The Blog

Hmm...

Realised this evening that I've been in Cambridge three weeks and only visited two of the 31 colleges so far (well, three I suppose, but I wasn't staying on the main campus of Girton). Now I'm feeling slack.

(And to be fair, I've cut across St John's a few times on my way into town when feeling brave enough to face the porters, but again, I haven't really explored.)

Fortunately, tomorrow night the conference I'm skipping my vacation for is hosting a welcome reception in the Master's Lodge at Trinity. Not that I'm excited and gloating or anything.

Labels: cambridge, exploring, holiday, trip09, uni

Ah, Rio...

I think I'll miss you. But before I leave, I must swim at the beach. *grins*

Catch you guys in England.

Labels: beach, conferences, holiday, rio de janeiro, trip09

Ten things I love about Rio...

I kinda feel like I've been very down on the place, when actually I'm having a great time. So here's a list of things I love about Rio, in no particular order:

• the beaches. They're full of vendors selling stuff, but they are also sandy and wet with pretty waves that curl over wonderfully. In the sun you don't notice the humidity, and in the shade you don't feel the heat.
• the games they play on the beaches. People play all sorts of sports, mostly volleyball and soccer. Sometimes they play both at once in a hybrid called futevôlei, which is no-hands volleyball. It's so much fun to watch.
• the metro. It's fast and clean and not necessarily cheap, and it gets you were you want to be. It runs every five minutes, so you don't have to wait.
• the kilo restaurants. These are buffets where you fill your plate and pay by weight. If you like salad it's cheap, and if you live only on meats it's a bit pricey. The big chains are around $35-45/kg, but smaller local places are around $25/kg. The food is good at the cheaper ones, there's just often less choice.
• Bob's burgers.
• the surf rescue helicopter. They were doing exercises on Tuesday, and it was the most fun thing ever. The guys on board kept jumping into the water from a height, and then the helicopter would catch them in a net, or a harness, or just by hovering over the water until they grab on. Traffic stopped to watch.
• Capirinhas. Crushed lime, sugar, and a local liquor made from sugar cane (it tastes a little like rum). Most people use cheap cachaça ($5/L), but it's drinkable. (For the record, a stella artois costs about $1.79 and the cheap local beer is $0.89/can in the supermarkets.)
• Christos. I've still not been to see him yet, as with only one exception all my free days have been cloudy. But you often spot him over your shoulder, just hanging out up there.
• the temperature. Aside from the humidity (hello boofy hair), I could get used to 27^oC days in winter. I didn't bring enough summer clothes though.
• the markets. They're silly tourist traps, but they're good fun and a perfect source of tacky souveniers for the people back home.

Labels: holiday, rio de janeiro, trip09, yay vodka

A short blog about Rio...

I don't have a lot of time this morning, as I'm going to go meet up with a new friend (Shari Breen, for those in the astro circle) and take in some of the sights. Or maybe just walk the beach, we haven't decided and neither have any portuguese.

The first thing you notice about Brazil is the smell. A lot of the cars don't seem to have any muffler, or maybe there's something about the fuel they use, but the road is full of smoke and even in the rain (for I've not seen the sun since circling over the airport) does not do much to help. It's not so bad here in Copacabana, I suspect the sea breezes do much to help with that.

The second thing you notice are the Favelas, which I'd heard about but not quite understood until that moment when I saw just how poor those people really are. I'm told that as part of the Olympic bid the authorities are going to try and fix things up, but I'm not sure I trust them not to bulldoze the homes of millions of people in terrible poverty. A number of youth hostels are having a combined party tonight to raise money to redevelop one of the favelas, I might go (if not I'll send a donation with one of the girls who works here). It seems a small drop in a bucket of "this can never be fixed", but who knows, maybe it can. We have to hope.

The third thing I noticed was that Brazilian drivers are even more scary than Sydney Taxis, and that they do the same thing with regards to ignoring lanes. I'm reasonably certain that this craziness is the reason why most of the streets are one way. In an hour of exploring on foot, however, I nearly died only once, so I'm counting that as a good thing.

Anyway, that'll do for now. I'm here, I'm having an okay time, and once I adapt to the climate and the timezone I'm sure it will be even better. I do miss you all.

Labels: holiday, rio de janeiro, trip09

About to run away...

So I thought I'd get off my busy butt and take the time to blog, to tell you all what's going on and make a vague promise to post lots while I'm away (that never ends well, but here we are once more). I'm about to disappear overseas for several months, hooray hooray!

First up, I'm going to Brazil (Rio de Janeiro in particular) for the IAU General Assembly. There's a few days in advance where I'll be crashed in a youth hostel, hopefully catching up on sleep, but also maybe engaging in some Portuguese lessons and a few tours of the city and surrounds. My conference runs from the 3rd to the 14th of August, and I'm flying out on the 15th.

At which point I'm going to Cambridge. As in the university. As in, SQUEE! I'll be attending a workshop at the Isaac Newton Institute from the 16th to 22nd of August, staying at Wolfson Court.

After that I'm staying on at the Institute as a student/affiliated participant of the Dynamics of Discs and Planets Programme, save for two weeks (5th - 20th September-ish) when I'm going to London for some sightseeing. I don't have my accommodation sorted yet, but I'm hoping it'll be organised by tomorrow.

And then on the 17th of October I head back to Heathrow to fly home. *snores* So I'll likely be busy (I want to get several chapters of my thesis and a paper written), and I'll be exhausted, but I'll hopefully be able to get online enough to keep this place in a better state of update than I've managed so far this year.

The short version, for anyone who couldn't be bothered reading:

• 29/7/09 - QF321 Sydney to Santiago
• 30/7/09 - PU402 Santiago to Montevideo
• 30/7/09 - PU222 Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro
• 15/8/09 - JJ8084 Rio de Janeiro to London
• 17/10/09 - BA15 London to Sydney

And just randomly for sticking with me so far, a link I've been hanging on to forever: The Cute Cat Theory of the Internet.

Labels: Brazil, Cats, conferences, holiday, itinerary, Newton Institute, the internet is for porn, trip09

Question...

Anyone got any good ideas for places to go/stay for a weekend away from Sydney? Public transport access is a must.

ETA: Nevermind. Turns out I must be in town this weekend.

Labels: desperation in action, holiday

A Short Note About Booking Accommodation...

If you reply to my enquiry with:

Dear Catherine,
Thanks for the email.
We do have an Ensuite Cabin with air-con available for the Sat & Sunday nights for a total tariff of $230 for 2 persons.
If you require any further information or wish to made a reservation, please call our helpful reception staff during office hours on our free call number.
Kind regards,
Loneen

Easts Beach Holiday Park Kiama
"Where great memories are a holiday away”

I should not have to reply with:

Dear Loneen,
I was sorry to hear from the helpful reception staff that it's not available after all, as you apparently don't make Sat/Sun night bookings, preferring instead to keep them free for Fri/Sat nights.
Thank you for your time,
Catherine

Honestly, Easts Beach? That's just cruel, and what the hell? You don't want my business? Even though the cabin is available and empty? On the off-chance that someone else might want it on both Friday and Saturday night?

Fine.

There are plenty of other places around there that actually want my money. I'll stay at one of them, I'm sure the customer service will be better.

---

To prove that there's more to life than complaining, have a couple more fics to read:

• His Dark Materials: The Teethmarks of Time by Thevina - Will's life after the adventures of the books. Poignant, it made me cry.
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Like Love in the Movies by Jan - "In which Kyon's life becomes an indie movie. Sort of." Love it. Kyon's voice is just perfect, I love the way he shrugs off all the weirdness around him.
• Titanic: The Last Dance by shewhoguards - The band played on.

Labels: easts beach holiday park, haruhi suzumiya, holiday, kiama, long live the revolution, my pagerank is higher than yours and I'm not afraid to use it, review, urge to kill rising, yuletide

Well oops...

I probably shouldn't be spending my first hour back at work planning my next vacation.

Labels: holiday, losing sleep, uni

   Today I redecorated, with a poster of many Daleks on Westminster Bridge...

Somehow I'm very annoyed that every youth hostel within public transport distance is booked for the long weekend, despite the fact that I can't afford to go away because I don't have a real job.

Labels: daleks, holiday, lonely-Cat

   Rah...

Sorry it's taken so long to get around to write this, but I've just not been online much and when I have been blogger has been misbehaving. Things around here have been busy, as Christmas often is, and all of the computers have been in use by everyone else.

It seems that for the next few days there are going to be 13 people eating and showering in this house (with a few more due to pop in for tea), which will be noisy and chaotic and my goodness James has a lot of relatives. It seems to be an extravaganza much like our boxing day party, but lasting a week and all taking place in a space about as big as our lounge room.

England's been a lot of fun, though I'm still kinda bummed that the Paris trip was cancelled. We went to York, which I thought was the coldest place on Earth until we went to Oxford (but my opinion of the uni might be skewed by the fact that I caught a cold and spent those three days miserable and frozen). James says he thinks York was colder with Oxford just "being chilly", but it might be that he remembered to wear gloves and a beanie in Oxford and thus was much warmer.

So, we've been to York for a few days, which was fun. We climbed to the top of the Minster, which is the second biggest gothic cathedral and I thought I was going to die from all of the stairs... but the view was worth it. We walked along the city walls for a bit and went ice skating under the shadow of Clifford's Tower, which was closed by the time we got there. But we also visited a Cold War Bunker, and got to chase some squirrels in the parks and ride a double decker bus! Those things are really rather scary, but you get used to them after a while.

Then we had a few days bumming around in Ribchester, visiting the Roman Ruins and hanging out with some of James' first cousins once removed or something (they're much more particular about family trees here). We haven't made it to the roman museum down the road yet, which is a bit of a pity, but I'm sure we will.

Oh, the best bit about Ribchester is the pubs. So far we've only gone for drinks in one of them, (and the locals tell us it's the best) but the atmosphere is really nice. Warm and friendly and not chaotically crowded like you get in Aussie pubs. They're really cosy, I guess, though the beer is warm and that takes some getting used to.

We went to London to visit the Queen. She's a nice old lady, though for some reason her guards weren't wearing their nice woolly hats when we came to visit (no beefeaters, boo!). Big Ben was big, and so was the Eye (which seemed rather perilously perched on the edge of the river, but I'm reasonably sure that the engineers balanced it correctly.

We went to Greenwich and visited the museum there, and were the last ones out as we stayed until after sunset and got to see them switch the green laser on (those things are the best toys ever). We didn't really visit any of the other museums because we wanted to see everything, which meant we didn't have time to linger (and everyone wants to charge you 14 pounds for entry, so they make their museum a half-day "experience" with dudes in viking costumes).

In London we stayed in Earl's Court, which was full of visiting Australians, but also a visiting Time Lord (his TARDIS was parked outside the tube station). Oh, and I love the underground. Best public transport ever ,or at least the most fun. We went to Camden Markets on our last morning in London, it's a very strange place, very indy, but a lot of fun. I think Liz would find it the most fun place on earth (although I couldn't find her a Christmas present there, which was very odd).

Then we caught a bus to Oxford (we've been catching a lot of buses because they're so much cheaper than the trains, even if they do take longer), and I caught a cold. We didn't get to do very much during the days we were there, though we did see "the Golden Compass", which was set in Oxford and had Kate Bush singing the closing theme, and we wandered around the outside of the colleges for a while. Then we spent a lot of time sorting out how to get back to Ribchester and we had to leave, although Jessie and I had a huge fight and I'm still not sure we're good again.

We stopped in Birmingham on the way back, and although we didn't really have time to walk around the city (what with it being the 23rd and James and I not having done any Christmas shopping) we really liked the place. Somehow the mall was familiar and comforting, and the mix of the old town and the industrial city was fascinating. I'm sorry we didn't have more time there.

So then it was Christmas. We went to a "music and miscellany" service in an ancient church within walking distance on Christmas Eve (this church was so ancient that it had no lighting or heating and it really was carols by candlelight because there was no other way to see what was going on). We got back to the house and Jessie played carols for everyone though I still had no voice from the stupid cold. At this point we had picked up her friend Tamazin who was a day late because of fog at Heathrow (and without luggage because of the same schemozzle - it turned up yesterday morning and she finally had different clothes to wear), so the house was full up and rather friendly.

Christmas morning we had a nice big breakfast, with lots of porridge and crumpets and potato farls (which are like pancakes made out of mashed potato - I think I'd like to try making them one time at home) and it was good. I got two books for Christmas: the new Eoin Colfer book Airman from James, and One Skein (http://www.oneskein.com/) from Valerie and David; a 2GB memory card for my camera from the Ballantines and a silk shopping bag that collapses down to nothing from Jessica. Very thoughtful gifts, all of them.

After present opening we went for a walk around town for a few hours (we even kidnapped one of the neighbour's dogs to make things more interesting. It was a long ramble around Ribchester, showing Tamazin what the town looks like in the fog and mist and rather muddy for all involved. My poor shoes. One of these days we're going to have enough time to buy me some boots.

Christmas dinner was amazing (but I think I prefer having a huge lunch, I was dying of starvation by the time we got to eat *grins*), even if it was all vegetarian. Lots of baked vegetables, a rather tasty nut roast (better than mine, and much more nutty) and a yummy tomato sauce to go on it. And the pudding went up in flames as it was meant to, which was good.

Now we have all the relatives here, and the rest of the England leg seems like it's going to be dominated by games and other indoor activities. I'm knitting a little bag from the pattern book which will match Valerie's hot water bottle (which seems to be the talk of the town and people keep asking me if I will knit one for them). Very odd, maybe I should start taking commissions (and money).

Someone else just arrived, so I probably ought to head downstairs after all.

Labels: alligators, christmas, england, holiday

   I'm in ur timezones, defining ur GMT...

Yesterday I danced across the meridian while the sun went down.
(wearing my fourth doctor scarf)

Labels: doctor who, england, holiday, time and space

   Still lazy after all these years...

I've been in the UK a week, and how often have I blogged? Uh, not at all. :( Oops.
I did post some photos to flickr a few days ago, and I'm sure I'll find a few more to put up soon, but I just haven't quite been in the right frame of mind (or near enough to a computer) to do the whole blogging thing. (I did however find the time to get the first draft of my yuletide story done, so I should be able to submit that this afternoon after I go through it with a fine tooth comb and sick James on it to make sure the whole thing makes sense and that the crack is easy enough to follow.)

So in no particular order, a list of things that I've enjoyed so far this trip (which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the other things):

• Meeting James' Aunt Fiona, who I've heard so much about and reminds me of my Aunty Cathy.
• The York Minster, a giant cathedral made of awesome that was somewhat confused as to whether it was a medieval catholic church, a modern church of england church or a war memorial. Loved every second.
• Ice skating in York outside the castle. Magic.
• The Roman bath house at the end of James' street. Oldest building I've ever explored the foundations of.
• The walls of York, which interestingly enough keep the inner city a few degrees warmer than the outer (this may be psychological, and the difference between -1 and +1 C is not that noticeable at the best of time).
• The house in Ribchester - except when it's frozen because the boiler went into an alarm mode while we were away and it was bloody freezing when we got back. Jackets inside is not fun.
• My Fourth Doctor Scarf. I would have died without this.
• Marks and Spencer's. I don't know why, but I love it. At least the food hall anyway.
• Actually, all English supermarkets. They're great (and well heated so they're a good place to hide for a few minutes when you can't feel your toes *grins*). Oh, and they sell grog right there in the last aisle.
• The fact that in lots of places the frost doesn't melt until 3-4pm (after the sun has gone down).
• The fact that the sun goes down at 3-4pm.
• The Cold War bunker. Words cannot convey how awesome that place was. So creepy and yet fascinating. Drew would have really dug it.
• Stumbling across perfect gifts for my peoples in random little stores.

I'll try and do a nice long blog entry before Christmas.

Labels: england, holiday, what toes, winter wonderland, yuletide

   1.3 days to go...

My long awaited vacation is here at last. Only I'm not ready yet, I haven't even thought about packing and my PhD isn't in a state to be abandoned for a month despite me staying til 9 tonight. *sighs*

But my cake decorating class is done and I'm rather pleased with the monstrosity of a result:

But right now I think it's time to sleep. Night all...

Labels: cake, holiday, I made this, I want to go home now

   Did I say I was going to write a trip report?...

Oops, I guess I meant I was going to put it off and go climb the harbour bridge instead. *grins*

So, while I'm off having fun, I'll leave you with my mum's blog post on the subject, and a scan of the nice art print I bought while I was away.



(I'm thinking of buying myself a few more of her prints, since I fell in love with them and I can't afford the actual paintings - I would have been tempted (but unable) to put down a stack of cash for this one if it hadn't sold the day before.)

Labels: holiday, mudgee, oops

   Back...

Proper report to follow tomorrow, when I'm more awake.

Labels: +7 driving xp, holiday, mudgee