On my way home

I'm in Singapore and considerably less than half-way home. If I have to spend 3 hours in an airport in the middle of the night, Singapore makes the experience a lot less unpleasant than it might be. But still. I wish someone would hurry up and invent teleportation; this journey is ridiculously long and annoying, even considering how far I'm trying to travel.

Also, my period has chosen today to pounce on me, after lulling me into a false sense of security by leaving me alone for half a year (and without even being pregnant, yay). And I'm getting recurrences of those annoying "migraines" (or whatever they were) I was having back in the summer. I have no reason to think these two events are correlated, mind you.

All being well I'm expecting to be back in Cam at around tea-time today. Which will be over 36 hours after leaving Melbourne, not too impressive. I'm still appreciating the free internet, cos not being cut off for that time removes one of the worst aspects of travelling. Save me some snow and some tea, won't you?

Home safe and sound

I'm home. Absolutely nothing went wrong with the journey, it just took ages. And I've been fed and had tea and a nice bath (the Aussies are quite right in principle that water is scarce and should be used carefully, but it's still very pleasant to have a proper bath after three weeks of 4-minute showers). The parents are more interested in telling me about their trip to China and how exciting it was, than in interrogating me about why I didn't get the job, which is a good thing.

Aaaand now I'm going to bed. Back online properly tomorrow, though it'll likely take me a while to catch up with my backlog.

Book: Wives and Daughters

Author: Mrs Gaskell

Details: Originally published 1864-1866; Pub Wordsworth Editions Ltd 1999; ISBN 1-84022-416-9; Gutenberg text

Verdict: Wives and Daughters is a readable, engaging character piece.

Reasons for reading it: My mother has been raving about it for a while, and cheap paperback editions of thick nineteenth century novels are the best value for weight when travelling. It covered me quite nicely for the bits of the 36-hour trip from Oz when I wasn't asleep.

( detailed review )

Book: Longitude

Author: Dava Sobel

Details: (c) 1995 Dava Sobel; Pub 1998 Fourth Estate (film tie-in); ISBN 1-84115-317-6

Verdict: Longitude is extremely accessible science history.

Reasons for reading it: I finally managed to persuade lethargic_man to come to Greenwich and this led to getting excited about the subject matter.

How it came into my hands: lethargic_man lent it to me.

( detailed review )