|
|
Paper Anniversary, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird. |
Getting ready to go out to celebrate our first anniversary. Damn, we look dashing.
(Not shown: New Zealand tummies from eating large amounts of New Zealand lamb and snapper and beef and bacon and venison and sheep cheese and mushrooms and apricots and meat pies and avocados and fish & chips and lamingtons and also large quantities of New Zealand wine and beer and flat whites.)
|
|
Webstock 2012, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird. |
Attended Webstock last week. While geared toward web developers, most of the talks were actually at a very high level — lots of emphasis on how generally to think about tech and design. More relevant to my work that I might have expected, and actually pretty motivational. Inspirational, even. (Though if I’d had to hear one more time about how gosh darned special it was to be a geek and how that affected everything I thought, said and did, I would have bitten the head off a chicken.)
Also, short shameful confession: during the conference, I stood next to Matthew “The Oatmeal” Inman in line for coffee. I tried to think of something to say other than “I luvz your work, dude!” Turns out I couldn’t, and I was secretly relieved when he got his coffee and left.
|
|
My 2011, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird. |
2011 was a pretty big year for me, and what better time for reflection than hung over and hunched over my laptop after a boozy New Year’s Eve at home?
Click here for full-size image.
|
|
Queensland, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird. |
Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks here in Aus. Upon our arrival, we got the paperwork and Janelle’s passport together and sent it all to Sydney for her Permanent Resident visa. The process takes a while, so we spent the time sorting through and packing Janelle’s stuff, visiting with friends and family and exploring Queensland a bit. We took the train to Brisbane and then went 1200km up the coast to the Whitsundays region to see the crocodiles and white sand beaches and snorkel on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, it’s the middle of winter here, so it’s been a lot more wind, rain, jeans and hoodies than swimwear and sunburns. The snorkeling was downright hypothermic, to be honest.
Then, on July 1—Canada Day—it arrived! Jan can now enter the country as an immigrant! We immediately started scouring the Internet for tickets to Vancouver, and managed to get a flight back for Friday. (And then maybe, finally, I’ll sort through the several hundred photographs I’ve taken. So you have that to look forward to.)
Anyway, it’s been an exciting, busy and sometimes very trying time. While we’re thrilled to begin our life together in Van, if I were more into purple prose I’d say these days are also tinged with melancholy. Preparing to pack up and leave your old life behind is no easy thing, even in the age of Skype and relatively affordable trans-Pacific flights. And once we get to Van, we will need to find a new place to live and set up a home together, which will be an adventure in itself, though probably a less blogworthy one. But yeah! We’re going home.
I’m already secretly planning our next trip to Asia.
|
|
Chinese Visa, originally uploaded by Mister Wind-Up Bird. |
In a few hours, we will be departing Bangkok for Australia, arriving four months to the day from our wedding. Our Chinese visas remain unstamped in our passports. Nepal and India remain unvisited. But as the cliche goes, they’ll still be there for our next trip.
Our journey across Asia started as a bit of a passport-stamp collecting exercise. As a kid, I stared at maps and atlases imagining what was there. Years before starting this trip, I got a poster-sized map of Asia and told myself that after I finished the PhD, I’d go see it all, even if I had to go it alone.
Then some things happened. I didn’t have to go it alone. Instead, I got married, to a supercool chick who was not only willing to follow me far outside her comfort zone, but who was nearly as excited about it all as I was. The post-PhD trip turned into a combined post-PhD trip and honeymoon as we travelled through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma and Laos. Traveling together has taught us a lot about each other and provided plenty of bonding experiences. Not to mention anecdotes we can annoy our friends with by repeating ad nauseum for years to come.
So even though our Asian adventures ended a mere 40km from the Chinese border, and no, I didn’t get to try the Vang Vieng “space pizza”, ride an elephant or go trekking in the Himalayas, it’s hard to be too disappointed. What Janelle and I gained is on a whole other level from collecting photos and passport stamps, even if we will jump at the chance to show off our Republic of the Union of Myanmar visas.
And you know, we did get to see and do some pretty awesome shit.
(Anyway, I’ve got a journal full of notes and a couple of memory cards worth of photos to go through when we get to Aus/Canada, so rest assured, you haven’t heard the last of our trip just yet.)