Well after getting back from climbing I was in full on getting ready to leave Kansas mode. Which was a little depressing! Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent packing and getting rid of bits and bobs and I won’t bore you with that other than to say that I managed to sell my car for $700. Having not managed to sell it on Craig’s List before I’d left for climbing I put it up on e-Bay with a $700 starting price. While in Vegas someone saw my Craig’s List post and after some discussion ended up offering me a $1000 to take it off e-Bay. However this was all a bit too close to the end of the auction and what with climbing I didn’t really have time to sort it all out so I just let the auction run thinking that as there were a lot of watchers it might go for more then $700. Turns out the man who had contacted me via Craig’s List was the only one to bid so he must have been happy as he got it for less than he originally thought.
Monday evening I headed out for food and drink with Carol, Mary Ashley, Seth and Rob. This turned into rather a lot of drinks and was a really nice way to spend a final(ish) evening with many of my best Kansas friends. Like when I left England we went for Indian food but unlike when I left the UK things did not stay very civilised after that as we all got quite drunk. I’m not entirely sure of my thought process but I ended up staying the night at Carol’s with Rob and Seth rather than walk back to mine. I think partly it just sort of happened but I know my ankle was playing up and as Carol’s was nearer that probably also had something to do with it.
Tuesday was spent packing before heading over to say a more proper good bye to Carol – she’d left for work way before I was up. I ended up having a much longer, but enjoyable, chat with her than planned so I ended up getting over to Monster Mountain much later than planned. I’d always planned to head there one last time if I could but after Rob said he knew someone that would take most of my kitchen stuff of my hands if I brought it over I decided I’d definitely go. I ended up not climbing – probably a good thing with my ankle – and instead just chatted and gave stuff away. I went out for a quick drink afterwards before heading home and my last night in Kansas.
I was stopping off in Canada on the way back to England to drop off many of my bags rather than flying them across the Atlantic and back. Turns out I headed to the airport with 7 bags. Although I was at the airport with a reasonable amount of time to spare I then took 45 minutes getting all my bags under the strictly enforced 50lbs weight limit. Eventually I managed it and after dropping off my rental car managed to, just, make the flight. Nothing else exciting to report until I got to Canada where it was much easier getting in than last time – which came as a surprise given that I had seven bags with me! Thankfully all my bags turned up and I was soon at my hotel.
Next day, I had a slow start before trying to sort out the one bag I was taking back to England so that it was under 23kg. This is about 50lbs but after the re-organisation of the day before not everything was in the right bags. Eventually I was done and heading up to my new work place. After dumping my bags I headed out for dinner with those members of my new lab that were free before heading back for another night in the airport hotel.
Next day I started the journey back to England. Nothing too exciting to report other than that I somehow managed to get a row of seats to myself on the transatlantic which meant I managed to get more sleep than normal. The fight wasn’t full but it was full enough that I really lucked out in getting a whole free row. All in all I was rather impressed with Air Transat, although I do wonder if this was in part due to flying in a newly refurbished plane. I suspect I’ll get another chance to see what they’re like early in the new year.
My parents picked me up from the airport and since then I’ve been at their house doing not a lot. Now I’ve had a lazy week I really do need to get on with writing papers and visiting friends which is my plan for the next few weeks. I have managed to get out and take a few photos in Clacton but that’s about it for even remotely exciting stuff. Hopefully visiting friends will mean my next post is more exciting than this one! I’m thinking I’ll keep this blog going to keep everyone updated on what I’m up to both here and in Canada, although it may get renamed once I’m in Canada as the title will no longer apply.