Honeymoon, finally

In about 1 week, we will finally be going on our much discussed, much dreamt over, honeymoon. For those who aren't familiar, Mark and I got married more than a year ago, but still have not gone on our belated honeymoon. Just a few months after getting married, my company laid me off. The following year was a year in which I cowered all the time, did not enjoy my hobbies, and had no energy beyond work, let alone to travel.

Anyways, I am writing to say that after a year, and in spite of the economic recession, we will finally be going on our trip of a lifetime. We are on our way to the famous Beqa Lagoon in Fiji to enjoy some scuba diving and general relaxation on the beach.

Part of the fun of going on vacation is, of course, all the planning and preparation that goes into taking a vacation. Getting the right stack of books to dig into while swinging from a hammock on the beach was one of the things I found myself preparing this past weekend.

1. "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins is my brainy choice. A scientific case for evolution is made against advocates of "intelligent design". So far very elegantly written, but painstakingly slow and explanatory. I probably wouldn't get be able to finish this book in my daily life. Maybe I will actually get through it while sitting on a plane.

2. "My Stroke of Insight" is a personal account of a neuroscientist who suffers a stroke and subsequently achieves nirvana. This will nicely supplement my self-help and spiritual library.

3. "Three Cups of Tea" because I like travel/mountaineering accounts, and it was recommended by a friend.

4. "Julie and Julia". This is my pure read for pleasure and will probably be the first book I finish. And I haven't seen the movie yet.

Not as interesting but perhaps more useful are the travel apps that I got for my new iPhone.

1. "Tripit" was one of the first apps that I got. This travel app stores your entire itinerary in one place. Simply e-mail your reservation confirmations to Trip it and it will automatically generate your trip in chronological order, provide maps and maybe even suggest checkout times.

2. "Blogpress" is an app that helps you post blogs with pictures without ever needing the use of a computer. This blog was sent using Blogpress. I tried another app called Cellspin, but thought it was far inferior since you couldn't create blog posts with text and pictures and you couldn't save posts for editing and publishing later.

3. "Round to it" is a so-so to-do app that I got to help me pack and prepare. I don't recommend this app. It is not terribly intuitive.

More to come later...

-- Post From My iPhone