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Published: June 19th 2010
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My precious and dearest friends and family (sounds pretty stiff but that's the truth and my mother told me always to be candid),
Have some news for you, some of you know already: I decided to extend my stay until December 19.
NOT because I don't miss you because I do terribly (maybe bit exaggerated but I can accuse some maternal genes for that too 😱 ) but it became too complicated if I wouldn't and with my autistic traits I need structure.
The facts:
I only did one field trip thus far and still have some goals to reach if I want to finish (at least partly) what I proposed my employer (the National Fund for Scientific Research in Flanders , FWO). In July and August I will have some good times (I hope) in the mangrove forests of the Daintree National Park, Lizard Island and Exmouth.
My parents and “little” sister come to visit me in September and I would find it a real pitty if I would have to tell them “Sorry, but I have to work you will have to tour around without me”, both for them and for myself. Having been in Australia
for 1 year and only having been in Blue Mountains, next to my field trips (but that is limited to morning hours sampling and rest of the day we are also in a shed processing samples), would be bit over the top don’t you think so?
So, I agreed with my “boss” here to take holiday the whole of September and stay until end of December to finish analyses of the last field trips and even try to write the resulting papers as far as possible.
The feelings:
Of course I made a pro and contra list in advance (as a “list-person”) and actually I realized I was quite happy here! The daily bike trips really make me feel good although I just realized last weekend (when my neighbour had a garage sale and I bought his bathroom scale) that I lost some weight. But, I am on a fat-gaining diet now which at the same time makes me discover new recipes, so all fun 😊! My office has no windows but when I am outside and the sun has not set yet, I love being in the sun so much. It makes me terribly happy just seeing blue
skye, some white clouds, colourful birds, noisy cockies (as they call cockatoos). Even riding home at night makes me feel peaceful, relaxes me, gives me time to “process” all the impulses of the day under a skye full of stars and a beautiful moon of variable but always neat shape, slender or plump. The animal encounters are rare but that makes them special. Yesterday it happened again. It was past 9pm (after some Skyping with mom and dad) and suddenly there it was, a cute opossum with a downy tail, in the middle of the bike path, staring at me, coming towards me, not knowing what to do. Poor little guy, distracted by my lights probably. Something similar happened when I rode home after a party, I turned left into Madiganstreet almost home when suddenly….
I had to brake because a whole flock/troop/herd/group of kangaroos was settled in the middle of the road. At ease, eating grass at the sides of the road. They looked at me, were thinking what to do and then crossed the road slowly slowly and let me pass. Really funny!
That were the pro-things, the contras were of course that I miss little Max
(my godson of 2 months!!!) a lot and that I also want to hold him, cuddle him! I also miss my colleague-mates a lot and especially the normal chit-chatting with friends. My social contact here is limited to “good morninng” “bye” “hi” and “hello” and it makes me bit frustrated, especially during weekends. My colleagues, which are few, are all nice but they all have there own lives and “disappear” in the evenings and weekends. Those lonely moments, I have that feeling in my chest of wanting to shout, explode, do something but I don’t get the occasion to. But I got used to it and I just always remind myself of my mom’s words “you can’t have everything in life” and that’s true. So I try to be happy with the things I do have and I manage pretty well.
Besides when I was imagining coming back home, I realized I don’t have an appartment anymore, I would have to start that struggle of searching and moving again and there comes a time you just want to settle down (at least for a while ).
So taken everything together I thought, well I just stay bit longer
to finish work then I am at ease when coming back and can enjoy catching up with family and friends even more!
Last story before ending: I mentioned before of coming back from a party. Well I got the occasion to go to 2 parties so far. One was a cocktail party for Jack’s birthday (the technical assistant of the lab) and the other was a house-warming of my boxing partner Emily. Well, the saying is true that Aussies drink a lot! Both parties nothing happened, it was just all about drinking, one after another! It was really amazing how much they enjoyed drinking, not enjoying their drink but there lots of drinks. The cocktail party was still ok, there was a non-alcohol punch too and the 2 cocktails I had, and made me already very dizzy 😱, were tasty (forgot the names, something pink with vodka and cranberry juice and the other was brown with icecream). But the “audience” at Emily’s party was younger and the whole kitchen was full of all kinds of drinks. There were big Eskis (as they call there iceboxes) next to the fridge and they told me that sometimes they just fill the
bath with ice to put in the drinks! So I disappeared quite early from that party because what I like most about parties is dancing and this didn’t seem to be a dancing party and my 1 glass of champagne, mulled wine and gin tonic made me already quite unstable (but it was that night that I had my close encounter with my kangaroo friends, so it ended nevertheless spectacular!)
So, that was it for now. I have to go home now because I have rising dough in the fridge to make Beerflatbread (kind of Naan) and will make some muffins at the same time (lots of space in my oven). Battle against the no-fat supermarket products! (Now that I have to pay attention, really amazing how many yoghurt, cookies and even bread are fatless or with reduced fat content here)
Big hugs!
Nele
Oh oh, forgot to explain the title! I just discovered something wonderful: What do you think "tea leaf reading" means? I knew it instantly and found it so fantastic. To be sure I checked the dictionary but my feeling was correct, it meant "predicting the future" and thus is the same
as our "koffiedik kijken". Cool isn't it how sayings adapt to the drinking habits of a country!
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