Browse Tag

travel

The Year of Travel

Apr 03, 2010
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Kuniko heard at work yesterday that she will officially join the upcoming school trip to Vancouver. That is good news – she’s never been, and it will be nice to travel on the school’s dime. We had a feeling that she would be assigned to the trip, but it wasn’t official until yesterday. The trip is planned for sometime in May, and she’ll be gone for about 10 days. Should be lonely around here, though…

Combined with our other trips that will have us visiting five different countries this year. Quite a few for a couple of full time workers. It is a good thing we don’t have many houseplants – we’ll need to hire a friend or relative to take care of them while we’re away.

I Guess It’s Official

Mar 12, 2010
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So we pulled the trigger on tickets for the summer trip. After much deliberation we decided to pass over a trip to India and a trip to Egypt/Turkey and ended up deciding on a Germany/Belgium/Switzerland combo. August 7-22, escaping the heat of Japan for the Swiss Alps. We’ll spend most of the time in Germany and Switzerland, and I’m hoping to reserve tickets on the Glacier Express for a trip through the mountains.

I’m starting my German studies today, but compared to some of the other languages I’ve studied it should be quicker to pick up. I have plenty of time to work it out.

Today is Friday and after work we’ll be hosting some of Kuniko’s coworkers for a BBQ party. We’ll be grilling steaks and opening the red wine, thanks to our Costco run last weekend. The rain has stopped and it is supposed to be much warmer today, so I’m looking forward to getting behind the grill.

Hopefully I’ll be in decent enough condition this weekend to blog the aftermath…

New Contract

Mar 10, 2010
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Last night after work I had a meeting with some people from the staffing company, and we reviewed and signed a contract for the upcoming year. There were a few little surprises, but they were to my advantage, so no worries. The good news is that all my holidays for the next year are set, and they are paid holidays, which is even better.

Now I’m doing research on the summer trip, which will probably end up being a recurring theme on the blog over the next few months. I’ll post some details at the end of the week.

That’s it for today – short post. More later!

All Fired Up Temporarily

Mar 09, 2010
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This morning I was getting up and getting ready to make a long ranting post on the Academy Awards, awards shows in general, and the odd habit of many people to create dichotomies to save brainpower but who actually end up limiting themselves and their options. Then I decided that it sounded like a three hour effort to get it right, and I have only 20 minutes of writing time in the morning.

So I’ll put it on the back burner and maybe get to it later.

Today I have a meeting after my classes to finalize my contract for the upcoming year. Based on how that meeting goes, I should be able to solidify our travel plans for 2010. Yesterday I spent a little time thinking about plans, and it started very quickly to turn into a lot of time, so it is best to wait for the ink to dry on the contract before making big decisions.

Today it is cold and pouring rain outside – a combination that I am not a big fan of. It seemed like spring was arriving – I even saw some bugs flying around – but now it appears to be back to a cold wet winter. Blah.

Oh, and one last shout out to myself for cooking an awesome dinner last night. We had bought lots of interesting flavor packets/sauces/ingredients in Bangkok, and so I broke some out and combined with coconut milk made some killer green curry. Super spicy and tropical with chicken, green peppers and eggplant – so damn good. The best part is that we can easily get all the ingredients to make more, so I’m hoping to make Thai curry a more frequent part of our dinner plans.

That’s it – time to face the rainy walk to work!

Flying into London

Aug 04, 2000
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Flew in and spent 30 minutes in customs, then walked to the Heathrow underground station and took a long train ride to the transfer station – we jumped on a transfer train and stopped at our station – Marble Arch. We turned right as we left the station and found our hotel (The Cumberland) facing the Marble Arch. We dropped off our stuff and went exploring.

Walked past McDonald’s and KFC and found the “Marlborough Head” pub – probably a chain, thoug. Good “potato niblets” and even better Guinness… no local brews. We walked to Grosenver Square – a pro-American area dedicated to American war heroes. No pubs, so we walked on. Stopped at the “Shepherd’s Mow” and had some good (somewhat warm) beer and watched a cricket game on TV. We headed to Picadilly Circus and saw the sights – stopped at a bar, too.

There really is a language barrier – we’ve had trouble being understood by the locals – they seem slightly amused. I’m worried if we’re having trouble communicating in London – I wonder if we’ll have more trouble in the countryside. We had a great Italian meal at “The Spaghetti House” and headed back to crash at the hotel.