Checking In

(Kitty) Just wanted to tell you we're doing well, if in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to our belongings. Customs still has custody of all of our stuff, so we're still sleeping on a mattress on the floor and eating off borrowed plates. But... it's all part of the adventure, right?

I co-hosted a baby shower for our friend Rachel yesterday. (John works with and is friends with Simeon, her husband.) Everyone had a good time - the ladies painting baby clothes, and the men out in the park grilling sausages and drinking beer.

You've probably all heard of the crazy dust storms here. Someone told me yesterday that we haven't had this kind of weather in 50 years! Another bit of the adventure. And personally I'm happy to have a few days of cooler temps again.

Tomorrow I am going to an open house for the postgraduate program at University of Technology Sydney. I hope to decide for sure then if I want to apply to their Master of Creative Writing program.

John is doing well, enjoying his job. He is going to an open life drawing class on Monday nights. And I'm going to go to a free drawing class at church Monday nights in October. It's for people who might want to learn to draw better for teaching children and/or Sunday School, or for anyone who just wants to learn to draw. I firmly believe in cross-pollinating one's creativity! LOL!

Speaking of creativity, I met with a group of romance writers on Saturday. Awesome crowd! They're going to vote on whether to invite me for a trial period, see if we all work together well. (It's looking good that I'll get an official invite.) I'm quite excited about getting back into my writing again finally. It feels like I'm beginning to breathe again. Ahhh... :)

We'll post again when something interesting happens, or when we have time, whichever comes first. PLEASE pray Customs lets us have our stuff this week. I'm tired of trying to plan my life around the waiting. :)

Red Dawn

(John) I had heard yesterday that we were in store for a windy day today, but WOW, I was not ready for what Sydney had in store for us early this morning. Here are a variety of pics from around Sydney...


We are not sure where the dust was picked up from, but it hit All of Sydney and surrounding cities. The dust has settled around 12:00pm, but the winds are suppose to continue through the day. One quotes from an Australian news web site had the photographer saying he was "Expecting Martian war machine to lurch into view any minute."

CHANGES

(John) As some of you might have noticed, we have made a couple of changes to our blog. I have added a new graphic and a slide show of all the latest pictures of our adventure in Sydney. I have also added a gadget to let you subscribe to our blog (I think.) I will keep fiddling with things off and on so keep checking back form more stuff. Amid these changes I accidentally deleted a post of Kitty's. Sorry about that!

Thanks for sticking with us and checking our blog for our latest exploits!

PONYO

(John) A dozen of us from Dr D. went out last night and saw Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, PONYO. I had wanted to see the American dubbed version of the film at a local theater, but found the experience of the undubbed version of the film a unique experience. It was subtitled in English, but did not find the subtitles distracting or taking any of my attention off this wonderful film. This film reminds me more of Kiki's Delivery Service in it's artwork and style and not the detail of films like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, but this did, in no way, make me enjoy the film any less. Once again, Miyazaki fills his story with his wonderful imagination and unique characters, and while the story is based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," Miayzaki gives his story his unique and updated twist. You could not help but laugh and cheer along the little mermaid "Ponyo," in her quest to become a human girl so she could spend time with her new love, Sosuke. Every adult there loved the film, but it could easily be a real film that a whole family could go see.
No matter what version of the film you see, I recommend you go see it.

Another Update

(Kitty) I made a note on my to-do list to post again on our 3-week anniversary here. But then we found out we got the apartment we wanted and I got busy and didn't have time to post. The same item was on my to-do list for our 4-week anniversary, too, but between my limited Internet access and all that had to be done to move, I didn't have time for that either! But I wanted you all to know I have been thinking about you, and thinking you might want to hear more! LOL!

The shorter version is - we are officially moved in and pretty darn happy with our new home! I didn't anticipate all the expenses we've had, so our priorities ended up a little lopsided. For instance, we have no furniture but we do have our very own (and our first!) big screen TV! LOL! It's a Samsung 37" HD TV for those technogeeks who want to know. :)

For those of you who are dying to know the answer to the question - yes, it turns out we do have cockroaches. Sigh. I killed one a couple days after we moved in, then four more in the last 24 hours. Someone hypothesized that the recent ones might have come with the used fridge that was delivered a few hours before I saw the last four. Sigh. But I got a quote from a pest control service and I'm going to make sure they all die!

We now live across the street from a nature reserve. (I keep wanting to say "preserve" as I would in the States, but the sign says "Fred Hollows Reserve.") It's great to live in the city and have the sounds of the country. But do the birds really have to start singing so loud and so early?? LOL! At least I guess we'll be getting up early enough for our morning runs before work!

Since we live quite close to the beach and the coastline is a bit hillier, we have to walk up a short but steep hill to get from the bus stop to our home (then up two flights of stairs). We have to walk up a medium sized but steep hill to get to the beach, and we have to walk up a long, curvy, steep hill to get to downtown Randwick (where Mel and Andrew live, where church is, shopping, and for changing buses to go other places). So unlike those old-timers who made a joke of it, we can truthfully say, "We have to walk uphill both ways!"

That's all I can think of for now. There are a few other things mixed into a blog I wrote for my writing site - Routines for Writers - if you want to peruse that as well. Hope you're all having a nice summer. It's been the hottest winter on record here! Drat! I was sooo looking forward to WINTER! LOL!

Appliance Update!

We now have a refrigerator! Our friends Mel & Andrew just bought a new fridge because they needed the room now that they have Sarah. They were nice enough to give us their old one! We can now have cold food and perishables! Sweet!
Tuesday should bring internet too.

P.S. I have dubbed our new place Château Rose after the numerous stained glass windows that all have roses on them.