The Hedgehog

Back when I was an undergrad, I joined the University Diplomacy Society, originally drawn by the club's motto: Make New Friends, then Stab them in the Back!  I've since fallen out of playing the game, as the negotiating mechanic doesn't really appeal to me and I can get better tactical games elsewhere.  I still remember a lot of stuff from then, including several of the openings.  One famous opening for Austria-Hungary is the Hedgehog, invented by one of the early writers, Richard Sharp.  This features Austria moving its Fleet (that starts in Trieste) to Italian Venice, as a defensive measure against a possible Italian attack.  The move usually fails, which in Diplomacy is called bouncing.

The reason I bring all this up is that it was very much in my mind last Sunday, when I travelled from Trieste to Venice for a day trip.  Obviously, I could hardly pass up visiting Venice, having never gone before.  But the fact that I wouldn't even stay for one night—that I would bounce—made me smile in memory.

Busy Busy Busy

One problem with writing a blog as a scientist is that I spend a good chunk of my time writing other stuff.  In particular, I'm currently writing several talks for SUSY 2013 next week and some seminars in the following weeks.  Much like the problem I have with reading these days, after a hard day's writing I'm not too inclined to spend an hour or more constructing a post here.

Still, I should have the main things finished soon, and I'll likely be live blogging SUSY next week as well.  So that should help me post more regularly again.  Also, as the main game I'll have with me will be ToME, I might finally get around to writing a review of it.

California: 13

So, at current time of writing I'm in a different time zone, continent and even hemisphere to the usual.  Yes, if the title didn't give it away I've travelled to the USA, where I'll be for the next six weeks before moving on to Europe.  Obviously, my blog posting will be unreliable, but what else is new?  I actually expect to get more written now I'm actually on the move than was the case in the last couple of weeks.  For someone who travels a fair amount, I'm very bad at preparing for it; I always get highly stressed right up to the point where I check in at the airport.

This is my first time in California, and it's the thirteenth US state I've visited.  I'm not counting states I've only travelled through; connecting at LAX doesn't let me see anything different from any other major airport, for example.  Thankfully, I'm not in the south of the state, instead in the San Francisco suburbs.  This means I'm not suffering from the weather, a good thing after the Melbourne summer.  Indeed, with the weather hovering between lows of 10C and highs of 20C, I'm almost in love.

Tasmania

So, after commenting on how I hoped to stay more current with this blog at the start of the year, I went silent for a week and a half.  I do have an excuse; I was travelling around Tasmania on a fairly impromptu vacation. A good chance to get out of town for a few days and see something different, but my net access was limited.  Now I'm back, somewhat refreshed and feeling better for it.  I would have posted explaining things before I left, but my connection here went down the night before.

I hope to make a more substantive post over the weekend, but not about my trip.  I don't plan to turn this blog into What I Did On My Holidays -- no plans to start a revolution.  Although, after living in Australia for several months, I have finally seen a kangaroo!

Beginnings

So.  I've made it to Melbourne.

So far there's nothing about this city to mark it any different from the rest of the English speaking world, but I expected that; such is the nature of globalisation.  And I've barely explored the place, just a few areas around the University.  No killer spiders so far!

Also as I expected, I feel much happier to have finished my travelling without incident.  Even with all the quarantine warnings, the Australian customs and immigration services were friendly (if a little slow).  I flew through LAX, and was questioned more closely by the Americans just for that short trip.  Of course, saying that immigration officials are nicer than the US is very much a low bar to pass; I had to pass through less security to enter a UK naval base than to enter the US!

The one big shock has been the prices here, which are pretty high.  Also, there's one obvious thing that marks being in a different country, the money.  The Australian 2 dollar coin is one of the smallest, which is just weird (compare the Canadian toonie or the UK two pound coin).  But in all, I am feeling optimistic about the next year or three I'll be spending here.

Endings

I'm currently sitting in Vancouver airport (yay for free wifi!) waiting to board the plane that will take me away from Vancouver for the last time.

It's always very hard for me when something comes to an end.  I've enjoyed the last three years, settled into a nice routine and made more than a few friends.  I've come to think of this place as home, to a degree I haven't really felt since Cambridge.

But the time has come for me to move on.  My job in Vancouver was always temporary, so I knew this day would arrive.  That doesn't make it any easier.  For the last few weeks, I've often done something and noticed that I will never do that thing in quite the same way.  Throw in the stress involved in trying to get all the packing and shipping finished, and I've felt less than sanguine.

Beginnings are easier.  So once I make it to Australia, I expect to feel better.  Sure, there are still lots of things I will need to do (like find an apartment), but with a better frame of mind and less of a hard deadline I should be less stressed with it all.

Back in Canada

My long trip has finally ended, and I'm back in Canada.  This should mean that I have no more excuses not to get back to things I've neglected, like this blog.

I am still quite jet lagged, despite having been back for two days; there's a nine hour time difference between Warsaw and Vancouver, and I'm too old to shrug that off, it seems.

I will be off to Calgary next week, for another conference.  This one is more general physics, rather than particle physics, so I expect to have more free time (in the form of skipped sessions).  In theory, this means that I'll be able to update with some regularity then!