soledad penadés

I was going to write this yesterday after dinner, but I happened to find Nadieh (or more appropriately, she found me!) and we had dinner and interesting conversations until late. So the only thing I had time for was packing my bag in preparation for my long trip home.

It was exciting to be back in Melbourne when the weather is warmer. Last year it was so cold just as London was getting warm! The coffees were good, and same for the food.

The audience at CSS/JSConf was really nice to interact with and I think they enjoyed my talk, which was recorded, but I am not sure when it'll be published, and I want to check it out. Apparently the stenographer was having a field day thanks to my audio glitching experiments:

https://twitter.com/allyelle/status/804177084612493312

so I'm curious to relive that.

It was a bit accidented--my browser hung half way when encoding video, which it hadn't in MONTHS, then the occasional bug that only happened one every twenty times? it also manifested itself. At least the projector played nicely with my laptop. It could have been worse, I say to myself.

Next day I indulged myself and stayed in bed for waayyy longer than was immediately necessary as I am going to spend so many hours in planes and airports this week-end... first an eight hours flight to Hong Kong, then a lay-over, and back to London in a twelve hours flight. It's upcoming realities like these that make you truly appreciate the beauty of a simple bed on a quiet environment. Where quiet means literally quiet, not artificially induced quietness (via ear plugs etc).

I've been away from home for the last 12 days but it feels way longer due to travelling east, and also further down south. Everything is pretty much shifted for me right now. It's "summer" here where it's "winter" in London, and I'm wishing good morning to my people as I get ready to have dinner. It's all a bit confusing.

I'm looking forward to being back and not having to do things such as putting a 'please do not disturb' sign on my door every day, or having to take food decisions every day (versus just buying familiar stuff and cooking it with my familiar kitchen accessories in my kitchen), or taking pills to go to sleep, every day (because I am still not used to the +11 hours shift).

I am glad I brought my own pillow with me this time. I used to think that was such a silly thing to do: I was wrong. There's nothing like your own pillow to sleep on. Except for one night, I have slept really well during this trip, albeit not enough, as there was always something to prepare, somewhere to be, someone to meet.

And as much as I enjoy exploring new places and trying out new stuff, I am yearning to go back to normality. I found myself daydreaming with tea and toast and listening to BBC radio on a Sunday morning. If that's not homesickness, I don't know what that is!