Gas prices...

Last night I saw an advert for GMC, and it's offering a 3 year fixed gas price of $2.99 for every SUV sold. Pretty amazing what they'll do isn't it. It's not that I agree gas prices should be high (I am a fan of low cost of driving), there has to be a cost for the environmental impact of cars out there, and this is one way to make people really think about whether they need to drive - but this post is more about wishing the US would see itself in more of a global context. 

Gas prices aren't high in the US, they're not at the bottom of the scale either, but they're closer  to the bottom than top by far...........just a couple of examples from countries with similar (and lower) wage levels than the US.........

UK (Devon) - $9.15 per gallon

France - $8.30 per gallon (april price)

Slovenia - $6.42 per gallon (april price)

Greece - $6.38 per gallon (april price)

Chile - $4.80 per gallon

Hawaii - $4.18 per gallon

It's not like the other countries here don't complain about gas prices, they most certainly do, but there isn't the national hysteria there seems to be in some places here. Every news round I see has to mention how bad gas prices are, and I appreciate that it makes a big impact to families and people on a budget, i'm just getting a little tired of hearing "how bad it is" 24/7, when it isn't 'that' bad at all...... 

A walk in the rain....

....quite literally. Decided to get a little exercise and air and go for a short walk, it absolutely poured it down mid way. It's warm rain, so not terrible, but it was a real soaking rain, just had to change! I've realised I feel really silly walking without a dog/child/friend too....I miss Riley, he was always up for a walk....:0(

I did get two parcels today when I came home though - one had a great moose picture in (thanks!) and the other had a drawing and CD of photos from Jack in. That made me smile big time. Thought i'd share two of them........I haven't seen Jack for nearly 2 years, he's grown so big, I love seeing the pix of him wearing some of the little parcels I send out (guess which), and the drawing is up on the fridge already! 

Hope to see you soon Jack, I miss you!

Froggy sex

Well, my little poison dart frogs are at it......I just went out to check on my lettuce (which I'll have you know is suffering because of TOO MUCH RAIN) and found half a dozen of the little fellas out on my back deck. So cute........eat all the mosquitoes you can find little guys.....

So I went in to get my camera, and what do you know, when i returned they were doing it, right there on my back deck! So prepare for some x-rated poison dart frog action.....

Couldn't fit them all in one picture......i'm pretty sure there were more in the bushes too, waiting in the wings....

oo la la........i'm such a voyeur....

Post coitus froggy cuddle.......except he then chased her through the bushes for some more........


(ps....I realised i haven't said, each of these little guys is only 1.5-2inches long)

Happy Fathers Day!

To all fathers out there, but particularly....

Quack....

And my little bro....

I'm a sucker...

...for kitchen stores. It's ridiculous in fact, I can go into just about any other type of store and walk away without the slightest regret if I don't buy something. Kitchen stores however, just rock. I suddenly "need" all these gadgets and gizmos i've never heard of, but would make life so much more worth living. It's even worse when the store has all these cool eco items, that I just have to have........shopping and consumerism, I hate it, but there is my downfall, kitchen stores.  

So I found a great kitchen store today, while doodling around after going to the Diamond Head farmers market. It was very large and very full of shiny things, and not absurdly priced like i'm used to out here. Yet I did resist fairly well, I came away with only ice pop molds and two cute cookie cutters (did I say I have a thing for cookie cutters too?). The former was on sale 50% off, and the others were only 90c each, so it was good, yet i've come away with my usual yearning for other shiny gadgets.........sigh......

Onto the ice-pop molds. I saw these a while ago while googling one day. I've been looking for some ice pop molds for sometime (i like ice pops and it's hotter than hell right now), yet my tiny freezer doesn't have a lot of space for the usual stand up ones (no space in fact). 

Viola Lekue silicone ice pop molds.....you can store them in the freezer on their sides, upside-down, or even be novel and have them the right way up, and they won't leak. I have yet to test this as i've only just washed them, but will let you know. Perfect for left over smoothies, juices or (as in the instructions that came with them), frozen mojitos.....mmmmm, I like the way they think.....

More friends

Two more little friends to add to my ever expanding menagerie.....except these two are at least living outside (and please stay there....). 

They are "Green and Black Poison Dart frogs" apparently (good 'ole google....I must get a Hawaii animals book sometime) - "Dentrobates auratus - introduced to Manoa Valley to control mosquitos"........on second thoughts little froggies, come on in i've got plenty of mosquitos to share! 

.....oh and it says not to lick them.....:0)

Solar powered bible....

Nope, i'm not kidding. I've been looking for a solar powered  sensor light for my front door, and my google searches brought this up...

Solar Powered Bible

"The more you avoid change, the more you hinder the process of growth in your life"

ASW

My brother Grant just sent me this for my birthday, it really made me laugh....

Am I where I thought I would be by 30?

No, not really. It's amazing how different life turns out to be from what you thought it might be like when your 20. I had all these "i want to do this by the time i'm 30" and none of them really panned out. I didn't even think a PhD was an option when I was 20 (to be honest it's never something I had EVER considered), now look where I am. I thought I would be in the backcountry somewhere as a primary school teacher with several kids under my arms and a house full of animals. Not that that doesn't appeal at all (it really does in fact), but I'm not taking what I have for granted either, it's been a ride, mostly fun but there's been more than a few downers along the way too. I thought my sister would be here, hanging out, probably loving Hawaii much more than I do. How quickly life can change, and how easily it moves from what you ever thought it might be.

The bad things over ten years can easily overwhelm the good, so I figured maybe I should reflect and look at the good things i've accomplished since turning 20 (things other than having root canal the day before I turned 30 and getting my first major wrinkle).

Things I've done since 1998 (in no real order)-

1. Finished a BSc in Marine and Freshwater Biology
   
2. Started and finished a PhD in deep-sea ecology
   
3. Since 2000, i've been on 18 research cruises (I think, I lost count somewhere) to three different oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Southern)
   
4. Been a Principle Investigator on two cruises
   
5. Watched some amazing sunrises, and sunsets, over many amazing places with many amazing people
   
6. Been down to 3500m in the submersible Alvin, seen coral reefs at 1000m and hydrothermal vents at 3000m with my own eyes out the sub porthole
   
7. Published twelve papers and a book chapter
   
8. Moved my life from the UK to Woods Hole for 4 years, then moved again to Honolulu
   
9. Been to - the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Bermuda, Mexico, Canada, Antarctica and many of the US states that are so different some of them could be their own countries!
   
10. Finally saw a moose after 12 independent trips to moose country to look for them!
    
11. Became an aunt (yes I know I had LOTS to do with that one.....:0), a crazy aunt at that
    
12. Stepped on the Antarctic continent
    
13. Got a faculty job (in Hawaii of all places)
14. Snorkeled at night with corals spawning all around me
    
15. Ended a bad relationship, and started a good one
    
16. I've gone from a $500 1962 landrover to a brand new car in ten years, but I still love my landrover more, as rusty and holey as she is now.......
    
17. Had seven research proposals funded - four big ones (two with cruises)
    
18. I've grown in confidence, and in carefreeness
    
19. Knocked six parks off my life-time goal of visiting, camping and hiking in, all 58 National Parks in USA (Haleakala, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Acadia, Isle Royale)
    
20. I have my own lab, thats just mine
    
21. Hiked the Presidential Traverse (23.8 miles, 9050ft elevation gain, 11 peaks including Mt Washington) in 2 days on the second attempt. But i'm pleased with that....:0)
    
22. Learnt to ski and snowboard, neither of which i'm any good at, but I have learnt I really love the snow, never saw very much of that before I was 20
    
23. I've snorkeled with sealions, swum with penguins, seen orcas, humpbacks, baby blue whales and sperm whales, watched giant tortoises waddle and great albatross' fly, watched urchin eggs be fertilized and become babies - in short i've seen some pretty amazing natural sites, too numerous to list here and all I am grateful to have witnessed
    
24. I've moved from sharing a house with 5 people i hated; into a tiny studio with pink walls and red trim in the middle of the Southampton red light district; into my pdoc advisors basement; into a huge two bedroom apartment with dining room, double kitchen, deck, garden and pond; into a much smaller two bedroom house with wonderful garden; into a shoebox studio which is seven steps from front door to back (and thats around a chair)
    
25. And I share that shoebox with two geckos
    
26. And I actually love the shoebox and having to downsize, it's been good for me
    
27. Made many lifelong friends, too many to count
    

All in all people keep asking me what it's like to be 30, and I feel it's really no different from being 29, life goes on. I look like i'm 20 (or so i'm told by the masses) and I 'feel' somedays like i'm 50, so does the actual number really matter? Since I can rarely remember how old I am anyway, it probably doesn't, but it's been good to lay the above out and remind myself that I am actually moving forward rather than standing still, as much as I feel like it sometimes.

Root Canal

Ow. Well actually thats me whining, it really wasn't that bad at all (I say with half my face still numb). I am glad I went to this other dentist though (endodontics center), they were really good and the guy was done before I ever really knew what was going on, so it was totally worth bailing on the other place. I still need the crown done, so i'm going back to this original guy (the center did say he was good), really hoping it's not too awkward, just got grilled on the phone as to why I went to this other place to get the root canal done. Ug.........I'm not so good with the insurance/medical/dental politics as yet..........besides he's getting the expensive part of the process shouldn't he be happy??

The weekend

A relaxing weekend, which was nice, hope you all had a good one too. Mine involved a short hike on the Pu'u Pia trail up to a lookout on saturday, just an hours hike from my house to the top, so that was nice. I then doodled most of the rest of the day away and went to Paul's birthday party in the evening. Sunday was even lazier, I didn't get out of my PJs until noon, though admittedly I had been up since 7am, doing various things like laundry and tidying. I then went for a drive (wasteful on gas I know, but it was a dingy day so it was nice to get out) and also bought myself my birthday present to myself (see below). 

The top of the Pu'u Pia trail, a nice short hike, though it was really hot and muggy, and i'm really unfit from all the cruises, so it was good exercise! 

A red-faced me looking out over the Manoa valley

And in the other direction we have Honolulu

The way back down - just as the rain came in. It's started being wet again, and this made this trail really slippery in places, lots of mud.

My mosquito net - that has successfully stopped me being bitten anymore in the last few days, but was a total pain in the ass to put up. 

My birthday present to myself - a new side table, and a bargain at City Mill. This way I can get my underwear out of cardboard boxes in the cupboard and put them away finally! Fits in nicely, and I bought a magazine rack for beside the bed too (the darker wicker basket in front), the bedside seems to collect so many magazines (esp. when Stian is around!) I thought this would store them away nicely. 

Got em......

A photo that is.....here is one of my (two) gecko friends taking a tour of my ceiling. Unfortunately they were not being very friendly to one another this evening and screeching away. If you've never heard a gecko screech, it's pretty loud! I've seen a ton of babies scurrying around my front door, but none inside as yet, so I don't know if they belong to these two. 

The second gecko was wandering around above my bed, not sure where he is now. I just put up my mosquito net, so as long as he doesn't become entangled I should be okay tonight. And by the way, it took all of ten minutes after putting it up before I spotted a termite INSIDE the netting......ug.......this is why I like the geckos, at least they eat the nasty flying things....

Some Pix from Torres del Paine

Our trusty wagon......we were very glad to have the 4x4 capabilities! It was snowy and icy on the path several times and held five adults plus luggage pretty comfortably for the most part. 

Sunrise over our first hotel in the park - Los Torres

My companions contemplating the Torres del Paine (the Towers of Paine) over Lago Azul. What you don't know is that this picture is taken post pee-in-the-woods - they all just looked so cute there staring out at the mountains giving me some privacy! 

The Paine massif, from just outside the park on the southern end. 

Ponies! 

Taryn, Laura and I on an early morning hike to see the sunrise over glacier grey.

Foxy! 

Guanaco! A relative of the Llama. We stopped at pretty much every Guanaco we saw, until we saw around a thousand in one spot so we didn't stop so much after that. 

Some Pix from the cruise

One of the many beautiful icebergs in the Scotia Sea - otherwise known as Iceberg ally for the number that drift on through the area. 

I finally got to play with some of the functions on my camera this trip. Here is Dann taking photos with his very fancy camera from the bridge deck. He got some wonderful pictures of icebergs, which if you haven't seen, you really should - take a look at the cruise website. 

The semi-final of the twister competition. When your at sea you work at least 12hrs a day, 7 days a week for as long as the cruise goes (and often more if your a PI!), which was 38 days on this cruise. Kathy was wonderful at providing entertainment, one of which was a twister board. Playing twister at sea provides an extra dimension - keeping balance in 40knot winds is really hard work! 

The one (or two) that got away. This is all we got back from a trawl lost on the seafloor, snagged by something and torn away from us, samples and all. 

The science tower, tallest part of the ship. 

Lights in the darkness. Taken from the bridge while on iceberg watch. Though larger bergs show up on the radar, the bridge still has to be extra careful at night so we don't hit any smaller bergs. The little flag at the bottom is the very bow of the ship.

The TowCam we deployed to take photos of the seafloor. 

One of our final sunrises, one of the (few) perks of being on the night watch (midnight to midday).

Kate B is wonderful!

I got home today and there was a nice big parcel sitting on my steps from Kate B! Yay! Clever girl knowing my inability not to open bday presents before the actual day snuck in a housewarming gift on top to distract me - a quite unbelievably weird pot - where the hell did you get a pot that looks like an anemone!?!?!?!? Really quite bizarre. 

Of course I do still have all weekend to spy all the other gifts, give them a good shake and then eventually give in and open them early........and whats more Kate is at sea so she will never know! 

My giant box, littered with so many goodies I had to empty the peanuts to check I had everything! 

Yes, it's a pot that looks like an anemone!

Wednesday update

Okay, i'll try and post some cruise and post-cruise pictures up here soon, it's just been a hectic week and my computer is so full at the moment, I can't even resize pictures on my laptop, it's a real problem and I haven't had time to move things off of here.

So a quick update-

- Dental - I had a conversation with my friend Alison about root-canals - she's the one who likes this Manoa dentist, but she said not to let him do it, but to go downtown to a place that specialises in it - so I have an appt there on monday and feel a lot happier about that. They'll re-assess so i'll get my second opinion and they will do it there and then if I need it, and it's the same deal with insurance, so no extra costs in doing that. All I need to do is not to turn into jello as soon as I get in there.......

- Mental - Hawaii home yet? Well i if I could find a good MO with the mosquitos so I don't get eaten alive every night that would help, but though the general traffic, noisiness and "hawaii time" still drive me a little crazy, it doesn't seem as bad as before, so maybe i'm getting used to it. My friends also threw me a bday party on the beach last night too which was really sweet, a small gathering (i don't know so many people here) and i missed the Woods Hole crowd who always threw a good bday party, but it was super nice, and I went swimming which was great. So not quite home yet, but a damn site closer than any other time i've come back here.....

- Itchy suckers - the mosquitos are still biting, though i'm definitely going to try the gold-bond (does anyone know a home-made anti-mosquito or itch cream that works?? I really hate all the chems on a daily basis...) I also ended up buying a mosquito net for my bed. This moment of realisation occurred while laying in bed, emailing with a G&T on the side watching all these little mosquitos and flies flying and sticking to the side of my G&T glass......ewwwww

Big ass cars.....

Apparently Hummer sales fell by 60% in May and GM is axing the Yukon, Tahoe and Suburban........I may complain about gas prices, and I do love a good 4x4, but this has to be a good thing to stop those city and suburban mammas driving their kids to school everyday in one of these giant beasts............and I really dislike Hummers...:0)

I have 12 mosquito bites on my right leg and 9 on my left. I also apparently I need root-canal on my tooth thats been having problems, they wanted to start today, but I was too much of a mess to do it. My insurance will cover me some of the procedure, but not the crown to go on top. Grand total ~$1500. Worst of all I look after my teeth really well. I spend a fortune on good toothpaste, toothbrushes, washes etc, to the point where Stian makes fun of me. Just when I was starting to get on top of things financially too something crappy like this always happens. 

I'm also afraid i'm starting to get a phobia of dentists, I really turned into a mess as soon as he mentioned root-canal, and I just couldn't stay in there any longer, I couldn't breath, it was ridiculous. I'm not sure I could ever show my face in there again come to think of it. 

I've had so many "bad-dentist" experiences that i would just like someone to pull all my teeth out right now and be done with it. As an example the last dentist who started a crown for me broke off my tooth resulting in me having to have it pulled (by a different dentist I had to drive 30 minutes to because he didn't do "that"). That same dentist also did 3 fillings (2 redone childhood ones) - one of which fell out a month later while I was at sea, one fell out about a year later, and two years later this root-canal is now in the same tooth as the last one that he did............and i'm not even going to go into my wisdom teeth experiences here, just way too traumatic......

....did I mention my mosquito bites also itch like hell.......:0(

Parking

A pattern is emerging, it seems the first thing to get me down when I
return is always parking. This morning I had a meeting at the biomed
building. Downtown, so just drove straight there. No short-term
visitor parking, I had to pay the regular uni $3. So then came back to
main campus. Well my parking ticket was orange and the parking
structure only has blue tickets, AND they are non-exchangeable. So
another $3 down. $6 in parking today and I've had to leave at 2pm to
go to the dentist. Best bit is that if I want to go back to work after
I'll have to pay another $3 because they are invalid if you leave the
car park. Shish.

On the good side at least when I drove back this morning
there were actually spaces to park in, summer vacation.