International Bright Young Thing
Aug. 27th, 2024 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipI probably should leave out the "young" part at the very least, but Jesus Jones isn't young either. It seems that I am boarding a plane to China for a couple of weeks through the Australia-China Friendship Society, again without any work requirements (but some might come up) but for an actual holiday. Mind you, two ACFS committee meetings (National and Victorian) this week are probably enough! In addition to other international news, I've put in an application to do my doctorate at EUCLID University in Climate Science and Sustainability. The fact that this is a doctorate in climatology, and in a developing world context, and it's a United Nations treaty university, all ticks the boxes for me. The degree is all online means that I don't have to travel to Africa, but it does provide a good reason to visit if the opportunity arises. It's all a good fit: "Let's shock the world with what we know".
My pending departure has led to a rather full weekend. On Friday evening I had a classic wine and cheese night with Nitul, Anton, Andrew, and Erica in attendance. Erica and Mel joined the following day for an expedition out in the suburbs to buy various homewares that suit our style as elder goths. Julie, unable to join us on Friday night, turned up for dinner on Saturday evening and ended up at "Sopranos" which fits the bill of Italian "cheap and cheerful". On Monday I had a visit from Erica again for dinner which primarily consisted of the small mountain of leftovers from Friday night. Today I had a very pleasant visit from Ruby, where I was finally able to ply her with oysters, French champagne and French gin (Citadelle is pretty damn good), whilst discussing some of the finer points of fine art and creative writing. Of course, the week has many other events; there were two days of high performance computing workshops that went well. There was also a long and reflective literary and personal essay, "Lev The Idiot", which really deserves a follow-up from the Tolstoy perspective. But all that will have to wait at least a couple of weeks. The top of the world awaits!
My pending departure has led to a rather full weekend. On Friday evening I had a classic wine and cheese night with Nitul, Anton, Andrew, and Erica in attendance. Erica and Mel joined the following day for an expedition out in the suburbs to buy various homewares that suit our style as elder goths. Julie, unable to join us on Friday night, turned up for dinner on Saturday evening and ended up at "Sopranos" which fits the bill of Italian "cheap and cheerful". On Monday I had a visit from Erica again for dinner which primarily consisted of the small mountain of leftovers from Friday night. Today I had a very pleasant visit from Ruby, where I was finally able to ply her with oysters, French champagne and French gin (Citadelle is pretty damn good), whilst discussing some of the finer points of fine art and creative writing. Of course, the week has many other events; there were two days of high performance computing workshops that went well. There was also a long and reflective literary and personal essay, "Lev The Idiot", which really deserves a follow-up from the Tolstoy perspective. But all that will have to wait at least a couple of weeks. The top of the world awaits!
