about Steph; as I read, I was struck by the covalences between her experience and mine. She was raised in an academic setting, coming to her sport later http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/04/holds-and-exits-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-3451233538776907355Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:50:00 +00002010-03-26T22:05:42.480-07:00verticalI.Y'know what?This is WORKING.I've been reading voraciously, preparing, hashing and rehashing spreadsheets and checklists and blogrolls. I've been ideating circles around this for years - so much so that I didn't really believe it when I drove the bike up the ramp into the moving truck and polished off the last of the detritus into a final Goodwill run.That was a month ago - right on http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/03/vertical-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5647390.post-3677496724745992478Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:41:00 +00002010-02-15T00:04:30.564-08:00tracksI'm at the top, subtly tamping my skis into the snow at the cornice to bleed off my nerves.I peer over again, for the third time. It hasn't gotten any less steep since I looked last - about thirty seconds ago. There's a foreboding line of rocks cupping the outside of the run, like a tongue lying over sharp teeth, and I can't see anything beyond that.The tips of my skis hang over the maw, http://www.here-there-be-tygers.com/2010/02/tracks-im-at-top-subtly-tamping-my-skis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (annette lyn o'neil)4