Meandering around the world

...again! What can I say, London keeps me busy. Have been doing all sorts of assorted stuff, between SCA, modern target archery, and Scottish country dancing...probably too much to try and cover all at once - I may try and undo the slack and go back over it, when I have found that mythical beast known as spare time!

The big news in the meantime is that I'm going to be moving out of London soon. My current job at imperial College finishes at the end of the month! I will be heading back to New Zealand for most of December and early January - will be in Auckland the 9th to 12th and again (but mostly busy) the 28th to 6th. I will be in Dunedin, or nearby the 13th to 27th or so. Anyone wanting to try and catch up, do drinks, etc etc within those time periods, let me know. I'll try and fit things in, but am on a limited time visit and have a lot of stuff to do as it stands! After that I'm back in London only a few days, and am attending the local SCA Coronation (managed to get the last bunk...) and then am moving up to St Andrews, in Scotland (yes that St Andrews) to start a new postdoc there on the 18th January.

So I'm going to be up in Scotland, probably for the next year, and possibly another two years beyond that, depending on how things go. Other than that, life continues to go along reasonably.

So, hopefully more frequent posts over the next while, but I'm not promising anything.

I've just be really slack about posting anything!

So, time for the Very Rapid Update on My Year Thus Far(TM). This is primarily for the benefit of those who have been wondering if I hadn't managed to fall into a black hole and pull the door shut behind me.

Work has been a lot better than last year - a much more interesting (and organised!) project, and a boss who is not a ridiculous pedant about meetings, and reports, and... Also I have had the opportunity to go on a trip to two conferences, in Korea and Japan, and will be going to another in October in Germany. The Korea/Japan trip wasn't so much on my area of interest, but I'd contributed a bit and the boss wanted the work presented, so I was it.

Have actually had the chance to get back into Scottish Country Dancing, after having to take last year off due to there being no groups within reach that I could ever find. This has been Very Good - I'm getting properly back into practise and having a lot of fun. Am also dancing for the London Branch of RSCDS Demonstration Team, which has been good fun, although a lot of work. Very useful though, as its helping me to work on bad habits! Made it to one week of Summer School at St Andrews, which was great. Caught up with various people I knew either from other events I've been to, or from them visiting NZ, and had things I need to do (or at least ought to do if I can!) pointed out. Lots of fun, socialising and dancing - good all around.

On the SCA front, I've been getting to various local events and doing stuff there. Haven't as yet had a chance to do any archery since I've been here - although this may change soonish - but have had a chance to get back into heavy combat and done a bit of rapier too. In both cases, am starting to get my own gear together, which will be useful as it means loaner kit is there for other people to use, and stuff tends to fit better! Couple of big events locally(ish in one case) coming up soon - the Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium is on the first weekend in September here in London, and there's also an event at Raglan Castle near the Welsh border.

Furthermore nicolaj is going to be coming out for a visit for pretty much all of September! Assorted plans have been developed for this - we will be going to the event at Raglan, going to see Phantom of the Opera, an unfortunately brief trip to Granada in Spain (get to see the Alhambra...), assorted museum visits, Scottish Country dancing and all sorts of other stuff.

Of course, this does mean that I need to get myself organised for all this stuff...I probably ought to make some sort of list of Stuff That Needs Doing, or suchlike...it'll happen eventually, no doubt!

Right, before I forget, so that I don't have a huge number of photos linked here, if you want photos of what I've been doing, where I've been going, etc, you should head over to my Facebook where I've been keeping most things. If you happen not to be on Facebook and can't be bothered joining, let me know what you want to see and I can provide specific links that should work for anyone.

There should be more up here, hopefully on a more regular/semi-regular basis...who knows , I might even provide more specific details of things!

With a little spare time, I've finally got around to uploading a few more photos that I took last year. These are on my facebook (friend me if you feel like, and haven't already), and are of stuff associated with football (American, of course) and the chaos which is a football Gameday at UA (available here), and also a few photos that I got around to taking on my trip out to Portland, OR to visit some of my Dad's family (available here).

Hi everyone.

In the hope of helping to pass this news on (despite it nearly being too late!), I'm posting it here - if you get it in multiple venues, feel free to ignore one or other of them!

My job here in Tuscaloosa finishes mid December (less than three weeks now...) and I have a new postdoc starting at Imperial College London on the 2nd of January! As such I'm going to be flying out on December 16th, arriving in London the next day. I have accommodation sorted out for the first week, but will need to try and find something more long term once I arrive - I had enough of the hassles involved in that coming here! So if anyone now living in London, or having lived there has any suggestions/thoughts/hints/etc then I'll certainly listen to them!

I'll try and pass on more info when, as or if I have it...in the meantime, I'm stressing about finding someone to sublease my apartment....fun...

98%ALCOHOLIC

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in longer than I should, but there will be more to come shortly.

Yeah, I know, I've been really slack about updating. I mean, its only been what, 3 months since I last posted... I'm going to blame it on the weather. When the temperature outside runs up to 35 C on a not-very-hot day, gets "down" to 20 C or so at night, and humidity runs probably 60%+ most days...it just doesn't leave me feeling much like posting. Luckily my apartment does have air conditioning, however it was built in the 60s or 70s, is concrete block, and I'm on the second floor (of two) and face north...so the place gets...just a tad warm during the day!

Still, stuff I've been doing: work, work, more work, still more work, work that my boss said he'd do and has turned over to me because he can't be bothered doing this himself...repeat this ad nauseam. Some of the work isn't bad, but all the random little bits that have nothing AT ALL to do with anything I did during my PhD are irritating. Especially when its something the boss has said (airily) that he (meaning someone who works for him) can do.

Other than work I have been hanging around with two main groups of people, some of the guys from work and some of the local SCA group. Assorted socialising has happened - parties in the group for various reasons: birthdays, baby showers, graduations, people arriving, people leaving. Stuff with the SCA peoples hasn't been limited to SCA stuff, we've been to a couple of movies - Pirates 3, and also Fantastic 4 #2, and had a couple of casual pot-luck type meals.

Regarding SCA-related things the nearest groups other than us are probably an hour's drive away, so I haven't got around to doing anything more than day trips to a few events. I've been to three events so far, two of them being the most recent Crown Tourney and the Kingdom of Meridies A&S "competition". There's also another group's event this weekend, and some of us are day-tripping up. The feast should be good... Locally we have occasional A&S classes, and a few weekends back we ran a mini-event where we hosted a combined fighter practise for anyone who wanted to turn up, after which we fed them. This wasn't solely heavy, there was a bit of archery, where I found out I hadn't completely lost my touch, and rapier which I got to try. I likes rapier!

Well, there's no doubt other things I've forgotten, but if anyone wants to know about anything specific, or has questions, just ask.

And organisation continues. Who knows, I might actually be organised enough to get some work done in the lad this week!

Just put a few more photos up on my photo-site, including a view of one of the magnolias in the courtyard of my apartment complex that can be compared to the one I took after arriving - about a month ago, now. The weather over the past few days has been nice, temperatures getting up to 25+ C (mid 80s F - I think!). Luckily for me, the humidity has been pretty low so far - I haven't needed to turn the A/C on yet, although given that the temperatures are meant to stay around what they have been the rest of this week, I'll possibly have to start using the fans!

On the organisation front I have finally managed to get onto the university system, so I have an ID, and have also got a bank account. It just doesn't have much money in it! Although hopefully I'll be able to sort out a wire transfer of some of my money from home...although it looks at the moment like the banks may be thinking about different sorts of wire transfers when they talk about them...oh, well, such is life!

...how do I hate thee...

The bloody bank is being annoying. I can understand requiring two forms of ID to open an account (as well as a Social Security Number, or course), but why, oh why, won't you accept out of state (never mind foreign) IDs? I've got more than two perfectly legitimate forms of ID, the problem is that only one of the is acceptable, and that's my US passport. They won't accept a New Zealand passport, they won't accept a NZ driver's license, nothing. So I've got to wait on opening a bank account until I have my University Staff ID, which is, apparently, just fine, despite not being state, or federally issued...

_sigh_

Bureaucracy is being overcome! I am closer to getting organised! In fact, I have finally been sent a Social Security card, so now if/when I have to sign up for things I can actually give an SSN rather than having to say that I've applied for one and am waiting to hear back. Still haven't been able to get a US bank account because the on-campus bank wanted a University ID, which (as far as I know) I won't get until after the New Employee Orientation I'm meant to be attending on the 19th and 20th of this month. I plan on having a quick check in with the bank before then, since I may not need the ID now that I've got the SSN.

At least of the weather-related sort!

Our weather yesterday was...interesting! As far as I understand things now, we had a tornado watch all day yesterday, which simply means that weather conditions are such that tornadoes could in theory form - generally happens associated with thunderstorms. If the weather people see signs in their weather radad that tornadoes are actually forming - particular rotation conditions in the thunderclouds - or if a tornado has come down, they will issue a warning, generally for complete counties.

Yesterday we had a watch, from early morning scheduled to end at 6pm, and during the mid afternoon weather was such that there were a series of warnings issued, and the University theoretically shut at 2.30pm. Of course I didn't know about this since I don't have university email yet, and didn't check the university homepage! Tuscaloosa didn't get any tornadoes, just generally stormy weather, but there was at least one town in the southern part of the state, Enterprise, where a high school got hit.

So, survived my first potential tornado...

Another brief update from Tuscaloosa.

I'm gradually settling in, all my luggage has arrived, and I've (in theory) started at work. However, most things are still up in the air, as paperwork has to be processed before further things can happen. For instance, before I can get a bank account, I need an Action Card (think Staff ID), which won't happen until my paperwork gets processed. So in the meantime, I'm left dealing with things just using my Visa and having to deal with the bank fees for overseas transactions.

In the meantime, I've taken a few photos.

( Photos behind cut )

Just a breif post to let people know I´ve arrived in Tuscaloosa. Am getting my apartment sorted out, and should have that done by tomorrow. Hopefully I can find someone to drive me to a shop where I can buy useful things like bedding for tonight...ditto food and something to cook it in!

Flights over weren´t too bad, with the exception of me arriving here a day late because (despite having a boarding pass) being told that I wasn´t checked in for my final flight... Luckily they put me up in a hotel overnight, although one of my bags still hasn´t yet managed to catch up with me. Hopefully this will be sorted out soon...

I´ll be trying to get interweb sorted out at the apartment soon, and when I´ve done that will get Skype sorted.

More when I feel more coherent!

A new title for my journal, since tomorrow evening I disappear to the Southern US (cue background banjo music...). Bonus points are available, and possibly even a genuine no-prize, for anyone other than tarheel who gets the extra pun in the title.

On recent-stuff related notes, I've been staying at nicolaj's parents' place for the past couple of days. got out to the Devonport food and wine festival yesterday which was pretty good, but could have been better if they'd generally gone for smaller potions of food and had tastes of wine available, rather than half glasses!

My disappearance is set for tomorrow night, and I have no idea when I'll next be posting. This will be dependent on (among other things) getting a phone line and interweb sorted out in my apartment...

Until then.

An information update concerning my "I am disappearing overseas" drinkies. As previously mentioned, its on tonight at Copa. I will probably be arriving sometime after 8.30, so show up any time around then.

Given that I'm disappearing US-ward in just over a week, I have realised that I have a Dick Smith Surround Sound home theatre setup that I'm not going to be needing. This is a 5.1 channel surround sound system, with pretty small satellite speakers and a larger sub. If anyone is interested, let me know, ditto if you want more details.

In addition I'm going to be having a going-away drinkies. Currently looking at Copa, probably Thursday next (15th) and with a likely lateish start. I'll try and sort out details soon...

Finally, I have found a job! It is going to be at the university of Alabama in Tuscaloosa which means south-eastern US for those that don't know. One of the problems is that I'm wanted to start ASAP, which means hideously expensive airfares. So I've now got to get airfares and transport of my Stuff sorted so that I can leave around the 16th of February. Then when I get there I've got fun things like sorting out accommodation and (oh joy!) a Social Security Number. Meh. I've had a quick look on the web for accommodation, just to give me an idea of pricing, and it doesn't seem too bad - $300-$400 US per month for a one room place.

I really need to see what sort of weather they expect...given that its closish to the gulf coast I'm expecting hot and humid in summer...mental note - get a place with A/C!

...merry Christmas (or similar holiday) and a happy new beer!

And anyone who doesn't want beer can feel free to get their own beverage.

more random stuffs:

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You're a tank on springs! Why, God, why? There's no good reason for that!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Totality You scored higher than 99% on Awesomeness You scored higher than 99% on Randomness You scored higher than 99% on Conceptitude

Link: The Totally Awesome Random Concept Test written by FullMetalPhoto on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test