Back in the groove
Wow, it's been a while since I last wrote.
I think the last time I was in Vancouver, after a wonderful holiday with James and Tamsin in Connecticut and Christmas and New Year with Christina's family in Vancouver. If you're in a rush and don't feel like reading a novella, I guess the brief summary version since then is:
- Spent a few days in Hawaii on the way back. Christina was working, I wasn't.
- The day we got back from holiday, we moved into a new apartment, which was exhausting, fun and provides us with a much more pleasant living arrangement. Even more so after we spent the next month systematically cleaning it.
- Saw a few good movies; played a legendary game of Risk; had loads of good meals and great times with friends; spent a lovely weekend in San Remo; and slowly got back into work again after the break.
For some more details:
We left Vancouver on Jan 9th, in a time of ludicrously heightened security. After a thoroughly unpleasant airport experience, we arrived in Honolulu and crashed for the night in a hotel near the airport. Early the next morning we flew to Hawaii Island, which probably has the most charming and laid-back international airport ever. Palm trees, thatch roofs and ubiquitous smiles were a delightful change from the endless dreary queues of the previous day. We waited at the airport for Christina's colleagues from UC Santa Cruz, who were arriving from San Francisco an hour after our flight, and then headed off for a leisurely drive up the west coast of the island to Waimea, where the W.M.Keck Observatory is situated. This was our base for the next few days, and the site of some truly gruelling 18-hour work nights - but not for me. I spent the next couple days tootling around the island in the hired car, stopping off at beautiful spots or intriguing diversions as the mood took me.
The highlight was certainly the trip to Kealakekua Bay. The northern border of the bay features a memorial to Captain James Cook, who was killed there during a misunderstanding with the local inhabitants in 1779. Just in front of the memorial is a spectacular coral reef which I was particularly keen to see. That side of the bay is only accessible by water or by an hour-long hike from the road, so I hired a kayak and paddled there from an old cargo jetty 2km across the the bay. I had snorkelling gear in the boat and swam along the reef among a magnificent profusion of fish. That I had the whole place to myself was just an added bonus.
I was joined as I paddled back by several spinner dolphins. The surf had come up considerably, and landing a kayak against a static concrete jetty in a 4m swell was fairly invigorating, but fortunately I had a rather better reception than James Cook and there were some helpful Polynesian gentlemen on hand to grab the boat.
Hawaii really does seem remarkably unlike the rest of the USA. Oahu was fairly consistent with expectations of an American state, but heading out to Hawaii island it felt far more like a part of Polynesia.
I flew back by myself, thanks to some administrative bungling from Swinburne which left Christina and me returning a day apart, but I did manage to get emergency exit rows for 3 out of 4 flights (the last one, from Sydney to Melbourne, being by far the best flight to miss out). On Korean Air from Seoul to Sydney they appeared to have over-booked economy class, so I found myself in a wonderfully reclining business class seat and had a very comfortable trip. Christina arrived the next day, and we began The Great Move.
Graeme very generously assisted in the move, and using his driver's licence (we needed a Victorian one) we rented a ute (read "pick-up truck with a flat bed" if you're not from Australia) for the day from a local hardware store and loaded up the boxes and furniture . Then we got our first look at our new home, having not seen it before we signed all the paperwork! It's a great spot, actually pretty spacious and very handy for Swinburne, the shops and the station. We also took advantage of the having the vehicle for the day and bought a whole bunch of second-hand furniture, a fridge, washing machine, etc. Most importantly, we got a couch, so we can now have people to stay!
The next month involved various odds and ends to do with setting up, steam-cleaning the carpets (which were pretty filthy when we moved in), getting more furniture, etc. We acquired a dining room table and chairs about 22 hours before we had our first dinner guests, and with the addition of two extra bookcases our various libraries are now entirely on shelves, rather then sitting in boxes as they have been for several years.
I think the last time I was in Vancouver, after a wonderful holiday with James and Tamsin in Connecticut and Christmas and New Year with Christina's family in Vancouver. If you're in a rush and don't feel like reading a novella, I guess the brief summary version since then is:
- Spent a few days in Hawaii on the way back. Christina was working, I wasn't.
- The day we got back from holiday, we moved into a new apartment, which was exhausting, fun and provides us with a much more pleasant living arrangement. Even more so after we spent the next month systematically cleaning it.
- Saw a few good movies; played a legendary game of Risk; had loads of good meals and great times with friends; spent a lovely weekend in San Remo; and slowly got back into work again after the break.
For some more details:
We left Vancouver on Jan 9th, in a time of ludicrously heightened security. After a thoroughly unpleasant airport experience, we arrived in Honolulu and crashed for the night in a hotel near the airport. Early the next morning we flew to Hawaii Island, which probably has the most charming and laid-back international airport ever. Palm trees, thatch roofs and ubiquitous smiles were a delightful change from the endless dreary queues of the previous day. We waited at the airport for Christina's colleagues from UC Santa Cruz, who were arriving from San Francisco an hour after our flight, and then headed off for a leisurely drive up the west coast of the island to Waimea, where the W.M.Keck Observatory is situated. This was our base for the next few days, and the site of some truly gruelling 18-hour work nights - but not for me. I spent the next couple days tootling around the island in the hired car, stopping off at beautiful spots or intriguing diversions as the mood took me.
The highlight was certainly the trip to Kealakekua Bay. The northern border of the bay features a memorial to Captain James Cook, who was killed there during a misunderstanding with the local inhabitants in 1779. Just in front of the memorial is a spectacular coral reef which I was particularly keen to see. That side of the bay is only accessible by water or by an hour-long hike from the road, so I hired a kayak and paddled there from an old cargo jetty 2km across the the bay. I had snorkelling gear in the boat and swam along the reef among a magnificent profusion of fish. That I had the whole place to myself was just an added bonus.
I was joined as I paddled back by several spinner dolphins. The surf had come up considerably, and landing a kayak against a static concrete jetty in a 4m swell was fairly invigorating, but fortunately I had a rather better reception than James Cook and there were some helpful Polynesian gentlemen on hand to grab the boat.
Hawaii really does seem remarkably unlike the rest of the USA. Oahu was fairly consistent with expectations of an American state, but heading out to Hawaii island it felt far more like a part of Polynesia.
I flew back by myself, thanks to some administrative bungling from Swinburne which left Christina and me returning a day apart, but I did manage to get emergency exit rows for 3 out of 4 flights (the last one, from Sydney to Melbourne, being by far the best flight to miss out). On Korean Air from Seoul to Sydney they appeared to have over-booked economy class, so I found myself in a wonderfully reclining business class seat and had a very comfortable trip. Christina arrived the next day, and we began The Great Move.
Graeme very generously assisted in the move, and using his driver's licence (we needed a Victorian one) we rented a ute (read "pick-up truck with a flat bed" if you're not from Australia) for the day from a local hardware store and loaded up the boxes and furniture . Then we got our first look at our new home, having not seen it before we signed all the paperwork! It's a great spot, actually pretty spacious and very handy for Swinburne, the shops and the station. We also took advantage of the having the vehicle for the day and bought a whole bunch of second-hand furniture, a fridge, washing machine, etc. Most importantly, we got a couch, so we can now have people to stay!
The next month involved various odds and ends to do with setting up, steam-cleaning the carpets (which were pretty filthy when we moved in), getting more furniture, etc. We acquired a dining room table and chairs about 22 hours before we had our first dinner guests, and with the addition of two extra bookcases our various libraries are now entirely on shelves, rather then sitting in boxes as they have been for several years.
posted by Sentinel at
12:20 AM
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