Photos

Stuck on a train, 20 minutes from my destination. Some problem on the track. Whatever.

Featureless Altiplano expanse, Somewhere, Bolivia.

I have roughly 9000 photos from South America (not all mine, but some of me). I thought I should take out a hundred or so that I can show people, especially those in Aus. Problem is, I can’t remove very many… Almost all still remind me of something. Even if it is featureless expanse, it’s featureless expanse at 3000m, and I remember how it was hard to breathe. And do cartwheels on the road.

Warning: If you ask about the trip, be prepared for 30seconds * 9000photos ~ 75hours of listening to me talk about how great I am. I really have to make a smaller set…

exit, stage left

My mind is a horrible place to have to exist in (often, but especially after a night shift).

How do I get out of here?

Driving

Since it was legally allowed I’ve been driving, as almost all do in Australia. Of course through my twenties I was a great driver, and I can back that up by the lack of crashes and the fun times I’ve had in and around cars. Yes, you can get an early model Pajero airborne, and a Sigma going the wrong way around a roundabout, in reverse, will indeed make you feel sick from the car fumes. But only after about 10 laps of the roundabout.

But since I left Aus I have decided to try and do without a car. And that’s easy when you live in the middle of a city like Barcelona. In fact to have a car is slightly insane. To park is a nightmare, and getting anywhere in the city is much easier accomplished by foot/bike or public transport (I choose foot). Which means I don’t drive all that often. In fact in can be 6 weeks between driving. Which means…

I don’t quite know how to say this. I’m trained not to acknowledge this kind of thing publicly.

Imnotaverygooddriver

Ok, there, said it. Maybe it will come back with practice. Maybe I don’t want it to. I can ride the bike reasonably well. Perhaps I’ll just leave it at that. Watch out if you’re on the roads…

Nothing continues to happen

My ignorance of Wasp stings has been cured. For about 12 hours my head hurt like it’d been hit by a baseball (or bat), then a headache until about 24 hours, then it faded into nothing really. So that was good. I was expecting a reaction similar to the reaction to a bee sting. But it never came. Thank goodness. Maybe the European wasps in Aus are different to the wasps in Europe. Or the stories are to scare us. Maybe none of the fauna in Aus is actually that deadly, and it’s all a story. A theory to be tested at a later date. On someone else.

The guy who I saw in the first aid tent (at the Half marathon) when I was being treated apparently did not live (I don’t think I mentioned it). I count that as seriously unfair. Go for a run (ok, a long one), have a heart attack (assuming that it was a heart attack). Bit of bad luck.

Back in Barcelona. Disappointed that my work trip to Coruña got postponed (what, you didn’t know about that either?). Only because Jürg and Rahel have cycled past Coruña while I am sitting here (writing documents). Would have been great to see them in a semi-random place. Now I’ll have to hunt them down somewhere, possibly Switzerland. On other cyclists: Stefan and Sabine are cycling around somewhere in Africa. Didn’t invite me on that trip

Got a ticket to go ‘home’ (where-ever that is) to see friends and family in Oz for Christmas. No ticket back yet… Will have to fix that. The ticket that is, not having a home is the way it is

House-mate Kris is leaving, and replacing him is house-mate Carmen. Living in a student house is… different. An experience.

The weather is changing. It is no longer obviously summer. It is more comfortable to write program documentation in this weather. Which I should be doing now.

Australian English

Huh. Who knew we were worth that effort. Firefox comes with an Australian Language spell check. No excuse to spell ’strewth’ (bestrewed?) wrong now.

Actually there is, looks like some of the real occa (coca?) words got missed out.