With just 49 days to my trip (42 days to my last workday before sabbatical of which 29 are workdays), I'm truly in countdown mode. It should be an interesting few weeks as my manager has decided that instead of getting sabbatical coverage for me, I should get done all the work I would have done through September before I go. Add to this that we don't even know if we'll get funding for the two biggest projects and you can guess how thrilled I am. Nonetheless, it all seems doable with a few low priority things getting cut.
A couple of interesting things since I last posted. A whale watch out of Monterey a few weeks ago yielded only one unpredictable whale, but some very cooperative and photogenic otters. In the past, I've had a hard time getting good shots of otters because they are almost constantly moving unless they're asleep. A sleeping otter makes a boring picture. This time, I got some good ones with otters looking right at me and a lovely one with the otter enjoying a clam dinner.
The other interesting experience was meeting Al Gore. This was at an environmental fund raiser fashion show. It's hard to imagine anyone less comfortable at a fashion show than he was. In return for offering to take someone's picture for them, I got mine taken with the man who should be President. He was much nicer and more open and accessible than I expected with Clintonesque warmth. I'm sure he felt my pain (in the neck from having to look up so much). The rest of the evening was interesting as well. The fashion was very strange. There were a few very nice pieces, but the rest was either the kind of thing nobody could wear or no different from what I bum around in on the weekend. Some of the models were very good, but a couple had a strange walk that seemed like something out of Monty Python. There were a few "celebrity" models, none of whom I recognized. Found out afterwards that two were from The Bachelorette. No wonder I didn't recognize them. The best part of the evening was the "pampering room," where a local salon/spa set up a couple of massage chairs, two hair stations, and a make-up station. Since I had just had my hair done that day, I "settled" for the massage and make-up. Both were wonderful.
As the trip finally approaches, I'm starting to research restaurants. While I might try Emu, I don't think I could get myself to try kangaroo or crocodile. Moreton Bay bugs sound good. They're basically crawfish. Other than a Greek restaurant in Cairns that sounds very good, it's likely I'll be eating a lot of seafood. Put another shrimp on the barbie.
