Garnet's Life Adventures

I'm off to Delhi, India

I'm leaving tomorrow for Delhi, India & will be back on Dec 1st hopefully with lots of fun stories & photos to share.

To all the America's who read my blog:

Labels: holidays, travel

posted by Sara @ 2:11 pm 0 comments

27th country visited

So I've been bragging to everyone that this past weekend I visited my 26th country, only to realise this morning when I got to work at 07.20 (story for another time) that I was actually visiting my 27th country! So many countries, so little time, who can honestly keep track . . . not me apparently (LOL)

On Saturday, Neala, Kaylie, Christopher, Nikolas & I drove from Ramstein, Germany over to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. It's a very cute little city, very hilly & old! The weather was fantastic with lots of sun & temps around 73F. We had a great time - photos to follow.

So the story for another time is about how I forgot to switch my mobile time back onto London time (Germany is one hour ahead) so when I woke up at 07.27, showered, had breakfast, got bus into work, arrived at 08.20, I had actually woken up at 06.27 and gotten into work at 07.20 . . . Oops - feel free to laugh out loud at me, most others I've come in contact with have!

Hope you all had a good Easter, can't believe we're half way through April & don't forget to get your taxes mailed out today (if you're American).

Labels: friends, germany, holidays, luxembourg, travel

posted by Sara @ 9:39 am 2 comments

sorry for the sabatical

i was not well connected during my conference or holiday that followed, which I'm 97% sure made it that much better, since I'm now rather jet lagged, I'll update later today (hopefully) but if by sometime soon, got mates coming in from Germany tomorrow to stay for the weekend so schedule's a bit tight, but keep checking in :)

bottom line I had a fabulous time!!

Labels: holidays, travel, update

posted by Sara @ 11:46 am 0 comments

home to london

i made it safely back to london on sunday night & had a great time in germany - just trying to sort out how to upload the photos as the DVD we made doesn't seem to work :( too much stuff to do at the moment to write about it all, but we did manage to have christmas at melissa & mike's house (mike, melissa, madison, blake, ben, neala, neala's mum, chris, nik, katelynn, kaylie & me) then off via train to heidleberg (sans mike & melissa's family) on boxing day, then to triberg via car on the 27th (sans nik who spent the night throwing up) only to have kaylie end up getting sick the whole day too so she slept in the car in the -12C temps, but all bundled up in fleece blankets while the rest of us wondered around & visited the largest coocoo clock in the world! 28th & 29th we spent rather low keyish as nik & kaylie were still under the weather, 30th neala, kaylie & I went shopping at the BX and booked a trip to munich, 31st we didn't go out late cause our train left from kaiserslauten at 6.10am so we packed & watched movies with the kids. 31st kaylie, katelynn & i went to munich for 2 nights & 3 days - a day trip out to oberaumenagau (sp?) and to see linderoff & neuschwanstein castles (built by King Ludwig II) all in all it was great - thanks to ben's military issue long johns that is!!!!

Labels: friends, germany, holidays, travel

posted by Sara @ 3:03 pm 2 comments

One of my life decisions has been made

for the moment at least . . . My boss asked me to stay for another year, finish off my grant & hopefully write a paper on my project & be second author on co-worker's paper - after LONG debates with myself & talking it out with family & friends from around the world (and I do mean around the world, UK, Iraq, USA, Germany, Australia) over the past 3 weeks I've finally made the decided to accept the 2009 contract.

I know this might come as a surprise to some of you, since I was pretty dead set on coming home in December and joining the peace corps. But I really, really wanna get a paper out of this project (I've decided it's one of my "goals" - one of many things I've learned from Zee) & it will give me a chance to look into other options before making some sort of quick decision to switch careers without balancing out all of my other options.

I just sent an email to a mate of mine in SoCal & realised how busy my life has been over the past few months & what's still to come, here's a quick recap:

• June 19-July 14th i was state side for my dad's 70th birthday, my NU roommates wedding, visiting my sister before she moved from CT to TN, visiting my cousins & aunt who i only see once a year & going to an interview with the peace corps
• rest of July was spent working like mad for a HUGE presentation about future funding at work (see below for outcome on that one!)
• August 13th my sis arrived for 2 weeks visit
• August 15th i had my mate Jim's wedding up in Nottingham
• August 22-25 my sis & i went to Prague and met up with my dad
• August 27th - Sept 1, two of my mates who are living on a base in Germany came to visit
• Sept 1st my dad arrived for a 3 week visit
• Also on Sept 1 - my boss announced we got funding for 2009, so I'm working on getting yet another visa so i can stay till Dec 2009 :-)

Still to come on my whirlwind life is:

• Today, Sept 2nd, I'm meeting my godmother & her husband for lunch (they're in town just for a few hours)
• Sept 6th, Dad & I are off to Oxford to visit family friends for the day
• Sept 15-18th I'm in Edinburgh with my dad for a Harvard Business School reunion (his obviously not mine)
• Sept 20th I'm spear heading the 1st ever Norwich University European Alumni meeting
• Oct 1-14, I'm off to Rwanda (http://www.itafari.org/)

Aside from that life's been rather boring - HA HA HA HA - just kidding

Labels: decision, future, holidays, work

posted by Sara @ 10:36 am 11 comments

major changes to come in june 2009

Just got an email from my Peace Corps Regional Recruiter saying she's nominated me for:

Program: Health Degreed
Region: Sub Saharan Africa
Program Info: All nominees must be learning French in preparation for service. All nominees encouraged to gain HIV/AIDS experience prior to departure.
Stage Range: June, 2009

How exciting is that?!?!?!?

Aside from that my holiday thus far has been fantastic, as you know dad's party was amazing with all the people who came from all over and apparently dad must have some sort of connections with the weather gods because it didn't rain during the party times.

I left upstate NY after a visit to Saranac Lake to see my former boss for a chat at Blue Moon Cafe. It's always great to see him. He taught me a lot whilst I was working with him & then when I announced I wanted to go to grad school he stood by me 100% (even was the one who pushing towards applying to LSHTM). He's been so supportive of everything I've done since we met in June of 2001 AND a big plus he makes an effort to get together (unlike some other friends of mine who can't be arsed to make a date to meet up). Okay back to the point we met up for brunch & had a great catch up chat. I also ran into a great mate of mine Eric who just happened to be there as well. It was great to see him since he wasn't at work that day so I'd have missed him if I'd dropped by like I'd planned to. I also had the chance to see his son who was graduating from HS that day & to meet his girlfriend who I'd heard a lot about but being so far away hadn't yet gotten to meet.

After that I ran down to Scott's Florist to meet with my mate Kathy & then we went back to Blue Moon to see my mates Betty & Kate (bonus as I hadn't planned on seeing them, but news of my arrival traveled fast in such a small town). Following those chatting sessions we headed to meet my mate Dan for lunch. During which we ran into another mate of mine Kristen. Do you believe me now when I say it's not a big town? She & I had a 5 min catch up while Dan & my mom were sorting out seats & drinks. After a long lunch we walked mom's dogs & headed back home. I'd had a horrible cold & so we didn't want to stay up north too too late, plus my sis was coming back from CT & we didn't want her to arrive at an empty house.

The rest of the weekend we spent celebrating my 30th birthday, yes yes I know my b'day was in January, but since none of my family was there to celebrate with me we had it during the weekend. Mom, Patty & I went shopping in Saratoga. Auntie Ann, Patty & I went out on Schroon Lake for a few hours both days. Dad cooked dinner one night & we had homemade chocolate chunk walnut brownies with vanilla ice cream another night - YUMMMMMMMMM.

On Tuesday Patty & I headed to NYC, stopping along the way to see Paul in Westchester for lunch before hitting up Lou & Jeremy's place on W 52nd. We had a great evening with them & on Wednesday I had my interview & then Patty & I buggered outta the city (WAY too hot in NYC for me!) We met up with my best mate Kristen & her husband PJ for a wonderful Mexican dinner before driving to Patty's condo in CT.

Yesterday we woke up early got picked up my rental car, went to Lowe's & got flowers for potters & wedded her front garden area. That evening we drove to Old Saybrook for dinner with Aunt Pat & Diane at Bill's Seafood in Westport, before I headed to Wallingford to stay with my wonderful mates Anne & John. When I arrived to my surprise Katie came out to greet me, which was just awesome! She just finished her masters in May & is in limbo at the moment but we got to catch up on her internship in the Philippines. We of course couldn't shut up once we got going so we were up till 1.30am.

Today I slept in till 9am & have just been vegging out with Katie, Anne, John & Matt who arrived around 1pm. We had charcoal grilled cheeseburgers, cold slaw, potato salad, tater tots, and red/white/blue frosted cupcakes :-) Later we're going to see the fireworks.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Matt's "new" house & on Sunday I'm going to see Kev, Sylwia, Owen, Maya & Grace and best of all Sylwia, her sis & I are going out alone . . . first time ever - a girls afternoon - yeah!!!!

Hope you're all doing well & enjoying your 4th of July, I really just wanted to give you the PC update, but then figured as the Sox Yanks game had such a long rain delay I had time to give a full up to date report. That's all for now

Labels: future, holidays, jobs, peace corps

posted by Sara @ 10:50 pm 4 comments

count down begins

39.5 hours till my plane is suppose to leave heathrow airport headed to montreal, canada - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

a great thing happened today my good mates john & jaiden who've been travelling around se asia for the past 7 months returned to london & i got to hang out with them for 2 hours. tomorrow they're moving into my flat & cooking me dinner, how awesome is that? i'm stoked!

off to bed now, laters

Labels: holidays, mates

posted by Sara @ 12:02 am 2 comments

saint petersburg - I LOVE YOU!!!

WARNING: very slow connection, no time for spell check, just going to type & try to keep the connection - sorry for any issues of horrible spelling!!

In Saint Peterburg & all I can say thus far is WOW, what a beautiful city!!! Arrived after 3 hours on a plane with all the SPB football fans who'd just won the UEFA cup in Manchester - this means I was with 50 odd DRUNK footballers who couldn't understand why I didn't want to drink controu right from the bottle they were passing around. It also meant I was one of 4 females on the flight & I reckon the only non-russian. I made it through passport control without a problem, then thanks to my mate topher's excellent directions was able to navigate public transport all on my own with the 4 russian words I know (yes, no, thank you, one) got the 13 bus to city centre where I got on the metro went 5 stops & swtiched lines, went one more stop up out from metro on the LONGEST wooden escaltor I've ever seen/been on, turned right walked 7 minutes down teh road, turned right, second building on the right, flat 13, press button & Marina answered - YEAH me!!!!

Trust me this was not as easy as I just made it seem, but I did it. I highly advise not to travel at rush hour on your first attempt at the metro - confusing enough trying to sort out the pretty cyrillic words, but I some how managed, after a brief panic at one of the stations where I forced myself to just sit down & figure out where I was on the map - luckily for me I was on the right track, just hadn't gone far enough yet.

Last night Marina, Olga & I went out for sushi & then on a driving tour of the city - how beautiful all the buildings are & all the parks & things. Got to see one of hte bridges draw early just for tourists like me :) too bad I'd forgotten my camera! Also went to this spot with a bird on a small ledge where you try to drop a coin & land it on the ledge then your wish comes true, course I didn't land it there, but will go back & try again - can't recall the name of it now.

okay off to shower, get my visa registered & wonder around SPB!!! In case you can't tell I highly recommend this city to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Labels: holidays, public transport, saint petersburg, travel

posted by Sara @ 8:56 am 1 comments

president's day weekend in review

Just realised it's President's Day weekend in the states, so most of you hard working American's will be off tomorrow, whilst I'll be busy working in London.

I had a very productive weekend, considering how sick I had been last week. Luckily I felt much better on Friday & was able to go to work for a full day :) Didn't do anything on Friday night, aside from getting a nice curry take away, for ONLY £3.95, which is VERY cheap for London prices!!

On Saturday I got up around 9am, showered, had breakfast, went to the post office & picked up a package which didn't fit through my mail slot. Brought it home, had a glass of water & headed to Tufnell Park tube station, where I got on the Northern line southbound via bank (that's the branch) - got off at Euston, switched to northbound Victoria line and rode all the way out to Walthamstow Central station. Met up with my mate Jenny, about 15 minutes later Adam & Genny showed up as well. From there we went to check out the Walthamstow market - the longest (distance) daily open market in all of Europe! I was overwhelmed by the amount of stalls on the street. We wandered for a bit, checked things out & listened to the stall owners yelling out their offers, competing with the other nearby stalls.

After 2 hours, we were rather cold, so we popped into a cafe & had a hot chocolate. From there we went to Sainbury's and got some food for lunch, before we went back to Jenny's house. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting, eating and having a good time. At 5pm I left to meet up with Rob at Kings Cross for dinner. From there we went to Camden Market (obviously the part that wasn't burned down) and had some Vietnamese food followed by stopping at the pub to hang out with some of our mates. At 10pm I was knackered so I headed home.

This morning I woke up & decided there were lots of things I wanted/needed to do, so I finished watching The Notebook, which I had started watching last night, but fell asleep (stop laughing mum!!) Then got up outta bed, showered, had breakfast, and decided first I would check out the gym across the road (literally 4 store fronts away). I really liked it so I signed up since I've been meaning to join a gym for awhile now & just have been too darn lazy to make the move, but today I did (yeah me). From there I went to Sainsbury and grabbed a few items.

After that I came home, called mum, spoke to her, whilst looking online for a hoover from Argos. I found a really nice one which was onsale, look at the advert:
Perfect for homes with pets. 2400 watts. Turbo brush for picking up pet hair. Variable power. 3.25 litre dust capacity. Washable anti-bacterial filtration. Foot operated cord rewind and on/off control. Chrome extension tubes.
since I normally find lots of hair on the floor, I thought this feature might be a really good idea. Reserved it online, got off phone with mum, got ready to go out again & off I trundled to Camden Town's Argos. Picked it up along with a new head for my Sonicare electric toothbrush.

Upon returning home, I hoovered the flat, wow, what a difference that made :) I then made banana nut muffins (see last Friday's post for recipe), did 2 loads of laundry, and now just writing this post, before I veg out. I know I'm going to have a busy week, preview:
Monday night is "cheap ethnic food dinner challenge"
Tuesday night is sushi with Lara
Wednesday night is gym induction night
Thursday and Friday night I have nothing yet . . .

Labels: holidays, shopping, weekend

posted by Sara @ 5:36 pm 7 comments

a few photos for your enjoyment - I hope

Labels: holidays, photos

posted by Sara @ 4:56 pm 2 comments

plans sorted (finally!)

Can't recall when I last wrote or what I said, so forgive me if I repeat myself or if I've left out a few days. But my next few days plans are well sorted out now, which makes me very happy b/c like my father I don't like all this unknown, in particular when travelling!!

So tonight is dinner at dad's with 10 people, yes that's correct TEN! to any of you who know dad's house you'll know it's gonna be a tight squeeze! Dad, Patty, Matt, Louise, Jeremy, Mom, Cousin Tim (up from Brooklyn), Kate (Tim's gf), Joyce (dad's neighbour), and me. We're having turkey soup a la dad style (mom got a "sneak preview" of it the other day & she said it's the best she's ever had, which is a VERY BIG compliment since she's such a good cook herself.

Tomorrow mom & I are heading to the big city (LOL) actually just to Glens Falls to return the rental car and go shopping. Dad's heading to Montreal. Patty & Matt will probably relax & watch movies & Louise & Jeremy might snow shoe or watch movies ) P,M,J, and L are all out sledding at the mo - I had to stay in to do some US paper work with dad. Tomorrow night we'll all go to my aunt's house where Tim & Kate are having a NYEve party.

Tuesday morning we'll all head to CT. Louise & Jeremy will get a bus or train back to NYC, Matt & Patty will go to her condo, Mom, Quid (her dog) and I will head to the hotel. That night we'll go to Aunt Pat & Diane's house for dinner.

Wednesday P&M will fly back to TN. Mom & I will go visit Kevin, Sylwia, Owen, Maya, and Grace for the day then have dinner over at Anne & John's house.

Thursday mom will head back to NY & I'll stay at Anne & John's house.

Friday my best mate since 3rd grade violin class (Kristen) will pick me up & bring me to her house in Yonkers, NY, where I'll kip till my plane on Monday morning - of course we'll chat a lot & eat good food as well - that goes without say!!

I'm hoping to meet up with my good mate Susan as well, but I'm not sure about her schedule yet. I'm just glad I've got a pretty good plan of attack so far!!

I'd like to make a mini shout out to my dear mate Amanda who's birthday it was yesterday & who called me at just the right moment last night when I was having a melt down (she must have just known!!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!!!!!!!!!

Labels: holidays

posted by Sara @ 9:51 pm 1 comments

Holiday Update

Well it's snowing outside as I type this we've probably gotten about a half inch so far today & there was a foot on the ground when we arrived.

Been busy busy busy!! Landed at JFK, passed through customs & immigration in an hour, found Patty, Louise & Jeremy among the crowds. Out to the car & we started the drive north. At 2.10am we arrived home with only 1 stop of food / toilet break.

Breakfast the next morning at the Adirondack General Store where Patty's car got backed into by a hit & run driver. I can't recall the exact next few hours, but I do know that L,J&I went to my mum's house & helped her move furniture around & got our Christmas tree (luckily I know the owner of the tree farm so he'd found me a REALLY nice 8' tall one for just $40 - pays to know people in high places :)

Again lost track of days, but I know we went snow shoeing on Christmas afternoon for about 2 miles around dad's property line. Another day we drove to Glens Falls for food shopping & pick up a rental car (since Patty's is in the shop). Another day we drove to Burlington & walked around Church Street & then took the ferry to Plattsburgh & had sushi for dinner.

Future plans are to go to Saranac Lake / Lake Placid / Willmington (where Whiteface is located) for the day and possibly skiing, but if not for sure some more snow shoeing.

Off to buy food for tonight's combine Open House (for mom) / Birthday Party (for me & Louise) with a few few people from town.

On 1 Jan, we all head to CT for a few days, but that's ages away & I can't think that far in advance, since I clearly have no clue what day it is or what I'm doing tomorrow - LOL

Labels: family, holidays

posted by Sara @ 6:38 pm 1 comments

arrival at Heathrow 06.37

safely back in the UK & thanks to getting a few hours kip on the plane I'm semi-awake (17.49) and at work since about noon. Off home in a bit, but wanted to check in so you didn't worry (as if you would, LOL)

Labels: holidays

posted by Sara @ 5:48 pm 3 comments

vientiene, laos

after a lazy day of tubing down the river yesterday we boarded our mini bus minus 3 passengers who were late so we left without them & drove for 3 hours through the laos mountains & made our way to vientiene, the capital of laos. we showered & went to dinner then to a local bar to listen to some music.

today we had a lie in, breakfast, dropped off laundry, and now at the internet cafe. we're meeting up at 1pm to figure out what we want to do this afternoon - I reckon the girls will want to go to the market for a bit of shopping & the boys will probably end up going to the beer laos factory.

i've met the most awesome people on this trip & it will be sad on sunday to say goodbye. tim & kate will continue on to china, australia, new zealand, fuji, LA, Canada, NY and then back to home to england after their year around the world tour. kris & lawerence will hang in vietnam, then cross cambodia en route back to bangkok. dee will join another trip & go to china. scott & alicia and mark will head back to oz. jon & jake will join the trip to china & then head back to england. harley i think is going to travel a bit then meet up with kris & lawrence in bangkok before heading back home to oz. while i'm just heading straight back to london to go to work :( course i can't complain as i'm only back from 10 working days then off to new york for christmas!!!!!

much warmer here in vientiene which is nice. tubing down the river yesterday was fantastic!! it was 5km long trip with 8 bars along the way - if you bought a drink you could jump off the high jump or zip-line swing thing for free. my fear of heights kept me as the photographer, but I did get some awesome shots and a bit of colours :)

Labels: holidays, laos, travel, vientiene

posted by Sara @ 4:57 am 2 comments

long bus ride

safely in vang viengn (sp?) going tubbing down the river tomorrow with some of the girls on the trip. spent most of the day on the bus (6 hours) going through the laos mountains - beautiful with lots of limestone.

tomorrow afternoon we're off to vientienne (capital of laos), rather knackered so don't have much to say at the mo, speak soon, xx

Labels: holidays, laos, tubbing

posted by Sara @ 2:48 pm 0 comments

photos 1

I think the photos have uploaded, but without any captions, attempt to see here

Labels: bangkok, chaing khong, chaing mai, holidays, photos

posted by Sara @ 6:56 pm 1 comments

in luang prabang for 3 days

since i last wrote we spent 2 days on the rather cold windy river after crossing the border into laos. we visited 2 hill villages along the way & got to interact with the locals. we stayed in yet another hill village where there was generator power from 7-10pm only, no hot water, etc. we had to wake up at 6am to go to the local market to get food - saw buffalo, chicken, ducks, birds off all shapes, sizes & colours for sale. we bought banana flowers, pears, buffalo meat, and assorted other veggies, along with eggs to make our lunch on the boat.

arrived in luang prabang last night around 5pm, had our first hot shower in 3 days & dinner at a restaurant along the mekong river. went to the royal palace museum & had a massage (1 hr = $4)this morning, now just wondering around the town looking for cheapest place to get laundry done.

we're at this guest house for 2 more nights, then off again, can't recall where . . .

Labels: holidays, laos, luang prabang, travel

posted by Sara @ 6:50 pm 0 comments

en route to Laos

since my last post, we left Bangkok via 13 hour over night train - the food was good & we played cards during the daytime which was fun, but then the sleeping part came which would have been fine if the train wasn't so crap at stopping & so throughout the night we were jerked to a stop which banged your head on the wall (we were in a sleeper carriage). Arriving early in the morning we dropped our bags at the guest house and nibbled on some breakfast & off to ride elephants we went. after that we went on to bamboo raft riding down the river then back to the city center for a wee wonder before going to a wot on the top of the hill (name I'm not going to attempt to spell) at sunset & watched the light change around the gold along with being blessed by a monk before he & other monks & nuns chanted for a bit. Back into city center for dinner together at the night market, followed by shopping (yes even I spent a few bhaat (Thai currency)). this morning we had breakfast, drove 3 hours to a wot all in white (REALLY COOL), in chaing rai where we had lunch at cabbage & condoms (restaurant promoting safer sex & HIV/AIDS awareness - they've been able to reduce the average children per family from 7 down to 2 in just 30 years. an hour more driving & we got to help the rice farmers cut down the rice. 45 more minutes drive & we're in chaing khong a border town between Thailand & Laos. tomorrow we're on the boat for 2 days down the Mekong river (which btw is just outside my guesthouse door).

Labels: chaing khong, chaing mai, chaing rai, holidays, thailand

posted by Sara @ 6:47 pm 3 comments

en route to Chaing Mai

Leaving Bangkok in about an hour via a night train to Chaing Mai. It's been a lovely 3 days in Bangkok, where it is flippin hot, especially in the sun!!!

Brief update:

Saturday after arriving in Bangkok, Anna & I walked from our hotel to what we thought was the grand palace, turned out to be wat po where the 2nd largest reclining Buddha is (largest is only 1m longer), then we came back to the hotel for a wee nap whilst waiting for Tash's boyfriend Rob to arrive. After he'd showered we went up to the 24th floor sky lounge to see the sky lit up & the full moon. Nute (Dave M's host child about 10 years ago) picked us up there with her fiance Charlie & took us to the locals celebration of Lai Kutung festival on the river - we took a boat over the river after watching the beautiful boat parade, then eat some wonderful food & hiked up the pagoda, made wishes on our kutungs before placing them in the water, then back to the hotel to get Anna to the airport, where upon we headed to the tourist strip (name of which evades me now).

Sunday morning Rob & I walked to the Grand Palace, toured around there, went to the BMK mall where we grabbed some food, then onto the sky train up to the weekend market, then back to the hotel for my group meeting. After that the group had dinner together in china town.

This morning - dressed in yellow (since Monday is yellow for the king day, pink is Tuesday for the queen) we headed to the pier to pick up our long boat for a tour of the river & canals, from there a detailed tour of wat po (where Anna & I had been on Saturday) then lunch near the naval base, then free afternoon. One of the girls on the trip is feeling a bit weird, so I went to the chemist to get her some paracetamol & motion sickness pills . . . amasing thing I learned you can buy anything you want without a prescription - including rather strong drugs!

Labels: bangkok, holidays, thailand

posted by Sara @ 6:45 pm 1 comments

on way to bangkok

leaving khon kaen today for bangkok & not sure when i'll have email access again, so wish me luck on my adventures . . . don't fret i will take LOTS of photos!!!

Labels: holidays

posted by Sara @ 4:50 pm 0 comments