12 posts tagged “travel”
Malaysia was fun! I'm still sorting through pics but I have a few ready. :-) I got my scuba license sorted out, yay! Got some cozy time in with Grandma and hung out with my crazy cousins. Ah, good times.
We spent a week on Pulau Perhentian Besar - or Perhentian Island. So beautiful and relaxing, and so much fun with all the family there. We went diving together, and snorkeling and sea kayaking. The spouse-unit even went snorkeling, which was hilarious fun!
We also spent a couple of days at my aunt's place on the east coast, Coconut Grove. It was pretty exciting, as there was only a one room "shack", and we camped out in tents at night. :-)
Then a few days at my grandmother's house in Kajang and back home, all too soon. *sigh* Can't wait until next year!
In trying to figure out how much each suitcase should weigh on my upcoming trip to Malaysia, I found the following:
Two (2) pieces of baggage (measured together) of which the sum of the greatest outside linear dimensions does not exceed 107 inches (269cms), provided the sum of the outside linear dimensions of each bag does not exceed 62 inches (158cms),and that the weight of each does not exceed 70lbs (32kgs).
Reminds me of the Riddle of the Sphinx...
I wish that I could say I've been awol for so long because I've been hard at work and have accomplished much, but that's not the case. I've had a bad case of the doldrums and I've been generally just hanging about. Rather sad, really.
I'm in Sedona, AZ right now, taking family and friends around to see the sights. I forgot just how beautiful the landscape is here, just how perfect blue the sky. Even the stars at night, a crystal clear you would never see through all the light pollution in LA. We went on a hike this afternoon to Cathedral Rock and it was pretty nice sight. I have yet to experience a vortex yet, but there's hope yet.
*yawn* So, it's January and back to the grind. It's still amazing to me that a whole year has gone by already. I still remember last January. Huh.
England was fun. It was a blast to see my cousins and hang out with them. It was also incredibly nice to lounge around chatting with my aunt and grandmother. Long conversations about life and family that were long overdue. :o)
Denmark.. wasn't nearly as nice. *sigh* I just have the hardest time there. The language barrier is a bit tough, but I'm used to traveling to non-English-speaking countries. What gets me there is that I can't help be offended when English-savvy family speaks in Danish around me. When my barely-English-speaking 75-year-old grandmother painstakingly talks in slow, lapsing English, just to be polite to the English-only family members, I can't help but find the "enlightened" Europeans rude. Eh. Toss in overly bland and cold food in the middle of December. </rant>
So, there are Plans for this year. Here are a few:
- Become a better all-around cook.
- Swap the truck for the more eco-friendly VW GTI.
- Fix up the house.
- Maybe redo the kitchen.
- Travel to England in the spring.
- Travel to Malaysia in the summer.
- Finish building my charity knitting site.
- Knit a sweater.
Work. I have a lot of work I'd like to do this year. I'm also considering job hunting for a new client or two, but I'm searching for something morally compelling. Maybe for a non-profit of some sort.
Ugh. I think I'm finally falling sick. My throat feels like I swallowed a box of nails. I feel all cold and achy, and my back is sore. What I would give to be curled up with Harley sleeping next to me right now.
I'm here in Birmingham with the family, and other than not getting online until yesterday, it's been good. The girls have been fun, Grandma's doing okay and my aunt is her same rational, jolly self. I miss the spouse-unit terribly, but I'll see him next week in Copenhagen.
It's cold here, but not as cold as I thought it would be. My aunt has given me some of her handknit woolen sweaters, most cabled and one with a gorgeous intarsia butterfly on the front! Pictures as soon as I figure out how to download them from the camera with a USB cable.
I've picked up plenty of gummi coke bottles and bags of prawn cocktail skips. I have one suitcase and so many goodies, I don't know how I'll fit them all! Argh. And I haven't even been to a yarn store yet...
Ugh. I fly out in 3 days and I'm so not packed yet. I have this small little Samsonite hand luggage thing and there's just no way I'm going to fit clothes, presents, stash yarn and knit/crochet projects all in there together. Oh, and I have my Crumpler backpack, but with the camera, laptop, and cables, I'll only have room for one, maybe two balls of sock yarn. Hmmph.
It's the people. The stupid people who can't figure out to err on the speedy side and take off their fucking belt already. The guy that walks right up to the security checkpoint with two bottles of water in the mesh pockets of his backpack. The not-too-bright woman from Chicago that actually feels safer when they toss her into a box and blow air up her skirt to sniff for chemicals with zero explanation. Oh, joy. I just can't wait to go to England for Christmas.
The average geek's worse nightmare: you're traveling abroad and, one by one, all your electronics fail. It started with dropping my Blackberry in Malaysia and breaking the LCD. (New LCD: $179.) Then, losing my Blackberry battery. (New battery online: $20.) Getting to Denmark and popping in a lovely GPRS-enabled SIM card only to find out that I can't get GPRS working on the Blackberry. And as the cherry on top, my brand-spanking new black MacBook is now shutting down within 2-5 seconds of turning on. Some kind of temperature power management issue, bleh. Yay for me! So I'm down to an overweight phone and a PSP.
The funny thing about flying is the inevitable fact that as soon as they've handed you a small cup of something, things start bouncing around.
