I ran tons of errands today, and I'm wiped out as a result - it's hard to leave the house when you're not used to it, but my mission was vital and my sacrifice was therefore necessary. I went to Des Moines to take care of business related to my trip - I set up a post office box (for my alter ego), went to AAA to get an international driver's permit in case I decide to rent a scooter in Bali (I'm entirely unclear on the odds of whether renting a scooter is a bad idea or a terrible idea, but I'm going to find out!), went to Whole Foods to get gluten free snacks for the plane (and enjoy a surprisingly wonderful gluten free sandwich from their deli), went to Container Store to get more containers, and then went to the mall, where I wandered around and bought some stuff at Sephora and sat at Starbucks for an hour to get some work done.
While I was running all these errands, it was approximately 15 degrees with crazy wind - so crazy that one of my lids from Container Store blew out of my cart as I was going to my car and almost hit an oncoming vehicle. But I managed not to freeze, even though I stayed in the city until late - I had dinner plans with Aunt Becky and her scandalous pirate husband (aka Uncle Brian). They took me to Django, which is a French-type place downtown, and I really liked it a lot. I had the niçoise salad, which is an unusual order for me since I usually go for steak frites at French places - but it's been awhile since I've had fish, so the ahi tuna was great, and I thought the salad was excellent.
The company was excellent, too - we caught up on a bunch of stuff, and were there for over 2.5hrs, which was v. nice. But I had to call it a night then, since I still had to drive an hour and a half to get home - through deer-infested wilderness, which always adds drama to the drive.
I made it safely, spent some time playing around, and then did some more travel prep - ordering things on Amazon that I didn't get today (mostly mosquito repellent) and booking my tickets from Bali to London. I thought it was probably a good idea to settle my onward voyage before going to Bali in case the immigration people want to see proof that I'll eventually leave, and so I booked a flight to Singapore, a night in a hotel in Singapore, and then a flight to London the next day. All in, this was ~$400 - I used points to buy the SIN->LHR flight (business class for free!). The flight to Singapore could have been $65 instead of $200, but I like to survive my flights (knock on wood), and the budget carriers in Asia don't seem to be uniformly safe, so I went with a known quantity instead. Of course, I'm flying Malaysian for the SIN->LHR, who lost two planes awhile back...but given that one of them was shot down by zee russians (allegedly, of course) over Ukraine, and the other was never found but was quite likely a suicidal pilot, I'm chalking those up to bad luck instead of a reason to be worried.
So, that's more detail than you need, but I'm geeking out over travel planning, so get used to it. But now I'm desperate to sleep - goodnight!
While I was running all these errands, it was approximately 15 degrees with crazy wind - so crazy that one of my lids from Container Store blew out of my cart as I was going to my car and almost hit an oncoming vehicle. But I managed not to freeze, even though I stayed in the city until late - I had dinner plans with Aunt Becky and her scandalous pirate husband (aka Uncle Brian). They took me to Django, which is a French-type place downtown, and I really liked it a lot. I had the niçoise salad, which is an unusual order for me since I usually go for steak frites at French places - but it's been awhile since I've had fish, so the ahi tuna was great, and I thought the salad was excellent.
The company was excellent, too - we caught up on a bunch of stuff, and were there for over 2.5hrs, which was v. nice. But I had to call it a night then, since I still had to drive an hour and a half to get home - through deer-infested wilderness, which always adds drama to the drive.
I made it safely, spent some time playing around, and then did some more travel prep - ordering things on Amazon that I didn't get today (mostly mosquito repellent) and booking my tickets from Bali to London. I thought it was probably a good idea to settle my onward voyage before going to Bali in case the immigration people want to see proof that I'll eventually leave, and so I booked a flight to Singapore, a night in a hotel in Singapore, and then a flight to London the next day. All in, this was ~$400 - I used points to buy the SIN->LHR flight (business class for free!). The flight to Singapore could have been $65 instead of $200, but I like to survive my flights (knock on wood), and the budget carriers in Asia don't seem to be uniformly safe, so I went with a known quantity instead. Of course, I'm flying Malaysian for the SIN->LHR, who lost two planes awhile back...but given that one of them was shot down by zee russians (allegedly, of course) over Ukraine, and the other was never found but was quite likely a suicidal pilot, I'm chalking those up to bad luck instead of a reason to be worried.
So, that's more detail than you need, but I'm geeking out over travel planning, so get used to it. But now I'm desperate to sleep - goodnight!
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