Is this home Toto?

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Geo: -33.8671, 151.207

Sydney

20th You know that job I wasn't bothered about before I left (which I mentioned in passing in July blog entry) well I did a second interview for them at 9am the morning we left and they called me in Ireland to say I got it, and I really do want it so now all I have to do is resign...

That 1st day back I resigned (amicably), struggled to stay awake though a meeting at 3pm and left work 4pm in a zombie like daze, slept til 2am, up til 5.30am back in work 10am. Feel like something out of 'Thriller' but now 2 days later have at least been to the gym twice to get some normality back.

Notice a stretch in the evening, hurray but it's crisp enough, could see my breath on today Fri. 22nd afternoon.

Next up us minding 2 baby nephews for 27hrs starting today, C. doing the 1st 5 hours alone, what a man, I dunno how he knows what to do never having held a baby before and being the youngest of his entire family (incl. cousins) but he is great, and then on 24th attending the joint baptism of the newest one with his cousin...big aussie family do, and it was a nice sunny winters day (a bit like a nice spring day at home) so the party was out doors, yay.

Tues 26th Sleep pattern crazy still, am crashing & burning early and then am always awake 4/5/6 am for at least an hour. Was up on Friday am 3 hours before work watching tv which is unheard of for me. Doesn't feel too strange to be back though, in fact it feels normal which I didn't really expect and we had food & a few bevrons with P&A Sunday night after the christening which was good, well I have to wean my liver off.

So far have slept through dinner-time for a week, bar Sunday, hopefully that should counteract (calorie wise) the drinking our own weight in Guinness in Eire. Please God let us have to do nothing this weekend....

28th By now I have been to spin(/rave) class, cooked 2 dinners, seemed to have lost 1 of the 2kg gained, sorted me photos, washed all the holiday clothes and it's a spring like 18 degrees. Only I am still needing 12 hours sleep, what's up with that? And no more awake 3 hours before work either, back to snooze button.

It's funny how all the crazy birds here sounds so familiar now, there's one lot in the morning and a completely different lot who start at 5pm, I used to think it was some kind of itinerant gang doing whistling language outside my work waiting to mug people, but that I remembered I wasn't in O'Connell St. and finally realised it was a bird (admittedly it took me ages to figure out this and was furtively looking over my shoulder walking home on the dark evenings).

Here's another mad thing, all cafés are closed by 3pm! Like I know they are all up early but does everyone eat lunch on robot time?

Back in the real world if I had a newspaper column this is what I would write about: parents phoning other parents to complain when a 7 year old looks crooked at a peer. (My niece called another kid "a whinger" when in fact they do sound like a whinger, and getting their Mammy to complain to the other Mammy surely proves it, no?) Like isn't the world gone mad that kids in first class (grade) can't be bickering without parents getting involved, I know I am not a parent but come on, when I think of the shenanigans that happened in our school without it being down right bullying of course, surely it's just part of growing up? But silly me sure 70's kids just weren't as precious as 00's kids and as for 40's kids sure we "didn't know we were born" as they say.....But this is the mad bit, the Aussies all refer to their babies as "rat bags" which I think is awful!

It's great the Olympics is over cause there's a new tv series on now, like 'The Riches' season 2, hurray and new Emmy winning US one 'Breaking Bad' about a chemistry teacher on the edge with the father from 'Malcolm in the middle', very good. And they are going to show the Sopranos again from ser.1, ep.1 yay.

Film this weekend was Superbad '07 (from the 40 yr old virgin crew) it's a teen flick but very intelligently done and so funny, extremely enjoyable.

Reading "The kite runner" which set in Afghanistan and is great and "The Popes children" (published in 2005) which has some fairly factual and a little bit opinionated research about the Ireland whose young adults were born in 1980 (620,000 of them), 9 months after the pope's visit (also includes those born up to 10 yrs before i.e. our last baby boom until now) and who are all with the decking & the suv's and house in "the baby belt" & the commuting and the necking back yokes etc. kinda unput-downable actually but also could be applied to many western capital cities.

Oh did I mention I am quoted by name in a book written by my journo friend at home about above all things, saving money, well I am!

For the 2nd time in my life I have been involved in having a wrong number phone contact with a stranger but having the same name as a person they knew, it's not like my name is Mary or Emma or Sophie (although my name is way more common here). So I got a text the day of the holidays saying "Hi Bel have a great trip and sorry couldn't make it for a drink last night" (we had had a drink with bro-in-law-in-law P) so I thought it was from P's sister Jo. But it did say "X Hols" & I thought it meant "I love holidays" or that Holly my niece was with her, so I thought nothing of it (plus I had just come from an interview & was about to get a flight to US so was a bit addled), then this week I texted Jo to say happy birthday and I get a reply saying "Sorry this is Holly but hope you had a great trip", so I ask her surname which means nothing to me and I tell her my name and she's like "are you f**king with me? You are in my phone as Belinda Wilson" so it turns out this Belinda Wilson went on a trip on 20th Aug too, went for a drink the night before and has a very similar number to mine, isn't that bizarre, well maybe not that bizarre but funny. (The previous time, years ago, I was calling a college mate called Duncan (also an unusual name in Ireland) and misdialled and got a Duncan who knew a Belinda and so when I identified myself by 1st name he said yeah and we had a weird conversation about college exams and then it dawned on me he had no idea what I was on about so we exchange surnames and you get the picture).

So winter is over and I have a line full of clothes that are wetter now than when they went out! It lashed all Saturday night, I saw on the news it's been the coldest August in Oz in 65 years!!! It would have been a pretty dry August if it wasn't for the record breaking rain in some parts of the state this weekend, but it's good I think as it sets up crops for spring or something.

So we ended the season by eating, big brunch on 'Jago's' on Miller, North Syd. and then about 4.5 hrs later had a lovely Indian in 'Bayleaf', on Willoughby Crows Nest which we hadn't been to before and was yum.

Sleep pattern back to normal, going to sleep at 1.30am and then not being able to get up by 9am, was getting worried I was becoming naturalised but phew all is well with the world again. 😊

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