Namaste

Last weekend, we visited the Nan Tien Temple, about an hour and a half south of us in Wollongong. This temple is the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere and worth the drive down the Princes Highway. Despite it being a sticky hot day and probably better suited to a trip to the beach, it was a good day. Here are some pics:

Exercising baby Buddhas:

The three of us, exercising with the Buddhas (and my mom hiding behind a tree):

The pagoda and the main temple:

More statues, this time of angry men?! These statues are a big part of what kept Gus entertained throughout our trip. They were everywhere on the grounds of the temple.

Happy March Break everyone back in Ontario!

Addiction

About a year ago, Vic introduced Gus to a computer game called Spore, and since then Gus has become more and more obsessed with this game. In the past couple of months, he would wake up in the morning and go straight over to the computer to start playing. He would rush through meals to get back to his game, and get upset when we tried to tear him away from it for things like school, meals and sleep. In other words, it was turning into quite the addiction. It was also a connundrum for Vic and I, who both spend a substantial amount of time on our own laptops (so we felt a little hypocritical for making him off the computer, mostly so that we could get on it). And, ignoring Gus' obsession with Spore also meant that we could indulge in our nightly ritual of watching the Colbert Report at 7:30 without interruption.

Well, it finally got to the point where we couldn't ignore it anymore and as of Monday we've imposed a 1 hour max of Spore on weeknights. And last night all of us watched the Colbert Report together, where Stephen reported on Vegas' first legal male prostitute, which was definitely not kid-appropriate. So I'm thinking all three of us are going to need to re-adjust our habits to the new restrictions on Spore.

Right now, my parents are visiting, which has been really great for us. I'm not sure what we'll do when they're gone as we're developing a bit of a dependency on my mom's cooking and on their incredible helpfulness in looking after Gus after school and when we've gone out for a couple of fun nights on our own. They're here for a few more weeks and this week we'll be going to check out the Nan Tien Buddhist temple in nearby Wollongong...can't wait as it should make for a good little road trip.

They've been most especially helpful while I finish up data collection for my thesis study (btw: n=230, with a target of n=260; in the home stretch now!)

Running out of underwear

It's quite rare in Sydney to own a clothes dryer. Just about every house and apartment building I've seen has been equipped with some kind of clothes line in the backyard. Usually, not having a clothes dryer doesn't bother me one bit. In fact, I'm quite fond of hanging my clothes to dry, and used to do it in Ottawa in the summer months and love being able to do it here year round....except this past week, when it rained almost every day for the past week, and we are quickly running out of clean clothes. Luckily, today the sun finally burst through the clouds and tomorrow is looking like a good rain-free day to do some laundry...just. in. time.