Archive for the 'holiday' Category

End of weekend

Published on 25 March 2008 in holiday and travel. 9 Comments

As predicted, I was sick over the Easter weekend. Didn’t (couldn’t) get out of bed until 2:30pm on Good Friday. Saturday was a blur. Easter Sunday - thank goodness for cold and flu tablets, they allowed me to enjoy nasi lemak at my mum’s. Monday, I felt somewhat better but still very tired, so had a long nap during the day (does a four hour nap still count as a nap?). Today I am feel better again but still have an annoying cough. It feels like I have a giant blob of phlegm lodged in my chest that presses up against bits it shouldn’t when I lie down, so I start coughing. (Sorry, too much information, I’m sure.) Today is a university holiday so I am sitting here listening to REM, having just eaten a holiday breakfast (two pieces of fruit toast slathered with organic butter). One good thing about being sick: Paco slept with me the whole time. There’s something very comforting about having a warm furry little creature pressed up against you when you’re feeling like death warmed up. Especially when the little furry creature makes little sighs and moans in his sleep, and occasionally opens his big brown eyes to make sure you’re okay. Anyway, I should be fine in time to go back to work tomorrow.

The weekend wasn’t a complete loss, however, because we now have a bit of itinerary for our European trip in July. We even booked some hotels.

Roughly:
Monday 30 June - Friday 5 July: England (I’m sure it’s very nerdish of me, but besides London, I really want to visit either Oxford or Cambridge. Haven’t decided which, yet.)
Saturday 6 July - Thursday 10 July: France (Paris, Nice)
Friday 11 July - Friday 18 July: Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen, plus the tiny town where M was born. Den Haag?)
Saturday 19 July - Saturday 26 July: Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt)

I’m particularly excited about the French leg of the trip, because a) it will be very very very cool to see Paris, and b) we have bought tickets to see REM! Their Accelerate Tour! In Nice! On 9 July! (All those exclamation marks? I am a Michael Stipe fanboi. From waaaaaaay back. Has an Australian Tour even been announced yet? No matter, I get to see them in France. WOOOOOOOT!)

Having said that, I am also quite nervous about going to La Belle France, because French is one language I have always had a mental block with. The only thing I can say in French, je ne parle pas Français (I don’t speak French), isn’t very helpful. (No, vouslez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir doesn’t count.)

I am really looking forward to this trip.

(Would it be very daggy to go and visit the set of The Bill?
It should be fun to ride a bike around Amsterdam.
The Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer) will be interesting to visit.
I wonder if I can find some of the places in Paris described in the Maigret novels…)

Long weekend

Published on 28 January 2007 in holiday. 2 Comments

Long weekends are good. Friday was the Australia Day public holiday. I have mixed feelings about patriotic public holidays. Actually, I have mixed feelings about patriotism (agree, Tom!). Too often patriotism seems to degenerate into mindless jingoism. And we usually only choose to celebrate, selectively, and not acknowledge the wrongs of the past.

I had a computer break and did not read email or blogs over the long weekend. Instead I began reacquainting myself with the works of Ian Rankin. I don’t really know why I stopped reading Ian Rankin’s works (yonks ago I started, and stopped, reading Dead Souls), but all I can say is, some authors are justifiably popular. I’m glad I how have his entire series of Inspector Rebus novels to go through. And now, along with Ystad, I’d love to visit Edinburgh.

When I wasn’t reading, I lolled about on the couch with Baubles the Cat and M. We watched the entire series one of Prison Break. A show that is as full of cliffhangers and almost unbelievable storyline as Prison Break is, is most enjoyable when you can watch one episode after another, sans ads.

It was far too hot to do anything else, anyway. I hope today is a little cooler, but for the last three days we have had something of a heatwave. It got to 41.2ºC (106.16ºF) on Friday, 40.6ºC (105.8ºF) on Saturday, and 41.5ºC (106.7ºF) on Sunday.

Another birthday party tonight, for one of M’s aunts. She’s getting a couple of Peter Temple books, in the recently released Jack Irish Quinella version. (I love the fact that the women on M’s side of the family are crime fiction fans - we get to share good reads.)

Hurray for holidays

Published on 27 December 2006 in holiday. 2 Comments

Christmas was fine, if a bit tiring. Lots of good food, and I enjoyed seeing everyone in the family.

To recover from it all, I’ve just had a very lazy couple of days, where the most strenuous thing I did was get myself together to go out for lunch. I’ve been having a break from the computer, lying around reading pulp fantasy (in the form of James Barclay’s Chronicles of the Raven series), napping, watching M play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and napping some more. My main chore today: making a salad for a barbecue this evening.

Hurray for holidays!

Right: Baubles the Cat, on her way to bed.