GiveItUp125

Cheryl & Kevin Go To Finland

~ Cheryl

It is time for another Cheryl & Kevin Go To video. This time we are in Finland. There’s quite a bit of history so we get nefarious Russians, nefarious Swedes, and inevitably the nefarious British. There are also Moomins, Lenin, and of course sauna.

Introducing Finland #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Hello, and welcome to Virtual Finland. I’ve had a busy morning in the kitchen. You can see the results in this video.

The recipe that I used for the Karelian Pies is this one. I’m not hugely impressed with it. There seemed to be rather too much filling for the amount of pastry. But I did have to improvise quite a bit along the way.

In the video I promised you some photos. Here are the Karelian Pies:

And here is the cream tea with cloudberry jam:

For the benefit of folks from Devon and Cornwall who care passionately about such things, I put the cream on first because the cloudberry jam is a lot more liquid than a traditional English jam, and if you put the jam on first the cream will just slide straight off.

Thank You, Australia #GiveItUp125 #IDAHOBIT

~ Cheryl

Being in Virtual Australia on IDAHOBIT Day is a poignant reminder that I did most of my gender transition while living in Australia. There were a number of reasons for that, but one of them is that the medical support for transition was better in Australia than it is here in the UK. That’s even more true now. I will always be grateful for the support I got from friends in Australia, in particular the folks at the Melbourne Science Fiction Club who accepted me without question.

One of the disappointments about not being able to travel to New Zealand for Worldcon this year is that a planned visit to Melbourne has had to be cancelled too. Maybe another year.

The photo above was taken at the Wilson’s Promontory National Park, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Country Victoria in 1999 #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

Here are some photos from the trip that Kevin and I made following the World Science Fiction Convention in 1999. First up we have the Puffing Billy Railway, which made Kevin very happy.

Cockatoo
Countryside
Kevin and train
Kevin again
Meta Photography

And second, one of the best ways to get up close and personal with Australian wildlife, Healesville Sanctuary. (Sadly digital cameras back then had little in the way of zoom so these are the only good shots I have.)

Kevin and the Roo
Dingo
Kookaburra
Swans
Eagle

As usual, click on any photo for a bigger image and slide show.

At Home With The Otters #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

In our tourism video Kevin and I talked about the wonders of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I am particularly fond of the sea otters. Now that it is mid-afternoon in California they should be up and about. Here’s the live webcam.

The Aquarium has a number of webcams. If you prefer fins to paws, here’s the shark cam:

Nalo on Los Angeles #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

My final video for California is with one of the Caribbean’s finest writers. I was worried that I was very much giving a white person’s view of the countries I was visiting, so I asked Nalo if she’d be willing to be interviewed. She’ll be back on Tuesday to talk about Toronto, but right now she’s living near LA. Here she is:

Up in the Sierras #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl


I don’t have a lot of photos of my time in California because smartphones hadn’t been invented back then and digital cameras were still a bit dodgy. Also I seem to have spent most of my time photographing visits to science fiction conventions rather than tourist spots. However, there are a couple of records of tourist trips in Emerald City. This is one of them.

Kevin took me up into the Sierras to visit his mother. We timed to visit to coincide with a local Blues Festival, which I wrote about here. There are also photos here and here.

These days you can find good musicians on line, so here’s Craig Horton in action:

And here’s Steve Gannon:

Welcome to (Virtual) California #GiveItUp125

~ Cheryl

Here we go again. Today I am in Virtual California. There will be music, science fiction, and tourism. Later on I will be joined by Kevin, and by Nalo Hopkinson. But for now, here’s an introduction and some food.

There’s a mistake I noticed in that video. Thanks to Bozo and his jolly chums doing such a good job of destroying the UK’s economy, California now has the 5th largest economy in the world.

And here is Nigella’s recipe for Roquamole. You’re welcome.

Coronavirus – Day #63

~ Cheryl

Well that was an exhausting day. And I have five more to go. Of course it didn’t help that I had the #QBLockdownHunt thing to do as well.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it all. Please to tell your friends if you did. There must be some more people out there who would be willing to give a few pounds to help One25.

Here’s the link to the fundraiser.

I have no idea what is happening back in the UK. I hope Bozo doesn’t manage to destroy the country before I get back.