juliet

I have been up to many many things in the last couple of weeks.

uon and I had a splendid time touring New South Wales in the Kiss-Men (c. catsgomiaow van for 12 days. We went across the Blue Mountains, up the far side (so into some of the flattish, hotter, parts), then back up into the mountains and across the Great Dividing Range to Tenterfield, for the Exodus festival. The whole "mountain" thing was occasionally a little bit of a trial, since the van did not like going up hills very much and tended to overheat a bit. I can sympathise. There was only one occasion on which we turned the engine off and heard the radiator bubbling...

Beastwatch included:
* kangaroos grazing 50m away from the van as uon cooked dinner (that was in the Warrambungles National Park, which also had amazing STARS. And a to-scale model solar system en route to it, because there's an observatory up there. We have photos of most of it but the inner bits because we didn't actually go to the observatory.)
* more kangaroos bounding across the road etc (also in Warrambungles).
* wallaroos, or possibly wallabies.
* not one but TWO GIANT LIZARDS, as in about 1.5m long. I suspect them of trying to get in touch with uon's Alien Masters.
* lots of birds of various sorts.
* a possum! On the last night, when I woke up in the middle of the night & wanted to go to the beach to look at it in the moonlight. Possum was more exciting than moonlit beach, tbh.

The festival was fab, once we got over our fear that a little light rain on the Friday meant OMGELEVEN OCEANS OF MUD (everyone else was remarkably unbothered & seemed to be treating it as a nice break from the blazing sunshine. They were of course Correct.). There was a river about 2km away which we (along with everyone else) went for a swim in, which was absolutely lovely. More festivals should have rivers. Nice rivers, not "of mud" rivers. It also had a waterfall: best. massage. ever. Gum trees are particularly well suited to pretty shiny psytrance lights - the whole site was gorgeous, and remarkably litter-free.

On the way back, we managed both to cover 700km in two days in a van with a top speed of about 90kph; and to score a couple of afternoons on the beach. Hurrah. The v equitable division of labour continued, viz, I drove, and uon navigated, fed me water and chocolate, operated the iPod and magic radio whatsit, put up with me singing, provided alcoholic beverages on arrival at each evening's destination, cooked dinner, and washed up. He is either a sucker, or very very nice.[0]

( Sydney and my birthday )

uon to the airport on Saturday (wah!), & have spent my time since then primarily trying to sort out gainful employment, unpacking, etc etc. Also wandering around the area, which has been most enjoyable. V v much looking forward to spending 4 months here - and it's incredibly freeing, not knowing anyone and not having any responsibilities beyond "making the rent". (Which is not to say that I don't miss y'all, I hasten to add. I'm having fun, though :-) )

Bed now - I have to get up earlyish tomorrow to wait in for the arrival of a shiny new fridge. Oh! And there are photos of my lovely flat available!

[0] To be fair, a significant chunk of that lot is definitely Passenger's Job not driver's; and it was quite a tiring van to drive, being elderly and a little recalcitrant, so expecting me to operate dangerous things like knives and fire after a day of van-wrangling might have been unwise. Which only leaves the washing-up, and as anyone who has seen uon at a party after about 2am knows, he is peculiar and actively seems to enjoy washing-up. So I'm not lazy. Honest.