It’s a bit embarrassing how long I’ve gone without updating this space and it reminds me of my own frustrations when I was reading Aussie ex-pat blogs before I moved here. The blogs would be full of information, pictures, details… They were engaging and I was completely hooked on them. They would start off strong and then, as people got jobs and settled into normal routines, the updates would either come less frequently or stop altogether. Even when the updates would continue, the tone would change in a huge way – it would go from Adventure! Excitement! Discovery! to Boring! Tired! Routine!
That’s about how I’m feeling right now… Joe and I are both working full time so there is no time for me to go on little day trip adventures or to go explore a new market on a Tuesday morning… Weekends seem sacred now – A time for us to recover from the week and to do things that are enjoyable to us (mostly that involves sleeping in and having quiet dinners with friends). The idea of going on some huge trek across the city via public transport on a Sunday, quite frankly, makes me want to crawl back under the covers and sleep for the rest of the day. I also don’t have the free time to spend an afternoon writing three or four blog posts complete with pictures. Any of you readers who works all day and then comes home to make dinner and do laundry knows exactly what I mean. The “me” time is the first to go away.
Not that I’m complaining – not by a long shot…. Joe loves his job. I love my job. We are perfectly happy with our weekends of indulged laziness. I guess this is just my explanation (or my half-hearted apology of sorts) to you for not having more of an exciting life to post about.
I’m not making any promises to be better about posting; but I do have some exciting things planned in the next few months that might make posting more of a joy. Joe and I are going on holiday to Melbourne over the Easter break. It’s only five days and we have a lot that we want to see and do; but I think it will be incredible. We are spending the first two days in Melbourne proper and then spending three days at a B & B on the Great Ocean Road where we will get to relax and look at beautiful scenery. I’m sure I will have pages and pages of photos to post after we get back. There is also a tentative weekend trip to the Hunter Valley planned for early May with our two favourite couples.
The most exciting travel coming up is a 16 day trip back to the States! We are going back in late May (Yay! We will be there for Memorial Day) and returning home in early June. I’ve know for a while that this trip was in the works; but we hadn’t finalised anything until last week. Now that we have our leave scheduled at work and our plane tickets bought, I am getting practically dizzy with excitement! I am starting to form mental shopping lists of all of the things I want to stock up on while we are there. It’s a bit mad to me to think that we have been gone for almost a year. We landed in Sydney on the 23rd of June. We’ll be landing in LA on the 22nd of May – 11 months already gone on this adventure and it seems like it’s just been about half of that.
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make sure you check out the laneway bars in the city when you're in melbourne. that's what makes the city cool. :)
Lovely to get a catch up on your life. It's funny how quickly the novel and exciting becomes normal, but I love reading about normal too - so keep posting! How exciting to be going back in June, interesting to hear how you feel when the wheels touch back down again in Sydney as to whether it feels like home or not.
@ The American - I was hoping you would chime in with some tips on what to see and what to do... Do you have any more? Pretty Please?
@ Catriona - I am excited to go back; but also excited already to come home? I'm not even sure if that makes sense; but on the way here for the first time I didn't know where I was going. I guess I'm excited that when I leave the States for the second time, I will be going "home". Don't worry... I'm sure I will have several long, rambling and introspective blog posts on it..
ha! hardware lane is pretty cool. check out this site: http://melbournebar.barengine.com/?p=79. i've been to spice market, double happiness and croft institute. very nice. for yummy eats, there's italian waiters club and mamasita. those are my favourites but there are tons of places in the city. you can also try the tram car restaurant (i've always wanted to try but am waiting for my parents to come for a visit) http://www.tramrestaurant.com.au/en/. for a night cap, you have to go to the melbourne supper club on spring street. for touristy type things, the melbourne gaol is pretty fun (or at least i had fun) and the state library is really pretty. these are all in the city and are easily walkable. queen victoria market is good if you're into farmers markets (i'm into neither farmers or markets so we only go out of necessity).if you're really itching for american culture, you can always go to costco :). send me an email when you're in town if you're in need of guidance or directions. i will be on my sickbed but will have laptop with me.
Mimi, I found your blog from the YDU forum. It's neat how we are both from the Bluegrass state. I noticed that you follow other Yanks in Oz so it has made me think I should start a blog too. I don't arrive in Sydney for another 3 months but I'll start writing about all the experiences and emotions before our big move and also I'll keep reading yours to keep me excited about Sydney. I will be interested to see how you feel on your first trip back home because I clearly remember what ours what like when we went home after living in Melbourne for nearly 2 years.
Hey Melon, it's nice to see you on here - I've really been enjoying chatting with you on YDU... Welcome to the blogosphere :)