Author Archives: Michael

For the first few days of our new little adventure, we had decided to stay in a nice B&B. Katherine spend a good deal of time researching, and came up with 30 King Henry’s Road. This turned out to be an absolutely brilliant find, as the B&B, a beautiful four-storey mansionesque house with heaps of character, was located in one … Continue reading

After all that preparation and anticipation, the time’s finally arrived to leave this fair land of ours and join the apparent majority of Australia’s young adult population in London (side note: At least four people we know are in London or will be within a couple weeks of us, and more are coming shortly after)! A surprisingly frenetic final evening’s … Continue reading

One day left. Not tomorrow morning, but the morning after that, we’re getting on a plane to re-invent our lives. We are both getting stabs of fear when we think about it, but that’s probably a sign we’re doing the right thing. As Katherine said earlier, the antidote is to think about the alternative We’ve spent the last week meeting … Continue reading

Given that my productivity, writing quality and patience have fallen away, and that it’s just a few weeks until we’re off, I’ve come to the fairly delightful conclusion that the best course is to stop writing for a while and focus on preparation for our departure, plus a certain amount of chilling out! Along with the decision, I realised that … Continue reading

My partner Katherine has 5 days left, before she’s a free agent. This thing is really happening! Meanwhile, my PhD supervisor has doubts about our June 25 deadline. Here’s hoping I prove him wrong.

My mother, who has been spectacularly helpful in offering advice and helping to kick ideas around has done some research for us on how to manage money while we’re travelling. It turns out that, almost universally, banks are charging exorbitant fees to access money internationally – the 2% ‘currency conversion’ fee is one particularly common one, which can be a … Continue reading

I have, with much assistance from Louise, my ‘virtual assistant’ living in Spain, determined a feasible way to stay connected. The main considerations were Wifi (open/paid) Mobile broadband (3G) from the UK, and roaming Getting a local mobile broadband account upon entry to a new country Mobile satellite The conclusions are: Wifi: Not accessible enough, particularly if we plan to … Continue reading

To give us a hand, my also-travel-bugged mother has compiled an impressive list of ingredients, utensils, and other bits and pieces that she and her partner Chris pack when they’re travelling with their camper trailer. She has also listed a whole bunch of recipe ideas. The guide was so helpful I thought I’d post it here.

The bane of every French student, or so I hear. Here’re my notes on conjugation. (in progress)

Fire going, glass of wine, banana cake and last.fm radio

We’ve finally booked our accommodation in London (or rather, started the somewhat manual booking process). It’s all happening.