I am not very good at updating this blog, am I!! Nearly a month since the last post. Anyway, in the next few months, there will be more frequent posts, as plans are coming to fruition and I am having to spend money on bookings!!! I also promise to update it much more frequently when travelling, so that everyone can share my adventures.
Yep, I have a lovely place to stay in Sydney - at the Y on the Park, in Wentworth Avenue. It is what they call a boutique hotel, and it looks very nice, and "safe" for a girl on her own. It is within walking distance of the centre of town and for me, with limited walking ability and chronic pain, that is an important thing. I don't want to get tired out with walking to somewhere even before I see the place :). In Adelaide I will be at the highly-acclaimed Youth Hostel - do you think I will be young enough to stay there??
I have also booked my flight tickets. OMG the distances and times are HUGE. 17 hours to Perth via a 2-hour flying visit in Singapore (hello Auntie Nina there, whom I am named after); on the way back it is 14.5 hours from Sydney to Mumbai, let alone then getting to Delhi :-0). The quick trips to Europe next year will be peanuts by comparison.
At work, my plans for my career break are now well-known in the Faculty, as I had them published in our Faculty magazine. The overall reaction was "well done; sounds an amazing trip; look after yourself and enjoy it as much as you can before coming back here!" I intend to, don't you worry!
With all this rain we are having in the UK I am really looking forward to the blue skies and azure seas of the Indian Ocean of Western Australia in their summer time. Can't wait.....
OK, that's it for now.
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Sunday, 3 June 2007
"modern" travel
I've been reflecting on the communication differences between this trip overseas for a long period and my last one, as a student in 1992, when I went to Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA as part of my American Studies at Keele University
I am amazed at actually having a blog. That makes me sound really "old", but I never thought I would be in the position to actually need one. This blog is primarily a means to keep in touch with family while I am away, assuaging some of their worries, and I will be able to let off steam about things that have not quite gone to plan, or effuse on the wonders of what I am doing ... at my age :). It will also be an aide memoire to me when I write my journal or if friends ask me what I did and when.
Secondly: I can keep in touch by email. Yes, such a simple thing that we all do and take for granted, but it is a wonderful thing for making the world smaller. For instance, I have never met my cousin's daughter Rachel, who lives about 50 miles from Perth, WA, but we are corresponding by email and I almost know her already! My old mum (said affectionately) and my dad's sister now correspond by email, while only a short time ago, they had to wait a couple of weeks for letters to come and go all that way.
Thirdly: letters aka snail mail. When I was a student at BSU in 1992, this was the only way to keep in touch. I used to write pages and pages to my family as to what I was doing and how my studies were going. I would stand in line at the post office for the American stamps with the eagle on them, and with blind faith pop them into the box-shaped post "boxes" and they would wing their way over the pond.
We had long, slot-shaped pigeonholes/mail boxes in the small foyer of the Hall we were in, and I used to check the mail eagerly every day. It was such a joy to receive the long letters back, on blue, tissue-thin Air Mail paper, and I used to drink in the news from home. It was odd to discover that while we were having a long hot summer and Fall, the UK was having its wettest Autumn for years. However I could also write back that we had just experiencd a tornado within 2 miles of town, and then we had fog for about 2 weeks non-stop.
Back in 1992, mobile phones were huge bricks, not the slim-line versions we have today. Even though they existed, they were a luxury item, and the cost of calls and ownership packages was extortionate. What a difference to today when everyone has one.
Finally, computers. Back then the computer boxes were like TV sets, the screens were green (yeuk) and hard to read. Computer programmes ran at 64MB. What a difference from the flat screen slim-line, ultra-fast ones we use now.
Part of what I am looking forward to is sharing my experiences with family and friends almost in real-time. I will be able to publish a blog, or send an email, and they could almost be "with me" at that time. However, I still have to master putting photos on this blog - any ideas anyone?!?!?
Until next time :)
I am amazed at actually having a blog. That makes me sound really "old", but I never thought I would be in the position to actually need one. This blog is primarily a means to keep in touch with family while I am away, assuaging some of their worries, and I will be able to let off steam about things that have not quite gone to plan, or effuse on the wonders of what I am doing ... at my age :). It will also be an aide memoire to me when I write my journal or if friends ask me what I did and when.
Secondly: I can keep in touch by email. Yes, such a simple thing that we all do and take for granted, but it is a wonderful thing for making the world smaller. For instance, I have never met my cousin's daughter Rachel, who lives about 50 miles from Perth, WA, but we are corresponding by email and I almost know her already! My old mum (said affectionately) and my dad's sister now correspond by email, while only a short time ago, they had to wait a couple of weeks for letters to come and go all that way.
Thirdly: letters aka snail mail. When I was a student at BSU in 1992, this was the only way to keep in touch. I used to write pages and pages to my family as to what I was doing and how my studies were going. I would stand in line at the post office for the American stamps with the eagle on them, and with blind faith pop them into the box-shaped post "boxes" and they would wing their way over the pond.
We had long, slot-shaped pigeonholes/mail boxes in the small foyer of the Hall we were in, and I used to check the mail eagerly every day. It was such a joy to receive the long letters back, on blue, tissue-thin Air Mail paper, and I used to drink in the news from home. It was odd to discover that while we were having a long hot summer and Fall, the UK was having its wettest Autumn for years. However I could also write back that we had just experiencd a tornado within 2 miles of town, and then we had fog for about 2 weeks non-stop.
Back in 1992, mobile phones were huge bricks, not the slim-line versions we have today. Even though they existed, they were a luxury item, and the cost of calls and ownership packages was extortionate. What a difference to today when everyone has one.
Finally, computers. Back then the computer boxes were like TV sets, the screens were green (yeuk) and hard to read. Computer programmes ran at 64MB. What a difference from the flat screen slim-line, ultra-fast ones we use now.
Part of what I am looking forward to is sharing my experiences with family and friends almost in real-time. I will be able to publish a blog, or send an email, and they could almost be "with me" at that time. However, I still have to master putting photos on this blog - any ideas anyone?!?!?
Until next time :)
Saturday, 2 June 2007
New Zealand plans
I am absent from work due to this pain flare-up and so have had time to think about the planning of the New Zealand part of the trip.
IT IS TOO LARGE A COUNTRY TO SEE IN SUCH A SHORT TIME!!!!!
I have jiggled around the dates for the Australia bit and will stay in Sydney longer before Xmas and before going to Adelaide. Then it is straight to Auckland to have 6 weeks in the country. I am going to use the Magic Bus (weird name, but a good way to see the country and get accommodation too in the passes), but will have to rationalise what I see. I want to see the natural beauty of the place, and do things I would never have the opportunity to do in the UK (climbing a glacier, all the activities around Queenstown, smelling the sulphurous fumes in Rotorua, and bathing in the hot-water sand-bath on the beach! are among the highlights) - so I feel myself leaning towards the big outdoors, rather than spending time in the cities.
Also, I will just have to go back for a 2nd trip won't I?!?!?
OK, must get back to that map.
IT IS TOO LARGE A COUNTRY TO SEE IN SUCH A SHORT TIME!!!!!
I have jiggled around the dates for the Australia bit and will stay in Sydney longer before Xmas and before going to Adelaide. Then it is straight to Auckland to have 6 weeks in the country. I am going to use the Magic Bus (weird name, but a good way to see the country and get accommodation too in the passes), but will have to rationalise what I see. I want to see the natural beauty of the place, and do things I would never have the opportunity to do in the UK (climbing a glacier, all the activities around Queenstown, smelling the sulphurous fumes in Rotorua, and bathing in the hot-water sand-bath on the beach! are among the highlights) - so I feel myself leaning towards the big outdoors, rather than spending time in the cities.
Also, I will just have to go back for a 2nd trip won't I?!?!?
OK, must get back to that map.
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