Summer Jan08

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Geo: -33.8671, 151.207

4 Jan 08

Let's start with a rant: I was thinking posting Christmas cards must be majorly out of fashion in Ireland but then loads (well 12) came in 2008, according to the post mark Australia post like to hang on to them for at least a week, weird. Also customs kept some books my Mum sent for weeks so it took a month in all from her sending them to me getting them, ridiculous. Then products from Isle of White also took 4 weeks and the address was correct but the country said Denmark! How it got here is a miracle, so I emailed the company & told them (as I had updated my address correctly online needless to say) and they sent an apology gift that took only 5 days to get here, so there is no rhyme nor reason to Oz post. Mind you sending New Years texts seems to be completely out of fashion and that's not Oz posts fault, out of sight out of mind I guess 😊.



Have finally tracked down a hairdressers, am going with known brand 'T&G' in McMahon's point near work so we'll see if they have any better clue how to do a straight blow dry of curly hair than the Danes (who just made it fuzzy).

Verdict: In fact I don't know the answer to that as I went curly and the hair dresser was a brummie.


So weather 1st week of January was gorgeous, temp. mid/late 20's (but get this the beaches from Manly to Queensland are closed due to rough seas) there was so much rain in Nov-Dec I was starting to think "drought my arse". It's pretty hot at night etc. (going through a phase of not sleeping properly) and I see more beasties (mainly roaches) getting in which is yuk but every one is in the same boat, so that is defo a minus for here, along with the need for a car, the amount of meat that's involved in meals out & the fact you can probably get skin cancer by going to the clothes lines with no sun factor on! But I won't throw in the towel just yet though as the plusses are I am near my 'bezzie' sister and the next generation of my blood line incl. one that's a mini-me (everyone bar the aussie side of the family think this, do they have curly hair, deep set eyes and long legs? I don't think so! They may be blonder than us but pshaww to that). I know it was minus 6 at home last week with snow freezing as it fell but still I miss it. (I see it was minus 21 this week in Ulan Baator our fave place on trans Mongolian express, Jesus.)

I know everyone says 'Oh but the lifestyle here (in Oz) is what you want' well I am here to tell you my friends the life style in Europe is different but as good! But I am still glad I am here, I would just love to say to some folk remember it's not the 1950's anymore and we didn't need to emigrate for a better life, we just did if for the craic cause we could, celtic tigers mahn.



We finally unpacked everything but the books (as we still have no book shelves and about 18 boxes of books), in fact we brought some really weird stuff now that I have come to look at it all but then other stuff is missing that I would have thought I'd have packed, like say our official wedding photo, I can only hope I left it all in my Mum's.



After all the partying in Nov/Dec we are having a quiet Jan., plus P&A are away on hols so no neighbouring partners in crime. So we are having a mini film festival these weeks at home as Telstra (Aussie Eircom) are doing a free dvd rental by post thing for a month, have seen Volver -Spanish, v.g but C. says it's a chick flick, but I had wanted to see it since Dk but the subtitles were only in Danish there, so as my Danish was not up to reading a while film worth I had to wait til now, mind you we saw a DK film "Pusher 3" (v.g) on tv and it was so weird to hear the ould guttural language again, Perfume -British cast, good, Cinema Paradiso -Italian v.g. but very long, C. reckons we saw it college but that was pre bang-on-the-head for me so I had no memory of it, then Motorcycle diaries -fab and makes me so want to go to Latin America, Kenny - very Australian and funny), The Good Shepherd -US, good but too long, Babel-set in US, Morocco, Japan, Mexico & is v.g., The Constant Gardener - very British but much better then I thought it'd be & makes me want to go to Africa and last but not least Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (with our old favourite Klaus Kinski), brilliant.



11 Jan

As well as book shelves we also need a desk and a sofa bed, why we are dragging our heels I cannot actually say but suffice to say the main thing is we bought some crucial equipment in the form of a record player & pre-amp! So at least we have a 'music room' now 😊. So if someone could just come for a visit people that'd spur us on to get the sofa bed, come on book some holidays this direction.....



It's summer holidays here (well schools are closed for 6 weeks, that's not much is it?, mind you so is everything else) and you know how in Europe in summer it's silly season in news cause it's summer a lot of places and there is no real news, well they take the same angle here and even though there is real news in the rest of the world the 'quality' newspaper has stories of dogs having to take a morning swim in a flooded NSW town instead of a walk, like the story wasn't really about the flood at all more about the inconvenience for the owner of not being able to walk the dog and inane stories of how people had to move their cars in advance as they were warned a river would burst it's banks. They really are in their own little world down here, mind you the same can be said of Scandinavia J.



23/1

The world economy is f*cked and what's on the news here wall to wall the life and death of Heath Ledger, I must say it's a sad loss to the movie world though.



It's my brother in laws birthday today so big night tonight as they say here and P&A got back last week so we had dinner with them in their new gaff. Everyone seems to be on a bit of a health buzz in Jan. so it's all good and I am 7.65kgs lighter than when I arrived here, hurray.



While we were in Tasmania (see Tas entry) at the end of Jan. my sister & co. moved to their new 'mansion' as I like to call it - they bought a house (with a pool) after looking for 2 years so I think it's relief all around as the search was getting torturous but it paid off they got everything they wanted - num. of bedrooms, location, no renovation required etc., don't know how they did it as looking for a rental place for less than a month nearly killed me. Me being a semi professional packer now I packed up a few boxes for her last weekend and that's my contribution to helping my heavily pregnant sister move!



30/1

Oh and it's official I read it rains more in Sydney than London (and therefore Dublin), so the climate here in NSW has become very tropical in the last 8 years, everyone agrees and apparently it was like this 30 years ago too, so if you are moving here for the sun go to Perth.



The last of our new furniture will be here on 1st Feb. All our boxes unpacked and books on great big new book case now, only took 4 months! And we have a sofa bed & desk now too, so our house looks 'normal'. Going to my sisters new gaff this weekend to mind the 3 'bunnies' (as S&F have a wedding in Brisbane) which should be interesting, we already had them for one afternoon in ours and there was no fatalities.



31/1 Weather update: Hot and humid -yuk - but at least it's sunny for now....

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