A new set of wheels

Having accepted the fact that I will never be comfortable driving a manual (after several months of trying to convince myself otherwise), and not being willing to commit to a winter full of cold and dark bus stations for public transport that literally runs hours behind schedule, it was high time to bite the bullet, shake every last penny out of the piggy bank, and find myself a more suitable vehicle for the daily commute. And did I ever! After being inspired by a painfully cute Little Tikes themed car parked just aside the Uckfield bus station, I narrowed my car shopping targets.

How adorable is this Little Tikes Smart Car?

Sadly, the Little Tikes Smart Car was not to be. But look what a cutie I've landed! I am back on the left side of the road and terrified for my life going strong.

Now we just have to sort out how to get that silly manual Ford Fiesta off our hands, and hopefully a bit of something back into the bank account...

A new scope and some old friends

Finally, a mere two months after my last eventful business trip, I yet again took to the skies for Scientifica. My destination: the Gateway City.

Nelly the Neuron and I made it to St. Louis!

This week's adventure was just as eventful, if quite different, from the last. Specifically, there was a fair bit of head banging and time on hold with customs. It certainly didn't lend itself to an easy or particularly fruitful install to be missing some key parts until Friday at lunch time.

After five days and many fights with customs, here we have our nearly fully functioning two-photon system...

Thank goodness each install day was punctuated with a friendly face at lunchtime: Sylvia, one of my oldest friends, and her husband have just moved out to Saint Louis a few months ago. And as luck would have it, my install was scheduled just a few buildings over from where she spends her days post-doc'ing. I'm proud to say I got to be one of Sylvia and Peter's very first visitors, albeit a somewhat distracted and busy one.

By the time Nelly the Neuron and I escaped lab after 9pm on Friday evening, these beers at the 4 Hands Brewery with Sylvia and Peter were well earned.

Luckily, my flight didn't leave until Saturday afternoon, which left us a few precious hours to power-tour their new hometown. It's surprisingly empty, but overall a cute little place. Missouri: check. States-visited count now stands at 22. Perhaps I need to look into spending a bit more time venturing back home? All in good time. 😉

Sylvia and me, about 20 years after becoming friends. It's certainly a plus of my itinerant lifestyle to have friends scattered all over the globe, just waiting to catch up when the winds blow us back together.

Chocolate and Louboutins and, finally, someone else's vows

A view from the outskirts of Geneva, just a few minutes away from the home of Nicolas's father's long-term girlfriend/partner.

A weekend of chocolates and Labradors and Louboutins (not mine!): not a bad little getaway if I do say so myself. And I couldn't complain that finally, the wedding excitement was buzzing around somebody else. There's certainly a bit less pressure when you're no longer the eye of the storm. We both enjoyed finally taking the back seat at a wedding in 2017.

Such good boys! Our weekend companions, Nicolas's dad's girlfriend's furbabies.

We were in Geneva for the wedding of Nicolas's father's girlfriend's son, who you could think of as Nicolas's almost-step-brother (aka my nearly-brother-in-law?), though Nicolas and Philippe's lives came together as adults. I must have spent half of the weekend just trying to understand how all the guests were connected to each other. Between marriages, divorces, new partners, and adoptions, the family lineages were anything but straightforward. But that didn't stop this mostly Swiss crowd from coming together to throw an excellent party. While most of their wealth was discreetly showcased, like in the flashes of Louboutin red underfoot, their lakeside mansions let on that the wedding budget probably hadn't required strict adherence.

Finally attending a wedding that's not our own! And yes, I rocked that fascinator. I don't care if we weren't in the UK.

We, on the other hand, had to be careful to keep our purse strings drawn tight. When we meandered through the city, window displays casually invited us to drop a month's (or year's) salary on a single accessory, and it didn't seem to deter the regular streams of shoppers slipping in and out of the shops. There is such a disconnect between that society and the "real world" as we know it.

A stroll through historic downtown Geneva.

The Swiss don't only know their way around a bank account. And their chocolatey delicacies are still within the realm of financial accessibility for mere mortals like us. Capping off the weekend with a cognac-flavored truffle from Auer chocolatier was certainly not a bad way to go.

Yum.