Saturday 9th September – Yosemite Reunion

Just as I was halfway through boiling water to make oats for breakfast, I saw a white Sprinter van through the trees coming towards me. Kathi and Shannon warned me they would be early but I didn’t quite know if that meant this early. It was 8am when they parked up in my site and…

Friday 8th September – A Tour of Tuolumne

I didn’t sleep well at all. In my new sleeping bag I wasn’t warm enough so I kept trying new things until I made myself comfortable. By shoving my old sleeping bag down at my feet my toes stayed relatively warm and with an extra jumper and the sleeping bag done up tight around my…

Thursday 7th September – Tuolumne Tenting

As we’d talked about the day before, my alarm went off at 6am and I got out of bed groggy. A hot shower (my last for a while) made me feel a little better as I made a quick breakfast and packed all my things away. I was driving to Yosemite and I needed to…

Wednesday 6th September – Ottmar’s Sound

I couldn’t figure out if Vanessa had left when I woke up. Her bag was still in the living room so I assumed she was still at home, but I only saw her when I went to the bathroom and she was on a phone call for work. It had originally been cancelled so she…

Tuesday 5th September – Planet Granite

Vanessa was up and gone before I’d moved from the couch. I was vaguely aware she was up and about, but think I must have rolled over and blocked all thoughts of getting out of bed. I was surprised to find I’d slept in past 9am. After making myself some breakfast, I set myself up…

Monday 4th September – Balcony Sitting

I woke up much earlier than the two in the bedroom, but I had an F1 race to watch so I wasn’t bothered! I quietly moved around the apartment and set myself in the living room with my headphones. To my pleasure, the Monza race had been posted onto the Facebook page I follow, but…

Sunday 3rd September – Vanless

I was up early this morning because there was one thing I needed to accomplish. When I’d packed my bike a few days ago, I’d gotten pissed off towards the end since it took so long and feared I’d done a half-assed job. And so, I opened the box and re-did a few pieces, protecting…

Saturday 2nd September – Hike, Swim, Dance

Nobody was up in a hurry except for Jonah. When I came out of the shower at around 8am, he was sitting at the table in the loungeroom (where I was sleeping) with the cards already dealt. Phase 10 was the order of the morning obviously! Jonah patiently waited for me to pack away my…

Friday 1st September – Synchrotrons and Klystrons

Once we all got up in the morning, we didn’t muck around. Jonah had to get ready and off to school and we had to be in Palo Alto by 9:30am for a tour of Ross’s workplace, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We all jumped in cars on time, me in the Astro, everyone else…

Thursday 31st August – Santa Cruz Second Round

I was up early enough to organise my bags one last time, then left the empty house properly empty. I loaded up all my belongings into the Astro and head south into Santa Cruz. My life in the Astro had been reduced to a couple of bags and a bike. Everything I owned was now…