Charloween

As always, the ol' bank account is the big limiter. I mean, I want to go. ( warning: boring )

In the interests of being less boring: pictures from my cell phone!


( a signpost in an Icelandic bus stop )

( a dune on the Aberdeen sea shore )

( an Ontario Heritage sign in the middle of Warwickshire )

( a cat who would like me to stop taking her picture )

( a street in Warwick )

( a bit of Warwick castle )

( taken from the train as we passed through )

( Southampton )

( a view from the medieval city wall in Southampton )

( more of the same )

( the Southampton Maritime Museum )

( my latest half-knit Dalek )

( the lace scarf I'm working on )

Things went moderately-to-spectacularly wrong with the internet today (long story) but the good news is that I have the perfect excuse to Not Take Responsibility after what I did today to try and fix it.

Why? I'll be in Canada. Hah.

Take that, Virgin Broadband. (For the record: after I'm through with this current contract, it'll take a lot for me to stay with the company. While the people I've dealt with have all been really friendly, the quality of the connection itself is shockingly bad. It seems like every three days I've had to reset the router. Whatever.)

I need to print some things, so I'm kicking around campus and avoiding heading over to where the printers are (two whole buildings away, boo). As I may have explained before, since my PhD supervisor is off having a baby sometime this week, I get an interim supervisor until mine is back in May/June. So to facilitate this transition, I'm going to leave a stack of papers and then disappear for four weeks. Interim Supervisor is coming back from her own mat leave next week, but I'll already be home then.

I also need to print off my travel insurance and trip cancellation insurance details. As much as my soul needs a proper snowstorm, I'd rather that snowstorm not strand me in Paris. While on the one hand there's Paris, on the other I'd be stranded.

Speaking of being in-between places, in my room right now I have three suitcases. One is coming with me on Friday, but the other two are going into storage tomorrow morning at - drumroll please - my new house. All the rest of my things are in my office. ( No really: I've moved into my office )

When I get back from the holidays, I'll be living a few blocks south of where I am now: in between the river and the canal, rather than simply north of the river. While I'm posting slightly crappy pictures from my phone, here's the river in question (taken a few mornings ago):



So, tomorrow: big day. Get up, hide a shelving unit (long story), move a gigantic suitcase and a teeny suitcase across town via bus (there will be lots of stairs - am moving into attic space of a 4-storey building), gather final suitcase and drag it to campus, check in online for my flights, drag fellow students to a screening of Hard Core Logo (or I'll watch it myself, damnit!), catch a bus to the train station, walk to B&B, set alarm for 5:30am (to catch the train to the airport).

And somewhere in there I'll eat and magic the internet back (the former being more likely than the latter of course).

Friday looks more straightforward: walk, train, airplane, connect in Paris, land in Toronto, and meet my Mum at the airport. I'll probably bawl with relief after the last few weeks of stress and insanity, but it'll be a stoic and rational bawling. I promise.