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!