Gosh. I’ve been wanting to write blog posts for a while, like at least do an update before flying off. But who knew life threw me a curve ball and here I am, on my hotel room bed in San Diego, typing away on my fancy schmecy, brand new magic keyboard 2 for iPad.
Yeah. I did it. I take it as reward for finishing the first draft of my grant proposal…
What grant proposal you ask? Yeah, a grant call opened up like two weeks before we were due to leave, and it’s probably like the only grant that I’m eligible to apply for? So well. Yup. It wasn’t about the paper this time… But trying to write a grant proposal. And it was hard… Obviously my first time, and I barely had much motivation to write. And of course there was stuff to be packed, last minute things to do – for the trip and for work… Ultimately I just didn’t have the time/capacity to do an update.
Flight was alright, but very, very long. 15.5 hours from SG to SF! And there was quite a bit of turbulence too… Ok not *that* bad, but for the first time ever the whole of yesterday I was still feeling the movement when I was sitting down. Over that now, but boy I was surprised that first time that happened. It happens if I’ve been in the sea or on a boat yes, but plane? That’s a first. Flight was COLD. Didn’t help that I bought a new jacket – new as in never worn before – on the flight, and didn’t realise just how thin that jacket was. Yup. I was freezing. Jacket was bought online like 2 years ago but covid ya know? And with the SG weather I don’t wear jackets in Singapore basically. So.. Yeah. Didn’t do much on the flight… I loaded youtube videos and Amazon prime videos but only watched like 3 of ‘em. With how little space there was in economy, I couldn’t open my ipad and have it docked on the keyboard folio, so that makes typing blog posts out of the question.
The whole flight was pretty much always in ‘night mode’ to help with the jet lag, and I did want to try sleeping so I didn’t cube either. In flight entertainment wasn’t all that to my liking as well unfortunately… I’m not really a movies person, because I hate how I’m just keep thinking about the movie the entire day after watching… But I did end up ‘watching’ Titanic (neighbour was watching that) and the Passenger (someone in front was watching that) through other ppl’s screens for quite a bit. The passenger has quite an interesting plot, I went to read up on imdb… But I don’t want to watch it… It’s like… Part scary and… Idk. I just don’t like movies in general ok? Even dramas are kinda meh. I’m ok with documentary. But give me variety tv.
Oh yes. I searched up IMDB. During the flight. Free wifi by Singapore Airlines, that was really amazing, especially for long haul flights like mine. Yeah it’s not fast, I doubt you can game, and streaming is blocked, and it’s really not fast so websites and images takes a while to load…. And some stretches during the flight there was no connection at all… But I could msg all right (when there was connection that is, and mostly it was alright), and I could send photos even, though that does take a little longer…. Oh yeah, I’m travelling with my colleague. Two girls, we both picked aisle seats and it’s a 3 columns (or rows, depending on how you look at it) of seats, 3 seats per block… We were in the middle block and on different sides, with a guy (a stranger) stuck in the middle. Poor guy lol. But me and my colleague were messaging each other on whatsapp during the flight lol.
A whole bunch of photos coming in, click to see larger photos, and explanations/stories in the caption.
We had about 3+ hours for layover before flying to San Diego where the conference actually is… I thought that would be ample time, but who knew we had to clear customs, collect our baggage, re-check in baggage and go through security again… And grab lunch since the next flight had no meal service. We did have time to eat lunch so it wasn’t that bad, but it was still quite rushed! I was definitely worried that we wouldn’t have enough time.
I didn’t get to sleep much at all on the first flight, like maybe 3 seperate 1 hour naps, and maybe 2 hours before landing? I did have a good sleep for the entire duration of the 1 hour 20ish mins connecting flight though. Just completely knocked out.
Afterwards it’s just Lyft to the hotel… Uber eats for dinner… And then grant writing hell. I slept for like 4 – 5 hours… Woke up around 12:45am, tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t for an hour, and decided to just start grant writing. Definitely way more productive and motivated… Wrote a lot by the time morning rolled around. Write, eat Uber eats left overs (we ordered chipotle), write, rinse and repeat.. All the way till I was mostly done by 1pm (did try to take a nap in between but couldn’t sleep). Then I called it a day and went to have a lovely sleep all the way till 4pm, where upon we decided to go out to the mall to grab some dinner… Before heading back to continue writing. I finished up my first draft earlier… While my poor colleague still writing right now. But hey, she’s already on her second draft, whereas I’m on my first draft and awaiting comments from my boss and colleague… She pretty much had to rewrite everything after the first round of comments… I hope I don’t have to… At least not rewrite *that* much! >< It’s definitely a learning experience, but still, it’s a painful one! In comparison, I can type ‘nonsense’ like a million times faster (this blog).
More photos coming up…
So it’s been solely mexican food since we landed in SD… I’m liking the keyboard so far. Been using the trackpad A LOT, I guess the fact that I’ve been only using the trackpad on my work laptop when I’ve been writing the proposal at home, and now in SD helped. I’m using to using a trackpad again. Still need to get used to some of the stuff, but overall it’s great. The key location and stuff is a bit different from the folio since it has to make space for the trackpad and all, but I’m almost all used to it now. Somehow I get times when I accidentally misclick the trackpad on my laptop and the cursor ends up going elsewhere – happened quite a bit in fact. But none so far with the iPad. Not bad at all. The tiny size of the left and right arrow keys throws me off… But I’m loving how the corners of the keyboard and rounded and smooth and doesn’t bite into my hands/body. The ‘floating’ mount Also means that I won’t trap the iPad too tightly between my fat tummy and knees, causing the entire ipad to come crumbing down from the folio. That and the much more rounded and no longer painful edge alone makes it worth it… I think. And of course having an additional passthrough port on the LEFT is great too, because when I’m on my desk at home, my cable will be coming in from the left, and even with a 3m long cable, the cable would be bent, so having ports on both sides is great. The backlit keys are good too… Like there in the hotel room, it’s kinda dim and I can see the keys. Heck, my bloody stupid work laptop doesn’t even have backlit keys! I had to turn on the lights to type properly at 2am last night… Yeah I’m not that great of a touch typer and it’s just… I just need that visual cue to find where to put my hands and all? Yeah I’m a very visual and spatial person.
Yup… Now I definitely regret not buying the magic keyboard from the start. This is so enjoyable to use… I can’t see myself wanting to go back to using the folio? Yeah this is indeed heavier than the folio but… After carrying both my ipad and my absurdly heavy work laptop, plus charger and mouse around for a while… (over 8 kg)… What’s a few hundred grams more lol! Of course the very nicely padded pacsafe bag makes it so easy to carry as well, though the bag itself is really sturdy and that adds to the weight!
Alright, that’s all for now. Till next time!