The week started off stunningly, as if spring had finally arrived. Monday and Tuesday were cloudless with brilliant blue sky and sun and warmer than it had been, maybe around 70? The hopes that that was the end of “winter” here were dashed though Wednesday through the weekend: it was cloudy, gray, rainy, chilly and windy. Still, we’re hopeful that we’re almost through the 3 months of “bad” weather that Sydney has each year. So one of the key points of discussion at work this week regarded McCain’s choice of running mate…the Aussies I work with couldn’t get enough news about Palin, her love of guns, her love of moose (as a food), her daughter’s fiancé who loves to “shoot $hit,” and her general redneckish ways. All of them continue the streak of every single non-American I’ve ever talked to not liking Bush and the right wing. Its pretty fun (and also depressing) to discuss the situation…I liked the analysis that said Australia would be politically more like the US if Australia’s “middle” had the same level of population that our “middle” has. They’re just lucky enough to live in a place where the middle of their country is so inhospitable that basically no one can live there (but to be honest I can’t quite understand why anyone lives in say Oklahoma, Kansas, etc, right?). We’re all looking forward to the election…polls will start closing at Noon Wednesday here and there’s been talk of going to the pub to watch the results come in. Might be necessary.
Saturday was such a nasty day, it inspired to stay inside and read a good book (I’m reading Three Cups of Tea which I find captivating and inspiring but also makes me feel like I’m a terrible person who has done nothing good for the world, highly recommended though). Michelle has two papers due next week so she was planning to work on them but wasn’t able to motivate much on that front Saturday. After lounging through the day we went to this place for dinner where they actually have a theater above the restaurant so you go and see a movie either before or after eating. The theater is setup with all these pillows and low couches so you get to sprawl out while you watch the movie. And the restaurant is vegetarian and kind of spiritual in a way…I’m not really going to try and describe why that is because I’ll just sound like an idiot but it was delicious. It was a buffet with all these dishes made from things that I know very little about so we mostly didn’t know what we were eating at any given moment but it was all so tasty. Stopped at a pub on the way home and then rented a movie (it was quite the movie day) to watch when we got back. Pretty nice little Saturday, very low key.
Sunday was the first day it didn’t rain in a while so I spent most of the morning sitting out on the balcony reading my book while Michelle worked on her papers. Later in the afternoon we went for a run to Darling Harbour, our old stomping grounds, where they were having a sidewalk chalk festival. There were some cool drawings and things going on, but I think the deluge of rain the three previous days kind of put a damper on the festival which was unfortunate. All-in-all a pretty uneventful week without too much Australia excitement to report making this the kind of entry that you, the reader, might think “why did I just spend 2 minutes reading this worthless nonsense?” Sorry. We’ll try to do better. We did book a trip for next month to Tasmania though which we’re both very excited about. Michelle has spring break and will be going with a couple friends for a whole week and I’m going to make it down there for a 4-day weekend. Stay tuned.
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