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THIS JUST IN. I have listened to the new Beyoncé album,
Renaissance, 18 times. It's been a week since its release, so compared to earlier times, that's not much at all. Compared to what typically happens with new albums these days though, it's a lot. The album is excellent. That woman knows how to release incredible albums.
She also seems to have a thing for one-word album titles. Even though her debut solo album in 2003 was called
Dangerously in Love, and her third album in 2008 was called
I Am... Sasha Fierce, every non-soundtrack album since has had one word as a title:
4 (2011);
Beyoncé (2013, still her best);
Lemonade (2016);
Renaissance (2022).
I don't think people should ignore her collaborative soundtrack concept album
The Lion King: The Gift from 2019, though. That album is great.
— पांच हजार दो सौ पचास —
I spent an inordinate amount of time this morning putting the finishing touches on my next photo digest email to be sent out: the one with 21 photos commemorating my 20 years at PCC. I plan to send the email late-ish this evening, even though the actual anniversary date is not until tomorrow. This way, most people who see it will indeed see it tomorrow, but it won't have been sent out during work hours.
I also wrote up the blog version, with all its many html commands and links, which I will post here on this blog early tomorrow morning.
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Other news? I wound up canceling my plan to see a movie last night, because my slow leak in the front tire of my bike needed fixing, so I rode first directly from work—after pumping up the tire yet again—to 20/20 Cycle on Union Street and 21st Avenue. I had a staff coupon for $10 off $50 at PCC, so after I walked home leaving the bike, and then they called to let me know it was ready for pickup, Shobhit and I first drove together to the store, did our shopping, and then he drove me the two blocks back to 20/20 Cycle.
The guy who was usually there when I went to this shop in the past wasn't there this time. Now there were two younger employees, one a young man and one a young woman (presumably). Even though the front door still has a sign that reads MASKS RECOMMENDED, neither of them wore masks before I came in. I always put on a mask to go in, though, and the young woman would put her mask on as soon as she saw me. The guy never bothered. I didn't really care that much. I'm just making observations. Shobhit came in with me and he didn't bother putting on a mask either, as he never does anymore. If and when I get covid again, it will once again because he got it first, probably at work, and brought it home to me. Again. Isn't that fun? I guess I shouldn't bitch about it until it actually happens again, but, he's definitely increasing our risk. I'm lowering it, but given his blithe disregard for masks anymore, I'm likely lowering it only a negligible amount.
Anyway! I digress. Shobhit didn't want to beat me home in the car, so he slowly drove alongside me, parking to the side a few moments each of those first couple of blocks of steep hill I had to ride my bike back up to 18th Avenue. I was able to take a route the car couldn't go, though, so I did beat him by a couple of minutes. Then we came inside, put the groceries away . . . and then spent the rest of the evening looking up flights and hotels for our trip to Australia next year.
It's definitely happening! We still have some things left to book, but we have the most important things booked now: all our international flights to and from Australia; our hotels in Brisbane and our first of two visits to Sydney. We still need to book flights from Sydney to Adelaide and back; our hotels in Adelaide and on Kangaroo Island; and our hotel the second visit to Sydney.
We did find a way to save money on the Seattle-Sydney itinerary, though. Bizarrely, a flight itinerary only to Brisbane was
more expensive than an itinerary to Sydney that had a layover in Brisbane! What the hell? At first I was like: why don't we just book this cheaper itinerary and simply not take that last leg from Brisbane to Sydney? Shobhit wanted to book a round trip ticket to Australia and back because that's always less expensive than booking a bunch of different one-way flights.
He considered that for a minute, and then realized another thing he could do: the itinerary did say Brisbane was an option as a "stopover" city on the itinerary, so he suggested we book the itinerary as it was, then call them up to see if they could just move the flight from Brisbane to Sydney back a few days. And, they could!
This allows us to fly from the U.S. straight to Brisbane as our first Australia stop,
then fly on to Sydney three days later—this change only cost an additional eleven bucks or so. So let's go over what we have as our itinerary, shall we? Bearing in mind that Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is Saturday, February 25 and the World Pride March across Sydney Harbour Bridge is Sunday, March 5, and we want to be there for both, which is why we'll be going to Sydney twice.
Sunday, February 19, Pacific Time to Wednesday, February 22, Australia Eastern Standard Time: flights from Seattle to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles to Brisbane
Wednesday, February 22 - Friday, February 24: Brisbane, with hopefully a day trip by rail to Gold Coast
Friday, February 24 - Monday, February 27: Sydney, including the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday the 25th
Monday, February 27 - Friday, March 3 (or maybe Saturday, March 4): South Australia. This one still needs to be ironed out, but what I envision here is a flight to Adelaide on Monday; going to Kangaroo Island to stay one night on Tuesday; then another day or two in Adelaide before flying back to Sydney. I am leaning toward two, though March 4, because that would match the amount of time we spent there last time, and I don't think we need five total full days in Sydney rather than four.
Saturday, March 4 (or maybe Friday, March 3) - Tuesday, March 7: Sydney, including the World Pride March across Sydney Harbour Bridge the morning of Sunday, March 5
The part that's set in stone now—or booked, anyway—is the whole trip will be February 19 through March 7. I was going to take two "buffer days" after returning, but since we land late morning of Tuesday March 7 local time, I think I can regard that as one of those two buffer days, and only take the next day off as an extra. I've sent the Outlook announcements to everyone this morning to let people at work know I will be out for two and a half weeks for this. I effectively was last time, too; I'm taking only one more day off of work this time than I did for the last trip to Australia.
I noticed something on our internal Dayforce employee site, where I submit PTO on my time sheet. It looks like Eric has accepted all of my other PTO requests,
except for the days I sent in last month in the weeks prior to both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I suspect he is unsure if I can get away with that yet or not. Maybe I will yet, who knows. You can't blame me for trying!
I'm much more looking forward to this trip right now anyway, even though the travel expenses are already so much more than they were last time, I already wiped out what I had left as set-aside "travel expenses," and will temporarily need to dip into my Savings Account. I should still be able to cash out around $3,000 of PTO this year—last time I'll be able to, but thank god it's this year I can—and that'll replenish what I take out. And I'll have to spend the rest of next year still tightening my budget belt and re-growing my travel expenses. I don't have my heart set on any other overseas international travel any time soon, at least; I really wanted this trip to happen because it will be the only time Sydney hosts World Pride. And then there are two other factors, making me want a second trip sooner than later: Uncle David will be 75 next year, and I want another good visit in before he gets too old to be as mobile as he is even now (ditto Mary Ann); plus, assuming they don't have brushfires as horrible as they had been in 2020, it'll still be one of the last times we can get there for a visit to admire the natural beauty at Flinders Chase National Park before climate change probably just fucks things up forevermore.
All very good reasons to go next year, in my opinion.
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[posted 12:42 pm]
