Best horoscopes ever! Plus Budapest!

I want these to be true: (By now, you know that I believe in the wisdom of horoscopes, at least when I like them...)

February 12, 2010: Most of the planet doesn't deal well with change. Fortunately, you just love it. You're a living example of how great the ebb and flow of the universe can be. Keep those facts in mind today when you're trying to deal with others who aren't quite so open to last-minute modifications in their carefully planned schedules. They may not be kindred spirits, but they're fellow humans. Convince them to loosen up.

February 13, 2010: Ready to have 'em laughing in the aisles again and to rejuvenate your reputation as a party animal? Well, if you're not, someone else will be only too happy to do it for you -- someone who's seen you in action, entertaining the entire room with just one ridiculous facial expression. Oh, stop acting like it's an inconvenience. You know you want to come out and play.

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I think life is looking up. I'm supposed to be a party animal again. One of my not-so-secret talents is surely making faces. I'd like to be a mime but I talk too much for my own health. I'm probably experiencing early hearing loss from the self droning on. Who could handle this endless chatter? Not me. Now if I can just figure out how to shut off the voices in my head.

I've been making new friends again, and that's important. Chosing certain people, not just anyone. Sometimes I try to convince myself that I am a person who likes to stay home and be quiet. And I do. But I love people and mental gymnastics. Laughing til I spit out my drink or drool- now that's a successful day.

Happy Valentine's day weekend!

I took ME to Budapest and ME loved it.

ME was so well-behaved.

ME had a great time. So far.

Walking into town from my B&B. This side of the river is Buda.


Crossing the Liberty Bridge. You can see the Chain Bridge in the distance.

More liberty...

It was so dang cold, my eyes were pouring out tears from the wind.

These are not actors! They are real Hungarians. In full head-to-toe dead animals!

Great Market Hall from above- food and trinkets. Built around 1896. It's funny places like this in the States would be loud, but here it's peaceful, just a quiet din of Hungarian conversation and the occasional English or other.

A Langos, which the owner of my B&B told me to try with salt. It's really just deep fried bread, but not bad.

These cows are everywhere! Walking in Pest... down Vaci utca, which is a pedestrian boulevard.

More walking in Pest. It used to be two cities, you know: Buda and Pest. How funny.

Heating up at Gerbeaud's. The pastry shop/cafe has been thriving since WW1 or before.

The Museum of Fine Arts where I stood in line for an hour to get in, braving frostbite. Ok really I was reading my book with my mittens on. Death was not near. The museum contained an impressive collection of European art, though not much Hungarian. I think I still mostly have a thing for the French in the art department.

Walking away from Hero's Square, which was built also in 1896 to celebrate the city's 1000 birthday. Yes, ONE THOUSAND YEARS in 1896. Damn, America feels young.

Here is the actual Hero's Square Millennium Monument.

Last thing I passed on the way home: the opera house, where normally you can take in a cheap opera but this weekend is the opera ball. Guess I will have to come back.

Tomorrow is Castle Hill, the synagogue and the baths.

Apt horoscope

Seeing as I'm embarking on a new job which is in an entirely different realm of anything I've previously done, this week's stars guiding me to question my current situation seem quite relevant.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): During this phase of your cycle, you'll generate good fortune if you brainstorm and meditate about your relationship with work. I urge you to empty your mind of everything you think you know about the subject. Adopt a fresh and innocent perspective. Here are some questions to prime your investigations. 1. What's the quality of the experience you want to have as you earn a living? 2. What gifts do you want to give to life as you toil at challenging tasks that are interesting to you? 3. What capacities do you want to develop in yourself while doing your work? (P.S. For your Halloween costume, why not pretend you'redoing your dream job?)

1. I want to have a good time, laugh and be light hearted while bringing sunshine and peace to others' days.
2. I want to see all perspectives, be open and nonjudgmental, while expanding my mind to its fullest capacities.
3. Openness, awareness, compassion.

My dream job I think would be something artistic- most likely repairing and remodeling houses if I am to be honest. I like manual labour and design.

Pruning time

Gemini (May 21–June 20)
Many plants grow better if you prune them. Getting rid of a bunch of dead stuff makes room for all the fresh new leaves to have unrestricted access to the sun. Your life could use a bit of pruning this spring. While you're perfectly capable of growing and even thriving under current conditions, there are definitely things holding you back from reaching your full potential. You have the tools, you have the knowledge—isn't it time you cut yourself free? If you hesitate because not everything you want to trim away is strictly dead, keep in mind that it could hit the ground, take root, and grow into a beautiful plant all on its own—and then everybody wins.





I'm going to take a little time to reflect on this horoscope. What should I be trimming from life? What could we all trim from our lives? It seems sometimes that we try to hang onto things that really are just weighing us down. Even in this vagabond lifestyle, I continue to hold onto kilos of junk that I really don't need, and that's not counting the emotional baggage.

This week, I reclaimed my bags from storage and tried to pear down my belongings, then shipped most of it off to the United States in care of Shanta, who is kindly going to receive the boxes should they ever clear customs and arrive in the States again. So that if I return , I'll have what I need. ("Need" is truly an interesting concept.) I've also decided that if it all went missing en route, I wouldn't have too much remorse either because I'm really just happy to have it all GONE.

Returning to Auckland has forced a resurgence of all the nagging questions. (One of the drawbacks to English speakers galore.) What are you doing with your life? Where are you going next? Are you coming back to the university? Don't you have to rejoin the working world again? All the questions I was happy not to have thrown in my face all the time while I was in Asia, but things I wonder myself. Dwelling on the questions doesn't bring me answers, so I try to just live day by day for now, waiting for life to reveal itself to me instead.

In the morning, I leave Auckland for Lake Taupo on the public bus. I'm looking forward to a some solitude again. Staring out the window in contemplation as Radiohead swirls by my ears and landscapes dramatise for my eyes seems like a good respite from the baggage that I've encountered in Auckland.

I don't know what's next. I've been so happy seeing the world and meeting people. Learning new things. Being myself. Enjoying slowness and peace. Auckland, as much of an old friend as it is, is not a place of peace. I feel my internal stress creeping up day by day and I know moving on is the right thing to do.


Pruning season has begun...

Interesting quest posed... I'd do good to follow it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Describing my writing, one critic said that I was "like a mutant love-child of Anais Nin and Jack Kerouac." That also happens to be an apt description of the spirit you should bring to life in the coming weeks. So be like the memoirist Anais Nin: a collector of secrets, a connoisseur of intimacy, a fiercely sensitive alchemist who knows her own inner terrain better than anyone else knows their inner terrain. And also be like the novelist Jack Kerouac: a free-wheeling, fast-talking, wide-open traveler in quest of the spirit as it makes its wild plunge into matter.