I’ve had this crazy deadline for myself lately – that before I wrote about anything else; and before Christmas happened… I would write a blog post about Thanksgiving that was just as large, delicious and fun as the actual day was. I started the entry – actually, I started it many many times. My latest go at it is saved in my draft folder. It’s rather disjointed as I have been adding a paragraph here and there over the last few days. On Christmas Eve I was running around the house, trying to pack and shut down the house and I kept stopping to write a few more sentences here and there. Trust me when I tell you that that is no way to write a blog post and absolutely no way to pack for a trip. Here I am on vacation with a stack of sweaters, a stack of tank tops and not much in between. Same with the blog post, I keep trying to conjure up for my readers how it feels to be so far away from your family on an emotional holiday; and the surprise you feel when the holiday goes so well that you file it in your top 10 of all times. It’s a hard emotional state to convey through writing and there is only so much you can write about a golden brown and delicious turkey. So, I am going to table that Thanksgiving post. I am going to set it aside and maybe write about it at some point in the future.
I know I haven’t been good about blogging lately; but I’ve had a lot of time to think about my motivations (and de-motivations in this case) and here’s what I’ve come up with. My blog is essentially a travelogue of our time here in Australia – except, we aren’t here on vacation… this is real life happening the way that real life happens. So, sometimes there just isn’t anything fun, exciting or touristy to write about – and that is just going to have to be ok with me; and be ok with those of you who faithfully check this space every day. Also, I need to get myself out of this strange idea that every event must be written about in order. I think I would write more often if I didn’t feel like it was a chore – rather something to be enjoyed… almost something completely selfish.
Thanksgiving happened, I started working full-time, We did lots of fun stuff with our friends, We went on vacation, Christmas happened, Joe climbed a mountain, We came home, New Years is about to happen.
So, we just got home last night - I actually wrote quite a bit on vacation so I am going to take today to upload and sort photos and then homefully start posting some entries...
I guess I am still technically blogging by writing this; but I was planning on a much longer entry than this will end up being. Friday was our company Christmas Party and I decided to spend the bulk of my evening beginning the processing of the 165 photos that I took to commemorate the event. Hey, part of my job is publicity remember?
Since I was doing the downloading and sorting photos thing tonight, it made me think of all the photos that were living in limbo on my phone. I've decided to download all of them, sort them and then possibly post some here tonight.
First Up - The Jacaranda Tree.. These purple/blue flowering trees are apparently a harbinger of Spring here. They are also incredibly beautiful, fragrant and difficult not to take a million pictures of.
The end of our street (or beginning ish)
Also on our street
I think this one was in Mosman
Close-up on our street
I was going to do a second topic - like hibiscus or something; but I think that will need to wait for another night - some fireworks just started going off over Fort Denison so I am going to go watch them and then head to bed.
Night all!
p.s. - Hey Megs, Thanks for the awesome Thanksgiving card! Made me laugh out loud!
Well, this is my third or fourth attempt at blogging in so many days.... I have a sea of abandoned drafts that I have left in my wake - badly written and very very plodding. I'm hoping this entry won't end up in the graveyard with them tonight... I'm trying to tip the odds in my favour by writing this at our brand new dining room table instead of half-slumped over in bed. Hopefully the austerity of wooden furniture will keep me focused better than a pillow-top mattress can!
But, back to the table.... Most of you will know that we have been slowly buying furniture for our apartment (and for those of you who didn't... welcome! we are slowly buying furniture for our apartment) and; up to this point, we had been using a patio table as our eating space.
** Crap, I'm already so distracted... I was trying to download photos that weren't there and then I had to spend 15 minutes stalking a big black beetle around the apartment with bug spray until I finally cornered it.
Ok, so my whole story about the table was going to be a lead up to a nice little tale about our fabulous ex-pat Thanksgiving; but now it appears that my photos grew legs and wandered away. I can't bear to write about the golden and delicious turkey without some sort of visual aid to help me along, so that part of the entry will have to wait for another time.
But, luckily for me, since I have been so completely negligent about blogging lately, I have a whole slew of other topics that I can cover. Well, maybe not a whole slew; but at least one or two little things....
I mentioned several posts ago about a fun weekend excursion we had had. My excuse for not blogging about it directly after it happened was the fact that I took no photos of it; and was dependant on others photographic generosity. Well, I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit guilty... I whinged and whinged until I got the photos I needed; and then proceeded to put it off til now (and, to be perfectly honest, if I had my Thanksgiving pictures at hand, I would be putting it off further still!)
The event we attended was the Red Bull Flugtag that was held in the Botanical Gardens overlooking the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, let me explain:
Red Bull sponsors a competition in which people build contraptions, machines, etc... that they hope will fly when they run them off a giant ramp over the water. To give you an indication of the types of things we were seeing, the teams and their aircraft (and I use this term lightly) are judged in the following three categories:
1. The distance of "flight"
2. The design of the "aircraft"
3. The costumes and the dancing.....
I'm sure you can see where this is going - not much flying per-se; but plenty of entertainment! The week preceeding this event had been plagued by a constant rain so we didn't have our hopes up for too nice of a day. We headed out early with a picnic lunch and a tarp to hide under our blanket blanket to sit on. I tried to be "prepared" and so went wearing a tank top, a mid-length sleeve shirt and a light sweatshirt. Joe and I both wore jeans as it was very cold in the morning when we were getting ready to go. We hadn't even gotten halfway to the event before we all started peeling off layers! It was hot - really hot. Poor Joe had only worn long sleeves so he had to go buy a $20.00 Red Bull Flugtag T-shirt from one of the vendors. Of course, not one of us had thought to bring any hats or sunscreen. We realised it was a seriously rookie mistake as we looked around at all the Aussies with their sun protection. Well, that's actually only a half-truth... At first we (or at least me) thought the sun was great - it was warm and cozy and it was drying the ground. We (again, really only me) basked in the sun, working on our (my) first tan of the season. In all fairness, I am coming out of two winters in a row and I don't deal well with being denied sun exposure as frequently as possible.
Well, I'm sure you are seeing where this is going... We all got burnt. Badly. Technically, there were varying degrees of badness... Fellow Blogger Val got burnt the worst - really, one of the worst sunburns I have ever seen! Joe came in second with a burn that was just about the worst I had ever seen on him. I came in third with what I would consider a medium burn for me. Not too bad; but gone in a couple days. Fellow bloggers husband (incidentally the person kind enough to have taken all these photos and to let me use them in this entry) didn't actually burn at all and was the luckiest of us all.
We had some other issues with horribly rude people standing in front of us and obscuring our view of the first few crafts; but after Joe found us a new place to sit, we were able to enjoy the view un-impeded. After a couple hours in that spot, we had to move under the shade of a tree - at that point though, the damage had been done!
When Joe and I got home, we threw open all the windows and took off as many clothes as possible (I know, I know... move along) as the burn really started to set in. I think we were a bit sun-addled - Joe decided to take a nap in the spare room (why there? I have no clue?) and I figured I would lay next to him and read. Well, we both ended up passing out from sun exposure falling asleep and woke up after dark with a freezing cold wind coming in all the open windows - if you have ever been burned you know that horrible feeling where you are really cold; but the burned parts of your body are on fire and having the both of them at once give you constant chills? Oh yeah.... I had that for the rest of the evening.
But, I would have done it again in a heartbeat - the experience was incredible! I'm going to leave you with a little video that I am stealing borrowing from You Tube so that you can all see how we spent the afternoon!
(and yes, that aircraft is a cupcake and yes they are wearing giant chef's toques!)
I mentioned several posts ago about a fun weekend excursion we had had. My excuse for not blogging about it directly after it happened was the fact that I took no photos of it; and was dependant on others photographic generosity. Well, I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit guilty... I whinged and whinged until I got the photos I needed; and then proceeded to put it off til now (and, to be perfectly honest, if I had my Thanksgiving pictures at hand, I would be putting it off further still!)
Red Bull sponsors a competition in which people build contraptions, machines, etc... that they hope will fly when they run them off a giant ramp over the water. To give you an indication of the types of things we were seeing, the teams and their aircraft (and I use this term lightly) are judged in the following three categories:
Well, I'm sure you are seeing where this is going... We all got burnt. Badly. Technically, there were varying degrees of badness... Fellow Blogger Val got burnt the worst - really, one of the worst sunburns I have ever seen! Joe came in second with a burn that was just about the worst I had ever seen on him. I came in third with what I would consider a medium burn for me. Not too bad; but gone in a couple days. Fellow bloggers husband (incidentally the person kind enough to have taken all these photos and to let me use them in this entry) didn't actually burn at all and was the luckiest of us all.
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