Travelling As A Couple

This was always going to be a big thing about this holiday. It’s the first time (realistically speaking) that I’ve been on a proper, long, holiday with a boyfriend. This holiday was a test of the relationship. There are unique challenges that come from spending 24 hours a day together for two and a half weeks that you simply don’t get elsewhere. Even when you live together, you’re not together with that level of intensity – there’s work, education, family, and other social commitments that mean you spend at least some time away from your partner.

When you travel together in a country where one of you are unable to communicate with the locals and the other has to do all the translating, there’s not much opportunity for being alone. All up, I think we only spent probably four hours apart for the whole two and a half weeks – largely when he had a sleep in and I went out early for an hour’s walk in the morning.

I think we passed the test. We’re still together, we didn’t have any blazing rows, and we both learned to travel and to gracefully give way to each other’s wishes. I’m a “must do everything” traveller – I get up early and stay up late, from an early breakfast at a street vendor, a day of sightseeing, and a full night at the night markets. Kieran is more of a “travel is about the holiday, not about the travel” traveller – he would prefer to stay up late reading and relaxing in bed, have a sleep in, and then leisurely pick one destination to explore each day. It’s not the best combination, but we made it work, with concessions on both sides.

Language

This was a concern of mine before we left. I hadn’t used Mandarin Chinese or Shanghainese regularly since the start of 2007, and I knew that I was rusty. (I do this thing where if I want to practice a language, I make myself think in that language and practice conversations in my head. It’s really hard, but effective at determining your level of fluency.) My imaginary conversations proved to me that I wasn’t ready to throw myself right back into China, where the average Chinese person knows only three phrases of English – “Hello”, “cheap, cheap, you buy”, and “you need taxi? I drive”.

However, concerns aside, I did better translating for the both of us than I thought I would. There were never any issues getting from A to B, using both taxis, high-speed trains and subways. One incident aside where I ordered three dishes instead of two, we never had any issues with ordering delicious meals, three times a day. I even had lengthy nearly hour-long conversations with taxi drivers, masseuses, etc. and managed to hold my own.

Impressively, I was still able to speak to my family in our local dialect which is essentially a dirty bastardisation of both the Shanghai and Ningbo dialects. Any student of Mandarin Chinese could tell you how dissimilar the Shanghai dialect is to putonghua, or standardised Mandarin. Yet I still managed to understand and converse in the dialect. I’m impressed with myself, but still admit that while my verbal command of Chinese was more than adequate for two weeks of travel, I should have brushed up on my recognition of Chinese characters before I left.

Places

Our original plan for the trip was: Beijing-Xian-Shanghai-hometown-Nanjing-Beijing in the space of two weeks. Travel in-between cities would have been primarily high-speed train over long distances, and passenger coach to my hometown. What we didn’t account for was the three-day May Labour Day holiday in China, which is second only to the Chinese New Year week-long holiday in sheer numbers of travellers using up all transport options. We were unable to buy train tickets to Xian on arrival in China (we couldn’t buy in advance overseas as you need to provide your ID/passport), and thus had to rearrange our plans, and omit Xian from our travels (somewhere I still haven’t been!). This allowed us to add a day to Beijing and a day to Shanghai.

Beijing: We were sick for the first few days/week of our holiday, a bug that we caught while in Sydney, incubated during our few days in Melbourne, then aggravated during the flight, with full effects for the first few days of our holiday. This severely impacted our ability to sightsee, and we ended up only going to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the night markets, and the Xiamen and Wangfujing commercial areas.

Shanghai: I’m a Shanghai girl through and through, based on my previous stays in the city as a student. We walked the Bund and took in the views from the Huangpu river on a night cruise. We visited Yuyuan, the Old Town, the French Concession, and explored my old stomping grounds in the Hongkou district. We watched a movie at XinTianDi (Titanic 3D, yeah!) and went to Nanjing Lu.

Hometown: We had two days here, and aside from the eating, the main highlights was the deserted amusement park we went to, and the fact that I got my hair chemically straightened. Otherwise, it’s really not all that exciting, though the industrial designer in Kieran was excited by our visit to the cigarette lighter factory that my aunt works in. He likes factories. What a boy.

Nanjing: We had one and a half days here, and managed to take in the sights of Hunan Lu, visited Xuan Wu park (and took an electric boat out on its many lakes), and went to the Confucius temple region and visited the Taiping Rebellion museum as well.

Singapore: We had a twelve hour stopover in Singapore on the way back from Beijing, and fortunately, it was at a reasonable time (9am – 9pm, as opposed to 9pm – 9am!). We took a shower at Changi airport (heavenly), then joined the free two-hour Colonial Tour that Changi airport offers. After the tour, we made our own way into the city to Orchard Rd where we wandered the massive malls for a while and had a very Malaysian/Singaporean meal (chicken rice, mmm), but then retreated to the cool air-conditioned space of a cinema and watched The Avengers.

Food

With few exceptions, we ate primarily in hole-in-the-wall mum-and-dad restaurants – lots of noodle soups, bowls of dumplings, etc. As a student in China a few years ago, that was always my go-to option as I could quite easily get a hearty home-cooked meal for around $1AUD. The only difference this time around is that with the rate of inflation and rising cost of living in China, my hearty home-cooked meal is now costing me around $1.50AUD.

We never once had a bad meal. The smaller street-side eateries never failed us the way they do so many other visitors from first-world countries – we never had upset stomachs, or anything that disagreed with us. When we went to larger restaurants (a famous Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing for example), that never failed us either, though it did reaffirm our preference for more authentic local eateries. We ate some strange food when we visited my family for two days – local specialities that included raw salted miniature crabs, tiny lobsters with purple meat, fruit that looked like mutated loganberries, tiny pipies, home made rice wine, and more. We saw stranger food at night markets that we weren’t game enough to try (skewered deep fried scorpions, silkworms, barbecued sheep penises, and more).

Probably most impressively, we only caved once and had a single ‘western-style’ meal while we were away (an Italian meal) – and that one time was in the Shanghai French Concession which almost specialises in non-Chinese cuisine. It’s very easy for travellers to China to get sick of Chinese food, three times a day, and to retreat to the ever-ubiquitous McDonald’s or KFC for a comfort meal. We never did that, though we did get dessert twice from MacDonald’s in the form of soft serves with strange flavours – taro soft serve and melon soft serve!

Shopping

Shopping is never really a main concern of mine when I go to China. Fact is, my feet are too big to buy their shoes (women’s shoes generally only reach about a 39, whereas I need more of a 41) and my body is too large for their clothes (I’m never going to have a 26 inch waist, and don’t even get me started on the size of my chest compared to the average Chinese woman). Anything else that I could purchase (handbags, accessories, etc.) generally don’t appeal to me because of the overall general national female preference for glitz, sparkles, sequins and diamantes that don’t fit my personal aesthetic for simple and classic.

Tourist souvenirs don’t appeal to me as I grew up in a Chinese household with all the teapots, scrolls, and inkstones that one could wish for. Gadget purchases don’t appeal either because of the fact that warranties purchased in China aren’t valid in Australia. Most mid-to-high-end cosmetics and toiletries are generally on par for pricing, which doesn’t offer an incentive to purchase in China and send back to Australia. In the end, the only purchases I made were for mid-range toiletry products – I bought some Biore pore packs and cleanser, and some Garnier products designed for acne prone skin. I only spent about $50AUD all up, but got around $90AUD value. Not a huge saving (I probably could have gotten similar savings had I waited for a supermarket sale), but enough to warrant the spending.

People

I don’t know if I like the average Chinese person. There, I said it. I don’t like the hacking, coughing, and spitting of phlegm on the footpath (yes this still happens despite the government’s attempts to reeducate about hygiene). I don’t like the fact that most people feel the need to talk at 100 decibels, no matter where they are. I don’t like the fact that pushing and shoving in a crowd is de rigeur. I don’t like the fact that people don’t know how to line up in queues and will shove their way left right and centre. I don’t like the culture of smoking (by kids as young as seven!) that means you smell like an ashtray because of second-hand smoke after a matter of hours. I don’t like the blatant gawking I get from Chinese men because of the size of my chest and the very audible remarks they make to their companions when I walk past.

Having said that, I love China. I love the great pride that everyone holds in being Chinese and in both embracing and celebrating the millenia of culture and history, while working hard to create a brighter and more prosperous future. I love the 热闹 (hot and noisy) atmosphere of anywhere you go, and the hustle and bustle of a country of 1.3 billion people. I love the entrepreneurial nature of the Chinese people and the way they spot a business opportunity anywhere. I love the fact that when we were at the Forbidden City and having some issues with tickets, a Chinese couple came up to us and tried to give us some advice.

The difficult thing is, I love the liveliness of a country with 1.3 billion people, but dislike some of the natural behaviours that fall out of that – e.g. the pushiness in a crowd and inability to line up. Take the good with the bad?

Family

We spent two days with my mother’s family in a place that I used to call “Bumfuck Nowhere” in old LiveJournal entries. It’s about halfway between Shanghai and Ningbo in the mid south east of China on the coast. This is the type of place it used to be. These days, it’s a bustling semi-urban area with an influx of migrant workers that’s becoming industrialised and even has a KFC within a ten minute drive. My grandparents have moved from farmers to becoming landlords – building one room rentals on what used to be their farming land, and renting them out for a princely total of $2300RMB a month. It’s not the rural China of my mother’s childhood.

The visit was characterised by my being shown off to everyone in the village (I’m related in some way to pretty much all of the original locals, whether by blood or marriage), and consistently receiving the comments that I’m tall and pretty, but I would be a lot prettier if I lost some weight because I’m fatter than the last time I visited. Again. And again. And again. And just in case I didn’t get it the first time – I’m tall and pretty, but need to lose some weight, x100000. And if this isn’t a contradiction in itself – even though every second sentence was about my weight, every third sentence was then encouraging me to eat and drink more, because food is the only way my family know how to show their love.

Oh, and they approved of Kieran, even though they couldn’t communicate at all. He showed himself willing to try a bit of every dish they served him, and that was enough to satisfy them! My grandma tried to give me $6000RMB when we left as a “wedding gift” because we might not get a chance to return for a visit before we get married. She was very disappointed when I refused the money and explained to her that we do things differently overseas – that we don’t date one person and get married within a year like many Chinese couples, and that chances are, she can give me the wedding money in three years when marriage actually becomes a reality after we’ve trialled living together and a whole range of other life experiences together.

Overall

I had a great holiday, being sick not withstanding. Two weeks gave me: affirmation of the strength of this relationship, a few extra kilos due to delicious food, criticism about the few extra kilos (plus a few more), confirmation of the appeal of my regular features, confidence in my language skills, and most importantly, just a good break from work. I did come back to 3000 emails in my work inbox, and three resignation emails from colleagues which brought me back to down to Earth pretty quickly…it’s really about time to start planning for another holiday I think. South America? I got an email promotion about some cheap flights in early December which are looking mighty tempting…

Now because I’m ultra competitive and a little bit childish, I’ve decided to take it one step further as well. I need to experiment with makeup for a Geisha look (I have a fancy dress party to go to soon, and the theme is “G”), and after receiving some advice from makeup experts on Tumblr, am ready to do my own “Geisha makeup on the cheap” video tutorial.

Kieran creates CAD tutorials on Youtube as part of his job. His highest rated video is currently at 8400 views. I want to beat that. My aim is to get my geisha makeup tutorial video to at least 10,000 views. If I succeed, and beat his highest viewed count, then I get orgasms on demand for a weekend. If I fail, and he wins, then I stay naked with not a stitch of clothing for a weekend.

I can’t help but feel that I win both ways.

It’s no secret that my previous boyfriends have been useless. With the beauty of hindsight, I’ve been thinking lately that if only I had actively sought my parents approval (instead of actively opting to disappoint them), I could have saved myself the three years I wasted in unfulfilling relationships. I only need to think about the criteria my parents would use to judge my potential partners to know that I would have done myself a favour to follow their advice:

1. He needs to have an Asian background and/or have an appreciation for Chinese culture. My Chinese heritage is important to me, and I intend on passing it to my kids. This would be made a lot easier if their father was either of a similar ethnic background or had a close affinity to Chinese culture.
2. He needs to put me and family first. This importance of doing one’s filial duty. Family is so important to me that I can’t believe I wasted my time with people who never incorporated me into their families, and never made an effort with my family.
3. He needs to be able to provide for me and our future kids. My parents have always wanted me to have my own career, but at the same time, they want to ensure that my future husband has his own, stronger, career. Biology dictates that I am likely to be the one who takes time out of my career when we have kids (he can’t breastfeed or give birth!), so they would ensure that whoever they chose for me would be able to support a family when I’m taking time off work.
4. He would be responsible, reliable, and trustworthy. These seem like pretty standard qualities, but I think back and see where I’ve prioritised other, less admirable qualities. Never again.

This isn’t to say that all arranged marriages work. Just recently there have been reports of Australian girls of ethnic descent (as young as 14!) being flown back to their home country by their parents for an arranged marriage. But when I think about what my parents would look for in a partner for me, and what your parents would look for in a partner for you, I can’t help but feel that our parents are a better judge of character than we are. They look for the long-term match, whereas people around my age are more likely to think in terms of what’s fun for now.

There are also some other smaller projects that I’d like to work on in the next few weeks:

1. Book all accommodation for our trip to China in April/May. I’ve already worked out a rough itinerary, so would like to start locking in some accommodation!
2. Start brushing up on my Mandarin language skills. They’re very rusty as I haven’t used Mandarin regularly for the past four years. I’ve already borrowed some audio language guides from my local library that I want to transfer to my iPhone so I can practice on my commute.
3. Start reading up on research methods for my last unit of study for my Masters. I should receive this year’s materials towards the end of this month, but because I have last year’s materials already, I can start doing some pre-reading.
4. Learn how to use Kieran’s new Nikon D3100 DSLR that he won the day before he left for Japan. He left it with me, so I might as well teach myself the basics so that I can appropriate the camera whenever I feel like being “artistic”. Inverted commas are actually necessary, because I’m not artistic in the traditional sense.

I also have a monthly pass to a gym in the city that I purchased for $19 off a Daily Deal site. It expires at the end of February, so I guess I should start going. I need to go at least four times to make the $19 investment worthwhile. Wish me luck?

I want to be a giver. I am, comparably speaking, really lucky. I have my health, my job, my family and friends, a roof over my head and food on my table. I have discretionary income – I can take holidays, buy clothes I don’t need and see movies I’ll forget about in a month. Not everyone is as lucky as I am, and I am constantly reminded of that working in a charity. Every day, I encounter families whose young children can die overnight from hypoglycaemia. Mothers who get up every hour to check to make sure their child is still alive. I don’t have anything like that to worry about – I am one of the lucky few. So I want to give back. I donate my time on the weekend fundraising at events for the organisation I work for…but I can do more. I have more time and skills to contribute. I just need to find charities and organisations who need me after work and on weekends.

I want to be more of my own person. This was never really a problem for me when I was living in Melbourne. I was never dependent on a partner to the point of only spending time with him or his friends. However, after moving to Sydney where I don’t have an extensive friendship network like I do in Melbourne, it’s very easy to tag along to everything that Kieran does, and spend all my time with his friends. I don’t have a reason to turn down an invitation, because I never have other plans. This needs to change. It’s not healthy. So I need to build my own friendship network. I’ve been attending trivia nights on Wednesdays with a regular group of people who I met on Sydney Livejournal (who are now Facebook friends, who are coming to my housewarming, etc.), which is a great start. I’m very conscious though, of the fact that I can and should do more. I’ve signed up for an account at Meetup, and I just need to find the right group for me. It’s an ongoing project.

I want to be recognised for my abilities. In other words, I don’t want to make excuses. I’m only going to use one example here – and that’s my ability as a cook. For the longest time, I’ve always claimed that I’m not a cook because I was never really allowed in the kitchen growing up – it was very clearly my mother’s dominion. I’ve loudly and proudly proclaimed my expertise in creating beans on toast or two minute noodles. That’s all a dirty lie. I’m actually a really good cook. I don’t follow recipes, and I don’t meal plan. I cook from instinct, and it always turns out well. Case in point – my attempts at salmon and chicken. I need to stop hiding behind a facade of incompetence to lower people’s expectations of me, and admit that I’m actually pretty awesome.¹

I want to be realistic about my capabilities. More often than not, I’m my own worst enemy – I think I’m capable of doing more than what is actually humanly capable. Case in point. I’m also Captain Possible at work – no matter how much work people throw at me, I won’t stop to say that it’s not manageable – I’ll find a way to do it all even if it means staying till 8pm every night and taking work home on weekends (which believe me, I don’t get paid enough to do). So I need to a) learn to say no/stop; and b) be realistic enough to look at what is actually possible. This is not only for my own benefit in terms of stress levels, but also for others around me as they recognise what is possible and in what timeframes.

I want a lot more. But this is a start.

¹Note: I still think it’s perfectly acceptable to make an excuse that you’re not strong enough to carry heavy things up two flights of stairs. If a stronger person can do it for me, then that’s definitely preferable!

1. My financial situation is a little less dire. They’ve finally found a tenant for my apartment (at $80 a week less than what they originally said I would get), but I’m still three months down on rental income ($6000). I’ve negotiated a payment plan with the tax office so I can pay my tax bill, I don’t have to pay other bills until January, and I have enough for a deposit on a rental in Sydney. Things are tight, but I’m not as stressed.
2. I have not yet found a rental in Sydney. I have another round of inspections this weekend though, so fingers crossed. I have three more weeks available to me in my current temporary accommodation (I can leave earlier if I find somewhere), so that’s my deadline for finding somewhere.
3. His immediate family love me. I’m meeting the extended family this weekend at a birthday gathering, and I’m relatively confident they’ll love me too.
4. I’m currently living with two men in my temporary accommodation, though not the two in this entry. I’m not sure what happened with those two actually – we lost contact after I went away for a month, so I assume they’ve found somewhere else to live? Anyway, living with two men who’ve never been introduced to cleaning products. Huzzah.
5. I’ve re-enrolled in my postgrad degree for next semester. It’s actually been quite nice having a few months off study, considering how manic I’ve been with travelling, moving, and settling into a new city, and also considering that I’ve been in continuous education since I was four. I just hope I can get back into study mode next year.
6. I ended up buying an actual GPS. I don’t know whether it’s helped or hindered my driving around Sydney though. The problem with Sydney’s highways is that you might be travelling on one, then each of the four lanes will go off into a different highway (all unmarked with the actual highway name, just marked with destination), and all the GPS will tell you is “Continue on Warringah Highway”, and not clarify which one it is. There have been times when I’ve been in the wrong lane and ended up having to drive across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (bye bye $5 toll charge!) when that’s the last thing I want to do.

As for things that have been happening since I’ve returned to Sydney:

1. I turned 25. I still can’t really believe that I’m a quarter of a century old. I was marginally concerned about how I would spend my birthday considering I’m away from family and most of my friends who are in Melbourne, but I ended up having a great weekend.

   I went out for dinner on Friday night at this amazing Northern Thai place (no pad thai here!) with Kieran, then went out clubbing with a friend who came to Sydney for my birthday, as well as Kieran and some of his friends. The club was doing a nineties night…it was fantastic to dance and sing along to Britney, the Backstreet Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Salt n Pepa, etc. Then on the Saturday, I went to Taronga Zoo with Kieran, and got to see the three new Sumatran tiger cubs who are only about two or three months old…so adorable! I spent Saturday night in with Tracey, Xuan and my Melbourne friend, and we watched girly movies, painted our nails and ate bacon. Sunday was a bludgey recovery day, but I went out for dinner again.

2. I went to my first wedding. Can you believe I’d never been to a wedding before now? It’s largely because all my extended family obviously live overseas so I never had occasion to go to a cousin’s wedding. All my parents family friends have kids who are younger than me so they weren’t getting married. And none of my friends seem to be the marrying type! Anyway, Kieran’s mate from university got married, and I went as his date. It was quite a simple and casual wedding – a watered down Catholic ceremony in a small country church (the bride was Catholic), followed by a picnic/reception in a mountainous national park, and then drinks down at the local pub. Luckily the weather was absolutely beautiful for it as it was pretty much all outside!

   It got me thinking about how I want my wedding – and I think my one big takeaway was that I don’t want a church wedding. The couple tried to be very inclusive of all faiths in their service, but I felt hypocritical being in a church for a service when I don’t believe in religion. I simply wouldn’t feel comfortable getting married in a church, but by the same token, wouldn’t feel comfortable getting married on the beach which seems to be the default second option for most Australians. I’d be more inclined to hire out a beautiful scenic winery, or I love the idea of holding a reception somewhere like the State Library of Victoria. All something to think about.

3. Work has been good. I’ve been doing a lot of work online and with some external publications, which has been very interesting. My colleagues are (largely) fun – we’re having a big “girl’s night out” tonight which should be interesting. I’ve been told (warned?) that these nights tend to get pretty messy…I’m interested to see what people are like away from the office! You know how people have work personas and out of office personas? It’ll be interesting.
4. My friends haven’t abandoned me. As I mentioned earlier, a friend came up from Melbourne for my birthday weekend which was amazing. I’ve got another friend coming to Sydney next week so we’ll catch up, and yet another friend coming next weekend for work. Then a group of my girl friends from high school are talking about road tripping up to Sydney to see me between Christmas and New Years – AND my parents plan on sending my brother up to visit me in that time too. I was originally apprehensive of moving to a new city and leaving my support network behind, but that really hasn’t been the case – they’ve just followed me for random visits.

   It’s as my manager at work said actually – when you move to a new city, you become a destination for friends and family. They may not have originally thought of visiting that city before, but once you’re there, they’ll come and visit you and you won’t be alone. I’m thankful for that.

5. …and I already covered off on the housing situation.

Finally, sarcastic travel posts aside, I do actually have some serious “This is what I did/bought in America” posts planned with much less sarcasm. Not a dearth thereof, just less. Somehow, I don’t think they’ll be quite as popular.

And I’m not even joking. I was approached by a million American men brandishing glass dildos. All American men are dirty sleazes.

As for the relationship itself, suffice it to say that we have known each other probably for about three or four years now, and that he is the best friend of a guy I have always considered my brother from another mother. It all started nearly a year ago, but intensified in the past few months. I have met his parents, and he has met mine. We see each other two or three times a week. We eat out a lot. We stay in and make dinner together. We watch movies. We went to a museum. We sleep together. We spent a weekend up at the Hunter Valley (vineyards) together. I made him clean out his room so that it’s inhabitable (it’s a work in progress).

I think most importantly considering some of the reactions so far that have been along the lines of “oh, so that’s why you moved”, I should state that this is not the reason I moved up to Sydney. I first floated the idea publically in January this year, and had been contemplating it for a while before the announcement. Nothing of permanence really happened between us before the decision, and it wasn’t until later in the year when I moved closer to making the move a reality that we even considered being together, as long distance wasn’t ever going to be an option.

Anyway, you probably don’t need to know anymore. If you’re desperate though, there’s always Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook stalk him.

As for the movie itself…I cried. There was laughter and love, but it was mostly tears. I feel like a part of my childhood has died with the series. How do you even begin to say goodbye to something that has been part of your life for so long? That’s part of the reason I’m so excited about Pottermore – it’s an opportunity to revisit a part of my life in an entirely new format. It would be like falling in love all over again.

I had a pretty warm and fuzzy last week of July as well.

In regards to my job applications, I removed my residential address from my letterhead and immediately got an informational phone call. After talking with the HR coordinator, I came to the conclusion that that particular role wasn’t right for me and turned down the chance for an interview, but the very fact that I got a phone call after removing my address has proved to me that I actually am employable. Distance was clearly not my friend when applying for jobs, but hopefully my luck picks up now that I’ve removed my address.

I’m getting on quite well with my new housemate. I do find it difficult to understand him at times though, which is probably a combination of the Kiwi accent and the fact that he’s a mumbling kind of guy. We’re probably friendlier than I was with Mr. Swedish Future Doctor who was quite solitary. His girlfriend is moving to Australia in two weeks, so he’s likely to be moving out within a month anyway.

I’m slowly getting used to my haircut. It’s requiring me to blow dry my hair at night, and use smoothing serum and all that kind of stuff though…which is about 100% more time than I used to spend on my hair.

You can still sponsor me for Run Melbourne! The event is in two weeks, so there’s still plenty of time to donate a few dollars. I’m hoping that the blister on my heel (caused by a new pair of runners) will heal by then. How ironic though, that a new pair of runners might throw into jeopardy my participation in the run, and reduce me to hobbling my way through the race.

I have purchased something that means I don’t need to have a man around. Let’s just leave it at that.

I’ve not planned much for my trip to America in October. To tell you the truth, the initial euphoria has lifted, and I’m really just playing a waiting game at the moment. It all seems so far away, and there’s so much happening in my life between now and then. I probably won’t make any definite plans until September. A high school friend has decided to come along for the trip, and has booked the same flights. I do normally prefer travelling alone (you get to spend time doing what you want to do, not what others want to do), but I have the feeling it would be a lot more fun travelling America with a girlfriend, road trip style. At the moment we’re planning on doing Los Angeles, driving down to San Diego, Greyhounding to Las Vegas, Amtraking to San Francisco, flying to Seattle, flying to Vancouver and back to Los Angeles for a flight back out. I do enjoy meeting up with ‘internet people’, so if you fancy going out to dinner or something, do let me know!

I’m still actively using my cross-trainer a number of nights each week, so it hasn’t become one of those cliched pieces of exercise equipment that just sit in the corner gathering dust. It gets a bit squeaky every now and again, so I spray a bit of canola oil on it occasionally. I should probably be using proper axle grease (or whatever it is you’re supposed to use on squeaky hinges), but I’m clearly not DIY enough to own that. Canola spray oil will do as a substitute!

I’ve become surgically attached to my iPhone. I’m a bit worried about it though – reception has been playing up a bit and I’ve been having problems receiving calls, sending texts, etc. I don’t know whether that’s a network or hardware issue though…I have to find some time to take it to the Genius Bar.

I got a Distinction for my Masters unit this semester. One more unit to go…next semester will be killer though. Study materials don’t come out until late July, and I leave the country for a month by early October. I need to do thirteen weeks worth of study and two assignments in eight weeks, in order to have everything done before I go on holiday. And there’s really no other choice – I don’t want to have to do homework while I’m on holiday!

And finally for something totally unrelated to any previous entries, I am trying to convince my parents to pay for my brother and me to go to Greece and Italy for two weeks over the Christmas break. Essentially, they don’t like him sitting around at home playing video games on the school holidays. The only place he’s recently shown interest in visiting is Greece and Rome because he’s been studying mythology and ancient history. I’ve never been to Greece and Rome. My parents would never want to go to Greece and Rome.

My conclusion – they should pay for flights and accommodation for me to take my brother to experience some culture and history. I’ll pay for food, souvenirs, sight-seeing, in-country transport, and all that other stuff for both of us. It’s a win win situation. My parents don’t have my brother sitting at home through the school holidays. He gets to visit some places he’s actually interested in with the guidance of someone who’s used to travelling independently of a generic tour group. I get a significantly cheaper trip to Europe. I don’t see how this suggestion could be at all bad.