A happy coincidence

[liv]

So I was at the station booking tickets to go to my not-so-little sister's birthday party next weekend. And I happened to glance at the next window and who should be there but AM! She being a good friend of mine from roleplaying, but she has been post-docing in Austria since October and I'd been too busy to keep in touch with her properly. Turns out she'd been in Dundee all week seeing RP friends, but since I've been such a hermit recently I'm rather out of the DURPS loop.

Anyway she had an hour to wait for a train, so we went out for tea and catchup. She was gratifyingly impressed and congratulatory about the famous submission, and told me about all the cool stuff she's been up to with RNA in Austria, and we're going to renew contact properly, and generally yay. She's very happy in Austria and her fiancé is apparently enjoying being a househusband.

I've arranged to have a solicitor (in Scotland there are no specialist estate agents, who would be called realtors in the US, but solicitors handle buying and selling houses) come and value my flat. So that's kind of scary because it means that the rest of my life is actually starting to happen. On the plus side, the solicitor nearly choked when I mentioned how much I paid for the place: I don't want to make rash promises, but there's a good chance you're going to get quite a lot more than that!

I have made preliminary enquiries about flights to the US for this summer. Looks like there's a realistically affordable way of doing it which involves flying into New York round about 25^th July and returning from San Francisco circa August 13^th. Depending on blackherring and rysmiel's plans I aim to have a few days to a week in Montreal in the middle of that.

pseudomonas in particular will be pleased to know that I do in fact fit the criteria for a student railcard, and I duly obtained one. Yay quasi-affordable rail travel for another year!

I have treated myself to a bunch of CDs, including Ladies of the Canyon which I'm playing now.

I have thoroughly cleaned my kitchen, which really horribly needed it after several weeks of neglect.

And I have done some actual lab work, which is a nice change after months of just writing up. Right now I have a PCR to attend to, so I'm off to deal with that.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Depending on blackherring and rysmiel's plans I aim to have a few days to a week in Montreal in the middle of that

Woohoo !!!

[darcydodo]

Yay, I knew there'd be a sensible sort of way to do that flight! :)

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Yay. I'm having interviews and things for the summer next week, so after that I'll be able to tell you what I'm doing in more detail.

[redbird]

Those travel plans sound like I might get to see you while you're in New York. *smile*

[liv]

I might get to see you while you're in New York
That would be really wonderful! May I also pick your brains about good ways of getting to Montreal from New York, please?