 In which Sami achieves things
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Sep. 14th, 2009 @ 05:14 pm 
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So, this afternoon, I have achieved things!
I renewed my driver's licence, including changing the name on it, I'm currently at the Asus service centre resolving some issues regarding my computers (getting the power supply replaced under warranty because the rubber is disintegrating and I was going to buy a replacement until I realised, no, that's totally a warranty issue and they can give me a new one), and my bricked iPod is off for warranty replacement as well (with some assistance from Chas, there).
I also, on the way to the repair centre, stopped at the Army/Navy Disposal Store a few doors down and bought waterproof hiking boots - Hi-Tec Altitudes, which are also, I note, highly praised online, although apparently cheaper in America than they are here. (Though still a good price for solid waterproof boots.) I wanted some boots that would be warm and resilient under the influence of rain, wet ground, and mud, since... I'm going to Britain, yo. And there's a distinct possibility of encountering snow inherent in various of my plans, which also means I want waterproof boots.
I also got a couple of skivvies, because layering is where it's at for keeping warm. I know from experience that I can be comfortable in sub-zero temperatures (celsius) with a skivvy-shirt-jacket setup - after I've had a day or so to adjust to the cold. Since I plan to be spending not-insignificant amounts of time in the Scottish Highlands, preparing for cold conditions is kind of important. (Not to mention the part where my plans include crossing the Arctic Circle.)
I'm not one of those people who thinks the Highlands are the main part of Scotland - they're really not, of course, not at all. However, the Highlands are where my own ancestors come from, and my ancestral home, which is an important destination in my plans, is up there. Research and family lore alike confirm that it's cold around there. (My ancestral home is a farm in the Grampians that my family has definitely been on for almost all of the last thousand years, and has quite possibly been on for as long as human habitation has been there - the limit of definite is where the records fade out.)
Left to do is try and get passport photos taken tonight - which I can do at home, so that's definitely doable, and get them signed off by a guarantor so I can renew my passport tomorrow.
Which, you see, will leave the following items on my to-do list before I leave:
- Hand in some forms at uni
- Call Malaysian Airlines and confirm flights
- Also, with airline, make requests for gluten-free food, query snack situation for hypoglycaemia reasons
- Call Malaysian consulate about taking dexamphetamines through Kuala Lumpur airport without getting arrested
- Call British consulate about bringing dexamphetamines into Heathrow without getting arrested
- Continue looking up potential destinations and so on
- Get in touch with relatives and make firmer plans for visiting
- Go clothes shopping, mostly for trousers
- Get int'l driver's licence
All of which are less time-critical than the passport and such. (International driver's licences are fairly quick to sort out, from memory - I've had one before.)
It's like this trip is actually going to happen...
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I have to say, first: AWESOME ON YOU! It will be an amazing trip.
Second, I am so very, very, very jealous. Not just that you are taking the trip (though yes! jealous of that), but that you have this amazing connection with not just your recent past, but your distant past. How freaking cool is it that you have an ancestral home that you can go visit? There are no words for how amazing that is. I wish I had something like that, some small place in the world that I knew was mine in that visceral, instinctive way because my family had lived there for hundreds or thousands of years?
![[User Picture Icon]](https://v2.dreamwidth.org/3974986/75896) |
| From: | ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) sami |
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| Date: |
September 15th, 2009 02:25 am (UTC) |
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It's pretty awesome.
It's weird, being a first-generation immigrant I've always had this weird feeling of disconnection from my roots - I know they're there but it often feels like they're not.
But now, now I'm going to go there.
I can't wait.
![[User Picture Icon]](https://v2.dreamwidth.org/16080982/8491) |
| From: | rainbow |
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September 14th, 2009 05:50 pm (UTC) |
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I am SO EXCITED FOR YOU OMG!! And woohoo at the new driver's license with your proper name!
::bounces around in excitement:: The trip sounds so faboo, eeeee!
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| From: | sami |
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September 15th, 2009 02:32 am (UTC) |
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I know, right?
At the moment I'm having amazing amounts of fun just looking up places to go and see and saving them in my GPS.
Eeeeeee indeed :D
Yay, progress! I hope people were sensible about the changing of your name on your driver's licence. Also that you don't have problems about your meds - one would think that keeping them in the original packaging with a copy of your prescription should cover it, but I have a profound lack of trust in the ability of Customs to be sensible, even before the security theatre of this decade.
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