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April 26th, 2009 22:48
I am leaving Australia in 5 weeks and 3 days, and shall not return for 7-8 months.
On the one hand, 5 weeks is a fair bit of time, on the other… it will go in a flash, I am sure! It would be one thing to just be a vacation, but leaving for such a period takes a bit more preparation.
I’ve arranged friends to house-sit and look after Elma, and another friend to take the dogs, but there are still so many things to be done – arranging all bills/rates to be paid automatically, making sure the car rego will last till we’re back, getting the car serviced and detailed, transforming credit cards so they won’t charge us international fees, changing the internet plan to something that suits our friends, changing pet tag phone info, microchipping elma and stocking up on supplies of pet food/litter/anti-flea stuff, packing up all clothes/books/junk so our friends have space to put their own stuff. We’ve already cleaned the garage and storage room, which was a pretty horrendous task, but needed to be done before the rest of it.
I got bored just writing that paragraph.
I am fair worn out. It seems there are so many things to do, so many people to see, so much work to do before we take off. The weekends are a flurry of activity. I haven’t practiced my sax in weeks, for all my good intentions — I’ve been feeling really ill lately, even to the point of taking days off work (!!), and moreover, seem to have had an allergic reaction to a certain reed that has left my lips a mess, though they are slowly healing. It’s hard to play tenor sax when your lips are bleeding and your stomach is jumping a roller coaster.
I should go to bed now, but we just watched a video, The Red Violin, which I frankly hated (so pretentious and morbid) and which has put me in a mood of bleak depression. I always was affected too much by movies.
Tell me something cheerful, someone.
April 24th, 2009 20:14
I hate Mcrosoft Windows (esp. Vista) so much that am practically apoplectic.
April 19th, 2009 21:26
April 13th, 2009 22:42
Clyde the green beast is the best.
April 9th, 2009 18:50
April 9th, 2009 18:50
A lot has happened this week.
1) We got our grant! We (well Zaubi) applied for a grant to help cover the relocation costs for our quickly-approaching long trip to Switzerland. Only 5 people in all Australia were accepted, Zaubi being one! Of course, I have no idea how many applied, but nevertheless, it will help cover travel costs, establishment costs, etc.
2) The secretary of the guy who runs the lab in Zurich found us a flat. Which is awesome, as housing is extremely hard to come by in Zurich. So this takes that worry away! It it somewhat more expensive than we were hoping to pay, but still doable, and since it is owned by the university, I suppose there is a chance that we can exchange it for something else if something shows up. It is 3.5 miles from the main train station in Zurich and 3 miles from Zaubi’s lab to be.
3) Other news that I don’t think I can make public just yet, maybe later.
4) It’s the long Easter weekend (in Australia you get both Good Friday and Easter Monday off) and we are heading out early tomorrow to go camping with L. & C. in Carnarvon National Park, where we went, just us two, years ago, only a couple weeks after we arrived in Australia, when we did our mini-giant road trip. It’s about a 9 hour drive from Brisbane. It was 110 degrees back then – it’ll be cooler now. We’re doing some 25km hike into the middle of nowhere and it should be fun!!
5) Our Swing Band Leader has quit. But I think I said that already. Sad.
April 4th, 2009 23:34
Just played a gig for a Masquerade Ball. I didn’t know those existed anymore, but apparently they do in Australia!
It was great fun. There were about 500 people there.They did a really bad job mic’ing us (well we were just the cover band, the ‘real’ band played later and their mic’ing was better) but it was still lots of fun.
Really interesting dresses, masks & drunk people. Woooo! Hay all over the ground. it has been torrentially downpouring for the past 3 days so everything was a swamp (the ball was held outdoors, albeit in tents) – like quicksand.
I’m so tired I am almost incoherant.
April 3rd, 2009 0:17
Incidentally, I would like to remark that I think the habit which everyone is in nowadays of using the word ‘partner’ is just bizarre. I can’t get used to it.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think in terms of boyfriend (girlfriend) and husband (wife). Maybe it’s just that when I left America the term ‘partner’ most often meant one’s same-sex lover, at least, when I heard it. Maybe Australians use it differently, or 3 years have passed and things have simply changed.
Whatever the case, the word ‘partner’ simply doesn’t bring up an image of Zaubi, or Muta, or anyone else I was ever with. Instead, I’m left momentarily wondering, "Partner for WHAT?" Rather, whenever someone asks about my ‘partner’, I do a short double-take while looking around for either my imaginary lesbian lover or some small be-ribboned chicklet who wants to play hopscotch.
April 2nd, 2009 22:51
Must learn to take notes on paper like normal people instead of writing notes to self on back of hands. Wrote myself a note yesterday, didn’t wash it off. Must have slept on my hand last night because I woke up with a word very clearly inscripted across my right cheek in blue ink!
Zaubi comes home tomorrow. He’s not enthralled with his business trip. Oddly, I sleep better when alone in bed, though it makes Zaubi disgruntled when I say so! Maybe it’s quieter? Maybe not having to do battle over the sheets? Being allowed to lie diagonally? Dunno.
Eastern Oz being hit again with constant heavy rains and flooding. I love being at home, or better yet, in bed, when the rains hit – hate driving through it to work though! Ah well. Tomorrow’s Friday.
April 1st, 2009 23:09
I thought stomach flu was only supposed to last a day or so (it always used to, anyway) but this one has had other ideas. I got sick Saturday night. It is now Wednesday night, and I really only first felt okay eating something a few hours ago (canned soup). I tried some lunch yesterday and promptly felt so ill that I decided to cease eating for a while.
I skipped sax quartet last night and went to bed at 8PM. 8PM! This is unheard of: ridiculous. Tonight I dragged myself to band rehearsal because we have a very important gig on Saturday – some black tie, $90-to-get-in affair. Should be fun.
I have been so exhausted lately – I think working full-time is not good for me. I always feel like a rotten whiner when this fact occurs to me, because why should I out of all the world be exempt from the rat race? – but there it is, plain and simple. I simply wear myself out trying to commute, work, cook, clean, manage my crazy family members, plan for the 7 months in Switzerland, practice, go to band rehearsals, play gigs, go to church, homegroup, running, etc. Or maybe the problem is compounded by the fact that I have to sit still and stare at a computer all the time – I love coding, I love being a programmer, I love thinking up & implementing all my apps, but staring at the screen really gets to me after a while. Hints of the old vertigo too. I’ve been doing this for some 5 years now. Time for a change?
But I have gotten work to agree to let me work from home once per week – while it won’t be the same as it used to be, when I was taking Wednesdays off and would just chill out, do the weekly cooking, laundry, read a bit catch up with family, etc, it will still be a lot better than having to spend 1.5 hours commuting. That 1.5 hours means a lot. Besides, I loathe commuting. Loathe driving in general, in fact.
Anyway. Zaubi has ditched me for Tasmania for the next few days. Has to visit a mine there. Hmmph!
At rehearsal tonight it was the last night that our swing band leader, P., will be leading us. I am quite sad about this because he is a good leader and has really done a lot with us, and though I found him a bit intimidating at first (mainly because I had just started playing 1st tenor and felt highly inadequate) I am really fond of him. Anyway, as I said before, he is in the Brisbane Army Band, and tonight he gave me some pics from the Army Band Open that I went to a few weeks ago. They were tidily wrapped in an Australian Citizenship declaration form. Teehee! Here is one with his band mate M., who once in a while when P. was away, would lead us. Liked him too.
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