Monday, May 29, 2006
6 months and counting...
Mat: Six months ago today we landed in Australia (and I turned 30), and in six months' time we'll have to leave. We've been trying to work out a way of extending our visas, but after several weeks of intensive research, phoning various embassies, and numerous trips to the travel agents we've given up and accepted that we're going to have to leave Aussie on or before my 31st birthday. We're a bit disappointed because it would have been great to stay another few months for the summer, but we're stuck in a Catch-22 and can't see a way out. To make a long story short: we have to leave Australia to renew our visas, but no other country will let us in without having a valid visa for our next country. D'oh!Once we realised this, we were faced with the horrifying prospect of having to leave Aussie just as it gets really warm, and return to the UK just as it gets really cold. Double d'oh!
We're currently looking at alternate possibilities, mainly involving cheap countries near the equator where we can hide until next March. A long cycle trip has been mentioned several times, but there are no fixed plans as yet. One of our initial ideas was to ride from Hong Kong back to the UK, but this was before we'd consulted Google Earth and realised that:
a) most routes would take us through Iran, Afghanistan or Iraq (or all three)
b) at 6,000 miles for the shortest route, we'd probably just get back to the UK for the following winter
c) we're probably not that fit
Any suggestions to the usual address.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Blackbird fly, Into the light of the dark black night
Kat: We had some sad but not unexpected news yesterday. The Chocolate Thief last surfaced on Friday, when he woke up and demanded chocolate mousse and a cup of tea. Apparently it had been raining for days; yesterday morning the sun came out and he slipped away with a cheeky grin on his face.Despite knowing that this would happen, it's hard to believe that he's actually gone.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Internet joy
Mat: As anyone who's tried to communicate with us in real-time knows, we've been having some problems with our internet connection recently. When I say some problems, I mean that we've had daily periods of no service for up to five hours at a time. And when I say recently, I mean since we moved in six months ago. We've reported four faults on the line now, and four Telstra engineers have come to fix the problem and given us the same speech.Bruce the Engineer: I found a fault and fixed it, so your connection will work fine now.
Us: That's great, ta. What was the problem?
Bruce: Well, the cabling to your house is a hundred-year-old piece of damp string, which is lying in three feet of water and being constantly gnawed by rats. I've wrapped some sellotape around it, which should protect it.
Us: Er, thanks...
Bruce: I've tested it with my cable-testing device (holds up a yogurt pot with a small hole in the bottom) and it's within our acceptable range. It's only a temporary fix though. Your whole street is on our schedule to have its cabling replaced.
Us: Any idea when that might happen?
Bruce: Not precisely, but it will be really soon. Probably next week.
Us: Yeah, right.
As a very last resort I thought I'd borrow a friend's router to see if it could deal with the deafening noise on the line better than ours. I wasn't really expecting that it would make any difference, but it has - our connection hasn't dropped once in the last five days!
Of course, I shouldn't be writing this because the connection is bound to dr
Sunday, May 21, 2006
My new pants
I'm one of those people who hates to throw away old clothes, and I'm ashamed to admit that a few pairs of my boxer shorts are starting to get holes in them (obviously not that ashamed though, or I wouldn't write a blog about it). I've been looking for replacements for a long time, but 95% of the pants here don't have any kind of fly, so you have to pull them down to have a wee (tell me if I'm getting too graphic). In the UK I've never seen a pair of pants without a fly, but after weeks of searching here I finally managed to find a shop yesterday that sold some UK-style pants (called Guy Front Trunks as if it was some revolutionary innovation in underwear technology). They're very comfy and make me want to buy a pair with the union jack on, so that I can run around showing people and shouting "this is what they're supposed to look like, you strange foreigners!"
When I excitedly showed Mark and Claire my six new pairs of matching pants (pictured), they looked confused and thought I'd been buying trousers. A quick summary:
| UK English | Everywhere else |
| pants | undies |
| trousers | pants |
| formal, suit trousers | trousers |
If you'd asked me a few years ago who was right, I would definitely have said "we are!", with a self-satisfied, it's-our-empire, queens-head-on-the-money kind of smile. But if I've learned one thing from travelling it's that everyone's right, and no-one's right.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Yarra Trail
It was a particularly beautiful ride with lots of bird life: cockatoos, galas, lorikeets, rosellas and pukekos. However after the inevitable map stops and back-tracks following wrong turns, the light was fading and the effects of a Fitball class two days earlier were really started to kick in. We made it to Eltham, restored ourselves with souvlakis then caught the train home.
Even though I was more tired during the ride, it's just my muscles that ache today while Mat has come down with a virus. I went to social squash this evening and came home to find him in bed with Errol Flynn. Despite protesting lack of appetite, he managed to force down two bowls of pasta and a bar of chocolate so I'm sure he'll be back on his feet again soon.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
The Dandy Dandenongs
It was a great opportunity to get some more autumnal photos with my new lens, and a great day was topped off with a fantastic curry we had at Marcus and Natasha's afterwards.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
New lens
I lent my Canon 350D to a friend at work who is thinking of buying one, and when he gave it back he was raving about a lens he'd been reading about, a 50mm f1.8 (if that means anything to you). I'd also read good reviews about this lens; f1.8 allows you to take pics with much less light and with loads of bokeh.
As soon as I said I was considering buying it, he started pestering me and offering to chip in some cash if I'd lend it to him to play with; he found it for a really good price at a shop in town and even offered to go and pick it up... Eventually I gave in. I'm really glad I did, because the first few pics I took came out really well!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Winter approaching
Apart from having wonderful soft fur, kangaroos also taste great - like lean gamey beef. Several Aussies have told me that they're the only country to eat the animals on their coat of arms - emu and kangaroo - but I guess Brits don't often get a chance to eat unicorn and lion...
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Totally bananas
Kat: In March Cyclone Larry wiped out 90% of the banana crop in Queensland. Banana imports to Australia are banned due to the risk of pests, so as a result the price has gone through the roof. According to The Age, it has quadrupled in Melbourne.You can still find them but they're often pretty sorry looking specimens ("I survived Cyclone Larry!") and the prices are ridiculous: $2.50 (over a quid) for a banana at a kerb-side stall in the CBD and $12.99/kilo in the supermarket. Our local greengrocer used to keep them on a trolley outside his shop but he's swapped them for oranges - they're too valuable to risk being swiped by people on their way past! Anyone got a good smoothie recipe that doesn't involve bananas?
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Last laugh
Mat: To round off our Comedy Festival experience, we went to see Justin Hamilton last night, who was very funny. He's from Adelaide but he remarked several times about how stupid everyone is there, so he obviously doesn't like it very much. Kat and I were sat in the very front row, something I've always been a bit scared of, but it turned out to be fate.Ten minutes in he asked the audience "Does anyone know what their name would have been if they'd been born the opposite sex?". He first asked a woman at the other end of the row who was going to be called Sean, and he made a joke about it. Then he asked if any guys knew, and I thrust my hand skywards. When he asked me and I replied that if I was a girl I would have been called Licorice Sunset it stopped him in his tracks, and then doubled over with laughter, saying that I'd made his day! He asked me why on earth my parents would consider calling me that, and I explained that he'd have to meet them to understand. So, Michael & Lesley: if an Aussie guy with glasses turns up at your house, you know who he is!