Musings of a barefoot traveller

I never updated my blog about my Seattle trip did I? Hahaha!

So I find myself back in Seattle again, 10 1/2 years later. This time at least, I've decided that I can afford to take the bus now and then instead of walking all over bum-f***, and eat more than a loaf of sourdough and plain water (life as a sad and poor backpacking undergrad...unfortunately, not much has changed since then. Still staying in a hostel. So much for going back to school! Wails....). Happily though, I found a bakery in Pike's Place that sells day-old bread for $1, and the produce looks affordable, and tasty. I still like to walk though. I like to see the slow passage of the city as it passes under my feet, and hear the sounds of the hubbub as they pass. Took in some modern art at the Olympic Sculpture Park in the morning, and plunged into the heady mix that is Pike's Place Market. Even got to see some fish slinging. Took the streetcar (it's free) to the International District to check out the Japanese grocery/department store, which is very much like a Da...

Stomp was performing within driving distance, so A and I thought it might be a good idea to drive up to Raleigh to catch the show, and get a ride in the surrounding area pre-show. Sorta a belated V-day thingy, if you will. As he has already biked Crabtree and thought it to be okay, but not too great, we decided on Beaver Dam, which has trails of decent length, rated from beginner to intermediate. Plus it's free entry before March ($5/car otherwise). We were worried that it might rain all week, but Sunday dawned nice and sunny, cold (5-12 degC) but clear. The Outer and Inner Loops we did for a warm-up went rather smoothly, and my knee wasn't protesting too much from the strain I picked up a couple of weeks ago. A hearty lunch later, and we were raring to tackle the South Loop, all 7.3miles of it. Fell while trying to cross a log on an uphill which was off-camber, but just dusted off and rode on. Partway through the South Loop, we came across the entrance to the Drop Zone, which ...

So, first day of diving in the Bahamas. We didn't even reach Freeport yet when I realised I had left something pretty important behind. To Mumsy's credit I didn't flip out and have a total meltdown in the galley, not even a slight foaming at the mouth. Huh. Who knew I could be this calm about my f***-ups. Anyway, things to solve the problem are in progress, and I await the resolution to the whole matter in the meantime. Woke up to good weather, and splashed in around 2pm, back to the old place we got to know so well at 4am last year. Supposed to catch a whole bunch of fish to run tank feeding assays with, but I must say the overall haul of the day was pretty abysmal. As for me, I caught 1 fish in 2 dives. Ah, how I have fallen from the goby catching days of yore. Nothing to do but console ourselves that the fish were satiated by late afternoon and not interested in the food bait. Will try again tomorrow first thing in the morning. This is why I kinda like working on sessile...

...life throws another curve ball at you, and then sticks a rusty knife in your ribs while you lie winded on the ground. I love being Malaysian and all, but this passport and visa business is making me sooooooo.....frustrated. Some might remember the big hoo-ha last year, and the hoops I had to jump through to get a visa to enter Panama to take the Smithsonian sponge course. Next year, I vowed to myself then, next year would be different. Fast forward to this year, with me feeling pretty confident, having submitted my visa application in February, giving the consulate 3 months to approve my visa this time. Was overjoyed to see my return envelope sitting in my mailbox yesterday, and gleefully ripped it open, extracted my passport and flipped to the visa page. Was thoroughly deflated to find that my approval dates run from April 9th to July 9th! WTF! It's already April 18th, and besides the point, my fieldtrip is in August. To add insult to injury, my gender is listed as 'M'...

One of the things I love about aikido is that I can visit a dojo in whatever strange new city and practise there with little fuss. Well, I'm sure that works with other martial arts as well (challenging the seniors in a new dojo to a sparring session?), but I've always felt welcome and had a really good time in all of my visits. It's kind of my perk whenever I travel. Some may say that you can't gain much from only one or two visits, but I'm keeping O Sensei's advice in mind, to touch 10000 hands to get a feel of the technique, and besides, it's interesting to me to see how different instructors interpret the various techniques. And it's fun lah, I get antsy after no aikido for sometime anyway. So I have been kinda grumpy the past 2 days (for various reasons), and was contemplating not going for training and watching Wicked instead. The grumpiness was compounded by me waking up this morning with a head full of green snot, and having to blow copious amount...

When you switch on the TV next, and see the screenshot of the famous LA hotdog stand Pink's in the background, don't be surprised to hear Wai exclaiming,"This chili tastes BEANY!!" That's what you get for eating at a famous institution in Hollywood Land. Just landed this morning, and changed the initial plan of going to Joshua Tree National Park immediately cos 1) I'm still recovering from this damned cold that Steve passed to me (it has noe progressed to the coughing stage), and 2) we were damn exhausted from the fieldwork, illness, 12 hour car ride, trying to finish homework madly and pack the night before, plus the flight was a little delayed due to fog in Wilmington. By the time we picked up the rental car (another story there, and it's a PT Cruiser!! That's so funny...), it was close to noon. Slumming it out at the cheapest hostel in LA which provides all sorts of free food. For one night, I'm willing to overlook the fact that I have to flush ...

I was enjoying the Key Largo weather last week, it was sunny and the water was a manageable 26degC. Suddenly this week evening temperatures dipped such that people around here started wearing their fleeces, and the water temp is now a frikking 24degC. Have resorted to wearing 2 wetsuits to keep warm underwater, but the wind on the surface is...brrrr..... The whole dive rack area smells strongly of pee and I've started bringing a towel on board as a wrap between dives. Hopefully would be able to keep my immune system up and stave off an impending chill as we finish up our last 2 days here!

Today we had our first break day for this mission, after 5 straight days of diving. For a putative (my new word of the week...) break day, we sure did a lot. Woke up at 5.30am to accompany Wai as she sent Joe to the Miami airport, then went around Miami Beach a little. Came back feeling a little hammered, since I spent 3 hours the night before plugging away for my Stats final, and had a beer at Sharkey's to unwind afterwards. The rest wanted to go to Key West so grabbed my camera and headed out again, except for Tim who wanted to stay back and write. Felt a smidgen of guilt thinking about my climate change paper...but hey, it's Key West. So it's 10.35pm, and I feel like going to bed already. So much for a productive Sunday. It's going to be a big day tomorrow! Pulling in my Mycale fragments to see if any of them have been eaten. Fed a persistent Grey Angelfish some cut Mycale during the last dive so feeling vaguely optimistic about things. Rather miraculously, with th...

Sitting at the Tocumen airport in Panama waiting for my flight to take off. Woke up at 5am this morning, bleary-eyed, with a slight sangria headache, probably because I forgot to buy water (or local beer as a souvenir, damn!) to drink last night, meaning, earlier this morning. Uff...after the lazy sun dappled last few days at Bocas, Panama City in one night was a frenzied affair involving angry taxi drivers swerving crazily through the streets, and a whirlwind tour of the old city, Casco Viejo. The buildings were muy nice, but the sun had set more than an hour ago and my teeny flash wasn't going to cut it. So we just walked and talked, and looked out for muggers hiding in the small dark alleys. Since I was in Latin America, really wanted to check out the local nightlife. After all, have been listening to lots of salsa, bachata, etc over the radio, in taxicabs, spilling out of cafes...how hard could it be to find a place with live salsa band and great dancing to watch huh? As it tu...

Looks like I'm spending the weekend in Wilmington after all! Short of a miracle happening in the next two hours...but...nah, I don't think so...I have a better chance of striking 4-D with the licence plate number of the driver who struck my car and then refused to pay for the damages. So much for my visa being approved this week...I found out yesterday that visas have to be approved by the Security Council in Panama, and they only meet once a week. If my application wasn't considered this week, it's shifted to the next. Why only tell me now? Why can't they just tell me when the meeting date was? I was expecting my visa to maybe come in today, and paid %#$%#$@^ $280 to change my flight to tomorrow. And I have to change it again? How much more must I pour down this black hole? Plus I don't even know if and when my ^$#^$%^#@$%^$ visa will be approved. Felt like smashing a multitude of breakable crockery last night, I'm so frustrated! Looks like I'm just not...

After a morning of extreme confusion (and trauma...for I was thoroughly roasted for my oral exam), finally worked out a possible avenue for the whole Panama visa issue. Called the consulate in Washington, and it turns out that I'm not supposed to be able to enter Panama without a visa. So much for the 'leave the visa at the Panama airport' idea. The moderately better news is, that my visa is supposed to be approved by the end of this week, latest latest. So say I get the approval on Friday, if I can persuade the consulate to return my passport through express delivery, I'll get it on Saturday, be able to fly on Sunday, and catch the early morning internal flight to Bocas on Monday, thus only effectively missing 2 days of the course. Phew. Now if only things were a little more confirmed...for e.g., at least tell me what date you can give the approval! Each ticket change with Delta would cost me at least $200, sigh....

Okay, so I'm blogging my posts in a seemingly random fashion. What happened to the posts from Charlotte , Singapore and Berkeley you say (don't even mention East Africa )? That's what you get when I can only blog in between rotavapping sponge extracts. So last month, shortly after Spring Break, my lab headed to Atlanta , Georgia for the 36th Benthic Ecology Meeting. I was pretty excited as it was my first national conference, plus imagine meeting a whole bunch of scientists who are psyched about various spineless creatures! Try telling a dolphin researcher why you find boring sponges so interesting! I jest, dolphin researchers are actually very nice people :). We managed to loan a vehicle from UNCW to drive to Atlanta , and I picked Steve up early in the morning to go pick up the MPV. When we got to the holding area, lo and behold, someone had snuck in at 6am and taken our vehicle! Fortunately, there was another MPV available and we didn't have to squeeze in a se...

So I don't get to dive Florida, but I'm headed to San Francisco and Berkeley tomorrow! I have spring break after all, haha. Visiting old friends and familiar places, and hopefully, I'll get to train with Maida Sensei at the Ki Society dojo again. Am so excited! Can hardly wait :)