Esclaw

New Zealand (written from Christchurch and Bondi) (Yes, another long vacation blog, but hey, it's my second to last one, indulge me!) There's a commercial running down here in New Zealand promoting dairy farming as a way of life. The ad features people from various former careers talking about their new glamorous life as a dairy farmer. There is the ex-pharmacist, ex-fire-fighter, ex-shop manager and ex-teacher all saying how they'd never go back now that they have this career as a dairy farmer. The thing is, New Zealand is such a fabulous place, so breath-takingly beautiful at every turn, that Les and I wondered how we might fare as an ex-consultant and an ex-grad student/writer. We'd be good dairy farmers right? What a country! Maybe we were a little sun scorched coming off our six months ... read more

Feb 8, 2006 Well I started this blog out today intending it to be primarily about Frangipani flowers as a local fashion statement. But that’ll have to wait. Today I encountered the Australian Medical System and, as a card carrying member of the “10 Times or More” club, a group that counts how many times the American HMO/PPOs have made them burst into tears out of sheer frustration, I am obligated to recount the following. I’m in the middle of the three part Hepatitis B shot series. It’s required by Massachusetts state law for everyone attending any sort of school - - I need it for my Masters. I had the first shot in America and needed to get the second down here. But I’ve put it off because the thought of slogging through red tape ... read more

Feb 1, 2006 In Which My Worst Fear Is Realized It happened last night at precisely 10:14pm. I got ready for bed, turned off all the lights in the apartment, walked into our room and started fluffing the pillows when out of the corner of my eye I saw something that Should Not Be. A Huntsman Spider. On the wall above Les’ dresser. Five inches or so across. With cat-like movements, (by which I do not mean the graceful sort, but rather the extreme spazzing sort where a cat can jump into the air and propel itself across a room), I found myself in our kitchen grabbing my cell phone. Why? Oh, did I forget to mention, Les was still at work and I was alone . . .only not alone at all. The conversation went ... read more

It's another 'bobby-dazzler' down here (bright, sunny, day in Oz-Speak). We already hit the beach this morning before the crowds descended. I suppose that's one of the advantages to the early morning routine that a toddler demands. We don't get to sleep in, but we do get to hang out at the beach nice and early. So a few bits of fun news from our camp. First, The Beverly Citizen, a local newspaper from our hometown back in the U.S., has started running a series of columns that I'm writing about life down here. Of course they are mostly just shortened versions of my favorite blog entries - - let me know which ones you've liked the best so far and which ones I should, under no circumstances, consider reusing! The bigger, more exciting announcement this ... read more

Getting Off Kangaroo Island Our last night on Kangaroo Island was hot. Super hot. And because we'd had the nocturnal tour the night before, I went to bed dehydrated from all the walking. I woke up feeling like I'd swallowed a bottle of sand and consequently drank a bottle of water at brekkie. Not just any bottle, but a mega 1.5 liter bottle. Dad looked over and asked. “Did you just drink all that!? We have a two hour drive ahead of us you know.” I replied. “I’m dehydrated; my body will absorb most of it.” The drive to the ferry was not nearly as tedious as the drive from the ferry, but it was still insanely hot and the AC struggled to keep up. Abby was tired, overwrought and having a hard time falling asleep. ... read more

We did a lot in the past week. Probably as much in one week as Les and I did in our first month here. As a result, and since this blog is first and foremost my way of recording our time down here, these will be some LONG blogs. I’ll be posting three in all, but I’ll caption them. So if you feel like you’d like to read about Flinders Ranges, you can skip to that section, or you can skip it altogether. I hope this way those of you who read in five minute breaks here and there will have some nice ‘break length’ snippets. Adelaide Our flight to Adelaide took place in two parts, and both went about as you’d expect given we were flying with a toddler. The only exception was that on ... read more