travelling on a budget

I have been to quite a few places and I have to say I really enjoy travelling on a budget. Trips vary from a short weekend break to a two-week diving and sightseeing vacation. But on all these trips, I have always limited myself to a £800 budget. I don't know why that number but it seems to work well. I get to buy my fridge magnet, and have an excuse for not buying anything else. I guess I get a kick out of travelling of a budget because it feels like I got a really good deal. Like the Columbia walking shoes I got for $5, you know.

I won't forget the trip to Cuba where we really had to stretch the budget. We covered half of Cuba and wanted to do all this fantastic scuba-diving. Pete wasn't happy that he couldn't have that ice-cold beer after being under the hot sun all afternoon. He got his way occasionally, of course (love is all about compromise), and all was well when we met a British trio who stayed in this empty resort which had free-flow booze. And, also because we wanted to rough it out, we took the local bus to travel between towns which meant we had to get up at 4am, try to find out which was the correct bus to take using our half-formed Spanish, and hope that no one would mug us. (Cuba was surprisingly safe actually). I look upon those incidents fondly; after all, one does remember the hard times.

back home tomorrow

Tomorrow I leave NY and head back to the UK. I wish I could be at Newcastle airport right now. I hope the snow storm would have completely subsided tomorrow morning, the roads ploughed and back to normal driving conditions. I have decided it is going to take a lot for me to enjoy snow now. Maybe I never ever went skiing because there was always this unconscious dislike for snow. All this fluff is not pleasant, especially when you have to travel.

I will be fine when I get back to the UK and don't have to stress anymore. There is much to celebrate, be merry and chat about. Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!

more snow

I really don't like snow all that much. I was never a big fan of snowball fights. Maybe I need to pick up skiing or something like that.

On another note, I'm really looking forward to going back to the UK for Christmas and finishing up on the PhD. Much progress has been made in the past couple of months since I've been here in NY too. Pete and I are engaged - no one is really surprised seeing that we've been together for about five years now. And it feels so natural and so right. We're trying to get registered as soon as possible, and the weddings will come in the later half of 2009. Getting married isn't going to change our lives much seeing that we've been living together for a while now. But it would be nice to share our happiness with people we care about. And, after some consideration, I've decided to take up his surname so there'll be some paperwork to do. (I actually planned otherwise at first because I thought it'd be weird that people see my surname before meeting me and be surprised that I'm Chinese. I guess it could be an icebreaker thing.)

Also, more exciting news is that we'll be moving to America next year! It's very likely that we're going to San Francisco and I'll be working at Stanford as a post-doctoral fellow. There are two MRI groups at Stanford and they are both very strong. I've always wanted to study/work at Stanford since I visited the place in 1999. I almost cannot believe my luck. I only say *likely* because we still need to get all the visas and administrative stuff like that done. Pete has been out there to silicon valley earlier this year for work and he loves the place too. So, watch this space. :)

babysitting

My flatmate has a one year old daughter and she's oh-so-cute. I had to babysit her through the night and it wasn't difficult because she was supposed to be asleep all of that time. I had a baby monitor and all I had to do was to watch out for her cries, and give her a bottle if she starts wailing.

She made some noises at 3:30am for about five minutes. I got out of bed and stood outside her room for a few minutes. I took the bottle out of the fridge and waited for another few minutes. She quietened down so I put the bottle back in the fridge. It took me a while to get back to sleep and when I did, I had a dream about her crying her lungs out. I can't remember what I was doing, or trying to do, in the dream. I do remember that the dream wasn't very pleasant. It was actually quite stressful being responsible for someone else's child. And I didn't even have to do anything.

i fell this morning...

... because the ground is still covered with ice. We had a winter ice storm here last week.

This is the weather forecast for today:

THE REGION HAS BEEN HEAVILY IMPACTED WITH WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES DUE TO ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF UP TO AN INCH. CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO BE VERY DANGEROUS TODAY... AS TEMPERATURES RISE INTO THE MID 40S TO MID 50S AND SOUTHERLY WINDS INCREASE TO 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS 25 TO 40 MPH. THE COMBINATION OF THE MILD TEMPERATURES AND STRONG GUSTY WINDS WILL CAUSE MUCH OF THE ICE TO FALL FROM THE TREES AND POWERLINES. ANY ICE THAT IS RELEASED SUDDENLY... WOULD RESULT IN THE TREE BRANCHES AND POWERLINES SNAPPING BACK... WHICH MAY PRODUCE MORE DAMAGE AND MORE POWER OUTAGES.

Rain falls and accumulates as ice, causing tree branches to snap under the weight. Little ice stalactites form on power cables. It's very pretty because everything is glistening under the sun. Most people who came in to work last Friday had lost power to their homes. Luckily I wasn't affected. I can't imagine not having heating. Driving on the road was a bit scary. It's all so pretty, but there's an uneasy feeling in my stomach because I have to be so careful. Another tree branch might just snap above me, so I wonder which is a better strategy: to go slow or fast.

I don't think I can live here, permanently. It's supposed to be properly winter in Jan/Feb and I don't know how I would cope with it!

Harvard, Boston, MA

Can you tell who has got two pairs of trousers on? And I got those shoes for US$5!

nearly december

I've been in NY for almost two months now. Time has flown by: ISMRM deadline, Pete came and gone, and I'm off to SF next week to meet a couple of professors. I am enjoying the experience, seeing what industrial research is like and meeting new people. It's snowing today but probably not going to be too heavy *touch wood*.

Many things are done differently here. Duh. I have not seen an electric kettle in use. I don't know what people would talk about if the elections hadn't just happened, and if the economy was doing well. I also never thought that I would have problems understanding someone else, here.

It's interesting, I can't remember if it is just as how I felt when I was first in Cambridge. I remember how I felt when I left Changi for Cambridge. I was so excited and felt I was embarking on such an adventure, with a new digital camera in hand. Then I went on so many trips to Europe, took up scuba diving, went to Egypt just before the war broke out in Iraq, spent a summer in NC, met Pete, spent a couple of weeks backpacking in Cuba.

I think that semi-adventurous spirit will always be in me. (Very oddly, I was never an adventurous kid. I was more the spoilt baby girl.) But I'm too old to do it alone. I miss Pete and I really rather share everything I see and hear with him. It used to be "rather do it alone than never have done it". Now it's closer to "rather not do it than to do it alone". How times have changed.

It is little over seven years since I've been away from home. And now, together with Pete, we hope to move on to a new life away from Cambridge. It's so exciting thinking that we will be experiencing something totally new, together. Plans are still in progress to make the move and *fingers crossed* hope that they will work out fine.

dancing

I went dancing today. There was a halloween party and I went along. I haven't been dancing in such and such a long time. It was so much fun. And I wasn't even drinking because I had to drive back. It felt so good. I miss my dancing days.

back to normal

My laptop crashed after a week here so I have been booting off a linux live cd. Such a pain. Anyway, it's fixed after a re-install and life is almost back to normal. Here's a photo of my rental car



It's so pretty here and the research is really interesting too. The cold is starting to kick in. It's about zero celsius and the thick coats aren't even out yet. It snowed a couple of days ago but it didn't stick and supposed to warm up a little for halloween. People make a big thing of halloween here. Many decorate their front lawn and porch with pumpkins and hanging monsters/witches. It's cute.

If the English talk about the weather all the time, then Americans talk about the economy and politics all the time. It's okay and I guess I bring some variety to the conversation.

View towards Albany from Thacher Park


Leafy steps up from the Indian Ladder Trail


Cohoes Falls

my new car

So I arrived in Albany today where I will be spending the next three months. I picked up the rental car. I was expecting a 4-door Hyundai or similar, as the quote led me to believe. I got a sporty Chevy, 2-door with a high rear and spoiler. I almost could not believe my eyes and thought someone was playing a joke on me. I got into the car and tried to look for the electric jack to plug the tomtom into. Found one but it was much too small. Thankfully the tomtom had some battery power left. (Found the 12V standard electric jack much later.) So I started playing around with the many buttons.

"Ooh, three buttons on the rear-view mirror. I wonder what they do." Press rightmost button with the attractive cross icon.

"Hello, this is the SmartAssist SOS system. How can I help you? blah blah..." I think this was what she said.

I was panicking now. I was expecting the button to change the mirror properties, not get someone on the phone! I pressed another button which seemed to end the call.

But the "phone" rang! And she started talking again. Obviously I was frantic and trying to think of what to say. I could only apologise and that I didn't mean to call her. Instead of reprimanding me for wasting their time, she told me not to worry about it, or something like that, and that they are there if I should need it!

I certainly felt safe. At least I know what to do if the car breaks down *touch wood*.

done... for now

I have submitted! :)

nearly there

The boyfriend left for California this morning. I'm not too bored yet. He's gone for two weeks but I'll be gone when he gets back. Seeing him go only leaves me more eager - I cannot wait to submit the thesis and leave for America. I'm really excited and looking forward to the trip.

I wonder what Schenectady is like.
I wonder how long it will take for me to get used to driving on the other side of the road.
I wonder what research is like in a big multi-national company.
I wonder if I will get a cool housemate.
I wonder what the walks in the Adirondacks are like.
I wonder when the leaves will turn red and pretty.

I just can't wait.

arkham horror

People who know me will know that I really am not into fantasy. (I was quite surprised when I enjoyed reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell.) I think it has to do with the names - too many and too complicated to remember. Sure I will go along and watch Lord of the Rings and Star Wars but the plot always gets too complicated. I am rather dense when it comes to movies, but you probably know that already.

So it wasn't with much expectation that I entered the board game of Arkam Horror. This, of course, was not owned by me. There were eight of us altogether. Quite a number I say, so I was quite happy that I could watch seven-eighths of the time. The were a lot of rules. A LOT. I have never played a game with so many cards. We were playing with an expansion set so maybe that was why.

I actually enjoyed it. It was nothing like any board game I ever played before. I was beginning to understand the rules halfway through the game. And the best thing was that we worked together. I do not like games where you have to sabotage other players to win. I prefer to win on merit - well one could say that sabotaging is a type of merit but that is just evil. Anyway, a pleasant suprise. For all the sci-fi/fantasy stories I had to listen to from Eric, this game makes it all quite worthwhile. It makes for a great time with friends (as long as there's someone to decipher the rules).

weekend in norfolk - part 2

It wasn't a great start to Sunday morning. It was grey and drizzling. We felt cocooned in our little tent. At least it was warm. The weather forecast predicted the rain to "clear to the east by midday". I wasn't sure what that meant. We wandered into Thetford village. Most of the shops were shut. A coffee break in a little hotel bar provided much needed refreshment from the grey skies. Amused ourselves in Woolworths for a bit. By lunchtime there were breaks in the sky and we felt that we weren't going to be let down by the British forecast for once.

We made our way to Thetford Forest. Arrived way too early so we and went for a short walk before our slot at half past three. Waited a bit. Signed the waiver and soon we were part of a group of fifteen huddled around an instructor Megan. The age and height limit was 10 years old and 1.4m. So there were quite a few small people around. They put to shame the adults who freeze up there. The "challenges" aren't too high - about two or three storeys high. I always enjoyed the outdoor challenges we had to do at school camp (apart from wall climbing - that's really hard) and maybe this could be like OBS all over again.

Here's a picture taken during the practice session on how to put our roller things on the tight rope and how to secure the other two carabinas. As the odds would have it, we had a worrisome mum in our group who wasn't very confident and had to repeat almost everything that the instructor said. One time she asked about her carabina auto-lock not being very tight at which her eleven year old son rolled his eyes and sighed. Pete was very good at not letting her spoil our adventure. Me, not so good.

There are five sites in total on the course, of which the first is a training one and doesn't really count. This meant that there were four huge zip wires altogether! I was looking forward to those. Zip wires are always the most popular at any kids adventure park/playground. The zip wires they had here must be about 75m long. Anyway, they were so far that I couldn't see Pete when he was on the other side. Lucky I'm not embarrassed to communicate by shouting.

The course was expected to take three hours from start to end. Quite a bit was spent waiting around because only three persons can be waiting on a platform while one on a challenge. Unfortunately we got stuck behind the worrisome mum and quite often we had to mumble words of encouragement so that she would hurry up a bit. One of the tarzan swings was when I felt slightly scared. The drop was quite high and I had to double check that the harness was still holding okay. So off I went and it was like being a kid all over again.

So it wasn't like OBS because there wasn't any teamwork. A few of the challenges was hard work but not impossible. The harness meant that I really only felt scared at one of them. I guess one can only overcome their fears once in their life. So when I get old I rarely get scared then? Interesting.

Anyway, here's a video of my only proper landing off the zip wire - by that I mean I didn't land on my bum or my back. My yellow t-shirt needs a second wash.

weekend in norfolk - part 1

We went camping in Norfolk over the weekend. Monday (today) is a holiday and the weather promised to be fairly good so on last Friday evening we booked ourselves a tent pitch and on the high-rope forest adventure course Go Ape for Sunday in Thetford Forest. We downloaded a couple of walks that we might do and packed our tent, sleeping bags, lunches and off we went at Saturday lunctime. We finally decided that we were going to do a 6-mile route near East Wretham.

The first photo is of the sign we followed for about half the route. The walk starts off in a forested area. And I managed to park the car right next to a tree. I got no end from Pete about that - he insists that the car was in the tree. We should have taken a photo. Anyway, so we start off in the forest and there were quite a few other walkers and dogs in this area. It's nice how you can take dogs along on such walks here - dogs aren't allowed in Bukit Timah Hill or MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore (I remember).

Pete's very pleased with this second photo of the green bug so I have to put it up here. He did an excellent job map-reading and bashing nettles. I was busy avoiding nettles and bees. The weather was sunny and warm but not too hot. Perfect for walking. We brought plenty of water with us. A couple of summers ago we went walking along the Fens and got quite dehydrated - it was the hottest day of that summer. This time we had plenty of fluid, nothing heavy on our shoulders, a warm sun sun and a light breeze. My mind kind of switches from my thoughts to watching out for nettles to appreciating the countryside. This walk is rather different because we didn't see anyone else for the first half. It was just the sound of the trees, fields and insects.

Shortly after this photo of me in the field of some-type-of-grain was taken we had to walk through an overgrown area with thistle. These are plants with sharp pointy leaf edges. They don't sting but can hurt quite a bit. Then we got to a field with a neighbouring field of evil-looking black cows. Cows are fantastic from a distance when I think of how great milk is. But they are pretty scary when they start getting up and staring at you. We got out of there not fast enough. Soon we found ourselves in a little village and stopped for a quick drink at the local pub.

The walk took us three hours to finish. Our legs were pretty tired at the end. Another half an hour or so later and we were at the campsite. £8 for a night's stay! Pretty good if you ask me. The lady tending the site was friendly and allowed us to drive around to pick our spot. We parked beside a couple who had a similar sized tent. Most of the other people had crazy big tents (the ones with like a west wing, central wing and east wing kind) or caravans with gazebos. Their makeshift homes did look really good and we thought about how long it took to put those things up. We made do with, what felt like, our play tent. Ours was literally a five minute job. It was nonetheless very well made, and we were waterproof from the next morning rain. We parked beside a family of four (we figured from their conversations) which provided endless amusement. "I don't like camping anymore!", screamed their little boy at one point, despite profuse apologising from his father. Haha. I can only imagine how much fun it would be camping with a family.

michael phelps in the 80's

 

oh well

There's this conference that I really want to go to. It's the angiography club that is going to be held in October in Graz. I attended it last year in Istanbul and gave my first overseas talk . I met lots of people and got to know some people quite well. There's this girl from China who works at the military hospital. Her life in China and her talk dressed in her uniform left a deep impression. The chair of the session in which I spoke in was really encouraging and so friendly. I met some big names in the field and actually got to chat with them. I saw from this year's preliminary program that the people I missed at this year's major conference in Toronto are going to be in Graz. This conference is small and cosy and you actually get to approach people and be inspired. I submitted an abstract for the conference and it got accepted.

But I cannot go. Because I am going to be in America. I'm really looking forward to the three month work in America but I can't help feeling so sorry that I won't be able to make it to angio club. I'm so sad. You know how sometimes it's been a really long time since you cried and you feel like it's about time for a good bawl. I feel a little bit like that now. Oh well. Maybe next time.

nearly after work

I'm starving. And waiting for Pete to ring. He's been working quite late recently. A lot of testing to do I think. I know less and less about what he does as time goes by. He used to tell me quite a lot about his projects but I think it's now become too specialised and developed. He throws up all these acronyms that have got something to do with wireless technology and assumes that I understand what he's talking about, which I don't. I wish I could tell you what they are but my memory fails me. CDMA is one. So another similarity between our work, apart from Fourier Transforms, is the incessant use of acronyms. In MRI, there's RARE, FIESTA, FLAIR, STIR, HASTE, SENSE, ASSET, SMASH, VIPS, BURST, and on and on and on. I really don't want to talk about work.

Guy Goma

I cannot watch this at work. My colleagues probably think I'm having a quiet fit.

Rome, December 2002

As referred to by thegreatsze.

One of ctl and syt's rear


And my favourite one of syt and zmc


This trip was a memorable one. Not only because it was with great company, we got to see the pope in his pope-mobile, and the leaning tower of Pisa on a great day but also because I had just broken up with my boyfriend. I have never felt that sort of pain so much, ever in my life. I am still forming my thoughts (I know, after six years!) about what happened then and how I got into such a mess and how I've changed/grown because of it. Anyway, it's all history now and like syt says, I have to put it all behind me and talk to him. Maybe someday.

Moved home

A new home since I am a big fan of Google and its apps especially Calendar and Bookmarks. I also found this software which allowed easy export and import from livejournal to blogger.

It's been a month since I've been back in the UK from the month-long holiday at home. (I wanted to write "back home from.... at home." but that wouldn't make much sense huh.) Nothing new except that I might be suffering mild depression from this writing up. Editing is one of the most difficult things in the world, apart from painting and making music.

Anyway, we haven't been doing much apart from drinking lots. We've had a few friends round and the wine at Tesco's are 3 for £10! (Pete has sworn to a detox-week - I say he won't last past tonight.) He's been pretty busy at work and I am just generally bored. The weather's so-so and the plants don't really need attending to yet. We're not planning on any major DIY although it would be nice to change the ultra-dated red bathroom suite.

I really haven't got much else to do and when I do something else, I feel really guilty about not spending time on work. I used to be a real stress bunny apparently - I don't remember this so much anymore until my dad reminded me of this when I was home. I remember him picking me up in the afternoons after school and we'd go to this hair place where they'd rub lotion into my scalp. I was so stressed that I was losing a lot of hair. I don't understand this because I only ever remembering having lots of hair, and still do. I used to hate my hair because there was so much, now, it's okay. Anyway, I think/hope I am better with coping with stress these days.

Tonight we're having burritos for dinner. Maybe time to open the remaining bottle of red!

Write-up

So I have been writing up my thesis. And I've only been doing it real seriously for just over two weeks. And I am so bored. At first it was okay, and I was actually thinking that I might get through this fine. You know, not bored to tears or tearing my hair out or working till wee hours (still not yet). Now, I am feeling quite frustrated. I think at first I was merely adding words so the page count was a tangible measure of my efforts. Now I'm just re-reading and editing and it's so difficult. I can't wait to finish this.

Stand-up

This is quite good...