Tuesday 29 September 2015

Here we go... Follow me...

Alarm goes at the unforgivable time of 5 am. How tempting to switch off the alarm, turn around and go back to sleep! And I do for a split second when I suddenly realise, no I have a plane to catch, to St John's (Newfoundland, Canada - not one of the most well known places, but still direct flight from Dublin surprisingly). Poor Laia, she woke up as well, to come with me in the car to the bus stop so she could drive my car back :) (feeling the love ❤️).

So the travels I'll be posting about for the next six weeks will be on a research cruise I'm joining in the Northwest Atlantic. We're sailing from St John's on the 30th (tomorrow) and we'll dock in Ponta Delgada in the Azores in precisely a month, 30th October. The next day I'm catching a flight to London Stansted, then I have to make my way across London to Heathrow, to catch a loooooong flight to Wellington, New Zealand, via Singapore and Auckland... I think... That's to attend a conference there. Only gonna stay 4 days though... :( due to the teaching commitments... All the way across the planet to stay only four days... just doesn't seem right...

So journey starts today; Going to St John's so I can board a research ship! It's times like this I feel like a true mariner. They ask you at the airport "what is your business in Canada?" and in all honesty the answer is "I'm boarding a research ship". Wish I had taken a picture of her confused face! I could tell she was trying to form a question but even she didn't know exactly what to ask so she just said "can you explain that to me?" so I did and she got all excited - said she hadn't met anyone doing that before... I know it's unusual what I do.

This journey has been in the planning since May. That's when Sebastian asked me to join this cruise, and I got super excited and my colleagues were willing to arrange their teaching and swap hours with me for this term around my cruise. So don't think that I'm taking time off, no no no no no no no... I've been teaching non-stop before I came (double the amount that I normally would) and I will be teaching a lot more when I get back. It's just that all my teaching has been squeezed into five weeks instead of 11! But now is not the time to stress about that.... I'll stress later - and you know me, I will stress later.

                                         Newfoundland coast, Proterozoic sedimentary beds.
                                         For the geo-heads out there they look like they are dipping
                                         ESE at about 60 degrees, no idea about younging
                                         direction.

                                       St John's from above. Second ship from the left at the 
                                       bottom of the picture, is home for the next month. As all 
                                       German research vessels in its identifying blue, white 
                                       and orange.

Every day or at least every time I post something I'll have a feel good story, or the funny story of the day. So here is one: You know these YouTube clips about flight attendants that make the whole safety spiel funny? I always wondered how come after all these flights I've been on I've never come across anyone like that, and today I did. A few of his jokes: Life vests are under the seats, only inflate the vest once outside the aircraft. Pull firmly on red cord, if that doesn't work I hope you can swim - just kidding... At the end: Sit back and relax and enjoy the flight, or stand up and be tense, whatever, it's your choice. When we arrived: If there are smokers amongst you, yeih you made it this far, it means you can quit! Just kidding, none of my business... but seriously it's bad for you - whispering in the microphone. Made us giggle.

Now to the more pressing matters... What of the Rugby world cup? Well I don't know, it's a German ship, the vast majority are Germans, they don't care about rugby. I'm waiting for Chris, he's the only Englishman that will be joining us I bet he'll care, hopefully we'll be able to get Canadian television, they're in the cup in the same group as Ireland...! Don't wanna miss the entire tournament....

So friends, send me comments, ask me questions, I'll try to write as much as possible, take you on this journey with me and hopefully show you why it's so exciting to spend a whole month out on the ocean exploring. Hint... it's in the last word.... exploring.... :)

3 comments:

  1. giauto sou etseila mail kai mou girise piso ti kaneis pos pernas ax den mporousan na eimai kai ego mazi sou???????????

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  2. Enjoy your trip...and keep us informed ;-)

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  3. Hooray! Bon Voyage dearest and safe journey. Missing you and wishing you and the crew all the best on your adventures! Looking forward to future posts :) Thanks <3

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