For once in my life I haven't left it to the last minute to book travel, so I actually managed to get some properly cheap flights.

( itinerary for my reference and anyone nosy enough to care )

I was feeling guilty that getting into a long distance relationship has pretty much destroyed all my good resolutions about flying. But to be fair, I've only made one gratuitous trip so far that I should blame the relationship for, and even then it was combined with Screwy's birthday. I would have gone home for Pesach anyway, and I definitely wouldn't want to miss my cousins as it might be years before I see them again. I could possibly have thought of travelling overland to Holland, if I were being less parsimonious with holiday time, but you know.

Now I need to sort out the summer. It's possible that I might try to get to north America some time this summer, but I don't know. It's been far too long since I saw rysmiel and darcydodo and compilerbitch and there are lots of other cool people out there. I was hoping to use the excuse of a conference in Quebec, but I haven't heard any news of the conference actually happening. There's a page in Google's cache suggesting it might be the first week in June, but the domain doesn't resolve currently, and if the info in the cached page is correct it's probably too late to apply. Without the conference, well, it's a lot of time and money and travelling, and I can't really kid myself that the whole of North America is all one place.

I want to spend some time in England at some stage, probably arranged around shreena's wedding. I think both darcydodo and hatam_soferet are going to be around, so I should definitely see them. A couple of weeks in England isn't at all hard to arrange, but it's a case of how it fits in with everything else. The other plan is travelling in Sweden a bit, possibly with my parents joining me for some or all of that. Again, not hard to arrange, but taking holiday in several short discontinuous bits might not be the most productive from a work point of view.

*sigh* I hate geography and logistics is on its side. But the overall conclusion is getting to see my friends, which is yayful.

Between now and Monday night I have to:

go to morning minyan in a few minutes (which is why I'm up so few hours after getting to bed last night), in order to find people for this evening

go to work, finish writing my presentation ie make up a week's work in a day

help someone from the community sit shiva, fulfil the mourning requirements for her mother, which is the major spanner in the works that has turned my plan from a tight schedule into not really manageable chaos

pack and get things organized for trip to England, which is probably going to have to happen during time I should be asleep tonight, since I don't have any other options

get up after a few hours' kip on Friday and give a group meeting about why I don't have enough data

get myself to Cambridge, arriving about 1 am Friday night if all goes well

get up on Saturday in time to have breakfast and not get into trouble with the parents

go to shul

go to cartesiandaemon's and try to fit a whole romantic weekend into a couple of hours

attend various meet cartesiandaemon's friends social events Saturday afternoon and evening

get up far earlier than I would like to in the circumstances on Sunday, connect with parents and go to Brighton for Screwy's birthday

end up in the Pembury Sunday night and see lovely people

sleep for a few hours, then get a morning flight from Heathrow Monday morning

walk straight off the plane and into my bar mitzvah class Monday evening.

So I'm pretty much abandoning the chat to my friends part of my normal daily routine, sorry guys.

This morning, in a state between bleary daze and outright panic, I discover that LJ is no longer offering free accounts. It's bad when some wanky protest community gives you better information than the official news post. I need to think this over when I'm more with it, but this is probably the last straw that will drive me away from using LJ as the main place I hang out online. There aren't any good alternatives; I'm really hoping Scribblit actually launches rather than fizzling out.

This weekend is going to be crazy, and I don't think I've scheduled any time for sleep. But I hope to make it to the Pembury games evening on Sunday 16^th March, and it would be lovely to see anyone who can make it. And I'm bringing cartesiandaemon, in case you happen to be curious to meet him.

I was intending to spend today and tomorrow catching up properly with some blogging, but on reflection it's more exciting to extend my dashing round the country seeing interesting people. I got back to Cambridge yesterday afternoon, spent the evening catching up with the parents who were returning from their travels, and committed myself to going back to Brighton in about half an hour's time. Thanks for all the comments and emails, and I have at least glanced through the last few days of friends page. I love you all even though I'm giving priority to in person socializing just now.

May see some people at karen2205's party this weekend? And I may make it back to the Pembury (since last Sunday was so delightful!) again on Sunday.

Well. This trip has gone surprisingly smoothly! I am now back at my parents' place having achieved pretty much everything I planned up to this point. ( things I need to write about )
I am not going to catch up with nearly two weeks worth of LJ, so comment with anything you really need me to see. Email me or call me either on my mobile or at the parents' number, especially if you would like to meet up in the next couple of days. The plan is not too rigid for a few days, but probably I'll be in Cambridge tomorrow and some of Saturday, then in Brighton over the weekend, then back in London Sunday evening.

I'm planning to spend all of Sunday evening in the Pembury; the board games evening will be happening, and several cool people are going to be there. So do come along if you would like to see me and meet lots of lovely people.

After that I am going to be dashing around again for a bit, but only within England, so it's a bit less intense than it has been so far. Looking forward to seeing syllopsium and loreid.

I'm on my holidays, so if all goes to plan I'm probably somewhere in the Baltic or Northern Europe for the next couple of weeks. (Detailed itinerary in a Friends Only post.) I reach England late on 29^th August, and I should be a bit more contactable after that. Back in Sweden and fully online 11^th September.

I am taking my trusty (er, 10 years old) mobile with me. So probably the best way to get hold of me is texting +44 7803 000865. I might see email sporadically, or I might not, don't know. LJ comments ditto. I will try to be all 21^st century and update Twitter (or possibly even LJ if I can master the technology) with occasional text messages. But anyway, if you happen on this journal don't expect much interaction or new content for a few weeks.

The weather is just starting to feel autumnal, not a lot colder than it has been up to now, but enough that I'm not going to get away with travelling light with only summer clothes. Oh well.

Have fun and keep safe while I'm gone :-)

I have left it rather late to plan my amazing summer holiday. I hope it will still be amazing, after all this!

The story is this: I have a microscopy course from 13 August till 17 August, and will go on holiday as soon as the course finishes on Friday afternoon. I am going to ploni_bat_ploni's wedding on 28 August, and am committed to Amsterdam from Sunday evening 26 August to Wednesday morning 29 August. I have to be back in Stockholm for the Jewish New Year in the evening of Wednesday 12 September.

Now, my skeleton plan is to do some kind of triangular route between Stockholm, Amsterdam and South-East England. I want to take the leg between Stockholm and Amsterdam slowly and go overland or by sea, stopping off at interesting countries in between. Probably southern Sweden, Denmark, Germany and potentially Belgium, but another option is to go east across the Baltic and then a whistle-stop tour of the Baltic coast, Finland, Estonia or Latvia, Poland and then all the way through Germany. Probably the London – Amsterdam leg will also be overland or across the north sea, but I'll likely do that as one long trip and not bother stopping over in Belgium or France.

As well as touristing, I want to see as many friends as possible, hence the poll. I either fly straight to England and hang out there for a week or so before the wedding, then meander my way home slowly after the wedding (ie: Stockholm—London—Amsterdam—Stockholm via Northern Europe), or I meander from Stockholm to Amsterdam, come to England by rail with lethargic_man, have a week or ten days in England at the beginning of September, then fly back to Stockholm (Stockholm—northern Europe—Amsterdam—London—Stockholm). I'll pick based on which way gets me the most contact with people I want to see.

Other factors: I would like to see the sibs, who are NOLJ, but I will coordinate with them too. Conveniently, they are all in Brighton at the moment! If hatam_soferet is going to be in England at all this summer then time with her will be a priority, but I'm rather afraid she's not going to be certain of her movements soon enough for this to be easily plannable. lethargic_man and curious_reader are coming to the wedding with me, and obviously ploni_bat_ploni is the bride, so at least I know I'm not going to miss them. pseudomonas is going to be in North America the whole time, which is a pain but c'est la vie. There are a couple of people with whom I want to arrange meetings which might possibly be cast as dates depending how things go.

People are welcome to come and visit me in Sweden, especially if you come outside the dates when I'm planning to be away, but of course I can be flexible and do some day-trips around Sweden with visitors instead. megamole I am seeing tomorrow, and MF is here from 3 August to 10 August, so other visitors during that week would require a bit of coordinating and it probably helps if you know MF. (MF, by the way, is a Persegirl whom I keep finding and losing again, and now I've found her again via the wonderful Facebook, and I'm really looking forward to hanging out with her.)

The other thing is the end of September. darcydodo is going to be in England, though not for very long. Darcy, can you confirm the precise dates when you have them? I really want to see her, but it clashes horribly with the High Holy Days, and it may all turn out to be a disaster.

( poll with detailed logistics; skip if you're not in Europe ) Otherwise I've been slaying geography with telecommunications; had a great conversation with darcydodo yesterday evening, and she said wise things and was generally wonderful. And this morning I talked to MK by Skype. His career continues its stellar progress, Mrs K has now found a job, and they've just bought a house, congratulations to them. The Most Adorable Boy in the World was being shy and didn't want to tell me about his new Harry Potter book; just seeing my name on the screen probably doesn't give him enough cues to remember who I am. And pottering around on Facebook trying to find elegant ways to summarize the last couple of decades of my life for all the re-discovered old friends.

I'm just swallowing a last cup of tea before heading out to fly home for Passover and a few days' manic visiting lots of people. I should be contactable by email, though sporadically, from tomorrow morning. Phoning my parents may also be effective. I am not sure where my English mobile is; with luck, it is in my bedroom chez the parents, but I am not convinced of this. Don't call Monday evening or you will be unpopular.

I have done my Passover cleaning, though it took about twice as long as it should have. Hence, I didn't spend the time I was hoping to have spare catching up on LJ; I have the longest backlog of posts I can remember since I started blogging. Have been madly busy since about the 10^th of March. (I think I've had one or two full nights' sleep in that time, too.) And I owe the biggest mountain of email.

If all goes to plan I'll be home by about 2 am tonight. At least I'm tired enough that I'll probably spend most of the journey asleep.

Pembury Tuesday evening, if anyone wants to see me who hasn't made arrangements already.

Back in Stockholm Friday week, with doseybat.

I have way over-scheduled this week. Which is a great improvement on the bit where I was failing to do anything except stare into space for days on end, but the fact is that I don't appear to have enough time left for eating and sleeping between now and Sunday. I certainly don't have time for LJ, or writing non-urgent emails, or finalizing the logistics for my trip to England next week.

So, brief summary: Thursday - arrive late; Friday - Cam with parents, maybe seeing pseudomonas; Saturday - Cam with parents, probably shul, potentially seeing anyone who can be in Cambridge that afternoon; Sunday - Cam with parents, helping with Pesach preparations; Monday - Pesach; Tuesday - recovering from Pesach, potentially Pembury in the evening if people are likely to be there, and if that happens, Tuesday night chez doseybat; Wednesday - see ewtikins in Leytonstone in the morning, lunch with daneres in somewhere Londonish, chez lethargic_man in the afternoon, Wednesday night either chez lethargic_man or back in Cam depending; Thursday - Kew gardens with parents and doseybat, return to Sweden with Bat.

If you are mentioned in this post, or if you feel like seeing me in Cambridge over the weekend, please get in touch, but please also don't expect a reply before Sunday at the earliest.

Also, I'm slightly peeved because people keep piling responsibilities onto me, and then being extremely unhelpful about allowing me to carry out those responsibilities. Can't sort this out until I have time to go and talk things through calmly with the people who are thus annoying me, but the unhelpfulness is exacerbating the over-scheduling.

*flap flap flap*

Yesterday we spent with the brothers in Brighton, as planned. ( family news )

Today I joined the University Library as a temporary reader. It's a surprisingly non-scary and efficient procedure. Then I came home and found an email suggesting that progress is being made towards finding me somewhere to live in Sweden, at least short-term. I went to tell my mother about the development, as she likes to be involved in this sort of detail. And we ended up having a blazing row, the more frustrating because I had no idea what we were arguing about and when I tried to get Mum to explain she just cried and apologized for being stupid. Blah. I need to move out, though the prospect gets more scary as it gets more real.

Now my diary plans are firmed up a bit, let me talk about next week. I will have some free time in London on Sunday afternoon, Wednesday morning, and potentially any or all of: Saturday lunchtime, Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday evening. I will also be at Coffee in Borders on Tuesday evening. Does anyone want to meet up any of those times? Please tell neonchameleon if you want to come to Borders; he's the official organizer.

I am an idiot and have managed to leave my mobile phone chez pseudomonas. I am going to try to get it back but I'm not sure how easy this is going to be. So, people who were thinking of meeting up with me this week, especially lethargic_man, you might need to take note that there's a good chance I won't have my phone on me.

Though the occasion of my accidentally forgetting my phone was a very fun evening with pseudomonas, compilerbitch and doseybat. Most excellent conversation and it's really good to see such lovely people. *bounce*

Also, note the lovely icon that darcydodo made for me!

Today is the second day, with no weeks completed, of the Omer

So I'm trying to convince myself that I really am going to finish this PhD, which means acting as if there is a future after 9^th May. Since I don't have a job or any prospect of a job lined up, my plan is to take a mini-gap year to tour round at least the UK, and possibly some other places too, and see as many cool people as possible. Hence this poll so I can start thinking about my itinerary.

Don't feel obliged to take this poll at all, and if you do take it, there's no problem with whichever options you want to select. My flist is a real mix of everyone from my best friends to people I barely know, so I'm not expecting that everyone will be mad keen to see me or want to put themselves out to see me. Obviously there's no guarantee I'll be able to see everyone who says they want to see me, but I'm going to do my best within reasonable practical limits.

If you can come to Dundee you can definitely stay over; I have lots of spare beds. If you can come to Cambridge and my parents know you you can probably stay over, but that'll take a bit more negotiation. And the questions about whether you can put me up assume that I'm quite happy sleeping on a couch or the floor or whatever.

The timing is fairly vague at the moment, since this is a very preliminary stage of planning. It also depends on kind of unknown factors like whether I pass my viva, how quickly I can sell my flat, coordinating things with my parents, etc. If you have anything at all to say that isn't covered by the poll, use comments; that seems more useful than a free text poll question for this purpose. (And if you're not an LJ user, comments are your only option to answer this survey.)

( who wants to see me this summer )