Road Trip

I am so, soooo tired of driving. After having spent the last three weeks hurtling through Western Europe, and driven over 3000km in the last 10 days alone, I have lost all romanticized notions I may have had about "The Road Trip". There were no wide open roads cutting across the American landscape, at the wheel of a 1950s convertible Cadillac, all Thelma-and-Louise-like (with a happier ending). Road trips in my little part of the world involve being squashed inside an impossibly small car, clutching your rosary as you try to make your way in between enormous Polish trucks and German road-rage fanatics driving at break-neck speeds, passing the time by counting the IKEAs. Ultimate driving moment today was being overtaken on the right-hand side, above the legal speed limit, by a nun.

Still, I got to spend "quality time" with loads of friends and assorted members of my extended family, and managed to catch my little cousin's wedding, so it was all worth it. But I'm happy the next trip isn't for another couple weeks and (phew!) by plane.

A couple photos for your viewing pleasure before I happily drift off to sleep, my dreams filled with speeding nuns:

Haltern-am-See

The happy couple

La Familia

Big family reunion today; 15 people spanning 3.5 generations and a couple more by skype (ah, the modern, international family). We managed to finish lunch before 5pm, which was a bit of a record for our particular clan. Seems to me to be a cross-cultural truth that, when you stick a random bunch of people together of different ages, with nothing more in common than a few strands of DNA, they usually end up ingurgitating a lot of food. And making slightly unpleasant comments about whichever poor sod hasn't managed to get married yet (that would be me). You gotta love them, though (and I do).

There is a rather interesting study published yesterday about families, notably about the relative IQs of siblings. Apparently, first-borns have, on average, an IQ three points higher than that of their younger brothers and sisters. Something to do with the extra attention lavished on them by their parents before the rest of the brood comes along. According to the article in the NY Times, first-borns also have a tendancy to be responsible, disciplined high-achievers; whereas their siblings learn how to play the guitar, have more friends, start political and scientific revolutions and generally are way more cool.

This begs the question: how many INSEADers are first-borns?

On an entirely unrelated note, I did a little jump for joy when I looked at my spotted visitor map today. Not only are the little spots spreading faster than chickenpox on a kindergartner (don't want DTLF putting me to shame), but there is a new spot hovering above Alice Springs. Having spent some time in that "straight out of the far West, got to see it to believe it" community but a few months ago, the fact that someone there would read my blog tickles me pink. Dear Alice Springs reader, I don't know who you are, but thank you.