Tag: usa

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in transit

Melbourne…
Went to the counter to check in, and discovered my tickets hadn’t been paid for. Convenient. After an hour and a half of wrangling, we got them paid for, and I got on the plane.

Sydney…
Having found my Ipod managed to unlock itself and wear out the batteries somewhat, I’ve bought a battery pack in duty free. Tried connecting to the wireless network here, but of course I would have to pay, so I don’t think I’ll play that game. The United Airlines people are going frantic calling for a whole heap of passengers who haven’t turned up to board the flight to San Francisco. There’s been a constant stream of final boarding call announcements, followed by dire warnings that the aircraft will leave without them, and their bags are being unloaded as we speak. Then a call listing all of the passengers who still hadn’t turned up, repeated every minute with the number of names called dropping every time.

LA…
Get through passport control, clear customs, then jump on the plane.

Chicago…
Glowing yellow grids next to a dark lake. Hungry, and no wireless. Damnit. I think I’ll go find food.

Washington…
Tired now. Arrived.

flying
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general

wooooo!

Apparently the tickets are organised, I’m leaving on Thursday morning – it was going to be Wednesday morning, but the email about it didn’t get to me, so I’ve asked for an extra day to get things sorted, particularly as today’s nearly over already. Excitement and joy, the waiting is over. Hoorah. Now I just have to sort out travel insurance, how I get a copy of my ticket, and that sort of thing. And pack. And work out the luggage allowance (do I take my skis? what climbing and hiking gear do I take? sleeping bag? tent?). And my brain is fizzing.

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rock

rock

Rock at Bundaleer, Grampians.

No climbing this weekend. Sitting and waiting for phone calls about plane tickets. And vicious rain and humidity that makes my skin crawl. And testing out the new fish and chip shop down the round (conclusion, a bit too pricy).

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the saga continues

So now I have the visa. And am attempting to organise tickets so I can now actually get to the US. But apparently that also, is not straightforward. The US university that is paying for the tickets wanted a faxed copy of my visa, so they could see that the expiry date was indeed May 19, not July sometime, which they seemed to assume it should be for some reason, and wouldn’t believe that the actual expiry was in May without a photocopy to prove it. So they have that now, and I’m waiting for further updates.

In slightly geekier news, I’ve been playing round with a slightly different layout. And becoming frustrated when the css is making things behave in a seemingly inexplicable fashion, that yet seems to sort of make sense, but still leave me with no idea how to fix it. And yes, my category links still aren’t working. As I have nothing else to do other than wait for a phone call about my plane tickets, I will probably be working on this for the rest of the day.

UPDATE – And I’ve just realised that the site is now very not working in IE. Is ok in Firefox though, comparatively. Agh.

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gecko

fat gecko

A fat and exotic looking gecko I spotted pathside while climbing in the Grampians. He sat long enough for a photo, then something in my precariously balanced pack fell to the ground, and he ran away. Not to be disloyal to my geckoes, but he did look very pretty.

Washington DC update – Still no word on plane tickets, so not sure when I’m going.
Weather update – Hot. My weather pixie has actually stripped down to a singlet. Jumping in a pool tonight.
Woody update – Construction hasn’t started yet.
Weird behaviour update – Saw a lady walking down Rathdown St in Carlton, wearing black one-piece swimmers and a bright pink towel. This was not an area where you’d usually see people walking around in bathing attire. It was not a particularly hot day. It was odd.