So long, farewell....

Bula! We fly out on Thursday. This Thursday. As in, two days from now. And right now, we're trying to pack up three years of our lives into whatever will fit into our luggage allowance for the flight back. It's ridiculous. How is it possible that I have nothing to wear, and yet my clothes don't fit into my massive duffle bag?!

Also major, is that tomorrow, I'll submit my thesis. It'll then go out for review by three lucky people and I'll have to wait, wait, wait while they decide my fate. So, please, no congratulations yet, don't jinx me!! I promise that when they give me that doctorate I will let everyone know and there will be a big party to celebrate.

Vic and I have spent the past week visiting people, saying good-byes, throwing stuff out, selling stuff and cleaning out our apartment. It's been insane. The only thing keeping me going is this: In two days, we will be in Fiji, where we'll spend the next two weeks on vacashe before we head back to Canada. I can't freakin wait.

Bye All! See you back in the Great White North!

Patience

Do you know of this thing that happens when you know you're about to leave a job, a person or even a city - and you get more and more impatient with some of the more negative aspects of that job, person or city? Does that happen to you? It's as if, without even knowing it, you were putting up with the some of the crappier parts of -insert thing you're leaving- because you were justifiying/rationalizing it, because you had to, because you knew you were going to be there for awhile. But once you've decided to leave, you no longer have to justify or rationalize and all patience for the more negative parts just disappears.

Vic and I were talking about it the other day, and for me, I'm quite concsious of losing any patience I once had with the challenges of cycling in this city. It's awful. I mean, c'mon. The hills around here are atrocious enough on their own, before you throw in the ridiculousness of the "bike paths" (hint to Sydney city planners: putting a bike path beside parked cars where the driver's car door opens onto the bike path is a really BAD idea) and the unbelievable aggressiveness that many Sydney car drivers exhibit towards cyclists.

And here's another thing that drives me mental about cycling in these parts. I may have alluded to this in the past, but Aussies (unlike Canadians) will never be accused of being overly polite or politically correct. In some contexts, this is kind of refreshing - it can feel like people are more open and maybe even a little less repressed than in Canada. However, as a woman on a bicycle, it makes me MAD. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to bike up some stupidly steep hill and had some guy-motorist drives by me while yelling "You can do it, doll, keep going, that's it, luv - keep pedalling". Bloody hell! I've become free and easy with a certain finger motion, and have even gotten to the point of yelling unmentionable things back to these men (they're always men) - very un-Canadian of me. Vic just shakes his head at me, and says they're trying to be helpful. Whether that's the case or not, man oh man, it makes me want to punch someone.

-end of rant-

Whew! That feels better. So, anyways - things (off the bike) are going well. My thesis advisors suggested mostly minor changes and so now I'm working away on those. I'm so close, but I won't believe I'm finished till I'm handing the thing in.

We're having a nice, low-key weekend, with the usual playdates, soccer games, rented movies, yoga class, walks to the beach to check out the waves. Vic is cooking a nice Sunday lamb and it smells amazing. Can't wait to tuck in.

Oh yeah - that picture up there is a poinsettia tree (at least that's what another one of the soccer parents told me), just like the plant, they have brilliant red flowers in the winter. Beautiful, no?

Did you miss me?

Let me catch you up with a quick synopsis of what's happened since we last spoke:

1. At the beginning of May, I handed my supervisors my first complete draft of my thesis. We're meeting next week to go over their feedback. We've got a 2 hour meeting scheduled for that one. Ugh!
2. I ran a half-marathon in mid-May!! It was really good - it was a sunshiney morning and the route went through the CBD (downtown) - under the Harbour Bridge, through The Rocks and the Botanic Gardens. Nice. I didn't train quite enough and paid for it with sore legs for a couple of days afterwards, but it was well worth it.
3. We're going back to Canada in less than 2 MONTHS!!! Can you believe it? My head is full of stuff that needs to get done before we head back (it filled in the space I keep for stress and anxiety that was left by my thesis when I handed it in earlier this month).

And in the midst of all the above, I've been eating way too much. It's my homage to Australia before we leave.

• Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig, Caramel and Honeycomb Ice Cream - check;
  
• Thick, creamy cappuccinos whenever I'm close to the campus coffee cart - check;
  
• Bacon and egg rolls at Gus' soccer games' sausage sizzle - check.
  
• And yesterday, it was an Aussie burger. An Aussie burger has: beetroot (also known as just plain beets if you live in Canada), pineapple, fried egg and bacon, plus the usual burger toppings (see above pic). The combination of sweet (beetroot and pineaple) and salty (egg, bacon, burger) is to die for. We picked some up yesterday and ate them at a park while on a little tour of Beecroft, a gum-treed, fancy-shmancy suburb in the north of Sydney.
  

Mnmmmm.

It's my duty

Happy Easter! This seems to be the only holiday that Australians get excited about. I'm not complaining. Hot cross buns at all the bakeries and grocery stores have been heavily promoted and selling like hotcakes for the past month. This is our last Easter here, which means next year I'll be deprived of easy access to all my favourite varieties of hot cross bun (traditional, fruity, choc chip, mocha - I like them all). So, I've decided that it's my duty to eat hot cross buns at every opportunity. I'm sure you'll agree that this plan is way better than my other plan to eat a maxibon every day till we leave (maxibons are an ice cream treat consisting of half ice cream bar and half ice cream sandwich - see pic above; seriously brilliant, right?...and unfortunately not available in Canada), or to tattoo 2035 on my knuckles (which is our local postcode and tattooing it on one's knuckles is de rigeur with some of the local surfies).

Rainy day

It's Saturday afternoon and it's dark and rainy. blah! It's Fall here, the days are getting shorter and the temperatures have really fallen this past week, which makes me so sad. Why can't it just stay summer until we leave?

In light of the rainy day, we went to see a movie this afternoon. We saw the completely-inappropriate-for-a-nine-year-old movie Sucker Punch. Really should have done my research on that one before going to see it. Yeesh, we had to answer questions about lobotomies on our drive home from the movie. On the plus side, we went to my favourite movie theater, the Ritz, where they make an excellent skinny latte for afternoon showings, and serve alcohol for evening showings. I can tell you based on experience that a Harry Potter movie + wine makes it just that much better.

Now, I'm off to make some carrot soup. We get a ton of carrots in our organic veggie box every week, and we can't keep up. We're just not big carrot eaters. So, every few weeks or so we end up with a massive lot of carrots in our fridge and we have to find ways to consume them all. It'll be carrot soup tonight, carrot muffins tomorrow and we may have to beg our fave cafe down the street to juice any remaining carrots for us. Any good carrot recipes? Send them on!

Here I am!

I know, I know...it's been a while. But here's the problem, lately, I've been crippled by a strange phenomenon that's been happening to me on and off since I started this bloody thesis. When I get really, really stressed about it all, I end up dropping a lot of the things I enjoy (i.e., yoga, running... and writing on this blog) for fear that it's taking up time I should be spending on my thesis. But somehow, in the midst of all this panic, I'm still able to make time for things like "Biggest Loser Australia"!? Yeah, I know, it makes no sense... I'm working on it.

There are a number of reasons for the latest bout of thesis-related anxiety:
1) A chance encounter with a former classmate of mine (he moved faculties after his first year). As PhD students tend to do, we traded stats: how many words/chapters we had written, how much longer left to go.... I told him I was hoping to submit by the end of July. And his reply: That's great, so, you must be done writing? (cause every PhD student knows that there's still plenty of work once all the writing is done - as in putting it all together, making sure there is consistency throughout and a clear story is being told) Ummm, no. I'm not finished writing. I'm close and most of my chapters are locked in (since I'm submitting as a series of publications), but still...

2) A couple of weekends ago, we went up to the Gold Coast for a long weekend. In four days, we managed to hit a couple of theme parks, rent a surfboard for a day, and go on a snorkeling/ diving trip on another day. We ate hot chips (fries) with every meal, and watched plenty of crap t.v., like Toddlers in Tiaras (horrifying and yet fascinating). It was fun but aargh! - I'm trying to finish up a thesis here!

3) I'm working on my last chapter, which involves wrapping it all up, talking about what it all means, and how the findings make a significant contribution to existing knowledge. Geez. I can't think of a better way to increase my feelings of self-doubt.

4) We finally booked our flights home. We're leaving Sydney in late July. There is now an official, written in stone, deadline that I'm trying to meet. Although, as I keep telling myself, it's ok if I need to finish it up in Canada (repeat 10x).


'Nuff about my neuroses. Here's some pics from our recent trip to the Gold Coast for my faithful readers (i.e., my parents and Vic's parents) to enjoy:

Gus on a board and Vic behind him, helping him to catch waves.


Vic, hanging ten.


Gus and I, on the snorkeling/diving trip (can you see how I was secretly rewriting sections of my thesis in my head, while on the boat trip out to the dive site?).

Gus managed to charm one of the divers, who let him ride with her on the jetski.

Neil needs a new bike!

...Well, he probably doesn't, since at last count, I think he had about 10 different bikes, one for every occasion. But Neil wants a new bike and I think we should all help him with that.

He's entered a contest by very creatively making a wire sculpture of a bike out of wheel spokes. If'you've got a minute and/or you're in procrastination mode, why don't you go vote for his bike?

Do it!

Here's how:

First, visit the Easton Cycling Facebook page and click on "Like".

This lets you see the contest entries. Next visit Neil's entry and click "Like"


THANK YOU!

More aussie than canadian

A little background: beers and gambling=two of Australia's national pasttimes.

Gus and his bestie are making big plans to meet up after high school for a gap year in Europe. They're planning to check out all the castles (hmmm, yeah - I'm sure a couple of 18-yr old boys will be keen on checking out castles).

The other day he was telling me all about his plans for his gap year, and then he stopped mid-sentence, with a look of realization on his face.

Gus: You're going to have to fly with me on the plane, because I won't be able to go on my own.

Me: Sure you will, you'll be 18 by then.

Gus: Woh! 18! Does that mean I'll get to drink beer and play the lotto?!

Me: Yep

Gus: Maaaad.


...and then the topper. We were in the car the other day, driving to Gus' art lessons, and out of nowhere:

Gus: Is there such thing as snowsuits?

Vic and I: in our heads: WTF?!; out loud: Uh, yeah.

Gus: I mean, snowsuits for kids and for adults too?

Vic and I: We need to get you back to Canada, stat.

Ottawa in the winter

Neil was kind enough to attach this photo in one of his comments. And Michelle recently posted this picture on her blog. Really, Neil and Michelle? Are you trying to make us change our minds about coming back to Canada? Surely, you could have dug up a nice photo of people skiing, children making snowmen or some such idyllic image.

Internet people: Maybe now you're a bit more sympathetic to our plight?

Last weekend, Vic and I, drinking beer and eating chips on the balcony, in March. I will miss this, dearly.


In other news, Vic and I are looking into flights home for July. The thing that is slowing us down, is that we want to spend 2 weeks or so hanging at a beach on the way back. So far, our options are:

1. Vanuatu (South Pacific Island not too far from Sydney, but then we'd have to fly back to Sydney and home from there)
2. Island TBD off of Thailand (sorta on our way home, but perhaps a bit of a hassle to get to from Bangkok, which is where we'd land.... but cheap as chips once we get there)
3. Hawaii (definitely on our way home, but expensive to stay, and maybe too americanified?)

Thoughts, anyone?

Tuesday

Biked into school today, as per usual on Tuesdays. There were actually four other students in the postgrad room today. It's always fun when that happens (often times it'll be just me and maybe one other person), because it means we'll usually start the morning with a little goss about various injustices we're facing at the hands of the university administration (after all, we are students, raging is practically part of the job). Today, it was about this article that was in the Sydney Morning Herald. Libraries throwing out books! Shameful!

I had a hard time mentally sitting still all day, so I spent some time on a few different tasks througout the day. I know I won't get much sympathy after sharing my typical Friday in my last post, but sometimes it's just soooo hard to sit and focus and (try to) be productive and creative all day long. To that end, I picked up a used copy of Stephen King's On Writing this past weekend. I think it might be helpful in this last stretch of my thesis to learn from successful writers how they manage to do it, day after day. And you can say what you want about King, but he does manage to crank them out, and some have been quite brilliant (c'mon - who doesn't still have nightmares from The Shining?!). I was inspired by Sarah Wilson's post on procrastination, which refers to anti-procrastination strategies used by writers and academics. I may just have to follow her lead and invest in one of those internet blockers...we'll see.

I'm getting increasingly sappy about the thought of leaving Sydney in July. I find myself trying to memorize all of my favourite sights and smells. Here's a pic to save myself from having to memorize this one:

The view from our balcony in January.

TGIF!

It's Friday! Yay! I did my usual Friday routine: drop Gus off at school; go out for a quick run by the ocean; then drag my laptop outside to some schoolwork till it's time to pick Gus up (yes, I know...it's going to be a rude awakening when I head back to work full-time in the Fall).

I was nice and productive today, so I've decided to treat myself with a little online shopping this weekend. Nothing too crazy...I'm planning on ordering the lonely planet guide to Vanuatu from the book depository (books being stupidly expensive here in Australia). We're thinking of going to Vanuatu before we leave and I'm a "I've got to read the guidebook front-to-back before I go anywhere" kind of person. I'm also going to be ordering some flowers for my nonna, who turns 90 next week.

My home office.

It's hot

A new bikram (hot) yoga studio opened in our suburb. To lure people in, they're giving out 'all the classes you can do' in 10 days for $20 bucks. I jumped on it. For the past few years, I've been regularly doing 20-30 minute yoga sessions, thanks to the convenience of yogadownload.com, but I've been missing the benefits of a full-on full-length class. I paid my $20 on Saturday and I've done three 1.5hr classes so far. Right now everything hurts, but I'm absolutely loving these classes. Our suburb is known more for its big, tattooed surfers than for its new-age yoga folk and sure enough the classes include at least a few of these tattooed dudes. It's kind of funny to watch them try to twist themselves into pretzels. Finally, I am in my element (unlike at the beach where - like a dog with a bone - I've been trying to figure out how to surf on and off for the past few months...so far without much luck).

Saturdays

Gus has digital art classes on Saturdays in a suburb called Chippendale. While Gus is busy creating, Vic and I roam the neighborhood If I couldn't live by the beach, I would live in one of the inner-West Suburbs (which includes Chippendale). It's gritty, funky, full of terraces (both old and rundown and completely renovated) and has a great cafe culture.

Here's some pics from today's walk around Chippendale.

The coffee shop we tried out today, called the shortlist.

Behold! The bacon and egg roll. A mainstay of breakfast and brunch menus in Sydney. Oh how I will miss you bacon and egg roll.

Street art.


Bougainvillea, in full bloom.



I love this sign and the whole concept of neighbours planting veg and fruit for anyone to take.

As per the sign above, paw-paws (papaya) and tomatoes, free for the taking.


A local resident.

Big ole gum trees, everywhere. A paper gum and a white gum.

They're dirty here

Vic wakes up earrr-ly to go to work. Sometimes, if I'm feeling restless and I can't sleep, I'll wake up with him and we watch the Today show (Australian-version) together before he heads off to work and before I wake Gus up for school. Like any other morning show, the Today show is mostly entertainment and a little bit of news, but we love it - because the hosts always make us laugh.

A couple of weeks ago they were especially funny, so I thought I'd go find the segment on youtube and post it...only to find that the segment was featured in a post on the Huffington Post. It's gone viral! Here's the youtube video, in case you haven't seen it yet. It's pretty silly and a little dirty, but guaranteed to make you giggle.

I spent the day at school today. I had some paid work I had to do requiring minimal brain power so I thought I could make it through an O-week day. It was crazy! The music was so loud that at one point I had to yell to my office-mate to make myself heard. I felt like I was in a nightclub, only with a computer in front of me instead of a jagermeister. Don't the kids today know that universities are a place of higher learning?!

Granma

This week was one I've been dreading for the past few months - O-week. For the past few months, us postgrads have had the campus to ourselves while the undergrads have largely been away on summer holidays. It's been quiet, peaceful and no lineups at my favourite coffee cart.

Well, the young folk are back this week. The first week of the school term is called O-week (orientation week? I'm sure I could quickly google it, but I'm feeling lazy so I'll let you do the googling). This is the week where booths are set up on the walkway right outside my desk window, hoards of first years walk up and down the walkway to check out the booths and really loud music is played all day long - with plenty of bass, again - right outside my desk window. At the beginning of each O-week, I buy myself ear plugs...it's the only way to get through the loud, obnoxious, hormone-heavy week.

The only upside to O-week are the free samples that are given out by sponsors and to entice the students to the various student organizations' booths. During O-week, us postgrad students like to do at least one go around of all the booths, scoping out the free stuff (we figure they owe us for having disrupted our concentration). Today I found some chupa-chups and a piggy bank for Gus (handed out by one of the big banks), a schick razor for Vic and a diet Coke and some free samples of contact lens solution for me. Score big!

File under "Things I won't miss about Sydney"

When we moved here, we brought very little - only what we could fit into the checked baggage we were allowed on the plane. But for some reason, we ended up bringing this souvenir Sens hockey stick. This hockey stick is now termed the "cockey stick", because we (we meaning Vic) use it to kill the massive cockroaches that we sometimes find in our kitchen. Yuck.

Chuffed

Holy Hell! They did it, and we couldn't be more chuffed. Love it!

Pengu

When we were in Tasmania, we visited a penguin rookery. We went out at dusk with a group to watch the penguins waddle in to their nests, after a day spent catching fish at sea. It was ridiculously cute. We weren't allowed to take pictures because the flash would disturb the penguins, but the company we toured with sent us some pictures to enjoy.

Here are a couple of the penguin pictures, courtesy of Bicheno Penguin Tours.

Back at it

Tasmania, we loved it. We rented a car when we got there and spent our time driving to a few of Tassie's more famous sights. Bay of Fires, Wineglass Bay, MONA....The island was beautiful, uncrowded and - as the dairy capital of Australia (or so it would seem from the many, many fields of grazing cows) - it had a ton of delish local ice cream.

We got back on Sunday, just in time for the new school year to start. And with a sigh of relief, I walked Gus to school on Monday for his first day of the new school year . Whew - now I can get back to my thesis in a more full-time way, which is a big relief given the fact that I've got to wrap up this beast by the end of July.

Eureka Farm, for all things fruity, where we stopped for raspberries and ice cream.

Fun with raspberries.


A hike to Wineglass Bay, voted one of the top ten beaches in the world by Outdoor magazine (only they forgot to mention that it's only accessible via a 1.5 hour hike up and over a mountain).

We made it! The water was i-cy (another Sydneysider told me he got in the water and started looking around for icebergs), but after a hike up and over a mountain, it was perfectly refreshing.

Making new friends at the beach.

Resting on the hike back.

When we got back to Sydney, we asked Gus what his favourite part of the trip was. He told us it was the jumping pad at the caravan park that we stayed at during the first two nights of our trip. Ah well.

What thesis?

Despite my increasing stress levels because of all the hard deadlines coming up fast (must finish thesis by July this year), we're going on (another) little holiday next week.

prepare yourself for an onslaught of exclamation marks.

Tassie, here we come! I'm justifying it because Gus is still on summer holidays, which means my productivity is on the low side anyways, and WE ONLY HAVE SIX MONTHS LEFT here in Australia.

I can't wait! Although I have some vague New Year's resolutions having to do with eating more veg and less cheese/chocolate/alcohol - I'm putting that on hold so that I can enjoy Tasmania's many distilleries, breweries, cheese and artisan bread shops, oh and there's the Cadbury chocolate factory that we'll have to hit as well. We're still planning out the holiday, but it will definitely also have to include a trip to brand new MONA, which was funded by a professional gambler (how do I get that job?) and is being described as a subversive adult disneyland?! I'm not sure what that means, but I'd like to find out. Stay tuned for pics!

When did that happen?

It's mid-January?! When did that happen? It's been a busy Christmas/Summer holiday, whew! The nice thing about Christmas here in Oz, is that while there's not nearly as much hype (it's rare to see decorations on the outside of houses and the lineups at the malls in the days leading up to Christmas are nothing compared to what you see in Canadian stores). However, work places tend to shut down over Christmas/New Years and generally you can count on everyone laying low in the week or two after Christmas as well. Vic's work closed shop for two weeks, and I took the time to gear down on my thesis work.

During the holiday, we went up the coast to meet our visiting Canadian friends in a small oceanside rural town called Broom's Head. We rented a house that was right on the beach and spent a lot of time swimming, fishing (Vic), trying to surf (me) and driving into nearby Yamba, which has a great beachy-laid-back feel with nice little shops and cafes.

The theme of the holiday seemed to be booze, cheese and chocolate. Basically, a whole lot of overeating and overdrinking, which culminated in a night of excess at a neighbour's fiftieth birthday party the night we got back from our holiday. By the end of the night, I may or may not have been referred to as Miss Pavlova because of my obnoxious bragging about the perfect pavlova Jen and I made over the holidays. On the plus side, from what I remember, we now have new besties who live in Adelaide - so we may have to visit before we head home for Canada.

So, now it's time to get back at it. We have about 7 months left of our stay here in Australia, which means 7 months for me to finish my thesis. This fact makes me sweat with thesis-stress every time it crosses my mind.

Sunset at Myall Lakes, where we stayed on our way up to Broom's Head.


The Big Banana! We stopped in Coffs Harbour on our way up the coast so we could take a look. It is indeed a big banana. Not surprisingly, there's not much else to say about that.



Ta-dah!!! The perfect pavlova. I'm thinking of applying for Australian citizenship, using this picture alone as rationale.

Me, trying to surf, but instead doing a whole lot of this: