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:

Santa comes to town

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be at the beach when Santa stopped by for a visit. He arrived by surf rescue boat, and was wearing shorts and a short sleeve top, all while my brain was screaming "Fun, but just plain WRONG".





As much as I love the sun and sand of a Southern Hemisphere winter, it does make it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. We haven't even made an attempt at a tree this year - although Gus did decorate the TV and as a result, we ended up putting the pressies under the television. Oh well, we'll have plenty of snow-filled Christmases to look forward to as we'll be back in Canada next year.

We all start our holidays tomorrow and I can't wait. I'm going to keep plugging away at my thesis during the holidays but I plan to take lots of breaks, which will hopefully involve plenty of Jen's Southern-Hemisphere-themed-but-still-Christmassy cocktails.

Merry Christmas All!

All systems go

We finally got our internet and phone up and running last week. Phew!

In the midst of all the internet drama, I went to Canberra for 3 days for an alcohol and drug conference. It was my first one (bloodborne virus-related conferences being my usual shtick). The conference was held in Canberra and I was hoping to spend some time walking around the city but unfortunately it rained every minute I was there, and I only managed to walk the five minutes it took to get to Koko Black for some amazing chocolates (my own brand of drug/alcohol). It was a different sort of conference than I'm used to, full of sessions alternating between the benefits of moderate consumption and the evils of over consumption. Of course, my favorite sessions were on the benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol, which is something I can really get behind.

Lucky for me, Jen, expert epidemiologist and cocktail mixer, is here for a visit. They arrived late last week and left this morning for a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We'll be meeting up with them next week to spend Christmas together in a beach house up the coast from us. Can't wait. I'm looking forward to some moderate consumption of cocktails over the holidays!

p.s., Advocate for the use of scientific evidence in drug policy by signing the Vienna Declaration.

Technical Difficulties

On Monday last week, our internet connection was no longer. On Wednesday, after a technician came to 'fix' the problem, our dial tone disappeared.

A week and a half later, and many, many, many hours spent in:

• A gazillion calls to a call centre in Sri Lanka,
• Several conversations with our property manager,
• Several conversations with our building's strata (sorta like a condo board that looks after the building)...

And yet we are still without Internet and phone service. Aaaaaargh! Telecommunications in Australia - not their strong point. And I'll leave it at that.

Hope to be back soon. Stay tuned.

OMG!

Sculpture by the Sea, one last time around. And those were some of my favourites.

Ugh.

Handed in a thesis chapter last week to my supervisors for their feedback, which means I'm at the start of my usual cycle that goes along with the writing of each chapter. It's so predictable. It starts with a huge sense of relief and euphoria (at having finished a chapter) followed by panic, guilt and self-loathing (because time is slipping away and I need to get to work on a new chapter) and finally acceptance and getting on with it (with the work involved in researching a new chapter, re-analyzing the data for this chapter etc).

So last week while I was still happy with the fact that I had finished a chapter and still feeling like I had all the time in the world, here's what I did:

• Watched Boy and loved it. It's the story of growing up in rural New Zealand. It was both sweet and heartbreaking, and left me with a New Zealand accent ringing in my ears for a few days afterwards.
  
• Read the Peter Carey novel Bliss. Since I've gotten here, a few of my Aussie friends have urged me to pick up a Peter Carey book. I don't know why I waited so long, as Bliss will no doubt end up as one of my favourite novels.Well developed, relatable characters and a quirky story with hints of bittersweet reality. I think there might be a movie adapted from the book, so I plan to seek it out and pick it up this weekend,
• Watched some of the ARIAs (Aussie music awards) and now I can't get that Angus and Julia Stone song out of my head. I may have to buy the CD soon.
  

Angus and Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane...Enjoy!