The Other Side of the World

So, it's settled. After all that talk about Australia, jwg and I are going to New Zealand for the first three weeks of March. I'm psyched. I've never been south of the Equator before.

Of course it's ironic that, after postponing this trip for a year or two so we could accumulate enough miles to fly business class, we're going coach and not using our miles. It seems that you have to plan a lot further in advance than we generally do to get any use out of miles for a trip like this. Well, we've learned our lesson, and meanwhile we'll be accumulating a lot more miles that we'll hopefully use to go to Australia (or somewhere) in the not-too-distant future.

We've just barely started anything like planning for what we're actually going to cover in three weeks, but it already looks like some of the tempting choices are going to have to be resisted if we don't want to spend every waking minute on the road. And considering how much smaller NZ is than Australia, I quail at the thought of how long a trip to Australia would have to be just to scratch the surface.

Any suggestions from people who have been to NZ as to things that we must not miss would be welcomed, and some of them might actually be followed.

Note to fj and pinkfish: in order to avoid getting up at the crack of dawn in Cambridge just in order to have an 8-hour layover at LAX, we're going to LA a day ahead, so we'll be there for approximately 24 hours starting around 8 PM on February 25; details to follow in email.

Winter cleaning (not whistling while not working)

What's today, Jan. 17? I guess it was about time we took the tree down, and tomorrow is trash day, so it was either going to be today or another week, and that's just too much.

jwg also decided today to wash all of our bedding -- not just sheets and pillowcases, but blankets, quilt cover, mattress cover, the works; and to vacuum the bedroom thoroughly. The end result of this, of course, will be less dust (at least that's the theory), but in the meantime a lot of dust got stirred up, and my allergies have been acting up more than usual.

Once the tree was out the door, much vacuuming was needed on the first and second floors; I offered to do the first floor (which is generally my territory), but he said, "No, don't, you've been so sneezy." Well, of course I don't want to be sneezy, and I'm happy not to vacuum, so I guess I'll just be dopey and sleepy instead. (Grumpy, of course, goes without saying.)