Lilliput and Blefuscu?

In making final preparations for our New Zealand trip, we thought it'd be prudent to consult The Times Atlas of the World, an atlas given to us by a friend.  It's no regular, coffee table style atlas: this atlas is so large you need a suburban coffee table.  In urban areas we call suburban coffee tables - dining tables.

Lilliput and Blefuscu

I mean, who wants to travel to a country and not consult such a book?  Sure, it's a little late to be doing such planning (we leave in 2 days), but honestly there's only so much google maps can tell you.  For instance, can it give you latitude and longitude, or does it have an index of outdated city names that can tell you a page and quadrant?  No, I think not...

So I did the natural thing.  I hid the book under my pillow (condo term: mattress) for later retrieval.  Turns out, an island in the south pacific with 265,000 sq km and 3.3 M people on it's own continental plate (as per my 1988 atlas), might have been discovered early than people thought.   On further investigation, it seems that Gulliver may have visited NZed earlier than Captain Cook, circa 1702. Only he mis-labeled the two islands Lilliput and Blefuscu.

Anyways, today will be interesting.  We plan on filling an closing 3 checked suitcases as well as 2 carry-on's.  Return a handful of borrow items, pickup a DVD player for $10, and layout out our condo for a renter who requested a TV.  Mop the floors, scrub the walls.  And whatever else the wicket stepsisters wanted Cinderella to do around the house.

Should be an interesting day :)

Work, Recreate & Rest

Eight Hour Day Banner, Melbourne, 1856

The industrial revolution was ended by socialism, suggesting a work day best be defined as eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.  I'm about to redefine my work day, a work in progress for some time now.

Consider the eight hours of rest.  It would seem that Ethan has decided to begin snacking every three hours; a habit I'm determined to wean him of.  Of course that means persuading him a pacifier is just as interesting as ... well, a light snack from the source.  Rest 4, Work 12, Recreate 8.

Eight hours recreation - Preparing for a 40,000 km trip (think circumnavigation around the globe, only with a more directional approach) would be fun, or at minimal, a form of recreation.  Not so - it's been challenging.  It's required losing at least 50% of my standard recreation time to this make work project, leaving breakfast and dinner as the most leisure time of day.  Rest 4, Work 16, Recreate 4.

Eight hours work.  This is a curious thought, work just ended.  I'm out of office, for the next 10 weeks.  Spreading these "8" hours regained from the office: Work 8, Rest 8, Recreate 8.

Strange, my new work day ended out much the same as my old, 8, 8 & 8.  Only now, as in most of life, the details, and definitions, count more than the numbers.  It'll take a few days, or maybe a week or more, but we'll let you know how our new 8x3 works out.

Cheers!