To give some equal time to my home of the last two years, some things I'll miss.
1. The birds. They are spectacular. Parrots and all kinds of strange (well for me) birds. They rock.
2. Not having a car. I know it sounds strange, but there is a certain freedom (financial and otherwise) in not having a car. You never have to worry about breaking down or paying registration or insurance, and you only need someone sober enough to figure out how to get everyone home.
3. The campus. The campus at this University is gorgeous. It sits at the base of a mountain (unfortunately with a big tower on it) which is a mountain sacred to the Ngunnawal people, the Aboriginal people of the Canberra area. There are lots of open spaces on campus and gorgeous trees, a lake, a stream and lots of ducks. I've also seen bunnies and foxes run across campus in the early mornings and evenings.
4. The beauty of Australia. The land itself is really beautiful, sort of in the way the desert is beautiful. Rugged and desolate in places, with unexpected things like a little forest in the middle of nowhere.
5. Kangaroos. I still get excited when I see them. Except when they're dead along the side of the road. I've actually had more than one conversation about what we would do if we hit a kangaroo but didn't kill it. It's a concern. (Also, a tip for the intrepid traveler here - when you rent a car, make sure you get the full insurance coverage. The cheaper coverage does not include coverage if you hit a kangaroo - as though you would do it on purpose.) Also, I'd like to go on record as saying that I have not eaten kangaroo, even though it may be tasty and eco friendly. Remember, people consider them pests here.
If I think of other things, I'll post them too. But that's enough for right now.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Things I Missed From Home While I've Been Away
Ok, this one is for PGL, who is bored and snowed in or iced over or whatever.
Things I missed from home (did I say 9 days and a wake up yet?):
1. Mowing the lawns (PGL may recall why lawns is plural) and then sitting in the yard, drinking a beer, admiring the results. The way that the neighbors refer to the patch of grass across the road, which is actually leased by a farmer but he lets the neighbors do what we want with it) as "Basiljaz's cricket pitch" because I tamed it from waist high weeds to a well manicured (well, mostly) lawn. And now I'll have to start over.
2. Chopping wood for the wood burner in winter (except in the dark, holding a flashlight between your knees because you forgot to do it in the morning).
3. Hearing the cows/sheep/horses making their respective noises in the area.
4. The way our neighbor forgets the dog's name (she hears us calling him "Jaz Man" and thinks his name is Jasmine).
5. Fritz's Weiners http://www.fritzswieners.co.nz/products.html. Spicy Bratwurst, baby. I order 30 at a time and keep them in the freezer. They taste especially good at the Showgrounds with a beer.
6. Seeing the snow on the mountains in winter.
7. Walking over to the store for dinner and not having to drive home.
8. Going to Leeston to buy a roast, which the butcher cuts to order, ties up with string and makes suggestions about how to cook it.
9. Spring lambs while they're alive. (You may know them as wrapped in shrinkwrap for $14.99 a pound - but I knew them when they "were this big"! And ALIVE). There are hundreds of them in the area (pretty much everywhere we go) in late winter, early spring and sometimes I stop on the side of the road to watch them. And every time we see them in winter, the Kiwi says "God, they are lambing so much earlier than they used to".
10. Weather reports in winter that include warning about moving stock to lower elevations.
11. No matter how hot it may get during the day, it almost always cools down to a comfortable temperature at night.
12. The way we can see our breath inside the house first thing on a winter's morning (We See Dead People).
13. The 2:30 am train, and how everyone makes a comment if it was late this morning (the strange thing about living so close to a train track is that trains don't bother you or wake you unless it is late.
14. That Jaz Man/Jasmine has his own room with a futon to stay in during the day.
15. How the firewood smells when it gets delivered and dumped in front of the woodshed. You can smell it in the house.
I've remembered these things fondly while I've been away. I'm reasonably sure I'm going to curse them when I get home. And I'm thinking fondly of winter because it's so frickin' hot here right now.
Things I missed from home (did I say 9 days and a wake up yet?):
1. Mowing the lawns (PGL may recall why lawns is plural) and then sitting in the yard, drinking a beer, admiring the results. The way that the neighbors refer to the patch of grass across the road, which is actually leased by a farmer but he lets the neighbors do what we want with it) as "Basiljaz's cricket pitch" because I tamed it from waist high weeds to a well manicured (well, mostly) lawn. And now I'll have to start over.
2. Chopping wood for the wood burner in winter (except in the dark, holding a flashlight between your knees because you forgot to do it in the morning).
3. Hearing the cows/sheep/horses making their respective noises in the area.
4. The way our neighbor forgets the dog's name (she hears us calling him "Jaz Man" and thinks his name is Jasmine).
5. Fritz's Weiners http://www.fritzswieners.co.nz/products.html. Spicy Bratwurst, baby. I order 30 at a time and keep them in the freezer. They taste especially good at the Showgrounds with a beer.
6. Seeing the snow on the mountains in winter.
7. Walking over to the store for dinner and not having to drive home.
8. Going to Leeston to buy a roast, which the butcher cuts to order, ties up with string and makes suggestions about how to cook it.
9. Spring lambs while they're alive. (You may know them as wrapped in shrinkwrap for $14.99 a pound - but I knew them when they "were this big"! And ALIVE). There are hundreds of them in the area (pretty much everywhere we go) in late winter, early spring and sometimes I stop on the side of the road to watch them. And every time we see them in winter, the Kiwi says "God, they are lambing so much earlier than they used to".
10. Weather reports in winter that include warning about moving stock to lower elevations.
11. No matter how hot it may get during the day, it almost always cools down to a comfortable temperature at night.
12. The way we can see our breath inside the house first thing on a winter's morning (We See Dead People).
13. The 2:30 am train, and how everyone makes a comment if it was late this morning (the strange thing about living so close to a train track is that trains don't bother you or wake you unless it is late.
14. That Jaz Man/Jasmine has his own room with a futon to stay in during the day.
15. How the firewood smells when it gets delivered and dumped in front of the woodshed. You can smell it in the house.
I've remembered these things fondly while I've been away. I'm reasonably sure I'm going to curse them when I get home. And I'm thinking fondly of winter because it's so frickin' hot here right now.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year
Ok, bk has shamed me into doing another post with his proliferation of holiday entries. So, to please my fans in this menage a bloggers, I will make a brief re-appearance. However, don't expect any coherent thoughts.
1. Down under on the change of year.
First, it's kind of fun to be a day ahead of everybody in North America (hell, the whole Northern Hemisphere). For example, when we were in the throes of the Year 2000, I was able to report that the toaster still worked on New Years Day, before anyone in the US was able to verify. (And we were the SECOND place to welcome the Millenium - the first being a small Pacific nation (Micronesia I think) that likes to complicate things by being fifteen minutes ahead of NZ. Try Hards.) That gave me a scoop on everybody else. Call me "Cub Reporter". However, that doesn't seem to help me stay up until Midnight. Last night we were asleep by 10:30 PM. It's hell being old.
2. New Years Resolutions.
I don't make them. No sense in setting myself up for failure, I say. I will say that I am pretty happy with my life right now, although I need to do some of the basics better (exercise more, eat and drink less, etc.), but I'm not going to resolve to do them. I did take the dog for an hour's walk this morning at 7:30 am so I guess that's as good a start as I can get.
3. What I'm happy about.
We're going home to NZ in 36 days. That makes me really happy. It will be a helluva lot of work, and we are going to live without a lot of creature comforts (like a bed and a couch) for a month or so while our stuff is in transit (well, we have to buy a lot of stuff when we get back to NZ), but we will be in our own home again. The Kiwi and I have been living in the same country(ies) for ten years now (well, we are in our tenth year), and that's something to be happy about. We had two of the three kids with us for Christmas (along with assorted partners) and that was good too. I'm getting random text messages from my friends wishing me a happy New Year. It's not unbearably hot today. The Christmas Tree hasn't completely become tinder yet (we bought a dead/live one this year - first tree in two years - and it still smells like a Christmas tree).
4. Summernats.
We live a couple of blocks from what can be compared to an American fairground - you know, where they hold the county fair. They have the usual exhibition halls where on any given weekend you can go to a computer sale, or buy Oriental rugs, or Oakley sunglasses - all a greatly reduced prices. They also normally hold a farmer's market on Saturday mornings. We watch the mass migration of many octegenarians pushing their little collapsable trolleys through our neighborhood to buy their weekly fruit and veg (although I think it's more of a social event for them really). We go on the odd weekend and have a good coffee and buy some stuff, and maybe have a bacon and egg roll or sausage roll for breakfast. Anyway, on the first weekend of the new year they have an event called "Summernats" (and no, I have no idea why they call it that). Summernats is a petrol head car show, where they have burnout competitions, car shows, a big car parade through town and other events such as the "Miss Jack Daniels Competition" or something like that. Most people camp at the show grounds and this is their New Year entertainment. What it means for our neighborhood is four days of revving engines and the smell of burning rubber when the wind is going the right direction, as well as a dearth of certain products at our local supermarket, most notably, bread, eggs, bacon, beer and RTDs (do you call them RTDs? I mean cans of Jack Daniels and cola or Vodka and lemon, etc.). People in the neighborhood complain about it a lot but I think it's a point of pride to complain about it, really. There are fireworks shows every night which we can watch from our front porch (and often we can hear the bands playing at night too). Anyway, people complain a lot about Summernats (some actually plan to be out of town during the event) but I think it's kind of cool.
Happy New Year, my two readers. I hope everyone is happy both collectively and separately.
1. Down under on the change of year.
First, it's kind of fun to be a day ahead of everybody in North America (hell, the whole Northern Hemisphere). For example, when we were in the throes of the Year 2000, I was able to report that the toaster still worked on New Years Day, before anyone in the US was able to verify. (And we were the SECOND place to welcome the Millenium - the first being a small Pacific nation (Micronesia I think) that likes to complicate things by being fifteen minutes ahead of NZ. Try Hards.) That gave me a scoop on everybody else. Call me "Cub Reporter". However, that doesn't seem to help me stay up until Midnight. Last night we were asleep by 10:30 PM. It's hell being old.
2. New Years Resolutions.
I don't make them. No sense in setting myself up for failure, I say. I will say that I am pretty happy with my life right now, although I need to do some of the basics better (exercise more, eat and drink less, etc.), but I'm not going to resolve to do them. I did take the dog for an hour's walk this morning at 7:30 am so I guess that's as good a start as I can get.
3. What I'm happy about.
We're going home to NZ in 36 days. That makes me really happy. It will be a helluva lot of work, and we are going to live without a lot of creature comforts (like a bed and a couch) for a month or so while our stuff is in transit (well, we have to buy a lot of stuff when we get back to NZ), but we will be in our own home again. The Kiwi and I have been living in the same country(ies) for ten years now (well, we are in our tenth year), and that's something to be happy about. We had two of the three kids with us for Christmas (along with assorted partners) and that was good too. I'm getting random text messages from my friends wishing me a happy New Year. It's not unbearably hot today. The Christmas Tree hasn't completely become tinder yet (we bought a dead/live one this year - first tree in two years - and it still smells like a Christmas tree).
4. Summernats.
We live a couple of blocks from what can be compared to an American fairground - you know, where they hold the county fair. They have the usual exhibition halls where on any given weekend you can go to a computer sale, or buy Oriental rugs, or Oakley sunglasses - all a greatly reduced prices. They also normally hold a farmer's market on Saturday mornings. We watch the mass migration of many octegenarians pushing their little collapsable trolleys through our neighborhood to buy their weekly fruit and veg (although I think it's more of a social event for them really). We go on the odd weekend and have a good coffee and buy some stuff, and maybe have a bacon and egg roll or sausage roll for breakfast. Anyway, on the first weekend of the new year they have an event called "Summernats" (and no, I have no idea why they call it that). Summernats is a petrol head car show, where they have burnout competitions, car shows, a big car parade through town and other events such as the "Miss Jack Daniels Competition" or something like that. Most people camp at the show grounds and this is their New Year entertainment. What it means for our neighborhood is four days of revving engines and the smell of burning rubber when the wind is going the right direction, as well as a dearth of certain products at our local supermarket, most notably, bread, eggs, bacon, beer and RTDs (do you call them RTDs? I mean cans of Jack Daniels and cola or Vodka and lemon, etc.). People in the neighborhood complain about it a lot but I think it's a point of pride to complain about it, really. There are fireworks shows every night which we can watch from our front porch (and often we can hear the bands playing at night too). Anyway, people complain a lot about Summernats (some actually plan to be out of town during the event) but I think it's kind of cool.
Happy New Year, my two readers. I hope everyone is happy both collectively and separately.
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