Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs

Tis the season for farewells and, apparently, of sudden changes in the weather.

Tomorrow sees the departure of another recently met but fondly to be remembered friend, Kerstin from Vienna. A gang of us went out on Friday night, and had a fika sarvo on a boat converted to a cafe down at the river.



Note the small iceberg drifting by in the background, with a look of confusion on its face, as it can barely believe the rate at which it's losing weight to the warm water around it. Also note that, although I'm wearing a jacket, that was simply because we were leaving and that was the most convenient way to carry it. As recent as Tuesday it was snowing, but since Thursday it's been sunny and 20 odd degrees, t-shirt weather through and through.

Saturday was a particularly fine day, and I spent most of it sitting on my balcony, cultivating vitamin D and reading the latest issue of Fathoms, which is a rip-snorter. Definitely gotta fit some diving into this summer's university-sponsored travels, the plans of which are gradually coming together, like a video of something falling apart being played in reverse. Perhaps a vase, I dunno.

Little known factoid: it's been two months since I took a plane flight, and It'll be another another two before I do again. Definitely a record, but all that's about to change: End of June I'll be in France (chiefly Normandy) with pez & Amy, back to Stockholm briefly, then we're in July and its direct to Kos (Greek Island) for a conference, and some diving, then ferry to Turkey, for around 10-12 days of sightseeing and a bit of diving.

At this point I'd like to pause to give extra special thanks to Jo S. - or perhaps to her employers for making her work so intolerably boring that she's opted to spend the last few days of it planning my travels for me, writing multi-page detailed and personalised itineraries of where to go and what to see in Turkey, and trawling the interweb for info about dive sites in the area. Thanks kiddo!

Anyway, after that its back to Sweden for August, Dickman and Anita visiting for a few days in the middle, and then I have a dilemma. In late August have papers at two conferences simultaneously, one in South Africa, and one in Lyon. Now, I want to go to the one in SA, mainly because it gets me there for free and I can go cage diving with great whites and go on safari and whatnot. But my boss thinks that the Lyon one might be more useful to attend. But I can go to France anytime, so I'm not really excited by that... so we'll see what happens.

Then, September, pending an unprecedented increase in Mandy's organisational skills, she and Dean will be coming up for a much-talked-about trip to Finland, St Petersberg and the Baltic.

I also have a paper at a conference in Singapore in October, which I don't really want to go to, so hopefully one of my co-authors (who are in Sydney) will. But if I am obliged to go, I may be able to duck back home for a bit, Sydney being as close as it is. Otherwise, I'm toying with the idea of spending Christmas in Australia this year, probably via Thailand and possibly Indonesia.

So now you know.