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!