And now we go to Clare for the weather report

It's hot. Really hot. Unfortunately it's also windy which means there is a potential for bushfires all around New South Wales. Interestingly enough there are also lots of moths flying around the city which, combined with the heat gives off a somewhat apocalyptic effect. There was one hanging out in our PO box when I went down to check it this morning, and there has been one perched on the wall about 10 feet away from me that hasn't moved all day. How he got up to the fifth floor of a supposedly airtight office building I may never know, but I'm impressed enough to just let him chill on the wall for now.

A day at the races

This weekend the weather forecast was 70 degrees and sunny, so Hayden and I brought out the fancy clothes and headed down to Kembla Grange to watch the races. Kembla Grange is down the south coast of New South Wales just outside of Wollongong, and nearby Mt. Keira and Mt. Kembla add some nice scenery. It’s not as fancy as Randwick in the city, but people were still dressed up and the country atmosphere was really nice. We got there just as the first race was starting, and I put $5 on a complete dud – so far this was not working out as I had hoped. The course looked insanely big close up, and I could barely see the starting gates from the spectator area on the grass near the finish line. The trainers would walk the horses by the spectators before the race, so my technique was either to pick one that looked confident, or pick one that had a name that I liked. I’m sure the bookies love having people like me come to the races, but I was having a good time regardless.

It was ladies day and they had a “fashions on the field” event (which I didn’t enter) to pick who had the best dress and who had the best fascinator (AKA crazy hat). The races were spaced about half an hour apart, so during the down time I could hang around the tents and have a drink, or just enjoy the sunshine out on the grass. In the end most of my horses lost, but I did back a winner that was a total long shot and won me $90, more than enough to make up for my losses plus a spaghetti dinner later that night.

 Even the seagulls were lined up to watch.

Enjoying the sun in between races.

My Google homepage today

Election 2013

The federal election is happening on Saturday, and the candidates are getting desperate. I logged on to facebook this morning and was startled to see Tony Abbott grinning back at me;  if the polls are any indication it’s a sight I’ll need to get used to seeing. Voting is compulsory here and I’m sure they want to grab the attention of anyone they possibly can, especially the folks out in Western Sydney where things could tip either way. Fortunately there is a moratorium on political advertising until the election (phew!) so I won’t have this stuff on my news feed for too much longer:

Whingeing

It’s been so long since I’ve actually sat down to write that it feels like everything I have to say is sort of old news, but here’s what’s happening:

Work has been full-on. We haven’t had any holidays since June, and we won’t have any more coming up until a three day weekend in October. The orchestras are doing one last push towards the end of their seasons in December, but since everything has to be done in advance it seems like it’s all happening in July/August. I’ve basically taken over editing all of the artist biographies for the orchestras (which I really enjoy), but everyone seems to be performing massive vocal works so instead of editing one little conductor biography I end up doing 8 for each soloist singing in Verdi’s Requiem, plus chorus, plus conductor, blah blah blah.  

I’ve spent the last few weekends getting moved into the new apartment. I really like the place so far, and aside from a foot-long clump of hair and soap scum Hayden pulled from the shower drain the place seems really nice. Of course there is no way to get around the fact that moving is a huge pain, and I really dread spending every Saturday going to Kmart or Bunnings (equivalent of Home Depot) to get the things I need but forgot I need. It looks like it will be another couple of weeks before I can take a weekend away.

Anyways, sorry for the grumpy post but it’s just been a little rough lately. My two-year anniversary of being in Australia is in two days, and I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I feel like I've  accomplished everything I wanted to here, but I’m not really in a position where I can just up and move back. I miss everyone so much (it doesn't really get any easier as time goes by), and I actually miss America- the country itself, being in it, and witnessing first hand all the crazy stuff that happens there. The Australian elections are coming up, and there is only one month of debates plus some weak attack ads on TV. Not a single candidate has even talked about “legitimate rape” or socialism or Jesus... it’s kind of boring. 

What's going on

Things have been hectic lately. I found out a couple of weeks ago that I have to move at the end of July, so I've been spending the past few Saturdays attending open houses all afternoon so that I won't be homeless. The rental market here is really competitive, and when I submitted a few applications on Monday morning I had an agent calling me at work within 10 minutes asking for all of my personal information, asking to speak to my boss for references, asking about my immigration status, etc. If was "full on" as they say here, but I would personally describe it as exhausting. I got rejected from the first two I applied to, and was feeling pretty much like a loser, but the good news is I found a place! It's really cute, has a huge balcony, is about 15 minutes closer to work, and only has a six month lease just in case I end up hating it. Hayden is going to live there too, and we had a pizza/packing party at my place last night. He wandered off for about 10 minutes while I was diligently folding clothes and stuffing them into boxes, and when I found him he was looking at ads for used foosball tables so... wish me luck!

Jenolan Caves

Last weekend I made the three hour journey into the mountains to pay a visit to Jenolan Caves. My poor little car didn't like the hills all that much, and the last two kilometers were a one lane road winding down a sheer cliff face, but I rolled up to the historic Guest House safely on Saturday afternoon. After all the driving I wasn't much in the mood to dive right into a cave tour, so we checked into the hotel and just had a walk around the grounds. It was grey and drizzly out, but the water in Blue Lake was still a very vivid shade of blue from all of the limestone deposits in the water.

Small dam built about 100 years ago at the edge of Blue Lake

I saw my first wild platypus!

Chilly but really happy to be out of the city.

After that it was into the Guest House for a couple of drinks by the fire. There was a group of elderly people up there on some kind of retreat and they realllllly wanted to chat us up. They were really nice, but I gently excused myself after a while to take one of their bored-looking grandsons outside to look at the possums that had been sneaking around the windows. They were really tame so we ended up feeding them potato chips out of our hands while they dangled by their tails from the roof! (Rabies doesn't exist in Australia, by the way.) Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me at that point.

The guest house. It was nice but... a little too Shining-esque if you know what I mean?

The caves themselves were fascinating. There are numerous tours you can do, but I picked Temple of Baal, named by early explorers after a figure from the Old Testament. You can see Baal (the rock formation) looking down on you from different angles wherever you move inside the cave. There is only one main chamber, but the tour takes you around to different platforms and vantage points so that there is always something different to look at. I would love to go back and see some of the other chambers!

The Angel's Wing, a shawl formation that is one of the largest in the world.

View from one of the upper platforms.