Summer is over. The temperature is dropping and I'm sad to think that many months of cold weather is looming. Bostonians live by seasons and all in all, it was a pretty crappy summer weatherwise. I am super tanned though, as I tried to take advantage of every nice day by being outside, whether it be sitting along the Charles River watching sailboats, joggers and amazing eye-candy stroll by while catching up on the phone with dear Fariyal in Chicago, or by spending a very pleasant day canoeing with the lab in Ipswich.
I'm really going to miss Boston. There was a free concert by a Boston orchestra at the Hatchshell along the river the other evening. Sitting/lying down in the open air, with Sven and Sue for company, enjoying Mozart's Symphony No. 41 was so relaxing and fun.
It's the season for getting married it seems. Three friends of mine have tied the knot the past week, congratulations to them all, especially Aussie-mate Nick. I was sad to miss it, but from all accounts a great time was had by all.
My other news is that Emre and I visited Washington DC the other weekend. DC is a very nice city, lots to see and do (all the Smithsonian Museums, and monuments, White House etc.), it was super hot and gorgeously sunny throughout. Highlights were seeing the Lincoln memorial by night and the random stroll along the river to get there from the very pretty suburb of Georgetown, our very cheap but swanky hotel room at the Renaissance, and seeing the Apollo 11 return module and associated miscellaneous moon stuff -- the silver case that carried the moon rocks back for example. Also the giant squid on display in the Natural History Museum was funky.
Overall I'm in a good mood here.
29 August 2009
30 July 2009
G & T
I'm sipping a lovely Gin and Tonic after a rewarding day at work. The sun set four hours ago but it's still hot enough to make you sweat. I saw a ridiculous number of uber hot dudes on my way home earlier, so all in all, a good day :-). I'm definitely going to miss Boston.
7 July 2009
Moisture
It's been raining on and off (mostly on) for the better part of four weeks. After 6 months of winter/cold, summer is the only saving grace for Boston weather, so having continuously rainy, overcast, dreary and generally depressing weather during our supposed summer months really sucks. Boston summers are usually very hot and humid, but with superb clear blue skies. Not this year though. This is the worst summer Boston has ever had according to a local Bostonian work colleague. In my three years here, I wholeheartedly agree. I'm currently generally grumpy, depressed and pissed off. This summer sucks.
13 June 2009
Ben's random diary of recentish events.
Wow, it's been a while since I last updated here. Needless to say oodles of things have happened in the interim; so much that I'll just write what pops into my head instead of crafting a structured entry.
- trip to Sydney on my 2 year expat anniversary. Seeing everyone again, being babysat by various friends during my week of couch surfing, dinner and marvelous views at Ripple's, hanging out at Darling Harbour, celebrating Nathan's 30th with everyone, the list goes on....
- having a pleasant dinner cruise with the family on the Harbour for Brother's birthday. Fantastic weather, standing on the top deck soaking in the sun setting behind the Bridge and Opera House. Two brothers hanging out again, smiling, and enjoying the moment. No stress.
- getting my Maton tuned up and belting out a few tunes on a beautiful guitar.
- returning to Boston to find Emre at the airport for a surprise welcome home, plus entering my apartment and finding fresh fruit, yogurt, bread and other goodies in the kitchen courtesy of Sue and Till. They definitely spoil me. Also discovering that Till's brother and girlfriend, who I let stay in my apartment while they were visiting during my absence, had bought Fetch a new, large aquarium to lounge around in as thanks for my hospitality. Sven calling to welcome me back and letting me know how much he had missed me.
I had left home, flown to the opposite side of the globe and arrived home again.
Awesome.
- Had a really relaxed and super enjoyable time a few weekends ago that for some reason sticks in my head although nothing extraordinary happened. Ran 5km along the river in gorgeous weather and people watched afterwards; played guitar; cooked a killer spag bol; and generally enjoyed being in a good mood.
- I saw my future husband the other day, well dream-husband anyway. Light brown hair, sunglasses, green shirt and white shorts on a drool worthy body. Hot.
- Ash and GK swinging by Boston on their US trip. We drank, ate and were merry. Brief, but fantastic. Glad I could share a slice of my Boston-life with them.
- Seeing Gomez play. Wow, are those guys talented. Vocals were outstanding, guitar work was impressive and a very good vibe in a pleasant venue.
- learning to sing and play guitar at the same time with some success but still a lot of work to go. Trying to nail "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Greenday. Thanks Nathan for getting me started on this!
- meeting Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of Tool, the other week at a wine signing. Not only do I have a couple of bottles of plonk with MJK's autograph, but I got a "thanks man" from MJK himself. Sweet!
- The big decision to end my postdocing and potentially leaving science next year. Yep, it's homeward bound for me in March. Bloody scary but super exciting. Kinda like going skydiving I imagine, except unlike the certainty of gravity, I have no idea where I'll land.
- Michael Jackson died today. He was an incredibly messed up man but produced some incredible music, and who can forget the moonwalk. Sad.
- Had fun at a lab party the other weekend that was held at a colleagues (Tom) place. He lives in the sticks in a house his grandfather built. It's more of a small farm really, with fields and tractors and sheds full of plows, bansaws and other manly equipment. Played ping pong against the boss, pitched for our team in Whiffle ball (baseball but with a plasticky ball) and belted a few around the ground, had a few hits at badminton and sunk a few beers in between glasses of Tom's Twisted Tea (tea with vodka and a few secret ingredients). There were quite a few kids running around playing games with the grown ups, which made me think a bit about whether I'll end up having kids or not -- I'd like to but the odds are stacked against me. Maybe I'll have to make do with getting a pet dog or something in the future.
- watching the new Doctor Who series over Netflix. Bloody entertaining, hilarious and jolly good fun all around. Highly recommended.
- someone's yelling in the street. No words. Just a primal bellow every now and again. Sounds like someone's a tad frustrated or angry, wonder what happened...
- trip to Sydney on my 2 year expat anniversary. Seeing everyone again, being babysat by various friends during my week of couch surfing, dinner and marvelous views at Ripple's, hanging out at Darling Harbour, celebrating Nathan's 30th with everyone, the list goes on....
- having a pleasant dinner cruise with the family on the Harbour for Brother's birthday. Fantastic weather, standing on the top deck soaking in the sun setting behind the Bridge and Opera House. Two brothers hanging out again, smiling, and enjoying the moment. No stress.
- getting my Maton tuned up and belting out a few tunes on a beautiful guitar.
- returning to Boston to find Emre at the airport for a surprise welcome home, plus entering my apartment and finding fresh fruit, yogurt, bread and other goodies in the kitchen courtesy of Sue and Till. They definitely spoil me. Also discovering that Till's brother and girlfriend, who I let stay in my apartment while they were visiting during my absence, had bought Fetch a new, large aquarium to lounge around in as thanks for my hospitality. Sven calling to welcome me back and letting me know how much he had missed me.
I had left home, flown to the opposite side of the globe and arrived home again.
Awesome.
- Had a really relaxed and super enjoyable time a few weekends ago that for some reason sticks in my head although nothing extraordinary happened. Ran 5km along the river in gorgeous weather and people watched afterwards; played guitar; cooked a killer spag bol; and generally enjoyed being in a good mood.
- I saw my future husband the other day, well dream-husband anyway. Light brown hair, sunglasses, green shirt and white shorts on a drool worthy body. Hot.
- Ash and GK swinging by Boston on their US trip. We drank, ate and were merry. Brief, but fantastic. Glad I could share a slice of my Boston-life with them.
- Seeing Gomez play. Wow, are those guys talented. Vocals were outstanding, guitar work was impressive and a very good vibe in a pleasant venue.
- learning to sing and play guitar at the same time with some success but still a lot of work to go. Trying to nail "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Greenday. Thanks Nathan for getting me started on this!
- meeting Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of Tool, the other week at a wine signing. Not only do I have a couple of bottles of plonk with MJK's autograph, but I got a "thanks man" from MJK himself. Sweet!
- The big decision to end my postdocing and potentially leaving science next year. Yep, it's homeward bound for me in March. Bloody scary but super exciting. Kinda like going skydiving I imagine, except unlike the certainty of gravity, I have no idea where I'll land.
- Michael Jackson died today. He was an incredibly messed up man but produced some incredible music, and who can forget the moonwalk. Sad.
- Had fun at a lab party the other weekend that was held at a colleagues (Tom) place. He lives in the sticks in a house his grandfather built. It's more of a small farm really, with fields and tractors and sheds full of plows, bansaws and other manly equipment. Played ping pong against the boss, pitched for our team in Whiffle ball (baseball but with a plasticky ball) and belted a few around the ground, had a few hits at badminton and sunk a few beers in between glasses of Tom's Twisted Tea (tea with vodka and a few secret ingredients). There were quite a few kids running around playing games with the grown ups, which made me think a bit about whether I'll end up having kids or not -- I'd like to but the odds are stacked against me. Maybe I'll have to make do with getting a pet dog or something in the future.
- watching the new Doctor Who series over Netflix. Bloody entertaining, hilarious and jolly good fun all around. Highly recommended.
- someone's yelling in the street. No words. Just a primal bellow every now and again. Sounds like someone's a tad frustrated or angry, wonder what happened...
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