Hey So... it's on. Almost all on. Almost completely sorted out. Almost 100% done and dusted. Almost. Not quite, though - 1 or two little bits to still iron out. But almost. At the moment, the big trip north-west is 99% sorted. It goes a little something like this: 1. 1 April: Cape Town - (Joburg 3 hour stopover) - (Noo Yawk City 2 hour stopover) - Washington DC Dulles. 1a. 3 days there, give or take a half-day; hopefully manage to interview for a post-doc at NIH or WRAIR. 2. 4 April Dulles - Noo Yawk City. 2a. 4 days with my old friend Ryan and his current bird; hopefully a post-doc interview at Albert Einstein College of Medicine 3. 8 April Noo Yawk City La Guardia - Denver, Co. 3a. Overnight in Denver, catch the shuttle to Copper Mountain Ski resort Saturday 9 April bright and early. 3b. 9-12 April Keystone Symposium X6: Parasites and cool stuff like that. Present PhD research data, wow everyone, get short-listed for Nobel prize, snowboard a lot. This time, attempt to not fuck up ankle in the first 45 minutes on the snow (a long story from August 2000 involving me, a hot,saucy minx of a snowboarding instructress called Nicole, and a rope ski-lift. And piles of my legendary non-coordination, of course). 3c. 13 April 05h30 shuttle back to Denver. 4. 13 April 09h00 Denver - San Diego. 4a. Hook up with me ol' mucker Ands, the poetic accountant, who is in SD on business (he deals in wigs. Rather, he is the top finance guy in a company dealing in wigs and other hair-related stuff), go out on the town, catch a concert or something, try to not miss interview at Scripps Institute for post-doc on the 14th. 4a i). Wow the Scripps Institute people. 4b. Bus/train/drive to Los Angeles evening the 14th of April. 4c. Paint LA red for three days - Disneyland, Rodeo Drive, Walk of Fame, Dogtown etc. Hopefully have post-doc interview at UCLA on the 15th. 5. Midnight flight out of LAX for Noo Yawk, arriving 7am the morning of the 17th. 5a. Spend two-odd days on various touristy things with Ands and Ryan - Staten Island, Empire State, shopping etc - my big sister turns 30 on the 20th, after all, and is expecting a bag o' swag from me. 6. 18 April 5.55pm South African Airways flight 204 Kennedy to Joburg and 367 Joburg to Cape Town, arriving 9pm on the 19th, theoretically worn out. Exciting times. The only downside: 17 hours each way plus an hour fuel stop in Senegal or Cape Verde crammed into the new Pride-of-the-SAA-fleet Airbus A340. According to reports, normal-sized people have their knees rammed into the seat in front of them; anyone over 6 foot tall can barely fit in there with legs akimbo. And here is me at 6'3". Sardine can, anyone? -d-