Less than a month to go!

[skyring]

We fly out on the 23rd. In hindsight, it would have been cheaper and more convenient to just drive up to Sydney and catch our booked flight, and then the kids could have driven it back after four nights in the longstay. As it is, they'll get off the plane back from Hong Kong and hire a car to drive home to Canberra. Flights are cheap enough, but their flight arrives in the evening and the last plane to Canberra would have left by the time they cleared customs and made the transfer over to Domestic.

Anyway, it's all getting very close and I still have to tidy up a few loose ends, select books to take with me, sort out our affairs for two months away, hunt up all the adaptors and things from last time I travelled...

All very exciting, but those four weeks are just going to fly by, I can tell, what with me having only a few hours free each day.

I'm also trying to lose a bit of weight before the trip. My strategy of having only two meals per day doesn't seem to have worked. I think it's exercise and more exercise that will do the trick. I get very little chance to raise a sweat in a typical day, and helping little old ladies with their groceries just isn't cutting it.

Comments

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

Woah! I didn't realise it would be a 2 months trip!

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Well, it's thirty nights cruising from Hong Kong to Southampton, and then two weeks or so, mostly in France, before the convention.

But I get to see you at the end of it, and you'll get to meet Kerri.

I am looking forward to it all immensely!

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

I see. There is a boat trip involved, too. That explains a lot.
I'm looking forward to meeting Kerri, too. :-)

Will ye do something for me?

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Now that I think on it, I know you have a stirring fondness for Jane Austen. Perhaps you would do me the very great honour of picking up a copy of Patrick O'Brian's "Post Captain" and reading at least a few pages.

I have found a great joy in reading O'Brian's stirring sea tales, mostly because of the quality of his writing, the depth of his research and the way in which he revels in the richness of character and relationships. The twenty book series is a tribute to friendship.

I fancy that you would find the series amiable, as has our mutual shipmate GirlFromIpanema.

Re: Will ye do something for me?

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! Once I've reduced Mt tbr a bit more, I'll have a look for his books. Sounds interesting. Is it a series with the same character or can they be read independently?

Re: Will ye do something for me?

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Each book may be read independently, but as many characters carry over from book to book, especially the main two, it's best to read them in succession.

However, the attraction for you would be the similarities in style, sublety and period to Jane Austen, who, as you will recall, had relatives in the Navy.

Re: Will ye do something for me?

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll keep that in mind. :-)

Re: Will ye do something for me?

[thebiblioholic.livejournal.com]

Isn't "Master and Commander" the first volume?

Re: Will ye do something for me?

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Yes, but Post Captain is the most Austen-tatious.

[miketroll.livejournal.com]

I'm also trying to lose a bit of weight before the trip. My strategy of having only two meals per day doesn't seem to have worked.

Straight dieting rarely does work - adding exercise is the right approach! At present I'm struggling with the opposite problem of losing weight through exercise and not eating enough to compensate!

Patrick O'Brian: Post Captain is the second book in the Aubrey-Maturin series. While they can be read separately, I think it helps to start with Master and Commander.

[islandmomma.livejournal.com]

OK...now it's my turn to say "I hate you" :=))

[letterbthe.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Sarv'amton...me ol' home town. Give it a wave for me, will ya?

[islandmomma.livejournal.com]

I am a violent shade of green. Not least because I have to go back to my lousy job tomorrow. I will try to remember you when I am at work. Not that you are going on a dream vacation, but that you deserve it because you have such a positive attitude to work. I am going to write myself a little mantra "Be more like Pete. Be more like Pete."

[skyring.livejournal.com]

In thirty years of work after university, I've had some good jobs. But this is the only one I really like.